A Very Successful Practice

Tuesday, Tuesday was insane for me. Oh, you young whippersnappers do this all this stuff every day. I need a very slow and ordered day. But no, Tuesday was...special.

First, I'd noticed a little oil can flashing on my dashboard. Adrian couldn't see it. Is he blind? Probably not, but the Jiffy Lube guy I visited at 9:00 said that I had very little oil left in my car. Let's hope that was just in time.

I got to the Los Angeles Farmer's Market on Fairfax just in time to enjoy a lovely lunch with my friends, Peggy and Marilyn. Besides lunch, we shopped for little souvenirs for friends of Marilyn. That was interesting, because I never like to buy little things that people won't ever use. However...we did buy a fedora for a 13 year old boy. So Justin Timberlake. So Adrian Norman at the Academic Decathlon with a Press pass stuck in the hat band of his fedora. I think the young man might actually wear this charming hat whenever he can.

After working my way through a traffic accident on the Pasadena Freeway, I got home in time to throw half my kitchen (as I've said before) into bags and rushed to Bill and Jaine's house for a practice run of the wine tasting we will be doing in July. We just wanted to make sure we knew about the table setting, dishes, chairs, food and wine that we would be serving to the real group of 14. This time we had 7 (the eighth arrived near the end of the day) people to critique all.

This is my duck pate, sort of a country pate, not spreadable, but very nummy. It was a big hit, even at home. Adrian mentioned today that he is sad that there won't be any leftovers next time because we will have 14 people at the real wine tasting. Maybe I'll make one for his gaming group. Grapes surround the pate. We had baked grapes at a previous wine tasting. When I tried to duplicate, I ended with a mess. I guess you need to find concord grapes, which they used.

This is Jaine and Bill at their dining room table. You can see the basket of gougeres that Jaine is looking at. That was the other thing I made. They are cream puffs with cheese baked into the dough. Cute. And easy. Karen and I used to make cream puffs for Mom to take to her church circle bazaar, so I was an old hand at choux pastry.

Jaine and I went shopping for cheeses which looked lovely on her wooden cutting board. I've since bought porcelain cheese markers so we don't have to hide the label (with price) under the cheese to remember what they are. We also had condiments to go with the cheeses - chipoltle jam, spicy pear jam and plum paste. Oh, and 5 wines. We had a wonderful time and now feel very good about hosting all those other folks.

I was having too much fun. I'd promised Adrian I'd be back before 7:00 so he could visit a sick friend at the hospital with all his pals. I ended up flying out of the house with left over pate in hand. Really, Tuesday was much too active for me. But I enjoyed most minutes of it (that car accident not included.)

The Visit

This is Matthew Cole, the newest member of our clan. Cute, no? Adrian and I spent our weekend up in the bay area visiting little Matty, his parents, and a few others. But can you believe how very cute he is at only 6 weeks? He was early, so he is smaller than he might be, but not so anyone would notice. And he is perfectly formed. Good job all around.

We arrived on Friday afternoon. I baked a strawberry cake for Peter and Karen, we tasted some Arizona wine from their recent trip and then went to a killer restaurant, Burma Superstar. Great way to start a weekend. Their Tea Leaf Salad is famous for good reason. I am still craving it. Even the Arizona wine was good.

We got up early the next morning because Natalie was participating in a triathalon! What a woman. She went swimming in the Pacific Ocean (after cutting her feet on the gungy rocks by the shore; such poor planning.) Then she biked, her favorite part of the day. Finally she raced past us. We had missed the other two parts. I thought she looked great, even though this was the last leg of the event.

Here are her adoring fans. It was freezing. For some reason, Adrian and I forgot that the bay area can be cold. And somehow the swimming part absolutely eluded me. But here are Peter, Kevin, Karen, and Adrian, waiting for the runner to return. Oh, in front is Maggie. I wonder if she had any butterflies in her stomach at this moment. The Mini-mermaid run took place as soon as most of the tri-athletes crossed the finish line. She was amazing. Her dad joined her on the last leg (I thought he'd run the whole thing) to cheer her on. She would have made the 1.5 mile run without his help, but is was fun to see them running together.

We spent the rest of Saturday, Sunday and Monday at Kevin and Natalie's house. On Sunday, we visited Mark and Trina. This is where the adorable child comes into play. I love this picture of him sleeping on Kevin's shoulder as Kevin eats yet another strawberry cake. Don't worry, strawberries will go out of season soon. Don't you think Matthew's bib looks like a speech bubble? He must be talking up a storm.
Then it was Adrian's turn to hold the sweet bundle. See what I mean by tiny? All these guys tower over the wee one. Mark was not concerned about damage to his offspring. Adrian is really very good with the young of our species.

Natalie was in front of me, taking an official family portrait. But I like the slightly aerial view of this now complete family. It will be fun watching Matthew as he grows.

That Was Embarassing

This is my beautiful rug that I bought when I was in India. It gives me endless pleasure. When I look at it, I remember my time in Bangalore and the very nice man that I bought the rug from. It brings back a lot of stories and you know how much I love stories.

Two weeks ago, we had a horrible accident and bright pink Crystal Light laden water was spilled all over the rug. Argh. Adrian took it to a Persian Rug vendor and cleaner near his gym. It was ready today so we both went to pick it up. Sort of embarrassing. It seems this rug should not be kept in a busy location. It is in our living room, my bedroom, the TV room, the place where I spend a great deal of my time. It gets walked on a lot. A lot. It doesn't have Crystal Light spilled on it every day, but it is in a busy room.

Then he wanted to know if it had furniture on it. Heavy furniture. No. It sits in the middle of the room. There are just a couple of ottomans and . . . my rocking chair. That I live in. Oh. There were grooves in the rug. So now, this is where the rocker lives.

I asked Adrian if he had said anything to the rug guy about how upset I was with him for spilling the drink. Maybe he was telling me that I'd done enough damage on my own. Adrian laughed and told me that he got quite a berating all on his own. The thing is, this rug is very beautiful. The rug man told Adrian that it was very good. Today, while I was paying for the cleaning, Adrian was looking at the prices on the other rugs, the other rugs that may have been the size of mine, but not pure silk. $10,000. I don't even want to know how much my rug is worth. The rugs in the store are very nice, but I know my peacock rug is special.

So, no more heavy Peggy on furniture on the rug. It could be spilled on again, but I really don't think so.