A Busy Day at Last

Monday, June 22, 2026

It was up and at 'em bright and early today as I had volunteered to take a family to the airport to catch a flight to their vacation on the island paradise of Maui.

I picked them up at their home at 6:00 a.m. and whisked them off to the . . .

. . . Los Angeles International Airport

Our drive was mostly effortless until, of course, we arrived at the never ending traffic snarl that is LAX.

We finally got to Terminal 6 where their Hawaiian Arlines flight was scheduled to depart in plenty of time to comfortably check in their bags and get through TSA Security.

My task over, I opted to have breakfast at a spot in the nearby Sawtelle district in the western part of Los Angeles that I had only discovered with Michael and Jacob last Fall before attending the Iowa-USC football game.

The Cafe 50's was the spot

Such a colorful mural

NOW we're talking!

Laurie would like LOVE this place

The menu was ample,

I had a serious choice to make

Very . . .

. . . eclectic . . .

. . . 1950s themed decor was

DE RIGUEUR!

These Cheese Blintzes were

AWESOME!

It was still early and the freeways home were still crowded with early morning rush hour traffic.

It was during my second blintz that I remembered that the Cafe 50's was located just a few miles down Santa Monica Blvd. from one of my favorite specialty shopping spots, Eataly.

Eataly's specialty, as you can imagine, is Italian cuisine in all of its delicious shapes and forms.

I recently saw a survey and ranking of the best pastas and sauces. I could not find any of their top choices in our local supermarkets when I looked last week. Perhaps Eataly had them.

I love both Italy and Eataly

Lots of tempting desserts,

GRAZIE but no

Their seafood looked fresh and tasty

These muted colors were not

nearly as appealing

BINGO!

These were two of the highest ranked pasta companies.

Missing is the package of Fellictti brand penne pasta that we had for dinner tonight.

The Mutti brand is highly

regarded for their sauces and tomatoes

The jar of Mutti pasta sauce that I brought home served as the base of Laurie's delicious sauce to go with the Felicetti penne pasta.

Bottles of  Sicilian white and red wines

somehow also came home with me

Our Italian meal tonight was a GOOD ONE!

I was recently asked to join a book club and agreed to the scheme.

Each of the nine members of the club gave two titles to be read in the next 18 months. My two books to be read by the group are Carlos Ruiz Zafón's The Shadow of the Wind and Mark Sullivan's Beneath a Scarlet Sky.

In the afternoon, I headed up to the Barnes and Noble bookstore in Ventura to purchase a copy of the book that we all need to peruse in detail by our first meeting on July 14, Roger Kahn's paean to the 1950s Brooklyn Dodgers, The Boys of Summer.

Besides the book that I needed . . .

. . . I also bought some college football

magazines to better prepare for the

fast approaching 2026 season

The average of these three magazines predictions for our beloved Washington Huskies was a seventh place finish in the rugged 18 university Big Ten Conference and a #20 spot on the nation's Top 25 list.

Initial takeaway, the Transfer Portal makes it tough to stay updated with my favorite teams.

Loyalty and perseverance are no longer part of the fabric of the game it appears to me.

Sorry for the "old man" rant.

Fine Monza Daemons season

ending Facebook poster

The theme was that, despite a tough, hard to digest 28-27 loss in the Italian DII playoff semifinals, the 8-1 Daemons still had a fantastic season.

I full heartedly agree.

Reading Is FUNdamental!

Death takes an interesting

holiday yet again

Death is a female this time around and I, for one, liked the casting.

This was a quick read that brought

back all sorts of fond memories

of my 2010, 33 day, 500 miles

Camino de Santiago stroll

Love those pesky, fun loving Templar Knights of yore.

It was a good day, indeed!