Last Spring Concert

Yesterday, we attended our last Spring Concert at St. Joseph. Last because my son is graduating in 2 weeks, and this was the last of it. (Yippy!!!).

For the last 9 years, we have rolled inside the church each Spring to listen to kids from all grades sing to the best of their abilities. And after all these 9 years, nothing has really changed in how the kids sang or the types of songs performed. Why would they change if the person responsible for teaching the songs was the same music teacher all these years?? Same style. Same methodology. Same results.

Mind you, it wasn't the kids' fault. Kids will learn whatever they're taught. Now, I would expect that the older students would sing louder and with more gusto. However, it wasn't so. Some of the older students barely sang and could hardly be heard. The younger ones were livelier and perky. What's up with that?

I don't know if it had something to do with the song selection or the class was just plain dull, boring, and couldn't care less. I must admit, some of the song choices were really bad. And for the 8th grade class, for their last year, they didn't even sing as a class. They combined with the 7th graders for a number, but they didn't sing (maybe a little). Instead, they played some instrument that you could hardly hear. Now, there's something wrong with that picture.

An unusual side activity was a slide show for 2 retiring faculty -- the principal and the special needs coordinator. Both have a combined teaching experience of 71 years. Great !!! But after the slide show was presented, that was it. No speech. No introduction to the slide show. No post show monologue. Nothing. The incoming principal put the slide show together. I was expecting that she would have said something about it -- before or after -- just to emphasize the recognition the school wanted to make for these 2 ladies. Unfortunately, nada. Missed opportunity.

Overall, it was one of those so-so school events that you'd like to forget. In all seriousness, I've seen better performances in past years. And as parents who have seen this event numerous times, I'm glad it's OVER.

If the school is serious at providing the best performance and maximizing the potential of its students, there are other resources available that can make that happen. All they need is just to open their eyes, stop being too political, and embrace change. Otherwise, everyone's going to get stuck in the stone age.

Ray's Ridiculous Policy

A group of friends of ours had dinner on Saturday to celebrate 2 birthdays. It was a casual evening, and we had it at Ray's Crab Shack in Newark.

During the planning a week or so prior, the venue was decided on and my wife was tasked to make the reservation. She called and placed a reservation for 12 people for 7pm. Whoever took her call said they would call back to confirm.

After about an hour, another lady called. She asked if we could move our reservation earlier to 6:30pm, which was fine. But here's the kicker. The lady on the other end said that they have this 2-hour policy, wherein a party (or a fairly large group) has up to 2 hours to eat or get kicked out. Seriously???? I have never heard of such a policy, anywhere !!!

I couldn't hear the arguments because my wife was having this conversation. I only heard her reactions. Like my wife said, we've been to different restaurants here and overseas, and far fancier and swankier than this crab shack, but no one has told us we only had 2 hours to eat. It was just RIDICULOUS.

What made it even worse was that this lady even wanted us to move up the reservation to an even earlier time so she can drive us out earlier and still have enough time for a second seating of customers. That was just plain cheap and tacky, if you asked me. I wanted to grab the phone from my wife so I can straighten out this gal and kick some sense back into her head.

My point is if I am still eating and I am paying for what I am eating, then no on can tell me to leave for no apparent reason just so they can accommodate other diners. That is just plain WRONG. Now, if I'm done eating and I just sit there and chat all night, then that is a different story. Even so, no one can kick you out unless you're causing havoc in the restaurant.

When we got to the restaurant, I had planned on talking to the manager, once we're seated, so I get a better understanding of this policy (if it really is) and hear their rationale behind it. But to me, no matter what they say, it's not going to be logical. Can't be, and will never be. It's a good thing we were seated right away, and I decided that it was not worth having that discussion. I will deal with it if and when it happens. Fortunately, we were done eating with lots of time to spare. Otherwise, it would have been an uncomfortable situation .... for them, not us.

Can you imagine that? So, you have been forewarned. Ray's Crab Shack on Mowry Avenue in Newark.

Eat up or get out !!!

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.

Back-to-Back Attacks

The menace (it is!!!) that has plagued me the past week or so was gout. It attacked again. And it's been miserable.

It started Monday morning last week, as I got up to prepare for work. I felt a slight pain on the top right portion of my right foot. Since I have not had an attack for quite sometime, I didn't suspect it to be another gout attack. I associated the pain to the relatively tight sneakers I wore over the weekend, and that I may have twisted my foot or something. When I got home that evening, it swelled a bit. The next morning, my foot hurt and I couldn't stand on it. I had to call in sick.

After popping a couple of pills, surprisingly, the swelling either subsided really quickly or it didn't progress. There was still some pain, but tolerable. And I was able to walk, albeit the pain. On Wednesday, I was wobbling back to work. It was the end of it. Or so I thought.

Friday morning, again, as I was preparing for work, I felt another pain, this time on the ball of my left foot. I honestly didn't think it was another attack because I do not recall having attacks happening one after the other, and affecting one foot first, then the other. This was probably the first. Despite it, I went on my merry little way and headed to work.

That Friday was a pretty long day. That evening, we had our quarterfinals volleyball game, and I did a lot of standing. Then, there was the late dinner and some chatting among team parents right after. The next day, there was a slight elevation in the pain, but it didn't hinder my mobility. It wasn't swollen either, as I thought it would be. As a matter of fact, we (wife, son, and me) went on another 22 mile bike ride on the Alameda Creek Trail. This time we broke in the 2 new bikes. At the end of the ride, I was still OK, but the pain was there and bearable.

Saturday evening, when the foot was a bit rested, the pain became more evident. And it had swollen, too. The next day, it had gotten worse. I was dragging my feet. I didn't have any choice. There were a lot of things going on, and I had a championship game to win. So I sucked it up and did what I had to do. Of course, it took its toll as soon as I got home and took my sneakers off. By then, any pressure on the ball of my left foot shot a sharp pain running up my body.

For the next 2 days, Monday and Tuesday, I was out of commission, and stayed home. If I needed to walk, it had to be planned because I cannot afford any unnecessary extra steps. It hurt!!! Actually, the peak was Monday morning, and with medication, things had improved a bit.

Today, I was able to come in to work, with some bearable discomfort. I had to allot more time for walking, like from the BART parking lot to the terminal. I even rode the shuttle provided by our building management from BART to our building, and back.

Things should be better as the week progresses. I should be back on my feet (no pun intended) by the end of the week. I just hope it doesn't come back. But you'll never know. It just sneaks up on you.