Getting Out

Well now that Academy Award nominations have been announced we know all the movies we haven’t seen that are up for awards. Some of them we will not see but have tried to see some of them the last couple of weeks. The last two we saw were The Last King of Scotland and Notes on a Scandal. Once we make it out of the park we try do several things while we are out.
Dinner is always a nice ending to the outing. By catching the afternoon matinee we are out in time to get an early dinner. Just as good and cheaper. Well maybe they give a smaller portion but we need smaller portions. The last place we went for dinner was Babe’s. It is a barbeque place with excellent pork, beef and chicken. One of the choices for sides is sweet potato fries. They even have a sheet at the front desk on how much better they are for you. They are different but good. So that was a good choice. The only problem is so many choices and so little time.
Yesterday we also needed some food so visited two stores we had not visited before. The first one was Bristol Farms. It is a gourmet high end food store all the wine, cheese, meat, ect. for the person looking for the best quality and willing to pay the price. They had numerous samples and we bought a strawberry cholate smoothie that was great. A very interesting place and nice to know if you are looking for something a little different and special.
The second place was Henry’s Farmers Market. It had a great variety of organic foods and bulk food. Here we did buy most of the groceries we needed. But I think we will still do much of the special shopping at Trader Joe’s.

Steak fry

Well of Friday we had just a little more excitement at RCB. I played my tennis and took my walk. Tennis has its good days and bad day but mostly it is fun. I have a couple of groups a men that I play with that are about even or at least not too much better than I am so I can enjoy the playing. We will soon have the tennis tournament and I will have to share pictures and find creative ways to explain my losses.
The walk I try to take any day I don’t play tennis is always good exercise and I enjoy seeing the people and the birds as I wonder the park. I have not set path but try to wonder around for about an hour at a good pace. I also try to walk around the park as I take part in some of the activities.
But for the excitement we had a Steak Fry on Friday night. For this you bring your own meat to barbeque and your drink of choice. A backed potato, garlic bread, and desert are provided. It can take a while for 200 people to cook their steaks but we go out in 6 different groups so it moves right along. It is a good social time with the people as you wait your turn to go out to the barbeque and while you are cooking the steaks.
After we had finished eating there was a three piece band that played music for dancing. I found it difficult to dance to most of their music but one Greek couple that had helped with the preparation for the dinner did their Greek folk dance and a few people joined them.

How Cold Is It??

How Cold is It? Well I do feel a little guilty complaining about the cold while others suffer in REAL cold. But then we did come south for the winter to avoid the cold rainy weather. This last week it was the coldest it has been in 40 years here in the valley. Of course the loss for the citrus fruit farmers is very bad for them and for those of us that want to buy the oranges.
Although it does get cold during the night when the sun comes up it warms up very quickly. Luck for us we do have a deck that faces south so even when the outside temperature may only be 6o degrees or less it will be in the 70’s on the deck and I can sit in comfort. My early morning walk is cold and some of the water standing in the street has a thin sheet of ice. Another sad event is the frost did kill some of the flowers and stunted others. It looks like our bougainvillea may have been frosted. Of course that is not all bad. It grows so much that I always have to cut it way back to meet park requirements and it never has blossoms that we get to enjoy.
I still get to play tennis several times a week and it is not raining so I must say, “Yes, it is cold here but we really don’t have much to complain about.”

The Making of a Star

We just completed our tryouts for the Cabaret Show this year and we did not have a great number of people attending. In fact we still could use another man. Several of the men that were in the show last year have decided to not take part this year. It is very demanding of time and many people have other things they want to do in life like visit grandchildren or play golf. So it is ok, I understand the need to make choices and only want people in the show that are willing to give the time and effort needed.
Last years show was a success and we hope to repeat again this year. We had three men and five women at tryouts. All but one of the women are sopranos. However some can sing alto. That means that we have more women than we can use and could use another man. That means that I had to personally contact a couple of men that had said they might be interested and decide which women I must tell we won’t be able to use her this year. We I talked with two men and one said I will tell you by the end of the week and the other said no. We will see, it is always better if they say yes right away.
As for the women I will have to consult with my singing partner and the musical director but I think I know which one will be the choice. It is always hard to not select a person when you know they really want to be part of the show.
Tonight I also get to work with the other big show at RCB. The Big Star Night, which is a lip-sync show that many people enjoy doing. There is always some feeling of competition with our live music show but they are really very different and provide expanded opportunities for the people here.

New Years at RCB

New Years at RCB had a number of large and small group activities happening. But maybe the most important thing in getting ready for the late night was the nap in the afternoon. We were attending two activities. I wanted to go to a street dance with a live band and Marilyn wanted to attend the dance at Clubhouse 1 with a DJ. So we did both.

I was helping with sound for the band so I had to go over early and do a sound check and then once in awhile I was running to the sound board to make some adjustments. There was actually the band with five guys and the singer and then another couple that she played drums and he played honky-tonk piano. It wasn’t too cold but they did have a number of heaters setup around the area so you could go and warm up if you got cold. So this ran from 7 to 9 PM and then off to the clubhouse for the last of the night.

We had a lot of country music and music not really suited for ballroom dancing but we survived. After our champagne toast at midnight we headed home because we were playing tennis at 8 AM today.