Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Gone and Back





Only one more day til Wifepoo returns!!!! Let me tell you 3 weeks without the love of your life is a long time...unless you were in the centuries preceding this when couples regularly were gone for months and years at a time...or your one of the many people in the military today serving in South Asia...or...well OK I'll stop bitching.

I decided that I needed a little get away time during this period so I combined some business and personal stuff and went to the Bay area on Friday. My flight to San Francisco left at 5:49 AM!! Not happy about that. I had two business meetings in the afternoon. Then I drove down to Salinas California to spend Friday night through Sunday morning with good friends Steve and Lady Di. There is always much enjoyment of food and drink when we are together and Lady Di is a killer cook. On Friday we went to this one place and had a wonderful meal with a great wine, a 2005 Pommard. They have a top rated wine cellar which we got to see.

Saturday was mostly just lying around. Work has been busy and with covering for Wife's functions at the business my days have been stretched to the max. Lady Di cooked one of her fantastic meals on Saturday night. It was big ass lamb chops which Steve and I are very partial. I had bought a bottle of reserve Malbec which was very interesting. Even with decanting and letting sit for an hour, it was very tightly wound and clearly could have aged for a number of more years.

I am not partial to desserts but Di knows this and makes things that are very light on the sweetness.

This was trio of a almost panna cotta like cream with fresh strawberry topping, a fresh apricot tart (killer crust) and a flourless chocolate cake that was extremely airy and chocolatey but not too rich or sweet.
On Sunday it was driving up to Contra Costa County in the East Bay where daughter Motherrocker, Son-in-law John the Armenian (1A) and grandchildren 1.1 and 1.2 are now living (having moved from Chicago). We had fun hanging around watching 1.2 (who is not quite 2 years old) showing that he clearly has no intention henceforth of listening to anything that his parents say. We (I mean everyone even 1.2) all participated in preparing Mexican style skirt steak and shrimp on the fire with all kinds of condiments we made and fresh tortillas.

On Monday, I had scheduled video taping. I have started to put video posts on my business blog. The first ones were done on the cheap and I wanted to up the production value so I hired a firm to handle it. It's really nice to get the star treatment.

We drove all around the area to various parks taking shots on location.
Very different from the just sitting behind a desk shots we'd done before.


When you're a big star like me, you get your own dressing room!

Plus you get a black German car to drive you around with a driver and your own handler.
It was another 6 AM flight to get back to Albuquerque on Tuesday. Definitely feeling the effects.

8 comments:

alexis said...

I dunno your chauffered car also looks like someone is already sitting in it - sure it wasn't a carpool?

de-I said...

That's the handler in the back seat. You can't be 'star' talent and not have a handler to take care of all your details can you?

Bernice said...

Nice to see the glimpse of Motherrocker and hubby. Missed 1.1 and 1.2

Anonymous said...

Wow, you've been busy. I'm glad you'll soon have Aunt de-I back.

terri said...

Must have been nice to have someone else cooking for YOU for a change. "Big Ass" Lamb Chops? Is that how I should ask for them if I want to buy some from the butcher?

1A, 1.1, 1.2 ... these names confuse me. It's like new math or something. But I understand the need for anonymity, so I forgive you.

I just realized I had a big star in my kitchen and I didn't get his autograph! Good thing I got the commemorative photo! :-)

Lakeview Coffee Joe said...

That dressing room looks bigger than you need. You're being spoiled.

Anonymous said...

Yikes for 6 a.m. flights!

Mike said...

Look at you! You get your own chauffeur and everything!