|
| November, 2012 - AZ |
November 26 - 30, 2012
Monday, November 26. Happy Birthday to my little sister, Rene!
I got good news from my brother Randy that he is coming to visit in January. Yay! I will be looking forward to that.
Friday, November 30. Another busy week is flying right on by. It seems like jobs are consuming our days quickly and then, on our days off we hustle to get things done, catch up on our social lives, and stock up on groceries before the next week starts.
Jan invited us to join them Thursday night for a birthday celebration for Jim. I'm amazed how people put together an impromptu gathering and serve a delicious meal on short notice. We had a delicious spaghetti dinner with about 16 of our community friends and a great time.
Tonight we met up with some of our Wisconsin family - our niece Becky and her family; husband Ron, and daughters Brooke, and Elizabeth and their friend Dina and her granddaughter Michaela at Organ Stop Pizza. Although it was loud, we were able to have a very nice visit with them. After dinner, we went to the Mormon temple in downtown Mesa to see the Christmas light display. We were all very impressed, as it is gorgeous.
|
November 19 - 25, 2012
Monday, November 19.. Well, I still have a job - as long as they don't mess with the schedule that I agreed to, I think I'll try to stick it out. It really should be fun - it is a resort - and most of the guests are really nice.
We got a darling photo of Charlotte today. Check it out in the gallery.
Friday, November 23. Thanksgiving was very nice, starting with a FaceTime conversation with Ben and his family. Charlotte was wearing a cute shirt with a bird on it and was real talkative this morning. Ben tells me that she is so proud that she can get in and out of her little child-sized chair all by herself now. When she sits, she says "uh oh". We also got to talk with Pat before having dinner at Nan and Dale's house with them, Monica, Mike W, and Karen (Nan's mom who is visiting from Wisconsin. The food was quite delicious, as expected and we came home with enough for another meal.
This afternoon, we took a Miata drive to Tortilla Flat, a tiny burg to the east along the Apache Trail. The weather is perfect and we followed a group of collector cars along the winding road; a 1955 Ford, a fancy Corvette, a 40's gangster type car, and a couple of others. We had a burger on the outdoor patio and listed to some good music before heading back home.
Tonight, we were invited to our neighbor, Arlene's house for dinner. She and her daughter, Charla, really cooked up a great meal of roast pork with cranberries, creamy, cheesy potatoes, honey carrots, green beans with bacon and almonds and some of the best apple pie I have ever had. Everything was yummy and we had a great time.
Sunday, November 25. It felt good to just stay home the last 2 days, getting things done around the house, enjoying the warm days on the patio, and I even got some of the Christmas decorating done. The front windows are circled with white lights that flash and flicker (I've lost the instructions for changing the setting) and the little 4 foot Christmas tree is decorating and in the corner where Charlotte won't be able to get at it. Yeah, right. It sounds like she is able to get wherever she wants to these days.
|
November 12 - 18, 2012
Tuesday, November 13. I can't believe that just a few weeks after starting a job, thinking that it will be a fun and social kind of job, that the workplace drama starts. I learned yesterday that the manager (Joan) that has been with the company for 35 years was forced to retire. In my eyes, she was the easiest person to work with and definitely the most experienced and professional. That left everyone wondering how the change would affect them and who they would be reporting to and what changes would be made that would affect us. Today, people were stopping by or calling, asking for Joan and we didn't know what to tell them and many questions were raised. We also learned that we will have a new boss and that she will be restructuring and reducing hours. I will play the wait and see game for now but I'm certainly not willing to make too many changes to my current schedule or to put up with any crap - not for what they are paying me.
Sunday, November 18.. Thursday was more of the same at work and then I learned on Saturday that one receptionist has left and another will probably be leaving tomorrow. I will be having a meeting with the General Manager and the new Manager on Monday.
On Friday night, we went with Pat and Roger for fish fry again. Always a good time.
Saturday night was the annual Homecoming party in our community. It was a block party setup with live music and pulled pork or BBQ chicken sandwiches, beans, and coleslaw. About 100 people showed up and we had a really nice time. It's a real nice group of people here and they do like to have a good time. My hips have been stiff and burning since I danced so much.
|
November 5 - 11, 2012
Tuesday, November 6. I spent my day off cleaning the patio - it sure needed a good scrubbing and now that the dust of the summer haboobs has been washed off, it smells good and looks good once again.
It has been about 2 months since we have seen Allan and Sharon, so we invited them to join us for dinner last night and we had the Chicken Vegetable soup that I made. It got hot today, so we ended up eating out in the back yard to the light of lanterns. It was nice to catch up and spend some time with them again.
Well, our old president is our new president - Mr. Obama was re-elected. We weren't too sure when we went to bed last night as it was looking pretty favorable for Mitt Romney, but then it was mostly red states that had been counted. I sure hope that in the next 4 years, President Obama can make some real changes in favor of PEOPLE - like jobs and health insurance, not WARS or big $$$$ CORPORATIONS. They need to be penalized for taking jobs out of our country and the focus needs to be at HOME.
Friday, November 9. We joined Pat and Roger for happy hour at Val Vista Village yesterday afternoon. They have live music and they mix some strong drinks for $2. We met their new friend, Rose and she had some great stories to tell. Pat was telling me about this guy they met that was from Stoughton. I didn't recognize the name, but he showed up after a bit and it didn't take long to make a connection. He is a brother to 2 sisters, Barb and Bev, that took in 3 of my siblings as foster kids after our mother died in 1964. What a small world we live in. After happy hour, we went to Vito's for pizza.
Tonight, we got to see Ben and Charlotte on FaceTime. She was a little cranky, cried real hard after her finger got pinched in the high chair, but then she cheered up when her dinner was ready. I wish I could hug her, that would really make me feel better.
Saturday, November 10. I woke up feeling like I have another urinary tract infection - dang it! I did manage to get in touch with my doctor and she called in a prescription for me right away. I sure don't like taking those things.
I picked Patty up and we went to some garage sales and then to an antique mall. I wanted to see if anyone there could recommend someone to fix my dining room chairs. I do have a referral but the business is way out in north Phoenix and I was hoping to find someone closer. No luck there, but we did browse their 2nd Saturday flea market in the parking lot.
This afternoon we went with Pat and Roger to downtown Mesa's Old West days and saw a cowboy reenactment, some crafts and food vendors, a cowboy shooting event and heard a cowboy singer and a really good bluegrass band. Unfortunately, it is the coldest day we have had in ages (like 60 degrees cold with pretty good winds) and we didn't stick around for long.
It was a quiet evening curled up in front of the TV wearing our cold weather clothes and even turned on the furnace to warm it up.
Sunday, November 11. I sat here this morning thinking about all of the people in my life who are veterans, already gone and many still with us for years to come. What a sacrifice they have all made to give up part of their lives for us. Many have suffered years after their military experience, many were forever changed because of that experience - all have been proud of their service. Thanks to all.
Our morning started out quite well because we got to see Ben and Charlotte and we had a nice conversation with Pat too.
And then I got busy with my house cleaning and I think my vacuum cleaner is broken. It was making a high pitched sound and it started smelling like burned rubber. Mike changed the belt and it wasn't long before I started smelling burned rubber again. Ooh, stinky! So my 20+ year old Oreck might have seen its better days. What will I do without it?
|
November 1 - 4, 2012
Sunday, November 4. Our weekend started off with a Friday night fish fry with a bunch of Wisconsin friends; Nan, Dale, Pat, Roger, Norm, and Chris - we all went to JJ Madison's and enjoyed the best Wisconsin style fish fry that we have had since moving here. It was fun to share stories and lots of laughter.
Our community had their annual Patio Sale on Saturday morning and we had a few things to put out. Connie brought over some stuff too and although we didn't make a lot of money, there really wasn't a whole lot left over when the time came to close up. The organizers did a good job of advertising and there was steady traffic throughout the park. Pat was looking for a used bike, but unable to find one here.
The rest of our weekend was pretty quiet. We got some sad news about Mike's cousin, Rick back in Monona. His cancer is back and it isn't looking good for him - they are having a fund raising event to help him out with some of his prescription costs. I called and talked with his sister, Louie, and I feel real bad for what they are all having to go through. Their Mom's health isn't very good - tough times for the Coats family.
|
Created on 11/01/2012 08:41 AM by bridge
Updated on 12/01/2012 09:12 PM by bridge
|
|
|
|
