rain....rain

Good morning.
Another rainy day yesterday, but fortunately, it didn't start until after my walk.
So far this year, we've had 9.51 inches of rain. Our yearly average is 4.15 inches, so a rainy year for us! And, that's helped lake Mead, our main water supplier. The vast reservoir is currently 9 feet higher than 2 years ago. That's a lot of water!
 Here's the latest puzzles I've done.......

And all the rain really brought down the leaves, as seen along Aliante Blvd on one of my morning walks.....

Had a nice quiet Christmas. We don't exchange gifts. I do have a couple of neighbors that bring us food, but we had a nice day. Cooked a bacon encrusted pork Tenderloin we got on clearance at Smith's. They are very expensive, and the only time we eat them is when we can find them on clearance. They are tasty!
Been doing some house cleaning and  enjoying retirement.

Yes! A balcony!

Good afternoon.
Cold weather has settled here in the valley. We had our first freeze 2 nights ago when it got down to 30. We'll be warming up a bit from that, but still colder than usual. But it's sunny and 57 today and Craig and I went for a nice afternoon walk.
Here's the latest puzzles I've done......

I'm cranking them out a bit faster as they are all 500 pieces. The dollar store hasn't had any new 1000 piece puzzles in quite a while.
And here's a pic of the ship we'll be on when we cruise Hawaii......

The red arrow points to the approximate location of our balcony room on the 9th deck.
That's right! They accepted our bid for a balcony room!
So even with the cost of the upgrade, we saved over $1000 per person over the listed price of a balcony room, when we booked the cruise with an inside cabin.  So, instead of this room.....

We'll have THIS room! And besides a patio door and balcony, a couch too!

Or, from an in room perspective, instead of this room....

We'll have THIS room!

And even though we really aren't in the room that much, for the extra price, it sure will be nice!
We loved having a balcony room on our Panama Canal Cruise and the Mexican Riviera cruise.
So very happy about that. I then was able to print out our cruise documents, and our luggage tags. I even got a beverage exemption!
I'm suppose to avoid caffeine, and so I usually drink Caffeine free diet coke with my bourbon. Well, Carnival carries that, but Norwegian carries Pepsi products, and we discovered on the Panama Canal cruise, no caffeine free diet Pepsi. All they had was Sierra Mist. And that was nasty! So I called my agent and asked if the ship could add a case of caffeine free diet Pepsi. The person from the ship sent a nice e-mail apologizing, but they are unable to accommodate everyone's special requests. But, she did say they would add an exemption to my e-docs and I would be allowed to bring my own pop on the cruise. It just has to fit in my carry-on. So I'll take a 6 pack of Coke so I can have my Bourbon and Coke once in a while, or, maybe I'll get hooked on Mai Tais!
And I'm slowly getting the yard ready for winter. I've trimmed back the Lantana in the front yard, rolled up the hoses and put them in the garage, and put insulated covers over the faucets. Just have to blow out all the leaves that have come down, but that will have to wait until after the holidays, as all my extension cords are being used for the outside lights.
Well, I think that's enough for now....

where does the time go???

Good morning.
Where does time go????
Can't believe it's been 2 weeks since my last post.
Anyway, here's all the puzzles I've done since then........

And after I picked the Thanksgiving carcass clean, Craig made a batch of broth......

Also, with the somewhat turbulent weather we've had over the last few weeks, we got to see some unusual clouds, like the pic below.

We don't normally see a band of clouds through the middle of the Sheep mountains. Usually see the tops engulfed or above the mountains, when we see clouds at all!   :-)

I've got the house and yard decorated for Christmas, and working on Christmas cards.
Picking up the mail for just one customer right now.
Still doing my morning walks. It's been in the low to mid 40's in the morning, reaching around 60 in the afternoon. With the rainy day we had last week, our rainfall total so far this year is over 8 inches! nearly 4 inches above our normal. And Lake Mead, where Vegas gets 90 percent of it's water, is 6 ft higher than the same time back in 2014! Won't have to switch to drinking Vodka anytime soon!   :-)
Got new brakes on the Jeep a few days ago.
Can't think of anything else! Later!