China and Pancakes

And no, I don't mean moo goo gai pan or even egg foo yung.

Today was our first class in the study of China, which we are taking through the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at a UC Berkeley building. The OLLI program is designed for old farts like us who want to keep learning stuff. A college course without exams, where you aren't the oldest one in the class and where your butt fits in the seats -- what could be better?

I've heard raves about the program from lots of people (primarily Char, who has taken several courses at Berkeley), but sadly, each campus has its own OLLI program (if you join one, it's not transferrable to another), which means my OLII Berkeley membership is not transferrable to UC Davis, and so far I have not found any courses here in Davis that even begin to sound interesting. But Char was planning to take a course called "From the Silk Road to Shanghai: Modern China." She asked if I was interested.

The course meets at 10 a.m., in Berkeley, every Monday but I decided what the heck--might as well get a little knowledge about China before our trip. As I talked about it, Walt decided he would take the course too, so this morning was our first class, which is why we had to rush home from Santa Barbara on Sunday, instead of staying over one more day to have another day with Brianna (and her parents, of course).

We got home from Santa Barbara around 8 or so and got the car unloaded and the dogs fed and sat down to watch Desperate Housewives at 9. I never saw the end of it. It was like coming home from Bri's party exhausted, though I had done no work whatsoever. I was exhausted after our long drive, even though Walt did all the driving home. I was zonked before 10 p.m. This means, of course, that I did not post a journal entry until morning. I woke up sometime around 1 a.m. and got up just long enough to set the timer on the stove, because I knew if I didn't get the journal entry written between 5 and 6, I wouldn't have time to do it at all.

That's a very long, boring way of saying that we went to Berkeley and met Char at the class, which should give us some background about China, which may make our trip more interesting and meaningful.

Our teacher, Gloria Neumeier, says she's 80.

I did some googling and found that she is a 1952 graduate of Barnard College, with an MA from Dominican college in San Rafael. She is a professor at SF State and Sonoma State and in February of this year was in Hong Kong doing research for course that she is teaching on "The New China." She has spent much of the past 20 years teaching in foreign settings, from Kenya and China to Vietnam and Kosovo. These experiences with ordinary people have shaped her ideas about how societies and government policy interact. She has taught at Dominican College, College of Marin and OLLI at SFSU. The last few years she has spent time visiting NGO projects in Cambodia and Laos . A few years ago she re-visited both Cambodia and Vietnam, as well as traveling from Phnom Penh to Vietnam by boat along the Mekong River. Gloria taught for two years in the People’s Republic of China and visited Shanghai in 2010 as delegate with the San Francisco/Shanghai Sister City Commission to the World Expo.

She reminds me some of Walt's mother, a tiny woman, but a dynamo, who certainly does not look her age, though they really should keep laser pointers away from old people with shaky hands!

Today's lecture dwelt on the various regions of China, its ethnic and cultural differences and the problem of trying to unify a country larger than the United States with so many tribal regions so far removed from the central government. There was a slide show, which I loved, because it showed some "caves," which had featured prominently in the mystery I read about the building of the Three Gorges Dam. I have a mental image of a "cave" in this country, but in China, there are whole cities built in the walls of cliffs. They look for all the world as ornate as a hotel you might find elsewhere, but that's only the facade...inside it is built into the side of the cliff. It was nice to have that frame of reference.

I don't know how much I retained of this first lecture (Char and Walt took notes), but I look forward to next week's class. We will miss the last class because we will be on our field trip--in China.

When the class was over, we went to our respective garages to get our respective cars and then I suggested to Walt that he and I have lunch at Bette's Ocean View diner, where I had eaten some months ago, on suggestion from the local PBS program Check Please, Bay Area, a program where a group of 3 submit their favorite restaurants, all eat at each other's choice, and then everyone sits around and discusses/critiques it. Everything from fancy schmancy expensive places, to little hole in the walls like Bette's.

Bette's Ocean View Diner is a misnomer. It's in Berkeley and the only view is of the shops across the street. But even if you removed the buildings you'd still have to go a few more blocks west, cross the freeway, cross a few more blocks, cross the San Francisco Bay and duck under the Golden Gate Bridge before you'd actually be at ocean. But apparently a very long time ago, before there was a freeway, there was a housing development called (optimistically) "Ocean View" and Bette's is a remnant of that development.

It's a great place and it is famous for its pancakes, so the wall art features a buttermilk pancake.

This is a real diner, with the black and white linoleum on the floor, a juke box in the corner, plush booths plus a counter where you can watch the cooks cook and if you sat in front, you sat under a huge piece of cherry pie.

Though it was lunch time, we both opted for breakfast. I had the pancakes because it's their specialty (they even sell pancake mix and a book of pancake recipes) and I love pancakes anyway. Walt had a Philadelphia breakfast, so he could find out what scrapple is.

After lunch, we walked around a little bit on the street where the diner is located. I always say I hate shopping, but if I lived in a neighborhood like this with all the cute, unusual shops, I'd be in debt by the end of the first week.

Walt drove home while I finished my James Patterson book, and now I'm trying to get caught up on all the little things that I either need to do or wanted to do when we got home again after our trip (mostly involving things to write or transcribe). So nice that I will be HOME most of this week and can get caught up.

A Disappointing St. Paddy's Day

Our friend Lee Riggs plays flute and whistle in a 5-person Celtic group called Riggity Jig. They've been together for nearly 15 years and are well known at various gatherings around this area.

A couple of years ago, we got an announcement that they would be playing at Little Prague Restaurant here in Davis for St Patrick's day (not quite sure what Ireland and Czechoslovakia have in common, but music is the great leveler, I guess!).

We went and had a great dinner and a great time. The group played outside and we sat at a table near an open fire, tapped our feet, took pictures and video and just enjoyed the Irish music that we love so much.

They are at Little Prague every year on St. Patrick's day, but this was the first year that we had the opportunity to go again. Reservations were recommended, so I called ahead and made a reservation for 6:30 and asked if we could be outdoors again, so we could hear the music better.

The man taking the reservations said they weren't sure if the band would be outside or inside and I said that I really didn't care where we sat,but that we were coming for the music and just wanted to be wherever the band was. He was very nice about it.

I was looking forward to our night out all day today. I love Irish music and I was really looking forward to sitting there again tapping my toe, making some video and enjoying a good meal.

We were a little early and saw the band playing inside. Lee waved at us and we waved back. We waited longer than we should have to be seated and when the woman finally came to seat us, she took us to the patio area. I complained that I had specifically requested being with the band. "But we take people in order and these people were ahead of you," she said. I pointed out that I had specifically requested a table near the band and had been told I could have it. She shrugged and saiid there was nothing we could do and that surely we could see and hear the band from our outside seats.

We could barely see them.

aw...c'mon...sure you see them there, don't you, behind that tall
women sitting at the window and the waitress taking her order?

...and as for hearing them, well...you decide.

As you can see, yes, technically I can hear the band. But there is a difference between hearing, as in being aware that somewhere in the distance there is a musical instrument playing, and really HEARING the band, listening to the words, the blend of the instruments, etc.. What with all the people at other tables talking, dishes clattering and babies crying, I could see Lee playing the whistle, but I never heard him. I never knew you could be that close to a bagpipe and never hear it. I sat there wanting to cry. I had so been looking forward to this evening all day.

What was the unkindest cut of all was that I had thought I saw a small table near the kitchen when we arrived, but when it was not offered to us, I decided my eyes must have deceived me. However, 30 minutes after we got our dinner, a couple was led to that very table and seated.

Oh the food was good.

I had lamb stew and Walt had corned beef. They rarely checked my water glass and it sat there while they filled water glasses at other tables.

In the end, the waitress asked us if we had a good time. I don't usually get bitchy, but I complained again about how we had been promised a table near the music and couldn't hear it. "Of course you can hear it!" she said, determined to make me happy. But I wasn't.

And, as I said, I won't make the mistake of returning to Little Prague next year for St. Patrick's Day.

But the evening wasn't a total loss. We went inside the restaurant before going home to say good bye to some friends we saw sitting in there and actually got five minutes of hearing the music. And it was good. And our friend told me he loved reading my reviews because I was so honest.

Then, as we were driving down home we stopped at a stoplight and a guy on a bike next to us knocked on the door of the car window and yelled "I love your writing" to me. I rolled down the window and he bemoaned the loss of Derrick, but said he was glad we were at least still writing for the paper.

I guess I've become something of a town celebrity. Sort of. (But if that's true, how come I get lousy seating when I go out to listen to music?)

A Restaurant Review

I dont usually write restaurant reviews, but I felt that the place we went to tonight needed one. I am writing this on February 16th for February 17th, the day I turn 68. Today was supposed to be Cousins Day, but Kathy asked if we could postpone it a day, which meant, of course, that I wouldn't be home for my birthday.

Walt suggested that we go out to dinner and asked where I wanted to go. There is a new place that has opened up in the location of the old beloved Osaka Sushi. It's called Monticello Seasonal Cuisine and its emphasis is on serving seasonal foods purchased from local producers. I was disappointed that it had no menus posted on line, but that may be because the menu may change too often for that.

It only opened on January 11 and I first read about it in Davis Live Magazine, an on-line publication. I checked it out on the Davis Wiki and found really mixed comments about it. The general feeling seemed to be that the food was good and the service needed a lot of improvement.

Ned decided to join us, which was nice.

Before we left, Walt had to open a box from Shutterfly addressed to him, which I had resisted opening, thinking it was probably something Tom and Laurel had made for his birthday, which is next week. However, to my surprise, it was a book for ME (says so right on the cover).

The book is a delightful collection of photos of Bri from birth to now. I told Walt it was a good thing that self-publishing was not as it is today when our kids were growing up or I would have run us into debt publishing books like this. I just love it.

We met Ned at Monticello and were pleased with the remodeling of the old Osaka. Instead of being dominated by a sushi bar, it now has a clean, open look to it, with a nice wine bar at the front.

(cloth table cloths suggest that it ain't cheap...and it isn't.)

The Wiki comments about the slowness of the service were sadly true. While we were seated immediately, we were there for 15 minutes before we got water or bread. It was 45 minutes before our food came and we waited 15 minutes for the check. I should add that the place was only about half full and one table of patrons was seated, served, and left before we got our food.

However, from reading the Wiki, I was kind of prepared for that and was determined to relax and enjoy. Ned and Walt ordered steak, I had lamb chops and I have to say it was the most delicious lamb I've had in a restaurant in a very long time, and perfectly cooked medium rare.

Ned and Walt had the same comment about their steaks.

There are only two entrees on the menu with prices attached and the others were all specials, so read by the waitress, who never told us the price (more expensive than I expected, we discovered when the bill came)

A strange complaint is that they use some special salt in the shaker,but the crystals seem to be too big to go through the holes a normal shaker. My lamb needed salt and no amount of shaking produced enough to make a difference. The potatoes and bok choy, however, were very nicely seasoned. I am not a big fan of bok choy and was pleased to discover that it was delicious.

Since it was my birthday dinner and since comments on the Wiki raved about the desserts, I let Walt know I wanted dessert. I was surprised that there was no dessert menu, but the waitress rattled off four choices. There was both a chocolate tart and a chocolate torte and I wasn't sure which I ordered, but we all decided to share it.

I'm so glad we decided to share it because it was way too much for one person, even a chocoholic like me. But was definitely delicious.

The service didn't improve throughout the evening. It seemed to be more important to clear and re-set the table next to us than to take our order and it took an equally long time to actually get a bill at the end of the evening. We were there, all told, 2 hours, which isn't really all that bad, given that we weren't being rushed, but they definitely need to work on their wait staff skills (or hire a second waitress!)

But the food was good enough to make up for the lack in the service area. I may give it another try, but not real soon, since the cost makes it definitely a special occasion dinner.

I also wanted to add that I got a wonderful gift from Ned & Marta, who bought an order of bees through Heiffer International for me. That meant a lot to me, to know that someone somewhere will be able to pollinate their crops and harvest honey thanks to my birthday gift.

All in all a really special birthday--and it's not even really my birthday yet!

Happy Birthday to me!

Table Ballet and Tom Kha Gai

What a great day we had today. It started out kind of iffy. My digestive tract wasn't behaving properly and I had the horrible feeling that I was going to have to send Walt off alone, but fortunately I just had a bland breakfast and by mid-morning, when we had to leave, I was feeling OK.

We drove down to the Bay Area to pick up Char and Mike so we could carpool over to the City. We had tickets to see the San Francisco Symphony play live music for a showing of Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush at Davies symphony Hall.

We have attended some of these live music showings before. A couple of years ago we saw the symphony play the score to The Wizard of Oz and there was some great silent Russian epic film that we saw many years ago. It's amazing how much richer the films are with a live orchestra.

We went early so we could catch the prologue . While waiting for the speaker, we looked out over the audience, and all we could see was a sea of white hair (unless there was no hair). There was also a walker-brigade of ushers who would accompany an older person in a walker to his or her seat and then take the walkers to the back of the hall. As Char put it, "It was the biggest collection of walkers and canes seen anywhere. We felt young and fit in this crowd." Walt later commented that probably a lot of the people in the audience had seen the movie when it was new!

Before the prologue started, there was a guy dressed as Chaplin who went all over the theatre, interacting with the audience. He was very cute and everybody seemed to be enjoying him.

The pre-movie talk was delivered by Stephen Salmons, co-founder of The San Francisco Silent Film Festival. Originally made in 1925, Chaplin reworked the film in 1942, so that it was shorter. He also took out the printed material and added his own narration. They were able to put back the deleted scenes and all the printed material so that audiences could see the film as movie-goers did at its premiere in 1925. They don't consider this a full restoration, but more a "work in progress."

I had, of course, seen The Gold Rush before, or at least the most famous scenes--the house teetering on the edge of the snowy mountain top, the shoe-eating scene, the "table ballet" Chaplin does with the dinner rolls (Photoshopped onto the screen above). It turns out that the dance he does with the rolls was really a fairly authentic reproduction of a clog dance he had done in England as a boy.

The full movie is 2 hours long (and I know I've never seen a 2-hour long silent film) and what a delight it was. For one thing, it was played on the type of projector that it was made for, so you didn't get all that jerkiness that you usually see when watching silent films and after you got over the fact that there was no spoken dialog, it didn't matter. I could understand why people were suspicious of "talkies" when they came along and feared that it would ruin the art of movie making. Of course that was long before people started fearing that Avatar was going to ruin acting. It's all just one long progression, I guess.

When we left Davies hall there was a big line of buses, tour buses and buses from assisted living facilities and any kind of bus you can imagine, coming to load all those white haired people with all of their walkers and take them home.

(and this was after a lot of them had left!

It was too early for dinner when the movie was over, so we drove back across the bay and by the time we got close to Mike & Char's house, it was 5 p.m., so we stopped at a place called Chada Thai, where we had a wonderful dinner starting with Tom Kha Gai, a fabulous sweet and sour chicken soup with a coconut milk stock. I could have made a whole meal on that alone, but we ordered several dishes to share.

Everything was wonderful, and I think this was the first time I've ever eaten in a Thai restaurant where I did NOT get Pad Thai.

We were home in time to find out who was booted off of Survivor. It was all just a lovely day.

Table for One, Please

Sometime, many years ago it was maybe in a Question Man column somewhere. Women were asked if they would ever go out to a restaurant alone. I was shocked by how many women said they would not. Or that they would be embarrassed to eat in a restaurant alone.

I certainly can't see that. I'm a great one for going out to eat by myself. I love eating out, but somehow Walt and I don't seem to go out all that often. Whenever he's out of town, I think a lot about going out to eat. I don't often, but only because I'm too lazy to leave the house. But this week I managed to get out to eat three times.

The first time doesn't really count because I met my friend Ruth for lunch. That doesn't qualify as "eating alone." We went to one of the numerous Chinese restaurants in town and I have eaten in that place alone sometime in the past.

Ruth and I are trying to establish a regular lunch routine and this was our second time to eat together. It's fun getting to know her. I've always liked her and thought she was a unique person, but now I'm starting to get to know her better and that makes it even more fun.

Last night, I was downtown running an errand and decided to stop by Burgers & Brew for dinner.

In rummaging through the freezer the night before I had found a very old frozen hamburger patty and cooked it up to have a cheeseburger for dinner. It really didn't satisfy and all it really did was to remind me of the fabulous burger I had with Ashley the first time I'd been at Burgers & Brew. It was a mushroom burger and because I love onion rings I'd had a side of onion rings which were some of the best ever.

Then yesterday someone on Facebook talked about going to Burgers & Brew and got my taste buds all stimulated. So I stopped to have dinner.

I have to say that while the dinner was very good, it didn't live up to my former experience. The bun on the burger was cold and the thing stacked askew so that it was almost impossible to pick up to eat. The onion rings had a great flavor, but were overcooked a bit.

Still, I enjoyed the dinner, the people watching, and having enough left over after I was finished that I could take it home and have for lunch today.

Tonight I was reviewing a show in Woodland and decided to go to dinner again. Ludy's BBQ is right next to the opera house and I thought about going here, but I just wasn't in a BBQ mood. Ludy's has great food, but it's long on meat and sauce, short on anything else. I wasn't up for french fries or potato salad.

I thought about going to Osaka Sushi in Woodland (since that location is still in operation) to compare it with the place that closed here in Davis, but I just wasn't in a raw fish mood and I kind of got started too late for that kind of dinner anyway.

I finally decided that I really wanted veggies, so I went to Steve's Pizza to have their salad bar. Steve's, in all its locations, has my favorite salad bar and my salad just hit the spot. A little bit of everything (except beets).

The place isn't exactly next door to the Woodland Opera House, but it's just across the street and I was able to eat my fill of veggies and those delicious croutons and still get to the theatre in time to read my book for ~10 minutes before the play started.

My next "alone theatre experience" will be in Sacramento and I just may plan on going to dinner alone there too. I did eat at a fondu place in Sacramento I'd been wanting to try for years once and, though it was delicious, it was way overpriced and you got hardly anything...better to have experienced that alone than to have paid for two dinners!

I can't see what the big deal is about women eating alone in a restaurant. I don't even think of it, whether it's a burger place or some more high end restaurant. Dinner for one is less than you pay for dinner for two. You get to people watch. You don't have to cook. Your meal is more balanced than what you'd cook for yourself (well, mine is!) It's kind of the best of all possible worlds.

The Quest for Sushi

I sent this picture to Jeri last night via cell phone

She sent back a message, "where did you find sushi?" It turns out that there are three sushi places within 2 blocks of each other in downtown Davis and when I checked the Davis Wiki this morning I discovered there are actually nine sushi restaurants in Davis! We decided that between now and May 18 we will check out four of them.

Last night we were at Jusco, which is across the street from one of the most popular sushi places in town, because of its all-you-can-eat sushi bar. It always has a long line outside it at noontime.

I don't know how long the lunch line is for Jusco, but it also has an all you can eat buffet, though not "buffet" in the traditional sense. You don't stand and choose your own food. Instead they give you a laminated menu and you mark what you want from the buffet, then they go off and get it for you.

The first thing I noticed about Jusco is that the menu of this sushi house included things like pot stickers and won ton. How that would have tickled our Japanese daughter, who thought it so funny to find Japanese items for sale in Chinatown in San Francisco. Here in this country we seem to group all Asians into some homogeneous group and think nothing odd about serving sushi with won ton. (I do admit, though, that I wonder how authentic the cream cheese wontons actually are. Do they serve them in China? I had no qualms about ordering them both before and after my sushi--I love anything fried and anything with cream cheese and when you fry cream cheese, it's like dying and going to heaven! And when it's part of an "all you can eat" menu, you don't feel guilty getting a second order.)

Jusco's decor is not plush, like Osaka was. There are booths with vinyl seats and high tables. Walt looked like he was sitting in a hole. There is no sushi bar. The counter where they collect the money has stacks of boxes of soft drink cans surrounding it. There is a nice mural of swimming fish on the wall. The lights hanging from the very high ceiling have faux orchids wrapped around the cord.

I was all prepared for a new sushi place with my "Sushipedia" for the iTouch, which shows you pictures of various types of sushi and explains what it in them.

No need for that at Jusco. There are several plastic cards on the wall of each booth which explain what's in things like a Panda Roll, Kitty Roll or an Orange Sherbert [sic], things which I suspect are unique to Jusco (but I'll find out as we travel around some of the other sushi places).

We ordered the cream cheese won ton and pot stickers to start with, then moved onto the sushi itself, with maguro (tuna) and ebi (shrimp). Walt ordered two types of salmon, smoked and not. I had to get spicy tuna, which has always been my favorite at Osaka and we ordered something called a Rainbow roll which had crab (probably krab) and other stuff inside it. It seemed like a lot of sushi and I was concerned we might not be able to finish. One thing about Jusco is that it really is all you can eat, but they charge you extra if you just eat the fish and leave the rice behind! Fifty cents for each rice ball left on your plate. Never heard of a restaurant with a penalty for leaving food before!

I have to say that overall it was OK, but not outstanding. I love the maguro, but where Osaka's tuna was thin, tender and seemed to mold itself around the rice, Jusco's was thicker, firm and lay on top of the rice and it was difficult to pick the two up together. The shrimp didn't seem as fresh and it was at Osaka. It even looked tired.

The biggest disappointment, though, was the spicy tuna. At Osaka it's like a tuna salad, nicely flavored, that comes on top of a nori (seaweed) wrapped bit of rice. I just love it. But at Jusco, the "spicy tuna" was a role with rice on the outside (no nori), very spicy (too spicy for me), black pepper flavored and with a chunk of celery that kind of took over the flavor. I didn't like it at all.

The edamame, however, was the best I've had. I don't know how quality of edamame can differ, since it's just cooked soy beans, but I just loved the edamame at Jusco.

It was all OK, but Jusco would not be my choice of a place to go every time we want sushi (though the price was much cheaper). Next week, for David's birthday, we'll try one of the other places in town as we continue our quest to find a replacement for Osaka.

I did learn, though, that the original owners of Osaka sold the place a couple of years ago. so the people who closed the doors and walked away were not the people who started the restaurant in the first place. Those people still run their restaurant in Woodland, 10 miles away. We may have to drive in there to see if the quality is as good as we remember, especially if I can't find the right kind of spicy tuna at the 9 restaurants left in Davis.

An Artsy-Fartsy Weekend

First of all, you must, must see the new video, "My Rising Up," which I added to "Look at These Videos." The Gay Men's Chorus in San Francisco is going to be performing a cantata of Steve's music in December, but they are doing one of the pieces in their spring concert and Steve took a video of a rehearsal. My god, did this send chills down my spine. And in the middle I actually had tears in my eyes. I don't know if it's because it's that good or if it's because I was imagining what Steve must feel to be watching this. I suspect it's both.

So it's been a three-show weekend, and fortunately all three plays, while quite different from one another, were all pretty good.

We started Friday night with a performance of Measure for Measure at the University. As I have stated ad nauseam in this journal, Shakespeare is not my forte and I knew nothing about this particular play. But I did some studying beforehand so I had a vague idea of what was going on.

I was not prepared, however, for modern dress, electric colored wigs on bump-and-grind dancers, and musical numbers tossed in at random. I could have done without the music, which was forgettable, but the production was pretty good, and the performers were all excellent. The best I can say is that it was a Shakespeare production that kept me awake (of course I don't mention that in a printed review!)

I really, really didn't want to to go see A Number at Capital Theatre Company, which performs on the Delta King riverboat in Old Sacramento. It wasn't that I didn't like the play (which I had never heard of before), or that the theatre company tended to do bad productions. On the contrary, they are one of my favorite groups because they are generally excellent.

No, my reluctance had to do only with the fact that it was a comfortable 78 degrees in the house and an UNcomfortable 100 degrees outside! Going to the show would involve putting on SHOES, and long pants and actually feeling the heat. I'm so very spoiled by air conditioning!

However, it was worth the trip. This is a play by a playwright named Caryl Churchill and has been called "the first 21th century play." It involves the subject of cloning and is a discussion between a father and son, who has just learned that he is a clone...or is he the original? It brings up the question of what makes us who we are. It reminds me of the lyrics to the song in A Chorus Line which says "Who am I anyway? Am I my resume?"

The play is only 65 minutes long, but gives the audience much to ponder at the end of it. And the two actors, Gillen Morrison and Loren Taylor, were simply outstanding.

We ended the weekend with a matinee production of A Streetcar Named Desire at the Woodland Opera House. I've noticed that on three-show weekends, the third show just really seems like going to work, no matter how good it is. This was a matinee, so the senior citizen buses were parked in front of the theatre and at some point Walt announced that I was the youngest person in the place.

I remember when the Lamplighters joked about a "sea of blue hair" at Sunday matinees, though this particular matinee had at least one fellow in the most amazing pompadour that I was sorry I'd forgotten my camera. It was an unnatural gold and piled higher than Elvis', which made me glad that have chosen to age au naturel!

The show itself was pretty good, though it's either the acoustics of the opera house, or all of our aging ears, but there was a gathering of other audience members in front of us at intermission, all complaining about being unable to understand the dialog. One guys said "I can't figure out what's going on...but at least it's a nice way to get out of the house" and then added that "you really can't beat the old musicals!"

We ended the weekend with dinner out at a local restaurant. This is a place that sent me a coupon for a free dinner for two, if I would be one of their "secret shoppers," reporting back how my experience had been -- they contacted me in response to a letter of complaint I had sent about experiences on Easter weekend.

Anyway, we had a wonderful dinner, with starter, wine, salad, entree, and dessert. About 50% more than we would normally eat on a night out, but all was well. Unfortunately, the waitress did not live up to a lot of the picky bits that they ask about on the form (didn't give us information on specials, or offer freshly grated pepper for our salad, or ask if we wanted dessert, or offer coffee when she brought dessert). But I filled out the "secret shopper" form and thanked them for giving us the chance to participate.

So, having now reviewed the restaurant, I'm spending the rest of the evening working on the reviews for the 3 shows.

The Large Family

Unlike Ned & Marta, Walt and I did not take seriously the notion that overpopulation was a serious global issue back in the 1960s, and so we populated ourselves into a large family, by today's standards. When you have five children (and they were born within six and a half years), there are financial issues that limit what you can do with them.

I don't know why I remember this so strongly, but I can remember going to the circus with my parents and always wanting the junky things that they came around selling to the crowd (a bird that whirled around on a string attached to a stick is one I remember) and having my parents tell me I couldn't have it. I swore then and there that when I had children of my own, I would not deny our kids the things they wanted.

Yeah. Right. I didn't realize then that those cheap toys were seriously overpriced and that my family was on a budget and we were lucky to be at the circus at all.

So we said "no" to things our kids wanted a lot (poor Jeri never did get "Marvel, the Mustang") and I always died a little when we had to, because I knew how they felt.

But there were some things that we really wanted the kids to experience, one of which was learning how to appreciate eating in a "real" restaurant. I remember as a child that our family ate out often, usually with my grandparents. We would go to an Italian place in North Beach, or "Grisson's Steak House," or somewhere that my father could get prime rib. "Eating out" was a part of my growing up and I wanted my kids to have that opportunity as well. I not only wanted them to have the fun, but I wanted them to learn how to behave in a restaurant with real silverware and linen napkins.

When we went out as a family, it was usually for pizza or to McDonald's and I remember Char's kids thinking ours were so terribly deprived because all they got to have was a hamburger, shared large fries, and a soft drink, where Char's kids were having Big Macs, individual fries, and milk shakes. Our poor deprived children.

If we couldn't afford 7 Big Macs at a time, we certainly couldn't afford to take them all out to a "normal" restaurant, so we came up with a solution that I'm still proud of. We decided that once a month, one kid would go to dinner with one parent. Walt and I alternated months so that over the course of the year, each child got to have dinner out with each of us.

The child got to pick the restaurant and the only rule was that it had to be a sit-down restaurant. No fast food for dinner night.

At that time The Nut Tree was a big deal around here, a favorite stop of people traveling along I-80. (It has since been torn down and replaced by a strip mall, which tried to keep some of the flavor, and failed miserably.) When we started kids' night out, it had a wonderful upscale restaurant with a huge aviary in the middle of it. You could sit there waiting for your meal and watch all the exotic birds flying about in the trees.

(The aviary is the glass wall in the back)

The Nut Tree bakery made all the breads and instead of getting rolls before dinner, each person would get a little individual loaf of home made bread on a tiny bread board, with a serrated knife to slice it. Along with your bread, they brought a fresh pineapple and a delicious marshmallow dressing. It was a favorite choice of several of the kids for a place to go for dinner. And I loved it because I loved the place too. There were frequently long lines of people waiting to get into the restaurant. There was also a huge toy store where they sold offbeat toys, and a child's train that ran around the perimeter of the grounds, out as far as the Nut Tree airport and back again. (Yes, it had an airport and the place was so well known it was not uncommon for some rich guys to hop in their planes in So. California and fly up for lunch.)

Train leaving the Toy Shop, restaurant at back

The guy who founded the restaurant was a fanatic about planes, so there was a huge gift shop, where you could buy Nut Tree foods from the bakery (like supersized decorated cookies), or unusual gifts from around the world. You could also visit the airplane corner and choose from a huge collection of books and photographs and memorabilia about airplanes.

It was always a multi-media experience, shopping at The Nut Tree!

But we didn't always go to the Nut Tree. Each child had his or own unique preferences when it came to choosing where to go for dinner, whether the choice was for ambience or for food type or because they remembered having liked the restaurant before (or a sibling had raved about it).

Ned always had the most interesting choice of restaurants. He decided that his nights out would give him the opportunity to experience all sorts of ethnic cuisine, so he would choose a country whose food he wanted to taste and we would check out the telephone book to find a restaurant. I remember the two of us eating in one of the most wonderful Indian restaurants I've ever visited. It was in Sacramento and I couldn't find it now if I tried, but it sure was a good meal.

I think we kept up the kids' nights out for about two or three years. I don't know why we stopped, but maybe as the kids got older schedules started getting too busy. But I loved the opportunity to focus on one child, to talk about serious stuff and funny stuff without being interrupted by another child who needed attention, while at the same time the other parent was at home trying to make it fun for the kids who were left behind.

And I'm proud to report that all of them today know how to behave in a nice restaurant. :)

Feeling Crabby

It seemed like a good idea at the time. In fact, it seemed like a GREAT idea at the time.

Walt had come home from the Farmers Market and announced the Caffe Italia, an Italian restaurant on the outskirts of town, was having an Easter weekend brunch and that they were serving crab omelets until 2 p.m.

And y'all know how I love crab.

I was in the middle of writing an e-mail to Jeri, but left it instantly and ran out to the car so we could get there before the deadline.

We were surprised when (a) there was no line at the door, and (b) there were few cars in the parking lot.

But the place was flashing an "open" sign and there was a menu on the front door, with "crab omelet" the first item on the list.

We went in and were seated by a nice lady who brought us glasses of water (because we didn't want drinks). Then our waitress came to introduce herself and give us menus. The table across from us was empty. She asked if she should explain the specials and I said that there was no need. I was just there for the crab omelet.

It was too late for breakfast, she informed us.

We protested that the sign on the door said they would be serving the breakfast menu until 2 p.m. and it was only a little after 1. She was gone a long time and then came back and said that the sign actually said that they would serve champagne on Saturday and Sunday and that the special menu was for Sunday only. We had missed breakfast and the kitchen "was very strict about not cooking breakfast after breakfast time."

We took the menus and tried to decide if we should leave or not. Walt left the decision up to me and I finally decided that if we had a big meal at 1:30, we could have something light before we left for the theatre, since I was reviewing "Cyrano de Bergerac" tonight.

We ordered salads. Cold salads. Walt had an Italian antipasto salad and I had a thai chicken salad.

While we were making our decision, two girls sat in the booth across from us, looked at the menu a long time, had a long conversation with the waitress, which I gathered was about which dishes were vegetarian, and they finally ordered some cooked dish.

Finally, the waitress took our order. We sat. And sat. And sat. And sat.

At one point I told Walt that she wasn't going to be able to serve us lunch because by the time it came it would be time for DINNER service.

It was 30 minutes before our food arrived...and that was AFTER the girls across the aisle had been served their COOKED meal and were nearly finished.

The Thai salad was good, but when your mouth is all ready for crab and you get chicken with cilantro, it just isn't the same.

The waitress merrily invited us to come back tomorrow for crab omelets. We declined. Not only do we have other plans, but if the wait time is any indication, with the crowd which will probably show up for breakfast, we could easily spend the entire day there and I have better things to do with my Easter Sunday.

When we left, I looked at the menu and yes, it does say it is Sunday's menu, but the way it is written, it was a very easy misinterpretation to make. I dunno...If I were running a restaurant and knew that a customer had come specifically for a certain dish, I certainly would not send the waitress back with an admonishment for coming too late. And if I were the waitress, I would certainly not keep the customer then waiting 30 minutes to get the food she didn't really want to order in the first place.

But then I am finding, sadly, that this kind of attitude tends to be becoming more the norm than it used to be. Just another indication of how fewer and fewer people in customer service situations even care any more.

(Do I sound like a cranky old lady?)

However, we came home to lively puppies. Gosh these guys are cute. Walt and I sat in the back yard (because they won't really go out without someone with them) while they chased each other around and around, and explored all corners of the yard.

I've finally decided that the only way to keep Jack out of my office is to block the dog door and CLOSE my office door. It's the only thing that he can't get through--wood (though if he were to live here long enough, I have no doubt that he's smart enough to figure out how to get up high enough to turn a door knob!)