My Quarter Acre of Paradise

My House!

Quick post here - Here's my house on Google maps. I put in the yellow lines to show the borders and the north and west markers. I am tickled because the aerial photograph clearly shows things I've had a hand in; from minor things like installing the bench north of the pool (the black bar) The ash tree in the front yard looks nearly as large as the house itself. The eensie green blot to the north of the ash tree is the pitiful Chinese Hackberry that refuses to grow. The back yard was nothing but dirt when I took the house in 1994. Now you can see the grass I put in and the planter bed in the southeast corner of the back yard. The pale green blotch in that planting area is my Hawthorn tree that attracts and feeds Cedar Waxwings in the winter.

Ok, that's it for today - me gawking at technology.

Sunday in the City

Sunday Morning, on drive to San Francisco as entered frontage Road off Hwy 80 by Bay Meadows racetrack.

Claire, opening automatic car window: Wow! Feel the air is so cold!

Anna, putting hand out of window: Yes, it’s nice and AAARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!

The shriek was because I had just rolled up the car window on Anna’s hand!

Anna started to laugh and cry all at once, tears streaming down her cheeks as she laughed her head off. I guess it was one of those you had to be there things. I apologized about 100 times and she told me to quit worrying about it 100 times. What a trooper! Anyway, that was the exciting start to our day in the most beautiful & vibrant cities in California, if not, North America.

We started off with a trip down memory lane, cruising past Anna’s childhood home. The last time we drove past the her house and found an empty shell of her former home – we had walked over the old facade, Anna pointing out where the stairs had been once-upon-a-time. But this time there was a house on the property that looked as if it had been in place for decades. The streets had names like Russia, Vienna, London, Paris, Naples, Lisbon and Madrid. Anna was raised in an International neighborhood - cute!
We toured Anna’s old haunts, like the school house. She used to walk to kindergarten by herself, from her first day of school on, when she was only four years old!

Anna's Elementary School

I was surprised to see so many corner Mom & Pop stores still operating there; a nice surprise.

Next we drove down along the Pier where the Sunday Farmer’s Market was in progress. We parked in the building lot at Ghirardelli Square so we could take a ride on the Cable Cars. Anna grew up in San Francisco but this was her first ride on the Cable Cars! That’s like me growing up in New York and never having been to the top of the Empire State Building.

We decided to disembark in China Town. The place feels like it is absolutely another country – the shops are like those in Tijuana Mexico, with cheap goods lined up in cluttered shop fronts, and the food marts have roasted ducks and dried fish on display. There is always one shop that grosses me out and this time it was a shop with a huge bin full of dried sea horses. Ugh!

Turning a Cable Car at the end of the line

We stopped at a little dim sum shop for lunch. The place was totally a taste of China, with menus in characters and the shop keepers barely speaking English. We had huge bowls of won-ton soup that was excellent – full of walnut sized won-tons, napa cabbage and oodles of noodles. I had a custard tart too – yum!

Here are the goodies at a bakery where Anna was able to buy lemon turnovers which cannot be had for love nor money in Everet Washington.

YUM!
I had one of the fruit tarts – definitely on of the top ten pastries I’ve ever eaten; a chocolate bowl filled with light custard topped with glazed fresh fruit. If they sold stuff like this in Sacramento I’d be larger than a cable car myself.

We also toured Golden Gate Park and walked around at the lovely Grecian columns and lake of the Palace of Fine Arts, one of Anna’s favorites.

We ended the day with dinner at my favorite Bay Area restaurant, Skates on the Bay, where every meal I've ever had was primo and tonight was no exception. On the way out, a host lead a lady and gentleman; he carried a small sleeping child on his shoulder. Anna whispered, ‘Claire! He’s a movie star!’ I was all ‘huh?’ Looking around, clueless as usual. Anna pointed out the man. I stared at him from a distance of maybe three feet and no bells went off.

He was a movie star! Delroy Lindo who stared in movies like Cider House Rules and Get Shorty, both of which I have seen. If it wasn't for Anna I would never have recognized him! Wonder how many other stars I've seen without noticing?

Anyway, that was our exciting ending to a great day.

A Day Off

I took the day off work yesterday. Picked up my long-time friend Anna at the Sacramento Airport. Always love seeing 'Miss Anna'. She lives in Everet Washington now but used to live in Davis when I lived there too. I recall vividly the first time I met & we chatted I thought 'she is going to be one of my lifetime friends.' Danged if I wasn't right about that! We've had lots of adventures over the years. Later todayI might add a picture or two from those adventures at the Renaissance Fair at Black Forest Point, the Dicken's Christmas Fair in Oakland, Disneyland and such. Oh, and movies! Over the years Anna has been my number one movie buddy. She is movie brilliant while am all 'wha...?' I love seeing movies with Anna because afterwards if I have any questions she can 'splain it all to me.

After picking up Anna yesterday we did a grand tour of downtown Sacramento and West Sacramento, both of which have changed since Anna used to live here. Made a quick stop into Ikea where I picked up a few small items. Then we went to Davis in search of a crepe place that Anna used to frequent but that place is no more. We settled on lunch at a Chinese buffet then toured Davis. Gads, can hardly recognize the campus which is adding new buildings left and right in order to make the campus even more amazing and to add the costs for struggling students. Current quarterly fees are a whopping $2,485. YIKES! Compare that to the $125 a quarter when I was a student. Let's see if they taught me any math - that's a 1,988% fee hike. Maybe I got that wrong, though if so perhaps I should apply for my $125 back because they let a nincompoop graduate?

Anna and I did some light shopping in Davis then headed back to my house. Anna had a little nap - she had been up flying since 3 am! In the late afternoon I dropped her off at her sister's near Arco arena.

Always have fun with Anna. Sunday we will take a day trip to San Francisco. Anna was raised there. There will be pictures!