“Bumper” Snicker

Spotted on the back of something-or-other at Stater Bros. in Azusa:

(This is not commentary on my sisters, BTW…)

Yes, It’s About Food and Drink…

…but put down the food and drink; you’ll thank me!

The Brave Lass: Friday Frivolity: Laws Concerning Food and Drink

Hammerhead, Great White, Tiger…

From Quotes of the Day, today:

There are 350 varieties of shark, not counting loan and pool.
- L. M. Boyd

The Perfect Wine with Fish?

White, of course!

Dustin and I had tuna sandwiches for lunch, and in keeping with that, sipped Chardonnay at beer thirty. Up to bat was 2007 Clos du Bois North County.

Too bad we couldn’t have drunk the wine with the sandwiches, or nibbled the sandwiches with the wine; another day perhaps.


Clos du Bois
Geyserville, CA
http://clodubois.com/

The Inaugural 2009 (Public) Deck Sit

It got a bit warmer today than yesterday, and was still quite nice at beer thirty, so we trouped out to the deck and reclined. Ahhhh!

Dustin brought back strawberries, a bottle of goji juice with citrus, and a bottle of Girasole Vineyards’ 2007 Chard from lunch and tucked them all in the reefer. At beer thirty, he poured about half-a-Chimay-glass worth of chardonnay, a couple of splashes of goji, and two or so sliced-up strawberries. My!! Very interesting! and very tasty!

The Inaugural 2009 Beer Thirty on the Deck

We didn’t do much sitting, so it’s not a Deck Sit yet…

Belgian was speaking, so Belgian it was, Affligem Dubbel. Interesting stuff. It’s quite dry, if you can call Belgian ale dry; not at all sweet, but certainly not hoppy. Curtis liked it pretty well; I’m pretty sure I do. I’ll just have to get another bottle, eh?

Their importer, Star Brand Imports, characterizes the Dubbel as “sweet”; I worry about what they’d call ”dry”.

Affligem’s Web site starts out with monks (presumably) chanting; very nice!

Meanwhile, Dustin was enjoying 2006 Folie à Deux Zinfandel from Amador County; the winery itself is Napa Valley-based, however. Dustin was quite happy with the Zin, as was I, having snuck a glass last night.

God and Friends

The last page of Reader’s Digest magazine is a collection of quotes revolving around a theme that changes monthly. The theme in the March 2009 issue is friends. The best one, attributed to anonymous:

“Friends are God’s way of apologizing to us for our families.”

Not When I Was Growing Up…

From Quotes of the Day, today:

Conscience is what makes a boy tell his mother before his sister does.
- Evan Esar

Passing the Time at PDX - Music

Once the sandwich and football were done, and with plenty of time was left to kill, I wandered out of the “food court” and stumbled straightaway into Mario Carboni and Chazz Hamilton, piano and guitar players, respectively, extraordinaire!

What a treat!! These boys obviously have more than just a clue about ensemble playing and sound GREAT together! No surprise, I guess: according to MySpace, Mario and Chazz are Back Road Boogie. I’m gonna have to get back to Oregon RSN.

• Mario at MySpace
• Chazz at MySpace
• Back Road Boogie at MySpace; make sure you check out the songs!

You can sample, and buy, Mario’s CD, Big Bad Boogie, on CD Baby. It’s a good listen; why, oh why didn’t I think to have him autograph it when we were all still at the airport??

Passing the Time at PDX - Sports

So, I’m killing time in terminal/concourse/whatever-they-call-it C at PDX, having gotten to there with RenRen and Bwen, whose planes took off oodles earlier than mine, and stopped off for lunch at Big Town Hero (gobbled the tuna melt forthwith; saved the avocado delight for later!). They share a “food court” sort of central area with some other food vendors, so I took advantage and sat down and watched some football.

Interesting it was: Michigan beat Miami of Ohio 16-6, but it was 10-6 for a long time. And Ohio was leading OSU, but eventually lost, 26-14.

The Inaugural 2008 (Private) Deck Sit

Tonight was the night!!

Got to sit on the deck with the husband and admire the view and weather whilst the sun went down. Looked over some stain/sealer/caulking brochures, and a good time was had by all, including Glenkerry.

A glass of wine, the furry dog, and thou! Aaaah!

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Now playing: Peter, Paul And Mary - The Times They Are a Changin' (Live)
via FoxyTunes

The Inaugural 2008 (Public) Deck Sit

About the time Steve was knocking off work tonight, the topic of conversation turned to beer, as in Steve’s asking, “You have any around here, Mo!?”

Do I have any beer around? Oh, please!! A couple of bottles of Sierra Nevada 2006 Celebration Ale came out of the reefer and into the glasses and out we proceeded to the deck. It’s been in the low- to mid-70s during the day most of the week, so it wasn't at all uncomfortable.

We chatted about this and that, and were all quite impressed with the solar-charged night lights that Bob and I picked up at Home Depot last night.

Family, friends, a glass of good beer, doesn’t get much better…

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Now playing: Peter Gabriel - Solsbury Hill
via FoxyTunes

One Down; How Many to Go?

This sounds interesting; here I go to Amazon to add it to the wish list…

From NPR’s Weekend Edition last Sunday:

Rehabbing a Villain from Henry VIII’s Court

In King Henry VIII’s vicious court of intrigue, Jane Boleyn kept her head low and followed the money.

Married to George Boleyn, brother of Anne, who would eventually become Henry’s queen, Jane won a place in the heart of the Tudor regime as Anne’s sister-in-law. Jane enjoyed many perks of court life, but she also had ringside seats to the dramas that unfolded in the king's court.

Author Julia Fox meticulously details Jane's life — and her role in the scandals that engulfed the court — in her first book, Jane Boleyn: The Infamous Lady Rochford.

For centuries, Jane Boleyn has been reviled. When Queen Anne was accused of adultery with several men, including her own brother — Jane’s husband, George - Jane was interrogated. Jealous of the close relationship between George and Anne, Jane provided testimony that helped lead to the siblings’ executions. Or so the story goes.

But Fox challenges this picture of Jane as a vindictive and opportunistic young woman. Re-examining the historical record, Fox suggests that Jane had no reason to risk her privileged life with George for penniless, landless widowhood. And she chronicles how Jane clawed her way out of obscurity and back up the court’s social ladder — attending to Henry VIII’s third, fourth and fifth wives.

It was Jane’s service to Henry’s fifth wife, the teenaged Catherine Howard (who was also Anne Boleyn’s first cousin) that proved her undoing. Jane passed messages from Catherine to her secret lover, Thomas Culpepper. Jane was eventually interrogated and executed for her role as go-between.

Liane Hansen spoke with Fox about Boleyn’s life and her place in history.

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Now playing: Ray Repp - I Am the Resurrection
via FoxyTunes

What Else Is Family For?

Putting the Fun in Funeral

Randy is right: his wife, Kit, rocks!

The Inaugural 2007 (Indy) Deck Sit

We went to Joe’s Crab Shack for dinner tonight. It was quite pleasant out, so we sat on the deck. Good choice!! And the food was good, of course.

They serve their strawberry daquiris in tall cylindrical glasses, with NO whipped cream! I’m gonna have to try one the next time we’re there.

Hoist on My Own...

RenRen and I went to Atlanta Bread Company for breakfast this morning after Mass, like we usually do. After our usual agonizing over the menu, I ordered a California Avocado sandwich, no dill sauce, add mayo; and a tall hot chocolate, no sour cream.

Yep. You heard right: sour cream. I still have no idea where that came from… We did get it straight, and it arrived with no whipped cream. Whew!!

Never a Dull Moment at Steak ’n Shake…

…even though I went in to order this time…

I ordered my stuff, including a chocolate malt; Brett’s stuff; and RenRen’s stuff, her usual: a grilled cheese sandwich, with mustard and pickles cooked in (it’s just a bit unnatural having to spec them cooked in…), beef and veggie soup, and cottage cheese.

15 minutes later, my malt showed up, with the latest fad garbage (whipped cream and a cherry??!) on top; my bad: I know better, but forgot to call them off. It was a malt, however.

Another five or so minutes went by. As I was idling around the front of the store, one of boys ran out from the kitchen into the parking lot, and darned near got himself run over by the SUV motoring by. Shortly thereafter, two young teenyboppers and their swains wandered in, the girls laughing hysterically. They’d been through the drive-through and gotten mustard and pickles in the grilled cheese sandwich, which one of them proceeded to whip out onto the counter, in its black clamshell, complete with fries. It was the grossest, weirdest thing they’d ever seen. Of course, as one of them put it, “I’ve never seen one like that before!!”

While they were still giggling and snorting over that, the two bags with my order came up. I asked if my grilled cheese sandwich was in there, and was assured that it was. Upon checking anyway, I found the girls’ grilled cheese sandwich, wrapped up in paper with no fries. And no mustard or pickles.

I got someone’s attention and requested the sandwich I’d ordered. A couple of minutes later, a black clamshell was brought to the counter. Inside was a cheese sandwich with mustard and pickles on rather raw-looking bread, and no fries.

“Besides that the cheese isn’t melted, where are the fries?” says I.

“You got them…”, whilst looking at the bags suspiciously, was the reply.

“No. They were with the grilled cheese sandwich you gave them,” pointing over at the teenyboppers, who were still hanging around with the swains, chatting up the kid who had dashed out previously.

Back went the clamshell. It returned in another bag, complete with a cone of fries. “I melted the cheese, too,” I was told.

The poor assistant manager apologized and gave me a gift card for my troubles.

There were no complaints when I got home, except mine over the stuff on the malt, but that’s my own fault, so it doesn’t count.

Fish Fry!

The Men’s Club at St Mark’s threw their 5th annual fish fry this evening. The fish was quite tasty, and there were tenors and basses to be abused by.

Always Check Your Order At the Drive-Through

RenRen and I stopped at the Steak ’n Shake at Southport and 37 to pick up dinner tonight after choir rehearsal. We hit the drive-through, and she ordered a grilled cheese sandwich, mustard and pickles cooked in.

When we got to the window, the fellow asked, to double-check, whether she had asked for mustard or ketchup; he thought he remembered hearing mustard, but he’d pushed the ketchup button. Near-pandemonium reigned in the Vue for a minute (we came this close to needing a medic…        ;-), but we did get him straightened out in the end.

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Now playing: Dan Schutte - Glory to God
via FoxyTunes

Fatherhood

On the spine of this month’s Real Simple:

To become a father is not hard,
To be a father is, however.

-Wilhelm Busch