Ten Years and Two Days Later

One spring day in 2002, Paul & I met up at The Diner on Clifton (in Lakewood) to introduce each other to our friends for the first time. We had been an item for all of three weeks. I had my camera with me just in case. It was a very fun evening, and our friends enjoyed meeting each other. One of his friends, Lisa, asked him how many months he'd been hiding me. "Umm..point-seven-five?" I said. She then proceeded, purely by accident, to take what is one of the best pictures of the two of us ever taken. Never mind that Paul had just taught two Aikido classes, I had had a long day (it was about 10:30 at night by then), and we both were exhausted. We looked radiant.

Then: April 8, 2002

Fast forward 10 years. We thought it would be fun to revisit the Diner tonight. We haven't been there for years. I don't know why--it's less than a half-hour drive away. We still have the clothes we wore that night (well, the tops anyway). We got there, took a corner booth, and asked our server if she would do us the favor of taking our picture. She was all too happy to. I dug through my backpack, only to realize that I had forgotten the camera at home. I was so disappointed!

She was so nice. She volunteered to take the picture on her phone and email it to me. Thank you, Mandy Drahos--you get our Outstanding Employee Award.

Now: April 10, 2012

This has been the best decade of my life so far.

Holidays in Portland

It's always "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" around here, as Paul and I have 2 birthdays, Christmas, and New Years all in a 12-day period. We had an evening, 5 jam-packed days, and a morning in Portland with my family. It was mostly a really lovely visit, and for once nobody got sick (at least so far).

Memorable moments:

• Going to the NikeTown store to try on shoes with Eric and Rusty, who had given me a "design your own" gift card. What a fun idea! Wanna see what my future trainers will look like? They have a very girly color scheme! :=)



• Mom's delicious soups! She had 3 kinds: squash (with a nice kick to it), ham and bean, and chicken noodle. She and Ron hosted a soup supper and invited Dad, Becky and Hannah. With Eric and Rusty, Paul and me, it was a full table, but we all fit.



• Playing the bowling game on Hannah's brand new Wii with Hannah, Dad and Paul. I never play video games, so expected to suck, but I was pretty good and actually won!



• Making candy cane cookies and watching "It's a Wonderful Life" with Dad, Hannah, Becky and Paul



• Snowshoeing on Mt. Hood in a winter wonderland of snow that was almost warm enough to melt.
  

• Becky's car's troubles stranding some of us in a restaurant for 3 hours waiting for a tow that never came. Fortunately our group had 3 cars and Gene came back to get us.
  
• My birthday morning, low key, the only time I played the piano all week. Funny how when I don't see dancers I have a hard time thinking of things to play! Actually felt a bit self-concious as Dad and Hannah recorded me on their respective video cameras while sightreading. I was still playing when Mom came over to pick me up. I was sightreading one of Hannah's requests, a beautiful song her youth choir will be singing. I can't get it out of my mind. You can see it in this video.
  
• Seeing Betsy, Tim, Annie & Mike and meeting Annie's young kids for the first time at her open house for the christening of her baby daughter Katherine. My "birthday cake" was a silver bowl full of chocolate truffles with one long, skinny candle sticking out. Loved it.


• We went to the christening service a really cool jazz evening service with first rate jazz musicians. Haven't been to a Christian service in years, (opted out of reciting the Nicene creed along with the congregation) but felt pretty comfortable and was glad we went.


• Afterwards we met my old friend Bob Litt and his wife Sonya at a wonderful Mexican restaurant for excellent, adventurous food and margaritas.


• Rediscovering the "time capsule" box of my old treasures that has been lost in Mom's rafters for 25 years, which includes tons of old pictures and every diary I kept from ages 13-20. I mailed it to myself and it should get here by next Wednesday. I read one of the diaries and dreamt that I was in eighth grade again.


• Lunch with Dietrich and his bride Lisa. This was great fun, as the essence of Dietrich has hardly changed in the 30 years I've known him. Lisa was really nice and down to earth. It was fun to hear the story of how they met (skinny-dipping while camping at a state fair!) We hung out for 3 hours and even had a little photo session:
  

• A nice, quiet New Year's Eve hanging out with Mom & Ron watching the New York Philharmonic on TV. When Pink Martini came on at 11:30, Paul and I were inspired to do a rhumba and a cha-cha on the living room rug, much to Mom's delight! What a great band.

I Can Finally Post Photos Again!

You've probably noticed that I haven't posted a photo since last year. It's because our stupid IE browser freezes on certain sites, one of which is the photo uploader tool on Blogger. IE has been getting more and more temperamental lately, freezing multiple times a day. I'm afraid our 4-year-old computer is clogged with crap inadvertently downloaded, perhaps through security holes in IE. When Paul's Aikido Journal subscription link became one of the frozen sites, I finally decided to get Firefox (yesterday). Wow, what an improvement!

The computer is still slow. I just finished backing up all our documents and photos in case it dies on us. I'm gonna post some photo highlights from the last few months for your viewing pleasure, now that it's possible again.

From my Christmastime(!) trip to Portland, with Mom

Christmastime, with Paul by our tree

I just realized, I've hardly taken any pictures since Valentine's Day. It's just been one of those years. But I do plan to make up for it this summer, especially on our Europe trip!

Successful Debut and a Visit

Last Sat (June 23) was my first time playing through the whole show with the cast--and in front of a paying audience. Can you say adrenaline rush? It was fun anyway, though, and my mess-ups were pretty small. The Actors' Summit folks were, I think, pleasantly surprised that I did so well after only knowing the music for 9 days.

I checked my voicemail on the way home after the show and learned that Gene and Judy Lynch, family friends from Portland, were in the area and would like to meet up with Paul and me and take us out to an early dinner the next day. Unfortunately, Paul was teaching aikido, as usual, and I had a Windsong potluck at 4 pm that day, but they were still able to stop by in the afternoon and we caught up for a couple of hours.

Paul was a real sweetheart and cleaned the first floor of the house that morning since I didn't have time. We should have company more often--the kitchen table still had Christmas cards stacked on it.

Married 3 Years

For the first time ever, we were not on vacation on our anniversary (Aug. 17th) this year. Paul worked all day and I played for Troy's class until 8:00. Though we did a lot of our celebrating during our Calif. vacation, we wouldn't think of letting the actual day pass unobserved.

When I got back from class, we drove 2 miles up the hill to the scene of much of our wedding weekend, the top of Cedar Hill. The door to the Alcazar Hotel was wide open. We walked right in, and after asking the guy at the counter for permission, walked out to the central courtyard in the fading light. Nothing had changed since that sunny afternoon 3 years ago, and we had the place to ourselves. We even found "our bench" and took a couple of pics.

Then (August 17, 2003)

Now (August 17, 2006)
And without a flash:

We had dinner at The Mad Greek (the scene of our rehearsal dinner) and shared a glass of very good Napa Valley Chardonnay, then went home and finished the other 2 truffles from our trip.

We have an unbroken tradition of going out dancing on our anniversary weekend wearing our wedding attire. This year, I was afraid I wouldn't get to wear my dress because it's 8" too big around on every measurement. In fact, it's so big, I'm not sure it's alterable without taking the whole thing apart, resetting the shoulders, etc. But I tried it on anyway, and lo and behold, I can get away with it because it's so light and it's supposed to be flowy! The sheer outer layer disguised the extra folds of fabric underneath quite nicely. So it hangs a little low--that I can deal with.

On Saturday, we got to dance in our duds, including the hats, which was romantic and great fun. Paul always looks gorgeous in head to toe blue striped seersucker!

Day 7--Points South + Bonus Pictures

Technical note: As you know, I am one of the slowest writers on the planet. It is now actually Aug 22. I am still backdating these so I don't have to keep saying, "and the Sunday before last, we did such-and-such." Last night, Mom emailed me her pics from the trip. Great photos, by the way, Mom! My intention was to re-edit my previous entries and insert them into the appropriate places in the narrative, but the Blogger photo-uploading software is (surprise) not cooperating. It did, however, deign to let me add 10 of them to today's entry and no more. Maybe 10 is the limit? Anyway, here are some, mostly from the 8/12 family party and the next day.

Here's a really nice one of Mom, Paul, and me on Day 1, right after our first lunch together in Sausalito: At the family party with Aunt Barb
Mike, Uncle Jack, Jill
Rob and Alex
Eric and Rusty
E & R enjoying Rusty's B-day gift from us--Scrabble-themed mugs and wine charms!

On Sunday (our final day), we spent the day with Mom & Ron driving from San Jose to points south, including a stop in Carmel for lunch. It was a lot chillier than I expected close to the coast. We were at this lovely little Italian trattoria and sat on the patio. Our waiter turned on the outdoor heater, which was needed! Mom took this pic of us across the table.

Now I have to tell you a funny story here. When the sun came out and shone on my hair, Mom asked me with bemusement if that was a silver streak she saw in my bangs. I'd never noticed it, so I said I didn't think so. Paul and Ron said they could see it, too, so I insisted on checking it out in a hand mirror.

I wasn't freaked out or anything--actually, I thought it was sort of cool. I have noticed a lighter-colored area there, but in the incandescent light of the bathroom, it just looks like a lighter-colored variant in my mix of (natural) dark blonde shades. But in the sunlight, it had a definite silvery cast. We could see a few other little streaks in the sides, mostly in under-layers. You should have seen us parting my hair in different places, holding up the mirror, and exclaiming delightedly.

A woman watching us from the window inside was pantomiming what we were doing and shaking her head with a dismayed expression. I caught her eye and enunciated exaggeratedly, "But I like it!" Clearly she didn't believe me.

We did a little window shopping before getting back in the car to drive along the coastline, including the scenic 17 mile drive at Pebble Beach. In the late afternoon we turned around to head back to San Jose to make a cameo at Rusty's 40th birthday party at Eric & Rusty's.

The Birthday Boy
"Oh, it'll be a mid-afternoon party. We're not going to feed them or anything. Just some chips and salsa and birthday cake." Famous last words.
With Eric and Rusty's dad, Al
Because of the extra pain-in-the-butt security measures, ban on liquids, etc, we arrived at the airport 3 hours before our flight left. Which was fine--it was kind of nice to have a little time to just sit and read. It was a red-eye--we got in at 7 am, went home and slept until noon. I didn't feel too bad after that, though Paul was a little discombobolated. All in all, a great vacation and we had a fabulous time!

Day 6--The Family Party

Wisely, we decided not to try to cram in an activity this morning, but instead, took some much-needed down time just hanging out, enjoying a late breakfast, reading and chatting. We left for San Jose around 2 pm. Good thing, too, since parts of Highway 101 were inexplicably bottlenecked and came to almost a standstill, adding at least 1/2 an hour to our time. We still got there early enough to check into our hotel before the party at Eric's (and dump our stuff, including a generous bag full of fine chocolates that would have melted in the heat of the car!)

We were responsible for providing the dessert. We went to a nearby bakery Eric had recommended and Paul and Mom picked out a decadent tiramisu cake that later earned raves from everyone. We got a bit turned around and lost trying to get to Eric's, but figured it out after a phone call from the road and actually arrived right on time.

This was my first time seeing Eric's new house, which is gorgeous and furnished with beautiful things. Eric always had an eye for quality even as a little kid (unlike myself--I was always too frugal). I didn't take any pics of the house, but Dad did on an earlier visit this year--click here to get an idea.

My cousin Jill was there with her husband Rob and son Alex, soon followed by Uncle Jack, Aunt Barb, my cousin Mike and his wife Laura. Rusty's parents, Al and Peggy, were also staying for a few days from North Carolina. It was great to see everyone again (hadn't seen them since Eric & Rusty's wedding 2+ years ago) and get a chance to catch up.

This family can cook kick-ass food! Eric grilled chicken and chicken sausage on his giant, state-of-the-art gas grill. We had a beautiful layered fruit salad in a trifle bowl and 2 Mediterranean-inspired pasta salads.

Jill, Laura, and Mike:

Here's everybody just hanging out after dinner:

As it got dark, we all sat in a big circle on the huge, covered patio talking and throwing around a glow-in-the-dark Koosh ball. Around 9 pm, we decided to take a "cousins" picture. Here are, from left, me, Mike, Jill, Eric, and Alex:

During dinner, I had particularly enjoyed the sweet, hot, pickled peppers in a salad that Eric and Rusty had made. They were just hot enough to widen my eyes without bringing tears to them. When I picked up my purse at the end of the night, there was a cylindrical mystery package crammed into it. "Hey, look, a gift from the Un-Birthday Fairy!" I said.

"Well, some kind of fairy," Eric replied. (It turned out to be a new jar of the special peppers--that was sweet of them.)

We got Rusty to open his birthday gifts from us early, which was fun.

The hotel has in-room jacuzzis in every room. Paul and I enjoyed ours for about 15 minutes, along with 2 of our truffles, getting a head start on our anniversary celebrations.

Day 5--The Chocolate Factory and Yoshi's

Ron is a genius. From his AA Tour Book, he discovered that the Scharffen Berger Chocolate Factory, which just so happens to be located in Berkeley, is the only chocolate factory in the country which offers tours not behind sealed glass to the public. Now, I have been enjoying our winery tours like a good little adult, but if I had to choose between a good wine and good chocolate, you know what I would choose in a heartbeat. (Hint: it's not the wine.)

After a morning of downtime while Phyllis and Alec packed and got ready for their weekend camping trip, we said our goodbyes and headed down to the factory. We got there right on time (15 min before our 2:30 pm tour started). As we entered the gift shop area, the wonderful smell of premium chocolate in the air made me giddy with good feelings. Instant aromatherapy! The store was full of various products from this fine factory, and I already knew I was going to spend some serious money on our way out.

When the tour started, we sat in a classroom for an hour while the guide explained all the steps from bean to bar. Turns out that cacao is just the seed part of the fruit and tastes a lot like an aspirin in its raw, unprocessed state. It needs to be processed, aged, and roasted before that familiar chocolate scent and flavor as we know it comes out. We got to sample a delicious milk chocolate (42% cacoa, much higher than most), a 62% bar, an 82% bar (a little too dark even for me), and nibs, which are pieces of the roasted bean covered in dark chocolate.

Next (the fun part) we got to don hair nets (some of us needed beard nets as well!) and bright red protective earphones and walk right into the factory.

Now, if I had to have a factory job, this is definitely the one I'd pick. I was always concious of (and never sick of) the heavenly smell. Here is some chocolate being mixed with extra cocoa butter to give it smoothness.

Here are some ladies packaging the bars as they come off the conveyor belt.

Paul and I went a little wild in the store, even buying a box of 4 truffles for private anniversary celebrations later. There was a cafe on the other side of the building, where the 4 of us stopped in for hot chocolate and/or coffee. Mom said she was chocolated out afterwards. Such a state is an impossibility for me!

When we went home, the folks napped, Paul played his horn for a while and I went out for a 3.5 mile walk. It was a brilliantly sunny day with a foggy view of the bay from the high hills. I got to enjoy the chocolate smell all over again as it sweated out of my pores!

Evening saw us on another adventure, this time to Oakland to meet a connection of Paul's and see a zen monastery where she is a Buddhist nun. Pam is the founder of the dojo where Paul teaches on weekends. Years ago she left her sister Debbie in charge and moved out to the Bay Area. She has been out here for visits and always says to Paul, "Hey, if you're ever in San Fransisco, come out and visit me." We took her up on it. She is a delightful person, down to earth and full of joy. Her tea ceremony teacher, Yoshi, is also a shrewd businesswoman and founder of the famed Yoshi's Restaurant and Jazz Club, a fixture for some 30 years that features an unlikely combination of excellent Japanese cuisine and top-name jazz acts.

After seeing the monastery, which is austerely beautiful, we took Pam with us to Yoshi's as previously arranged. Yoshi herself was behind the counter, and greeted us and showed us around a little before seating us. The place is huge--about the size of a city block--and hopping. Pam knew just about everybody who worked there and it was fun listening to their banter. The food was absolutely first rate--at least as enjoyable as the Culinary Institute! Paul & I shared a dinner for two that had a little of everything--sashimi, tempura, vegetables, grilled fish on a stick--and was a delight of flavors, colors and textures.

We opted not to stay for a show as we were all feeling the need to get to bed at a decent hour. I'm really glad in retrospect because we got lost twice on the way home and didn't get back until after 11!

Musicale--Bonus Pics

This is an extra edition of Aug 10's post. I was so busy playing during the musicale that I didn't take any pics, but happily, Mom & Ron did. So here they are for your viewing pleasure!

Me playing my solo

Alec with me accompanying
Paul
Eric
Ron describing his version of "My Way" and how it is meaningful for him

Deborah bowling us over!
Mom and Phyllis doin' the Java Jive
Phyllis and Richard

Day 4--Muir Woods and Musicale

Last night was our last at Deborah's. We invited her to come join us at tonight's family musicale, on the condition that she perform something (as all of us were doing). She seemed a bit taken aback at first, but proved to be game. After a lovely breakfast of oatmeal and cinnamon toast, we spent a little time going over maps for the day's trips and set off in Mom's car for Muir Woods National Monument. (They went home with Phyllis last night, so we had the day to ourselves with the car.)

We wanted to do something seriously active, like hiking or biking. Paul had seen Muir Woods when he was out in S.F. for a martial arts convention 20 years ago, but I had never been. What could be more quintessentially California than The Redwood Forest from This Land is Your Land?

It was blessedly cool so near the coast after yesterday. I was the only one I saw there in a sleeveless shirt, but we walked so much, I was never cold. I had brought my pedometer with me (gadgets are fun!) so I had proof of the 7 total miles we walked. Well, 2 of them were just getting back and forth from the car, but still.

It was extremely crowded--the crowd was so thick around the monument boardwalk area that we could only shuffle helplessly along at about 1.5 mph. We took the first turn-off for a hiking trail we saw, a 3.5-mile loop up a steep hillside. It felt so good to walk our normal speed (we finished it in an hour) and work up a bit of a sweat. It was almost entirely in a deep woods, which was beautiful and smelled good.

By the time we returned to the boardwalk, we were in the mood to slow down and the crowds were smaller. Here is a redwood so tall you can't see the top from below:

An interesting growth pattern on one of the trunks:

We were really hungry by the time we got back to the car at about 2:30. We had lunch at the Pelican Inn at Muir Beach just a few miles down the road, as Phyllis and Alec raved about it. It had the atmosphere of an old English pub (Tudor architecture, etc.) and they served hearty fare that actually reminded us of Cleveland food (shepherd's pie and other "mitten season" favorites).

Afterwards, we took a short 10-minute walk to the beach itself. A bracing sea breeze whipped all around us--I was glad I had thought to bring a light jacket. All around the street there were signs warning people that they would get in deep doo-doo if they parked--here's one that's not exactly world peace.

We managed to get to Phyllis' house in Richmond in one piece in spite of rush hour and a wrong turn that led us on a maze around the back end of San Quentin. Eric had left work early in San Jose to come and join us. Phyllis' neighbors across the street, who were in the Netherlands for a month, had offered to let Paul & me stay there, as there isn't enough room at Phyllis'. They also have a well-tuned piano, which gave us the idea of having a musicale.

Alec, who is 14, has been playing the violin since he was maybe 5. Usually when I've been out for family get-togethers, he's played something with me accompanying. But this time, all of us played, sang, or did a reading. As soon as we arrived at about 5:30, a buffet of salads was set up at Phyllis', and people grazed and came over to rehearse as needed. I felt a little like I was on the job, as I was accompanying 2 pieces with Alec, 2 with Paul, one song with Eric (sightreading, but at least my part was easy) and the Java Jive by ear with Mom and Phyllis. Not to mention my solo, a live rendition of my latest composition Galion, which I had to practice for at least 20 minutes because at first I forgot a huge chunk of it. I ended up only having 10 minutes to eat.

I was originally planning on recording it with my new digital recorder and microphone, which I had brought on the trip especially for the occasion. But, unfortunately, I had overestimated my ability to remember how it worked after not using it for 2 months. Of course, I hadn't thought to bring the manual or even read it before the trip. I couldn't even figure out how to listen to what I had already recorded last time! Slightly frustrated, I said to hell with it. Instead, Phyllis used a mini cassette recorder.

The evening got to be fun as the performances started. The tedium of rehearsal always pays off--everybody played, sang, and/or did their readings well, and I thought, we have such a cool family! Deborah really surprised us with 2 solliliquies (in character!) and a song from My Fair Lady. She says she's never done anything like that before in front of other people. You'd sure never guess it as far as I could tell.

Afterwards we were all pretty wired. We enjoyed a dessert of homemade lemon cake with homemade whipped cream and organic strawberries while Eric entertained us with funny stories about cats, snakes, and snake phobia (all true).

Here's a pic of us with Deborah:

We want to be sure to stay in touch!

Napa Tour Day 3

Blogger, in its far from infinite mercy, allowed me to post some photos today but then inexplicably got in a capricious mood again and now won't let me post the rest. So I'll do what I did yesterday and do the linky thing.

Deborah really knows how to make a great breakfast. Yesterday we had locally grown, organic strawberries (the kind that are red all the way through) in a fruit salad to die for, it was so flavorful. Today it was French toast made with deicious cinnamon swirl bread.

We went to the Sebastiani winery this morning and had a very early picnic lunch (11:15!) to accomodate our 12:30 tour appointment at the di Rosa Preserve. Here are Paul and Ron in front of one of Sebastiani's famous decoratively carved barrels.

In tribute to Miles (from the movie "Sideways," which we own on DVD and love to quote lines from), here's Paul in front of the Pinot Noir barrel. Now I know enough to know why I don't like the taste of Pinot--its high level of bitter-tasting tannins. But Paul likes it!

There was a lighted window with an elaborately decorated wine goblet inside. I was able to get a gtreat close-up!

Here's Paul induging in a little tasting at the front counter.

Once again, today's tour guides provided us with a magnificent picnic lunch. This time, I had the presence of mind to request a picture. We were very full afterwards, having just finished breakfast a scant 2 hours before, not that this was a problem!

We finished just in time to make it to the di Rosa Preserve by 12:35. We had to drive down to another building to catch up with our tour group. I took this picture of an outlandishly decorated car before I realized we weren't supposed to take pictures inside!
This place houses the modern art collection of 87-year-old Rene di Rosa, who started buying local modern art by young unknowns over 50 years ago. He just bought what he liked. Now there are over 2000 pieces in his collection, which is open to the public. Some of it is moving, some striking, some funny, and some just off the wall. Here is the one piece by himself, called "Lynched Volkswagen."
There were cawing peafowl strutting around the grounds.

A very few of the art pieces were interactive. Here's Mom enjoying one of these, a musical percussion instrument.

The tour lasted about 2 hours, but we were exhausted from the standing, the 90+ degree heat and mentally digesting everything we saw, so all of us headed back to Deborah's to relax for a few hours before dinner, which was at the Culinary Institute where gourmet chefs-in-training practice their craft. Deborah joined us and we met Phyllis and Alec there.

We brought the bottle of Sterling's Cabernet Sauvignon that Paul had bought, and that one bottle (excellent, by the way) was plenty for the 6 adults at our table. We looked at the wine list just for fun, which included a couple of references to our friend Miles from "Sideways."

We started with Today's Temptations, a selection of delicious appetizers. I only had 3 (out of 8) because I didn't want to be full before dinner arrived. I needn't have worried, since my selection, scallops, though beautifully presented, only came with 3 scallops, 3 small spears of asparagus, and about 1/2 cup of rice mixture. It was delicious, and the small size didn't bother me at all--more room for dessert! Chocolate souffle, to die for, plus 2 sides of cherry tarts we all shared.