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December 2003

Randomly Monday

Random thoughts for the Monday after the Sunday after Thanksgiving:

  • I have the most wonderful husband in the world. I just wanted to mention that today since he’s been especially wonderful for putting up with me the past thirty days or so. I haven’t been particularly pleasant company, I fear…
  • That said, tomorrow marks one month, a hundred bucks saved, and — if the old cliché is true — five thousand extra minutes tacked on to the end of my life…
  • What a beautiful weekend, weather-wise. It was gray and soggy and chilly and generally wonderful. Pity it won’t last…
  • It sure would be nice if I could have those five thousand extra minutes NOW rather than when I’m old and senile. Oh well…

Wow

OK, so it’s not really my kind of music, but you have to have a grudging repect for anyone who covers XTC, Joan Armatrading, Blondie, and Todd Rundgren on the SAME FRIGGIN’ ALBUM. Thanks to Duncan for pointing out this rather bizarre collection…

Randomly Friday

Thoughts for a Friday morning:

  • I’m glad to see that someone else gets incredibly horny when he’s sick. I thought I was the only one. Really…

  • So I’m sitting here on a Friday morning waiting for our new bed to be delivered. The old one’s in the hall, and I’m amazed at how broken-down and disgusting it looks. I shouldn’t be; its assorted protruding coils have been poking me for months now. This bed wasn’t exactly brand new when I got it from friends ten years ago. And it’s seen rather, ummm, intensive use since Thanksgving Day 1993. I guess I’ll miss it in some ways, but I’ll be glad to see it gone in even more ways…

  • Is it more frightening (a) that there is an “as seen on TV” store at Serramonte Mall in Daly City featuring everything from Ginsu knives to orange cleaner to salad shooters, or (b) that we bought something there last night?

Kewl Dude

I just got email from someone using the word kewl, which I thought had been banned from all Internet correspoendence around 1996, and even from AOL by sometime in 2001. Of course, the guy also called me “dude”, so there’s no telling what kind of time warp this thing came from…

To San Luis Obispo

  

After committing a misdemeanor at the San Jose landfill, our first real stop was in Paso Robles to survey the damage from the recent earthquake. It was considerable, and everyone in town seemed to have ventured downtown to see it…

 

We arrived in San Luis Obispo and checked into our suite at the Motel 6 about 7:00. We headed downtown and dinner was at a place called Mo’s Barbecue. I was taken in by a menu item called “North Carolina Pork Shoulder”. I was not amused when they handed me a plate full of shredded random animal smothered in some sort of ketchup and molasses sauce. There was no indication that it was pork and it resembled nothing I’ve ever seen in North Carolina…

Why is that most of the country thinks barbecue is defined by the (generally nasty, ketchupy, and sweet) sauce rather than the meat? Outside my home state, I tink Memphis Minnie’s is the only place that gets it right…

After dinner, we walked around downtown a bit. It’s a nice town…

SLO and the Beaches

 

We had breakfast in the former Howard Johnson’s next to the Motel 6. It was too bad the original occupant wasn’t still there, and I started worrying that this wasn’t going to be a very successful vacation where food was concerned…

 

Today’s itinerary included Avila Beach, Pismo Beach, Grover Beach, and Arroyo Grande. I like Pismo; it’s more of the cheap, tacky sort of coastal town I grew up with, and not one of those pretentious California “coastal communities”…

Afterward, we headed back downtown and had lunch at a surprisingly good taqueria, the Burrito Wagon. We hit a few bookstores, one lackluster record store, and came home…

We opted for dinner in the room with Cops and Big Daddy’s Pizza…

Hearst Castle and Home

Breakfast at McDonald’s. We were in a hurry and on a budget, and McDonald’s serves up a good breakfast anyway…

 

After checking out, we drove toward Los Osos and then to Morro Bay. Morro Bay was nice, particularly the way the smokestacks from the power plant were juxtaposed against all the nature. Nature is, after all, overrated. We walked around town, and even went to the rather small aquarium, where the sea life was, at least, frisky…

 

Then it was off to Hearst Castle. It was a Citizen Kane dream come true. Yes, I find William Randoph Hearst interesting too, but it was fun picturing Orson Wells sitting in all those big chairs. Yeah, I liked Hearst Castle…

 

 

We came home on Highway 1, which means I’ve seen all of it from Fort Bragg to Pismo Beach and from Las Cruces to El Segundo now. Which — scenic as it is — is probably enough, my love of nature being what it is(n’t) and all…

Good trip. We liked…

Happy

Happy news du jour…

Freezing cold, pouring down rain, and I don’t have to go to work today. This is good. Pictures and stuff from Fresno, Christmas, and a Central Coast weekend coming soon, not to mention maybe an actual essay. But right now, I’m going to wrap up in my blanket and watch a Christmas present…