P.S.

Our kitchen blinds are up.

The installer showed up yesterday. The one that the owner had no idea when he would be back, and so told us he would contact us next Monday about installation.

And he showed up in his CAR not his TRUCK....

But he could not take a CC payment so they still haven't gotten paid.

Normally I would feel guilty about this. But since the 2 weeks stretched to 7? weeks, I don't feel so guilty.

Finished the baby blanket for the baby shower that I cant go to.
I really really want to.
But it is up north - the day before we leave for Hawaii.
If it was just Tom and I going, that would be ok. We would just find someplace to stay up there and then drive to the airport.
But we are going with another couple and plans have already been made of how to get to the airport (not one we have ever used before) in the godawful early morning.
So I will have to mail this - and also the onsie and book I bought for this lucky little baby!

Monterey County Fair

I know everyone hates to hear "when I was a kid, things were bigger/better/etc" but this fair is a prime example.

There use to be buildings full of things - now there are tables.....the food court was put on by organizations and the food was GOOD....now there are only 2 organizations and one of them was pretty lousy....no chickens or rabbits this year! Cows? Did I even see any? A few.....

Makes me sad. Fairs are supposed to be fun, entertaining, educational....

 Small area of knit items. The "sponsors" welcomed me - saying they needed new blood! I should have entered more....I forgot to take photos but I did "enter" two knit caps for the Veterans....they will be donated at the end of the Fair. Lots of lap quilts displayed for them, but mine were the only 2 caps

 There was a separate building for quilts. And nice ones too - very pretty. But I liked this one because most of the rest were traditional quilts and this was a little different

 I liked this saying

 Very nice gentlemen. He complimented me on my choice of seating (in the shade!) and I complimented him on his sparkly purple shoes. He told me he is an artist and a performer. And today he was celebrating Michael Jackson's birthday....and getting into the Fair free! He said in a few weeks he will be celebrating Prince's birthday by dressing all in purple!

 I really really wanted to just pet and rub the ears on these goats - they looked so soft and silky!

 No thank you! Although probably would have been much better than the lousy fried artichoke hearts we had - Watsonville HS Band use to have a food trailer at the fair - and their's were to die for!

 Maybe we could have had enough lemonade for all the grands at the Alameda County Fair if they had had this there!

 I was told this is a spinning wheel from India that was donated to the spinning guild who sponsored the Wool Show

 This use to be chockful of gardens, and plants, and flowers. So beautiful! Last year there was a company here that we were hoping to see again - because they had something to get rid of gophers....no such luck

Again - the sewing entries use to take up a whole building. Now it takes up this table. Makes me want to decide on something simple to enter next year - just to get another entry there!

WE HAVE SHUTTERS!!!!!!!

I was so certain that there was going to be another issue, but no, they were here and on time.

But then they found out that the frames were a little too large so they had to go back to the store and shave off a little. But they were back in about an hour and got them all up.

Two little ones in the living room (we didn't want them - well, I didn't - on the two big front windows or the slider) and then in each bedroom.

We decided to put a blind up in the kitchen rather than shutters. And that was supposed to go in yesterday too.

But somehow it ended up in another truck....the truck that belonged to the assistant who was supposed to be with him yesterday but wasn't....and he and his truck are out of town, not sure when he is coming back. What??? So supposed to get that installed next week.

At least the most important ones were installed. And now our bedroom is nice and dark! But I didn't sleep in any later today than usual - but not because I was awakened by the light - but by the dog!

Moving

The hardest part of moving is coming.
And that is finding new medical people.
I have always been in the pipeline, and could get recommendations for/against from people within the medical community.
But I am no longer in that pipeline.
This is hard!

So husband's cap fell off his tooth Saturday which meant we had to get a dentist sooner than later.
So I went on www.nextdoor.com.
Got a bunch of recommendations - followed up with yelp. Thought I found a decent sounding group.
But he decided to call one of his friends.
And he got a name.
Called this morning and he got in today to have it epoxied.

But do you know what I  HATE about dentists? When you go to a new one - they immediately criticize (not critique - CRITICIZE) the work done by the previous dentist.....and so they then want to redo it all.

And yet they call themselves "professionals".
I call them money hungry.

I read the reviews on this guy and he sounded ok except for root canals. Several different people complained about how they had awful results from their root canals and had to have them redone. Sometimes a couple of time by they time they figured out to find a new person.

We really loved our latest vet group in Livermore www.delvallepthospital.com and now have to find a new one. Especially since Bella's cyst has been acting up and is not really responding to anything we are doing. Things we have done before. So went to my source.....hopefully I have found a good one. Have an appt for her on Wednesday and already gave them the info to get her records....

Not we need to find an MD.....
lord help us.....

Concours de Elegance

This has been going on for many years - use to be only out at Pebble Beach but it keeps on expanding. So we decided to chance it, and drove down to Carmel and look at the cars that they were showing on Ocean Avenue - much fun!

 My dream car.....since I fell in love with them because of Route 66!!!

 One of our walks....

 took a detour down Wharf #2 - the working wharf

 this made me laugh

 Crabs!!!!

 Another photo from our walk...

 And another photo from our walk, while we detoured down Wharf #2

Once upon a time we had a VW quite similar to this.....Tom was able to go to the Meacom Auctions on Saturday and found out this sold for (I think) $150,00!!!!!)

Camping Paso Robles

Just home from 4 nights camping down in Paso Robles. Friends have gone there many times, but this was our first time there. First of all - what a pleasure to make it there in approx. 2 hours instead of 4!

There are some very fancy RV resorts in the area - and we looked at them - and yes, you are getting some nice perks for your money - but you are also paying double or more what we paid for the Paso Robles RV Ranch. Would have preferred concrete over gravel …. and really the only amenity besides WiFi are 6 TV cable channels and an old swimming pool. But it was nice and and quiet there - maybe because it was the middle of the week and after schools had started up for the fall?  Quiet and relaxing. 

Monday we did mostly nothing. We were both very surprised at how cold it got Monday night and into Tuesday morning. But Tuesday it started warming up.

 Altar at San Miguel Mission

 San Miguel Mission, in the cemetary

 They had lizards! I miss our lizards! They were running in the vines alongside this walkway....

 Eberle Winery seating with view

We started Tuesday off by going to Mission San Miguel. Lovely place, but didn't get to see much because they are always renovating. But the church was charming - and looked like so many of the other missions!

Tuesday we also went to 2 wineries. First was https://www.eberlewinery.com/. Lovely setting - they have a beautiful seating area - overlooking lovely vineyards and the pretty countryside. Best of all - complementary wine tasting! Their wine was nice - and the price was mid range. We did their "wine cave" tour. We have done wine caves at other wineries so this was not overly impressive - but all the people working in the winery are young - upbeat - appear to enjoy what they are doing. We bought one bottle there, and another one of the plastic wine glasses. 

And then we went back to https://castorocellars.com/ which we have been to before. We really enjoyed the wines there - and enjoyed speaking and spending time with the people serving the wine. We bought 3 bottles of wine - went home that night and drank one of the bottles...so we ended up running out there again Thursday morning and buying 2 more bottles of that wine and joining their wine club! One of the only wineries in that region that I have seen making as many whites as they do! My only complaint was - they have a sparkling wine - but they do not serve it in the tasting room. The excuse we were given was because sparkling wine is an "occasion wine" and so they do not sell enough - and therefore do not produce as much - to be able to give (sell) tastes. Well, I happen to love sparkling wine and we drink it often and whenever - not just for "occasions"....but I wont buy it without tasting it. 

We also drove around the 2 fahn-cy RV resorts!

We ended up eating at a place in Paso Robles http://goodtimesdowntown.com/. It was actually very good. My BLT was huge and the onion rings were the best I have had in ages! Got gas and stopped at Walmart.....then it was time to go back and hit the pool!

Wednesday drove to Cayucas - and there was road construction which ate up a bunch of time - one of our favorite antique stores is gone.....but I did FINALLY get a birthday present!

I would love to hang this over the fireplace but I don't think that is going to happen....so maybe in the bathroom over the toilet.

We then drove to Cambria - and another one of our favorite antique places is gone. Walked around the yarn shop, fondling and smelling the yarn and DID NOT BUY A THING!

But we ate at an awesome place that we had never tried before: https://cambriacafe.com/. Everything on the menu sounded good but as we were looking at the menu outside, a couple who were leaving recommended the tacos so we had those....and oh my gosh were they good! Home made everything - beans, rice, and tortillas! I definitely recommend this place!

And then back to, you guessed it, hit the swimming pool again. Much warmer this day so the pool felt better too!

Thursday we went into Paso Robles. Hit a couple of antique stores, a thrift store, and an AWESOME second hand book store called Spare Time. Ended up with 10 books and spent only $19!! And then we ate at the Cowgirl Café in Paso Robles. Only 1 or 2 degrees hotter than Wednesday but it felt soooo much hotter. So when they brought our ice tea - we were immediately impressed! Mason Jar glasses - the quart sized!!!!!!! Their potato salad was good (a but too much may) and they also served what tasted like home made pickles with the sandwiches. The bread was not the run of the mill grocery store bread but very good bakery tasting - and my roast beef sandwich was to die for! The roast beef was so lean, so tender and so tasty! Tom had a ham sandwich and the ham was THICK!

Definitely recommend this place!

After all this - fillup on gas, another stop at Walmart, and back to the swimming pool!!!!!

We are talking about going back down in October if we can get a spot - to go see the scarecrows in Cambria!

Best Intentions.....

I admire the people who can write weekly posts....much less those who do so daily!

Our new life...well, let me see. We still have not been able to unpack completely. You see, we have moved into the twilight zone.

Growing up here - it was the norm. But then we moved "off the farm" and "saw Paree" (literally and figuratively) and now the adjust problems are getting use to the fact that there is no here here.

So we meant to have the house done before we moved in, but the sale went through faster than we thought (blessed be) and they would only let us rent back for a week, so we had to move in before all the work was done. And rather than moving things into the house - out of  the house - into the house...we decided it would be easier to finish the work and then move in.

HA!

Mid June we moved in.  How many weeks ago was that?

1. Got the kitchen pretty much done...except for the floor and the appliances being permanently installed.

2. Finally got the bathroom done - oy, that is a story in itself! Sewer blockage and backup resulting in delaying the work in there by a week; the lovely special vanity and quartz top we bought turned out to be too big (not lengthwise, but width wise) so had to down grade to a Home Depot blah with plastic top; the beautiful large mirror and lights were hung before it was determined that the 60" long vanity was too big and we ended up with a much smaller one; yup, it is killing this slightly OCD person...

3. Got the yucky old fireplace retiled [and a story there too of a recommended tile person who only wanted to order tile from a certain supplier he used all the time; and finally narrowing the tile down to something we were both giving in to (although every time we made a choice it was not in stock and had to be ordered so choose something else or wait a few more weeks) until we both decided to be honest and say we didn't like that style at all; FINALLY went back to one tile store and said HELP, chose and ordered tile through them - and used the amt that original tile person said which turned out to be 1.5 cartons if unreturnable tile MORE than we needed (which I think was a FU from him); went with another tile person because the first one kept coming up with excuses why he couldn't show up when we need him - and this was the best move of all because this 2d guy was excellent AND cheaper!!) and the pellet stove FINALLY located, ordered, and installed.

BUT.....dum dum dum…..

1. We are still waiting on the shutters which were ordered July 3 and supposed to be installed in 2 - 3 weeks. Now the latest appt is Monday after next

2. And the floors still aren't in. Many reasons - deciding what and how we were going to redo them; looking at many stores; falling in love with one but decided we just could not justify the cost. Finding another store with ones we liked and FINALLY narrowing it down.....and yep, so many weeks have gone by because 'it is the most popular style' and 'they are back ordered' that we are praying it actually gets done the last week of August or it will probably have to wait until almost October...

3. Finding out our neighbor of almost 30  years passed away. She is the one who turned up onto our realtor and yet, to date, her house still has not sold. That whole family is gone now except for some of the kids. We lost their son, her husband, her brother, and her grandmother, and now her (the last 3 all this year). So sad.

We are enjoying the weather here - especially after making a trip back up north for County Swim Meet and it was hot - not as hot as some years, but still hot.

And stupidly we have finally said FIA and are going camping next week and have learned that the temperatures where we are going are expected to be ungodly hot the days we are there.....yikes....