I Was Wrong Wednesday: The Grilled Cheese Edition

 

Even though this was published on a Thursday, the events actually took place this past Wednesday.  Thus "I Was Wrong Wednesday."

A few days ago, scanning my bank account (the usual account check-up and verification) I came across a curiosity, a $412.76 debit of which I had no clue to its attachment.  The notification stated "EB BBQ Unlimited" which I immediately thought was suspect.  I scoured my brain for a few minutes and couldn't figure out anything I had purchased for $412.76 nor anything with "EB BBQ Unlimited" attached to it.  So, dutifully, I went on a little internet discovery mission to find what that label might be.

Quite a few BBQ companies came up in my search and I immediately suspected someone had gotten hold of my credit card number and committed some "Happy birthday to me!" present shopping at my expense.  So I jumped on my bank's website and went through all the necessary steps to have the charge disputed.  In so doing, it was suggested I cancel the card and get a new one.  Well this causes all kinds of problems, especially from the standpoint of various accounts having that card information attached to it.  That means I have to go to those various places and erase the old card and input the new one which is a pain in the ass ... but a necessity in light of the possibility fraud was involved.  So I went through the motions and did what I needed to do, grumbling along the way.

Fast forward to early this past Wednesday morning as I'm checking my e-mail.  A couple items caught my attention, one of which was from the Sacramento Grilled Cheese Festival and another from EventBrite, both noting the 4 tickets I purchased over a month ago were being cancelled because I had requested a refund of the $412.76 charge I used to pay for them. Oh, so THAT was what that debit was on my account!  And THAT'S what "EBB BBQ Unlimited" was.  There was no fraud!  I initiated the transaction all by my lonesome!  *yeesh*

I shot a return e-mail to the Sacramento Grilled Cheese Festival letting them know my bonehead move and asked what I needed to do for a re-acquisition, being they were VIP tickets.  

And then I figured I'd better visit their website in the event tickets were still available.  The festival is quite popular and sells out every year.  And - being well into the month and the fact it was being held at the end of April - I figured everything was sold out already and I may be SOL.  But, to my surprise, there were still tickets to be purchased ... and VIP tickets at that. So I jumped at the chance quickly, purchased them all over again and ended up saving face.

Thus, the "I Was Wrong Wednesday" moniker. What a motorhead I am ...

 

.......... Ruprecht ( STOP )

Popped Top

 

When your significant other asks: "Why in the world do you need to collect empty bottles of Tapatío ... ?!?"

How else am I going to replace the broken top other than purchase another bottle?

 

 

Boom ...

 

.......... Ruprecht ( STOP )

The NorCal6: Soriano's Restaurant, 3.11.23

Left to right: Michael, Grant (and his wallet), Pete, Laurie, Kelly, Missyall of who participated in"The Case Of The Missing Wallet That Wasn't Really Missing"

For those of you paying attention to this blog, you may have noticed there was no NorCal6 blog entry for February.  That's because a couple members of the group (Missy and myself) ended up contracting COVID at the end of January.  So we took it easy, worked our rehabilitation grooves and applied our energy-less efforts into getting as well as possible.  (Update: A month plus later, there's still some lingering fatigue and I'm not certain my taste buds are quite up to snuff ... but we're back in the saddle again.)

Anywho, as threatened in the previous NorCal6 blog entry, Soriano's Restaurant in Diamond Springs was our next venture.  A Salvadoran / Mexican mix awaited us, something I was ready to explore.  Not the least reason of which was because I was rather hungry that day having only eaten breakfast.  

The staff was friendly enough and greeted us warmly on our arrival; they were genuinely happy to see us and thanked us for coming in as they seated us.  Chips and salsa were served and Missy and I chatted and looked over the menu while we awaited Grant, Kelly, Pete and Laurie.  Missy ordered a wine margarita and I kept things light with a Coke.

Shortly, Grant and Kelly walked in.  (Funny little aside here: As Grant sat next to me, he put his wallet down on the table and skewed his cell phone atop it, I assumed so he could access it if need be without picking it up.  More on this shortly.)  Pete and Laurie we're a few minutes behind them.  Then it got down to the business of ordering ...

With the orders taken and concluded, the conversation rolled out.  And at one point Grant shot back in his chair and called himself an idiot for forgetting his wallet at home.  I didn't say a thing, knowing his wallet was practically beside me and out of his purview blocked by his phone.  That exasperation lasted a bit before he realized he did, in fact, have his wallet as I picked up his phone and asked "You mean ... THIS wallet?"  I was accused of harboring knowledge of it without telling him and I freely admitted to being guilty.  The looks and laughs around the table were more than worth it.

Mine? The "Borrego y Mas": a lamb shank entrée (the "borrego") with your choice of an enchilada, tamale, or taco filled with the protein of your choice (the "mas"). It came additionally served with marinade sauce, pico de gallo and sliced avocado along with rice and beans.  Others in our party weren't as "experimental" as I was, leaning toward the more traditional Mexican fare ... and there's nothing wrong with that in the least.  I also request an appetizer, some "chiles" which were Soriano's version of stuffed jalapeños.

The outcome, from my perspective, was delicious.  The borrego was fall-off-the-bone tender and flavorful, definitely a different take on how I've had lamb previously.  It wasn't quite the same for everyone else, however.  Comments ranged from "okay" to "meh" on the tastiness scale so it appeared I got the better end of the dinner experience.

The caveat, however, was the staff forgot my chile appetizer.  I didn't squawk about it however because, as it turned out, it wasn't included on my bill.  And I wasn't upset in the least being I was pretty well stuffed from my dinner.

At the conclusion of the meal, a dessert flan was brought out for "the birthday boy" Pete whose birthday was nowwhere near the date of Saturday, March 11th.  I interjected rather loudly while looking at him with raised eyebrows "I had no idea it was your birthday, Pete!" but he didn't catch the clue and pooh-poohed the dessert away, stating matter of factly it was NOT his birthday.  The staff noted someone had called ahead to make certain the celebration was observed but no one at our table was the instigator.  It was surmised the waiter had gotten it wrong ... and the flan was hurried away.  I glared at Pete and told him he just lost a free dessert.  But ... a flan was saved that evening so no harm, no foul.

You need to understand: During these little dinner get-togethers there is lots of talk and storytelling and cajolery and laughter among other things.  At one point Kelly was practically in tears over something I said (I forget what), Missy was adamant about some hefty subject she was on about (something I had done, no doubt), Pete waxing poetic about some such and a straw was even thrown at Laurie because her memories about past events had come into question.  (She's kind of known for this which is half the fun.)  In other words, we usually have a pretty good time when we do our monthly "swingers meet up" as most of our kids like to call it.

As it turned out, we were the second to the last group to leave the joint that evening.  But, as we did so, there was the late Saturday night wave of people who began to shuffle in.  

Next Up: The end of April sees us attending the Sacramento Grilled Cheese Festival.  

 

.......... Ruprecht ( STOP )

February's Inktober52, 2023

#Inktober52 (The 2023 edition) continues!

February's prompts: Mighty, Skull, Odd, Pup.  (I committed a play on words for that last one.)

Two months down ...

 

 

........ Ruprecht ( STOP )

(Almost) Bleeding Out

No ... not an actual picture of my pooling blood

 
You know how water forms that little tension curve at its surface?  That's because their like molecules want to stick to each other until they're forced apart by gravity or some other means.

Well, the same goes for blood.  Only larger.

But I'm getting ahead of myself ...

I was using a scraping knife to get a label peeled off a book.  I ended up slipping and gouging my finger just below the knuckle of my left index finger, gouging it deeply enough that blood started flowing from it and pooling on the counter where I was working.  And man, did it ever flow.  I don't think I've ever cut myself so deeply with a scraper.   I didn't have anything to staunch the bleeding so I just stood there looking at it, thinking for a minute how I was going to get out of this predicament.  Paper towels were underneath the sink behind me which was a good 10 feet away from where I was standing so I couldn't reach them without dripping blood all over the place and there was nothing but dish towels in one of the drawers just below me.  I didn't want to bloody up any of them so I decided to stand there and think a minute.

Now, earlier, I had given a printer cartridge to Missy for the out-of-ink printer we had in another room.  She mentioned she didn't know how to install the cartridge and I playfully told her to figure it out.  After a minute or two I went to see what she was up to and realized she had locked the door into the room where the printer was.  I told her to open the door so I could install the cartridge but she resisted my help.  "Nope ... you told me to figure it out and that's what I'm gonna do" she said matter of factly.  I told her not to be stubborn and just open the door but she refused.  I pointed at the printer through the window in the door and explained she needed to flip open the printer because that's where the cartridge was, buried in its innards but she just ignored me.  So I just walked away.

And, on my return into the kitchen, was when I started fooling with the book, trying to get the label off.

So standing there dripping blood on the counter I began pounding against the granite countertop in an effort to try and attract her attention while yelling her name.  I graduated to slapping the wall thinking the sound of thudding would be even more of an earful but she was obviously ignoring me.  I knew she could hear me pounding away and yelling, at least distantly, but she was calling my bluff, ignoring my effort to help her install that printer cartridge.  Little did she know I was injured and bleeding.

Meanwhile, the blood pooling in front of me was growing ever larger with a pretty hefty meniscus forming at its surface.  (I wish I'd had my phone handy so I could have snapped a photo of that pooling blood ... but that would have been rather garish.)  At some point if I didn't do something about it it would threaten to drip over the edge of the counter.

A good 30 seconds of pounding and yelling yielded nothing from Missy.  Meanwhile, the pool of blood beneath my finger was growing exponentially.  I didn't think there was any chance of myself bleeding out but, still, the amount of blood coming out my finger was somewhat alarming.  That's when I realized I had rubber gloves in one of the drawers right where I was standing, so I opened a drawer with my free hand, pulled out a glove and jammed my bleeding hand into one so I wouldn't mess up any other surface other than the countertop.  Finally, I headed into the bathroom.  There, I started a water flush to get all the blood off my hand and begin cleaning it.  I applied hydrogen peroxide and just waited for the bleeding to slow down.  But the cut was pretty damned deep and it didn't seem as if it was going to stop anytime soon.

I washed it as best I could to clean it and applied additional hydrogen peroxide.  Finally Missy came in, curious what I was doing, and I told her I needed a little help, to please get me the Band Aids.  I asked her if she'd seen the pool of blood on the counter when she passed by on our way to the restroom.  She had not.  She mentioned she'd heard me pounding and yelling her name but she thought I was just trying to gain her attention to come out of the room.  I did but, instead, it was under the pretext I was injured and in need of assistance, not to coax her into letting me fix the printer.

Obviously, not the best time to get caught in the middle of a (possibly) life-threatening injury.

Which, really, it wasn't ... but it made for a bit more drama ... right?

 

.......... Ruprecht ( STOP )

Update: Then, there's this accurate little drawing I put together that went with Week #7's #inktober52 prompt and appropriate here ...

 

So, Yeah ... Sometimes I'm Grumpy

 

Look ... I know I'm a little grumpy sometimes.  But that doesn't necessarily nor automatically denote I'm dead wrong about things and simply emoting off-the-cuff grumpiness.

Grumpiness can be a good thing.  It can be cathartic.  It can be a good way to let off steam of the moment.

So here's the prelude to the situation where I got grumpy:  The front tires on my truck are in need to replacement, threatening to go bald. In other words, it's time for some new ones.  In many instances that requires purchasing a set of four tires because there are businesses out there who won't sell you just two tires.  (Or, simply, a single one for that matter.)  And I understand that in certain cases.

But when the rear tires on my truck are perfectly fine, there's no need to purchase 4 tires.  So I ran down to Walmart, just down the street, to see what I could see.  I took a picture of my tire size so I'd have it readily available and I talked to one of the service technicians down there.  I gave him the size of tire I needed, he looked it up and gave me half a dozen options to choose from.  I asked if it would behoove me to purchase a set of four tires - would there be a benefit to doing so price-wise?  He said it didn't make any difference, I could buy one if I wanted to.  Which I appreciated.  And I thanked him.  I asked if it was a good idea to make an appointment  for later or if there was a best time to show up when I was ready to pull the trigger ... and then I was on my merry way.

Fast forward to a couple days later.  I mentioned to Missy I had gotten a price on tires from Wal-Mart and she suggested I look up America's Tires (one of her preferred tire shops), Costco and Sam's Club among one or two others.  So right then and there I jumped on my phone and looked up Sam's Club.  

Once I navigated to the maintenance shop, I was asked to input my vehicle make, model, year and tire size before I could get any information.  Well, I already had tire size so I tried to input that information alone but it wouldn't let me access it without jumping through all the hoops of putting in complete information.  Which kind of ticked me off.  

In the meantime, Missy was looking up Costco tires and it was taking a long time for her to access that information in as well.  But she finally got where she wanted to be while offering up quite a bit less information than I had to with Sam's Club.

And that's when I got grumpy.  

Because I don't need to perform like a caged monkey just to get tire prices when I know exactly what I want.  I don't need to surrender an inordinate amount of information.  I'm reasonably intelligent and aware of what I need without requiring the "Purchasing Tires For Dummies" manual the Sam's Club website was asking for.  

I've got what I need, I know what I need, so fulfill my request already.  But it's just not that easy, is it?

And that's when I got grumpy.  I ranted and raved that I didn't want to have to input 12 million things when all I needed to do was provide ONE! THING! PERIOD!  How much simpler could it be?!?  GAAAAAAAAHHH ... !!!

So, looking back ... yeah I guess I might have gotten a bit emotional about the situation.  And maybe I did spit out a little vitriol along with a hefty dose of grumpiness.

But, you know ... with good reason ...

 

 

........ Ruprecht ( STOP )

Inktober52, The 2023 Edition

Well ... it's that time of year again.  Time to get the creative juices flowing and the beginning of the year off to an inky start, so to speak.

#Inktober52 (The 2023 edition) has launched once again, the challenge asking participants to output something ink-related 52 times based on a provided weekly prompt.

The first four for January are in the books below:  Build, Puppet, Shadow and Angel.

One month down, 48 more images to go.

 

  

 

 

 

 

........ Ruprecht ( STOP )