Tuesday, January 27, 2009

My trip to Arizona is coming to an end. It's been busy but restful also. I've fed burro's carrots on the street of Oatman, seen the Elmore branch of the family in San Diego where we had a huge family picture taken (15 people) before Rod and S'te move to Bremerton,WA, wandered the streets of Algadones, Mexico looking for ways to spend my remaining pesos from our Yucatan trip and experienced the longest line of my life getting back across the border. Friday Dad and I will spend one night in Las Vegas at the Golden Nugget and then I'll catch my plane home.

A good 2 week visit!

Monday, January 12, 2009

Well, I'm off to Arizona to visit my Dad for a couple of weeks. Jack will be staying home with the dogs on snow standby! I don't know how much internet access I'll have so I may not post again until February.

While I'm there Dad and I are going to drive down to Algodones, Mexico so Dad can get some dental surgery done. I'm hoping we'll be able to take in a few ghost towns along the drive there (Dad may not enjoy ghost towns after having dental work.) Algodones is right across the border from Yuma, Arizona. There seems to be quite a few we could check out. Oatman is very close to Bullhead City, where Dad lives, and I know we will go there if no where else.

I've been reading about Nevada and Arizona ghost towns for the past couple of days in preparation. We have 4 books on western ghost towns as it is one of the things on our list of things to do in our retirement. Jack's parents had a couple of books that we kept and Jack had a few of his own.

I love our personal library! It's so neat to just go to the shelves and find a book on the topic's we are interested in. I have been known to be fiscally irresponsible around two types of items, books and plants.The Goodwill As-Is store is a treasure trove of books for me! Hardbacks are a dollar and paperbacks 50 cents! I've gathered almost all the Sue Grafton, Clive Cussler, W.E.B. Griffin, Tom Clancy, and James L. Michener books. I really enjoy the search through all the books as I look for our favorite authors - and have a wide Miscellaneous group of books as a result!

As for plants, Leo is a source of inspiration for me. He orders seeds! Last Friday night when Signe and Leo came to dinner Leo and I poured over the seed catalog's and put together our order from the Farmers Seed Catalog. Seeds are much cheaper than nursery plants! Our share was $8 for enough vegetable seeds for the whole garden! We have access to a green house and plan to start puttering around in it in March. When Leo mentioned rounding up containers for use in the greenhouse I went out to my garden shed and was able to gather over 50 empty containers from last years nursery purchases! I hope I can get good with growing things from seed... that will save me from my self guilt on how much I spend in that area!

My current obsession is crocheting. I have just learned how to do it. I've made 6 washclothes, 3 scarfs, and am on the assembly stage of my first afaghan. Hours pass completely unnoticed! It's soothing to me. It's like therapy or meditation! I love watching something come together in my hands! I've already got the yarn for my next afaghan!

So that's it for me for now! Hope you'll are fit and well out there!