HOW TO TELL IF YOU'RE LIVING IN ARIZONA

It's the middle of February.  Much of the United States and many other parts of the world are struggling with fierce winter storms of ice, snow, sleet, freezing rain, rain and flooding.

Meanwhile, my former neighbor and his new dog are relaxing in Phoenix.

(His wife told me the pool heater wasn't turned on and the water was freezing.  But what does he know.  He's from Edmonton, Alberta, and when the temperature gets above 40 F. he puts on shorts and a t-shirt.)

THE FULL MONTY . . OOPS, I MEAN MOON!

The first photo was taken the day before the full moon.  The waxing gibbous moon . . 99% of it . . can be seen faintly high up.

X marks the spot.

Well not really.  These were just a couple of random jet contrails marking the sky.

O.K.  Now comes the full moon and some of the worst photos ever taken of it.

This was taken through a window from my desk.  Kinda looks like a reflected 60 watt ceiling bulb, doesn't it?  But it's the moon.  I swear it.

Then I went outside armed with my mighty Nikon Coolpix 1.22 and my smartphone camera.  The first three photos are from the smartphone.

And the last one is from the Mighty Nikon.

About the only thing you can tell from my excellent photography is that the moon is round (full).  I've tried to photograph it before with the same results.

If you really want to see good pictures of the moon, go to to Dr. M's blog.  He has more sophisticated cameras AND knowledge of how to use them.  He gets photos like this.

Not too shabby, eh?

FRIDAY FUNNIES

You didn't think I'd forget what day it is, did you?

Happy Valentine's Day!

And Happy Birthday, Arizona!  102 years old today.

But back to the subject at hand.

Oooohh, that was rough, wasn't it?  And today of all days.  Oh, well. Onward!

Today's quiz . .

And finally (as one of the anchormen I used to write for said before the last story of every newscast) . . .

Have a great day, folks, and be nice to your mates!

STOP WHINING - HERE'S THE RECIPE

O.K. In response to thousands* of calls for the recipe for the pie I made today, here it is.

Ingredients:

2 cups milk

1 cup shredded coconut

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup all purpose flour

8 Tablespoons butter

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Place all ingredients except nutmeg in a blender and mix well. Pour into a greased and floured pie plate.  Sprinkle nutmeg on top.

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes (more or less).

I baked mine for an extra 8 or 9 minutes because it looked really loose after the initial 45.  Center was still loose when I took it out but it solidified upon cooling.  And it sank down, too.

And like I said to another recipe requester, you men who may decide to make this might not want to show the recipe to your significant other.  She might be horrified at the amount of sugar and butter.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

(* - two, actually.  So far)

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING THIS MORNING?

I've been trying out a new recipe I found on the Internet.  It's called Impossible Pie, I guess because all the ingredients are mixed in a blender.  Here's the picture that sold me on making it.

I don't know enough about baking to know if I should have changed some amounts of ingredients because of being at a higher elevation (5,100 feet) but mine went crazy in the oven.  Here it is right after I took it out.

As you can see, the sucker rose very high and some of it went over one side and dripped onto the bottom of the oven.  

By the way it's kind of a coconut cream pie.  The recipe says it will have a coconut vanilla flavor.  Two of my favorites!  So I'm looking forward to what will happen when I cut into it.

As you can see by this picture mine didn't get that nice even crust, probably because it rose so much in the baking.

SWMBO says mine looks like a macaroon.

(To be continued once I taste it.)

O.K.  Here's an update.  I took some of the pie that overflowed the edge of the pie plate.  It's DELICIOUS!  Tastes just like it should and a little crunchy because of the overflow.  I will, however, have to do some research to figure out how to keep it from rising so much.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

MY LAST WEATHER POST

When I first moved to Arizona, many years ago, I got a great kick out of telling my friends and relatives still living in North Dakota about our great winter weather.  One year I sent a photo of myself on Christmas Day with a big smile on my face, a wreath on my head, holding a glass of champagne . . . in a swimming pool.

After awhile my friends and relatives were unanimous in saying they didn't want to hear about the weather anymore.  So I stopped.

This year, with the growth of social media and the television networks enthralled with the terrible winter in probably three-fourths of the nation, I resumed.  You see the weather in Arizona this winter has been wonderful.  At least for someone like me who got all the snow, ice and cold weather he ever wanted during my first 29 years in the Dakotas.  (I spent one year living in South Dakota, all the rest were in Nor'-Dakota, as the natives sometimes call it.)

But watching the news last night with another couple of ice and snow storms bearing down on Atlanta and other parts of the Southeast unaccustomed to such brutal weather, I resolved to shut up again.  Hold me to this, folks, I will not brag on our sunny days with temperatures in the 60's and 70's while most of the rest of my country is suffering.

So this is it.  A photo I took the other day of the sky over our new home.

If you look carefully you can see a tiny wisp of cloud in the upper left corner.  But that was it.  

So I'll enjoy my paradisaical winter weather in silence.  (But still with a big grin on my face.)