More celebration of Darla..this time in Mexico

 

I am quickly updating this and Darla is already saying, 'Hey! we're on Vacation!!" Yeah, I know, but those of us that have OCD tendencies answer to a higher calling. This will be quick.

 

The vacation so far has been tremendous. Darla says that she loves the "pace" of the vacation. We ate dinner at 8 o'clock last night and then slept in until nine this morning. It is a little weird for me to drive past the golf course and not be playing, but I made a promise (unbidden btw) that this would be Darla's trip and that I would leave the golf clubs at home.

 

We went out this morning  to the store in Paradise Village and shopped for groceries for the week. We have the meal plan as usual and have decided that we can share a dinner every night and get six dinners in. The meal plan is just $300 and includes 6 dinners and 6 breakfasts. We will eat breakfast out three times and each get a meal, but share the dinners. Last night we had surf and turf (beef medallions and shrimp) at Punta Arena with an appetizer of chicken lettuce wraps and a cheesecake for dessert. Tonight we were at Tramonto, the Italian restaurant and had calamari for appetizer and rib eye for dinner with tiramisu for dessert. People say the meal plan is limiting, but we figure we pay for the dinners and get the breakfasts for free. Last night's dinner was $72 and tonight was $68.

 

We got upgraded to the Punta tower when we checked in. They had us over in Tower 2 on the 7th floor and we wanted to be in Tower 1. Nothing was available, so they moved us into the residences at Punta. We have a nice room overlooking the pools and beach area. We didn't want to have to overlook the river and walk to the pools this time. The resort is at low season and Tower three is closed. They are in the process of getting ready to implode the last of the Mayan Palace buildings and those are also closed. They have opened the shops over next to Tower 1 and have a market, gelato, chocolate shop, deli and liquor store as well as a department store with men's and women's fashions. Very nice and needed.

 

Darla met a lady today at the pool from West Roseville. She lives about a mile from our house and they talked in the pool for about an hour while I rested.

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I added some pictures from the condo above as well as a "selfie" from Darla and I at the pool today. I will add more to this next week as I have to get back to Vacation. We have our update tomorrow, which Darla is dreading and then Wednesday, I have us booked on a catamaran that will take us snorkeling and then to a beach for lunch and swimming. All told, we will be gone for 7 hours. looking forward to it. I hope you are all well. Ciao.

Darla's 50th in Las Vegas!!

 

 

 

 

 

We are just back from Las Vegas, arriving back at 8 o'clock this morning after getting up in Vegas at 3:40 AM. I actually slept for an hour when we got home because I was exhausted. We had a fun, eventful trip. It was great to see Jennifer, though hard to see her 10 pounds down and using a cane to get around to keep her from bending at the waist too much because of the incisions and swelling from her surgery. She was a trooper as she kept up with us most of the trip, but I could see her getting tired and a bit run down as the days rolled on.

 

The hardest night for her was Saturday as we had dinner reservations at 8:30 and didn't get done with dinner until about 10:15. Sam was great and stayed with us both Friday and Saturday and gave Jennifer a break. She needed it.

 

David, Darla and I got into town at 8:30 and grabbed our rental car and headed over to the Palace Station to get booked into our room. The charge was $15 to check in early and we were only going to check into one room. The lady at the counter checked us into both rooms and didn't charge us at all. The only bump along the way was that dad and Shirley were off the reservation and we couldn't get hold of them to pick them up and take them with us to Jennifer's new home in North Las Vegas.

 

Daniel and Becky drove in about 11:30 AM and joined us at the hotel. I took the gang out to lunch at In n Out burger and we went back to the hotel and visited for awhile. Dan and Becky had a plan to ask Samantha to be their flower girl over the weekend.

 

We headed over there at 3 PM as Darla and I wanted to go to Samantha's school and pick her up. We surprised her and we were able to meet her best friend and have a chance to see her school. It is very nice and relatively new. From there we headed back to the house. They live in a nice gated community, close to Sam's school and close to John. Their house is a two story, three bedroom home, close to 2000 square feet on a large lot. The garage is nice sized as well with a nice work area in front of the cars. They plan to put a fire pit in the back yard and will get an above ground pool for Sam. The heat in Vegas is oppressive and it is almost a must to have a pool. The only problem they will have is keeping the water temperature below 95 degrees as the heat hits in July and August.

 

I had planned to pick up some steak and chicken and barbecue for Jennifer, but she told me that they had left their barbecue in the Bay Area. I guess it was filled with charcoal or something (imagine that). I did some research and found a barbecue place not far from their home. They were not aware of it, but it was perfect. We got a pound of beef brisket, 12 ribs, some mac n cheese, some baked beans and a pound of BBQ chicken, and we added a large order of killer fries made with hot sauce and sour cream. We had dinner for 8 and it cost me less than $8 a person. Dinner was great and we played cards and relaxed with Jennifer in the early evening.

 

We finally heard from Dad and Shirley who had been out shopping during the day and gambling. They called about four o'clock and we headed over there to see them at about 8 o'clock. Sam went with us and we relaxed with them for about an hour and we had to get Sam back to bed. Dad and Shirley plied her with jelly beans and she ended up back at the hotel "bed jumping" between the two queen beds. We finally got her to settle down and to sleep about ten. It helped that Darla and I were exhausted from being up at 4:30 for our 6:15 flight in Sacramento.

 

Saturday we had to take Samantha to her ice skating lessons at noon. We slept in until about 8:30 and then gathered the kids and went out to breakfast at the Egg and I. There was a wait (as always) and we left there about 11:25 for the drive over to the Fiesta casino Ice Rink. It was great watching Sam practice her skating and she seemed to love having us there as well. She is very precise in what she does and works hard to do everything perfectly. She took first place in her show last month.

 

We hung out at the pool in the afternoon in spite of some high winds in Vegas. The pools at the Palace Station are located in the courtyard surrounded by the motel buildings and it blocked the wind pretty well. At one point a dust devil dropped down and picked up some construction material and it flew up into the sky at least 100 yards high. I'm sure it eventually rained down on some cars or people, but it was pretty impressive when we saw the papers and wood flying overhead.

 

Saturday night was drinks and appetizers at Dad and Shirley's where we all put a good dent into his Canadian Mist and Ginger Ale stock. We headed over to the restaurant and had a tremendous time celebrating David and Darla's birthday. We bought the dinner family style and ordered steak, clams and linguine, gnocchi, mushroom ravioli, Italian salad, bruschetta, calamari, spaghetti, crème brule, tiramisu and lemon cookies. We had so much food left over that we brought leftovers back to Dad and Shirley's and actually ate dinner Sunday night on what was left over.

 

Sunday we all met at 10 o'clock at The Black Bear Diner for breakfast. Daniel and Becky were driving back that night and we wanted to make sure to spend the day together. Dad and Shirley went shopping and bought some peppers and onions, some flour tortillas and used the leftover steak for fajitas that night. We went back to the hotel and spent about an hour and a half out by the pool and Sam met some friends and played right up to the point that we headed back to the room.

 

We had an early dinner at Dad and Shirley's. Daniel and Becky took Samantha to frozen yogurt and asked her to be their flower girl. David and Jennifer and McKenny went along with them. Darla and I went with Dad and Shirley to Circus Circus for some adult time.  The kids joined us later and McKenny and Jennifer took Samantha up to the circus area and they played the carnival games. Darla and I gambled for awhile and then went up and joined Samantha to watch a juggling act by a Chinese woman acrobat who juggled with her feet. We said our goodbyes shortly after and headed back to the hotel to pack.

 

Jennifer and Sam did get together with Dad today and they all went to the pool at the Hilton where they were staying. It was a fun trip and both Darla and I are exhausted. Sam is a bundle of joy, but very high energy.

 

We are off to Mexico on Saturday and will be gone a week. I do have wireless internet there and will have some time to work on the blog. I am not bringing my golf clubs and don't plan to play. It is Darla's trip and we plan to do some sight seeing ands a lot of relaxing during the week. I hope you are all well. We missed Darryl and Cheryl and randy and cake on the trip, but did have a great time. Ciao.

 

 

Happy Mothers Day 2014

Happy Mother's Day to ALL of the Mothers out there: Shirley, Darla, Cake, Cheryl, Sherry, Jennifer, Alicia, Frances, Kathy, Caroline, Janelle, Laura, and anyone else that I forgot. Happy Mother's Day to my Mom, Alice, who left us 15 years ago. I can hardly believe that it has been 15 years since she went to Glory.

We just got off the phone with Jennifer and she is still stuck in the hospital with what is now a blockage of the tube from her kidney to her bladder. It is the same tube that they thought was pinched by the mass on her ovary, but it turns out that there is still a blockage. They took her down today to remove the drain from her kidney and put some dye in to make sure that the tube was working and the dye got stopped. She will have a stint put in tomorrow morning and if it clears the blockage, she will be able to go home. She is tremendously frustrated now on her 10th day in the hospital. We talked to Jennifer just now and she had Samantha over all afternoon visiting her. John had just got there to pick up Sam and she said she would call us later. I feel for her. Poor thing just wants to get back to her life. Her visit with Sam today really lifted her spirits.

I had a bad experience today when we arrived at church. Some chucklehead decided to pull over at the back of the church in a no parking zone to let his family out. When I went to pass him, one of his passengers threw open their door and slammed into the right rear fender of my wheel well. We heard a bang as we passed and felt it. I thought perhaps I drove over a rock, but when we parked I noticed the bang in my car. The SUV had moved on after disgorging the family that was apparently too lazy to walk from the parking lot. I was really steamed and upset when we got into service, but Rick brought up Proverbs 19:11 as a side Bible passage in his sermon. Proverbs 19:11: "A person's wisdom yields patience; it is to one's glory to overlook an offense." I decided to let it go and came home and took some rubbing compound to the area hit and there are no scratches to the surface, just a dent which I may be able to bang out. I am overlooking the offense, but the devil in me hopes their door is banged up pretty good as well.

After all of the golf that I've played lately, my back decided to raise it's hand and let me know that I have been abusing it. I woke up Monday with an aching back and already had a Bowen appointment scheduled for Wednesday. I suffered through Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and got my treatment on Wednesday afternoon. I played in my twilight league golf on Thursday night and I couldn't bend over or hit the ball over 180 yards. I shot 44 and Neil had 43, but we managed to win our match. My next concern was the tournament Saturday and if my back would come around soon enough to allow me to play.

Friday was another bad day and I woke up Saturday with still pain in my back. If it had been the first day of the event, I would have backed out, but I was actually in fourth place overall. I had the last tee time of the day with the other three leaders. On top of the back issue, the wind was up with gusts up to 35 miles an hour. Everyone had the same conditions, but every time I got pushed by the wind and took an awkward step, my back would spasm. I was a mess. I sat and did some yoga exercises before I left for the course that are designed to stretch the soaz muscle, but it didn't help. I hit my first drive really well and actually parred the first hole but took a quadruple bogey 9 on number 2 and ended up 48+44=92 for the day to play myself completely out of contention. It was too bad, but as my friend Neil, says: "it is what it is." I'm not sure if I finished in the money or not, but went from six under to even par for the tournament in one wretched round of golf. I have the Senior Men's Invitational at Serrano CC on Wednesday and a practice round on Tuesday. My back feels marginally better today, but it is a process.

I hurried home and got cleaned up and Darla and I headed over to Sun City for a 60th birthday party for Steve, my golf and poker buddy. He had several kegs of beer, about 40 bottles of wine, seven tri tips and countless chicken breasts for a real party. He had a deejay and we ate, danced and visited until about 9 PM. The venue closed at 9:45 (it is Sun City after all!) and I was tired and my back was barking. We talked to Jen on the way home and she was hopeful of getting out of the hospital today.

Darla has left to pick up her own Mother's Day feast at the local upscale Chinese restaurant, Fat's. We will dine on pork fried rice and sweet and sour pork. David called on our way back from church and took his Mom out to a late breakfast at Café Americano around the corner from our house. I fixed myself some scrambled eggs with ham, red bell peppers, onion and cheddar and sat down to watch the first half of the Player's Championship on TV. I taped the last half, went out into the wind and hand watered the front and side lawn, buffed out the area where my car was hit, and cleaned up the backyard and pool. I then took a nice nap in the sun. Darla joined me later. She and David were working on David's old room, moving furniture and clearing out the closets, etc. Darla is making that room into her new office. I slept on the chaise lounge and Darla read on a floatie on the pool. Our temperatures are going to heat up in to the 100's and cool off by the end of the week, just in time for us to head to the 100's of Las Vegas.

I hear the electric garage door opener, which foreshadows a delicious dinner to come and so will say a quick goodbye. I hope all are well and that you remembered your mother today, whether she is still with us physically or she is just in your heart. Ciao.

Jen Finally Gets Medical Insurance...and a trip to the Hospital

 

Don't wait to go to the doctor until you are in severe pain. Jennifer, unfortunately, had to live that one as she was waiting for her medical coverage to kick in with her new job. She has had some severe, uncomfortable pain in her right abdomen for about a month and went to the doctor as soon as her medical coverage was in force and the doctor did a CT scan and found cysts on her liver and kidneys as well as a mass on her ovaries. The cyst on her kidney was so large that it was blocking the kidney from functioning properly and the kidney was filling with liquid and in danger of dying. Luckily, they were able to go in on Saturday and put a drain into her kidney and lower the size of the mass and hopefully they can make it disappear with the use of antibiotics. They have to do a biopsy of the portion of the cyst that was removed and decide what the next course of action is on Monday. A team of OB GNs is looking at the mass on her ovaries and may have to go in and do another surgery to remove that and have it biopsied. Depending on the size of the mass, they may be able to treat that with antibiotics. In the meantime, Jennifer is stuck in the hospital waiting for the doctors to decide the next course of action.

 

Jennifer had called me on Thursday and let me know that the doctor had seen something that he didn't like on her kidney and she was to have the CT on Friday. Once the CT scans were done, the doctor told her to go home, pack a bag and get checked into the hospital, because the kidney needed to be drained. She was checked in Friday night and surgery was scheduled for Saturday morning. They did the surgery while she was hooked up to a scanner so they could insert the tube into her kidney and have it exit her back and attach to a bag for collection. That is where it stands now. She should have all of the fluid drained and the mass will be small enough to allow proper functioning of the kidney by Monday. They will remove that and may send her home with antibiotics or do more surgery depending on the decision of the doctors and the results of the biopsy. Pray for her. Samantha was a great help in getting her spirits up today as John brought her to the hospital to visit her Mom. She brought her candy and made her a card that you can see on the table next to her bed. Jen's Mom, Diane, is on her way to Vegas and will stay with her this week and help her get through this. We will, of course, be in Vegas on May 16-19 for Darla's 50th birthday celebration. Looking forward to seeing her and hugging her.

 

All of this was going on while I played in the first two days of the 54 Hole Individual Championship at the Club. I was completely distracted as her surgery was at 10:30 and my tee time was 9:30. I considered skipping the tournament, but realized that there was nothing I could do. I stayed in touch with McKenny by phone and text and called him as soon as I got off the course. Jennifer answered the phone, groggy and incoherent and I asked her to hand the phone to McKenny. He said that the surgery went well, that she was resting and frustrated that the doctor didn't come by to see her. I had talked to Dad and Shirley and he said that there was little the doctor could do until the biopsy was completed and the kidney was sufficiently drained. Of course, he is right, but Jennifer had hoped to go home. Her fever was 102 degrees and she still had the bag attached to her. She is in again tonight and hoping to get some resolution from the doctors tomorrow. Her Mom arrives tonight, so she will have her there to help out. We talked to Jennifer last night and I talked to her again this morning. We will call her tonight.

 

I played well yesterday, shooting a 43 +40=83 for a net 70 and a tie for fifth place after the first day. Andy Ortiz played with me and also shot 84 net 70 and we played together again as they had us play in position today. I played with Joe from the club, who has a medical exemption for a bad back. He shot a net 69 yesterday and a net 66 today and I told him his medical exemption is OVER. I shot a 38+43=81, net 68 today and moved into a tie for third with a two day net total of 138. Joe is at 135 and the leader shot a 75 today with 12 strokes for a net 63 and a two day total of 130. He'll be hard to catch, but I should be in his foursome next Saturday. I am very happy with the state of my game right now, although my handicap will dip after shooting the three under total last weekend in the City Am and the 6 under this weekend. I could have really put up a score today, but missed six birdie putts and three putts of three feet today. it was stupid and I got tired at the end of the round and was 7 over par over the last six holes. I got tired and my driver left me. I was pulling the ball dead left and leaving myself impossible second shots. It was disturbing. I got tired after so much golf recently and was ready to relax tonight. One of the players in my foursome asked me if I was going to the range to work out what was wrong and I told him I knew what was wrong, I was spent. it was too bad, but I am in position to win this next week. they pay a low gross and a low net and I am right there for the low net.

 

Darla was in Lodi today for a street faire and did very well with her Silpada. She was up at 4:30 this morning and out the door at 5:30. She and her friend, Missy, drove up together and were in place by 7 AM, setting up there booth. They combined had close to $1300 in sales and did very well. making some good contacts and setting up a couple of house parties for later this Spring. I got home about 5:00 PM today and was out working on the pool when she got home. We visited in the late afternoon sunshine, I took a shower and a brief nap and headed to the laptop for my weekly Blog report.

 

By the way the two lower pictures are of my former assistant, Cora, who moved to the Philippines two years ago with her husband. she was in town to see her children and visit her sister and stopped in on Thursday to visit. This is Mel's wife, who I used to play golf with all the time.  Her sister, Dinda also used to be my assistant. She has moved back to Sacramento and, unfortunately, her husband has stage 4 pancreatic cancer. They are aggressively fighting the disease and travel monthly to Chicago to the cancer Centers of America for treatment. Please say a prayer for JP Yared as he fights this battle.

Well, that's it for this week. We are having a late dinner of barbecued steak and I need to get it on the grill. Pray for Jennifer and I will keep the family updated on her condition this week. Be well. Ciao.