Red Flower

Another flower that posed for me at the Tucson Botanical Gardens: Today has been a great day! I began on the Wii Fit Plus, taking it a little easy still because of my knees, which I toasted doing Wii Dance Dance Revolution. They are getting better with rest and Aleve, though, and I'll be back on the DDR before long!

I swung by and picked up Jack to go to church. The service was fun, with a special part for the children, which I always love, and then a good sermon. But afterwards, was very fun indeed! We all went over to Udall Park where we had a picnic! There was great food and lots of games. I played Bingo and did the 3-legged race with Rene and we came in 2nd.

I had made my Chocolate Peanut Butter Trifle, and it was a big hit, disappearing early. Here's the recipe for those of you who want it. Let me tell you my one rule for my recipes. Please, if there's a chance of my bringing this to the same party, bring something else! If I won't be there, though, make, share, enjoy!

Tip: If you want to have some of this for yourself without messing up the trifle, take a small bowl and make a miniature version in it as you do the big-bowl version. No one will be the wiser. ;)
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Janee's Chocolate Peanut Butter Trifle

1 glass Trifle dish (You can make this in a bowl, but the dish makes the whole thing more elegant!)
1 small Chocolate Cake (pound cake or cream cake, premade)
Chocolate - Peanut Butter Sauce (Recipe follows)
1/2 C honey-roasted or toffee peanuts
24 mini Reeses Cups, unwrapped and cut into quarters
1 tub Cool Whip

Chocolate - Peanut butter Sauce
In a medium saucepan combine:
4 T butter (85g)
2/3 C milk (170g)
4 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
Heat this till it's all melted and then whisk together well. It'll still not look great at this point.
Whisk in:
3/8 C peanut butter (96g)
2T corn syrup (38g)
Let the sauce cool, and it'll thicken a bit as it cools. It will not be very thick, but that's ok. :)

1) Make the sauce.
2) Slice the cake thinly.
3) Assemble the ingredients in a line, in the order that I've listed.
4) Layer the ingredients, repeating the pattern about 3 times. That is, put down slices of cake into the bottom of the trifle bowl. Pour 1/3 of the sauce over the cake. Sprinkle over 1/3 of the peanuts and 1/3 of the Reese's cups. Dollop 1/3 of the Cool Whip over the top and spread it to the edges. Repeat.. and then Repeat.
5) Garnish with Reese's Cups and/or peanuts or chocolate chips.
6) Make a sign for the Trifle, stating that this dessert is NOT for people with peanut allergies.
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Beautiful Saturday

This is a lovely iris I saw at the Tucson Botanical Gardens, although there are beautiful flowers of all sorts, blooming all over Tucson! Today was good. I slept till .. LOL almost 9, and then got up and did my Wii Fit. Then it was time for lunch. Did email and Facebook and then it was time to go to Harold and Kathy's dinner party. Great time with lots of laughs. Yes, I guess it is fair to say that things are slowing down around here!

Jack and Eddie continue to do great. I had a little visit with them today. Eddie was sleeping on Jack's bed (something that he never did in *my* house) and he came out to see me and to get a tummy rub.

I notice that, the more frequently I post, the less frequently I get comments on my postings, but I'm not whining! I just love the comments that I do get.

Sore knees

Yesterday's Wii workout on the Dance Dance Revolution made my knees sore! I probably have a bit of tendinitis going there. I took some Aleve and am expecting relief soon!

This morning, at 7am, I went to an exercise class at the Fiesta Room, and it was pretty fun, though I didn't get much of an aerobic workout. I came home and did 30 minutes of Yoga and Strength exercises on the Wii.

Then Jack and I went together to run some errands. We discovered Copper Country -- a really great antique mall by Summit Hut on Speedway. Fun, but neither of us bought anything.

Rainy Day in Tucson

I shot this photo of Fairy Dusters on a sunny day:

Today, however, was not sunny at all! We had rain, wind, and chilly raw air. It reminded me of .. back east!

I began my day with over 2 hours of Wii, and that was fun. I did Wii Fit Plus and my DDR, which is really fun too.

At 9 am, I got my call from the investment people who are trying to help me get Michael's retirement money switched over to my name. I have to send them a letter from the court in Bloomington, telling them that I'm in charge of handling the estate, a will, a death certificate, and that should take care of it.

This is, of course, not going to be easy. I had to engage an attorney, who will get the necessary court order and get this handled. Of course, none of this is going to be free. :/ Please, if you have any assets at all, be sure that the beneficiary line is filled out on all of them. I *know* that Michael thought that this was all done, but this one account was not handled.

Anyway, I got all the forms sent today, and I hope that all of this can be done in a week.

Next, Jack came over and picked me up and we were off to his stepmom Mary's house. We helped her run some errands, and she took us to Bistro 44 for a delicious lunch. Nice time!

We got back in time to change clothes (into something warmer!) and go over to Harold and Kathy's for happy hour and a great dinner with them and Pam and Mike. More fun!

Pretty in Pink

This is a flower that I captured at the Tucson Botanical Gardens:

Jack and I tried to go to the Tohono Chul Park today, but opted out, because it was so windy that the flowers were not going to pose for us! Instead, we went to the westside Tucson Mall and walked around a bit, before returning to our houses.



Tilapia with a delightful vegetable medley and tomato sauce was the dinner that Jack prepared for us. Thanks are in order for Donna, who generously gave Jack the fish! After supper, I headed off for choir practice, which was fun. After that, I came back to Jack's house, where he had fixed a dessert, and we watched Cape Fear -- the newer version with Juliette Lewis. (I think that she's just amazing in that role, and her flirty vulnerability makes the remake so much more believable and scary than the original.)

We're getting rain tonight, wind, chilly temps, and even some hail! I'll be surprised if Mt. Lemmon isn't getting more snow tonight!

What happened to Monday?

I don't know what happened to me yesterday, but here I am today! Here is one of our Tucson trees blooming madly: And here are 2 shots from the Pima County Fair. I went there with Jack on Saturday:

Yesterday, I spent the morning staying by my phone waiting for a call from the "Investments for the Greater Good" people. They are supposed to tell me what I need to do to get the investment money coming to me, instead of going to Michael.

I have basically two things that make me anxious. One is phone calls. I really dislike talking on the phone and can really get myself worked into a lather over this.

The second is financial matters. If you want to get me crying, let's talk about money! When Michael was alive, he handled all the phone calls, and particularly the ones regarding financial matters. He sort of grooved on the whole scene, reserving part of his Friday afternoon for these pursuits. But now, it's me. :/

So this investment phone call that I've been trying to get made for months now (phone tag, she's in and I'm not, I'm in and she's not, her father has died in another state, someone else ie handling her calls....) is sort of a perfect storm of anxiety for me. Now we have an appointment that we each have on our calendars for Thursday morning. I'll keep you posted.

Today was hiking day and 5 of us braved snowdrifts to hike the Butterfly Trail at Mile 23 up on the Mt. Lemmon Highway. While it was lovely, we got off the trail somehow, couldn't find it, and so decided to go back. Jack and I did go on up to Summerhaven afterwards, went to the Cookie Shack, and feasted on pizza and cookies! :) What a gorgeous day this was for hiking, too. Although there is still snow up there, it's soft and slushy and melting pretty fast, creating little rills of water that stream across the trail. The sky was seriously blue and the air was probably 65°.

My New Sink!

Here's the new sink that Jack installed for me day-before-yesterday:

Yesterday was so full that I had no awake time to blog. I just couldn't bring myself to stay up another 15 minutes.

So what'd I do? I slept in, for one thing. It was about 7:20 when I got onto the Wii Fit Plus. Then Jack and I had planned to go together to the Pima county Fair. I KNOW that it sounds VERY early to those of you who are in the east, but.. things are different here!

On the way down Old Spanish Trail, we passed by the Farmers' Market, and so had to stop for a stroll through the vegetables, paintings, and hand-made furniture. That's always fun for us.

Then we headed off down the road and saw a sign for model homes. Oooh! Let's stop! So we did. We looked through all the models at Rancho Del Lago, down in Vail, just southwest of town. Lovely place, and the homes start at a mere $142K for a very liveable house in a beautiful community. The clubhouse, grounds, pools, courts.. it was all immaculately kept. The development is new, but it's going to be very nice when it's all occupied. I'm not quite ready to buy *another* new house, though.

So... next we were truly off to the fair, and what a fine fair it is! I believe that this was the largest fair midway that I've ever seen, and that includes the Indiana State Fair. Food was in abundance, of course, and all my favorite fair fare was included. I feasted on an ear of corn (roasted, no butter-like substance), a corn dog which I split with Jack, a small-sized funnel cake with strawberries and chocolate, half a small popcorn, and the water that we'd brought with us. Yum! I won't soon forget that delicious funnel cake, and the corn was really excellent, too.

We enjoyed walking around the midway, watching kids lose $5 a pop at the games, and having fun on the rides. There was a bungee-jumping rigging with a crane, and we watched several fear-seekers do that.

The exhibits were quite different from those to which I've become accustomed in the midwest. We never see posters about roping cattle or posters on how to keep from being bitten by a rattlesnake. In the woodworking, photography, and fine art, there were many more pieces that were "southwestern," with cactus motifs, quail, and wolves, for example.

But fairs are fairs, and this one was not very different from the Indiana ones. It was certainly lots of fun for us!

We got to our respective homes in time to get cleaned up to go to the Desert Voices concert, and it was splendid. Our friend Julie really shone as one of the participants and as a part of a small ensemble. It was such *fun* music that we didn't catch ourselves looking at watches or yawning, despite the hour. The cookies at intermission were even especially good! Note to self: try making meringues while I'm here in the desert! They were simply perfect.

Blooms

These flowers are some of the lovelies that grace the roadway beside our friends David & Linda's cottage: Today began at oh-dark-thirty for me. I was up at 5:30 am -- and I had not been really sure that there WAS a 5:30 in the MORNING! I did my Wii, got ready, had a nice breakfast, and was there to take Jack to his PT appointment by 7:40. We got into some traffic, but still made it on time.

Next, I went to Walgreens to see about filling the prescription for Asmanex, a drug prescribed by my doc here. $158 for a month. Wha- wha- wha? I walked. I'll see if I can't find another way to control this stupid disease. I can't believe that. Of course, when I used to have insurance that would pay for my medicines, I just went ahead and got whatever it was, happily paid my $15 or $30 co-pay and didn't even read that top line where it told how much the stuff really was. Sheesh.

Next, we went to Jack's house to wait for the guys from St. Vincent DePaul to come to pick up the nice sleeper sofa that he had, which he wanted to donate. Waited and waited. They did finally come and the place is much bigger now.

Then Jack installed my new kitchen sink and faucet! I got a beautiful stainless steel sink and faucet with a sprayer and .. I love it! It was a huge job and Jack doesn't like being under sinks, but he did fine work!

Tax Day

This is a Bottle Brush tree that grows outside our clubhouse here at Far Horizons. It blooms for just a couple of weeks every spring: Today is Tax Day for Americans, but I got mine all done and e-filed and I'm happy about that! I'm also getting refunds from one of my states and from the Feds, and I'm happy about that, too, even though it means that I paid too much.

Today I slept in for a bit, and I think my body needed it. I did my Wii Fit, not even feeling up to any aerobics this morning. I contented my body with strength, yoga, and balance exercises and even made myself a bit out of breath from those!

After breakfast, I got Jack and we went over to visit his Mom. She wanted us to work a bit on some carpet spots, visit the cemetary with her, and we all went out to lunch at one of her favorite places -- the Chinese buffet! We all had a very nice visit.

This afternoon has been sort of lazy. It's hot today -- 88° right now -- and, dry or not, the sun here makes me run for shade! Ahh! The A/C just kicked back on. :)

Flower Hunting

A common pastime in the park these days is taking off with a camera and hunting flowers. We don't have to look very hard, though, to find some real beauties! Ths is one that I shot right by the clubhouse: Today, Jack and I went to visit the Tucson Botanical Gardens. Cameras in hand, we found many good images to capture. I'll be featuring some of these in my photo of the day in this blog.

I'm feeling a bit better, though I now have a really deep cough and I'm pretty tired. A woman in my church choir has come down with Valley Fever, and, being the curious sort that I am, I looked it up and .. I am hopeful that I don't have this. It seems that anyone who lives in a desert climate, or even *visits* a desert climate, is susceptable. It sort of seems like the Arizona equivalent of Indiana's histoplasmosis, which Michael had, and which I likely have.

Lessee... what else did I do exciting today? I made myself dinner! :) I had chicken salad, rice, and a cucumber, to complement some blueberry buckle which Carol had made and shared.

Jack has just one more PT appointment, and this makes me happy, since I'm driving him to them. Today's was at 8am and I'm not particularly fond of 8 am. ;)