Things

I was musing yesterday that I'd have a lot of money if I had a dollar for everytime someone suggested they had a Pulitzer-prize winning story idea for me. What is it with people? No one seems to understand just how complicated that is.

Right whales are headed back. Classes for observers start Saturday,

Had lunch with a friend today and laughed for almost an hour and a half straight. Love it.

Plugging away at Christmas cards and gift buying.

More swamp photos

More photos from my grand explore. That's one very happy and relaxed lady in blue. A perfect day.

Paradise

Nothing is better than being in the woods when the weather is nice out. Most especially in a cypress swamp. I think this is where I feel most at peace. Something here truly speaks to my soul. I really love it. Had a wonderful opportunity to spend an afternoon exploring a swamp/riverine ecosystem this week. I hated for it to end.

Animals appeared at every turn: a flock of wood storks with their wings "whooshing" the air, a 4 foot moccasin, a beautiful little pygmy rattler, enormous bear tracks and many colorful dragonflies. What an experience.

The trees, oh the trees. Spires reaching up to the sky, with tremendous trunks, the golden needles of the cypress in the fall lending a glow to the entire experience.

The furlough has passed way too quickly without me getting nearly enough accomplished. I'm dreading returning to work.

Halloween

What a beautiful night tonight! Balmy 78 with a breeze and a full moon. Gorgeous! Wish I could have gone trick or treating! Rosie and I took a ride delivering Halloween cookies and watching trick or treaters. We had such a great time. Now we're settling in for a movie.

All together I made five costumes this year. Totally fun! I really enjoy sewing. Now preparing for furlough.

Here's some shots of the costumes.






Now if I could just shake this migraine headache.

Fall

Fall arrived this weekend, with lovely cool temperatures, sunny skies and wind. Very nice. Rosie is loving it. I'm a little cold. Such a Florida girl.

Finished a beautiful ball dress costume for Joline Martell yesterday. It was so rewarding to see her glowing face when she put the dress on and started to spin. She was so happy. Definitely worth the few hours it took.

But it reminded me that I hate working with satin. Very slippy. You set a piece down and go to grab it and it's under the table. It also seriously messes with the tension on the machine.

We bought Rosie a costume. That's how I wound up making the dress for Joline. I was feeling a little blue that I wouldn't get to make a costume and Rosie and Jo ran up to me last Sunday and said "Hey since you're not making Rosie a costume, can you make mine?" So that was fun.






Now I'm starting on a power point for Wednesday. I'm talking to the Southeast Volusia Audubon about water issues.

Hoping to go for a long walk today.

What a week!

Oh my goodness. This week has been very, very long and I'll be glad when it's over.

I worked two 14-15 hour days and still didn't get what I wanted done.

Finished a dress for Katelyn tonight when I came home after 14 hours. It looks so cute. Wish I could sew more.

Weird news at work. I'll be glad when the sale goes through. I hate not being in control of my destiny.

Random thoughts

It's been a very long weekend. Taught a class at church on Saturday and made a peanut butter cup trifle. There was just enough left over to bring some home to Steve and Rosie.

We bought Rosie a Halloween costume. I was sad. It's the first time I haven't made her a costume. But it's a lot simpler.

Went kayaking again in the Indian River Lagoon on Thursday night. It was magical -- warm and glowing with the beautiful milky way looming above. I could have stayed out all night long.

Tonight I drove out through the county for some research on a story I'm writing later in the week, then drove over to the beach at New Smyrna to try to think and walk off some stress. I'm really enjoying these warm, humid nights. I love Florida.

Being outdoors

So we took a long drive yesterday and decided to catch up with the last session of conference one night this week. It was absolutely wonderful to be alone with Steve and Rosie for a few hours. We drove to Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, saw Heavenly Father's handiwork nearly everywhere we looked. Beautiful wildflowers, the meandering St. Johns River, intriguing birds, a nice sunset and gorgeous moonrise. Truly fun.
I missed the last episode of the Burns documentary because Rosie wanted me to meet her at the Deltona High School football game. To make it worse I sent the set of DVD's off with my boss for his two week vacation. So I'll be waiting on pins and needles for him to bring them back.
Rode around with a bear expert tonight to look for a Florida black bear and set a trap to catch him and move him to a less enticing location where he's not being fed or feasting on garbage once a week. It's interesting to me how easily so many animals can be acclimated to human behavior. Still we had a nice chat about how people all handle these things differently.

Television

Tonight was the best night yet of the Ken Burns documentary. Wow! Really incredible. The film footage was beautiful. The Everglades, one of my favorite places, featured prominently and a couple of the portraits toward the end were just unbelievable.

It never ceases to amaze me how long it has taken us to live up to the promise of "All men are created equal" and we're really still not there yet...

I've watched more television in the last five days than I've seen probably in a year.

Cooked dinner, washed the dishes, took Rosie to the mall this afternoon, took her to Steak and Shake for a good report card and helped her finish a social studies project. Now hoping to finish a draft of a story for the weekend paper.

Reflections

So I've been home for four days. The honeymoon is over. Working 9.5 hour days. Being taken advantage of by nearly everyone. Cooking. Cleaning. Feeling guilty I don't get more done. Haven't done more. Dealing with annoying people who say the most unbelievably rude things. Do you suppose some people just wake up in the morning and decide to be rude? The camera disappeared at a large family event and hasn't been seen again. Buried somewhere no doubt. Annoying. Thank goodness I'd downloaded photos.

I want to go back to Cape Cod.

Loving, loving the Ken Burns documentary on National Parks.

Preparing to leave Cape Cod with mixed feelings. It's so beautiful here and it's really nice to be somewhat checked out of reality for a while. Just learning, writing and riding the bicycle. I'd love to come back when I could just relax and do nothing, except ride the bike and go up to visit the national seashore. Maybe someday.

Woods Hole photo album

Woods Hole photos

Woods Hole

I'm learning so much. At the moment, listening to my seventh scientist of the day and it must be like the 25th scientist of the week.
Lots of talk about ocean observation, marine mammals and climate change. Individualized research begins Monday. We'll see how that goes.
Pace is pretty intense, most days from 8 a.m. to 6 or 7 p.m. Then dinner and fall into bed. Somehow later tonight, after a reception with many of the scientists, I have to figure out how to write a story for the weekend paper. Interviews are done, just need to focus on getting it done.
Sounds like Rosie really misses me. I feel a little guilty but maybe it really is good for both of us. I'm a bit homesick today and really missing family and home.
Woods Hole and Falmouth are lovely. I certainly understand what people mean now about Cape Cod architecture!! It's everywhere.
Slept last night with the windows open. Temperature is very nice.

Oh my goodness

Lots going on here. Feeling very unsettled. I've never been away from home for two weeks before. And never been away longer than nine days alone. So two weeks at Woods Hole will be an adventure. I may come back early. I'm still trying to decide. I'm afraid I'm going to miss Steve and Rosie terribly!

What a surprise to print the ticket Tuesday and discover they'd booked me for two weeks.

Now I'm trying to pack for two weeks. The idea of just taking a carry on went right out the window when I realized it was longer than a week. I made a lasagna and put it in the freezer and a hamburger stroganoff casserole. Plus I bought a bunch of heat and eats from Schwans. Now I'm working on a detailed schedule for them while I'm gone.

Hoping to write a couple of stories tomorrow before I leave. Then keeping William all day on Saturday.

Choir festival in DeLand at the church, Saturday night at 7 p.m. Should be wonderful!

The sun

You forget how powerful it is sometimes, until your skins gets burned to a crisp and you suffer for days. Or you forget to water a plant and it quickly wilts and dies. Scientists still study the sun and try to learn more about the role it plays in our climate. I understand the need for science but a headline on a news release today just had me in stitches. Scientists discover sun and climate link. No kidding!
But the beach was gorgeous this weekend, even though the water was rough Saturday as Hurricane Bill moved north far out in the Atlantic. It's amazing to me that a storm several hundred miles away can have that much influence.
We thoroughly enjoyed the kids, their wives and the babies. We played several rounds of Yahtzee and it was so much fun. The babies are so cute together. Each night a different baby slept in our room and woke up in the early morning hours and then found a place snuggled up with Grandma and Grandpa in the bed. How fun!
Here's part of the family at the beach just before a rogue wave surprised us.

Speaking of photos, I'm so glad I'd downloaded so many pictures on this blog. We'd have lost all of our canyon/Utah pictures if it weren't for this blog. I will remember to use the external hard drive in the future. What a hard couple of weeks it has been but I know it will improve.

Best things in life...

Today was simply incredible. As most of you know Steve and I are alone this week while Rosie is at an Especially for Youth Camp in St. Petersburg. On Thursday night we headed down to Palm Beach to Singer Island. We walked on the beach, had a fabulous dinner at Testa's, for which we had a buy one get one free coupon I printed off the Internet.

We got up this morning, watched the sunrise, went back to sleep for a couple of hours, then drove over to the Breaker's in Palm Beach. What a gorgeous, grand old hotel. I want to stay there. Lunch was a roaring success. They asked us to keep our remarks brief so I spoke for less than 30 seconds after receiving my Waldo Proffitt Award for Excellence in Environmental Journalism.

Then they did the Florida Society of Newspaper Editor awards. My Got Water series won the explanatory reporting category and I also won a Gold Medal for Public Service, it was truly truly incredible. Lots of people had read the series and said they loved it.

Jay Friedlander from USF told me he particularly loved the boxes and charts and said it was clear a lot of reporting went into those. That made me feel great because those things are always so very hard to put together.

Then we drove to St. Pete, watched the sunset on the beach, walked over for seafood at Crabby Bills then walked on the beach in the dark. How many ways can I say superb? We're staying at the Sandpiper Beach Resort. It's beautiful. $103 on Hotwire, but they let us upgrade the room to a gulf view suite for $15. What a bargain!

Things

I never rested up from the weekend this week so I'm very tired. But last weekend was so productive! I shopped for 7 hours on Friday with Rosie. I told Steve I've become a professional shopper. I never even used to like to shop and now I do it all the time. Looking for good prices, an endless variety of things we all seem to need.
Put up 7 quarts of chicken last weekend, made Rosie a dress and a pair of pajamas, made food for the neighbors cook out, hacked down all the areca palms, then made dinner for the missionaries. Yeah!!
Wrote a story about rattlesnakes and laughed when I couldn't stand to leave my feet on the floor because it felt creepy. Weird I know.

Rebirth and other piddling matters

So I took a closer look at the garden this weekend and either the squash or the cantaloupe have come back from the dead. They've put out new shoots and are growing again! Cool huh?
I had a busy and productive weekend. On Friday, Rosie and I shopped for 7 hours, trying to find shoes for her and other accessories and necessities for her Especially For Youth conference this week in St. Petersburg. On Saturday I put up seven quarts of chicken and did some laundry. The neighbors invited us next door for a barbecue so I threw together a couple dozen cream puffs and a bowl of pasta salad. It was nice. Quite a few people there.
While the squash is growing again, the areca palms in the corner of the courtyard are not, at least not yet. We hacked them down on Saturday afternoon because we have to get in there and sprinkle Amdro because the carpenter ants have moved in. I've heard they keep termites away!:)
We had a low key Saturday evening and didn't go to any fireworks shows. I continued to sew. I wound up making Rosie a dress and a pair of pajama bottoms.
It was great!

Can't believe it's July already

Time seems to really fly. I just finished planning my vacations for the rest of the year!
Calendaring has become really important at the NJ since they've ordered another round of unpaid weeklong furloughs to cut costs. Ouch!!
Looked out of the window this morning at my poor sad garden. It started great but all my squash and watermelon plants have died and I'm not sure why.

What a day

Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. I couldn't help but think Governor Sanford must have been thrilled he was booted off 1A for tomorrow. In remembering Farrah, I remembered a photo taken of me in 1977 that thrilled me when it came back from the developer. Taken in just the right light and distance, I looked a lot like Farrah. I couldn't have been happier considering how hard I was trying to look like her! What do you think?

How sad ...

I find the e-mails from South Carolina's governor to his friend in Argentina to be very sad.
"It is that thing that we all yearn for at some level — to be simply loved unconditionally for nothing more than who we are — not what we can get, give or become."
Helped Rosie make cream puffs for a thing at church tonight. They were yummy! Between those and last night's fried shrimp and homemade onion rings the dieting isn't going all that great at the Pulver household.
Had an old filling replaced today. They had a hard time getting the area numbed, then the numbness stayed for hours!

A June wedding

My niece Brooke was married on Saturday, June 20, so I went up to my sister's home in Trenton on Thursday before the wedding. We had a great time working together. The wedding turned out simply beautiful, but thanks to the unseasonable heat wave, it was unbelievably hot, even at 6:30 p.m. Brooke and Mae found a picture somewhere of the runner with rose petals idea and it turned out simply gorgeous. I'll post more pics later.
It is always interesting to me the high drama that accompanies weddings. Emotions always run so high that it doesn't take much to fan something small into a big deal. What we all do to ourselves with too-high expectations and a drive for perfection ... And I wonder who really thinks 18 and 19 year olds are really mature enough to be considered adults?

blogging

Someone pointed out to me that it's been over a week since my last post. No explanation, other than Mafia Wars might be taking up too much of my time. It's a bit of escapism because work is a bear and life is quite stressful. I've also read maybe 7 or 8 books in the past two weeks. Getting those books for the prison and the literacy council may not have been a good thing since I confiscated a dozen or so books I hadn't read.

But it's been great fun. Read a strange and funny book by Christopher Moore. Called Fluke, it was really funny. Sent the author a note and he wrote right back. Must get more of his books.

We're still getting rain everyday. getting old ...

June 6

So last night I went to the high school graduation for my niece, Brooke, the daughter of my sister Mae. It was a lovely small town graduation with fewer than 80 graduates. The principal, who I grew up with, mentioned something special about each child, as she does each year during her graduation speech. One of the senior boys picked her up and twirled her completely around when she handed him his diploma, and she's not a tiny woman. The crowd went wild. It was funny. Ceremonies took place on the high school football field.
The whole thing brought back so many memories for me. Rosie couldn't understand it. If I could go back today to my high school graduation and take my life from that moment forward, I wonder how many things I would do completely differently. That's the earliest in my life I'd be willing to go back I might add. I have no desire to relive high school.
I'm teaching Relief Society today. The lesson is on the tender mercies of the Lord and standing strong.
It sure seems like it has been a short weekend. Making the 6-hour round trip drive to Trenton makes short work of a day. And I'm going to do it again on Thursday for Brooke's wedding shower!

So tomorrow I return to work and all in all it has been a fairly productive week, though I didn't get everything finished on my too long, 46-item list.

Here's the list of what I did get finished: Get Rosie's prescription, Pick up mammo prescription, Pick up film, Sams, Mail Mae's birthday gift, Shop for foundation items, Lunch with Lori, Lunch with Lauren, Osteen field trip, Go visiting teaching, Set enrichment board meeting, mammogram, Clean baker's rack in bedroom, Clean ceiling fans, Rosie dentist, curtains sewing room, hem black shorts for Rosie, Finish bedroom curtains, Make Baked beans for William's birthday, Will's birthday cake, Patch Aaron's suit pants, Go to teacher conference at Rosie's school, Buy stroller, Sort old files box 1, books for crooks (picked up and arranged to deliver, will deliver this week), Watch William Saturday, scan and e-mail old photos to Aunt Bobbie. In addition to all this, we played games with Rosie two or three times and Steve and I went to the movies.

Shaking and baking ...

For William's Mickey Mouse-themed birthday I borrowed a cake pan from a friend's mother and baked a Mickey Mouse face. Decorating it wasn't as difficult as I thought it might be.



A corner of a placemat is showing in the photo. The hand crocheted placemat is older than I am. They belonged to my first adoptive mother, Bernice. Who knew pink and teal would be my favorite colors at this age?


I'm hard at work on my to-do list. Started the week with 46 items on the excel spread sheet. I've finished 20 and I'm hoping to complete six today. We'll see how far I get.

Today was one of the most perfect days I can remember in a long time. I spent the entire day in the woods. I waded in deep water, hiked in fields of wildflowers. It was exquisite. It stopped raining and I got to see several beautiful locations with dozens of species of birds. Absolutely heavenly.


Heard but not seen: Parula, Limpkin, Meadowlark, Pileated woodpecker
Seen: Swallow-tailed kites, Bald eagle, osprey, Barred owl, Great egret, Cattle egret, Snowy egret, Great blue heron, Sandhill crane, White ibis, Little blue heron, Green heron, Anhinga, Wood duck, Black necked stilt, Laughing gull, Ring-billed gull, Killdeer, Red bellied woodpecker, Cardinal, Vultures, turkey vulture, black vulture, crow and fishcrow, blue jay, great crested flycatcher, lesser yellowlegs.

Wildflowers seen:
Tickseed
Bachelor's button:
Golden canna
Common arrowhead, yellow colic root, sabatia, rhexia and loosestrife

Furlough

72 hours in. Not getting as much done as I intended but ticking a few things off the list. I also read two dippy books and played games with Steve and Rosie last night. That was fun. I'm so depressed it's raining the whole time I'm off. No sun. No swimming!

Had several rolls of film developed ranging from six months to three years old. Here's a couple of photos:

Furlough

I'm officially 24 hours into the furlough and I only peeked at my work e-mail twice. I'm absolutely not allowed to answer any e-mail.

We kept William tonight. He's so funny! He rolls all over in his sleep. Constant motion. Wonder who he got THAT from!??

Just finished my to do list for the week -- 42 items. They run the gamut from finding our missing checkbook to taking Rosie to the dentist and squeezing in time for fun stuff like the beach!! I'm hoping for a great week!

Our garden is looking great! For now we just have the four container boxes and two plants. I may try to get a bit more of a garden in this week. But the tomatoes, cantaloupes and squash all look great! Hoping the cilantro will do well. It's one of my favorite herbs. I also planted more basil.

Thrilled with the rain. Everything is beginning to look green.

Kayaking

The kayak trip was gorgeous. Absolutely beautiful. Wish I could do that more often. And after all that worrying, we didn't even have one near miss with an alligator.

We had a very busy weekend, doing dozens of chores around the house on Saturday then running an amazing number of errands in the evening.

Sunday was perfect. David and Patti had us for dinner. Aaron and Jen stopped by. It was heavenly.

Kayak trip

Today I will head to Lake Disston to take my boss out in a kayak to try to get photos of parent ospreys teaching young ospreys to fly. I'm trying not to worry about alligators.

Reputations

A good reputation can be a powerful thing. I thought of this today as a public official called my reputation into question in a public meeting over a quote. This scripture came to mind.

Job 27: 4,5
4 My lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit.
5 God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.

Birds

Three Carolina chickadees in the yard tonight. They're very cute. They were named by John James Audubon, when he saw them in the Carolinas.
I don't think they're very happy with our large sunflower seeds in the bird feeder. Their beaks are very tiny.
We're going out tonight for Cinco de Mayo with friends.

Cute kids

What can I say? They're adorable. We kept Katelyn all weekend and Jen brought William to play on Saturday afternoon. It was simply wonderful. Then Patti and David stayed for dinner on Sunday night and we had an enjoyable meal out on the patio. (Then Patti and Rosie did the dishes!! Yeah!!) All in all a great weekend.

Weird times in the news industry

Pundits galore explore the crisis in the news industry daily, posturing and pontificating on the problems and what might be done to fix them. These things I know:


It's a sad, sad day for a community when a newspaper that has been family owned and firmly staked in its readership area moves into the corporate world. No matter anyone's personal feelings about what caused the downfall, it's heartbreaking.

Circulation continues to fall at many papers.

Of the few newspapers that posted circulation increases in the past six months, at least two of them are conservative -- ultra conservative -- as in the Deseret News and the Wall Street Journal.

People across the country will tell you they "don't read" newspapers yet they listen to the radio and read Web sites such as Yahoo and Google News. Where in the heck do they think all that news comes from? Does it materialize out of thin air? Absolutely not. Most of it begins in the notebook of a newspaper journalist, who's still devoted to the craftsmanship of turning information into news stories.

Digital world?

So I have a giant Rolodex with a collection of numbers I've been accumulating since I started working for The News Journal in December 1991. It's massive. I thought I would put all the numbers into a digital database, which is how I keep most numbers now, and lose the Rolodex. What was I thinking? I've been at it for over an hour and clearly it's going to take several hours. It seemed like a good idea.

Today, we sang a hymn in church that I've been singing all my life. But suddenly it hit me starkly as we were sitting there that this might be the time we've been singing about. "Now when the ungodly are fearing and tremble, we'll watch for the hour when the Savior will come." I've noticed in recent months that I'm not as worried or fearful about the current state of affairs nationally or globally as other people I know. I just have a certain sense of peace and calmness. Indeed, perhaps that is because I've always believed the Savior would return and looked forward to that day. I may not be entirely ready yet ...

Blatant destruction

Normally I would say I'm pretty much a pacifist. I avoid confrontation when possible. I swerve to avoid deer, squirrels, turtles and even butterflies. I don't kill snakes. But put me anywhere in the vicinity of ants in my kitchen and I become Dinah the huntress, cheerfully, gleefully even sweeping countless ants into the sink and washing them down the drain, smooshing them with my thumb and pretty much wiping them out anyway I can. It doesn't even phase me a bit. Why is that?

I'd really like to know where these ants come from and where they go. Sometimes they disappear for a while, sort of like they've taken a little ant vacation. Maybe they go to Disney World, or the Caribbean or the bagel place around the corner. I'm just happy when they're gone. But they always show up again, like annoying relatives, turning up here looking for food and shelter. How can something this tiny be so annoying!

Speaking of murderous rage, I'm thinking of taking an anger management class at the driving school I want to take Rosie to. I think it would make a fun column for the newspaper. Though Steve said it may scare some of the folks I interview if they understand how really angry I get about some things. I'll have to play it cool!

We really worked today. We scrubbed the pool liner, which took nearly two hours. We cleaned out the old sheds and moved some things around and threw a bunch of stuff away. Then we made a marathon trip to Home Depot. Tonight we headed over to the mall and Sam's Club. The pineapples at Sam's were gorgeous. We bought two. It's messy fruit week. We've been eating mango almost every day. I bought my third Christmas present of the year so far!

What a day

Rough day to day. I think my sense of humor could be missing in action. Absolutely kaput.
And there's nothing like having a public official tell a group of elected officials not to pay any attention to questions from that pesky reporter Dinah - "we've got everything under control and calmed down."

Perhaps my growing lack of patience is the reason I feel sort of fed up with hypocritical and critical people in my life.

Beautiful, beautiful weather. I took a long walk tonight. And you just can't beat Florida at this time of year. I love it. Citrus blossoms hang heavy in the air and warm breezes ruffle the palms. It's paradise. Even in a mediocre suburban neighborhood.

Now I'm headed into the kitchen to make Jamaican jerk chicken and mango chutney.

News...

It's been a great week so far. I've received some very good news regarding a journalism award, which must remain secret until ater this summer. But its' very cool.

I'm trying to get back on the diet, but they had incredibly amazing brownies in our Accent department today, made by former food editor Cathy Klasne. I had two! Then came home and Rosie talked me into making wiener schnitzel with chicken. Definitely not healthy!

Sigh...

The weekend definitely wasn't long enough. I know Steve thinks I'm a slug. After staying up late to prepare a power point on Friday, then giving a speech on Saturday and driving back from Daytona, I was exhausted. Then we spent some time with William which was totally fun, but doesn't lend itself to housecleaning. Today was nearly five hours of church and then I drove Rosie to New Smyrna for another church meeting and another 3.5 hours disappeared....
William loves to swing. I was swinging him sort of mildly and he was bucking against the seat - he clearly wanted to go higher or faster, so I pushed him higher and he just loves it. He chortles. That baby swing for the swing set was a great investment. Funny how long that swingset has lasted. We had it in Orlando, moved it here to Mom's house when we went to St. Augustine, came back. Bought replacement parts a couple of times and now we'll be buying parts again to go with this swing.
Someday I hope to figure out how to deal with critical people. Every once in a while you find someone who is just so critical of others -- all the time. It's hard to know how to handle that. My current way -- tensing up my neck and shoulders -- just makes me sick for a couple of days. There has to be a better way. Why can't everyone just love each other and be happy? It would make the world go along so much more smoothly.

Happy Easter

Aaron and Jen came over tonight to color Easter eggs. We had such a good time. I cooked a Southern dinner because I found beautiful okra at Winn Dixie. So then I decided to fix fried green tomatoes and fried pork chops and catfish as well. AJ talked me into gravy so we really, really ate traditional Southern. But we don't do it often.
Rosie and Jen finished decorating and baking the sugar cookies. They turned out beautiful. They also finished up the eggs. Aaron taught me how to make jalapeno poppers then. However, my idea of leaving them in the bowl of water didn't turn out so great. The oil in the water burned Aaron's hands really badly. Somehow I managed to get jalapeno on my forehead and in my throat. My throat hurts and feels like it wants to close up, but I'm told it will go away! But I worried about Aaron when he left.
I just finished up the deviled eggs and shoved them in the fridge. Now I'm going to finish my lesson for church tomorrow.

Jammin!

42 jars total! I should make one more batch. We'll see how much time I get tonight.

This is my favorite time of year hands down. As I drive around looking at the bright green tree tops, I think they've put on their new clothes and raised their faces to the heavens in salutation and gratitude for making it another year.

Jammin!

The jam I made this morning was perfect. The first batch last night is too runny, but it should be great for pancakes!Now I'm set to make some more.

Canning, etc.

So I did 21 jars of strawberry jam tonight but not a single batch is perfect! The first two I think may be a bit runny. The third batch is thicker but I forgot to put butter in it so the foam is too thick. Good grief! I'm really out of practice. Still, this is one way to get in the groove again. Steve brought home 9 flats of strawberries. We've worked and worked. It tastes great!

I finally made one curtain for the bedroom last night. It's not finished but at least it stretches the length of the window. That's my project for the week - to get the full set of curtains done. They're unbleached muslin and I love the way they look in the windows. Now I just need to paint the bedroom.

But I probably need to work on scraping the old popcorn off the ceilings in the bathroom and living room first. I'll be able to put that weeklong unpaid furlough to good use!

Great Weekend

What a great weekend! Steve and I went to dinner for our anniversary. We wound up at Longhorn mostly by accident. We're still hoping to go to New Smyrna Beach for dinner and take a walk on the beach eventually. It was our 28th wedding anniversary.

Today we rented a pontoon boat on the St. Johns River. It turned out to be a gorgeous day. We had a great time, but ran out of time to do as much swimming as I wanted at Blue Spring because we kept stopping to look at every bird and alligator. But it was really fun and beautiful.

Came home, cooked dinner. Steve grilled ribs and we had mashed potatoes, sauteed vegetables, pineapple and a salad. Then I made chocolate chip cookie bars, with added peanut butter chips. They were great. Jennifer helped clear off the tables. So everything looks reasonably organized. Gary and Steve picked the rest of the lemons. I intended to give Patti and Gary lemons to take home but forgot.

It's totally heartwarming to me that we can get together with old friends from 21 years ago, who we only see occasionally, and still enjoy them just as much as we used to. I absolutely love the connections we form that sort of weave through our lives forever. The friendships seem like strands of colorful, silky embroidery floss ni the tapestry of life.

I think I wrote nine stories this week. I was certainly ready for the weekend.

High drama

From the moment we heard the cop yelling into his radio today we were riveted by the story. Police officers often make things sound dramatic, when they're yelling into their radios while running after a suspect for example.

These words were so stark by comparison. "I'm hit, I'm hit." So simple, yet terrifying, while we could only sit and listen. Immediately several of us in the newsroom started working the computers. Two left running, headed for the hospital and West Volusia. It was quite exciting. And we did great. We had a full story up with the information that the owners of the house co-owned a Deltona bar within about 30 minutes.

For me the funniest weird moment of the day was finding out that not only did Aaron know the cop, who graduated from high school the same year he did, but that Aaron's wife Jennifer had actually dated him at one point. What a small world.

And why do people do these crazy things? It's so sad. I wonder what happened to their dog when the police had to throw in all that tear gas...

I've been up way too many hours today and I didn't make the dentist appointment. I called at 5 minutes to 5 and they were closed!

Essays and stories

Rosie is up to 450 words on her essay regarding an evil character in King Lear and she's out of words. She can't think of a thing to say. But the teacher has asked them to include lines, so I guess she'll try to find a few lines to insert.
I have to rewrite the top of a story that I thought was finished because one of the editors doesn't like it! Tell me why I do this again? It's very frustrating and there are way too many egos at play. Tonight, I'm ready to pull my hair out over the whole thing.
Today the kid finished kayaking the St. Johns River. He was so excited. It's just cool. He kayaked more than 310 miles and wound up on a beach in Jacksonville.
Saturday is the annual worldwide day to get everyone to shut their power off for an hour. I'm going to try to do a little advance in Friday's paper.
I absolutely must make appointments for us to see the dentist tomorrow. It's been over a year since Rosie was there and four years or more since I saw a dentist. Yikes!

March madness

Everywhere I go people are talking about college basketball. While I maintain a peripheral interest in many sports, for some reason I remain completely out of the loop on this one, yet if I had time, it could be one of my favorites.

Mostly I'm interested in 9th grade homework. We're sunk on Rosie's algebra. It might as well be Greek or Martian to me. I don't get it. She explained the way to do part of the "scientific notation" tonight and we looked it up in the book. I didn't believe her but she was right. There has to be a better way. She has a 750 word essay due on an evil character from King Lear for her 9th grade drama class. It's a freaking elective and the kids formed groups and wouldn't let her in the group, according to her. So she's assigned this essay. How unjust is that? This guy is on my top five list of worst teachers ever. Meanwhile, the geography teacher has changed the due date of his project two or three times and I can't get her started because she keeps saying "Oh it's not due yet!" Aarrgh.

Tonight I made a salad with a bag salad mix, oranges, apples and cheddar cheese. When I made it a couple of weeks ago I thought I'd like to try it with honey mustard dressing. So I bought a bottle. It's fantastic, especially with brown sugared pecans.

I started moving desks at work. It's amazing how much stuff we can collect. But my getting rid of so many old files from former reporters inspired me to get rid of more of my own paper piles and inspired my cubby mate to toss a bunch of stuff too. It's contagious!

Heard an interesting discussion today on the state's growth management laws and it seems like I hear a theme in many conversations lately. State government is so big, so complex and so driven by special interests that no one seems quite sure how to fix it anymore.

If you haven't read about the guy who is trying to make the fastest ever run on the St. Johns River in a kayak, you ought to check it out. He's really pushing -- as I suppose only a young person could.

So we're finishing up Rosie's project tonight, with me mostly sitting there telling her to rewrite sentences and measure to make sure the pieces are straight and she tells me she got assigned a project in drama today. Will it never END?? What are these teachers thinking. Next up is her Picasso project.

Tomoka State Park was fabulous. I spent nearly five hours in the woods. It was really great, and the weather was beautiful. I only brought two ticks home with me tonight -- at least as far as I know!

St. Patrick's Day

What a fun day. So many people wore green, it was just sort of fun to be united in a fun, common cause with so many people. We had a great activity at church tonight -- with corned beef and cabbage and pistachio cake. We had a great turnout and fun socializing and learning useful skills.
Still my lack of patience rears its ugly head. But I suppose Mormon women have been arguing with rude guys carring basketballs as long as there have been ward buildings.
Tomorrow I get to spend the day at Tomoka State Park. Yippee. Tomorrow afternoon Rosie has yet another school project due.

Mostly ups

I held in my hand an original edition of the complete works of Longellow today, circa 1884. It was totally and completely cool. Then I held another little book printed right after World War I. It had the cutest rhymes. I read a couple of stanzas aloud and could have read more. I love to hear words spoken aloud, especially when they're written well. Sometimes I just love the feeling of holding an old book in my hand, to feel it and wonder how many were entertained by its words.
Tonight I canned 14 glass jars of chicken. They look great. I've been trying to do this for 11 months. It took me long enough but the results are well worth it. Steve helped and waited up to see the first batch lined up on the counter.

He fixed the refrigerator hose today. Yeah! Thank goodness he's so talented. He's saved us thousands over the years because he can fix almost anything. As a bonus, he cleaned up the floor while the fridge was in the middle of the kitchen so now we know it's clean back there.
Rosie's teacher apparently loved her English project, so it made it seem worthwhile to stand over her for four hours last night helping to keep her on task. When Rosie tries her best at writing, she winds up with some of the coolest things. She wrote a beautiful poem last night, after first crying and wailing that she couldn't do it. Gee, she sort of sounds like me!

Just what I needed?

It was just what I needed to cap off a stressful, frustrating, tiring weekend. I'm trying to get to bed after falling asleep on the couch earlier, then helping Rosie finish her scrapbook project for school and getting her to sleep at midnight. I walk into the kitchen and wonder why there's a little puddle there in front of the fridge. I wipe it up. Get on the computer for a few minutes, turn the lights off to go to bed and this time there's a huge puddle, over half my kitchen floor!

I realize it must be coming from the fridge so I slide the fridge out of its cove and pick up the ice machine line to check it. I see a little leak spewing water I put my thumb over it and the pressure is too much for the cracking hose. Suddenly I have Niagara Falls (or at least Bridal Veil falls) gushing from the hose. I try electrical tape. Doesn't even put a dent in the water. So I grab my new $150 stock pot and shove it under the hose and try my last resort -- waking up Steve to ask him where in the world the shut off valve is for the hose.

He looks under the sink once and doesn't find it. By this time the pot is nearly full and I've dirtied almost every single towel in the house trying to mop up the flood. I encourage him to look again and this time he finds the elusive copper valve on the back of the kitchen cupboard under the sink. Victory! Tomorrow I'll deal with the mountain of towels.

Grandparenting

We kept William last night so that Jennifer and Aaron could head to the hospital with her mother early this morning. Everything went well with her mother's surgery and we had a ball with our little boy. He's just so sweet. Almost always happy. Wakes up smiling every time. It's so much fun just to lay there and watch them stretch when they're still half asleep.

Cooked dinner for a friend tonight and delivered with Rosie. I was going to make chicken enchiladas and looked everywhere for the Mexican cookbook I had out the other night and couldn't find it. As soon as the enchiladas were finished (put together from reading several other recipes) I found the cookbook. AARGH!! Made a cantaloupe basket for fruit salad. It turned out so cute. I hadn't done that in a long time but realized the other night that I own three melon ballers for some reason, so figured I should put one to good use and Steve brought home fabulous fruit today.

Had a brutal teacher conference at the high school today. In my idea of a perfect world, children would be grouped by learning styles and busy work would be banned. So would pop culture movies be banned in the classroom. Drives me nuts. I'm strongly considering home school/virtual school for next year.

We had all the windows open today. The weather is divine.

Ups and downs

It's been a very busy week in the environment news business. Gas tanker spill on Friday, snapper ban on Monday, right whale sedation on Tuesday. Here's a link to all the whale photos. It's wild but great. And at least I have a job. The news coming from the industry gets more depressing every day. More layoffs. More rolling furloughs where journalists are told to take a week off without pay. Now they're cutting salaries 3 to 5 percent at the Miami Herald and the Knoxville paper and others. It's hard to know what's next.

It's funny how reconnecting with an old friend can really brighten your day. I talked to an old friend this week and was able to replace a couple of pictures she lost, much to her surprise. So that was cool.

It's not so funny how one simple building project at home can generate so much animosity. Steve has built a shed in the backyard. It's quite large 12 by 20 and ten feet tall. But each day I get more and more angry at the debates over how quickly we have to have it built and how much of whose stuff is going to go in it. I don't even have enough stuff to fill up one corner yet you'd think I was trying to move in half of a craft store. I'm really really annoyed, hurt and angry. I never understood why so many people get divorced while building new homes -- now I'm getting a glimpse.

Speaking of hard to get along with: The video footage here taken of grizzly bears on a rubbing tree is absolutely phenomenal, totaly cool.

Sadness

Giving the eulogy for Kurt on Monday was indeed one of the hardest things I've done, especially looking into the upturned faces of his six beautiful children on the front pew of the chapel. Oh my goodness. His wife, my friend Jonna, was radiantly beautiful, in the face of just so much heartbreak.

On Tuesday, six young women came to my home to learn to make pie. We had a great time and turned out two apple, two pecan and a coconut cream. Simple ingredients, super experience.

On Thursday, I experienced dramatic highs and lows, from the excitement of a crew of SeaWorld caretakers re-releasing manatees into the wild, to the depths of sadness at hearing the Rocky Mountain News had closed its doors. The mulitple Pulitzer Prize-winning paper was 150 years old. What a sad day for journalism and a sad day for Denver. The Denver mayor observed in this video, that it's better for a community to have "two newspapers voraciously competing for the news."

With my own newspaper for sale and our future uncertain, I cried -- several times -- during the video. Such a heart rending end for such a fine newspaper.

Tonight, I am making cupcakes, tarts and chicken salad for a friend's bridal shower tomorrow. But I just somehow managed to put together a cake with all purpose flour and no baking powder instead of self-rising flour like I intended. The new cake mix cupcakes look pathetic.

Monday morning coming down

I've finished the eulogy for Kurt. This will be one of the hardest things I've done, but hopefully I'll do a good job.

I missed church today because I hurt my back somehow moving chairs or something at church last night. Darned aging process. So annoying. After staying horizontal all day, we had Kathy and David for dinner tonight. Nothing fancy. Steve grilled steaks. I didn't even make homemade bread! How bad is that? But it was nice to visit with good friends.

Finished Rosie's new linen dress just before the dance Saturday night. She looked gorgeous in it. Hopefully I'll be able to find time to do some more sewing. I really love it. Rosie and I love watching the dresses people wear to these awards shows. I'd love to make some of those.

The gold finches and other assorted birds are going crazy at our feeders. I love to watch them.

What a week!

I'll be glad when the week is over. It started in an orgy of cooking: black beans and rice and smoked pork for 25, then pasta salad for 19, then a pound cake, marinara sauce and alfredo sauce for 40 on Tuesday. Last night Steve cooked hot dogs. They were divine!

On Tuesday nine people were laid off in the newsroom. How very stressful and sad. It's a miracle we had a paper Wednesday. The graphic artist who worked on all my projects and most of my big stories was one of the casualties. It broke my heart.

On Wednesday, we learned that our good friend Kurt Greene, father of six with the oldest 15 or 16, had died of brain cancer. We're happy that we know where Kurt is and that he will be eagerly awaiting to welcome each member of his family when they pass but our hearts hurt for his beautiful wife Jonna and their children. But Kurt is at peace and Jonna is one of the strongest and most peaceful women I've known. I'm sure Heavenly Father will comfort her.

Today is Friday, hoping to write at least one story if not draft two. Tonight Rosie and I are helping decorate for the youth dance. And I'm starting on the dress she will wear to the dance tomorrow night.

Then I guess over the weekend I'll write the eulogy for Kurt, since Jonna asked me this morning if I would give it.

Feb. 17

It's officially the 17th, 27 years since I gave birth for the first time. 27 years ago tonight I was SOOO excited. I was going in to be induced to deliver a baby. We didn't have a girl's name picked out. Steve was sure it was a boy. After a shot of pitocin every 15 minutes from 7:30 a.m. until around 6, he finally had his boy -- all 10 pounds, 6 ounces and 23.75 inches of him. We were so excited. And might I say how much we love this boy! Stephen David Pulver, Jr. He's been a great kid.

We pulled off another family dinner last night. A huge thank you to the person who stayed to wash dishes and help clean up.

Now I'm making spaghetti sauce for 40, working on a Jeopardy game board and baking a pound cake!

Kilz

I am a messy painter. I'm covered in Kilz and have no real clue how to get it off. Went to the beach today to watch a guy celebrating Darwin day by building 200 sea turtle sand sculptures on the beach. It was fun.

It's 1:08, still not doing so good on this early to bed thing. I'm going to go outside and run some limbs down to the street for the yard man and then hit the sack!

The sunset

Tonight the sun set was fabulous! Rows of rippling cirrus clouds airbrushed with pink. It was just so pretty while we were driving west on I-4. We went to the Temple and I was able to have 2 hours of peace. It was quite wonderful.

Meanwhile, my to-do list for the next five days seems quite daunting. Only two days until we get Katelyn though!! I can't wait!

Can we please go on vacation again?

I can't stop talking about Capital Reef and Canyonlands. I keep telling everyone how gorgeous it was there. Today the LA Times named Arches one of its top 10 places to go this year. What a gorgeous, gorgeous place. So travel... it's good for the economy.

The moon was so beautiful tonight. It often reminds me of the times that I would sit in my window as a young girl and watch the moon rise over the pines and think I would actually GO there someday.

Finished a game show quiz for our Relief Society workshop next week. Now it's 20 minutes til midnight - have to see how much more I can get done!

It's past midnight ...

I promised Steve I'd try to go to bed by midnight. It's just so early! I love being up in the house when it's so quiet. And I have so much I'm trying to do.
I sent out the calendar today that we've organized for members of our church ward and friends to take meals to my sister-in-law and brother-in-law and people are wonderful. They quickly e-mailed me back to add their names to other dates! It helps that Mike and Brenda are such great people. Everyone wants to help.
The moon tonight was absolutely gorgeous. Big and full. It really made me want to walk on the beach, even more than I've wanted to recently.
Bought beautiful pink fabric over the weekend to make Rosie a new dress. I can't wait to get started.

Watching a baby sleep

It doesn't matter if they're 9 months or 15, there's something so sweet about watching them sleep. I have one of each in the living room right now. I love it.

It was so thrilling to walk out to Brenda's van tonight and see Mike sitting there smiling and talking. We're so thankful for all the blessings associated with Mike's recovery.

We have friends helping with a rotation to take a meal to Mike and Brenda's three times a week and it's wonderful to see people so willing to help and producing incredible meals. It's just great.

The shed has plywood on the roof now. Wow!

Stories

I actually used the phrase tightie whities in a story tonight. I can't believe it. The story was pulled from a thick stack of documents for firefighters who were discplined after a five month investigation, that I'm not sure really answered as many questions as they raised. The funniest thing is one of the male night editors didn't know what tightie whities were!

It rained today. A lot. Should have helped with the whole fire danger risk thing. I am working on trying to clean this filthy house. I don't know how it gets so dirty.

I saw more than a dozen deer beside the road tonight on my way home. They were all over. The FWC sent me a beautiful photo of a mom and baby right whale tonight. People saw them off the Pier today. I'm so totally jealous.

Food

Oh my goodness. I made chocolate chunk cookies this weekend. Big mistake. They were so yummy. I've eaten too many. On top of that tonight I made strawberry shortcake parfaits. But only Steve had room for his after we ate hamburgers, French fries and deviled eggs at our Superbowl supper just for the three of us. We never get invited anywhere, so we just have our own fun! (It's OK - we couldn't stay anyway since Steve has to get up so early.)

Still hoping to put away this one last box of Christmas decorations. Why does this always seem to take so long. I wonder if it's some subliminal thing that we just hate to put away the last bit of that magical season.

I think the lesson went OK today. The sisters in church seemed to really have fun with the topic of getting rid of the clutter in our lives and homes. Now if I could just work on that. Unfortunately I did lose a dish this week. I dropped a small old platter from Grandma's and broke it and I cried. ( I know that's ridiculous. Sometimes it's easier to cry about stupid little things than the big overwhelming issues.) It was one of my favorites. Two little bluebirds with a pink ribbon. I really love dishes.

My Princess House party here is Thursday. Must get ready this week.

Thank goodness it's almost over

One more day and January will be behind me. I really hope February starts better. If this month is any indication of how 2009 will shape up I can't take any more of it.

Brutal day today. We woke up late. My 11 a.m. appointment bumped me back an hour and left me running late all day. But on a positive note, Dillard's was having a great sale and I bought my 14th or so shirt in some shade of turquoise for just $16.

Now I'm sitting here trying to decide if that project I killed myself on in November and December and sacrificed so much time from my family for is worthy of entering in any national journalism contests. I'm thinking I spend far too much time on work.

It's cold again tonight. Someone has forgotten to tell Mother Nature it's Florida.

Could this day?

Could this day get any more gray? Rosie is so sick, I'm not well and neither is Steve. The house feels like it reeks with germs and it's raining.

On a positive note, the frame of the shed is up in the back yard and it's going to be enormous. Steve actually agreed to let me store the wedding supplies out there so that's great news.

I have to teach our women's group on Sunday. I'm thinking about discussing all the ways we can get rid of clutter in our lives and the improvement that brings.

Being sick

Because we have this nasty virus, the doc says we can't have any dairy products or anything with natural fruit juice for a week! What a challenge.

I love to see the sun's rays

shining from behind snowy white clouds. It's incredibly beautiful and makes me think I'm catching a glimpse of heaven.

Vacation slideshow

Here are a few of the photos from the hundreds we took on the trip. Mine were sent off today to be developed. You can double click on the first photo to open it to a larger screen with captions

Day Six

We are exhausted. We're only going to get 6 hours sleep if we're lucky, but we've had a wonderful trip. We were bumped from the Radisson to the Hilton Garden Inn at the Phoenix Airport. Wish we could spend an extra night just resting!

Today we saw Canyon de Chelly, Four Corners and Petrified Forest. Absolutely divine. We love the Forest, which it isn't, even though we didn't expect to. Four Corners was fun but kind of hoky. Drove and drove and drove today it seemed but the drive through Arizona was startlingly lovely. Lots of mountains and snow.

Home Wednesday afternoon and will sleep for 24 hours straight!

Active links later.

Day Five

We're getting a late start today. It's 8:30 and we're not on the road yet. We stayed last night at a Comfort Suites and just finished up with the continental breakfast. The room was free courtesy of my Choice Privilege points, so that was cool. Steve has taken the truck to the car wash to erase the physical remnants of our brief excursion on Cottonwood Canyon Road! Then we'll be headed off to Canyonlands National Park.

One thing we've noticed. The sky here is like dark velvet, sprinkled with glittering stars and glowing planets. Beautiful. Virtually no light pollution. Even the street lamps in Moab were designed to pool the light on the sidewalk and not reflect it up.

Next time we're here, we're going to rent a Jeep.


Wow!!! Canyonlands is unbelievably awesome. As much as we loved Capitol Reef, we also loved Canyonlands. It even had an arch. Beautiful windswept mesa tops. Simply divine and we didn't want to leave. We left though and drove to Mesa Verde near Cortez, Colorado. A nervewracking drive up a snow covered mountain with icy road but the pueblo dwellings were really incredible. One was in this beautiful little green gorge, I could have moved right in though it would have been a little chilly. Pics later.

Day Four

Woke up in Escalante about 6 a.m., which would be 8 a.m. our time, and quickly packed the car to head back across to Boulder and Capitol Reef. Two of the three milks we bought as the convenience store was closing the night before were expired. So we left them on their front door step and headed out of town with one bottle of chocolate milk and our bag of Chips Ahoy. Everything in Escalante is closed on Sundays.
Capitol Reef was all that we had hoped it would be. Simply gorgeous. First we drove about 12 or 15 miles down Burr Trail, a famous road that takes you from Boulder out into the middle of the wilderness and then in a couple of different directions. We didn't try the whole road because we started seeing a lot of snow and had already had one harrowing experience. Plus we had limited time. We drove back out to Boulder and then headed to the main visitors center for Capitol Reef. We watched a film, stamped our passport and then did the scenice drive. Took two short hikes. Loved it.
Then I took a nap while Steve drove us to Moab and Arches National Park. He managed to somehow shave about 20 minutes off our estimated time of arrival while I was sleeping. We stopped at a rest area on the freeway and had what must have been our 5th snowball fight of the trip. It's almost like hanging a sign around your neck that says "we're from Florida." Still Rosie loves it.





Arches was spectacular. All snowed over and frigid cold but gorgeous and fun. We did two hikes on snowy frozen trails where we were literally slip slidin' away but it was totally fun. The best part is that most of these places are nearly deserted so we're skipping the crowds which makes us very happy.
Tonight we're enjoying the free hotel room at the Comfort Suites I've earned with our Choice Privilege points.

Day Three

We woke up at the crack of dawn and watched the light from the sunrise move across the canyon from our hotel room. Totally cool. Then we headed out to Hermit's Rest to see as much of the canyon as we could. We spotted a Western jay and a Juniper Titmouse, both new life birds for me. So that was really cool. The canyon is just amazing. Steve and I both kept thinking we'd like to hike to the bottom and we'd like to run the river.






We're really enjoying the National Geographic National Parks Guide Book which tells us which overlooks to stop at, which to hike at and which to skip. Great investment at $25.


We went back to the room and packed the car. We stopped by the canyon market but were decidedly unimpressed. We bought ham and cheese and ate roll ups for breakfast. Then we headed north to find our way up to Escalante, Utah. That proved quite the adventure. We stopped in Page, Arizona to grab food at McDonald's crossed the Colorado and found the dirt road that the GPS advised us to take to Escalante -- Cottonwood Canyon Road. The first two miles weren't bad and we were thinking this really would be a great thing. But then as we climbed higher, we got to deep clay areas, covered in snow that had started to melt. We slid through one and then got stuck in the second one. We were having visions of having to call a tow truck for our beautiful rented Saturn outlook. Not such a great option!

Fortunately, through my old country roots and Steve's excellent assistance from the passenger seat, we backed our way right out of that hole, turned around, sped through the first mud hole and headed for the highway. We wound up taking the long way around through Kanab. The whole purpose of this was to see Capitol Reef National park because two of my friends insisted it wasn't to be missed. At this point we weren't so sure. Still Utah is incredibly beautiful and driving anywhere in the state can't be all bad. We drove through Red Canyon and past Bryce Canyon, saw plenty of hoodoos and other beautiful canyons. We wound up staying in Escalante, after first driving past it to Boulder, only to find out that Boulder is basically a non-town. So we headed back to Escalante, across a narrow mountain pass after dark and past herds of deer that love to stand in the center of the road and play chicken.

We snared one of the last hotel rooms in Escalante before they rolled up the streets at 8 p.m. We stopped at the Escalante Outfitters Cafe but they were out of food. The woman at the Subway at the gas station said Subway had closed 30 minutes earlier but she called the Mexican restaurant and talked the owner into staying open long enough for us to drive up the street and stop in.

Again, we fell into bed exhausted by about 11:30 our time.

Day Two

We left the hotel in Camp Verde, AZ and drove to Flagstaff, where we shopped at a Targ that was completely surrounded by snow. It was surreal! Then we drove to Wupatki National Monument. We took the scenic drive through the park, looked at the Sunset Crater Volcano and its lava flow and checked out the ancient Indian pueblo dwellings. From there we traveled on to the Grand Canyon, which was truly magnificent.

We got there in time to hike the rim trail from our hotel almost all the way to Maricopa Point and watched the light play across the canyon in the late afternoon sun. That was really cool. We saw four deer. We had dinner in the Bright Angel Lodge and then fell into bed.

Here we are

So we landed uneventfully in Phoenix, after a very long flight from Charlotte. Thanks to a dose of nyquil I slept nearly the whole way with only occasional conversations with Rosie.

We can't get over the saguaros! They're huge and everywhere. It's the coolest. Spent the night in a beautifuly Comfort Inn in Camp Verde, Arizona that appears to have one of the cleanest rooms I've ever seen.

January 15, 2009

So we actually put away almost all the Christmas boxes last night! Of course when I walked back into the living room, there was a box sitting as pretty as you please. Hopefully it will hold the little bits of Christmas I keep finding all over the house.
I finished packing at 3:30 a.m. Not bad two suitcases and two carryons. Probably too much for six days but you never know. We're each taking jackets and hiking boots or cuddly boots and I refuse to wear lace up shoes to fly. Steve's carryon is always filled with binoculars, cameras, the GPS and chargers. I can't believe how many electronic devices we "need" that we didn't even have 10 years ago. It's really funny.
Meanwhile this old song keeps running through my head and I can't remember who did it. "Went from Phoenix, Arizona all the way to Tacoma, Philadelphia, Atlanta, LA ... keep on a rockin me baby." Who sang that?
We have to be at the airport at 3:40 and we really hope US Air doesn't extend our layover in Charlotte. The last time we were there we spent 7.5 hours instead of the planned hour. I tried to check in online last night and somehow the reservation agent or the guy who booked seats for us two days later had never confirmed the tickets. But everything seems good to go. Now I'm just going to go do a bit of service for someone, vacuum and get a pedicure.

January 14, 2008

Lots to be thankful for this week, first and foremost being the amazing response my brother-in-law Mike Pulver had to a stroke on Friday. He remained concious and talking throughout and appears set for an amazing recovery. That's a truly wonderful thing.

We had some badly needed rain today, which is great because the fire danger in the area has been inching up daily.

After spending an hour and a half on the phone with AT&T yesterday I got everything I wanted and more. They further bundled all of the services we have through them -- which is everything electronic except Dish which we don't have -- and they got us on a family plan for a very reasonable price. They just couldn't understand why I don't need unlimited text! How many ways can you say I don't need text! But now I'll have a nifty new pearl phone. The phones came in less than 18 hours! How crazy is that? We were absolutely stunned. The only down side is that I had to get a new phone number because my old phone number was locked by Verizon since it was David's old employee plan. Too bad...

Tonight we "studied" for Rosie's history final. Last night it was biology. I think I'm learning more from her high school biology than I learned from my own. It's really cool to open up her textbooks though and see people quoted that I know. It's kind of like going to the book store and reading the authors on the books in the Florida section and realizing how many I know or have met. I finally spent my $50 gift card for Barnes and Noble from LAST Christmas and still had to chip in $23 of my own money. I just love books and book stores. But I did manage to sort a bunch of books at the house and will donate them to the friends of the library sale or something. I think I'm even going to get rid of a few of the 200 or so cookbooks I own -- ones that I've never once used.

And yes, I SHOULD be packing instead of blogging but I'm just soooo tired. Today was a full day back at work and I wound up working 10.5 hours because I drove to Palatka for a water management district meeting. i seem to detect a definite change in the winds there. I'd like to think it had something to do with my stories but it's probably just the changes in the board and the different personality of this governor. Still they said they wanted to ramp up conservation at least a half-dozen times.

And besides packing is overwhelming because I'm not sure how I'm going to get enough warm clothes in the suitcases and I know Steve is going to gripe if I pack too much. I know they say 50 feels like 70 but I'm cold here all the time! Fortunately the bronchitis seems to be improving and I never had a fever all day long today as far as I know, a blessing for me. High temps are supposed to be in the low 40s! Shiver me timbers.

The sunset tonight was gorgeous. I should have stopped and grabbed the camera. All streaked orange and blue, making me think perhaps even the sky is a Gator fan!

Now if I can just get the Christmas decorations shoved aside to make room to lay out the suitcases ...