Day 19 - Governor Newsom rescinds restrictions. Outdoor dining reinstated!

The Mission Inn Restaurant on Valentines Day…beautiful…

2/12/21. Friday

10:00 –10:30 –  Up and I go downstairs to take the dog out.  She’s awake with her paws on the children’s gate at the foot of the stairs.  When I step over the gate, she jumps on the couch and rolls over on her back so I can rub her tummy three times.  It’s time to go outside so she grabs her toy and we step out.  More bird chasing and she finally goes potty.  Inside for her treat – still old chicken – and coffee for me.

10:30-11:00 – We’re heading into a 4-day weekend in honor of President’s day so schools are closed.  I check email at College No. 2, especially since I just launched the course for my college students. There are a few questions, but most of the students seem to ‘get it’ and have signed in on the Discussion Board.

-I post two entries that I prepared previously to my blog.

-I don’t have a lot of time, but I check my DE class to see the tutorial for posting a video of myself to Canvas.  Professor W. uses “Panopto” software, but College No. 1 – which is the platform I’m using for the online class I’m taking – doesn’t have Panopto.  I quickly look up a You Tube tutorial to see if there’s another way and find out I can record a video directly into Canvas.  I try this and it works, HOWEVER, the audio is absolutely terrible, probably because my computer is 12 years old.  The video is also grainy on account of my computer’s camera. 

Professor W. is adamant that the audio must sound great, but in the few tests I did, there is this constant ‘woosh’ of white noise in the background.  It’s horrible but I can’t work on this issue now.  It will have to wait until I return from my trip. Even if I was able to create and submit a video right now, it wouldn’t be graded until Tuesday.

11:00-1:00 – Shower. Spa Day. I take out my braids.  Make-up. I wear jean leggings, thigh-high boots, and a lycra top.

-I bring my suitcase downstairs and pull out my lunch bag, umbrella, and gloves.

-B. arrives and we leave for our Valentines Day weekend at the Mission Inn.

1:00-4:00 – Driving to Riverside.  It takes THREE hours.

4:00 – 5:00 - Check in and this hotel looks MUCH different than it does at Christmas.  I thought they would go all out with red, pink, and white Valentine lights, but they don’t.  A disappointment, as I know how great this place looks at Christmas. I don’t mention any of this to B., of course.  This is his first time here.

Everyone is masked, at least.  I’m double-masked. At check in, the employee handed B. and I two complimentary masks, bearing the Mission Inn logo, and hand sanitizer. I couldn’t help recall that at the beginning of this pandemic - a year ago - finding masks was almost impossible and my sister-in-law had to make them for L. and I from scrap fabric on her sewing machine. Additionally, a year ago to day there was a run on hand sanitizer and I couldn’t get it anywhere - I even tried to make my own with disastrous results. Then, miraculously, hand sanitizer surfaced on the market, BUT 60 to 75 brands were deemed poisonous and were pulled because the FDA said some of the ingredients in the sanitizer could kill us.

5:00-6:00 – Unpack and then we head downstairs for our 6:00 reservation at the Mission Inn Restaurant.  This is part of the Valentine’s Day package.

6:00-8:30 – Dinner is amazing!  It’s outdoor dining, under heat lamps, and very comfortable.  The plaza is wrapped in red lights – all the trees and shrubs are covered in them.  Very beautiful. Because of our package, we have a Pre Fixe Menu so B. and I both get the Ciopetto for our entrée. I have the lobster bisque for the appetizer and B. has the cranberry, blue cheese salad. I have the Tierra Misu for dessert – B. has something??? which is also part of the Pre Fixe Menu.  I have two excellent glasses of Brut champagne – I think B. has white wine.

8:30 –10:15 -  Back in our room and I’m exhausted.  It’s been a tough week for me.  B. is taking my niche class but was unable to purchase/watch an assigned documentary on islamic radicalism – Je Suis Charlie.  I purchased it via Amazon several years ago, so I pull it up on his computer and we watch it. B. likes it as far as documentaries go but it’s heavy stuff…islamic terrorists break into the offices of magazine/publisher Charlie Hebdo and kill almost everyone in the conference room, where they are having a meeting.

10:15-10:45 – I follow the video up with a podcast that I play for B. discussing the high school teacher, in France, who was recently decapitated by a radical islamist in the school parking lot after he showed a cartoon of the “Prophet” during a free speech module he was teaching.  This module is part of the French curriculum and taught by all high school teachers.

I know…romantic stuff, right?  But, now B. is able to move onto Chapter 8 after having seen the required material.

10:45 – 11:15 - B. goes to bed and I read Dead Wake for a little while.

11:15 – Night time routine. Bed.