Lunchin' With The Ladies

Hey there.  Today after I dropped Noah to school, I scooted myself on down the freeway to a favorite haunt of mine.  Many thanks to David, for picking Noah up from school today so I could spend the afternoon with my friends!!!  I used to go to this restaurant quite often with friends and my Mom. The famous writer Dean Koontz was often seen dining there as well.  But I don't get the opportunity to go too much lately.  So when my girlfriend Anita suggested Zov's, my heart went pitter pat.  Yes, my heart goes pitter pat over food a lot!!!  This is precisely why I am a Life Time Weight Watcher!!  Anita is here visiting from Boise, Idaho. She was my very first friend that I met when I moved to Yorba Linda.  We were in 5th grade, and she had on the coolest brown lace up boots I had ever seen!  I spotted her, Anita that is, and the boots, while playing tetherball on the play ground of Mabel Paine Elementary.  I knew I had to know her, this pretty girl wearing amazing boots that made her look far older than her 12 years!!!  We became fast friends, and we have been close like sisters since.  Anita and her family moved to Idaho a few years ago, and I miss her terribly!  Our friend Sue also met us for lunch.  Sue has also been a  dear friend of ours since high school.  Sue and her husband Ron lived only a couple doors down from us when we moved to Corona, 27 years ago, and we have been dear friends for all of these years.  Our kids grew up together, and in actuality, so did we!!   Sue and Ron now live in Palm Desert, but we are lucky enough to be able to get together with them a lot.  We vacation together often, and spend a good deal of time together in the summer up in Big Bear where they go to escape the heat, and we go to fish and enjoy our beautiful local mountains.   Today another girlfriend joined us too.  Lesley also went to high school with us.  She was at our ladies high school reunion trip to Vegas last October.  We called it our "Girls Gone Mild" trip.  Lesley still lives locally.  Lesley is standing, far left.  Anita next to her.  Me in front of Lesley, and Sue to my right.

We had a wonderful lunch.  I had the angel hair pasta with pine nuts and a grilled chicken breast on top.  Mmmm!  And the two gals on Weight Watchers....go figure.....shared a decadent dessert!  Me thinks me sees a pattern here.  

This was a lemon cake with lemon curd filling, topped with raspberries and blackberries.   It was divine!!!! 

Anita and I have a lot of common interests.  We love food!!!  We love sweets!  And we LOVE our coffee!!! I have many common interests with all of these ladies, but Anita and I share a love of all things food.  Cooking too!!!  So this was an extra special treat to enjoy with her....even though we are both on Weight Watchers.  She is doing far better than I am too.  She has lost over 20 pounds!!  Yea Anita!!! 

After sharing a long and leisurely lunch together, we had to say goodbye.  We miss Anita SO much!!! But she is coming back in July for a visit.  We have a high school reunion, and we are all doing a spa day at Lesley's with a guest chef too!!    Anita brought me this little pillow she saw back in Boise.  

I love it Anita!!!  The flowers were sitting here on the island when I got home this afternoon.  They were from my son Drew.  He also left a note that read, "Mom, I found my flash drive.  Sorry for being a jerk!  I love you, Drew"   I had to laugh.  Yesterday Drew was frantically looking for his flash drive, and he couldn't find it anywhere.  He was certain he had left it on his dresser.  He was also certain that I must have moved, or somehow misplaced it!!!  I mean he was SURE of it!!!  I kept saying, no, I haven't seen it.  He was pretty agitated, as he had been working on his business cards and they were on his flash drive!  So, apparently, today he found it.  In the pants pocket to the pants he was wearing!!!  He felt bad.  And I felt very happy to receive his gift and note of apology.  He is a good young man!

After getting home this afternoon, I took the chicklets out to the yard to root around a bit. They were  loving it!

This one looks like a two headed chicklet.

Ham is so much bigger than Sam and Chicas.  And he is the calmest one too.  Little Sammy, Claire's chick, is a wild one!!!  Chicas is going to be pretty calm too, I think.  They stayed close together, and had fun rooting around in my flowers and and eating the grass.

Look at Ham's feathered feet.  I love them!

And speaking of chicken feet, look at how green Chicas and Sammy's are!!!  These are the ones that will be laying the pretty blue/green eggs.  

And on the subject of eggs....Hare Lip Lucy ( or is is Hair Lip?) as I like to call her, and that is the nice name, laid another one of her funky eggs this morning!  This one was teeny tiny, and had a much darker shell, but the shell was still very soft and pliable.  It also had a small break in it at the point.  When I picked it up, it was sort of sticky/wet.  Ewwww!!

I should have set a coin next to it for scale, but you can kind of tell how tiny it is in my fingers.  Ethel, on the other hand is laying a beautiful brown speckled egg almost every day.   Love her eggs, but she and Hare Lip Lucy are NOT very nice girls.  Rhode Island Reds can be very aggressive I am told.  And these two little lassies are bossy little you know whats!!!  I don't think my Snacker cares for either of them one bit!  She is a sweet, gentle little lady.  And she has class!!!  She doesn't stand on the feeders, or climb over others at the water fountain.  She doesn't gobble up the apples, leaving little or none for the rest.  She doesn't poo in the entry way of the coop, and she ALWAYS lets me pick her up and pet her silky feathers.  She is my girl.  

I feel certain she will be back to her regular laying schedule of one per day, very soon.  Probably within a week, judging by the way she is scratching the earth and eating bugs lately. 

Saturday we are going to Linda's Feed for  three more chicklets.  I want the European ones who lay the brick red eggs.  I forget the exact name, but it is something like Cuckoo Marans.  And also, Greg wants a Leghorn. You know, like the cartoon chicken who said.....  Ah say..Ah say....ah say....

(you have to be over 50 to know who Fog Horn Leghorn is)

And then one more.  I want another one like Snacker, or another breed that is very gentle like her.   But also a good laying hen.  Maybe even a breed that likes to go broody so I can try to hatch my own chicklets!!!    Alright, enough of the chicken chatter.  Time to go watch Idol to see who gets the boot.  I LOVE Lauren, and Scotty both.  I hope they make it to the final!!!  But that little Haley is awfully good too.  

Nighty night friends.