A bit of reading this morning while Sue was on the phone. Then we went for a long hike around Silly Mountain — the Jackrabbit Trail — before coming home for lunch. We showered and then hopped into the van and headed down to San Tan Village in Gilbert. We visited the Apple Store, Macy’s, walked up down some of the shopping streets, picked up some cheap wine at the Wine Store. We were nearly late for the movie. Well, actually we WERE late — couldn’t find the theatre for a while. By the time we were there we were about 15 minutes late for the 3:25pm start time. But… when we found our seats we were the only ones in the theatre and the movie and the previews hadn’t started. So I guess they don’t run the movie if there are no paying customers. Sure enough, as soon as we sat down the lights dimmed and the previews began.
The movie was so-so. It was called “The Way” and it was about Martin Sheen doing the 800km Camino de Santiago walk in Spain. Sue liked it. By the time we got out of there it was 5:45 and pretty much dark. We got caught in a bit of traffic on the #60 (accident). We made a stop at the fruit and vegetable market that Sue likes in Apache Junction. They were ready to close too, so Sue had to hurry her shopping.
Supper at home — leftovers from yesterday. Caught the tail-end of the Republican Presidential candidates debate on CNN. Ho-hum. Bla bla bla. At nine o’clock we watched Frontline. A bit of late night TV and then to bed.
Author: Rudy
Retired. Content. Living the good life. Listening to music. Watching movies. Computing. Golfing. Cycling. Mowing the lawn. Planning my next adventure.
Blue Monday? Not quite.
Began the morning looking like we would be couped up inside all day — the sky was cloudy, a shroud hung over Superstition Mountain, the air was cold, the ground was wet. And the forecast wasn’t great. Sue tried a few times to go sit outside and read and always ended back up inside a few minutes later. I read my Steve Jobs book — pretty much all day. Then in the afternoon it looked like it might clear up, although it was still cool. Why don’t we go for nine holes of golf?
The guy in the clubhouse misunderstood Sue’s request and she came back to the van announcing that the course was closed ‘for repairs every Monday after 1’. What?? Go back and check that again. No, the DRIVING RANGE is closed every Monday afternoon. Of course you can golf!
And golf we did. Sue’s game was getting better. My game showed flourishes of greatness — with some serious disasters mixed in. But the weather? Outstanding. Took of my sweatshirt on the first hole. T-shirt and shorts. Sun shining. No wind. Stunning views. Even some great drives and putts — a par, even!
After golf we came home, took the garbage to the street, had leftover Thai food from yesterday a delicious fresh new homemade mexican enchilada dish that Sue made especially for us today, and watched the first 3 quarters of Monday Night Football. Patriots hammered the Chiefs. Boring. Switched to a PBS special about Woody Allen — much more entertaining. Someday we’ll get the complete box set of Woody Allen movies and watch or re-watch them all.
A ‘Cracker-Jack’ Day
Sunday TV day again. Watched Fareed and Reliable Sources on CNN. Then NFL Countdown on ESPN. Then 3 football games in a row. Well, actually a couple more: I was able to watch the CFL East and West Finals on ESPN3 online! So while we were skyping with Alex and getting a few updates about the Bomber game from Tim (he was watching it at home) I tuned in online and watched the end of the game too. Bombers won. Later the BC Lions won their game, so those two teams will face each other in the Grey Cup next Sunday. I expect I’ll be able to watch that online too.
The Sunday Night game was a disappointment: the NY Giants blew a great opportunity to end all playoff hopes for the 3-6 Eagles — but they lost! But the good news is that Sue made some delicious cracker-jack-style popcorn and so we enjoyed some of that while we watched the Sunday night CBC National News (online). All-in-all, a cracker-jack day.
Hello In There
Called Paul and Kathy this morning; they are interested in visiting us in February. We’ll see if it works for them. After bacon and eggs we went for a little bike ride around the neighbourhood. Checked out the Montserat community across the highway — inexpensive homes ($109,000 new), having garage and patio sales. We didn’t buy anything — no golf clubs, no home.
After lunch Sue read and I worked on a website for a while. Then at 4pm we took the golf bags out of the van and headed into Phoenix. We stopped at the big Superstition Center on the way — I bought a couple of pairs of shorts at Target and we filled up the van with gas. Then on to the Orpheum Theater, just northwest of the Phoenix airport. We parked our car and went to a Thai restaurant for supper. Sat next to one of the crew members from the John Prine show.
After supper we bought tickets to the Loudon Wainwright / John Prine concert — two $52 tickets for $75. After waiting until 7pm to fill up the parking meter so that it would be paid until 8:00, after which parking is free, we went into the Orpheum Theater. Turned out are seats were pretty good! Row one, center. Right in front of the singers! Sound was great. Theater was very nice. Concert looked pretty much sold out. Audience LOVED Loudon and John. Loudon’s set was an hour, Prine’s was from 9pm to 11pm. He played ALL his best songs, often accompanied by a young guitar player and an older bass player. All three guys were great. Final encore had Loudon join the Prine band onstage for a very fine version of “Paradise”. The concert was excellent.
We got into our van and were back on the 202 freeway in no time. Back in our house in Gold Canyon in less than 45 minutes. This is even easier than going to a concert in Winnipeg.
Looking forward to tomorrow — and other Sunday in front of the TV! Life is hard!
Computer work
I spent most of the day sitting at my computer. I did a logo trace for Tim, a couple of new Christmas ads for the Holiday Travel website, some research into a website for Bob, and worked on an update for the Smitty’s website. No time for reading or much of anything else.
Sue went for a walk in the afternoon. Then at 3:00pm we went for nine holes of golf at Mountain Brook. Seems like we can par one or two holes, bogie or double bogie most of the rest, but there’s always one (or two!) TENS in there — I’m shooting about 20 over par on 9 holes. But the weather was the usual, the scenery was the usual.
Sue made pizza for supper and after that we watched our redbox movie, Terri. Weird. Not great. A bit of TV and then bedtime.
Thursday Night Football at the Firemen’s Pub
I worked on a few Christmas banners for the SMC (Steinbach Mennonite Church) website this morning. Then Sue and I went for a bike ride — returned our movie to Walgreen’s and picked up another one. Then we pedaled around some of the bays in MountainBrook before coming back home for lunch.
After lunch Sue read outside and I recorded a birthday greeting for Irmy using GarageBand, a program I hadn’t used before. We left it on her voicemail at the library and at her house.
Sue picked up our debit cards from the Chase Bank. I read my Steve Jobs book until it was time to go out for supper at around 7pm. We had never been to the Firemen’s Pub on King’s Ranch Road, but because they were advertising Thursday Night Football which is on the NFL Network (which I don’t get at home), we decided to give them a try. They had 15 TVs, a cheeseburger special, and quite a few customers. And the pizza looked good too. We ordered the burger special and sat there quietly cheering for the Jets. Three or four patrons were wearing Bronco shirts and a few more were cheering whenever the Jets stumbled. So we had to cheer quietly. Unfortunately, although the Jets were leading for most of the game, Tim Tebow led the Broncos down the field in the last 5 minutes and won the game in dramatic fashion 17-13. Sue took it out on the waitress, shortchanging her on the tip.
Back at home I spent some time computing and updating the blog; then watched some late night TV before calling it a night.
Didn’t do nothin’ today
Completely re-did my address book on my computer (again) today — somehow the iCloud version is combining my Mac address book with the iPad one and the Google address book AND the iCloud one! Duplicates. Anyway, I think I finally have that all cleaned up and figured out properly. Same goes for my calendar.
After lunch I read a bit more in my Steve Jobs book. We talked about golfing. Sue really wanted to go for a walk. We didn’t do either. At 4pm we went to the driving range (our first time this year) and wasted a bucket of balls — I probably had 3 good shots. Then we went to Walgreen’s to pick up a movie (Trespass) before I dropped Sue off at the hair-dressers in the Bashas’ mall for a 5pm appointment.
Sue warmed up the leftover Chinese for our supper. Then we watched the repeats of the Daily Show and Colbert Report. And Tim and Alex skyped with us for a bit — Tim’s finalized his new location and will probably be moving in close to Christmas time.
We watched our movie which wasn’t as bad as I expected, although it wasn’t very good. And although we both hadn’t done much all day, we were too tired to watch the news to the end — and dragged our weary butts into bed shortly after 10:00.
Today is NOT Saturday
Today at 10am our visitors arrived. Reg and Ingrid pulled up in their rented Ford SUV. Their first visit to our house in Gold Canyon. They’re staying at a resort up in northern Scottsdale, an hour away. We put on our hiking boots and headed up Silly Mountain out behind our place. It was warm today. We had a nice hike, not too strenuous, and returned to the house about an hour and a half later. Sue had pre-made our lunch earlier in the morning. We sat down, hot and thirsty, and had our some kind of lettuce wraps without the wraps.
After lunch we sat around a bit. We called the golf course and changed our tee time from 1pm to 3pm. We’ll go for nine holes a little later. Which we did.
Had a fun time golfing (again). No one else on the course; no pressure. And Reg and Ingrid were fun to go golfing with. We finished nine holes at around 5:30pm. The sunset was painting Superstition Mountain in some nice pinks; the air was quite a bit cooler than it had been in the morning; it was time to think about supper.
The Penners stopped at our local Bashas’ for a few groceries. We barbecued bratwursts and potatoes. Sat around the table and ate and drank and visited. Good times. All day if felt like it was a Saturday today — I guess because we had ‘visitors’ — and we had a long supper sitting around the table — and that’s what we do on Saturdays. But it isn’t Saturday. On the other hand, EVERY DAY is like a Saturday.
The Penners left a little after 10; they have an hour drive back to their resort. Sue cleaned up the dishes and we sat and watched a bit of TV and I updated this.
A very active day
Whew! I’m glad that’s over. I don’t think I can handle that much activity in one short day. In the morning we ate our burnt toast and then got on the bikes and went for a long ride: all the way to Walgreen’s, then back up to the parking lot at the hieroglyphics hike, then down a long dead-end street that seemed to lead up to a construction site up on a hill near the Superstition Golf community, then back home.
After lunch I vacuumed and Sue went shopping for more groceries. Then at 3pm we were back on the golf course. Another nine holes before the sun sets. Didn’t shoot as well as we did last Saturday, but after a bit of a rocky start we managed to pull it together a bit.
After golf we went to the Chinese restaurant on King’s Ranch Road and ordered take-out. I washed the van while we waited for our order. Back home for a delicious supper. Settled in for Monday Night Football — although by the second half most of the commentators accolades for Aaron Rodgers were starting to pay off — as the Packers (9-0) demolished the Vikings (2-7). A bit of late night TV before calling it a day — a very active day.
SNF
Sunday. A day to sit in front of the TV all day long. Perfect!
We got up just in time to catch our two favorite CNN programs: Fareed Zakaria on GPS and Reliable Sources. Then, after scrambled eggs, it was time for NFL. I got a little side-tracked by an email from Tim Schmitt asking me to build a website for one of his ‘horse buddies’. I finished that only to have the NY Giants lose a close one to the Niners. Then (after left-over cheeseburgers for supper) in the Sunday night game, which I expected to be a ‘classic’, the Jets lost badly to the Patriots.
We watched the CBC National news online before going to bed.