Thursday, November 30, 2017

The Last Post of November

So I made it through the month, posting every day except one (and then there was the one where the date changed :().

This isn't something I'll try to maintain, but I should be able to post 2x a week.  I think that will be one of my goals next year.  Not sure what I am going to do for my new 30-day challenge for December...

Today is my cousin Sara's birthday .. so Happy Birthday Sara!!


The baby in this photo (the 2nd one from the right) is the father of the little one that Sara is holding in the other picture.

Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Total Eclipse of the Sun

There was a solar eclipse across the U.S. this past summer on August 21.  We were in Michigan at the time.  We hadn't planned to view it, but the weather, although iffy, was holding up, and the park service was giving away glasses ...

So we went to Quincy Hill in the shadows of the old mine shaft.  We got there, stood in line for our glasses, and then waited.



They have this really cool old train there.  I wished my grandsons had been with us because they could have climbed all over the old train.  They would have loved it.  Usually, when you see an old train like this, you can only look, no climbing.


Building with the mine shaft in the distance ..


Us with our glasses .. too cool.  It was impossible to see with them on so I just had to wing the selfie.

 Pictures of the sun through the glasses.


Very cool, but you can't see the eclipse.  We left there and drove back to the harbor -- we stopped a few places along the way and shared the glasses.  It really was cool to see -- if we'd been where it was 100% we could have taken the glasses off and gotten some great pictures.  Maybe next time.

Another cool thing -- our kids started sending us pictures a couple hours before we saw it so we did the eclipse across the US -- first in California, then Michigan, and finally in Buffalo NY.


Here's a picture of the Quincy Mine Shaft.  My father would know which one ...

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Post-Its and Pillows

So this past weekend, I was watching the grandkids and taught Cooper how to draw stars.  He left a few post-its on the fridge with stars ...


thirty (30) of them to be exact .. I think he's got it down ...

and I finished the second pillow.


Monday, November 27, 2017

Pillow #1


got the first one finished!



just five more to go .. actually, the rest should go quickly.

Sunday, November 26, 2017

29-days 'til Christmas

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas .. at least in the stores.

Went to JoAnn's yesterday with my YD.  She wants me to make some pillow covers, and two smaller pillows.  Here's the fabric.





Looking forward to making these.

Saturday, November 25, 2017

Disney's Aladdin

Nevada came to visit this week.  She flew in Saturday morning so that we could go to San Francisco to see Disney's Aladdin at the Orpheum Theatre.  We drove to the BART station and took the train from there.


As per my current normal, very few pictures.  The above is a picture of one of the benches at the BART station.  There were some interesting statues that I didn't photograph.  I will go back some other time and get pictures of them.

We got there early so went across the street and had a couple of glasses of bubbles and then walked over to the theater.



Aladdin was great! The colors were amazing and the singing and dancing as well.


A relic of a forgotten time .. at the theater.  I rarely see these anymore and had to snap a picture.



Turkey Trot 2017

Here are some pics from the Turkey Trot - November 23, 2017, our pre-Thanksgiving dinner 5K.

bib and shirt - blurry.


Nevada at her first Turkey Trot!


My husband with two grandsons.

  
The crows, only 24,000 this year.



A shoe shot..





I love you!

Thursday, November 23, 2017

Gifts?

Earlier this week, I came home to find that an Amazon package I had order had arrived! There was also another package addressed to me -- it was the following.


Since I hadn't ordered it, I checked with my daughters to see if either of them had ordered it, they hadn't.  I asked a couple of friends, it wasn't from them.  There are a couple of others I will ask, but if any of you know anything ....


Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Souffle Girl (#5)

One of the items on my list this year (#5) was to make a souffle.  This was basically because of a Doctor Who episode "Asylum of the Daleks."  Here is a brief synopsis of the story, taken from here.

The Doctor, along with Amy and Rory who are headed for divorce, are kidnapped by the Daleks. They find themselves before the Dalek Parliament and the Doctor is quite surprised when he learns why: they want him to save them. A ship has crashed on the one place they will not go - the Asylum, where mad Daleks are sent to spend the rest of their days. Once there, they are assisted by the only survivor of the crash, Oswin, who has been there for a year awaiting rescue and making soufflés to pass the time. Which leads the Doctor to ask the most important question of all: where does she get the milk?

Later on in the story, close to the end, he also wants to know where she got the eggs .. she responds eggs, eggs, eggs, eggsterminate, of something like that.  Anyway. I got the ingredients to make a cheese souffle (recipe from here), so that Nevada and I could make it on Saturday after seeing Aladdin (did I talk about that at all?).  Anyway, I had the ingredients on hand, but totally spaced and didn't make it.  However, since I had the ingredients I  decided to make it on Monday night.

Ingredients:
  •  


The first thing you do is prepare the dish, with butter and the parmesan cheese (the ingredient list called for grated cheese - the video says ground or something (so that the cheese is very fine). I used the grated and it was good.

Then you make a white sauce with the rest of the butter and the flour and other dry ingredients.


Then you add the hot milk, slowly. and then the shredded cheddar cheese.  (Which I had not yet prepared so that didn't go as smoothly as I wanted.)


Then after it's smooth you whip up the egg whites and cream of tartar.  When that reaches a hard peak stage (?) you fold it into the sauce.


No picture of that.  Then you bake it for 35 minutes and voila ...



After taking the souffle from the oven, I let it sit on the counter.  I had no idea how to eat it since I had never had one before.  We waited at least a half hour to try it, by which time it had fallen, but it was still light and tasty.

A couple of recommendations for those making a souffle with this recipe.  Have all your ingredients ready ahead of time (I didn't shred the cheese until I needed it).  Read all instructions.  Watch the video at least once. 

Tuesday, November 21, 2017

Sunday, November 19, 2017

Dogs and Cats

We have had a parade of dogs through our house of late. 

My YD's dog Max comes to visit frequently.


My YS's dog Charlie has lived with us since August -- he's leaving after Thanksgiving.


My YS's dog Bo (or is it Beau) is visiting with us for a little while and maybe longer, depending on what we decide to do with him... either adopt him out or keep him.


Nevada's Holly came for this weekend.

The devil cat lives in our room which makes the doggie visitors easier for him ..



Spooky is a little more difficult because she really likes being in the living room. 


Napa - November 2017

Nevada came to visit this weekend.  Yesterday, we went to San Francisco to see Disney's Aladdin (a musical) and today we went to Napa.  As you may or may not have heard, last month there were some of the most destructive wildfires in California history in and around Napa.  Surprisingly, we didn't see any of the devastation.


Our first stop, as usual, was Mumm Napa for some sparkling wine.

 

We took Holly with us .. 


Our next stop was Grgich Hills.  We had been there before but I didn't remember it.  My DIL loves their Fume Blanc so we thought it would be a good winery to visit.  It was expensive and the wine wasn't very good.  Definitely will NOT be going back.



Our next stop was Merryvale.  The service was phenomenal, as was the wine.  It was probably even better after the super disappointing time at Grgich.


Then we went across the parking lot to the Tra Vigne Pizzeria.  Their mozzarella is to die for.  We didn't stay long because we had a 3:30 barrel tasting at Raymond ...


We had this amazing barrel tasting at Raymond and the only pictures I got were of the goats ... if anyone else took barrel room pics, I'll upload later.

Remembering ...

So, I was driving to my grandchildren's school for a grandparent's day brunch and was wondering why the flags were all flying at hal...