Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birth...

... ein minuten bitte! It's supposed to be Happy Birthday to ME!

Yes, it's my birthday today, so I'm celebrating this morning with a breakfast of Huevos Benedict Parmessan, a recipe that I think I may have documented in a previous post. The major difference this morning is that I am having Denise assemble everything, so we'll see how she does. (OK for her first attempt as it turns out, although I had to make the roasted red pepper sauce.)

Interestingly, I harvested the eggplant from our garden this very morning. It's just weird; less than a week from Christmas and the garden is still prodigiously pumping out a plethora of produce. It's supposed to be winter.

For my birthday present to myself I think I will experiment with chili recipes in search of the ultimate chili for chili dogs, chili fries, chili burgers and the like. I've tried this in the past with limited success.

I decided to do a little research on Foodtv.com this morning, reviewing chili dog recipes to use as a sort of jumping off point. One of the first hits on the search was Tyler Florence's recipe for the Ultimate Chili Cheese Dog, which I have made once. "Hated It!" First of all, this is a misnomer; it could appropriately be called the Ultimate Ketchup Cheese Dog. The sauce is sickeningly sweet, the result of ratio of 1 teaspoon of chili powder to 2-1/2 cups of ketchup. Call me old fashioned, but I generally think chili should have a little chile in it. Of course, I should have known. Tyler Florence is, or at least was, the spokes-chef for Applebees, which is to dining what Thomas Kinkade is to fine art.

(I should accept at least a little of the blame here. As I read the recipe I thought, there is no way there can be enough spices in this recipe. I forged ahead anyway and suffered the consequences.)

Anyway, less than a week until Christmas and both of the boys are now home on their Christmas breaks. Nick actually arrived last Monday evening and has been hanging out at home (and drinking my beer) for most of the week. Jacob, having secured a ride from Arcata with a friend, arrived today in the wee wee hours of the morning. I haven't actually seen him yet as I was asleep when he arrived and he is still sleeping in.

Nick and I have been running our annual obscure Christmas film festival. We traditionally start the Christmas holiday observation with a viewing of the Muppets Christmas Carole on the weekend following Thanksgiving. After that any movie is fair game as long as there is the slightest reference to Christmas. Bull Durham for instance; Crash Davis' line "I believe in opening your presents Chrismas morning, not Christmas Eve." Or The World is Not Enough; Denise Richards as nuclear physicist Dr. Christmas Jones. This week it was Band of Brothers, because of the Christmas scene in Bastogne.

Denise has been working on getting the house fully decorated for Christmas and we spent the better part of an evening trying to get Leo into the holiday spirit by posing him in a Santa hat. Unfortunately, Leo thought of it more as a chew toy.

Quick jump to the future...

It's now Sunday, the 20th. Denise made me stop blogging to go shopping with her, so I didn't get this finished and posted yesterday.

We finished up my birthday with a trip to the Stone Brewing World Bistro and Gardens. We were joined by my Mom, sisters Terry (and husband Jon), Jean (with husband Joe), Kathy (who needs a husband like a fish needs a bicycle), Jack (and spousal unit Mike), niece Emily, and friend Mike Griffin. With Denise and the boys it worked out to 14 of us. Dinner was delicious. I had the Mac 'n Beer Cheese along with an assortment of fermented grain beverages. For dessert I received a complimentary Beer Float in which perfectly good beer was ruined with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

So it is now Sunday, the boys have vacated the premises to do a little Christmas shopping. I am recording the Chargers game so that when the boys return we can do a little virtual tailgating. Watch the game, grill up some chili dogs, nachos or whatever. I'll be giving my experimental chili a try on the dogs, but I think the recipe will need a little tweaking. After bitching about the absence of chili in Tyler Florence's chili recipe I overcompensated with perhaps a wee bit too much Chipotle in mine. May not even be able to taste the dogs under that sauce. I believe it's a step in the right direction though.

In case anyone is interested here's what I tried...

4 dried New Mexico chiles (stems and seeds removed)

4 dried California chiles (stems and seeds removed)

4 dried Chipotle chilies (I think I'll cut this to 1 or 2 next time I try this)

1-1/2 cups chicken stock

1/2 pound ground beef

1/2 pound habanero pork sausage (homemade) or ground pork

medium onion finely diced

4 garlic cloves, crushed

1 Tbsp ancho chili powder

2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp salt

3 bay leaves

fresh ground pepper

olive oil

12oz canned Pabst Blue Ribbon

Place chiles in chicken stock, bring to boil and simmer 30 minutes. Puree cooked chiles and stock and PBR beer in blender, then force through a fine wire sieve to create chile sauce.

While chiles cook, brown ground beef and pork in olive oil. Remove browned meat and saute onions until soft. Add garlic, spices, bay leaves and saute a few more minutes. Add meat and chili sauce to the onion and spices. Simmer until chili reaches desired thickness. Eat.

Remember that this is a work in progress, so plan accordinginly. I am open to suggestions for improvement, as long as no one suggests ketchup.

Overdue Post, Thanksgiving Update, Pearl Harbor

I apologize. I was trying to be more proactive about posting updates to this blog, but the calendar tells me that it's now been two weeks since my last update.

I've been in a post-Thanksgiving funk for the last week and half or so, partly because I picked up a cold on the Friday of Thanksgiving week (the remnants of which are still with me), probably in part because my boys had to leave and head back up to school so I have no one to play with and partly because I experienced one of those falling incidents that start to affect you when you are old and infirm.

Actually, this happened a couple weeks ago. I had gotten home early and was trying to take care of a bunch of projects in the yard while there was still a little daylight. Taking a short cut across Leo's bed on the garage floor, his blanket completely wrapped itself around both my legs and I went nearly face first into my roll-away tool cabinet. I broke my fall, mostly with my right thumb, and managed to avoid the toolbox, but I very nearly ended up replicating Jake's little incident. I am fairly certain that I broke my thumb, but the thought of spending an evening in a Temecula Urgent Care center was too much to bear, so I administered an ice pack (frozen peas) and alcohol (bourbon, I think) and finished what chores I could.

I had fallen, but for the time being at least I was able to get up. But the inevitable, "I've fallen and I can't get up!" can't be too far away. What's in store for me now; LifeAlert? The Clapper?Stepping on the accelerator instead of the brake and crashing through the DMV?

On top of that I've been going through a lot of old photographs and have started to realize how little I've accomplished. My Dad survived the depression, served in WWII, including servicing B25s aboard the Hornet in support of the Doolittle Raid, worked on Craig Breedlove's Spirit of America world speed record attempts on the Bonneville Salt Flats, raised six children, took his wife on occasional trips to Hawaii, the Caribbean, etc. I cook a pretty good Thanksgiving dinner and that's about the end of my resume.

Anyway, I have been depressed, that is until tonight when I received this email...

Hi Hanten.....

I'm not 100% guaranteed if Im still going to send this e mail, but I should write it or Ill go crazy....I dont know how else to say it..... I have a crush on you. been dreaming about you non stop and I'm shy to let out my feelings to you...youll understand why if you knew who this was. I might regret this another time, though I think I want to tell you now. I wrote a hidden blog post for you ...here it is
secret blog for Hanten
I hope I'm not making a stupid decision although after writing this I know I have to click Send

I have omitted the link, because it is, after all, a secret blog for me. Imagine how happy I am now to know that someone, somewhere has a secret crush on me. And imagine how much happier I'd be if the person actually knew my name.

Anyway, now I'm in a good mood, so I can try to catch up on all the info I should have posted long ago.

To further enhance my mood I decided to observe the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor by watching a movie that truly recreates the trauma of the event; Pearl Harbor. A two-DVD extravaganza of pain and suffering, for the audience at least. Jeez, what a horrible flick. This is a movie that had to have been made to go straight to Mystery Science Theater 3000. I feel much, much better having spent the entire first disc bagging on the copious flaws in the film. I may even watch disc two.

Actually, the movie Pearl Harbor spends a considerable amount of time (the entire second DVD) on the Doolittle Raid. So, I've decided to watch the disc in hopes of seeing an actor playing my Dad, but the film makers don't seem to think there was anyone actually aboard the Hornet to service the bombers. Oh well, they also seem to think that Jack Daniels bottles had bar code labels in 1941.

So, now that I've dramatically improved my mood I can provide a brief update on T-day and subsequent activities.

I spent most of Wednesday cooking anything that could be prepared in advance, killing time waiting for Nicholas, who arrived safely at our happy home later in the day. Having done a lot of cooking in advance, I thought that Thursday would actually be pretty simple, but for some reason the kitchen was busy all day again.

The boys, Denise, Leo and I were joined for Thanksgiving dinner by sisters Kathy, Jackie and Jackie's husband, Mike.

(Sorry, a short aside, Pearl is playing in the background and Ben Affleck and the rest of his B25 crew seem to be winning the war in the Pacific single-handedly. Apparently we needn't have sent all those Marines to Iwo Jima, etc. It's over now, thank God...the second disc is mercifully short at 45 minutes.)

Dinner was ultimately quite enjoyable; BBQ Mesquite Smoked Turkey with roast garlic mashed potatoes, chipotle smashed sweet potatoes, spinach-chorizo stuffed poblano peppers, traditional dressing, cranberry sauce and jalapeno-cranberry relish, a delightful salad care of Jackie and pumpkin pie a la Kathy. Oh, and home-brewed Imperial Blonde Ale, which seemed to be pretty well received, even though I was a little dissatisfied with it.

For after dinner entertainment I introduced my sisters to Mav TV and the program Body Shots, in which cocktail recipes are prepared by a bartender between a pair of blonde-bikinied-bimbos who occasionally venture opinions along the lines of "Wow, these look great. I sure can't wait to suck one down!" It is one of the single most stupid things I've ever seen on TV and I've seen the Sham-WOW, so that's going some. Mav TV also features a show called Fitness Beauties which consists of nothing but video of some woman, OK fairly attractive woman, working out on fitness equipment. No narration, just an instrumental soundtrack. Apparently it's for guys who are too big of losers to actually join a gym to ogle women. With this show they can ogle within the privacy of their own homes. Mav TV is seriously bizarre. It's like programming for the perennially juvenile. I fit right in.

Anyway, on Friday Nick and Jake helped me launch another batch of beer, this time cooking up a holiday ale, which I hope will be decent and ready to serve by Christmas. Keep your fingers crossed. I'll be bottling it some evening this week barring some sort of crisis.

Accomplished very little beyond that over the holiday as by Saturday I was starting to feel pretty crappy with this cold. Stayed in, watched some football and played a few Pinochle games with the boys and that was about it. Unfortunately, they had to leave at 0'dark-thirty Sunday morning to get Jake back up to Davis for his 2:30PM Amtrak connection back to Humboldt. Got up to see them off around 5:00AM and then went back to bed.

In addition to the normal sort of care package that Denise trys to send off with the boys I sent the remaining stock of Imperial Blonde off to Davis with Nick. He seemed to like it and with him having little in the way of beer budget I figured it was going to as good a final resting place as any.

So the boys are back at school and I am sinking further into decrepitude, but at least we will be seeing them again soon for the Christmas holiday.

Oh, BTW my ESB was pretty much DOA. I don't know for sure how I screwed it up, but Extra Special Bitter is not my forte. It's pretty much undrinkable, but mixed half-and-half with soy sauce made a pretty serviceable Tri-tip marinade. So, that got rid of one bottle. Now what to do with couple of cases. Maybe a little beer-battered fish and chips? I'll have to work something out.

Baba Ganoush and Bread Pudding

Having a nearly inexhaustible supply of eggplants and running tired of Eggplant Parmesan (although I particularly like Eggplant Parmesan) we tried something new; Baba Ganoush. Not bad for a first try, it's a combination of eggplant roasted on the BBQ, pureed with garlic, lemon juice, salt, pepper, parsley and tahini. Some toasted pita chunks for dipping and you have a nice little snack.

Leo is a happy dog tonight, because one of his boys is home. Jacob arrived at 9:35 this morning at the Ontario airport, right on time. Actually early, which was a big improvement over his last flight home, which he missed entirely. Good thing he was on time, because he had a follow-up appointment with Dr. Herford at Loma Linda at 11:00, the only open time during this Thanksgiving week. We made the drive from Ontario to Loma Linda in plenty of time to take a short stop for a bad breakfast at Del Taco.

The visit with the doctor went well, the doctors apparently very happy with Jake's progress. Based on the discussion with Dr. Herford, next up will be extraction of Jake's wisdom teeth. During the extraction they will harvest some bone and perform a bone graft under his front teeth where they will eventually install the post for his dental implant. The tooth that Jake knocked out was directly on top of his mandibular fracture, resulting in very little bone to support the implement. Consequently, the bone graft will be necessary to provide a stable base for the new tooth.

Got back home to Temecula by about 1:00, shortly after which Jacob took about a 5 hour nap. I guess that's to be expected of a college student, forced to be out of bed early and at the airport by 8:00AM or so. Tomorrow won't be much better, because Jake has an 8:30AM appointment with his orthodontist.

Anyway, we are home this evening, with Leo barking away at Jake, pleading with him to wrestle. Now he's given up on Jake temporarily and is blowing his hot breath all over my keyboard, trying to bait me into a bout.

Tonight I continued with the refrigerator purging. One of the side benefits of Thanksgiving is the opportunity to get rid of all the odd crusts and countless slices of bread that have been sitting in the freezer for ever, chop them up into cubes and turn them into stuffing. As it turns out, several of the odd samples of bread were these honey wheat and sesame seed sort of things, too sweet to really lend themselves to the sort of savory dish resulting from insertion in a bird's behind. So, rather than let them go to waste I used them in a southern style bread pudding. Very tasty, but needed a little bourbon sauce. Unfortunately I have no cream, so the bourbon will be relegated to a rocks glass instead.

Must go now and fight with my dog. More later.

November 21

It's Saturday. We're catching up on the chores we avoided last weekend by visiting my Mom in Arizona.

Speaking of said trip, I took a little heat for my post visit post about being frustrated by my wife's driving. For those who took exception, I can only say that if you have never ridden with my wife you need to experience it before passing judgment.

I have two major concerns.

1. Riding in the left lane and consistently forcing people to pass on the right. Mostly this concerns me because I’m sitting on the passenger side and first in line for a drive by shooting.
   
2. The stuff she eats while driving. Salads? Broccoli & cheese stuffed baked potatoes? Eating those is a two-handed operation. How is she steering? “One hand on your burrito and the other on the wheel” is my mantra.
   
   Well, three major concerns.
   
3. I’m old and don’t have much time to live and don’t want to spend any more time than necessary in transit.
   
   OK, four…
   
4. Aging is supposed to slow as one approaches the speed of light. So, the way I drive I’m actually increasing my longevity.

Oh and, I do NOT channel Mario Andretti and Spartacus while driving. It’s Jackie Stewart and Judah Ben-Hur.

Regardless, Denise delivered us safely back to our happy home, which I will confess is the important thing.

So, today we started off in the garden, which we haven't seen much of lately. It's dark so early it's hard to get anything accomplished out there during the week. Here it is late November and we're still pulling things out of the garden like crazy; tomatillos, eggplants, zucchini, bell peppers, jalapenos, cherry and roma tomatoes, anaheim chiles, grapefruit, and even a couple green beans.

After the garden, we started cleaning out the fridge and freezers in anticipation of Thanksgiving. Need someplace to put all the groceries for next Thursday. Cleaning out the fridge is always dangerous, because I find about 500 things I'd forgotten we had in there and immediately start preparing a bizarre assortment of foods. Frozen grapes, green olive tapenade on sourdough, sirloin burgers, pumpkin butter, seared albacore with a wasabe/soy dipping sauce. Found a boat load of frozen lime juice from last years lime crop so I felt obligated to mix up a few Margaritas.

Anyway, this evening we actually have freed up enough room to get our turkey into the fridge.

Thanksgiving should be fairly nice. Both the boys will be home for the holiday and we'll have a few others of my family up for dinner.

Jake is scheduled to arrive at Ontario airport Monday morning, flying down from Sacramento where he is supposed to be spending the weekend with his brother. Hopefully he makes his flight and arrives on time as he has an appointment with his surgeon at Loma Linda also on Monday morning. This will be a follow-up to his earlier surgeries and prep for upcoming surgery to install a dental implant to replace the tooth knocked out in his crash.

Nick has class through Wednesday, so he will not be home until late that evening. The good news for Nick is that my Extra Special Bitter will have completed its required two weeks of bottled fermentation and should be ready to drink. Of course, I have no idea what it's going to taste like, so maybe it will be less than good news.

I also purchased an ingredient kit for some Holiday Ale that I'd like to try for Christmas. Nick wants me to wait until he's home before starting the brew so that he can observe the process. Oh well, what's another recipe when it comes to Thanksgiving.

Over the River and Through the Desert...

...to grandmother's house we've been. We are actually winging along on Interstate 10 in the middle of nowhere, somewhere a little west of Blythe. Denise is driving, as you may have guessed. While I don't know if California's ban on texting while driving applies to blogging I think it's best not to test it.

Actually, Denise insisted on driving so that I will not have to be frustrated by driving in the Sunday evening traffic and can instead relax in the passenger seat being frustrated by her driving. But that's another story.

We drove over to my Mom's house in Prescott, AZ, on Friday evening after work, a pleasant little 6 hour drive. Because my Mom is a sucker for dogs we brought along our little Leo. He is a very good traveler as it turns out, although it's occasionally difficult to get him out of the car for a short rest break and, once out, he can be difficult to get back in. It's not like at 154 pounds I can lift him in if he doesn't want to go.

Of course, the downside of bringing Leo is that he needs a place to sleep. Mom's guest room has a double bed with barely enough room for Denise and me. Leo normally starts out the night on his own bed on the floor, but eventually he gets cold or lonely or just figures "why should I sleep on the floor when they have a bed" and tries to sneak in between the two of us. Leo is actually surprisingly adept at sneaking into our king-sized bed at home. Double bed, not so much. We spent half of each night trying to convince him to get the hell out of our bed. I would have locked him out of the room, but I was afraid he'd go climb in to Mom's bed and smother her.

We were paying my mother a birthday visit, only a month late as it happens. As a belated birthday present I cooked a couple of her favorite meals; Shrimp and Jalapeno-Cilantro Pesto Pizza on Saturday night and Eggs Benedict this morning. At some point over the weekend Denise was discussing assisted living accommodations with Mom, who was saying that with any luck she'll just have a massive heart attack and be spared having to make that transition. If she keeps having me cook for her she will almost certainly get her wish. Her cardiologist would probably shoot me.

The Eggs Benedict were fabulous and not without a great deal of drama. They are something of a pain-in-the-butt to make, trying to get the toasted English muffins, Canadian bacon, poached eggs and Hollandaise all to come together at the same time. Since I could not find a saucepan to my liking I melted the butter in the microwave. Concerned that it might not have completely melted I decided to zap it for an extra 20 seconds or so and the whole mass exploded throwing 1/4 cup of butter over every interior surface of the oven. Nothing worth eating comes out of my kitchen without a fair amount of profanity, and this was no exception. I quickly decided that my choice in saucepans was not as bad as originally thought and melted up a bunch more butter.

Mom apparently enjoyed the results despite the tantrum. Leo was lobbying for a taste, but she wasn't falling for that. (I slipped him a leftover slice of Canadian bacon dipped in Hollandaise which he actually seemed to savor.)

Aside from cooking we spent a lot of time playing Pinochle and I did a few of my semi-annual chores around her house including replacing all the batteries in her smoke detectors. She has a boat load of them, so it's a bigger job than you might think.

This morning I played orthopedic surgeon to Mom's Santa Clause statue. She has a sort of plastic/ceramic Santa that stands about 4 feet tall. He's kind of heavy so she asked me to lift him out of his box so that she'd be able to set him up in her living room a little later this year. When I lifted him out of the box he came out without his feet. They were snapped off, still attached to the plaster base. He's kind of a stupid design, very heavy up top with very delicate ankles. Kind of like a thoroughbred. Mom said that he had been repaired once before by my brother-in-law, but the repair had obviously failed. Never missing an opportunity to embrace my inner MacGyver, I leaped to the rescue. I applied some internal splints of rolled up cardboard and about a pound and a half of hot melt glue and Santa was once again standing on his own two feet.

We big Mom farewell this afternoon and headed west. We'll see her again around Christmas when she comes over to southern California.

(It's time for short commercial break: I have to give kudos to Verizon, because my broadband wireless card has had a signal for almost the entire trip.)

In other news, I bottled my Extra Special Bitter on Thursday night. If all goes well it should be ready for consumption by Thanksgiving. My first batch, the Imperial Blonde Ale, should have completed it's recommended 3 weeks of aging this weekend. I have one waiting in the fridge at home to be consumed as we get the Pilot unloaded and Leo fed.

Short aside; Leo is such a good boy in the car, he's been curled up on his bed in the back and laying there so quietly you'd forget he was there. That is until Denise asked for a snack. I reached into the cooler for a piece of string cheese and Leo's head suddenly popped into the front seat. Nothing motivates that boy like a piece of cheese. He can be sound asleep in our bedroom when I open the cheese drawer in the fridge and, poof, he appears in the kitchen.

It occurs to me that I'm very bad about keeping things up to date in this blog. It seems like less than a week since I last posted, but it's been almost two. Consequently I've neglected to mention our trip up to De Luz last weekend. De Luz is up in the hills west of Temecula, a very nice area apparently ideal for growing avocado orchards and home owners associations. We were invited to a party in a friend's avocado grove. It was a very nice time, or at least what I can remember of it. I was pretty much hammered by the end of the evening. Apparently several people said they did not think I looked drunk, which can only mean that they too were hammered. Denise was kind enough to drive me home. I do remember preparing some queso dip in my Dutch oven. I think it was sauted chorizo, onion, garlic, mushrooms and poblano peppers with shredded Oaxaca and Pepper-Jack cheeses. Good and good for you.

I will try to do better about keeping this thing up to date. Big news coming pretty soon, as Jake will be home for the Thanksgiving holiday starting next Monday. Humboldt State shuts down for the entire Thanksgiving week. Nick on the other hand has classes through Wednesday, so we probably won't see him until very late Wednesday night or in the wee hours of Thanksgiving morning. When he does get home I'll have to get his opinion of my beers. I hope he likes them.

Netflix Owes Me an Evening of My Life Back!

OK, I sat down the other evening fully prepared to dedicate my undivided attention to the fine art of the cinema with a DVD of "Night of the Living Dead" a la Netflix. The remake, not the original George Romero version. It was supposed to be here for Halloween, but the timing got messed up.

Two thirds of the way through the movie the DVD started screwing up, halting and pixelating until finally the whole thing hung and I had to eject the DVD. Repeated attempts at cleaning the disc failed to correct the problem. A final cleaning accompanied by a flourish of expletives actually resulted in the DVD playing through to the thrilling conclusion. Unfortunately, by that time I was completely out of the undead mood.

Netflix is to blame! What am I, their quality control?!?!? Now, I appreciate that Netflix will cheerily send a copy of an damaged DVD so that I might resume watching, but at that point what is the point? I mean, I spent the entire evening establishing the proper mood, by which I mean I lowered the lights and turned on the home theater system. Denise was totally engrossed I am certain, her demeanor notwithstanding.

Oh well, I will have to frighten her with the undead in Nick's closet. I was concerned that the undead in the closet were in fact actually dead, my batch of ESB started on Sunday demonstrating not the least sign of fermentation. I was afraid that my yeast were dead and I would be holding an impromptu funeral in the backyard. Turns out (I think) that the stuff was just not warm enough. The label on the yeast stated that for best fermentation the brew should be kept at a temperature above 70F. Apparently they weren't kidding. The LCD thermometer on my fermenter has been showing 69F pretty consistently. I applied a heating pad to the exterior of the bucket and it appears that fermentation has begun, the little yeasts as happy as clams or as close to clam happiness as unicellular beings are capable.

As long as the heating pad doesn't set fire to our house, all may well be well.

Hmmmm Beer!

My home brew is progressing, having completed it's bottle fermentation the weekend before last. Technically, it was supposed to age for another 3 weeks, but I felt it would be important to try a sample at the start of the aging process so that I would have some basis for comparison.

So, the verdict? Well, I'm not quite sure. It definitely tasted like some manner of ale. Denise seems to think it is very good, but she hasn't really tried that much and doesn't have the breadth of experience that I've acquired through many years applying myself to the study of beer. The kit was a recipe for an Imperial Blonde Ale, according to the literature ideal for those who like big blondes. Unfortunately, for all my vast experience I can't recall that I've ever had an Imperial Blonde Ale, so for all I know my batch could be a perfect rendition.

I tried another sample yesterday, after the first week of aging. It was good enough that I decided I'd better sample another today, just to make sure everything is still progressing appropriately. Alright, I made chili for dinner and who can eat chili without a beer. If I continue to find excuses to sample the stuff I may exhaust the supply before the aging is finished.

Since my first attempt doesn't appear as though it will turn out to be a complete failure I've decided to forge ahead and start a second batch. I found a brewer's supply in Riverside that seemed to have a little bit of everything and spent a little while chatting with one of the employees, a guy who didn't look old enough to be drinking beer, let alone offering advice on home brewing. He was pretty helpful though and I ended up leaving with ingredients for an Extra Special Bitter.

While browsing the shop I noticed a couple of different versions of brewing software. So, arriving at home I fired up the laptop, Googled 'home brewing software' and a few minutes later was running a trial version of "BeerSmith."

It turns out that after a few minutes of playing with the software I realized I haven't got much of a clue about what goes into making beer. Yeast flocculation values? Decoction mash profiles? Strike/infusion temperature? International Bitterness Units? Brewhouse Efficiency? I have much to learn grasshopper.

Ignorant or not, I fired up the stove and boiled up the ESB this afternoon. It is now quietly fermenting in Nick's closet. I think I made fewer mistakes with this batch and I also think I used better ingredients. I'm optimistic, which is never a good sign. Hope for the best and expect the worst is usually the wiser course.

I think that after two batches I have realized that I need better equipment. (A man should never really admit that he has inadequate equipment, but there you go.) Sometime before my next batch I need a bigger brew kettle and a wort chiller.

In other news, Halloween has come and gone. One trick-or-treater was all we could muster and that was Donovan from next door. I guess technically I could claim 2 trick-or-treaters, since I took the opportunity to serve Donovan's dad a little tequila while everyone else was busy admiring Dono's costume.

Of course, trick-or-treaters or not, all the candy will be eaten. Unfortunately by Denise and me.

Halloween is not the holiday that it used to be, actually hasn't been for quite a while. The boys were past trick-or-treating years ago and we've never had many visitors. There are no sidewalks or streetlights in our neighborhood and the houses are too far apart to afford a reasonable candy to distance ratio.

I didn't even bother to carve a pumpkin this year, having gotten all pumpkined-out when our pumpkins matured earlier this summer. After so many pumpkins from the garden I wasn't particularly motivated to by a pumpkin from the supermarket. This is not to say that I did not carve a Jack-o-Lantern. I improvised...

...with a leftover spaghetti squash. OK, it's non-traditional, but I wasn't going to eat this squash anyway. Might as well put him to good use.

More to Tell

It's getting harder to make time for these posts, but I will keep muddling through. My notes tell me that I was supposed to mention Wii, beer and Nick, but now I can't remember quite exactly what I was supposed to be blogging about. Oh well, I will start running off at the keyboard and something will end up in the post.

We Have a Wii

Embracing our second childhood, we've decided to start investing in video games. Actually, we purchased the Wii Fit, on the assumption that it will be way less embarrassing attempting yoga in front of a virtual trainer than it would be with an actual human being. And, it is actually kind of fun. I am getting a little tired of the way the system sort of wheezes when I step onto the balance board, but overall it's entertaining.

I suggested that to achieve the greatest fitness improvements one should Wii naked, allowing the greatest range of motion, freedom of movement and, if nothing else, serving as a powerful appetite suppressant. Denise is not supportive of this notion.

The bad news is that I have developed a little bit of Wii shoulder, hyper-extending the thing playing Wii Tennis. The good news is we haven't hurled the remote through our HDTV or knocked over any lamps or things of that nature. And we've had no wee Wii heart attacks working out, which is a good thing, given that our virtual trainers are probably not CPR certified.

Biology Experiment

I have, at long last, started my home brewing experiment. Actually the experiment has been running for the better part of three weeks and is approaching fruition. I refer to this as a biology experiment because God only knows what is growing in those bottles. I mean, the little yeasties are hopefully in there converting sugars to alcohol and CO2, but for all I know I've killed them somewhere along the process. And the greater concern is not that I've killed the benevolent yeasts, but that I've introduced some sort of bacteria that's converting everything to toxic waste.

I freely admit that I may have made plenty of mistakes in cooking up my first batch. I failed to introduce my hops at the appropriate time during the boil, proceeded to boil the stuff too long, for all I know may have contaminated the whole batch and who knows what else. Strangely, after a week of fermentation I went ahead with the bottling and sneaking a little taste of the results after the primary fermentation, I was surprised to find something that tasted oddly like an ale. Who'd have thunk it.

The bottle conditioning has been proceeding for a week and I've yet to have any bottles explode in the closet, so that's good news. Next Saturday is B-day. I'll crack one for a taste test then, but the recipe calls for another 3 weeks of aging for best flavor. For this first batch I'll be happy if I come up with something that will at least make a good marinade or beer-battered fish, even if it is otherwise undrinkable.

If it is the least bit drinkable you will be among the first to know.

Higher Learning

Nicholas continues to apply himself to his college education as exemplified in a personal best ski jumping for UC Davis.

This last weekend we drove to Davis for another UCD Waterski Team Parent Day and Benefit Dinner. It was a lot of driving, but a lot of fun as well. My advice to anyone who cares is to prolong ones college career as long as financially viable. Based on Nick's experience I think I'd like to retire to college. I mean ski all day, party all night, plagiarize the occasional term paper; what's not to like?

Jacob made the sojourn by bus and train from Humboldt to join us at the dinner and then joined Nick and team for the post event partying. Denise and I returned to the hotel for an attempt at a good night's sleep.

We arrived home late Sunday night after a 7-hour drive, pretty tired, but glad to be home. Leo seemed a little peeved at us for having abandoned him for the weekend. It took a while, but he finally warmed up to us and before long I was covered in dog slobber.

Time to go to bed. I am still really tired from last night's drive. And I'm sure Leo will want to get a little more slobber on me before the night is through. More later...

A Brief Post from the Man Himself

Jacob made it home this weekend and we prevailed upon him to provide the following post, succinct though it may be...

Hello all,

I am writing this from the small town of Temecula and as far as I can tell, it’s about the same as when I left. It’s weird how strange civilization looks after you’ve been in the forest for a couple months though. What’s up with all these red, yellow, and green lights above the intersections? I can’t say I particularly miss driving. It’s a lot more fun to eat food and walk then it is to go to Shell and watch those irritating advertisements as you fork over your money. I truly realized how small Humboldt is when it took me longer to drive to a friend’s house than walk across Arcata. Speaking of which, HSU (and I guess college in general) is amazing. If it wasn’t for all these damn classes it might even be fun. I kid… mostly (if anyone’s thinking about pursuing a degree in botany, good luck). I found myself becoming much fonder of eating the subject matter than looking at its gametangia. The salad bar is a daily now. Apparently everything’s picked the same morning they serve it, which is supposedly good. That’s about the only consistent good food except for drinks (my favorites are Nantucket Nectars, Calypso Lemonades, Guayaki tea, and a reverse energy drink called Purple Stuff whose slogan is “lean with it”). Everything is good, but I can’t say I’m too stoked on the dorms. They were designed by a prison architect and it’s apparent by the design and I feel like there’s equal yelling to a penitentiary. The guards are a lot nicer though and I haven’t gotten tazed yet. Overall, I’m very pleased with my choice in college and I don’t think my spirits will be dampened by the impending rainfall.

Much more to tell, but I wanted to get his posted this evening. Bye.

A Busy Week

It has actually been a very busy week or so since last we spoke.

I suppose I should update the Squid Ink Risotto incident. It was only fabulous. Actually, the squid ink adds a very subtle flavor, but the color is unmistakeable. I'm not sure I'll get the black out of my cutting board anytime soon. And really, the surprising thing was that the Green Onion Vinaigrette was probably the highlight of the dish. We made potato salad the other night and dressed it with the leftover vinaigrette and it was very good. If you are interested it's on The Food Network's web site.

The downside of my Spanish food order was the anchovie stuffed olives. Eeeww! I was expecting something significantly less fishy. Now I have to figure something to do with the two cans I ordered. Maybe they'll work OK in some Putanesca sauce.

I had thought earlier in the week that we may have had a death in the family, but my resuscitatory skills seem to have saved the day. Back about the time of Jake's accident I had been baking up sourdough goodies on a regular basis. My Mom had brought the starter home from her trip to Alaska and I had been feeding it ever since. Sometime around the accident I put the starter in the fridge and hadn't thought about it in months. When I finally took it out this week it had a leathery sort of skin developed on the top and looked like it was dead. Not wanting to give up on it I pried off the nasty bit of skin, gave it a good feeding and it started to come around. This morning I was able to fire up some pretty decent sourdough biscuits (which I of course smothered in sausage gravy).

The biscuit making reminded me of making biscuits when the boys were little. I would make penguin shaped biscuits, painting their beaks and tuxedos with yellow and black food coloring. The boys liked the biscuits, but were not too hot on the gravy. The first time I tried to serve it to Nick he was about 4 years old and said "If I ate that it would kill me." I had to agree that it eventually probably would, but it would take quite a few servings and a general lack of cardiac fitness.

I was sort of bummed about Jake not visiting, but it turns out that he will be coming home next weekend. Flying into LAX on Friday night and out the following Tuesday morning, with an orthodontist visit on Monday. I am not looking forward to venturing into the jaws of the beast that is the LA freeway system on a Friday night, but worst case scenario I will find a bar to kill time until the traffic thins out. Maybe by midnight. Of course, then Jake will need to be the designated driver. While he is home, perhaps I can persuade him to do a guest blog entry so that everyone can hear how the horse is doing straight from his mou...keyboard.

Leo continues to entertain in the absence of any children to keep us occupied. The other night he made a new friend...

Actually, hearing Leo you'd have thought he was planning to eat the guy. Of course, if he had actually gotten the thing off the fence he would have had his paws full. Nasty looking little possum. I guess technically it's an opossum.

For some reason, Leo has lately taken to disemboweling his squeaky toys, systematically sorting through his toy box and ripping the stuffing out of anything that squeaks.

This morning, having exhausted his supply of squeaky toys, he had to console himself by ripping the skin off a tennis balll.
This weekend brought more efforts to process all the stuff from our garden. I was cooking up the last of our pumpkins on Saturday morning when I decided to try something I thought to be truly original. It turned out following a Google search that the idea was not entirely original, but I think my particular approach is unique. Denise claimed they were delicious, but she has to humor me so I don't know for sure.

Pumpkin Enchiladas

For the Sauce
1 Tbsp olive oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp chipotle chile powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1 cup chicken broth
1-1/2 cups pumpkin puree
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper

Saute garlic in olive oil, add remaining ingredients, simmer 15 minutes. Thin with chicken broth if sauce is too thick.

Filling
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup roasted corn kernels
1/2 cup diced green chili
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp Mexican oregano
1 cup grated Oaxaca cheese
1/4 cup grated Cotija cheese

Saute onion and garlic in olive oil until tender. Add corn, green chiles, pumpkin and spices. Cook 5 minutes, longer to thicken sauce if necessary. Stir in cheeses.

Assembly

8 corn tortillas

Cover bottom of baking dish with a couple spoons of the sauce. Dip a tortilla in simmering sauce to soften. Place tortilla in dish, cover with some filling, roll seam side down. Repeat with remaining tortillas. Top with more Oaxaca and Cotija cheese. Bake at 350 (Fahrenheit) for about 20 minutes.

You could substitute canned chipotles for the chipotle powder and Monterey Jack for the Mexican cheeses. I'm thinking that, just for kicks, next time I might try some grilled chicken instead of the corn and green chiles in the filling.

A Better Mood

Tonight I was in a better mood.

Having gotten home at a somewhat reasonable hour I started making Pot Stickers. From scratch. They turned out to be time consuming, but not terribly difficult to make and tasted, well, like pot stickers. My first batch lived way too much up to their name, falling completely apart while I tried to extricate them from the bottom of the pan. Denise pointed out that I was not arranging them correctly in the pan, to which I replied "Doh!" and, modifying the procedure slightly, cooked the remainder without incident.

I think I have been in a better mood for a couple reasons.

First, my order arrived from La Tienda, www.altienda.com, an online retailer of miscellaneous Spanish foods. I had gone online looking for a source for smoked paprika, something I frequently find specified in recipes, but never in a local market. The site turned out to be pretty entertaining so I ordered several items in addition to a 3-pack of sweet, bittersweet and picante smoked paprika. I resisted the temptation to order a $1400 Serrano ham, but did get some Spanish olives, chorizo and, I'm so excited, tinta de calamar.

So, sometime this weekend I plan to be preparing Squid Ink Risotto with Grilled Shrimp, Lobster and Green Onion Vinaigrette. I will probably have to follow that up with some paella to use up some of the spanish chorizo.

I was also in a good mood because Jacob was supposed to visit this weekend, planning to drive down on Friday night with a friend from San Diego. I was looking forward to seeing him, getting the scoop on school and cooking up whatever sort of food he might be missing. Unfortunately, midway through the pot stickers he texted Denise to say that he probably will not be coming after all. Apparently he realized that with the trip up and back he'd be spending at least 24 hours on the road for maybe 36 or so at home.

I'm disappointed, but can't say that I blame him.

Oh well, I will just have to cook for Leo instead. A slice of cheese, an ice cube, a doggie door. Whatever, he is easy to please.

Tuesday, September 22

My, how time flies...it's already been a week and a half or so since my last post.

I've actually been in something of a funk and not really able to think of anything worth writing about. I think I am frustrated because I have been getting virtually nothing accomplished lately. I wasn't able to get half the stuff done I'd hoped during the summer and now the boys are gone to school, so I don't have them to do things with. I have a laundry list of projects to do around the house; for every project I finish it seems like two more things break and need repair. And, with no offspring about the house now I'm having to take out the papers and the trash (or you don't get no spending cash), mow the lawn, etc. Whatever, it seems like by the time I navigate the commute home, relax for a minute or two, start cooking, get the food on the table and finish eating the evening has been shot.

Anyway the inability to get ahead on any of this stuff is making my cranky. I blame the heat. Or maybe the traffic. Or maybe Leo.

Speaking of which, you may recall that I wasted most of a weekend installing Leo's doggie door. Well, that lasted about two days before Leo decided to eat it. We came home and found a large chunk of the door frame broken off and chewed up in the middle of the yard. Now, fortunately for Leo I have no direct evidence that he was the perpetrator. That is because Guns, the Dane from next door, was spending the day in our yard. Tree trimmers were at work in his yard, so his parents thought it best that he and Leo have a play date in our yard. It is at least conceivable that Guns was responsible, so I am cutting Leo some slack on this one.

At least Leo started using the door. Monday evening, arriving back at home I found Leo comfortably reclining on our bed, having once again forced his way into the house.

Back to my projects, I still haven't started my first attempt at home brewing, reasoning that it's way too hot right now to ferment beer. I think it is recommend to store the stuff at about 70 degrees. Our temperatures have been a little north of a hundred this week and likely will be for a while. With our house having been built in the pre-energy-crisis 1970's it is not particularly energy efficient. I'd need the AC running 24/7 to keep the beer cool. So, I'll wait a couple more weeks in hopes that the temperature will drop to more tolerable levels.

I have been reasonably effective on at least one project: emptying beer bottles so that I will have someplace to store my home brew. I could have just bought a couple cases of empty bottles, but what sort of challenge is that?!

I've also been doing a lot of cooking and trying to use up all the produce from our garden, with varying degrees of success. Saturday morning I concocted a scramble of eggs with home grown red potatoes, cherry tomatoes and habanero peppers. Delicious I thought and even Denise seemed to like them although she is not keen on the habaneros. I think that they are tasty and at about 300,000 Scovilles, how can you miss? (Actually, I only added the cherry tomatoes for Denise...they are so sweet that I figured, correctly, that they'd cut most of the heat from the peppers.) Saturday night was a grilled beef tenderloin roast and grilled Yukon Gold Potato salad from a Bobby Flay recipe, delicious and really easy, and Sunday morning, to use up still more produce, I made multi-grain pumpkin waffles. I wish the boys were home to help us eat this stuff.

Tonight I decided to make a concerted effort to accomplish something at least arguably productive. I don't know that I was successful; watered the garden and potted plants, mowed both lawns, took Leo for a walk, provided some tech support for a neighbors laptop, brought out the silk-screening stuff to start planning some T-shirt production and emptied a couple more beer bottles...

About that time I started blogging, so all productivity stopped.

Sunday, September 13

Due to overwhelming demand (2 requests) I may have to keep updating this blog. The challenge that I have is that "Jake's Rehabilitation" doesn't really apply anymore. His rehab is pretty much over. I figured he was fully recovered as soon as he started ignoring us again. Sure, he still has a few procedures ahead, but the worst is definitely behind us.

So, what to do? I could simply keep going with a slight name change to this blog; "Jim and Denise's Rehabilitation" seems like it might be appropriate. We could certainly use some rehabilitation after spending the previous 21 years raising kids.

The nest is now truly empty; Nick left for Davis on Tuesday, planning to head up to Lake Shasta for a houseboating trip with his waterski team buddies. Little brat! I paid for a Shasta trip I couldn't attend and he gets to go twice in one season. Oh well, I'm probably getting too old for that kind of stuff anyway. I should probably take up Bingo or some other age appropriate activity.

We still have Leo, of course. I spent a significant portion of the day today installing a new "Extra Large" doggie door into the garage so that this big idiot can get in out of the weather when necessary. The old door that we installed for Dannielle was way too small. That didn't stop him from getting in through the door when he wanted, but it must have been quite a struggle for him. The drywall and framing around the old door were completely torn up from him clawing his way in. Once inside the garage he would force open the door into the house and spend the day comfortably reclining on our bed until we would come home.

Naturally, now that I spent $85 and most of my afternoon installing the new door, he is afraid of it and won't go in or out. I even crawled through it (that will give you an idea how BIG it is) to prove it was safe, but he remained unimpressed. I suppose he will eventually figure it out. Next time there's a big storm he'll probably decide that the doggie door is less frightening than the lightning.

Since living vicariously through my children is no longer an option I'm trying to find something new to keep myself entertained. Consequently, there is a "Brewer's Best Deluxe Equipment Kit" sitting in our family room awaiting my first foray into the art of home brewing. I bought the "Bold Series Imperial Blonde Ale" ingredient kit, because who doesn't like blondes and also because they didn't have an IPA kit in stock. I'm going to wait a couple weeks for the weather to cool off before actually brewing my first batch, which will give me time to empty a bunch of beer bottles so they'll be available for refilling. I will keep you all posted on the brewing progress.

In reading through the kit and the recipe I learned a new little tidbit, which I'm glad I discovered. Apparently hops are very bad for dogs, causing malignant hyperthermia (whatever that is), usually fatal. Even small amounts, including spent hops from the brewing process can cause a deadly reaction. Who knew?! Since we would probably have thrown the spent hops into our compost pile, and since Leo has on occasion taken to munching stuff in said pile, we might very well have committed involuntary dogslaughter. (I actually think Dannie was the instigator of the compost munching.) Anyway, NO BEER FOR LEO!

Which is OK. MORE BEER FOR JIM.

Procrastinating...

Still stalling, not quite ready to shut down this blog for good.

I have to go off on a little aside. Denise commented on our impending status as "empty nesters", an expression that I find more than a little distasteful. The phrase conjurs a pathetic image; otherwise perfectly functional adults, doddering aimlessly through the dreggs of lives bereft of meaning because their children have grown...come to think of it, that sounds kind of familiar.

Still, empty-nesters?! It suggests that next spring we'll be incubating a couple new eggs. I think of us more like salmon; having struggled mightily upstream, fulfilling our reproductive responsibilities, we will float, metaphorically, belly-up down the dwindling stream of life. Kind of romantic, don't you think?

Empty nester is a lousy metaphor, but I struggle to think of a better one. What other animal sends its offspring into the world, worrying that they will be back in a couple years, living in what was supposed to be the guest room?

Whatever, Jacob is apparently doing well at Humboldt, at least we haven't had any calls from their emergency services department to this point, knock wood. He has not felt the need to call home, but Denise has been able to speak to him on occasion, enough to confirm that he is attending classes and probably not studying as much as we might like.

Nick, on the other hand, is still hanging out in the general vacinity of home, at least until next week. He is entertaining his friend Bird (nickname) for a few days, getting ready to head up to UC Davis (via Las Vegas?) sometime in the near future.

Today Nick, Bird, Denise and I went to Escondido for a tour of the Stone Brewing Company. The tour was both informative and tasty, leading me to believe that I may have fatally erred in my selection of careers. Turns out that employees of the brewery are entitled to a keg per month, plus a case per month, plus an allocation of 2 litres per day on the job, plus...I'm not sure because by that time my eyes had glazed over and I couldn't hear over the chorus of heavenly hosts echoing in my ears. The tour included tasting and, because our guide offered additional tastings to anyone asking a question, I was one of the most inquisitive attendees. They had a Chipotle Smoked Porter that was really amazing. I expected a hint of chipotle peppers; Wow, this was intense. I had to buy a one litre growler to bring home.

Speaking of growlers, this has been a pretty recent phenomenom for me. Never heard of this until my previous visit to Stone, but apparently this is the hot tip with craft brewers. A growler is a large, refillable bottle of beer. Last visit I bought two 2-liter growlers, one for me and one for Nick, each filled with Ruination IPA. Today I bought a 1-liter of the Chipotle Smoked Porter. Refillable beer bottles! This is a great idea; why recycle when you can refill.

We had lunch (which was delicious) at the brewery's restaurant. I had the "Tempeh 'Fuego' Burger" which according to the menu came "hot or incredibly hot." Considering the fact that this place produces a beverage called Arrogant Bastard, a reasonable person would have taken "incredibly hot" as fair warning. I, of course, assumed that they did not know who they were fooling with, so incredibly hot I ordered and incredibly hot it was. Delicious I might add, but hot none the less. My eyes were actually tearing up, but it was entirely well worth it.

Unfortunately, Nick and Bird opted to head south and visit friends in the San Diego area following lunch, so Denise and I are, once again, empty nesters for the evening.

Sigh...belly-up is not my best side.

End of the Road

I have been stalling, delaying the inevitable, but the time has pretty much come. With Jake having very nearly fully recovered, there seems little point in continuing to blog on about his rehabilitation. I think I may have a post or two left in the story though.

When last we left our intrepid little family, we were snug in our room at the Holiday Inn Express in Ukiah. Ukiah is in some very pretty country, but we weren't really there for the sight seeing. Just a quick stay for the night and then we were off again on the road to Humboldt State. The last few hours drive goes through some beautiful country, but a lot of two lane, combined with several construction zones made the drive a bit of a pain.

We did take one touristy little side trip to the drive-through "Chandelier Tree." There are apparently three different drive through trees up in the neighborhood of the Avenue of the Giants and we were informed that this particular one was the best. I actually chickened out on the first pass, shown below, and drove around the tree.


Later, I decided we had paid FIVE bucks to get in to this stupid little park and I wasn't going to get my money's worth by driving around a drive-through tree. I seized the bull by the horns, or rather the Pilot by the wheel, pulled in the mirrors and went on through. Made it with an inch or two to spare. Jake's shot below is not much of a photo, but you can just make out the wood outside the window.
It didn't occur to me until I was through the tree that I had no idea about my overhead clearance. Could have ripped the roof racks right off.

We arrived in Arcata a little after noon and headed to the school. The line for registration was well out the door of the Jolly Giant Commons. It was apparent that we were going nowhere fast. Should have stopped for lunch on the way into town because we were pretty hungry, but now we didn't want to lose our place in the queue and dining options were few and far between.

Fortunately, Jake's roommate Pendar had already registered and checked into their dorm room. Jake and I left Denise holding our place in the registration line, jumped in the car and drove it up to his dormitory, Redwood Hall. A couple trips with our collapsible hand truck and Pendar's room key we had all his junk moved in.

Jake elected to hang out in his room for a while and I rejoined my spousal unit in the registration line. When we finally got within what we figured to be 15 minutes from the door we phoned Jake and had him come down and join us. Once inside, the process went a little quicker. Another 20 minutes or so and we had the registration process behind us.

Unfortunately, that didn't present much of an opportunity to catch up on the lunch we had missed, because the cafeteria in the Commons had already closed. We settled for getting something at the Giant's Cupboard, a little store catering to the college student with just about everything you could image in microwaveable fare.

While we had been waiting for Jake to complete the registration process, we met up with Jake's buddy Ryan Valesi and family. Ryan's dad Rick suggested a trip to the Lost Coast Brewery in Eureka. Being only a couple blocks from our hotel and being a brewery, it seemed like a good idea to me. We agreed to meet up there later.

We headed up to Jake's room so that Denise could get a look, Jake continued unboxing and setting up his stuff and then proceeded to blow us off, preferring to hang out with his friends. I guess that after 4 days and 3 nights sharing a vehicle, motel rooms and about every waking hour with his parents he was justified in wanting a little separation.

We took off, drove back down to Eureka and checked into our hotel.

A bit later, after coordinating with Ryan's family, we decided that we would drive back to the school to get Jake, head to the Target to dump a bunch more money into supplies for the little ingrate and then hook up for a few brews at Lost Coast. Since the Valesi's were staying in Arcata, the plan was that they would take Jake with them when they returned Ryan to his dorm, which would save us a trip.

Unfortunately, I screwed all that up. It's a long story, but I was tired and in a kind of foul mood when we got to the brewery, a situation that was not helped by finding standing room only around the bar. I was informed that my first choice, 8-Ball Stout, was out. Strike two. I went with my second choice, their Pale Ale, and followed that up with an IPA and my mood was starting to improve. Eventually they had a table ready for us. The Valesi's had already eaten, so we were planning to order food for just the three of us. We asked the hostess for an extra chair for Jake and were told "No!" Not, "I'm sorry, there's no other chairs available" or "Sorry, we can't add a chair because it would block traffic," just "No!"

Fine whatever. So 30 minutes later (OK, maybe it was only 20, but my beer was empty so it seemed like hours) no one has been by to offer so much as a glass of water. Rick got up and spoke to the hostess about getting some service. As he was returning to the table the hostess flagged a server down and gestured to our table with what I interpretted as a sort of "These jackasses are complaining about the service" sort of attitude. SO, I got up and said "That's it, I'm out of here!" The hostess immediately tried to apologize, but I wasn't having any of that and stormed on out.

In retrospect I may have slightly overreacted. Normally I will suffer the most incompetent of service in silence, but for some reason the combination of exhaustion from the trip, frustration with Jake and the whole check-in process and my perception of rude service conspired to force a short little melt down. The only good news was that the brewery gave Rick a 10% discount on his purchase of a T-shirt and case of Alleycat Amber, as a means to make amends.

In fairness to Lost Coast, the beers I was able to try were pretty good (especially considering that my taste for anyone else's IPA has been pretty much ruined by Stone Ruination IPA) and the menu looked like it might actually have been a decent place to dine. Maybe I should give them a second chance whenever next I find myself in Eureka.

We ended up taking Jake with us in search of food and parted company with the Valesi family, much to their relief I can only assume. Ended up in Arcata at Rita's Margaritas, which turned out to be excellent. Some of the best fish tacos I've had anywhere and an extensive selection of tequilas which would have been entertaining had I been in a more festive mood.

That concluded a fairly long and hectic Tuesday. The remainder of the week was pretty uneventful. Wednesday and Thursday were dedicated to the HOP (Humboldt Orientation Program) with separate sessions for the parents and students, so we saw very little of our son during those days. In my humble opinion, the parent orientation program was pretty much a waste of time, better suited to first-time parents of college students. Since we already had experience with Nick a lot of what was presented was old news. Denise on the other hand thought the few little pearls of information we were able to gleen from the proceedings made the whole event worthwhile. We were able to get some information about the Geology program which could turn out to be very useful, if Jake sticks with that as his major.

The school hosted a staff/parent mixer at the Humboldt Bay Aquatic Center on Wednesday evening. Never one to miss out on free food and drink, I decided we should attend. Technically, it was not free; we paid for it through our registration fees for the HOP. It was a nice event and we had the opportunity to speak with the Dean of the College of Natural Resource Sciences, the campus Chief of Police, a representative from the HSU Foundation and several other members of the school staff. It turned out the we had parked next to the President of HSU, Rollin Richmond, and ended up walking out with him. When he found out we were from Temecula he told us that he had spent quite a bit of time around Lake Elsinore several years back. It's a small world.

Thursday had very little of interest to us on the HOP agenda, so we cut out early and drove off north along the coast sight seeing. Took a short hike through the Lady Bird Johnson Grove in Redwoods National Park and stopped in at the park visitor center near Orick for very short walk along the beach.

Headed back later in the afternoon to HSU and the HOP BBQ. There we met Jake for a quick bite to eat. It was pretty apparent that Jake was ready to be rid of us. Maybe a couple of months sleeping in the dorms and dining on cafeteria food will make him actually miss us. Maybe not. At any rate, we drove him back to his dorm, said goodbye and headed back to our Best Western in Eureka.

Decided that we should put a positive spin on things, so stopped and picked up a bottle of bubbly, Domaine Chandon Blanc de Noirs, some hors d'oeuvres and a romantic DVD (Quantum of Solace, what's more romantic than James Bond) and spent our last night in Eureka in our room. Actually, Denise spent the night reading and I watching another DVD, U571, which was not very good.

Friday morning we got up, originally intending to drive until we got tired or found someplace interesting to stay. Reaching wine country by mid-morning we decided we were making good time and couldn't contemplate another night in a motel, so we committed to the full trip to Temecula in one shot. We did take a couple breaks for wine tasting in the Alexander Valley and at Sutter Home, but beyond that it was pedal to the metal all the way home. We did not even stop for lunch or dinner. We dined in transit on a ciabata loaf from Boudin's in San Francisco, an assortment of cheeses, a little olive tapenade, assorted fresh fruit. Quite a picnic considering it was in the front seat of the Pilot.

Arrived home at 9:00 PM, just a little over 13 hours for the entire trip, which was not bad considering the few stops along the way. Leo and Nick both appeared happy enough to see us, so it was good to be home. I think Nick was especially happy, because our being home meant that he would again have his bed to himself. Apparently Leo was a little traumatized by our being gone. He would wedge himself into Nick's bed, eventually taking over all but a small corner for Nick to try to sleep in. I think that Friday night was the first full night of sleep that Nick had had in a week.

Miscellaneous pictures of the drive to and around Arcata can be found here for anyone interested.

There is quite a bit more I want to say and there are a few loose ends with Jake's recovery that need to be tied off, so I will be making a few more posts. For now I have been sitting at this laptop for entirely too long and need to give my lap a break. More later. Bye.

More San Francisco

Spent most of Monday being typical clueless touristas on San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf.

I got up early and walked down to Pier 39. It was too early for most of the shops, but fortunately a coffee stand was open allowing me to pick up a large latte. I also had a chance to walk around the pier and view their world famous pinnipeds.

Eventually went back to the hotel, met Denise in the lobby and we went to Johnny Rockets for breakfast. I had to excuse myself to dial into a conference call for work and Denise stayed behind and struck up a conversation with a vacationing family from Denmark.

Jacob eventually woke up and joined us downstairs.

After a fair amount of arguing about what to do, we finally settled on walking tours of the USS Pampanito, a WWII submarine, and the Jeremiah O'Brien, a WWII Liberty Ship. (Alcatraz tour tickets were all sold out and I did not particularly want to try to score tickets from the scalpers on the street.) I thought the tours were very interesting, but I don't know that Denise or Jake totally agree. It's hard to imagine a submarine crew of 70 or so sailors crammed into the tiny spaces aboard ship. It would drive me nuts. After the confines of the Pampanito, the Jeremiah O'Brien seemed particularly huge. The engine room was really amazing, over 4 stories tall, with stairs and ladders running everywhere.

These ships are on some pretty prime waterfront property, if you ask me. I mean check out the view from the bow of the Jeremiah O'Brien.

Running around ships for a couple hours, climbing through hatches and up and down ladders works up a pretty good appetite. We wandered off to one of the wharf-side seafood shacks for lunch. We ordered a wide assortment, trying to sample a little of everything; Denise had the clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl with a crab cocktail side, Jake the fried shrimp and I had a crab salad sandwich and calamari salad.

We fooled about a bit more, stopped in at Boudin's to buy a few loaves of sourdough and then checked out, heading north across the Golden Gate. You can see pictures ad nauseum of the whole sordid morning by clicking here.

I took the coast road for a twisty ride up to the Point Reyes National Seashore where we did nothing much beyond strolling through the visitor's center. We have been there a couple times previously and it is beautiful. I was hoping to do some exploring through the park and maybe work in a side trip to the Drakes Bay Oyster Farm, but Jake and Denise both seemed pretty beat. So we cut over to Petaluma, then up to our motel, the Holiday Inn Express in Ukiah.

Next stop, Humboldt State University.

Monterey and then San Francisco

It has been a long week. There's a lot to fill in. I had intended to post updates from the road, but frankly the whole week was pretty tiring. So, I'll post a couple updates, better late than never.

Saturday evening we arrived in the palatial Super 8 motel in Salinas. As Betty Davis would almost certainly have said, "What a dump!" $200 per night! The motel is surrounded by several other motels and nothing much else. For dinner we dined at the only convenient restaurant, a somewhat sketchy Mexican place.

On the plus side, the Super 8 had the included continental breakfast; your choice of cereal, as long as you choose Cheerios, your choice of toast, as long as you like white bread, choice of fruit juice, orange, and choice of breakfast fruit, banana.

We could not get out of there fast enough to suit me. Anyway, we made the short drive to Monterey on Sunday morning, where I was surprised to find almost no problem getting into the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I had expected that a Sunday in August in Monterey would be absolutely crazy at the Aquarium, but we waltzed straight in the door and $90 later were happily peering at all the little aquatic creatures.

I think one of my favorite things at the aquarium was feeding time at the "Outer Bay" exhibit, with all the big tuna, dolphin fish (or Mahi-mahi or Dorado, depending on whether you are Hawaiian or Mexican), hammerhead sharks, etc. It was very cool and as it turned out, followed shortly by a feeding frenzy of our own. The restaurant at the aquarium is probably one of my favorites anywhere, the view of the bay is fantastic and the food incredible. Here we see a prime example of the Pacific Albacore.

Jake was kind enough to share a half dozen oysters on the half-shell with me (should have gone for the full dozen) and I had the cumin-dusted, seared albacore tuna served with a couscous salad and, of course, a pint of Anchor Steam. Nothing finer!

Pictures of all can be viewed here.

When we had had our fill of fish (both visually and culinarily) we headed out to San Francisco. Checked in at the Radisson, about $170 per night, right on Fisherman's Wharf. What is up with that, $200 for a Super 8 in Salinas, convenient to nothing, and then Fisherman's wharf for $30 less? Of course, the Radisson did not have the complimentary Cheerio's, so I guess that accounts for the difference.

Strolled about the wharf for quite a while and finally settled on Scoma's for dinner. A lot of seafood later, we strolled back to our room. We captured a few more photos to share.

Lot's more to tell, but I think I'll publish this now and provide some more updates later. Talk to you all in a while.

We Are Off!

I have once again been shirking my responsibilities and have failed to update the blog in a good long time. I can only say that I have been pretty damned busy lately between work and trying to get this child ready to leave for school.

A fair bit has transpired since last we spoke. Jake, Denise and I are at present riding the 210 freeway, the Pilot loaded to the gills with Jake's stuff, en route to a stop in Salinas for the night and eventually to Arcata and Humboldt State University. More on the trip later.

First, the graduation/recovery/going away/birthday party went off, more or less as planned, on Saturday, the 8th. Started cooking meatballs on Friday evening, then up early on Saturday to make pasta salad, then miscellaneous chores throughout the day getting the place presentable. We rolled out 121 meatballs in all (that's balls enough for 40 sandwiches, plus one for taste testing) and cooked them up in a huge vat-o'-sauce. Denise was expecting about 35 people, but guestimated that several extras could show up, so, rounding up, I figured I needed sandwiches for 50 to be safe. Consequently I cooked up another 40 Italian sausages and added them to the sauce for a total 80 sandwich capacity.

This by the way is typical of my culinary math; number of anticipated guests times 1.1 = total with surprise guests times 1.5 servings per guest times 1.1 for those few really hungry guests who'll want thirds times 1.1 for periodic taste testing throughout the day times 1.1 for leftovers. So, 35 * 1.1 * 1.5 * 1.1 * 1.1 * 1.1 = 76.86525 , and of course I round up to 80.

As is also typical, we had the expected 35 guests who ate about 1 sandwich a piece, so I had enough food left over for two more parties.

I also overestimated the beer consuming capacity of the crowd. This being Nick's 21st birthday we decided to get a small (5.0 gallon) keg. Unfortunately BevMo needed a week advanced notice for the Mirror Pond, so Nick made the executive decision to switch to Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, which was just fine by me. So, one would think that 5 gallons of beer would be a pretty decent amount for 35 guests, some of whom were either not of legal drinking age or, God forbid, just not fond of beer. But, some people might not like pale ale, so I added a couple cases of Pacifico, just in case. Next morning we had a full case of Pacifico remaining and what felt like a lot of beer left in the keg.

Guilt tears at the soul and none quite like the guilt of wasted beer. Hence, I was on a mission. The bottled Pacifico would keep, but the keg was another matter. I started pouring pints for everyone left in the house and dropped a couple tri-tips in beer to marinate. By the time I finished I figured I had had a gallon and a half of beer left from the previous evening, was able to find homes for all of it.

At some point in the evening some of the boys broke out cigars. I had bought Jake a couple for is eighteenth birthday and he decided to fire them up. I am not a cigar afficionado; I generally think they are best applied as mosquito repellent on backpacking trips. But, I will smoke them after the odd special occasion; birth of a son, wedding of a sister, suppression of a zombie uprising, high school graduation. So, I lit up with Jake to celebrate his eighteen years and suffered through the next 24 hours of cigar mouth. I have yet to find anything besides time that will remove that taste. I tried Jack Daniel's without success.

[Sorry, stepped away for a bit; took over driving for Jake after our stop at Tommy's in Valencia, so we are now comfortably ensconced in our fabulous Super 8 motel in Salinas.]

Ultimately, I think a good time was had by most. A few pictures are available here.

By the time things wound down and we finished some of the cleanup it was about 1:00AM and I was beat.

We had such a good time that Monday, August 10th, came and went before I ever realized that it was the 2 month anniversary of Jake's accident. When I stopped to think about that it was truly amazing. On that first night in the ER I would not have thought it possible that he could be doing so well. Well enough in fact that he is pretty much done with his surgical followups for the immediate future.

This week Jake had visits with his orthodontist to install braces to create some space to replace his missing front tooth and a followup with his dentist to install the permanent crown on another damaged tooth. The orthodontist wants to see him again sometime between now and Thanksgiving, so we will probably be flying him down. After that the next big event will probably be sometime around Thanksgiving or Christmas to get his implant installed.

Anyway, with a relatively clean bill of health he is off to college. Had a couple visitors yesterday to see him off; Giovana, her Mom and brother and Gio's boyfriend Mike delivered a chocolate cream pie as a little going away present. Here are Jake, Gio and Mike...
By the time we were packed and ready to leave this morning it was afternoon. We tried to get a family picture before the big departure, a photo for which Jacob refused to smile. Maybe he was just sad to be leaving home.
After that, Leo and Jacob said goodbye and we hit the road.
That is about all I can handle for today. Tomorrow we're off to Monterey and then San Francisco. More as the trip progresses. Good Night.

Several Updates

I have been shirking my blogitorial responsibilities and failed to post updates on any of the recent activities. Since my previous post, Jake has had two dental appointments and another follow-up with the surgeon.


Monday was Jake's first post-accident meeting with the dentist. Aside from the basic cleaning, the dentist decided that Jake would need a crown on one damaged tooth, repairs on four other chipped teeth, some orthodontia to create space for a future implant to replace his missing front tooth and, at some point, his wisdom teeth removed. I can see a new Mercedes in our dentist's future.

Jake had a follow-up with the dentist this morning for a temporary crown. The permanent one will be installed next week. He'll also have a visit with his orthodontist next week, a professional that we thought we had seen the last of a couple years ago when his braces were removed.

After the dentist, Jake and Denise headed to Loma Linda for the appointment with the surgeon. I unfortunately could not attend due to pressing demands at the office.


Good news all around from the surgeon; he's very pleased with the results of the surgery. No further follow-ups until sometime later this year, whenever Jake is home from HSU on break, maybe around Thanksgiving.

Other good news, the surgeons at Loma Linda can install the post for the dental implant, and they can remove his wisdom teeth, so we may be able to schedule both at one time and eliminate one surgical trip.


And the best news; Dr. Herford performed another panoramic x-ray and provided Jake with a copy. This is sooo cooool!


You can see all the hardware that's left in Jake's face, the bolts, microplates and the mesh under his left eye socket from the most recent surgery.



Denise and Jake also requested all the images from the hospital, so I'll post some of those wherever we get our grimy little hands on them.


In other news, we have been busily preparing for Jake's Graduation/Surgical Recovery/Going Away to College/Nick's Birthday party. The last weekend was spent doing a variety of chores, trying to get our miserable hovel into some sort of presentable shape. In the course of our gardening we came across this...







The spider appears to be about to make off with our birdbath. The next picture has Nick's cell phone in the background for a little perspective. Biggest fricking spider I've ever seen, short of a tarantula, which is a whole other thing.

The hardest chore? We have been considering purchasing a tapper for the party, especially considering that this is Nick's 21st B-day. So I went to BevMo yesterday and purchased an extensive assortment of beers so that we could sample several varieties before deciding which keg to order. We enlisted the aid of our next door neighbor, Larry. I hated to take advantage of him like that, but he was a trooper and helped us work our way through several. Nick is pretty heavily leaning toward Deschutes Brewery Mirror Pond Pale Ale and I'm willing to allow that, since it's his birthday (and since I can't get Ruination IPA in a keg).

Much more to tell about the party prep, but I think I'll save that for another day. I have more chores to do this evening before I lose the little light that's left.