We had a grand time in California celebrating our niece’s high school graduation. Not everyone can pull off a yellow cap and gown, but Rebecca did so with style (complete with Jackie O sunglasses, a nice touch).

The weekend was marked by a spectacular amount of food, including a cornucopia of fruit and fresh bran muffins every morning provided by our hosts Richard and Kathleen, fish tacos in Berkeley, an Italian feast at Rebecca’s party, Father’s Day dinner at a noisy big food restaurant in Freemont and Chinese food in the city—House of Nanking, our favorite.

Such a treat to spend time with family, friends and extended family. Rick provided great recommendations about digital cameras and Carmen gave me the most stunning bar of lemongrass-sage-lavendar soap that makes mine look like “hella crap,” as my nephew would say.

And there was lots of chatting time, which enabled me to get going on Violet Beauregard from The Happy Hooker.

Butterfly Mercerized Cotton Super 10, color 3829