Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain

Palm Desert is getting lots of rain. It rained all day/night Monday and again today. This is very unusual and it's only about 40 degrees at noon. Brrrrr. The heaters have been running so it is toasty warm in the house and I'm thinking about lighting a fire. I went out shopping for a while but it was too much trouble to pull my hood over my head to stay dry so I gave up after a couple of stores. I'll wait until tomorrow and finish up. I'm still decorating around here. We've got two trees up and one to go. I must have hundreds of Hallmark ornaments and this year, most are all up on one tree. The only ones not on that tree are all sports related and they are on the "sports" themed tree. The one that is left to do is the "Coke" tree. I was able to drag the tree in but now I have to clean the room that it goes in.

Only three days till Gary & Jen get here. Poor Gary. He has to work Friday night and I want them to leave early on Saturday morning so they can be here in time to go to an awesome Christmas party with us about an hour away. He's got a big group showing up for a Neil Diamond concert at the arena so he has to stay and make sure they are taken care of throughout the evening. There are no home Jazz games this week so that's good but the timing of this concert is not good for Saturday travel. We can't wait to see our friends from Vegas who will be here in PD next week and we're looking forward to Disneyland on Monday and Tuesday. Fun, fun, fun!!!

The Thanksgiving Feast

It was the best! We ate until we were very nearly stuffed and sick. I forgot my camera in the car so no pictures unless Riley can figure out how to send me the shots I took with his Blackberry. The day turned out beautiful with lots of clouds and blue skies but no rain. We had a table next to a window and we could see the waves crashing on the beach. I finally got really smart and didn't eat bread or drink more than one coke to start so I had lots of room for the five different kinds of sushi, crab cakes, cracked crab legs, jumbo shrimp and finally turkey, dressing and lots of mashed potatoes and gravy. The dessert table was spectacular. Chocolate mousse, pumpkin pie, little chocolate eclairs and finally my favorite, chocolate covered strawberries that looked like little tuxedos. In fact, the chef and the food and beverage manager must have known my weakness and brought me a dozen all boxed up to go. I think Paulette, the hotel manager must have clued them in.

We actually went shopping for a while Friday morning at South Coast Plaza. Didn't buy anything but it was fun wandering around. We're making it really simple this year, gift cards, gift cards , gift cards. We finally made it home in the early afternoon after being stuck in a major traffic jam because of all the cars trying to get to the outlet mall in Cabazon. What a joke!

The tree is up and I'm headed to the garage to get the bows and the tall ladder. New tree and step ladder isn't tall enough. Pictures to come!!!

Response from Sandy-Claus

OK, I am still laughing over your post Jen and decided to publicly respond. For those of you that haven't been to her blog, you can check it out and see why I have responded this way. http://mostlyjen.blogspot.com/
Sprinkles cupcakes......we can get them at Fashion Island in Newport Beach. And we can do that either before or after we eat at Pinkberry because it too is in Fashion Island. Now, the question is Ruby's on the pier. We can leave mid-afternoon on Sunday to head for the beach and plan to have dinner there on Sunday night because we have to eat!!!! That may be the only time available since we'll be at the Happiest Place on Earth on Monday and Tuesday and then back to the desert Wednesday morning. That means that we'll have to shop on Wednesday for the ham and make the scallop potatoes except that may not work since we have to go mall shopping on Christmas Eve day and out to dinner that night. Hmmmm, guess I'll have to get the ham in advance. Now I think that about covers all your wants from Sandy-Claus. The question is have you been a good girl this year????

Here is our Thanksgiving menu:
Hilton Waterfront Beach Resort in Huntington Beach is holding a lavish buffet feast on Thanksgiving Day in the resort's ocean-view Cielo Mare Ballroom. Some of the all-you-can-eat dishes prepared by chef Jeff Littlefield include pumpkin soup with ginger, winter beets with tangerines, Alaskan crab legs with mango cocktail sauce, fresh oysters, sushi, crab cakes, free-range turkey with giblet gravy, roasted prime rib with cabernet jus, maple-glazed pork loin, sourdough stuffing with sage and Spanish sausage, basil-roasted lamb leg, pumpkin pie, and tiramisu with amaretto.

I am sorry you can't be with us for this too but maybe next year. I hear it is even better than before. I will leave you in charge of Nan and the cookie making although I think she might be convinced to come over and help us. And even if we don't eat dinner at, we can always stop at Casuelas Café and get their guacamole, salsa and chips. Does this cover everything now?

I'm back

It seems like forever since I have blogged and I guess a month is a pretty long time. Jen tagged me to list seven quirks about myself. I've got to think about that for a while so we'll address that at a later time. We have realtors coming at 1:30 today to talk about listing our "other" house for sale again. For those of you that don't know, we bought a new house nearly three years ago and haven't been able to sell the old one. I am tempted to put both houses up for sale and see which one sells first and then live in the one that doesn't sell. I don't think Riley will go along with that plan but..... We could sell both and just go live in Huntington Beach which is a tempting thought.

I have kept up with everyone else's blogs even though I have been out of it with my own. I even got to break the baby news to your Aunt Marina Michelle. She didn't have a clue. It was too fun. I didn't get to break the good news about Carlee though Gina. She already had it and was really happy with the good Carly news. Jen - All I can saw about you is that I am so jealous. I'll be lucky to even get to one Jazz playoff game and you have made it to a bunch of games already. So much for having an "in" with the Jazz in the family.

I guess I should also say go Coug's to all of the BYU fans reading this, especially the cougarette in our family. Church will be fun tomorrow I'm sure as we have a cross section of Cougars and Utes in our ward. We'll probably even hear a crack from the pulpit about the game.

In case I don't blog before Thanksgiving, hope everyone has a great day. I am not cooking this year. It'll just be me and Riley so I'm headed to beach to meet up with him and go to the hotel for the fabulous Thanksgiving buffet. Eat your heart out Jen!!!!

Locked in the bathroom

Not a good day...for Whiff. I've been putting her in the front bathroom at night so she and the other cats don't accidentally meet up when I'm not there to supervise. I tried to let her out this morning and I couldn't open the door. Somehow Whiff managed to open the drawer directly next to the door which now only allowed the door to open a whopping 1/8". It was just enough of an opening to slide a knife through. I was beside myself thinking the only way in other than destroying my beautiful wallpaper would be to knock a hole in the entryway wall through two layers of drywall and the backing of the cabinet and hoping the hole was in the right spot. Riley....still bird hunting finally called at about 10:30 and my neighbor who was trying to help and I told him the very sad story. He gave us a couple of ideas so off to Home Depot we went. Our first plan did not work. Then it was off to Lowe's for a piece of bent rebar to slide under the door and up. We hoped to be able to slide it into the drawer and push it shut. Still no luck but Whiff's hero came to the rescue. Riley got home and managed to do what we had been trying to do for about four long hours while listening to Whiff yowl and cry. It was a very happy ending to a very trying ordeal. She has now taken over the guest room in the house as we will never again put her where she can open a drawer that can then block the door and cause so much trouble. If it isn't obvious, she along with Putt and Chip rule the house!

Past, present and future

A lot has happened in the last week. We had a really fun weekend with Gary, Jen, Troy and Marielle here with us. Marielle cut my hair and Jen's. YEAH!!!! The outside NBA game was fun to attend but really boring to watch. We did run in to people there that we hadn't seen in a long time so that was really fun as well.

Kitty update - Chip is just fine now, Putt is great as usual and Whiff has moved into the house. She is still a scared little kittycat - very jumpy and cries to go outside but she is officially staying inside. A coyote has been seen on the golf course so she for sure has to stay in the house. She just doesn't know how good she has it yet! I haven't clued her in that she'll be getting spayed in the very near future.

Now that the fun weekend has come and gone, I'm looking forward to and counting down the days till Christmas. I think I mentioned a few posts back that Gary and Jen are coming for a week. YEAH again! A whole week. We started a new Disneyland tradition last year with them so we'll be heading there again the week of Christmas. We'll probably stay at the beach so we're close and try for a couple of days at both Disneyland and California Adventure. Yep, we'll load the cats up and away we'll go. Not sure how Whiff will fare traveling but we'll make it work.

It's been a full day of sports. The Dawgs, the Jazz (both won) and then the ALCS playoff game. I haven't strayed far from the TV. Riley is off bird hunting so I can watch whatever I want and not have to hoard or hide the remote control. I love these kind of days!!!

Chippie update

Chippie has been on antibiotics for two days now with much improvement. He had to be at the hospital this morning at 8:00 to be put out and have his teeth cleaned and the anal gland cleaned and a drain put in. I just got the call from the vet. Due to his legs being handicapped, finding a vein is next to impossible and she doesn't want to use the juggler unless we have a really serious problem so no anesthesia today. His temperature is gone, she was able to get the gland all cleaned out and we'll do the teeth next week with no anesthesia. I'll be picking him up at 2:00 .

Gary, Jen , Troy and Marielle will be here late tonight. Yeah!!!!