snow

Good afternoon.
We've just finished having 3 storms blow through the valley over the last week. Although today is sunny, it's extremely windy and a high of only 55. Yesterday was an entire day of drizzly rain. Our rainfall so far this year is way above normal.  'But we did get an unexpected surprise...

Snow on our Sheep Mountains just north of our community.

We've never seen that before. They say up on Mt Charleston, which is just a 40 min drive from our house, they have nearly 3 ft of snow! Glad it's all up there and not down here.  :-)

One of the things we did after the neighborhood watch meeting was to put padlocks on the utilities.  Right below the electric meter is a small door. You open it up and it's a master shut off for the entire house! n
Never saw anything like that back in Michigan. Apparently, would be burglars will flip the switch and come back the next day to see if any one is home. If the switch is still off, then the house must be empty. A lock just makes our home less appealing than another. And if I did come home to no power, I'd never have thought of checking the meter.

And even with all the rain, and cold, our bushes in the back yard are still green.
And that's all for now.

neighborhood watch

Good morning.
Well, Tuesday we gave each other haircuts, and colored Craig's hair. He also got a call from the insurance agent about the car. They said they would wave the deductible for repairs. That was good.   :-)
Wed. we headed to IKEA in the southwest valley, picked up a few glasses , and napkins. Then over to the Las Vegas Motor Coach Resort to visit with friends who were visiting from Palm Springs. Got to see their beautiful coach and get a nice tour. After visiting awhile we all headed over to Famous Dave's Barbecue for lunch. It was nice catching up with them and the lunch was good.
Thursday, we did a little shopping, had a nice walk and headed over to the community center for a neighborhood watch meeting. There were so many people there they had to find and bring more chairs in. It was wall to wall. The reason for the crowd was there has been a rash of burglaries in the community over the last 6 months and people wanted more information about what was going on. The head of our master community security company was there and the meeting was very informative. Thanks to some people having security cameras, it's been determined that 2 different cars have been involved, but not sure if it's the same people. All the burglaries fit a similar profile, and the police have caught a couple. It will be time before we know if all the burglaries are connected to them, or if more people are involved. But we have a good neighborhood watch and hopefully these burglaries are done. It's been really a quiet, safe community since we bought the house 2 years ago.
In other news....
I'm trying to get more fruit in my diet. I drink wine, but some people don't think wine is the same as fresh fruit, sooo here's what I'm doing....

So what do you think? Good enough or not?    :-)
And that's it for today.

x-ray vision

Good morning.
Craig got a call from his doctor about the results of his x-ray.
There were no obvious issues with the bones, so he believes it's probably  Dupuytren's contracture.

Dupuytren’s contracture

Dupuytren’s Contracture

Dupuytren’s Contracture

Dupuytren’s Contracture

Dupuytren’s Contracture

So, I pulled out the CD he got to take to the surgeon and popped it in the puter to take a look..... 
I added the red and green arrow. The red arrow shows the finger affected. He's being referred to an Orthopedic surgeon for clarification and possible treatment. But he did tell Craig that the base of his thumb is full of arthritis. Look at the end of the green arrow. The whitish looking area where the bones meet is the arthritis. Craig figured he had arthritis because he had the same symptoms as another stylist that was diagnosed with the same thing. But interestingly, it hasn't bothered him since we moved out here. Apparently arthritis is bothered by wet cold weather. We have little of either here.   :-)
And, more drama on his prescription......
You remember, he went to the doctor last Thursday and had a script called in. Went to pick it up on Sat. and was tablets instead of capsules, and $118 instead of $5.50. Went back to the doctors office first thing Monday to straighten things out. They were to call in a new script right away.  Went to pick it up again on Tuesday, and they had no order.  But they were nice enough to call the office and eventually got it. What a hassle!
But anyway, he's got his pills and back home we went for a nice long walk. Then I decided to wash his car.
Oh, and he got a call from the insurance company about the car. They are going to wave the deductible on the repairs. So that was good news!
This morning we're heading back to IKEA on the south side of the valley to pick up a few things, then meeting some friends down there from Palm Springs for lunch. They came up to Vegas in their coach for a week and staying at a motor coach resort on the south side. Will be nice catching up with them.
And that's it for now....

busy couple of days.

Good morning.
The weather has been pretty nice the last few days so we've been getting in some good walks.
On Sunday, a neighbor invited us to join them for a Champagne brunch. We ended up going to a local casino, The Cannery. Craig and I hadn't been to this one yet, even though it is the second closest casino after our own Aliante.
We had a coupon in our book for buy one get one, so the brunch cost us each $5. They had a pretty good spread and all the Champagne you could drink. We were there for a couple of hours and I must have drank 3-4 glasses. I don't think they had near the selection of the Texas Station casino, but that might be due to it being brunch and the cost of the Champagne.  But we certainly got our money's worth! We tend to overeat at buffets. I want to try a little bit of everything, and so I end up eating way to much!
Anyway, needless to say, we didn't eat any dinner.   :-)
Monday was a very busy day starting with coffee and heading out the door. Craig had to go to the west side of the valley for an x-ray on his hand. He'll need that when he sees the Orthopedic surgeon. But on the way to that office, we stopped at his doctor's office. When he went to pick up his prescription on Sat, They wanted to charge him $118.00! He asked why it was so much as the previous one only cost $8.00 Well, the doctor had written the script for tablets instead of capsules, even though Craig took his meds with him to show the doctor what he was taking. So, he called, and being the weekend, he'd have to wait until Monday. So he got that straightened out. Then we stopped at the x-ray place, He got in and out pretty quick. They even gave him a CD with the images on it to take to the surgeon. Now he has to wait for the surgeons office to call and schedule an appointment.
After that, we headed over to the Texas Station casino which was nearby. Craig had gotten a mailing giving him $10 in free slot play, so he thought we'd stop there and use it. Well, come to find out the mailing was a bit deceiving. You had to get 100 points first to get the free play. Well, to get 100 points could easily take $10 worth of gambling especially if you don't get lucky on the machines. So Craig said it wasn't worth it and we left.
Then, at 1:00 we had an appointment to get an estimate for his car at Caliber Collision. Wow! it was an enormous place! They must have spaces for over 50 cars to work on at a time! The estimate came in at just over $1000.00. And he doesn't think they'll have to get a new door. Craig's a little skeptical about that, but I said this is a big operation and I'm sure he's probably done 100's if not thousands of estimates. I'm sure he probably knows what he's talking about. So we made an appointment to have the work done. The earliest we could get it in is Monday Feb 6th. Like I said, it is a busy place!
So after we got back home, Craig got a pork roast in the oven and we went for a nice long walk.
The storms rolling across the country have given friends in Oregon more snow than they've had in decades. And the Rockies currently have 167% of the snow they should have for this time of year and several more storms are expected this week. Looking good for drought conditions and water levels. Hope it keeps up!   :-)
And with that, that's it for now.

I'm not normally superstitious

Good evening.
It's Friday the 13th. Not a good day for us.......

We got in a little accident. Some guy wasn't paying attention and hit us.   :-(
Fortunately no one was hurt, But Craig's precious car

 We were turning left on a green arrow. Apparently, the guy across from us decided to turn right and didn't see us turning and hit us in the back passenger door. The impact felt worst than what the damage looks like.
So, we have an appointment next Monday for an estimate and it should get fixed up all like new.
But we did find a nice vase for the kitchen counter yesterday....

And to help Craig feel a little better, I fixed him a favorite dish..

A cheddar cheese and sausage omelet.
Craig seemed to like his new doctor okay that he saw Thursday. I'll see him in 3 weeks.
And with that, good night.

blah blah

Good morning.
It's been 4 days since my last post and the reason is we haven't done much of anything.   :-)
Finally cleaned up the leaves in the back yard on Monday.
We went to a little cocktail party at one of the neighbors to watch some of the Golden Globes, but no trips or casinos.
Got a nice phone call from a former customer. Was nice to hear from her except she informed me of the passing of another long time customer of mine. She passed back in Nov. So, to keep up, I've decided to subscribe to the Lansing newspaper so we can stay informed of news and obits. It was only $10 for the digital version for a year.
We've had mostly nice weather with temps near or in the low 60's. Had a very windy day yesterday and rain is forecast for Friday.
For those concerned about all the rain and flooding, that's all way north of us. But all the rain and snow in the Sierra's  and Rockies should help to alleviate some of the drought. They are already over 100% of the normal so far.  That's of course if the rest of the winter is at least normal. We'll see. But it's a real good start.
My foot seems to be doing better, so I'm back to twice a day walks. We also hit the gym on Tuesday.
Today is Craig's doctor appointment. Hope he likes the doctor because he hates going to them.
It's amazing how fast time goes even when we aren't working. I can't really say what we've done the past 4 days, but we haven't been bored! And Sat. it'll be 5 months since we retired. Unbelievable!
So that's it for now.

A nice update. :-)

Good morning.
Well, not a whole lot going on here. Been doing some cleaning and walking, but not to much else.
Craig made Mexican Pizza yesterday. Here's a stock photo since I forgot to get an actual pic...

It's really quite tasty! The recipe makes 2, so we shared it with a neighbor. Her husband is recuperating from the flu and they've had a lot of doctor's appts. Got home late yesterday. Seemed very happy to not having to make something. Hoped they liked it.   :-)
We did receive 2 power packs in the mail we had ordered....

The small ones on the right we had. Got them a few years ago. They come in handy on plane trips. My tablets power tends to get low before the trip is done so they give the tablet a boost of battery power. The small ones are 2000mAh and the new ones are 4000mAh, so twice the battery boosting back-up.

They even come with built in micro charging cords so I don't have to mess with extra cords.
I bought the new ones to make sure we have enough battery power for the longer flight to Hawaii coming up. We both dislike flying, and the tablets sure help pass the time. I have movies, shows and games on them.
I also ordered 2 of these....

Jack Links Turkey Snack Sticks. We take these on our flights for snacks. I take them out of the original package, cut them in half and put them in a snack bag in our carry on. You don't get anything for free on most planes now days so we take our own stuff.    :-)
 I looked everywhere and cannot find them in stores around here. But I was able to order them from Walmart.com and have them shipped to store for free so they cost the same as when I used to buy them back in Lansing.
And my little Sony Cyber Shot camera is 10 years old!

That's ancient in technology terms, but it's still a great little camera. I've used my phone for taking pics, but I still prefer my camera. I know it's 10 years old, as when ever I need to recharge the battery, It defaults back to the original date and I have to reset it. I happy it still works!
I've also made my first doctor's appointment. It's scheduled for Feb 3rd.  I'll be going to the same one Craig has an appointment with. His is next Thursday. We had to download and print out about 12 pages of medical history and such we have to fill out before we go. A neighbor referred us to him. They like him a lot, so hope we do too. They say the first appointment will take an hour. Not sure what he needs an hour for since we don't have any health issues. These visits are just to establish a doctor patient relationship for our health plans, and to get new prescriptions for our meds. Will be interesting to see what takes so long.   :-)
Well, I guess I had more to talk about than I thought. But that's all for now!

Craig's birthday.

Good morning.
We were gone all day Tuesday, and got back late on Wed. no so posting. But I'm here now so here goes......
Tuesday was Craig's birthday. We booked a suite downtown at the El Cortez. Went down early Tues. morning, parked the car in the ramp, and started to explore.
There's about 10 casino's downtown. Most on Fremont St. We started at the farthest one at about 3 blocks from Fremont called the Main Street Station. Here's one pic of the interior.

It was the most elaborate of any we saw. Beautiful wood everywhere and the entire casino was designed to look like an old train station. We didn't gamble here, but spent a good amount of time just looking. Most of the downtown casinos are quite old, unlike the famous strip where they keep tearing down the old and building new. Most of the downtown casinos are original with some remodeling and newer hotel towers added. One of the casinos we liked most was at the Grand. It's designed to look like a warehouse with high ceilings, exposed brick and beams. It also looks a lot newer than any of the others. It's also 3 blocks off Fremont Street.
Most of our neighbors rave about this book.....

It's a coupon book that comes out Jan of every year. We picked one up on Monday. They are $37 and packed with coupons for most area casino/hotels. Coupons good for free play, discounts on rooms and food and even shows. We went with a neighbor a couple of weeks ago to the Texas Station for their lunch buffet. So many choices, and with the coupon, only $4 each!
So... this new book had $10 free play coupons for 5 casinos downtown. So those were the casinos we gambled at. When the day and evening were done, we were lucky enough to turn that $50 in free play to over $150! A really fun day and evening, and profitable too!   :-)
Here's a view from our room..

The area behind our hotel has many low buildings that someone painted on like this one with a giant lizard! it almost looks like it's walking down the street!
And here's a couple pics of our room....

It was very large and roomy with some odd decor...

Craig doesn't often clown around, but we did have a few drinks at this point.    :-)
We had lunch at The D where they have a Detroit style chili dog shop. They were quite tasty. And dinner was in our hotel at a lounge called The Parlor. Half priced drinks and $5 appetizers.
So, it was a nice day, we finally won for a change, and Craig had a real nice time for his birthday.

Happy New Year

Good evening.
Happy New Year!
Spent the better part of today taking down and putting away all the Christmas decorations. Actually took less time than I thought it would.  It's nice having the house back to normal.   :-)
Didn't stay up until midnight News Years Eve, but did have some neighbors over in the late afternoon for an early toast and snacks.
We've also hit a few after Christmas clearance sales and stocked up on string lights for next year. We want to add lights to the back yard next year. That way we can leave the patio shades open later and enjoy the lights.
There's been several sightings of Coyotes in the community. We haven't seen any on our walks yet, but most sightings seem to be near dusk. Not really surprised considering the large numbers of rabbits and quail around.
Well, I'm tired so off to bed.