Monday, March 6, 2006
We were all up and rolling this morning toward the Agua Caliente Casino for the "Breakfast of Champions." With the price going up again to $7.99 per person, we're not happy about the price, but the food is still absolutely fabulous. All eight of us, the Bachs, Palstinis, Schultzes and us managed to get over there in time for the food. We didn't leave til all of us were "almost miserable."
We went over with Len and Rose, and Rose and Sharon decided they would gamble today. They took off with a few dollars and proceeded to lose them. I put a buck in "Money to Burn", The slot machine with all the Fire Department icons on it. I was up $2.10 before the machine decided to take it all away. Damn!
The Schultzes and us headed out to Trader Joe's in Palm Desert to see if they had some wine left for us. As luck would have it, the wines we couldn't find for Jessica, our daughter, were in stock this time. So we bought two cases of the ones they hadn't tasted. We'll divide them up with the rest of the wine that we buy for them later on. We were back home by about noon but it didn't matter because we weren't eating lunch anyway. We were out "wine shopping" at nap time so we didn't have one of those either.
We left for the pool early today and stayed until 4 o'clock. I had to be home in my reserved seat for the two hour "24" that was going to be on tonight. And at the end of the second episode they killed Edgar off. Man I never expected that to happen, but I'll bet they're not finished killing people off yet. I called Phil as soon as the episodes were over but they decided they would watch it at 8 instead of 5. I was depressed when Edgar was gone. I really liked him.
We managed to find original episodes of other shows to watch for the rest of the night until the bewitching hour. I never called Phil back but I did expect a call from him when "24" was over, but he never called. Oh well, we can't do anything to bring Edgar back anyway.
Sharon logged on to the Internet tonight in her usual fashion and our AVG Virus software updated normally. We've been having so much trouble over the past month trying to get it updated that it's been a real mess. I've re-installed the program at least twice to get it straightened out, and we didn't log on last night, so it didn't updated. I hope it now has itself straightened out. We'll see over the next couple of days if it's operating normally again. We didn't last much past 10 before we went to bed and started sawing logs.
Tuesday, March 7, 2006
I had a little chore to do this morning after I had my coffee and Sharon was awake. Our Black Water tank needed dumping this morning but I decided to wait until Sharon got up since there was no emergency. We can usually go a full day after it gives indications that it's full. This morning there were a couple of plugs that I had to move away from the outlet so I had a little difficulty getting it all dumped. But after 3 tries it finally gave way and finished emptying. Some readers may thing that this is a little inappropriate for this Journal until you realize that this Journal is all about the trials and tribulations of our travels on the road. All of our travels.
The wind was whistling quite briskly this morning and Sharon was already opting out of the pool this afternoon. She didn't want to have to fight the whitecaps on the water. She had decided that after Breakfast she would take a couple of loads of colored clothes and do them up today. But we had to take a trip to Wal-Mart today to pick up a load of coke and some lunch meat.
We didn't get back til around noon and then we decided to check with Phil and Joyce to see if they were going to Circuit City today. I had to pick up a Wi-Fi card and he had to pick up some other items. But we decided that Thursday would be a better day to take on that trip. Besides we thought we might go to Olive Garden for the Soup and Bread sticks for our supper on that day. That sounded like a good plan.
After lunch Sharon took the clothes and looked for a laundry room to do up the laundry. It didn't look like she would be done until about 3, but I decided to wait for her before going over to the pool. Besides I didn't think she really meant that she wasn't going to the pool because of the wind. Phil came over right after we did and Jim and Jackie were already in the pool. Now JOYCE, on the other hand, was "frightened" off by the wind, and was home pretending to read a book.
After our Parmesan Chicken, Salad and Garlic Bread which was very tasty, indeed, we had invited Phil and Joyce over to Domino for awhile tonight. I won both games tonight but on one game I had to draw a domino with Phil cause we tied. I won the draw.
After the whole bag of Ok-e-doke Caramel Corn and a few drinks we tried to log onto the Verizon Web Site to obtain our new cell phone. After we finally got logged on and screwed around for about 45 minutes it finally shut down the site on me. I guess I'll have to log on during the day sometime, maybe tomorrow.
Phil and Joyce left about 11 and then Sharon logged on and read her newspaper and checked e-mail. It only took her a few minutes and then we hit the sack for the night. The wind was still blowing up a storm as we hit the bed. It'll probably still be whistling tomorrow. We'll see.
Wednesday, March 8, 2006
The wind was still blowing today and the people who had their patio sales today had their stuff tied down so it wouldn't go anywhere. There was a guy who had quite a bit to sell just behind us, but when I checked it out, he was selling for nearly retail, and I couldn't find a thing I couldn't live without.
Sharon went for her walk this morning all dressed up like it was winter outside. I guess for her it was. The temp was in the 50s and with the wind blowing, it dropped considerably more. Len and Rose had moved to Desert Pools yesterday but we would all get together for Taco Wednesday today.
I also logged on to the Verizon website this morning and ordered our new phone online. It took me about 45 minutes after getting cut off a couple of times to finally get it all taken care of.
By noon we all left for the VFW and Phil was supposed to pick up Len and Rose and we were supposed to pick up Jim and Jackie. I tried to get hold of them by phone before we went up to pick them up but I couldn't get their phone to ring, and when we got up there they were already gone. It wasn't a big deal cause Jim always likes to take his truck anyway. We managed to find a table for the 8 of us right away and we sat right down. It's unusual that we found a table this easy but we sure didn't mind. Jim and Jackie and Phil and Joyce left before we did, but it was still well after we got done eating. By the time we left with Len and Rose the waiters and waitresses asked us why we were leaving so early. It was a joke because it wasn't early by any definition.
We got home about 3 and it was a touch late to go to the pool but we did anyway. Phil and Joyce and Jim and Jackie were still there when we arrived, and Sharon and I actually left to come before any of them left. I guess it wasn't THAT late after all.
We came home and settled into our favorite comfort appliances and took a nap before supper. The naps lasted past supper but that didn't matter cause we weren't hungry anyway. We only snacked when we finally settled in for TV for the night.
Both of us lasted until 11 tonight cause we missed the earlier versions of a couple of shows. I got on the Internet first tonight cause I wanted to find the closest Office Max to us here in Desert Hot Springs. They have a sale on a Wireless Card that I want to pick up for the computer. Catalina Spa now has Wi-Fi and with us typically spending 2 months of the year here, it makes sense to upgrade. Also our Verizon access may be terminated at any time and we'll need something besides dial-up to get connected. In fact Yuma Lakes has already discontinued their dial-up service. They also have Wi-Fi installed for their members. We're finding more and more campgrounds have it installed and for the most part it's free. So we need to move into the 21st Century and get connected more efficiently.
Thursday, March 9, 2006
By the time we got up this morning Sharon asked me to call Phil and let them know that we would go with them this afternoon. Phil wanted to pick up a phone and a memory card and then go to Olive Garden for their Soup and Bread sticks.
About mid-morning Phil stopped over and asked if I wanted him to install the Motorola Tools for the phone that we had ordered a couple of days ago. It didn't take long to get the program installed but the updates were going to take a bit longer. The first one took over an hour and I thought it was best to finish it up on non-peak hours for my cell phone. Besides it didn't have to be done today since we wouldn't have the phone for a day or so anyway. Tomorrow we would be hooking up to Wi-Fi in the park and that will be a lot faster.
We left early this afternoon having planned previously on leaving at 3 this afternoon. Len and Rose had called earlier to see if we were playing golf (mini) today, but obviously we weren't. We stopped at Office Max and picked up my Wi-Fi card and then headed out for Best Buy for Phil's telephone. Our last stop was Circuit City to pick up a memory card for Phil's phone. It took us extra time and it was a good thing we left early cause it seemed that we had to wait in each store because of slow service. It seemed like it took forever in Circuit City just waiting to get waited on at the Service Desk.
But the long wait was well rewarded with our late lunch at Olive Garden. We ate soup and Bread Sticks until they were coming out our ears. Poor Alex, the waiter, had a handful in us. We chased him back to the kitchen at least 4 times for Bread Sticks. It was a very nice "late lunch" even though I'm not much of a soup person. I am a Bread Stick person though and their's are the best. The salad also seems to taste so much better when your out, than at home.
We left Olive Garden with the idea that we would stop at Wal-Mart on the way home. The only trouble was that you can't get to Wal-Mart very easily from where we were at. Nobody believed me until we actually drove it. It doesn't seem very far on the map, it never does. By the time we left Wal-Mart we were just in time to sit in traffic on Gene Autry Trail on the way back to Desert Hot Springs. It took us about 30-40 minutes just to drive the distance. We spent another 20 minutes or so in Wal-Mart and got home about 6.
It was actually just in time to settle down for some tube tonight. I installed the software for the Wi-Fi Card and just watched TV for the rest of the night. The only trouble with the TV tonight was the wind that was still blowing. My satellite dish wouldn't be receiving a continuous signal so we watched the shows from the cable here in the park. That meant that the shows would be coming on later and that we wouldn't get to bed until 11 o'clock. But we both hung in there until Without a Trace was over with. It seems we only stay up late when the wind is blowing. Otherwise our shows are over with by 9 and we have the option to head toward the feathers at that time. It just goes to show that everything is not peachy, hunky, dory, all the time.
Friday, March 10, 2006
I was up early this morning as usual, but this morning I actually had something to do besides write my Journal. I had to pick up some toilet paper from the corner market and the go and look for Roy and Maryann. We would be going to Mission Hills Country Club this morning with Roy and Maryann Parent to pick up our uniforms for the Kraft Nabisco Dinah Shore Golf Tournament. The tournament is not until the end of the month but today is going to be uniform day.
As I left to go and see what time they were going, Sharon told me to stop at the pool to see if they were there. And as luck would have it, Maryann was indeed in the Hot Tub and hollered to me as she saw me standing there. I had a hard time recognizing her back in the hot tub area about 50 yards away, and it was dark in there at this time of the morning.
I also stopped by the office to see if our new phone had arrived yet and it as in so I picked that up on my way back home.
At 9:30 they picked us up and we were ready to spend a couple of hours over there waiting to get our stuff. They asked if we had seen they're note that they left at our front door. We hadn't. As we drove in to the Golf Course there was nobody waiting outside and only a couple of people on the inside. It looked like we were going to get right in, and out in a hurry, and we did. We were on our way back home in about 10 minutes.
As soon as we got home we left for town to pick up a couple of things, including a supply of toilet paper. We also wanted to see if we could find Ok-e-doke snack food but we had no luck in that department. Sharon had made a snack the other day with the Ok-e-doke, that we had brought from home, and now we couldn't find it anywhere. We ate the whole bag during a session of Dominoes. It was very good. She had gotten the recipe from my daughter Stephanie.
I went over and signed up for the Wi-Fi this morning after we were settled in back home again. I tried to log on for at least an hour before I decided to go to the computer session and find out what I was doing wrong. As it tuned out the Wi-Fi was down and not working today. I guess I wasn't doing anything wrong. Damn! It had also started to rain off and on for awhile this afternoon.
Dick and Linda Smith came over from Thousand Trails, to visit Phil and Joyce this afternoon. Dick and Linda are from Martinez, CA and we met them last year at the New Year's Eve Party at Thousand Trails. They were here and staying for the Spaghetti Dinner at the clubhouse tonight. We sat and visited with them for a couple of hours before we left for Dinner at the Upper Clubhouse.
I did not realize at this time that my luck during and after this meal, was going to turn to crap. After getting my meal I was going to sit down and dumped two glasses of Lemonade on our table. That took about 10 minutes to clean up and we didn't even notice the puddle under the table until we got up to leave for home. My jacket was on a chair on the other side of the table, so Joyce graciously held it up for me to put on. Unfortunately, she held it over the edge of the step on the stage. Oh yeah, you guessed it, Mr. Graceful went down like an elephant falling in a hole. It was more embarrassing than painful, but I survived. We did sit with a couple at our table who was stealing a Dinner tonight. They had the technique down pat so this was not their first time. This goes to the honesty of old people, the thieving a__holes. I'm embarrassed at being one of them.
Me and the Mrs. parted company with the group when we arrived home, and said our good-byes to Dick and Linda, and came inside and settled in front of the Tube for the night. We had thought about calling Phil and Joyce for Dominoes when their company left, but then we were very comfortable just sitting in front of the TV for the night.
I checked the Wi-Fi again tonight before I logged on with the phone but it still wasn't working yet. In another day I'm going to have to go back over to the office and get a refund for the days I've missed. But for now I still want to check and see how it's going to work for me in the future. We had to stay up until 11 tonight having missed the earlier versions of our shows. Besides the rain had increased now and we were getting rain fade on the dish. It feels like this rain is going to continue on and off all night. This does not bode well for our visit to the Pueblo Museum tomorrow. We may have to put it off until Sunday. We'll see.
Saturday, March 11, 2006
When we got up this morning the rain was still falling on and off, and it didn't look like it was going to stop anytime soon. The snow came down to 1500 feet last night and the mountains we could see were blanketed with white. Mount San Jacinto was not visible this morning so were waiting to see what it looks like after the fog bank clears.
Sharon took off this morning with a couple of loads of laundry and I settled in to see why I couldn't get hooked up to the Wi-Fi. I made a couple of trips over to the office which were no help what-so-ever. Apparently the system is still running screwy and I'm not the only one having trouble with it. The problem was getting no better by mid-afternoon when I just quit trying it. I went back to the office and they offered me my money back but I still have a couple of giant files to download for our new phone. It will take a long time if I have to do it with dial-up and I certainly don't prefer to do it that way.
Joyce stopped over for awhile this afternoon and invited us over for Dominoes tonight. Phil was over at the pool room for the afternoon. I saw him leaving on one of my trips to the office. I talked to him briefly about the Wi-Fi and then let him go.
We had Chicken Alfredo for Supper tonight. Sharon cut up a Chicken Breast that she had made the other day, added some Broccoli, cooked up some noodles and poured the Garlic Alfredo sauce over it. It was quite yummy. We also had Garlic Bread, a Lettuce Salad and a little vino to wash it down. Although we didn't need the wine since we'd be going over to Phil and Joyce's for drinks and Dominoes after we finished up our dishes tonight.
We left for the Bach's at about 7 and stayed til about 11. We played two games and I think Phil and Joyce split those games. Sharon was quite tipsy by the time we got home and was definitely ready for bed.
We had missed seeing any TV for the night simply because our dish was not working properly. For some reason we weren't getting any sound out of the TV and the picture was jerking around. The cable was still coming in fine but there was no chance to see any of the early shows before we left for Dominoes. I'll have to check our satellite receiver tomorrow and see if I can fix it. Sometimes if you just unplug it for 10 minutes or so, it resets itself. We'll see.
Sunday, March 12, 2006
I unplugged the receiver this morning when I got up, and about two hours later I replugged it again and it had cleared itself up. Whatever happened to it who knows?
When Sharon got up she had just enough time to make it to church. While she was gone we got a call from Jayce and Suellen Aronson saying that they couldn't go home by way of I-8 and they were driving around on I-10 and would be coming right through here. Apparently the rain we had here dumped a load of snow around San Diego and I-8. It also came down to 1500 feet in the mountains around us. We have quite a "dusting" of the surrounding mountainscape.
Jayce and her gang arrived before Sharon got home and they were here about a half hour before she got back. They stayed for about an hour and Jayce and Suellen had a Bloody Mary while they waited, and Ann and Betty opted out. They were easy guests and didn't want a thing. Maybe just a chance to stretch their legs. When Sharon did finally get back she was surprised to see who was here. She thought it might be someone visiting Phil and Joyce and they just parked in front of our motorhome. After they left, Phil stopped over to explain a couple of e-mails that he had sent me. Although the e-mails never did come in with the attachments intact.
The e-mails concerned memory that he had found for my computer. I had searched the Internet for the same thing over the past couple of days but he found it much cheaper. But because the attachments weren't there I couldn't open them.
I tried to log on to the Wi-Fi agin this morning but it still wouldn't work. After 1:30 this afternoon I may as well quit trying because I was supposed to log on before then or be dropped, and it looks like now I won't be able to get logged on.
The wind and the rain pretty much stopped around noon today and although it was sunny it still wasn't warm. Phil and Joyce went to the pool but I wonder if they actually went in the pool or the hot tub. It didn't matter to us cause we weren't going over there at all. We wimped out.
Later in the afternoon I logged onto Ebay and purchased a couple of things for our new phone. I needed the Mobile Phone Tools and a couple of accessories before we can start using the thing. This phone came with no accessories at all except a home charger. We got a deal on the Phone Tools when they gave us a $10 rebate coupon with it, which made it cheaper to purchase the accessories. I was having the "devil of a time" keeping connected during the transactions. It took me the better part of an hour get them finally all settled.
The Mrs. made Shrimp Creole for Dinner tonight. She also put together some Garlic/Butter Crescent Rolls. It was all quite good indeed. I had to quit eating for fear of not leaving enough for a good lunch. After Dinner we just settled in front of the TV for a couple of our favorite shows tonight. We caught the early versions of Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy tonight and even watched Seinfeld before 8:30.
We were ready for the Horizontal Hula by the time 10 rolled around. We had stayed indoors and ignored the weather all day today without much consequence. It's supposed to be nice out tomorrow, at least sunny and 61. Not that nice I guess.
