second weekend in September

So, you already know that we spent last Friday evening with Van and Olive over at the condo, but how did the rest of the weekend, you wonder?  Well then, let me tell you....

Friday afternoon, after I was done work, Conrad and I drove over to Glendale to the Brand Library and Art Center, part of that city's public library system. 

A friend of mine from Chicago, Doug, had a piece in Brand 53: 53rd Annual National Juried Exhibition of Works on Paper, and I wanted to get over to see it before the show closed.  Handsome little piece,

and I liked the show overall.  There was a large work there for a mere $15,000 that I would not have minded seeing in my home, provided I won a lottery and had a new, big home with some blank walls!

Saturday morning I got out on a walk without Conrad.  Indeed, he rather slept in that morning, and it was far later than usual that I got him out to door and down to Amara for breakfast. 

We did stuff around the condo on Saturday, then made our way to Van and Olive

later on for dinner out on the deck, where Van had done some replanting of his pots. 

Last Words all around,

and cheers to us enjoying that together.

I got up yesterday morning, and I admit, I just did not want to go out walking all around town.  I took myself grocery shopping instead (and look!  TJ's has the salted maple ice cream back in stock for the autumn),

then came home to make Conrad and me pancakes and bacon for breakfast.  I did spend much of the day cooking some food for Conrad because I head out of town on Wednesday (and I'm at Van's tonight), and then he and I grabbed a nap before moseying over to Maestro for an overdue dinner there.  Cocktails (Last Word for him,

a mezcal negroni

and then a Jungle Bird for me),

queso fundido,

beet salad,

the chicken mole

- it was so good to be back.  What an odd year we've had, it feels, of trying to be regulars at our favourite places!

And then this morning, it was up and at 'em, on foot for a handful of miles in the fog (that did burn off by the time I was done)

before making myself pretty and getting the work week started.

That concludes the weekend report!