Music Monday: Do They Know Its Christmas Time.

Going to have some Xmas tunes over the next couple of weeks. Going to start with "Do They Know Its Christmas Time." versions. It has been always a favorite of mine over 30 years. It reminds me how blessed I am. The Original in 1984:

At Live Aid in 1985:

Band Aid II in 1989:

Band Aid 20 in 2004:

And the just released Band Aid 30:

Feed The World-Let Them Know It Is Christmas Time.

Interesting Sodas

Time to back into things. I hope everybody had a great Holiday, I was away and did not blog at all for a week.  I many pictures to share and need to get back to blogging.

This is a simple one. I was in Victorville and stopped by this place for lunch and saw these craft sodas and the names on the bottle were just too funny:

And the one I drank:

Looking forward to sharing all my adventures in the coming days and weeks.

A Couple of New Signed Books

Ok, I guess I now have collection of signed books. I picked up a couple more the last week:

I ordered this book from Barnes & Noble. com and it showed up. I was unaware that it was signed but cool. I am going to start to read it next week. Bob Ryan is one of the best sportswriters of all-time. He writes for Boston Globe and has been around forever. His knowledge of the NBA is super. He has chronicled the league's growth for the last 45 years. Can't wait to start reading it.

I was at Half-Price Books and was looking around and had a 50% off coupon in my pocket. I saw this behind the counter and saw that it was single-signed and used my coupon on it. Started to read it and so far it is good.

I got lucky on both counts. Heading up to Vegas on Friday, I know that there are a couple of cool used bookstores there to pick up some new reads.

Casa Peralta-The Inside

Here are some of the treasures that are inside the Casa Peralta:

Painting of Ignacio Peralta

One of the fireplaces in the house

One thing I forgot last week, there was this building on the property and I thought it was part of the property, turns out that it is another historic building of the area. The building is "The Little Brown Church", it was the Sunday School annex building for the First Presbyterian Church of San Leandro and was built in 1867. The church was torn down but this annex was saved and moved to the Casa Peralta property in 1979:

Hope you enjoyed the look around Casa Peralta.

My Inspirational Movies.

I find inspiration in a lot of things. Movies are one thing that I find inspiration in. When I am down, I can watch one of these movies and I find inspiration in.

"Miracle"-2004 is the story of the 1980 USA Olympic Hockey Team, that shocked the world. I like it because it shows what you can do as one.

Whenever I feel down, Seabiscuit is the movie that I go to. Almost every scene in the movie lifts me up.

Remember The Titans is one of those movie that inspires me because it is about setting aside your differences and working together for a common goal.

Mr. Holland's Opus is one of my favorites because it shows how much effect adults have on kids even if we just think that we are just doing our jobs and being ourselves.

Music Monday:One Song for Dancing.

Hope that this will get you going on a Monday.

Hanging out at the jack Russell Brewing Company

Spent some time at Jack Russell Brewing Company in Placierville recently. It was a good time just to hang out:

The cave that you order the cider in

Part of the bar

Filling the glasses

Vats of beer

People enjoying themsleves

Craft beers in front, ciders in the back

My glass I bought

Jack Russell Farm Brewery has great craft beers and ciders. It is a nice place to spend some time.

My Reads -This Week

Just a quickie about what I am reading this week:

"The Yankee Way" by Willie Randolph. Randolph was a good second baseman who played for the Yankees during the "Bronx Zoo" period of the 70's and came back as a coach and was a coach during their 90's World Series run. Really good so far about being a cog in the system.

"The Making of the Life of Pi" by Jean-Christophe Castelli. It goes into how the movie was made. All the details are there and this was a stunning and complex movie to shoot. To me, it was one of the most artistic movies I have ever seen.

Not much reading going on but I have a couple of book on order.

Casa Peralta-The Outside

Casa Peralta in San Leandro is so beautiful and is something I had never been to even though I had gone by it a million times. I finally decided to actually go to it.

Casa Peralta was the first brick house built in Alameda County. It was constructed in the Spanish Colonial style in 1860 for Ignacio Peralta, early San Leandro Spanish settler, by W.P. Toler (Peralta's son-in-law). One of the more interesting of 19th-century houses in San Leandro, it has additional historic associations with the large and land-rich Peralta family, who were pioneers of the area. It goes back to the Rancho days of the area. The home was remodeled in 1926 as a grand Spanish-style villa, with hand-painted tiles imported from Spain, that tell the story of Don Quixote. Enough history and I decided to split into two parts-The Outside and the inside. Will start first with the outside and it will be Wordless:

And then grounds:

Casa Peralta is a beautiful place. Hope you enjoyed the little tour of the outside.

Music Monday; Songs for Veterans

Being a Veteran (U.S. Navy, 1990-1994), I would like to say thanks to all the men and women who have put their lives on the line for this country. He/She is not just a solider or sailor but somebody's child, someone's mother/father, someone's parent. This Music Monday is dedicated to you:

Thank to all those who have served.

Friends of San Leandro Library-Fall Book Sale

I went to the Friends of the San Leandro Library Fall Book Sale and enjoyed it:

Saw it and thought it was cute

People looking for great finds

Besides a couple autographed books, here is part of my haul: