Cincinnati June - Samantha Opal Daniels

I'm really not sure how we were able to pack so much into one two week period during this last trek to Cincinnati, but we certainly did. This trip will generate a number of new posts, but first is the arrival of our newest member of the family, Samantha Opal Daniels. I didn't dare even hope that we would get to see this new baby during this trip- it just seemed too much to hope for. I could hope that the weather would be good (it was rather mixed) and that the barbeque would be good (it was), but I thought it would be too much to hope for my new grandbaby- right at the perfect time. But it happened- a new baby to make this trip home absolutely perfect! Mary and Kevin's new daughter came on Tuesday, June 10. Samantha (SAM) is a family name in the Lucas clan. My Dad's father was Samuel Van Lucas, my brother is Samuel Van, and of course Mary Samantha the mother of this beautiful girl. Opal is also a family name, my mother's middle name. And Opal is one of my favorite gemstones, one that is creamy white with sparkles of pink and blue light. This new grand daughter is also a jewel as you can readily see.

She was 6 days old when this picture was taken and she is a sweetheart. I'm not quite sure if this little one will be quite as beautiful as her mother (Mary Samantha)- or her Great-Grandmother (Juanita Opal), but she sure is off to a great start. She is absolutely gorgeous. Perfect in every way. For those of you interested in those traditional vital statistics, she weighed 8.25 pounds and was 21 inches long with lots of dark hair. Mary's delivery went well and she came home with Samantha the day after the delivery. As you can see from the following pictures, this little girl is special, especially to her father's side of the family. Kevin is one of two boys and his brother has two son's. This is the first girl and they are excited about her arrival. But not any more that the proud father.

And of course one of the best parts about Samantha's arrival is that her great grandmother was there see her. Here are Juanita Opal, Mary Samantha and Samantha Opal. This was truly special.
As you can see, Great was enjoying seeing this namesake more than anyone.

And I loved seeing these four generations together- Grandma, Don, Mary and our beautiful new granddaughter.


But then, we all were enjoying this wonderful event and the special timing in which she arrived. What could have been better than to give us a new grandchild while we were in Cincinnati celebrating Matthew's and Sharon's marriage. We all just gave thanks for a wonderful healthy little girl.

Uncle Matthew got his turn to hold his new niece.

And the two special honorary grandparents, Fouad and Mary Ezra. They have been friends since Mary was born, and to have them with us this past week was also very special.

But extra special is how excited Taylor is about his new baby sister.

And he is always excited to help....

But then nothing is quite as good as a chocolate cookie!

Return to the HAH- Our Home Away From Home

We had intended to begin our posts after our return from Ohio with the announcement of our new baby granddaughter Samantha Opal, but I am wading through more than 700 pictures trying to select only the best (you might think I would consider posting all 700- but I'm not- it would take hours- literally hours- to upload- and even I couldn't to that). So I'll return to that task tomorrow- or the next- or the next- or than maybe I'll just have to wait for Don to EFFICIENTLY approach such a daunting task.

But today- my first day back- and first day back to work - was so absolutely perfect that it just seemed a day that had to be enjoyed- a day enjoyed in its beauty. I enjoyed it ALONE. Don is in San Diego at a conference. He got up at 4am and flew out while I was still fast asleep. For him this day has been rather an extension of our homecoming. Rimma and Kevin and Elizabeth (Don's goddaughter) are at the conference- Don reports that Elizabeth is impeccably dressed- and beautiful as usual. But enough of Don- I'm the one who had such a perfect day.

I didn't work hard - in fact it didn't feel like work at all- just visits with delightful people you are glad to know for a while- And I found close parking places in unexpected places- And I have the Smart (the Too Cute) back from the car doctor with a new window.

And the weather is unbelievable- mid to high 60s or low 70s with a slight breeze- clear blue sky- Everyone is smiling it is such a beautiful day. We all feel like we're on a holiday.

So when I got home I walked down to the Marina and ate at Pacific Catch- our currently favorite restaurant...


I had the Wasabi Rice Bowl- my favorite (BBQ Unagi- Japanese eel with seaweed, sprouts, brown rice and pickled ginger) and a glass of a California Sauvignon Blanc.

And then a walk to the Bay. With the city to my back...

Alcatraz to my right...


And the Golden Gate Bridge to my left...

The day was so perfect- with just the right wind that the Bay was filled with sail boats- and I watched as they sailed in at the end of the beautiful day...


I took the bus up the hill to Tully's coffee-

Better than Seattle's Best- and it is from Seattle (the locals are partial to Peet's- the original San Fran- or rather Berkeley- coffee house- But we love Tully's). The Dutchman Blend is from Pacific/Indonesia Beans and has a rich flavor with just a hint of chocolate- And we only had one pot left which is now gone- when we got home yesterday.

Then I walked the hill home and paused at the corner before coming into the apartment and looked left....

And then right...

And felt so high from the beauty of it all. There's plenty of time to sort those 700+ pictures... But tonight the beauty of the city called.

Tortillas! Homemade!

A few posts ago, we wrote about food and one of the things mentioned was a Mexican restaurant that we visited in Oakland with Brandy. Of course Max had bought the cook book previously and was already making plans to visit their rather exclusive restaurant (different from the one we were at) chefed by Dona and Tomas, a place that you apparently need reservations several months in advance. I'm not so excited about eating at a place that you need to plan that far in advance but Max is determined, so I'm sure we will do it sometime. One of the things we noticed at this less famous, almost fast food place version, was the guy making tortillas in their wide open kitchen. He was taking blobs of corn flour dough and squishing them by hand with a tortilla maker. The one he was using was wood, but Max was able to find a metal version at a kitchen store in Napa. Who would have thought that she might find a place selling kitchen stuff in wine country?? So below is our new "appliance" that we obviously needed since we didn't have one. I love kitchen toys! It adds interest- and in fact sometimes defines what direction my meandering approach to cooking. After all- I have to find uses for these myriad of kitchen gadgets- can't just let them take up space. But back to the tortillas- all the books said that homemade tortillas made a BIG difference- and with a little practice.....

The plan was to make our own tortillas for homemade fish tacos. Now we usually buy corn tortillas at the grocery and just use those, but home made tortillas compared to store bought are kind of like comparing Wonder Bread to home made bread. So we bought masa harina (corn flour) and Max mixed up the dough balls. Masa harina is ground corn- into flour- not corn meal that is used for corn bread- and then the corn flour is soaked in lime (not the lemon- lime fruit variety but rather lime- as in quarry)- before it becomes masa harina. Don should feel lucky that I tired out before I could finish the instructions for the masa harina- grinding corn and then soaking it in lime water- Don't think I'm ready for that.

They were squished using the "tortilla flatteners". The recipe is easy- two cups of masa and then one cup of water+more as needed. Not hard- but next time I'll use a bit more water- the dough was too stiff and wouldn't press out thin enough.

My job was to cook them on the grill according to a specific protocol (30 seconds, flip, 2 minutes, flip, 30 more seconds, done)
Max kept the supply coming, so I was trying to remember which ones were on the first 30 seconds vs the 2 minutes vs the second 30 seconds. I had two timers going, but really needed three and another set of hands. It was hysterical watching Don "cook" the tortillas- a timer was always going off- and he was always trying to figure out which tortilla needed to be turned. But they all did get cooked. By the way, just to the right of the grill in the above picture is a second "essential" kitchen thing, a "tortilla keep warmer". Once again, we didn't have one, so of course we needed one. I believe that Don will always be grateful he has such a well equipped kitchen! What do you all think?

To compliment our meal we needed color. Max believes that food that consists only in various shades of brown just isn't healthy. Don loves brown! He thinks that the perfect Mexican dinner would be beef enchiladas, re fried beans and rice- All various shades of brown. (Of course his absolute favorite meal is bacon, eggs, fried potatoes and biscuits- All browns and beige and white.) So we added health with cantolope spiced with jalapeno and mint- from our window garden- thanks to Don- and lime- lime juice- not the salt! And of course fish tacos need a slaw to finish them off. Our colorful slaw was purple cabbage, more cilantro, more jalapeno, and some jicama (I know, jicama is white, but isn't that a color?), and scallions- that I always thought were green onions until I started reading so many recipes- but to me they'll always be green onions.

The other problem was that our tortillas were a little too thick (we now know why- the recipe need more water- and next time I'll just use a fork rather than my counter mixer- even though I try to use my appliances as often as possible- but sometimes a fork just works better!) and consequently a little too stiff. So what could be better than open face tacos. We just stacked things up with a tortilla, some tilapia sauteed with jalapenos and onions (green of course and lime juice), a little slaw and then another tortilla with the process repeated. The result was pretty good and looked good too. Mexican food is pretty straight forward- cilantro- with its fresh taste, jalapenos- the heat- and lime juice (and salt and pepper).

I do need to add that Don had make a pitcher of Sangria while I was at work- And that is my new favorite drink with Mexican cuisine. So the evening was a grand success!

The Sox and the A's

One of the nice things about San Francisco, particularly if you like baseball, is that it is a large enough city to host two baseball teams, one in the each of the leagues. We went to a Giants game against the Reds earlier in the spring (which Cincinnati won 10-9), and last Saturday we ventured across the bay to go to an A's game in McAfee Coliseum. To get to Oakland one must cross the bay bridge, and then fight the traffic through Oakland to head south to the stadium. We decided to use the metro system instead of fighting the traffic and then the parking lot at the stadium. So we started with a bus that we could catch about 2 blocks from our house. Once off the bus we descended into the metro rail system to take BART (Bay Area Regional Transportation) across the bay.

All in all, we got there quicker and the cost was a good bit less than bridge tolls, parking costs, and gas not to mention the frustration of fighting traffic. Last year we went to the Boston versus Oakland with Brandy and Will (before we had any idea that we might be living here for a while). It was a celebration trip- to celebrate the safe return of Brandy and Will from Iraq. Brandy bought us Boston hats- and we were all decked out for this game. One big difference though- at this game there were as many Boston fans as there were Oakland fans- we definitely not alone!

The BART station is right next to the stadium, and we had great seats on the 3rd base line to watch the game. The last time we were at the stadium it was between these same two teams. That was last summer and the Boston pitcher, Beckett, came within one out of pitching a no-hitter and except for that one hit and an error, it would have been a perfect game, a very rare event. Beckett was pitching again, but he just didn't have the same stuff and lasted only 6 innings.


Both pitchers did well and Boston only got one hit in the game, so it was nearly an opposite game from last years since the A's won this one.
The first baseman for Boston, Kevin Youkilis, is a hometown boy-A Cincinnati hometown boy! Youkilis graduated from Sycamore High school and then played 4 season at the University of Cincinnati where his batting average was .627. So cheering for Boston- is cheering for the home team.

I bet everyone is pretty impressed that I was able to get such a good picture with my little Sony Digital- from way up high in the stands.

I must say that at both games we noticed that A's fans are a little different than what we have experience in other parks. These fans are noisy and rowdy.

This is a picture from last year when we were with Brandy and Will-

We didn't see fans quite so "colorful" as these two- but we certainly did find fans as noisy!
Sitting next to me was a "lady" with a large voice. Every time an A's player did something (regardless of whether it was an infield pop up, a home run or a strike out) she yelled "way to go baby" in a somewhat shrill voice. And in the event of a home run, she did a rather interesting dance (that I won't try to describe) right there at her seat that I believe was an expression of her joy about the event. Then after the last out and a win by the A's she did it again while we just stood there and waited until we could leave our seats. Nonetheless, it was entertaining, although also a bit annoying. But we were the visitors (we had on our Sox hats) so we were in no position to complain about it. We were certainly not the only Sox fans there. This Red Sox Nation thing is real. I do believe that there were about as many Sox fans in the Stadium as A's fans, and they were just a loud, but just didn't have much to cheer about.

We did enjoy the park,

The food concourse is dark- with a heavy concrete feel- crowded- and dark- But boy do they have the food!

While Don waited in the seats for the first pitch I wandered about looking at the food- and beer- and of course the "official" clothes.


I hope Don is appropriately appreciative of his "Big Hot Dog"- monster of a hot dog- a Saag's Atomic Hot. And it took me over 2 innings to wait in line- don't think there is ever a lull in the food lines at his ballpark.

And of course the hot dogs (Max did attempt to make sure I had another mustard/nose event).


I like the peanuts- where else but a ballgame can you drop the shells at your feet-


and the game before catching BART for a ride back across the bay and onto home.

A great way to spend a Saturday night!

Sailing on the bay

Dick Haiduck is a friend that I met about 15 years ago in the biotech industry when he was with a company called Desmos in San Diego. Over the last 15 years Dick has moved about the industry and is now working independently as what I call a CEO gofor. That is, he reports to the CEO's of a number of biotech companies and does work specifically for the CEO. He usually has 3 in his stable and provides them with resources that CEO's need to satisfy the requirements of their respective boards. Dick now lives down on the peninsula with is wife Barb and the two of them are some of the nicest people you could ever meet. Dick and Barb are what you call a "Miami Merger"- Miami University (that's the university that was a university before Florida was a state) has an incredible number of kids who meet in college and "merge" their lives- Dick and Barb are one much "merger". Barb hails from Hamilton, Ohio- And they spent some early days of their marriage living in Cincinnati so they are really folks from home. They're the sort of folks you just like to be around doing "whatever"- but sailing was a huge treat.

Dick has a sail boat that he docks in the marina just next to AT&T baseball park here in San Francisco and he asked Max and me to go sailing with him and Barb last Sunday. We of course jumped at the opportunity and scheduled to meet them at the marina at 1:00. We both got there at about 1:00, but as it turned out there are two parking lots at the Marina and we were at one and he and Barb were at the other. We were both about to give up on meeting each other when I decided to do some searching and found them sitting on a curb waiting patiently for us to show up.

Once we finally got organized and I was parked in the right parking lot, we prepared his sail boat for some time on the bay.

Now Max has never really sailed and I had only been out once several years before with Dick while at a conference here is SF. I wasn't really "nervous" about the adventure- we see so many boats at in the bay I rather thought had gotten use to the idea. But I must admit my heart did race a bit when Dick asked me if I knew how to swim- well one thing for sure I hadn't planned on swimming- I don't like swimming even in more hospitable water. He then did reassure me we weren't at risk of tipping over- well not much risk but I could wear a life vest if I wished- I bravely said no. We set off out of the marina and sailed under the Bay Bridge heading for Alcatraz Island and beyond. But it was a pretty windy day and the bay west of the Bay Bridge was pretty rough. That's Alcatraz in the background and a large container ship that was steaming into the harbor.

It was "smooth sailing" until we crossed under the Bay bridge on our way to Angel Island, Alcatraz and views of the Golden Gate Bridge- But the minute we crossed out into this part of the Bay the waters got SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO rough and the waves SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO big.

So we turn and go back towards the Bay Bridge- and then try again. Now this was the moment of the real racing heart- we dipped and the wave came crashing over - splashing cold water all around- just like those movies of the battle between the angry sea and the fisherman's boat- But before I could get really nervous at all it was over and we were headed back to calmer water.
And below is Barb with the rapidly closing container shop passing us by.

Max's first indication that this was not just a sail in the park was when a wave broke over the bow and sent rather cold water spraying on us all. We tried the waters west of the Bay Bridge for a while and then decided to head back to calmer waters not too far from the baseball park.

Once we got into some decent water with steady but not too heavy winds, Dick felt that it was calm enough for both Max and I to take our turns at the wheel and we sailed on the bay for over two hours. But Dick was always close by making sure we didn't all get wet.

I was just more than a bit nervous about about "driving" this boat- But Dick was determined that I have an opportunity to take the "helm". I thought I was doing absolutely perfect until Don and Dick pointed out the the tail of my driving so visible in the wake of the boat was very, very ripply- to say I was weaving a bit was an understatement- And I hadn't noticed at all!

She was doing great and building confidence until the wind changed a little and we were suddenly moving a bit faster and starting to list over as the wind bit into our sales.

We finally headed back to the marina and with the baseball park in the background, we brought the boat back into the dock. But before we arrived in the dock Dick and Don brought in the sails.



Then it was the drive into the marina.

By now the Giants game was over and the water a softer blue. What a fantastic day! I just love doing things for the very first time- at 59 years old!

It was a great day on the bay, although I got some real sun burns on my face (the only part of me exposed since it was pretty cool out on the water and I just didn't recognize that the UV rays were still burning through my cheeks (on my face).