The Week That Was

It's late Sunday and the weekend is almost over. In a few minutes, it's the start of another day, another workweek. Something to look forward to, I hope.

The week that just ended wasn't filled with a whole lot of activities or drama. The biggest event for me was my regretfully painful gout attack. And because of this, it has somewhat affected what could have been a more productive weekend.

First of all, I wasn't able to ride. I had planned on joining a friend of mine for a 45-mile ride around the Silicon Valley area (from Fremont to the South Bay up through the Peninsula and back), but my foot got in the way. I guess it was also a blessing in disguise since I don't think I was prepared for such a gruelling ride. Maybe next time?

Although I was able to come in to work on Wednesday, my foot still gave me problems. As a matter of fact, there wasn't really any relief. In my case, the pain shifted to different parts of the foot, so it was literally unpredictable. One day I am able to walk, then the next, I couldn't. By Friday, it had gotten worse, so I had to work from home, while I had my foot rested. I was immobile. When I left work on Thursday, I decided to bring my laptop home because I had a strange feeling it might get worse. And it did. No relief either as the pain got worse the next day, Saturday.

I missed my monthly SBARA (ham radio club) meeting on Friday because it was just so difficult for me to move around. Instead, I suffered in agony as I watched my beloved Golden State Warriors lose a home game to the San Antonio Spurs. From the early minutes of the game, I already sensed that the intensity they showed in the first 2 games in San Antonio was not there, and they might not be able to pull this one off. The Spurs were more determined. And I was right. The Warriors lost. They cannot rely of the loud crowd to carry them to victory.

On Saturday noon, we were suppose to have our volleyball yearend party. I got a text and call from a parent informing me that more than half the team could not make it, and was asking if we should cancel. Certainly !!! It doesn't make sense to have a team party with only a third in attendance. And so we cancelled, everyone was informed, and the rescheduled date has yet to be determined. In the meantime, the rest of the activities went on as planned.

My son and his bud had planned on biking around the neighborhood after the party, which now turned to a regular lunch. His bud got dropped off at the house before noon, then we headed off for lunch. As soon as we got back, the boys rested for a bit, then hit the road. They got back all hot and pooped almost 3 hours later. They literally rode all over the neighborhood. When they got back, they rested and refreshed, then proceeded to the next activity -- a joint birthday dinner with close friends. We had dinner at Ray's Crab Shack. I will tell you about an interesting policy they have which just blew me away, later, in a separate post. After dinner, we had ice cream and a hour or so of conversation.

Mother's Day was a bit low key. My foot was better and the weather was quite warm. I was surprised there weren't a lot of people who heard mass at 11. We didn't have any plans set for Mother's Day lunch because we were undecided. In the past, we had done the various brunches offered by hotels, but none of them were worth coming back to. With no reservations, we decided to go to Buca di Beppo in Palo Alto and tried our luck. Surprisingly, they weren't packed, and we got seated right away. I guess we got in just in time while most folks were still at church, or they've decided to stay home for lunch and watch the Warriors game instead. Either way, it worked for us.

For dessert, we headed to Pinkberry at the Stanford Shopping Center. There was a line but we were served pretty quickly. The quantity and, lately, quality was a bit disappointing though. Our favorite frozen yogurt place is still Blush, but the closest was in Dublin. On our way home, we stopped by our favorite Bicycle Garage to check in on the status of our trade-in. The Townie was sold, but the buyer had the tires changed. In all, the trade-in pretty much covered the cost of my wife's new bike, plus accessories. I just had to add a few more for the tire and labor, plus a couple of water bottle cages I got for the 2 new bikes. It was a good deal, I thought.

I ended the day with rounding up photos of my son for their dinner-dance slide presentation. But I had difficulty uploading them on a public folder, so I had to send them instead. I know it's last minute, and it's my fault. Just can't kick that bad habit of procrastinating.

With the Warriors evening the series at 2-2, I can sleep comfortably knowing that they're coming back for game 6 in Oakland. Something to look forward to on this brand new week.