Dining out in Pacific Grove, CA 03-26-14

The food at Asilomar is provided by a vendor which changes from year to year. Right now the food is very good - breakfast, lunch and dinner are interesting and tasty. I only tried the vegetarian offering once and it was good. Not tofu mashed up to resemble - what? I especially enjoyed the wonderful seafood salad for lunch one day - shrimp, scallops, whitefish, and those yummy little squid. Excellent. Usually I go out to the local restaurants a couple times, but this trip Liz and I only went once - to the Red House, my favorite Pacific Grove eatery.

Liz ordered the seafood penne pasta - mussels, scallops, shrimp, salmon.   We always taste each other's selections - there is a piece on my salmon on the rim of her plate/bowl.

We both needed to wear our napkins as bibs since we were going directly to the evening program and didn't want appear "spotted".

My selection was the perfectly cooked salmon with pasta in a sauce, broccoli, cauliflower and a spoonful of tomato/onion "relish" on the top of the salmon.  It was a delicious meal - as have been every meal I have eaten at The Red House  (closed on Mondays).





Quilts exhibited at Back Porch Fabrics, Pacific Grove, CA 03-25-14

These pictures are of the quilts I have currently hanging at Back Porch Fabrics in Pacific Grove, CA. There are just twenty of them and are mostly quite small. I haven't been very productive in the last seven years, since I had an exhibit there before. To see them in a web album go to the link below. The exhibit runs through May 4.



Or: https://picasaweb.google.com/DELQLTS/BackPorchDelExhibit031414?authkey=Gv1sRgCPWiyYKR3ezyNg#

 There are captions on the Picasa Album but Blogger won't let me caption the images here.  Weird!

A visit to Spanish Bay Country Club on 03-13-14 This post 03-23-14



These pictures are from Spanish Bay Country Club which is on a point across from Asilomar State Beach.  The buildings in the far background are at  Asilomar.

The last two players, wearing white, are in the center of the picture.



Closer to the clubhouse there were only two gulls.  Looking for a ball?



The sand traps look like water, the setting sun makes blue shadows and the eye tricks us into comparing the lightness to the bay in the background.  Liz

Liz is looking at the hotel and condos, all with balconies to enjoy the view.



This statue of an older man with a little girl on a bench is very popular for photographs.  See the worn spot made by people sitting on the bench next to the little girl to have their picture taken. The sculpture is by Mark Lundeen www.lundeensculpture.com/words/mark See comments.



We mainly went to the Spanish Bay Country Club to hear the nightly bagpipe player and watch the sun go down.  We missed the piper, but the sunset was wonderful. 

A Day of Recovery 03-22-14

Actually, this is a somewhat momentous day, despite the "recovery mode". This is the 2200 post on this blog, over a period of about six and a half years (started August 2007). I did a blog on AOL for a few years before this one, but AOL shut down their blogging service - it wasn't even called a blog back then. My original pledge of posting every day has been violated numerous times - over 200 - but the causes have been varied. Being unable to blog because my computer is down is the hardest for me to deal with. Stupid computer! But I have taken some blog vacations for various reasons and missed some evenings when I was not well. Blogging is like keeping a journal to share with others, not the private one where one waxes on about their aches and pains or the travails of their everyday life. Terry Grant in Beaverton, Oregon, recently posted that blogs are decreasing in favor of Facebook. But I find Facebook so trivial and there are too many ads, both by companies and by individuals promoting their own agendas. I have to wade through too much junk to find a kernel of interest. Terry's blog is the first I read when I have time to read blogs. Give her a look, she is a great writer and also a fantastic quiltmaker. http://andsewitgoes.blogspot.com/

March 22 is also our wedding anniversary. Had he lived we would be celebrating our fortieth. I'm still missing him.

I slept about ten hours last night, not in one fell swoop, but a several hours at a time. Then I took a couple naps today. The week at Empty Spools was fabulous, but also exhausting. I try to allow a day with nothing on my calendar when I come home from a trip - lately I'm thinking maybe two days are required! I have all the usual things to do: laundry (still one load to go), unpacking and putting away the sewing stuff, setting up my machine, sorting through the new fabrics I added to my fabric library, paying the bills that came whilst I was away, and doing my e-mail. Since I had no computer for six days the latter is a huge job, so if you haven't received an answer by Monday, you might want to write to me again. My laptop continues to give me trouble and I am seriously considering buying a new one. If I am to continue doing the Surfside QGuild newsletter I need something reliable.

I'll download (or is it upload?) the photos tomorrow and start posting them. As long as the laptop will allow me. It just erased another paragraph on this post, but I am too tired to recompose it. Not important anyway. Love, Del

Home from Empty Spools Seminars @Asilomar Conference Center. 03-21-14

The third session of Empty Spools ended Wednesday at noon, but I had to pick up my repaired (??) computer, stop at Back Porch for another fabric fix, find lunch and do a few other errands before heading out to see Mary in San Juan Bautista for a short visit. Then on to Harris Ranch for the night. Liz and I slept well because we were extra tired from packing up all the quilts. We had breakfast in the Country Kitchen and hit the road about 8:30am. So, we were home in plenty of time for me to drop Liz at her house, drive to mine, unload the rental van, return it, pick up my repaired Lexus (new struts, new wipers, trans flushed, wheels aligned, pressure checked, bill paid), and take a nap! It was a lovely week with perfect weather and so much appreciation from the attendees for the quilt "show" from TCQC.

This morning I had an appointment with my GP, Dr. Debin, which I had made a month ago. We talked about how much trouble I had with my breathing while up north and I will need to see a pulmonary specialist. But I think a large part of the problem was the fireplace smoke. Visitors with fireplaces in their rooms love to sit and enjoy a fire and there is always one going in the Administration Bldg, so there is always smoke in the air. Not good for asthma. We also talked about the need for me to get back to pool therapy and I have promised I will do that... next week!

My computer is currently restoring from Carbonite backup so I don't have access to my photos and still have a few programs to reload. But I must wait for Carbonite to finish, maybe tomorrow evening. So, I haven't downloaded from my camera yet. I don't have anywhere near the pictures I usually take, but then I didn't have a class to follow. I'll be going up for session V toward the end of April, so you will be inundated with classroom photos then.

Have you missed me? 03-17-14

I apologize for my silence. Last Tuesday my computer completely collapsed and Wednesday morning I left for Empty Spools Seminars in Asilomar/Pacific Grove. No time to work at getting the laptop going again. So, I brought it with me and it is in the computer hospital in Pacific Grove; I hope to hear something today. I don't want to buy a new laptop right now, but I may have to.

Meanwhile, Empty Spools is great, as always. The weather is a perfect mid-60's with periodic passing fog. The sun is shining on this St. Patrick's Day and most of the students are wearing green - it is an attack of leprecans (spelling?) My presentation on Friday evening went very well and all seem to be enjoying seeing the quilts from TCQC. Liz is here with me to help and last evening we changed the 12X12 quilts with birds to just a general display of 12X12 quilts. Gives everyone something new to look at. Today from 4 to 6 there will be a reception at Back Porch Fabrics where twenty quilts that I have made are on display until May. If you can't make the reception I hope you will have a chance to visit the shop and see what I have been sewing.

Since I am not taking a class I brought several UFOs to work on and it is time for me to get busy. If I can I will write again on this public computer and let you know how the laptop is doing. No pictures until I have it back in working condition.

Del Quilt - "Underview" 03-07-14