Happy B-Day MacKenzie! and a Great Bonding Activity for Fathers and Daughters and Others

Today is our little 2 year old GC's B-Day. She is a most cute, most bright, most engaging little character. Born to Aimee and Joe she has her Mum's good looks and the energy of both of them.
Her sister, Kaylee, loves her dearly. She just about didn't visit this world though as her Mum developed Preeclampsia and it was progressing rapidly about 7 weeks from her Real B-Day to be. They used to call this condition something else but I've forgotten that too, precious...aging, just precious. Anyway here's a link to get the real low down on this most dangerous and potential killer of new Mum's and babies.
http://pregnancy.emedtv.com/preeclampsia/preclampsia.html
So they took the baby by C section and though small at 3lbs and with the effects of the preclampsia, hospital bound for several weeks, she is a wonderful gift today!
Anyhow we will all eat Pizza at Mary's Pizza Shack and have a cake and all the mess that means. Great for kids and fun for us too.
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The rest of the few days I've paused from the blog have been spent reading about sourdough bread, the starter in trivial detail and modifying what I am doing somewhat. I sent a self-stamped envelop to Carl' in Maryland and he's returned to me a small package of his live starter. It looked pretty flat in the clear plastic bag but once freed and into a small bowl, warmed a bit and with a tablespoon of flour and a slightly shyer amount of H2O added and mixed well it came to life, burp! That was 5 days ago. I've divided the Mum Starter in two, forming a working starter that will actually become bread while preserving the original Mum, it's safer that way and less likely to end up getting polluted with some other ingredient. Mum stays a virgin, get it?
The Baby gets played with and will become a loaf, not today but probably tomorrow after I feed it two more times. To get Carl's famous starter stuff here's what you do; go to his site, read the blurb and ship off your SSAE, you won't be disappointed. Here's the link:
http://home.att.net/~carlsfriends/
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Then yesterday...Audrey came over as Kelly left as I needed the help of a strong woman with the mattress swap onto "my" man-bed (HA!) to try out our old marriage-bed mattress instead of the one that came with the bed frame. Audrey dragged and I pushed, Ooof, up the stairs we went with it and plopped it down on the box springs and wow, what a difference! A decent bed! Any you know...I didn't wake up once last night! Not once! And that had gotten to be a regular thing. Mattresses make a difference. Then in an ultimate step-father - step-daughter bonding moment we took on the task of changing the oil in her Toyota Echo some 13,000 miles since it was changed last...by guess who? Yes, me. 13,000 miles no less! Synthetic oil it was but ever so black and well contaminated now. I found the drain again (it was a year ago since I climbed under the beast, cute as it is) and proceeded to use a breaker bar to get enough leverage to pull the damned thing loose again! Grrrrrr. Loose, I unscrewed it and placed the old black lid from a boat battery box underneath to catch the black goo in all it's glory. Soon it was well draining and...what's that? Oh no! A FLOOD of oily mess...EXON VALDIZ!!! In our driveway!!! Shit! Merde! Something! A bag? Audrey rushed off to get some plastic bags, the mess continued to pour out onto the concrete of our previously clean driveway. Another container (no), rags? (no), paper towels (no), damnit...what a mess...and it has to be stopped before it gets into the drain system and reeks havoc with the local sewer system! (Think EPA, Corps of Engineers, State Lands Commission, City Hall, Barrack Obama!) Oh my God, this IS a disaster. So cat litter to the rescue! Having moved the car down the driveway and into the street...yes,yes with the plug IN and the filter changed and new oil added, the now thoroughly blackened driveway is fully exposed for my dear wife and Republican neighbors to see! So for the next two hours we scrubbed (more bonding), power-washed, soaped, scraped and removed MOST (but not all) of the slimy black goo. Such fun on a Sunday afternoon. And along comes my sweetie Kelly, all cheerful and pert, took no notice of the dark stain and pulled her car right in and covered the 20 foot long spot. Nice. And she's not even mad. Bonding activities are so very rewarding.

Pea Soup! And Cinnamon Buns!

It's Baaaaack! The Fog. Thick, swirling viscous fog of the marsh and California Valley. The fog that kills. Boats collide, cars and trucks mix up metals and paint.
Terrible stuff this because here...life goes on with or without it. One must drive in California, it's a rule. Everything you want, job, careers, training, food, fast food (not real FOOD but simulated...quite popular) and that commodity that makes it all run...gasoline! Yes We Drive For Gas! So in fog as thick as this the traffic barely slows down except to glare at some other poor soul who has given up and is parked in the high speed lane eyes wide open (or shut!) in fear for his/her life! Then they get hit! So went the commute to wherever. Fog so bad that hundreds of cars enter the fray when some woe-be-gone changes lanes into the side of a passing big rig. Others, the other way is to take only 2 lane roads and avoid the high speed travails of the Interstate grid lock death race. That's even more hazardous!
Uncontrolled entrances from side streets, mom and pop stores, mini-malls, strip malls, malls! Deadly game this Fog Driving business. Avoid the driving and you sit home watching reruns of "Dr. Phil's House" where couples take IT out on their spouses and Others trapped by the good Doctor in this HOUSE somewhere in Hollywood (I expect). Or watch your cats sleep. Life is OVER in California without your ever so reliable car. It's the way-it-is.
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Then there's Cinnamon Buns To Die For:

These are for breakfast in Heaven...
Now...think of that regular ol' Lute whole Wheat Nut Loaf from a few blogs back...make it but w/o the oats in the beginning and hold the nuts for after the 1st rise. Use dough cycle of your machine, or do it by hand, I don't care.

Same recipe except:
ADD 1 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon to the dough right in the beginning.
Now:
Mix thoroughly
1 Cup Brown Sugar
1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon Nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon Cloves
2 TBSP (the big one) Butter or Margarine
1/2 cup chopped Pecans, chopped Walnuts (expensive these days), Pine Nuts,
Spanish Peanuts.
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The Glaze:
1 Cup Powdered Sugar
1/2 cup Whole Milk
2 Tablespoons Butter
1 Tablespoon Shortening or Margarine.
Heat this slowly in a small skillet til it just begins to boil, turn off.

At the end of the 1st full rise while the bread is still in the risen state,
poke a finger in it and knock it down...this is normally done by one of the
baker-helper angels but here on earth it's up to you. Don't punch it!
Never. never, never! Others are watching!
Now...after that rant...
Take your dough and place on a well floured surface. If God wanders by at
this moment because of the luscious smells...tell him it'll be a while,
he'll understand...maybe.
Roll and shape with a rolling pin to a large rectangle.
Sprinle the brown sugar mix over the entire surface.
Roll tightly into a long round loaf.
Cut 1" slices across the beauty and place in a well greased pan, skillet or
baking sheet.
Allow to rise til it doubles...45 min to an hour.
Bake at 350 for 40 minutes. Remove and brush on the glaze as you like it,
thick or thin.
Allow to cool...HA!
Tell the angels to "beat it"! This disaster is yours and you'll make more
for them later...share one with God. Or two if you're friendly.

Cars, Autos and More Pieces of Junk...

The All VW garage (what car of mine has EVER lived in a garage?!) ended abruptly in the spring of 1972. The thoroughly worn out three year old 69 VW Bug with 110K miles on it (yes!) blew a cylinder and found itself in the VW shop in Mill Valley. The shop was adjacent to the Ford dealer.



A bright red brand new Ford Courier talked to me, saying, "just think of the junk you could haul in me and with a cover over the bed I could double as a camper on weekend fishing trips". Yes! So a deal was struck, I paid cash for the truck (flush then, not now) and drove the lil' charmer home to a surprised wife. Weeks followed with my adding a cassette player so I could listen to The Stones and The Beatles on the way to work each morning. I added some truck style mirrors so I could see better when hauling all that junk down the road too. It good decent mileage for then to, 20 -25 mpg and for a truck was reasonably comfortable. Sometime in 1974 we moved to Petaluma and the truck certainly performed yeoman-like duty during the transition; furniture, a pottery wheel, a 1/2 ton of clay and a small sailboat I built came along for the ride. She lived for another three years running me helter skelter around the Bay Area fixing customer's room-filling computers day in and day out. In the summer of 1977 she stayed home while I attended a golf tournament, my dear wife, having a morning appointment of her own, stayed back til later in the day and then she drove the truck to the golf club (tried too) and blew the engine when a water hose broke along the way in the 108 degree California heat! So long to the lil' red truck, cost more to fix than she was worth (even then). I sold her for scrap with 165,000 miles on her 5 1/2 years after I bought her. Verdict: A Car - Good, honest transportation.

Automobiles, Cars and Piles of Junk Cont'd

The next chapter in my exploits as a car owner happened when my mother died in the spring of 1963. The Red Cross paid my way to her funeral in San Diego and I accompanied my grandmother and Harold back to Selma afterwards. I bought the Mercury from a used car lot in Selma. She was a shiny low mileage used 1956 Mercury 2 Dr. Hardtop in two-toned green, dark below light on top. Quite a nice ride she was and in top notch condition. I was determined to take her back to Keesler with me so I could explore Mississippi and Louisiana more easily on the weekends. They sent me on my way with a couple of ham sandwiches and some blankets to let me sleep in the car on my way to Keesler if I needed too. I drove down the 99 and headed out into the desert towards the old Route 66 that I was going to take east to my destination a couple of thousand miles away. I got as far as half way to Blythe across the icy cold desert when the Merc coughed and quit. I sat by the side of the road for a long while and finally signalled a car who stopped and gave me a ride to the nearest town where I called Harold for advice on the car. He told me to hold tight and he drove the 150 miles to fix it (blocked fuel filter) and take me to the Greyhound station in Selma the next afternoon to renew my trip back to the base. The Merc remained in Selma for a while. When I got my permanent duty assignment at Beale AFB I returned via air to Fresno, Harold picked me up in the newly waxed and cleaned spotless Mercury which I soon drove north to Beale AFB outside of Marysville. I got it licensed for use on the base and used it going back and forth to visit my parents and girl friends in Selma on weekends that I was able to. It got about 15 mpg and was fairly reliable as well, it looked nice and my dates appreciated that it got us to the skating rink and home again without either running out of gas or go due to crappy mechanicals like the old Ford often did. I put many thousands of miles parading that car all over northern California until one day on the way back to the base from Selma it died and Harold came the 60 miles to rescue me again. It was adios to the Merc, sold for parts now in the 8th year of it's existance. I bused my way back to the base on Sunday and bought a new car about a month later. The verdict: Another piece of junk.