Happy Birthday to Me

Another Prime birthday (geek joke).  I had two parties, one at home today, with taco salad--a pedestrian name for something exquisite, especially John's fresh salsa and Amy's homemade lime cilantro salad dressing.  And triple chocolate cake, which always makes me look this way:

Amy and I went to a party yesterday in SLC, which included a visit to Colette's school art fair.  Johnathan and Colette showed off their mad playground skillz, as a prologue to the festivities.

We saw Colette's class' projects, played games, ate treats, and watched performances at Ensign Elementary.  We had pasta, pizza, and chocolate brownies at home when the fair became just too exciting to bear.  Rob gave me a set of four vampire movies, and Nicolle gave me a succulent planting which she had put together.  When I brought it home, John found a tiny plastic snake to add to the collection.

Today Betsy, Ellie,

and Ethan came to lunch, along with Amy, Jamison, and Dex.

We sat out in the sun and the rain with the kitties.

I might need to rename Claudio "Cheshire" (he sort of looks like it, except for the lack of a smile), because

my Alice statue finally arrived.  As you can see, I need to decide on siting, what sort of base to use, how to do the garden around her, etc.

Lots more fun presents, including music from John, a Mary Poppins bag of fun stuff from Grandma Gene, and a date in with Amy.  Betsy's going to help me find a base or plinth for the Alice statue.

But best present and last of all, we caught Ellie's first real smile on camera!  She was talking to Amy:

and had a lot to say:

although some of it wasn't that interesting:

Still, what a cutie.  Three weeks old.

Betsy promised she was going to post pix on her blog, so check it out.

So We Went to This Really Cool Resort

...in So California, run by this couple (above) and their cute kids (below).

Huh. It's actually my sister Tena, who is the new boss of this plant where they make cool stuff including dog toys.

Here she is in her office, interviewing a potential underling (John). He wasn't hired.

Here she is in her safety glasses and steel-toe shoes before going onto the floor. She has a little motto on her desk top that we should all remember: Women are angels, and when someone clips our wings, we simply continue to fly on a broomstick. We're flexible that way.

We flew to Orange County/ John Wayne/ Santa Ana (SNA) airport—the airport with the most names ever—because the nearby Ontario flights were full, but today it looked like the standby seats were holding steady, and we made it on to come home. Tena was a little worried about the weekend I-15 traffic in from Las Vegas if she had to drive to SNA this afternoon (although she said she could figure alternatives), but their house is a sweet 20 minutes away from Ontario.

Their home is perfect for them—four bedrooms, an open floor plan, indoor/outdoor with tiled floors, austerely furnished (by Tena)—a lovely place to live and a beautiful and restful place to visit. It’s probably a little smaller than our house if you count Grandma Gene’s place, but every inch counts. I am returning for sure, probably in March--fair warning, guys! It is a private family resort, all the advantages of vacation travel but with their own showers, kitchen, and beds. Aisake gave up his room for us and slept on the couch downstairs.

But the biggest treat of all is their backyard, which is a cross between an upscale resort, an Italian bistro, and a jungle camp site, with the palm trees, spa and pool, bar and barbeque, tables on the terrace behind wrought iron, fire pit seating, waterfall, citrus and banana orchard and taro garden. The orchard and garden are small,

but there’s an orange and a lemon growing. It would be fun to go to the beach sometime, but why travel when there’s perfection in your backyard?

Hummingbirds came to the bird-of-paradise plants at the back of the yard:

The land slopes steeply to the north, and the builders made a terrace behind a wrought iron fence (I didn't get a good photo of the winding staircase up to it). Tena has put bistro tables and chairs up there, and said they picnic in dry safety there while Aisake splashes in the pool below.

We gave up on heating the pool after awhile. John and Aisake braved the 65 degree pool water but not for long (John was in and out too quickly for me to get a photo).

The sweetest, absolutely best thing was the spa. With as much body mass as I have, I do one initial warm-up, and then spend most of the rest of the evening wandering wetly around in the breeze waiting to cool down again. John was more pop in and out of the spa-pool-spa-pool, then go indoors and have another nap on the sofa. It really made me decide that we need a hot tub ourselves. Not until we get back from London and I built up my income again, but then heck yeah. We’re all set up for one, it’s just buying it and putting it in.

John is steamed!

The pool and spa lights change colors. Here we look like we're cooking in a witch's brew:

We dried off and warmed up around the fire:

Tena and Teane came to pick us up at Orange County and we didn't get in until about 11:30 pm Friday and Pesi cooked waffles and scrambled eggs for us before we went to bed. Tena and Teane fed us Greek yummy-ness on Saturday. We missed the big BBQ they had planned because everybody was too full until too late. One more reason to return. Below, Aisake and John are silly in the kitchen:

Tena and Teane stayed home from church to take us back to the airport, but Pesi and Aisake were dressed in their Sunday finery. As you can see, Aisake is already out-growing his new suit:

Here we are at the mini-resort. I'm going back for sure! Thanks Tena, Pesi, Teane, and Aisake, for a great and relaxing weekend.

Lucy/Alice Garden

I think I have a very mild form of Seasonal Affective Disorder, which I find myself countering every January by going completely over the top in an obsession with gardens--ordering magazines online, buying books, drawing sketches in my big blue garden planner. This year I was feeling sad because with A&J's work on the water garden last summer, there are no more major projects to be done. Then I remembered my little memorial garden for Lucy.

Many years ago I saw a non-Disney Alice statue in a Better Homes and Gardens ad. I tried last summer to look it up online and found nothing--I decided to just get a little pedestal without a statue at Sun River Gardens and have that be it. But I tried again this month and found the statue! Since it is the dead of winter, I will have a lot of time to plan the garden before putting it in.

It will be hidden in the shady spot behind the rose arbor and the peach tree, and viewable from the swing:

Here is the view out at the yard from the swing:

Here is the space, overhung by Dr. Wochnik's plum, apple, and cherry trees, with the lilac on the left and a snowball bush on the right. Last fall we planted about 200 red and yellow tulip and daffodil bulbs there (but I think we planted them too shallow--I hope they come up):

Claudio inspects the site:


Actually, he just wants me to pet him:

Then on the fence behind the statue and flowers we will put in a mirror gate similar to one of the following. I saw mirror tiles at WalMart for $5/pkg of 6 when I was there the other night with Amy buying yarn. I could attach the mirrors directly to the fence in a lattice or tudor pattern and frame them with thin strips of wood, or I could buy an old door at a second-hand/recycle store like Restore and put the tiles on it then bury it a foot or so into the ground so that it was child-sized, or create something like these amazing mirror illusion-gates (below). I will make a little bark-chip path up to the looking-glass gate, and put a pot beside it.

It makes me look forward even more to spring.

End of October...

...my favorite time in the fall. With the cooler weather, everything keeps blooming, like the honeysuckle (above), and the leaves change and drop, with more color everywhere. John and Chris and I planted spring bulbs in the swing garden (below)--red tulips and yellow daffodils.

John finished the grape juice, and now the grape leaves turn yellow.

(Another gratuitous photo of the water garden, because I love it so much).

Then one day we wake up and snow is on the mountains like a visitation from God:

and all our places are transformed.



But don't worry. It melts off by afternoon, and we're back to autumn again:

Claudio lives outside full-time now. John is working on a cathouse for him. He has a heating pad to sleep on.

I made Blood and Bones for Halloween (tomato soup with bread sticks),

and John ate his when we went to SLC to trick or treat with the babes. He was not supposed to put goldfish in the blood though--ruins the effect.

Nicolle made Johnathan an incredible matador outfit.

Here we are--Colette as a flamenco dancer, Nicolle as a gypsy, and me as my natural self.

John was a miner (not the Chilean kind), and the horse-head guy (by Rob) is sort of a cross between a unicorn and The Godfather?

Rob welcomes trick or treaters at his house:

and we're off to gather the loot. Johnathan let me know that the witch below was not real.

We had fun visiting Colette's kindergarten teacher, Miss Tammy, just around the corner.

Ethan was sick with an ear infection, so they didn't go out. We went to visit instead.


When we got back home, several sleepy looking teenagers were watching "The Man Who Knew Too Much" on our VCR (our DVD player seems to have bitten the dust).

Then Sunday afternoon, John and I drove down to The Farm to see Damien and Kelli's new baby Liam.

As a bonus, Tena was there! She didn't tell anyone she was coming, but drove up from California Saturday and rang the doorbell trick or treating. Grandma twice now!


For your viewing pleasure, a Bullfight: