I think I will bury my head in the sand for 2009

Tucson

ARG! ARRRGGGG! It is gonna' be one of those years. I can tell it! First off, my brother dies, now this! We had one big shock this morning. I opened an email from our doctor's office, and it informed us that our doctor had died on Friday from an unknown medical condition. ULP! We are both in shock. We loved our doctor here, we trusted him and truly liked him as a person. He was undoubtedly one of the most caring, concerned doctors we had ever come across. When my brother was sick Dr. Doner would call me in the evening to see how Dick was doing. He did the same thing when Al was sick. He was always counseling me to take care of myself so I could take care of Dick and Al. He was always genuinely concerned and he CARED. CRAP! Now we are going to have to go through the agony of finding another doctor and there will never be one that can replace Dr. Doner. So, Dr. Randall E. Doner, rest in peace, your work here is done...we will really miss you,. Now, Dr. Paplow, our doc in Seattle, make sure you take care of yourself...we are counting on you!

On a brighter note, Mike and Bev were here for the last 4 days and we had a blast with them here. Mike and Dad just kinda' did their own thing; grocery shopping, wandering around, etc. while Bev and I did our quilting thing. On Thursday I had a quilting class and Bev went with me. After class we went to In n Out Burger for lunch as she had never had an In n Out (sorry Mel). We hit another Quilt Shop on our way home. Bev was determined to introduce me to all the Quilt Shops in Tucson. I have been stuck on Catalina Quilting since I got here....I know all the people who work there, know the owner and it is just like "home" for me, but Bev was determined I was going to spread my wings. Thursday night we had the Hubbells, Voss's over for dinner...as well as Al's cousins Neil and Bobbi were here. Neil and Bobbi came in on Monday and parked their 5th wheel up here for a few days and we are always glad to see them.

Friday was Tombstone day. We spent the day in Tombstone, looking around. It has been a couple of years since Al and I had been there so we enjoyed it as well. Friday night we took Mike and Bev to our favorite steak house, "Lil Abner's" for dinner. The food there never fails to be excellent. Sufficently stuffed, we came home and collapsed.

Yesterday Bev and I set out to go to all the other quilt shops in Tucson that we hadn't been to. What a blast. I still prefer my HOME shop, but the others had some intersting things as well. Last night we had Gary, Jeannette, their daughter Kali and husband Scott and JOSH, their 18 month old son here for dinner, along with Bruce. Holly was not feeling well and didn't come and Cortney had to work.



Since Mike and Bev left this morning Al and I are sitting here looking at each other saying "now what?"....this week is a fairly calm week -- at least the calendar says so, we shall see how it ends.

So until next time....be happy and live each day to the fullest, for tomorrow may not come!

Where have I been?

Tucson
Oh my...it's been way to long since I posted a blog. I don't know if I can remember what all I have done in the last 12 days!!! You know, I am getting old (Shut Up Jennifer!)

Let's see...um...oh yeah. On Feb. 5 Jerry, Al and I headed to the Grand Canyon for 3 days. We stayed at the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel in Williams and rode the Grand Canyon train the next day to the canyon. IT WAS FREAKIN' COLD! There was this white, stiff, crusty, icy stuff on the ground (thankfully not on the roads) almost every where!!! BRRRRR. And the wind -- oh my did it ever blow, making it more cold! However, we managed to have a good time. Al and I have been to the canyon several times, but it never fails to amaze and awe us! What a big hole! Jerry at the Grand Canyon

This time I bought a book "Death in the Grand Canyon" which amazes me how stupid people are when they visit the canyon. Yes, it is a long way down and people do die when they either 1.) fall off or 2.) jump off! The ground is hard people!

Anyway, after leaving Williams on Saturday we drove up to Flagstaff and then through Oak Creek Canyon to Sedona, which is always a beautiful drive. While in Sedona I called my cousin Beverly and she met us for lunch. I always try to hook up with her when I am in the area. After a short visit we headed south to Jerome, an old mining town that is just unique! Jerry spent 2+ hours wroamin' around Jerome while AL and I stayed in the car (again, it was too cold and the wind was blowing a gale, as usual). After leaving Jerome we drove into Prescott, where I decided we were going to stay for the night (I was tired and didn't want to drive in the dark.) The next morning we awoke to that damn white, fluffy, cold stuff blanketing everything out side! GRRR...fortunately, it wasn't sticking to the ground yet to we made a dash out of Prescott, getting back to Tucson around 4:30 p.m. Dogs, very glad to see us, as were the cats, however, I know they had been well taken care of as nephew Bruce took them while we were gone and they were spoiled even rottener, if that is possible!

Monday was day long doctor appointments for Al. He is doing well, thank you for asking. Tuesday we awoke to that damn white, fluffy, cold stuff covering everything outside! WTH???? GO AWAY! However, it didn't stop me from quilting. I made a baby quilt for Bruce's God-Granddaughter that he wanted to take to her for her first birthday. IT was a fun quilt to make, I included pictures of the baby on it.





Both Jerry and Bruce left yesterday....boy is it ever quiet around here. Even the dogs are moping around today! After we dropped them off at the Phoenix airport I had a surprise for Al. For his valentines day gift I took him on a trip up to Canyon Lake, Apache Lake and then over to Roosevelt Lake. We took state hwy 88 up to Canyon Lake and then continued on ... over a dirt "Trail" that was the state highway, 22 miles of dirt road, of which, I was NOT expecting to Apache Lake. A very pretty drive, however, a bit harrowing at times when I just had 6-8 inches of clearance on each side of the car and NO GUARD RAILS! Then we continued on to Roosevelt Lake and into Globe. Arizona is such a pretty and diverse state, I love to explore it. From Globe we took Hwy 60 back to Florence Jct, which was another very pretty trip and then home. I was so tired that I went to bed at 6:45 last night and slept until 8:30 this morning! I think the past month caught up with me.

At any rate, we are sitting enjoying today, which is sunny, not especially warm, but nice. Mike and Bev come in on Wednesday and the whirlwind begins again. Our plans are Bev and I taking a quilting class on Thursday, Tombstone on Friday, play on Saturday and then they leave on Sunday!!! Way too short a time! Oh well, we are just happy to have them.

We miss Bruce and Jerry....and the house that I was renting to Dick is sitting idle right now. I haven't made up my mind what to do with it. I will probably use it as a snowbird rental for a while; then when the time is right, sell it. We shall see.

Happy Valentines Day everyone!

Where there is smoke there is Jo?

Tucson
Ugh...what a day I have had! Especially in the kitchen. My kitchen and I are not on speaking terms right now! First of all I have dropped just about everything I have picked up today...and of course it lands with a thud, splat on the kitchen floor. Okay, so I am having a klutzy day...I can live with that. But then things got serious. My friend Jude had made some muffins a few days ago and shared some with us...and they were soooooo good, so of course I asked for the recipe. So today I decided to bake some...of course, having a klutzy day I spilled the flour, dropped an egg, etc. FInally got everything in the bowl that I needed and mixed them up, into the muffin tins and into the oven. About 15 minutes later I say to myself, "Whats that smell, smells like burnt toast"...oh crap, muffins! Yup, they were a little burnt...then I discovered I had set the oven to 450 instead of 350! So I adjusted the heat and put the next batch in...and they didn't exactly turn out right either...they taste good, but I couldn't get them out of the %^&*# muffin pan. Shoulda' stopped there. Got out of the kitchen...and stayed out. But, oh no, I had to start dinner, which was relatively simple tonight...French Dip Sandwiches...all I had to do was heat the au jus and toast the bread. This is where the trouble began. I put the bread in the broiler to toast...and forgot all about it until black smoke began rolling out of my oven. OR CRAP! I pulled the bread out and dumped it in the sink and smoke filled, I mean FILLED the house...causing the smoke detector to go off...both of them. All the doors were already open and fans were going. Oh oh...here comes the Fire Department...roaring up the hill. Double Crap! Damn alarm system is monitored and it works! So I proceed to go out to "greet" the firemen, which, just my luck, were the same ones that came when my brother fell a few weeks ago. The one guy gets out of the truck and says..."Hey,I know you!" Bad sign folks when the firemen recognize you!!! I had to tell them that I had burnt the bread and there was really no fire for them to play with. Just me being totally mortified!!!!!!!!!!!!! AL and Jerry in the mean time are getting a big laugh out of this--HAHA~ Jerry said the oven probably will swear out a restraining order on me~ HAHAH...aren't they funny.


Some of you are probably asking "Who is Jerry?" Jerry is AL's middle son and he is here for a two week visit and we are really enjoying him. I think he is having a good time as well. He has already walked over the ridge to the next ridge, into our little town of Catalina and up and down our hills...he is a true mountain goat! ANd Beau is loving having him here...Schuster, not so much. For what ever reason, it takes Schuster a little while to warm up to Jerry, but I noticed tonight he was sitting next to Jerry getting petted...so all must be well. We will be going up to the Grand Canyon later this week for 3 days and all three of us are looking forward to the trip. If I can keep AL well long enough that is.

Super Bowl Sunday didn't turn out exactly like we had hoped. Oh our crowd at the house was fun...lots of yelling and cheering, we just didn't like the way the game ended. And no, we didn't get the porn show that some people in Tucson got at the end. Apparently Comcast had an "oops" here and for about 30 seconds some porn was shown instead of the game. And not a wardrobe malfunction either..I guess it was real hard core porn!

Our weather has been glorious...sunny and warm. Today it was 76...yesterday 74, Saturday 72, can you see a trend here? And I am lovin' it.

Okay, enough...my favorite show Medium is about to come on, so until next time.........