Yesterday Recliner Man and I went to see Crater Lake. We took so many pictures that I had to change the memory card in my camera. I’ll share some of them with you over the next few days.

On the way there we passed many beautiful sights. This lake is called Odell Lake.  It is a glacier lake located in the Deschutes National Forest.

These two photos are of the  pumice desert at Crater Lake.

From an interpretive sign at the site:

Even after thousands of years, few trees have become established on the Pumice Desert. There is ample water under the surface, but deficiencies in the soil limit plant growth. Many more years will pass before the surrounding lodgepole pines transform desert to a forest.

Crater Lake gets about 44 feet of snow each winter. We visited on July 2nd under a warm sunny sky and there was snow all over the place.

OK, that’s it for tonight. I’ll be back soon with more photos.

We got a late start leaving home on Tuesday because our internet service stopped working. We thought it might be an easy fix and decided to take care of it before we left. After a lot of time on the phone with the cable company it was decided that a service tech would need to come to the house. Something for me to do as soon as I get home.

This first picture was taken just before we crossed over Hoover Dam and shows just how low the water has gotten in the reservoir. That white band should all be under water.

These photos show the progress of the bypass bridge at the dam. How would you like to have to work up there in that swinging cage?

We spent the night in Las Vegas where we enjoyed our favorite buffet and played a while on the slot machines. I had a lucky night and actually made a profit. Recliner Man wasn’t as lucky but at least he had a good meal.

We left Vegas and headed south. About 30 miles from Barstow CA the truck (or as I like to call it, the 18 year old piece of crap) starting having trouble. The engine starting running really rough and the faster Recliner Man tried to make it go, the slower it went. In true man fashion he solved the problem by driving in the shoulder just long enough for the engine to show signs of recovery and then zipping back into the fast and heavy traffic. In true woman fashion, I kept saying “Just pull over and call AAA!” After several repeats of this, and a very scary moment when it all but died in the passing lane, he finally got over to the shoulder again and it really did die. Just as I thought he was ready to call AAA he did the man’s number two thing on the list of what to do with a broken car. He turned the key and tried several times ot get it started again. Finally he called AAA and had a long conversation with them trying to figure out where the heck we were. At one point he told them, “there is nothing around us but desert”, and he was right. Luckily I noticed a small sign off in the distance and with the telephoto lens on the camera we were able to read it. It gave enough landmark info for a tow truck driver to find us 45 minutes later. The truck driver had a thermometer and told us the road side temperature was 130 degrees!

We spent a few more hours sitting in a Starbucks at Barstow while the fuel pump was being replaced on the truck.

Then it was further south to  Bakersfield CA before heading north to Visalia CA, where we stayed the night.

The next morning we headed for Sequoia National Park.

And then on to Yosemite National Park.

It’s a beautiful park and we stopped a few time to look and even to walk back to a waterfall. Along the way we saw a few deer.

We drove very long days in the 18  year old POC. By the time we stopped my joints were yelling at me and I was dealing with hearing loss. It is very loud in that truck, especially near the passenger window. It is probably a good thing the radio wasn’t working or I would have had to deal with it blaring to be heard over the other noise. But wait, there’s more! I swear the truck likes me even less than I like it because it spent all those days trying to strangle me.

This isn’t a flattering picture but at this point all I want is for someone to feel a little of my pain and sympathize with me. OK, enough of the pity party. I’ll wrap this up with another pretty picture, this time of Mt. Shasta.

We arrived at our Oregon destination around 10:30pm on Friday. Recliner Man has a furnished apartment provided by his employer for the four months he will be up here. It’s pretty nice and I’ll be staying here till the 7th.  Till then The Boy is taking care of Abbey for me. I miss them both very much and can’t wait to get back home.

I have been getting better about how much time I spend playing the game but it is still a huge chunk of time that needs to be whittled down further.

All of this is oddly amusing because it wasn’t too many years ago that I was counseling my son about video game addiction and how he wasn’t clearly seeing the effect it had on his life.  The table has turned completely now. The only difference is that I know he is right and it took him quite a while to figure out that I was right. At least he wasn’t letting me know I was right.

So Boy, this update is for you. You will be pleased to know that at this moment I have only one computer turned on and only one browser tab open. My attention is fully on real life. I’ll expect an IM from you momentarily telling me how proud you are of me! LOL

So what have I been doing for the last 10 days? As I sit here trying to rev up my memory and remember beyond last night’s dinner, the first thing that comes to mind is that I’m still worrying about my memory. You all may have heard about the Vegas performer, Danny Gans, who died on May 1st. When he died Recliner Man and I both commented, “Well, I guess we will never get to see him now.” We mentioned to people how we had planned to go see him one day, but never got to it. Then, while sorting through some old papers, I found a ticket stub from the Danny Gans show at the Mirage in Las Vegas. I can not think of one reason why I would have someone else’s ticket stub, so we must have been to see him. The only comforting thing in all of this is that Recliner Man can not remember having seen him either. At least I will have company in The Home.  My current theory is that we saw the show at the end of the long 6 hour drive to Vegas and, combining being tired with not being as impressed with the show as we had hoped to be, we just put it out of our minds (slammed the door shut, locked it and threw away the keys!) I have some vague memories of seeing an impersonator that didn’t’ impress me and The Boy has some vague memories of us telling him about that. Worrying about the memory loss has actually taken up a lot of my time. Not as much as Mafia Wars has, but a lot none the less.

I also hosted my Bunko group at my home this past week. That took a little bit of time to clean the house and prepare the meal. I even borrowed my neighbor’s carpet cleaner to get things looking real nice. (Make note of that Boy, you can’t clean carpets and play Mafia Wars at the same time.) On the day of the party I was expecting Recliner Man to help me with the last minute preparations. He had an early morning doctor’s appointment and would be home in time to be fed lunch and put to work.

The doctor appointment didn’t go quite as planned. It was just an annual check up and we weren’t expecting any problems. The doctor decided to give him an EKG and an inverted T wave changed all our plans. Recliner Man was sent to a Cardiologist just after lunch time and stayed there till dinner time having all the tests a heart doctor can think up. Then they thought up one more and he had to return the next day for it. On the third day we went to get the results. Recliner Man was a nervous wreck waiting for the doctor to come in and tell him what was wrong with his heart. It was a happy let down when the doctor told him everything looked fine and normal. His only treatment was to make a minor adjustment to a cholesterol medication and to tell Recliner Man to start exercising more. Now Recliner Man has moved on to worrying about the bill for all those tests. Hopefully all that worry and the resulting bill won’t be enough to give him heart trouble for real!

In a few days Recliner Man will be moving to Oregon. It is a work related move and he will be up there for four months. Somehow it has been decided that I will drive up with him and stay for a couple of weeks before flying back down to Phoenix. Abbey and I are not real happy about this, we are homebodies and feel like there has already been enough travel this year. We are hoping The Boy will take pitty on us and come over to care for Abbey while I am away.

OK, while this doesn’t really explain the entire 10 day absence for the blog it does pretty well get you caught up on what’s been happening in The House of Stir Fry. Now I’m off to find the old photo with a wig and some balloon boobs for a little revenge on a certain nag that I know.

P.S. Here is a shout out to “Rude Boy”, I don’t think you are rude but you sure win the prize for spotty staying in touch! Or did you write back and I’ve just completely forgotten about it? LOL

I’ve been sleep deprived for several days now and it is all her fault. We had a nice system going, she would follow me around all day and sleep between my legs all night. It wasn’t the most comfortable sleep, but it was sleep.

Then the weather got hot and suddenly she decided that she should sleep all day and prowl all night.

Silly human. She should be more adaptable and considerate of my needs.

I decided it was time to stand my ground and stop giving in to the spoiled little puss.

Foolish human. You couldn’t win the inside cat war so what makes you think you could win the stay up all night war?

Thursday night I was up the entire night. I’d go to bed and she would come yell at me. I’d give her food and go back to bed. She would come yell at me. I’d open the blinds so she could look out and go back to bed. She would come yell at me. I scooped her up and shoved her under the covers and she yelled at me. This foolishness continued all night long. I did not want to give in and let her roam outside all night. And so we battled, all night long. I had to miss my Friday morning art group because I hadn’t slept all night. I’d lost the battle and I wasn’t happy.

Uh oh! Mommy is mad. It’s time for some major “aren’t I cute” rolling and stretching. It gets her every time!

Spoiled brat!

Oh my goodness, looking at the calendar was an eye opener. I’m further behind on these posts than I realized. Here is a little catch up. This is The Boy arriving for Sunday dinner. Aren’t we glad he trimmed his beard? Now he is telling me he thinks his hair is too long and he needs to go get it cut. I think it looks good and all those years with a military dad have tilted his view on hair styles.

I think I’m a couple weeks behind with this posting. I’ll have to take down the calendar to count the weeks. In the mean time, enjoy the blooming cactus in my front yard.

Sparky didn’t want to look like just another Cloud Grazer wannabe so we decided to forgo the wings. In their place Sparky got a set of jet thrusters!

The winner of the Reader Appreciation contest is JOLENE, who posted the following on May 15th:

“Give the Bulls a rest….. I’ve been dying to hear your comments on the last American Idol show or two!
Don’t leave us hanging, twisting slowly, slowly in the wind, waiting for your normally witty comments!
Sorry Danny got bumped out. But didn’t Simon say he’d give him a contract even if he lost? or did I just dream that?”

Thank you to everyone who stopped by to read or comment, and please come back!

This was, without a doubt, the funniest thing I saw in Vegas. This was on a car in the parking garage at the hotel. As we were snapping pictures the owner came out and laughed right along with us.

We took 3 days and traveled with our dear Cribbage friends, Billie and Larry. They were great companions and made the trip extra fun for us.  On the way out of town we drove by some farm fields and Billie was telling us about a farmer who in a previous year had allowed her to pick up the surplus onions from his field. They were the best onions she ever had and she was hoping that on our way back we might find the field again and be able to get some. Billie really loves her onions and made us all promise to help her remember about this on the way back into town. Hold this thought and I’ll get back to it later.

While we were in Vegas we went to check out the new Encore Casino and Hotel. The following pictures were taken there.

This is just inside the main entrance of the Encore Casino. The shine on that floor is nothing compared to the next two photos:

That crystal dragon was huge!

We stayed at the Wynn and went to see the show, Le Reve, for the second time.  All through the show I kept thinking to myself, I don’t remember that… I don’t remember them doing it this way… I was starting to have some very deep concerns about my failing memory and how long Recliner Man would be able to take care of me at home before he had to put me away someplace. The only thing keeping me from jumping up and running for freedom was the free flowing campaign and the best damn chocolates I’ve ever eaten in my life! (We sprung for the VIP seats and the goodies were included in the package.)

I think Billie and Recliner Man were busy discussing which “home” to put me in.

I don’t remember the flowers at all!

And just look at how stunning they are. Don’t you think they would at least look a little familiar to me? Nothing, nada, a complete blank.

After the show I confessed my failing memories and fears to Recliner Man. Sweet, sweet Recliner Man! He saved my sanity and lifted my sagging spirit! Remember that picture of he and Billie in a serious conversation? He was telling her how very different this performance was from the one we had seen before! Those stinkers, I’ll bet they changed up the show just to mess with my mind!

OK, do you remember that thought I told you to hold? I do, because I still have a somewhat decent memory. :)  We found the onion field. And as I was saying, Billie really loves those onions.

And she’s off! Just look at her go. I’m telling you, you don’t want to get between Billie and a good onion. She will run you right over.

That girl left no dirt clump unturned in her search for gold.

That is the face of a happy onion hunter!