Thursday, November 12, 2015

"The most fun time in the desert ever"

These were Nicki's words last night at Sons of Italy's Pasta Night Social at the Dolly Sinatra Lodge.  And Nicki and Stan have been coming to the desert regularly all their adult lives so that is saying something!  It was just so much fun last night.  Great reasonable food and wine and entertainment.  Even lots of old Elvis songs and since it was Veteran's Day,  everyone stood up for a rousing rendition of God Bless America.  We will certainly be doing this again.

12 bucks for soup,  salad,  pasta and meatballs,  lemon cake and 10 bucks for a bottle of good Sicilian red wine….wow…what a deal!   Everything homemade and excellent and served by volunteers.

Tremendous fun!








Our morning in PS today….

-Eric Norland photo

But we may be getting some powerful storms in January if this El Nino does what is currently predicted  so we are enjoying these wonderful moments!

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Powerful storm to hit Vancouver Thursday….

Basking in the sunshine today….hard to believe it will be so bad in Vancouver….


Canyon Sands Bookclub

It was just so much fun to be back and what a welcome I got as the returning snowbird!   Everyone elso lives here full time.  This time we were to discuss a book with something to do with food and to bring something to eat if convenient.  Wow…wonderful goodies,  wine,  and saki…and lots of laughs.   These gals know how to have fun!






Lest we forget



Monday, November 09, 2015

Itty Bitty Book Review: "The Woman Who Walked in Sunshine"


"The Woman Who Walked in Sunshine"  by  Alexander McCall Smith

I haven't read this series for quite a while but Palm Springs Library has a "Hot off the Press" section that has popular latest titles.  I've missed quite a few in between but thought it would be fun to read one again and it was!  One does tire a bit of them but coming back after an absence made it all the more enjoyable.  At first I thought,  "same old,  same old" and it is but he does manage to charm you in the end.

The Life of Verdi (Mini Series)

I picked this  up at the Palm Springs Library and we began watching it yesterday….bravo!

If you like opera and Verdi,  give it a try.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Life of Verdi
Written byLeonardo Benvenuti
Renato Castellani
Piero De Bernardi
Gene Luotto
Directed byRenato Castellani
StarringRonald Pickup
Carla Fracci
Giampiero Albertini
Narrated byBurt Lancaster (English version only)
Theme music composerRoman Vlad
Country of originItaly, France, West Germany, UK, Sweden
Original language(s)Italian
Production
Editor(s)Otello Colangeli
CinematographyGiuseppe Ruzzolini
Running time630 min
DistributorRAI
Release
Original release13 October 1982
The Life of Verdi is a 1982 Italian-language biographical television miniseries directed by Renato Castellani dramatizing the life of Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi. Castellani also co-wrote the original script with Leonardo Benvenuti and Piero De Bernardi. The English version was written by Gene Luotto and narrated by Burt Lancaster. The miniseries first aired in 1982, and was made available on DVD in 2003.
The production stars British actor Ronald Pickup as Giuseppe Verdi, Italian ballet dancer and actress Carla Fracci as Giuseppina Verdi, and Giampiero Albertini as Antonio Barezzi. Funded by a number of European national broadcasting companies, the series is an accurate portrayal of Verdi's life.
According to promotional material for the production, it was "filmed on location in Italy, Leningrad, London, and Paris...(T)his epic mini-series took several years to create, requiring more than 100 actors, 1800 extras, and 4000 costumes."[1]

Saturday, November 07, 2015

An elephant arrives in our neighbourhood…!

Big Indian wedding at The Parker next door.  The groom arrives on an elephant.  Lots of drumming and dancing….great fun!  Fireworks later tonight.









The bride….who we didn't see.






The ring bearer and his mom.









And I see Hal Castle has already posted some great photos of the elephant!








And there were lots of negative comments on Hal Castle's Facebook page this morning and rightly so.  It is no life for these magnificent creatures.   The wedding was a wonderfully happy joyous event and it was great fun to see it all but….yes….this comment from Tanya Petrovna says it best:

Ok I appreciate how people love the elephants and are commenting but you must know that this is horrid for the elephant. This is no doubt Have Trunk Will Travel, with many allegations against him. They hate to be driven around, it's horrid for their feet and they should be roaming 25 miles a day and be with other elephants. This elephant is chained most of his life or in small quarters. If you have any questions concerning this please contact Carol Buckley at Elephant Aid International. I spend a lot of my time educating on the subject, I spent time in Nepal taking them chain free and we still do it in this country, right here in my home town. I'm sick about this. Riverside County has banned having them on public fair grounds how did they get into Palm Springs. This is not a toy clown it is a living elephant and should be in a sanctuary. If you want to learn more come to the fundraiser in Feb during Modernism Week at a fab modern home for Elephant Aid International. Carol Buckley will be there to answer any questions. http://www.care2.com/.../9-women-who-are-saving-the...

Friday, November 06, 2015

Vancouver's West End wins best neighbourhood contest…

I agree…it's a great place to live!

http://www.vancouversun.com/vancouver+west+wins+best+neighbourhood+canadian+contest/11492307/story.html?__lsa=90ac-a2e2

Very un Canadian like to be proud of our country but….time's are a changin'

Love this description of our new cabinet members!


Feeling like one of the laughing men today…!



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-maze-ing_Laughter

This is the first year we've participated in the Canadian Snowbird Currency Exchange Program and our first transfer came in today.  Amazing….but it looks like we're saving about 10%.   I got 10% less yesterday when I changed money at the bank with our debit card.   In the past I've put money in our US dollar account in our Canadian bank in the summer when the dollar generally goes up.  That has worked pretty well but this year  the dollar kept falling so didn't do that.

A good way to start the day!


Thursday, November 05, 2015

A very fun day with Stan and Nicki

Stan and Jim played golf and Nicki and I went for lunch at Reuben and Ozzy's.  Now,  google is pretty good as I forgot the exact name and googled "Izzy,  seafood,  Palm Springs"  and brought it up.  Nicki prepared dinner at their place….yum….thank you so much!  We all had a really enjoyable time and look forward to our next outing next Wednesday for "Pasta Night" at Dolly Sinatra Lodge.  A night of pasta and entertainment….sounds like fun.



Wednesday, November 04, 2015