Author: Rudy

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.

Watched our regular Sunday morning TV shows this morning. Then Sue went for a bike ride (and returned our movie rental) and I repaired the tap for the front yard garden hose with parts we bought at the hardware store yesterday. Then it was time to watch some NFL. Sue sat outside in the sun and read while I watched a couple of football games.
At around 4:30 I started watching the big Grey Cup game. It was showing on ESPN3, streaming on the internet. We watched the BC Lions win over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on my computer, and kept an eye on the Denver – San Diego game on the Sony.
After watching 60 Minutes Sue got busy in the kitchen and whipped up (another!) delicious meal — shrimp and rice and a salad. Then we watched the Sunday Night Football game. Evening ended with a bit of ice cream for night snack, some more TV, and to bed. Tomorrow we’ll probably go hiking up to the hieroglyphics in Superstition Mountain.

Had a problem with the ensuite toilet this morning — for a while now the water has kept on running a bit long after a flush. So I took the tank apart, looked up a couple of youtube videos on how to fix it.
We decided to go on a bit of a road trip after lunch. So I put my Steve Jobs book aside and we got in the van after 1pm. Sue had a shopping list for Walmart. And we wanted to see the Maricopa area, about an hour southwest of Gold Canyon.
We had a nice drive down to Maricopa. Once we got there we drove around in a few of the neighborhoods there — and both of us were pleasantly surprised! Instead of a dilapidated dying community we found nice homes, nice yards, not very many ‘for sale’ signs, and lots of families. Children playing outside. Parks. Malls. Nothing like the long barren stretch of (litter-filled) desert we drove through to get there.
We visited the Walmart in Maricopa. Not too crowded with Saturday shoppers. Sue got most of the things she had on her list. Next we went to the ACE hardware store. Again, a nice surprise. Incredibly helpful salespeople, friendly, knowledgable. So I asked all my questions about how to fix the sprinkler system, the outside tap, the toilet. Got the right parts.
On our way home we stopped in Chandler at a couple of discount clothing stores. I looked for sandals (and didn’t buy any). We got home just before sunset. Enough time for me to replace the filler valve on the toilet. All fixed, works great. Then we had our gin and tonics and barbecued a couple of steaks. Sue made some great rice and snow peas and tomato and avocado salad. A very fine supper.
After supper I finished my book. Then we watched the (Redbox) movie “Lincoln Lawyer”. I felt like I might have seen it before, but we both enjoyed it. After the movie a bit of late night TV, iPad Scrabble for Sue, journal for me. Tomorrow? NFL on TV all day. Yes!

Just listening to Bob Dylan’s “Satisfied Mind” (from the underrated “Saved” album) as I write this. Reading about how Steve Jobs loved Dylan’s music and met with him on several occasions in the Steve Jobs biography made me put together a Dylan playlist on iTunes and that’s what I’ve been listening to for the past couple of days.
Today is “Black Friday”, the biggest shopping day in the U.S. It’s called ‘black’ because retailers are ‘in the black’ after big sales today (as compared to ‘in the red’). We did NOT go shopping today. We went for a long walk (to Walgreen’s to return a movie rental and to rent another) in the morning. It had rained yesterday so we walked on the shoulder of the highway. The sun was shining. The temperature was comfortable (shorts and t-shirt).
After lunch I continued tweaking the new MIT website — got a little into WordPress. Then, before we knew it, and long before I got into my book and Sue got to finish her’s, it was 3pm and time to go golfing.
We tried to start on the back nine but there was a foursome teeing off (slowly) and soon another cart came roaring up and complained that we were ‘butting in’. So we went back to hole number one and did our usual round. A bit better today than last time — I shot 16 over (on nine) and Sue was 25 over. No waits, no one behind us. Great scenery. Great shadows on Superstition Mountain as we finished the last hole. Still, none too early — it was pretty much dark by the time we got home and sat down for supper. Sue made pizza.
After supper we watched our movie, “A Better Life“, about a Mexican illegal immigrant father in Los Angeles. No big-name actors, but a good story.
After that we watched some CBC shows (live-streaming and podcasts): Lang and O’Leary Exchange, the At Issue Panel, Rex Murphey, and even a short TED talk. It’s cool that we can do this — got the computer hooked up to the big Sony TV and sound coming through the Bose sound system — so it’s just like at home. After TV I wrote my journal, Sue played some iPad scrabble. It was the end of another perfect day in paradise — and I went to bed with ‘A Satisfied Mind’.

The biggest holiday of the year here started out looking kind of gloomy. And it was cloudy all day — but still nice and warm. We spent the day inside, sitting in front of the TV, watching football. Two NFL games, one on CBS, the other on FOX. Then it was time for supper. Everything was closed today — BSue just barely got to Bashas before the 3pm closing time to buy a loaf of bread. We were going to go for pizza to the Firehouse Bar & Grill. But we got there just after 7pm (to watch the Thursday Night NFL game) and the waitress told us the cook had gone home — all we could get with our drinks was a plate of nachos. Beggars can’t be choosers. After the game we came home and had dessert. I worked on a new theme for the MIT cycling website, and before I went to bed I had uploaded it and made sure all the links were working. I went to bed listening to the (loud) dishwasher, rain pounding on our barbecue outside (that’s something we certainly are not used to here!), and the little TV in the bedroom.

After breakfast we got on our bikes and headed out around our loop. Today the temperature was 80 degrees, quite a bit warmer than it has been lately. At Walgreens I picked up my Redbox movie. Then after lunch I cut down the 2 dead trees in our backyard. I found a nice saw in the garage and I managed to fit all the cut up branches in our big garbage bin. I skyped Werner for a bit of an update. Then at 3pm we went golfing. We had to wait quite a bit for a couple of ladies ahead of us (they were even poorer golfers than we are!) and eventually skipped a hole and passed them. Not that we are so good — no, today we shot crappy! We finished off the golf by putting around on the practice green for a few minutes before heading back home. Spaghetti for supper. Then time to watch the DVD: “Bridesmaids”. It was even worse than our golfing today! Way worse.
The local news had lots of video of the flames up on Superstition Mountain where a small plane with 6 people on board had crashed just before sunset today. Not that far away from us. Sounds like a guy came down here to pick up his 3 kids to take them back to his town for tomorrow’s Thanksgiving. Sad story.
A bit of late night TV before calling it a day.