March 29, 2008
Peoria, AZ
We had a nice quiet hour with some candles on the patio. Unclear how many people around us observed, since half go to bed before 8:00 PM and the other half leave the lights on all night for security. ;-)
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Making progress before the lights go out
March 29, 2008
Peoria, AZ
The last few days have been generally quiet and productive since Geri had her last round of dental work done on Tuesday. We’ve been trying to stick to foods that won’t disturb her mouth, and to get started preparing for our summer departure.
On Wednesday, Geri was still feeling the effects of the surgery pretty strongly. I spent time working on more items for eBay sales and took a ride in the afternoon to run some errands. I needed to drop off the roll of film I shot when Rick and Annette were here for processing, and the high-end lab is near downtown Phoenix. Since we’re more conscious of fuel economy (I know, a strange thing for people with an SUV), I wanted to pack as much as possible into the trip. I made additional stops at the storage place (check on the coach and let the manager know our departure date) and another competing storage place (planning ahead for the fall, I need as many numbers as possible to call around looking for a spot before we get home) before the photo lab. On the way back, I stopped at the local Detroit Diesel shop for fuel and air dryer filters and got a supply of the former; but no joy on the latter. Fortunately, the area south of I-10 west of downtown is “truck stop row”, so I was able to get what I needed at the Freightliner dealer closer to home. I’ve had pretty good luck getting stuff there, even though we don’t have a Freightliner chassis.
Thursday was a “coach day”. Geri was still feeling peaked, so I packed up a bunch of stuff and tools and headed for the storage place. I put in about 3 hours on various projects before heading home. I installed a supplemental OTA (“over the air”) antenna that should help pull in local HD broadcasts while we’re traveling, put on valve stem extenders that should make it easier to check and inflate the inner rear duals, measured for an additional fire suppression device around the refrigerator (Geri will be happy to know there isn’t enough room), and took care of a few cleaning “opportunities” inside.
I had planned to bring the coach to the house for more work on Friday, but the weather didn’t cooperate. It was supposed to cool off with high clouds, which would have helped with washing and sealing the roof and starting on the exterior cleaning that it needs before we leave. Since it’s remained in the upper 80s (I know, tough to take), I decided to put this off for a bit. Besides, it’ll only get filthy again in storage, so I’m better off waiting until just before we leave, right? I can rationalize almost anything when I want to…
Instead, Friday was spent doing more eBay selling (we’re at about 50% sold on the stuff I’ve posted so far) and salvaging files from the failed tower computer. I was able to get most of what I wanted, and the rest will wait until I rebuild that machine in the fall. Dave and I were trading notes, and the best guess is that it was built in late-2002 or early-2003, so it lived several lives in PC-years.
Today, we did some shopping for things we need over the next few days, but also for things we’ll plan to take with us. It’s easier to stock up on toiletries, vitamins, etc. now so we don’t have to search for stuff we need in strange places. We’ve got enough stuff to hold us until summer, so we’ll probably stock up on these types of things when we’re in Connecticut (when Costco is about 5 miles away). It’s a little early to start loading this stuff in the coach (don’t want to run out at home), but we’ll start that process during the second week in April. I have 1-2 days allocated each week for trip preparation to spread it out so we’re not caught with a rush at the end.
There’s nothing special to report on the food and wine front, since we’re focusing on things that won’t cause Geri too much discomfort. She did make an exceptionally good take on “mac and cheese” with several different kinds of gourmet cheese and a Paive/Panko topping. We had a 1997 Frescobaldi Chianti Riserva with that – yum!
Tonight, we’re hanging out on the patio enjoying the iPod and the nice evening, at least until we observe “Earth Hour” at 8:00 PM when the electrical devices go off. We’ll probably light the “fire ring” and sip some more wine. It’ll be interesting to see how many people observe it in this area. No matter what anyone personally believes about economics, government, and the issue of global warming, there’s little reason to not take part in a conservation effort, even if it’s to save a buck. Buys more wine! :-)
Peoria, AZ
The last few days have been generally quiet and productive since Geri had her last round of dental work done on Tuesday. We’ve been trying to stick to foods that won’t disturb her mouth, and to get started preparing for our summer departure.
On Wednesday, Geri was still feeling the effects of the surgery pretty strongly. I spent time working on more items for eBay sales and took a ride in the afternoon to run some errands. I needed to drop off the roll of film I shot when Rick and Annette were here for processing, and the high-end lab is near downtown Phoenix. Since we’re more conscious of fuel economy (I know, a strange thing for people with an SUV), I wanted to pack as much as possible into the trip. I made additional stops at the storage place (check on the coach and let the manager know our departure date) and another competing storage place (planning ahead for the fall, I need as many numbers as possible to call around looking for a spot before we get home) before the photo lab. On the way back, I stopped at the local Detroit Diesel shop for fuel and air dryer filters and got a supply of the former; but no joy on the latter. Fortunately, the area south of I-10 west of downtown is “truck stop row”, so I was able to get what I needed at the Freightliner dealer closer to home. I’ve had pretty good luck getting stuff there, even though we don’t have a Freightliner chassis.
Thursday was a “coach day”. Geri was still feeling peaked, so I packed up a bunch of stuff and tools and headed for the storage place. I put in about 3 hours on various projects before heading home. I installed a supplemental OTA (“over the air”) antenna that should help pull in local HD broadcasts while we’re traveling, put on valve stem extenders that should make it easier to check and inflate the inner rear duals, measured for an additional fire suppression device around the refrigerator (Geri will be happy to know there isn’t enough room), and took care of a few cleaning “opportunities” inside.
I had planned to bring the coach to the house for more work on Friday, but the weather didn’t cooperate. It was supposed to cool off with high clouds, which would have helped with washing and sealing the roof and starting on the exterior cleaning that it needs before we leave. Since it’s remained in the upper 80s (I know, tough to take), I decided to put this off for a bit. Besides, it’ll only get filthy again in storage, so I’m better off waiting until just before we leave, right? I can rationalize almost anything when I want to…
Instead, Friday was spent doing more eBay selling (we’re at about 50% sold on the stuff I’ve posted so far) and salvaging files from the failed tower computer. I was able to get most of what I wanted, and the rest will wait until I rebuild that machine in the fall. Dave and I were trading notes, and the best guess is that it was built in late-2002 or early-2003, so it lived several lives in PC-years.
Today, we did some shopping for things we need over the next few days, but also for things we’ll plan to take with us. It’s easier to stock up on toiletries, vitamins, etc. now so we don’t have to search for stuff we need in strange places. We’ve got enough stuff to hold us until summer, so we’ll probably stock up on these types of things when we’re in Connecticut (when Costco is about 5 miles away). It’s a little early to start loading this stuff in the coach (don’t want to run out at home), but we’ll start that process during the second week in April. I have 1-2 days allocated each week for trip preparation to spread it out so we’re not caught with a rush at the end.
There’s nothing special to report on the food and wine front, since we’re focusing on things that won’t cause Geri too much discomfort. She did make an exceptionally good take on “mac and cheese” with several different kinds of gourmet cheese and a Paive/Panko topping. We had a 1997 Frescobaldi Chianti Riserva with that – yum!
Tonight, we’re hanging out on the patio enjoying the iPod and the nice evening, at least until we observe “Earth Hour” at 8:00 PM when the electrical devices go off. We’ll probably light the “fire ring” and sip some more wine. It’ll be interesting to see how many people observe it in this area. No matter what anyone personally believes about economics, government, and the issue of global warming, there’s little reason to not take part in a conservation effort, even if it’s to save a buck. Buys more wine! :-)
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Quick Updates
March 25, 2008
Peoria, AZ
Peoria, AZ
- Geri did great at the dentist, in spite of needing an unscheduled extraction and partial bone graft to make everything "fit". She's resting and still somewhat uncomfortable, but doing well.
- The tower PC is going to remain disabled for a while. :-( A heat sink on the motherboard fell off and fried the video card after knocking another part off on the way. I tried another video card, but got the same result. Of course, it could have damaged the monitor as well, since that doesn't seem to want to accept any connection. I'll have to replace the motherboard and test with the two video cards before I can tell if the monitor has failed. None of that is going to happen until Fall at the earliest. I'm pretty sure that the Photoshop work I wanted to save is backed up on the internal 250 mb IDE drive, and I ordered an external USB enclosure so I can connect that drive to the notebook PC. I started researching options for accessing the SCSI drives, but that will have to wait...
Deja Dentist
March 25, 2008
Peoria, AZ
Catching up on the last few days, Sunday dinner was great and yesterday was a day for getting some errands out of the way before [cue scary music] the next round of dental work.
We had a nice Easter dinner with Ana and Larry on Sunday. The wine was flowing and fit with the rib roast nicely. They brought a Chalk Hill Chardonnay from 1996 which was very nice with some bottle age on it and a Napa Zinfandel from Peju. We also opened a 2005 Badge Pinot Noir (excellent flavors on a lighter-than-expected base) and a 2000 Chateau Potensac (another of the 2000 Bordeaux purchased as futures that’s ding nicely now).
Yesterday, we did some errands for our neighbor, Clisby, since she took a tumble over the weekend and needed an assist. I spent most of the afternoon finally getting started on the eBay Project. I pulled out several boxes of stuff that’s been accumulating, and started the process of photographing, weighing, and describing each item. It’s not hard, just tedious. I’ve tried to set up batches of stuff and work it like an assembly line. I take the batch of pictures first and download them, then use their sequence to drive the weigh and write steps for each item. I’ve gotten reasonably good at estimating total weight and package size from the unpacked weight, since these items are needed to complete the eBay posting. I was able to get about 1/3 of the batch posted yesterday (two sales already!), and I’ll tackle the remainder this afternoon.
We’re back at the dentist for Geri’s second set of dental implants this morning. Like most things these days, a plan is just a plan until you have a new plan. Before he inserted the implants, the periodontist concluded that a) tooth #3 (to the rear of the implant site) has a growing abscess and is loosening, b) tooth #3 would be likely to give her problems while we’re on the road over the summer, and c) the space between #3 and #6 where the two implants would go it too cramped. Bottom line: we need to add extraction of #3 to the day’s activities, on the fly. It remains to be seen why we weren’t able to figure this out before between all the visits to both dentists over the last few months. I’m not too happy…
She’ll be resting (hopefully comfortably) for the rest of the day, which will give me the time to work on the eBay stuff. It’s supposed to be another warm day, with temperatures in the low-90s, so indoor work makes for a good plan. Before I do that, I’ll try to resurrect my desktop computer, which suffered some kind of failure last week. I use it for Photoshop, scanning, and as a backup, so it hasn’t been critical but still needs to be addressed.
The forecast calls for cooler temperatures (low-80s) later in the week, so I have Thursday and Friday earmarked for working on the coach. I have a list of simple items (e.g., adding an outlet for the central vacuum to the storage bays, adjusting two valve stems to ease access for checking and inflating, installing the HDTV over-the-air antenna booster we bought at one of the rallies) that will take about half a day. With the cooler temperatures, I’m also hoping to get the roof cleaned and sealed as well. I’ve allocated 1-2 days each week to getting things ready for summer travel, so we should be in pretty good shape. I have some parts on order (spare fuel filters, furnace maintenance kit), and they should trickle in later this week.
Peoria, AZ
Catching up on the last few days, Sunday dinner was great and yesterday was a day for getting some errands out of the way before [cue scary music] the next round of dental work.
We had a nice Easter dinner with Ana and Larry on Sunday. The wine was flowing and fit with the rib roast nicely. They brought a Chalk Hill Chardonnay from 1996 which was very nice with some bottle age on it and a Napa Zinfandel from Peju. We also opened a 2005 Badge Pinot Noir (excellent flavors on a lighter-than-expected base) and a 2000 Chateau Potensac (another of the 2000 Bordeaux purchased as futures that’s ding nicely now).
Yesterday, we did some errands for our neighbor, Clisby, since she took a tumble over the weekend and needed an assist. I spent most of the afternoon finally getting started on the eBay Project. I pulled out several boxes of stuff that’s been accumulating, and started the process of photographing, weighing, and describing each item. It’s not hard, just tedious. I’ve tried to set up batches of stuff and work it like an assembly line. I take the batch of pictures first and download them, then use their sequence to drive the weigh and write steps for each item. I’ve gotten reasonably good at estimating total weight and package size from the unpacked weight, since these items are needed to complete the eBay posting. I was able to get about 1/3 of the batch posted yesterday (two sales already!), and I’ll tackle the remainder this afternoon.
We’re back at the dentist for Geri’s second set of dental implants this morning. Like most things these days, a plan is just a plan until you have a new plan. Before he inserted the implants, the periodontist concluded that a) tooth #3 (to the rear of the implant site) has a growing abscess and is loosening, b) tooth #3 would be likely to give her problems while we’re on the road over the summer, and c) the space between #3 and #6 where the two implants would go it too cramped. Bottom line: we need to add extraction of #3 to the day’s activities, on the fly. It remains to be seen why we weren’t able to figure this out before between all the visits to both dentists over the last few months. I’m not too happy…
She’ll be resting (hopefully comfortably) for the rest of the day, which will give me the time to work on the eBay stuff. It’s supposed to be another warm day, with temperatures in the low-90s, so indoor work makes for a good plan. Before I do that, I’ll try to resurrect my desktop computer, which suffered some kind of failure last week. I use it for Photoshop, scanning, and as a backup, so it hasn’t been critical but still needs to be addressed.
The forecast calls for cooler temperatures (low-80s) later in the week, so I have Thursday and Friday earmarked for working on the coach. I have a list of simple items (e.g., adding an outlet for the central vacuum to the storage bays, adjusting two valve stems to ease access for checking and inflating, installing the HDTV over-the-air antenna booster we bought at one of the rallies) that will take about half a day. With the cooler temperatures, I’m also hoping to get the roof cleaned and sealed as well. I’ve allocated 1-2 days each week to getting things ready for summer travel, so we should be in pretty good shape. I have some parts on order (spare fuel filters, furnace maintenance kit), and they should trickle in later this week.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Happy Easter
March 23, 2008
Peoria, AZ
And a Happy Birthday to Alicia…
And congratulations to Mike and Susan on their wedding last Friday…
Friday and Saturday were productive days, although not necessarily in the areas we had planned. I’d originally planned to spend the day Friday working on the coach and Saturday getting a batch of stuff ready to sell on eBay. Well, not so much…
Friday turned into a clean-up day in the study, catching up on all sorts of miscellaneous things that were dangling in there. Most significantly, I finished up and printed out the tax forms for mailing, and they’ll go to the Post Office on Monday. I’m about a week behind schedule on this, but we’ll get a small refund so it won’t matter if it’s slightly delayed.
I also started organizing things for the coach projects, or reorganizing as the case may be. I’m trying to get the tools and supplies organized the way I want them, and it seems to be a never-ending exercise. I’m trying to leave out things that don’t belong and pack in a few things I’d wanted on the road last year, and still have room for everything, and not change the weight dynamics much. This is a tall order, but I’m dialing in on it.
I wrapped up in the garage on Saturday. I’ve got most of the maintenance items (filters, oil, drain pans, grease gun) all set, and I ordered spare fuel filters. I went through all the cleaning supplies (I’ve probably collected one sample of every RV cleaning gizmo or pad known to man over the years) and separated out those that won’t travel (like waxing kits) from those that will (like spray-and-wipe cleaners). I still have a few spare parts that need to find a traveling home, but I’ll wrap that up next week.
I also pulled out a lot of the stuff I want to sell off, but only succeeded in making a mess in the spare room again. The process of cataloging, photographing, and weighing each thing can get a little tedious, so I know I’m putting it off. I’m bound and determined to spend a good chunk of next Tuesday afternoon on that, since Geri will have her final set of dental implants done in the morning and we’ll be just hanging out at home for the rest of the day. Beside, it’s supposed to be hot, in the upper-80s to low-90s today through Tuesday, so inside work makes sense.
Friday night’s dinner was exceptional: roasted pork loin done on the rotisserie with Geri’s orzo-stuffed roasted peppers and sautéed green beans. We started with a glass of white wine, the Albariño from Longoria that we’d brought back from California, and moved on to a wonderful 1997 Brunello do Montalcino from Castel Giocondo. It’s showing all the signs of a classic Brunello: smooth tannins with lots of leather and smoke behind the fruit. Fabulous!
Today, we’re having a beef rib roast, and Ana and Larry are coming over. We’ll have “Grandma Reds” (pan-roasted red potatoes; Al named the dish) and the last of the haricots verts, and we’ll have the roasted root vegetable salad that we started last week. Wine selections to come…
Peoria, AZ
And a Happy Birthday to Alicia…
And congratulations to Mike and Susan on their wedding last Friday…
Friday and Saturday were productive days, although not necessarily in the areas we had planned. I’d originally planned to spend the day Friday working on the coach and Saturday getting a batch of stuff ready to sell on eBay. Well, not so much…
Friday turned into a clean-up day in the study, catching up on all sorts of miscellaneous things that were dangling in there. Most significantly, I finished up and printed out the tax forms for mailing, and they’ll go to the Post Office on Monday. I’m about a week behind schedule on this, but we’ll get a small refund so it won’t matter if it’s slightly delayed.
I also started organizing things for the coach projects, or reorganizing as the case may be. I’m trying to get the tools and supplies organized the way I want them, and it seems to be a never-ending exercise. I’m trying to leave out things that don’t belong and pack in a few things I’d wanted on the road last year, and still have room for everything, and not change the weight dynamics much. This is a tall order, but I’m dialing in on it.
I wrapped up in the garage on Saturday. I’ve got most of the maintenance items (filters, oil, drain pans, grease gun) all set, and I ordered spare fuel filters. I went through all the cleaning supplies (I’ve probably collected one sample of every RV cleaning gizmo or pad known to man over the years) and separated out those that won’t travel (like waxing kits) from those that will (like spray-and-wipe cleaners). I still have a few spare parts that need to find a traveling home, but I’ll wrap that up next week.
I also pulled out a lot of the stuff I want to sell off, but only succeeded in making a mess in the spare room again. The process of cataloging, photographing, and weighing each thing can get a little tedious, so I know I’m putting it off. I’m bound and determined to spend a good chunk of next Tuesday afternoon on that, since Geri will have her final set of dental implants done in the morning and we’ll be just hanging out at home for the rest of the day. Beside, it’s supposed to be hot, in the upper-80s to low-90s today through Tuesday, so inside work makes sense.
Friday night’s dinner was exceptional: roasted pork loin done on the rotisserie with Geri’s orzo-stuffed roasted peppers and sautéed green beans. We started with a glass of white wine, the Albariño from Longoria that we’d brought back from California, and moved on to a wonderful 1997 Brunello do Montalcino from Castel Giocondo. It’s showing all the signs of a classic Brunello: smooth tannins with lots of leather and smoke behind the fruit. Fabulous!
Today, we’re having a beef rib roast, and Ana and Larry are coming over. We’ll have “Grandma Reds” (pan-roasted red potatoes; Al named the dish) and the last of the haricots verts, and we’ll have the roasted root vegetable salad that we started last week. Wine selections to come…
Friday, March 21, 2008
Some Picture Updates
March 21, 2008
Peoria, AZ
Well, I was wrong (what else is new) -- we did have some pictures from the baseball game and "Old Town Scottsdale" on Geri's camera in addition to those I shot with the D200 in Sedona.
Here is a link to a few shots:
http://picasaweb.google.com/GeorgeandGeri/RickAndAnnetteVisitArizona
Picture taking this week was interesting. I ran into people who wanted to "talk shop" in both Scottsdale and Sedona. In "Old Town", I ran into a professional stock photographer who was scouting for additional shots on the project he was involved with. He's a Canon guy, so we didn't have equipment in common, but did chat a bit about the street scenes. In Sedona, I ran into a guy wanting to show off his new D300 (camera envy is almost as bad as lens envy -- and my lenses are pretty good) and another guy at Cathedral Rock who just wanted to chat. Must be a guy thing...
Peoria, AZ
Well, I was wrong (what else is new) -- we did have some pictures from the baseball game and "Old Town Scottsdale" on Geri's camera in addition to those I shot with the D200 in Sedona.
Here is a link to a few shots:
http://picasaweb.google.com/GeorgeandGeri/RickAndAnnetteVisitArizona
Picture taking this week was interesting. I ran into people who wanted to "talk shop" in both Scottsdale and Sedona. In "Old Town", I ran into a professional stock photographer who was scouting for additional shots on the project he was involved with. He's a Canon guy, so we didn't have equipment in common, but did chat a bit about the street scenes. In Sedona, I ran into a guy wanting to show off his new D300 (camera envy is almost as bad as lens envy -- and my lenses are pretty good) and another guy at Cathedral Rock who just wanted to chat. Must be a guy thing...
Thursday, March 20, 2008
A nice visit – now back to our regularly scheduled programming
March 20, 2008
Peoria, AZ
We wrapped up a very nice visit with Rick and Annette yesterday morning, and now it’s back to more mundane activities.
As planned (at least the revised plan), Monday was a relaxing day while we let the weather get back to normal after a cold front went through. We took a leisurely trip to “Old Town Scottsdale”, which is a bit of a misnomer. Sure, it’s geographically correct – it’s where the center of town was a hundred years ago. Other than some of the tourists, nothing’s really that “old” any more. It’s half touristy kitsch and half artsy-fartsy these days, but it was nice to poke around. Geri and Annette both found some jewelry that caught their eye, and a couple of t-shirts were purchased. We found a couple of metal sculptures that’ll go well on the front of the house for $7 each, which saves us a trip to the flea market. The weather cleared and it warmed up to the low 70s. All in all, a productive day.
Geri chickened out (no pun intended) on serving fish and root vegetable salad (Rick’s not a fish person and neither he nor Annette seemed thrilled about beets and turnip in a salad), so we ended up having some chili that was in the freezer. Chili is definitely one of those dishes that benefits from a bit of age, and this one, served with Mexican rice and margaritas, was great. Our neighbor, Mary Ann, joined us for dinner.
Tuesday was a long day. We started with a trip to the dentist (Geri had the stitches from the implants removed) and then breakfast at the local Cracker Barrel. Once properly fueled up, we headed for Sedona, north up I-17 almost to Flagstaff. Once there, we made several stops for pictures of the Red Rocks and spent some time trolling through the shops along the main drag in town. It was another cloudless Arizona day, and temperatures up there (Sedona is around 5,000 feet up) rose into the mid-60s. Once we had enough of that, we decided to head back via Prescott, which took us on a completely different route. We climbed up the mountains past Cottonwood through the old mining town of Jerome. As we continued to climb out of Jerome, we made it up to the snow level above 6,000 feet; the snow was from the storms that passed to the north of us while we were watching baseball on Sunday. Past Prescott, we glided down the long grade (probably about 4,000 feet) to Congress and Wickenberg, then home via US-60.
We stopped at the Safeway before we got home, and decided on simple steak frittes for dinner. Once home, the deep fryer and grill were quickly started and we were eating in no time. Coupled with a 1998 Nuits St. George Red Burgundy and a 2001 Stag’s Leap “Fay” Cabernet Sauvignon, the filets were quite good (even if I overcooked Geri’s – a cardinal sin). After determining that Rick and Annette have not yet developed a palate for Limoncella, Patron Café, or Puerto Rican Rum, we all turned in early.
Yesterday (Wednesday) was a bit of a blur. We were all up early for a 6:45 AM departure. We had Rick and Annette to the airport around 7:20, in plenty of time for their 9-something flight. Rick had done the online check-in the nigh before and they were “A-something” (I don’t pretend t understand Southwest Airline’s boarding process), which I guess is a good thing. Then we were off to another of Geri’s dentist appointments (Are you sick of hearing about them? We are.); she had a permanent post installed in preparation for a permanent crown. Then we went home, made coffee, and chilled for a bit. In the afternoon, we gave the pups a “tubbie”, which they really needed. We were going to have leftover chili for dinner, but a pitcher of margaritas and a plate of nachos were quite enough, thank you. Well, maybe a bit of cookie dough frozen custard filled in the cracks. And, Rick and Annette made it home OK, albeit a bit later than they'd expected.
Today was another beautiful day in Paradise, with sunny skies and temperatures in the low 80s. We slept late and caught up on email. Geri made an appointment at the vet for next month, and I took care of a few errands, starting to prepare for our summer departure. We’ve set April 19th as our start date, and now I need to do some additional planning to get ready for that. We’ll start tomorrow, as we’ll make it a “coach day”.
It’s still quite nice out tonight. It’s after 10:00 PM MST and I’m still out on the patio with the PC updating the blog and downloading pictures from the cameras. I’ll post some Sedona pictures tomorrow. The Scottsdale photos will have to wait for a few days, since I decided to bring the F6 and shoot film for a change…
Peoria, AZ
We wrapped up a very nice visit with Rick and Annette yesterday morning, and now it’s back to more mundane activities.
As planned (at least the revised plan), Monday was a relaxing day while we let the weather get back to normal after a cold front went through. We took a leisurely trip to “Old Town Scottsdale”, which is a bit of a misnomer. Sure, it’s geographically correct – it’s where the center of town was a hundred years ago. Other than some of the tourists, nothing’s really that “old” any more. It’s half touristy kitsch and half artsy-fartsy these days, but it was nice to poke around. Geri and Annette both found some jewelry that caught their eye, and a couple of t-shirts were purchased. We found a couple of metal sculptures that’ll go well on the front of the house for $7 each, which saves us a trip to the flea market. The weather cleared and it warmed up to the low 70s. All in all, a productive day.
Geri chickened out (no pun intended) on serving fish and root vegetable salad (Rick’s not a fish person and neither he nor Annette seemed thrilled about beets and turnip in a salad), so we ended up having some chili that was in the freezer. Chili is definitely one of those dishes that benefits from a bit of age, and this one, served with Mexican rice and margaritas, was great. Our neighbor, Mary Ann, joined us for dinner.
Tuesday was a long day. We started with a trip to the dentist (Geri had the stitches from the implants removed) and then breakfast at the local Cracker Barrel. Once properly fueled up, we headed for Sedona, north up I-17 almost to Flagstaff. Once there, we made several stops for pictures of the Red Rocks and spent some time trolling through the shops along the main drag in town. It was another cloudless Arizona day, and temperatures up there (Sedona is around 5,000 feet up) rose into the mid-60s. Once we had enough of that, we decided to head back via Prescott, which took us on a completely different route. We climbed up the mountains past Cottonwood through the old mining town of Jerome. As we continued to climb out of Jerome, we made it up to the snow level above 6,000 feet; the snow was from the storms that passed to the north of us while we were watching baseball on Sunday. Past Prescott, we glided down the long grade (probably about 4,000 feet) to Congress and Wickenberg, then home via US-60.
We stopped at the Safeway before we got home, and decided on simple steak frittes for dinner. Once home, the deep fryer and grill were quickly started and we were eating in no time. Coupled with a 1998 Nuits St. George Red Burgundy and a 2001 Stag’s Leap “Fay” Cabernet Sauvignon, the filets were quite good (even if I overcooked Geri’s – a cardinal sin). After determining that Rick and Annette have not yet developed a palate for Limoncella, Patron Café, or Puerto Rican Rum, we all turned in early.
Yesterday (Wednesday) was a bit of a blur. We were all up early for a 6:45 AM departure. We had Rick and Annette to the airport around 7:20, in plenty of time for their 9-something flight. Rick had done the online check-in the nigh before and they were “A-something” (I don’t pretend t understand Southwest Airline’s boarding process), which I guess is a good thing. Then we were off to another of Geri’s dentist appointments (Are you sick of hearing about them? We are.); she had a permanent post installed in preparation for a permanent crown. Then we went home, made coffee, and chilled for a bit. In the afternoon, we gave the pups a “tubbie”, which they really needed. We were going to have leftover chili for dinner, but a pitcher of margaritas and a plate of nachos were quite enough, thank you. Well, maybe a bit of cookie dough frozen custard filled in the cracks. And, Rick and Annette made it home OK, albeit a bit later than they'd expected.
Today was another beautiful day in Paradise, with sunny skies and temperatures in the low 80s. We slept late and caught up on email. Geri made an appointment at the vet for next month, and I took care of a few errands, starting to prepare for our summer departure. We’ve set April 19th as our start date, and now I need to do some additional planning to get ready for that. We’ll start tomorrow, as we’ll make it a “coach day”.
It’s still quite nice out tonight. It’s after 10:00 PM MST and I’m still out on the patio with the PC updating the blog and downloading pictures from the cameras. I’ll post some Sedona pictures tomorrow. The Scottsdale photos will have to wait for a few days, since I decided to bring the F6 and shoot film for a change…
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