Last Weekend of May

And now we head into June. Summertime in Santa Barbara. June Gloom. Solstice Parade and all the fun that goes along with that.

May was a crazy month, what with starting a new job, dealing with the Jesusita Fire (yours truly drove around for three days with a packed car, "just in case") and my Best-Kept-Secrets event.

The Jesusita Fire - very huge, very scary. But for the courage of our first responders, this lovely town would be horribly devasted. But those brave folks, many from all over the state, fought hard and long. The Santa Barbara Botanic Garden was a battleground - we lost a chunk of it, but a great deal of it was saved. We lost nearly 80 homes, but many more were saved. And although three firefighters (from Ventura, actually) were injured, no residents were harmed (unlike the huge Tea Fire last November).

Here's a photo of the huge smoke plume on Wed, May 6th - the second day of the fire:

That Wednesday, May 6th, was also the date of the Best-Kept-Secrets Author Tea. Honestly, it was a great afternoon, despite the fact that the lights went out, right as the panel discussion began. And we all watched, over the heads of the authors, the wind pick up and blow up State Street with great ferocity. And it was exactly 100 degrees that afternoon.

But still - the authors were delightful, the food was fabulous and the audience had a wonderful time! Many thanks to the panel: Mara Purl, Harley Jane Kozak and Kathryn Cushman, and a big shout-out to Starshine Roshell, our moderator.

Almost forgot my other event this month! Michele Carbone, author of Friday Evening, conducted a fabulous food demo, tasting and booksigning at Borders on May 1st. It was well attended, but her event today at Borders in Thousand Oaks, according to my sources, was even better. I wish her great success - her book is absolutely gorgeous! (www.pentolapress.com)

Yes, it's been a crazy month. I'm glad May is over and I look forward to June. But I know that May 2009 will be one I'll think about for a long time to come. Heck...I haven't even mentioned Bike to Work Day yet! :-)

As always, with love from paradise - K8.

Greetings - last day of a three day weekend. What a great invention, the three day weekend. And it leads to a four day workweek. I think I love four day workweeks - can I have one of those every month?

I wanted to make sure I did not let something go unnoticed to my blog followers. My young neice Lily recently starred, as a sixth grader, in her school production of "Alice, Junior." This is the elementary school version of Alice in Wonderland.

And did I mention that my neice, Lily Kathryn, was the STAR of the show? I was so proud of her! Alas...tickets back to Indiana were grossly expensive (and at the time, I was still gainfully umemployed), so I was not able to go back home to see her play. But with the photos Lily's mom sent, and the breathless and excited phone call I got from Lily after opening night (on the way to the Opening Night Cast Pizza Party - always the best part of any production), I can only say that she was a huge hit!

She's named after me and following in my footsteps! See photos below:

Truth be told, I'm proud of all my neices and nephews - four of each. Dominic is home after his sophmore year at Dominican University; his sister Maria heads to Marian in the fall. She is a true beauty and very talented - she got a scholarship for being named to the Marian Dance Team!


My mom heads out every Saturday, this time of year, to FOUR soccor games with Zoe, Lily, Olivia and now Jack. They are all really growing up.

I'm looking forward to the annual Arizona Schwab Family Vacation in Santa Barbara, in July. Brendan and Matt are also growing like crazy. I can safely say these two boys love coming here for vacation - often, the temp here in Santa Barbara is 30-40 degrees cooler than in AZ! Matthew, my youngest nephew, is reading on his own, at only 5-years-old, and I have proof:

Dunno...maybe having an Aunt who worked at a bookstore helped, a little bit?

Hey - I'm on Twitter, look for me: K8Reader.

That's it for now, from Memorial Day in Paradise.

K8.

Finally, an Update...albeit a teensy one...

OMG! I know, I know! I've been terribly remiss and haven't blogged for ages! And yes, I'll catch up soon (lots of news, events and general yada-yada-yada to blog about), but in the meantime, please check out the fabulous blog of my good friend and favorite cookbook author, David Lawrence: http://www.forkingdelicious.blogspot.com/.

It's amazing, he's amazing...and wait til you see the AMAZING grilling recipes! Stop the presses, change your holiday weekend plans - you must grill THESE burgers this weekend!

Oh, David? Yeah, he's this guy: