Play and Workout

Posted by mammal on February 8th, 2010 filed in Uncategorized
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My son had just finished the workout room and installed his Nintendo Wii right in there.
I’ve gotta get over and play some games. They really enjoy tennis. I like the idea of bowling on the Wii. Somehow that just tickles my funny bone. But I bet there are a lot of other games there I’d like. I think I would like sword fighting, do you think the Wii has that? Maybe laser Jedii Knight swords. Whee!
Gotta get over there on some free time.

Losing My Religion

Posted by mammal on February 8th, 2010 filed in Uncategorized
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Studying Hinduism, Hindi, for Intercultural Communication class. It’s like a sentimental journey back to the days of the Beatles. I hear sitar music, don’t I? Or is it just tinnitus and my bones creaking?
Should I spend my health savings account cushion to get this ringing in my ears checked out? In two years I will have Social Security (if I chose to do so at that time), and maybe then I will get this blasted ringing in my ears looked at. Meantime I can pretend it is sitars if I want to; I am at that age where mind wanders are easily forgiven.

Printmaking

Posted by mammal on February 4th, 2010 filed in Uncategorized
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I am making ink prints, I have two designs printed, but the battery is low on the camera so I don’t have a pic right now.
I’m doing a circus theme. So far I have one lion (which still needs some design work) and a bunny in a magic hat which is totally cute!
The bunny is scratched on a plastic plate so I can print it over and over.
The lion is inked and then with a Q-tip, pen, etc, I scratch the lion in. Since I’m not an artist … it’s not going super well, but I have figured out his mane and parts of his expression are working out.

New Window in Ajo

Posted by mammal on January 29th, 2010 filed in Uncategorized
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Well, when Dave fell down and bonked his head a few weeks ago, we had to leave the bathroom outside wall with just tar paper and insulation. We were wishing we’d installed home security systems Then of course the big storm happened while we were away, we were worried. But everything was fine.

Dave finished installing the window this trip, so next time he gets to put in the new tub surround.
Yippee!
We are using the shower, but the walls are covered with plastic that we stapled up.

Crazy Star Finalist

Posted by mammal on January 28th, 2010 filed in Uncategorized
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Crazy Star block. It’s such a fun blockI settled on this block for typically quilters’ reasons:
1. It cuts up fairly evenly, that is, the pattern reduces waste.
2. It will have a different effect by swapping light and dark.
3. The weird angles and the points make it challenging.
4. It’s flexible; for instance, I added extra points to the pattern I found on this online quilters’ block party:

I have yet to experiment with color/contrast. That will be the third quilt.

Crazy Stars Quilt Block

Posted by mammal on January 28th, 2010 filed in Uncategorized
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I am making a quilt for my very own. The absolute first that I have made for me. I have a nice collection of material (thank you, Gwen for the Hawaiian fat quarters), so have been looking for the pattern.
The test blocks all turn into baby blankets, and I have three baby boys coming into my life in one way or another this year.
Quilt top #1 is from the pattern testing, so it’s a little bit of every kind of ”crazy” star I could find. Crazy is when the design tilts at an odd angle…. not rectangle, square or equal triangle. The quilt block is pretty much always square when you’re done, and nine of these is a nine-patch.

Dog Biscuit Recipe

Posted by mammal on January 17th, 2010 filed in Uncategorized
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Here’s how I make cookies for dogs, it’s a three-step process:
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3 to 4 lb. raw chicken
1/2 to 3/4 lb. white rice
5 or 6 large carrots
Add water to cover in a 2 gallon crockpot and cook on medium for at least 8 hours.
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String beans, yams, macaroni, and potatoes are a good addition to this for a healthy dog stew, but the driest crackers are going to be chicken and rice. Add more veggies especially if your dog needs a quick weight loss diet.
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When the stew is cooled, de-bone the meat and run the stew through a blender or food processor. If the resulting slurry is too wet add cornmeal or white flour to thicken. You want it to pour; a little thicker than cake mix (and lumpier, too), so pour the batter into sheet pans and bake.
I discovered parchment paper this year, and never looked back. I use a sheet for several bakings and don’t have to wash the dog biscuit baking pans as often.
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When the biscuit is slightly cooled, score with a knife or cookie cutter. leave intact until cool enough to slide the paper out and it not lose its corners.
I put mine on an old screen door to dry. In Phoenix is takes a couple of days in the sun, but I don’t bake in the oven very long. Just long enough to hold its shape. I start pulling them apart after a few hours in the sun.

Absent Minded

Posted by mammal on January 17th, 2010 filed in retirement
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Somehow I missed the upcoming holiday, King Day, and that makes my first day of school not my wonderful mud time, ceramics. Not at all, but Tuesday yoga (I decided to stick with the routine after all) and print-making. A very fun schedule, also.

Oh yeah, I know this looks like nothing but fun, but anti aging products don’t always come in a bottle.

School books

Posted by mammal on January 17th, 2010 filed in Uncategorized
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I need to return my school books from last term for $$$. I can probably get $150.00 from the books that originally cost me close to $400.00. That’s the way it goes.
I will try not to let it cause me stress and hair loss, although hair loss is one of my biggest problems in the mirror. I can get past the wrinkles, most of them, but a girl likes to keep her hair. May I’ll go Kojak and just shave. I’d have a perfect excuse to wear a wig hat.
That’s looking on the bright side, huh?

School Starts Monday

Posted by mammal on January 17th, 2010 filed in Uncategorized
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I am really looking forward to ceramics this term, I’m not sure what assignments I’ll get from Mr. Bradley, but I have decided to make multiples. Like ten of each. And for sure I want to make more of those cute little pitchers!
This picture is not of a ceramic pot on human growth hormone, but another kind of miracle, my teacher’s giant pot.
Pretty fun stuff.

The chihuahuas are gone home to Mom

Posted by mammal on January 16th, 2010 filed in Uncategorized
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Aunt Elaine picked her four darlings up today, they sure were sweet to babysit. I really enjoyed them. They only really cried one night, and I just went into their room and slept with them in bed that night. Such cuddlers, too.
Chasing them around is one heck of a fat burner. Those little darlings were all over the yard, and on my lap every time I sat down.
Mom and Elaine are in Mexico now, Elaine’s four and Mom’s three chihuahuas… what a scene that must be.

Chihuahuas

Posted by mammal on January 14th, 2010 filed in Uncategorized
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I’m babysitting Aunt Elaine’s many chihuahuas, look at these! They are sooo tiny.

This is the big guy, Chico, in the blue shirt, and the little one behind him is from Mom’s dog, Tequila. Her name is Dulce. Since Chacha retired from the family thing, (she’s six, old enough in dog years to be shopping for anti wrinkle serum, Aunt Elaine and Mom are hoping they can find a small enough male for her when the time comes.


They were cold last night so I made jackets for them. Not elegant so much as warm. They use the heat at their own home a lot more than we do here. But they’ve been pretty good kids for me, and relaxed into the herd after only one day.
Except Dulce. She just sits on her blankie and shivers, but she is so small, everything looks giant to her. She likes reading Piers Anthony, I sat with her last night and this morning reading. She calmed down a little.

one guy’s adventure

Posted by mammal on January 11th, 2010 filed in Uncategorized
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Hi you guys,
Hope everything is going well with you folks. We, or more specifically me, have had a rough couple weeks lately. Started New Years weekend, we took Bertha down to Ajo. Then, we were heading home and had a blow out in the right front tire, which proceeded to beat the shit out of the fender, door and bumper trim.
I guess we were lucky to not wind up upside down in the ditch. Still. We were about 10 miles out of Ajo, following these two a’holes that were going from 64 to 71 back to 64 up to 70, you get the picture. I went to pass and of course the first a speeds up. Hit about 75 and boom! Got it back in line and stopped. It took about 45 minutes to change, luckily the lug nuts weren{t done up to 250 lb.ft and I could change it with the Dodge jack and wrench. Spare was a little low so we limped into Gila Bend and filled it then took it easy from there.
But there’s more! Night before we left I tried to start her and batteries were dead. I left them on charger couple hours and she started fine next day and all weekend. Except when we got ready to head home and we had to get a jump from our neighbor.
Then after the tire deal we stopped at Buckeye rd to let the dogs out a bit, and April smelled something. I thought it was just the Circle K dumpster or their sewer, but it followed us, so I stopped again after about 10 miles. When I opened the hood the battery I hadn’t replaced was steaming!! I pulled the ground lead off and we limped home.
Then we went down this weekend, planning to do the major window thing in the bathroom. We went down Thursday night, Friday morning I cut the outside wall open and by late afternoon we had the new framing in and some junk tarpaper I had tacked up. Saturday morning after the dog walk we hit Ace for a roll of fresh tarpaper and some drywall. We got 2/3 the wall repapered and then when I was measuring near the top I slipped/fell off the step ladder I was using, hit my head (I think) on the 2×4 propping up the patio and got a mild concussion.
April heard me fall and when I didn’t start cussing came out to see what happened. I was laying on my left side with my head in the dirt and my legs on the patio. I guess I talked to her, but all I remember is her helping me up and thinking gee it sure is bright and I wonder what just happened.
We went to the Ajo clinic and the EMT’s checked me out, no obvious bad signs, but we loaded up and headed home just in case. Went to hospital down the street here and got cat scan (I did not have any cats). So that was our weekend.
On the positive side, weather has been mostly pretty nice. First race of year next weekend, to run the vintage bike. Weekend after we’re back to Ajo, hope to finish up the bathroom window, outside wall and maybe start putting the tub surround in.
Take care and stay warm,
Us Guys
(Hope punctuation is ok; have my PC set to spanish for a problem I’m working on, so you just never know.)

So we cut our visit short

Posted by mammal on January 11th, 2010 filed in Uncategorized
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We will have to go back week after next. We were planning to skip next two weekends to get some honey-do stuff done around here, but we got it mostly caught up yesterday.
Next week is a motorcycle race for him, so we will go back the week after that and put the window in and finish the wall.

Stuart Weitzman would be proud, though, because he always wears appropriate footwear for construction. Not so much me, you’ll find me in flipflops a lot of the time.

He’s OK

Posted by mammal on January 11th, 2010 filed in Uncategorized
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We have a good ER room up here, but got the cross streets of the nearest hospital (an hour and a half away from Ajo) just in case he started exhibiting symptoms.
Well, he felt okay AED and so I dropped him at the local ER and went home, unloaded the dogs, got in the little car and swooped back to the hospital. He got his CAT and was pronounced okay.
He has a sore neck, but his headache went away last night. My poor baby.

Concussion!

Posted by mammal on January 11th, 2010 filed in Uncategorized
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The existing bathroom window was a square thing about in the middle of the wall, and that just won’t work for our new shower surround, so the whole wall had to come out so my Handyman could put in a long window higher up, above the new surround.
somehow he fell off the step ladder and was talking nonsense. Which scared the hell out of me!
After we went to see the EMT unit and they told us it might be nothing, but we should get to a hospital and have a CAT scan, you should have seen me throw crap in the truck, packing like professional cross country movers. My sweetie was still kind of milling around aimlessly, which is NOT his typical mode. I’m actually the aimless one in our family.

Ajo Community Center

Posted by mammal on January 7th, 2010 filed in Uncategorized
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I have talked to Ana Lopez at the Ajo Community Center and I think we can get a grant to update the high school mural.
So we will go over there this weekend. Tonight, actually. I haven’t been across the desert at night for a long long time.
I want to document the heck out of this project, maybe even generate some promotional products for the high school with the grant money.
We are taking Old Reliable, since Bertha is still laid up, poor truck, but the green meanie (Old Reliable, at this point) will get us there and back without worries.
We intend to go slower than the deer that are out there.

Bad Manners

Posted by mammal on January 3rd, 2010 filed in Uncategorized
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Can a person hunt down a home insurance quote for bad manners?
I’m guilty, so here is a full apology:
Boyd’s Mom,
I am so sorry I did not host you with at least some tea. You were sooo tired, all of you.
I don’t know how I dropped the ball like that, but I promise you that you will never have to be in my home without offers of refreshment again. Promise!!
I hope your trip home was smooth.

Boyd’s Vacation

Posted by mammal on January 3rd, 2010 filed in Uncategorized
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Boyd went home last night.

We sure had fun with him.

Boyd really enjoys running with his pack in the open.

We love you, Boyd!!!

Come back real soon!

New Year’s Eve in Ajo, Arizona

Posted by mammal on January 2nd, 2010 filed in Uncategorized
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We had a really great New Year’s Eve.
It was a full moon, or course, and not just any old full moon, but a blue moon to boot!
I did not get pics, but everybody who looked up could see for themselves.
We built a big fire in our pit after dinner. It wasn’t exactly lavish, like mexico vacations or anything, but my darling made black-eyed peas and cornbread, Mom brought chips and guacamole, I made an apple-date biscuit and we bought a bag of salad.
We all agreed that it was a delicious and very lucky dinner out under the auspicious blue moon.
We had wine, beer, whatever, and Sergio played guitar all night.
At midnight in New York (9:00 here) we opened the “champagne” that we got in Gila Bend (the best champagne that Gila Bend has to offer, was how we decided to describe it when we took off the foil and found a screw-top. It was hilarious.) and poured cupfuls around and toasted. We never figured we’d be able to stay up til midnight.
Mom crashed, but by golly, we made it to midnight in Arizona!
We have not ’seen a new year in’ like that for at least a decade. We must be getting younger.
It was so beautiful out, not terribly cold, the wood lasted just long enough, full moon, my baby and me, and some good friends.

Poor Bertha

Posted by mammal on January 2nd, 2010 filed in Uncategorized
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She had a hard day, but she got us home.

First, she needed a jump, so we got a late start for walking the dogs, and then had to leave her running while we walked them at the Ajo airport.

Then she had a real bad flat.
The tire looked like it had been dissected on, like, manual exam tables or something.

Only not as neat.

More like chewed up.

Then we started smelling this funky burning chemicals odor, but I had been complaining about Bertha’s diesel smell the whole trip, so it had to get really bad before The Driver stopped and opened the hood. One of the batteries was having a meltdown.
So he unhooked that battery and we limped on home on the poor spare and only one battery.
We had six dogs and only a couple of leashes since we had forgot the bag of leashes in our hustle out the door (with 6 dogs).
Whew!

Liz gets an Adventure

Posted by mammal on January 2nd, 2010 filed in Uncategorized
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Click here for great pictures of tigers!!
Check out these pics !
My friend Liz gets to play with real circus animals! Something I always wanted to do since I was ten and I saw the movie about this boy, Toby McGuire, about 12 years old, who runs away and joins the circus.
He learns the standing-up bareback pony riding and the trapeze.
WOW
So good luck, Liz, on your adventure. Please keep me posted with your wonderful pics.
(( Hugs ))

The NPR interview with Patti Smith

Posted by mammal on December 30th, 2009 filed in advertising
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WOW, great interview! I just realized that I don’t own a single thing of hers, good thing I have Pandora Radio.
Xtina and I shopped all morning at the post-Christmas discounts, we had a ball. I spent about $6.00, but the shopping was really the main goal.
She has a job in the medical industry and gets really great health insurance lead
My own is changing all the rules with this new plan going in across the country. We’ll see how that shakes up, but imagine my surprise to hear that the basic plan I have is considered one of the ‘Cadillac’ plans. Guess we’re some of those fat cats you hear about. Huh. Go figure.

Used Books

Posted by mammal on December 29th, 2009 filed in School
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I can sell my school books when the bookstore opens next week. That should give my bank account a boost. Yeah, I’m still brooding about my financial troubles. Not that it’s a surprise, but I can’t believe I didn’t actually find employment by now, knowing this time would come. It comes every year, it should’nt be a surprise.
Well I have a plan or two and something will work out, it always does. Only six more weeks until my next batch of school money get here. The Honors money will be here before that. Sweet, sweet Honors $$$!!

Dogs on the Mountain

Posted by mammal on December 29th, 2009 filed in Uncategorized
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The air was crisp, the wind was brisk on the hilltops, and the sun was warm.
We took a picnic made from left-over Christmas feast and spent the day. We had so much fun and found so many good rocks that I didn’t even have time to read the book I brought. Dave got a nap on a rock.
It’s been a really long time since we got out in the boonies like that. The dogs loved it.
They were so tired out that we didn’t get any noise out of them till the next day. Quiet, well-behaved dogs are not easy to achieve, but we did it that day.