Monthly Archives: June 2018
Penny Doesn’t Work There Any More . . .
She’s in Pharmaceutical Sales now.
Jan and I spent part of the morning going over all the things we need to get done before we leave on our trip on the 21st. We’ve got almost three weeks, but it will go fast.
Jan and I headed up to our son Chris’ house about 3:30. We were also meeting up with Brandi and Lowell who were bringing down a bunch of furniture in their Tundra.
Chris had gone up to Katy this morning to bring Landon back down so they could spend the day hanging out together. Then we were all meeting up for dinner.
Chris and Landon spent the day building the Eiffel Tower from a Lego kit like this.
with this as the result.
Of course Landon, never the one to do things the easy way, then made this drawing,
and then constructed his own model from cardboard.
The kid’s got some talents.
While we were there, we looked over the furniture that both Chris and Brandi want to give to Jan’s sister Debbie, who we’ll be visiting on our trip later this month. We’re going to take as much as we can of it with us in the RV and the truck, so I wanted to get some idea how much we were talking about.
Finally about 4:30 we all headed down to the Baybrook Mall area to have dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. The last time Jan and I ate here was in 2013, so it was good to be back.
It was just Brandi, Lowell, Landon, Chris, and Jan and I, since Linda had to work and Miss Piper was in Florida with her boyfriend.
Jan and I both had the Tuscan Chicken, with Grilled Chicken Breast, Tomatoes, Artichokes, Capers, Fresh Basil with Balsamic Vinaigrette, and served Over fresh vegetables.
Really, really good.
Brandi and Chris had steak, Lowell had the Orange Chicken, and Master Landon had the spaghetti.
Then Chris, Lowell and Brandi got cheesecake to go, but Jan and I were just too full to even think about it.
Saying our goodbyes, we made Sam’s Club and WalMart before getting home about 8pm.
Another very nice day.
Thought for the Day:
You Could Have Heard A Pin Drop.
JFK’s Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, was in France in the early 60’s when Charles de Gaulle decided to pull out of NATO. De Gaulle said he wanted all US military out of France as soon as possible. Rusk responded,
“Does that include those who are buried here?” De Gaulle did not respond.
You could have heard a pin drop.
When in England at a fairly large conference, Colin Powell was asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an example of ’empire building’ by George Bush.
He answered by saying, “Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return.”
You could have heard a pin drop.
There was a conference in France where a number of international engineers were taking part, including French and American. During a break, one of the French engineers came back into the room saying, “Have you heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has done? He has sent an aircraft carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims. What does he intend to do, bomb them?”
A Boeing engineer stood up and replied quietly: “Our carriers have three hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people; they are nuclear powered and can supply emergency electrical power to shore facilities; they have three cafeterias with the capacity to feed 3,000 people three meals a day, they can produce several thousand gallons of fresh water from sea water each day, and they carry half a dozen helicopters for use in transporting victims and injured to and from their flight deck. We have eleven such ships; how many does France have?”
You could have heard a pin drop.
A U.S. Navy Admiral was attending a naval conference that included Admirals from the U.S., English, Canadian, Australian and French Navies. At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a large group of officers that included personnel from most of those countries. Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks but a French admiral suddenly complained that, whereas Europeans learn many languages, Americans learn only English. He then asked, “Why is it that we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than speaking French?”
Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied, “Maybe it’s because the Brits, Canadians, Aussies and Americans arranged it so you wouldn’t have to speak German.”
You could have heard a pin drop.
And finally… Robert Whiting, an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane. At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport in his carry on. “You have been to France before, monsieur?” the customs officer asked sarcastically. Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to France previously. “Then you should know enough to have your passport ready.”
The American said, “The last time I was here, I didn’t have to show it.” “Impossible. Americans always have to show their passports upon arrival in France!”
The American senior gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he quietly explained, ”Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in 1944 to help liberate this country, I couldn’t find a single Frenchmen to show a passport to.”
You could have heard a pin drop.
The German air controllers at Frankfurt Airport are renowned as a short-tempered lot. They not only expect one to know one’s gate parking location, but how to get there without any assistance from them. So it was with some amusement that we (a Pan Am 747) listened to the following exchange between Frankfurt ground control and a British Airways 747, call sign Speedbird 206.
Speedbird 206: ” Frankfurt , Speedbird 206! clear of active runway.”
Ground: “Speedbird 206. Taxi to gate Alpha One-Seven.” The BA 747 pulled onto the main taxiway and slowed to a stop.
Ground: “Speedbird, do you not know where you are going?”
Speedbird 206: “Stand by, Ground, I’m looking up our gate location now.”
Ground (with quite arrogant impatience): “Speedbird 206, have you not been to Frankfurt before?”
Speedbird 206 (coolly): “Yes, twice in 1944, but it was dark, — And I didn’t land.
You could have heard a pin drop
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Morro and More . . .
Today was pretty quiet at work today, especially for a Friday. I checked the website this morning a few minutes after midnight, and the system had switched over to the June sale prices with no problems.
And I did figure out why last February’s sale prices came off the site a day early. After you set up the sale items and the discount amount, you can start the sale immediately, or set a start and a stop date. So yesterday I set the start date as 06/01/2018 and the stop date as 06/30/2018.
So as programmed, the sale started at 12:01am this morning. And in one of those ‘Doh’ moments, I realized that I was setting the end date a day early, and should set the end date as 07/01/2018, and not 06/30/2018. That way the sale will go off at 12:01am, lasting the full month.
I thought I’d switch coasts with tonight’s blog, and repost our visit to Morro Bay and Hearst Castle in 2010.
Hearst Castle and Morro Bay . . .
Originally posted on May 2, 2010
We left the rig about 9 am heading for San Simeon and Hearst Castle about 180 miles away. This drive is listed as one of the Top Ten Scenic Drives in the United States, and we were really looking forward to it. We stopped for lunch about noon in Paso Robles at Big Bubba’s Bad BBQ. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either. The real problem is that we didn’t think their sauce was very good.
Famous Dave’s BBQ is much better, as well as Sonny’s BBQ, a restaurant chain in the Southeast. And, of course, Central Texas BBQ in Pearland, TX, and Rudy’s BBQ in Austin, and…well, I guess we just like southern BBQ better than California BBQ.
And don’t forget Big Daddy’s Northernmost Southern BBQ in Fairbanks, AK. Man, it was good! Even in Alaska, it’s still southern BBQ, so it counts. Another great place on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives.
We got to Hearst Castle about 1:15 pm for our 2 pm tour. We’d made reservations on the Internet to be sure we wouldn’t have any problems getting in after that long drive.
While we waiting for our bus ride up to the Castle, I took some pictures from the Observation Deck in back of the Visitor’s Center.
This is what it looked like at 18X mag.
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And this is how far it actually is from the road. That’s it at the top of the hill in the very center of the picture.
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And this is what the hills look like in the area.
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The driveway leading up to the Castle is 5 miles long and takes about 15 minutes. You go from about 50 feet elevation to 1700 feet at the top of the hill.
This is the entrance we saw as we got off the bus. Pretty impressive.
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And looking back from the front this is what we saw. You can see part of the road here.
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They even have their own cellphone tower up here. This is the first one I’ve seen where the camouflage actually seems to work. That’s it in the center with the thick trunk.
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We were real impressed by this entrance until we found out this is the entrance to one of the three guest houses. Wow!
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And here’s two of the four bedrooms in this guest house.
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And here’s another view down the mountain from the guest house. Our tour guide said “it’s one thing to have a great view. It’s another thing to OWN the view.”
At one time William Randolph Hearst owned 50 miles of coastline along here. Now they only own 19 miles. Bummer!
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There are gardens and fruit trees everywhere.
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Next we saw the Outdoor Pool, one of two on the estate. This was really incredible!
You can rent this pool for a pool party for you and 49 friends for two hours for the small sum of $2500.00
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Walking toward the entrance to the main house we saw this Egyptian statue. It’s the oldest piece of artwork on the estate. It’s from the 18th dynasty, or about 3500 years old. That’s older than King Tut, or older than Moses.
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This is the beautiful front of the “Casa Grande” or Great House, along with another beauty.
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And here are the towers on top. The place is so big it’s hard to get it all in one picture.
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Here’s the living room.
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Here’s a close up of the wooden panels in the in living room ceiling. They’re from a Italian castle and are over 600 year old.
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Next was the dining room. Looks like something out of King Arthur.
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The main house has over 12,000 sq. ft of… closets. There is a total of 73,000 sq.ft. of usable space in the house. This is the parlor.
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The last stop on our tour was the indoor pool.
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And yes, that’s 22 kt. gold fused into every tile, on the walls, the ceiling, and the bottom of the pool.
Leaving the indoor pool area, we boarded our bus and headed back down the hill. On the way we couldn’t help but compare the Hearst Castle with the Biltmore in Asheville, NC that we visited last year.
To me, the biggest difference was that at the Biltmore, we were not allowed to take any photos at all, of any kind. So we really have no record of our visit, except for the outside of the house. At Hearst Castle, as long as we didn’t use flash, there was no problem.
After we got back down the hill to the Visitor’s Center, we watched a 40 minute movie about the design and construction of Hearst Castle. One surprising fact was that the entire place was designed by a woman, Julia Morgan, who also supervised the construction.
Leaving the movie theater we headed over to the gift shop for a quick walk-thru. On the way there we passed the sales booth for Hearst Ranch Beef. The Hearst family still runs one of the largest beef ranches in California, and sells their beef around the world.
Leaving Hearst Castle we traveled about 5 miles north to the Elephant Seal viewing area. Parking and walking over to the fence and looking down, we saw this.
And we’re thinking “Neat. Elephant Seals”
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Then we turn our heads and look north a little further up the beach and it’s “OMG! It’s wall-to-wall elephant seals as far as the eye can see. They look like they’re dead, but they’re just heavy sleepers.
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These guys are big, and surprisingly fast. And they bite too!
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Also, flying overhead, was a flight of pelicans, one of Jan’s favorite animals.
Leaving the seals, we drove 30 miles south to Morro Bay to spend the night. We checked into the Pacific Shores Inn and then went to dinner right on the bay at The Galley Seafood Restaurant. Jan said it was probably the best fried shrimp she had ever had. And I had a salad that was delicious.
This is the view from the restaurant.
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And this is Morro Rock that rests right out in the middle of the bay. It’s 581 feet tall and was first charted by Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo in 1542. It’s actually a volcanic plug that was formed when lava hardened in the vent of an ancient volcano about 20 million years ago.
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After dinner we stopped next door at Crills II for cinnamon buns for breakfast. Nick Russell had recommended them and we had to give them a try.
Then it was back to the motel for the night. Tomorrow we’re going to drive down the coast a little further, maybe as far as Santa Barbara, before heading back home.
Thought for the Day:
You live and learn. Or you don’t live long.
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