Today Ed went to the top of Tumamoc with Kim and a few of her friends. I sat this one out. Here's a 360 degree panorama of his view. Enlarge it to see what he saw.
He said it was steep. I would have never made it. The hill rises 750 feet in 1.5 miles. To put that in perspective for my fellow truckers, this hill would require a 9.4% grade sign. The sign below says, "Tumamoc Hill is an 860-acre conservation site that provides an outdoor, natural laboratory for education and advanced research in ecology and archaeology. Since 1903, Tumamoc Hill has been providing decades of environmental information available nowhere else. It often leads the world with innovative research projects in basic ecology, in conservation, and on plants such as saguaro and desert wildflowers. In recognition of its history and success, Tumamoc Hill has been officially designated a United States National Historic Landmark, a United States Archaeological District, and an Arizona Environmental Study Area."
He said he enjoyed the hike and hopes to do it again. Just like he's proud of my one-mile walks on flat ground, I'm proud of him tackling the horned lizard.
I heard this song on American Idol last night. I didn't know it but I love it. It's going on my playlist immediately and will accompany me on my next walk!
Rather Be (feat. Jess Glynne)
by Clean Bandit
Oh
We're a thousand miles from comfort, we have traveled land and sea
But as long as you are with me, there's no place I'd rather be
I would wait forever, exalted in the scene
As long as I am with you, my heart continues to beat
With every step we take, Kyoto to The Bay
Strolling so casually
We're different and the same, gave you another name
Switch up the batteries
If you gave me a chance I would take it
It's a shot in the dark but I'll make it
Know with all of your heart, you can't shame me
When I am with you, there's no place I'd rather be
N-n-n-no, no, no, no place I'd rather be
N-n-n-no, no, no, no place I'd rather be
N-n-n-no, no, no, no place I'd rather be
Ooh ooh
We staked out on a mission to find our inner peace
Make it everlasting so nothing's incomplete
It's easy being with you, sacred simplicity
As long as we're together, there's no place I'd rather be
With every step we take, Kyoto to The Bay
Strolling so casually
We're different and the same, gave you another name
Switch up the batteries
If you gave me a chance I would take it
It's a shot in the dark but I'll make it
Know with all of your heart, you can't shame me
When I am with you, there's no place I'd rather be
N-n-n-no, no, no, no place I'd rather be
N-n-n-no, no, no, no place I'd rather be
N-n-n-no, no, no, no place I'd rather be
When I am with you, there's no place I'd rather be (Yeah)
Hoo
(Be)
Yeah-e-yeah-e-yeah-e-yeah-e-yeah, yeah, yeah
If you gave me a chance I would take it
It's a shot in the dark but I'll make it
Know with all of your heart, you can't shame me
When I am with you, there's no place I'd rather be
N-n-n-no, no, no, no place I'd rather be
N-n-n-no, no, no, no place I'd rather be
N-n-n-no, no, no, no place I'd rather be
When I am with you, there's no place I'd rather be
This morning I cranked out another walk with Ed and my friend Kim. A good portion of the trail runs along the Cañada del Oro wash, which when it rains turns from what's generally a dry river bed all year long, into a raging river. There was no water today. The sun was shining and the air was cold. Perfect walking weather for me.
I've never been on this trail before. Shocker. Kim has walked it and Ed has biked it. Part of it is used for horses so we had to wade through a lot of deep sand - easy on horse hooves, not so great for me. It was like walking on deep beach sand and I had to empty my shoes when we got to the end of that section. I wasn't too happy about that.
Oh, and there's also a hill. It doesn't look like a hill because it's so gradual, but I felt it. If I'm going to do this hateful exercise thing, I need to start out on land that's Kansas flat. Baby steps. I think tomorrow I may try an indoor walk with Leslie Sansone and then do another outdoor thing with Kim on Saturday.
I have to get as many walks in as I can while I'm home because when we go back on the road, I'm going to have to be used to this shit.
I like simple, usually cold breakfasts - cottage cheese and fruit or yogurt and fruit. That's it. Occasionally I'll do oatmeal but I really don't like to get up in the morning and cook, and I really don't like eating a big meal in the morning.
The only exception is when someone else is cooking - and usually that means a place where I can get French toast or a Belgian waffle since those are two things I never make.
Ed, on the other hand, likes a big, hearty breakfast. And he'll eat almost anything you put in front of him - pancakes, quiche, waffles, frittata, biscuits and gravy, steak and eggs, breakfast burrito, anything. He even ate pickled fish for breakfast when he was in Norway.
So while I'm scooping out yogurt and cutting up strawberries, he's whipping up cheesy omelettes with salsa and avocado, crispy bacon (he always makes two pieces for me), and a side of Dave's Killer Bread, toasted.
I crank out some pretty delicious meals from midday on, but Ed is your man if you want to start your day with something substantial and delicious.
And you can place your order by just pointing at the photo above.
We went shopping today for furniture. We started out at Bassett, which is going out of business after being in town for over 10 years, so we wanted to see what they had left. After Bassett, we hit Sam Levitz. They have so much stuff. Lots of nice things, really pretty living room groupings, dining sets, accessories. I saw a sectional couch I wanted to live in.
My mother bought a new bedroom set which gets delivered this weekend. She's beyond excited.
Our friends came to visit us this weekend and while they were here we walked the property - Ed was showing them the points the surveyor marked - and took some pictures. This is one of mine, looking at the house from the east side of the property.
Out here we have what's called "natural desert landscape". I think it's kinda hideous. Brown, brownish-green, green, greenish-gray, gray, grayish brown. Every once in a while you'll see purple, and in the spring there are flowers, but it's still essentially blah.
There are lots of companies that do beautiful landscape designs. Some use the natural desert as you see it here, just a lot neater and usually incorporating decorative rock into the layout, and others do more greenery, maybe patches of grassy areas, and colorful flowers.
At one time we had lemon, grapefruit, and pomegranate trees in our backyard, and the front yard hadn't been washed away by heavy rains like we had two years ago and then again just recently. We're considering in the next year doing some work to the yard and making it a little more appealing.
When that eventually happens, I'll be glad to have some photos to look back on.
Carbonated Water: Fizzy water, created by dissolving carbon dioxide gas under pressure into regular 'ol water.
Caramel Color: Water-soluble food coloring found in everything from bread to soft drinks, beer to barbecue sauce, potato chips to cough syrup. It's in a lot of stuff.
Aspartame: An artificial sweetener 200 times sweeter than sugar. Some people believe aspartame causes cancer. I'm not one of them.
Phosphoric Acid: A clear, colorless, odorless liquid with a syrupy consistency that gives colas their tangy flavor. It's also commonly used for rust removal. But, a consumer watchdog group found that "only a small fraction of the phosphate in the American diet comes from additives in soft drinks. Most come from meat and dairy products."
Potassium Benzoate: A food preservative found in fruit juice, sparkling drinks, pickles, salad dressings, syrups, jams, olives, etc. It's also what gives many fireworks their "whistle".
Natural Flavors: Nobody knows what the hell this really means anymore.
Citric Acid: A weak organic acid naturally found in citrus fruits - oranges, grapefruits, lemons, limes - that's a natural preservative and also used to add a sour taste to foods and soft drinks.
Those seven ingredients, combined, make pure evil.
OK, really, it's just what they put in Caffeine Free Diet Coke.
The very same Diet Coke I've been drinking, even though I swore off of it a little over two weeks ago.
I have to confess - I've failed miserably in the Diet Coke department. I fell off the wagon a bit in other areas too - some sugar and my favorite General Foods International drink - but I did make some improvements.
I walked. Only three times, but about a mile each time. And I'm doing more this week.
I didn't have any Dunkin' Donuts, Starbucks, cheese danishes, or white rice. I said no to dessert more times than not, and ordered a few salads when dining out. Shit, dining out is a killer because I like SO MANY things!
I did very well eating breakfast - which isn't hard because it's the easiest meal for me to tackle- did pretty decent with portion sizes, and I didn't post one kale recipe.
My friends came to visit and I made some really delicious meals. Chicken with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Black Olives, Brown Rice, and Roasted Brussels Sprouts (which were amaaaazing!). Another night I made Flounder stuff with Crabmeat and Shrimp, a Quinoa and Five Grain blend, and Roasted Green Beans. And the last night, spaghetti (for Marlaina), but also what I thought was a kick-ass Spinach Lasagna. Although I did go a little overboard on the Artisan breads from Sprouts.
On the upside, since September 30, I have lost 16 pounds. You'd never know it by looking, but that's what the scale told me. And I had my friend Marlaina calibrate it while she was here. She knows her weight to the ounce and confirmed its accuracy. On her, a 16-pound loss would turn her into a waif, on me, the difference is as visible as a waif-er. But it's still gone.
So, that's really it. Just wanted to check in, tell you I'm still working on it, thank you for the support and encouragement via emails and comments, and to let you know I'm still continuing on.
I'm not completely convinced it's going to get easier, but I suspect it will.
Those are not specks on your screen. Those nine black dots that you're currently trying to scrape off your screen with a fingernail, are skydivers.
Yes, skydivers. People who jump out of planes. On purpose and supposedly for fun.
We picked up our friends Marlaina and MacG at the T/A in Eloy today. They're spending the weekend with us. Our first stop was lunch and since it's Eloy - which is basically consists of dirt, cotton, and correction centers - our choices were limited.
When we arrived we saw planes circling and skydivers falling from the sky. Lots of them - at one point, we counted 20 divers in the sky.
We all ordered the Bent Prop burger - not bad, served with a giant slice of green chile - and scarfed down our meals since all four of us were on the edge of starving.
There were only a few customers in the bar area, more in the main dining area, and several sitting outside dining and watching skydivers hit the dirt.
The quiet of the building interior belied the crowd just outside the doors. People sitting on the back patio of the salon, wandering the grounds, and in their own lawn chairs just in front of the landing area.
It was definitely a good call since lunch came with a show. After watching a few jumps - and one guy fall to the earth without a parachute (we were told he was okay) - we headed back to the house.
I've never seen skydivers this closely. The divers seemed pretty young (and fit!) and seemed experienced, if their landings were any indication. I only saw one guy come in and land on his ass.
There were also quite a few guys in camo since they also do military jump training at this location.
Skydive Arizona bills itself as the "world's largest skydiving center" since they average 135,000 dives per year.
There's a chance of death involved - a guy just died in a jump a few days ago, and another one on New Year's Eve - so it's not anything I would ever do, but all in all, it was an interesting find.
Vejigantes Taino - Puerto Rico collage by Galina Victoria (2013)
My mother recently went to see the new apartment of one of her lady friends. While there, she dispensed with decorating ideas. My mother has what one might call an artist's eye, which can mean two things - she sees shades of colors that the untrained eye doesn't and has a keen sense of what looks good together, or everything in the place is so colorful it looks like a Puerto Rican decorated. The day after her visit, she was so achy she couldn't move. She did too much. And she and her friend fell while moving a rug. She's 73 years old and doesn't need to be moving furniture.
Which brings me to the conversation we had a few months ago about her desire to purchase a gun so she could defend herself.
When she recently brought it up again - because she heard some news story that involved self-defense - I had to, pardon the pun, shoot her down.
"See? That's why I need a gun." she said, "In case that happens to me."
"Mom, please. First, it's unlikely anything like that is going to happen to you. And second, you can't even move an area rug without falling over. What makes you think you can wield a gun??"
So if you see a chubby little Italian lady in a super-bright, colorful muumuu coming at you...
Run - because she might be packing - or distract her by asking for help to move your furniture.
Ed and I are always watching HGTV, looking for houses, and talking about home design. OK, maybe that last one is just me, but we do indulge in the other two as a couple.
I have several websites and blogs I like to browse for ideas. These are my current five favorites.
Houzz - This one pretty much covers everything and it's my top site.
Wayfair - if you haven't seen their commercials, you probably live in a cave with no TV.
Dear Lillie - This is a new one I found and I love it.
We had javelinas outside the door again. We heard them banging on the window, where the bird-feeders are. They were eating the old bread we put out and sucking up the wild bird seed. There were three of them - the same ones that always come around - Papa, Mama, Baby. Not that I recognize them, but they're always together and they range in size from small, medium, large. I cracked the door to take pictures and was wondering why they kept moving closer to me. They never do that, they're usually afraid. The smallest one kept yawning, showing teeth that looked ready to shred.
I was getting a little nervous with them getting closer because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to hold the camera steady and hold the door if they charged me and tried to get at me. Or get in.
I still didn't know why they were creeping closer. Until something moved at my feet.
It was the cat! She was inching out the door, curious. Holy crap! She had no idea the imminent danger.
Peccaries - known in these parts as javelinas - are omnivores.
And they eat small animals.
I didn't see Maezy baring any of her teeth during this face-off.
She has since made it into her dining room. Because the living room is longer than it is wide, it created sort of a weird space to create seating and she wanted something cozier.
The dining room table is so big in the smaller space, she thought switching the rooms would give her the cozy seating area she wanted, and the larger space she needed to extend the dining room table for family functions or lunches with her friends.
But because the living room had carpet, the chairs were impossible to move easily. And it was even more difficult for her friends, most of whom are in their seventies. So she decided to remove the carpet and have my brother and Ed tile the entire room, which they finished last week.
Maezy was stalking birds on the porch. When I first saw her, she had both front paws up on the screen, spread out like she was going to scoop them up in her paws. As they flew by she tried to move to follow their movement.
Her claw got stuck. I watched her for a few moments thinking she'd get herself loose but she didn't seem able to get unstuck.
I opened to door to help her and just as I stepped on the porch, she got her claw unstuck and bolted across my feet. The bird never came back.
This is the interior of Bix Furniture Refinishing on 4th Avenue in Tucson, Arizona. It was a very messy, but kind of cool store. I've passed this store for years and never even knew it was occupied. The front windows are covered in cobwebs, old dusty furniture stacked inside. It looked like a place forgotten. I had no idea it was actually open for business.
Ed and I visited her to get information on refinishing an old, dark stained dining table of my mother's into a beautiful, white, French country farmhouse-y dining table. The table is over 50 years old and made so well, it's worth preserving and restoring rather than buying something new.
The owner of the store - the one seated in the photo - was an interesting guy with a very eclectic style and some really good ideas. I'm thinking this is going to be a great option once a decision is made.
Ed has been so relaxed while home that today when we went out, he wore his slippers.
To lunch, to my doctor's appointment, to shopping on 4th Avenue, to run errands.
It was not intentional.
I didn't notice until we were walking into the restaurant and I heard this soft swishing noise. I turned to see where it was coming from. The noise led me to look at Ed's feet. He was wearing slippers!
I said, "Baby, you're wearing your slippers."
He said, "Oh, shit." and we just looked at each other and laughed. We were halfway to the door of the restaurant and too far from the house to go back, so we just shrugged and kept going. Was anyone really going to notice?
