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.