out of my mind

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Miami - AZ that is

A couple weeks ago as the thermometer crawled near 100 degrees, Pat and I took a trip out east to explore in the Globe/Miami area where it is usually 20 degrees cooler. We are no strangers to this area, for some reason I am drawn to Miami. Check out one of our earlier trips to the area here. It is another old mining town that has seen better days. Even though they have resurrected mining in Miami, most of the town is filled with rundown and abandoned buildings. I have a photography project in mind that has me looking for interesting doors and Miami had plenty available.

This pharmacy was for sale. A lot of buildings/businesses are for sale in Miami.

One of my favorite doors.

This one actually is a private residence, or so that little sign says if you could read it. Do you see Pat in the reflection?

On the way home we stopped at Los Hermanos in Superior for dinner. This place was featured in Arizona Highways Best Restaurants 2013 edition. It is a small town tavern/restaurant popular with locals as well as tourists. The food was really good, authentic homemade Mexican food. I had Chiles Relleno, more than I could finish; Pat had a burro and cup of green chile and a large margarita. Everything is reasonably priced, I believe our bill came to sixteen dollars and we were stuffed. Definitely will stop here again when out in the area.

Monday, May 20, 2013

Happy Golden Birthday, Mike!

No longer a teen, not sure I believed I would survive Mike's teen years. The past seven years have seen their share of ups and downs as Mike struggles to find himself and his place in this world. I am not saying he has found either yet, but as I look back, I can see that he is making progress. Change is not and never has been easy for Mike. There have been a lot of changes in the past seven years for him and I believe he is learning to adapt and I have every confidence that Mike can and will do some amazing things in his life. He has been blessed with many gifts, not the least of which is his intelligence. A mind is a terrible thing to waste and I do not believe Mike will waste his.

Big surprise at where Mike would want his birthday dinner, I am pretty sure he has picked NYPD for all his birthday dinners since we moved here.

After dinner it was time for presents and dessert. Mike received a gaming keyboard and mouse for his new computer. When Mike got home from school mid-May he built himself a computer with all his "requirements" for gaming. Now with the addition of a keyboard and mouse he is set for many late nights.

Another of Mike's regular requests for his birthday (I did mention his dislike for change, right?) is a cookie birthday "cake".

My wish for you as always is that you follow your dreams, enjoy what you do and above all for you to be happy.

Happy Birthday, Mike. Love, Mom

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Happy Mother's Day!

My mother and me.

Pat and his mother.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Debbie's Visit

First stop Friday morning was Tempe Towne Lake for a Segway tour. They claim you don't have to have any athletic skills, Debbie confirmed this saying she has done it before at Navy Pier, so I gave it a try. Well, could just be me, probably is just me, but I say you need some sort of coordination to do this. I was, to put it nicely, the special needs person of the tour. I was last in line and not because I was being polite and letting others go first, but because I couldn't grasp the concept of my feet are moving it not my handlebars. There were a couple times during the tour that the worker assigned to work the end of the line had to pull me to catch me up to the group. I am laughing now, but I wasn't then. I finally felt comfortable on the segway when there was about 2 minutes left to the ride.

This is about as close to the water I dared get for fear of going right in. After all this fun, I needed a drink, so we headed to Mill Ave for lunch. We ate at Gordon Biersch, sitting out on their patio over Mill Ave, sipping our cocktails and well for me anyway recovering from my morning. After walking around town a bit, we took a drive around the area and headed home.

Saturday morning we were up and at it, we had a busy day ahead. First stop hiking on South Mountain, quick lunch, then a tour of the Mystery Castle. After we got home from all that we headed to Tia Rosa's for happy hour.

Debbie on South Mountain

Debbie on the porch of the Mystery Castle,

you can see Phoenix in the background.

The Mystery Castle.

Sunday morning we were up again and ready to roll. We took a drive (thank you for driving us, Pat) to Jerome to explore the town. Jerome is a Ghost Town, an old mining town set in the mountains. Since the miners left in the early 50s, Jerome has turned into an artists colony. There are lots of shops to look through and history to see.

That was our weekend, it was short but busy and fun. Here are five fun facts about Debbie that I did not know before:

Debbie has never baked cookies from scratch;
Debbie likes butter in not on;
Debbie doesn't like melted cheese;
Debbie doesn't like fresh salsa it must be from a jar; and
Debbie doesn't like cinnamon or tequila

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Grammy's Visit March 2013

I have been kind of slack in taking pictures when Grammy comes to visit. Partly because no one ever wants their picture taken around here, and partly because I always think there is tons of time and then the time is over before we know it. Usually it is the request from Aunt Val that she needs new photos for her frames, that spurs us to action.