Lat Day of Fun, For A While

Mom and I spent the whole day Friday playing around. The Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento was having a special display of Norman Rockwell's work. They had a cool place set up where you could sit down and take your picture, recreating the triple self-portrait that Rockwell did. We had fun pretending.

In a similar use of irony, the painting below always catches my eye too. The artist who painted it is himself the one in the painting, and the model is portrayed as the painter. The angel in the background is supposed to represent divine influence directing the work.

In the office of the old Crocker home was this beautiful desk, and the safe that is set into the wall. I thought it was cool that the manufacturer was Hall's Safe & Lock Co. The office is where Crocker and the other three of the Big Four (Stanford, Huntington, Hopkins) made their deals to build railroads, and railroaded others to go along with their plans.

We really enjoyed walking around the old part of the museum. I've always liked the ballroom downstairs. With Kim's engagement, I wonder if maybe we could rent it for a reception.  ;- )

Below is my attempt at showing the expanse of the room with a three panel montage.

One of the cool things about the ballroom is the overlook from the upstairs gallery.

 

After a full morning in the art museum, Mom and I walked over to Old Sacramento and had a light lunch at a cafe, then took advantage of our passes to the train museum. I love looking around all the huge locomotives.

After having our fill, we bought the best item of food we had all day. At Mr. Spud's we bought an order of Irish style fries topped with cheese and bacon. WOW! Hot and delicious. Then we drove home and took it easy. We watched some shows in front of our fireplace. It was a great day. Mom always has great ideas for fun.

The Best Ginger Drink EVER!

This is not Ginger Ale, it's not Ginger Beer, it's something totally different. I saw it in the store and the bottle intrigued me, but it was way more than I wanted to spend, without knowing how it tasted, so I let it go.

But my sweet daughter Kim bought it for me for Christmas. The hype is that it doesn't have lots of sugar or high-fructose corn syrup, but "natural agave." It also has cardamom, orange peel and other flavors that make it a complex drink. Of course, it's loaded with ginger! Thanks Kim.

Have a Nice Trip? See you Next Fall!

We left for Utah Wednesday morning. It was a beautiful, bright, sunshiny day. We saw snow on the ground from Grass Valley all along the way to Kaysville. I figured it was pretty cold outside the car, but was surprised when I looked down at the thermometer to see that it was 14 degrees as we passed through Truckee. I kept an eye on it and when it got down below 10 deg, I started taking photos. It dropped a degree every two to three seconds until it reached what you see at the bottom.

Mom couldn't believe it was that cold because the sun was shining so bright. All it took was a second or two with the window rolled down and her hand sticking out to convince her the thermometer was correct. It was funny though, to see the bright sunshine (below) and feel warm in the car. . . knowing that in fact it was colder weather outside than I had been in since leaving Sweden.

And actually, it won't be next Fall when we see these folks (and others) again here in Utah because. . .

Kim and Nate Have Set the Date

They will be married in the Salt Lake Temple at 11:00 am on Tuesday, April 2nd. We are so excited for them both. Nate is an outstanding young man, who makes Kim happy. I think she does the same for him.

Yule Pig

In Scandinavia there's a Christmas tradition that involves hiding an almond in a bowl of rice mush. All of the children get a bowl of the warm breakfast meal, and the one who finds the almond in his/her bowl wins! The prize is a marzipan pig. Marzipan is almonds ground up to make a paste, then sweetened to make a treat.

So last year and again this year we bought some marzipan at IKEA and I made a pig. This is the 2012 edition. I'm not sure anyone will be brave enough to eat it, but he does look kind of cute.

Nate's Big San Francisco Adventures

Several years ago, before Rob Fisher and Pam got serious about each other, Rob came to visit us in California. Because he had never been there before, we took him to SF for a fun day, and showed him all the strange and wonderful things there. We called it Rob's Big San Francisco Adventure.

So when Nate came to visit us this weekend, we did the same for him. It was pretty dicey as we left YC. The forecast was 100% chance of rain with winds up to 17 mph. 

But it turned out to be one of the this year's "Four Christmas Miracles." A seen above, the weather was clear and warm all morning. We took a bunch of great photos (which was good, because it turned cloudy and we got a little rain later when we were at Pier 39).

Below is one of the best photos of the day. Cute couple. and the breakers in the background, framed by the Golden Gate Bridge with the Marin headlands in the distance. It was a great morning!

While David, Kim, and Nate were taking a long long on a short pier, getting visited by a huge pelican, Mom and I checked out the old fort built in the 1850's to protect the entrance to SF Bay. Below you can see three shots of one of the canon ports (there were dozens of them, on three different levels - and more canons on top). You can see the ocean though the last one.

 

And below is the prettiest girl on the trip, standing in front of the light house on top of the fort. It was fun to see, but it was so windy and cold out there on the point (and we were getting hungry) that we left and drove to Pier 39 to get something to eat.

It was a really fun day. We got clam chowder bowls at the Pier, and walked out to see the ships. What a blast!

A Legend Passes

Dave Brubeck, one of the great jazz musicians of our time, died last Wednesday at the age of 92. Most musicians and non-musicians alike knew him for his wildly popular "Take Five" which was an unassuming, but complex mainstream jazz tune. He was an innovator and a classicist at the same time. 

He was a native of Northern California (Concord), and grew up playing music in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada where his Dad owned a ranch. He almost followed that line of work himself, but the pull of music kept him from it.

I love his music, and also loved hearing about his life and philosophy about people and music. He was one of the rare people who supported black musicians completely, even during the turmoil of the civil rights movement in the 60's. He refused to have his band stay in hotels that refused to accept "colored" people.

I've had a few opportunities to see and briefly meet a few major jazz musicians, like Woody Herman. I didn't meet Brubeck, but I spent the better part of a day with his drummer, Joe Morello once when I was in college. It was a great opportunity, and he spoke some of Brubeck, and the great man that he was.

Well, we all pass on sometime, and I think Dave had a good life. You might want to listen to some of his music at: http://www.davebrubeck.com/live/. Click on Listen.

Dat You, Santy Claus?

Mom and I sat down this evening after a hard day's work (well, she worked hard, I took the day off and did stuff that didn't need doing) and watched some Christmas movies. We started with Elf, and ended up with The Magoo Christmas Carol. Loads of fun!

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So as I was looking through some old photos I came across these two.

Maybe I've already posted them, they're good enough for a rerun. (I love the hat over the eyes.)

The man under the hat, of course, is HG, as you see below. 

Catch the Christmas Spirit.