The new year has been good, but quiet. I am back to full workout routine at the gym, and have added a zumba class for variety. But - horrors - it is a zumba class for seniors. Well, I am 69. I love the music, and the hour goes quickly with the music. But I never was a jumper, and it is hard on my old joints. So, seniors it is; even without jumping, it is a good workout, and we have lots if fun.
And, as an added bonus, Thursday at the Mizell Senior Center they give out free fruits and vegetables. Not just the grapefruits and oranges and mandarins and lemons that are everywhere here, but other mis-shapen but otherwise fine stuff like beets and zucchini and squash and pears. And who doesn't like free?
What else? Bridge, of course, four days a week, with four different people, two different locations. It is addictive, I tell you, addictive. Oh, well. everyone has to have a hobby....
Movies? Just one, but a good one. The Big Short. I was perfectly prepared to dislike it - I read the book by Michael Lewis (I have read all his books, in fact, and am quite the devoted fan) and could not imagine how they could make a movie out of it. But they did, and it was fabulous. A little sad, though, on any number of levels. First, when Davie and I were working on the Safeway buyout in 1986, he said to me: This stuff is going to come back and bit them in the ass - noone knows what's in these securities. He was right, of course - a little early, but right. Unfortunately, it bit the wrong people in the ass. So it was sad that way, and, of course, because I didn't have Davie to talk to about it. And sad also because it is happening again. Or should I say still?
Friend Laurel and I went to the Metropolitan Opera in the Movies on Saturday. They were doing Bizet's Pearl Fishers, the first time it has been put on at the Met for - literally - a hundred years. They have put it on in relatively recent memory at Santa Fe and - I want to say, Seattle? - but I have needless to say never seen it (although I have heard it, at least the most famous arias). It was a great production, with great singers (whatever you say about the unrest in Russia and the Ukraine, the result is that New York is awash in great Russian singers). Anyway, the encore is the day after tomorrow - see it if you can.
Another movie later today, The Danish Girl, about which I will report next time.
Friend (and now neighbor) Mariah arrived in Palm Springs last Monday for her annual two month stay. I picked her up from the airport and we went for our by now traditional brunch at Sherman's Delicatessen. (Mariah does like her pastrami - I settle for beet borsht, boiled potato and sourcream on the side) No extra charge for snarly middle-aged waitresses.
Mariah arrived with her friend Pennie, also from Seattle, and we just "hung out" for four days, including a whirlwind tour of the local thrift shops. I haven't done that yet this season, and it is always more fun to do that in a gaggle - we enable each other, but at those prices, oh, well, who cares.
Mariah was the one to introduce me to local friends Art and Wally. Art has been having a tough time in the health department (I won't even begin to tell you, it is too depressing), but thought he would be up for a dinner at John Henry's, a local favourite.
There's Mariah (who never met a camera who didn't like her) and Art, who doesn't look too bad, for an old sick guy..
...and partner Wally (who is a lot better looking than this picture)...
... and yours truly and Penny (no, not the ones on the wall)
We had a great time, but in my opinion, we don't need to go there again. It was terribly noisy, the food was just mediocre, ditto the service. Everyone raves about it....oh, well.
And yes, a couple of pool days. It has been chillier than usual this year. (I took pictures of the snow covered mountains and the steam coming off the pool, but they didn't turn out for some reason...) But yesterday and today, I braved the elements, blew up my float, and walked the fifty steps to the pool. Pool and hot tub are both heated (Mariah, Pennie and I have been going to the hot tub every night before bed), but even still, I didn't last too long. But it is coming, ladies and gentlemen, wait for it....
Finally, the bedside reading pile. The library produced a mixed bag this time, two new ones by McColl Smith, one from the First Ladies Detective agency series, and one from The Philosphers Club series (The Woman who Walked in Sunshine and The Novel Habits of Happiness respectively), both great. I also read my first Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowlings of Harry Potter fame), Career of Evil, a good thriller. Another one I found in my stash at home, The Magician's Assistant by Ann Patchett. And am currently reading Pigs in Heaven, an old Barbara Kingsolver offering, also very good if you like her stuff. I won't bore you with the rejects - that's what's great about the library, you can just give them back, no guilt.
I'm heading off to Vancouver in a few days, but will be busy busy busy. Will write when I get back..
And, as an added bonus, Thursday at the Mizell Senior Center they give out free fruits and vegetables. Not just the grapefruits and oranges and mandarins and lemons that are everywhere here, but other mis-shapen but otherwise fine stuff like beets and zucchini and squash and pears. And who doesn't like free?
What else? Bridge, of course, four days a week, with four different people, two different locations. It is addictive, I tell you, addictive. Oh, well. everyone has to have a hobby....
Movies? Just one, but a good one. The Big Short. I was perfectly prepared to dislike it - I read the book by Michael Lewis (I have read all his books, in fact, and am quite the devoted fan) and could not imagine how they could make a movie out of it. But they did, and it was fabulous. A little sad, though, on any number of levels. First, when Davie and I were working on the Safeway buyout in 1986, he said to me: This stuff is going to come back and bit them in the ass - noone knows what's in these securities. He was right, of course - a little early, but right. Unfortunately, it bit the wrong people in the ass. So it was sad that way, and, of course, because I didn't have Davie to talk to about it. And sad also because it is happening again. Or should I say still?
Friend Laurel and I went to the Metropolitan Opera in the Movies on Saturday. They were doing Bizet's Pearl Fishers, the first time it has been put on at the Met for - literally - a hundred years. They have put it on in relatively recent memory at Santa Fe and - I want to say, Seattle? - but I have needless to say never seen it (although I have heard it, at least the most famous arias). It was a great production, with great singers (whatever you say about the unrest in Russia and the Ukraine, the result is that New York is awash in great Russian singers). Anyway, the encore is the day after tomorrow - see it if you can.
Another movie later today, The Danish Girl, about which I will report next time.
Friend (and now neighbor) Mariah arrived in Palm Springs last Monday for her annual two month stay. I picked her up from the airport and we went for our by now traditional brunch at Sherman's Delicatessen. (Mariah does like her pastrami - I settle for beet borsht, boiled potato and sourcream on the side) No extra charge for snarly middle-aged waitresses.
Mariah arrived with her friend Pennie, also from Seattle, and we just "hung out" for four days, including a whirlwind tour of the local thrift shops. I haven't done that yet this season, and it is always more fun to do that in a gaggle - we enable each other, but at those prices, oh, well, who cares.
Mariah was the one to introduce me to local friends Art and Wally. Art has been having a tough time in the health department (I won't even begin to tell you, it is too depressing), but thought he would be up for a dinner at John Henry's, a local favourite.
There's Mariah (who never met a camera who didn't like her) and Art, who doesn't look too bad, for an old sick guy..
...and partner Wally (who is a lot better looking than this picture)...
... and yours truly and Penny (no, not the ones on the wall)
We had a great time, but in my opinion, we don't need to go there again. It was terribly noisy, the food was just mediocre, ditto the service. Everyone raves about it....oh, well.
And yes, a couple of pool days. It has been chillier than usual this year. (I took pictures of the snow covered mountains and the steam coming off the pool, but they didn't turn out for some reason...) But yesterday and today, I braved the elements, blew up my float, and walked the fifty steps to the pool. Pool and hot tub are both heated (Mariah, Pennie and I have been going to the hot tub every night before bed), but even still, I didn't last too long. But it is coming, ladies and gentlemen, wait for it....
Finally, the bedside reading pile. The library produced a mixed bag this time, two new ones by McColl Smith, one from the First Ladies Detective agency series, and one from The Philosphers Club series (The Woman who Walked in Sunshine and The Novel Habits of Happiness respectively), both great. I also read my first Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowlings of Harry Potter fame), Career of Evil, a good thriller. Another one I found in my stash at home, The Magician's Assistant by Ann Patchett. And am currently reading Pigs in Heaven, an old Barbara Kingsolver offering, also very good if you like her stuff. I won't bore you with the rejects - that's what's great about the library, you can just give them back, no guilt.
I'm heading off to Vancouver in a few days, but will be busy busy busy. Will write when I get back..
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