Baroldi

Lodi?  What were we doing in the Central Valley of Lodi?

This past weekend, the Kelly's invited to stay at the farm for a weekend.  Marlene, Eleni and the big O flew down (his first airplane flight) to join in the festivities.

After Onions and I picked the Seattle crew up from the Sacramento Airport, we met the Kelly's in Lodi for some Mexican food.  O clearly is ready for grown up food.

The walnut tree farm

The big activity of the weekend was the Linden High School fundraiser for their athletics program.  This is the high school Brian's mother went to.

There was both a raffle and a silent auction.  This isn't an item you would find in the city!

After a fantastic salad, it was time for pesto pasta!  Turns out the noodles are purchased from the Chinese noodle factory.  Pesto was light, not too heavy.  Just perfect.

O was ready for his dinner....

.....Brian calls this face of O's, milk drunk.  It's spot on.

The name of the dinner is the "Baroldi" dinner, which is blood sausages made from cows blood.  I thought I could consume at least four, I didn't get past the second one. They are filling.

Baroldi and ribs.  The food was endless.

As the evening ended, the raffle numbers were announced and Brian won the Linden Athletics basket full of booster gear.  I'm now the owner (thanks BK) of a Linden High visor.

Winter means ORANGES.  Next to the house are two orange trees dripping with oranges.

This is the haul of the "low hanging" fruit!

Scenes from January 2016

Moving back to the Bay Area means reconnecting with old friends and former students.  We spent an afternoon walking the beaches of Alameda with Y.K., who is now pursuing a doctorate in poetry at Indiana University!

Out seeing a movie one evening, I hear my name and it's C.C., former advisee and student.  We made a lunch date and she's not pursuing a Masters in Architecture at Harvard!

Changing gears, Lick and its main rival, San Francisco University, play their rivalry games (Boys and Girls) at Oracle Arena.  This took place on a Thursday afternoon and we got a half day off.

I asked the students if Lick historically wins.  They said that I should prepare for a "not win," but as you can tell, the boys DID win.

Boys final score: 50-40

Alas, the girls didn't fare so well.

Did you ever think there was so much going on behind the basketball post?  Historically, students and families were invited to stay for the Golden State Warriors game following the high school games.  These days, however, no go now that the Warriors are the hottest thing around.

One Saturday afternoon, we drove to Marin for the book reading of friend Kathryn K.

She read from her book, "The Doctor and the Stork" about modern medical baby making and giving birth to twin boys.

Later that Saturday evening, I dragged Onions to the wedding party of another former student, A.K.  He's getting married in Minnesota this summer.  He too has written a book, produces a podcast and is now in real estate.

Listening to one of my favorite podcasts, Ask Me Another, I found out they were coming to town to tape a show.

I put a shout out on Facebook to put together a group but my only taker was Shahana.  I tried to get us to be contestants, but we weren't selected.  We had a grand time anyway.

While at the wedding party, I found out ANOTHER student and advisee had quit his desk job, went to Japan to learn how to make Udon noodles and has now opened his own food truck.

SF readers of the blog...if you are ever down near Costco, check out the Sf StrEeat food and hit up Odang Udon.  Tell Matt (pictured) that I sent you.

Dinner!