it's all good

see the world through a glass of wine
Welcome to Lori's Diner! Well, the one in the photo is in San Francisco, the other one is right here in my kitchen. My good friend Mag is visiting this week from the aforementioned city and we have been drinking good wine, eating good food and visiting with good friends.

It's girl time. We planned a simple lunch yesterday for friends Maria and Roland and it turned into a feast that lasted from noon to about 10 p.m. I haven't laughed so much or talked so loud in years. It was perfect.

the city different
Before arriving here, Mag spent a few days in Santa Fe. Ron wasn't feeling well after dental surgery so I drove down for a sleepover and left him to recover quietly on his own. We celebrated my birthday for an entire day and ate in two great restaurants: La Boca (lunch) and SantaCafe (dinner with dessert).

Wine flowed, a rainstorm came in and lowered the temperature considerably. I hadn't brought a sweater (it was blazing hot when I left home) so had to borrow one, oh poor me, I had to wear the raspberry cardi she'd bought in Paris last month! We talked, closed the restaurant down, walked back to the sweet Chimayo Hotel and fell into dead sleep. I returned next morning and Ron was feeling better, getting ready to drive to Nevada to visit our son. He said he'd rather hang out there, 750 miles away, than listen to the two of us yakety-yaking. He left wearing the vintage Hawaiian shirt he received as a gift. He's never owned one before, his style tends more toward faded blue cotton shirts and a tee, but when he put it on, he was transformed in looks and spirit. I hope he has a great time with son Scott in Las Vegas, wearing his Hawaiian shirt with all the colorful fish on it.

other people's masks
While in Santa Fe we attended an ethnographic show held in several venues in the city. Mag is a jewelry designer and uses old beads in her creations so this event was an important one for her business, Magpies Beads (check it out). While she hobnobbed with her suppliers, I wandered around looking at tribal masks from the more exotic places in the world. I love masks.

savor
So, this morning, we sit quietly at the kitchen table eating toast and drinking green tea from small Chinese teapots -- and eating fresh figs. I love figs more than masks - and it's all the more appealing because fresh figs only appear at this time of the summer in the organic market. They're small in size this year. Sometimes less is more.