Welcome to Palm Springs!

These are a few of the random pics I have posted in our first two weeks in Palm Springs:

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"Marilyn is luminous at night. "
(taken at Downtown Palm Springs)

view full image "To all who enjoyed last year, to all who would like to enjoy this year: pineapple vodka martinis are on their way!" 

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"This was my fortune today. My first reaction, "Oh god, I hope not!""
(taken at Just Deserts)

view full image "Shoe closet, installed. Now I can breathe again. "  

view full image "I'll be waiting in the kitchen, for my dinner. " 

view full image "Full moon over Palm Springs" 

Summer food is here!

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"Tonight's salad: heirloom tomato, burrata cheese with avocado. "

Giving you the birds

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"From Palm Springs hawk on Sunday, to Mammoth bluejays on Tuesday. "

Cotton Candy

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"Cotton candy sunset"

Night sky

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"Nice night for a swim, if that pool was heated!"

Sugary goodness

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"Life is good!"
(taken at Koffi - South Palm Springs)

Sunny in the desert

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"PS Styling"
(taken at Palm Springs)

It's a dog's life

We've been going out to Palm Springs a fair bit. Cooper seems to be really getting in to the spirit of the place.
Now if you've met Mr Cooper, you'd be asking yourself, "How on Earth did they get him so relaxed? And on a pool float?!"

The answer is multifaceted. Lyle takes him roller-blading and wears him out. Cooper loves the sun and wants to be in it. He also loves to be spoiled and will only lie on a soft surface. So it was pretty easy to get him tired and laying on a pool float. As for getting him on the water.... uh, that took photoshop.

COOPER WOULD NEVER GO IN THE WATER. So I just cut him out and placed him there.

On the road with Mr Cooper

For New Years this year we pulled up stakes and met friends in Palm Springs. One of our own conditions was that we would only go if Mr Cooper would go along as well.

Cooper is a handful. When we had Lola and him together it was too much to wrangle him. He requires two people's focus to be out in polite company.

So this was his first hotel vacation. He has done AMAZING. We have also been very lucky to find two hotels that not only accept dogs, but welcome them.

We spent our first night at the Ace hotel. Super cute, well appointed and not soundproof in the least. After 2 am the official party around the pool ended and seemed to take the next hour to move directly above our heads.

This afternoon we moved to The Parker. It's a delight. As far as Mr Cooper is concerned, The Parker wins "paws down" due to his welcome bag of water bowl, treats and a toy. He didn't even care that they brought him the all pink girl's welcome gift. He was thrilled to have a toy to gut.

Happy new year to all from me, Lyle and the most spoiled dog I know, Mr Cooper!

Grande Casa

As I may have mentioned, we went to Casa Grande, Arizona for the weekend last. We drove away on Friday sometime after 3 pm. That is a cursed time to leave the city. 3 pm on a Friday. And though we took the convertible, sitting in traffic with the top down inhaling fumes from all the cars that surround you is not a pleasant way to kick off a trip.

After doing our best to get the hell out of town, we stopped at the outlet mall outside Palm Springs. I had coupon for 30 percent off at Polo that expired on Sunday and I was going to damn well abuse it. To give you an idea, the total AFTER discount was over $200. Yeah, I got some stuff.

But we weren't anywhere near close to our destination of Robb's mum's house so we needed to pack it up and get a move on. Luckily my packing skills are still amazing and we were able to fit our new purchases into the tiny truck without luggage and the roof of the car. We arrived in Casa Grande just after midnight.
Every morning Robb's mum takes a half hour walk through the housing development where she lives. Lyle and I joined her and it was beautiful to see all the desert plants in bloom.

In the evening cocktail hour arrives.

No one drinks the same.
Three people.
Three different mixers.
Three different liquors.

We went to dinner at Bedillon's which also houses a historical museum of the area. They have a large outdoor cactus garden that you can wander through while your dinner is being prepared. I had the salmon on a cedar plank with shrimp, mango and corn relish. It was terrifics! The big hit at our table was the bacon wrapped olives stuffed with jalapeno cheese. Sounds a little odd but bacon wrapped anything is always a winner and the cheese was not overpowering at all.

I'm sporting a new shirt and tie from the Polo outlet.
How come I always look like the giant?

As I promised Lyle, we made a stop at the local Dairy Queen. Hot eats, cool treats.

On our way home we were making great time (shhhh, don't tell my dad that means we were kind of speeding) when we had a flat tire just before the California border. I offered to call AAA but Lyle thought he could change the tire before anyone would be able to get to us and do it for me. Once the tire was changed we had to decide whether to stop and buy a new tire or drive slower home on the spare. We decided it would equal amount of delay and opted to continue for home slower. But that meant we'd hit LA at EXACTLY peak drive time instead of skating in just before it. So were forced to stop in Palm Springs for a late lunch and then an additional stop at the outlet mall. Can you believe it, FORCED to shop again!

We got home about 7 pm and I was beat. Oh, and I've already worn some of my new delightful purchases.

Long time no see

Hiya. It's been a while. My life got a little full and I didn't have time to say hello.

Who wouldn't love to have their photo taken with a GIANT chicken?
Uh, my nephew Sam.

Who loves Biscuits and gravy?

Two weekends ago, while hosting our Manhattan friends, my sister and her family visited LegoLand. LegoLand is kinda far from LaLa Land where I live, and the traffic between here and there can be a nightmare. But on Saturday the were heading to Knott's Berry Farm. That was sort of a middle meeting place between us. How could I say no?

Breakfast?
Uh, like in the morning?
Okay, sure.
Meet at 9?
AM!?
Uh.... (resigned sigh) Sure.

So I got up at 7:30 on a Saturday (normal waking time any other day of the week, about 9) and got showered and dressed pretty to meet at Knott's Berry Farm for Breakfast. They got a little lost but ultimately it was well worth the wait. If only I'd have had more time to spend with them. However I was hosting a birthday party at my house that night for Lyle and had to get home to annoy him.

Our friend the amazing florist Brad kindly sent flowers because he could not come to the party. As lovely as they are (and so impressive!) I'd really rather he attended.

Lyle's birthday fell on Chinese New Year this year. So we threw a Chinese themed birthday party. It is the year of the rat this Chinese year. Rats are gross. So I completely ignored that part of the theme and just went with Chinese.

Last week I ran away to Palm Springs to escape the tar fume next door. While in the desert, I kidnapped another niece and brought her home for the weekend. Funny part is, I wasn't even home this past weekend. She did get to explore Los Angeles with another equally fabulous tour guide, Chandra (our permanent resident niece).

As guests left, and guests arrived, one thing remains consistent - my life is far too busy!

We attended a Valentine dinner on Thursday. Long story, extremely shortened, met Paula Abdul. Did not get a photo.

Lyle had a work function to attend in San Francisco over the weekend. So we flew out on Friday and back on Sunday. That's why I wasn't around the computer much at all.

All I am saying about our trip at this point is, I don't like to fly on United Airlines. They have bad customer service in their terminals. And I won't go on a rant about it this time. It was exhausting and I won't fly them again. Done.

The view from out room at the W Hotel in San Francisco.

Home now (just barely) and leaving again Friday.

Poisened in my own home!

The house next door (finally!) sold. The terrifically unpleasant people who lived (and fought) there are GONE. We are (to say the least) DELIGHTED.

Now comes the next phase. And we are trying to remain excited because it doesn't' matter who moves in next door, they have to be better than who just left... but (and you knew there was going to be a but...) the new owner isn't moving in.

The house is more than run down. It's a shack. Filth, mold, leaky roof, nasty old shag carpet, rotted window frames, and this is what I can see just from my kitchen window, all need to be fixed. I'm pretty certain they are going about the renovation without permits. No one could possibly get permits to do all that work in such a short time. And I don't care. I'm glad they are fixing it up.

I also believe they are fixing it up just to flip it. The foreman of the job has been quite cagey about who bought it and who is moving in. He has said they will be about 6-8 weeks as that is the normal time frame for when they "do one of these" and that they've "done quite a few with the owner". So yeah, it's a flipper.

Still I'm fine with it. I don't enjoy the dust. I don't enjoy the noise. I don't like all the workers trucks and cars parked in the street taking away parking from my car because I want to park my car on the street to get it out of their way and let them complete this task quickly. I'm all for it.

Then came Friday. And the giant tar baby machine in the back yard. At first it seemed like a mild annoyance. It smelled like May in elementary school when they patched the roof every year. "Oh boy," I thought, "School is almost out!" So we closed up that side of the house to keep the tar fumes out. Then we closed up the other side of the house because the tar fumes drifted. We started to cough and wheeze so we drank more water. I'd lent the car to our visitors from NYC and had nowhere to go or any way to get there. So Chan, the dogs and I just sat here in the closed up box of tar fumes and coughed.
The workers quit at 5. At 4:45 I opened a test window on the opposite side of the house. Still more fumes outside than in. When Lyle came home about 6 he began opening up the house. By this time I was just delirious. I knew a fan would help blow good air in from outside, or should I position the fan to blow the bad air outside? Should I plug it in the hallway, or the kitchen or in the living room... I wandered about the house in a tar fume coma with a fan in my hand and no idea what I was doing.

We opened every window and door then took the dogs and all of us out of the house and went for half hour walk to clear our heads. I swore all night that I could smell tar in the house.

On Saturday Lyle talked to the workers to complain about the great smokeout. They weren't doing more tar on Saturday but plan to tar again for about 3 hours on Monday. I can't take it. Lyle will go to work for the day, but where will Chan, the dogs and I go?
We are going to Palm Springs! We decided to abandon ship and head for the hills. I hear the weather has vastly improved and the pool is calling my name.

Crybaby

Poor Cooper. He never gets to go anywhere. We got Cooper from a shelter when he was about two. We've had him for a couple of years. When he is good he is a delight. When he is bad, not so delightful. Last summer was his first trip to the beach. This last weekend was his first overnighter.

We took the dogs to Palm Springs. We have so much going on this month we felt like we were going to be spending a lot of time away from the pups. Since we could take them, we did take them.

When we go out each night for the evening walk, Cooper pauses next to the car and looks up at me, then the car. Me, then the car. I tell him no, and we go for our walk. He tells me often how much he wants to go out of the yard. To go far and see sights. To ride in the car. You spend enough time with the dogs, the start to talk to you. You spend too much time with the dogs, you start to understand.

Finally his dream was realized on Friday and we packed up the dog bag, the leashes, the pills, the water bowl, the dog gate, two towels for the back seat, dog toys, a bag of treats and most importantly - THE FOOD. That's when Lola sat down under the dining room table and waited. She knew that wherever that food was going, so was she.

They were very well behaved all weekend.

Then came time to go home. Eager to get in the car and follow the same packing routine we loaded up and all of us got in. Then Cooper began to fuss. And whine. And pace the backseat. We thought he'd settle down once we got on the freeway. We planned on stopping at the outlet mall in half an hour. He'd get out be better after that... Nope.

The winds kicked up. The rain began to fall. It would have been a great dust storm if it hadn't been for the rain. Instead it was more like a mud hurricane. As we neared the outlet mall is was pissing rain and howling wind. "Keep driving," I told Lyle.

We got stuck on the highway for an additional half hour due to an overturned car that closed off two out of four lanes. All the while Cooper cried.

Lyle took two aspirin without the benefit of water. I sucked on a throat lozenge as I had a sore throat. Lola tried to sleep. Cooper cried. I yelled at Cooper. Cooper whined and cried.

Halfway home the rain let up briefly so we pulled over to let Cooper potty. That had to be it. Then he would be a good boy and ride quiet the rest of the way home. Right? Nope, he barely peed then pulled to return to the truck. I've seen him pee more on a tree at the end of half hour walk around the neighborhood just to mark his territory! Back in the car it was another hour of crying before we made it home.

I ate a bowl of ice cream with frosting slathered on top to induce a sugar coma so I could fall asleep and clear and my head. UGH.

Other than that a lovely weekend. Visit with Lyle's parents. Visit with Robb's family (Hi Robb, thanks for updating your blog!) . No sun to speak of. No shopping of any consequence. Dinner at Roy's Hawaiian Fusion restaurant in the middle of the desert. I still have a slightly sore throat that started last week and just won't go away. It won't come on stronger either. Just that nagging tickle...

I've got big plans for the rest of the month, so I shan't be letting any throat tickle slow me down. Onward and upward, better living though medication!

P.S. I love you

But not the traffic it takes to get to you. Of course I am talking about Palm Springs. Lyle's parents have rented a house for the month of February in the desert.

We have one weekend in February available and this is it (so I guess that actually means no weekends available in February).

Before you conjure up visions of glamorous poolside cocktail parties I will let you know that the weather forecast for Saturday in Palm Springs is a high of 58°. WHAT?!?

Robb's mum will be driving in from Arizona to visit friends and relatives at the same time so we will get some visiting in with her as well.

I see outlet mall in my future. Coat wearing, sunglass shielding, glove loving outlet shopping.

I have no plans to take the laptop. So until Monday, this is it.