Category Archives: Friends

Friday Beach Views

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During last weekend, we watched a young boy building this unique sandcastle in front of Ashton Kutcher’s house. I swear as we walked by, I saw Ashton on the sand with friends playing with their kids. That’s my story. And I’m sticking to it.

This house is at the opposite end of the beach. A couple years ago our daughter and Waffles the pug joined us for a week. This house had the beach roped off and no trespassing signs around it. Waffles, of course, went inside the guy’s “private beach” and the owner yelled at our daughter when she went in to fetch Waffles. My husband explained to the man that there are NO PRIVATE BEACHES in California. The beaches belong to all of us. Now the ropes are down and there are two no trespassing signs on his house.

I made burgers with lettuce, Farmer Fred’s amazing tomatoes and avocados from a friend’s tree. Yium!

I think these shore birds are Plovers? They don’t have the long beaks that sandpipers do. They are standing in front of the house I mentioned above. I hope the owner doesn’t get mad at them!

A colder, foggier day at high tide.

Friends invited us over for dinner and we started the evening with this charcuterie and wine on their Duffy electric-powered boat. They live in Ventura in the Keys and we cruised around the inlets before dinner.

This is a photo from the Duffy website. I forgot to get a picture of the boat they keep at their dock, but this is what it looks like.

Below is a short video from our evening puttering around the neighborhood. What a fun night with friends. Thanks for coming along for the ride.

What plans do you have for the long weekend?

“I want to get away…”

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Nine-month old Nina hanging outside in our friends’ backyard.

It was an arduous few days, but we’re on our way to getting settled into the cottage at the beach.

We packed a day early. My husband magically managed to fit into our car all our stuff — his office equipment, our suitcases, cooler and bags of stuff I didn’t want to buy on vacation, like condiments, paper products and our Keurig and coffee.

We hit the road early and dropped in on two clients, one for lunch as we passed through our old hometown.

Then we met long-time friends for dinner in their hometown. They were celebrating their 45th anniversary and we got to treat them. We hadn’t seen them in at least 10 years. It was so much fun to catch up and we talked late into the night.

We ended up driving close to six hours on day one. Day two was a little easier with only three hours to drive. Strangely, those three hours seemed to take all day long!

Then arriving at the cottage, we spent hours unpacking and getting organized, grocery shopping etc. I slept that night like the dead.

Our first morning began with a beach walk with our friends and Nina, the rottie. They invited us over for omelettes after the walk.

View from our friends’ backyard.

Now it’s time to relax! One challenge for me is we have more friends in our vacation area than we do in our new state of Arizona. Through COVID, I got used to having lots of downtime. I need to be balanced with our friends here and not over schedule our social life.

The last few days reminded me of Lenny Kravitz song “Fly Away.”

Do you need to have downtime in your weeks, too? Or can you be super social and enjoy it?

Happy Friday!

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I have never seen this cactus bloom before, let alone in August! Must have been our recent monsoon.

I’m wondering what happened with the week? It rushed by. Usually the dog days of summer in the desert are slow to pass. But not this week.

What was I up to this week?

On the weekend, we made dinner for newish friends of ours. We cooked an all American meal of ribs (my husband), potato salad, corn on the cob and cherry pie (me.) We met these friends at the funeral of our friend who introduced me to my husband 40 years ago. He died suddenly from Valley Fever after we moved to Arizona. Our friends we had over for dinner were his brother and wife who moved to Arizona from Seattle. A circle of new friends all bought homes in Arizona, including us and another couple from Kirkland, because of this one friend. We’ve all pledged to keep his memory alive and get together several times a year.

The next busy moments came Monday morning meeting to brainstorm with my newsletter co-hort to write and layout the quarterly HOA newsletter. I’m proud to say that after 30-plus years of “newslettering,” I returned to my roots. We initiated a new process this issue that worked and the President of the HOA approved.

I compiled all the copy in a word document and sent it to the board to approve — prior to spending hours laying it out. This was similar to my early PR days, before desktop publishing and Mac computers. I would drive copy to the typesetter and then get it approved before giving copy to graphic designers to layout. Or, do the layout myself.

This is saved me countless revisions. It was annoying to have the newsletter all ready to go, and then have five board members give their two cents worth on what to change — one by one.

Other than the newsletter, which took up most of Monday and Tuesday, I had my first hair appointment since April. My hairdresser, who I love, went on maternity leave and it wasn’t worth it to me to try someone new for a one off appointment. It was fun to learn how my hairdresser is totally amazed and feels blessed with motherhood. She wasn’t expecting the dramatic love and emotions she’s experiencing now.

Thursday was a doctor’s appointment for my husband that I drove to. It was his final cataract appointment. He has new-fangled lenses that can be adjusted post-surgery with a laser light. It meant four or five extra appointments, but it’s supposed to make vision sharper.

Now that it’s Friday, we’re meeting friends who moved here from Palm Springs for dinner. But I have the day free to relax, read and comment on posts. I might visit the library, too.

I feel like one of my husband’s older clients from decades ago. My husband would call them to come into his office for an appointment. Often they’d respond, “Oh I can’t make it Wednesday. I have a doctor’s appointment.” Those were the days I was volunteering at school, taking kids to piano lessons, packing lunches, making dinners and volunteering at swim meets. I always wondered why people thought they were busy doing one “main thing” a day. Now I know!

How did your week go? Did it flash by quickly or seem slow?

What were some highlights of the week?

Views from Salt Lake City

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We had a great time revisiting Salt Lake City. The little big city has a special place in my heart because of my daughter’s four years living there for college. It’s filled with memories from our many visits. Plus, we saw my husband’s best friend from fourth grade through high school and his wife. We wish we had many more hours talking and laughing together! Every second was full. Our friend showed us a paper he wrote in fourth grade where he referenced my husband. Then he gave us a joint project they wrote together! Priceless!

Oh yes, Matteo’s restaurant owned by a former international student from Italy and swim teammate of my daughter’s at the “U” was amazing! The food and service was incredible. You can look at Matteo’s menu HERE. (Matteo is the handsome guy in the middle row photos that I linked for the menu.)

Here are a few views from our getaway in Salt Lake City:

No trip to Utah (in my opinion) is complete without a Freshie’s lobster roll. We’ve been to their Park City location, but now they have a Salt Lake City restaurant a mile from the hotel we stay at — the Little America. If you’re wondering how lobster rolls could be a thing in Utah, read this archived article “Utah restaurant stomps coastal competition, takes home ‘World’s Best Lobster Roll’ award.” Every bite of lobster was a major chunk from claws to hunks of tail meat. There was no sketchy filler. The roll was drizzled with warm butter, garnished with perhaps parsley in a grilled bun. Oh my!

Photo of the Little America tower I took during a morning walk. The Little America has two-story buildings surrounding the tower with garden and courtside rooms. (FYI, The Little America was founded by Stephen Mack Covey, grandfather to Stephen Covey of “7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” who in turn is grandfather to Britain Covey of the Philadelphia Eagles.

An example of the two-story buildings surrounding the tower that I borrowed from their website.

View of the Wasatch mountains from our 12th floor room. The apartment buildings below did not exist last time we visited Salt Lake City.

We walked to City Creek Center from the hotel. It was about a mile away. It’s an indoor-outdoor shopping center downtown and fills two city blocks. To get from one side to another you can cross the street, or use their skybridge. (We were on a mission to get new earbuds for my husband’s iphone at the Apple Store there. A story for another day!)

View from the skybridge walking from one City Creek Center building to another. Notice the train tracks lined with yellow? That’s TRAX, the light rail system that makes getting around SLC so easy and convenient. It’s free downtown.

Our daughter said she took TRAX from campus to football games, to downtown or wherever — all free as a student. She’d swipe her student ID. How convenient would that be going to a football game at the Rice Eccles stadium that seats more than 50,000 people and is sold out for every game? Or for everyday life? We used TRAX this past weekend.

City lights from our hotel room with the pool and garden and courtside rooms below.

The view of the Grand America from our deck. That’s the grander sister hotel across the street.

Thanks for coming along for highlights of my weekend.

Where you live, do you have a light rail system like TRAX? I wish we had that in Scottsdale!

Do you have any favorite go to places where you live or visit — like Freshie’s that I visit in SLC?

Back in the PR biz again

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Desert view from a morning walk outside the McDowell Sonoran Preserve.

I was asked a few months ago if I’d like to join the Board of Directors of the women’s group I belong to. The focus of the group is to raise funds for a residential facility for women who have been sex trafficked. We also clean out our closets, donate our clothes and purchase any items they need like deodorant and new underwear. I’ve written about the Dream Center HERE and HERE. The center provides medical care, eye care, clothing, psychologists, education and religious services if wanted.

The sad thing about my group of women is the club used to have 250 members. Now we’re at about 35. There’s not a whole lot of money raised by 35 people. What happened? COVID shutdowns plus an aging membership. I’m one of the new and young members — in my 60s!

In the end, I said yes and a neighbor friend also agreed to be on the board. Our first meeting was last month and I immediately knew what I would do. I agreed to be in charge of communication. My first project was to create a new brochure. Now I’m working on a sponsorship packet. After that it will be press releases. Back to my old career in the PR Biz.

I could see that communication was an area that could be improved. I’m glad I have experience and who knows? Maybe we can grow our organization back to where it will have a greater impact on the human trafficked teens and young women.

Then I saw this article:

42 arrested in Scottsdale human trafficking operation

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – A human trafficking operation in Scottsdale led to the arrest of dozens of suspects, police said.

Scottsdale Police say they conducted an operation on July 12-13 “to arrest sex buyers, child predators, and individuals involved with the sex trade and trafficking.” https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/42-arrested-in-scottsdale-human-trafficking-operation/ar-BB1qdslq

Forty-two arrested? In two days?

What type of volunteering are you doing now or have done in the past?

Views from Vacation

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View from the apartment where we stayed at the beginning of our trip and final night.

We left the wilds of the desert Thursday for vacation on the East Coast and returned home Tuesday. It was a trip to visit a friend in NYC. It was smoldering hot with a heatwave in Manhattan. After going out for a delicious Italian dinner across the street from the apartment, we drove with our hostess to her weekend home in the country where it was peaceful and a tad bit cooler. It wasn’t the bustling Manhattan I had envisioned for our trip, but so delightful — and much more my style.

How’s that for a change of scenery from Manhattan? It was serene, peaceful and beautiful. We spent the days in deep discussions, reading, and touring small towns in the countryside of Connecticut. We had fabulous meals at affordable prices in quaint buildings.
(I wrote last week about my disappointing restaurant meals HERE. Every meal on this trip was excellent.)

Unlike Scottsdale, everywhere we went had history going back to our nation’s founding.

Here are a few phots from a graveyard, lake, art show and restaurant:

One of several quaint, delicious restaurants we visited. Huge portions at ridiculously low prices.

We stopped at beautiful Candlewood Lake.

These were all the outside booths of the art show. There was a building with more booths inside. Small but mighty. So much talent.

One of the highlights:

The last evening of our vacation, we returned to NYC. I met LA of Waking Up on the Wrong Side of 50 in person! We recognized each other on the spot. We hugged and could have talked for hours or days. I felt like I discovered — as Anne of Green Gables would say — a kindred spirit.

What are your favorite parts of exploring a new place?

Sightseeing, eating, spending time with friends or shopping? Or something else?

Memorial Day

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I opened the front door and this boy was on our welcome mat. I ran inside to grab my phone, and we stared at each other in our courtyard. It’s thrilling to see bobcats.

As we’re enjoying a relaxing three-day weekend with friends and family, I wanted to find out how Memorial Day began. This is from the History.com website:

History of Memorial Day

The Civil War, which ended in the spring of 1865, claimed more lives than any conflict in U.S. history and required the establishment of the country’s first national cemeteries.

By the late 1860s, Americans in various towns and cities had begun holding springtime tributes to these countless fallen soldiers, decorating their graves with flowers and reciting prayers.

It is unclear where exactly this tradition originated; numerous different communities may have independently initiated the memorial gatherings. And some records show that one of the earliest Memorial Day commemorations was organized by a group of formerly enslaved people in Charleston, South Carolina less than a month after the Confederacy surrendered in 1865. Nevertheless, in 1966 the federal government declared Waterloo, New York, the official birthplace of Memorial Day.

Waterloo—which first celebrated the day on May 5, 1866—was chosen because it hosted an annual, community-wide event, during which businesses closed and residents decorated the graves of soldiers with flowers and flags.

Did you know? Each year on Memorial Day a national moment of remembrance takes place at 3:00 p.m. local time.

https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/memorial-day-history

Thank you to all who have served, are serving and especially to those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.

Here are a few views from my week:

Our friends held a 60th birthday pool party for a sister. This is the stunning view from their backyard. Good food, friends and perfect weather! Most of the people at the party were Vets.

My first baby quail of the season plus a bonus bunny.
Bobcat on the courtyard wall.

How are you celebrating Memorial Day?

What family members do you have who served our country?