Cranberry scones. Recipe adapted from a mixed fruit scone recipe posted on the NZ Herald site. Simple and tasty. Nothing like a warm scone with some fruit jam.
The monthly work potluck theme for June was Eggs. Pictured is the creme brûlée that I made as my contribution. Much thanks to the Facilities group at work for allowing me to borrow the propane torch.
I won!!! ~400,000 steps over four weeks was good enough to do the trick. Now I can get a bit of rest for my poor legs. Congratulations to all my fellow competitors who stuck it out through the full four weeks. It wasn't easy.
I pulled off massive step totals over the weekend (and a few days preceding). How so? Well, during the week I biked to work twice and did copious walking/running in my spare time (including lunch & immediately after work). I also hiked a number of times on both saturday and sunday. Have a look at where I went.
My first hike of the weekend took me to Meadow Flat at Wunderlich Park in Woodside, CA. I took this photo while on the Meadow Trail on a hot morning (easily in the 80˚F/27˚C range).
After working my way through the meadow, I took a turn onto the Bear Gulch Trail. This image reminds me a little of a picture I saw in an art exhibition at SFO entitled Dancing Trees. Very cool sight and something that made me pause for a bit...before picking up the pace to ensure I didn't miss too much of the ENG v. USA World Cup match.
One last pic at Wunderlich. Folger Stables is on the park land and can be found just adjacent to the parking lot. It is named after (and used to be owned by) the guy that created the Folger Coffee brand. How about that for some history? As of 2004, this building is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The second hike of the weekend came on sunday and took me across the Bay to Lake Chabot. Briskly walked through 5 miles of trail with my fellow BME Grad school classmate Varun before we stuffed our faces at an Indian food buffet while watching the end of the Shockeroo's loss to Germany. And yes, it was another clear, scorching day.
I backed up the Lake Chabot with a jaunt out to Portola Redwoods State Park with Sus. You'll have to wait for the pics from that. We had to rush a bit as we became late to an evening BBQ in Woodside no thanks to a deceptively long and windy road to the trailhead/parking lot. The picture above shows a twilight view of the Bay from the house. And yes, this is where I jumped into the swimming pool and wrecked my pedometer.
There we go folks. Lots of steps in a relatively short period of time. And just to update you all on the pedometer situation, I scored a replacement pedometer from HR (cheers Carey) for the remainder of the comp. Wish me luck and, hopefully, a strong finish!!! Peace out!
Good news/Bad news.
Good: I reeled off step counts of 18600, 20600, 20800 and 24300 the past four days.
Bad: I just jumped into a swimming pool today with the pedometer on. It now refuses to operate.
Dammit...I can't believe my idiocy.
So, I had a pretty good day with the stepping this past sunday (kinda helped to make up for a dearth of movement the day before). Let me show you how I managed to accrue that number.
A clear, beautiful day made for brilliant hiking weather. I got a later start than I had hoped for so I ended up rushing through the 7 miles of Windy Hill at a much quicker pace than I would've preferred. So, I didn't get to enjoy the lovely views too much but I did pause for a bit to capture them in still pictures to share with you all.
Moi and the easily distinguishable twin hills of Windy Hill Open Space Preserve. Hamm Gulch to Spring Ridge trail for the third time this past year.
So I rushed a bit cuz I had been trying not to keep Nick and Diana waiting for too long. And of course, because we all needed some food pretty badly by midday. So, on our way up to San Fran, we dropped by Chez Maman, a quaint French Café in Potrero Hill.
Tiny little place with minimal seating (we got placed at the counter). Well reviewed on Yelp and noted for their burgers & crepes. Mark me suitably intrigued.
A simple scrambled egg, tomato, mixed greens, toast and chicken apple sausage brekkie. Kinda odd that I didn't try the specialties (Nick got a burger, Diana got a crepe) but I'll say I enjoyed my meal. I'll definitely need to return to indulge in a crepe. Highly recommended and a future contender for best crepes in the Bay Area (a crown, in my book, yet to be snatched from Crepes Cafe in Menlo Park).
Our three dishes (Diana's, Nick's and mine from top to bottom). Tres bien!
First Sunday of the month = Free admission to the Asian Art Museum of SF. Where you can see stuff like the above (I dunno what exactly those sculptures represent...).
We blitzed through the Special Exhibition, Shanghai. Due to photography prohibition, I can't share any of the glorious works I saw. I can, however, place a picture of the three of us happily riding an escalator up to the main collection (which I saw earlier when my grandparents came to town last).
I couldn't find a large enough buddha to high-five, so you'll have to make do with a picture of Nick playing patty-cake with this statue.
An inscription written above the main staircase that reads: "Our happiness depends in a great measure on the choice of our company." Agreed.
Our day in SF ended with a trip to the Westfield mall so that Diana could go shopping. During the brief trip, we noticed that an Ajisen Ramen would be coming soon to the mall! Yummy! I'll take you here next time Deryck...in case you miss eating Ajisen in all the HK malls.
I missed out on taking a pic of the glorious bbq that we prepared upon our return to the peninsula (Fred steak, portuguese sausage kebabs, sun-dried tomato chicken sausage and grilled pineapple). You'll have to trust me when I say that we ate well that evening. I hope you all ate well that evening too. Cheers.
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