Nothing is wrong

When folks start commenting and emailing to see if I'm ok I know it's time to do a post. I'm fine, life just got a little busy. Mom arrives on Monday. I spent the past 2 weeks cleaning and clearing. Then I spent 3 days in Vegas again. I think I'm about done with Vegas for awhile. It has been fun, but I'm ready to try other things. This is good as Mom doesn't gamble much. I'm at work, so no pictures right now. I kept thinking I'd catch up with the pictures, but that didn't happen. Oh, well.

365 - 4

Awhile back I mentioned a good Greek restaurant I go to sometimes. This is it, Niros Gyros.  I've liked everything I've had here.  It is on the expensive side to eat there every day.  Now the hours I'm working don't jive with eating there much at all.  If you are down I-10 near Elliott Rd., this is at 48th (I think) and Elliott, west of I-10 and a couple of stoplights.

365 - 3 Work in Progress

This is the sweater I'm working on now.  I had 3 times this much done, but I realized it was way too big, so I ripped back to the beginning.  I like it much better this time.  It is a self striping yarn, an acrylic called mosaic.

I am out of my original ideas for pictures now, so I'll have to get a bit more creative.

365 - 2

This is the sweater I started while I was in Honduras and finished a few months ago.  I learned to knit Continental style (holding the yarn in the left hand while knitting) while making this, transitioning from 40 years of the 'other' style of holding the yarn in my right hand and wrapping it around each time.  The quality suffered for awhile until the new way became natural to me.  This was an easy sweater to learn on as there are only knit stitches in the entire thing.

365 - 1

This is the front of my mobile home. I like it. Yes, the red flowers are artificial. I'll replace them with some cactus soon. It's on the ever expanding 'list'.  These pictures are to get me out of my rut of not posting pictures.  The plan is to get better at this as I go along.

The beat goes on

I've already fallen behind on one resolution. That is to take (and post!) a picture every day. Remembered when I got up this morning that I didn't do it yesterday. So, I owe you guys 2 today. I already know what I want to take, and the camera is now out on the counter waiting for daylight.

 I am in the process of moving my office to the living room. Turtle Lady and Bill cleared out a few things that I was having trouble doing with my back, and also provided a trial run for how the place is set up when I have company. Since Mom is due in a little under 3 weeks I decided that I need the computer in the living room and the guest(s) in the extra bedroom. With my odd hours it makes it easier, I hope, for all involved if we can each have run of the kitchen and living room while the other is sleeping. One thing I'll have to work on is that I discovered that the extra bedroom gets cold if the door is closed, so maybe Mom will be happy to just have the door cracked. We'll work it out when she gets here.

I will have updates on my works in progress later as that is one of the photos I want to take. I wanted to get this post out there as I started a post yesterday and got distracted and ended up just trashing it as I didn't take time to finish it.

This and that

Things are settling down, mostly because my body says it is done with all the riding in the Jeep for awhile. Turtle Lady and Bill are here for a few more days, but I think they will be mostly around the park here. They seem to be enjoying learning about this type of post-retirement (for them) living. The weather finally got cloudless and warm so they can see Arizona the way it has been advertised to them.

I'm clearing out my email, and found some comments with questions I hadn't answered. I do read all the comments and appreciate them a lot. One asked about medication for the vertigo that Mom and I are experiencing, even though we are several states apart. I haven't gone to a doctor about it yet. I'm still having the vertigo but it is in the annoying category rather than really bothering me. I had it worse in Las Vegas than I do here, so I think it may be more recovering from whatever caused it than a continuing exposure. Mom hasn't mentioned hers lately, but her doctors weren't taking it very seriously. On a related note, she is changing doctors.

Dizzy Dick asked if they still have the prickly pear cactus ice cream at Tortilla Flats. The short answer is 'yes'. We ate at the restaurant and Turtle Lady got a cactus bowl salad (in a real bowl, not one made of cactus) and it came with a scoop of the ice cream. Neither her nor Bill were terribly impressed, and I was trying mightily to eat all of my barbeque sandwich and didn't try any. I had thought we would go to the ice cream parlor afterwards, but we were too stuffed from our meals, so I don't know that they have it there, but they probably do.

This morning I will start the (at least) yearly backups of all my computers. I am looking towards the ending of this year to tie up loose ends and the beginning of next year to start progressing in some new goals. Nothing major, just mostly the recycling of past goals. :)

Busy busy

The trip to Las Vegas with Turtle Lady and her Dear Husband was fun. We walked and walked, despite my best efforts to find efficient ways to get around. The bus system has been determined to be the most efficient way to get up and down the strip. Since we've been back here at my home the two of them have knocked down the Honey-do list to the point that I have no more chores for them. The place looks a lot nicer, and Bill (the Dear Husband) even installed a grab bar in the bathroom for when my Mom visits. The bathroom tub is a very large step up and down, and even I sometimes have trouble with it. He also resurrected the bakers rack that the movers who transferred the stuff between trucks in Wichita ended up almost destroying. TL has food in the house and has taken over my kitchen as promised. Life is good. They even had roses waiting for me when I got up to go to work yesterday to celebrate my birthday. I tell ya, I may invite them back again!

Later today we head to Payson and hopefully a short hike in the state park up there. For me, it is a chance to see trees. Amazing how that means so much to me after months at a time living in the desert and not seeing a real forest. Very different that the Southeast, or even Honduras. I took them out to Tortilla Flats a few days ago and they were impressed with the Superstition Mountains and all the cactus and such. We ate at the restaurant there, and it was good. I'll probably take Mom out there while she is here as well.

I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, and a happy Holidays whatever you choose to celebrate during this season. Take time to stop, give thanks, and mostly CELEBRATE that we are here and the blessings that we have.

Exciting Times

Today is the first day of a week's vacation. I had some days that needed to be used before the end of the year. This has morphed into a trip to Las Vegas, leaving tomorrow to drive up there. My friends, Turtle Lady and her DH, will fly in from KY and meet me there. We spend 3 days enjoying Vegas, Baby! and going to a show this time, my first time doing so. I want to explore some around Lake Mead on the way up and stop wherever they want to on the drive back to Phoenix. They will stay here with me for another week and we will explore around here.

This is prompting a major shuffle of stuff around here. Luckily, they are good friends and are used to me and my stuff. Turtle Lady will take over my kitchen. She knows that there is usually no food around here, so a trip to the grocery will be up early on. Then IKEA. Then who knows.

In the shuffle I did find my camera charger and cable, among other things. I have assured TL and her DH that they have free access to my wifi as well as my yarn stash and supplies. Between all of the above the next weeks should be full. Maybe even some pictures included in blog posts, who knows. I'll have a couple of weeks to recover, then Mom flys out on the 20th of January for a visit. You know I'll be clearing and cleaning for that!

Hibernating

I will admit the primary reason I'm updating is that my blog list along the right side of the page isn't refreshing. I mean that other folks' blogs aren't refreshing for me, showing the list from yesterday. This happens sometimes. I can't seem to get it to update. I'm hoping that if I make a post it will jog it. Not a log going on as I'm in the middle of switching shifts again, back to nights. I only work and sleep when I'm doing that. I did start knitting a sweater again with the yarn I was looking for awhile ago. I was starting socks as a learning project, but with the sweater weight yarn and making up the pattern as I went to adjust they were going to be way too large. So I ripped them out and started the sweater. Now I've decided to make some cotton knitted dishcloths for my neighbors for Christmas, so the sweater may go to the back burner. I really like the yarn, though, so I'll probably sneak a row in occasionally. Now to post and see if this worked. *UPDATE* It worked. I have a refreshed blog list. I actually use my sidebar list to read the blogs, and use the blog lists of those I read to wander further. I don't 'follow', I go the the blogs and read. Just how I roll. I hope folks don't think I'm any less loyal for doing it that way.