Happy Anniversary, Doug!

Yesterday was an anniversary - for Doug.

Yes, 27 years ago yesterday

Doug started working for APS.

He left me in New York

with Scott and a week old Evan -

and flew to Phoenix

to begin his career as an Elecrical Engineer.

If I remember right he flew back on Labor Day Weekend

and we flew back together.

Happy Anniversary, Doug!

We celebrated by driving to the Metro Light Rail station at Christown mall.
We caught the train and rode it to The Old Spaghetti Factory.
We ate a meal.
I got Chicken Parmisiana and Doug got the Baked Chicken Dish.
Both meals were good.
The entre's came with soup or salad (we got the salad),
milk, coffee, and iced or hot tea (we didn't get any of that),
hot loaf of freshly made bread (yummy)
and either vanilla ice cream, spumoni, or rainbow sherbet (we got the sherbet).
The meals were $11.50 and I couldn't even finish mine. So a good deal too.

We returned to the Light Rail station and caught the train continuing to downtown Phoenix.

We got off at the station by the sports arenas.
We walked to the baseball stadium and bought tickets for next Wednesday's game.
Doug and his Young Men are going to a game.
Buying the tickets in person saved $2 per ticket for the online "convenience" fee. SHEESH!

Anyway, after that we walked a few blocks to the station so we could board the train to take us back. We arrived just after the train left. So we would have a 15 or 20 minute wait. It wasn't so bad though. We discovered that there was a solar cooler installed so we enjoyed a cool wait for the train.

HOLD ON! It wasn't a cool wait. It was a cooler wait. Why should I care about the word change? Well yesterday Phoenix set an all-time record high temperature for August - any day in any August in any year since records have been kept - ALL TIME HIGH. What was the record temperature? A mere 117. So when I say "cool wait" that wouldn't really be accurate. But "cooler wait" would be a better description. We could feel the cooler air pumping out of the vents - but this was a totally open air station and the coolness quickly dissipated into the hot humid surrounding air. But being long-time Phoenix residents - we were tough and we didn't care and we still enjoyed the evening.

We shared the train last night with lots of interesting people.

I wonder what the people thought about us?

I don't know - but people watching is always fun.

We enjoyed the evening

and are so glad that Doug's job at APS

has been such a good one and a real blessing in our lives.

Happy Anniversary, Doug!!

Bird Netting

As my tomatoes started ripening I started noticing something. I would go out in the morning to see the orange/red tomatoes with gouges out of them. The gouges looked suspiciously like bird pecks. Dang, it hate that! They take them before they are quite ripe and ruin them for us.

So off to the hardware store we went to buy some bird netting. First we had to pick off all the ruined tomatoes. Then we placed it over our plants. It was draped carefully and evenly. The bird netting had to overlap the ground on all sides - quite a task. Doug wasn't so worried about the bird netting needing to be completely to the ground but I was. So I made sure it was secured down with rocks.

But even after we completed the bird netting barrier I suspected that birds might be getting in somehow. Why? Because I still found pecked tomatoes. Not so many as before but every once in a while. Had I missed getting those off the plant originally? No - it looked like a fresh peck.

Well anyway a couple days ago I went out to fine a frantic bird trapped in the bird netting with no way to escape. There it was the dang tomato loving bird. Caught you red handed! Or red beaked! Anyway, it was jumping and trying to fly with no where to go. But immediately instead of wanting to roast that bird for dinner - I was sorry for the bird. So I carefully lifted a portion of the bird netting and then walked to the other side to encourage the bird to go that way. And before I could even see the bird escape - it was gone! Sure enough it had feasted on a few of my ripening tomatoes. Dang bird!

Drain

Yesterday morning at 6:00 am Doug loaded the car with a ladder, 3 pieces of 10 foot long lumber, two drills, big box of screws, glue, a metal brace, a jack, measuring tape, an electric saw for cutting the boards, a flashlight, several clamps, my huge stainless steel bowl, and a variety of other objects. I took my purse. We drove over to our house on 36th Drive. While in the attic a week or so ago he discovered a broken board (truss, strut, something). So he was going to repair it. He crawled in. I handed some stuff up to him. Then I sat on the tailgate and talked to our renter. We had a nice long talk. Doug worked hard, got dirty and sweaty, but was also successful! The repair has been made.

Then we went into the house to check out a "slow drain". That thing wasn't slow - it was stopped. Gross! Anyway, Doug took off the "P trap" to see if that was the problem. Well that pipe basically disintegrated in his hands. It had rusted through and was cracked. We drove to Ace Hardware and made a quick purchase and headed back over. Doug replaced that - but the blockage remained.

Then the renters mentioned they had a snake. We (meaning Doug) then tried that but to no avail. We ended up calling the Rescue Rooter guys to come give us a $99 service. Some few hours later they went over and now it is draining like crazy.

Not 1 hour later the missionaries (our tenants downstairs) came up and mentioned that the tub wasn't draining. WHAT!?! No not that - again. So we tried several variations on plunging. We had two plungers and a tub, toilet, and two sinks. Non of the variations worked any magic. And because we had Courtesty Plumbing come and replace our sewage ejection pump a few months ago (that was an expensive fix and they were very happy to fix it for us $$$$). We feel like we need to call them just in case there is a problem with that. They charge double to come during the weekend - so guess what we are doing? Yep, waiting until Monday. Luckily the missionaries won't have to rough it too much. They just get to use the bathroom upstairs. You know the one I mentioned a few days ago that has clear shower doors. Yes, that's the one. I guess they get to leave their deposits on those clean shower doors for a couple of days.

We hope our drain problem here is fixed tomorrow - and that we don't have to share as much $$$$$ with Courtesy Plumbing as we did last time. But true to their name they always smile and say thanks when we give them our check.

Discovered

WOW!

I just discovered

that the shower doors

in the pink bathroom

are not opaque but clear glass!

It only took me 3+ hours to figure it out.

Amazing!

And, lucky me,

I got them cleaned off

just a few short weeks

before Isaac will be home.

Goodbye clear glass doors -

hello opaque.

Already

Already missing our Utah kids and grandkids!