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| bao by andrea - Cupertino Cherry Blossom Festival, Memorial Park, 4/29-4/30 2023 |
Arrived around noon. Parked at De Anza lot for free. Petted a few Shiba Inu dogs and admired a number of Akita dogs.
Purchased a few food items:
Parked near Larkin & Sutter. Crostini & Java for breakfast: French Lavender Latte, 16-ounce black House coffee, and avocado toast (whole wheat, avocado, honey vinaigrette). Wind was a bit brisk and cool enough I decided to bring my wool gloves, but it warmed up enough to not need them. Mostly clear blue skies--a beautiful day.
Watched the Grand Parade of the 56th annual Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival in San Francisco from in front of The Carlisle at 1450 Post Street.
Young students from the Rosa Parks Elementary School Japanese Bilingual Bicultural Program (JBBP) played and waited with chaperones. Later, they joined the parade when the older students passed.
The Daihatsu HiJet Fire Engine (also known as Kiri the Japanese Fire Truck, aka teenytinyfiretruck) played music and drove past us. We heard the "San Francisco Godzilla Alert" The alert: "This is San Francisco self-defense fire brigade. There have been confirmed Godzilla sightings in the city. For your safey and the safety of others, please leave Godzilla alone. Thank you π¦" (note: it is preceded by electronic tones and the same message in Japanese).
Other notable parade participants:
The parade ended, event staff hastily re-opened the streets and attendees thronged the vendors. Unlike the previous weekend, it was very competitive to find food options. We managed to get a complimentary Pocari Sweat.
Escaped the crush of people onto Sutter Avenue and re-entered the festival on Buchanan Street. Unlike previous years, no vendor stalls in place (same as last weekend).
Finding food options on Buchanan Street and the Japan Center mall no less crowded, we decided to make an early exit and head home.
Walked through and around Japantown San Jose.
Dropped off carload of electronic waste at the San Jose Buddhist Church Education Building parking lot. Drove up, opened car doors and Boy Scouts from Troop 611 San Jose Betsuin unloaded the boxes and carried them to the nearby A&J Electronics Recycling E-Waste collection area, where staff palletized, wrapped, and loaded it onto a panel truck.
Japantown San Jose:
Ended our adventure over at Strawberry Park Shopping Center:
Ordered by most recently listened to, first.
Ordered by most recently listened to, first.
Celebrated Dawn's birthday Saturday. Left home around 10:00 a.m. Stopped for to-go coffee, scone, and morning bun at Companion Bakeshop Westside Santa Cruz. Weather: sunny, blue skies, comfortably warm. Dressed in light sweaters and tee shirt and pants. Drove up Highway 1. Cut across at Half Moon Bay to 280 North--was distracted a bit by music and had a few hiccups getting to the northbound onramp.
Saw the Flintstone House. Reconnected with Highway 1 near Daly City. Waze directed us away from congested traffic, so we tracked Highway 1 in parallel on 15th/16th/17th for a stretch, passing Stern Grove. Reconnected to 19th/Highway 1 at some point and entered Golden Gate Park. Dropped off the car at the Music Concourse Parking Garage (Underground).
Emerged by the de Young Museum. Walked short distance to the Japanese Tea Garden. Purchased tickets via the mobile app. Waited in line with others. At the ticketing window, the attendant looked up our tickets digitally using our name and waved us through.
We've visited once before. The pagoda was enclosed in a white, opaque protective plastic barrier. Originally "constructed for the Panama-Pacific Exposition in 1915 and brought to the Garden at the fair’s conclusion. Built as an indoor structure, it has not fared well outdoors."
Koi fish kept to the shadows of bridges and overhanging grasses. The atmosphere was relatively calm but touristy. At the tea house, we ordered matcha with a wagashi (traditional Japanese confection) of mochi and red bean paste, as well as an order of dango which came with two types: 1) Goma (black sesame); and 2) Anko (red bean). The tea house also sells mitarashi dango (sweet soy sauce syrup). We also bought warabimochi, another wagashi confection, "made from warabiko (bracken starch) and covered or dipped in kinako (sweet toasted soybean flour). It differs from true mochi made from glutinous rice."
Mochinut SF location was next--"a donut that originated from Hawaii which is a combination of American doughnuts and Japanese mochi." We ordered five types of donuts--one of every type they had available in the display case: 1) Churro; 2) Smore (with graham cracker and marshmallow on top); 3) Strawberry Cheesecake (with three popped popcorn kernels on top); 4) Strawberry Funnel; and 5) Ube. We also ordered a Potato Half & Half hot dog (half mozzarella stick, half hot dog, with French fry bits on the outside), and a mango Izzy drink. The Mochinut location looked a bit tired. Food was decent. Donuts were the best; don't think we'd order the hot dog again.
Across the street, we noticed a block-long wait to get into Pineapple King Bakery.
We spent the rest of our afternoon walking back across Golden Gate Park. Decided to skip the San Francisco Botanical Garden due to time. Other sights: 6th Avenue Skate Park, Conservatory of Flowers, Golden Gate Park Tennis Courts (playing pickle ball, looked like), San Francisco Lawn Bowling Club, Sharon Art Studio, Koret Playground, Carousel, Big Rec baseball fields--where we watched drunk teams playing kickball with red cups in hand, and a small dog chase crows. We stopped at the SkyStar Wheel and got a frozen fruit bar and strawberry mint tea while Dawn's knee took a rest.
That was it--12,000 steps roughly. Uneventful drive home--did note driving over the SLAC (Stanford Linear Accelerator Center).
Watched The Book of Boba Fett:
Started a run of Peacemaker (TV series).
Watching Hawkeye (2021 TV series):
Watched Cowboy Bebop (2021 TV series):
Watching Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045:
Season 1 (2020):
Thursday, 11/5, I had a dental gum graft procedure on the anterior part of my lower front four teeth.
Arrived and was immediately scanned for temperature check and taken to a room. Associate doctor (AD) had full sleeve tattoos on both arms (Dawn mentioned one was a Sesame Street theme). She took my blood pressure with a cuff attached to a new piece of machinery. All was well. They have a new doctor at this practice who preferred to use the modern equipment, and the AD had to remember how to turn the cuff from automatic to manual, so it wouldn't beep throughout the entire procedure. The other doctor apparently leaves it on automatic mode.
The AD asked how my day was going and I mentioned my struggles with getting a Lyft rideshare to the office--I had a ride scheduled, but something was inexplicably wrong with the app-based payment process, and so my appointment was canceled with no warning and I ended up driving myself. The original plan was for Dawn to come with and we'd both take a rideshare roundtrip. What actually happened: I drove there and Dawn volunteered to drive back. Dr. Browning came in and said he had tweaked his back. They attached the IV drop to my right arm and started the twilight anesthesia drip.
The procedure lasted about 45 minutes, I think. During this time my consciousness was like waking up in the middle of the night and falling back asleep. I briefly recall lightly snoring, and was alert enough to realize it was inappropriate and checked it. That's all I recall vividly.
The AD had described the aftereffects as feeling drunk, and that's not too far off, but not quite right. For me, drunkenness feels much worse. I felt mentally ~80% and physically ~90%--just mildly uncoordinated and unfocused. It was a bit of a struggle to guide myself--I was aware I knew enough to get into the passenger seat, but my brain was not quite prepared for dealing with the rest of my body reacting somewhat clumsily. The AD carefully guided me to the waiting car, and explicitly told me to duck my head while getting in, which I was grateful for--I might not have remembered to duck. π
Dawn drove us home successfully π
Since Thursday, I've rested and eaten carefully. This is my third dental gum graft, but the first under twilight sedation. The first two were with a different doctor, under local anesthetic. I chose to go with a new doctor as the old doctor no longer accepted my insurance. And the new doctor turned out to also do cosmetic touchups as well, which was great.
Compared to earlier gum grafts, this one uses a custom upper palette shield to protect the source of the graft tissue, which is wonderful. Pain seems quite minimal. I took ibuprofen and acetaminophen a few times as instructed, but could have done without. Also taking amoxicillin three times daily. Eating all sorts of soft foods guilt-free π Cozy Shack: chocolate pudding, rice pudding, tapioca.
Re-watching Cowboy Bebop (1998):
Watching Ted Lasso
