Days One and Two, On the Road

We got a lateish start Saturday morning, but being a weekend the traffic through LA was light and we made good time. In Gorman, the flowers are blooming. I'd call it a good year for the wildflowers, but not a great year. You judge. We love seeing the colors, especially when for much of the year this stretch is just desert.  All those bright yellows are mustard and poppies, the purple of the lupines isn't so obvious, but it's there to the naked eye. 

Then there was a long loooooong stretch up the 5, through the San Joaquin valley. This is the heart of California's productive farm land, and the primary impression this year is that a Water War is being waged between the farmers and the government. The underlying desert has never been more obvious. Much of the farmland is fallow or uncultivated, just lying there bare. The grapes (mostly raisin grapes here) seem to be doing well. Most of the nut tree orchards (almonds and pistachios) are doing well, particularly the mature ones. But we saw quite a few acres of abandoned orchards parched to death. There was no sign of former cotton crops (a notorious water-sucking crop) and little other than the grapes and the trees.   Oh, and the feedlots, full of cattle. We always make sure to close the car vents when we see those on the horizon, otherwise we Travel with Manure for miles. 

What there were signs of, on nearly every farm, was "A Congress-Created Dust Bowl." I'm not sure what that was about, but it was widespread.

They tell us in Long Beach that we've got a water crisis. It isn't obvious to us in the city, because actually the city has plenty of water. We throw away all the rain that falls in storm sewers. But the real crisis is in the farmland. I wish there was a way to get that through to people.

One nice item I noticed...throughout the southern part of the valley, nearly every freeway overpass has a large colony of swallows that has built mud nests under the roadway. They swoop and glide through the air, a joy to behold. And any help thinning out the masses of bugs that hit our windshield was appreciated!

We got into San Jose fairly early, and located The Garage, the restaurant that I saw on Diners, DriveIns and Dives.  San Jose actually has a nice downtown, and is a compact little town that's pretty easy to get around in. We found out the restaurant wasn't open until 5, and in talking to one of the staff who was setting up, we got his recommendation to get there early, as it could pack up quickly. It was a Saturday night, after all.  It's in a lovely neighborhood, too. Right down the block from San Jose State University. 

So we drove around near the airport looking for a hotel. I suspect we were on the wrong side of the airport, because the pickings were slim. John (and yes, I'm going to blame him for this) picked the Wyndham. As noted in my previous post, there wasn't much about the room that wasn't broken, dirty, worn or just wrong. Oh, wait. The climate control was excellent, for a hotel room. When the complaint card is only a third of the size it needed to be, you know you shouldn't stay at that hotel again. Word to the wise, eh?

But we got into the room in good time to change and go to dinner. Oh my. We each ordered the steak, which was marinated in something citrusy. So flavorful and tender! I got the roasted brussels sprouts, and John the Mac & Cheese. I got all the sprouts, because John won't eat them. I shared the M&C, which although not as good as mine, was perhaps the best I've ever had at a restaurant. Needs more crisping & breadcrumbs on top.  The sprouts were flavorful, roasted with whole cloves of garlic and bacon bits. 

We sat outside on the patio, which was a bit breezy but with the outdoor heater on, was very pleasant. The indoor part of the garage is very small, only 5 tables, as a good part of the kitchen is behind the counter. Everyone lines up at the counter to order, which takes a while. It's odd ordering food good enough for a fine-dining place at a counter, but we went with it. 

Then we had the vanilla bread pudding. They also serve chocolate BP. We should have gotten one of each, actually. The pudding part was smooth, infused with vanilla, warm, light, oh so good. It was covered with good whipped cream, slightly sweetened, and crunchy bits of nuts & what seemed like nougat bits or something. I don't know. If there's an ultimate bread pudding, this is it. I should have gotten several more of them. If you're ever in San Jose, do not miss this. Their other menu selectioons were very tempting as well. Next trip. We promise.

Then back to the Hotel Of Doom, to sleep. Oh, first we drove around looking for a Bed, Bath & Beyond to buy an air mattress. No, it doesn't make any sense. But we found one, purchased it, and packed it away in the car. It kept us out of the hotel room for another hour, so I call it a net win.

Day Two, to be continued....

Never Again, or Every Chance We Get

Never again will I stay in a Wyndham hotel. The one in San Jose has poisoned the world-wide well on that one. I filled every line on a perky little "how are we doing?" comment card with things we found wrong (things that even the most basic Motel 6 gets right) and could have filled two more.

Crappy, that's how they were doing. Tried to charge us $9.95 to use the internet. I ask you. The darn hotel has 400+ rooms. Do the math.

Every chance I get, I will visit The Garage in San Jose. It's a little brick garage behind a 7-11, converted to a restaurant, run by young, smart and enthusiastic people who love and respect food. We had flat-iron steaks, roasted brussels sprouts, and mac&cheese, and then we had the bread pudding they must serve in Heaven. Some day I'm going to go there and order nothing but 5 or 6 orders of that bread pudding. Serially, so they're each warm when I get them.

Now, I'm in Mendocino, about to lie on my bed overlooking the ocean, and take a nap. Later, pictures and more details.

On Changing a Cat's Name

Our cat is currently called Meri. Now, I think of this as "merry" but I know other people hear it as "Mary" which is just a dumb name for a cat. Okay for people, not so good for a cat. Might as well call her Edna.  Actually, Edna would be better, catwise.

Please note, in my dialect these words are pronounced the same: merry, marry, Mary.   I know in some regions they are distinctive, not so for me.

We've had this current cat (see picture) since September, and her foster parent from whom we adopted her called her "Merigold." I dislike that even more than "Meri" but Meri was a compromise so that the cat knew who we were bellowing at when she tried to use the furniture for a scratching post. 

Now, I think I've come up with a better name. I'm staging a quiet little campaign to a) get the cat to recognize it, and b) get the other people here to use it. Well, my son, anyway. My husband calls every cat we have "Cat." He's a bit stubborn.

The new name is "PDQ" because this cat eats her dinner Pretty Damn Quick. You'd think she'd never seen wet food before, every single night. One night she conned my son into feeding her at 7:30, and behaved just as usual when my husband fed her again at 8:30. Food? *Inhale!!*  Takes her all of two nanoseconds to eat. Don't stop to wash your hands on the way back to the living room after you drop off the food. She'll beat you back there.

We could call her "Petey" for short. 

I like it. Even though when my husband was a kid, he had a parakeet named "Petey" who died tragically. So, I think to myself, why didn't he just call the parakeet "Bird?" I ask you.

Now we'll see how the Grand Cat Renaming Campaign goes. 

So Beyond Ready For Vacation, We Are

Not for the first time (okay, the four-hundred-and-seventy-eighth), I thought today, "I really wish I was already on vacation."

Next week there will be vacationing. In fact, it starts Saturday. My son will be holding down the home-front, taking care of the cat, attending his college classes. My sweetie and I will be driving hither, yon, and assorted other places. 

Cannot WAIT!!

The Ground, It Shakes!

I've lived in Southern California for nearly 14 years now. I came here from Michigan, where I'd felt exactly one earthquake in my entire life.  That one was a door-rattler, it felt and sounded very much like an extremely large truck was driving past on the street.

Since 1996, we've had a nice assortment of quakes, none of them strong enough to cause damage locally, or at least not much.  I remember the first "biggish" one, it woke me at night, and felt very much like my bed was a boat on the gentle swells of a lake. Up and down, roll a bit.

Most of the others have been of the same variety, though some of them have begun with a fair-sized bang!! and a sharp drop of the earth, to continue with the aforementioned rolling. Some are very noisy, with a subterreanean grinding that makes your hair stand on end, and the house rattling, even some things on shelves dancing about. There's a perceptible difference between a quake with a close epicenter and one farther away.

Today, though, the one that was centered in Baja was a bit different in quality. It started out gently, with a side to side motion unlike any I've felt before. Then after 10 or so seconds, it got stronger, still side to side. It was quiet, not noisy, and it made all the hanging plants out in the garden sway. Although there was minimal rattling and banging, our door chimes, which are long metal bars, began to sound, which has never happened in a quake before.

I hope that the people in Baja come out of this all right. When the earth won't lie quietly, it can be very disturbing.

Bead Store Reviews

Since I haven't been to any bead stores, nor have I purchased any beads online for at least the last 6 weeks, I thought I'd revisit, at least in memory, some of the better bead stores around here. Well, two.

The first is Brea Bead Works. It's located, unsurprisingly, in Brea.  Their website has changed since the first time I saw it, because I could have sworn there were pictures of the store itself.

They have two large storefronts in the strip mall where they're located. One is the bead area, the other is a large workshop. Workshops and classes are a major focus of this store. They do lampworking and fusing, as well as some very nice bead weaving and stringing classes. They also have a kumihimo instructor, which isn't common.

I've subscribed to their emails, which come about once a week. They have a lot of trunk shows from local or visiting bead artists, and you have an opportunity to purchase many art beads or one-of-a-kind works to incorporate in your own work. I got a carved tagua-nut focal bead there that is going to make an amazing statement. Pics to follow.

The bead area is unique among bead stores in that it seems to have tons of open space. It makes the bead-buying experience different (not sure if it's better or worse) when you're not crammed in among shelves or aisles elbow to elbow. For a wheelchair user, it's a welcome relief. Much of their unique stock is on tables, which can be problematic for someone in a chair, as seeing and reaching may be difficult. They have a decent selection of seed beads & bugles, tools and storage supplies, and a smallish area of semi-precious. Nice, but small. They stock a fair amount of chain, books and ribbons. I found a few unique items, including some enameled magnetic clasps I'd never seen before, and some sterling silver hand-worked clasps I fell in love with, but couldn't afford. Those were behind the counter.

Staff is friendly and helpful, and I'll definitely be back there. I'd give it a solid 8 out of 10.

Second store is OC Beads. I was aghast when we walked into this store. The walls are lined floor to ceiling with various kinds of semi-precious, stone, shell, pearl, and glass bead strands. The tables in the center, and the large open pull-out shelves along all the walls are jammed full of tiny glass bowls with a few (2 to 200) beads of zillions of kinds. Need sea glass? They've got 50 different beads. Coral, shell, all sorts of semi-precious. The pull-out shelves make it as if they have hundreds of feet of counterspace.

The middle is a bit tight for wheelchair navigation, but the outer area is wide enough. There's a work-at bar in the back of the store where they welcome beaders during store hours.  We met Mishi, the manager(?), when we were there, and she was so friendly, interested in seeing some of my work.

Behind the counter she carries an amazing selection of precious and semi-precious stones of higher value. I'm still drooling over a string of watermelon tourmaline briolets that I was soooo tempted to buy, price be damned.

As you can see in the pictures on the site, they have lots of ribbon, leather, satin cord, there were some unique African paper beads, just too darn much to list. It's like the flip side of Brea Beads. Not much space, a surfeit of inspiration. Rather than workshops, the focus here is beads.

Isn't that the way it's supposed to be? I'm tempted to give this store a 10. Other than a little difficulty reaching the middle tables, I didn't find anything I didn't like about this store.

Exploration, Beads, and Photos

The other day I posted about learning a new technique. Here's a better picture of the first spiral I made.   Note that it took me three tries before I got the start correct, and I needed 4 colors to landmark my way through a pattern that was supposed to have one or at most two colors.

So, these colors are cool enough, though right now I don't have the inspiration to take it into a project. So I started a new spiral, at first with the recommended two colors, a nice yellow-green and a darker green with some blue overtones.  Here's what I've got so far.

How many tries did it take me to get this one started? Four. That's right. One more than my first experiment. Sheesh. As my husband said, "So you're getting better!"  I stuck my tongue out at him.  Why did it take so many tries? After all, I thought...