Bright Days/Dark Nights: French Film

On Thursday I drove down to Santa Cruz to meet Julie for a Girls' Afternoon; we browsed on Crazy Street (Pacific Avenue is a nuthouse scene with great shops); had a retro hamburger-and-shake at Jack's shack; and saw the terrific French thriller, "Tell No One" at a very retro little theatre, the Nickelodeon -- they serve decadent cake squares and cappuccino in the lobby stand. (I'll tell everyone: the film is very dark, but a winner; I just had to remind myself now and then that outside in lovely S.C. the sun was shining brightly and everyone was very laid-back!)  No kidding, though, kids: don't miss this prize-winning film!

The drive back up through the redwoods on Highway 9 put me in a fine sunny mood again; but when I got home and was fixin' to fix dinner, the electricity went down again -- second time in one week.  However, we put our Italian Boot Camp experience to good use: out came the candles and battery-powered lantern; a butane one-burner stove was set up on the front porch; and we cooked up some great ravioli I had in the freezer (gorgonzola/artichoke/walnut filling), in a pot of free-range chicken broth I'd just snarked at New Leaf Market on my way home; and we feasted by candlelight.  Set the dishes in the sink, took a couple of candles to the bathroom to wash up, and we were off to bed in the (really) dark forest.

All was light, in the morning: we'd envisioned toddling on down to Rainbow's End for hot coffee, but we were again all-electric.  This is the problem up here; even the bathwater is heated by P G & E -- oy.  So Joe and KathieB, if you're reading this, better keep the spare bedroom made up, because we may be visiting grandparents more often than you'd appreciate, come the bad weather up here!

So yesterday, in our ongoing quest to prize out every great lunch emporium in the area, we drove over to Scotts Valley at noon, to Malone's Grande Grille -- and it is truly fine.  We sat on a pretty shaded deck and I had cream-of-green-chile chowder with a prime-rib French Dip sandwich; John had Spinach Salad with grilled skirt steak strips; and we were happy in the sunshine.  We went to the Big K-Mart over there in commercial-land, and got a sale bargain on a gas BBQ grill; we need to be able to cook more than pasta/soup when power is out (and thanks to Joe and KB, we now will be able to do that! Bless you, kids!)

So, the weekend is here, and so are we -- been through the light and the dark side of mountain living, and surviving very well indeed!