Plook on Tour

Trip update sorry for the delay and you will see a boat load of picture coming to a Post near you…:freak:


So, on Monday we got up early and decided to hit the beaches and do some gift shopping…:bouncing:


Mission one to find the Robert August surfboard shop, he was in Endless Summer I & II he lives in Costa Rica at a surf camp and is still shredding at 78 years young. I had him shape a board for me in 1975 that I took to Hawaii in 1978, he made my twin fin in 1979 (my magic board) and shaped another thruster optional in 1984.


It was very cool to see their old surfboard collection and they had one very similar to the Hawaii Board, I bought a couple shirts and Kat picked up a few things, the lady who has been working with Robert for some time gave us a bottle of wine for our marriage.


Then we met Dale & Becky for lunch at Duke’s at Huntington Pier, they are setting up the beach for the Surfing US Open but we had an obstructed view of the waves which we actually good with not wind. The food is excellent there.


Lunch and talking with them was wonderful, Dale and I did a lot of surfing and skateboarding together, we also went so many concerts including FZ at UCLA Pauley Pavilion in 1977…Unfortunately I found out two brothers who ran with us for a long time died back-to-back not too long ago and they were huge FZ fans...


We then said goodbye to Dale & Becky and headed to the Huntington Beach shops looking for good deals on unique surf clothing and we found some deals. I got an awesome light jacket for $35, unheard of for top brands, some shirts, a hoody, and a nice pair of shorts.


On to Sunset Beach and the Nautical store where the real stuff is extremely expensive and he has everything. We were willing to spend about $150 on something nice but we weren’t in the ballpark. Finally, Kat and I were looking at an Anchor Oil Lamp from Holland that was nice it was on sale for $280 and Kat asked the 85-year-old sea captain looking proprietor who was sharp as a knife what his rock bottom price was and he said $180 since you just got married (we were working the marriage card for all it was worth), so we scooped it up...:roll:


A quick off-ramp, we looked it up on-line this morning and it is a large 6 3/4 “ x 19” and the real ones were $350 to $600 with some as much as $1000+, ours has both vertical cage gridding and horizontal cage gridding which may or may not make it rarer but we know we did good it is already placed in the back patio and it is functional so we will have good light if the power goes out at night.


Next stop Seal Beach and the Main Street Gift Shop near SB Pier, the gal there has awesome stuff very unique and reasonable pricing. We bought gifts for everyone and got us some cool stuff. We hit shops like hers all the time but she has more stuff you don’t see at other shops than anyone which tells me she is probably using a lot of local artisans and crafters, it’s good stuff...


Last stop…get ready for it…the Turkish Lamp Shop in Belmont Shore on 2nd Street the main thorough fair. It was afternoon on a Monday so it was a lot less crowded than on Saturday when we went in and saw some stuff we wanted. These Arabic fellows love to bargain (I heard it is an insult in their culture if you don’t) and we again got the feeling we we’re trying to work a car deal at a car lot…:singer:


The head guy was there kicking back on a sofa after about 20 minutes of bargaining he offered is Turkish Tea which is good but we passed we were in the hunt. We ended up dropping $400 and I got a awesome desk lamp and an extra glass art cover that Kat picked out so we can alternat them, she got a hand forged copper piece. She said out of the salesman ear shot she would use it for a candy dish for the kids and when we asked him what it is for, he said it was a candy dish for holidays and special occasion…lol….


He thru in some trinkets and box of Moroccan pastries with Burma Baklava, Kunafa, and another that I never saw before with a swirled croissant type thing with pistachio honey mix as a topping that is wonderful.


We headed back to work Wednesday after the long drive home Tuesday which we made great time but the final leg I was having trouble staying alert so Kat got us home from Sacramento, I am definitely getting old now and Kat drives like she is in a NASCAR race…


Pictures to come I have a lot to sort through but I will get there…

I had my Pulmonary Test yesterday and my lung capacity was really good but the shocker was my lung x-ray...I had one A little over 20 years ago in my 40's, I had worked in the Shipyards in the 80's and had been doing construction since I was 18.


The technician asked if I had been exposed to dust in my career and I told them that when I had that last x-ray the Doctor said my lugs were caked and I would be lucky to make it to 50.


She said my results were in if I wanted to see so she pulled it up and it said "Normal LUNG Function" I was taken aback she blew up the x-ray and said while she could not diagnose me, my lungs were exceptionally clear with full capacity.


She asked when I switched to Telecommunications I told her a couple years before that and she said it appeared my lungs had cleared up and it can happen...

Today my company had a massive layoff due to the Telecommunication Carriers pulling back due to the economies uncertainty, nearly 1000 Technicians and their support infrastructure are being released in late September.


I fully expected to probably get let go but as a Quality person we also monitor the sub-contractors and they will be taking up the slack so in a weird way my value to the company may have increased.


Some of the people leaving I have worked with for over 12 years, this is extremely sad.


Fortunately the fact that we are a European based company they are giving out generous severance packages and have put together a Team to try and place those who will be released with other companies including the sub-contractors.


A dirt bag American company would have cut them loose and never looked back. The difference with this company is we had a Teams Town Hall this morning and the VP of Operations looked like he was just forced to put his kids up for adoption you could actually feel his pain for these people.


I feel like I dodged a bullet for now...

We are headed out to the Amphitheater to see Tears For Fears with the Cold War Kids, should be fun and the Hard Rock Casino is right next door I believe there is a Crap Table in my future...

Sorry for not posting for a while but I have been busy at work and trying to move Kat in while cleaning stuff out, we are getting there...:duh:


The Tears For Fears concert was really fun and they played excellent, I got to play craps for about 45 minutes before the concert and I probably won $300 to $400 but went for the gold at the end and ended walking out $11 ahead. At the end 2 people crapped out when I had over $200 on the table both times, if either roll would have went for another 10 to 15 minutes I would have won thousands I had the table covered like a glove...:wow:


I saw the new heart doctor today he does hybrid convergent ablation which is a fancy way of saying they eliminate the things that cause you to reach A-Fib. Although the Cardiogram seems to have worked this is a recommended procedure that can keep you from having a reoccurrence.


They were saying I may not get in until next year because they are booked so I sweet talked the scheduler and while I was supposed go on a cancelation waiting list she had one that just came in on September 1 so she gave it to me, that is only 3 weeks out...:guitar2:


I will try to get going on posting pictures soon...Now I have to get back to work helping them with figuring out how to replace me with a micro-chip...

Well I am South of the Border

Update...:drums:


The procedure went well I got home yesterday but I doubt I will be doing any golfing until next Sunday my groin area where they went in is sore as well as my heart where they cauterized the veins that caused the electrical rhyme of the heart to go out of sync.


The surgical room looked like it was from Sar Tek it was very high tech so you know me I love that stuff and I asked a million question during the in room prep because they load you up with sensor, stick on pads, EKG and wrap you in layers of stuff like a taco...lol...


They even had this mini heart MRI they could swing over the table, there were at least 7 people in there a combination of 2 doctors one for each side, 2 surgical nurses, 2 technicians and an anesthesiologist. With several huge monitors along with ever other conceivable device in there.


I am glad I got the cancelation date I was not going to be able to schedule until January and if I did this year, I would save at least 3 or 4K on the procedure because I have almost maxed out my Share of cost...:grin:


Well sorry for going on so long I feel like I got a new lease on life which is exhilarating...:guitar2:

Good news Plook and now you can say you have visited the Starship Enterprise, You sure you weren't abducted by Aliens giving you a probing.....
Was Inca Roads playing in the background by chance

Thank you all I am feeling very good, I have been riding my bike every day, I got to golf last Sunday and I played well.


I booked a trip to LA for a reunion of the old neighborhood in two weeks, that should be interesting.


In fact I am feeling so good lets bring back a blast from the past....:drums:

Today is my Birthday which I am trying to ignore because I am now 65...

Happy birthday the mighty plook!!!



Happy birthday from the Swedish Chef

Have a great birthday ye olde pirate

Thank you all...


We just had a fantastic spaghetti dinner the Daughter Plook the Younger made...:bouncy:


Next weekend I am flying to LA our old neighborhood is having a reunion one of the family's still live there should be fun...:grin:

Headed to the airport to fly to LA for my Neighborhood Reunion.


I talked to one of my close contacts and he heard they had 70 people confirm, I hope they have name tags or I'm screwed...

Just tell them your name is Plook then everything will be fine

The trip to LA for the reunion was epic, there were about 80 people there with approximately 30 people I grew up with and the rest everyone's extended family's.


I saw people I had seen for 30 years or more so it was awesome. The neighborhood Mom that her 90th birthday set up the event was all there (her memory was amazing she is old but mentally young) and being an Elvis fan they had an Elvis impersonator that did great and was very funny.


They had a mobile Mexican food cook who had an impressive set-up and was continuously cooking for about 2 hours.


I drove back to my room by LAX (Airport) that evening and did the quick return in the morning.


I was driving home from the airport it was early (about noon) I had my Golf Clubs in the car so I decided to stop at the course (it is on the way back) and got a fun round in. That was the first time I have teed off there later than the butt crack of dawn in years...

Quote: Originally posted by Plook

tinkamok - I am backed up on tons of photos and may soon have plenty of time to post, hopefully I can avoid that. I really need to kick it into gear. I was going to go back and chronologically add them but may change my strategy and start with the wedding.

Plook , i am hoping you stay busy with your current job and post the photos as time allows .
Fingers crossed for you .

Well there has been a Blue Moon Full Moon event going on for a few days, it is a huge harvest moon around these parts...:wow:





Somehow that got Kat and I wound up on Friday and we got the ship out...:freak:






And ended up having a spontaneous Jellyfish event...:shocked:






It has been a minute...

Friday Night is her...:guitar2:

I saw this and I will post it as I found it, enjoy...:grin:


A teacher gave a balloon to every student, who had to inflate it, write their name on it, and throw it in the hallway. The teacher then mixed all the balloons. The students were then given 5 minutes to find their own balloon. Despite a hectic search, no one found their balloon.

At that point, the teacher told the students to take the first balloon that they found and hand it to the person whose name was written on it. Within 5 minutes, everyone had their own balloon.

The teacher said to the students: "These balloons are like happiness. We will never find it if everyone is looking for their own. But if we care about other people's happiness, we'll find ours too."

May your day be filled with happiness. ❤️




I got your balloon...

Here, have a balloon!

here is a Zappa Balloon for you... :mad:

She's to much of an air head for me...

Everyone have good Thanksgiving although I know it is a US holiday, but get yourself some bird...





That's just wrong...:shocked:

It’s the Plook on Tour Jumbo Update #1



On Thanksgiving we were slated to go to Kats sisters but that fell throw so The Daughter Plook the Younger came over since Izzy was in Colorado visiting her dad.



We were going to make a Thanksgiving turkey dinner with one of the side dish's lasagna like my mom used to make. But a dinner like that for 3 people is going to have a lot of left overs, so we decided to do Italian Thanksgiving and had Lasagna (my mom’s recipe) with my famous Caesar Salad and garlic bread. We had extra meat so my daughter made meat balls!








Friday Kat had to work because banks cannot close for more than 3 days in a row so I went golfing, it was windy and cold but beautiful.












I shot 85 with 8 pars 6 bogeys and 4 double bogeys some of the holes playing into the head wind were rough.



Saturday we went to a furniture store in Roseville which is a city north east of Sacramento about 45 minutes away, we need a couple dressers to finalize Kats move in. They did not have what we wanted in stock there but we will purchase on-line so we got our credit pre-approved.



On the way home we stopped at Thunder Valley Casino we have not done that for a while, bad stuff can happen in casinos...:duh:









Kat played a penny machine and miraculously won $225 in about 20 minutes…:grin:


I went over to the crap table and it was minimum $15 a bet (about $120 to cover the numbers and hardway’s alone)…:freak:






I threw done $200 to buy in worked the table for about an hour and a half and cashed out with $725 that is a win…:bouncing:



There were 6 rollers with me as the last one for my time at the table and each time the table crapped out I left $120 to $200 on the table so I went through about another $900 of the casinos money that stayed with them, one guy cashed out when I did and he was placing $25 bets and more and he had nearly $4000 when he left…It was fun and a success.



We left Happy Campers...







Sunday I went golfing again no wind but it was 30 degree’s that is nothing to Bonny but very cold for a California surfer dude…:wow:



Left at the butt crack of dawn but there was a 2-hour frost delay.








Walked out to the driving range with my frozen balls to try and warm-up...








Once the frost burned off it was a wonderful day…









I shot 83 with 9 pars 6 bogeys and 3 double bougies...Not bad for a broken down old man...


Went to Kats afterwards to move some of her stuff out of the rental (they have to be completely out by 11/15) and her Lemon tree had some huge lemons that caused a branch to break off, I have never seen lemons this large…:shocked:










Flash Back Bonus here is a seen from the Wedding after the “I do’s” and Kiss we danced down the aisle to Luna Mezza Mare (Crazy Mary) an Italian song that I had heard my whole life at weddings, I never realized how…shall we say spicy it was, check out the lyrics…:roll:







https://youtu.be/Cj0EwLB8EQA?si=JRWrNacesjuwjWBe

Here are 3 hole in one near misses that made me cry...



This was the beginning of summer hole number 8 a 135 yard par 3 into the wind hit a low knock down and the ball went around the cup and stopped there...:shocked:





This one was middle of summer a number 14 a 145 yard par 3 there is a sand trap that protects the front of the green so I clubbed up and threw the ball supper high in the air to come more straight down the divot is where the ball landed in front of the hole, instead of rolling straight in it turned to the right and missed the cup...:wow:







This was about 4 weeks ago a 165 yard par 3 water on the right a huge pot bunker in the front right and heavy rough on the left the entry is a narrow keyhole the has an elevation rise front to back of about 7 feet, I went 2 clubs up and choked down to get a low line drive, the ball landed in the front of the green and rolled right to the hole breaking left to right about 6 feet towards the hole the entire 30 feet or so (There is still moisture on the green and you can follow the the line of the ball path if you zoom in and you look close you can see the divot in the fore ground)...This one was a killer...:freak:




I'm so pissed off now I need to go golfing...(

tinkamok we're scraping by and the Movie Star Hair isn't what it used to be but its there...

Thank you all!...


We had a meeting this morning with all the players from the different groups working to keep myself and my counterpart Ron permanently employed (as possible...:duh.


The turn out included some big players and they were all pleased to hear we got Extended (Like that gal in any kind of pain...).


One of the upper management people couldn't help but ask "didn't anyone plan for your roles when this decision was made?" they literally have no one we have trained or any plans to replace us...:puzzled:



Now for the funny...So Friday night we decided to celebrate since we had been laying low for a few weeks and ended up with the ships sails out and headed for some wrestling...:bouncy:






I was wearing dress pants with under armor because it was in the low 30's, I got in such a hurry to get in my wrestling suit that I forgot about the under armor got hung up started tipping over as Kat looked on and I went throw the closet door and hit the floor...:shocked:






Kat laughed her ass off and all turned out fine, but I have a bruise on my ass the size of a grape fruit...:wow:

Well done Plook - go easy on the armour

[img/]https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/MIwAAOSwOvZhHfkJ/s-l500.jpg[img]

Bloody image is not working lol

Eddie great news for you, take a consulting position part time...

When consulting you can still fuck-off all day, consulting from the beach, consulting from the pub, etc...just no consulting from the wrestling match they may think you're exceptionally excited about their project...

Especially if there is Jelly involved

Good to hear Plook, Ship Ahoy

We are doing the final push on getting Kat out of her old house need to be complete by Friday, I have stuff stacked all over the house and two storage units, as well as we order new bedroom furniture that arrives Friday...:shocked:

You;ll need a drink after all that

It’s a Plook on Tour Randomonium update



We finish moving everything out Kats house worked on that every night this week with a final clean up last night. The final walk through is this morning so we are headed over there soon...:drums:







The furniture came yesterday, I expected it in boxes needing assembly but lo and behold it was assembled, so now we have a full day getting rid of the old and bringing in the new...:shocked:







Tomorrow is Golf Day last week we had an hour and a half frost delay, burr...:wow:







Someone sent me this picture from about 1976 it looked like it could have been an album cover from the 70’s of some exciting new rock band...:guitar2:







I had to share some Christmas cheer (this ones for Bonny)...

It’s a Plook on Tour Christmas Round-up



Last weekend we got the new furniture in and the old furniture in Storage, as I had said it was assembled but we had to build the bed of course. The bad news no directions, but I have built my share of stuff over the years and was able to do it the first time. My secret, separate the hardware before you start and figure out what hardware goes where before you construct…:drums:






We got the tree up, decorated and presents wrapped Wednesday (late is better than never)…:guitar2:







Golfed at the butt crack of dawn on Saturday since the course was closed over Christmas it was crisp and cold (never got out of the 40’s) but we had fun…:bouncing:










Christmas was nice I had placed the ornament my sister gave me on the tree…:kiss:






Kat found this on Facebook, well I am not an organized religion type of guy it is amazingly creative…:wow:






We make Christmas Pizza’s every year a Family Tradition from Terri’s family…:grin:






The dinner included the Daughter Plook the Youngers world famous scallop potatoes…:roll:






I made a Prime Rib Roast and we also had string beans, Okie Salad, and rolls...:bouncy:






And for some funny…




I hope everyone's Holiday is grand...

I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year and may you prosper in 2024...

Today is 12/31/23 123123...

Happy new year Plook and everyone in Packard land

It’s a Plook on Tour New Years Wrap-up


On 12/31/23 (that is 123123)…:drums:


My day sounds like Ray Liotta’s character Henry Hill when he had his ridiculously busy day…


Started the day Golfing at the butt crack of dawn it was cold, moist and misty…:guitar:





Hit an awesome shot on hole #2…:bouncing:




Saw this big Blue heron on hole #3…





Came home cooked the meet, chopped the vegetables, and started the chili…





We had boxes and stuff all over the house so we had to clean everything up including the garage which was stacked, the room needed some pictures hung, we threw it together quick…:bouncy:





We had our wedding decoration on the Christmas Tree…:shy:





Snacks on the table…:roll:





Chile was done to perfection…:kiss:





Karaoke TV was fired up…:guitar2:




:singer:...Bonus points if you can guess what performer is on and triple bonus if you guess which song...:shocked:


Had a fire outback on a cool night…






Now for 2023 bonus coverage…:offtopic:


Surf in Half Moon Bay (2 hours from Plook Palace) a couple days before NYE…:wow:





We were trying to decide what built this nest at a cell site we were surveying at work with a drone…:shocked:





There was only one possible answer…





Site survey for a 2024 Project at Space X…





That’s All Folks!!!

Maybe it was his underpants that made you laugh

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2194594/Elvis-under...

Quote:

A pair of unwashed briefs belonging to Elvis Presley - they were worn by Presley under one of his jump suits in 1977 and were chosen because the singer never wanted lines visible through his jumps suits

The stains are a little disturbing and how to you get those authenticated...

I smell a lawsuit coming...

Quote: Originally posted by Plook

Hey I'm an idiot, but I try, I should at least get a participation award...:freak:

Nobody here thinks you're an idiot, least of all me, you idiot!

Mine would be up there but I can't spell IQ or Frank Zappa correctly...

Saame Heaar :devil:

Was that Gail or Jail Zappa