2015 recap

2015 brought me good days, bad days and excellent days...That's how it went...


JANUARY - To the ER on the 2nd day of 2015, Marv needed 3 pints of blood.
Lizzie came the weekend of the 9th,
Bought an iPhone6

FEBRUARY - Celebrating our 50th Wedding Anniversary with our two girls :)
Crista came with a fiance visa on the 11th


MARCH - Tristan turned 17 years old!
Lizzie came the weekend of the 13th
Norbert said no to marrying Crista
Maarv passes his driving test

APRIL - My friend Lolin died the 11th
Sandy and Tristan came  April 16th . Lizzie too  :)
Marvin's 75th birthday.
ER April 24th

MAY - Lizzie came on the 1st, next day we went to the Getty Center.
I bought a new computer.
Lizzie came the weekend of the 15th
Bye bye Crista.

JUNE - Sandy's 49th birthday.
FC Barcelona European Champions
Sandy and family to Hawaii on the 11th

JULY - Colonoscopy July 6th OK
Lizzie got a new house !
Tristan solo trip to San Francisco

AUGUST - Lizzie came the weekend of the 14th

SEPTEMBER - Making arrangements for trip to Spain.
Leaving the 13th Los Angels - Atlanta - Barcelona
Glorious 2 weeks in Barcelona, Costa Brava and Sitges. WONDERFUL!

OCTOBER - Marv got  backache.pain on the 2nd
ER the 20th. for back pain and colostomy problems.
Lizzie went to Utah for a few days, sister's time :)

NOVEMBER - Lizzie the weekend of the 6th
Paris massacre the 13th
Lizzie's 44th birthday
Thanksgiving with Lizzie :)

DECEMBER - Lizzie, Sandy, Tristan cane for my birthday on the 11th :)
Sunset in HB
Wayfarer's Chapel the 20th
Passed my driver's test the 16th
My 72nd birthday the 17th
Lizzie came for Christmas :)
Christmas Eve with the Wann's and the O'Dells
Jacuzzi and magic forest on New Year's Eve


This year I read 92 books.

See you next year. I hope it brings us health, love, money, happiness.

need a new keyboard

my keyboard is giving up on me. i need to buy one tomorrow because..

...can't type capitals

...can't type te letter after g

...my spase bar does not work

it all appened today.

i was going to write a recap of 2015 so i will do it tomorrow after i buy a new one. tings look funny witout capitals and wit tat letter missing.

tank you mia for te lovely flowers, so pretty.

asta mañana

The Holidays

Our Christmas this year was nice and peaceful. 

Lizzie came on Thursday and helped me get things ready for  our Christmas Eve gathering. In the morning I took Marv to dialysis and took the huge box of chocolates to give to the staff, they are expecting it every year and they were happy!
 Marvin has lost some weight lately and it takes him longer to recover, but he was happily waiting for his brother and sisters to get here.

They came around 5PM, just Mary and Dewey and Bettie. Lee had a toothache and stayed home. Christina, Rick and Jameson went over to her grandmother, Iris was busy with her sisters, but a little later on David and his son came to our  home.

I made  bean soup, because it was a pretty cold day, by California standards,we got chickens at Juan Pollo with tortillas and salsa, we had different chips and dips, they brought a couple of salads too. For dessert Marv made a pecan pie, and mini eclairs. We had a good time.
Christmas Day was just the 3 of us (Sandy and family went to Marty's folks in Pocatello)
In the morning we opened our presents, I very much enjoyed the picture book Lizzie made of out trip to Spain, beautiful, and in the same vein, I also enjoyed a lot my yearly calendar from Sandy, this time featuring our trip to Barcelona and Platja. Other gifts were a pretty angel, coloring books (very popular and fun to color), an Amaryllis plant and more:)

After we opened the gifts, I cooked sausage and bacon and waffles for breakfast.
For our Christmas meal, I made escudella i carn d'olla which is the typical Catalan Christmas soup, it has chicken, beef, meatballs, potatoes, garbanzos, carrots, and marrow boners. It's a rich soup. We also had breaded pork and roasted asparagus, and turrones for dessert, and of course, some Cava.

Saturday, the 3 of us went to El Torito Grill for lunch. It was very tasty. Then we came home and just rested and watched TV. We had leftovers for dinner.
Sunday Marv had dialysis (changed the days because of the holidays) Lizzie took him and then we went out to lunch to El Chile Verde. Then she left to San Diego. Thanks Lizzie for spending some quality time with the seniors ;)
When Marvin got home, he was not feeling too well, The rest of Sunday was just restful.

I hope you all had a great Christmas!

Just 5 more days for the new year!

Bon Nadal-Merry Christmas

To all my family and friends 

Have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year 2016

My Birthday

Today is my birthday, Nothing special happened. Drove M to dialysis, went to the Library, went to the ophtalmologist. Stopped for a green chile burrito for lunch, checked Facebook and read the Happy Birthday greetings :)  Watched the final of Top Chef Spain, went to pick up M. washed dishes, fixed dinner (steak with green beans and mashed potatoes for M and sausage with peppers and onions over pasta for me). The girls and Tristan texted me Happy Birthday and Lizzie & Sandy called. Now I am  writing this.

BUT, the celebration for my birthday was 6 days ago!
My daughters and Tristan  came home to stay for a few days :)  It was really nice and we had fun. Lizzie brought me my favorite chocolate cake from San Diego, and I made pork escalopas for dinner ..
Saturday the girls took M to dialysis, and then we went to El Cholo and they treated me to lunch (and Margarita). T decided to stay home. After they went to get M, the 3 of us went to Huntington Beach to watch the sunset as per my request. It was lovely and we enjoyed it very much. I also bought myself a sunflower lawn ornament .

The next day Sunday, was also a beautiful Southern California  day. Lizzie had suggested we go on a little side trip and checked several places, it was decided we'd go to The Wayfarer's Chapel in Rancho Palos Verdes. It was a great choice and I was excited because we had never been there.
It's a magical place in a really gorgeous setting. We loved everything about it.

                                                      Catalina Island in the background

Afterwards we went to Black Angus for lunch. M and T had gone to Panda Express earlier for lunch. Then we came home and watched sports and Christmas movies. I made canalones for dinner :)

We were sad to see them leave on Monday, the house was quiet, even Lulu was sad, but we had  had some fun filled days while they were here. :)

I passed!!!

Just a quick note to say I passed my driving test, both the written exam and the vision test, and let me tell you I was a bit worried!

So I am happy and relieved. YAY me!

Christmas decorations

It's almost a tradition that the day after Thanksgiving people start putting out Christmas decorations, both inside and outside their homes.

Both my neighbors right and left of me did that. Last year the ones on my right  offered to put up our lights, but not this year. They are still not talking to me because I complained about their barking dogs. They have been really rude and ignorant about the whole thing.

Norbert probably could put the lights, but I am tired of having them up and then having to put them down again. So this year we bought the Star Showers. I am sure you have seen it advertised on TV, and maybe I told you about it already.

We got it in the mail today from Amazon. We tried it on inside and it is really very pretty all the little red and green lights. I guess they are very popular because in most stores they have sold out. We'll see how they look outside :)

We have had very nice weather lately, after a semi cold spell. At night, the houses look so pretty with lights and Santa etc. But in the daytime it looks very sad. I remember when we were living in Idaho, the decorations and outdoor lights were just very pretty, day and night. Here not so much.

You all know I don't like shopping, so this year I decided it will be Chrismoney instead of presents. Since I came back from Spain, Marv has been having back problems and other problems, and I haven't been feeling like doing much of anything.  

But I bought a Christmas wreath for the door :)

I have no idea why it is sideways!

Of guns and laws

I was not going to write about the past terrible events, but since the girls had an opinion, I will give mine too. By the way, it's great you two keep on blogging even when is not OBLOPOMO or however you spell it :)

I don't like guns, I have never owned one or even held one (I do have an old old rusty BB gun Dewey gave me because is the same type the kid wanted so bad in the movie A Christmas Story). We've never had a gun in the house, although I seem to remember at one point Marvin had one but not for long. My friend Norbert has a few guns he bought in Vegas, he keeps one in his ttruck when he goes camping and traveling with his sister. I remember when Kevin lived in UT for a while with Sandy and family, he was in the reserves and he had guns, I was always asking Sandy  that I hoped they put them away someplace where T when he was a little boy, couldn't get to it.

But the Second Amendment of the Constitution says you have the right to keep and bear arms.

I think that more laws are not going to help. California is the State in the US with the strictest gun laws , Illinois also has strict laws . The most lenient States are Utah and also Vermont.

If they ban guns altogether, we'll have even more crime -look what happened during Prohibition and what's happening now with the drug cartels-  And the worst thing is, criminals will always find a way to get guns.

When shootings happen the President always talks about more gun control, but in the San Bernardino massacre, which is an act of terrorism, he has remained quiet. I wish he would speak and say  the American government is on top of it and try to calm the fears of the people. But that's another story.

Be kind to one another.