HAPPY BIRTHDAY PATTY!

Good Morning Arizona!!  You have so kindly decided to be warm, just a couple days before I have to leave.  The timing was perfect for a birthday party.  No presents allowed, but I of course didn't follow the rules.  Every year when I go to Mexico, I bring back a bottle of Mexican vanilla for Patty.

So here we are with a plethora of cupcakes.  Take a guess.  Which ones did WE make?  In spite of the majority voting to BUY cupcakes at a bakery, Chef Patty wanted HER friends to have extra special dark chocolate cupcakes.

So which ones did we make?  

Like you can't tell, right?????  These are amazing ... and I'm determined at some point to try and make something that looks kinda sorta like these by Taylor Made Cakes.  

Oh yes ... you guessed right!!  Sadly, I had the tip, but nothing to hold it to the bag.  I can only say we laughed a lot as we were making these.  I was sure the chocolate kisses were leftover from Christmas.  It didn't help that the half and half we needed for the frosting, was badly spoiled, even though it had a pull day two days in the future.  If you buy from Walmart, always ALWAYS smell it before you use it.  

Mr. Chance saved the day by making another trip to Safeway.  I foresee some kind of cream soup in the near future since he bought a quart instead of a pint.  More laughter ensued.

And so here we are at Ranch del Lago Golf Course restaurant.  Gosh, we certainly should have gotten everyone together for a picture.  At least this time it wasn't just me that forgot.  

We had a menu to choose from, so I chose a Super Bird grilled turkey sandwich.  Here's half.  It was SO good, but even half was more than I should have eaten.  

Of course after lunch, we all had to have a cupcake.  Stuffed to the gills, we went back to the Chance household with their entire family.  I think this is the first time I've seen them all in one place, except for granddaughter Laila who was working in Florida.  

We pretty much went around the table and told "stories".  Here's mine.  Patty and I used to hit all the antique stores from home to the coast of California.  There we were, walking down the street near the ocean to the next store, when Patty says OOH OOH OOH!!!  She reached in her purse, whipped out her nursey scissors, ran up to the porch and started cutting chunks out of the pretty plants.  

WHAT ARE YOU DOING?  Oh ... I'm getting cuttings for my garden.  They won't mind ... people love it when you do that!  No ... no they don't Patty!!!  PUT THOSE SCISSORS AWAY!!  It was SO embarrassing!!  She did it every time we went somewhere.  Two weeks later she would show off the plants that were thriving in her greenhouse.  

What about the antiques?  We became very good at hiding them.  If one happened to be found by a husband, we quickly said PATTY BOUGHT IT FOR ME ... or NANCY BOUGHT IT FOR ME!!  Yeah, we never fooled anyone.

And so today I'm packed up and heading back to Quartzsite.  If the weather is good (it's supposed to be raining and snowing) I'll be heading off to try and make Tuesday Bingo.  If it's snowing over Tehachapi, I'll hang out there for a couple of days, which means a phone call to Bingo.  I also saw something ridiculous like it's going to rain but with 40 mph winds.  Nope ... not driving through that either.  

We are flying by the seat of our pants on a wait and see weather pattern.