Not Just Any Old Rainy Day

It was last Saturday morning when the rain fell intermittently.

We had a big day ahead of us.

Lemon cupcakes filled with lemon curd

I woke up early to bake cupcakes.

I knew we had a noon appointment with our tax accountant across town. That evening we were invited to dinner at my brother's home for a family get together with an old childhood friend. I was bringing the dessert so instead of coming back home after the noon meeting we decided we would kill some hours doing random things on that side of town before dinner time. Everything was going according to plans I thought until we arrived at the Tax man's office at 11:45 (15 min. early) and the receptionist told my husband, "oh yes, we wondered where you were your appt. was scheduled for 11:00!" This was totally my fault. I had it on my calendar with the right time and throughout the week my husband asked me several times about the hour and I kept thinking noon. All I could offer to my husband was, "Well at least I got the day right!" The office was very nice and said they would see us at 12:30. Whew.

This joke seems appropriate:






"Late Again"


Johnny Jones came into the office an hour late for the third time in one week and found the boss waiting for him. "What's the story this time,Jones?" he asked sarcastically.


"Let's hear a good excuse for a change."





Jones sighed, "Everything went wrong this morning, boss. The wife decidedto drive me to the train station. She got ready in ten minutes, but then the drawbridge got stuck.


Rather than let you down, I swam across the river.


Look, my suit is still damp. Then I ran out to the airport, got a ride


on Mr. Thompson's helicopter, landed on top of Radio City Music Hall,


and was carried here piggyback by one of the Rockettes."





"You'll have to do better than that, Jones," said the boss, obviously disappointed.


"No woman can get ready in ten minutes."






So it was lunch time after our meeting and we had hours to kill before meeting up with my family. Thus our not just another saturday adventure began...
We have passed by the famous pastrami place called "The Hat" for years. There are several locations in southern California but the original is in Alhambra. I will do a separate post of this place. So we decided we should finally try this place. The traffic was bustling on this busy corner of Garfield and Valley blvds.

Here's the popular pastrami sandwich with pickles and mustard.

After lunch we headed to the historic Mission area of South Pasadena. I have a soft spot in my heart for this area because it's where Mat and Athena had their apartment. We drove around and the rain started to fall intermittently.

We parked the car by Kaldi the coffee shop in the brick building on the corner.

Such familiar sites.

We walked to the South Pasadena library

Since we had no time limit we went inside and spent some time browsing and reading books and magazines. I love libraries.

Then,

We headed to the Pasadena Museum of History. Driving to the museum we were on Orange Grove Avenue. It's a beautiful wide street with some lovely mansions. The home of the world famous "Rose Parade" route along this street.

I wanted to show this museum and the grounds to my husband because our daughter Athena had worked there last summer coordinating art workshops for children.

The gift shop was open and fun to browse.

The main mansion is closed for renovation so there were no tours available.

Still we were able to walk the beautiful grounds.

The Museum's historic structures also include the Curtin House, a gracious French-style residence designed in 1915 by Sylvanus Marston, and the Finnish Folk Art Museum, a building designed by Frederick Roehrig and adapted by Consul Paloheimo for use as a sauna/guest house.

Here is the rear view of the Finnish Folk Museum on the property.

After a leisure look around it was time to go to my brothers house for the dinner get together.

My sister in law Barb always serves alot of delicious food.

We had sushi....mmmm delicious!

Whole baked salmon

Japanese picked cucumbers and cold tofu with green onions. Reminds me of meals with my grandma.

Marinated steak and chicken too and hot rice with kim chee (a spicy picked Korean cabbage).

We had a lot of time to catch up with our childhood friend Danny K. He had so many memories of the old neighborhood, boy scouting with my brother (his dad was the troop master), lots of laughs about my mom and dad and grandma whom he really loved. It was nice to hear him talk about his memories of my family. It made all my loved ones who have passed on seem so real again. Childhood friends are special.

Oooh and then we ate the lemon cupcakes. A nice way to end a not very ordinary Saturday.

"The best things in life come in threes, like friends, dreams and memories."