Wife's Birthday

Birthdays are always special. It is probably THE day that no one forgets. We all celebrate our birthdays differently. What is important is that it is YOUR day, and you can do anything you want.

Today was just that kind of day. It was my wife's birthday. In fact, it's not just a birthday, but a birth month!!! She's is so sociable and has tons of friends, so occasions like this can be tricky. If she decides to throw a party, she's got to invite everyone. Otherwise, she'll hear it from those that'll not be on the list. For now, she has not decided. Anyway, she still has the rest of the month to decide.

My wife started her day with a visit to her hairdresser for her regular do make-over. While she was at it, I volunteered at my radio club's ham test session. I am a certified VE (volunteer examiner), which means that I can administer a ham license exam, along with at least 2 other VEs. This morning, I was a second grader. This meant I was one of three VEs who corrected and graded each test. We had 17 testers applying for the 3 different amateur license class, and everyone passed. As a matter of fact, 2 testers took all 3 test classes and passed all of them. Way to go!!!

We had a late lunch at our favorite Korean restaurant. We haven't had it for a while so decided to go there. Then, we headed south to Valley Fair in San Jose for a little shopping. She got a couple of things, but I'll spare you the details. I knew she enjoyed it. I also got myself a cologne.

Being her birthday, we decided to hear mass before heading off to dinner. It was also an anticipated mass for Sunday. First, I plotted the closest church from where we were. As we drove up, it didn't look like it was a church. If it was, it certainly didn't look like they were having a mass. So, I searched again. She wanted to try the Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph in downtown San Jose, but it was more than 10 miles away. Besides, the mass had already started. The next other church I found was St. Justin, along Homestead in Santa Clara.

St. Justin was a quaint church. It looked small from the outside, but it was quite big inside. The presiding priest was Filipino, and he had a certain way of talking. It was soooooo modulated, and spoke with a certain twang. He sounded like he was a radio announcer at one of the AM stations in the Philippines. I can't help but cringe and giggle. During Holy Communion, he recognized us as Filipinos as well, and spoke in Tagalog as he offered the host. I found that quite interesting. What if we weren't Filipinos? What if were Indonesians or Malaysians, who look like Filipinos. That would have been embarrassing.

Dinner was at Pizza Antica. We were there for my birthday, too, and we all enjoyed their food. The place was packed, as always. We had to wait for 40-45 minutes, I would guess. We pretty much knew what we wanted, so it wasn't really difficult. Since I waited a long time to be seated, I made sure I took my time enjoying the food. No one was rushing me.

For 3, I thought  we ordered quite a lot, partly because we wanted to try new stuff. With all that starch from the pizzas, pastas, and bread pudding, including the truffle fries (yes, french fries in a pizza place), we were stuffed. I'll save the details of what we ate for a later post. All I know is it was good, and filling, to say the least.