LA_Spokane_SFO

At the Airport now for the first leg on my way home. These last pictures include today and last night and any that I have missed fitting in along the way. There is one shot of my favourite peets coffee shop, one of the Topper, one of if not the last of the old So City bars (dad says there was 50 at one point in time), one of la Tapatia where I bought my tortilla press and one of Uncle mike doing the frozen banana thing at prestons ice cream shop in Burlingame. Last night was dinner at Don picos, a Mexican place in milbrae. That is the last group photo. This morning after my session at Peets, a bowl of nonis soup for breakfast and a quick stop at Sees Candy, I went with Non and Gramps to a big supermarket in the Bay View area of SF where gramps grew up. We went there because non was chasing her favourite hair spray, which she has been looking for all the time that I have been here. She and Gramps use the same brand and she always keeps her eye out for sales, but she has not been able ...

Yesterday I was Linda's offsider for the first of three days delivering Thanks giving Pies to all of the dentist offices along the peninsula that refer patients to Linda's Periodontal Office (something to do with dental work). I think all u she has organised for 60 pies to be delivered to each office in the mornings so staff can share them for their lunch or afternoon break. First job is to go to Draegers Grocers where the pies are made fresh each day. Draegers is pne of those very beautiful grocery stores where you can walk around for hours. As Thanksgiving is just around the corner they had Giant chocolate turkeys for sale! Then it was bundling up the pie with a reference book on dental work and a thank you card and then delivering to the various offices. As we were picking up the pies Linda also spotted some cheap pie servers which she ended up buying as well so that the staff could cut and serve the pies easily. As we went along we were bundling the book, pie, pie server ...

Krista's boys, Noah and Lucca have an amazing support team around them and lots and lots of love. our Mom and Dad are Nona and Pappa and they play small supporting roles but the boys have their routines and their favourite things to do when they visit the house, like Noah who loves to sit in dads big old caddilac. LInda and Mike are Noni and Nonno and they are stars, they do lots of picking up and baby sitting and sleep-overs. Both boys have wonderful individual relationships with both of them and Lucca has a thing for mikes ears. Michelle and Tony are Zia and Zio and they are also a big part of their world. Krista and Greg are in the hot seat and as they both have big jobs (Greg is head of grounds at AT&T Park, home of the Giants Baseball Team, and Krista is City Clerk for So San Francisco), so the support crew is very important. Life for the So City crowd is busy and everyone likes to keep track of what everyone else is doing, especially because sometimes plans change and So...

Noni still has her little garden areas sprinkled around the property, some on the side, some in the patio, some in the lower part of the back yard. Her new favourite thing is succulents. She is really into them and has small ones all over the place in all kinds of little containers. She is especially delighted with how easy they are to propagate. She is always reading her book of gardening tips and another of her latest things is using banana peels and orange peels around rose bushes as these are supposed to make the blooms bigger. So all banana peels need to be saved. She also has many water containers around the place which just hold water ready to use on the little gardens especially in places where the hoses do not reach.

Weekdays with N&G has a certain rhythm. Gramps still measures his blood sugar every morning, you will see a picture of his little kit, and records the results in a small book. He says he is on his third book. Noni measures her blood pressure most mornings too. Gramps still reads a stack of newspapers every day. Sometimes he has things on so he does not get to the papers that day so they all get stacked up on a chair in the kitchen. If this goes on for a few days there can be a pretty good stack but he will still read his way through all of them one by one. So he is pretty informed on things. I had him read the post election article from the Sydney morning herald using the iPad and he thought this was pretty neat. N&G still have their weekly schedule pretty sorted. On mondays Gramps plays cards and Noni has her Meeting at the Senior Centre. gramps goes to the gym on two days and non has her sewing group. Then there are the lunch days when they meet their buddies. They usually ...

Saturday was all about getting together with Auntie bebba for some legal stuff and then taking her to pne of the Indain casinos for a spot of gambling. Bebba aka Genevieve is 89 and now living with Auntie Juanita and Fred in Russian River. I guess gramps has taken on some role in helping her manage her money. So first we stopped at Auntie Juanitas and you can see her grotto outside in pne of the picture. Auntie bebba is looking great. the ramos family were good laughers but hers was always and atill is the best. she is pretty sharp althpugh has lost lots of weight, but gets around wothout any walking aids. She loves to gamble and really knows her way around the casino. Auntie Y says she would go every day if she could. The Casino was Mind boggling, huge and absolutely full of people. Plenty of penny machines so that is what we stuck to. However it is still pretty easy to lose money. We were there for about 4 hours all up and we had late lunch in the middle. In that space of time I lo...

I managed to take a few pics on my morning walk to peets coffee shop on Grand Ave this morning. My walking buddy from the past few days had NONO duties so I was on my own. South City had a lot of older houses built by probably just a small number of Italian builders. Most of our friends and family lived in these houses growing up. There were lots of Common features in these houses. they were two story with the top story as the living space. sometimes there was a story above the main one as well. The houses all had stairs going to the front door and often bog feature windows at the front, bowed or arched or even very elaborate bay windows. the bottom story was a full basement that was mostly finished with perhaps one room that was less finished and might be used as a workshop or, as in the case of my grandmothers house, a wine making and storage area. The basement was often kitted out with a complete second kitchen and a big open area for parties or large dinners. As a child if we went ...