Another Tequila Sunrise!

I played bartender at my dear friend Jackie's birthday bash yesterday! It was great fun, of course. We had a special cocktail in her honor which was pretty popular, I have to say.

It must have reminded us all of our dreams of lying around on a beach somewhere warm and tropical, sipping . . .

A special cocktail for Jackie's birthday celebration!

Another Tequila Sunrise (please!)

Combine as much tequila as you think you can handle with orange juice over ice. Drizzle with a little grenadine if you have it. If not, don't sweat it – just drink it and enjoy!!

  

 

Catching up on promises

Hey, I promised to tell you how the bartending class went (see Imagine ME as your Christmas present!) It was SO much fun! First of all, Jess and Brian have a sweet house on a winding street up a hill overlooking all of San Francisco, so you can imagine the setting was to die for. We organized the bar in the kitchen, which had a clear view out the living room window to beauty, and went to work.

There were eleven vodka cocktails on the class outline, and we motored through all of them. I made them, explaining each one and talking about variations. Then we passed the drink around to everyone who was drinking (all except Wayne, who has a bad reaction to alcohol, and Jess, who's pregnant!). There was a lot of sippin' goin' on, believe me, plus a few people with their own straws doin' a little more than sippin'. You know who you are! Meanwhile there were snacks - artichokes and dip, veggies, crackers - to keep us upright.

Finally, after all eleven drinks had been constructed and sampled, everyone decided what their favorite drink was and Brian and I made that for them to have with Lee's wonderful salmon dinner.

What do you think the drink with the most  "favorites" was? I was pretty blown away that it was the Bloody Mary. I mean, it wasn't even morning! Nevertheless, several people wanted their very own.

Brian, the giftee, opted for the Vodka Collins, which I'll admit was good and refreshing. Lee, the giftor, went for the Cosmo. These drinks are already on this blog (look to the right under The Best Cocktails)...well, the Vodka Collins is there under Tom Collins, which is gin. Just substitute vodka, of course, if that's your preference.

A good time was had by all, especially by ME! I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

No, silly, that's not us in the photo!! We looked similar though. You know, happy.

When life gets busy. . .

LIFE has really been fun the past couple of weeks. And busy.

First my son Arthur and his family came to visit from Portland, Oregon. They were interviewing schools in Petaluma to see whether they might want to move back to northern California. YAY! I'm in favor of that! They'd be so much closer!

One day Jack, who is 10, stayed with us rather than traipsing around to schools with his mom and dad. We went to the Pacific Pinball Museum in Alameda, just a few minutes from here. Totally cool - you pay $15 for adults and $7.50 for kids and get to play as much as you want on 85-or-so antique and modern pinball machines for free!

We had a great time while they were here and, too soon, they were gone back home.

Then I got scheduled to work quite a bit slingin' drinks at the Claremont Resort. I love to work, of course :-), but it's a little unusual for February. Usually, once the holidays are over it's pretty slow for awhile. Yes(!) to money though.

This last week it was Wayne's birthday plus Valentine's Day. Wayne's daughter, The Beautiful Marja, came up from L.A. for a week to help celebrate, and her mom Mary came over from Santa Cruz for a few days too. Marja and Mary are my thrifting buddies, so we went back to the White Elephant Sale (see previous post), this time to donate and shop. This time it was so much better because, while we certainly weren't alone, there were lots fewer people there and even more WE's (White Elephants) than before. We found many bargains. Best of all, I got to clean out a whole bunch of "great stuff" from my home. I didn't want it or need it, but someone else might love it! My house feels good!

Then, Marja and I decided to paint my bathroom. Oh God, once you start it's endless. We scraped the ceiling (yuk), and the cabinets (Mary helped with this), and bought gorgeous new knobs for the drawers, and painted and painted and painted some more. Now it's beautiful and pink and new looking, but what a lot of work. So worth it, though.

As of today, everyone's gone and it's very quiet. Wayne and I are amusing ourselves by putting up towel racks and pretty shelves (see the fancy wooden supports on my Thrifting post), and soon I'll be hanging artwork back up on the walls. The bathroom will be finished. I love it.

Tomorrow we'll join our friend Rina and our friends George and Maureen at their daughter Julia's benefit party for the launch of her new company Blackbird Underpinnings. It's vintage-inspired intimate apparel and loungewear...how fun is that? And the party's at Bar 355 in Oakland, a new place to experience!

LIFE keeps on being fun! And busy.

White Elephant Hunt

My thrifting buddy Mary and I, plus my boyfriend Wayne, went to the Preview Sale of the Oakland Museum's huge White Elephant Sale a week or so ago. Last year we had gone to the actual sale, a free 2-day event held in a huge warehouse off Fruitvale Ave. here in Oakland. There was so much great stuff at such fabulous prices (I bought a beautiful wicker table for my guest room - $25!) that we resolved to go again this year. True - it was packed with hundreds of people and the line to get in was massive - the only serious drawback.

This year we decided to go to the Preview Sale and pay the advance charge of $15 each because we'd get to see everything first. Surely there would be fewer people since everyone had to pay. Not a chance! When we drove up, comfortably on-time for the opening at 10 a.m., it was obvious our optimism was unfounded. The line stretched from the warehouse door, 4 or 5 shoppers deep, down two city blocks, around a corner, down four more city blocks and out onto Fruitvale Ave, the main road going into the area. Someone said it had been like that since 6 a.m. Yikes.

We let Mary off at the door, since she has some trouble walking long distances, and went to park the car. Just up the street, neighbors had opened a little lot for $10 parking fee (which benefited local artists), so we did that and went to get in the Incredible Line, which had diminished somewhat since they had opened the doors. Soon we were all inside, separated and each of us looking for treasure.

Man, it was a crowd of people, and now there was an air of urgency about the shopping that we hadn't felt last year. Probably it was because the professionals came to the Preview Sale to get the really good stuff first - just like us, except we're not professionals. Long story short, we lasted an hour and didn't buy much because each purchase involved 45 minutes in line to pay for it. And there were just too many people.

Lesson learned: Go to the regular sale March 2nd and 3rd, which is free and not so hectic. Besides the weather is warmer and the warehouse isn't freezing cold! Enjoy ourselves and still find good stuff.

Second lesson learned, because we got new information from a savvy woman in the entrance line: Donate to the sale. People who donate at least $50 worth of goods on certain days of the week get a free Donors Pass to shop that day between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. We're going next week to both donate and shop. I've had a very productive couple of weeks cleaning out bookcases and closets with good stuff to donate. Yay!! Thank you, Savvy Woman!!

Special Bonus: The good neighbors where we parked our car (we'd do that again, it was so convenient) turned us on to a very cool local coffee shop, Kefa Coffee just up the street on 29th Avenue, where we satisfied our after-sale hunger with delicious fresh-made ham-and-egg sandwiches and even more delicious Ethiopian coffee. Hunting white elephants had left us famished!