Since I haven't posted in forever, I thought I'd shock anyone out there who actually knows I have a blog. We have been having fun! Kris and I have been going on lots of little road trips over the last few months. The picture above is from the Lake Havasu Balloon Festival in January 2012. This was such a blast. The festival is just getting on its feet, it being only the 2nd Annual, but there were all the great booths, carnival rides, carnival food (funnel cakes--yum!), and of course hot air balloons. We were too lazy to watch the sunrise ascension, however we did enjoy the 4:30p.m. acsension. We counted 26 beautiful hot air balloons hovering over Lake Havasu City and the Arizona desert on the Friday afternoon we were there.
The next day was stormy so the balloons were grounded, but we had moved on to Kingman, AZ. I don't know why I love Kingman so much, but I do. There's not a lot to do, but there is just a great old mining town feel even though they now boast Carl's Jr and Wal-Mart. And we met such an interesting old gent in Walmart that evening in the denture cream section. We heard all about his old buddy Aha, an old timer from the mining days of Kingman, and about his dentures. A long story, but you do meet interesting locals in Walmart.
We went to Grand Canyon Caverns, and the storm outside made it even more eerie. We were the last tour of the day, they were ending early at 1p.m., because the tour guide was closing down due to the high winds and rain. He said the electricity was flickering and he was concerned about getting stuck down in the caverns. This is one of only 3 dry caverns in the U.S., pretty neat, and after a lot of testing done by University of Arizona, it was discovered that the fresh air in the caverns (which are 26 stories down under) comes from a crevice that lets out in the Grand Canyon and it takes the air 2 weeks to get to the caverns.
The weather was so amazing that as we drove from Kingman to Peach Springs, then up into the tree covered mountains, we went through a dust storm, a rain storm, then hail, then snow. All this in the space of 3 hours.
Our last stop on this trip was to Oatman, which is a great old mining town. There is not much left but a little main street with shops filled with tee-shirts, artwork, and leather goods. There are wild burros that roam around the streets looking for handouts, and a couple of guys that do a main street gun shoot out. They are Shriners taking donations, so they wore their Shriner hats under their cowboy hats. A fun afternoon before we headed back home.
Kris & I have so much fun jumping in the car and taking off. We've been to Flagstaff & Grand Canyon, Yosemite, and this latest trip all in the last 5 months. With a flat of water, a bag of pretzels, a diet Coke for me, and some Jojos, we are ready to explore. It feels like being 23 again which isn't too bad.

30th Anniversary In Victoria

This is a quick picture diary of our 30th anniversary. Kris found this lovely B&B in Victoria, on the hill, with a wonderful view of the city and the bay. We had the most charming little suite, and we spent 3 lovely days just playing. We went to Fort Rod Hill, one of the naval forts built around 1900, and explored the bunkers. We also visited Fisgard Lighthouse, built in 1860, the oldest on the western coast. We picnicked at the side of a road that had been built over an old spit--one one side of the road was the ocean and the other was a fresh water lake full of Canada geese and swans. We went to the BC Royal Museum, wandered around the city, and ate wonderful food. We went down to the quay in the evenings and listened to our favorite one man band--banjo, guitar, tambourine, drums, and harmonica. It's a little like watching Red Green singing if you can imagine that--very entertaining! And the ferry ride through the San Juan islands was beautiful. A wonderful trip with the cutest guy in the world.

Farewell, Frank

Here are my last shots (haha) of Frank. I am happy to announce that Frank has grown up and moved out. He was last seen one Thursday morning before my wonderful gardener Juan came to mow and blow for me. Frank had been checking out the side of the garden with the GATE over the last weeks and I think he was ready to move out into the world. So, hopefully he has met the really cute bunny that lives in my front yard bushes.

He sort of reminded us of our little Maggie, so it was nice to have a bunny hanging around for awhile. Now I am focusing on the birds that we feed--goldfinches, house finches, house sparrows, white crowned sparrows, wrens, a black phoebe, and a hummingbird that is very territorial and even chases butterflies out of her tree.

It's late, I'm off to shower and eat dessert.

Stained Glass Projects

I have never posted pix of our stained glass but here are the last couple pieces. The top piece is in my livingroom away up high in the wall. I love this little piece. I drew it out and then started breaking glass. Kris always helps me with the finish work. He solders the outer edges for me, which I haven't actually had to do in years. Not my favorite part, so great he'll do it for me.

The second piece is the only one I bought a pattern for. I like making my own patterns, and I had to add to this one, but I did start out with a Tiffany pattern that I purchased. I blew it up to size at Kinko's, but it was too narrow. So I cut the pattern down the middle, added plain paper, and started drawing until I had what I wanted. (Hope Louis isn't ready to slap me for messing with his pattern). This is between our bedroom and master bath on Whidbey.

Lastly is our really cool window at the front of the house, Jamie's bedroom, on Whidbey. I wanted to do an iris window--I love iris. I made the pattern, cut all the glass, wrapped each piece in copper foil at home. Then we wrapped each piece in bubble wrap and cardboard, and shipped it "up home". Kris had to build a work table for the construction of this. We laid it all out on top of it's pattern on his massive table, and soldered it all together. This guy is 7 feet long so just imagine getting it up the ladders. It was heavy and ungainly, and scary to install! It is pretty though, and looks great from the street as well.

Tiling Part Deux

Okay, here's what I don't know how to do-
1. Post a picture and then type a paragraph, then add another picture.
2. Get my orchids to bloom more than once.
3. Make gravy without lumps.
4. Go to bed without dessert (well, not really, but I'm not willing to try something so horrid).

Enough of that. Here is a shot of our very own bathroom with marble tile now completed. It is sort of the color of hot chocolate with a little white, brown, and a tiny bit of beigy-rose in it. It was nasty to lay. First poor super-Kris laid the backerboard which had to be cut to the right size, glued then screwed down (at which point Kris's arms were done for). Meanwhile I was in the garage laying the marble tiles out in the pattern we wanted so there would be a sort of flow going on. The tiles weighed 4-5 lbs each. After they were all laid out, we had to carry them up stairs and they were so heavy we could only carry 2 at a time.
And then it was 11p.m. So guess what we did? We decided to go for it and lay the tile. And we did it but we were so dang tired at 3a.m. when we finally got to bed. We are too old for this stuff. We keep forgetting we're not in our 20's anymore. The next day we grouted. And the next weekend we did Tyler's bathroom (you will notice there is no picture and no explanation as to why). It did turn out well, and we were so glad we had done our very hard bath first. So the tile is finished for now anyway.

So here's what I can do-
1. Help my very nice husband lay tile
2. Make chocolate chip cookies
3. Plant a garden in zones 5 and 9 (preferring zone 5)
4. Sing, but only in the car
5. Love my kids with my whole heart.
All way more important stuff than what I can't do

Tile, Tile Everywhere

So, finally I am posting pictures of the Great Tile Projects. I must admit it has taken me this long, not because I am too busy, but because I somehow hate downloading pix of the camera. And a story is so much more fun with a picture. So, I had decided last spring (when poor Kris was laying around watching HGTV during the chemo months) that we should tile the bathrooms when he felt better. He is always so great about my crazy or exhausting ideas, and so in September we decided we would tackle one bathroom a weekend and get all the bathrooms finished before my foot surgery. We started with the downstairs bathroom because it has a cement floor so no backerboard to deal with, and it's the smallest bathroom. We are really happy with how it turned out. You can see it almost finished here.

Things I've Been Thinking About

I spent 3 hours this morning gardening, which is about my favorite thing to do. Well, snuggling with Kris is better, and reading a good book or eating chocolate probably tie.
So I usually start thinking, which is not always a good thing, but today I just had lots of questions running through my head. Like:
*Why did my camellia die? Was it overwatered, or just too hot this summer?
*Why is the sun so much harsher than it used to be? It is, really.
*Do rabbits eat snails? I have always had snails in my yard, but I haven't seen any in ages. Is Frank eating them?
*Do rabbits eat snapdragons? (I'll be able to answer this soon.)
*Why does it sting when you get sweat in your eyes, but not tears? Higher salt content?
*Why am I only comfortable talking on the phone to about 6 people?
*And with that said, why can I talk on the phone to almost anyone at work?
*Why do I like watching really scary movies only when I am home alone all night?

Next post, I'll show pix of our newly completed tile projects. Kris is awesome! If you're doing a project, and he's involved, it turns out. Maybe I should have him cook more--