Okay, that title is a bit misleading. The weather here today was absolutely gorgeous. Again. But after skyping with Tim and Alex and talking to Ed and Val for a bit we learned that it is frighteningly cold at home. And just because the weather here is fantastic doesn’t mean I spent any time at all outside today. Nope. There was Playoff Football on TV today. And another very fine Sunday of football it was.
So, after quite a few pleas from my faithful readers, I’m back on the blog. It’s been a week since my last confession. I’m not sure I can list all my sins, but I may just mention a few highlights.
On Monday last we went for a hike in the Santa Rosa Mountains — about 3 miles, relatively easy hike. Cool weather but not too bad in the sunshine.
We also went to see a few movies. We’ve now seen almost all the major category nominees for the Oscars — still have “Les Mis” and “Django” and “Amour” to see. Maybe in the coming week.
We also went golfing a couple more times.
We had a lovely time at Shadow Mountain — not far from our place. It’s an older course just a block or two off El Paseo Drive, right in the heart of Palm Desert. We had fun (code for ‘we played crappy but we had a good time’).
On Friday we went for another bike ride. Slowly we’re getting a sense of what is where. It really is beautiful here, although it seems a bit artificial: every block is just another beautiful country club, with lots of plantings and palm trees and sprinklers and golf courses and shiny cars parked next to walled-in gated communities.
Then a little after 4pm we went down to El Paseo Drive and walked along the street watching the parade of cool old restored show cars cruising up and down the street. Lots of very nice cars, and a fun way to spend the end of a very warm day, watching people, watching old rich guys take their pride and joy out of the garage for a couple of hours and show off a bit.
Then yesterday we went golfing again. Again, it was a course not far from us, and we found it on the ‘golfnow’ website — a pretty good deal for the two of us. And again we had a very enjoyable afternoon. The course was like a postcard. Our game was still not that good, but it’s hard to get too upset when you consider that you are spending an afternoon riding around some incredible scenery in the warm sunshine while people at home are shovelling snow. Anyway, we got the pictures to prove it.
And finally, that brings me to today. Got up at 7 to watch Fareed — but he’s not on! All CNN is going to show today is a bunch of talking heads going on about Obama’s inauguration — which isn’t ‘officially’ happening until tomorrow! Oh well, we watched CBS Sunday Morning and only paused a bit for crepes with yogurt and blueberries and mangoes — made for us by Miss Crepe Suzette. Skyped with Tim and Alex for a bit. Then I settled in for my afternoon of football. Two games. First one saw the 49ers upset the Atlanta Falcons. Yes! In the second game the Ravens surprised the Patriots. YES YES! So it will be the two teams coached by the Harbaugh brothers in the Superbowl two weeks from today.
And I took the opportunity to practice a bit of guitar during the commercial breaks. Just like at home. Sue spent the afternoon lounging at the pool — reading her Leonard Cohen biography. We had leftover Chinese for supper. Tried to Skype with Ed and Val a bit but had a bad connection. Sue called her brother Al (in Phoenix) to ask about Scott’s engagement announcement, but only left a message. Then got an email from Al to confirm the news. We watched our movie rental after supper (“The Words”, it was okay). And then a little more TV before bedtime. Tomorrow is MLK Day here, a holiday. YES! Finally a ‘day off’!