Paradise Bakery and Sun City history

Roberta wasn't feeling well last night so Sharon, Sid and I went to Paradise Bakery. The food was very good - I had a half of a vegetarian sandwich (Roasted Portobello mushrooms, red pepper hummus, jicama, avocado and Havarti cheese, sprouts, lettuce and tomato on multigrain bread) and a cup of fire-roasted tomato soup. Food was quite good. We think that Mom and Dad would quite like it - the one we went to is over near Sprout's on Bell Road. I'm relatively sure I've been to a Paradise Bakery before, Gerry said it wasn't with them.

Internet connection was down last night for some reason, but seems to be up and running this morning.

Sharon and I went to see the first Sun City house/museum yesterday - it was a big step back in time - early 60s. The house's original price was $8500 - two bedrooms, one bathroom - fairly small, but the kitchen was, relatively speaking, a good size. The house, particularly the kitchen and the bathroom had a lot of pink in them. Originally, air conditioning was an extra $600. Might be a nice little stop from Mom and Dad when they are out here - they're open 1:30-4 Tuesday through Friday, I think. Also, a number of maps of the Sun City/Sun City West areas back in the 60s.

The latest from CNN, but did you all see the news about Medtronic and think of SID?

June 26, 2007 -- NANCY Grace is revealing that she was secretly married in April-and that she's expecting twins in January.
"I'm finally not keeping it a secret anymore," she told The Post.
Grace says she still hasn't told CNN that she's pregnant. She'll officially make the announcement tonight on her Headline News show, "Nancy Grace."
Grace married David Linch -an Atlanta investment banker she has known since they attended Mercer College together in the late 1970s.
"We've been in touch all these years and a lot of time we were separated by geography and time," she says. "It was a spur-of-the-moment decision to get married. I told my family only two days before [the wedding].
"We got married in April in Atlanta with just my family and his family there," she says. "It was a simple ceremony conducted by my longtime pastor from a little Methodist church in Macon.
"I walked down the aisle to my favorite song, 'Moon River,' and I did my own vows. I read from the Book of Ruth and I wore my sister's bridal veil.
"I never thought it would happen like this," she says. "I thought 'mother' and 'wife' was just not part of God's plan for me.
"This is such a blessing, and I just can't believe that, at my age, I would find such happiness."
She declined to say if she'd had fertility treatments in order to become pregnant at age 47.
"But you tell women out there that there is hope," she said.
Time will tell if motherhood and marriage mellows the cable news channel host's pit-bull disposition.
But her personal news does answer questions that arose when she left Court TV last month.
"I knew something had to go, and that [something] was Court TV," she says. "I was firm that I wanted out of my option, but I didn't reveal that I was carrying twins."
So how does Grace think CNN will react to the news? "They'll be thrilled," she says. "I don't think they'll be angry at all."

Waking up time

IT appears some folks are up before I am for the day! Great pictures......thanks for posting! We are off for our favorite meal out, and then to buy a garbage disposal, I thought ours was just on strike, but even the repairman said it has died! More later of our exciting life! We were at Walmart yesterday, I still don't understand what the fellow in the WSJ was saying when he said people were staying away from Walmart because they were too crowded......Roberta the poster

Mom & Dad - June 2007

Carolyn (Vanzant) Brown sent me this picture which she says was taken at a graduation party for Jerica Keplinger. Great picture, lovely setting!

Among the animals

Wendy got a zoo membership for her birthday and has taken KC several times already. We went with her last Monday to celebrate Columbus Day. KC especially like patting the goat (pictured next to him, and one under the bench he and Wendy are sitting on also) in the petting area.

Only 3/4 school year remains

Glad to report that we have made it through the first 9 weeks and between the two kids only 1 B on the two report cards (I nearly flunked Chemistry so I can't say anything about a B in it!). Today is homecoming at school with the big football game tonight but no school sponsored dance. Does Grace Baptist (or whatever the school name is) have homecoming festivities?

Double Decker Chair in Black and White

Fat Cat and Skinny Cat do reside on Ballad Drive. This is one of their favorite chairs in that residence. I decided to make photo black and white since the chair and the decoration behind Fat Cat were the only really colorful places in the photo.

Libraries

I thought some of you might get a kick out of this Google maps mashup. It can display US public libraries on Google maps. You can check out where the libraries are near a particular zip code. Neither Sun City nor Sun City West libraries though are on the map.

It doesn't show academic libraries, so if one was looking for, say, University of Cincinnati library, one would have to ask Roberta - or a passing stranger.

Click on the title of this post to see the libraries near 85375, including Catherine's. Northwest Regional is also on the map, but as a central library. Has anybody been to Peoria (AZ) library?

By the way, you don't have to know the zip code, you can just move the map around until you get to the area in which you are interested.

Fat Cat and Skinny Cat

Fat Cat is photographed under the front lanai table. She loves being outside. I had an even better photograph of her last night sitting on one of the lanai chairs, but it was too dark to really see very much. Skinny Cat's photo is in the living room - the photo is compromised by the fact that that I had to lighten it so much due to not enough natural light. Skinny Cat does not like to go outside too often and when he does, he doesn't stay out very long. Perhaps I should learn to use the flash on the camera - assuming there is one.

I sent a copy of another of Fat Cat's photos to Pat to say "Hello" to Dinky.

Cool temperatures in SCW

Last night I actually closed the windows as the air was too cool - low 60s, I think.

With all the excitement of the big lunch out on Thursday at Persian Garden, I forgot to ask Catherine about the big San Diego trip. By the way, Pat called to tell me she had a wonderful time.

Busy day in Glendale

A parade and carnival in downtown Glendale today in honor of fire prevention week and a Family Fitness Fair at the library are among the happenings in Glendale today. We're also busy at work processing first grade library cards for our annual push to get all first graders a special Ready Set Read library card which enables them to get "prizes" the first three times they use their library card as well as follow up prizes at the end of first and second grade.

Hope family members on the road today have good journeys as the easterners head west and two of the SCW contingent head east. Looking forward to our vacation later this month!

Other family members' sayings

Do you want a medal or a chest to pin it on?

It is spelled like "Bible" - U-I-B-L-E, that's the name for me.

You're paying for colored water.

You only need to see the bill if you're paying it.

As they say, "You've got a great voice inside of you, 'cause it sure isn't coming out of your mouth."

Homework before TV

Your eyes are bigger than your stomach.

You'll go and you will have a good time.

Say "MONEY" [as we looked into the camera].

Smell the money [as we passed "fragrant" farms].

Mother's favorite sayings

There's no point in crying over spilt milk. (Although one time when Roberta dropped a full glass gallon of milk, there did seem to be a point to yelling about it.)

Six of one and half a dozen of another.

Little pitchers have big ears. (Although for years I thought it was "pictures" which didn't make much sense.)

Wait until your father gets home.

Get the yardstick. (if you were in trouble) Go outside and get a stick. (if you were in bigger trouble) Go outside and get a big stick. (if you were in BIG trouble)

If it was a snake it would have bitten you.

If I told you once, I told you a thousand times.

If you can't say anything good, don't say anything at all.

No elbows.

Aunt Cora is alive in you. (in reference to anyone who just plopped into a chair)

No boarding house reach.

What do you say? or What is the magic word? (if you failed to say "please")

It is before the at. (When you said "where is it at?")

If I wanted you to just yell for your siblings, I could have done that myself.

I know you CAN, the question is whether you MAY.

Salt of the earth.

The problem with kittens is that they grow up to be cats.

Smile like you mean it.

Harold Uible--Pillar in the Community

Grandma's sayings

Whistling girls and cackling hens always come to some bad end.

If you keep shrugging your shoulders, they're going to fall off.

Girlie . . .

It's too bad you can't stay longer, but I know you have other things to do (said after non-family visitors overstayed their welcome).

You can't take it with you.

Almost October

This is Roberta the blogger looking for blogs! I do have some news and that is that we have the windows open in the house now! Can anyone else say that? We were also out on the bike this afternoon for an hour ride, and came back quite proud of ourselves! Looking forward to dining in Wendy's honor tomorrow night with the Uible Morgan delegation at a restaurant I can't spell or pronounce, BUT,,,,,it is near IHOP and SKYE Restaurants and less than a mile to COSTCO, which means we will stopping there on the way back!

Nashville and beyond...

Had a good visit with Jeanne Sanker this afternoon and arrived south of Nashville for the night with no major pitfalls other than a u-turn or two! I would upload pictures of the folks and Mrs. Sanker but my memory card doesn't fit this computer and the usb cord/camera are in the car and I am in my pajamas. So, an update will be coming. The new car got about 32 mpg on the way south! :D

Siblings

From All

Honoring HH

Everything went very well tonight and everyone was kind and generous with their comments about Dad and his service to the community! More on the picasa web album when I'm not using dial-up to post pictures!


September 17, 2007

Roberta and KC up close

From Monika

eyes OPEN

Roberta and Gerry introduce KC to soda pop

From Monika

Roberta - the anti-protest protester

Nursing moms to protest Applebee's breast-feeding policy

The Applebees that they went to had nothing to do with the protest - there were no protesters there. (If you were expecting this to make sense, remember, this is Roberta.)

a new one

Just checking in and that we are off to see some local National monuments. Last night ate of the local Applebee's where there was no protesting going on. In fact we had quite the surprise, soon after we got there this gentleman brought over a $20 bill and told us to put that toward our meal. I protested a bit, and then told him we would "pass it on".........

KC - 9 months old

KC turned 9 months old this week. Wendy took him to the Dr. yesterday for his well baby check. He now weighs 26 pounds five ounces and is 30 inches tall.

He loves to stand up, pulling himself up at every chance. Meanwhile he's still perfecting his crawl, loves to clap his hands and is a cheerful happy baby.

Rocking chair

This is the "new" rocking chair we got at the thrift store. I decided to go ahead and snap the photo while the chair was still in the garage since the living room is still relatively full of patio furniture - I brought in that furniture so that the sun wouldn't beat down on fabric, etc. all summer when it is too hot for sane people to sit out on a patio anyway. Probably should have turned the chair around so that I could have taken the photo with the sun at my back - I just thought since it is a relatively cloudy day . . . Oh well.

This photo was taken in the AL garage - those wooden doors enclose large storage areas.

"New" electric sit-up chair

This is the chair we got at Sun City West thrift store. Although you can't really tell from this photo, it is one of those chairs that the seat slowly rises up to put the person seated into an almost standing upright position by the time it is done rising - in this photo the chair is in the eject position. It does have some wear - which you can see on seat cushion bottom where the back of one's knees are in contact with the chair - other than that it looks great.

I'm not sure about the positioning of the chair. The problem with furniture in this house is that there are so many windows and they all have those lovely and useful plantation shutters. However, if one wants to be able to open and close said shutters, one can't place furniture within several feet of the wall. And this chair is HEAVY. It is less easy to move on carpeting than one might think. Anyway, for now the chair is in the master bedroom.

Red Top Mountain photos

From All

Has everyone seen MV's photos from the Red Top Mountain trip? This is one of the photos - the album can be found here. Unfortunately, at least at this point, one can't copy a photo from another's web album and put the photo in a blog. One has to download it, then upload it into your own album and THEN you can post it in a blog. I have a number of guesses as to why they make you do it that way, not sure if that will change or not. Anyway . . . gotta get going, thrift store opens in 25 minutes.

Link to Red Top Park, courtesy of MV.

Cool morning in SCW

It is only about 83 degrees so far this morning, so I've been able to open all the windows and the front door to air out the house some. By this week-end I may be able to go back to the Spring routine. Leave air-conditioning off during the day, turn it on at 9pm to cool down the house - electricity rates are lower 9pm - 9am and weekends - like long distance. Turn off the AC when I go to bed, then open up the house in the early morning to air it out and cool it off again. Then by about 8am - the house has to be closed up again because of the rising heat. The house actually stays pretty cool with the shutters closed.

Since about June 1st, this is only the second time I've wanted to have the windows open - it is usually in the 90s - if not the 100s - even EARLY, EARLY.

Well, I've had my breakfast first course - a "shake" with berries, carrot, spinach, banana, cinnamon in it. I'm working my way through a Costco bag of spinach - 40 oz. I'll be ready for a new bag of it soon. Next course is coffee with milk.

By the way, I was reading an article recently about super healthy foods and one of the foods mentioned was lima beans - which I still hate. That, and raisins, were the two foods on the list that I just don't eat. (Spinach, carrots, berries, cinnamon and bananas were ALSO mentioned - and I "invented" my shake before I read the article.)

I'm meeting Pat Odom this morning at Chez Nous - we're going to go pick up her Rec Center card at the administration office, then I'm going to show her Beardsley and Palm Ridge Rec Centers. She is interested in the indoor pools. Also, today is supposed to be the re-opening of the SCW thrift store (it was closed last week) and I've heard rumors of a great sale, so I'm going to hit there first.

As far as when Monika is here . . . I know I had suggested breakfast, but another possibility is pizza. I'd make pizza dough and sauce

Anyway, time to get going . . .

Castro is still alive, but Franco is still dead

The joke MV referred to in email was actually about Franco - described in Wikipedia here. MV would have been too young to stay up to watch Saturday Night Live back then.

Remember how John used to love to quote Chevy Chase, "I'm Chevy Chase . . . and you're not"?

School Bus Stories

Mary, what is the first day story? Is that the one where you got up super early and then still missed the school bus? Personally, no interesting school bus stories happened to me that I can remember. That was a big topic at our reunion though

Just checking

And looking for the next new post, Roberta who can't think of anything to write, but could talk for hours........

Target Heart Rate for Exercise

From the American Heart Association:
One way to gauge your heart rate during exercise is called "conversational pace"---if you can talk and walk (or your preferred exercise), you're not working too hard. If you can sing and maintain your current level of effort, you're not working hard enough. If you can't catch your breath, you are working too hard!
If you participate in more-vigorous activities like brisk walking and jogging, the "conversational pace" approach may not work. Then try using the target heart rate. It works for many people, and it's a good way for health professionals to monitor your progress. Subtract your current age from 220. This is your maximum heart rate. For instance, mine would be 220-43=177. Target heart rate should be 50-85% of your maximum heart rate for optimal cardiac health. To make it even easier, you can see the link I've attached. The AHA cautions that if you're not exercising, you should begin at or even below the 50% goal and then progress higher as you become accustomed to exercise.

San Diego Weekend

Here's where we had breakfast yesterday, although we were under the roofed part of the patio -- it's a very pleasant place to eat and watch the tourists walk by at the same time in moderate temperatures (low 70s). We both had egg-beaters Mexican style --NO CHEESE, of course! Dee and Dan are doing well, kids Jessica, soon to be 18 and a senior in HS. Zachary, age 13, an 8th grader; and Jonathan, a younger version of Gerry, who will be 10 next month. Twins, Sarah & Dallas are in Las Vegas

Good to be back home with only four days to work before I get Friday off, although that means I work both Saturday and Sunday, but then comes Labor Day!

From All

Hot Summer in the City

Anybody else see the NYT article in today's paper about Phoenicians who summer in San Diego every year?

If today is 110 degrees or above it will be the 27th day to do so this summer - which ties a record. My little weather add-on on my Internet browser says high of 109 degrees in SCW. The tv news is forecasting 112, I think.

Anyway, the link for the article is in the title of this post or here. It is a permalink which means that unlike regular NYT link - which expire (well, they don't exactly expire, but after 7 days they link to the payment required article).

It is interesting to compare the most blogged NYT articles to the most emailed NYT articles. The most blogged are almost always much more political. So many political blogs.

KC standing up

Here's a recent picture (8/19) of KC at our house in his crib/play pen. Wendy's been bringing him to babytime at the library every Tuesday night since I've been doing it lately it's fun to see Wendy, KC & Gerry in the audience. KC enjoys the program as well as checking out the other babies. Several around 8 months old -- neat to see the stages of development, and see them all (especially our KC!) grow up. Our next babysitting day is the Friday before Labor Day as Wendy's babysitter is off that day and so am I since I work the weekend.

500th Post on the Blog!

And there are approximately 800 comments on those 500 posts.

I don't really have anything else to say.

Any chance we're going to try for Persian Garden again some time soon?

Monday morning in Glendale

Good Morning! Here I am sacrificing my breakfast (until I finish this post) so Roberta -- and the multitude of other readers of this blog -- will have a post to read. Finished two books over the weekend, Sailing the Wine-dark Sea was an interesting look at Ancient Greece and how it has impacted our lives; and the Color of Magic, first in Pratchett's Discworld series, is a fun fantasy by a quirky author Serena had recommended to me years ago and I have finally "gotten into". Short work week for me this week! Look for details elsewhere though as I'm not posting them to the blog. Happy Monday!

Roberta Uible-King

March 3, 1955  Magnolia Garden

Alta Loma Couch Switch

From My Photos

Below is the old couch - after about 3 months of wear - photo was taken in early July. Above is the new couch - which JC Penney exchanged for the old couch. The old couch was mostly covered with those light patches by the time it left the house.

From My Photos

Alaska ~1915

Just a few years before Mom & Dad even had thoughts -- let alone of Alaska! Here's what the caption with the picture said: Stern-wheelers Louise and Delta on the Yukon River circa 1915 at the Gold Rush supply center of Ruby, Alaska, which at its peak was home to some 3,000 people. A fire in 1929 and flood two years later obliterated much of the town, which today has fewer than 200 residents.

Recumbent Bikes

These are my two favorite bikes at the gym...the Nautilus (with the holes in the seat) came in about 2 weeks ago and has a lot of bells and whistles on it and could even be hooked up to display TV on the monitor! The one on the right (Lifestyle brand) is older but still very nice.

Mother and Daughter

From All

Isn't this a cute photo?

Welcome back Sid

From All

Sid eating a plum

From My Photos

Sid in his Boswell hospital room eating a very ripe plum. He had blackberry pie frozen yogurt earlier in the evening - not sure if that counts as a fruit. He did eat some of the supper that the hospital served.

Sid is doing very well, although he is getting antsy to get up and OUT of the hospital. He has taken a couple of walks around inside the hospital.

If you tried to call the room this afternoon, you may not have gotten an answer - the telephone was turned so low that both Roberta and I had trouble hearing it. The phone ringer has been turned up, so . . .

We are hopeful that Sid will get out of the hospital tomorrow. I'm going over to the King house in the relatively early morning so that I can trim a bit more off the offending bush and do clean-up of the courtyard. We don't want Sid deciding that he needs to be outside - other than relaxing or, perhaps, looking for Fat Cat.

More as we know more . . .

First Day of School 2007-08

The kids submitted easily enough to the tradition of taking pictures this morning and we actually go to school early! :)

Notice how Christian is starting to catch up to Ginny in height....

From My Photos

Sid in his Del Webb spa/hospital bed, taken before his transfer to the Boswell spa/hospital. You can kinda see where Roberta has written her name and phone number on the tissue box - in case of an emergency.

Kenneth Charles Counts III

From My Photos

One of the photos taken at Macaroni's Grill today.

Monsoon Season in Phoenix

From My Photos