Happy Family at Zion food court

Remember I said I wanted some fried oysters? TC and I made the trek up to Balboa Ave today to get these, as well as a small tray of sushi and some Japanese snacks at Mitsuwa.
Man, I didn't realize how thick that panko crust was! We ate this at...

the Food Court in Zion Marketplace. We'd never eaten here and I remember this post from MMM-Yoso's blog. Except instead of "Happy Meal", it was called..."Happy Family". I ordered the Beef Box which was $7.99. This was the same thing that MMM-Yoso ordered and I noticed, after rereading his entry that they had raised the price $1.00. The girl who rang me up was quite helpful. She could probably tell that I couldn't read the signs in Korean. The prices were also in Korean I believe.
Here's the Beef Box. Lettuce cut into strips with thousand island dressing, some sort of dipping sauce, a scoop of rice, two fried mandu (or gyoza), bulgogi with onions and potatoes, and sliced plum (which TC ate). TC and I shared this after we ate our oysters and California roll. The beef was not as tender as I hoped it would be. There were also some pieces that were too fatty and chewy. I thought this was overpriced. In addition to upping their prices, they also took out soup as one of the starters.These were the panchan - kimchee, tiny dried fish, (mild) pickled radish) and what appeared to be fried seaweed. Ever the culinary trouper, TC tried almost everything on this plate and even had thirds of the dried fish. I didn't particularly like the fried seaweed. It was dry and had the texture of sawdust. The fish were also a bit chewy. I like fried dilis much better.

Because we had gone to Mitsuwa earlier, I brought in those previous purchases because I didn't want the Pocky snacks to melt in the car. We ended up buying more crap at Zion. I bought Bert another bottle of Soju. Man, the young guy working the cash register didn't even bother to card me!!!

Ashes

These pics were taken on Tuesday afternoon by Bert. Even though the Harris fire was quite far from our neighborhood, we took no chances and spent the night at his mom's place down in Otay Mesa. Bert went back to videotape our belongings. Lots of ash in the driveway...

Later that evening, we had dinner at my parents house in Otay Mesa. This photo was taken around 6 pm at the top of Arey Drive. That's the Montgomery Middle School tennis courts down there.

View from my parents' front yard a few minutes later.

The sunsets have been quite surreal lately due to all the ash and smoke in the air.

Tea Pavilion & the SDNHM

This was taken last Sunday on our way to Balboa Park. Here we are on the 5 nearing the 6th Avenue exit. Nice clear day...so far! We had some lunch at the Japanese Tea Pavilion, located near the Spreckels Organ Pavilion.

This was the teriyaki chicken bowl. The rice was too mushy. Nothing is worse than mushy rice and bland chicken despite the sauce they slathered this in. This was shared by Bert and TC.

I had half of this sandwich. Kind of like a California roll but in sandwich form. Fake crab meat, mayo, wasabi, lettuce and avocado.

Bert and TC actually went to the Tea Pavilion ahead of me. I wanted to check out the International Gift shop first (I do all my Christmas shopping early - my goal is to be done my either late October or early November). Distracted by a table milling about with elderly people, I bought this pastry sampler from the ladies of the House of Czech and Slovak. There were all kinds of little plates; this one was $2.50 for five pieces. Clockwise from 11 O'clock - prune cookie, blueberry cake, cherry strudel, poppyseed cake and apricot cookie.

This was the prune which Bert and I really liked. In truth, I could have polished off that whole plate myself but it was shared by all. You'd have to eat a lot of these to really have an "effect".

The apricot cookie was moist and flavorful. The coconut topping was a nice touch.

This was a sweet yet salty rice cracker that Bert bought at the Tea Pavilion. From this angle, it kind of looks like a thick piece of chicharron.

The Moreton Bay Fig near the San Diego Natural History Museum . I remember when I was a kid, we would sit under the tree during field trips to the park. Can't do that anymore. The tree is fenced off now to prevent people from destroying the tree. TC had a free SDNHM pass and I had a 2 for 1 ($9 total for me and Bert) pass so we saved some money. Because of the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit, we had to go through security. We didn't see that particular exhibit (it costs extra plus it would bore TC) anyways, opting to see the basic stuff at the museum. We even caught the 2:15 "Ms. Frizzle" show - this time the kids learned about bats.

This a fossilized piece of prehistoric sloth fecal matter. Lovely. These are called Coprolites.

The last time TC and I went here, it was a "Free" Tuesday which was horrible because everyone and their grandmother was here. Everyone goes on Free day and it was a hassle moving through crowded exhibits with rude brats and screaming babies. This time, our pace was more relaxed, it was quiet and TC was able to do the hands on exhibits unlike last time.

Folks lined up for tickets on the bottom floor...

Bert with the manatee statue...

On our way home we crossed the 54 and saw a big plume of white smoke coming from behind the mountains. Looked like trouble was in the air...I could smell a faint odor of acrid smoke. When we turned on the TV, news of the fires were on every channel.

Orchid Show

After lunch we headed over to the San Diego Natural History Musem. BUT...on the way there, we saw a sign for a craft fair near the Casa del Prado. I ended up buying a few items plus a pair of earrings for myself. There was also the bi-annual Orchid Show. My friend's mom is the president of the San Diego Orchid Society and sure enough, there she was talking up a storm with visitors. She's quite knowledgeable and was very helpful to the guests. We said "hi" to her and checked out the many award winning flowers on display. Here are a few of the specimens we saw. Sorry, I don't know the names of any of these! The only thing that kind of sucked about taking photos in this room was that you either had someone in the background (like this foot below) or the linoleum floor, chairs or the walls. Ugh.

I thought these were lovely...I liked the long curly petals and the unusual striping.

Interesting color combination. This was another specimen that the Orchid Society president raised. I believe she mentioned it was a Miltonia (normally called "Pansy Faced orchids), but these didn't have the "pansy face". This one is from Brazil.

This won the Best of Show and was grown by my friends' mom.

These flowers were so beautiful. Some varieties were quite striking with unusual color combinations. Orchids seem so hard to take care of. I totally do NOT have a green thumb! These flowers would die under my care.

Filipino party in San Ysidro

Last weekend, we attended a birthday party for my friend's daughter. They've been in this new house in San Ysidro for a little over a year now. Their place is on a hill overlooking the 905. You can see Mexico (far left)...the Pacific Ocean (middle)...up to Point Loma (hidden in this shot). There's a glare here because his fence is clear acrylic.
So check this out...the cleared area below was a spot where Caltrans wanted to dump trash. The neighbors complained so that idea was abandoned. That would have been an awful view...to see a makeship dump as if folks in San Ysidro wouldn't mind. Anyways, this is the canyon where there was a small fire earlier this week. It was supposedly started by some kids - yeah, pyros...Luckily the fire was contained before it spread to any houses, including my friend's.

You can see the Otay Mountains in the distance. Keep going east on the 905 freeway and you'll hit San Ysidro High School, Brown Field, Sony, Donovan State Prison and eventually, the border checkpoint.

As with any Filipino birthday party, you know there's gotta be food. His wife is a good cook and she always kicks ass with her food spread. What I like about her style is that she doesn't always dotraditional Filipino foods or serve a lot of fried stuff (well, two items were). You can see asparagus, toasted baguette slices with dip, sliced fresh fruits, and marinated vegetables. Not stuff that your normal auntie puts out on the table.

Along with the fresh fruits, she had sliced veggies for toppings, mini shanghai lumpia with sweet and sour dip as well as rice. I liked her presentation of the rice. No giant Zoijirushi orchid patterned rice cooker here (although I like those and I want one!)! She even had baked mini potatoes along with sliced honeybaked ham. Snacks not pictured were the boiled peanuts (yum!), assorted sliced cheeses and sausages plus chips and guacamole dip.

And yes...oh yes...the fried salt and pepper chicken wings! It ain't no partay unless you gots the wings! They also had sliced fruits for the chocolate fountain! For the younger kids they also had pizza but we made sure TC had a few bits of greenery! The only thing missing was pancit which, although Chinese in origin, is traditional to serve at Filipino birthday parties because long noodles symbolize long life.

Okay, does Filipino style spaghetti count? I'm not a fan of "sweet" spaghetti but Bert tried this and said it was pretty good. No sliced hotdogs in there though.

This is what I really enjoyed! The roast beef! My friend's dad, a retired Navyman and cook, made this. The curvy covered dish had the kickass gravy with mushrooms. This was just like my dad's! Gotta hand it to the Navy cooks, they really know how to do it right.

Last year they had a lechon, complete with decapitated head and apple in its mouth. This tasted just as good!

Coronado

Last week, on a beautiful gorgeous Friday, I attended a counselor training for the AVID program at the Coronado Community Center. The sky was so nice and clear and the weather quite pleasant (mid 70's). Little did we know what lay in store over the weekend.The Coronado Community Center is located next to Glorietta Bay, acroff from these high rise condos.

I took the "long" way, which was taking the Strand instead of the freeway to the Coronado Bridge. I don't know about you, but I do not like driving on bridges. I have nightmares about those things. Plus, I didn't want to deal with traffic from my house to the 805. I'm used to a 5 minute commute so anything over that sucks for me. My husband suggested taking the Strand since there wouldn't really be any traffic (well there was at the very end after passing the Navy Seal base). I ended up taking the Strand home as well. Again, my fear of traffic and having to drive over that damn bridge, as beautiful as it may be. Look below, you can see the Coronado Hotel peeking above the trees.

This was a sculpture called "Sea Passage" (2005) by James Hubbell.

Luckily for me, I missed grade day but I found out later that the machine that scores grades wasn't working. The students would get their grades the following Monday...As with every grading period come the inevitable phone calls from parents and complaints from students to switch out of certain teachers' classesand so on...Stuff I get to look forward to in the next few weeks!

The Answer to Greenbox #5

 And this painted utility box is located...

on the Northwest corner of 24th and National City Blvd (aka the "Mile of Cars"). Congratulations to Lotus. For her prize, she gets my old fruit and vegetable peelings for her mulch.
I need to make these harder!

Fried oysters

Yeah, that might sound a bit gross, but I really have a craving for deep fried panko coated oysters or 'oyster fry' as it's called on the package). I bought a small tray at the takeout counter in Mitsuwa a few weeks ago with TC. I think we'll go there tomorrow (since I have no work and she has no school) and pick up a few Japanese food items. The takoyaki we had wasn't so great but the fried oysters were.

Bert's going to go in for work tomorrow. I have some errands to do anyways, like buy Halloween candy and paper towels. Too bad there aren't any decent PG movies out there. They all pretty much suck. Lately, we've been watching the Harry Potter flicks on dvd. "Order of the Phoenix" comes out in early December. The best and darkest movie yet.

Update

Good news. The Harris fire is pretty much died down. The winds blew the other way. No danger to Eastlake, Bonita, etc...Our place was far from the fiery danger but we spent last night at Bert's mom's place just to be safe. Even though we can go back tonight, we'll be there another night. Plus, TC gets to spend time with her Lola that way. All schools, as I thought, have cancelled classes this whole week which means I don't work for this whole week either. Two of my coworkers went on the educators trip to the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. They sure picked a good week to be out. Lucky for them, their neighborhoods aren't in danger. My bro in law has a friend whose parents' house was spared by the fire in Rancho Bernardo. You know how they had those scrolling bars down at the bottom of the tv screen...listing streets and addresses of the burnt homes? Well, several homes on that particular street were burned including a neighbor two houses away, but their house was either saved or untouched by the fire. It's wierd how these things happen.

Fire

I went home early today because of the massive wildfires all over San Diego county. All classified and certificated staff were dismissed at 1:30 pm by our Principal. The only people who were to stay were the Administrators. Although east Chula Vista is not in direct danger from the fire, the air quality was (and still is) so bad that no one was allowed outside, PE was cancelled, etc. Parents were picking up their students en masse at the main office so they ended up moving kids to the cafeteria and gym to get picked up. It was pretty crazy. I had to see a student in a classroom to give him his college letter of recommendation. I heard and saw kids coughing, wheezing and looking miserable. The district has cancelled school for tomorrow but we are on call for Wednesday. Four years ago school (and work for me) was cancelled for one whole week.

What a day this was. I woke up to the sound of the howling wind. We live on a hill and our bedroom window faces east. Our palm tree in the back yard was whipping back and forth. Leaves everywhere in the front yard. After the sun rose, you could see the dark ominous cloud rising above the mountains. It was strange seeing parts of the sky crystal clear at 6:30 am but towards the southeast, dark and cloudy. I keep thinking back to the fires from four years ago. The sky was dark as were the clouds. Yesterday and today (and tomorrow) - hot (80 degrees), sunny in parts, but hazy, and windy. It's going to be in the 90's tomorrow and that won't help these awful conditions. Bert's work called him and told him to stay home. The freeways are pretty much closed as well. TC went to school but the kids were dismissed by noon. I have a feeling that school/work will be cancelled for the week. Scary, these fires! There's one in San Ysidro but that is contained from what I heard. It's a few miles near my parents place. Ironically the fire, allegedly set by some kids, started in a canyon near a friend's new home in Ocean View Hills in San Ysidro. We were just there for his daughter's birthday party. His backyard has an awesome view of Mexico up to Point Loma.

There is also a small fire on East Otay Lakes Road 5 miles past the Woods at Eastlake. Nothing really close to our place, but it's scary for us since we live near a small canyon and there WAS a small fire there several years ago. For more info on the wildfires, check the news .

Update - 5 pm
Eastlake, Bonita, San Miguel Ranch and Rolling Hills are under voluntary evacuation so at this point, it's just a precaution. Same with my bro and sis and they live in the Heritage area of Otay Ranch. We live on the other side in Rancho del Rey. Seriously, we packed our clothes, toiletries, got our important documents, photo albums, plus food and water just in case we need to get the hell out. Bert's sis is up in the Mt. Carmel area and haven't been told to evacuate yet. Packing our stuff really made me think about what's really important. We're lucky since we're not in a life and death situation where we have to get out with no time to think and reflect on what we need to bring.

Update 7:50 pm
Okay, we're going to Bert's mom's place. My bro and sis are going to our parents house in Otay Mesa. The fire jumped Proctor Valley Road and although it's pretty far from their place and our place (10 miles or so), it's still too close for comfort. Those embers can still travel and end up near us. People that live in Bella Lago (new home development in East Chula Vista) and in the Woods now have mandatory evacuation. Soooo, we'd rather be safe than sorry. I'd hate to be sleeping, then find out that the fire is in our backyard!

Greenbox #5

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Guess the location of this greenbox. There are a few clues in the photo... Answer to post next week.