CAROL ANN! CAROL ANN!!!

Here's Candace with Carol Ann, one of our very best friends. Carol and I have been friends for at least 30 years. You don't often find friends that last a lifetime.

Carol and I used to teach in adjoing classrooms. We had a lot of fun. Check out the Junior Mint story in an earlier Blog if you want the real story on what teaching was like back in the day.

In those days teaching was fun unlike today where teachers are lock-stepped into No Child Left Behind teaching standards. No Child Left Behind really should be called All the Fun in Teaching is Left Behind.

When our kids lock us up in the old folks home, Carol and I will be there together. We have it all mapped out. We've got to have fun in the old folks home. Isn't life about having fun?

Here's what we'll be doing - Carol and I love to organize "stuff"

There will be wheel chair races, there will be diaper filling contests, there will be weird noise contests (and I will win every one of them hands down), there will be finger whistling contests (Carol Ann will win that one every time - no one can finger whistle like Carol Ann), we'll put on our verion of the Gong Show (I'll be the guy with the paper bag on his head telling jokes), there will be nurse stare down contests, there will be mush eating contests, there will be break out of the rest home - truck on down to the bar in your wheel chair and get shit faced on Tequila contests, there will be contests to see who barfs the much (measured in lapfulls) on the wheel chair trek back to the old folks home, there will be whistle while you eat your mush and saltine crackers contest, there will be throw your teeth in the glass contests - and there will be a lot more contests that we'll think up later.

Heck, it will be one fun time in the old folks home, right Carol Ann?

It will be lots of fun being in the old folks home with Carol Ann. Right Carol Ann? Is there an echo in here?

Several weeks ago we were invited to a birthday party for another dear friend who lives in the wine country and where we used to live. It was a big birthday for her. Lots of people were invited to bring in the big year with her.

We decided to spend time with Carol Ann before the party. What better way to spend time but to spend it out to dinner.

Living in Cow Town the idea of haute cuisine is dinner at Olive Garden or Pizza Hut. When you're used to the fine dining, the five star restaurants in wine country, Cow Town haute cuisine does not cut it. Both of us miss the dining experiences that we became accustomed to during the time that we lived in the wine country.

On this night I chose a special restaurant in a little town close to where we used to live. Because I have been deprived of food items not found in Cow Town, I was going to have it all and eat it all.

We arrived at the restaurant, had a drink at the bar with the what is hip wine country crowd and was seated for dinner a half an hour later.

There were tough decisions to make. What to eat? What to eat? It all looked good.

My choices were: First the oysters, then the French onion soup topped with sourdough bread and cheese. Then I think that I had a salad but I'm not sure. About that time the large martini glass of Blue Saphire was starting to take ahold of my consciousness. Or was it about the time that the fine bottle of wine was uncorked?

For an entree Carol had scallops, Candace the fish stew and I the coq au vin. I took pictures of what they had . . . don't they look scrumptious?

I had to have the chocolate cake for desert.

As Candace and Carol rolled me out the door of the restaurant I think I went oink, oink, oink all the way to the car. I think I sinned that night.

Holy macaroni and cheese! Carol, please be the designated driver? HELP! I've eaten too much and I can't get behind the steering wheel!

Isn't gluttony one of the 7 sins? Or have they upped the number of sins to 10? I forget. Maybe I should check into gluttony rehab . . .


We were 90 minutes late to the party. After being scolded for our tardiness, we mingled with the 60 plus guest, many of whom have been our friends over the years. What a great time it was, well worth the 5 hour drive from Cow Town.

We frequently talk about moving back to wine country. Most of our friends are there. We love the climate, the restaurants, the festivals, the wine tasting and the politics.

But we've been priced out of the housing market. A 1,600 square foot tract home on a 60x100 lot we bought new for $120,000 in the mid 1980's now sells for $675,000. Ouch! Our 1985 home is not worth that kind of money.

I guess we could park our trailer at a trailer park and venture back and forth between Cow Town and Wine Country. Then we'd be trailer trash. Nuts. I can't do that.

I hate to think of spending the rest of my days in Cow Town and not being able to enjoy the food and wine that I love so much. If we were to return to Wine Country I'd sin most every day of the week - that glutton thing.

Geeze, what a way to go.