Fun with (new) friends

I thought I'd fill you in on the rest of the Saturday happenings. I met S&S at 10 a.m. at their unit (they've done a wonderful job of renovating it since they purchased), and we headed out to the Civic Center to the Health Fair. There were numerous booths set up, including a space to have one's glucose and/or blood pressure checked, various booths for skin care (including Botox) and fitness classes, as well as some odd options (plumber/electrical). I suspect the latter knew that there the event would attract snowbirds who might be looking for work to be done on their properties.

Next door was a jewelry, sand art, and rug sale. Everything was very nice and for the most part, very expensive. I might have been tempted to purchase one of the smaller sand art pieces, but I'd worry about it getting broken in the suitcase on the way home. From the Civic Center we went over to the Yuma fairgrounds to an arts and crafts sale. In one building, had art displays from local artisans. Again, there were some amazing pieces. My favorite was a mixed media piece vase, and in second place was a poured paint piece. I would have happily taken either home too.

From there, we decided to go out to the Foothills for lunch at a Thai restaurant. It is quite the drive out there, but the food was phenomenal. I had the Pad Thai, and they had a two different curries. The portions were a decent size and the prices reasonable. I took half of my meal home for dinner that night. I very much enjoyed our time together.

The finals of the provincial curling playdowns happened on Sunday. Both the women's and men's finals were good games. Now, I have to wait until mid-February for the Scottie's (women) and the end of February for the Brier (men). I did learn that next year's provincial event will be held in the town where I live with my daughter. Maybe I'll have to consider tolerating January weather so I can attend in person. :)

On Monday, I needed water and groceries, so headed out early. One of the full-time residents offered me a ride to the water store, so I took him up on the offer. After walking back to drop off the water, I headed the other direction to McDonald's for breakfast and then to Food City for groceries. When I'd returned, I was sitting out front reading, when L drove up and asked if I would like to go to the big Walmart (a 40 minute walk away). I jumped at the chance as I wanted to pick up a squeeze mop. My landlady has a mop that I use outdoors, but I didn't want to use that one indoors and had been washing floors on my hands and knees. (not easy on these old knees). I found a cheap one, along with some thread and buttons. L offered me her sewing kit that includes straight pins, so I was able to wash and block the hanging kitchen towel and dishcloths. I even pulled out my cross stitch that afternoon and was able to get a bit done it before my daughter called. 

It truly is a small world: at Happy Hour I discovered that two of the recent arrivals from British Columbia, know a friend of mine. A and I worked at the same financial institution back in the late 80's. She and her husband moved to B.C. not long after. We kept in touch through Christmas letters, and later through Facebook. There are a number of folks here from the same area where she and husband live and I'd been asking everyone I met if they knew her. I pulled up my FB feed, and we messaged her to let her know. 

Guess what I did on Tuesday? If you guessed I visited thrift stores and went for lunch, you'd be right. Four of us hopped in L's SUV and went to three different thrift stores. I found a plaid shirt for Eli, a t-shirt for myself, and a pair of knitting needles. Total spent $6.40. Even considering the exchange rate, these were good deals. After our thrifting itch was taken care of, we drove to California for lunch. It wasn't a long drive, as the Colorado River is the natural border between Arizona and California. We had lunch at the Paradise Casino (no gambling happened) - I had an Asian chicken salad with candied cashews. I assumed that there would be a half dozen cashews, but in fact, there many more. It was delicious and for around $10, it was very reasonably priced.

As I've mentioned, I bought sugar and flour to make shortbread and since there is more than I will need, so I picked up yeast in my last grocery run. Wednesday, I made a small batch of bread dough. While the dough was rising, I walked down to the water store for a couple more bottles of water. After a second rising, I shaped the loaves in rough loaves as I have no bread pans. I got a couple of small loaves, one for the freezer and one to eat this week. Although ugly (no picture), the bread tastes great and I used some for a sandwich for lunch.

That afternoon, I joined seven others to play Canasta. We played four people to a table, and my partner and I did not win - partially because I messed up and picked up cards that weren't counted. I headed back to my unit to work on my cross stitch before Happy Hour.

Unfortunately, Thursday was a write-off as I was sick with a stomach bug. It started overnight, when I was woken by severe pain and lasted through the day. When I wasn't in the bathroom, I was asleep on the couch. In fact, I slept much of the day there, went to bed at 6:30 and except for a 90 minute period when I was awake, slept through until after 7 a.m. Apparently that was what I needed as I felt much better when I woke up. I think I've figured out what caused the issue - I'd made a stir fry the night prior and used some chicken bouillon from the cupboard for my sauce. On Friday, I decided to make some chicken noodle soup; I checked the best before date that was sometime in 2022. When I mentioned it to my next door neighbour, she said that it was probably bad as the unit is vacant through the summer and the heat may have caused it to turn. According to a Google search, bouillon should be kept in a dark cool place.

I took it easy on Friday, enjoyed a lengthy shower, and got caught up on a bit of housework. Oh, the sand, the sand that blows in is something else. It doesn't matter how often I sweep or vacuum, there is always more sand. Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying the warmth and lack of snow. I did get some cross-stitching done as well. That's another plus, the light here is simply amazing for doing the stitching. I did make it to Happy Hour (no alcohol for me) and celebrated my 6th anniversary of retirement. One of residents, J brought over a couple of jigsaw puzzles for me to work on. Apparently she has a puzzle room in her unit!

Today will be another quiet day, I've no plans to go anywhere and no need to leave the park. I've got one of the puzzles to start, cross-stitching and a start of a knitted hanging kitchen towel to work on, and the living room and bedroom floors need to be vacuumed and washed. 

The photos from Wednesday were taken on January 25th. The first was sunrise through the window screen and the other was at sunset. There was smoke in the air, as we could smell it at Happy Hour, and it caused the sun to turn red.  Since I've no photos from the rest of the week, I'll leave you with a video my brother sent me on Friday. It makes me very happy to be here!