Home, Sweet Home – and Garden Show

I went to the Home and Garden Show on Saturday, looking for some information and inspiration, and I found a little bit of both.  I
–  learned a lot about the names, prices and grades of hardscape materials;
– found an alternative to pink panther style insulation (being installed later this month; I work fast!);
– bought some Chili y Limòn roasted almonds from The Nutty Gourmet from over in Arbuckle; 
– located a bathtub refinisher;
– had a lengthy discussion with Keith Buttacavoli about bathroom window options;
– checked in with Rahma and Victor Krambo at the All Electric stand to see if solar sales were sunny;
– said “Hi” to Vanessa Helder, whose Julia Morgan-designed photography studio I toured for tile ideas;
– got an application for the Sutter Buttes Garden Club for my mother (their annual Plant Sale is Saturday, April 19 and their annual Garden Tour is on May 3);
– had a tri-tip sandwich for lunch;
– watched that pots and pans guy sell, well, pots and pans, in his 25-seat “theatre”;
– had my post-surgical right meniscus electrically stimulated by some acu-contraption and
– picked up the spring catalogs from Pampered Chef and Tupperware.
I just unpacked some of my own Tupperware yesterday; I got some of these pieces from my mother when I moved into my own place about a thousand years ago.  I think some of them were from when I was a kid, when Mom was a Tupperware party-giver.  I guess I am a Tupperware purist; I go for the pale pastels of the ’50s, and find the square units stack best. But they have this new line of cheery cherry red stuff and since my new kitchen is black and white with red accents, it was very tempting. I may have to call Lori Texeira and see when her next demo is. 

Big thrill:  I pulled a purple egg at the Pooh Dooty stand and won $50 worth of services.  Sandy and Glenn Diggs were kind enough to let me keep the prize, even though Jet and I are already loyal customers. 

Finally, I went over to chat with the rep from Costco to tell her how many of us here are waiting for Costco to show up with a nice big store for us.  She said someone at the show told *her* that a Yuba-Sutter location was on the drawing board, but she had no official word from HQ about it.  Come on, guys! 

I ended up my day at the Fairgrounds with a purchase of some beef jerky from Tuff Stuff Jerky over in Browns Valley. I was tempted by the chipotle flavor but went with the peppered teriyaki.  Their website gave me a chuckle — the homepage includes an invitation to the public to stop by for the “famous 90-second tour off our establishment.” 

We have the most amazing food things being grown and made around here.  I think Yuba-Sutter is ripe for big-time agritourism and I love the Chamber of Commerce’s guide to local ag places.  Placer County next door has leveraged their agricultural attributes to great effect; we should do the same.

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Donner, Party of Three.

I hear there is a new drama playing around town and it’s by request only. It’s a one-hour historical set piece, performed by three Yuba County residents who have taken on the task of portraying the three Murphy sisters — Sarah, Harriet and our very own Mary — who crossed into California one fateful winter over what is now known as the Donner Pass. They settled in for a while in what is now Marysville, re-named after Mary married Mr. Covillaud and he became mayor. Apparently political office came with naming rights in those days, or maybe it was because he owned most of the land!  So that is why we don’t today live in a place called Cordua Ranch or Featherriverville.  The current Murphy Sisters, who made their first general public appearance during the recent Bok Kai parade (they were in the prairie schooner), are played by a trio of history buffs:  Sarah, the eldest, by Kathy Sedler, president of YubaRoots; Harriet, the middle sister, by Sue Cejner-Moyers, president of the Friends for the Preservation of Yuba County History, and Meriam (a.k.a Mary), the youngest, by Karen Compton, who organized the wonderful Golden Days of Marysville festival earlier this year. 

The Murphy Sisters (or rather their 21st-century stand-ins) are available for living history performances. For more information, email “Harriet,” er, Sue.   

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Free for All(ium).

Anybody need any onions?  I made the ultimate impulse purchase at the Cash & Carry the other day. I went in to get some of those paper napkins you put in a dispenser like they have in a diner. (I had found a very cool Jade-ite green plastic one from the 40s or 50s in a thrift shop. Martha Stewart must have missed that one.)  I came out with a bundle of napkins and a 50-pound bag of onions.  Hey, I could not resist: it was only four (yes, 4) bucks.  For the onions, not the napkins. They were even cheaper. So now I am handing them out (the onions, not the napkins) to friends and neighbors (as well as friends who also are neighbors). And I am getting ready to make Marysville’s largest-ever vat of onion soup, some Swiss onion pies, roasted onions and root vegetables and then I’ll chop up some to freeze.  All onion recipes welcome, provided they call for at least 5 large yellow ones.

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Free for All(ium).

Anybody need any onions?  I made the ultimate impulse purchase at the Cash & Carry the other day. I went in to get some of those paper napkins you put in a dispenser like they have in a diner. (I had found a very cool Jade-ite green plastic one from the 40s or 50s in a thrift shop. Martha Stewart must have missed that one.)  I came out with a bundle of napkins and a 50-pound bag of onions.  Hey, I could not resist: it was only four (yes, 4) bucks.  For the onions, not the napkins. They were even cheaper. So now I am handing them out (the onions, not the napkins) to friends and neighbors (as well as friends who also are neighbors). And I am getting ready to make Marysville’s largest-ever vat of onion soup, some Swiss onion pies, roasted onions and root vegetables and then I’ll chop up some to freeze.  All onion recipes welcome, provided they call for at least 5 large yellow ones.

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Here, There and Everywhere.

Is this cool or what?  I wrote a post yesterday about The Beatles, and when I clicked over to my blog just now, there was a HUGE picture of the Fab Four in the right hand column, a keyword-generated ad for Beatles ringtones.  I love Google !!  See if it worked for you, too.  Look over to the right. See any Beatles?  John? Paul? George? Ringo?  Note how I am using Beatles keywords in order to drive up the relevance score.  How am I doing?  Go ahead, hit refresh and see if you get a Beatles photo.  Again.  Again.  Thanks, I need the clicks!! 

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Here, There and Everywhere.

Is this cool or what?  I wrote a post yesterday about The Beatles, and when I clicked over to my blog just now, there was a HUGE picture of the Fab Four in the right hand column, a keyword-generated ad for Beatles ringtones.  I love Google !!  See if it worked for you, too.  Look over to the right. See any Beatles?  John? Paul? George? Ringo?  Note how I am using Beatles keywords in order to drive up the relevance score.  How am I doing?  Go ahead, hit refresh and see if you get a Beatles photo.  Again.  Again.  Thanks, I need the clicks!! 

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I read the news today. Oh boy.

[Disclaimer: This post has absolutely nothing to do with Marysville except that I am betting there are a few Beatles fans in town to whom this might be a compelling topic.] 

I just read about the death of “the Fifth Beatle,” Neil Aspinall.  Sorry to hear he is gone, but…who? He was the Fifth Beatle??  Then what about the 2006 headline, “Fifth Beatle Billy Preston dies” or the ongoing career of “Fifth Beatle” Sir George Martin (record-producing Beatle pianist still alive and kicking at 82), or Beatles discoverer/manager Brian Epstein, the “Fifth Beatle” who died in 1967? (For the record, Paul, and he oughta know, said if anyone was the Fifth Beatle, it would have been Brian.) Then again, considering that Pete Best was the band’s original drummer, that would make Ringo the actual Fifth Beatle (he joined them only in 1962). I won’t even go into how Ringo could actually be considered the sixth Beatle since there was that original fifth band member, Stu Sutcliffe, who stayed behind in Hamburg when the boys went back to Liverpool. (Paul just switched from lead to bass, and then there were four.) Wait, I have all this Beatles trivia stuffed in my head, accumulating since I first saw them on the Ed Sullivan Show  and, yes, went to their concert at Shea Stadium (with, I can now admit, my mom).   Maybe *I* am the Fifth Beatle.  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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The Dog’s Dinner

Fundraising chairman Dan Rosaschi gave me the tally for the take from the Paws-ta dinner in support of the new Off the Leash dog park:  $2,245 !!   The dinner was delicious, thanks in part to incredible brownies for dessert and the fact that the pasta sauce didn’t come out of a can; it was donated by the Dancing Tomato Caffé.   Petco came through with coupons and dog treats for table favors, and Miss Charlotte’s donated several gorgeous gift baskets for the drawing.  Grrrrrazie!  The next fundraiser is coming up soon: a rummage sale. Date to be advised, but save that stuff (non-clothing) you don’t need anymore and donate it to the doggies. For more info, email yubasutterdogpark@yahoo.com.

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This weekend? It was da’ Bomb (Day)

I have to get a bigger calendar.  There are so many events and goings-on around town that I want to experience, and that’s just what’s printed in the A-D!  Friday I played hooky for half a day and went to JoAnn (or is it Joann?) to buy a small piece of red and gold Chinese brocade. My intention was to make a bandana for Jet to wear to the Bok Kai festivities. (When I put it on him Saturday he was indignant and I agreed he looked too much the dandy, so we decided his red harness would be enough of an homage.)  Back to Friday, I went to Joann (or is it JoAnn?) with Kathy Sedler, the genealogy whiz whose YubaRoots website is a primo source of historical records for our county. She was looking for some 1850-ish fabric to add aother dress to the wardrobe of Sarah Murphy Foster, the sister of Mary, after whom our town is named.  Then I went with her to Michaels (or is it Michael’s?) to look for an old-fashioned dip pen with which she would be writing her letters back home from the trail west.  (More on these living history bits later.)   From there, we went to Red Robin for lunch and then could not resist a quick stop at the Goodwill.  Scored a valance made of the same material as a set of sheets I got there the week before.  (I will delve into thrifts in a later post, and in the meantime welcome all suggestions for where to go.) 

Back at the house, it was a quick change of clothes and then a walk over to the First United Methodist for the annual spaghetti dinner and Pie Auction.  A lemon meringue garnered the top bid of $55.  I was outbid on a pecan and a cinnamon coffee cake, (I note that there are a lot of spaghetti dinners scheduled; I guess this is the preferred menu for fundraisers around here.  Speaking of which, don’t forget the upcoming Paws-ta dinner – $15 for grown-ups – to raise $ for the new off-leash dog park. See earlier post for details.)   

Saturday, I was up early to run over to the rummage sale at the Senior Center on 14th Street, then doubled back to St. John’s Episcopal for the second day of their book sale.  I have stacks and stacks of boxed books crowding my dining room right now, but, hey, I found a few more I could not live without.  Best find was a 1950s era pamphlet with 500 snack recipes, profusely illustrated.  The pamphlet, not the snacks.  I’ll find a good one to share (but it will not be the first one I happened to flip to: Balls on Sticks.) 

By then the crowds were gathering for the Bok Kai parade and I got home just in time to snag the last remaining parking space in front of my own house.   At 10:30 Jet and I headed off, equipped with camera, dog treats and a plastic bag (just in case).  We went down to D and 5th to find a good vantage point; Jet trotted along unphased by the crowds or even the horses.  The Chinese cymbals gave him a start, but the firecrackers are what did him in.  Poor little guy was huddled up against a store window waiting for it to all go away.   (Needless to say, I cancelled plans to take him to Sunday’s Bomb Day events.)  Favorite floats?  The Murphy Sisters’ prairie schooner, all the marching bands and Shriners, Shriners, Shriners!  Shriners on go-karts, Shriners on trucks, Shriners in vintage cars, Shriners on big long bikes, Shriners on foot.  (But what was with the gurney and the fake baby?  I know about and applaud the Shriners‘ good deeds to help sick children, but, may I say, that was a little creepy.)

After the parade tailed off, we trotted on down to the street fair area and stopped at the Bok Kai Association’s table for some info.  More on that later.  After a refreshing frozen lemonade slushie for me and some ice cubes for Jet, we walked back to The Brick and had lunch on the patio, from which vantage point we could watch the tail end (literally) of the great dragon being walked back up D Street to its lair.  Then we walked back to the house and I went over to the Arts center for the 3:30 pm performance of the Grant Avenue Follies, straight from San Francisco.  Highlight:  a hula routine danced to Tiny Bubbles while a troupe member went through the auditorium cranking out bubbles from a kid’s bubble maker.  Can’t decide if it was supposed to be post-modern ironic or just good fun. Fun, it was.  Once again, the audience was pretty sparse.  Where are all you people when there are free cultural events being offered?  Maybe at a spaghetti dinner.   To finish the day’s celebrations in appropriate fashion, we were invited for take-out from China Moon at the Sedlers.  Jet again declined to wear his late-Qing Dynasty bandana, thematic continuity be damned.  He did start to beg for a bit of eggroll, but I think he was holding out for a Ball on a Stick.   

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Please slow for the Bone Zone

Did you see the crazy woman running around in the middle of E street flailing her arms during lunchtime yesterday? Well, yes, that would have been me.  One of the folks working on my house did not shut the front door tightly; it blew wide open and Jet blew right out.  This dog of mine (part Border Collie, part we’re-not-quite-sure-but-maybe-some-kinda-Spaniel) has a Need for Speed.   Anyway, there we were, running down and around E street, me trying to magically stop tanker trucks with an upraised hand, Jet prancing happily in circles smack in the middle of Highway 70 (both directions).  “Wow!  What a fun game,” he was thinking. “Wow! I may be having a stroke,” I was thinking. Neighbor Paul joined the chase as Jet whizzed by the Sedler yard, and he was the one who eventually tackled him for the rescue.  Here’s another example of why I love Marysville:  not only did my neighbor help in the hunt, so did strangers all along the zigzagging trail, past the Arts Council, across E, through the B of A parking lot, over near the Burger King, off to 7th and D and back again to E.   Motorists stopped and flagged off other cars; some drivers even tried to coax Jet over to their side.  Nobody honked, yelled or gave us any partially-fingered salutes.  Jet’s safe (and tethered to my ankle right now while others are in the house), and I’ve almost recovered. I hope there is a HUGE turnout for next week’s “Paws-ta Feed” fundraiser for the new Yuba-Sutter off-leash dog park.  (15 bucks; call 631-1287 for tickets today!)  My pup needs room to race around and I don’t want to be causing any more traffic jams. 

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