Whale of Weekends

On this 3-day Memorial Day weekend, the Man and I visited the annual San Ramon Art and Wind Festival.  I'd skipped the last two years but decided to give it another go to see if we could pick up something to dress up the house.  All we got was a bottle of aromatic oils but we had fun watching the kite flying demonstrations and listening to the Top Secret band and watching the energetic old and young danced to their renditions of dance music from the nineties and earlier.  Some couples were pretty good but it was all just spontaneous fun just like the July concerts by the community center.

Last week, 3 of us made our way to Monterey to join Cal High science class for whale watching.  For a few minutes of peeking at some black bump out in the choppy waters and an occasional spray of finely misted water, we endured 3 hours of freezing rocky rides on waves the size never seen in calm placid Singapore waters.  We started out in good spirits, the kids sleeping most of the hour and a half to Monterey.  We had hopes of seeing more whales than we did and hopes of maybe a school of dolphins.  But we only had the lonely hump backed whale.  Still it was an experience.  I saw more whale in British Columbia where the whale actually came real close to our boat.  But this hump backed would have none of that, content to feed on krills away from the boats all eagerly trying to get close.  Fortunately, we didn't get the whoozies, but you can tell from the way some folks were pushing to the back of the boat that they were going to get rid of their breakfast.  And there was that boy with his Chinese girlfriend who valiantly kept his food down head down on her lap after a half hour or so of holding his girlfriend tight on the rail against the sway of the swells.  What irony.

Not much else to write about.  House is getting a once over now that the weather is finally warming up and Spring feels like Spring except of course, people are already talking about summer being upon us.  What happened to Spring?  All the rain and unseassonably cold weather had made Spring seemed like an extension of Winter.  But overnight it seems, temperatures are up into the high 70's and mid-80's.  Go figure.

Seeing

Wah, the Man had his lasik today.  Hopefully, this spells the end of all the squinting to look at things and the struggle with glasses slipping down the face when sweating it out on the tennis courts.  I wished I had mine done earlier - before we blew hundreds of dollars on so three pairs of glasses that now lie dormant in the office and in the car.  20/20 vision is wonderful.

Brynn Birthday

Happy Birthday Brynn!  Spending it in your new place may well be the start of a new era in your life.  Make it the  best it can be.  We hope you will make our hope of a trip up north come true.  Love from mom and dad.  Always. 

Spring Sneeze

A small bird no larger, or should I say longer?, than my index finger has come knocking on the bay window of our house every morning.  And it has a mate too and I think the two of them are nesting in the rose bushes that front the window.  Just the cutest thing in the world.  It is not shy.  We come close and it keeps tap a tap tap on the glass as if to say let me in, let me in.  The half man and I took some pictures and a couple of videos and we may upload them soon.

Meanwhile, the front and back yards are a blooming with flowers of all kinds thanks to the daily labor of love of the Man - white roses, red roses, and flowers of which I know not the names.  Yellow and lilac and pink and orange and and and.  And my nose itches and the sneezing brings uncontrollable dripping that wets tissue after tissue.  Last year, one tablet of Zyrtec was all it took.  I have just about run through a whole box of time and the nose still refuses to cooperate.

Sneezing aside, Spring is so beautiful.  Now if I can just stop blowing and wheezing enough to really enjoy the beauty all around.  After the recent rains, the weather this weekend is just perfect.  Balmy with sunshine from 6:00 am to 8:00 pm.  Paradise.

So we were hoping to drive up to Vancouver in June but plans are on hold for the moment.  I hope there will be a good reason to still make the trip.  Our residency status is all resolved and we can now travel without restraints.  But we need the reason to make the 1,500 miles journey and I am hopeful we will have one.

Lay Keow and Lai were asking us to still make Cancun now that we can travel but alas the airfare is now quadrupled what it was when the planning first began months ago.  Plus with the huge tax bill I just paid off, prudence rules.

I do miss my family very much.  With air fares the way they are, and all my miles having been exhausted by a certain persona in faraway China, we can only dream.  I have been recalling the time when my YY and mom were here.  And my poor YY saying up hard so she could come again but there is no one to bring her here.  Breaks my heart to think of it.  She took care of me as a child.  In fact, a lot of people took care of me as a child because my parents basically fostered me out almost all my childhood.  Maybe that's why I am so schizo sometimes.  It all boils down to childhood and parenting.  Just kidding... Been watching too many episodes of Criminal Minds.

Maybe next week the half man and I can put into action our Sierra State Park volunteer resolution.  Start giving back to society.