A Day In The Life - 12/13/2010: Carrots Are Strange

Ah, yes - carrots are very strange. At least my carrots are. They look as if they have been dancing through the garden at midnight. It is more likely that they are the result of a mad scientists evil experiments. Or perhaps these poor carrot people have been exposed to horrible raddish-ation.
I am not certain if my three-legged yellow friend is my favorite . . . or the white cork screw critter . . . or the orange one with the mighty growth. Oh, well - welcome to the family. Until you've been eaten!

A Day In The Life - 12/11/2010: The Funny Ballet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5QGV-WmjKY

Gaye and I went to the megalopolis of Green Valley, Arizona for a ballet performance by two of the grand kids this evening. There is a woman who studied and performed back east who moved out to southern Arizona who now teaches Ballet (and some hip hop) to the local kids and does a pretty good job as far as my totally untrained eye can tell. So we made the sojourn across the desert on our camels, spitting (the camels, not us . . . mostly) and grunting (OK, some of that was us) all the way. It was a very fun event to watch. Above is a YouTube video of one of their performances. This is a keeper.

A Day In The Life - 12/10/2010: Swinger Climbs Ladder

 Here I am. It is my day off. I mean, a vacation day, right? But I am out enjoying myself in the yard. December is a wonderful time of year in Arizona. While the rest of the world shovels snow we enjoy weather that is mild, in the 70s and 80s.
So, I am out in the sun enjoying sitting in the yard reading an eBook when I get this urge to clean up this corner of the yard where I have been storing jungle gym parts for a couple of years now. You know the story - "If you'll come take this apart and haul it away you can have it for free." Free is the hook, and I took it down to the sinker. But some of the wood was in bad condition and I just never got around to rebuilding the jungle gym. And, mind you, the grand kids aren't getting any younger.
So I figure that I can use a lot of this weathered wood for some wood working projects. So I haul it out to the shed and begin stacking it. Pretty soon, all that is left is this bunch of hardware. I start looking around and this idea just kind of pops into my head.

I have this great tree right in my yard and it is finally getting big enough to be of some use. Pretty soon I am on a step stool drilling holes in my tree.
First it is two holes in this really strong branch (I hope) and a couple of massive hooks that I just happen to have stashed away for just such an occasion. Soon a swing is hanging from the tree branch.
Then it is a couple of holes into the trunk and a branch and all of a sudden, almost like magic, there is a blue ladder on my tree.
Well, being the kid that I am I just have to "test" these new kid toys out. The first ride in the swing is a careful one. Although I have hung from that branch a bunch of times I am not sure what swinging from a branch that now has holes in it will do. But soon I am swinging high and loving it.
Then it is up to the branches of the tree on the ladder. I will need to do a little bit of pruning so that the kids don't break things or hurt themselves or fall out of the tree. I've seen what happens to those baby birds who fall out of their nests. It would probably be better if that didn't happen to the grand kids . . . or to me. So, I just thought that you ought to know that I am a swinger again, in the very best sense of the word.

A Day In The Life - 12/09/2010: Eating From The Garden

I love working in the garden. I love eating from the garden. But carrots are a new experience for me. They grow in dirt. What I mean is, the part that you eat grows right down in the dirt. Now, that may not be news to you, but for a boy who loves to go eat straight from the garden, no washing required, this is a new experience. As can be seen, these things don't come out of the ground washed, scrubbed and looking grocery store nice. These things are ugly with a capitol UHG! They have hair like your grandmother's lip. In fact, if your grand mother had been a mud wrestler, this could be her! But tastee! Yum. I didn't know that carrots had flavors. I guess that is because what you get in the stores don't! They are mostly orange pieces of soft wood. But these babies are great!
So, I am outta here 'cause there are more things waiting for my taste buds in the garden!

12/08/2010 - Gifts and Barrels

Sorry - no picture today. I got so involved that I forgot. Todd Cassel, my boss took us all to lunch today at Cracker Barrel. It was great food (I had the Lemon Trout - yum) and better company. It was good to get to sit around and talk with these people that I spend so much work time with - especially since so many of them work mostly from home.
After the luncheon I gave my Hanukkah gift to Todd - the Faery Gourd that I finished a few days ago. I think that it went over well. He was asking where I bought it and when I told him that I made it, he was quite impressed.
So now I am starting another gourd project. Yipee!

A Day In The Life - 12/07/2010: A Fun-Packed Day

 Today was so busy and SO much fun. Work went fine until about 2pm and then it became GREAT! We all went over to F1 Raceway to do some kart racing. I have needed to get out some serious speeding tendencies for a long time and so I was flying around that track. And our team did pretty well also, taking third place. I had almost forgotten how much I love kart racing. OK, boys, LET'S GO RACING!

After racing, Gaye picked me up from the race track and we went to Scottsdale. One of our favorite places to eat is Grimaldi's Pizza so we hit up that place next.

Then it was off to the Poison Pen, a book store that specializes in mysteries, does some publishing and brings in authors quite often to speak. The speaker tonight was Jeffrey Deaver. He was so interesting to listen to. He spoke about how he gets ready to write a book and some of the things that he does to create characters for a story. He told us that he has been commissioned by the Bond Estate to write the next James Bond book that is due out in June. He read us a portion of his new book and it sounded so interesting that I was ready to buy it. It was a good thing that we already did. :)

When he was done speaking he took some time to sign books. The line seemed to be going a bit on the slow side but we found out when we got near the front of the line, that he was being very personal with each person and even signed the book that we were getting for someone in the family as a gift, with a personal message for them. What a really nice guy he is. Unfortunately, there are many who are not all that friendly and fewer still that are genuinely nice people you would want to know better. Mr. Deaver is definitely one of those.

While we were at the book store, Jennie called to tell us that Bahama Bucks was giving away free 16 oz drinks until 10pm. So we headed that way since it wasn't too far out of our way home and we were both ready for a drink.
Before we even got in the door we could see that this was NOT going to be a fast trip. The parking lot was full, there were cars backed up from the drive-thru quite a ways and . . .

There were people lined up around the store until there was hardly room to enter. It took us about 45 minutes to get out drinks but what a time we had people-watching. Most were young kids in high school or college. There were only a few adults and a couple of younger children. But it was already after nine on a school night when we got there. Gaye saw a lady that she used to work with and spent some time talking to her, so she "won".
We finally got our drinks and they were wonderful. It was well worth the line time for the fun and the drink.
It was after 10 pm when we finally got home and I still had to run a job for work. Midnight - here I come! Another short night on the way. Guess I'll have to sleep fast.

A Day In The Life - 12/05/2010: Winkie Blinkie Lights

 

I got to help out at the Mesa Temple tonight. It was mostly directing traffic and wandering around to be available to assist people who had questions and to watch to be sure that people were not vandalizing, etc. It was very fun.

These are a couple of videos that will give you just a (very poor quality) taste of what the lights look like over there. Drive on over and take a look for yourself, if you have not yet been there.

A Day In The Life - 12/03/2010: The Gourd Is Finished!

 After the last gourd disaster, when I dropped my nearly completed gourd and a third of it broke, I almost took a siesta in the fine art of gourd making. But I just couldn't. After having done some things on the broken gourd that I was liking I had to do them again with a better, more coordinated format. This is the result. - Right side.

 Front.

 To the left of front.

The back side.

A Day In The Life - 12/02/2010: Of Red Carrots And Spiders

Ariel and Hero got to come over today while Paul went to work out with his Army group, making the attempt to get into some shape other than round before he has to report for classes and duty.
Ariel has become a tree climber. She finds a way up into the tree and then just climbs all over in the branches among the leaves. It is very fun to watch her just disappear among the leaves.

Meanwhile, Hero told me that she was a spider and wanted to be in her spider web. It took me a minute to understand that she was wanting to get into the hammock. And then she didn't want to be swung because she was afraid. But after awhile she became more comfortable. Then she needed a blanket and pillow so that she could sleep. Finally she had to have a little bit of swinging so that she could sing "Rock-A-Bye-Baby" as she rocked back and forth above the ground.

About the time that Hero grew tired of being a spider in her web her dad returned. I was out checking out the garden and pulled up a rather large red carrot. We took it into the house and washed it off in the kitchen sink and then handed it to Hero to admire how red it was. That kid was not phased by a red carrot at all. She just stuck that thing into her mouth and took a huge bite and then proceeded to eat almost all of that huge tuber. Well, there are more where that one came from.

A Day In The Life - 12/01/2010: Weird Lettuce

 I was out working in the garden today and admiring how well my winter crop was doing when I began to look more closely at how things were growing. You see, I had purchased seeds from a new nursery than usual and this nursery carries a variety of "different" vegetable plants. You know, round zucchini, red carrots and the like.

So I took a closer look at the lettuce. I had planted three different varieties. Two of them looked fairly "normal" as plants go. On seemed to sort of be head-shaped and the other was more like romaine - tall and leafy. But it was the third one shown to the left here that caught my attention.
As I started stripping some leaves off to bring in for salad I noticed that this set of plants were almost like vines. Weird!

A Day In The Life - 11/27/2010: Tubac and Back

Friday was the rush to by everything in the stores. It was quite entertaining since I was buying nothing and could sit back and watch the people scurrying from store to store trying to get all of the "great" deals of the day, which were nothing to brag about. I did break down and actually buy a magazine to read while the shopping was taking place.
Saturday we all took the tour down to Tubac, Arizona. Tubac is this little artsy-fartsy town that survives simply to provide items for the tourists.
So, while we were feeling all artsy, the shopping began. Gaye found this set of glasses that she loved so she got us new glasses for home. These glasses are clear with a red spiral of glass encircling the barrel.

We all ate lunch at this cool little restaurant back behind the scenes. The food was really good and we got to enjoy a moment to sit down together.
Then we had to view the art work of this one artist (Nick somebody) who paints these exquisite murals of desert animals that are so realistic you think they are three dimensional animals. We were told that he actually paints them with a brush that has only a single bristle so that each hair is painted separately.
Next, we hat to try out the rocking Aderondack chairs that were on display.

The next stop was about 4 miles further south on the same frontage road. The Santa Cruz Chili shop has all kinds of southwestern spices and spice mixes for making great sauces of every kind. They also have the tourist stuff too. We found a book for the grand kids that we just had to buy. It was a pop-up book of different animals but there is an animal sound track that goes with each page. It is a really cool book for kids.

The next stop was at Ben and Jenn's new home in Sahuarita, about 25 miles south of Tucson. They have been there almost a year but most of the extended family had never been there so it was a great opportunity to make the stop.

Jennie went off with Ben's family for a while to take family pictures for them. Ben took me over to the neighbor's to show me his shelves that they had done. He has this cool three-wheeled car that he built from the back end of a BMW1200 and the front wheel assembly of an old Mustang. He hand-crafted the body for this oddity from foam and fiberglass. And while this was going on, Ben abandoned me! He just left me to actually make conversation by myself! So I got all of the details about this car, and about the air plane that he built and another car that he made and some of the problems that he had with fuel lines and brakes and air plane crashes. It is a good thing that it was interesting stuff or it would be pay back time in a huge way.

Jennie was not about to miss the fun in the kids castle in the play room. It is a good thing that Ben built it for lots of kids. I think that she was probably encouraged by Emma to come and play.
After leaving Ben's we went to see the new Harry Potter movie with Ben, Jenn, Jennie, Kyle and Q. The kids went to the play area at the theater and Gaylen, Dena, Dawn, Bo, Kathy and Audrey left a bit earlier and went to have dinner. After the movie, Q headed back to Mesa and we went back to the hotel.
Sunday was spent at a little arts market at the west side of Reid Park. It was very fun to see all of the things that people were selling. Some were very original (at least to me) and extremely detailed and professional such as the guy who painted coins from all over the world to high-light the embossing that was already there, of the guy who made bird houses and feeders entwined in thick grapevines. There were also quite a few who made items that were less intricate and many who just did not seem to draw the traffic for a variety of reasons. But it was a very fun way to spend the morning before everyone headed off the scattered destinations that we each call home.
Goodbyes were hard, even though we expect to gather again at Christmas time. Gayle was missed at every turn. He was such a center of this holiday time that I think that his passing was especially hard for each of us.

A Day In The Life - 11/25/2010: Turkey Assasination Day

 I love Thanksgiving! It is the entry way to the holiday season and everything that goes with it. The shopping. The hustle and bustle. The really good food. But most of all, the best people in the world - family and great friends. The meal is always outside. We are fortunate enough here in southern Arizona to have great weather for Thanksgiving, if a bit on the chilly side in the shade.

 Gaye and Jenn are enjoying some good conversation when I caught them in this Kodak moment.

 Drew and Audrey are discussing something onthe computer as their great moment in blog history came to call.
My only regret is that I can't spend all the time I would like to with all of the people that I would love to talk with and still take pictures. So I snap a few here and there and the rest will have to be in memory and relationships.

 After dinner the family went to Fort Lowell park for some pictures since Drew and Paul will shortly be heading off to the military and we may not be gathered together again for some time.

Ben is wearing the hat the Noah wore in his school play. Noah was a drum stick. So we were all enjoying it during the photo shoot while the kids played on the toys.

Gaye is demonstrating that she can (almost) keep up with the third-graders that she teaches. She must be youthening. I hope she doesn't pull something that won't grow back!

A Day In The Life - 11/24/2010: Of Doors And Water Closets

Ah, yes. There is nothing in the fall like the smell of a fresh coat of paint. Actually, I prefer a variety of paint sources. You begin with a gallon of your favorite flavor. Ours was avocado or one of it's lighter-colored cousins. Mmmmm . . . smell the aroma. You can almost see the rollers rolling and the brushes "side side, no up down." The blue tape surrounding everything is just the perfect final touch to a perfectly painted room. (I think I'm feeling a little light headed from the fumes.)

Then it is on to the door. On this one Gaye and I had a difference of opinion. She thought I should take the door off. I had primered it while still hanging-why should I need to remove it to spray paint it?
It was her turn to win so I took the door off. (Do you know how hard it is to keep two cats and a dog in the house when there is no front door?) So it was everybody out to the back yard. Of course, the cats immediately went over the wall. I wasn't being too successful as the warden of this furry little prison. But I still had the dog in leg irons.

I laid the door on the saw horses popped the top on a can of hammered bronze and started to spray. And then it happened! It started spattering - spraying blobs of paint on my nicely sanded door. And then I noticed that paint was dripping off of the end of my spray finger. Oops. Good thing that I had my hand-spandex on. You know, those stretchy plastic gloves that the doctors wear. So, I shook the paint off of my finger and tried to get my finger out of the way of the flying paint. It all went well after I got the spots sanded down and re-painted.
And I still think I could have done it still hanging.

A Day In The Life - 11/23/2010: We Will Settle This - At The Movies

Drew was in town for Thanksgiving and before he runs off to the Air Force. He stopped by for a visit and we spend a couple of hours catching up on stuff and enjoying each others company. Then Quentin arrived (from up stairs) and the puck and paddle dueling was on. First Drew whupped me and then he laid in to Q. Then we find out that this is how Drew and Beth settle their arguments! What a cool way to settle all those things that don't really matter but somehow are important to us at the time.

In the evening Gaye decided that we should go for a bite and a flick. So we headed off to Temple Marketplace and caught a sandwich at the Great Steak sandwich shop. The sandwiches were really good except they only had about half the meat they should have had. Sad.
Then around the corner to the movies. This time we saw Fair Game, the story of a woman who was a CIA field agent whose husband exposes the Bush administration for its error in invading Iraq (no nuclear weapons) and so they retaliate against his wife, exposing her as a CIA agent and defaming them. The movie is about how they handle the situation. It was pretty good although not my favorite genre.

A Day In The Life - 11/22/2010: A Day Of Ease And Friendship

 A day of ease. It began about 6:00 am when the alarm began buzz, buzz, buzzing. A day off from work is not all that it is cracked up to be sometimes. I still get to kick off a bunch of jobs to run each morning and another one each evening. But that is so trivial I just can;t push it off on someone else at work unless I am really out of touch, meaning on the road and no connectivity. So I was up early, read and cleaned up my email, drove Gaye to work, stopped by Home Depot to get some painting supplies, worked on this blog, worked in the shed on another gourd project, worked in the garden (got a white carrot and four peas this morning), dug some more on my tree holes, read an ebook watched an hour of TV while I ate lunch and took a really long look at the things that were on Gaye's to-do list. That last one wore me out. So I went and picked up Gaye from school, picked up my bike from the shop (at no cost - love that life-time warranty), worked some more on my latest gourd project and ate dinner.

 Gaye was out running some errands when an amazing thing happened. The door bell rang. That seldom happens at our house. Our friends and family know that you just walk in, or if you are timid, you knock and walk in. Unless you are a sales man or the UPS guy, you don't ring the door bell. But sometimes we have trouble training some people. So when Delta, the dog, and I answered the door, both of us ready to attack, there was not a uniform or magazine to be attacked. It was the Reeds. OK, it was 2/3s of the Reeds. Haley and Whitney were there with Daryn and Doug and two packages in hand.

What a surprise! They had made us some of their most delicious cookies to eat (the sweetness of the season) and then, in the wonderful green (one of my favorite colors) bag, sticks of cinnamon (the aromas). It smelled so heavenly. I immediately wanted some hot cider to dip one of those sticks in. But I don't think that the cookies will last long enough for that to happen. I see some desperate bike riding in my future. Yum.
I am off to work on a bathroom painting and then to a new book. I think that the end of this day will be very late.

A Day In The Life - 11/21/2010: Hawk Song

I finally finished the book Hawk Song by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes. It was recommended to me by Paige Richardson. It is a great fantasy book about the struggles between a people who are part bird and a people who are part snake and how to reconcile the great differences of their cultures in order to stop the war that has been going on for generations. The ending is a little bit wild. And I hear that there may be a sequel to it out there. Thanks Paige. Well worth the read.

A Day In The Life - 11/20/2010: Greely Wedding Reception

 Saturday morning. Our ward has the assignment to clean the church building this month. So several of us converge on the building at 10:00 am. Hey! It is a Young Single Adult ward. Nobody gets up before 9:48 for anything. And we older folks have all of our chores done, all of our errands run and are about ready for a break by 10. No wonder old people are drifting off to sleep at 8pm.

But I digress. As we started the rounds of cleaning we were pleasantly surprised to find that a wedding was scheduled in the building. That meant that we did not need to clean all of the building. And not only that, because we had Stake Conference last week, the building had not been used the previous week except for mid-week youth activities. So the cleaning for the morning was a breeze.
So, while I was there, realizing that this was the Greeley reception, I caught a "before" picture, or 20, while it was pristine. If something got messed up, it wasn't me. And that's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

And the reception was wonderful. The groom's family is from Boise and knows some Vaterlai up that way. Now how cool is that!? Jennifer was looking tired, which was not a good thing because we were there right at the beginning. I know that it had already been a long day for everyone involved. Thomas was there - at least his cardboard cutout was looking really good at one of the tables. And we got to visit with a few of our favorite people there. This was a really great day!

A Day In The Life - 11/19/2010: Got Myself Into A Hole

 Actually, I have gotten myself into three holes. You see, back around Veteran's day I was out wandering around at Moon Valley Nursery on Arizona Avenue just south of the 202 checking out what kind of shape their mesquites were in. I mentioned that I was interested in getting three of them and he told me that they had a sale on - three of the 15-gallon critters for just $299. Well, I just told him that wouldn't do it. I could get them for $40 apiece down the street. Well, he wasn't to be had by his competitors so he just challenged me with, "I will price match that." and that was how I got three trees. And the best part is that they will hold them up to several months while I dig the holes for them. I had guys do the digging before and they make a hole barely the size of the bucket in the hard soil of Arizona, leaving no place for the roots to establish themselves before having to dig their way into that stuff. So I am doing the grunt labor a bit each day. You can see two holes in this photo of the west side of the yard - one in the foreground and the other down at the other end of the yard.

And to treat ourselves after such hard work, Gaye and I went to a movie. This one, named RED (Retired - Extremely Dangerous) was a hoot! It was a funny show about these retired CIA guys who are put on somebody's hit list. Perhaps it is funny because these guys could be my parents. Or maybe it is because these are guys who have been big names in Hollywood and are getting on the gray side. Like Morgan Freeman, Richard Dreyfus, Bruce Willis and a few others.
Anyway, I recommend it, whatever that is worth.

A Day In The Life - 11/18/2010: A Hawk At My House

I have been working at home for the month of November to see how I would like to be a full time at home worker. My office desk is next to the window upstairs and so I often have the curtains open so that I can spy on the neighbors - I mean, so I can enjoy the morning breezes and the sunrise.
As I was enjoying these trivial pleasures, I saw the birds in the neighborhood running for their little lives, feet churning, diving under bushes, rafters or anything else that would offer some cover. That is when I saw it. A dinky little guy all muscular and looking for everything like he owned the place as far as he could see. I love it. It is about time we got someone in to clear out the bird riff-raff. They do get rid of the pigeons and other scavenger birds. The mocking birds have also cleared out. I did notice that the woodpeckers seem to have less respect for this carnivore of the air. But he still got the pole to himself.
And coincidence being what it is, I have just started reading the book Hawk Song, recommended by Paige Richardson. I'll let you know how it is when I finish it.

A Day In The Life - 11/17/2010: A Project Crash and Burn

 It seems like years ago that I started a three-gourd project consisting of one large gourd and two smaller ones carved and burned with matching patterns. Then my ADHD (Attention Defecit in High Def) took over and went wild from Anasazi baskets to picnic basket weaves to Faeries. Yes, I said faeries! But I have finally found a way that I thought I could merge them all into a combination that made some sort of sense. So I finished the small ones with some clear polyurethane. Except that it didn't come out clear. It was a horrible yellow! So i went out and removed the finish and was ready to do a coat of something that was truly clear.

It was looking good. And then it happened - I dropped the dang slippery thing. It just kind of squirted out of my hand, shooting down onto the wooden floor of the work shop . . . and cracked! Broke the back of my gourd. Disaster!
Oh, well. Easy come, easy go. I am onto another gourd project. More faeries and less basket. Actually, no basket. Now that I have had time to really think about how I want to do this set I can start again and make them better. A painful blessing in disguise. But a hint - the new ones are coming along much faster and better now that I know what I really want in these.

A Day In The Life - 11/16/2010: The Money Tree

Who said, "Money doesn't grow on trees"? Oh, yeah. I did. But I blame that on my parents who reinforced that thought regularly through out my early life. And now I find that we were completely wrong. You just have to know where to look, be a little creative and have a partner who is just as creatively devious as you are.
So when Gaye suggested that we make a money tree for a birthday gift I was hesitant but game to see what she had up her sleeves.
She immediately got on the internet and looked up dollar origami. Who would have thought. Hearts were two hard. Hearts that held quarters where worse. We finally settle on a set of instructions for making butterflies which I sort of understand. I really needed a video but I kind of got the idea and we started making dollars into butterflies.
We clipped a couple of branches from one of the trees, grabbed a plastic pot, put in some foam to poke the "tree" into, and red "grass" to top everything off. A bow around the pot and it was ready for the hard part.

The last part of the job was to hang all of those green butterflies from the branches of the tree.
It actually turned out pretty cool. The video shows it in action with a little breeze. But I think that the butterflies were getting angry from being tied down. At least I think that was growling at the end of the video.

A Day In The Life - 11/14/2010: The Broken Bike

It is Saturday. I have some training meetings at the church four miles away and no car. Gaye is out getting her hair done and running errands. But I do have a bicycle that I have not used nearly enough lately. So I hopped on the bike and headed off to my meeting, arriving in plenty of time. Gaye joins me for the second meeting and brought the bike rack. But it is such a short ride I insisted on riding home also. About a mile from the church disaster strikes. The chain comes off of the derailer and jams between the derailer and the frame. And it is dark. I can't really see what has happened. Oh, yes - I am in a white shirt and tie. So I am not looking to get grease all over my hands and clothes as well. Just then, Gaye drives by and seeing this guy stuck on the side of the rode, she pulls over. I toss the bike into the trunk and we are off. Now to get the bike over to the shop for cable adjustment. Fun.

A Day In The Life - 11/04/2010: Aliens Invade the Garden

This year I decided to once again attempt to grow something that I couldn't see. Yup. These things grow under the ground where you can't see how big they are. You never can quite tell if they are "done" yet.
Not only did I plant carrots, I chose a variety pack of seeds which contained multi-colored varieties.
In order to determine how far along the multi-colored carrots were, I determined that it was about time to thin the rows. I always plant a couple of seeds in every hole. you know - one for me, one for the birds and bugs. But when too many survive you just have to get real gutsy and yank out a few.
So, killing two stones with one bird, I pulled a few carrots to see how Mary's garden grows. As all can see, these are very colorful (yellow, red and orange) and still very small. I can't wait to get the real thing.