!Feliz Cesar Chavez Day!

Here in California,  today is Cesar Chavez Day and we just want to remind you all about this important Mexican-American. He and Dolores Huerta helped form the United Farm Worker to help farm workers get better working conditions and wages. He used non-violent tactics that he learned from Gandhi and St. Francis to protest the social injustices he saw. When he died in 1993, he was working on limiting the use of pesticides on grapes.  I remember growing up then and we boycotted grapes.  Today there was a march in San Diego to get better pay for farm workers and about 500 people showed up! 

40, Finally!!

My birthday was Sunday. I am forty, finally. I had a blast with my forty days of fun. I didn't know what an undertaking this would turn out to be. The last week was hard. I caught a cold. I think all those nights of going out caught up with me.  Some of the things I've learned over the course of this project are:

1. Arrive early.

2. Get tickets in advance.

3. Everything is better when you are with family and friends.

4. Snow days are a good thing.

5.  Allow days for resting.

6. Maybe 25 for 25 would have been a better idea.

Now onto the next adventure!

40 for 40 - Week 6, 3/11 - 3/15

Tuesday, Mar. 11 -- Dinner at Mamacita's

Wednesday, Mar. 12 -- Snow Day

Thursday, Mar. 13 -- The Bravery Concert with Slugo

Friday Mar. 14 -- Get Ready for the Par-ty

Saturday Mar. 15 -- Birthday Party

Sunday Mar. 16 -- 40, Finally!!

Day # 33: Surprise Day at Angel Island

So I thought it was just gonna be my girls -- Nora, Gren and Olive, at a picnic on Angel Island but I was quite surprised. Turned out M&R along with Pat, G, Slugo, Duke and Raf also showed up. At 1 pm, R&A came with their minis A and A. Oh, and the sun came out as well so that was quite nice. We had a great feast and I even got on a tandem bike (surprise) but only rode on the flat surfaces.

Gren, R, G, A and Olive went for a 5 mile bike ride. It took a while for Olive to make it back but she finally did. I was quite relieved because although you can camp on Angel Island we really did not have enough supplies to keep us warm. We were also gonna play A**Hole but you really can not play that game with kids around. I will have to get R to teach us how. 

We headed back to Tiburon at 3:30 and had drinks at Guyamas. Slugo had to pay because he was being all crazy and obnoxious which is rare but does happen on occasion. I blame the sun! Luckily, G was good and hydrated so she could drive us home.

A huge shout out to Nora, Gren and Ms O for all their work planning this surprise! I loved it.

Day #32: Haunted Haight Walking Tour

At 7 pm on Friday night we met M&R, P, and C in front of Coffee for the People to take the Haunted Haight Walking Tour . Tommy, the founder of the SF Paranormal Society, was our tour guide extrodinare. M arranged with him to bring along the VP of the Paranormal Society who turned out to be Annalisa, a psychic and a former grammer/high school friend of ours.

I won't give too much away but he is quite entertainning and we did find out a lot about our neighborhood. Now I want to go on the celebrity Rock tour. I've got the map but it would be great to have some one to tell me the cool stories like Tommy, aka the Ghost Guy, did. Oh, and if your place is haunted the SF Paranormal Society will come over, free of charge, to check it out for you. 

Day #31: Wishful Drinking

Gren, Olive and I had a fabulous dinner at Nora's ( salad, Mediterranean chicken, and cupcakes for dessert) then we drove over to her old stomping grounds of Berkeley. At the Berkeley Rep., which is also turning 40 this year, we saw Carrie Fisher in her one-woman play named Wishful Drinking (to tell you the truth I don't know why it is named that).


She was awesome! We loved it. She did a complete run down of her life told us why she did not have to wear a bra in Star Wars - you don't need them in space, according to George Lucas. Even brought out the old wig. She gave us run down on her whole family history and why she is who she is. She talked about her ex-hubbies Paul Simon and Bryan Lourd whom she turned gay because she was taking codeine. Next time she will read the label better. She analyzed a bunch of Paul's songs that he wrote about her and their relationship. We all left thinking about what a great addition she would be to our group of friends.


Her show runs till April 12th and is well worth seeing.

Day #30: Run, Fat Boy, Run

Ms Olive and I went down to the Embarcadero Cinema to see a free screening of Run, Fat Boy, Run  directed by David Schwimmer and starring Simon Pegg. All courtesy of the  San Francisco International Film Festival . It is a really good, funny movie. Much of the action of the movie revolves around a London marathon and Ms O actually ran the Flora London marathon in April 2001 and I went to cheer her on. It was cool to be reminded of that time in our lives. 

David Schwimmer came by after the movie for Q&A and he was quite funny and endearing. I did not really like his character on Friends but here in person he seemed so likable. I guess he seemed less neurotic and know it all-y. This is the first feature he has directed. He was wearing a black leather jacket and so was I. When he came down the aisle are jackets touched so I can say that I've touched a celebrity on my forty days.

Day #20: A Little Spontaneity

40-4-40 has sure been fun.  One thing that has been hard for me is to have to follow a schedule. I like to be spontaneous and having a planned activity every day has taken a little of the fun out of it. On February 20th, Mother Nature intervened. I had planned to go on a Mural tour of the Mission but it was raining off and on, plus it was windy. It didn't seem to be a good day to be outdoors. So instead I went to dim sum at Ton Kiang with Gren and Nora. I love dim sum but I hardly ever eat it so this was definitely a treat. 

Then if that wasn't enough fun, Gren and I went to the Conservatory of Flowers . It had been ages since I'd been here. We saw a cool exhibit of Chinese penjing, these miniature plant landscapes. See the photo in the previous post.  All in all it was a very good day.

New and Inproved: Now with Pictures!

This is an IQ test to see if I can upload photos. It appears Blogger is idiot proof. I feel like such a rock star! Wait till Ms O sees this. More about the picture later.

40 for 40 - Week 5, 3/4 - 3/10

Tuesday Mar. 4 -- Dinner with Mom and Dad

Wednesday Mar. 5 -- Movie Night -- "Run, Fat Boy, Run"

Thursday Mar. 6 -- Wishful Drinking at Berkelep Rep (dinner at Nora's)

Friday Mar. 7 -- Haunted Haight Walking Tour.

Saturday Mar. 8 -- Sh, It's Surprise Day

Sunday Mar. 9 -- No Baggage Bon Fire at Ocean Beach

Monday Mar. 10 -- Day of Rest

It Has Finally Happened!

I admit I was overly ambitious in planning 40-4-40. Well, it's finally happened. Today I didn't do anything fun. A grant was added to the schedule at the very last minute. So today all I did was work and work and work! Luckily, I talked to Gren and she had a great solution to my problem --

(drum roll, please) a snow day. That's right today is going to be my snow day. I'll just add it to the end of my forty days of fun. Gren grew up back east so she is all familiar with the snow day concept.