March-April, 2012: Winding up the winter stay

April 29, 2012

Peoria, AZ

So, where did the time go?  Who knows?  Since this happens to us every spring, I don’t worry about it much anymore.  The bottom line is that the Blog suffers from a lack of content (and attention) when we’re parked for the winter.  Life is much more worthy of comment when we’re on the road, it seems.

It’s definitely turned warmer over the past month.  We had our first 90° day on March 24th, and then a burst of 100°+ days in mid-April.  Whew!  Time to get on the road!

So, the last few weeks have been all about winding up our winter stay.  We’ve been eating off the freezer contents for a while now, knowing we’ll have much less space in the coach for bulk purchases.  We’ve been bringing quite a bit of the clothes and pantry items over to the storage area and have over half of the loading done early (with very few “why did we put that in the coach too soon” moments).  I managed to get the majority of the maintenance on the coach done: oil/oil filter/fuel filter changes for the engine and generator, furnace maintenance.  I’ve had it over to the house the past couple of days and managed to sanitize the water system, change all the water filters, and wash the exterior.

Now, we’re just about ready to hit the road.  We’re a little disappointed we won’t be seeing all the family and friends “back east” this summer, but we’re going to save some of the diesel fund and stay on the west coast.  We’ll end up in Vancouver and the Okanagan in British Columbia, and then head back down the coast, exploring some new areas and stopping at some of our favorites as well.

Back to “normal”, whatever that is...

March 11, 2012

Peoria, AZ

Late in the day yesterday, things turned windy.  Coupled with a brush fire about 45 miles away, we were treated to an interesting sky.  Nothing like the haboobs of the summer monsoon season, but interesting nonetheless.

Later in the week, things settled back into a “normal” groove.  Being retirees, we hit the grocery stores on Wednesday (first Wednesday of the month) to take advantage of the 10% “senior discount”.  We did pretty well for amateurs at this whole “thrifty” thing, once again making the freezer an exercise in the art of vacuum sealing and precise packing.  If we were more into the whole meal planning thing, we’d probably be able to shop once a month and save even more, but where’s the fun in that?

We do miss having the auxiliary freezer out in the garage.  It bit the dust over the summer, failing to cool at all when plugged in in November.  It went the way of all good things when the City had its “bulky waste pickup” in February.  We’ve held off on a replacement since we’ve made it this far through our visit here, but we’ll probably pull the trigger on a small standalone freezer as soon as we get back in the fall.

Thursday I baked bread and Friday, well, I baked bread.  The former was a bread machine batch and the latter a large amount of ciabatta.  I put up the ciabatta starter last week, so it was ready to go.  It takes pretty much all day to create ciabatta with the initial mixing, first and second rises, and eventually the baking, but it’s well worth it.  The dough recipe is enough for two large loaves and about a dozen rolls.  Mmmm...

Friday was also “test kitchen day”.  I tried a new recipe for Lamb Bolognese, plus took a shot at making fresh pasta from scratch.  The sauce came out reasonably well, although we’ll probably doctor it up a bit the next time around, adding more tomato product and less of a “pinch” of pepper flakes.  The pasta required a little experimentation to get the semolina-all purpose ratio right, adjust for the dry climate here, and get the kneading down.  I’m a little worried about the Kitchen-Aid mixer, since it didn’t knead well, but I gotta say that the pasta roller is the bomb!  I made some tagliatelle, linguine, and fettuccine.  Some needed to be rolled thinner, but the pups didn’t seem to mind.

Yesterday was Geri’s turn in the kitchen.  Yes, we have enough experience to know that our kitchen is only large enough for one cook at a time.  It’s not that we bother each other; it’s just designed for one.  I spent the afternoon over at the coach, puttering around a bit and fine-tuning my list of “things to do before we hit the road”.

Anyway, she made a recipe she found online (as opposed to TV’s Food Network or Cooking Channel for a change) for Taco Pizza.  We have several recipes that substitute “Mexican” ingredients in traditional formats (Lasagna, Shepard’s Pie), and this was no different.  In reviewing it later, we concluded that it was designed for rookie cooks, though, substituting store-bought rolls flattened out in place of real pizza dough.  Since she’s the queen of homemade pizza, we’ll try it again with “real” dough.  It did go quite nicely with a pitcher of “George-a-ritas”, though.

Today, we relaxed for the most part, enjoying another beautiful day in the desert.  We slept in (actually even the pups slept late), Geri made me a fantastic Sunday Brunch this morning, enough to hold us through the whole day.  Some time in the study, a little napski on the patio in the afternoon, good selections from iTunes through the speakers all day; what more could you ask for?

Bicycles and Baseball

March 6, 2012

Camelback Ranch, Glendale, AZ

Does it get any better?

Now that “winter” (well, meteorological winter, according to the TV weather people) is over, the return to nice temperatures means we can get the bikes out and ride around a bit.  We can’t really complain much at all, since this year’s La Niña weather pattern has meant a mild and dry winter -- as opposed to last year’s cold!

I’ve tried to maintain a one hour ride three times a week pace, although it doesn’t always happen.  Geri needs to work up to a sensible schedule for her.  And, every once in a while, we’ll plunk the pups into the baskets and take them for a ride as well.  They aren’t particularly comfortable there, and we’ve added small leashes that keep them attached to the basket, but I’m still afraid they’ll try to jump out, especially if we happen upon another pup on a walk.  But, they seem none the worse for wear after short rides.

Today, we took in a spring training “Cactus League” game.  It was good to do this again after a couple of years away from the month-long “season”.  There are several new stadiums in the area, and the whole league has consolidated into the Valley of the Sun around Phoenix (the Diamondbacks used to train near Tucson).  We’ve been to our local park here in Peoria a few times over the years but this year we decided to branch out.

Using StubHub, I was able to pick up some pretty nice seats at Camelback Ranch in Glendale.  This new park (opened in 2010, I think) is about as far away from home as the Peoria park, just in the other direction.  Actually, we drive right by it every time we go to the Vet over in Litchfield Park.  It’s the Spring Training home of the White Sox and the Dodgers.  All of the parks are shared facilities between two teams, generally one from each League (American and National).

I chose a Dodgers game because they were playing the San Francisco Giants.  Not that we’re huge fans of either team (I’ve never forgiven the Dodgers for abandoning Brooklyn, and I was only 2 at the time), but Shawn Sanford, grandson of our friends Barbara & Jim, was invited to Spring Training.  We didn’t get to see him pitch, but we did see him after the game, which the Giants won.  This was a good thing, I suppose, since we were seated in the Giants rooting section, right behind the visitor’s dugout.

Spring Training brings the fourth of the big waves of snowbirds to the Phoenix area.  The first wave (which I suppose we’re part of) arrives as soon as it gets chilly “back home”.  This is usually in early November.  The second and third waves follow the Thanksgiving and Christmas/New Years holidays, respectively, for people who can take a little cold but want to be “home for the holidays”.  During January and February, you can tell the percentage of out-of-state plates has increased.  In March, there’s another bump in the population, and you notice more license plate frames and stickers on cars with team logos.  In early April, there’s a big exodus, as the baseball crowd usually only comes for the month, often following their team around the valley and going to most every game.  I have no idea how they can afford this, since prices rival big-league parks.  By late April, only the locals are left.  At least I think that’s the case, because we’re usually gone by then, too.

It’s all about the women...

March 2, 2012

Peoria, AZ

Nothing wrong with that!  The past few weeks have been about Geri and Maya Lynn.  Geri’s great and Maya’s better -- now.

To begin with, we celebrated our anniversary and Geri’s birthday on the 16th and 17th, respectively.  It was relatively low-key this year, especially since her key present (deferred all the way from Christmas, for crying out loud) -- a new recliner -- has finally been selected but is being built and won’t be here until late-March.  I can sense a whole living room do-over in my future at some point, but that’s OK...

Anyway, we did a little birthday lunch at Olive Garden and were invited for a nice dinner at Ana & Larry’s, so we did get a little celebrating in.  A bouquet arrived from Connecticut, and all was well with the world.

No sooner was the celebrating over than our attention turned to Maya Lynn, our 8-year old Silkie Terrier.  She had a tumor in her right rear flank, and it had to come out as the biopsy showed evidence of Stage 2 MAST Cell activity.  It started out about 1cm in size, but a round of steroidal treatment shrunk it to about half the initial size.  Surgery was scheduled for February 20th, as soon as she finished with the Prednisolone (easier metabolized form of Prednisone) treatment.

As is common in veterinary medicine, once they have you “in the shop”, anything on the “watch list” is fair game.  In Maya's case, she had a couple of skin cysts that needed to be frozen off and hadn’t ever had a “dental” under anesthesia, so she was in for a full day.  We dropped her off at 7:30 AM (aka “oh-dark-thirty” for those of us who aren’t early risers).

We went to pick her up around 4:00 PM, with some degree of trepidation.  Geri remembers well how weak and wobbly she was after she came home from being “fixed” at six months.  Of course, that story always seems to involve references to me being away on a business trip at the time...

Anyway, you wouldn’t have known she had surgery when we picked her up.  She was wide awake and pulling on the leash to get to us, and then get to the door.  They said she did well except for fighting the anesthesia like a trouper.  In addition to the planned procedures, she ended up having a few loose teeth removed.  All in all, everything looked OK, pending pathology reports.

We got her meds (antibiotic and pain) and headed for home.  The first few days were a bit of a struggle, since she needed to leave the incision areas alone of course.  She didn’t take well to the “cone of shame”, just sitting in one place and crying at length.  She also didn’t take well to the combination of the meds, making night time not sleep time - for anyone.  If Maya’s up, everyone’s up!

After a couple of days (and sleepless nights), things settled down.  We went back this week to have stitches and staples removed (actually twice, since they missed a staple the first time), and she’s healed up well.  We’ll give it another week or so before getting her to the groomer, but otherwise she’s good to go!

Happens every year...

February 15, 2012

Peoria, AZ

Yes, every year around this time, I post something to our Blog that starts out with excuses for not posting anything for so long.  Yep, it's happened again.

Once we settle in for the winter at our southwestern location, Blog-worthy things just seem to dwindle.  It's not that there's nothing going on; not in the least.  Maybe it's that I started the Blog to focus on our travels, so stationary things aren't "good enough" to post.  Maybe (probably more likely if I'm honest) it's a lot easier to post the odd tidbit and photo to Facebook and/or Twitter than it is to sit down and actually compose a Blog post.  Well, as we all know, easy doesn't make it right, so let's do a little catching up, eh?

When last we heard from George and Geri, it was Christmas and we were wishing everyone well.  Not being particularly religious, for us "the holidays" are more of a time to acknowledge our good fortune and our enjoy family and friends.  Since we've chosen to spend our winters in the godforsaken desert where many fear to tread, that means long-distance communications.  Fortunately, we're some of the most technology-connected old farts retirees we know.  So, Facebook and FaceTime, email and SMS, and even old-fashioned phone calls and Parcel Post got us through.

I did spend a bit of time developing the “year-end message blast” posted in December, and used that as a triggering event for quite a bit of clean-up of the old address book.  No, not the musty leather-bound book of old, but the shiny new synced-from-my-Mac-to-iPad-to-Android-phone-and-don’t-forget-iCloud list of addresses.  I used our year-end missive as a trigger to get better organized in this department.  Why, you might ask?  Well, it’s all part of my grand plan for world domination moving more of our communications online.  Yep, if you get a birthday card, anniversary card, Christmas/Holiday-of-your-choice card, or even a “We-love-you-and-miss-you” card from us and I have your email address, it’s highly likely that you’ll be hearing “You’ve Got Mail” on your special day.

You might recall that I almost lost all my “Contacts” last year when the hard drive in my notebook PC failed.  Well, I was able to recover, but lots of learning about the Mac and syncing to the phone left things in a bit of a mess.  Once I had things cleaned up, I realized that there was still more organizing needed: documents!  Woo-Hoo!  Exciting stuff, right?  Well, actually, I’m quite pleased with what I’ve worked out, especially since it’s all free.

I started doing research in the Mac App Store and various technology feeds I follow on Twitter.  Great sources of information.  I found an app called Evernote that’s not quite as good as Microsoft’s OneNote but runs almost everywhere and automatically syncs my stuff.  Good start, but I’m not moving all my documents in there; I like my folders.  More reading pointed me to Dropbox and Skydrive, both with free storage options.  I signed up for both and have partitioned out various folders to each.  We have access to our medical records (us and the pets), finances, travel documents, and vehicle records wherever we are (OK, wherever we have an Internet connection - but with Smartphones and a Mi-Fi device, that’s most everywhere) across all devices, plus I have other key folders synced between the PC and Mac.  All automatic and all free.  Definitely worth the time to research and very easy to implement.  Great “winter projects” for when temperatures plummeted into the 50s and 60s for (several) days at a time!

And, speaking of projects, what winter wouldn’t be complete without a little home improvement?  We, not ours.  Armed with a trusty Home Depot Gift Card received for Christmas (Thanks!), we tackled a bathroom upgrade.  I’m never sure whether to call this the “main” bathroom or the “small” bathroom.  It’s definitely smaller than the one in the master suite (which sounds too pompous as it is), and it’s hardly “roomy”, but it’s what we have.  

Geri got some interesting advice: “start with a new shower curtain, then work the color scheme around that”.  That was all well and good until we started looking at paint.  They can “color match” anything these days, so off we went with the newly-acquired shower curtain in tow.  The “burgundy” color came out shocking pink (we were smart enough to pass on that; they don’t make you pay if you’re not happy with the color before you leave the store) and the “gold” was just crappy.  Literally.  It was “poop brown”.  

I gave Geri the “maybe it’ll look better when I do the second coat” routine.  Not so much.  All I heard was “why didn’t you do just one wall”?  Uh, because we agreed to paint all the walls the same color I misunderstood how the colors were to be applied?  No matter, it can be a do-over.  Two coats of Kilz primer then two coats of “Silver Jade”, plus two coats of the metallic glaze later and this room is starting to look good.  Oh, let’s add two more coats of a different color on the ceiling, plus a nice “copper” finish on the vanity.  It’s a good thing that the room is only 10’ x 10’.

Once the paint was (mostly) dry, we tackled the floor.  Out with the cheap linoleum and in with a nice porcelain tile.  Maybe not the first tile we picked out, but at least no do-overs.  Install border tiles to replace the baseboard, grout everything up, and put in a quick “lift kit” for the commode to account for the height difference and we’re done.  Not so fast, buster.  Let’s not forget matching towels (for the aforementioned shower curtain).  And, why not add a tile accent backsplash above the sink.  A new mirror, some shelves over the loo and a little metal fish sculpture -- now, you’re done.  And, I have to admit, it does really look nice.  And to think, it all started with a shower curtain.

Always one to press my luck, I noticed a local billboard advertising the Maricopa County Home Show down at the Fairgrounds in Phoenix and suggested we go.  “We don’t have to buy anything and we might get some ideas for the rest of the house and the yard”.  Our next major projects are to upgrade the master suite, the kitchen, and the patio, in that order and allocating roughly one project per year.  So, I signed up for the discount tickets online and off we went.  We were a little disappointed in the range of vendors; more people selling services than “stuff” (not too exciting for a DIY Guy like me) and quite a few pushing things pretty loosely connected to the “home” show theme (like 8% Return Guaranteed Investment Scams Deals).  All that aside, we did get a few ideas for the kitchen and yard (assuming I can get that pergola I want approved by the HOA and City).  And who knew that built-in home saunas were the big thing in home improvement this year (we assumed that everybody had one already, called “Summer”).  And it was nice to see all the Ginsu Knife, Vita-mix, Microfiber Towel, Waterless Cooking, and Stove-top Grill vendors we’ve missed at RV enclaves.

We actually did run into one vendor that we knew: Siding Guy.  Several houses in our neighborhood have had finished aluminum trim added to the soffit and fascia areas.  We got a quote a couple of years ago that I thought was too high, but I really learned the value of this upgrade when I painted the outside of the house last year.  Scraping and prepping the fascia and under the eaves at least doubled the project timeline, and the results were mixed.  So, I was excited (as excited as you can get about aluminum siding, I suppose) to see Siding Guy offering a Whole House, “Show Special” deal.  He came out a couple of days later and did up a new estimate.  By cutting and installing the soffit myself and having them focus on the fascia (that needs special tools to create the various bends in the metal), it was about 50% of the price quoted for the whole job a couple of years ago.  Sign me up!

A week later, we were the proud owners of two boxes of soffit and one of “J-Channel”, all in a nice neutral cream color.  The concept is pretty simple: attach the J-Channel to the side of the house at the right height then tack it with staples to the bottom of the fascia.  When they cover the fascia, it’ll cover up the edge of the soffit.  Simple, right?

Not so fast, Buster.  You have hip roofs?  Yes, around the garage and along the front of the house.  Well, then you have to cut everything at an angle.  Oh, by the way, it’s not a 45 degree angle since the builders don’t really make everything straight.  Hmmm; the stucco isn’t quite straight along the sides of the house, especially at the corners?  Well, you’d better get thee to Home Depot for the masonry disc for the angle grinder and smooth things out.  There isn’t anything to attach the J-Channel to along the peaks?  Get some furring strip and make something, Buddy.  And you put some chicken wire up under the eaves to keep the birds out after you painted the house?  Now you get to build some brackets to replace that with flashing to finish off the job.  

Needless to say, this was another of those “It’s complicated” projects.  Fortunately, I was able to work through all the issues and complete my part of the work in a little over a week.  We’ve had the fascia guys here before 7:30 AM (aka “oh-dark-thirty”) the last two days, and now the project is complete.  It really does finish off the house nicely.  By selecting a neutral color for the trim, we’ll be able to change the house color to whatever we like (or whatever we can get the HOA to approve) the next time we paint.  Hopefully, that’ll be several years down the road!

Last Friday, I took the coach over to a local shop for some work.  The dash air conditioning failed last summer, so that needed to be recharged.  Unfortunately, the compressor needed replacing, so that took an extra business day to get and install.  I also had the brakes and suspension checked.  With over 100,000 miles, I was surprised that everything was OK.  We picked it up today and it’s back in storage, patiently waiting for our next adventure. Before I took it in, I replaced the macerator, so we’ll be able to pump the tanks as needed for the next couple of years.

So, now we’re at “happy time”.  Chronologically, that would start with “Happy New Year”, since we left off at Christmas, I suppose.  Then there’s “Happy Martin Luther King Day”, which a lot of people put down.  Because we don’t want to celebrate a “lesser holiday” or, worse, because we don’t appreciate minority contributions?  To the contrary, recognizing the Civil Rights movement is incredibly important at this time, when the country is tearing itself apart, often based on rigid stereotypes.  

Now, we have “Happy Valentines Day”, when we celebrate the great loves of our lives.  Coincidentally, February 14th represents Arizona’s Centennial; the 48th State was added February 14, 1912.  Being from New England where things date from 1620-1800 and having been to various places in Europe where they’re much older, this isn’t a huge thing for us.  The local TV stations did the best they could with it, but it didn’t appear to have made much of an impact.

And, as we continue through the week, it’ll be “Happy Anniversary” for us and “Happy Birthday” for Geri, but more on that later...

So there you have it: a 2,000 word essay on life in the slow lane from here in sunny Arizona!

Merry Christmas To All!!!

As we complete 2011, we continue to be thankful for our family and friends, and our ability to both travel and spend the winters in the sunny Southwest.  This past year was a  whirlwind of activity with graduations, rallies, an exciting RV caravan, an overdue visit to Canada, and travel coast-to-coast in the USA.  We had the good fortune to have some great family visits, and we had the chance to see old friends and make new ones along the way.  

Take a look at some of our photo memories from 2011 and here's looking forward to a wonderful 2012!

PS: We're also thankful for our ability to communicate so effectively and quickly with everyone.  With Facebook and Twitter, email and text messages, Foursquare and LinkedIn, our travel Blog, Skype and Facetime and even the odd HeyTell, we're able to stay in touch like never before.  While we know it's not everyone's "thing", we hope that you'll bear with us as we convert a lot of our communications away from "snail mail" to electronic formats.  In addition to saving a tree (OK, maybe just a branch), we're hopeful that we'll be more timely and frequent with our communications in the future.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

December 10, 2011

Peoria, AZ

It's been a busy couple of weeks, and it's been feeling like winter as well.

I managed to migrate my eBay selling processes to the Mac and put a bunch of used items out there.  Roughly half off this batch sold, bringing in enough to pay for the upgrades to the "spare" bathroom.  It's more work than you might expect, since each item has to be photographed and weighed, and the proper text describing the item (especially any flaws) created.  This batch went through pretty smoothly, with a minimum of questions and post-sale issues.  While I was doing the packing and shipping, I managed to send out most of the Christmas gifts at the same time.  We only have a couple of things that need to go out next week.

We've continued to eat well and I've been whittling away at the short list of "should have drunk this last year" wines. We've made some "old favorites" (my Lamb Ragú, Geri's Pasta Sauce") and tried some new recipes as well.  Geri made a nice Spicy Shrimp with Orchiette, and I had fun with Pork Chops Roasted over Cauliflower.  We did a couple of braises, of Short Ribs and Brisket, but neither was a "keeper".

Today, I wrapped up two coats of paint on the bathroom.  When it was completed, Geri and I looked at each other and said "crap".  Yes, that's what the walls look like.  Literally.  Yuck.  As it turns out, "what we have here is a failure to communicate".  I was worried about the wall color being too dark and thought we'd do contrasting colors on opposing walls, but didn't push the issue.  Geri didn't like the color right in the store, but we both let Paint Guy do the computer color matching and off we went.  Fortunately, we're smart enough to call a halt at this point and regroup -- while everything is all taped off and changing the color isn't a huge issue.  It may take a couple of coats of Kilz before we can go lighter, but that's relatively easy right now.  Once we have the colors right, we'll finalize the tile selection and wrap this project up.  Hopefully, we'll have selected a light fixture by then.

I did take time out this morning to watch the lunar eclipse.  OK, I actually got up early, oh-dark-thirty, and was outside pre-dawn.  Chilly, but a nice show.  I was able to get at least one halfway decent picture before the whole thing set behind a the neighbor's roofline.  The eclipse was visible here just as the moon was setting and the sun was rising, diminishing some of the visual flair, but it was still worth an early morning.

Finally, we're pretty glad we decided to put up the Christmas decorations early, right after Thanksgiving.  Within a few days, it turned cold and windy, and we actually had some rain.  I think we're almost up to 4" for the year at this point!  Anyway, we've use the same decoration scheme as the past several years inside and out.  Each year, we threaten to toss the whole thing and start over, but we like what we have and know how to get things up quickly.  One person's efficiency is another's tradition, I suppose.  Geri did a great job with the tree, as always, and she arranged for some upgrades to the outside lights with a series of LED "snowflakes".  All in all, we're definitely getting in the holiday spirit!