Hillsboro, NM photo

Our first day in Truth or Consequences, NM, we drove 40 miles to Hillsboro to hike. The day was gray and chilly and I captured this photo:

Today was Far Horizons' Fun Day, which began with a parade. Many of the park's clubs and groups marched, including Jack and me. We marched as part of the Hiking Club, and it was fun.

After the parade, we went in for donuts and coffee. Yes, I actually had a donut -- my first in probably a year. Games followed, and then more food -- a chili dog and chips by the pool.

Yes, it was a very good day. The only complaint that I have is that my index finger tips are feeling "loose." The joints also hurt. The doctor says that it's probably "just a little arthritis." I hate thinking that this is something that I'll always have. This could make doing computer work and art less fun, to be sure.

Dr. Appointment

No, you don't get a photo of my Doctor's appointment! Instead, here's a rose whose portrait I shot at Reid Park this winter. Yes, roses bloom in the winter here! Of course, they bloom even more in the spring, summer, and fall.
We left early this morning, to make it to Jack's PT appointment. (He's doing PT for his shoulders.) After that, we went to my doctor, who was to give me a physical. The only part of a physical that I really dread is the requisite blood-letting. I have particularly recalcitrant veins, so it's always an ordeal.

So I told Dr. Lowenstein about my fear. Kelly, he informed me, was very good at finding blood in people whose veins usually hide. I was unconvinced. But when Kelly came in with her toolbox of phlebotomy pleasure and began palpating my arm, I wondered if she might be different from the multitudes of lab techs who have jabbed at me in the past.

A little stab and my vein poured forth enough blood to handily fill her two tubes. Yay! I hugged Kelly.

The rest of the exam went swimmingly. I had a breathing test, to determine whether my asthma should be better controlled, and a chest X-ray, probably to pay for the doctor's kid's college textbooks for a semester.

Since I'd fasted, and Jack had, too, in solidarity, we went to the Italian Deli for a delicious lunch.

Next, we went to the Honda dealer, where we got the car serviced and looked at the Fit. It's a smaller version of the Honda CRV, though it's on a different chassis, too. We even drove the thing and we both enjoyed the ride and the idea of towing a car behind the RV -- one that's 1000 lbs lighter than the CRV.

A couple of grocery stores later, we went home to put away our new groceries. John came over then and told us that, not only had we forgotten about the park's Show and Tell this morning, but that we were just in time to go to the wine/cheese reception for the photo contest. Argh!

We did go over and enjoyed the party. Jack's winning spider web photo was on display in a frame, along with the other winners. My red lilies, "Dressed in red," was displayed with the Honorable Mentions.

We came home and I Wii'ed while Jack napped.

Turtles at Reid Park

These turtles serve double-duty: Not only are they a cute and colorful bit of sculpture, adding some interest to Reid Park in Tucson, but they are great for kids to climb on!

Jack and I have been very busy, and, in fact, I really have not had the time to blog for the past few days.

On the 17th, Wednesday, for St. Patrick's Day, Jack and I threw a party! We had corned beef, cabbage, carrots, potatoes, desserts, appetizers, and drinks for 70 people at our cottage. We had a great time and so did everyone who came. We decorated with green stuff, lights, and had tables set up in our driveway. Jack made green margaritas and we had a keg of beer.

On the 18th, Thursday, I think we just recovered. :) On Friday, who knows, but we were busy. Saturday we went to the 4th Avenue Art Fair. Sunday we went to church, went to lunch, loaded up the RV, and drove to Willcox, AZ.

Tonight we're at Truth or Consequences, NM for the close-to-end-of-season hiking trip. We are having fun so far. We're camped at the Cielo Vista campground, up on a bluff overlooking the town. 8 others are camped here and 12 folks are staying at the Cielo Grande Hotel in town, which is just down a short hill from us.

This evening, a group of us went to Los .. something.. restaurant for supper, and it was very good. :)

Not a Tucson Photo

This photo is one that I took in northern Indiana, back in 2002.
Big day today, as all of them seem to be. The hiking club hiked up in the Catalinas today, for the first time this season. The Hardy Hikers did the Soldier's Trail. It was a fun and beautiful hike, but there was serious up on the way back.

After the hike, we were to drive down to the picnic area and have our end-of-season picnic. Wind would have picked the food right off our plates, however, so there was a change of plans. We all drove back to town and the picnic was presented in the Fiesta Room. The food was great and the conversation was good.

After that, we returned home where I peeled 10 lbs of carrots and 10 lbs of onions. Tomorrow, these will join 6 heads of cabbage and 6 chunks of corned beef in 6 crockpots!

Tonight, we went to dinner with Robert and Mike at McGraw's on Houghton just south of Escalante. We all agreed that, once they got Jack's steak *rare*, the food was great, though the restaurant itself a little "earthy." The guys are getting set to head back to Colorado.

Yep... people are starting to migrate to the cooler climes. Not us yet, though!

Just Ducky!

I love this photo! I took it at Agua Caliente Park here in Tucson:

We had a busy day today. Jack went to PT for his shoulder while I worked out here on the Wii Fit Plus. Then I showered as Jack did his Wii. Then we went to Mimi's for a late breakfast.

The ballgame was between the Diamondbacks and the Mariners, but that's just about all I know about it. We were seated in the shady part of the stands, and, while it was sunny, it was quite windy and just cool enough that many of our Far Horizons group chose to cluster in groups in the sun, rather than to watch the game. It made for a fun afternoon, anyway.

After that, we hightailed it over to the church, where we had an exercise class with Sam Freeman. It was good, teaching us some new moves. This was followed by a delicious dinner put on by some of the talented chefs of our church.

Upon arriving home, I made frosting and topped the cupcakes that I'd made. Now these are ready for our hiking club's end-of-season picnic tomorrow and for the party on Wednesday. :)

Choir Concert

Reflections at Agua Caliente

I posted the recipe for the Tuna Salad Cucumber Cups in yesterday's blog posting. (I edited it to add the recipe.) Thank you to all who commented on the photo in my Facebook posting!

This was a good day. We went to church, followed by a health program and a good lunch.

After lunch, we were going to go to the Festival of Books. We had plans to walk down to the Speedway bus stop, take the bus to the UA campus, do the fair, and then take the bus back. Easy. But we got too late a start and got just as far as the bus stop, before we gave up and walked back.

We went to the grocery store and got the things that I needed to make my Chocolate!Chocolate! cupcakes for a couple of events we have coming up, came back home, and I baked them. After going for a time without doing much baking, it was FUN melting the chocolate and putting all the stuff together to make these babies. I still need to make the frosting for them and decorate them. I'll do that tomorrow.

This evening was our choir concert and it was lots of fun. We did pretty well, sounded good, and smiles were all around. We did it as a benefit for the Smile Train. Seriously, go to that site and have a look at some of the children's stories. How it warmed our hearts to be able to sing to benefit this organization -- and to pay for some operations on children who might not otherwise have them! :)

Recipe for Janee's Tuna Salad in Cucumber Cups

I like these stones!

These are hors d'oeuvres that I made for a party that we went to this evening. They are hollowed-out cucumbers filled with my fabulous recipe tuna salad. We're going to fill tomato halves with it for the church lunch tomorrow.

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Tuna Salad in Cucumber Cups, Enough for a party of 20
This is a very different sort of tuna salad recipe -- very vegetable-licious and no pickles! You may not make this with pickles.

Mix the following in a small mixing bowl. Do NOT measure any of these. These measurements are just approximate.):

Two small cans of chunk light tuna packed in water, well-drained
One stalk celery, finely chopped
One large carrot, finely chopped
1/2 small onion, finely chopped
1/4 bell pepper, finely chopped
1 t parsley (dried or fresh)
1/8 t pepper
1/8 t salt
1/4 - 1/2 C mayonnaise (Do NOT measure. Just scoop out some till it looks right.)

Cut 4 medium cucumbers into 1 1/4" slices. Again.. do not measure, please. With a melon-baller, scoop out the seedy centers from these cuke chunks, being careful not to go all the way through the bottom.

Spoon the tuna filling into the cuke cups. Garnish with olive pieces or green onion... or get creative, but do garnish them! Enjoy!

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Today was a good day. We started it by Jack going for his speed walk and my doing my Wii workout. We showered and then went to the railroad show at the fairground. We were both disappointed in this show. There were a few train layouts that were nice, and a lot of train parts and components for sale. But .. $7 a person? Hardly worth it.


We came home and assembled the tuna cuke cups and went to the party. It was a Thanksgiving in March party, with great food and even better company, and everyone loved our cuke cups! :)

Contest Photos

This is my photo of the day for today. :) I liked the water on the formerly parched lake bottom and the tree reflections. I took this at Agua Caliente.

Here are the 3 photos I entered in the photo contest. This one got "honorable mention":

This one made it through the first 2 rounds of judging:

This one, which I love so much that I use it as my desktop background, made it through the 1st round, but was dismissed because the lighting is "too harsh."

I have to learn to laugh at this. I used to do photo contests all the time and there were many that I didn't win. I'm not sure why this one was so important. Maybe it's because the photos were "real," printed images, and not "just" online submissions. Maybe it's because this one is once a year. I don't know. I do know that I really wanted to win.

Today we had choir practice again, and our concert is coming together nicely.

After choir, Jack and I worked on building the podium for the choir director. It turned out great, with a carpeted top and a little edge around the top, so that she'll know when she's close to the edge. Fun project!

We went shopping and laid in supplies for dinner tonight and for the pitch-in we're going to tomorrow. Tomorrow promises to be a big day, so I'm off to bed!

I shot this photo at the Petroleum Museum in Midland, Texas.

Can you even imagine how good the photos in the contest were, with my not winning with even one photo? Jack did have a winner. I'm bummed about it, because I worked hard -- choosing, printing, matting, labeling -- and thought that my stuff was great. One never knows what an individual judge looks at, they say. If you love it, it's great, they say. "Platitudes," I say. I wanted to WIN! Nuts.

While putting away some clothes in the laundry room, I reached under my jammies and was stung by a bee which had thought my jammies a comfy place to rest, I suppose. And it hurt a lot! My hand is still sort of swollen where he stung, and it's sore, but I think that I'm going to survive.

Choir practice went well. We're rehearsing for our show on Sunday. It's a benefit for the Smile Train -- a charity which sends and trains medical personel to repair cleft palates in poor children. What a great thing it is to sing for such a wonderful cause!

Jack and I went to celebrate his happy photo win at the Claim Jumper, where we dined on a sumptious feast. I love that restaurant, with its varied menu, great food, beautiful presentations, and neat ambience.

Reflections of palm trees in the lake at Agua Caliente Park.

Today I took a couple of big steps. One was to cut mats for our photos for the contest (tomorrow!) with Jack's mat cutting equipment. The process is pretty easy, and I was pleased with how good they looked. We put the photos in plastic bags and they all look very professional.

The other significant thing that I did was to install my Seagate backup hard drive. It's going to protect my files in case my HD takes a dive, and we all know that it's not a matter of *if*, but *when*. I still remember well the feeling that I had back in 2002 when I got that black screen with but a few words of white: "Hard drive not found." Yikes! The really sad part of that story is that I had NO backups at that time. I lost 2 years of digital photos, including baby photos of grandchildren and puppy photos of Maddy.

We went grocery shopping today, significant only because we went to 4 different stores, chasing bargains. At least the stores are all pretty close together! We're getting the food put together for the party we're having a week from today -- St. Patrick's Day!