Adobe tan for today's posting color. :) Yes, today is warm... here in Tucson, that is! We were looking at the weather channel this morning, and it is going to be lows in the mid-40's and highs in the 70's all week! I think that our winter is over! "Winter" here lasts just a couple of weeks, usually, and we can expect lows around 30 and highs in the 50's or 60's. Brrr! ;) I did nearly 50 years of Indiana winters, so I know what y'all are going through. It just seems sort of early for these bitterly cold temps, and it seems like it's going on and on. Annette, I agree that it seems wrong. And to rub it in, these are the weather gadgets that I have on my desktop. This is 12 noon:
Yesterday was a big day for us, with things going on all day long. We began the day early, leaving at 7:30 for a photo shoot downtown with the Photo Fun club. I got some cool photos, as did Jack. I haven't seen anyone else's yet.
We drove back (my day to drive!) here where I crooned with the choir till we broke at 11. Jack picked me up (and I resumed driving) and we went waaay over to Oracle, south of Ina, to the Hometown Buffet, where we attended Jack's alumni luncheon for Ferris State. They do this every year. The lunch was good -- all you can eat -- and I, as usual, won a door prize -- a shirt! To make room for it, I am giving away one of my older shirts.
Then we took about an hour to shop around on the northeast side, where there are some of the finest shopping opportunities around. Jack got a new Whirly-Pop popcorn maker, and we looked at gas fire pits. We also went to AJ's, a very fine grocery store, and got a few provisions for tonight.
We made it back a little late for the Entertainers' meeting, but it was ok; we didn't miss much. Then, having feasted at noon, we were not very hungry, so we just watched tube and did computer work all evening.
One thing that I was working on with my computer was the presentation that I was to do this morning for the Computer Club. That went well. Along with Bob Rogers, I did a talk on Windows Photo Gallery -- organizing, tagging, and fixing photos. People seemed to like it.
After the meeting, we segued right into the auditions for this year's production. I actually -- LOL I can't believe I did this -- got up and "sang" my rendition of Janis Joplin's "Mercedes Benz." Here's the song with a photo medley which I found on YouTube:
I hope that they find a place for it (or me) someplace in the play, but ... LOL .. I'll accept my fate.
Hiking's been fun. The Hardy Hikers went on a nice hike up to the Tanque Verde Dome on Tuesday, following a (are you sitting down?) a BIKE RIDE Jack and I took over to the Saguaro East Monument. We didn't ride IN the park, just to it, but that was 16 miles, and that's a big deal for me. We didn't go fast, at least, so it was fun, and it's downhill all the way home, which is my favorite way to go.
My health has been great, as has Jack's. We continue to do a fast-for-me walk every day, and he also does a fast-for-Jack walk by himself, usually pre-dawn.
We've gotten most of the stuff cleaned off the deck -- a major accomplishment! We still need to put a few things into the shed that we're going to build where my RV now sits. While my goal is to have this shed be living space (hobby room) and not just storage space, we are planning to include a sizable closet in the blueprint.
Saturday night, we went with a group to Sauce, to celebrate Al's birthday. A good time was had by all of us, sitting at a very long table through the middle of the restaurant. Most of the rest of them went to a movie afterwards, but we didn't have our tickets, the line was daunting, and so we decided to just mill around the stores instead.
Yesterday was Sunday, and we went to the St. John of the Desert church -- a nice place with an affable pastor and congregation. This was our second visit at this church, and Pastor Bruce actually remembered our names. After the service, we stayed after and helped to put away the Christmas decorations and to clean up the straw that was all over the stage. Mangers are messy! LOL!
We went to lunch at Sweet Tomatoes, and that was good, as always. It seems as if we're always shopping, and yesterday was no exception, finding us at Performance Bicycle, among other places. Jack's angling for a new bike, but he has to get his other one paid off, first! LOL! We were chuckling about how he's "upside down" on his bike.
Last night we had leftover Janee-fried chicken for supper, along with brussels sprouts (which Jack now likes!), green beans, and a nice salad. We'd had the first run of chicken on Friday night, when John joined us for a feast on our new table.
I'm glad you guys liked my photos from the hikes. As always, I love the feedback!
We're working ydy and today, and probably for some days in the foreseeable future, on getting Jack's stuff cleaned up off the deck. He had to move out of where he had been living in a hurry, so things are sort of piled up outside, till we can figure out what has to be thrown away, what has to be given away, and what we will be able to make room for. The shed that we built is small, but it's going to do fine for all of Jack's tools and for our two good bikes, which we've hung from the ceiling in an arrangement we engineered just last evening. Those of you who know me well, know that I don't do well with clutter or just too much stuff in general. So .. this has been a difficult period for me, with all this *stuff* around, but I'm striving for patience.
Good Saturday morning! Today I'm going to post some photos from the past couple of weeks. And no, I don't yet have any photos of Jack and me dancing, but.. it could happen.
On the 30th, we were going to hike Bear Canyon, but the water was so high we couldn't cross it. So... I shot some photos of water! When we gave up on that, we decided to go hike the Blackett's Ridge trail instead. Here are my photos from that hike:
And here are my Wasson Peak photos.
Notice the hikers wayyyy up on that mountain. Wasson Peak is a taller mountain that's behind this one: That's me in the turquoise jacket:
Jack and me at the top: And here's my 360° panorama shot from the promontory just north of the peak. All my hiker friends are eating lunch on the peak. Be sure to click this!:
That's what Jack and I've been doing lots of -- laughing! Days are flying by, in a flurry of organizing, cleaning, cooking, email, and restocking. And we laugh. :) Life is good.
We got our cable TV turned on, and it's been working fine. We're enjoying having more than one channel, and now we have our cable working through our network, so that we each get cable speed on our laptops. Woo hoo!
We bought a table for our dining area. It's a beautiful 42" teak round table, in contemporary design. It has a leaf, too, giving us room to seat up to 6. It came from Copenhagen, a contemporary design furniture store on Fort Lowell. We also got 4 chairs which fold up. They are upholstered and wood and quite nice, really, particularly when we consider that they were just $29 each from Costco!
In order to get the dining room put together as such, I'd taken down the desk that I'd had built in in 2007, but had never used as a desk. In putting the desk in, they'd used lots of gluey stuff as well as numerous large screws, leaving me with quite a patch job. Jack handled this beautifully, finishing up the "orange peel" texture just today. We have to next paint the area, which we are going to do using a light grayed gold. And we've ordered bottom-up, top-down cell shades to go in the alcove's windows.
Photo Fun club is off and running now, following the organizational meeting on Thursday. We had 22 members sign in for the first meeting, and that's good!
Our ballroom dance lesson on Monday was really fun. We're just starting, and we did well with the Rumba and Swing steps. We do have some practicing to do.
Our hike on Tuesday was up to Wasson Peak, the highest point in the Tucson Mountains. That's the hike on which Jack and I first met, 3 years ago. Michael was along on that hike, of course, but Jack and I talked much of the way. This year, we hiked together too, and took some neat pics! One of the photos we took was similar to the one that Jack took of Michael and me 3 years ago.
Ok.. decision made. While I just readied a bundle of photos to post, I worked too long. Bedtime! I'll post them next time.
Things are going great for us here in Tucson! Weather's been good, ever since about the 27th of December. We've been wearing shorts and T-shirts, turning on heat first thing in the morning "to take the chill off," and waiting till late afternoon till we go for our walk. (Jack gets up very early and does his "power walk" at about 6 am. For me, day begins when it is at least starting to get light.)
On Tuesday, December 30, we went on a hike up Blackett's Ridge -- one of our favorites, but also one of the more challenging hikes we do. This trip was no exception to that "challenging" comment. I got started too fast, and ended up kind of split from the rest of the group, because everyone else was faster than me. :/ Jack ultimately took pity on me and slowed his pace so that we could walk together.
Lee took a collection of nice photos, which you can see here. One of them I'll post here. This is Jack and me: I'll have my photos from the hike posted.. soon. They're in my other camera.
I told you that Jack came down here with our friend Gary, from Big Rapids. While he was here, we did some fun things, including a trip to the International Wildlife Museum:
And we went to Saguaro East, where I took a couple of photos. The first cactus and the one that Gary's beholding, are saguaros. The 2nd and 3rd are a cactus called, appropriately, "jumping chollas." These cacti shed those little spined lobes, and these seem to "jump" out to your pants or your hands. Since the spines have tiny hooks on their ends, these are difficult to get OUT of your skin, too!
Annette, here's the amazing Edible Arrangement you and your family sent! And here are some photos from Thanksgiving with the Louisville clan: Here's Jack telling Michelle how to do the potatoes. Notice how carefully she's listening: Everything is going pretty well. We're still working on getting Jack moved into my cottage, and that's been difficult, just because these cottages are a mere 400 square feet, and I've gotten accustomed to living in the whole thing by myself! And, in addition, Jack's used to living with more things than I am, so we're doing some compromising about what stays and what goes.
To make storage less of an issue, we put together a little Rubbermaid tool shed just yesterday. It's 7.5' x 3.5' and we have it tucked over in one corner of our backyard. Cute and it should hold Jack's tools nicely.
Merry Christmas, Everyone! Mine was great. Jack and Gary got here on Monday, the 22nd, and we've had a dandy time. On Monday, we got everyone situated and went out to a feast at New York Pizza for supper.
Tuesday, we were supposed to go hiking, but it poured down rain, so no one hiked. Instead, Gary, Jack, and I went to the International Wildlife Museum. We had a fine time looking at the immense collection of stuffed animals.
Then it got cold. And it rained. And then this morning, Gary flew on back to Michigan, arriving safely this afternoon. It stayed cold all day today, and it is 40 right now here, .. and it's 61 in Bloomington! Sheesh.
I got some neat things for Christmas, including an Edible Arrangement from Annette's whole family, which I got just today! Thanks, Sis! We've been eating very well lately, enjoying all kinds of yummy food gifts: pears, cakes, candies, cookies, various chocolate things, fruitcake (which both Jack and I love!), bacon, ham, and turkey. I've also been enjoying the Aromatherapy Orange and Ginger things that Robert and Molly sent.
Today, after Gary left, we went around and did catchup things -- errands, laundry, and had supper at Chuy's.
It's getting to be Christmas season here in the Village, for sure! We can tell that easily by all of the lovely decorations adorning the cactus, the trees in people's windows and on their porches, and just the festive attitudes displayed. Oh, and the presence of UPS and FedEx trucks on our little streets! One of those UPS trucks came yesterday and brought me goodies! I giggled gleefully as I unwrapped the packages. (I had to unwrap them because they needed refrigeration!) :)
The Pickleball court opened with great fanfare this morning, and several of us have had a chance to play it. It's played much like tennis, pingpong, or badminton -- sort of a hybrid of all 3, really. It's very fun! Because of my left-arm tendinitis, which doesn't seem to be getting any better, I played with my right arm. Hey.. may as well hurt it too, right? LOL!
Some people have asked me about posting comments in my blog, so I'll post it here. At the end of each of my postings, is a line that looks like this:
at 7:54pm 0 Comments
That line is very small, and I can't find a way to make it any bigger.
This says, I believe, that the last posting to this blog was at 7:54 pm, and as of that time, there were still NO comments on that entry.
If you click the word "Comments," you will get to a page that has the posting at the top, other people's comments, and then a box where you can add your comment below. Type your comment into the box, tell Blogger how you want to be identified, if at all, type in the Word Verification, and then click the Post Comment button.
My blog still accepts Anonymous comments, because I have it set to do that. So you don't have to give your name, but .. I like it when you do.
Lessee.. what else has been going on? Computer Club had its meeting today, and we talked about Social Networking sites, like MySpace and Facebook and the like. Yesterday the Entertainers group met and talked about the play. Auditions and practices will begin in January. Of course, Jack has to get here first, because he's going to be the director!
I'm still talking to Jack about 5 times a day, or more. While we've been reluctant to make plans for quite a while, since things change frequently, we ARE looking forward to being together again very soon! He's looking forward to having the divorce finally finalized and hopping into the car and coming out. He's planning to come with Gary in Kathy's car, towing a rented trailer of boxes of stuff for her.
At Far Horizons Tucson Village, Tuesday is hiking day! And yesterday we went on a hike in Saguaro East, about 5 miles, including climbing up the small Pink Hill. I took a few photos, and Herb took one of me!
I cooked dinner for John's last night here and then, this morning, drove him to the airport so he could go to Colorado to be with his wife and family for Christmas. Now I'm left with hoping that Jack will hurry up, get his business taken care of, and get HERE with me, where he belongs.
Christmas is coming here in the Village. Most of the cottages and RV's are decorated in everything from nearly life-sized wooden reindeer to the most beautiful of decorated Christmas trees. My little tree is glowing in my front window now, and, while I won't win any decorating awards, I still rather like the little tree. :) I didn't make reservations for the Christmas dinner, because I don't know if Jack'll be here or if it is just going to be me. I think that, either way, I'll fix a fancy dinner, even if it's just for me. :)
Yes... I did use some muscles yesterday -- new ones! LOL My shoulders, my back muscles, my hips, my .. abs! Yes, it's true. I actually still HAVE abdominal muscles! And, Ray, thank you for your compliment. :)
Today it was rainy and chilly. In fact, right now, while it's 57 in Bloomington, Indiana, it's just 47 here!
I started the day putting up a robe hook in my bathroom. Then I worked some more on consolidating and moving things around in my house, trying to make the most of the space. I actually made room on the top shelf of my closet for my luggage! It was a little teetery up there and, lest it fall on my head, I bungeed it up there!
Then, with the rain falling and cool air blowing, I did aerobic dance here in my living room (that counts as "walking") and then proceeded to gome out here with the Sunday paper, my computer, and HGTV till dinner time.
I talked to Jack only 3 times today, and talked to no one else except John, when he dropped by with his newspaper.
Today I went with some of the FHTV Health Nuts group to a fitness thing over in Jesse Owens Park. It was put on by a local personal trainer fellow named Ron, who talked a bit about nutrition, tested our body fat percentage, and then ran us through a circuit of exercises. My body fat measured at 25%, which is in the "acceptable" range for women my age. I did fine on the exercise circuit and we'll see tomorrow what new muscles I ended up using today.
I got home from that program at about noon, had some peanut butter on the delicious cranberry-pecan bread that I'd bought at Beyond Bread, and then proceeded to read newspapers and do email for the rest of the afternoon.
At about 5, John came by with Sam and we talked on my deck for a few minutes, before deciding to go out and grab some grub. Sauce was our destination, and we had a great pizza there.
Then we went to his place, where he has a big screen TV, and we got started watching Get Smart. It was funny (I love Steve Carell), but I wanted to get back to call Jack, so we stopped it early.
Jack's great, having enjoyed photographing Linda's wedding back in chilly Big Rapids. It was, as always, fun to talk to him, and I can't wait till we're laughing together, face-to-face!
I live in a cottage in wonderful Tucson, Arizona in the winter, and in the summer, I am living in Paris, Michigan, on the beautiful Muskegon River. I go back and forth in a little RV, and I also take extended vacation trips in the RV.
I am a Photoshop artist, and I have taught Photoshop online through the tutorials and classes that I have written. For more on this side of me, see my website at myJanee.com.
I love hiking, working out with my Wii, taking photos, travel, cooking and baking, entertaining, playing games, and blogging!
Yesterday was a big day for us, with things going on all day long. We began the day early, leaving at 7:30 for a photo shoot downtown with the Photo Fun club. I got some cool photos, as did Jack. I haven't seen anyone else's yet.
