Merry Christmas!!!!!

Merry Christmas from crazy California!

(my neighbor's cactus)

Melting Pot Cooking - Hot Dog Maki, Weenie Royale, and SPAM Musubi

This picture just in from Betty in Portland:

Great picture!! And great timing because it reminds me of a fascinating report I heard on NPR a couple of days ago.

The report is a Kitchen Sisters episode on the impact of the internment on Japanese American cooking. The episode is called "Weenie Royale" and is named after a dish still served and eaten today by many people.

The prisoners in the internment camps, forced to eat what was provided to them, cooked weenies, bologna and many other things in ways that made the odd and foreign food more palatable and comforting to them. You can read the episode here:

Weenie Royale: Food and the Japanese Internment.

Weenie Royale Recipe:

Ingredients:

1/2 white or yellow onions, chopped

1 tablespoon soy sauce

2 hot dogs

3 eggs

Cooked white rice

Saute the chopped onions with a tablespoon of soy sauce and cook at medium to high heat until they are caramelized. While you wait for the onions to caramelize, cut the hot dogs in julienne slices and beat the eggs. After the onions are caramelized, add the hot dogs and cook for 2-3 minutes. Then add the beaten eggs to the onions and hot dogs until the eggs are done. Serve on top of cooked white rice.

Speaking of odd cultural combinations, we go to Kauai in a few days and I can guarantee that we will see a lot of this:

Spam musubi is one of Hawaii's favorite snacks. Spam was introduced to Hawaiians by American soldiers who were stationed there. The Hawaiians did what most cultures do when introduced to a new and unusual food...they made it uniquely theirs.

Ornaith Murphy - SF Bay Area mystery

Today is the six-year anniversary of the mysterious disappearance of Bay Area single-handed sailor Ornaith Murphy. This is what the Oakland police department web site has to say about the mystery:

"Ornaith was last seen in Oakland on December 16, the day after her estranged husband's disappearance. She owned a 1980 39-foot fiberglass auxillary sailboat named Sola III. The vessel has dark blue circular emblems with one gray swirl painted on both of her sides. Ornaith normally berthed the boat at the Oakland Marina in the Jack London Square area of the city. The vessel disappeared on the same day as Ornaith; it has never been located. The boat was captured on a video surveillance camera pulling out of the Oakland Marina at 8:36 p.m. on December 15. It had about one week's worth of food on it when it disappeared, and no safety or foul weather gear.

Kieran and Ornaith planned to meet on the day of his disappearance to discuss legal issues. Ornaith was seen working on her boat that day. A man fitting Kieran's description was seen near the boat on the evening of his disappearance, but it was never established that the man was in fact Kieran. Witnesses reported hearing loud banging sounds coming from near the Sola III the evening he disappeared. The witnesses could not be sure that the sounds were gunshots, however.

The next day, December 16, Ornaith called her niece from the Sola III. She said she was in a marina in Berkeley. Ornaith's niece invited her to breakfast, but Ornaith declined the invitation. She has never been seen or heard from again.

Ornaith and Kieran are described as a witty, intelligent couple who enjoy reading classic literature. They amassed a small fortune through real estate speculation and have two sons together. Their marriage crumbled after Kieran had an extra-marital affair. Kieran was living in an apartment in the Nob Hill area of San Francisco when he disappeared; Ornaith resided with her niece near Jack London Square in Oakland, near her boat. Both were the defendants of a lawsuit at the time of their disappearance; one of the buildings they owned had caught fire and a child had been badly burned.

Ornaith's family reported her as a missing person from Oakland. The estranged couple may be traveling together aboard the vessel. Another theory is that Ornaith shot Kieran and committed suicide shortly afterwards. There has been no evidence to support this, however, beyond the noises heard by witnesses.

Kieran was supposed to vacation in Mexico shortly after he disappeared. He and Ornaith's sons say it would be uncharacteristic of them to leave without warning. The Sola III was not equipped for an extended cruise and Kieran did not know how to sail it. The United States Coast Guard has been involved in the search for Kieran and Ornaith, but no evidence has been discovered. Neither of the couple's credit cards or bank accounts have been used since their disappearances. Their cases remain unsolved, but their disappearances are considered suspicious."

Ornaith was very well-respected by the local (and international) sailing community for her able seamanship and her ability to handle tough situations. She was known for assisting other sailors in trouble and for her single-handed trip around Cape Horn where she lost her rudder but managed to pull through. I only met Ornaith once or twice but my friend Synthia was a pretty good friend of Ornaith's. Ornaith was instrumental in Synthia's own single-handed sailing career and she went so far as to loan Synthia her Cal 39 Sola III so that Synthia could sail it in her first single-handed Farallones race. I was on the race deck for Synthia's finish and proudly watched Synthia and Sola III cross the finish line.

Sometimes I think of Ornaith and wonder what happened to her and her soon-to-be-ex husband Keiran, will we ever know what happened to them? I suspect this mystery is one that may never be solved.

Back on the blog

It has been a long time since I've posted, and here are the reasons:

1) My dear father died and I felt I should do a post on him, but every time I tried to write something it upset me too much, so for now I think I'll remain mute on the subject until it feels right.

2) I started a new job and I have to commute. The commute there is fine, but the commute home is dreadful and it's pointless to leave before 6:00, 6:30 is even better. Compared to my prior job where, including my commute, my entire work day was 8:15 - 5:15 (9 hours total), my current entire work day, including commute, is approximately 12 hours, give or take a half hour. Blech.

3) I've been addicted to two Mexican telenovelas. These shows have a life span but they are on every weeknight. The second one just ended, but it was replaced by a new one, Pasión, that's even better. It's so good that I don't fast-forward through it like I did the other one. Pasión stars Fernando Colunga. He is my all time favorite telenovela star and in Pasión he plays a pirate, so basically this show is irresistable. Do you blame me?...

And my favorite:

I wanted to name my new boat 'Fernando Colunga' so I could say things like "I need to spend the weekend cleaning Fernando Colunga's bottom," or "Fernando Colunga rides much smoother when I keep a firm hand on the tiller," or "Have you noticed that Fernando Colunga has the tallest mast in the marina?" Alas, my boat partners voted against me.

I love Johnny Depp and I love musicals.

In addition to his apparently limitless acting ability the rumor is he can sing too! In the soon-to-be-released movie musical Sweeney Todd, director Tim Burton decided that all the singing would be done by the actors, non-professional singers. This approach worked for Buffy the Vampire Slayer so why not Sweeney Todd?

Check out a preview of the delights to come HERE.

My favorite Depp movies, i.e. the ones that vividly stick in my mind even years later, are Edward Scissorhands, Dead Man, and Chocolat.

Johnny did not sing his songs in the movie Crybaby (directed by John Waters). He did a great job of lip-syncing however. The actual singing was done by James Intveld who, coincidentally, looked a lot like Johnny Depp:

Sweeney Todd is scheduled to open on December 21st. Is it a date??

galapagos underwater

Now that we are on our way to winter I can't help but think back on my wonderful vacation to South America back in August. Diving the Galapagos Islands was chilly, rugged and challenging but wow, was it ever worth it! What the Galapagos Islands lack in lush reefs and walls it makes up in nutrient-rich currents and unusual creatures...

Our home for a week was the luxurious dive vessel the SV Sky Dancer:

The best diving was at the remote Darwin's Arch:

We went to Darwin in search of the gigantic Whale Sharks that migrate there every year to feed. After leaving the zodiacs and submerging we kicked to a rocky underwater outcropping to wait for these gentle giants.

First we were delighted to see a school of Spotted Eagle Rays cruise by:

Soon afterward we were excited to see several large Hammerheads swim over to check us out:

Finally, out of the gloom came the bus-sized Whale Shark! We divers were dwarfed by this magnificent creature:

Not only does the Galapagos boast large pelagics, it also has one of the weirdest creatures I have ever seen. The Red-Lipped Batfish liked neither to swim nor to walk, it prefered to stand on its odd fins and glare at us:

Dragons in Hayward

Yesterday during my excursion to the hazardous waste drop-off in Hayward I was surprised to find that dragons do exist. This handsome specimen was standing guard outside the exit gate ensuring that no scofflaw should attempt to enter from the wrong way.

My one and only ghost story

In 1976 I moved to Springdale Arkansas with my girlfriend Kim. Her parents had purchased some property with a small house on it. The house was a ruin and had not been lived in for several years. Before that the renters had completely trashed it.



Kim and I were in our early twenties and were restless. We thought it would be a lark to drive to Arkansas, try our hand at fixing the house up, and then continue living there if we liked it. So we took a road trip East, Arkansas or bust, and three days later rolled into Springdale.



Did I mention the house was a ruin? It wasn't even liveable. It was infested with fleas so we spent the first night sleeping in her car while we fumigated the house. We worked hard on improving our little house, and slowly it was transformed from a dump into a 'cottage'.



I liked Arkansas and as soon as we got rid of the fleas and ripped out the cat pee carpet I liked the house too. Apparently Kim did not share my sentiments ; I often heard her quietly weeping late at night. My little dog Avery also was not fond of his new surroundings and he would often burst into loud barking at nothing in particular. I would try to shush him but his barking usually turned into low, suspicious growling until he wearied of himself.



The weeks passed and still Kim's faint weeping continued. What was wrong with her?



One night her soft crying and Avery's growling made me feel particularly sad so I left my room to make a cup of tea. A few minutes later Kim joined me in the kitchen. "If you dislike it here so much why don't you just leave?" she asked.



"Me? I like Springdale. You're the one crying every night. And by the way you're driving my dog crazy."


Kim gave me an odd look and whispered, "You've been crying, not me."


It turns out that for the past several weeks she had also heard the sad weeping and assumed it was I. I swore it came from her room and she swore it came from mine. If it wasn't either of us then who, or what, was it? Our neighbor had a huge ham radio setup, maybe it was just weird noise from his radios?



The next day we mentioned the weeping sounds to our neighbor, the wife of the ham radio guy, and asked her if his electronics ever made unusual noises at night. After we explained our experience to her she admitted that people said our house was haunted by a little girl. She didn't know anything beyond that, but she did know a woman from her church who had a 'gift' and who might be willing to visit us.



A few days later the neighbor brought her friend over to meet us. The 'gifted' woman walked through the house and stopped at the hot water closet of all places, located in the hallway between my room and Kim's. She began talking to the empty space, she told the air that Kim and I were kind people who didn't wish harm to anyone. She said there was no reason to be sad and lonely anymore because Kim and I lived there now and could be 'her' friends.



That was it. No praying, no exorcism, just a short one-sided conversation by a frumpy, plain, middle-aged woman. We donated some money to her church for her time and she left.



Kim and I didn't really believe in ghosts and we weren't convinced that our house ever really had one. Maybe the crying sounds were just the creakings of an old house. Maybe Avery was just a nervous little dog that had to get used to a new place. We never heard the faint weeping again and Avery stopped his sporadic growling. In our busy-ness of home improvement, enrolling in school, boys and partying we completely forgot about the quiet, sad crying that dominated our first few weeks in Springdale.



The next summer Kim and I left Arkansas to return home for a couple of months. We grudgingly agreed to let her brother, not a very nice guy, "house-sit" for us. Basically we were letting the load live rent-free until he could get his act together. He ended up staying only a week instead of the whole two months. When we got home he told Kim that he would have stayed longer except for the creepy little neighbor girl who kept peeking in the windows at night and scowling at him. He tried to catch her a couple of times but when he went outside he could never find her.

We wondered, was Kim's brother high, drunk and imagining things? Was it really a little girl from the neighborhood or was it our alleged otherworldly roommate, unhappy with her change in living arrangements, who was creeping out Kim's brother in order to get him to leave?

Sometimes there are questions that have no satisfactory answer.



Happy Halloween Everyone!!!

Mexican Dichos Part Dos

One of the many reasons I enjoy watching Spanish language telenovelas is that they are full of "dichos" i.e. proverbs. In April I posted a few of my favorites that I had written down thus far.

Now I am watching a new telenovela, Yo Amo a Juan Querendón, and the dialogue is practically ALL dichos and slang. Caray caray (my goodness!) but it's difficult to understand and translate. However here are some of the great dichos and phrases I have picked up so far:

Soy una tumba = I'm a tomb (My lips are sealed)

Toma chango tu banano = Monkey, take your banana (When the cat’s away the mouse will play) The dicho means something like if the fruit's available then the monkey's going to grab it.

Un clavo saca otro clavo = A new nail drives out the other (There are other fish in the sea)

Que desayunamos alacranes? = Did we breakfast with scorpions? (Did you get up on the wrong side of the bed?)

Me importa un pepino = It means as much as a cucumber to me (I couldn't care less)

Sin dinero no baila el perro = Without money the dog doesn’t dance (Nothing happens without money)

Es una mosquita muerta = He's a dead little fly (Butter wouldn't melt in his mouth)

Estar en el ajo = To be in the garlic (To be in the know)

Agarré con las manos en la masa = Caught with one's hands in the tortilla dough (Caught with one's hands in the cookie jar)

Hacer la vista gorda = To make the fat eye (To turn a blind eye)

And my favorite:

Al quirófano y al matrimonio no hay que meterse sin anesthesia = You can enter neither the operating room nor matrimony without anesthesia.

Dichos aren't the only draw to this telenovela. There is also the hero, Juan Dominguez, played by Eduardo Santamarina:

Yes, he has a mullet and the fashion police should put him in jail, but dang he's cute!

(If you speak only English but enjoy watching telenovelas you can visit the blog site Caray, Caray and read English recaps of some of the most popular telenovelas.)

A mechanic wakes up

Last week I took my car in to get smog checked. The mechanic that was helping me looked half-asleep as he trudged around my car, hooking it up to his machine, just another car in his boring routine. For some reason he needed to turn my car on, I can't remember why now, and I gave him permission to do it.


I had been listening to the BBC World News on NPR, so when he turned the key the following blared over the radio:


"The women of Nachu, Kenya report that they are being tormented and sexually harassed by a band of monkeys.



In addition to stealing their crops, the monkeys also make sexually explicit gestures at the women.


'The monkeys grab their breasts, and gesture at us while pointing at their private parts," claims villager Lucy Njeri..."



Horrified and embarrassed I stared at the mechanic. Had he heard? He must have heard, it was blaringly loud! He slowly raised his head, he tried to keep a straight face, but as soon as our eyes met we both burst out laughing.



"It's NPR, it's educational..." I offered hopefully.

"Is that what they call it these days?" he responded.

He perked up considerably. He smiled. I reached over and turned the radio off.

"Stay away from the monkeys" he advised as I got into my car to leave.

The crew in Ensenada and the Tijuana border

The first thing to greet us as we sailed into Ensenada was a gigantic Mexican flag. It measures 50 x 28 meters and weighs about 550 pounds!

After a good night's sleep we knew the first order of business was to check ourselves through customs and register the boat in Mexico. At 9:00 a.m. Tom and I began the process at the Harbormaster's office...

Five torturous hours later we completed our business at the little bank set up in the custom's building. Prior to 2005 the bank was located down the street. Considering we had to the visit the bank between every step (five steps total) I think we got off easy with just five hours.

The custom's official was kind of a jerk but at least he had a small TV in his office and he was watching telenovelas, so I got to watch Destilando Amor at 10:00 a.m. and Juan Querendón at 11:00.

Hooray! It's 2:00 p.m. and we're legal!! The new boat is allowed to stay in Mexico for 10 years!!

After the torture of customs the crew headed off to the closest watering hole to celebrate with a few cold ones.

After our refreshment we walked around Ensenada enjoying the sights. The guys were impressed with the industrial strength speed bumps...

...and cherried out vehicles.

Judy and I preferred the wheelbarrows filled with candy, nuts and candied fruit.

We also liked the horses and buggies.

I guess in Ensenada you can advertise on the street signs:

We eventually made our way to one of Ensenada's famous fish taco restaurants. It's all about the condiments...

Yikes! This is just wrong. We did NOT eat here:

We spent the next morning fixing minor problems and putting the boat away until we can fly down in a month or so. This is why it's good to sail with kids, they're perfect for sending to the top of the mast!

Happy, pretty boat in her new home.

We hired the harbormaster's young brother-in-law to drive us to San Diego airport. Thankfully it was an uneventful trip up. Although I have flown out of Mexico several times this would be my first trip across the Tijuana/San Diego border.

You can walk across...

...or drive across, which is what we did.

The border in Tijuana is very interesting, not only is the side of the road lined with stalls, but individual vendors walk between the cars hawking everything from fresh fruit to gigantic crucifixes.

The following are some fantastic photos of the border that I lifted from a very interesting blog called Tijuana Tales by Kinsee Morlan. http://tijuanatales.wordpress.com/

Kinsee very generously allowed me to use some of her photographs because I, crammed in the back of an SUV with 7 other people plus luggage and sailing gear, could barely move much less take pictures. Hers are much better than mine would have been, Thanks Kinsee!

Last chance to buy a crucifix or oversized vase or two:

I love these guys:

Thankfully we had an uneventful trip over the border; our border guard looked very relieved when we hit the button of random searches and got green for "GO". She did NOT want to search our car.

Schumacher 52 - Sailing from San Francisco to Ensenada

In July I fell in love...with a big, red, beautiful sailboat. It was bigger than our dream cruising boat, newer than our dream cruising boat, more expensive than our dream cruising boat, but we couldn't resist and we bought her anyway. Currently she is named "California Girl" but we will change her name in the near future. Here is the promotional shot of CalGal:





As soon as we returned from South America (I'll post some shots of that most excellent trip later) we worked like crazy on the boat, got her ready for sailing offshore, and on Thursday August 30th at 8:00 p.m. headed out the Golden Gate for Ensenada Mexico with five sailor pals. It was a beautiful night, totally unlike most summer nights in San Francisco (meaning fog) and the full moon decided to accompany us on our journey.






The sky was clear most of the night but the marine layer filled in about 3:00 a.m. The first day was slightly overcast and cool, but not cold. Timo can drive in his sleep, and I think that's what he's doing while Judy enjoys her coffee.




Later on the wind filled in and blew the overcast away. We had this weather for the rest of our trip down the coast. It was a sailor's dream come true, steady winds, sun and flat seas.











I even made muffins in the morning!







One afternoon some dolphins decided to play in our bow wake. They swam along with us for about a half hour.




On Saturday we hoisted the spinnaker and really picked up speed. It was the first time that CalGal's carbon fiber spinnaker pole had ever been used! She drove like a dream downwind.

We have a hot and cold shower on the stern and Mike decided that outdoor showers are far superior to the indoor variety:




Saturday evening gifted us with a beautiful sunset.

On Sunday afternoon at 6:00 we approached Ensenada harbor and took this group shot to commemorate our fantastic trip down:





We pulled into Cruiseport Marina and guided CalGal into her new home.


Check out our neighbor, the Black Pearl from Pirates of the Caribbean! No kidding, this is the real thing!!





About two minutes after docking Judy brought out the blender and whipped up some Margaritas for us!







We enjoyed ourselves Sunday night because we knew the torture of Customs awaited us the next day.

Here is our route from San Francisco to Ensenada:


More on Ensenada later...