warm nights at home

It's been unreasonably, unseasonably, record-breakingly hot this week in southern California.  While Conrad's family in Michigan has been suffering some heavy snow, we've been reaching well into the 90s daily.  It should cool down a little after the weekend, but it's too much and far too soon.  Technically winter, but nope.  Summer temperatures already.  Ugh.

In such a week, I'm trying to keep the cooking to a minimum so as to turn on the stove infrequently and the oven even less.  Dinners like on Wednesday night (and a similar one at Van's on Tuesday):  a grazing board of things that I pulled out of the fridge and cupboards. 

That was just right for us - variety and ease all in one!  I poured us mocktails from a bottle of a pre-made mix (not a great drink, but nice for something a little different),

and we sat outside enjoying the evening air cooling off. 

loquats

Nothing newsy to report, just a photo to share.  I was out walking north of the freeway yesterday, and I saw some loquat trees in a few yards, heavy with fruit coming along nicely.

I've read in the past that there are many such trees around the LA area, and that a lot of the fruit goes unused.  And I don't doubt that - in the groceries stores (read:  white, or non-ethnic) where I shop, the fruit is almost never on sale.  I probably haven't tasted it since I lived in Montreal and was dating Claude, and he would find loquats in stores (sold as nèfles) and buy them.

Anyway, no invading yards for me.  Just admiration.  Handsome trees.  I hope some owners are harvesting them.  

television date night

After a week of enduring a cold (and it doesn't help that the heat has so much blooming right now, including the oak trees - hello, hay fever!), it was back to a regularly scheduled weekly television date night at Van's.  American Idol is our current watch, but we also made time to dive into a Netflix dating series, Age of Attraction.  Yes, my television tastes are far from refined.  Unapologetically so.

I've been having a mostly dry month but have been allowing myself a drink a week.  Before we watched television, we sat outside with some light dinner that required no cooking in this heat, sipping Fallen Angels. 

Water for the rest of the night, and a satisfying time parked on the couch watching television.

Oh, and Olive!  Olive was there to get her little bit of love, too! 

a weekend was had

Yep, it was a weekend, and not at all a bad one.  There are remnants of my cold lingering even now, but for the most part, I'm doing alright and was that way through the past weekend.  And that meant, happily, some welcome and familiar things.

Such as dinner at Maestro on Friday night!  It was a nice, warm evening, so Conrad and I sat outside.  I've been having a mostly dry month, so I had a mocktail made with coconut, pineapple juice, and cafe de olla syrup. 

We shared guacamole and plantain chips, a roasted beet salad,

and the black bean and huitlacoche tetela. 

It was only toward the end of dinner that we realized that we'd had a vegetarian meal.  Great!  It was nice to be back.

Saturday morning we walked.  After a few days of inactivity, I was sluggish, I admit.  But we hauled ourselves around Old Pasadena for a couple of miles and landed at Amara for a light breakfast. 

On  the way home afterward, I stopped to get a shot or two of the "snow" of fallen tabebuia blooms on the sidewalk. 

From a distant, they looked like crumpled caution tape.  Really striking.

We got things done at home and at the bank (but ugh, I won't go into the whole story, just...grrrr), and eventually I got into the kitchen to make us a simple dinner of pork tenderloin and cabbage. 

And after the bank thing I thought, you know what?  I will join Conrad in a cocktail with dinner.  And so I did!

I have no photos from yesterday, alas.  A much lazier day, and I wish I had slept better the night before.  The time change over a week ago is still kicking my butt, and my sleeping hours have been wonkier than I would like.  We ultimately ended up at Van's in the afternoon for a handful of hours of watching the Oscars and then dinner together.  Nice time of it, but nothing that I captured with a lens.

the day I left Vancouver

Let's finish Vancouver, shall we?  Essentially an excuse for a last photo dump from the morning walk,

but hey, isn't it a treat to see Nanaimo bars in the Maple Leaf Lounge at YVR? 

Speaking of YVR, I had time to kill there, and I was tired of sitting in the lounge, so, yep, you guessed it:  a walk.  I headed down to the small planes end of the US gates and found absolutely no one there.  Nice and quiet.

I really must get up to Vancouver again soon.  My step count this past week has been terrible!

May the weeks ahead bring some more activity, some things to blog about.  Happy March, everyone! 

Monday in Vancouver

Sigh.

So every good intention to blog this week hit up against what turned out not to be sniffles from seasonal allergies but an actual cold.  Always fun.  I've been in bed an awful lot the past few days and eaten little and have done absolutely nothing of note beyond, perhaps, watching one more Oscars contender (Sinners, good movie).  But I'm feeling better today, happily.  100%?  Nope.  But I'm sitting here, sniffling a bit, half-watching Monday's American Idol, and digging into another blog entry.

Jeepers, it was a month ago that I was in Vancouver, right?  Still, let me do my duty and check in on the Monday there.  And what do you know, it starts off with a morning walk.

I love my morning walks.  With Conrad or others or alone, I just love that peaceful part of the day.  It will be interesting to go up to BC in the future now that they have changed their time zone to favour light evenings (meh) and find myself walking in darkness more, but ah well.  I still had a nice walk to start off a quiet-ish holiday Monday.  So once again, a photo dump from a walk that took my west and then back along the waterfront to the hotel.

But that's not all!  I was meeting Bryan for lunch, and I decided to do a bit of a stroll before that, taking myself almost right the way around Canada Place and getting some shots

before meeting up with him at Nightingale.  It was threatening rain later, and I wanted some step count before that.

Good to see Bryan. 

I made the right choice in giving myself one more day in Vancouver to catch up with people.  It meant getting together with him for a tasty meal of charred cabbage (so good!),

a vegan pizza with squash and peppers (nice and light),

and a carrot cake dessert (pretty but not as good as many carrot cakes I've had). 

What was especially cool was that in all the years I have known Bryan - 6 or 7 by now - I didn't know about his figure skating past.  So we were able to gab at length about Winter Olympics stuff, and it was great to hear his perspective on the performances and judging and personalities.

I came back to the hotel after lunch and chilled with the three-part ANTM documentary series before girding myself to head out into the rain and walk to dinner.  Hotel umbrella, thank you for your service!

I met Sherri

at Tavola for dinner.  She knew the GM well, but he didn't realize that I was meeting her when I arrived.  I liked the place.  Good neighbourhood spot with interesting food and good drinks.  I got served the wrong drink first, but they let me keep it while they made mine, and that was kind.  Her friend also topped up our wine, so that may have been the booziest meal we had.  But I very much enjoyed our food

and the seating at the end of a long communal table.  Also, Sherri and I had so much hometown gossip and more to get through.  It was a blast.  I think we were together for over 3 hours, not at all rushing and not at all being rushed.  I think Mark told me that he and Linda go there sometimes even though they don't live at all close, and I could see being a regular there if I lived nearby.

Sherri dropped me off back at the hotel.  My day of walking was done.  I put on some more ANTM and headed off to bed, very happy with the day that was.