December Recap

 I will do a quick recap of December, and later I will do a recap of 2020. 

The month started with some appliances needing replacement: New refrigerator, and new water heater. I also had to have my kitchen sink unclogged.

We decorated the house inside and Norbert came and put the lights outside. All is merry and bright. We also drove around to see the decorations around the neighborhood.

There were some celestial happenings: The great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn during the winter solstice, a meteor shower,full moon on Dec 29 called The Wolf Moon. And weather-wise, we had a GREAT storm on the last week of 2020. Thunder, lightning, hail storm. Very rare. We also had some 85F days.

It was also the month of my 78th birthday, December 17th. That makes me a full-fledged senior citizen ;) I had face to face calls from Mia, Nuri , Sonia and Sandy. Very nice.

We had a nice Christmas the 3 of us. We enjoy gardening daily,(my new garden of succulents are thriving) talking to Sandy on Mondays, It was fun getting presents for both my birthday and Christmas. Thank you girls!

MOVIES I'VE WATCHED IN DECEMBER

BOOKS I'VE READ IN DECEMBER

I didn't reach my goal of reading 77 books, I made it to 75

Goodbye 2020 - Welcome 2021

Sunset and Full Moon

 Ever since the pandemic started to be noticed by me, in March 2020, I have hardly gone anywhere. Just to the grocery store (Trader Joe's mainly) and to some other stores. And to get some take out food, many times. I have also drive around town and walked the dog daily. But that's about it.

I have missed going to the beach. So today I told Lizzie that I wanted to go watch the sunset before the end of the year. Sunset now is at 4:50PM, so we left at 4:09 because I had to get a few last minute things, and drove all the way down Valley View. There was a delay in the traffic and we got down to Sunset Beach just at the nick of time to see the sunset. It was gorgeous,you could see Catalina Island very clearly, blue skies, and bright orange as the sun disappeared in the horizon. I was happy.

When we were driving back home, we saw a very bright full moon above us. It was magical. I took a picture of the full moon as seen thru our backyard pergola, which was decorated with Christmas lights.

 

SERENDIPITY

My birthday :)

  I turned 77 years old last December 17. I guess I'm a very senior citizen now! 

When I turned 75, my daughters had a surprise for me, we were going to spend a few days in Savannah, GA, it was a city I had always liked to visit and I was not disappointed. We also went to Charleston and Tybee Island.We enjoyed a lovely stay, great cities, good food (at a beautiful Restaurant on my day), great company!

When I turned 76 last year, they had another great thing planned. We stayed in a very nice hotel in San Diego, with views of the Bay, and went to the Star of India for a great show. Lizzie read a poem and we met all the musicians etc. It was a fun time. We had my birthday dinner at  Ruth Chris's Restaurant and it was incredible

This year, well. We are having a pandemic. We are advised not to travel, restaurants are closed. Sandy wanted to fly down but couldn't because of these circumstances. So it was Lizzie and me, and Lulu. We thought we could go to La Huasteca (I love their Margaritas) but  no outside dining. So we had a steak dinner from Blue Apron, with Freixenet Cava, and chocolate cake. It was very nice. 

My sister Mia called me from Sweden and we had a nice talk, she's looking very well. Then my niece Monica and my sister Nuri called me from San Feliu de Guixols, and as usual, we had a pretty chaotic conversation, Sonia also called, and of course Sandy called too :)  

I had very nice gifts. Sandy gifted me with a DIY succulent garden, that was fun to put together, Lizzie gave me some toe socks, I've been wanting some of them for a while, so fun. An address, internet book, very needed, some yummy cookies and a lovely birthday candle.

Hopefully next year the pandemic will be over and we can spend my 78th together in some cool place :)

Thank you girls!!! :)

November Recap

 November went by fast. Still in the middle of the pandemic that has no sign of slowing down.

The main news was the Presidential election. I'm not getting into politics, but it seems like Biden is going to be the president-elect, although it has not been made official yet. 

Lizzie had a birthday but because of Covid, we couldn't celebrate properly. I cooked for dinner her favorite things, breaded pork with cheese, all I oli and asparagus. It was a nice day. She got a new tennis racket too :)

There's been all kinds of weather this month, from hot 98F yo pretty chilly in the high 40's, to very windy. But no rain and mainly mild days and cool nights. And sunny.

Thanksgiving was nontraditional. We decided on a Mexican meal from Reventaco, it was good and satisfying. Our next-door neighbor gave us some cookies and a pumpkin pier, we also bought a pecan pie.

We talk to Sandy every Monday and it's so nice to at least be able to see her and get some peeks of Tristan and Marty, and of course, Mac.

We had to replace our refrigerator, basically we got a clone of the one we had, that was Lizzie and my Christmas gift to each other.

MOVIES I'VE WATCHED THIS MONTH

BOOKS I'VE READ THIS MONTH

Wishing you all a great December

A week in November

 This week has been pretty busy so far.

At least I have been out to a couple of stores. First one was Loew's and we bought a new refrigerator. I told Lizzie that since my birthday is a week before Christmas, Marvin usually got me a nice birthday present (it was jewelry for the last few years) and then for Christmas instead of getting presents for each other, we got something for the house instead. I asked her what she thought about it, and she said it sounded fine with her, I asked her what did she think we needed or wanted and right away she said, we need a new refrigerator!

My refrigerator was about 15-20 years old, it was still working and keeping things cold, but it was extremely noisy, sometimes it was so noisy we couldn't even talk when we were sitting eating dinner, it sounded like a bunch of crickets chirping loudly. FUN FACT: as we were talking about replacing it, for the last 3 days before we bought the new one, the old refrigerator became pretty quiet.

Now the new one is almost exactly the same as the old one because it had to fit in the platform in the kitchen. And that was about the only one that did at an affordable price. The next day Tuesday, they brought the new one and took the old one. It seems to make a noise similar to the old one but muted. We think is because it may not sit completely flat on the platform.

Today my neighbor Amy brought us some butter-rosemary cookies, very good. She gave me the recipe, then later on she brought us a Costco Pumpkin pie. They had bought one at  Costco the day before and today they got another one from the place her husband works, so she gave it to us. 

Happy Birthday Lizzie

I hope you had a nice day. Love you!

 

Lulu

 After a very hot summer and fall, the weather is getting to be quite chilly in the early morning and after sunset but stays mild and nice in the daytime.

Lulu had a haircut last Saturday, she really needed it. I think it had been 5 months since her last visit to the salon. She looked like a little bear.

She had to have her hair cut very short because it was matted, and hard to brush. 

When she came home from doggy salon she looked happy and perky but at night she came to my room after her nightly walk, and she was shaking a little, I think she was cold.

On Tuesday, I stopped at Marshalls to try to find a little sweater that she could wear for her night walk. I never liked dogs or cats wearing outfits I think they look ridiculous ( it goes back to the time I was a teenager going to school in Barcelona, and a famous gypsy singer and dancer lived in the building next to my school and she had a chihuahua that wore a different outfit every day, she even had a yellow raincoat with a hat and boots to match. I'm sad to say we made fun of the poor animal, and her owner, La Chunga, hated us)

I found a little flannel onesie with festive candy cane decorations and I hoped she liked it. My neighbor Amy had gifted Lulu a bee Halloween costume and she seemed happy wearing it. 

We tried it on and she was happy!!! She looked very fashionable and grateful.

 

Lizzie thinks she looks adorable...

...I agree :)

Oh God / Dios mio

 After reading Sandy's blog, I pondered about what she wrote and decided to share my thoughts.

I was raised Catholic, my mother and grandmother and my sister and I went to Mass every Sunday and holidays, my dad not so often.  Marvin's parents were Baptists and very active in their church, Bettie also went to church with them. Marvin, Mary and Dewey not so much.

When we had our daughters, I had them both baptized in the Catholic church, but I had a pretty bad experience with the priests in the US so we didn't attend church. I told both of them that when they were older they could choose what religion, if any, they wanted to follow.

Ever since I was a little girl I have said my prayers every night. As I grew older, it was more like a recap of my day, and always included a prayer of thanks for good health, good life, or it was a prayer for help during some bad times. It comforted me. It is a bit of a ritual I have every night, it's changed thru the times. Interestingly enough my prayers or thoughts or recaps, whatever you may want to call them, are always in Spanish and catalan.

I have always thought I have a guardian angel, metaphorically speaking. When I am under stress or feel anxious, I do talk to "it" and it helps. Sounds weird maybe but it works for me. 

To get back to her post, I think most everybody uses the term Oh God! as an exclamation more so than in a religious sense.

thankful and grateful

 I sort of knew I was not going to write every day. Mostly because of laziness, and also because I don't have anything interesting to write about.

Then there's the grateful and thankful thingie that Sandy wrote about, but I'll try.

I am thankful that we finished working on the front lawn area by the picket fence, it looks much better now.  And I am grateful to Lizzie for all the work she put on it, she did a good job! Did I do it right? lol

I will put some pictures tomorrow to show you how it looks.

Today it was really hot, about 90 degrees, but they are forecasting rain for the weekend. I hope so.

Here's a Fall tag I made anticipating a rainy weekend.

Love you all :)

Thankful

 My oldest daughter said she was going to write on her blog daily this month, she wants to write about things she's thankful for every day.

So I thought I'd give it a try although I will probably not write everyday.

Today was a lovely day weather-wise. I did some gardening, took a shower, had a nice breakfast (sugar donut), Just a nice Sunday.

We just changed to DST and it gets darker one hour earlier, I watered the lawn and I did take Lulu for a little walk around 5PM , the neighbor kids came over and played with her and she was so happy -she loves people-

There was a beautiful sunset, the temperature was mild, I wore a shift with short sleeves. My neighbor Jose was out washing his car and he said, isn't it a lovely evening? I said it indeed was lovely and we agreed we would love to have every day be like this.

While I was outside with Lulu, Lizzie was cooking dinner. We had a nice meal from Blue Apron, steak with carrots and mashed potatoes, and we shared a bottle of Pinot Grigio

Later on, Lizzie, Lulu and I went for a walk again, the moon was coming out. I could see reddish Mars  and Jupiter and Saturn shining brightly in Saggitarius (My sign). This picture is from my Sky View Lite app.

When we got home, I took a picture of the moon, still full and surrounded by clouds.

I am thankful for a very lovely day

October Recap

 Another weird month!

There was a weird date in October.. 10.10.2020

There was a full moon on Halloween

There was a conjuction of Jupiter and Saturn, and Mars was very close to the Moon.

I went to the dentist!!!

Lulu had her 9th birthday this month, but sometimes she thinks she's a puppy.

Los Angeles basketball and baseball teams got lucky

Next month will be weird too, Presidential election. Trump or Biden, roll of the dice.

MOVIES I'VE WATCHED IN OCTOBER

And many Netflix series:  Merli (Catalan) Emily in Paris, Rita..etc

BOOKS I'VE READ IN OCTOBER

Goodbye October, Hello November

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Musical Friday

 Nothing much going on, so I will post the latest Tik Tok dance challenge, it's very catchy. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32QsuHZ_bY0

It's by OMEGA (Dominican singer)

Pegao

Me miró y la miré
Sonrío y le sonreí
Y yo la invité a bailar
Y ella me dijo que si…

I tried to find someone dancing to it but the ones in You Tube are terrible ewww

But there are some cute ones in Tik Tok

Have a nice weekend, and dance!

September Recap

September was not much of an improvement over August, and July, and June, and May...

Here's some highlights (and in some cases lowlights)

I talked face to face/telephone/ text..with  Sandy, every Monday., Tristan. With Mia for her birthday, with Nuri for her name day, with Monica and Irina, with Sonya, with Dewey, with Jennifer, and with Rosa, a friend from Idaho that I had not heard of for about 30 years. And of course, daily calls with Norbert.

Healthwise, I had my diabetes test and is at goal, and I feel good although I had a weird day September 22 (1st day of Fall) when I felt out of sorts, that's the only way I can explain. I do my daily exercise walking the dog, nothing extraneous here ;)

We had a pretty sharp earthquake on September 18, a 4.8. It shook me and Lulu quite a bit!

Damn pandemic still hanging around, so I'm still sheltered at home and very happy to have a large garden, and flowers, and herbs, and tomatoes, to keep me happily busy. And as usual, I do a lot of reading, lots of movie watching etc. I still haven't done any painting. But I will start soon. It's been HOT!

I miss my daughter and grandson, and I'm glad Lizzie lives here with me. I miss being able to travel and drive around. We thought about driving to Utah, but I chickened out. It's still not safe for me and I don't want to risk it. 

My hopes for October...

I hope things get better for my Utah family. Love you all.

I hope Mia and Hasse's health improves. Love you both.

I hope things get better, in the US and Spain. And the world.

I hope the pandemic goes away!

BOOKS I'VE READ IN SEPTEMBER

MOVIES I'VE WATCHED IN SEPTEMBER

And a lot of Schitt's Creek :)

Let's all have a good October, please :)

September days

 There's still fires going on in California. But the weather is starting to feel like Fall. It's not as hot although we've had 100F weather a few days. Is very pleasant in the evenings. 

I just was reading Instagram, and one of the people that I befriended when we were doing the August IG challenge asked me if I wanted to participate in an October challenge (I don't know who started this one) but the title is MINDFUL IN THE GARDEN, and because my garden and gardening is something that I like to do and take pictures of, I'm going to do it. Here's the challenge if any of you want to play along :)

It will give me something to do, right? :)

Tomorrow is "my" shopping day at Trader Joe's. I enjoy shopping there, is clean and has cool stuff and it's easy to keep the distance to other customers in these pandemic days. Because is Fall, it's all about pumpkin in its many different varieties. I don't like pumpkin although one of my favorite things to eat are ensaimada rellena de cabello de angel. My daughters take joy in reminding me that cabello de angel is the "hair" inside the pumpkins, ew!

Some information...Cabello de ángel is a transparent threaded jam made from Siam pumpkin pulp and white sugar. It originated in Mallorca. There are even easy recipes to make cabello de angel with the fibers of the more common spaghetti squash lol

Siam pumpkin

Stay safe and positive, and remember I love you all very much :)

Reminiscing

 Both my daughters wrote about our trip to Barcelona 5 years ago in September. It was my first trip back home after 15 years and it was just a great trip. I just hope I can go back at least one more time.

Here's some pictures...

                                                                 And back to La Mirada
                                    

I'll be back...