Travels with The Rayman

Howdy to all Hope all is going good for you (or in southern, y’all)

What’s been going on around here? Nothing and everything. The big news is that I have started writing my book so that’s taking time away from my blog. There are only so many smarty-pants stories for me tell!! The book will be non-fiction…of course…and I will have to publish under a pen name or anonymous since I write about my friends…a constant source of silliness.

Let’s start with yesterday just for the sake of catching up. I played golf in a fund raiser for Cal Poly, SLO, Women’s basketball team. Someone asked me to play for free and I jumped at the opportunity. Playing free in a fund raiser is a bit of a contradiction but, alas, I ended up buy a uniform for a player at the cost of $180 so I tried to make it right. Anyway…I played with three men. One was a audiologist from Paso, one a sewage treatment guy from Pismo, and one from Cal Poly who is in charge of logistics for men’s team. Fun was had by me, Cathy Chatty. I don’t know what came over me but I just talked and talked and talked. In between breaths, I hit some great shots and made some clench putts and, boy, was that fun. We called the sewage guy, the Hawaiian Hammer. He drove one ball so far on a par 5, we only had 120 to the green. I took a picture. Here it is.

 

 
So, now, Rayman (an alumni of Cal Poly himself as he got his Masters there) and moi are going to become fans. These women are so impressive…and tall. The average GPA of the team is 3.9 and one of women sat at our table and she is majoring in mechanical engineering, no fluff here. I was so impressed by the entire organization. Go Mustangs!! We plan to go to games and have a lot of fun with the team…a new thing to do to keep things fresh and interesting.

So, what else? House is not selling. We continue to list it. Either it will or it won’t. We’re okay with it because what other choice so we have? The house next to Uncle Ralph is vacant…and it’s just like his. He brought this up to us yesterday. Uhm.

Day before yesterday we hiked to the top of the hill behind the house. Fabulous day. Met Adam, the wind rider, at the top. He was waiting for just the right wind conditions and had a remote control airplane to test the currents. Nice guy. And Beau loved the walk. He continues to delight. Here’s some more pictures.

 

 

 

Last Thursday we had friends of old over for dinner and barbecued pork shoulder. Yummy along with the orange cilantro salsa, the braised fennel and kale. Homemade ice cream AND cookies to top it all off.

 

 

 

Wine tastings, dinner parties, golf. What more could you ask for? Oh, I know, money but I don’t know anyone that would go along with that!!

So, now is the time to return to my book writing. It’s really fun albeit time consuming and when the sun is shining, it is hard to stay inside the compose.

Oh, next week we go to Sunnyvale and San Francisco to meet my cousin’s new grand baby which we hope to spoil as much as possible. Layla was born April 15 (gee, how will they ever remember her birthday?). Layla will be going to Turkey in June. Actually, we will be accompanying her to Turkey. An exciting trip awaits and we are slowing beginning to make plans. One of the big exceptions on this trip is that we are going to take a tour, therefore, we will not be getting very lost which is a shame because it always makes for interesting stories. We will visit the caves of Cappadocia (where Stars War bar scene was filmed) and see the fairy chimneys. Will try to sail to a Greek island just to say we went to a Greek island and will be in Istanbul for a week. Istanbul is Constantinople renamed and is the only city that is located on two continents…asia and europe. It promises to delight. We are so excited. So, stay tuned for more travels with the Rayman.

News on the home front…when wine tasting wear something red and white as I did the day I spilled a whole glass of red wine and my jacket and tank top. To the cleaners they went and all was forgiven. The stains disappeared much to my relief. The problem was created by me when I dove into the cheese and crackers too enthusiastically and hit the glass. Of course, the glass could have fallen the other way…but, oh, no. It came right at me.

Ray dropped out of his poker group when the guy that did the hosting said he had a gun in the bedroom and wouldn’t mind using it on him (Ray won a big pot). Ray decided the guy just didn’t like him that much…you think? The man has moved so maybe the group will reform (in more ways than one). Additionally, the Rayman has lost 3 more pounds mainly because of walking the dog…a very good weight-loss aid it turns out.