Sunday, November 8, 2009

I had a 4 Day Weekend!


It all started with an inspection of the work being done on the property in LA that mom and Aunt Dorothy are supervising. We met Andrew, their property manager and he showed us all the progress on the house being renovated.

The foundation was terribly uneven, so his contractor jacked up the house and placed new posts and beams under the foundation to fix that.





The entire inside of the house got a new coat of paint. What a difference!


The floor felt even!










The tile in the kitchen is getting an acid wash to clean up the grout and is looking much better. We originally were going to replace the tile, but after cleaning, decided we wouldn't have to. We wil be getting a new faucet in here, too.










The bathroom clawfoot tub unfortunately, did not make it this time. I saw it and it was totally rusted and the multiple layers of refinishing that had been done were peeling off. The edges cracked when the foundation was lifted and so a new small tub was put in with this new tile. The same tile will go on the floor. The shower plumbing had to be replumbed and will be enclosed in a addition closet outside the bathroom wall. I always wondered why all the plumbing and electical conduit was run outside the walls. Well, I found out. . . the walls are not thick enough to put them inside! The consist of 1x4's!


The front porch got a new railing and the floors inside will be new bamboo!

There is still some window flashing to repair (the existing windows were installed with the flashing on the interior) and new thresholds front and back.

Contractor says it should be ready to show next week. Andrew says we can raise the rent $300/mo!



Next on my weekend plans, celebrating Taylor's 21st birthday!

Celebrate we did! He opened his new skateboard!
We went out to his favorite restaurant and. . .









had his favorite mudpie!

Too much for Terry!











Next day, we celebrated again with Terry's family. James and Terry's mom, Pat, were also celebrating Birthdays!












The gang was all smiles!













Later, an impromptu dinner and cooking class took place and we had a blast learning the fine art of rolling wontons and spring rolls from Terry!











Meanwhile Taylor and James brushed up the their "Time Warp"!












And we made wontons, lumpia rolls, spring rolls for ohr'derves and Japanese Curry for dinner!


Yum! It was fun and delicious!








Last, but not least, we went out the next day for lunch at the Americana's Cheesecake Factory! A first!











Ever wonder how they decorate those huge Christmas trees? We got to find out.


What a great weekend!

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Annual Halloween Haunting!


Welcome to Bonnie and Clyde's home for the Annual Halloween Haunt! This years theme "No one but the dead enter and are reborn in this house for tonight!"

All party goers came as the former living and spirited the night with revelry!









Madame Currie literally set the place "aglow" with her personality and Jesse shone as the Vampire with flair!












Janis Joplin and Ana Nicole were in fine form and true to character!














Casting their infectious smiles here with Madame Currie, a She Devil, the woman who died of H1N1 flu virus covered here in covered in snot and sporting bule lips and a red nose and another ghost from the past.









Obi-Wan shares a grin with Flavo-Flav!












The She Devil mixes it up with Aunt Nora and Miss Scarlet O'Hara!













Dick Tracy punks it up with Raggedy Ann!













Martin Doyle, contractor for hire, (alias Pat Doyle Pollard) celebrates a Big Birthday!













Tonight's Costume Winners for:

Most Original: Melanie's Madame Currie
Most Fascinating: Aunt Dorothy's Scarlet O'Hara
Most Hilarious: Dan's Punked out Dick Tracy
Most Infamous: Pat's Chi Rivera
Most In Character: Taylor's Jesus







Wine Tasting Reveal: Most bottles we ever had 14 Varieties!















The Winner! An Italian Wine from a neighbor next door that dropped it off but couldn't stay!





Wonderful night!

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Project Completed!


OK, so about a year ago I blogged about some of the projects I had lined up to keep me busy and happy. I like my projects!

Well, since the kitchen remodel forced me into the backyard more with the house being a mess and unusable for much of the summer, I kept bumping into this project. You may or may not remember I had rescued this from the sidewalk dumpster and brought it home. There it was day after day. I couldn't wait to get started on it, but the remodel kept taking priority.



I finally got to it. Here it is refinished and reupholstered. It looks better than I dreamed it would!











And, found the perfect spot for it at the base of the stairway!

Project completed, I'm feelin' good!

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Recipes From Cooking With the Twins!

My camera was SB (sans batteries) so this weekend in "Cooking Class" with the twins, I have no photo presentation. But, imagine the ladies working around the peninsula! They are stuffing pasta shells. Not hard to do, now that you've seen it quite a few times. Imagine this week they have color matched their outfits magically again in peach! Now, we were putting together the dinner and somehow the conversation switched to whatever happened to all mom's old recipes. The "recipe box"? Well, mom reached into the cabinet (where it always was kept) and out came the recipe box! So, here this week I present Mom's Spaghetti Sauce. It is like nothing you will find anywhere else! She tells about the Italian family she got it from, old family recipe.
Spaghetti Sauce

1 lb. ground beef
1 Tbs. butter
1 large onion, minced
1 large handful parsley, chopped
1/4 tsp. allspice
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
Brown ground beef in skillet, drain. Saute onion in butter and combine ground meat and onion in large, deep pan.
Add to mixture: 3 small cans tomato sauce and 1 small can tomato paste. Fill paste can with water 3 times and add to mixture. Bring to boil and boil 15 min. Stir frequently. Then, simmer 2-3 hrs.
Next, stuffing recipe for the pasta!

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

What's Been Going On!


It's been awhile since I've blogged. . . busy I guess. We've changed the kitchen lighting from Title 24 crap to what we wanted (shh!) now that we've passed final.

This is the new lighting here.








and here. . . the new pendants are up! Oh, they were a family project. First, I ordered them, wrong size and so reordered and returned them. Then, we put them up and since they were mounted on a beam, the pan was shallow and some custom work had to be done by Terry. Also, being mounted on a beam, the canopy had to be special ordered, twice, by me. Very complicated since it involved a different light fixture, a guy named Phineas, and a feud this guy has with Lowe's and vice versa. . . ultimately ending up with us getting two canopies free! Not to mention that the glass was frsoted after purchase by Taylor, who custom frosted to our specs! Sean helped with the custom wiring that was needed for the shallow pan! Two weeks later. . . Voila!


And the stools! This could take forever. . . quick story, after 4,000 stools, literally, I found the perfect one! Then, had to deal with managers not wanting to part with their clearance merchandise, pick up and delivery disorganization, and ultimately assembling them ourselves once in our hands and WOW! They are perfect! And I got them on sale! And avoided the pick-up charge! Yes, there was a pick-up charge!

Then, the painting. . . another blog!

Thursday, October 1, 2009

September Birthdays!


Sean turned 24 on the 25th! We had the twins and Grandma Pat over for the inaugural dinner in the NEW kitchen!

Terry made bbq ribs and shrimp scampi per Sean's dinner request. Accompanied by broccoli and potaotes, the dinner was a complete success!

The highlight for Sean was the dessert! He requested a banana split after seeing it prepared on the Food Channel, he knew that was what he wanted for his birthday!




He delicately prepared it and instructed us on the procedure as he went along so we all could follow for the perfect dessert.

Here, he finished with 3 cherries on top!

Happy Birthday!










Excellent!











Then, on the 30th we celebrated Terry's birthday!

One of his favorite restaurants dating back to his college years is El Cholo!

We enjoyed margauritas and table-made guacamole!








Terry had a taste of history and we enjoyed every bit of it!


Happy Birthday Terry!

Friday, September 25, 2009

The Spa Day


The birthday girl is getting pampered!

Relax and enjoy your day at the Ritz!













Oh yeah, this is how every birthday should be!












Eileen enjoys her foot massage!















This is GREAT!











Now that is how it is done!


Let's get dressed and have lunch by the pool. . .

entire weekend album on facebook, check it out.