Let's wrap it up...

2007 that is.

It's been a wonderous, special year here for the Doodles trio. Travel was at the top of the agenda, well of course since we sold our house in the blue tarp state.

Here is a quick time line......

• April sold above referenced house Hooooray only on the market 11 months
  
• Purchased Big A$$ truck and RV also in April
• Left the blue tarp state May 17th and never to return another Hooooooray
• Upon completion of above referenced trip of 18,000 + miles and two countries, we landed in Tucson mid November.

Yep we put that many miles on the first leg of the Doodles RV journey. And Buddy, the cat was an absolute wonderful terrific traveler. I am so happy to be able to say that because I know he could have made that trip and absolute nitemare. So extra treats for my Buddy cause he was so good.

We have had some just wonderful memories, met some new friends, met up with some very old friends, and it is unfortunate but lost a few friends along the way.

We both took some memorable photos, saw some new sites and a few old sites, went to several races, had some memorable lip smacking meals and even awarded the worst roads citation to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. As a side note I wrote to the Governor regarding his road conditions, I received a form letter as a reply. Shame on him.

Best part was being able to be with sister and family three times this year....that's a huge wahoooo!!!

Now 2007 is coming to a close, I look back and think what a fun ride, literally, it was personally. I'm not going to get into the political aspect of the year cause the dopes in Washington give me a headache.

My hope and wish for y'all is to enjoy 2008 as much as we enjoyed 2007!!!

Peace, prosperity and health for you in the coming year.

Now for me let's hope I get boots and a warm hat cause we be going to Alaska.......so stay tuna'd.

ps - thanks for all that stop by you make it fun

From me to you

Now to driving fools

Now remember, if you will, I have a Big A$$ Truck that I drive.

So, you're waiting at a stoplight in a left-turn lane. The light turns green, so you inch out into the intersection. A truck is in the left-turn lane going in the opposite direction, directly in front of you. All's well and good ... except that the truck's blocking your view of oncoming traffic. You can't be sure that a vehicle or three isn't coming, so you--not wanting to get T-boned--decide to wait for either the truck to turn, or for the left-turn light to turn green.

Then the cretin, (I haven't used that word in a very long time) in the car behind you starts honking. Apparently, he, she must certainly be in a hurry, and doesn't care about your hesitance at blindly meandering into oncoming traffic. I could be the truck blocking someones view because of the size, but I doubt it.

These impatient, uncaring, ignorant fools are the lowest of the low. And if they're male, they almost certainly have small whatchacallit. Shame on me for saying that.

These people need to get a life because there's not enough room in in the world for these fools.

Miracles of Miracles

OK I understand that some things are miracles and I accept that. Take for example the miracle of finding the father and his three children after three days of being out there in Northern California where the weather had turned to crap. Story goes that Dad took the kids out to get a Christmas tree and ended up building a snow fort in a culvert cause they got lost, totally lost and stayed warm by hugging for warmth while lost in the wilderness. Now cut to three days later and the news media is having a field day interviewing the rescued family. Man they were so happy to be home and so was their Mom who was waiting for some word from the authorities. As you probably heard the reporters were all over this story BUT asked the most asinine questions. However when speaking with the dudes that finally rescued this fortunate family, a question was asked about "how to avoid having this happen to your family"? The rescue paramedic listed the usual assortment, like cell phone, water and such but when he said carry a GPS, I stopped dead in my tracks. WHAT did he say!!!!!! Now you know a lot of folks right, maybe some of them went trompping thru the woods in search of the perfect Christmas tree. What do ya spose anyone of them had a hand held GPS unit? I am not making fun of this serious event. The freak snow storm that kicked up while they were out caused that family to go thru hell and thank you very much their Christmas will be very Merry. What ya spose Dad might find a GPS under the tree.................NOT!!!

Drive thru fools

One would think it would have been the second coming when an In-N-Out-Burger opened recently in our area.

With much buzz about town and long waits both inside the store and in the drive-thru lane, residents in our area finally had their very own In-N-Out. On the day of the grand opening, the town had to have extra cops on duty to direct traffic, all for a danged hamburger.

For some strange reason, the craze has barely let up. I have no idea how long the wait is, but if the pace inside is any indication, the wait time is tooooo long. The young ens that work there work their butts off I'll tell ya. You don't see workers like that at Mc Donalds or Burger King. No offense if your child happens to work at one of those establishments

I'll admit the burgers are good, actually better than good, but why anyone would want to sit in a line of cars, breathing toxic fumes and with the price of petrol these day for a stinkin' hamburger, is way beyond me. Think of the pollution that is created. I'm no rocket scientist, but it surely has to be a whole buncha polutin.

But it does remind me of when Krispy Kreme doughnuts opened and they turned on their done sign and out of nowhere cars were lined up around the block.

Edited to add: for those of you that live East and North of me you are missing out on a tasty burger.

Southern Arizona

Now when you read that the first thing to come to mind is nice warm temps right.....well not right now. Eeekkk!!!

So we are sitting outside the other afternoon watching the news, local news and the weather dude comes on and says "bundle up Tucson", get our your woolies cause you are gonna need them. Mr Doodles looks at me and says huh? I thought it was gonna go down to the 40's. Guess that's an OK temp for Mr Doodles. Nope 36* my sweet. And rain. Now you know what happens when the temps drop and it rains the cold goes right thru ya.

Well in fact we did wake up to rain in the nite and sure enough it did dip down to the mid 30's, with sleet, a bit of hail and a lot of snow on the mountains that surround us.
Using a fair amount of propane to heat our sweet RV, doubt that this cold snap will last thru February. We'll see how Mr Doodles handles this. One thing I cannot convince him to do is use body cream. He calls it slimy stuff and is convinced I am getting a commission from these lotion companies.....I wish!!!

Mt Lemon is about 9500ft so they got a ton a snow. Makes those skiers here happy, BUT it didn't last long. But it sure looked pretty from a distance. My photo's didn't do it justice. So I think I'll go see some Christmas decorations and see what the dessert looks like deorated for the holidaze..................stay tuna'd

It's called the Storm of the Century

And from what I understand Oklahoma east and north it is brutal. I just pray that there are no deaths or injuries.

Just got a few photos from our friends, the Nutz who live just west of Toronto in Canada.

I can just see the sweet Mrs Nutz standing on the porch in all her warm winter clothing being the good wife and documenting this event. Then running in and fixing the cold soul a nice hot cuppa cocoa.......hahahahaha!!! Don't forget the marshmallows!

Mr Nutz is in there somewhere, but damn he looks cold. And to think all we had here was some heavy frost this a.m.

It's only mid December Sooooooooo, stay tuna'd ; )

Happy Birthday to you

Lorna

December 15, 1922
to
February 5, 2002

We miss you momma!!!

Heard this on NPR

Good site for those that care and one would hope it is each and everyone of you. As they mentioned this is not a doom and gloom but more of a public service to make us all more aware. But being informed is half the battle. What I like is the list of companies that are trying to make a difference. Support those companies once you become more informed.

Go over and read up because maybe, just maybe there is one thing you can do and leave a better world for your family.

http://www.climatecounts.org/about.php

PS..............Mr Doodles was quite happy that his favorite beer company made the top three

Now it's on to Christmas

and I have yet to come in contact with the Christmas spirit. Where does one find that so very important tool?

Maybe I'll get in the truck drive around Tucson in the 75* plus heat, turn the radio to the Sirius station that is playing at Christmas music all the time. Well they did play a few of my favorites such as Johnny Mathis singing my mommas favorite tunes of the season. There's a story to that and I will share it later. Also they played Brian Setzer's very wild Christmas tunes. If you haven't heard his music go pop on over to Amazon and listen to snippets. His music will put ya into the Christmas spirit sorta.

Well the music didn't really send me over the top with the spirit of the holidays BUT I did get an idea!!! A couple of years ago I volunteered at the library to read to little ones. Most of which were pre-school age. And if you have never had the opportunity to read to oh maybe eight or ten preschoolers go do it just once, cause it's a hoot.

So I went to the local library, asked if they needed readers for the little darlings during the day. Well you would have thought I was giving them a winning Lotto ticket. The conversation went a little like this....... "Yes, yes, yes, please when can you read, coulda ya come Monday morning at ten and Wednesday afternoon at three. Well, a I guess, but don't ya wanna know something about me like my name and a little background. Sure go ahead she said, here write down your name and phone number. Do you have a Christmas sweater or a shirt that's festive? We want to read some Holiday stories during the next few weeks. Sure I have something festive I can wear. Good we'll see you on Monday, come early so you can meet the other volunteers and we can have coffee. OK I'll see ya Monday.......thanks."

Now I'm not sure how to take that conversation. I don't want to over analyze so I am keeping an open mind till after Wednesday. I'm gracious, I'll give them two days, actually I'm only giving them a couple a hours..............so stay tuna'd I might just be finding the Christmas spirit within those little pre-schoolers.

Acrophobia

is actually no laughing matter. Oh acrophobia is a fear of heights. And it can be quite debilitating. Most folks that have a fear of heights have no problem whatsoever going up in an airplane. I think it's when said acrophobia person puts two feet off the ground out in the wide open spaces that's when the fear sets in big time.

But now let me tell you about Mr Doodles, my resident acrophobic. Now I know why he never wanted to go up the Eiffel Tower. When visiting our friends in Canada this summer, dear Mr Nutz was kind enough to get up on the roof of our RV to install some needed goodies. I was very grateful for the task, hell Mr Nutz has no fear. Anyway why would Mr Doodles get up on the roof when he has his friend Mr Nutz, the guy wasn't born yesterday ya know.

OK now cut to the rain we had a couple a days ago. We have an enclosed satellite dish on the roof of the RV. The enclosure is plastic and needs to be cleaned. That's coming from the company that makes the satellite system. Ya gotta get up there clean it off with the proper cleaner and then spray this stuff on it used for plastic only. No mam ya can't use RainX that's for glass ya have to use this stuff. Ok, ok I'll go find this stuff. Well low and behold good old WalMart has it I discover. So I get a bottle of this stuff and then some bug and tar remover cleaner. Take it home, share the information with Mr Doodles and his answer was "when the water dries off the roof of the RV I'll go up there". HA!!! Go to bed that nite thinking I can do this right. I know of Mr Doodles hesitant nature when he goes up a ladder more than two rungs.

That morning I'm sitting at the computer and I hear this noise, like someone is throwing something on the roof or walking around. WTH I realized, HOLY SHIT what are you doing up
there? Well I didn't want ya to miss your show tonite............HOLY CRAP!!!

Some days the boy just amazes me!!!

ya just never know what's next so stay tuna'd.......

It's pouring here!!!!

I know a lot of my friends need rain in their areas. Just about now, since it has rained all nite, all day yesterday AND the nite before, I'd be just more than happy to pack you up a bit of this moisture and send it UPS to y'all.

I do know that the much needed areas of Southern California got some sprinkles. I know it wasn't much but every little bit helps. If in fact it rains too hard there in the fire zones guess what, mud slides. Those folks that were so lucky to not lose their home in the fires, one hard rain and their lovely home is sliding down the hill. So keep these good folks in your thoughts and prayers cause a mud slide is NOT what ya want for Christmas.

Hope this doesn't sound selfish BUT while you're saying a prayer remind the dear Lord above that the UCLA Bruins Football Team will be playing their cross town rivals USC today at 1:30 p.m. The Bruins have not had a stellar season this year but sure would be a happy camper if they beat SC. Also just want my dear niece to have a very happy day when the Bruins beat the snot outta SC.

OK we are having an afternoon outing of sorts, that is if the rain holds off. We are headed to the Tamale Festival in South Tucson. Happens to be on an Indian Reservation so this just might be a lot of fun..........stay tuna'd

There are folks that are depending on YOU!!!

The SOB's............OK I don't normally go off like that BUT ya gotta go read what my sister just blogged.......... here>>>>http://frenchbenefits.blogspot.com/2007/11/speak-with-your-wallet-for-those-who.html

We, as human beings, cannot allow big business to treat people in this manner. Come on folks step up, do something. Having lived in Florida for many years with their corporate office in our vicinity, we did hear a lot about BK Corp. It's bad enough we, residents of this fabulous country, allow our government to treat us so very shabbily, I know that's not a word....tough!!!

Do me a favor, don't, just don't contribute to this companies madness. Plus they have crappy commercials.

My favorite Pup

Recently we had the opportunity to spend about ten days with this guy. He is my sister's family dog. And let me say that "Buddy" yes he has the same name as the evil cat that resides with the Doodle clan.
Buddy, the dog is just the sweetest and well behaved animal. I have taken many photos of Buddy but this is just one of my favorites. I took this right before we all left to go our separate ways.

Look at that face is that not the sweetest puppy face.

Living the compact life

I am writing this for me as much as y'all to give an insite as to RV living.

Cleaning...lordy I found dust and dirt in the bottom of drawers and shelves that I have no idea how it got there. I know it probably came from living in plenty of gravel RV Parks around the country, but how it creeps into the RV drawers and such... I must be more diligent when docked around gravel spots. . Anyhow it took lots and lots of cleaning to get rid of the grit and now I have sparkly clean drawers and closets.

For some baby boomers, the RV life has become the new Harley Davidson – a symbol of nomadic/gypsy freedom. In a way it is gypsy like, but there is a bonus you get to meet up with old and new friends while seeing the vistas of this great country. Most of you know we crammed 18,000 miles into a about six months. And yes we will admit we did overdo by a few miles but the sites we saw were just amazing. And there is so much more for us to see. Like the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, DC Zoo, Vietnam Memorial, Atlanta Aquarium all kinds a places to visit and revisit So listen to this...YIKES!!! pray for me please!!!

Mr Doodles has convinced me there is Alaska in our future. Now, just for visiting mind you, but three months. So a plan has been put in place for such a trip. I was hesitant, that's putting it mildly, for a long time, stamping my foot, hell no I won't go, way too remote for me, too far, too long - hell I could go on and on. Till finally Mr Doodles said OK then Buddy, he's the cat, and I will go. I almost said " see ya!!!" Then I thought about it. And then stepmomma relayed her experiences of Alaska and it did sound intriguing, sorta. I even offered stepmomma to take my place. But after the conversation with her I figured what the hell, OK I'll go. Be alert Mr Doodles my Christmas present to you is telling you I'm going to Alaska. Now that means we will delay buying and building anything for at least another year, but what the hell ya only live once and think of the photos I can take. Wonder how much gravel there is in Alaska. I'll let y'all know.

One of the big question that folks making the jump from "sticks and bricks" to a "life on the road" is a good, solid, important one: how to decorate for the holidays..........that is a definite stay tuna'd

don't think I've been slacking

cause I haven't been. I figured out how to cook a turkey breast (almost too large for my teeny oven) with all the trimmings. What a feat that was and I say that with all the smugness I can muster. Use your imagination cause I only took one photo.


But pictured here is the Foster Farms boob I cooked. And I am dead serious when I tell ya it was almost too big for my teeny oven. But roasted Foster Farm boob and all the trimmings were done to perfection even if I do say so myself. Included was my favorite pie........ Pecan from Marie Callender's. I figured if I was doing all the cooking I get to choose the dessert. Attention Mr Doodles, you cook, you can choose the dessert. Oh yeah a dollop of fresh whipped cream on my pie slice, Mr Doodles had a dollop of Cold Stone ice cream in honor of his friend Mr Nutz.

So now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, we all had a good dose of Prilosec, Christmas is coming, you do know that right?!?!? And I must get going..........get a note off to Santa just to let him know that we have re-located to the great SouthWest.

Think I'm gonna go enjoy the wonderful culture here, snap some photo's, so stay tuna'd........

360 degree sunset

you may click on this photo to enlarge for better viewing or you may go look at my other photos at my flickr site
To have a beautiful sunset you need clouds, not a lot of clouds but some. This particular sunset took peoples breath away as it was in total surround. Oh my word it was stunning. I couldn't snap fast enough. Southern Arizona is beginning to surpass the Florida Keys in dynamic sunsets.



I'm on a photo Mission for my friend kimmy ................stay tuna'd

I do believe in omens!!!

While in Southern California we did lot's as I have posted but one day our day started out as a girls shopping day. Ya see I needed to go find a baby present for a friends newly arrived little one. Sister and stepma were happy to accompany me - go figure. We got lucky and found a really nice baby shop in a local store. Wow this is good we say. Now we have to finalize our shopping for our Thanksgiving feast we were to have the following day. More about that later. Waltzed into the market got what we needed and were outta there in no time. Nothing perishable so all was OK in the trunk of Stepma's car. Cool!!! Hmmm who's hungry? Well yes of course we all were but wanted to check in with the husbands and see what they were up to. They oddly enough answered their cell and we discovered they were at an olde air museum and would have lunch later. Super we were still on our own.......let's go have an In and out Burgers. Stepma had not been in awhile and it's a fav of sister and myself. Lunch out of the way and more shopping on the menu I must run to the ladies room first. We get out to the car and I explain that the restroom must have had a very ill person in there so I must find a restroom. Stepmomma says "well we are close to the Casino and they have restrooms". There certainly was not a lot of hesitation when we all said sure why not we'll go for and hour. Sister was glad we did and so was I. Stepma didn't fare quite as well but was still smiling. We walked out of the casino well to the good. And even had more time to shop. Life is good!!! Now about that Thanksgiving we decided to have our Thanksgiving early since most of us were together. We sure did miss my niece and her sweet husband. And I'm telling ya Mr Nutz, ya shoulda stayed. Wander over to PBE for the menu and a couple a photo's.

Mr Doodles and I are now settled in Southern Arizona for the winter months so stay tuna'd cause the sunsets are divine.....photos to follow.

Veterans All ...................We Thank You

Our family albeit small we have several Veterans. My sweet Mr Doodles happens to be one of them. He is a Canadian by birth and came to the states when is was in his early 20's. When he was about to cross the border from Vancouver to travel down to California he was informed of the possibility or being drafted. This man was not about to be drafted so he signed up with the Air Force. Oddly enough ended up with a top secret clearance and not even a citizen. I am grateful that this man is by my side each and everyday.

As I am grateful for my brother-in-law, his wonderful father and my father for their contribution to all of our safety and peace of mind.

And to all of our service men and women serving around the world to make our world a better place thank you.

Maybe you would like to say thanks, go to this site http://www.letssaythanks.com/

And if you care to pass the site address along to friends and family so they can say thanks too.

paid in full.......

Did I happen to mention there are Indian Gaming CASINOS here in the desert?

Well last nite after a lovely dinner sister Moon put together and some rowdy conversation around said dinner table, we all got ready to go back to our respective RV's, when Mr Nutz and I decided we should go see how the construction was going on the local casino. Agua Caliente happens to be in the midst of a very large expansion. Didn't have any takers to come along sooooooooo off we went. Let me just say this I walked away at 12:15 am with enough winnings to pay for the trip to the desert.........hot DAMN!!!

Now I wonder if I should go back tonite to see how the construction is going...............stay tuna'd!!!

PS..........must also mention that I sure do miss having my sweet niece here with the gathering of the clan. Her and her husband a traveling to London for a conference. But lil bird please know we talked about y'all ;)