cocktails

The Lyon County Republicans will hold their annual Lincoln Day Dinner on February 7, 2015 at The Boys & Girls Club, 124 North Main Street in Yerington. No-host cocktails will begin at 5:30 p.m. and a buffet dinner will be served at 6:30 p.m. There will be a gun drawing, a 50/50 drawing, a live auction and a silent auction. For the gun drawing, two guns will awarded, each signed by Marcus Luttrell, the original “Lone Survivor.”

As I have done for many years, my last article of the year, each year, is to present the Don Q Awards for a number of different reasons. Those reasons include such assorted things as: Outstanding, memorable, good, not so good, questionable, bad, serious, funny, dumb, head-scratching, are-you-kidding, etc.

These awards are presented to all kinds of people or places or things for what has occurred throughout the year.
It’s a fun way to end the year for yours truly.

So, without further ado, here are the 2014 Don Q Award winners:
Best Birthday Present:

Ring in the New Year early during a fun-filled New York New Year’s Eve Celebration at the Carson Plaza Event Center on Wednesday, Dec. 31 from 6 to 10 p.m.

Join the Friends of the Carson City Library and the Library Foundation for a delicious buffet dinner, dancing, no host cocktails, live and silent auctions, raffle, and a balloon drop with a champagne toast to bring in the new year on New York time.

Sesquicentennial. Say that three times fast...Living The Good Life is starting the Nevada Day Celebration three days early beginning Thursday night with the fabulous Gemini Duo.
Live from the Polo Lounge performing the hottest hits from disco to current hits. Come take a spin on our large dance floor and check out Carson City's newest hot spot for great food, music, dancing and a Nevada-style cocktail. Friday night headlining Jamie Rollins live on stage from 9 pm 'till midnight. The party doesn't stop at Living The Good Life until you say so.

The popular Sassafras restaurant, which was forced out of its downtown Carson City location earlier this year, will re-open soon at Carson Hot Springs Resort, according to the restaurant's owners.

The last SWEET SIPPIN' SUNDAY is right around the corner. The leaves are turning and the weather is supposed to be beautiful, so be sure to mark your calendar now for this Sunday, Oct. 5, 1-4pm.

Ronald McDonald House Charities Northern Nevada, a non-profit organization that houses families with children at local hospitals, will be bringing its Red Shoe Gala to the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa in Reno for a third year. The Oct. 10, 2014, event will raise funds for the organization’s mission with the theme “Make Someone Happy!”

Come join us for free hors D'oeuvres with cocktails. And take a spin on our Great Dance Floor at Living The Good Life 1480 N Carson Street.

Live music Thursday night featuring Reecy Lomax & Mick Valentino Motown Hits and Jazzy R&B 7:00-9:00 Come listen and Dance. Free hors d' oeuvres with Cocktails... Come join the fun.

There's still time to enter the "beat the heat" photo contest sponsored through the Carson City Visitors Bureau.

The contest is designed around summer visitors to Nevada's capital city and beating the heat. Participants have a chance to win lodging, dining and entertainment passes, rodeo tickets and more.

Carson City was recently recognized nationally as the fastest warming city in the United States. To remind the world that we do not live in a dry, barren, hot wasteland Visit Carson City is hosting a “Beat The Heat” photo contest on Facebook.

We have a small, comfortable home, built in the late 1940's, located in the older west side of Carson City, and we recently discovered that what is considered good news for some is actually bad news for others in our particular neighborhood. Let me explain what I mean:

Thursday, May 8 was my birthday, and Elaine had arranged two unforgettable, secret surprises for me as a present.

She had previously asked me what I wanted for my birthday and I told her, "Heck, I have everything I want, let's go to the cabin with Jim and Kathi (our son and daughter-in-law) and have a quiet steak and lobster dinner up there."

The Quilici Cabin is located on a steep hillside between Portola and Davis Lake in Plumas County, California, and we like to go there as often as we can to enjoy the accommodations, scenery, wildlife and peace and quiet.

High Sierra Swing Dance Club invites the public to its seventh-annual Spring Ball dinner-dance on April 26 at the Carson Nugget, 507 N. Carson St., Carson City.

The semi-formal/formal-attire evening begins with hors d'oeuvres and no-host cocktails at 5:30 p.m. and continues with dance performances at 6:30, buffet dinner at 7, open dancing 8-11 pm to West Coast swing,
nightclub two-step, country two-step, waltz and Latin tunes.

The Carson City Chapter of Ducks Unlimited (DU) will hold its annual banquet and fundraiser on Saturday, March 22. That event will be held in the banquet facilities at the Carson Nugget with:

Carson City Host Lions presents our 14th Annual Crab Feed Charity Fundraiser on Friday, March 7, 2014.
Dinner includes all the crab you can eat, plus BBQ tri-tip, BBQ chicken, salad, garlic bread, and ice cream for dessert at the Fuji Park Events Building on Old Clear Creek Rd.

No host cocktails at 6:00 PM, dinner served at 7:00 PM and live band with dancing 8:00 PM until 10:00 PM.
Tickets are $45.00 per person. Ticket purchases or further information, please contact Mel Cooper at 775-882-4803; Ray Masayko at 775-882-4661 or the Lions Club at carsoncitylions@gmail.com.

Continuing the energy of the Blinky Man Summer Solstice event, Carson City’s costumed night time bike ride with lights was at it again this Halloween. At least 30 riders participated in the first ever Blinky Man Halloween event.

The season's first significant snowfall covered the Sierra Monday with nearly a foot of powder at Lake Tahoe area resorts and 3-5 inches at lake level.

Anticipation for additional snowfall along with summer investments pays winter dividends at Tahoe South this season. Millions of capital expenditures at the three area ski resorts this year will complement revitalization efforts throughout town to create new options on where to stay, play and dine during the 2013-14 season.

The best costume party in Carson City will be at Bella Fiore Wines Friday, Oct. 25! Festivities start at 6:30pm. We will have live music, a DJ, spooky cocktails on special, awesome costumes, dancing and endless fun! The winner of the costume contest will get a free bottle of wine and a secret prize. There's NO COVER charge and no reason to miss the fun!

Elaine and I just returned from a three-day, two-night, fun-filled visit to the Sierra Nevada mountains, just west of Bishop, Calif. The purpose of our return visit to the mountains was to do like we had done in 2012 at this same time of the year:

Fundraiser to benefit Student Activities and Scholarships at Western Nevada College.

Golf during the day - see attached registration form
DJ and Dancing at night
Food and cocktails available at the diner

50/50 Raffle
Prize for Best "Fifties" Costume
Other raffle prizes

all proceeds to benefit the students at Western Nevada College

One of the all-time greats of the San Francisco 49ers, three-time Super Bowl champion Roger Craig will serve as the keynote speaker at the 45th annual Governor’s Dinner in July, the Nevada athletics department announced Tuesday.

The dinner is set for July 12 at the Governor’s Mansion in Carson City. Proceeds from the Governor's Dinner benefit student-athlete scholarships at the University of Nevada.

The Wild West returns to Virginia City on Friday, July 12th. See the early days of Nevada through the eyes of Eilley Bowers – famous “Queen of the Comstock” and Julia Bulette – Virginia City’s most beloved “working girl”. With their dislike for one another, the comedy and the drama will unfold for you on the stage of Virginia City’s Historic Piper’s Opera House.

In our many wanderings in the Great Outdoors in the last few years, Elaine and I have encountered all kinds of wildlife and birds; and I thought that it might be fun to share some of those encounters in the hope that, you too, might also experience some unforgettable memories.

So, with that as a lead-in, here's where to look and what you might see, and don't forget to take your iPhones or digital cameras for photos:

High Sierra Swing Dance Club invites the public to its sixth-annual anniversary Spring Ball dinner-dance and “Local Celebrities Who Think They Can Dance” contest on April 27 at the Carson Nugget, 507 N. Carson St. No-host cocktails at 6 p.m., celebrity dancers’ contest at 6:30, buffet dinner at 7, dancing to a variety of DJ music throughout the evening. Requested attire is formal or semi-formal. Cost is $30.

High Sierra Swing Dance Club invites the public to its sixth-annual anniversary Spring Ball dinner-dance on April 27 at the Carson Nugget, 507 N. Carson St., Carson City.

Dust off your evening gowns and neckties for an evening of great food and even-better dancing. The semi formal/formal-attire evening begins with no-host cocktails at 6 p.m.

Having fed and provided shelter for the poor and indigent for more than 30 years, the Carson City nonprofit agency FISH is asking Carson City residents, public officials and private citizens to a special dinner on Thursday, March 14.

Carson City's nonprofit agency that helps feed and provide shelter to those in need — FISH — will host its annual “Have A Heart” Banquet on Thursday, March 14. The Banquet will be at the Carson Nugget with cocktails and silent auction beginning at 5:30 p.m. and dinner served at 6:15 p.m. Ninety-five percent of FISH’s funding comes from local donations and the Have A Heart Banquet is an important part of our fundraising effort.

Four, fun-loving people from this area spent last Friday, Saturday and Sunday on an Amtrak train trip to and from Sacramento, Calif. Those four individuals were Bob “Slick” and Lynda McCulloch, plus Elaine and I, all of Carson City.

The purpose of this trip was to take a leisurely train ride on Friday over Donner Summit, so we could see and photograph the deep winter snow along the way in the high country, and then have two days of fun in Sacto.
It was a fun-filled three days, and here are some highlights of our adventure:

Amtrak:

The Wild West returns to Genoa on February 1st, 2nd and 3rd. See the early days of Nevada through the eyes of Eilley Bowers – famous “Queen of the Comstock” and Julia Bulette – Virginia City’s most beloved “working girl”. With their dislike for one another, the comedy and the drama will unfold for you on the stage of Genoa’s Historic Town Hall.

Café at Adele’s in Carson City hosts a Rockin’ Apocalypse Party, Friday with live music by The Mighty Surf Lords.

“Someone posted a picture of a bunch of alpacas in a field with a message about celebrating the ‘Alpacalypse’ and I thought, ‘Well maybe we should,’” said Charlie Abowd, Café at Adele’s chef and co-owner. “There has been a lot of stress and heartbreak this year and it is healthy at times to come together with good music and community to celebrate our blessings rather than continuing the fear.”