Mm, snowballs ...

One of my favorite pastries is snowballs. I like to buy one whenever I am in a convenient store when I am taking a road trip. It almost feels like a ritual. I like the coconut shavings, marshmallow covering, chocolate cake, and cream filling. It beats any other preservatives filled pastries hands down including Twinkies and others.

Imagine how excited I would be to find snowballs made by a bakery that does not use tons of preservatives. I was shopping at Bashas' when I spotted the above beauties in their bakery. I must make a point to buy these and try. I will let you know.

SF Trip 2008 ...

Day 1, 3/15
My flight up to SF was awesome. I highly recommend traveling in a plane with only capacity. I WAS THE ONLY ONE IN MY AISLE. WHAT!?!

When I arrived at SFO, my good friend, Garrick, was going to pick me up. He was running about 30 min late. I waited outside as I wanted fresh air. BIG MISTAKE. There were smokers and it was bit chilly for Arizonan. It felt nice at the time, but this may be when I started getting sick.

When Garrick picked me up, I called my sister and made an arrangement to have dinner at Pauline's Pizza. Once we got near the restaurant, he circled a block once before a car conveniently pulled out. YES! Although I thought my sister would be there earlier, we got there before she did. We promptly put our name down as there were already people waiting for tables. Soon my sister showed up. We had our salutory hug and said hi. While waiting, my sister had many questions for Garrick regarding prescription drugs and his ability to prescribe to others. Garrick is a psychiatrist. I went to the restroom and saw a toilet located on top of two stairs. It is like a thing you worship. How cool! We did not have to wait long before we were seated.



We were pleased with the salad, pizzas, and ice cream sundae. The salad was full of hard to pronounce greens, but I enjoyed the bloody orange slices the most. We got two pizzas. One was full of organic meat toppings and the other was pesto based. I did not even try the pesto, but the meat pizza was pretty good. Ice cream sundae was okay. I guess all these organic and local stuff is not always the best tasting. Garrick and my sis thought Little Star had better pizzas.

We walked back to my sister's house to drop off the leftovers. We stayed for a little and chatted while watching stuff that was on at the time. All three of us went out for a few drinks. I cannot remember the tavern's name but we had a drink each and chatted more. My sister, who was still ailing from her flu called it a night. Garrick and I went to Marina to have a couple more drinks. We had a conversation about the power struggles within our society. Too deep. I ended up at my sister's around two'ish I think.

Day 2, 3/16


I came down with a full blown case of cold. I took a couple of the wonder drug, Aspirin. My sister and I just hung around the house until close to midday. We wanted to see a movie named, The Bank Job, at SF Center. We took MUNI and I forgot to take a ticket from turnstiles. There were some type of mass transit cops checking for tickets. Crap. My sister explained that I forgot to take the ticket. I was going to plead the tourist insanity, but the cop left us alone. Thank God.

Movie was pretty good. SF Center is pretty nice. We had Thai food at my sister's old neighborhood, known as tenderloin. We came back to her house and watched NCAA selection show. I could not believe Arizona made the cut. In retrospect, it might have served AZ better if they did not make the tourney so they will be hungrier.

My sister and I met up with Garrick and Matt at Nickies. It was a nice and laid back. We were planning on meeting at Toronado, but it was too busy and bustling for my fragile state. It turned out at least for me, much better to hang out at Nickies. We had comfortable seating and food was not too bad. They even had live Irish music although we were not really paying attention.

We called it quits early. We came back around 9.

Day 3, 3/17
I felt about the same. My sister went to work and I mopped around the house. It was depressing watching TV about our current economy. Sister made me dumplings for dinner. I was famished at the time. She is too nice to me. We took a stroll around the Delores park after dinner and bought some juice at Bi-Rite.

Day 4, 3/18
I still felt about the same. Mopped around the house. I caught up on Obama speech on race and economy. Hmm.

My sister wants to go out for dinner before I leave for Phoenix tomorrow. She picked a scenic Beach Chalet. It is a beach front brewpub/restaurant. I did not really care which restaurant.

By the time she came back home from work, it was about 5:30. We walked to pick up her Citycarshare car she reserved. On the way there, I saw a dog in truck and awesome murals.

We picked up her current beau on the way. He was pooped from a hard work out. We had a nice dinner with an awesome sunset.



Day 5, 3/19

I got up early. I guess I've been sleeping too much lately. My sister was annoyed by noises I inadvertently make from being awake. My sister had to go to work early to send in some lawyerly papers, but promised to be back to have breakfast with me. She came back around 8:30. I looked around one last time to make sure I had everything. We walked around and ended up at Pork Store Cafe. The cafe was like half bar/half breakfast restaurant that stayed open late. How peculiar. I had my last greasy meal in SF. I cannot say no to cornbeef hash. I had sourdough toast, of course. Sister walked me to the nearest BART station and gave me last instruction on how to get to SFO. It was nice to gotten away from Phoenix even if I was sick the most of time.

Blaming others for their misery ...

Do you remember Lynndie England, a woman involved in the Abu Ghraib Jail Fiasco? I just read about an article where she blames media for the fallout and how things got worse for the occupying force. Hmm, how do I answer this? If my right hand does not know what my left is doing am I supposed to be okay with whatever the left hand is doing?

I actually feel really terrible for this woman as she and others were made a scapegoat. People in power positions should lead more and take more responsibilities.

Going back home ...

I am stuck here in SFO waiting for my flight back to Phoenix. I did a quick shopping for Grandma who always ask what I got for her whenever I travel. I bought my most expensive ever piece of bread and a fridge mag for her. I cannot believe it costs $9!!!!! I cannot wait to get back to warm Phoenix weather.

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To SF I go ...

I am sitting here at terminal D2 in Sky Harbor. Waiting for my flight on SWA. I am a little weirdes out by flying SWA when they were recently fined for safety. I am looking forward to spending a few days away from Arizona. Later.

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This lady is ticking me off ...

This so called enlightened lady named Geraldine Ferraro says Barack Obama would not be in the position he is if he was not black. When I read this article detailing what she said, I got very upset with her. Who is Geraldine Ferraro? I had to do some searching, but it turns out she was the first and only vice presidential candidate US ever had. Of course, she is a Clinton supporter.

If the race is all that matters as Ferraro suggests, then how is he winning more delegates. After all African Americans do not make up majority of this country when I last checked. If I am not mistaken, Senator Obama is consistently winning the affluent voters, who are highly educated and white. Do these people have guilt so overwhelming that they must vote for Senator Obama?

After all that Ferraro has a gall to say, people are discriminating against her because she is white. Boo hoo hoo. She must really know how minority citizens must feel everyday of their lives.

Pharmaceuticals in drinking water?

This is not new to people who have been working in water treatment business. It turns out too many people are on regular regime of drugs. This means whatever people do not metabolize enters our waste water system. Here is an article detailing this information. I am concerned that over long exposure we may be up against unknown risks. I guess life is always a gamble.

Analog TV, really?

Feds are shutting down analog TV frequency in another year. They plan to use these for emergency communication purpose.

I am not worried as I already upgraded about a year ago, and I do not watch any analog programing. I am worried about my parents. Although they have a HD capable TV, they do not have HD cable service. They also have several analog TVs, which they do not plan to abandon. I was worried until I became aware of the Fed's effort to move people to HD spectrum. It is called TV Converter Box Coupon Program. The coupons are good for $4o dollars each, and a household can ask for up to two coupons. You should jump on it before the agency runs out of money. Now, I just have to buy a couple of converter boxes so my parents' old analog TV can function again.

Do you need a web-based storage?

How about 50 gigabytes of it? I have not heard of such large storage for free. You can get free 50 gig of storage at ADrive. I already got myself an account and it was very easy. I have not put anything on the account, but it looks very easy. Give it a try.

OH - IO let me down ...

I was hoping OH and TX would come through for my candidate of choice, Barack Obama, but they came through for Hillary Clinton. I find this quite dismaying. I do not find Hillary Clinton very inspiring. I am not against a woman becoming our president. I still cannot stomach the idea of Bill Clinton's wife becoming one.

On the other hand, I am inspired every time I listen to Senator Obama speak. I think we are ready for an eloquent person who is not so experienced (owe many political favors) to take over and change the course of our nation.

If not, I am voting for my home state hero, senator McCain, even if I suspect he does not like Asians. I mean who can blame him.

One thing is for sure. This election will bring a non governor to the presidency for a change.

Gone Baby Gone is very good ...

I watched Gone Baby Gone a couple days ago. I was blown away by the fact this excellent movie was directed by a first timer, Ben Affleck. Why? Because I really do not think very much of the movies he starred. Mall Rats and Dare Devil come to mind.

Surprise, Ben is quite good at being a director! My hat's off to Ben. Gone Baby Gone is a non-stop, fast paced movie with at least a couple of twists. Also the ending is not a typical Hollywood one. In fact, some may consider it a sad ending.

This movie is about a kidnapping gone wrong with Boston as a backdrop. Casey Affleck is a good lead. This movie also has Freeman, and Harris. All the inexperienced extras are also great. You should check out this excellent flick!!!

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Can you say infatuated ...

I think Will.i.am from Black Eyed Peas is infatuated with the idea of President Obama. He sure seems to put in much effort without being asked. I enjoy this anyway, because Obama so far is my candidate for the next president.