Travels with The Rayman

Yesterday morning we awoke to a wake up call at 5:20 a.m. We met in the parking lot at 6:00 a.m. for a shuttle to the airport. The first day of the trip is a hassle. You have to schlep your golf bag, your luggage, your carry-on to the terminal location. Then you get to stand in line for an hour…No, I don’t why it takes them such a long time to check us in…it’s very annoying. Oh, I know. Nothing is self-check. The computers are slow. There are 5 clerks and 2 of them are designed to check in first class (all 8 passengers) and 3 to check in the other 114 passengers.

Really…this is one of the reasons I hate flying. Then when you get on the airplane, they announce that there is a bathroom just for first class and 2 bathrooms for all the rest. Grrrrr. Does that make one bit of sense? It falls under the classification of inhumane. What other species does this to themselves on purpose? And it is a friggin charter flight. GGGRRRRR. And then they stuff in the 114 people into teeny tiny seats with just enough leg room for you to easily eat your knees. You can barely breath. And of course, we were on the hotel-airport shuttle that had to pick up 3 passengers from another hotel and then drop them off at Hawaiian Airlines, which left us toward to the back of line so that the only thing left was middle/window seats by the time we reached the counter. Dorothy, the lady in the aisle seat paid dearly for that aisle. I was up to bathroom twice in a 3 1/2 hour flight.

But I digress. We got to Mexico in one piece. Then we had to claim our bags, our clubs…and go thru customs. Once that was done, they hurdled us on a big bus and drove us to the resort. Yippee. The hard part was done.

We ate dinner and everyone turned in early…it had a been a very long day. And we’re old. So, when we walked thru the door, it was like really noisy in our room. We were on the 2nd floor above the hot tub and pool. OMG. We knew we were in trouble when we noticed the earplugs sitting on the tables by or bed. It was really noisy…but I was too tired to complain. I’d deal with that tomorrow, I mentioned to the Rayman. And then I jumped into bed.

This morning the phone was ringing and ringing. The room was pretty dark. Where was the phone? Oh, right next to me. “Are you guys going to play golf today?”, Tom inquired. “Yes.”, I replied. “Well, it’s 7:40 and we’ve had breakfast and we’re heading to the course. See you there.”, Tom intoned. OMG. How did we oversleep like this? Oh, I know. We didn’t set a clock and we didn’t ask for a wake-up call. I staggered to the bathroom and brushed my teeth. It tasted strange. “Oh, my, god, Ray. I just brushed my teeth with Vagisil”. Ray said, “Well, your mouth probably won’t itch the rest of the day.” OMG. It was awful. My mouth tingled. I put some Colgate TOOTHPASTE on the brush and scrubbed. We threw on some clothes and headed out the door. Ran to the buffet, stuffed down some food and ran to the shuttle. Got there in time to putt a few balls and spit. I really wanted to spit.

So…I think I have stumbled on a new advertising campaign. You know how baking powder has one than more use? Perhaps Vagisil does too. I shot a great round of golf today. Must have been the Vsgisil. Sore tooth? Try Vagisil. On second thought.

The golf course was terrific. Lots of sand, water, and more water. Part of it ran right along the ocean and we did not see one person on the beach. Pancho was our caddie. He and I did quite a few high 5s. Fun in the sun. And dare I say…it was fun to play on a course where the grass was like carpet…a far cry from what we are use to at home.

But I digress.

When we returned it was time to make the dinner reservations for 14 people. These hotels have several (in this case, 2) restaurants that are fancy. You must reserve. So after watching the woman behind the desk flip pages in a book, call up someone on her walkie-talkie, print out a seating chart, then flip more pages in that same book (about 40 minutes), I walked away with reservations and headed for the elevator. Pushed L and the door closed and the elevator went nowhere. Got out, got back in and tried it all again to no avail. Got out and about that time a couple came up and I informed them that I thought the elevator was broken. “Well, let’s try it again.”, the man chirped. So we did. I explained that when pressed L and the elevator went nowhere. “We are on L.”, these people blurted out in unison. OMG. They were right. What a ding-a-ling. Our group thought that story was worthy of the blog. I’ll report. You decide.

So, that was our first full day in Mexico. I won’t even go into trying to get another room because ours is located above the hot tub. There wasn’t anything fun about that…other than we learned that one room was unavailable until housekeeping took it upon themselves to “fumigate” it thereby rendering it unusable for 2 days. Uhmmmmmmmm.

So, the four of us had a date for dinner in San Francisco. The plan was to meet my cousin, Susie and her hubby Larry, for dinner…at 6 p.m. The four of us included the Rayman and moi and Ruth and Tom Donnolly.

To preface my remarks, may I please offer you the following information. Ruth and I fancy ourselves fairly techie types for our ages…not the ages, but our ages. And we also have a wonderful array of marvelous gadgets designed to make life easier. So, what did we do? We left the hotel in Millbrae to head to San Francisco with absolutely no plan on the best way to get there. Now, I fully admit that this was my fault. I assured all that I knew where I was going. For those of you that read my blog regularly, you know this is the kiss of death, metaphorically speaking. And the Donnolly’s should have know better…but

I digresss.

We turned right out of the El Rancho Hotel and headed up the street. The Rayman was driving. It was 5:36 p.m. We had intended to leave at 5:30 but I couldn’t find my driver’s license. And I never did. But at 5:30 I didn’t know the search was futile so I spent 6 precious minutes looking in vain for the darn thing. Giving up, we all jumped in the car and off we went.

So, we took surface streets while we looked for a street that I’d recognize as a freeway off ramp street. Light after light we wiled awayed our precious minutes. Finally, Ruthie turned on her iPhone and I turned on the Garmin and we started receiving outside help. Finally we reached Grand in San Bruno. The we turned on Airport. And then we merged onto the freeway and joined the traffic already in motion…going about 5 miles an hour. In the meantime, Ray was having a hissy fit. G D traffic. “We should have left earlier…oh, jesus christ, look at the driver. Why isn’t he moving? Shit there is another light on this street. The cross traffic is just sitting there…G.D. traffic.” And I cleaned this up I want you to know.

“Well, I should just slit my wrists”, I remarked ever so subtly. “No, just go for the jugular. It’s quicker.” Now i do want to remind the reader that this was VALENTINE’S DAY. OMG. It just kept getting worse. And the more we carried on, the quieter it got in the backseat until finally Tom said, “I just finished both bottles of wine and I am more relaxed now.”

In the meantime, we managed to merge onto 280 which was moving…until we hit the City. Then everything came to a screeching halt. We, Ruth and I, kept looking at our mechanical devices for instruction. But I kept overruling the mechanical devices because the devices did not know how screwed up the traffic was. By this time, we were about 2.7 miles away and it was 6:15. Oh, and I forgot. Ruth called the restaurant to beg their forgiveness for our tardiness after my cousin Susie failed to answer her cell phone. All the while Ray had figured out that Susie was probably already eating and in a bad mood. Ray does have a way of always expecting the worse. And I kept overruling our devices. “Ray, get in the right lane.” “But it’s a bus lane”, he replied. “Okay, don’t get in the bus lane.” “yes, but look…those cars are getting in the bus lane”, he exclaimed. “Okay, well, go ahead and get int he bus lane”, I suggested. “No, Ray, you don’t want to get a ticket”, Tom advised. “Go ahead, Ray. Get in the bus lane”, I urged. “I can’t”, Ray said. “There’s a G.D. bus there.” And so it went. So we finally turned off that street (from the bus lane) and got onto another choked-off street (Mission) and at one point, a limo driver in the right lane abruptly opened his driver side door and we almost hit it. Then Ray almost rear ended a car (thank goodness for good breaks, he said) and the ride continued. Only, we were mostly not going anywhere fast.

Ruth, determined to have a good time in the City, said things like, “Oh, look. We’re in San Francisco.” And, “If they give our reservation away, look at all the fun we’ll have trying to find another place to eat.” I mean, really. She really did say things like that.

Finally we hit the Embarcadero and turned left. We were looking for Battery St. Before we got there, Ray spotted Green St. and got in the left turn lane. He said the restaurant was “right up there”. The Garmin said to turn right and then left. No. Why would it tell us to do that? Then we hit Green and it was one-way so we had our answer to that question. Well, I was totally beside myself by now because it was 6:30 and I figured we had lost our reservation and Susie was probably really upset with me…and so I said, “Ruth, let’s get out. You guys go find a place to park.” With that I leaped out of the car and opened Ruthie’s door. Well, Ruthie didn’t have any idea this was about to happened. She had her camera out, her phone out and god knows what else out and she had to button it all up and jump out of the car as I was beginning to walk down the street. And low and behold, the restaurant sat there in front of us like a beacon in the night. WE HAD ARRIVED.

So, when I jolted thru the door, I saw my cousin and Larry sitting there and I said, “OMG. The traffic was horrible”. She was so relieved because i said exactly what she told Larry I would say. So, that made everything okay. But I was a little displeased to think that I was that predictable. She assured me that I was. And we were off and running and had a great meal with lots of laughs and wonderful wine which, I might add, really made us feel better too!

Frosting on the cake was when we were leaving the restaurant, Ray backed into the car behind us. Tom (the retired LAPD policeman) yelled, “Hurry, get the hell out of here.” You can’t make this stuff up.

OMG. What a night we all had. It went something like this. 21 eaters, 18 judges, 3 cooks of cioppino. 3 salad makers, a zillion bottles of vino…and two desserters!! But only one winner.

 
This was a great party idea. The contest got everyone in the mood for raspberries…both verbal and then real (over lemon ice cream!).

Cook number one was Jeff.

 
Cook number two was Larry aka Lorenzo.

 
And moi (cook number three). Since you all know what I look like, here is our group pic before the dinner was served.
I decided to serve the salad as an appetizer/salad course. Followed by the cioppino (one at a time) with the fresh homemade bread ala Bevalina. Her she is!
We didn’t give a prize for the best dressed…but if we had, she would have won!!

So…we ate the salads and then began lining up for the piece de resistance(s). Yummy.

Cioppino is basically a seafood stew and was originally contrived as a way to use up stuff (my theory anyway). As cooks it is handy to learn how to use up stuff. Limp piece of celery in the frig? Throw it in? Fennel bulb been sitting there for a week? Throw that in. Carrot going a bit soft on you? Another candidate for soup. In this case, however, I’ll bet we cooks use new stuff. I did.

Fish. That’s another matter. Fish cannot be over the hill…it needs to be fresh, fresh, fresh. Speaking for myself, I bought a fresh cooked, cleaned and cracked dungeness crab and came home and picked out all the meat. It was all I could do not to eat it here and there. Dungeness is simply the best…fresh only. Not frozen. Not canned. Fresh. Cioppino does not require crab. It could have just firm fleshed fish. Or it could just have clams, mussels, shrimp. Heck, I guess you could throw in anything from the sea. What a fabulous dish. Fish floating in a tomato based broth which often times includes copies amounts of wine, basil, oregano, thyme, butter, olive oil and all the veggies such as those mentioned above. Or any other thing, I suppose.

The Soup line:

 
The bread was fabulous. Ciabatta and caramelized onion bread…yummy, yummy for the tummy.

And did I mention all the fun that was had? Lots to talk about with lots of people because one of the requirements was that between serving, people had to get up and move so that the conversations got “shook up”. Or is that “shaken up”? Not sure which was is more correct but you get the drift. I highly recommend this strategy for a big dinner party because it gives everyone an opportunity to talk with different people all night long. And since there were a few couples that were new to the group…it worked like a charm.
Then there were the cleaners-uppers. Oh, bless them. Washing, drying…making our life easier. Not expected but truly appreciated. What a great group.

Then came the voting…a secret ballot. There was an uprising brewing…some said the cioppinos were all good and that voting should not take place. Those were the politically correct people, I presume. There was also a group that said, “We have to vote. There’s a trophy!” So the group voted and Lorenzo won the smackdown. His cioppino was zesty and the group ate it up, if you’ll pardon the pun. So, he brought the trophy and he took it home. As it should be (gggggghhhhhhrrrrrrr).
So…what’s next? A chili cook-off? Perhaps. Patricia volunteered her kitchen for the next competition. How fun will that be?
Here’s the trophy that Larry earned (and bought!!).

We were saying our goodbyes and here came the Watts. They had to attend another party that night but they came over after their earlier party and brought some fabulous port with them. How fun that they came over to have some fun!! So we sat around and talked until Rayman started falling asleep (some might say pass out!). He did revive himself and about 15 minutes after everyone was gone, I found him on bended knee cleaning the kitchen floor. Really? Really. I immediately accused him of martyrdom and urged him to go to bed…if he could stand up to do it. Too funny.
Excuse me folks, but my mom didn’t even mention me. I put on a tie and was the perfect little doggie for the occasion. And I might add that I stole the show, in my opinion. And I helped out too. Whenever something in the kitchen hit the floor, I was there to help clean up. I sat when asked, I got along with everyone, I even sat quietly in Laurie’s lap for a long time. So, tell me, what is a puppy to do to get properly recognized?
“Beau. Get away from that computer”. Hi, I’m back. Here’s Beau in his party clothes. Thought you’d like to see him too. He was there and was the on his best behavior all evening. He won over some hearts!!

Ciao!! Now, on to the next party!!

The Rayman turned 65 yesterday. The good news is, he is on Medicare and that saves us some major dinero. The bad news is, he is getting OLD. I should know. Me too!!

Cake is what usually comes to mind for a birthday celebration so I asked the Rayman what kind of cake he wanted. Thinking outside the cake pan, he requested a lemon meringue pie (LMP). Yummy. Who doesn’t love LMP? The tart, the sweet, the combo is a match made in heaven. So, yes, I would make him a LMP. Here’s a pic.

 
Yummy meringue. It’s cooked so it really holds and beats to unimagined heights.

http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/lemon-lime-meringue-pie.aspx is the site for the recipe. I used

C & H brown sugar. This will make more sense when you read the article. Anyway, hope you try it.

Another story. While boiling the sugar and water for the meringue, I used a candy thermometer to make sure I stop boiling it at the right time. So…when Ray was cleaning the pan (he did it voluntarily), he noticed that the glass on the thermometer was broken. OMG…where was the missing glass? Here’s Uncle Ralph and Claudia (they came down for dessert) waiting to eat and I’m worried about A.) where was the GLASS B.) is there mercury in my meringue? C.) should we even eat it? Our stomachs won the debate over our minds. We cheerfully chowed down the pie (perhaps gingerly while listening for glass crunching) and so far so good.

Before making the pie, Rayman and Beau and I walked up the hill behind our house. The day was splendid as you can see from the pic below. Oh, and notice his hat? He was lucky to get it back. As we reached the apex of the hill, a gust of wind blew up and his hat took off down the hill. So off he went chasing it thru the field down the hill to retrieve it. Never a dull moment.

Hard to believe it’s FEB. 8th.

Ray received a barbecue ‘aid’ for his birthday (for his Weber). As most of you know, we always use hardwood or mesquite for barbecuing. We have been tempted to go ‘gas’ because of the rotisserie feature. But Weber came up with an accessory that solved that problem.
So, tonight we barbecued a chicken on a spit. Fabulous!! Here’s another picture of the completely cooked bird. Perfectly cooked. Perfectly delicious.
The funniest thing that happened on his birthday is that Ray went down to change his clothes for dinner. After about 10 minutes, I inquired about his whereabouts by shouting down the stairs, “Ray”. He called back and, dare I say, with an attitude. So I went down to investigate. Somehow, he had threaded his belt thru the first loop in his pants and it got stuck there. He tried to unstick it. I tried to unstick it. Perhaps some soap to make the silver point at the end of the belt be slippery? No, Ray didn’t want to do that. So, he put on another pair of pants and another belt and we left the house. It was when he was in the car that he said, “And I had a hell of a time getting out of those pants.” Just imagining him trying to slither out got me to laughing. Really, I don’t know how he did it. Somethings are best left to the imagination…maybe.

Oh, well. Moving right along. You know, life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer to the end the faster it goes. So…we are busy taking advantage of being alive…and I hope you are too!!

And do I have news on the website!! My exhaustive blogging is now split between two websites. You are reading this on travelswiththerayman.com. Earlier posts can now be found on adventureswiththerayman.com.

Two different domain names were needed because the software to create the blogs was different. I started out using iWeb software for my initial blogs. Then I started using Sandvox for this website because Apple will be going to the iCloud and I was afraid I lose my earlier stuff. (this is as close to untechnical as I can get. If it gets anymore technical, I’ll get confused!!)

So…if you want to read my earliest blogs, log on to adventureswiththerayman.com.

Finally, I think my organizational problems are fixed. At the top of this site, you will notice that there are two headings…Big Trips and California Dreamin. All our trips will fall under Big Trips and everything else is under California Dreamin so I hope you find this easier to use.

Okay, finally…finally, Beau went wine tasting!! Here is a picture of him at a winery.
And here he is with his new friend, Bella. At the end of day of wine tasting!!

Picture of a dessert I did which, has nothing to do with the story below. Just thought you all might like to see something good to eat!!

Have you ever looked for a birthday card at a store? Of course you have. And have you noticed all the funny cards that allude to the fading memory skills of the “over the hill” set? Well, I have and I’m not so sure that they are that funny…they hit too close to home.

Case in point. A few days ago (I can’t remember when), I was on the phone with my friend Ruthie and she was complaining about how people don’t pay attention to her. Seems that she called to reconfirm an appointment and then when she arrived…the manicurist (?, can’t remember the details) announced that her appointment was earlier. And this was annoying because as we are getting older, we are making more mistakes with our calendars. GGGRRRRRR. As she was relaying this story to me, I was on my computer and I decided I’d better check the calendar for the day’s events. EEEEEEEKKKKKKKKK. I had a hair appointment scheduled for 9:00 a.m. The time was 8:45.

I was in my jamies, on the phone, discussing messed up appointments…so I ran downstairs while still talking with Ruth, changed my clothes and then confessed to Ruth that I had to run…if I didn’t, I would be late for an appointment that I forgot that I had. Laughing ensued.

By exceeding the speed limit all the way to Morro Bay, I was able to arrive right on time. When I came into the shop, my hair guy said, “What are you doing here?” I said, “I have an appointment at 9, don’t I?” He said, “Well, I have you down for 11 this morning.” YYYYYIIIIIIIKKKKKKEEEEEESSSSSS.

So, you see, these greeting cards might be spot on but they are annoying. We are perfectly aware that we are not totally aware (I can site many good excuses…such as my iphone didn’t synch, I forgot to look at the calendar, ‘you mean today is Tuesday?’) of things the way we used to be when we had to work, shop, rear children, clean house, do the laundry…yada, yada, yada. How the hell did we do it all? And keep our sanity… let alone our calendar? I mean, today we have the house cleaned, the nest is empty, we eat out 4 times a week, our favorite outfit is levis and a tee-shirt (read easy laundry) and we still can’t remember stuff.

So, you smarty-pants card makers (like Hallmark)…just lay off the ‘memory’ cards. It isn’t that funny. our RAM is full, the hard drive hasn’t been updated…and our cooling fan is on the fritz.

But I digress. Oh, no. I didn’t digress. OMG. Where was I? What was I saying? Oh, just forget it. Good night.

Dear readers, it’s just one of those rainy days that should not go without mention. For no particular reason.

Here I sit in my recliner having just consumed the most delicious meal right here in the confines of my home.
Braised duck legs in a port reduction sauce with parsnip, turnip, prune gratin. Ooh, la la. Quite the meal.

Doogie Beau is turning into a teenager. He is into everything…just destroyed a cheap headset…chewed the foam right off the ear pieces. And after all we do. So my advice to all is this. If you want to get a dog…get it NOW. We aren’t getting any younger and young doggie shenanigans add up…if you get my drift. Having said that, we love the Beau. He is sweet, so sweet…usually.

Excuse me people…but my parents don’t understand me. I’m a dog and I have requirements. This includes needing attention…I need lots of attention and if they don’t pay attention…well, I just do what I do. Can’t blame a dog for that, now can you? Mom and dad are great in that they drag me out of the house every couple of hours and say something like, “Go Beau. Do your business”. I have no idea what they are meaning exactly. So I frolic in the ice plant. Meanwhile they are saying, “Go Beau and do your business” again. Really. That’s what they do. I’m sure I’ll figure it out one of these days. I do understand “fetch” and “sit” and “stay”…but this business stuff. I don’t know.

Okay, well, I’ve recaptured the computer from the dog. He is such a rascal. And now I’m listening to the soundtrack from Midnight in Paris, that fabulous movie that Woody Allen did. Love the music. It’s available now…of course, I screwed up and before I finally bought it, I bought the movie and another soundtrack labelled Midnight in Paris that has absolutely nothing to do with the movie. Oh, well. Such a geek…I am not. I wonder if I can copy the movie to a DVD? if so, I can watch that movie again and again. Really? Does anyone really do that? Watch a movie over and over? And why Midnight in Paris? How about Noon in Paris? Three P.M. in Paris? I think I know why…Midnight in Paris…sounds so fabulous!!

Last night Ray and I went to see War Horse. I’d like to know what you think if you saw it. The photography was beautiful…but I just didn’t get into it. I’m not sure I’m thrilled with any movie with the word ‘war’ in the title. I know this. I won’t watch it again. Once was enough. Oh, and I’m sad to report that the theater in Morro Bay closed for renovation and they re-did the toilets which was sorely needed but they raised the price of the ticket to $8. OMG. Highway robbery when we can stay at home and watch a movie for $4.99 with On Demand (from DirecTV). Did they shoot themselves in the foot? I mean they don’t even have a matinee price…and we live in a community of retired folks.

Did I ever tell you about the time I was called for jury duty and they trial involved a man accused of shooting a horse in the foot. Really. You can’t make this stuff up. Didn’t get selected. Don’t know what ever happened to that poor man. Prosecutorial zeal is what I chalk it up to.

Well, guess I’ll close…company coming over to view my award-winning DVD on our trip to Australia and New Zealand. They are interested in traveling there and actually want to see a vacation DVD. Who knew?

Finally, my tooth is getting better. Well, actually my missing tooth and the surrounding territory are getting better, I think. I hope. So, I have a big hole in my line up of teeth and now I have to figure out if I want to get an implant or a partial or what. What do poor people do? What do affluent people do? And the in-betweeners?

But I digress. Decisions must be made. I mean the other teeth in my mouth aren’t exactly healthy. Most have had root canals. All are crowned or capped except for the bottom fronts. My mouth has cost me a lot over the years and I’m just talking dentistry here. But that discussion will not go further…who wants to expose previous errors involving the mouth? Let’s just leave it at that.

So…as the Parisian music plays, it reminds me of travels in France. For heaven’s sakes, if you haven’t read about our trip to France, you should. We had many adventures and I highly recommend it.

Below is a terrible picture I took with my Iphone. The guy to the right of the guy with the dark vest on is Woody Allen. Heard him play his clarinet. Was actually in the same room with him for almost 2 hours. Sorry about the quality. Really, I could say that was anyone and how would you know? But, it really was Woody. He has a lot of energy for a man in his, how old is he now?

Here he is sitting down in front of the bass.

And for your listening pleasure is one of cuts from the Midnight in Paris soundtrack!!

Nighty, night.