California State Fair

I took lots of pictures while visiting the California State Fair last week. The exhibits were especially good this year and the paintings really caught my interest as several were unique in both composition and subject matter. You can see my State Fair photos to the right and at the bottom of the web page. Additionally, I have posted a few shots of the Eldorado Hotel Suite (Reno), where we recently stayed. We reserved a show and meal package to accompany the deal for our suite - an excellent value for the rate of only ninety four dollars. The trip was not only entertaining, but very affordable as well (my kind of trip). We may make a return visit to Reno, before the change of seasons, if there is another offer of this type.

Evan's Kitchen

Nancy and I have been enjoying our mid-week breakfast outings for some time now. We usually take the Crossfire so that we can enjoy the open air feel of driving with the top down (of course, given our respective ages, we keep the air conditioner on and make sure we are wearing plenty of sunscreen before leaving the house - that's a rather different approach than the one I used back-in-the-day - when I owned a 65 Mustang convertible).

On a recent outing we visited Evan's Kitchen for breakfast. Evan's is known for having the best chicken fried steak in town. Since I had never eaten there, I wanted to see if that was true. I can now attest to the fact that if the chicken fried steak is not actually the best in Sacramento, it certainly must rank right up there with the top two or three. You can see a picture of the breakfast we ordered at Evan's Kitchen to the right and at the bottom of the blog page.

Wedding Entrance

As you will see, while watching the attached You Tube video - Jill and Kevin really know how to kick off a wedding ceremony. Who knows, it could start a whole new way of thinking when it comes to planning a wedding? What do you think?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0

Imperial Coffee Shop

A couple of times, during conversations with friends, I've mentioned that I was raised not only in a typical neighborhood setting (the West End of Louisville, Kentucky), but in an atypical setting as well - a restaurant located at 7th and Jefferson in downtown Louisville. While rummaging through some old photos the other day I happened upon a picture of my Dad's restaurant (the Imperial Coffee Shop), the place where I spent about as much time as I did in my West End neighborhood.

As I reflected on the picture of the restaurant, I came to realize just how influential the Imperial Coffee Shop was on my upbringing. The key lesson that it taught me about life was in regards to just how important it is to know from an early age not only what you might want to do vocationally as a career choice, but to also know what you don't want to do career wise, based on what your work experiences were during those early years.

Although I have fond memories of "growing up" in a restaurant that was opened seven days a week for fourteen hours a day, by the time I was a teenager, I knew for sure that I never wanted to make owning a restaurant my life's work. Work-wise I didn't want to follow in my father's footsteps, although it could have been a logical choice, I suppose.

Funny how pictures can trigger emotions regarding a person's progression to wherever they might be at a particular point in their life. Old pictures help to make some since of it all. The accompanying picture of the Imperial Coffee Shop is over fifty years old. I've posted it to the left and at the bottom of the blog page.

Denver Trip Pictures

I've posted some pictures from our recent trip to Denver, Colorado. We had a good time while visiting the mile high city. Our morning outing was to the Botanic Gardens (featuring a very interesting enclosed rain forest), followed by a tour of the Colorado Rockies Stadium (Coors Field). That evening we had an excellent steak dinner at the Denver Chophouse. Denver is known for having exceptionally good beef, at reasonable prices, and the Chophouse did not disappoint.

The next day we visited the Denver Zoo and captured some intriguing pictures of the animals. While at the zoo we experienced a rather dramatic change in the weather (heavy rain, thunder and lightening) that suddenly shifted into a full fledged tornado alert. We almost got locked behind the zoo gates, but we escaped to the parking lot in time to make it to the airport for our return flight. We drove to the airport with the tornado sirens blaring in our ears. Fortunately the weather calmed down by the time we arrived at the rental return location and our flight home was only slightly delayed from the scheduled departure (about twenty minutes).

Chili was sure happy to see us later that night when we picked her up from the vet. It's always exciting to reunite with our canine companion. We were also excited to see how far along the exterior painting of our house had progressed.

You can see our Denver trip pictures and our freshly painted house pictures posted to the right and at the bottom of the blog page.

Gimme Shelter!

If you happen to think that the "Stones" are the only band which should ever sing the iconic song "Shelter", as I once did, then have a listen to Ashley Cleveland's performance of said song. Ashley and Mick are from different planets - he's the devil and she embraces Jesus - but there is no denying the power that both singers bring to the vocals. The polarity just makes it that much more interesting to analyze the nuances in each version of Gimme Shelter. Maybe it's because both Ashley Cleveland and Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards experienced the torment brought on by drugs and alcohol to the point that they share a common language - or not - but to my way of thinking she does a credible job of singing a song that few singers have the pipes to pull off. Also, her band has enough talent to excel when it comes to hitting the notes just right on the powerful guitar riffs. Have a listen and see if you agree. Oh, incidentally... this tune sounds fabulous while driving my Crossfire, with the top down, of course - and particularly after hitting sixth gear when heading to Napa on Interstate 80. It's a real rush!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74qWOdNYjLc

Uodate - House Projects!

The house projects have caused us to alter some of our normal activities during the last few weeks. The major projects have been the installation of a new patio door and a kitchen picture window. This happened while we concurrently had the old (twenty years) shake roof removed, so that it could be replaced with a lightweight tile roof. That made things a little more hectic than usual. Fortunately, it looks like the projects will be completed on schedule. Since we will be leaving for Denver next week, and we want to return to a house that is a lot less chaotic than the one we have been living in the last few weeks, we feel lucky that the projects are being completed in a timely manner.

Chili will stay at the Bradshaw Veterinarian Clinic while we are visiting Denver. The clinic is not too far from where we live. We'll miss her, but she did well during her last stay, when we went to Las Vegas, so we fill comfortable leaving her with the canine caretakers at the Bradshaw Clinic.

I've posted a couple new pictures to the blog. One shows the tile that will be installed on the roof tomorrow (bright and early, if things go as planed). The other pic captured a recent Friday Night meal - burgers from the grill - one of my favorite dinners. The burgers, for some reason, always taste better when eaten outside on the patio and fortunately our weather has been quite mild for mid June - perfect for grilling and for enjoying a scrumptious hamburger meal.