Ben and Kyoko's "Above the water"

Wine: Food and wine are another thing we are into. So our travel journal talks about them quite a bit. We are proud members of the following wine clubs; Big White House, and Fenestra (in Livermore, Alameda) and Navarro (in Anderson Valley, Mendocino). We also like to visit and chat with the owners of Les Chenes. Their wine is good, but mustard and olive oil are devine. Our friend pour wine at Ruby Hill Winery and we loved some of their wine.

Food: Eating is very important for our life. We cook a lot at home. We eat all kinds of foods. Following are our favorite chef and recipe links; America's Test Kitchen, Lidia Bastianici's (Italian),  Nick Stellino's (Italian), Jacques Pepin's (French), and Epicurious. Eating out is not as common, but there are a few we like: Fish House (Italian, Del Monte, Monterey), Fish Wife (Caribbean/Seafood, Fremont St, Monterey),  Prima (Italian, South Main, Walnut Creek), Sai's (Vietnamese, Spring town, Livermore). Our list is getting shorter. It is time to find new restaurants!

Birding: Our newest hobby is bird watching. Kyoko had inherited her binoculars from her dad, and Ben bought a pair from Orion in 2007. His Savannah™ Pro 8x42 water proof Binoculars were bought at their store in Cupertino for $239.99. We started this in 2006 with casual attitude, and now our list is growing and we bring our bird books and binoculars everywhere. In Bay area there are lots of guided tours by East Bay Regional Parks. For keeping track the birds we saw, Kyoko uses e-bird. According to e-bird count we have seen about 200 species in California. Now we are looking into purchasing a telescope.

Gardening: Our garden has two elements like everyone else, flowers and edibles. Perennials and shrubs: rose (over 50 of them), wisteria (purple and white), sweet olive (orange and white), gardenia, daphne, sasanqua camellia (3), camelia japonica, peony (4), rhododendron (4), azalea (2), hydrangea (6), fuchsia, trumpet vine, passion vine, lavender, wild lilac, lilac, lantana, bird of paradise, bottle brush, mexican orange, heliotrope, crab apple and crape myrtle. Bulbs: daffodil, begonia, agapanthus, daylily, hyacinth, crocus, freesia, tulip, lily, canna, gladiolus, windflower, cala, cyclamen, grape hyacinth, iris, harlequin flower, and dahlia. Bulbs are great since they keep coming back year after year and pretty much care free. Fruits: blueberry, fig, grape, pear (20th Century, Shinko, and European), granny smith apple, lemon (Eureka and Meyer), grapefruits, lime, persimmon (Hatiya), peach (white and yellow), and apricot. They provide flowers and freglance pretty much through year. Kyoko barely cuts flowers to bring them inside. Composting and organic gardening is Kyoko's passion.

Carpentry: Ben has built our kitchen cabinets, dining table, and office cabinets. His motto is "Every new project requires a new tool". So we do not have space for cars in our garage. He built cabinets for Big White House in Black Smith this year (2009).

Golf: Ben plays golf about once a week.

Macintosh: Ben hates PCs. He says that "PCs are Apple wanna be." Kyoko has used both system, and we own Sony Vaio and Apple iMac. iMac is bought in 2005 and Sony Vaio PC in 2004. They are both loaded for video and photo editing. We paid about $2000 for each machines. iMac is the one we use every day and we recommend. New iMac today is starting at $1199, miniMac: $599, and MacBook: $999. No it won't come with Office, but home edition can be purchased for $149.95. All the Macs are wireless ready. iLife comes with it, and it does everything. Music (Organizing using iTune or creating using GarageBand), iMovie for Video, iPhoto for Digital Pictures, iWeb for web publication, iCal for Calendar, Mail and AddressBook for email and snail mail, Safari for browsing web, Dashboard for instant information, iDVD to burn DVD, Preview for PDF files, and they all work together. All the programs are easy to use, but deep to explore. Almost no virus from the web. If you are in the market of purchasing a new computer, consider Mac. Apple web site is a great place to look for anything related to Mac, but there are lots of online stores where you can buy the same with less money. To look for what you need to upgrade your Mac, visit http://www.welovemacs.com/ and if you know exactly what you are looking for, the price at http://www.newegg.com/ is quite good. In 2009 Kyoko ventured to upgrade her MacBook by herself. She upgraded and fixed couple Macs using http://www.ifixit.com/.

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