Tuesday, February 26, 2008

We've been having a fabulous time and then husband hurts himself. He was bringing in the garbage pail from curbside and stepped down funny and his knee gave out. He figured he'd blown his knee so he was surprised when he didn't have any pain. However his hip and down his rump and into his leg was extremely sore. It continued to give him so much pain that he finally went to the Emerg at the local hospital. Turns out he irritated his sciatic nerve. He hasn't been able to get much sleep and has been in constant pain since he injured it. The doctor at the emerg gave him 2 shots, 1 for pain, and gave him 3 persciptions, one being a major pain killer. He's still in quite a bit of pain but is feeling a little better. The Doc told him it would at least 10 days before he's recovered completely.

We leave on Saturday so I'm worried about him being in constant pain while we're on the road. It will be a minimum 8 hours in the vehicle on day one of our return trip. I foresee him suffeing big time. I went to the pharmacy today and found out that because there were no refills on the perscriptions he got, he will need to go back to the hospital to get a renewal or a new perscription. We figured as much and this is not a problem I just want to make sure that he has his pain pills before we start back - I don't think he is going to enjoy the trip home very much!

This has put a bit of a damper on our last week as he hasn't been able to enjoy it as much as he would have liked. We had plans to play a couple of more rounds of golf but I don't think he's going to be able to play. BIL and I will probably still go as the rounds are prepaid and DH will probably tag along to keep us company but he's disappointed and I feel bad for him. But...what can you do?

I think today was the nicest day we've had since we got here. The sky was clear and cloudless and the temperature hovered near 100. The pool was fabulous! The forecast for the remaining days is more of the same so I plan to live in the pool tomorrow - gotta work on my back!

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Well we're starting into our last week here. We've had a wonderful time - no issues with work sharing which I was afraid we would have. Everything has run very smoothly and we've had a fabulous time. I will be sad to leave but now that we're into the home stretch I find myself starting to think about things at home....all the things I need to do once I get home :)

No news on the job front - I'm hoping they just have me on "ignore" because they know I'm away. I'm not going to worry about it - I'm just going to let it be and whatever is going to happen will happen. I have, however, heard of another opportunity that is coming up so who knows, maybe that will work out if this one doesn't.

I went on a shopping spree at Walmart yesterday. Not exactly high fashion but the prices were excellent and the selection for larger sizes was fabulous. I bought 3 pairs of shorts (had already bought 2 pairs on a previous trip), 2 pairs of dressy capris suitable for the office and 3 blouses. I was really pleased with my purchases and didn't have to float a loan to buy this stuff so it's all good. After I get offline, we're off to Foot Locker for some runners for DH and then to Target so I can check out their scrapbooking section. Someone on-line was talking about their grunge board and embellishments and since DH will be in the neighbourhood I will be tagging along.

Gotta Run

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

We're into week three and it seems that the time is just flying by. The weather has been fabulous and I've managed to get a very good tan (at least it's a good tan for me!) and have managed to avoid getting burned. Today is a little overcast and a bit cooler so the trip to the Outlets that we cancelled Friday is on for today. Husband wants to get some new runners and I'm hoping (not holding my breath, but hoping) that there's a Kohl's or Lane Bryant at the Outlets. I hear that Kohls has fabulous stuff and equally fabulous prices so I'm wanting to check them out. If they aren't at the Outlets I may have to take some time away from the pool to do a little shopping!

We golfed with a friend Monday - I had a terrible game. I think I played every stinking sand trap on the course and let me tell you there are a lot of them! I think the golf gods were just putting me in my place and letting me know that I was a little too full of myself after my landmark game on the weekend. I had 2 firsts - I had my best game ever and I broke 100 - came in with a 99. Wooohooo!

While the boys were golfing on Tuesday, I spent the day by the pool, floating on a recliner. Sheer heaven! Last night we went to the Casino again - I'm not even going to talk about it. Suffice it to say Sandy minus, casino plus and let's just leave it at that!

I'm getting tons of sleep - averaging at least 8 hours a night, sometimes 10 hours so I'm feeling rested and rejuvenated. Hopefully the rest and relaxation will jumpstart my creativity and I'll be able to get right back into the swing of things when I get home. Until then, I'm going to veg out and just soak up the rays!

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Well, we are halfway through our time here in Palm Springs and are having a fabulous time. There have been 2 days that were not so great and the rest of the time the weather has been outstanding - averaging around 80 degrees every day.

Three of this years group are golfers so we've been splitting our time between golfing and lying around the pool. Other years, some of us have spent too much time on the golf course and not enough by the pool so that has been remedied this year. Yesterday we played at the Doral Course at Desert Princess. I had a wonderful round and celebrated a couple of golfing firsts - I had my best round ever and I broke 100 - I came in with 99 .....woooohooo! Now that I've done it once, I know I can do it again so I have a goal to work towards.

We've made numerous trips to the casino - so far we've only gone to the Spa Casino which is quite close to the house. I did manage to win a $500 jackpot on the nickle machines but other than that, the casino has come out ahead. Well you know what they say - it's not hard to win money at the casino, it's just hard to get out the casino with the money you've won.

Today is a pool day - I'm starting to get "owl eyes", those white circles around the eyes from the sunglasses. So today the plan is to try to lose the sunglasses for awhile and get a tan happening around the eyes. If all else fails, I'll have to purchase some of that sunless tanning cream to even out the tan. Lifes tough isn't it?

Monday, February 11, 2008

We are thoroughly enjoying our time here in Palm Springs. The weather, except for the storm that came through a week ago Sunday, has been absolutely fabulous....hot, hot, hot.

This morning we played some golf - we had an early tee time but we got our wires crossed and showed up today instead of tomorrow. We were able to play 9 holes and that was good and then we came home to lay around the pool. At 12:30 it was 86 in the shade - ya gotta like that!

Not sure what our plans are for this evening. We're doing burgers for supper and then who knows? The others might want to go to the casino but I will probably pass on that. The casino has not been good to me so I think I need a little time out. In any case, I'm quite happy to hit the sack early - I was in bed at 8:30 last night - I don't have a tv in the bedroom at home so it's a real treat to be able to lie in bed and watch tv. Just another little piece of paradise!

Monday, February 04, 2008

Well we started our annual vacation in Palm Springs. We left home in Pitt Meadows at 7 am on January 30th. We finally made it to PS - but it was quite the journey and we're not likely to forget it for awhile. It took us 2 hours to get from our house in PM to the Port Mann bridge, a trip that would usually take about 20 minutes! It was gridlock near the bridge and the roads were terrible. Garry says Mainroad must have been eating donuts all night as the roads were awful. The late start put us late into Canyonville but it all worked out and probably saved us a couple of bucks at the casino.

We normally make the trip in 2 1/2 days. We stop at Seven Feathers Casino in Oregon the first night, then on day 2 drive on as far as Buttonwillow, a little place outside of Bakersfield, and spend the night there. BTW - the Willow Barbecue there is fabulous, which is why we plan our trip to stop there every time! From there it's only about 4 hours into Palm Springs so it's a nice short relaxing drive through LA - well as relaxing as driving thru LA can be - and we don't have to fight a huge rush hour traffic jam.

Unfortunately, Day 2 was quite difficult. We only got about an hour away from our hotel when we discovered that they weren't letting anyone go further unless they had chains. We stopped in Medford but couldn't get chains because they didn't have low profile chains to fit our tires. We ended up purchasing something equivalent called the "spider" to the tune of $ 400, We got in line but lost one of the chains so had to go back to the shop to have it fixed. By the time we got back to the freeway, it was closed for 5 hours so we spent the afternoon sitting in a parking lot. When we finally got onto the freeway we had to go thru a chain checkpoint. Halfway to the checkpoint, we lost a chain so they turned us back, The first time we lost a chain we found it but the second time it was hopeless - just too many vehicles and they diverted us via a different road so we were SOL.

So back we go to Les Schwab in Ashland. By now it's 530 and we just squeaked in before they closed at 6 pm.! Very nice people there! They re-installed a new set - they said the first shop hadn't installed it properly and that was why we kept losing one. It was almost 7 pm before we got thru the chain checkpoint and on our way again. So at that point we were a full 10 hours behind schedule. The in-laws were arriving on Friday afternoon so we were worried we wouldn't arrive in time.

Long story short, we went thru 2 mountain passes requiring chains so had to chain up twice. The weather was good but the roads were really bad, especially through Shasta. The big transports were almost pushing us off the road and the second lane wasn't fully plowed in some areas. We could only go about 25 mph with the chains on so it was a little hairy to say the least!

We ended up driving all night and only stopped for gas and then for breakfast at 445 am. Unfortnately, we didn't get to stop in Buttonwill - phooee! We drove until 630 but just could not go any further so we grabbed an hour and a half sleep in one of the rest stops about 2 hours this side of Buttonwillow and then drove on to PS. We ended up here right on time, well actually probably an hour ahead of ourselves. What a trip!

The inlaws didn't get out of Ottawa on Friday anyway because of a huge storm, They had to re-book their flight and didn't get into PS til about 830 pm Sunday evening. They couldn't fly out of LA and had to be bussed from LA to PS because we had a huge storm here yesterday afternoon. The wind was incredible - trees down, sand blowing everywhere, power out for 12 hours - unbelievable! But they did get in safely so all is good.

Weather was nice here earlier this morning but has started to cloud over a little. Hopefully it will clear up - theyre saying it will get increasingly warmer as the week goes on so that's a good thing. However, did manage to get in the pool for a couple of hours yesterday so it's all good.