Good pancakes, finally!

For a long time, I always have wondered why my pancakes were so flat and non-appetizing. Kristina told me that her boyfriend's dad makes great fluffy pancake and posted the recipe on line. So, I googled the recipe and wanted to give it a good try. After I mixed the ingredient just a little (not over stirring), then I can see the work.

After I spread on the cooking pan, I can tell it was gonna be fluffy and yummy.

Hmmm, looks wonderful already. Let's give it a taste and see. So I asked Brittany (the pancake expert) to try.

She buttered the pancakes. She poured the syrup, added the whipped cream and decorated it with strawberries. Her final judgement was---SO GOOD and FLUFFY.

Zach, thank your dad for us.

runaway weekend

Lately I felt emotionally low and drained, so I ran away to Claremont to visit Kristina for a weekend. It was definitely a good choice. She and her friends are fun to be with. This year Kristina took her car so she was able to pick me up.

This bakery (SomeCrust) is quite popular in the Claremont Village. Their stuff is almost all gone at 1pm. Luckily we were able to buy some for visiting Miranda's brother and his family.

I think this cheese store (cheese cave) is a new store in the village.

They have a lot of flavors. We bought some Gouda, Sharp Cheddar, and Lavender goat cheese. Everyone went "Ahhhh~so good!" when they took a little to taste first.

This pretty French style store sells a lot of nice European style stuffs. I bought some tea cozy for my friends there.

Every time I visited, I always end up buying a couple of cute and pretty dishtowels for myself.

There are some walls for the students to have freedom of speech. I think Oct.11 is National Coming Out Day, so the students expressed their own thoughts on the wall.

This is another panel of walls.

I invited Krisitna and her friends for a dinner together. We had great Italian food. Annie, thanks for the great choice of restaurant.

Kristina and her boyfriend Zach.

Zach, someday you will see the goofy book and I will see you two soon in November.

Kristina's friend Annie and her boyfriend Nathaniel.

Nice to meet you, Nathaniel.

Annie, you two look cute together.

(from L to R) Zach, Kristina, Jasmine, Annie, Nathaniel, Kendra.

I don't know what happened to the picture of 3 girls inside of the restaurant. Sorry.

They are really good friends. The other girl, Claire, who was gone to East coast for the weekend. She is very fun too. See you next time, Claire.

Thank you all for making my weekend fun and young.

When I checked in the hotel so late, they upgraded me from a regular room to an Executive Suite. What a surprise. The whole place to myself. It WAS a nice runaway.

Kristina's farallon islands 2

This is the entire crew for seabird research during the summer on the islands. Most of the time one or two people would take 2 weeks off before going back for another 8 weeks. Those 2 weeks are for recharging, visiting families, and keeping themselves sane without listening birds.

Kristina likes to take picture of birds life. Here is a baby cracking eggshell.

Here is the new Gull baby. Sort of wet.

Now the baby's feathers are all fluffed up.

Some baby chicks are still protected by the parents until they are ready to face the whole crowd of thousands. On the islands, there are 12 different species and about 300,000 populations.

Some young birds get bullied by the neighbor adult birds.

Sometimes Kristina is lucky to stay inside to observe the birds. No attacking! No pooping on the clothes! Hooray!

She learned to band the birds.

Look at the color of this birds. So black and red.

Most of the time the birds try to catch fish for their diet. For this one, she found a tiny rock fish.

When they don't have enough food, then they might even try to eat their neighbor young chick. So sad!

Lucky for this bird. I think it's got a squid in her mouth. Ocean delicacy.

Kristina said that she saw whales, sea lions, and elephant seals. Occasionally her job was to observe their flipper and record some kind of data. If you click on the ocean picture, you might see two whales in the ocean and one was sprouting the water.

Wow! The mouth is UGLY.

Kristina's farallon islands 1

Kristina came back from Farallon Islands internship at the end of July. I will tell you a little bits of her adventure. She went to the island by some volunteer boats.

The island doesn't have any port or pier to load and unload like the regular boat. They have to use crane to transfer people and other stuff.

These are the bands for them to do the banding on the birdies.

The living situation is the tough part. The islands are appr. 30 miles away from SF, so they don't have regular electricity and water and food supply. They collect solar light and rain water, so people have to conserve electricity and only shower every 3-4 days. They get food supply every other Saturdays. Everyone on the land has to take turn to cook for the whole crew of 6. This is their spice rack.

These male birds are doing some kind of dance to get the female interested. I don't know what type of the birds or what type of dance, I only just think that they are pretty and funny.

This is Kristina holding a West Gull (I think). Too bad that you are not allowed to save them (as pet). If you are on the island, you are suppose to just do the job, record the data, and let them to be living the natural way, so the interns are able to collect the precise datas.

She is wearing all layers to keep the cold out. She is also wearing hard hat inside the hood cause the birds see the human beings as their predators. The birds will find any chance to attack and poke her head besides pooping on her every so often.

With all the attacking and pooping, she still loves them. Every time there are some new chicks, she couldn't help but picking up and taking a photo with them.

Mark's quick visit

Mark came for a short visit during the McOmber's reunion. He wanted to take some photos to see how tall Brittany is. Brittany feels intimidated by somebody's height the 1st time. She is pretty tall (5'11") and hasn't felt other people being tall if they are no taller than (6'4"). I felt really short in front of these tall people. Doug and Joe, I enjoyed talking to you both too much to remember taking some pictures with you. We should take some next time.

Mark, Brittany said that she really appreciated that you remember all the activities that she has been doing. She was happy that you paid attention to her instead of just talking to us and see her as a "child". Thanks!

Visiting Lodi

We visited Earl & Betty's family on July 16. It was a great day for a swim. Betty, thank you for all the goodies you prepared. They taste SO good. Earl, thank you for letting us come for the day.

This is Amber with Juno. He is very good-natured boy.

This is Jamie with T.J. He has the gorgeous smile and he is so happy.

Brittany is holding T.J. Brittany loves all her cousin's children . T.J. has those cute dimples.

Mateo (teo) has bundle of energy which goes along with his curly hair.

Juno is following the bigger kids wherever they go. He loves fruit.

Alanna and Mateo were like buddies. They even hide together. But I still got them.

Kalli found her buddy (Brittany) of the day to swim with.

Kids love jumping into the pool. I enjoyed watching them doing that.

The twosomes.

Here is Alanna jumping in.

They found Brittany as the swimming pal.