A Day In The Life - 10/31: Jail Bait

Jennie and Kyle stopped by on their way to a party to show us their costumes. Since Kyle was older and Jennie was younger when they got married (and still are, although Kyle seems to be aging much faster since he got hitched). So, this year's costume theme is "Robbing the Cradle", playing on the difference in their ages. They are so creative in their costumes.

A Day In The Life - 10/30: A Suns Game

 That a fortunate night! Jennie and Kyle invited us to go with them to the game against the Grizzlies. Unfortunately, the Suns played, well, horrible describes their abilities that night. They missed most of their free throws and gave the ball away several times. Then the game came down to the last 4 seconds and were three points down. It was over so Gaye and I headed down stairs to catch the light rail back to Mesa.

As we were riding the escalator down to the main floor we watched as the Suns, coming off of a time out, chucked the ball down court and made the three needed points putting them into overtime. It was more fun to watch all of the people who, like us, had headed out early, racing back into the arena to see this marvel. They finally won the game in their second or third overtime. But it was luck, not skill that won them the game that night.

A Day In The Life - 10/29: Trunk-R-Treat

Halloween arriving on a Sunday is always a bit awkward. This is often not considered an appropriate activity for the Sabbath so whether to have the activity on a different day and whether to support others choice to knock on doors on Sunday. Fortunately, the choices are not too hard these days. Those wishing to avoid the Sabbath activity can usually find a Trunk-R-Treat at a church or home.
We took the grand kids (Jase, Hero and Ariel) to a Trunk-R-Treat over at the church parking lot. The kids looked great. Ariel was a spider with many moving arms. Her crafty mom made it from stuff that she had around. Jase (and Quentin) was a ghost buster. Hero was a cute little faery. Halloween kind of took her by surprise this year. At the first trunk she panicked and started to cry. The shock of monsters come to life was more than she was prepared to imagine. But a few moments of hugging and taking her hand took care of that. But it still took awhile for her to understand that people were putting candy into her bucket and not trying to take something out. By the time she finally had it figured out, it was time to go home.

A Day In The Life - 10/28: Anual Pumpkin Carving

 I love Halloween. The temperatures have cooled down. The anticipation of the holidays to come is rising. And holiday season means great times with family. The Vaterlaus family pumpkin carving activity marks the beginning of this great season.

First we start with dinner - time to talk and catch up. Gaye always cooks a great meal and is thoughtful about the eating wishes of each family member is considered. Paul and Jess are trying to lose some weight as they get more fit so this meal was more calorie conscious.

I set up some tables on the back porch and covered them with butcher paper. I got out the halogen lights and put them on top of the porch roof and turned on the shed spot lights so that we would be able to see well after dark.
I was not into the artistic aspect of this activity this year. I think that the reason may be the short life span of a carved pumpkin. It seems that three or four days is about the maximum time allowed before they start to grow mold and get all mushy and then all of the work that I have put into a work of art is gone.
So I got out the jig saw. In about five minutes I had the lid, mouth, nose and crying eyes cut out. Another five minutes and it was all cleaned out and ready for the candle. Then I had plenty of time to take pictures of the kids playing, the carving going on and the finished product.

 This Bat Signal pumpkin was done by Paul with some looking on by Hero.

 Jennie and Quentin work on their project pumpkins at one of the covered tables on the porch.

 Jess continues to work on her extremely detailed pumpkin project at one of the other tables.

This is the front of  Jennie's pumpkin carving. She took a picture of her manager, changed it to black and white and separated to black and white - no grays. She then used this photo as the pattern for her pumpkin. She took it with her when she left so that she could take it into work with her in the morning. What a wonderfully ingenious idea for a carving subject matter.

 This is the back side of Jennie's pumpkin.

 Jess carved her Dia del Muerte pumpkin with daisies on the top, hearts for eyes, small butterflies and other swirls and details that make this one one of my favorites.

Dia del Muerte in all her lit up glory.

Jase's Bat pumpkin sits above. I think he got a little help from his dad.

Quentin does the Death Star. This one was also a lot of work and looks good when lit up.

The kids allowed all of the adults to carve by entertaining each other in the dirt pile making dirt drinks and other non-edible concoctions.

And delta the dog was kept from becoming way too curious by the offer of a rawhide bone to gnaw on through out the evening. Good trade!

I can't wait for Halloween to get here so that we can put these gems on display along the driveway as we sit out watching the show and giving away candy. This time Halloween is on Sunday so that will get to be a little odd. Do we sit out on Saturday, Sunday, both or neither?

A Day In The Life - 10/24: Sahuarita for Church

It was a dark and storm - wait. It was a beautiful Sunday morning. The temperature was perfect as we drove from Mesa past Tucson to Sahuarita near the Santa Rita mountains where Ben and Jenn reside with their family. The occasion? The kids were involved in the Primary program during church so we took the opportunity to fore go our own church meetings in order to attend with Ben and Jenn. Unfortunately, after church, the kids were in no mood to be photographed. Grace is hiding behind the group, Noah is hiding behind his hand and Emma is thinking of something else. And, of course, Oma is trying to get everyone to cooperate, which wasn't working.

Pictures at home worked much better, however. It is amazing how cooperative kids get when you give them food. Oma gets that way, too.
Notice that Emma's dress has sparklies all over it. A few come off everywhere she sits and so it was fun to trail everywhere she had been, even in our car since she got to ride home from church with us.

Jenn LOVES to decorate. She is a wonder with desserts. But that is not where it ends, either. Her home is always having some treatment that was not there last time - a wall with new color, a family saying on the wall, and, of course, decorations galore for whatever holiday is coming up. This one is Halloween and so there are pumpkins everywhere, spiders and spider webs and lots of orange and black ornaments everywhere. It is very fun to see all of the things that she does to her home every time that we visit.
Ben is not sitting back and watching, either. He is involved in Jenn's projects as well as doing other things like adding new features to the kids castle in the playroom such as a flag, new paint and battlements at the top so they could better fight off the dragons.

As we traveled down for our visit, Gaye mentioned that she would like to stop and check out the cotton fields in Marana on our way home. So we made the stop. She got to see live cotton for the first time. I don't know how that works. She says she grew up in the south. How can you grow up in the south and never see cotton? Any way, she has seen it now. She got some close up photos of the cotton bulbs opening so that she could show her class what it looks like.
I was a very fun day and we were tired when we finally got home.

A Day In The Life - 10/23: Rachelle & Joplin Reception

Saturday's are great. This one ended with us wandering over to Toby and Patsy Ballentine's house for a pre-wedding reception for Rachelle and Joplin. Joplin is from Holland and he and Rachelle have known each other for most of their lives. Rachelle's mother, Jennifer, is from Holland and she and Joplin's father grew up together.
This reception was done in a different fashion because they are returning to Holland in about 10 days where they will be married in the Temple there and have an after-the-wedding reception there. They will live in Holland where he will finish his schooling and she is not certain if she will work or also do school.

A Day In The Life - 10/22: The $60 Button

 As I mentioned a few posts back, we had a pretty good storm around here awhile back. It was a doozy. (Is that a word?) Anyway, about that same time the outlet in the bathroom went out. As you are probably aware, bathrooms, kitchens and outdoor electrical outlets must be on GFI (Ground Fault Interrupt) circuits. The photo to the left is the outlet from our bathroom. They both look just like this one. A GFI outlet has a button that you can push because they blow faster than a regular circuit breaker does to keep people from electrocuting themselves or others where water is present.
So I checked the circuit breaker. It was not thrown. I could not figure this out. Then a few days later I noticed that the lawn, garden and trees weren't getting watered. Again, I checked things out, swapped out the fuses in the control box but it was getting no power at all. I found that it was on the same circuit as the bathrooms.

I got out my volt meter and went hunting for the cause of this problem. but could not figure it out. When I was learning a bit about electricity, a GFI circuit had a GFI outlet with the reset button at every outlet. I figured that perhaps they now had internal circuits or fuses - something that did not require a reset button.
Finally I gave up and called an electrician. He came out and checked the same things that I did - circuit breaker, voltage behind the outlet, etc. Then we started looking for the GFI. We searched the garage. Nothing. Then up to the master bath. As seen above, nothing. Then I said, "As long as we are up here let's check the second bathroom." Sure enough, there it was (as seen to the left). What I found out was that now the cheaper way to do the GFI setup is to run the wires from the circuit breaker box to the closest GFI outlet, use a real GFI outlet there and then connect that outlet to all of the other GFI outlets but use regular outlets and only the one will pop the button and shut them all down.
Evidently, when we had the storm, water got into the outside outlet, which is under the porch, because it had a plug in it propping it open, and blew the GFI button. Well, live and learn and hope the learning doesn't cost you too much or is too painful.

A Day In The Life - 10/20: Call the Vise Squad!

 I bought a bench vise for my shed. I had narrowed the selection down to two and, spending my cash, I decided on the smaller, cheaper one. But the salesman couldn't find one in stock so I asked him to make me a great deal on the other. He sold it to me for the same price as the smaller one and gave me the same discount on a couple of other items that I was getting. As you can see from the photos, this thin is humongous! And it weighs about as much as three of our kids. I am going to have to reinforce the bench in order to be able to mount the thing.

When I get done mounting this vise I will need to also drill some holes in the bench top so that the brass pins (seen at the left) can be placed in the holes so that larger pieces of wood can be held for working on. That should also all but eliminate the need for the two other vises (small red one seen on the right side of the picture to the left, fore ground of the picture above.)
It is just a reminder: If you want a discount, ask for it. All they can do is say no. And if it is not worth what they are asking, go somewhere where they will give you a better price. Now, just to keep my fingers from getting squished really flat . . .

A Day In The Life - 10/18: Game Night Goes Bananas

It was a wonderfully, balmy night. October is finally getting out of the 100's and the evenings are simply marvelous.  Jennie was at the house with growling stomach waiting for dinner to be ready. Gaye was just getting ready to begin cooking when the phone rang. Actually, my phone rang. Not the house phone. Not Gaye's phone. My phone rang. I never get calls. I get texts but not real people wanting to talk. So, of course, I snatched it out of it's holder to discover who would be so bold.
The caller was none other than Mom and she was inviting us to come over for dinner and game night. And just in the nick of time!

Off we all went, over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house we went. Dinner, of course, was just delicious - but I guess not memorable because I can't remember what it was. But it was good. Then they brought out a new game. It comes in a package that looks amazingly like a banana and is called, "Banana Grams". 

It is played like individual Scrabble. There are a bunch of tiles with letters but no point values. They all get turned over upside down and mixed up. Everyone takes 15. At the signal, everyone turns their tiles over and begins their own build of the crossword formation. When someone has used all of their tiles they call "Peel" and everyone takes another tile. If someone has a tile they can't get rid of they call "Scrub" and they put it back and exchange the one tile for three others.

The winner is determined by the person who finishes first after all of the tiles are gone. Play continues as long as you want and then the winnings for each person are tallied and the person with the most wins is the champion.

A Day In The Life - 10/16: Tombstone Heldorado

At Quentin's request we headed off to Tombstone, Arizona Territory, 1881 for Tombstone's Heldorado Days of people dressing up in all kinds of western gear, shoot outs and re-enactments, old mechanical equipment, early territorial newspapers and guys walking down the street in their red long-johns. You get to see it all with a lot of people who got there on their Harleys.

We started out at Boothill where most of the non-survivors of the shoot out at OK Corral are buried. It is a pretty view and they have some trinkets to sell. It is a nice start or finish to a trip to Tombstone.

There are tons of people who dress up in period clothing and wander the streets looking right at home. And they appear to be having a fun time. Now and then they gather for the tourists to take pictures or wander onto the street and start daning or shooting . . . or both.

Here we have a couple of the local aliens attempting to fit in with questionable results.

At the site of the OK Corral we went for the re-enactment of the shooting that took place there between the McLaurys/Claibornes/Clantons . . .

And the Earps (Virgil, the Marshal, Morton, Wyatt) and Doc Holiday

Doc Holiday is portrayed as this guy who is just a little bit slippery. And a drunk. And a poet who spouts verse about whatever catches his interest when sober enough to stand or stumble.

After the show there are multiple places to take a shot or two at, I mean, OF the kids. There is also a black smith shop where the smith is making stuff while you watch and has things to sell should the urge strike you twice between the eyes.

The super market horses that I grew up wanting to ride every Saturday when we would go shopping, win a couple of quarters and off he rides into the sunset . . . or something like that.

The roping bulls weren't supposed to be humiliated in such a way but, of course you had to RIDE the things!

M found her place on the back of the largest critter around and was pleased as punch even though she had to share the ride with a boy who figured those horns were for steering the darned thing.

In the park (where the only public restrooms in town were located) we listened to a 40's-era band playing while we waited.

An occasional man in his red flannels would wander by looking for a place to get dressed

And on the outskirts of town there were other shows such as the tractors of vintage eras along with other early motors and vehicles. And of course there is the mine tour and the historic buildings. There is also the newspaper company where you can get a paper about the town.
Ben brought the kids and we had a lot of fun seeing all of this and more that this space hasn't the time to mention. Let it be said that it was more fun than a body should be allowed to have. So we had ice cream and Eegee's on the way home.

A Day In The Life - 10/15: A Wedding Reception

It was a wonderful day for the families of Craig Anderson and Richard Ence as their son, Huston, and daughter, Kendra, celebrated their wedding earlier in the day at the home of the Bairds. it has been fun to watch some of this courtship take place as they attended church in our ward. Good luck in your new adventures in life.

Then it was off to the Blue Burrito Grille for some late dinner. Again, we had a coupon because of Gaye's diligence. So we headed off in the direction of the address on the coupon. It ended up being in the area of the SanTan mall but we could not locate it anywhere. We wandered around the malls in the car but still no dice on finding this place. Finally, out of desperation Gaye called them up and asked them where they were located. They said, "In the food court at the San Tan mall."
In the FOOD COURT?! Really? And we were looking forward to a nice sit-down place like Macayo's, not a walk-in, to-go kind of place. But the food was pretty good so all was well. It was just the shock of it all. It may take me several Ted's Hot Dog's to recover.

A Day In The Life - 10/14: Wax On, Wax Off

John Millard finished his knife. He had one additional step in completing his knife. After giving it a final fine finish sanding and wiping the handle down to remove any dust, etc., we finished it with a coat of wax. It is easy, fast and little mess. You simply rub it on and rub it in and then wipe it down and shine it up by buffing it.

A Day In The Life - 10/13: Knives Again!?

Yes! We are nearing the end of knife-making for this season. I love the uniqueness of the various knives made by these young men and their Varsity Scout leaders. All of these knives were first-time blades except for John's.

Joey Angel made the knife above with a payuka hardwood handle and some engraving on the blade. The end of the handle will be carved into something he is not sure about yet.

James Clune was the master of speed, having started and completed his antler-handled knife in only three work periods. The whole project has taken about 6 or 7 work periods.

John Millard, having made a couple of knives in previous years, decided to make one with a payuka handle also. His was made distinctive by the tine showing through the handle as well as . . .

. . . putting finger groves in the handle.

Mark Shoemaker made this wicked-looking knife with a handle of antler with a brass guard.

A Day In The Life - 10/13: Cut the Card!

This is the first. This is the time to celebrate.Gaye and I have decided that it is time to live without credit cards. We can do this. So we decided that the one that we have nothing owed on will be our first "cut". So, with a glint in her eye, she got out the really big scissors and cut those cards in half. (Perhaps "minced" would have described the final action more accurately.) And they were brand new cards, too.

Check out the devilish grin as she destroys these credit cards.

Thank You, Dave Ramsey!

A Day In The Life - 10/09: Air Hockey

I was talking with a friend of mine at work about ten days ago regarding what was happening in his life and he mentioned that he had this air hockey table that he had not been able to sell. He was going to have to disassemble it and take it to the trash. I mentioned that I was interested in air hockey and asked about the table. It was in good shape and was one of the higher-end models and that I could have it if I would come and get it.
Well, that cinched it. There is nothing that I like better than free. So I gathered the boys (Paul, Quentin and Kyle) and we went over to Andrew's house. The table was in pretty good shape but needed some repair on the feet. We brought it home and I did the repair and then assembled the table and tested it out. It works great. Now, to get some scouts and my kids over to really test it out. But no matter what, it is really hard to beat free.
So, since the kids were already over, Jessica volunteered to cook dinner. So Gaye and I made a run to the store (not free this time) and got a few things while Jess did the cooking. It was a marvelous dinner and Gaye loved the not cooking part (which must be the next best thing to free!) The grand kids played outside and inside until about 9:30 pm. It was so much fun spending time with all of them.
Thanks, Kyle, Quentin and Paul - for the help in hauling the air hockey table; and Jess and Gaye - for dinner. Yum!