Paul & Mary's Daily Diary

Another Busy Day In Paradise!

Posted on Tuesday, September 7, 2021 by Paul

It’s never too late to be who you might have been.

The morning has arrived, and we are ready to take on the day! First things first, we need to walk Five Miles! We did our standard 0.8-mile jaunt skipping and whistling the whole time, or should I say we meandered around the block!

One of our clever neighbors has bugs in the front yard, so I stopped and took a couple of snaps. These two are dating, we think! I mentioned to Mary that I heard a rumour of a giant butterfly in Santa Ana. It was probably just an urban moth.

Bugs everywhere!

Look at the smile on this ‘ol boy’s face; he looks as happy as I feel.

“I am waTCHING YOU!”

We talked to Scout as we walk and a picture came up on the iPhone of Scout one year ago when we tried to introduce him to H2O; he was not a happy camper! We still have his inflatable pool.

One year ago today!

Arriving home after walking Five Miles, Mary headed to the kitchen to make her “Egg McMommy’s.” We sat on the patio and worked on the plans for the rest of the day!

The cook gets to sit down finally!

I love these little devils! So good and chucked full of proteins!

Breakfast is served!

We worked in the office for two hours with Mary still changing addresses, and I unwrapped my new iMac, which I plan to put onto the network tomorrow.

The ISP and I have been battling to get some things fixed, and it appears most of them are now working again. I have not been on the website doing much in a year, and things got changed, meaning things broke. It appears as though it is all working now.

Our wedding pictures are online and not too bad, and I cut the picture cont in half. I am still working on some of the comments.

Just little ‘ol us!

We made an appointment for File Miles to get his shots updated and get his ears cleaned at 3:00 PM. At 1:15 PM, we headed for Lowe’s to get some small throw rugs for the entrances to the house. We then went to Trader Joe’s to resupply our dwindling stockpile of Two Buck Chuck!

The other day I was proud of myself as I bought lemonade for my son Joe. Well, after getting home, I found out I reached in and got orange juice instead. Mary saved the day and made sure she bought Trader Joe’s lemonade. Now we have a cache of juice for the working man!

Of course, I could not pass up asking Mary, “How do you make a lemon drop? Hold it high and let go.”

Joe now really has lemonade!

We dropped off Five Miles and were going to wait for thirty minutes, but Stater Brothers market was three doors down, so we went shopping. We used our time well as soft drinks and some mixers for the party, plus goodies for dinner tonight!

Fibe Miles was happy to see us. In fact he is working on his doggie sense of humor. After visiting the vet he barked, “Did you know that Vets don’t like to buy stuff on Amazon?” We gave up quickly just to humor him. Then he barked, “They prefer choosing from a CAT-a-logue instead!”

We called Sydney, and she decided to join us tonight to help us put pictures on the wall. We did OK, but I must go into the She Shed and find some other pictures from Mary’s house before doing the pictures in the family room.

We had dinner with Sydney at Casa Valencia. Mary brought a chicken home, plus we scrounged up corn chowder and chili, plus our lady friend, Marie Calendar, supplied us with a berry pie which we three made disappear!

Nighttime in the family room.

After Sydney departed we crashed. I was disappointed because I thought we had all the pictures in the house so I plan to get a day laborer to come and empty the She Shed so we can go through all the boxes before repacking the She Shed again!

Posted in Food and Wine, Friends, Working Around House | Leave a comment

Monday Is The New Sunday?

Posted on Monday, September 6, 2021 by Paul

My therapist says I have a preoccupation with revenge. We’ll see about that.

The sun rises, and so do we! We fixed our coffee and headed to the swim spa for an early morning dip in the water. We could see the moon still bright in the sky, and we could hear a train far in the distance, other than that, peaceful and quiet.

We organized the attack plan for the day. Mary decided to cook (always a good thing) as she knew Joe was coming over along with Greg. She made chili, and it was OUTSTANDING. MAry added veggies to the concoction directly from our garden. To top it off, she made cornbread muffins.

Making magic!

Joe joined us about noon, and we put the permanent flag light on the house. I had to laugh as Joe would be on the ladder and ask me to get stuff for him; I told him I remember when the roles were reversed, about forty-five years ago! Carri also joined the fun. Mary gave both of them a to-go box with chili and muffins!

The years will rush by, and now I am seeing my son as a man, and feeling incredibly proud that he is caring, safe, making a contribution, and hopefully going far beyond me in the scope of his life.

Joe did an amazing job at hiding the wiring.

Greg joined the happy group and visited for an hour, sharing the latest activities. He is a good friend, and I forgot the take a picture we were so busy sharing.

We had issues with the local birds; they like to sit on the top of the lamps and do what birdies do, or soo-soo! Well, I visited Amazon and got a box of “Birdy Pokers” and put them on the mailbox and the lamps. Now it is bye-bye, birdie!

Birdee birdie, go away!

We continued working after everyone departed, and about 4:30 PM, we decided to call it quits, and we went to the movies. Five Miles, Mary and I watched “Once Upon A Time In Venice.”

Plot summary: Los Angeles-based private detective Steve Ford (Bruce Willis) lives a carefree life. After performing a favor for a friend, Ford runs afoul of a local gang. The gang’s leader Spyder (Jason Momoa), seeks revenge and steals Ford’s dog. Ford is forced into a sequence of convoluted and intertwined tasks across the Venice area to recover the dog.

It was a pretty funny movie, even with the anticipated violence!

At 6:00 PM, we got the “wine call,” our neighbor reminded us it was “wine time.” We wandered across the street and visited Jeff for a good hour yucking it up. Mary brought him some chili and muffins, and we got her clean Tupperware from the last visit!

As we went home, I snapped a couple of pictures of the new light and the flag! Look at the bottom left-hand corner of the picture, and you will see Jeff’s flag waving in front of his place!

Others in the hood are thinking about flying the colors!

Joe’s aim was perfect as it lights both flags and does not light the house up. Thank you, Joe and Carri! I am lucky to have a super son that takes time to assist the old man!

Looks great!

We went back to another Bruce Willis movie, but I think we crashed in the middle of it, so we will rewatch it tomorrow!

Posted in Family, Food and Wine, Working Around House | Leave a comment

The Four Day Weekend Is Half Over!

Posted on Sunday, September 5, 2021 by Paul

Only Robinson Crusoe had everything done by Friday!

Sunday morning and we had our coffee in the swim spa at 7:00 AM. We could even see the yard being watered, and Five Miles gets hit in the butt by the sprinkler; a shocking experience for him!

Mary spent the morning washing all the plastic and silk flowers we had stored in my bathtub. I went to Home Depot and got supplies for hooking up the bug zapper and properly installing outlets under the eves of the house; it’s going to be a one switch Christmas without a single extension cord involved!

We bought two verticle outdoor heaters and covers to keep them nice. We decided to put the covers on this morning; a perfect fit!

She is amazing; looking this good after being in the spa! We are opening our heater covers!

Back inside Mary began breakfast, but we ran out of time before we wanted to watch our Sunday morning televangelist show, In Touch Ministries with Dr. Stanley!

An excellent set of sermons today!

Today Dr. Stanley talked about relationships, and it was outstanding.

We listened carefully and talked about the various items he discussed after the show and throughout the day! Mary brought in some berries and sliced peaches so we would not starve to death!

We worked around the house the rest of the day, and I did a Home Depot run to get extension cords for the bug zapper!

We were ready for a meal, but Mary was busy with her plants, so I cut spaghetti squash in half and put it in the microwave for 20 minutes in a baking pan of water. We are going to have spaghetti a little later!

Salad mostly from our garden!

I have no idea what she put in there except for the eye of neut and the bat’s wings, but it was a wonderful concoction which I was savoring at a distance.

The sauce fragrance wafted throughout the house!

The inside of the squash comes like just like spaghetti and NO CARBS!!! This is a good thing! I asked Mary, “I always wonder if mixing pasta and antipasto is like mixing matter and anti-matter.”

Mary makes the spaghetti strings by using a fork against the squash flesh!

We dined at about 2:00 PM, which was perfect! The meals service with cold cranberry juice was perfect!

A meal fit for a king!

I set the zapper temporarily, and Mary and I sat outside cheering it on. We lost track after 50 zaps! Die, sucker, die!!!

Zap Fizz Squeal Pffff

It was dark, so we headed to bed and turned on another Bruce Willis movie, and he was so young! Storyline: Walter Davis is a workaholic. His attention is all to his work and very little to his personal life or appearance. Now he needs a date to take to his company’s business dinner with a new important Japanese client. His brother sets him up with his wife’s cousin Nadia, who is new in town and wants to socialize, but he was warned that she loses control and becomes wild if she gets drunk. How will the date turn out – especially when they encounter Nadia’s ex-boyfriend David?

Posted in Just Us, Working Around House | Leave a comment

Saturday Has Arrived And We Are Ready!

Posted on Saturday, September 4, 2021 by Paul

I used to think I was indecisive. But now I’m not so sure.

Today was chocked full of activities starting with a terrific breakfast of cereal! Yes, I said cereal. We had two steaks in the freezer, and I planned to cook them up for breakfast. Well, while teasing my bride, I said, “Let’s have cereal for breakfast.” She thought me serious, silly girls. I had the grill on and was ready to plot the steaks on, and I see Mary coming out the door with two bowls of, of, I can’t say it… cereal! I turned off the grill, and we had the most delicious cereal, something new I never had before!

Mary has the most interesting pantry!

After breakfast, we popped into the swim spa for a little bit, and then Mary had to get ready to go shopping with Robin and Cici. They are shopping for party goods for our future shindig. They also went to Rockwell’s for breakfast. Mary’s gets Elf Poop and then a real breakfast; I am stuck with Elf Poop!

I stayed behind because our window washer was scheduled at noon, and we were also expecting the delivery of our grandfather and grandmother clocks. The clocks came first, and they sound so amazing. The two-month visit to the clock spa did them a world of good. They are set two minutes apart so we can hear them separately. Did you know you can tell when your clock is hungry? It goes back four seconds.

The place was awash in people because Tom was also over the was doing some work in the bathroom, and he shortened two doors so they would go over the carpet easier. The handyman asked when he should come to fix the hinges. I said anytime. The door’s always open.

It was a hot day, so late afternoon we retired to our master bedroom and watched a Bruce Willis movie and partook in a glass of vino! Later in the evening, we snapped a shot of our back yard which is coming along nicely.

It’s going to be magnificent when we get the 400 square-foot dance floor installed, and the dance floor will be covered with 80 bistro-lights!

We crashed at 8:00 PM, and then, amazingly enough, we were up at midnight watching another Bruce Willis movie until 2:00 AM. It’s great being retired.

Posted in Family, Just Us, Working Around House | Leave a comment

No Going To The Office Today; She’s Mine!

Posted on Friday, September 3, 2021 by Paul

Friends are the most important ingredient in this recipe of life.

No work! Yeah! We can work around the house all day!! We did some chores about the house and then went to Rockwell’s for lunch and to finalize the cake order for the party! The cake-ologist is delightful and very helpful. Rockwell’s bakery is excellent.

Order placed and it will be delivered at 5:00 PM on the day of the shindig!!

On the way out after a terrific lunch, we did a double check!

1 + 2 = 5; No, that’s not right!

Rockwell’s paid tribute to our fallen heroes. Damnation on the ragheads may they burn in hell with their bastardized religion!

God Bless Our Military!

Only one thought occurs to me.

Take that you liberals whackos!

We declared victory and laid down and watched three movies, no more work today!!

Posted in Food and Wine, Just Us, Working Around House | Comments Off

Thursday; You Know What That Means!

Posted on Thursday, September 2, 2021 by Paul

Happy Thursday! P.S. It’s almost Friday!

Life is so very good! We awoke and headed to the swim spa at a bright and early 6:30 AM with our coffee in hand! We have a busy day planned, starting with walking Five Miles! During our walk we captured two interesting photos.

We think he is giving us directions, to go back from whence you came!

We keep walking and more interesting things appear!

Neat idea! We may have to do something like that also!

After walking Five Miles, we decided we would get the fireplace in shape for the party! That starts with taking pictures of what we have, yuch!

We are going to the fireplace store today!

Now it is off the “Girls Night Out,” and we never know who will be there! Today we had Bill, Will, George and of course Ronnie!

George ‘splains things!

They made their decisions, and then we visited, telling stories about those things that never happened.

Bill and George placed their orders!

Ronnie popped over to get his dose of harassment from yours truly. He is ex-law enforcement and a very talented DJ, amongst other things. A day spent with friends is always a day well spent.

A good friend and fellow Elk, Ronnie!

Today they had a rack of lamb on special, and they had only four left, so I put dibs on one, and we shared. A rack of lamb is the equivalent of a standing rib roast of beef. It is the portion from which rib chops are cut.

I quote from a 1936 cookbook, “That part of mutton called the rack…is cheap food. It is not more than four or five cents a pound; four pounds will make a dinner for six people…If your family be small, a rack of mutton will make you two dinners….” I should have shown this to the chef!!

The Elks Lodge has amazing food!

Mary went for the sandwich, and we shared it! It was delicious!

Rack of Lamb and it was fantastic!!

We headed home via the fireplace store, and we were disappointed, so we will call our interior designer and get the heat turned up on this remodeling activity. In the afternoon, we were doing chores when the phone called, and it was Miss Vicky. She and Irene went to Roger’s Gardens and called to see if we were home. Indeed we were, and they visited for quite a while; it is ALWAYS pleasant to visit them!

Remember, Friends, are gifts you give yourself!

We visited upstairs in the Ballroom!

We crashed and watched an adventure movie with Bruce Willis. Tomorrow Mary does NOT work, yeah!!

Posted in Dining Out, Friends, Working Around House | Comments Off

We Made It Through Hump Day Unscathed!

Posted on Wednesday, September 1, 2021 by Paul

Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.

Today we woke up, and it really was 6:30 AM! We are still laughing about yesterday. Both of us have done that in the past separately; now we can admit it and giggle!

We called Colleen to check in and shared for about twenty minutes; She is a jewel; we are so blessed to have Joe, Colleen, and Robin in our lives. We need to see Michele more often!

The morning call!

We are off like a shot after we walked Five Miles. Walking our dog, Scout, now known as Five Miles, we saw a guy in a suit walking his dog, and I know Five Miles is thinking I don’t dress nicely for him anymore.

We headed to Banning to visit Annie and Virgil, friends of Mary and now my friends also. They are in their mid-90s and enjoy our company. We stopped at a fruit stand and got some goodies. MAry bought pound cake and some strawberries, and she fixed them for Annie and Virg while I went shopping for them.

Mary and Annie have been friends since the 1970s!

Annie and Mary, a team to watch out for!!

They are an amazing couple totally dedicated to each other; good role models for us!

Annie and Virgil; the love birds; married 26 years and lovin’ it!

We got back in town about 2:00 PM and went to the Post Office to mail our quarterly estimated taxes using the certified mail system. Then to the market where we got goodies on our shopping list.

The cleaning folks came about 4:00 PM, and we got ready to go dancing! Yes, dancing on Wednesdays, yeah!! All the regulars were there. We arrived about 45 minutes early and decided a quick snack at Vintner’s Tavern would be a good idea.

We were amazed as we have not been there for a year due to COVID, and our waited looked at us and said, “You guys dancing tonight?” He recognized us; well, probably Mary as she is a looker, me, not so much.

Dinner at Vintner’s Tavern!

We ordered appetizers, and then I went wild and ordered a cheese plate and salmon to share. When we were done, we were just this side of being stuffed. We needed the energy boost to be able to dance for the next three hours.

As we departed the restaurant, I saw myself in the glass door and thought, “Time may be a great healer, but it’s also a lousy beautician.” Mary does notice me because as we walked toward the dance studio, she said to me romantically, “I love what you’ve done with your hair. How do you get it to come out of the nostrils like that?”

Who be the lucky guy to find such an amazing person so late in his life? Oh, it’s me!

We came bearing gifts! We brought cheesecake for the other members of our table; tonight, it was the Branders and the Capps!

We waltzed and waltzed and waltzed with me, remembering some new steps as we moved. It was a wonderful evening. We are going to take a refresher in the Texas-Two-Step. We have also declared victory on the Cowboy Cha-Cha.

Line dancing means Mary hits the floor; I am signing up for line dancing as soon as the house gets together, which by definition will be the first of October!

We headed home about 9:30 PM and visited with Five Miles before crashing. I checked the outside of the house, and it was ablaze in various colors.

I let the colors be random, with them slowly changing between all the various colors.

We are planning already for our first Halloween in the new house. We even ordered a special flag to fly for Halloween. The flag ought to arrive next week!

Mary gets ready for Halloween!

Good night everyone!

Posted in Dancing, Food and Wine, Friends, Working Around House | Comments Off

Tuesday Kept Us Hopping

Posted on Tuesday, August 31, 2021 by Paul

What are four hundred Easter bunnies hopping backward? A receding hare line.

We were up early and hit the swim spa about 6:00 AM. In fact, we woke up the roosters this morning. We had our coffee in the spa, which was definitely a change for us! We had visitors planned; Tom, our handyman, at 11:00 AM and then Chuck Shirley and Mike Henshel of Nine Carat Gold at 11:00 AM. The band members (leaders) came to see the backyard as they will be playing with the whole orchestra at our “Dancing Under The Stars” party that is coming up.

They have played for us before and do an amazing job!!

After their visit, we went to Rockwell’s for lunch. We had a great time, and the guys departed from there. We went home and did some work and then called Jan Mongel and invited her over to the house. I went to pick her up, and we visited for an hour, and she saw the house nearing completion.

Big Sister & Little Sister

After returning home, I joined Mary to continue watching TV. We both fell asleep. We woke up at 7:00 PM, looked outside, and thought we had slept all night long. We got up, fixed ourselves coffee, and wondered why it was getting darker outside. It dawned on us; it was 7:00 PM, NOT AM! We laughed ourselves silly.

Posted in Friends, Just Us, Working Around House | Comments Off

Monday Was Another Busy Day!

Posted on Monday, August 30, 2021 by Paul

Why this song, you ask? It was released just around Mary’s birthday, and we dance to it even today! It was number one on the charts for five weeks!

Mary was off to work but only in the afternoon. I attacked the garage reorganization and de-cluttering. Mary attacked the last of the packing boxes!

She departed for work at 11:30 AM, and I continued in the garage until about 4:00 PM when I was going to prepare dinner. I was in the kitchen, and she scared the far out of me when she sneaked up behind me and said, boo! I never really got it started.

Check The Bartender dropped by at 4:00 PM, and the Robin came in, and the four of us planned the “Dancing Under The Stars” party. We will get a 400 square-foot dance floor, tables for 70+ people, and we selected the hors-deouvers. Check went through our bar supplies, and we have everything needed for 70+ people!

Robin stayed a while after Chuck departed, and then she left about 7:30 PM. Mary and I scrouged in the frig and had a bite to eat before hitting the swim spa for the rest of the evening.

Posted in Just Us, Working Around House | Comments Off

Sunday And Time To Soak?

Posted on Sunday, August 29, 2021 by Paul

Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week.

We were up bright and early, 7:00 AM, and decided the swim spa was the answer, but we did not know the question.

Into our birthday suits and out my bathroom door since it is five feet from the swim spa. I asked Mary, “What do you get when you drain a hot tub full of clowns?” After a puzzled look, I answered, ” Several gallons of laughing stock.”

I was relaxing in the tub when my beautiful wife pointed her finger at me and gave me a furious look… I knew I was in hot water.

Upon stepping out of the tub, I reminded Mary that we ought to take our birthday suits to the cleaners and get them pressed! I got the “mommy look!”

I am going to get in trouble over this one!

After the soak, we walked Five Miles. He enjoyed the new path we took, and he was pooped by the time we returned home after only 0.97 miles! We see many funny things on our walks but today this sign cracked us up!

We have many choices for our walks, and as the weather cools down, we will adventure into the east-of-Cannon neighborhoods. We are looking for a good two-mile path to take every morning. It is working as I am at 194 pounds this morning.

We met several other dog walkers, and Five Miles has new friends!

We worked the rest of the day. Our handyman was here, and he put in some drywall fixes around my new electrical outlets, and he also got us a new medicine chest; the original was “cheap”.

Mary called me inside, and to my delight, she had made a breakfast casserole from scratch. It was amazing. I tried to control myself, but I went back for seconds and thirds. She also cut up some fresh peaches and plums, and we had an English muffin with Kerrygold butter. I thought I had died and gone to heaven.

I worked in the front yard and made the two lights on the pathway to the front door “bird proof”. While I was inside the fixture, I changed the bulbs to be internet-controlled and capable of 64,000,000 different colors. Now they are on times going on and off with the setting and rising of the sun!

At the holidays, I can make them match the colors of the holiday!