New Year's Day

Well, in keeping with my resolve to blog more frequently, I thought it would be a good idea to start on the first day of the year. The day dawned pretty beautiful considering the weather gurus were calling for rain to begin sometime during the night. We were going to a New Year's Day party and I was bringing an appetizer. I wanted to take a walk before the party so I started making the appetizer - crispy shells filled with sausage and peppers. I monitored my time so I would have 1 1/2 hours for my walk. At one point I happened to notice that the clock I was benchmarking to hadn't changed time since I looked at it a few times ago! It was then I realized that it was about 45 minutes behind real time. Fortunately I had left myself enough time to get in a great walk before showering and I beat the rain. We went to a great party hosted by one of the other Clark Center captains. For me it's always more comfortable when I am familiar with a large number of the party attendees.

Christmas eve day

I think the mad dash is done. Made 8 dozen potstickers last night - we had a couple of dozen and froze the rest to give to cousin P and to keep. Last night our bank called to say that our bank card had been compromised and our data had gotten out along with many others. They recommended canceling the card, which I did. Then I spent an hour trying to verify that the call was legit. Of course it was after hours and all the branches were closed. My card had already been canceled so I couldn't get through the automated call centers! So I checked all my charges and found they were all ours. This morning I was able to reach a live person and was assured that the call was legitimate and many people had to cancel their cards.

I discovered that my shift at the Thrift store was canceled - I guess they never work Christmas eve, but I didn't know that. So I ended up with a lot of free time and could do the grocery shopping along with the millions of others at the store. It was kind of invigorating to be out and about with the Christmas crazy people.

Chicken Italiano is on the stove and it's off to church for the early service.

Easter 2010

I was supposed to "open" the church on Easter Sunday. The practice at our church is that the vestry members rotate opening and closing the 14 doors at the church on Sunday morning. Typically one arrives about 45 minutes before the first service. I was supposed to do it Easter morning. When I arrived at 8 (for a 9 service) the church was already unlocked. I didn't realize that the choir would be coming early - before 8 to start rehearsing! Oh well, live and learn. I did my duties anyhow and found that they had only opened the doors that affected their activities leaving another 8 doors that needed to be unlocked.

We had cousin P and S for dinner. They had invited their young friend who is the contractor on their home renovation (no entering the 5th month) but since it had started to rain, he had to go to all his job sites to make sure they were all water tight.

We had a wonderful repast of potstickers, roasted butternut squash soup, mint/rosemary lamb, roasted rosemary/garlic potatoes, green beans with bacon, tossed salad and chocolate peanut butter cake.

Shopping

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I am taking a carrot souffle and bacon wrapped scallops to cousin P&S's house tomorrow. Their daughter and a friend arrive tonight and friend, who is a nurse from LA is coming tomorrow evening. I braved the stores this morning and much to my surprise the grocery store was pretty calm. I didn't have much to buy but you can't really buy scallops much more than the day before. I even dropped into a Ross store to look at possible gifts for a local hospice for children and even that store had few customers. This does not bode well for the beginning of the holiday shopping season.

We are heading up to Morro Bay for dinner tonight. It's T's birthday. There is a restaurant called the Galley that we have been wanting to try. When they first opened we were visiting in Morro Bay and the chef invited us in and gave us a grand tour of the kitchen and the restaurant. Ever since then we've wanted to give it a try. They have lots of good reviews on line. Hope it's really good. http://www.galleymorrobay.com/

Great dinner with the cousins

Yesterday T and I got together with the SLO cousins and Aunt L for dinner at their house. I was amazed that they wanted to have people over given they are hosting the 4th of July block party today. Every year for the last 20 years P and S have hosted the neighborhood celebration. They send out invitations and assign, at random, an appetizer, salad or dessert. Folks are supposed to RSVP so they know how many burgers and dogs and drinks to get but often people forget and just show up. There are often up to 200 people who come.

We also have a July 4th picnic/barbeque at the park in Cypress Ridge. The people who have golf carts decorate their carts, and there is a parade of the carts to the park. The carts are judged and prizes are awarded. The entertainment committee arranges games for the kids and adults. We find it interesting that the weather is rarely an issue and these events can be planned with little risk of being called off due to the weather. The fireworks displays are another story especially along the coast. Since there is the lurking marine layer to contend with, sometimes cities have had to postpone these. One town is trying laser "fireworks" which are said to be enhanced by the fog. Of course there are many up in arms about the laser v. real fireworks display.

Fireworks

Ever heard of such a thing - “Safe and sane” fireworks! "Safe and Sane" fireworks are said to be ones that don't fly or explode, like sparklers, something called fountains and smoke and snake items, whatever those are. Firecrackers, rockets and missiles are not deemed "safe and sane". Arroyo Grande is one of the five towns/cities in the county that permit "safe and sane" fireworks. I'm surprised they are allowed anywhere other than large contracted events with the fire danger all around us - yikes!

Interestingly, the only organizations approved to sell these "safe and sane" fireworks are pre-licensed not-for-profit groups. The fine for using illegal fireworks is $2,000. Really got to think twice about that! Last year I heard a number of firecrackers around us just the same.

Christmas

Christmas day we met at P and S's again. It's the SLO tradition. Actually they may have met at Aunt L's house in the past but with her failing health the gatherings have been across the street at P and S's. The usual list of suspects were there. We provided hors d'oeurves including bacon wrapped marinated scallops and eggplant bruschetta - both apparent crowd pleasers. P had deboned a turkey and son, K, stuffed it with a delicious cornbread/regular bread sausage stuffing. The accoutrements included mashed potatoes, slow baked cauliflower with bacon, Chinese greenbeans with bamboo shoots, salad and a cranberry walnut bread made by our neighbor, D. Everything was delicious. D made her delicious lemon meringue and pecan pies. She is the supreme pie maker. The Meyer lemons really make all the difference.

After dinner we dived into the "white elephant" gift exchange we started last year with many items T and I had brought with us but questioned why. This year we had a smattering of these items but I supplemented them with numerous worthy items from the thrift store. I think my entire expenditure was under $10 for the "gifts". I think the little reversible wheely MacDonalds cars vied with a game of Taboo as the most "coveted" (read least desirable) gifts. Although some folks really seemed pleased with the gift they ended up with.