Sunday - the Winter Solstice

Hooray this was the shortest day of the year and now every day we will get more sunshine.
  Happy birthday Patti, sorry we could not be with you to celebrate it.  Have a great one!
  Got up early and it was chilly.  Went bike riding with Larry & Gary and from the direction they took I thought it would be a short ride.  They fooled me and we rode all the way to Signal Butte, so all told about 7 miles this morning.  About half way it really started to warm up and by the end I had a good sweat worked up.
  After I got back we went out first to Fry's where Marg saw what she thought was a good deal on scotch yesterday.  Unfortunately it wasn't all that good, so we passed and went on to both Home Depot and Lowes.  Looking for solutions for the Az room, both the ceiling and walls need to be redone.  It looks like a suspended ceiling and paint on the walls is where we are headed.  Also got a new shower head and extension.  The one in our bathroom is mounted too low, so I wanted to raise it and what we got seems to be doing the trick.  We were really disappointed in the selection and think it was better at home for some of the stuff we looked at.
  On the way back we stopped at a Chinese restaurant that offers deals for lunch.  It is a place we have been before and we both had a combo plate.  Marg just had a glass of water, while I had Chinese tea and the bill came to about $8.50.  The food is pretty good and they even give you a soup as a starter, but the downside is the place is packed right at noon.  It worked out perfect for us as we never got there until about 1:30 when things had slowed down.
  After lunch we stopped at the flea market on the trail.  It's a pretty good sized one, not the mega one in Mesa.  There are all kinds of dodgy dealers there, but Marg got a patio table she is happy with and got me a big bag of golf tees for a buck.  No they aren't used or broken, they are in an unopened pack, thank you very much.
  Then we stopped at Basha's where Marg was looking for dry cottage cheese.  It seems no one down here has ever heard of it dry, so she just bought the tubs of it and drained it in cheese cloth.  She is making her crepes [Nalyshnyka -- I think that's how it's spelled] and her yams with the marshmallow topping for out Christmas dinner contribution to our table here.  I think I already told you about the cranberries, anyway we have those in hand as well.
  Got back and had a light supper.  Get this a salad with chicken in it.  Yes I had it as well.  Keep this up with all the cycling and I won't even cast a shadow by the time I get home.  Ate light because it was ice cream social tonight and I had the usual banana split, while Marg had ice cream and cake.  No cake for me, got to watch the ... aw who am I kidding.  The banana split is so large I had no room for it.
  After Aggie stopped in to tell Marg to drop by.  We did and Rhonda had her new little guy there, 3 days old.  Tiny and cute as a button.  She told her mom to invite Marg, and keep it quiet, just her.  Anyway Marg got to hold the baby for a while, me not so much, I just watched.  Marg had said earlier if they needed anyone to look after the little guy she would offer and Rhonda said she is one of the only people she would consider, so Marg was pretty happy.