Devious Devices

"I'm looking for a new cell phone," I said to the cell phone kiosk man in Sam's.

He glanced up from punching keys on a computer and suddenly got that 'resigned to the fate of dealing with a middle aged woman who is totally ignorant about computers, cells phones and any other current technology' sort of look.

"What did you have in mind?"

"Well, here's my old Nokia. It's about 6 years old and has served me well, but it's sort of big and the performance is falling off lately. I want all of the same features."

I pointed to a cute white business card sized cell phone on the display.

"Does this one have a video camera?"

He looked to be in his late 20's/early 30's. He was geekish in the way that a lot of young electronic sales personnel tend to look. He was thin and wiry and didn't have a particularly healthful aura about him. In fact he exuded overall dissatisfaction and a slightly stale odor.

"Well, let's see," he said, his voice spiced with sarcasm, "Your phone is about 6 years old and it has video. These are new phones with advanced technology, so my guess would be that they DO have that feature."

He smiled a thin smile. (Wow, is this broad dumb or what...how many more of these people will I have to deal with today.....Sam's is overrun with the retirees and semi retirees on the weekdays. The weekends aren't much better what with the overweight families and screaming kids in tow buying bulk frozen foods. How did I get here anyway?)

I studied him for a second and then said carefully in a well modulated 'I'm old enough to be your mother' tone.

"Are you being a smartass?" I looked at him and raised my considerable eyebrows. Then, with just a tinge of 'angry, but tolerant black woman' in my voice, I said, "Don't you be bein' that way with me."

This approach gave him pause. He didn't say anything, but his jaw kind of worked sideways and his eyes widened a little.

I picked up a different phone acting as if he wasn't a little twerp and that as adults, we could move beyond his petty insolence and do business.

"What about this one? How much is it?"

I had established my alpha position as the customer now and the tone of the exchange became more balanced. In a somewhat more civil manner, he proceeded to quote a price. We then chatted about the phone features and accessories for awhile. I think he was beginning to see that I might be a bit more savvy about the world of cell phones and computers than previously perceived. I had done considerable research on the Internet before entering this electronic jungle.

"You explained that very well," I said in true 'turn the other cheek' fashion. "Thank you."

He smugly smirked, then said in a defensive tone, "Actually, we are pretty professional around here even though our customers don't seem to think so."

I studied him again carefully. "We must have had a bad day today."

He didn't respond to that, but it was beginning to be obvious that yes, he either did have a bad experience earlier in the day or he was a terrible salesperson that probably wasn't going to last out the week or the rest of the day before he got the boot. Other customers would probably have reported his misbehaviour, but I didn't want to be the one to do it. Let someone else. I'm sure it will happen at some point. I bought the phone despite his help.

IT'S A SLIDER!

Two days later, it became apparent that we would have to take the plunge and buy a new digital camera. Here's the one we've had for several years now. It's a Sony Mavica and yes, it uses a 3.5" disk. In fact, when I ordered our last new desktop computer and found that the floppy disk option was no longer standard, I had to order one anyway so we could upload our pictures to the computer. It still works very well. It's only a 3 mega pixel camera. Again, well armed with Internet info, I visited another mega store staffed with young geeks. This guy was a little more respectful although I think these people don't really like it if you know too much, that way they can't give you the ol' sales soft shoe routine. (That reminds me about another prior encounter with a megastore sales geek who chided me about opening up portable DVD players on display. It was 15 minutes past opening time and I wanted my portable DVD player. No one was there to help me, all of the display units were closed, so I opened a couple to look at them. Suddenly, the geek was at my elbow, gently touching my arm and admonishing me. "These are very expensive and you should not be opening them, the sales people are supposed to do that." No kidding. So, why aren't you doing your job, Mr. Blond Curly Headed Geek Person?) Anyway, back to the camera. I knew what I wanted and it took about 5 minutes before I was out the door with our new digital camera.

IT'S A NIKON COOLPIX!

Electronic packaging is a maze of cardboard inserts, plastic shrink wrapped objects, little ziplocks of minute parts, cords, instructions, CD's and basically a whole mish mosh of stuff that you'd better make sure you don't throw away. However, the Coolpix is small, so the accompanying package materials weren't too confusing, although there are still two cords for which I have yet to identify the use.

Ahhhh. What a nice little camera. I put in the batteries, I turn it on. I start reading the quick set up instructions. I set it up. The CD goes into the drive - OK. It starts automatically..................not. I eject it and try again, two more times. Nothing. Big sigh and go to the kitchen to get a cup of coffee for the long haul. Read the instructions again. Says something about turning off the virus software temporarily because it could block the installation of this software. I can't figure out how to do that. I check the McAfee security center - no obvious instructions there. I check the Microsoft security center. Same thing. I try various other places on my computer and then go online for awhile to look for clues. At this point, I am not happy and I'm sure my blood pressure was redlining. I take a deep breath. OK. Read those instructions one more time. What's this word? Yellow. Yellow CD. There's a yellow CD? Where? Oh, there you are, you nasty thing - right in the back of the same CD sleeve. Well then, what is the CD that I've been trying to use? Ahhhhh. The Chinese language CD, that explains a lot.

Very Important Lesson: Always, I say ALWAYS, read the instructions CAREFULLY.

DEVIL'S TOWER COMING UP.....I said in my last post that I would talk about vacation planning and budgeting. I'll do that while we are on vacation next week. We are going to Wyoming to Devil's Tower and then to Glendo, a big lake/reservoir thing that is supposed to be very nice. We have never been to either one, so it should be interesting. My next post will be while we are in the KOA somewhere up north. (I remember when I said I'd never stay in a KOA and I'm pretty sure I did make fun of people that did stay there......:-)

Gotta start prepping some foods and packing the camper now. Although this post date is Tuesday, 8/28, it's now Thursday. Bye

This photograph was taken by Wyoming Aero Photo LLC

Yes, I've read recommendations on postings and I KNOW my postings are too long. I'll work on that.

Farm Stories. Bike Ride.

Over the past few years, I have illustrated about 30 stories written by a professor from one of the universities here in Colorado. I am completing one last cover page illustration for him. He is in the process of working with a publisher to get his book of stories published. He writes about growing up on the farm and the stories are very down-to-earth, simple, humorous and sometimes quite touching. Each story has an average of 4-5 small black pen illustrations interspersed in the text. The first drawings, completed probably 10 years ago are slightly different in style than the ones I've most recently completed. We had a break of about 5 years when I moved from one area to the another and he continued to write but I was not illustrating anything for him at that time. He contacted me about 2 years ago and we finished our collaboration. Here are a couple of the illustrations.
It was lots of fun to read the stories and to come up with the ideas for illustrating them. I would run my ideas by him, he would maybe come up with suggestions of his own and then I would get started. It became a part of my life for quite awhile and I confess that I will sort of miss it.

BIKE RIDE

It's 8:10a and I just got back from a lovely, invigorating bike ride. The camera is sitting on a rail post for this shot. I'm in the shadow of a big redstone topped hill. This area is very beautiful and a popular spot for bike riding. My particular route takes about 45 minutes and I get plenty of exercise. Merle and I rode here on Sunday. We are planning to use both cars for our next ride, parking one at each end of a longer route we are planning. Any exercise has to be done in the early morning or evening around 7 p.m. to avoid the very hot temperatures we have been enduring in this part of Colorado. We have mountain bikes and from what we see around us, this type of bike riding should probably be done on road bicycles. They have thinner and bigger around tires making it easier pedal plus, I guess you go faster. However, I think we will stick with our mountain bikes for now since we do not go real long distances.

Elderly People Crossing. Exchanging Homes

This is my favorite street sign ever. It was on a street in a quaint town in England. We were there on a home exchange trip.

This morning I had an email from a lady in Ireland. It's someone I met online through Homelink, a home exchange website. We've had one home exchange in England and a couple of other attempts to arrange home exchanges, one in Ireland and another in France, but so far haven't been able to finalize either one. However, the one is Ireland may be a possibility another year. My Ireland contact will be visiting here in the U.S. sometime within the next couple of months and I'm helping her sort of put her trip together.

Home exchanging is a great way to save money when traveling anywhere. We've even received inquiries from people here in the U.S.. Just receiving an inquiry, however, doesn't guarantee that an exchange is imminent. When you set-up the search inquiry in Homelink, you specify dates of a potential exchange, preferred locations, adults with or without children, smoking or non-smoking, do we exchange cars, etc.. However, there are still things that have to be compatible. You have to be able to afford the airfare to get to the location and some of the more remote locations are difficult and expensive to even get there. Also, you may find out after emailing back and forth, that someone is allergic to animal fur and the owners have or had a cat or dog. Or, after "getting to know each other better", you may find that you are just not comfortable with the idea of these people in your home. All of the listings generally provide photographs of the outside of the home and others, like ours, provide other photographs of the inside. This gives the potential "exchangee" a good idea of what to expect if the exchange is arranged. Most of the people we have encountered are retired since we specify 2 adults only. However, many exchanges include children and teenagers.

WALES THE BEAUTIFULEST

Working Europeans seem to have a lot more vacation than Americans and of course retirees have even more time to travel, so most exchanges almost always involve a minimum of two weeks. However, most retirees want a month or more in order to make it worthwhile. We can only afford to do 2 weeks and so that limits us somewhat. However, we have found those willing to stay in our home for that period of time and then they travel to another exchange in the U.S. or just visit various sights here, staying in paid lodging.

One of the really cools things about a home exchange is that you live like the "natives", more or less. Grocery shopping was one of the most interesting things. The foods are fewer and there are similar brands, but the labels were slightly different. The dessert (or pudding as the English say) aisle was huge. We couldn't resist buying something special almost every time we shopped. The liquor aisle was also amply furnished with everything you could possibly want to drink.

We were on this trip just after 9/11 and it was very touching to see this sign posted on the doors of one of the fire stations in town. Traveling right after 9/11 was a whole new travel experience. The security was amazingly tight. It was a strange feeling to fly through Toronto enroute to England and see some airport personnel there with turbans on their heads. There were quite a few turbaned individuals in the airport lounge and some on the flight with us. It made me realize how easy it would be to assume that people of a certain nationality could be unfairly labeled. Every carry on bag was searched thoroughly, so I guess that considering the extra precautions, it was probably one of the safest times to fly ever

And finally, here's one last sign that I must share with you. Close up parking for that mother-to-be.

Cheerio old chaps!

A New Gadget and Boulder, Colorado USA

Here is my latest gadget. I went to Boulder yesterday and had lunch with a friend. Afterwards, we went to Into the Wind, a store that has lots of kites and windsocks, but so many other interesting and fun items, like this great phone that you plug into your cell phone. How weird is this? It works very well and is obviously a sort of gag item, but I'm enjoying it. It will be interesting to see the looks I get when I'm driving down the road talking on my cell "phone"..... (Don't worry, I use an earphone with my cell phone in the car - I won't use this phone.)

Today, there are workmen in the house. The flooring in 3 rooms is being replaced and a new window put into one wall of the garage. I'm sort of used to this by now because since April of this year we have had the following things done to our house.

H New roof (flat roof, $$$$$)

H Asphalt on long, hilly driveway and parking pad

H Air conditioning installed in bedroom wall

H Wood flooring installed in bedroom

H 3 decks demolished completely, re-built and replaced with composite decking plus wiring for lighting and outlets

H Pergola built on largest deck

H Garage walls & ceiling insulated, sheet rocked and painted

H Miscellaneous other repair items too numerous to mention

But, we are winding down on the remodeling/repairs and only have a few more things to get done before it will be finished for now. Down the road, I need a completely new kitchen and flooring in the kitchen/dining room areas, but that's part of another budget in the next couple of years. Our house was built in the early 1970's and hasn't had any updating since that time. It was overdue.

On to more interesting topics.

In Boulder, Judy, a friend and I ate lunch at the Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse. It is quite fantastic inside, a real work of art. The website tells about how the decor was assembled. We sat by a big raised pond with fish in it. I had a Mediterranean Salad and Judy had the Grilled Salmon Salad, both very good. Our only complaints might be that it was not very cool in the restaurant, although it was certainly not excessively uncomfortable and our iced tea had practically no ice in it. But, we requested some more and it was graciously provided.

Boulder is a very interesting town. Merle and I have always enjoyed staying there upon occasion, eating there and shopping there at many of the unusual stores. Boulder is a sort of rich old hippie town meaning that a lot of "used to be hippies" started businesses and ended up populating Boulder. According to Wikipedia, Boulder median family income is $70,257 which is $20,000 higher than the U.S. average. Housing is expensive with the median single family home in the 2nd quarter of 2006 selling for $548,000. All of this money and all of the expensive homes that need to be furnished mean that Boulder has shops that cater to those folks. One of our favorite stores is the Peppercorn - check it out.

It also has a large university, Colorado University. Over the past few years, CU has been the focus of some controversy. It's has been labeled a "party school", the football coach quit amid a tawdry sex scandal involving recruiting and Ward Churchill, a defrocked professor of dubious Indian ancestry, has gained national and worldwide notoriety for comments he made during a speech about 9/11 that many people found to be offensive. Plus, the university president resigned - all within the last 5 years.

Here are some other places we like in Boulder, although they are just a handful of the many cool places to visit:

Chautauqua Auditorium for small concerts and shows.

The Boulder Cafe on Pearl & 12th on the Pearl Street Mall (shown to the right, no website but good food)

Rocky Mounts for bicycle racks.
Red Lion Inn for early bird specials.

Twenty Ninth Street - a great new retail district
Chautauqua Park for hiking trails

Hotel Boulerado for a special evening and overnight.
Design Within Reach - a misnomer, as most of us cannot afford anything in there. We did buy the light shade shown to the right, though. I wish IKEA would open a store in Boulder or somewhere around here. That would be wonderful!

Think I'll go see how things are progressing here at the old homestead. See ya' later. Here's a parting gift.

Robots, Rayguns and Rockets

We have always enjoyed science fiction movies and paraphernalia. We have a grouping of small shelves in our livingroom with tin space toys on them. Gort (the robot shown from "The Day the Earth Stood Still) is on one of the shelves along with some other robots I picked up from various Internet stores. A Robby the Robot that walks and sparks is part of the collection. If you've got a spare $50,000 laying around you can buy a real Robby the Robot here at Hammacher Schlemmer. I just ordered the raygun and the rocket above from Tin Man Toys. Our home decor could be described as eclectic modern. The eclectic part has to do with the combination of steel, atomic style lampshades, glass table tops, sleek line sofas (yet very comfortable), swivel chairs and things like our tin toys and my Uglydolls.

I guess it is safe to say that this movie is Merle's favorite science fiction movie and I have to admit, it is very cool and well done. I like black and white movies and the old "very special" effects are fun to see. I'm particularly fond of pie pan flying saucers. The acting is also quite good. I looked up some information on the actor who was Gort, the robot. Here is what I found on the IMDB site

Joseph Lockard Martin Jr. (1916 - 1959). Height: 7'7". One of the tallest actors ever, he held various odd jobs before his debut on the silver screen. He worked for Spike Jones and his City Slickers, Ardens Dairy (in California,) as a Cowboy for Public Relations and at Knotts Berry Farm, (in California) also as a Cowboy. It was while he was working as a doorman at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood that his height was noticed and because of it he was chosen for the role of Gort. He also hosted a children's TV show in the Los Angeles area in the 50s called 'The Gentle Giant'. He was not a very strong man for his size. He was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills, California.

Watch the complete movie for free on Google Videos here. I have a Google account and you may have to set up one up to view it, but when I clicked on it, the movie started immediately without a glitch.

When you type this word into Google search, there are some very interesting results. This site, "Dr. Grordbort's Infallible Aether Oscillators and Other Marvelous Contraptions", has some fantastic rayguns that you can order and have, if you can afford them. Sadly, I cannot. My price range is slightly lower, in the $10 - $30 range. Check out these pictures of homemade rayguns - quite awesome. Wikipedia has a whole slew of links having to do with rayguns including how the military is supposedly creating or already has created raygun like technology. More about the development of real rayguns can be found here at the Wired Blog Network. I'm actually not a gun person at all, but the rayguns I enjoy are not actually "real" and they are artsy, so I really like them.

Speaking of rockets, here is the latest on the Space Shuttle Endeavor from NASA's website. The name "Shuttle" just doesn't have the same coolness as the name "Spaceship" - a Ship that sails into Space. Shuttle sounds like something in a factory that moves product from one place to another.
Spaceships are typically introduced in science fiction movies and stories. Underground Online lists their choices for the top 11 spaceships from the movies.


Lastly, I have discovered that my blogs have not been up to par in relationship to spacing and some other set up factors. I think I finally figured out everything and corrected it. Subsequent blogs should be in good order. I also just discovered how to link words and titles, so now that part will also be better looking.

Toodle-doo Til Later!

Imagination, Strawberry the Doll and Ruby Jewel

Bockman Campground. Sunday morning, August 12, 2007.

IMAGINATION

Across from our campsite was a large group that consisted of more than one family. Probably all related to one another. There were several kids varying in age. Merle first brought to my attention a little boy of about 6 years of age wandering somewhat aimlessly around in a field of grass and flowers next to the family campsite. He was in a world of his own. Waving his arms, muttering and occasionally making sounds like a motor, we could only vaguely guess what was going on in his little head.

Merle said, "Remember when you were a kid and you imagined all kinds of things? What happens to us as we get older, where does our childlike imagination go?" We pondered this for a minute.

I said, "I think that when we are kids, there are no boundaries. We are relatively free without a lot of responsibility to inhibit and crowd our minds. It is the growing responsibility that comes as we get older, the realization of expectations of adult behaviour and the structure of education and the workplace that we sometimes allow to limit our imaginations." (This is essentially what I said but not as aptly spoken.)

So, can we still think like children even when we are adults? Absolutely, if we want and CHOOSE to, and maybe even imagine better because our life experiences can enhance our imaginative thinking and give it richness. Look at people who write fantasy literature, fantastic screenplays, design "The Lord of the Rings" sets and characters or people who sculpt and paint from the heart. They take the basic imaginative recipe and add their own special ingredients that make it very unique. Of course, not every occupation is one that encourages one to use their imagination, but outside of work, anyone can develop some type of creative hobby.

STRAWBERRY the DOLL

She was about 3 years old and very tiny. We watched her occasionally walk by, usually with her mother. Her little feet were encased in tiny Crocs (our favorite Colorado shoes), her black page boy haircut swinging slightly forward against her chubby cheeks with each step.
"Mom, where's Strawberry?", her little voice carried across the road to our campsite where we sat drinking coffee by the fire.

Mom, who was walking ahead of her, speaking to someone offstage, said, "Bring Strawberry here".

We did not get to see Strawberry, as any further action took place somewhere behind Merle's Wrangler parked in the campsite drive. But even though we did not get to see Strawberry, we knew she would be a well used and much loved dolly because anyone who would name their doll Strawberry would be like that....

http://www.crocs.com/

RUBY JEWEL

On Saturday we drove up a 4WD road to the trail head for Ruby Jewel Lake. It was only a 1-1/2 mile hike, but turned out to be a little strenuous due to the rocky terrain and the high altitude. We ended up above timberline. Ruby Jewel was nestled, like so many mountain lakes, in a crater-like area. The trail was very beautiful and varied, starting in a forest next to a stream with waterfalls and then progressed upward where we traversed trails in old and stable rock slide areas. Then we reached the alpine tundra with no trees, but with abundant, low to the ground and lush vegetation. The air was cool, the clouds were white in the blue sky all the way to the horizon. Here's Merle at the lake and another picture I took from our campsite. The lake was in the depression between the two mountaintops pictured.

The drive home from our trip was very enjoyable with the top down on the Wrangler and some nice clouds to keep things at a pleasant temperature. Nice, until we were about 15 minutes from home and then the blast of heat hit us. At home, the temperature was around 100 degrees, making us very glad that we had headed to the high country for the weekend where the highest day time temperature was around 75 F.

That's all for now.

Along one upper wall in our camper.

Camp Prep.

GOOD MORNING! Grabba cuppa and pull up a chair. (I realize that not everyone will read this in the morning........)

I started this blog yesterday, but got too busy to finish it. It's now 6:43 am and I'm going to wrap this baby up.

We're headed to the hills for the weekend and it's a good thing because the temps here are supposed to be in the upper 90F's!

We love to camp, especially now that we have our little camper (our Tab). It is much easier to pack now as opposed to taking a tent and all of the things that go along with tent camping. We still have all of that stuff and are going to hang on to it in case Audrey and Jonathan ever go camping with us. Plus, I'm hoping that someday they will move back to Colorado and then we'll just give it all to them, if they want it.

Preparation for camping requires planning and some work - the grocery shopping, making sure we have clean clothes and putting the things we will wear into piles to pack in the Tab, packing food items and other things we don't just keep in the camper all of the time. I also like to put the house in some order so it will be nice to come home to. Here is a picture of our Tab camper in Death Valley.

This was the return trip by way of southern California that we took after we picked up our camper in northern California. We had purchased it on Ebay. That's my old Jeep Wrangler that I sold through Craigslist. I now have a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon that I purchased through Craigslist. http://fortcollins.craigslist.org/craigslist.org/ If you have never used this website before, it's really great because you can sell things for free by region of the country. If you click on this link, be sure to pick your region (state/city/province) of choice over in the right hand columns before posting an ad or searching for something. Warnng: there are some R rated posts on this website. So, if you are a G to PG person like me, just don't go there.

Here is our camping list I made in Excel that has everything on it that we need to take with us when we go camping in our camper. A lot of the stuff is already stocked in the camper, like soaps, toothbrushes and toothpaste, insect repellent, extra blankets, lanterns, etc.. I'm a list kind of person. (I'm also a sticky note reminder kind of person.)Anyway, our list is very comprehensive and I add things that need to be added or remove things that seem like they don't need to be on it. Here is a picture of our list. I have little boxes next to each item so we can check it off. I print a list off of the computer about a week prior to each trip. We don't take everything on the list, some of the things are suggested items for food or clothing, etc.. The "must have" items are on there, though.
We don't always camp where we can plug in our camper, so we have a little converter "thingy" that lets us hook up to one of the two big batteries we have on the Tab and use the computer, a fan, speakers, a DVD player, etc.. We just bought a small DVD player and I will rent a movie to watch one evening this weekend. While camping in Moab, Utah earlier this year, I noticed a group of people sitting in chairs one evening, looking at the side of their RV. They had a screen and were watching a movie. It was one of those things you see in an RV camp that is always interesting. Yep, we really rough it.........

I like to prepare a meal in advance so that we can just warm something up, like for tonight when we arrive at the campground after dinner time. This time, I'm going to make an enchilada casserole - a big one. We'll only take a portion so that we can have leftovers when we return. I'll warm it up in foil in my steamer on the stove in the camper. We have a little refrigerator in the camper that runs either on electricity, gas or the car battery when we are driving. It's a little temperamental to get it going in the gas mode, but Merle is "Mr. Get Anything Going Guy" and after a few attempts, it is up and running and the frig keeps things nice and cold.

Here's my enchilada recipe - it's really good.
NORTH OF THE BORDER ENCHILADAS
Sauce ingredients:
1-15 oz can tomato sauce
2 T chili powder
1 teas sugar or equivalent amount of sweetener
1 teas onion powder
Flour
Some kind of fat (butter, margarine, oil, etc.)
Water
The rest of the stuff:
1 dz corn tortilllas
2 chicken breasts, deboned, deskinned, cooked and chopped into small chunks
1 chopped medium sized yellow onion
Approximately 1-1/2 cups shredded Monterey Jack Cheese or any other shredded cheese you might prefer (probably not any other, but something like Monterey Jack or Cheddar)
Cooking oil
Making the sauce.
1. In a small saucepan, over medium heat, put in about 3 T fat.
2. When it sizzles, turn the heat to low and whisk in about 2 T flour, all the while whisking until it is smooth. This mixture should be creamy, not thick and pasty, so add more fat if you need to.
3. Remove it from the heat and SLOWLY pour in the tomato sauce and about 1/2 can of water, whisking very quickly to combine it until it is a smooth sauce. It will probably get pretty thick quite fast. Put it back on med/low heat so that it cooks and gets thicker. Add the chili powder, onion powder, sweetener and more water, if necessary. You should be able to pour it - that's the right consistency. Let it cook for about 5 minutes, then remove it from the heat and set it aside while you prepare the enchilada portion.
Enchilada assembly
1. Spray cooking oil in a glass 9" X 12" oven proof dish and have the tortillas, chicken, onion and cheese all ready to use. Place a large square of foil on the counter top next to the stove top so you can assemble the enchiladas individually on it.
2. Put about 4 T of oil in a skillet over med/hi heat.
3. When the oil is hot, turn the heat to medium to maintain. If it smokes, turn it down until it doesn't.
4. Place one tortilla briefly into the oil (about 10 secs) and then using tongs, flip it over in the oil for a couple of seconds more. This makes the tortilla pliable, so just hold it in the oil long enough for that.
5. Remove the tortilla with tongs to the foil square on the counter top. Using your clean hands, put some chicken, cheese and onion along the middle and then roll the tortilla over the mixture. Place it in the dish. Repeat this procedure until you have used up your ingredients. If they don't all fit in one dish, use another dish.
6. Pour the sauce over the enchiladas, sprinkle some more cheese on top and put it in a preheated 350 deg oven for about 30-45 minutes or until bubbly. Let the finished product sit for about 20 minutes before serving.

This will serve about 4-6 people depending upon the appetites as long as you have a nice green salad alongside. Italian dressing on the salad is a very nice complimentary taste to the enchilada dish - sounds weird, but it's true. Here's the dish just before it goes into the oven. I measured this dish and it's about 7-1/2" X 10".

I've marinated some pork sirloin for another evening meal on our little grill and cooked up brown rice that I will mix with tomato, black beans, jalapeno and chopped cilantro for a side dish. Breakfasts are eggs, pancakes, SPAM Lite (we indulge ourselves occasionally), coffee. Lunches consist of tuna fish sandwiches (I prepare the tuna fish salad beforehand) along with chips. For any desserts I buy both sugar free varieties of Voortman's cookies and Jello puddings in the little containers.

OK. I think I'd better move my fanny now and start getting some of this food prepared and packed. When I return, I will have some pictures of our camping excursion to post, so check back. I'll be back in touch on Sunday or Monday. Have a wonderful weekend!

Marmotville. Art Show.

No, this is not a stuffed marmot that Merle and I set up for a photo shoot. I took this picture from our car up on Fall River Road up in Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) here in Colorado. This particular panhandling marmot was a very tame one due to the fact that many tourists had probably been feeding it (feeding the wildlife is illegal). It was beside the road and we stopped the car to look at it. He/she came over presumably to beg for some chow. None was given, but I was able to get some very good pictures. Here's another one picture and a quote from the RMNP website about feeding wildlife.

"Despite their good intentions, some wildlife watchers are loving park animals to death. Feeding junk food to wildlife reduces its ability to survive the long mountain winter. When they panhandle by roadsides, animals fall easy prey to automobiles. As they become habituated to humans and lose their natural fear, the animals become aggressive and may be destroyed. Harassing or feeding wildlife is illegal in all national parks."
This is a link to the Rocky Mountain National Parkwebsite: http://www.nps.gov/romo/index.htm. We live quite close to the park and therefore benefit from all of the wonderful activities and sights there. I have hiked many of the trails. It is a very popular park and a lot of the areas are overused although the park personnel strive to keep everything maintained and as pristine as possible They do a wonderful job.

Here's what Wikipedia has to say about Marmots

"The Yellow-bellied Marmot (Marmota flaviventris), also known as the Rock Chuck, is a ground squirrel in the marmot genus. It lives in the western United States and southwestern Canada, including the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada. It inhabits deciduous and coniferous regions, typically above 2000 m of elevation. Yellow-bellied Marmots usually weigh between 5 and 11 pounds (2 and 5 kg) when fully grown. They get fatter in the fall just before hibernating. A marmot’s habitat is mostly grass and rocks with few trees. Their territory is about 20,000 to 30,000 square metres (about 6 acres) around a number of summer burrows.

Marmots choose to dig burrows under rocks because predators are less likely to see their burrow. Predators include wolves, foxes, and coyotes. When a marmot sees a predator it whistles to warn all other marmots in the area (giving it the common name the whistle pig). Then it typically hides in a nearby rock pile. Marmots reproduce when about 2 years old. They live in colonies. A colony is a group of about 10 to 20. Each male marmot digs a burrow soon after he wakes up from hibernation. He then starts looking for females and by summer has 1 to 4 females living with him. Litters usually average 2-5 offspring per female. Marmots have what is called “harem-polygynous” mating system, which means the male defends 1-4 mates at the same time. Yellow-bellied Marmots are diurnal (1) like most mammals. The marmot is also an omnivore, eating grass, leaves, flowers, fruit, grasshoppers, and bird eggs. Marmots are not hunted for sport but are sometimes killed by farmers. Yellow-bellied Marmots include “toilet rooms” in their burrows as well as living rooms, bedrooms and eating rooms."

Note: All of the underlined items in the text above are highlighted on the Wikipedia web page and they are links to information about the underlined word. (1) Also, diurnal means an animal that is active during the day and rests during the night as opposed to nocturnal Day/Rest, Night/Active.

ANOTHER TOPIC.

I was invited to show some of my work at an art show this weekend, so I'm busy getting 4 paintings gathered, all of my prints packaged and priced properly and my display apparatus (easels, print holders, etc.) in order so I can deliver it to the folks who are hosting the booth there. Merle and I are going camping this weekend, so I won't be around to see what happens. Hopefully, something in the way of a sale or two. Here are a couple of pictures of paintings I will be trying to sell at the show.

This acrylic painting is 24" X 30" and is very textured. It's on a wrap around canvas that is 1-1/2" thick. None of my paintings are framed. They are ready to hang. The title of this painting is "Lunascape". I also have prints of it (not textured) that are 11"X 14".

This painting is entitled, "The Art Mill". It is 24" X 24". I use red heavily textured circles or ovals in some of my work. I find them very vibrant and fun to paint. I hope that I don't ever regret posting my art on this blog. I don't think that many people are reading it but if some are who are that desperate, then there is nothing I can do about it.

I tried to use Babel Fish Translator to write "Till we meet again" in Japanese just for fun, and although Japanese showed on the preview mode, it did not show up on the published blog. The Babel Fish link is on My Favorite Links. Anyway, catch ya' later!

Vinaigrettes, Reading...........

Before I forget, I concocted a very delicious and what I think is probably an unusual vinaigrette dressing last evening for our spinach salad. Our spinach salads consist of baby spinach, chopped celery, little chunks of apple, sliced strawberries and sometimes tomatoes, kiwi fruit and pecans. I've always made my own vinaigrette and have added various spices to it at times. Last night as I was tasting it I decided that it would be very tasty with some peanut butter in it........and it was. I didn't say anything about my new flavoring to Merle. Toward the end of the meal, he said "that's some pretty tasty dressing there". I smiled and told him the secret ingredient. Anyway, here's my dressing recipe. If you have your own vinaigrette recipe and lots of people do, just add some peanut butter to taste. I used crunchy peanut butter because that's what we had. Either crunchy or creamy, it makes the vinaigrette creamier.

PEANUTAGRETTE (my measurements are close estimates as I don't measure my ingredients)

1/2 cup canola oil (I don't recommend olive oil for this recipe)

4-5 T Balsamic Vinegar

1 or 2 packets of Splenda or sugar to taste

About 1 T Dijon mustard

Coarse black pepper to taste

Put these ingredients in a jar with a lid, shaking to combine or whisk them in a bowl. In a separate small bowl, put about 2T of peanut butter, pour some of the vinaigrette over it and stir it to liquefy the peanut butter. Add more vinaigrette until the peanut butter can be poured, then combine everything and mix or shake it well. Taste it and add more of anything until you get the flavor that suits you best. Chill it for at least 1/2 hour although I've use it sooner than that when I was in a hurry. Pour it over the salad just before serving and toss. Enjoy!

WHAT I'M READING NOW

Occasionally, I like to pick up an biography or an autobiography of someone. I've read about adventurers (my favorite) and certain celebrities that I've always wondered about. I'm finishing up a biography written by Lee Server about Robert Mitchum, an actor from around 1950 - 1980. Here's an obituary from CNN in 1997 that briefly tells about his life. The book, "Baby, I Don't Care" is a well written, gossipy book depicting a intelligent, poetic man who was also very crude, a womanizer, violent at times and a big time boozer. Before reading this book, I read one by the same author about Ava Gardner and it was very similar in that this sad, beautiful woman had the same crude behaviours, foul mouth, excessive drinking combined with violence and amazing promiscuity. If these books are only accurate by 50%, these two lives were a mess, despite the so-called Hollywood glamour and piles of money. Robert Mitchum seemed not to have as many demons as Ava Gardner, but I don't envy them their turbulent lives. Despite reading about the wrecked lives of these actors, I enjoyed both books with the inside stories on movies and other people in the business during that time...
On a more uplifting note, a friend gave me a CD of Michael Fox's book called "Lucky Man" and I started listening to it today. He wrote it, reads it and it is really good so far. At this point in the story he has been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and is coming to terms with that. I'm looking forward to hearing the rest of it. He actually states that if he had a chance to go back to the way he was before he was diagnosed, he wouldn't hesitate to say no - his life has been so much better since then. That's a pretty amazing statement and I'm looking forward to hearing how he came to feel that way.

I'm watching the skies right now because I had planned to head out to the bike path for a ride. However, the skies are pretty dark, so I had better wait a bit and see what happens.

In the next couple of days, I think I will be able to post a picture of my painting on easel. I've done some sketches and am starting to feel somewhat inspired, so I may actually do something here soon. Here are a couple of pieces of artwork I've done in the past before I started doing abstract paintings.
This was a greeting card I designed when I was doing some greeting card work. I sold a couple of card designs and then had a little falling out with the card company. It's a very competitive business and you can submit over and over to different companies and get your work rejected over and over also. I know that just to be talented is not sufficient, you have to be persistent. I've kind of decided that every once in a while I will try to get my work exhibited and see what happens. But, I don't think I'll let it become an obsession. It's always been my opinion anyway, that real honest to God artists are people who are completely absorbed in their craft and cannot not do it. I'm not that way although I love to create a nice drawing or paint a picture - I can put it aside and do other things for awhile, like blogging.

Here's another piece of artwork I created. It also is a greeting card I was asked to make for the card company. I don't know how it turned out in the finished product.I don't think it's going to rain, so I'm going to brave it to the bike path. I'm saving the marmot for tomorrow's post. It's a story that needs its own space.

The Kids, The Animals

By chance, when I posted the McGuckins Hardware link in my last post, I happened to glance at the store hours and found out that it would be closed at the time we were to meet our friends there. So, our plans changed last evening from going to Boulder to eating at a chain restaurant closer to home (expensive and fat/sugar/salt laden but tasty, of course).

We had a good time.

I just had a telephone call from our daughter, Audrey. She and her husband, Jonathan, live in Arkansas. They met on the Internet and that's how she ended up moving from Colorado to Arkansas. Here is a picture of them. Every time Audrey calls, there is usually some very exciting news and this time was no exception. They became the proud owners of a rat named Andy. They think, but are not sure, that Andy is a girl. This is the latest addition to the "animal house" that includes Starla (from the homeless shelter), Tina (a dog obtained from a cardboard box by the road) and Mr. Poopers (a 3 legged cat that was saved by Audrey from certain euthanasia). Apparently, there was another rat at one time, but Starla, who consorted with canine gangs and hung out with other assorted dubious characters while at the shelter, surreptitiously observed the mechanics involved in the rat cage operation, and whilst the owners were away, she opened the cage and dispensed with that rat. I've been assured that the cage has now been rendered doggie proof. Here's a picture of Andy the Rat.

Both Starla and Tina were named after characters in the movie Napoleon Dynamite, one of our very favorite movies. Yes, it's true, Merle and I are Napoleon fans. Here is a UTube link where you can watch Napoleon dance. It's a classic, really. Here's a picture of Starla, the only one I could find. She really is a very nice dog even though she chewed a rat. You Dirty Rat!

Audrey does a great impression of Napoleon. She has quite the knack for imitating and even creating characters. One of my favorites used to be her soulful rendition of the national anthem as sung by someone like Patti LaBelle or Aretha Franklin. It's too bad she never did get the chance to sing it officially at a peewee baseball game or a Star Trek convention.

Jonathan and Audrey will be visiting us in early November and I'm sure I will be able to fill the postings with all sorts of adventure stories after they are gone. In future posts, you will hear more about Audrey and I will be sure to post some of my favorite pictures taken of her over the years. I know she will be very pleased.

SPEAKING OF ANIMALS .......

Here is the praying mantis that came to dinner one evening some time back. We live on a hillside with all natural landscape, so our home is guest to various types of critters. We've had those bugs that look like a stick - just like the one in the movie "Bug's Life". We've had wasps, various kinds of beetles, butterflies, snakes (but not as many as we thought we would have here), frogs, giant moths like the one shown below, some 1/2" dark gray, segmented worms that get in the house, die and get hard, ants, raccoons, foxes, wild cats, pack rats and our very favorite - the skunks who lived under one deck for awhile and managed to wake us up many nights with their pungent perfume. So far this year, we have not had a problem, but that is probably because we had all of our decks replaced and it disrupted their home life. During the skunk spring and summer years we investigated all kinds of ways to try and rid ourselves of them. We live outside of the city limits and our neighbor apparently has shot a couple of them. Neither one of us is a sharp shooter or furry animal killer, so that was not an option. Another Internet suggestion was to trap the skunk in a specially made trapping cage ($$$) with food containing a sedative and then take the cage to a river and drown the skunk. We don't like skunks, but that was just about the meanest thing I ever heard to do to an animal. Plus, we figured we would end up trapping and sedating one of the neighborhood cats. I also read that if you spread moth balls around the property, it wards them off, but the thought of smelling moth balls was almost as bad as smelling skunks. We just waited and now it seems our patience has paid off. We won't have to "off" the skunks now.

That's about it for now. I spent a great deal of time trying to get the Starla poster into jpeg format that would download and ended up putting it in the scanner. However, I'm sure when I learn how to use the millions of Corel PHOTO-PAINT options in my new software, it will be much simpler (?)

Hummingbirds - The Jets that God Built

Note: This image was downloaded from Google images and I don't know who did it although I did research to try and find out so I could give them credit. Hopefully I'm not infringing on someone's copyright. Whoever drew it did a beautiful job!

Two weeks ago on a camping trip, as I was reaching into the backseat of my Jeep Wrangler to get something, I heard a strange noise, a humming and thumping noise. I was somewhat startled to discover a hummingbird in the front part of the car, bouncing against the windshield. It was bright green and it had flown into the back part of the open Wrangler where it was trapped although there was a lot of open space behind it. It looked pretty exhausted. I don’t know how long it had been in there. After each attempt at the windshield, it would lay with its wings spread open wide on the dashboard. I quickly opened the driver’s side door and it zoomed away in typical hummingbird style, appearing none the worse for the wear. I imagined it heading home to the family to relate what was probably a pretty terrifying experience.
We have enjoyed seeing hummingbirds in various locations. We carry a hummingbird feeder in our RV and occasionally use it to attract these amazing little birds. While staying in a cabin (pre RV days) around the Colorado Springs area, we encountered a lot of them. Sitting on the porch of the rustic old cabin with its feeder hanging down next to the bench, we were able to observe the hummingbirds very closely. They also observed us very closely by hovering in front of our faces before darting off again. It was very entertaining to watch them take turns muscling their way to the feeder, then chasing away the competition. I was able to take some very nice pictures that I will share with you here.

We have been noticing more hummingbirds around our neighborhood lately. Don't know why they are suddenly here, but we are glad that they are. It's time to break out the feeder. The last time we had hummingbirds here, we hung a feeder from our pine tree. After about a week, I looked at it and it had bloated ant bodies floating around in it. It was quite gross, so I'm a little hesitant to try again. This time I'll hang it from somewhere other than a tree.
Here and here are a couple of links about hummingbirds that are good.

SO FAR TODAY........

1. I put all of the patio furniture cushions back on the furniture (again). Threat of heavy rain last night prompted me to put them away. However, no rain.

2. Merle and I sat on our cushioned furniture under the pergola with our morning coffee for awhile. I got the laptop and searched for a camping spot for next weekend. Found one, Merle picked the campsite and I made a reservation.

3. Fixed whole wheat pancakes, applesauce on mine, sugary syrup on his, one egg each and some ham. Ate on the middle deck looking over the countryside. Here's the view from the middle deck.

4. Cleaned up. Merle packed up his RC planes to go flying at the airfield.

5. I slid into my biking pants, filled my water bottle, loaded up the bike and drove to the bike path for an invigorating ride. Came home, showered and here I am. I'm about to turn on the a/c as it is starting to feel a little muggy.

6. We have plans with friends to head over to Boulder to McGuckins Hardware and then dinner somewhere on the Pearl Street Mall. McGuckins is like our most favorite place to shop around. It's got EVERYTHING and we've tried to buy most of it, too. One of these posts I'll talk about Merle's RC planes. He is mighty proud of them and totally into making and flying them. Here is a picture of Merle with a jet he built.

Next: The Praying Mantis Who Came to Dinner