Feels like fall!

Good afternoon.
It's been another week already, so I better post something.   :-)
Here's a few pics of the house decked out for fall.....

And this week, it does feel like fall. High today only 78! It was 56 this morning when I walked.
But normal 80's will return by the weekend.
And here's the latest puzzle we finished....

A kind of fall harvest pic.
I'm getting my new puter figured out. Windows 10 does have some learning curves, but not too bad so far.
With the cooler weather, we've been having more patio get togethers. One neighbor is back from the summer and another one comes back later in October.
Had lunch a few days ago at the 3100 Grill, at our community golf course. Good food, reasonably priced, and I never get tired of the view. They overlook the driving range with the Sheep Mountains as a backdrop.  So green grass, trees, and mountains.
So, not much else going on. Just living the retirement life.   :-)

catching up.

Morning!
Since it's been 10 days since my last post...(where does the time go???)..I thought I should write something . The weather here has turned into fall. Temps in the high 80's to low 90's. The best weather! We've been sitting out on the patio, and visiting friends patio's. My morning walks have been on the cool side with temps in the mid 60's.
And here's a couple pics of a full moon we had a few days ago...

And then the latest puzzle I've finished....

I'm currently getting mail for 3 neighbors. One had a letter from the HOA. Her yard had too many leaves and she needed to clean it up.
She's lazy like that. Instead of having her guy clean the yard on a regular basis, she always waits until she gets the second letter. So last week, she got the second letter. She finally called her guy and he came out yesterday. It took him maybe a little over half an hour to blow out the front yard and bag them up. Then I had to pay him as he only takes cash. But as usual, she'll reimburse me when she comes back around the end of October.
Another neighbor should be back next week after being gone in their 5th wheel all summer. I have 4 big bags of mail for them. The other neighbor just left last week to go back to Ill for a month or so. Her daughter is having a baby mid October. Not sure when they'll be back.
Nothing much else going on around here. Nice and boring and quiet. And that makes for a happy retirement!   I'm sure getting use to doing nothing!    :-)

TGIF!......the 13th!!!!

Good afternoon.
I just took an apple cranberry pie out of the oven......

It looks good!
They had Gala Apples on sale for .19 a lb!
Yesterday, we had a pork tenderloin. I've had boneless pork loins, but not a tenderloin.
I've never had one before, because they are a bit expensive. But a neighbor sometime ago gave me one when her fridge died and she had to get rid of a bunch of food. I told her I'd keep it until she got a  fridge, but she said no, keep it. Sooo,  yesterday, I decided to try and fix it. Went online to see just how I'm suppose to do it. Followed the instructions which specifically stated that you MUST use a meat thermometer. Pork can very easily get overcooked and dry. I did exactly what they said, I seasoned it, and browned it in a pan. Then put it uncovered in an oven until the internal temp read 145. pulled it out and let it sit for 10 minutes. It was the best pork I've eaten in quite a while!  OMG!
When those things go on sale, I may splurge and buy another one!
Also, I went online a couple of days ago to pay for our cruise. The final payment was due on Sept 20th. For some reason, I went to NCL  and checked the current prices and found they had lowered the price of my cruise!!! Sooo, I called and left a message with my Cruise Consultant to see if there was anything I could do to get a price adjustment.
Well, I got this e-mail soon after......

You may not be able to see the text well without clicking on it, but it was a letter from my Cruise Consultant stating the price change on my cruise and adjusting it to the new price, saving me $528.00!. Nice!
I read on forums that's what should happen if I hadn't made the final payment, which I hadn't.
So I got very lucky there!
So that savings will almost pay for the 4 nights in Waikiki.
And that's about it for now....

catchup post

Good afternoon.
Well, I'm writing this post from my new puter.
I have a windows 7 puter and Microsoft is ending support for it in January. So, I've spent a good deal of the last several days, looking at new systems, since they are forcing me to upgrade to windows 10.
And since my other puter wasn't sufficient to run Windows 10, I was forced to buy a new one.

So I think I got a better one that my current one, and now I'm learning the ins and outs of the new operating system. And I think it's going to take some time.
Anyway, I made another batch of breakfast muffins late last week.

They were delish as usual.
Then, this month, we have free slot play for Aliante, our local neighborhood Casino and Craig got lucky and turned it into $50!

The casino, from time to time, will mail out promotions to card members. This is what we got this month....

I only got $20, and Craig got $30 in free slot play. Then, you can only use them on certain days. I basically get $5 a week, and Craig gets $5 every 4-5 days. And since we drive right by the casino nearly every day, it's easy to swing in there, spend the $5, and leave. Of course, the idea is that you'll go in, spend their money, and then some of yours. But we don't do that. Most of the time, we leave up a couple of dollars, or we break even.
And here's my latest puzzle....

And this little guy was on our garage this morning when I went out for my walk....

Now, I'm off to Taco Tuesday to meet around 9 of my neighbors for food and Margaritas!

New Orleans....

Good afternoon.
I don't know why it's taking me so long to post about this trip, but here goes the rest........
One of the first things we did on day 1 was walk through the French Quarter all the way down Bourbon Street, then toward the river to the French Market.  All kinds of interesting things and people. Then to the Gazebo Cafe next door for an outside table for lunch.

And our choice was a Muffuletta!

These are sooo good!

We also enjoyed the music. Came here another day for lunch also and had Gumbo, Alligator and Crawfish.
Day 2 took us to Jackson Square, the riverfront, and the Riverwalk marketplace along the river.
Day 3 took us bar hopping through the French Quarter and a lot of people watching.

And day 4 took us on a little Architectural tour through the French Quarter.

So many unique interesting buildings and courtyards.
We ate on balconies overlooking Bourbon Street. Rode trolleys and buses with our 3 day pass, which for $9 each was a great deal for unlimited rides. And enjoyed the festive atmosphere. 
For some reason I kept forgetting to take pics. Maybe it was because we'd been here several times before, and it still pretty much looks exactly the same. I guess a historical designation will do that.  :-)
We had a very nice time despite the high heat and humidity.
Our flight back was completely full, but left and arrived on time.
So we got there safe, we were safe there, and got back safe, so a good trip!   :-)

5 day trip to New Orleans

Good afternoon.
I suppose I should finally do a post about our trip to New Orleans.
We got back on Monday, and I've just been busy unpacking and doing other stuff. But here goes........
We left last Wednesday morning, flying out of Vegas with a layover in Denver.  I could not find a decent price or time on a nonstop, so had to do this. It was actually not bad. We had an entire row to ourselves to Denver, and again to New Orleans. Even though it was the same plane all the way, we had to get off in Denver and re-board due to a flight crew change.  :-/
I must say, the section of the Denver airport we were in was unimpressive.
Here's Craig's little travel buddy......

He calls it his good flight charm. And he gets some interesting comments from people.  :-)
So we arrived in new Orleans around 3:30 and got our luggage and a cab to our hotel. We stayed at the Wyndham french Quarter. On Royal St just off Canal. A really nice central location. We even had a view of the river from our 14th floor.

This was a carnival ship heading out. New Orleans also has a cruise terminal and a couple of different cruise lines sail from here.
Of course, no visit to New Orleans would be complete without a visit to the river, the St Louis Cathedral and Jackson Square.

I'll post some more pics, hopefully tomorrow.