Off

Main A/C not working. Off.

Secondary unit working. Off.

Blowing cool air from bedrooms with large fan. Off.

Wall thermostat in living room reads: 88. Off.

Coping by wearing a chilly neck. Off.

Waiting for help. Off.

Have a nice day! Off!

My ABC's

Sadie likes to sing us the ABC song each week during our video chat. So my post today is my way of doing the ABC song. Enjoy.
There is a change here at our house. We have the missionaries who serve in our ward living with us. They moved in one week ago. They are really busy - we rarely see them. And they are good missionaries. We are enjoying having them here. We hope they are enjoying it here as well. We sort of buttered them up last night by sharing home made popcorn with them. I KNOW they enjoyed that. So here they are - meet Elder Tanner and Elder Hohman.
This morning I went on a bike ride. I left at 9:35 (a little later than I wanted to). I got home at 11:15. I had my Camelback for hydration - and I used it a lot. I rode down to Bethany Home and 83rd Avenue and hopped on the path that parallels the canal. Everything was good until I crossed 43rd Avenue at Osborne - I started seeing lots and lots of tagging and got feeling uncomfortable (no one knew I was riding my bike or the route I was taking). So I just turned around and came back. Total distance 16.4 miles. On the way home I stopped by Tolmachoff Farms and bought a dozen corn-on-the-cobs. I can't wait for dinner tonight to eat some. It was a little hard riding the 2 3/4 miles home with the corn in a bag. But I did it.

Yesterday I did a favor for my RS Secretary. We watched Charlie their Chihuahua. He was a skinny nervous dog. But before long he quit shaking and shivering and liked us to pet him. He even played with some of his toys. Don't worry Billie. He brought his own toys and didn't use any of yours. Want to know a secret about Charlie? He is bald on his legs, belly, chest, and underside of his neck and chin. CRAZY!! We enjoyed having him for the day. We'd do it again too, if asked. Right Doug? Right? Oh well, maybe not.

This morning I was at the kitchen sink and saw something at the hummingbird feeder. No not BOO my albino hummingbird. It has been more than a year since I saw him. But there was a Baltimore Oriole sitting on one of the feeders. Quick! I needed to grab the camera. But by the time I got back all I saw was a blur of black and yellow. Well I left the camera there, on the window sill, and kept checking back. When I got distracted that dang bird came back. By the time I saw it there it was already leaving. I'm just not quite quick enough. I sure hope to get my own picture. But to spice up this post I got a picture from online.

On the way to church yesterday I found a very long hair that had fallen out of my head. That is not so unusual. But this was a very long silver hair. Just because I was curious I measured it while I was in the library. I'm taking guesses from anyone who wants to make a guess on how long the hair was. Just make a comment to make your guess.

Remember when I told you about the bike ride that made my left pinky and part of the ring finger numb? Well that very slowly but surely was wearing off. And yesterday I thought my fingers felt pretty normal. So then what extremely dumb thing did I do? I did a 16.4 mile ride today and they are numb again. The crazy thing is - my right pinky and part of my ring finger are also numb this time. What can I say? At least I'm evened up now.

Lawn Mower

The old lawn mower has served us well. But it died. We got this new red lawn mower as a replacement. It came in a box from Sears. Doug went to the store and bought it. I took it out of the box and assembled it. Doug took care of filling the oil and gas. Then this morning came the big test. I went out, grabbed the pull cord, and in one pull the engine started. What a sweet sweet sound. I didn't even have to work up a sweat with repeated pulls. One pull - that was it. After it started I proceeded to mow the back grass. It worked like a charm!

Solar Oven Bread

A few weeks ago I bought a solar oven through Craigslist. They had several listed for sale for less than they sell for online. It turns out that they bought a big batch of ovens in order to get a reduced price. They had a few extras and would sell them for the exact price they bought them for. That was about 30 dollars cheaper than online. So I jumped for one. And yesterday I finally tried to make some Solar Oven Bread.

I got out my wheat.

Ground it into flour.

Stirred and kneaded the dough. Formed it into the black pan that came with the oven. I let the dough rise in the warm sun coming through my window.

Before long it was ready to put into the oven. I had placed the oven outside earlier to get it "warmed up" and ready to go.

When the oven was going it was between 200 and 250 degrees inside. The instructions said to cook the bread for 45 minutes to an hour. I left it for an hour.

When I brought the bread in and took it out of the pan it looked like a cake and wasn't browned like a loaf I would cook in my oven.

But it cut like real bread.

And it tasted like real bread too - REAL GOOD BREAD!!

I must say the bread was a success! I baked 2 "loaves" and they both came out great! The missionaries were at dinner and seemed to like the bread as well. This morning I took some to my tennis ladies and they were all very impressed! So the Solar Oven Bread experiment was an overwhelming success. YES!!

Return from Scout Camp

I sent Doug to Scout Camp on Monday.

On Saturday this is who I saw

Return From Scout Camp.

WOW!!

Is this the same guy?

Monkeying Around

A little while ago my Bester (aka. Kristina) asked me to secure some critical seams in her very favorite monkey suit so she could loan it out to her ward for Girls Camp. So I did that. She also mentioned that I could play around with the costume while it was in my possession. So I did that too.

Here are the results of my Monkeying Around.

All Alone

Doug is at Scout Camp all week long.

This morning Scott left - he will be gone for 2 days.

So I am all alone.

100,000

The video below documents our 2006 Nissan Frontier turning over 100,000 miles. What a milestone. And to think we have accumulated those miles in just 5 years. Sheesh! But it the truck has been well used. And we have taken pretty good care of it too. So do you wish the truck a Happy Birthday, or a Happy Trails? Not sure - but this I know - we hope it has at least another 100,000 miles in it.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Lately I have been thinking that it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Yes, it is true. Even though we are here in the desert - it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! How nice.

Want to know why it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas?

That is because we have tomatoes ripening on our plants outside. Everytime I go out to water the plants I think to myself: "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!" Here are a few photos. Let me know if you agree with my assessment.

Ideas

To all my loyal readers:

Please put your thinking caps on and give me a few minutes of your undivided effort. I would like any and all ideas you have for a very short audition video for The Amazing Race. Scott and I have talked for a very long time about how we would run the race and batted around the idea of auditioning. Well that talk has stopped and now we have just a few short weeks to put together a 1-2 minute audition video.

We encourage all ideas no matter how "way out" they may be. If we don't directly use anyones idea - we may use it to help us with some massive brain storming to finalize an idea.

A few things:

1. We want a tag line - something to grab attention and use for the elements we put in the video. (Brains and Brawn, AZ Tag Team, something soccerish?)

2. We should put in some dialog. (Maybe about a game situation and how brutal we would be.)

3. Some point of conflict & resolution. (Help us out here.)

4. A team name (might be the same as our tag line). Do we need a unique look (but not matching outfits, I hear that is a killer for an audition)?

5. Any filming suggestions.

Remember your ideas need to be short, sweet, unique, and able to grab attention FAST! Rob your expertice for a short video would be very very helpful. Give us some of your vast knowledge, please. Isaac - you have a creative mind. We loved your frozen milk commercial. But only spend your energy and mind power generating ideas for us when you are otherwise mindlessly engaged in toilet scrubbing, floor polishing, or carpet cleaning! No study/class time should be used toward this cause.

We need your ideas and quick. Help!

***All idea submissions become the sole property of - ME. They can be changed, altered, and mutilated for my purposes. If we get picked and/or win you might receive compensation and or credit for your contributions - but don't count on it!

Snakes

We ran into two of these critters on the first day. Both of them were fairly small. The first one was a small rattlesnake. It was a little bigger around than a pencil (maybe as thick as a cigar) - and the length was undertermined. It was coiled up against the side of the canyon wall. We didn't want to stretch him out for fear of being struck by those teeny tiny fangs. You all know that being bit by a baby rattlesnake is the worst. They haven't yet figured out how to regulate their venom so they just let it all go. That would have been disastrous in our isolated location.

This was the second snake we came across. It was moving and we video taped the snake action. We weren't sure what kind of snake he was but some guy in our group said that you can tell a snake is not venomous if it does not have any purple on it. WHAT? I've never heard that. I've never seen a rattlesnake with purple on it. The coral snake is red, yellow, and black - right? And pythons, black mambas, etc. I'm not sure he knows what he's talking about - but we just nodded our heads and acted better informed. (You can really hear the wind blowing on the video - It gets going when blowing through the narrow canyon!)

More short posts will follow. We are putting together another comic book for your enjoyment. Just don't count on it coming anytime soon.