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

Promise of Hope

Pictures of the chapel at the facility where Don is working;

it was just completed a few months ago! It will seat probably 60-70 people shoulder to shoulder. Right now the facility can only take about 20-25 women but they will be adding more living space.

Atlanta Braves Theme

These are pictures of some of the Braves things in Christian's room. The "sign" looking thing I painted on the wall is actually about 4'x4' although it doesn't look that big in the picture. It replaces a large GT and yellowjacket (Georgia Tech). The clock is rather obvious, which he got for Christmas a couple years ago and the lightswitch is new---got it off ebay for $1.99. :)

After a stop at the SCW thrift store

I picked up a few things a the SCW thrift store and then had to figure out a way to get them back home. I bought one of those clothes valets that Dad has wanted for out here - it hangs from the wall - that I buckled to my backpack. I also bought one of those teeny tiny backpacks which I may try using for new camera. Oven pan that has places for eight very small loaves of bread. Also bought five plastic kitchen utensils and one of those little things to hang over the door to hang stuff from. Two additional purchases I considered - a really great looking bicycle (Peugeot) that is actually my size with comfortable seat and flat tires for $25.00 and a pair of very comfortable sandals that were just a bit too wide and bit too long for $7.00.

So I spent
$3.00 clothes valet
2.00 teeny, tiny backpack
2.00 bread pans
1.25 kitchen utensils
.25 door hangie thingie (yes, that is the technical name for it)

Oh, and you can't see my water bottle that hangs around my neck - I bought the container (for the bottle) with a strap a few months ago at the $.99 store - hot pink plastic.

I also biked to Sun City Grand to have breakfast at Dillon's although they were closed this morning - was there with a group in early May for breakfast and they were open but too busy to stay. There is a big difference in numbers of people around here in May and those in August. So I ended up at Jose somebody Cafe for breakfast at the community center - at least that is what I think it was. I had bread pudding and coffee. The coffee was delicious; the bread pudding was a nice size, very attractive (layered with cinnamon, I think) and good, but not great. The bread pudding was $1.25 and the coffee was, I think, $1.79.

Friday off

Greetings from Glendale! Life goes on here despite my non-posting. Today was my day off so we went shopping for new dishware to replace our 30 year-old corelle and bedroom slippers. Didn't find either that we wanted so at least had lunch out at Zang's in downtown Glendale. Some of you have eaten there with us before. Serena, we haven't forgotten about Persian Gardens. Are we thinking of next Friday now?

walking the golf course

Not this very moment, but we just got back and while out this gentleman rode by with his cute dog, and I said "Max" and sure enough it was the Max that you have been helping Serena. He was quite surprised......too! Then we had another golf cart go by us and he had a big OHIO STATE flag, or rather a small one but it seemed big.......and sure enough he knew New Vienna! He used to go to Wilmington a lot on business. I am most curious to see your new camera Serena. In the meantime I am happy to see pictures of it. How do I scan a picture into my computer?

night. Might that make a statement? More later, I have to be up and going at 6 something Next topic, food.....we had an unusual dish tonight, started out to be beans and rice, then added the famous Costco chicken to it, then some left over vegetables, and what all and it turned out to be good. I am glad of that since we have plenty left over......um, Sid mentioned about eating out tomorrow. This opening up is getting to me. TGIF....almost!

New camera

First photo on my new camera!

Well not really the first one . . . the first one was of my brunch which I seem to have "lost" somewhere - the photo, not the brunch. The second one was of the couch as I clicked the wrong button while I was messing around with the camera and the third one was of the computer screen, but a very small portion of it. So . . .

FOURTH PHOTO ON MY NEW CAMERA!

It just doesn't have the same ring does it?

I just wanted to take a quick photo . . . got an appointment this afternoon - just the other side of Stardust off of Echo Mesa/Heritage.

The LCD screen is small (about the size of my finger - down to the first knuckle . . . of my little finger). However, I think it will work fine for what I want. It is about the size of my cell phone, but thinner and taller.

just checking

for any new posts and comments.......YES????? Roberta who the sheets are calling. Did everyone get Sid's latest email? CHEZ Nous made the front page of the valley section in todays AZ Republic. Did any of the AZ delegation catch that? No wonder how phones was ringing today!

Zip Lines in Costa Rica Article

Professional zip-line in, Costa Rica
Professional versions of a zip-line are most typically used as an outdoor adventure activity. In contrast to "flying foxes" professional courses are usually operated at higher speeds covering much longer distances and sometimes at considerable heights. The users are physically attached to the cable by wearing a harness which attaches to a removable pulley. Most courses require the use of a helmet.
Cables can be very high, starting at a height of over 30 feet (9 m), and traveling well over 200 feet (60 m).
Costa Rica is known for their Canopy Tours where a vacationer can zip through the rainforest. The zip-lines are scattered among several platforms, some as high as 130 feet.
Zip-lines are a common way to return participants to the ground at the end of a ropes adventure course.
In past days in the Australian outback, flying foxes were occasionally used for delivering food, cigarettes or tools to people working on the other side of an obstacle such as a gully or river. Australian troops have used them to deliver food, mail and even ammunition to forward positions in several conflicts.

171 Starbucks (*$$)

On the news this morning they had a piece about a guy who went to all 171 Starbucks in Manhattan within 24 hours, bought something (and consumed part of it). Well, he tried - actually because of disorientation he visited five Starbucks 2 times each. He doesn't normally drink coffee. He went by bicycle for the first 14 hours and then got so dehydrated, disoriented, etc., etc. switched to a car. Had originally gone with a bicycle because it is easier to navigate Manhattan by bike than by car.

I went to Basha's this morning for some fresh produce and milk (on sale for $2.50/gallon, every sixth gallon free). On my way I saw a total of 4 cars - one of which was a Posse car. At Basha's there was a total of 11 cars and two golf carts - no bicycles except the one I was on. Most of the people in Basha's were sitting in the cafe area drinking coffee (I assume it was coffee) and eating tasties. Basha's does not serve Starbucks - I think I would have had to go to Safeway for Starbucks coffee. Actually, my morning coffee is sitting in the refrigerator - made from Costco brand - $6.99 for 39 oz of ground coffee. $6.99 would get me about 4 small coffees at Starbucks. $6.99 would get me almost 14 coffees in my large but disabled Chez Nous mug.

Anyway, at 5am it is pretty nice outside here, but by my return at shortly before 6 it was already feeling warmer and less comfortable.

I just checked Google Maps and they only show 11 Starbucks in all of greater Phoenix! I don't think they show any of the ones inside other stores - like the one in Safeway here in SCW. According to the Starbucks site, there are 10 within 5 miles of here, 25 within 10 miles - and they do, of course, include the ones inside grocery stores.

Anyway, I thought it was an interesting story . . .

Camera

This is the camera I've just ordered from Target. It meets my fairly limited requirements - under $50 (before S&H, but still . . .), takes 3.1 megapixel photographs and is small.

In the last couple of weeks I've done a lot of studying about digital cameras and, as I understand it, 3.1 megapixels is sort of a minimum for 8x10 photographs. I can't quite see why I would want to print something that big, but who knows. I plan to primarily use the camera to photograph things in SCW and then put them on computer (perhaps blog), so I really don't need to be able to take photographs at a high resolution.

I also just can't see spending much on a phone in case it breaks, gets stolen, etc., etc. So far on Alta Loma I've broken a dinner plate, a liter size glass bottle of olive oil, a plastic 2 quart container of soup, 1/2 gallon plastic jug of coffee, two water bottles (one frozen, one not). Ummm . . . that is what I can think of off-hand. Oh, and my Chez Nous mug (the mug is okay, but the handle is gone). I complained to Chez Nous management, but didn't get very far. The tile floors here are hard on stuff. Anyway . . . one of the numerous reasons I went for an inexpensive camera is breakage.

In case you are interested, the link is here for the camera on the Target website.

Greetings from St. Louis

ST. LOUIS UNION STATION
Had dinner here last night after a concert at Christ Church Cathedral. Wondering if Dad came through here on his trip to Palo Alto/Stanford late 1930s? It was nice but I thought Union Station in Cincinnati was much more impressive, especially with all the museums. Several of the storefronts were vacant here.

Many impressive buildings including the city hall, patterned after a french castle. Amazing how many of the local attractions (museums) are free which they credit to the presence of several Forbes 500 companies in the area who support the institutions. We will be heading south tomorrow with a stop overnight in Nashville. Plan to see Amy Cate who teaches Spanish in the metro area---she is the girl who came with us to Williamsburg for the folks 50th anniversary.

Roberta is back!

Roberta got in about 1:30 a.m. - fight delays, etc. Certainly a very good thing that Catherine didn't need to pick her up. I'm sure she will post more details later - assuming she can log in.

Alternative Fuel

All the email discussion about gas prices . . . ALTERNATIVE FUEL! (This is the back cover of the current Reader's Digest that just arrived at Roberta's.) I'm working on an instruction manual for a client with a printer who wants to use is as a scanner.

Coincidentally, client has the same kind of printer/scanner as Sid does - which I admit I hadn't particularly noticed until I happened to look more closely.