A CAJUN CHRISTMAS

I know I've been lax of late in writing posts for my blog and today will be no exception.  Of course if I have Judy and Loretta to write posts, who needs me?  Anyway, we're off to the Musical Instrument Museum again tonight for a concert by the Louisiana band BeauSoleil with Michael Doucet.  (Actually they say "avec" Michael Doucet but I didn't know how good y'all's French was.)  I've been a fan of this group for years so I'm very much looking forward to the concert which is billed as "A Cajun Christmas."  I'll probably have a review on Saturday but in the meantime here's a sample of their music to tide you over.

IS SANTA CLAUS REAL?

I'm learning constantly about the wonderfully creative, talented people in my extended family.  This was posted on Facebook today by my niece, Loretta.  In spite of my usually crusty exterior, this got to my inner "nice person".

I most assuredly perpetuated the lie. I had so many wonderful memories of Santa coming to my house when I was a kid, that it brought me great joy to do the same for my child. Unfortunately my son was very observant and put my lying skills to the test. Questioning why Santa's presents were in packages like the store and the worst one, why Santa had the same wrapping paper as us. The latter is how he figured it out. We had told him at the time that Santa had run out and had to borrow some from us. After that year Santa's presents were always wrapped in paper that was completely different and hidden away. When my son was 9 we moved and when we were hauling stuff into the new place, he found the Santa wrapping paper. That was the moment he figured it out. He was so upset, but not that Santa wasn't real, but that we had lied to him. You lied, you lied to me is what he kept saying. This was in August. By the time Christmas had rolled around he had calmed down and one evening on a drive home from some event we had a conversation. My son at the age of 10 told me that really Santa was real. Not that he was a real person, but he was real in the spirit of giving. That's what Santa was all about. I was a very proud parent at that point. Deep thinker my boy. Now at the age of 21, my son has fond memories of Santa coming to visit and understands the lies. We have been forgiven. So even though I was scolded for lying I would do it all over again without hesitation. Everybody needs a little magic in their lives.

Loretta Taylor Haase

THE TALE OF THE MYSTERIOUS LEAK

Today's post was written by my wife, Judy, better known here as SWMBO (She Who Must Be Obeyed).  While the BRD (Beautiful Rich Daughter) was in Mexico last week, SWMBO house-sat for her and her three cats in Prescott, about 100 miles away.  Here then is her story of her return and an ensuing adventure.

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I got home Friday after being gone for a week .  Unpacked my stuff and went through a week's worth of mail. Did some reading.  Went to bed and got some sleep.

Saturday morning at 8:00 a.m. I walked into the kitchen to find a stream of water running from the refrigerator across the kitchen.   Decided that the evaporator pan must be over-flowing for some reason.  We moved the monster double door fridge out far enough to get behind.  As I was gathering tools to remove the back panel of the fridge, Bruce decided to get the hell out of there and go to the store.

I removed the LOWER BACK panel.  This didn't do a whole lot for my lower back.  There were about eight screws to undo. I used a refrigerator coil brush (didn't think I had one, did you) and the crevice tool of the vacuum cleaner to remove dust, cobwebs and cat hair from everything I could reach.  The evaporator fan started running while I was doing this, so I decided it had been jammed up with debris. I took the front panel off and vacuumed under there too. Now all would be well. I mopped up the water for the third or forth time, but decided to leave the fridge out in the middle of the room...just in case.

Then I went away for a while and came back ....to another stream of water.  I went online for solutions and everyone talked about the evaporator pan, etc.  One guy mentioned the drain hole in the back of the inside of the fridge which could be stopped up by food debris.  Use a pipe cleaner to clear it out and run some water down it and your problem should be solved.  So after about an hour on the computer looking for solutions I went back to the kitchen.  I took the bottom crisper drawer out and found about 1/2 to 3/4 inch of water in the bottom of the fridge.  The puddle had not been coming from the outside/underside of the fridge.  It was coming from the INSIDE.

So I took the next crisper drawer out......and the meat and cheese drawer, cleaned them and set them on the floor.  Still no evidence of where the water was coming from. So, I emptied the rest of the three shelves of the upper part.  Food all over the kitchen. As I got to the top shelf I could see some water dripping down the back left  side. That is the shelf that our box of red wine and our cold water container and tall bottles, like coke and milk sit on.  About this time Bruce (who had slunk back from the grocery store) mentioned that a leftovers container had had water on top of it this past week when he took it out of the fridge.  I took EVERYTHING off the top shelf and they all were wet on the bottom.  It suddenly dawned on me that it might be that the cold water container, which I had filled the night before, and was now half empty.....MIGHT BE THE CAUSE!  Within a minute, Bruce, who was watching a football game across the room said, "It might be the water container".   I dried it off completely and set it on a paper towel to see what would happen. In seconds, the paper towel was soaking wet.

I have the cleanest refrigerator in the state...inside and out.   But there is no water container in there right now. 

That's all, folks!

LIFE IN THE FAST LANE

Vacation time!

The BRD snorkeling off of Cabo Pulmo, Mexico.

(What the guy on the boat is saying at as he points to the water:  "Oh, wow, look.  It's a great white shark!")

VIVIR LA BUENA VIDA

Here are a couple of views from the room where the BRD* spent last week with her Beau Jack.

It's Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.  Two hour nonstop flight to and from Phoenix.  She liked it.

English translation of the title of this post:  Living the good life.

* - Beautiful Rich Daughter

LEST WE FORGET

(From today's New York Times)

On December 7th, 1941, Japanese warplanes attacked the home base of the U. S. Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, drawing the United States into World War Two.

More than 2,300 Americans were killed.

FRIDAY FUNNIES

The mercury dropped to 33 degrees here last night.  That's cold. And not funny.  So to remedy that . . .

Then, of course, there's the plague of the Holidays.

And, of course, where would I be without a cat picture or two.

Where would Internet humor be without PhotoShop, eh?

Happy holidays!

NELSON MANDELA . . . AND MONOPOLY

Nelson Mandela died today.  For those of you who don't know his history, I will recap it.

As a young man, he was arrested after co-founding a militant group which led a bombing campaign against government targets as part of a protest against apartheid in South Africa.  He was convicted of sabotage and conspiracy to overthrow the government and sentenced to life in prison.  After 27 years, he was released.  Rather than being angry and bent on vengeance, he worked with the white power structure to change South Africa.  Four years after his release he was elected president.

He was a forgiving and reasonable man in his later years and a symbol of virtue.  Today, at the age of 95, he died at home, surrounded by family.

Now, about Monopoly.  A friend sent me this by email today and I found it fascinating.  Here's hoping you will too.

In 1941, increasing numbers of British Airmen became prisoners of the Third Reich. The Crown was looking for ways and means to facilitate their escape... Obviously, one of the most helpful aids would be a useful map, which showed locations of 'safe houses' where an escaped POW could go for food and shelter. However, paper maps had drawbacks -- they make a lot of noise when you open and fold them, they wear out rapidly, and if they get wet, they turn into mush. Someone in MI-5 (similar to America 's OSS ) got the idea of printing escape maps on silk. It's durable, can be scrunched-up into tiny wads, and unfolded as many times as needed, and makes no noise whatsoever. At that time, there was only one manufacturer in Great Britain that had perfected the technology of printing on silk, John Waddington, Ltd. When approached by the government, the firm was happy to do its bit for the war effort. By pure coincidence, Waddington was also the U.K. Licensee for the popular American board game, Monopoly. 'Games and pastimes' was a category of item qualified to be inserted into 'CARE packages', sent by the International Red Cross to prisoners of war. Under strict secrecy, in a securely guarded and inaccessible old workshop on the grounds of Waddington's, a group of sworn-to-secrecy employees began mass-producing escape maps, keyed to each region of Germany or Italy where Allied POW camps were located. When processed, these maps could be folded into such tiny dots that they would actually fit inside a Monopoly playing piece. The clever workmen at Waddington's also included: 1. A playing token, containing a small magnetic compass  2. A two-part metal file that could easily be screwed together  3. Useful amounts of genuine high-denomination German,             Italian, and French currency, hidden within the piles of             Monopoly money! Before taking off on their first  mission, British and American air crews were advised, how to identify a 'rigged' Monopoly set -- by means of a tiny red dot, cleverly disguised to look like an ordinary printing glitch, located in the corner of the Free Parking square. Of the estimated 35,000 Allied POWS who successfully escaped, an estimated one-third were aided in their flight by those rigged Monopoly sets.  Everyone who did so was sworn to secrecy indefinitely, since the British Government might want to use this highly successful ruse in still another, future war. The story wasn't declassified until 2007, when the surviving craftsmen from Waddington's, as well as the firm itself, were honored in a public ceremony. Some of you may be too young to have had any personal connection to WWII (Dec. '41 to Aug. '45), but this is an interesting part of history.

THERE'LL BE A CHANGE IN THE WEATHER . . .

As I frequently say on this blog: what a difference a day makes. Yesterday I sat out on the patio enjoying the sun and near 70 degree temperatures.  Today the mercury hasn't risen above 62 and the sky looks like this.

A cold front is moving through the state and much colder temperatures are expected through Tuesday.  Highs in the 50's and a freeze warning is in effect.  I hope we don't get a hard freeze because a number of roses are just about to bloom and the orange tree and the lemon tree are heavily laden with ripening fruit.  There was a hard freeze last winter which killed off a number of outdoor plants.

It has been said that animals can predict earthquakes and other weather occurrences.  I don't know if that's true or not but our cats sure seemed to be battening down for cooler weather last night.

Or maybe they were just cat-napping.

WIND CHIMES

We have a plethora of wind chimes hanging over our patio.  Here's a look and a listen.

Silly me - I didn't realize there was some kind of machinery backing up in our area until I listened to this.  Oh well.

SUNSET

When I first came to Arizona, back in 1972, (Wow!  That was 41 years ago!) I landed a job at a television station in Phoenix.  At first I was a producer but then went back to being a reporter, which is what I really liked to do.  Somewhere shortly after I began covering the news I became aware that Sun City, Del Webb's paradise for seniors on the edge of Phoenix, was the scene of an unusual number of suicides. Seniors were supposed to be enjoying the good life in their golden years.  Instead, an unusually high number of them seemed to be finding life too much for them.  I proposed that I do a documentary on the subject.  I even had a name for it:  Sunset in Sun City.  I thought it would be great.  Obviously someone above me did not share my opinion.  The documentary, not to mention any single news stories on the subject, never saw the airwaves.

I still think it would have been a great idea but . . . that was just one of many disappointments in my broadcasting career.

All of which brings me to the real subject of today's blog post.

A semi-beautiful sunset.

Last night's was better as the sky turned crimson.  I spotted it too late to grab a camera but I was ready tonight.

No matter where you live, if you're a photographer . . professional or amateur . . your files are probably full of sunset pictures.  Everyone thinks they have the best ones.

Let me tell you.  The best sunsets are in Arizona.

And once again, I must apologize for those power lines marring the view.  Sorry 'bout that.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT . . .

One second left on the clock.  Alabama and Auburn are tied at 28 apiece.  Alabama will try a 56 yard field goal to win the game.  Now watch.

I don't know who that announcer is but I hope he finally calmed down.  I mean . . . all that southern food and then this type of excitement?

PHOENIX VS. EDMONTON

Want to see how my Canadian neighbors spend their vacation time in Phoenix?  Cheryl posted this picture yesterday.

That's a nice glass of cerveza with a slice of lime.  Happy hour.

Back where they're returning tomorrow, Edmonton, Alberta, the current temperature is 25 degrees.  Here...70 degrees.

FRIDAY FUNNIES

Not a lot of humor out on the Streets of Fear on this Black Friday. I've seen some photos and videos of the madness in stores.  Glad I don't shop.

So, here's a couple to help you forget all that and put a smile on your face.

And I never forget my fellow Cat Lovers.

Have a fun weekend, folks!

THANKSGIVING IN ARIZONA

Much of the eastern United States is dealing with winter storms this week.  Snow, ice, rain, high winds, even a tornado - - pretty much all bad.  Meantime in Arizona . . .

These foolish turkeys had better stay out of the road or they're going to wind up on someone's Thanksgiving dinner table.  Perhaps outside.  By the pool.

Yes, some people do like to rub it in about our wonderful fall and winter weather.  But certainly not me.  (Our high temperature today is supposed to be close to 75 degrees.)

I just heard from our neighbors.  They're going to barbecue steaks for their meal today.  But we can forgive them.  They're Canadian, after all, and their Thanksgiving Day is the second Monday in October.  This year that was the 14th.

As for our house, it will benefit from the wonderful aroma of . . . (wait for it) . . . meat loaf!  Due to a good price at the grocery a few weeks ago, we had a turkey breast with all the trimmings then and having finally just finished off the leftovers the Thanksgiving menu at our house was changed.  But I'm not complaining.  SWMBO makes a great meat loaf. And she did make a pumpkin pie yesterday.  'Course we had to sample it last night.  But there's still some left for dinner dessert today.

Whatever you're eating today and wherever you are and however your weather is . . . I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

CHILLY WEDNESDAY

Know the feeling?

Well I do have to clean out that slow cooker from yesterday's semi-disaster.  I mentioned yesterday that I was making a mac and cheese recipe in it.  About halfway through the cooking I decided to stir it. EGADS!  The pasta-cheese mix seemed to be turning very brown on its edges and sticking/burning to the sides of the cooker.  At that point I realized with dismay that I had overlooked the first step in the recipe: "Coat inside of slow-cooker bowl with nonstick cooking spray."

Oh, man.  I confirmed with SWMBO that there was nothing I could do at that point but she sweetly pointed out that I was going to have a helluva time getting the bowl clean.

Well the mac and cheese was wonderful and my bride did give me a tip: pour in a half-cup of baking soda, fill the bowl with hot water and let it sit overnight.  Most of the "crud" has come loose and off and I'm now going to tackle it to remove the rest.

So if you try a new recipe, don't overlook any of the instructions.

BTW, it's not really that chilly here.  The thermometer just hit 65 degrees and the sun appears to be shining.  

TURKEY WEEK . . . OR NOT

2013.  One of those rare years when Thanksgiving and Hanukkah fall on the same date.  The "wags" are dubbing it Thanksgivukkah. Now you have to decide what to serve for dinner that day - turkey or pastrami! SWMBO has made her choice.  We're having meat loaf. Actually the reason for that is because there was a great price on turkey breasts a few weeks ago and we had our turkey meal of the year.  She doesn't really like it.  I love it but when I have to eat ALL of the leftovers, enough is enough.

She's always thought my family was a little crazy because when I was a kid we had roast turkey on Thanksgiving, on Christmas and again on New Year's Day.  I'm not sure why.  We weren't turkey farmers.

But I'm okay with meat loaf anyway.  I mentioned our menu choice to several people in the grocery store today and they all responded "I LIKE meat loaf!"  (I didn't invite any of them to join us.)

I'm trying out a new recipe today which SWMBO shook her head at when I mentioned it yesterday.  Slow cooker macaroni and cheese. She said it only takes about an hour to turn that meal out on the stove top.  But we have a new slow cooker and I wanted to try it. Besides instead of just the standard bright orange cheese you get in a boxed dinner of the stuff, this has a combination of American, Cheddar and Gruyere.  My mouth is already watering.  And it still has about two hours to go.

So have a happy Thanksgiving, folks, no matter what you're eating and remember this:

BEER BREAD

I made a loaf of bread this afternoon.  It's a quick bread called Beer Bread.

Fresh from the oven, aromatic and still hot.

Someone once said something like "what's not to like?  It's bread and it's beer."

This loaf was made with a bottle of Dos Equis Amber.  ("I don't drink beer often but when I do . . . .")

SPORTS TIME

I know some (most) of you will be bored silly by this but I have to brag about our state's football teams when they do something good.

First, the unranked University of Arizona Wildcats hammered #5 ranked Oregon yesterday 42 to 16.

A short time later, the 19th ranked Arizona State University Sun Devils outlasted 14th ranked UCLA in Pasadena 38 to 33 to win the PAC-12 South title.

And today the (professional) Arizona Cardinals routed the Indianapolis Colts 40 to 11.

Next weekend U of A and ASU meet in Tempe for the annual Territorial Cup.  If ASU wins, they'll host Stanford a week later for the PAC-12 title and a chance to play in the Rose Bowl.

Sorry for the hubris.

THE RAIN'S BOUNTY

(Attention readers: an update follows this post)

Just clipped in the garden, this big pink (no, really, it is) rose still has raindrops clinging to its petals.  It has been raining here in the Arizona desert almost continually since Friday night.

Our rain guage shows about an inch and a quarter since yesterday morning.  Yesterday's total, before I dumped it, was about three-quarters of an inch.  So, figure 2 inches or a bit more since the rain started falling lightly but steadily.  Doesn't sound like much until you realize that the desert only gets 4 to 6 inches in an entire year.

It leaves water pooling in unlikely places.

Because of the saturation even the grassy lawn is having a difficult time accepting it.

Now just to prove that the rose that started this little essay actually was pink, here's one of it's sisters from the same plant.

And more to come.

I remember saying once, years ago after several days of continuous rain, "doesn't the sun ever shine in Arizona?"  I was joking, of course, and the weather wizards say the sun will be back tomorrow as the rain moves away.  It's been nice while we had it.

UPDATE: 10:30 a.m. Saturday.  We have put off plans for an ark.  The sun is out and the sky is once again mostly blue.