too much relaxation leads to teh dumb
sadly enough, i can't remember when the last time i posted was. i think it was before the weekend, so i'll make sure to cover all that we accomplished in our busy weekend...
saturday started our normally with the breakfast club. marshall and i couldn't hang out much afterward because we had an appointment at hoffman's bakery. we got there early, by about 15 minutes, and the woman behind the counter told us to take a seat and the baker would be with us momentarily. ed, the owner and head baker, came out in his chef pants and dirty apron and introduced himself. he asked which cakes we wanted to taste and that question seemed odd to me. wouldn't he just have a platter of the cakes they offer already put together? anyway, i told him whatever he got we'll taste. he returned with two big pieces of their signature chocolate and princess torte. he also gave us a tiny sliver of his lemon cake, as well. ed had to go back into the kitchen to check on his ovens, so he left us to taste. his cakes were very good and flavorful. i love princess tortes, but i don't think i would choose it for a wedding cake. the chocolate cake was really good, but definitely too much. same went for the lemon cake, and i don't necessarily like lemon cake to begin with. it was good, but not for a 3-tiered cake. ed came back and told us a little bit about him and his bakery and what kind of baker he is. he's not big on decorating cakes and so his cakes are simple but delicious. i showed him what we wanted on our cake and he wasn't too sure about it, but he said he would give it a try. not sure if that really helped build confidence in his decorating abilities. if we went with hoffman's, we'd have to scale down our design and totally forgo the banana slug cake toppers. our total time there was about 25 minutes, if that. since he is the main guy in the kitchen, he kept having to go away and come back. i asked as many questions as i could think of, but all in all it was a very quick visit.
at this point, i need some perspective. the buttery and hoffman's are two complete opposites. i need to visit another bakery just to help me decide which route we should take. do we take the route which gives us the design we want, but end up paying more? or do we scale down our design and pay less? my mom has heard nothing but great things about gayle'ss and i think that will be our next stop. i don't think we need to visit more than 3 bakeries, but at least this will provide us with the research we need to make an informed decision.
back over the hill, our next stop was buying a birthday present for birthday boy #1, our friend from drinking liberally. we got to his and his wife's house early enough that they were still setting things out. they made a TON of food and it was all really delicious. i was sad that i couldn't eat it all, since we had dinner to go to later that night. i did, however, partake of the homemade beer. they had a belgian wheat and an apricot ale. i tried both and they were excellent and extremely potent! by the time it came for us to leave, i was in no shape to drive, even if we were only going down the street.
next it was dinner for birthday boy #2: norcalpaco. we went to habana cuba for a truly delicious cuban experience. we enjoyed an appetizer platter of tostinos, fried yuka, croquettes, roasted pork and a few other things. i ordered the arroz con pollo a la valenciana (southern spanish chicken w/ rice). i also had the garbanzo bean soup, which was very tasty. my chicken with rice was delicious. it had a great flavor and i loved the green olives and raisins - such a great flavor and texture contrast! :) everyone else at the table enjoyed their dishes, as well, and we all went home with very full bellies. "home" after dinner was of course liam and paco's house, where paco opened his gifts and we had cake (after resting, of course). it was a great little birthday celebration and paco seemed to really enjoy himself. :)
sunday started before dawn, literally. marshall and i got up at the ungodly hour of 5:30am. we showered, packed up a bag and headed up to berkeley to meet sanam. we got to her house right on time and then headed over to the local coffee shop for bagels and coffee. then it was a quick stop in el sobrante to pick up a couple of more people and finally we were on the road to sonoma. like sanam's mom and sister predicted, we got lost and ended up in napa, instead of sonoma. marshall suggested we download the verizon navigator just to find out where we were and where we needed to go. it was extremely helpful and before long we were where we wanted to be: sonomoa mission inn and spa. we paid our $25 entrance fee and went inside. we changed into our bathing suits and robes to begin our day of total relaxation. we started with a ritual bath and then scored a long row of lounge chairs by the pool. we stayed in our same spots all day long. we left to get lunch, but came back and found our spots again. we arrived at 9am and didn't leave until after 7. we were all at maximum capacity for relaxation, but it was a great day! i'm so happy everything worked out. i haven't hung out with sanam and everyone for an entire day in ages. i'm really going to miss having her here. :(
monday was difficult after not done anything the day before. i apparently managed to find something to do at work. i even agreed to "babysit" my coworker's projects while she's on vacation. her go-to person who normally watches her stuff had some unfortunate family news and is out for the week. everyone else is swamped, so they asked me. no problem. it seems that there won't be that much to do, which is nice especially since i'm watching some of my boss's stuff while she's gone, too (i get to assign supplement projects - yay!).
yesterday started with a 2-mile run and about 5 yards of lunges. it was marshall's idea to help spice up our workouts. originally, marshall's plan was to have us to lunges from one end of the parking lot to the other, but after about half-way he realized that it was much longer than he expected. i got a little more than half-way before i stopped and just walked along. everything was hunky dory until i got on the freeway to go to work. i was driving along 280, as normal, and right before edgewood road, so jackass in a black audi nearly sideswiped me. he was following way to closely to the person in front of him, so he wanted to pass them. he didn't see me in the lane next to him and came within inches of hitting me. i laid on the horn, hit the brakes and swerved to get out of the way (i knew there wasn't anyone in the lane next to me). unfortunately, i swerved too sharply and i started swerving all over the road. i tried my hardest to get my car under control, but when you're fighting momentum, it's extremely difficult. i was DAMN lucky that people stayed out of my way and i pirouetted my way across 3 lanes of traffic and landed on the right shoulder facing traffic. it was almost like from a movie when my car finally stopped. my car had, of course, stalled at some point and so the majority of the spinning and swerving was done while in neutral. the audi, of course, didn't stop and merely sped away. next i had to figure out how to turn around. the shoulder where i landed was next to a giant patch of grass and dirt with no ditch, so i just drove on the grass to right myself and then merged back into traffic.
i got to work just fine. my car is fine and i'm fine. it just lead to a day of feeling so totally scattered and disoriented. i couldn't focus on just one thing. i would start packing (we're moving on friday) a few things and then sit back down in front of my computer, knowing that i had to do something but not being able to remember. i was so happy when 5pm rolled around. it was just not a great day.
this morning was the greatest either. i slept in a bit, thinking that i had some time while marshall ate breakfast before we left to go swimming. by the time i got up and started getting ready, marshall was getting dressed and asked if i was going swimming. of course i wanted to go swimming, that's our wednesday morning thing. i start getting my stuff together and notice that i cannot find my goggles. we looked everywhere and finally i said "fuck it" and told marshall to go without me. i would find them later and go swimming at the pool here instead. i threw my pj's back on and grabbed my work computer and logged in. i've been working since 7am, so i figure i can have a really long lunch hour or stop working at 3. :P
saturday started our normally with the breakfast club. marshall and i couldn't hang out much afterward because we had an appointment at hoffman's bakery. we got there early, by about 15 minutes, and the woman behind the counter told us to take a seat and the baker would be with us momentarily. ed, the owner and head baker, came out in his chef pants and dirty apron and introduced himself. he asked which cakes we wanted to taste and that question seemed odd to me. wouldn't he just have a platter of the cakes they offer already put together? anyway, i told him whatever he got we'll taste. he returned with two big pieces of their signature chocolate and princess torte. he also gave us a tiny sliver of his lemon cake, as well. ed had to go back into the kitchen to check on his ovens, so he left us to taste. his cakes were very good and flavorful. i love princess tortes, but i don't think i would choose it for a wedding cake. the chocolate cake was really good, but definitely too much. same went for the lemon cake, and i don't necessarily like lemon cake to begin with. it was good, but not for a 3-tiered cake. ed came back and told us a little bit about him and his bakery and what kind of baker he is. he's not big on decorating cakes and so his cakes are simple but delicious. i showed him what we wanted on our cake and he wasn't too sure about it, but he said he would give it a try. not sure if that really helped build confidence in his decorating abilities. if we went with hoffman's, we'd have to scale down our design and totally forgo the banana slug cake toppers. our total time there was about 25 minutes, if that. since he is the main guy in the kitchen, he kept having to go away and come back. i asked as many questions as i could think of, but all in all it was a very quick visit.
at this point, i need some perspective. the buttery and hoffman's are two complete opposites. i need to visit another bakery just to help me decide which route we should take. do we take the route which gives us the design we want, but end up paying more? or do we scale down our design and pay less? my mom has heard nothing but great things about gayle'ss and i think that will be our next stop. i don't think we need to visit more than 3 bakeries, but at least this will provide us with the research we need to make an informed decision.
back over the hill, our next stop was buying a birthday present for birthday boy #1, our friend from drinking liberally. we got to his and his wife's house early enough that they were still setting things out. they made a TON of food and it was all really delicious. i was sad that i couldn't eat it all, since we had dinner to go to later that night. i did, however, partake of the homemade beer. they had a belgian wheat and an apricot ale. i tried both and they were excellent and extremely potent! by the time it came for us to leave, i was in no shape to drive, even if we were only going down the street.
next it was dinner for birthday boy #2: norcalpaco. we went to habana cuba for a truly delicious cuban experience. we enjoyed an appetizer platter of tostinos, fried yuka, croquettes, roasted pork and a few other things. i ordered the arroz con pollo a la valenciana (southern spanish chicken w/ rice). i also had the garbanzo bean soup, which was very tasty. my chicken with rice was delicious. it had a great flavor and i loved the green olives and raisins - such a great flavor and texture contrast! :) everyone else at the table enjoyed their dishes, as well, and we all went home with very full bellies. "home" after dinner was of course liam and paco's house, where paco opened his gifts and we had cake (after resting, of course). it was a great little birthday celebration and paco seemed to really enjoy himself. :)
sunday started before dawn, literally. marshall and i got up at the ungodly hour of 5:30am. we showered, packed up a bag and headed up to berkeley to meet sanam. we got to her house right on time and then headed over to the local coffee shop for bagels and coffee. then it was a quick stop in el sobrante to pick up a couple of more people and finally we were on the road to sonoma. like sanam's mom and sister predicted, we got lost and ended up in napa, instead of sonoma. marshall suggested we download the verizon navigator just to find out where we were and where we needed to go. it was extremely helpful and before long we were where we wanted to be: sonomoa mission inn and spa. we paid our $25 entrance fee and went inside. we changed into our bathing suits and robes to begin our day of total relaxation. we started with a ritual bath and then scored a long row of lounge chairs by the pool. we stayed in our same spots all day long. we left to get lunch, but came back and found our spots again. we arrived at 9am and didn't leave until after 7. we were all at maximum capacity for relaxation, but it was a great day! i'm so happy everything worked out. i haven't hung out with sanam and everyone for an entire day in ages. i'm really going to miss having her here. :(
monday was difficult after not done anything the day before. i apparently managed to find something to do at work. i even agreed to "babysit" my coworker's projects while she's on vacation. her go-to person who normally watches her stuff had some unfortunate family news and is out for the week. everyone else is swamped, so they asked me. no problem. it seems that there won't be that much to do, which is nice especially since i'm watching some of my boss's stuff while she's gone, too (i get to assign supplement projects - yay!).
yesterday started with a 2-mile run and about 5 yards of lunges. it was marshall's idea to help spice up our workouts. originally, marshall's plan was to have us to lunges from one end of the parking lot to the other, but after about half-way he realized that it was much longer than he expected. i got a little more than half-way before i stopped and just walked along. everything was hunky dory until i got on the freeway to go to work. i was driving along 280, as normal, and right before edgewood road, so jackass in a black audi nearly sideswiped me. he was following way to closely to the person in front of him, so he wanted to pass them. he didn't see me in the lane next to him and came within inches of hitting me. i laid on the horn, hit the brakes and swerved to get out of the way (i knew there wasn't anyone in the lane next to me). unfortunately, i swerved too sharply and i started swerving all over the road. i tried my hardest to get my car under control, but when you're fighting momentum, it's extremely difficult. i was DAMN lucky that people stayed out of my way and i pirouetted my way across 3 lanes of traffic and landed on the right shoulder facing traffic. it was almost like from a movie when my car finally stopped. my car had, of course, stalled at some point and so the majority of the spinning and swerving was done while in neutral. the audi, of course, didn't stop and merely sped away. next i had to figure out how to turn around. the shoulder where i landed was next to a giant patch of grass and dirt with no ditch, so i just drove on the grass to right myself and then merged back into traffic.
i got to work just fine. my car is fine and i'm fine. it just lead to a day of feeling so totally scattered and disoriented. i couldn't focus on just one thing. i would start packing (we're moving on friday) a few things and then sit back down in front of my computer, knowing that i had to do something but not being able to remember. i was so happy when 5pm rolled around. it was just not a great day.
this morning was the greatest either. i slept in a bit, thinking that i had some time while marshall ate breakfast before we left to go swimming. by the time i got up and started getting ready, marshall was getting dressed and asked if i was going swimming. of course i wanted to go swimming, that's our wednesday morning thing. i start getting my stuff together and notice that i cannot find my goggles. we looked everywhere and finally i said "fuck it" and told marshall to go without me. i would find them later and go swimming at the pool here instead. i threw my pj's back on and grabbed my work computer and logged in. i've been working since 7am, so i figure i can have a really long lunch hour or stop working at 3. :P