m a y . 2 0 2 3

 getting ready for may flowers!

     the garden is getting ready to produce some food :-)  but the plants have to survive ... May HAIL!   and at the same time Craig was in the house watching this in the backyard, I was driving in it, with the lightning and thunder crashing and booming all around me!  a little snowman was collecting on my hood and windshield.  

     first Saturday in May  - a coronation and horse racing!  I woke at 1:30 to get ready for the two a.m. pre-festivity telly coverage.  I brewed a cuppa - my Buckingham Palace Jubilee tea - and drank it in my souvenir pictures mug from the 2019 trip to Europe  :-P  

     I bought this hat years ago, for Mothers Day I believe, or Easter, and now I'm wearing it for a coronation!  luckily I also had a matching shrug, so I didn't need to go out shopping ... austerity measures sharing along with the people of the UK. 

     I've watched every single wedding, funeral and jubilee televised event since 1981.  since it is unlikely I'll get to see the next one, there was no way I was going to miss this coronation.  I like this picture because it shows three generations, three monarchs. 

after the balcony and fly-over, it was essentially over, so I took a nap for three hours, knowing I wanted to watch the preliminary races and special segments before the Big Race!  they will be honoring the Big Red horse today!  you can see I accessorized my coronation chapeau with a peacock ornament (with a long black feather tail) and making it my Derby hat! 

 

     fifty years ago the legend of Secretariat began, and it has not faded one iota in all these years.  there are several descendants of Big Red racing even today!  it's on my bucket list to get to Churchill Downs and to this museum.  some day.  

     and after 'the most exciting two minutes in sports' the winner was Mage, not even one of the favorites!  that is what makes it so exciting! 

     the following day I drove to Davis to see Newsies, which was directed and choreo'd by one of the kids that came up in our junior productions in Sunnyvale!  I was going to watch it with our friend Barbara, but she was hit on the freeway (she's okay!) on her way up and wasn't able to make it.  I then had dinner with Kyle and Sofia his fiancé.  it was so wonderful to catch up with Kyle, whom I first performed with in 2004 when he was only nine years old.  we were in Merrily We Roll Along, and then Mame.  and he also did the junior production Seussical when Joyce also performed, and The Wiz, which she unofficially co-produced with me.  by day he is some kind of doctor or scientist, in genomics!  

     drove down to the bay area and had a whirlwind day running all over the place.  and if that wasn't enough to wear me down, the drive home was three and a half hours!  the next day I worked from the Folsom office, because I had to make sure I could run the equipment in the room for a meeting the following week, and to pick up food for another cooking class led by our café chef.  by afternoon, I felt flu-ish, so headed home early to finish out the workday there.  by dinnertime I was sick as a dog ... no dinner for this sick puppy.  no cooking class either.  I couldn't even lift my head from my pillow for two days.  at least I tested negative for covid.  

     I wanted to attend this event, but thought it would be a rough week to drive to Santa Clara one day, and then SF two days later, so I didn't opt in.  good thing too, since I was sick, so I watched from home with my head in my pillow.  Janet did go up there, and saw the happy event live.  our fave truffle chef is officially a next level chef! 

Janet's view at the watch party!

     being ill also put a damper on my mother's day.  I got up and cooked the blueberry blintzes according to chef's instructions but didn't have much energy for anything else.  Craig made leg of lamb for dinner. 

   

     while Craig was on his annual trip to Palm Springs for golf, I had a couple theater opportunities.  I drove down to Modesto - a little farther away than I thought it would be - but thoroughly enjoyed seeing Riverdance, a show that captivated Joyce and me when she was young! 

     this is such a beautiful venue, and made me think of our Frank Lloyd Wright designed center for performing arts in San Jose (but it had different designers).  I sat in the top section, in the last row, in hopes of avoiding the perfume people ... but no, he sat down right beside me :-( 

     I also spent a couple days in the bay area, first going to see the new adaptation of one of my favorites, 1776, at my theatre where I've performing in Nutcracker so many times.  this is the broadway touring company and it was awe-inspiring to see the changes made and watch these young people bring new life to this 50 year old production!  the next evening, after work at headquarters, I stayed to watch Janet play first with her string symphony and then with our band.  I miss playing with these people!!

     every day we go out in the garden and see new things.  our snow peas are growing faster than the sunflowers, which I hoped would be good "poles" for the vines to grow up!  hopefully they catch up with each other.  

     the purple shamrocks, while they're inside, still seem to be growing at the pace of their outdoor cousins.  they really look pretty in this purple mosaic pot. 

     when the Disneyland rose bloomed, I couldn't help but go out every day and take pictures ... these are only a few.  it was fun to see them as buds, then as opening blossoms, then in full and aged blooms.

these are the okra plants popping up!

the morning glories are growing in both the peacock and under the trellis.  we can't wait until this is in full flower and blocking the view of the neighboring yard. 

     my team gave me a gift certificate to a local restaurant as an admins day gift.  I made reservations at this modern comfort food fusion restaurant, named for the chef and his birthday.  we were treated like special family members, and had the best table in the house!  we had an excellent view of the chef's prep station where he made sure each meal was finished to his high standards.  

     I forgot to take pics of the appetizers, but they were delish - artichoke beignet in roasted heirloom tomato sauce, and Ahi tuna nachos drenched in soy lime vinaigrette.  Craig had jambalaya with lots of seafood and saffron rice; and I had the seared scallops on a crab hash cake with sautéed spinach all swimming in a garlic beurre blanc; and a sharable Szechwan okra for our main course.  there were so many amazing items on the menu it was really hard to choose! 

   

our view

Chef Q creating a masterpiece

   

     all in all it was a most excellent second-first anniversary dinner!  we had crème Brulee and chef's Bourbon St. bread pudding for our desserts. 

 

     the birds have gotten used to our presence in the yard, and have started eating the seed from the bird tray.  one of them is messy, and tosses some of it off the tray and onto the patio! 

this is a panorama of the yard, edge to edge, which explains the curves ... the walls don't curve like that in reality.

     the first plant that produced an edible product was the golden raspberry plant.  these were delicious, but I believe the birds ate more than we did! 

I hope the gardenia blooms soon ... can't wait for their special fragrance!

     the pea pods are still growing faster than the sunflowers.  Craig had to get temporary bracing to hold up the vines since they've more than doubled in size in just a few days! 

and he has a jalapeno now too! 

zucchini squash blossoms in front, okra in the back. 

     ...and finally, these are the artichoke plants that have grown from seed packets from the T.Jefferson collection I bought last fall at Monticello.  so excited to have something in full sprout from plants he curated 200 years ago. 

     memorial day weekend was quiet.  of course we watched THE race, which did not disappoint in the excitement factor.  Craig was sure it was going to end one way and I hoped it would end another.  neither of us guessed the winner.  and that's why it's the greatest racing spectacle!  and it always happens around our anniversary, which is another story altogether!  

a p r i l . 2 0 2 3

no foolin' 

     on the first, I drove to The City and watched one of my theatre friends from Grand Hotel performing in this Sondheim musical, in which I've also performed.  

     on Sunday I made brunch - orange ricotta and berry filled crepes! 

     I stayed in the bay area for work and to attend a team meeting celebratory dinner.  I'm certainly not going to turn down an excellent meal that someone else is hosting!  while I'm not a huge fan of all seafood - we enjoyed a seafood tower appetizer - and the two other times I had oysters I didn't care for them, we did have my favorite shellfish - lobsters and shrimp - and the champagne mignionette dressing made the difference with these oysters.  and the steak with truffle butter was amazing!  

     Easter weekend, we're starting the garden.  Craig had the putting green installed on Friday.  the garden wall took about a week before that, and it run three sides of the green along all the fence lines. 

This tool has been making things easier. 

the new home for the tiki torches, along the retaining wall where we can't install electricity. 

this will be sunflowers and snow peas.  should be pretty!

     Easter dinner of honey-baked ham, and I made curry yams and steamed asparagus, and reheated some of Craig's risotto.  it was a great way to end a great day of planting, renewing.  while planting, I had listened to the online Easter service from the Christ Church Cathedral in Victoria BC.  what a lovely inspiring message! 

     tiki torches came on. It's a lovely evening!

     and on Tuesday they delivered the fire pit and sofa sectional.

it's 5 o'clock!

     another brunch experiment... I made crumpets!  our mom made them once when we were kids and never again, so I always thought it must be labor intensive or time consuming.  it was only a little of both so I can see me making these again.  

     my favorite cajun vendor stopped making my favorite etouffee mix a few years ago, so I'm still trying to find another mix for when I don't want to make it from scratch.  this one is a famous brand, and instead of seafood I made it with beef and andouille sausage.  it was pretty good!  the bev is a hurricane look-alike made with vodka and a fruity mixer. 

     I signed up for another work cooking break with our cafeteria head chef.   for Earth Day, we made a plant based salad bowl, but I added Nashville hot shrimp so we had a little more protein.  and Craig just loved the Green Goddess dressing which apparently isn't available in stores any more.  this may have been our first meal around the fire pit! 

     using up the last of the Easter ham, and eating the last of the lentil soup that I had made with the ham's bone. 

      another virtual cooking opportunity, with our truffle shuffle and Next Level Chef Tucker.  this was her pan-seared scallops with tabouleh salad.  of course, it was phenomenal. 

     since we started planting on Easter, we've had a few more plants appear.  it is so exciting to see new life spring out of our planters. 

     sunflowers and snap peas, next to and behind the fountain.  the sunflowers came in my souvenir tin of bird and bee seeds from Monticello, so these are very special founding father seeds! 

all three citrus trees are blooming like crazy.

and the Disneyland Rose is so close to budding!

     Craig had scheduled a golf game so I picked a movie that I wanted to see that also opened that weekend.  Chevalier is about a composer, swordsman and lover who was nearly erased from history by Napoleon.  he was also the illegitimate son of a slave and a landowner who rose to great prominence in France before and during their revolution.  it's an incredible true story, and this movie is a beautiful, funny, infuriating and eventually uplifting telling of his story.  I got a tasty bev, the Showtime, to enjoy for my Sunday brunch matinee. 

     for Admin Professionals Day we were treated to pizza and had two of our execs come in to give inspirational talks.  Then near the end of the hour, our CEO surprised us with a quick drop-in, a group photo and a few selfies!