10-31-11

Me: Trying to be "artsy" with the photo but missed the mark. I think the pose looks dorky. :-) However, the sunrise was really cool. Happy Halloween! 

10-30-11

Me: Bob cooking us a fantastic dinner of stir fry vegetables with wild caught Coho Salmon brought in directly from Alaska. My friend connected us with some friends of hers that live in Alaska. Every year they come to Phoenix with the salmon they caught (the husband is a commercial fisherman) and sell it to contacts they have in Phoenix. I'm so glad Trish got us acquainted as we loaded up on Coho and Sockeye at a great price. Bob baked us our first fillet tonight and it was out of this world delicious! Wishing now that we had stocked up on more.

10-29-11

Me: After a hard week of recurrent flight training for Bob, he's glad to be home again. Harley and I are happy he's home too! Tonight we took a walk on the golf course while Harley chased her frisbee. The course has been closed for over seeding and now the winter grass is starting to come in nicely - very green.

PS: Our home is the condo on the left with the light in the arched window and the white patio lights strung under the umbrella in the courtyard.

10-28-11

Me: Cooler temps and a bit of rain has made our roses come alive again. That makes me glad. :-)

10-27-11

Me: Photo from Tuesday night when Janna and I went to April's high school volleyball game (they won!). Afterwards we all went out to celebrate Paul's 55th birthday with pizza & cake.

From left: Connie, Jeanne (Paul's folks), Carol, April, Paul, David, Janna, me

10-26-11

Martin: From the back garden.

Me: Janna modeling the shirt I gave her for Halloween. Hee hee...I think it's so cute. Janna is due in January (expecting a boy) and she is feeling great.

10-25-11

Martin: From the back garden.

Me: That's me sewing! Really, I am. With a little phone support from my mother-in-law I was able to operate this machine and take in a shirt for Janna. Success...it turned out great. Thanks, Pat!

10-24-11

Martin: From the back garden.

Me: I found this idea for chalkboard paint on Pinterest. I painted the inside of the pantry doors a few days ago and today I tried writing on it. It works! I wasn't sure it would wipe off well - but it does. I also spent the morning putting contact paper on the pantry shelves (that stuff is sticky & Harley just wasn't much help). We got it done though and I like it!

PS: I forgot to add chocolate to the menu. :-)

10-23-11

Martin: From our back garden.

Me: Here it is...the china cabinet! For $35 Bob and I trucked this away and now it sits in the garage of our rental home just waiting for some love and attention. I like it, I believe it's a piece from the 1950's or 1960's (could be wrong), and I think it was a great price but that might depend on the work ahead. :-) Anyway, I envision it either kept the same color if it can be revived or sanded and painted a funky bright color. 

10-22-11

Martin: From our back garden.

Me: Look who chaperoned me to our local church sale so that I didn't bring home EVERYTHING. As it was I bought a set of plates (not Pyrex), a night stand for the Tahoe cabin and a china cabinet that will need refinished (another project down the road). I need to get back on the bike (all this time off from my bike crash turned into dangerous weekend bargain hunting). 

10-21-11

Me: Harley and I were on the Friday garage sale hunt this morning. No Pyrex bowls, but we did find a treasure: a little ceramic birdhouse for $1.00. I bought it with the intent to epoxy it to the top of a pole and use it as "garden art" but I also like it sitting on our patio table. The little pot with aloe plant I bought at last week's garage sale for $1.00. I love a bargain.

10-20-11

Me: Harley has her eye on some baked kale chips. We tried this easy recipe: put bite sized kale on a cookie sheet and drizzle with olive oil and kosher salt. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Take out and eat. Yummy, healthy snack. 

10-19-11

Martin: Leaves in the Oatley flower gardens.

Me: Bob and I are easily excited by our garden sprouts. Everything we planted is showing some sign of green leaves above ground (yeah!). The beans are looking especially happy these days. Keep growing guys!

10-18-11

Martin: Guess who forgot to wear the right socks???

Me: We had a good time visiting Thor in North Scottsdale this evening. Bob and Thor played tennis on the courts at Troon North (the golf club where Thor works as their restaurant assistant manager). I enjoyed watching the heated match, it was such a nice night. 

10-17-11

Martin: We went to an annual fair held in Oatley as Adrian's Scottish Pipes and Drums band were playing. The rain held off and the clouds started to thin out. In fact, it got quite warm. Ruth is standing on the corner with Daniel next to her.

Me: Bob is home again! :-) Here's a photo he took when flying over Phoenix (and right over our home). We live to the left of the red arrow (click on pic to enlarge) and just to the right of South Mountain Preserve. That's where we do most of our hiking with Harley and mountain biking. It sure makes living in the city more fun for all three of us!

10-16-11

Martin: Finn just after waking up.

Me: I did a bit of fall decorating today and each year I put out this bowl of field corn. It's my dad's corn from the year 2000. Bob and I picked it from the field when we were in Iowa for my Dad's funeral. It was the corn Dad planted and was soon going to harvest. I'm glad we picked it and brought it back to Arizona. It's a special reminder of my dad and the farming he loved to do.

10-15-11

Martin: Close-up of a few of Daniel's gold nuggets... and I do mean close-up. Sneeze and you will be crawling around the floor all night with a fine pair of tweezers.

Me: I have a Pyrex Problem!

Harley and I went garage sale'n today and I found this great 4 piece set of aqua blue Pyrex bowls (to add to my MANY other Pyrex bowls). Yes, I clearly have a Pyrex Problem as when I pulled them all out of the cupboard today I counted 22 different pieces. Hmmm?

But I just love 'em! :-)

10-14-11

Martin: Another photo we took 3 years ago when visiting the Grand Canyon.

Me: Our garden is growing! Our first sprouts are the radishes. It's so exciting! :-)

10-13-11

Martin: Is that you, Bob?

Me: Happy Birthday, Pat!!

Lucky day for Bob! He was fortunate to have a trip scheduled into San Francisco this afternoon with a layover there tonight. Soon after he landed Bob met his folks to give a big birthday hug to his mom. Happy Birthday, Pat!! Woo hoo, today's a special day! So glad Bob could share some of it with you. 

Bonus: Bob's sister and nieces, Ro & Ree drove into the city to hang out with him this evening. I'm sure they've been having a good time too.

10-12-11

Martin: Nice orchids outside the rear door at my sister-in-law's place.

Me: Leaf Art

This is the leaf butterfly I made when I was in Iowa. The day my mom, sister and I collected baggies full of leaves we later used to create some critters. We felt like 3rd graders making birds, turtles, butterflies, foxes, and penguins. 

Here is the penguin Joan made:

10-11-11

Martin: Cocky on top of the fence at the front of the house. I think he is quite old as they hang around the National Park during the day. The only ones who stay in the suburbs are sick or pensioners.

Me: I crashed on the road bike but I'm not broken. 

Bummed I crashed on the bike this morning. :-( It was a really hard slam to my right side after my bike went out from under me. I had hit Bob's back tire when he tried to avoid a dog that was darting out in front of him. With the speed we were going and how I landed, I'm very lucky that I didn't break anything except my helmet (it has a good crack in it - so always wear a helmet!). I do have some road rash, a painful swollen ankle and I'm stiff and sore. I'll recover. Phew!

10-10-11

Martin: Liked this shot out the back door late the other afternoon. 

Me: Bob and I planted our first veggie garden this morning. Tomatoes, carrots, beans, radishes, peppers, jalapeños, cucumbers, parsley, basil, swiss chard, spinach and onions. Yep, all of that in these two 1/2 wine barrels. :-)

Now grow!! 

10-9-11

Me: Go Lance Armstrong!!

Bob and I cheered on Lance Armstrong in the local Urban Sprint Triathlon held at Tempe Town Lake this morning. Our good friend owns the company that puts on the race so we had heard that Lance was suppose to make an appearance. Sure enough, he did.  In such a small venue we had several opportunities to cheer him on up close. Afterwards he was quite gracious and signed a lot of autographs and took photos for his fans. 

10-8-11

Me: Iowa thrift store shopping

Wow, Iowa is loaded with fantastic thrift stores and great garage sales! Too bad I didn't have a U-haul for all the cool things I wanted to transport back to Arizona. Instead I bought some items that would fit in my carry on bag (checked luggage cost $25 each - bummer). Bob went shopping with my mom, sister and I and I think he was worried that we'd never leave the store. I'm quite certain my mom was a pretty good haggler in her day.