Well, since I went to bed last night really early, I am getting an early start to see my Dad. He is buried at San Joaquin Valley National Cemetery in Gustine, CA which is only an hour on the freeway. A total of 1hr and 15 minutes from my home. A really nice drive. I ALWAYS have a foldable chair in the truck of my car, a blanket and the necessary tools to cut the roses and a bag to not make a mess. I am absolutely grateful that my Dad is buried in such a pristine Cemetery. I always drive to Safeway, grab a extra hot, hot chocolate, my dozen red roses, a little memento for the grave. I try to remember to bring an american flag. Last month, I placed a little mini pumpkin on his grave. The month before that was a half drank bottle of coco cola. Coke was his favorite soda. The reason why I drank half of it, I didn’t want the maintenance crew or whomever to drink something that I bought for him. So, if it’s half empty, who would drink it? Since it’s November, I can’t place a mini turkey. I have to think of something to place other than the flowers. Maybe I will just be traditional and place an american flag. He will LOVE that too. The cemetery opens at 8. I can’t wait for “THE VISIT”.
I’m already thinking about Thanksgiving weekend. Up to Truckee for sure. My brother his family and my Mom will be at his place while my husband and I will stay at his parents place which is only a half mile away.
Every time we go to Truckee it’s a mini vacation. It’s almost like having a time share except we don’t have to pay a fee. We just have to clean up after ourselves. That is the only part of it not feeling like a time share. But what do you expect, it is someone else’s home therefore you clean up a little extra.
I know that there won’t be much to do for my husband since the snow wont’ be on the ground-maybe a little but not enough to ski. You never know… with this warm weather we are having and the cold snap in the middle of the US and the cold snap in the East. It could switch at any time and REMAIN cold elsewhere (he he) and the snow could fall by Thanksgiving (AND STICK). But still, it won’t be good skiing conditions. You need at least a 4 foot base which means it would have to start snowing this weekend and keep snowing until Thanksgiving.
The plan for Saturday “DAY” was already planned out on Friday night. Clean house, do chores all morning and then our “reward” is to take the afternoon around 2 pm and head over to Wente (4 miles from our house) and wine taste. We also had a plan, we had to use a coupon, buy a couple of wines for ourselves and buy 2 bottles for my husband’s brother. So, we bought our wine and decided to head over to Blacksmith Square because on Saturdays- they always have a musician playing. Well, Blacksmith Square in Livermore has 5 winery tasting rooms- The Big White House (new), Red Skye, John Christopher Cellars, Retzlaff and Thomas Coyne. My Favorite is The Big White House while my husband’s favorite is Thomas Coyne. But….. with all the varietals served, his favorite winery at Blacksmith Square was Red Skye. So, by the time we got to Thomas Coyne and I had 2 samples, I was a bit tipsy and it was only 4 pm. Kind of funny. Tee hee! Wente had 5 complimentary tastings, Thomas Coyne had a tasting fee of $5 but had 6 tastings, after my 6th tasting, I had to sit down. While my husband went over to Red Skye for 5 tastings for $5. Then, I met up with him at The Big White House for 6 tastings maybe even 7. By the time we left at 6 pm, I was pretty lit. Sooooo lit that I couldn’t feel my aching feet anymore and it felt like I was walking on pillows. Went back to the car, put my Peach Champagne in the trunk and off to dinner we went. We walked around the new downtown a bit before deciding to eat at Strizzi’s (Italian). Dinner was good but service was sooooo SLOW. Normally, one can order their food, order a glass of wine and get their dinner before the wine is even half way gone. Not in this case, I ordered my salad, devoured it, the waiter came by and was shocked that I didn’t receive my salad yet. I informed him that I already ate it. He seemed shock that it was already gone, then asked to take our order but the general manager must have witnessed us sitting there a long time and took our order before the waiter came back. The waiter apologized and stated that he took a large party’s order. Blah, blah, blah. All in all, besides the service being really slow…… the food was really good. I ordered the asiago and garlic ravioli with a pesto garlic cream sauce (really good). I love cream sauces on my pasta. There was so much sauce left over that I needed more bread to sop of the tasty sauce. You know me, I am all about the sauce! The hostess brought over more bread, I wanted to get someone soon so my cream didn’t coagulate. My husband had the SPECIAL which was trout served with a pecan butter reduction, mashed potatoes and fresh seasonal vegetables. His looked fresh and LIGHT but when I eat Italian, I like decadent. We paid our bill and walked back to the coche. It was a very special treat.
Heading home… would you believe it was only 7:35 pm but it felt like 10 pm. I failed to mention that the weather was absolutely gorgeous earlier in the day. It was 75 degrees at one time.
We had actually done a lot in one day and to our surprise we were really tired. We got home, changed clothes, brushed our teeth and we were in bed by 8:30 pm. Yep, we are getting old, in a GOOD WAY!
Do you ever find it odd, especially if you’ve had it quite a bit in a short period of time. It doesn’t matter what it is…… what type of food….. . If someone prepares it instead of you, it always seems to taste better?
Well, my father in law prepared a steak dinner in which he had two types of cut- London Broil and Rib Eye. Well, I don’t think it had to do with the cut, but more of how it was prepared. Jason and I hardly use the Yoshida’s marinade and we always BBQ on a propane BBQ. While my father in law- used the Yoshida’s marinade and use a charcoal BBQ. I forget how much the Charcoal BBQ really tastes better.
All in all, I have had a lot of meat lately and this steak dinner was really very good.
