What happened to January

It's been a busy month. We had the local wedding reception on Jan. 16, with 65 people. It was a wonderful event.

We took up the entire wine bar and they served a wonderful hors d'oeuvres and luncheon buffet with a choice of 3 wines. The cake had fresh alstromeria flowers and artificial grapes on it. I searched for real, fresh champagne grapes, but couldn't find them anywhere. The baker added fresh ivy to the artificial grapes and they looked real. We also had a guitar player who played and sang classic rock songs. He was a big hit. We had personalized napkins and wine corks and the wine bottle/grapes/ribbons centerpieces that I made. Pictures will be posted another time. My friend is a professional photographer so I didn't even bring my camera. Some of Mr. Puffy's relatives came from the East coast and the local relatives who we never see, came too. It was a nice family reunion. My friend, the photographer, made a nice guest book for people to sign, using the wedding photos.

We had 6 extra house guests. THEY'RE GONE!! What a lot of work that was! I'm very glad to have my "alone" time again, although it was nice to beome better acquainted with my sister-in-law from Northern California again.

Tonight we went out to a restaurant called Cafe Bizou with our "anniversary club." We have 6 couples who all have wedding anniversaries in December. Every January, after the holidays, we all go out to dinner together. This place had a special "prix fix" menu (3 courses for $26)and we could bring our own wine. Corkage was $2 a bottle! So the total "bar" bill was $12!

Tomorrow Mr. Puffy and I will get our Yellow Fever shots and a prescription for Malaria pills. Sounds like we'll have a fun vacation, doesn't it? A couple of weeks ago, we were in Costco and they had the H1N1 vaccinations. There was no line, our insurance covered the entire amount, so we got the shots.

Next weekend, we're going to the Magic Castle in Hollywood with 3 couples. It'll be soooo much fun! It's a private club for magicians and their guests. Along with a great dinner, magic is performed in various rooms of the Castle. I haven't been in years and can hardly wait!

Before and After Photos

The kitchen project is finished! They demolished the tile countertops and installed the double ovens one day. Two days later, they installed the granite countertops, the pull-out drawers, the sink and the cooktop. Since we had extra granite, we had our wet bar in the family room redone, too. Then it took us 2 more days to line the new pull-out drawers and put away everything. We did some rearranging and lots of donating of kitchen ware. I love the new shelf liners. They're so much better than the old contact paper. We have a temporary faucet because the new non-lead faucet won't be available until January 23.



The old brown formica top in the wet bar:






The new look of our bar area:


The kitchen:



The sink is made of a material called "silgranite." It's granite and silicone. It won't show chips.






See the little push-button thing to the left of the plant? It's an air switch that turns the garbage disposal on and off. Yay! Now I won't have to lean waaaaayyyy over to the wall switch to turn it on and off! What a life...talk about being spoiled!