We went to Jeremy B’s place for the afternoon. Stephanie and Jeremy spent the time painting mini’s and I spent the time updating the blog, looking up a little more Thailand info, and taking a glorious nap. Jeremy’s cats were so fluffy, especially Ash. His couch is really comphy as well, and it reminds me a lot of our couch. We had some of the cherries that we got at the farmer’s market and they were phenomenal.
Nima and Caryn took me bike riding this morning through Portola Valley. It was a really intense ride and I was lagging behind a little the entire time. I am going to be walking a little funny tomorrow from it. I really enjoyed the ride, and would love to do it again. We ended the ride with a quick pass through Stanford and sat in the Oval for a couple minutes to cool down. We talked about what we would do if we had no worries about money. Nima would dance, Caryn would get a PhD, and I would do the same things I’m doing now, just with a small difference in the time weighting.
We then went to the Cal Ave farmer’s market to meet up with Steph and Tina. The market had lots of delicious blueberries, and of course I got a Samosa. We sat under the giant metal flowers for a while and chatted. I also got a good bit of broccoli and cucumber.
Stephanie and I went to the Ballet tonight in SF to see Cinderella. It was ok, as Ballet just isn’t my thing. I have to admit there were some really cool parts, both visually and comically. I’m too much a person that likes witty banter, and comical nuance. These things are really hard to get across in a ballet. There was a scene where Cinderella was taught how to dance by the seasons, and I just didn’t understand it. At first I thought she spent a year learning to dance, but the ball was later that night. Then I thought that she retroactively had been taught by her experiences throughout life, but that just didn’t fit the story. I’d say I’m looking for meaning where there is none.
I got to ride Trooper today, and he wasn’t the most obedient horse I’ve ridden. Belle was a great horse to ride when considering how well she listened. Although Belle was also a great horse to ride in preparation since Belle didn’t listen too much to the reigns when I was directing her. Trooper was the same, but so much worse. I felt really good doing the 2-point in the trot today. The feeling was great to just stand in 2-point while the horse was doing it’s thing under me. I was able to balance there and there was no problems in keeping my control, or being able to direct the horse at the same time. I was really happy about the being able to direct the horse at the same time especially. The biggest problem with Trooper was trying to direct him in general. He really didn’t listen to what I was trying to do.
We went over to Adam’s house for a makeup party. We decided that I would do Stephanie’s makeup and that she would do mine. I chose to make her look like an egyptian, she chose to make me a two face.
One side of the face has “normal” makeup and the other has “fancy” makeup.
We did this at Adam’s house with Andrew, Jeremy B, and a couple of people I hadn’t met before. I had a really nice alcohol free diet ginger beer, but I added a little bit of vodka. Adam also made a drink with lavender syrup. Adam also served really nice cheese, it was a goat cheese with garlic and herbs.
After horseback riding Steph and I went straight to Shezan. Castro street at the time had an art fair going on. While we waited for our food at Shezan to be ready we went down the street and looked at some really amazing art. I got something for Nana, and possibly will get something there tomorrow for Dad. After about 20 min we went back to Shezan and got our food, which we took down to Shoreline lake to eat. The lake was really pretty, and I was hoping to see some goslings but no such luck.
We had an extra lesson of horseback riding today. The weather was a little warm for horseback riding, and my allergies have been giving me tons of problems. Once we got going and my adrenaline got up the allergies seemed to go away nicely, but they game back as soon as I stopped riding. Today I also got to ride Belle, a Belgian draft horse. She is really big, and I look kinda small on her.
Belle was really responsive to directions of where to go, but not so responsive on how quickly to go there. She also took really wide turns, and didn’t seemed bothered by me being there at all. It was kinda strange being on a horse as big as Belle, since I’m used to it mattering where I put my weight. With Belle, she didn’t really notice too much.
You can see how wide I have my legs splayed over Belle, she is incredibly wide.
Steph and I didn’t get to ride at the same time, but we still got to have a lot of fun. It was interesting to see her ride and watch Carla teach her. They do a lot more precision steering that I have been doing.
I had a good time at the party. Jullian invited us over, along with Nick, Brian, and Candice. We got in the hot tub there and had around 12 people in one of the smallest hot tubs i’ve seen. It was still fun. Nick got in with us, but not Candice or Brian.
We played a game called Contact where someone things of a word. Other people then try to guess the word. The thinker then gives the first letter of the word to the group. People as pointed questions so that others in the group besides the thinker will know of something that fits the letter that the thinker won’t get. The thinker just has to know an answer to the question, even if it isn’t the one that the other person is thinking of. a good example of this is if the letters are CA and someone asks, “Is it in bananas” the thinker can respond “It is not carbon” even if the other person was thinking of calcium. When the thinker can’t think of an answer he says “challenge” and the person must answer what the word he was thinking of was along with at least one other person in the group, who had previously said “contact” to indicate that they knew what the question poser was talking about.
After diving 8 of us went to a restaurant called Hula’s (Yelp). They had something called ‘Mac ‘n’ Cheese ‘n’ Cheese’ which of course Stephanie and I had to get. We also shared a Tofu Taco. Since we had already eaten lots of bonali we didn’t need to get too much to eat at the restaurant. I think it is a good plan that I at least should continue, by eating beforehand on something healthier and tasty, then getting something small and healthy at the restaurant itself. To drink I got a Mai Tai, which was a little too sweet for me, but not bad.
After that we went to Otter Bay, a company that makes custom wetsuit parts. Stephanie decided to get a custom hood made that is thicker and a set of cat ears. The cat ears are red on the front and purple on the back.
We then went to a BBQ with some of the dive community from Diver Dan’s. I saw Jim, Tommy, Aaron, and some others that I should remember their names but don’t. Aaron was a great host and we had some really tasty things. There was something called a pink greyhond that was a tasty drink, and a lot of really nice foodstuffs.
It's an Exciting World 