At the beginning of December I was very exciting with planning a bunch of new endeavors for 2020. After all 02/02/2020 was just around the corner. It’s like when you’re watching the milage on your car click over to a magic number. For our Honda Civic that number was 123456.7 miles this month. But I missed! Hmmm… well such is life, though I do know it happened on the way to grocery store and from some extravagant trip. LOL.

Anyway, with all that happened last month, it is still very hard to write and recap what we did for the first month of 2020, but I’ll do my best.

We started out with doing the back-nine at our golf course up the street and it was so nice to see the sunrise while on the course with no one else around.

I was also dedicated to ‘close my rings’ on my Apple Watch everyday for the month of January – and I did pretty good until I had to return to Montreal as it was a little hard to get in my exercise in while traveling to the east coast. Nonetheless, I was able to do it for 14 days straight even while in Las Vegas.

We went to the Consumer Electronics Show hoping to drum up some business. But my heart just wasn’t into it. There were some amazing products and one day I’m hoping to have a full wall setup with the huge display (well a series of mini displays) that we saw at CES, but a Tesla might be cheaper!

Ayano tried her hand a DJ’ing in one of the clubs and we took time off in the evenings to see some shows. As a matter of fact, we finally got into see two Cirque du Soleil events … Micheal Jackson ONE and Beatles Love.

For our travel arrangements, we always drive to Las Vegas and this time was no different. We stayed 6 nights at a VBRO in the Vdara (cheaper than hotel rates with free parking) and had a great view of the Bellagio. We then stayed one night at the M Resort with Ayano’s comp. I haven’t receive any comps from that hotel group since winning some good money from them last year. Then again, I won some good money from them this year, too. So I guess I’m not on their ‘happy list’… at least Ayano is! LOL

Mid-Month I headed back to Montreal to help organize and clean up my parents belongings. This time I took the train from Fullerton to Downtown LA’s Union Station right at the start of a women’s rights / equal pay protest (yikes – so glad I was able to get on), then to the airport in Hollywood. Why go all the way to Hollywood? Because the flight was $300 cheaper! Of course it’s a small airport and even the pilots end up hanging around in the terminal before the flight’s ready!

Was in Montreal for a week, and I must admit it was one of the saddest weeks I’ve every experienced. But there were some treasurable moments like finding my father’s old model my mother’s recipes… plus there is the moral support from close friends and family and even Frank and Jen gave invited me to join them to a very nice restaurant in town called Moishes where people like Leonard Cohen hang out. Thank you guys.

So those are my highlights brining in 2020 – The Year of the Rat. Honorable mention to an amazing bottle of wine I discovered – The Golden Eye Pinot Noir 2016. An amazing wine. I hope I can send a bottle off to Mr. Honda in Japan, as I know he would enjoy it as much as I.

See you next month.