Christmas in Colorado…

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

Christmas in the Desert…

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!

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

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

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…

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

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!

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

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.