You've Got Your Troubles, I've Got Mine

Click on the orange link below to read a review of The Neighbors are Watching: A Novel by Debra Ginsberg.

http://josephsreviews.wordpress.com/2010/11/16/youve-got-your-troubles/

Homeward Bound

Click on the orange link below to read a review of the just-released novel How to Be an American Housewife by Margaret Dilloway.

http://josephsreviews.wordpress.com/2010/08/05/homeward-bound-2/

Do men have to worry about their looks, too?

Click on the orange link below to read a review of the book Two Years, No Rain by Shawn Klomparens.

http://josephsreviews.wordpress.com/2009/09/10/wholl-start-the-rain/

A Small Faces Alert!

For West Coast, U.S.A., fans of the Small Faces and for European residents who may be visiting southern California, this is a reminder that Ian McLagen of the faces small will be performing in San Diego this Wednesday. That's right, Ian will be performing with Jerry Fuentes at 7:30 p.m. on the evening of April 29, 2009 at Anthology, 1337 India Street in the Gaslight District. For tickets or information, call (619) 595-0300.

If I could be there, I'd request the instrumental Pineapple and the Monkey.

Pint-sized pour - A review of three organic beers

I'll admit that I have not tried more than two brands' organic beers. They're expensive and have a very high alcohol content, which is perhaps needed to justify the higher prices (more buzz for the buck?). Also, the uniquely flat taste is not my thing. The San Diego Union looks at a sampling of three available organic beers and I would certainly entrust my taste buds to the fine folks at New Belgium Brewing. New Belgium Brewing of Fort Collins, Colorado is the brewer of Fat Tire Amber Ale - one of the best in the business.

Click on the orange link below to read the article.

Pint-sized pour

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Note: When you're in downtown San Diego, a stop at the Karl Strauss restaurant and brewery is a must!

Next: It has been (a poem)

Photo: flickr (rosepetal236)

Alone Together Live...

If you're in the San Diego area this weekend, you can see Dave Mason play live on Saturday, March 21st, at Anthology in the downtown Gaslight District, 137 India Street, at 7:30 p.m. For information call (619) 595-0300.

Snow Mazes of Norway - a song by Jenny Dalton

SNOW MAZES OF NORWAY by Jenny Dalton

Six points on a snowflake, eight arrows on a compass
My brother with a host family playing drums for the Norwegians
He went walking to explore Trysil, but he got lost in a winter maze
Six points on a snow flake, eight arrows on a compass

Six ways from Sunday falling down
Eight feet of heaven on the ground
Keep him warm, keep him warm
'Cause in the snow mazes of Norway,
he is underground

He brought back some souvenirs
a metal bowl with a Viking ship
a wooden carving and compass
and six points on a snowflake

Six points on a snowflake
Eight memories in a photograph
My brother's going to miss that snow
Now he surfs in San Diego

Good Mexican food at low prices...

I've been reading, in such places as USA Today, that there's a lot of online interest in places that serve good food at low prices. I found such a place in the Mission Valley area of San Diego and it's called Sombrero Mexican Food at 8590 Rio San Diego Road. This is one of at least eight locations in the San Diego City area, with more outlets nearby in other southern California jurisdictions from Riverside to Imperial counties.

I happened to fly into San Diego on a very early morning when I'd skipped breakfast and was starving by the time I arrived at the Marriott, Mission Valley (a very nice hotel, by the way, where I've stayed on two occasions). This Sombrero location is northwest from the hotel and only about an extra-long city block away.

As I walked in, this Sombrero appeared to be a mix between a mom-and-pop restaurant and a fast food outlet; it's a bit of both. The posted menu is a simple, basic and minimal one and the staff was fine with serving the food as plain as I like it. I ordered the two beef tamale plate, no cheese, with rice and beans and a large beer - make that root beer. The tab came to all of $7.60. Suffice it to say that the portions were big enough to constitute both lunch and dinner without argument.

I subsequently hiked back to my room at the Marriott to take an afternoon siesta, purring like our cat Munchy. Sombrero reminded me of both a similar restaurant in Reno that's no longer open, the Alamo, and of Emma's Taco House in West Sacramento. The latter has been in operation - depending on whom you believe - since either 1949 or 1951.

On a five taco scale, Sombrero of Mission Valley gets 4.5 for the food and 4.85 for the value. As California's governor might have stated, I'll be back.