Told you it was cold!

Opened up the door and found this on the patio!

Sweater weather

Bob and I have enjoyed 3 full days with my parents as we explored new places together. Yesterday we drove up to Truckee (about 20 miles I think) and visited the Donner Memorial Park and museum. Do you remember your history? The Donner Party? Not a social event nor a political party! So after that refresher on the westward expansion era, we went to Squeeze In for lunch, and enjoyed their down-home atmosphere and food. Groceries were purchased before heading back to our cozy spot in Squaw Valley at the Olympic Village Inn. Made use of the pool and hot tub, swimming under the moon and stars in the cool air, then warming up around the fire pit. They have a great recreation area here with several big gas grills, seating areas inside and out, fountains and waterfalls, we even played pinball and PacMan! Haven't done that in a long time! Today brings more fun and more people as the wedding starts to arrive! Pretty chilly this morning, not sure of the exact temp but the TV says it is about 30 for a low! Good sweater weather!

Whoa Nellie!

Even though we spent yesterday viewing some of the most beautiful scenery in the world, I don't think it's one bit odd that I should start out by sharing our carrot cake with you! Because it was super delicious! It even surpassed the gooey chocolate cake we checked out, all at the Whoa Nellie Deli. I had read about this surprising little place and vowed that we would try to stop there on our trip to Yosemite. It is in a Mobil gas station at the intersection of 395 and the Tioga Pass road into the east side of Yosemite at Lee Vining, CA. There's no sign outside so you really have to know what to look for in order to find it. It is an unexpected gourmet delight, we had coffee and cake which was pretty pricey but OK for the 4 of us to share. Plus the pieces were huge. We sat outside in the picnic table area, had a view of Mono Lake which is a very large lake with some strange characteristics. The water in the lake is 4 times saltier than ocean water, it has no outlet so all the inflow becomes very alkaline and full of minerals creating these strange tufa towers. It was nearly drained to supply the city of LA with water, but in 1995 that was stopped to allow the lake to regenerate, so now the level is slowly rising.

We didn't have a lot of time to spend inside Yosemite, but did enjoy stopping at a couple places to get out and walk a little and take the typical tourist photos. This one shows me with my parents, Bob and Sally, kind of windblown with the backside of Half Dome in the distance.

This is Tenaya Lake:

It was a beautiful sunny day, warm in the valleys but cool at the higher elevations. When I was a kid my parents took us on a camping vacation every August and it was usually to someplace in the Rocky Mountains. I have many many memories of our drives through the great national parks and feel very fortunate that my mom and dad made those trips happen for us, even though it meant squeezing the time off into the farming schedule and often missing the first few days of school. They set me up to value the natural beauty around us and family time. Yesterday I got to pay it back a little bit by taking them on a tour of an area that they really had not visited very much before. For a change, they got to ride along and enjoy the scenery, not worry about roads and maps and lunch stops and kids fighting in the back seat!

Now what?

I just finished picking 1000+ cherry tomatoes, and I'm not done yet! I'm not exaggerating on this, I counted and weighed so I could honestly tell you how many I have bagged up so far. The sad part is that we are leaving in the morning for our week away and these won't be fresh for that long, so I guess I will put some in the freezer and see what they are like for chili or something. And maybe I will pay for my ride to the airport with tomatoes!

The Hunt

I have been on the hunt for just the right thing to wear to Brita's wedding. I purchased a great jacket about a month ago, thought I could pair it up with a skirt I already had, but that turned out not so good together. So I've been casually looking for the right skirt and had another backup option outfit in the wings, but Brita and I both really liked the first jacket idea best. So Wednesday I threw down the gauntlet and challenged myself to step up to the plate and nail a new skirt! Notice all those sportsmanly references? I knew this was going to require that I draw upon my inner shopper to make the trip to MOA (Mall of America), not my favorite place to go but the motherlode for women's clothing selection. I didn't know if I was up to it. Then I saw this picture of nephew Spencer with his massive effort to rid the free world of all ducks, and I knew I was up to the challenge! (Spencer is the handsome one on the right, and yes, he is a student at ISU)

And the hunt was on! I spent hours and hours on Wednesday wandering the halls of MOA, near collapse a couple times but rejuvenated by one of the many coffee facilities that were handy there. Who knew that a good brown skirt could be so hard to find? But in the end I bagged a good one, and today tied up all the loose ends with a matching pair of shoes that won't kill my feet!

I was going to make do with my black shoes, until Brita advised me that non-matching shoes are just not right in her world. I have no idea where she gets that from. And trying to be a good MOB, I again donned my hunting camo and orange vest, polished up my plastic and went out early today to catch the first good pair I could find. I guess it's true that the early bird gets the shoes! And I guess I have Spencer to thank for the motivation to stalk the malls, and it's a good thing I don't have to clean my skirt and shoes like he did the ducks!

Thank you Leisl!

An angel came to my house yesterday, her name is Leisl! She came to do the finishing work on the what has become known in our house as the Great Tablerunner Adventure. So now there are 15 completed runners ready for their trip to Plumpjack in Squaw Valley. Accompanying them will be the mother of all tablerunners, which is near the finishing line. These 15 will grace the round tables at the reception, they measure 14" x 82" (or thereabouts). The mama runner measures 7 yards (yes, that's 21 feet) by 21" and will cover the center of the very large head table. The brown color doesn't show up very truly in these pictures, but it is much like a Hershey bar! They are all wholecloth, in other words, one continuous strip of fabric with a wandering quilting design sewn edge-to-edge. I quilted the brown fabric to a layer of thermore, a thin poly batting and a layer of muslin. Then Leisl sewed them all to a piece of the plain brown fabric, right sides together, stitched all around the perimeter except for a turning hole. Then she turned them right side out, pressed the seamed edge straight and flat, and closed up the hole. Then topstitched all around the outside edge. She used my Juki machine and I swear I have never known it could go so fast! She saved me a lot of time but more importantly saved me some worry about getting these all done! Here's a little closeup of the stitching:

And one more item of importance, Bob's golf game has earned him an award:

I am so glad that Bob enjoys getting out with his golf league every week (or more often) to have some fun with his buddies.