Retire In Style Blog Too

APRIL IN TUCSON...THE BEST TIME OF YEAR Here in Tucson April is the best month of the whole winter season.  We simply move almost everything outdoors and revel in the joy of it all. Our life revolves around our neighbors and friends when we head south in the fall.  The park fills to the brim while we dance, play and read.  Then, about April 1st the exodus begins and we are left with just a select few hardy souls.  This group seems to be getting much younger and a lot more active.  The pickle ball courts and the tennis courts are busy.  People bicycle past continually and those few remaining neighbors visit in the middle of the street and drop in to see each other.  Our lives become more focused.  We simply love it. Montana Avenue Decor (very similar to Tucson Restaurant) Old Pueblo Grill patio! LIVING OUTDOORS ...HAPPY HOUR! This week we have enjoyed Happy Hour at a place called Montana Avenue on Grant here in East Tucson.  The outdoor patio...

Honda U3-X Honda has come out with a spectacular new people mover called Honda U3-X !  This device, so far as I can see, is the compact version of a Segway.   When Segway came out with the transportation device several years ago, it was a wonderful breakthrough for moving people from one spot to the next while going up stairs and over rough terrain without fear of falling.  This device has been adapted for golfing and even out door excursions. Segway The Honda device has overcome the bulk of the Segway and brought it to smaller spaces indoors as well as outdoors with style and beauty.  On their media page they had this to say: "The race toward sustainable mobility is moving car companies in odd and unexpected directions. For example, Honda today unveiled the U3-X, a compact electric personal mobility device that fits between the rider’s legs to provide movement forward, backward, side-to-side, and diagonally." (I loved the side-to-side part) When you watch the ...

I live in a RV Resort in the winter...this is a funny tee shirt I think we might all wear.  We may be old but like a swarm of killer bees, we can be lethal.  From a site called BeezKneez b 

Image via Wikipedia I found a blog yesterday while I was looking for the source of something I had received in an email.  The person writing this blog knows FUNNY when they see it.  Here is a piece from the Have Fun with English blog.  Enjoy! THE STEWARDESS ANNOUNCEMENT The "I was flying to San Francisco from Seattle this weekend, and the flight attendant, reading the flight safety information, had the whole plane looking at each other like "what the heck?" (Getting Seattle people to look at each other is an accomplishment.) So once we got airborne, I took out my laptop and typed up what she said so I wouldn't forget. I've left out a few parts, I'm sure, but this is most of it." (BEFORE TAKE-OFF) Hello, and welcome to Alaska Flight 438 to San Francisco. If you're going to San Francisco, you're in the right place. If you're not going to San Francisco, you're about to have a really long evening. We'd like to tell ...

Retire in Style casual Easter Luncheon Style at Home casual brunch! Just because we live in a small space does not mean we can't play  with the big dogs!!!   :) b Twitter #interior design

Faux Amish fireplace that heats with a lightbulb. Decorating a small space can be a fun thing to do...creative energy will take up where space leaves off.  We live in a very small space in the winter...our living room and kitchen are combined into one room and my computer sits on my small dining room table.  We eat outside most of the time.  It is Arizona after all. Small table that slides under the counter can be moved out for extra space. But we do not lack for the comforts of home.  We have a fireplace in the corner of the living room under our TV/Liquor cabinet.  The kitchen was up dated this year with a new microwave and my husband spay painted the stove to match.  A pot rack over the sink was made out of a piece of copper pipe and a closet rod hanger style attachments on the cabinets.  We ditched the dishwasher and I bought a cute white table at Home Goods today that fit the space perfectly.  We will slide the table out when we ...

Dear Maddie...a letter! Posted using ShareThis

Image by Always at Home via Flickr Do you write letters to your grandchildren?  Do they write back?  Probably not.  Some prodding and pushing may result in a thank you note...occasionally.  But for the most part, a letter from a child is very, very special.  Still writing to them is very important I think. My friend received a letter from her grandchild the other day...the little girl is 5 years old.  It told about a birthday party she had been too.  There were cookies (cucees)  with Easter Bunnies and there may have been a horse.  We were a little unsure about that.  But it didn't matter.  We knew there were bubbles in her Easter basket and that she loved her Grandma Carole.  The whole letter was a labor of love.  I loved the idea of a letter.  So yesterday I wrote a letter to my granddaughter, Maddie.  Maddie lives in China.  In order for us to connect in some immediate way, I wrote the letter on my other...

Image via Wikipedia Our Ruby Throated Hummingbird has returned to nest again under the canopy on our park model.  Living up close and personal with nature here in this RV Resort is a way of life.  We share our park with Javelina, Rattlesnakes, lizards and termites.  Some of our neighbors are more popular than others. When the Ruby Throated Hummingbird comes to spend some time, it makes any little frights because of the snakes and lizards worth it.  She is working very hard to make this the very best nest ever.  You can tell it is a very small space , something I can relate to.  She is wondering, I think, whether there will be room. We have watched a hummingbird's nest before.  A nest next to our RV several years ago was the object of interest from the time the birds hatched until they left the nest.  Interestingly enough, the mother continues to feed the babies for several days after they fly from the nest and the babies roost very near to the ne...

I just returned from the grocery store... with four plastic bags plus the bags for my produce.  Sigh! Doing this sort of thing just drives me nuts! I do own and frequently use bags from Trader Joe's or Whole Foods.  I open them in my cart and load my groceries and produce directly into them (no plastic bags for even the produce). Hopefully the day will come when reaching for the reusable grocery bags will become a habit. Bread Bags, Credo Living in a small space requires that we don't collect 1000 plastic and paper bags to be returned for recycling at the grocery store. We just don't have space for anything that cannot be put in a logical place and reused.  We keep the grocery bags in the trunk of the car here in Tucson. Grocery Bag, Credo Credo Bags Fiesta Organic Singles, Eco Bags I love the string bags for onions, apples and potatoes but I still don't own any of them. I have also seen bags for your baguettes, bulk items and muslin mesh bags for items that need ...

Wanna be a snowbird?  Thinking about doing some traveling?   October and April can be the best months in the year here in Tucson, Arizona.  Here are some hints with links that will help you. October and April can be the best months in the year here in Tucson.  Snowbirds normally arrive sometime from November-January and leave at the end of March or sooner.  Golf rates go down after April 15 and back up again around the first of December. The reduction in prices also happens with all the rentals in the area too. Many people that I know started their snowbird life here in the southwest by renting an apartment.  I have never actually done this but those people that live around me have  stayed in apartments during their first few years here.  I never could get a grasp on how to do that.  When one of my friends told me how they did it, I was surprised at how easy it could really be. While some snowbirds rent their apartment in adva...

I have moved the computer from our arizona room   to our little round table inside.  It is warm enough that we can eat outside. The arizona room is now serving as an alternate indoor dining room/bedroom.  I know it is strange but living in a small space demands that we be flexibility and creative.  I picked up a louvered screen at an antique market and it shield the little twin bed from view. So now the computer is the focus of our living room with cords streaming about.  The stereo system with a sub woofer on the floor adds to the disarray.  I found this wonderful disguise for the cord hanging down the wall.  Style At Home featured this item in the Tech Style part of their Technology&Gadget Blog .  Unplugged.com featured a small desk from ikea that can take care of this problem too.  I don't like the look of it much but that is just a personal style choice. They have simply taken a small computer desk and covered the back so cord...

Oh my goodness, how do we go about eating out with eight old people (including ourselves).  That would be four couples, all from a different part of the United States, California, Oregon, Wisconson, Ohio...how do we do that? Last evening we went out to a brewpub here in Tucson, AZ .  The group that owns the restaurant has a real warehouse location and has now opened a restaurant in a trendy area here on the Eastside.  It is a very, very busy popular place. Reservation would be recommended...but we did not know that.  The restaurant, Nimbus Brewery Restaurant, serves your normal brewpub food along with grilled salmon, grilled tuna salad etc. Let me tell you right now the restaurant serve staff and the manager did everything they could to make us happy.  It is just very hard when you get a group of people like us.  Very, very difficult.  Here is how it went: There was an hour wait for a table inside. The only seating available was outside...my husband an...

Image via Wikipedia When a neighbor asked me recently if I was a Turtle , I looked myself up and down.  MMMMMMM...I don't know, am I?  I'm a small town girl and have been the source of great teasing fun during my lifetime.  But I am no dummy and learned long ago that what I don't know can make everyone in the room laugh!  I hate when that happens.  I am careful about my answers.  It seems that, if I had been in the know or even a few years older, I would have known that a Turtle is a high minded individual that never answers an off color riddle with a vulgar answer even if the riddle seems to demand it.  Men and women have been giving the correct answers since WWII when bomber pilots in England began the club to relieve the tension of their life and to get reduced prices on pints of beer in an English pub.  A variety of reasons for the choice of name are given...some high flown and some vulgar. There are no dues or constitution.  The idea I ...