Tuesday December 4, 2012

Tuesday December 4/12  update #304

I was up at 6am and worked until about 11am when the Internet went down in the middle of my photo uploads.  So Bella had just gone off to buy the turkey for Christmas dinner when I decided to go to Coral myself and get myself a new optical mouse.  My computer says my fancy laser mouse is broken and it won’t recognize it so a change was necessary.   I ended up with an optical wired mouse for $4.73.  I got in the Express line-up with only one man in front of me but after 10 minutes of ridiculousness, I went into another line-up and still beat them.

Bella found a turkey with some fancy inscription so she asked Jorge what it meant and he told her this turkey had double the breast meat…  Does this mean it is genetically engineered??? 

Bella was about to leave for her bridge game after lunch when I got a call from Emilie at Hearts Of Gold asking for a favor.  They wanted some urgent photos of a rather large painting hanging at Joe’s Secret Garden, made by some children they sponsor, which may be raffled off at the Gala on Thursday.  I said I would join Bella on her trip over there momentarily and get that looked after, which I did immediately upon entering.

Today was the third installment of Bella’s bridge instruction and (I was shocked) she asked me to stay and turn cards for the bridge players since I am there anyway, so I said OK.   Bear in mind that Bella has never wanted me within sniffing range of a bridge table…. It is the kiss of death for spouses to play bridge in the same vicinity, something about justifiable homicide rules applying….   Anyway, I ended up doing more than just turning cards, I was actually playing hands somewhat nervously, and making the bids, but I definitely needed help with the initial bidding and Bella was just great about it all.   I was very impressed with her manner of instruction, very informative and with solid reason to back every instruction.   It is a game I would probably enjoy but I don’t want to run afoul of the Boss.

We headed to El Centro, meeting Manon at the bus stop so we all rode together.  Around San Francisco market I picked up a couple more Xmas presents destined for Canada in January.

We had made plans to meet Jay and have supper at La Vina but we sadly found the premises locked up tight.  Bella had heard that the Café Austria a block away had good food so we took a chance on it.  We ran into our friend Rommie, freshly arrived after 40 hours of travel from Australia, so we had a short reunion.  Once we got seated we all tried the day’s special of Hungarian Goulash, with salad, soup, and dessert.   It wasn’t bad, but not much different than a usual almuerzo around here.

We caught the #3 home but were asleep at the switch when it got to our stop and we didn’t disembark.  Oh well, we had a sightseeing trip to the end of the line to the east and back.   The driver just gave us a curious look but didn’t say anything or make us pay again.

The new mouse works very well….

That was today’s excitement.   Hugs to all.   Please see all photos at http://souvenircuenca.blogspot.com/