Once in awhile-now and again-this is us

Jerry got the tube removed from his throat last night. A big improvement. This morning he was alert and attempting to talk. He had just been given a shot of pain medicine. the nurse said it was ten times stronger than morphine. Wow. They are taking good care of him. Jerry was the only patient of the night nurse.

I know you will all keep him in your prayers, and I will keep you posted.  Thank you.

Love,  Jill

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I know I should have told you sooner but I was waiting to hear from the doctor. I’ve only known since last Tuesday that Jerry was going to need heart bypass surgery. The doctor just came in and said everything went well and he is doing fine. His heart will be like new again. Whew!

Keeping track of Jerry.

He was in surgery since eight this morning. I’m so glad it’s taken care. His a fib should improve also.

Now don’t you guys do this to me.

I will keep you posted.

Love, love, love

Jill

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Linda is a jersey girl. She wasn’t connected, but did hear stories. We had been wanting to see the mob museum, so this was the perfect time to go.

It’s in an interesting old post office.

I was having trouble getting good pictures. Hmmmmmm.  And of course you understand; I can’t show you Linda’s picture with the photo of the person she knew. That has to stay in Vegas.

We had lunch that day at thuys little sister and husband’s new restaurant. Pho mai mai,  meaning pho forever,  my my that pho is good,  and mai is their last name,  so two mai’s own the restaurant. Frank and Linda ate every bite of their pho.

They have only been open four months and business is booming. The food was so delicious. The bbq shrimp were out of this world.

We finally found Josh, our tattoo guy,  at a new shop. Revolt Tattoos. We lost track oh him him for a couple of years. We got very small stars this year.

And the we saw the greatest show on Earth,  ‘LOVE’.

Sorry you’ll have to go see it for yourself.

More later

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Frank and Linda are walkers, hikers, rock climbers (at one time), kayakers just to name a few. So we drove out to the red rock area west of Vegas. 

While they we’re taking a hike we enjoyed the visitor center. So much interesting information. And pictures… are worth a thousand words.

It was a beautiful day. We actually had good weather the whole trip.

Frank and Linda might be interested in using the coach sometime, so he tried out driving it. He said it’s easy to handle. Now he just has to learn to empty the holding tank.

Of course we ate at Mon ami Gabi. Because we are in the know, we got three desserts.

And watched the belliago fountains.

Walked through the casinos.

We walked from the belliago to the Wynn. You might say so what. But people in the know say “WOW”

Linda saw someone she knew in the mob museum.

Stay tuned

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The dolphin habitat is in the rear of the Mirage hotel. We scored free passes because we made a few complaints about the parking situation for oversize vehicles. The manager was very friendly and also waived the resort fee for our room.

It’s amazing how close to the dolphins you can get.

Absolutely Fabulous! I still remember our time in the pool with them.

The exotic animals are near the dolphin pools in the rear also.  It’s wonderful how they are treated. Google it sometime.

Midas’s cousin.  By a heart rock

As we were leaving, we paid one last visit to the dolphin underwater viewing area.

Hope you get a chance to see it sometime while you’re there Sharon.

Stay tuned,  I have big news.

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we had a good visit to las vegas, again.  our neighbors took us to help celebrate our 55th wedding anniversary. (look at what room we got at the mirage). the whole trip was a gift from them.

las vegas was all decked out for christmas, as if it could have any more lights.

our friends frank and linda.

and speaking of lights we took the night tour of the neon museum. they are doing so much to restore and preserve these old signs. it takes so much money though

the restored lobby of the la concha hotel is the office of the museum now.

this sign was very pretty.

we drove around downtown to see the remaining neon lights being used today. there’s only seven or eight. this one is from the hacienda where the infamous mandalay bay is now. we stayed there on our very first trip to vegas in the sixties.

while walking over the bridge to cross the street i took a picture.   this is vegas baby.

on our trip we also saw the show ‘love’, went to red rock canyon, and visited the dolphin exhibit at the mirage. oh and the mob museum and ate at mon ami gabi.

stay tuned

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thanks for your comment jake. l love your avatar. it’s very you. and thanks for the picture you took of our visit in los angeles.

it’s almost like mine, but reversed.

            ~ “children are the rainbow of life, and grandchildren are the pot of gold” ~

we took emily and amy shopping for halloween costumes a week ago.  amy had already made hers, a blue m&m, so it was just emily looking for something. send me a picture of yours amy.

but first we went to emily’s soccer game.  amy had already played her game earlier, and won!

trying to get a goal, emily had just kicked the ball, and a half time pep talk.

we had great seats to watch the action and so did pete, tony’s new dog

emily’s team was defeated, but she’s still smiling.

next we scooped up the kids and went to lunch at ‘flame broiler’ and then powell’s candy store.

“i did a lot of reminiscing about all the penny candy we bought at our grandma’s local dime store in lomita. remember that cousins?  i loved walking to that store and spending our meager amounts of money with no parental supervision on whatever we wanted. (i still look for that sour apple red and yellow candy to this day). then we’d walk across lomita blvd.- to the liquor store- and get vernor’s ginger ale.

how old were we?

then it was off to party city. look at all these costumes kids have to choose from now.          i remember going to the dime store and looking at 4 or 5 boxes. yes in boxes. but we usually made our own.

dotothy?

or the scarecrow from the wizard of oz?

which one do you think she chose?

i love how they have everything coronated by colors of the rainbow in that store.

on the way to grandma’s house to spend the night watching television. did our grandma have a television? i don’t think so!

on the way home we saw a beautiful sunset.

i liked this shot the best, except for the wires.  the northbound side of the 405 freeway wasn’t as bad as the southbound side, thank goodness.

we had arby’s for dinner. the girls watched their grandma and grandpa’s 65 inch color tv while lounging in an adjustable king size bed – we had no tv and lounged on a twin size feather bed or couch cushions.

three generations.

thuy and her mother picked up the girls the next day. with egg rolls in hand. a fair trade. don’t ya think. ha ha.

oh yeah, jerry got an ice cream at the candy store.

until later

jill

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first of all there is no place like home. even though it’s back to work cleaning, cooking, and yard work, it’s home. the coach is our home away from home.

we’ve seen all our friends and neighbors. went to dinner with dick and jessie and got my long island iced tea. the family is all doing well. we’ll have emily and amy this weekend.    we even got to see jake when  he was in los angeles for a gaming conference. we met him at his hotel in los angeles. we had a great time at dinner talking about old times and new. there are eight people in his company now. he’s doing well and still has his boyish charm at 45.

he brought me a copy of amanda’s beautiful cookbook. it’s very well done. there’s a lot of stuff i don’t know what it is, but i know fermented foods are a healthy item to add to your diet. i love the way it looks on the counter.

i definitely want to make this carrot cake sauerkraut, and then the cake. thanks again amanda for sending it with jake.

great picture amanda

our midas had a trip to the vet last week. we thought he had been in a fight and gotten a bite. the vet said it looked more like he had ran into something or gotten hung up on something. it’s a pretty big gash. his stitches are purple. i counted 11. poor midas.

stitches didn’t stop him from enjoying your gold can tuna ted. thanks for getting him used to the good stuff. when will you be sending more? haha. i told celia and to keep up with you, she bought another can. (not the gold can though).

he’s back to patrolling hos neighborhood from his perch on the porch.

i hope you all won’t mind if i post on the blog once in awhile. social media isn’t my thing but this seems to suit me. you have the choice to open it or not open it.

you all should know by now i love quotes. so i will probably insert one now and again. this is one of my favorites and hangs in the dining room.

thanks for listening – love – jill

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hey martha maybe ray would take you to san fransisco for this. how about it ray? by the way did you take martha to dunsmuir?

well, we did make it off of the rock. and i think that helped us get our minds back. it was a beautiful day and we enjoyed our time on alcatraz. (no cars or traffic).  we got right on 101 when we reach shore and didn’t look back. we made it to moss landing that night and stayed in the same place as last time.

we got some more artichokes and drove most of the day to bulleton,  for you know what don’t you?

we were going to eat at the hitching post again but it was closed for labor day. “darn”. but we stayed in their parking lot anyway. we know they wouldn’t mind and i left them a thank you note. so our trip ended without some of those delicious ribs.

we left bulleton, stopped at the goodwill outlet in oxnard and got home tuesday evening. it’s a sad and happy time. we get to come home and see family and neighbors and midas again, but now we have to get back to the daily grind of things. you know laundry, dirty dishes, yard work, vacuumming, all that stuff that you guys have been doing. ha ha.

“when and where are we going next jerry”???????

we had a really good trip. some highs and lows in the weather, but that always happens when you travel. sometimes we have mechanical problems. other times we don’t have any. well this time we had one big problem.

we we’re on our way to fisherman’s wharf driving up one of the many hills they call streets, and heard a loud noise. jerry immediately pulled over. luckily it was a four lane one way street. but a car was next to the curb so we were still in the street. jerry checked things out and came back and said the bracket for the holding tank had broken and let the holding tank fall to the ground. we couldn’t drive anymore. in case you don’t know the holding tank holds, holds the, toilet water.

so this means the holding tank, with it’s toilet water, could fall off. so not only do we need a tow truck but a flat bed tow truck. which you see we finally got. but it took many calls to aaa after they sent a regular truck.  while waiting jerry looked under the coach again. he did some handiwork with a bungee cord and got the tank pulled up and tight enough to hold it temporally.

after waiting a good 2 hours, and smelling susies cakes bakery, every time someone would pick up a bag, the door would open and all these wonderful smells would come out. we could see them in there frosting cakes and such. and then the door would shut again. delivery people would ring the bell, show their phone, and someone would bring a out a bag and then the door would shut again. kind of like a drug deal?

jerry decided to go and ring the doorbell wanting to buy something. she said they were only a place for people to pick up orders. they can’t sell anything to the public. jerry did his song and dance and got something for his efforts. these delicious cupcakes and some really good snickerdoodles.

as we waited jerry called around and found a repair shop that could take us that day and probably fix it that day. it was in richmond across the bay. so off we went. another trip on the bridge.

the coach got fixed that day and it was only $237. dollars. an honest repair shop.

thanks again for everything jerry. i love you.

i think we should go to las vegas to get our 55th anniversary star. yeah, we could see the show ‘love’, again. yeah and let’s stay at the mirage where it’s showing. yeah and maybe frank and linda would like to go too. yeah.

p.s. – we laughed afterwords about what if the tank had fallen off and slid down the hill and broke open. we would have needed the hazmat team. and then got saddened if it had fell off on the freeway. it could have caused a terrible accident.  we have someone watching out for us.

thanks again for all your comments. it wouldn’t be the same without you.

love, jillyandjerry

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“ALL ABOARD”

we went on our tour of alcatraz sunday. we had no trouble parking the coach right near pier 33 where it leaves from.  alcatraz is only 1 and 1/2 miles away from shore so it is a very brief ferry ride. our shirts were a big hit tracy. everyone was commenting how cute and clever they were. a lot of people took pictures. thanks again.

it’s an interesting part of history to explore. the park rangers explain a little bit to you when you get off the boat. then you’re on your own to visit whatever part of the prison you want to. we took the audio tour of the cell blocks. what we see in movies is a little more glorified than it really is. except for the reality shows you can see on tv now. you walk in one of those cells and realize someone could have been in it for years. going by just a number, not a name.

the showers

the inmates gave names to different areas. this was the dining hall.

one fact we learned was the birdman of alcatraz didn’t have birds while he was there. he had them at leavenworth and they wouldn’t let him bring them with him.

itwas like it was it’s own little city out there. some guards and the warden lived there with their families. they had a store, movie theater, bowling alley. and they knew they could leave and be in the city quickly.  just like we did.

did we make it?  stay tuned

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