Monday, December 29, 2014

We didn’t make it to the road this morning til about 10:30.  We didn’t seem to be in any hurry to get going today.  We’ve only got about 3 hours on the road and that would include a stop at Carl’s Jr. in Coachella for lunch.  We always manage to get hungry for lunch when we lose the hour crossing the AZ/CA border.  I don’t know where the hour goes but it doesn’t affect our appetite.

We arrived at Catalina Spa about 30 minutes after we got rolling after lunch.  We checked in and got set up with electric and then got in the car to stop over and visit Henry and Arlene LeDuc for awhile.  They were in a different campground about a half mile from Catalina.  We stayed and chatted longer than we expected to but we were having a good time and Sharon had someone to drink beer with.

When we got home she took off with the laundry since we had quite a pile of it to do.  She was gone for a couple of hours and I decided to eat Supper while she was gone.  I had a leftover Bratwurst with Sauerkraut and it was quite good.

By the time Sharon got home I was already into the network schedule for the night.

She assumed her position in front of the box and we watched the miserable offering for the rest of the night.  They only entertained us until 10, however, before we finally gave up on the night’s offerings.

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

This will be our first full day in Desert Hot Springs andwe had “kind of a day” planned today, with the start to commence at the Cottage 2 Restaurant.  We picked up Henry and Arlene on the way and we would meet Terry and JoAnne Bertamini there.  We  had also invited Phil and Joyce Bach but they passed on the offer.

We had a lovely Breakfast seeing old friends and waitresses and catching up on the last two years.  The Cottage is still the best place in the Valley to have a cheap Breakfast.  And the food is excellent and always has been.  We stayed for over an hour before we left and headed home.

We dropped Henry and Arlene off at their campground and then came home.  We had decided to relax for awhile before we called Phil and Joyce Bach and drove down to their campground to see them.

By early afternoon we called the Bachs and found out they were going to be home this afternoon.  We got in the car and drove down to Thousand Trails Campground just a piece down the road.  They were sitting outside when we got there doing their sales thing.  It wasn’t that nice outside but we sat out anyway and because there was no wind it was fine.  We stayed for about an hour or so and then we left and headed home.

On the way home we got a voicemail from JoAnne Bertamini inviting us over for Dinner tonight.  Just before the phone beeped I made a suggestion that we could just turn down Ramon Road and go and visit Terry and JoAnne.  Sharon emphatically answered the she was “through visiting” for the day.  When Sharon called her back we were laughing because of the coincidence.

By the time we got back home it was still quite early so we wouldn’t be sitting down for Supper for awhile yet.  We watched TV until the Chili was thawed out and heated up.  We brought it from home and it was a solid rock before it was defrosted, but it was quite good when we ate it.

We camped in front of the picture box for the night and we were quite content to just relax.  We caved about 10:30 tonight and we were ready to oversleep tomorrow morning.

Wednesday, December 31, 2014NEW YEAR’S EVE

Neither of us made it into the oversleep mode this morning.  I was up early, as usual, and Sharon rolled out about 8.  We really didn’t have anything to do today so an early start would have been ridiculous.

We actually had to take care of some business today on the telephone.  Sharon was on the phone to the credit card company and I had to order some medications.  I had to make a couple of tries because of a system failure at Medco where we get our prescriptions from.  I finally got it to go through and was satisfied with the result.  Apparently Medco wasn’t satisfied though.  They called me with a message concerning the change of address.  Apparently I was the “first” one who’s ever done it.   ???????

Sharon’s been bored over the last week with nothing to do so I offered to take her to Hobby Lobby to look for something, but she wasn’t interested today.  She’s been to Michaels, JoAnn’s Fabrics and Wal-Mart without success.

This afternoon we got ourselves ready to go out for Dinner with Henry and Arlene, Terry and JoAnne and Dale and Barbara, friends of Terry and JoAnne’s from Alberta.  We went to a place called “Manhattan in the Desert”.  They had a stupendously large menu which one wonders if they can do all that food justice.  We all went over to the Bertamini’s after Dinner but we didn’t come anywhere close to midnight.  We were back home by about 9 and watched a little tube before we crashed and burned.

Thursday, January 1, 2015HAPPY NEW YEAR

We were off this morning to LaQuinta to Hobby Lobby for a project for the Mrs.  We left at a strategic time so that we could go to In-n-Out Burger for lunch on the way home.  LaQuinta is about 20 miles down the road and we arrived at Hobby Lobby at about 11 o’clock.  Sharon shopped about 45 minutes and came out of the store empty-handed and with a sad face.

While she was in the store she got a call from Terry and JoAnne asking if we wanted to go somewhere for lunch.  We decided to change our plans and go to Red Robin instead.  Terry and JoAnne are on a diet and wanting to eat salads.  Sharon and I had a couple of Burgers with Fries and Onion Rings respectively.  We finished off the meal with a stack of cronuts (cross between croissant/donut) dipped in Chocolate and Strawberry sauce.  They were quite tasty indeed.

By the time we got back home it was time to hit the pool but it was a little bit nippy yet for us.  We decided to walk over there and see who was in it.  We knew that Wayne Doughty would be in there cause he talked to Sharon yesterday.  And sure enough, he was bobbing in the water with about a half dozen or so other people.  We stayed and talked for about 20 minutes or so before Sharon started getting cold.  We went back home after telling Wayne that we’d be here tomorrow.  I hope it warms up.

Neither of us was hungry for Supper tonight so we just snacked appropriately.  I had peanuts and I don’t know what Sharon had.

We assumed our “theater positions” for the rest of the night as we surfed through the re-runs.  There wasn’t much to pick from but we did manage to stay up until about 10:30 tonight.  We only have a couple more days of repeats.

Friday, January 2, 2015

We started off with a sunny day today and the prospects of it staying that way all day.  It wasn’t warm out this morning but we were hoping that it was going to get nicer as the day waned on.

We didn’t have any invitations to go out to eat today so it looks like we’ll stay home for the day.

I am still trying to figure out what happened to my Newsletter program and I’m not getting any closer to a solution.  I’ve heard from a couple of people how to work around it but none seem to be a viable solution.

Sharon was at the office today and Phil’s package, that he wanted us to check on, was here.  We brought it over to our motorhome in case he wanted to pick it up this weekend.  The office will probably be closed most of Saturday and Sunday.

By noon, after Sharon had been in town shopping, we had BLT’s for lunch and decided that we would go to the pool today.

We left for the pool about 1:30 and it was simply delicious.  The water was ultra warm and a few people were already in there.  Wayne and Anke Doughty came after we were there for about a half hour.  Another couple from Iowa, who we didn’t recognize, but they recognized us, from two years ago, arrived shortly after Wayne and Anke.  A friendly group started to form and sucked up another couple who were here on RPI.  They seemed to have a good time with us discussing the “system”, and getting some valuable tips.

We made it back home about 4:30 and Sharon was already busy whipping up Shrimp Creole for Supper.  We also have Egg Rolls with this Dinner and I don’t know how that tradition started, but it always turns out good.  Sharon had a little Vino with her Dinner and I had Sweet Ice Tea.  Dinner tonight was exquisite.

We settled in perspective places for the night and we actually had a Blue Bloods on tonight that we hadn’t seen before.  I don’t know how we missed it, cause Blue Bloods is a show that we make it a point to watch every week.  It was a good one and we enjoyed watching it.  We stayed up watching a couple of American Pickers tonight after Blue Bloods.  I had recorded a bunch of them that were on yesterday.  I know we’ve seen some of them so we’ll have to weed out the ones we’ve seen.  We were up until 10 tonight before we folded up the show, and closed the dressing rooms.

Saturday, January 3, 2015

We were off this morning with Henry and Arlene and we would meet Terry and JoAnne at Two Springs RV Resort for the Buffet Breakfast.  We’ve attended this event ever since we found out about it a couple of years ago.  They have a very large choice of items including Omelettes and Waffles and the food is always very good.

After Breakfast we came back to the mobile hacienda and sat around just digesting our food and playing computer games.

Early this afternoon we went to the pool for the second time.  This will become a daily thing for the rest of the Winter.  We stayed at the pool until late today cause Sharon intended to have Tacos for Supper tonight and she can whip them up in short order.

Tonight was going to be a TV night for sure.  Although Saturdays are notoriously bad for any kind of decent TV watching, we really don’t have much of a choice in the matter.  Sharon was in charge tonight with the remote control, mostly flipping back and forth between Lockup and Cops Reloaded.

We just barely made it to 10 o’clock tonight as I was constantly looking at my watch to see if it was time to go to bed yet.  I finally called it quits at 10:15 and headed for the padded room.

Sunday, January 4, 2015

We didn’t have anything planned for today but Sharon was up and showered as   soon as she got up.  She was off to church and I was planning to send out the Newsletter if I get my new downloaded .pdf writer working.  I received the suggestion from my son, Sean, and the location to download it from.  After I got it installed it seemed like it would work, and when I tried it, it worked just like the old writer.

I finally got the Newsletter sent out and the Hard Copies printed.  I was so relieved that I got it finished for the month.  I was really only about 3 days late but I was in a quandary as to how I would get it resolved.  By the time Sharon got back I had the whole thing done and ready.

Sharon came home with a surprise for lunch today.  Outside the church the Mexican ladies were selling Tacos, Chips and Tamales today.  So the Mrs. Picked up a couple of Tamales for each of us.  She bought 2 Chicken and 2 Beef Tamales and they were quite good, both of them.  I think maybe we’ll have them again next week if the ladies are there again.

We were off to the pool a little later today because we got caught up in watching the Detroit Lions playoff game with Dallas.  The Lions were ahead when we left 14-0  but Dallas came back at the end of the game.

After we came back from the pool we called Henry and Arlene to see if they wanted to come over for a cocktail hour.  They did and we sat and talked for about an hour or so.

Sharon had a plan to choke Pork Chops down my gullet today.  I saw them on the counter defrosting all day.  It’ll be my token effort to eat something that she likes for a change.  She ALWAYS cooks the food that I like and it wouldn’t kill me to make an effort in this endeavor.  The fact of the matter is, they turned out very good.

We were in for another night of surfing for our TV entertainment tonight.  If the shows we watched tonight were re-runs, I didn’t remember them.  I think this is going to be the week that our shows come back for the rest of the season.  In any event we stayed up til about 10:30 today before we went off the rails and headed for bed.