We’re all alive, actually. Me, Em, and Karl. Well, Em’s not here, so I can’t be 100% sure, but she was definitely alive when she left here this morning…
Okay, so I’m a VERY bad blogger. What can you do? For one thing, you can read my blog via RSS - I’ll be posting more about that later. As for the month-long absence, it’s been busy, ya know? Um, probably not SO busy that I couldn’t spare FIVE minutes during the ENTIRE interval to post a quick update, but… Look, I already said I was bad, okay? And if you want to know “what was so busy about it” (nosy, aren’t you?), I’ll tell you.
First off, there was (after the long Thanksgiving weekend here in the USA), EMYLENE HAVING HER TONSILS OUT. I write that in uppercase because IT WAS HUGE. In case you’re wondering, it’s far better to have your tonsils taken out at 3 than at 30. We understood that Em’s recovery would be rough, but we didn’t understand just how rough. She was weak, tired, and nauseous for DAYS after the surgery, and could barely eat her popsicles, or drink any liquids. She had pain meds to take, and antibiotics, but she was too nauseous to hold down the meds, which led to more pain, which led to no sleep, which led to more fatigue and nausea, which… You get the “downward spiral” idea. After a couple of nervous calls to her doctor (”I understand that the operation went very well, Doc, but we’re afraid the recovery might kill her…”), he suggested that we try giving her some Pepto-Bismol. This just seemed silly, but we we’d exhausted our other options, so we tried it. And it worked! Once Em discovered Pepto, it settled her stomach enough to hold down her pain meds, which helped her sleep, which helped her feel less weak and sick, which… You get the “upward spiral” idea. Unbelievable as it may seem, that pink goo really turned the tide during the first week of Em’s recovery. That, and Netflix, thanks to which we had a steady stream of DVDs delivered right to the door, so Em could stay in bed and watch them when she felt up to it. The second week was MUCH better, although it was almost three weeks (!) before she could eat solid foods again. Needless to say, she lost some weight during recovery. Oh, and as an added fun surprise, it turns out that “post-tonsillectomy breath” is something that could easily knock a hardy buzzard off its perch. Mercifully, that cleared up around the end of the second week…
[For those of you in the states who care or might be wondering, I'd definitely recommend Netflix, although you probably want to support your local indie-friendly video store - assuming you have one. For those in the Bay Area, you may want to try GreenCine.com, which is a blatant Netflix ripoff with an emphasis on "Alternative" films, and an interesting emphasis on the film community in the SF Bay Area. I'm going to be switching from Netflix to GreenCine myself at the end of the month, and we'll see how it goes.]
Between work being busy (including a quick trip to Seattle, and another to lovely Turlock, CA), and taking care of Em, I just didn’t feel like blogging. And right around the time Em was finally getting back to fully-healed-up, we headed to Florida to spend two weeks staying with my parents in Hallandale Beach. During that time, our internet access was limited to late-night dialup sessions, and two trips to the nearest Starbucks to drink from the twin (heavenly!) streams of Grande Drip and T-Mobile WiFi Access (making it the most civilized spot we visited in Florida). But we bravely went without DSL for two weeks - I didn’t think we’d make it, but we did. But being on vacation, and offline most of the time, put blogging at the bottom of my to-do list.
We flew to Florida on December 20th, and chilled out for a couple of days after we got there. My brother (Eddy), his wife (Heidi), my niece (Reanna) and nephew (Shane) were down from Toronto, staying near Heidi’s parents (Edna and Arthur), who have a place up around Deerfield Beach (or thereabouts). So we managed to hook up with them (that’s a party of 10, if you’re counting) for dinner on our second night, which was nice. On the 23rd, Em and I got into the car with my parents drove up to Orlando. I had a 24-hour flu bug hit me the day before, but was well enough to drive to Orlando, and pretty healthy thereafter. Em, on the other hand, managed to toss her cookies in the back seat, even though she’d taken some Pepto before we headed out. [Note: She won't leave home without Pepto now - I'm serious. She could do commercials.] Thankfully, Em’s such a professional barfer that she’d actually brought a bucket with her “just in case”. No, I’m not making this up. And yes, it sure came in handy. Props to my mom, also in the back seat, who didn’t even flinch as Em painted the inside of the bucket.
Somehow (read: Starbucks along the Florida Turnpike - YES!) we survived the trip to Orlando, and we spent the next day at Universal Studios (a couple of cute shows, but a yawn overall - skip it) with my parents, and the following day at EPCOT (top of the theme park food chain - DON’T skip it). Yes, we spent Christmas at Disney, and yes, it was a Very Disney Christmas. It was actually a pretty fun trip, for the most part, and we got some great photos from it. They’re on SnapFish (along with some other pics of various members of my family) for now, and maybe I’ll get around to uploading some of the better ones to my own gallery.
Probably the best part of the trip (aside from learning a lot of great stories from my parents, jokes from my dad, and recipes from my mom) was a side trip Em and I took to the Everglades National Park. We’d taken an airboat tour just outside a smaller region of the park (up north, near Boca) with the entire family (party of 10!) a few days earlier, and while it was fun to have that experience as a group it only whetted our appetites for the “real deal”. Shark Valley is very much the real deal. We made a quick stop in Everglades City first, and then doubled back along highway US 41 (aka “The Tamiami Trail“) to Shark Valley. I wish we’d given more time to the Everglades - the whole area is simply amazing. Even the local post office is something to see. The Everglades is apparently the number one national park in terms of biodiversity - and you can get really close to a lot of it. REALLY close. We were often within a few FEET of alligators longer than I am tall. (Apparently, they won’t usually mess with you unless you mess with them first, or they’re guarding their young.) And the birdwatching is pretty amazing - egrets, heron, anhinga, red-shouldered hawks, swallows…
[Shark Valley Trivia: Despite the name, THERE ARE NO SHARKS IN SHARK VALLEY, NOR IS THERE ANY REALLY OBVIOUS VALLEY. First off, while there are many, many alligators (in case you absolutely insist on being eaten by *something*), there are definitely no sharks. The "shark" part of the name comes from the fact that the surrounding waters run from the Shark River Slough, which itself runs through Everglades National Park. Shark River is so named because sharks supposedly come into the mouth of the river to give birth - but even if that's true the mouth of the river is a loooong way from Shark Valley. The "valley" part of the name is often disputed, but our tour guide maintained that it was accurate. Florida is one of the lowest, flattest states, with the point of highest elevation being only about 400 feet above sea level. The Everglades is particularly low and and flat, even by Floridian standards, and the "mountains" which contain Shark Valley are only a few feet high. Still, water flows (albeit VERY slowly) through Shark Valley, contained by areas of (marginally) higher elevation on both sides, which means it is indeed - if only technically - a valley. Now you know.]
Perhaps the second-best part of the trip (it’s hard to rank these things) was a quick trip with Em and my dad to Calle Ocho (Spanish for “Eighth Street”). As the name implies, it’s a stretch of SW 8th Street (which happens to be the easternmost part of the Tamiami Trail), just west of downtown Miami, and it’s the main drag in a part of Miami known as “Little Havana“. Again, we didn’t spend nearly enough time there. Still, we got to pay a visit to the El Credito Cigar Company, where we got to watch them hand-roll a few stogies (even my dad thought it was cool), and I picked some up for my brother Eddy, and for our friend Sebastian, both of whom appreciate a good cigar. And I got to buzz around “Domino Park” (Maximo Gomez Park) for a few minutes, taking pictures of all the old men hanging out and playing dominoes and chess. We strolled along the Calle Ocho “Walk of Fame” to the cool-as-it-is-cheesy “Little Havana To Go” gift shop (read: blatant Tourist Trap, but a nice one). I even bought a souvenir - a small Cuban cookbook. I doubt I’ll ever make anything in it (possible exception: Mojo cubano - also known as a Mojito), but hey, it’s a souvenir.
We also just did some driving around the Miami area, taking in South Beach, the downtown area, and the “motel row” part of Collins Avenue, a stretch of A1A running through an area known as Sunny Isles. At least it *used* to be motel row. Most of the classic places I remember from when I was a kid are gone now - most of those, it seems, just within the last 5-10 years. Funky, kitschy, retro-deco, themed beachfront motel properties (many with names shamelessly stolen from Vegas hotels, like The Sahara, The Desert Inn, and The Dunes) have been replaced by huge, modern, stylish steel-and-glass hotels and/or condominums. Think “Trump”, and you get the idea. The same goes for the once-stately (and later the once-rundown) Diplomat Hotel, just north of where my parents live. Completely razed, and a beautiful new tower (many times larger) erected on the spot. The new building are nice and all, and the old ones really were getting grungy, but those grungy old places (cliched-but-true, sorry) had *character* that the new ones completely lack. And it’s always strange to come back to a place you remember and see that it’s been so transformed (in a relatively short time!) you barely recognize it. In general, the whole area has gone mad with renovation and new construction, mostly as an extended effect of the “South Beach Boom”. When I was a kid, South Beach was a place full of old people in odd pastel-colored buildings, and in old, run down (but still beautiful) four-storey hotels, most of them with a uniquely “Miami” deco look. I’d only ever been down there (it wasn’t “a destination” in those days) because a good friend of my parents owned one of those little hotels for a short while. [Sadly, he's since passed away, but yes, that place must be worth a fortune now.] Miami Vice spurred one of the first revivals of the area, but then somehow South Beach became an international hotspot for the rich and famous - like Aspen, but hot and sandy instead of cold and snowy. Now that whole area is fancy restaurants, fancy shops, and fancy nightclubs, and the old hotels have (mostly) all been renovated and restored BEYOND their former glory. Cute in some ways, a little sickening (conspicuous wealth, anyone?) in others - I didn’t bother getting out of the car, to tell you the truth. Plus, non-valet parking is now impossible in South Beach, and I was in the middle of that 24-hour flu I mentioned earlier…
During one such drive around Miami, we stopped at the Holocaust Memorial. My parents and I had been there before (it opened to the public in 1990), but the experience isn’t diminished on subsequent visits, and of course Em got to see it for the first time. It’s very beautiful, and very tragic, and it’s hard to even imagine what it’s like for my parents. My mom cried a bit, and was visibly shaken, despite having been there before. “Now I remember why I don’t come here,” she said. We didn’t stay too long…
We also drove down to Villa Vizcaya (aka “Vizcaya Museum & Gardens”, and sometimes the “Hearst Castle of the East”). It’s no Hearst Castle, but it’s nice enough, and it has a great location on the bay). My parents hung out on the grounds while Em and I did a quick run around the building (walking the grounds is free, but getting into the Villa is not), since they’d been-there-done-that before. Later on we ran into my mom in the gardens and took some pictures of each other there - there no photos allowed inside the Villa itself, just on the grounds. I might suggest skipping it, but the grounds and gardens are a nice, quick (free!) stroll if you’re ever in that area.
No trip to Hallandale Beach would be complete without a visit to the Flea Market. There are plenty of flea markets in that area, but the Swap Shop (aka the Thunderbird Flea Market) is the mother of them all. Em and I picked up a decent piece of luggage for less than $20 (we needed the extra capacity for the return trip, and future trips besides), and I scored a new wallet (a genuine Perry Ellis, no less) for $12. But I just like going to the flea market - I’m funny that way. There’s something about the endless rows of stalls, people hustling to make a buck, people haggling to save a buck, and countless pieces of cheap and knockoff items that appeals to me. I just enjoy walking around and taking it in, even when I don’t buy anything. I’d normally expect something like that to disgust me, but something in me likes noisy, crowded little markets - flea markets, farmers markets, whatever. Maybe it’s a reaction to the modern, sterilized, indoor shopping mall experience - these places are a lot simpler, and still have a human face. An ugly face, usually, but a human face all the same.
Another highlight of the trip was going to Jai-Alai - twice! The first time out, we struck out, but Eddy and Reanna netted around $100. The second time out THEY struck out, but Em made $50 on a $2 bet - YAY! The main thing is that it’s actually a fun and exciting game to watch (especially when you’ve got two - count ‘em, TWO - hard-earned dollars at stake), and other than Florida, there aren’t many places in North America where you can go to see it played live. If you can’t manage that, and you’ve never seen it, check it out streaming video feeds from Miami Jai-Alai, or check out Extreme Jai-Alai for great live feeds and awesome video clips - especially this one (from an episode of Jackass) in which players at Miami Jai-Alai hurl oranges (at 100+ mph!!) at Johnny Knoxville and Steve O. The video’s a little choppy on my machine, but worth it.
[US Jai-Alai Trivia Factoids: A Jai-Alai fronton in Milford, CT closed in December 2001 (after a 25-year run!) due to declining revenues. And on Sunday, July 13, 2003, live Jai-Alai at the Newport Grand in Rhode Island came to an end after 28 years. (This fellow has an interesting rant about the demise of Jai-Alai in the northeastern US.) And although Jai-Alai's birthplace is the Basque Country, there are more Jai-Alai frontons in Florida than anywhere else in the world. And as far as I can tell, Florida is now the only place in North America where you can still see live Jai-Alai.]
Oh, and yet ANOTHER highlight was treating the gang to gigantic cones (and those are the JUNIOR cones) at Jaxson’s Ice Cream - a South Florida landmark, just down the road from Dania Jai-Alai. And yes, it’s really spelled Jaxson’s. The owner claims he came up with the unusual spelling because his father was Jack, he was Jack’s son, and “X” marks the spot. Whatever. The point is that the place has been in the same spot for 45 years, and the ice cream is hella good, even if the portions are so large it’s sick. It’s basically the Dania equivalent of Mitchell’s, here in our neck of the woods. I remembered it fondly from when I was a kid - although I didn’t remember the cones being so huge I couldn’t put one down by myself. Maybe I was hungrier back then…
Other eating/nostalgia treats included brunch at the original Rascal House (a Miami landmark of Jewish deli cuisine, and a serious trip down memory lane for me - there’s one in Boca now, but phooey on that), and dinner at Bobby Rubino’s, a place that’s famous for barbecued ribs, and where I first learned (as a very young man) the meaning of “Onion Loaf”. Nowadays there are lots of good rib places, and onion loaves (or their equivalents - theink “Awesome Blossom”, “Bloomin’ Onion”, and so on) have become fairly commonplace, but it was nice to get that nostalgia fix out of my system, to get some ribs and fried onions INTO my system. [My sincere apologies to the fine folks at the AHA - I promise I won't do it again. Well, I might.] Oh, and we even squeezed in a dinner at Swiss Chalet in Fort Lauderdale - one of only two in Florida, and six in all of the United States (there are four in New York). This wasn’t technically “Miami nostalgia”, it was more like “Toronto nostalgia experienced near Miami”, but it still counts as a dining/nostalgia experience. For those who don’t know, Em worked at Swiss Chalet for manymany years, and we both love their chicken and fries. Actually, pretty much everyone we know in Toronto loves Swiss Chalet. Above all, it was just fun to visit a place in Florida that we associate so strongly with Canada, and to note the small differences in the menu and venue. It was also funny that about half the cars in the parking lot had Canadian plates - the rest were probably rentals. 
We (the party of 10) spent New Year’s Eve dining at Houston’s in Fort Lauderdale, which was (surprisingly?) good. Then we headed over to Hollywood Beach to see the fireworks. Actually, to try and beat the crowds and gridlock we (my parents, Em, and I) left just *before* the fireworks - we were in the car at midnight, and in bed a short while later. This sounds lame, but I was never much for New Year’s Eve parties. The real highlight of the Beach trip was people-watching - in particular, getting to hear (French-Canadian) French being spoken all around me - it seems like most of Quebec was in Hollywood Beach for New Year’s Eve.
Oh, and one last (miniature) highlight - while walking along the beach one sunny day, my mom asked Em to quickly say “She Sells Seashells by the Waterfront”. Seriously. At which point Em asked “Um, don’t you mean by the Seashore?” and my mom went “Oh, yes - by the Seashore.” But now we (well, I) can’t stop saying “She Sells Seashells by the Waterfront”. It may become a short story title, if I ever write a short story.
We flew back to San Francisco on January 4th. That meant sleeping, unpacking, catching up on snail-mail and e-mail and work, and so on… And then we had Jebava coming over for dinner on the 10th, and **I** was supposed to be the one cooking most of the food. That made for a pretty busy week. The dinner came off alright, considering it was first time trying to pull something like that off. Em helped a lot. Or Em pulled it off, and I helped a lot. Based on the recent lessons from my mom, I made hummus, and baba ganoush (oh, YOU go figure out the transliterations) as appetizers, neither of which came out quite as I wanted (although Em *really* liked the hummus), but I learned a lot in the doing. And Em made bourekas (baked filo-dough triangles filled with a spinach-and-feta mixture), also my mom’s recipe, and served them with hard-boiled eggs, as my mom insists they *must* be served. Those were pretty yummy, although still not as good as my mom’s - next time, we buy thinner phyllo dough. I tried to make red-lentil soup in the manner of Sababa, a restaurant on Steeles Avenue, just north of Toronto. This may be Em’s all-time favorite soup, and I love it, too. I made it the day before, but that didn’t work out so well - the color and texture changed a lot between when it was done and when it was served. Next time, it’s coming hot off the stove - another lesson learned. The main course was lamb and chicken kebabs, with red onion and apricot brochettes, along with a saffron rice - all of that came out better than I expected. The lamb marinade (I used it on some chicken kebabs as well, since Em doesn’t like lamb) was a recipe I found online that turned out to be excellent, and worked well on the chicken as well. Ditto for the rice recipe. And for dessert, Em made “rollie-pollies” (again, my mom’s recipe). Picture a circle of dough covered with jam, nuts, chocolate - anything good, really - that’s rolled into a flattened log, baked, then sliced up crosswise into inch-wide pieces. When my mom made them they came out a little dry, so we ended up overcompensating and making them a little too wet. Another lesson learned. Em’s going to make them again for our upcoming (2nd Annual!) Dessert Party, and I expect they’re going to be a hit.
So there. Now we’re mostly up-to-date, and you know what I’ve been up to. And if I don’t post very often, at least I make up for it with HUGE posts, right? I’m trying to get on the “smaller-more-frequent” posting habit, but it’s not been easy. We shall see…
