A New Love In Her Life

Wednesday I drove down to Sacramento to have lunch with my friend "C". She is the friend that lives on a lake.

It's pretty isn't it? The water is a man made lake that continues into the Sacramento River and beyond, This beautiful Apartment complex is quiet and peaceful. It's a small oasis on the outskirts of a really large city.
She had a balcony with shells from the ocean.

She has such a beautiful gift for simplicity and most everything in her apartment is white, but the exceptions are lovely...

We went downtown to eat at my first Buddhist, vegetarian restaurant called Andy Nguyen.
Their business card says, " Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances of survival for life on earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet." ~Albert Einstein

I had no idea what the dishes on the menu were. Not being a vegetarian, I struggled to find something that sounded good and that I would enjoy eating. I chose "Peaceful Curry". Yes, that was its name (lower right in the photo above) and it was wonderful. If someone fixed me food like this everyday, I would eat it and, I'm sure be much healthier for it. The food was delicious, filling, beautiful... and "peaceful". 
Then we went to a yarn shop in another part of town. Oh yes...

And, of course, I didn't get out of there without buying some wool yarn and roving. Don't you love the name?
RUMPELSTILTSKIN. What a great name for a yarn and fiber store. It was a charming place and I will definitely come and spend more time here.
We bought a Christmas tree on the way home. "C"s daughter is coming to visit her for the Christmas holiday and so a decorated tree was in order.

 OK.... This is the real reason that I went to visit my friend.

It wasn't about the nice lunch, or even the yarn store.
It was really about a dog named Max.
I came down to see her new pup.
He is a four year old Havanese.
They are just getting to know each other. It's only been a few days. I don't think I have ever seen my friend so smitten with any man before.
They are sleeping together as of last night and I'm not sure that her daughter knows about this yet.

He is adorable...and apartment sized.

He is alert and will be the catalyst for many walks during the day.

They have already bonded and I could tell that this was love at first sight.

Max only has eyes for her. 

It's a match made in heaven. 

It's true love.

Bambino Blog

Our youngest grandson, Little Bean, is FIVE years old today.
He just grew up when we weren't looking.
From the little guy who taste tested the dirt in our garden...

And held his own with his older brother...

To being the life of the party.

He is the sweetest most loving little boy.

Love you bambino.
Noni and Papa wish you the best Birthday ever.

'Tis the Season... I think.

 Yes, 'tis the season...Just not sure WHAT season it is.

Mother Nature is still doing her lovely Autumn thing and it's nine days until the first day of winter.

Fall is trying to cover up the sweet Alyssum of summer without much success.

The Mexican Sage is blooming its purple flowers off.

And the white roses look better than they did all summer.

I think the Christmas decorations feel a little out of place. My "snow" effect doesn't even give me that hot chocolate and marshmallow feeling. Maybe I should take it off the blog.
The sun is shinning. It's beautiful and warm during the day.
I know this is California, but I think it needs to start acting like Winter... and soon.

So I discussed this with the tired cone flowers,

the struggling Sunflower,

and the bedraggled Boston fern.
We've decided to postpone Christmas until January 25.
There is never anything to do in January. We sit around and worry about "resolutions" and  loosing weight. We get depressed. It's a tough month.
I'm not ready for Christmas anyway. The weather is confused and so is my garden.
Who says that Christmas has to be on the 25th of December?
Let's give ourselves another month. Then we will ALL really be ready.
Are you with me on this?

Weekend with a Purpose

I'm feeling a bit of a crunch because of this freight train called Christmas. So the weekend has been packed with doing things to avoid a train wreck and feel more at one with it all.
I have been:
1. Writing Christmas cards.
2. Making extra food for our neighbor who lives by himself and just had an operation on Thursday.
3. Re-purposeing a wool sweater. (More about this later.)
4. Sewing. Yes, I'm actually sewing like I know what I'm doing.
5. Finishing a couple of knitted/felted scarves for Christmas.
6. Taking pictures of the flock of turkey in our neighbor's yard.

Couldn't pass this up. They were everywhere. I think they are planning some kind of take over. They only seems to congregate when my unsuspecting neighbor is at work. Hope they know he has a rifle and loves turkey dinners.
7. Contemplating what it would be like to spend Christmas in Cabo San Lucas or Hawaii.
8. Dusting and vaccuming.
9. Trying to write short intertaining blog posts.
10. Realizing that Christmas is only 14 days away.
11. Having strange dreams about being lost in a Casino that looks like a department store and sells babies. Yea... very disturbing.
12. Baking Snickerdoodles.
The beginnings...

The old reliable recipe...I add a teaspoon of vanilla and preheat to 360 degrees, not 400. This takes a little longer but I like the results.

The beautiful and delicious yellow cookie dough... I LOVE cookie dough. The recipe says it makes 5 dozen but a couple of cookies less is more accurate because someone keeps eating bites of the dough.

And the finished product.

Help yourself.

Tomorrow I will tell you about Brownie and why he is taking a walk with the Prospector.