SJ Orchid Show

Yup, couldn't help myself. Dragged Hubby and off to check it out. Small show as expected, but very nice plants. Happy we went earlier, it's really all packed in and no room to walk between the tables. Not cool.

Wow, a Japanese grower came into town, bringing some amazing orchids with them. Couldn't even think about buying one at all, average price $200. Too much for me to spend on a plant now, no matter how much I love them. Guess I've regained some of my sanity from the orchid obsession!

Bought a plant from the Gold Country guy - he's so friendly and enthusiastic. Love his orchids, have several. Wished there were more I could have bought, but I had similar stuff of most of what he'd brought. Was interested in some of the anceps, but heard the woman being real snarky to someone else, so I passed.

Beautiful plants on display throughout the hotel. Anyway, surprised the heck out of myself by only buying one!

Updating Orchid Spreadsheets

Oh man, had to re-enter all the purchase dates of all the orchids little while back. Old Excel didn't convert properly to new version. Hate this fricking stuff. Lucky for me, I had printed copies, so was able to restore. Score one for hard copies and not relying on computer crap.

Ginza Kitty Centerfold!

How adorable is he?!?

More McClellan Orchids

Oh oh. Watch out. Restrained myself, and only bought 5 today, just about $7 each. No more dend nobiles, though, wish I'd bought a couple more last time then. Got a gorgeous Bllra, smells so wonderful. And a replacement Iwan. Apple Blossom, and another Edvah Loo. Next trip will stop by the other shops in the Flower Mart, lots of orchids for $5-$10 too.

Was going to the SJ show tomorrow, but seems such a long way to go for what sounded like a small show, according to a couple of forums. Still, the addict in me wants to go. But considering that last few trips I've already bought over 20 new ones, I think I need to stop. LMAO. Trying to talk myself out of it by promising a reward next year at the big SF show.

Added a Wonderlite alongside the fluors. Forgot how hot they are. Can't find the clip-on desk fans, using the big fan.

Bllra Tropic Splendor 'Golden Gate'

From Blooming Orchids!

Dend Bertha Chong x Blue Foxtail

From Blooming Orchids!

Br Edvah Loo

From Blooming Orchids!

Dend Aridang Blue No 205

From Blooming Orchids!

Iwan. Apple Blossom

From Blooming Orchids!

Book - Death in Holy Orders

Just finished re-reading, really liked it. Afterwards, saw the movie adaptation again. Also very good.

Rest of the Montalbano series

Came in the mail today. Yippee.

Phal Shelf

Wow. A full 7 years later I've finally reassembled a shelving system and lights for the poor surviving phals. I'm so proud of myself. Hopefully they'll be much happier now. Of course, the longer shelf length is just begging for the longer fluorescents, but I didn't want to waste the ones I already had. Will think about it, maybe use the Wonderlites instead, and save these for overwintering the catts. No hurry on decisions though, just savoring that I finally got off my ass on this.

Work still in progress:

From Everything Else Orchids

CV Book Club - Daughter of Time

Most people found the topic uninteresting and/or confusing. Can see their point, if English history isn't your bag of tea, it'll be tedious. I really enjoyed it again second time around, although I was also confused a bit with all the Georges, Henrys, Edwards, Richards and Elizabeths. LOL.

Don't have time to do much of a review on it, but the ideas are very weighty and very relevant to today's times. Very good book.

New Book Shipment - Da Vinci & Camilleri

Got the French version of the Da Vinci Code today, and Smell of the Night from Amazon marketplace. Yippee.

Movie - Death at a Funeral

Hmmm. Not so funny. Shame. All the ingredients were there, just something odd - really off about the timing, I think. Editing also off. The stoned guy was hilarious.

Wine Country and The City

Hubby wonderful about springing surprise VIP visitors on me, did it again for today. Lovely. Had sum total of Fri evening to plan for the next day - a wine country visit, dinner and entertainment....on a Memorial weekend. Even lovelier. After many many phone calls, was able to score some still impressive places, and rush like a maniac cleaning the house.

Everything went off perfectly. Shuttled them around Sonoma - lunch at the Portuguese place, then wineries, then racing back to the house to meet the limo then off to the City for excellent veal ossobucco and live jazz. Of course, very nice that I finally got to join Hubby in enjoying everything on the company account.

Limo driver was a real trip, nice and affable Ukrainian guy.

Woohoo - Preggers Friend!

Very good friend's finally gotten pregnant. Couldn't have happened to better people. They've really wanted kids for so long, and they'll be fantastic parents. So happy for them!

Flowers - Rhododendron Royal Purple

Flowers - Abraham Darby & Evelyn

Abraham Darby













Evelyn

TV - The Sopranos

OMFG - I MISS THIS SERIES!!! Flipping thru channels the other day, and recognized Pine Barrens right away, so watched the rest of it, although all the fun words are censored. It was a CLASSIC. One of the best episodes in this series. Nonstop black humor. Paulie and Chris were just freaking hilarious. Gloria is just gorgeous.

Of course I had most of the DVDs, except for the last "season". That pissed me off. The whole thing.

Anyway, maybe I'll watch it all again. I've already seen it bunches of times, and still love it every time.

TV - Montalbano: Il Giro Di Boa

Luca Zingaretti is sexy as hell. Great as Montalbano. Even if the story was pretty obvious, it was very engaging and kept my interest. A few parts were cheesy, but flaws aside, well done. Beautiful scenery shots. Good supporting cast.

Bought all the books, English translation. Can't wait to get into them. Would have been better in the original Italian, I'm sure. Darned. LOVE that accent.

McClellan Orchids

Yippee. Bought 14 new orchids at McClellan (Flower Mart pics here and here), averaged $5 apiece. So much fun browsing thru all the beautiful flowers again. I miss the old nursery in south SF. The original Rod McLellan acres of orchids got sold off. Now they're wholesaler McLellan Botanicals Taisuco America, except for the Flower Mart location and website. I miss the yearly open house to Watsonville where I'd load up on $5 cyms. BTW, I realized I've been spelling it wrong all these years - there's no extra C in the name!

Hilarious, need to protect the new buys from the 4 legged furrmonsters! Within a day, couple leaves already chewed. So now I have to box them and lock them up at night, and put them back out during the day.

Feeling more and more like my old self. Just gotta be careful not to overdo it again.

Dend Madame Vipa 'Mutation'

From Blooming Orchids!

From Blooming Orchids!

From Blooming Orchids!

From Blooming Orchids!

From Blooming Orchids!

From Blooming Orchids!

Dtps Yu Pin Shirasagi

From Blooming Orchids!

Blc Haw Yuan Beauty 'Hong'

From Blooming Orchids!

Dtps Brother Little Matter x Dtps Sogo Manager

From Blooming Orchids!

Cutest Little Phal

From Blooming Orchids!

5/30/08 Man, is this one a little trooper! No bud blast like some of the other new purchases, flowers just opening up as cool as can be.

8/12/08 WOW!! All buds finished opening, most flowers still perfect. Love this orchid!

Freaking Weather - Everything's Melting

Did I mention how hot it is? I'm just melting here. Fucking hell. 107 high, thank god for air conditioning. It could barely keep up, running all day nonstop.

Latest Family Mini-drama

Handling this one (missing money?) very well so far, staying detached and not trying to fix or moderate it. Learning not to get down about it, even while they're upset and unhappy doesn't mean I have to be the same way.

Back to Orchids

So enjoyable to go over the orchid books, and looking over my collection. It's nice to feel happy about it again.

Party time

Friend's very packed birthday party last night. Interesting, a bit trying. Hubby had lots of fun, so that was great.

Yup - More Shopping

Unfortunately had to go back to Macy's, but this time for Hubby. Got a few necessities, forgot the cuff links.

Picked up a Wii too, little gift for himself. The boxing and tennis are fun.

Never Ending Shopping

Shit, I really hate shopping. God, it's just fucking annoying. But needed some new clothes, so decided to take advantage of the Macy's "sale" which turned out not to be a sale. Anyway, all the clothing is such crap. Who the hell wears all those tacky nasty loud prints??? Can't there just be pretty clothing with simple or light designs instead of shit that looks like some kid wrote all over them or giant flowers? Finally got some jeans that looked nice only to find they weren't on sale. Grrrr. More looking and finally found a few pairs. But absolutely no tops. Crap.

Then more shopping, but at least fun - the Orchid Sale, but *gasp* didn't get a single orchid. Couldn't find anything I wanted! How shocking.

Then more shopping - groceries.

Ok, all shopped out. This is aggravating.

Movie - Iron Man

Actually went to the theater to see this. Hey, free tiks, why not. Hmmmm, expected more from this movie. Slow and really dragged in places. He was pretty good, we both think he's a good actor. But we would have been annoyed if we'd had to actually pay for it.

Still got 4 more free tickets, and just scored another 2 today, so that'll go for Batman, probably.

Researching MP3 Players

Took several hours to look into this stuff. Aggravated at the end of it, but oh well. Anyway, seems like I need a tiny knock-about one for workouts, and a nicer one for general use. So for now I ordered a Clip. Keeping fingers crossed the thing won't break after a day, nor getting the White Screen of Death.

What piles of shit all these gadgets are. Grrr.

Book - Unnatural Causes

Finished today. MUCH MUCH better than the George stuff. Very enjoyable writing, good storytelling, engaging plot. On the the next P.D.

Glad I decided to try this again. Last time I read her was 10 years ago, and I really disliked the book. Can't remember what it was.

Book Club - Liberty Falling

Another excellent fun meeting. These gals are great, and I actually don't mind being in a room with all women. The book was ok. I really, really liked the writing style - evocative but unsentimental, crisp, clear, engaging. The story was more of a bore, I wasn't very interested in it, and I couldn't care less about the sister Molly relationship. Preposterous ending. Could've been better executed and connected. Despite the flaws, overall, the writing was a pleasure.

Afterwards, had a very enjoyable lunch with one of the members.

Mood Enhancing Herbs

Started taking St. John's Wort, Evening Primrose, and Gingko. Hopefully will help with PMS and irritation. Dunno how long I'll keep on it, since it's irritating having to take THREE times daily?!?

Book - Deception on His Mind

Lost patience with this after a few chapters, so shelving it for now. Bit overwrought with the emotion and way girly. Like the TV series so much better.

TV - Wire in the Blood 1

Very entertaining season. Definitely very good. Although it was frightening to see the poor guy getting tortured, it's very cool to drool over a naked RG. LOL. If it's really him and not a body double, I was right, he takes very good care of his body, nice.

Speaking of which, weather's starting to warm up, so I can do my lake runs again. I get a good hour in, longest I've done is 3. The hills are killer, not in a good way either. LOL. Looking forward to it, though. Getting bored with the machine. It's very depressing to acknowledge how much more effort it takes now to keep in shape, compared to the 25-yr-old-me who would do a couple half hr (flat) runs weekly and easily keep that 22 inch waist. And even more depressing how fast weight gets stored if I don't maintain the workouts. Ahh, the joys of aging.

Asian Art Museum w/ D

D really wanted to see the exhibit, so she took the day off after I discouraged visiting this weekend. Not only exhibit's last day, but also the free first Sunday. Double hex.

Fantastic to see it one last time, really wish it were around longer. Lunched at CPK.