How do you eat your oatmeal?

So finally, after days of blogging, I'm actually going to blog about...surprise...golf! My Golf Girls Rule blog has turned into Grammy Tammy's Grandkids so I'm changing direction for a moment.

A bunch of us golf girls, associated with Santa Margarita Women's Golf Association, which in the interest of brevity is called SMWGA aka Santa Margarita, traveled to Indio for three days of hot, hot golf. And I mean hot....92-95 degrees but that oh-so-dry heat that feels like, I don't know, 110-115!!!!! Hot!

Very fun time...and yours truly took some money from the girls the first two days but my teammate, Judy and I, ended up with a tie on the last day....yeah, like kissing your sister (if I had a sister) and not just a tie but a four-way tie. The policy, in order to pay the winners, involves a card off....crap! But still....all was fun.

I took my winnings and a bunch of us headed to Lumpy's.....no, not a mattress store, but a...oh, can you guess...golf apparel store. Arrived at Lumpy's at 5 minutes to 6....we were late because Darla, Kathy, Judy and I had to make an emergency stop at Starbucks for oatmeal for our next morning's breakfast by the pool. So we slid into Lumpy's with 5 minutes to shop. Another bunch of the girls showed up right after us...they had gotten lost in the desert somewhere. We all made a significant dent in Lumpy's inventory before heading out to dinner.

The four of us, along with Darla's friend Eileen, ended up at Sullivans....keep that name in mind. Great steaks, fantastic crab-filled shrimp, ice-berg lettuce with blue cheese dressing and blue cheese crumble and Bearnaise sauce for the steaks. Hey, Mr. Sullivan....not nice to charge $3 for the Bearnaise sauce! But what a meal. Darla sprang for the Chianti...I think it was Chianti...I know it was red.....it's a huge stain on my shirt, hanging in the laundry room right now. Dinner was one of those pre-fixe dinners....38 bucks for everything....starter, entree', two sides and dessert. What a deal! Oh, Mr. Sullivan....your chocolate souffle is not a chocolate souffle. Call me...I'll send you a recipe. It was yummy but it was NOT chocolate. Also found a great little Italian Restaurant, Mario's, which scratched our trip to Trader Joe's. Another great meal.

Darla drove us to Indio in her huge Lincoln Navigator....up over the mountain. On the way home we took a shortcut through Hemit (all roads lead to Hemit, Kathy tells us, but then she also told us some far-fetched story about Indiana and drive-in movies and the time change...ask her!) that took an hour longer but who's looking at their watches.

For golf....yeah, I should talk about golf.....three days; three different games. Kathy put together the games. Alibi (throw out three holes); One gross, two net; and Best Ball of Partners. There was even a poker game, after golf, which involved your net scores and playing cards. I didn't win. There also was another late night game that involved dollar bills and dice and a bunch of women kneeled at the edge of a bed, screaming at the top of their lungs....scary. (Note to my grandkids and kids: I only watched!)

Terrific three days; lots of talking; lots of golfing; heaps of laughter. Everyone got along really well, but note to self, do not miss that downhill ten foot putt for par or you'll feel like kissing your sister.

Oh, missing from the above picture was the 22nd girl, Lisa.....she was in the bathroom.

Alert the press..Pino's is closing!

Much to our family's dismay, our beloved Italian restaurant, Pino's, is closing. Last day for the general public will be Saturday, November 1. But Pino is having an "Invitation Only" last dinner on Sunday, November 2. Of course, we are on his preferred list. We have had birthdays (including my 50th and, gulp, 60th), anniversaries (many), New Year's Eve (every year), Valentine's Day's and two wedding rehearsal dinners.

Even Ginn celebrated one New Year in absentia, calling in an order for a nice wine for our family to share. She only found out when she received her VISA bill that a mistake was made and we sucked up a beautiful Dom Pergninon. Again, thank you, Ginn. We had a blast.

Many celebrations, many fun times on our own personal patio at Pino's. Chicken affumicato, lasagna, lobster ravioli (yeah, Jason), perfect steaks, chicken rosemary and don't forget "I miss Jack" sausage and pasta. Bruscetta and garlic bread started the meals off, topped with Santa Margarita Pino Grigio and the whole meal followed by "chose your own" dessert...tiramisu being my personal favorite.

What will we do? Where will we go? It's so sad to see this place filled with memories go the way of many small businesses.

But if Pino decides to come back and reopen, the Cocco Family will be there...we will find you!

Sugar High at Papa's

So I didn't want to leave the blog today without showing off the sugar highs created by yours truly...Papa! In the first picture, Jimmy and Haley are handling all that sweet stuff very well but as you scroll down, watch as it actually hits their eyeballs....big, wide eyes to go with the frenetic activity I can't even show on this blog. Well, I could probably show it on the blog if I knew how to download movies but I'm just getting the hang of doing still photos. (FYI...If you want videos on your blog, check with Tracy...she's the Pro. Her latest blog has the cutest guy performing some Air Band stuff, I think.)

And then there is Jason, himself suffering from Nintendo DS withdrawal, with only a small piece of paper and his Mom to help him thru the tough times. Hang in there, Jason. You can make it.

Don't touch Bob's beef!

Once again it was Survivor Night, held on Friday rather than Thursday because Papa (I mean, the grandkids) gets tired! To make it oh-so-much-easier, we picked up Pick Up Stix. Not very glamorous but it does the trick. Monique had ordered the House Beef so I gently, oh, so very calmly, mentioned to Jesse to leave some beef for Bob and the shit hit the fan. I get in so much trouble just for being ME!

And the remains of the meal don't look much better than the beginnings! Bring on the pizza for next Survivor night!

The week began with a trip to the Pumpkin Patch.

Haley and Jimmy had a great time until they realized it was only a pit stop on the way to Starbucks. Papa aka RGG needed his fix so we scooped up three pumpkins for the kids and off we went. It took longer putting Jim and Haley back into their carseats than it did cruising the pumpkin patch. Jason thought using his pumpkin as a hat was the way to go. And note to all of you, the night of the goblins and witches is fast approaching....get your homes decorated; put out the candy or bad, bad tricks will happen to you.

Can't finish this blog entry without a really cute picture of the three little ones...aren't they adorable .

Of course, Papa got busted big time for handing out Smiley Cookies twenty minutes before bedtime. Oh and by the way, Bob...there's plenty of beef left over. Jesse, come on over and get your share now!

Hey and a shout out to Kelly...welcome to my blog. Hope you are enjoying this riveting account of my life!

Buried at Bay

So who knew when they say "buried at Sea" that in San Diego it really means buried in the bay! We all gathered Sunday, October 12 to pay homage and remember our Uncle Bill, my mother's brother (Mom is now officially an orphan, having lost her mother, father, two brothers and sister...but she is 89 years old...I'm thinking she just outlived them all!). Susie (Uncle Bill's granddaughter, in green in the picture), along with Bill's daughter, who I also call Susie (but I think she goes by Carol now) and her son Christopher and girlfriend, Caleigh, took a short cruise through San Diego Bay to the final resting spot for Uncle Bill. He had wanted to be buried at sea, but apparently "past the last buoy" in San Diego is determined to be legal for an "at sea" burial. Susie (who I call Little Susie) said it was beautiful and heartwarming. If you look out from Cabrillo Monument or over from Hotel Del, you can see Bill's final resting spot.

We all then gathered at Presidio Park, by the arbor, for sandwiches and dessert and to spend some family time together remembering an uncle/brother/dad/grandad well loved. Also pictured here next to Little Susie (who is from San Francisco area....do you think she's an Obama Mama???) are my cousins, Karen, Shirley, Diana and Karen's way-cool daughter, Kim. Kim and I share the same child-rearing beliefs.....so I like her a lot!! Behind the first group is Karen's sister and another girl (who I neglected to find out her name....so sorry) Great bunch of girls; all of them.

And from Burials at Bay, we move quickly to Backyard Birthdays...in this case, Haley's 3rd. What fun that was, complete with a huge-ass water slide and cupcakes from VG's Donuts...the best in the land!

RGG (remember him....the Resident Golf Guy....also Papa to the little ones) and I are babysitting Jim while Tracy and Jesse travel to Seattle for a little R & R (they should have been flying to Scotland but Zoom Airlines went bankrupt before their flight ever left San Diego). Tracy chose Seattle for her vacation because she wanted to use her new coat and new boots she had purchased for Scotland.....sure hope it's cold enough in old Seattle. I took Jim to Jason's football game and he and Haley spent a bit of time, throwing golf balls around the field. (Note to Grammy Tammy....golf balls and small children...not a good idea....#1...they roll a hell of a long way, especially those new Taylormade Burners...and #2...when Jim finally decides to throw one, it hurts like hell (I won't download what my skinned up nose looks like).

But all in all, a great week spent with Jim. He played well, slept well, napped great, ate just okay...filled a few diapers.

Paloma voted off ... I win $15

Survivor Night, Chapter 2......Now that Survivor is in high gear, we have moved the Family Night to Friday, where we TEVO the Thursday night Survivor show and then watch it much earlier on Friday....so much better for Jimmy...who needs his 12 hours sleep a night (and Papa, for that matter).

Menu was pizza; homemade! Jesse graciously stepped in when he saw that GolfGirlTammy's pizza's were looking more like the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island and less like a full moon/sun or LP record (That's like a large size DVD or CD, Jamie). He did a fantastic job, turning out six pizzas....four pepperoni and two Chicken Thai (from my California Pizza Kitchen recipe book). Way to go, Jesse.

Jason and Jimmy are loving Survivor Night. Haley is trying her "Say Cheese" smile for the camera. The rest of the family have taken their favorite seats on the couch. And as I explained in the heading, Paloma got voted off (oh, sorry, Spoiler Alert) and GolfGirlTammy won the Sasha SideBet of $15. Laura and Jim, Monique's sister and brother-in-law, joined us, traveling here from Arizona. Monique, Bob, Jim and Jamie are doing one of those triathlons again....this time in Mission Bay tomorrow morning. GolfGirlTammy is in charge of picking up the cupcakes at VG's Donuts for Haley's big birthday party tomorrow afternoon.

On Saturday, we went to Jason's Pop Warner Football game. I just missed by minutes his fantastic touchdown but I did see him intercept and tag-tackle and hand off. As you can see, I really don't know the football jargon but the game was fun to watch. Way to go, Jason. You rock.

That's it for now. Jimmy is coming over later this afternoon (Tracy and Jesse are off to the movies again....FYI...check out Tracy's blog....it follows TV shows and movies...her writing is spot on. "Add it to TEVO, we're off to the movies")

RGG and I should be making our run to Starbucks this afternoon; although with Danny in town we have been well supplied with coffee and donuts. Thanks, Danny.