Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Whitewater

Before I start, we got a new BLUE umbrella from Albertsons, see previous blog posting.

Today, my husband and I decided to visit the Whitewater National Preserve just outside Palm Springs and have a picnic! . I don't know what brought that on apart from the fact that today was the only day we had by ourselves before guests arrive for the weekend and we don't have any days to ourselves before we fly to England at the end of July.

It was lovely. Almost had the entire place to ourselves. A couple of Spanish speakers and their wailing children but we found a quiet spot underneath a Californian Oak. It was a lovely couple of hours and highly recommended. Can you imagine such a lovely peaceful place with such dramatic views and a river running right throught it? You have to experience it to believe.

Sunday, June 26, 2011

From umbrella to satellite dish in one easy swoop!!

LOL, there we were sitting outside enjoying a lovely warm, quiet Sunday afternoon with a bottle of Merlot and suddenly, out of no-where came a gust of wind which turned one of our umbrellas inside out!!!! It's a twister aunty Em!!!!!

We bought two of them from Albertsons yesterday. They usually last at least a season. Not this one and we bought the last two blue ones. Well, they were only $49.95 each after all. It'll be taken back tomorrow and maybe we'll try a red one!!!!!


It caused endless amusement for our guests (for at least a minute), so you see, even out of tragedy we supply some laughs!!

By the by .. we played host to two sash winners this weekend. Mr. Pistons Leather 2011 (Long Beach) and Mr. Christopher Street West, (LA Gay Pride). Come again. You're welcome.

Saturday, June 25, 2011

This is what has happened to our lovely desert opposite!

This is what we are left with after the desert has been covered over. It isn't finished yet; the roof has to go on and the white parking lines to go down but we're nearly there. Hopefully we'll have a nice fence and not a brick wall! Picture taken from our balcony.

Friday, June 24, 2011

How peaceful we are now!!!

There were no loud noises at 6am. (See yesterdays post) There was no heavy machinery or equipment beep beep beeping today. None. How very nice and relaxing. Looks like they've almost finished. I still regret they did what they have done. I much preferred to walk out and look at an open piece of desert which was one of the very few left now in town. Now we have a parking lot. Oh well, progress. Once the desert is ashphalted, it's gone. Forever. The main entrance is on Mel but we have pedestrian access across to the hopital which is good. I don't have to walk ALL the way around to mail a letter!! I'll post a picture when I get around to it.

psbear .. Charles is only here until Monday. He's on Recon and went looking for you. His dance card is fairly full but y'know.......... for 10 cents!!!!!!

Thursday, June 23, 2011

How long does it take to build a parking lot?

TWO BLOODY MONTHS SO FAR!!!!!!!!!! (See blog April 19th). Woke this morning at 6am to the joyful sound of heavy machinery with their interminable beep beep beep and their rumble like mini earthquakes. Yesterday they started laying blacktop (tar) and the smell is indescibable but then you all know what it smells like!

Our apartment shakes, the glasses in the kitchen rattle and the cats are spooked but wotcha gonna do? Our two guests are pissed off (and who can blame them, they didn't expect this when they booked and neither did we), they're being woken at 6am and even sitting outside (it's 103 today by the way), it's not very relaxing. Hopefully they will finish by 2pm (it's now 12.30pm). There must be some law against working in this heat after a certain time. What happened to siesta? Anyway, blah, blah, blah. Looking on the bright side, they do not work at weekends (hopefully), and they are doing it out of season for which we are very thankful.
In the meantime, here's Charles from Downunder dressed to kill!!!!

Friday, June 17, 2011

Palm Trees get their annual trim.


Well, as you can see by the before and after photos, the poor tree was scalped!! Unfortunately the crew arrived before the boss and they started trimming. We like to leave a few more branches so it doesn't look so de-nuded! Oh well, nothing we can do about it. The other two, the twin Washingtonians fared a bit better as you can see. They only cut out the flower spikes so there isn't much difference. They are intact, Jim!!!! By the way, an interesting tid-bit, Washingtonian Palms are the ONLY indigenous Palm to California! Mexican Fan Palms are not, although technically California was part of Mexico once!

The weekend bookings are going well, looks like 80% full tonight and tomorrow and it's only 7pm!!!! We are welcoming back an old friend who hasn't been here for 5 years, shame on you, Tom!!!!!!!!

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Our Anniversary

Today, Thursday, is our 3rd wedding anniversary. Actually the date we got married is June 19th but that is fathers day here on Sunday and we will not be going out for brunch as every gay man with their husbands and children will be out in force, including our doctor, dentist and the mayor of Palm Springs. Instead, we decided to go for dinner somewhere we could walk to, Rick's Cuban up the street. Very nice, I had prime rib, baked potato with a side of spinach. Stuart had fillet mignon (rare) with onion rings. Both lovely BUT ..... PEOPLE ......

Please, please can we have some decorum regarding dressing for dinner? What you wear at the gym is not appropriate for wearing to dinner. Men, at least have t-shirts with sleeves .. please, no hairy armpits over the dinner table. Ladies, I think it's called a sundress. Please, cover up the chest. I mean, there is absolutely no need to have those tired old tits dragging over the dinner salad. None of us appreciate that tattoo you all try to hide by pulling up your training shorts as you try not to show us your ass crack walking to the rest room.

Apart from that .... we had a lovely time and recommend Ricks, just dress appropriately.

Monday, June 13, 2011

Last weekend.

Well, the weekend turned out really nice. We ended up 90% full for Saturday night which was a bit of a suprise ... they just kept turning up!!!! How do they find us? It's not as if we're on a main street or anything. Thank goodness for Google, Twitter, Facebook and our blog!!!! Lovely people. We now have 3 guests in from Australia. I am seriously thinking we should dust down the Australian flag and fly it from the balconey. We said goodbye to Richard & Pete from Middlesborough, UK who will be back for July 4th weekend and help us celebrate by watching the fireworks from said balcon (it's Spanish for balconey .. boy, you learn a lot from this blog!!).

Weather is absolutely beautiful, up to 90f  today, that's 32c for those living in more enlighted climates!!!!

We had a cancellation for gay pride and leather pride due to another couple who decided to buy a house here thank you very much guys!!!! Anyways, we have filled the room for leather pride (6 nights) but have a room to go for gay pride. Another 6 nights would be nice, hint, hint!!!! It's the suite, $154.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

A word of warning and a challenge!!

Here's a word of warning to all you men who shave their balls!! We have a vistor this week from Australia who used Nair (a hair removal product), to remove the hair from his balls. He is in absolute agony, mainly because he had been in the sun and then used it after getting the boys a bit sun-burnt! So, don't go putting Nair on the twins even if you havn't been in the sun!!!!!!

Now the challenge ..... you will get a mention on the blog if you can come up with a witty limerick. It must start " There was a young man from Australia" or "There was a young gentleman from Melbourne". Words should include "hair, nair, down-under, shave, balls, razor, pubic".

Here's mine ..... There was a young man from Australia,
                         Who decided not to use a razor (!),
                          Instead he used Nair
                          To melt off his hair
                          And now his balls scream "you failure!"
Get the picture?????!!!!!!

Saturday, June 4, 2011

The birds have flown the nest!!!

The hummingbirds flew the nest yesterday. One minute they were there, the next, not. They are still around. How quickley they grow up these days!!!

Dennis and AJ dropped by Memorial day for dinner. It was AJ's birthday May 31st. I had made some red velvet chocolate cup cakes to help celebrate. Very nice, thanks again Ina!!  Dennis had ordered beef suet from Jensen's because it is very hard to find and Stuart had been going on about wanting to make something with a suet pastry. Guess what? Tonight, Dennis, AJ and Peter will be joining us for steak and mushroom pie with a suet pastry crust! Yum!! I will do a remake of the red velvet chocolate cup cakes. Oh, welcome home from IML Peter. Mr. Leather Europe was the winner.

This weekend is fairly quiet. Some return visitors, Jim from West Vancouver and Allen and Steve from Seal Beach, CA. Thanks for the cactus info, Steve. We now know December is NOT a good time to plant cactus. Did our landscapers tell us this? No, of course not.

Two men checked in last night from Key West and were going to stay only 2 nights. They had been here for about 2 minutes when they decided to cancel the next hotel and stay here until Wednesday!! Yippee for us!