Maple's Place: Chuckling Here

It's 11 a.m. How do I know that? Because the little clock in my bathroom has an alarm set for 11 a.m. And when it strikes 11, the alarm joyfully chimes the tune to, "We wish you a Merry Christmas, we wish you a Merry Christmas ..." Neither of us can figure out why the alarm is set and I love the little happy tune and I haven't wanted to figure out how to silence it.

Today and yesterday it has been 86 F. which is unseasonably warm even for here. The brilliant sun is wonderful although I'm going to have to get better sunglasses.

A couple of days ago, I decided to get my car washed. It had a thick layer of Arizona dust and zillions of bugs on the windshield. It was time. And I decided to go whole hog and get it detailed.

Miguel working hard, hand waxing

Deb and Paul had driven out here for the month of November and Emily joined us Thanksgiving evening. They all left on the following Monday.

Deb and Mom and I had a lovely lunch at La Perlita of yummy Mexican food while Paul went to the gym, watched the dog, and worked. It was fun having a "ladies' lunch"! Amazingly, we walked in to see three of Mom's friends also having lunch there. She hadn't seen them since covid took over our lives.

Around the 16th of November, we took a bus trip to Claremont, CA to see the stage play of Billy Elliot at the Candlelight Theatre. The show was preceded by a champagne luncheon with food from soup to nuts! It really was a great time and Deb remarked at how impressed with the actors (not equity), many of whom were very young (as in high school). I was amazed at one point to see 20 actors on the small stage. (No pictures allowed.)

On Sunday before they left, Deb and Paul brought us to Boozehounds "where dogs bring their humans." Each dog got his own mat, water bowl, and the staff roved with treats. (They asked the human if the pet could have a treat.)

As we arrived in the semi-enclosed patio. The open air patio, even with sun shades was very sunny and possibly too cold for some people.

My latte art lasted to the very bottom! I never had that happen before!

The food was good but "fancy" as in not plain. I liked it because my selection had a Cajun zip to it. They called it "Hash," but it was a bowl with braised rib meat on top of Cajun potatoes. All of it was topped with a lovely runny egg. It's making me hungry just thinking about it. (It doesn't help that I'm smelling a pork roast that's in the oven.)

Speaking of hounds, here is Pork Chop. He's king at some 'random dog park in Illinois.' Deb and Paul are well on their way back to New Hampshire.