An Interesting Week!

I had not been sleeping well because I have bursitis in my hips and when my back went out over the holidays, it made my hips and legs really hurt.  On Tuesday after we got the RV set up, I went to my doctor's appointment.  After discussion of the options, I had a shot of Cortisone in each hip.  Wow, I'm pretty happy, I've been sleeping much better!  The pain is better than it's been for a long time...whew!

Thursday evening I went with Peggy and a few of her friends to happy hour and the movies.  We saw the Merrill Streep/Julia Roberts film.  The acting was amazing but a very depressing movie!  Most families have some sort of dysfunction, but this was everyone in the whole family!  Not exactly an up-lifting movie.

Saturday was our first baseball game of 2014!  Trent's 12-13 year olds entered a 14 year old tournament.  Boy was that a tough one.  They did win one of two games Saturday, lost on Sunday and lost on Monday.  It was a good challenge for them and I'm sure they will be glad to play in their age group!

Sunday we had an open house at Mission Bay.  We didn't get down there until 7:15 so the space we wanted was taken.  We parked on the other side of the same parking lot but the Park Ranger chased us out.  We eventually found a place to park and I tried to get the message out to everyone who might have been coming.  We had a good turn out of 28 from all different groups of friends an it was a steady stream of friends coming by!  We have so much food left over, we need to have another one LOL!

Early Monday morning we left the campground headed to La Mesa RV.  They were putting on the Protection Products we purchased when we bought the RV.  They didn't have time to put it on before we left in August and agreed to do it when we got back.  We also wanted them look at the roller that had failed on our large kitchen slide because Ted didn't think it was working right.  Sure enough, it was not functioning and they had to take the rollers apart and realign them.  Of course a 24 hour project turned into 2 1/2 days.  They did put us up in a hotel while this was being done.  Our Motorhome looks brand new all over again, so shiny and clean!  It's a cloudy day so not sure if the shine shows up in the picture!

In the meantime, we also took our car in Monday after dropping off the motorhome.  We got hit in the rear when we were on our trip.  They didn't leave a note so we had contacted our insurance.  They had to replace the bumper and because of paint, this would take two days.  Once they took off the bumper they found the brackets were also bent and needed to be replaced.  They had to be ordered so it was now a three-day project but it looks brand new again!

By Wednesday afternoon we had the car and motorhome back to the campground.

Yesterday was lunch with my girlfriends' Jeri, Kittye and Roberta.  We had a fun lunch at Panera's and decided we need to do this more often!  It was a lot of fun catching up with the ladies!

Sophie starts basic training tomorrow (that will be fun)!  Here she's lying in the grass watching the birds:

Craig and Claire have gotten a new puppy!  Her name is Sophia!  She's very cute, can't wait to meet her!

Everything back to normal..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Our week in Julian!

We are back at Pio Pico after a fun week in Julian!

We mostly ate our way through the week!  On Wednesday our friends Jeri and Stach drove up the mountain to have lunch with us and for Jeri and I to shop in Julian!  We had lunch at the Julian Grill, a cute Victorian house with good food and good service!  I had the butternut squash soup and tilapia.  Everything was delicious!  We did some shopping and I found a Brighton Eiffel Tower necklace, which I had to have!  LOL  We saved the pie for last and boy was my apple crumb with  cinnamon sauce delicious!  It was a yummy, fun day!

On Thursday Ted and I drove across Sunrise Highway, such a pretty drive!  We got to 8, went west to Viejas Casino.  We had lunch there and did a little gambling!  I came out a winner and Ted donated about half of what he played with.  I even earned enough to pay for my necklace with some left over!

Friday I went down to San Diego for a nail appointment and to get Sophie's heart worm medicine!  I was so surprised it was so warm.  I don't think it ever got over 68-70 in Julian and nights went from 28-50!  Weather was great!  Friday night was candy bingo.  It was in the clubhouse where they had a great fire going.  It was pretty hokey but fun!  Of course everyone was a winner!  Amazing how competitive people can get when all of us could afford to buy our own candy bar!  LOL

On Saturday, friends Bill and Jany drove up the mountain.  We had lunch at the Rong Branch which was marginal at best!  We walked around the shops and Jany found a couple of things to buy!  We were just trying to help the Julian economy!  I told Jany I had walked enough and so we decided it was time for pie!  Back to the same pie place and this time I had peach apple crumb, also delicious!

Sunday Peggy came up for lunch.  We ate at the Italian place just off Main Street.  We had not eaten there before and I really really liked my pesto parmesan chicken with rice and veggies.  Oh my gosh, everything was delicious and went together so well.  I ate part of it and brought home enough that Ted and I both had it for dinner another night!  This time we bought a pie (same place), cinnamon sauce and some ice cream.  We got home in time to watch the Chargers lose :( but had great pie for dessert and fun with Peggy!

On Monday, friends Phil and Elaine joined us for lunch!  We ate at the Julian Grill again and this time I had a bowl of butternut squash.  It is so good!  We didn't even have pie, which is good since we already had pie at home!  We had lots of fun visiting with them!

The sunsets were beautiful behind our rig up on top of the mountain:

On Tuesday we headed down the mountain and are back at Pio Pico and need to think about that diet!

Great times in Julian..."Ain't Life Grand!"

January 2014!

Hope all had a happy New Year!  We had a nice quiet evening.  Our friend Peggy came over and we went to the Campground New Years Eve dinner.  There was a lot of people and the meal was okay!  Then we went for a ride to our friend's, Bill and Jany Staley.  They had totally decorated their front yard with Christmas lights and decorations so the three of us stopped by for a visit!  Peggy and I worked with Bill at the CPA firm and I have kept in touch with him.  We had a fun visit with Bill, Jany, their two dogs and cat, and their yard looked beautiful!

On New Year's Day we visited our friend Sally in Rainbow along with some other friends for Hopping John!  I never heard it called that before but being from the south we always had black-eyed peas on New Year's for good luck.  Unfortunately Sally's was a little spicy so hopefully Ted will have enough good luck for both of us!  Several of us went out for dinner in the little community of Rainbow and it was a lot of fun!

We took Sophie to get a bath on Saturday and to sign her up for a training class.  She's signed up for a basic class for six weeks starting at the end of the month.  While there we noticed they had a play class for puppies 4 months old.  Sophie is a little old (8 months), but there was only a 3 month old Dobie signed up so they agreed to have her come too.  

So on Sunday after watching the Chargers win their play off game (YAY), we took off for Petsmart.  The Dobie was a little shy and really wasn't ready to play with Sophie, and then Bear joined the group. Bear was a little dog of 5 months old with a ton of energy!  Bear and Sophie were playing until Bear started barking at Sophie.  She tried to come to mom and dad but we told her it was okay and eventually she walked around the little room, while Bear got the Dobie to play with him.  They really played hard and Sophie kept watching and then as they tired a little, she started joining in with them.  After the hour they were all pretty exhausted and we headed home.  Sophie slept the whole way and for awhile after we got home.  Sophie is already doing a little better outside when she hears barking dogs that she can't see!  Hopefully the classes will help her not be so afraid!

Tomorrow we will got up to Julian for our week out of Thousand Trails.  We normally go up to Wilderness Lakes, especially in the winter months, but they were fully booked so we are off to KQ.   We are hoping it won't be too cold up there but we have good heating so will be fine!  The good news is I think I remember that we will have at least some phone service/internet up there...YAY!  It will be fun and we already have some friends coming to visit Julian while we are there.

Julian in the winter..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We hope everyone had a great Christmas and are looking forward to 2014!  I know a few of our friends are really ready for a new year!

We had a great holiday visit with our nephews.  We spent a lot of time with Craig in the evenings after work while Claire was studying.  We had some dinners, some wine and some shopping...what more is there!

We had dinner one night with Stephen and Marissa.  She was going to a cheer competition for her little sister and we weren't going to see her on the weekend.  They came over to see the new motorhome and Stephen is in the driver's seat!

Claire's mom and dad, Linda and Ernie, were interested in seeing our new motorhome so we invited them over one night for wine and appetizers.  We had a really nice evening with them and they seemed to really like our new home!  They are in the process of downsizing from a home they lived in for 28 years.  They had put an offer in a 1750 sq ft condo and their offer was accepted.  They will be living closer to Craig and Claire and right by Fig Garden, a shopping center near Craig's law office.  Ernie is not thrilled about moving but Linda is happy to downsize!  We went to dinner after seeing their new condo with Ernie, Linda, Craig and Claire and had an enjoyable dinner.

The night we were doing our Christmas, Stephen was sick, Marissa was out of town and Chip was coaching a wrestling tournament so we spent the evening with Craig and Claire.  Craig arranged for a chauffeur for us.  The lady drove them over to our house so Claire could see our new home and then took us to The Palms Restaurant for a really great dinner.  Our food was delicious, the atmosphere was wonderful and it is so much fun to be with the kids!  Craig even brought the bottle of Silver Oak wine we gave them for graduation (they had already polished off the Dom Perrignon) and another bottle of wine which we managed to polish off (hence the chauffeur)!   They dropped us old folks off about 10:00 and off they went to other parties!  

Even Sophie posed for the picture!

We got down to San Diego on Tuesday the 17th.  We visited with friends and were getting ready for Christmas until I started getting lower back spasms!  We spent time at home so I could get healed.  Went to the doctor and got some muscle relaxers and pain pills which really helped me get through Christmas!  Today I'm feeling almost myself again...thank goodness!

Ted and I had a great Christmas Eve lunch with my long time friend Peggy and a lovely Christmas Eve evening with our friends Jeri and Stach and their son Tony and Gina and their kids, Mallorie and Trent.  Christmas day was spent with Gina's sisters family and we all had a good time and a good Italian Christmas dinner!  On Sunday we had brunch with Jeri and Stach at the Hilton.  It was a beautiful day but we forgot to take any pictures until we were leaving...

Of course I have to add a picture of Sophie who is sleeping with Dad!

Happy New Year..."Ain't Life Grand!"

A new blog…can you believe it? And, I have a lot to report!

We had a great time in Las Vegas.  Our friends Jeri and Stach arrived on Monday, November 25^th.  We had a nice dinner together and did some catching up before gambling!  The highlights of the week included dinner at David and Debbie Hawkins’ home on Wednesday evening, Thanksgiving dinner at Boulder Station, Christmas lights in the cactus garden at the Ethel M Factory, Lunch at the Eiffel Tower at the Paris Hotel and mainly our time spent with our friends!

We left Las Vegas a day early because we had some really good news!  Our nephew, Craig, passed the bar on his first try!  He took the 3-day exam in the end of July and just found out end of November whether or not he passed!  I didn’t realize that all the attorneys’ in his firm passed on their first attempt so he really had pressure to do it also!  So we left Vegas early to get to Fresno to attend the Swearing In Ceremony!

The ceremony was on Wednesday at the Fresno County courthouse.  There were about 30 that were being sworn in.  There were about eight judges there and representatives from the Fresno Bar, California Bar and one other Bar (and not a saloon)!  They gave some good speeches and then they called each name and they all stood and were sworn in together.   After he was sworn in, we were able to take pictures and they had a small reception. 

We then went to dinner with Craig’s brothers, Stephen and Andrew (Chip), Chip’s girlfriend Laura, Claire’s mom and dad (Linda and Ernie), Craig’s mentor from his law firm, Kim and of course Craig and Claire.   We had a wonderful dinner at this little Italian Restaurant.  The owner is a woman who doted on us and made us feel very special and the food was really great too!

So we left Fresno Thursday morning for Atwater, California.  It is a small town south of Sacramento and just north of Merced.  Our friends Billy and Vicky live there.  Ted went to High School with Vicky and they graciously host a Su-Hi Christmas gathering at their house for a weekend party.  It was a small group this year but we still had lots of laughs and a great time.  Our Christmas gift exchange was fun as always, especially when our Hostess, Vicky, selected a pretty platter and threatened us if we tried to steal it.  I think her exact words were that she needs the platter for this Christmas party she has every year for a bunch of Assholes, and they better not steal her platter!  Phil (a classmate) got an unexpected surprise!  He thought he won a great gift but instead received one of his own gag gifts back…a beer bottle doll with his own ponytail on it.  We ALL had a big laugh over that!  It was really really cold up there and yet Vicky and Billy’s son had a group of guys come over on Saturday afternoon forming a band and playing older surfer music for us!  It was a lot of fun!

 A couple of the classmates came over to see our new RV!  Sophie believed they were there to see her, (some were)!

On Sunday we were all meeting for breakfast.  We were almost late because we didn’t think about the fact that we might have a bit of ice on the windshield!  I think it was about an inch thick!  We finally got it defrosted and made it on time!  This picture was taken after about 5 minutes of defrosting already!

After breakfast six of us headed south (us in our motorhome) and stopped at Tehachi Palace Casino for gambling and dinner.  We spent the night in the parking lot and then came back to Fresno today!  We will be here for a week visiting with the kids and preparing for Christmas!

A lawyer in the family…”Ain’t Life Grand!”

Viva Las Vegas Baby!

On Sunday morning the 17th, we left Boerne around 8:15.  Since we got out early, we made it all the way to Van Horn, Texas.  We got set up and had dinner at the KOA Kafe!  The next morning we decided to have breakfast at the Kafe and then got on the road about 9:15.  We had just gotten on the freeway, not even up to full speed when we heard a loud thud or pop!  Ted pulled off at the first off ramp and we got out and walked around thinking a tire had blown.  No sign of a bad tire or anything.  We got back in and Ted looked down and all the instruments were going crazy.  He first noticed that the gas tank (which was a full 100 gal) showed empty, thinking but there was no gas on the tow car or anywhere.  Then noticed all gauges were crazy.  Pulled back over and made some calls.  We talked to Cummins (who makes the engine) and then they determined we should talk to Freightliner.  They all decided we were okay to drive and took off for El Paso a two-hour drive.

We got there and of course now they were busy.  We sat in the RV for awhile and then Ted had them do an alignment to make sure that as okay.  At 5:00 they told us to go to the campground and come back at 7:00 a.m.  We did that and they finally took us in around 10:30.  He worked on it until 5:00, still had not found which of a bundle of wires was the problem and back to the campground we went.

Finally on Wednesday he found the shorted wire, fixed it and off we went about 11:00.  Everything worked well and we breathed a sigh of relief!

Here's how Sophie spent her time at Freightliner.  She was really a good girl:

We had a reservation in Vegas for Wednesday so I had called and changed it to Thursday.  Another long day but we made it around 4:00.  We set up, showered and were ready for our friends David and Debbie to come by to meet Sophie and see our new motorhome.  Then we were off to dinner.  It was their 43rd wedding anniversary so we celebrated!  It was a fun evening and we enjoyed visiting with them.

On Friday we had lunch at Boulder Station and tried our hand at gambling.  Machines are tied down pretty tight but we had a good lunch.  On Saturday we met one of his former co-workers, Howard who also lives in Vegas, for lunch at the Red Rock Station.  Again leaving a deposit but having a good visit with Howard.  On Sunday David and Debbie invited us out to lunch.  We had a fun, long lunch and then headed back to the campground.

Today we ran errands and our friends Jeri and Stach are on the way over from San Diego to spend Thanksgiving with us.  They are probably arriving at the hotel as I type this!

We had lots of rain Thursday, Friday and some on Saturday.  It's been in the low 40's at night and today was the first day it made it into the 70's.  Much more normal Las Vegas weather.  There is even a little snow on the surrounding mountains!

Chilly nights in the Motorhome!

Sophie and Mom kicked back on the drive to Vegas:

Friends and Vegas..."Ain't Life Grand!"