6-30-13

Me: Someone got caught where she shouldn't be...on the furniture.

6-29-13

Me: Hiking EARLY before the temperature reached 118. Another hot day here!

6-28-13

Me: Biking EARLY before the temperature reached 117.

Bob's photo of the Florida keys as he was flying to Costa Rica. Very pretty!

6-27-13

Me: I'm flunking "Staining Doors 101". Ugh. :-/

Started the project of staining our 9 interior doors today. It's been frustrating! I'm trying to match the stain on an existing door (harder than I thought), I used the wrong "base" on the first door (water base instead of oil) and the brush I used was bad. Changed our method for the 2nd door and it failed miserably. The doors were coming out streaky. 3rd door was better but not right. Plus working in the garage all day when it's 114 degrees wore me down. I'm beat. Still don't know the solution to make the already stained doors ok or how to make the future doors good. Suggestions?

6-26-13

Me: Meet Tippy; Harley's Aunt. :-)

Bob's parents got a new little baby; this cute black and white fur ball. She is 7 weeks old and Pat & Bob just brought her home today. Harley is looking forward to meeting Tippy Canoe (official name) in August. Tippy is so adorable!

Harley is also excited to meet her cousin, Dusty. Ro and Ree got Dusty a couple months ago and we hear she's a sweetie. Perfect for their family!

The girls with Dusty.

6-25-13

Me: What's in there Harley? 

6-24-13

Me: I bought this retro modular table a month ago at an estate sale: $30. The top two pieces rotate giving some cool options to how it functions and looks. I never found the perfect place for it so put it on Craig's List. Sold today for $120. Sad to see it go but glad it got a happy owner.

Harley showing off our finished brick border. She was the project supervisor ya know. :-)

6-23-13

Me: OHSO: Why haven't we been here before?! It's the coolest restaurant and bar in Scottsdale! This is a look from the back patio where you can ride your bike off this dirt canal (partially shown in the foreground of photo). This canal extends across all of Phoenix and is used frequently by runners, walkers and bikers.

Love the parking area for bikes!

All the patio booths are lined with interesting bikes. The wheels have fans in them that even work! Brilliant for hot Phoenix.

Some of bikes have people riding them.

And all the booths have a view of Camelback Mountain!

Here's the outside patio bar with hanging cruisers. I didn't get a photo of the inside of restaurant but it was cool too - bike chains and sprockets decorating the walls. Bonus: the food was delicious.

We were getting a lot of clever ideas for our backyard including these bike seat stools.

This is awesome...a "Barking Bar" for the dogs! Water bowls and free doggie treats. There's even a dog wash area around the corner. Next time we're bringing Harley!

OHSO - our new favorite joint. :-)

6-22-13

Me: Didn't get around to taking a photo today so I will post one from yesterday. I head up a new Friday morning Lifetime Fitness mountain bike ride. We hit the trails at 5:30am and are done by seven. Lots of fun!

More fun is having Bob home! Today was low key: hiked with Harley, garage sales (nothing good), a nap, some shopping, and now we're going out to a 7:40pm movie. Hope we can stay awake. ;-)

6-21-13

Me: Garage Sale Friday...

Gamma Ball Hopper for $5. Will come in handy now that we're playing more tennis!

10" high Eiffel Tower. $1 I think it will be cute next to a couple photos from our Paris trip (not sure what year that was - a while ago).

Body Analysis Scale. I've seen these before and they are generally pricey. This one is new in the box. Paid $20. Was excited until I read some bad reviews on-line. :-/ Oh well. Have yet to set it up and try. 

Harley and I need to get a few zzzzz's before picking Bob up at midnight. We are super excited to have him home for a few days!

6-20-13

Me: Harley supervising James as he preps the driveway for a brick border.

Exhausted Harley after a hard day's work (it's tough being the boss). Now it's sweet dreams about bunnies. <3

6-19-13

Me: Because of the high summer temps all of our flowers and garden veggies have died. But our friend's grapefruit tree is still full of sweet and yummy grapefruit. I juiced a pitcher full this afternoon. A cold glass (or 4) tasted so good!

6-18-13

 Me: The QUAD MAN...

Have you heard of it?! 

Abbie, Mike, Bob and I competed in the inaugural QUAD MAN on Sunday, June 16th. It was a made-up strength & endurance event consisting of hiking, biking, tennis, swimming and a few strength contests. We were outside from 5:30am to 2:00pm on a 105 degree day. Bordering on stupidity, maybe...but we survived and it was fun!

Abbie and I competing in the push-up challenge. I wish I had more photos to share from the day, but I think we were distracted with hydrating while we pushed ourselves to become Quad Men & Women!

Here are the finishers medals and the 1st place trophy. It was a close event. Bob led the point system all day until the last swimming race where I pulled ahead for the win. I believe the final scores were: Jane 39, Bob 38, Mike 30, Abbie 20.  Highlights were Bob sweeping the tennis sets, edging out Mike on the mountain sprints and killing it on the bike. Mike won the overhead mountain bike press and dip contest. Mike was also awesome at the net in tennis - intimidating the rest. Abbie crushed us all on the wall squats, she has the best back-stroke and gets most improved mountain biker, doing great on some tough sections! I took the push-up and tri-cep contests and had a strong finish on the swimming races. 

The awards ceremony/BBQ was held at Mike at Abbie's. Prizes: 1st place: Cairn trophy and $20 gift card to REI, 2nd place: A bottle of sunscreen. 3rd place: 2 cans of tennis balls. 4th place: A Cliff Bar, Power Bar and GU.

Congratulations everyone! It was fun, fun, fun! 

6-17-13

Me: Kavan's 1st time painting. I think he's a natural (takes after his dad who is an art teacher and painter).

I love it! Janna & Kavan gave the master piece to Andrew for Father's Day!

6-16-13

I'm posting this pic of Martin for Father's Day. Martin is a great dad and Adrian and Daniel are lucky boys! Hope you had a fantastic Father's Day down under, Martin!

Me: This is one of my favorite Dad photos. Something about these old pictures that make our parents look like movie stars. He was to me! He was handsome, kind, funny and full of love! The best anyone could wish for! Miss you Dad. Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to Bob's dad and my awesome father-in-law. Thankful we saw you on Thursday and could celebrate Father's Day with a chocolate milkshake. Always impressed with your talents and generosity. You are admired and loved by your family.

Happy Father's Day!

6-15-13

Martin: Venus and Mercury were already shining brightly close to the horizon as the stars started appearing one by one. Ruth and Adrian had gone back to the warmth of the car but Daniel wanted to use up all the prawns. He also wanted to take something home to cook up the next day but our catch had only been limited to a number of fish that we released due to their size or lack off. We did see a number of large fish swimming about rapidly as they chased smaller schools but they were unlikely to go for our bait and we didn't have any lures with us. We were finally down to our last two prawns when I had a good bite and landed a local fish called a flathead that weighed in at close to a kilo. So we ended up with a meal afterall. Good timing as well. Daniel and I returned to the car at 8pm and were greeted by objections from the other two about us smelling very 'fishy' for no obvious reason. I couldn't smell anything but I was feeling on the tired side. Adrian said he was fine to drive for a while and he took the wheel with Daniel in the front passenger seat, along with a selection of their taste in noise, sorry, music. So strange on the drive back, looking at the silhouette of the two young men in the front seat, driving ma and pa home, when the last time we were up here, they were the two little boys fast asleep in the back seat. Half way home, I filled up at a service station outside of Newcastle and the boys topped up with a dose of junk food. I then drove the rest of the way as the rest slowly nodded off. Funny how they all wake up as I reach the top of our road. It was a good drive as we had missed the Sunday outing traffic. Left most of the gear inside the car, apart from the fish. I cleaned it in the laundry and put it to bed in the fridge. The next evening I placed it in foil on the BBQ. Different eating something you have caught instead of bought.

Better than spending the day around the house or in front of the computer.

Above post is a little out of place but goes along with the vacation entries from about a week or so ago.

Me: I sent a photo of Harley to my friend, Marsha and she sent me back this "painting" of our little girl done in Photo Shop. Love it so much!! Thank you, Marsha. :-)