It stopped raining!!!

Yes, it finally stopped, only to find the mountain has almost disappeared!!!!

At least the sun's shining and we expect naked bodies this afternoon!!!

An angel came to visit!

Well, not a REAL angel because they don't exist but how did this happen? We know who did it but HOW he  managed to get it there a mystery. This is in a tree seperating us from next door at least 15ft from the ground. Stuart noticed it when he thought we had a hummingbird nest!!!

Raining in Palm Springs

It has been raining all day today starting around 5am and still raining 7.30pm. Good! We would much rather have the rain than the cold. If it's 54 degrees here or raining here, nobody wants to be in Palm Springs for the weekend. Having said that, we do have visitors from LA which shows what a hardy bunch we gays are!!!!

Back to normal!

We're back to normal temperatures so no more electric blankets and/or hot water bottles!!!! We have enjoyed lighting the fire and smelling the wood smoke even though we know it's not good for the environment. Goodbye to all that!

Stuart has been very busy painting the room doors to bring them up to the new decking standard. Everything looks so bright and new. He painted 14 doors today!! Me? I did the books :( 
14 doors? We only have 10 rooms but there are 2 doors into the laundry, 1 steam room and 1 office door. That makes 14 I think. GORGEOUS!

Looking forward to a busy Martin Luther King weekend. Not to do with anything but today was the 19th anniversary of the Northridge earthquake. We  lived in North Hollywood then and I never ever want to go through that again. The violence was unbelievable. 4.31am, January 17th 1994. We had only been at the house for 4 months and all the walls collapsed between neighbours which is how we met the neighbours.

And another thing to do with nothing ... my sister Maxine is in  OK magazine again!!!!! Christmas issue Jan 1st page 135.  The Queen is on the front page, as usual!!

Winter arrives in Palm Springs!!!!

Brrrrrr. Poor, poor us having to experience a cold snap. Anybody would think it had never happened before. I bet nobody remembers the year we had SNOW in Palm Springs possibly 03 or 04?  It didn't settle of course but it was quite the flurry for at least 30 seconds! And then the day Stuart saw somebody slip on ice outside the methedone clinic? See, it has been cold here before.

The temperature at 7.30 this morning was 40F and is exactly the same 12 hours later. We did get a high of 54F!!! Next weekend we're expecting mid 70's. Back to normal.

Happy New Year

A VERY Happy New Year to everybody!!!! Thank you to all who stayed with us during 2012 and here's hoping to see you in 2013. Whooo Hooo here we go again!!!! Can you believe our 13th year? Neither can we.

We didn't do anything special for New Year ... fireworks woke us at midnight!! We did watch the ball drop in New York at 9pm.

We had a lot of return visitors again, Hawaii, CA, Columbus OH. One guest stayed with us the last time in 2001 ... I didn't ask where he had been for 11 years. Anyway, the thing is, he came back (eventually).

I went to the World Gym today expecting it to be crowded with the New Years Resolutionists but no; relatively quiet BUT someone stole my towel!!!!! There I was having a shower, came to where I had left my towel hanging ... no towel! My key was still there on the hook but my towel was nowhere to be seen. One of our lovely white towels, the whitest towel in the gym someone took a shine to it. Needless to say everybody there was using a white towel. None as white as mine but really, you can't just approach a total stranger and ask to look at his towel (or can you). I feel like following World Gym on Twitter and tweeting about it. (You can follow us on Twitter @chapsinfo).

We are planning our summer vacation already,  going to England, renting a flat and  spending some time in Stratford Upon Avon so we will be closed during July. Hopefully Dennis & AJ will be able to be here to look after the place but we will not be taking reservations during the time we are away.

All the very, very best for 2013.  Looking forward to March, Jim!!!!