Christmas was merry

Manfred cooked the traditional turkey, stuffing, yams, cranberry, etc.  It was so good. And we have been eating leftovers since. Yum!

  

 

  Best Holiday wishes to all. 

Yesterday we had pizza while watching the end of the NFL regular season.  Our 2 teams are #1 in the AFC & NFC.  Ergo, both have bye next week, and home field advantage throughout the playoffs. 

Christmas preparations

The Tree and the house are decorated, Bill is here, Manfred is baking stollen and thawing the turkey. 

  All is good. 

Let it snow

Woke up to snowscape in Port Orchard yesterday. By noon it was mostly gone. 

  

  

Today the weather is very dark & grey.  Thank goodness for Xmas lights. 

We are working on Xmas decor, tree, etc., and Xmas cooking. 

Bill is coming on Monday, Dec 23. 

Unthinkable loss

  What the ...?  Last week, when Denver was winning magnificently, it wasn't broadcast in our area. This week, on Thursday Nite FB, we were all set to watch them win at home against an inferior team, but noooooo.!??!  Electrocuted by silly San Diego in Bronco Bad Land.  27-20 - Pathetic. 

Kathy and Doug came and got their truck, but Bill didn't see them. !

Back from SoCal

We went to Tijuana, Mexico, because Manfred broke two of his beautiful new teeth. After our trusty dentist had fixed them, we went to stay with best friends Charles and Diane Fitzgerald in Encinitas, near San Diego. Then we all drove to Palm Springs, where Bill Jones had already arrived from British Columbia. So we were now 5 happy people driving on to Indio, where we had reserved a WorldMark penthouse apartment, with 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, and a hot tub on the balcony. 

 

We had a very nice time, enjoying the resort and the spa. The highlight was attending the Palm Spring Follies -- a traditional follies show, but all the performers were over 50 years old. It was a fab show,

 and Manfred got a hug from one of the "showgirls."

Kathy and Doug visit

   
Bill's sister and her husband spent the night on their way to Florida. Much fun, but too short. Doug is a wood carver and also paints Pacific NW native art:

Whazzup?

Got new glasses about a week ago - they are better than b4.

Bill has managed to spend all and go into red.
His sister & her husband are coming to stay here next week
The shed and outdoor outlet got wired up for $250, but now we have to pay.

I've been installing led bulbs in various lights.

Get your luggage here

Our carry-on luggage site is operational and open for business.

 It's called travel-smart-luggage.com. 

It's all about traveling smart, which means 

CARRY-ON LUGGAGE ONLY!

Which means:

* No luggage charges

* No searching for the right carousel 

* No waiting for your bag to finally appear

* No damage from the gorilla they keep in there. 

* No chance of your luggage going astray. 

The amount you save on luggage charges will pay for your new bag on the first trip or two. 

We travel so much that we wanted to help others to get good prices on

 .   luggage that will save them money and make their travels more enjoyable. 

Also, we get to try out various bags at great prices. 

Go and check it out. We've put everything on sale, just to get it started. 

: )

Happy Halloween

Also our 32nd anniversary. 🎃

Bill bought a smoker

He and Manfred have been working on it, and some of the salmon, for two days.

They are still soaking fish in brine. Will smoke later today. 

My glasses are still lost. Need to get new ones. 

Birthday dinner

October 16, 2013
Went to the local Mexican restaurant, Puerto Vaillarta, for birthday dinner. : D

Very good but huge, and Manfred ate all my leftovers. : (

Didn't get to do juice fast Wednesday or Thursday so it's today, Friday. 

Can't find my glasses, which are there on my sweater. We searched all day yesterday. 

Bill came yesterday, on my birthday. Will probably stay a couple of weeks. 

Fasting

On October 9 we started a new rule:  no solid food on Wednesday, or if not Wednesday, Thursday.  Juices and other drinks only. 

Visit w/ Robin, meet Natalie

Yesterday we met with Robin in SeaTac and met Natalie for the first time.  I hope we will see a lot more of her. 

Back home again

We'll probably be here most of the time until we leave for Mexico the day after (American) Thanksgiving.

We got back late, after an enjoyable drive along the Columbia River to Fairview, then a stop in the Apple Store in Tacoma. There I tried to find out why our devices wouldn't charge on some adapters, and Manfred and Bill went to Red Robin for burgers.

On Thursday, we drove north along Long Beach to WorldMark Surfside, which is also a golf course. Good views of water, but further away. Smaller, older resort.

Broncos are 3-0 after beating Giants (with the other Manning) last week and the Raiders last nite on MNF. Sportscasters can't say enough about how great they are, but the last 2 games were too easy. They got away with mistakes. Better opponents will make them better, I hope. Seahawks beat the poor Jaguars in another too-easy game, and are also 3-0. Jaguars have bad hats, makes them look bad, play bad. ;)

WorldMark in Long Beach

On Monday we drove to Long Beach, WA, leaving at 11a.m. and arriving at 4 p.m., having stopped for a leisurely lunch on the way.  This is at the mouth of the "Mighty Columbia" river, and we (including Bill) are staying in a WorldMark resort here.

Today, we drove across the 4.1 mile Astoria Bridge to Astoria OR and down the coast to Seaside, where there is another WorldMark resort. I like it a bit better than the one we are in, because you can see the water from the lobby and most of the rooms. We saw their penthouse, so we are really looking forward to staying in the penthouse in Indio, in December. 

But we haven't really experienced the longness of "The Longest Beach in the World," yet (28 miles). We have only experienced the width of it, which is long enough -- about half a mile at low tide -- when we tried to walk straight out to the water. It's drivable all the way, if we can convince Manfred that the salt won't ruin his car. 

  

  

This is exactly how it looked today, cloudy. 

Season opened well -- Yayyyy!

The Broncos creamed the Superbowl champion Baltimore Ravens. The same Rotten Ravens that squeaked the Broncos out of the playoffs in double overtime last season.  Vengeance is sweet, especially at 49 - 27. That's after giving the Ravens a free turnover touchdown, and throwing away a turnover TD given them by the Ravens.

 the horse got a lot of exercise. 

Peyton Manning threw for a NFL record tying 7 touchdowns, w/ 0 interceptions. 

Nothing happening

Bill has gone back to Canada. He'll return around Sept 12. 

We saw the movie "We are the Millers."  It was very funny. 

End of NFL preseason, Seahawks are lookin' good. 

WorldMark update

WorldMark by Wyndham is the timeshare outfit we have credits/points with. We were going to buy 3,000 more credits, which would bring us up to the next level - Silver. They charge $2.50 per credit, so it would have cost $7,500. We canceled that sale and subsequently bought some from a broker, instead: 5,000 credits for $2,300 = $0.46 per credit.  The only problem is that they don't count toward Silver status, which has some perks.

Bill is still here, and he is going halfers on this deal. We are making use of the credits -- going with Bill to Long Beach WA next month, and we have just booked 4 days in December at Indio/Palm Springs - a 3-bedroom condo we can share with Fitzgeralds and Bill. 

 Long Beach, at the mouth of the Columbia River, is about 3 hours' drive from where we live in Port Orchard. The other side of the river is Oregon. 

WorldMark at Indio CA.

Jobs movie

Joel came with a friend to see the movie about Steve Jobs. Bill is here. We went to the Apple Store first, then to Red Robin for burgers, then to Port Orchard to see the film. It was so-so. 

Uh oh! Cancelled sale

We discovered that there is a WM-credits broker right here in Port Orchard. We went to see her. They sell WM credits for $0.40-$0.50 per credit, instead of the $2.50 the WM agent wanted.  

We will probably get some later, but now we have 24+k, with 17k coming in April. The only difference is that the "used" credits are not added to TravelShare.