OK, So They Are Not Beautiful

But I LOVE my new keto everything bagels!

I used a modified fathead dough. The fathead pizza was so yummy, I had to try this. Fathead starts out with mainly shredded mozzarella, some cream cheese, some almond flour, some oat fiber, baking power, and an egg.

Yeah, yeah, I know: there's no poppy seeds in my "everything bagel." I just couldn't bring myself to buy that large bottle of poppy seeds -- I did for the sesame seeds because Mom likes them and I may try crackers later. Besides, poppy seeds get stuck in my teeth. (Not a good look for me.)

Yes, I also did some cooking ahead.

 These are my standard meatballs with ground up pork rinds replacing bread crumbs.

 These peanut butter cookies are wonderful! They are Kristie Honeycutt Sullivan's recipe and it uses Sukrin gold instead of brown sugar, natural peanut butter (no sugar, no nothing except peanuts) and maybe an egg. I don't remember because I made them a couple of days ago. But they go great with a cup of tea or coffee, especially when Mom is munching on store bought cookies.

We went to Manhattan of the Desert deli yesterday and took some time to gaze at the desserts. Each "portion" of a dessert, such as carrot cake would be plenty for four or five people. Honest. I looked at a napoleon and it was about 7 inches long. (Remember, I'm a quilter and I know what a 5 inch square looks like!)

I cooked more stuff including sausages and chicken two ways. I froze 2 portion packets of stuff so thawing is easier. But more pictures of that would be boring. I hope I have made you hungry for good food.

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Mom and I went to see/hear the live feed of La Boheme as staged by the Metropolitan Opera. I enjoyed it immensely. The singing was fantastic and I really need the captioning on the screen. I especially love watching the stage hands back stage. The interviewer asked the head honcho (see how great I am on names and titles?) how many people it took and he said there are about 100 people working back stage on the sets and lights. We saw one guy agonizing over putting pots of geraniums (gerania?) on holders on an outside wall. He took so long that Mom said, "How long does it take to place pots?!?"

It made me wonder if the stage hands get extra pay if they are on camera. But I guess they would have to be in the actors as well as the carpenters or whatever union. I was surprised at how many electricians there were (30 to 40). 

I also wondered how often they rehearse the set up and take down of the sets. It looked like everyone knew exactly what to do and they did it. The first and last act set was a two story jig saw puzzle and I was fascinated to watch that go together. Does someone in charge at the beginning say, "O.k., Bob, you will drive the 4 nails into the 8 widgets in Act I and Sam, you will slide the stairs into the top floor."? <-- I think this is an egregious punctuation error, but I am too lazy to look it up. After all, it is Sunday.

No, nobody's cell phone went off as in the concert with YoYo Ma and other famous musicians that Kate Flora heard. But the woman (who came in at the last minute) sitting next to Mom had such a terrible cough, we are both hoping that we don't get the plague. I guess that can't be helped, but I sure wish more people would wear a mask like they do in Asian countries.

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Mom had a brilliant idea and I am sewing up the sides of Daphne's quilt with invisible thread. I really didn't want to make binding (I don't think I have the right fabric with me), so this is a perfect solution. I'm making progress but I have to do most of the sewing in the daylight. It really is invisible thread! It's not easy to thread the needle!  

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Went for an afternoon walk with Mom in the 70 degree sunny weather.

 

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That's it for now. I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Birth of a Quilt

My landscape quilt teacher, Betzi Sylvan, is always exhorting her students to take pictures of a work in progress. I haven't really done that in her classes because it's all new to me and, for me, it's very fast.

When people ask, "How long did it take you to make that?" I really have no idea. I think about a project long before I make the first fabric cut. Then when I get to cutting and stitching, I "grow" the quilt. I could never be one of those quilters who make a block -- and then make 43 more just like it. It's ambiguous, but I liken it to a wood sculptor who says, 'I go with what the wood tells me.'

Yeah, we're a flaky lot. But here is a glimpse into a quilt I'm working on. I cut out the fabric over a couple of days. I made the strip blocks on one day. On another day (or two?) I sewed rows together. Today I have been putting on sashing (many people would call it a border).

 The colors aren't quite right here: the purple is darker. These are the blocks with purple sashing. Not all of it is attached because I wanted to see what should go with the purple.

 This really is a light blue with a pattern, but it 'reads' as almost white.

 This addition is more purple than is shown. I don't know why cameras have such a problem with purple. Anyway, I'm getting closer.

 Finally, I like this blue, but it still needs something. But right now it's time for a break. So while this may be boring to many of you, at least it keeps me out of bars!

[Speaking of which, we had a fabulous time playing trivia last night at the Ace Hotel with our hostess, Bella da Ball.]

Friday's Walk Slides into More Museum Shots

Happy Presidents' Day weekend! I used to really look forward to this Monday off ... now every day is a holiday. Mom and I just got back from a walk (it's sunny and in the high 70s).

 Cute red flowers.

 These geraniums, alyssum, and bougainvilea are at Sunrise East (across the street from Mom's complex).

 They are a gated community (Mom's is not). The car has already gone through which is why the gate is closing and nobody's around. As Mom says, "Gates are a pain." We saw one car that had to let the gate close completely before it would open again to admit him.

Yes, you have seen this before -- it's a riot of color and in Mom's complex.

We walked up Mesquite (above). You can see the difference in the grass from what the city takes care of and what the homeowners pay for (on the right). I don't know if you can see the brown tree branches on the far left. There is some kind of tree virus that is doing a number on the trees. I hope something will stop it.

And ... I never posted all of the pictures that I took at the Palm Springs Museum. So here they are. Talk amonst yourselves.

 There is a "Modernism" wave going on here.

 Clint Eastwood bronze sculpture by George Montgomery (western actor).


Another favorite of mine (below).

About Monty and Modernism.





 Restoration!

 It's a working Panasonic TV!

And ... I made some potholders for a birthday present.

Still working on "Monet's Garden."

Have a great day! Be kind to yourself. I'm going to rustle up some lunch now ...

So, You Wanna Go to Vegas?

[Exactly 7 days ago, we began this journey.]

We decided to visit Uncle Harold who lives in Las Vegas. He showed us his beautiful house and took us out for a fabulous Italian dinner. That was the first day and after dinner we did a little gambling and went to bed. Of course, I did not win anything, but I did enjoy the new Game of Thrones slot machine. They have used Peter Dinklage's voice (I wonder what they get paid for that) and sometimes the dragons come out. Yay!

We knew that we were very close to Vegas when we saw these highway sculptures.

 Can you see the mountain design on the bridge? After this point, each bridge had a different design and they were very pretty to look at. I especially liked the one with flying eagles. This was Route 15 that goes right into Las Vegas.

All of these sculptures are rusted metal and they have big slits in them (so the wind can blow through) and they appear to be solid but they are not.

We stayed at the Flamingo. On the back of the bathroom door (really) there is a "postcard" from Bugsy Siegel to his girlfriend in Palm Springs and vintage newspaper clippings. He started the Flamingo in the 30s with the help of the mob -- who later killed him. But at that time, there was nothing in Las Vegas except desert and the Flamingo was the first casino hotel.

The hotel room was a disappointment in many ways (the phone was broken, etc.) but the worst was -- the beds! They were so high, I even had trouble getting onto the mattress. I did enjoy, however, seeing Mom get a running start and taking a flying leap onto the bed. Seriously, though, had she been in a wheel chair, there is no way that she could have accessed the bed. We had asked for a handicapped accessible room and there was a roll-in shower, but that was the extent of the accommodations. 

 

View from our hotel window

Walking along the hotel corridor -- which is VERY long -- there are many shops. I could have taken many pictures including Sweets which had so much candy that the air outside of the shop smelled like SUGAR! But I limited myself to bling that caught my eye.

 

 I really liked these purses.


In between each regular shop, there would be a nook with an attractive young person standing outside of the door. "Hello, Gorgeous!" one young woman called to me. She was trying to give me a free sample and sell me $300 collagen cream. This was repeated many times as you walk along the "shopping" corridor of any hotel. Also, there is constant loud music blaring (inside and out). Needless to say, all of my sensibilities were assaulted constantly. 

By the time we were at breakfast on our departure day (Friday), I was stuffing paper napkin in my ears because the noise had jangled me so much. I am amazed that I didn't get a sinus infection, because there are clouds of cigarette smoke practically everywhere. I didn't know so many people still smoked!

 Originally, I thought my friend Sue might like the glittery boots above. But the ones below might be more practical with the ice cover.

And how about these men's jackets fit for The King?

The Flamingo had a nice decorative pool with these residents below.

It's hard to see the brown headed ducks, but they seemed happy.

 So then we hopped on the monorail ...

 

View from the monorail walkway

We actually had to walk A LOT. You couldn't just go across the street. Everything was up, down, up, down. And since Mom had her walker, the ramps doubled our number of steps. We figure we walked six miles in one day! But our first stop was at the Bellagio.

 

View from the Monorail

 

Street Scene

Above is actually the exit to the underground Bellagio parking garage. It's very steep and when it was busy, people were backed up in line waiting to get out. Not a good thing IMHO.

 

Bellagio lobby and front desk

 Bellagio lobby ceiling. Glass flowers by Chihuly.

 

Close up of ceiling

 Above and below are lobby statuary.

Then it was off to the Conservatory at the Bellagio where they went to great lengths to wish everyone a happy Chinese New Year.

The happy children are covered in flowers. The shooting waters in front of the bridge is colored but it didn't show in the picture. It's the Year of the Dog.

 

The bridge is 26 feet long by 18 feet wide.

 

This huskie is huge and his tail wags.

 The koi were also very big.

 

Lovely fountain 

It was just as pretty outside.

 

I thought these glass "candles" outside were really neat.


Then we went to Paris. We actually got lost in Paris and walked and walked and walked ... we texted Deb but she couldn't figure out what we meant when we said we needed help getting out of Paris.

 We hustled off to situate ourselves for the dancing fountains in front of the Bellagio.
From Wikipedia:
The fountains are set in a 8-acre (3.2 ha) manmade lake. Contrary to urban myth, the lake is not filled with treated greywater from the hotel. The lake is actually serviced by a freshwater well that was drilled decades prior to irrigate a golf course that previously existed on the site. The fountains actually use less water than irrigating the golf course did.^[10] They incorporate a network of pipes with more than 1,200 nozzles that make it possible to stage fountain displays coordinated with more than 4,500 lights. It is estimated that the fountains cost $40 million to build. The fountains were created by WET, a design firm specializing in inventive fountains and architectural water features.^[11]
Four types of nozzles are used for the various effects:

• 208 Oarsmen – jets with a full range of spherical motion
• 798 Shooters – shoot water upwards
• 192 Super Shooters – send a water blast as high as 240 ft (73 m) in the air.
• 16 Extreme Shooters – send a water blast as high as 460 ft (140 m) (added in 2005)

This fountain was the largest fountain in the world when it first opened but then surpassed by Dubai Bay fountain and Okada Manila in 2010 and 2017 respectively.

Dusk after the fountains.

 We did manage to do some gambling. I lost my $100, but it was fun playing the new Game of Thrones slot machine. If you "won" something, the chair moved accompanied by a rumbling roar of the dragons. Woo hoo.

Then it was time to go home. Mom started the driving, so I snapped a few shots out of the car window. (She had taken the horse sculpture photos because I was driving then.)

 There is lots of building going on in the outskirts.

 

We figured this is an energy farm. Those two oblongs of white are VERY bright lights and below them are low-lying solar panels.

They actually are looking for fruit here. You can't bring any fruit into California. (A jailhouse converstation: What are you in for? Fruit.) We were waved through, luckily, because the traffic was fairly heavy at this point.

And that's our fun trip. I now know that I never have to go to Las Vegas again and I cannot tolerate more than two days of Vegas!

Cheers!