:Shennanigans:

Hehe...and all I wanted was the license to practice law!?!?
Hey, Rob: Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die. : )

I suppose I should begin just with that, the beginning. The beginning of this journey was the top of the Grapevine (a part of a SoCal freeway for none Cali peeps). Friday had its bouts of torrential rain, but it was very heavy and steady near the top of the Grapevine. The minivan in front of me caught water, hydroplaned up the steep embankment, and then spun out and off the highway. There were only a few other cars besides him, so he got lucky and did not take any other cars out with him. However, he could not get back on the highway. I pulled over, made sure everyone in the van was okay, and then called 911. CHP asked me to remain where the van went off the road so the officer would be able to locate the van. Okay. I was there for almost 45 minutes, in the heavy rain, drenched. Umbrella was no use - the rain was going sideways. When all was said and done, the officer made sure I got safely back on the road (the incident was just the other side of a blind curve, so it took some time to be able to get into traffic (1) fast enough and (2) trying to avoid oncoming cars), and told me I could wait for my nerves to settle, or he could follow me to the next off-ramp to the Dennys and I could sit there. I opted for Denny's. Unbelievable was that the man who went off the road (and had his three toddlers and wife in his car) had no problem getting back on the road and driving right away. As I passed him up, I relaized he was not paying attention to the raod, but was waiving both hands in the air as he was speaking to his wife - as if his guardian angel had not ust done enough work for his sorry a**. This little time sucking adventure put me behind for Lisa's, had me very rattled, and made me decide on the spot I was not driving to SB with her and her hubbie for his work party. I called Jen and asked her to get in touch with Lisa and let her know I was behind schedule and did not want to drive that night. I sat with some hot chocolate and waited until my hands stopped shaking uncontrollably; then I got back on the road. The rest of the drive was uneventful; not even a Scarlett 'S' to be handed out.

Got to Paso with enough time before Lisa and Nick got off work that I picked up their house keys from Nick, went to their house (gave myself a tour), and got myself presentable. They have the cutest house; Lisa is SOOOOO hired to decorate for me. I am very good at it, but she has this way of doing it that flows much better than what I can do. When I arrived in Paso, because of standing out in the rain, I had no makeup left on my face and my hair looked like a french poodle. My clothes were still damp, despite having my car heater cranked all the way to Paso. By the time they got home, I was looking human again.

We were supposed to head down to SB for Nick's work party. We did head out as planned. I think we were on the road for just over an hour, and having gone a mere 30 miles - or thereabout - we turned around. Once you see two accidents, do not move more than 20mph, and then see a dead body under a sheet ont he side of the highway, the desire to be on the road any longer dissipates completely. Especially after the little incident earlier, I was quite pleased with the unanimous verdict to turn around and hang in the home. We hit the grocery store for some side dishes to go with the carne asade and for some wine. For those of you who are guffawing buying wine in the grocery store, I need remind you this was in Paso Robles - they have more selection and better grade wine in their grocery store than those of us in LA can get in wine specialty stores. We opted for guacamole, spicy rice, and tortillas. I had talked to them about what they enjoy in wine, so I selected 7 bottles of 5 different wines.

We began drinking while we were cooking. In hindsight, maybe not our best decision. Nick broke a glass and tried to catch it after it broke on the corner of the countertop, cutting his finger. All in all, dinner was yummy. There were a couple moments of doubt - you know, when Nick (being Mexican) could not tell us how to make guacamole. I made a recipe I know of - tomatos, avocados, jalapenos, onion, and cilantro.

During and following dinner, we tasted the remaining wines. The selection went very well together - no one got sick from the combination and no one had the nasty "wine headache" which can sometimes piggy back tasting different wines or vintners. We did, however, all become quite drunk. Lisa and I could not stop laughing, Nick would start to giggle, we would laugh more, then we would lose track of what we were actually doing. Lisa and I hit the journals - I guess I posted a none too becoming entry (now deleted) to the Plucked Chicken which we only became aware of thanks to Lisa's mom the next morning. We do remember falling over in the chair in the office - I hit the back of my head pretty good (no blood = no staples.) Right before going to bed, Nick fell over and broke a lampshade (and did not remember falling over). Too funny trying to balance yourself when you cannot fathom which direction the floor is going. Lisa does not even remember going to bed that night. Once I laid down, I was out for the count.

Saturday morning, Nick went to work and Lisa and I slept a bit longer. I heard Nick moving around,but the bed was so comfy and warm that I did not want to get up. I finally got up and moving and headed to the shower. When I got out I checked to see if Lisa was up. We just talked and killed time. Nick was due home around noonish, so we eventually had to get up and get ready. Nick was lagging when he got home (we all were slow, but Lisa and I had a coupld hours of sleep advantage over him.) The weather was simply gorgeous; clean crisp air and no rain in sight. Lunch was grabbed at Jack in the Crack. Nick drove us over to Justin winery. We tasted a little wine. While we were there, I was offered a job at the winery. The lady heard me talking Lisa and Nick through all of their wines and was impressed. Cool. Too bad I just got a new place down here and Rob is with LAPD down here now. I am stuck - at least for a sum of time. Lisa and Nick both seemed really happy with the winery; the way the land is designed is so beautiful. From there we headed to San Simeon to see the beached elephant seals. Soooooooo amazing. The entire beahc was full of seals. There was one baby seal who was totally playing to the camera. He would look up, make sure he had our attention, then do something really cute. They were a chatful bunch too! From there, we headed back to the "Paso Posse" pad. Lisa's mom came over with Sara for dinner. We had a little wine with it, but no one was really in a drinking mood. I wiped out pretty early and went to bed. I think Lisa and Nick were close behind.

Sunday morning we headed out. I took them out to breakfast in Avila Beach - a place named Fat Cat's. It is this little hole in the wall place in a very small port. I found this place during law school on a visit to Avila Beach. We walked down the (only) street in Avila, peeking into the two gift shops, and walking off breakfast. Since it only takes ten minutes to see ALL of Avila, I drove them down to Pismo for more walking around. We went in and out of some little shops. The three of us found a present for a friend of ours *wink* *wink*. She will get it when I see her on my b'day next week. I found some divine incense, which I promptly bought. It is spicy, but has a mild undertone and is a very smooth scent. Reminds me almost of essenced pipe tobacco. Aftet Pismo, we headed back to Paso. On the way, we handed out a very imperative Scarlett 'S'. Another minivan driver. *sigh* So very sad. He was driving less than 60 in the fast lane, moved over into the slow lane, sped up, and then came back over into the fast lane. This would have been okay, but for the fact that I was there. No, really. Right there. Right where he was coming over. I honked loud and long. You must be thinking he stopped coming over, but you would be wrong. He kept moving over. I had to brake fairly hard to avoid being hit by him. We gave him three strikes, but not an automatic three - nope, he earned all three. Slower than 60 in fast lane - strike one. Moving over into another car - strike two. Continuing to move over while being honked at - strike three. I loaded up my stuff into my car and was on the road mid-afternoon. Easy ride home; uneventful - the best kind.

Still have no gas. Finally touched base with the owner of record and got the ball rolling to get the gas leak taken care of. If I did not post about it previously, there is a leak at the gas valve from the wall to the stove and in the oven's gas line. Bad. Stove may need to be replaced, but most certainly the gas valve needs to be. The Gas Company refused to keep the line on without it being fixed.

This morning I woke up feeling nauseous. At first this did not surprise me, I usually feel ill on this day since it is the anniversary of my dad's death. But it did not go away. I have been feeling ill all day - freezing cold no matter how many blankets I have on - then hot from too many blankets, slightly stuffed up, congested, nauseous, and a bit of a fever. I took it easy, stayed in all day, and have just been hoping it will go away. I ate some soup and the heat made me cough up some crap from my chest, but all in all, I am looking forward to being back in bed. I knew I needed to post (so I am not bombarded by emails from hostile friends about not telling the details of the trip.) Hopefully tomorrow I will be feeling better - if not, I am not waiting to head to the doc's office. Last time I waited I ended up with walking pneumonia (again.) My body can turn a cold into something quite nasty very easily, so I try not to wait around and see what will happen. My immune system, from the time I was born, has never existed at good levels. I have begun to wonder whether it is related to my blood disorder or not. But, you know how it is, you get to one specialist for blood, and another for immune system deficiencies. Add to that, I have Kaiser. Yep, I may never know the correlation, if any, between the two.

Okay, this is long enough of an entry, covers everything I needed to, and has drained me of all remaining energy. Nighty-night.

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2005-01-31 6:24 PM Part of the Paso Posse & Scarlett 'S's aplenty Previous Entry :: Next Entry Mood: quite ill Read/Post Comments (3)	Hehe...and all I wanted was the license to practice law!?!? Hey, Rob: Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die. : ) I suppose I should begin just with that, the beginning. The beginning of this journey was the top of the Grapevine (a part of a SoCal freeway for none Cali peeps). Friday had its bouts of torrential rain, but it was very heavy and steady near the top of the Grapevine. The minivan in front of me caught water, hydroplaned up the steep embankment, and then spun out and off the highway. There were only a few other cars besides him, so he got lucky and did not take any other cars out with him. However, he could not get back on the highway. I pulled over, made sure everyone in the van was okay, and then called 911. CHP asked me to remain where the van went off the road so the officer would be able to locate the van. Okay. I was there for almost 45 minutes, in the heavy rain, drenched. Umbrella was no use - the rain was going sideways. When all was said and done, the officer made sure I got safely back on the road (the incident was just the other side of a blind curve, so it took some time to be able to get into traffic (1) fast enough and (2) trying to avoid oncoming cars), and told me I could wait for my nerves to settle, or he could follow me to the next off-ramp to the Dennys and I could sit there. I opted for Denny's. Unbelievable was that the man who went off the road (and had his three toddlers and wife in his car) had no problem getting back on the road and driving right away. As I passed him up, I relaized he was not paying attention to the raod, but was waiving both hands in the air as he was speaking to his wife - as if his guardian angel had not ust done enough work for his sorry a*. This little time sucking adventure put me behind for Lisa's, had me very rattled, and made me decide on the spot I was not driving to SB with her and her hubbie for his work party. I called Jen and asked her to get in touch with Lisa and let her know I was behind schedule and did not want to drive that night. I sat with some hot chocolate and waited until my hands stopped shaking uncontrollably; then I got back on the road. The rest of the drive was uneventful; not even a Scarlett 'S' to be handed out. Got to Paso with enough time before Lisa and Nick got off work that I picked up their house keys from Nick, went to their house (gave myself a tour), and got myself presentable. They have the cutest house; Lisa is SOOOOO hired to decorate for me. I am very good at it, but she has this way of doing it that flows much better than what I can do. When I arrived in Paso, because of standing out in the rain, I had no makeup left on my face and my hair looked like a french poodle. My clothes were still damp, despite having my car heater cranked all the way to Paso. By the time they got home, I was looking human again. We were supposed to head down to SB for Nick's work party. We did head out as planned. I think we were on the road for just over an hour, and having gone a mere 30 miles - or thereabout - we turned around. Once you see two accidents, do not move more than 20mph, and then see a dead body under a sheet ont he side of the highway, the desire to be on the road any longer dissipates completely. Especially after the little incident earlier, I was quite pleased with the unanimous verdict to turn around and hang in the home. We hit the grocery store for some side dishes to go with the carne asade and for some wine. For those of you who are guffawing buying wine in the grocery store, I need remind you this was in Paso Robles - they have more selection and better grade wine in their grocery store than those of us in LA can get in wine specialty stores. We opted for guacamole, spicy rice, and tortillas. I had talked to them about what they enjoy in wine, so I selected 7 bottles of 5 different wines. We began drinking while we were cooking. In hindsight, maybe not our best decision. Nick broke a glass and tried to catch it after it broke on the corner of the countertop, cutting his finger. All in all, dinner was yummy. There were a couple moments of doubt - you know, when Nick (being Mexican) could not tell us how to make guacamole. I made a recipe I know of - tomatos, avocados, jalapenos, onion, and cilantro. During and following dinner, we tasted the remaining wines. The selection went very well together - no one got sick from the combination and no one had the nasty "wine headache" which can sometimes piggy back tasting different wines or vintners. We did, however, all become quite drunk. Lisa and I could not stop laughing, Nick would start to giggle, we would laugh more, then we would lose track of what we were actually doing. Lisa and I hit the journals - I guess I posted a none too becoming entry (now deleted) to the Plucked Chicken which we only became aware of thanks to Lisa's mom the next morning. We do remember falling over in the chair in the office - I hit the back of my head pretty good (no blood = no staples.) Right before going to bed, Nick fell over and broke a lampshade (and did not remember falling over). Too funny trying to balance yourself when you cannot fathom which direction the floor is going. Lisa does not even remember going to bed that night. Once I laid down, I was out for the count. Saturday morning, Nick went to work and Lisa and I slept a bit longer. I heard Nick moving around,but the bed was so comfy and warm that I did not want to get up. I finally got up and moving and headed to the shower. When I got out I checked to see if Lisa was up. We just talked and killed time. Nick was due home around noonish, so we eventually had to get up and get ready. Nick was lagging when he got home (we all were slow, but Lisa and I had a coupld hours of sleep advantage over him.) The weather was simply gorgeous; clean crisp air and no rain in sight. Lunch was grabbed at Jack in the Crack. Nick drove us over to Justin winery. We tasted a little wine. While we were there, I was offered a job at the winery. The lady heard me talking Lisa and Nick through all of their wines and was impressed. Cool. Too bad I just got a new place down here and Rob is with LAPD down here now. I am stuck - at least for a sum of time. Lisa and Nick both seemed really happy with the winery; the way the land is designed is so beautiful. From there we headed to San Simeon to see the beached elephant seals. Soooooooo amazing. The entire beahc was full of seals. There was one baby seal who was totally playing to the camera. He would look up, make sure he had our attention, then do something really cute. They were a chatful bunch too! From there, we headed back to the "Paso Posse" pad. Lisa's mom came over with Sara for dinner. We had a little wine with it, but no one was really in a drinking mood. I wiped out pretty early and went to bed. I think Lisa and Nick were close behind. Sunday morning we headed out. I took them out to breakfast in Avila Beach - a place named Fat Cat's. It is this little hole in the wall place in a very small port. I found this place during law school on a visit to Avila Beach. We walked down the (only) street in Avila, peeking into the two gift shops, and walking off breakfast. Since it only takes ten minutes to see ALL of Avila, I drove them down to Pismo for more walking around. We went in and out of some little shops. The three of us found a present for a friend of ours wink* wink. She will get it when I see her on my b'day next week. I found some divine incense, which I promptly bought. It is spicy, but has a mild undertone and is a very smooth scent. Reminds me almost of essenced pipe tobacco. Aftet Pismo, we headed back to Paso. On the way, we handed out a very imperative Scarlett 'S'. Another minivan driver. sigh So very sad. He was driving less than 60 in the fast lane, moved over into the slow lane, sped up, and then came back over into the fast lane. This would have been okay, but for the fact that I was there. No, really. Right there. Right where he was coming over. I honked loud and long. You must be thinking he stopped coming over, but you would be wrong. He kept moving over. I had to brake fairly hard to avoid being hit by him. We gave him three strikes, but not an automatic three - nope, he earned all three. Slower than 60 in fast lane - strike one. Moving over into another car - strike two. Continuing to move over while being honked at - strike three. I loaded up my stuff into my car and was on the road mid-afternoon. Easy ride home; uneventful - the best kind. Still have no gas. Finally touched base with the owner of record and got the ball rolling to get the gas leak taken care of. If I did not post about it previously, there is a leak at the gas valve from the wall to the stove and in the oven's gas line. Bad. Stove may need to be replaced, but most certainly the gas valve needs to be. The Gas Company refused to keep the line on without it being fixed. This morning I woke up feeling nauseous. At first this did not surprise me, I usually feel ill on this day since it is the anniversary of my dad's death. But it did not go away. I have been feeling ill all day - freezing cold no matter how many blankets I have on - then hot from too many blankets, slightly stuffed up, congested, nauseous, and a bit of a fever. I took it easy, stayed in all day, and have just been hoping it will go away. I ate some soup and the heat made me cough up some crap from my chest, but all in all, I am looking forward to being back in bed. I knew I needed to post (so I am not bombarded by emails from hostile friends about not telling the details of the trip.) Hopefully tomorrow I will be feeling better - if not, I am not waiting to head to the doc's office. Last time I waited I ended up with walking pneumonia (again.) My body can turn a cold into something quite nasty very easily, so I try not to wait around and see what will happen. My immune system, from the time I was born, has never existed at good levels. I have begun to wonder whether it is related to my blood disorder or not. But, you know how it is, you get to one specialist for blood, and another for immune system deficiencies. Add to that, I have Kaiser. Yep, I may never know the correlation, if any, between the two. Okay, this is long enough of an entry, covers everything I needed to, and has drained me of all remaining energy. Nighty-night. Read/Post Comments (3) Previous Entry :: Next Entry Back to Top
:: JOURNAL HOME :: SUBSCRIBE TO THIS JOURNAL :: Brainsalad :: Friendly Fiction - Adventures in writing. :: Girl Child :: JamTart :: Kenny :: LisaMarie :: Netter...and her Empire :: Reenie :: RT :: Scout :: SmartiPlants :: WordWebbing ::