Ugly Christmas Sweater
It’s amazing the things Dad will do to spend time with his girls. This year on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, I would have gone shopping at the mall to be with Dana, but she would rather hunt for ugly Christmas sweaters needed for an upcoming ugly-Christmas-sweater party. So instead of the Mall, we went on the hunt at used clothing stores. We started at the Goodwill and found nothing. People must be wearing all of them still. However, we hit pay dirt at “In Your Wildest Dreams” downtown where there was an entire rack of ugly Christmas sweaters to choose from. Most time on these shopping trips I can find something for myself, even if it’s a used book. This time I found the most awesome “like new” silk shirt that would have been perfect for Tony Soprano or Pauley Walnuts. Check it out in the picture.
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| Truffle Fries at the Padre |
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| Ugly Christmas Sweater |
All this high intensity shopping makes us hungry and thirsty. So after Dana scored ugly Christmas sweaters for her and Charlie and I walked out wearing a totally cool Tony Soprano shirt, we were ready for some grub and adult beverages. Say Hello to Padre Hotel just across the street.
Destination….. Fries
Can French fries be so damn good that they are destination worthy? I’m not talking about McDonalds or In-n-Out or fast food fries. I’m sure most people have their favorite. My favorite fast food French fry is none at all. As a rule, I don’t eat fries or fast food. But since rules are meant to be broken, I can say that I like Chick Filet, an occasional John’s Burger and the Mexican food at Rancho Grande Market and Vallarta Markets. My favorite fast food is still the lengua tacos at Gabby’s taco truck that parks at Contractors Road, Entrance D, off highway 33 in the middle of the Belridge oilfield. Made with 2 of the full size corn tortillas, heated with a little oil on the grill so they are hot and soft, they are full of meat and taco garnish, I haven’t had tacos this good in Mexico. And they have the best salsas and pico de gallo to dress them up with. The pico do gallo is chopped jalapeno and cilantro, heavy on the jalapeno. There is a green avocado salsa and hot red salsa also. I have enjoyed many impromptu tailgate and open-trunk lunches. For variety, and since they don’t always have lengua, I often order the cabeza or tripas tacos. The carne asada can be a bit gristly and the chicken is common and bland.
The appetizer menu at the Padre Hotel has Truffle Fries for $8. They are the best fries I can remember having anywhere. They are made to order, so they are hot, crispy and tossed in truffle oil, garlic and fresh grated parmesan cheese. They are served in a cone-shaped basket or can you can upgrade a burger to include the truffle fries. After our shopping success, we ordered the Truffle Fries and Mimosa’s.
Rodriguez
At the Flicks at the Fox, our favorite movie entertainment where we see international films during the fall, winter and spring, we got a great tip that the Maya Theater downtown is showing international films on Wednesday nights at 7:00 PM. We recently saw the movie “Searching For Sugarman”.
1970 was my era in pop music. And I had never heard of Rodriguez. He never made it in the US, but was a superstar in South Africa. The movie is a great documentary of his story and music. I highly recommend seeing the music for the story and to sample the music from 1969 and 1970. It’s like a blend of Jose Feliciano and Bob Dylan. The lyrics are haunting:
“Cause they told me everybody’s got to pay their dues and I explained that I had overpaid them”
And the digital quality of the instrumental’s are great.
If 1969-1971 music meant anything to you, you owe it to yourself to check out with you missed.
Wine Review… Varozza Vineyards
32 years ago as a mud engineer, when I was working on gas wells in Rio Vista, I had colleagues working on the geothermal wells in just north of Napa. I heard that the wells and power plants are scattered all over the mountains and for 32 years I have wanted to visit The Geysers. I have friends that have worked on the sulfur filter presses at the Geysers that they make for removing sulfur from the H2S process. Now with Fiberspar I thought that The Geysers could use our corrosion resistant line pipe. I got contacts from my friends and located the facilities engineering manager. I got a good response from my phone calls and e-mails and made an appointment to do a lunch and learn presentation on Fiberspar. They have a tremendous display in the lobby of the main engineering building that explains the history and technology in making power at the largest geothermal production facility in the world. And there are wells and power plants scattered over the mountains and valleys. It was a great day in learning about geothermal power and I got a personal tour of the field from the manager of engineering. We concluded with lunch and my presentation on opportunities for Fiberspar composite line pipe. They do have some applications where the run 1-2 miles of 3 inch pipe for draining brine condensate from the steam that is produced from the wells. It’s a 2 day trip to make this call. And there are 2 ways to get to the remote town of Middletown, CA, the nearest town to The Geysers main offices. One way is from I-5 north of Sacramento and one way is from Napa Valley.
However, with our Christmas rib roast, I am having the black label Pentimento by Le Cuvier. But I look forward to having the Varozza Petit Sirah with a juicy steak and tomato pie this summer.
