Travels with The Rayman

Yesterday was the Rayman’s birthday and we have a great way of celebrating birthdays.  When its Rayman’s birthday, he gets to be in charge of he day.   He choses what we’ll do, when we’ll do it, what we’ll eat and when we’ll eat it.  And, that is a vice versa arrangement.  We find it works very well for all parties involved.  Him and moi.

So it was yesterday.  Mr. J decided golf was in order.  And so we teed off at 8:47 at the Morro Bay golf course.   With us was Norm.  We know Norm.  Norm is a great golfer.  I refer to him often as Stormin Norman.   We had no idea we were going to play with him but it was a fun time and a great day of golf…except for the score for me.  Rayman had a good game, Norm had a fabulous day.  My game, not so much.  However, it was a great walk and lots of laughs interspersed with “Fiddlesticks.”  Or “Drats.”  Perhaps something a bit stronger was heard here and there.  But, it was great fun.

And the turkeys came by to wish him happy birthday.  Seems people must be feeding them because when I stopped the cart, these lovely ladies literally ran to the cart and begged for food by sniffing, bobbing, weaving.

After golf, we came home, showered, relaxed, and did a bit of this and that before we joined up on a Zoom call with our Sideways wine tasting group that is holding itself together thru the magic of the technology of the day.  This is a weekly event and much fun for all concerned as we share our comings and goings with each other.  And our time of staying home…a daily occurrence now for a year.  

We are getting antsy about liberation.  It’s so close and yet so far…no one yet has had a second shot.   We are also, most of us, thrilled that the Dems are in charge now.  Help is on its way but we are checking our email, our local paper coverage, our local TV news to check for more vaccines.  We want our shots and we want them NOW.   

But I digress.

The Zoom party starts at 4 p.m. and goes for an hour or so.  Given that, Rayman had asked for lamb chops, roasted red potatoes, asparagus for dinner so timing was important to the cook.  Potatoes take a long time so I decided to speed them up by steaming them a bit so cooking in the oven would be shorter.  However, I steamed them too long and they were fully cooked.  So I decided to peel some garlic and poach the garlic in cream so that I could make mashed potatoes. 

As Zoom was proceeding, I smelled garlic.  Long story short,  I burned up the garlic in the cream and may have ruined my pan.  My martini may have contributed to the situation.  

When the Zoom was done, it was time to fire up the grill.  And the dog needed a walk.  In being a good person for Rayman’s birthday, I volunteered to assist.  Great.  However, this new barbecue of ours is ultra-modern and is run by an app.  And somehow, I screwed up the app.  (Remedial training will ensue post haste.)  www.sparkgrills.com      So, I barbecued the meat without the app and it was a bit underdone but we ate it.  And the potatoes.  I threw them in the oven with garlic and re-heated them and roasted the asparagus as well.   We washed it all down with red wine and then we celebrated with chocolate chip cookies, homemade, with a nice glass of port.  

We were in bed by 8:45.  Lights may have been turned off at 9:00.  Birthday boy and his trusty wife hit the wall.

P.S.  It’s tomorrow and the day that the housekeeper comes so we run away from home so we’re not in the way.  This a.m. I was on a hunt for a card table.  “I know, I’ll go to the thrift store and find one.”  So, we went to the thrift store.  I went inside and a young woman asked if she could help.  I said, “Do you have any card tables?”.  She said, “What’s a card table?”.  Well, now, the funny part is that she was serious.  It was a hoot.  Never thought card tables would cease to exist.  So, we drove to Costco.  While waiting at the light, I noticed a nice Mercedes in front of me.  It has a special license plate holder denoting the car was owned by a police person.  OMG.  It was our friend, Tom.  We followed him to Home Depot.  Got a big laugh out of it because we ran into him at Costco two weeks ago.  Then we ran into him at TJs.    We are on the same schedules.  When I honked at him at the light, Rayman and I frantically waved our arms.  He said to himself, “What are those crazy people doing behind me?”. 

So, we had a good outing and found a table at Target.  I opted for a rectangle table.  Going to use it for my scanner and all my old family records which I am trying to scan in the great room but it is too bright there so the new table will go in the den.  Wish me luck.  Scanning can be hard.  And it is hard.  My new scanner is so sophisticated I think I need a PhD in order to use it.   It is taking way to long to do anything on it…but I will persist.  My book needs pictures.  And old letters.