I had not intended to take a week off from blogging. I had plenty of things going on, and lots of stuff to blog about. Honestly, I had too much going on and as a result, I was too exhausted to sit down and write about it!

There will be recipes this week – Posole, Moscow Mules, Perfect Steamed Artichokes, and more. Then on Friday, I’ll be off to San Francisco to “Say Yes to the Dress” with Marissa, along with her maid-of-honor and a couple of her bridesmaids. We will be dress shopping, eating out, and having girl-time all weekend long!

But for today, I shall share images and notes from my busy exhausting week.

On Friday night, Dave took me to Café Monarch for an early birthday dinner. The Café has a prix fixe menu that changes weekly. The only thing you choose is your entrée. I had the trout and Dave had the filet. The ambiance, service, and food were all pure perfection. I highly recommend it!

After dinner, we drove to Sky Harbor to pick up Marissa. Having my girl home, making it the perfect ending to a perfect evening.

Saturday morning brought a shock in the bathroom. While in the shower, I looked up. There above the bathroom door – a scorpion! I got out, dried off, and yelled for Marissa. It was beyond hilarious as we tried to decide how to kill it without risking it falling on us. There is a video, but it contains too much swearing and screaming to share. Rest assured, the thing is dead and we were not stung!

Later that morning, Marissa, Connor, and I went to El Chorro to meet with a wedding planner and to show Connor the wedding venue.

That evening, Connor went to work while Marissa, Dave, and I went to Steve and Tram’s annual Okbirthdayfest party. Steve’s birthday is October 9th, hence the “Okbirthdayfest” instead of the usual Oktoberfest.

But, as you can see, Birthday Boy-Chef Steve cooks up a traditional Oktoberfest menu. How about that gorgeous job Tram did on the chalkboard menu!?! Love me a chalkboard menu!

Chef Steve with his prized heat lamp-board of outstanding tender and delicious Sauerbraten!

Plus a very happy Marissa – holding sweet Zoey!

Guests were asked to bring their favorite cocktail to share. I brought Moscow Mules. Recipe later this week.

Sunday was our neighborhood Fall Fling. It was a blast! I spent the entire preceding week hunting and gathering items for the party.

All patios and nearly every flat surface were covered with party fixings. This is the part of event planning I love.

I love the party part too. Over 100 neighbors had a great time.

Even the setup was fun.

We had plenty of things to do for young and old alike.

As usual, I didn’t take nearly enough pictures. Darkness fell quickly on a cloudy night. The cleanup consisted of getting everything off the street and onto my driveway and patio.

This is what greeted me on Monday, my birthday, morning. Thankfully, my kids and my fantastic neighbors also woke up early and helped clean it all up.

An added bonus – my beautiful friend and neighbor, Karin, brought me birthday flowers! How sweet and thoughtful!

Before the day was through, I had flowers from not only Karin but also from Dave and from my beloved friend, Lori, all the way from Tokyo! xoxo

Connor took the day off work, which was a gift in itself. After cleanup, he and Marissa took me to The Biltmore Spa where the three of us had hot-stone massage pedicures! The perfect thing for weary legs and feet! We had a delicious early dinner at Pizzeria Bianco Town & Country.

To end my “mom and kids” birthday, after we dropped Marissa off at the airport, Connor and I stopped by the Salty Sow and tried a bunch of different cocktails and had quality mother and son time.

Tuesday brought a birthday lunch with my dad, an HOA committee meeting, and work that night.

Wednesday I spent most of the day trying to put away all the party stuff. As of today, it’s still not all put away! Maybe by the end of this week.

Peggy and Anne took me out for birthday dinner at Rusconi’s. We met at Peggy’s house, where grandson Cruz was visiting and Anne fell in love.

If you haven’t discovered Rusconi’s American Kitchen yet – get over there and thank me later!

As you can see, we loved every bite and wished it was in good taste and manners to lick the plates.

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Things are getting real around here. My daughter, Marissa, is getting married one year from today!!!

It’s time to get busy! When she got engaged over Mother’s Day weekend in May and when we picked the venue and set the date, way back in June, it all seemed so far away… now it seems so close.

No more procrastinating! I’ve only got 365 days!

Speaking of Marissa, she flies home tonight to spend the next 3 days with me for my birthday weekend. I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before, but I’ll tell you again, “I have the best daughter in the world!”

Plus, she’s going to be helping me with the Fall Fling that I’m working on. It’s our neighborhood’s fall festival. My house is overrun with Fall Fling fixings.

The front porch is getting piled up with buckets, tubs, tents, umbrella bases, and more.

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I happily stumbled into the opportunity to take Dave to Garland’s Oak Creek Lodge for his birthday weekend.

A friend, whom I have yet to meet in person, offered it and I snagged it up the second I saw it.

Betsy is a follower and frequent commenter. I did a little research and found that  Betsy has left 50 comments here. Betsy, you are awesome!

Anyhow, Betsy and I are Facebook friends too. On August 20th, Betsy posted that she would not be able to use her reserved weekend at Garland’s and asked if anyone would like to take it. I jumped at the opportunity!

Garland’s has a long history of being difficult to get into. Guests hold on to their treasured reservations from year to year. And since Betsy’s weekend happened to fall on Dave’s birthday, I just had to have it. I sent Betsy a check, she made the arrangements with Garland’s and we were set.

Dave had no idea where we were going. I just told him what to pack a bag and then I drove north.

He was surprised and thrilled when I pulled off beautiful State Route 89A, crossed Oak Creek, and into Garland’s 10-acre/16 cabin property.

Garland’s is an American-plan lodge; it includes a full breakfast, afternoon tea, and gourmet dinner.

The food is a big part of the experience. We enjoyed Roast Pork Loin with Port Plum Reduction on Friday night and Pan Seared Halibut with Romesco Sauce and Saturday.

Oh, and the warm Orange-Cranberry muffins we scarfed down on Saturday morning…. to die for!

On Saturday night, I had a quick look into the kitchen and met Chef Brian Widmer. Chef Widmer could not have been more gracious, warm, and welcoming. Thank you Chef for taking a few minutes during your crunch time to talk with me!

It’s hard to tear yourself away from the property, but Dave and I did venture out on Saturday afternoon to visit Slide Rock State Park, which just reopened on Wednesday of last week, after the Slide Fire of this past May.  It was packed!

We also drove into downtown Sedona to buy some fresh Sandia Chili Pepper Ristras.

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First off, I have to say, “Has it really been 13 years?”

Hard to believe.

That morning is as fresh in my mind and heart as it was 13 years ago. The thoughts and memory of it can flood my eyes with tears in an instant. Every anniversary I just want to scream out, “God Bless America.”

As adults, we learn that to truly appreciate joy, you must have had heartache. You can’t appreciate true beauty unless you’ve seen ugliness. If everything in life was perfect, we would not be able to appreciate it with all the sameness of that boring perfection.

Our family experienced that reality and life lesson last week.

As you know, the first week of September, I was in Rancho La Puerta with Barb and Kim. Late on Labor Day afternoon, we were in one of the two WiFi zones and I found a text that my husband, Dave, had sent earlier that day. From it, I sadly learned that my sister-in-law, Debbie, had died in a tragic car accident that morning in Illinois. Debbie is the wife of Dave’s oldest brother, Roger. All of Dave’s family live in Illinois. Roger and Debbie had been married for 41 years. Days later, I did the math and realized that Debbie had been in Dave’s life since he was just 13 years old.

I spent the next day scrambling to make the arrangements to get myself out of Mexico, back to San Diego, and then home to Phoenix. Dave made our travel arrangements to Illinois. I flew home on Wednesday and we flew to Chicago on Thursday.

Roger and Debbie are “big-time” in their town of DeKalb, Illinois. Roger is the former city planner and Debbie was a retired professor from Northern Illinois University. Everyone knows them, as was clear from the 600 to 700 people who showed up to stand in line for over two hours at her visitation. Police offices, firefighters, NIU professors, faculty and students, CPA professionals, friends of the couple, and their two grown children, Tony and Megan. Even Starbucks baristas and T.J. Maxx employees came to show their respect and give condolences. Debbie was a proud Starbucks addict and an enthusiastic shopaholic!

To give you a glimpse into what kind of person Debbie was, here is a small excerpt of an article from the NIU website. To read the entire article GO HERE.

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Obviously, the loss of a family member is the heartache I mentioned at the beginning.

But that weekend in Illinois also brought immense joy! On Saturday, as we were all en route to the funeral, our niece, Katie, went into labor with her firstborn. Katie is the daughter of Dave’s middle brother, Tom, and his wife, Beth. Katie’s due date was Sunday, so her mother strictly forbade her from coming to the visitation on Friday or the funeral on Saturday. (As much as a mother can forbid a grown daughter from doing anything!) As always (YES ALWAYS!) mother knows best, as Katie learned early that Saturday morning when her water broke.

As Dave and I sat in the church pew next to Dave’s mom, Tom and Beth, and their middle daughter Mo, and her fiance, Brandon. Our tears were mixed with the joy in our hearts and minds thinking of Katie laboring at the hospital with her husband Eddie at her side. Sweet Kody Ellen was born just hours later.

My favorite moment of that eventful day was when I opened my Facebook feed later that evening and found this posted by new first-time aunt, Mo.
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We own a week at a timeshare in California. In Carlsbad, which is north of San Diego, to be specific. We haven’t used our week there the last several years, having rented it out instead. The main reason we haven’t used it is that we’ve either been vacationing elsewhere that same week or have just returned home from a big trip, such as Hawaii last year and Alaska the summer before.

It was the same situation again this year, having returned from Ireland only a week before our Carlsbad week began.

Well, this time around, I decided to use it anyway. Dave and Connor both had to return to work but since I don’t have classes to teach, I asked Peggy to come with me and we are here and we’re having a ball.

The week is from Saturday to Saturday, but since we both had commitments on Saturday, we drove out early on Sunday morning. Here is my day-by-day account of our trip so far:

Sunday – Friends and Family Day

We were on the road a little after 7:00 and it was smooth sailing as we crossed the Arizona/California border. The California desert skies were cloudy, gray, and beautiful!

Then things got a little more serious as the clouds were so low and so thick that this is what we encountered.

A bit of rain and very low visibility! We made it through all that and arrived at “The Inn” just before 2:00.  Marissa was in town, visiting high school and college friends, Kaley and Petra. Elementary school friends, Lindsey and Alyse, also came to town for the girlfriend’s summer reunion.

Add to that, high school friend, Julie, who is pregnant with her second, is staying right here at “The Inn” with her entire family… and you have not only a girlfriend reunion but a brief mother and child reunion too!

When the girls arrived, they came up to our room for a “welcome” glass of wine before going down to the beach to meet up with Julie.

After beach time we all had dinner at Norte Mexican Food, which is adjacent to the property. Then the girls were off, insert sad face here.

We’ll end Sunday with a beautiful California ocean sunset, a photo courtesy of Peggy.

Monday – Foreign Adventure Day

Peggy’s had an itch to go to Mexico for a while now. She just bought a new house and it has a lot of Mexican/Southwest flair. We decided it made sense to drive from Carlsbad to Tijuana (56 miles, 1-hour drive) instead of from Scottsdale to Nogales (183 miles, nearly 3 hours) so off we went.

We had fun shopping and eating and drinking, especially eating and drinking! I always forget just how great Mexican food is in Mexico. Go Figure! The Mexican flag guacamole was outstanding and pretty darn cute and the shrimp ceviche – was delicious!

All was good until we decided it was time to leave Mexico. We sat in the line of cars at the border for FOUR (4) hours, I kid you not. It was horrible!

You move so slowly that there are vendors set up between the lanes of cars and they are selling everything you can imagine; ceramics, churros, dulces, tostilocos, burritos, elote, lawn ornaments, purses, toys, everything you can imagine! There are hundreds of them and even more of you, sitting trapped like prisoners in your own car. Let me say that four hours is a long time to sit after drinking beer all afternoon if you know what I mean. It was torture!

We were happy when we finally saw the border, but it still took nearly 35 minutes from this spot. My advice? NEVER drive into Tijuana. Park your car and walk across! Live and learn.

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We visited several castles while in Ireland.

It’s easy to do.

They are in nearly every town and around every corner.

We stayed at some.

We just visited and toured others.

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This is my first view of Ireland, from a British Airlines flight, about to land in Dublin. Shades of green, as far as the eye can see, just as I always imagined it would be.

Once we collected our baggage and went through customs, we headed for the car rental office. This was to be our (Dave’s really, I have no intention of driving!) first experience with driving on the left side of the road. Dave reserved a car with automatic transmission and with GPS. The car we ended up with had neither. Suddenly our journey from Dublin airport to Dublin was looking a lot more daunting…

We paid extra to get the GPS but were still stuck with the manual transmission. Dave had a manual when I met him, but that was in 1982… it’s been a while! Put it all together and you have the uneasiness of driving a manual, in a foreign country, on the wrong side of the road, with a far from modern GPS.

All in all, he did great, at least on this, our first day. I am not being a critic, actually, I am giving high praise! If it was me, with my ADD, dyslexia, and the fact that I can’t drive a stick – Very High Praise!

It was only about 6 miles from the airport to our hotel, but with all that, it was still something of an adventure. You know how travel is, with the security and the tensions and anxiety that foreign travel brings about, we were happy to get to our hotel and even happier when the valet said he’d park the car for us!

We’d booked a room at the historic (1824) Shelbourne, overlooking beautiful Stephen’s Green. The very hotel where the Irish Constitution was drafted on the first floor in 1937.

We were escorted by the bellman to the registration desk and from there on out – it was all gravy!

We’d reserved a “junior suite” so that Dave and I would have the master and Connor would have the suite part of the room. We were informed that we’d been upgraded!

Is there anything better than hearing that you’ve upgraded?! It is THE BEST!

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Today I’m sharing images of our last three days in London.

Despite the passport issue, this was a good trip. But before you see that, you must hear all about my “passport saga” – because a trip isn’t a real trip until you have a dramatic story to tell!

It’s a long, but rather entertaining story, with a lesson attached. That being said, I’ll intersperse the story with my London photos… just to add a little lightness and joy to it instead of all ulcer-inducing – which is what it is.

Our flight to Heathrow was scheduled for 7:40 PM on Friday, July 11th. At about 1:00 PM on Wednesday, July 9th, I received this email from Dave;

“I’m sure you have already thought of this, but just making sure that all 3 of our passports are on site and you don’t need to go to the bank to retrieve them from the safe deposit box.”

Of course, I’ve already thought of that. In fact, I retrieved all three of our passports back in March when I got mine out to go to Spain. I was pretty proud of myself and was going to grab the passports from the shelf above the kitchen desk, where they had resided these last 4 months. Instead, I responded to another email from Dave about another issue and then I had to do some research and follow up on that issue. Once I was done with that, about an hour later, I got up to get the passports. I looked at each one and then I saw it…

OMG! How could this be? There is no way this is true! I can’t believe I didn’t notice this when I took out the passports four months ago! Connor’s passport was expired! EXPIRED! It expired in February of 2012! Holy Sh#t! Now, what am I going to do!?!

When the four of us (Marissa included) last got our passports, either new or renewed, back in 2007, they were good for 10 years! How could Connor’s be expired!?! Mine doesn’t expire until 2017. Dave and Marissa’s expire in 2017. How can his have expired in 2012?

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One of the appetizers that I planned to serve at the 4th of July party was these cheese-filled grilled mini peppers.

Don’t they look yummy? My guests never got a taste, let alone a glimpse, of them. This photo of some other cheese-filled peppers is lifted from the web. That’s because, my grill-master husband turned the 30 little peppers, that I lovingly spent time and effort cleaning out and stuffing, into charcoal.

Photos of his burnt-to-the-crisp peppers at the bottom of the post.

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