88

It seems I have a number theme going strong. So why mess with a good thing? Today I would like to talk about the number 88. It was a really good number for me the other day.


I found a great bargain at Penneys for 88 cents - not dollars - cents. I came out of the store with this lovely blouse and I only needed one crisp green one dollar bill to pay for it - AND I got change back. Pretty good.

Now a few days back my sister, Becky, was bragging about getting an 80% discount at her favorite store - JoAnn's. And the real story is that her husband, Doug, threw it out without letting Becky see it. He probably thought he was saving money by not letting Becky get any good ideas about buy anything else at JoAnn's. But Becky's bargain hunting nose led her to the trash can and she retrieved the ad and discovered the "scratch and reveal" percentage off. So she marched herself right into the store and wasn't about to leave without a purchase worthy of the discount.


Anyway, let's see how I did. The shirt was originally priced at $36. As you can see on the receipt the total cost before tax was 80 cents. And according to my calculations - that means I got the shirt at 97.775% off. I think I'm right about that. And tax added another 8 cents - but I don't count that (highway robbery) for a grand total of 88 cents.

So I got the best bargain to date.

Please post when you can beat that.

Until then -

I'm Carrie Selin

the Bargain Queen.

4957

Isaac's Mission Site has 4957 views currently.

That puts us just . . ummm. . . . let me see . . . .

ok, I'm getting my calculator . . . . ok,

43 more views until I can remove it from my blog page.

Just saying.

95

Yesterday I, along with almost every other resident of the Valley of the Sun, was pleasantly surprised to discover that we only reached a chilly 95 degrees. While other warm weather newbies might run out and try to fry an egg on the sidewalk I was in the house trying to find my jacket. I mean 95 is twenty degrees less that one might expect at this time of year. We were given a gift!

Canyon Creek Ranch Trail Ride

We scored 2 free trail rides at a place called Canyon Creek Ranch. They are in Black Canyon City. We allowed for an hour to get there. We met up in the parking lot of the Bad A** BBQ that you can see from I-17. We followed the white pickup truck down the dusty road and to the ranch. Our horses awaited. There were other people already there. One group was from England - Mom they had that proper accent. They were also paying customers.

I don't know why Doug always gets the horse/mule with the good names. His mule's name at the Grand Canyon was Cracker - totally cool because it was the only white mule. And at this place his horse was named Gizmo. I like it. My horse's name was Katman. I guess like Katmandu - but wierd.

Also if anyone remembers my first post about our upcoming trail ride, I asked for suggestions for appropriate old west names for Doug and myself. Only one person responded. Thanks Becky. So I will try to refer to us by her suggested names - it may help this story sound like a true out west adventure.

Anyway, pretty soon it was time for the "freebies" to get on the horses and start their ride. Horace got up onto Gizmo with ease. Saige was able to get onto Katman as well. They were lucky. There was a heavy lady and chubby boy that had to use the stairs to get on their horses. It was because their horses were so tall. Yeah, right! But Saige was silently thankful they didn't lead her horse over there and make her use the stairs. That would have been like riding "the short bus" to school.

The trail leader was really nice and he had just returned to the valley from Utah. Horace and Saige were the first 2 riders and were able to talk to him about Utah and lots of other things. The trail was hot and dusty. All the riders were also told about how wet and green it was earlier in the year. And because of that the horses liked to stop and try to eat. They were given a pointed warning about not letting the horses eat during the ride. If their horse was to put their head down and try to eat they were supposed to give a hard yank with the reins and put a quick stop to that. If a person were to let their horse eat then the horse wouldn't be focused on it's work - giving safe rides. The horse would be searching for and getting mouthfuls of greens to eat.

Did everyone listen? Yes. Did they follow through. No. No - they did not. Many struggled with this issue throughout the whole event. When one horse stopped to snack all the other horses behind it would also have to stop. That would string out the group and then the front ones would have to wait as well. More on this later.

The kid was just behind Saige. This didn't seem to be a bad thing until - well actually right from the start. He was about 10 years old and was so excited and loud. He kept yelling for his mom and dad to hear him. He acted like he knew everything. Because of all the noise he was making, Saige couldn't hear what Horace and the leader were talking about. That made her feel left out. And, well, I guess Saige wasn't very patient with him. She was happy that after their stop at the Old West town that that group ended up in front of her and she and Horace ended up near the back of the group.

The ride was pleasant. Horace and Saige enjoyed being out in the desert landscape. No vehicles could be seen or heard. After about 40 minutes or so the group arrived at their destination. A Old West town complete with saloon. It was here that all the tired dusty travelers were able to dismount and enjoy breakfast. Horace helped himself to a cool drink and a cinnamon roll thingy. Saige had grapes and a granola bar thingy and a cool drink. It was a nice place to get out of the sun and cool off a bit.

After a few minutes Horace and Saige followed the group out to the activity area. The first thing they did was to practice their roping skills. On Saige's 2nd attempt she was able to snag one horn on her fake bull. But pretty successful. Now Horace, he needed 3 tries. But he was also able to get the rope around one horn. Here is video proof of that.

Next Saige and Horace tried out their shooting skills. Each were given 6 shots. Horace looked like a pro - but it was hard to see if he was hitting what he was aiming at. Saige wasn't so good. The gun was heavy AND she kept forgetting to pull the hammer back. Her hand was shaking too. But it was fun.

The group wasn't taken to the axe throwing area. That was probably because the kid on the ride wouldn't leave the roping area until he successfully roped both horns. Sheesh! Can't someone control this kid?


They also gave a nice tour of the facilities. They rent out their facilities for special events, meetings, weddings, etc. They mentioned that the head of NIKE and their higher ups were there for an event. The place is really nice so if you are interested - they are willing.

After the tour everyone re-mounted and headed back to the ranch. Remember the warning about letting the horses eat? On the way back everyone was back to mindlessly riding and not controlling their horse. The guy in front of me was letting his horse eat a lot. It would stop and nibble over and over again. Then at one point it sort of stepped off the trail to reach a nice tasty weed. When it was time to go the horse couldn't go. It sort of jumped or made a hard lean backward. Saige was right behind his horse so her horse backed up in reaction to the other horse. Saige could see that the other horse had its leg stuck on a piece of barbed wire. Another hard pull and the horse was able to free itself. Sheesh! Saige was relieved that nothing worse happened. It could have been a real disaster if either of the horses had reared up or lost their footing and fallen. But alas, the disaster was averted.

Now after that happened do you think that people were better about keeping their horses from eating along the trail? Wrong! They did not! Sheesh! They must have been green horns or something.

As they were nearing the ranch another warning was given. All the horses were to be kept in a single file line and not allowed to spread out. Did they listen? Yes. Did they follow directions? No! No they did not. But in this author's humble opinion - Horace and Saige did remarkably well especially when the other folks were just letting their horses call the shots.

Anyway, the whole morning was a real success! Arrival at the ranch at was at about 8 am and departure was at about 11 am or so. The "freebies" were given about 1 hour of riding time and 1 hour at the old west village. Pretty good. Saige and Horace were prepared and impressed enough to give them a tip. Actually Horace is involved in planning a big world-wide conference in Phoenix in March so he might suggest this horseback riding activity as a possiblity for interested parties who attend the conference.

P.S. The ranch also had a buffalo in a pen for everyone to see.

Those things are huge!

And then this cool army type vehicle was parked in the area.

THE END

In the kitchen

Today I will talk about a couple of experiences I had while I was in the kitchen.

When we got married nearing 29 years ago we were given a crockpot for a gift. I have used it in the kitchen pretty regularly over the years. I especially like using it for a nice Sunday roast. But on Sunday I found another use for it. I baked potatoes in it. The recipe booklet that came with the crockpot said it was possible but I had never tried it. So I washed, pricked, and foiled several potatoes and put them in the crockpot and left them for about 10 hours. When I retrieved the potatoes and put them on the table I could tell they were cooked to perfection.

I was pleasantly surprised that I to realize I could get soft baked potatoes without heating the oven in the kitchen. Just a small crockpot did the job. And as we sat down to eat, we unwrapped the foil from the potatoes and cut them open - we discovered one unpleasant surprise. The insides of the baked potatoes weren't white and fluffy. They were instead a dark carmel color. YUCK! But after getting used to the appearance we dug in and ate them. They did have a slightly different taste - I already mentioned the color - but they were enjoyed regardless. Just thought I'd better give you all fair warning just in case you decide to bake your potatoes in a crockpot.

Another experience I had in the kitchen last night. It had nothing to do with cooking or eating. And the experience was slightly out of the kitchen - in the dining area of the kitchen. Anyway, on to the story. Remember yesterday I mentioned playing tennis in the heat? Well it was a hot day - hot and muggy and sunny. There was no indication of any rain on the way. But as our strange monsoon activity would have it, in the evening the clouds began to gather on the outskirts of the valley and they turned from the pretty fluffy clouds into dark gray ones and then the wind really started to blow. Yikes - a mighty storm was brewing. And soon enough I could hear a little rain and peeked out the window to see the rain wetting the sidewalk. But just seconds after the gentle start, the storm hit our house in its fury. The rain just started to come at a steep angle from the south in sheets. It was hitting all our south facing windows full force. It looked like we were driving our house through a carwash. All we could see through the windows was the water hitting it and draining down it. It sounded like a car wash too.

I was trying to get a good view of the rain so I raised some of the shades and blinds on the windows. That is when I got my next experience in the kitchen. The window in the dining room wasn't really keeping out the rain. I had a very wet window sill and a puddle was developing on the floor too. I guess the rain was coming so fast that it couldn't drain fast enough so the window "gutters" were letting the water drain in. Yikes! So I immediatlely shot into action and quickly sopped up the water. Then I had a little panic about the other south facing windows - were they all leaking? I had Isaac help me go around and check all the windows. And luckily none of the other windows had let any water in. So at least now I know which window is going to be my problem window and can keep an eye on it. Just so you know, right after taking care of the water leakage - our power went out. It was out for about an hour. Things were just getting dark enough to worry about finding flashlights when the lights flickered back on. Yay! Also, as luck would have it, my visiting teachers were here during the outage. The lights came on just as they were getting ready to leave.

This is the last and most pleasing experience I have had in the kitchen. I was making breakfast for dinner on Monday. We had left-over baked potatoes (refer to the crock pot story above), sausage, and bacon. So we were going to have breakfast. But wait, I discovered that I only had 2 eggs left in the fridge. I failed in my "food I always have on hand in the kitchen" rule: bread, cheese, milk, and eggs. I always have this stuff on hand. But no, not today. So I called Isaac. He had just started classes again at GCC. He left first thing in the morning and it was about 5 in the evening and he still wasn't home. We think he is at school studying hard - but I guess we'll find out when he has his first tests. So I asked him if he was coming home soon and he said he was. I asked him to pick up eggs on the way home. He did.

When he came into the kitchen with the eggs I asked how much I owed him. He said about $2. What? A dozen eggs - $2!! Doesn't compute. But then he smiled and told me how he had bought the Jumbo eggs. OK. I wondered to myself what would make him buy Jumbos - we always buy Large. But I guess he doesn't know that. So I started cracking eggs into a measuring cup. And on the third egg I got a nice surprise. A double yolk. Wow! A double yolk. I expressed my pleasant surprise to the guys. (They did not seem to enjoy it as much as I did.) I got the camera and took a shot. You just don't see a double yolk that often. So here is a picture of it.

After documenting the double yolk I continued cracking eggs. And on the fifth egg - guess what? Another double yolk. No lie. You can see it below. Well this news stirred a little more excitement from the guys. I took another picture. Then we were so excited that Isaac said to crack some more. But I restrained myself and will just cross my fingers for another double or two from this dozen. So far 2 out of 5 aren't bad odds.

So my very limited research shows that if you buy Jumbo eggs you are much more likely to get double yolks than you are with Large eggs. And I was just thinking it might be truly cool to get a double yolk boiled egg. Maybe I'll try it with these. But first I need to get another dozen eggs to keep my supplies in the kitchen.

P.S. I just realized that if I had arranged the yolks a little bit (push single yolk up and have the doubles together) I could have fashioned a smilie face. That would have been really cool!

Tennis today?

I just checked the temperature.

It is 106.7 with a touch of humidity.

So do I play tennis today?

YOU BET!!

Tennis Sisters

Let's see, how did this all start? Oh yes, I remember.



I have been doing fitness/aerobics at Glendale Community College for several years now. I think I started while Lindsey was in high school. Doesn't really matter. But anyway, one semester they offered a class called tennis aerobics. I wanted to try that but first I needed a tennis racquet. I really only played in high school during PE class so I didn't have much experience. But I was assured I would be fine.



The lady that led the class was Sister Winters. She is LDS and I remember her from the stake when I was a youth. Anyway, I did fine in the class and quite enjoyed it. Sister Winters was chatty and we learned a lot about her and her family. One thing was that she was getting ready to serve a mission with her husband. She was in a group that played tennis on Tuesdays at the Paseo Racquet Club. And that she would need a replacement when she left for her mission. Then she asked me to fill her spot.



I decided to try it. And eventually I just became a regular part of the group. At first I think they would have loved to get someone else to play. Most of the ladies were at least 10 years older than me. I wasn't really as good as they were. These ladies were life timers. There were a couple of ladies in particular who really hated playing with me or against me. I could feel the cold shoulders. But they never did find anyone else who would commit to the spot so I stayed on.

That is how it started. Now I am a lot better than I used to be. I still have a long way to go. These ladies can place the ball on a dime, they can see the holes in the court and put them there every time, they also know a lot about strategy and angles and percentages so they really understand the game. As for me - I like to play and that's that.



Anyway, one of my tennis sisters, Joy, had her great granddaughter (yes, great granddaughter) stay with her this summer. Her name is Jada. She is 8 years old and she is from Virginia. She has been to tennis every Tuesday morning for about 8 weeks or so. She has been fun to have around and she loves the attention she gets.



One day I had Isaac catch a scorpion and put it in a jar for me. I took it to tennis to show Jada what a real scorpion looked like. She loved it and looked at it and shook it and got creeped out by it.



But last week was Jada's last week in town. So I brought a camera and we took some group pictures. I took the one with Jada in it. Then she took the one with just us ladies in it. So I am sharing those pictures with you all.

(Great grandma Joy is in the yellow tie-dyed top and yellow skirt with matching visor.)

Most of you thought I only had 2 sisters.

But I have about 10 tennis sisters too.

House Warming

A couple of months ago we had guests for dinner. Yes, a scheduled dinner for invited guests. The guests were the people Doug works with. So that meant I needed to get the house cleaned up (a group tour would be on the agenda) and get the menu planned.

The menu. Now that was going to be a problem. Baj and Sumitra, his wife, are vegetarians. And John hates mexican food. That is two strikes right there. But I settled on spaghetti - a meatless variety and one with meat included. Everything seemed to go alright. It was pretty nice to see the whole group together again. We took a couple of pictures to document the gathering.

Each couple that came brought with them a "house warming" gift. It was very nice of them. I loved each gift! The Farmers brought a delicious box of chocolates - labeled so we knew what we were getting. The Agrawals brought really pretty pillow covers for throw pillows and a nice painting from Nepal or thereabout. And the Demkos had a gift basket with non-alcoholic cherry bubbly, cherry preserves, some cookies, scented candle, knitted wash cloth, etc.

Anyway the night was a success and the friendships renewed.

How could it have gone any better?

Sophie

My Friend Sophie. What can I say? It seems I have known her for a very long time. But she had only been in this country for 5 years. Only! But a lot has happened in her life - a lot in 5 years too.

Sophie is couple years younger than me. She was born in Liberia - in the "bush". She never attended school. She has a husband and a family. She has birthed 10 children. The children were born without medical help. Maybe a couple of ladies would help - but she had 10 what I would call "natural births" - not by choice but by lack of choice.

When the war approached their village she had 7 young children: oldest daughter, set of twins, Kelly, Decontee, Gouleon, and Gueron. Gueron was just weeks old. The family grabbed their children and ran. The oldest daughter was shot and killed as they fled. The war approached several more times. They had 3 more children during the years of war and escape: Otis, Lazare, and Joel. They ended up at some "camp" in Ivory Coast. They were finally in a place where they could start paper work to be relocated as refugees. They waited a very long time until finally Sohpie and the children were approved. The twins are still in Liberia and will probably stay there. Her husband still awaits for an opportunity to come. She also has 2 step children who have applied to come with their dad - Sophie's husband.

Sophie never went to school. I don't believe her husband did either. Her daily routine in Africa consisted of going every day a couple of miles to collect firewood to cook the daily meal. They brought the wood back stacked high on their heads/backs. She doesn't read. She has since learned her letters and can write her name - but she still has dreams of going to school and learning to read and write. School in Liberia cost money that they didn't have. So they had to make heartbreaking decisions such as which child would get to attend school and which ones did not. The oldest 2 daughters that are here never did attend school until coming here at age 16 and 17. They had a tough time in school but the younger one did graduate from high school. They certainly understand the value of an education and Sophie is making certain that her kids go to school - the one exception is Otis the problem child.

I first met her in Cortez Park ward. The missionaries had tracted into her and were teaching her. They helped the family a lot - especially keeping the kids' bike tires pumped up. She and the children came to church. Brother Taylor was a ward missionary at the time and was also very friendly and helpful to Sophie and her kids. I think I was made aware that they were in need of some groceries. They were out of money so I drove her to the store and through her heavily accented English we barely managed to communicate. We got her groceries and she was so humble and thankful. Something about her drew me in and I just knew she needed help - a friend - some encouragement. Eventually Sophie and 3 children were baptized.

Over the years I have been able to help quite a lot. I helped with: getting 2 of her sons' their social security cards (the rest got theirs without a glitch), filled out multiple forms to help them get food stamps, took her to appointments at the DES and assisted in the communications with workers, took her to the store and helped her in using her WIC coupons, helped her fill out a multitude of applications for work, took her to a bazillion interviews for work, took her to the doctor when she suffered a concussion while at work at the airport, actually helped her pass a test in order to work at the airport, filled out a bazillion forms to register the children in schools (they have moved at least 8 times - and we have helped with a majority of those moves), took the kids to get caught up on immunizations and had to hold down a strong yet reluctant 10 year old while getting his shots, I took them to the schools to register, I was on the emergency call list at the schools and responded when I needed to, I helped Sophie to deal with a naughty - very naughty son, bought school supplies for the kids for several years, attended school functions like track and field days and graduations and graduation parties, bought graduation shoes for one of the girls, I have taken Sophie to the police station to get Otis out of scrapes with the law, I have gone to court a couple of times with her, I have cried with her when she has had to move to a new place far from her familiar surroundings, I have had tough conversations with her about her troubled son who caused them to be asked to move from several apartments, I have seen her cleaning her house topless (I guess she was trying to experience some of the good old days in Africa), I have thrilled with her as her daughters have graduated from high school (3 so far), we have helped with homework and essays for one of the daughters, we have had one son show up at our door when he says he was beaten for being bad and didn't want to go home, we have given Sophie lectures about not being able to beat her kids here in the states, I have helped them get their Arizona ID's, gone multiple times to the immigration offices to ask about the status of their relative asylee forms and their stagnant green card applications, I have seen her deal with 2 daughters getting pregnant and having babies, there was a muslim who was trying to convert Otis and would take him to prayers and gave him a very nice bike and etc. - she asked us to come talk to the neighbor and ask him to leave Otis alone and that was scarry - the cops were called and we were both shaking when it was over, we took Gueron to many YW activites, we also took the boys to some Primary activities and an outdoor carnival, and so much more. Sometimes I got tired of helping. Sometimes I would feel guilty when I did not want to help.

One time when we were together Sophie said something that caught me off guard. She said, "Carrie, God sent you to help me. You are my sister. Your skin is white and mine is black but you are my sister. You were sent to help me." I think about that quite a bit. Maybe I was sent to help her. She is my sister. She needs my help. I can help. So I will.

The past couple of years she hasn't needed so much help. Our friendship remains strong but she has become pretty self-reliant and doesn't ask me to help so often. But the other day I called her for some help. Isaac is looking for work - FYI there aren't many jobs out there. Anyway, I know there is probably a lot of turn over at the airport janitorial jobs so I wanted to know where he could apply. She offered to go down with Isaac and show him where to apply at terminal 3. She also got some online addresses that he could contact. She needed help bringing an entertainment center to her apartment from DI. So we did that for her. I took this picture of Sophie, one of her grandsons - Caleb, and her cousin.

They are my dark skinned sisters and brother.

Ironing

Since mom put a post on about ironing I thought I could stay with that topic. I also have a lot of ironing. I put it off as long as possible. When I finally get out the ironing board I have a full day of ironing ahead. In the summer - that is not a fun thing!

But I have had a problem with my ironing board. I used some cloth I had to cover it a couple years ago. It was the first time that I tried to cover it. I put the material on wet and then used some strong string underneath to cinch it up really tight. Then as the material dried it got even tighter. As I looked at it the word "perfection" came to my mind. I was pretty proud. That feeling lasted only a few minutes.

Why? Because when I went to move the ironing board I realized that I couldn't fold it up. I tried and tried. Then I saw the problem. The string I had used to cinch the material tight was stretched in a zig-zag pattern back and forth across the bottom - preventing the leg from sliding into a folded position. Rats and double darn! What was I thinking?

Well since then I have done a lot of ironing. We even moved to our new house. All the while the ironing board remained in the full upright and standing position. But Wednesday all that changed. I got some more material. I cut it and stitched it. But this time I sewed a channel that held the string. Then as I cinched up the material the string remained out of the way. The results were another tight cover. Yay me! Then for the first time in over a year I folded the ironing board. Another successful and productive day complete.

DOH!

DOH! I hate that! I mean my blood pressure really goes up when that happens! Sometimes I think I'm gonna explode! But venting here will hopefully help prevent that.

Car Insurance - need I say more? It is a love/hate relationship. Over the years we have had to insure 3 boys. That hurts. Especially when we had 3 teenage sons and one teenage daughter all on the policy at the same time. So we decided at the time to try to keep our coverage at the same place so that we had a good long term record with them. Changing coverage to another company would certainly bring higher premiums and we definitely did not want that!

But with our policy coming to an end we decided to do a little shopping around to see if we could do any better. Doug was going to do that but he works and so it sort of fell into my lap if it was going to get done before our policy lapsed. So I spent the a couple of hours each day for 3 days calling places for quotes. I also filled out several quote requests online. And none of those quotes were quick and easy. I mean 3 cars and 3 drivers with varying coverages on each car - sheesh! It was a headache. And as I talked to the people on the phones I clearly explained that I was shopping around for quotes and I would get back to them before our current policy lapsed. I even made sure to ask them if the information would be saved so we could easily get back to it if/when I called back. Sure. No problem. You bet. Absolutely.

Now is where the "DOH" comes in.

I got a call early this morning (well not as early as the last 2 days but early still). It was Demitrius. I had emailed him back and asked him to contact me (he didn't give me his phone number). I wanted to review the quote he gave me to make sure it was correct and to get a policy started and to get a local agent. Well he was so friendly. We started right in. But pretty soon it became apparent that he was asking for all the basic information again. I stopped him and asked WHY? He said they didn't have the information. The quote he gave me was really only good for the 12th! DOH! DOH!

I got ticked off. I told him I was busy and not to call me back until noon. I might not even answer it then. Maybe by then I will have found my own agent and won't even need Demetrius. This whole thing darn near ruined my day. But I won't let it.

Whew, the venting is complete. And I think I'm starting to feel a little bit better now.

Isaac

As you can see I still have a link to Isaac's mission website on my blog. I used it to post occasional updates on him while he was on his mission. I don't know how well read it was but I was doing my part to try and keep people posted. Let me see. He got home 6 months ago. Six months ago! Sheesh! Time does fly.





You might wonder why I still have that link on my blog. Probably mostly because I am lazy. But I have another reason for keeping it up. I was waiting to see how many "views" it would get. It has been sort of fun watching the counter go up as people visit Isaac's mission site. Now my secret goal is nearly accomplished. When I reach my secret goal I will remove that link from my blog. So if you haven't ever looked at that website you better hurry because it is about to disappear for good.





My goal? My goal is to reach 5,000 views. When that happens - it is gone. So sorry Isaac, you will have to get your own blog and do your own posts if you want to keep us updated on what is happening in your life from now on.

And the counter says 4904 right now.

Just 96 more people need to visit his website and that will end it.

I hope this is NOT a trend!

It seems that only yesterday I wrote a post about getting an early morning phone call. Wait. Let me check. Yes, it was yesterday when I got a 6 a.m. call to go play tennis. We got another early morning phone call today. Only today the call came in at 5 a.m.

I hope this is NOT a trend!

This morning while trying to enjoy the last few minutes of early morning slumber the phone rang. But it wasn't our home phone. Turns out it was Doug's cell phone. That is never a good sign. It usually means someone at work needs his expertise - he has a lot of that. So today at the literal "crack of dawn" Doug was forced to get his eyes focused and his mind on track and be a problem solver for someone at the Four Courners Power Plant. Unfortunately, after getting some files emailed to us here at home, he needed to travel in to work to check on a few things which would allow him to be perfectly clear on the advice he was giving to the guy on the phone.

I takes about 20 or 25 minutes to get to Doug's work. So off he went. He got to work and looked up some measurements and industry standards then was able to give the guy his instructions. After that he was able to return home. And unfortunately, he got home in plenty of time to make it to every one of his morning meetings. Rats! So with the emergency averted we were able to enjoy an uneventful day from that point on. And did I say it yet?

I hope this is NOT a trend!

Tennis

This morning I got a call at 6:00 a.m. In case you were wondering, I was already up. A tennis friend of mine called and asked me to substitute today for someone who was sick. I'm usually up for a couple hours of tennis so I agreed to play.

There are 8 ladies who play tennis. We draw numbers for partners. When we get partnered up and on our assigned courts we play a match. Then the winners of the match move on to play on the winner court. The "runners up" move down to the losing court. Both sets of ladies split up and play with a new partner. Then the match is played. Again, when that match is over another switch of courts and partners is done and the last match is then played. We have courts for 2 hours and we can usually finish 3 matches in that amount of time. However, somedays when the teams are very evenly matched the games take longer and we may or may not get 2 or 3 matches completed. But we are an informal group so none of that really matters much.

Today I Jan was my first tennis partner. She is nice enough and is usually a pretty good player. But today she just couldn't get in her groove. I did pretty good if I do say so myself. We lost the match. We moved to the appropriate courts and switched partners and started match 2.

It became apparent very soon that our team was the better team. One game/Love. Two games/Love. Three games/Love. Four games/Love. Right about now I start feeling bad for the opposing team. I am usually thinking how bad it would feel to lose all 6 games. So I am thinking that if we win the 5th game that I will jump into action and try to "throw" the game so that they can get a win. That sounds noble, right? Well we did win the 5th game. So I was going to try to lose a couple of points and hopefully launch them to victory. I would give them my baseball swing and hit them long. Or maybe I would hit them wide. I always chase down tennis balls with vigor and wouldn't stop that. But somehow I needed to do some mis-hits. Well, the other team basically took it out of my hands. They self-destructed and despite my intended efforts I couldn't help them win a game.

So even though I tried really hard not to,

I served them a big BAGEL (O) for breakfast.

YUMMY!

Birthday Today

A quick post for Shanna, my DIL.

It is her birthday today, Friday the 13th.

I tried to call earlier and left a message.

And I will call again as soon as I get this posted.

We love you, Shanna.

Way Out West - Canyon Creek Ranch

Way Out West Entertainment is our friend. Actually Canyon Creek Ranch is our best friend. I found an article in the paper on Sunday, August 1st. It tells about an opportunity to get a free sunrise or sundown horseback ride. They are offering free Friday rides to the first 24 people who call in on Monday mornings from now through September 30th. That is pretty generous of them. They not only give you a free horseback ride but they feed you too. You will either get a continental breakfast or a barbecue depending on which ride you want.

I didn't really care which ride we got as long as it was free. They list the value of this experience as $90 - we definitely wouldn't be going if we had to pay our own way. Well I called Canyon Creek Ranch the next morning and they had already given away the 24 freebies. But she gave me some instructions about how they did things - we start at 7:30 am, don't bother leaving a message - we won't call back, we will immediately answer the incoming call as soon as we hang up with the previous call, etc. - and wished me luck on getting a free ride in the coming weeks.

So this past Monday, I enlisted some phone calling help at 7:30 am. I made a general "get your lazy buns out of bed and help me" statement in the hall outside of the boys rooms. And who stumbled out of bed to help? Scott - I can always count on him. Anyway, we started dialing Canyon Creek Ranch. And dialing. And dialing. Scott began to question how long we would continue. I told him for at least 10 minutes. That is the amount of time it took them to give away the free rides on the first week. So we continued on. I started loving my phone's redial feature!

Do any of you remember the olden days when you tried to call in to a radio station for some really cool prize and you had to hand dial the number every time? We used to dial like lightning. I wonder how many wrong numbers were dialed by the masses back then?

Back to the present. It had been nearly 10 minutes and we were getting either their very pleasant answering machine message, a weird ring with a sort of echo at the end, or a busy signal. But when I pushed redial for the umteenth time I got a ring tone that sounded more "real". No funny echo. Hmmmm. I told Scott I thought I might have something. And sure enough after just a few rings I had a real lady answer the line. I got to schedule 2 free rides, one for me and one for Doug. Guess when we are going? Tomorrow morning we are going to Canyon Creek Ranch for the sunrise ride and the continental breakfast.

We are both pretty excited. The facility is out in Black Canyon City. We have to be there no later than 6:45. Hey, the sun is already up by then! Oh well, you can't complain about free. Anyway, we will get dressed in our best cowboy attire (we don't really have any of that - but we won't be wearing flip flops and shorts) and enjoy the experience.

If any of you can think of any good cowboy names or nicnames that would be good for us - put them in a comment. We will take all of them into consideration and when we post real pictures of ourselves on the horses - we will use the best ones to label our pictures. Good luck on that one.

BOO

I wrote earlier about my little white hummingbird friend. I have named my friend - Boo. It comes and goes. Darts in and out. Eats daintily from the feeder. And like all the hummingbirds at my feeders it chases and is chased.


None of my little friends, Boo included, like to share. There are no less than 14 holes through which they can lap up the delicious and sweet nectar - but sharing is not an option.


It sort of makes me mad. There is one "watch dog" that seems to claim ownership over the entire supply. It sits atop the shepherds hook from which the nectar hangs in the sun. The head twists around and looks up and down always on the lookout. His ears listening for any sign of another hummingbird brave enough to approach. When an approach is made the chase is on. And they are fast! Anyway - I have lovingly described these chases as "Hummingbird Wars".


But Boo is pretty persistent. He doesn't seem quite as skittish as some of the other birds. Boo bravely tries to hold his position at the feeder and only leaves when under direct and aggressive attack.


I sent some of my pictures of Boo to a "hummer" lover. And the response back to me was that this bird is indeed an albinistic hummingbird. This is an extremely rare bird! And I feel lucky to see this beauty daily.


Pictures of Boo:

Video of Boo - Action is in first half of shot.

Raspberry Jello

My wonderful DIL (daughter-in-law) sent me a yummy recipe for raspberry jello. I made it the other day when the missionaries came to dinner.

Can I just say - IT WAS A HIT!

I don't know why I don't make jello stuff more often. Especially in the summer when we are melting in Phoenix. But the raspberry jello was cool, delicious, and looked just as good.

So a big thanks to my only DIL for the great recipe for raspberry jello. She also gave me a wheat bread recipe that I plan on making very soon.