reuniting, and it feels so good

man, yesterday was one hell of a sweaty balls day. gah!

the bean and i attempted to score some free air conditioning as we headed to my old hometown to meet up with my reunion committee. one of my old high school buddies is super involved in the community and has been a city councilmember for eight years, even serving as mayor pro tem for a while. so she suggested that we meet at a new-ish place in town called joe's place.

it's located in a shopping center that's been there since the beginning of time - it was anchored by an old grocery store called alpha beta, which turned into vons, and eventually became a pic 'n save, which was bought out by big lots. i remember a shoe store called fayva in there too, along with a thrifty's (now rite aid), a pep boys, and there were two small freestanding buildings that housed a one-screen movie theater and a pioneer chicken. joe's is in the old movie theater building.

the place is super cute inside. it's gone through so many different businesses that tried and failed. i guess joe's has been open for a little over a year, and is doing pretty well. you can build your own sandwich or order one of their creations, and there are salads and cookies and coffee drinks - and cupcakes.

we were the first to arrive, so we took over the back corner of the place, where there were soft, smooshy couches and even a "fireplace." the bean made herself at home and got comfy.

i decided to order her a PB&J and some chocolate milk. look how cute the little cup was!

the rest of the committee arrived not long after that, and we had such a great time chatting, catching up, reminiscing, and eventually getting down to business. we managed to pin down a bunch of details, and set a date for the next meeting.

as we finally wrapped it up, we got one of the servers to take a group pic (look, the maxi dress is making its first appearance of '09):

and then a few of the ladies took turns holding the bean:

i couldn't leave without taking home a cupcake. um, maybe two. and they wrapped them up all cute and stuff:

we hopped in the car, and the bean wrinkled her sweaty little nose and told me "ooot. mum! ooooot!" yes, love. it sure was hot.

as we got on the freeway and headed towards home, the temperature actually continued to rise and got to 102 at one point. yuck.

but when we got to our next stop, i glanced down and realized - hey, it's cooling down! woo-hoo!

the bean's growing like mad, and none of her summer sandals fit anymore. not a big surprise. so we trucked into our local kohl's and found her a new pair.

she decided that the empty box made a great bed for elmo:

by then, it was time to head up to the teen's school. as we parked and waited, the bean made funny sweaty faces at me.

at home, we cranked up the A/C and the girls got a little silly.

"hey! no fair! why don't you have YOUR pajamas on your head?"

last night's dinner featured my first attempt at quiche. i'd found a recipe that used crescent roll dough for the crust, and we loooooove crescent rolls. so i got to work and sauteed the veggies:

mine didn't come out looking exactly like the picture, because i couldn't get those triangular pieces of dough to fit just right in the pan, but it's close. and who cares - it was delicious!

i served it with a green salad tossed in that yummy honey-lime dressing i made before.

"needs more cheese," the teen remarked.
"do we have any tabasco?" the hub asked.

poop on 'em both. i thought the quiche was fabulous. okay, they actually did agree that it was tasty, and we ate all but two pieces of it.

guess what i'm about to pop in the microwave right now?