April showers

The LA rainy season is not yet done with us even if it hasn't reared its head in weeks.  Not a heavy rain this past week, but we'll take it.  How lovely to see droplets on the olive tree leaves outside our front door the other morning.

It's April.  Conrad and I are leaving Van behind in California and heading east tomorrow for my spring break.  I'll see if Blogger is still not cooperating with use on my phone or not.  If it is, then it will be a bit of a break in blogging and then a return with vengeance when I get back! 

the lead-up to Christmas

I'm writing this after dinner on Boxing Day, leftovers from Christmas (of course!).  It's a nice, easy evening, which aligns with the past couple of days.  Rain aside (and we do need rain, but less at one time and more often), it's been just the most delightful Christmas in some time.  No entertaining, little cooking.  A really good time of it.

Christmas Eve eve, the 23rd, Conrad and I took ourselves to Maestro for the last time this year.  We're heading out of town Sunday, and we have leftovers still to eat, so yes, our last time.  We sat at the bar, as usual, and had drinks to start.  I've been loving the Fall Sour that they've had as a seasonal cocktail lately, so I had that. 

Conrad went with a Last Word. 

I love that he loves those so much.  We shared plantain chips with guacamole

and then the lamb shank, which was a huge portion, wow!

It was an early dinner, and we had the rest of the evening to enjoy, so we came home and put on some Christmas music and read.  I enjoyed a chocolate martini as well. 

The night wound down, we headed to bed, eager for Christmas Eve.

And then it was Christmas Eve.  And it was raining. 

We have a rain gauge on our roof, and it recorded almost 5 inches of rain on December 24 alone.  Official records are sure to be less, but we still had a month of rain in one day, more or less.  Conrad and I made our way - with umbrellas! - to Amara to enjoy breakfast sitting inside,

then came home to toss our clothes in the dryer and relax before heading out on errands.  We got things done on Wednesday:  picking up food, wrapping a few gifts, setting the table for Christmas. 

An accomplished day, not an overwhelming one.  We even made time to swing down by the Rose Bowl to see how much water was running in the channel through the arroyo. 

The answer:  clearly more than usual!

By the end of the afternoon, we were organized and packing up the car and heading to Van's for the evening an overnight.  We had presents to put under his tree

(and one to open early

so that we could use them for the cocktails).  Pre-dinner drinks,

and then a BC wine with dinner (2023 Joie Noble Blend). 

Van made us lobster tails and baked potatoes and peas,

and we dined very well, indeed.  Bellies full, we unwound after dinner (and Olive found her way over to her favoured Plan C). 

There was dessert, but even better, there were Grasshopper cocktails to sip after dinner.

We went to bed by 11, awaiting Santa.  No, not really, but the nostalgia of that is fun!  Just the same, though, we'd had a lovely couple of days in the lead-up to Christmas, and more enjoyable time was to come. 

third weekend in November

Herb Alpert aside, how was the weekend?

Well, wet. 

This was Friday morning, before the rains really came.  I don't know the official amount for Pasadena, but I believe that over the course of late Thursday to early Tuesday, downtown LA got about 3.5 inches.  I know that doesn't sound like much, but it's an extraordinary amount for November even if November is part of our rainy season.  Yep, we got soaked.

Saturday was a quiet day, and I was showing Conrad my ideas for doing some redecorating around the condo in the new year when I got a call from the massage place.  Late for my appointment!  Yikes.  I had completely forgotten it, I blush to admit.  I headed over their as quickly as I could, had at least part of the appointment, then stopped in at TJ's for groceries and - hooray! - picked up the first poinsettia of the season. 

That brightens things nicely.

Van came by that evening, and the three of us braved a lull in the rain to head for an overdue dinner at Maestro.  Good to be back!  A Mezcal Campfire

to start my evening (and a Sancho Barrel Aged to end it). 

The three of us shared the roasted beet salad,

birria tacos,

and the tamal poblano

before finishing with the Oaxacan chocolate tart. 

And it was all so good and welcome.  We said hello to familiar faces, we had our own conversation flowing, and we ignored the brisk temperatures rushing in every time the door opened - we had the table closest to it!

The evening ended early, and then it was on to a rainy Sunday.

Actually, it wasn't super rainy when we got up on Sunday.  In fact, it was fine enough for a bit of a walk, ending with breakfast at Amara. 

Another welcome thing!  Conrad had packing to do, and I ended up making some banana bread loaves.  And then it was 2:00 and time for an online happy hour to catch up with Rick and Dave in Kentucky.  I was making South Side Royale cocktails,

the classic gin sour with mint recipe dolled up with some champagne.  They went down nicely.  After a leisurely couple of hours with the guys online, I worked to get dinner on the table, a chicken I had been roasting for some slow while. 

It will be leftovers of that for me this evening!

I looked at some travel arrangements for the new year after dinner, and that was that.  Sunday wound down, and the third weekend in November was over. 

it rained today

The rain was supposed to start by around 9:00 last night, but I don't think it hit us until after midnight.  And hit us it did!  We have a rain gauge on the roof, and when last I checked (and before our connectivity in the neighbourhood was lost), it was suggesting that we'd had 2.4 inches.  That's a heavy soak!  Official readings for DTLA showed about 1.24 inches, a lot less, but still more than double what we would normally get in October.  Wow!

Oh please oh please oh please let this be a very wet and cold fall and winter! 

first weekend in October

The weekend started with rain.  It's so odd - that's twice now in the space of a week or so where we had measurable rain but I had no inkling of its potential.  I even went out for a walk on Friday morning, not a long one, and thought how very nice the overcast morning was for a walk, but I assumed it would all lift and dissipate as the marine layer so often does.  But no.  I was doing work at the dining table as I often do, and Van texted us to comment that it was raining his way.  I looked up, and lo!  Rain. 

Not buckets, but clearly rain.  And not for too long.  It let up, and by afternoon, there was some sun coming through.

It wasn't our usual weekend.  Neither of us was in the mood to head to Maestro on Friday night.  Not a reflection on Maestro - we love the place and were delighted to see the photos on Instagram from the owners of the two of them in Mexico at the wedding of one of them.  It was an odd week for me of working two nights late, and I feel like I've dined out a lot lately.  I just wanted to stay in.  Conrad felt the same way, so I poured us a couple of cocktails and set to work on making us a simple dinner of pasta (including - yes, sorry - jarred sauce) and salad.  We opened a decent Italian red,

watched some Great British Bake Off, and that was the evening we needed and had.

Saturday morning was a little more usual, though.  A short walk for me before Conrad was up and at 'em, then another walk of comparable distance with him.  That brought us to Amara for breakfast, a very light one for me - only an empanada. 

But I did have my decaf latte,

and I did have Conrad's fine company!

That got us partway through the morning.  By the time I was home from a haircut

and groceries, it was closing in on noon.  The afternoon mostly passed with us doing housework - my sister will be with us through much of this week, and we needed to have the place tidy for her - and then we got ourselves all pretty for a dinner out.

I think I've posted things with Heath and Nicole in the past.  Heath is, sort of, Van's nephew.  That's a stretch, but it's the easiest way to describe things.  Anyway, Heath's birthday was last Friday, and so we all met up in Santa Monica on Saturday for dinner together. 

Van and I had wanted to get Conrad to The Georgian Room after our nice dinner there last fall, and it felt like a special place to take the young couple.  It's a handsome setting, though they discourage photos inside (Conrad snuck a few when a dessert with candle came out for Heath).  Even the outside is handsome,

tucked around the side of a hotel right on the city's oceanfront boulevard. 

We had a good meal, most of us enjoying steaks, some cocktails and wine as well.  It was really enjoyable, celebrating with them.

Sunday morning I was up before the others, walking around in South Pasadena, having a casual time of it, taking a photo or two. 

Eventually Conrad and I got going a bit, heading for some groceries (with Olive tagging along!),

then coming back to make a light brunch for the three of us - avocado toast with poached egg. 

We headed home after that, getting more cleaning done, then I hopped online for a happy hour with friends.  Conrad and I ended the day with a simple dinner of things set out on a board for grazing.  Some television, a short walk, then to bed early!

All in all, it felt like a simple, basic weekend.  Certainly, I don't have as many photos, and I'm not being all that descriptive.  Still, it was a good weekend, getting some things done, having some social time.  I'm happy with how it all went!