catching up on last week

I'm behind, sorry!

I had every good intention of blogging whilst in the Midwest, but, well, you know.  Anyway...

Last Thursday (a whole week ago!), Van and I went to dinner.  Conrad was already out of town, so it was just the two of us.  Usually Thursday night is sushi night, but we decided to try some place we hadn't been before and wandered into Bodegon 69.  A Peruvian restaurant, I was startled to learn it had been in business a couple of years already.  Good job with supporting new businesses, Peter!

We started out with a pisco sour each,

and it brought me back to our vacation in Chile earlier this year when we had tried both the Chilean and Peruvian versions of the drink.  I know that Peru has its own cuisine, but given its neighbouring position to Chile, it's unsurprising that the food kind of reminded me of what I enjoyed in Chile as well.  For one thing, not a lot of vegetables on offer.  Rather, the menu was meaty/seafood-y.  I don't recall having super starchy meals in South America, per se, but having yucca, rice, and potato all in the same dinner did feel to me true to my vacation experience.

I liked the food.  The pork was rich, for sure, but it was tasty. 

That yellow sauce on the yucca? 

I could ladle that over many things happily.  Yum.

It was good to see that the place was reasonably busy.  I'd be happy to go back some time.  I wonder what Conrad would think of it.

Pasadena City Hall

When I maintained a Flickr account, I had an entire album devoted to Pasadena City Hall.  It's a glorious, gorgeous building.  Really lovely.  I often enjoy looping around it on morning or other walks, and yesterday morning, with the May Grey burning off, it made for a fine sight.

would you take a drink from this man?

No?  Yes?  Maybe?  You really should.  He's a lovely man, and he makes a fine drink.  We circled back to The Naked and Famous this week, and we enjoyed them immensely.

Cheers, Van!

traveling again

Checking in from the United lounge in the F concourse at ORD to say hello!  It was a very very early start this morning - I was out of bed a little after 3:00 to catch a Lyft to LAX.  Ah, Lyft.  This week Conrad and I learned that the pre-booking of early morning rides on Lyft and Uber is pretty much a sham.  I made it on time, as did he earlier this week, but you know, I doubt I'll ever trust that option again.

No matter.  I'm transiting through Chicago, heading north in a little while.  And I have a meeting to chair from in the middle of this lounge.  Fun times.

So for now, how about a photo of planes taken at LAX this morning?

some lovin'

Short posts in recent days - Conrad is out of town, and Van and I have been catching up on our television shows in the evenings.  This weekend is Michigan and then Chicago for me, joining Conrad and then heading to meetings on Monday and Tuesday.  I'll have things to post from the trip, but I admit, this week has been pretty low key.

Olive had a scare this past Sunday.  Van let her out early in the morning, as is his habit.  Usually she does her business then wanders back inside through a patio door left partially open for her.  Van dozes, she cuddles him, and they really start their morning later.  On Sunday, though, he was awoken by the sound of Olive in immense distress.  She came back into the house, limping and bloody.  Van spent much of the day at the vet with her where they treated her for what was apparently a coyote bite.  Poor girl.  I saw her Sunday evening, and between the event and then the drugs, she was a shadow of herself.  Understandably!  She's been peppier since, happily, and the shaved areas (for IV and for stitches) will grow back.  She had oh so much love to give us the other night.  I never mind the ear and nose kisses from her.  May she not encounter a coyote again (but, I should add, I well know that we share the town with coyotes - I stay away from them when I see them, and I hope the same from them when they see me!).

twice in one week!

And four times in one month!

No, it's not something to be proud of, my sad record of swimming this year, but I am pleased that

• I have gotten in the pool more often this month than the previous four months combined;
• I swam the most yardage yet this year (2100 - paltry by past standards, but hey, it's an improvement or recent times);
• I mixed in intervals (50s on :50, which, again, is sad, but at least I tried pushing it a little)

So congratulations to me, I guess.  Maybe I can make it five times this month?  We shall see!

not my best effort

Monday night dinner (yes, I know it's Thursday, sorry), and it was pork tenderloin for me and Conrad.  Nothing special.  Seasoned, seared, put in the oven to finish.  I roasted a couple of carrots and a couple of wedges of cabbage and made some farro.  It worked well enough for an easy dinner in, and that's about all I can say.  Man, my cooking is in a rut.

Saturday night out and in

I didn't blog through the past weekend - we all had a lot to get done.  Conrad and I had a house guest Friday night, and after we took him to the airport on Saturday, we came home and got some things done that were long overdue.  Sunday we did some more things, and I know the long weekend ahead will mean more of what Conrad and I refer to as GSD:  Getting Stuff (ahem!) Done.

Van, meanwhile, continues to work on fitting things from the Rancho Mirage house into his Pasadena house.  That will take him some time more, and it's not something we can assist with, alas.

Saturday, though, we got together for a nice evening.  Natasha (not pictured) joined us, and together we wandered to Mama M for some sushi. 

They were super busy, but we were able to grab the last table (hooray!) and have a nice meal in.

When we got back to the condo (having dropped Natasha off on her floor), the three of us opened some wine,

chatted, and just had an easy evening hanging out before Van had to go home to Olive.

No, not a thrilling weekend, just a chance to share a sushi photo and one of us!  But it was a nice enough night.  😀

May 15: still sucking, but this time in long course

1700m this morning.  I weep to admit that that is the longest swim I have had all year.  

Another week, another Monday swim and then no others - I'm traveling at the end of this week, so that makes the likelihood of splashing all the smaller.  And so, yes, the once a week swims still suck.  Today, though, I was surprised to see on arrival at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center that it was set up for long course, not short.  Long course usually means the irritation of circle swimming with people of varying speeds (though that wasn't the case on a curiously quiet morning at the pool today), and it also means fewer turns and longer stretches from wall to wall.  Ugh.

Ah well.  I made it through.  Three swims in May.  Wow.🙄🙄🙄

it's the end of an era as we know it (and I mostly feel fine)

Yesterday Van officially no longer owned the Rancho Mirage house.

Van owned the house for only 2.5 years, but it was a very particular 2.5 years, overlapping a great deal with the pandemic.  That meant that all of us were able to work remotely (or required, for at least some of that time), and that meant that it wasn't a problem spending multiple days in the desert working there and then enjoying the house and surroundings.  By my estimate, between us Conrad and I visited and stayed at least 40 times in that period.  

We had two US Thanksgivings and one Christmas and NYE there.  I had one birthday there.  We cooked for friends a few times, we had many cocktails.  I used the gym far less than I intended.  We splashed in the pool and soaked in the hot tub.

We lived there fully when there, and we looked forward to being back there when we weren't.

Six days ago I drove Van and Olive out to Rancho Mirage.  Van and I did what little was left to do.  On Sunday, I had a full trunk and Olive in the back seat, and before noon I was heading down the driveway, the view of the house in the mirror my last look at it.

So then, the end of an era.  A short era, an important one.  It's fine - the sale of the Vancouver condo to come might hit me harder - but it's not 100% happy.  It's fine.  Mostly.

Thank you, not-so-little house on San Gorgonio.  You were a good home to have.

May cocktails

Tonight was the monthly cocktail online happy hour for the gang, and yay for that!  May means mothers, and that was our theme.  Because today coincided with the sale of the Rancho Mirage house (closed!  no longer Van's!), we toasted that at our end with Mumm's champagne (get it?). 

I veered into pulling out a cordial glass I got from Mum and poured a little apricot brandy, which was one of her drinks for years. 

If only I had found the Barbara Ann cocktail before the end of cocktails tonight.  Ah well.  I finished us off with The Mother cocktail, which was tastier than it had any right to be. 

A beer float?  Madness!

Next month our theme is Lionel Richie!

A river used to run through it

What a difference a week makes!

Two weekends ago, Conrad and I walked down to the arroyo below the library in Rancho Mirage and admired the flow of the Whitewater River coursing by.  A week later I got up on the Saturday morning and walked down to see the river one last time.  That last time, alas, was the weekend before.  All that was left was a muddy bed showing where the river had been.

I'll be back in the desert for sure.  Tennis, concerts, getaways - there will be things that pull me down there.  Nothing, though, will beat out this past winter and spring in my mind for how I saw the desert in its abundance when water is available.  Goodbye little river, heading to the Salton Sea.  I was glad I got to see you when I did.

More desert blooms

I will miss a lot about going to the desert so often, not least is seeing what is in bloom.  There are people out there who are not flower people, I know, but I love them.

This past weekend I had a couple of morning walks, one to myself and one with Van.  As we went about Magnesia Falls Cove, I snapped shots here and there.  Some of the blooms are native to the desert (and my gosh, the palo verde trees were a riot of yellow flowers - so incredible), and some were planted in yards and gardens.  All were lovely in their way.

So then, some flowers...

Ocotillo.

Desert willow.

Oleander.

Yucca.

Baja fairy duster.

Yellow trumpetbush.

Brittlebush.

Creosote bush.

 

Olive? Still loving and adorable.

A couple more posts from the desert to come, and I will get them up before too long.  But a short post in the meantime, a reminder that this girl is so sweet, and that her ear kisses are a welcome treat.

Monday night dinner

Shocking, but true:  I got into the kitchen again!

Conrad is not yet back from The UP, so Van and I had a nice dinner at home on the deck at Marengo.  I had found a couple of steaks in the freezer at the condo on Sunday, so I thawed them in the fridge overnight, and built dinner around them.  To be honest, they weren't the best steaks (and also to be honest, I could have cooked them better).  I hate when I buy pre-packaged portions of meat for two or more people and the meat is different sizes.  It makes for wonky cooking times.  Ah well.  Also, my piece had a fair bit of sinew in it.  Not great.

Ah well.  They weren't terrible by any stretch.  I roasted some carrots and cooked up a few Brussels sprouts and made a simple red wine sauce for it all. 

We sat outside at the table that Van brought up from the Rancho Mirage house, enjoying the evening on the deck. 

And then, to cap it off, as I finished a glass of pinot noir, Van did the dishes.  Sweet!  😉

March 8, and it sucks only a tiny bit less

Posting this Tuesday (and taking a break in the end-of-life-in-Rancho-Mirage posts) to tell you that on Monday, May 8, I made it into the pool.  Twice in one month.  Wow.  Pathetic.

The swim was slightly less pathetic.  A half hour, 1850 yards.  So I made it to a mile.  Better than zero, as Conrad and I tell each other.  But yeah.

My hope is that, come fall, I can manipulate my schedule a little better so that I can get to the pool more than once a week!

Saturday dinner in Palm Springs

And then we came to it:  our last dinner of our time at the Rancho Mirage house.  While it might have been fitting to cook a last dinner in, it wasn't feasible given how little was left in the house.  And besides, we wanted as little mess and fuss as possible.  So it was that Van - looking very fine indeed!

- and I took ourselves into Palm Springs to go to a reliable place, one we've enjoyed several times:  Copley's.

It was an early dinner, which was good, because it can cool off a fair bit still at this time of year when the sun goes down.  We ordered a pair of the pomegranate martinis,

then settled in to chat, be together, people watch, and enjoy dinner.

I didn't photograph my chilled soup starter - some foods just don't photograph impressively, and a large white mug filled with a lovely green soup is one of them.  Pea and asparagus, a little sweet with some ginger.  It was a nice start, refreshing, not heavy at all.  And then I opted for the pork schnitzel, a new dish on the menu. 

I thought it was nicely cooked, but with the cranberry relish and the dried apricot bread pudding sides, it ate both autumnal and too sweet.  Tasty, for sure, but I think a nice light gravy or something to lend some salt would have made it just right.  I'd still order it again - the meat was nicely cooked!

We negotiated a dessert between us after that and opted for the apple strudel with salted caramel ice cream.  What came out was not even remotely a strudel, and I was startled when it was set down.  An apply tart is what I would call it.  Delicious nonetheless.

After dinner was done, Van and I wandered up the street a short ways to Truss & Twine

for a nightcap (even though it was, oh, 7:30ish at the latest).  We first tried the Fallen Angel there a while back, and we've been playing with making it at home.  Theirs is better.  Van ordered that, and I had The Brooklyn. 

We had a table in the corner by the window and no one next to us, and that made for nice conversation space.  Cocktails done, we headed home, fed the little girl, and had a surprisingly early bedtime.  Our last day full day of living in the Rancho Mirage house was done.

afternoon spritzes

Continuing on with the last full day of enjoying the Rancho Mirage house, there were afternoon cocktails.  Well...

Almost everything was packed up, and that included the bar.  Van had the presence of mind, however, to pick up a few things just in case, and among those few things were some little individual size serving bottles of Aperol spritzes.  They hit the spot just nicely!

Saturday breakfast

You ever get hankerings?  In the mood for some particular food or beverage?  I get that way, for sure.  Fly to Hawaii, and by gosh, I need some Spam.  That sort of thing.

Saturday morning we did a rare thing in the desert and went out to breakfast someplace other than walking to Koffi or to Starbucks.  Equally as often, it seems, we would just have some brewed coffee (well, decaf for me) and a light bite at home as well.  Saturday, however, Van and I wandered up the 111 to The Atrium for breakfast at The Palms Cafe.

Breakfast is a conundrum for me sometimes.  I have come to love eggs as an adult (I was so-so on them as a child), and I seldom make them at home, so I usually want eggs when I go out.  Something savoury for me, some protein.  But I had a hankering for pancakes, too.  The solution?  Grand Slam it, as it were.

I don't usually eat breakfast in this quantity, but I told myself there would be no lunch.  Eggs over easy, bacon, hashbrowns (which are a miracle of potato cookery), and a side of a big pancake.  Perfect.  Van had his coffee,

I had my decaf,

and we started the last full day at the Rancho Mirage house together just right.