One of our favorite things about living where we live is that we are only about 20-25 minutes from one of our very favorite restaurants of all time. Baked Bread and Pastry Co. has quite a back story, but they would be a great place to eat, even if they did not have one. The food is nothing short of spectacular. When we first got here, we were told by native Texans that Baked’s biscuits and gravy were the best they had ever eaten. We have lived in the South for over a decade, all told, and as connoisseurs and active searchers for the one true biscuits and gravy, I have to admit we were somewhat skeptical. But we were wrong to be skeptical. The thing is, if you find something that good, it is hard to try anything else, but this is one of those places where they have MANY offerings that are that good. We probably eat there two or three times per month and it is wildly worth it. It turns out that a lot of other people thing the same way about them as us. The Tripadvisor reviews are not wrong. At the time of this post, there were 13 reviews. All were all 5’s.
Lorena and I ran down to the McMenamin’s beside the Columbia River in Kalama on Saturday evening. It is a beautiful facility and we enjoyed ourselves very much. We used to go to the McMenamin’s in Wilsonville once a week when we lived there and liked it a lot. The one here in Centralia is really not so good–too noisy and somehow seems to have a culture difference from the ones in Kalama and Wilsonville. It is an hour drive down to Kalama, so we do not expect we will be doing it so often. We had around 30 20-30 somethings at the house over the weekend for a birthday and going-away party for Kelly. It was wonderful.
There was a big church get-together in Phoenix over the weekend for 18-25 year-olds to play volleyball. Really, it is more about the everyone hanging out and meeting new people from around the country. As you can see from the picture, Christian attended and climbed a palm tree. I have now idea how far his off the ground nor where it is nor who took the picture–Kelly sent it to Lorena in the middle of the night. Looks pretty cool.
Lorena and Christian told me about a restaurant in Phoenix, Arizona they thought was a favorite in the 
I learned tonight that the world series is starting here in Boston at Fenway Park. The Dodgers are playing the Red Sox. I have fond memories of watching baseball games in my youth. It was the one sport where I really did not have any ambitions of being competitive, so it was just nice to watch. I grew up in one of the few baseball towns in Oregon (it was mostly all track and field all the time–Nike/Duck U.). My brother, Doug and I watched American Legion and Babe Ruth League baseball during our youth and enjoyed it a lot. In the mid-1980’s when I lived in Silicon Valley, I attended matinee games at Candlestick Park. It was a great joy. Different from other sports. It would be nice to go to a Major League Baseball game, but there is something that is even more compelling to me about amateur baseball played for fun. My undergraduate university (Oregon State) has won three NCAA national championships. The head coach went to high school with my little sisters. Still, that is not nearly as compelling as hometown baseball. We currently live in a baseball town. Maybe I should take Lorena to a high school or American Legion or Babe Ruth league game this spring.
We had quite a nice party of mostly twenty-somethings over the weekend. The shoes and purses were piled up much higher than this at the peak of the party. We cooked hamburgers and hot dogs with very spicy guacamole on Sunday evening and and then quiche with Lorena’s special, extra spicy salsa on Monday morning. I do not think people got a whole lot of sleep, but the “kids” all seemed to have a nice time. We inaugurated or new fire pit and made gallons and gallons of coffee. We were thankful to have an extremely nice Canadian contingent (maybe that statement is a little bit redundant) and a strong showing from the very polished California young urban professional crowd. We are looking forward to doing it again next year.
I imagine the amazing improvements to the features and image quality of cell phone cameras have done away with a big chunk of the snapshot camera market. When we move to Washington, I found our old Canon camera that was really a great little camera at the time we bought it. I took a few pictures with it and then put it away. The image quality and easy of use of my Note 4 was way better. That has been multiplied even more with the Pixel 2 phones Lorena and I purchased a few months back. So, it was a little bit of a surprise when Kelly told me she wanted to get a “Polaroid” camera that takes pictures that print immediately onto a 2.4″ x 1.8″ snapshot paper. Talk about retro. The funny deal is I remember when the first instant Polaroid cameras were the new-new thing and very expensive. I guess it is all kinds of fun for the right kind of people at the right kind of party. We will see.
Kelly and Christian are getting ready for a celebration of sorts. The party games have started to arrive. They are not horseshoes, but similar and we already have an amazing croquet set we got for our wedding and has been used for only seminal events like this one. Lorena and I are pretty much the hired servants, but our buddies Al and Michele will be here to suffer with us, so it is all good.
I had to drive down to Kelso to drop off some equipment from my old company, but I left my wallet on the counter in the kitchen when I left. Then the guy I was dropping the equipment off to called and said he would be an hour and a half late so I was stuck at a McDonald’s beside the freeway with no way to buy an Egg McMuffin. I decided to go ahead and try to add one of those telephone pay apps. it worked really really well and if I didn’t hate Google so much I might even keep it on my phone.
By complete accident, I have been in Mexico for at least part of this and the two previous World Cup’s. I am not that much of a soccer fan, but this is definitely and iconic event. Today, because of my delicate skin, I sat in the lobby next to the Starbucks, drank coffee and sparkling water and watch Argentina squeak past Nigeria (Argentina does not deserve to be where they are) and France play to a 0-0 tie with Denmark (what do you expect from France). Tomorrow morning it should be pretty fun here with Mexico playing Sweden. Definitely not a fan of Sweden and have great hopes for Mexico. Not knowing anything about soccer I just go by my most recent feelings about the countries playing and the people watching to help me to decide for whom to root. It is also kind of fun to be the foil for all who wish to pontificate about the intricacies of the game in general and this World Cup series in particular–EVERYONE here, including the little kids, knows more than me about this stuff. It is all professional wrestling to me (especially Argentina).
Lorena has really wanted a bigger wedding band for a long time. So for her 25th wedding anniversary, I got her one. Of course I am over a year and a half late if this is for our 25th, but who is counting. AND, Bonnie is holding down the fort for us here at home so we can go down to Puerto Vallarta to celebrate all of this with half of Lorena’s family. This is really only the first half of the celebration, because the real celebration needs to be in Monterrey with the entire family. Still, PV is a pretty nice place to celebrate and, thankfully, Grandma Conchita, Tio Lauro, and Tio Jorge and his family all like to celebrate the same way us by sitting around and eating too much.
Lorena had a ball at the opera last night. It all sounded quite interesting. One innovation that is new to me, but probably not to anyone else in the world, is the digital sign above the stage that provides real time translation of the lyrics. It was so good of Rich and Julia to take her along. She has been listening to opera since she was a little girl, but this was only the second opera she has ever attended. Grandpa Lauro was a huge opera fan. She said the singing was just incredible, the costumes were amazing, it was a great opera (Faust) and she wants to go again soon.
Lorena, Kelly, and friends might have gotten to go to dinner and a live musical, but I ate dinner with the true stars of the show: Bob and Larry.
Kelly and her roommate Shani are taking their mothers to dinner and a musical tonight. Mama Mia. Should be memorable.