May Jubilee

Little Black Ghost and Owl


Hi ya. It's been a little while so I felt compelled. In the last week or so, Heather has graduated with her Masters in English, Art has had a birthday (26!), Kim Nicolls Berry had her baby girl Sydney!, we went down to the river with dad, I found rose-flavored syrup at a Mediterranean grocery (it is worth mentioning!!!) and last night Art and I hogged out at the Red Hawk Casino Waterfall buffet. Plus yesterday we made this crazy trip to Folsom and Roseville via Salmon Falls Road, since we live pretty close to Coloma and Pilot Hill. It was an amazing drive with not another car on the road for miles despite it being 5pm and traffic probably abounding on all freeways in a 15 mile perimeter and the road felt like we were in another state or something, like the countryside of the midwest in the early 80's?. The road drops you off in El Dorado Hills and then we followed it into Folsom. The river was so so full I thought it was a lake! Then I realized we were at the Salmon Falls Bridge! The water is only like 15 or 20 feet below it! I can't wait to go back and swim there, it's so different than last year. I was on a mission to go to this place in Roseville called Total Wine and More to get Pliny The Elder. Let me tell you, if you think BevMo is cool, which I do, this place is like 10 times better! It's seriously beautiful in there, filled with tons of gadgets and pretty glasses and ice buckets and wines and spritzers and beers in singles and cold and cases and 6 packs, like- beers you cannot find ANYWHERE! Hence my trip there for Pliny. On the way home we cruised by Trader Joe's and I bought 2 packs of mango mochi which is my favorite summer dessert ever with only 100 cals and 3 grams of fat per mochi. I CAN'T UNDERSTAND why Raley's and other regular grocery stores aren't on the mochi ball yet!

About the Red Hawk Casino buffet. Perhaps you are thinking "gross" which I usually do about most buffet style places, for the most part. The thing is, I only eat fish and veggies and this place is wonderful for that. There is lots of vegetarian fare, which I am stoked about. Most notedly, they actually have lots and lots of different kinds of fresh steamed veggies like green beans and broccoli and asparagus and sqash, and they aren't sagging into a pool of greasy butter or oil, they are actually fresh and clean and steamed. They have an entire asian section with my favorite rice noodles and veggies (the little tiny rice stick noodles that are white) and they have veggie sushi and veggies and tofu. Plus they have really nice fish, and tempura sweet potato, and baked potatoes, mashed potatoes (which did look a bit too buttery) and the desserts are out of control! It's the biggest buffet I have ever seen. They have a complete gelato station. They have scores of little tiny fruit tarts and lemon tarts. And you can order any kind of soda with your meal plus have coffee after and seriously, the place is worth the money. It's 18 dollars, and thought that might sound like alot, when you think about what paying for a drink, dessert, salad (their salad bar is HUGE and beautiful!), plus a vegetarian meal...it would be at least 20 bucks.

The down side is we each played ten dollars on the way out and lost it in LESS than ten minutes. But oh well, we had Plinys to come home to!

Kimmy with her new baby girl!

Flowers at the bus stop.

Arth and Darin at the Brick Oven later that day.


Heather getting her golden ticket!

Afterwards, she's a professor-to-be!





Our tiny plinys last night!