Life in Manteca 111: Manteca Stake Broadway Review: Gardening

I survived the late Friday night practice and the all day practice Saturday.  I have the hardest time hearing and the music and where I am suppose to be.  Finally I just had to count the beat to get the song right.  But probably the best  I ever did was singing that night for the performance, although I was a little flat at the first.  I even danced a little, which went OK for a fat man.  As I mentioned I sang "Night of a Thousand Stars" form Evita.  
From the Stevens Creek Ward The Hammonds were there, Erin Hammond and her husband and her mom.  The Carrenos also were there.  Their daughters are both married but they have no grandbabies. Both families live in our stake, the Hammonds in the Tracy Ward and the Carrenos in the Monta Vista Ward.  Pat came from the ACE Train.  She brought a friend from Manteca.  I tried to find her after but couldn't.  Also Jeremy and Kayla and Kayla's dad as well as Charity and Anthony were there.

Tony had a hard weekend.  It finally got to him Sunday morning when he claimed he couldn't get ready for church without his mom as he hadn't seen her enough all weekend.  Sheri attended "Time Out for Women" with Charity in Sacramento.  Tony was with me at rehearsal Friday night.  He played with his Ipad.  We were rehearsing until after 11.  Then didn't get home until almost midnight.  Saturday he was with the Petersons all day while I rehearsed.  He came home briefly at 3 when I came home, but was back to the Petersons.  Mom came home at about 5 and we had dinner with Charity and Anthony and Camberly Rose.  Then Tony was left with Elise as babysitter for the performance. 

Sheri left right after the performance to rescue the baby sitter.  Skylar and Camberly were at the show.  My highlight for the night was I got to hold the Hokanson baby for a long time during the show.  Her name is Moriah.  She was big when she was born at over 10 pounds, but she is still beautiful little baby. I also got to hold Camberly.  

I stayed home from work Thursday.  I worked in the garden, in the heat.  I may have over done as I was sore.  exercise is good however, and we have a lot of weeds around the fence to get rid of. 

Life in Manteca 108: Labor Day Weekend, Hometeacher, Restaurant Review

Interesting weekend.  We started with a venture to a new restaurant, and were greatly disappointed.  In other words, this is a one visit only restaurant.  We went to Ho Sun's Kitchen on North Main street.  Our mission in going was to get some good orange chicken.  I guess Tony had a craving.
However their orange chicken was not what we were expecting.  It was on a bed of oranges and broccoli (I hate cooked broccoli) with large chicken pieces with even larger crusted batter which kept falling off.  Tony was very disappointed.  Their sweet and sour pork was also disappointed.  No crust on the pork, and really very few vegetable, and only one pineapple.  Their fried rice was also poor.  I like the chow mien however.  It was crunchy.  I don't know how they do that, and the sprouts were good as were the noodles.  Sheri said she didn't like any of their food, Tony didn't either.  I had the best time, and had plenty of leftovers to myself the next day,  but even I couldn't stomach much of the orange chicken.
The rest of the weekend on my part was in response to my home teacher, Brother Weeden, loaning me an LP player digital converter.  I got the program loaded, but had a terrible time recording.  Sheri discovered I hadn't taken the cap from over the needle.  After that I was off, We have two LPs.  The first is of my high school choir.  They are now alive to me again.  The second is of old Mormon Pioneer stories and songs.  I got them both recorded, and now am going back through to make sure I have everything.
I only did a bit of gardening.  I am in the process of making more planter boxes.  I am cutting the wood now to get ready to put them together. 

Life in Manteca 107: Miranda's talk, restaurant reviews

Miranda did a great job on her missionary farewell talk.  
http://missionarylifeasiknowit.blogspot.com/2014/08/farewell-talk.html?spref=fb 
It was in the singles ward.  Attending were the Ortons, Bishop Orton, Nancy, Alyssa Ashley and Jamison, Charity, Camberly and Anthony, Mark, Dianna, Anna, Heather and Jeremy Kayla and Skylar.  The Ortons hurried home for Jamison's birthday, and Mark had meetings but everyone else came over for dinner.  Miranda made pasta shell lasagna.  Jeremy and family had to leave quickly as he was working, but otherwise we had a peaceful and enjoyable time.  
Tuesday, Charity and Camberly as well as Jeremy, Kayla and Skylar came by to say goodbye to Miranda.  Miranda's bags were packed on Monday and by the door.  
Over the past couple weeks, Sheri and I have been to several new restaurants.  There is a new **^McDonalds in Manteca, closing the McDonalds on Yosemite where there was a play place.  This maintains the number of McDonalds in Manteca at five--on Airport, on Lathrop, Yosemite and Union, in Walmart, and this new one on Yosemite and Spreckles.  It is across the street from the old one.   Miranda and I took the boys there.  I was alarmed when a patron asked the person and the register is she could wipe the table.  She had to get the manager permission, and his comment was, "only if you can get your orders out."  The problem with the McDonalds play place was that it was almost always dirty.  It seems that the attitude of money first and cleanliness second has followed this McDonalds across the street.    
There is also a new Popeyes  at Yosemite and Union.  We had previously gone to a ***Popeyes on one occasion and were less than oppressed.  Their gravy was not as good as KFC.  We went this time, and Sheri and Tony had chicken tenders and I had fish.  I found their fish to be better than Long John Silvers.   It had a nice cajun seasoning.  Their chicken tenders were also good.  Their barbecue sauce was a bit too spicy and required water to get it down.  I had beans for my side, and Sheri and Tony had fries which had a nice spice.  The surprise was the biscuit.  I thought it was bad that it didn't come with butter or honey, but then tasted one and discovered the butter was baked right in.  It was actually very good.  So I give Popeyes passing marks, although a bit pricey.  We did not eat their gravy. 
Sheri and I had our anniversary dinner, and went to ***^Golden Corral in Tracy.   It was a surprise to me that they were a buffet.  I was expecting a sit down restaurant.  However as a buffet, it was very nice.  Being historically a steak house, they had steak, but they had difficulty keeping the platter filled and people had to choose other options.  I mostly ate fish, and barbequed chicken.  I also had the lobster tail for an additional price.  The most excited thing was the fondue fountains for dessert.  They had caramel, white chocolate and dark chocolate.  The dark chocolate would harden.  
We also like some of the changes at Chilis.  They now offer a game player and you can play all you want for $.99.  This is also how you pay and how you order dessert.  Maybe too many different sports stations at the same time, which distracts from conversation.  However, we have always liked their food. 
I am getting more active.  The source of this activity is gardening.  We have been too lax, but are in the process of putting down plastic to keep the weeds at bay, and making planters for what we do want.  I have started clearing a space for a raspberry planter.  It is best to plant in Spring and that is our goal.  We are also going to add strawberries.

Life in Manteca 105: Neighbor Helps with our Lawn

Our neighbor saw us outside working on the lawn, mowing and trimming, and the trimmer was running out of charge.  So he brought his gas powered trimmer over and gave our lawn a real edging.  It has never looked so good.

Weekend and Memorial Day Project

 Plastic, mulch and planter boxes.  It looks much better than it did.  I made the planter boxes from some old flats that Jeremy had collected.  So the only cost was for the soil, mulch and walking stones which we brought from Walmart.  We have already put in lettuce and radishes; saving some seeds for planting every couple of weeks.

What is left to be done, and some idea what we were facing, only taller weeds, and some thistles which I had to carefully pull.

Caleb is 19 and Weekend in Review

19 years ago today, after Caleb kept us waiting all night (a long night) Caleb was born.  I guess he had his arm up, which kept him from proceeding through the birth canal. 

Today that same Caleb is serving the Lord in Iowa City.  I hope he had a good day.  Sheri sent him a package, with a cake mix and frosting and etc. for his cake.  We also all sent cards.  He told Sheri (it is his p-day) that he was going to the zoo.  Growing up we often went to the zoo in San Francisco, so he should have had a good time.
As for the weekend, Friday started with clean the church.  This was interesting because we wer following he carpet layers, and they didn't yet have their stuff out, so we didn't get very far, other than the chapel.  I guess they had to call another team in Friday.  We also had pulled pork sandwiches made by the scouts for their fundraiser.  I enjoyed mine, and even Toy like the sandwiches.  I also enjoyed the pickles and the potato salad.  Tony really like the cookies.
As for the rest of the week, lots and lots of weeds.  The worst part about that is there are lots and lots of more weeds to pull.  But little by little we hope to get ahead of the weeds.