It’s Sunday afternoon. The weather is very nice. The back door is open. The smells of our dessert permeate the house. We’re having comfort food for dinner – meat loaf and baked potatoes. The sushi was appetizers. The homemade cinnamon rolls are for dessert. It’s a first try on the rolls. They don’t look quite like the bakery ones, but we may be able to force ourselves to eat them.

Last night we ventured out to dinner with two couples. The food was good. The company was excellent. The service was lousy. The guys bonded over the lousy service and refused to leave tips. Actually they each left a dollar and a note on the bill that it was deliberate.

My week was spent with a beginning-to-pack mentality. The playhouse is the first victim. Two trashbags of stuff so far. But mostly I’m organizing and reorganizing. I’m not even finding a lot of stuff I didn’t remember having, which is what Chris was sure would happen. I’m going to shut down the gourding season early and get serious about the packing very soon. Sometime after Tuesday when I have 3 guys coming over to make Thunder Gourds. It should be a long interesting day.

And then we will jump in the “company car” and head for El Paso for a couple of days – it’s time for new drivers’ licenses and they make us show up in person.

We never watch movies – either in the theater or on TV – but this week there were two – Day of the Jackal (the old, good one…) and The Lion in Winter. The Lion was advertisement-free, which improves any movie, in my opinion. Katherine Hepburn and Peter O’Toole starred – great performances. The one line we’ve been quoting since “Every family has its ups and downs…”

Monday I must get to the post office. I have a Care package to be sent to Trey in Brazil and a present to go to Mandy in Seattle. And I still have a gourding tool sitting here wanting to go to Texas.

Feb 2012

There just aren’t enough hours in each day for me. Or is it that I move more slowly and in a less organized fashion than I used to? Nah. I’m going with the alien abduction of hours!

We had Lynda and Howard over for dinner on Sunday. They brought some yummy salmon and steak that Chris grilled to go along with collard greens, baked sweet potatoes and salad. It seems to be a kind of cook-off we have going here. When the Stilleys and Panys have dinner together, it is top of the list gourmet!!! And the closing statement for the evening is always “Why do we ever go to restaurants?” (Personally, I think the Stilleys are the better gourmet-ers, but we try to keep up.)

The Panys and Stilleys and more good eats! With the zebra supervising...

Monday I spent all day cleaning and preparing gourds for the coming Wednesday work day. We are all into Thunder Gourds! Ten minutes after making my very first one, I was expected to be able to teach others how to do so. [And I did!]

Tuesday we had Iris & Wally and Lowell & Sandy over for a roasted chicken dinner – on a rack in the oven just like we used to do all the time in San Carlos. Haven’t used that rack in a while. These guys are all old Beaver Motorcoach buddies from the beginnings of our wandering days almost 13 years ago. Iris & Wally’s sojourns go much, much longer than that. Their rig burned to the ground last year in Idaho but they got out okay and managed to find a very similar one to replace it. They have kids in the Boise area, so we’ll probably see them this summer. Lowell & Sandy are from San Diego area and have come over to sit on our lot for a month or so the last few years. We enjoy having them in town, even tho we don’t see much of them.

Wednesday was Gourding in the Garage with Beth day. Gary finished his Thunder Gourd.

Gary with his kokopelli thunder gourd

Jan, a neighbor of Paula and brand new to this whole gourding frenzy, not only started her first gourd, but finished it. At the end of a long, painful day… My choice was to continue to the bitter end or make her come back for an hour another day.  It was worth it to see her pride in the finished product. But we all laughed at her!!! Paula told her to wear old clothes – she went to the Salvation Army store and found a Betty Crocker smock and wild pj bottoms. Talk about a fashion statement!

Is it Betty Crocker??? Or are the fashion police not out today?

Jan's elk was terrific. The wire hanging down is what makes the "thunder"...

Today we are visiting South of the Border. We need some meds. Lynda wants a fish taco. I want to leave the house.

Tomorrow Richard, Judy and Gayle are coming over for a much-earned steak dinner. Richard and Judy have been the Thunder Gourd (see above) gurus. They introduced us and have assisted in the learning process, in addition to providing a very necessary large belt sander to finish the bottoms properly.  So our gourmet week continues… and I find no time to go play FaceBook games as I used to.

I pulled out the Mixer Recipe Book today and started looking for something that struck my fancy…. Hmmmm… too many calories in many of them…. too much chocolate in others… hmmmm…. finally stopped at the Cardamon Bread page. Sounds interesting.

But then I had to go to the store – didn’t have rye flour, unsalted butter, powdered anise, whole milk, an orange for its zest… the trip cost a LOT more than that, of course! Let’s see – there’s the great sushi bar that had pot stickers today; Chris needed some sake to go with his sushi and pot stickers; Chris needed a new bottle of brandy; Chris needed a bag of potato chips (and Chris complains because I spend too much money at the grocery store…) And while I was there I picked up some whole wheat flour. Might try that next.

I did have the honey, the all purpose flour, the molasses, the yeast, the cardamon… yes, this is getting to be a bit complicated. But it heated. It mixed. It is rising in a warm spot for 3 hours… Yum.

…. many hours later. It rose. It got punched down. It rose. It baked. It smelled good. It tasted better!

from The Mixer Bible Second Edition. by Deeds & Snyder

Today is the 75th anniversary of my parents’ marriage. Every so often I see notices in the newspapers of couples that live that long. I’m not sure it is all a good thing. And what kind of an attitude is that? My dad died at age 56, of heart problems – over 40 years ago; my mom only lived to 75 and died from cancer. They were really terrific people, in my humble opinion. I’ve missed not being able to visit and consult with them in my older years!

We drove to Quartzsite yesterday to worship at the Big Tent and see what new and exciting things there were. We’ve been known to spend hundreds, yea, even thousands of dollars at Q. This was not one of those years. We had Chicken-On-A-Stick for lunch, an ice cream cone, admired a fancy coffee maker, said *hey* to our buddies at the satellite booth, actually purchased a new small and flexible end piece for the vacuum cleaner (our only real purchase. $12. Hmmmm) And came home. It wasn’t a really nice day – cold, windy, a few raindrops. Quartzsite is more fun in the sunshine.

Loved the guy demonstrating the grills.

You can tell when someone has slipped in the gourmet chef rankings when they forget how to cook. I took out all the ingredients. I called Lisa to check on how to substitute one of them. I propped the cookbook open on the cupboard. I activated the marvelous beaters that didn’t take any outside arm power at all. I was amazed and entertained! I put the dough on the cookie sheets. I put the sheets of cookies in the oven. I was intrigued by the smallness of the batch. I put the ingredients away in the cupboard while the cooking process took place.

THEN I realized I hadn’t opened the jar of oatmeal… oops. These were Oatmeal Cookies, troops… Hmmmmm. So I added some oatmeal to what had not been cooked, and waited for the original two trays…

Gourding on Thursdays with Beth in the Garage is now Gourding on Wednesdays… And we had fun today. It was Thunder Gourd day!!! And we thundered.

New friend Judy and her husband Richard introduced me to Thunder Gourds. I sent for some kits and today was the learning day. These are amazing – cut the bottom off of a gourd and sand the cut smooth, decorate the gourd and cut a couple of holes or slits in it, glue on a membrane, insert a spring – voila! When you shake the gourd, it thunders!

The photos – I’m learning how to use the gallery and how to get titles on them…  are:

Judy’s original Thunder Gourd, showing the membrane on the bottom and the spring; Bruce and Donetta with their almost finished thunder; Julie & Erwin with their ready to complete baby;  Richard with his wonderful sander in the back of his pickup;  Paula doing some painstaking burning; Erwin struggling with the saw; Ed doing some burning; and, the whole crowd in the garage.

First leaf of the season...

I’m going to try to wean myself off of Typepad.com… I’ve loved it. It has worked well for years. I can no longer afford it… (according to my Financial Manager) So here goes.

This will be a year of changes. We’re in Yuma, per the usual. But in the Spring, instead of hitting the road for full-time travel, we are picking up bag and baggage and “moving” to Idaho into the new-to-us house. I’m very excited, and having trouble staying focused on enjoying the warmth and sun down here. Having the daily weather reports from Caldwell/Boise on my start-up page keeps me more focused. Yesterday the high in Boise was 40; in Yuma it was 76. Okay.

This is a winter of gourding. Last year was not – it was pure maintenance and dedicated to the weekly gourding get togethers, but I didn’t do much creative stuff. This year has already started out better and more fun. Yay!

My Financial Advisor tells me I can no longer afford the luxury of a separate blog for each year… Typepad is terrific! But in order to keep separate year blogs, I've had to pay for the high priced spread. And so I'm moving to WordPress – the free version. We'll see if I like it. I've moved all my old posts over to one big one there. We'll see if it works… there might be glitches with the old images. My understanding of the process is that only the thumbnails will move, not the full-sized ones. But I still have all the originals, so it should be okay, right? It's okay!

So here's the new address: http://chrisbethnbubbatoo.wordpress.com/2012/01/08/its-a-new-year-and-a-new-blog/

Let's try it out.

But I also have to do some finish work and editing on here. And yes, I tried it out. When I delete the original post from typepad which was just copied over to wordpress, the thumbnail photos disappear and leave just the 'descriptive words' for each as a jumble on the page – somewhat disconcerting… but the originals are still there if you click on the jumble. Hmmmm. Might have to do some housekeeping.

Well, it's been a long dry spell in my blog. Bad Beth!

When last I wrote, we were on our way South. To the Sun. We made it!!! Well, except for this week when it's been rainy. (In Yuma???)

- We found our little rental house full of sand – there was not much rain this year, but lots of blowing dust and sand.

- We found our wonderful friends and neighbors – all of whom beat us here except Don & Nancy, who arrived the same day we did.

- We found the Big New Wonderful Fry's Grocery store – it's sad when you get excited about a new grocery store in the neighborhood.

- We found that everything we wanted was in the coach when we were in the house. And in the house when we were in the coach.

- We found it is much warmer and sunnier in Yuma than in Caldwell!!!

We were only here a week or so before turning around and heading back up to Las Vegas to spend Thanksgiving with Gene & Brenda. That was terrific – we cooked and ate and visited and enjoyed being around Lance, who was also home for the holiday. And we went out to the new county shooting range and plinked to our hearts' content. The Rangemaster is/was a retired Sgt-Major – we kept all our ducks in little rows! He was actually of great help – correcting our stance and handholds and such.

We always sit at an elegant table at Gene & Brenda's!!!

We unearthed the gourding shed and started the weekly meet and share sessions again. Paula was waiting impatiently! She is good for me – gets me up and moving.

Paula's maple leaf

I have a backlog of leaf bowls to carve. It's a beginning…

Chris ordered his Christmas present and then disappeared into his study – only to emerge for occasional food. He is putting together a fancy-dancy gaming computer with tons of memory and drives and flashy lights. Allegedly it is almost done and running – other than the defective memory chip which is being replaced. All I know is that it flips thru photo collections almost faster than I can look at them. Perhaps he'll build me one also?

- I've been continuing on the Martin family history transcriptions – old newspaper stories that give mostly true info. And Nancy and I signed up for a family history day in January.

- I bought a new scanner/toy that is really cool. (I figure over the years I've spent more on scanners than most people spend on food… or was that gourds?… or something?…) This one is cool because it is small and portable and you can lay it over a photo to copy (which is its main purpose) and see what you are actually doing!!! You can see thru the whole scanner. Now I need to scan more old photos… yet again, in some instances.

End of the year Grandkid updates are many and varied:

Our "other" granddaughter, Mandy, is on the left. She's been living with T&L for two years now, but is from Hong Kong area originally. As exchange students go, she is a winner!!!!

- Taft made it home from his two years in Buenos Aires, Argentina in November, sporting a strong Spanish accent. He's working and saving money so he can leave the first of January for BYU-Idaho.

- Trey left just the next week for his mission in southern Brazil. All his years of studying Spanish in high school are helping him – some – in learning Portuguese. He spent some time in Provo before arriving in the Brazilian MTC for another month, and then he'll hit the field running. He's asking for photos of lacrosse playing so he can impress the Brazilians – methinks he'll return a football (soccer) fan.
- Eliza has been having medical issues which have restricted her piano playing. We're hoping they'll find a reason and solution soon for this!!!!
- Abigail got contact lenses and is growing up into a gorgeous girl – Trevor has a new worry in his life! (He's in charge of making sure his sisters don't date until they are married…)
- Trevor was home for T-day and will return for Christmas. He's also been playing with the doctors – he got his nose and sinuses re-done and is hoping he outgrows his concussions….
- Thaddeus is now 8, is in an advanced program in school and loving it.
- Caitlin is living in North Carolina and working a night shift for Wal-Mart. [This is funny because her dad Eric hates Wal-Mart so badly!] She and fiance Alex, who returned safe and sound from Afghanistan in September, are planning their wedding in March. Chris just figured out it is on March Madness weekend. Ooops. How to tell your new grandson-in-law isn't a basketball fan!
- Coulson is attending Univ of Alaska at Fairbanks – one of the coldest universities in the country, I've been told.
- Addison turns 4 just before Chrismas and we are so looking forward to spending some more time with her this coming summer. Our bonding hasn't yet taken place because we've seen her so seldom.

- We've eaten. A lot.

We had dinner with friends – at our place and theirs and churches and restaurants…

Fun and games at the "mystery" dinner. Laughs were the main course!!!

Nancy treated me to a fancy "tea party" at her church – along with Mikey on the left.

We invited the neighbors over for a scrumptious pork roast dinner!

You have to have shrimp tacos at the place in the alley when you go to Algodones!!!

- We've visited Old Mexico and its dentists… yuk! My abcessed tooth that needed a root canal per the Boise area dentists turned into an extraction because of a broken root. And in celebration, and while waiting for all to heal for the implant (insert more yuk) I had several old crummy molars crowned and a few cavities filled. All done in fine fashion and at much reduced rates from USA prices! Crowns are now $160 each in Algodones… Chris found a new and different clinic and also had a root canal and some new crowns. We are both more beautiful now!!!

We have a move to look forward to in the Spring. One of these days I must go into high gear and start sorting, discarding, packing and planning. Tomorrow….

Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night.

    Today is the last leg of our journey to the sun and sand and snowbirds. Yuma tonight! I even remembered to call ahead and get the water and electrics turned on… some years we forgot that and had to dry camp a day or two.

    We had a great time here – dinner with Gene and Brenda was scrumptious as well as a nice catch-up time. Brenda just returned from two weeks of grandson sitting in Austin and was pleased to be unemployed again. She said the boys are really growing up fast and the photos proved it. Gene sported his new Sean Connery look – I'll post this photo, but hope they send me a "real" one I can substitute later. (My Droid suddenly decided it will not longer allow the flash to work…. grrrrrrr….)

Obviously we were mesmerized by the whole look!

One more try on Gene – with his phone… (do you recall when we used to have cameras?) I didn't get one with his glasses on his nose nor his head – which definitely adds to the resemblance…

I spent one whole morning shopping – wow, just like in a big city!!! It was fun, even if it was just the Outlet Mall. I came away with a few goodies, including some new "Lite" Corelle casseroles – they are really nice! And some new shoes… and a new top or two… and maybe one or two other treats…

We did our usual tour of the Big Bass Pro Shop – wandered aimlessly for an hour and didn't buy anything – not a longbow, nor any fishing lure, nor any cammo clothing, nor a bass boat… and my photo of Chris by the artificial snow on a bass boat didn't turn out, darn it.

We did our usual tour of the Fry's Electronics store – wandered aimlessly for an hour or so and only purchased one little wiring connector. Perhaps Chris will build himself a computer this winter for fun… hmmmm…

Chris made his obligatory visit to his doctor – after three years, he will no longer renew prescriptions without an in-person visit. Picky, picky, picky.

We enjoyed the "warmer" temperatures – it never reached 70, however. But after the first cold, windy day, it was nice enough to pretend we were in the tropics. I had to remind Chris that MOST of the time we were in Caldwell it was nice enough for evening meals on the patio and shirt sleeves during the day. Those memories were kind of wiped out by the last week of nasty stuff.

Last evening we found a small hole-in-the-wall sushi place for dinner – well, except that it turns out to be a small chain of them from Newport Beach, CA. The chef was friendly, our seats were at the sushi bar so we could watch him work, the waitresses were terrific, the food was good. Miso, edamame, a Brown Dragon roll (with eel), tuna, sake… it was just right.

Chris made small comments about the weather on the way south…

None of them were good….