Catching Up!

Saturday we went out to eat, then to church and eventually to see a husband and wife duo who were very accomplished guitarists and entertainers.  They sang songs from Hank Williams to The Carpenters to the Eagles.  It was quite entertaining and I bought their instructional DVD for our grandson who plays the cello and is teaching himself to play guitar.

Sunday we finally returned to play mahjong but this week we  missed  Tuesday and will not have the clubhouse available on Friday due to the fashion show and Sunday because of the Super Bowl party.  So a forced respite of sorts.

Monday was our day to get outfitted for the fashion show.  I am wearing brown boots, legging type sparkly jeans with a pink rusched tank top, pink suede fringed jacket and a straw colored hat along with turquoise necklace, earrings and hat decoration.  Not my normal wardrobe!  Ted will wear his own jeans, belt and boots since he is so hard to fit along with their plaid shirt and beige felt cowboy hat.  Our second outfits are a bit dressier.  I have a black ensemble with rhinestones up the side of the slacks legs, tank top covered in rhinestones and a 3/4 coat with rhinestones on the lapels.  My black boots are decorated with silver ankle bracelets and I will have a silver necklace and earrings plus a black hat.  Again, not my normal attire.  Ted will wear their black dress pants with his own black boots, their fancy cowboy belt and black and grey embroidered shirt and his own black hat.  If anyone shares photos of us I will post them.

Eileen and Tom’s friends came in from Florida and they wanted to take them to Gonzales Burgers and then over to Mexico.  The burgers are huge and I finally got Ted to agree to a 1/3-2/3 share until it came to the condiments.  We couldn’t agree so I ordered my own burger and nothing else,  He got his with nothing but onions and ordered fries.  I gave it the old college try but got about 2/3s through it then took the remaining meat and gave it to him, he ate it all as did everyone else but they all ate fries and onion rings too.  A lady came in by herself and told us she had lost 100# on WW, had waited seven years to come back to Gonzales Burgers and came alone so she didn’t have to share.  She was such a delight and found she could only eat half her burger and hardly touched her combo fries and onion rings!  We talked about maintenance and how hard it is down here with the constant food onslaught.  I wish her well!

The day was absolutely gorgeous and it was a pleasure walking around Progresso as both Eileen1 and Eileen2  checked prices on Voltaren that so many use for aches and pains.  We stopped in dozens of drug stores until my head was swimming.  All I needed was hairspray and toothpaste so I bought it there rather than stopping on the way home.  Finally she said to take Jim and Tom to Poncho’s Bar and get then a margarita while both Eileens and Ted pursued the best price!

Eventually they made their purchase, joined us for a drink and we came home.  Our street was hosting an outdoor meet and greet (bring your own chair and drink) so we grabbed chairs and water and headed to the corner.  We met folks visiting from Cincinnati and the man went to Elder!  We talked to them for a long time plus Marissa, just in from Nebraska,  

Wednesday the other four visited the Basilica of our Lady of San Juan, a beautiful church and grounds with life size sculptures sprinkled throughout of the Way of the Cross.  They went back to Mexico then visited the Iwo Jima  Memorial in Harlingen.  It is the original casting for the one in Washington.  We took the day off and went to card bingo in the evening.  We had just started when the four of them came in.  They missed the first game but got set up for the rest.  I won a quarter game and got $11!  Good laundromat money.

Ted shoots on Thursday so the five of us went to Riverside Club to catch the boat ride that would take us upriver where we could view the wall from the side facing the river.  They were finishing up the last half mile that day.

That evening we went to Cheddars for dinner and we said our goodbyes because their friends were flying back to Florida Friday morning.

The big day arrived to a sold out fashion show crowd.  Red plates, black napkins and rose petals graced the tables while the models scurried around getting into their selections.  Ted had to use the men’s bathroom at the pool because the one in the clubhouse was blocked by a table.  It was a lot of fun and he was a good sport.

I think everyone had a great time.  The delicacies served on platters at the tables were exceptional.  We raised $1,050 to be used at the elementary school for such things as jackets, warmer clothing, tennis shoes, socks, etc.  Many children have flip flops, T shirts and shorts.  When the cooler, and sometimes cold, weather arrives they are unable to dress properly.  Despite the poverty in the school it is a designated Blue Ribbon School with very high test scores.

And today is 2/1/2020!  I have started working on our summer travels.  Some dates have been finalized so I can move along now.

Oh oh! Behind Big Time.

Tom, Eileen and I did go to Mexico and had a good time.  We went to Jessica’s to order our meds.  Arturo invited us to have a margarita while they gathered them up.  We decided to have a bit of lunch while we waited.  I ordered lonches and they ordered a taco plate to share.  We were brought chips and salsa with our margaritas, Tom ordered a second drink and after our food was delivered and consumed, they brought a concha roll and two cinnamon rolls.  Total cost $12!  We were entertained by a couple doing Mexican native dances in various beautiful costumes.

Ted came home Thursday after Eileen and I had breakfast with the ladies.  I don’t remember all we did but I do remember telling him I was busy the whole time he was gone.  We played mahjong on Friday and Saturday night we went to Golden Chick for dinner.  After church we took in a show by the Punch Family.  It was a good show and we enjoyed it.  Sunday was another round of mahjong.

Karen and Dave were heading this way Monday and asked us to meet them at BJ’s for lunch.  Dave comes to shoot twice a week but this was my first opportunity to see them.  I certainly haven’t done much cooking!

Tuesday Ted went shooting and we played mahjong as usual.  That evening Eileen and I went to Rowe High School to see “Into the Woods.”  The scenery, costumes, acting and singing were terrific but it is kind of a weird Disney composition of many fairy tales.  I had read that the Disney movie of the story has been panned and I think I understand.  Younger children would miss a lot of the message and probably get confused.  There were a lot of Retama folks there.

We missed another dance class Wednesday when we met Dorsianne and Gary at Smoked Oak to check its suitability for a DRV Meet and Greet in February.  We were very impressed and chose 2/12 for the group meet.  Now we need to get the word out.

Here is HALF a chicken plate.  It was 5 pieces.  I ate two, Ted ate the leg and then finished the other two pieces for dinner Thursday night.  I never saw such a big chicken ever, anywhere!

From there we headed back over to Mexico for the last of all our med orders and mine.  The only ones left now are Ted’s eye drops and his analgesic cream he puts on his back and knees.  I got to feeling poorly so we didn’t stay there long.

Thursday I felt a whole lot better and used my time to go to the laundromat and do three loads of laundry.  I made three different kinds of treats for our Fashion Show Tea.  I filled three 8 x 8 foil pans that came with lids with peanut butter and lemon crinkle cookies and haystack candies.  I then wrapped them in foil and put them in the freezer until 1/31.  Friends of Eileen and Tom are coming next week and I wanted to get the baking out of the way so we are available to run.  Monday is our day to get our outfits for modeling and then three days of visitors and Friday will be the fashion show.

I forgot to mention I finally weighed in for January at WW and just made it!  A .2 more would have had me paying for being over.  Now I have until the end of February to get that 3# cushion back so I don’t have to be so concerned about being over goal.

I probably won’t write again until after the Fashion Show!

The Blustery Day

Tuesday was a mahjong day while Ted shot at the Mission Skeet Club.  Wednesday was our first dance class!  Oh my!  It was fun but teaching Ted the basic steps is a challenge.  The teachers are very good and explain so much.  How the gentleman leads the lady, invites her into the next step, etc. Now getting lead feet to slide gracefully is a lot harder!  He is excited to be missing next week’s class while he is in San Antonio!  I may get to dance with the teacher!  That evening we played card bingo and 5 of 11 games were won at our table, but not by us!

Lorraine, Mimi and I rode together to Cracker Barrel for our Thursday morning breakfast.  We had over 20 ladies, way more than our 8 the previous week.

After I dropped my two riders off I changed clothes and Mimi and I went shopping.  I bought a few pairs of capris and a blouse.  She was looking for some kitchen mugs.  We had an enjoyable time discussing the  two books of Maccabees that are in the Catholic bible but not King James.  We both had to come home and Google who the Maccabees people were.  Even after all our research we are still in the dark.

We met Jay and Stella Friday at Ron Hoover RV for their customer appreciation day.  We looked around at some of their stock but they had nothing that was of interest to us.  We had a hot dog, chips and Coke before parting company and heading back home so I would be in time for mahjong.  I won a game but last week I was winning more!

We had dinner and accepted an invitation to “burgers on the patio” at Sue and Niles for Saturday night after church.  I had to take a dish so I made a grape salad since I couldn’t cook and be in church at the same time.  We appreciate our friends being considerate of us on Saturday night and setting their activity times to give us time to return from church.  We will just grab what we need to take and go right over.

The weather around the country was bad for traveling last weekend.  Tom and Eileen had to hold up in the FL panhandle so didn’t come in on Sunday.  Ted went shooting and I played mahjong.  Monday  I took Ted to Enterprise to rent a car to drive to San Antonio and Houston then I went to a leather craft class.  It isn’t perfect but my credit cards and license fit fine.
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When I returned, Tom and Eileen had arrived and were parked across the street.  They were both so tired I think they were asleep before 8:00.

Wednesday we three attended the Winter Texan Expo.  We collected all the pens, sunglasses, HEB coupons, hand sanitizer, tape measure, coffee mug, pillbox, cutting board, drinks, candy, etc. that are passed out with lots of shopping bags and ads plus had our photo taken.

When we returned, Eileen and I played mahjong and afterwards we took a walk to the mailbox and then returned to our own RVs.  Our plan is after my Fashion Show refreshment planning meeting on Wednesday, we will head to Mexico for the day.  Ted will be home some time on Thursday.

Enjoying Great Weather

We bailed on the NYE party and just came home after our dinner out.  We must be getting old,  our couches sounded too good to pass up.  It rained all day New Years Day and we stayed in.  It was a very nice New Years holiday after the pace of November and December.

Thursday was ladies breakfast out and I picked up Joanne.  There were only 8 of us so
I guess others were still recuperating from partying.  Afterwards I decided to go to the laundromat because Ted was shooting.  I hope to be able to go just once every two weeks.  Hopefully we have brought enough clothes to make that work.

Friday I put a rump roast in the crockpot with celery, potatoes, onions and carrots planning to eat it for dinner.  I played mahjong in the afternoon and we all discussed dinner.  Linda said they were going out for pizza and Sue was having tuna something.  When I came home the roast was not nearly done!  So I wrote to Linda and asked if they were still going out and she said no.  Then she wrote back and said yes.  We got in our car, got as far as the front gate and Sue wrote “is it too late to go too” so Ted turned around and the six of us went for pizza!

Saturday was so pretty and Ted worked with Niles getting things moved from their coach house across the street to their new house down the street.  Tom and Eileen are coming next week and parking on their site.  So they have to move their motor home, it will be taken to a dealer to be sold on consignment.  We ended up with a set of shelves for our coach house.  So now we have a patio set, two folding tables and the shelves.

We went to church for the Epiphany celebration.  The kings and camel (llama) followed the star moving down the aisle high above.  They were a little heavy on the incense!  When I got up to go to Communion, a man in the pew in front of us was looking at the football scores.  I whispered “who is winning.”  At that time it was Buffalo!  We came home, ate the pot roast that finally got done late Friday night and watched the rest of the football game with Houston winning!

We met Vivienne and John at Mission West Park to see a newcomer to the valley entertainment scene.  Advertised as the yodelin’ cowgirl,  Naomi Bristow was a mere slip of a girl with a big voice and a guitar.  She was terrific and we thoroughly enjoyed her performance.

Sunday was so sunny and warm I didn’t know if I wanted to spend my afternoon in the clubhouse playing mahjong.  But Ted was checking my car’s fuses and relays because the front blower is not working.  The A/C works but only the back fans are working.  The fuses were OK so the relay is suspected but no one had the #3 relay he needed.  He will take it to Ford Monday morning to hopefully get a new relay and that will fix the problem.  So I played mahjong and won one game.

Ted got up bright and early and went to Ford.  He told the guy what was happening so he banged under the dash and the blower came on.  It needs to be replaced but I needed the car so he came home.  We will need to get an appointment to get that taken care of. When I left to pick up my lunch dates it was still blowing!

I picked up four ladies with the fifth not going because she didn’t feel well.  What a crowd we had, about 25 people!  The day was beautiful and when I came home Ted had washed most of the trailer and emptied the tanks.

We had just finished  our dinner and I was giving the inside of the microwave a good cleaning when Sue and Niles stopped to see if we had eaten and if not did we want to go to Cowboy Chicken.  I thanked her but said we had eaten, maybe next time.

The Bachelor is back on but these girls are getting so mean and aggressive that I may stop watching.  It seems to be just a competition that they won’t know what to do with the prize!