Apizza Scholls pissed me off - again!

How does the saying go? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me?
That is how I felt on Saturday night when the cow and I tried a second time in recent months to eat at our favorite pizza place on Hawthorne in the SE of Portland.
Apizza Scholls has fabulous thin crust pies. We have eaten their several times but the last two we have failed to secure a spot at the coveted table. Last year the eatery was named the best pizza place of the year and was featured on Anthony Bourdain's - No reservations. Which leads me to my gripe: Apizza Scholls DOES NOT MAKE ENOUGH DOUGH TO STAY OPEN UNTIL THEIR POSTED 9:30 CLOSING HOUR. I was fooled once by the idea that a business can stay in business by not satisfying their client base but when we walked in at 8:45 on a Saturday night to be greeted by a handwritten sign that said, "we are not taking anymore names" AKA we did not make enough dough, my days being fooled were OVER.
Arrivederci, Apizza Scholls.

Spoiled?

OK - so you can say I am a bit spoiled. I flew to Sacramento last week to visit mia sorella and venture on to where my parents live in Woodlake, CA. My sister and I were planning the 3 1/2 hour drive from Sac to Woodlake when the Debonair gentleman from Woodlake (AKA my Dad) offered to fly up to Rancho Murieta and pick us up - which turns a 3 1/2 hour trek into a 1 hour fly by. I have named his air service "Go-Mo!"

I am not the most stable passenger when it comes to flying but I will say that I am much better than in the past. On many occasions, I had to sit with my head between my legs and talk myself out of vomiting. The flight from Rancho to Woodlake was going quite smoothly until the tower in Fresno came on and said "you have a plane coming straight at you 2 miles ahead, Turn Left NOW." Chris made a sharp bank left and I swear every part of my insides was in my mouth.

I had a great weekend. Both sisters have pools and there was not a cloud in the sky for the entire time I was in Cali. "Just the girls" went to a great Thai lunch and off to get our toes done. We sat outside every night while my sister and her husband qued up some great salmon tacos and grilled vegetables oh yeah there was endless pitchers of mojitos also.

I am now back in beautiful Portland ready from a great summer. Temperatures here are hitting the high 80's next week just in time for 4th of July!

Solstice in Sacramento

Hey all,
I am on a mini-vacation for a few days visiting family in hotter-than-hell Sacramento and Woodlake, California. Just wanted to let people know that I have spent my last two days drinking Mai Tai's by the pool, lounging in the sunshine (in the morning before it gets too hot) and drinking wine on the veranda with a bit of goat cheese brie, crackers and tampenade. Heading down to Visalia-Woodlake area today to enjoy the rest of the weekend. Pictures will follow when I get home on Monday and settled. Have a great Solstice weekend.

School's out for SUMMER!

As many of you know, I have not been fully satisfied with my current teaching position at Aloha High School. Right now, on this final day of the year I am very excited. Let me give you some background so you can feel my grief.

1. AHS was built in the late 60's. The architect believed it to be an energy saving mechanism to abstain from WINDOWS. That's right - 90% of the classrooms have absolutely NO window.

2. Fake walls- Said architect also believed it to be a good idea to have classrooms hold up to 90 students (have you every seen a pack of high school thugs walking down the street - do you want 90 kids in the same location? EVER?) The answer to making the classrooms smaller were fake walls. Yes sirree. Those accordion crap walls that allows you to push them back like in a bad dance hall. This makes instruction very interesting when you have teachers/students on opposite fake walls that can't control their volume.

3. The office in which I am to do the majority of my work is filled with 12 desks. Put 12 Social Studies teachers in a room and very little work is getting accomplished. Also, I should add that these people are quite messy. Stacks of books from the 1960's still line the walls.

I just want to say HAPPY SUMMER to all of you who have listened to my grief throughout the year. I will be a much happier person and a better blogger in the months to come.

Carmel by the Sea = Cold

Memorial day weekend the cow and I headed down to Carmel to meet our travel buddies from the OC. We converged from the North and South onto San Jose about an hour apart. We grabbed a rental car and headed off to the Carmel Valley for some wine tasting. The marine layer quickly burned off to expose a beautiful clear day albeit a bit chilly. We had a fabulous time at Bernardus - the wines are magnifique. We then strolled over to a place called Chateau Sinnet- this place was STRANGE. The winery had way too many varietals of wine but the most interesting aspect was the guys behind the counter. They were on DRUGS. They literally told me to "drink it like I was in college!" When one of us had not finished our tasting he just poured a different wine on top of the original and said, "drink up." We were amused and petrified at the same time. The cow and serrach had to step outside to laugh and when they did the two ladies got hit on- YUCK.
My favorite place was Georis winery. This place had a great garden setting. They serve a flight of wines for a fee and pair it with cheese, bread and crackers. We sat outside and lulled away the afternoon in the sunshine before heading off to the Cold Carmel by the Sea.
We ate and strolled the quaint beachside town and took a hike through Point Lobos where we saw Sea otter and seals having a great time along the bay.