Three Hundred Thirty-Sixth Entry

It has been a fun month since my last blog. I've gotten into the habit of writing down things I want to blog so I don't forget. This is going to be a long one...that's what she said.....hehehehe.

The six of us (Louis, Jen, Jen, Carolyn, Amy and I) pulled off the impossible and surprised Lisa in Michigan! Much fun and food was had by all! We flew into Milwaukee and drove the seven hours to Traverse City. We rented a very "g" GMC Suburban. It was a long drive (both ways!) but it was totally worth it. On the way to Traverse City we made several stops. We stopped in Chicago for a delicious Panera Bread breakfast and at Trader Joes for some goodies that Lisa would like since TJ's is hella far from Traverse City. We also got some food that we could use throughout our stay at Lisa and Greg's. After Chicago, we stopped at Michael Jacksons childhood home in the very economically depressed Gary, Indiana. You would have thought the city or state would have made a museum out of his house, but they haven't. It is a very small house, and even smaller when you think about how at one time there were eleven people living there. There were entrepreneurs there hocking their pirated MJ CD's and t-shirts. There were maybe thirty people there, including us. After Gary, we stopped in Grand Rapids, Michigan for some Wendy's nourishment. After Grand Rapids, we drove straight to Traverse City.

We drove up to Lisa and Greg's, and by then we were all just both ready to get out of the car and be where we were going, and super excited to surprise Lisa. We snuck up on her in the kitchen and she gave us a stunned/unbelieving look. The wheels worked in her head for a few seconds as she took it all in and then the waterworks started all around. It was very emotional, in a good way! Hugs all around. The secret was kept and the surprise was executed perfectly!

After the initial shock and surprise, Lisa's maternal instincts took over and she asked us if we'd eaten and we all went to Mexican at Agave. It was super-delish! We were warned that the other Mexican place "La Senorita" was gross and to avoid it at all costs...more on La Senorita later.

The following day was Friday, so work for Lisa and Greg. The six of us visited Lisa at her job at the Munson Medical Center. We got a very thorough tour of the building Lisa works in, and even got yelled at by some lady trying to escape. Well, maybe she wasn't trying to escape, but she probably thought of it at some point. After our tour we trekked over to downtown Traverse City and oohed and aahed all the Cherry stuff and the fudge. Delicious! There were a lot of out of state vehicles downtown. Traverse City must be the midwests summer playground.

On the way back to Lisa's, we stopped at Meijer (pronounced Majors) and picked up groceries for dinner. Carolyn got yelled at for attempting to take a picture of the inside of the humongous store. I guess Meijer is worried about industrial espionage and stuff. The store really was huge. It was bigger than a WalMart and had twice as many things. It had a Starbucks too! We got home and Louis and Amy made the best chicken curry ever!!!

Saturday, Greg and Lisa wanted to show us the treasures of northwestern Michigan, and I must say it is very beautiful. Everything is so green and wooded. Lake Michigan is ginormous! We stopped at this place where there is a 400 foot drop down a sandy slope to Lake Michigan. People were actually climbing down and up this massive dune. We stopped in a little town, I think it was Glen Arbor, for burgers. On the way home, we stopped at a lakeside marina and walked around a little. We came home and had homemade pizza for dinner. After dinner, we had a SL friends baby shower for Lisa, and, well, it was very emotional. Later that night, we inaugurated Lisa and Greg's new fire pit in their backyard. Smores all around!!!

Sunday was Lisa's official baby shower...women only! Greg, Louis and I hung out, took Ernie to a lake and watched him jump off a dock. That dog is full of energy! We had a great lunch at Dish Cafe, I think. It was the first time I'd had a wrap and it was really good. We got ice cream and saw what must have been a gazillion motorcycles clogging the street in front of the ice cream place. It was really cool! Greg told us that it was Father Jack blessing the bikes rally or something like that. It was really really cool. We left the ice cream place and went over to Greg's moms very nice house and munched on left over baby shower food and helped load up all the loot Lisa got at the shower. After unloading all the gifts at the homestead, we headed over to the Bay and waded in the water. Then we went over to Bubba's for some really excellent grub.

Monday was our flight back to the bay. In the morning, we bid teary farewells to Lisa and Greg. We all had tonsa fun hanging out with them. On the way to Milwaukee, we stopped a few times. The first stop was in Holland, Michigan. Louis wanted to find some authentic dutch bakeries. We didn't find any with what he was looking for. Louis was disappointed, but I thoroughly enjoyed the pastries Amy and I got. The candle dipping demo in the Dutch Village was really cool too...more on the Dutch Village later. The next stop was in Chicago for some authentic Chicago deep dish pizza. I really liked it, but I think our Zach's pizza here in the Bay Area is a very good substitute. We made it to Milwaukee a little late, but not late enough to incur late fees on the rental (which was all that mattered, thank you Jen) and waited for our plane. We made it home safe and sound. We will always have our memories and photos to remind us of that wonderful weekend. Thank you so much Lisa and Greg for hosting us!!!

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A few weekends ago was the Garlic Festival in Gilroy. It was my first time there, and I must say I was a little disappointed. I was expecting garlic flavored samples galore, and they were very few and far between! Traffic was bad getting there, but much better leaving. We met up with Debbie at the fest. There was lots of food and water to be had. It was a good time hanging out with Amy, Claire and Debbie.

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A couple weekends ago, Amy and I went for a drive around the peninsula and south bay. We went over for lunch in Half Moon Bay at the Half Moon Bay Brewery. It was very good! I, of course, had Avo's Portuguese Fisherman's Stew:

A seasonal mix of fresh fish, shellfish, and linguica in a garlic broth with cilantro.
-Brewmaster's Beer Suggestion: Princeton-by-the-Sea IPA
The recipe for this signature dish came from the grandfather (Avô is Portuguese for grandfather) of one of the Half Moon Bay Brewing Company's owners. Avô, who traveled the world as a merchant marine, regularly fished and visited Half Moon Bay during Prohibition. This recipe was created utilizing his worldly culinary expertise as well as the fish he caught in Half Moon Bay.

Sounds good huh...

Amy drove further down Highway 1 all the way to Santa Cruz. We drove around downtown, parked somewhere and perused the shops at the Boardwalk. I decided that Santa Cruz is a beautiful city and I wouldn't mind living/working there. Then we had the idea to visit the Tias since they live fairly close. We drove through Watsonville. Big mistake. Traffic was all snarled up because of the Strawberry Festival. I didn't even know that Watsonville had a Strawberry Festival! Finally through the Strawberry Fest traffic, we head up the mountain on 152 and it was beautiful. The fog was hugging the top of the mountain, the trees were everywhere, it was really nice. Then we get to the Gilroy side of the pass and it's sunny, hot and ugly. The one good thing about driving through Gilroy that day was the strong, delicious smell of garlic....mmmmmmm.

We hung out at the Tias for a few hours. They've done a lot to the house! It is very different in a good way!

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Saturday night was Korean and Karaoke night with the Tias in San Jose. We ended up going to a Korean BBQ place in Santa Clara called Beque. It was hella good. The side dishes were delicious and a plenty. Our table had a grill in the middle of it and the server was cooking our meat on it. It was completely smokeless. Amy and I were in awe of it. Very advanced technology imported from Korea, I'm sure. It was a totally quiet under the table ventilation system. Way cool. The food there was superb. I couldn't believe how good the food we all ate was. I had a bibimbob bowl thingy and some of the meat everyone else was cooking. The owner of the restaurant came to our table and was helping cook the food. He was very informative and ended up giving us a very delicious, very free rice flour, brown sugar and walnut dessert. Mmmmmm!!!!!

Karaoke was at "Renaissance" also in Santa Clara. In fact, it was just down the street. It was recently remodeled and looked really, really nice. I had been there before a couple of times when it was Echo KTV. It was a shithole back then. Now they serve food and drinks to the rooms. Each room has a renaissance artists theme. We were in the Da Vinci room, but I didn't notice anything particularly Da Vinci about it. It was a lot of fun, especially since it was Igo's first time. He had a lot of fun and was singing his lungs out. Boy can carry a tune!

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Over the past few weeks, I have spent a lot of time playing video games. I had a week long addiction to SimCity. I now have road connections from one end of my region to the other, thank you. And I increased my regional population to over one million, thanks again. My current addiction is Restaurant City in Facebook. Firmino introduced me to this game. It is really a lot of fun. You can basically let it run in the background while you look for jobs, check your email, update your blog, etc. You just have to remember to keep checking it periodically to keep your staff fed so they don't pass out and upset the customers. I'm up to level 8 out of 27, i think. My restaurant is decorated like a 50's diner and I currently have Firmino cleaning the toilets. Amy, Chalin and I are chefs, and Kelly is the server. Firmino got demoted after Chalin got stuck in the "kitchen" area while cleaning. She obviously wanted the chef job more than Firmino.

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I earlier wrote ad nauseum about our trip to Traverse City. Well, last week, there were a few mentions of things we encountered on our trip, on the national talk shows. Specifically, Regis and Kelly. All last week, they had local television personalities replace Regis on "Live with Regis and Kelly Lee" (thats how Dave Letterman would say it. The guy that hosted on Friday was a former Survivor contestant that now is a reporter in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Well, he brought a little gift for Kelly. A pair of wooden shoes from Holland, Michigan. Scroll to about 8:00 and watch for a couple of minutes. I was sitting by myself in my room, pointing at the screen yelling "I was there! I was there!!!" Then, at the end of the show, they showed the finalists for "Live's Ultimate Hometown Grill Off" "South of the Border" contest. The winner, selected by the public, gets to come to the show and demonstrate a dish. Well, La Senorita was one of the finalists! They showed the video, and again I was sitting by myself in my room, pointing at the screen yelling "Greg and Lisa told us not to go there!!! Greg and Lisa told us not to go there!!!" I was looking for their contest video, but it wasn't there anymore. I did see that they actually won the contest and are going to be on the show Friday showing off their "famous fajitas". Ick...

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Can I just say that I like Careerbuilder way better than Monster for job searching? Well, it's true. The careerbuilder layout makes much more sense to me.

Oh, another thing...remember how I was saying I was going to write some letters and send them out? Well, I sent a letter to Starbucks and another to Grace Baking. I got a response from Starbucks. I'll post it in the next blog. I'm typed out...