Ladies & Gentlemen, Cher!

Even though I am totally peeing my pants to see Kylie not once, but TWICE this weekend, I have to pause and give credit to another diva:

CHER TURNS 65 TODAY.

It's a dog's life

We've been going out to Palm Springs a fair bit. Cooper seems to be really getting in to the spirit of the place.
Now if you've met Mr Cooper, you'd be asking yourself, "How on Earth did they get him so relaxed? And on a pool float?!"

The answer is multifaceted. Lyle takes him roller-blading and wears him out. Cooper loves the sun and wants to be in it. He also loves to be spoiled and will only lie on a soft surface. So it was pretty easy to get him tired and laying on a pool float. As for getting him on the water.... uh, that took photoshop.

COOPER WOULD NEVER GO IN THE WATER. So I just cut him out and placed him there.

Summer is coming...

Last fall we received a postcard from the restaurant Roy's. There are a dew of them around, and this one came from our local Los Angeles outpost. It had their recipe for Roy's Classic Hawaiian Martini. And sure enough, we started to salivate over the idea of having one.

We went to the Roy's in Palm Desert last weekend and finally scored a Hawaiian martini and we got to thinking, "Hey, we've got this recipe and we could be drinking these all summer..." Off to the store we went.

Lining up the supplies.

Roy's Classic Hawaiian Martini:
1 ripe pineapple
2 cups vodka (they suggested Sky, we used Grey Goose, because we had a Costco sized bottle of that)
1 cup Malibu Coconut Rum
1 cup Stoli Vanil vodka
2 oz simple syrup

Slice the top and bottom off of a fresh pineapple, slice off the outer peel, cut pineapple flesh into 1 inch (or so) squares. Place in one gallon container.

Blend vodkas, Malibu rum, leftover pineapple juice and simple syrup together.

Pour alcohol mixture over cut up pineapple. Let stand at room temperature for at least FIVE DAYS.

When you are ready to serve, pour 4 ounces of the martini mixture into a shaker, shake, then strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with fresh sliced pineapple.

We were worried that the recipe says it only makes drinks for 6.
So we tripled the recipe.

Can't wait for summer to begin!

Dog Gone

Mr Cooper says car rides are BORING. But he still wants to go.

Visitors from the North!

I know I've not been here very often. I am out leading a very full life. And by full life I mean keeping up with my recorded tv shows on Tivo and sleeping. I'm kidding. I've been busy working and after work, I just can't seem to sit down and write more on the computer. Maybe I need a new chair?

Well, a few weeks ago I did manage to stop working and have some fun. Lyle and I were honored to host five women with whom he went to high school, at our little castle in Los Angeles. I call it a little castle because though we were able to handle all five plus ourselves, I did have to break down and place one person on a pull out bed in the living room.

This group of friends gets together often and it is such a pleasure to see them all together. Like a general massing troops across the border, a well thought out plan of attack was hatched. One woman would fly in from Eastern BC via Spokane, arriving at 2:30 in terminal 2 at LAX. Three women from Alberta would converge in Calgary and fly together to LAX arriving at 3:00. I would drive to LAX and collect them all to bring them home. (One more would arrive the next day due to work constraints). It was all so simple. What could go wrong?

Well, It could snow in Alberta.

Suddenly all the plans flew out the door and everyone was sent scrambling to make new connections from old missed connections. One of our dear friends left her house at 7 am and didn't arrive at our until 10 pm.

But that was soon all smoothed over with cocktails and plenty of chatter. And the next day we woke up to sunny skies and big plans! We were going shopping! In the afternoon, we pretended to have culture and went to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

At the entrance to the Museum in front of Chris Burden's "Urban Light" sculpture.

Everyone gets into the spirit of contemporary art.

As we wandered through the museum I was commenting on how I find Picasso's art to be very disturbing. I fell back to the "gut level" reaction to art. I just don't like Picasso's paintings in my gut. I don't think they're bad, they just make me feel icky. Then I turned and saw a painting a really liked. I snapped a photo of it and then went up to see who the painter is.

Of course it is a Matisse.

That night we headed out to Marix a local West Hollywood restaurant that serves Tex/Mex food and strong margaritas. As a bonus, the roof over Marix is retractable and on a nice night you are basically sitting outside. When you think about where these women just left (remember, it was SNOWING) sitting outside would be quite a treat.

We are just beginning margarita madness.

Lyle and his bevy of beauties.

Our friend Dan joined us and brought his brother, Kees, who was visiting from Holland.

The queso fundido was stringy and delicious.

Post dinner, post margarita madness, and we were all headed home to sleep for tomorrow's festivities.

The next morning.
Who wakes up looking this good?

And we were off to Santa Monica for more shopping!

After a grueling day, some are happy shoppers...

... some are just tired.

Saturday night arrived and we were ready to get our groove on. We got all dolled up and headed out to Cherry Pop in West Hollywood.

I know you won't believe it, but we were all in the mood to have a good time.

Note the "reserved" sign for our table. Lyle said it was the only way to get him out.

Our friend Tony joined us for the evening.

He likes to be entertaining as well.

The ladies on the dance floor.

And this is my FAVORITE picture of Angie!

All too soon the weekend was over. Three ladies packed up and left in shifts the next day. The following day our final two guests left. It was a let down. My house was TOO QUIET. But I reminded myself that one weekend with 5 gorgeous women is better than no weekend with 5 gorgeous women.

Lyle and I were talking that night after everyone had left, "You have such nice friends," I said to him. "WE have such nice friends," Lyle corrected me. And I felt all cozy inside.