Some Photos!

Annette sent me these beautiful tulips for Christmas. They went through the whole life span of tulips, beginning as little buds, and then blooming and growing into nice, tall, proud flowers. I thought that they were particularly beautiful as they began to fade, and this is a photo that I took of them then:


Today we went on a photo shoot for our Foto Fun group. We went to Reid Park and here are some shots that I took. We had a beautiful day, and the park is so pretty, with many different areas and fun photo opportunities.

This is a park where Michael and I would often go to walk. Usually I would go off for my fast walk with Maddy, and then return to the car, where Michael would be waiting. Then he and Maddy and I would go for a walk through the rose garden and around the lakes. Frequently, there would be an ice cream truck there, and we'd have an ice cream bar!

Last evening, we went with 3 other couples to see the movie "Avatar" in 3D. We liked it!

This morning, I got a new number on the scale -- 131.2! We worked out on the Wii Fit Plus, and then went for a good long walk.

For the next 2 weeks, I'll be out of the office, while Jack and I go off on a computer-free vacation! I will write down in a notebook what we do, and upon our return, I'll be posting these journal entries in my blog! I'll probably post a couple of days at a time. Keep your emails coming, but don't be dismayed if you don't hear back from me for a while.

Tuesday

Today is hiking day! And hike we did. This was a special hike -- the Tubac to Tumacacori de Anza Trail hike. The walk itself is a nice one, overwhelmingly flat, and it's pretty in places, with river crossings and overlooks, lots of green undergrowth, and some nice tall trees.

The hike, by no coincidence, took us to Wisdom's -- a wonderful little Mexican restaurant. Jack and I shared a chicken fajita and a cherry burro (with ice cream!) This was a great treat! We paid a visit to the spice shop further down the road, and then shopped for not long enough in Tubac, before heading back north.

This meal counted as supper, so we had just a light snack this evening. (Mine was 1C of fresh cherries and a slice of multigrain bread. Yum!) I am doing fine with my weight goals. I'm 132.0 as of this morning, and, while it's not 130 quite yet, I'm revising my goal again! I've decided to head on down to 125, and my new goal date will be March 15. Yeah.. that's me! If a goal is unreachable, I'll just make the goal MORE difficult! I'll do it.

Grilling

We have had a few really great days! Saturday, we went to the mall and bought a few things for the cruise. Of course, I also have nearly filled another Goodwill bag. If something new comes in, something old has to go out!

Church yesterday was good, with a fine sermon that spoke about what Baptism means and I really liked it. We helped take down Christmas decorations and then headed off to buy chickens and a rotisserie for the new grill!

Once we had our food and rotisserie secured, we walked down the street, looking for people to invite over for dinner! Of course, at such late notice, most people already have plans, but Pam, Mike, Jill, and Lee didn't!

Besides the rotisserie chicken, Jack made roasted potatoes and onions and I made my squash/tomato/onion/garlic sautee. Then, for dessert, we did smores on our little firepit. :)

Tonight, we made stuffed mushroom caps and took them to George and Patty's hors d'oevres party. It was lots of fun, with many of our friends present, and a jovial atmosphere.

And.. my weight is now stuck (for the last 2 days) on 132.6. I've revised my goal again. I want to weigh 125 by 3/15. Are you getting bored of my weight goals? Hey.. it's my blog, so I can bore you all I want!

New Grill

Yeah! Finally all of our grill searching has paid off, and we got ourselves one for Tucson. We got a Weber Genesis, put it together this afternoon, and cooked our first steaks on it tonight! John and Mary Ann came over and we had steaks, green beans sauteed in garlic sesame oil, grilled potato halves, and grilled onions. After supper, we had smores with marshmallows we toasted on our little firepit outside.

After dinner, we played games on our Wii, and it was a blast. Jack and I just discovered this morning a game in the Wii where you are a bird, and you flap your arms to fly from one post to another. What total fun! It's like the dream that you have where you're flying.

My weight is stuck again -- this time on 132 lbs. My goal of 130 by 1/15 seems so reasonable, even now, till I realize how very slowly those tenths of a pound come off.

Weather has been gorgeous here, even as the rest of the country, including Florida, brace for more wintery weather, freezing temps, snowfalls, and ice. Yeah.. hard to believe that this is early January, and we were out in our driveway, building a grill today in shirtsleeves!

Fun Evening

Last evening, we went to John and Peggy's house for dinner. They are friends of ours from church. We enjoyed a delicious supper of beef stew and salad, and had apple tarts for dessert. Everything was delicious, and we had good conversation. After dinner, we played a Scrabble card came, which was fun. I kept getting extraordinary words, which I enjoyed, of course.

Today, we went to Udall Park to do our walk, and went to Eclectic Cafe for lunch. I had tuna salad served in a tomato, and it would have been really good, except that it had pickles in it. Then we went to Fry's to pick up some steaks.

Next on our agenda was Foto Fun. We heard about all the things that we're going to do as a club this season, and then we showed our favorite photos from the summer.

Nashes are back, and it was great to see them. They'll be using Jack's car while they are here. We went around yesterday, getting the car washed and relicensed.

Choir practice was good today. We are doing some neat songs this season!

Hiking

While much of the country is suffering with record low temps, we are delighting in wonderful weather here in the Southwest! Our high temperature was about 72 and the sky was blue and clear. And today was hiking day! We hiked the Tanque Verde Ridge trail as far as the Dome. What a great hike this was!

Today would have been Michael's 67th birthday, and I thought that this hike was a fitting tribute. Here is Michael in San Francisco, getting ready to do one of his favorite things! .

I just love this photo of him! I have so many wonderful memories of Michael and our lives together. I am very happy now, but I know that a big part of who I am now was built by my time with Michael. He simply adored me. And that love is a treasure that I'll always have.

Delicious Day

Yeah, this was a day I ate my way through. I guess we're all entitled to one of those, now and then, aren't we? Well, here we go: Breakfast was good -- Cheerios with bananas and skim, OJ, and 1/2 C of cantaloupe. Lunch -- 1/6 of a great big pizza at New York Pizza, with pepperoni and green olives. And dinner was a zucchini half stuffed with chicken, onions, and herbs, covered in tomato sauce, a green salad (no dressing), and 2 asiago cheese breadsticks with garlic butter. 16 oz of skim milk to drink. Also, during the day, I had 6 toffee peanuts and 12 tiny mints. And they were not sampling at Costco, so I didn't have anything there!

We didn't make it to the Health Nuts meeting, which is too bad. We were talking about goals for 2010 today, and I wanted to announce my health goals. You know one of them -- maintaining my 130 lbs, with a 3-lb leeway. I've made that; I'm just in the leeway part!

My other health goal is to get off my antidepressant in a healthy way. I am feeling very in control of my emotions and I am confident that this is something that I can do. I am now taking the pills just 2 days out of every 3. The primary reason for this is that my insurance company will not be covering my prescriptions, starting 1/1, so... here we are. I had to change to Michigan Blue Cross/Blue Shield, since I moved away from Indiana.

We went over to the storage lot and got the RV and Jack's car both started! We took his car back over here and he's charging the battery, getting it ready for the Nashes who will be borrowing the car for the winter. We drove the RV around a little, running a few errands, and then took it back.

We're signing up for dance lessons at a place in town. They're offering the first 4 lessons free, so we'll see how we like it.

A Fine Day

Today we went to church, where, after the service, they had a short presentation on the financial situation of the church. Being me, I'm not terribly interested in finances, but they did have cocoa and cookies. :)

Next we went to Sweet Tomatoes! There, I enjoyed a fabulous salad, a bowl of yummy soup, and a banana sundae -- my invention of a banana, chocolate sauce, and chopped nuts on top. Jack and I both LOVE Sweet Tomatoes!

We also both love shopping and we went to look for some clothes to wear for our upcoming cruise. That's right! We're going on a cruise on the 17th of January. We leave from LA and we will sail around and visit 3 ports in Mexico. After that week, we'll spend another few days in southern California, before driving back here.

So we came back here to put away our purchases, and then we left again -- this time, to go to our Pastor and his wife's Open House. It was a fun party, good eats, and interesting people!

Great Day

We enjoyed a wonderful day yesterday. We slept late and then had a good breakfast. (Mine was Grape Nuts with raspberries!) Then I readied the dish we were to take to Harold's party. I made my fabulous spinach artichoke dip. (Put spinach in the search line of my blog for the recipe!)

The party was fun, and the company amiable. One highlight of the party was Earl and Vicky's son Chris, who played guitar and sang for us. He did some good old songs, but also some very cool things that he'd written. He played along with Harold and Rob, we all sang, and a good time was had by all!

There was lots of great food, but I was able to eat with restraint. In the past couple of parties, I've found that a good way for me to limit my eating is to stick to water to drink. I think that alcohol, besides being empty calories, and lots of them, serves to heighten my appetite, along with diminishing my will-power. I don't "need" to drink to have fun, so .. why do it? A glass of wine is fine, so long as it doesn't turn into two!

And, as a reward for my restraint, I saw a new number on the scale this morning -- 131.6! Might I actually make 130.0 by the 15th of January?

I talked to Dave yesterday, and that was good. We always enjoy a laugh when we talk, and this was no different. :)

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! And it's gotten off to a very happy start for us. We went up to the clubhouse yesterday afternoon, taking garbage and recycling, and happened upon our Activity Director Lily working on decorating the Fiesta Room. There was lots to do, and we were happy to join right in! Jack filled helium balloons, I tied on ribbons, we covered tables, put out candles and confetti. It was very festive when we were done!

Last evening, we enjoyed a quiet dinner together, relaxed for a couple of hours, and then got spiffed up to go to the New Year's Dance. I wore a black (size 8!) jumpsuit in a sort of slinky fabric, and my gold collar necklace. I'll have a photo soon!

We were among the first to arrive for the dance, and we got the best table! Joining us were Harold & Kathy, Pam & Mike, Denny & Karen, Marv & Jean, and Kim. As the time passed, even more people joined us.

Of course, we were not just sitting around! The band was engaging and we enjoyed dancing just about every song. They even knew the Bunny Hop! Jack's asked every band we've had, and this is the first one to know it! What fun! I felt great in my new outfit, too!

I'd committed myself before we left to drink just a couple of glasses of champagne, but I did even better than that, having just a sip at midnight with Jack. We actually saved our bottle for another day.

Midnight came much sooner than we all thought it would, and hugs, horns, hats, champagne, and "Happy New Year" ruled the night.