The Marine Room in La Jolla, California—Fine dining at its finest

If you come to San Diego and want to eat at one of the finest restaurants around, which means that you have a little money to spend, so to speak, try The Marine Room. If you have to ask how much it costs, then you can’t afford it. I went there once, back in 2000, and there were no prices on the menu. I suspect it’s still that way.

What makes The Marine Room unique is not the quality of the food, which is A+ first rate 10 out of 10 magnifico, it’s the location. It’s at the beach. Sure, there are lots of nice restaurants at the beach, but The Marine Room not only is AT the beach, it’s actually ON the beach, and one of the nicest beaches in San Diego County.

It’s called fine dining at its finest.

When I went, I wasn’t paying. My brother-in-law from Slidell, Louisiana, was in town, along with my sister (his wife, of course), my brother, and my oldest niece and nephew. Mr. Brother-in-law—we’ll call him Jimmy since that’s his name—wanted lobster, shrimp, and crab, but not just any lobster, shrimp, and crab. He wanted the best lobster, shrimp, and crab that San Diego could offer. I told him about The Marine Room, but I also told him the cost. He offered to pay for everyone if my Jim and I would take them there. We did. We had the buffet, and Jimmy ate like there was no tomorrow. I have heard that they don’t have a buffet anymore; I blame that on Jimmy.

Being on the beach, though, isn’t the coolest thing about The Marine Room. The coolest thing is that you can eat there during high tide, and during the highest of the high tides, the waves crash into the windows, sometimes completely covering the windows and splashing up onto the roof. I have only seen high tide from above because high tides are in high demand, which means you have to book your high tide meal about a year in advance. I have heard that prices are a little higher during high tides, too.

The Marine Room opened on May 29, 1941, and quickly became the talk of the County because of the location and the tides. Here are two videos of high tide meals:

I’m not sure I could sit there and calmly eat a meal with waves crashing against the windows like that. What if the windows break? In fact, they did break one time. Back in 1982. Originally the windows were single-pane glass, so they were boarded up during the winter storms. In 1948, the single-pane glass was replaced with ¾-inch tempered glass, allowing The Marine Room to stay open year-round. However, the El Niño winter of 1982 brought a major series of storms to San Diego. Waves forced their way through the windows and flooded The Marine Room. It took nine months to rebuild.

Obviously, with a great location, unique dining, and unparalleled food, The Marine Room has won many awards throughout the years, including having just been named one of AAA’s Four-Diamond Restaurants. Some of the other awards include:

• Best Special Occasion Restaurant
• Diners’ Choice Award Winner: Open Table
• Best Romantic Restaurant
• Best Restaurant with a View
• Top 100 Scenic View Restaurants in the United States: Open Table
• Best of San Diego
• Most Scenic View Restaurant in the United States: Open Table

I’m Zoey the Cool Cat,
and I approved this post.

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend James Frimmer, Realtor, CDPE
CA BRE #01458572

If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!

Kellogg Park in La Jolla, California

It’s always tempting to skip the itsy bitsy teeny tiny little neighborhood parks in favor of large city parks, state parks, and national parks. If you do, though, you risk not finding something that’s pretty neat.

Recently I was in an unexplored (for me) area of La Jolla and found Kellogg Park:

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Kellogg Park is mostly sand and playground equipment. However, look at some of the cool stuff I found in the middle of the playground equipment:

That reading material, of course, is not for the children playing. It’s for the adults, and I wasn’t the only adult standing around reading it, although I was the only one taking pictures of it!

I’m Zoey the Cool Cat,
and I approved this post
before taking my nap.

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend James Frimmer, Realtor, CDPE
CA BRE #01458572

If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!

Time, money, WordPress, and Facebook

During my first year in college, I lived in Moore Hall and Puryear Hall on the Texas A&M University campus. Moore Hall had four floors, and I didn’t like it. Just too big. No opportunity for a shy freshman like me to get to know anyone or get involved. I couldn’t move the alpha males out of the way.

Puryear Hall was a ramp-type dorm. Instead of floors with 100 people living on them, there were ramps, which were simply stairways. Each ramp had four floors, but there were only four rooms per floor. With two people per room, eight people per ramp floor, and 32 people per ramp, it was much easier for a shy person to fit in.

I was on floor two, ramp 4. My seven rampmates were from Seattle, Houston, Waller TX, Hempstead TX, Kingsville TX, Lake Jackson TX, and—wait for it—Lagos, Nigeria. I don’t remember the Nigerian’s name, but I’m pretty sure he’s not one of the Nigerian scammers who wants to give you millions of dollars. Thus, I’m not a contact person or a reference….

However, the Nigerian was very outgoing, an extrovert, an alpha male. He was interested in exploring the world’s religions, and each weekend, he would get a large group together to go visit a different church. The group started off with just four of us but, over the semester, grew to 50 or 60 people each week. We visited every church we could find—Catholic, Mormon, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, Church of Christ, Jew, Presbyterian. I know there was a “strange religion” in there—Muslim, Buddhism, Hinduism, or Islam—but I don’t remember which one.

It was during my college years that I started questioning the fundamental tenets of the Catholic and Mormon faiths in which I had been raised. My main problem then, as now, is that I could not understand how an all-knowing, all-powerful god could allow poverty, homelessness, hunger, and disease to exist among “his children.” I couldn’t understand how that all-knowing, all-powerful, invisible being would allow his children to die in car wrecks, train wrecks, airplane crashes, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, fires, earthquakes, heat waves, blizzards, etc. It didn’t make sense to me then and it still makes no sense to me. There is no need to try to explain it. I’m familiar with all the reasons the all-knowing, all-powerful, invisible, mystical being allows disasters and such. I’m not buying them; they are too expensive.

I don’t mean to rain on anyone’s Christmas spirit, holiday spirit, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or whatever, but this time of year always gets me thinking about these things, and this morning when I went out exploring, I found a homeless person in the middle of Balboa Park, one of San Diego’s most beautiful places:

Five things in this world currently bug me, really bug me:

1. homelessness;
2. disease and sickness;
3. people who are cruel to animals, including people who kill animals for sport;
4. the current generation of idiotic Republicans. I was a lifelong Republican until last year; I just couldn’t take the likes of Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachman anymore; and
5. those who blindly follow religion without questioning it, especially if they quote things out of context or haven’t even read their own religion’s holy book completely! And, yes, I have read the Bible three times, start to end. I’ve read the Quran/Qu’ran/Koran once, all of The Analects (Confucianism), the Book of Mormon many times, and several others, all while searching for my own identity in this world.

Unfortunately, I’m not rich enough to do much on my own…. a little time here, a few dollars there, and my outspokenness here and on Facebook.

I’m Zoey the Cool Cat,
and I approve this post.

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, BRE #01458572

If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!

Subject to attack

Zoey the Cool Cat has been with us since September 20, 2007. Just a few months after her arrival, we discovered that she had no use for store-bought toys. She liked shoelaces, yarn, string, bags, boxes…. anything that wasn’t made specifically with cats in mind!

One morning I was fixing her food and my food at the same time when I opened a new gallon of milk and dropped the red ring on the floor. Zoey the Cool Cat pounced on it! So of course I played with her and the red ring for a while.

That was a mistake. Now she has a collection of about 150 red rings. I keep them in a Zoey the Cool Cat container that a blogging friend found on eBay.

Most of the red rings currently are behind the bed:

When the container is empty, I move the bed, collect all the red rings, refill the container, and we start over again, a process that takes about three months from start to finish. (This also helps me keep the area under the bed clean…. a benefit of having a cat…….. 🙂 )

This is a ritual that Zoey the Cool Cat refuses to do without. She will not even eat any food until she’s had about 15 minutes of play time with the red rings.

This past Friday morning, Zoey the Cool Cat flopped on the floor. That usually means that she wants to play red rings. For some reason, I didn’t have a red ring and went to pet her instead. She attacked me. We’re talking a serious attack. She dug all four sets of claws deep into my arms and sunk her teeth deep into my wrists and fingers. She would not let go, and it took me a minute, maybe two, to get her off of me. I was not a happy camper, and she knew it. For the rest of the day we stayed away from each other. It was mutual.

I spent all day Friday trying to figure out what I did wrong to cause her to attack me like that. I needed to determine the cause because I need my hands, arms, and fingers for home inspections and the requisite reports. I could not have this happening too often…. Actually, once was quite enough!

Finally, on Saturday morning, it occurred to me: We did not play red ring Friday morning. With that thought in mind today, I did a very careful experiment earlier this morning to see if the lack of red ring play time was the cause of her aggression. I determined that it was. Each time I went to pet her without a red ring in my hand, she attacked. Since I was prepared, she didn’t get me. It was obvious, though, that she is not a happy cat if I don’t have a red ring for her in the morning.

After about fifteen minutes of experimentation, I decided to catch her playing red ring just so you—yes, YOU!—could experience what this little cat wants to do each and every morning, first thing after I get out of bed. The video has accompanying music, my rendition of “Stray Cat Stuff,” originally composed and performed by the Stray Cats in 1982. This is about 15 minutes of red ring playtime edited down to 2:45.

Moral of this post: Hand without red ring in the morning is subject to attack!

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, BRE #01458572

If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!

Perhaps a divorce “win”

I always enjoy going to home & garden shows to see what the professional gardeners come up with, such as this pond and water fountain:

At first I was upset at the loss of what appeared to be a perfectly good, albeit waterlogged, pool table. Maybe if the wife got the pool table in the divorce, then this is a good use for it………… 🙂

I’m Zoey the Cool Cat,
and I approve this post!

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, BRE #01458572

If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!

Jungle Bells at the San Diego Zoo through January 5, 2014

Jungle Bells started at the San Diego Zoo on December 14 and continues through January 5.

All sorts of holiday activities throughout the Zoo, including the Twinkle Light Trolley, costumed characters entertaining everywhere, Santa’s igloo, Carols at Camp Critters, Jingle Brass, Light Up The Night, Dr. Zoolittle’s ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, Carol of the Jungle Bells, and much more.

For a complete list of events, times, and durations, see the San Diego Zoo web site.

Extra Christmas presents for you if you can name all of the Jungle Bell animals above. Good luck! I made the graphic and I can’t name them all!………..lol

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, BRE #01458572

If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!

Not what I was expecting to find on a golf course

I love golf courses, but not because I play golf. I never have, although I remember caddying a few times for family and friends. Actually, I did play Torrey Pines here in San Diego (site of the 2008 U.S. Open won by Tiger Woods) in 1994. Par was 72. I shot a 154. My friends were making fun of me, but as I pointed out to them, they paid $35 greens fees for one round of golf while I paid the same amount for two rounds of golf. They didn’t think that was funny.

What I like about golf courses is that they usually are always full of interesting trees, bushes, shrubs, and flowering plants—mini-arboretums. Thus I try to explore golf courses whenever possible. Quite often, though, they are fenced and available only to members. And even if they are not, they usually aren’t welcoming to photographers exploring the grounds looking for photo opportunities.

Yesterday, on my way to Bonsall Elementary School to teach chess class as a substitute teacher, I found a golf course across from the school. Bonsall is out in the boondocks, so I was a little surprised at the location of the elementary school and golf course. Since I arrived an hour early, I went over to the golf course to explore. Smack dab (smack dab?) in the middle of the golf course I found this:

Yep. A railroad caboose (smile if you remember cabooses) smack dab in the middle of the golf course. The little building, made to look like a miniature train depot, has restrooms and a drinking fountain.

The elementary school and a church are completely surrounded by the San Luis Rey Downs Golf & Country Club.

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Bonsall, called an “affluent bedroom community,” is an area of multi-million dollar horse properties, and San Luis Rey Downs is a thriving horse training facility, which the picture below, taken two miles down the road, does not indicate:

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend James Frimmer,
Realtor Century 21 Award, BRE #01458572

If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!

I found the beef!

Sometimes I take pictures of interesting information, like plaques on public art, for example. A few months ago, at the San Diego County Fair, I saw this:

I did not know. Well, I was pretty sure about the rump roast, but other than that….

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, BRE #01458572

If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!

New things in old places

Just when I think that I have explored an area until there is nothing new to find, I find something new. Recently I was in Balboa Park. It’s a huge cultural park of about 1,200 acres. San Diego claims that it is the largest city-owned cultural park in the nation. I was wasting time driving up and down hills, through valleys, and on streets that I knew I had visited, but many years ago. That was when I found the Girl Scouts camp in Balboa Park, tucked away in the far northwest corner. My wise old grandmother always told me that you can find new things in old places. All you have to do is visit those old places every few years or so!

View Larger Map

Most of the scout camp isn’t accessible to mere mortals like me, but I did park my car and walk around to all the accessible areas. Just for you because I knew you would want pictures! So here they are:

The building’s porch had lots of cute items which made good pictures. My two favorites:

At the south side of the parking lot I found some sculptures:

Three girls and their dog exploring the boondocks. How cute….

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend James Frimmer,
Realtor Century 21 Award, BRE #01458572

If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!

But no one is willing to work….

When I was but a youngster in the public schools in Texas, my friends and I worked to make spending money. Yes, my wise old grandmother gave me an allowance, but it was only a quarter a week. A quarter! For pulling weeds, hanging out the laundry, drying the dishes, clearing the table, feeding the dog…. Well, alright, I won’t include feeding the dog since I enjoyed that. I loved Bosco! But even in 1966 a quarter a week wasn’t going to buy all the candy that an 11-year-old wanted to buy! Beginning in 1967 I didn’t get an allowance at all! (It was because I had a thriving typing business making $10-$40 a week.) However, I did get a really, really nice present upon graduation from high school!

Keep that in mind—grade school and high school students back in those days actually worked instead of sitting around playing video games, listening to tunes on iPods, watching movies on iPads, etc. My friends mowed lawns, washed cars, and worked as gas station attendants, grocery store clerks, and move ticket takers.

Fast forward to 1999 in San Diego.

I had just bought a 4,000-sf house on two acres of land. A large house on two acres of land in Southern California generally is pretty expensive. However, the house and property were a dump, inside and out. Two acres of weeds, a swimming pool and spa that looked like a Louisiana swamp, lots of deferred maintenance. I was going to landscape the property, renovate the swimming pool and spa, and remodel the house, inside and out.

Although I was capable of doing everything since I had renovated many properties before, there were things that I didn’t want to do, like plumbing and electrical; two acres of irrigation installation; and pulling two acres of weeds and cutting out all the laurel sumac and poison oak, both of which I am extremely allergic to. I ran ads in the San Diego Reader (a weekly), the San Diego Union-Tribune (daily), and the Daily Aztec (San Diego State University student paper).

Minimum wage at the time was $5.85/hour . I offered $15/hour for help. Guess how many calls I got? That’s right! Zero! I ran the ads for four weeks. This was late summer, early fall. Zip, zilch, nada. Not a single call.

I went to the Home Depot just a couple of miles away where workers hang out every morning hoping to get work for the day. Hired four workers for $10/hour and had all my work done in nine days! I paid them as 1099 contract employees since they could come and go as they pleased and work whenever they wanted to. Thus, they were responsible for their own taxes.

Was I stupid enough to not know that they most likely were “undocumented workers,” perhaps even “illegal aliens.” No. I knew. But I had work to do, and they were the only ones willing to do it. Thus, I’m not a big fan of people saying that illegal aliens are taking all the jobs in America. I believe they are only taking the jobs that Americans don’t want. I believe it’s the rich people who can buy themselves a green card to work in America who are taking all the jobs in America. Either that or exporting the jobs to foreign countries where labor is less expensive.

Professional basketball, to me, is a great example. Let’s take Steve Nash as an example. Nash was born in South Africa and currently has Canadian and British citizenship. He was given a basketball scholarship to Santa Clara University; that’s in California. He’s not an American yet has played professional basketball since 1996 for Phoenix, Dallas, and the L.A. Lakers. Annual earnings in the millions of dollars. One could argue that the people who go to see him play help provide jobs for ticket takers, refreshments, etc. I’m not buying it.

Recently I had a home inspection just feet from the border with Mexico. The United States fence was at the top of an extremely deep and wide canyon. It was an obvious entry point for Mexican nationals seeking work in America because there were trails leading up from the Mexican canyon and a tear in the fence. Not unusual by any stretch of the imagination. Look what I found on the U.S. side of the fence:

Remember that this is just feet away from Mexico. Also, this area is a heavy industrial area, meaning that the businesses here probably depend on undocumented workers to get stuff done, just like I did fourteen years ago.

Those water jugs could have been left (and replenished) by concerned citizens who know that Mexican nationals come through the area and are probably thirsty after making the trek through the canyon. Or they could have been left by business owners who need the help of healthy people who are not dying of thirst. Or, they could have been left by Border Patrol agents so that they have water to drink while stationed there looking for undocumented workers entering the U.S. illegally.

I’m thinking it’s business owners, based solely on my own experience trying to find people to work.

Yes, undocumented workers from other countries are taking American jobs, but they are jobs that Americans don’t want, or jobs that the wealthy 1% don’t want to give to Americans. Until someone can convince me otherwise—and I’ve had a lot of experience in this realm since all my life and work has been spent near the border in Detroit, New England, Texas, and Southern California—I think the U.S. should allow the foreign nationals who are here to live and work here, AND PAY TAXES! If we have people willing to work these “menial, low-paying jobs,” whaddaya wanna bet that a bunch of jobs would return to America from China, Taiwan, and Korea?

Then, of the course, there’s the extra stress on our infrastructure— schools, roads, etc. THEY ALREADY ARE HERE PROVIDING THAT EXTRA STRESS! Make them pay taxes! The only way you can do that, though, is to allow them to live and work here without the threat of deportation!

That’s my opinion, and I’m sticking to it….

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, BRE #01458572

If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!