3-12-09 Thursday (It's All About The Food)

Last night Jim and I planned out the next legs of our itinerary. Eventually I'll post it. Basically it includes Vegas, Death Valley, Yosemite, and the Grand Canyon. Jim's Mom and stepdad are going to fly out and see the Grand Canyon with us. It's going to be a cool trip!

In my absence, Jim picked up a GoSanDiego book. We're thinking about doing another GO Card like we did in Seattle and San Francisco. I've looked through the book and marked the pages of the attractions I'd be willing to "pay" for. There's a difference between what I'd pay for versus what I'd go do/see because it's free or included. Understand? Great. Now it's Jim turn to go through the book.

While Jim is doing taxes, I'll tell you about my uncle Alan's funeral. The family had decided on a unique service for him. Perhaps even unconventional. He had several loves in this world, Barbra Streisand, cleaning, and rabbits. He was cremated, and his urn sat on display amongst an easel displaying a cherished autographed Streisand photo, a bucket with his favorite cleaning supplies and another easel with an 18 X 24 inch memorial photo (printed at Kinkos) that my cousin Barbara and I created on my laptop.

We produced smaller versions of the memorial photo, rolled them, tied with ribbon and placed in a basket for visitors to take. Barbara crafted home made chocolate bunny pops and set them at the sign in table along side the basket of memorial photos. I also placed my laptop on the sign in table and had it loop play a slide show of photos from last year's 60th birthday bash. I burned a CD with 2 songs. "Wind Beneath My Wings" played before the service started and Barbra Streisand's "Ave Maria" for the end of the service. I must say, all looked and went well. Below is cousin Barbara from New Yawk:

I've gained quite a bit of weight since being on the road. I gained more while being in Florida for 3 weeks. I'm gonna blame my cousin pictured above. She makes chocolate for a living and constantly made goodies. Below is a picture of just 1 out of the MANY trays of chocolates she made. Trust me, she made a lot. She covered a lot in chocolate. Graham crackers (my favorite), bananas, marshmallows, peanuts, raisins, strawberries, and pretzels.

Looks good, doesn't it? You're damn right, and it was. Some was dipped in caramel and then in chocolate. White chocolate, milk and dark. Even some mint flavored and raspberry flavored were created and of course eaten. Some of the marshmallows were dipped in chocolate and then rolled in coconut. It's a good thing she lives in New York, otherwise the family would be overweight and diabetic.

It's amazing I gained weight while in Florida. There's so many foods I was missing that I didn't even get the chance to have! Here was my list of things I wanted.

Publix sub = Yep, a Boar's Head Italian and boy was it yummy.
KFC or Publix fried chicken = I only got to have 1 Publix chicken tender.
Hot wings = nope.
Chinese from Jackies = nope.
Baby Back Ribs from Rib City = Yep!
Pancakes from Perkins = Nope.
Laurie's kickass lasagna = Yeppers.
Mom's tacos = nope.
Mom's chicken cutlets = nope.

It was a simple list, but only half accomplished. Imagine if I had all that I wanted... the airline would have charged me more.