Merry May Miscellany

We'll continue the gradual recollection of the European adventures in due time and some other past adventures besides, but it's time to get caught up with the nearly-now.

On Monday, Melch and Ra got together for some cake decorating.  I helped by eating some of the frosting.

I'm pretty proud of this cake.  Of all the cakes that I haven't helped to make, it stands out as being the most recent.

On Tuesday, "Cirque Dreams: Pop Goes the Rock" was coming to the Granada.  The Granada is awesome, anything with the word "cirque" in it is bound to be awesome, rock is awesome, and pop isn't all that bad, so why not?

Cirque, pop and rock?  Turns out it was exactly what it said it was.

Embarking on the pop-rocking circuit were myself, my special lady friend, Oura, Ra and Eric.  We didn't just hop right in though.  Watching a show is like running a race.  You don't just show up and sit down for a few hours.  You have to warm up first.  Warm-ups were held at the nearby Tupelo Junction, where I'd never been.  Review: I'd warm up there again.

Oura and Ra warming up

Melch was born ready, but came to warm-ups anyway

Once we were good and limber, it was off to the Granada to... wait for a bit because we were early.

We were ready for them, but they weren't ready for us!

After taking some time posing, we made a quick trip to Starbucks for the others to get some emergency provisions.  I'm not a coffee drinker, but I'm always happy to take a look at the kinda-interesting-but-not-interesting-enough-to-get music CDs and such that they have in addition to the drinks.  After that it was back to the Granada where the doors had opened.  Which was good because boy did we all need to check our phones by then.

I'm just barely old enough to remember waiting for things without a smart phone,  but I've already  forgotten.

 There was eventually a show or something, but I don't have any photos of that.  You'll have to see it for yourself.

The rock went pop mid-week.  The rest of the week had programming, ultimate on the beach, some Arch Rock Fish happy hour with Chris, Tina and Vadim and which I have no photos of, and some more ultimate.

Saturday morning was a normal beach ultimate game for me, but Melch and Ra went glass blowing!

I told Melch that I was behind her new trade 100% so long as she can make me something from which I might consume whiskey.

Saturday dinner was at Oura's, where her mother was in town and some awesome Cambodian hot plate preparations were on hand.  My only regret was that I had but one stomach to give to the cause.

Epic East Asian Eats

Saturday was scone baking which I hear was awesome.  Melch and Chris manned the kitchen battle stations on that one while I helped the dog defend our bed from loneliness.  I don't get up too early on Sundays.  My Sunday sloth means no scone photos, but I can assure you that they were delicious.

I eventually had to get out of bed.  For starters, while I might sleep through scone MAKING, I wasn't about to sleep through scone EATING.  Beyond that, I had to call my mother for mother's day before it got to be late on the east coast, and I had errands to run.

Modeling lady's blouses wasn't on the list for our CostCo trip, but who can ever go to CostCo without straying from the list at least a little bit?

CostCo didn't have the the GoPro that I was interested in (more on that later, I hope), but they did have Cuddle Groups.

Cuddle Groups seem awesome, but I decided not to get one since I was worried that the sequins from my new blouse might get caught on the 3 piece woven cuddly goodness.

CostCo isn't something that you attempt to tackle alone.  We hopped a ride with Ra since Melch needed to pick her car up from Ra's place anyway.  After the shopping was done, we went back to Ra's place and joined her and Eric for some Sunday dinner at the nearby Tee-Off surf-and-turf joint.  Once again, the weekend food schedule was costly in dollars and calories.  On the other hand, that's the stuff that adventures are made of.  You don't see my boring weekday fare making these virtual pages, do you?

Tee-off always gives generous portions, but you can't tell from the photo because I've been enjoying said portions... generously.

Smartphone LED flashes do away with the red-eye problem by making eyes an unsettling white instead.

In summary, another boring, terrible and otherwise unremarkable week in Santa Barbaria.