Dan Sofia's Retirement Party

Tomorrow we will be attending my friend Dan Sofia's retirement party at Calvine High School. Dan concludes his long career (nearly forty years) in education in just a few short weeks. Many of those years he has served as an administrator for the Elk Grove School District, but he began his vocation as a business teacher at Hiram Johnson High School (that was the year we met) immediately after completing his business education degree from Fresno State University. Dan also worked a short time for the Sacramento County Office of Education, my place of employment for thirty years, both as a teacher and as an administrator. Forty years is a long time, but Dan started his work in education at a very young age, so he has a lot of years left to enjoy retirement.

Nancy and I wish Dan the best as he embarks on his new journey as a retiree. It should be interesting to follow his next life as an untethered educator, with plenty of time on his hands and lots of energy to channel towards some new endeavor. Welcome to the club, Dan!

Visit To Old Sacramento

We took a short mid-week drive to a location that we had not visited for quite some time - Old Sacramento. Old Sac is still being developed, after some forty or so years, and I suspect the recession has curbed a few of the more recent projects that were under consideration to make the area a more desirable attraction to both tourist and locals alike. Nevertheless, Old Sacramento will always have a certain charm even if it does have a few shortcomings compared to other cities that have an enticing river front to build on (for instance - Louisville, Kentucky or Portland, Oregon)

We enjoyed our walk along the river front and as we walked we discovered some establishments that have been a part of Old Sacramento from day one, and a few that that have been recently added, primarily it seems, to draw a younger demographic to the area (some tattoo parlors and several casual eating places). All and all, it still felt pretty much like the Old Sac that I recall from the eighties and nineties. That's not a criticism, I liked the Old Sac from that era and I use to visit the area frequently, back in the day. We spent time shopping at a couple of the smaller stores and then had a foot long hot dog and a caramel apple as we took in the sights.

The Crossfire is a neat way to travel to places like Old Sacramento, West Sacramento, the Delta, or any number of small towns that aren't all that far from the heart of the city. We plan to do more outings to such places, as the summer progresses. You can see some pictures of Old Sac to the right and at the bottom of the blog page.

Viva Las Vegas - Car Max Email - Chili Dog Rules

Contrary to most media reports, Vegas continues to attract a rather large number of tourists for certain events. At least, if our recent visit is any indication, the strip is still a big draw for those tourists seeking top notch entertainment at lower rates than what was being offered before the recession. Nancy and I have visited Las Vegas many times over the past few years, so I can't say that the city was as crowded as it was a year or two ago, but the streets were far from barren, even though it was mid-week and there was no hundred thousand plus conference going on at the time.

We really enjoyed the shows on this visit. The first night we went to see Donny and Marie Osmond at the Flamingo Show Room. A decade of experience has made this duo a stellar act. Entertaining is in the Osmond blood and Donny and Marie made good use of their family history. The sister and brother act mixed songs from their past, including music from the Donny and Marie show, along with some new material. Yes, one is still a little bit country and the other a little bit rock and roll, but Marie has evolved her sound to include Opera as well. I must add, her Operetta was truly mesmerizing. She performed flawlessly. Her goal is to ultimately sing opera with The Metropolitan Opera.

The next night we saw another fabulous show, a Cirque du Soleil, the Beatles - Love show. The "Cirque" shows are always unique and this is one of their best. Beatles music never sounded better and the visual depiction of the songs was stunning. Quite a contrast from the more traditional Donny and Marie show, but equally enjoyable.

As always, the food was great. We had an especially memorable meal at one of the South Point Hotel (where we stayed) restaurants, Don Vito's Italian Restaurant, and we had a great burger at the Mirage and another delicious meal at the Flamingo Buffet.

On a different note, I received a nice email from CarMax shortly after posting some pictures of our Chrysler Crossfire Limited Roadster which was purchased from the Roseville CarMax store. The details of this purchase is still posted on one of my previous blogs from a couple of weeks ago, if you are interested. We have purchased four vehicles from Car Max over the last five years and every vehicle has met our expectations - in terms of the quality and condition of the automobile. CarMax is very selective of the vehicles they choose to sell. Their extended warranty plans provide an extra measure of protection from potentially costly repairs and the owner has the option to have the car repaired at a CarMax store or by a dealer. In my opinion, CarMax makes a lot of sense if you are tired of the haggling and negotiating usually associated with the purchase of a new or used vehicle. Many vehicles from Car Max are low mileage and in like new condition. I feel that the bottom line is that you pay a fair price for the peace of mind which comes with buying a CarMax vehicle.

I've posted a couple new pics of our dog, Chili. We adopted her a couple of months ago and since that time she has not had any problems transitioning from her previous life to her current head of our household status. We want her to have a good life, and as a result we have made our home more dog friendly. For instance, Chili needed a way to access the backyard on her own, so we recently added a dog door for her convenience. The design sort of snowballed so that it not only included the dog door, but a complete covered dog run as well. The run leads to a grassy area in our back yard. Chili has easily mastered the dog door entry and exit and now she can "sun bath" in our backyard at her discretion. As they say, "Dog's Rule". I will post a photo of the dog run along with some more pictures of Chili, later in the week.

Spring Has Sprung - Fire Up The Crossfire

As you can see from the latest pictures, we've added a new set of wheels to our collection. This one, a Chrysler Crossfire (06 vintage, but with only nine thousand miles on the odometer) is basically a "toy" for occasional outings to interesting places that invite a top down driving experience. I've been looking for a roadster for quite some time and this one met my criteria for just about every area that I considered significant when purchasing this type of vehicle i.e. price, year registered (I only considered pre-owned vehicles), warranty, options that come with the car beyond the standard features of a basic model (such as upgraded stereo, power/heated seats, engine size, etc) and, of course, projected reliability. The Crossfire doesn't score the highest in any of these areas, when compared to other sports cars, but for the price (I bought it from Car Max - our fourth Car Max purchase over the last five years), it beat out the competition.

The Crossfire has a significant percentage of Mercedes parts, the engine in particular, but also many of the interior components are from the Mercedes SLK of that era. The car is basically an Americanized version of the Mercedes SLK model. Chrysler will no longer manufacture Crossfires after this year. Who knows, Chrysler may not be in business after this year, if the economy doesn't improve.

We are looking forward to our first Crossfire outing this weekend. We'll just take a short drive (top down, of course) this first time, but after returning from our Vegas trip next week, we plan to take a longer excursion to some intriguing location. Can't wait! Check out the pictures to the left and at the bottom of the blog page and let me know what you think of the Crossfire.

Additionally, the below You Tube link provides a good video presentation of the Chrysler Crossfire Roadster Convertible Limited.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Gx-OyRIv88

Time for Chicken and Dumplings

I recently had a craving for a "back in the day" meal, one that I typically ate for Sunday dinner, a southern meal that is quick and easy to prepare, but taste as good as a rib eye steak prepared in a fine dining establishment. At least that is how I remember my Mom's recipe for chicken and dumplings. I still have the recipe, but Nancy and I had not cooked up a pot of chicken and dumplings for more years than I care to remember. So, a couple of weeks ago, we decided to give it a go. It was just as I remembered - a delicious way to prepare chicken, in a sauce that comes right out of a can. It's really that simple. Mom's method took a little longer and the outcome was better, but our chicken and dumplings are pretty tasty too, especially for how little time it takes to prepare.

We took a few liberties in the preparation of our southern meal. As mentioned, there was no laboring or constant taste testing of the sauce - Mr Campbell took care of that, with his readily available, at any grocery store, cream of chicken soup. As for the dumplings, flour tortillas seem to work as well as biscuit dough, and they too are easily found at your local super market. Just cut the tortillas into small strips and drop them into your hot chicken broth. All that is left to do is to add as much cut up boiled chicken breast meat as you like, we prefer the Foster Farm brand chicken, prepare your salad, and you have a delicious dinner meal. You can see the results of our effort from the pictures posted to the right and at the bottom of the blog page.

Bon Appetit!

Friday Night at the Movies

We had an enjoyable Friday Night at the Movies get-together last week. Dave purchased some fabulous rib eye steaks from the Apple Market in Lodi. They grilled perfectly, with great flavor and just the right amount of marbling. They were over and inch thick! Nancy fixed the baked potatoes, salads and asparagus and I cooked some garlic flavored mushrooms to top off our steaks. We ate our meal outside on the patio. What a feast!

Afterwards we watched the movie "Milk" and deliberated as to whether or not Sean Penn was deserving of the Oscar he won for his portrayal of Harvey Milk. Penn is a very controversial actor, so there was no consensus, but there was agreement that Milk is an excellent film and not to be missed.

Chili Dog met the guys for the first time. Other than wetting on Terry's suit pants, there were no gaffes on her part during the entire evening. She went to sleep while we watched Milk. I guess it was past her bedtime. We didn't conclude our gathering until after 1:00 am.

I've added a picture of Brandon Jr sitting in our stairway with Chili. Kelley brought Brandon by the house on Sunday and he got to play with Chili and walk her around our neighborhood park. Brandon did a great job! He is a natural for dog walking, just so long as the dog doesn't weigh over ten pounds and isn't more than about a foot tall. I think he really got a kick out of playing with the "puppy", the word he uses to describe Chili. Actually she is almost seven years old, and except for some gray whiskers she does kind of remind you of a puppy. Brandon also got a chance to ride his ATV up and down our driveway several times. This appears to be another of his favorite things to do. At two years of age he is discovering something new everyday and he loves to explore. By evening's end he was sleepy and ready for the trip back to Fairfield. All and all, it was a great weekend!

Our Canine Companion

We are now the proud caretakers of Chili, the dog we adopted this week. Chili, a Chihuahua and Mini Pinscher mix, has touched our hearts, in a way that only a dog is able to do. She is an older dog, about seven years old, according to her vet. Needless to say, we already think that she is the best dog in the whole wide world, but we just might be a little bias, since we have become infatuated with every nuance associated with pet ownership. More about Chili, later.