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Last spring, Connie got in touch with me and Natalie to set up a 60th birthday surprise for Jonee -- a weekend in Malibu with just us! Natalie and I flew in at 10 am and we spent the time before Jonee arrived trying to figure out how to maximize her surprise and our own pleasure at seeing her open mouth. We decided on standing at the bottom of the security gate. Connie yelled her name, and we all got the face. We had a four way hug. Here we are. |
| Connie had Friday pretty well planned. We had an exquisite lunch at Campanile, which is the restaurant adjacent to the La Brea Bakery. We also bought some bread to take home. I checked their cheese counter, they had Pleasant Ridge Reserve. Cool. |  |
 | I had fresh tomato soup with basil oil and a wild green salad, everyone else has nicoise salad. |
| We all had iced tea, but we only had an hour to eat because we had to get to the King Tut exhibit at the LA Art Museum. Connie got us all tickets. We spent two hours there, and then Connie took us to her house. Which is just like Jonee's only bigger and all on one level. With an incredible view of Zuma Beach, a swimming pool, a hot tub, and a tennis court. |  |
 | Connie made us margaritas and we ate appetizers for dinner, sitting around her butcher block counter. It was delicious, figs, tomatoes, prosciutto, my two prize winning cheeses. The next morning, we went into the shopping area of Malibu, looking for lip plumper for Natalie. The lip explosion slot was empty, so we settled for a less effective product. Then we went into the play area and got lunch. This is where the celebrities congregate, so we all kept a sharp eye out. |
| After lunch, we went in and out of shops but didn't buy much. We came back to Connie's and hung out by her pool all afternoon. |  |
 | We made a run at the hot tub, but the propane was off (or something), so it wasn't hot. So no hot tub. I made sidecars and zucchini soup with lemon zest, grated by Natalie. Then we had tomato slices with basil, McEvoy olive oil and fresh buffalo mozzarella, delicious. We ate all this while we were waiting for the coals to calm down, Jonee and I arrogantly took on the task of lighting the barbeque. We do need our men. The salmon was a little charred and barely cooked inside. But delicious. No, really, Jonee, I thought it was great too! It was just a little redder on the inside than I've ever seen it. Except in a sushi bar. |
| The next day we all got manicures in the morning, Connie arranged for a non-cutter to come into her house. And then we went for a walk on the beach. |
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 | We couldn't help but notice this really tan guy with a suspiciously large head of hair, hair that didn't move, really. And that kind of looked funny around the edges when he tipped his head. |
| Here's Jonee checking out his car. Connie would have asked him if his hair was a wig for $1,000. It would have taken $5,000 for me to do it. |
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 | We all got dressed for dinner, although Jonee had no clue what was happening. We had a tasting of good champagne, comparing Tattinger with Veuve. No question, Tattinger is better. And you know, it's not just the barbeque, it's also opening the champagne, and the dishes. |
| Here's Natalie, tasting her champagnes and demo-ing her newly plumped upper lip. |
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 | The dinner surprise was the chef of a local restaurant who came to the house to make us dinner. Here are the beautiful heirloom tomatoes he used to make our salad with lemon cucumbers and feta. |
| He roasted these purple carrots as a side with the beef tagine. |
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 | We all sat at the butcher block and watched him cook, so fun. |
| He made us spring rolls for apps, and served the most incredible chocolate souffle/cake thing at the end. It was all exquisitely good. |
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 | We went outside to watch the sunset over the palm trees and the ocean. |
| It was a wonderful weekend. We stayed up until midnight, it was so fun I didn't notice I was doing that! Me! And so I printed out Jonee's and my southwest boarding passes and went to bed. Next August, San Juan Island! With the men! |
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