February Recap

February 1 - Breakfast in SD. To Alpine. and Lunch in Escondido
Didn't do much next week, Lizzie had a cold and we mainly stayed home.
February 9 - To Newport Beach for our chocolate class. It was super fun!
February 10 - Check up at my doctor's. Everything seems OK. Got a shingles shot and I got some skin spots on my face frozen.
February 14- To Fullerton Arboretum with Lizzie and lunch at Black Angus. N called. He's been busy fixing his apartments.

Fullerton Arboretum

February 17- Geezers for lunch. Heritage Park in SFS

February 19- It would have been my 55th Anniversary. It was also N's 64th Birthday, took him to Sol Inka.
February 20- Sandy came to visit! Lunch at El Zarape  from the airport. Hang around the house :)
February 21- My girls  went to Disneyland! 
February 22- Rain. Girls to the movies. Dinner at El Cholo. Sandy feeling not so well. Early bedtime.

El Cholo

February 23- Girls went for a walk. the 3 of us reading and chillin, tacos for dinner.
February 24- Sandy went back to Utah. Miss you already.
February 25- To La Huasteca, best mango margaritas ever!
February 26-  Chicken tacos at home.
February 28-  Lizzie to San Diego. Talk to Sandy.

Sandy you can see what I read and watched this month :)

MOVIES I WATCHED THIS MONTH

BOOKS I'VE READ THIS MONTH

For the Love of Chocolate

For Christmas, one of my favorite gifts was Lizzie's gift of  a ticket to a chocolate cooking class.

We both took the class at The Pain Quotidien at Fashion Island in Newport Beach. It was a rainy Sunday but when we got there the place was very nice and comfortable and smelled wonderful!

The class is for no more than 8 people, but we lucked out and we were the only persons take the class. Maybe because the weather was not so good or because it was Oscar day, but I loved to have a personalized class. Out teacher was young and very cute and friendly. 

Dario Murcino

 Getting started

 We learned how to make great chocolate chip cookies with pecans... Them we made brioche dough and kneaded and worked it and kneaded again, it was work! Then me made them into shapes and had to wait to rise, and then bake them. Last thing we made was chocolate ganache, and we filled little tartlets with ganache and blueberries and blackberries.

Chocolate chip and pecan cookies ready to bake

Some chocolate brioche ready for the oven

Lizzie and I were good listeners and followed directions, but I lagged behind a bit so Dario kept on kneading my dough :)

 We are happy cooks!

and here we are filling the little tarts with ganache and berries

It was a very fun day!

I always look like this on selfies

We took a ton of brioches, cookies and tartlets home, we had enough to share with my neighbor Amy and froze some of it for when Sandy gets here next week

Thanks Lizzie for a fun and yummy day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

San Diego and Escondido

On February 1st, Lizzie, Lulu and I went to San Diego to attend the Local Author Showcase at the San Diego Main Library, very close to where she used to live.

 It was a nice time meeting other San Diego writers and looking at the variety of books, hers included in one of the showcases.
We stayed at the Hotel Indigo downtown, it had a nice roof terrace with a bar and a great view of downtown.

From the Hotel roof we had a view or her old apartment building and the top of the library

and the baseball field

The next day we went to a BBQ place in the mountains, near Alpine Jeff and his band was playing there, but we couldn't stay and eat because they wouldn't take dogs! :(

On the way back home we stopped at the Stone Brewery and Restaurant in Escondido where we had some beer and a shareable meal, featuring a giant pretzel. It was a beautiful day in a very nice setting

Lovely weekend!

January Recap

And here we are in a new decade....

We had canalones for New Year's Day
January 3 Marked the 2nd Anniversary of Marvin's death. L&I to Los Alamitos Fish Company
January 5th I got a Cubii
January 6th Reyes Magos mini shopping spree at Marshalls with Lizzie
January 9th T signed up for two classes :)
January 11 L to San Diego, dinner with N to the Outback
January 15 L to Disneyland
January 16 Financial guy
January 19 Road trip to Apple Valley
January 31st To San Diego Authors Showcase with Lizzie
Talked to Sandy on Mondays and on the 12th

Went out to eat at La Huasteca, Porto's, The Habit, TacoNazo, Fish Daddy, El Tepeyac etc.
Good Month

MOVIES I WATCHED IN JANUARY

BOOKS I READ IN JANUARY

A Road Trip

On Sunday the 10th of January, a good friend of Lizzie was having a show in Apple Valley, she asked me if I wanted to go, and Lulu and I said  yes!

Apple Valley is near the town of Victorville about 1 1/2 hour drive from home, on the way to Vegas. We decided to go a little farther to Barstow and stop at the Calico Ghost town.

I had been there a couple of times and really there was not much to it. In 1881 silver was discovered and Calico became one of the riches mines in the State it produced $86 million in silver and another $45 million in Borax, at its peak it had a population of 1,200 people, with 22 saloons and a red light district. Around 1907 when the price of silver dropped, Calico became a ghost town . Nowadays thanks to Mr Walter Knott (founder of Knottsberry Farm) Calico once again is alive and well with many building restored and is not a Regional Historic Place. It has changed a lot since I first visited.

The School

Old Fire Truck (restored)

It was a fun visit. After Calico we drove back to Victorville and stopped on the way to see "Elmer's Bottle Ranch", a forest of over 200 bottle trees on Route 66.  https://californiathroughmylens.com/elmers-bottletree-ranch

It was interesting!

We then went on to Apple Valley where we stayed at the Hilltop Tavern and Inn, which was also the venue for the show we came to see. We stayed in room 10 and rested for a while, later we went to have dinner at the restaurant and watched the show.

The Inn

CalAmity band and line dancing

Lizzie's friend Cathryn is the leader of CalAmity a band of 5 women. Her mother (81) and her aunt  (in her 70's) were there too. It was fun because they were drinking beer and wine and they got up to dance, they asked some guys to dance too.  It was inspirational! :)

Then we went back to the room and went to sleep. I want to mention that Lulu was a very well behaved dog the whole trip, I think she enjoyed the road trip as much as we did. we did :)

View from our room

Thanks Lizzie for a fun trip!

December Recap

December was a good month. It was a good month to end 2019, here's how it went...

Sandy came December 12, we went to San Diego the 13th and 14th. I celebrated my 76th birthday with my daughters!!! It was such a fun time!

We did the #Decemberreflections in Instagram, I enjoyed it.
Lizzie and I had a very nice Christmas, with lots of great gifts :)

Lizzie and I  visited with my in laws in Burbanks, it was nice to see Mary, Dewey, Bettie, Lee, David, Iris, Alexander, Cristina, Rick, Jameson and the baby.

We went to several places for lunch/dinner: Bizarra Capital (meh), Reventaco, Ruth's Chris (GREAT!) La Huasteca, Avila's El Ranchito, Black Angus..we ended 2019 by going to La Huasteca again , I had two great Mango Margaritas.
Jennifer came to visit, so did Norbert. I talked to my sister Nuria, she called me on my birthday (so did Mia but I didn't hear the phone when she called) Talked to Sandy on Mondays and texted with Tristan.
I enjoy living with Lizzie!! :)
I went to the podiatrist  on the 31st
It rained a lot and it was pretty cold for Southern California.
It was a good month :)

MOVIES I MATCHED IN DECEMBER

BOOKS I READ IN DECEMBER