3.27.11 - Angeline's

Cool cajun-type decor?

I love the whole atmosphere of this place. Food's pretty good too.

My handsome boyfriend. :)

3.23.11 - Visiting Molly

After Jack got home from work we drove to Santa Rosa to have tomato basil pasta, olive bread and red wine with Joe and Molly (and Eli!).  We then *instructed* them in Tichu, guys v girls, and they picked it up pretty quickly.  More converts.  It was getting too late to finish the game, and the guys were crushing us anyway (695 to 105) so we wrapped up early, but I'm sure there will be future games.

Eli sits in on grown up Tichu.

3.22.11 - Berkeley flowers

Went to campus to listen to my post doc, Chaomin, discuss our research with the rest of the lab.  On the walk home it was getting ready to rain but wasn't raining yet, and it was warm and windy and the clouds were awesome and the weather was generally great.  I decided to pick colored flowers and leaves to press when I get home.  This made the walk take longer but it was much more fun--I never realized how many flowers Berkeley has before.  Hopefully now I'll notice them all the time.

3.19.11 - Rainy day fun

Went to Doug's in the morning to hang out with him and his 6-year-old niece, Ava.  Doug helped her build some sailboats out of tupperware with sticks stuck in candles for masts.  We walked in the light rain a few blocks to a playground with a tiny creek running by.  On the way there Ava's sail fell off her sailboat, so she replaced it with a large pink petal off some flower.  It sort of fell to the bottom of the mast but she seemed satisfied anyway.  Once at the creek she happily raced her and Doug's sailboats while Jack, Doug, and I mostly looked on.  Ava insisted it's "lady's first" and would start her sailboat before Doug's, but it was pretty much a crapshoot who would "win" since the wind kept changing directions.  Still cute to watch.

Made it to the creek, despite the rain.

It started raining a little harder so Jack left to get the car.  Doug, Ava and I played on this rather cool playground.  It included a wooden ship with fish carved along the side, some kind of fort with trees carved in it's walls, and even a building that served as the "General Store", "Bank" and "Saloon" (!).  There were also colored tiles obviously designed by children lining the fence that surrounded the playground.  The whole thing was very pretty.  And very empty, since it was raining.  Ava ran from structure to structure, explaining to us that the ships were blown up by bombs and we needed to sail to Hawaii where it's warm and other such things.  I like asking her questions about what's going on in her make believe story and seeing what she comes up with on the spot.  Also, she has a pretty good evil villain cackle, which she used when she "trapped" Doug and me in a net, apparently.

Eventually she was ready to get out of the cold and wet, so Jack drove all of us to the East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse to pick up supplies to do some rainy day crafts.  Turns out they were having a sale on fabric--$5 for as much fabric as you could stuff in a large grocery bag.  Good lord.  Ava picked out about 5-6 different kinds of pink fabric, Jack picked out patterns he thought would make good patches for some of his clothes, and I picked out colors I like with no specific plans for them.  I'm sure I can come up with something, and with prices that low I'm not going to wait till I have thought of it.  I must've gotten about 20 yards of fabric for $5.  Bwahahaha!  We also bought a few scoops of buttons.

Before we went back to Doug's we stopped by Backesale Betty's for fried chicken sandwiches and chocolate chip cookies, all of which were amazing.

Kid can raise one eyebrow. Nice.

By the time we finished our impromptu lunch at Doug's it was about time for Jack and me to get going with other errands, so I suppose the button crafts with Ava will have to be saved for next time.

After hitting up Safeway Jack and I went back to his apt and I made cookies-n-cream fudge...things.  They were delicious but messy and very rich.  I then spent the afternoon scanning old photos and listening to a random youtube playlist of Sesame St songs, some of which I probably haven't heard since I lived in Folsom.  Jack napped.

Finally Neil, Jack and I packed up some of the cookies-n-cream stuff and went to Dylan and Sarah's for a dinner and Sequence and general visiting.  Jack and Sarah won 3 games of Sequence out of 6 before we all quit.  Fun game--good to play while visiting.

Sequence.

I also enjoyed watching their fancy goldfish keep swimming to the bottom and then floating to the top of his tank.  Apparently some days he gets air bubbles stuck in him and can't stay near the bottom, and then other days he's fine.  Either way it was funny to watch. Weirdo.

Apparently "fancy" Goldfish get bubbles in them and get stuck floating. This fish spent the entire evening struggling to swim near the bottom of the tank, giving up, floating back to the top, and starting over. 

On the way back we stopped at Wal Mart to buy some of the produce they're now selling (woohoo! oranges!)

3.18.11 - Solano Wine Cellars

Jack took me to Solano Cellars for some wine-tasting.  I tried the "Red Wine Flight" which included Noussan Torrette and Fattoria Paradiso Sangiovese Reserva (Italian), "Les Vieilles Vignes" (French), and Preston Zinfandel (California :-) ).  Jack tried the "Special Selections Flight" which included Scherrer Pinot Noir (CA), Montevertine Rosso (Italy), La Rioja Alta (Spain), and the mouthful Domaine Moulin-Tacussel Chateauneuf-du-Pape (France).  We also got sliced bread and various gourmet cheeses whose names all escape me now.

We got two wine flights, one white, one red. Also some cheeses.

  

While we were there, there was a huge storm outside. It even started hailing! Very unusual for that part of the country.

The whole thing was lovely.  It was a small place, uncrowded even though it was Friday night.  We sat at a two-top high-table at the edge of the balcony that looks down on the rest of the shop.  They played swing music softly in the background.  We just took our time and tried each of each others wine and talked and savored.  Near the end a thunder storm started (the 2nd thunderstorm I've witnessed in the bay area ever) and that was both exciting and almost nostalgic, since they remind me of Missouri.  Later it actually hailed. Awww.