Monday, October 29, 2012

Dispatches From The Marriage Factory: Matchy Matchy

Joe's report today is weddings and sports.  And a happy report for the Bay Area it is.  The link to two pictures is worth a click, the cutest sports fan ever.

First of all: Yay Giants!!!

This week at the Hall of Records was a very stylish one, with several
well-designed bride/groom outfits. My favorite was a bride in a
turquoise dress with a groom in a gray vest and trousers with a
turquoise shirt. His tie was turquoise and gray with a matching
pocket square. Very chic!

Second place goes to a bride in a white strapless dress with cobalt
blue shoes. The groom? Cobalt blue shirt to match!

Now, as you can tell from the first sentence in this entry, I am a Bay
Area sports fan. I like every team we've got, no matter the sport.
The most notorious are, of course, the Oakland Raiders, whose fans are
called the Black Hole.

The biggest wedding on Friday featured a bride
in a beautiful gown and a groom in a Hawaiian-style shirt with Raiders
logos on it. Not to worry - several of the guests wore Raiders
jerseys and the bride's bouquet had a Raiders ribbon around the stems!
The groom cracked jokes during the vows, which is OK the first time
or two - nerves and all - but grows exponentially wearisome and
disrespectful to the bride and to me as it continues. My thoughts:
Raiders fans have a bad enough reputation. Why play into that by
being rude?

In conclusion: Yay Giants!

For the readers who are not sports fan, or live outside the USA, the San Francisco Giants won the World Series last night.  Don't forget the pictures below.

Bonus pictures:
http://instagram.com/p/P-RZ8xAzI_/
http://instagram.com/p/P-SBrvgzJf/

--
Joe Mallon
jmmallon@gmail.com
















Saturday, October 27, 2012

Baby Back Ribs, testing an easy method

Once again we are testing a recipe for Cook’s Illustrated.  This time we are to cook Baby Back Ribs in a shorter time than it normally takes. We hope to still have a delicious finished product.  Ribs can take all day to cook when you cook them low and slow.  This recipe has you cook the ribs at a simmer, and then grill them.  Also there are two sauces to glaze the ribs. 

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Wonderful meaty ribs from Costco.  They were trimmed and the membrane on the back had been removed.  Good job Costco.

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The ribs are in salted water, then brought up to a simmer.  They simmer until they reach 195 degrees.  That is when they are ready to go on the grill.

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While the ribs are simmering, the chef and crew need a little refreshment.  Gin and Tonic for the chef, Margaritas, with Grand Marnier, for the helper and our host. 

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The recipe also included a choice of three sauces to glaze the ribs with.  We picked two: one was a lime based catsup sauce and the other was a Hoisin based sauce.  Both were excellent (very different from Southern Bar B Q sauce) but the lime based sauce was our favorite.

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Our two sauces.  Blue bowl lime, yellow the Hoisin.

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You can’t have ribs without Potato Salad and Baked Beans.  Marty is doctoring the beans with some Stubbs Sauce.  It is so good, also so hot it will make your eyeballs sweat.

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Marty is putting the glaze on the ribs.  Then to the grill.

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On the grill they go.

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Not the best picture, night time and not much light outside.   The ribs above traveled to the table and were enjoyed by all.

I really am not fond of ribs, too messy, too much work for so little meat.  But I ate a couple and they were good.  The recipe works,  good food in a much shorter time.

 

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Gardens in Balboa Park

Tuesday Marty and I went back to Balboa Park.  This time no museums, we were there for the gardens. I took 74 pictures.  So much beauty.  I have posted 15 for your viewing pleasure.  Do click to enlarge them, the details need to be bigger.   Our first garden I can’t find listed on the website.  It is part of the art museum and just not listed.  It is green grass, a pool, and sculpture.

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This is at one of the entrances.  

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This park blog gives information about this little garden.

Across the street is the Alcazar Garden.  They were replanting some of the beds and the rich smell of the earth was wonderful. 

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The top picture shows the garden as you enter.  The bed to the left is being replanted.  The tree is the background is amazing.  The bottom picture shows Marty searching for a sign to tell us what this tree is.  No sign.  It also shows how huge this tree is.  Yes tree, singular. 

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The tile work is gorgeous in this garden.  The flowers are snapdragons.  Yes, the end of October, snapdragons.

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This is the sign at the entrance of the Zoro Garden.  It is a butterfly garden.  We did not have much luck finding butterflies.  We saw 3 or 4.  And the little devils are really hard to spot in the flowers.  My pictures are not worth posting.  Maybe next time we will have better luck.

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This fountain is in front of a couple of the museums.  I thought it and the sky made a great picture.

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We have arrived at the Cactus Garden.  None of the plants had signs to identify them.  They had a sun bleached sign that showed shapes and gave names at the entrance.  It was too faint to photograph and take with us.  So I have great pictures and no idea what we are looking at.

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Weird and strange and wonderful at the same time.

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When I saw this, all I could think of was Cowboy movies from the 1950’s. 

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And now we enter the Rose Garden, just a couple of steps from the cactus.

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You are looking at the Gazebo that is below us.  Also note how throughout the garden they have white roses to contrast with the colored roses.

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Who is that cute fellow?

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This rose was magnificent!  Pure white, with the touch of pink inside.  Loved it.

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You have to click on this one to read the name.   The cook in me had to have a picture of this rose.

The aroma as we walked through this garden was heavenly.  Sometimes very strong, other times a faint smell floating by.  I can not imagine this garden at its peak in the early summer.  It was full of blooming roses and buds yesterday.

There are more gardens for us to see next week.

Monday, October 22, 2012

I was just a wee bit ticked

For those that don't know me, a little background.  I am over punctual.  I arrive early everywhere.  I sit in the car and read until time for appointments.  Being late is never an option.  And I am offended by people who are always late. I told off my dentist and her hygienists for being constantly late (I had the first appointment of the day usually.) Things happen, traffic or a dead battery, and even I have been late.  But you can see I have a low tolerance for lateness. 

Today I had an appointment for a haircut at 9:30.  The alarm went off, I had a shower, dressed, and took off for the salon. To be there on time I had to skip my hour of pool exercises.  I arrived early of course.  I checked email, gotta love smart phones.  At 9:26 I got out of the car and walked up to the salon.  The door was locked and no lights on inside.  Not a good sign. At 9:40 I called my hairdresser, Maggie, it went to voicemail.  I left a detailed message, got in the car and headed back to Richard's house.

Just as I was nearly to the house, my phone rang.  I pulled over and answered it.  "This is Maggie, someone called me???"  She didn't listen to the voicemail?  Is that any way to run a business?  I explained to her I had an appointment and who I was.  She didn't have a clue what I was talking about.  At this point I am fighting to remain civil.  I asked her when she could take me.  She would work me in at 10:30.  Work me in?  That ticked me.  She should have said I have an opening at  . . .   But I was to be worked in.  Fine, I need my hair cut and I don't want to start over with someone new.

I continued to the house, stomped into the house and told my sorry tale.  Then I went back to get my hair cut.  I lucked out and only had to wait less than 10 minutes to be "worked in". 

Maggie apologized over and over.  She had put me down on the wrong day.  She did a fairly good haircut.  But she had forgotten I only wanted it cut and no blow dry or curling iron.  I planned to get in the pool and do those exercises later.  She started blowing my hair dry, and I stopped her.  Great surprise on her part.  I was not paying more money for something I did not want.  She should have written down last time what I wanted in her book.  I did make an appointment for November. 

But trust me, this did affect her tip.

Saturday, October 20, 2012

In the stacks

San Diego County must have had, and maybe still has, pots of money.   I have been in two of the libraries, and driven by a couple more.  There are I think 32 branches.  These buildings are huge, beautiful, and have an incredible check in and out system.  They have large parking lots and street parking which is free.  Take that Oakland.

To return books you go to a window, press check in, slide the book hard onto the conveyor belt, and it reads who checked it out and prints a receipt when you press done.  But the check out is crazy.  They have several stations around the library.  You scan your library card, and stack several books on a pad.  As you place them it reads them, when all books are read, press done, and a receipt is printed. I stacked mine all at once and it read half of them.  I lifted those off and before I could place them in my book bag, it had read the rest. It doesn't matter which way you place the books, it reads the ID strip inside the book. It took less than 30 seconds to check out 13 books.  Other systems I have used, you place a book, wait and wait, then place the next one.  Very slow, better than waiting in line for a person, but still slow.

In the stacks they will have 4 or 5 copies of books.  But, there is always a but, I hate the way the stacks are organized.  Everything that is sorted by the Dewey Decimal system is fine.  But Fiction, awful.  Most libraries I have used through the years sort fiction by: New books, Large print, Older books.  These categories are broken down then into sub categories:  Romance, Science Fiction, Mysteries, Novels, Short Stories, Graphic Novels.  Paperbacks are sorted by the previous categories.  All of these are shelved by the author's last name.

Not San Diego.  Every fictional book goes on the shelf by author's name.  Paperback next to mystery, next to romance, next to scenic fiction. . .  They do have stickers on the spine to show mystery and science fiction.  That helps, but you have to go through every row to find what you are looking for.  I can't remember many authors' names. I have to look for the mystery sticker, take it down, and see if it is someone I read, or want to read.  It takes a long long time to find books.  If the mystery books are all together, I find favorites and discover new favorites quickly.

I know this is a petty complaint.  I understand it is much easier for them to shelf books one big group by last name.  No this one here, that one in that row, this one in the next room, that one goes on the spinning holder thingy.  I just don't like the system. 

But it is free, I can check out as many as I want, I can have 200 holds a year, and it is free.  I do love libraries.

Friday, October 19, 2012

Dispatches from the Marriage Factory: A Grand Affair

Reading Joe's post this week has made me so homesick.  I really miss the weddings.  I especially miss the ones like he describes.  This week Joe asks for your opinion.  Leave comments please.  I will be sure he checks in and sees them.  Now here's Joe.

During the standard ceremony I perform, I ask the bride & groom to
join hands. What should the bride do when she's already holding a
bouquet? I don't think there's a right answer. Some keep it, the
groom wrapping his fingers around the stem and hers. Others hand it
to a witness, seeming to regret having brought it in the first place.
Readers, what do you think?

I had the most elaborate wedding ever this week. The couple wanted a
traditional processional. The groom's best man and groomsmen stood by
him. There were three flower girls - luckily, their title was
ceremonial; no petals to clean up afterwards - and a 2 or 3-year-old
ringbearer in a 3-piece suit. As the bride prepared to walk down the
aisle, one of the witnesses played the wedding march on her phone.
After the ceremony, many pictures were taken.

For the first time I can remember (although I'm sure not the first
time ever), all the couples were first-timers - none had been married
before. Considering how much planning went into the large wedding, I
suspect it will be the only one for them.

--
Joe Mallon

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Safari in San Diego

Sunday the male hunter found a scorpion in the pool.  Using a high tech killing machine, a brick, he killed it.  Monday the female hunter found a scorpion in the pool.  Using her high tech killing machine, a brick, she killed it.  Tuesday the female hunter went to the pool.  She walked the perimeter looking for scorpions.  No scorpions in the pool.  But the hunting had moved up a level.  There was a killer mammal in the pool.  Floating on the edge of the pool, a dead gopher.  The female hunter does not fish gophers out of the pool.  She let the male hunter do that.

Now you are saying gophers aren't killers.  And you would be wrong.  They tunnel and the ground becomes like a sponge.  They kill anything with roots.  They kill beautiful plants.  The female hunter has lost a ten foot orange tree, a twelve foot redbud, a 40 year old rose, artichokes, gardenias, tomatoes.  All and more died from the teeth of the killer gopher. 

All people with lawns, gardens, trees, hate the killer gopher.  If you are an apartment dweller and don't understand this hatred, rent Caddyshack.  Or you can watch this montage of gopher action from Caddyshack.  This is more fact than fiction.

Wednesday morning, the female hunter walked the perimeter, checking for danger.  When she felt it was safe to enter the pool, she did.

Monday, October 15, 2012

More thoughts from the pool, and one big silent scream

Last week I sent Richard, Marty, and Luis an email that contained info from a site I read.  A man had found a scorpion in his pool.  Hours later he fished it out and the scorpion was still alive and stung him.   Richard came in from the pool yesterday and asked me something about whether I was clairvoyant.  He had found a scorpion in the pool, fished it out, and squashed it with a brick.

Today I checked the pool over before getting in,  NO, NO, NO, SOMEONE HELP ME! PLEASE DON'T LET IT BE, IT IS!  CRAP!!!!!!!!! this was all running in my head.  No one was home, no point in carrying on out loud.  I have a scorpion to kill that is four feet deep.  I got the pool net, scooped up the scorpion, put the net down next to a brick, grabbed the brick, and pounded the scorpion. 

I then got in the pool and did my exercises.  Richard is spraying the perimeter of the pool this afternoon. 

After being on major alert as I walked, I calmed down and had some thoughts.

Most importantly, I don't see me getting into the pool at night ever again without the pool lights on.

They have never had a scorpion issue, why now?

Marty is in the Bay Area on business  Why can't I sleep when Marty is gone?  He has traveled since the first week we were married.  45 years later, still restless without him beside me.

Why does one part of the hair on your head grow faster than the rest on your head?  Sides and top look great, the back is long and flat.  I have a week to go before the next trim.

 I mostly thought about a recent blog by our son, Erik.  The story took place before cell phones.  It reminded me of the time of no cell phones or GPS.  Marty and I were going to Sacramento from the Bay Area.  We had to drive both cars up. He had people in his car and I had my sister in my car.  We are going to follow Marty. 

I knew how to get to Sacramento, but not which exit for Old Sacramento.  Marty said follow me, you will take the first exit into Sacramento.  And he was gone.  Never saw him again on the way up.  I am in a panic.  No map, no idea, where to go. 

I took the first exit that said Sacramento.  Wrong, I ended up on a dead end road on the river's levee.  I am screaming, cursing, and scared.  Maryann is not in much better shape.  Her agoraphobic little sister is in full melt down.

No way to contact the soon to be killed husband.  No idea where we are.  We back track, and get back on I 80 and after several tries find Old Sacramento.  Everyone is standing on a corner, ticked off because they had to wait for us.  No one could understand why we were upset.  A cell phone and a GPS would have made that trip much easier. 

The sad part of this tale, that is not the only time he said follow me and disappeared.  I need to think about that.

Saturday, October 13, 2012

There are art festivals and then there are ART festivals.

Today Richard and Luis took us to the Art and Wine Festival in La Jolla.  Last week I poked fun at some of the art at the Oktoberfest.  Today, the art was ART.  Yes there was some that was not real good.  But most of it was great.  We did not partake of the Wine and Beer Garden.  Some of us had had no breakfast and no lunch.  Not a good thing to drink on an empty stomach. 


                            Paintings, sculptures, glass art, hats, jewelry, you name it, it was here.

 
                              Richard and Luis in front of some very nice paintings. 
 
 
     This was a booth with almost graffiti paintings.  This one reads like a graphic novel.


                        This was one of my favorite booths.  I loved the colors and the motion.


                                   More from the same booth.  They were just fun to look at.


                                              Speaking of fun, check out this fountain.   Love it.


                                          As we walked to the restaurant, this was our view.


                                                                   Lunch on the patio.


We came out of the restaurant, this was across the street.  Everyone going by wanted this vehicle.

We had a lovely afternoon in La Jolla.  Beautiful art work, a very nice lunch, ocean views, good company.  Yes, a lovely afternoon.

Friday, October 12, 2012

Thoughts from the pool

I have ranted about the hot weather since we got here. It was above 90 and into the 100s for weeks.  The last week it has been much cooler, pleasant, nice, foggy.  All the things I like.  Yesterday a storm came through, and is still lingering.  It is in the low 60s, very cool.  This would be nice except for one little thing, the pool.

Nearly every day I am in the pool exercising.  Today was awful.  I went on the back porch to get my bathing suit, it was wet and cold.  Rain during the night had blown in and the suit was wetter than when I took it off.  I pulled it on, cold, cold and went down to the pool.  Cold air + wet suit = frozen Janet.  I plunged in and started walking.  Finally I warmed up a little.  While working out I thought many thoughts.  None very deep.

How did I survive my childhood?  How did anyone in my age group survive? 

I grew up in a very small town in the Appalachian Mountains.  At a very young age of 4 I walked alone 2 blocks to the grocery for things like bread or milk.  Today my parents could be arrested for that.  I would walk 6 blocks to my Grandmother's house crossing streets very carefully.  One street I wasn't allowed to cross, the only one with a stop light, go figure.  I would stand on the corner and Grandmother would tell me when to cross.  Today people don't let high school students walk alone.  It was a better time I guess.

We played outside.  We roller skated, climbed trees, swung on vines, rode bikes . . . all without helmets. We would get on the big big school swings. Next we pumped ourselves as high as we could.  Then, we jumped off, it was like flying.  Of course the landings were a little hard.  We all had bloody/scabby knees. 

We played with cap guns, when caps were more powerful.  We didn't need the gun either, a hammer on the sidewalk worked just fine.  Fireworks were easily accessible. We had sparklers and played with them in the house.  The big kids had firecrackers, some had M80s- those are the kids missing fingers. 

At that time DDT was our friend.  The adults would close up the house, spray DDT, and we would leave for several hours.  We came home, they opened up, and we went to bed in I guess what were contaminated bed covers.  Today a hazmat team would condemn such a house.

Seat belts, we didn't need no stinking seat belts.  We had the arm of steel that whacked across our chest at every quick stop.  I am sure Mother could restrain the child in front and the two in the back with no effort.  That arm would cover the whole car.  I can remember thinking that hitting the dashboard would be less painful.

The most dangerous thing we did, we rode in the back of pickup trucks.  We were told to sit down and hold on.  And we did.

How did we survive? 




Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Dispatches from the Marriage Factory: Typos & Shoes

Joe has sent us a report that is near and dear to my heart,  typos and reprints.  You have read my rants many times.  Joe, well he is nicer than I am.  I rant, he states facts.

This was a week of typos and shoes.

When a couple comes to the Hall of Records to get married, they enter
all the information for the bride and groom themselves, into a
computer in the lobby.  Any mistakes made in that section are their
fault.  When they get to the counter, they *hand-write* the witness
information for the clerk.  My handwriting is appalling, so I can
understand how clerks sometimes mistake an "a" for an "o" or a "1" for
a "7".

Before the couple pays for the license, they read it over, looking for
typos.  The couple is not always in the clearest frame of mind, which
may explain why our upstairs clerk had to reprint 3 licenses during
my shift.  It wasn't just one kind of mistake.  We had a misspelled
witness name, an incorrect birth date, and a missing apartment number.

Moral: Always get the couple to read the license first.

Fashion report: great-looking and well-matched heels were the order of
the day.  A bride with a black dress and a rose in her hair had rose
heels with black trim.  Sparkly silver dress = sparkly silver heels.
And what is a white sleeveless dress without white heels?

Best post-vow shout by a groom: "Go A's!"  Let's hope...

Joe Mallon

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Oktoberfest

La Mesa has an Oktoberfest celebration.  Streets are blocked off and booths of food, beer, and arts and craft are set up.  We went yesterday.  Beer and sausages, sounds like a healthy lunch.  Well, I don't drink beer, and Luis's brother, Danny, is too young to drink.  But we knew we could find soft drinks. 

On the drive there, Richard and Luis started talking about a Mexican restaurant across from the fair.  They had never been there, but they thought that we should try it.  Beer at the fair would be $7.00 a pop, and the food prices in years past had been outrageous. We decided to go Mexican for food and then go to the fair. 

We ate at Mario's De La Mesa Restaurant.  They don't have a website, but they have wonderful food.  Luis gave it the ultimate compliment.   They use fresh ingredients like his Mother does, and it reminded him of some of her dishes.  I just know there was a lot of food, and I did my best to finish it, but I couldn't.  I ended up picking out the choice parts and leaving other stuff.

Oktoberfest was interesting.  Many stores were open.  This area of La Mesa has lots of antique stores.  Some of them were piled high and dangerous to walk through, others were tastefully arranged.  We saw a lot of stuff we all would have liked to own:  furniture, dolls, cut glass crystal, china, jewelry, art work. 

The fair was more arts and crafts than beer.  Some of the crafts were good.  There were some great purses and hats.  And there were some really really bad crafts.  I don't understand why people are selling tie dyed shirts, skirts, and dresses that are awful colors and ugly patterns.  I decided pictures of bad stuff would be more fun than good stuff.


The entrance to the Beer Garden.  We didn't go in.  They had beer cheaper at the restaurant.


The red in the background is the Trolley system that goes all over San Diego.  Guy in orange shirt in front of the 2 girls is Richard, behind the girls in white shirt is Luis, and in black shirt is Danny.


I found these dresses garish, tacky, ugly, and some just a little slutty.

 
Here they were selling really ugly material.  You could make your own ugly outfit.
 


A close up of the bad patterns they were selling.


This was bad because what little girl wouldn't want a tutu in pink?  And they had princess dresses too.  I am sure a lot of mothers went home with crying little ones because they refused to buy at this booth.  I don't even have a little girl to buy for and I wanted to buy a dress.

We had fun walking around and looking.  A nice afternoon spent with good friends.

Friday, October 5, 2012

More Model Train Video

My first video is below these two. I posted it, and of course it is now an old post and dropped down.  I explained how I finally figured out how to post them.  Thank you Erik! I have two videos of the trains.  I am so proud of me being able to load them all by myself.  It is a sad day you don't learn something new.  The sound is of trains puffing and children.



Watch the top of the Greyhound Station.  The people are playing with a model train.





Last video.  I loved the room where these videos were taken the best of the whole museum.  So fun watching all the trains and what is going on in the town.

I got video!!!


Our son Erik walked me through converting my video to the correct form.  Also he taught me how to load the video on You Tube and then to Blogger.  He did all that while driving from Santa Cruz to Oakland.   Thank you Erik.  Now if I can remember what he taught me, I will later load the other two videos.  The sound is of the crowd, mainly a small child having the time of his life.   Here is the video on the trains.



Dispatches from the Marriage Factory: Your Photos, Please

Joe is back with news of the Marriage Factory.  When he said he had been doing marriages 4 years, I was surprised.  It doesn't seem that long ago when I trained him in about 15 minutes and we jumped into the excitement of the first same sex marriages in California.  What a wonderful, fun, emotional night that was.  Joe dived in and hasn't looked back.

It only took me 4 years at the Hall of Records to get tired of
printing my name, which I do 2 times for most ceremonies.  I decided
that a stamp would be much more legible, if not easier.  (This is for
my spelled name, not signed name.  That is still unreadable.)  My
lovely wife Sue got me the stamp and wouldn't you know it, the next
week at the Hall of Records was rather slow.  I only used my stamp
about 5 times, and one of the clerks had to reprint a license because
I stamped a little off-center.  Practice will make perfect, I'm sure.

The main problem with being able to perform Spanish ceremonies will be
familiar to anyone who knows a bit of a different language.  The
people for whom I perform the ceremony assume I understand Spanish.  I
can get the gist of most conversations, but not at the speed at which
most people speak their native language.  I need to learn more and
better Spanish.

Photo sharing as a way of saving effort and space is obviously not
catching on.  The group at one ceremony had 9 different cameras &
phones going at once, with some people working 2 in tandem.  There's
no squashing the feeling that someone else's pictures won't be the
ones we would've taken.

Fashion report:
Cutest rings: matching Scrabble tiles with the mate's initial - hers
had his first initial, his had hers.  Both were worth 1 point - nice
and equal.

A few lovely asymmetrical, flowing dresses, one beaded with a beaded
headband, like an understated tiara.

So much ink, including a bride with a breastplate tattoo of a winged
heart.  Still not tempted to get one myself.  She wore a lovely black
dress, but kept a denim jacket over it.
--
Joe Mallon

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Model Trains

Tuesday our third choice museum was the Model Train Museum.  We were tired and hot and not real sure if we would go.  But we decided why not, it won't take long.  Well, we were wrong.  It took a long time because it is a fabulous museum.  As the website says it is the largest model train museum in the USA.  Be sure to click on exhibits and then by each picture click on the name of the exhibit.  It tells about building to scale each exhibit.  Just looking at them, you would almost think it was the real thing. 

Just looking at this, you could be on the highway looking at the trains going by.

All through the different exhibits there were walkways for the men controlling the trains.  Sorry about the reflections, protective glass.


This is the steps down to the control room of one set of trains. 
Women played a large part in railroads' success
 
Trestles real or on a scale model are extremely difficult to build.  I hope you read about them on the website. 
 
  

Again, doesn't this look as if it is a real track and workers?

This one is amazing.  The darkness behind the trestle is a "deep" canyon.

Long, long, train.  The top one wound through multiple tunnels at the same time.
This is the same train going around a horseshoe curve.  No beginning nor end.  The man at the top left is at a viewing window on the backside of this exhibit. 

After rooms of exhibits showing famous tracks around Southern California, we came to a room that said Toy Trains.  It was a town with cars, stores, bus stations, people, and multiple tracks of trains.  There was so much to see, it was hard to take in everything.  We kept seeing just one more thing. 

I had to take a picture of this service station, Standard Oil.  Marty spent 40+  years working for them.
 
After nearly an hour taking pictures that were blurry because the trains were racing past, I had a thought.  Damn I have video on this phone.  I took three videos that are great.  Unfortunately, I can't get them to load.  I will keep trying, but don't hold your breath.  I have been down this road before.  If they ever load I will do another post.
 
This is a museum we will for sure take my brother and his wife.