Daughter rang up Mom one night, after hearing some good news.

D: Hi Mom.
M: How are you?
D: Good.  Hey, you know our cousin is having another baby?
M: Really?
(Words and words of excitement are omitted here.)
D: Yup!  I figure you may call Auntie to say Congrats.
M: How about you?
D: What about me?
M: When are you having a baby?
D: Why asking about me now?  We are talking about our cousin.  Let's go back to talk about them.
M: We are talking about you NOW.
D: Naw, I'm still young. (Still in her 20s.)
M: You're not.  Giving birth (the first time) as an older woman has all sorts of complications... (blah blah blah)
D: How about Older Sis?  You should ask her when she is having a baby first.
M: But she isn't married.
D: So?
M: So I'm talking about you now.
D: Mine really doesn't matter to you anyway.  The baby will carry my husband's last name.  You only really care about those that carry yours.  ASK OLDER BRO when he is getting married.
M: But it will be a long way to go.
D: We didn't get married because of all this.

Our friends from the OC came down to have a weekend getaway.  In the sunny Saturday afternoon, we decided to rent a fast boat to jump some waves in the San Diego bay. 

They have many different types of boats for rental.  Some were like party boats.  Some were like water motorcycles.

We reserved this one...

The shade was a nice touch, since the sun was strong that day. 

In a minute, we were about to sail away just like this...

We started sailing!

I am not good with being on water.  So, I insisted on sitting in the back. 

Even so, it was pushing my limit.

We passed Harbor Island, Shelter Island, and then sailed around outside the military area...

This was when we saw them...

Seals. =) 
These seals were located in the middle of the water.  One must be sailing to get to them. 

Somehow, the voices were so damn cute.  

We continued sailing.  Got way passed the Coronado Bridge.  We docked at Coronado island pier for snacks, and I took a nap on the beautiful grass. 

What a wonderful summer day. =D  Hubby was very surprised that I was excited about getting on the water.  Hehe...

Labor Day had passed.  It's official that summer is over, even though the heat is still surrounding us every day.  It was a very busy summer that we had!  A lot of outdoor activities that I surprised myself to have participated. 

In a way, I feel content. 

My lime green nail polish... I particularly picked it out at the store because of its vibrant color which reminded me summer had arrived.  It was back in late June.  I first wore it to a friend's bonfire at the beach to celebrate the 4th of July. 

Did I mention before I decorated my first apartment in lime green + lemon yellow?  That was the color scheme and I loved it much.  The colors cheer me up.

This weekend, we had it easy.  First we checked out the Art Walk event, where local artists showcased their work bi-annually, behind seaport village in downtown, in a comfortable sunny day on Saturday.  Then we basically stayed at home to catch up on movies. 

Lately we watched:
The Reader
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Revolutionary Road
The Watchmen
Rachel Getting Married
The Detective (HK movie, starred by Aaron Kwok)

The Reader touched me.  I say that because it is one of the very few movies nowadays that could successfully draw tears out of me.  Maybe I am simply not so fond of the concept of "being framed."  I like the movie.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button reminds me so much of Forest Gump somehow.  It's a decent movie I expected too much.

Revolutionary Road... Dunno what to say other than... What happened to this Titanic couple?!

The Watchmen... too bloody.  This is the kind of movie I should avoid watching.  Plus, I already knew that tall skinny guy was behind the murder right at his first appearance.  The movie is too long.  Almost 3 hours.

Rachel Getting Married was interesting while some parts were really really slow.

As for The Detective, I really wished I hadn't watched it.  Somehow I didn't know it was a horror movie!  I'm going to have all kinds of nightmares...

After posting about the general cruise ship and the activities available, this post is all about the food (That's right!) onboard.  Imagine buffets 24 hours a day for everyday, along with fine dining 3 meals a day everyday and snacks around the ship pretty much any time.

Upon boarding, we couldn't wait to check out what the buffet offered and got some snacks.

Onion rings and chicken nuggets.  I only got my iced tea.  FYI, somehow soda costs extra.  We were happy with iced tea, fruit juices, and hot drinks like tea and coffee, so we didn't purchase the soda pass.

The next snack... I believed I had sushi at the sushi bar.  To be honest, I didn't expect much and still got disappointed.  Oh well.  What do I expect really.  They offer a couple hours of sushi at the sushi bar everyday on the ship.  I thought, if I wanted the freshest sushi, I had better eat them on the first day.  I guess in this case, freshness doesn't really matter when the overall sushi tastes... uh.... (I'm speechless.  You go imagine by looking at the photo below.)

So I have fun with the camera and the nigiri instead.

As I mentioned, you could always choose to go to the main dining room for some fine dining food.  Breakfast, lunch, dinner.  We had the 8:30pm seating (or was it 8:15?) for dinner, which we were so sure not to miss, especially because the food quality was VERY GOOD and the last night would be serving lobster and prime ribs!  The seats were assigned.  No point in getting in line early.  They tried to wait for everyone at the table of 10 before serving anyway, until they realized some people would not show up at all. 

This is the entrance.  Cool model ship. 

The interior of the dining room during the day. 

This is how it looks during the evening.

The breakfast menu.  It was really good.  I ordered the egg benedict with sausage.  Very yummy.  (Somehow this time we weren't assigned to a table with others.)

If not fine dining, we could go any time to get the buffet.  Here is what we got one time for lunch.  They had a pretty good selection.  Think a much bigger hometown buffet.  Nothing fancy though. 

After a full lunch, we walked right outside to enjoy the view (of Catalina Island at the moment) and our coffee and tea.

Other option of food and beverages includes bar snacks and cocktails.  Yeah, cocktails.  We were at one of the lounges and the bartender made me some mango smoothie tasting cocktail with grey goose vodka.  (I only drink grey goose when it comes to vodka.)  It tasted yummy.  The base fair of the cruise does not cover alcohol.

Meatballs and champagne at one of the evening shows where the band played music while people slow-danced.  The hall was so dark thus the poor photo quality.

I don't really drink regular coffee.  Some day I would just crave a "hot, tall, mocha, with easy whip."  Oh wait.  No Starbucks onboard.  But they had "Coffee Shop and Company".

One time I ordered (Yes, it costs extra again.  The base fair does not include specialty coffee.) espresso with cream.  Notice the green circle logo?  Looks like it was inspired by......

One time I got my hot, tall, mocha with easy whip.

Right in front of the coffee shop, there was another bar.  This time a piano bar.  An Asian pianist was playing while I enjoyed the view by the window sipping my mocha.

In the middle of the night, they had an event going on under the stars on the deck.  A band was playing on stage.  We grabbed some nacho cheese for snacks.  They had some Asian noodle soup too.  I didn't try it.  I was feeling some cheese. =)

Next couple posts about the cruise would be on the destinations: Catalina Island, and Ensenada, Mexico.

(... to be continued.)

I pick up playing piano again, as mentioned previously, even though all I have at home is an electronic keyboard.   What I'm trying to accomplish in a major scope is unknown to myself.  What I know is, I'm trying to at least "perfectise" my playing of Chopin Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2 (See it on youtube.) and Tschaikowsky's The Seasons (January, March, April, June, and October so far. Still need to work on the rest.)

Not having enough confidence, I am reluctant to try out any sort of performance gig (like at malls and events).  Knowing I am not the "nicest" person when teaching (I just don't want to say good job when you are making loads of mistakes), I don't think I could teach piano to kids either.  So I have been wondering what I can do about my playing of piano.  Yesterday a thought came by maybe I could play piano at a local orphange.  If anyone has any suggestion, let me know. =)