Back from So-Cal

It's taken me a week to get over our 4 day family getaway to San Diego. I would use the term 'vacation', but it wouldn't be accurate. Always fun to have a change of scenery for sure and we were fortunate to have the chance to stay at a friend's home on the island of Coronado ... beautiful place. There's a large military base there; I'm told it's where the Navy Seals train. Sure are a lot of hard bodies jogging along the beach in Navy emblazoned shorts ... nice. I'll leave it at that.

My favorite was the Wild Animal Park about a half hour or so outside the city. Picture African safari on a smaller scale. The animals actually roam free! Visitors tour the place in an open train-like vehicle. We also checked out LegoLand (oy), the San Diego Zoo and the SS Midway (aircraft carrier decommissioned after the Gulf War). Man, the aircraft carrier is a massive object - the length of 4 football fields we were told. At the zoo, my favorite spot was the nursery where we saw days old infant chimpanzees. They were swaddled in blankets, lying in cribs and blinking up at us (through the glass) with big saucer chimpanzeey eyes (they were premature). Adorable and creepy at the same time. Yep - no half assed tourists were we - we did it all. We weren't so lucky weather-wise but it could have been worse. The one afternoon it rained, we hit 'The Bee Movie' - brain child of Jerry Seinfeld. He should stick to stand-up or sitcoms - this movie sucked. Even my kids were getting antsy.

I can't not mention the oil spill. I could see the tanker from my neighbor's window (there' s a tree blocking the sight line from my place). Amazing how quickly that stuff does damage. Poor wildlife. Lots of finger pointing now. But I took a little heart from the recent article in the SF Chronicle showing the first batch of birds that had been rescued and cleaned off, being released into the wild. Apparently at one point, there were too many volunteers who turned up for training on how to clean beaches and birds. You gotta love that about this place - I do.

Still on the topic of birds, I hope everyone is getting geared up for Thanksgiving. I (along with my family and mother -in-law) will be dining at the home of a very dear friend who oddly enough loathes turkey. She's had numerous offers from excellent cooks to bring the bird, but to no avail. Under no circumstances is a bird of any kind to cross her doorstep for Thanksgiving. Sigh. I think we're going to have a beef tenderloin or lamb of some kind. Whatever it is, it'll be good. But it does feel weird to eat something other than turkey on Thanksgiving. I guess I'm a traditionalist. Perhaps she had a bad run-in with a renegade turkey up in Toronto from where she hails ...

A few days ago there was a list in the paper of 18 places around the city (restaurants, markets and food services) that offer ready-to-serve Thanksgiving feasts. Some of them are fairly delicious sounding. Like Bi-Rite offers the bird, creamy crab bisque, mashed potatoes, wild mushroom celery and bread stuffing, porcini mushroom and Marsala gravy, cranberry-orange relish and pumpkin and apple pie. (No, I'm not moon lighting for Bi-Rite). Imagine just opening a big box for Thanksgiving instead of cooking for a gazillion hours. Although I suppose that's half the fun, right? Or is it? What's the other half of the fun ... the dishes that you have to pile up in the next room because you can't get them all in the kitchen? Guess I'm not in the Thanksgiving spirit just yet.

I'll push off now - time to check on my daughter who at some point over the weekend developed the stomach flu ... poor wee thing. All fevered up and tossing her cookies. Well, no doubt your night will be better than mine. Nighty-night from the Dogilicious infirmary.