Fun with Friends

I enjoyed a fun evening this week with these great friends. They treated me to an awesome Thai dinner in downtown Mesa, it was wonderful! Then we went on to see a performance at the Mesa Arts Center. It was my first time to see a show there, what a wonderful venue! We saw the National Acrobats of the People's Republic of China. What a show! It was amazing, they do things that are just amazing. What a wonderful evening, it was so beautiful outside afterwards we stood and talked for a long time enjoying the weather and each others company! It was great catching up with Denise and Judy and Linda!

Friend celebration

We had a fun time celebrating Linda's birthday this week. We had a fun day shopping at some local quilt stores and then going back to Denise's house for this lovely lunch...Then we did some sewing and each made a bag. Here is mine....

And this is Denise's. They are out of the vinyl coated cotton fabric. It was so fun to have a day with friends!

Quest for food....

Denise and Sarah and I continued out "ethnic food quest" last night....the new destination was Scandinavian so Denise checked out the local places and Beaver choice was written up in the phx. best new ethnic restaurants so away we went!
We ordered 3 different dishes to all share.... we sort of make our plates off all three so we can taste them all, it's always fun! This was all our favorite, almost like a swedish meatball and dill mashed potatoes. The peas and greenbeans were both cold and served as a salad.
This was my least favorite, a cabbage roll, the beet salad was wonderful tho. They had a creamy potato salad they let us taste also that was wonderful.
This dish was great too, schnitzle....it's a thin pounded chicken breast with brie cheese and ham, and then potatoes....everything was fried so how can that not be good! The broccoli was cooked to perfection and there was a sort of caprese salad minus the mozzarella that was great, all with fresh herbs, very nice.Cole slaw had a different taste, not our creamy style, but was very tasty.
So thumbs up to Scandinavian food! We all liked it and was very impressed with the fresh taste of everything we got. The restaurant is very tiny and by the 5-6:00 hour it was full. So out of everywhere these girls have drug me this had to be my favorite tasting food! I'm hearing Peruvian is next......do they eat llama's??????

Boyce Thompson Arboretum

I spent Good Friday with this great group of gals. We went on a little adventure to celebrate Denise's Birthday and had a great day. L-R is Linda, Denise, me and Judy. The arboretum is just beautiful and was so fun to hike thru.
We loved the gardens and then continued the path back and went up the High path along the side of the rock face, what gorgeous views.
We had a wonderful picnic and these red cardinals came by, who would think there was cardinals in Arizona!
Denise brought us some show and tell of her quilts she finished, this cute dandelion applique...
A darling redwork bunny one she's ready to hang for Easter.
It was fun to have a little quilt show in the picnic ground!
Here are some pictures of some of the pretty areas in the gardens... the Iris were wonderful,
Here is Linda... there was something blooming everywhere.
The rose garden was so heavenly scented! The roses were all in full bloom,
The weather was perfect, couldn't have asked for a prettier day, the big trees, lots of shade, the granite outcroppings in the back. It was Wonderful!

The Trifecta.....

Well today was Mindy's birthday. She's finally as old as I am! We go way back in time, in fact I remember when her youngest 2 were born! So I talked her into doing the "trifecta" tonight when we both got off work. When I asked her about it she said, sure I"m free but what is a trifecta?Our community has this great group of restaurants and all 3 are owned by the same people and all 3 will give you $10 credit towards a meal on your birthday .

She wasn't really sure she could do it, but I am seasoned at this and I dragged her right with me in training! So off we went to Joe's BBQ, here we just got her a baked potato which is HUGE and she got 2 pieces of lemon cake, so now she's got a baked potato for lunch tomorrow at work.
We actually started at Liberty market and we both had a great pasta dish there, which of course we couldn't finish so we each took half of that home ( lunch for me tomorrow and maybe dinner for her!) It's kind of funny but the employees actually encourage you to go on to the other restaurants and do this, I had one on my birthday who told me how to do it even!
The last stop of the trifecta was Joe's farm grill which she got a free huge salad, so there's another free lunch the next day!
Here's Mindy at Joe's, we actually did sit down and have half a piece of lemon cake for dessert. So thanks to the Joe's family restaurant group for letting us have such a fun evening. See if you do it right, you offer to take your friends out to dinner and this is what happens...free food. Thanks Mindy for being a good sport and letting me drive you around to collect all the good food! Happy Birthday, I'm just glad you are finally as old as me!
So I just got a text from Mindy who on her way home went by way of Krispy Kreme as she heard they give you a free dozen doughnuts on your birthday so yep she was right....add that to the list of freebies you can enjoy on your birthday!

Thai Food

Well tonight was my first experience with Thai food and it was Great! One of the first on my" trip around the world" food extravaganza that I'd definitely go eat again. The flavors were very strong and while each dish was good a little goes along way so that small portions of the items we shared was plenty. Thai Basil was the restaurant, rather quiet in there, but it was a monday night and a big football game to compete with! I guess there is another one in Tempe.We started with this appetizer...those are fried sweet potatoes. Now how could you go wrong with that since it was Fried! the dipping sauce was great. Those are peanuts floating in there, in fact....
there were peanuts in everything. ( wonder if they grow peanuts in Thailand?) We had a soup that was good with a coconut milk broth, had chicken and mushrooms in it, also lemon grass and parsley. Then we had 2 other dishes, one was Pad Thai, it was a great noodle dish with I think red curry, then another dish I can't remember the name that we put over rice, it had carrots and potoatoes and chicken and eggs and tofu. Very interesting. So here are the 2 crazies that are taking me on this "quest"! Thanks Denise and Sarah, it was fun, I'm hearing Scandinavian is next.

Breakfast with the gang

Another fun catch up breakfast with alot of friends whom we all used to work with! Cindy and Karen got to come this time. Ellen showed us her quilt she'd just had quilted, oh my gosh it was amazing. It was fun catching up with them all for another month.

China Magic

Well Sarah and Denise have continued to show me the world thru food! This week we went to China Magic. A little hole in the wall Chinese restaurant that is famous for their home made noodles. This man was behind a glass making the noodles, hand pulling them etc. He slammed them down on the table and pulled and kept repeating this until they were very thin, then into the pot of boiling water ready to go out to the tables fresh. And of course there was a tip jar in front of the window and then he holds his hands together and bows when you put a dollar in!The food was all very interesting, even a soup with noodles and lamb. They even had boiled peanuts on the table for you to add to your dish along with the shredded carrots and pickled radish. Then of course they wanted me to walk thru Lee Lee's market which was around the corner, a market with all kinds of Asian food plus aisles featuring things from all over the world. It was very interesting thru the vegetables, some I've never even heard of, but then we got to the meat, the pig ears,fish,chicken feet, squid made me want to go walk thru the different canned things.......safer. So whew I made it again thru that one, I'm hearing since it's getting chilly out that next we will head south and do Caribbean!

Old Friends B-fast

A group of us that all used to work together at a "former job" all got together this morning for b-fast ! What fun it was to all catch up, we'd all missed getting to see everyone and chat, I'd seen everyone individually here and there but it was fun to all get together ! Thanks Betty for getting us all together with your insistence !We decided we'd try again for next month and maybe even plan a sewing day after the first of the year. A couple people couldn't make it but it sure was fun to see everyone that we used to see on a regular basis again. On the left is Denise, then Ellen, Barb, me, Betty and Ken. We got to talking about the amount of talent ( gloating ! ) sitting around that table and realized wow we really are good and we all appreciate the other so much ! Each person brought a different strength to the things we'd do. So it was fun to reminisce about things and how we all appreciated what the other could do. So yeah for friendships that stay strong whether you are working together or not !

Sleep Over !

Bode and MB had a sleep over with us this week ! Chris was gone to a show and MB had tickets for a concert so since Bode was staying the evening with us they just spent the night. What fun to have them and hear all the fun baby sounds the next morning ! MB got to go back to bed for a bit while Bode and I played in the morning and then we went for a walk at the Riparian Preserve. I'm not sure if Bode liked it, he slept thru it !We joined my friends Ellen and Esther for lunch, we were going to Liberty Market for wonderful food but they were closed so we walked across the street to Joe's BBQ. We love Joe's, but when you were really wanting the "lady" sort of lunch at Liberty we were all disappointed ! Ellen and Esther loved meeting MB and seeing Bode ! See his little "crock" shoe on the table, It's about 3 inches long ! He was all dressed up in his blue jeans and belt !
That's Ellen on the left and Esther in the middle. We sure used to have fun working together ! Lots of fun memories come up ! MB and Bode and I went shopping a bit before coming home then to make some soup and salad for dinner, they went on home then for his bath and bedtime.
And here is the cutie of the day ! Bode you melt your Grammy's heart !

Thursday Club

Thursday club got together last night and enjoyed a great evening out at Joe's farm grill , Thursday club meeting on Wed. night, Ken just can't keep it straight !! They all treated Ann and I to a great dinner there for our birthday's. The food is so good and it was fun to eat out under the big trees at the picnic table. It was fun catching up with everyone's busy lives, we'd had such drenching storms the day before we were all wondering if we could sit outside but it was lovely out, great food to enjoy, and best of friends to chat with !

Thursday Club Dinner

I got to go out to dinner tonight with Thursday Club ( Ken said you are doing Thursday club on Tuesday?) for Kathy's birthday. It was great to see everyone and have yummy food at Olive Garden ( I even have lunch now for work tomorrow !!) We missed Judy and Ann but Kathy and Mindy and Cindy and I sure had fun and laughed and enjoyed our reconnecting time ! We gals used to meet every week on Thursday when our kiddos were little, now everyone seems to be so busy and have jobs that we do well to celebrate birthdays and holidays with each other !

Continuing our worldly food quest....

Denise and Sarah and I met for dinner tonight after work in what I think is their quest to have me try all kinds of ethnic foods from all over the world. Tonights was a bit closer to home, we choose Native American. So we went to the Fry Bread House and had Indian Fry bread. It's owned by Navajo people from the Tohono O'Odham tribe and it was wonderful, greasy so a bit goes a long way ! One of those things you might eat once a year ! We all ordered the fry bread with just beans and cheese. Then we had a dessert one, should have taken a picture of it, it layed flat on the plate and was drizzled with butter and melted chocolate. Oh my gosh. One little slice was plenty of that too ! But it was fun to try ! I'm hearing middle eastern is next on the list.
Lucky me found a jar of Sarah's own salsa waiting for me on the table ! Look at that cute label. Thankyou Sarah for sharing it, now I'll have to be very choosy who I share it with too ! It looks wonderful.

Ellen and Therese

Ellen and Therese came over for dinner tonight, but mostly for Therese to experience scorpion hunting ! The palm trees were trimmed back today so we figured it'd be a good night and it was ! I think it stirred up their happy little homes so they were out and about. Therese being from Virginia was quick to figure this all out and she and Ken had a great time finding 8 in our yard and 9 in the neighbors ! How crazy is that. But we have that many fewer scorpions and now this Virginia gal knows how we Arizona people have a fun evening ! Glad you girls came over !

Dinner with Friends

Lucky me got to go to Liberty market for dinner this week. I went to meet all these nice ladies, my friend Ellen ( bottom left), her cousin Marilyn from Albuquerque, Ellen's sister Beth from back east and her dear friend, Teresa from the east coast. That is our friend Esther there in the front. Lots of time to visit and laugh and enjoy the food at Liberty Market ! Thanks girls for the fun evening ! Teresa really wants to come over and join the scorpion hunt, something they sure don't do back east ! Ellen and Esther and I used to all work together.

Great time with Friends !

We enjoyed a fun day this week and were able to Celebrate another birthday. Linda was the honored guest and she wanted a fun sewing day and lunch. So we had fun admiring Denise's quilt tops she'd made to donate. Judy hosted us and we had a great time. Linda had this neat block of the month that she had finished piecing the top on.
We had a wonderful lunch, I made 2 salads, Denise made these awesome sandwiches that had Brie cheese and thinly sliced apples with a bit of spicey mustard ! MMMMMM they were wonderful !
There was a bit of this ! Judy was in charge of the drinks and she made these great pull apart rolls to enjoy when we arrived.

Here's the birthday girl Linda !

Denise finished this beauty ! It was all appliquéd and had great quilting in curves on it.

Denise finished this pretty table mat too, loved it !

Angel is officially a quilt dog now that she's laying on the blocks. Judy was laying out these pretty leaf blocks and of course if you are a quilt dog or cat, that is where you lay !
So here we are, my camera was not being nice for this picture. But we sure had fun. It was great to catch up as we'd had alot of excitment in each of our lives, 2 babies born, trips traveled, a daughters engagement, another home from London and school, a revamped arrangement at Judy's house. Friends are just the best !