On the Road again....

We hit the road again to make the trek north and did 1800 miles in 5 days. But that is not the whole story...in 5 days we ate at McD's 5 times, filled the gas tank 5 times, supped at Quizzno's and Pizza Hut, hit the casino in Laughlin, Nevada and power shopped at the outlet mall in Oregon so paid no tax!

We saw weird rock formations, rolling hills, hundreds of windmills in California, acres and acres of vineyards, solar collector 'farms', cows, horses, sheep, llamas and one dead deer. The quietest part of the drive was cutting over from the 99 to I5 in California going through farm land and Wasco. The busiest part of the drive was driving with all the lunatics through Seattle and that was at 10:30 am....god forbid what it must be like during rush hour!

We had one special dinner out in Redding, Calif at 'Rivers' on the Sacramento River to celebrate Doug's birthday.

In direct contrast, the next night we had 'happy hour' in the Super 8 with dindin at Quizzno's after our power shop at the Woodburn Outlet mall. We sure know how to mix it up.

'Home' safe and sound in BC now where we will be busy with appointments, unpacking, repacking before hopping on a plane to Amsterdam on Sat.....so much for 'Life in the SLOW lane'!

Wild Kingdom

'Working hard at taking it easy' is my mantra here in 'Life in the Slow Lane'. And boy, have I been busy.

Friends were down here visiting from the Great Frozen North aka BC during a heat wave at the beginning of March. One place we visited with them was Boyce Thompson Arboretum to walk through the wild flowers...and giant carpenter bees, geckos and wild turkeys.

The tour included being told all the proper names and nicknames for the flora and I took many pictures. And no, I did NOT take a picture of the 'Blue Dick'.

THIS is an African Daisy.>>>>>>>>

We took a trip to Palm Springs to celebrate my birthday and I got to try out my golf game. As you will recall, I have had 3...count 'em....3 golf lessons hitting a whiffle ball. I thought I did rather well as I didn't hit any water hazards, sand traps, windows or buildings.

I did however hit one duck and one sister-in-law. .......

Both survived.

Both declined to have their pictures published here.

And finally, this week we joined a group of friends for a massive crab feast.

Now you just know that when you mix sunshine, friends, wine, appies, comfy chairs, wine, lots and lots of crab and....more wine that a good time was had by all. Well, all except the crabs!!!!!

And yes, a ham sandwich would've been quicker but it was well worth all the work of getting those teeny tiny morsels of crab meat out of the crab. I'm still full.

Land of the Suns

Another first for 'Life in the Slow Lane'.....I went to see a live NBA game with the Phoenix Suns playing the Toronto Raptors. I was most interested in seeing Steve Nash, the boy from Victoria, and the towering Shaq O'Neill. However, Steve was out with an injured ankle but I did spy him sitting on the bench all dressed up in a suit.

The game was great but it was the added bonus of all the entertainment that is provided down here in the Excited States of America.

Scantily clad cheerleaders shaking their pompoms, 'dancers' who shook their booties and flopped their long tresses a lot, men dressed in gorilla suits as mascots trampolining up and dunking baskets at half time and some punk rock band at center court in a break.
The game almost got in the way of the entertainment!

But the highlight was a fan from Seattle picked out from the crowd who had the opportunity to sink a basket for cash. He could choose how close to the basket he shot from with the caveat that the farther away he stood, the more money he could win.
He choose the farthest point which was on the center line of the court...wayyyyyy farther than a 3 pointer. He lined up at the line, bent down and did a girly free throw from between his legs. It appeared that it was going to fall far short of the basket but oh no, we were wrong! It swooshed through the basket without even touching the rim!

He won $77,777 from Arizona Casino and boy, was he excited. He ran around the court hopping and skipping and yahooooing, hugging mascots, cheerleaders but no, not Shaq.

Shaq is one big man at 7'1" 350+ lbs. When he stands under the net, he stands under the net....no one can move the man/mountain. Seemed like a fun guy as after a Raptor player accidentally ran into the courtside seats chasing a ball, the very next play, Shaq threw himself into the sideline seats landing on top of some fans who appeared, through my binoculars, to be laughing....don't know that I would be alive to laugh after 350 lbs catapulted into my lap!

The other highlight was when one cheerleader had a 'wardrobe malfunction' and more than her pompoms were shakin'! Luckily she had big shiny pompoms to cover up with and they all bounced off the court to find a safety pin I'm guessing.

Shaq scored 45 points and the Suns won 133-113 but it was great fun.

It's a Bird! It's a Plane!.,...no, wait a minute.....

....it IS a bird!!!

It has been very hot here this week and 'someone' left the front door open (ok, so it might have been moi). I was sitting outside 'doing art' minding my own business being all Van Goghy and all when the solitude and definitely the silence was broken when I heard Doug yell 'Oh JEEEEZZZZ!'

I jumped up and said 'WHAT?' and he came to the door with his hands perched on his hips and said 'There's a BIRD in here!'. I, always the disbeliever' said in that know-it-all way I have 'huh? are you sure?' but when I peeked into the bathroom, sure enough, there was a bird.

'chirp, chirp' and I looked up....sitting on the edge of the skylight was said bird. Doug flew (sorry, bad pun) into action to remedy the situation. He shut himself into the bathroom after flinging the pocket door closed. Next thing I hear is pocket door opening and Doug's housecoat being flung out into the hallway to safety. Next things to come out were the towels...'in case that *@@# bird decides to s**t everywhere' I believe was the rationale.

Then, Doug comes out into the hall and gives me the 'well? Now what?' look. Being all coupley newlyweds and all, we discussed the situation in a calm rational manner. I suggested perhaps getting a ladder and putting on work gloves to capture the bird.

Nope, that got 'voted' down.

Then I suggested getting a broom and 'shooing' the culprit away.

Nope. Again, that was a no go.

How about getting the pool skimmer and scooping up the beast?

My turn to say no way. Then 'one of us' had the terribly brilliant idea to take off the window screen, open the bathroom window and let the bird do what birds do best...fly away! With some reluctance, this plan was put into action...screen off, drapes pulled back, window open, pocket door close.

We waited....for what I don't know...a cheery 'goodbye' perhaps from the bird. I decided to up the ante and put bread crumbs...ok, a whole slice to be sure...on the window sill so if by chance this was not the Albert Einstein of Birdom, perhaps he would be hungry and put two and two together...bread + open window=freedom.

When I returned to the bathroom with said bread and gingerly opened the door, the bird was nowhere to be seen. I thought he might be hiding...where I don't know as the bathroom is perhaps 3 ft x 4 ft although it does have a vaulted ceiling. I checked where I thought the villain might be hiding on top of the cupboard and when he was no where to be seen, I declared it a 'no bird zone' and that my....I mean 'our'....plan had indeed worked.

Oh, and I did remember to close the window just in case Mr. Bird decided to come back for a return visit.

Horsing around

Sunday we went to the Arabian Horse Show held at Westworld in Scottsdale. It was the last day and while we expected it to be crowded, it was pleasantly not.

I know nothing about showing horses but a lot about showing dogs. From what I could see, there were many similarities. I saw professional handlers, large RVs for travelling to the shows, huge ribbons proudly displayed by the stables who were the big winners, tons of glitzy items to buy for you, your horse or your dog. And it would appear there was some 'politics' in the show ring just like in the dog world.

But the main attraction were the horses. They were beautiful. And not unlike the Oscar red carpet winners (which coincidentally was also on Sunday), the real pretty ones had long skinny necks (apparently a must have if you're an Arabian horse or an Oscar winning starlet), long ears (ok, so maybe not for the starlet) and lovely flowing hair.

Saturday was a very 'artful' day.

It started with the annual art show here in our resort. I don't 'do' early mornings and am very thankful that I have friends that do. They and others set up the over 80 pieces of art that have been done by resident artists living here in the park. My dear friend Rebecca kindly set up my 15 pieces in a place of prominence so that when I wandered in at just before 8 am (it was SO before 8am!) the crowds were already nicely meandering through the displays.

The purpose of the art show is two fold. One: to showcase the resident talent and Two: to hopefully sell something. Ok, so we managed to accomplish the first. While probably over 500 people filtered through the display (is now a good time to mention that a French Toast breakfast was the real drawing card and the Art Show was an add on?), nary a one actually purchased anything.

Now one could argue that those living in a retirement resort didn't get there by throwing good money around and buying 'art' but on the other hand, how do they know that I, The Diva, might not be the next Van Gogh? They may wish that they had taken the opportunity to purchase some of my art at the rock bottom prices that they were being offered on Saturday. Even the 'real' artist who lives here (he actually makes a living out of his art which normally sell for up to $1000/piece) couldn't sell anything and he had his works priced at under $150.

Oh well, ...I can take heart in knowing that poor Van Gogh had to cut off an ear, go crazy (thanks in part maybe to his friend and fellow artist Gauguin) and then die before his art was appreciated...I'm hoping for somewhat less of a sacrifice. I'm willing to ..oh I don't know...break a nail...and then will my art be worth something?

Geocaching 101

Today we did our first geocaching. It's like the TV reality show 'Amazing Race' and Hide and Seek and a crossword puzzle all rolled into one activity. Using a handheld GPS (we used the Garmin HC) you download waypoints and clues and then using only the coordinates, head out into the wilderness...or not....and try to find the 'cache'.

The first one was right across the street from Fry's food store and was hidden in a loose metal door at the bottom of a pillar near a quail statue. It was a tile setter's spacer and the clue we had was 'Contact us if you need one'...guess the person who hid it was a tile setter???

The next one we never did find...it was by another statue and try as we might, we couldn't find it.

Then the next few we did find after various amounts of searching. People stopped out of curiosity to ask what we had lost or what we were looking for. Some had heard of geocaching but others thought we were nuts. I think we should carry a card in our pocket with the website on it so that should someone thing we are nuts, we could say 'oh no..LOOK! We are Certified Geocachers!'.

The second to last one we didn't find after hiking in the desert for 1/2 mile through a wash that no doubt last nite was full of water from the rain. The clue was 'Scheme changes after Step 4. Step 5 is 'lean on me'.' We were stumped....we were under a high voltage wire wooden poles but the rest were cactus, bushes and some discarded car parts. Nothing was leaning. We took 4 steps and thought the 5th step would be something but nada. The name of the clue was 'Superstition Chain Yank' so if they were 'yanking our chain' then maybe the clue was bogus.

We found one more and then decided to turn the GPS towards the IN-N-Out Burger joint and find our way through a cheeseburger and fries.

A great way to have exercise, see new places and use some fuel...maybe geocaching was started by the oil companies to get people off their duff and out driving again! Good fun.