In Which I Account For The Missing Days

If one were to use this blog as a calendar, he or she would likely wonder why Thursday through Sunday were missing. I, on the other hand, would wonder why he or she was using my blog as a calendar.

Veterans' Day found me watching The Incredibles. Seeing an imaginative, intelligent and witty movie seemed like the patriotic thing to do. Pixar's latest creation is worth seeing again (and again).

(A quick aside: On Tuesday, which really doesn't fall between Thursday and Sunday, but again, this isn't a calendar, I saw The Polar Express at the IMAX theater. Two words describe the experience: too big. Nostrils and Steven Tyler were never meant to be seen on a screen that size.)

After the movie, we drove to Monterey, which was rainy and gray. We spent the afternoon in Plumes Coffee House, where I wrote and enjoyed a cup of slow drip coffee. Instead of pouring myself a cup from a carafe with coffee that could've been sitting there two days, they made my cup to order, on the spot. It was strong, superb and well worth the extra 45 cents.

Come Friday, the clouds fled and left Monterey sunny and blue. We spent most of the day relaxing around Cannery Row. We relaxed so long that we actually drained Monterey of its entire relaxation supply. With the day hardly done, we drove to Carmel and managed to reach the beach just as the sun set. Unfortunately, my camera was snoozing in the car, so I don't have a shot of the sunset, as the photo above shows.

Saturday involved working on the backyard irrigation system, spending time with the folks and having dinner with the grandparents in Santa Cruz at King Chwan Chinese Restaurant. My sister thought we should order the Bon Bon Chicken, Dan Dan Noodles and San San Seafood Noodle Soup because it would be fun to say. For some reason, nobody else found the idea very amusing (well, except me).

To retaliate, she took us to brunch at The Cheesecake Factory on Sunday. For those of you unfamiliar with the restaurant, it's where you can buy expensive cheesecake and wait thirty minutes for an order of scrambled eggs, sliced tomatoes, grilled ham and a burnt bagel. It's also where if you ask for jam, they won't bring you an assortment of flavors. They will give you one packet of strawberry jam because it's all they carry.

That wraps up my account of the missing days. By the way, I can deal with a restaurant making me wait for food, but one that doesn't carry grape jam or orange marmalade? That's simply unacceptable.