Quick Visit with Dear Friends for a Big Day

Saturday afternoon off Point Loma, San Diego (iPhone pic)

Hurrah for Cupid's arrow! Am in San Diego for the weekend, so I can attend the wedding of my best buds Gene & Joann's baby girl, Jennifer. Had no idea Jenny had a steady, much less a fiance, but then an out of town Auntie is always the last to know *happy winks*.

AirBnB flat came w/ensie twee kitty

I flew down and because hotels in San Diego are outrageously expensive - I'm talking, if you have to ask, you can't afford them - so I went with AirBnB. Got a tiny apartment for a mini weekend (Friday morn thru Su

nday morn) in the Ocean Beach area (update: seriously overpriced for where I stayed). As soon as I was settled in I headed out, visiting my parents in Rosecrans National Cemetery on Point Loma. 

Next I might have hit any of a b'jillion tourist spots in San Diego, but having not planned a single solitary thing for this weekend, I fell to my normal default which is Old Town. That spot has a load of memories from my teenager-hood. Strolling around with my mother or roaming its streets with Joann because we always had money burning holes in our pockets in our need for cool and groovy candles. Oh, and I also had a thing for rocks at the Old Town rock shop. Still have all of those rocks you know. Yes - a little pathetic.

I was on site in Old Town before any of the shops opened so I had plenty of time for a leisurely stroll. I stopped to admire the scenery and was quickly surrounded by several young students - late teens & early twenties - for whom English was a second, if not third language. They read through a list of questions, selecting to ask me, "Are you a vegetarian?"

Oh yes, as if. When I answered I was directed to sign a form, and I surmised they were on a scavenger hunt.

Old Town has 'Little House on the Prairie' wooden boardwalks; quite fun

Old Town museum exhibit showing an old stagecoach stop restaurant

Diorama of what the whole of San Diego looked like in the 1800s

Any time I held still for more than a minute or two, a new group of students would surround me, and with various degrees of skill with the English tongue would ask me again if I was a vegetarian or some other question, in hope of completing their scavenger hunt list.

Students, in foreground and aft, who all had scavenger hunt queries for me

Mind, they all spoke much better English than I could ever hope to speak Korean, Spanish or Russian, and I would match my horrible accent against any of their's any day.

After a short afternoon stop at my 'digs' in Ocean Beach I headed over to the home of Jenny's new in-laws. There everyone on both sides of Jenny's old and new family gathered for dinner and a nice chat. Thought it was sweet of them to include me in this family get-together. Got to meet Jenny's soon-to-be hubby, and the 'Scarborough' sisters whom I haven't laid eyes on in ages. Also at long last, I got to meet Joann's newest grand baby-boy. When Joann's around her grandkids she absolutely glows, and who can blame her, they are cuties.

Joann and her curly-locked little Grandson

  That was a nice end to my first day in my old stomping grounds. Tomorrow is the big day for the double Jays, John & Jenny. 

NOOOOOO..... NOT AGAIN!

Yesterday started off as a perfectly lovely Sunday. Met up with friends Nancy & Jeri and we had a ball. First we saw SPY, the new comedy with Melissa McCarthy. It was both funnier and cooler than I expected. Part of what I loved was McC had fight scenes that were every bit as hard core and real as the ones you see with male stars such as Daniel Craig. I mean, how often do you see a fat lady in an action movie doing anything other than get murdered in a funny manner or sweating. Really, the movie was action packed and genuinely funny. McC is a badass.

After the movie we decided a meal was in order so we hit Sacramento's Queen of Sheba for some Ethiopian atmosphere. OK, OK, must share pics of the food, because you know I had to photograph anything that went into our mouths.

Here is Jeri's vegetarian plate with cabbage, greens, potato with carrot in mild sauce & a little cold salad. Her Injera (bread) was special, gluten free.

Nancy had Chicken served in a mild sauce with cauliflower also served on an injera, the gluten packed sort. She said it was delish.

'They call me Mr. Tibbs!'

I, the group's super-carnivore, had spicy Lamb Tibbs, it too came on an oversized injera. The injera is prepared on a special Ethiopian grill and it resembles a crepe. All the food is served on top of a giant Injera, with additional injera served along side the meal so one meets one's daily injera requirement.

After stuffing ourselves there were still left overs so we all exited Queen of Sheba with Basenji Bags. I dropped Jeri off at her house, then stopped by Nancy's where at her insistence I visited for a while with Rick, son Adan (and natch, Tippy the dog) who all watched the Women's Soccer world championship.

After a short visit, I headed home where I found... good neighbor Bill and a Sheriff's car parked outside of my house. Long story short, I was freakn' robbed! Bill spotted a suspicious looking guy perusing houses on our block, and saw the guy peek into my garage, and seeing no car, the crook opened the side gate and went in. Bill immediately 911'd the sheriffs, who arrived, *sigh* after the thief had entered my home, then scarpered off.

Some may recall I was robbed nine years ago last February, not long after having started up this blog. Right after I was robbed good neighbor Bill started our Neighborhood Watch program which is still running strong - and I might add, still working.

I let the sheriffs in and we crept around my house looking for signs of theft (almost needless to say, one of my big ole bras was front & center in my bedroom). The only thing I knew for sure was gone, was my lightweight laptop which is, as I recall, just shy of 2 years old. The only reason it was out in

Modus Operandi

the open I just got back from a short trip a couple of days ago. Late afternoon, a fingerprints officer came by & after 2 hours dusting for fingerprints she came up with oodles of prints. It was she who discovered the crook climbed up into my 10 foot high  bedroom window from the side yard. He must have been half Spider-man. He landed with his muddy feet on my bed, and left the house through my patio door.

The prints expert got no less than 29 hand/finger prints. What a hard working, patient soul she was.


Here's creepy tidbit... later in the evening, I went in my fridge, and discovered my unopened pint of half and half was nowhere to be found. I told Bill about it this afternoon and he probably correctly surmised the guy was hot and tired from climbing in my window & probably thought a cold beer or soda was in order. Of course he wasn't finding any of that at my house so he settled for a nice cold pint of half and half. Probably a tad rich, but it gave him the strength to vault over my backyard fence with his booty - my stuff jammed into my back pack. 

My best beloved Attu Patch

So that was my adventure over the Fourth of July weekend. Bummer, eh? You know I went to bed Sunday night of the robbery tossing and turning and fretting, over what? My laptop? Hell no! I was tossing and turning because of the loss of my Attu patch which I thought, was sewed to the stolen back pack. I adore my hard earned patch so the thought of its loss was heart breaking. It wasn't until the wee hours of early morning I realized, DUH! I have two back packs and the one stolen wasn't the one with the patch. Fell into a lovely deep sleep, knowing my silly patch is safe and sound.

UPDATE: THIEF CAUGHT!  This afternoon Bill came by, and said the sheriff's called him over to where 'my' thief was nabbed. He was caught trying to burglarize more homes - once again - in the same neighborhood. Well, they say crooks aren't necessarily the brightest crayons in the pack. The guy was easily ID'd as the one seen racing away from my home yesterday afternoon. Since his finger prints were taken from my house, that's a nice clear case. The crook had a pick-up with other people's goods in the back but not my stuff which he had already had enough time to fence or whatever. I believe that my stuff seems gone does not bother me probably as much as it ought. Could I possibly enjoy shopping that much? I think not.

I must say, thanks to good neighbor Bill and a Sheriff's Department for outstanding work. YAY!

An Evening on the Mississippi

No one seemed too excited about The Big River when we first heard it was the 3rd for this year's Music Circus productions. My initial thoughts on the production were Mark Twain, the Mississippi, yeah, whatever. And earlier this evening, one of the production managers told the ushers this was the best production of The Big River he'd ever seen anywhere, and there was a bit of interest shown, but nothing overwhelming.

Well, holy crap, or should I say, Tarnation! That was one powerful big production, and I and every other usher (oh, yeah, and the rest of the fifteen hundred audience members) enjoyed the hell out of The Big River. I thought for entertainment as well as performances, it out did the Music Circus' two previous season productions by a country mile or three. Just my opinion, but really, I am powerful sad I see these plays on their last night, because when the curtain goes down, it's done and over, in Sacramento at least. I must say I wish I'd seen this production on its first  night so I could crow about it to friends. Yes suh, it was that fine.

The big star of the show was the Mississippi River. For an entity so huge, it managed to be present in most of scenes, and convincingly so. I'll get back to it in a bit. Now the two human stand outs were  Huck Finn and his friend Jim, as the musical is based on the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In this production Huck was played by a man, who for his height and all convincingly played a boy as did the other 'boys': Tom and their rascally friends. Surprisingly, men playing scallywag boys didn't dissolve the heart of the story. Huck was a total crack up with his lines, that sometimes seemed to go in one direction, but then swung back the other way like he was fishing for catfish in the audience; so freakn' cute. The other stand out was Big Jim, the runaway slave, particularly for his wonderful bass voice which was in fine fettle for tonight's final performance. He and Finn struck out to run away to Freedom, or certainly adventure.

Said I'd come back to the River's starting roll in the production, but hey, you can see it here in these clips. I wish this play had a dress rehearsal because I certainly would have enjoyed seeing it a second time. This video gives you the gist of the lovely music, but doesn't give away any of the belly laughs that seem to flowed as deep as the Mississippi on that ensy little Music Circus stage.