Line Dry

Don't we all yearn for the smell of fresh outdoor dried clothes? Unfortunately or probably very fortunately, the days of the clothes line are gone except for maybe in trailer parks. I guess that with the invention of the dryer, the need was no longer there so looking at the neighbor's underwear flying in the breeze is only (and thankfully) a blast from the very past. This was my feeble attempt to replicate the clothes line experience with Riley's shirts hanging off the TV in my backyard. It's 87 degrees so they'll dry really quickly and hopefully smell nice and fresh. I'll pay dearly for this though when I go to iron the major wrinkles out of them. And ironing....that's a topic for another time.

**Update** The shirts are back in the house and honestly, they smell way better out of the dryer and are a heck of a lot softer than having been dried out in the great outdoors. We won't be making this mistake again!!!

Violin Recital

Check this out. It's too cute. This is Riley's youngest son's almost 5 year old son James in his first violin recital.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvmFTRhhe38

I didn't know they made violins that small.

Chocolate

This is about a fourth of the candy that I have left that we bought before Halloween. And...this is after having used some of it in Primary. The kids there don't like it, I hate it and we had no trick or treaters so it's headed to the garbage now. I should have left it with someone who was handing out candy at trunk or treat but I couldn't get out of there fast enough after dropping off my chili. It was craziness with the church next door having a big party and people from there headed over to partake of the dinner and candy from our stake. The lesson learned here is that next year, I'll only buy what Riley or I like and it won't be the giant bags of chocolate from Costco. Sees candy maybe but not this stuff.

Roger's Gardens

I thought I'd try to give you all a Christmas treat. I went to the beach this week with my mind made up to visit Roger's Garden and their Christmas display. For those of you that have never seen this wonderful place, it is a sight to behold. Here is their web site http://www.rogersgardens.com/ They don't really want customers taking pictures but I did ask for permission and the kind lady said "they really don't like you to but I won't pay attention to you if you want to". Very cute. On the way out, she asked me if I had gotten all the pictures I wanted. I just smiled. So here is your inspiration for your tree this year. Unfortunately, unless your filthy rich, the trees are out of the price range of most. My guess is that to buy one as is, it would be in the 10 to 20 range. That's THOUSANDS! Enjoy

Katella Deli

Here's a couple of pictures from Friday night. We went and watched Sami & Kodi play water polo at the Navy something or other in Los Al and afterwards, most of us were starving so we went to the Katella Deli for dinner. What a great place. I had the best beef brisket I have ever had and they had a bakery attached to the place that was to die for. That's Sam, Nan, Paa and Riley on the left and Cindy, Amanda's mom, Amanda (Sami & Kodi's teammate) Kodi and Kelly. This was a big tournament with the coach's from several large schools (Stanford, UCLA, Davis) there to look at theplayers. Sami has already signed with a full scholarship to UCLA so she is all set. Anyway, it was a fun day and night and we were really glad to go hang out with them. After all, they are the pseudo grand kids.

Such a deal

Check this little jewel out. I got two of them for the casita. I took the two lamps that had been in there and put them over at the other house - my seasonal rental. Aside from looking perfect, I got the BEST deal ever. A little lighting store was having a moving sale and I got them for 50% off the lowest price marked on their tag. After several markdowns, they went home with me for $49 each. What till you see the chandelier I got there too. It hasn't been hung yet because it was opening day for hunting and my electrician/hubby left at 3:00AM this morning and didn't get to it after he got home last night from OC. So.... maybe he'll hang it for me tomorrow when he gets home. For those of you that have stayed in there and know that the previous lighting wasn't really bright enough for bedtime reading, you'll be able to see well now - double the watts. And by the way, they were covered in that delightful plastic but had a very large tag that said to remove before using. That made me smile.

Key limes

Another basket full of key limes or Mexican limes from our tree. We have had basket after basket full of these little gems. My neighbors have been loving them and I've been the recipient of two different pieces of key lime pie slices. Although I did not believe they were truly key limes, I did a little research and found out that key lime trees were exported from Key West, Florida to California. In fact, there are very few key lime trees left in Key West as a hurricane basically wiped out their population. So yes, they are the real thing. I have three full freezer bags still in the fridge waiting to be squeezed and frozen. Next crop is lemons and grapefruit and they will be ready to pick in December.