January In A Sentence A Day

Greetings! Today, and each month going forward, I'm documenting how I spent my month in just one sentence per day.

Turns out that the theme for January was Fun In The Sun! You guys, this month was so full of outdoor activities you'd have thought it was the middle of summer! We started the month hiking under sunny skies, and ended it doing same. It was almost a picture perfect month, save a couple of chilly days when temps stayed in the 50's all day. And with whale migration season in full swing, I finally saw my first whale spouting as a local, while walking along the ridge trail one afternoon. Seriously, this was a fantastic month almost from start to finish, and a wonderful re-affirmation that all of the hard work we went through to get here was well worth it.

January In A Sentence A Month

1.  Took hubby on the Colinas Ridge Trail for his first time, seven miles roundtrip, Starbucks for coffee afterward, home to enjoy a well-earned Trader Joe's mushroom and truffle flatbread pizza, then read by the fire for the remainder of the day.

2.  Attended training to become Citizen Marine Scientists, then assisted one of our volunteer organization's full time staff person on an amazing tide pool walk during a super low tide.

3.  Fabulous 11 mile club hike in our local hills overlooking the coastline, grocery shopping on the way home, then showers and a well earned nap.

This sign cracked me up!
Legend has it that once upon a time it read 'Environmentally Sensitive Trail' but someone with a sense of humor removed the first few letters, and the rangers liked it so much they left it as altered.

 4. Woke at 1:00 AM in pretty significant pain, that then got worse and worse and worse, until a trip to Urgent Care, and subsequent X-rays, showed I had a condition called calcific tendinitus that necessitated pain pills to get me through the day.

5.  Weaned myself off of the pain pills by white knuckling it for a bit, then an evening get together with our backpacking group to plot out possible trips for 2018.

6.  Feeling massively better, ran eight miles with my running club, then breakfast with my daughter and her sweetie, a drop by from my niece, and hubby and I started on preparations for hooking up our travel trailer and heading out to Palm Springs in the morning.

That's me on the left!

7.  Off the the Palm Springs Film Festival for the week in our travel trailer.

Our itty-bitty Trail Manor; but look at those views! 
Plus, the RV park has a pool, spa, club room and pool table, and we are within walking distance to downtown Palm Springs,
all for a paltry $45 a night.

8.  Hiked up nearby Lykken Trail in the AM, attended two foreign films, Foxtrot from Israel, and The Insult from Lebanon, plus dined at the always-delicious Trio in the PM with the friends we are here with for the week.

At the top of Lykken trail, our turnaround point.

9.  Attended two foreign films on a rare, rainy Palm Springs day, Germany's well-deserved recent Golden Globe winning In the Fade,  and Russia's compelling Loveless about two self-absorbed parents, then pizza and Chianti at the always-excellent Bill's Pizza - bonus points for having the most entertaining waitstaff around!

10.  Four mile racewalk in the AM, attended two foreign films, Thailand's entertaining Pop Aye about a man and his elephant, and the Czech Republic's charming Barefoot about a young boy coming of age during World War II.

11.  Two wonderful foreign films today, Turkey's beautiful true-to-life Ayla: The Daughter of War set during the Korean War, and Switzerland's hysterical, also true-to-life The Divine Order about the surprisingly late 1971 legislation that finally gave women there the right to vote - this movie is a must see if it comes to Netflix or elsewhere at some point -  then to Las Casuelas for Mexican Food, followed by attending the Palm Springs Street Fair afterward.

12. Hiked Lykken Trail again in the AM, then saw Italy's A Ciambra chronicling the real life of Europe's migratory Roma people, and Spain's quirky Lots Of Kids, A Monkey And A Castle documentary, followed by dinner and a show at The Purple Room Supper Club, featuring Broadway at The Keys with Tony award winning Levi Kreis - absolutely fantastic night!!!

13. Five mile race walk in the AM, then just one movie, the US documentary Jane, featuring recently recovered video on wildlife extraordinaire Jane Goodall (so good!), followed by checking out and driving home in the PM.

14. Morning spiritual services, followed by lots of shopping - Old Navy, Big 5, Sprouts and Trader Joes.

15. Physical therapy appointment for my newly diagnosed calcific tendinitis, then cleared out the knick knacks and smaller furniture in our downstairs in preparation for flooring removal and re-installation.

16. Demolition of remaining downstairs flooring began, plus race walked three miles and attended my first Art History class, courtesy of a new Emeritus Lifelong Learning program for retirees in S. Orange County.

17. Hiked 5 miles in Ladera Ranch with my hiking club, returning home to just in time to paint out hundreds of feet of baseboard and 1/4 round trim for the few remaining hours before the sun went down . . . exhausted by day's end!

18. Flooring re-installation begins, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, and why all the painting above on the 17th above occurred.

19. An exhilarating 30 mile bike ride with my new bicycling club up and around Irvine and the Newport Back Bay, along an amazing array of biking trails I'd long heard about but never been on, taking a well deserved lunch break midway at the terrific new-to-Orange County eatery Grater Grilled Cheese, yum!

20. Attended the Women's March for the first time, compelled to do so in the wake of the tidal wave of sexual assaults against women ripping through our nation, not the least of which is the recent USA Gymnastics scandal - as one woman's poster proclaimed, I can't believe I'm still protesting this sh*t!

21. Morning spiritual services, then a matinee showing of The Post in nearby San Juan Capistrano . . . the movie was well done, but discovering how cute downtown San Juan Capistrano is was even better.

22. Final day of flooring installation, hooray, a walk along the Dana Point Headlands Trail with a girlfriend followed by breakfast at always delicious Pain du Monde, an Intermediate Spanish class (excellent class, excellent instructor), then a quick dinner at home followed by a couples meeting in the evening.

23. Long day cleaning, dusting, and moving everything back into place downstairs, while electricians simultaneously worked in our family room installing recessed lighting and in our kitchen hanging two pretty new pendants over our kitchen island . . . love!

24. Six mile hike with my club in the hills of Mission Viejo, then lots of errand running afterward.

25. Shutters installed over kitchen bay window, worked an information booth shift at the harbor, enjoyed sunset at the beach with hubby, then a fascinating lecture about the gray whale's annual migration from Alaska to Mexico and back in the evening.

26. Uber-fun 25 mile bike ride over to scenic Corona Del Mar with my biking group, then rushed home to clean up and welcome my dad to our new home for the first time.

27. Took my Dad on a hilly 10 mile hike - at 81 years of age he did great - then home to prepare homemade pizzas for dinner.

It was a three generation hike, in that my older daughter joined us.

28. A gorgeous 85 degree day which we spent with my dad kayaking, tide pooling, and scenic beach walking.

We kayaked.

We tidepooled and beach walked.

We ate!

29. This was my dad's last day here, so we took him to San Clemente for breakfast at Ellie's Table, followed by a beach walk to the San Clemente Pier where we spotted whale breaching - so exciting - plus I managed to make my Spanish class and a couples workshop in the evening after Dad departed, whew!

30. Worked a volunteer shift at the harbor, attended my Art History class, and made a delicious mushroom risotto for dinner.

31. Painters arrived to finish off our kitchen cabinets, so we escaped the house for the day by joining our hiking club for a gorgeous 7 mile hike along Crystal Cove Beach, after which we enjoyed burgers, fries and ice cream shakes at the iconic Shake Shack in Newport Beach.

Hubby and I shared a strawberry banana shake, so good!

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And so went the month of January!

December In A Sentence A Day

Greetings! Today, and each month going forward, I'm documenting how I spent my month in just one sentence per day.

Turns out that the theme for December was Joy!, then Dismay!, then Joy! once again. Sigh. It was an unexpectedly challenging month what with our voluminous water loss on the 5th, followed by the decision to go ahead and have our interior doors and kitchen cabinets repainted, and the kitchen ceiling track lighting removed and replaced, since we'd be ripping up all the flooring (again!) anyway. What. A. Mess.

By the time Christmas rolled around, however, everything but the flooring and Christmas tree - poor bald thing, we had to dismantle it for the water remediation, and I didn't have the energy to put all the ornaments back on - was pretty much back to normal. And we did manage to got our bounce back well before Christmas, enjoying lots of time with family and friends, plus holiday concerts, parties and plays, so a big 'yeah' for that.

(P.S. - Be sure to scroll to the bottom of this post to see who else is participating,

and to visit their blogs for additional September In A Sentence A Day inspiration!)

December In A Sentence A Month

1.  Attended the funnest holiday party with our wine society, eating, sipping, singing, dancing, and even running into a newly retired couple we'd known during our daughters' soccer years . . . we're so excited that after being out there all by ourselves for the past six years, our friends are finally starting to step away from their professional gigs and join us in retirement!

Can you tell my husband is sporting a black eye in this photo?
The result of an accidental head bump with our granddaughter while playing Hide n Go Seek!

2.  A wonderful morning spent touring the Dana Points Headlands with a naturalist, followed by a coastal walk on our own, then a bagel breakfast at this divinely situated harbor cafe..

3.  A most festive holiday concert at one of our local colleges, which was absolutely wonderful, and definitely a new tradition going forward.

4.  A 25 mile bicycle ride along the coastline on a glorious low 70-degree day . . . we had so much fun!

5.  The disastrous day my washing machine overflowed onto my new hardwood floors!

6.  A rough day of navigating around the very noisy and numerous water remediation machines situated all over the bottom floor of our house, but did break away for a bit to attend a previously scheduled lunch and tour of the Shakleton Antartic Special Exhibition at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana.

The Endurance, stuck in the ice of Antartica in 1915

7.  Deeply depressed to once again be facing a period of demolition, chaos and dust, particularly during the Christmas holidays, but a festive holiday performance by the Dana Point Symphony went a long, long way in helping my mood.

Not the greatest sightlines in that the symphony plays at a church,
but the acoustics are great, and the tickets are a modest $15 each, so we'll deal.

8. This wonderful person, my oldest daughter, turned 35 years old today . . . how is that even possible???

9.   Attended a holiday jazz concert at a nearby college and had an absolutely wonderful time - nothing perks up my spirits more than the energy of talented young people.

The conductor brought up the children in the audience at one point,
which will hopefully plant the seeds for future jazz appreciation.

10.  Attended our first theater production at the same college, and though we did not enjoy the play so much, Stephen Sondheim's very dark Assassins, we were blown away by the talented actors and actresses, so we stayed all the way through to the bitter end, and were glad we did.

11.  Our dinner club held their annual potluck and planning session, and my husband and I agreed to take on one of the months in 2018 because we think the group will enjoy experiencing Burmese food as much as we did upon discovering the wonderful Irawaddy last year.

12.  Worked a tidepool shift and enjoyed the utterly thrilling experience of watching dolphins leaping and somersaulting high into the air in what seemed to be a show of sheer joy.

13.  Spent the morning hiking in the ocean-adjacent Laguna Wilderness with my hiking club, giving a little insight into why wildfires are a way of life here - our wilderness areas, even this one located just a couple of miles inland from the coast, are generally dry as a bone other than during the rainy season.

14.  Painting of my interior doors and kitchen cabinets commenced, because we figured we might as well get them done before the replacement wood flooring went down; a.k.a., turning lemons into lemonade!

Original maple cabinet paint color at bottom, a yellowish ivory, and refreshed color, the same Cream I used
in my prior kitchen, on the top.

15. Believe it or not, we entertained around the chaos, but just for an hour (they are very good friends!), before heading out to Sol Agave in San Juan Capistrano - yeah for good Mexican food and drink for what ails you!

16. Dinner out followed by the Dana Point Harbor Boat Parade with my oldest and her sweetie.

17. Long walk around the harbor and headlands, one of my very favorite things to do here.

My husband waving 'Hello' from the headlands trail.

18.  Kayaking in the AM, then a meeting with our financial team, followed by a lovely, but sad, farewell party with the members of my longtime book club now that we live too far away to make continuing tenable.

19.  My kitchen refresh is done, including removal of of 1980's track lighting, and I am beyond thrilled.

20.  Braved Walmart for a few household items, but got there early enough to avoid the Christmas crush.

21. We combined a walk to the beach for breakfast with a few on-foot errands, managing just shy of seven miles by the time we returned to the house.

Where the wonderful beach trail by our home ends.

22.  Worked a volunteer shift at the harbor, which was fun but brisk at just 50 degrees in the shade where my info booth was set up, brrrr!

23. Ran six miles at the harbor with my running club, followed by breakfast together at Coffee Importers, then made and baked salted caramel chip chocolate cookies and delivered them to all the neighbors, plus attended a festive Rat Pack concert . . . a long, but super fun day!

24. Long walk along the beach, then to my older daughters for an amazing Christmas Eve dinner: Coffee crusted filet mignon, sweet potato puree, grilled asparagus, heirloom beet salad, and for dessert, fresh cherry pie. #feelingspoiled

25. Merry Christmas, S. California style!

26. Today was all about Japan - we booked a trip to visit there in the fall, and we bought ourselves a new Toyota Prius!

Us in the fall of 2018.

Us right now!

27. Wonderful hike along a coastal ridge trail near our home with my hiking club, and learned our daughter is having a girl!!!

28. Worked a volunteer shift at the harbor, took down all the holiday decorations, organized the garage, and made a fragrant slow cook Indian chicken curry for dinner.

29.  Small drywall patch job by my painter in advance of our new floors going in in January, to Target to replace my 34 year old Hoover vacuum cleaner (!), plus our water loss reimbursement check arrived in the mail, big sigh of relief!

30.  Morning run with my club, prepped the house for overnight guests, then spent the evening with them enjoying dinner and a Neil Diamond tribute band at The Coach House.

31.  Took our friends for a walk along the Dana Point Headlands followed by breakfast at Coffee Importers, tidied the house after they left, then made a romantic dinner for hubby and me and settled in for a night of movies and waiting for the ball to drop in Times Square.

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Goodness December was a roller coaster of a month! But I have to say, I doubt I would have bitten the bullet and gone ahead with getting our kitchen cabinets repainted, and our overhead kitchen track lighting removed and replaced with recessed lights if not for the loss. So, I am actually super happy with the way my previously very nice kitchen is being elevated to gorgeous status, and I look forward to sharing photos next month once the final touch ups occur.

How was your December? Please share your highlights (or lowlights!) below.

An InLinkz Link-up

November In A Sentence A Day

Greetings! Today, and each month going forward, I'm joining in with some other fab bloggers to share how we spent our month in just one sentence per day.

Turns out that the theme for November was creating new routines as we branched out and really starting exploring our new community. We discovered new hiking trails, new restaurants, new entertainment venues, new lecture series, and made several new friends. The month also included a visit from our East Coast daughter and family meaning we also got lots of granddaughter time!

(P.S. - Be sure to scroll to the bottom of this post to see who else is participating,

and to visit their blogs for additional September In A Sentence A Day inspiration!)

November In A Sentence A Day

1. Another home project kicked off, as cabinets arrived and started going in for my husband's home office, plus, my Pottery Barn home office furniture finally arrived in good form, plus we attended our first monthly dining event with a group attached to our Lifelong Learning program.
   
   
2. Spent pretty much all day hauling boxes up to my finally-furnished office, purging as I went along, plus hubby's home office installation continued, plus our downstairs powder room got a complete makeover.
   
   

   

   Before . . .

   

   After! 
   We had already changed out everything but the builder grade cabinets, which got refaced today in a rich brown maple.
   
   

3. Hubby's home office completed, yeah,
   
   

   

   
   

   plus I did the grocery shopping, ran four miles, worked a shift at the Ocean Institute, and prepped a big pan of pumpkin lasagna for a dinner party we're having tomorrow night.


4. Busy, busy day cooking and cleaning for a dinner party, working a tide pool docent shift, then having said dinner party!
   
   

   

   This carrot cake from The Barefoot Contessa cookbook
   was a massive hit with my guests.

   
   
5. Postcard perfect day doing a five mile walk along the San Clemente Beach trail, lunch at Ellie's Table, then another sightseeing walk at The Strands, which culminated in a free funicular ride!
   
   
   

   

   We detoured off the trail to walk to the end of the San Clemente Pier.
   
   

6. A rare go-nowhere day (yeah!), then a darned good I-made-it-myself dinner of grilled salmon with a mustard horshradish sauce over brown rice before heading off to an evening couples-fellowship event.
   
   
7. My final home office decor items arrived: a bright cheery red rug, and a white leather and shiny chrome office chair!
   
   

   

   My office is also our second guest bedroom,
   utilized when we have VIP's like granddaughters staying over!
   

   
   
8. Took my girlfriend hiking on the spectacular Dana Point Headlands trail
   
   

   

   
   

   followed by lunch afterward at one of my favorite little cafe's, PDM.
   
   
9. Took my husband on yesterday's walk, his first time, though we started at the harbor to add in some hill work,
   
   

   

   
   

   had lunch afterward at Andrea at beautiful Pelican Hill Resort, then an evening lecture about our local seal and sea lion rescue society.
   
   
10. A fascinating lecture on our First Amendment by a law professor in the morning, and our first dinner outing with two new couples, which culminated in a stop in at the notorious, slightly touristy Swallows Inn in San Juan Capistrano, bra-strewn ceiling and all.
    
    
    

    

    So not my scene, but it was fun to do once!
    
    

11. Made this gorgeous Barefoot Contessa chocolate cake to take to an evening potluck dinner and Cabernet Sauvignon wine tasting event . . . it was delicious!
    
    

    

    The cake was easy-peasy, the frosting not so much -
    four full steps from start to finish.
    
    

12. Walked along the harbor and came across this begging pelican midway.
    
    

    

    
    

13. Enjoyed a hike in the San Juan Capistrano hills with a fun new-to-us hiking group, and got invited to join them in upcoming biking and kayaking events, yes please!
    
    

    
    
    
14. As-big-as-you-can-make-them $5 yogurt bowls at Yogurtland . . . we did our best!
    
    

    

    
    

15. A second hike with my new hiking group, this time high atop the ridges of Trabuco Canyon, where we enjoyed fabulous views of Catalina Island out in the distance. . . loved it!
    
    

    

    
    

16. Worked a tidepool shift where this interesting Giant Key Hole Limpet we spotted clinging to a rock got everyone all excited . . . first sighting of one in over a year, indicating that the tidepools are healthy and doing well.
    
    

    

    
    

17. Spanish class, followed by a volunteer shift at the harbor, then a wonderful late day walk with my hubby prior to enjoying a fun and delicious Happy Hour medley of apps and cocktails at Jimmy's Famous American Tavern directly across from the harbor, thus providing us with these festive views as we dined.
    
    

    

    
    
18. My little 2003 BMW convertible appeared to give up the ghost, but after a stressful morning waiting to hear what in the world was going on with it, learned it was a simple computer malfunction that the mechanic charged me $0 (!!!) to repair.
    
    
19. Attended a fun dinner and game night event with congregational friends featuring an amazing pumpkin soup with lamb kebobs, baklava and the new-to-us-game, Quiddler.
    
    
20. A frustrating day of cancelling a kayaking event in order to wait for a roofer and a landscaper, both of whom cancelled last minute, grrrr.


21. Our girl arrived with her mama and papa, and solemnly informed me that "Mama has a baby in her belly" . . . !!!!!!!
    
    

    

    
    

22. Took the granddaughters to the beach, which they both looooved,
    
    

    

    
    

    followed by an afternoon at our community pool, then an evening of pizza and Hello Kitty cafe cookies at the Irvine Spectrum . . . they both fell fast asleep before we even got back to the house!
    
    
23. Happy Thanksgiving!
    

    

    
    

24. Spent our #optoutside day doing a six mile hike along the beach while our girl visited her papa's side of the family in Los Angeles.
    
    

    

    
    

25. Explored the Dana Point Headlands, then spent the afternoon climbing rocks at the harbor with our girl as we watched the fog roll in. 
    
    

    

    
    

26. After months of anticipation, and of reading the loooong book, the day finally arrived, and we headed to Hollywood to see Hamilton!!!
    

    

    
    
27. Took everyone to San Clemente in the AM for breakfast at Ellie's Table and a walk to the pier and back, then down to Dana Point Harbor after dinner to ooh and aah over the Christmas lights.
    
    

    

    
    
28. Our girl left for home with her mama and papa so we spent the day (sadly) cleaning up, but did finally finish decorating the Christmas Tree!
    
    

    

    
    

29. An interesting lecture on the Shackleton expedition to Antartica at our Lifelong Learning program, which we attended in preparation for a visit to the Bowers Museum in December to view the Shackleton traveling exhibit.
    
    
30. Haircut in the AM, a lecture on evolving Japanese/Korean relations at our Lifelong Learning program, then a night of food and Latin Jazz in nearby San Clemente . . . so fun/good!
    
    

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And so ended November! It really was a terrific month that blended home improvements, outside exploration, family and fun. In looking ahead to December, it's going to be an insane month of holiday concerts, festivals, family and fun, and I can't wait to get started.

Make it a great day wherever you are!

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An InLinkz Link-up