DiNolfi update

Hello Family and Greetings from Arizona where COVID cases are on the rise!

We have been meaning to sit down and create a blog for a long time.  We have had a lot going on in our lives lately!

We'll start with Mother’s Day.  We had a great/ “regular” Sunday.  Charlie made an excellent egg casserole and we spent the day by the pool.  We listened to good music and played a game of HORSE in the pool that I actually won! We ended our outside day about 5 as we always do and went inside for our regular game of dominoes, and we played an hour of Tripoley.  I forgot how fun that was! Everyone spent the night (it felt like Christmas eve)!

As you know, on May 11th, we added a doctor to our family!  Her graduation was nothing like we planned but was still a wonderful celebration. Thank you to all of you that tuned in to watch.  After the virtual ceremony, Jocee's best med school friend, Dr. Amber Sandoval came over with her roommate Megan, for a champagne toast and a game of HORSE in the pool. (Brian won!)

Charlie's work from home COVID project is a batch of California style zinfandel wine he began on May 12th.  The bottling will commence later this month.  Stay tuned...

That brings us to K's birthday.  What another wonderfully perfect day we had as a family! Prior to May 24^th Charlie purchased 5 rum cakes (my favorite and a birthday staple for me) for our friends. On the 23^rd, we delivered 4 of those cakes to our friends the Curtis’ Joys, Jourgensens and Zadonowicz’. We kept our social distance intact but were so happy to see everyone that we hadn’t seen in such a long time. On the 24^th, the 5 of us gathered again at the house and spent the morning in the pool.  We have been having unseasonably hot temperatures here so the pool in the morning is actually very refreshing!  Charlie made amazing hamburgers and black bean burgers for lunch and then we went inside for my virtual birthday party. Everyone joined in using the Zoom link that Adriana set up.  We all ate the same cake and shared some joy. After that we had killer games of Tripoley and dominoes.(pictured are, the zoom party, a domino picture that we think would make a good puzzle, signs that Corinna made for the party and cards from my 4 favorite little girls!!)

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6 days later on 5/30, we packed up our cars plus a U-Haul and drove to California. We arrived in SB at 2 and as we all had pre assigned color coded jobs, we got to work! In addition to the U-Haul, we all had our cars to unload and then Sande arrived with a bed.  We put beds together first for obvious reasons and then Brian and Charlie really kicked into gear on the kitchen. Brian divided all her “drinking devices” appropriately (mugs, tumblers, glasses, glass mugs (what category are those???)) and concluded that J could run a coffee shop out of her condo! If your name starts with J and/or you are a fan of the TV show FRIENDS or University of Arizona you will enjoy the cup selection!

Sunday J and I did our last crossword together for awhile and with Brian’s help, we crushed it!  Charlie, J and I went for a walk on the beach which is 3/4 mile away! We did some more exploring and then picked up some wine from local wineries that Charlie had previously checked out online. We ordered from a local Greek restaurant and played dominoes.  We had a great conversation with Molly on the phone too!  

Monday, Charlie and I headed out about 10. We waved goodbye to our 3 knowing that our Sundays are going to be so different for awhile and we will miss them terribly. All was fine until Palm Desert, when what turned out to be the serpentine belt that was put on 4 days prior, failed us.  Making lemonade out of lemons and trying hard not to make vinegar out of wine, we got a room in the desert that had air conditioning and went searching for a wine opener and an Italian restaurant that would deliver. We learned something new...hotels won't let you in anymore in this new COVID world unless you have a room key so that was weird.  Italian food was late but tasty, room was cool and comfy and the Santa Barbara wine was most delish.  The next day we learned the truck would not be fixed for a couple of days so we rented a car and headed home to complete our trip of moving Jocee.

Charlie drove back on Thursday to swap rental car for our truck and it runs better than ever.  Shout out to Pete Valdes from Pete's Automotive.  If you ever find yourself broken down in the Coachella Valley don't go anywhere else!

In other news, we completed binging Ozark, which we give 5 DiNolfi stars...totally recommend. We use the comedy of Life In Pieces to offset the intensity of Ozark and we'll complete The Defiant Ones this weekend.

We miss you all and think of you often. Looking forward to when we can be with you in person.   💜

Love, Kathleen and Charlie