Sick again

Woke up this morning ill again, and spent almost all day asleep. Was finally feeling ok by the evening so we went to the Dynasty restaurant, a Malaysian restaurant for dinner. (good food!) There was a scrapbook shop next door which was still open so we took a look around. It reminded me a lot of our first store in Paul Matthews. They had lots of stickers and diecuts. Nothing that really made me go WOW! but it was good to see a few different bits and pieces.

Home Alone

Erich went to dinner after work tonight with a friend of his, Kris who I met at dancing the other week. I spent a relaxing evening curled up with my book.

Another quiet day

I cooked dinner tonight (it turned out well) and we watched the movie Short Circuit for a bit of 80's nostalgia.

A quiet day

Didn't get up to any mischief at all today, just enjoying the weather and pottering about. Erich cooked me dinner tonight, I'm cooking tomorrow night.

Capitola Beach

Took myself for a walk down to Capitola beach which is very beautiful. Stayed there all afternoon reading my book White Fang by Jack London (which amused a few people who were walking their dogs), taking photos and watching all the people.
Texted Erich to meet me there after work as it was such a lovely evening, and he arrived just at dusk. He actually scared me from behind when he showed up. We went to a coffee house called Mr Toots with a tiny balcony which overlooks the river and had a drink that hot chocolate was definitely the tastiest ever. I sampled Erichs Apple & Clove hot cider which was certainly an unusual taste for me, and not unpleasant! The tide was out, but imagine having a back yard like these riverfront houses:
We then headed to a crepe restaurant (The Crepe Place) for dinner. I found it odd to have my chicken enclosed in a crepe - I thought they were a dessert food! It tasted great and was VERY filling.

I'm really enjoying trying out new foods and seeing the sights rather than going to tourist trap amusement parks - Yes I talk about the food a lot, but there are so many different flavours to try!

The Big Blog Update

Spent most of the day updating the blog while Erich went to San Francisco to see his folks. After he returned we visited his Grandma to drop off some groceries, then got dinner and came home. A rather quiet day all up, but productive.

Capitola Mall Take 2

Erich and I visited Capitola Mall again today looking for a new pillow and generally browsing around. Found a really cool Chess set which I couldn't resist adding to my collection.
Played WoW during the afternoon, and in the evening Erich and I drove to his "sister"'s place Sonja who is not well at the moment, and also met Chris, her husband (Supertaco in WoW) and their preschool son Kai. Erich and I took Chris and Kai out to a nearby Chinese restaurant for dinner and I had my first fortune cookie. They're tastier than I expected. Apparently business and health matters will improve around me.
We dropped Kai back home, and as Chris was going to a party just around the corner from Erich's we dropped him off there.

BTW in case you missed it... I love Erich

The Great Mall & Dancing

Erich dropped me of at The Great Mall on his way to work today as we were going dancing afterwards. Pretty cool mall, except there was a distinct lack of novelty & gift shops and Book shops. Security was amusing zooming along on their Segway's. Luckily I'd brought my new White Fang book just in case I got bored. After a while I found a cluster of bench seats and settled down with my book. It was just outside the Police centre, which seems to be a common thing to have in a mall around here. In their window was a sign advertising fingerprinting for children which I found surprising. Even more surprising was how many parents brought their kids in and had them fingerprinted. I guess thats just the New Zealander in me, because it makes good sense. I was there for long enough to see at least 10 kids get fingerprinted before someones stray fart came along and scared me away.
Wandered again without finding anything I felt like buying before finding another cluster of bench seats near a fountain. Once Erich arrived we grabbed a bite to eat, walked around and got a new duvet for the bed and a shirt for Erich to wear at dancing because he'd forgotten his.
Dancing was great fun, and cool to see Mia, Jonah, Erin and others again. We arrived after the lesson this time, and stayed for the dance party. My ears finally not blocked 100% of the time, so feeling great.

Capitola Mall

On my walk today I wandered around the Capitola mall and picked up a couple of books to read when I have the chance. White Fang by Jack London, and The Odyssy by Homer. Oh and a Readers Digest.
They were setting up lots of tables in the mall for some reason, I think it was for some eco-promotion, and the Bomb Squad outside.. that was interesting.

Up and About

Recovered from the bug that bit me, though still a touch delicate. Went for a walk, cleaned up a bit, did some laundry, catching up on stuff. After Erich got home from work we went out to Hindquarters for dinner.
BTW.. Erich and I are dating ;)

Sleeping

Spent the majority of the day asleep on the sofa, but at least I'm starting to recover, though my poor tummy muscles ache. Erich went back to work today - vacation over :(

Rotavirus or something

Feeling crook enough to go see a doc today. Diagnoses? probably a Rotavirus or something, maybe something bacterial, but eat a binding diet, drink lots of fluids, and if it gets worse, come back later.
I don't think I've EVER felt this rotten. And Erich? in disgustingly good health, and still awesome.

Please excuse me...

Who Threw that Thesaurus at me?!? ailing, bedridden, broken down, confined, debilitated, declining, defective, delicate, diseased, disordered, down, feeble, feverish, frail, funny, green, ill, impaired, imperfect, incurable, indisposed, infected, infirm, invalid, laid up, lousy, mean, nauseated, peaked, poorly, qualmish, queasy, rickety, rocky, rotten, run down, suffering, tottering, under medication, unhealthy, unwell, weak, wobbly....
I. Am. Ill.




Erich is awesome.

San Francisco, Exploratorium and Pier 39

An early start this morning because of plans to head in to San Francisco to meet more guildmates from World of Warcraft, and of course, see the sights. Erich and I were first to arrive at the designated meeting place, the Exploratorium - Museum of Science, Art and Human Perception. Very cool place. Quite like the hands-on science/physics exhibits they do at MOTAT in Auckland, except BIGGER. The Exploratorium is located in the Palace of Fine Arts and the exterior is quite spectacular.


Unfortunately they were doing construction or reconstruction or something.. and we were unable to get closer to the dome.
First to arrive was Glagglag (Sam) and not long afterwards Kuroshiro (Sean) arrived. Others wern't able to make it or were coming later.
L-R Erich and Sam:

L-R Sam, Erich and Sean proving their geekdom by searching the web on their phones

After the Exploratorium we jumped in Seans car and drove to a restaurant for lunch via a few sights and Lombard St, famous for being "the crookedest street in the world", and though it is not actually true, it has eight switchbacks and a speed limit of 5mph.

The restaurant, Gordon Biersch, was virtually underneath the Bay Bridge, so had a great view.

Sean had to leave after the meal, but while we were there we had a call from Mia & Jonah (Mirshana & Tigreth) and we arranged to meet them at Pier 39. Total tourist trap, but busy, bright and overall pretty nifty.

Among the shops on the pier were a music box shop and The Fudge House. They even had an old style two storey Merry-go-round.


The view of Alcatraz was excellent from the end of the pier, and also VERY COLD.

We walked along to the Ghiradelli chocolate factory, but by the time we got there everyone was half frozen, tired and it had just become dark.

We hunted down another restaurant and warmed up and chatted over dinner before eventually getting back to the cars and heading home.
Another great day in California!

Silicone (oops Silicon) Valley, Krispy Kreme and Dancing the Hustle

Slept in this morning before heading out to Erich's workplace in Silicon *edit* Valley to meet two more World of Warcraft guildmates, Kuroshiro (Sean) and Atoi (Matt). We then drove around Silicon *edit* Valley to see the headquarters of heaps of the big .com's Yahoo, Google, Symantec, Apple, Motorola and more. Somehow I managed to miss taking a photo of Apple at 1 Infinity Loop. Pretty funny :-D



On our drive around Krispy Kreme donuts came up in conversation (which I hadn't tried yet) so we stopped at a Krispy Kreme store where they had just started the production line which is behind a glass wall so patrons can watch the process. It was pretty cool and tasty!

Across the road we went to In and Out Burger, which has a total of three burgers on the menu, but is totally flexible. The food is very fresh, much more so than other burger-type restaurants.
We walked around the Oakridge mall which had some AWESOME stores with fantastic chess sets that I like a whole lot. I think we'll have to do some serious chess set shopping.
Dancing next, where I met even more World of Warcraft guild mates Mirshana (Mia), Jonah (Tigreth) and Erin (Irawyn). Dancing consisted of a lesson in Salsa and Rumba before a dance party which Erich had to DJ because the regular DJ was ill.
I didn't like the Rumba, but the Salsa was cool, and during the dance party I was also taught the Hustle by Erich which actually was the one I seem to be best at. Besides the huge dose of nerves before dancing, I had a whole lot of fun.

*Edits: as Sean points out in the comments, I typo'd Silicon. Honestly, I was going to look it up and check stuff, and the spell check didn't notice.. Its all Erich's fault....

Valentines, Natural Bridges, and a lack of Monarch Butterflies.

Feeling quite considerably better and keen to spend Valentines out and about with Erich. Late lunch at a local pizzeria called Tony and Alba's - VERY tasty BBQ Chicken Pizza and garlic bread with a tonne of garlic.
Afterwards we drove to a California national park area called Natural Bridges. A beautiful area at the beach with natural rock formations which created two arches, although one arch collapsed years ago.

The area also hosts a Monarch butterfly population that usually has them gathered in the eucalyptus trees like exotic flowers. Unfortunately there has been storms in the area and they'd moved on already. :(
Spotted a hummingbird though...

Back at home and Erich cooked a delicious meal for us to share by candlelight and to the accompaniment of Jazz music. Very romantic finish to a very romantic day :)

Farmers Market and feeling Yuck.

Slept in late because I wasn't feeling well and had a late brunch at Zachary's (a local breakfast location thats very popular - for good reason!) Afterwards we walked down to the farmers market which is an outdoor food market on every Wednesday and brought ingredients for Valentines day dinner which Erich is going to cook for me. He did not tell me what it was because he wanted it to be a surprise. I'm sure it'll taste good, all the ingredients are yummy!
Was feeling pretty crook by the end of the market so when we got home I took some panadol and went to bed that was about 6pm. Had myself a headache and fever and was freezing with three blankets and the thermostat at 88F (31C). Erich was great and I was totally pampered and looked after. The fever broke after 3 or 4 hours but I'm left with blocked ears, and a cough :(

Monterey Bay Aquarium

Today we went to Monterey Bay Aquarium which was awesome!
Most of my pictures in the main sections came out blurry because I couldn't figure out how to adjust the shutter speed with the flash turned off on my camera (must remember to look that up!) but I did come away with some great pics anyway. The Aquarium had heaps of different sections, including sea otters, kelp forest, giant octopus, sandy shores, rocky shores, outer bay, life on the bay and my favourite, Jellies: Living Art.



The Outer Bay exhibit has pretty impressive stats regarding its window and holding capacity - it holds 1.2 million gallons sea water (4,542,000 litres), the water temp is maintained at 68°F (20°C) and is heated by the body heat of the aquarium visitors in a heat exchange system, and had the largest window in the world (at the time it was made) which is acrylic and weighs 78,000 lbs (35.38 tonnes), 13 in. thick (33cm), 54 ft. long (16.46m), and 15 ft. tall (4.572m).



After the Aquarium we had a meal at a neat restaurant called the Fish Hopper (just a few doors away from Bubba Gumps of Forest Gump fame) and had heated patio dining, which placed us above the waters of the bay. Erich & I really hitting it off well.
Took the scenic route out of Monterey Bay as the fog was coming in, so we stopped and took a couple more pics. Definitely a beautiful place.

Santa Cruz

Erich (Kand) and I went to Santa Cruz (Erich's place is actually in Capitola) and met up with Ted (Erich's old boss and fellow WoW gamer) for lunch at an Italian restaurant called Cafe Mare. Lunch was really tasty, and conversation was great. Ted has been to New Zealand before, so it was cool chatting about places he went and such. Erich and I walked down to the Santa Cruz Pier, Boardwalk and Downtown Santa Cruz. The whole area is beautiful, and its great hearing the sea again! The pier has sealions living beneath it, and novelty tourist shops and restaurants & eateries above.


Off the boardwalk is a huge amusement arcade and rides which look really cool - the whole area looks quite like the movie The Lost Boys, minus the vampires. *Edit* Erich tells me the reason it looks like The Lost Boys is because the whole movie was filmed here. D'oh!


After that we drove around and visited the University of California which is where Erich went. The place is HUGE!
Erich and I getting along really well and have a bunch of things planned for the rest of the week.

Arrived in California!

Flew from Dallas/Fort Worth airport to Denver, Colorado, then from there I flew to San Jose.
After a bit of switching around and getting my ticket reissued in Denver as they'd changed the gate and not announced it, and some minor stress about my baggage following me to the correct gate, I settled in for the 3-4 hour wait for my flight to San Jose. (I'm not sure how long it was because of time zones and, well, I wasn't paying that much attention.)

They warned us flying out of Denver that there was some turbulence going over the Rockies, but there was nothing more than a couple of bumps in the road. Arriving in San Jose was interesting - it was the first time I've debarked a plane down the stairs onto the tarmac. Waiting for the baggage was funny.. about 10 bags came out of the carousel, then it stopped. About 5 minutes later a luggage handler comes up the carousel ramp carrying a suitcase, disappears back down, brings out another bag, says that he'll be bringing all the luggage out one at a time, then disappears for good. We were all standing around the carousel wondering what was going on when someone realized all the luggage had come out on the one two carousels over, along with the stuff from an Alaskan flight. Kand turned up just as I hauled my second bag off the carousel, so that was good timing, and we headed back to his place.

BK for dinner, which rounded out a well-balanced meal day - McD's for Brekkie, McD's for lunch & BK.

Tomorrow: Shopping!

Ripley's Believe It Or Not, Louis Tussaud's Palace of Wax & Hooters

This afternoon we went to Ripley's Believe It Or Not! and Louis Tussaud's Palace of Wax - Neat place!

There were actually 3 main sections of the place. At first we went into the Hall of Mirrors, where we had to wear plastic gloves so we wouldn't leave prints on the mirrors, though I did see a few face-plants where people walked into themselves. It was very well done.
The second section was the Ripley's Museum, which had some VERY odd stuff, including birth defects

Shrunken Heads,

and Rattlesnake Rattle Art.

After that was the Palace of Wax - some were so life-like you had to look very closely to know they weren't real.


They had sections for celebrities, presidents, famous frontiersmen, Jesus' life, death and resurrection,

fairytale figures,

famous evil dudes,

famous good dudes,

and the Wax museum of Fear - Frankenstein, Dracula, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Predator, Alien, Freddy Krueger, Hannibal, Werewolves and more.

The whole place was very well done. I was most impressed.

Hooters was our next stop, where I tried their wings, which are apparently THE thing they're best at. (But we all know it is the tiny tight tees and skimpy short shorts the waitresses wear) The wings were surprisingly good however, and we all enjoyed our meals.

I've had a great time hanging out with Bendu & Thragg etc here in TX. :D

Tomorrow afternoon I'm headed up to San Francisco with a layover in Denver. I'll be meeting up with Kand and will apparently be VERY busy next week.