Scottsdale Trip

Every once in awhile one needs to leave the mountains and get out to see parts of the world. On this particular venture I went out to Scottsdale to visit my momma and step-father. I have been to lots of places but this was uncharted territory for me.

In the morning, after we had our coffee we would take Nicki for a walk. There was a huge park right next to the Le Cordon Bleu school. We would see the students heading in every day carrying their knives, friendly bunch.


On my first full day in town we headed over to the old portion of Scottsdale. I wanted to do this with all our cayenne peppers last fall but Richard had other ideas.


Old Town is rather interesting, old buildings mixing with new in a small part of the town.


We went to a cute little bar called The Rusty Spur. It has been around for 60 years. The building was originally used as a bank and now the vault is used as a walk-in refrigerator for all the beer. They have live music all day, every day. Here is momma and I in the Rusty Spur.


I had to include a shot of Nicki, she is such a sweetie.


We were watching TV one afternoon and Momma commented on how ugly the TV cabinet was. I thought the lower doors were ugly but when I closed the upper doors I wondered why anyone would buy such a hideous thing.


Every afternoon Nicki gets to go for a walk through the neighborhood. I was amazed by all the fruit trees and more. This is a pomegranate tree with one fruit left on and no leaves for the winter.


I picked one of the fruits and cut it open when I got home just to make sure I was right about the type of tree it was.


I saw this palm tree one afternoon. It is without a doubt the tallest palm tree I have ever seen.


My friend Angie said that she had been to Scottsdale before and could find any pine trees. Here are two of the ten that were in the neighborhood.


There were orange trees. You could pick the fruit that hung over the public areas and eat it.


I had forgotten had beautiful bougainvillea can be.


There were grapefruit trees.


Tangerine trees, and their fruit was really sweet.


Here is the start of dinner on my last night. Some cooked bacon and in the container chunks of chicken breasts with garlic and some barbecue sauce.


Here is Chef Jim a/k/a my step-father preparing our salad for dinner. It was awesome.


They say all good things must come to an end and this was true after a good week in Scottsdale. I arrived at the airport to find my flight had been delayed. The flight crew had come in very late the night before and the FAA requires they get 8 hours of rest and the clock does not start until they reach the hotel. So, I sat and waited, and waited and waited. We finally left Scottsdale an hour and 15 minutes late.

When I got to Dallas,,later than planned I got some lunch and headed over to my gate. A few years back there was a movie called "Dude, Where's My Car?" While in Dallas I got to play "Dude, Where's My Plane?" There is where it is supposed to be. It finally showed up late,,that seemed to be the way my day was going.


By Sunday morning the previous day's travel plans were forgotten as I got to cuddle with my Kele girl.


It was a chilly day so Lili curled up on the down filled sofa in the master bedroom. I tucked a towel over her to keep her warm.


By the afternoon all things were back to normal as Richard and Morgan napped on the sofa and Kele slept nearby.


It is good to get away but it is always good to come home.

New Year's Weekend

Four days after my son left two very good friends of mine rolled in from Jacksonville, FL. I have known Leslie and Shri for at least 12 years,,maybe a bit longer.

On New Year's Eve we got a slow start to the day as the ladies did not arrive until about 1:30 in the morning. After breakfast and coffee we talked for awhile and then headed out for lunch. We ate at a local Mexican place that has great food. Since Leslie's birthday is January 6th we had an early celebration. Look carefully and you can see the blue edging on the cake, its behind the margarita.


Here are Shri and Leslie at lunch,


and Richard and I.


After lunch we bundled up and Shri, Leslie, Lili, Kele, Morgan and I headed out for a long walk. Leslie found lots of photo ops.


After we got home and thawed out I put Leslie to work in the kitchen working on our New Year's Eve dessert. She enjoyed licking the spatula.


New Year's Day after Richard and I got up Kele and Morgan went back to bed. I guess staying up until just after midnight was too much for the young ones.


For dinner on New Year's Day we had a Cesar salad and Garlic Shrimp with Grits. It is one of our favorite meals.


After another long walk and a hearty meal Shri and Leslie relaxed on the sofa.


Before they left on the 2nd I got a group photo of us. We had a great time and are looking forward to their next visit.

Christmas With C.J.

My best Christmas gift in 2011 was a visit from my son C.J. I had not seen him since Christmas of 2009. He arrived late afternoon on Christmas Eve, bearing 6 bottles of wine, a bottle of Grand Marnier and a bottle of 12 year old Glenlivet. I hid the Grand Marnier from Richard and put the scotch out for Richard's consumption.

We had some great conversation, great wine, champagne and by Christmas morning I realized I had not taken a single picture yet,,,,oops.

We opened our Christmas Gifts in front of the fire. C.J. was happy to have received a new Star Trek Christmas ornament.


Richard was happy with his gummy peaches, cigar gift certificate and other goodies.


After I got the turkey in the oven we went out for a long walk, 2 hours long. C.J. was enjoying the brisk mountain air and was taking photos to send to his friends.


On the morning of the 26th C.J. had to leave. Before he left Richard gave him a decent pile of firewood.


I made sure I got a photo of C.J. and I before he left.


Once my boy hit the road the kids all decided they needed a nap. It was only a few days, 4 to be exact, before the next crew rolled in.

Stuff

This blog entry is totally out of order,,sort of. My computer died after my last blog update and I lost a lot of photos. The computer repair guy is working on trying to get my stuff off the hard-drive. In the meantime I have taken over Richard's computer for blog updates.

Back on November 7, 2011 I did a blog entry titled "Life in The Mountains". In that blog I had made a Moravian Chicken Pie and Emeril's Traditional New England Chicken Pot Pie. We have eaten both and since I cannot upload photos I will just tell you the outcome.

The Moravian Chicken Pie came out rather dry. It needs more gravy mixings added to it. Emeril's recipe we both thought had too much crust. I will make them both again and change things a bit and then post the recipes. I had also made a curried turkey and broccoli casserole with a mashed potato crust and again we both feel it needs some fine tuning so hang in there for some great recipes coming up soon.

In the meantime the first full weekend in January was quiet and cool. Temperatures on Saturday were in the 40s for the highs so we headed out to take down all the outside Christmas decorations. After that was accomplished I made Richard some oatmeal raisin cookies. He loves these.


After watching a Long John Silver's commercial Richard commented on how he really wanted some homemade fish and chips. Having no fish to work with we went about making some fries or chips for lunch. Here they are cooking.


One done we sprinkled the fries with sea salt. For our first effort they came really good.


After eating all those fries I needed a nap and laid down on the sofa. It was not long before Kele and Morgan came to join me. I was tired enough that I was able to nap with 85 pounds of dogs laying on me. Richard said this picture was fair as I am always taking shots of him napping.


Since we had a heavy lunch I made us grilled chicken Cesar salads for dinner with garlic cheese toast.


It was a great day. I love weekends when we don't have much to do.