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Dining near Shadelands? Here’s how….
My last 3 jobs have all been in the Shadelands office park, in Walnut Creek. I’ve eaten a lot of lunches around here, so I thought I would write a guide to help you out, if you’re in the neighborhood looking for lunch (or dinner). Pizza Places: Mary’s Pizza Shack – Mary’s is a chain, but a small one. There are 15 locations, all in Northern California, most in Sonoma County. The service is usually pretty good, the bread they bring out is warm and crusty, and they serve a pretty good salad (good dressings, too). My choices for best lunches: Soup and Salad lunch special – Especially if the…
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Not sure why this bugs me, but it does….
OK, I am sure. Jane Austin was NOT a romantic (though you wouldn’t know it to watch the film adaptations of her books, especially the most recent adaptation of “Pride and Prejudice”). Yes, her stories are love stories, but she was writing against the romantic books of the time. She is famous for her treatment of the “human condition”, and her heroines were often put in the position of balancing practical matters like financial necessity (marrying well) and other, more internal concerns, like morality, friendship, and dare I say it, love. Sounds like a romance, I know, but really, it’s different. I know, most people don’t care about this…about whether…
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Waxing Philisophical….
So I’m reading this book, “The Mermaid Chair”, and the protaginist has fallen in love at first sight…with a monk. And she’s already married…been married for 20 years or so, I’m guessing, and never thought about ‘cheating’ before. So while this certainly isn’t the first book I’ve ever read about, or partially about, infidelity, it has me thinking…about art. About how good art can take a person down the road not taken. Good books, good paintings, or sculpture, or music…good poetry, or films, or even TV…(tangent…sometimes I think novels and TV can be the best at showing you other lives…because they have time that poems, films, and paintings don’t have.…
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Happy MLK Day
So today is the day we celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr….an amazing man in so many ways. Of course, some companies don’t give MLK day as a paid holiday…companies which shall remain nameless. My interesting MLK factoid is that my father was in DC visiting some friends when King gave his famous, “I have a dream” speech, and my dad was so moved that he went and became involved in the Civil Rights Movement. I believe he was down south registering voters, mostly. Also found out recently that he was convicted of a felony once, for draft evasion in Viet Nam. I knew he had resisted the…
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No Pressure…
But if you’re interested, a certain Girl Scout is taking cookie orders. They used the money they raised last year to go to the Antioch Water Park, which was a lot of fun. But it’s not like it’s going for a ‘good cause’, a charity, or anything like that…so don’t feel pressured. But if you think you might buy them anyway, let me know what you want, and I’ll take your order for you. They are $3.50 a box. Available varieties are: All Abouts Cafe Cookie (new) Trefoils Do-Si-Dos (Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies) Samoas Thin Mints Tagalongs (Chocolate Covered with Peanut Butter) Lemon Coolers (low fat).
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Teaching Intelligent Design
Hot off the presses, the L.A. Times is reporting that a small school in Lebec, CA has begun teaching Intelligent Design in the guise of a Philosophy class. They’re getting sued by a small group of parents, represented by the Americans United for Separation of Church and State. This is kind of a murky issue…my first reaction is that Intelligent Design belongs in Church, not in school. Then I read that it’s not a Biology class, or any kind of Science class…it’s a Philosophy class. That makes it murky. If you can’t talk about this kind of thing in PHILOSOPHY CLASS, where CAN you discuss it? But wait, there’s more.…
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Milano’s Pizza in Livermore
If you’re like us, you don’t really go for Dominos, Straw Hat, that kind of pizza. If you’re like us, you would prefer to find a locally owned and operated kind of place, with really yummy crust, great toppings, and a family friendly (but not insane) atmosphere. If you’re in Pleasant Hill, that place is Melo’s. If you’re near Shadelands in Walnut Creek, that place is Rocco’s. But, if you happen to find yourself in Livermore, that place is Milano’s (No website, but here’s a map). Did this place used to be called Stromboli’s? The address and phone number are the same… Anywho, it’s a neighborhood joint in a strip…
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100 Things About Me
Have you seen these on other websites? I’ve been enjoying reading other people’s “100 Things About Me”, so I thought I would join in the fun. 1. My favorite flowers are white tulips. 2. I recently turned 40. It’s ok, really. 3. My eyes are brown, except when they’re green. 4. I could eat pasta every day. Or at least, almost every day. 5. I love wine. And cheese nips. Together, as a snack. 6. Chocolate is fine, but I can live without it. 7. I don’t like being hot, so don’t ask me to go hiking in summer. 8. I like to swim. 9. I’ve known my husband for…
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Thinking about reading…
As you know, I turned 40 a week or so ago, and I received quite a few gift certificates to Barnes and Noble. Yay! Books! So now, I’m thinking about what books I might like to buy with said gift certificates. Any suggestions? I do prefer paperbacks, because hardbacks take too much space on the bookshelf. One place I like to look for ideas is the employee suggestion page for Powell’s Books. They have some good ones. Some of these are still hardbacks, unfortunately. Here are a few I’m thinking about getting: Love Walked In Award-winning poet Marisa de los Santos’s first novel is the story of a 31-year-old café…
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R.I.P. :(
Our goldfish died last night. Poor Dorothy, poor Elvis. Here’s the story…I HATE cleaning out that fish tank. Hate it. And I’m the only one who ever does it (Maya can’t reach properly), so it gets pretty gross between cleanings, what with the green walls and everything. Well, a month or so ago, we went to a comic book shop in Lafayette, and the guy who owned the shop had a plecostomus in the tank with his goldfish. I didn’t think you could put them together, because I thought plecostomi needed warm water, and goldfish needed cold water. Well, the guy said they’re fine. So I went to the Concord…
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Off to a Wedding
We were all supposed to go to a wedding in San Bruno on Saturday, but my cold got the best of me, and I stayed home with some hot tea and Sex and the City. Ted and Maya went, though…don’t they look great?
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Another stupid list thingie? Am I insane?
OK, don’t know why I decided to do this one…it’s just a bit different than the others one usually sees on blogs/gets via email. I got this one from MIM Feel free to play (or not): Five pieces of wisdom 1) Don’t be so damn mean to yourself all of the time. 2) Don’t be so damn mean to others all of the time. 3) Ask yourself if you really NEED to buy/eat/drink that thing…if the answer is an honest yes, then do it and enjoy it. If the answer is no, then put it back. This comes mostly from realizing that I live in a very small condo and…
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Sick and Tired…
Of reading about crap like this. Remember how we went to Afghanistan and threw out the Taliban? How women were freed of their burquas and girls were again allowed to go to school, how we then mostly left to go to Iraq and free the people there, which is going SO WELL. Well, I don’t think we had a right to bomb Afghanistan, (most people disagree with me on that one, I know), but I was THRILLED to see the Taliban leave (except that the reason they came into power in the first place was because the war lords who were in power before were so incredibly horrible, and seems…
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Still sick…
So I’ve been getting questions…still sick? type questions. So here’s the update. Yup. Still sick. Here’s the details for those of you sick enough to want to know (most of us are sick enough, I’m sorry to say)…Tuesday night I had the WORST sore throat and ear, so yesterday I went to the doctor to make sure it hadn’t turned into Strep or an Ear Infection. Nope. Viral. But I did make myself cough for the doctor, and she said it sounded “chunky”, and I should take some musenex…isn’t that what Cherry took when she was sick? It has helped a lot. Not coughing up anything, but my coughs are…
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Home Sick
So on Monday Morning, Ted told me I had been moaning during the night. Not the good kind, because I was SO sore. Turns out I was coming down with flu or something. So now I have a fever (not high, about 100 or 101, but I’m usually about 97), sore throat and ear, cough, achey achey achey. And now I have to get a kleenex, because I have snot running down my face. Blech. Sick sucks.