Beautiful

That's how I felt today! I was asked to be a model for the Far Horizons Fashion Show, and .. what fun! I hope to have more photos, but here's one. This is all of us models with the two representatives of the store who sponsored the show. We're all dressed for our casual appearances.

The show went swimmingly, with the preparations paying off in a well-run and pleasing show for all who attended. After the casual presentations, we all went back and changed into our dress-up clothes. We all looked fabulous! :)

Ok.. back to preparations for the bake sale tomorrow!

Busy Days

I have decided that I will start moderating comments. I've gotten lame spam postings from just one moron, but I don't want to take the chance of "my people" clicking on some stupid ungood link. So.. it may take a day or two for your comment to become visible. The other thing that I can do is to have people be "members" in order to comment, but... I'm not ready to take that big step yet. I do love and appreciate your comments!

I've been crazily busy since our return from the trip. We found out that the Entertainers group had pegged us for some roles in the upcoming play, which requires a couple of mornings a week for practice. I am going to be a model in the Fashion Show. There have been parties, a wine tasting, a couple of big dinners, that we have helped with, and I'm in two choirs -- both the Far Horizons choir and our church choir. All the activities are fun and very worthwhile and so .. hey, this is what I'm living for.

We went to the Gem Show, a small part of it, on Monday and that was really fun. I got a pretty thing to hang on my gold collar and Jack got a beautiful silver belt buckle with a coin with his birth year. :)

Rain! We had quite a bit of it today, along with chilly temps. Right now, it's 45°, which is cold for here, and, with the rain and wind, it feels really raw.

I was Liturgist in church on Sunday, and I also sang with the choir. Jack taught Sunday School, and I helped with the Bake Sale after church. It was for the choir and we made good money!

I finally decided to set myself free of the afghan project. This is a collection of rectangles that I'd knitted, all different patterns, and that I had planned to crochet together to make a large afghan. I'd started this probably 20 years ago -- maybe more. Our park is doing a project where they are putting together lap robes and shoulder wraps for veterans, and they were happy to get my squares and the yarn that I had left over. So... yay! The squares will be loved, people will be warm, and I don't have to think about the unfinished project or store it for another minute.

Cruise Pics: Part I

Today we had a great day -- very busy! We spent most of it working on the Annual Meatloaf Dinner for 200 people. Jack and I were in charge of most of the cooking and I worked with some of the other women on putting salads together.

Ok, I promised you cruise photos, and here are a few. Here are Jack and I all suited up and ready to go on the zipline outside of Mazatlan:
There were 9 different lines that we went zinging down, and it was SOOOO super FUN!

Here is the sunset as shot from our balcony on the ship:

A different view of the sunset at Mazatlan:

A few minutes makes a big difference in a sunset!

Mazatlan's pretty beachside houses:

Jack and me at Cabo San Lucas:

Pretty Cabo San Lucas:

The agave field where they get the raw ingredients for some great tequila:

More photos will be forthcoming!

Back in Tucson

Back? Yes! We left on January 12, headed toward Los Angeles, boarded a cruise ship, and sailed to the Mexican Riviera. The trip was really great. Before the cruise even started, we drove up to Phoenix, visited IKEA, and stayed at a hotel in Goodyear. We drove on Saturday over to Quartzsite, where there is a gigantic RV and gem show every year for the last 2 weeks of January. We were only there a couple of hours, but we certainly walked past LOTS of stuff!

We drove on to Carson, CA, which is just north of Long Beach, near the San Pedro dock from which we were to set sail. At Carson, we looked in the Yellow Pages for a Presbyterian USA church. We found one right between Carson and San Pedro, at Wilmington, CA. The church was a Filipino church, though everyone spoke English. Great service, neat people, and we left there feeling loved and cared for.

And we arrived on time to get checked in for our cruise adventure. It could not have gone more smoothly, with the Royal Caribbean staff handling us and everyone else with phenomenal grace.

More cruise news tomorrow. Today we went to the best party ever at Harold and Kathy's. It was a 70th birthday celebration for both Harold and Mick. I made a chocolate-peanut-butter trifle, which was, if I may boast a bit, fabulous! This one contained chocolate cake, toffee peanuts, whipped cream, Reeses' cups, Hershey's syrup, and a chocolate/peanut butter sauce that I made with chocolate chips, cream, peanut butter, and a little corn syrup. This is the sort of dessert that dreams are made of.

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.