Dicks in Congress

 Drop the chalupa, Paulie

This prick and his fellow psychopaths from the Republican House caucus had a hand in planning the events of January 6, according to Rolling Stone.  Since "sedition is a serious felony punishable by fines and up to 20 years in prison", will Greene, Boebert, Cawthorne et al do any time? I’m sad to say I doubt it.  Mo Brooks managed to throw his staff under the bus in response though. It is time to re-open Devil’s Island.

When I am not stewing about brazen unlawfulness, I go wine tasting.  We headed down to Paso Robles last week to meet up with some San Diego friends.  The wife and I visited Daou alone on Wednesday on our way to the hotel.  The setting was beautiful and wines were very good.  We have a bottle of Daou Cab in #1’s wine fridge in our garage, which has run my PG&E bill up dramatically over the past several years.

We got into our room at the Oxford Suites that afternoon.  It was definitely a step up over our last hotel, although not as centrally located.  This did not matter as they have a free shuttle.  They also provided a full breakfast and a free drink in the evening.  And the rooms were bigger and nicer.

We hired a van from Uncorked to take us on our Thursday tour.  Our drivers both times we have used them were knowledgeable and simpatico.  They charge a $350 cleaning fee per event if you puke in their vehicles, $500 per event if you are a bachelorette party. We managed to avoid that.  They took us to Austin Hope, Tablas Creek, and Justin.  We liked the AH Cab and bought a few bottles.  It was also a featured wine that evening at BL Brasserie, so we had some there as well.  Our host at AH was a very poised young woman of 24.  If I had been semi-articulate at that age, I might have qualified for the job.  We then headed to Tablas Creek, which was recommended by 4M.  They had imported their root stock from France and we had a few varietals I had never heard of, like Counoise and Tannat.  I’m sure you are shocked at my ignorance.  The last stop was Justin.  Since we signed up for membership last time, all tasting fees were waived.  Our next Justin shipment is due soon, which we have to split with TCG and Katie.  I’m going to suggest we take the three highest priced bottles.  The Justin crew was setting up for dinner when we were there, so it was not the best time to go.  My wife also felt our server was not very attentive.  However, she also feels I’m not very attentive, so I didn’t give it much thought.

There is a lot of celeb news to delve into.  Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker have become engaged.  I believe roses and candles on the beach were involved.  I’m impressed that Travis has managed to keep the majority of his face ink free, but when I saw the headline below, the thought that came into my head was, “All of us?”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/why-were-all-rooting-for-kourtney-kardashian-and-travis-barker?ref=home

Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, 78, has tied the knot for the fifth time.  He said "I'm so happy, finally a keeper".  That may seem premature to some, but I think there is a decent chance he croaks before things go sideways.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/pink-floyds-roger-waters-marries-155521038.html

Paul McCartney called The Stones a blue cover band and I called him a superannuated wanker.  Your glory days are 50 years behind you pal, give it a rest.

This modest outfit was worn by Draya Michele, whom I’ve never heard of.  The headline said she set the internet ablaze with it.  I think it is time we put some fireproofing on that series of tubes. However, the right hip tattoo does accentuate the outfit perfectly.

I plan to delve into joke writing as source of income soon.  I shared this one with my kids.

Q: What does Clint Eastwood do when he wants a Mexican snack?

A: Cry Nachos

Yeah, they didn’t like it either.

I had big fun at the pool yesterday.  I use strategery when I go, since I like to have my own lane if at all possible.  During the COVID heyday, I always got one, because one per lane was the rule.  But now they allow you to double up, which has caused me to make my reservations at the less desirable indoor pool, which will become more desirable after days like Sunday.  As I said on FB, in my younger days, it rained heavily.  Now we have atmospheric rivers

I usually get to the pool 10-15 minutes early.  Often one of the previous swimmers has already wrapped up, so I get some alone time. If it is busy, someone will join my lane. I welcome them with open arms. That is why I choose one of the two lanes with ladders, so I will be joined last due to the obstruction.  I was in one, and another lane was open as well, when I was joined by a middle-aged woman. I told her twice from a distance that the other lane was open, to no avail.  I then moved to that other lane.  A few minutes later I engaged her in conversation, stating she should take the open lane instead of invading mine. She explained that she just wanted to water walk and that the other lane was deeper.  I was taken aback, as this is a square pool with a flat bottom. I disagreed with her and then decided to return to my rigorous workout without further niceties.

If you want to make a quick buck, play my week 8 NFL picks.  In the last few weeks, I have moved from 35th p1ace to 25th to 14th.

AZ Cin Ten LAR Cle Det SF Atl Buf LAC Sea Den TB Dal KC

Fall Colors

My wife left me to my own devices when she flew east on 10/4 to do some leaf peeping in Vermont with her gal pals.  There’s not much to say about that week because my life essentially stops when she is gone.  We were reunited on 10/9.

The whole family was on the East Coast for the wedding of The Banker and Tina’s son. We had a blast.  It happened to take place in my hometown of Middletown, NY, close to where the grandparents of the groom live. I hooked up with my kids at EWR and we drove up to the Hampton Inn.  This was the Middletown, NY Hampton Inn as opposed to the Middletown, OH one that Barbie had originally booked for her family. That would have made for a very long ride to the wedding.  On our way up we stopped at the Chester Shop-Rite to pick up a couple sixers.  Happily, they carried IPAs for the spoiled Californians.  I texted The UK to let him know, as Chester is where he is from. I correctly guessed “nothing” when he asked me what I think he misses about Chester.

The next day I took the kids around to show them all the sites, including the hoops court featured on my 4/15/21 post. They saw St. Joseph’s elementary school, which I wore my green blazer and plaid clip-on tie to every day for five years. Sadly, they closed that one down about a decade ago. They also got a view of the old homestead and surrounding neighborhood. We took a good pic in front of the Elks Club sign a block down the road. 

As we were heading to show them my high school, we noticed the car in front of us had some flaming debris underneath. The women pulled over and got away from the vehicle. That is when SB1 and I sprang into action. He got a branch and pulled the detritus out while I stomped on it to extinguish it. It turned out to be a fully packaged lighted reindeer, so the carboard box caught fire.  Tis almost the season. After we were done and profusely thanked by the car’s occupant, we cranked up this tune.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koJlIGDImiU

Excitement over, it was time to turn in our rental car and connect with the wife. She was right on time, and we then piled into her rental and came here for lunch, the area’s premier red sauce joint. We used to get their pizza a lot when I was a kid, and it is still going strong, run by one of my old St. Joe’s classmates.

That evening brought us to a welcome party at the Stagecoach Inn in Goshen. The original structure dates from 1747. The drinks were flowing, and the chow was top notch. I went back for seconds. I got to meet some friends of the grandparents and chatted with some of younger folks as well.

The main event occurred the next day in the church on the campus of Mount St. Mary College in Newburgh. There was full mass presided over by a priest who is a friend of the family. The weather outside was a little overcast but the mood inside was joyous. We then hopped on the bus back to Middletown for the reception.

The reception was great. Cocktails and abundant appetizers prevailed for about an hour and a half. We then moved over to the dining room, where the couple and family were introduced. The Banker and Tina impressed me with their moves when it was their turn. The DJ was cranking it, so the groom’s grandfather went to have a little chat with him, which resulted in decreased volume. Thank you, sir!

I put on my dancing shoes and brought wifey out on to the floor. My moves are creaky, yet stylish. Dinner did not arrive for a few hours, which was fine as we had all loaded up on the appetizer selection.  When it did arrive, we all dug in and enjoyed. I don’t think anyone at my table availed themselves of the cauliflower steak. Maybe another time.

Our crew and #1’s connected on Monday morning for breakfast at the Goshen Diner before everyone went their separate ways.  The wife and I went to South Hadley, MA to see Charlie. She’s thriving in her new environment and took us around to see the local sites.  We also got to see her new granddaughter. The leaves were peaking, and we had fantastic weather for this leg of the trip.  We came across a few signs saying, “thickly settled”. We found this puzzling. I knew they were not referring to my gut, so I did some research.  It just means there are people around.  After leaving the quaint towns of Massachusetts, we visited the quaint town of Peterborough, NH. This was a last-minute call because we were not due in Westchester County NY until Thursday. We had a good dinner there with one of my wife’s SDSU pals and his wife, who live in a nearby town.

Our last stop was Sleepy Hollow, NY, the new home of my sister and LA. Guess what? It is a quaint town. We got the tour of their fab new home, which we hope they will be occupying very shortly.  We spent some time on the shore of the Hudson, with splendid views of Manhattan and the Mario Cuomo Bridge, formerly the Tappan Zee. We’d like to head back to MA, NH and NY in the spring. I’ll tell the wife to put in a few more hours at work so we can swing it.

Congrats to the newlyweds!!