January 5
We had Bob and Patty over for dinner on New Year's Eve. We just wanted to do something. There was a party at the Villa, but we didn't want to pay $80.00 to go to it. We served pasta, salad and garlic bread because that is an easy meal to fix and everyone likes it. We played Five Crowns, Rummikub and Sequence. They stayed until a few minutes before 10 PM. Because we had Bodie and Kalua with us, we stayed up until after midnight for the first time in a long time. There were fireworks that started early, and Bodie was fearful so we didn't thing there was any use in going to bed early. We watched TV and didn't go to bed until 1:30. Bodie went home the next morning, and Kahlua stayed until evening.
Kathy had her 50th birthday on Tuesday. Our youngest child is middle aged! She has had a couple of parties put on by friends, We will be going to dinner tomorrow (Saturday) at Marcolinos in downtown Reno. The dinner was cancelled due to a big snowstorm being predicted. We had a little snow, but we really could have gone. We got a lot of snow a few days later, around 8 inches. Our snow blower was put to good use.
Bill was supposed to have an endoscopy on January 4, but he wasn't told to stop his blood thinner a few days prior to that, so we had to postpone it until we can get Dr. Hansen to ok the procedure. We really need to find out about the polyp in his small intestine.
Bailey got home from her trip in Early January, and we got together for dinner at Black Bear Diner to find out about her cruise. She had a good time but it wasn't as much fun on the ship as she thought it would be. She thinks she would prefer a trip to a resort where they could hang out by the pool and ocean more.
Bill had his endoscopy a couple of weeks ago. The results are good - no cancer or irritation.
We had a Paint and Sip at the Villa on January 12. It was lots of fun, and a lot of people want to do it again. I was there to help, but David insisted that I paint, so I got to paint for free.
I signed up to be a facilitator/greeter for the AARP tax program at Spanish Springs Library. The training was tedious, because most of it doesn't apply to what I will be doing, but it will only be two days a week, when I'm available. My first day on the job will be February 12.
Our trip plans have changed a little bit. Colleen and Kirk have cancelled their trip in March, so we won't be going there to house and dog sit, but we will be going to visit them for about a week. Then we will go on to Holland to see Rollie and Donna. On the way home, we will stop at Colleen and Kirk's house for a night, because it is a three day drive. They are in a perfect spot to stop for the night.
Bill woke up with a very red eye on Jan 21. It didn't hurt, but it looked like it should have. We were able to get in to see Dr. MacKenzie the next day. He said it was a burst blood vessel and would go away with no treatment. It did.
Tony has started a group called the Human Trafficking Prevention Alliance, along with two women who have experience with helping trafficking victims. Kathy is the CFO and Tony is the president. We have gone to two meetings. Neither of them were very well attended, but they are trying to get the work out. We went to one yesterday, which had some people who also have experience, and they put out some very good ideas. We watched the movie, The Sound Of Freedom a few days ago, which is very eye opening regarding the problem of children being trafficked.
February 4
I posted my first rant of you year a couple of days ago.
You were all waiting for my first rant of 2024. Here is is.
We're watching the senate hearing on Social Media and Child Safety. People who have lost children to online trafficking, bullying and harassment stood up to show pictures of their children who died as a result of online activity. The CEOs of Discord, Snap, Meta, X, and Tic Tok were verbally attacked by the senators for not making their platforms safer. I agree something needs to be done. No question that children are vulnerable and people need to know that as many safety features as possible are in place when they go online.
HOWEVER, any child who is given access to an electronic device must be monitored by a parent or guardian. They are the ones responsible for their child's safety. You don't give an eleven year old a phone without safety and security features. It isn't an invasion of the child's privacy to monitor their online actions. You don't give anything to an unsupervised child without making sure they have the mentality and maturity to use it safely and properly. &
When an automaker designs and builds a car, that car has multiple features to make is as safe as it can possibly be. You teach a 16 year old kid how to drive the car before you let him drive it on the road alone. But if that kid drives that car without proper training, and crashes it into a tree, the automaker is not responsible for him being injured or killed. After learning how to drive, and having hours of practice, then that kid has the knowledge to drive the car safely.
Internet use is no different.
We went to Kathie and Nick's house last night (Feb 3)with Bob and Patty. We drank, ate pop corn, pretzels, cheese and crackers, and Bill's brownies. We played Skipbo and laughed more than we have in years. It was a wonderful night.
We woke up to an inch of snow. It has been snowing lightly for two hours but it is only about two inches deep.
February 11
We went to see Dr. Barbara, Bill's Digestive Health person on Tuesday, and Dr. Kos, Bill's endocrinologist, on Thursday. Dr. B said that he is doing very well but wants to do an ultrasound of his abdomen because his stomach was sensitive when she pushed on it. Dr. K and her staff are so friendly! Her nurse, Kim, hugged us and said how wonderful it was to see us, and when Dr. K came in the room, she did the same thing. It was only our second time seeing her. She said that his numbers look good, except his vitamine D is a bit on the low side of normal, so he needs to take it five days a week instead of three. She wants to see him again in two months. We asked why he needs to see her and she explained that it is because of an adrenal insufficiency. We also found out that he has Hasimoto's Disease, which Kathy was diagnosed with several years ago.
Friday, we went to see the Retro Radio Dolls at the Villa. They were fun entertainers, and most of the songs they sang were ones we liked. That was followed by Dan singing. There were 90 people there for the Dolls, and about half of them left when they were finished, so we moved the chairs against the walls, so we could dance, and we did dance a lot for almost two hours. It was a very fun night. Bob and Patty, Kathie and Nick, Tina, and several other people we know were there. Bob is going to ask David from the painting party if he will come to the Villa for a party because everyone had so much fun dancing.
I'm going to go to a Scam and Fraud seminar at the Convention Center with Tina, Patty, Laurie and Barbara on Thursday. I think it should be interesting.
We went to see a matinee of While the Lights Were Out at the RLT. It was afa4ce of an Agatha Christie mystery. The play was very funny and the actors were very good.
Nick and Kathie are hosting another game night on Feb 17 so we have something fun to look forward to.
February 20
Last Monday was my first time to work at the Spanish Springs Library as a Tax Facilitator. The woman I work with, Loretta, is friendly, and we got along well. The job is very easy. We just check people with appointments in and give them forms to fill out if they haven't already done so.
The Scam and Fraud seminar was interesting. There were a couple of things I didn't know about some of the ways the scammers operate. I was surprised that there were a couple of hundred people there. Tina and Patty do use with me.
Last Saturday, we went to Kathie and Nick's house. Gail and Mark were there and we had alot of fun. We played Sequence and Five Crowns. Patty and Bob were supposed to go but one of them wasn't feeling well.
We finally broke do down and called a repair service for our oven, which has been giving us trouble for several months. The F9 message, was an indicator that the circuit board was bad. Although the stove is only six years old, we decided to replace it rather than pay several hundred dollars to repair it. The new one, a Samsung from RC Wiley, will be here on Thursday. On the way home, we stopped to buy four new tires. Bill didn't want to take a trip to Texas with the old ones.
February 22
We went to Red Robin for dinner on Thursday night. Yummy!
February 23
Update on The Saga Of the Stove.
Saturday morning update on the update.
Eddie, a Customer Service manager, just called, apologizing for the problem. He took the blame, but did say that it wasn’t communicated to him until this morning, that we wanted a call from him. He said, because the normal installation is to a 1/2 inch pipe, it is true that the installers didn't have the conversion fittings. But, since the sales person didn't tell us that, he wanted to send a plumber, without any cost to us, to install the stove on February 28. We appreciate that he called with a good and fair solution, but we turned down the offer, because we really like new stove #2 better than new stove #1. We're happy that to know that RC Willey has people who care about the customer, and we will be willing to shop there again. They have a very good selection of products, and good prices. He said he hopes we will continue to be customers, and asked us to ask for him the next time we shop there.
This should be the end of the story.
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Friday afternoon
The store knows that they aren't getting paid. Bill spoke to them again, this morning, and they will not send someone to install the stove, nor will they pay us back if we pay someone to do it. So, we just got home from Home Depot. We bought a stove we like better. They use an installation kit that has adapters so they will be able to install the new stove with no problem. The wonderful lady in the Appliance Department, Gretchen Vasquez, is knowledgeable, friendly and helpful. She commiserated with us r1egarding our experience and she took the time to explain so much more than we thought we needed to know about stoves. She helped is to pick out a stove that will fit our needs perfectly.
Unfortunately, it won't be here until March 1. RC Willey will pick up the one in our kitchen in the "next few days," "when they have a chance." I told Bill to tell them it will be waiting on our driveway. He didn't say that. I sure hope the one taking up space in our kitchen won't get scratched or dented, before they get around to stopping by to pick it up.
I submitted a complaint to the BBB. We want a full refund, and we want the store told that they have to fulfill the terms of their contracts.
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Original FB post ....So, we bought a Samsung range from RC Willey. We bought a new gas line because the salesperson said we had to have a new one. We paid $99.00 for delivery and installation. The range was delivered at noon today. The hose they brought didn't fit the gas outlet coming out of our wall. One of the delivery men said to call a plumber and they left. If I had been home they wouldn't have left but Bill isn't as mean as I am. I got home a few minutes later to find a range in the middle of our kitchen.
I asked Bill to call the store to tell them that they needed to install the stove as agreed. They came back an hour later to bring the old hose and they left saying they couldn’t do anything since it didn’t fit. I called customer service at 1:10 and we are still waiting for a call from them. I called the salesperson who sold us the stove and she said she would have to talk to her manager.
Our plan is to tell them to get the stove installed or we are going to open a dispute with the credit card company because we didn’t receive a working product. We have a repair man who can install the stove, but we shouldn’t have to pay someone to do what was already paid for in the sales contract. Maybe we'll go out for dinner and present them with the bill. We certainly can't cook our dinner.
The social last night was fun. The food was good and we enjoyed visiting with lots of people.
We have two mini Dachsunds, Ginger and Pebbles. They are really cute and not much trouble, but they don't react to commands, like so many dogs lately.
While I had them in the sunroom, so we could clean the house, I looked out the front door, and saw Pebbles coming up the front walk! She had dug out under the gate. We are going to have to fix the hold before we have any more small dogs.
We're going to the Sparks Water Bar, a super expensive restaurant, with Bob and Patty tomorrow for dinner. It's one of those dinners where all you have to do is listen to their presentation after dinner. Bill hates those and we usually don't go to them, but I really want to go there since we would never pay to go.
February 28
The meals we had at the Water Bar were so good! I had a bacon wrapped filet with mashed potatoes, asparagus and gravy, and Bill had salmon with rice and green beans. we ate every bite. The presentation was fairly interesting, about energy savings, but we had no trouble resisting. The sales person wasn't ushy at all.
We had Heidi here for a few days. She is a good girl and we had no trouble, except, on Wednesday, Patty came over, and when she left, she opened the screen door all the way, and Heidi escaped. She ran all the way to her house with me chasing her. I was able to scoop her up on her porch. Patty didn't even call to find out if I was able to catch her.
March 2
We finally have our new stove, installed and working. It is perfect. I made pasta fagioli for dinner, yesterday, using the crock pot, because the stove wasn't going to be there until late in the day. We had Kathie and Nick over for dinner, and Five Crowns. They walked over since it was supposed to snow last evening, and their car won't go up their driveway in deep snow, but it only rained. They stayed until almost 10:30. It started snowing sometime during the night and we had about six inches when we got up. It snowed all morning, but very lightly, so it didn't get very deep.
March 5
We had a Meet and Greet with Tanji, a friend of a friend of Kathy's. She will be having surgery in May, so we are going to take her two labs for four weeks. It's good to know that we will be making some money in the next few months, because, with the new stove and having to buy new tires, we have been spending more than we usually do.
March 18
We had a wonderful time during Scott's visit. He was here from March 5th to the 10th. On Wednesday, the kids and Bailey, came over for homemade pizza and salad, and we had a great evening of just talking and laughing. Thursday morning, Bill, Scott and I rode with Kathy to Blairsden with Tony and Anais in their truck, and we split a Gumba's pizza.
It was the second day of business since the devastating fire. We took Highway 89 to Truckee and walked around, tasted some oils and vinegars in a shop. We drove to Lake Tahoe, via Palisades where we got a couple of pics of the kids showing the snow depth.
From there, we drove to Incline and then took Mt. Rose Highway, stopping at the overlook where Bill and I needed a little help getting down. It was very foggy driving through Tahoe Meadows, but the rest of the way was sunny and clear. We ended up at Mi Casa II for dinner with Rommie joining us. We had a great day with all the kids.
On Friday, they did their own thing for most of the day, but stopped by to see us before the party, because Monique and Brian came over to join us from Petaluma. They brought their long-time friend, John Claude, who is a friendly and interesting man from a small town near Paris, France. Patty and Bob stopped by to bring a towel that I left at the social the week before, and they got to meet Monique and Brian, but Scott and Kathy had left just before they got here.
The party was wonderful. So many old friends and everyone talked and laughed all night. I wish I had remembered to take a picture of the table when it was loaded with food. We had meatballs from Anais, mozzarella bread from Kathy, cookies from Monique, fruit and cheese from Liz, and various other things including brownies, chicken and mini hot dogs wrapped in crescent rolls from us. The party broke up around 10 pm. Monique and Brian and Jean Claude left town on Saturday morning, taking Mt. Rose Highway to drive south to Highway 50. They had a beautiful drive, but for the three days following their departure, there were chain controls on Mt. Rose, so they made it through just in time.
I worked at the Spanish Springs Library on March 11 and 14 as a tax aide. Loretta, who has been the facilitator for several years, was nice and fun to work with. She won't be returning next year, and she was hoping that I would be taking over, but I don't want to do it again. It was not a hard job, but I didn't like having to be somewhere two days a week, and six hours of volunteering gets rather tedious.
We swam four days last week, trying to get in better shape. On Friday, we had just finished swimming with Bob and Patty and Tina, when Kathie and Nick came to join us. They invited all of us to go to their house to play Three Crowns. Bob and Patty couldn't go, but we went with Tina and we had a fun time. We decided that we want to start a Three Crowns group at the Villa.
We are getting ready for our St. George and Texas trip. Donna and Rollie called a few days ago, and told us to get there several days before the eclipse, because they are expecting over a million people to converge on the area. We made a reservation at a La Quinta Inn in Santa Rosa, New Mexico for April 1 and April 11.
March 24
Friday night was the Toscana Social. We had a good time. The food was not as good as usual, but we both had plenty to eat.
Yesterday, we went to Cascades for Easter Brunch with Aunt Laura. Kathy, Tony and Anais went, too. The food was good, but everything was cold. I think Aunt Laura enjoyed it. Last night, Dave and Sue came over for German Chocolate Pie and Five Crowns. We had fun and they raved about the pie, which was, indeed, delicious.
Finally, the trip is almost here. We will be leaving tomorrow for Utah. Sam and Squeege arrived a few minutes ago, and Bailey will be staying here with them while we're gone.
April 16 - After the trip. This is how our Eclipse trip went.
March 25 - Apparently, the extra terrestrials are not hanging out today, because we only saw a cutout of one. We were going to get gas in Mesquite, because it's $4.09, the cheapest we've seen since Fernley. Then I checked gas buddy and found that we can get it for $3.55 in St. George.
- We have 34 miles to go and the car says we can go 94 miles before getting gas. We'll wait. We were going to come into St. George from the north. I'm sure that would have been beautiful, too. This route, along the I-15 has spectacular views. My pictures don't capture the beauty at all, but here they are. We're almost there. Verga followed us all the way from Walker Lake, but it never rained on us.
- March 26 - Bill's cousin, Colleen, took us to such beautiful places today, and that was no more than 15 minutes from where they live. We did a minimum of hiking and maximum of pictùre taking. Here are a few.
- March 29 - At Snow Canyon and at Zion. We went to the St. George Art Festival. It was huge. Colleen Kvetko loves to take Tiffany and Lexie with her whenever possible and so many people stopped to visit with them.
When we got home from the Art Festival, we had a lovely soak in the spa. - March 30 - Bill and Colleen Kvetko. We went to see a performance of Legally Blond at the St. George Musical Theater last night. The performers did a wonderful job.
