Friday, January 17, 2014
Again, I will begin with the confession that we haven’t been “busy.” The days here in the desert, in the middle of nowhere, tend to roll together. One big jumble of walking the dog, dodging golf carts, and doing whatever task the day may bring. Most days, at least one of us makes it to the pool, (that’s usually Craig) and one of us does the crossword and Sudoku, (that’s Dad) and someone attempts to sew. (that would be me) It is entirely possible that a level of boredom has overtaken some of us. We are working on rectifying that.
A lizard in the desert. He’s in the center of the photo at the top of the hole. Pretty good job of camouflage, I think.
The American Legion at Bombay Beach.
We did make it to Thursday’s spaghetti dinner at the Bombay Beach American Legion. The entertainment was pretty wonderful. This night’s band was comprised of SIX members, one of whom played the harmonica, and the harmonica is cool……there is just no other way to describe it.
The band
The music was the usual country, or maybe western, and the food was good. We took our friend, Fred, who happened to the superintendent of my small school district many years ago. He has been coming to FOY for the past 20 some years, and lost his wife of many, many years, about a year and a half ago. It’s always good to catch up with him.
Spaghetti dinner
Today we went to Palm Springs to go grocery shopping and we hit all the high spots: WinCo, Cardenas Market, and Costco.
Cardenas Market
Cardenas Market is the Mexican market that I LOVE, where everything looks wonderful. The beautiful produce, the giant meat case, the freshly made tortillas, the cheese, the baked goods, and the horchata (sweetened rice drink) make this my favorite place to shop. Dad, of course, is not so thrilled with what this shopping trip eventually puts on the dinner table. I have toned things down a bit this year, and attempt to “Americanize” his dinner. It is painful to watch him wince over his food, and I don’t believe in letting anyone go hungry. After all, food is a celebration of all that is good, and if it’s not good in your eyes, then it’s really not very good at all.
The boys appeased me and took me quite far out of our way to go to a fabric store, one of two in this giant metropolitan desert sprall. I guess the quilters in this area are golfing and not sewing, hence a VERY limited selection for the rest of us, who seem to be in the minority. It was a lovely shop that carried beads and beading supplies as well as quilting fabric. I am working on a couple of projects and got great advice and EXACTLY what I needed, which happened to be fusible interfacing. The woman who was helping me gave me a couple of choices and asked me which one I wanted to buy. I told her, “A yard of each. I’m staying 50+ miles away in the middle of nowhere, and I’m not taking any chances.” She nodded her head and said, “I understand.”
On this day, we ATE LUNCH IN A RESTAURANT. If you have been following us, you will remember that this doesn’t always happen. This year, perhaps for fear of repercussion, the driver has graciously agreed to stop, and, fairly often at that. Last year, when the boys went to a baseball game and I went shopping, I found a great little Italian restaurant that has several locations throughout Palm Springs. One of these was very close to one of the grocery stores, and as I had mentioned that these two events would easily go hand in hand, we went.
Mario’s Italian Restaurant in all it’s cuteness.
The boys waiting for lunch.
Each Daisie ordered something different and liked what they ate. We ended the meal by splitting an order of spumoni ice cream. It was delicious, and absolutely the cutest restaurant around.
A little slice of spumoni heaven.
Highlight of the day: Cardenas Market and the dream of a wonderful Mexican meal
drivingthedaisies 