The Panera Experiendce

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            Okay, yes, it's Saturday, but that doesn't automatically
mean, Joyce and I would be on the road and yet, that was the case, as
it were, what happened to us as we headed out to do a few chores.
             We had heard about Panera, way before it came, between
inside information, signs early on, and then wham-o, it was here, and
we hadn't been yet, and so, today was the day.  Though a few out of
the way errands had to be run, including going to the Community Market
and getting a fresh batch of bulk tea, which I usually get every three
months or so, and today I ended up with five different types which
gives me the fusion flavor profiles I enjoy so much.
             We were always amazed that here in this desolate spot,
next to the CVS on Steele Lane, just before you get to Mendocino
Avenue they were somehow going to get this, what turned out to be a
totally different format, not only in layout and movement, but the
interior design is, for me at least, unique in it's character.  The
wooden shutters, the furniture, the material on the walls, and the use
of long tables which would accommadate large groups or families, not
to mention the gas fireplace in the middle of two divided rooms was
enough to leave your eyes wide eyed and bushy tailed.  All of this is
geared not only for the neighborhood, demographically speaking, but
also entails ambiance and dealing with business people in the area,
for a quick lunch, or dinner on the way home from work.
            Joyce and I only really had one quirk, and that would be
when we go out to eat, especially what we consider to be a restaurant
or cafe, that sitting and being waited on, is the cat's meow.  Now
that aside, the easy to read menu signs, the staff handing you a
personal menu for closer views, the bakery layouts and easy to read
menu and price cards on all the offerings are quite visual and
delightful.
           It took us quite awhile to decipher our choices, since
there were such a diversity of offerings, but also combinations and
sizes to all the items, but once the choice was made, while we were
there, we got waited on quickly, and even told we could go with the
combo meals to make our bill even cheaper.  The manager gave us
history of the franchise, and a little of the business culture, when
we asked, and later gave us fifty percent off on our pastry order.  If
you join the club, the next time you go, you get a free cookie or
pastry, and after that, random discounts, and you can register for a
two thousand dollar survey, if you are that type of person, like I am.
Though, to tell you the truth, I have never won anything by these
surveys, but if you have peeves, well get them out on the internet,
and don't be supplying 24 hours a day news networks with any going
postal news.
            We got a cup of soup, and in our case it was onion and
steak chile, which came with sweet cornbread in the chili itself, and
a torn hunk of bread as a side.  Along with the combo, we each got
half of a chicken chipotle pannini, which was really good, and both
the pannini bread and the hunk of whatever bread on the side was soft
and sweet.
             So if you're on that side of Santa Rosa, and don't mind
the line to order, and want to check out a completely different
format, or need a sweet pastry fix, then this is the place you need to
check out, at least once.  After that, who knows other than your
shadow, whether or not you want this type of culinary experience.  The
salads were next on our list to try, if we do, and certainly, the
bakery goods look like a spot visit, every once in a while, if you
aren't going to Healdsburg or Freestone for the Good Stuff.
             Again, this is Steven, hoping you are not craving this
too much, knowing all of you look forward to the many other facets of
dining here in Sonoma County, Child, saying only once could just Be
Enough of This...!!!!

Laurie in San Francisco at Kuleto's

           On a clear, bright and crisp morning, in February, on one
of those Barbar Streisand on a "Clear Day, You Can See Forever", Joyce
and I headed out on the Highway, looking for adventure, whatever would
come our way, with my Cousin Laurie Watt, from New Orleans, where
above all else, we found out that the streets close down on Wednesday
at midnight on Mardi Gras, where Cinderella's coach would turn into a
Pumpkin, without the horses or the Henchmen, just the day after Fat
Tuesday, and the way they measure the success is by how many tons of
trash they collect.
           Often times on the way to our destination we take a few
shots so everyone can feel some emotion, and today, the Lucy in the
Sky with Diamonds view was the emotion of the day, so a shot just
before the 580 offramp to go to the Richmond Bay Bridge, a few shots
of the Golden Gate Tunnel and one of the skyscape looking thru the
suspension spans of the Golden Gate gave you a little meterological
whiplash as we entered ourselves into the "City".  Along with those
images, a quick view of a new tunnel just before we got a shot of the
dome at Fort Mason, which Joyce took a nice verbal swing that it could
be a future "Smart Train" tunnel finished off our Tales of Power
rolling into the Hilton on O'Farrell Street.
           Once we found our way into the parking garage, and into
the elevator down to the Lobby on the 3rd floor, I had the desk ring
up Laurie in her room, and she was down post haste.  The Glads were
great, so a shot of those, some plastic food and plastic cupcake
displays on the way to Kuleto's rounded out the brisk walk for our
Culinary Extravaganza.
           We actually got there before they opened and spent some
time in the bar, downing a few drinks and talking about our trip on
the Rhine, a few quick quips about family and relatives, and off we
were to the culinary racetrack. For those of you that want to browse,
www.kuletos.com  is the link you want to mess with. The three of us
posed for a picture in front of the fireplace which I had seen on the
web, and settled in first with a round of appetizers.  We placated a
few whimsical nuances with a typical calamari, which was fresh and
light. Then some Carppaccio with cannelonii white beans and some
grilled shrimp, sausage and polenta, which both Joyce and I thought to
die for, though Laurie had no clue as to what Polenta was, and then to
fill in some kaliedoscope eye arrangement, we dabbled in a trio of
roasted beet salad surrounded by a ring of arugula, though it came as
a suprise that Laurie, again, not that she didn't know what beets
were, but that they were on her list of no-no's, not one from beeting
a political drum, but since childhood they were not on the list of
culinary fare for herself.
              Not that you would want to hold your breath in
anticipation, but next we each partook of a main dish.  Laurie got
what the waiter suggested which turned out to be fetticinne in a white
sauce, and I had a ribbion pasta with a duck bolognaise, and Joyce
indulged in some beautiful and lavscious grilled eggplant, and away we
went, tiny bubbles and all, into cavalcade of flavor profiles too long
to describe, but let it be known, that it wasn't just the first pass
of delight, but they all seemed to linger until we ran headlong into
the wall of desserts.
                For our dessert entourage we indulged in three
glorious past times, the first being a Tiramisu, that we had never
seen before, an Apple Creme Brulee and one of my favorites, a
Chocolate Mousse Torte, which Laurie, and if I told you the effect it
had on her, I would have to kill you, so just let it be said she was
quite a satiated woman after that experience.
                 On our way back to the Hilton, we stopped into a
hotel, Hotel Nikko, and I couldn't find a website, so your just gonna
have to find it yourself, which her boss at work in New Orleans had
done some or all of the interior decoration inside, and he had
intimated to Laurie that it was sort of like Alice in  Wonderland
decor, being oversized, so I took a few pictures, but to no scale,
since we didn't sit in them and take a picture.  I can tell you that
the blown glass planter in the window with the curtains had to be at
least nine feet tall, so let your imagination run wild.  I do think we
all came to the conclusion that there was a little Alice going on, and
the pills that mother gives you don't do anything at all, go ask
Alice, when she's ten feet small.
                 So, as the day started to cloud over upon descent
from our meal and our visit with Laurie, remember, from New Orleans,
and started to look as if some rain was soon going to be within our
midst, if only by the stroke of Midnight, and again Cinderella is
starting to mellt, not the wicked witch of the north, by any means,
this is Steven, the cavalier intruder into your religious escapades or
your serene nap on a perfect memorial Sunday, leaving no stone
unturned, or any pond ripples ingnoring their future fortunes, live
long and prosper in the wake of your Dreams, Child

Rippling Memoirs

                           It isn't time that tells the stories of the lives we live, but the vapor trails of our thought patterns broadcast outward into our external environment that represent us as role models.  We are not seeking any advantage or trying to change anyone's mind about anything, just living out the successes of our choices along the change of events we eventually choose to take.
                          You may be aware during the present encounter what you are up to, or you may mask the affair as an inevitability protruding into your consciousness cast as an external manipulation of the facts at any given time, but the ripples these events play on your memoirs in later acquisitions in your absent minded stares out into the horizons in the distance add nuances to the weaving's of the fabric of your life.
                          Don't you know that you aren't aware of what you have until it's gone, and the beach front properties you never seriously considered purchasing that left you pondering in any point in your life, whether you liked it or not, become, in all their glory, never ending stories.  You can't query where did all that time, experience and zest for life go, because you were there, it was real and if you so choose, you can linger during these linear projections as long as you like, realizing that those moments do not in any real sense occupy time, so when you return after four days in space, your life so still, in the present, is the same old place.
                          With these little glimpses fulfilling your desire to embellish about the past, allow visions that were planted in your brain, remain.  The soliloquy that somehow clouds your brain in these short  interludes,will always clear in the ancient recollections of knowing, when you allow yourself the dances that follow tripping the light fantastic, letting  those ripples gain footholds in your present memoirs.

The Misguided Political Roadtrip Rhetoric

                I'm not sure which freeway exit had entered my head, or whether or not the gallivanting would seemingly bring me to a form of solace, yet I looked forward to foraging through the maladies I would find within the rhetoric.
                I heard rumblings in the distance about how liberals are afraid to admit to their heritage, and yet the nonsense thrown out into the Universe by these proud Conservatives were merely vile cat calls mapping the meridians of how liberals hate the rich and want to take their money, like Robin Hood and pass it out to the poor. A few misguided, but seemingly altruistic points of view on their road trips to mediocrity.
                 I think it is more telling that the Conservatives find it incredulous for the average citizen to view all the money that is spent dishing out nasty conundrums of commentary against their fellow compatriots so they can gain some footholds into the lunatic fringes of their base, as a form of insanity when the middle class that they used to represent is finding it hard defining itself these days.
                The idea that people anywhere want something for nothing borders on crossing over the meridians of sanity, when most of the general public that finds itself on the crossroads of fiscal calamity, just want to contribute their skill sets and their work ethics to further the foundations of  the communities in which they so frequently find themselves inhabiting.  And if these social safety nets that conservatives endear themselves to squawking about, maybe by putting those people receiving such free lunches would just be used to rebuild the infrastructures, teach the children and take care of the senior citizens, then maybe the lights on the main drag could turn from red to green again and these conservative juggernauts can go on perusing their enchanted lifestyles of the rich and famous.
              To help out these rascals that don't want to donate some of the riches they have obtained on the backs of the worker bees that so freely gave of themselves to put them in the lifestyles they so generously now preside in, then maybe an alternative to those concepts would be to invest in new technologies that would put them in even more extravagant fiscal menageries .  This would not only give them the satisfaction that comes with providing sustenance to those that have their hands out, but add to their coffers of unintended monetary mediocrity.
              Somewhere along the highways and byways these outstanding citizens of what is supposedly, according to these philandering representative conservatives, the greatest country in the history of the world have spent their free time taking wrong turns on their excursions by spewing nonsense like the President is Muslim, that he is the most dangerous President we have ever had, and he wasn't even born in this country, so he has no legal or constitutional right to be President.  His liberal leanings, though often representing the middle of the road applications in passed legislation by trying to compromise his own prerogatives, to satisfy their wills and whims, gets him peanut gallery salutations of being a fascist, a communist and unpatriotic.
               When the concepts came down the road on the Supreme Court's decision on Citizens United, the Jericho walls of Sobriety came tumbling down, blocking the often sane ideals of alternative routes to political, moral and societal destinations of the original road trips mapped out in the Constitution of the United States.  Now we find ourselves taking vacations from reality by spending all our values of intellectual property on lobbying and buying instead the influence of those that legislate the boundaries of government.
               Sure we need to implement the ideology of less government, but not just the conservative concepts surrounding taxes and regulations that provide some assurance to the communities of humans being, but we must find some other way of defining individual liberties, so conservatives can leave their interventions into our private lives alone.  Their financial freedom gives them the ability to stay above the fray, but shouldn't give them the right to take away our personal liberties from afar.  They want their guns, but they want to tell us what we should be doing in our own representations of love, in and out of sight, and what we should as individuals, ingest into or how we take care of our own bodies.
                As for healthcare mandates, if everyone had to purchase healthcare, then the price would be more reasonable.  Instead of putting the emphasis of healthcare on a profit based motif, and having to deal with the costs associated with catastrophic healthcare as opposed to preventative medicine, so we could control the vast majority of the initial costs to the individual consumer.  We could also apply varying degrees of healthcare, so as to implement some forms of pier pricing.
                Now matter what road trip you deem necessary to follow in the streams of political rhetorical perspective, one thing still stands out as a way to get a grip on meeting some form of political will to balance the budget. Who thought of government workers or politicians having free healthcare plans and government pensions.  All politicians and government workers shouldn't have free healthcare and government provided pensions when they either get elected out of office, or choose to retire.  They should all have to pay at least a part of their healthcare, like civilian workers do, and they should have to invest in their own pension or retirement plans, just like civilian workers are responsible for.  Even more so, those who actually got to take advantage of those situations in the past, should not get Cost of Living Allowances according to the inflation rate at any given time.  This is so evident when their is a bad economy and less people working, so as to shrink the prevailing tax base, which by the way is what has happened in Greece, and in other partners involved in the European Union.  Thus, for those conservatives, whether they be politicians or not, who don't want us to fall into the welfare state they claim so often the Obama food stamp administration as being a representative of, please accept my apologies when I say, that you are also going to be taken off the welfare roles.
                   For all of the hot air coming from the right about the complaints of main street of speculation, and trying to come to terms with the environmental impacts the corporate world has deemed itself the right to dictate to the general public, who by the way suffers the most from these tragedies, while these Wiley Coyote bigots live the High Life of the one percent, get a grip.  Those people benefiting from the misuse of their responsibilities should stop complaining and start complying to the will of the people, since on a political viewpoint this Democracy is supposedly a representative government of, by and for the people.  The corporations should be regulated on that account, and who gave them the right to be king and to dictate, through money, of all things, to not only the government, but also to the individual mandates of constitutional liberties defined by that government decree.
                 To balance the budget you have to rid yourself of the criminal acts that are continuing by all of the elected official themselves. It is criminal to wage two unfunded wars and an unfunded drug policy for seniors.  No more criminal lobbyists creating economic bubbles for the main street alliances called communities to pay for. All elections should be run by the media, giving free television time, which of course could be paid for either by sponsors or by these monstrosities called Political Action Committees. Each person running for office can get up and explain his ideology, his solutions he would apply to the prevailing problems, and then everyone would get a real understanding of who they were voting for.  Then, once elected, like a regular job, put in your weekly time, whether it be in a legislation mode, or one that is responsible to those people who voted you into office, by finding out what they want as far as the legislation involved that is being voted on, and then go cast your vote as to the majority of people's choice in the matter.  That is what representative Democracy is all about.  When you are no longer fulfilling the duties of your job, then away you go by being voted out of office.  Is this too difficult to understand and is it too much those concepts of a Utopian Society that we are all due since we pay all these inane taxes, so these political monkeys, corporations, and those who control the wealth of the country can spew out the nonsense we are all jealous, envious or trying to take back what we gave them the chance to achieve.  Please explain, in layman's terms and common sense what it is that you think you have a right to bitch about when it is okay to take our country's wealth and ship it overseas, or hide it in untraceable bank accounts offshore.