My Walks Around the Neighborhood

Part of my every morning is to take a 2.3. mile walk around the neighborhood for exercise, it's more of a combination jogging and walking. I used to walk around my workplace every year and stop walking when summer came as it gets to hot to bear. That was only a 2-mile walk. I started walking as suggested by my doctor, she said I needed to exercise to keep my blood pressure down. Once I started I have not stopped, I truly enjoy walking and only miss a day here or there but for the most part I am committed to my walk.

Of course walking is always more enjoyable when the sights are like this:

The community I live in has a series of lakes and most homes have a lake front view. However these are really not lakes but actually they are "treatment cells" complete with "working fish". So this is in fact a Natural Water Treatment System consisting of 21 separate lakes or "cells"  covering 72 acres with the purpose of creating aquatic wildlife habitat and a water purification system.

So as you can imagine visually it is a very beautiful and well planned community and it's easy to get used to the surrounding. Bird sanctuaries, ducks all over the place, plenty of fish in the lakes, a jogging or running track around every lake, every back yard has easy access to the lake and the running tracks and just around the corner a complete shopping plaza with plenty of stores, restaurants, movie theaters, and parks.

Having an association really sucks but at the same time it makes complete sense to have it as the landscaping around the neighborhood is always we ll kept and very clean. Yes they are tought but in the end it is for our best interest if we want to live in a beautiful community.

So here are some pics I took during one of my recent walks, hope you like them.

 

 

Looking Forward to It

We just seem to have fun everytime we are out and with the always readily and available camera we capture many of these moments for us to remember later on. Not that the memories fade right away or anything but pictures do speak a thousand words.

I think I am at a stage in my life where I really enjoy every minute we are out visiting places. Weather it's a first time or a repeat I tend to always find something new to see. Traveling on a budget makes it more interesting and makes me focus on the visuals more than on physical souverniers which in many cases can set you back a few dollars. And as I always say thanks to the new technology in digital cameras we can bring a lot of pictures, all treasured "free" souverniers.

It's apparent that Abby and I will be doing as many of these day road trips as we can. In most cases all it requires is a tankfull of gas and the inner drive to actually get out of the house and hit the road. Of course I am taking into consideration that in our case it will be very easy as we don't have little ones to haul around. So far we have been to Sedona, Jerome, Cave Creek, and Wikenburg in Arizona and to Sonoma and Santa Barbara in California. I am loving it.

To add excitement into the mix we will probably be alternating the cars and the bike. We will have the choice of top down or bike ride, and when the Phoenix weather hits the dreaded triple digits we can put those tops up and crank the AC.

As Abby and I prepare to share our lives as a unit it has been very exciting finding out how much we enjoy similar thngs. To find out that we share the same passion for things will only make things easier when the time comes to choose things to do.

I for one really am looking forward to it.

Fabulous Fords Forever 2012

I've been interested in Mustangs since my uncle was given a dilapidated 66 fast back that got resurrected and eventually stolen never to be found. As a teenager I got to drive it everyday to school for a whole year and I knew then I would some day own one.

Then in 1990 I purchased a used but well kept 93 convertible which I still own to this day. The fox body is showing it's age so I decided to purchase another used Mustang, this one a 2007 coupe. I enjoy and love both my ponies and actually really drive them alot.


The interior of my 07. Gotta have the comforts to make those trips more enjoyable.

 I know a lot of people that buy this cars only to put them in their garage and used them occasionally on a weekend drive, but not me. I am of the belief that it's a machine and it has to be used and enjoyed, otherwise what is the point?

So at least eight years out of the thirteen that I have owned my fox body I have made the treck to California for the yearly Fabulous Fords Forever car show at Knott's Berry Farm and to me it just does not get old. This year was not the exception. The trip was nice, the weather was the best for the show in all the years I have attended, it was slightly cloudy and the sun only briefly broke through just before the show was over. So it wasn't hot at all as compared to previous years.



There she is, capturing little video pegs during at the show.

 Another plus is that Abby actually enjoys coming to the car shows with me and totally gets into the spirit of things. She likes having the souvenier t-shirts and is good at taking pictures too. Now if I could only get her to like lowered cars. She claims they do not look good lowered which is crazy thinking if you know what I mean.

My dream pick up truck is an old Ford F-100 and when I showed her one I liked at the show she agreed with me 100%, yep, I say she is definitely a keeper.

At nearly 2000 cars on display it is hard to keep track of which aisles we had walked and which one we hadn't but overall I think we pretty much covered most of the show. The Capri section brought her memories as my lil sister's first car was a Capri and they used to probably ditch school and go cruising in it. She says no, but I am sure they did. She had to take a couple of pictures of one and texted it to her.

My little sister's first car was a Capri just like this one.

To many cars are only transportation but to some of us they are an extension of our individuality and many of us have memories from days gone by which were brought but a particular vehicle. Many firsts happen in a car and also many bad memories too. Bottom line, getting from point A to point B is always better and more enjoyable if you like your car.

Too bad she still doesn't know how to drive a stick shift. Not! she drives faster than I.

As usual I took too many pictures from the show so here are some I liked, I hope you enjoy them too.

Awesome station wagon.

This Galaxy was fully restored and very pristine.

Loved this vintage pedal Mustang.

Abby really liked these T-birds.

A woody!



Fully restored tow truck.



Can I have one of each or all of the above?

The Lighthouse

I am reading:

The Lighthouse by PD James

So far this year I have read:

The Broker by John Grisham
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
In The Name of Honor by Richard North Patterson
Timeline by Michael Crichton
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Catching Fire (The Second Book of the Hunger Games) by Suzanne Collins
Mockingjay (The Final Book of the Hunger Games) by Suzanne Collins

Now that I have finished the Hunger Games trilogy I am ready to move on to other books. I must say of the three books I enjoyed the first one the most, "Catching Fire" was not too bad either but "Mockinjay" gave me the feeling that she was stretching the story and failed to make me want to finish it right away. I did notice something tho, Panem was going through some sort of a rebellion/war and killing, suffering, and hunger were an everyday thing for many and in no time during the three books religion is ever mentioned. Which kindda proves that a world with no religion will be a world in chaos.

So, while in California at the beginning of last month we were at the hospital and I had finished reading Timeline so I was left withot a book to read so we went to the gift store and noticed that they had a bunch of books there soft and hard covers ranging from $.50 to $2.00 wow, good books too. So some of the ones they had I had already read but Abby recommended and bought for me "The Lighthouse" by PD James. I never heard of this writer but I'm into page eight and it is picking up really nice. It's a mystery and apparently she has a series of books with the main character of this book Adam Dalgliesh.

Happy reading fellow readers!

What are you reading these days, are your kindles on fire? Me, I still read regular paper books were I actually can turn the page and fold the top as a marker when I put it down.

Fabulous Fords Forever 2012

Oh I would love if my baby looked this good, after owning it for 12 years and being a daily driver my pony is slowly but surely starting to disintegrate. But still when I wash it and take it out for a drive it still gets many thumbs up and people always ask me if I want to sell it. The truth is this car has been and is still to this day a looker and I hope to once again make it look good in the future.

Fabulous Fords Forever, a yearly car show at Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, California is coming un in two weeks and I will be there. I won't be taking the convertible though, I will be driving the 07 instead.

This will be the 27th Annual Fabulous Fords Forever car show and the eighth time I will be participating. It will take place on Sunday, April 22 and it's certainly the most gigantic car show I attend. About 2000 entries are expected on some 52 classes of nothing but pure Ford beauty.

Can you guess what car dominates the show by far. If you guessed the Mustang you were right. I say more than 50% of the car entries are Mustangs. The Mustang is an icon and has been continuously built every year since 1964 and hands down beats any other model.

Still, there is plenty to see besides Mustangs and for a free show it espectators it is totally worth it.

So, to all my California peeps, see you soon.

A window reflection of my pony.

Happy Birthday To You Both!

Granpa and his two birthday princesses.
So, today was the dual birthday celebration for Ariele and Atalie, they turned 4 and 2 respectively and my daughter threw them a formal party, at least that's what the invitation said, so I got dressed up in my Sunday best and went to the party. Ha, April Fools came six days later cause no one was dressed in formal attire.

Tea time!
I was going through my clothes and found that the slacks I wanted were dirty and I had not been able to take them to the cleaners so I did the next best thing, or so I thought. I threw them in the washer, set the dial on delicate, closed the lid, and gave it a go. A few minutes later, they were done, and I mean they were done, as in done for good because for some reason there were threads hanging from everywhere. How would I know that they would disintegrate? Well, plan "B" you are it.

I got there a bit late as I was also getting ready for church so I didn't stay there for long, OK long enough to eat because I was starving and the sandwich and chips were calling my name and by the way, they were good. I am totally surprised and proud of me as my white shirt survived being mobbed by my ten grand kids and many nephews and nieces, my son in law said it would be dirty before I left but only a few tiny smudges of cookies and frosting made their way on it.

Anyway, as I said I was not there for long but I was able to take a few pics with the grand kids.

Atalie pointing at the cupcakes on the table and telling me they were all for her.
This girl loves granpa, her #1 grandpa so she says.
She loves me, she really loves me!
The Duck and I.

Diego and I.
Juanito, moi, and Brianna.
Ariele and I.
Diego, Atalie, me, Allayna, and Ariele.
Ummm good cookie and good kiss grandpa.

Searching For Sofas

We were on a mission to find an affordable living room set. Basically we were looking for a sofa and love seat but when we stopped at MOR two weeks ago to do some window shopping we noticed the prices were high. We did see a sofa-chaise combo we liked for about $500.00 but decided to go see what other furniture stores had to offer.

The radio is always airing this commercial about a furniture store that only opens on weekends named "The Dump". Abby being from California and all told me, "Why don't we try that trash place they announced on the radio?" Hummm trash place, let me see... Oh you mean "The Dump", "Yeah that one" she said.

So on a busy Friday afternoon we set off to the city of Chandler to check this place out. It only took us a few minutes to realize that the only dumping there would be from us dumping our money. Pretty much everything there was very expensive, so we didn't last too long in there.

The decision to come back to the neighborhood was a wise one, I much rather "dump" my money in my own hood anyway so we once again went back to MOR to purchase that little sofa we had seen the previous week. However, what a difference a week makes, all of a sudden every living room set was either on sale or priced just right. All of a sudden we have a bunch of affordable choices.

We narrowed it to three sets we liked and then the salesman points me to this sectional, (we were not looking into sectionals) and I immediately liked it. Abby, maybe not so at first. It was priced just right and I loved the color so after weighing the alternatives we decided to purchase it.

I think it will look awesome in our living room but unfortunately it will take about three weeks for it to come in. Thankfully we were not in a hurry. So, I will be posting a picture of it as soon as it comes in.

Mockingjay

I am reading:
Mockingjay (The Final Book of the Hunger Games) by Suzanne Collins

So far this year I have read:

The Broker by John Grisham
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
In The Name of Honor by Richard North Patterson
Timeline by Michael Crichton
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Catching Fire (The Second Book of the Hunger Games) by Suzanne Collins



So far I've liked what I have read so far. The Hunger Games trilogy is very entertaining and I am sure I will miss it. Hopefuly my daughter will give me some more interesting titles and I hope I can find them at the library. In the meantime I am glued to this third book of The Hunger Games.

Cave Creek - Part 2

Why part two? Well, cause this part has nothing to do with bike week or motorcycles, this has to do with the charm and beauty of the City of Cave Creek. This is such a cool destination, if you are visiting the Phoenix area the 50-mile drive will totally be worth it.

Art galleries, restaurants, shops, and lots of desert scenery. As we were on our way Abby noticed that the saguaros were flipping us off, ha ha at least that's what many of them look like. The Cave Creek Fiesta Days include a rodeo and many activities. When I was active in the car club I would participate in their Fiesta Days parade. Lot's of fun.

In this post I will just show you a bunch of images I captured on last Wednesday.





While I was snapping pictures left and right I took this picture of Abby and noticed that she was making a face. So I asked her what was wrong, she said nothing was wrong, actually she said "This is kind of too right".

Here's Abby making an ewwwwwww kind of face. Look at where she is looking at!
Yes, she thought the bulls were made too politically correct (*wink *wink) if you know what I mean.

I don't think there has been a time when Abby and I go out and don't have lots of fun. This was such an occasion. It is fun visiting places that are within a few miles of our neck of the woods.

Greetings from Cave Creek.

Cave Creek

Well, Arizona Bike Week came and went and me being kindda broke couldn't really take any of the major rides but Abby and I did hopped on the Fatboy and headed towards Cave Creek last Wednesday. The day was sunny, the weather was beautiful, no need for jackets or sweaters, just a t-shirt and that was that.

Cave Creek is a 65-mile ride from Avondale up the 101 to the 17 and then exit on Carefree Highway and go east until you get to Cave Creek, once there you will be transported to the old west. You will find eclectic shopping, art galleries, the beauty of the Sonoran Desert and a plethora of restaurants. Cave Creek is a well known biker destination and many of the restaurants and bars are biker friendly.

Cave Creek was in the middle of their "Fiesta Days" so cowboy cook-outs and even the rodeo were in full swing. But Abby and I didn't do any of that, we just took a nice leisure ride, our destination was the world famous HIdeaway Grill, a very well known biker destination.

Because it was "Bike Week" they had a band, vendors, and lots and lots of bikes. We stayed there for a while and then decided to see some more of the town. We did some shopping but mostly window shopping, there Abby proposed to me and even gave me a ring.

The ride back to Phoenix was faster than the ride going, our destination was my mom's house for one of her very awesome home cooked meal.



Bobbers, baggers, customs, and my beautiful fiance.

A good rider has balance, judgment, and good timing. So does a good husband and wife.

We, had an awesome time, and as always I took too many pictures, but that is just the way I like it. It's always fun to sit by the lap top and see all the images, right away you start to reminisce about the day and the outing.






Oh, to say I love my life would be an understatement.