Finally! Biking in Tiburon, New Friends , More Rain, and Another Move

Well, it is warming up and is dry and sunny. We were happy about that. We took a bike ride in the afternoon, in Tiburon. There is a really nice, paved, flat bike ride through the lovely town of Tiburon, right on the water. It goes all the way to Mill Valley; we biked along about 5-6 miles, it was really nice. The view is so beautiful from Tiburon. We had recently read that the ferry ride from Tiburon to Fisherman's Wharf is considered the 2nd most beautiful ferry ride in the world, according to the Travelers Writers Ass'n. (I can't remember what is first, I think it's in Hong Kong or Australia) Great to get outside and bike!

Later, we met another couple for dinner. Marcia is a woman I had met last year at Jazzercize, and had coffee with a few times. When I wrote her that I was returning, she said it would be hard to see me as she had been diagnosed with Lymphoma a few months before, and was undergoing chemotherapy. She emailed me earlier this week that she was in remission, and was therefore able to start her autologous bone marrow transplant soon, and would like to meet for lunch. So we had lunch today, then wanted our husbands to meet, so we had dinner together too. They are very nice, and of course, it's quite a coincidence that she is having a bmt. She found it helpful to talk to me, and we really bonded over this, of course. She starts the procedure on Monday. It's quite different than mine, though the recovery and the drugs they use are similar. We are wishing her the very best. Pat

Saturday, Jason and Lindsey made their final move. We went to Alameda to help, and then did some exploring of East Bay area, going through the tunnel to Orinda, then found some interesting things in Point Richmond. We then hung out at the condo.

Sunday, was the Sunday movie club in SFO. The movie was "The Black Balloon". It was a very realistic portrayal of family dynamics when a child with severe autism is part of the family. Acting was good, and the story line was real. The writer of the film grew up with 2 autistic brothers in her own family, so it was part auto-biographical. Toni Collette is starring in it, and we love her. We would both recommend it. On the way to the movie my windshield wiper broke. Try to find an auto parts store in the middle of San Francisco! It took a while, but we found one. It was a two minute fix, once I got the new blade. We then did our grocery shopping, and hung out at the condo.

Gus continues to improve and is still peeing incredible amounts every couple of hours. I think he and Pat are having a contest, and he is winning. I have been playing around with Twitter, and trying to figure out what use it is Twitter is an online thing. I've been hearing about it, and Scott Simon had Daniel Schorr sign up for it, so I thought it might be interesting. So far I don't quite get it. I know how to navigate it but I am searching for the usefullness of it for me.

Dan

Photo Update

I just realized that most of the pictures we have posted on Picasa were unlisted, and so you couldn't see them. I changed that, so now hundreds of new pictures are available for your viewing pleasure.

http://picasaweb.google.com/danklim1

Gus is Better

Gus is better! We got many comments and concerns about our doggie, so I thought I should tell you all that he is better. He is active, cheerful, begging for food again, and, most importantly, his paws are better. Jim VB sent some info too, including the theory that it can be exacerbated by a new environment or the sun. Well, it isn't the sun, we haven't had much, but it is  definitely a different environment out here.
He is on steroids, which is perking him up, and also, making him pee incredibly amounts! And, waking us up early in the morning to let him out. But he's better, and at least he's waking us up and not peeing all over the condo.

The above is of Dan putting the cream on his paws to keep them moist and soft.  The other is a picture of his paw that has improved, before there was a lot more white on it which is not good.

I am sure you are all thrilled by these shots!

A long and winding road to Mendocino and Zin Goes the Strings of My Heart

First I want to let people know that I changed some settings on the BLOG so that it might be easier to leave comments. We do enjoy hearing from people, so please try again. You should be able to leave a comment without registering as a follower. If you do register as a follower, you will get updates when we make changes, some people like that, others find it annoying. It is up to you.


Wednesday we had more rain, so we decided to take a trip up to Mendocino. It was a great drive. The road wound through moss covered huge Oak trees that looked spooky in the foggy day. Then, it wove through huge Redwood trees for about 50 miles.

When we got to the coast, it was spectacular, even though it was cloudy. The town of Booneville is surrounded by wineries, and we stopped at one tasting room, where we found a great Zinfadel at Zina Hyde Cunningham. We did a short tasting then headed to Mendocino.

The town of Mendocino was surprising to me. It is a cross between a New England village and an Old West town. The usual mix of clothing stores, art, and other Yuppie stuff was there, but few if any chain stores. Another unusual aspect was several water towers with wooden tanks that seem to gather rain water. http://www.mendocinoguide.com/

Pat found a staircase to the Ocean and had to walk it. It was a spectacular coastline. We bought a pair of binoculars at a discount binocular store, just in case we saw some whales. Got a pair of Nikon binoculars for $39. We then headed up to Fort Bragg. I have to admit I got a little confused and was thinking of Fort Bragg NC, not California, so i was expecting an Army base, either open or closed. Not so, it was a kind of sprawl town, with some California Victorian aspects to it. It looks better on the web site than it does in reality. http://www.fortbragg.com/.

We then stopped at one of our favorite stops, Healdsburg. It's a great place with a town square and shops restaurants etc. We ate at Zin restaurant. The restaurant was recommended by Paul G. We liked it a lot. Pat ordered the Chicken and Dumplings BluePlate special, and I ordered the Pork Chop. Both were excellent; the chicken was fork tender, in a wonderful sauce, and the pork chop was applewood smoked, tender and flavorful. We bought a bottle of Forchini wine, 2005, Proprietors Reserve. It is a Sonoma Zin of course, and really enjoyed it. See, we are turning into Northern Californians with our growing wine obsession.

www.zinrestaurant.com

You can see all the pictures on our Picasa web albums.

We returned to Novato in the rain. Water is still coming down from the hills.

Dan

  

Dan

Fairly Bad News, Very Good News and a California Bike ride

Before I write anymore, we've heard that some of you readers are having trouble posting comments. Please let us know, we love the comments! Either just keep trying, or email either one of us the comments, and we'll cut and paste them if we can. Dan thinks it's a problem with the blogger server, so please, keep the comments coming.

So yes, Gus does have Pemphigus, or so the vet thinks. We don't know the nature of how the disease will hit him yet, if it'll just be an occasional flareup or what, or how bad, we'll know that as time goes by. (we thank Becky, by the way, Dan's cousin, who told us her mother has this and it is pretty controllable--Becky, forgive me, i need to add that your mother is not a canine!----humans get this disease too!)She gave him a shot of prednisone, as well as some pills, and we'll see if that works. If it does, it's controllable at least. We aren't going to biopsy it further at this point, we'll see how it goes. It is very upsetting; though this is hopefully controllable, it reminds us that he IS going to 9, and is getting to be "an older " dog. Argh, I hate the thought of it and this starting, but it's all part of it. Hopefully, we'll be able to control this for a long time. We didn't want to put a collar on him to stop him from licking and chewing the paws, so instead, the vet suggested we buy him some socks. We think they are kinder than the booties, and he seems to tolerate them. But yes, he does look funny.

We took our first bike ride beforehand, there is a bike path near us that ends up in San Rafael. It was a really nice path, but I decided it was so typically California, as it had beautiful wetlands on one side of it, and the freeway on the other! (I know, Ruth, do the one in Tiburon---that is next, I made Dan promise!---it's finally warm enough and dry enough to go out.

Later, we drove to the East Bay because Lindsey and Jason had honored us by asking us if we wanted to go to their ultrasound appointment, to see the sonogram of their baby. We gladly said yes. We drove out early, checked out some other possible places to stay in the East Bay (Hercules and Pinole) and were not impressed. We then drove up into the Berkeley Hills, which I had found last year and took a few stairway walks. I was eager to show this part of Berkeley to Dan, and he too found it amazing.
The streets are so narrow and steep that trucks and vans have to take alternative roads, the views are amazing, and the houses are beautiful and old. We found a golf course that we are excited to play, in Tilden Park. And yes, we found a short stairway walk, Bret Harte Lane. I did not know that Bret Harte lived there, in fact, I have to google it to find that out, unless someone out there tells me why a pathway is named after him.

We then went to the ultrasound appointment, and it was a thrill. Dan had never even seen any ultrasound before, so he was fascinated. Everything is o.k., and great, and Jay and Lindsey were grinning away afterwards, so very happy that everything is AOK. We were so thrilled, i wanted to hold the baby! And Yes , it is definately a boy! I thought Jay and Lindsey looked like such typical expectant parents in the waiting room.

Sunset Movers and Sunset Boulevard

Dan came home later on friday, and I picked him up in Larkspur, as he took the "Marin Airporter". (Yes, Jim and Laura, he did, and he thought it was a good idea) Before I got him, I stopped in at this terrific bookstore named Book Passages to get an up to date speakers program. I happened upon this lovely, Scottish brogue reading aloud, and realized there was an author speaking. It turned out to be Val McDermid, a Scottish msytery writer I have never heard of, but she sounded really good. I was so happy to discover (hopefully) a new mystery writer. Have any of you ever heard of her or read her books? She signed my book, and a small group of us talked about the mystery writers we like. She mentioned Steig Larsson, whom we just discovered, and several others, who are Scandanian and Italian. (She agrees with you Per, about Henning Mankell, that he is very good, but so dark and depressive) She talked about her small village on the Scotland-England border, North Umberland, and how the kooky villagers give her all the inspiration she needs for her characters. so this was very enjoyable.


Saturday, we helped Jay and Lindsey move. A familiar activity for us! I told them that we should hire ourselves out, and call ourselves the "Sunset Movers". (play on words about this new movie, "Sunshine Cleaners" about 2 sisters who clean up after dead people---it IS a comedy) We drove around Alameda a bit, and really like it, drove down to the beach. Dan loves their house, as I do, and I did include some pictures. Here is a link for more pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/danklim1/JasonAndLindseySHouse?authkey=ZjZwNMBe4IA#

We came home and then went back to the city to an art gallery opening that our neighbor has recently opened. It was in a very ritzy part of town, on Sacramento in the Marina District. It was fun, quite elegant and interesting to see the people. I wanted to just people watch, but didn't want to be obvious, so I was subtle. We talked to the caterer, a delightful woman from Jordan who is a friend of our neighbor, Philip. It was fun, it was so nice to be included in this.

On sunday, we had Jay and Lindsey and others over to watch the Oscars. It was JJ, (Jay's old roommate), Lars and Kate, and Erin, Nat and Silas, who is 2 and was a really big hit. Everybody loves Silas, he's a doll. He really liked Gus! So we watched the Oscars, sort of, which were pretty boring this year, but it was fun to have a party. Everyone brought a dish, which had to relate to one of the movies. Here's the menu:
SlumDOGS (little hot dogs wrapped in crescent rolls)
BodySlamBURGERS (sliders)
PickleSPEARS ( a wrestling move)
German Potato Salad (for the Reader, which takes place in Germany--this movie is a real challenge to cook for!)
Spaghetti ala Mickey Rourke's hair (this was Lars' idea)
Wine (Doubt-the wine and wafer)
Mini-cupcakes with FROSTing, but not from a mix, therefore a NIX)
Indian appetizers and sweets (Erin and Nat brought these from a great Indian place in Berkeley)
Jay and Lindsey were going to make MILKshakes, but didn't, and there was various other food that was just darn good, but not within the theme. I made Lemon Cookies with Lemon filling with fresh meyer lemons from the tree at Jay and Lindsey's new house. (yummy)
It was fun to have them all over, we all enjoyed it.