Just a few guidelines to follow when driving in the southern California area. If you live here, then you should know these already but if you are moving here or just visiting, please pay close attention to these helpful tips.
Rules of the Road:
1. The speed limit should really be viewed as the lowest possible speed you are driving, especially on the freeway. Instead of following the posted numbers (which are just a suggestion anyway), just follow the eighteen year old going 85. You will be much safer.
2. Under NO circumstances should you use your turn signal!! (For those of you unfamiliar with this device, it is located on the left side of your steering column) Whether you are changing lanes on a freeway during rush hour or going 40mph on a city street and abruptly decide to turn into a shopping center, the turn signal is completely pointless. In fact, it may be better for you to leave your turn signal on and keep the drivers behind you guessing when you’ll turn.
3. Feel free to change lanes on the freeway without checking the lane you are moving into…for that matter feel free to jump three lanes! Everyone understands that you were not paying attention and CANNOT miss your exit!
4. We are all experts at multitasking, so if you need to shave, apply make-up, read your morning paper, or talk on your phone while driving to work in the morning, it is no problem! Driving with your knees is perfectly acceptable as long as you are glancing at the road once in awhile.
5. When you come upon an intersection without a left turn signal arrow, you should sit and wait for people to turn left while you wait to turn right. Forget that note in the DMV handbook that people turning right have the right of way!
6. It is generally accepted that the faster you are driving on the freeway, the farther left you should be in the lanes. However, if you are going to be on the freeway for a long distance, then you are definitely justified in staying in the far left lane. This applies regardless of your speed. If you are going 65mph and have people passing you on the right doing 80mph, they may honk as they pass you. Just ignore them – they are most likely suffering from road rage and will take it out on whomever they are talking to on their phone.
7. When you are driving onto the freeway from a city street, do not bother to speed up to the flow of traffic. Take your time and slowly increase your speed from 40mph until you are amidst the freeway traffic. Then maybe you could speed up to 60mph. But only if you are ready!
8. If you spot an accident on the freeway (doesn’t matter which side of the freeway), you MUST slow down or stop and check out what is happening. Depending on how many vehicles are involved and how serious the accident is, you may have to immediately call friends and/or family members to tell them about it! Do not continue driving down the freeway until you have seen as much as you can from your vehicle.
There are many more but I wanted to at least cover some of the basics. So I hope that all of you can now drive like the SoCal drivers….or at least fake it!! Happy driving (or whatever else you may be doing while moving down the road)!!
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Sunday, November 2, 2008
A Lovely Saturday Afternoon
I had a wonderful Saturday afternoon with my friends Steve and Mariana, so I thought I would share! We went to a Wine & Food pairing event in Del Mar and it was so much fun! It was held in a Hilton hotel and seemed like it was going to be a little more formal than what we expected. The room almost looked like it was set up for a small wedding reception.....with about 4 different wine glasses at each place setting! So we sat at our table and the presentation began on the different wines we would be tasting from the Napa Valley area.
The first was a Napa
Sparkling wine (Schramsberg) which was served at the door with brie stuffed mushrooms. It was excellent! The second tasting was a White Meritage wine called St. Supery Virtu - it is 52% Sauvignon Blanc and 48% Semillon. It was very good! Even Mariana liked it and she is normally a strictly red wine drinker! This wine was paired with a red snapper ceviche - SO Good!
Then we moved on to the re
d wines, starting with a 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon which was served with a mini burger on a small brioche with bleu cheese and carmelized shallots. I wasn't a fan of the wine that much but the burger was very good!
For our next tasting we had a 2005 Meritage St. Supery Elu which was a Bordeaux blend. This was a red wine that I actually did enjoy!! For this wine we were served sliced lamb steak with a reduction made with the same red wine. It did not taste like lamb! It tasted like a very tender steak - very good!
Our last red wine was a 2006 Petite Syrah and was served with an israeli couscous made with vegetables, beets, pros
ciutto, and goat cheese. I liked this red wine too but the couscous was AMAZING!
We ended the afternoon with a Tawny Port by Fonseco paired with a Dark Chocolate creme brulee - yes, DARK chocolate. Oh my GOD! That was soooo good! We also had the option of tasting a Moscato, which was very tasty! The port and Moscato both went very well with the creme brulee.
On top of all the great wine and fabulous food, we ended up spending the afternoon with a great group of people at our table! Half of our table ended up being employees at the hotel and they were a lot of fun! One woman, Lisa, is in her last month of pregnancy and going in for a C-section this Wednesday! She was just loving the food at first and we (Mariana and I) finally convinced her to taste a couple of the wines - she loved them! So what started out as a t
wo hour wine presentation, ended up being 3.5 hours of great food, wine, and conversation with new friends! Here's one last photo of our table - and here's to new friends! CHEERS!
The first was a Napa
Sparkling wine (Schramsberg) which was served at the door with brie stuffed mushrooms. It was excellent! The second tasting was a White Meritage wine called St. Supery Virtu - it is 52% Sauvignon Blanc and 48% Semillon. It was very good! Even Mariana liked it and she is normally a strictly red wine drinker! This wine was paired with a red snapper ceviche - SO Good!Then we moved on to the re
d wines, starting with a 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon which was served with a mini burger on a small brioche with bleu cheese and carmelized shallots. I wasn't a fan of the wine that much but the burger was very good!For our next tasting we had a 2005 Meritage St. Supery Elu which was a Bordeaux blend. This was a red wine that I actually did enjoy!! For this wine we were served sliced lamb steak with a reduction made with the same red wine. It did not taste like lamb! It tasted like a very tender steak - very good!
Our last red wine was a 2006 Petite Syrah and was served with an israeli couscous made with vegetables, beets, pros
ciutto, and goat cheese. I liked this red wine too but the couscous was AMAZING!We ended the afternoon with a Tawny Port by Fonseco paired with a Dark Chocolate creme brulee - yes, DARK chocolate. Oh my GOD! That was soooo good! We also had the option of tasting a Moscato, which was very tasty! The port and Moscato both went very well with the creme brulee.
On top of all the great wine and fabulous food, we ended up spending the afternoon with a great group of people at our table! Half of our table ended up being employees at the hotel and they were a lot of fun! One woman, Lisa, is in her last month of pregnancy and going in for a C-section this Wednesday! She was just loving the food at first and we (Mariana and I) finally convinced her to taste a couple of the wines - she loved them! So what started out as a t
wo hour wine presentation, ended up being 3.5 hours of great food, wine, and conversation with new friends! Here's one last photo of our table - and here's to new friends! CHEERS!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)