Joan on the Road

On August 14 we headed to Huntington Beach State Park for our annual family party. SILaw Tom and the boys headed out to get there around 6 AM to claim a firepit and they were successful. I guess he cooked breakfast for them all so they had a great guy time :)

We waited to go after lunch and by 3 PM they were closing the gates...park was full. We managed to get in a good traffic lane and got in by the skin of our teeth. Even though it was a cool day some people, like Zach, were in the water for quite awhile.

We were set up a ways back from the beach and by 5 PM it was breezy cool (but a wonderful change of pace from the heat of Hemet). We got the fire started and cozied up to keep warm while we ate.

We always enjoy the family fun, conversation, food and general good times. After sunset we enjoyed smores and then we headed home ....a two hour drive for us....but worth it!

We are striving to manage our lives in the hot heat of Hemet :) Today it is 105. We've found that in our little motorhome, 30 amp, that in order to run both ACs we need to turn off the house battery charger and run the fridge on gas or we overload the circuits and blow out our flip flops. We are maintaining a cool 80 degrees so I'm happy. Usually we are comfy with one AC but at 100 degrees we lose ground and need them both running.

The trick is to do any outside stuff or running around in the morning (contrary to my nature). But today we did get up, get the laundry done, vacuum and wash the wood floor and clean some carpet spots After that had our coffee and breakfast and I've been playing on the computer since then....games, Picasa, emails and such.

A four o'clock beer will carry us through to a relaxing evening watching an Angels game and The Closer. A couple more days of 100 plus and we'll be into a week of low 90s. That is more like it :)

Posted by Joan at 05:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The first night we were in Door County we went down to Sturgeon Bay for a musical review. When it started we looked at each other and grimaced. What was this going to be? A black stage with three scrawny fake pine trees and then "Da Tree Guys" came on. Three nondescript, sort of chubby, middle aged guys....to do a musical comedy review. Oh well :(

But then they began to sing! Wow! We so enjoyed their wonderful voices recreating songs of the past and we even got belly laughs from their local Upper Peninsula comedy. It may have been the best evening of all.

Or maybe the Pub Crawl was the best?! We hopped on a trolley right by the condo and spent the evening touring/ crawling from pub to pub across the Door! The crowd was fairly quiet to start but by the end we were hooting, hollering and singing. We especially enjoyed the young newlyweds sitting in front of us. We gave lots of advice to the young bride. And the Dad who was there with several family members but no wife....we had lots of fun with him!

AND today is Great-grandson Evan's first day of kindergarten. Can't wait to hear what he thinks of it! Wonder what the teacher will think of him ;)

Posted by Joan at 09:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's not that I've been lazy...just on the go with not much computer access. But we've had lots of fun and good times. Started out in Illinois on July 21st when we gave my Mom an early 90th birthday gift from the family....a Macbook. She was totally surprised and really loves it.

She is emailing, surfing the web, bookmarking important pages and Skyping. That may be the best part, connecting visually with the family. Our upgraded Verizon connection to the Internet is just fast enough to allow us to send/receive the Skype video so we can now connect with everyone too, although it is not the sharpest picture.

I left for my girls trip on July 22 and went with six long-time girlfriends to Egg Harbor in Door County Wisconsin. We had a great time on this, our 18th vacation together. One of the gals owns a condo in a lovely complex overlooking the waters of Greenbay. We have lazy breakfasts and conversation then usually do something special each day. Some of us move at a little slower pace than we did a few years ago but we manage to help each other out and have a great time.

One bit of excitement was having the fire alarm go off about 10;30 one evening when we were all in our jammies. We evacuated with all the other guests only to find that someone had burnt toast, setting off the alarm. Went back in, got settled and off went the alarm again. This time we went to the center foyer where the firemen told us it was a faulty alarm. Would you believe that the next day Lynn, who had stayed home alone for a bit, got caught in the shower by another false alarm. Boy, did we get a lot of laughs out of that one :)

We saw two plays at Peninsula Players, celebrating their 75th year. We were not too impressed with either of the offerings. They were good, but not spectacular, except for the ending song in "A Little Night Music"....Send in the Clowns. It was very moving and special to hear the song in the context of the story.

I'll write more about our vacation and trip in the next few days. We are doing well and enjoying some lovely weather here in Hemet.

Posted by Joan at 09:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's been too long since I've written and a lot has happened. Parties, problems, heat...

It was a wonderful birthday/Fourth weekend celebration. We were at Party Central for two days and filled ourselves with fun and games. Next event I guess is a beach party in August. That will be right after we get back from our vacation to Illinois. I'm going on my "girls" trip and we'll be visiting my parents.

If you've read The Girls From Ames or The Yaya Sisterhood you'll know a little about what that girls trip will be like. We have known each other since grade/high school. This year all eight of us will be there. Should be a laughing blast !

Our satellite connection to the internet failed and is gone. It was operating very slowly so Jim tried to change satellites. In doing that, which was a very painful process and our service from Motosat was awful, we found that parts of the system were failing. I don't know the technical details but we could not lock on to the new satellite and get service.

So we made a move that we've talked about for a long time. We switched to Verizon broadband service. Right now we have two modems and we are not networked so it's a bit of a pain but when we get home Jim will get it all sorted out. And the computer up and down speed is awesome. So far we are very happy with it.

Just as I got the speedy Verizon service, my computer failed :( I could not believe it! So yesterday that went to son Jim's lab and he reports that it is a cd/dvd failure. I could use it if we just unplugged the cd part. I'm working right now on our old laptop which is slow but workable.

...and the heat!!! I knew that staying in Hemet for the summer would result in many hot days and we're now into a week of 100 plus temps. It's supposed to break up in a few days. That will be a relief.

All of the above may not sound like much to you but it has sure kept us busy and stressed for the last few weeks. Oh, and we've had our annual ant attack. Little red ones that are looking for water :) I think we have those under control with Terro ant killer stuff.

Now we'll pack our bags and be ready to go!

Posted by Joan at 09:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The temps are rising here in Hemet although they are still a tad below average. Today was forecast to be 95 so we thought we'd take a little trip to get out of the house and make a few purchases. About 30 minutes away is the Desert Outlet Center at Cabazon, just off the I-10. We had to go through 2 detours but made the trip quickly. We should have started earlier but we are soooo lazy. When you don't get up until 9:30 it's hard to get started before 11 :)

I needed some sandals for our Illinois trip so we headed to the Rockport store. They only had one style that had an ankle strap so I "settled" for that. They had a BOGO half off so Jim got new shoes too :) He's lost a bit of weight in the last year so he picked up a pair of Dockers and I hit the Jockey store for new undies. Kinda funny that they had all guys in the Jockey store so I'm talking to them about wanting French Cut panties in pastel colors :)

Lunch was Japanese ...sushi, tempura and noodles. Dessert was Hagen-Daz (sp). After all the shopping in the sun I found a huge fold-able/ packable straw-like hat that will protect me from the sun. I'm burning more easily after my radiation last year.

By the time we finished shopping it was 99 degrees. I was wiped out. We headed home, hit the lounge chairs and relaxed. Supper was easy...lots of snacks and a little sippin' Jack.

Today we wish a happy birthday to SILaw Stevo, a very special family member. He is a miraculous chiropractic healer and has helped so many family members. We wish him a wonderful, successful year.

Posted by Joan at 08:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)