Blessed Be the Wright Brothers

The weather here in Winlock last week was a soaking, chilly rain. Thank the stars that we had a little trip scheduled. Matt got called into the office for a few days and no way in hell was I planning on staying behind so on Wednesday we headed to PDX in a downpour, boarded a plane, and landed in Burbank to 95 degree sunshine and blue skies. Ahhhhhhhhhh.On approach looking at the smoke from the Santa Barbara fire with a husk of dead insect in the foreground. It was stuck between the window panes.

We picked up our rental car at the airport, drove to the North Hollywood park and ride and hopped on the Metro so we could get to 7th and Metro downtown.

We had dinner at Ciudad, one of our favorite spots.

Behold the beautiful colors on Matt's dish of black cod.

The most delicious thing I ate on the trip: Watermelon salad with baby watercress, oaxacan string cheese, pedro jimenez reduction, macadamia nuts, marash chile. Sigh. Heaven.

Then came Thursday. I dropped Matt off at work in Westlake Village at 8am and headed to Ikea Covina. See, about a year ago we picked the handles for our kitchen cabinets from Ikea but I didn't know how many to buy so I just kept checking to make sure they were still there whenever I would go in. A month ago when all the cabinets were designed and we knew exactly how many we needed, I went to Ikea Portland to buy them only to find they had been discontinued. Did Seattle still have any? Nope? How about Utah? Nope. What about anywhere in the Los Angeles area? Covina!! They held them for me for 3 weeks until I got there. So nice. Got to Covina at 10am and it took about an hour for the employee on duty to find the handles artfully hidden by the person I spoke with on the phone.

After Ikea Covina I went to Violet's Cakes in Pasadena (This should come as a surprise to no one), did a little shopping and then made a trip back out to Matt's office to drop off a dozen cupcakes for his coworkers.

I headed back to the Woodland Hills area near our hotel for a mani-pedi. It was stupefyingly easy for my nail tech to convince me to upgrade to the deluxe mani-pedi. My eyes rolled back as my arms and legs were massaged, scrubbed, oiled and lotioned. It felt sooo nice. I tried not to think about how soon my fingernails would be destroyed by the mail route and all the stain that still needs to be applied to various woods in the house.

Back to Westlake Village to pick Matt up, then back to Woodland Hills to dress for dinner at Campanile.

I don't know what to tell you about Campanile. They sat us at the crappiest table in the house. I spent the first hour of dinner wondering what it was about us that made the hostess decided to dump us in a walkway. I settled on two possibilites: 1. Braces are undignified and I look like a pimply faced know-nothing or 2. Our nearly two years in Winlock have rubbed off on us more than we are aware and we ooze country bumpkin. Did I ask to be reseated? I did not. Do I wish I had? Yes. Through dumb luck we ended up at Campanile on Thursday night and Campanile is famous for "Thursday Night Grilled Cheese Sandwiches". It's their thing. We were torn. Do we order something off the regular menu or have a grilled cheese to find out what all the fuss is about. We ended up each getting a version of the grilled cheese. Meh. I had fried green tomatoes as an appetizer and they were delicious - once I got them. See, I received sliced tomatoes with shrimp and when I sent it back, the waiter told me I ordered sliced, not fried. That bugged me. Matt thought his salad was much more exciting than his sandwich. Dessert was great but my overall impression of Campanile was weak.(No pics of the food here. It was too swanky to break out the camera. Matt would have died right there in his chair. The only thing worth shooting would have been the architecture and the dessert: honeycomb, hot fudge, and discs of sponge cake in a tower of tasty).

But that is all of no matter when there is blue sky overhead.

Friday morning I took Matt back to work and then crossed the hills over to Malibu for a drive down Hwy 1. I stopped at Zuma Beach and took these pictures.

Then I drove up Topanga Canyon, had a late breakfast at Pat's Grill, looped back up to Westlake Village, killed a few hours watching Rudo y Cursi, picked up Matt, drove back to the airport and flew home. We landed with just enough light left to see that the sky was clear. Whew.

Crapola

The transmission on the mail wagon needs all new seals. Plus, I broke an engine mount. $$$$$ Mail routes are murderous on cars.

444 is the new 666

Yeah. You heard me. I am not in the least bit concerned about jinxing prices by taunting the gas speculators with a $6.66 goal. It's going that way anyway whether I refer to the mark of the beast or not. $4.44 marks a 18% increase in prices since Memorial Day. Place your bets now. Will we reach $9.99 before or after the end of the world? BTW, it now costs me $30 in gas each time I run the mail route. Bah! Oh. I do get a vehicle allowance of $33 for each day I run the route. But that is also to cover maintenance and wear and tear so. . .

On the March to $5 p/gallon. le sigh

Here's a story for you

I took my mail wagon to get serviced today. I was at a Jiffy Lube. You know the drill. They call you up to look at the computer and tell you all the things they recommend be done to the car. Anyway, I sat back down after my "consult" and 2 minutes later my "tech" was back in the waiting room. He asked me to step out into the bay. Kind of ominously, especially in hindsight. As I walked toward him he asked if I have cats. It sounded conversational but totally random. Then he got more specific. "Do you have a black cat?". "Um, yes. Yes I do. (hesitatingly) Why?". "Well, sorry to have to tell you this but there is a cat in your engine and, um, it's dead, obviously".

I walked up to the car and saw the furry back of a black cat. All my instincts told me that it wasn't Una. The fur wasn't right and I was sure that she was sleeping on the bed when I left home. Still, I couldn't look too closely until I called Matt to double check. My heart was beating really fast. Matt picked up the phone and the first thing I said was, "Is Una sleeping on the bed?" No hello. He was all, "What? What are you talking about?" and I'm all, "Please just tell me is Una sleeping on the bed." He said yes and asked what is going on. I told him there was a dead black cat in my engine and he said, "where are you that you are suddenly aware that there is a dead cat in the engine?" Jiffy Lube, blah, blah, blah.

The tech put the cat in a box and then put the box into a (clear) plastic bag. He came back in the waiting room and asked me if I could take it home and bury it. He said he could do it but it would be really hard to find a place. I've got nothin' if not space so the cat, box and bag went into the back of the mail wagon and off I went.

When I got home Matt and I decided on the best spot on the property for our pet cemetery. He was still working so I hoofed it out to the back of the property and started to dig, and dig, and dig. I don't want a coyote getting wise. All the while I had been so relieved that it wasn't one of our cats that I hadn't been able to absorb what I was doing until I unwrapped the cat and put it in it's grave. I began to cry. It was much more difficult putting the dirt (clay) back in the hole than it was getting it out. Matt came out to help me.

We can't figure out where the cat came from. We haven't seen any strays around. Matt was thinking maybe it crawled in while I had the car somewhere else but that cat seemed to be rather freshly dead so I feel certain that it got into the engine here. So sad. It was a little thing. I am guessing only six or seven months old.

When we were finished we hosed off the shovels and as I walking away to take them to the shed Matt squirted the hose at me!!! Have you ever? Seriously!! It would be one thing if it were summer but it's not. It's freakin' cold and crap. He did not look properly ashamed of himself. I have yet to decide on my retaliation.

Friq and Fraq no more *cry*

2 Nissans are better than one!

It's the end of an era. Friq and Fraq got Washington license plates this week. We didn't bother to get vanity plates this time because one of them (shhh, it's Fraq) is going to have to be sold so I can buy a vehicle suitable for mail delivery. Of course I won't be selling Fraq if I didn't pass my USPS driving test. I took the test up in Tacoma on Friday. It is really weird to be tested on something that had become somewhat instinctual - second nature if you will. I assume I will pass. I am not a bad driver - haven't had a ticket since Jan 1990 - so here's hoping the test went alright. I won't have results for about 3 weeks! Back to Friq and Fraq, we love these cars. I will really miss Fraq when we sell it.