New plantings

All the new plants are doing well after about a week.

On the ever increasing size of things

As you can see from the picture my 8x8 square baking pan of 43 years has seen better days so I went in search of a new one and found this beautiful Wilton brand gold 8x8 size pan. I put them side by side and thought they looked pretty even. I have a plastic square container that I can transfer things to from my old pan and it fits "perfectly". When I put the old pan into the new one I discovered that the new pan is a few centimeters larger than the old pan. I guess this is part of the problem of the ever increasing sizes of everything in the US. I don't think the new pan will bake things that will fit "perfectly" into my plastic container. :(

Lots accomplished?

There are times I think I got a lot accomplished because it feels that way but when I look at my list it isn't such a lot. Today was one of those days but I'll give myself credit just the same because it felt good. Our neighborhood was overrun with lots of lookie-loos. One of the residents organized a "rummage sale" throughout the neighborhood from 7:30 AM to 2:00 PM. Starting at 6:30 lookie-loos were lined up waiting to get in. Many residents held sales at their homes and an equal number were "up in arms" about the activity. The biggest problem is that the visitors drive way too fast, drive over residents' lawns and they and their animals are always looking for places to relieve themselves.

I did my usual Saturday routine of spinning, hooping and housecleaning before heading out to do other chores.


Our landscaper pulled out our dying purple lantana and replanted the beds with 25 new red/orange/yellow multicolor lantana plants and dressed the bed. They also planted a new hydrangea, transplanted a bunch of other plants and put in some new agapanthos (California lilac).

I have been obsessing about replacing our furnace airfilter and I managed to pull out the old one (it's in the ceiling) but the replacement I had wouldn't fit. I always seem more obsessive about things I can't do by myself! This is complicated by the fact that we don't have a tall ladder (remember we decided not to do ladders anymore). I bought a filter that would fit but because T and I are on the short side I enlisted the help of a very tall neighbor and he was able to install it in no time. It would have taken much wrangling and probably nashing of teeth if we tried to install it ourselves. Hooray for wonderful neighbors.

While I was shopping I also stopped at the church to take out a frozen carrot cake (remember the case of the missing carrot cake - this was a clone cake that I had frozen). Hopefully this one will last until tomorrow morning for the coffee hour.

This week we are having the Womenade potluck dinner and we are collecting school supplies. Walmart is having a terrific sale on the items requested so I was able to bring home a wonderful collection of needed items.

So as you can see, it wasn't such a lot that got accomplished by me but it felt good so I'll take credit for it all :)

More day tripping

We got all our day tripping done in 2 days. Yesterday Camarillo and today Santa Barbara. T and I headed down to Santa Barbara to meet Sister P and K and their son and his girlfriend. We met at Brophy Bros restaurant on the wharf as it was recommended by a friend of mine. We had a great meal (thank you sis for the treat!) and walked around the wharf before heading back to the Pier where we had parked our cars. We walked up and down the pier and found some great ice cream for dessert. It was a perfect summer day with temps in the mid 70s.

Exploring Ventura County

http://www.ottavio.com/
Today T and I drove to Camarillo, California to meet J and D and J's aunt for lunch. They are visiting in Monrovia, CA and we wanted to meet part way. I asked my wonderful network of California friends for restaurant recommendations for the area and the consensus was Ottavios in Camarillo. It's right off the 101 and very easy to find and the food is delicious. We had a great time, great food, great company and the first time (if you can believe it) for us heading into Ventura County. I have to say I am not impressed with the land south of Santa Barbara. Too many cars, crowded and the country is nowhere near as attractive to this Central Cali Girl!

The grinch who stole the carrot cake

At the senior luncheon on Monday I made too many carrot cakes. Even with their immense appetites for sweets they didn't finish the cakes. There was a whole cake left over. We decided it would be a wonderful treat for coffee hour after the early service. We called the people signed up to host and they were thrilled. As I posted earlier I opened the church on Sunday and the turkey incident pushed this incident out of my brain until just now. The set up crew arrived as I opened the kitchen. They went in search of the carrot cake with great glee but lo and behold someone had taken the sweet treat and left nothing but an empty pan on the counter! Now, who would do such a thing. I can only hope they were really hungry and that they enjoyed it. There were many disappointed coffee hour people.

Dining out surprises

Last evening was Sunday evening - date night! Being good thrifty senior citizens we had a coupon for 50% off second entree at the local Marie Callender's restaurant in Pismo. We put in our orders and had a great time talking, catching up and then noticed that a family who came in just before us had ordered just before us and were now FINISHED eating their meal. We had drinks and cornbread...So I called over Mary the waitstaff person and asked her to check on our meal. She came back shortly and apologized to say it would be just a few more minutes. We thanked her and sure enough it came out just a few minutes later. It wasn't a gourmet meal by any stretch of the imagination but it was tasty enough. Shortly after the manager stopped by and said our wait person told her that she had forgotten to put in our order and that we had waited quite a while. The manager said the restaurant's policy was to apologize and to give us our meals free. She was pretty adamant and being the good thrifty seniors we have become, we didn't fight it too hard. So then the conundrum of whether or not to tip. We decided to give the tip to the manager with a message for the wait person that we were tipping her honesty.

On our way out of the restaurant we were treated to a most beautiful sky - pretty clouds and colors. Clouds at this time of the year are pretty rare for this neck of the woods which made it all the more beautiful.