Runnin' round

The oracle had looked me right in the eye and given me the message straight up. Get off your ass and get it together.

I knew where she was going... with surgery, a long recuperation on the near horizon and no trust fund from some unknown aunt anywhere in sight, it was definitely time to get it in gear. Besides, you know how she is.

Half way through my five week, four city jog. No sooner had I driven back from Santa Barbara than I headed back up to Los Angeles yesterday to meet the rug restorer and attend an auction.

To say that my life is running on fumes right now is a serious understatement. I am totally exhausted. But things are going reasonably well and in retrospect, it was a fortuitous turn of events that the Yellowstone trip was junked, I have been on a pretty productive jag, turned up a few things out of the blue and planted some seeds for future harvests.

And on my way home from S.B. I even got to help a friend finish up with a book that she is writing.

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Too tired and not nearly self absorbed enough at present to give a full run down. Cam and I did the show, shared a room and had our normal great time together. We were in Kauai a week apart and after looking at our respective photo galleries, managed to take shots of many of the exact same things. No whiskey shots for breakfast with my pal this week, will save that for Hillsborough next week.

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One of the problems I have playing the Robert Sommers part in this solipsistic movie that I find myself in, is that I find myself so often narrowly averting disaster. I believe that I subconsciously must use it as a motivational tool but the continual stress wears on the psyche. I guess that it beats the hell out of a weird job.

My spouse asked me what the best part of my trip was and the answer was immediate. It was seeing the sunrise over the Pacific monday morning. I wasn't sure if the pale disk in the early sky was the sun or the moon? Didn't realize that the moon was full, the undetermined luminous disk sending a cascade of golden rays over the waters in front of Carpenteria. It couldn't be the sun over the Pacific, the sun rises in the east. But it was.

I explained it to Jerry, a long time resident of Santa Barbara and he explained that directions get goofy in those parts, what you think is south is never south. In any case, the vision was sublime, alas too fleeting for me to grab with a photograph. A solitary moment of time I think that I will remember forever, in any case.

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I took one of my favorite roads up and back, the 126, driving through my favorite valley in the whole state past Camulos and Santa Paula. The light on top of the fog enshrouded greenhouses i the morning was similarly wonderful, one day I will go back and take my time visiting and photographing when I have more time. I stopped at Rancho Camulos, the sight of the mythical novel Ramona, and wandered around for a brief moment, footnoting it on my things to do list.

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Food in Santa Barbara was pretty much my old reliables, three nights at the Tee Off, Cam was impressed with the padded doors, I tore into a bone in ribeye, a culotte and lamp chops on separate occasions, with all the normal accompaniment, which at the Tee Off includes prime rib soup.

Great coffee at the wonderful Vices and Spices each morning. The owner was heading over to a Chris Hillman/Herb Pedersen show Saturday night that I would have liked to catch myself if I had the time. I introduced Cam to the epic La Super-Rica on Milpas. The chorizo quesadilla was particularly delectable as was spooning the pulp out of my fresh watermelon (sandia) juice. There is, like the commenter said, a very good reason that Julia Child loved the place.

Ate a nice breakfast at Max's, not the funky and terrible bay area chain, the one on upper State. I had a brie, spinach and mushroom omelet that was terrific. Next tiem I will smple their famour pumpkin pancakes.

We had fair fare at Stella with Berg. One funky meal as well, tasty but I don't think I can go back to the specific Vietnamese place in question after watching our server departing the urinal without washing his hands. Totally lost my appetite. No wonder the place was empty.

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Leslie and I hooked up in San Diego monday, after returning the rental van. We decided to try Spicy City, the highly rated Chinese place on Convoy. I had tried it and I wanted her to experience it for herself.

We started the meal with hot and sour won ton soup. Hot spicy and flavorful, neither of us had ever tasted anything with this sort of wonderful and extreme flavor palette.

They brought a plate of cucumber pickles, mung bean and tofu sprouts and seaweed which Leslie had espied at the counter. Fresh and terrific.

For entrees we had lamb with cumin and shrimp over sizzling rice squares. The first was fried and had a great leathery crispy quality. I liked Leslie if she liked the lamb better than the dish we had at Dumpling Inn and she said that she did. I still favored the Dumpling but it is a close match. Both phenomenal.

We had the rice squares come out with a fly embedded in one, struggling to escape and the server whisked it away. Hey, that sort of stuff happens. I think that we received a whole new plate, in any case he couldn't have eaten too much.

The dish was fantastic. The rice got a crunchy quality when hit with the broth, almost like clay pot rice.

The next table had a lazy susan that was rocking some very interesting dishes as well, like sizzling beef. I can't wait to check the place out again. In many ways, it is superior to anything I have ever tried in the Bay Area or anywhere for that matter.

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I saw both Beth and Helen yesterday, two long time blog readers. Beth wanted to know how I could eat so much food? Great question Beth. It requires definite pacing.

Helen is about to embark on another great adventure. She says that she thinks that she knows me after reading me for so long and I believe that is probably the case.

I heard the R&R case guys snickering about my ever billowing physique in Spanish and know that the diet is waiting impatiently just around the corner.