Last night Josh and I went out to eat. We decided to try a semi-local (20 minutes away) favorite. Phil’s Fish Market and Eatery. The knowledge of this place first came through Foder’s northern California travel book. It is always a good sign if restaurants make the book. Then just recently it was on the local news as having the food network out for a new show. Instantly I thought “there is going to be a Throw down.” The next day on the news my assumption was confirmed. Apparently this place is famous for their cippino. For those of you that don’t know this dish, it is a tomato based shell fish soup.
When we walked in there was a live band playing Johnny Cash’s “I’ve Been Everywhere.” Not very many places can get away with charging $20 for a bowl of soup that you order at a counter and take a number and get your own drink. For a Thursday night at a place pretty far from largely populated areas it was busy.
Josh ordered the world famous cippino and I ordered the ahi tuna. We took our number, bibs, napkins and utensils; got our drinks; and sat down at an open table. After less than 10 minutes a beautiful tuna steak was sitting in front of me. I took one bite and questioned how what I was eating was related to that stuff you get in a can. Josh dipped his spoon into his steaming bowl of clams, crab, muscles, bay scallops, and shrimp and questioned how to eat it.
Everything was so good. The Monterey bay area has great restaurants, but they are not the fun laidback atmosphere like Phil’s. It was a great date restaurant for people who are comfortable with each other. Eating soup with your hands is not a recommendation for a first or second date. If you happen to be in Moss Landing, CA and want seafood, definitely stop in at Phil’s Fish Market and Eatery.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
off to a bad start
(I typed this out on Monday, but am just getting around to posting it today)
Today I woke up about 6:00, played on the computer, watched the news, did dishes from dinner last night all before I started getting ready at 7:45. I got in the shower, put on a little make up then I hit me. I was supposed to be at work at 8:00 today because I switched schedules with at coworker. A very firm four letter work escaped from my mouth. It takes me at least 20 minutes to get to work from my house. It was exactly 8:13 when I remembered my schedule switched today. My hair was wet, I wasn’t dressed, and no breakfast consumed. AHHH. I grabbed my phone and immediately called my boss. No answer. Oh that’s right she is on vacation this week. Threw on some clothes, dried my hair for one minute, put on deodorant, and ran out the door. I drove almost the entire 20 minutes with the windows down and heater on high. Weaving through traffic I called another coworker and left yet another message. That’s it, I tried to communicate with the office that I would be late. No more breaking the law by talking on my cell phone while driving. I walked into work at 8:36. Not too bad right?
An interesting part to that story is that I had an alarm set on my phone that reminded me to start getting ready for work early. The problem was that Saturday I got a new phone. The date book did not transfer. Oh well. I’ve been with PB for over a year and this is my first tardy not caused by traffic (which my boss excuses).
Today I woke up about 6:00, played on the computer, watched the news, did dishes from dinner last night all before I started getting ready at 7:45. I got in the shower, put on a little make up then I hit me. I was supposed to be at work at 8:00 today because I switched schedules with at coworker. A very firm four letter work escaped from my mouth. It takes me at least 20 minutes to get to work from my house. It was exactly 8:13 when I remembered my schedule switched today. My hair was wet, I wasn’t dressed, and no breakfast consumed. AHHH. I grabbed my phone and immediately called my boss. No answer. Oh that’s right she is on vacation this week. Threw on some clothes, dried my hair for one minute, put on deodorant, and ran out the door. I drove almost the entire 20 minutes with the windows down and heater on high. Weaving through traffic I called another coworker and left yet another message. That’s it, I tried to communicate with the office that I would be late. No more breaking the law by talking on my cell phone while driving. I walked into work at 8:36. Not too bad right?
An interesting part to that story is that I had an alarm set on my phone that reminded me to start getting ready for work early. The problem was that Saturday I got a new phone. The date book did not transfer. Oh well. I’ve been with PB for over a year and this is my first tardy not caused by traffic (which my boss excuses).
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
4 Random Things
It seems that I have been tagged.
So here it goes…
1. When I go grocery shopping, I mean really grocery shopping I go to at least 4 places. First Trader Joes, next Del Monte Produce. Whatever I cannot find at those two places, I look for at Safeway. This excludes milk, chicken breasts, and eggs. Those three things I get at Costco. If I need laundry detergent or products of that nature, I stop in at Target.
2. I hate bugs. This morning on the Today show they had a segment about bed bugs. I had to turn the channel because if I watched it I would not be able to sleep tonight.
3. I get my hair cut at great clips. That being said, there are specific people that I go to there. I call ahead and get their schedules and go when one of them are working.
4. My church meets in an old theater with statues of naked people. There is also a zebra print chair in the ladies bathroom.
I tag, Andrea, Parkers, Anna, Jenni.
So here it goes…
1. When I go grocery shopping, I mean really grocery shopping I go to at least 4 places. First Trader Joes, next Del Monte Produce. Whatever I cannot find at those two places, I look for at Safeway. This excludes milk, chicken breasts, and eggs. Those three things I get at Costco. If I need laundry detergent or products of that nature, I stop in at Target.
2. I hate bugs. This morning on the Today show they had a segment about bed bugs. I had to turn the channel because if I watched it I would not be able to sleep tonight.
3. I get my hair cut at great clips. That being said, there are specific people that I go to there. I call ahead and get their schedules and go when one of them are working.
4. My church meets in an old theater with statues of naked people. There is also a zebra print chair in the ladies bathroom.
I tag, Andrea, Parkers, Anna, Jenni.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Four Days (2 of 2)
This post will be an extension of the last post. That was long.
Because some college friends were visiting San Francisco, we all decided to go to Napa Valley for wine tasting. The day did not start so great. I did not fully set my alarm so I rushed to get ready. According to mapquest the most direct route would be to go through the mountains, not a good choice. My blood pressure spiked I don’t know how many times. I ended up making good time, and when I got to the house, they were still out having breakfast. For a few minutes, I thought they left without me. I decided to get a little gas so that I would not have to fill up at night on the way back. On my way to the gas station, she called me and told me that I needed to find all day parking. That took FOREVER! After many times around many blocks, I found a pretty good spot, and I was about 80% confident it was legal. I told myself that not to worry about coming back and my car not being there. During my circling paying for my car to be towed sounded better than a tasked that seemed hopeless. (My car was where I left it when it was time to go). After all this it was smooth sailing, except for the car almost overheating.
Lucky for us, Liza is practically a professional tour guide for this region of Northern California. She took us to 5 great wineries and 1 decent one. On this outing I realized I thoroughly enjoy good wine.
Because I left Seaside at about 8, I ate breakfast at about 7:30 and it was just leftover sweet potatoes. Everyone else had a decent breakfast at about 10am. Needless to say, I was a little bit more of a light weight than the others. At about 1:30 I NEEDED lunch. Once I got the sandwich in my system, I started walking straight and stopped slurring my words. I think they enjoyed me a little off. I was pretty easy to make fun of.
We decided to make our way home so that we could get to our dinner reservations on time. (That didn’t happen, but they saved us a table.) It is a good thing I had a little nap in the car. I could not imagine trying to make the 2 hour trek home after a day of wine tasting. By the time I got home I was pooped!
Josh spent the entire day Saturday trying to set up our new TV, but I didn’t even get to see it that night because I went straight to bed without turning on any lights.
Sunday I planned on sleeping most of the day. Josh had to work so when he got home, he had too little desire to go to church. I went by myself, but ended up seeing a friend from work there, so I am glad I went. When I got home, Josh was just waking up from a nap, and ready to work. Ugh. Although I would have enjoyed spending the entire day in bed or on the couch, we were very productive. Cleaning up after whirlwind days was pretty satisfying.
When I was lying down in bed Sunday night, I thought “I need another day just to rest.” The funny part of that is that due to our reduced hours I have to take one day off every pay period. My boss asked if I could take Monday December 1st, but I requested to switch. I really regretted this decision Sunday night and Monday morning.
Because some college friends were visiting San Francisco, we all decided to go to Napa Valley for wine tasting. The day did not start so great. I did not fully set my alarm so I rushed to get ready. According to mapquest the most direct route would be to go through the mountains, not a good choice. My blood pressure spiked I don’t know how many times. I ended up making good time, and when I got to the house, they were still out having breakfast. For a few minutes, I thought they left without me. I decided to get a little gas so that I would not have to fill up at night on the way back. On my way to the gas station, she called me and told me that I needed to find all day parking. That took FOREVER! After many times around many blocks, I found a pretty good spot, and I was about 80% confident it was legal. I told myself that not to worry about coming back and my car not being there. During my circling paying for my car to be towed sounded better than a tasked that seemed hopeless. (My car was where I left it when it was time to go). After all this it was smooth sailing, except for the car almost overheating.
Lucky for us, Liza is practically a professional tour guide for this region of Northern California. She took us to 5 great wineries and 1 decent one. On this outing I realized I thoroughly enjoy good wine.
Because I left Seaside at about 8, I ate breakfast at about 7:30 and it was just leftover sweet potatoes. Everyone else had a decent breakfast at about 10am. Needless to say, I was a little bit more of a light weight than the others. At about 1:30 I NEEDED lunch. Once I got the sandwich in my system, I started walking straight and stopped slurring my words. I think they enjoyed me a little off. I was pretty easy to make fun of.
We decided to make our way home so that we could get to our dinner reservations on time. (That didn’t happen, but they saved us a table.) It is a good thing I had a little nap in the car. I could not imagine trying to make the 2 hour trek home after a day of wine tasting. By the time I got home I was pooped!
Josh spent the entire day Saturday trying to set up our new TV, but I didn’t even get to see it that night because I went straight to bed without turning on any lights.
Sunday I planned on sleeping most of the day. Josh had to work so when he got home, he had too little desire to go to church. I went by myself, but ended up seeing a friend from work there, so I am glad I went. When I got home, Josh was just waking up from a nap, and ready to work. Ugh. Although I would have enjoyed spending the entire day in bed or on the couch, we were very productive. Cleaning up after whirlwind days was pretty satisfying.
When I was lying down in bed Sunday night, I thought “I need another day just to rest.” The funny part of that is that due to our reduced hours I have to take one day off every pay period. My boss asked if I could take Monday December 1st, but I requested to switch. I really regretted this decision Sunday night and Monday morning.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Four Days (1 of 2)
Wednesday evening as I left work I thought “this should be a relaxing four day weekend” I was in for quite a pleasant surprise.
One of my favorite things about Thanksgiving is looking at all of the ads that are in the paper. For some reason I think this comes from my mom. We would occasionally get the Sunday newspaper, and I loved looking through all the coupons. It also has to do with my love for getting a good deal. Thursday I woke up with my excitement because I wanted a PAPER! I threw on come clothes and was still trying to keep my eyes open when I was looking for keys and coins.
I returned home with San Jose Mercury and the Monterey Herald (side note… reminds me of home. Manhattan Mercury and Ottawa Herald). Because I wanted to extend my joy and I had a few duplicates, I organized all of the ads. Threw out the bad ones, and alphabetized the good.
By this time I realized I needed to start cooking. Although I only made two pies, sweet potatoes, and a spiced drink (and Josh was making rolls), my kitchen was still a mess from making the crust the day before. I always forget that rolling out dough destroys the kitchen. Did I really use all the dishes that were in my sink? For some reason I was very relaxed so everything took longer than it should. I realized how Josh operates. He rarely has urgency in his step, even if he is running late. We finally got to our friends house about 1pm and they were all ready for us. Dinner was wonderful and of course we were all stuffed. After a few games, watching football, and a quick run to see a few coworkers, it was late and time to go home.
For over a year Josh and I have been debating the purchase of a flat panel TV. Last year we even bought one, but I changed my mind and took it back. Were we going to buy one this year? We did some pre-black Friday shopping and found that although the TV we wanted was on the front page of almost every ad, it was the same price on Tuesday. So no, we decided against a TV. This makes sense knowing that we also are not quick to make big purchases.
Josh convinced me not to go shopping when the outlet mall opened in Gilroy at 12am, and since we were not going to buy a TV there was not much reason to get up at 4am either. So I tried to sleep in, but I kept thinking of all the deals I was missing. I convinced Josh to get up at 8:00 and head to the mall 30 minutes away. He dropped me off, because parking was impossible, and headed to a few other stores. I walked, and walked, but really didn’t find any presents for anyone. Oh, I found a few things for myself of course.
One of the highlights of this day was Josh overheard a couple in Wal-Mart saying they were going to have Sonic for lunch. We had no idea there was a Sonic in Gilroy, so Josh took it upon himself to find it. Wonderful lunch that day!
As we were getting ready to leave, we decided to stand in the Sharp outlet store line. When we first walked by the store there was a pretty long line outside of people waiting to get in. “What kind of crazy deals are they having” we both thought. At the end of the day we decided to find out. We were both laughing because we did not want anything in that store, and had no intention of buying anything. When we pulled our car away from that store we had it in a DVD player, present for someone, surround sound speakers, universal remote, and … a flat panel TV. You know the TV we decided not to buy this year. Well not the exact TV, but one a little smaller and a lot cheaper (but still good quality). If anyone needs a marketing ploy, this is a great one. Limit the number of people in your store to about 30. Make everyone else stand in line outside. Crazy people like Josh and me will wait in line just to see what is going on and then buy all sorts of goods.
We got home at about 10:00 that night and we were both exhausted.
One of my favorite things about Thanksgiving is looking at all of the ads that are in the paper. For some reason I think this comes from my mom. We would occasionally get the Sunday newspaper, and I loved looking through all the coupons. It also has to do with my love for getting a good deal. Thursday I woke up with my excitement because I wanted a PAPER! I threw on come clothes and was still trying to keep my eyes open when I was looking for keys and coins.
I returned home with San Jose Mercury and the Monterey Herald (side note… reminds me of home. Manhattan Mercury and Ottawa Herald). Because I wanted to extend my joy and I had a few duplicates, I organized all of the ads. Threw out the bad ones, and alphabetized the good.
By this time I realized I needed to start cooking. Although I only made two pies, sweet potatoes, and a spiced drink (and Josh was making rolls), my kitchen was still a mess from making the crust the day before. I always forget that rolling out dough destroys the kitchen. Did I really use all the dishes that were in my sink? For some reason I was very relaxed so everything took longer than it should. I realized how Josh operates. He rarely has urgency in his step, even if he is running late. We finally got to our friends house about 1pm and they were all ready for us. Dinner was wonderful and of course we were all stuffed. After a few games, watching football, and a quick run to see a few coworkers, it was late and time to go home.
For over a year Josh and I have been debating the purchase of a flat panel TV. Last year we even bought one, but I changed my mind and took it back. Were we going to buy one this year? We did some pre-black Friday shopping and found that although the TV we wanted was on the front page of almost every ad, it was the same price on Tuesday. So no, we decided against a TV. This makes sense knowing that we also are not quick to make big purchases.
Josh convinced me not to go shopping when the outlet mall opened in Gilroy at 12am, and since we were not going to buy a TV there was not much reason to get up at 4am either. So I tried to sleep in, but I kept thinking of all the deals I was missing. I convinced Josh to get up at 8:00 and head to the mall 30 minutes away. He dropped me off, because parking was impossible, and headed to a few other stores. I walked, and walked, but really didn’t find any presents for anyone. Oh, I found a few things for myself of course.
One of the highlights of this day was Josh overheard a couple in Wal-Mart saying they were going to have Sonic for lunch. We had no idea there was a Sonic in Gilroy, so Josh took it upon himself to find it. Wonderful lunch that day!
As we were getting ready to leave, we decided to stand in the Sharp outlet store line. When we first walked by the store there was a pretty long line outside of people waiting to get in. “What kind of crazy deals are they having” we both thought. At the end of the day we decided to find out. We were both laughing because we did not want anything in that store, and had no intention of buying anything. When we pulled our car away from that store we had it in a DVD player, present for someone, surround sound speakers, universal remote, and … a flat panel TV. You know the TV we decided not to buy this year. Well not the exact TV, but one a little smaller and a lot cheaper (but still good quality). If anyone needs a marketing ploy, this is a great one. Limit the number of people in your store to about 30. Make everyone else stand in line outside. Crazy people like Josh and me will wait in line just to see what is going on and then buy all sorts of goods.
We got home at about 10:00 that night and we were both exhausted.
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