Dear bathroom talkers...

Dear bathroom talkers,
    The bathroom is not a conference hall, meeting room, nor casual hallway.  When I make a trip to the restroom, I go there for a purpose, and random, ongoing chit chat is not on the itinerary.  Now if we are both at the sink, yes, I consider that fair game and do not mind the shortest bit of chat, but again, only appropriate when both parties have vacated the stalls and are standing at the sink. Or, if we were mid chat upon entering, again ok, but all discussions end at the click of the stall lock.   If have entered a stall and locked the door this is the indicator that 1. I do not want to chat with you while you do your business, and 2. should you be lingering in the restroom, I also do not want to have a conversation. You should continue about your business by leaving the restroom.

    If I have seen you pass by, headed for a stall while I'm washing my hands at the sink, I do not want to strike up conversation.  Casual hello, good bye, fine.  Don't lose focus on the purpose of your trip to the restroom, I don't care how interested you are in your 1980s movie facts, I don't want to be a part of your restroom experience.

   On a final note of appropriate restroom etiquette, stopping a person who is obviously on their way to a bathroom stall, while you are exiting, is uncouth. I do not make trips to the restroom just for kicks, there is a purpose to my trek and its not to discuss what's on your mind.  That's what phone calls and email are for. 

Thank you, and good day.

Flyin solo

While Jonathan gallivanted about Boston with some Rutgers teammates I stayed home in Phoenix and worked about the house. No complaints here, honestly, I got quite a bit done!  The projects I had in mind to start and or finish were, 1. finishing the walk way, 2. finding a better organizational method for the tiny space that is our laundry closet and 3. start cleaning the walls and priming the hall bath. Oh, and of course some back rides for Toby.

 

Saturday, after Jackson and I made a trip to the dog park, we headed to Lowes to pick up 12 bags of white rock.  Decorative landscaping rock to be precise.  Back home I unloaded the bags, setting them along the walkway and realized I was short, but no worries, it was a good starting point.  After cutting into and spreading a few bags I realized the white rock wasn't going as far as I'd like so I started transporting wheelbarrow loads of spare gravel from the back yard to the walkway to serve as bottom fill, thus enabling the contents of the bags of white rock to spread further.  I got about 3/4 of the way down the walk but had to call it a day since I was out of rock and had a few other projects I wanted to start.  On a side note, this was about the time I noticed we had our very first cactus flower!  Check it out, its quite pretty and has already been joined by a few other blossoms. At the time the first picture was taken three little bees were dancing it up in the flower.

      

After a quick, and successful trip to Ikea I returned home with all the equipment I needed to clean up and better organize the laundry closet. I took a break from my projects to try an cheer up a mopey Jackson, but it was of little use.  He was clearly disappointed that Jonathan was away.  Even when I got home from Ikea I was greeted with one of the most lack luster Jackson greetings I've ever experienced.  By this point I was starting to get a little parent envy, slightly bothered that he was so pouty with only my presence.

Sunday I was enjoying a decent run when with 1 mile to go some sort of foot failure occurred forcing me to somewhat hobble my way home.  Not sure what happened but the challenge of not putting pressure on toes that feel like they're being hit with a hammer on each step is just plain obnoxious. With coffee in hand Jackson and I traveled to the dog park, where he chased the ball about for a little while, before heading back to Lowes for more rock.  I only bought 10 bags this time.  I continued laying a foundation of pebble then spreading white rock and wouldn't you know it, I was about 2 1/2 bags short.  There was no way I wasn't going to finish this project so I hopped back in the truck and picked up 4 more bags just to be sure. When I finished spreading the rock I had about a bag and a half left over, but the sense of completion and look of the walkway was worth the extra trip!  I randomely came across the picture on the right (below)which shows the front yard just after we scraped off all the red rock and got the grand idea of starting a very difficult, time consuming walkway.  Took quite some time, but look how great its turned out!!

 

After I finished the walkway I turned inside to finish the laundry closet as well as start working on priming the hall bath.  I wish I had a before picture, but below is a view of the improved laundry closet.  It may not look like much, but we used to have an open-back book shelf loaded with random stuff cluttering the area, so the cabinet and hooks help quite a bit.

 I finished up Sunday with some wall washing and priming, and despite not get nearly as much painted as I had intended, I'm quite happy with all of the progress made this weekend.  And, as an added benefit, by the end of the weekend Jackson was starting to perk up, as if hanging out with me wasn't all that bad.

Big ole kitty in one of his favorite compact spots.

 

Walkway 98% there

Saturday we enjoyed the start of our weekend with a trip to the dog park, which included our special visitor Yager, a trip to the Western Wear Outlook (yee-haaa!) and successfully attempted a new pizza recipe.  Tasty indeed! 

Sunday, insert dramatic music... we managed to finish laying the broken concrete stones for our walkway. We have toiled over this walk way for something like two years and finally this beast is set.  I pity the fool who decides they want to pull this up many years after we're gone, but their hypothetical distress was not on my mind when we cemented in the last section of blocks.  Just to see how it would look we poured our remaining supply of white rock into the open spaces, closest to the house and Carl (our tiki), and it looks fantastic!  For so long we had our mind set on small white rock which proved impossible to find, however the larger rock not only works, but looks great!!  

 

After our walkway work I stripped the paint from a bathroom cabinet that will soon be re-painted some vintage shade of avocado as a part of the hall bath rejuvenation.  You can't help but notice the pink, right?  No matter how you try to swing it, green and pink is as far from the cat's meow as I can fathom.  This 50's color combo rage is where I draw the line on staying true to the original atomic ranch style. Gross.  

I finished the day with a new recipe. I used what looked like lemons on roids given to us from our neighbor to make wicked good lemon bars from scratch and my oh my they're mighty fine.  I seriously doubt they'll last too long in the Hupp household! 

Lamb is Go! Flounder is fail.

Conquering my fear of cooking lamb I finally made lamb kabobs last weekend and they turned out great.  I've always been leery of paying for lamb for fear I'd ruin it, but a recent recipe in the Washington Post encouraged some culinary experimentation.  The lamb marinated for several hours in a little lime juice, chopped onion, garlic, cilantro and salt and pepper before I skewered it with cherry tomatoes, chunks of onion and a 1/4 of a jalapeno at the end of the skewer. Still in fear I'd manage to make tire rubber out of the lamb I threw together a quick tzatziki sauce with Greek yogurt, cucumber, and dill.  The lamb turned out tasty by itself, or paired with the veggies/sauce.  Hooray for lamb success!

In addition to this whole new lamb experience I wanted to take over the grilling duties and must say, did pretty well.  Jonathan was an excellent fire starter and helpful with coal amounts but I shooed him away so that I could figure out this grilling thing on my own.  No food caught on fire, and I managed to get a nice sear but not dry out the meat. A good start to future summer grilling indeed. Just maybe I'll learn how not to overcook a burger, which just like cooking potato gratins successfully, continues to allude my cooking abilities.

Despite last weekend's cooking success Monday night's dinner was a big ole flounder of failure.  No matter what you're uninformed meat counter guy/gal tells you, flounder does not make for good fried fish.  I even asked about it being more of a moist fish as some do better with frying than others and was told, it would be just fine.  FAIL.  I crusted the fish with crushed Thai-chili-lime seasoned cashews and after one round of frying then baking, ended up with a heap of crumbled, non-recognizable fish/cashew hash.  Yech!

You win some and you loose some I suppose.  Next stop, Cooks Country recipe book.  Watch out fanned potatoes here I come.

Retirement Surprise

For about the past 4 years my dad's response to "when are you going to retire"? was "This year..." only to be followed by another year of work.  However, mid 2011 something changed, and despite the date rolling forward from September to November and eventually into February of 2012, he finally officially retired. I fully appreciate the difficulty of leaving a secure job and believe me, the loss of routine can be a frightening thing for us Caetanos, but I wanted to see my dad retire because, darn it, it was time the man stopped having to go to work! 

In an unbeknownst to him celebration of his actual retirement Jonathan and I, along with my mom, planned a secret weekend trip to Alameda.  We arrived later than desired, but safe and sound via cab from the airport on Friday night and entered the house from the back.  My mom called out to my dad, "Jerr, look what I found in the back".  When he walked into the hallway he stared for a moment at our silly mugs and said "where'd you come from?" with a faint smile.  "Surprise!!", we replied back as he looked back and forth between us and my mom.  Fully aware that exuberant surprise doesn't run deep in the Caetano blood I was happy to see his disguised shock at our presence.

 We woke the next day to gray skies and rain showers that soaked Alameda all day Saturday and into Sunday but being determined to enjoy this celebration weekend we loaded into the trusty suburban and made our way across the island to check out a Pinball Museum. My initial research on the museum's website had me thinking it was akin to you're average museum for touring, so I was pleasantly surprised when we arrived and the admission covered an hour and a half of all you could play pinball! The first of 3 rooms included original pinball games from the 1950s but as you wandered deeper into the museum the machines spanned the generations all the way up to today's pinball machines. Having watched a pinball documentary Jonathan informed us that when pinball games were first developed they were considered games of chance and therefore a form of gambling so they were declared illegal to play. Soon thereafter someone developed and implemented the button operated flippers in order to bring about an element of skill to the game which allowed for their legalization.

                                                                                                                                                      

We all enjoyed about an hour of play, crisscrossing through various rooms which contained varying stages of pinball machine development.  It was fascinating how the art changed and the speed increased as the years and technology advanced. Jonathan noticed that the earlier models provided 6 balls for a certain price which eventually transitioned to 3 balls for the same if not higher price, and it certainly wasn't difficult to recognize that with increased speed/bells and whistles and decreased pinballs, the likelihood of spending more money, faster, greatly increased with newly developed machines. Tricky machine manufacturers.

With the buzzers and bells of pinball still faintly ringing in our ears we headed home to unwind until dinner.  We had reservations at a well known German restaurant in Alameda that I'd heard great things about for years but had never tried. Its a shame we hadn't been to this restaurant until now because it was fantastic!  Dad and Jonathan enjoyed wild bore, I had a pork chop that was out of this world (and I'm not much of a chop fan), Mo said her chicken was terrific and Mom was quite pleased with her pork cutlet. The sides for each plate were similar, mashed potatoes, or spätzle, a side salad with beets and my favorite, some delicious sauerkraut. A round of various scrumptious desserts finished off our celebratory dinner and well all made our way home very full and very satisfied.

Jonathan and I were scheduled to depart OAK around 4 PM so we concluded our visit by going on a short walk about the neighborhood, hanging out and chatting, and sorting through a few childhood things.  The final leg of our trip, our return to Phoenix was annoyingly delayed but none the less we arrived home safely and were quite happy to pick up Jackson and return to the kitties.  I don't pretend that my dad's retirement will be filled with transatlantic adventures but am nonetheless happy for him to have finally retired and wish him enjoyment and occasional relaxation in all his new found free time.  Adjustment may be a little bit of a challenge, but sans any mandated schedules, I think he just might find a way to enjoy life, be it in California, Idaho or the desert we call home.

Here are a few more pics from our pinball adventures.



Interesting





I loved the sassy art styles



Creepy!



Nice attention to Deco detail



One of the originals



Jack and Lola 



Jack playing camera shy



Washington DC

About two weeks back I had the opportunity to return to the Nation’s capital for an entire week for work. I arrived late Sunday night and following an excessive wait for my bag at the carousal, my rage was quickly relieved upon crossing the Potomac and seeing familiar federal buildings, museums, monuments and the cherry trees blossoming to their heart’s content.

Luckily I didn’t have to get to work until 9 the next morning so I enjoyed a quick walk around before finding my work building. The gorgeous brownstones wrapping around ¾ of the Logan circle weaken my West Coast knees. I am Californian to the bone but would be lying if I said I didn’t miss the breathtaking brownstones of DC. The bright white cherry blossoms overwhelming the trees in front of the buildings simply added to their iconic perfection. I was delighted as I started making my way to work to realize that I wouldn’t be needing my light jacket. In fact the weather was so fantastic for the entire week that I never once wore my jacket while out and about. I know this type of weather is rare for the area, but it sure made my memories of the area that much more fond.

Monday evening I made my way to Alexandria to visit with Beth, James and their daughter Kendal who had recently turned 2 years old. When Beth and Kendal picked me up from the metro stop Kendal eyed me silently as if trying to figure out just what I was doing in her car. Beth showed me a movie of a wildly excited Kendal from before my arrival which included questions of where I was and even a hooray + wild leg kick of joy, yet despite this prior excitement, Kendal remained silent for the entire ride home. While James and Beth and I caught up Kendal continued her analysis and it wasn’t until I sat down on the floor to get to her level that she started warming up. I was starting to worry my kid charm was wearing off but by the end of the evening she let me read a few pages from one of her books and was excited to show me her room before being put to bed. I very much enjoyed my visit and was grateful to have finally met Ms. Kendal.

Tuesday after work I decided to enjoy the evening solo and made my way to the tidal basin to check out the cherry blossoms with the a couple thousand other tourists. The blossoms were simply beautiful. Bright, colorful, filling the basin with life and the joy of spring. I snapped a few photos, admired the Jefferson memorial from afar and sauntered back towards the metro remembering an evening about 5 years ago when I met Jonathan at the Smithsonian stop to enjoy a walk down the mall before he proposed in front of the Capital building. Oh DC, how I love thee.

 

Wednesday afternoon I walked to the law office where I worked while we lived in the area to say hello and extend my gratitude to the office manager who gave me a change into the IT world. I’ll admit I couldn’t remember what floor the office was on in the building and after about 4 attempts was happy to see a familiar face when the elevator doors opened. We chatted for a few moments before she informed me they were having a happy hour on the building’s roof and invited me up to join. I wasn’t expecting such a celebrated return, but was delighted for such a fantastic opportunity to catch up with so many people. Nearly closing down the deck party I headed out to meet up with the one and only Erin McIntyre from Rutgers.

Erin and I swam together at Rutgers and she is now attending GW to get her degree as a PA. I am admittedly far removed from the current Rutgers Swimming/Diving team and had mixed feelings when she filled me in on the current teams season as well as overall transition since I graduated. It was also nice to swap classmate/teammate stories and learn what others are up to. I consider myself fortunate to have such a collection of friends from my various life phases and very much enjoyed my visit with Erin.

For my last evening in DC I had the opportunity to visit with one of my best buddies, Ta. Ms. Tamara and I have been friends since about 8 years old, having met on the Alameda Alligators swim team. Despite living in different states and at times not seeing each other for years, reunions are always easy and seamless. The true sign of a fantastic friend who I absolutely cherish. We enjoyed dinner, and discussed life, life and more life and as always I wish we’d had more time to hang out.

Around 3PM on Friday I metro’d my way to the airport for my trip back home. Despite my final destination not being Phoenix, I met up with Jonathan in Sky Harbor to board another flight to Oakland. Surprise Dad retirement trip to be continued…

More trip photos in the slide show to the right!