The weekend

The hubs and I had a yard sale on Saturday. We were much more organized than our first yard sale a year ago. We set everything out on our driveway behind our gate the night before, so everything was wet and covered with dew, but hey, at least we weren't setting things out two hours into the sale like last time. It was slower than last year (the economy is even hitting yard sales!) but we managed to get rid of every last thing either by sale or giving it away. Our objective this time was just to make it all go away.

I made cupcakes to use up some cake mixes I had, but I made my own buttercream (and I mean butter!) frosting. I can't remember where I got the recipe, but you have to try it.

• 3 cups powdered sugar


• 1 cup butter


• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract


• 1 tablespoon whipping cream

Mix sugar and butter on low speed until well blended, then increase to medium speed for 3 minutes. Add vanilla and cream and beat for another minute. So good!

Then on Sunday night, my friend Jackie took me to dinner. She's moving next month to Seattle for her husband's job, which doesn't make me happy. We've been friends since 6th grade, and I will miss my Jackie terribly! But, it does give us an excuse to finally go to Seattle, which we've wanted to do.

We went to Napa Rose which is a restaurant in the Grand Californian Hotel at Disneyland, and I can honestly say it was the best restaurant meal of my entire life. It was four courses and I ate every last bite of each one. I was seriously nauseous by the end, but it was worth every heart-stopping calorie. There were things like lobster sausage, scallops in a lobster vanilla sauce, truffle mac 'n cheese, strawberry soda as part of the dessert. It was amazing.

Poor Jackie. I kept taking pictures of her while she was eating.

There was even an earthquake during dinner. It was fun to hear all of the out-of-staters oohh and gasp. Good times.