Chimney flanges

Our new friend Tony the mason appeared today with a couple of people and quickly installed the flanges for the fireplace extensions. This means we can have Cheryl and gang at Hennings Fireplaces come over and add on the necessary pieces to give us a chimney the right length. Tony seems to work fast and efficiently. So far, so good. I have to go tomorrow morning and pick out the stone from the vast array at El Dorado. Richard and I have pre-screened them so the final selection shouldn't be hard.

Finally we completed the epoxy job and installation of anchor bolts aka earthquake proofing around the whole house. Today, Richard had to leave and run down to Pine Tree Lumber to get some bolts they were short...turned out they didn't have enough at Pine Tree and I had to pick up ten additional pieces at Home Depot. The inspector was a nice guy, jovial and chatty. He did in fact inspect the installation of each and every bolt and charged us $575.00 for the privelege. And people wonder how the price of houses has risen. Even the inspector wonders about the value of all this....as he stated, how many houses built before this reg have actually fallen down. We know the chimneys used to go, but the number of bolts we installed...over 70 seems like overkill. It's added about $1500.00 to the cost of the house in bolts and the inspector. If you add in Jeff's labor to drill the holes and then do the epoxy, you'd probably have to say it cost more like $2500.00. Yikes.

Three D!

In this case the letters should stand for Dumb, Dumber and Dumbest. Journey to the Center of the Earth. We were lured to this movie by the prospect of the 3D which was very good indeed. The technology appears to be the same - and you get the glasses to wear. At first I found the effects to be startling and wanted to duck when projectiles of various kinds came your way. After a short time either my vision or brain adapted and I didn't see them as much anymore. Maybe because the story was so brain numbingly stupid that all senses turned off.

Yes, it's a ridiculous fantasy story, but it has been turned into a pitiful parody of action films, Disney family schlock and stupidity. I gaped in disbelief that a script could be sooooo bad.

Here's a kicker. Our local theatre offers a lower price ticket early in the day WITHOUT 3D. What insanity! You'd have to be crazy to pay a dime to see this mess without the 3d which is the only redeeming feature of the thing.

After eating we went to Chinese restaurant next door and ate well.

July 15th

Progress is slow at the moment. Getting the anchor plates and hold downs ready for the special inspector, has been a problem. The framing crew seems to have fallen apart yesterday in a hail of accusations and anger. Four times the special inspector has been delayed because the crew either didn't have the holes drilled, then they didn't have the right drill bits and finally yesterday they discovered they didn't have the right bolts. We drove around trying to the get the materials they needed and meanwhile the inspector was cancelled yet again.

Obviously there is a problem in management and we think Ken, our framer, has taken his eye off the ball due to the discovery of his critically high blood pressure. Fortunately his numbers are now under control and perhaps he can get back to concentrating on our job.

Meanwhile we have placed our order to Bali and the work will take 7 to 8 weeks to complete and then 4 - 6 weeks on the water. We won't have it until about Nov. 1st. I called the stucco people to ask if this would be a problem. While it isn't ideal, they can work around it.

Joe Bfstplk - alive and well?

Ken, the framer, found out he has very high blood pressure and was put on medication and told to immediately change his life style. For Ken this means, no more fast food, beer and more exercise. His job requires that he spend far too much time in his truck driving from job to job. Currently he is working on an animal hospital near Oxnard and our job. He's bidding on a few jobs down south of San Diego. In this economy, he is willing to go wherever he can find work, but it has it's price.

Ken, musing about what he might do to change things, was telling us stories about his construction experiences. He told a funny tale about a guy that he worked with who just couldn't do anything right. As an example, he told about a day when the boss left and told Ken and the other framers to keep an eye on this fellow and not to let him touch any equipment. No sooner had the truck pulled away from the site than the fellow picks up a brand new broom - snap! The handle was broken within minutes. Later, they saw him getting on an elevator device that's used to haul lumber upstairs...he was trying to get lumber loaded on it when it crashed, fell and broke a water pipe located just under the threshold of the supervisor's trailer. And so on....a Joe Bftsplk or a "cooler". Ken said that despite the guy's curse, his friends kept him on working with them for years. You wonder if it was a case of "the devil you know."

July 4th

Framing has been going along at a good speed. We have had two or
three people working every day. Ken comes by once or twice a day to check progress. The second story floor is almost complete and some of the walls are closed in. Every day there are questions about doing something. We call the architect every two or three days.

Now we are working on heating and air conditioning and trying to decide between various brands and sizes of units. Looks like we will need two of each - two heat pumps and two heaters. Between these two and the fireplace insert we should be warm. We found a mason we like, Tony...actually Ken ran into him at a gas station in Fallbrook and gave us his phone number.

I took down the window shutters in spare bedroom to save them from further destruction. They have to be removed before installing the new slider and before stuccoing anyway. A good clean-up job is in store for them and then stowing someplace safe until construction is over.

We had a scare as we were leaving for home about 4:00. Pinky was no where to be found and we searched high and low for him. We walked along every road, calling his name. We looked in every possible hidey hole - the pipes, up in the trees and in all his favorite places. Each of us kept going back to places he might have gotten closed inside - the tool shed, the garage, cupboards in the casita.
At 6:45, Richard, nearly starving drove into Fallbrook and brought us back KFC. About five minutes before he returned, I spied Pinkie running back to the casita from the front gate direction, little mouth agape and panting. He ran inside and went directly under the sofa. Buster went to him and started licking his face. I was so relieved and so was Richard, when he pulled in and I was able to give him a big thumbs up!

No Ribs Night

All week we were anticipating ribs at the Fallbrook Cafe with Ross. We checked the "specials" board on our way in and were horrified to see that ribs were not listed. As it happened the cafe owner was on duty and we asked him about the ribs. He rushed into the kitchen and emerged to tell us that their meat supplier had neglected to deliver them.


Boo hoo! We were all salivating for ribs and the beef stroganoff I ordered was no substitute. In fact, it was hardly edible. Richard opted for the gyros and found it quite acceptable. Ross had the sandwich special - a chicken salad sandwich too big to eat. He requested the cafe business card so he could call ahead next time so as to avoid disappointment.

The week prior we all chose the catfish which was an excellent choice. Ross told a story about back in Missouri when the alcoholic father of Helen, Ross's wife, caught an enormous catfish. While landing the fish, he put his arm in the gill and the catfish thrashing around, nearly drowned him. He had to be rescued!! Once landed the mammoth catfish was strung up like a marlin and then sliced into steaks. Ross says the whole town joined in the catfish fry.

Swiss and Syrian Visit

Some wonderful house guests spent a few days with us. Roger, Maguy and Stefanie who have just completed a year in the US - Roger at War College, Stefanie at a public school and Maguy enjoying Washington DC. We had a full day together which we spent visiting the rancho - Maguy enjoyed picking fruit and filled a bag with plums, apriocts, nectarines, lemons a grapefruit and some oranges.

We ate a late lunch in Old Town and did an olive oil tasting there. Then on to wine country to the South Coast Winery where we endured a wine tasting. Awful...the place was crowded and understaffed. The staff they did have were surly and paid no attention to ordinary details, like rinsing the wine glasses between white and red. You had to hunt for spit buckets, hunt for the tasting menus and fight for a spot at the bar. Decidedly unsatisfying experience and if we go wine tasting in that area again, we will skip South Coast.

An unlikely coincidence was the high point of the visit. When Maguy arrived and mentioned that she was from Allepo, Richard told her about Zouka, Joey's mother-in-law....Maguy said quickly, "Yes, I know Zouka" - she lived in the same neighborhood. After further discussion it became more apparent that she really did know our Zouka. Near the end of the day, we connected the two by telephone and they chatted away in French for about half and hour, reconnecting. Maguy loved it and it was so much fun to hear her laughing and talking a mile a minute. After she hung up, she told us that ZouZou's family was one of the best in Allepo - her father, a doctor, was a cultured man and the family was well known in Allepo. Maguy and ZouZou went to the same school, although ZouZou is older by about 15 years than Maguy, she is close in age to Maguy's older sister.

We have pledged now to arrange to visit Allepo when Maguy is there probably next year in September. What fun it will be to see the sights with Maguy and Stefanie!

Second floor coming up

Yesterday our consultant Dan visited our site and gave us a thumbs up so far. Progress yesterday included completion of floor joists for second floor. A huge beam was hoisted in place for the division between deck and office. Now our hallway is closed in and we can see our light. The pantry is framed in the kitchen and our bathroom is pretty well shaped.

Today the second story walls go up - had to make a decision this morning about flooring material on the deck upstairs and decided on tile. One of our windows has to be changed - I'm hoping we can catch the window order at Andersen.

Decisions, decisions, decisions.

June 23rd

We had pasta with scallops and a good arugula salad. All washed down with Tin Roof Merlot, a wine we enjoyed with Ina and Jerry a week or so ago.

Most of the day was spent puzzling out our fireplaces and figuring out what to do. We had one mason, Tony over who seemed like a practical guy. He advised us to get some flue people involved.

Stairs were completed and we were able to clearly see our office view for the first time. Nice. They also put the window frames in the turret.

Jaime cleaned up the dirt mounded up around the house. He moved it around evenly and raked it smooth. The job site now looks more ship-shape and organized. We have a little more pick-up around the garage to do and things will be in good shape.

Richard bought a new car yesterday and tomorrow we go to pick it up. BMW 650 - something he's really wanted. Lots of engine and a nice driving machine. I get the old Beamer.

June 21st A Hot Summer Night

Summer came in on a heat wave! We went to a concert performance of the Fallbrook Chorale with a special guest performance of the Fallbrook Youth Orchestra. The chorale was pretty good on some numbers particularly American the Beautiful. The Youth Orchestra played the Beach Boys number, Fun, Fun, Fun - it was so bad that my
back teeth were aching but they get an A for effort. Most are beginning violin students and they are able to saw out a couple of notes and I mean "saw". Even if the kids learned to draw a bow across the strings properly they'd turn out a better sound. As Richard says, the charm lay in the "small town" character of the event. At intermission for $2.00 you could buy a plate of cookies and other goodies, probably baked by the chorale members. While milling around the food, we heard one woman exclaim that it was 106 in San Marcos.

After the concert, we decided to go to a movie and ended up in Temecula. We headed out for Oceanside first but it looked like everyone in Fallbrook was headed for the beach, so we turned around and beat it over to Temecula. Good hamburgers at Ruby's and then Sex and the City. As they say, you go see it for the clothes - they are fabulous. The movie is endless and stupid, but a fashion lover's treat. When we left Temecula at 9:00 it was 96 degrees - but down to 80 by the time we got to Fallbrook.

Women crushed by hot dog stand in Baja

I ran into Beth downtown. She was in England recently visiting one of her wind-surfing friends from her former life in Baja. She told me a hilarious story about riding to a party in a truck with a hot dog stand. Apparently she and her friend were invited to a party at a house which stood six miles down a piece of dirt road. They were waiting on the corner for a ride which had apparently forgotten about them. Suddenly a truck appeared, hauling the hot dog stand from town, which no one even realized was portable. Beth and friend asked the drivers where they were going and it turned out they were all headed to the same place. The hostess had hired the hot dog stand for the party. Beth and friend jumped into the back of the truck with the hot dog stand and proceeded to bump down the dusty, curving road. The hot dog stand was no small proposition and every time they went around a curve the stand would tip in one direction or the other threatening to crush either Beth or her friend depending on the turn. For the duration of the ride the two women were alternating between laughing at the crazy situation and being terrified the stand would crush one of them.

Beth says that after it was over, she never laughed harder in her life. "What a way to go!" she said..."I can see it on my tombstone..."crushed to death by a hot dog stand"

June 21st - First summer day 2008

The second story is going on the house. Stairs are being crafted and the turret is under construction. Temperatures reaching almost 100 degrees in the afternoon are not slowing anything down. The "faces are down" and the hammers keep pounding.

Yesterday there was a big crew on the scene. 6 trucks were parked in the driveway alongside a new delivery of wood from DixieLine. The floor joists were being hoisted when we arrived about 8:00.

"Saving the beehive" is our latest challenge. We require a 2" clearance between the back of the fireplace and the framing. Even though Nick and Fran's old plan shows a two inch clearance on the blueprint, there is only a one inch clearance in reality. After considering several possibilities...shaving off a inch from the back, adding on several courses so the fireplace sticks out...we decided on Ken's solution which is to attach some rebar and fold it out and around to support an extra inch or so, re-framing it. We've had a couple of masons up to look at the thing and opine on what to do and are waiting for bids.

Heating/ac and roofing are our next trades.

Concrete Pouring Day

June 12th. We passed our inspection yesterday. It was our first on-site inspection and I was nervous as a cat on a hot tin roof...worried that the pool would be a problem, the fireplaces would be a problem, the set-back would be measured and that he would notice the casita. After I worried over that list, I had a secondary back-up list to worry about, just in case I ran out of anxiety.

The only item the inspector requested was one more piece of rebar in a trench. If he's on the job to the end, we're on easy street at last.

Last night three cars full of people came to look over the concrete job and brought up a pump. The truck will sit in front of the house and the pump will push the concrete into the forms. It's a family of people doing the work. Chevo is still messing around in the trenchs doing little things. The plumber was here at 8:10 all alone, but he complete what was necessary.

DixieLine is providing the lumber and we had a bit of a conflict between Ken's lumber guy at Dixie and Mike Kerr who usually does business with UBuildIt. There seems to be little cooperation between people as they work on commission.

Richard is at Costco with Dion buying the little storage shed..Dione will assemble it today as well and we can move everything in. No Jaime today.

Week two ends with a lot of digging

June 6th. Demolition was complete June 5th and the demo guys finally left with their truck filled to the brim, the bobcat lashed to the trailer and three guys jammed into the cab, tired and anxious to get home. We were relieved to see the end of the smash and crash period and to get started CONstruction. Ken Webb, our framer and concrete guy, arrived with a crew at 7:30 and they started measuring and digging immediately. About 1 hour in, they discovered the existing footings extended down 24" instead of 12" as anticipated. We had to call the architect for new instructions which were to dig down underneath the existing footings and add still more concrete.

Gail came over and saved our low voltage wiring set-up by covering some of it with a sleeve. It runs through a footing now and we're hoping the inspector lets us leave it in again. Thursday was a digging day. Friday the plumbers arrived and started their installations of major plumbing lines. They didn't estimate placement of the main properly and so they had to jack-hammer out a lot more concrete.

Jaime showed up and was able to work on re-routing the irrigation pipes so that a footing could be poured. The footing was right on the same spot as the irrigation pipe. Jaime is very helpful as he can translate for us when necessary. He understands enough English to comprehend what we want and to communicate it for us. My "Spanish on the Job" booklet is still unused.

Lots going on. At this point, we have to stand back and let the experts do their business. I continue to do what I do best - worry about over-looked details and my all-consuming window order which has bogged down again.

Spending days out in the grove is lovely. The cats re-visited on Friday and enjoyed a lot of romping about, catching lizards and trotting back and forth behind us. They don't like the sun and run from shade patch to shade patch. After running a short stretch, exhausted and panting, they flop into the leaf litter to cool down.

La Casita was beautified yesterday by Richard with the addition at the doorway of two pots full of New Zealand Impatiens with some blue and pink lobelia for trim.

Week two of demolition

Monday and the crews were to be on hand at 8:30 - framer, demo guys to mark the spots for the saw cuts into the concrete. At 9:15 the framer showed and the demo guys rolled in around 12:00, saying they'd had a flat tire with the big rig. They brought the bob cat with attachments and the saws, 2 guys and Angel the bobcat operator. They got straight to work breaking up the remaining concrete on the back patio, former patio and broke one of the main pipes in the process. We didn't know it was built into the concrete. A major flood ensued filling up the patio space where the new kitchen is to be located. Now everything is muddy and a mess. The whole place is littered from end to end and it seems we have the two worst workers Dirt Cheap Demo has on the staff. The bobcat operator gets things done but the others are just foot draggers. On top of this. they can't operate the concrete saw without water so they have been filling pop bottles all day to cool the device.

Progress Monday and Tuesday: All areas marked for saw cuts. All large areas of concrete are chopped up. Today we dumped one load by our stream and one load on Gails property. Gail came over to hook up the electrical to the garage but I told him it wasn't necessary. The two bozos knocked down the one wall remaining on the garage side.

I left at 2:30 leaving Richard still looking for a solution for the water problem and got a hair cut in Temecula. It was such a relief to be away from the chaos.

We did meet with a young, energetic and articulate landscape designer today with whom we were very impressed. His name is Gio Leonardo, how artistic is that.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday

Friday morning when we arrived at the house, the crew had scooped up most of the debris and piled it in the dumpster. Soon after the tiles were scraped up and we had to scurry to find something to put them in. Richard set out on an avocado bin hunt and came back with a couple which we half filled. The bobcat took them out to our construction storage area which is now looking like a construction yard with all the roof tiles and floor tiles.

I cut a deal with Lalo to pay him on Friday and he promised to come back on Monday with two guys to do the rest - as he put it, anything you want!! We want you to be happy. We'll see.

Saturday we waited half the day for the plumber who decided not to come. Gail came down to hook us up some power for Monday.

Sunday we arranged to meet the plumber Gary Kelly at 9:00...he showed about 9:30 and had to dissamble the gate to get it in. Say what?? He didn't notice the key pad. Duh. Thankfully he brought along a trusty helper who seems to be on the ball and will likely do most of the work. It really doesn't seem to be so much of a plumbing job, but maybe by the time we're finished I'll be able to see where the money has gone.

I shoveled out the guest bathroom from debris in order to give the plumbers access and so that they could see the connections. Raised a blister on one hand. Richard and I decided to use the broken concrete to "pave" the rose bed area. Tomorrow we'll have the dump truck move the pieces to a spot fairly accesible so we don't have to cart the stuff too far.

It was another beautiful day at the rancho and the cats had an excellent time, chasing things. At one point Buster ran over the boards crossing the pool and he took them like a hurdler, jumping over and over, over and under. They get very focused when they hunt!!

We took the rest of the day off spending a couple of hours in Escondido at the BMW dealer looking at the 600 series car and the new 353 coupe. The 600 is a beauty according to Richard. The back seat is not a good experience as it's claustrophobic and there is no air conditioning. The car only has one drink cup and no handle grips on the ceiling. It's really a one person sports vehicle although it's not small. Richard is looking for a 06 model which should run much cheaper. I hope he can find a color combo he likes. After
car time we had a late lunch at the French cafe on Grand Avenue....the charcuterie plate of pate, ham, turkey, potato salad, gherkins, Nicoise olives, tomato, grainy mustard and brie. Served with a basket of French rolls, it was perfect to stave off hunger - no dinner now.

Big Bobcat eats entire house!

Day three and there is a giant pile of debris in the middle of the house. The bobcat is now picking up great jawfuls of stuff and moving it into the dumpster. The machine eats like a pig, but gets most of each clump into the target. Two guys are working their way around the walls still standing and removing stucco. The bins can only carry about a half full bin of stucco or they exceed weight limits.


The guys (this is a technical construction term for a crew) have a fire lit in the fireplace and so now it stands alone, burning away. Strange sight.


We decided to pitch out the pots and plants that lived on the enclosed patio. They are half rotted and root bound and more trouble than they are worth. We thought about keeping them but realized we'd just be moving them and moving them again and they aren't worth it.



Tomorrow we'll be down to just three people, stripping off the floor tiles and continuing the clean up. The guys that get to go home will be happy to see their families...they don't like being away very much at all.

Smash and Crash

Day two of house destruction. Walls crumbled and windows smashed. The house has imploded. Late last night we went back to show Ross Dailey the mess and a bobcat was at work bringing down the front wall. The cat was tearing off chunks about 10 x 10. Unfortunately, they broke a pipe in the process so we will have some repairs to do. Also they have snapped off some of the irrigation heads in front where the lumber is piled. The biggest gaffe of the day is a hole in the utility room roof where they got over enthusiastic. This part of the roof is to stay....I guess we'll be able to patch it.

The boys have set up an HQ in the guest bedroom, using my gas burner for cooking and the microwave we loaned them from our HQ. They've got eggs, tortillas and a myriad of snacks to eat. The foreman told me that they had it the fireplace and played cards the night before. Lots of coyote noise bothered them a bit but otherwise they say they slept well. Who wouldn't after driving up from the border, working about 10 hours - hard physical abor? The crew was down to 9 yesterday and today will only be about three. Mostly they will be picking up and putting everything in the trash, moving our roof tiles to the creek and placing our beams where we want them. Today they tear down the little garden house too...they've decided it can't be moved.

Bringing down the house

Big day today! At 8:00 am, Dirt Cheap Demolition rolled in with trucks, crowbars and 12 guys all ready to roll. One call to Fallbrook refuse and a big dumpster was here in about an hour. Lalo, our crew chief, has the magic words I guess. It took us a month to get a dumpster - and site visits and deposits.

Like locusts, the guys swarmed over the roof, removing tiles and stacking them in piles, then throwing them down to a man standing by pallets. He caught and piled the tiles. 7 pallets filled up in no time and Lalo ran to Fallbrook for 6 more. About the half the tiles are off. Half the crew moved to the patio cover and started removing that while the other half started ripping the roof off the master bedroom and bath. Another worker went around the house making cuts in the stucco so they could pull it off.

At noon they stopped for chicken and tortillas and all ate heartily. The laughter and teasing rang round the grove - they had a good time. Lalo told me that he would remove the little tool house in exchange for a chicken lunch. They also agreed to take the antenna away - somebody would want it.

I sat with them for a few minutes and talked near the end of the day. The house is about 1/3 down and the two lead men were very happy with their progress. I asked them if they liked what they do and they both said "We love it!!". Probably because they really do something - at the end of the day you can clearly see the result of your work.

Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull

We joined the throngs at the local movie theatre to see Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull on the second day of its release on a long weekend, Saturday night. You'd think this would be a recipe for disaster but we got fairly good seats and although the theatre was full of kids, they were quiet and attentive. The movie is set in the 50's and in one scene Indiana stumbles across a fake neighborhood populated with mannequins. When he hears a countdown being broadcast in a loud voice, he jumps into a refrigerator clearly marked "LEAD LINED" just before a blast blows the fridge and the town to Kingdom come. He staggers out of the fridge just in time to see a mushroom shaped cloud arise on the horizon. This is the closest to food we get in the entire movie.

After, we went to the Peking Wok next door to eat. Sizzling Rice Soup, YuShiang Pork, Lemon Chicken and Hot Braised Shrimp. The food was very good and the YuShiang Pork a flavor surprise containing Chinese 5 spice. Although the Sizzling Rice Soup was quite different than that served in LA Chinatown (no pea pods, no water chestnuts), it was pleasant. It felt good to eat after all the Indie action.

Our book club read The Wind, by . A mystery story set in Barcelona and full of twists and turns. The clever author has a great web site on which he has posted music he composed to go along with the book. What talent.


The food was good. Vickie brought beautifully grilled shrimp wrapped in bacon..the shrimp was cooked but tender and the bacon was cooked perfectly. A real tour de force. She also brought a "tortilla" - large potato omelet. Lori brought marinated grilled chicken with grilled fennel and onions all arrayed on a platter garnished with edible flowers. Delicious. I brought Spanish potato salad and shrimp ala the pintxos in San Sebastian. Vicki also brought some excellent Spanish chocolate flavored with orange and Lori made a custard tart piled high with Roxanne's berries. Overall, the eating was about as good as it gets, thanks to the great cooks and readers in the club.

We all enjoyed the book and spent time discussing who could play which role in the movie version. Antonio Banderas got a lot of votes as did Pamela Cruz. The book must have 500 scenes in it, which would make it difficult to turn into a manageable script but the twisty, turny plot would make engaging viewing. Somebody clever will likely manage it.

Oinkster

The drive up to Solheim to see Richard's mother is long and can be ardurous if the traffic is bad. To reward ourselves we usually try to eat at some place new or different while we are up there. This Sunday we tried Oinkster located just a few blocks away from Solheim. Upscale fast food, the pulled pork is the big star of the show. We found it disappointing - dry and tasteless. The Carolina barbecue sauce wasn't much help. Belgian Fries were limp. The pastrami was excellent although sliced too thickly to get the maximum flavor. It was however fatty and peppered beautifully. Oinksters house mustard is a perfect complement. Desserts had no visual appeal so we skipped those, partly because they didn't look good and mostly because the music was too loud and the place couldn't be more uncomfortable. Tables wobble and tip - wads of paper are squished under most of the legs. We sat at a two-top where our table had been wedged over the neighboring two-top in an attempt to get some stability. Passing through the tables is like walking down a plane aisle - you have to turn sideways, dodge and weave. You can't wait to get out of there.

Once was enough for the Oinkster.

Vaseline on your tortillas

I learned a new trick from Shari - you can teach an old dog, if you are patient enough. She was doing a photo shoot for Bumble Bee and I played assistant. One of the shots was a wrap made with a large spinach tortilla. She plunked down a jar of Vaseline and we rubbed it into the tortillas to keep them flexible, help hold the filling in and make them sealable. It worked like a charm and this little trick made the whole wrap thing fairly easy.

Three shots went along briskly - the digitalization of food photography makes the whole process much easier. Need more red pepper? - use the cloning device and add some more in - click, click, click. Our client thought the rosemary in one shot looked like hair. Huh?? That photo got a digital shave, using the erase device - the photographer just rubbed it off. Gone are the bad old days of doing things over and over - now,once you have the basics you can go a long way with digital adjustment.

All three shots turned out great - they are colorful, simple and should sell tuna.

Richard, the photographer ,is an artist and has done a series of tapestries depicting "downtowns", mostly downtown LA. He showed us his portfolio with interpretations of city hall, the Disney Concert Hall, the LA Cathedral, Little Tokyo and the Ahmenson theatre. They reminded me of what you see in a kaleidoscope.

As we left the studio a New York photographer and his entourage came in to scout things out. They've rented the studio for Friday (3 people all the way from New York) to photograph a hospital bed!! They looked kind of grim and the one person I talked to didn't show much sense of humor. I think we had more fun with the tuna than they are going to have between, over, under or on the sheets.

A Dawg Fairy Tale

This morning it's Richard's 69th birthday and we're having Dutch Babies and bacon for breakfast. Dutch Babies are an old friend. One of my first product development jobs was working on a frozen Dutch Baby batter for Van de Kamps. We never did sell it as it took too long to thaw and bake. The product brings back memories of working in the VDK lab in some house trailers the company rented for our R and D work. Although San Fernando Road was not the most glamorous place to work, the trailers were fitted out nicely. We used the kitchens, our offices were in the bedrooms, the dining rooms were great for conferences and product showings ; the living room was used for meetings.

A stray dog took up residence under the trailers because our garbage cans were always filled with primo test products. The picking were good! Dawg, a lovable creature, started sneaking in the trailer if we weren't watching closely. One thing led to another and soon the dog was sitting in somebody's office for most of the day, curled up at his or her feet. We'd gone too far and finally one of the execs said that the dog had to go. Devastated we tried to find him a home, asking everyone we knew about possibilities and finally one of the girls made a great connection. Her mother worked for Kay Spreckles, Clark Gable's widow who had a big property in the San Fernando Valley. JoAnne's Mom told Kay about Dawg and Kay said she would take him as a ranch dog. Fortune smiled on our poor mutt because when he went home with Kay, her son - Clark Gable's son, fell in love with him and so Dawg, moved into the house and lived happily ever after, just like a movie star.

Richard enjoyed his fancy breakfast with orange juice in wine glasses, our best embroidered napkins and his mother's silver.

The Old Crab

Shari and I had a good time in Wash DC. We were able to pull the flavor school together by 10:20 the night before which translates to about 4 1/2 hours solid work. In the morning it took us about 1 1/2 hours to lay it out and get the handouts together. The Unilever guys took care of the video, which posed the usual problems but ended up being just fine. Our audience was attentive although smaller than anticipated. We had about 34 people instead of the 50 person estimate. Dick our host seemed pleased.

After our work was done, we went over to Wegmans for lunch and had crab sandwiches carefully and meticulously prepared by the "Old Crab". Old indeed, he looked about 75 and had a sandwich set-up at the end of the fish section. His crab cakes were simmering in an electric frying pan and he had a large mixing bowl full of coleslaw which looked particularly colorful and appetizing with large pieces of carrot and cucumber blended into the shredded cabbage. There was a constant line of people waiting for his sandwiches, chatting away with him. He seemed to be popular and I imagine a bit of an icon.

He'd prepare a bun by scooping out one side and slathering it with a kind of thousand island dressing. The bottom of the bun was placed on the plate and topped with a generous portion of mixed greens topped with 4 thick tomato slices, then the crab cake was perched on top. The top of the bun with the thousand island was balanced against the side of the sandwich. A generous cupful of coleslaw was added to the plate along with a couple of lemon slices. He gave us a big smile and a couple of words as he passed the sandwich over. Shari and I enjoyed ours at the tables upstairs in the cafe area above the market. The crab cake consisted of large pieces of crab, held together with a little mayo. It was rolled in a very fine crumb and then cooked. Even though mine was almost cold it was still delicious - crab quality was excellent.

Wegmans was a wonder. Beautifully lit, the interior is warm, inviting and gets your appetite going immediately. The main entrance takes you right into a huge produce section. The first thing we saw was a pile of gorgeous artichokes and bin after bin of high quality produce spread out ahead. They claim to offer more than 700 items from 800 suppliers. In the produce section, a woman was serving samples of a tostada consisting of the usual ingredients but the base was a pita bread instead of the usual tortilla. The sample was a generous portion and the woman, warm and engaging. A recipe was available and this "What's cooking?" station operates everyday to give shoppers ideas for easy meals they can create in minutes. Moving on to the bread section, we watched workers making a loaf called Marco Polo which was a yeasty smelling round loaf that they dipped in a mixture of rice flour, water, yeast and sugar, then put it in the oven. The finished loaves were dark brown, crispy looking and gorgeous. A Chinese baker gave us a cup with samples of two artisan loaves; a ciabbata and sour dough. Munching on our bread, we continued on past the ovens and proof boxes to the sweet section of the bakery and admired fruit tarts, chocolate bombs and all kind of beautifully decorated cakes. Next up was the meat section - yards and yards of beautiful meat and poultry both regular cuts and partially prepared products like shish-kebabs. Rib eye and filet steaks, as large as 4 inches thick were sitting in trays. Tiny racks of lamb riblets nestled between pans of chicken breasts, some stuffed and wrapped, other layered with ingredients or marinated. The cheese section was amazing with four or five islands, 15 feet long, filled with cheeses from all over the world. Huge wheels and tiny slices were available. A charcuterie/deli offered every conceivable variety of cured meat, hams, sausages and salamis. Amazingly all this food was well priced. Next to or adjacent to all these displays, compatible or complimentary items were displayed such as basting oils, marinades, sauces, rubs and sprinkles or serving utensils and cooking equipment. Next to the meat section, an island held barbecue accessories such as a set of spatulas, forks, scrapers all shaped like golf clubs or curved skewers for extra pretty kabobs. Next to the fish section there were many cooking accessories - one was a dredge which was basically seasoned flour for dredging fish. An olive bar was at least 15 feet long and held 30 or 40 kinds of olives and a couple of gardinieras. You could mix and match with a fixed price per pound. Gone would be the 10 or so half-filled jars of olives that permanently dwell in my refrigerator, most of unknown age and questionable quality. Oh to be able to purchase just a few of each, fresh on each market visit. Oh to have a Wegmans in the neighborhood.

As would be expected, there was a large wine section with a tasting bar and a chalk board announcing when tastings were scheduled. I was surprised to find no Wine Spectator ratings or tasting notes posted on the wines. The wines were however very well priced - the wines I know and buy were priced similarly to what I pay at Trader Joes or BevMore.

Perhaps 30 - 40% of the market space was dedicated to food service. A long display case held 40 or 50 steam table inserts full of entrees like cedar planked salmon, pastas, sushi, vegetable and potato items which could be purchased by the pint or the pound. Another station served sandwiches in a carvery set-up with a piece of roast beef and a ham under warming lights. There was a long Chinese buffet which held 30 or 40 items. Pizza could be purchased and a variety of soups were ready for to-go. The food was fresh looking and these buffet lines/display cases were clean and obviously well tended.

Check out at the market was fast, friendly and efficient. They offer help loading your car and offer an escort in case you have
fears at any time but I would suppose this would be popular after late night shopping.

Hanging out at Wegmans...a huge and delightful surprise bonus to this trip!!

Retirement?

The end of April and the end of an era. Shari and I leave tonight for Wash DC to do the last flavor school for the Lawry's brand. Unilever has sold it to McCormick who will take over on July 1st. This will be my last show certainly for Lawry's...I can't imagine that McCormick would care to continue as they have many shows/productions of their own.

Shari and I have been upgraded on Northwest and so we will benefit by having a breakfast served en route to Minneapolis and likely some kind of dinner between Minni and Wash. Enough to hold us through our marathon pouring exercise tonight. Pouring and capping 750 + samples takes some time - likely about 4 hours. We should finish around 11:00 sleep fast; get up at 5:30 to be ready and at Costco at 7:00. We'll be tired on Friday.

Shari is working hard on Bumble Bee projects and I'm trying to do a test for ampm. What happened to retirement????

Eating with Junot Diaz

Our book club read "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" by Junot Diaz. The authors name should be Junot dazzling because the book is itself - wondrous. Diaz writes without a care about his audience - I had the feeling he writes entirely for his own pleasure and writes exactly as a educated, erudite, hip DR would speak. I was consulting Wikipedia for much of the reading translating the Spanglish and the many literary and gaming references - sci fi, D&D and other genres...like Japanese comic books. About halfway through the book and after 50 translations or so, I began to realize that DR Spanish relates to regular Spanish like Australian English compares to our English. The DR's use a lot of baby talk, for lack of a better word, like the Aussies, with their shortened words and plethora of diminutives. The book is joyous to read for a word person and a puzzler.

So what to eat during the discussion? I settled on Jerked Chicken Wings because I think poor Oscar might have liked them. I'm using Lawry's marinade on Chicken drumettes so they are appetizer- sized and easy to handle for the group to eat and for me to tranport. There's black bean soup on the menu as well...I'm using Bush's black beans as they are a favorite of mine after visiting with their R & D gang and doing a flavor school for them. For dessert I made little sorbets - a combination of coconut and mango. A tiny treat for the finale. I'm hoping somebody will bring Mojitos or something like that.

This book made almost no mention of food other than placing some action in the Chinese restaurant and the bakery La Inca operated; in fact there are so few food references that I wonder if Junot cares at all about what he eats. The sci fi types seem always to hold out hope that some day we will all be sucking down soylent green or some other nutritious goo out of a tap on the wall. Functional food- and that would be that. I remember at DisneyLand in Tomorrow Land, the kitchen of tomorrow, circa 1969 was organized around serving mostly straight nutrition. Ha, nothing could be farther from the reality we have today where we can get almost anything to eat here right in Fallbrook and also in such unlikely places as Pierre South Dakota - mangoes, crepe mix, vichysoisse, avocados.

Multi-Tasking

On February 4th, the family had a small gathering to remember Eilleen our sister, wife, mother, friend. The day was stunningly beautiful with bright blue skies and due to the recent rain, we could see all the mountains covered with snow. Right where Eilleen's niche is located, there's a pear tree which was in full bloom. All the white flowers that Eilleen loved so much. We took her some dainty pink roses, lit an incense stick like the Asians do and Dan and Aida brought some fruit from the garden she loved. We all said a few words and Jim said a few prayers. At the cemetery we paid our respects to Scott and Shirley Smart and to Dan's first wife. Afterwards, we went back to the house and had croissant sandwiches from Ralphs along with potato salad and coleslaw. It was nice to spend the time together and just talk and catch up.

Jennifer is doing volunteer work on two fronts - she works on-line trying to catch child predators and she is also a coach/consultant for the La Leche league. She told us a funny story about how she gets her sites going for the child predator work - she has a couple of identities on My Space and while she's chatting and waiting for responses, she answers the on-line questions that come up from the La Leche group. Quite a funny vignette to think about this young mother, taking care of her little brood and at the same time trapping perverts and helping mothers with breast feeding problems. She calls herself the ultimate multi-tasker.

Fifty Dollar port

Beth sent me an email about a study where respondents were tested when they knew the prices of wine and when they didn't know. The so-called pleasure centers in the brain were monitored. We had dinner with her last night and she told us with a laugh about the fifty dollar port she was serving. It worked!! We really enjoyed it.

Our dinner companions were a lively pair of South Africans, Beth's neighbors. They know and love Babotie and we had a discussion about the recipes and how to make it. I was recalling formulating Babotie mix on San Fernando Road in LA, when the intended audience was Zimbabwean. None of us had any idea what it should be like and the whole project was clearly to justify a boondoggle on the part of R&D management in Amsterdam. Oh well, it was fun and we loved to have Babotie meetings - drums beating and bones in noses.

Beth made chicken piccata, bow tie pasta and carrots. It was excellent and we enjoyed it very much.

We also got to see Buster's home, meet Tucker and spend some time with the excellent Teddy, their Australian Shepherd... a really beautiful animal and obviously the source of great joy.

Charlie is busy putting together a water-cooled computer, complete with a radiator and other exotic paraphenalia. What a project - an interesting one.

Book Club Goodies

For December, our book club read Isabelle Allende's "Ines of my Soul". Spanish food was the logical choice and some very nice vittles showed up. There was a marvelous Sangria contributed by Beth made with some cointreau to assist the orange flavor. Vicki, the chef supremo brought a pumpkin soup which was excellent and cookies with pistachios and chunks of chocolate. I couldn't stop eating the cookies and made a pig of myself. I contributed a salad of greens, blood oranges, pistachios, red onion and a lemon olive oil-white balsamic vinegar dressing.

Most readers didn't like the book which surprised me because I enjoyed it immensely. They thought it was too obviously written with a screen play adaptation in mind. They are right - it would make a good movie as the story is action packed with battles, sex and a fantastic female heroine.

"Three cups of Tea" is next month's book. Afghanistani food - that will be a challenge.

Book Club

The Society of the Flagon and Trencher

What a great group! You have to be descended from an inn keeper who was plying his or her craft, before 1776. There is a chance that Richard has such a relative. Most of his ancient descendants were rather snooty types so perhaps not. I looked up the geaneology and found Browne's but no Killeens or Fortiers (fat chance).

Watching Jeeves and Wooster tapes over the holidays generated some interested in P.G. Wodehouse, of course. Richard found a website and there is a society which has annual meetings. One of the events is a costume party where the attendees dress as an item of food mentioned in a P.G. Wodehouse book. Although it sounds like a good time is had by all, one has to wonder about people who have this much time on their hands!

Ross night

Wednesday night is "Ross" night. Ross is our 92 year old neighbor, widowed about 2 years and lonely. People in the neighborhood take him out to eat on a regular basis. We take him on Wednesday nights. He has a date 5 days a week.

Richard picks him up at 4:30 and Ross is always standing in the doorway waiting. They come by to get me near 5 and we decide which of the three restaurants Ross likes, that we'll go to: Fallbrook Cafe, Denny's or El Jardin. Tonight will be the Fallbrook cafe. The place has zero ambience - not even decent "diner" ambience. The owner/host is surly. The waitresses are pretty good and service is OK. The unimaginative menu yields the occasional surprise and gradually we've found a few edible entrees we enjoy. Ross eats like a bird - most of what he orders goes home in a doggy bag.

We enjoy hearing his stories of Fallbrook in days of youre. He is a fount of information.

Gails wonderful New Year's Pork

New Year's Day and we ate the traditional "Good Luck" roast pork and sauerkraut meal at Gail and Bud's in Palm Springs. No black eyed peas however which are also considered good luck to eat on New Year's day.

The Southern tradition of eating black-eyed peas on New Years day to bring good luck for the coming year, dates back to the U.S. Civil War. Union troops, especially in areas targeted by General Sherman, would typically strip the countryside of all stored food, crops, and livestock and destroy whatever they couldn't carry away. At that time, Northerners considered "field peas" and corn suitable only for animal food, and as a result didn't steal or destroy these foods. Many Southerners survived as a result of this.

Many people put a dime in the pot with the black eyed peas. Whoever gets the serving with the dime has special good luck for the year...and if worse comes to worse, they are at least a dime richer!

At our gathering most people brought an appetizer and we had an array of crackers and delicious spreads: Diana's Velveeta chile walnut roll, a cilantro avocado artichoke spread, smoked salmon with sour cream. The usual dips and chips were in abundance. Plenty of food and excellent company.

Crab and Champagne

New Year's Eve at last. The door closes on a year filled with extreme pain and many pleasures. Bring on 2008 - It's great to be alive!

Alaska Crab legs and champagne. Doug and Jan gave us a bottle of Jefferson Street reserved which paired well with the giant crab legs. The three cats were very interested in the crab and the little guys were attacking the garbage can trying to pull out the shells. One shell was dragged around for a while but then they lost interest. We spent a few contemplative moments being thankful for all that we have - in particular, each other, to enjoy during these later years of life.

10:00 found us in bed, watching Wooster and Jeeves - more inanity from the now familiar cast of characters. Richard found the P. G. Wodehouse society website and we enjoyed hearing about society meetings where people dress in costumes from the various books. One costume event consisted of food items from the books and people came as cabbages, shrimp cocktail, martinis etc. These are people with too much time on their hands!

Off today to Palm Springs to watch the games and enjoy Gails annual repast of roasted pork. We're going to be blown all the way as the wind is really kicking up this morning.

Peppermint Bark at Jefferson Street

Peppermint bark is better than it's bite. Jan made a tin of this for Christmas and Richard and I could have eaten it all ourselves. They also made a Buche de Noel which everyone enjoyed very much. Rand made a delicious corn side dish and we had Jan's
favorite lemon sorbet - the perfect end to a mid day meal.

Christmas at Jefferson Street was particularly enjoyable as the kids are all at the perfect age for gift giving. The floor was
littered with toys and kids were spread out everywhere assembling kits and trying out all the new gizmos. Kayla was absorbed
in her new portable play station but still found the time to switch to the more low-tech piano and serenade us with a few caroles, assisted by her little cousin Colette.

The street was all lit up and looked beautiful. On Christmas Eve a family of wind instrument players walked up the street
playing carols at various houses. It made the day perfect. To top it off, we went to dinner at Doug and Jan's favorite Italian restaurant which turned out to be a great find. Osso Bucco for $17.95 - and it was delicious.

Laurel and Hardy was the entertainment scheduled. Some of us watched the Music Box over several times, noting new things in the film with each viewing. A comedy classic, the duo is spectacularly funny moving a piano up a flight of very steep stairs over and over again, each time meeting with a new disaster which sends them with piano, back to the bottom.

We drove up and back and ran into traffic on the way home. It took us about 8 hours to get from San Ramon to home. The Grapevine was chugging along at the speed of 10 miles per hour.

I've never had a better Christmas.

Kitty Chicken Soup

We have two new kittens in the household, Pink and Buster. Somali cats, they are lean and very smart. The breeder fed them a raw diet supplemented by something called Pro food. We converted them to Fancy Feast mixed with cooked chicken. They like the diet and eat voraciously - I think more than I do. The gobbling of food is amost desperate and I wonder sometimes if they are
getting enough so we continue to feed them until they are stupurous.

Buster is more aggressive and vigorous and probably gets the most food although when I watch them, Pink seems to be getting enough. Side benefit of cooking chickens is the wonderful broth which becomes our share. We add barley, anise and whatever veggies are lingering in the fridge. Kittie Chicken Soup!

The kittens are a source of great joy and amusement. The only unhappy entity here is Brini, the old Burmese cat, who is completely disgusted with her new living arrangement. She is spending much of her time in the bedroom closet, the rest, sitting on the dining room table, out of reach of her torturers.

Kitten Chickens

Two new Somali kittens have joined our household - Pink and Buster. Healthy little boys, their breeder had fed them a raw diet until we brought them home. She fed them raw chicken, a Pro diet and kibble or as it was called "cookies" at will.  Now they are getting cooked chicken, Fancy Feast cans and the same kibble. The cats eat what seems like tremendous amount. I think they eat more than I do. They're in a very fast growth stage.

Food has never seemed more delicious -  more succulent. When I put their plate on the floor,they leap on it and the whole world stops. They see nothing, hear nothing and cannot be dissuaded from consumption. Once they clean the plate, a stupor follows.

Buster is bigger than pink and more aggressive but I don't think he gets more to eat. Pink is persistent and seems to be getting his share. Meanwhile we are getting plenty of chicken soup. Every time I cook a chicken for them, we get the delicious broth and add whatever is leftover in the fridge. A bit of anise in the soup we've found helps the flavor.

Sky High Meals

New airlines for this trip. We made our Northwest quotas in September and could now use up some of the frequent flyer miles. Against our better sense, we booked on China Southwest and although we had first class seats, prior experience filled us with doubt. Our premonitions seemed to be coming true when we got to the airport and couldn't even find the terminal. Richard and I split up - I went to park the car while he worked out ticket printing details with Northwest. Finally we found the right spot and went though the goat rope at LAX - a total mess. Our gate was located in a dimly lit area of the airport with the usual fine eye for decorating - wires hanging out of the ceiling and too few seats to accommodate the throngs.

The flight turned out to be wonderful. First Class was almost empty but even had it been full, we would still have been comfortable as the seats are well designed. Service was exceptional - after anyone used the toilet a flight attendant went in and checked it out to assure that all was well. Meal service was very good. After the meal, the cabin lights were dimmed and we were not disturbed for hours. A small bar was set up at the front of the plane with drinks and snacks on it that you could take as you wanted. The 16 hour flight was actually not bad - we slept, watched movies and were very comfortable. Much better than Northwest's business elite with narrow seats and OK service.

The Guangzhou airport was astonishing. Completed in 2004, everything is squeaky clean and efficient. We were met by a China Southwest attendant who walked us through customs and to baggage claim. Happily we found that there was an earlier flight to Vietnam and we didn't have to kill time in Guangzhou. 3 hours in the China Southwest lounge passed quickly - we checked email and walked around all the shops. The flight to Hanoi was on-time and we had a lost bag (with the diving equipment). The China Southwest baggage attendant took care of this quickly and later in the day our bag was delivered to the hotel. A very impressive airline experience.

Chinese dinner in KL

We love the night market in the China Town in KL, along Petaling street. Although we only had a few hours in KL we planned our time so we could take the airport transfer train from our hotel, the Pan Pacific, downtown and then the "el one" stop for the market. We managed to get there by about four o'clock; did some serious watch shopping and then settled down to eat at the outdoor restaurant. Richard bought a couple of watches, his favorite shopping experience. I bought a Jimmy Chu bag for $50. They were asking over one hundred, but took my first offer at fifty so I probably got screwed but I expect that to happen. It's part of the fun.

For dinner, we had a tofu dish with ground pork, chicken with lemongrass and fried rice. We shared a large beer and it was all perfect - out on the street, energy crackling through the air, beer touts moving along the tables and the main restaurant touts standing out in front, waving people in. We recognized one of the touts from last time - he's fairly old and gray and squeezes a cigarette between two fingers, puffing away as he extolls the virtues of the restaurant.

 Night fell as we ate and the tempo at the market got more and more frenzied. There was hardly room to push along the aisles. Watch sellers were everywhere unlike last time we visited when we had to hunt them down. They had everything you have ever seen advertised, even the very latest watches, just released. After a post-dinner pass through the stands, we were exhausted, the food had kicked in and it was time to make our way back home. Next time in KL we'll do it again. 

"It ain't over until a big guy pulls a bus"

After the wedding feast in Hanoi, we heard that Dominique, a large, muscular member of the French-Canadian contingent was going to "pull a bus". "What?" Out we all trooped and sure enough, Dominique had his red kerchief tied around his head and was donning a chest brace. He spent some time hooking ropes up to the bus axle. Meanwhile, the cute little Vietnamese girls were all twittering and giggling, flirting with him and looking coy. The rest of us were all standing around still wondering, "What??"

After a few more minutes of preparation, Dominique braced himself and then as he was leaning way forward, almost parallel to the ground, the pink bus started to roll forward. By this time, some of the little Vietnamese girls were in the bus along with a few people who still did not get what was going on. Once the bus had some momentum, he kept pulling for about a hundred feet all to the shouts and cheers of the crowd. Later the groom came out and hooked up. He too, pulled it a few feet. Hugely macho, it was a decidedly masculine display appropriate for a wedding day. We heard later that there is a group of these friends who do pulling stunts to raise money for charity. Dominique it was said, had pulled a 747 on one occasion.  

Hanoi Surprise

Wandering around in Hanoi, waiting for the water puppet performance to start, we

were reading menus and peeking in restaurants, thinking about where to go to dine after the show. In one place, a woman was sitting at the front of the restaurant, and as we glanced over the bill of fare, she offered that it was the best restaurant in Hanoi - and she added that she could say this with authority because she'd been there for over a month. An American in her early thirties, she was in the city adopting a baby. Her little girl, Jade was 11 months old and she was getting ready at long last to take her home the next day.

Green Tangerine was a beautiful place, almost like an opera set and after the American woman's sincere endorsement, we gave the place a try. The restaurant is in a restored colonial building and is decorated with beautiful antiques, artifacts and art. The food is French with a Vietnamese twist - lemongrass, cilantro and tamarind among the flavors added to the basic rich French food. Were we pleasantly surprised! We ordered 5 starters and a dessert. The restaurant is very popular as they turned down about 10 parties while we were eating. Even though we arrived at 5:30 with a reservation we still had to eat in the patio as the dining room tables were all reserved.  The food was all served on glass plates of various sizes and shapes. Every appetizer lived up to its name and we were blown away by the inventive presentations. 

About halfway through our meal the American showed up this time with Jade in tow. We were able to get a peek at her pretty little face and wonder about her life ahead as an American.

Poverty Conference

When we checked in at the Raj in Colombo, Richard noticed on the "Events" board,  a

posting about a poverty conference. The Raj pretty will lives up to it's name in the context of

Sri Lanka and Colombo. It's a 5 star hotel with a grand lobby, comfortable rooms and some

upscale dining. 

Later at the buffet we saw a table of about 10 people wearing ID badges.  As they went back and forth to the buffet line with their flaming crepes, bouillabaise and pate plates,we could hear them talking about setting up lines of communication, sensitivity training and all the typical buzz words you'd expect from any such group. The view from the dining room looked out to the beautiful pool and landscaped grounds enabling the conference attendees to feast their eyes as well as their bellies while they wondered what the poor people were doing that night. 

Buffet Helper

After 10 days of buffets in Sri Lanka and Bandos Resort, we were starting to get acute buffet burn-out.

Night after night, a chicken roasted and slathered in sauce, appeared under a different AKA. Chicken Espagna, Chicken Veronique, Chicken Leona, Chicken Martinique. The sauces varied little and the naming was the most imaginative thing about the dishes. In Bandos, in particular, the desserts seemed a flop. They had wonderful names, like Mango Bavarois, Apricot Cake, Cheesecake and they were nicely garnished and presented- but they all tasted the same, like Cool Whip with a tiny bit of flavor - not related to the name. decided we should create a new shake-on seasoning called Buffet Helper. You couldn't sell it to a tourist on day one but about day eight, I would think they would leap on it with glee. The other big assist might be "Buffet glasses" that you don before walking the walk...a rose colored tint might help cast the whole affair in a better light.

Bandos had the worst food overall, but perhaps that's because we ate there four nights in a row. We recognized items from one days lunch tarted up and renamed for dinner - the carry-over was kind of fun, trying to figure out what the dish was in it's former life. The buffets all looked good, were kept neat and tidy and drinks service was prompt. Some of the nights the salads were quite good as were the vegetables. The native Maldivian food was good on at least one night, but mostly it was a sort of brown goo with an unpronouncable name.

At Elephant Reach in Tissa, we trudged in for dinner expecting the same dismal repast. Because the place is very small, we wondered how they would handle dinner. We were presented with a menu with three dinner choices: a chicken burger, grilled seek and a curry. Were we surprised when the first course appeared - a lovely soup with a basket of warm, freshly baked breads. The entrees were beautifully plated and the food was excellent: hot (as in right off the stove) and delicious. Looking at the plates, you'd think you were in a fancy downtown restaurant somewhere. It was heaven after the dejas vue buffet experiences.

Honky Tonky 2

Honky Tonky 2 in Negombo, Sri Lanka was a great place to eat. We stopped for a drink in the afternoon and were totally charmed by the funny menu. The proprietor has copied complimentary letters and used their backs (reverse side) to print the menu on. The Honky Tonky 2 is a "resturrant" and the menu is replete with this kind of mispelling which adds to the charm.

Skeptical of the rave reviews, we sat down later in the day and ordered dinner. I had the grilled shrimp with rice and we waited and waited and waited. I ordered a glass of red wine and it was just this side of vinegar...probably the worst red wine I've ever tasted. I had to go into the restaurant to find someone to bring us a large beer instead. When the entrees arrived, the shrimp was wonderful. The shrimp had been marinated and the rice was aptly named garlic rice. It was redolent with the stuff as well as minced onion and peppers, cinnamon, cardamom and clove. Beer was served in a styrofoam holder to keep it cold. We couldn't believe how good the shrimp and rice were.

While we were sitting there waiting for the meal (genius takes time), all manner of funny vehicles went by..tractors that looked like a long lawn mower fitted out with a cab and seat; a guy wearing a big cowboy hat riding a big black horse, a van selling "tasty food", the usual tricyclo's and cabs. A very old motorcycle pulled up and parked - it's rider was a trim German chap who ended up eating at HT2 along with a few other Germans. The area seems to be popular with Germans and Swiss.

Dinner in Washington DC

A whirlwind weekend in Washington DC was a welcomed break from the tension of the fire, the evacuation and the feeling of dread that has hung over our heads for a week. Upgraded to first, the ride was totally painless; car rental was smooth and we set off for Frederick where we spent the night at a very pleasant Holiday Inn. On the plane, we realized it was our third anniversary. In the emotional chaos wreaked by the fire, the event had slipped our minds. En route to Frederick we stopped at the Double TT Diner for a celebratory dinner (well, sort of). The diner parking lot was crowded at 9:00 on a week night which we took for a good sign. Once seated, the fun began. Our Asian waitress brought us the menu which was like a tome. Page after page of items from Greek to Chinese. Typically this menu contained admonitions and instructions about splitting plates and substitutions and well-done eggs. Something unusual - the tip is automatically added on. First time I've seen that in an American restaurant, except in the case of large parties where the added on service has become routine. Our service was fine and we certainly would have added this tip, but it did leave a bad taste to be force into it.

The food was adequate - I had blintzes which seemed to be the same as those you can buy in the frozen food section of your local supermarket.  I had a glass of wine for $2.50 - the cheapest glass I've had in a restaurant for years. The wine was perfectly fine for a house wine. As we left

FIRE

Evacuated! Once from home and once from up at the Rancho. On Monday we woke up to roaring winds and all the patio furniture blown hither and yon. Like a blast from a furnace, the hot winds raged on and soon we saw a blob of smoke coming up from behind the hills. Thus started the murderous Rice Canyon fire here in Fallbrook. When it was all over, we lost 206 homes here, most of them in Lina's mobile home park. Sadly, Lina was among those who lost their homes.

For two nights, while we were evacuated to the rancho we ate with our neighbor Gail. Sharon left and stayed up in Corona with her daughter. Gail was holding down the fort. First night, he had some grilled chicken that Sharon had prepared for house guests, now gone. We made a salad out of his leftover greens, the chicken and our carrots. He made us delicious ice cream sundaes from their sundae bar. Next day, we snuck into Fallbrook and went back to the house to collect some clothes for upcoming travel to Washington DC. A stop at Major Market was eerie because of the absence of people and dwindling supplies. We bought a chicken for Richard to twirl, some red potatoes, salad greens, green snap peas and a bottle of wine. Gail added some of his apricot brandy, home made, which was excellent. The recipe for the brandy was a legacy from his sister.

We didn't suffer any losses in this fire and were very grateful to find our house still standing when the evacuation order was lifted.

Speaking "movie star" in Kotor

We sat down at a small Italian restaurant in the old town of Kotor in Montenegro. It's difficult not to choose a small Italian restaurant in Kotor; all the restaurants are small and all serve pretty much the same things. They are differentiated by the quality and talent of the hawker or super salesman standing out in front with menus urging you to come in. A couple of nights prior, we'd passed this particular restaurant up, but thought we'd like to try it, because of "Mr. Personality".

The menus in Montenegro almost all include standard Italian dishes plus fresh fish and a few items added obviously for the British. The fresh fish is difficult to order because they sell it by the gram and you never know what you're going to pay, so we stay clear of this. Richard ordered grilled squid and I had a pasta carbonara. When Mr. Personality brought the drinks, he asked "Where from, English?". We answered that we were from the US, from California and he broke into a big smile and said very quickly, "Cameron Diaz, Al Pacino, Demi Moore". We laughed and replied with "movie stars". He gave us a thumbs up. When he brought the salad he said, "Leonardo DiCaprio, Farrah Fawcett, Goldie Hawn!". We replied with, "Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Robin Williams!" This exchange went on as he came and went with plates until we petered out of movie stars. When we left he yelled after us, "California OK".

Touristic menus in Rome

Is there ever enough time to see what you want to see in Rome? We're always rushing around trying to get somewhere before it closes. On this trip, food was at the bottom of our list of priorities as we prefered to spend every second available to feast the eyes (instead of the stomach) on the beauty in the eternal city. When we got hungry we plopped ourselves down wherever we saw an empty chair and as a result, we crowded in with our fellow tourists (no Italian would be caught dead in one of these places) and ate plenty of bad pizza, cold lasagna and other items from the touristic menu.

One day we were rushing along and we noticed one of those fat plastic chefs about 4 feet high placed outside a restaurant. Usually they have outstretched arms with a place between them for the touristic menu to be posted. Horror of horrors, this chef had lost both arms. They looked like they had been wrenched out from the shoulders - talk about your rotator cuff injury! Still, the proprietor of the restaurant chose to leave the poor crippled wretch out in front. We asked ourselves, "How bad could the food really be?". It's one thing to complain about the food, but for someone to dismember this benign plastic symbol? We hoped that perhaps the plastic cook had been ravaged a bit at a time. Perhaps someone removed a finger, then a hand went, then a forearm and finally the last bit. Somehow, this is more comforting than the thought of some diner going "postal" or "cheftal" and ripping the arms from poor plastic Genio, touristic menu chef.

Although, one more round of touristic menu offerings and we might have been tempted to attack a chef ourselves.

Ana's Wonderful Plazma cake

We were served a wonderful dinner at our friends' place in Nis, Serbia. There were several delicious salads and one particularly striking dish of peppers roasted, then marinated in a mild sweet and sour dressing. Roast pork was the entree, succulent and delicious. For dessert, Ana, our friends grand daughter made Plazma Cake. Plazma is a biscuit popular in Serbia and Plazma crumbs are the main ingredient. A lovely dessert, light and not too sweet, Ana adapted the original no-cooking recipe by splitting it in half and adding chocolate to one half making it a two tone affair. It was so good that I had repete or "seconds". Ana is collecting easy dessert recipes so I sent her my favorite for panna cotta, about as simple as it gets.

Ana's Plazma Cake

200 gr. ground nuts
300 gr. plazma crumbs (substitute crushed vanilla wafers)
200 ml. carbonated water
200 gr. unsalted butter, softened
200 gr. powdered sugar

Mix all ingredients, shape into a loaf and divide in half.
To one half, add 200 gr. cocoa powder.
To the other half, add 200 gr. raisins.
Reshape into one loaf and refrigerate.

Whose got the Presidents Choice?

An organization we belong to known as the Association of Retired Foreign Service Officers has periodic lunch meetings. The speakers are usually very good and the company splendid; if we're in town we go. Last meeting was in San Clemente at El , a lovely old Spanish restaurant with many famous clients.

A delightful and very well-organized woman volunteers her time to coordinate these events, selecting the venue, aranging the menus and coordinating payment from everyone. This is a thankless job as anyone who has attempted it will verify. It takes plenty of time and patience plus an eye for detail. For this particular event everyone had selected from the menu ahead of time, in some cases, a month or so ahead of time.

Unfortunately for all of us, Phoebe had an accident the morning of the event. She fell down hard in front of her house and wasn't at the restaurant when we all arrived; as time went on, she still didn't show. Another woman helps from time to time and she stepped into the breach. Lunch time came and dishes started to arrive in the dining room; the challenge now was to determine who ordered what. Many of these people are over 80 and couldn't remember what they'd ordered. Waiters were wandering around, yelling (many of the retired officers can't hear either), "Whose got the President's Choice?"

Happily Phoebe dragged herself in just as confusion had really set in, with plates being passed around and more befuddled waiters crowding in to try to help. Couples were yelling at each other about what they had or hadn't ordered. Oh my.

Phoebe after some shuffling around produced post-it notes for each person with what they had ordered written on it - and they were color coded! Order ruled and we all sat there with our sticky notes, waiting to be served.

Prez Choice is what Richard had. He leaned over and asked me what it was. He'd forgotten that it was the favorite dish of President Nixon...one of the reasons we attended this meeting in the first place. Ha!

The Getty Villa

After touring the Getty Villa with Tony, our friend from Australia, we sat down to a bit of lunch before taking the long drive home. They have the usual poor ordering system you see in places like this...long lines at lunch time, with one register closed and one working. On a hot summer day at the height of the season, at lunch time, why would one register be closed? You look at a paper menu provided as you stand in line and decide on your order. There are no instructions about this..you have to figure it out.

The dining area is very nice - mostly outdoors with a view of the villa. I did like the old restaurant better because it wasn't so big. This is just one big space and not terribly attractive. It could be improved by breaking up the space but that probably wouldn't be architecturally acceptable.

The food was pretty good. I had a Primo Piatto which had a small panini, some roasted vegetables and greens and an awful bit of lentil soup. Richard had the panini of the day which looked good and tony had the Bruscetta Mista which was several slices of bread with mixed topping: Chunky tomato basil; preserved lemon and herb gloat hceese; parmesan artichoke.

Dinner at Chez Panisse

Chez Panisse.

Tension en route to CP. The freeway was unbelievably crowded and it took us at least 45 minutes longer to get there than we planned. When we arrived the lobby was full of people waiting for the dining room. We were whisked upstairs and seated immediately. The room was full.

It was Doug and Jan's anniversary dinner. I had pizetta with squash blossoms and scallions as an appetizer and for me, it was the best dish of the evening. Entrees were - me, local king salmon with sweet corn, zucchini and lemon-chili butter, Rich and Doug had the Grilled Wolfe Ranch quail with frisee and green bean salad and plum vinaigrette, Jan had the Mariquita Farms greens and ricotta crespelle baked in the wood oven with chanterelle mushrooms. For dessert, I had the wildflower honey ice cream with roasted figs and biscotti. Doug and Rich had the bittersweet chocolate pave with espresso cream and Jan had the peach tart with mulberry ice cream. For wine I had the Blanc du Puits Sec, Evesham Wood, Willamette Valley; Rich had the Vin du Pays, Cabernet Franc, Domaine de la Pepiere, France.