Play Ball!

I was pleasantly surprised to hear from a long-time friend on Wednesday, who sent along a photo taken in 1992 at Dodgers Stadium.

L.A. was playing the Astros that night. Note the requisite peanuts and Cracker Jack.

Ahh..baseball.

And by "long-time friend," I do mean it's been a long time since we first met. I have to confess I have known Chris since we were both three years old. Too many years to count, I am afraid. But I am ever glad we manage somehow to keep in touch over the years and miles that separate us.

40 is the New 30

That's what they say, anyhow, and I have seen no evidence to the contrary.

Getting Off the Plane

I had a fabulous weekend.

Thanks-giving was perfect at Uncle Larry's in Denver, my mother-in-law was a fine hostess, then a beautiful wedding on Saturday followed by a reception on Market Street where my daughter spent two non-stop hours on the dance floor. My daughter, pictured here with Sharkey, looked so grown up in her black dress for the rehearsal dinner at Denver's Aquarium (where my brother-in-law dives to feed the fishes).

I flew back into Seattle yesterday, arrived home, and it occurred to me that I do not have a trip booked until the 19th of December, and that one is vacation, and not business.

This weekend, my old pal Todd comes for a visit, and we'll celebrate our 40th together with some live jazz.

The holidays are off to a fine start.

Wedding Bells for Turkeys

My brother-in-law Curtis marries the love of his life, Karla, this weekend in Denver. I am off to Denver on the red-eye to join my daughter, wife and her extended family for a long-overdue wedding.

Curt and Karla are a great match, and my wife (and probably her mother and other relatives and friends) are pleased and relieved that my bro-in-law is finally settling down.

He's got a great woman in Karla; I hope she knows what she's getting, because Curt definitely has the sweet end of this deal. (Just kiddin', bro.)

Happy Thanksgiving and congratulations!

Picking a Place for Burgers

There is this burger joint near where we live that many people said was a great place for cheeseburgers and shakes. So when I first moved in to the neighborhood my sister and I decided to check the place out, and confirmed, many years ago now, that
the old short order cook was an Olympic-class nose picker. He practiced his sport while hovering over the grill cooking burgers.

We did not finish our food that day. Slurped the sodas and took off.

I will never go there again.

Tonight I told my daughter why we could not go there to eat. "The man that cooks the hamburgers, he's a nose picker."

Harper, she with such a compassionate and forgiving spirit, replied, "Maybe for Christmas we could get him some gloves. Then he can take off his glove to pick and put it back on again when he's done."

Thoughts

Today's random thoughts:

• What ever happened to Grace Jones? She was popular there for a while in the 80s, then nothing.


• I thought I saw Carrot Top walking down 5th Avenue in Seattle today. Women: do you find that he grows more attractive with age?


• I have concluded that being parboiled would hurt.


• I have discovered that the small packs of Listerine breath strips manage to hold up surprisingly well through a warm water wash cycle and the dryer. Though the intensity of the breath strips is lessened somewhat, there is no soapy aftertaste.


• Overheard at the java stand: "They were just driving around on the roof. But because they were in a Pontiac, I pretended they weren't there."

Peanuts in the Pot

I have put up about 7 quarts of boiled peanuts thus far, and my third batch is on the stove.

I was pleased to find Chuck was trying his hand at boiling some peanuts as well.

As for salting, I have experimented with Morton's salt, Kosher salt and sea salt, and thus far my money is on sea salt for best results.

I took a break last night and went to the cinema and saw The Darjeeling Limited, a movie I liked a great deal, oddly funny and quirky in that Wes Anderson-Rushmore-Royal Tennenbaums kind of way. Though I am not sure what to think of the short film The Hotel Chevalier, which serves as something of a back story for Darjeeling.

Oh! That reminds me -- I think I'd like a cup of tea. With sweet lime.

It's My Daughter, Eloise

Halloween is past, but this year my daughter drew from children's literature for her Halloween costume.

She went as Eloise, a six year old child who lives the good life in the Plaza Hotel in New York, from a series of books by Kay Thompson originally published in the 1950s.

Leave it to my daughter to go trick-or-treating as a semi-obscure literary character.

Dad Pulls Through

I discovered many years ago that you can freeze peanuts -- if they're boiled.

Before I got married, during the fall, I used to buy ten pounds or so of green peanuts, meaning raw peanuts in the shell, they way they come out of the ground, and boil them, bag them and freeze them. I would enjoy them during the winter, mainly on the weekends during football games. A quick defrost in the microwave and you're good to go.

After I moved to Seattle, a place wherein one cannot merely purchase green peanuts in the shell, my dad would send me some on occasion, during October, when the peanut crop was in. I would boil and freeze them and enjoy them during football games throughout the rest of the winter.

Fast forward to today...ah! a huge box of green peanuts was delivered to my doorstep just this afternoon, and on Saturday and Sunday I will be boiling them and putting them up.

I could not be more pleased.

And for my friends outside of South Carolina and Georgia, who do not know about boiled peanuts -- they are boiled in the shell, heavily salted and are very tasty.

Perhaps an acquired taste, as one year I sampled them to some Seattle friends and they responded politely but secretly suspected I was crazy.