first weekend in August

How about I check in on things from a week ago?  Sounds about right for the way this blog goes most of the time lately, right?  It's been a very easy, lazy Saturday, and even then, I've only just found the wherewithal to get some things written and posted.  Nicely done, Peter!

Alright then, a week ago yesterday.  Starting out with a good long walk since I didn't have a morning commute to be mindful of.  Over 11 miles that morning.  Yep, a great way to end my July step count.  I was pretty pleased with that.

The workday at home proved uneventful, and before we knew it, it was done.  We weren't at Maestro right at opening as we sometimes are, but we were seated at the bar not long afterward. 

I haven't been indulging in Mezcal Campfires much lately, but I did have one that evening. 

Calamari

and the chicken mole

for me and Conrad to share.  Nice, easy evening, and home after that to watch a little television and wind down.

Saturday was a little fuller.  The middle part of the day included housework and errands, but we also made time to go see a condo at an open house.  A really good and promising unit were we in a position to buy right away.  But we aren't.  Still, that was impetus for us to begin getting financial ducks in a row.

Framing the midday activities were the morning walk and breakfast at Amara (shared burrito for us)

to start the day, and then a jaunt down to San Pedro early in the evening.  We were invited over to Lessa and Christian's home for drinks

before heading to dinner with them at Trani's Dockside Station. 

It was nice to come down their way - they've come up this way a few times now, and it really is a drive.  Plus, how nice to see their home (I love to see what books people have on their shelves) and meet their chickens. 

Van is such an animal lover!

Dinner was a great recommendation.  I struggled with the menu because there was a lot I wanted to try.  Lessa, Conrad, and I shared oysters, and then I had a swordfish special. 

Lightly breaded, which was interesting, and I liked it.  Some greens on the side. 

The chocolate gelato dessert was fine

- I preferred the brown butter cake that landed at the other end of the table and that I couldn't readily finish.  The restaurant had a good bar as well, and the Saging Grace cocktail was refreshing. 

A nice night with local friends as the highlight of the weekend.

As is often the case, I have no Sunday photos.  I recall spending a very good deal of the day reading old XMen comics on my iPad, and what a delight that was.  Such an easy day.  I put together a board of easy nibbles for dinner so as not to cook on a hot day.  Television, to bed, and then... Monday. 

third weekend in July

Hey, it's the weekend update!  Lucky y'all, right?  Here we go!

Friday started out with me doing a mighty mighty long morning walk:  just shy of ten miles.  I was understandably a little worn out the rest of the day, but I rallied for dinner at Maestro.  No Van this time - he was a little under the weather - but we did have a nice time with Stephen. 

Ah, Stephen, someone we didn't see often enough despite him living just over in Glendale.  And now he is all packed up and moving to Texas.  This week.  We wish him well there, what with the new job and being much closer to his daughters and grandson.

Anyway, it was a nice evening outside. 

I stuck with the Maestro margarita, a hibiscus-flavoured drink, and we shared some good food:  guacamole with plantain chips, oysters, the roasted beet salad, and the cochinita pibil.  

I really love that last dish.  Yum!

Conrad and I came home from dinner, poured a little wine, watched some television.  An easy Friday done.

Saturday started out with less walking than the day before.  And, of course, we ended up at Amara.  Rather than having my usual arepa, I split a breakfast burrito

with Conrad. 

Have no fear:  there was a decaf latte for me.

Saturday then unspooled through a day of groceries, some laundry, and tackling some of the accumulation in the one storage room.  That felt good to get done.  Eventually I took up residence in my kitchen where I cobbled up from dim memory a lentil and bacon tart

to serve at room temperature for dinner and served that along with a salad platter (no lettuce - we are being wary of that like many other people) of burrata with crispy prosciutto, tomatoes, nectarines, basil, and mint. 

We had barely finished when Erik from next door showed up at the door to say hello.  That turned into a longer evening with him and his friend, Barry, joining us.  And then, because the dishwasher is on the fritz, I was up until after 11 washing and drying all the dishes by hand.  A lot of time on my feet despite a shorter walk that day, and man oh man, was I exhausted by the time I went to bed.

I let myself stay in bed longer yesterday, and our morning walk was meager.  It was nice to get a morning with some oatmeal and decaf and writing a few notecards to friends.  I made some dinner for Conrad to reheat tonight while I'm at Van's, then set to work on the happy hour cocktails.  That was fun.  Van stuck around for sushi after drinks, and then he headed home while Conrad and I finished up with some travel planning we'd been doing earlier in the day.  To bed after that.

Just a rather ordinary, easy weekend for us.  Nice to have! 

three meals in the desert

Two dinners and a lunch for us to talk about.  Here we go.

Wally's Desert Turtle.  Our favourite place to get to.  Yes, there is better, more adventuresome food in the desert.  And, honestly, service was kind of lacking this time.  But we love it there.  My streak continued:  so far as I can recall, I have had liver and onions every time I have eaten there, and this time was no different. 

Yum!  Also, chocolate souffle shared for dessert. 

What a nice evening it was, service glitches aside.  So happy to be back.  Conrad was able to chat with the owner about a possible big birthday dinner for himself later in the year, too.  You know that made him happy.

King's Highway.  Brunch and an opportunity to catch up with Kent for the first time since he and Geoff moved to France, split up, moved back to the desert.  Nice to see him, and a nice choice for brunch.  A diner, but a few cuts above.  I had a mocktail to sip,

then a substantial breakfast burrito because I was in a breakfast-y mood. 

I stole fries from Van, yum.  I'd be happy to go back.

Bar Issi.  The other restaurant at our hotel.  Van and I had been there the year before, but it was nice to get Conrad there with us.  We had a table outside, and the temperature, while warm, was entirely pleasant.  We had cocktails and then dug into a few courses.  A tomato salad that was just dressed, thick slices of heirloom tomatoes - simple and good.  Puccia bread with butters, piping hot and delicious. 

Zucchini blossoms, a nice little treat. 

Two pizzas, one pepperoni and one with chicken and asparagus. 

We ate our fill and took the rest back to the room.  A very nice night, but Van and I did think that some of the little service issues we experienced last year hadn't yet been fully fixed.  Ah well.

All in all, good dining in the desert.  And there are yet new places to try next visit as well as old faves to return to.

first (full) weekend in February

The year feels like it's flying by already, weirdly enough.  A week into February?  Wow.  I was doing some travel planning for later this year tonight, and in some ways, that travel will be upon us before we know it.  There won't be as much travel this year, by the way, but there will be some,

It's soon bedtime here, tomorrow is the first day of the semester (though I have a light schedule tomorrow).  Before I head upstairs, let me recap the weekend that was.  The weekend that should have been would have been in Seattle, visiting Natasha and a few other friends.  What with Conrad's shoulder still bothering him, it was a pretty low key time of it here.  And that was good!

We skipped Maestro this weekend and stayed in.  Conrad's shoulder affects things that much, and I know that he would have been uncomfortable in restaurant chairs or bar stools.  At his request, I whipped up some pasta with a homemade tomato sauce and some pork meatballs I put together.  We started out with Vespers and sat outside,

eventually having dinner and some red wine with it.  An easy evening.

Saturday morning we got in a modest walk then made our way over to Amara Cafe for breakfast.  A bit of a change from our usuals yesterday morning, and we ended up sharing a breakfast burrito. 

Much of the day was spent on household things - I did a few batches of laundry, and then Conrad folded the laundered items.  But I did break out the iron and ironing board and began work on the assorted napkins.  It's always nice to have crisp, pressed napkins when we eat dinner, and we have a small dinner party planned for later in the month, so it will be good to have some on hand.

Last night we were over at Van's for dinner, but not for overnight - again, Conrad's shoulder.  Poor guy.  He really is low-level (and occasionally high level) miserable from it all, and it's going to take time and therapy on it.  Anyway, we got to Van's late afternoon with the plan for him to grill us burgers.   Conrad had picked up some cobbler from a place near his barber's shop, and I made us cocktails to start with.  Last Words for the two of them, but I was in the mood for something not citrusy, at least not at first, and I ended up trying a drink called the Sun Stealer. 

Not bad.  I'll try that one again.  Anyway, it was a satisfying dinner, and then we watched an episode of Drag Race with Van (and Olive!) before returning home.

Today we had a lazy start to things and not much of a walk.  It's fine.  I know I need the exercise and more, but I also need days where I take it a little more easy.  We made our coffees, we did some things on line, then I barreled through the ironing most of the rest of the day.  Oh, we took a nice amount of time in the afternoon to catch up with Courtney and Robert online, but by gosh I got those napkins done. 

Whew!  All afternoon long I also had a chicken slowly roasting in the oven,

and it made for a nice, simple dinner served with some broccoli.  Lots of leftovers for Conrad on Tuesday as well!

After dinner, some travel planning, as I mentioned.  The kitchen is tidied up, Conrad is upstairs, and I shall trek up to join him shortly.  Monday will soon be here, but at least it's a short week at work! 

last weekend in September

Howdy, neighbours!

Is September really ending?  Wow.  I guess it is.  Life feels somewhat back to normal, but I say that a whole heck of a lot, so maybe redefining normal is needed?  Not tonight, though.  Tonight, let's blog.

Friday!  On Friday, we went to Maestro.  Just as we have done many times before, and - with luck - we will do many times again.  We arrived there not long after 5, but the bar was already too full for the 3 of us.  So it was dinner outside on what had been a grey day.  Very comfortable temperatures at this time of year, and we appreciated that.  Cocktails to start with,

and among the food was a roasted beet salad. 

It was very good to be back.  I always appreciate our time there.

Saturday morning I was feeling lazy.  It had rained a little overnight, and I decided not to go out and walk all over on a still-damp morning.  I waited for Conrad to get up, and then the two of us headed to Amara for breakfast.  Decaf oatmilk latte and, this time, a breakfast burrito for me. 

That was enjoyable.

We did some things around the condo after breakfast yesterday, and we also had some lazy time.  That was welcome.  Oh, I know - Hawaii was relaxing, right?  Yes, it was.  But it's another thing to get to relax in your own home, and so we did.  Early evening, though, we headed to Van's, where he made us cocktails and put out light bites for us to enjoy,

giving Olive some love,

before we met up with Jennifer and Sanders at Cannonball,

a new restaurant in South Pasadena.

My verdict?  Handsome space, decent food (ocean trout for me)

and cocktails (the Arroyo Park and then the Milk and Honey),

but it was very loud.  I'm genuinely glad that they are popular, but I don't know if/when we will go back.  Even for the 3 of us not wearing hearing aids last night, it was tough to listen.  ah well.  Maybe one day.

This morning I got up a little later and went for a walk - just look at that magnificent fungus I saw. 

Groceries and Starbucks, and then Van made us a satisfying brunch.  The even wound down with an online happy hour that I'll blog about separately.

What's weird is that I have a fairly normal workweek ahead.....