Wednesday, June 23, 2010

What we do on weekends

Weekends are a precious commodity, a priceless gem that seems to evade everyone and if it does come, it slips oh so quickly. With this in mind, I maximize the weekends for my family and friends. I reserve it for family time. I have modified the concept of doing the chores on weekends. Why would I spend my only free time with the children doing laundry or scrubbing the bathroom? I do little things during the week so I do not have to devote the whole weekend to cleaning the house.

Let me share to you what our family does on weekends.

1. We go to the bookstore. A lot. I used to bring the kids a lot to the library but that got tiring when all the books they want to check out were either checked out or unavailble.  Plus, I love reading too, so I kind of something I love too. We used to go to the B. Dalton at the South Shore Plaza but it closed, so now we go to Barnes and Noble in Braintree, right beside the SSP also.







The kiddos laugh when I start shrieking when I saw these books. Hey, these series got me started, together with Sweet Valley High. I know, I am such an easy reader during those times.


                 

I say it again, we were poor growing up, add to that the fact that we grew up in a far away town where we can get our hands with newspapers only about 5 pm, where the bus from Manila will bring it. Therefore, my Tatang who I have always known to be a voracious reader even if he only got to 5th grade. Yes, my father did not even finish elementary school but that never stopped him from reading and dreaming that someday soon, never will his kids suffer the same fate. I have a very vivid memory of my father subscribing to the Mormon's and the Latter Day Church missionaries for their flyers and magazines. To him, those are free reading materials and free knowledge. So, we have English magazines and books in the house. It was therefore easy for me to speak and write English. Amazing, especially considering where we are from and how poor we were. Yes dear, knowledge comes easy to those who seek.

Mr. Hubbs checks out the sports section and his basketball card collection. He checks if Michael Jordan's rookie card has gone up on price or if his precious gold plated collection is really priceless as he thinks.


             


                

2. We go out and eat, to different restaurants. We try to expose ourselves to different cuisine but I'd love to believe we have a knack for finding out the most obscure restaurant that offer the best food value and character. Bottom line, we love to eat. We are avoiding buffets for now. But if i have to recommend a Japanese buffet, I'd say go to Minado. It is pricey but for the wide variety of sushi and sashimi you get, I say go try it. For reliable Italian fare, we go to Bertucci's. The best though, at least this side of the world is Alfredo's in Quincy.


                  


 They make their own pasta, they have the best and authentic Italian store, also in Quincy. For Friday eating out, wee go to Joe's American Bar and Grill or Cheesecake Factory. In Chinatown, I love Chou Chow, the older and smaller branch is better. I will do a separate post on the best places we go or should I say, our food secret.

3. We go to South Boston's Castle Island. This place is something I'd recommend for family, when you have nothing planned.  Fort Independence is for history buffs, you have Carson Beach, walking and jogging trails,  a playground and luscious greens. The concession store is open year round and mostly staffed by students. The food is a little bit steep, so grab a picnic basket if you can, anyway it is the perfect place to picnic.

Here are the kids last spring.





4. You all know we love water! We love going to the beach!  We go to Nantasket Beach in Hull, Falmouth at the Cape or  if we just want to linger in sand and sun, we stay close at Wollaston Beach. We live so close to Wollaston Beach but it is not a swimming beach, well at least for us. We like the oceans, the crushing waves and the long stretch of ocean sands. KC loves picking stones and shells, while Pherry likes to build sandcastle. Josh can stay in the water forever and he's all set. They all tend to burn a lot so I make sure they apply sunblock. I love Neutrogena, in case you are interested in a non stinging sunblock. It does not have any of those cakey feel either, so you can use it under those beach make-up. Back to the beach topic, I love being surrounded with water. Whether I am braving the cold water or just burying my feet on the sand ( to do my beach pedicure, all natural!), nothing beats that serenity I feel everytime I am on the water. The crushing waves soothes me, the glistening water from afar awakens my inner spirit and the seashells and stones bring me back to my hometown. And, oh by the way, I gotta tell you that in Falmouth they have pokpoklo. Oh, I love seafoods! This seaweed is a staple back home and I super miss it. The first time I saw it here, I was more ecstatic than when I passed Chemistry  in college!

5. We shop. Or should I say, me and KC shop? Yes we do! It's kinda a happy place for us. We live like 10 minutes away from South Shore Plaze and a good 25 minutes from Wrentham Outlets, so you can imagine my shopping habits. Did I tell you, Wal-mart is right across the street? I know, Wal-Mart is a complete shopping wasteland. You can go there and not plan anything and come out with a loaded cart. The array of choices is amazing.


            

Most of the time, my weekend calendar is full, sometimes I like to just chill. Those rare days that we got nothing to do, we go to the movies. We saw karate kids the last time. We are not moviegoers, we'd rather read. In this stage of my life, I like to devote most of my free time with family, although I have "friend dates" in between. It is comforting to know that I got friends who share a lot of my interest.

Did I tell you, we like to LAUGH?

How about you, how do you spend your weekends?

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