Day 1: 1/15/99

Today is the first day of my 80 days of sabbatical plus vacation! Thanks, Intel! After 15 years of working there right after college, I'm taking this opportunity to do some serious rest and relaxation. Now it really has sunk in that I'll be off from work for the next 80 days. We celebrated the occasion last night by going to a newly opened restaurant in Fremont: Elephant Bar Restaurant. With the African safari motif, it was a perfect way to kick off my sabbatical.

Actually today I  woke up early at 5:30am  thinking about work!  I forgot to send out a mail  summarizing my inputs after an afternoon meting on my last day of work because I was so busy cleaning up my desk, changing my voicemail greeting, and backing up the data on my laptop. So I spent 20 minutes sending off my last e-mail and joined Theresa for breakfast. With just 4 weeks left until our big hike to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro, I've started my last month of serious training by going to Club Sport, which is a great health club in Fremont. ( http://www.clubsportfre.com/clubsport/default.htm ) I did some aerobics training on the stationary bicycle and some strength training with weights. I did lots of stretching too--just hoping that my slight sciatic nerve numbness in my right leg will go away before the big hike. I also ran into Sharon, who is a high school classmate of mine and takes aerobics three times a week.

After months of struggling with the solution of how Rondo, our miniature schnauzer, will be taken care off during our absence, we finally settled on having our neighbor's son to stay with Rondo at night. I think it's a great solution as Rondo feels most comfortable at home. Fortunately, Alex is very mature and responsible, and we are very comfortable with him. Besides, his parents are just right next door. Nevertheless, just in case if this does not work out, we also explored a backup solution. After some searching we found out about Kamp K9. ( www.kampk9.com ) It's actually a day-care facility for dogs. The first step involves an interview process where they check out the dog and its compatibility with other dogs. Well, you know Rondo has this problem with separation anxiety.  So I'm pretty nervous about this interview--remember that I have not been interviewed for 15 years!. Well, as we sat down in the office and as Rondo started to panic and started to bark, the first thing Chip told me was that "Well, you know we cannot take any dogs that cannot control their barking." Well, right then and there I thought Rondo and I will be escorted out! Fortunately we decided to let him play with other dogs for an hour. He did okay. I saw him sniffing, walking, and briefly checking out other dogs. However, Chip was concerned that Rondo did not play much with other dogs. After an hour of this torture (I don't know whether the experience was worse for Rondo or for me :-) Chip finally said "Okay, bring him back---but only for half a day  for further observation." So Rondo passed the interview--okay, not exactly with flying colors but what do you expect out of an 8-year-old dog who has never been to day-care before!   Rondo and I both were thankful that this experience is over. He is now napping on the stairs, perhaps waiting for Theresa to come home and file a doggie-abuse complaint against me!

Day 2: 1/16/99

I made one of my favorite recipes: Macadamia Mini-loaves, which Theresa got out of Good Housekeeping many years ago. This is my favorite because I love macadmia nuts--of course I have never met a nut that I don't like. I'm a nutty guy :-) You can easily double the recipe and give the extra to your favorite friends. I prefer using the mini-loaf pans rather than the large tube pan because it's easier to bake it without the center being mushy.

Moist  and buttery-rich miniatures, delicately scented with lemon, topped with crunchy nuts, coconut.

About 3 hours before serving or early in day

1. Finely chop enough macadmia nuts to measure 1/3 cup; set aside.

   Coarsely chop remaining nuts; place in small bowl; stir in coconut and 1 tablespoon sugar.

   From lemon, grate 2 teaspoons peel and squeeze 3 tablespoons juice.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

   Grease and flour four 5 3/4" by 3 1/4" loaf pans or one 9-inch tube pan.

   In larger bowl, with mixer at high speed, beat butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar until light and fluffy.

   Add flour, milk, vanilla extract, baking powder, and eggs, lemon peel and juice; at low speed, beat just until mixed, constantly scraping bowl. Stir in finely chopped macadmias.

3. Spoon batter into pans. Sprinkle coconut mixture evenly over batter; lightly press into batter.

   Bake small loaves 60 minutes or tube cake 1 hour and 10 minutes, until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. (If toppings begins to brown too quickly, loosely cover pans with foil.)

   Cool cakes in pans on wire racks 10 minutes; remove from pans; cool completely on racks.

   Makes 4 loaves, 4 servings each or 1 ring, 16 servings. About 310 calories per serving.

As if baking is not enough for today, Theresa and I played tennis AND racquetball at ClubSport. We had a shopping spree at Tri-City Sporting Goods so she is all done with her expedition clothing and safari clothing. North Face must thank us for paying them hundreds and hundreds of dollars! We then had a wonderful dinner at our favorite restaurant in Fremont: Peal's Cafe. My grilled salmon was very good. The sad thing is that we took our Christmas tree down today. What a day we had.

Day 3: 1/17/99

  After having lunch at Rigatoni (Chicken and Mushroom pasta was pretty good) in San Leandro and buying Theresa's red woolen hat at a yarn store in Castro Valley, Theresa and I went to San Francisco because she suggested that we visit San Francisco   Museum of Modern Art  (http://www.sfmoma.org/ ). She really enjoyed the experience. We spent three hours going through all the galleries. She vowed to return soon as modern art really interests and excites her. As for me I was more impressed by the photography. However, there were many paintings that really caught our interests. I was especially impressed by an oil  painting of this car that looked so real that you can see the dust on the car! I was also impressed by the interior architecture.

Since last month we really enjoyed dinner at Oritalia (Orient + Italian: two of our favorites) ( http://sanfrancisco.sidewalk.com/link/33867 ) before watching Miss Saigon, we decided that we should go to dinner at the City at least once a month. We decided to find the place that we went a few years ago. We did and was not disappointed by the food. It's Palomino Euro Bistro ( http://www.citysearch7.com/E/V/SFOCA/0003/90/49/cs1.html ). The atmosphere was great. Theresa was about to enjoy her prawns, and I was about to enjoy my spit-roasted duck after some bread with salsa. We also had a bread pudding with ice cream for dessert. Yummy.

Day 4: 1/18/99

I was inspired by SFMOMA and created Sweet Sixteen. Pretty cool, huh.

We had Vietnamese noodle soup at Pha Hoa ( http://www.phohoa.com/ ) on Fremont Blvd. It was quite good; this is one of my favorite ethnic fast food. For dinner I insisted that I cooked Theresa's tuna-melt recipe. Afterwards we started our third Mah-Jong tournament. So far she won the first one, and I barely won the second one by a few hundred points. I started out with winning the limits. Look at this hand! Check out my growing golf balls collection since 1997 from the Bay Area, Monterey, Kauai, and Phoenix.

Day 5: 1/19/99

Meet Theresa for lunch at Berkeley at New Hong Kong restaurant. Cheap and good. Afterwards had another shopping spree at REI at Berkley. I scoured through the place and found all sort of goodies. After that Theresa and I exercised in One Club in Oakland. They had a health fair, so I got my body fat measured: 18.5%, which is pretty good despite my love handles!