I Stepped on a Crack, and My Mother Broke Her Back.

wanna know the best way to spend memorial day weekend? if you guessed in the hospital, you are correct. saturday before memorial day, my mother was on her regularly scheduled horse ride through the woods when unbeknownst to her my foot was dangerously close to a crack in mangler's driveway. suddenly a stiff breeze blew me off balance and my foot landed on a crack. at that same moment in time, 30 miles away, a horse bucked my momma off. it wasn't the buckin' off that hurt. it wasn't the fallin' that hurt. it was the log that hit her lumbar region (lower back) of the spine that caused pain. she broke her l2 vertebrae in half. the top half slid and was 1 cm from touching her spinal cord. 

when she got thrown the horse wandered back to the barn, and the peeps at the barn realized something wasn't right. turns out momma's kinda tough. she got up and started walkin' back to the barn. she decided she needed to go to the hospital. she tried to drive herself. when she got to the hospital, she decided to walk in. the woman has 20+ yrs of hospital/health care experience. she knows what to do when you suffer a back injury. she knows what could be wrong. she knows that if you say, "i fell off a horse and i am having back pains." they will bring you a wheelchair.

 she is gonna be fine as long as she does what the doctor says and takes it easy. she needs to stay off her horses. (wanna buy a horse 2-for-1 deal) turns out, she's a tough little cookie. i think she missed her calling as an ultimate fighter.

This Way to a Great Dinner. Not That Way Meat You Moron!

friday in san francicso, we went on a bay cruise. we hopped on a big boat and went around the san fran bay, and even went under the golden gate bridge. that's right folks, i have now been in the pacific ocean. the ocean is now a little cooler. not temperature wise of course, socially. on our way back to port, we went around alcatraz. it was nice seeing it from a different angle. but i felt like i already knew everything there was to know about the rock. i mean, ive seen a few movies and did a tour. lock me in there and i'll be eating rice-a-roni on the beach in just a few hours. can't no prison hold me!!!!

that evening mrs. meat and i went on our official anniversary dinner. we went to the swank italian joint called e tuttu qua. i'm sure there are supposed to be accents on some of those letters, but i don't feel like doing that. put 'em wherever you'd like. we ordered a bottle of wine (reisling of course. it's the lay-tay's favorite), some seared sea scallops in a mushroom sauce and it was excellect. for the main course, mi amor  ordered linguine with shrimp in a light red sauce. (light as in weight, not color.) i being the meat minded meathead that i am went with the lamb loin stuffed with pesto.  oh my. if i could eat that every day, i would never cook. so good. mmmmmmm. sorry. just drooled on my computer. we were enjoying everything so much, we ordered another bottle of wine. the good thing about the city is, no worries on who's drivin' home. we within a half-mile. so we finished out dinner and just sat watching the hustle and bustle of an amazing italian restaurant, on a busy friday night while we sipped our wine. if when we left i hadn't taken us a half-mile in the wrong direction, it would have been a perfect evening. but since that was the only bad thing, i'd say it went well.

Kinda Major League?

on thursday we went to oakland to see the a's play. the a's have the second fewest wins in the majors. i felt like we were in the movie Major League. i mentioned it in the last blog, but the guys in front of us made fun of the a's the whole time. one guy even had a drum. it was a ton-o-fun. it was good to see regular guys watchin' baseball. they went to all the games they could. knew each other by name. greeted each other by yelling the name and talkin' trash for a minute, then talk about the a's, and how bad they are. that was the best part of the game. sittin' in the cheap seats with the common folk.

no $2500 seats like in yankee stadium. those aren't true fans. those aristocrats tryin' to be seen. they should turn the seating chart upside down. make the seats behind home $13, and the nosebleeds $2500. that way the person who really appreciates the game, gets the best view.

and while we are changing prices, lets work on concessions. if the food had been 1/2 the price, i woulda bought twice as much. but getting a bag of peanuts, a hot dog, and a beer for $22 means i can't afford another hot dog. $8.25 for a beer is highway robbery. that's why i don't go to pro games. just wait for $1 beer night at the local minor league stadium.
that night i went to uncle vito's pizza and Mrs. Meat picked up some indian food. we went and picked up a 6-pack, and some malibu, and had a slow evening in the hotel. it was nice just hangin' out.

7,000 Feet to Sea Level in a Day

tuesday and wednesday had a lot of drivim'. we went up to truckee, and by up, i mean up. the city of truckee sits over a mile high. eat your heart out denver. on the way up though, we were above 7000 ft for a while. highest i've ever been other than while on a plane, and that jimmy buffet concert back in the day. (kidding. kinda.) we went from rolling hills with grass and no trees, to rocks and trees, a foot and a half of snow on the ground, and no grass. it was crazy.
on our drive back, we went past lake tahoe. a lake that's 22 miles long, and over 1,600 feet deep. its amazingly blue. the mountain lake's, water is so clear they say you can see over 30 feet deep. we were just drivin' by, so i didn't have time to measure.
we stopped in placerville on out way back to frisco. ate at a place called z-pies. they specialize in pot pies. it was awesome! then i got coffee i at place that is built in front of an old gold mine. when you go to the back, you can eat inside the mine. sounds cooler than it really was. but fun nonetheless.
when we got back to the bay area, we went to the museum of modern art. i don't get modern art. 99% looked like crap to me. one piece looked like pee. it was a urinal. there was actually a urinal as a piece of art. as long as there is a urinal in museum as a piece of art, i won't get it. some of the videos made me feel like i was in a bad trip. it was to much for my tastes. but then i'm not an art snob.
that night, we ate at the cathay house in chinatown. that's what true chinese food is. it was the perfect way to end wednesday. it was so good, i feel like i can't eat chinese here now. its not nearly as good. the waiter was awesome and i never felt better leaving a tip. the only exception was when my lil' bro was my waiter. i can say nice things about him because he refuses to read my blog. but i won't. he's a loser.

We Posed for a Picture and the Photographer Got This Stupid Bridge in the Background

i'm sorry for not following through with my promise of daily blog updating. i assure you it wasn't from a lack of love. it was from a lack of properly working wifi. stupid technology. once we left wine country, we rode up to truckee, ca to see a client of Mrs. Meat's. (she gets caps because she is lovin' royalty.) we were on the road a lot tuesday and didn't get to his place until late. i just never had time to even check in with you kind folks. i'm sorry for that. once we left there we stayed at the hotel triton in downtown san fran. an amazing hotel. if you are ever there, or have the opportunity to stay at a kimpton hotel (parent company,) i would highly recommend it. that being said, my computer wouldn't recognize the wifi there, and i was left unable to blog. i cried the entire day wednesday until Mrs. Meat told me to grow a pair. plus thursday we were goin' to a baseball game in oakland i didn't wanna be cryin' during such a manly event.

for my broken promise, i extend a not so sincere apology and only kinda care if you accept it. should you choose not to accept, i suggest reading my next post. i won't let y'all down again. (soon)

Big Trees, and Wine. What a Combo.

today we left san fran and went north. we crossed the golden gate bridge. it was so foggy we couldn't even see the water below us. but it was cool because i was drivin' in a new mustang. thanks to credit card rewards and avis, i was pimpin'. it wasn't easy. it was fun though. we proceeded to muir woods which is where the redwoods grow. they were big. i read that the tallest redwood is 379.1 ft tall. why do you need the .1? is 379 ft not tall enough? .1 ft is less than an inch. don't think we need to acknowledge that distance when talkin' about something that big. if we were talkin' about my height, ad a .1. i would appreciate that. what if it rains hard and washes away an inch of dirt? would we call it 379.2 ft? i'm just sayin'. kinda ridiculous. so.... i knew they were tall, but i didn't fully understand how big 379 ft was. now i know. it's big.
after some big trees, we drove up to sonoma. i know what you're thinkin'. sears point is right there. you know? sears point? one of two road courses on the nascar circuit? if you don't know what i'm talkin' about, then you are not a redneck. congratulations. that was a test and you passed. after passing the raceway, we went wine tasting. it was something different for me since i really only drink beer or bourbon. it was good though. i even bought a bottle for myself. it was a bottle by jacuzzi (the same family who made the original hot tub) and it is called barbera.
we had good experiences in all the wineries we hit up today, but by far the best was at imagery. we went for the art. all the bottles of wine have an original piece of art on the label, and most of the art is on display at the winery. but we met sil there. he was our bartender, and he was very personable, knowledgeable and most importantly polite. he told me more than i could understand about the wines. mrs. meat and i told him our likes and dislikes and he just kept bringin' us wines he thought we would like. he did well. since it was for our anniversary, he waved the tasting fee and let me try a $75 a bottle wine. it was great. i felt like i owed him a car wash after i drank it but, he said we were good. we are now about to head out to dinner in wine country so i will let you workin' losers get to back to your jobs, but check back later for more from wine country.

Sea Lions, and Tiger Sharks and No Rice O' Roni? O My!

busy day kids. busy day. been ridin' around on cable cars all day, walkin' all over fisherman's' wharf, checkin' the aquarium. touched some sharks and rays. that was cool. (not the hockey and baseball players. the real things.) watched some sea lions today. they reminded me of my mothers yellow lab that weighs 140 lbs. except they move a lot better than she does. on land and in the sea.
we also went to alcatraz today. that was really cool. felt like i was steppin' back in history visitin that place. learned some cool facts about the rock. i just can't remember them at this moment in time. what i do remember though is that it sho was windy out there. and it smelled like bird poo. maybe i'll remember the other stuff soon.
the best part of the day though, hands down, was this little strip of "restaurants" along pier 41. i use quotes because it was more like one of those hot dog vendors you see on the streets. buy the food. then stand and eat. there were like 5 shops in a row, and they all sold the same thing. steamed/fried/boiled seafood (everything from clams to lobster) all fresh caught and alive up until a few minutes before you show up and clam chowder. the chowder comes in a cup or a sourdough bread bowl. why you would get a cup when you are in the birthplace of sourdough, i don't know. but it's offered. we got shrimp 'n chips (fried shrimp and fries to the layper,) bread bowl clam chowder, a water and a budweiser. all for $20. the same thing woulda been double that in one o' them tourist restaurants, and this was a thousand times better. this was amazing!!! i felt like Anthony Bourdain (this gets capitalized because he is travel channel royalty) when he finds the back alley places in the big cities.
the one troubling observation on this fact finding expedition is that i've yet to see any place advertising rice o' roni. if it's the san francisco treat, why is nobody promoting it? guess i'll keep searching for the elusive rice o' roni.

Vacation, All I Ever Wanted.

well folks, mrs. meat and i have made it to frisco. my sincerest apologies for not letting you all know we made it last nite, but we didn't get into the room until 11:45 local time. that's 2:45 for most of you. except for my followers in bangladesh. to you i would say, why are you following this blog? anywho.
we had a lovely flight from charlotte to minneapolis. about 3 hrs. all was goin well, then from minneapolis to san fran we had to wait an hr in the plane on the runway due to high winds in san fran. that sucked. put us behind, but once we landed and got our luggage we were on the subway riding into town. the subway dumped us about a $10 cab ride from the hotel, and all was well.
today we are goin to alcatraz. i hope this isn't "the man's" way of lockin me up. cause they'll never take me alive!!!! then prolly do some other indoor stuff. stupid rain.
have fun with your normal lives peons. i'm on vacation.