Indio, CA

So, I have a confession. In my younger days (no, they didn't call me Delta Dawn) I got sucked into buying a timeshare. After a while, I wasn't sure it was such a great idea. I liked the properties at which I stayed, and initially I didn't have much of a problem finding availability. Maybe I'm a bit too snobbish, but most of my problem was the other owners - they were a bit trashy.

A while ago I decided I would stay in Palm Springs over Christmas to be near my family. There are two main resorts in my program in the Palm Springs area - one downtown and one way out in Indio. Now, what I know about Indio is that kids that are kicked out of Palm Springs High went to Indio High. Still, from the pictures on the website, the Indio resort looked a lot nicer than the Palm Springs resort, so I reserved there.

Oh...

My...

God!

I drove into the resort, which seems like it is way off in the boonies (really less than 5 minutes from major shopping centers), and saw the parking lot filled with Lexuses (Lexi?), Mercedeses (Mercedi?) and even a Bently! I checked in with the nicest lady and then headed for my condo, passing a pond/river that surrounds the whole property. I entered my unit and, from the front door, I could see the large private balcony off the living room. I stepped outside and was greeted by a spectacular view of the river, which widened just outside my building to allow room for an island on which there were barbecues and picnic tables. To my left and right were Jacuzzis. Back out the front door, a great view of the 18th fairway of Terra Lago.

Wandering around the property I found beauty all around. I found heated pools and a "lazy river," fountains shooting water three stories into the air for kids to run through, a gym for those over 18 years of age, a game room with foosball, billiards, table tennis and video games. Yes, Downtown Palm Springs is quite a trip from Indio, but to be honest, I never felt a real need to drive all the way there. Everything I needed was either on the property or within a 5 minute drive of the resort.

Interestingly, prior to making the reservation I was concerned about the noise at the resort. I read several reviews where prior guests complained that the walls were thin enough to allow neighbors' conversations to drift in and disturb them. Next door to my unit was a family with 3 children between the ages of 7 and 12. When I could see them, they were very active and rambunctious. However, whenever I was inside my condo, I only heard the noise I made.

Indio has been reborn in my mind. No longer is it the home of "continuation school," but a beautiful and peaceful place to get away from the hustle and bustle of daily life.

Don't forget to check out the e-book at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/32964
Hopefully I'll have a novella available by January! Tell a friend!
And don't forget to write a review on Smashwords and/or Amazon.com.

Nespresso

So I went to Crate and Barrel to look for some champagne flutes, but I didn't find the kind I was looking for. However, on my way back out there was this cute little woman all dressed up like a barista. As I was walking by, she asked if I wanted an espresso or cappuccino. My instinct was to so, "No, thank you," but for some reason I said, "Sure!"

She grabbed this tiny little plastic cup thingy and dropped it in the top of this machine. I immediately thought of the Keurig machine I have at home, so I said, "Oh, so it's like one of those K-cups." Yeah, open mouth, insert foot (how dare I compare her machine with a Keurig!) Now, here's the thing. On the side of the machine there was this thing that looked like a thermos, into which she poured a little milk. She pushed a button on the thermos and a button on the main device. Coffee began pouring into the cup. It wasn't much coffee, but it was coffee. Then she pulled the thermos thingy off the side and poured hot, whipped milk into the coffee and handed the cup to me.

I took a sip.

Disclaimer: I am not a fan of coffee. Everyone kept telling me, "Oh, try this coffee, or that one, or the other one. You'll like this one." My response: "I DON'T LIKE COFFEE!" For some bizarre reason everyone always said, "Oh, but you'll like this one. You can hardly taste the coffee!" Now, if I can hardly taste the coffee, then why am I going to drink the coffee?

Eventually my mom wore me down and found a coffee that I like - the Keurig. Specifically one that tastes pretty much like hot chocolate. So I would drink a cup when I visit Mom. She later got me a Keurig machine for Christmas, and I use it at home occasionally, still thinking, "Why do I drink coffee if what I really like about it is the fact that it tastes like hot chocolate?" But it became a habit, and I would make coffee in my Keurig, making sure to add like a quart of milk and a cup of sugar to each mug of coffee the thing would dispense for me.

But here I was in Crate and Barrel, in front of this cute little lady named Jennifer, a vendor from Nespresso, trying to sell me a $350 coffee machine. I took a sip of the sugarless coffee.

It was actually good. She told me about their special, and the cost of each cup of coffee, and little perks she could throw in if I bought during the holiday season. She told me all about how the machine works, and how to care for it. I thanked her and walked out of the store, thinking about that cup of coffee.

Twenty minutes later I was loading my new Nespresso in the trunk of my car. At home I cleaned off the counter, washed the new machine (I never use anything new, not even clothes, without first washing it) and set out to make a cup of cappuccino. But out of curiosity, I decided to toss a tiny bit of cocoa into the milk.

Okay, so the extra bitterness of the cocoa forced me to put a tiny bit of sugar into the mix, but nothing compared to what I normally put in. Then a little later I had another idea. I put a half cup of milk into the thermos, a small bit of cocoa and a small bit of sugar. I pushed the button and waited a minute. When the machine was done, I poured myself an excellent cup of homemade hot cocoa. No fuss, no mess.

Merry Christmas to me!

Leftover Cuties

Okay, so I was at the Santa Monica Place today wandering around in the rain and just generally getting into the Christmas spirit, which had been lacking until very recently, probably due to the non-existent Global Warming from which we are (not) suffering, when I stumbled across some Leftover Cuties playing in the center of the mall.

I had never heard of them, but I liked their sound, so I bought a CD from them and put my name on their mailing list. After getting home I looked them up on FaceBook and iTunes. Turns out they did the song that is the theme for "The Big C."

As you can probably tell from the picture, they are a bit jazzy with an old-school (40s?) quality. I think it's great for the Christmas songs I heard. I highly recommend at least checking them out

Leftover Cuties can be found on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/Leftover.Cuties. You can also follow them on Twitter at http://twitter.com/leftovercuties. Their homepage is http://www.leftovercuties.com/.