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.
I just had a great time playing volleyball with Ryan, Steph, Nima, Caryn, and Amy. I biked over and before starting we had some Stilton and Riesling. That makes the last of the Riesling gone, I’m tempted to get some more but I’m also tempted to try a few others and see how I like them. I’ll take a look on some of the wine rating sites and see what a good inexpensive Riesling is. Ryan had to run, but the rest of us went to Chocolate garage afterwards. I brought the rest of the Riesling and we finished it off there. I got an interesting bar from Patrick, a 100% Grenada bar, and 2 by the company with the really nice flavors and the waxy paper covers. I’m looking forward to having the vanilla one since I haven’t had it before.
Brian, Ben, Candice, and I went to the Sabercats game. The Sabercats are the Arena football team for San Jose. I have to say that this is much more entertaining to watch than almost any other sport I’ve gotten to watch. It has the mechanics of football, but the gameplay is much faster. It has the slamming people into walls like hockey. It has amazing plays much more often. The field is half as long and half as wide. The teams always go for it on 4th down. They had a harley drive out onto the field for no apparent reason. Everything was appropriately over the top. They handed out hats to everyone as we walked it. There is no sidelines, the field goes right to the stands. It was great.
The game itself was very close up to the end. With a minute to go the Sabercats turned it over to the Pittsburg Power, who returned it for a TD. They missed the extra point to make it a tied game. The Sabercats got a quick TD, and then intercepted a pass from the Power to finish off the game. This sport is incredibly offense heavy, which makes it fantastic to watch. The final score was 68/54.
When we got back to Mountain View Nima suggested that we go by the Persian Market that he frequents. It is called Rose International Market, and has a lot of really good, decently priced food. They have a kitchen in the back that will make amazing kabobs. They wrap the kabobs in flatbread and the flatbread soaks up all the juices from the cooked meat. It is tasty, a lot of food, and cheap. We took it back to his place and ate there. He also talked us into trying a carbonated yogurt drink, which was decently tasty. It isn’t good on its own, but when you are eating something fatty I could see it being pretty good. Steph also got a desert from there that Nima says translates to the ‘yellow soft’ stuff. It was really strongly flavored, but pretty good.
After the sailing we decided to stop by some fancy places. The first was a little winery tasting room for MJA Vineyards. We had some of their wine, but didn’t think it was that great. The chocolate covered coffee beans were pretty tasty, but that didn’t justify a purchase. After the wine tasting we went to a chocolatier and got a lot of chocolate. Steph was cute and kept seeing something else she thought sounded tasty and she would grab one and add it to our pile. We ended up getting 11 different kinds of chocolate. We tried one while driving back and it was really good. I don’t think it was quite as good as the Chocolate Garage chocolates, but still nice. It was more flavored with not as great chocolate.
After a breakfast of scrambled eggs with goat cheese and bacon, Mom and I went on a bike ride from the house to patriot lake. It was a perfect day for a ride and we went at a relaxed pace. I really enjoyed the ride with her and we got to talk about some interesting things.
It's an Exciting World 