A Spurt in the Office

Park Place RV Park

On Thursday, Feb. 12th Bill and I stepped back into the role for the day. Helping Fred and Sue out so they had a day off. we woke to a somewhat cloudy sky but it soon cleared out. After a half grapefruit and a cup of tea for breakfast, I readied for the day.

Good morning!

Bill and Gibbs went out on the cart to check things in the park. As hosts and managers, they look for water leaks for the most part and make themselves visible to the guests. I'd say our faces are well-known here now and everyone is friendly to everyone. 😊

This morning, Bill went back
at the palm trees.

I walked over to the clubhouse and unocked the appropriate doors and turned lights on throughout. There is one rv expected in today and no departures, so a quiet day for the most part. I was able to work on the puzzle through the morning.

After a sandwich for lunch, Bill dozed and Gibbs sat behind me, keeping watch. 🐕 Bill has been busy trimming the palm tree after doing a bit of research on the proper technique to do that. He does like to earn his keep and Fred and Sue are quite pleased.

The puzzle is done.

I returned to the clubhouse and by 1:30 our new reservation had arrived and Bill had them in their place. He deserved the afternoon off! Mine was quiet so I finished the puzzle by 2:30 and sat quietly beside the phone in case it rang.

A mixture of sun and clouds
most of the day.
By evening, it felt like rain.

That was a bit boring so at 3:00 I uncovered the pool table and took a few shots, I need all the practice I can get! I 'played' 3 games against myself and won them all! Woohoo! It passed the time and before 4, I swept the floors down the back hall, into the common bathroom, shower and laundry.

Gibbs walks so far and then stops
to decide which way next. 
Silly goofball.

Backing up the daily system and locking up was the last thing I do before walking home. It was very warm in the Suite after being in a cooler clubhouse so I took Gibbs for a short walk and we sat outside together until 5:30. Bill suggested a quick, easy supper so mac & cheese did the trick.

He had no night flying tonight because they will be hosting night flying on Friday night instead. I went to Games Night with the ladies at 6. Another fun evening playing Yahtzee. Again, I didn't lose but I didn't win. Who says 3rd place is hard to take? 😂

These clouds were hovering.

I was home by 8:30 and watched a bit of tv with Bill until bedtime. It has been a great day, 79F/24C and we may have a bit of precipitation tomorrow. 

Love these memories.
Feb. 13th, 2020
at Yuma Lakes RV Resort
visiting Sharon and Jim Mohl.
Ken, Kim, Keith, Bill & I.
Great times.
Good night!

Thank you for stopping by! Your comments are welcome.

Shuffleboard, Pool, Lakeside, Happy Hour

 Yuma Lakes RV Resort

On Wednesday, Mar. 19th I woke after another great night's sleep. Once again, I knew that I hadn't turned from my right side since I hit the pillow. After getting the hugs and kisses from Gibbs, I did my stretches in bed and got up. I joined Bill downstairs for breakfast and we readied ourselves for our 9:15 sign up for shuffleboard. Wow! There's a memory from our 2018/19 winter. The last time we played was at Pilot Knob RV Resort with our dear friends, Rob and Pat. 💖

Good morning!

We've had a visitor every day since we arrived.
Bill hung my feeder out on Monday.
This little hummer sits and drinks
for a long time.

So, there were 10 players again, which was a better turn out than George and Judy expected. It's like I had never played before as I didn't do very well. We did have fun though and I think my job was easier than George's by keeping score for everyone! 😊 We parted ways when Bill and Ken walked back home, Ken being the top winner of the day. I stayed and worked on the puzzle until noon.

Shuffleboard
Ken gives it his best shot
and came out the winner.

The scoreboard for my first game
is on the right. I was yellow.

After lunch, Bill and Gibbs snoozed so at 1:30, I walked to the pool. Another good time to go as I was alone again. I didn't use the hot tub, just spent some quiet time in the water and on the sidelines. 

I guess it could be done tomorrow.

The clubhouse is nice with books, puzzles and games
in one room.
3 or 4 poker tables
and 2 pool tables
in the next room

Before walking back at 3, I meandered down by the lake here. There were some chairs along the shore so I sat and watched a few ducks swim by and walk up around where I was sitting. I'm not up on my duck varieties so only recognized the Mallard and maybe a Bufflehead.

These guys came right up past my chair
The Bufflehead couldn't figure me out.

These pictures turned out better 
than I'd hoped.
It's very pretty down there by the water.

Back at camp, I took Gibbs for a walk up towards the dog park. There were 3 big dogs and 3 small dogs inside playing but Gibbs didn't seem too interested in joining so we carried on. Ken was on his way back from getting a fix on his car so we had Happy Hour at our site, moving from shade to sun before packing it in for the night. For supper I baked chicken thighs, boiled some potatoes and mixed up a salad (by opening a bag). 

Walking back to our site.
Our road is to the right of the
blue water station

It was late by the time we were done cleaning up but on time to watch an NCIS rerun before The Floor came on at 7. Survivor was on next and we watched it while I worked on the blog. Today, was a great day. We had some winds, I believe the last day for a while of that, but we had clear skies and hot sun from 9 to 7. I'm enjoying being able to sit out and soak up some of it here. We reached 77F/25C today and that will be the coolest day in the next 14 days at least. 😁

A Sunday meal on a Wednesday. 😀
Good night!

Thank you for stopping around.

Slow Moving Sunday, Chilly Winds, Laundering, Puzzling and Playing Games

I woke around 7:00 on Sunday, Feb. 17^th and got up soon after. Bill heard me get up and then must have dropped off before I slipped out the door. It was very bright out so I had no hesitation going for my walk. At 48F and with no wind at that time, I enjoyed my walk. On the way back, I considered taking our sheets and duvet cover up to be washed. There were 4 washers available.

Now this looks like a pretty day coming our way

When I returned, Bill was up and was making my tea. Sweet! We sat together and read some blog posts before Bill hopped in the shower. His plan was to visit the Yuma RC flying field this morning. He had a quick breakfast and was on his way with Rob by 9:30 or so. I had my shower and a piece of rye toast with jam. I’m still eating the strawberry rhubarb jam that Rob and Pat made for us. It is almost all gone so I am eating it sparingly!

I got very lazy and just sat at my laptop searching for a recipe or two for the Instant Pot. Even though I belong to a couple of groups on FB, I find it almost as quick to Google when I’m looking for something specific. “Hey Google” works wonders. Once I find what I’m looking for, if the ingredients are in our kitchen, I copy and paste it into a Word document. Works for me!

I did find a ‘how to’ cook a beef roast on the Facebook group though and with a couple of alterations planned that for supper. I stripped the bed and the duvet of its cover and walked back to the Laundry Room. All washers were in use but with only a short 7-minute wait to obtain one, I stuck close by. Soon enough, I loaded it up and then went around the corner to the puzzle room.

One of my favourite puzzle people was there and Jules was also helping Robin with the cheese puzzle. Yay! The cheese puzzle wasn’t finished. I lent a hand in between my wash loads and when Jules said ‘toodle-ooh ladies’, Robin and I dug in. “We’re not leaving until we finish” she said and that was what we did. It was a great, fun one to work on with very strange shaped pieces, so a real puzzler for sure. We finished it without getting ‘cheesed’ off. Hardy-har.

This was a fun puzzle to work on, challenging but fun

Back home with the bedding, Bill and I sat for a bit before asking Rob and Pat if they wanted to play an indoor game. The wind was too unpleasant to try for bocce ball or shuffleboard, so we all settled on Wizard at their place. For a couple of hours, we played and Pat came out with top honours today. Way to go, girl! At 4:30 we returned home and I peeled carrots, onions, washed and cut potatoes and Bill turned our power back on.

Following general instructions, not to the letter but close enough, I browned the roast on all sides. Removing the meat, I added water + beef broth, scraped the brown bits, placed the trivet and meat back in the pot. The veggies were added, spices and a bay leaf finished the prepping part. Now the rest was up to I.P. I didn’t have a 7 lb. roast as per the recipe so didn’t set it for an hour. Instead, I set the cooking time to 40 minutes. I hoped that wasn’t too much. It seems unreal, ya know?

The best roast beef ever

Bill and I went upstairs and turned an exerting job into an easy task. We shared making the bed and then the duvet cover. I’ve struggled with doing that last job and it truly is a chore by myself. I know, I know, there are all kinds of people who have ‘just the trick’ but for me, forget it! It’s a pain. The good thing is that now everything is refreshed and we’ll enjoy slipping into the warmth and scent of clean sheets.

The Suite started to smell good immediately, I just love the scent of onions and carrots cooking. I took Clemson out for his walk and on the retractable leash, it is so much less stressful. He can go where he wants (within reason), stretches his legs, does all his business stops and is usually very ready at the door to go back inside. Those walks I don’t mind taking him on.

After 40 minutes, I.P. beeped and switched over to Keep Warm/Cancel. The Natural Release took longer than I expected and when I noticed that the valve stem had dropped, I lifted the lid. Everything smelled yummy! I lifted the roast out into foil, removed the potatoes and carrots. It is so easy to make gravy right in I.P. by turning on Sauté. It gets hot almost instantly and the liquid boils ready for thickening.

And finally a beautiful sunset again

I boiled some corn for Bill and carved the meat. Well, not much carving was really involved. The small roast almost fell apart. There was no bone but if there were, it would have fallen off. This was truly a wonderful Sunday night supper. Just like days of our youth, Bill said, referring to his family dinners and mine. I’ve never heard Bill go on about a meal I prepared so I know I can’t take credit, but I.P. can. It was delicious! Proof on the platter, no leftovers except for gravy.

We cleaned up dishes and vowed to only cook beef roasts in I.P. from now on. I sat and worked on my post and Bill and Clemson sat in the recliners waiting for me. The wind is still rocking our sign and our flag. We are hoping for a calmer day tomorrow as we know the temperature is dropping below 60F for a couple of days. This has been a good day of rest. I hope yours has been too.

Thank you for stopping in to see what we’re up to. I always love to hear from you if you choose to leave a comment.