A Short Stop in California

One of the reasons that I flew out of Virginia on inauguration day was because I wanted to visit with my friends at their monthly confab. I used to be a part of this group, but it is too difficult to visit when you are a continent away.  I wanted to surprise them and just show up, but I did let Tom and John know. They Gchat with me, so it was easier to let this slip. They were meeting at Phillipe's, one of my favorite dives. The waiter took this picture. Let me tell you who they are. Jackson is at the left rear. He left The Times when he was 75. Still doing well. He travels to Japan twice a year for over a month each time. Go Jackson. Next is me, then Jim, who was a supervisor of the Helpdesk with me at one time . Tom is next to him.  I saw Tom 3 times on this trip. I also went to The Times twice to visit with friends and have lunch. Russ is next. His wife, Toni, is front left. He worked for Jim, then me and left to get a job at Long Beach State. John is on the far right. Banjo man. He gave us a concert in the parking lot after dinner, using Russ's banjo. Idalia is in front with her husband Guillermo. It was great fun.

It took no time at all to get my car registered. The DMV was very efficient, my total time in the office must have been 45 minutes max. That means that the rest of the time was spent visiting. Marilyn, Peggy and I met at The Farmer's Market. While we were getting our lunch, Marilyn was telling us about this fabulous doughnut place, Bob's. She said "everything in the world revolves around Bob's" quoting a favorite TV personality. It just happens that Bob was standing next to us at the time. He was getting his lunch too.  What a sweetie. He treated us to coffee and doughnuts to go with our lunch. So, if you are ever by the Farmer's Market next to The Grove, stop by to get something from Bob.  And think about the benefit of always saying nice things.

Later in the week I ate with Peggy again. This time we had breakfast with Maggie. I call us the Margaret Derivitives. Maggie and I would have breakfast every now and then before I left for Virginia this spring. She is one of my many conservative friends. Our last talk before I left was how the conservatives were left without a dog in the current fight. Obviously that was before Sarie was selected as veep candidate. Now that was a dog.

Adrian and I drove up to Albany for the, hopefully, annual German Potato Salad festival. We stayed with Karen and Peter. Peter has been building their back deck for some time. Talk about an adventure fraught with inspectors and unforeseen issues. It is coming along very well. Karen doesn't just add support by eating her lunch while Peter slaves. In fact, this is a rare moment of quiet for her.

I got no pictures of the event at Natalie and Kevin's. Besides the salad, we had a wonderful time. Almost everyone was there, including Jeff and Sandi. That was a treat. The ham and salad dinner used to always follow Thanksgiving. This year, people celebrated Tday all over the U.S. I'm glad the Northern Cal group decided to move the second get-together of that holiday to a later date. It was a beautiful day, we had a ton of food and got to celebrate the togetherness of our family.

The next day we celebrated the togetherness of the National and American Football Leagues. That was an exciting game. Maggie came over dressed as a cheerleader, but during the very long game switched to bride. Go team.