T'was the Night Before the Night Before.... 12-23-23

We had to do some  errands today and, so it seems, did most of the people in Orange County. The traffic was heavy and the hotshots were in a tizzy - saw two near accidents when cars  ran obvious red lights and about  half a dozen sailing through yellows.  It was a  bit of a mad house.  But PetCo had a 25% off sale and KoKo's canister is almost empty. I'd used up my gas driving to Oceanside on Thursday. And I needed some cash. So, we braved the Road Wars.  KoKo was happy to go to PetCo and get some attention from dog lovers. There are always customers who are attracted to his good looks and friendly manner.  He is hard to resist.   Kisses all around and a treat at checkout.

Here I am in  my seasonal attire. Beth took this picture when we had lunch in Oceanside on Thursday.  

The boys gave KoKo a long, skinny elephant toy with squeaker and he abandoned Froggy for the rest of the day.  Time for bed? He curls up with Froggy!

The  neighbors on the next street have again left their giant skeleton up, switching his clothes from Halloween to Thanksgiving to Christmas. 

Last year I slipped a hat on the cold bald head of the little guy and this year I found a glitzy necktie for his cold bare chest.   

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Miscellaneous 11-14-21

I do have a hard time at guild meetings figuring out who is who.  Everyone does not wear a mask, but enough do that I need to really search my brain and the pictures in the directory to decide which person is in the picture I have taken.  They don't have any trouble with me because of the hat.  I didn't mean to take this image, but my phone does its own thing sometimes and reverts to selfie or even to video!  And sometimes I think I am taking one picture and find I have 20 on my phone.  I may revert to a camera.   You see the problem I have with the light from all the windows.

A few years ago I ate a hard boiled egg that was laid the day before and it was so delicious I have tried to find a nearby source for "home grown" eggs.  Then I heard chickens clucking in the back of a house in the neighborhood.  When I asked about them the fellow asked me if I wanted some!  Of course, I replied.  He gave me a plastic egg container and said to just leave it on his porch when I needed more.  This is my third dozen and they are so tasty.  He seems to have several different kinds of hens and they lay different colored eggs.  I have always been delighted with the lovely colors of Araucana eggs.The eggs are different sizes so they wouldn't do for baking, but I haven't baked anything in years.  I just eat them. 

I drove down to Oceanside on Thursday to see the exhibits at Oceanside Museum of Art, especially the lovely fabric sandhill cranes by Charlotte Bird, and had lunch at Rosewood Kitchen with my friend Beth.  The carbonara is different than I have had anywhere else, but it is delicious.  They have a patio on the sidewalk so the people watching is interesting.  The inside decor is ...  I don't know what the word would be... eclectic?  Here is a statue on a hand painted pedestal - the lady is wearing a huge human sized picture brimmed hat.  The second picture is the bathroom wall, but the painting continues across the ceiling and also inside the door.  In the dining room long stemmed roses hang from the ceiling, they have been dead for a very long time.   I am happy eating outside on the sidewalk patio!

This week I will take some pictures of quilts added to TCQC the last six months or so.  Then I will have something to post on Sundays. 

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Opening of Ruth B. McDowell quilt exhibit at VAM 01-18-20

And not a single picture to show!

I was so busy greeting people and giving the one hour tour of the exhibit that I didn't even think of pictures!  But I will be at the museum tomorrow and will photograph whatever I can.  

There were a lot of people there tonight.  Someone said they counted 53 when we first got started, but more and more people came until it was very packed.  With all the people and the lights they had to turn on the A/C!  

I did a lot of hugging, hand shaking, rubbing shoulders with people I haven't seen much in the last six months and met many new people.  My memory for names has never been good and at my advanced and feeble age, I cannot remember anyone's name.  So, if you were there, just remind me when we meet again.  

I thank Cristie and Cecil McQuire for sponsoring the catalog which is for sale in the museum gift shop.  Cristie is a Ruth fan and we were in a class one year at Empty Spools.  

After dinner at Ikiru with my friend Beth, I returned to the Holiday Inn Express where I usually stay when I am in SDiego. It has been remodeled since I was last here and the clerk said it was done six months ago.  It seems that I have stayed here in the last six months, but he must know.  

More tomorrow with pictures, I hope. 

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Friday Food 10-25-19

Last weekend while I was in San Diego I went to dinner with my friend Beth and, of course, we hit our favorite spot, Ikiru at Liberty Station.  Their food is so fresh and so tasty and very beautiful!  We have our favorites, but this time we ordered from the specials for October menu.  And we now have another favorite!  

This is it!  Called "Poke Island", it is just a small poke bowl served "free standing".  Exquisite!

We also indulged in one of our standards - "Orange Crush" which has slices of lemon between the pieces of sushi.  Not exotic, but very good. 

We also had the top two items which were delicious, but not very photogenic.  If you like squid and octopus you would enjoy these small servings that are very tasty. 

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A visit to VAM in SDiego 09-03-19

For some unknown reason the drive to San Diego and back was very easy today.  It was about an hour and 45 minutes each way.  A great contrast to the times it has taken three hours on the road - each way.  I went down to have lunch with my friend Beth Smith and to see the exhibits at Visions Art Museum.  They are worth the trip, especially the Carol Larson/Marion Coleman exhibit.  It is a very personal expression of their lives and their art.  

We had our favorite sushi rolls at Ikiru and visited for several hours.  It was 84F in SDiego today, but not so hot at Liberty Station.   However, it was 97F in Placentia and the humidity was about 50%.  Doesn't seem like much to those of you who live with almost 100%, but I am not used to it and it saps my strength.  At 9pm it was still 84F, so KoKo and I had a very short walk tonight.  

This is the lemon roll which has paper thin slices of lemons in the cuts. 

This is my favorite, the Ultimate Crab Roll which is broiled rather than raw. 

All the way north on I-5 I could look at this huge pile of clouds which was centered over the San Bernardino Mountains.  May be what created the humidity. 

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Delivered a pile of items for sale.

I drove to San Diego today to deliver a car load of items for the Visions Veranda Sale which will take place on Saturday (only).  I stopped to drop KoKo off with Nancy Ota and to pick up fabrics she had gathered from an estate of someone she knows.  Good thing KoKo stayed there, because the car was packed to the gills!  I wish I had been able to get through all of Toni's things, but will continue to sort and donate to other fund raising events.  The traffic was bad, but not horrible, and the ocean was covered with fog most of the way.   And, of course, it was hot in San Diego, but not 99F as it was in Placentia.   I had sushi for lunch at Ikiru in Liberty Stations, shared with friend Beth Smith.  We had a nice visit, short but satisfying.  And then the trek home, stopping to pick up KoKo from Nancy and Bud, then off the I-5 to pick up a poke bowl from my favorite poke place, H2O on Jamboree, and finally to fill the gas tank.  Home again to feed KoKo his dinner at 5pm and then we both took a nap.  We were completely out, with both ceiling fan and A/C running.  What a long hard day.  Fortunately there was a nice guy with a dolly at the museum to haul the bags and boxes from the car.   Once home I pulled three more boxes into the house, but am too tired to work on them tonight.  Tomorrow.   I will need to find a larger basket for the thread raffle basket I am putting together for the Surfside QGuild November Fest.  This basket is almost full and I have a lot more boxes to sort through.   It is a pretty ratty basket, anyway! 

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KoKo stays home alone 07-12-18

Today I met my friend Beth in Oceanside at Harney sushi restaurant which we have enjoy previously.   It was very good again.  The town has grown so much in the last few years and now there is a new high rise going in where the parking lot used to be across the street from Harney's.  So it took a few loops around several blocks to find a parking place, too bad if you are handicapped as there is nothing close by.    We had a nice lunch and a visit and struggled home in the traffic on I-5, both north and south.  It took me half again as long to get home as it should have, just too many cars on the road.  And when I backed into my garage it was 90F outside at about 4pm and 120F in my west facing garage.  We are all tired of the excessive heat and wonder if this is what the entire summer will be.  It is also quite humid.  

KoKo, of course, had to stay home with his Froggie and the A/C!  He was eager to chase Froggie when I wanted a little nap.  Guess who won?  

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A special event for Beth Smith at Visions 06-01-18

Yesterday I drove down to San Diego to attend a special event in honor of Beth Smith who is retiring as director of Visions Art Museum.  There were about forty people, some who just stopped to say hello and went off again, and I saw many people that I don't see very often.  It was a very nice event and I took pictures, but tonight I will mostly post FOOD, which was impressive.  I will have to get some help with the names of some of the people - those I should remember, but as time goes by I think sometimes I am lucky to remember my own name, much less everyone else's.

The lady of the day - Beth Smith, Director of Visions Art Museum, retired. 

Charlotte Bird, artist and VAM supporter since the beginning. 

I can ID all of these ladies:  Andrea, Patti, Beth Smith, Charlotte, Debbie, Kathy. 

Delicious catered food and three desserts made by Lisa. 

(I ate the last piece of chocolate cake for dessert tonight - incredibly good)

The veggie rolls with pansies (which don't have a flavor!).

They were so beautiful it almost seemed a shame to eat them. 

But, of course, I did.  Along with some mozzarella, prosciutto, mushrooms, etc. 

Later in the evening there was the incredible Ultimate Crab Roll at Ikiru.  We try other things occasionally, but seem to always go back to this crab roll. 

When I have names for everyone in the pictures I will post them.  

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Road Trip - Bishop to Reno, NV 05-19-18

I didn't get very far today only a little over 200 miles, but it was a good day   I took a swing through the June Lake Loop just north of Mammoth Lakes because my friend Liz camps there every year.  To find the exact spot I called her on my cell and she talked me through.  It was fun to take this "trip" with her as she pointed out things I might not have noticed.  Then back onto Hwy 395 north, admiring the snow capped mountains and even the non-snow capped ones.   I haven't driven north of Bishop for quite a few years and things have certainly changed.  There is much more civilization along the way with small towns now grown to medium towns and a new perimeter freeway around Carson City and on the east side of Reno.  No longer a need to drive right through the middle of town.  I did drive the business route through Carson City and found it rather sad as many businesses have gone away due to the lack of traffic, I expect.  Gardinerville has grown so much I didn't recognize a thing and the highway becomes a freeway just to the north.  

I was feeling a little at sea and OLD because things are so different and I remembered that Beth told me that the Reno Art Museum was worth a visit.  I enjoyed it very much, but told the desk person when I left that they need to provide more benches for old ladies who can't stand for hours at a time.  Nice gift shop,  They were setting up for a special event tonight so several galleries were closed, but they have some great paintings, sculpture, and photography.  It is a large building with great high ceilings and wide corridors.  By the time I was finished looking it was about 4:30pm and I decided not to drive on, booking a room at Holiday Inn Express in Reno.  It is a much larger facility than a lot of HIEs I have stayed previously.  The check-in was cold and a little snippy and once again I couldn't have a room on the first floor, but it isn't quite in the middle of the second floor - thank heavens.  

I took a rest and watched a BBC rerun of the wedding.  Very elaborate and lots of fanfare, I enjoyed it more than if I had sat through the entire thing.  I wish them well, I think they will have a hard life together.   Waaaay too much spotlight for me.  

Here are pictures from today. 

Motel room - just like a million others!

Leaving Bishop still following along the east slope of the Sierra. 

Mountain tops were covered with clouds, wonder if they had more snow. 

Lots of cloudy skies, but no rain along my route.

This is not an Interstate highway, so there are bikers and guys parked where the fishing is good. 

This mountain stands alone.  Maybe it is Mammoth. 

TREES!  You may have noticed there are many in the previous pictures.  These are mostly Ponderosa pines which appear at certain elevations.  I think it is more than 4000 feet. 

From the Silverlake Campground that Liz loves one can see this waterfall, high on the mountain.  the house is an old one that the owner is renovating in hopes of having a B&B some day. 

This is the Silverlake campground with the mountains towering overhead. 

When I drove on north on the June Lake Loop I realized I should have used the facilities, so I stopped at this campground along the stream.  Notice it is almost unoccupied?  There are no hook ups!  I think the majority of campers enjoy the amenities of their RVs and trailers.

And there is no brilliant waterfall coming down the mountain - this is the sunny side and the snow is long gone. 

Nice clean, flush bathroom.  Ahhhh. 

Where the Tioga Road turns off to Yosemite (the pass is still closed by snow) there is a Mobil station that has a restaurant of some fame.  I don't know if it is the same chef as a decade or so ago, but the food it excellent if pricey.  They don't serve continuously - lunch today didn't open until 11am.  But I'm pretty sure they serve breakfast early in the morning.  Check it out. 

This is the view from the patio out over the Owens Valley.  

Just beyond the turnoff is the tiny village of Lee Vining.  I have stayed there on occasion, it is really just a wide spot in the road with motels and restaurants and fishing supplies and tourist stuff.  

At the end of the town there is a highway advisory sign that usually would give road conditions.  But here they are warning of deer.  I didn't see any, but they are more common in the evening. 

This is looking south at Owens Valley, part of the great basin.  Notice the road on the right. 

Along the north side of Owens Lake the road is treacherous due to rock slides.  Notice the cement barrier which stops most of the rocks. 

But they have added heavy duty cyclone fencing and heavy duty cables.  It is a scary place, some of the rocks on the hillside are as big as cars. 

Just a bit further north there is a vista point on the southbound side of the highway.  If you go up about a mile there is an intersection where you can turn around and go back to take a look.  There are explanatory placards explaining the Great Basin and how it was formed. 

Notice that skinny road again, right in the middle.  

There is the "gold standard" - just to prove I was there. 

Some people think stickers are suitable anywhere.  I think it is a disgrace - ugly.

Quite a view.  And that little road?  It is highway 395 - far, far below. 

The Walker River is roaring and splashing right now from snow melt.  But I could not find a clear spot to photograph it.   Guess I should have pulled over, eh? 

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