Into the Desert.....

Limo Man always loves a trip into the desert in August. It should be in the 106-110 range while we're there. I understand that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas but.... Stay tuned!

San Diego......Ahhhhhhh.......

So here we are in San Juan Capistrano again. Getting on the train to go to San Diego. It's one of our favorite getaways! We are going to see "The Dukes of September Rhythm Review" at Humphrey's.

Here's Limo Man starting to decompress. Get me some coffee WOMAN!!!

The boats turned out pretty crappy in this picture but I like the silhouette of my bedhead against the marina.

Here's a little better look at the marina and some of the sailboats.

If you have never been to Humphrey's it's well worth the trip. They have some fabulous concerts and the rooms will make you feel like you are in the tropics somewhere! It's good stuff! And the concert we saw was FABULOUS!!! Michael McDonald, Boz Skaggs, and Donald Fagen. Need I say more?

More Austin.....

While we were in Austin we decided to take a bat tour. I must say it was a pretty unusual thing to experience. Fun but unusual. And very smelly. The bats migrate from Mexico to the Congress Avenue bridge every spring from March to November to have their babies. They fly out from under the bridge to go in search of food every evening. This picture below was on the corner of Congress Avenue and Barton Springs Road on Lady Bird Johnson lake.

This is our boat tour operator.

Capitol Cruises is just down from the Hyatt.

I couldn't resist a picture of this swan.

Stevie Ray Vaughan.

The batman building at dusk.

Downtown Austin Skyline.

The train and grafitti.

People on the bridge waiting for the bats.

I have to say that we had a GREAT time in Austin but the bat tour was a little cheesy. It was dark when the bats started flying out from under the bridge so we didn't really get to see much. The best time to go on the bat tour from what I understand is in August. And that's only if you can stand the 100 degree temps with the humidity.

We're baaaack.....

Limo Widow here. I know it's been awhile but I have had a slightly longer time settling in after our move and am now back to posting. Sorry it's been SO long. Limo Man and I took a trip to Austin, Texas at the end of April and below are a few of the pics we took. Of course we HAD to stop by the Austin Speed Shop.

Yep, bad boy Jesse James has a bad a** trailer.

How could you NOT take a picture of this? It just screams "Don't mess with Texas"! Squat -n- Gobble!!!!!

We call this the Batman building. This was taken at night.

We decided to take a tour of the state capitol of Texas. It happens to be the biggest state capitol building in the United States. Here is Limo Man checking out one of the cannons in front of the building. He's so inquisitive!

This is the rotunda in the state capitol. If you click on the picture you'll see that the letters on the star spell out TEXAS. It was amazing to see what an absolute connection and love for their state that Texans have. They are proud of where they live and it's nice to see that kind of kinship.

These statues are in front of the state capitol building and we are looking downtown.

This is the state capitol building.

If you ever get the chance to go to Austin I would definitely recommend it. We had a blast! Heck, we even went on a bat tour. I'll get around to that on my next post.

Bored at Work.....And a Little Rant

So, here I am sitting a work bored out of my mind.
Sometimes it just bees that way I guess.
I know that's not proper English but I'm not feeling very proper this morning and here is why:

I work at California State University, Long Beach and have been here on campus for 17+ years.
It galls me that the CSU trustees can find it appropriate to give 2 of their new campus presidents 10% raises when we the peons, who actually do all the dirty work,  haven't seen a raise in over 4 years and were even put on furloughs for a year and had our pay decreased by 10.7% for that year.

We are now faced with hiring freezes, turning students away for the Spring 13 term and possibly the Fall 13 term and layoffs.

So my question becomes this......What the hell is going on with the State of California?
It used to be the "Golden State" and now????

I'd better go back to work now before I get myself into trouble.

Going Back to Christmas Flowers

I never got the chance to post about the beautiful flowers that Limo Man had waiting for me on Christmas Day at M.I. We had poinsettias and this arrangement that kept on giving even after we got it home. You will see why below.

These beauties bloomed about 4 days after Christmas and were part of the arrangement above with the red and white flowers.

And an after Christmas rose bloom.

This arrangement was very special to me because Limo Man bought this vase at a gallery in Laguna Beach. He had previously given me a glass heart with the same flower design on it to match this vase. He is such a romantic guy! Calla Lilies are my favorite flower and he had the ladies at Galerie de Fleurs in Riverside incorporate them in to match the vase.

The ladies at Galerie de Fleurs in Riverside deserve a high five for such a beautiful job! If you are in the area and want/need flowers they are the ones to see. I just love flowers but I hate it when they die.

SO DONE!!!!!

Limo Man and I can finally breathe a sigh of relief.
Our unexpected move is now complete.
Now we get to discover what we have packed.
After 10 trips to Goodwill we have downsized big time.
We are both sore and tired but we have a nice little nest to build.

Tequila

I'm coming for you.

A Crappy Beginning to the New Year

2012 did not start off well....We learned from our landlord of 18+ years that we had to move.  That set us both in a tailspin that we haven't recovered from yet.  Moving sucks large.  And going through 18 years of "stuff" that has atomic dust all over it is no fun!

You don't know what atomic dust is?   It's one level under nuclear dust.  Nuclear dust  is the absolute worst dust EVER!!

Atomic dust is the sticky kind of dust that latches on to everything and even if you can keep up with your dusting it's just never enough.  After a while you need scrape it off and it takes forever!

Sorry about that.  I'm off to pack, toss, and scrub more "stuff".
LW

Christmas Day at M.I.

Welcome to the Alhambra Suite!

When we first opened up the suite it was a little warm inside so we opened the front door and the door to the balcony to cool off the place a little. This picture below is the front door before we opened it up. There were so many people walking around the Inn after brunch that they started peeking into our windows and the door. So we decided to let people in to tour the suite. We probably had close to 30 people who came through. It was really funny!

This is the great room off of the dining area. It was such a beautiful room. The door on the left goes into the bathroom and the door on the right goes into the bedroom. I didn't get any shots of the bedroom but it had the coolest little reading nook overlooking the courtyard.

And we had the grandest Christmas tree in the corner right by the dining room table. It was magical! And all the poinsettias were such a nice touch!

And speaking of nice touches...this huge arrangement was on the dining room table when we walked in. It was from Limo Man and it took my breath away.

Oh, and there was another arrangement of flowers with a special vase from a shop in Laguna Beach which I'll post next.

Christmas Night at M.I.

Christmas night around 5pm we decided to take the camera outside and go for a walk to enjoy the festival of lights at the Inn. They actually had carriage rides and horse drawn buggies you could rent. I think this guy was a little pissed because we just wanted a picture instead of paying for a ride.

Good grief they even had reindeer!

On the back side of the Inn was this train. It was on the top of the parking structure behind the Inn.

If you click on this picture and get a good look at all the lights you can see that the blue and smaller white lights say "Mission Inn Festival of Lights". This is the entrance to the Inn and is a must see during the holidays!

One of the toy soldiers at the entrance walkway to the Inn.

A Christmas tree with packages and elves.

This is the view of the courtyard dining area where we had brunch earlier and the walkways around the Inn from our balcony. We were on the 4th floor in the Alhambra Suite. Very SWEET!!!

It's always so much fun staying out at M.I. You should definitely try it!