Author: Rudy

The forecasters proved that they’re no better at guessing the weather in Phoenix than they are in Steinbach. This cold and cloudy day turned out to be a little cool and quite sunny.
Still, we spent most of the day inside. Sue went to do a big grocery shop at Bashas in the morning (in order to cash in on the once-a-month “Senior’s Day”).
After lunch we decided NOT to go for a bike ride and NOT to go golfing because it was too cold outside. Instead, we went for a long walk to Walgreen’s to return our movie rental. On the way there we stopped in at the golf course and talked to the owner (Dale) to get a price on golf clubs for Sue. He gave us a good price on ordering the Ping clubs that Sue got fitted for yesterday. But he also asked us to consider the Callaways he has in stock. We’ll probably go for the Callaways.
After we dropped off the movie we walked back home along the highway. Looking at the beauty of the green golf course and the setting sun reflected in Superstition Mountain, we knew we had made the wrong call about golfing today — it was another very nice afternoon.
Supper was the usual — that is, absolutely fantastic! Sue was hungry for manicotti. Although she said it was a lot of work to make it she is rarely happier than when she’s got a bunch of food to prepare.
After supper we watched our TV shows. After The Colbert Report I picked one of the movies here in the coffee table and we watched that. It turned out that “Mr Brooks” was a pretty good movie — entertaining, at least. After that a bit of TV and then to bed.

Wow, what a great day (again)! Cool but sunny morning. Had to hurry to get breakfast and shower done before heading out to the golf course for a 10 o’clock group lesson. For $20 each, we joined 16 other golfers in the cool of the morning and headed out to the practice range. Our teacher, Jack, was a 74-year-old pro who had recently had back surgery. The 90-minute lesson was divided into 3 sections. Instruction, practice, instruction, practice, instruction, practice. And the instruction was very helpful. Right off the bat I felt like I was making headway. Although I hadn’t been using my #1 driver, I decided I should see if with a bit of help from the pro I could get it working for me. And in each of the 3 parts of the lesson I learned how to make the club work for me. I certainly wasn’t hitting the ball as straight and as far as I’d like to, but at least not every shot was veering off to the right. And Sue too was feeling good about her progress — getting some good lift on the ball and more distance than before. After the lesson the instructor and his sidekick (Mark, an airline pilot and neighbor to Jack) gave us some tips about shopping for the right clubs for Sue. They recommended that we go to the Ping factory in Phoenix and get fitted, then bring the results back to the golf club and give the owner/manager (Dale) a chance to quote on the set. Which is what we then did.
We went home for lunch and then hopped into the van and drove the 1-hour drive out to the Ping factory. We signed up to have a specialist measure us and analyze our swing — and then recommend some custom-made clubs for us. It was fast and efficient, and Sue especially felt that the girl who worked with her really helped her find something that will work for Sue.


After our visit to the Ping factory we stopped at the Superstition Center for a bit of shopping. Again, lots of success. Sue managed to find some slippers for herself. We had a nice cup of coffee in the mall. On our way out we had to stop and take a photo of a small shop offering custom-made “sings” which a guy was making by carving your name into a piece of wood with a router. Then we headed to a Fry’s store where Sue got some sheets for her mom and I rented a Redbox movie.
It was late (after 6:30) by the time we got home. We barbecued chicken and Sue made ‘cheesy rice’ and salad for supper. Then we watched the Daily Show and Colbert. We watched a bit more TV and then watched our DVD, “Water for Elephants”.

Today, finally, after far too long being stuck indoors, the Nikkels headed back out to Mountain Brook for 9 holes of golf. It was great. It was a bit cool, but the sun was shining and we had a fun time. No waiting. No one ahead of or behind us. And we finished in record time, home by just after 5pm. Our score for nine holes wasn’t anything great, but we are not without hope. (And tonight I read that the weather just a bit east of us here isn’t NEARLY as nice as it is here — see the photo from the Winnipeg Free Press.)

We read in the morning — and I finally finished the “Irma Voth” book. Not that much fun of a read. Sue is about 200 pages into the Steve Jobs book. And tonight we got another Amazon box delivered — more books!

After another great supper (leftover cheeseburgers from yesterday, with potatoes and a fruit salad, YUM), we watched Monday Night Football. The game wasn’t all that exciting, so in between I switched to the 7pm repeats of the Daily Show and the Colbert Report.We ended the evening by watching the CBC National (Live Streaming).

All my teams lost today.

The morning began with a great pancake and fruit breakfast. My morning news shows were good as usual. The weather looked sunnier than what was forecast (although still quite cool).

Then it was time for NFL Sunday. And that’s where things went wrong. In the first game the Vikings lost to Tim Tebow and the Broncos! In the second games the Green Bay (undefeated) just barely beat my NY Giants. And Arizona beat Dallas! And the Colts almost overcame the Patriots’ big lead (but not quite, and so they are still without a win).

Sue went for a run and picked up a few groceries. We barbecued burgers. At least THAT was turning out right!

In the Sunday Night game the Lions had far too many penalties to have any chance of beating the Saints. And so I lost all my games! And Sue, who has a knack of picking the winners, won all her games. Oh well, at least we’re not both losers!

It was cold and rainy all day. At first I thought we would go golfing this afternoon — maybe even 18 holes, since few golfers would be out today. But Sue thought it would be too cold and as it turned out it was raining all day. But that did NOT dampen our day at all.

Bacon and eggs for breakfast after we skyped with Ed Peters. Then I read a few more chapters in my (boring) Miriam Toews book, Irma Voth.

After lunch I decided to continue with my travel web updates. I sorted through our photos from our drive down to Arizona. I made a new banner. I captioned (sort of) the photos. I even tried writing an Applescript to help me insert the capture date into each caption. I finally uploaded the finished site at around 5:30.

Sue returned our movie rental and went to Bashas to pick up a roasted chicken. She started supper and then we sat down to watch one of the movies in the big coffee table in our house. First movie: The Family Stone. Supper: mashed potatoes with cream gravy, corn, salad, and roasted chicken — outstanding!

We finished the first movie after supper, then watched a second one, Slow Burn. Chocolate-covered cherries (and blueberries) were the movie snack. All-in-all a pretty good start to the weekend. Weather forecast for tomorrow (and for the beginning of the week) looks like lots more cool temps. We’ll see.

This morning I finished what Sue started: I culled and captioned our Arizona photos from last spring and uploaded them to our travel gallery website. It took me all morning. We ordered some books and some Christmas gifts from Amazon — they are supposed to arrive here just before we leave for home on the 15th.

I had the leftover pizza for lunch. Then we got into the van and headed out to the Superstition Springs shopping center. We went to a big sporting goods box store and looked at some golf clubs (a birthday gift for Sue). The salesman was quite good and we may go back there to make a purchase. He even suggested that we check out another shop that specialized in consignments — maybe we can find a good deal on some used clubs.

We spent some time at the big Macy’s in the mall looking for bedding for Sue’s mom. Didn’t buy anything here either. I DID manage to have an ice cream cone while Sue shopped. We left the mall and headed for a Trader Joe’s grocery store not far from there — and at least there we had some success: Sue came out with two bags of groceries! The used golf equipment store had oodles of men’s golf clubs but not much for ladies. The only way we’ll go back there is if Dave Driedger comes with us and advises us on what’s a good deal and what’s a rip-off.

It was Friday rush-hour traffic all the way back home. When we got home I booked a Redbox movie online and went to Walgreen’s to pick it up while Sue started supper. I barbecued some sausages. Then we settled down to watch our movie: “Submarine”. Hmmm… so-so, although the popcorn was good. After the movie we watched some CBC news from home. Then to bed.

Cold and cloudy today. Quite a difference from what we’ve experienced here before. And the forecast is more of the same for the next few days.

After breakfast I fiddled around on the computer for most of the morning. Sue did some laundry. Sue wanted to ‘clean up’ our Arizona photos from last spring. After lunch Sue began culling photos, whittling down the 630 photos to about 250. I read another couple of chapters in “Irma Voth”, the Miriam Toews novel. Then I had a short nap.

We went for a quick hike on Silly Mountain. I wore jeans. It was cool at first, and we even had some raindrops towards the end of the hike. When we got home I vacuumed and then we sat down to watch the news. The kids skyped us. At around 7pm we left for the Firehouse Bar for Thursday Night Football.

We ordered a medium supreme pizza and watched the Seahawks defeat the Eagles (and thereby remove all hopes for playoff football in Philly). There were a few other people in the bar but really it was surprisingly quiet. When we got home Sue watched some crap TV and I wrote my journal.

I spent the morning working on the MIT website, trying to make the banner work. Then I got a logo job from Tim — and spent at least an hour looking for the font I needed to convert the jpg to a vector, without luck. Finally, thoroughly frustrated, Sue and I went for a morning walk. We walked through the MountainBrook golf course on our way to Walgreen’s. There we picked up a movie and some chocolate. We walked back the same way. Had lunch at home at around 12:30.

After lunch Sue read and I continued working on computer jobs. At 4:30 we went to the driving range and scattered a bucket of balls. We stopped at Chen’s Bistro, the Chinese restaurant here at our corner, and ordered a couple of dishes for take-out.

Supper was pretty good, although perhaps not as tasty as the Chinese take-out we had a week or two ago from the other Chinese restaurant. We watched a bit of local news and then I put in the DVD and we watched “Crazy, Stupid, Love”. We liked it — it reminded me of the movie “Sideways”. After the movie (and after having a bit of chocolate for a snack) we watched some TV and then went to bed early. Tired. Can’t keep my eyes open any longer. Good-night.