Sock and a Sock, Shoe and a Shoe

Posted November 20, 2013 by joebowker
Categories: Silly Stuff
Tags: , ,

This morning while I was waiting for my darling wife Paula to get ready for the day I observed her putting on her socks and shoes. So she put on one sock and then one shoe, then repeat the process for the other foot. Now told her in no uncertain terms that this was so wrong. Any enlightened individual knows that one should put one sock, then the other sock, then the shoes.

So that brought back the memory of the routine done on the TV show “All in the Family” back in the 70’s where Meathead (played by Rob Reiner) and Archie (played by Carroll O’Connor) have a heated discussion on which is the correct way to put on one’s socks and shoes.

So (with thanks to Youtube) here is the clip from All in the Family

So dear readers, what do you think is the right way to put on your socks and shoes? Here is a poll to answer once and for all time this important question. I will update everyone in a week or two with the results of the poll.

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Father Bill’s Place

Posted November 16, 2013 by joebowker
Categories: Boston
Tags: ,

Okay, Joe, two posts in one day? How can that be? This is for all of my friendly followers.
 
 If you are anything like me at this time of year, you might be looking where to spend charitable dollars. We are constantly bombarded with US Mail from many charitable outfits.
 
 I try to find out how much of our donation goes to the actual charity’s operations. High percentage is good, low is bad. Nothing irritates me more than seeing as low as 20% going to operations and the rest to fill the pockets of the CEO.
 
 One of our favorites is Father Bill’s Place in Quincy, MA. Father Bill provides housing for the homeless. Father Bill is committed to ending and preventing homelessness in the South Shore (Mass) area.
 
 Click here for the web site.
 
 Or send a check to:
 
 Father Bill’s Place
 430 Belmont Street
 Brockton, MA 02301
 
 
 – Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Quincy, MA

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SS Lane Victory

Posted November 16, 2013 by joebowker
Categories: San Pedro
Tags: , , , ,

This afternoon Paula, Mary and I attended the annual meeting for the San Pedro Historical Society (See http://sanpedrobayhistoricalsociety.com/)
 The meeting was held at the Limani Taverna (previously known as Papadakis Taverna).
 
 After lunch and brief business meeting we got to hear from Capt. Greg Williams, US Merchant Marine (ret). The subject was the US Merchant Marine in WW2 in general and the SS Lane Victory.
 
 During WW2, the merchant marine was called upon to transport most of the supplies needed to run the war. Sometimes, new Liberty ships would not get far out of harbor before being sunk either by mines or German Uboats.
 
 Capt Williams told us the during the war, the press was prohibited from writing about the loss of Merchant Marine ships at sea. Indeed, the loss was great. The fatality rate in the Merchant Marine far exceeded that of the other services. Over 700 merchant ships were sunk during WW2.
 
 Click here for the wikipedia article on the Merchant Marine.
 
 The SS Lane Victory is the last operational Victory ship in existance. The Lane Victory saw service in WW2, Korea, and Vietnam providing the delivery of much needed supplies to our armed services. It is moored at pier 49 in San Pedro.
 

 The Victory ships were much like their predecessors the Liberty shops. They were mass produced in shipyards around the country. The Victory ships were faster than the Liberty ships (making 15-17 knots) and had a longer range. This made them less vulnerable to Uboat attacks. Click here for the Wiki.
 

 The Lane Victory is open for tours six days a week (closed on Thursday). Admission is $5 for and adult and $2 for children. The Lane Victory runs several day cruises around LA Harbor each year. Donations and volunteers are much appreciated. It costs a lot of money to keep the ship operational.
 
 Every five years, the ship goes into dry dock for inspection, bottom cleaning and painting. The Lane Victory is scheduled for dry dock in 2014 and they have a ways to go to raise the $900K for the overhaul and inspection.
 
 For additional info, click here for the Lane Victory web site.
 
 
 – Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:San Pedro

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Ranch House Restaurant, Gorman CA

Posted October 23, 2013 by joebowker
Categories: California, Reviews, Travel
Tags: , , ,

I’m a little bit late in getting this written. Last week we traveled up to Fresno to attend Cal Grand Chapter of OES. By the way, California OES has a great new website that went online recently. Take a look at oescal.org for more info on the Order of Eastern Star.

This post is more about the journey than the destination. It’s about 250 miles from San Pedro to Fresno. I am sort of getting used to traveling up and down the state of California. On this trip, we got off to a somewhat late start. We got on the road at about 11AM. The hope is that the traffic will have eased a bit either on the 405 or the 110 through downtown LA. It seems that there is always traffic in LA.

So after about 2 hours of driving we were ready for a stop for lunch. 2 hours into our drive gets us to somewhere on the Grapevine. If you recall from some of my previous posts the Grapevine is a stretch of road between the San Fernando Valley ( aka “The Valley”) and the San Joaquin Valley (aka, Central Valley).

So how did the Grapevine get its name? Common thought is that the name was related to the many switchbacks one had to traverse on early versions of the road. In fact, it was named for the grape vines growing along the canyon. Here is an excerpt from an article about building the roads through the area.

The first white man through this area was a Spanish officer and acting governor of Alta California in 1772, Don Pedro Fages. He noticed an abundance of Cimarron grapes growing wild in the area north of what is now Gorman. He named the place Canada de Las Uvas, or Grapevine Canyon. Grapevines were so prevalent the wagoneers and soldiers had to hack their way through. Wild grapes still grow on the sides of I-5 in the pass. 

Another association of the name Grapevine was established during early highway construction. The engineers had to abandon the original wagon road up the canyon from the valley floor when Grapevine Creek overflowed during a torrential cloudburst in 1914. The highway alignment was rebuilt on the east side of the hill with a series of switchback loops to gain elevation. Thus the appearance of a grapevine.

Here is the pointer to the entire article.

As you can see from the map, the Grapevine is pretty much straightened out on the current I5.

grapevine

So we decide to stop at a restaurant in Gorman CA named the Ranch House Restaurant. The restaurant is a bit unusual in that it is not a big franchise restaurant like Denny’s, McDonalds, etc. Here’s a picture of the exterior.

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The menu is somewhat similar to what one would see at Denny’s, Typical breakfast menu, lunch menu is burgers, sandwiches. The food that we had was excellent. Service was excellent. Not too crowded. Here’s the review on Yelp.Com

One of the reasons that we stopped here is that Paula remember stopping here back in the fifties. Her father was a part time ranger at Lassen National Park. As soon as school ended for the year. The family would drive from San Pedro up to Lassen. As Paula tells the story, they would get to Gorman in the evening and she had to be wakened so they could get a piece of pie and some coffee. Then they would continue their journey and stop overnight in Bakersfield. Remember this was pre-interstate. Getting to Lassen was a two day trip. Some times they were pulling a small travel trailer. Pulling a trailer over the Grapevine was (and still is) a stressful activity for a passenger car.

Now here is where it gets interesting. We were talking with the waitress. I think that she had been working at the restaurant for many years. She seemed to think that this building was at least the third incarnation of the Ranch House. Earlier versions had to either be moved or demolished to accommodate road construction. According to Paula, the interior of the restaurant is much like how she remembers it from her days as a child going to Lassen with her mother and father.

Until next time,

Joe

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Octoberfest – Los Angeles Style

Posted October 14, 2013 by joebowker
Categories: California, Food, Los Angeles
Tags: , ,

We meant to do this last year but never got around to it. So yesterday afternoon we went to the Octoberfest at Alpine Village in Torrance. This has been an annual affair for the last forty some years in Torrance. During the months of September and October, Alpine Village puts on Octoberfest on Friday and Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons.

The Sunday afternoon affair is a little bit more family friendly. People bring their entire family from infants to grand parents. The rest of the year Alpine Village runs a restaurant and gift shop. But on the weekends they move to the huge tent. My guess would be that it is the size of a couple football fields.

Get your tickets on line. This will save you waiting in the long line to get in. They encourage appointing someone the designated driver. I was selected for the job yesterday. They put a green wrist strap on you. This gets you all the soda and spring water you can drink for free. People are encouraged to come wearing lederhosen or Bavarian Dirndl dresses.

So we loaded Mary K and Paula into the Jeep and picked up Mike up in RPV. And off we went. We had some sausage and bratwurst for lunch along with the usual sides like sauerkraut and potato salad. Tables are rugged picnic tables capable of supporting a tuba player in addition to the food and beer. So Mike lines up for the beer while Paula, Mary K and I line up for food. Lots of fun;

Here are some pictures:

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Las Vegas NV

Posted October 5, 2013 by joebowker
Categories: Reviews, Travel
Tags: , , ,

Today is the last day of our trip. Yesterday we travelled from West Jordan UT to Las Vegas NV. we had a short visit with Neil and his family. So now we are heading home to LA. SLC to LA is about 750 miles give or take and is a bit too long to make in one jump.

Las Vegas is a natural spot to stop for the night. This is the third time that we have made the trip from SLC to LA. We have been searching for a good place to bed down for the night. We didn’t want to go to downtown Las Vegas. I despise staying at casino-hotels. All I want is a QUIET hotel where we can rest overnight.

Last time we stayed at a hotel in Primm NV which is at the CA NV border. There are three worn aging casinos resorts there. Last time we had reserved two rooms for Paula, myself and my mother in law. Reservation screwed up they only had one room for us. I am NOT sleeping with my mother in law. The time before that we stopped at Jean NV. Similar aging casino hotel.

So we thought we might be forced to either stay up in St George UT or continue on down the road to Victorville CA. Nothing in between but desert, sage brush and coyotes. St George to LV is about 150 miles. LV to Victorville about the same. So we’re stuck with Las Vegas. St George was too soon to stop and Victorville too far.

So back to the travel hotel web sites. Lo and behold we found a Double Tree by Hilton near the LV airport. It has no casino, reasonable price (about $100). It has a bar and restaurant. It is quiet. I can hear some aircraft noise but it is not outrageously loud. I made the reservation through the Hilton Honors iPhone App.

They put us on the 5th floor. Top two floors are the Hilton Honors floors. When we checked in they gave us two warm chocolate chip cookies. This was so much better than Primm or Jean. We were also told that happy hour was in progress. Woo-Hoo!!!

So we came down to the hotel bar and had a few drinks and watched the end of the LA Dodgers Atlanta Braves game. We missed the Red Sox thumping of the Rays. We had a few drinks (Gin and Tonic for Ms. Paula, Martini for me), then light dinner and back to our room. We watched Bill Maher’s show on HBO. We give the Double Tree 5 stars. We’ll definitely stay here on our next trip to SLC.

One idea that Hilton has started is recycling in the hotel rooms. They have trash cans that have two inserts. One for regular trash and one for plastics. Clever idea. Here’s a picture.


So thats it for Las Vegas. Today, once we finish breakfast we are off for LA. We’ll probably stop in Mojave rest stop (right after the CA NV state line.) This time the colors are alive in the desert. The sage brush seems to be pollinating. Lots of yellows and orange. The mountains are alive with color. Here is a picture I took last Saturday in CA. imagine what a whole hillside would look like with flowering sage brush.


No place to safely stop along yesterday’s route to take a picture. So back to LA. We will have about couple of weeks home before we head back north to Fresno CA for CA Grand Chapter OES.

Joe

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Pollock Dr,Paradise,United States

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Peppermill Resort & Casino

Posted October 3, 2013 by joebowker
Categories: California, Freemasonry, OES, Reviews
Tags: , , ,

In my last post, I talked about the routes from So Cal to the north. It was pointed out by my wife (a native Californian) that there is a fourth route that exists. That would be the inestimable Rt 101. Rte 101 follows the coast from LA to San Francisco. This is the ultimate in scenic routes. You go through Santa Barbara, Big Sur, Carmel and a host of other photo ops along the way. One of these days we will do the 101,

So we arrived at the Peppermill last Saturday for the Nevada Grand Chapter of OES. OES is the Order of Eastern Star which is a fraternal organization for men and women. More about Grand Chapter later.

The Peppermill is a huge facility. Large Casino operation plus meeting and banquet facilities, Checkin went pretty smoothly. There was a short line, but it went pretty quick. The parking was valet parking though you could self park if you insisted. The bellman unloaded all of our stuff and got it up to room real quick.

So far so good. The room was good size. It had king size bed, couch, desk and chairs. Included coffee pot, wifi and all of the normal amenities. Wifi was fast when you could get a signal. It was intermittent at best. One strike for crappy wifi.

The decor was a sort a Queen Anne motif along with paintings of Tuscan motif. Even a painting in the bath room. It seemed a bit odd to me.


We attend four banquet meals during our stay. All of the meals were absolutely fantastic. Feeding a large crowd all at the same time can be a real challenge. The Peppermill wait staff were absolutely fantastic. I can’t say enough good things about them.

Okay now lets talk about the casino. Nevada is the only state in the USA that stills allows cigarette smoking in public spaces. I don’t really blame the Peppermill for this but the place stunk of cigarette smoke. They did have a small non-smoking gaming area. This was the first time in over 25 years that I saw a cigarette machine. $9 for a pack of cigarettes.

Casinos are designed to be a disorienting space and the Peppermill is no different. It takes a good long while to figure out your way around. I don’t gamble so I just had to make my way through the casino section. The noise is deafening.

We are looking forward to a trip in November to Las Vegas to a non-smoking, non-casino resort. Betcha didn’t know that such an thing existed in Vegas.

Overall, it was a decent experience. All of the events were in one place. We didn’t have to go anywhere else during our stay. If you don’t care about OES, then stop here.

Nevada OES is certainly much smaller then either CA OES or MA OES. About 20 chapters spread out around the state. Several chapters around Reno and the same around Las Vegas. Getting from the chapters in the north to the ones in Vegas is not so easy. There is I80 running from Reno to Wendover in the East for about 400 miles. There is no interstate between Reno and Las Vegas. So going from Reno to Vegas is a challenge.

That’s pretty much it for the hotel part of this post. The rest is about OES in general and Nevada OES in specific.

The folks that we met at NV GC were very friendly. They made our stay very enjoyable.

The registration process was oh so very easy. They had a single spreadsheet on their web site where you could select our hotel accommodations and the banquets that you planned to attend. Fill out the spread sheet and send it in with one check for the banquets. One stop shopping, so to speak. In CA and MA, one has to download flyers for each banquet. Write a check for each banquet and send it to the chairperson.

Elections were an interesting process. There were five women running for the office of Assoc Grand Conductress. None of the candidates were allowed to give a campaign speech or to campaign during the months leading up to Grand Chapter. The process took four votes before one candidate finally got a majority.
Candidates were asked if they wanted to withdraw, but were not required to do so. In MA the bottom vote getters would be required to withdraw.

Also Grand Sentinel is an elected office like in MA but not in CA. We think the GS goes up the line as in MA. Grand Sentinel in CA is an appointed office and does not go up the line. We met people from CA, AZ, ID and WA. Our thanks to Linda (Grand Representative to MA in NV) for being very gracious host.

So now we are in Utah to visit Neil. We are going to visit the Utah Museum of Science and Industry to see the Leonardo exhibit.

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Reno NV

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Trip to Reno

Posted September 29, 2013 by joebowker
Categories: California, Travel
Tags: , ,

We are on another road trip to attend NV OES Grand Chapter in Reno. We left San Pedro at about 0900 on Saturday. There are three main north south routes from LA to Northern California.

The quickest by far is I5 that starts in San Diego and continues through LA and then up through California’s Central Valley. There are huge farms that produce much of the vegetables that everyone consumes in the USA. Without stopping, we could potentially make it from San Pedro to Reno in a little over 8 hours. However, the ride is oh so very boring.

The second route is up US99 a bit east of I5. A little bit longer and just as boring. One goes through the major farming towns of Bakersfield, Fresno, and Stockton. Eventually you reach Sacramento and then head east on I80 to Reno.

The most visually interesting trip is on US395 that runs between the Sierras on your left and the CAL-NV border on your right. Lots of mountains, lakes and streams.

That was what we had intended to take. Best case should take 9 hours without factoring bathroom stops, gas stops, etc. But i screwed up in loading the GPS and we headed up I5. By the time we figured out my mistake, we were almost to Bakersfield. So we headed east to pick up US395.

Not so simple though. We ended up on SR14 that took us on a twisty windy road through Kern County and the Kern river canyon. We stopped at a place called Walker Pass to stretch and take a couple of pictures. This is some of the most desolate parts of California. It was also super clear on Saturday. The blue sky in those pictures was not photo-shopped.


So we eventually got on to US395 and continued our journey north. We were way behind schedule. Driving this road when dark is very challenging. Paula had me stop for a few seconds so that she could smell the ponderosa pines. She said she could actually see stars. You don’t see many stars (the astronomy kind) in LA. Of course I didn’t see stars, I was trying to see which way the road was going.

We eventually arrived in Reno at about 10PM. We got checked in and luggage up to our room. We had a gin and tonic and went to bed.

Next post will be about our experience at the Peppermill Resort and Casino.

Later…

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:S Virginia St,Reno,United States

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You’ve been hacked.

Posted September 27, 2013 by joebowker
Categories: Internet, Scams
Tags: ,

The scams seem to never end. This morning I received the following email (purportedly) from my friends Robin and Mike.

My regrets for this sudden request,my family and I came down here to London, England for a short vacation unfortunately we were mugged at the park of the hotel where we stayed,all cash,credit card and cell were stolen off us but luckily for us we still have our passports with us.

We’ve been to the embassy and the Police here but they’re not helping issues at all and our flight leaves in less than few hours from now but we’re having problems settling the hotel bills and the hotel manager won’t let us leave until we settle the bills,I’m freaked out at the moment.

Needless to say, Mike and Robin are not in London and they were not mugged. If you should receive a message like this, check it out. Call your friends and find out if it is legit.  99 times out of 100 this is a scam. This type of scam had been kicking around the internet for many years.

This particular one is unusual to me in that there is no return address or phone number for where to wire the money.

If you should find out that your friends have received this sort of message, change you email password immediately. Then send out a message to all of your friends. Tell them that you are not in England or wherever.

Stay safe…

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Salt Cod Fish Cakes

Posted September 17, 2013 by joebowker
Categories: Fish, Food, Recipes
Tags: ,

Back in the day when I was a child, on Friday’s we would eat cod fish cakes for breakfast. My Mom and Dad would prepare them the night before so we would have a hot breakfast in the morning before school.

So I decided it was time to find the recipe for salt cod cakes and try making them myself. Finding a recipe wasn’t a problem. Finding salt cod on the west coast was a problem.

We finally found some in an Albertson’s Supermarket in San Pedro. And the meat guy knew what I was talking about. Salt Cod comes in a small box with about a pound of cod preserved in salt from Nova Scotia. It was the same box that I remember from when I was a kid living in Brighton. So without further adieu, here is the recipe.

Ingredients

1 box of salt cod. (If stores have it, it usually can be found in frozen meat section). Ask. I suppose you could substitute 1 lb fresh white fish of some sort. Doesn’t seem right though.

2 Large potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 tsp seafood seasoning

Ground black pepper to taste

1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley

1 large onion diced

2 eggs

1/2 c white flour

 

Directions

  1.

    Place the salt cod into a bowl and cover with cold water. Refrigerate for 8 hours. Pour off the water and replace with fresh water every 2 hours. After the fish has soaked for 8 hours, rinse in cold water, and cut into 3-inch sections.

  2. Place the cod and potatoes into a large pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the potatoes are tender and the cod flakes easily with a fork, about 20 minutes. Drain and allow to cool for 20 minutes.
  3. Place the potatoes and cod into a mixing bowl. Season with the seafood seasoning, pepper, and parsley; roughly mash with a potato masher. Stir in the eggs and onion until evenly combined. There should still be pieces of cod and potato in the mixture. Form into golf ball-sized pieces, and roll in the flour. Press between your palms to flatten slightly.
  4. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the cod cakes in batches until golden and crispy on both sides, about 3 minutes per side. Drain on a paper towel-lined plate.

I generally put ketchup on my fish cakes. Paula laughed. She though tartar sauce was right. She tried the ketchup. She agreed it was right. This recipe makes enough for 4-5 servings.

 

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