A Christmas dinner minor dilemma

This year we picked names out of a hat to exchange one Christmas present with each other... in past years everyone bought several presents for everyone…this year things are a little tight, and many family members won't be here...so the family decided to change gift-giving a little…
This year only two of our daughters will be here with their children, the others living out of town or state and can not join us…a real bummer it is!
My mother and our cousin Gabrielle, who lives in the ‘home’ with her, will join us as will my second cousin Anthony with his Pug dog Annabelle, a real beauty!…you know how we all love dogs…Annabelle is housebroken, or so says Anthony…the slightest little tinkle in the house and I’ll have to ask Gina to take care of both Anthony and Annabelle…not sure what or if she’ll do it but I think she will be delighted to help…Anthony and Annabelle sort of look like each other and just that will drive Gina nuts…

The dilemma:
we’re having the party on Christmas day around 4:00 pm…in the past it's been held on Christmas morning with a huge home made breakfast buffet that everyone enjoyed while opening up presents…and a few Bloody Mary's...this time some of our guests still want to have breakfast served…OK… should breakfast foods be served along with afternoon food, or should it be called brunch or very late afternoon brunch or what? Will you help and send your ideas for the event name and menu suggestions…Bloody Mary's are OK to serve any time...

Once upon a time...

The other day I was reading blogs about concerts Allison and Julie have been to lately...it made me look back semi-recently and several decades ago and thought about some my wife and I went to as well as with the girls

Elvis at Forum in Inglewood with mother-in-law and our family…was mother-in-law’s favorite person in the world…for sure I wasn't her fave...she once called me a whop!... she had Elvis clothes, plates (that were hung on the wall alongside Norman Rockwell plates), books, records and albums (I think all the kids we had at the time came along)…it was when Elvis was getting on the chubby side…

B.B. King…enjoyed him in Costa Mesa with Leesa and Jonathon…he IS the King

Ray Charles…many times, twice in early sixties in Anaheim at a theater in-the-round that’s no longer there; at the L.A.Palladium a couple of years later, and a few times more…I loved this man’s singing since my teenage-hood in Montreal…I hardly remember those days except my folks kept on slamming doors shut while I was listening to him…they were not hip to Rock 'n Roll and the Blues

Dr. John… I love this guy’s piano playing and music…we saw him at least three times, once with Debby, Sarah and Sunny at Claremont College and Sunny danced her head off in front of the stage...

Rufus Wainwright… at the Hollywood Bowl with Sunny, Sarah and Debby…picnic before the show; a grassy spot in the parking lot ; I think we had cinnamon rolls and wine…Sunny loved Rufus and could sing just about all his songs…we’d play him all day long at the old office when Sarah and Debby worked there…Sunny was a baby and came to work every day until she went to school…she could ‘click and drag’ a computer at three and get on line at Barbie.com, knew how to color Barbie’s dresses and run prints by herself…

Neil Diamond… years ago at Universal I think, and had to go with Dann and Gail…he was their all time best entertainer...I tried to forget almost everything about this concert and I’m over it!...was decades ago and Dann bought the tickets…lotsa strange people there…

James Taylor…still the greatest…treated by our daughters at Hollywood Bowl…

Peter Frampton,”Show(ed) me the way”…at the Forum in Inglewood, lots of pressure from Julie to see him…she still loves him…saw him on the tube recently…I relate to him...there’s something about old bald guys…

Elton John…two or three times…the first time, we had tickets to Universal Studios with all the girls, got to the front of the line and discovered the tickets were for the previous night!!! (Hell, Shit and Damn!) No problem…got in the box office line and bought better seats than we would have had the night before…was an unforgettable, exciting and expensive evening…we ate bread, beans and lotsa pasta until next pay day…

Thanks to Allison for this blog idea...

Lessons learned in early married life… I don’t remember life before marriage…

You get what you pay for…maybe I learned this one a little late in life…
Always be nice and smile… kids are worth the trouble
If you lie make it a white one or have a good memory
Learn to love the growing gaps in song, music and dress
Love the ones you’re with…
Tell your kids: “you gotta dance with the one who brung you”…
You can’t pick your relatives...
Drive cars you love…keep one or two for later years when you won’t be able to afford it …unless you can’t afford to insure seven vehicles…
Life’s not always fair…you got to wash or dry dishes or load or unload the dishwasher..
Register to vote …otherwise don’t talk to us about politics…
Have short, mid and long range plans
Don’t be afraid of change…get used to it…change is good …
Traveling is a good and happy thing for a family…
Motor homes are the best way to travel when your girls have to go to the bathroom every five minutes…
Girls have to wash their hair every day even when skiing or traveling…
Teach your kids to drive a stick-shift car…
No matter how many kids you have you need a ‘pool-guy’ and a gardener…
If you want it done right wash your own car…
Develop a sense of humor… laugh a lot…
Take lots of pictures especially of your second, third, fourth and fifth kid…
Regional parks are a great place to picnic on Sunday afternoons…KFC, home made potato salad, chips and cokes…bring balls, bats, fishing poles…go with relatives and grandparents…take lots of pictures…
Visit your parents and grandparents often…

DESPERATELY SEEKING...

When I’m at work, or driving around Riverside or Lake Forest, or watching TV or even playing golf I look and see literally dozens of topics I could blog. I go to bed fairly early and when I wake up and stay in bed for a little while I think of a hundred things to write…I have a steno book at the office in which I record calls during the day and write a list of things to do…in the back of the book I keep blog ideas for future use…today I came up empty…I guess I could keep a notebook on the nightstand along by the alarm and light…maybe I’ll do that, and maybe keep one in my car…a good idea…

I could write about what I had for dinner last night or the great lunch I had today schmoozing some new clients on a project in China related to the Olympics next year, what clothes or Christmas gifts I bought or will buy, or photo the beauty of the last golf course I played…if Julie played her favorite club would be her camera…I could post pictures of my grandkids, or tell you how my Mom is doing in the ‘home’…or tell you how my golf lessons are coming along, my drives, chips and putts...or what I read in the latest Golf Digest to help lower my scores…or tell you the latest on the Golf Channel…

I could write about Dancing with the Stars... Thankful that it’s over but happy about the winners, but kind of sad that I had to miss too many episodes of ‘House’, my favorite show…Dancing is over and tonight I can watch what I want…I’ve thought about scanning some of my better projects for you to see but never have time to do it…our latest and greatest project is for a Specific Plan for a site in Rialto, that’s in San Berdoo County…some excellent graphics trying to illustrate how beautiful it could be on such a horrible site…a site difficult to grow plant material because it’s too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter…a good location for Pines, Oaks, Sycamores and Poplars…

I could write for help on how to include my favorite bloggers’ addresses on my blogs…OK, I'm asking...

Thanks

IT BEGAN AS…

spending an hour or so yesterday cleaning up my Word files of a ton of junk attempting to make my computer run a little faster. It didn’t help at all. I'm writing Santa for a new computer. Wedged into a gazillion files I found this letter I wrote almost 10 years ago to a consultant who moonlighted for my firm. He was a semi-family friend and we played golf often:

July 7, 1998

Dear Ed,

Enclosed is a check for your last invoice.

It goes against my better judgement to pay you for this invoice, which represents time you spent correcting errors you made on the Fiesta Park project in Fontana. But you are a crying whiner and loser who will badmouth me to everyone you encounter. So I am paying you to keep your fat mouth shut and get you finally out of my work life...amf

Based on our conversation on the phone the other day, regarding work you performed for me in the past six or eight months, thanks for weekends and late nights you put in, but what I have to say is something you already know: how disappointed I was when you were preparing your golf vacation, and dropped me and my work and deadlines so you could work for people with smaller projects who would pay you faster. Talk about unprofessional. Leave me hanging like that. Your professional commitment and sense of responsibility disappeared as well, when you were moving last year and went through a lot of personal problems, using my office as yours, my fax, phone, long distance…………………………………………you cheap shit.

In our telephone conversation last week, we talked about the Fiesta Park project, and you said something about the responsibility you displayed was equal to the hourly rate you were making. You’re an idiot. What a dumb thing to say. What would you charge if I ever employed you in the future (which I never will) to work and be committed, responsible and professional? Why not ask for an increase in your hourly rate? Why didn’t you ever take me up on offers to do contract work for a flat fee instead of on an hourly basis? I asked you time and time again. But you seem to prefer working at hourly rates. Because you are irresponsible, lazy, and stupid and cheat about hours you worked at home. You meathead...

You know very little about grading, and only a little bit about irrigation design. Certainly not enough to have attempted to do the Park for Fiesta. You were in over your head and knew it. I wish I had known it...................................................................You miserable shithead.

You’re a good designer and draftsman on easy projects with fast turnarounds and fast pay. On large, long lasting projects you don’t display much excitement, commitment and responsibility. You’re a loser. It’s your shortcoming, the reason you will forever be second rate. You’re never going anywhere, nobody likes you, and you’re lazy, fat and happy the way you are. Good for you.

Your word means nothing, you have no honor or integrity, and you are an irresponsible and unaccountable man... and you cheat at golf, welch on golf bets and nobody likes you.

Have a nice day.

Pete

p.s. I never sent it to him!

But it felt so good writing this letter and I certainly love reading it over and over.

I changed some of the more colorful expressions for today...

OLD AGE COMES AT A BAD TIME

If only I had thought a little more on my children's names at their birth and if they had been boys instead of gorgeous and beautiful little angel girls, and believe me when sayI love the names we chose, I might have named them some of the following very cool ‘little boy’ Italian names:
Angelo
Domenic
Carmine
Vito
Rocco
Vinnie
Louie
And of course, Tony

Or, had I been botanically inclined, as I am today, I may have given the cute little angel girls some of the following very cool 'little girl' names:
Lily
Daisy
Rosey
Jasmine
Iris
Ivy
Olive
Sweet Pea
RubyBegonia
Ginger

Do you think my sweet and a little older beautiful angels can comment on which name they may have preferred... huh?

DUSTED OFF AND FADED

Phrases / words gone from today, but may be back...

• wishy-washy
• hocus-pocus
• hanky-panky
• willie-nillie
• artsy-fartsy
• riff-raff
• doohickey
• goody-goody
• razzle-dazzle
• fuddy-duddy
• helter-skelter
• nitty-gritty
• jeepers-creepers
• hotsie-totsie
• abra-cadabra
• mumbo-jumbo
• mish-mash

You can insert any of the above to make your sentences...well...different...