Ultimate Coffee Date: December 2023

Welcome to another Ultimate Coffee Date! Somehow we’re already at the start of the very last month of 2023!

Ultimate Coffee Date: December 2023

Tofu with a pizza! It’s his “Gotcha Day” in 2 days! <3

If we were having coffee/tea today, I’d tell you that…going out to eat lately has been pretty expensive, so we started doing hot pot at home again! It’s been perfect for the colder weather lately. (We may or may not be getting a meat slicer to make things even more economical. Pre-sliced meat is easily 2x the price! :[ )

(To be fair, I can’t say this is cheap, but it’s certainly cheaper than going out + is fun to do with friends/family at home! :] )

I also recently discovered Dish N Dash on a recent Fat Girl Wednesday and adore their food! *-* I need to learn how to make it…

If we were having coffee/tea today, I’d ask...what you did (if anything) for Thanksgiving + if you did any shopping for Black Friday/Cyber Monday. (I had to work on Black Friday, but did finally do some holiday shopping + also picked up some stuff I’ve had my eye on for most of the year. (I’ve just been waiting for them to go on sale! :P )

If we were having coffee/tea today, I’d tell you that…my friend from college has an orchestra and they’re doing their end-of-year concert on Sunday! This started up 10 years ago when he called up a bunch of Bay Area musicians to do an open music reading session. Ever since then, throughout the year, these open  reading sessions now pop up in different places around the bay where you wouldn’t normally expect to hear an orchestra playing (e.g. the Exploratorium, California Academy of Sciences, Chapel of the Chimes, Chabot Space & Science Center, etc.). To date, over 2000 local musicians have played in em’!

I play(ed) the piano, so not exactly an orchestra instrument, + although there are sometimes parts for the piano, I find playing it with the orchestra to be way too stressful (there is a reason Romantic = my favorite era when it comes to classical music…). I’ve learned flute and violin but unfortunately suck at both, so I usually pop in for the chorus — I’ll be singing in two pieces!

If we were having coffee/tea today, I’d tell you that…I’ll be linking up with Lauren over at Shooting Stars Mag this upcoming Tuesday for her “My Month is Booked” linkup!

This past month, I finished reading (all as audiobooks because yay for commutes)…

The Immortalists, by Chloe Benjamin – The premise of this sounded intriguing — 4 children visit a traveling psychic who’s able to tell them when they’ll die + the books follows their lives over the next 5 decades. I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would and finished it feeling somewhat underwhelmed.

Into the Planet: My Life as a Cave Diver, by Jill Heinerth – This was the book club pick of the quarter for the Wilderness Medicine Society so I figured I’d check this out since I got certified as an open water diver earlier this year and do kindasorta also want to get certified in cave diving (way later on down the road). I especially enjoyed reading her account of this since it’s such a male-dominated field.

The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak – Set in 1939 Nazi Germany, this follows the life of a little girl who is adopted into a foster family + how she falls in love with reading/books. It’s narrated by Death, which was an interesting perspective. (It took me some time to realize who the “narrator” was since I listened to this as an audiobook, haha.)

Lady Tan’s Circle of Women, by Lisa See – I discovered Lisa See’s books a little bit before the pandemic and she’s one of my favorite authors, so I’m on a mission to read everything she writes. If you’re a fan of historical fiction, I’d highly recommend her books. <3

Her newest novel is inspired by the true story of a female physician from 15th-century and how she navigates through a society that believes educated women are worthless. (To be frank, women were just seen as baby-makers in general during that time.) This is our book club pick for our last meeting of the year! I actually emailed the author + she answered and was super nice + offered us signed book plates. :]!

See past ultimate coffee dates here!

(Link-up with Coco @ Running with Perseverance & Deborah @ Confessions of a Mother Runner!)

End-of-Month Recap

• I finally got back to writing again! One of my most recent hikes was up the Wright Peak Summit Trail!
• If you’re looking to gift a beautiful cookbook to someone, Now & Then is a part-memoir-part cookbook filled with delicious recipes!
• I also (finally) started writing about my Death Valley trip from last year — here’s the Golden Canyon Trail!
• If you’re a fan of Settlers of Catan and/or are planning a board game night, Catan: The Official Cookbook is a nice addition! :D