FIVE MONTHS

It’s official…..we have all decided that Charley Ellen Silver is the cutest baby ever! She will be five months old the day after tomorrow. She smiles and coos and interacts and is really interested in her world. Those little fingers are quite interesting to her….she is still trying to figure out how to make them do what she wants them to do. I'm telling you, that adorable smile just melts your heart. She is definitely Oma’s Cutie Pie!

Charley dressed in her St. Patrick's Day outfit

What an adorable little girl!



She smiles a lot now but it's tough to catch on film



Charley is closing in on ten pounds now



Charley with Mommy & Daddy - a lucky little sweetheart

Charley & Mommy

Charley watching the NASCAR race with Great Grandpa Pop

Bundled up and ready to go home - we'll see her twice next weekend!

TENNIS, ANYONE?

Tomorrow, I will reach the 4^th level of “Senior-hood” when I turn 62 years young as they say – level 1 was age 50 & AARP, next was 55 & the Tuesday discount at Ross, followed by age 60 with more discounts & senior menus.  Level 4, age 62, is a good one that includes my lifetime senior pass at National Parks & collecting Social Security! The only thing left is 65 & Medicare – yikes! At least that is still 3 years away. J

It seems that the older I get, the longer my birthday celebration seems to stretch out. This year it started a week early when Lou took me to Palm Springs for a big professional tennis tournament & other assorted sightseeing. Today was my birthday party with Lou’s family, tomorrow my coworkers will take me to lunch & finally it will conclude when my family celebrates with a birthday bash for four of us at the end of the month. I figure I might as well milk it for all I can.

We hit the road early for the drive to Palm Springs on Thursday, March 15. Those of you who read this blog & hear my stories probably know the answer to this question. Guess what my sweetie found for us to check out with only a 4 mile detour off Highway 5? Yep, you guessed it – drum roll, please – a Frank Lloyd Wright designed house…in the farm town of Los Banos of all places!



The Randall Fawcett House designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in Los Banos.

We arrived in plenty of time to check out Villagefest held on the main drag of downtown Palm Springs every Thursday. It is a huge street fair that goes for blocks & blocks. It was packed with locals & tourists alike. We had a wonderful Mexican dinner that came pretty close to rivaling Tito’s in San Leandro, my favorite Mexican restaurant.

The Villiagefest held every Thursday in downtown Palm Springs.

Palm Springs honors its dignitaries with stars on the sidewalks - this is former mayor Sonny Bono's.

A bronze statue on Palm Canyon Drive recognizes Sonny Bono who died in a skiing accident.

The weather that had been drenching Northern California for days was heading south & we had a few contingency plans in place just in case. We knew Friday would be the best weather & as luck would have it that was our full day of watching tennis. Lou had bought tickets for the afternoon & evening sessions which included Men’s Quarterfinals, Women’s Semifinals & some women’s doubles.

The Indian Wells Tennis Garden is a gorgeous facility. The grounds are beautiful & the 24,000 seat main stadium is really state of the art. This tournament, the BNP Paribas Open, is the biggest tennis event after the four Grand Slam events – the Australian & French Opens, Wimbledon & the U. S. Open.

Fans are greeted with this mural as they enter Indian Wells Tennis Garden for the BNP Paribas Open (pronounced "Perry-Bah").

The beautiful main stadium seats 24,000 people.

The view from our seats at center court.

Some of the twenty or so outer courts in the complex.

We slathered on the sunscreen, wore our hats & visors, ate the ridiculously overpriced food & thoroughly enjoyed the tennis.  Currently, my favorite male players are Rafael Nadal & Roger Federer. We saw both of them – twice! And Maria Sharapova is my favorite woman player who we saw twice, also.

Roger Federer in his quarter final match - he easily beat Juan Martin Del Potro.

Rafa Nadal beats David Nalbandian in the quarter finals before losing to Federer in the semis.



Victoria Azarenka, the number one ranked woman tennis player in the world.

That's Maria Sharapova serving on the right in her semi final win over Ana Ivanovic.

Apparently Palm Springs takes great pride in saying they have 350 days of sunshine a year – well, we were lucky enough to experience two of the remaining 15. On Saturday we had planned to skip the tennis to take the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway to the top of Mount San Jacinto, but the storm had other ideas. Due to high winds the tram was closed for the next two days & the impending storm looked extremely ominous. We elected to head to the new INDOOR Palm Springs Art Museum instead.

The entry way of the Palm Springs Art Museum.

A blown glass scupture by Dale Chihuly - we first saw his work in Omaha and I fell in love with it.

That afternoon I dropped Lou at the Palm Springs Air Museum for the afternoon while I went shopping & caught up on some reading. It is a wonderful museum with lots of beautifully restored World War II aircraft, but since I’ve already seen enough airplanes to last me three lifetimes, I begged off. After all, it was MY birthday celebration. J

That evening we wandered downtown & ate at a 50s-style diner. Lou asked what I wanted for dessert & I replied, “Guinness!”  It was St. Patrick’s Day & I had fallen in love with Guinness on tap when we were in Ireland. Why couldn’t I have a pint of Guinness for dessert – being 62 has its perks. We found a pub where we had eaten over ten years before on our first trip to Palm Springs. Low & behold they had Guinness on draught.

The storm wreaked havoc with the tennis but they managed to get almost all of the matches played between rain delays on Saturday.  Only the Men’s Doubles Finals didn’t take place as scheduled.  We had tickets for the Men’s & Women’s Finals on Sunday & headed back to Indian Wells. 

Lou figured this racket would help with his eye/hand coordination.

All 6'2" of Maria Sharapova smashing her serve in the finals.

Victoria Azarenka tosses the ball as she serves to Sharapova.

The women's winner, Azarenka, receiving her crystal trophy - and the one million dollar prize!

Fortunately Lou has long arms for these self portraits.



6'9" American, John Isner, beat the number one men's player, Novak Djokovic, to make the final.



Roger Federer's hard serves & great play were too much for John Isner.

Federer receiving his trophy & million bucks amongst the confetti.

We were pleasantly surprised to learn that the Men’s Doubles Final was to be played following the other two matches on Sunday – AND my favorite, Rafa Nadal, & his partner, Marc Lopez, were in the final.  It was a bonus that we decided to stick around for even though we were driving home that evening. We endured one short rain delay but both finals went off as planned with Roger Federer beating John Isner & Victoria Azarenka prevailing over Maria Sharapova.

The coin toss for the men's doubles finals - John Isner returned with Sam Querry to play Nadal & Lopez just twenty minutes after losing to Federer.

Marc Lopez about to hit a forehand while Rafa looks on.

Fortunately, we are still young enough (or stupid enough depending on your take on it) to agree with the lyrics that Jon Bon Jovi sings, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.” We settled in to watch the doubles but when the skies opened up again with Rafa & Marc up a set & 2-1 in the second (they went on to win), we decided to hit the road at 4:30 PM. We rolled into our driveway at 1:15 AM after several driver changes. I was up until 2:30 AM after the “Hershey’s Double Chocolate Mocha Cappuccino” that I had from the gas station mini mart to keep me awake kicked in & did its job.

All in all, turning 62 ain’t too bad – and it beats the hell out of the alternative!



SPRING FOLIAGE

This past autumn we had some of the most spectacular fall foliage that I remember seeing in Northern California. Not to be out done, spring has decided to put on its own show this year. This past week the blossoms have been bursting out in dramatic fashion.

On our way to play tennis this morning, I noticed a particularly striking street lined with pink and white flowering trees. I made a slight detour later today while running errands to walk around and take a few photos.

These trees are in full bloom everywhere up here in the Sacramento area.

 I suspect these are either ornamental cherry or plum trees but I could certainly be wrong.

 

The street is lined with these trees and this year I noticed daffodils had been planted, too.

These daffodil plants are in bloom for blocks along the road.

Here are a couple close ups of the white blossoms and a daffodil. The shear numbers of these blossoms made the trees appear to be covered in popcorn. Seeing the rows of daffodils I was reminded of Daffodil Hill in the Sierra foothills. If you live in Northern California google "daffodil hill amador county". It's a great day trip between mid-March and mid-April.

As usual, I couldn't resist a couple of off beat photos. These were interesting tree trunks that struck my fancy.

The shades of gray in this tree trunk were quite interesting.

SWISH!

A couple of my favorite things collided last night. Of course, it goes without saying that my adorable granddaughter tops my list of favorite people & things, followed closely by my incredible son and wonderful daughter-in-law. So,with that disclaimer out of the way, I’ll move on to the Kings/Clippers NBA game that we attended yesterday.

If I had to choose the things I enjoy the most, sports and photography would be at the top of that list along with travel (after a visit with the aforementioned people, of course). Last night we attended the Sacramento Kings vs. Los Angeles Clippers game.  A few weeks ago, I decided to take my remaining Christmas money (plus some extra!) and buy a new Canon top-of-the-line digital camera. I will likely be well into my 80s before I figure out most of what it can do.

Armed with my new camera and lower level tickets, compliments of Lou’s sister as our Christmas gift, we headed out to the former Arco Arena (now Power Balance Pavilion, which will never sound right to me) here in Sacramento. As is our “tradition”, we had dinner at nearby Mel’s Diner wearing our purple King’s jerseys – both of which are throwbacks to a previous era. Mine is Bobby Jackson’s number 24 and Lou’s is Brad Miller’s number 52.

Needless to say, it’s a little difficult to snap photos and actually watch the action take place. I made a point of pulling out the camera for five minutes then putting it away for fifteen or so in order to concentrate on the game. The Kings played fantastically in the first half but unfortunately not the second half. They lost 108 to 100…….not really as close as the score sounds.

But I had a great time taking tons of photos. The 35x zoom really brings the players up close and personal. Here are some of them with comments.

Some of the retired jerseys of previous King's stars hang from the rafters.

Sacramento King's player introductions including my new favorite player, rookie Isaiah Thomas.

The opening tip - our Jason Thompson #34 beat out his Clipper counterpart.

That's Isaiah in the middle with the purple headband - he is only 5'9" and is named after the other Isaiah Thomas from the Detroit Pistons of the 1980s.

This little guy was the LAST player taken in the draft and he has earned the starting point guard position. He is so cute and I just love him even though he could literally be my grandson. Geez!

Tyreke Evans, our NBA Rookie of the Year a couple years ago - you gotta love that 35x zoom!

Our other rookie this year, Jimmer Fredette, is a real fan favorite but I still love Isaiah.

DeMarcus Cousins shooting a free throw - I think it went in.

Just as a side note, and I am really serious about this, how do these women walk in their six inch platform heels??? I kid you not, I saw hundreds of women wearing these hugely high heels, walking up and down the stairs AND they had to get from the parking lot to the arena which is not a short walk.

Since the seats directly in front of us were vacant at tip off, Lou commented that it would be nice if no one sat there.  No such luck….about five minutes into the game three men arrived – an older one with a cane and two younger ones with their pants hanging far below their hips. How do they not simply fall to the ground? Really, if you know the answer to either of my fashion questions, please enlighten me. The guy in front of me was tall with dreadlocks. When he leaned back his hair smelled of smoke. Yuck!  He plopped into his seat at half time and spilled some of our beer resting in the cup holders……NOT cool…..at nine bucks a pop, that was probably a dollar fifty laying on the floor. Fortunately, they left halfway through the fourth quarter.

One of my pet peeves is people who leave a sporting event early. I have never, and will never, leave early. I don’t care if my team is trailing by thirty points, I will stay to the bitter end. And I believe that any true sports fan should do the same. Come on, will you really get home that much earlier?  And will that extra fifteen minutes of sleep REALLY make a difference in your life?

All in all, it was a great evening. Watching a live sporting event and screaming at the top of your lungs is such a great time. As long as I can climb the stairs and want to go, I’m there. Fortunately, Lou is in complete agreement with me. It’s the same with traveling. I always say that as long as I still want to go places, I will find the means and the money. When I look at my dad or Lou’s dad, I realize that it will be soon enough before it is just too much of a hassle. BUT in the meantime, bring it on! Life is too short to do it any other way!