Bits of my weekend: Vol. 31

5 06 2011

We’re starting to see our garden produce vegetables which is exciting.

I've never grown broccoli before and didn't really realize how many stalks could grow on one plant.

everyone had to take look.

We also went to the Culver City Art Walk.  This year’s experience was a little different.  We didn’t wander around like last time.

several people were interested in Al's fish sculptures

I really love how the single fish turned out. Al's brother did a great job.

Rhonda Voo had some "delicious displays"

do you think the members of KISS would like these?

Jeff used found objects to create this. The vaccum cleaner was rescued from a dumpster.

the end.

 


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Categories : Art, Family, weekend

Bits of my weekend: vol. 30

18 05 2011

This post was a bit delayed due to our lack of internet connection. It felt so strange to be without internet service for 4 days.

a really fun exhibit - a feast for the eyes: MOCA's Street Art

The exhibit actually started outside.

space invader

ouch

I particularly liked this pimped up “candy truck”

glittery and shiny

this reminded me of the "Union 76" balls from Dodger Park professing it's love for LA

he loves mom too

luckily our daughter is too young to recognize candy. or else she would have swiped some of the art

the artist

another crazy car

the interior

the inspiration for Shepard Ferry's "obey"

banksy

all the art was inspiring our own artist to be creative.


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Bits of my weekend: vol. 29

25 04 2011

The Marina is always filled with people enjoying the water.  This weekend was no different.

QT observed every seagull she saw

It's always great to see family. Ally's pops was in town to join us for Easter.

Our friend Bobby celebrated his 60th with a wonderful party and a spectactular cake.

His rock/wife, Barbara, threw another amazing party

The only problem with the photo is the other brother is behind the camera.

can't have an Easter celebration without a hunt for eggs

It was a great see family this weekend.


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Categories : Family, friends, weekend

Bits of my weekend: Vol. 27

22 11 2010

Most of my weekend was filled with organizing stuff for our upcoming trip to China.  But I managed to carve out 2 hours to trim cut down our overgrown lavender bushes.  I wouldn’t call them bushes anymore.  Maybe more like stubs?

Note the one in the foreground was even more straggly than the ones in the middle. And it has recovered nicely.


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Categories : weekend

Bits of my weekend: Vol 25

8 11 2010

My weekend actually began on Friday, because I took the day off.  I tried to accomplish a lot in one day.  The best part was having a girl’s luncheon with some of my friends who have adopted from China. Gwen and Kathy were eager to welcome me to the parenthood club and I learned quite a few things from them.  Click here for more thoughts on our journey to our daughter.

On Saturday, we took my niece Maddie to the Noah’s Ark Exhibit at the Skirball Center.  It’s a really fun interactive exhibit for young kids where all the animals are made out of recycled materials.

Maddie with a Zebra at "Noah's Ark" Exhibit

The "mane" is made out of brushes

Maddie played with the "vegetables" for over 30 minutes

Maddie played with the "vegetables" for over half an hour.

Too much vegetable play for Maddie

Sunday, I spent FIVE hours at the mall.  Pretty amazing for someone who doesn’t like to shop (I don’t count Target).  I accompanied a young lady (13 years) on a shopping spree.  We were granting her wish through the Make a Wish Foundation of Los Angeles.  We went through a lot of clothes and shoes and in the end, ran out of time to complete the shopping tour.  Never fear, she can go back to finish it with her family.

We closed out Sunday with a meal at a very traditional steakhouse in Westchester.  It’s an institution really.

It's probably been around since the 1960s. How do we know?

um, I think it's the photo of a very young Liberace and the owner on the wall that gives it away.

Thank you Steve and Hind for a great evening of laughter, friendship and food.


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Categories : Adoption, Family, friends, weekend

Bits of my weekend: Vol 24

31 10 2010

pumpkins 2010

Every year for the last 4 years, we’ve had a pumpkin carving party followed by dinner.  We’ve managed to pull it off, even when it’s been a week night.  But this year and last, it’s been on a weekend – so we get a head start.  Here are most of our entries.  And yes, the last one is a poser pumpkin – it’s a watermelon.  And yes, it won.  Great brains – the red interior was really necessary to pull it off.

Can you guess which Peanut's characters we are?

I made Al and my costume.  It was the first year we asked people to wear costumes.  And boy was I impressed with the everyone’s costume.

Which Alice & Wonderland characters are Sam & Thomas?

Jessica & Greg were a happy couple

Shelley and Joe picked their own favorite movie characters to represent

The shark after eating a bunch of candy

We offered some Halloween food:

Deviled Eggs

Mini Owl cupcakes with Mentos surrounded by "eyes"

vegan pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes

And we had a few healthy things to accompany the BBQ ribs:

Eggplant

Asparagus, Italian-style

The beer and I share the same name. Courtesy of Jess & Greg.

My favorite shot.  Just beautiful.  Shot by my husband, Al.

Fresh veggies with truffle salt

Another Halloween success.


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Categories : food, friends, weekend

Bits of my weekend: Vol 23

24 10 2010

A lot of my weekend was moving furniture from one room to another as we prepare to turn our tv room into my mother’s bedroom and turn my mother’s bedroom into a room for our daughter that we’re adopting from China.  That leaves a tv without a home.  So we’re moving that into the living room.  So three rooms in a disarray!

I know I love this little girl very much, because she will have a closet twice the size of mine.  Funny, the smallest person in our family will have the biggest closet.  Wondering how much a 2 year old can have?  I also launched another blog devoted to her, Quinn.  Click here to learn about Quinn.

We did take a nice break from moving and organizing on Sunday to go to the farmers’ market in Mar Vista.  We just love this place.  We met up with friends and the kids seemed to really enjoy their food.

Julien with a chocolate crepe.

Jake with remnants of PB&J

Avery teething

We accomplished so much this weekend, but it was great to just hang out and chat for a few hours.


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Bits of my weekend: Vol. 22

17 10 2010

 

A surprised Noi

 

It’s been a very gray and drizzly weekend here in So. California.  But we managed to make it to San Diego for the second weekend in a row to celebrate another family birthday.  This weekend it was our sister-in-law, Noi.  Al’s sister arranged for a surprise dinner party of just family.

It was nice just to hang out with everyone and chat for a bit.  Although we weren’t able to stay too long.  Cathy’s brother-in-law, Mark used to own a bakery and thus he is the designated birthday cake maker.  He did not disappoint with his beautiful cake with raspberries and strawberries covered with whipped cream and white chocolate.

 

Happy birthday Noi!

 

I decided to go through some old photos and stumbled upon my photos from my trip to France in 2001.  And decided I really need to scan my favorites and toss all the bad photos (this was in the day of film and there were a lot of bad photos).  It was actually an enjoyable afternoon. I thought I post a few highlights, because it pretty much rained the entire time we were in France so the weather reminded me of this weekend.

 

Notre Dame Gargoyles peering down onto Paris

 

 

Umbrellas abound at Le Louvre

 

 

 

My friend Liz and I hiked through Provence. It rained everyday at 3p.m.

 

 

We passed through Manadrom Shambhasalem. I thought we had stumbled into a Star Trek set.

 

 

It a holy town near Verdon Gorges and it celebrates all reglions. Note the Hindu and Christian references. There was a giant Buddha too.

 

Apparently the weather is going to continue being gray and dreary.  How easy it is to become accustom to sunny weather all the time.  We need this so that we can all appreciate what we have 90% of the time in Southern California.


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Categories : Family, Musings, weekend

Bits of my weekend: Vol. 20

3 10 2010

We had a packed weekend, but one of the highlights was test driving the Nissan Leaf.  Saturday was the second day that people were given an opportunity to test drive a leaf – and we (well I got to, Al was a passenger) drive it.

We started in a little obstacle course in the parking lot of the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium.  They wanted you to see how it handled sharp curves.  Maybe also to just gauge the test driver’s abilities.  Um, but I knocked over a cone and they still let me on the streets.  It was totally cool.  So cool, I forgot to take a photo of the whole car.  But you can go to the site for that.

truck is a little small, compared to our Prius

One of the charges they "suggest" you install in your garage

all 48 batteries

two different charging options

Solar panel on the back of the car will a get use in Southern California

Interior was similar to our Prius. This uses a joy stick for shifting out of park.

There were some cool features as part of the GPS.  You find your nearest charging station and the GPS will take you there.  It’ll show you the radius that you can travel with the amount of electricity left in the car before it needs to be charged.  The best feature was that the back up camera actually showed you lines to indicate where you’d end up if you keep the wheels at the angle they currently are at.  So you can see if you are crooked.

Ironically after dinner we watched the documentary:  Who killed the electric car?  I hope that Nissan never recalls all their electric cars because all the politician and gas companies are against it – like GM did in the 1990s.  Also, who knew that Jimmy Carter installed solar panels on the White House and Reagan had them removed?

Sunday we visited one of our favorite farmer’s market, Mar Vista Farmer’s Market.  We’re honest, we go there for the food.  Today we also went because it was the first day that Homeboy Bakery (a division of Homeboy Industries) was on site selling their yummy delights.  We walked away with four items.  All delicious.

Olive bread. Father G is looking over us.

At the end of the day, I helped set dress for Al’s photo shoot of a pumpkin in our backyard on the deck.  He carved Louise’s Trattoria‘s logo into the pumpkin.

Looks Martha Stewart Worthy!


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Categories : weekend

Bits of my weekend: Vol 19

26 09 2010

My weekend can be summed up by a little act (okay two) that happened Friday night.

  • Act 1 – our friend Bill brought over a piece of white truffle wrapped in a paper towel as a gift.  It would have looked more like a drug deal if it hadn’t happened in our kitchen. The cost of the white truffle: $1,600/pound
  • Act 2 - I threw the piece of paper towel away, thinking it was trash.  We had company for dinner and I was trying to be efficient.

Good news – I retrieved it after being asked where it was and realizing what I had done. But this became the neverending story of the weekend.  Kicked off by a post to Facebook by my dear husband, Al.

This little bit of a thing is probably worth a few hundred bucks

I got even luckier, because we got the entire Quattrocchi family together for a day in Dana Point.  And this story was shared multiple times.

The weather was great and in true Quattrocchi fashion we could have feed a third world nation with the amount of food we had.  Here are some of the highlights.

Al gets a birthday poster from the Sperrazzo kids

Noi, Kaydee, Kaylee & John

Kite flying skills were developed.

heads of the Q Clan

Bocce anyone?

Ally and me (two of the Q wives)



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