The desert around Florence

Time is dwindling down for our stay here, it's going to be only 5 more weeks before we'll leave for Oregon.
We've actually added 2 more weeks to our stay, since Doug and Brenda will be here in April, and it doesn't make much sense for us to arrive in Newberg while they're not there to introduce us to the landlord and get us situated.
I've started to look at how to drive north and added Lake Havesu to our itinerary, in addition to Palm Springs, Moro Bay, Mendocino and Lincoln City. So far, because as we very well know, things might change ..

So, what's new? Last Tuesday's Mardi Gras came and went. Since we stayed in Louisiana for a while, we've got fond memories of the event and always 'celebrate' a little by remembering.
This was a weird year of course, due to Covid. Normally the French Quarter looks something like this:

           

But this year the view was a little different ..

                             

It's hard to imagine at the moment, but I sure hope hope next year everything will be back to normal!
At least we had King Cake! This year's cake turned out beautiful (I try a different recipe each year), although a little too dry to be perfect and it could have done with some more filling. Nothing a quick 'nuke' in the microwave and a little (real) butter couldn't solve!
Doug and Brenda approved!

(Just for fun, the next day, Ash Wednesday, I saw this funny story on the news. Since there couldn't be any physical contact, catholic priests in different parts of the world had come up up with these DIY ash-'kits': 

 

                  

                                   Ingenious but hilarious (I think) !   

                                                                               

Talking abou  Doug and Brenda though, they had a nightmare of a trip down here!
Due to snowy and frosty weather in Portland, their (initial) flight was cancelled and postponed to the next day. The hotels in the area filled up fast, and when they found one 7 miles from the airport they had a hard time finding a taxi who was willing to brave the icy roads!
The next day they made it to the airport and onto the plane, only to be taken off again since they didn't get it de-iced! Fortunately another plane was found, and after a short delay they finally got in the air and made it safely to Phoenix!

They were exhausted when they arrived, but a good night's sleep and a couple of days of R&R in the Arizona sunshine made everything OK again.

Which was good, because we had left the building and installing of the wine-racks for them to do ...

Well, with a little help of the master-builder himself of course!

 

And after everything was ready, the fun part was filling the racks with wine!

                                                      

               

All the racks together will hold 9a little under 700 bottles! Holy smokes, that's a lot of wine! There's still a lot of space left, but those will probably all be filled when they will be back here in 3 weeks.
They are going to drive a truck and trailer down that time, with more furniture and 'stuff', and many, many more cases of wine!

To celebrate a successful project, we went out for dinner at Valentino's. (Yes, we can still go out for dinner here in Arizona!)

 

They removed some of the tables, and ask to keep your mask on until after you have ordered, but that's all ..
You can also choose to sit outside, on the (heated) patio, but it was a little too windy to do so that evening.

It's becoming a sort of 'tradition' to go here at least once, when Doug and Brenda are in town (Oregon's restaurants are closed), and the food is always great.
This time we had the Veal and Eggplant Parmesan and the Shrimp Scampi. Both were delicious and enough for James' lunch tomorrow!
Guess what? I didn't take a single picture of us together! Again! Not during happy hour on the back porch or in the den, not during Chinese take-away dinner the night before .. not one! I don't know why, but I just don't think about it. Next time ..

OK. I think that was about it for this week. I did get my permanent crown placed, and it looks great, and James had one of them placed and another got a temporary. So far so good. We're almost done!

This picture above is of a crazy 'foam' puzzle, that stays completely together when finished! You can pick the whole thing up in one piece. Funny!
(Don't sneeze when you make it though, while the pieces are laying around, because they go flying!)

This is the next one. A crazy scene in the kitchen of a restaurant. It's by Jan van Haasteren, the dutch cartoonist, of whom I have a few equally crazy ones!
This one's even more difficult since the colors of almost all pieces are very similar, mainly brown and white.
Oh well, I can't say no to a challenge!

Here's one more shot of Merlin. He likes to sit in the front yard, in between the two pillars at the entrance to the little courtyard.
This way he can overlook his domain ..

All is well in the neighborhood ..