Love Our Church Dinner

Since I'm the church treasurer I have the automatic "honor" of serving on the church's Finance Committee. One of our unfortunate jobs is to find/raise money for the Board of Trustees to be able to repair and maintain the church facilities. Our first fundraiser of this calendar year was a "Love Our Church" dinner and raffle Saturday night. Tickets were pre-sold for either chicken or tri-tip dinners and there were raffle tickets available for purchase at the door. I only had $3 on me so I had to limit my choices to 3 of the raffle prizes.

During our dinner we were entertained by some talented musical acts of various people in the congregation. After dinner, and while we enjoyed our delicious Costco cheesecake dessert, Pastor Scott starting pulling tickets for the raffle prizes. I'd put my three tickets in bags for a large ceramic vase, a basket of assorted candles, and a HUGE basket of Lundberg Rice loot from one of the owners who attends our second service. Who ended up winning both the vase and candles?!?

Pretty good for only buying three raffle tickets! I earned it though since I was foolish enough to sign up for clean up duty and was there until 9:30 pm hand drying enough dishes to serve a small country. If only I'd won the Lundberg basket I would have had a pretty sweet trifecta.

Please pass the rolls

Today, for a co-worker's birthday, 10 of us girls (and 1 party crashing boy - literally) went to the new local Japanese restaurant and ordered 16 of the 30 rolls on the menu. Thankfully we'd made reservations and ordered ahead of time so everything when ready right at noon when we showed up.

Dina, the birthday girl, had made labels for each of the rolls we ordered and even made score sheets for us with a "yes", "no", and "maybe" column and room for notes so that next time we came we'd know which rolls we loved and which we didn't care for as much.

Oh my gosh - it was so much fun! My menage a trois of deliciousness were the Sam Roll, Jimmy Roll and Robb Roll (which had bacon in it). And I love the score card so I remember my favorites next time, because there will be a next time. We're already talking that we need to go back so that we can order the other 14 rolls on the menu!

Celebrate!

To celebrate the beginning of the NASCAR season we went out to dinner last night at Crush, downtown.

Because nothing says car racing like chicken parmigiana with cheesy garlic bread and shrimp Louis salad. Last night I made some bets with my boss, Craig, for this morning's Daytona 500 pole qualifying. He guessed Jr. for pole and I said Va-Jay Jay (Jimmie Johnson). We were both wrong, but we also had a side bet that either Danica would crash during qualifying (Craig's bet) or that she would qualify better than Jr. (my bet). Who just won $2.00!! If Va-Jay Jay hadn't let me down I would have had four whole dollars raining down upon me. Hopefully I won't have long lost family trying to befriend me for my new found riches.

Beware....

...it's Girl Scout cookie time! I was accosted outside of Safeway and finally succumbed to a box of Savannah Smiles which I think are like the old lemon coolers, though I can't promise because I've never bought the lemon cookies before.

 Pretty tasty though. Tart and lemony. So, consider yourself warned next time you go out to the grocery store.

My "not so funny" Valentine

When I got to work this morning I was surprised/frightened with a second Valentine from the Canadian;

He'd gone up to my work while I was gone in Sacramento and left this little token of love for me. Who wouldn't want that staring back at them everyday?

Gifts from Cupid

I spent a romantic Valentine's Day in Sacramento taking another of my planning certificate classes through UC Davis.

After getting back into town at 6:20 pm, I had just enough time to shovel a quick dinner in my face before heading off to singing practice at 7:00 pm. When I finally got home I got to enjoy my special Valentine's gift from Cupid;

Hot Booties! They're filled with some sort of rice-like material that you microwave until they're warm and toasty. Soooo cozy. For the Canadian, Cupid brought his favorite - sweet treats!

 Sierra Nevada beer brittle, Sierra Nevada Stout caramels, and assorted chocolates from JoyLyn's in P-town. I may have snuck a piece or two for myself....

Since my schedule was pretty full today, and because we hates crowds, we're waiting until this weekend to go for a Valentine's meal. We're thinking Crush downtown, where we went for my birthday two years ago. We'll make it an early-bird dinner during the 4 o'clock hour, like people our age do. Now, if we could only get our senior discount!

Bunko babes

Tonight was bunko at my house. I was all set for 12, but only 8 showed so we were able to dismantle a whole table setup which gave us much more wiggle room in my cozy abode. I baked a Papa Murphy's pizza and had a tray of jicama, snap peas and carrots with ranch dip for some pre-bunko eats for anyone who hadn't had dinner yet.

I spent this last weekend picking up gifts - a spring colored scarf, valentines themed kitchen towels, a valentine's candle, a decorative bottle, and a valentine's wall hanging. Plus I bought valentine's socks for each of the winners.

We were on fire tonight and had already rolled three rounds by 8:00 pm so we rolled a fourth round before calling it quits and settling in for some mini brownies and cream puffs for dessert. Just in time for the Canadian, who had sequestered himself to Barnes & Noble and Kohls, to get home and pick through our leftover treats. He didn't know what cream puffs were, but after one bite was hooked and continued to shovel them in his gullet.

Now I can cross "hosting the biggest shindig of the year" off my bucket list until next year!

Panama represent!

We walk by a house every day that has a flag pole in the front yard where the owner changes out the flag every week or so.

This week is Panama's turn, or as the Canadian said; "God bless Texas" since it's red, white and blue with a star.