Tidbits

I've used this KitchenAid mixer for a few years, after a friend gifted it to me when she moved out of state. It doesn't handle my whole wheat bread very well, and Stace has replaced the gears at least twice. It's making a funny noise again when I try to knead the bread, so Stace suggested I get a more powerful mixer.

I went with a suggestion on a blog I follow for home-milled flour, and purchased this Nutrimill Artiste. I was fortunate to get a $50 off sale price, with Mother's Day coming up. 

It worked well for my first try!

Speaking of Mother's Day, Stace treated me to a special coffee for Mother's Day, plus a lovely bouquet of roses from our yard. I'm a lucky one!

Later, we all met up with the rest of the family for frozen yogurt.

Stace used the borrowed pressure washer to wash two cars and thoroughly clean the driveway, blasting out the weeds and dirt in the tiny gaps where the concrete comes together.

 My parents were away for the day, so Violet and I went over to let Maverick and Summer out, and give them some love. Maverick loves to immediately drop onto his back, for tummy scritches. 

Later, Vi and I made our long awaited return to Quigley, after a few weeks' break with the craziness of theater tech weeks.

Still a number of flowers blooming, like the thistle below.

Evie, the queen of relaxing in positions that look uncomfortable...

We've not seen Seb inside the doughnut, because it seems too small for him. But the other day, we saw the end of his tail just visible from the opening! 

(By the time I got my phone camera on, he was crawling out.)

Week In Review

On Monday evening, we went to the archery range at dusk, and Violet did the walking course, where you shoot at animal targets placed up in the nearby hill. 

Since we were in Saugus, we stopped by my parents' house to meet Maverick, their new golden retriever!

He's super sweet - classic golden. He'll be 5 years old soon, so he's about Summer's age. They're getting used to each other, and she is much happier now, having another dog friend.

 

On Tuesday afternoon, Cora drove (I rode shotgun, and helped with directions) to L.A. to film a little advertisement for a weighted stuffed animal designed to help with anxiety. She's a professional commercial actor! She did great driving, too, through the traffic on the way home.

Also this week, I drove out to spend Friday with JT at her house, and we walked to lunch and shopping.
We didn't get any photos. But I do have a photo of Winston playing with the cat toy she gave us, one her cat wasn't interested in.

 That evening, Stace and I watched a murder mystery play in Old Newhall.

On Saturday evening, we celebrated my Mom's birthday with an escape room - we escaped! - and dinner at BJ's.

For some reason we asked Violet to take a few photos, instead of my Dad. Dad, you're back in charge next time!

On Sunday, Stace and I went to a British classic car show at the Gene Autry museum in L.A. A couple of Stacey's coworkers were there and had invited him. 

This MGB seems to be the original color of Stace's model.

Stace was excited to see this Ford Escort Cosworth, a very fast Ford from the 90s. Not sold in the US, this car was one of the most stolen cars of the decade in Britain.

Stacey's coworker friend Brian was there with his dad and the MG TC that they restored and hot rodded by putting in a V8 engine. Their car won a show award.

Week in Review

My parents are on a trip, so the girls have been housesitting. Well, Cora has been officially housesitting, with Violet hanging out and lending a hand. Poor Summer has been very down since Benny died, so she's pretty low-energy and easy to watch.

Cora also had an audition for Fright Fest on Saturday, and was successful in getting a job as a "walk around" scare actor. My mom had encouraged her, and Cora is excited to make some good money, while acting.

We celebrated with dinner from Copper Hill BBQ. On Sunday, Stace and I saw a Shakespeare play, Measure for Measure, with Christina.

My cute welcoming committee...

...or are they just keeping a wary watch for the dark striped tabby cat who keeps showing up in our yard late at night?

His or her arrival has particularly upset Winston, who attacked Seb a couple of times after spotting him/her, sparking a big cat kerfuffle in the wee hours. (Yay.)

Also yay - we discovered Winst has shown his displeasure by marking his territory in the playroom. 

Uggh, Although we miss Spencer, we don't miss him spraying, and the last thing I want is Winston starting up.

We cleaned and put double-sided tape on the back of the couch, and protected the blinds, and closed off the room at night. So far, those actions seem to have fixed the problem.

It's already registration week for Violet. I took her to her registration at the high school on Tuesday, and on Wednesday, I volunteered in the library while students came in to get their textbooks. The consumable books -workbooks the students write in - come in boxes, so I was opening boxes, stacking the books, and breaking down the boxes.

This girl makes the funniest noises when she proudly carries around soft toys, like this snowball.

This is the tail of a skink, a lizard relative. Winston got out, raced to the grapevine, and caught his prey. But his prey dropped his tail for a better getaway. 

A piece of the tail - Winston is quite the hunter. He's very good at getting bugs in the house.

Cora and I have been going to Westlake Village for appointments for her this month, and this week we enjoyed lunch out at Marmalade Cafe. Yum!

Also this week, Cora went to her last in-person D&D at Logan's house, with two of the players going out of state for school soon. Hopefully they can continue online, as they did during the last school year.

This may not look super amazing, but it tasted good. It was Violet's first attempt at making homemade pasta with the spelt flour we brought from Dunster, using a borrowed pasta making machine. 

Week in Review

 

The best part of Violet's new schedule - she was busy Monday with schoolwork, but on Tuesday, she had free time so we took a nice hike at Elsmere Creek. We had to cross it so many times, we took our shoes off. We also agreed to just wear water shoes on our next hikes.

costco wednesday

So pretty.

On Wednesday, I met my dad at Costco for my quarterly trip. Cora was home from school Wednesday with a headache, which may or may not have been related to her headbutting the stage in her Macbeth death scene the night before.

Ellie came over to visit on Thursday - in other words, I babysat her for a few hours. She got to help bring in some of the oranges! We've been very blessed this winter.

I showed her our blueberry bushes, which for the first year, are covered in flowers. Fingers crossed they all turn into fruit! 

She played with some activity books, and shared a chair with her favorite kittens. 

After we picked up Violet from school, we went to my friend Liz's house to let out her new puppy while she was at work. 

Ellie has been scared of dogs, but she did very well with tiny Enzo. She also played with Cooper the Corgi, and called him Goober. It was adorable.

In the evening, Stace and I went to Ellie's house for dinner and to put her to bed, until Mel made it home from work.

Week in Review

My parents took home a new dog recently, so we went over to meet her. Jake, their 15-year-old Golden, died a few weeks ago, and Benny was sad and lonely. Enter Summer, a 14-month-old Golden. She is a sweetie!

While we were at their house, Violet painted these blocks of wood, and then put them on our paseo. They joined similarly painted Halloween rocks left by others in our neighborhood.

 

Violet has been very artsy lately. We bought canvases, and here is one of her recent paintings.

This one she entered in the school Reflections show (which will be all online this year, naturally).

The Dodgers being in the playoffs is just exhausting! World Series again, BABY!

A particularly stressful game Saturday had me and Stace feeling like this!

Week in Review

We had a power outage Monday afternoon, for several hours. While the power was out but it was still light, Cora worked hard on tidying up the playroom and rearranging it, so she could build a mega hideout. 

This lovely encampment became her home for the next week, and she was quite cozy inside.

She even made Sebastian his own section, and he loved it. He'd sleep in his nook often, if he wasn't right next to Cora.

While the power was out, we obviously had to eat out! Darn! Thankfully we had free kids' meal certificates for Chili's, so we took advantage of the opportunity.

This is how I found Violet and her sleeping partner one morning this week. My girls are so incredibly fortunate with these kitties!

The sixth-graders at Cora's school created footprints to represent their next steps. The school's theme this year "Step by Step, We Can Achieve Anything."




Here's Cora's entry - she's a cat lover, who is thinking of being an explorer, architect and chef, after going into the Air Force.

And here's our resident dog lover - we checked in on Benny and Jake the other evening, and Violet had fun playing with the boys. Jake is now 13, and slowing a bit, but he's still in good health overall.

Birds and Puppies

We learned about Placerita Nature Center's junior ranger program when we went for our New Year's Day hike.

We returned Saturday, for a junior ranger bird walk. After learning about acorn woodpeckers and the California Scrub-Jay, we went out to look for them, with a docent and about two dozen kids and parents.

The girls thought the best part was splashing around in the creek, now that we've had a bit of rain.

The girls had the day off from school Monday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

We went to a birthday party for a friend of Cora's, and then went to my friend Moira's house to meet her new puppy.

I serve with Moira in the church nursery, where she is a longtime volunteer. She took care of both Violet and Cora when they were babies, and I enjoy my Sunday mornings with her.

The girls sure enjoyed tiring out adorable Addie, who is about three months old.

Golden retriever puppies are among the cutest things on the planet. It's an established fact.