So here, I am driving down the road with my right middle finger in a splint and I have my right hand on top of the steering wheel. Get the picture? I figure I am ripe for any wacko who does not see the splint and is in a foul mood to do me in, so I drive with my right hand at my side. I was finally release to go back to work last Tuesday, Sarah is so glad because she wanted me working, go figure.
Wow, I looked back and it has been a while since I last blogged. Here it is in a nutshell, we ate, we visited, we worked, end of story. I suppose the kids will like that but for you more serious readers I will now go into more detail.
Cerreta Candy, http://www.cerreta.com/, I did not know it existed until I read an article in the Sunday paper about their Valentine's Day candies. So Sarah and I took a drive over to the factory, it was not as big as I imagined. They were running all the machines, they have one like the machine used in the I Love Lucy show where Lucy and Ethel are trying to keep up with the candy on the conveyor. Of course, we bought some of their candies and I will admit they were good, but not as good as See's Candies.
Saturday found us having dinner with Nikki, Jack and Meredith; I also bought some Girl Scout Cookies from Meredith so she was delivering them. We met at Sweet Tomatoes' restaurant, http://www.sweettomatoes.com/, for those of you up north, there are no stores there, it is mainly a big salad bar but they do have pizza, pasta, soups, breads and ice cream. We had a great time with Nikki and family, Meredith keeps her folks on their toes.
Sunday found us at Roy Ertz's house, Roy is a high school classmate and a cousin, Mike Tiemier another classmate of ours was at Roy's. We sat around and visited all afternoon. Roy has a nice home; I believe he has been in the Phoenix area for twenty plus years. Sarah took some lemons from one of his trees.
Cynthia, Sarah's sister, came to visit on the twentieth, she stayed with us. It was good to have her here even for only a few days, she left Des Moines in the cold and ended here in the warm seventies. On Friday we met my sister Colleen at the Phoenix Premium Outlet Mall and did some shopping, I even bought a new wallet, I buy one only when the one I have is in bad condition or Sarah is constantly saying I need a new wallet.
Saturday Roy came over and we went out to the Commerative Air force Museum, http://www.azcaf.org/, I like this museum. They have some very nicely maintained aircraft most of it owned by members or flight enthusiasts who leave there plan on display but do fly it occasionally.
Cynthia left on Monday for Tucson, but not before, she went to several dances. One of them she went with a couple we work with, Bob and Bobbie, thank you for taking her with you. She went to Tucson to visit Deb, Colleen's sister in law. Cynthia said she had a great time; they shopped and hiked tow of her favorite things to do. She left for Des Moines on Wednesday late and arrived in Des Moines to cold temperatures and a cold car covered in ice. Maybe she will stay longer next year.
When we were at Roy's, Mike extended an invitation to ride with him to Mexico, he goes there a couple times a year for medicines, we said yes it was on our list of things we wanted to do. We wanted to leave a nine in the morning so I told Sarah for us to get to Mike's by nine we needed to leave between seven thirty and eight. I am glad we left early because the traffic here is horrendous. We did not encounter any accidents just slowwwwwww traffic. We had a great trip beautiful scenery the entire way over, we went to Algodones, http://losalgodones.com/, which is a few miles west of Yuma, AZ. It is quite a place, when you cross over the border, it is just a turnstile you go through but you better have your passport with you before you go through it because there is no going back at this point. We only went down a couple streets but they are inhabited by at least eighty percent dentists, and eye doctor offices, they maybe twenty percent stores and restaurants. I liked the sidewalk vendors, they have everything you never wanted or needed in your life but listening to them, you wonder how you did without their items. We did buy a few things. Mike had one of the vendors trying to sell him a gold chain for a hundred dollars, Mike said no, by the time they were done Mike had six of seven gold and silver chains for around twenty dollars. The same guy wanted me to buy a chain(s) and kept putting them on my hand, I had four or five and then Sarah said she wanted the ring she had been admiring, the guy wanted thirty-five dollars, I said no, he hung another chain on my hand and we bought everything for forty dollars. The fun part of all this for me is the going back and forth about the price, I enjoyed it. So we made it to Mexico and got to use our passports for the first time, evidently they must be ok because they let us back into the country. We did have an hour wait in line to go through the border.
Last Thursday, Sarah and I went to Colleen and Darrius' for lunch and then over to the Mall for some more shopping. Sarah bought a nice looking pant and top outfit that looks very nice on her.
We also went out with two couples we work with, Rick and Pam, and Ward and Vickie, we went out to eat and then over to the Wrigley Mansion to listen to their jazz group and visit. Pam ordered hot olives for something to munch on, if you have never had hot olives they are very good, I do not know what kind of olives they were but they were good. I ordered cheesecake, Ricotta cheesecake, I have never had cheesecake made with Ricotta cheese before but it was very good, it had a lemon sauce on the side and a slight lemon flavor in the cheesecake.
Yesterday I started to clean the outside of the camper, this sucker is big, it took all the energy I could muster to get one side done. Today I cleaned the other side. Who wanted this big of a camper? I also got underneath and greased the suspension system, I hope I get enough grease in the system, I may have to take it to a truck shop and have them do it with their pressure grease guns, at there is some grease in them. I put up the ladders, secured them, and then realized I had not cleaned the back of the camper, well guess what the back is not going to get cleaned until we get back north.
A flight of seventeen WWII aircraft just flew over the camper, they must be congregating for the air show at Luke AF base next weekend, really cool to see.
That is all for now, remember - Dreams Do Come True
