It's been a nice weekend so far. A weekend at a pace that I like. We went to watch Ocean's Twelve on Friday night. I am not a big fan of watching a movie the night it comes out or anything. But I AM a big fan of George Clooney. Ok..and Brad Pitt and Matt Damon while I am at it. Movie was so-so...all stars no shine.

Saturday was really nice. I went on a hike to Stevens Creek County Park. It was not as crowded as I expected. There was a group of picnickers near the parking lot but other than that, hardly anyone on the trail. The trail is well shaded while it is within the Stevens Creek County Park. About halfway it enters the Fremont Open Space Preserve, which, as the name indicates, is a lot of open space. It starts off going alongside the creek (that would be the creek in Stevens Creek) and you get a nice view of the Stevens Creek reservoir. It leads up to Maisie's Peak which offers a nice view of most of the Bay Area. The trail then loops back to the parking lot via the Open Space preserve. Being something of an agoraphiliac (in case you didn't know, it's a word I coined for "lover of open spaces"), I realized that this is one of the best times to visit Open Space Preserves because of the moderate temperatures. Anyway, that brings us to the end of the 6.something mile hike. After some shopping in the evening, I finally got to the project that I had planned for Saturday. Pumpkin Pie! My roommate had brought this good-sized pumpkin during Halloween, and we never got down to making anything with it. So I got all the baking stuff and started out. Apple pies are easier to make, according to me. This was not too bad, although I am not exactly fond of the egg-breaking-beating bit. All's well that ends well and there's pumpkin pie to be had.

On a more serious note, M.S. Subbulakshmi passed away on Saturday night. A legend leaves us but her music lives on. What really left an impression on me was the utter devotion in her voice. And her simplicity and humility. We are fortunate to have lived in her time.