Sunday, December 30, 2018

December 28 - 30, 2018, AZ

Sunday, December 30.  Friday was laundry day and doing some housecleaning before meeting up with Pat and Roger at JJ Madison’s Sports Bar for fish fry. Its always good to see those guys and we had good conversation and a good meal.

Tom was helping Chaney yesterday with a project at his house, so Pat and I went girl shopping - for shoes, swimsuits, and bedding at the Superstition Mall, and at Kohl’s, Tuesday Morning, and DSW Shoes st SanTan Village. It was a good afternoon and always fun to hang out together.

Tom ended up going back to Chaney’s again today to finish their project and I spent the day doing my own projects - submitting a bill to my health insurance for reimbursement before the end of the year deadline, making phone calls to wish my brother, Ron, a Happy 57th Birthday and to my sister, Rene, for a girl chat, a couple of walks with Frisco, cleaning the coffee pot, making oyster cracker snacks for New Years Eve, and grocery shopping.

Tom and I are both gearing up to try a Ketosis diet to lose a few pounds, starting next week. I can’t really say that it is a New Year’s Resolution but we have kind of had that goal for a few weeks but didn’t want to start over the holidays.  The worst part will be cutting out carbs and I just realized that the Tonic that I use for my cocktails is 2/3 of my future daily intake. I guess I will be finding something else to drink at happy hour - one thing that I am not willing to give up.

Thursday, December 27, 2018

December 24 - 27, 2018, AZ

Thursday, December 27.  It’s been quite a week.  I spent a lot of time on the phone with Christmas wishes on the eve, on Monday.  We packed up our goodies and headed to Tom’s ex-wife, Kathy and John’s later in the afternoon where we celebrated Christmas Eve with Tom and Kathy’s son, Chaney and Grandson, Lakin and their daughter Trina and her 2 sons, Jayden and Colton.  We had delicious Carne Asada tacos and burritos, yummy Guacamole, and tasty desserts. It was a fun evening in very good company.


Colton, Trina, and Chaney

Jayden and Lakin

On Christmas morning, I had a nice facetime conversation with Ben and his family, got to see their gifts and watch them open my gifts.  They all liked the tights and leg warmers that I crocheted for them and were delighted with the gift cards to Creative Kidstuff.  It was fun!







I made a festive looking  sauteed corn with red pepper and green onion sidedish for dinner with Nan, Dale, and their families. Once again they cooked a Prime Rib (compliments of Nan’s Mom, Karen) for dinner that was perfect. Its always a good Christmas with them. It was a fun afternoon and we left before their gift opening started.

The weather has turned a bit around here, we had rain on the drive home on Christmas and temps are not expected to get higher than the low-mid 60’s this week. Its still not bad, especially when the sun is shining.

Yesterday was a lazy day and other than a nice walk, we basically hung around watching movies, computing, and being lazy.

We went to see “The Green Book” movie today ~ the first theater was fully booked, so we ended up going to the Harkins Theater at San Tan Village. It was a great movie, based on a true story of the relationship that develops between a black man (a cultured and educated musician) and his driver (an Italian from the Bronx) while on a concert tour through the deep south in 1962.  


We stopped for dinner at the Mirage, a sports bar not far from us in AJ. Tom loved his burger but my chicken wings were undercooked. We learned that they have live music on Thursday night - it sounded good but was way too crowded in that room, so we will try to get there another day.

Wednesday, December 19, 2018

December 17 - 23, 2018, AZ

Wednesday, December 19.  I’ve had 2 cleaning jobs this week, Karen’s on Monday - a cleanup from her move-out last week and then Jim and Shirley on Tuesday. I will be doing JoAnne and Jerry on Friday, as their next scheduled day falls on Christmas Day.

I have also been scurrying to get Christmas gifts packed and sent to Wisconsin and Minnesota before the deadline. Unfortunately, a gift for the girls that I had shipped to me did not arrive until Tuesday, so I finally got that package in the mail this morning. It should arrive in time.

Today, Tom and I both had appointments with Dr. Roland this morning.  I am amazed at how much better I feel, almost like I am getting psychological treatment rather than chiropractic.  He says that he helps to reset the circuit breakers and I am becoming a believer in his methods. An alternate focus or distraction from the hurting area somehow leads to its feeling better.  And then he gives a homework assignment that has you focus on some stressor in your life and then to let it go gets you feeling less stressed and the muscles, nerves, joints, and mind feel so much better.

We decided to go see the movie, “The Mule”, Clint Eastwood’s latest.  We miscalculated the traffic and got to the first theater too late (and it was fully booked), so went to another theater and got there in plenty of time.  The movie and the soundtrack were enjoyable.

Sunday, December 23.  Early morning coffee and the weekly presentation of activities and updates started the day off on Thursday.  I had a haircut appointment scheduled for the afternoon, but they called and changed it to Friday afternoon.  No problem.

One of our neighbors delivered a package in the afternoon, a ‘giving plate’ that started out with our managers on November 9 and has been passed from site to site since then, each person keeping a gift and replacing it with another, then passing it on. I did have to shop for something, as there is no extra space for keeping ‘in case’ things in this trailer.

We did our grocery shopping yesterday, after taking a nice, long walk around the neighborhood.  The days have been beautiful, in the low 70’s but the nights dip down to the upper 40’s - perfect for sleeping.

We ran errands on Saturday, including grocery shopping in preparation for Christmas recipes and things that we are taking for the dinners we are going to. Somehow, that activity tends to fill our day and before we know it, it is dark outside and it is dinnertime.

Sunday was the day for cooking and baking.  A week or so ago, Tom’s friend Ron gave us a bag of organic pinto beans, and I decided that today would be a good day to fix a pot of beans.  Tom chopped up veggies and ham and we got them going in the crock pot, starting out on high for a couple of hours, then switching to low.  I was so disappointed when we went to eat dinner and the beans were still hard, then i realized that instead of switching to LO, I switched the dial to OFF.  They finished cooking the next day.


I baked a pan of Lemon Bars and Fran’s Special K Bars to take with us on Christmas Eve .

Thursday, December 13, 2018

December 10 - 16, 2018, AZ

Wednesday, December 12.  After my cleaning job yesterday, I stopped at Costco and bought my own Christmas gift, a new iPad - the 9.7”, 128 gig version. I have been considering it for months and finally talked myself into it, as my old one is at the peak of its capacity (16 gigs) and I have had to take off photos and apps all of the time to keep it going. One of the first things I learned is that this blogging app is no longer supported by Google on the latest versions of Mac’s ios. But I found a way, just go back to the old days before there were apps.

Friday, December 14.  We ran errands and finished up our Christmas shopping today, mostly gift cards, wrap and a timer for the lights around our RV. Many of the lots in the park are decorated to the hilt.

We met Pat and Roger at What the Hell, a bar in east Mesa, for fish fry.  The food was pretty good, but my usual cocktail, a Vodka Tonic was served in a tall glass rather than a tub, and it tasted a lot more like tonic than vodka. After that, we went to the Gilbert Riparian and walked through the natural areas where the walkways were all lit up with luminaries and there were lots of lighted Christmas figures and music along the way.  It was definitely geared for the kids, but we enjoyed it.  

We decided to head into downtown Mesa to check out the lights at the Mormon Temple but there were none.  And then I remembered that a brand new temple was built in Gilbert a few years back and that must be where the lights are.  Another contributing factor is that downtown Mesa is all under construction, as they are extending the light rail lines farther to the east. So...we took a long ride and didn’t get a Christmas light display as a reward.  

Regardless, it is always good to hang out with good friends.

Sunday, December 16.  Our weekend was pretty busy. On Saturday, I really felt the need to go to some estate sales, so I spent a couple of hours doing that in the morning. They were both great sales, but I walked out empty handed - no room at the inn.

We went to a new home open house for Ron and Mary, friends and former coworkers of Tom’s.  It was a small group of folks and I met Holli and Zach for the first time, nice folks. We had good eats and lots of good conversation and laughs.

We met up with Ron, Linda, and Manual for breakfast on Sunday morning, another good time.  

Back home, it was a relaxing afternoon and I was able to finish my crochet projects for the girls, leg warmers in their favorite colors.

I made a tasty dish for dinner, a sausage and shrimp dish with zucchini, onions, and peppers.
I spotted this tree on my walk around the park today.

Tuesday, December 4, 2018

December 3 - 9, 2018, AZ, CA

 Sunday, December 9.  The early part of the week was routine, other than an appointment with Doc Roland and a Vet appointment for Frisco.  My appointment went well, the discomfort in my left side is relieved and I feel I should continue through the winter.  My plan for treatment is to increase circulation, therefore relieving stress in joints and nerves, while keeping the mind healthy too.  A vegetable only detox is in my future but not during the holidays. 


Frisco has another bacterial infection in his right ear, and has been shaking his head a lot recently.  I'm not sure why, but this has been the only health issue that he has had throughout his life and it affects only the right ear.  The vet was surprised when I told her that he was 14.5 years old and felt that he is generally in good health for his age.


Shiprock RV Park had their annual residents meeting on Thursday morning and we learned a lot about the governing structure of the place and some of the benefits for residents.  After that, we loaded our bags into the car, dropped Frisco off at the Bark Avenue Pet Resort and headed to Blythe, CA to visit Tom's sister Geri for the weekend. We checked into the Emerald Inn, a very basic but clean and tidy motel room and then headed to Geri's house.


Geri fixed us a nice spaghetti dinner, we visited, and played with the cat, Smokey, a lovable 7-month old gray tabby who gave us lots of laughs. We stopped at the lounge at our motel for a drink before settling in for the night.


We took a drive to Parker, AZ along the California side of the Colorado River and returned along the Arizona side on Saturday afternoon and then to the Steaks and Cakes restaurant for dinner. We all opted for the fish fry, although Tom and Geri both had liver and onions on their minds, changing at the last minute.


It was scary Saturday morning when my phone slipped out of my back pocket and dropped into the toilet as I was sitting down. I quickly grabbed it and dried it with a towel and everything worked as it should. Lucky for me, it could have been a dirty and costly disaster.  


Geri had something on her calendar for the day, so Tom and I headed to the Blythe Intaglios for some hiking on Saturday. We hiked a couple of miles along a 4-wheel drive road, then along the top of a huge mesa, before stopping to see the Intaglios. They are geoglyphs (pictures) drawn on the ground by ancient peoples. They were made by scraping the surface of the ground and tamping it down to prevent weeds overtaking, and the stones that were cleared away form a border. A few are surrounded by fences but there are many scattered throughout the area, although we only saw the fenced ones. There were 2 human figures, that of a 4-legged animal, a swirled design, and some arrows. They are much better viewed from the air, so my photos didn't turn out very well.


   This sign was lying on the ground and we built up the rocks to hold it upright.

   Tom loves to photo bomb.

   Evidence of erosion on this rock.




Geri met us at Rebel BBQ for dinner and then she stopped by the hotel to chat for a while. After she went home, Tom and I walked to Courtesy Lounge for a drink. The bartender, Dominique, was a fun gal to talk with and the lounge decor is preserved from its creation back in the late 60's. There are several large circular booths upholstered in tufted red Naugahyde (it may have been manufactured in Stoughton at Uniroyal), all in very nice condition.  The tufted Naugahyde went half-way up the walls and there were a few walls covered in rock - all very dated, but cool.


This morning, we walked to McDonalds for breakfast, then stopped for a short visit with Geri before heading back home.



December 1 - 2, 2018, AZ

Pat and I went to Monica's annual Jingle and Mingle Christmas ornament exchange on Saturday night.  The drive is about 45 minutes longer, as I am much farther to the east.  I got to Pat's and realized that I left my gift sitting next to the door at  home, so that made it an even longer drive. Regardless, we got there only a half-hour late.  The turnout was good, with Nan, Lindsey and her mother plus many of Monica's long-time friends and co-workers in attendance.  


We had lots of good food to eat, a glass or two of Sangria, and lots of fun with the ornament exchange.  I had stolen a couple of great items that would be nice for the trailer and at the very end, they got stolen from me.  I ended up with a fancy, girlie ornament that doesn't fit me or any of my decor, so I will be passing it on to someone. The party broke up pretty early as several people had obligations in the morning and Monica had an early flight out to NYC.


    Scooter had fun opening gifts too.


Tom and I met Manuel and Linda for breakfast on Sunday morning at the Black Bear Diner. It was nice to see them again and we had plenty to talk about as they are approaching retirement age and always have lots of questions.  It was fun.


Later in the afternoon, we went to the Christmas Tree lighting event at the clubhouse, complete with punch, cookies, and Christmas music.