This was a nice little restaurant, and much better place to get lunch than the minimart across the street from it. I got a really tasty breakfast bagel. The bagel was a sun-dried tomato based bagel and soooo tasty. Steph and I shared an iced coffee to keep us going.
After sailing we decided to go ahead and get an early dinner in Santa Cruz. Steph looked on Yelp to find Lillian’s and it was fantastic. They had a wine special for a gewurztraminer that was crisp, but not sweet. They also had some stuffed pesto gnocchi, which was really good. I’d still say that Cafe Moulin is better, but not by that much.
Yesterday, Stephanie and I hosted a chocolate tasting at my place. She set up the chocolates and I set up the wines. I served a white (the heinz eiffel riesling), a rose, and a red. Jonathan brought some Sherry, which was very tasty. The night was very nice and we had a pretty decent crowd show up.
There were 12 different chocolates, 1o of which we got from the Chocolate Garage. The others were the best we could get at Safeway. They tasted like wax when comparing them to the Chocolate Garage chocolates, even though they were the best from Safeway. I feel very spoiled now that I have had really nice chocolate.
I took all the leftover pieces in a plastic bag with me to work, and enjoyed them on the train ride to and from SF.
I went to the farmers market and got tons of vegetables. I had my customary samosa and got the usual bolani, tofu and misozuke. I dropped some stuff off at my place and then went back to beachhead to start the juicing. I made vegitable and fruit juices separately. The fruits were strawberries, carrots, apples, and tomatoes. The vegitables were broccoli, asparagus, avocado, and cucumber. I enjoyed both. I also was very glad that I wss a nontaster. Steph found the veggie juice bitter, probably from the broccoli. I hope to keep doing this and need to get a good container for the juice so I can keep it in the fridge at work.
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.
Bo and I talked a lot last night at the Holy Grill, a little burger place just next to Zynga. I got the diablo burger, which was nice, but a little too fatty. Bo and I had two beers each and had a pleasant conversation. It was an interesting conversation where we talked a lot about where we wanted to go with the next stage of our lives. He is in a pretty tough spot and need to find something relatively stable. The biggest problem is that he still sees finding a job as giving up on his dreams. He doesn’t allow for the possibility of going after his dreams while working. I think once he does have a real job, since he hasn’t held one for any significant time before, that he will see that you can work towards your dreams and work a normal job. I hope he finds something that allows him to do that, but he may just have to settle for something stable to start out and then work towards the job that supports his dreams.
This evening I biked to the Chocolate Garage and had some tasty chocolate. The one I liked the most was a milk chocolate with nibs that I had already bought called The Boss. I didn’t get any, and after tasting some Riley and I went to Philz Coffee and I got a Chai Tea. The Chai there was fantastic.
After coming back Stephanie had already been joined at the Chocolate Garage by Candice and Brian. All of us then went to a pretty tasty place called Curry Up Now. I liked it, but not sure I’d want to go back. I’d prefer Umami over Curry Up Now.
Tina hosted a drinks night at Beachhead last night. It was a rather enjoyable affair, with Wit, Riley, Adam, Tina, Stephanie, and Myself in attendance. There were some really interesting conversations around fonts, Adams prospects in jobs, and core functionality of basic console commands. They pranked Riley by changing his console commands so that ls printed to the screen “I love Orwin” and which would not find the ls file that had caused it. I found it hilarious, but Stephanie wasn’t too interested since she hasn’t ever dealt in console. I broke out a bottle of the really good Riesling Heinz Eiffel, and also tried some of Adam’s Manhattan from Utah. The manhattan was decent, but I still much prefer the Riesling. We ate a bunch of Bolani, and Stephanie put bean curd sauce in with her egg salad tofu to make a splendid mix of flavor and texture. Tonight we can try the bean curd sauce with the spicy tofu, which I think will be even better.
Today has been a very typical Sunday. It started out with some sleeping in, which means I sleep two hours later than normal and wake up on my own. Then I listen to books while messing around on the computer. The specifics for today were playing Starcraft 2 and listening to The Song of Ice and Fire, book 5. After that we went to the Farmer’s Market on California Ave. Today all the places were out, and we got a lot of really tasty stuff. I got some more of the spicy yuba strips. We got lots more of the Pumpking Bolani, and some of the taffy covered almonds. Stephanie got some more of the really tasty fresh strawberries. I of course got the customary Samosa. The Bolani guy might be starting to recognize us as one of his regulars, which is always nice. For some reason my phone has been starting itself up and playing the books on tape really loud. I think the pause button being on the home screen is the culprit. I should really get the screen replaced. The horseback riding was really nice, and I’m getting decent at the two point while trotting. I think one more lesson like this one and I’ll be able to get up to the cantor. I’m making slow progress, but it is steady.
It's an Exciting World 