Sunday, March 20, 2011

Les Fleurs Spring Tea




Just got home from our annual fundraiser - the Les Fleurs Spring Tea. We are an auxiliary of the Assistance League of Pomona Valley. This is our annual major fundraiser to raise money for our philanthropies (Cubs for Kids and Assault Survivor Kits for Project Sister) and the funding support that we give to the League's Dental Center.

I always make an afghan which goes into the Silent Auction. I was so thrilled because this year the afghan made more money than ever! $90.00!!!! The highest that my afghans have ever made was $70.00. So I am more than thrilled. Above is a picture of the lovely lady who got the afghan. She said that she is going to give it to a friend of hers. Luck lady! Thank you SO much for your most generous donation!

It was fun to have Audrey join me for the tea. We sat with a friend of ours and her two granddaughters. They were so cute - one of them was our waitress and they also sold some very cute pens for the Susan Komen Foundation. I think that they raised quite a nice bit of money!

The food was delicious - four different kinds of sandwiches, fruit compote, scones with lemon curd, jam and cream. And a dessert tray of mints, pecan tassies and and lemon squares. And several different varieties of tea - of course!

Our bake sale made over $500.00! This too was better than we have ever done. I made lemon squares and half of them were gone before the tea - the ladies bought them. At the end, nothing was left. I bought some scones, biscotti and jam. That was enough - trying to cut back a bit. It was fun working with my friends, Audrey, Sue and Claudia on the bake sale.

The other picture above is the opportunity basket that several ladies and I put together for the tea. One of our Les Fleurs ladies won the basket. I loved helping find the items for the basket (with Claudia). I enjoy combing the stores for the goodies to put into it. We had the theme of "Scrapbooking Happiness."

All in all, a very successful day - with a great turnout - 75 people in spite of the rain (first day of Spring?).

Thursday, March 17, 2011

 
Lovin' this picture of Dan and his friend Kenny Rickett. It was sent to us by Dan's childhood friend (and Kenny's sister) Teresa. She is going through some old photo albums and sent us some really great pictues. It was taken in 1967 or 1968 at Ensenada, Mexico. They were diving for abalone and lobsters. These were the days when you could get huge lobsters and abalone. Dan and I used to dive off Catalina and we would bring home 10-inch abalone and lots of them too. Dan would slice the abalone, dip it in a scrambled egg and saltine crumbs and fry it up. Wow - did that taste good! That and a salad and a glass of wine and you are set.

We were in Pismo Beach in January celebrating our wedding anniversary and went to dinner at a wonderful restaurant there- the Cracked Crab. I saw abalone on the appetizer menu and being very excited to see it, ordered it. What came was about a 3-4 inch shell with a tiny bit of abalone. It cost $14.00! Wow - was I disappointed - I guess that the huge abalones are long gone - we won't see those again.

There is an abalone farm further up the coast and the waitress said that their abalone comes from them. I guess it takes a very long time for the abalone to grow---maybe those we enjoyed in the 60's were decades old!

I love this picture of Dan and Kenny. They look so cute and YOUNG!
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Sunday, March 13, 2011

Our Kitties



Just enjoying our beautiful Southern California weather on a lazy Sunday afternoon. I did some house cleaning this afternoon--took 10 bags of clothes to Goodwill! (And more to come...). Trying to clean out and downsize a little bit in preparation for retirement.

Took our really old kitty Milo (the white one on the left) to the vet last week. The doctor thinks that he has some sort of upper respiratory infection, so we have to give him meds every day for 10 days. The really fun part are the drops up the nose. In reality, he is a very mellow cat and doesn't protest that too much. Kind of surprising...I don't enjoy nose drops...can't imagine a cat would!

Our other kitty Cleo (the tabby on the right) is quite a unique animal. She is about a year younger than Milo and they have lived together since they were kittens. You would think that by now they would get along. But no...they don't. Milo is very laid back but Cleo will hiss and spit at him if he gets anywhere near her. Usually Milo just takes it, but sometimes he gets sick of it and puts her in her place. Occasionally we'll come home and there will be cat hair on the carpet - telling me that there has been some sort of disagreement while we have been away.

Milo was a feral kitten and was rescued by a good friend of mine. We adopted him in 1995 when he was about 10 months old. My friend had hand-tamed him and he has been a very sweet kitty ever since. Mark found Cleo on thestreet - I guess someone had just dumped her. He brought her home and she has been with us ever since. That was in 1996. All in all, we do enjoy them. I call them my "elderly cats."

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Anniversary Dinner




On our anniversary - February 16th we had dinner at Charlie's Italian Bistro in La Verne, CA, which is owned and operated by Tatiana Leiva and her family. It is such a warm and inviting place and I must say that I am a bit prejudiced because our beautiful daughter Audrey works there too! But really - the food is quite good - we have been going here for many years even before Tatiana bought the place.

Anyway, we walked in and there was a booth reserved for us with greetings from our beautiful Audrey. We settled in and I had the Chicken Marsala and Dan had the Clam Fettucini. We shared a bottle of delicious light Italian Pinot Gris and also a house salad. The dinner was topped off with a real treat - Charlie's tirimasu - complete with chocolate hearts.

Dinner by candlelight - served by our gorgeous daughter and celebrating 37 years of "marital bliss" as Dan would say and 40 years of our first meeting (on a blind date no less!). The evening was very special for all those reasons and many more.

And must include a picture of the "love of my life" my special husband Dan. (GOT to get him to smile more!!!!). He doesn't look too happy here, but trust me - he is!

More Celebrating - our 37th Wedding Anniversary!




The celebrating goes on and on. A quick trip to Pismo Beach - staying at the oceanside at Sea Crest Lodge for two nights - wine tasting on Saturday night, breakfast on the seaside patio and dinner at the Cracked Crab, walks around town, lunch with clam chowder at the Splash Cafe, exploring the town, watching surfers "shoot the pier" and looking at surf shops and anything else that took our fancy.

I adore the Central Coast and spend as much time there as I can with Dan. We love the ocean, all the things to see and do and just enjoying a place that is SO different from our day to day lives. Anyway here are some pictures of our weekend.

The top one is the view from our hotel room up the coast towards the Pismo Beach Pier. The middle photo is our wine tasting and the bottom photo is more beauty from the edge of the hotel property. You can just see the Sea Crest Lodge on the right hand side of the photo. Great hotel - lots of couples and even rooms for people with their dogs.

Our "Engagement Table"


Our Corvette Club had a Valentine dinner at the Magic Lamp, which is located in Upland, CA. Magic Lamp happens to be the very place where Dan and I got engaged 38 years ago in June of 1973.

Interestingly, Dan has not been back to the Magic Lamp since that night. I have been there once since then, when I attended an installation dinner. So it was a real milestone when Dan stepped through those doors.

As we were going to our room for the dinner, we passed the table where Dan asked me to marry him. There was an elderly couple there and I couldn't resist telling them that this was the table where we had gotten engaged so many years ago. They were so nice and thrilled to know that about us - complete straners to them...they told us that they have been married almost 60 years - so I guess it is indeed a lucky table.

Our dinner was alot of fun--after a delicious meal we went around the table and each couple talked about how they had met. There were LOTS of laughs and good natured ribbing.

Anyway, that's a picture up there of Dan and I at THE table!