I played some volleyball today, but only Nima was there out of the people I know. The other people we were able to play with were really good, and I could tell that I was the worst player there. They were really nice about it and I could tell they were trying to balance the teams so that we could get some good volleys going. I had fun despite being the worst, and learned a little about how to play as well. After playing Nima got some beer and nachos for us to share, and I greatly appreciated him getting that for us. I locked myself out of the house today and didn’t have anything to eat, or my wallet, or my phone. I did have my computer, so I was able to get some work done. I wasn’t able to get as much of the game worked on as I’d like.
After a bike ride to Steph’s house and back I sat down for a nice pasta dinner. I decided to smother the noodles in a good helping of La Victoria’s orange sauce. It was really tasty, but before I could properly enjoy it Steph showed up saying that we needed to get out the door immediately to make it to Brian and Candice’s so that we could carpool to the Sabercats game. I ate the pasta in the car while extolling the virtues of orange sauce. When we got to their place we headed straight to San Jose for the game. On the way to the stadium we passed La Victoria, and Steph decided she had to try some of this orange sauce. She definitely understands now why I like it so much, but I’m not sure if she is quite hooked yet.
At the game we got to see the over the top entrance that we missed half of last time. It was just as outdone as last time, and fantastic. Steph and I took some strolls around the concourse for the exercise and to get away from the noise. Today was pompom day for the Sabercats, so we got some free pompoms.
They also had the family pack deal going on, which was 4 tickets, 4 hot dogs, 4 drinks, and 4 chip bags for $50, which is hard to pass up for such an entertaining sport with a good number of friends. We had Brian, Candice, and their neighbors, Jeremy B, Kerry and gf, other David, Tina, Steph, and myself. The Sabercats won by a lot, and when they were soundly ahead they tried some onside kicks. I thought the onside kicks were pretty harsh moves against a team that was already down 20 points or so, but it was still entertaining.
Afterwards we grabbed drinks at Firehouse, a bar close by the Stadium. It was a nice place to chat and I’m getting some great feedback on the kickstarter ideas from Brian.
Thursday afternoon I took a ride down to Shoreline Lake to have a nice walk and listen to some of the audiobook. I sat down at one of the benches in the shade and several squirrels came up to me. One even climbed up my leg and sat on my knee.
This morning Steph and I went by the Milk Pail Market. It was a nice bike ride and we filled up both of our backpacks for $25. I got some interesting lemon cucumbers, that I’m looking forward to trying. We got some Stilton for Steph, and I got a piece of jalapeno cheese, both of which were fantastic. We looked up how to harvest olives and walnuts as we have both growing in my backyard and they will be ready to harvest in a month or so. The walnuts are already falling of the tree and I’ll start grabbing them each morning and getting them starting to dry. I’ll brine a good number of olives once they start falling off the tree. Steph wants to try making olive oil, but I think I’ll stick to brining some jars of olives as that is much easier.
Nima, Caryn, Ryan, Stephanie, Amy, Other Ryan, and myself played some volleyball yesterday and were joined by Noah, Oli, and Tiger. It was a great game, as we didn’t keep score, but did surprisingly well. I think I’m really getting the hang of the communication part of the game, which is the most important part and the hardest one to get right. The bump, set, spikes were numerous, and the terrible hits were few by all. I am looking forward to playing each monday from now on. I was really glad Steph was able to join as she wasn’t expecting to be able to get out of work until later. Nima and Caryn also had just come from the airport, making it on time perfectly.
We got up early and Carlos and his mother drove us to the airport. We got on the first flight, and I forgot my water bottle in the airport there. We got to Miami and had a really long layover. Customs wasn’t bad, so Steph and I walked along the terminal a few times. Steph also got a massage. On the flight from the Dominican to Miami I sat next to a baby in the lap of a woman, the baby was grabbing in touching everything, and smelled a lot like poo. The flight from Miami to SF was uneventful. I was sooooo ready to get home. Steph’s parents came to pick us up and we got back to her place. We started the day at 5:30, but with the time change that was equivalent to 2:30. I watched the new Venture Brothers with Nick, Robert, Candice, and Robert’s Coworker.
We got going late in the day and took Jack and Stephanie to the airport. We also dropped off the rental car while there. Carlos then took us to a nice little bakery and we ran some errands. The bakery was the wooden spoon and the place that made the oreo cheesecake. We headed to old town to visit the amber museum, chocolate museum, and columbus house. The chocolate museum had a tasty chocolate tea that Steph and I got a lot of. We got back to the house in time to party a good bit with carlos family, although Steph didn’t join in.
We had a really nice tuesday in the Dominican Republic. We got up early to get to the dive shop but once we got there we realized it cost more than we had thought and I ran by an atm to get the extra. The dives were great as we went to Catalina Island to a place called the wall and the aquarium. We got 4 lionfish on the dives and 2 of then were big enough to eat. The lionfish was pretty tasty as it wasn’t fishy and was very light. I would love to get some more lionfish fillet. We played some volleyball and had lunch on the island as the dive master Igor told us how he ended up being in the Dominican Republic. He wad s really relaxed guy as was the whole staff. During the dives we saw some rays some eels lots of corals and sponges and fish of all kinds. When boating back to shore we had a fun ride with a few flying fish jumping out of our way. When we got back to shore the others were just driving up and we went to a restaurant for a apetizer that carlos liked which was starch stuffed with meat and fried. We went back to the house and relaxed had dinner and played Settlers.
We were hoping to go to the caves today but they are closed on Mondays. We also couldn’t go to the private beach because there was construction. It seems that Monday is a great day to be closed in the Dominican Republic. We went back to the gated houses and hung out at the pool. We got drinks at the swim up bar even though the actual swim up bar area wasn’t functional the wait staff brought it out to us at the swim up bar.
We played 500 which was fun. The pina coladas were delicious. We stopped by a truck stop for lunch and got some of the local food. It gave all of us a sleepy attitude and we went back to the house and got a couple hours of sleep. When we woke up we brought out the chips and played a game of Settlers. Since scuba was the next morning we decided to call it early.
