Candy Dulfer Concert

Well this weekend we went to the Rodney Strong Winery in Healsdburg to see Candy Dulfer in concert. Not sure if you all know who she is, but she is a terrific jazz saxophone player who plays with people like Prince and Van Morrison when she is not touring on her own. She lives in The Netherlands and rarely tours in the States. So suffice it to say that I was very excited she was playing a show out here. We had really great seats and enjoyed a VIP wine and food tasting before the show. There was a group called Brain Culberson and Eric Darius that opened the show and they were both very good. Candy played after them and she was great. After the show we were able to get everyone's autograph. It was a good day!

Silver Oak Winery

The King and I went up to the Sonoma Wine country this weekend to see a concert. We stopped off at the Silver Oak winery where they were having their Summer Release Party. The winery only makes Cabernet and they were releasing the 2002 Cabernet. It was a huge party with a lot of good food and some great wine. We really had a good time.

Happy Birthday's!

Happy birthday to both Mike and Terri! Hope you both have a great day! Not too much going on here except the heat. I know it's not anywhere what you are having in Oklahoma, but it's pretty warm. Especially when you don't have air conditioning. We went to a Giants game last Saturday and saw them win. Sunday I fired up my new grill for the first time. We got some shark steaks at the store and grilled them. They were very good! I was on Jury Duty most of this week, but have done my civic duty for at least another year. Last night we went out to dinner with two of the families that were on the China tour that live near us. It was really good to see them again. It brought back some nice memories the first time the kids went "ewww" This Saturday the King and I will head up into the wine country to see a concert at the Rodney Strong Winery. We are going to see Candy Dulfer who is a jazz saxophonist that I have liked for a long time. Mike may know here as the girl who plays on Princes' albums. Glad to hear everyone is doing well and UK made it back safely from Guam. Till next time, Later!

Where's Your Mom?

Keeping track of Mom to make sure she didn't wonder off and avoid getting those calls from the front desk.

The King Says Hello To A Local

Our Tour Group

Update

Well it's been tough having to work a whole week. Sure do miss the days in China where you didn't even think about work. Not much going on here, kids are just hanging around the house while the King and I work. Bought me a new grill the other night, so I will probably test it out this weekend. For those of you waiting to see the pictures, be patient. I have been working on them this whole week when I could and I have about a third of them cleaned up and labeled. I would like to thank UK for putting up with us and for being a top notch tour guide, it was really great to see him. I find that I really miss having someone salute me when I walk by, oh well I got to enjoy it for a little while. Later!

For Mom this year, her birthday fell while we were in Hong Kong. We went to Macau that morning, taking a 1 hour boat ride over to the island. We then spent the day seeing the sights in Macau and then took the ferry back to Hong Kong. My mission was to get Mom some American food for the evening. We had some wonderful Chinese food the whole trip, but every once in a while you need something different. Truth be told, we were looking for a KFC when we stumbled across the Hong Kong Hard Rock. We went inside and proceeded to have some of the best nacho's we had ever had. Not really, but they were the best at that moment. We then scarfed down some cheeseburgers. They started playing the Beatles "Today is your Birthday" on the sound system, and then they put on the monitors "Happy Rockin Birthday to Layanda!" Mom wondered who Layanda was until she turned around and all of the staff from the Hard Rock was right behind her. They asked her to stand on the chair, which she politely refused, and the whole place sang Happy Birthday to Layanda. It was pretty cool!

Hanging in the Forbidden City

On the Great Wall

Mom eating eels in Nanjing

We Are Out of Here

Well the day has finally arrived and I can't wait for it to be over. I am not looking forward to the 12 hour flight to Beijing. Last night Crysta graduated from Middle School and then a party after with her friends. I have had 4 hours sleep but seem surprisingly awake. Hope I go comatose on the plane. Well we probably won't be able to update until we get to UK. We will let you all know how we are doing as soon as we can. Maybe we will find an Internet Cafe in Beijing. Later!!

Weekend Recap

Well, I hope that everyone had a nice and safe Memorial Day weekend. We spent some time on Saturday morning at carnival Street Fair in the Mission District. From there we went to the East Bay for the King to do a little shopping. Later that evening we went to see the new "X-Men" movie, which was pretty good. Sunday we got up and went to see the Giants play the Colorado Rockies and to see Barry Bonds hit his 715 homerun. It was really cool to be there and see something like that in front of a home crowd. It was wild! Yesterday the King got her haircut and so did Elijah in preparation for our trip to China. It's getting closer and I guess it's about time to start getting ready for it.

Our Champions

This past weekend Crysta and her basketball team played in the Championship for her league. It was a very exciting game, but the girls fell just a little short losing by 2 points at the buzzer. The girls were very disappointed but played their hearts out and that is all that matters. We were very proud of Crysta. After the game the parents decided to take the girls out to Chevy's a local Mexican chain to celebrate. This was the last game the girls would play together after 4 years. They will all move on to different high schools next year. They all quickly got over the disappointment and had a great time. They sat at one table raising hell and the parents sat at the other one drinking margaritas. It was good to see them really enjoying themselves.

Mother's Day

Well I hope all of you lovely ladies had a wonderful Mother's Day. It was a beautiful day here in WC Peavine. I got up, wished the King a Happy Mother's Day and let her watch her Chinese shows in bed. I then went down and washed our 3 cars. It's times like that I don't like having 3 cars. The the King got to do her favorite thing and go shopping at Ross. When she returned from her outing, me and the kids took her to her favorite Vietnamese place in Oakland, Le Cheval. We had a very nice dinner and the company was very good.

Art Show

Last week the King and I went to the sophomore Art Show at Ethan's school. Each year they have a show and the students submit pieces for the show. Of those pieces the teachers pick the ones to showcase. This year Ethan had a drawing and about 3 digital photo's that were displayed. His sculpture met with an untimely demise. It was held at the gallery at his school. Food and drink was provided for the guests, but the kids ate it all before the guests could get to it. This is the drawing that he had submitted, which I thought was pretty good. The parents were all encouraged to buy the pieces, but Ethan chose not to sell his. I don't think he is ready to go pro.

Weekend Update

The King and I enjoyed the day on Thursday at the Giants afternoon game against the Chicago Cubs. It was a perfect day and the Giants beat the Cubs pretty easily on the day. It was really exciting every time that Barry Bonds came up to bat. 42,000 people would all stand and hope to see him send one out of the Park, but to no avail. We then spent Saturday up in Chico which is a big college town about 3 hours north of SF. We took the King's mother to visit a friend she has known since her childhood in China. After that we went and had lunch at the Sierra Nevada Brewery which you know I really enjoyed. The food was really good and the beer was great as well. That evening we went for Malaysian food in Chinatown which turned out to be very good. My favorite dish was one called Lady Fingers sauted in garlic. For those who do not know what Lady fingers are, me included, it was okra.

Looking down Columbus Street

It must be noon somewhere?

Sunny Sunday

Well yesterday was just a perfect day to be outside. We had gone out to dinner on Saturday with some of the King's friends for the Hong Kong Alumni Association. There was good food and dance lesson's that the King took part in. We awoke to perfect weather yesterday so we took off to enjoy the day. We first went to the Ferry Building which sits at the end of Market Street. They had remodeled it and I wanted to see it. It was full of gourmet and organic shops of food and everything you can imagine. We had fresh baked bread and homemade marshmallows that were so good. We then went to North Beach & Chinatown where we had some good Thai food and then went over to the Pacific Brewing Company so I could have a beer and sit out on the sidewalk and enjoy the weather. Then it was off to Ross so the girls could get in a little shopping. After that we went home and grilled some of the specialty sausages we had bought that morning, including lamb and duck sausage. The duck was better than the lamb for those who are keeping score.