The Saga Continues

Not that you were privy to the saga...

WAAAAY back in August, I saw an infomertial

on a new air fryer.

I love my air fryer.

I use it nearly every day.

The drawer has worn out.

The inner liner falls out of the outer

drawer every time I use it.

I just keep a wooden spatula there so

I can support the bottom of the drawer

and everything is fine.

But this NEW air fryer doesn't have a drawer.

It has a DOOR!

And SHELVES!

And a BASKET that ROTATES!

And a ROTISIERRE thingie that ROTATES!

And I MUST HAVE IT!

So I ordered it.

The next day I was at Walmart and there it WAS!

For $40 LESS!

So I called the 800 number and tried to cancel

the order of the previous day.

Sorry Ma'am. It has already been pulled

and is scheduled to ship.

When it gets there, just refuse the shipment

and when we get it back, we will credit your account.

Well.

That certainly sounded easy.

I was actually still at Walmart while making this

phone call - standing in front of the only one

left in the store.

(Guarding my turf...)

Bought the air fryer.

Brought it home.

It doesn't get quite as hot as my old one,

so things don't cook quite as quickly.

But it sure does a lovely job of my morning

okra and yellow squash!

(In the rotating basket!)

SO FUN!

And it made an amazing roast on the 

rotisserie thingie - moist, flavorful,

YUMMY!

And lots of other random yummy things.

I'm very happy.

Meanwhile, I got notice the original air fryer was

going to arrive on Saturday. While I was out of town

teaching my class.

So I went online and changed the delivery instructions

from my house to the local Walgreen's FedEx counter.

On Monday when I got back in town,

I went to Walgreen's to refuse the shipment.

I told her it was a pretty big, heavy box, and if

she would rather just get the numbers off,

she wouldn't have to carry it out to the counter

and then carry it back in to the back again,

since I was refusing receipt and she would have

to ship it back anyway.

She said no problem,

brought the box out anyway so she could

do her thing with her little electronic thingie.

When she was done, she said, great!

All you need to do is sign.

So I did.

And I left.

And when I got home I got a text that my

brand new air fryer had been successfully delivered to me.

WHAT?????

Back to Walgreen's to tell them NO!

I didn't receive it - YOU STILL HAVE IT!

RIGHT THERE!

She messed with her little electronic gadget

and swiped the code on the box

like NINE times.

FINALLY she said... ok, I've got it right now.

Whew!

I waited for a week.

I waited for 10 days.

Still no credit on my account.

So I called the vendor.

No ma'am, it shows it was delivered to you on

August 25th.

DANG IT!

Back to Walgreens.

Yup, it is still sitting right there.

I talked to the manager who said he would

see that it was "refused" and he had me write

my phone number on the box so he could call

me if there were any problems.

No call.

No credit.

Another drive into town to the local Walgreens.

Of course, it's still sitting right there.

I gave up and took it home.

Was thinking about giving it to Jim for Christmas.

But then I realized he would likely never use it.

And if I decided to give him one, I could buy

one from WalMart and save $40.

So this morning I called the vendor to figure out

what to do next. He said he could get me a Return

Authorization code and all I would have to do

was pay $60 shipping.

NO WAY!!!!

I told him the whole sad story.

He said Call FedEx and tell them.

(Even gave me the number!)

So I did.

He said, tough.

I said, 

THIS IS YOUR FAULT.

I didn't want it then,

I don't want it now,

your associate made the error.

He scheduled a free pickup tomorrow morning

at my front gate a 8:00 am.

(well not really - sometime tomorrow between

8 and 8... but believe me, I will be home,

sitting in a chair in the shade under my oak tree,

with a book, some music, a drink and the box!)

Fingers crossed.

It really IS a nice little oven thingie!

R.I.P. Teresa

This has been a tough week.

First we lost our dear friend Dayl.

He lost a long battle with brain cancer.

His services are tomorrow in Michigan.

Unfortunately we aren't able to go.

But our hearts will be there.

And then yesterday I lost my friend

Teresa Tapp.

She was very private.

A few years ago she won her fight

with breast cancer.

3 weeks ago she discovered she had

metastatic disease - it had moved to her liver.

She only shared the information with a very 

select few people and they were sworn to secrecy.

She sped up the process and released

a video she has been working on for 3 years.

She attended a weekend retreat for those

with special needs as key note speaker.

She completed another set of videos for a

13 week course with another of my friends and

T-Tapp trainers.

No one even guessed she was ill.

My facebook page is loaded with

loving tributes from all the many many lives

she touched and people who counted her as friend.

Many of them had never had the opportunity to

meet her in person, but her love shines through

her videos and she was active on facebook,

encouraging each person and sharing her knowledge.

She made it a point to focus on the person she

was speaking with, as though they were the only

person in the room with her.

She made you feel important, special, loved.

I was fortunate to meet with her several times

over the many years since I was introduced to

her method of movement.

She chose me as first runner up in her annual

60 Day Challenge and I got to attend a retreat

with her in Tampa.

I attended a couple more on my own because

they were such an amazing experience.

I also got to work with her on a PBS Broadcasting

special on dealing with hypothyroidism.

And, of course, I get to spend hours and hours

over the years with her on the videos I use

to workout with.

She was famous for her motto "Yes You Can".

She repeated it always at the perfect moment

when you just knew you COULDN'T do more.

And she ended each video with either

"You DID it!"

or

"Have a Great Day!"

She turned 61 last month.

She was a woman who spread love of God,

love of life,

love of others

everywhere she went and to everyone she met.

R.I.P. Teresa.

You inspire me to be better.

Tuesday

Kyle left this morning

to head back up to the ranch.

He had to stop and get a couple

of 55 gallon drums full of diesel fuel.

And then he was on his way.

Meanwhile...

This is a typical morning situation for us...

Excuse me!

They are drinking my swimming pool!

I did some laundry,

made a batch of chicken cakes

(like salmon cakes, but with chicken...)

enough for my dinner tonight and

lunch for Rod tomorrow.

And the next day.

And possibly the next day.

Hahahaha

It made a LOT.

I still need to make the dipping sauce.

But I tasted one and it was pretty good!

I also made a batch of "Happy Bites".

They are super healthy,

but they taste like really tart strawberry

and coconut mixed together in a little

yummy bite.

Delish!

And I put more drops in Beau's eye.

I hope I'm not jinxing myself, but he

seems to have accepted that I'm not 

trying to hurt him.

Helps that he gets a bunch of little

bites of bacon bits, then the drops,

then a bunch more little bites of bacon bits.

He goes back to the vet on Thursday.

Hopefully it's just the dry eye,

which will be inconvenient

(drops - three times a day for the rest of his life)

but better than some of the other

possible diagnosis they were kicking around.

Yesterday he was running around like

a goof-ball. Dashing in to get a bacon,

but dashing away again to avoid

getting caught and getting drops.

We were in the kitchen, with slippery

tile floors.

I think he slipped and pulled a muscle.

He seemed fine until time to go to bed.

And then he had developed a serious limp.

I thought his foot went to sleep!

This morning he was still limping a little,

but over the day it got better and better.

This evening he is perfect.

And trying to get me to play.

Better go throw his toy.

Random Monday

Checking in.

I realized I didn't do any posts last week!

Not like I was busy or anything...

Friday was a quick trip to the ranch

with Linda and her friend Carla.

We didn't get out of town until 2:00

and it's a 3 hour drive.

We went by the ranch and checked out

the cows. There are now 15 babies on the ground!

Kyle was working hard in one of the front

pastures, trimming low hanging branches

on the oak trees along the perimeter so he could

more easily run his tractor / mower under there.

I didn't even think to take any pictures.

We were heading up front to visit with him,

when Linda looked at her watch and realized

we had spent WAAY more time checking out

baby cows than we thought and we were late.

There was a Cattleman's Association fund raising

dinner in the next town over we were supposed

to be attending. We missed the hor derves hour.

Oops.

But FINALLY found it (despite GPS)

and made it just in time for the dinner.

It was really nice. Outside under a giant white tent.

So it was HOT. And HUMID.

The tent held in all the heat, humidity, and noise.

And effectively kept out most of the breeze.

LOL

But it was a true cattleman's dinner.

Steaks half the size of your dinner plate!

Baked potatoes.

And a really yummy salad-y-thing.

And of course deserts (which I skipped).

We enjoyed sitting at a random table with

two really nice couples and a college aged

young lady who was FASCINATING!

She works at the "sale barn" and processing

facility - has worked with cattle her entire

life and was really interesting to talk to.

(Had some fun pictures on her phone of

"Midnight" her 4H steer.)

A long drive up and another long drive back.

And we didn't ever get to talk to Kyle.

(It was dark by the time we left the dinner

and he was headed back to his hotel.)

Saturday morning found him taking delivery

on his new mobile home.

Single-wide - 2 bedroom, 2 bath, very

basic and ... what's a polite way to say 

cheap - in price and construction...

But better than living in either a hotel or a tent.

Not half as good as living in HIS tiny house...

but we have to work within the rules.

Sigh.

That was an adventure in and of itself.

They were supposed to deliver it on Friday,

but their regular driver up and quit Friday morning.

So they had to recruit a couple of other guys

to bring it over on Saturday.

And when they got there, they couldn't make

it through the gate. (Kyle could have, but,

you know, insurance, blah blah blah...) 

And, of course, they

could have gone through the "main" gate,

but since that gate technically has a different

street address than the gate they were trying

to enter through, they didn't even think of it.

Poor Kyle was so stressed he didn't think of it either.

They got there with the 14' wide mobile home,

blocking the entire little dirt road and causing

many neighbors to be unhappy...

so ever the resourceful guy, Kyle took down

3 sections of fence to let them in!

And once they were in, it turns out they were

just dropping it off. Next a crew is coming out

(some day) to build up a dirt pad to put it on.

And then they will have to dig the septic,

and then run the plumbing and electric...

so he is still a good ways from having a place

to live - so it's hotel living for him still.

Would be nice if he could at least run an

extension cord (or his generator) and plug in 

the fridge and microwave so he could eat

something besides Taco Bell.

(grin)

But there IS a house on the horizon,

so that's good.

While he was dealing with that,

Rod and I went to our first "Super Senior"

activity - a "Bring Your Own" picnic down

at the Turkey Creek trail system.

It was HOT.

It was HUMID.

We had 10 people show up.

There was lots of fun conversation,

a short walk down the boardwalk for those

who felt like it,

and a nice air conditioned visitor's center 

for those who didn't.

And then off to WalMart to get dog food

and home for both of us to take naps.

Sunday, Rod got to speak in our old ward,

and since there are 5 Sundays this month,

I moved my school back a week so I could

be there with him.

His topic was Fasting and Fast Offerings

and he did a really good job.

We had a friend take our picture in the parking lot.

He looked really good.

I had no idea my hair looked so silly.

But whatever.

(grin)

This morning I mowed the grass.

Takes me about an hour or more.

I don't mow as fast as the guys do.

But I put on my headphones and listen to some

music and enjoy the "breeze" in the sunshine.

Got lots of good Vitamin D.

And it looks better.

Kyle hooked up his giant trailer, loaded his

Caterpillar and went over to work on a

lot for a new house for a friend in the other ward.

Ended up helping load a bunch of left over wood

and then loaded up a bunch of busted up concrete

slabs into his dump truck and took it to the dump.

A good day's work for him.

Meanwhile,

I baked a couple rashers of bacon.

Before.

After.

******************************************

Hey! Nancy!

Remember this?

Such a pretty sweater!

I took a picture to see if I could copy it.

Guess what I saw on TV today????

HEY!

That's my sweater!!!!

It was a segment on fall fashion.

Clearly they don't live in Florida.

(Or Arizona)

Cute sweater though.

Selfies!

I am NOT the queen of the selfie.

In fact, I'm pretty bad at them.

But who cares?

This was at Riff's.

At the end of a long day.

At the beginning of a fabulous meal!

Breakfast at the Village Diner!

Yup, early (ha) in the morning.

We didn't sleep well the night before...

But we sure had FUN!

Not your traditional selfie...

but possibly our best one!

Hahahahahahahaha!

Salts.

Lunch.

Ready for an afternoon nap.

Not a selfie... but she looked so beautiful!

Centro.

Lunch.

The queso blah blah something spanish

was AWESOME!

The sandwiches that followed...

not so much.

But we sure had a blast.

I know,

it seems like all we did was eat.

Well, and shop.

And talk.

But that's not ALL we did.

We also walked.

While eating,

shopping

and talking.

Not shown,

our "daily visit" to

Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.

Because they had the BEST

salted caramels.

And the BEST raspberry truffles.

That tasted just like Big Turks.

(I had a couple of sugar free ones

and they were seriously exactly as good!)

I think this should be a regular event.

******************************

Got my hair trimmed yesterday.

So here it is...

Its Fun Til Somebody Gets Poked In The Eye

I'm not sure what happened exactly.

The dogs play pretty rough sometimes.

And the chickens get annoyed

and have been known to peck sometimes.

Whatever it was,

I came home to Beau having what looked

like an infection in his eye.

We took him to the vet on Friday.

No ulcer.

But definitely irritated.

It even looked better after

she irrigated it.

But he needs goop in it twice a day.

And an antibiotic once a day.

And, of course, the cone of shame.

Poor guy!

They recommended we go to PetSmart and get him

an inflatable collar thing.

More comfortable than the plastic cone.

So we got him one.

$36!!!!

Turns out, he has a really big neck.

And when you put an inflatable pillow around

his neck, he can't lay down.

MISERABLE!

So, yeah, that went back to the store.

And the fancy plastic ones were $25.

So I headed back to the vet's office

and got a plane jane, vanilla, boring cone.

$11.

He can't eat or drink.

But he CAN lay down.

And since that's how he spends 95% of his time...

I call it good enough.

I can take it off when he needs to eat / drink.

Here's hoping I can put it back on again.

He's pretty good.

He tried to bite the vet when she put

goop in his eye, but he comes right

over, lays his head in my lap and lets

me put it right on his eye ball.

So... maybe?

Meanwhile, his eye is looking much better.

He has a follow up appointment on Friday.

Hopefully he will be pronounced cured.

And cone free.

(In other news, I now have a sty in my left eye...)

Sympathy sty?

Or a reaction to actually wearing REAL makeup

every day since Nancy taught me how.

(I've been SUPER careful not to touch him and/or my face...

but whatever. I refuse to wear a cone.)

Hurricane Season

It's been one year (yesterday) since Irma.

And now we have Florence.

She is heading north of us.

Which is good for us.

Not so good for them.

My Trim Healthy Facebook feed is FULL

of slightly panic-filled posts about

"What do we DO?"

Lots of us from Florida and Texas have done

what we can to help them through.

It is pretty intimidating,

scary, nerve-wracking, etc.

But you just have to either go with it,

or move.

And we aren't going to move.

They say we are already getting the effects

on the coast. Higher waves, greater

beach erosion and serious rips.

1 person was killed and 2 were seriously

injured in the ocean yesterday.

But at least we aren't getting the brunt of the storms.

Yes, stormS.

There are actually THREE of them out there.

Florence, Isaac, Helene.

Florence is going north to N.C.

Isaac is going south to the islands

(and then who knows where... those are the ones

we "worry" about - once they hit the islands

they either die, or skip over the top,

hit the warm water on the other side and then....

into the Gulf? Up the East side? Up the West side?

Slide across to Texas??? Nobody knows yet.)

And Helene looks like maybe she'll curve and die

out in the ocean.

But they are both at least a week away from

really knowing what they are doing.

(Sounds like ME!)

Meanwhile.

We just had our house re-wired.

We now have a place where we can plug in

the generator(s) and run all the freezers,

fridges, and even the lights.

That feels good.

So, we are prepared.

And we are not scared.

But we are keeping an eye on the horizon.

This is as close to an "adrenaline rush" as I'm

interested in. 

Is it weird that I love it?

I'm Home

Whew!

It was a fabulous trip!

And thankfully the flight home was

significantly better than the flight out.

(But it GOT me there, so that's good!)

We got back to Orlando a couple minutes
early even! Poor Rod had to drive around
for 30 minutes just to find a parking spot
(on the roof)
so it's a good thing he was plenty early.

I was SUPER happy to see him
sitting under a palm tree in the airport.
I missed him!

I got to ride in his new little car.
It's a terrific little car!
Counting Jim, we now have
THREE VW Golfs
and TWO VW Jettas
(and 2 Ford F250's)
Not much variety in our lives.
Or we know good vehicles when we drive 'em.

We headed over to the dealership to sign all the necessary papers. (It helps to have
an "in" with the boss - they let Rod "test drive"
until I got home!)

Fortunately for Jim, he was busy selling another car.
Unfortunately for us, he didn't get done until it was
too late to do our paperwork.
Home to feed the animals.
And back out again.
We were out of dog food, so it was off to WalMart.
And then it was late.
So we got Chick Fil-A.

It was good to be home!
(hahahaha)

*************
My computer turned itself off right here.
(It doesn't like when I sit on the couch...
only when I sit in the armchair.
Weird.)
I'm posting this anyway.

Nothing Personal, BUT...

Geez Denver!

Could you mark your roads?

We had a wonderful day in a little

place called Estes Park.

Looks like I’ll have to add pix later.

I’m on the airport WiFi and it doesn’t want 

to load them for me.

Anyhow, it was up in the mountains.

Fresh, lovely air.

Lots of fun shops.

And then a storm rolled in over the mountains.

Estes has a visitors center and a free shuttle

service that runs all over.

Just as it started to sprinkle, the little

bus showed up and on we hopped.

Decided to head into Boulder for an early dinner 

and ended up at Chili’s for a yummy meal

and more... talking. Hahahahaha

You would think we would run out of stuff

to talk about, but no!

We gabbed until we figured the rush hour 

traffic would be done and then headed

in the direction of Denver.

More or less.

Missed a turn.

Missed another turn.

Got turned around.

Roads vanished.

Construction closed sections

and no signs telling what to do next.

Headed the wrong way down a divided road.

Thank goodness Mario Andretti was driving!

(And there was only one other car on the road)

She whipped that baby around and got us going

in the right direction again.

And we missed another turn.

But we FINALLY made it to our hotel.

Where a young man who had limited language

skills and other issues “helped” get us checked in.

(Just cuz it’s legal in Colorado, doesn’t mean

you should use it ay work!)

But we got a room.

And climbed into bed.

And had a good sleep!

And woke up at 3 for our flights out.

It was POURING!

And Denver’s lousy road signs continued.

And our car had terrible headlights.

And the lane markers were pretty much invisible.

But we found the rental place.

Where we parked in the wrong place and drug our

suitcases through the raging river.

And a super helpful shuttle driver parked our 

car for us cuz he was amazing and we were

Obviously at the end of our ropes.

And then he took us to our gates.

Where we had to split up.

But they are calling me to board.

So....

Next stop, Charlotte.

And then Orlando.

Goodbye Colorado!

Paint some signs.

But we LOVED you!!!

Look! Food!

We went to a fabulous Mexican place last

night for dinner. The food was not only 

delicious,  but also beautiful.

And we forgot to take pictures.

This afternoon we ended up in a fun sidewalk

cafe that featured Farm to Table.

Obligatory selfie.

Have you noticed we only do that when we

stop somewhere to eat?

We did...

Pretty food!

And very yummy.

They had a grass fed burger with cheese and

other random burger-ish toppings.

Right below it on the menu was a 

vegan quinoa burger, with amazing toppings.

So we ordered the beef burger with the 

quinoa burger goodies!

Ha!

And it was delish!

We are back in our yard,

reading, napping, enjoying the sunshine.

Food Photos

Here are the pix to go with the last post.

I REALLY should have brought my laptop.

Diner selfie.

It was PACKED and NOISY and we sat

at the counter and we’re amazed at the

cook making literally a thousand helpings

of hash browns and amazing omelette sally

at one time!

My yummy Denver omelette.

Pancake et al...

Ignore all the senseless nonsense.

I can’t edit anything.

Sigh.

Food

Boulder has some good little food places.

We are very close to the Pearl St outdoor mall.

(Basically like downtown Park City)

When we finally got here Thursday night,

we walked down there to the Yellow Deli.

Google said 13 minutes on foot.

A pleasant evening walk.

(It was 10 pm)

Google did not mention the slight up hill

(Pant pant)

nor the extreme downhill.

(Which meant an extreme uphill on the return trip)

YIKES!

However, we successfully found the deli 

and discovered it was a cheerful, although

somewhat dark (lots of wood) 

throwback to the 70’s complete with

jute macrame dividers between the booths.

The gentleman who waited on us was a delight!

We had a couple of DELICIOUS sandwiches,

Nancy had the “Spring chicken” and I had 

a Yellow Submarine.

She had a natural orange cream soda and 

I had the BEST iced chamomile tea!

We had a wonderful time visiting and sharing

stories about our respective day and journey.

She spent a fun day in Denver, even took a subway!

When we were done, we called an Uber for

the quick 3 minute drive home.

A FIRST for me!

And TOTALLY worth the $!

We enjoyed it so much, we went back

for breakfast the next morning!

We both got an egg sandwich that was super

yummy and filling!

No lunch.

(See above... haha)

I’ll come back and tell about the day later,

this is just about the food.

The evening found us at a marvelous

restaurant called Riffs.

We nearly had to order the entire menu.

It all looked so good!

Finally settled on a grilled peach and

prosciutto salad for an appetizer,

and the Nancy ordered a fabulous watermelon

salad with pickled red onions and basil.

And a player of delicious bread and more

of the amazing prosciutto.

I got a roasted smoked pork loin with

garlic smashed potatoes and green olives, 

capers and other random but tasty veggie.

We ate family style sharing everything.

YUM!

AFTER we had eaten it all, we decided that

henceforth we would take pictures of all our

wonderful food.

Which likely means we will be eating 

Pop Tarts and Hot Dogs from here on out.

Hahaha

Actually we found a fun diner while out and about

looking for a yoga mat for Nanc.

Eggs, bacon, hash browns, a pancake for Nanc that

was as big as her head and a big Denver omelette for

me, because, DENVER!

Lotsa Little Posts

I do not love posting from my iPad.

So I plan to do lots of mini posts.

This was our view this morning.

We weren’t exhausted last night so we

Didn’t sleep as soundly.

Both up about 2 and again at 4.

And then finally slept until 7.

We look out to a pretty back yard.

Beautiful even first thing in the morning!