The Bellagio Conservatory.

Good morning.
Can you believe? 3 posts in 4 days!
 Well, we've actually been doing something for a change.   :-)
 Yesterday we drove down to the strip to see the conservatory at the Bellagio hotel/casino.
It's a very nice hotel. Very posh. Here's a pic of the pool enclosure I took from a walkway.

The next group of pics were taken in the Bellagio Conservatory. They change it with each season. very elaborate.

It draws big crowds. But then, there's always big crowds down along the strip. Vegas is a very popular resort and convention destination. They are consistently at 80-95% filled. And there are 65,000 rooms just on the strip and a total of about 150,000 rooms in the valley. That's a lot of hotel rooms!    :-)
After checking out the conservatory, we headed across the street to Bally's Grand Bazaar Shops.

It's a huge outdoor bazaar spread out in front of Bally's hotel and casino. They have numerous shops and bars with outdoor seating. Grabbed us a table, had a few drinks and did some serious people watching. And that in itself will be another post.

is it fall?

Good afternoon.
As I mentioned in the previous post, I had to reinstall the operating system on my puter. One of the biggest issues with that, is all of the updates that you need to download and install.  When you have an 8 year old computer, there are a LOT of updates. Here's one I had a couple of days ago.....

That's right, 197 updates! And they're still coming! I just had a message that there are 9 more that need to be downloaded and installed. This has been going on several times a day now for a week!
But I guess I should be happy I have my puter back, and I am.
Here's a tasty dish I found that we had for lunch, ......

Cucumber, onion, and tomato salad. Really tasty! Here's a link to the recipe....
salad
And we decided to get into the fall spirit. Though it's hard when it's sunny all the time and near 90.    :-)

But it's a nice change.
And hopefully, we found a new dentist. We've put this off for way too long. It''s been a year now since our last cleaning. But with a number of recommendations, we made an appointment for next Wed.  I hope we like them.  
Other than that, not much else to say.    :-)

some flower pics

Good morning.
First off, I've had to change who comments on my blog from 'anyone' to only those with a google account. I've been getting a slew of spam comments. If you have a gmail account. you have a google account.  And you can always e-mail me with comments as some already do.
Here's a few pics from my morning walk yesterday....

This is a Texas Sage. They are looking really pretty right now. At least when they are pruned to look natural.But some people like to trim them as hedges....

And as with all flowering shrubs, I think they look stupid!

Sunrise over the Sheep Mountains.
The weather has been wonderful. Lows around 60 and highs in the 80's.   :-)
Had a computer issue several days ago. My puter froze while playing an online game. Couldn't get it to even start in safe mode. Ran Kaspersky's rescue disk and even then, it would not load windows. So, I had to do a fresh install. Fortunately, I was able to save all my files to a backup file so the only thing I lost was software. I've spent the last couple of days reinstalling all of that. But I'm up and running again.     :-)
So that's what's kept me busy the last couple of days. This morning is the weekly senior slot tournament. Haven't had any luck the last several weeks, so maybe today.    :-)

been busy cooking and picking

Good afternoon.
We've had a really strong cold front blow through dropping the temps down into the 70's for highs and around 58 for lows. Much below our normal high of 92.  But it's suppose to get back into the upper 80's early next week. So, to take advantage of the cooler weather, I baked a caramel apple pie....

It turned out delicious! I think I'm getting pretty good at this!   :-)
This morning, we went over to Gilcrease Orchard. It's about 2 miles from our house.

It's a really big place! Acres and acres of trees and plants. 60 acres to be exact.

You park across the street and enter through the gates. There are signs telling you where the produce is. Did I mention, it's a pick your own nursery?

The website lists what is currently available to pick. Today, they had cucumbers, summer squash, butternut squash, pears, Kale and eggplant.
Here's our take....

Some butternut squash, zucchini squash, and cucumbers. Got all this for less than $10.   :-)
And it's all fresh as we picked it our selves, though it's a bit of work searching the rows and rows looking for it. Apples will be ready to pick in October.  Now, you wouldn't think there would be an orchard in the middle of the desert, but it is!
 So, that's what we've been doing the last couple of days.    :-)

some more yard pics.....

Good morning.
I just returned from my morning walk. Breezy and nice at 72 this morning. 
Here's a few pics of the back yard after I made some small changes....

We now have a seating area in the outer patio in front of the fountain and around a fire pit / coffee table.

Planted some fingerling cactus I got from a neighbor and got a little plant stand for it. They should cascade down the sides and next spring have orange flowers.

We put chestnut fire glass in the fire pit. Looks very nice when burning. Will help to keep us warm on our frigid winter evenings.    :-)
And below a view coming in the backyard from the side gate. The Crape Myrtle in the corner has bloomed all summer. I can't wait for it to get larger. The bougainvillea vine is starting to flower again. And the spreading Purple Lantana has done very well. The bush in the pot with the orange flowers is called Bells of Fire. It also blooms all summer.

And for dinner, Craig cooked egg fried rice, with steamed cauliflower and spicy mustard pork cutlets.

They were yummy! And enough for leftovers.
I'll post some more pics of the other side of the backyard once the new plants over there start to fill in a little. But I think everything is coming along nicely.
Spent yesterday dusting and cleaning the bathrooms. We seem to get more dust here than back in Michigan. I suppose it's from living in a desert. But I'll trade more dusting for nice weather.   :-)
That's all for now.

post

Good afternoon.
The weather has been near perfect! Highs near 90 and lows in the upper 70's. Great weather for our morning walks.    :-)
We saw this little butterfly on our spreading Lantana the other day.

You'll have to click on the pic to see it. It's in the upper left hand corner. It was about 3 inches across. But pretty with the many 'eye' markings inside the wings.
I'm doing another small redo of our back yard. When I finish I'll take a few pics. That's another thing about being retired. I have too much time to sit and look at things.   :-)
But I'm not complaining. I enjoy puttering around my little yard.
We haven't done much. We did cut each other's hair and I washed the Jeep. It's really nice not having anything we really need to get done.  :-)
Well, I thought I should post something, so this was it.   :-)

our trip to Laughlin

Good afternoon.
We've just returned from a 3 nite stay in Laughlin, Nevada. It's just about a 2 hour drive from our house down to near the tip of the state and on the Colorado river. We stayed at a different hotel this trip. We have stayed at the Aquarius in the past, thanks to free or discounted nites, but we got a voucher for 3 free nites at Harrahs from one of our neighbors, so we thought that might be a nice change. Here's a view from the hotel overlooking the river....

Here's a couple of pics of their beach....

They have a small bay in front of the hotel, so they are the only resort here with a beach. And it's one of the larger resorts with 3 hotel towers in the resort complex, along with 2 pools, several restaurants and bars and a showroom for entertainment, besides a large casino gaming area.
Since there is a lot of space between some of the resorts along the river, they have a water taxi that goes from one to the others. We took it up and down the river to the various resorts. Eating and drinking our way from one end to the other.   :-)

This is the Colorado Belle. One of the 'themed' casino hotels. And no, it's not on the river, but right next to it.
Then one day we drove a couple of hours down to Lake Havasu Arizona where they have the real London Bridge...

They actually dismantled it and shipped it over and rebuilt it. It goes from the mainland to an 'island' in the river. They've built numerous bars, restaurants, resorts and shops along each side for the tourists.
Now back in Laughlin, we had pretty good luck the first 2 nites, but gave it all back on the 3rd.   :-(
Oh well, that's how it goes sometimes. But we had a nice time, good food, great weather, and a nice room. And, we got there safe, and back safe.
So as I always say...it was a good trip.   :-)

a short post.

Good morning
Weather has been pretty nice here. Highs in the 90's and lows near 80. Been walking every morning, although I've stayed clear of the golf course trails for right now.   :-)
Saturday, we made nachos for dinner.

2% cheese with 93% lean ground beef, tomatoes and green onions over reduced fat tortilla chips. They really are pretty good!
And one afternoon, we had our surveillance system on our TV....

Every Saturday Craig flies the Michigan State flag for game day, and there was just enough breeze to wave across one of the cameras since the camera is just above the flag post holder.

He flies it Saturday and all day Sunday,  if they win.    :-)
Sunday Craig made pork and sauerkraut.
That's about all I have to say for now.

took a little fall.

Good morning.
Another wet morning. We had some rain yesterday and also last night with scattered rain predicted today and tomorrow.  Bit nothing like the fires in the northwest, or the hurricane barreling toward Florida. Guess we did pick a pretty good place to retire. The biggest natural danger around here is a possible earthquake. But even that's pretty remote.
Here's a few pics I took on a morning walk Wed.....

A full moon...

And pictures from the path through our golf course.

The trail through the golf course is very nice, but dangerous! While I was looking up at the full moon trying to get the perfect pic, I hit a crack in the trail that had a raised edge. I tripped and went flying.
Fortunately, I didn't break anything. Just a few scraps and bruises...

I picked myself up, and was bleeding from my arm and hand. I made it to a water station and rinsed my wounds the best I could. Then I walked about 15 minutes back to the house. Fortunately, I didn't bleed too much on the way back. Got out the hydrogen peroxide and cleaned my wounds a bit better, and now everything is scabbing up nicely. The worst part of the spill is the last couple of days I've been very sore in my arms and legs. Obviously the tumble battered me in places that didn't get scraped. But I'm on the mend.   :-)
Yesterday, we went down town to the Friday Farmers Market, then lunch at Triple George Grill. Finally used up the last of the gift certificate we had. Then we wandered up and down Fremont Street people watching. I'd take and post some pics of the 'entertainer', but they expect tips when you do that. There are some really odd street performers down there.   But it's all part of the Fremont Street 'experience'.   :-)
Well, that's all the news for now......

that's it

Good afternoon.
Well, I thought I should post something since it's been a week since my last post.   :-)
Of course, the reason for a lack of posts is pretty obvious......not much to say!    :-)
We had a breakfast  get together with our neighbors Harry and Barbie on Saturday. They went to this new place and got some very tasty cinnamon rolls. We had those with Mimosa's. A fun morning. Then, on Sunday, we did go down near the strip  for a little Karaoke  competition at a small bar. It turned out to be a fun time. Some really good singers and some not so good singers. And no, we were not in the competition. Only observers.   :-)
Other than that, we've stayed pretty much home except for our usual grocery shopping for our dinners. And even that hasn't been very exciting.
We're having apple sausage kielbasas with coleslaw today. For Labor Day we splurged and had Ribeye steaks on the grill with store bought broccoli salad and  bacon ranch pasta salad.  Tomorrow, red beans and rice with turkey sausage.
So that's been about it.