Our amusing pets

She has a lot of comfortable places to sleep but lately this is her favorite. Could it be any more uncomfortable looking?

Tootie likes to choose her own programs.

Megan's adventures- Mumbai, Mexico City, London

Check out my niece, Megan's latest adventure. See the link at the right-"Pantyraiders".
They went to India, Mexico and London and asked people how they would vote in the American election. Very interesting results! And entertaining. Don't ask me why they're called Pantyraiders!

Heads you win, tails you lose -The V.P. debate

Abby, the cat, casts her vote.

She's a lot smarter than" Joe-six-pack".

Happy birthday to me (9/21)

I didn't want to have anything to do with this birthday-just wanted to forget how old I was!

But I must admit I was pleased when I got this bouquet from my lovely niece, Megan.( Thank you, Megan.) Then my friend and photographer, Steve, showed up for our photo shoot, Tuesday,

with two bottles of wine and some chocolates. The bad thing was ,Tuesday was his birthday, which I knew, but was trying so hard to forget mine that I forgot his.
On my real birthday, Sunday, Nancy and I went to dinner with our cousin, Erin and her husband who were in California for a wedding. They live in Illinois. So it's been a nice few days even though I haven't been able to forget my birthday. I also got three books
from Nancy that I've been wanting to read.

Pala Casino Big Winner

Here's the winning ticket!
And I only put in $20 worth of pennies.

We also had a very nice free buffet dinner, courtesy of some high-rolling friends.

Thanks Sherry and Kevin.

Les Miserables

We saw the most wonderful production of "les Miz" last night at Vista's Moonlight Amphitheater. I've seen it on Broadway and this certainly compared favorably.

Missed deadline

I was going to enter these two paintings in the Fallbrook Brandon Gallery's Small Works Exhibition. I kept putting off framing them but finally got it done and rushed down to the gallery on what I thought was the last day. Burst in the door saying "nothing like the last minute!!", only to be told that yesterday had been the" last minute".
Oh, well, there's always next year.

The strawberry painting is 2"x2". The other one is 3 1/4" x 4 1/4".

Fallbrook Art Association Show

The Fallbrook Art Association had the opening
of their Fall Show last night.

Here's just a very few of some of the paintings.
I didn't get to photograph all of my favorites
because I was talking too much.
I'll go back later and take some more.

Esther Smith

Beth Taft

Lucina Orth

Peg Klinger

Catherine Raisch

Carilyn Vice

Sarah Meisenholder

Doris Wilke

Karen Langer Baker

Gaspar Vaccaro

New job

We just started a wonderful new job. We'll be developing new recipes and adapting recipes from The U.K., Italy, France, Sweden, and Germany. And I don't even cook! Luckily I don't have to, though ,because we have three very talented cooks to do that job. Nancy and I will be organizing and supervising. I'll be doing the art directing and photo styling. Nancy and I are also translating the U.K. recipes into American English. A lot of words are very different...cookies are biscuits in England, for instance. The hardest part is changing the measurements, though. We're having the other recipes translated and we have a crew of cooks who will test the recipes after they've been translated. Stay tuned for more of this...if I ever have time for blogging again!

Balboa Park

Nancy, Jeri and I took a field trip to our beautiful Balboa Park. First we saw the Georgia O'Keeffe exhibit in the art gallery at the park, then we strolled through the park. This is one of the stunning buildings left over from the 1915 World's Fair.

A statue by Niki de Saint Phalle. We saw more of her statues in Paris.


Another statue by Niki de Saint Phalle, perfect for climbing.

Nancy and Jeri at the art center in Balboa Park.
It's a place for art classes and shops that sell art.
I took art classes here, years ago, when I was about 12 years old.

Georgia O'Keeffe Exhibit at Balboa Park

"Georgia O'Keeffe and the Women of the Steiglitz Circle "was the name of the exhibit.
Before they were married Georgia O'Keeffe's husband, Alfred Steiglitz,
a renowned photographer, helped a circle of women perfect their talents.
Some were photographers and some were painters and they all
defined artistic modernism at the beginning of the 20th century.
Georgia O'Keeffe was one of these women.
It was a really interesting show.

Trip to Swamis (Self Realization Fellowship Garden)

The surfers call this place" Swamis". It sits high on a cliff overlooking a famous surfing spot. It's a retreat started by Paramahansa Yogananda in 1936. He lived here then and wrote "Autobiography of a Yogi" here. It has a beautiful view of the Pacific and the gardens are gorgeous. It's in the city of Encinitas.

We also shopped in downtown Encinitas. Lots of cute shops and great places to eat.

Nancy was dressed appropriately in the trendiest color.

Jeri, Nancy and I then met Steve (our photographer/graphic artist)

for lunch and we discussed a possible exciting new job.

Book Club- Catch 22

We wanted to read a classic. We chose Catch 22, which I thought was quite hard to read. Several others thought so, too. Kathy remembered reading it in the 60's and enjoying it then

but since that time so many other books (Mash, for instance) have been influenced by it that it sort of lost it's steam. Beth noticed that almost every sentence had two contradicting parts. A clever and complicated way to emphacize the theme.

Beth brought her infamous Margarita machine.

What a marvelous contraption! This is the second time Beth has gone to considerable trouble to bring it and the second time it didn't work. She says the only time it doesn't work is at the book club. A friend of hers put it together from a walker and a motorcycle. They use it all the time for neighborhood block parties when electricity isn't close at hand. Poor Beth had to make the margaritas the old fashioned way by plugging the blender into electricity.

The finished product. A perfect Margarita!

Laurie's ratatouie.

Roxanne's fruit salad.

Vickie's tomato, mozzarello, olive salad

Vickie's antipasto salad

Helen's taboulie.

Helen's plum galette

Vickie's lemon cupcakes.

Kathy brought wine. And a good time was had by all. Even though most of us didn't like the book it made for a very lively discussion.

How Nancy wraps our Etsy sales

Fallbrook 4th of July

Fallbrook's 4th of July celebration is always held at the beautiful " Grand Tradition".

Nancy and I have volunteered to help for the last three years. Last year we were at the V.I.P
table and Nancy escorted Rita Coolidge and her party to their table. She's one of the few celebrities in Fallbrook. (Another is Duke Snider )
Our "town philanthropist" Arleen Ingold is always the main sponsor of this gala event.
It's a fund raiser for" Fallbrook Beautification". The fantastically able Jerri Patchett runs the whole affair. There's great food, music, rubber duck races and fantastic fireworks.