One, Two, Skip a Few

Those of you with incredibly sharp eyes may have noticed, no post yesterday (Friday). The day did not work out so well so I just skipped it. Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa. I did take Latin in school and my teacher was correct, it is not a dead language and is still important to learn. At least for liberal artists and scientists. Engineers, who knows? Nobody really likes them anyway. But, having said sorry, I will move onward into the abyss. The chasm of truth. Onward christain soldier. To the front!

I want to mention, we ate at the Rice Barn last night. Doesn’t that name sound awful? It is Thai food. The folks that run it have a top 20 Yelp Thai restaurant, also in Vacaville. This one does not have the same menu and they added a wine bar. I would say, a Thai “flavored” wine bar. From the selections I see no real understanding of what wine can add to a meal. But they are trying. And the food was excellent. Not near spicy enough but that can be remedied tableside. The waitress dumped a water pitcher on my phone. The same type phone that I replaced the one I took in the Belizean Ocean over summer. Did not ruin my meal. Phone is ok. So far.

Anyhow, I digress. Did you notice. Digressions are often the best part of my posts I think. Its how my brain works. Someone yells “squirrel!” And I am off running to it. I was having a talk with a client and his wife yesterday and I noticed both he and I were doing this continually. Much to the wifes dismay. My wife understands this. She has alot in common with this woman. God Bless them both. Hey, I digress again! Following my train of thought must be murder.

Ok. Stay focused. Everytime I move off point from now on just scream “squirrel!” and relax.

This morning, oh look honey he is on todays news!, was a living in the country gem. The delta breeze has kicked up. As I have said before, breeze my ass! Gusts hitting 70mph. Blew down the lemon tree. At around 6?am we hear the telltale beep of our house phone. That is telling, after 15 years, we know what it means – the power has gone out. Most people living in town do not understand what this is like. I had a friend once tell me “go take a long hot shower” and you will forget the power outage.” My reply, power out, water pump out, water heater out, stove out, nothing works, asshole. Hey, it does anger me. Power out sucks. And usually, out here, where there are very few homes, the outage affects almost no one. Today, 588 homes out. P G & E does not give two shits for small outages. I once called in to pge and the guy proudly told me “only” six customers were affected. I responded, as you may expect, after saying I am 1 of the 6, with some well placed anger and bad words. He did apologize for disregarding my pain. That time power was out 19 hours. Lovely. They lack proper concern. One operator at pge once told me the company responds first to the areas with thousands of angry calls. This may make good business sense. But I do not like it. Its why I installed a backup generator, currently broken. So, after this history lesson, back to current day. Power came on, beep of phone, at 7 and back to sleep. Beep of phone at 730 and power out. Up at 8 called pge and recording, why use humans?, says we are here to serve 24 hours a day. I punch buttons in response to recording and voice says we are closed. Insert profane epithet here. And here. I called back at 8 when they were “open”. I did ask about conflicting message, and Xavier said both statements were true then he laughed heartily. Then he apologized. I like this guy. Seems if you stay on the phone that eventually someone will answer. So, the recording did not say that but now I know it. Emily has said it several times, I think it all the time – we will not miss the wind when we move. We both hate it in ways hard to describe. The wind in Auburn is less than one tenth of what it is here. Soon.

Ok. I have used up enough valuble time writing. I should go take, at the least, a cat bath and maybe use the human litter box. If you know what I mean.

Our real estate agent came by at about 1045 right after Emily got home from yoga. We discussed what we are going to do to get the house sold. We actually have a buyer but have to keep showing it even after its in contract to sell. So we discussed alot of things.

After she left we locked up and headed to Corte Madera. There is an exceptionally nice mall there and we still have shopping to do. We visited several stores, all are with recognizable names, Sundance, Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware, etc, you get the idea. We visited all the ones we had discounts and coupons for. We managed a few gifts and even got aomething for ourselves. The place was packed and the parking lot was worse. Everyone loves to shop at stores they recognize.

About 4pm we left the mall and headed into the City. The big city. Bright lights. Hustle and bustle. You know?

Our destination was Patagonia. No, not South America, the store by Ghirardelli Square. I have been there before, nice store and good experience. I was there over an hour when I went. Marika was with me that time. I returned a 30 year old jacket, no receipt, and got a $250 credit toward a new one. What a policy!

So Emily and I managed to get there and find parking, during the holidays. A coup, of sorts. Around the block several times. Then off to an overpriced parking garage. Or maybe not over priced. I did get to park.

After a quick walk, we were at Patagonia. Michael had sent us a list, of sorts, all at Patagonia. So we wandered through and found most of what we wanted. I spoke to sales guy about one item and he said I ha to order online. So I ordered it from their website. Had to pay priority shipping. Anyhow a few minutes later, I see a sign on the wall “if u dont see what you want, we will ship it to you, with free shipping. Hey, thats bullshit of the sales associate. I figured I would bring it up at checkout. So, at checkout, Emily realizes, out loud, she forgot her 15% off coupon. Sales clerk said he would honor it anyway. Cool. I told him what happened to me and how the other guy did not follow what the sign said. So the clerk gave us 25% off which covered shipping and discount. I like reasonable and nice people.

Well, now adventures in retailand were over. Time to make us happy. I knew, from previous visits to this area that House of Prime Rib was a mile away. I had tried to get reservations but in December they are three months out. So no res. We were a walk in. So I pulled into valet parking at the restaurant and the first thing he says to me is do you have a reservation? No. He says 4 hour wait. But, check with the bartender about bar seating. I waited in the car, Emily went inside, came back in five minutes. 45 minute wait. Gave keys to valet.

Now House of Prime Rib has been in this same location forever like 50 plus years. Same menu too, prime rib and sides. One fish of the day for veggie freaks. The style of the building, dining room and bar just scream old steakhouse. Placebis awesome. We came in and sis a quick circuit through the lounge and actually found the only open table next to the bar. And, btw, we were second on the wait list. We live right. We had a couple of cocktails which they pour with quite the free hand. For instance, you order a vodka martini its about a 5 to 6 oz pour into the jigger. Which is set on your table. Generous. The bartenders are busy as hell. They serve the food and take the orders for bar seating. And make everyones cocktails. At the point we finished our cocktails there were two seats available at the bar. Dinnertime!

We sat down, the bartender puts a large cloth napkin down on the bar as a tablecloth. Nice touch. He gave us one menu, no picture I forgot. Easy to figure. Pick small medium or large cut. Pick two sides. Done. While waiting we ordered wine. They have a very extensive wine list and I found something quite excellent at a good price. I could have ordered a Manhattan but I gotta drive home. We sipped wine and watched the crowd and both being ex bartenders we watched the bar. Turns out our bart nder has a degree in Jazz History. What di you do with that? Teach. He did try substituting but found the four nights at the bar made far more money for him and he had mornings free. He also teaches music. Funny guy. Fine bartender. We overtipped. The meal was superb. Hard to beat prime rib medium rare with horse radish of course. Their yorkshire pudding was great, exactly the way Emily makes it. I got the creamed corn and creamed spinach. Amazingly good. We were stuffed at the end. I ordered the bread pusding dessert, house made, and it was truly great. No BS there. I am an aficionado of bread pudding.

I could probably have sat there for an hour and had another glass of wine and shot the breeze with the bartender but long drive and things to do.

We drove back a different route. We had come down on the 101 because we went to Corte Madera. On the way home, we drove through the City and picked up the Bay Bridge. Faster trip, easier route, except the across town part. Took a little more than an hour to get home.

I tried to finish the blog while lying in bed. But a combonof rich food and strong drink and too much driving did bot help. I kept dropping the phone and nodding off. So I shut down and went beddie bye.