Bright Ideas...

6600lbs of fine Loire Gravel later and we have a 3" deep rocky courtyard fit for...US!  Yes, it took us 2 weeks and a day (due to a rain delay or two) to get the job done but it looks great!  All the islands of flower areas, (formerly actual gardens) are now re-defined and though Mucca and Cara Cature are wary of the sound of gravel underfoot (theirs and ours) it sounds good too!  A bit bumpy in spots but that'll even out with time.  There wasn't enough to finish the job, true, but the next 2 sacks will lay in paths to the barn doorways and fill in the areas in front of the gate and barn doors that require digging out before covering.  We're both very pleased with the results.

We've got about another 18 days 'til we fly away to California for the winter season.  The "plan" is to go back, finish the bloody bathroom renovation project (long in the tooth!) with all it's plumbing and tiling, do some interior painting of the stairwell and landings (William perhaps?!) and whatever other creativeness creeps into the schedule.  Then return to France in early March next year, take care of loose ends here at Maison Blanc then drive the coast route down to southern Portugal (Fado!) to spend a month or six weeks in their lovely clime in a rented apartment or house.  Maybe day-trip it to Morocco for a short break while we are at it. That's the plan so far.

Today? Well we are taking a day for a Bourges visitation with all that means.  First up is the fabric store east of town towards Nancy named "Mondail Tissues".  All manner of sewing projects have come out of that store over the years of us in France. Curtains, window dressings, wall coverings for many rooms and, of course, clothing.  It's all there somewhere most of the time. 

Then to the "Junk" store, actually "Troc 18", a chain of stores that are really "brocantes" that is good quality, sometimes great, of household furniture, fixtures, odds and ends, all used or just old in reasonably good (sometimes new!) condition. 

Then to "Grande Fraise", sort of a high end "Trader Joes" grocery chain here in France that we love for it's huge variety of fresh vegetables, wide assortment of food stuffs from around the world and specialty meats cut by a real butcher on site!  Sort of a miniature, lower cost without the hoopla "Whole Foods" experience.

We'll follow that by going to "Lidl", a small market chain that is basically a "canned goods" store, low cost, some fresh vegetables, cheaper cuts of packaged meats (I'm big on the ham!), cheap booze and wines (a wonderful South African white is a real BUY at 2 bucks a bottle).  It's clean, well organized, well lighted and takes a US credit card! 

Then off we go to downtown medieval Bourges to lunch at our newest "find" a Japanese restaurant named "Cosy Délice".  We ate sushi and sashimi there on our last sojourn to Bourges and I was struck by how very good the restaurant was.  Food was 5 stars, the setting was quiet and simple bespeaking the Japanese esthetic quite well.  I wrote the Yelp entry right afterwards and you can see we were quite pleased.  Another try today!

Kelly will want to go to "H&M" to examine all things clothing back in the center of town and I'll drift into "FNAC" to check on the technical scene.  Maybe an icecream from the kiosk near the parking lot.  Then to the "Carefour" super market for cat litter and dish soap and whatever else we didn't pick up at the other stops.  It's HUGE, got everything under the sun, excellent quality and variety.  Our favorite supermarket.

The home.  It's a full day of gawking and shopping in Bourges and not the last one before we wander off France for California.

Cara-Cature's Big Night Out

Meow!  Yesterday was day 4 for laying in the rox we bought for the courtyard improvement.  As part of the festivities I allowed Mucca and Cara-Cature outside to roam and explore.  Hesitant was the main feature of the exploration efforts by these two.  Cara would just barely exit thru the laundry room door then turn about and slink back inside.  Mucca was somewhat reticent in the beginning but gained confidence and soon was on his windows sill jumping down to the big square rocks below.  This went on all the while we were "at it", me wheel-barrowing 100lb loads of rocks to the courtyard, Kelly spreading them with her "boot dance" and then clipping out the raucous weeds and berry bushes that make up the inner courtyard thicket.  No fun that! 

Soon after the 5th load I had tired and was ready for a break and a ride to S&D's home to water their garden while they are away, and water we did!  They have the now required water collection system that allows roof rain water to be stored and used as a water saving measure.  It's a requirement if you live in certain towns and area of this fine country.  We should have been doing this for all the years gone by in California but...oh noooo...we just couldn't do anything as Liberal and Progressive as saving precious rain water for slimmer times.  So we didn't and haven't.  Anyway, watering done we headed home and rested our now weary bones(from the rock spreading exercizes).  Backaches anyone?

In the evening I set out the chairs, cushions and umbrella for our table and we prepped for a wine sipping evening read OUTSIDE!  The 1st time this year!  A nice light accompanied the warmish sunshine, making it nearly and ideal scene.  As the sunset advanced we finally broke camp and headed inside for dinner.  We had Swordfish marinated in Mirin and Soy Sauce with shallots, basmati rice and a watermelon/tomato salad.  Having finished we cleared the table and headed up to the office to watch some TV as is our habit.  My duck headed off to bed a bit earlier than I did.  I played 2 games of chess (won them both!) and headed off to end the day by reading my latest read "Adrift" about a man who survived 67 days on the Atlantic Ocean after his sailboat sank during a storm at sea.
A true frightening tale and an excellent read for the adventure and sailing/boating fans.

As I finished my read I realized that my bed partner (Hur Majesty Cara-Cature) had not made the scene.  She ALWAYS come by about this time to say goodnight and cuddle a bit before she wanders off to sleep at the floor of my bed or on the floor nearby as any decent service animal should.  Soooo after I turned off my Kindle and turned over to sleep I became disturbed by her absence.  After a few minutes I got up and began my hunt, the time was 10pm.  In my hunt I went into my kitchen-of-doom only to find the door wide open to the courtyard!  Shit, shit, shit! Damnit Lute, you forgot to close the f'n door!  Oh boy.  So ventured back upstairs to admit my failings to Kelly who was hunting for her too.  We both went room to room looking in/under/around and through all of her typical nesting places, no Cara was to be found!  We finally at 11pm went back to bed hoping she's come out from her hiding place or we would find her in the morning.  I had closed the kitchen door by then on my last round there.  Zzzzzzzz, zzzzzzzz, a bit later, about 1:30am Kelly yelled "Cat fight! It's probably Cara!"  So down we went, Mucca leading and thre open the back door, Kelly went to get a flashlight and here come Cara, her tail 3" in diameter all fuzzed up mewing all the way and shaking in fear!"  She had a small nose injury (other cat or berry bush?) but was alright.  Earlier I had seen thr Yello cat run from my kitchen area to the gate and disappear down the alley.  She slept on the rug against my bed until after 11am this morning.  Apparently no worse for wear.  We love our cats.  You should have seen Mucca when we had gone back to bed after the 1st hunt...his head thrust between the banister posts looking woefully down the stairs for his sister.  Sad indeed!

Rocks!

2 sacks of fine Loire River rock now partially block the alley beside the Maison Blanc.  Some 6000 lbs of ground cover for our courtyard about 3"- 4" deep laid over tarps defining the space.  It will succeed in defining the courtyard space and the various garden components there and to come in the near future.  It also will serve as a barrier to the growth of the all too prevalent weeds that overgrow the courtyard every year. 

Here are some pix of the rocks and the bags as of this morning.

 

A Very BIG Day in Cyberspace...

Windows 10.  29 July, the Actual, real, full version, not one of the builds that I and 1.5 million other "Insiders" (Microsoft's appellation for it's Beta squad this time around) is shipping.  "Shipping" being the word for Downloading the 3GB file to your machine.  Woe to those with pathetically inadequate wifi links (ie: SFR here in Lignieres, Cher, France) as their so-called "connection" to the world-wide web aka "Internet".  3 GB will take me about 4 hours to accomplish at an average of 2mb/sec or 12 MB/min (if I'm a Very good boy).  The likelihood that I can have a full ON 4 hr experience on this damned SFR connection is improbable at best, the drop-out rate is about 4 -8 per HOUR!  This will take a while for sure!  More like a day!  We're at 36% now...and still up!  A miracle!  Anyway, I've been testing this version of Windows 10 since last November.  I have LOTS of experience doing this sort of testing, goes all the way back to the first version of Windows software (Windows 1.0) in 1985.  Version 1.0, bought it at a local computer shop in spring of 1986 in San Carlos, CA. though as there was no "Insider" program in those rough and tumble days of the early PC age.  It came not on a CD or DVD but a large number of floppy disks.  The average PC at the time ran DOS (Disk Operating System) and there were a few companies making versions of the same.  Programs (Apps as they are now named) were few and far between at first (1978-1985), then the deluge.  The whole history of Windows is laid out here, have a look! (47% and counting).

http://www.computerhope.com/history/windows.htm  (shortened version)

and this link too:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Microsoft_Windows

Microsoft Windows family   DOS-based Windows 1.0 Windows 2.0 Windows 2.1x Windows 3.0 Windows 3.1x Windows 9x Windows 95 (Development) Windows 98 Windows ME Windows NT Early versions Windows NT 3.1 Windows NT 3.5 Windows NT 3.51 Windows NT 4.0 Windows 2000 Client versions Windows XP editions x64 Media Center Fundamentals Windows Vista editions Windows 7 editions Windows 8 editions 8.1 RT Windows 10 editions Mobile Windows Server Server 2003 Home Server Server 2008 EBS 2008 HPC Server 2008 Server 2008 R2 Home Server 2011 Server 2012 Server 2012 R2 Server 2016 MultiPoint Server Server Essentials Specialized Windows Preinstallation Environment Windows Embedded Embedded Compact CE 5.0 Embedded CE 6.0 Embedded Compact 7 Embedded Automotive Embedded Industry Embedded 8 Windows Mobile Pocket PC 2000 Pocket PC 2002 Mobile 2003 Mobile 5.0 Mobile 6.0 Mobile 6.1 Mobile 6.5 Windows Phone Phone 7 Phone 8 Phone 8.1 Cancelled Cairo Nashville Neptune Odyssey

The Auvergne is Magnificent!

We decided several weeks ago to take a short vacation from out hot climate (high of >90 to 103 degrees!) and head off to cool aur-conditioned hotel rooms and other sights and sounds. Where to go though? South! To the home of one of our favorite cheeses, Blue Du Auvergne. Here's the extensive Wiki article: Blue D'Averngne Wiki

Go not just to find the homes of this marvelous blue cheese (better than Roquefort in my estimation) but also to explore the Puys (Volcanic domes) and ancient medieval villages of the Auvergne region. Here's a map for you:

Departments of France

As you can see the Auvergne is very close to us residing in Lignieres, Center, France, just below the departmental border. The area of interest to us was about 30 miles below Clermont-Ferrand amidst the Puys. We visited several medieval villages and walked their streets taking pictures and gawking at their lovely old stone buildings built of the lava and stone of the area. We went first to a Saint-Saturnin

, a beautiful old lava-built village with streets so narrow you must fold your mirrors to drive through them!  Cute little shops and many opportunities to take photos.  We spent about an hour wandering about and I took a few pictures to remember it by.

I Need Gas to Bake Bread...

"Bonjuor" I say looking at Mr. Proxi-man, he gazes back.  "Que?" he says.  "Je suis Gaz", He replies "Propane?" "Oui" say I.  He strides to the sidewalk to look at my lonesome tank standing beside the rack of others. "No" he says, "Demain"..."sorry", says the fish monger, "No fish today".  Well shit, I wanted to bake bread today and was all up for it. Bah humbug on that idea.  "When" I ask (He does understand some English after all is said and done) "Demain (Tomorrow) e matin (the morning)".  "D'accord (ok)" I say walking away,  he places the empty tank in the rack, I'm done baking before I start.

Home to sip coffee with Kelly and sort out todays activities.  Expecting shipments today of comp stuff (a printer) and some ink cartridges, Kelly's CO2 cartridges too which are lost somewhere in Bourges at the moment.  She makes her own soda water you see. I need to put together my bread-boarded PC that needs a case.  The case is here, I still need a memory card reader but I'll add that once it arrives in a day or two.  In the meantime I'll get all the rest in the case and fire it up.  With these two cats and their climbing habits having it laying out on a desk is taking a real chance or six...thus the case.

Yes I gave 20 bucks to the poor, distraught very anorexic Rachel person I saw on FB.  My god, the pictures alone...awful, just awful.   I was anorexic when I was 10 and 11 yrs old, couldn't/wouldn't hold down anything.  A very serious mental illness it is and difficult to get under control.  A shrink saved me from the worst of it though and I finally was well and back to being an active, relatively happy boy again.  The cause for me was a sense of abandonment after my parents got a divorce and I was summarily deposited with my grandmother and step grandfather.  The story is long, sad and I won't repeat it for you now but that was the trigger for me.  Rachel is very ill and may not survive but those around her know that and are trying to help in whatever way they can.  The closest ones are sick too with the fright that she might die before she wins her battle.  Give if you can.

Monday was Donkey day and I have photos for you.  It was a nice, if cool day, we had a great time and so did the Donkeys and the 15,000 spectators...that's almost ten times our village's population! 

The, of course, it's POPPY season!  I've ignored the few clutches since I first saw them 2 weeks ago in a trip into Bourges to go shopping.  Now however, they are everywhere and spectacular!  Here's a sample:

 

 



Well off to Sue and Dave's tomorrow to water the garden, no rain or drizzle hereabouts since Monday so time to water the beautiful garden they have made.  Last year when we took over the little activity it rained nearly every day so we hardly had anything to do but steal a few vegies for our efforts!  This year seems different, dry and cool now.  Later!

Wandered Off Looking For DOLMENS

Pretty day to look for dolmens.  They are here abouts.  Yes they are.  Many infact.  Here's a site that links their position to Google Earth which is a very big help some of the time. 

http://www.megalithic.co.uk/topics.php?countries=1&kmldown=1  

Dolmen are Neolithic sites and many are burial sites.  Many later day Christian churches were sited on the spots where dolmen existed.  The idea being that people drawn to such sites would find them gone and a substitute provided by the fine Christians would do instead.  Must have worked, there are many examples to be found. 

The ones we sought out were southeast of us about 35 miles away.  Up into the hills of the Massif Central we journeyed (is that a word?)  through tiny villages and past grand maisons and castles amid the bushy forests.  Kilometer after kilometer and alas none were found.  Significant rocks but no dolmen.  Here's what we were looking for in particular:

http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=6334142

Easier to find them on the internet than out there in the real world. 

Then a leisurely ride home to prep for dinner.  I made Shitake/Prosciutto risotto and we had a wedge salad with Kelly's wonderful blue cheese dressing.

 

My Toe Hurts

Hell if I know, initially I thought it was an insect bite, then as it throbbed like my old nemesis Gout I labeled it a Gout attack.  Now I'm back to thinking it was a spider bite.  What toe?  The little one next to the littlest on the outside of the left foot.  It's better than yesterday but not by much and is really red and swollen and hurts if I even touch it.  Ah...

The Kats are wildly happy over their new home, running amuck at nights mostly, after we are asleep...but they are loud and most disturbing.  The house is cold, not as cold as it was a week ago when we first got here but cold enough.  The days have been cloudy and wet, with rain part of bearly every day.  Our courtyard is a mess, thick with weeds and over grown grasses and colza, a gift from the local oil seed operations.  Colza seed is used to make Canola oil.

Been to Chateauroux and Bourges (our favorite big city), La Chatre yesterday.  Then we wandered thru the countryside until we found the road back to Lignieres. 

I've got to mention that United Airlines did a wonderful job on the flight over the pond.  Good company and they put us in row 16 behind the first class bulkhead, LOTS of legroom made the flight a very comfortable one.  The food was also above txpectations, really delicious cheese cannelloni. The crew in the economy cabin were really a breath of fresh air too, friendly and timely service too!

All in all we are really happy to be here and expect we are going to have a great summer...once it begins!

 

Breadmaking made simpler...

Breadmaking, a VERY Short Course. I have history...
First, buy yourself from your local Thrift Store someone's totally unused wedding-present-to-be Breadman, Zojirushi, Cuisinart etc. 5-20 bucks, if you pay over 10 bux I'd be very surprised. "Not a mover" as they say.
Take it home, open the box and remove all the paper, plastic and other miscellany. Read the manual enough to know how to put the damned thing into DOUGH making mode. Plug it in. The rest is Science and Craft.
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Now, here's a working 1.5lb loaf recipe, known good recipe that works every time as long as you do your part in measuring somewhat accurately.
You need the following INGREDIENTS:
Bread Flour 3 Cups
Salt 1/2 Tablespoon
A Sugar substance, real, not phoney diet crap. 2 Tablespoons
Butter or a similar substitute, something oily. 2 Tablespoons
Warm Water, 12 oz is CLOSE...350ml is VERY Close. 11.8349079 oz is very close too.
Put all this in the machine. Set to dough cycle. START. Go read, bicycle, make love, feed the cat, sew or put stuff on eBay or Etsy.
Upon return, grab a cookie sheet or a bread pan. Sprinkle with a light drift of flour. Place completed dough on sheet or in pan. Shape to rough potato shape. With a very sharp knife...slash diagonally a few times, use a very sharp, clean knife. I do do it thrice. 3 slashes...4 ok. 5?? Sure. Lengthwise? Sure. Whatever...
Now some HINTS!
Hint #1. Little less salt. Not a full Tablespoon, 1/2 of that instead. Kills off less yeast, better overall rise.
Hint #2. Less yeast. 1/2 teaspoon will do the trick.
Hint #3. “The Trick” Autolyse the batch. “Oh shit, do what?!” Ok, into the bread container in your machine put in 1 C of your flour, 1/2 tsp yeast, both Tablespoons of sugar and all of the warm (115 degree) water. Stir this up and shut the lid for 1 hour. When open it should be quite a foamy slurry of slimy stuff. Then add the rest of the flour (2 cups), the 1/2 Tablespoon of salt and then 2 Tablespoons, oil, bacon fat, lard, butter, margarine, axel grease. Turn on the bread machine, allow machine to do it’s thing to completion. Now...
Hint #4. Pie pan of 1/2” water into the bottom of your oven, PREHEAT oven to 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Insert shaped bread (dust with flour now) in bread pans or on cookie sheet. Diagonal slice the top please w/clean very sharp knife.
Hint #5. Set time for 30 minutes. Go read or drink.
Hint #6. MOST of the flavor you love in bread is developed through the mailard reaction of the sugars in the crust when it’s baked VERY DARK! Crust = Flavor...it should be damned dark when you pull it! Almost burned looking. If it isn’t then leave it in for another 10 minutes or so. Get it dark! Real dark!
Hint #7. The “Hardest Thing”...turn it out of the pan or cookie sheet onto a kitchen towel, lay it on it’s SIDE please after a few minutes cooking to evaporate some of the early water from the bottom of the loaf. Let sit 1/2 an hour. Right side up now, cover with kitchen towel allow to rest OVERNIGHT! YES..that is correct...OVER NIGHT. The crust will inflict flavor into the loaf, the crumb will stabilize into tasty, hole filled, goodness and you will have the best damned loaf you ever attempted.
Good Luck my Beauties!

Bread, Scallops and Sweet Black Rice

Food...I LOVE cooking and we love food...of all kinds, Asian, Middle Eastern, French, Italian, Cuban, Mexican etc. etc.  Thai is also a favorite.  It's all about Flavor, how it tastes.  The textures, the heat, the piquancy,  the manner of cooking, the flavor profiles of a culture of food.  We love grocery stores and open-air markets and incidental sales of spices and flavorings.  Proteins, the meats...the vegetables and legumes, potatoes, cabbages, tomatoes, oh tomatoes!  Love it all, all!  To be able to access all of this is a dream come true.  Bread, the staff of Life, wheat, barley, the darkened crust carrying all those dark, caramelized flavors.  I've learned so very much and I dearly love the tasks that food bring to me. 

A long time ago we bought a bread machine, it was interesting but not used in the manner in which it was supposed to.  Only to do the effort required to turn the flour, salt, sugar and water...and, of course yeast, into the dough needed to make bread.  So, with those slight limitations I began the "baking experiment".  My first awful results were the production of hockey pucks, bricks and door stops.  This phase lasted for many, many sessions.  Flour in, rocks and bricks out.  Not enough knowledge and damned little experience.  There are whole encyclopedic discussions of the theory of baking, how an oven works, temperatures, flours, salts, sugars, water...all of it.  One could spend a lifetime READING about baking and never actually doing it.  I had those feelings in the early days of my baking knowledge.  Once I got something that worked to make something vaguely akin to real bread I was pleased somewhat.  The science took over.  You NEED science when baking, recipes are nearly exact.  They are tight to the needs of the flour, salt, sugar and water in various couplings.  Science! 

In these latter days my breads have become almost wonderful, damned good at least...and best of all eatable!   Oh the darkened crust, all that flavor in that thin, crispy wonderfulness.  Today and yesterday were high points in baking for me, 4 loaves yesterday, three to my neighbors and today 2 more that will be delivered to our renters and to our next door neighbors.  I wilkl find pictures for your enjoyment and disgust.  Yes, I'm a show off!

 

The Garbage Disposal...

On another front, have you EVER had a garbage disposal blow up?  I have one sitting now on the kitchen floor that has done that.  The upper housing has cracked and oh does it LEAK!  Pours our garbage pieces and pieces of itself too!  Sooo I went online found it’s identical replacement for 80 bux BUT it isn’t available in the @##!@!! store though THOUSANDS have apparently used this one for many years...but to get one, I’d have to WAIT for 10-15 days!  Shit, shit, shit.  Fukin’ Home Depot!  Bastards do, however have the NEXT MODEL up in the scheme with nothing about it that would improve anything but it is 99 Bux.  It is available (of course).  So I order it online and pay for it amidst all the calls for Immediate Repair from other quarters of the house I occupy.  I print out the required paperwork PROVING who I am and that I, indeed, DID order it online and am instructed to BE SURE TO BRING THIS PAPER WITH YOU WHEN YOU COME TO PICK UP the fuckin’ thing.  Oh and have a proof of ID and the damned Credit Card you used.

Sure, no problem.  First install some new ink cartridges in the damned printer and align the stupid thing, then print the email they sent with all the notices and documentation requirements and take all of this downstairs to set at my place on the flat surface we call a “dining” table for tomorrows “first thing”.   Sure.  So I sleep the sleep of angels (DO THEY EVER SLEEP???)  and awake at 6am, gain some two cups of espresso, wake my darling housemate as she must go a shopping today in Vallejo for our eBay store...every Wednesday without interruption.    She gone in a poof, out the door, into the car and the dust settles.  I grab my keys, grab the papers I have so carefully set down at my place on the flat surface, grab my wallet from the hook in the Kitchen, go out the door, set the alarm system with a click and off to my truck I go.  Off to HD to pick up the new disposal.  Upon arrival some 10 minutes later, I go to the nice lady and went to give her the papers which I had stuffed in my pocket all nicely folded into a tight little oblong paper-thing.  No oblong.  What!?  Shit, shit, shit...must have dropped it coming out of the car...”oops”, I say and return to the truck, nothing on the ground, dig out my keys and open the door, nothing inside!  Shit, shit, shit. Under the seat somehow...nope. Damn! So back in the store I go to stand now in a line 10 persons deep!  Shit!  Eventually...20 minutes later I am received by the nice, young lady again.  “Can I help you?” she says.  “Yes, I’m here to pick up the garbage disposal I ordered online last night.  “ She looks at me, “can I see the sheet of paper you printed?”  “No”, I said, explaining “I must have lost it somewhere along the way”.  “Oh”, she says staring at me with an empty expression on her face.”  “Well, you’ll have to print it again and come back.”  I say..”Wrong answer...here’s my credit card that I used to purchase the thing and here’s my ID.”  “Yes, but you NEED to have the paperwork”.  “Why?”  “Because that’s the only way I can prove you actually bought it online”, she replies.  “I’m standing here, I bought it...I cvould walk down the aisle and pick one up and bring it to a cashier, couldn’t I?”  “Yes”, she says “You could.” Fuck!  “Why don’t I do this then when I get home I could go back online and CANCEL the order...right?” “Yes”, she says flatly.  Then I spy the damned box about three feet away sitting on the floor...with a HUGE BLACK “LUTE” written on top.  “It’s right there”, she turns and looks. “Oh, yes, it matches the ID and credit card, doesn’t it”.  “Not exactly...missing a few things, numbers, letters!!”  “I need the paperwork she say sitting the box before me on the counter.”  I walk off, go down the plumbing aisle, there it is “Badger 500”.  I grab one of the stack, walk to the mop department, grab a mop-thing and go to a cashier and stand in another line 10 people deep.  Another swell looking young lady person come up to me and says “You could use the self-checkout, you only have 2 items, it’ll be quick.”  I just stare at her.

 

 

 

Things and Stuff

Yesterday at 1pm we joined a couple of hundred other music aficionados in Vacaville for a Tribute to Don Johnson of Winterhawk Winery fame.  He passed a few weeks ago and has left a hole in the venue availability box.  The event was held in the De Ville Theater which was blaringly alive as we came through the doors...so much so that we returned to the car to fetch Kelly's supply of ear plugs!  We took seats high up in the upper balcony and enjoyed the show.  So many bands with so few breaks in the action is was a Scene alright that would have made Don very happy indeed.  We saw and heard many friends from our Chris' Club Daze and while we didn't seek them out it felt like we were in friendly (if all white Vacavillians) company.  Even Ronnie of the Bay Area Blues Society brought his group along to finish up the show at 5 pm.   We had a good time in this new, possible venue with it's great acoustics, comfortable seating and enthusiastic crowd.  The fries were excellent at $4.50 a bunch and the IPA on tap was delicious!  Hope they can make this a regular venue, it's be a real attraction.  R.I.P. Blondies...this is right down the street, easy parking too!

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Well my darling Ashley came to visit a couple of weeks ago and stayed a week and a few to brighten up our life.  Sweet, charming, outspoken as ever, her life in South Carolina is both interesting, enjoyable and problematic.  She is married now after 40+ years of being on her very own.  It likes her I think, she is learning how to be married.  'Tain't the easy road all of the time, many compromises along the way.  The house is theirs, a huge project underway with walls, floors and everything that goes with it to be yet finished.  I'm proud of her and Andy for their undertaking such a labor of love and endurance.  It mirrors our own experience "back in the day(s)".  Some health issues bother them but hey! they're not spring chickens anymore and nor are we.  Our weather here for her visit was largely unusually warm and sunny, the first January in decades with ZERO rain!  That's BIG in a state where it's been in drought conditions for the last three plus years!  A record.  We liked it though.  Mostly we all sat, talked about things and stuff for hours on end, sorta getting to know one another again after a long pause.  Change comes fast sometimes.  Even Mike, Jess and Jordan came to visit one night!  Unusual! But great fun, smiles and giggles.

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Supposed to rain today, I used Google Earth to check the whereabouts of this great storm...HA! and yes there is a blob southwest of us out at sea but heading our way, should be here in a few hours to wet the day thoroughly.  We need it!  I need to download the pictures from yesterdays music bash and just installed Picasa to help in the process.  Then I'll get them up here in a while, so check back later today.