What Day Is This? Who Am I?

You know, trying to keep up with my mother can take its toll ... Last night (Friday, 12/1/17) just about did me in. Let's just say that mason jars with handles are bigger than the ordinary glass for adult beverages -- and Tina should not drink two of them filled with whiskey and ice. 

We had gone to 'Western Night' at the 7 Lakes Country Club. It was a rootin' tootin' bar dancing and hopping to country music. The guys (including the waiters) were resplendent in their western shirts and hats and the women glittered in their bling covered Annie Oakley outfits. Although Mom's friend looked decidedly uncowgirl-like in her brown suede sheath with the fringe and her turquoise jewelry. She looked lovely.

It was too noisy so we had dinner on the patio overlooking the fountain.

 Yes, Mom's friend's condo is on a golf course. Either that or the flamingos were taking putting practice.

I felt like a country bumpkin snapping this, but I had to show you the ladies' room. I was going to take a picture of the huge bowl with rolled hand towels too, but a woman came in and I stashed my camera.

 

But I get ahead of myself. The night before (Thursday, 11/30/17), was the Palm Springs Holiday Tree Lighting. (Below)

 The two non-tree structures on the left are tubes spitting water into a pool and the water runs down the chute on the lower left. (The tubes move up and down and around -- it's a kinetic sculpture.)

 And the chute dumps the water out in another pool. The kids love running around the top. I never saw anyone fall in, but I'm sure that has happened at some point.

And the sun began to set ...

 Almost done setting ...

They were serving the traditional cookies, but this year, they added little bags of caramel corn adorned with festive bows. The hot chocolate with the add-your-own whipped cream was further down the table.

It was in the low 70s and do you remember how I said the natives thought that was cold? Look at this native garb!

 






His Honor, the Mayor, gave out awards to school children. The woman on the right was the Mistress of Ceremonies. She reminded us that this was the 25th year of lighting the PS tree.

Besides one table for making your own plastic tree decoration (you fill it with stuff), there were also two tables of easels ready for anyone to paint. This is toward the end of the festivities and the kids were done.

We waited patiently for Santa.

And he arrived!

 That's a school orchestra in front of Santa's sleigh. They provided great music! There was a chorus too, but they had left by then.

 Bella da Ball was proclaimed "Palm Springs' Sweetheart" and she and the Mayor waited for Santa.

I felt better knowing that Palm Springs' Finest were there. This is their undercover vehicle.

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Back to 12/1/17 (Saturday): we had to bring Deb to Verizon and the store just happened to be near Babe's ... they have the best ribs and everything else in California. Their cole slaw has golden raisins in it!

Above is a quick view of the inside after a rest room break. We ate on the patio and it couldn't have been nicer. There was a slight breeze and it was a dry 80 or so degrees. Great food, great weather -- what more could one ask?

 

Babe's Patio

 
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Today is SUNDAY! I know this for a fact. I'm waiting for CBS Sunday morning at 7 a.m. When I woke at 5 a.m., I figured I might as well finish this.

Believe it or not, last night we "did" the Palm Springs 25th Light Parade. Mom and her friends split a hotel room which turned out to be a bit of a disappointment since it was on the 5th floor. The balcony was smaller than last year's I am told, and the view was not great. The good news is that for the first time, they televised the parade live. So we had the two TVs in the room tuned to the parade and we told the people on the balcony what group was marching because we could read the signs. The view was great and the full moon was captivating.

You can just barely see the moon here.

The moon is now more visible.

 All of the marchers wore lights and the vehicles were covered in lights. Ross Mathews was the Grand Marshall. He is a Palm Springs resident and TV personality.

 

 There were three bands from Germany, one from Poland, one from the Czech Republic, and one from Brazil. I was impressed. There were over 100 groups marching including many area middle schools. Who knew that a middle school would have a marching band with flag twirlers?

By the way, I enjoyed soda water while the others downed a lot of wine!

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So as I mentioned earlier, today is Sunday. After Sunday Morning, it's off to the Desert Chapel for church. Then at 3 p.m. we go to the 7th Day Adventist church for a live performance of Handel's Messiah. 

Maybe I can get a nap in before 60 Minutes comes on ... meanwhile, we have been watching an Aussie series on Netflix. It's called "The Code."