Joan on the Road

We have a new routine that is real pleasant but not too productive....going to bed late and sleeping late. I mean LATE! Friday we planned to go to Temecula to have lunner at the Red Lobster. Friday morning Jim rolled over and exclaimed...It's 10:45!!

Well alrighty then! Light breakfast, quick shower, one cup of coffee.....and then we paused. Hey! We're not on a schedule here. We can lollygag around drinking coffee, doing our internet thing and have our lunner later. Maybe it will be dinch.

I had birthday gift cards to use up so we didn't hold back on our ordering. We started with oysters on the half shell. Jim had crab legs and I went for the Lobster Lovers' Dream. Very delicious. I did bring the seafood linguine home for lunch.

Yesterday we played a little Wii bowling and baseball. Then settled in to watch some Olympics and a movie. I'm still working on my scanning project and am now up to 1991....yeah! Baby Zachary has arrived :) I am a bit worried about the pictures of former work associates that I can't identify. ...and then 2 hours later I recall the name. Guess all the memories are in the old brain. They just need time to surface :)

It is still really cool here in Hemet. I notice that Yuma and Tucson are about 10-20 degrees warmer. We are still in the low 60's in the afternoon. Maybe we'll "winter" further south next year :) Pretty soon we're going to have to adjust our "routine" and get up earlier, cause we are going to "hit the road"!

Posted by Joan at 09:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday was laundry day. Why, oh why, do I put it off? Once I get going on the project it's not too bad. I usually have two baskets that I drive to the laundry room. I wait until after lunch because there is no waiting for machines then. Other people get up and get going on their laundry at a sensible hour :)

Usually I take books to swap out in the exchange library (currently I'm rereading the Grisham books) and ofen I meet someone interesting to chat with in the laundry room. It's also a relaxing time by the pool if the weather cooperates....and it is a little bit of separate time for me and Jim.

However, yesterday while I was gone Jim shampooed all the carpet with our new Hoover Steam-Vac. Remember we got that to slurp up any rainwater leaks. Well we have not had any more of those but this machine does a really good job of carpet cleaning and leaves the carpet fresh and nearly dry.

Today's task is to find a place to store the machine. It's pretty hefty and may just wind up in the back of the van. This project I know will cause more cupboards and outside storage bays to be cleaned and reorganized. It's the domino effect at work again.

Posted by Joan at 09:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's been several seasons, maybe even years, since we did a good spring cleaning of cupboards and drawers to eliminate unused stuff. You would think in our small "house" we wouldn't have much space for unused stuff but believe me...it accumulates! Yesterday I went through my closets and wound up with two bags of clothing...one is holiday wear that can go to storage and come back next November. The other one goes to Goodwill.

So that was a start but it was tough. I know the rule is that if you buy a new shirt you get rid of an old shirt. Jeez...never did that :) Or if you haven't worn it for two years, get rid of it! But I really LIKE that old shirt...even if I don't wear it.

How can I nag at Jim to clean his closet if I can't do it on my own!!

Today I emptied out a few drawers and found a package of resistance training bands that I bought and for some reason tucked away. Guess I got non-motivated and hid them :) But they have no directions so I'll be searching the web for some training routine. I could add that to my Wii routine which I still need to get into the habit of doing. Oh Lord I am lazy.

But in my cleaning efforts I did find a Lost item. Several weeks ago my Printmaster program disc disappeared so I could no longer make greeting cards. I was really bummed and aggravated. How can something like that just disappear?? Yesterday in cleaning my wicker "junk drawer" I found the cd/jewel case stuck underneath the basket in the weaving. Now how could that happen??!! I was relieved to know that I had not thrown it away in a senior moment.

Now...what can I clean next?

Posted by Joan at 12:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

After two days of long trips to doctors for checkups today will be a lazy day of rest. Believe me, I am a master of that kind of day! It's 10 AM and we are just having our first cup of coffee :)

Tuesday we headed for Long Beach for Jim's eye check up. His macular degeneration condition is holding pretty steady. So that was good news. We stopped on the way home at The Olive Garden to enjoy one of my birthday gift cards. Jim had a never-ending soup and salad while I opted for "lunner" and had Seafood Primavera with mussels, shrimp, scallops and clams. It was pretty darn tasty and then I didn't have to worry about cooking dinner.

Wednesday I had checkups with two of my doctors, oncology and radiology. Both were good results and I don't have to see anyone for three months. We had another quick lunch at The Crab Cooker in Newport Beach. Oysters on the half shell and then grilled shrimp and scallops. Again...no need to cook dinner. I love it!

The weather has been just lovely spring temps of low 70"s with a slight breeze but I'm reading that we are in for another rain storm this weekend. California really needed all this rain so we are not complaining, just hoping that our leak does not reappear.

We've decided to stay another month here at Golden Village in Hemet. We can still catch the end of baseball spring training in Tempe, AZ, if we leave here the third week of March. That gives Jim time to recoup his energy and strength and gives me time to psyche myself up for travel again. I love it once we are on the road but thinking about it makes my stomach jump. I guess I'm not over all the stress yet.

Today I'll have to face the music and fix some dinner. I'll bet that Jim will want veggie soup because the temps are a little cooler and there is rain in the forecast. That's ok with me. Soup is simple, add a loaf of artisan bread, a glass of wine and turn on the Olympics. Sounds like a good evening to me.

Posted by Joan at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A dozen perfect red roses, a box of chocolates, Girl Scout cookies hand wrapped by the girls, a tin of carmel corn, a bottle of Gentleman Jack and the three most beautiful words..." I love you!"

Posted by Joan at 09:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We've waited a long time to hear these words..."There's no evidence of cancer!" Yippee!!

Jim had a CT scan on Thursday and the doctor called Friday with results. We are really, really happy. Of course, we know that CT scans can't see the one cancer cell that may still be hanging around. But we opt to live on the best results the docs can give us. We believe we are one lucky couple!

We celebrated by hopping on the bikes and tooling around the park for a bit. We stopped at a Rexhall club rally to chat and a lady pops up saying, "Are you Joan?...I read your blog!" I love when that happens. She actually recognized Jim and knew that we were in the park because she'd been reading my blog. We joined the group for cocktail hour later in the day and enjoyed chatting about travels and Rexhalls.

Jim fixed us a delicious steak dinner with baked potato and buttered spinach....and red wine of course. I just felt so relaxed and happy. It is an incredible feeling to have that invisible weight in the back of my head lifted and blown away.

The road ahead is looking better every day :)

Posted by Joan at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Yesterday was a 3 or 4 movie day...I lost count. We've been working on reviewing our movies and trying to make more space in the movie cupboard. We carry about 350 movies with us in thin jewel cases. Realizing that we will never again watch some of them we're doing a little culling.

We were in the middle of movie watching last night and I was washing up the dishes when I took the sprayer in hand to rinse and the whole spray head came off in my hand! Now what's with this?! I needn't have worried though because my in house handyman had it fixed in less than 30 minutes. I thought we'd be making a midnight run to Lowe's but Jim saved the day again!

We forgot to order propane last week so we're scrimping on hot water and heat. We've got the little electric heater turned up and we're just turning on the hot water heater when needed. We're not used to paying such close attention to these things. Maybe we should have!! Hope the propane lasts until Thursday or we'll be pulling the extra blankies out from under the bed.

Posted by Joan at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Traditionally, Mary and I celebrate our birthdays on Superbowl Sunday. Often the game takes second place to gifts, food and other games. But this Sunday the football game was really good so most of us enjoyed watching the Saints beat the Colts.

We had an "appetizer" party! Wow!! I think we had about 20 different yummy party dishes including Queso Dip, Pinwheels, Grape Jelly Meatballs, Teriyaki Chicken Wings, Hot Crab Dip, Fresh Fried Onion Rings, Fried Mozzarella, Fried Raviolli, Stuffed Mushrooms, Mini Piggies in a Blanket, Seven Layer Mexican Dip, Baked Brie with Raspberry Sauce, Chocolate Fondue....what did I forget? Oh...Sangria!!

We ate so much there was no room for the chili and cornbread I brought for dinner so everyone took some home for later in the week.

Mary made our cake, Meyer Lemon Cheesecake. Oh boy! Delicious! We were happy partiers!

Posted by Joan at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So far, so good! After 1" of rain the carpet is still dry. Can we believe it? We are knocking on wood. We are not high-fiving! We are holding our breath and hoping that the leak is fixed.

Yesterday was really gray and gloomy so I got into scanning slides again. I'm up to 1989 ...jeez, only 20 years to go :) It's fun though. I was scanning slides of some place in the Far East and Jim couldn't remember exactly where it was. One of our issues is space to store all these scans. We are up to 200 plus gigs of pictures. Yikes!

Jim's assignment is to review pictures and delete ...duplicates, bad shots, boring shots. I mean who really needs 10 pictures of driving I-15 in Nevada? Well only if you want to do a slide show and pretend you're tooling down the hightway!

Today will be more scanning and then I've got to get the crockpot chili started for tomorrow's Super Party blow out! Maybe today will be a good day to bake choco chip cookies, too. Isn't that what rainy days are for?

Posted by Joan at 11:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The celebration continued with a girls' lunch at the Mission Inn in Riverside. It was just on the edge of being too cold, but with two heaters by our table Vickie and I were able to enjoy the outdoor seating at the Mexican restaurant.

We treated ourselves to margaritas which came in huge glasses. Seems they were out of regular glasses so we got double our money's worth. Oh boy! Did we get relaxed. Then we had guacamole prepared tableside. I don't know why it always tastes better that way. We split a platter of fish tacos that were very delicious and topped it off with flan and coffee.

Of course the food really took second place to lively, probing, relaxing conversation. Like most "girl talk" conversations ours took a zig zag path. "Oh that reminds me of..." "Did you ever....?" "Now what was I saying?"

I met Vickie when I was a career counselor and she came in to talk. After probably 10 years, she is now the life coach counselor and I'm the "client". Thank you to this dear friend who helped me through some rocky times this last year. Love you, Vickie.

Oh,and while I was gone Jim put together our new Steam Vac and shampooed the carpet. I was greeted by a fresh smelling home and a pooped out hubby. We really got this carpet cleaner to suck up the rain water leak. Today is the test. 1/2 inch rain expected. Did we get the leak fixed? Tune in later.

Posted by Joan at 08:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

And let me tell you that this year's birthday was much happier than last year!

Naomi and Brad invited us for dinner so we got in a little playtime with Evan and visiting with them. I helped Evan make a torn construction paper animal, Perry Platypus! Evan has quite an imagination and is full of energy. He also made me a card and printed the sentiment and his name.

Naomi made Chicken Broccoli Alfredo which was very tasty. We topped it off with chocolate cake and ice cream. Evan, of course, had to help blow out the candles.

All my family called or texted me with birthday wishes. My Mom recalled the pain of giving birth but told me I was a beautiful baby (at 10 lb. 10 oz.)! SILaw Tom sent a video of him singing happy birthday! Thanks Tom! Grands got together to sing to me. I got Faceobok wishes and e-cards with sentiments that made me cry. About 10:15 PM the last kid checked in to wish me happy birthday and give me love.

Now that's a perfect day! ....and the party continues!

Posted by Joan at 08:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It's my birthday week...or month maybe! We've had a bottle of Moet and Chandon hanging around since New Year's that's been crying out for something to celebrate. About 3 pm Jim suggested we toast my birthday. Who am I to refuse?

After a couple of sparkling glasses he produced a box of See's Chocolates. Ok...Is this dinner?

Then there was a hard knock on the door and the UPS guy delivered a box from Amazon! Wow! What timing. Jim cleared out my Wishlist on Amazon giving me a DVD of Flashdance and two CD's...Anne Murray Duets and The Carpenters Single Hits.. Right now I'm listening to Anne Murray and Shania Twain singing You Needed Me.

Flashdance brought back great memories. We wondered whatever happened to Jennifer Beals. Was she a one hit wonder?

So the champagne is gone, I'm sated with chocolate and my visual and auditory needs are fulfilled. What's left? My fingertips are sensing the right keys to type up this blog and are NOT immersed in dishwater. Guess who's doing the dishes? I love these celebrations!

Posted by Joan at 08:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It's been awhile since I took a picture worthy of posting but this scene was a Wow! This is a view going north on Hwy. 79 from Hemet toward I-10. As you wind your way through Lamb's Canyon you get glimpses of the San Bernardino Mountains and then...Bam! There they are, but not usually so brilliant white. I took this on Saturday, Jan. 23, as we headed out for Tucson after "the big rain." The mountain view was truly spectacular.

We've not done too much since we returned. Jim looked for the leak, found a few potential spots to caulk, but nothing major. I'm wondering if maybe it just rained so hard and so long that some draining path got overwhelmed and water built up. I can only hope the solution is so simple. In the meantime I think we'll buy a little carpet cleaner/water sucker (:) to help out in case we still have a leak and, of course, to clean the carpet.

We visited with Renee, Tom and grandkids yesterday. I needed some family hugs and boy did we ever get those in abundance. Renee made lemon squares that we demolished in the afternoon and then we had a roast beef, mashed potatoes, green beans dinner. They requested that I make the gravy and I passed that test with flying colors. Life is short, eat dessert first!

This week I hope to turn over a new leaf, again. Get some exercise, do some cooking, clean some cupboards. I've been moping around, escaping in books and know that I need to have an attitude adjustment. Wish me luck!

Posted by Joan at 09:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)