Happy Thanksgiving!

I feel I have a lot to be thankful for...wonderful family and friends above all.

These scenes greeted me this morning...

The really "big" edition with all the Black Friday flyers.  Needed two elastics today.  We'll be giving Black Friday a pass as usual.

Soon to be getting into my bougainvillea matching bathing suit..

And I enjoyed seeing this article about Chinese restaurants hanging turkeys like duck.

http://www.sgvtribune.com/social-affairs/20161122/thats-not-peking-duck-hanging-in-chinese-restaurants-its-thanksgiving-turkey-and-it-looks-amazing

A busy day....

After our usual morning routine of reading the newspaper,  breakfast,  and a swim in the warm lovely sunshine,  we headed out to Palm Desert Library to pick up a book Jim needs for his current research project and picked up some DVD's.  Then lunch at Applebee's...they had a deal on two entrees for $12.95.  Jim had lime chicken and I had wonton shrimp...both excellent with rice and lots of veggies so very healthy.  Loads of shrimp in mine and I tasted Jim's chicken and I was amazed at the quality.

Then to Rancho Mirage Library to return DVD's,  then a $5 car wash which includes a free vacuum.  We often get a free coupon for a car wash from this place in our newspaper but one hadn't appeared so we actually had to pay for it this time.  Then to Target where Jim got a couple of pairs of jeans and we did a grocery shop there for things we needed.   And we saw one of our favourite frozen quick entree meals that you can't get in Canada.  These are really unbelievable quality,  perfect for two,  and are cooked in a skillet in 11 minutes.  Super to have on hand.

We watched one of the DVD's tonight,  "Our Man in Havana" based on the Graham Green novel.  I think we had seen parts of it and of course we have both read the novel.  We really enjoyed it.

I loved this photo my cousin, John, posted on his blog.

I love everything about this photo...the view out the window,  the violinist and how he is framed by the window panes,  the greys and whites and bit of blue sky,  the red lifebuoy,   the black jacket,  the rich colour of wood the violin,  the fact that the bow may have been made on Gabriola Island where my parents had a summer place and where we spent our honeymoon almost 49 years ago.

November 18th, 2016 — He played on the upper deck of the Queen of Coquitlam all the way from Nanaimo to Horseshoe Bay on today’s 3pm sailing. He’s not Joshua Bell but he is very good. No one who went up onto the windy cold deck didn’t stop and listen for at least a little while. I didn’t get a chance to ask who, what, why, but the story I like to imagine is that he was returning from Gabriola Island having just bought a new bow from ex Edmonton Journal photographer now bow maker extraordinaire Mike Vann and couldn’t wait to try it out on his way home.

- Photo by John Denniston

A lovely evening...

A wonderful sunset over the mountains,  a super movie,  and now at 9:20,  we could actually light our fireplace since there was just a slight chill.  Working beautifully and so wonderful to have a "real" fire that you can just turn on and off.

This was an excellent movie on her life and the actress,  Joan Allen,  was super as was Jeremy Irons.  Well,  no surprise there but we hadn't heard of Allen before.  It brought back many wonderful memories of New Mexico and Sante Fe.   Chris and Susan,  we remember our time together there and I'm sure you have fond memories as well.  You would enjoy this movie!

Early dinner at Tahquitz Creek golf course...

We were doing various household chores today after our swim so just grabbed a yogurt for lunch so an early dinner seemed to be in order.  To get the sun going down over the mountains and to be able to sit outside and be warm,  you need to get there early so it worked out well.  We split a Western Burger...even bigger this year it seems.   We both needed to use a knife and fork.  

From The Good Life France

The Christmas lights were switched on in Paris last night! They're sooo pretty! I can't wait to go and see them next week! 

Rain, beautiful rain...

We heard rain falling quite hard in the night but it had pretty much dried up when I tried to take photos of it this morning.  I don't think the mountains got any snow.   I guess every little bit helps but probably wasn't enough to make too much difference.

And if you got up early enough you saw this....thank you,  Eric Norland!

Lulu's California Bistro

We took Erna and Marvin out to dinner tonight here to thank them for all they do for us.   While I was out shopping today,  Marvin came in and fixed our outdoor tap,  got our washing machine balanced,  and is going to fix that drawer we thought we had fixed (alas,  not).   We all just love this restaurant and our server was extraordinary.  Erna and Marvin have had him before but this is the first time we encountered him.  Some people are just perfect at this job and it makes dining out so much more of a pleasure.

P.S.  On the shopping front,  I got three tops at T J Max today and the other day I got three bottoms and one top at Steinmart.    I'm wearing the top I got at Steinmart in this photo.

Jim and I both started with this amazing Vichyssoise.

The decor is so absolutely cool!

This campaign seems to be really taking off...

Well,  not surprising.   Since our arrival a week ago,  we have only been met with kindness,  good humour,  and good heartedness.  Perhaps we are in a bit of a "bubble" where we are but we don't seem to be experiencing much angst.  Mind you,  we aren't watching the news as we cut TV last year since we only watched the local news from time to time and we can stream that on our computer (we mainly watch Netflix,  YouTube, and DVD's from the library) and we are avoiding most of the negative news in the Desert Sun.

http://www.wcyb.com/news/national/the-mom-who-wants-to-make-america-kind-again/173875150

Las Casualas today...

Folks were really rocking it up today and we even danced after being encouraged by the lady in the gold hat.  She seems to be taking the place of the fellow in the red hat who was a fixture but who we didn't see last year.

We felt really lucky to get a place close to the band right on the edge of the dance floor and outside.  You can be a long ways away and inside.  We were initially told that the place we wanted could be quite a long wait and "first available" was 10-15 minutes.  We decided to do that and our buzzer went after 5 minutes and we couldn't have chosen a better place...wow...that was amazing luck.

We also hadn't seen the woman in the red shirt last year.  She and her husband were always there and dancing.   He had been looking like he had some health problems.   She was on her own and loads of people kept asking her to dance and she danced almost the whole time we were there (about 2 hours)

And there was another new "character" who I didn't get a photo of....an older very animated fellow who asked lots of attractive young ladies to dance and they seemed to love it.

 It was a very uplifting afternoon to see all these happy people having a great time and enjoying good Mexican food!  Literally,  everyone and their dog was having a good time....

More old haunts...

We went to the Rancho Mirage Library yesterday and picked up a bunch of DVD's.  They always have a great selection.  We watched the Thomas Crown Affair last night and really enjoyed it....quite an intricate plot!  We began with "The Vortex" by Noel Coward since we weren't familiar with that one of the set we picked up.  It didn't really have the usual Noel Coward wit so not surprisingly we didn't know it.  We turned that off after about 20 minutes.

Then dropped by Big Lots and picked up a few things including a 2017 calendar since they don't seem to be giving these away these days.  It was only $2 and is of Tropical Beaches so in this next year we will be visiting....well,  I guess you get what you pay for because they aren't identified!  Not like Carol's calendar of England.

http://mountdunbar.blogspot.ca/2016/11/calendar-world.html

No calendars of England were on offer but with the popularity of The Crown,  there probably will be lots next year.

Big hugs to my blog readers today....

Elaine sent me this today and this was my favourite.   Our visitor cat Oscar used to love lying on my computer chair,  on my computer,  interfering with my keyboarding....he never thought to do this.  I'm sure he was jealous and thought I was "petting" the computer too much.  He loved to be petted and on laps.  Dear sweet Oscar....he brought a lot of joy into our lives those years he visited.  Also,  we were away for months at a time and he sat on the porch for days waiting for us according to the neighbours.

Just in from my second swim of the day...

I love swimming as the sun is setting over my wonderful mountains and looking at the palm trees,  bougainvillea,  cactus,  etc.  A bit chilly tonight so finished off with a  hot n tub.  Didn't do a lot today....big shop at Ralphs....about the only place that has an equivalent of Balderson's Cheddar.   could be Balderson's...under the name of Boar's Head..."Canadian Cheddar ages over 1000 days".  We've been enjoying The Crown and will probably finish off the remaining two episodes tonight.

A lovely sky on our way to an early dinner at Elmer's...a good old diner

We seem to be moving quite slowly in the morning so don't have breakfast and out to our morning swim until lunchtime it seems so an early dinner tonight seemed like a good thing.

We always enjoy Elmer's for a casual meal and there is lots of choice.  We both got "lighter side" entrees although Jim's turkey dinner looked pretty copious and it came with a cup of Ivar's clam chowder.  I had the Alaskan cod and chips...lovely fresh moist flavourful fish.

The nice cloud effects come from the change in weather I guess....going to be cooler tomorrow (mid 70's).

They have some cool photos on the walls of the rich and famous.