We woke up around 9:30am. It was very overcast, but it didn’t stay that way. By the time we showered, dressed and drove to the flea market the sun was shining. We walked around and Eric got new sneakers (black), a SUBLIME – Live in Concert CD, and some bungee cords that he uses to hold the bicycles on the RV.
I didn’t buy anything, but I did talk to the “Bird Man.” He said that’s a common problem and all birds are different. Some love a varied diet, others prefer seed. He said to keep putting the veggies and fruit in there, as we have, and he may, as he calms down more and acclimates more to his environment, start to eat it. He also recommended buying some treats that contain dried fruit and seed mixed together into little balls, which get him started on different tastes.
We left the flea market and passed a PET SMART, so I jumped in and got the fruit treats. We’ll see how they work. Then, we drove to Little Italy for lunch. We ate at a place called FILIPPI’S PIZZA GROTTO.
There are many locations around San Diego. In fact, we’ve been to the one on Garnet Avenue in Pacific Beach! This one has a storefront selling everything you can imagine – a genuine Salumeria. In the back is the restaurant. We waited on a line for about 10 minutes and then were seated in a smaller room with lots of wine bottles with straw bottoms hanging from the ceiling (it’s the same in Pacific Beach!). There was a cute mural on the wall dated May 1968, so I guess this place has been around for at least 40 years!
We shared a mushroom pizza, which was very thick and cheesy -- and really good. We had two slices leftover and took them in a small box. Then, we drove a few blocks to a gelato place that had been recommended by my trainee at work. It’s called PAPPALECCO—A Gelato Lounge. I was going to attach a link, but if you click on it, you’d see they have a new website coming soon, and there’s nothing to see there now.
It’s a small corner store in San Diego with lots of little tables and chairs outside. They serve the same kind of things as GELATO VERO – gelato, sorbetto, pastries, and coffee and coffee drinks. It’s a little more fancy and trendy, and they had a few more choices of flavors, including banana, apricot, strawberry, pear and vanilla.
I got the Pappalecco flavor, which is chocolate with amaretto flavor and also some called caffe which was, of course, coffee flavored. Eric got something called stratiatella, which was milk with bands of chocolate, and also tried a pure hazelnut. The flavors we usually get at GELATO VERO are Chocolate Hazelnut and Espresso. I wouldn’t say this place was better, but it was different. Their gelato was more like ice cream – much more creamy, while the other place is more like ices. I enjoyed trying a different flavor or two, but I wouldn’t say I’ll only go there from now on. I still love GELATO VERO!
After that we drove back to the apartment. It was almost 4:00pm. Eric wasn’t feeling well – he’s had a headache for a few days – so he took a nap and I was going to read, but after a few pages I put the book down and fell asleep, too. We woke up at 5:30pm.
We relaxed and watched TV (STAR TREK) and then 60 MINUTES. They had a story about how it takes 2 cents to make a penny, but eliminating them from the system would cost millions. They say that if everything was rounded off (and it would be rounded up) it would cost millions and the poorer people would be the ones to suffer. I see people drop pennies on the street and not even bother to pick them up. I think they’re a big waste. They said it only takes 6 cents to make a bill – any denomination, but it takes 2 cents to make 1 cent. Does that make cents -- I mean sense?
We had a smorgasbord of leftovers for dinner – fish and eggplant from Thursday and pizza from today. Fast and yummy! We watched some Sunday night cartoons that Eric enjoys – The Simpsons and King of the Hill. Family Guy was a repeat we had both seen, so we just changed channels and watched some of DATELINE, some stand-up on COMEDY CENTRAL and some other shows. This was a nice, long weekend and I’m not ready to get up early tomorrow for work.
Tomorrow I start training for my 8-12 job in Key Relationship Management (KRM). There’s a temp there who’s going to train me for an hour or two tomorrow and Tuesday. That’s his last day and I officially start my new hours on Wednesday: 8-12 on the 6th floor in KRM; lunch from 12-1; 1-5 in HR on the 3rd floor. I think it will keep life interesting as I’ll never be anyplace long enough for it to get boring!
KRM believes they only have enough work to keep a temp busy for 4 hours a day and it would have been very difficult to find someone who wanted to work those hours (just 20 hours a week). Most temps are willing to work part-time if it’s 8 hour days a few days a week, but they don’t want to commute to a job 5 days a week and only work a half day. That’s why they’re happy to have me, because two groups can put me to use for 4 hours each and I still get to work full time! I also believe I can do more in 4 hours than most people can do in 8!