California Dreaming

No, actually, this is no dream.  It's real.  And it's good for the most part, unless you spend your evening sorting pictures of fun times in Madison.  That can make you sad.

I think it's also sad when visitors leave.  Marcia came to visit us July 4th through the 10th.  We had a wonderful time if you erase Sunday when three of the four of us were couch and bedridden with food poisoning.  There were only two redeeming things about this experience.  The first is that you feel so so  good after feeling so so bad and it's good to appreciate feeling good. The second is that I had the opportunity to be a good citizen and report an episode (or three) of food poisoning to the local health department.  Unfortunately they didn't call me back.  Nate thinks I should also report it to the restaurant that poisoned us so we can get a free meal.  I'm not sure if I want a free meal from them though.

We were able to show Marcia around our neighborhood - which we love - during walks to and from the community pool, Trader Joe's, downtown (we attended an outdoor concert on Thursday and more live music at First Fridays) and Whole Foods.  On Saturday we went up to "the city" as they call it around here.  That would be San Francisco.  It was bustling because the weather was divine: 70's and sunny.  Although it would be fun to live in San Fran, I'm glad we don't because while it's usually overcast and cool up there, it's 80 and sunny down here in the south valley.  The pictures below are all from our day trip to the city.

I'll leave you with a sweet little image that you have to imagine (before showing you some actual images): we arrive at the airport on Tuesday morning and Louisa has opened Marcia's pinkish lipstick and smeared it all over her hands.  She actually did a pretty decent job on her lips too.  Of course the frenzy to clean up her hands eliminated our opportunity to take a picture, so you'll just have to imagine how stinking cute it was.

Oh, and one more thing to share.  Dinner tonight was tasty!  I had some ricotta cheese left over from a turkey burger recipe that I made last week, so I googled "ricotta recipes" and found this spinach sausage pie.  With pre-made pie crusts from Trader Joe's and frozen, chopped spinach, it was delicious and easy.  Highly recommended.  Don't skip the egg wash on top - it makes it beautiful.

Sweet mother / son photo

The city was sunny, but the bridge was still partially cloud covered

Lou's concerned eyebrows

Thankfully not an accurate depiction of our family

Sportin' her new WI gear