Beating the heat!

Yesterday was Sunday and was definitely a day of rest for us. Max was happy to have us home for the day. He likes it when he doesn't have guard duty! We watched the Chula Vista team win the Little League World Series. What a game! They were great. I did feel a little sad for the Taiwan boys when they shed a few tears when they lost. But oh so happy for the team from Chula Vista!

Today in the interest of beating the heat, we headed to Valley View Casino. And if you believe it was only to beat the heat, I have a bridge you might be interested in! Anyway, we met our friends Jeri and Stach at the casino, had a great lunch and I did pretty well on the machines. Ted, not so good! So we left there and headed to Pala Casino. I have never been there before and it is pretty nice. This time I didn't do so well and Ted was a winner! I think a good time was had by all.

Beating the heat..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Jeri's Birthday!

Yesterday we celebrated the birthday of my friend Jeri! She decided to have a Mama Mia Party! There were lots to eat such as rolled tacos, sweet-sweet strawberries, veggie salsa, chips and dips, veggies & dip and more. The first couple of hours was social hour then we got down to the "Sing-Along Mama Mia" movie and popcorn in the back yard on a huge screen! Such a fun movie and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves and even singing along. I tried to capture some memories for Jeri as follows:

There are a couple of members of Jeri's family, namely her husband Stan (Stach) and her son Tony that always love it when you take their pictures as you will notice in Collage 3:

Fun birthdays, funny guys..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Sizzling Hot!

We arrived in Menifee at our Wilderness Lakes campground and it is HOT! Here's a whine warning : It has been in the high 100's every day we've been here. It is still in the high 90's when I walk Max at 6:30 or 7:00 at night! It gets to the high 80's inside because we can only use one air conditioner because they only have 30 amp power here which doesn't work well when it's really hot! Okay I'm done whining!

Yesterday I went to lunch at Berta's in Old Town with several ladies (and one husband) from Ted's high school. Driving down to San Diego I was thinking that I'm driving in air conditioning and I'll be eating in air conditioning - WRONG! They didn't have air conditioning but they did give us a fan so that helped. I will say that when it's not so hot it is a great restaurant. It is not a typical "Mexican" restaurant. They have a great menu, we had great service and the food was wonderful. I had a jickama and black bean salad that was yummy. Everyone at the table enjoyed their food and a good time was had by all!

The Attendees!

Then yesterday evening we met friends Bill & Jany Staley for dinner. Bill and I worked together for 18 years at the CPA firm with David Hawkins and have remained friends. We had dinner at Domenics in Poway and wow, another great restaurant. I was 2 for 2 today! This is a quaint little Italian restaurant. We had a fun waiter and again everyone was happy with their order. Ted enjoys lasagna and it really isn't easy to find a "good" lasagna and he said he would go back and have it again. Bill had asked us if we wanted to come by after dinner to see their recent "home improvements". He apparently forgot to tell Jany about asking us, but she was okay with us coming by. They are really doing a wonderful job on their house. It looks really great. We posed by the stair case which was redone and is really pretty. We had fun with Baxter and Brady the dogs! Baxter has a ball chasing after Brady and the cat, Madison, who declined to pose for the picture! Here's the Staley family:

Good friends, good food and puppies..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Moving on...

Last few days have been pretty restful. Ran a few errands, had lunch with our friend Peggy Price yesterday, had lunch today with our friend Jonathan Pullen, you know that kind of stuff!

Tomorrow we have to leave Jamul. Our Thousand Trails Campgrounds allow us to stay at each park 3 weeks and then be out for at least a week. We will be at Wilderness Lakes (good phone/internet service) in Menifee (by Hemet and Murietta) and return to Jamul (Pio Pico) on September 8th. We can't move back here during the holiday weekend, I think it's Rule # 3b.54.c219 (just kidding), but there is a rule about not coming in on a holiday day! So anyway, we'll be back on Tuesday the 8th!

Our dog Max will be quite happy about moving on down the road because we probably won't be gone so much and he'll have all new smells again!

Making the dog happy..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Jim & Della

Yesterday we spent the afternoon with Jim and Della. Della fixed a nice lunch and we had a fun time looking at reunion pictures, especially comparing people to their high school pictures!

Jim and Della picked out a Bonsai Bougainvillea plant on behalf of the RLS for me for the loss of my father. I have never seen such a beautiful plant (and it even has red lips!). It will be fun looking at it, watering, cutting and feeding it. So thoughtful of the RLS, thank you! They found the plant at a local Bonsai Nursery that they found quite entertaining! Along with Jim and Della, we are planning a trip to the nursery to look around.

Today is going to be a day of rest for Ted and me, as Sundays are meant to be! We are watching the ladies from the USA trying to beat the European ladies at golf and meanwhile I've been catching up on the computer! Max is happy to have us home and we'll just have to wait and see what the rest of today brings!

Thoughtful friends..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Tomatoes!

Thank you for the yummy home-grown tomatoes Larry Wallis!

Home grown tomatoes..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Visiting with friends!

Wednesday Ted and his friend Stach played golf at the Chula Vista golf course. Ted did better than last week so he was pretty happy about his game. In the afternoon we headed down to the pier again to visit with Jeri and Stach, their famiy and friends. They are cute cabins with a kitchen, living room, bedroom and a big patio area they can barbeque and relax and people watch on the beach! We went to dinner with Stach, Jeri and friends Bruce and Kittye Wallies at the Green Flash just down the beach from the pier. We watched the big orange sun setting but alas, no green flash! :(

Stach, Jeri & Ted on the patio in back of their cabin!

Yesterday Ted had lunch with his friend David Prime. When we are in town they try to get together for lunch a couple of times a month.

Last night we met friends Larry & Carol Wallis for dinner at Appleby's in Rancho San Diego, with Larry picking up the tab for dinner! After visiting for awhile, we headed to Sycuan Casino. Ted and I left a deposit and found Larry and Carol at the same machines they started at. Larry was up over $300 and Carol over $100! I think it was the good karma Larry got when he bought our dinner! LOL! Being the big winners, Larry & Carol sprang for icecream at ColdStone too!

Yummmmm!

Today Ted had lunch with (here we go eating again!) a group of co-workers from the County of San Diego. A few of them are still working and a few of them (like Ted) have retired. Meanwhile, back at the campground Max got a bath! That was fun! I put him in our shower with me and was able to give him a bath! I dried him with the hair dryer! He's so cute and poofie he looks like a Poodle! (He's a cocker spaniel)!

Tonight we headed down to the pier again for hamburgers and hotdogs (do we ever stop eating, I don't think so)! As we left the pier, Jeri & Stach's son and his friend were setting up their giant movie screen to show a movie. Last year they showed Pirates of the Carribean. This year the movie was Jaws! Very appropriate!

Visiting with friends and eating icecream..."Ain't Life Grand!"