What Are You Doing For Excitement Today?

[larryJ]

Well, another hurdle in life achieved.  If I had a bucket list, boat trips would not be in it.  However, this one wasn't so bad.  My son picked us up at the American legion dock and headed towards the ocean.  Then made a u-turn when we reached the Balboa Ferry and headed back in a northerly direction where we could see all the really nice homes.  One was pointed out as the home of Nicholas Cage and another that was or did belong to Cyndy Lauper.  All along the way we saw different boats, anchored and moving, some of which were spectacular.  Being in the Bay, the water was calm and the little electric motor kept up a speed of about ten miles an hour.  Then another u-turn at the head of the Bay and back to the American Legion.  The ride took about an hour.  Someone had stopped at the Crab Cooker restaurant and ordered a bunch of food, albacore and salmon and potatoes and bread.  So we had a little picnic on the boat.  The Crab Cooker restaurant is a great place.  On a weekend, you might have to wait up to an hour to be seated.  They have benches outside to sit on.  However, the fish is the freshest you can get and the potatoes have some cheese mixed in and then they drop the potatoes on the grill briefly to form a bottom crust.  Yummy! 

Today, I will spend the day getting ready for the upcoming trip to the cousin's reunion.  My son will pick me up early tomorrow.  The rest of the group will fly on Tuesday.  We will return on Thursday. 

Larryj

[Diane Amberg]

We're off to Baltimore in a few minutes. Neat old historic city on an interesting harbor. The big national aquarium is there. Al has meetings and I'll poke around the little shops and eat seafood down at the harbor. It's fun when the tall ships come in. Enjoy the rest of the week.

[Diane Amberg]

 Warning! A few of you will be bored to death with the following, so don't read this and risk injury.

Home again and unpacked. Had a very nice time and met some very interesting people from the mid Atlantic states.
  Wednesday evening we were asked out to dinner at the B&O Grill which is part of the Monaco Hotel we stayed in. At one time it had been the home office of the B&O Railroad and looks much like a big fancy old railroad station inside.
   Anyway, our host asked the waiter to bring  samples of every appetizer they had for the table to share...and this is one very fancy but casual place with a very new wave modern menu. The chef put out an unbelievable array such as I had never seen in my life! There were barbecued duck legs and skewered roast quail, wild mushroom ravioli, fancy pirogi, quail eggs with caviar, stuffed dates wrapped in prosciutto, tiny little ribs, truffles in tofu, house made Scrapple with a quail egg inside the mini slices on a little English Muffin, diver scallops, more prosciutto wrapped around melon slices, and white asparagus, and so many more I've forgotten some.
  Nothing was fried. Each was served with a coordinating light sauce on a bed of interesting fruits and vegetables of all kinds.Then came our main dishes! Whew.... and it cost the two of us nothing.
   Each evening the hotel had wine and tidbits down in the living room style lobby at 5:00, again at no cost.
Al's pension meetings were very interesting. Several people I enjoyed meeting were from the police and fire pension boards in Baltimore, Philly and NYC. They were very knowledgeable about the economic situation and it was interesting to hear them talking about what they are having to do to keep their pension plans viable. It was sad to hear about the cities that have simply not put legally required money into the funds for many years and now they are caught with a short fall for their employees. Talk about a real Ponzi!
Baltimore is expecting the tall ships to be coming into the harbor for the big 200 year celebration next week. The history buffs on here will know why.
  Glad to be home so I can go play in the garden again.

[greatguns]

Would it not be wonderful to be there and help celebrate the 200 years.  Sounds like you had a good time and ate well.

[Wilma]

I have had my treat for the day.  I got to watch the resident turtle climb into the birdbath overflow pan.  The pan is an old skillet and it's purpose is to provide water for the creatures that can't get up to the birdbath.  Not only did I get to see him get into it, a little later I carried my oatmeal to the window to check on him and he was just crawling out.

I suspect that there has been a nest of baby rabbits in one of the flower beds close to the house.  A neighbor that walks her dog past here every day told me that the dog has shown a lot of interest in this particular bed and she has seen a rabbit close to it several times.  I have also seen a rabbit where rabbits don't usually hang out.  And if you are on the walk that goes past the bed and look in from the east side, there appears to be a tunnel through the foliage.  I haven't tried finding the nest as I don't want to frighten the babies if they are still there.

[larryJ]

Wow, Diane, you been hanging wid the rich folk agin?  I don't know if I would eat half that stuff.

After months of once-a-week cheerleading practice, granddaughter #1, now seven-years-old performed last night with her age group at the local Rancho Cucamonga Quakes baseball stadium before the game.  There was an older group who were out on the field also.  Because the groundskeepers were still getting the field ready for the game the girls were beyond the infield to do their cheers.  One group did their cheer and then the other and then a combined cheer from both groups.  It was brief and they were so far out it was hard to tell which one she was, but my daughter managed to find her and point her out.  Afterwards, she came back to where we were sitting and got her deserved congrats.

The Quakes stadium is appropriately called the Epicenter and it is located about 20 miles east of our house.  The Quakes are a Single-A team currently affiliated with the Dodgers.  That changes from time to time.  When I first saw a game there they were affiliated with the Angels.  Some of you may giggle at the names here because of the quake reputation of the area.  Here is more to laugh at:  The team has a mascot, a crocodile type......his name is.........Tremor.  There is another mascot who is smaller.......his name.........aftershock.  My first experience there was with my cousin Frank and his wife.  Just before the game, the seat I was in shook slightly and I thought, "Wow!  Funny names like Quakes and Epicenter and Tremor and Aftershock and now they even have a system that shakes the seats to make you think an earthquake is happening!  How cool is that?"  Turns out there really was a small earthquake nearby, just large enough to shake the seats a tad.  No special effects.  

The owners of the team and stadium have so much entertainment going on between the innings that it is hard to concentrate on the game.  The mascots and the girls on the staff who help people find their seats or help with their problems sometimes get on the two dugouts and dance to recorded music blasting from the booth.  They really cater to kids.  They have a contest where a young kid races Tremor around the bases.  Of course, Tremor always lets the kid win.  Last night, he was trying to stop her by handing her a bouquet of roses which she through to the ground while running.  He was heartbroken and one of the staffers suggested he give the flowers to the first-base umpire........who threw them on the ground!  There are many such actions going on.  And to top it off, last night was a fireworks night.  The fireworks show is pretty spectacular.  Granddaughters #2 and #3 weren't impressed and were hiding their faces and crying.  Oh well, they will get used to it.

I don't know what is happening today.  It's too early yet as the wife is still in bed.  So my day hasn't been explained to me yet.

Larryj

[Diane Amberg]

Oh my word, what fun that was! I love the names!The kids must really love the side show and all the fooling around.

   Larry, yes, we were hanging around with dose rich dudes again.The various plan sponsors have huge expense accounts for the conferences. They are very down to earth and casual personally though. Most took the train down and have to travel constantly and the hours are very long, so it's not a family man kind of job.  The pension trustees, like Al, are very hard working public employees who are dealing with their unions and county council members (commissioners) and all the economic hardships and work full time too.     
We are very fortunate here that our Pension Board,The Executive Office, the County Council President and County Council it's self have a good relationship.  Some of the stories I heard were just awful.Talk about legal crooks!
  But the people are so nice.The one young man,Steve lives in central Manhattan so he has an easy walk to work.Last year he had no ideas what "fiddle heads" were on the menu, so I ordered some for us to share. Earlier this spring he was in their corner market and sure enough, they had fiddle heads in the organic foods section and feeling very smart, he bought some since he knew how to steam them and knew he liked them. Now this year I had to tell the city dwellers what was in the fancy table fresh flower decorations. There were big round Allium, tiny branched orchids and feathery Liatris (Gayfeather). Steve said '"last year fiddle heads, this year Allium, what's for next year?" Yes, it was fun.

[Janet Harrington]

I think my day has been great. I have been sitting on the couch watching the movie "The Patriot" on AMC and tthe little chihuahua is laying beside my leg snoring. How can life get any better than this?

[Warph]

Taking a Pamoramic trip to the Holyland:

As a befitting gift to all who have been keenly longing to see the holy places that trace the life of Jesus Christ, Leen Thobias, noted panoramic photographer, has come with a virtual gift of the sites and sights of the Holy Land.

Here is an amazing bit of technology that you will see better than in person, as you would NEVER be alone in the room.
It is ALWAYS VERY CROWDED and of course, while there you wouldn't see the HOLYLAND close up as you can here.
This is especially spectacular if you have a large high-definition screen!  Too many details to view on an iPhone/ipad.

MOVE THE MOUSE AROUND AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS.  TO VIEW EVERY PART OF THE HOLYLAND, JUST CLICK AND DRAG YOUR ARROW IN THE DIRECTION YOU WISH TO SEE.  KEEP THE SOUND ON.  MOVE THE ARROW AND YOU WILL SEE EVERY PART OF THE HOLYLAND.

In the buttons, click on the plus (+) to move closer, on the minus (-) to move away.  You can use shift/ctrl keys to zoom.
This virtual tour of the HOLYLAND is incredible, created by leen Thobias and crew of P4panorama.

CLICK BELOW:-

http://www.p4panorama.com/panos/HOLYLAND/index.html

[larryJ]

I can see that I made a grammatical error in the story about the Quakes games.  Where I said.........

Last night, he was trying to stop her by handing her a bouquet of roses which she through to the ground while running.
Obviously should have been threw.

To apologize and make up for this monstrous error, here is a bonus quip from a friend of mine.......

MARRIAGE IS THE ONLY WAR WHERE YOU SLEEP WITH THE ENEMY!

Larryj