Chef Ralph

This past weekend was birthday dinner out time with our friend CJ & Clarice. We did some poking around on the internet restaurant review sites and came up with Mamma Melina The reviews were hard to believe. 135 reviews and 5 stars. Come on no other restaurant even came close to that record!  We started at 5:30 with the Piatto di Salumi which is a plate of meats, cheeses and olives etc. It was to serve two, but helped all four of us get ready. We choose the wine of the month which was the  o4 Classico della Valpolicella and it was perfect. We each tried something different, the 2 from the menu was the Saltimbocca and the Scampi al Vino (which turned out to be the best dish) and two specials, a pork tenderloin and Cannolini. We finished with 2 deserts and the girls had Limoncello, while CJ and I tried some Grappa.

About half way through dinner the piano player/singer started playing Italian songs while singing in a surprisingly great voice. We left the restaurant a little after 7pm to a mostly packed restaurant. The location is in the U district, but on the corner of nowhere really. I am so glad we found this hidden jewel, ad will go back for sure. I tend to be a little tougher on the reviews. It was a perfect evening that’s for sure, so I would give Mamma Melina 4 stars plus!

You can be sure that this “bad” economy is closing down businesses. Some are good businesses, and some are, well…not

I was replacing a board on the ceiling on the front porch and wanted to use the exact same type of plywood. This was not any type I had seen at Home Depot, so I went to Seattle Lumber. They are more of a wood, nails, building your house type of store. I walked in with my 6×6 inch sample piece and the 3 people sitting behind the counter never looked up.  After a minute or so, I dropped the wood onto the floor, hoping to wake them up and get a response. A lady did look up and say that someone should be with me in a moment! Well, I’m not so sure who that someone was, but it never happened. 4 minutes after entering the store, I left the store.

Enter Dunn Lumber! A few days later I found myself by their store and stopped in to look for that plywood. They helped me the second I walked in the door, told me what the plywood was and gave me a printout so that when I came back to buy it I would know what the plywood was, and the cost.  I of course did return and buy this $48.00 piece of wood, and it’s now installed. Oh and if you want to see for yourself  how Seattle Lumber is doing…Sorry…their out of business!

This past Tuesday, I got to go River rafting with the high school.

It’s the only outing I have a chance to go on as I am normally busy serving lunch to the other grades. I had done this 2 years ago and it’s allot of fun. This year, after the 2 1/2 hour drive and the BBQ lunch we all suited up and headed for the boats. I noticed when I was putting on my boot there was a hole in the bottom. Not all the way through, but a hole. As I walked down the steep bank toward the boats, I thought I had picked up a sharp rock in my boot. I shook and wiggled the boot, but it was hurting, and in the same location. I stopped and looked, I had stepped on a skinny nail. After pulling it out;  it appeared to go into my foot a good half inch, yes it was rusty and yes I had a tetanus shot in 2006and again yesterday!  Blood was coming through the hole and upon removing the boot, it was bleeding. The guide gave me a big band-aide and off we went. All was fairly well, until on the way home 6 hours later, my foot felt tight and big pain was creeping in.  I went to the doctor, actually twice since then, I’ve had 4 shots 3 prescriptions and the term ER was mentioned a few times. I sit here at the computer with my foot soaking in Epsom Salts as I type. The doctor drew what appears to be a bat symbol on the top of my foot, so that should help. Or maybe that is where the reddest spot is to watch. And if I would have to go to the ER they could see where to direct Batman, should he show up !

We have about one acre of yard to mow. We use both a rider and a push mower. The push mower is a Honda that we bought 1n 1994. We made a trip to Beaverton Oregon and stopped at the Honda dealer and bought it. We were driving the “Mighty Dodge” then. While cutting the lawn last week the wheel fell off. We had talked about taking the mower in for a tune up and getting a new blade. It had allot of use over the years. At one point, Nick had used it to cut neighbors yard to earn a few bucks. Then he got his own Honda, and was up to 5 yards a week. He had strapped ours onto a child carrier that was modified by his grandpa to hook to the back of his bike so he could take the mower blocks away!

I stopped by the dealer and talked to them about bringing in the mower. They said it would be about a hundred bucks and they were 10-14 days out. So the very next day we loaded up the Honda and took it into the dealer. After getting help removing the mower from the truck, a technician who seemed to be returning from lunch asked how much I was looking to put into the mower. He stated that I had broke the axle coming out of the transmission and it would be close to 300 buck to fix it. Well off to the showroom I went looking at all the new shinny mowers and picked out the model that was one level above the model we had for all those years. Funny, it was about the same price we paid for the one in 1994.  As I was driving off with my new shinny mower in the back of the truck I got a glimpse of the old mower in my mirror sitting there next to all the other mowers, waiting to be taken apart so that pieces could be used to keep other old mowers running and I felt a bit sad. Sad for all the memories that the old mower had with it…and they were all good

We had the visitor again. He did look different this time, but he also bent the bird feeder pole over and tore down the squirrel feeder from the tree and even knocked over 2 chairs… Here look for yourself.

Like most people I take the same route to work every day. Twice a week I drive by this home out in the country where the folks keep their garbage cans out by the road. Some may see this as crazy, or even lazy. These folks are anything but lazy! You see, at least twice a week when I drive by the garbage can is totally tipped over and their dog has strewn their garbage everywhere.

They have a storm ditch by the cans and most of the garbage seems to end up there, but every day someone gets out there and cleans it up until a few days later when it’s well…you get the idea. Come on folks, I have already said you weren’t lazy, come up with a different plan. Get a bungee cord or a rope or something. Cleaning up this mess week after week has got to be in the top 10 stupidest things I have ever seen !

Last week when we went to Arizona, we went to attend a wedding. My good friend Roger was getting married to Jenny and they wanted a zero percent chance or rain or bad weather. Well they got all that and more. People from across the country came to wish them well and join in the celebration. I met lots of great people, from Aunt Penny to the Maid of Honor, Drusilla and the boyfriend. The mother of the bride was a very cool person that I was convinced that I had met before. We started Friday night at the father of the groom’s house overlooking the city of Tucson. What an amazing place. He invited us to come back any time…watch out, that may be us at your door. The wedding was at the desert museum on the out skirts of the city, was an interesting drive to get there. After the wedding, there was a cocktail time where volunteers from the museum had various desert animals for a time of show and tell. Then we all sat down for a dinner that was amazing, accompanied by a 5 piece bluegrass band that must have known I was from Kentucky :)  Here is a picture of the beautiful bride and yours truly..not bad for a self portrait.

Yea, So ?  It was still 96 no matter how you look at it. 2 weeks ago we went to visit the grandkids in Jacksonville for a week. The weather was great. Mid 80’s most days and warm at night. We did have 1 cold day blow through, then back to warm. Here is Washington, if it’s warm out and you may want to get up early and do things before it gets warm. In Jacksonville, There may be dew on the lawn and it gets humid as the temp heats up the dew early. Enter Tucson.

The next weekend we went to Tucson. It was the first time I had ever been to Arizona, and I have always wanted to go. It was soooo different than anywhere I had ever been. Very much desert and very dry. We bought 24 bottles of water for our 48 hour stay and we drank 12 other glasses on top of that. It was quite cool in the evening and clear. But during the day it was hot. It was 96 when we left to get back on the plane to come home. All the locals seem to really like Arizona and always asked what did we think of the place. If we said it was hot, every one of them would say, “Yea, but it a dry heat.” Oh I get it…so the 96 was like 96 in a sauna.. Hey I’m willing to go back and figure this out. But I may have to wait until next Spring to do it!

Mrs. Chef and I eat breakfast during the week differently. I have cereal and watch the news, while she has eggs or oatmeal or toast and sits at her command center. The command center is a table in the great room that has the best view in the house. It also has a lamp, a phone, binoculars and various bird book etc. This week while setting up her command post she looked out at the bird feeders and saw a cat. She thought is was a cat that like to remind us he’s around by peeing in the same spot on the front porch every other month or so. Then this cat moved to the right and she yelled, bobcat! Sure enough there was a bobcat stalking our birds. She opened the back door and yelled at it, but it didn’t care at all. It did leave without a bird, but I wish it would stay away.

While on our Spring Break trip back East, our neighbors not only kept an eye on our house, but fed our 2 cats. I would guess that they came over a few times while we were gone and let the cats run through the house and kept the litter changed, you know cat stuff. We are fortunate to have neighbors that do this. When they go out of town, Mrs. Chef looks after their 3 cats for them. It’s just wrong however that this past weekend while they were at an Easter service at church, someone broke into their home . They totally screwed up the back door and of course stole things, and It’s just wrong!