Happy Birthday Lizzie!

The elusive moon

Tonight the moon is closer to the earth than it has been in the last 68 years, it won't be as close again until 2034. This is a SUPER MOON.

I have been excited to see it. I wish I was in the desert or someplace where it was dark and clear. I thought of going to the beach and see the sunset and then the moon rise.

I remember one evening  we were driving from Twin Falls to Burley, and all of a sudden I look just ahead of me and a HUGE orange yellow ball was straddling the freeway. My heart stopped for a minute, it was such an awesome sight.  I saw my best moons when I lived in Idaho, probably because of the altitude and the clear skies.

Today I started wondering where would be the best place to see the moon in all its glory. Marv suggested Hillsborough drive, but there's no parking places there,  also at the end of Alicante there's a park and maybe that would be a good place, overlooking the West Coyote Hills, but there were having  sports nights at the park and the field lights were very bright so it was no good. I kept driving around (Lulu was with me) and ended up  by LMHS. We got out and walked around little. It was dark but no moon anywhere. We drove around some more, and still no Moon. Finally I gave up and went to Pizza Hut and ordered a pizza to go for dinner as per Marv's request.

As I was driving up my driveway, I look ahead, and there it was, the elusive super moon shining brightly!  

Not exactly how I wanted to see it, but it was very nice anyway.

That's probably how I'd like to have seen the super moon, lucky Australians!

Patio clean up

I had not heard from my friend N for a while, so I called him to meet me Saturday for lunch at Long Beach. Instead, we decided he would come to my home and take care of the Jacuzzi.

He came around 1PM and we had lunch at home (leftover roast for him, a roast beef taco for me) then he just went outside and started to go crazy with the hose, washing the patio area inside and out much to the displeasure of Lulu, she kept her distance from the water.

While he was doing that, I started taking care of my plants, transplanting some  etc. Then it was time to go pick up Marv.

When we got back, I saw he had started emptying the Jacuzzi. That took quite a while, then scrubbing the inside and filling it again. It is now ready to use in time for the guests ;)

I asked N to stay for dinner, and after much discussion, Marv suggested pizza, so out we went to pizza Hut to get a meat lovers pizza and brought it home.  While we ate, they watched  a Western and I went to my room. Later they both were talking about politics so I just said it was time to call it a day.

Pretty boring post, but this way I have a record of when the Jacuzzi has been taken care of  :)

Dia de Todos los Santos

All Saint's Day is celebrated in Spain on November 1.

This is the day that many families go to the cemetery and bring flowers to their dear departed.

In our family, my grandmother (yaya) was about the only one that followed the tradition, every year she'd go to the cemetery with her niece (Matildeta) and basically spent the whole day there. Some years my mother would go along with some of her sisters. I remember  going a few times, and running around with my cousins..

The cemetery in Barcelona is pretty awesome. When I was a teenager as part of my school requirements, we had to do some volunteer work. My friend Titina and I chose to work at an orphanage which was very close to the cemetery in Montjuich. Some days we took a few kids to have lunch at the cemetery, it had nice areas with flowers and grass and it was quiet and peaceful. I vividly remember one time when a grave digger started digging on a spot next to where we were having a picnic. We gave him a sandwich and a drink, he was thankful, it's hard work to dig a grave.

The best thing about all Saint's Day was all the sweets typical of the holiday. At home my father would buy panellets of different kinds, my favorites where the pine nut ones.

Another one was buñuelos de viento, thanks Sandy for reminding me of those sweets. My grandmother  made them not only this day but for other holidays. They are very similar to cream puffs, only they are fried instead of baked, they could also be filled with cream or chocolate.

The other thing I remember doing on this day, is going to see the play "Don Juan Tenorio"by Jose Zorrilla, which was performed only on this day. Usually  I went with my mother and her sisters to see it. All the theaters in the city performed the play that night. It's the legend of Don Juan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Juan_Tenorio

Even now I can recite this part where Don Juan talks about himself and his adventures

Yo a las cabañas bajé,

yo a los palacios subí,

yo los claustros escalé

y en todas partes dejé

memoria amarga de mí.

October Recap

Some highlights and lowlights:

October 3    To Pacific City. Nice setting.
October 5     Fix the A/C  $280
                     Banc of California  
October 7     Pay off house mortgage - Black Angus  
October 8     Carpet cleaner, the whole house $180 
October 9     Need a new dishwasher
October 15   Off the Hook Restaurant with Lizzie
October 17   Kaiser Vision, 2 pairs of glasses for Marvin
October 20   Total meltdown with the Frontier $#@%^#
October 21   Mimi's
October 25   Frontier again, we'll see, grrrrrrrrrrrr
October 26   Fix the telephone line
October 30   Sonia and Nicole will be here for Christmas
October 31   Halloween. Take pickup to Dodge Cerritos, didn't have the part! 
                     To Kaiser Vision to get the glasses
                      Frontier screwed up again, new order

Movies I watched in October

Books I've read in October

Things that make me happy

1. Texting with my girls and grandson

2. Having a good month healthwise

3. Lizzie coming to visit 

4. Trying new Restaurants

5. Seeing my garden growing and thriving

6. Watching my hummingbirds taking baths in the fountain. Also the finches.

7. Reading

8. My shopping cart to bring groceries home

9. Playing in PSP


Things that make me upset.

1. Trump and Clinton. All the lies.

2. Frontier, my internet, telephone, TV server.

3. Well, you know...

And here's some of  the tags I made lately :)

Have a nice day!

Pacific City

Pacific City is an open area mall in Pacific Coast Highway that offers ocean front dining, shopping and entertainment, only a couple of blocks south of the Huntington Beach Pier.

http://www.gopacificcity.com/

The original name of Huntington Beach, when it was just an ocean front village, was Pacific City. So they used the name for this Mall.

It opened last November with very few stores, but it had the grand opening this September.

I've been wanting to go just to see what it was about, so this Monday  I had a couple of errands to do in HB and asked Norbert if he wanted to go, of course he said yes. We drove the short distance from his house and parked in the only parking place available which is underground , @ $2.00 for 20 minutes.

It has 3 floors, lots of upscale stores, and restaurants, there's still some stores that are not open. The location is the best part of it,

After walking around we started looking for a place to have lunch, there were quite a few choices, but it was such a lovely day, I decided I'd like to have a Margarita while enjoying the view, so we went to Ola Mexican Restaurant. https://olamexicankitchen.com/

 It's a very nice restaurant inside and outside. I of course had a Margarita which was quite strong, and the Chef's guacamole, delicious with pomegranate seeds and orange zest, and a carnitas plate to share. Very good.

They also validated the parking :)

After we ate we walked around some more and took some pictures by the surfers wall.

I enjoyed Pacific City!  (Just don't go on a weekend or a holiday, way too many people and hell to park) but on a Monday off season, it was perfect.