spending time in the gym

Late last fall someone asked me what Chuck and I had been doing together for fun. I thought about it for a bit and said, "well, mostly we have just been spending time in the gym."

This person got a look of complete admiration on her face and replied, "wow, it is so great that you guys are working out together. Are you doing weights or the treadmill?"

Umm...

Volleyball season is happening right now and our girl is playing with a new team at the new school. She is striving to reach some pretty high goals and we are proud of her.

And... we are getting to spend some time together... in the gym... working on our bleacher butts.

a wednesday photo

Just a photo today.

Nothing more than that. The photo credit goes to Leah

Because, my guest photographers like when I say that.

I like when they take great photos.

And, I like when they make their beds in the morning before school.

arachnophobia

I think that I have failed to mention that the Reptile Wrangler spotted a tarantula on the path to the studio, studio, one day. It was close to where I had my encounter with the rattlesnake. Terrific! I'm not inclined to be real thrilled to know that we now have spiders of epic proportions in our yard too. I mean really.

So, now I have been on spider watch too. It is exhausting to keep on the look out for all things hairy, slithery, snarly, and crawly. My fear is that some dark night, as I crawl out of bed to make that extra trip to the bathroom, my feet will come into contact with something other than carpet. I've been warned about the scorpions, but I think a tarantula or snake would have a more serious effect on my psyche. I would probably have been better off not knowing about the tarantula spotting.

Because, when I saw this one day as Rachel was driving us to lunch, I couldn't believe my eyes. "Stay close to their car", I told her as I started digging out my camera. "Oh, my gosh, look how big it is", I shrieked!

"It's on their car!"

"Do you think they know?"

"What kind is it?"

"Oh my gosh, it's huge!"

Those were just a few of the questions and comments that were scrreeeching out of our mouths. The old guy driving the car must of been understanding our reactions, because he was smiling and nodding his head. As we approached a red light, he and I simultaneously rolled down our windows. I pointed to his back windshield and asked, "did you see that spider on your back window?" He smiled and shook his head and calmly said "yes". And then he laughed a little funny laugh and pulled away.

That is when I zoomed in on my camera and realized...

It was a chenille pipe cleaner spider!

Now wasn't he just a funny guy. A real jokester. A comedian. A prankster.

A guy who probably held his hand up to his his wife and said, "high five, we got her good" as he drove away.

Go ahead, laugh.

post edit: the brave Reptile Wrangler just read this post. At the end he said "so it was fake?" Do you see what all these scary wild kingdom interactions are doing to us?

post edit edit: I have been corrected, it was Leah that was driving the car, not Rachel.

oh autumn...where art thou?

We are so happy to have known the beauty of your turning leaves in the mountains that surrounded us in Colorado. We are so happy to have experienced the millions of leaves that fell to the ground in our old yard. We are so fond of the memories that we have of raking all those millions of leaves and jumping in them before they were bagged and passed on as garden mulch. We are kinda happy we don't have to rake all those millions of leaves this year. We so kindly remember the crisp morning air that brought with it the hint of winter to come. We so happily remember the way your golden sunlight played on the fading grass in the pasture. Oh how we loved the end of our garden season, with the last few tomatoes and zucchini doing their best to survive the first frost, and how we anxiously awaited the harvest of our homegrown pumpkins. That is the autumn that we knew.

This is the new autumn. Slightly cooler mornings that are allowing me to open the doors and windows for a few hours before the temperatures still reach one hundred in the afternoon. More cars on the roads as people are starting to return after being away for the summer. The sound of the howling coyotes at night after being silent for the summer. Shorts and sandals still being the clothing of choice every day. Snapdragons, petunias and geraniums popping up in all the stores. And, commercials on the radio telling us it is time to start planting our vegetable garden.

There was proof of that at Lowe's yesterday. Rows and rows of tomato plants ready to be planted. More evidence to support the seasonal confusion that is plaguing me. As I was walking into the store I passed a woman loading the back of her car with about 10 geranium plants. When I passed through the doors, Halloween and Christmas displays were fighting for my attention. A big blow up Santa goes well with geraniums and tomato plants doesn't it? The good news is that we could have fresh tomatoes for Thanksgiving.

That is, however, if the lizards, javelina, bobcats, rabbits, frogs, owls, gila monsters, rodents or snakes don't get to them first. Would a vegetable garden be like putting out a welcome sign in our yard?

rise

My guest writer today is Leah.

(LB) Leah Bear.

A very good writing.

clouds and hurdles

Recently, some storm clouds moved in, setting the scene for a pretty spectacular cloud show. They rolled in silently and almost went unnoticed. It was an interesting display of clouds and blue sky. They rolled and turned and moved around pretty quickly. This was all happening to the west as the sun was going down. To the east, total blue sky. The interesting thing was that while the clouds were moving around so rapidly, the air around us on the ground was very still. And in those big dark areas of the clouds? Lightening. The kind that just illuminates the cloud from behind. No sound, just light.

And when it did light up it was orange and pink. These pictures didn't capture that very well but you can see the reflection of the setting sun.
I'm sure someone knows the names of all these clouds. I never was able to tell if it was a cumulous, or nimbus or cumulous nimbus. I could, however, tell you where to look to see a dinosaur, or the face of an old woman, or a whale doing a back flip. Or in the case of the first photo at the top... look right below the palm tree. Can you see the little cluster of dark clouds on the lower left? Can you see the image of a track star jumping over a hurdle? I can.
Clouds move in, billow up and produce a little rain and sometimes they billow up and just move on. Sometimes they are dark and ominous and sometimes they are just light and fluffy. There are days when there are just a few here and there and other days when there "isn't a cloud in the sky." And how quickly they can make the sky change when they roll in.

When I started this post this morning, I didn't have a plan. I looked through my pictures and saw these from a few weeks ago. When I woke up this morning there were just a few clouds in the sky. Nothing exciting. Oddly, or coincidentally, as I have been writing, the sky got a little darker. When I finished the paragraph above it started to rain. A nice little sprinkle at first. And then it started to pour. I've opened all the doors and some windows, for a little of that fresh cool rain air. But, I think not. I feel humid warm air instead. Oh well, nice try.

I guess I'll try to be a track star today. I'll jump over some of the dark clouds that have been hanging around and concentrate on the light fluffy one's.

But first, I need to go around and close the doors and windows.

Humidity makes my hair frizz.

note: photo credit goes to Leah

hello... anyone living under there?

That was the question I asked at the end of the toadstool post. Insert suspenseful music here...

A toad!

Well... what else would you find living under a toadstool for crying out loud?

One that thought it was just a little too hot in this Arizona heat.

And needed to go for a little swim.
Equipped with perfectly poised frog legs.
And not very attractive I might add.
Who found his way in here...

So that Rachel could text a picture from her phone to a new Arizona friend who replied "Eck! It is a Colorado River Toad and they are poisonous!"
Thank you Arizona friend for informing us Colorado folks that they have a poisonous Colorado River Toad swimming in their pool. Colorado folks that lived in Colorado for almost twenty years and never saw one of these lovelies the whole time they lived there...

I guess because we didn't have a swimming pool!

And now... yep...a video created by Rachel.

toadstools

So far, living in the "desert" has been a curious thing. We have, of course, had our share of wild (and thankfully not-so-wild) animals visit our yard. And, we have experienced the desert weather. They say it is a "dry heat", although, this summer the humidity has been higher than in any of the other three southwest states that we have lived before. The extra humidity and sauna-like temperatures, is because the summer brings the "monsoon" season... which actually produced less rain than what we had in February during the "mild" winter. But that was a fluke... something the locals hadn't seen in years.

So, I have come to realize, that nothing is really what we expect it should be. For instance, mushrooms in the grass. In the heat of the summer. I guess I was surprised to see them at all. But then, if they are going to pop up, wouldn't they have popped up when we were getting all that rain in February? Or, is it because they like all the humidity of the monsoon season?
Every time we get just a sprinkling of rain, a new crop of mushrooms peek out of the grass. They start out like a small little dome. They have interesting patterns on their tops.
And then they grow bigger and open up.
They look like mini toadstool umbrellas.
Or mini toadstool huts.
Hello... anyone living under there?

six times the love

Last Friday morning I went on a field trip to my in-laws house. They live in Phoenix and had told us about some cute little visitors they spotted in their yard. I got there early, hoping to catch sight of them. They had seen them before I got there, but were gone when I arrived. My mother-in-law feared that I had missed them by about 15 minutes.

But, I patiently and quietly waited... with my camera ready just in case. I didn't have to wait long. This little guy came in and landed right in the palm tree where they have been living for awhile.

They are Peach Faced Lovebirds.

When my in-laws first saw them, there were just a pair. Then they noticed there were babies and they have been getting bigger right before their eyes. Just a few days before, they had noticed them flying back and forth between the tops of the two palm trees. The parents were nudging them out of the "nest".

Less then a minute after the first one landed, four more swooped in at the same time.

How. cool. is. that?
Their bodies are a pretty green. Their faces are peach or "rosy". They are also called a Rosy Faced Lovebird because of that. But their tails are something all together more amazing. They are bright turquoise! Look, these cuties were kind enough to turn around for us to see their pretty tails.
They are a small parrot, native to arid regions in Southern Africa. People raise them in their homes as pets. So, why here in Arizona, in the city, in the palm trees? Because escapees from captivity are frequent in many parts of the world and feral birds dwell in Arizona. Here, they are more commonly know as a Mexican Lovebird. They are a very social bird and congregate in small groups in the wild. Lovebirds are known for their sleep position, sitting side-by-side, turning their faces toward each other.

Here is another shot of the beautiful tail feathers. Don't forget you can click on any of these photos and they will enlarge for you.

We watched these five for quite awhile. They chattered back and forth with each other.
Suddenly, I noticed there were six. See the one at the bottom? Now very closely look up above him a little. About two layers up you can see a little peach head hiding.

Six little love birds playing in a tree.
I pulled back on my zoom because there was a little something else that had been sitting up in the tree too. Can you spot it?
A big fat pigeon. My mother-in-law says he usually hangs out with the doves. She had never seen him this high up in the tree. Extremely friendly pigeon or just wishing he would fit in?
Here are all six of them. It was hard to tell which ones were the babies because they had grown so quickly. Just several days earlier she said the babies were much smaller than the parents. The one down at the bottom is probably a baby because research says...the young one's faces are lighter in color.
Here is one practicing it's flying.
These two are well camouflaged in the tree. I imagine that these birds often go unnoticed in people's yards.
Hello pretty bird.
Hello to you too.
Here they are on the fruit that hangs from the trees. Since I read that they like to feed on seeds and berries, I assume that they probably snack on these little fruits.

And because they like seeds and berries, they have also been eating the seed that my father-in-law puts in his bird feeder. I also read that they like to drink water that people will put out for them. So, Grandpa Johnny...keep giving them your little fruit and berry mixture AND put out a little water feeder for them too. They might just stay around a little longer!
How cute are they?
My bird field trip was very enjoyable. Especially since I got breakfast and an early lunch.

Can't get much better than that!

nine eleven

stop and remember

photo taken in my in-laws back yard.

wouldn't you like to be a pepper too?

The first stop my sister and brother-in-law made after leaving their home in Waco, Texas, on their two week vacation, was the small town of Dublin, Texas. While there, they stopped at a corner soda shop and had themselves a Dr. Pepper float. When you live in Texas you don't drink root beer floats, you drink Dr. Pepper floats. Because, well...you are from Texas.

Waco is actually where Dr. Pepper was invented. It was a wild frontier town nicknamed Six Shooter Junction (sure, I did my research). A pharmacist working at a corner drug store noticed customers loved the smell of the soda fountain with it's many fruit, spice and berry aromas. So, he decided to invent a drink that tasted the way the soda fountain smelled. He named it Dr. Pepper, after the father of a girl he loved back in his home state of Virginia. A Texas business man was visiting Waco, tasted the drink and knew he wanted it in his bottling plant in Dublin. So, in 1891 he brought Dr. Pepper to his plant in Dublin, Texas.

My sister and brother-in-law brought us a case of these.

Cute little bottles of Dr. Pepper. The interesting thing about this bottling plant is that it is the only one that still sweetens the Dr. Pepper the original way, with pure cane sugar rather than artificial sweeteners. See, they even have that stamped right on the bottle.

And, another little tid-bit of interesting info...see the 10, 2 and 4 at the bottom? Did you know that researchers had discovered that our bodies naturally have a slump at 10:30, 2:30 and 4:30? I think I have felt that slump before. Anyway, the advertising agency at Dr. Pepper came up with a theme based on that theory. You need to have a little pick-me-up during the day to help with those slumps. Their answer to that?

"Drink a bite to eat at 10, 2 & 4".

Although never having lived in Texas, Chuck actually enjoys having a cold Dr. Pepper on occasion. Well, we usually have some cans in the fridge most of the time. Because we did have a can or two that day and we like a little excitement in our lives, we decided to have a little taste test. And, because it was probably somewhere close to 10, 2 or 4...we figured we needed to "drink a little bite to eat" anyway. So, here it is. We wanted to see if the Dr. Pepper in the bottle, sweetened with pure cane sugar, was better than that in the can with artificial sweetener. Or at least, could we tell a difference?

The Dr. Pepper Challenge: Bottle vs. Can
It was a blind test. The guys didn't know which was which. Florescent yellow cup A was the bottled drink from Dublin, Texas. As expert Dr. Pepper drinkers, they were certain they could tell the difference.
Florescent cup B was the can drink from...well Safeway of course. hee hee.
A & B. They looked similar. One seemed to have larger bubbles (not shown here) and one had a little stronger scent. Hmmm....the fruit, spice and berry aroma of the original soda fountain perhaps?
Expert number one. Wearing his not so florescent, but non-the-less bright yellow shirt. Seriously sniffing, swirling and sipping the sweet drink. Seriously?
Expert number two. Not so seriously sniffing, swirling and sipping the sweet drink. Ok...get serious.
It was noted that one was a little sweeter, more syrupy and more robust in flavor. One was a little more fizzy. I told you they were experts. In the end, they chose cup A as the Dublin Dr. Pepper and cup B as the Safeway can. I think they decided that the taste winner was...
Adding ice cream to the Dublin Dr. does make a pretty tasty Dublin Dr. Pepper float. I had to break out the root beer for our next float pick-me-up though, because I am a root beer float kind of girl.

The problem with floats... whether it is 10, 2 or 4, they are so refreshing and rather addicting (if you are partial to them) that you really are "drinking a bite to eat".

And frankly...my midsection could do without an extra bite to eat.