Week of February 8 thru February 15, 2011

Pan for GOLD@@! The whore house where I was hired to do laundry!@#!

THE 2011 CHICAGO CUBS

(Carlos Marmol)-------------------(Ryan Dempster)-------------- ----------------------------------------(Ryan Dempster & Sean Marshall)

Milk Bottle Purchases this week--(going to have to build a new room)

Tuesday February 08, 2011

We took a long walk this morning around the resort. We have been trying to walk each day and there is certainly plenty or room inside the resort to get some good mileage. When we came home we went to clubhouse so I could hook into Internet and post my blog.

We both got our shower and left around noon heading up to Tortilla Flats. This is one of our favorite trips that we make each year. It is about 17 miles up the side of the Superstition Mountains out of Apache Trail. We drove part way up and decided to stop at the old mining town along the road. We have pasted this several times over the past 3 years but never stopped. I just found out that we do not have to go back to Alaska to pan for gold. They have gold panning right here in Arizona. There were many shops, some junk shops and others with interesting items. There was a big saloon, which we considered eating at but decided to wait until Tortilla Flats. It was a cute place and while there, I got a part time job at the Bordello. In the picture, you can see me standing in the upstairs window. Actually, they did not hire me as a 'call girl' but rather a laundress!@!@ They found out how many years of experience I had at doing laundry and decided I was perfect!

Even though Tortilla Flats is not that far mileage wise, it takes awhile as the road winds around, up and down to the top. It is such a beautiful drive up through the mountains and then it opens up to large lakes dropped right in the middle of the mountains.The first year we were here, we took the entire trip around the mountain, which starts outside the town of globe and winds around and through the mountains about 75 miles. We found about 30 miles into the trip that we were stupid for driving our vehicle through these roads. They were so rutted and so narrow in spots, it was almost impossible for two vehicles to meet one another. We honestly thought we would pick up our truck in a basket before we made it to the road down the other side of the mountain. The sights that we viewed going through this was so amazing I guess it was worth the beating our truck endured.

When we arrived at Tortilla Flats, it was extremely busy and we had a hard time finding a place to park. We always make a day of it and have lunch at the Saloon. It is always busy no matter what day or what time you decide to go. We put our name in for a table when we arrive and sometimes wait over and hour. We were lucky today and got a spot at the bar for a beer before our table came up. The bar stools are, of course, saddles and the entire saloon is covered on the inside with one dollar bills that everyone has written their name and hometown on. The money on the walls is more valuable than the entire structure of the saloon. At the table we sat at today, most of the bills had dates written on them starting around year 2000 so I'm wondering how many times they have stripped the walls of the money since the place has been in business.

We had hamburgers and fries--nothing out of the ordinary. The hamburgers are mediocre--not the best I've had but for sure not the worse. It just the atmosphere and of course, THE BEER, that makes for an enjoyable meal. The Saloon is really quite large inside and always packed! The ladies room is quite unique with fun painted pictures all over the walls of dance hall girls. I can never resist taking a few pictures when I go in.

After we had our late lunch--early dinner, we walked outside where they have an open air patio with live entertainment. The guys were quite entertaining so we sat down and listened to them for awhile before leaving.

Of course, we could not bypass the ice cream shop on the way to the car. I just felt I should have a prickly pear cone in honor of Morgan. Last year when she was here, she fell in love with prickly pear ice cream.

We headed back down the mountain back home. When we arrived, there was a package that had been delivered by UPS. It was a box of pecans and two paintings from Linda Arnold, Larry's cousin from Carlsbad, NM. When we were there she had several of her paintings hanging and I asked if she had any she would consider selling. She laughed at me but I told her I seriously wanted to buy one because I thought she did a very nice job with her paintings. She has been keeping in touch via email since we were there and has told me she is going through some tough times with Cecil. Cecil has had alsheimers for over 3 years and is getting worse. Linda told me she was about ready for a breakdown trying to care for him. She and her daughter, Malinda, found a extended care home to place him and she is going to move him on Thursday. I felt bad that through all of this she took time to put together our package for mailing. She is such a wonderful person and I really love hearing from her. I hope we can go back down to Carlsbad soon to see both her and Ed and LaDell, Larry's other cousin that also lives there.

Talked to Carole, Larry's sister and also Leslie when we got home. Leslie told us that her and Pete are flying to Las Vegas for April 1 through April 5 so we are planning to drive the motor home up to spend the time with them. The only problem is that we had planned to leave here on April 14th so tomorrow we are going to check to see if we can change our time for leaving here. I doubt they will be kind enough to let us cancel the last month. If we stay until the end of March they will charge as much for the last two weeks in March as the entire month cost. We are talking about maybe trying to leave when our month is up on March 14 and go to California for a couple of weeks before Pete and Leslie comes to Las Vegas. The only issue we have is our mail and all we are worried about with it is getting all of our tax information for our tax guy in Peoria to complete our income tax. OH THE WOES OF THE TRAVELING RETIREES!@!

Wednesday February 09, 2011

I'm setting here tonight trying to figure out how I blew the entire day running errands. While Larry went down to carve this morning with Paul, I made the Walmart trip--of course!! Needed laundry detergent and also printed off pictures of the Stafford family from Carlsbad,NM. to send to Ed and Linda. Returned two items at Ross and used my refund for a nice lightweight quilt for the bed in the motor home. Larry hates the quilt I bought last year for the bed--to 'upclass' for his taste. Stopped at Bealls and bought a skillet and a rug for bathroom and headed to Michael's to look at their painting supplies on sale. I kept trying to call Larry and could not reach him then realized his phone was in my car shut off. Dropped some cards by the post office and headed home. Larry was starving when I got home and said there is NOTHING in the house to eat???? That's really scary when Larry cannot find SOMETHING to eat! Soooo- we left again and got lunch --or dinner --it was 2:30 so don't know what we had. We seem to wait until so late to eat lunch that we call it quits with our one meal a day whether we need it or not! Unfortunately, neither of us are showing any signs of loosing any weight! After we ate, we went to finish the errands that I did not complete. Larry dropped me at the card shop and he went to Petco to get the animals food and litter. He came back and picked me up, went to Cosco and home at 5:00.So as exciting as it is that was the entire day!

It was an absolutely beautiful day today, the high was around 72 degrees. Early this morning the wind was blowing strong and it was rather cool so I dressed in long pants and a long sleeve shirt. By the time I finished my first stop, I was hot. I actually debated on coming home and dressing in something cooler, yet everywhere I went, people were wearing jackets!!! These people amaze me that they can be cold when it is 70 degrees but they dress like it is winter! Since I am taking the steroid, the doctor told me to avoid the sun. This has been one of the nicest weeks we have had so far and still I have not made the pool since we arrived. I will go back home as white as when I left.
Not quite sure what's up with Tucker but he has been driving us crazy with his constant meowing. He wants outside but NOT with the leash. Tonight Larry actually saw him push the door latch down and open the screen door. I saw him slide through the little plastic door on the screen yesterday. That happened after he refused to come outside on the leash. He has been extremely bored since we've been here and he just wants to go home to Peoria, I guess. Little does he know how COLD it is. He is differently NOT a cold weather animal. He sits on the heat register at home every time the furnace kicks on.

Thursday February 10. 2011

Had a wonderfully relaxing day today. Talked to Taylor before I went to painting class today, which was very entertaining. She told us how Addy ran to the bathroom all night, obviously thinking she had to do her dirty job and ended up doing it in her pull-up. While Kyle went to find the wet wipes, Addy put her pull-up in the sink and tried to wash it out. Taylor makes Addison wash her own dirty under ware out in the sink so she obviously thought she had to wash her pull-us. Addison is a very entertaining child!! Went down to painting class and in honor of Valentine's day we painted a flower called a 'Bleeding Heart'. I have seen these before but never knew what they were called. It is always such a relaxing day when I paint with the gals. They are all such a wonderful group of women and Pat our instructor is very laid back which makes everyone enjoy themselves. We listen to relaxing music as we paint and it is always just a great day.

My day was doubly great because Larry got into the cleaning mode. He reorganized a bunch of things in the motor home and put some items underneath to give us more room inside. He cleaned and believe it or not---he actually did the laundry while I was having my relaxing day. When I got home he was gone to the grocery store--which is one of the things I hate to do the most. He picked up a steak for himself and tilopia for me for dinner. I breaded the tilopia with breadcrumbs and Parmesan and put it on the grill. It was FANTASTIC! We have been eating out so much I forgot it was like to relax at home with a great meal. We had steamed broccoli and cauliflower and Larry had a baked potato and I had a sweet potato. Of course all of this was chased down with a bottle of 'two buck chuck'!! We polished off the last of the wine so a trip to Trader Joe's is on the schedule for tomorrow to pick up a new supply!

The day was beautiful, a little windy but sunny and nice. It is suppose to get warmer for the weekend so regardless of the steroid, I think a trip to the pool may be in order for the weekend.
Dorothy, one of the gals I paint with went to Mexico this week so she brought me a big bottle of antibiotics. I will not take them with what I'm taking now, of course, but I will have a back-up plan if this 'kick ass' drug the doctor gave me does not resolve my problems. I really like Dorothy and Tom, her husband, are such great people. All the gals I have met in the painting class are just wonderful people.

Friday February 11, 2011

We drove 350 miles and spent over 6 hours on the road to check off one more item on Larry's 'Bucket List'. We left Silveridge around 8:30 and drove to Tombstone, AZ. It was nothing but an old Western Town famous for Wyatt Earp. They have really played this place up and if it weren't for the little strip of the historic town the entire population of Tombstone would starve to death. Even the shops were not that great and basically carried either old time western clothing or tourist 'crap'. We walked around the town for awhile and went into the Big Nose Kate Saloon for beer and a burger. It was quite an interesting place with the waitress's dressed in their corsets and old time clothing. They had a guy singing and playing a keyboard that was pretty entertaining. We left and drove around the little town, which was a real depressing 'hole' in the earth! I cannot imagine living in a place like this. If not for the tourist, these people would have nothing. The homes were run down and old and just plain depressing! We did stop quickly at an antique shop on the edge of town but found nothing interesting. Out of the 350 miles there was nothing but desert and a few mountains to look at. As you may have guessed, I was not impressed with the trip. Larry at least got to drive for hours and hours, which makes his day! I hate going on these trips but figured we'd get it over with as he has talked about it for awhile.

Saturday February 12, 2011

I had a hard time sleeping last night. I read for awhile and fell asleep, then woke up and laid in bed for 3 hours listening to Larry snore and Charlie purr in my ear. A queen size bed is not bed enough for two LARGE adults and three cats! I finally fell asleep again about 4:30am and woke up again at 9:00am this morning. Crazy night and I hate it when I cannot sleep during the middle of the night!

Larry went down to the clubhouse to get water, ice and mail this morning. He came home with three birthday cards and a package. Jerry and Jan sent me a birthday card, a Maxine coffee cup and a gift card for Olive Garden. They gave me gifts for my birthday before I left but I guess we are celebrating again! I feel so bad because I did not buy Jerry a birthday gift this year as I kinda thought we were just going to do the birthday card thing. So, as usually happens when I think, I was wrong! Sharon, Cathy and Theresa sent me a birthday card and a gift card for Chilli's. If nothing else, I will be eating good, which is just what I need. I really think I have gained back most of the weight I lost after my surgery. I need to go down to the exercise room to weigh and of course, it would do me good if I tried doing a little exercises while there! I am so lazy and have not done much of anything for myself since we've been here, in the way of exercising!

We talked to Jerry and Jan this morning to thank them for my gifts and they said the weather was suppose to warm up today and tomorrow at home. I am happy for that as Jan said it was 8 below zero a couple of mornings ago. The weather here has been wonderful and today it got to 79. It was almost too warm as the sun was hot. We went back up to the two big antique malls and looked around again. Larry had seen a painting he was interested in earlier but when we went to look at it again, he decided against it. I found another small glass creamer from a dairy in Tuscon. It was pretty etched but was cheap so I went ahead and bought it. I also saw a 1/4 pint bottle, which I have not seen before. They had a price of $24 on it which I felt was a little high but I kept looking at it anyway. The last time I looked at it, I asked one of the guys that works at the mall if I could make a lower offer on it and he said the dealer was taking 20% off. So I broke down and bought it and I'm glad I did because I have not seen another one that size.

By the time we shopped through the two antique malls again, it was after 4:00 and we had yet to eat anything for the day. We went to TGI Fridays and Larry had steak and shrimp and I had ribs and lobster. The lobster was about the size for three bites but it was good.

Tomorrow they have a flea market going on in the parking lot of one of the malls that we were at today. We stopped at one at the other mall about three weeks ago. There is usually a good variety of items and a number of dealers so I, at least, will probably go up for a while. They have a flea market up there every 2nd Sunday at the one mall and I believe next weekend is the one at the other mall. It's interesting to look through all the items. I told Larry today that I have seen so many items that my mom had that I think I am going to check into how much it would cost to put some of items on consignment when we get home. Everyone in the family pretty much took what they wanted of mom's items so what is left I seem to be just storing away. I think I would also enjoy shopping for items to resale as well. Maybe I will --we'll see when I get home.

Sunday February 13, 2011

Got a very slow start on the day. I cooked breakfast and then we went for a walk around the resort. It is such a beautiful day today but is going to get pretty hot. My family and friends at home would kill for the heat right now, I'm sure! After our walk, I got my email and found that my girls had created a video and posted it on Facebook. It was such an amazing video that I cried when I watched it. It is the best Birthday present I think I have ever received. The video is set to music and has shots of our girls, the granddaughter's, Pete, Kyle and even a quick shot of Larry and his brothers. It is truly AMAZING!

Lora from next door came over for awhile and wanted to see the paintings that I have done in my art class since I've been here. She is such a wonderful person and I just love her to death. She is I believe 84 years old and sharp as can be.

After Lora left, I got my shower and then Dorothy Collins, the gal I paint with, called. She wanted to remind me of the outdoor flea market up at the Antique Mall. Also she said there was a guy up there selling milk bottles from every state. We went up to the flea market and found the guy right away. Dorothy was right as he had lots of milk bottles. He also was selling them for 50% off. We bought a bottle that had a rather unusual shape and was from a dairy that was in Peoria. The guy was a collector and was getting rid of his big bottles and was concentrating on the small creamers now. We ended up buying the quart bottle from the Peoria dairy, a cottage cheese jar and a small glass creamer that was square. I believe all of my small glass creamers are round so I really had to have the square one. The original price on the creamer was $45.00 and I got it for 50% as I said. That was still a lot, I thought. For all that we bought, we got a pretty good price on the three.

After we left the outdoor flea market, we went over to another large Antique Mall that the guy from the Antique Mall up on Main told us about yesterday. It was very large but we did not find any bottles that were unusual enough to buy.

We stopped at Trader Joe's on the way home to get our 'Two Buck Chuck' and picked up chicken breast and items for a salad. We came home and I marinated the breast for an hour and then breaded it with bread crumbs and Parmesan and Larry put it on the grill. It was very good and we had a great meal---- with a little WINE.

Our neighbor on the other side of us stopped over while we were grilling the chicken. They are really a nice couple as well. They had been golfing today and just stopped to say hi and to talk to the cats. Everyone seems to be interested in the cats. It's almost embarrassing to tell them we live with THREE cats.

Taylor called and Addy had to tell me that she did her dirty job on the potty tonight. She was so excited when she was telling me. I laughed so hard. She told me she got her doll back as Taylor and Kyle took her new doll away earlier this week when she made a mess in her pull ups! She told me she wanted to come to Arizona to see me. Taylor said she and Addison are coming out on March 11. I can hardly wait to see them! I talked to Morgan as well, and she and Addy told me they loved me and would talk to me tomorrow to sign Happy Birthday. Actually, Addy let loose with a little practice session of Happy Birthday tonight. She is such a character and at such a cute age. Morgan talked to me for awhile which is unusual for her. She is normally too busy with her other activities to talk to grandma on the phone.

Larry finally called his cousin Georgia that lives in Apache Junction. This is Ed Stafford's half sister and he wanted us to be sure to contact her when we got here. We have waited a month but anyway, they talked awhile and we planned to meet them for dinner on Wednesday night.

Monday February 14, 2011

Today I am 63 years old! Who would have ever thought I'd be this old. Time has gone so quickly.

We went to have a late breakfast at the Village Inn over on Signal Butte Rd. After we left the restruraunt we decided to drive over to Fitch Park to see if the Cubs were practicing. When we got there, we found they were done for the day. We talked to a guy from one of the Chicago News Channels and he told us they practice starting around 9:00am and are normally finished by noon. We left the Fitch Park and drove down to Hohokam Stadium, which is only about three blocks north of Fitch. We bought tickets for February 27, which is opening day of spring training.

Afterwards, we walked into the Cub Gift Shop and found they were selling the Spring Training Shirts for $38. No surprise there--everything in the shop is out of sight pricewise! I found a cute Cub purse that I would have liked to have but was too cheap to spend $30 for it. It was just a small shoulder bag, hardly big enough for my money. I told Larry we should just go down to the Catcus Sport Shop in Tempe and buy our shirts. We drove to Tempe and Troy, the guy who owns the shop was working. We met him last year and he is from Peoria, Illinois. His family still lives in Peoria. He is such a nice guy and told us to pick out the shirts we wanted and he'd go ahead and give us the 'Spring Training Deal', which is always buy one and get one at half price. We ended up buying six shirts for the family and for all the shirts plus tax, was $106.00. Quite a difference from buying them at the Cubbie Hole!!!! I love my Cubs but I refuse to pay their prices for my memoriablia. After leaving the sport shop, we drove down to Jerry's Art Shop as I was wanting an eraser for my paintings. Dorothy that I paint with has one but Jerry's did not have them. I was pretty surprised as this is a huge art supply.

When we arrived home, there was a van parked in front of the motor home and a man just leaving our door. I found that he had delivered flowers from Taylor, Kyle and the girls. When I opened the box, it was a beautiful bouquet of Lilly's. They were white with a dark pink stripe and some were purple. They were just beautiful.

Tuesday February 15, 2011

This morning after we got our showers, we headed for Fitch Park to see the Cubs. When we arrived, they were in full swing with practice. They were using three of the fields and mostly the pitchers and catchers were there. There were a few of the regular players and we watched Reed Johnson,Darwin Barney, Tyler Colvin and Blake Dewitt take several batting practices.

We moved on over to the other field and saw Ryan Dempster, Carlos Marmol, Shawn Marshall, Geovany Soto and Koyie Hill also taking batting practice. Frank, the guy that is staying next door to us is from Canada and told us that he golfs with and is good friends with Dempsters father. When I saw Dempster I yelled at him and told him I knew Frank and he was very surprised. I also asked him if I could have his autograph and he said sure. I stayed and watched this group for most of the time and yelled things like 'great job' after they would finish their turn at bat. Most of them made replys back to me which was fun. I told Carlos Marmol to smile so we could see the money in his teeth, since he just signed a new contract with the Cubs for 30 Million. He didn't like my comment much, I don't think, as he replied back to me that he hasn't seen the money yet.

I walked over to the third field and saw the 'BIG Z', 'pretty boy' Jeff Samardzja, John Grabow and Jeff Stevens. I only stayed for a short time to watch them. I made sure I got back to field two so I did not miss Dempster. While I was standing with my nose through the chain link fence, Channel 2 from Chicago came up to me and put the camera right in my face so I said I was very excited to see my Chicago Cubbie's and that they were going to be great this year! When he took the camera away, I asked him if Channel 2 broadcast here in Mesa and he said no, Chicago. Then I asked if it was broadcast in Peoria and he said maybe on WMBD. So maybe I'll be famous at home if it runs tonight!

Finally, Dempster and his crew finished and started leaving the field so I yelled at him again and he came over to give me his autograph and with him was Geovany Soto so I also got his autograph. These are two of my favorites but I also would have liked to have Sean Marshall, Marmol and Koyie Hills but they slipped by before I got them. Maybe when we go back I can grab them as well.

When we were leaving the park, Larry stopped and bought a Cub hat and while they were trying to ring it through, I started talking to another guy and found out he was a pilot for the MBA. He was at Fitch Park watching the Cubs practice and was leaving tonight late to fly the Utah Jazz home after their game with Arizona. He was pretty interesting and told me he flys different MBA teams all over the US.

We left the park and Larry wanted to go to Bass Pro. He dropped me off at the shopping center next to Bass Pro and I shopped a while. He came back to get me and we ended up going back to Bass Pro to have lunch. They do have great food and we both had Channel Cat which was wonderful.

Well this is it for my exciting week. I better sign off and head to the clubhouse to post.