This morning AJ and I were having fun chatting. He was telling me all about the room we were in, pointing to objects as he described them: light, can, yellow, blue, ceiling, train, and so on.
Then he started on himself, pointing to his clothing: blue, yellow, panda bear (a design on his pjs). However, the cutest part was when he went a little deeper. Pointing to himself he added: puzzles, singing, and Pmary not nusree. I clarified, “you do puzzles, and you like singing.” He told me, “yep!” It took me a few more tries to figure out that AJ wanted to tell me he goes to primary, not nursery.
It was a sweet little insight into how AJ sees himself: puzzles, singing, and big boy who goes to primary.
The above graphic is AJ’s very favorite puzzle from primary class. Apparently he does the same puzzle over and over and over for as long as his Sunbeam teacher will let him. (Puzzles are their first activity in Sunbeams while waiting for all the children arrive.)
Is your door smelly? Do you look at your door and say “why is that door so sweaty?” Well, if you do then you need to run out and buy a fan because this blog post is not for you! However, if you already live in an extremely windy place (in which case you do not need a fan) and happen to have had the wooden frame for your screen door crack, then this blog post might come in handy. As you might of guessed we recently experienced a minor home repair problem. Not exactly knowing how to fix this problem I went to our our local Ace hardware store.
The first thing I learned at Ace is I am really ignorant when it comes to home repair. Basically, when it comes to home repair I just look for whatever is cheap and easy. Looking at the wall repair aisle I soon learned this was not going to be cheap and easy, but then I spotted this:
Easy on not so easy off.
My first reaction was what in the heck was deodorant doing in the wall repair aisle. I mean, I know most construction workers I know have a need for deodorant, but it seemed rather presumptuous on the hardware store’s part to put it right next to the can of spackle. Assuming this might be some sort of foreign joke I picked it up
I love the part about "Professional Tips," as if a pro is really going to use this stuff...
Nope, made in the USA. I would like to say I bought this product because I was a good American, but the truth is I bought it because it was A) the cheapest product there ($5) and B) it was the only one I could instinctively understand how to use.
You might think that this was too good to be true, but it actually worked! All I had to do was turn the dial, rub it in the crack, and then wait five minutes for it to harden up. I don’t know who invented this stuff but they deserve a pat on the back. If I thought I could get away with it I would drywall my whole house with this stuff. Easy on and now I never have to worry about that not so sure feeling with my front door. What will they come up with next!?!
Raise your hand if your sure...
(As a disclaimer I was not paid nor endorsed by Erase A Hole. Although if they feel like sending me a few free cases of their product, I’d be willing to try that home drywalling experiment.)
I heard that the Green Bay Packers won the Super Bowl. I only know this because I logged into Facebook today. Otherwise I wouldn’t have even remembered that the Super Bowl was going on. What was I doing today you ask? Well, besides going to Church I was baking. I know what your thinking. That is an offense worthy worthy of taking away the “man card.” Save yourself the jury, truth is I probably lost it a long time ago. You would think with a last name of Pedroza I would be super macho, but I am not. Unfortunately when it comes to the “man card” test I can readily identify many flaws. I am not good in sports. I like going to games, but I don’t really follow any team and I could careless about watching any sport on television.
I think the problem started in the 8th grade I had time for an extra elective. I went to a private school at the time and there were lots of options for me. Being that I was in Mexico City the cool thing to do was to join the soccer team. If you couldn’t get on the soccer team than you needed to tryout for the football team. At the very least if you were not athletic most guys would try to get something cool like woodworking into their schedule. Not me, I chose home economics… Not a choice that came without it’s perils. When my friends first my schedule their first reaction was that of denial.
“There must of been some sort of mistake,” Steve called out. Nope, no mistake that is where I wanted to go. Then came the look of horror.
“You’re not gay are you?” Fred questioned. I did my best to assure them that I was not gay, but in Middle School World it was too late. Soon shunned, I soon found my popularity plummeting. It was ok though. I had a plan.
Unlike most of my middle school career, the choice to take Home Economics was not one made without any planning. As a 7th grader I had taken Woodworking as my elective. For a long time I didn’t even notice the small classroom. Then one day it hit me, there was a smell in the air. I knew that smell, it was good. What was that smell?? It was cookies!! Fresh chocolate chip cookies. Being the ever hungry teenager that I was I looked for the source of this smell. It was coming from that small classroom that I passed on my way to Woodworking. Looking into the classroom I made my next discovery, there were girls in that classroom. A bunch of pretty girls and not one boy in there. It didn’t take long for my teenage mind to add it all together. Good food and pretty girls, what more did I need.
Yep, I think I lost my “man card” that year, but it was ok. Mocked as I was I had more dates than any other teenager I knew. I was never the most popular person in Middle School or High School, but I didn’t have the same problems other young men seemed to have. I knew how to talk to girls. More importantly I knew what to talk about. I never did figure out everything there was to the opposite sex, but I also learned that is impossible (it’s a lot less frustrating when you know your limitations). And, I learned how to cook. In fact I would say I am a pretty good cook. Not the best cook in the world, but I have never gone hungry in my life (and unfortunately that shows).
So, I guess that is a very long story about not wanting to watch the Super Bowl. Oh well, it’s my blog and I will post what I want to (not many people reading anyway). I guess the real question is what was I baking today. Well, I was baking Chewy Pretzel bites. I found the recipe at Mel’s Kitchen Cafe (www.melskitchencafe.com). They came out really good:
Crunchy on the outside and chewy in the middle.
If you like making bread, you will find that these are really easy to make (it’s amazing how far a little flour and yeast will go). You can find the recipe by going HERE. Ironically, Chewy Pretzels would make for a great snack for a football party. Oh well maybe I can just eat them while watching “Better Off Dead” (I want my two dollars…).
The good news is AJ has not become a 3 yr. old apostate (like he would even understands what that word means), but the bad news is AJ is sick today.
I had to go down the hill (why we call it a hill is beyond me, but that is for a different discussion) for a Merit Badge Workshop and so I caught a ride from another leader and Denise picked me up later at a nearby Mexican food places (it is all about the torta). Anyhow, so I go into the car and this is what I saw:
[rss-cut]
This may not look bad to the untrained eye but as a parent you know when your kid doesn’t look well (if you are interested in seeing what a healthy AJ looks like wave your mouse over the above picture). Nothing major, so far it is just a minor fever and a bunch of coughing, but definitely enough that AJ doesn’t need to be out in public.
Needless to say it was time to get AJ home. When we got home we asked AJ if he wanted to take a nap and he of course responded with his usual “no nappy!” So we let him stay on the couch. About 30 mins later Denise told me I needed to look for AJ and this is what I saw:
Denise said that AJ was in there somewhere so my solution was I just took the entire lump and put it to bed. He didn’t stir at all when I did this, yet further proof positive AJ is not feeling well. Usually, when I so much as point to AJ’s room he acts as though I have sentenced him to a hundred years of torture.
The next question of course is if AJ is not going to church tomorrow who else is not going to church. I suppose we could leave him home by himself, but that would probably land us a visit by a social worker. In order to avoid having a social worker have to work on a Sunday we have once again decided to use the divide and conquer technique. We will be alternating hours in church. It isn’t the best solution but at least each of us gets to go to at least one hour of church.
I grew up in the not so small city of Chula Vista. Translated from Spanish the name means “beautiful view.” So it isn’t so much of a stretch that Chula Vista’s oldest restaurant would be named La Bella, which is Italian for the “the beautiful.” A lot of things have changed in the city of Chula Vista but not La Bella’s (only people from out of town try to pronounce it without the s).
Really, it’s been there that long.
Literally, La Bella’s Pizza has been around since before I was born. It kind of reminds me of an old John Mellencamp song in a way. Come to think of it, it will probably be there after I die too. To say that I have many fond memories of the place is a given. When I was a cub scout our pack would hold it’s Blue and Gold Banquet upstairs. The first time I ever saw an arcade machine was while waiting to be seated up front. My favorite memory was when this drunk guy came up to my family and declared he was Jesus. Trying to get him to leave we gave him a piece of pizza. He looked at it as if it was a foreign object then it raised both of his hands in the air (with one of them still holding the piece of pizza) and with a prophetic voice declared “AND JESUS ATE THE PIZZA!!” and then left. We waited until he left but then started laughing hysterically (totally worth the slice of pizza). I don’t think that guy was actually Jesus, but if he was I am going to have one whale of a tale to tell in heaven!! (assuming I don’t get banished first for having laughed at Jesus behind his back…)
Denise didn’t get the admiring the pizza thing, but she played along.
There are two sections to La Bella’s, one is the cafe and the other is the the other is the pizzeria. The cafe is the newer part of La Bella’s, I hear it is nice, but being a traditionalist I always eat in the pizzeria. With a place so steeped in history it is not surprising that La Bella’s Pizza comes with a lot of tradition. The first weird tradition for me is despite the fact that La Bella’s has a perfectly good and working front door I have never used it. Which is funny because to get seated you have go to the front door. I am not sure why I don’t use the front door at La Bella’s. Maybe it is haunted. Perhaps it is because I like to stare at the picture in the lobby that says that I am standing on the spot that used to be a miniature golf course. Maybe entering through the back makes me feel like I am more than just an average customer. It is probably is just because parking in the back doesn’t require me to pay the parking meters that are on Third St. I just don’t really know, but I know I don’t enter through the front door.
You can eat it all with your hands but that would be breaking protocol.
I do however know that when at La Bella’s I cannot eat the first bite out of my slice without first cutting it up. This is not normal, but it is if I am at La Bella’s. If I could use just one word to describe a La Bella’s pizza it would have to be “CHEESE!!” You can order extra cheese on your pizza, but that would just be ridiculous. Which by the way, if you want to see ridiculous cheese, try ordering the lasagna, they say there are noodles in that dish but no one has ever seen them because of all the cheese. Anyhow, going back to cutting your pizza… You see, if you don’t cut and eat the first bite of your La Bella’s slice with a fork and knife your going to find that when you pick it up all your toppings are going to fall off because they have gotten stuck to all the cheese that was previously on your pizza slice. Which would be a shame because you would miss the next best part of a La Bella’s pizza and that would be the sauce. A zesty tomato blend, it definitely sets makes the pizza even more unique. A this point I should mention that La Bella’s is not the cheapest place to eat pizza, but it isn’t the most expensive place either (BTW, I was NOT paid to write that). For $20 we got a medium pizza and two clam chowders. Normally, I wouldn’t recommend seafood with your pizza, but when you are less than two miles from water it somehow makes sense (not too mention the clam chowder is really good).
"Hello, it's AJ!"
The best part of La Bella’s is the atmosphere. I think it is due to the decor (gotta love those black vinyl cushioned wall benches), but it is a very mellow and casual place. It is not uncommon at La Bella’s to have either a server or guest just start randomly talking to you. Heck, if you are me, you’ll probably be the one initiating the conversation. The whole place screams “good times” at you. If you have a little bit of time and little bit of dough (yes, that was yet another pun) I highly recommend you check it out.
I don’t know about normal families, but in my family you often acquire many different names. When I was groing up you couldn’t get by without acquiring at least a half a dozen of them. When you have a last name like Pedroza and half of your family lives in Mexico and you live in the US it comes as no surprise that I would be bestowed the name:
Yep, I may speak Spanish, I may come from a deeply rooted Mexican family, but there is no doubt that I am a Gringo. Actually, there is another word, but it is worse, so I am not going to mention it here. I mention this title because everytime I hear it, it reminds me of the first time I had “Mexican Food” in Utah. It was in the winter of 1996 and I was in the college town of Provo. I went to this place called “El Azteca.” I don’t know if it still exists but I have to say it was one of the worst meals I have ever tasted. They had tacos there but they were all hard shelled tacos. I don’t know who came up with the idea that idea that a tortilla needs to be in a hard shell format, but it was a bad one. After having made that mistake at my local Taco Bell I opted for a Chimichanga. I didn’t know at the time what a Chimichanga was, but it would be my first and last. Basically, it is fried burrito. All I could think of while eating it was why?? Anyhow, I wont go into more detail but I will say that it was horrible. It was ok though, I figured Utah being a landlocked state couldn’t help it. It was strange to me that Utah didn’t have any good Mexican food because there are a lot of Mexicans in Utah, but I guess Mexicans in Utah weren’t into cooking at the time.
Flash forward to 2003 and me and my newly wed bride decide to go up to Utah to visit her family. All was going well, we visited Temple Square, we saw Brigham Young’s house, and then she decided she wanted Mexican food. Being rather puzzled, I told her I wasn’t driving 9 hrs. back to California, giving me a puzzled response she told me that all we had to do was go to Provo.
“Provo?” I asked. Knowing that I must quickly intervene I quickly related my story of the Chimichanga. She responded to the story by calling me silly and told me that we needed to go to some place called Cafe Rio. To say that I was skeptical was an understatement, but not wanting our first fight to be over Mexican food I reluctantly agreed.
Surprisingly Cafe Rio turned out to be really good food. Despite the title “Mexican Grill” I wouldn’t call it Mexican (let’s face it Mexican’s don’t do giant flour tortillas), but it’s good food.
Who knew flour tortillas did disco?
The burrito assembly line.
Basically, Cafe Rio is just like Chipotle’s in that you stand in line, your start with a giant tortilla, you tell them what you want it filled with, and maybe add a soda or dessert at the end.
That’s a big burrito.
In the end you get a big giant burrito. My favorite burrito is their pork barbacoa burrito with a side of guacamole. Now I know that barbacoa (it is usually sheep) isn’t supposed to be pork but once you taste the citrus marinade you will soon forget that. Add some extra pinto beans and you will soon forget about your poor Mexican ancestors who are undoubtedly rolling in their graves. If your going to give up your heritage it better at least be tasty right??
As mentioned the first Cafe Rio that I knew about was in Provo, Utah, but the chain has slowly been making it’s way down into California. The one we went to in Redlands, California had just opened. As I mentioned the food is really good. It isn’t authentic, but it’s good. A typical burrito will set you back about $7.00-$8.00 after taxes, which might sound like a lot, but considering how big they are I think it is still a good value. Utah still might not have Mexican food, but Cafe Rio is definitely a step in the right direction.
"We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo, how about you, you, you?"
All in all the San Diego Zoo is a great place to visit, but I am not so sure I would want to live there. The neighbors tend to be a bit on the wild side (then again we never claimed to be normal ourselves). As such a visit every once in a while is fun.
AJ was captivated by the monkeys
The San Diego Zoo is the world’s largest zoo. You can just show up and you will have a good time, but with over 4000 rare and endangered species if you want to get the most for your money it is important that you come prepared.
Thanks to Erica and Tom (Denise’s brother) we got free tickets to the Zoo.
This cheesy photo op was brought to you by the Jackman's.
I was particularly thankful for the free ticket because at $40 a ticket I am not sure we would of gone on our own. If your not as lucky as us you might want to look into discounts. The easiest discount is having a AAA card which will knock 10% off your ticket price, but with a little bit of Internet searching you can probably find better deals. A normal ticket will include a bus tour and a gondola ride.
The zoo bus makes it very easy to get around.
Since we had a guest pass the bus was not included in our price. We did however end up paying for the bus tour ($10). There are two theories behind our decision. Theory number one is that we decided that since we only had one day to visit the zoo we wanted to see as much as possible and the bus tour covers 70% of the zoo. Theory number two was that we were just lazy and after going up and down the zoo canyon two times (it didn’t get it’s largest zoo in the world title for nothing) we got really jealous of the express bus that came included with the bus tour. Regardless of whether or not you take the bus be sure to bring a pair of good walking shoes (I dare someone to try it in high heels).
AJ could of ridden the speed escalator all day and would have been happy.
The zoo is open most days 9am-5pm. One of the things they don’t tell you until you pay is that the animals have all gone to Argentina and have conspired to strictly obey the rules of the siesta. For those of you who have failed Latin American studies the translation of the word siesta goes something along the line of “you might of put me in this display case, but I refuse to let you interupt my nap.”
"Take all the pictures you want, I am not waking up!"
Finding an animal awake between the hours of 11am-1pm is next to impossible. My suggestion to avoid this is to bring a sack lunch (no coolers or straws allowed) and just take a break with the animals. In case you are a fast eater it is also good to know that reptiles do not sleep (much).
Mr. Panda says, "do like me and bring your own lunch."
The last thing to note is that since the zoo is in Balboa Park parking is free, but since parking is free it makes for some interesting parking situations. Since the parking is free there will be no one there to guide you into your spot, this means people will often skip parking spots. It also means if you take the risk to move your car up the row you might find a significantly closer parking spot.
Gotta love the failed photo op picture, AJ was too short and I was too fat.
As I said before the San Diego Zoo is a great place to visit. Not only does the does it contain more animals than you could ever imagine (let alone pronounce) it is very beautiful. I loved looking at all the different plants on display. If you have the time and money (mostly money) the San Diego is a must do in Southern California.
I can’t believe that AJ actually won. I also can’t remember how many quarters I have dumped into these type of machines and have never won anything. The story behind this event is so unreal that I decided I had to write about it so I wouldn’t later think it was some weird dream.
So a random stranger sees AJ playing with the machine and hands him a quarter. I tell the man that he doesn’t need to give AJ a quarter because AJ doesn’t even know how to play the machine. The man insisted so I told him “fine it’s your quarter.” The man then gives AJ a quarter and AJ proceeds to try and put it in the keyhole slot. The man shows AJ how to insert the money into the machine. Then AJ starts to wildly pull at the joystick (which is what I expect any three year old to do when given a joystick with a big shiny red button on it). While he is doing this I am thinking “there went that man’s money.” All the sudden though lights started flashing and a little synthetic tune started to play. This was enough of a prize to AJ who was hopping to the music completely oblivious to the fact that he had caused it. Due to the lights I suppose there were now several spectators. The still complete stranger then showed AJ how to get his real prize, a fuzzy baby killer whale. I of course told AJ to say thank you, and so it is that AJ is now the proud owner of a baby killer whale and I have the picture to prove it.
AJ was not sure what to think about Hamburger Mary
We were tipped off to Hamburger Mary’s by Groupon and thanks to Groupon we had a $30 dollar coupon that only cost $15, gotta love 50% off (although we probably spent more on that getting out to Palm Springs)!!! In a normal place January is considered a cold month, but when we got to Palm Springs it was 80 degrees outside. Not boiling, but not what we were expecting either. Denise apparently decided she was going to complement the heat by wearing a black long sleeve shirt (works great in Crestline, not so much in Palm Springs). Looking at the over exaggerated plastic pinup of Mary we weren’t exactly sure what to expect when we walked into Hamburger Mary’s. Which is good because we learned when you are in Palm Springs you have to expect the unexpected.
You know it is warm if Denise has ice in her soda. Gotta love Palm Springs in January.
Luckily for Denise they were very fast at getting us our drinks and getting us our menu.
Hamburger Mary's menu is not cheap, but it is different.
While looking over the menu AJ blurted out “Doggy!” Their motto is, they welcome all your family (and if that includes your dog so be it). So if you allergic to dogs, this is not the place for you. While we were there AJ got to play with not one, but two puppies (guess what, AJ is not allergic). The restaurant is very pet friendly and dogs are treated like any other paying customer (heck even the homeless lady was given a drink when we were there). Needless to say the place has a very casual atmosphere.
This is the I am hungry and you are crazy if I am going to pause so you can take a picture of my hamburger look.
My Kangaroo burger didn't look much different than an ordinary burger. Just less greasy.
As I mentioned I did not really notice all the pets because despite the menu being mostly hamburgers (did you expect anything else), it is surprisingly very long (not to mention exotic). After doing a quick round of “eenie,miney,moe” I settled on trying the Kangaroo burger (the Kobe burger was a close second). Denise got the Antelope burger. Then finally again unexpectedly AJ wanted fruit (I guess puppies make you healthy).
I know I said you should expect the unexpected in Palm Springs, but I have to say exotic kangaroo meat was not what I expected. I was expecting something wierd and exotic, but it wasn’t. Although I think I liked it better than a regular hamburger. It was less greasy, had no tendons at all in it, and I later found out was high protein and low in fat (probably why it wasn’t greasy). If you were out for a more exotic taste a better pick would of been the antelope burger, but again there I wasn’t surprised too much. It tasted just like deer to me. I realize that is exotic to most people, but I had a friend once who used to hunt a lot, so I used to get a lot of it. All said though the food was really good and I especially enjoyed finishing Denise’s onion rings.
All the bills come in high heel shoes. Denise tried but it didn't fit her.
At the end of our meal I was ready to try one of their deep fried snicker bars with a side of ice cream, but Denise said she was full and wanted to go out for a date…
When we left Palm Springs Denise said she wanted to have a date. SO what was I supposed to do?? I went and got her a date! Now most people when they go out to the desert in California think of Hadley’s because of it’s convient location on the 10 freeway (that plus it is right next to a casino and a huge outlet mall). Hadley’s are good, but those however in the know (and yes we are that cool), go to Shields Date Farm in Indio.
Like we could miss it.
Shields Date farm is off Hwy-111 which is the old highway that used to go through the desert before I-10 bisected it. If you are interested in visiting Shields Date Farms you can get there by starting on I-10 but you will need to eventually need to pull onto Hwy-111. You will know you are getting close because you will start to see a bunch of dorky signs (yes, there is nothing like a good road side tourist trap).
It's really hard to miss the signs on the way there.
When you pull up to the Shields Date Farm in Indio, California you will immediately see a giant medieval knight encouraging you to see a movie called “The Romance and Sex Life of the Date.” As scandalous as the title seems, the film is far from scandalous. To me it was nothing but a 15 minute commercial, but I did at least learn that there are different types of dates (up until now I thought they were all the same) and that the blonde date is actually a California native (I guess blondes really do come from California).
Despite the movie these dates were very chaste.
After the movie you can go look through the shop. There are many things to see there. What was amazing to me was the variety of products sold that were made out of dates. I kept saying to myself “who knew?!” They have this bar where they have all the different dates out on display and you can try as many as you want. My personal favorites were the medjool dates.
I ended up buying this sampler back of blondes, coconut covered dates, and medjool dates
The very last thing you will want to do is buy yourself a date shake. When we went there they cost us about $3.75 per shake and were pretty big. They are made by using date crystals (whatever that is) and vanilla ice cream. They are really creamy and good on a hot desert day (which is apparently every day in Indio). They kind of have a carmel taste to them.
