It's OK

Most of my friends don't read my blog. Most of my relatives don't read my blog (one son, two brothers, two sisters-in-law, etc.). Most of the people on the face of this earth don't read my blog. Do they all know that is okay with me?

I started the blog to tell about my trip to India. It was very useful for letting people at the tribune companies know what was happening with their helpdesks. And then I was home and the blog became a diary. I am always surprised when people read the blog now. For me, it is a diary of what I've been reading and doing. I tend to forget which books I've read. Once reminded I can sometimes remember my favorite parts of them. Sometimes. Any memory jogger is a good thing for me these days.

The only person required to read this blog is my sister. We chat every day. It is so much easier not to have to repeat myself. Poor Sisty Ugler. But she is a good sport. As for the rest of you in this world, don't feel guilty when you tell me you haven't read my blog in years. It's all right. But thanks for stopping by when you do. It's nice to know that some of my nie-phews drop by as do friends from The Times and India. Thank you.

Just remember, though, this isn't mandatory for being my friend.

BTW, I got my first SS check on 11/13. Wow. Great to have money in the bank. As we say around here - LIG.

And if you are wondering, I've just had two friends explain why they don't read the blog. I'm assuming that they have full lives without this added bonus. :)

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.

German Potato Salad

My family loves my German potato salad and have all been given the recipe.  But they continually lose it.  I promised Kevin that I would post the recipe on my blog. I even gave it a new label so they won't lose it.  I've been making this for about 40 years.  I got the recipe from a cookbook I would probably not use anymore because none of the recipes take 5 hours and 9 pots to make.  But here it is:

Potatoes - should be russet because they soak up more stuff.  Peel, put in cold salty water and boil until you can stick a knife through them.  How many?  How many are you feeding?  How many left overs do you want? Really, I can't tell you everything.  Should you cut them before you put them into the water?  That depends on how soon you are eating.

Eggs - hard boil them.  I can't stand eggs, so I push them through a sieve until they disappear. You can also just cut them up if you don't mind seeing those egg whites in your salad.  Ewwwwww. Oh, there you go again.  How many?  If I use a full five pound bag of russets, I'll use a full dozen eggs.

Bacon - fry and break into pieces.  Everyone likes bacon, so a pound goes well with even two potatoes.

Green olives -  You know, the kind with pimentos in them.  Chop them up.  I emphasize green because one nephew tried this recipe and used black olives.  Ugh.  

Salad dressing - The original recipe called for Lawry's dry Caesar Salad dressing mix.  I like any of their dry dressings for this and have used any number of them because they don't always have that one.  I use the prescribed amount of olive oil and red wine vinegar.  Quantity depends on the number of potatoes.  Two packets is usually enough.

Final prep - Cut the cooked potatoes into wierd shapes by running a knife through the drained potatoes.  Throw in the eggs, bacon, green olives and dressing.  Fold everything together.  Try not to be too vigorous or you will have well flavored mashed potatoes.  

If it seems too dry, you can make more salad dressing or add more olive oil or water.  Just taste to make sure that it is really salty and not too vinegary.  I've added chopped green onions and that is good.  And chopped fresh flat parsely adds a nice color.  Just know that if you are making this for my nephews and brothers, you'd better make a lot.