Two On 2 Wheels

My latest cooking adventures…

2011-02-20T17:45:00.009-07:00

L and I have been trying many new cooking methods as of late in an attempt to both eat healthy and more diversely. Here are some pics and recipes of a few of our latest meals. I know, I know… everyone posts pics of “what they just ate” but since these are mostly healthy recipes, I thought I’d share. We are using fresh in-season ingredients, olive oil, real butter and healthy fats. The bacon that we purchase is apple-wood smoked bacon that is nitrite/nitrate free, often sold as uncured.

This first recipe is specifically for Stephanie.

—— Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Pecan Pieces ——

Choose small hard Brussels Sprouts and cut off the stem portion. Slice in 1/2.

Saute in 1 tbsp. of olive oil mixed with 1/2 tbsp. melted butter over medium heat. Grind pepper and salt over the top and continue to stir intermittently until browned.

Once your Brussels Sprouts are browned, add in the pecan pieces and continue to heat until pecans are slightly toasted.

Serve immediately.

—— Chicken stuffed, bacon wrapped jalapeños ——

Use small 2-3 inch fresh jalapeños. Stuff with a small slice of raw chicken, wrap in bacon and set on skewer. Bake in oven until chicken is done; about 40 minutes at 350°. One thing I would try different with this recipe is to marinate the chicken first. I will try this recipe again using a 50/50 Worcestershire/lime juice marinade.

—— Breaded Tilapia with Grape Tomatoes ——

For this recipe, we used tilapia fillets from Trader Joes; so frozen works just fine. I breaded them using a 50/50 mix of almond meal and pecan meal mixed with our favorite chile-coffee steak rub. Dredge the raw (and thawed) tilapia in egg yolk, dip in the breading spreading evenly on both sides. Grill on pre-soaked cedar planks for ~14 minutes or until flakey.
For tomatoes, we used small grape tomatoes. Slice in 1/2, add in salt, pepper, parsely or oregano and 3 cloves smashed garlic. Top with a drizzle of olive oil and broil in oven until browned.
Serve with grilled asparagus.

—— Wheat-free Coconut Macaroons ——

We got 2 fresh, young and impudent* coconuts at the grocery store today and one thing I really know how to make is a good macaroon. I used my tried and true recipe and changed it completely to allow for new ingredients.

1 + 1/3 C ground coconut (I used fresh ground coconut shredded in a food processor)
2 tbsp. flour (I used rice flour)
1/8 tsp. salt
2 egg whites
1/3 C sugar (I used 3 tbsp. agave syrup)
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Mix together all ingredients
Mound into small piles on cookie sheet
Bake for 20 minutes in 350° oven**

*Goofy Simpson's reference.

**NOTE: I had to cook the cookies for 30 minutes and should have cooked them on parchment paper to crisp up the bottoms. Because I used fresh coconut and agave syrup there was a lot more moisture in this cookie. The big difference is that the cookie had the consistency of a muffin—overall a very tasty treat. It would be awesome dipped in some dark chocolate.

Happy Holidays…

2010-12-06T12:59:00.004-07:00

My little kitty Wilbur, doing his best statue impression. Secretly I think he is
counting down the days till he gets to open up his stocking. Yes! I give my cats a stocking!

L and I spent the weekend putting a few Christmas decorations around the house. We decided to do a full-size tree this year for our downstairs living room and put our little 3.5" artificial tree upstairs. I have to be honest—I think I still like the little tree best. It's just the right size and fills up nicely with the ornaments we have collected over the years.

Our full fire place—though I have yet to light a fire within.

Happy All Saints Day…

2010-11-01T17:09:00.006-07:00

With yesterday being Halloween, L and I spent the day watching scary* movies, making marmalade from our citrus trees and carving pumpkins. We tried our hand at using the Dremel tool to carve the pumpkins this year. It makes removing the outer flesh very easy, but extremely messy as well. We sat outside in the beautiful fall Arizona afternoon making complete fools of ourselves in the process, but it was also a lot of fun. I chose to make a tiki face and he wanted a big grinning pumpkin with huge teeth.

Will I use the Dremel again next year? I'm not so sure. The orange of the pumpkin takes forever to get off your hands and face, and I'm not sure I'm too keen on another taste of vaporized pumpkin. I think I'll just try my hand at traditional carving next year.

_________
*Ghost Busters and Star Trek. Not so scary.

Home for sale…

2010-07-21T07:31:00.004-07:00

We finally have our house up for sale and in the *listings *. Having never sold a home before, everything is a new experience for both of us. The cleaning, the maintenance, the staging—it's all a lot of work plus keeping a business running on top of all that.

One of the first things I read while preparing to sell our home, is to de-clutter it. Needless to say, we had a lot of clutter, mostly in the form of toys on L's part. Oh man, does he have a lot of toy robots! We also removed extraneous furnishings, all family photos and anything that could be conceivably offensive or questionable to a potential home buyer—including but not limited to diplomas, books, nick-knacks and more. It all went into storage or to the donation bin.

We moved all our furniture to best maximize the space in the house. It doesn't feel very comfortable anymore but it does feel large in our modest house. I also painted our bedroom, bathroom and will likely paint my office.

Another thing I read is that if you have pets, to remove or at the very least contain them while showing the house. We had a test run of that yesterday with our first showing. I left our oldest cat, Moses, in the house as he just hangs out on the bed. I bundled the three little ones into one cat carrier and drove around the neighborhood with them, blasting the A/C in my truck. This did not go so well. Their nerves, coupled with the heat had them panting in quick order. Our littlest—Jupiter—looked like he was starting to show signs of heat stroke so I drove them over to their vet. He did much better when we weren't moving around, but they will now be bundled into their carrier and left in my office. It will just be a lot less stressful for all of them.

Our realtors, and a few others that we've talked to assure us our house is poised to sell well. It's at a price point that is currently selling, it's clean, it's move-in ready and we're offering a home warranty with the sale. So, here's hoping for a quick sale.

Packing dilemma…

2010-06-23T17:13:00.004-07:00

This is why I can't get any packing done around the house. I turn my back for one minute and—BOOM!—a cat's in the packing supplies sleeping all cuddled up. Oh well… it's cute.

Saying goodbye to our little abode…

2010-06-16T17:51:00.004-07:00

We're putting our house on the market. I know it's a crummy time to sell, but it's a great time if you're buying a house. L and I have been in this house 10 years now and we'd like to move to a new neighborhood. We'd been thinking about this for a while and thought it was two years out at least. But after analyzing interest rates, housing costs and the job market, we figured now is the time.

First though, I really hate packing. I can't believe humans can gather so much stuff. Why do I have so much stuff and why is it mostly in the kitchen?

Secondly, we have a lot of work to do to this house before showing it. Sure, we could show it as is, but to sell at a decent price, we're going to paint both interior and exterior, do some landscaping and clean out the entire house of any clutter, personality or distress. This weekend, we're moving almost the entirety of our home into a storage unit. We'll be living out of a suitcase for a while.

Right now, we have our eye on a three bedroom, two story house located in a neighborhood called Civano. It's a neighborhood focused on the idea of energy efficiency and according to its designers an "antidote to urban sprawl's five banes: loss of community, loss of open space, traffic congestion, air pollution, and poor use of resources,"

We just like the homes there, the feel of the community and the way the neighborhood is laid out. So for now, we are separating ourselves from our current house and working hard to get it show ready.

2010-06-15T10:22:00.005-07:00

PART THREE — THE WEDDING

Our other reason for going to Arkansas was to attend my older sisters wedding. It was a casual affair with mostly friends and family on her new husbands side and I offered to photograph as much as possible. Unfortunately, I used my sisters camera and couldn't' get any of the images onto my own computer. D'oh! Oh well. C'est la vie.

Overall, a beautiful ceremony where the torrents of rain let up for exactly the right amount of time. Congratulations to the new bride and groom!

The grooms' cake

The wedding cake and center stage

Goofy chihuahua Cocoa playing in the yard

The flowers for decoration

2010-05-31T18:41:00.003-07:00

PART TWO — THE GRADUATION

Our number one reason for our trip to Arkansas, was to see my nephew graduate high school. He is the eldest of my nephew's and nieces and I remember well taking care of him at a young age while his mom—my sister—had to work. He'll be entering the Armed Forces this summer, going to boot camp for the Army. He follows in his mother's footsteps doing this at a time when many are trying to get out of the military. If he plays his cards right he can make a career out of this decision. But I digress…

I only vaguely remember my own high school graduation. It was early in the morning and I really didn't like high school. The only reason I went or did well was to get into college. I knew from a very young age that I was going to attend university. My nephew's graduation was fairly short, held indoors in the evening due to heavy rains, and had at least 3 prayers throughout. Not sure how I feel about this. It is a public school and I had though separation of church and state was law? On one hand, I'm sure they still have Halloween and Christmas parties, on the other, it was weird to hear so many prayers. Different part of the world I guess…

After graduation, we headed to Chilies for the graduation dinner. We had a party of 8 to seat and my sister called ahead twice; once to see if they took reservations and a second time to tell them we were on our way, which is what they asked us to do to prepare (because, no, they didn't take reservations). We pile into the restaurant and take a seat in the waiting area. Will we seperate into sepeart tables? No, we won't. Ok, there'll be a table just as soon as possible. We wait. And wait. And wait some more. Hey, aren't those people getting seated before us? Aren't there about 7 people in that group? What's going on here. The host finally stops by and says completley deadpan, "I'm sorry, I compleelty forgot all about you." It's been about 30-40 minutes now. OK… manager comes out, "We'll really take care of you." So, now another 30-40 minutes after the original host says for at least the third time "are you sure you won't do two seperate tables?" we finally are seated. The taking care of came in the form of free chips. Whoopdie friggin doo. Oh well. Both L and I are patient people and we had no where to be that evening. L was looking forward to a Presidente Margaritta. Uh oh. This is a dry county. Whoops! That's OK, he gets enough Margarittas at home.

Overall, the graduation was nice and I'm happy to see my nephew moving on from High School. I wish him the best as he moves forward with his life.

Up next, a wedding.

A childhood revealed, a wedding and a graduation

2010-05-25T16:02:00.009-07:00

PART ONE — CHILDHOOD’S END

This past weekend I had the great fortune of seeing firsthand L’s childhood home and haunts in Hot Springs Arkansas. As part of a weekend adventure to a fellow A-state—we being in the A-state of Arizona of course—I learned of the myriad schools and adventures my husband had as a young child.

The morning after arriving in Little Rock, we spent the morning visiting his granddads house, which was unfortunately now in ruins. It seems, no one has spent time in the house since his death nearly 10 years ago, and the forest primeval is all too eager to gobble up the house as soon as it can.

We then headed to Hot Springs. After the morning just outside of Little Rock, I was unsure of what to expect of the city L grew up in. It's hilly, forested and beautiful in Hot Springs. I immediately fell in love with the history of the city, the wonderful forest trails and the surrounding lakes. I somehow felt even more connected to my husband of 12 years, understanding more of where he came from. We saw… no we stalked his old house; a house he is positive is haunted. I was seriously worried the neighborhood watch was going to call on us—“what are these two youngsters doing at this house!”

After both driving and walking around town for a few hours we finally had some real southern Barbecue at a famous place in Hot Springs called McClard's. We could seriously not stop joking about the name–pronouncing it Mac Lards—but boy was it good food. Vegetarians may want to look away at this time.

One of the main attractions in Hot Springs is the 'Gator Farm, a place with over 200 alligators and other various animals, and some of the biggest darned Cougars I have ever seen. Unfortunately, I got no good pictures of them. The highlight of the trip was the petting zoo full of adorable baby goats and lambs.

After a long day, we stayed the night in the famous Arlington Hotel and Spa. After a latenight drink at the bar we tucked in for the night watching the city go by 10 floors below.

Up next, a graduation.

Had a busy weekend…

2010-02-24T11:05:00.009-07:00

A couple weekends ago I finally got L to Disneyland. In his 35 years he has never been to a Disney park. I prepared him for the worst—“it's crazy, crowded, ultra clean and nary a vice to be found!” A couple of new things I learned while on this trip:

You have to pay extra for parking. Wait, that $70 ticket can't cover parking?
I got completely overwhelmed by the entrance—there are so many points of entry I couldn't hardly figure out how to get in and almost tried to go in the California Adventure side—oops!
The fast-pass. Blessed be the fast-pass.
Wear good shoes and trim your toenails. Seriously. I bruised my toes because of this issue and it's not pretty.
Bring more snacks.
L really does not like heights or roller-coasters. At all.

Before we really got into the park, we checked out a few of the shops and picked up some trading pins. I also got a few pictures of L in front of Disney and the mouse.

Our first ride was Pirates of the Caribbean. Somehow, I had worked myself up so much during this trip, I got really sick immediately after getting off that ride. So, a trip on the train around the park and a quick stop to "It's a Small World." That one is actually one of my favorite rides—but L was not amused. I actually think he had a look of abject terror on his face about 3/4 of the way through—“it just won't stop!” Our next stop took us to the Tea Cups and to be honest, I think I had more fun on those than just about anything. Initially, I was worried about my sinus problems making me very dizzy, but nothing happened.

We were able to get onto every ride we wanted to except the Indiana Jones ride. We had a fast-pass for Splash Mountain, but it was 4 hours out. At the end of the night that was one of our last rides and I warned L, “this one is really steep and long” and at the end of the ride, you keep going and he kept asking, panicky, “is there another slide?”

On our way out we tried to get into Indiana Jones, but the wait was an hour, and by that time, we were so exhausted we just said forget it.

The fireworks really are excellent at Disneyland, but unfortunately, those coincided with us trekking across the park to make our fast-pass ticket. The crowds that formed were nearly overwhelming, and though the employees make good way-finding directors, very few people actually listed to them. If you want to watch the fireworks, sit down, but please; get out of the lanes of movement. Really, my only down point for the entire adventure.

Overall, L's feedback on each ride:

Pirates of the Caribbean: lame. He thought they had really cheesy animatronics, though I liked the smoke induced Davey Jones.
The Disney Train: fun, but that's not the Grand Canyon. Hey, that dinosaur didn't exist with that therapod.
It's a Small World: weird, but really cool engineering. Personally, it's one of my favorite, and I love the updates to the ride.
Tea Cups: weeee. Did this one twice and the second time nearly made us sick.
Mr. Toad's Wild Ride: Awesome! I thought we were going to actually hit that train. And the "going to hell" portion reminded me of a motorcycle ride we took once, where we had to drive through a portion of a forest fire. Creepy.
Alice in Wonderland: really cool.
Rockets: His response; too high, too fast. I personally had a blast and am glad we took separate rocket ships.
Haunted Mansion. Those trees are creeping me out! So fun we did it twice.
River Tour: our tour guide, what can I say but it was clearly a long day for him. What a weird-o!
Autopia: No way am I standing in line to drive little cars that get in traffic jams—let's get out of here.
Splash Mountain: holy cow that was fast, steep, long, thought I was going to pass out.
Roger Rabbits Spin-Out: fun, but we had to wait nearly an hour and that was just too long. Couldn't get our car to spin very fast.
Gadgets Go-Coaster: L: “I don't like roller coasters.” I personally loved it. It's only 30 seconds long but it was fun.
Innoventions: Kind of lame, but we got to see an ASIMO demo. That was really fun.

Sunday, we drove to San Diego in the hopes of having lunch at one of our favorite restaurants, but not remembering it was Valentine's Day, we ended up searching for nearly 2.5 hours until we just decided to head down the Silver Strand and have lunch at one of our other favorite places.

All in all, it was a great trip, the cats behaved themselves at home and it took us a bit to recover—foot wise. I'm still bruised on my toes.

Welcome 2010

2010-01-01T17:44:00.003-07:00

Both L and I are rather happy the last year is behind us. We were spared from losing our jobs or having any health or family woes, but we had a pretty rough last 1/2 of the year with Ashley's illness. I honestly don't know how people coping with an ill loved one do it.

So, in celebration of the new year, we had a meal of Turnip Greens—representing financial wealth in the new year, ham—representing positive forward movement and black-eyed peas—representing prosperity. We also added in some honey corn bread, which was delicious.

I don't really agree with the whole new year's resolutions such as losing weight, stop smoking, etc. Those really are the old standbys. But, seeing as how the resolutions started in ancient Babylonian times—where apparently the most common resolution was to return borrowed farm equipment I thought I'd share a few of my own resolutions.

Don't dwell on my mistakes. Learn from them, but move forward!
Take more vacations
Enjoy life more fully

I'm not sure how I'm going to accomplish any of these resolutions yet, especially number 3, but I'm going to work on them anyway.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

New Car…

2009-12-27T13:24:00.007-07:00

This post is a little late, as we actually got the car in mid December. We were facing yet another repair with L’s Miata—after already having put in nearly $1,000 to repair a failed heater coil. That failure had created a leak in the coolant and put the entire contents of the coolant system into the floor of the car. Coolant is toxic and even more so when run through a heater, or vaporized. After that repair, one really cold morning—yes they do happen in Arizona—the knobs on the heater/cooler settings were no longer working. The knob was turned to maximum cold and he couldn't adjust it. D'oh!

I told L, maybe he should consider a new car. So, he started doing some research and suggested a few options—used options. I said, "no, I mean a new car, as in never before owned, brand new shiny off the lot." "Oh…" He spent the next week researching car's fuel mileage, costs, availability and reliability. We then spent a full Saturday looking at a number of different cars—Hyundai's, Toyotas and then Fords. He really liked the Focus, but did they have in in standard, not automatic? Well, sure, but they also had a fully equipped automatic—heated seats, leather interior, full set-up—that just happened to be marked down for end-of-year to the same price as a base-line standard. He test-drove that, fell in love with it and now we own it.

This is the first ever new car we have ever owned. Seriously. All other cars have been used, some heavily, some lightly, but all have been past warranty and previously owned.

It's pretty exciting and I'm especially relieved that we were able to get payments within our acceptable price range and term length. It's also nice knowing that he won't get stranded on the side of the road—which has happened at least 1/2 a dozen times in the past year from the Miata. The crazy thing is, the cheap, cheap, cheap Miata was actually costing us nearly $100 more per month than a brand new car when I amortized the repairs over the length of time we owned the car. I've yet to drive the car though—it really is L's, not mine—and I'm sure over the course of us owning it, I'll probably put on less than 1,000 miles.

Just a humorous anecdote…

2009-12-23T18:05:00.002-07:00

Last Christmas I was given a scrapbook page-a-day calendar. Right now, it happens to be on a section for pregnancy; papers with words like “1st Trimester!” and so forth. As L goes to microwave something for a snack—where the calendar sits—he hushedly calls me into the kitchen and asks, “Is there something I should be aware of?”

“Huh?” He thought I'd been given a pregnancy tracking calendar and a little one was on its way. Nope—nothing like that.

That's all I've got for now. Cheers!

I Might Be Turning Into a Cat Lady…

2009-11-19T15:23:00.006-07:00

I love the look on Moses' face here. He looks so concerned. What's behind me??!?

I think I've found the secret to a clean house. Get a kitten. They will literally find every piece of dirt, debris, paper wad or q-tip in the house.

We're about two weeks on with the new kittens and they are adapting to our home nicely. Both of them are under the blanket cats, much like Ashley was, and I have both of them sitting with me on the chair while I work. They sit behind me, while I scooch up as much as possible on the chair so I don't crush them.

Moses, our older cat, is slowly getting used to them. He still hisses at them when they are bugging him too much, but no fights yet. They just want to play with him and honestly, I don't think he knows how.

I had told L shortly before Ashely died, that when I do get another cat, I want a horde of cats to train as my minions—mwah ha haaa… These guys are fitting the bill nicely. We've already had to remove their collars as they both got their lower jaw stuck in them. We had to cut the collar off of Wilbur because he was stuck so bad. He also had the quick release portion in his mouth and every time L went to grab it, Wilbur somehow bit him. Poor little guy was freaked out.

2009-11-08T15:30:00.007-07:00

Friday, was a very bad day for me. I don't think I went for more than about an hour at a time not in tears over the loss of Ashley. It had been building up for the past week and I just could no longer contain it. I tried, I really did, but I was miserable. I felt guilty over wanting another pet so soon, as though I haven't done her justice. I know I made the right decision with the euthanasia, it helped ease her transition into death.

Saturday morning, we had made an appointment to see a local about some labrador puppies he had for sale. We drove over to his house and were confronted with a very walled in domicile. The entire place was fenced, including where he parked his cars and there were a the parent dogs barking at us frenetically. L didn't have the man's phone number on him, as his phone was out of battery so we called the number we saw on his company car. It had a message to call yet another number in case of emergency. He tried it, someone picked up, pressed some buttons and hung up on him. I said, "it isn't meant to be, let's just leave."

After that, we headed over to the Humane Society of Southern Arizona. We looked at the dogs there and all of them were shepherd/pit bull/boxer mixes of varying ages. No really young dogs though. I wasn't going to bring a large dog into the house with Moses here. So, we checked the cats out. Of course, seeing all these lovely purring affectionate cats made me mourn for Ashley even more. There were two though, that were very lovable, energetic and interested in us. I of course fell in love with them and adopted them.

This is Wilbur and Orville, named after the Wright Brothers. They have already earned the nicknames of Willy, O-Town (L's suggestion—I have no idea where he got that one) and Wingus and Dingus after an episode of Futurama. Wilbur is more sedate and cuddly, and Orville is more adventurous, much like the two brothers in real life.*

Wilbur in the front and Orville in the back mid tongue lick.

Smile!

Just two little mini-panthers hanging out.

They're super snuggly with each other, which allows Moses—our other
14 year old cat—some space to himself until he gets used to the new kittens.

*I have no idea if Wilbur Wright was a "cuddly" man. Actually, I'm pretty much doubting that adjective was used to describe him. Just a hunch.

2009-11-04T09:02:00.003-07:00

ASHLEY ROBERTSON
March 1992 — November 2009

At 8:15 this morning, Ashley was euthanized. Last night, around 3:45 in the morning, she was having difficulty breathing and her heart rate was fluctuating between about 60-120 b/min. Normal for a cat is 180-200 b/min. L and I stayed up with her all night keeping her warm and comfortable.

When I brought her into the vet, she had entered shock and her temperature was only 91°, whereas she was normally at 101°. They took a look at her, took her temp and felt her digestive system—which had literally nothing in it. They then took her in back and put in a catheter into the same arm as before, so all that fur that grew back from when she was in the hospital in July was once again shaved. They asked if I wanted a paw print and I said yes, so they did that and then brought her back into the examining room. They then gave her the sedative, which literally made her fall asleep in almost 2 seconds. She did not like that—she kind of let out a strong angry mew! They then gave her a double dose of barbiturates to stop her heart and then what they said was a "finisher." That may have been the second dose of barbiturates. She passed in about 3 seconds and I spent about 15 more minutes with her.

Immediately, she had lost color in her paws and ears. She was cool to the touch and didn't even smell the same. She was simply not there anymore and in a way it made it easier to say goodbye, knowing that the body is not who she was, but only a vessel.

I was with her the whole time. I let her stay wrapped up in the blanket laying down as I didn't want to squish her any. She didn't struggle or anything.

She has always been a member of my family and I'm so happy that she was able to be with us nearly 18 years. This past week has been especially difficult on both her and myself. She had been unable to walk and stopped eating two days ago. Until the kidney disease she was in remarkably good health. Even this summer she was her usual self, pawing and screaming at us to get up to feed her every morning, sitting with me while I work and just being a generally wonderful friend.

I ended up taking her to our local vet, only about 1 mile away. They were very nice about the whole thing, explaining the entire process. They answered all of my strange questions and listened to me ramble about her. This is not the same vet or clinic she saw while staying in the hospital. This vet was also a grad of Colorado State University.

Javelina: pig or not?

2009-10-30T15:44:00.003-07:00

Not! The Javelina, or peccary, is a pig-like animal found in many parts of the country. There are four species living in the American Southwest alone and today, two little critters found there way onto my front lawn. As I sat working away, I noticed something in my tree out front. Wait… that's not a dog, what is that? As it came out from under the branches I was astonished to see this little guy.

We don't usually see these in our neighborhood, especially since we are so suburban. The pair was traveling up our street, then back down into the wash behind our house. Again, this is why I love Arizona. I've seen so many critters out here—though I could do without the spiders—I feel like I live in a zoo at times.

Ashley's Health Update…

2009-10-30T14:39:00.002-07:00

Well, this has just been a suck of a week.

To put a long story short, just before lunch I went in to check on Ashley, as I had been doing every 1/2 hour or so this morning. She was stretched out long, breathing rapidly and heavy, her mouth hanging open. When I picked her up she was completely limp and her eyes were rapidly moving back and forth. I laid her out on the couch and she was totally non-responsive to sound. She was just looking around but laying out rigid. I called L and he made an appointment at our local vet to get her euthanized. Unfortunately we are having car trouble this week and I don't have a car available to me, so I was to walk over there. About 10 minutes before her appointment, she started to sit up and look around the room. Out of curiosity, I gave her some food and she ate it all, slipped off the couch and went into the bedroom to hang out under the bed. She cleaned herself and looked for all intensive purposes—normal.

We canceled the appointment and I now think she may have had either a stroke or seizure.

Like I said; a week of suck!

Ashley's Treatment…

2009-10-30T08:35:00.003-07:00

I took Ashley to the vet yesterday for them to check out why she might be unable to walk or stand. For the most part, my vet was pushing for euthanasia. I was not ready to make that decision sitting there in the office and she offered a couple of other remedies. We went ahead and gave her a shot to help with anemia as well as a prescription to slow her heart rate. As it stands, it was 280 b/min in the office. Normal is anywhere between 180-220—so she was very high. I've also noticed that her feet have been unnaturally cold as of late, and the vet said that the stressed heart is beating so fast, it can't get normal blood flow to the outer extremities. She is now on a heart-rate reduction medicine, fish oil and the daily lactated ringers fluid therapy.

So, I brought her home and have decided to give her a few days or weeks, depending on how she responds to the meds. If at that time, she continues to decline I will have to bring her in for euthanasia.

So far, immediately after giving her the heart medication, her feet are warm, she has more energy and sits up and she is back to meowing at me when I pet her.

We also believe she may have had a stroke in the last month. Shortly before she stopped walking normal, she would list to one side. I hadn't put that together until L told me those symptoms added up.

I know that I am essentially putting off the inevitable, but as long as she seeks out a warm sun beam, happily eats her food and meows when we enter a room, I will continue to help her cope. It is the least that I would do for a family member, human or animal.

I'm sure this is quite accurate!

Kitty Woes…

2009-10-27T17:11:00.003-07:00

I have been contemplating euthanasia for Ashley. She is not well really. She cannot stand or walk, and falls down if she tries to. She falls off of the couch and the bed and if pounced on my Moses, she falls over then too. This has not been a very good couple of weeks.

I tried in vain to find her low-protein kidney disease Iams pet food this weekend. I was told by PetSmart that I had to have a prescription—I did—but they did not have Iams. I said, "could you sell me a competitors brand?" No, not without a prescription. I then went to a vet and they told me, "we cannot sell prescription based diets unless your pet is a patient of ours." Great! So, she is back on regular Iams—which she has had her whole life—and it is the only thing she will eat anymore.

Currently she rests all day and sleeps on the bed at night. She is fairly well a complete invalid at this stage of her life. I feel like I have to explain to people that I am very close to my pets, as though it's some sort of deviant behavior. Too bad. Deal!

Pay it Forward…

2009-10-22T15:22:00.001-07:00

Please check out my post here PAY IT FORWARD and consider playing along!

Mt. Lemmon, Arizona

2009-10-17T18:57:00.005-07:00

Looking out at the valley and mountains beyond.
Here you can see Thimble Peak, the Tucson Mountains in the
background and the "Center of the Universe" Baboquivari Peak.

Mt. Lemmon is our little mountain to the north—OK, it's over 9,000 feet at its height—which is a pretty sizable mountain for a town that sits around 2,000 feet. Over the course of the 10 years we've lived in Arizona, we have been making the trek up the mountain numerous times, usually on the motorcycles, but this time in the Miata. Up top is a little Café, the Mt. Lemmon Café. A few years ago, Mt. Lemmon and its city Summerhaven had a terrible forest fire that destroyed many homes, structures and acres of the mountainside. It was front page news at the time that the little Mt. Lemmon Café—who serve some of the best pies in this area of the country—was not demolished by the fires.

We had headed up the mountain with visions of strawberry rhubarb pie on our minds, stopping along each overlook for me to shoot a few pictures. When we got into town, the café was no more. Not only was it closed, but it had been bulldozed for future structures. Turns out, the little lady that made the pies had passed away and her husband no longer had the drive to run the business. RIP Mt. Lemmon Café and little pie maker. We will miss you.

I took a bunch of photos of the mountain-scape and provide these for your viewing pleasure!

Starting up the mountain looking into the valley of Tucson.
The saguaros are very discerning where they can grow, and only a few
more feet in elevation, it is too cold to support the delicate cacatai.

Looking out over the ridge of the mountain.
I love the way the clouds shadows play on the moutains.
I sepia toned this image a bit for a little play on the colors.

Looking up at one of the many jutting ridges of Mt. Lemmon.

Some pretty mountain flowers along the roadside.

Tucson below, looking out over one of the mountains many ridges.

Tombstone, Arizona

2009-10-17T18:09:00.013-07:00

One of the many printing plates found at the
Tombstone Epitaph, the newspaper of the old west.
Note: This picture was flipped for legibility purposes!

One of the great things about living in Arizona is that every day you can take a step back into the Old West—while enjoying the amenities of the future, like air conditioning, penicillin, and modern vehicles. Tombstone, Arizona was our destination for a day of buffalo burgers—OK, I had a BLT; no beef—and a walk along the wooden boardwalks of old Arizona.

The boardwalk and lovely "old timey" signs.
I love this style and walking along the boardwalk
in a nice pair of boots elicits a magical sound.

For those not familiar with the place, Tombstone is where the historic gunfight between the Earp brothers and "Doc" Holiday versus Frank McLaury, Tom McLaury, Billy Claiborne, Ike Clanton, and Billy Clanton—the lawless villains of the old west—on Wednesday, October 26, 1881. In reality it's hard to tell the difference between those on the right side of the law and those on the wrong side.

"Walk Where They Fell"—that's a little morbid, right?
They have closed off the original lot where the shootout occured
because—I can only guess—they can make money by putting on a show?

Tombstone is a city very well aware of its own kitsch value, and it plays up to this fact with great effect. Don't go there looking for the real west—if that's what you are after I suggest old Bisbee, some of the old mines like Winkelman and Christmas; which are mostly ghost towns in this era. Outside every doorway is a man or woman in full western wear soliciting you to see their show, stop by for goods or just enjoy a drink on this fine hot afternoon. It feels like being solicited by prostitutes in Vegas; i.e. a little weird.

While in Tombstone you can visit famous Boot Hill, the original cemetery where so many of the west's famous names were buried. It's a little strange, and very fake feeling to me for most of the markers, but there are a couple of genuine burial sites within. It also allows a nice view of the valley down into Mexico behind the city.

Take a ride in one of the many stage coaches around
town and learn about the way the west was.

Don't stop too long, Big Nose Kates' might employ you in their house of burlesque!

Below is the slideshow of the rest of the pictures I took on our little mini vacation.

Friday Link Love…

2009-10-02T12:54:00.004-07:00

These are a few of my favorite websites to peruse when I need a little break.

Cute Overload – cute pictures of animals
Loving, Living, Small – design inspiration for small homes
The Pixar Blog — for all things Pixar animation

All of these are very work safe and kid friendly. If you are like me, you will spend way too much time on Cute Overload and from this day forward, refer to it as Cute OverLORD! They get us with their cuteness.

Another Trip to the Vet…

2009-09-30T06:23:00.003-07:00

Last night I had to take Ashley to the vet again. She has been kind of lethargic lately, and walking very strangely. She kind of weaves and loses her balance when she scratches her ears. I had thought that she might be becoming anemic again, so I took her in last night to see if they could check her red-blood cell count. After a battery of tests, they have determined that her numbers are essentially in stasis with regards to her kidney failure—that's good. But, what about the poor walking?

I believe that her muscle is simply atrophying. I don't know if this has been sped on by the low-protein diet or if it is simply her 17 years that have finally caught up to her. They have recommended adding in Omega-3 Fatty Acids in the form of fish oil to her diet to help stimulate the brain and heart functions.

Apparently there are a few breeds of cats that are prone to kidney disease, Siamese and Burmese among the most prevalent. Because of Ashley's tiny size, vets believe she has some of these cats traits in her genes. I'm not saying you should never adopt one of these cats, but just to know that after a very long life, they may develop this disease—and it's not fun at all. But, she is still very happy, very anxious for us to get up in the morning to feed her, and she enjoys her time with us; which is all I could ask.

Friday Link Love…

2009-09-25T13:43:00.003-07:00

EDIT: I am going to delete one of the suggested links: it has become highly not safe for work in the past week and has transitioned from strange and unusual to downright disturbing!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I wanted to share with everyone some links that make me laugh. Below is a list of some of my favorite sites, but I must say, some are not for the faint of heart—meaning, there is some dirty language in some of these and some rather strange photography. I.E. Don't click the link if you are unsure… but you'll be safe with Cakewrecks and the kitties.

I Can Has Cheezburger: a myriad of cat pictures and a window into the way their minds work
Cakewrecks: The author's tagline says it best, "When professional cakes go horribly, hilariously wrong."

Spiders…

2009-09-12T08:56:00.002-07:00

OK! I am tired of encountering all these darned spiders. First, a pile of black widows in my garage, each one seemingly larger than the last. Then, after a walk around the neighborhood, I saw a large black 8-legger wash down my drain in the shower after rinsing my hair! And last night? Yeah, as I was coming home from a night out, all sleepy and ready to just chill and watch a movie, I step up to my front door, over a thing and then my brain realizes said thing is a frikin' tarantula. Gross. OK brain, fight or flight, fight or flight? At first, brain tried to just shove the key into the door and run into the house. Then it was like, "no way, we run." So I ran back out to the front of the house sure the whole time that the spider had crawled up my pants leg. Finally we went in through the garage door, me making L do a spider check at least 10 times.

By the way, spiders really freak me out. Easily as much as snakes freak out Mountain Mama. Well, big ones do any way, and Tucson is abundant with big spiders. I kept my cats sitting next to and on me the rest of the evening, and L eventually went out to the front of the house to see just how big it was. I heard him through the door making sounds of alarm as he shooed it away from the house. "Jeeze it's fast." "Man, that's big." And so on. He asked if I wanted him to squish it, but of course I did not as it's just doing its thing, eating bugs and whatnot. It's not poisonous so he shooed it into the neighbors yard—the one who lets their dogs run amok and use my tree as their own personal toilet.

I'm not sure I'm going to use the front door for a while, I can tell you that much. When we'd left for the evening we saw the cutest, tiniest lizard on our way out and after my freak out I cried thinking "I bet that thing ate the little lizard!"

A day of photography…

2009-09-08T15:22:00.008-07:00

I spent the morning at the Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum photographing as much as I could. I have determined, I am a terrible photographer. Bad, just really, really bad. But, I try. There's nothing quite like returning back from a full day to find 40% of your photos are so blown out, they look like their sun damaged. Sigh! I know full well that I can just use the full auto feature and the photos will look great, but that's not why I got an SLR. I want to experiment with the camera to its fullest potential rather than relying on the internal computers to dictate my shots.

Driving out to the Desert Museum makes me remember exactly why and how much I love living in Tucson. Going over Gates Pass takes you from the hustle and noise of downtown and into serene vistas of the Sonoran Desert. With every turn you see life—in the cactus, trees and random road runner crossing the street. Hawks and vultures fly overhead in the turbulent updrafts caused by a warm summer day. Far on the horizon and thunderstorm begins to develop leaving a sense of electricity in the air—the florae even turn more green in anticipation. I want to be able to photograph the way I see the desert, but I'm still learning about f-stops, shutter speeds and focal lengths. I've been playing with the camera in full manual mode trying to see how the images come out. Below are some photos from my adventure.

Summer Thanks Giving…

2009-08-10T07:00:00.001-07:00

Every summer L and I do a full Thanks Giving meal. It's my favorite meal, and I suppose if ever faced with “last meal” choices, this would be it. We cooked a turkey breast, mashed potatoes, candied sweet potatoes, stuffing, rolls, cranberry jelly and mini spice cakes. I really didn't want a heavy pie or cake, so I made these little spice cakes simply powdered with sugar. The recipe has sour cream in it, and the cake is really tasty. I spiced mine with vietnamese cinnamon, chinese five spice and star anise. Yumm!!! I did something a little different with the sweet potatoes too—used the star anise there. What a difference that makes. It really cuts the sweetness down from a syrupy style to a spiced taste. I use fresh sweet potatoes, brown sugar, spices and a little butter. I top it all with marshmellows and cook until tender.

After my birthday breakfast, L and I went antiquing—I've never before done that—and I found a cake plate with cover. It's something that I've always wanted but have never found before. Since this one is used, it was super cheap. Here's the spice cake presented in my new cake plate. Just look past those stupid water spots!

Hometown Tourist…

2009-08-09T16:44:00.006-07:00

This past week L and I celebrated my birthday by spending the day in downtown Tucson. It gave me a great opportunity to be a tourist in my own town, snapping pictures with my new digital SLR camera. Our first stop was the famous Hotel Congress, where John Dillinger stayed shortly before being caught by the local police without a single bullet being shot.

The sign, as seen from the southern side of the hotel.

One of the coolest things about the bar area, where we had breakfast is the penny floor.

A close-up of the Hotel Congress penny floor.

I enjoyed the repetition of forms in the bar chairs. I also really like the
convenience of the little hooks for your handbag underneath the bar.

I had the Eggs and Gunpowder breakfast, which is a big bowl of roasted potatoes,
two poached eggs, cheese and turkey chorizo.

L had the Eggs Chipotle & Borracho Pork. Both breakfasts were excellent.

After breakfast we drove up A-Mountain, which really is not very large compared to the mountains in the background of this image. But it provides a great vantage point of my little town. In this picture you can see the downtown metropolitan area and the U of A campus in the background. The mountains on the far side are the Catalina Mountains, which are about 9,000 feet high.

Finally, L treated me to an ice cream birthday cake, and yes, put all 34 candles on there. Wow! That was pretty crazy.

Fluids, needles and more…

2009-07-24T22:04:00.002-07:00

Did I say giving sub-q treatments was easy? Where the heck was the real me? OK, I'm pretty squeamish about intentionally hurting my friends, family, pets, whatever. Plus, that needle is frickin' huge!

First round by myself went OK, but Ash jumped into my lap and pulled her needle out. D'oh! I decided to give her a rest and try again later this evening with L's help. It went smoother and she got the necessary fluids.

Cats, Bikes and More…

2009-07-24T07:41:00.005-07:00

So with Ashley's new medical care, trading to a scooter is now out of the question. The bike will be up for sale today through Motorcycle Traders Magazine. Also, no vacations for a while as Ashley adjusts to her daily regiments of Sub-Q treatments and feeding her as much as she wants. It's official though. I have a dromedary for a cat. When you give the fluids it creates a weird little bubble on her back until the fluids are absorbed into the body. It looks a little bit like a dromedary's hump when it is low on water. Weird! Her little foot was swollen yesterday until I was able to take off the bandage for her IV.

By the way, I'll have to hook up her fluids at home; not nearly as ooky and difficult as you'd think. I feel I could now give a shot to a person. Maybe someday I'll post a pic for the non-squeamish.

I now have two very spoiled cats. I can no longer leave the dry food out for them because they don't want Ash eating any of the higher protein food. So now, whenever Moses is hungry he comes to me where I keep his food in a closed container. This is going to get busy!

Oh, and now she's sleeping under the covers. That's new. I thought I was going to totally squish her last night.

The Vet Hospital…

2009-07-22T19:24:00.001-07:00

A quick note; Ashley is staying one more day in the hospital hooked up to IV to get her numbers in as normal range as possible. She comes home tomorrow as long as everything goes well.

Thank You Cards…

2009-07-22T07:00:00.000-07:00

Here are two of my latest Thank You cards. I made these using images cut out of an old botanical calendar that I have. My biggest weakness is my lettering, which I am working on the most. My favorite thing to do is add dimension with foam sticky pads. Here, I have elevated the illustration for added impact.

Ashley’s Journey…

2009-07-21T15:56:00.016-07:00

One of the few decent pictures I've gotten of her. I played around making the image
sepia toned, then brought back the color in the eyes. Soft blur on edges
for a vignette look. If I use flash, she blinks,
if I don't she usually moves so much it's just a blur. Like the next picture!

I just got back from the Vet Hospital to see Ashley and she looks a ton better. She's been on IV fluids for two days now to get her toxin (everything the kidneys do) levels to normal. Yesterday her numbers for her BUN values were in the 80s, where normal values are 14-36. Today she is only slightly above 40. She'll be in the hospital at least one more day, if not two.

The biggest problem is that once she gets home, she is in for lifetime treatment to minimize the kidney usage. She looks good today but could be in terrible shape once I bring her home. Essentially, I am prolonging her ability to live. There's a lot of guilt that goes along with this, especially considering that I don't like the idea of euthanasia. I don't even like the concept of capital punishment either. I don't agree with it. So I help her live comfortably by modern medicine, but I don't want to prolong her beyond her ability to choose to die. Like I said, guilt. Lot's and lot's of it.

This is actually a happy Ashley. L was scratching her ears last night

and she is sort of tucked in here enjoying the moment.

She likes gripping my hand with her wee paws. She's very judicial with the claws too!

Again, I come with the disclaimer: she is part of my family. I've always had a strong connection with my pets and animals and treat them as I would humans. I fully believe the afterlife is not based solely on how we treat our own kind but how we treat the world in total. Many people may not agree with what I am doing, but that is their decision to make.

PS: If anyone else has pets going through something like this, this site HERE has been quite helpful.

New Look…

2009-07-21T13:18:00.003-07:00

How do you like the new look?

Good
Bad
Indifferent

I decided to revamp the blog a little bit to make navigation easier. I get a lot of requests for the few recipes I have on here, so it's all easy to find now. The navigation was very simple to add, just in case anyone is interested!

I took the photograph with my little point and shoot last summer during our Monsoons. We were out driving and I thought the clouds on the mountains were amazing. This year, I have a new SLR camera and plan on doing the same. I've been trying to take it everywhere with me just in case I get that magical shot.

Healthcare Costs…

2009-07-21T11:28:00.005-07:00

So, moving forward with Ashley's health care I'm at a small dilemma. We have officially canceled our 11th Anniversary trip to the coast of California. I'm also spending a bit of money on the whole thing, so I'm toying with the idea of finding a part-time job to pay for the costs of medication. I know most people think, "it's just a cat." But she is a member of my family and since she is not in pain, I don't see how I could simply end her life for my convenience. I'm also putting the Ducati up for sale—if anything, money that I make from that can re-pad my savings account. The third thing I've done is opted to be incredibly frugal.

Here's my dilemma. I have recently started to get into sewing, but can no longer put money towards that hobby. If anyone has any ideas on how to be a frugal seamstress please present them. And if anyone has any leftover fabric that's just laying about the house unused, unwanted, I'd gladly take it off your hands. I'm certainly not looking for handouts, but I know I have a lot of scrapbooking supplies and would be interested in an exchange. Seriously, a lot of supplies—the puzzle place I worked at owned a scrapbooking company for a while and I got lots of freebies.

By the way, this all just sucks. I know animals get old and die, like everything else in this world. But knowing that in the future I will likely have to choose for euthanasia is heartbreaking to me. There's a saying the pets give you unconditional love because they have to break your hearts when they die. I totally agree.

Bloodwork…

2009-07-20T14:11:00.004-07:00

Numbers are coming down = good
Phosphate in normal range = great
Now, because of all the hydration we have to look for anemia and possible shots to help with red blood cell production.

Luckily I get to visit her anytime between 8 am. and 10 pm. I'm going back tonight to visit and spend a little time with her.

Ashley’s Story…

2009-07-20T10:14:00.002-07:00

“You can't own a cat. The best you can do is be partners.”
—Sir Harry Swanson

Yesterday I had to take Ashley, my cat of over 17 years to the vet for what I thought would be a mild case of constipation. Turns out, her kidneys are in the early stages of failure. It is impossible to say how sad it feels to watch a beloved pet struggling with their health. I have opted to try a regiment of clearing the kidneys of toxins by way of intravenous fluids. I'll know more later this afternoon what her vitals are at. Assuming that she can come home at all, I will be into full care-giver status. She wll be on a low protein diet, extra water and weekly subcutaneous hydration. Travel for me will surely be minimized.

She's none too happy this morning after spending a night in the Animal Hospital. Apparenlty, while I was in with the doctor Scooter said a woman with a dog who'd been hit by a car came by and the dog sadly did no make it.

This is her from the first morning I saw her. She had just been hooked up to IV,
had an enema (yeah, I'd be uncomfortable too) and all sorts of other tests.

Trading (Up?)…

2009-07-14T22:30:00.006-07:00

So, I've just not had the desire to ride in like, oh, the last 6 months or so. Bicycles yes, but motorcycles, not so much. There's no one reason for it but a number of lesser reasons. I'm busy with work, I don't commute anymore so there is no daily drive, my sinuses are buggin' me and leave me a little intimidated, it's hot as heck right now mixed with thunder and lightening. I've been looking at either selling the Ducati or trading it and came across this little beauty this weekend.

Single sided front and rear wheels, included luggage rack, 70-80 mpg and in the most beautiful green with brown seat ever. Squee!

The idea of riding a scooter has never really interested me until this year. I'm not a scooter rider. I'm a motorcycle enthusiast! In this world, that's a big difference. But, I'm changing and my ways are changing. They had this exact model in the local Italian bike shop; unfortunately they also already had two of my motorcycles in there as well, so would likely not be looking to trade. It's a small shop, nothing like a big car dealer.

I'm looking forward to this change in my life and learning yet another life skill. And here are some quick little illos of scooters I drew many months ago.

New Athletic (?) Shoes…

2009-07-14T08:34:00.006-07:00

I've needed new running/walking shoes for a long time now. Like, a year maybe. So I've been shopping for quite some time now. After reading about a number of different options out there, I decided to go with the Vibram FiveFingers shoe. What? What is it? Well, it's the closest thing you can come to walking barefoot. There is a lot of evidence supporting the idea that we are designed to walk barefoot and our shoes are actually impeding us in developing strong leg and foot muscles. I'm a big fan of barefoot anyway and rarely go with shoes around the house—even when walking to the mailbox at times.

I've been walking in these shoes for a few days now and found only a slight irritation on my heal as it gets used to a new shoe there. Some people have complained about heel pain and bruising when walking on cement, but I have not noticed any of that. I think all my marching band years have taught me to walk well too. I've noticed that I get less fatigue in my calk with these shoes, and don't get the foot cramps I used to at times. I've also been a lot more conscious of using my toes to propel me forward, thus increasing my use of calf-muscles.

The weirdest part about these shoes is the “between the toes” feel. However after a few minutes of that, it's actually quite nice to be able to wiggle your toes while walking and grip with your toes while crossing terrain. These would be great martial arts, yoga and general shoes. You do get a lot of weird looks too. I call them my gecko toes. And yes, I got the purple. Scooter (new name for my husband—just don't tell him :P ) convinced me that was the best color.

A Week in the Mile High State…Part IV

2009-07-14T08:23:00.003-07:00

— THE TRIP HOME —

The plane trip home.

Oh yeah. I forgot to finish my trip. I flew home. THE END!

A Week in the Mile High State…Part III

2009-06-02T13:19:00.010-07:00

— ESTES PARK, CO. —

Outside the cabin, Thursday morning.

Wednesday evening we drove up to Estes Park—a place I haven't visited since around the time I moved to Arizona 10 years ago. It's almost exactly like I remember with only a little bit of new developments along the route up there.

Sister and I treated Mom to a day in the mountains, and we cooked pasta with the Brady Street Cheese Sprinkle from Peneys Spices, garlic toast, a green salad with avocado and a couple bottles of wine. Let me tell you about those! When we got to the cabin, we found the corkscrew provided was broken and had no way of opening the wine bottles. In my good mood, I decided to ask our neighbors—whom we could see through the window—if we might be able to borrow theirs. I trotted over to the cabin, knocked on the door and got a very vocal

“THIS ISN’T THE OFFICE!!”
“Uh…yeah, I know…just wanted to see if I could borrow a corkscrew?”
“Oh, oh, OK.”

When I brought the thing back—nearly immediately after borrowing—as I started saying "thanks!" the guy at the door goes, "You're welcome"—really rude family, I tell you. Sometimes altitude does strange things to people.

Mr. Happy, after watching an evening of American Idle.

Next day, we went into town to do a little window shopping. We sat and watched an entire presentation at the glass blowers, where I snapped a picture of these as of yet unopened poppies.

And on our way out of town we all stopped by the famous Stanley Hotel, one of the many sets used in Stephen King's "The Shining". Though they say it's haunted, I saw no evidence of that whatsoever.

Next up: The end of the week.

A Week in the Mile High State…Part II

2009-05-27T07:45:00.007-07:00

— PENZEYS SPICES —

Tuesday started out a rainy and dreary–albeit hot—day and Sister, Mom and I went to Arvada to go to the retail store for Penzeys Spices. I'm kind of a spice nut as I really don't like using salt and feel almost any meal can be made better with the right spice. I had my eye on getting really good cinnamon and found the Extra Fancy Vietnamese Cassia (not a true cinnamon by the way). I enjoy it so much I put it in my coffee as well as breakfast smoothies.

I would definitely recommend going to this store if you have the time. My family each bought a number of bags, then divided them up into the jars, which they sell at the shop. I walked away with about 15 new spices to try out.

— WHAT I MADE —

Fresh gingerbread. This recipe is super moist, but now that I've made it I'll be changing up some of the ingredients. First, I'll be substituting most of the butter with applesauce, doubling the cinnamon and ginger and serving it with hot coffee. Delicious! The recipe as modified is below.

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Scant 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup applesauce
2 tablespoons softened butter
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup mild molasses (not robust or blackstrap)
3/4 cup well-shaken buttermilk (I used 3/4 Tbsp lemon juice and 1%milk to make 3/4 cup)
1/2 cup hot water

Directions

Preheat oven to 350ºF with rack in middle. Butter a 9-inch square baking pan.
Whisk together flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in a bowl. Beat applesauce, butter and sugar with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy. Beat in egg until blended, then beat in molasses and buttermilk. Mix in flour mixture on low speed until smooth, then add hot water and beat 1 minute (batter may look curdled.)
Spread batter evenly in pan and bake until a wooded pick inserted into center comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Cool in pan on a rack.

Next up: Estes Park, CO.

A week in the Mile High State…Part I

2009-05-26T07:15:00.010-07:00

The week started off with a trip to the Butterfly Pavillion just outside of Denver. I had read on their front door that this was an invertebrate museum, and knew fully well that all species of insects would be found here. I had already made up my mind, that no way, no how am I letting a tarantula touch my hand—I don't care if they are fuzzy and light and don't bite or are not poisonous. Yikes! No way! We walked into the main building and of course, this is where all the spiders, scorpions and cockroaches are. I actually had to leave the room for a few minutes after seeing this guy! I don't know exactly how big this was, but if memory serves me right it was something like 10 feet across.

After leaving the room for a bit, I finally worked up the nerve to let Rosie walk across my hand. I was literally shaking from SpiderFreakoutis™, but let her walk across me. Light, fuzzy and not that bad. I still don't want one in my house, but not the most horrifying experience in the world. Of course, Mom didn't get my camera to work so all I have is a sticker for proof and a picture of the insect walking on her hand. I will admit, my camera does funny things sometimes.

Next up were the cockroaches. They don't bother me nearly as much as the spiders and what is even weirder still, I had butterflies land on me left and right and had no problem at all with them. The top image is the Madagascar Hissing Cockroach and for the life of me, I cannot remember the name of the roaches on the bottom image. They're actually quite pretty in person.

After visiting the Arthropods, you get to see a few creatures of the ocean—starfish and horseshoe crabs. I didn't take any pictures of them as I was still getting my shaking hands under control after "petting" Rosie. After all the interior sections, you get to go out into a huge arboretum where all the butterflies and plants are. All of them were quite pretty and very active as the day was rather warm.

"MOTHRA… MOTHRA…"

Up next… Penzies Spice Company in Arvada Colorado.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

2009-05-05T18:02:00.008-07:00

To celebrate, Lindsay and I made a few of our more favorite Mexican style dishes. Chile Verde, Nacho Dip and Key Lime Pie.

Chile Verde (This is a variation of my chile verde, found HERE)

2 Lbs. pork rib meat
1 Lb. tomtatillos
2 jalapeños
3 green chile peppers
1 Small chopped onion
1/2 cup cilantro
pork rub or seasoning
2 garlic cloves
1 Bay Leaf
2 cans white beans
Cumin to taste (I use about 1/4 cup!)

Accomaniments:

Cubed jack cheese
White jasmine rice

Prep:

Roast chili peppers, jalapeños and tomatillos under broiler until skins turn brown and bubbly, then place peppers in covered container for approx. 10 minutes for skins to loosen.

While vegetables are broiling, place pork in crock pot and season with desired seasoning.

After removing skins, combine peppers, tomatillos, cilantro, garlic and onion in blender and blend until smooth. Poor mixture over pork and add in bay leaf; cook covered until pork is tender and can be pulled apart with a fork.

Finish:

After shredding pork, add in white beans and cumin and cook an additional hour.

Serve with cubed jack cheese and rice if desired.

Nacho Dip

1 can refried black beans
2 Tbsp. chili powder
1 cup guacamole
1 cup light sour cream
1 small can chopped olives
1 small chopped onion
1 small can chopped jalapeños
2 tomatoes, chopped
2 cups shredded cheddar/jack mix

Accomaniments:

Tortilla chips

Prep:
Mix refried beans with chili powder and spread in 9" casserole.
Layer remaining ingredients in order and top with shredded cheese.

Finish:

Serve with tortilla chips.

Key Lime Pie (as adapted from Gourmet, May 2003)
For crust

18 graham cracker squares; crumbed
2 tablespoons sugar
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

For filling

1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
4 large egg yolks
20 Key Limes; juiced

For topping

3/4 cup chilled heavy cream

Make crust:

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Stir together graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and butter in a bowl with a fork until combined well, then press mixture evenly onto bottom and up side of a 9-inch (4-cup) glass pie plate.

Bake crust in middle of oven 10 minutes and cool in pie plate on a rack. Leave oven on.

Make filling and bake pie:
Whisk together condensed milk and yolks in a bowl until combined well. Add juice and whisk until combined well (mixture will thicken slightly).

Pour filling into crust and bake in middle of oven 15 minutes. Cool pie completely on rack (filling will set as it cools), then chill, covered, at least 8 hours.

Make topping:
Just before serving, beat cream in a bowl with an electric mixer until it just holds stiff peaks. Serve pie topped with cream.

Backstory…

2009-04-28T16:03:00.004-07:00

So, in case some of you thought I was off my rocker with my last post, here's the back story. While working at "The Puzzle Company," my coworkers and I were discussing movies and at one point someone said, "there is only one trilogy." And I piped up, "Yeah, Jurassic Park!" I do like the movies, as I really like dinosaurs, but c'mon—they're kind of goofy.

Anyway, one particular coworker would randomly play the Jurassic Park theme for me to hear and ultimately it was revealed that I breed raptors. We would even sneak in raptors into puzzle boxes on occasion for our Creative Director to find.* I would discuss at times that I would photograph them and reveal my plot to reintroduce these magnificent (albeit extinct) animals to the world again. Then last week, said coworker snuck it in again—the Jurassic Park theme. Do de do do dooo, do dee do do doo… It just had to be done.

So now you know the rest of the story.

*No, this did not take a lot of time and before anyone asks, I never missed a deadline and always worked long hours.

A Little Experiment…

2009-04-24T15:22:00.005-07:00

BACK HISTORY:

As many of you know, I've been developing a program for the scientific community for a number of years now: the Raptor Breeding Program. After nearly 5 years of waiting for my permits, I was finally granted the opportunity to start breeding full sized dinosaurs—the Velociraptor. This fascinating species shall walk the earth again.

ENTRY DATE: Friday, April 24

Something horrible happened today. I've included a quick shot of my field journal. If I don't make it out of here, my only hope is that someone can carry on my work. The raptors got out today. I don't know if it was the weather or something more sinister. One of my three subjects is missing and I can only hope she doesn't run amok in downtown Tucson.

ENTRY DATE: Friday, April 24 … edit.

I've been able to round up the two with minimal effort. Turns out—they really like key lime pie! This is good to know, but I am worried about Subject 13. I'll have to start researching purveyors of key lime pie and warn them.

A Garden…Finally!

2009-04-23T14:44:00.004-07:00

I have what you could call—a brown thumb. Most of my plants either die by under watering/over watering/too much plant food (oops!) or just plain old neglect. Much of that stemmed (hoo ha; did you get that pun?) from the fact that I used to work at the office about 50-60 hours a week. No way did I have any desire to do much of anything after getting home.

But, here it is—proof that my little planting experiment is working. Now I just hope that I have not started these woefully late. But, with the long growing season out here I'm not that worried. That's the blessing of living in Southern Arizona.

My experiment consisted of:

Using old natural no additives dirt put into recycled paper cups
Placing seeds, then adding more dirt
Marking all cups with a Sharpie marker so I knew what I was looking at
Placing all cups onto cookie sheets
Shooing away the cats now and again; no this is not catnip
Watering cups any time I notice the tops are dry

If all goes well, I will have

Two types of tomatoes
Tomatillos
Jalapeños
Annaheim peppers
Peaches and Cream corn
Silver corn
Summer squash
Zucchini

Air Conditioning…

2009-04-22T17:29:00.003-07:00

or … “How I became an HVA/C Technician”

Last September, about a week after I started my own home-based business, my Air Conditioner met the great compressor in the sky. As an A/C is a rather expensive piece of hardware, we decided to readdress this situation come springtime. That time is now. I sat through a few days of 86° in the house but overall, winter has been kind to us—and cold! Now it is hot again and I'm feeling the need, the need for sp-coldair?

First step: I signed on with AngiesList.com, as heard about on NPR and found A-rated HVA/C service companies. First up, a gentleman came out to measure the house, check the duct-work and figure out the overall needs of our A/C. After these, he discussed the various options his company could offer, and off he went. Oh … he forgot his ladder, so we have great new $60 ladder sitting in our garage.*

QUOTE: $4,400 for new A/C compressor, coil and install

Second step: Contact next company with A-list rating on AngiesList.com. Another technician in our house, looks over everything and we discuss options. He addresses some issues with specific brands and provides some reading materials and advice.

QUOTE: ~$3,500 for A/C compressor, coil, furnace and install

Now, after getting quite a bit of information I find myself on THIS page. So glad I found this information. I now know what R-22 is (dupont, I'm looking at you!) and SEER and R410A (Puron), what the ratings actually mean and how they can be used. Also, I know that you can in fact buy too large of an A/C unit. Know your square footage before anything else.

Yep, I'm pretty much an expert now. So, I'll be getting my license and bonding downtown tomorrow and starting in on the lucrative career of A/C install.**

______________________________
* I will actually call this company and return their ladder
** No, no I really will not become an A/C technician. That's a joke on my part. A pretty lame one, but…

Green Pozole with Chicken

2009-04-12T20:45:00.000-07:00

I adapted this recipe from an issue of Gourmet some years ago. If you are interested in the original recipe, click HERE. I've made the original recipe exactly as stated and altered it along the way to quicken the cooking time.

Green Pozole with Chicken:

2 tbsp. olive oil
1/2 onion
6 cloves garlic
1 lb. tomatillos
2 jalapeños
1 cup chopped cilantro
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
3 cups chicken broth
1 cup shredded chicken
2 15oz. cans hominy
1 bay leaf

Accompaniments:

Diced radish
Diced avocado
Chopped fresh cilantro

Roast tomatillos and jalapeños until skins are browned in oven under broiler setting. After roasting, place peppers in plastic bag until skins are loose and peel from pepper. Slice peppers in 1/2, removing ribs and seeds; set aside for later.
Dice onion and chop garlic; sauté in 1 tbsp. olive oil in large pot.
Place tomatillos, jalapeños, onion, garlic chopped parsley, chopped cilantro into blender and blend until smooth.
Heat 1 tbsp. olive oil in large pan and add blended mix. Bring to boil and stir until thickened—about 5 minutes.
Add chicken broth, hominy, shredded chicken and bay leaf. Bring to boil and let simmer 1/2 hour. Add in seeds and ribs from reserved jalapeños to desired heat.
Serve as desired with accompaniments.

Thicken base under moderate heat about 5 minutes.

Serve with radish, avocado and fresh chopped cilantro.

I think this recipe could easily be converted to a vegetarian dish. The flavor is all in the broth and hominy.

2009-04-12T09:23:00.003-07:00

Woo hoo! I'm the heaviest I've ever been in my life today. Yea for frustration and my sinuses making me feel like crud all the time. At least this gives me my starting point. I found THIS blog through the 31 Days to Better Blogging and it has inspired me to get serious about getting healthier. Plus I have that Disneyland in August goal to work toward.

Weekly weigh-in:

Starting Weight: 189lbs
Last Week’s Weight: N/A
This Week’s Weight: 189lbs
This Week’s loss: 0lbs
Total loss: 0lbs
Hip to Waist Ratio: 0.87
Waist: 39"
Hips: 44.5"
BMI: 27.9
Body Fat Last Week: 41.6%
Body Fat This Week: 41.6%

Weightloss Journaling…

2009-04-09T00:10:00.004-07:00

I thought about starting a separate personal blog on journaling my weight-loss and fitness goals, but then though, heck, I have so many readers here* that I might be doing them a disservice. So, I hope you guys don't get entirely bored with my interruptions about getting fit and lighter. Scooter and I are taking a week this summer to go to California. I told him, I don't want to be huffing and puffing my way through San Francisco, Monterey, San Diego and (wee!) Disney Land! So, I've got four months to get my butt in gear.

I'm also taking a virtual blog-building seminar that will help me shape my blog to be a much more interesting and concise blog. It's funny to me, as blogs (web logs if you will) were originally created as on-line diaries. They were about anything and everything—now it seems blogs have become specialized in their messages.

My first order of business: develop my elevator pitch.

*I think I have what—three readers? :P

Home Revisions…

2009-03-25T16:52:00.013-07:00

Scooter and I are in the process of rearranging our entire house. Yes, that's what I said. It's a much less costly way of redecorating. Of course—being the nut that I am—I had to draw the entire area out in SketchUp, furniture and all. It's essentially a digital way of doing the graph paper and cut out shapes method, but for me, much more fun.

This is the view from my office. My whole house is a dusty green color called "Campaign Green," which I equate to Coleman Tent green. It is a very nice compliment to the desert atmosphere. I have long wanted to do red accents, but my time at my previous office always told me otherwise. So many times, I would present a red/green, pink/lemony-green, deep orange/olive design and the first comment I always received was, "It's too Christmas-y." Well, too bad. I like those colors together.

Overview of the plan. I'm going to choose a brownish-red for the one wall in the living room, which will be the only thing I want to paint (except for my office).

From the bedroom door looking towards my office and front door.

I think this plan will open up our house quite a bit more. If anything, it's an excuse for me to thoroughly clean the whole place, which it is in desperate need of.

A couple things that I noticed while creating this model.

The SketchUp database is full of user posted artifacts like furniture, appliances and more.
The generic girl model included looks an awful lot like myself. What does that say? I'm that generic. D'oh!
As a graphic designer/illustrator I just can't be happy with a simple "move it and see."

PS: I did not draw the bathrooms or bedrooms … yet.

Mulled Strawberries…

2009-03-20T07:23:00.007-07:00

.
This is a recipe from Alton Brown of Good Eats on the Food Network. I got 4 Lbs. of strawberries yesterday at a ridiculously low price and wanted to somehow preserve them. I made a Strawberry Shortcake from this recipe, but they are just as good in a bowl.

NOTE: to those with little children — there is no cooking in this so the wine is still full strength.

2 pints (4 C) medium size strawberries, hulled and sliced
1 (750ml) bottle red wine — I used Chiraz (thanks Mom!)
1/4 C honey
1 tsp finely chopped lemon zest
1 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 C sugar

In a bowl combine all ingredients; let stand in refrigerator for 2 hours.

Happy St. Patrick's Day…

2009-03-17T16:30:00.007-07:00

Our annual St. Patrick's Day tradition around the homestead is to do Cheddar Beer Soup. This year, I am pairing it with Bruschetta and of course a nice big Guinness.

The images are showing the following stages: 1: Ingredients, 2: Base, 3: Cream and Broth, 4: Cheese, 5: Blended Ingredients, 6: Final.

Here is the original recipe for the Cheddar Beer Soup from Gourmet:
NOTE: I make a slight modification by using Guinness (thus it's Irish) for the beer. I also blend the mixture after adding the cheese and add the beer at the very end.

2 medium leeks (white and pale green parts only), cut into 1/4-inch dice (2 cups)
2 medium carrots, cut into 1/4-inch dice (1 cup)
2 celery ribs, cut into 1/4-inch dice (1 cup)
2 teaspoons finely chopped garlic
1 Turkish or 1/2 California bay leaf
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups whole milk
1 3/4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth (14 fl oz)
1 (12-oz) bottle ale such as Bass
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 lb extra-sharp Cheddar (preferably English; rind removed if necessary), grated (4 cups)
4 bacon slices (3 1/2 oz total), cooked and crumbled

Wash leeks in a bowl of cold water, agitating water, then lift out leeks and drain in a colander.
Cook leeks, carrots, celery, garlic, and bay leaf in butter in a 4-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until vegetables begin to soften, about 5 minutes. Reduce heat to moderately low and sprinkle flour over vegetables, then cook, stirring occasionally, 3 minutes. Add milk, broth, and beer in a stream, whisking, then simmer, whisking occasionally, 5 minutes. Stir in Worcestershire sauce, mustard, salt, and pepper.
Add cheese by handfuls, stirring constantly, and cook until cheese is melted, 3 to 4 minutes (do not boil). Discard bay leaf.
Serve sprinkled with bacon.

Taxes! Woes…

2009-03-16T15:19:00.002-07:00

What is the difference between a taxidermist and a tax collector? The taxidermist takes only your skin. ~Mark Twain, Notebook, 1902

Taxes are due today—well for those running a company anyway—and Federal taxes only. The rest are due with all the personal income taxes on the 15th of April. Oh la vache, what a pain in the rear my taxes were. I had all my tax paperwork to my CPA by the middle of last month. They're done today, I stop by the office and he presents me with a deposit coupon that has to be completed today. Basically, at your bank where you have your business account they will make an automatic deposit to the IRS.

Well … my bank—a credit union—won't do this transaction. Why do they even offer a business account if they aren't able to complete simple business transactions? So, they send me to a large bank. Apparently, that means something like Bank of America or Chase. Well, they won't do the transaction either because I don't have my business account with them. So, long story short, I have to go and send the money today as quickly as possible and eat the late fee that I'll get from the IRS. Jeesh! I spent 4 hours running around town today from bank to bank to pretty much get nowhere.

Taxes, after all, are dues that we pay for the privileges of membership in an organized society. ~Franklin D. Roosevelt

Motorcycling?

2009-03-03T17:08:00.003-07:00

Isn't that what this blog is about? I realized that I haven't even been on my bike for the better part of three weeks. I used to ride every single day. Heck, there was a 6-month section of my life when I didn't even own a car. Let me tell you how well I can pack a week of groceries on a bike some day.

I have started to realize that the reason for my riding less and less is due to my sinus problems. I don't know if I have allergies or something else entirely, but it's not fun and I don't want to ride.

I think I'll have to change that soon. I've been toying with the idea of selling my Ducati and fixing up my old bike. I seem to have more fond memories of that bike—even though I put my money down on my Duc a year before it came out. It sure is a pretty blue!

Snow Day…

2009-02-10T07:13:00.001-07:00

It's not too often that we get actual snow out here in Tucson—at least not down in the city. But this morning, after 2 straight days of rain, we woke up to this.

I realize it's nothing special for those in cold climates, but it's a lot of fun out here.

A Day at the Zoo…

2009-02-01T17:48:00.008-07:00

Lindsay and I spent a beautiful Superbowl Sunday at Reid Park Zoo here in Tucson looking at all the animals and plants. I know I'm not supposed to like zoos, however I think they have a lot to offer people as well as overall health and caring for animals in this world. This zoo is known for its anteaters but has many other very fun animals. The otters were probably the most fun followed by my favorite the Jaguars. They are black but you can clearly see their spots when you get up close to them.

They have a couple of walk-in aviaries and I spotted this little guy waving hello! He is a spoon-billed somethingorother. Kind of looked like a flamingo in the trees.

These two parrots were squawking about and I caught them in the middle of an agitated argument.

Lindsay fed the giraffe a couple of little biscuits and was astonished at the amount of slobber this guy put out. Yuck! They have such beautiful eyes though. But long blue tongues!

Thank You Cards…

2009-01-14T09:30:00.005-07:00

Just wanted to share the latest cards that I made for Thank You’s for the holidays. Some of you will be seeing these in the mail shortly! I sure enjoy making them and wish I had more time to gather with friends and family to do scrapbooking and card-making.

Without further ado I give you these—by the way, you can click on an image to see it bigger:

Most of the tools I use are papers from K&Company, based out of Kansas City. I have a sneaky suspicion that they are former Hallmark designers. But that’s just my theory. Apparently, most scrapbook companies are founded out of Salt Lake City, Utah where there is a large Morman population. Their faith holds family history in high priority and scrapbooking is just one of the ways they use to document it. The “thanks” punch is from Around the Block.

I make most of the embellishments myself—cutting the shapes out of the paper. I don’t really like to buy embellishments, because I know that I can make them. However, I did buy the little lanterns for the chinese lanters cards, but made the larger ones. My favorite embellishments are ribbons, though I have little of those in these cards. I’ve been playing around with wire additions to my latest round of cards, but it takes forever to glue. I always use plain old Elmer’s Glue-All.

I have two goals in my illustration career. First, is to create illustrations for a Scrapbook company. K&Company is high on my list. Guess I’ve got to just throw them some designs and see if any stick. Second is my loft goal of working with Pixar. I watched a documentry last night on the founding of that studio and it reignited my dream.

New Year's Resolutions

2009-01-02T21:41:00.005-07:00

I always make a few silly resolutions every year, but this year I'm making some that I really plan on keeping.

1: I will refrain from reading any reader-posted comments on AOL, CNN, or any other site where people are constantly rude and abusive.

2: I will learn to enjoy my meals more, rather than horking them down like Emile in Ratatouille.

3: I will no longer work on my vacations. I need to disconnect from work.

That's pretty much it. We aren't spenders, buyers or partiers, so no real worries there.

Christmas in Colorado…

2008-12-29T15:54:00.004-07:00

It was a wonderful week in Colorado this Christmas Season. After flying in on a quite turbulent day in Colorado (the morning after a wreck at DIA!) and braving the cold Colorado weather, Lindsay and I are back in Arizona, where it is 72° today. It took us a little over 13 hours to get home and it was cold the entire way with the coldest weather and most snow being in Santa Fe, NM. We came through Hatch, NM right around sunset and it makes me want to go to their chili festival this coming Autumn.

Christmas Eve, I set up the dining room table with a centerpiece of floating candles and greenery with Mom's china and stemware.

Christmas dinner we had Spiral-Cut Ham, fresh green beans, potato casserole, fresh Hawaiian roles, home-made carrot cake, cannolis, and lots of cookies and other sweets.

And I thought it was supposed to be kids who couldn't sit still!

Friday, we got to go to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, formerly the Natural History Museum and see the always stellar dinosaur exhibit. Lindsay and I used to go down there to draw all the animals when we lived in Colorado and it's been over 10 years since I have been.

Arizona Winter Sunset

2008-12-15T17:47:00.000-07:00

Christmas in the Desert…

2008-12-11T17:53:00.005-07:00

While we don't go very overboard with decorations at Christmas time, we do a nice little desert tree laden with glass ornaments in some very unique shapes (Egyptian Casks? Motorcycles? Winnie the Pooh? Yep on all three). We then finish it off with Chili Pepper lights and lots and lots of cactus and desert motifs.

The finishing touch is a Mexican blanket we bought at a local roadside stand. Oh, and the tree is only 3.5" tall. I've had it since college and I see no point in not using it.

Kids!

2008-12-11T16:36:00.004-07:00

I don't know what's wrong with these kids today!
Kids!
Who can understand anything they say?
Kids!
They a disobedient, disrespectful oafs!
Noisy, crazy, dirty, lazy, loafers!

Ok, just so you know, I actually like kids and the above is from the musical “Bye Bye Birdie.” But can someone please tell me if I'm being overly annoyed?

Every afternoon, my neighbors kids play not in their own yard, but in mine. They run up my hill, down my sidewalk (the one to the house, not at the street) then onto my driveway. Then they run back and repeat this about 40 times all the while on scooters, rollerblades or some other form of rolling shoe. Invariable, one of them falls and biffs it and a session of screaming and hollering ensues. Luckily, it appears there is ether a baby-sitter or older sister with them. I haven't had to scoop one up off the concrete yet.

Here's what bothers me most. Ever since this family moved in, the mother has treated me like something she scraped off of her shoe. We used to talk to her husband, a real nice guy, but not a lot of control over his family. The mother goes from the house to her car, nary saying a word. When we've been out there, she's looked at us, mostly me, like I've got horns. I have a little theory that she's a very jealous woman. See, her husband came over one afternoon and exclaimed that he thought it was so cool that I ride a motorcycle. Oh jeeze! I can only imagine how that went over. That was about 2 weeks after they moved in.

Let's see. Their kids walk on my fence in the back yard, a 4ft. tall concrete wall that has a wash behind it, they've tried to literally walk into my house because they lost something in our yard, they tell us we're heathens becuase we drink coffee and tea, hmmm... that's all I can think of right now.

So … becuase her kids are tearing around my yard, don't you think it would be the polite thing to do to introduce yourself to the person who may be rescuing your child when they fall and hurt themselves?

Well, this weekend I'm getting some planters and barricading my walkway. If that doesn't stop it I guess I'll have to just talk to the adults.

Thanks Giving

2008-12-04T17:50:00.004-07:00

Lindsay and I got to fly out to Birmingham for Thanks Giving this year. Neither of us are happy fliers; he doesn't like takeoffs, landings or pretty much anything else and I really don't like takeoffs. I get so wired up just before we start – sort of like a build up of anticipation. I used to get the same way before riding my motorcycle too – but once I got going, everything was fine.

Anyway, after a long day of travel we arrived in Birmingham to a nice pizza dinner at Lindsay's parent's house. That was followed up with Thanks Giving pie and a movie for the night. Thanks Giving day, Lindsay and I slept in until 10:30! I couldn't believe it. We never sleep that long at home. I helped in the kitchen with all the sides while the boys watched movies (I think it was Godfather of all things!) in the other room.

Friday we got to go flying out at the R/C field with Lindsay's dad. Lindsay crashed a plane in the pond beyond the airfield and I could barely control mine. I swear I'm not that dumb, but those controls are pretty difficult for me. I kept turning my control the wrong way. Luckily though, we were hooked up to a trainer with his dad and I never crashed my plane. We spent Friday and Saturday night at his brothers house. That was fun.

Saturday, we went to the Barber's Vintage Motorsports Museum to see all the bikes. There wasn't a lot of new things to see, but it's always a cool place to visit. Saturday night we went out to eat in Five-Points which is a downtown intersection in Birmingham. It's a neat place with a lot of neat little shops and stores. We're not much of "clubbers" though, so we kind of just called it a night before 10.

We caught a matinee of the new James Bond flick Sunday; excellent movie, though I do have one complaint. Too much close-ups of the action. I would have liked to see the camera pull back a little here and there as the herky-jerky camera messes with my equilibrium a bit. Also, much of it took place in the desert, and since I live in the desert it didn't feel as exotic as the last one.

Monday we headed home and just like every trip I take, Tuesday saw me laid out with a big strong head-cold! Darnit! Also, I completely forgot to take Mr. Happy on our trip – I was so mad at myself all week about that one.

Happy Thanks Giving all and thanks for a great vacation!

What’s On My Desk Today

2008-11-12T22:10:00.005-07:00

Inspired by Jimmy Pickering, a wonderful illustrator and former(?) Disney Imagineer, I decided to do a little, “What’s on my desk today?” First off, YIKES! Clearly somethings gotta go! The Simpsons diorama? The Guiness mug (don’t think so), the mounds of paper, how ‘bout the printer? Clearly, some organization is in order here. Oh, and usually there is a cat somewhere in there too.

Yep, the heap runs right onto the floor. Oy vey, everybody!

Healthy Eating Musings…

2008-11-06T12:27:00.002-07:00

Over the past couple of days, I've been doing some research into diet and exercise (gotta get rid of this excess weight people!) and I've decided to cut out certain foods. First on my list is processed foods, things like ready-made anything, pretty much all fast food, and anything else that has a list of ingredients seeming longer than the number of people who work on a Pixar film. That's a lot by the way.

So, I am starting by eliminated white sugar, white flour, white pasta, rice and anything that contains corn syrup. I will continue to cook with corn syrup, as it in itself isn't necessarily the culprit, but I'm no longer going to drink colas and sodas, which is essentially carbonated, flavored corn syrup.

So, I'll let you guys know how it goes. Today, I got a mandarin chicken salad from Wendy's but omitted both the dressing and the asian noodles, because of either sugar or bleached flour. It wasn't bad. I'm sure a lot of people would hate it, but I actually like lettuce. This weekend I'm going to be making pumpkin pies for Lindsay and I'm excited to see how they turn out without the usual sugars, flours and other stuff.

So, if anyone has any advice on how to cut this stuff out of my diet, or if you've experimented with other cooking methods, please feel free to tell me.

Friends Lost and Found

2008-11-02T13:44:00.003-07:00

Over the many years since graduating college, I've long searched for a few of my friends from back in the day. Good grief, almost before the internet was mainstream! :P This weekend, while perusing another blog it made me think of one in particular – a girl I was on the color guard with at CSU. I'd googled her before, knowing her last name might be new, but nothing ever popped up. Until this weekend. It has been wonderful reading about her life's journey and her growing family. Also, she is a fabulous knitter! Wow, those are some beautiful pieces.

So, as much as I don't necessarily embrace our modern technologies (I didn't get a cell phone until only a year ago and we don't have cable, a garage door opener or even a car with keyless entry), there are times when I don't know what we even did before the internet.

Hmmm … besides my computer and Lindsay's iPod, we really are kind of backwards in the technology scheme. But, that works just fine for me.

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-31T18:00:00.003-07:00

Sunday Lindsay and I spent the afternoon at Buckelew Farms, just west of Tucson. For a small entrance fee you get to go pick out a pumpkin (or as many as you like) on their huge pumpkin farm. Horse-drawn carts drive you around the farm pulled by two horses each. There were hundreds of people at the farm this year, all getting that perfect pumpkin.

I chose two small ones and had to convince Lindsay on getting one of his own. We carved them tonight and I made the kitty and the small scary one.

Hope everyone had a great and spooky Halloween!

Halloween Office Party

2008-10-31T17:53:00.003-07:00

I was invited to a lunch-time office party at the puzzle place I used to work and since I was invited with little notice, I had to scrounge together a costume. Having just watched a few episodes of The Simpsons last night, I thought, I can do that costume!

He is portraying a character from a pretty disconcerting movie, "A Clockwork Orange." I borrowed Lindsay's Coach Derbi hat, tossed on a white shirt and tan pants and my motorcycle boots and did the weird eyelashes. So, there you have it. I also tried an Indiana Jones look, but Lindsay liked the other guy. Creepy though.

I did my best Malcolm McDowell angry look but still, most people thought I was Charlie Chaplin? I'm not sure I see the resemblance?

I painted on a 4 o'clock shadow with some brown eye shadow, borrowed Lindsay's clothes and yes, he even has an old bullwhip from his Arkansas days.

Annoying my cat…

2008-10-28T15:04:00.006-07:00

In the numerous years that I have photographed my 16 year-old Ashley, she has never once sat still. So, I have a bunch of blurry pictures of her. Oh well. Here are some that I took this morning, playing with my macro lens. Our A/C is completely dead so the house is a little warm right now. As such, she has taken to stretching out as long as she can make herself on the bed to cool off.

“Will you please get that camera out of my face?”

“Why are you photographing my hairy toes with black bean feet?”

Scrounging through my old photos…

2008-10-28T14:04:00.008-07:00

I came across Lindsay's and my trip to Colorado on the motorcycles. It all started out so well.

We spent our first night in Holbrook, Arizona exploring the downtown life. It's a fairly small town right off of Interstate 40, but has a great Rt. 66 history to it. I thought these dinos were too fun not to photograph. I probably like dinosaurs almost as much as Carson.

Our second day in, took us to the beautiful city of Southfork, Colorado. We stayed in a wonderful little cabin and were greeted every time we stepped outside by the local orange tabby. I spent my evening photographing the numerous hummingbirds just outside of our cabin and Lindsay spent the evening watching "Dirty Jobs" on the Discovery Channel. That seems to be our regular schedule when we are on vacation. Since we don't have "television," we watch Discovery when we're out and about.

Traveling over the Continental Divide, we stopped to take this picture with Mr. Happy, our companion puppet.

This would be the GSX-Rs last stop as a bike without damage. I recall this rest area being up a pitted dirt road overlooking the San Juan Valley. Though it was cloudy, we had no idea what the afternoon would bring.

I took this image after making sure Lindsay was unhurt from his accident. We were so lucky that day that both of us were all of our motorcycling gear as well as the fact that Lindsay was completely unhurt when he totalled his bike. I guess I was too distressed to take photos of his bike, but I wish I had in hindsight. It didn't actually look totalled, but sure enough it was.

If you look at the zigzag of dark directly in front of my bike, that is the course Lindsay was on. Hail and bikes do not mix. It's like riding on ball bearings coated in oil. Not good!

And here is Lindsay after we got his bike back upright assessing the damage.

We haven't taken a long motorcycle road trip since this vacation, but I'm sure we'll get out there and do another one. Maybe not to Colorado though. We should have left earlier in the morning. I know better than that – there are always thunderstorms that pop up in the afternoons in a Colorado summer.

And because Lindsay can go about a minute without a bike, we replaced it with this:

Official Business Owner

2008-10-17T17:22:00.002-07:00

Well, it's been about 3 weeks since I opened for business. Only the future will tell if I opened it at literally the worst time in my working life! I am officially incorporated as Kerrie Robertson Illustration, Inc. I have to place my papers in a local newspaper or other approved source for 3 days in a row, otherwise my incorporation will be dissolved.

There's so much to do that you just can't learn without all of the small business resources out there. Thankfully, I've been able to find a little help getting things done. But the paperwork! Whew, I'm a full time illustrator, designer, admin, accounts receivable, marketing person. Yep, the list goes on and on.

Every day, I keep thinking, I need to do this, that and some of that too. First up is to get my REAL website up and running. I feel so weird sending people to my blog to see my portfolio. I've also been networking like a crazy person. I have made a few contacts and there are a few people interested in my work, and luckily I've been able to do some local freelance for some companies around town.

The only thing I'm still waiting for is my actual business license.

A Break, Worries and Hopes

2008-09-26T21:17:00.017-07:00

…and if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you...

Last week Lindsay and I took a much needed break from work, business and the world in general. We escaped to the outdoors of the Grand Canyon taking only what we could fit in the trunk of a Miata. For those of you who have never witnessed one, it barely fits one small suitcase. We trekked through the beautiful vistas of Northern Arizona, traveling through the always stunning Sedona along the Oak Creek into the backside of Flagstaff. Heading north out of Flagstaff you are greeted with tall pines mixed with stunning aspen trees almost ready to turn bright golden yellow from the waning fall days. On northward we traveled, moving up onto the Colorado Plateau through Tusayan and finally to the abyss of the canyon itself.

My photos clearly do not do this magnificent place any justice. It is an overwhelming place to visit for both its immense size and trying to take it all in just how long this canyon took to develop. Lindsay and I camped within Mather Campground for 3 nights (cold nights at that - 38°!) and on our last night sat out on the rim by ourselves and looked at the stars. There is no light around the canyon and there were so many stars it was hard to make out the constellations. Being in the outdoors always gives me great appreciation for what we have. Clean clothes, a soft bed, and warm dry feet. All is right in the world when you can sit on ancient seabed rock while wishing on shooting stars at the edge of the abyss.

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So that brings me to my worries. This past week was my first week of - for all purposes - self inflicted unemployment. Every day I read about a new bank collapsing, a city having gas shortages and politicians questioning if this will be the next "Great Depression." I think to myself, "what have I done?" I've thrown away a perfectly decent job where I made good money at one of the most volatile times I've witnessed in my lifetime. All that I can do is keep on swimming.

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So, now my hopes. I have always believed that people are basically good. Yes, there are a lot of really bad people out there, but most people I meet are very sincere and helpful. If things really go bad, you better believe I'll be one of the people out there to help give a hand. So, I move forward with confidence that if my business or my plans do not succeed it is not for lack of trying.

These photos were taken in quick succession as I scrambled onto the side of the canyon with a 1,000 foot drop almost immediately behind us.

A Transition In Life

2008-09-13T18:57:00.002-07:00

Well, only one more week to go at my current employer. Part of me is sad to go. I've been with them for 4 years now and have learned a tremendous amount in that time. But I am very excited with this next stage of my life. It is now up to me alone to be successful in this endeavor and while I can tell you it scares the bejeezus out of me (what if I fail, what if I succeed?), I am thrilled that I have this opportunity. I wouldn't have it, were it not for Lindsay's pursuit of his own career that we've been through these past 4+ years.

I appreciate everyone's kind words over the past few weeks. It was a very stressful week at the office, especially with one employee in particular who took my leave as a sign of me purposely wanting to hurt my company. I only hope that someday they are able to get past their own neurosis and look at the bigger picture. I just wish I could shake their remarkably unkind words.

Anywho … my whole point of this post is that I will only post here things that are not illustration related as I have started a new blog that is only illustration related. That would be here: Kerrie Robertson Illustration. I hope you all can check it out and give me some feedback.

Business Cards…

2008-09-11T19:33:00.003-07:00

As a designer I find that one of the most challenging things out there is creating an identity for yourself. It is so much easier with other companies. How do I come across sincere, but professional without looking like I have too much self importance?

So, I present to you 3 business cards that I've worked up over the past couple of days. These are just temporary that I have to print out so that I can hand them out to some people at an upcoming event next Thursday. After that, I really work on my identity! Yikes.

As you'll see to the right, there is a poll. Hmmm… I guess I really should have added in a "none of the above."

Choice 1:

Choice 2:

Choice 3:

Post Script

2008-09-08T19:48:00.002-07:00

Well, I did it. I got some strange responses, some upset responses and one "so you just chose this time to quit to screw us?!?" Hmmm … that was actually the polite way it was put. No, I didn't do that to hurt anyone. Anyone who knows me, knows that I always put others before myself.

Anyway, my Creative Director looked visibly upset but understood why I was leaving. Now, I have two weeks to survive!

A Great BIG Desicion for Me!

2008-09-07T14:19:00.004-07:00

Well, with a title like that one might think children, divorce, moving … well, children are already on the RADAR, no way am I divorcing - my marriage is quite strong, and moving? Well, we've already started our countdown on that one, but that'll be a few more years.

No, today (actually tomorrow, as I've pre-written this) I will be handing in my letter of resignation. This is a big decision for me – read BIG – because I have no other concrete job lined up. I've been working nearly non-stop since I was a 15 year old kid burning fries at McDonald's by Crossroads mall. Does that place even exist anymore?!? I have been working at establishing my career as a Graphic Designer over the past 10 years, and one might say I've been successful. I have often worried that Graphic Design has a short shelf life as a career - as you work your way up in the field, people either don't want to pay you for what they believe they could get out of a recent hire, or you simply cannot continue to work under a Creative Director. The latter is where I stand. I have to find my own voice as a designer.

Why would I leave a company one might ask? I have a steady paycheck and well, let's see, that's about all. I'm not growing as an artist, and I need to see if I can hack it out in the big bad world of freelance. Plus, I have been getting increasing ill from this job. It's not a bad place - in fact it has some great aspects to it, but the stress level is becoming increasingly intolerable. Why continue to put up with it if I don't absolutely have to?

So, the first day after I have left my current company I will go downtown, get my business license and start my own illustration business.

Playing with the camera…

2008-09-01T19:00:00.016-07:00

This photo was taken looking north
towards the Catalina Mountains.
I even caught a little bird in the shot!

Lindsay and I went to check out the new (pretty cool!!) Dodge Challengers today and on the way I stopped and took some photos of the fabulous cloudscapes around Tucson. I'm still learning how to use my camera – a Canon Powershot A530 – and thought these images would look good in black and white. I tried to find a setting for a black and white mode on the camera itself, but no such luck. Just sepia. So, into PhotoShop they go and here they are.

This photo was taken on the manual setting with a 1/500th shutter speed, which is probably why it is so grainy. I then took it into PhotoShop and added curves, levels and a bit of hue/saturation. I opted to due a saturated blue, rather than a black and white on this image.

Thanks For a Great Vacation Mom!

2008-08-17T21:13:00.005-07:00

It was a another great yearly vacation in Breckenridge, CO. I always look forward to these family visits. It was great to see my Grandmother and we got to discuss a few things. I wish her well and will send her some pictures to hang on her bedroom wall soon.

I had a great flight into Denver International with these two little red foxes as escorts. It has been a long time since I have seen the Rocky Mountains and it's always interesting when you get to see them at 20,000 feet elevation.

The accommodations were beautiful and I got a great workout with 4 flights of stairs every day! Whew. My altitude coping abilities need to come a long way. My sinuses were bothering me every day with a 2-day sinus headache to start off the vacation! But, the beautiful surroundings more than made up for it.
Everybody's cooking was amazing and as usual Mom brought way too many groceries. I wish I'd been there to help pack up to leave. We were able to find a great little hiking trail near the Blue River that ended up in downtown Breckenridge.
My trip back down to Denver started with a snowstorm. Yes, a snowstorm in August! There were icy conditions at Eisenhower tunnel and hard rains the entire drive to Denver.
The flight home was mostly turbulent and marked with thunderstorms surrounding the entire state of Arizona. Because of the full moon, you could see the cloud tops and the lightening in the faraway storms the entire trip home. Now, I'm back in Tucson and back to work tomorrow! Bummer.

A Weekend in San Diego … again!

2008-07-14T20:41:00.004-07:00

A couple of weekends ago, Lindsay and I spent a quick vacation in San Diego. We stayed at our favorite hotel, went to our favorite restaurants – Anthony's Fish Grotto (thanks Rylan!) and Tent City on Coronado Island. We also picked up this little souvenir.

We bought a Mazda Miata for Lindsay so that the 62 mile route he has to take to work is a little less expensive for us. The gas savings alone will equal more than the payment for the car, the insurance is a bit less than our truck and now we have 2 cars just in case I need one for an emergency or inclement weather.

On our way home to Tucson, we went through Imperial Valley just outside of the mountains of San Diego and it was absolutely brutal. The rental car I took had a thermometer built in and it hit a high of 116°F! As we got into Tucson in the evening the temperatures had cooled down into the mid 70s. It was good to be home after all that heat. I have no idea how anything survives in those kinds of temperatures.

I already miss the beach…

Having owned the car now for about 3 weeks, we are finding that not only is a little 2-door convertible a fun car to drive, it is much, much more cost effective for us.

Happy Birthday Bridget

2008-07-07T22:33:00.011-07:00

Happy Birthday Bridget and to anyone I've missed over the past couple of months. It's been so busy, and I know that's no excuse, but this year has felt like a real roller-coaster. First, Grandma has been ill, Lindsay finished school and got a really good job, then almost immediately after that my job looks bleak! Plus, all the freelance that I am trying to do … I'll try to do better in the future.

Fine Art Illustration?

2008-06-30T22:42:00.006-07:00

As the book that I am illustrating – "Going On a Train" by Pamela Ott – continues to be worked on I find that I am creating more than just simple little drawings. They are much more like paintings to me, all done on my computer. I am striving for a realistic, but simplified look to my work. So, you won't see every rivet on the train, or every hair on the person and it might feel a little child-like.

My general work flow consists of pencil sketches, then I move on to tight pencil drawings, scan those into my computer and arrange them into the final pencil sketch. I then take these sketches into Adobe Illustrator and redraw them with lineart. This is then copied into Adobe PhotoShop and then I paint in the color and detail. I have created a few custom brushes to give the look and feel of pastel paints on Canson paper and there you have it.

This is my most finished spread. I am still working out a few more details like passengers in the background as well as finalizing the sky.

As the train progresses through the book, I thought it would be fun to see it also progress through the day. I'm very happy with the moody look of this spread, which is about 8/10ths complete.

Early morning, the train is nearing its final destination.

A bit of distraction and a color test to boot!

2008-06-02T20:47:00.004-07:00

Thanks to Jessica over at how about orange? I took this little quiz to determine my color personality. Thanks Michelle! Apparently, I am a tapestry & mosaic with a side of al fresco.

Does this actually describe my personality? I'm not so sure. The green is a given as the majority of my house is green and soon the entire thing will be. But color is so subjective for me. Tomorrow, I may love teals, blues and bright greens, while tonight, I am in a pensive mood and feel like looking at browns, deep greens and reddish oranges.

To take the quiz for yourself, click here.

Weekend in Los Angeles

2008-05-26T12:22:00.012-07:00

Well, maybe more like a weekend traveling across the desert Southwest…
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Saturday evening Lindsay and I took the Sunset Limited train from Tucson to L.A. through Phoenix, Yuma and Palm Springs. We spent the evening in downtown Tucson and headed over to the little depot in Tucson around 11:30 for the 12:00 midnight trip. We needed a little weekend adventure and this fit the bill nicely. One of the best things we got to see was the Salton Sea just southeast of Palm Springs. It's a huge salt lake out in the middle of the desert and we approached it right around dawn on Sunday morning. On our numerous travels to San Diego, you can see this lake from the mountain pass on your way into town, but never have be been able to see it in this way. Usually, it is just a bright streak on the horizon around the bend.

This shot is through the observation car while traveling across the desert.

As we headed into Palm Springs, we encountered the windmill farm. There are hundereds of windmills out here that stretch from one horizon to the other and up into the snow capped mountains. It is always breezy out here and this seems like a great use of that natural resource. I do kind of wish they were painted a little less conspicuously; maybe earth tones?

Many windmills just outside of Palm Springs. They seem to go on for miles.

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As we rolled into Los Angeles, Lindsay and I decided to explore the downtown on foot. What a mistake. There is nothing to do on a Sunday in downtown L.A. Everything was closed and the museum we planned on seeing was nowhere to be found. We ended up settling in at a Starbucks to have a bit of rest and some coffee. The weather was quite nice though, so walked over to a Mexican Festival in the middle of a park downtown. We then headed over to the "Gateway to L.A. Chinatown."

Downtown L.A. There were numerous beautiful
purple trees all over the place.

Entrance to the L.A. Chinatown.

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As we headed back to Union Station for the journey home, I couldn't help shooting this beautiful sign. I'm a sucker for a well done script typeface and had never seen such a nicely done Post Office. We settled in for our travel back to Tucson and spent the rest of the day sitting in the observation car on the ride home. There were a few delays due to freight traffic and we were about 1.5 hours late into town and ultimately arrived at 2:00 a.m.

I really liked this beautiful sign on the Post Office.
Usually you just see some simple Trade Gothic or Helvetica,
but this scrip was nicely done!

A clock in Union Station in L.A.

A little visitor. These guys were flying all
over the place inside of Union Station.

A beautiful fountain in the courtyard at Union Station.
It reminded me of home in the desert and all the myriad snakes out here.

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I definitely recommend train travel for anyone who wants to travel in a different way. It's fun to see the countryside without having to worry about driving and it's a chance to let things happen on someone else's schedule. It makes you sit back and just enjoy the world.

A little bit personal…

2008-05-21T20:59:00.002-07:00

A few years ago, I think it was 2003, I was transferred in my company to Nogales, Arizona. It was supposed to have been a 6-month deal, where I got the design department moving quickly forward. Fast forward a year and a half and I tell them, "either I get transferred back to Tucson, or I go on my own," and I wound up at my current employer, who I love working for.

Long story short, I ended up quite depressed down in Nogales. A serious feeling of futility and a feeling like I was stuck there forever. In that process I gained quite a bit of weight - about 40 some odd lbs. Today, I feel like I am finally ready to say enough is enough. So, I thought by posting this I could hold myself to a little higher degree and get serious about getting in shape.

So, that's it in a nutshell. I have a few goals right now and I'll try and post any good low cal/fat recipes that I come up with. First to edit is my carrot cake, followed very shortly by a green chicken pozole.

Illustration Freelance

2008-05-18T14:10:00.006-07:00

Hello everyone. As many of you know, about a month ago, I discovered an ad on Craigslist.org for an illustrator for hire to illustrate a children's book. I took a chance and applied for the work and after a few weeks, some rough pencil sketches and a couple of meetings, I got the job! The author is a Music Therapist here in Tucson, Pamela Ott and the book is titled "Going On a Train." I am working the illustrations out in pencil on paper and then translate that to the computer and do the color and line work in Adobe Illustrator and PhotoShop. I am doing a pastel chalk look and here are a few examples of the way the book is coming.

This is the pencil sketch for the first couple of pages.

This is an unfinished color sample of the above sketch. I still plan on adding in more detail to both the foreground and the background, as well as a walkway up to the train. I also have a bit of a perspective issue that I am addressing which will be done in the final rendering.

Anyway, I'd love to get people's feedback as I move forward with this book.

A Changing Landscape

2008-04-27T18:15:00.002-07:00

About a year ago Lindsay and I were able to redo our backyard. By that, I mean actually live in it. We needed some help getting all of the weeds out, mostly because every time we would spend some time out there, the weeds would be back within a week. So, one Saturday morning a landscaping crew came out and within an hour our backyard went from overgrown brush to bare dirt.

A week later, Lindsay and I spent 3 days carting 10 tons and 350 wheelbarrows full of gravel from our driveway to our back yard. It has been an amazing change for us and our small house has gone from 1 living room to 2.

Before: None of these plants were planted in our yard,
just weeds that blew in over the years. Over the years
we found lots of scary critters back here: snakes, centipedes,
pack rats, lots and lots of spiders and others.

After pulling the weeds, we laid down the weed
barrier to help keep the yard weed-free longer. This was
a lot of work and a lot of the nails ended up being bent
by all the calichee in the ground.

After 2 days of carting gravel, we ended up here! I still
don't know what we were thinking about doing this in July
in the Arizona heat, but we are very happy that this is done.
This year, we plan on adding some container gardening for
fresh veggies and flowers.

This is the fire pit that Mom got us for Christmas. It's been used
numerous times and helps keep it warm and mosquito free.
I took this shot with a 10 second time exposure to try and
capture some of the flames.

A Day at the Desert Museum

2008-04-05T09:59:00.010-07:00

Wednesday, Sister and Niece joined Scooter and I for a day at the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum in town. It was a perfect day for being out in the desert, a few whispy clouds, a nice breeze and not too hot. The best part about the Desert Museum is that everything there is native to the Sonoran Desert.

This huge lizard was just hanging out in the sun outside of the Bear exhibit. Sadly, the bears have been retired as they are too old to be crawling up the mountainous sides. They are now in a grasslands "retirement home."

This little guy was hanging out next to the other lizard, but it was at least 1/4 the size of the other.

In the Hummingbird Aviary, there were a number of nesting mothers. This little one shoved herself down into her nest while people were taking pictures. They ask that you turn off your flash while photographing the nesting birds, but too many people ignored that and after a while the little bird flew off in frustration. Their nests are no bigger across than a small coffee cup. Too cute!

A tired desert wolf hanging out under a tree.

Some pretty flowers blooming on one of the many trees at the park.

A pretty desert flower from Niece's imagination. Watercolor pencils with a brush.

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After the Desert Museum, we all went out for lunch at El Minuto Café, in downtown Tucson. It's an OK restaurant, but I wish we had just gone to Micha's, which I feel is a much more authentic Mexican Restaurant. Niece had a burger! And the rest of us had one of their other dishes. Overall, a good meal, but it seemed like we were the only one there.

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For the evening, Scooter lit a fire in the fire pit out back and we hung out there with blankets and watched the sunset and numerous satellites overhead. It is always surprising how many stars you can see out here, even living in a huge neighborhood like we do. We all had a great time, and it was a wonderful way to spend a perfect Arizona day.

Welcome to Northrop Grumman

2008-03-24T12:40:00.007-07:00

Ok, so this is a little late posting…

About two weeks ago, and after four years of hard work, Scooter was offered a position with a local company as a Graphics Illustrator. He'll get to work with a number of 3D modeling programs that he has studied in school, as well as do traditional sketches for reference materials. He'll start his new position on the 31st of March. Just wanted to say how proud I am of his hard work and dedication to pursuing a different path in his career.

This is a post he made on-line a few weeks ago on one of the Motorcycle Message Boards:

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“Around 11am today I got a call from the department manager, J.D., for the illustrator position - he's been in Huntsville, AL - all he wanted to know was what kind of salary did I expect?

I shot him my number. He told me that it had been recommended to him that they extend me an offer but that he had to now negotiate with the recruiter.

The recruiter said that I will be getting a CD in the mail with all the pre-employment paperwork for my new position. I'll need to print some up, fill them out and fax them back. The recruiter is in West Virginia. I think the HR Dept. is in FL.

Anyway, I got the job. I start the 31st. I'm psyched.”

— Scooter

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Figure Drawing

2008-03-11T18:44:00.005-07:00

Well, here are my latest two drawings from the Tuesday Night Figure Drawing class held at the Stone Avenue Gallery. My first, which is vine charcoal on newsprint, was the long pose. I'm not entirely happy with the drawing, as I think there are a number of elements that are unresolved, especially, the area where the man is holding the gun and the right foot. The parts that I do like are the way the fabrics work together and the left knee and boot.

My second drawing is a quick sketch using water-soluble graphite on brown paper. I like this one much better. It's a looser drawing that has more character to it. It was my second attempt of the night to use the graphite, with my first attempt on a sand-paper like material. When I put the water on the graphite, it rubbed the front of the paper right off of the backing. Oops! So, I quickly re-sketched Cecil and made attempt number two! I really like the water-soluble graphite and can't wait to use it more.

Looking at the two drawings side-by-side, it is clear to me that all the trouble I was having with the face on the charcoal drawing really was an issue. These two don't even look like the same man! Oh well, it's great practice.

Chili Cookoff at the Office

2008-02-23T18:02:00.011-07:00

Every year in Tucson, the whole town celebrates the Rodeo by having a big parade and 4 days of Rodeo fun. At the office, they held a chili cookoff and asked anyone who wanted to compete bring their best chili recipe.

I submitted a Southwestern Pulled Pork Chili Verde and won second place! It was a recipe that Scooter helped inspire that I created the night before and it seemed to be a big hit. The winner had a traditional red beef with beans and tomatoes chili and third place was a mild red turkey chili.

Here's the recipe I submitted:

1 Lb. pork rib meat
2 Tbs. favorite pork or lamb rub
6-8 canned green chilies, diced
1 Lb. tomatillos
1 half white onion, diced
1 bay leaf
2 jalapeños, seeded and cut in half
1 Tbs. olive oil
4 cloves minced garlic
2 cans white beans
2-4 Tbs. cumin; to taste
Dash salt
Fresh ground pepper
Cubed jack cheese

Place rib meat covered with rub, and diced green chilies into crock pot and turn to medium.
In large pot, bring tomatillos, diced white onion and bay leaf to boil, cover and simmer 10 minutes.
Strain tomatillos and onion, discard bay leaf and place into blender. Add jalapeños and blend until smooth.
Heat oil in pot, and add puree. Boil until thickened, about 5 minutes. Add mixture to crock pot and cook 3-4 hours.
Shred rib meat with a fork, add beans, cumin, salt and pepper and return to crock. Continue cooking until all flavors meld; about 1 hour.
Serve with cubed jack cheese.

A sampling of the entries.

20,000 Miles On My Ducati

2008-02-14T12:28:00.004-07:00

Today, I passed 20,000 miles on my beloved Ducati GT 1000. I bought this bike at the end of July, in 2006 and haven't looked back since. The bike and I have been all over the western half of the United States from the coast of California, into Arizona (obviously), New Mexico and Colorado.

For those who don't ride, the only way I can describe it, is that it is a very freeing thing for a person to do. When you are in a car and travel, you are protected by a little piece of glass and steel and upholstery. When you are on the bike, you are constantly bombarded by smells, sounds, and movement. You really experience the planet more. You notice the wind and the clouds and that patch of wildflowers you just passed.

Yes, that does indeed say 20,019 miles and no, I have never taken this bike up to 160 mph! I'm not sure it could even go that fast.

Well, enough of my ramblings! Happy Valentine's Day everybody!

Scrapbook Night at the Office

2008-02-09T09:24:00.000-07:00

Every couple of months, our office holds a scrapbook night after business hours. It's a chance for the multiple departments to have some time together and work on any craft or design project they like, while sharing good food and company. This week, I decided to work on Valentine's cards. I purchased some new paper from K & Company, which I absolutely love for their quality and style and some new blank cardstock.

I wish that I could be doing these crafts with family, but unfortunately we are all scattered over the US. Perhaps one day we all could try and work on a group craft. Mom, I believe you had a quilt in mind?

The Joy of Cats…

2008-02-03T00:01:00.001-07:00

Just wanted to share some photos of my two crazy felines; Moses and Ashley. I can't imagine living without pets in the house. Not only are these two cats a part of my family, they are a constant source of entertainment.

…Moses, ever patient with a camera in his face…

…might be getting a little agitated here…

…Ashley, showing us the true meaning of a workout…

I have heard that while dogs look at their masters, they think "they feed me, they walk me, they pick up after me; they must be God," while cats think, "they feed me, they brush me, they pick up after me, I must be a God."

This seems too true. Ashley will be turning 15 this spring and Moses just turned 12, but luckily, these two act as though they are kittens. One thing I've found out about my photography habits is that I like to photograph flowers and my cats!

El Cajon Harley-Davidson Chile Cookoff

2008-01-27T09:36:00.001-07:00

Saturday was spent at the El Cajon Harley-Davidson dealership, where we bought Scooter's bike, at their first Chili Cookoff. The chile was good, the cornbread was great and they had a great turnout. We got to see lots of custom Harley-Davidson's (not my style - but Scooter liked them), and listen to a pretty good band.

Scooter trying some of the chili.

Later in the evening we headed down to Imperial Beach to check out the scene down there. They have a great estuary habitat set up to preserve area for sea-faring birds. Unfortunately, due to the proximity to Tijuana, you cannot swim in the ocean.

We headed up the Silver Strand to Coronado and finished our evening watching the storm clouds roll in.

We had dinner at Kansas City BBQ in downtown San Diego, which is a place where they filmed some scenes out of Top Gun. It's great BBQ though.

a quick hello…

2008-01-14T19:07:00.000-07:00

…to everyone out there who might read this. In the coming months I hope to show my varied artwork, illustrations, graphic design and most importantly, my general motorcycling musings.

I am an art director and illustrator located in Tucson, Arizona and as you can see from the attached drawings, I have a tendency to draw Ducati motorcycles, especially late model sport bikes!

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I also enjoy drawing the figure and drawing for children's educational toys.