Month: December 2019

Forgive me father I have not blogged in 3 days. I was busy those two unblogged day’s but my memory is crap so if I’m lucky I will remember something good form Friday or Saturday. Today is the lords day.

Good news, today we got to sleep in. All the way to 8am. Such a treat. I’m still really tired but I can’t blame it on no sleep.

Marika stayed out last night. She told us she was too tired to drive home. I say too drunk. Potato, potahto. She slept in at a friends.

We slept in but we are leaving for Sonoma at ten. Lunch with the out laws at noon. I have not seen them since they arrived in CA in late October. Maybe it’s about time.

our morning did not include the usual Sunday things like reading the paper over breakfast and coffee. We managed to get cleaned up and dressed and out the door by 10. Stopped for coffee. Hey, good news, I am trying caffeinated coffee here and there to see if I can handle it. Today, I had some. Much better than decaf.

Great news again, no traffic at all the whole drive. Not normal but I am fine with it.

Sonoma was not too crowded. I could tell because we found parking on the plaza 50 feet from where we were going. That’s proof positive. Hank and Beth also had great parking.

I would like to report lunch was incredible. Only it wasn’t. Emily ordered the truffle fries as an appetizer. They were fine. $17 for a large order. Should I feel violated? I do. Food was ok. I’m not over selling it, am I? Beth and Hank paid for lunch, which is great, they are nice, but I still feel a little ripped off.

After lunch we did a little shopping. I still need to finish Emily’s stocking and did had something to pick up that was a secret. It’s for me. I like secrets and not telling anyone what I bought. It’s a solid plan.

We did very little shopping. That’s fine. We transferred a few things to their car, gifts and such. Not sure who they were for. Emily handles that stuff. Once it was done we all headed home.

Again, great drive with little traffic to speak of. We stopped at the outlets in Vacaville, not sure why, but prob Xmas shopping. We went to two furniture stores. I’m confused. Then to Pier One where we bought nothing. Back on the road. All the way to Auburn with no stops.

We did stop for a salad and pizza for dinner. It’s almost 6 and no one wants to make dinner.

Marika was home when we arrived. Lots in the car to unload. Ya, I know I said not much purchased but we did pick up a lot from the in laws.

Our dinner was better than lunch. Sad. The remainder of the evening Emily wrapped gifts, I did dishes and laundry. I normal Sunday. Marika went out with a friend to a local bar. The only one open late on Sunday in Auburn. Good call.

We got finished up and went to bed. I changed the sheets. See, I am good for something.

Got up early this am on Marikas direct order. She has places to go today and needs to get moving early. So I got up late, actually, slept thru the alarm. Still woke her early.

Managed to get everything done this morning even though I got up late. And the kid and I made it to workout early too. Our workout was several two person exercises as well as a few of the usual. We work out in the back room usually. But the bikers are in Tuesday and Thursday at 8 and disrupt our workout. And they are assholes about too. We had to move to the tiny room in back to finish. The trainer told me they are kicking out all the bikers soon and selling the spin bikes. I like it.

On the way home, after workout, we got coffee. I am still on decaf so coffee doesn’t do anything for me, I just like the flavor and heat. And then I can fantasize it’s real coffee.

We got home and the kid taxes thru getting ready and took off. I have a little more time to get ready and used it. I have an appointment at midday and at the end of the day.

The drive to work was boring. I nodded off twice on the drive. But, managed to arrive in one piece. Just as I arrived, even before I sat down, Walker called me into his office to discuss fees with a new client. She had found me on Yelp and really needs help. Her company will be a real boost for me, she paid me $2k today and will owe another $6k for the work she needs. And for the future she will be about $7500 per year. Love it.

Almost immediately after I left Walkers office my first appointment was in. Same as other new client today, needs help with back taxes. He will be paying $2500. So far so good.

most of the balance of the day was the usual crap. Went to the bank too.

last appointment was late, arrived at almost 6pm. This couple were a referral so I had to be extra nice. We chatted for a few minutes, they were quite friendly. I shared a couple shots of tequila with them. I keep a bottle handy. And for the third time today, another new client with back taxes. It’s like a theme. Not sure I have ever before signed three clients in one day. And right before Christmas. Very nice.

Left the office after 7 and headed home. Nothing goin on. Emily texted me to pick up dinner on my way thru town. Marika was on the thread and they each gave me a dinner order.

Had to go to my 2nd choice cuz the 1st was already closed. No matter, we all got food.

Marika was not home when I arrived. She had texted she wanted dinner but then never showed up. She is a few miles away now, 2 1/2 hours later.

I am going to bed. She can figure things out when she gets here

No such thing but Marika made it for dinner. Cauliflower crust. Excellent.

Alarm went off at 515, Em got up at 545. I think she missed the reason for the alarm.

Everyone got going early and left on time. Weird.

The workout was not very difficult. But, here 14 hours later, I have some sore spots. I can’t tell Pam, I will just tell her it was weak. I like annoying her.

Back home I had lots to do before going to work. Hell, I had lots to do on my way to work. So much at home I did not leave till 11.

Left at 11, went for gas. Need a new gas cap, it wore out??! Did not know that could happen. Lights up the warning lights something fierce. Next stop at the UPS store. Must mail Xmas gifts for Cissie. On time for a change. Very expensive, as usual. Stopped at Starbucks for coffee.

Finally got to the office. Wow, was it fun! No. I worked, that’s never fun. I did manage to go through a stack of fed and state tax notices for clients. Usually takes a letter, after figuring out what’s wrong (usu nothing) and then mail the whole thing off. Took about four hours with all the normal interruptions. Not much else of consequence was accomplished.

Trip home was normal and soaked with rain. Winter is here. No stops on the way home except for traffic. Which was plentiful.

My lovely daughter made pizza for dinner. Cauliflower crust. Excellent. I had to make a salad since she didn’t. The salad was great too. I used my muscles to open a bottle of wine to add to the meal. And catch a light buzz. That’s good too.

I’m watching TV now. Last Man Standing. My fave. Endless reruns, I know them all, but I still like the show. Marika is sitting on the couch with me, using me as a footrest. It’s a small couch.

it’s 10pm which is bed time. Em went off 20 mins ago. I am beat and nodding off. Time for bed.

Abbreviated blog post. Everything am same one half hour earlier. Marika is headed to Sonoma to have lunch with the grandparents. Early. She still wanted to workout so up early and off to gym. Her early is not mine. I was up.

Workout was kinda easy. Still took forever.

Back home. Both got ready and me to work her to Sonoma.

I drove straight to work via Starbucks. While standing in line I received a text from Cara asking if I wanted Starbucks. Then she walked in. Funny.

Worked till 630. Nothing earth shattering. Ryan the IT guy was in, installing new computers and updating the ones good enough.

Drive home, way too much traffic.

Emily had picked up Mexican for Tuesday. Delicious as always. Marika made it home just in time for dinner.

I wrapped my friend Cissie’s Xmas gifts tonight. Gotta mail them to Tacoma and I don’t want to much postage.

Marika made cookies. Very good. And that’s my evening.

it’s called Monday. Emily has decided she will now be getting up at 515am every morning. Today was day one. And yes, it’s too early. Remember, I am off caffeine and have been for a couple months. So this is tough.

Day was normal Monday. Packed Em lunch. Made coffee. Fed dog and wife. Went to work out. Btw, Pam (trainer), if ur reading this, it was a weenie workout. She promised better on Wednesday.

I managed to get back out of the house by 10am which is important today since I have an 11am in my office. I have a couple coming in to discuss year end tax due. They have been clients off and on for 25 years. And I made it on time for a change. And, they brought me the first gift of Christmas, a Pannetone and a bottle of wine. Nice combo. I love Italian fruitcake.

The balance of the day was crap. And the usual crap too. But, I held out till 630 before heading for home. Oh yeah, one slight anomaly, a trip to the bank. Boring as well.

Trip home was awesome. No traffic and very fast. Nice.

I arrived at home just as Marika was putting dinner on the table. Perfectly timed. Hey Marika, dinner was great!

After dinner was almost the usual. The only item of interest was me installing a new headlight on the Fit. That’s it.

Good news! I got up this morning and had no ill effects from the bacchanalian feast from last night. Last year the dinner destroyed me and I spent some time in the bathroom praying. This year, lesson learned, I came home sober. Works wonders.

We have no plans for today. The kids plane leaves at 730 so we have time to go do something.

Having time can be a problem. All of us kinda did nothing. Football was on. We made breakfast. Did the laundry. Took showers. Before we realized it, it was past one and we had far less time.

Emily made a management decision and we all headed to Grass Valley to just kinda look around. I have been here before with Em for a look. And a nosh. You know. Which we thought the kids might enjoy. Did not happen that way. We got there and the three of them wandered off to a brewery and drank beer while we wandered around town. This millennial thing where drinking at a brewery has become a form of entertainment is far beyond my comprehension. I’d rather stay home and drink. Why drive twenty miles for a beer? I am sure I will never understand it.

Two or three hours later, we were kinda walked out, I went looking for them and they magically appeared right where we were. We all now together decided to enjoy an early dinner before heading for the airport. As usual, Michael found a place on Yelp or some such place and we headed there. A bar and grill on the other side of town. Best thing, we can do it together. We all enjoy eating.

The drive was quick. Semi industrial area, low curb appeal, kinda dumpy place. Inside, a nice bar an grill. Food was excellent though the selections were not vast. For where the place was I have to say it was overpriced. As usual, Dad paid. We ate at a leisurely pace, we still have time and it’s a short drive to the airport. And they had a couple football games on which slows everyone down.

Our eventual drive home was fast. No traffic on Sundays in winter. Most tourists have abandoned the area. Got back about the time we needed to load up the kids and drive to the airport. I had intended on driving them and Marika decided she wanted to go too. The car was totally silent on the drive. I presume they were to tired to communicate. Or something.

We dumped them out at 630 and they were off. Marika and I went back up the hill. No traffic, again.

Home. Watched a little bad tv. Did laundry. Went to bed. It’s my mantra.

Saturday morning and not much going. Have many house guests, son and girlfriend here from Camarillo and also daughters boyfriend staying the night. So I have several people sleeping here. We are going to the annual wine dinner at Goose Cross winery tonight. The dinner is absolutely fabulous. Also expensive. This is our third year. We do look forward to it.

Getting back to the now, we are slow moving (2 out, 4 in bed) this morning. Emily went on a Starbucks run. I tried mobile ordering for the first time. Was not impressed. I am cooking jalapeño bacon and eggs for breakfast. It’s 10am.

Why is everyone so slow. Well, last night, we had a fondue party and had a few friends. The adult children invited local friends. I love fondue as does everyone else or so it seemed. Along with fondue a few cocktails and several bottles of wine. Hence the slow moves this morning.

Fondue is fun especially with a lot of people. We get to fight over space in the pot and forks and raw meat. Which we did, good naturedly of course.

It was fun catching up with the “kids” old friends. Two have known Michael since kindergarten and of course we know them too. It seems so funny to have friends that long. But, my Dad is 89 and he still has a couple friends from kindergarten. May run in the family or it’s just an outcome of growing up In a small town and never moving.

Anyhow, it’s a pleasure to see the kids grow up. They turn out ok, for the most part. Though Jake had a mullet. That’s not ok.

There were several drunk people by the end of the evening. Michael passed out in the middle of a conversation. Carly was asleep at table and no matter how hard I tried I could not move her to the bed. I was not aware how drunk marika was till Saturday morning. She did not get up till very late and was still puking at 3.

The party dissipated by midnight or so and all were gone by 1am. Everyone to bed. Have to be up early.

Saturday morning again. We have a couple visitors. My electrician Walter and Plumber Heinz we’re here. Heinz was here by nine. He finished installing the drain and supply line for the espresso machine. I had used that machine everyday since 1994. We moved out of Silveyville in 2017 and the thing went to storage. Have not used it in two years. May be able to start it up tomorrow if the grinder is up to snuff. I have been having problems with it. I also need to put the espresso cabinet/closet back together. I had to empty it and a few cabinets to run lines. It’s a process.

Walter was here for a few finishing touches. Put in a light above the John in the master. A reading light if you will. Finally swapped out the hot switch in dining room. Last but not least, he hung the light we bought in Quebec City last year. A process. All in due time.

The rest of the day was not much. I took back the rental table. Emily did chores. We watched the guys work on the house. Nothing exciting.

We left the house at 3 for the wine dinner. The rain had turned into a deluge and the first 30 minutes of the drive was quite the harrowing experience. It did finally clear up and Emily relaxed. Our drive became pleasant. We are 30 minutes out. Well, Emily and I are 20 out. The kids went in Marikas car and are following us. Marika has a party after the party she promised someone she would attend. She seems comfortable burning the candle at both ends.

We arrived at the winery a little early and we were first to arrive. There was no prize for that. Our genial hosts were ready and pouring wine for us. We were a couple glasses into it before anyone else arrived. The general gist of things is an hours worth of wine and hors douvres in the tasting room followed by dinner in the barrel room of the cellar. Which is exactly what went down.

Dinner was 4 or 5 courses of fancy food plus dessert and coffee. Excellent grub. I will try to remember what we had. Let’s see, a roasted beet salad to lead, then grilled duck breast with greens and rice, a filet with veg followed by a very rich chocolate dessert. Each course had a different wine to go with it. So you can end up quite drunk and very full unless you are careful. Last year I got plastered and passed out in the car. This year I took care and was fine. Our evening finished back in the tasting room with more wine. I just tasted.

We left for home. Not the first to leave but close. The drive was rainy though not so bad. We stopped for gas and my CC rejected twice. Second one same. Had to call the GD card companies which did not help. Both companies claimed it wasn’t them. Sure. I found a third card in my wallet and it worked. Tonight we will get home!!

Continued on our way. Another 45 minutes. Not much doing. Backseat asleep.

Got home. Let dog out. Fed him. Brushed teeth. Went to bed. Long day.

My daughter is crazy. Just want to get that out.

We are at mid week, not much going on. Usual workout. Usual, except when I woke up Marika she exploded with anger. I wake her every day for the trip to the gym. Without drama. And she has no excuse. It’s fun! Great workout in spite of attitudes. Even stopped at the coffee shop on the way home for pastry and coffee. Miss attitude did warm up a little.

I have three appointments today. The first is picking up my car from the speed shop. It’s finally done. Took forever. I am half excited and half relieved. Whatever it is, car is back.

The girl with the attitude tattoo gave me a ride to Sacramento. Because of rain and bad roads we did not get there till 1145. And I have a noon appointment in the office. It seems likely I will be late to it.

So, the car. Faster, better mpg, sounds like a race car. I like it.

Called the office on the way from the shop. They know I’m late. Two minutes, I was forgiven. Clients an interesting pair. He owns his own small business and makes some money, nothing grand. Wife pulls down half a million a year as an advisor. And she looks the part. I was intimidated. Nice people though she never smiled and appeared to be in pain during our entire discussion. He is a nice guy.

My next meeting was at the local Starbucks immediately after my other appointment. This is not a client meeting. I am meeting with a financial advisor aka a referral source. I am same. We had a meet and greet to see if we can refer to the other. It was productive.

Returned to the office and kept working. Much to my chagrin. Made calls. Usual crap. Went to the bank. Went to the other bank. Had conversations with the speed shop guy. Just discussing the retune. Went home. On the drive I had a chance to stretch it out a bit. It is raining like hell so no big try of the turbo. Just a little.

Stoped at Target for the wife. Some stuff for school. I first checked out my headlights, they seemed dim. One is burned out. And the shop was supposed to change out to LED. Called Josh at speed shop. He said the lights were in process. Which means car NOT done. Christ. Later I guess. And tomorrow a new bulb for headlight.

Dinner was ready when I got home. Marika made potato patties. I had to step in and help, I happen to be the best at it in the entire family. We also had baked stuffed tomatoes and a veg. And it’s my daughter so there was a bottle of wine. Excellent meal.

Now I sit and watch TV. Good TV. Wow. I am hitting the hay in a moment. Have to shut down the house.

Today was far more boring than yesterday. Today was dry, yesterday was a torrential downpour. Luckily I only had 275 miles of driving to do. An appointment in Dublin which was a one way, three hour trip. Client is from San Jose and I did not want to drive that far. Go that far and I would need a hotel.

Back to today, no long drive or rain. I prefer today. This morning I worked out alone, Marika having spent the night in Dixon. I can manage alone, either way. But it would be nice if she showed up once in awhile.

I had no visitors today at the office. Nice. My one pm and 5 pm both cancelled. I like that. Yesterday, after I got back late from Dublin, I did have one visitor picking up several returns and he left a $5K check when he hit the road. So, picking a preference, I like anything involving getting paid.

Yesterday for dinner we had thanksgiving again. Which I really like. Today we had Mexican in honor of dia de tres. That’s Tuesday for you gringos. It’s a toss up mostly, but I have to pick turkey.

All the time I spent driving yesterday, five+ hours, today I used for working. Now I must say, being isolated in my car for five hours is better than any day working even with extreme traffic and weather. I don’t have anyone talking to me or asking for anything. And only one phone line I can choose to answer or not. Not.

Not much else going today or tonight. We ate our tacos. Now we sit and watch some truly awful holiday special. You can call it special all day but that don’t make it special. Soon we go to bed. Which is nice. I am still tired from last week

Today we actually slept in. There is nothing going on today. Emily does have a lot of class work to do for the kids for Christmas. Which involves me as well. That’s a tradition.

This morning I had pie for breakfast. All three kinds. It’s a tradition, I make pies for the holiday we all eat it that first day. After that, it’s all me. No one else eats any. I don’t understand. But I do love pie.

Today is Sunday so we got to enjoy the big paper. With my pie. At ten, almost at the very moment I finished pie and paper, our electrician Walter showed up. He is here to get paid for the wiring job on the workshop. He finished it on Saturday. It’s nice to have projects done and the workshop is now almost usable. All it needs is heat.

And since I am working on Christmas decor for Emily’s, I got to use the shop right away. All I had to do was make one cut. But, as it is with any project, I need the correct tools. Did I mention the contents of the shop are here but still in the condition they were put in by the movers? No? Well it’s true. To make aforementioned saw cut I needed a straight edge and a pencil. Had to find those first. Took ten minutes. Needed safety glasses too but did not find those at all. I hope my regular eyeglasses suffice. After all this, cut was made. Straight and true.

I have another project to do this week. I am building out the rest of the kitchen pantry/closet. I find nothing wrong with the way it is. Emily feels there is room for improvement. To do the project I need to pull the proper tools from the shop pile. So while I when I finished that simple cut I then went through all the boxes and put together all the tools needed to hang four new shelves and a divider. The drill I found in the last box. They are now all staged for me in the shop. I am a now able to dream of the day when I have installed the workbenches and can get back to making things.

Emily took a break from kid Xmas so we could both run out and do a little shopping. Which includes a fresh cut Christmas tree. Our first since 2001. We had been dedicated fake tree users since 02. We sold or tossed the fake tree in one of our moves. And last year in the apartment we had nothing.

We drove to the only lot I have seen in Auburn. Not a huge tree lot but all the trees they had were nice. Emily intended on getting something different from our “usual” which is a Noble Fir. She searched the lot high and low and Emily chose a Noble Fir. Same kind as alway. Even same as our fake tree. I had the tree netted and a stand attached. Had to buy the stand. I was out the door for $120.

After the tree lot visit we had to do a Target run. Nothing exciting, lights for new tree. The fake we dumped had permanent ones.

We hauled the lot home. Two trips to get all the crap in and a quick trip for the tree. The tree got a temporary home in the front room.

Emily went back to kid stuff. I had some menial tasks to do.

When she finally finished, she put the turkey soup on the burner. Heated slow but it finally got there. We managed to put it all together. I fried up potato patties and they were incredible.

After dinner a little TV. And pie. Now I am in bed. Em is getting up at 445 and I have to be in Dublin at 11. Start of a busy week.