Monday, July 31, 2006


Somebody Get the Ark!

So it has been raining. Really raining. It is monsoon season, but there has been a tropical storm on top of that, and so it has been raining over an inch every night (like 2 in the morning) for the past few days. Usually the rain lasts into the early morning. This is a problem for Rey because he doesn't get to go on his walks.

The cool thing is, all of the washes are flooding. The Rillito and the Santa Cruz are both flowing bank to bank, and continuously at that. It is also the highest cfs flow in about 100 years. A bunch of roads were closed, and some bridges got washed out. Some of us ditched work for a bit yesterday afternoon to check out the destruction. Way cool.

Sunday, July 30, 2006

GRAND CANYON

It really is grand. Although by our first impression, since Steve and I had never been there, it should be called Holy Shit Canyon. It is monsterous. And awesome. The geologist in me just wanted to run down the trail. But practicality stopped me. We were not prepared to do even the short loop. We didn't have enough water, or the right clothing/shoes, so we decided that we would come back again and be prepared for a hike. Flagstaff was fun. Nice and cool. Sedona was also pretty, but VERY hot. I brought knitting along, but didn't get to work on it because I did a lot of driving. Seems for the best though, because the small mistake on the Lotus Blossom Tank turned into an even bigger one when I tried to fix it, and I had to frog the whole thing. I am going to have to start all over. Grrrr. Enough with the words, here are the pictures......

Friday, July 21, 2006

PARK-A-PALOOZA

Living across from a park has its advantages and disadvantages. Place to walk dog. Advantage. Drug dealers. Disadvantage. Unobstructed view out our front window of the Catalinas. Advantage. Bad Tejano music in the picnic pavilion every weekend. Disadvantage. Except for a few weeks ago when people were playing Cuban Mambo music. That was definitely an advantage.

Sometimes, there is a fine line between advantage and disadvantage. Like just now this morning. I was walking with the park's dog click. They were talking about the neighborhood association and the rumor of a woman, who doesn't live in our neighborhood, with a vendetta against those who walk their dogs off leash. Apparently, she has been taking pictures of residents with thier dogs off leash to "report," and it has been said that she has a "stick that shocks dogs." When I got a better description of the "stick," I think I burst their bubbles by informing them that it was a type of metal detector used for locating utility lines. WEird that she has this, but totally harmless.

Anyway, while we were walking, a guy who looked like Gene Shallot, driving a white Grand Am, started circling the park. At first he was blasting something that sounded like Foghat or an equally bad band. Then he switched to the totally awesome duet between Elton John and Linda Ronstadt...."Don't Go Breaking My Heart." He drove around the park for about 15 minutes, playing this song over and over. We were in histerics by the end, but also starting to get a little creeped out. Finally, a neighbor, John, waved at him. Gene Shallot drove a little futher, turned around, and pulled up to John almost hitting him and his dog. John asked him if he needed directions to somewhere. Gene Shallot responded with "Did anybody ask for your opinion?" and then finally drove away. Now I ask you, advantage or disadvantage?

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Post-tacular.

Well, actually, I am not. There has been a severe lack of interesting things going on here. Mainly just housework....painting baseboards, buying plants, watching plants die in the desert heat. The monsoons started out with a bang. No rain at all this week though. Hopefully they will continue into August.

This weekend the in-laws are coming and we are going to Flagstaff. It will be a nice break from the heat here. A neighbor will be watching Rey. She is a vet tech, and completely normal and nice, but part of me is worried that she will forget about him, and he will be stuck in the house for two days, drink all the cats' water, poo and pee all over the house, and then maybe eat the cats if he is hungry enough. I am so tempted to hire the regular cat sitter to come over to make sure that the dog is not there. Am I crazy? This woman is an adult. She owns a house. She has two dogs. Weird how "licensed and bonded", or lack there of, makes you think differently about a business. Although having a house makes you realize that "licensed and bonded" doesn't mean shit.

We finally got a new camera, so there are no more excuses about not posting pictures. Too bad we can only take 10 at a time with the internal memory, since we are too cheap (at this point) to buy a memory stick. See I am already making excuses.

In knitting news, I have started, frogged, restarted, and may be frogging again, the Lotus Blossom Tank from the Summer IK. The lace is not bad at all. In fact, it is fairly enjoyable. I have made a couple of mistakes, one of which could not be fixed, and hence the frogging. I made another mistake the other night, but I know what it is....I just have to figure out how to fix it. The common thread between the two mistakes is at the time they were made, Steve's feet were touching me. I used to not mind his feet, but now I HATE them because I associate them with screwing up my knitting.

On a sad note, my sister Karen's dog, Max, died last week. Brain tumor. Very sad. Make sure to hug your animals.