Working on my new lot

Today I did some work on my new lot, clearing stuff out of one of the sheds and bagging up 10 bags of stuff for the garbage. I also set aside a pile of stuff to take to Goodwill, too -- things that were in the sheds. I took the stuff to the garbage and hefted it into the hopper.

It seems sad that these things which Preston and Florence had been using, living with, probably once loved, probably remembered getting... is now just relegated to garbage.

I'm learning that, if there is too much stuff stored in these sheds, they become just a repository for things that will never be used or even seen again. It's like putting stuff into an attic or into the garage. If you're not putting it where you can easily get to it, you'll never use it again. You may as well give it away now.

Jack came over this afternoon and fixed chicken on my rotisserie. I made mashed potatoes and sauteed zucchini, yellow squash, and tomatoes -- some of my favorite stuff! What a fine dinner it made!

We finished just in time for him to hurry home and change clothes while I changed my clothes here, and then we hustled off together to the Tanque Verde Valley Singers Holiday Concert. It was hosted by our church, where most of the choir's members also go. Fine concert and we had a good time!

We returned here and went to the dance, but we just barely made an appearance when we decided to go. We were both tired after a big day!

Let's Sing

I've been singing! Choir practice at church is on Wednesday nights and practice for the Far Horizons choir is on Thursday mornings. Fun! I love to sing and it's going well.

The new Dance Dance Revolution is working well, with no problems. I really like the new version, with its fine new songs and the "Courses" and "Workouts" are great. I'm back to doing my Fitness Coach as well, and feel like I'm getting my muscles back to where they were. I am feeling like I'm losing some weight, but it's not showing on the scale yet or in my jeans, so it's just a mental thing at this point. LOL! Maybe I'm just feeling a bit deprived, since I'm not eating all the junk in the evenings anymore. My no-food-after-7:30 rule is working well.

Today a group of us went market prowling, beginning at the 17th Street Market downtown, and then going to Roma Imports an G&L Imports. These are all interesting places, with lots of really bizarre things available to buy. I got some herbal tea (I'm going to try to like tea, because I think that I should!) and a couple of other things.

The new cottage is ordered! I'm excited about this now and am ready to see it all come to fruition. When the dollars were figured up, I compromised on a few things, deciding, for example, that I'd hire the tiling installed locally, saving $1600, that I'd get a tile backsplash instead of Corian, saving $800, and that I'd get the standard cabinets instead of the upgrades, saving myself $3150. I ended up saving altogether enough to pay the sales tax!

I'm also ready to start getting THIS cottage ready to sell. I'm thinking that I should bite the bullet and put in new flooring. This carpet is gross. It could probably be cleaned, but it's too light in color for this town and will not hold up well for a new owner. The linoleum in the kitchen is really in need of new. There are holes in it where I took out the desk that i'd put in, more holes where the island used to be nailed down, and there are big black rings where my computer used to stand.

I think that, if I were to put in some good quality laminate flooring, perhaps a tile look-alike as I'd been considering for myself, I'd be out a couple of thousand bucks, but would likely sell the place faster. I really don't want someone looking at this one and thinking, "Well, we would have to put in a new floor..." and that's what they would be thinking if they looked at this. That and a new stain on the deck and clearing my junk out and running a dustcloth over everything, and it's ready to sell.

Sunny Sunday

Last night I baked brownies for the church potluck today. Church was good. We sat at tables for 7-8 and had Communion for each table. And the choir (including me!) sang. The brownies, which I baked with raspberry jam and almonds, were good, but I should have used two mixes instead of just one. Actually, I should have made them from scratch instead of using a mix at all, but... I have not done that since I sold the bakery.

After church, I took Jack home and I went home, we changed clothes, and then I picked him up again so that we could do errands. I had to return my DDR, bc the disk seemed to be bad. I was getting Wii error messages, which is not a good thing. Best Buy was quite amenable to satisfying me and the return was easy.

When we got back to the park, Jack wanted help with putting up more Christmas lights, and so we got that done. His little cottage looks so festive all lit up. I have lights, too, adorning my steel agaves on my little concrete patio out front.

I'm thinking about having my own bedroom put into my loft in my new cottage. I'll see how it feels when the cottage comes, but it makes sense to have my mattress put up there. Then I can use the "bedroom" for my Wii, my keyboard, and put in a Murphy bed or a futon for short-term guests. I'm not planning to have anyone stay for a LONG time. I can always rent another cottage for long-term guests. Or I could move Jack into my cottage for that time and have guests stay in his place. :) That is, if I have guests.

Busy Wednesday

This is a yellow rose from Austin, Texas.

Today was insanely busy, but in a good way. I slept in a little later than I had wanted, spent a bit less time on the Wii than I wanted, and got no breakfast.

Then I drove down to get Jack and then to his Mom's, where we took her toy poodle Jill to get groomed. While the doggy was at the groomers, we ran a few errands with Mary, did a bit of fun shopping, and then took her to the Chinese buffet, which we all loved.

Jill did great at the groomer's much to Mary's delight. The last groomer had cut the dog and then blamed her (the dog) for it. This didn't go over well with Mary. So now she has a new groomer, and Jill seemed delighted with the whole thing.

We got back to Far Horizons in time to meet with George about the cottage. I have still not ordered it, but we did discuss some options, and so I'm closer. I have decided on a floorplan, anyway. With 400 sq feet to work within, there are not just a million choices, but the one that I've picked seems to be workable and I think will be a fun place to spend my winters. It has a loft which, while you can't stand up in it, can be used for a little TV room or an extra bedroom for my peeps back east to stay in when y'all visit!

I think that I'll go with stainless steel for the appliances, though I'm still tossing around the idea of using white or black... I just think that stainless looks so good. I'm going to have Corian, but I have not chosen the color. And I'm getting Craftsman style cabinets in ... either cherry or light maple. Tile floors, except for carpet in the bedroom. And I'll probably make it a dark-colored tile. Lightness is really not a problem down here, with all the sun we get!

I think that I'm going to have the shower plumbed, but nothing installed, and then Jack and I will put in a shower that's properly done... and tiled. There is a place where I can put in a flat-screen TV, and I'll do that, but not likely a huge one, since the room is just 12' long. ;)

I am not going to have window coverings installed in the living room, because I want to put in shades of my own choosing, probably ones just like I have in this cottage, the bottom-up, top-down kind.

I want to ask about having a French door put in, instead of the sliding door. I have to decide on exterior colors. And we still have to talk about lighting. I realize that this is nothing like all the decisions that face people who build real houses from scratch, but there are still many details to ponder. Exciting!

Swallowing the Toad

Well, ok, so this is a frog, but it's close enough.
Today I decided to get done first with my least pleasant task -- business-related calls. I had to call about two retirement accounts and getting them rolled over where they belong. And I had to call my financial people to make sure that I was getting them sent to the right place.

I had to call about the AT&T acquisition of my Verizon account, something that still has me bugged, and I was not able to get good resolution on that.

And I had to call the IRS to reassure them that I am not a deadbeat, that I DID send them the check, and to ask them how to proceed. And then I called my financial place again, called my bill-paying arm of my financial place, and finally I will be getting a copy of the check to send to the IRS... whew! I do wonder if other people hate this sort of interaction as much as I do. How I would HATE having a job that meant talking to people all day about financial stuff!

Then Jack and I went to explore the cottage that I'd bought, which is going to be sold out of the park, and we went through it to see if there were anything left inside that I want to keep before it goes away. I put a few items into the shed and now, as far as I'm concerned, it's ready to go! Next I have to figure out just what sort of park-model I'm going to put in there and get it ordered.

Jack had made lentil soup and we had that for lunch. Delicious! Dinner was pizza. :)

Beautiful Saturday

Here are some water lilies which were growing alongside the River Walk in San Antonio.

Another fine day in Tucson! I got up and worked out on the Wii, showered, and had breakfast. My new rule of "no eating after 7:30 pm" is working very well. I never thought I'd be rejoicing over 143 again, but... that's 3 lbs less than it was when I got my new scale just a couple of weeks ago! I have to think that the exercise is helping too.

Jack and I met up at the clubhouse, where they were having games for prizes and we each came out of it with some gift certificates. And then we had errands of various sorts. Jack had to get stuff to fix a leak in his shower. I had to get a pad to put under my DDR to keep it from sliding on this carpet. I needed Tide. Stuff like that.

Dinner was Jan's Beef Stroganoff, which she'd given to Jack. (He, being a single gentleman, gets all the sympathy food from the ladies in the park, and then he has me over to share it!) Delicious with a salad! and we had some of my mincemeat pie for dessert.

Black Friday

A beautiful rose for you!

Black Friday could also be called "Doing Our Part for the Economy Day!" And that's what we did. Jack's been wanting a Wii of his very own, so we went out and found that, along with the Wii Fit Plus bundle to go with it. Now he has no excuse not to get fit along with me! Best Buy had the Wii system, and Target had the Wii Fit Plus, each at $30 off, but Target was out, so we ended up getting both purchases at Best Buy. We also got him "Wii Play" which looked fun.

That was pretty early when we went out. In fact, we were back home by 10 I think. After we got his system all set up and tried out, we determined that one of the remotes was not working, so back into the car we went and off to exchange it. We tried out the Wii Fit and it's working great. Wii Play is very fun, too.

I had lunch on my deck, sitting in the warm sun, and it felt great. And there is a little cat which seems to have taken up residence under the cover that I use over my firepit. He was watching me eat, and then decided that he should help me eat. I kept pushing him off, but he kept coming up and trying to eat off my tray. I don't know where he belongs, but I have no intentions of having another cat. Eddie would have a fit. He really dislikes other cats.

This evening, Jack and I walked over to Sunflower Market to lay in some supplies for dinner. Jack made what I'd call "glop" -- a dish that my mother used to make -- consisting of hamburger, various vegetables, and tomato sauce all mixed with macaroni. This happens to be one of my favorite foods, and Jack did it justice! I'd intended to bring my mincemeat pie over for dessert, but I forgot it.

At 7, we saw Toy Story 3 in the Fiesta Room. Cute movie, and it made perfect sense, even though I'd not seen TS 1 or 2. So a very fun day!

Happy Thanksgiving!

A couple of examples of Nature's Bounty for you today, as we celebrate Thanksgiving here in the USA. This was a good day! I worked out on the Wii and then went to the grocery to lay in supplies to make my pie. I had bought one jar of mincemeat, but needed two. So the quest began. I found the first jar at Walmart, but today it was all put away, to make room for the Friday specials. Safeway on Tanque Verde came through for me again!

Jack helped me with the pie, peeling the apples and reconstituting the mincemeat, and that was a great help. I just had to do the crust.

And we were off! Gary drove us over to Nancy's new condo, which she was happy to tour us around. Pretty place with 2 bedrooms and a little private courtyard, nice living room/dining room and a great kitchen! Nancy's family (Harold & Kathy, and Steve) were there, along with Jan and Gary, Vicki and Earl, and Jack and me.

Dinner was served. Vicki had made delicious and moist turkey with yummy stuffing, and there were yams and carrots (my fave), and green bean casserole, salads, mashed potatoes and gravy, and good friends, good laughs, and just a very nice time. Oh, and the pies! Vicki had made pumpkin and I'd made my mincemeat, and both were scrumptious! The best part was being with such a great group of people.

Whirlwind

This is a sample staircase from the Texas Statehouse in Austin, TX.

I've been a busy girl for the past few days, and I've gotten a lot done. One thing that I accomplished was that I signed a deal to move to a different cottage in this park. While I have really enjoyed this one, there are things that I don't like, like the lot that it's on, and I've been coveting a larger, more private lot. So I'll be moving to a new cottage, probably in mid-January. I'm excited!

The moving-back-in stage is coming to a close, as we've just about gotten all of that stuff done. Today I did 10 loads of laundry, including all the bedding, blankets, towels, and sheets from the RV... PLUS all our clothes. This will be the last of Jack's laundry that I'll be doing, at least for now.

We took the clean stuff over to the RV, which is now in storage, and we winterized her. This involves pumping potable antifreeze into the lines, using the water pump. It's a pretty simple procedure, costs just $4 for the pink stuff, and it'll buy me peace of mind as the temperatures drop below freezing at night here over the next couple of months.

Tonight we went over to Broadway Proper and enjoyed a nice dinner with Mary, Jack's Mom. The dinner was delicious, and we like her new apartment!

In my Winter Digs

We drove on into Tucson yesterday, arriving at 11:30 am. Arriving early in the day like this allowed us time to get our work done while still keeping some sanity. We began by stopping at Jack's cottage, plugging it in, turning on the water, turning on the refrigerator and hot water heater, and then off-loading his things into his cottage.

Next, we drove the RV to my cottage, plugged it in, turned on the water, turned on the fridge and hot water heater, and then off-loaded my things.

The tanks of the RV emptied themselves into the sewer of one of the empty sites as we watched. Then we cleaned out the tanks and moved the rig into the "triangle," a place in the park where we can store it till Monday, when we'll store it for real.

Then came the real job of putting everything away, so Jack went to his house and I went to mine, and away the things went!

I'm happy to be here, in a way, because it's lovely here, I enjoy my cottage and my friends, the church here, and the action of the city. I'm looking forward to doing some more of the things that I have enjoyed in the past, and am hoping to do some new things this year. I am a little sad to be here, too, because I miss my house and my friends in Michigan, and also because I am sorry to have Jack's and my journey be over, for the time being.

We had such a great time, seeing and doing so many things. Our mileage total for the RV was 5062. We averaged just over 15 mpg in the RV towing the car. I have not tallied the miles for the Fit, but we did fill that little gas tank a few times!

Today was good -- a big day for our church, St. John on the Desert. There was a pancake breakfast to begin the morning. Then we had the service. After church was a luncheon accompanied with a presentation on exercising our minds using puzzles (fun!). THEN, we pitched in to decorate the sanctuary for Christmas.

Jack and I had some errands to run, so we got that done. Finally, I got back here and hooked up my computer! :)

And here, for your viewing pleasure, is a photo from the front of a building in Austin, Texas.