i have moved back, everybody! with much trepidation, i have left jg in the foggy city and am now trying to resume the easy life of small town living. i'm picking up where i left off a year ago except, of course, it's just me this time.
i expect to visit sf often. i am already missing japantown and clement street. i would like to have it all, but i will settle for the comfort of santa barbara.
that was my pet back in college, the loveliest goldfish ever. she came as a gift along with an exact twin except in orange. i got clever and called the orange one gray and the gray one orange. gray lived for all but two weeks.
orange lived for 2.5 years. it's a small miracle she endured my negligent college lifestyle for that long. i used to saran wrap her bowl and drive her home with me on breaks. i'd consistently forget to feed her every time final exams rolled around. once my nieces and nephews fed her the entire container of food. she swelled to the size of a cupcake. and lived!
underfed, overfed, she never once complained. best pet ever.
bill is my colleague. he's been around the block a few times so calling him a colleague sounds irreverent. bill and i used to go to lunch pretty regularly. our usual joint is ca'dario. today, as it is my welcome back lunch, i called for a picnic.
bill doing the robot in the whitefoot parking lot
we decided to get our favorite sandwiches at whitefoot. before we headed to shoreline park, i got the bright idea of hitting one of the eighteen new starbucks on state street for a...
green tea frappuccino
and bill
can't decide which image is better
i got all worked up by this post and couldn't wait to get one. the girl who took my order did a double take at the menu board, "oh, there is such a thing!" then she had to study a laminated recipe pinned on the wall for some time before she could make it.
la barista
so, up the bluff we went. despite how it looks in the next picture, the weather was actually very pleasant.
on cabrillo looking east
but not pest free
perfect picnic spot
complete with urban wildlife
it couldn't have been a better day for a fun cold drink. the frap itself, however, could be better. if i was blindfolded, i would never guess that it was green tea flavored.
bill testing to see what won't squirrels eat
(they fought over the half lemon)
nice chevrolet in parking lot
see me on the bumper?
we finished our sandwiches and continued shooting the breeze until it was time to get back to work. we decided to make shoreline picnic our new lunch routine. every thursday i hope!
g, aka mega million,* came to pick me up at work today and we went to state street for lunch. we hit the same starbucks i was at yesterday and the service was even worse today. it ought to be called starsucks. we got junk food and went to hang with sarah flores. we enjoy distracting sf from her job.
look what sf sold me:
1.5" glow in the dark lucky piggy
blue eyed oinker
turns out sf is exactly twelve years younger than me. that makes her a boar on the chinese calendar, just like me. we oink!
check out what i saw on state street on our way back:
i would like a vw whale
g pulled up next to it so i could get a clear shot of the head but i failed miserably. oh well.
jg came to town friday at midnight and left today around four. he spent the weekend cleaning and fixing up around the house. other than eating out morning, noon, and night, we managed to squeeze in a bbq, a movie, and some time on the beach.
also seen on salinas street
i wonder if he's the one missing in utah.
we had great weather all weekend long. i hope you did too.
yesterday i heard the mailman come into the office around 4:30. immediately after that i heard julie shout, "thuy, fun package!" my day was made.
love from paso robles, california
the goods
i love my new stationery. the blue sticky note pad is a fish bowl with a bubbly fish in it. i'm obsessed with the little piggy pencil! press his oinker and he extrudes lead. i tried taking a close up but my camera just can't focus on pink. may be it will work better outside.
also included was a giant tub of homemade chocolate marshmallows. i opened the box around five and made the mistake of chowing down three pieces in a row.
2-1/2" square x 3/4" thick of powdered squishy goodness
they taste like creamy hot cocoa so i couldn't help myself. i could feel them expanding in my tummy as i was eating them. they continued to expand as the evening went on. by the time i got to bed, they were the size of twin mattresses.
i saw those candy bars at a deli in novato. i would like meet the genius who came up with the wrapper because all those question marks are killing me with curiosity! perhaps this next shot could demystify some of it.
yesterday after work i went shopping with g in camarillo. we had a lot of fun covering our favorite outlet stores. we took turns drooling on the goods: shirts, skirts, shoes, handbags, etc. surprisingly, we ended up buying darn near nothing.
look what we saw on our way home.
101 at oxnard
the sunset got even better after that picture was taken. better than all the stinking coach bags they could ever make.
jg cut+welded those steel table legs himself. he says i took that picture in january, 2003. that's when he was on sabbatical and was making nothing but furniture. i believe he spent the entire year, rain or shine, in our driveway.
yesterday i spent all afternoon wandering around inside that building. i sure spend a lot of time on the ucsb campus for someone who is not a student. anyway, true to form, every engineering student i saw was male. surprisingly, most were pretty good looking. i was not quick enough to get their pictures. i did take this artsy fartsy shot though.
