Monday

All that we accomplished today was a lot, actually. Dawn spent most of the day working on the books for Noslen Communication, and figured out how to customize all of the forms, so that they include our logo and lots of other goodies. :) I really appreciate the work she's doing because if I were to try and do that, along with the design and marketing work that I've been doing, it would never turn out as well as she's doing. Not only that, but Dawn's far more organized than I am . . . and I think I'm more organized than most men are.

Anyway, got a nice note from my Mom tonight. She and Jim have some fun stuff going on at their place. Jim got a new TV -- well, home theater, to be accurate -- just in time for the Super Bowl (which, have I mentioned, the Seattle Seahawks are playing in THIS Sunday!!!). Mom made an appointment with a gal to come consult her on redecorating the living room. Pretty exciting stuff!!

Mom also sent along this great picture of my nephew, Trenton, in his new sweatshirt to commemorate the Seahawks on their first-ever journey to the Super Bowl. As I'm writing this, the news just reported that several of the Seahawks' key players were involved in an auto accident in Detroit today. No one was injured, but sheesh, that's the last thing a Seahawks' fan wants to hear . . . "Shaun Alexander, Matt Hasselbeck, and a few of the team's other key players were involved in a car accident."

Nelson

This was really a fun weekend as we spent most of it out and about, looking for specific destinations, but enjoying seeing lots of different parts of the Phoenix metro area that we hadn't yet seen.

Earlier in the week, we'd made plans to spend some time at this huge flea market in Phoenix, and seeing Old Town Scottsdale on Saturday, and we'd talked about visiting a few other RV parks in the area, just to make sure we weren't missing something we should see. So we started out the day driving 40 miles across town to North Phoenix where there were three RV parks that we wanted to see. Unfortunately, we were disappointed about each of them. One was because the park itself was just OK, but it wasn't one that made us want to stay there instead of Mesa Spirit. The next one was cozy. Small, with nice hedges and even lawns (which are pretty unusual here), but the surrounding neighborhood was just a little too industrial for our tastes. The third was probably the nicest of the three, but it again was in an industrial area that we didn't care much for.

After the RV park search was done, we mozied on down the road to the big flea market. Wow. What an experience that was. A three acre building (looked like a former K-Mart or something of that sort), with hundreds of booths selling everything from Avon to used computers. But mostly, the stuff was just junk. It was kind of a depressing thing, we thought. The vendors didn't appear to have much going for them, and most of the customers were thrilled to be finding prices they could afford on the things they needed. But the saddest thing of all was the Elvis impersonator who was "singing" during the time we were there. Ever watch the initial auditions part of American Idol? Well, this guy would have chased Simon Cowell right out of his mind, he was that bad. I think he was even messing up the lyrics on some of Elvis' songs. Ugh. Pretty ugly. At least he was accurate in the fact that he was shaped like a pear. ;)

I've been occasionally working on my boat during our trip too. My goal is to have the boat ready for some testing and practice time while we're in Lake Havasu City. But I needed some supplies to continue the work, so today, we went driving all over the Phoenix area (put 58 miles on the car) checking each of the three hobby stores I'd located thanks to the internet to see if I could get the supplies I needed. Turned out we found just about everything I needed, except a cooling fan for my electric motor. One of the hobby store guys suggested that I use a computer fan that I could pick up at Fry's Electronics, so I may do that this week sometime, before we move on Thursday. I did spend most of the afternoon working on putting together battery packs for the boat once we got home. But there's more work to do still. That's the way it is with model boat racing, when you think you're 90 percent done, there's still 30 percent more work to do.

That's another thing. On Thursday of this week, already, we're moving to Lake Havasu City. In one sense, we're in disbelief that we've already been gone two and a half months, but on the other hand we're excited to move on to a new place.

Tonight, we watched two of our favorite shows, but Desperate Housewives was a rerun. Greys Anatomy was a tearjerker. I got a few hours of work in during our shows, too. At the same time as all of that, per Brooke's suggestion, I also worked out an algorithm while on hold with the technical support department of our wireless internet provider, ate popcorn and drank hot chocolate. I'm here to tell ya, THAT's excitement!

A beautiful sunset from our home on wheels this evening.

Isn't this picture weird? I think that was a ghost. I took another one right after this and that stuff wasn't there, hmmm.... This is in Oldtown Scottsdale. A very cute little part of town. We stopped at this upstairs outdoor balcony to have a beer. It was packed. Yes, on Jan. 28th.

We went to a huge flea market today in Phoenix. It is so sad to think that this is how these people live their lives. But there was one good thing...Elvis was there.

Laundry day. Hitting balls into the nets waiting for our laundry. Nelson did not break any balls in half this time.

I am not laying back in 70 degree weather listening to awesome music on my ipod.

Nelson at Southwestern days at our RV resort.

Nelson's full of bull...duh.

Yeah!!! We’re both blogging tonight. Sorry everyone, but we really haven’t done anything exciting lately. The first part of our trip was like we were on vacation and spending too much money sight seeing and eating out all of the time. Now that we’ve been doing this for almost 2 ½ months, we’ve realized that we have had to settle down to every day life. Which has been just as wonderful for us, but probably not for you. Nelson has gotten a lot of work for Noslen lately, so he’s been very busy working. I’ve been trying to set up his books and I’ve been reading Marketing books for him to give him highlights of the things I’ve read. That is the majority of our days. We haven’t been eating out very much because we’re trying to stay on a budget. Brooke told me she was sick of hearing about the weather, so I don’t want to mention to you how much we love that. And I don’t want to mention that it’s about 70 degrees here almost everyday with blue skies and a slight breeze, so I won’t mention that either.

This week was southwestern week at our RV resort. We participated in a couple of those activities. Those were fun.

We keep hearing from people that we are being such slackers on this thing. But we really can’t believe anyone would want to hear about our everyday lives.

Steph got a new job at Billygan’s in Hazel Dell. She likes it a lot. She’s going to try to keep her Who Songs job also if she can work out the hours. She had a little spat with her dad at AllRisk, so she’s not working there anymore. Probably for the best so they can just be friends again.

My friend Lou at work found out she has a tumor on her bladder, that really sucks. But she sounds pretty optimistic about things. I’m sure everything will be fine. I wish I could tell you guys some of the funny things she says to me, but I can’t. Only I get the priveledge of her outrageously funny ( and dirty) sense of humor, sorry.

I’m planning a Vegas trip with Brooke for her birthday next month. That will be fun. She’ll be 26! Gosh I can’t believe it. She is studying really hard for the bar. She goes to Bellevue at the end of February to take the Washington Bar. I think she’s hoping to get a job in Vancouver rather than Seattle. So, please, please if anyone can get her an “in” for an interview, anywhere in Washington actually, please let us know. They are really finding out it’s who you know not what you know in finding a job. Her husband Luka will be taking the Washington Bar in July, I think. He is really involved in all of the moot court trials going on at his school right now. He’s going to be a really good litigator.

Since we haven’t gone anywhere all week, we’re going to Old Town Scottsdale tomorrow. And the flea market. We bought homemade jam from a darling little grandma lady today. It is yummy!

Well there really is nothing else that’s new. We are having a wonderful time. We’re looking forward to moving to Lake Havasu next week. Everyone we meet is so nice. If anyone is considering a life like ours, I would totally recommend it. You only live once.

Nelson took a little time out to work on his new electric boat. We will be parked right on the lake next week when we move to Lake Havasu for the month of February, so he wants it running by then.

Here's Dawn standing next to Frosty, the white bull. I think they said it was a brahma bull, but I'm not sure about that. Jim...do you know?

The Indian dancing from Wednesday's lunch.

Among all of the older cars and trucks around was this beautifully restored oil delivery truck. I talked Dawn into posing next to it. Just because. :)

These are pictures of the re-enactment of the day Tucson's "small town cops" actually caught the great John Dillinger and his bank robbery gang. Despite the fact that Dillinger and his boys were able to elude the FBI for years, the Tucson police actually caught them. Every year in Tucson, they set aside a Saturday to remember the event. It's known as Dillinger Days (even though it's just one day). We had fun at this event, which a Tucson native told us they keep low key every year. We couldn't figure out why. It'd be a great tourism event!

This is where Molly likes to go hide when she's feeling independent. We always think she thinks these pillows are like a little "fort" just for her.

Catching up

Hey!! We're both feeling really guilty that we haven't updated the blog in days. But there are reasons for it. In this last week or so, we've just pretty much been back to "normal life", even though we're living in Arizona in an RV.

Since the holidays are over and all, I've really started focusing a lot of effort on my business and all the hard work has paid off. But, it means that I'm working an average of 8 hours a day over the last week. I know, I know. Wah...right? Everyone works 8 hours a day, Nellie, put on your big boy boxers and deal with it!

That's exactly what I've been doing . . . and quite honestly, I'm loving it. My business is growing quickly as referrals start getting out and about. I have to thank my friends Jim Brands and Dave D'Avanzo for that. Jim gave my name and contact information to an electric utility in Gig Harbor, Wash., and because of that referral, I'm going to provide some media training and newsletter consulting to them. Also, because of a group that Dave invited me to present my business in front of, I gained a new client -- another electric utility in Idaho Falls!

Anyway, since neither of us has blogged since Sunday, we'll play a little catch-up tonight. Dawn said she'd blog tonight, too . . . so if you haven't already read her post, be sure to check back later.

By the way . . . please read all of my post, because there's a pop-quiz at the end.

MONDAY:
Still basking in the glow of the Seahawks making it to the Super Bowl (which as you know, I'm thrilled about), I got right to work with a couple of projects for PhoenixLaw -- an article for their e-newsletter and research for a media distribution list I'm building for them. Later in the day, I also worked on some marketing and promotional projects for All American Deli & Ice Cream in Vancouver mall. I also did a little work to promote my own business and some new-business development. During our lunch "break", we went to one of the events for "Southwestern Week" here at the RV Resort. It was pretty neat, actually. Kind of a 'bring your bag lunch' thing where the resort provided drinks and entertainment. A family of Indians was the entertainment, and they were really fun to watch. They showed us some different Navajo dances and played several different native songs. This particular family has been invited by the U.S. government to perform for people at our embassies in Eastern Europe. I also found out today that Marc Connelly of R/C Unlimiteds is going to refer my company as the new editor/publisher of the newsletter for the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum. This is pretty cool for me because not only would it be a third paying newsletter client, which continues to be a growing business line for me, but it's the Hydroplane Museum . . . which I really like and believe in.

TUESDAY:
This was a big day for Noslen Communication. I got a call from my friend Jonathan White at Peninsula Light Company in Gig Harbor, Wash., who wanted to know exactly what kind of work I was doing these days since going out on my own. We spent several minutes talking about everything we do, and then he asked me if I would be interested in coming up to Gig Harbor to provide some media training and some newsletter consulting. Of course I'm willing to do that, since it's exactly the kind of work we're doing! Anyway, I told Jonathan I'd work up a quote and general description of work for him and we'd go from there. I put in a 10-hour day today, working on everything from media list research and design of a print ad for PhoenixLaw, to direct mail and flyer design for All American Deli & Ice Cream; as well as spending some time putting together that quote for Jonathan, as well as other administrative and business development stuff.

WEDNESDAY:
Today was pretty much another big day for my business, as Van Ashton from Idaho Falls Power called in follow up to a couple of e-mails he and I had exchanged a couple of weeks ago. Today, we reached an agreement on some work that my company could do for them. It includes designing newspaper ads and writing scripts for radio spots. The main messages are energy conservation and safety with electricity. Did more work for All American and more for PhoenixLaw. Today was only a 9 hour work day, though. Today at lunch, we again went to the Activities Center here at the RV Resort and saw the same Indian family do more performing. Different dances and different songs and stories than they did on Monday. And lunch was really good: Southwestern Chili. Yum! I also have to publicly thank my webmaster, JS Webworks (my mom's company). She did a bang-up job of getting my website switched over, even though it took about five hours of her time . . . nice 'welcome home from your vacation,' huh? Thanks a million, mom!

THURSDAY:
It was yet another day of lots of work. It was pretty much the same clients, with the addition of thinking about what I can do for Idaho Falls Power. Today, I also got the final approval from Peninsula Light for the media training and newsletter consulting that I'm going up there to do for them at the end of February. All in all, it was a great week for my company. We got commitments for tons of work from All American, and new clients in Peninsula Light and Idaho Falls Power. We're both REALLY excited about the work I'm getting lined up with. I spent most of the evening putting together my travel arrangements for my trip to Gig Harbor. Somehow, we still managed to get in a trip to Costco, which we'd needed to do for quite some time. There were a couple of other errands, like a trip to the bank and a stop at the grocery store that needed to be done as well.

FRIDAY:
I didn't get a lot of Noslen work done today. It was a day in which we took time to do some of the stuff we needed to do -- like laundry. Once I finish this blog update, I'm going to do some more work for several clients. While we were waiting for our laundry, we hit golf balls at the practice nets, and sat around reading. (Yes, I actually read . . . thanks to Brooke and Luka getting me a book called The Best American Sports Writing of 2005. It's a great compilation of sports writing submitted for judging and put into a book. The story I started today was about Pat Tillman, a star pro football player who, after the attacks of September 11, actually turned down a $3.6 million contract from the Arizona Cardinals (his only pro football team, after he played at Arizona State University in college) in order to join the Army Rangers with his brother and go fight in Afghanistan. One of my favorite quotes from Tillman in the story was (just after 9/11), "I play football. It seems so unimportant compared to everything that has taken place. A lot of my family has gone and fought wars, and I really haven't done a damn thing." Two years after he and his brother enlisted in the Army, Tillman was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan. Ironically, the "friendly firefight" was between two groups (which had become separated) of his own platoon. The Tillman brothers were in separate groups. Long story short, it was all kind of ugly. At lunch today, we celebrated the end of Southwestern Week, as the big event today was "Frosty", the white bull they brought in for us to have our pictures taken with/on. I actually got up in the saddle, which was kinda fun. Dawn has a picture of me on Frosty, which she'll probably post later. There's a picture of her next to the bull above.

Tonight, we went out to dinner at one of the local joints. Olive Garden. ;) We can't help it . . . we do have some of our own favorites. Hey, last Friday we had dinner at one of the local Mexican joints! :)

So . . . Now that I'm finally done catching you all up, here's the quiz.

Show of hands: How many of you actually thought any or all of this was interesting? :)

Regardless, we do very much appreciate those of you who continually check the blog, only to find we haven't updated it for awhile. We just don't want to bore you guys too much with what we think of as our "regular daily life". Maybe we're wrong. Maybe just the fact we're doing all this as snowbirds is interesting in its own right. But seriously, thanks you guys, for reading. We always love the comments you send when we do post. So please keep the comments coming.

FINALLY!!!!!

Finally!! After 30 years of being a so-called "Seachickens" fan (ever since the team's first game in 1976), the Seattle Seahawks have rewarded all of us who have been their fans with a berth in Super Bowl XL (that's 40 in English . . . hehehe)!

No one can call us the Seachickens anymore.

Thanks to guys like former WSU Cougar players Marcus Trufant and Robbie Tobeck, not to mention a couple of guys named Shaun Alexander and Matt Hasselbeck, not to mention the rest of the team and the whole coaching staff, every Seahawk fan anywhere is thrilled!!

My dad said that tonight Seattle is an absolute zoo. Firecrackers in the neighborhoods, fireworks shooting from atop the Space Needle, not to mention from the football stadium (Qwest Field), and probably anywhere else fireworks can be shot from. Stephanie called us while driving through Seattle on her way home from Bellingham and said that many of the buildings in town already have "Go Hawks" banners hanging from them, and more.

This is a big deal. I read tonight that more than 44 million people watched the Super Bowl on TV last year. More than any other show on television. Next most last year? The 25.1 million who watched the Acadamy Awards. Like football or not, that's impressive.

Anyway . . . just had to share those thoughts. I'm thrilled that the Seahawks won, and while I know there are bigger and more important things in life, it's a pretty cool feeling to see a team you've rooted for for so long finally make it to the Super Bowl. If they lose to Pittsburgh in two weeks, sure, it'll suck. But life goes on.

And life is pretty good for Dawn and I right now.

Oh . . . by the way, I also have some pictures to add from Dillinger Days Saturday in Tucson, but the big story today was the Seahawks. I'll share the photos and some additional Dillinger Days stuff tomorrow.

Dawn

We drove to Tucson today. There was an event going on there called “Dillinger Days”. There was a reenactment of when John Dillinger was captured in Tucson for robbing his last bank. They were dressed in their gangster type clothing and were carrying and shooting off guns. It was really cute. We then walked around looking at the other exhibits. We went to the transportation museum, where it showed us how the town went from stagecoaches to trains to automobiles back in the day. It was fun. I had never been to Tucson before, so now I have!

This past week we didn’t really do anything out of the ordinary. We ate at home every night ( that’s for you Chet). I worked all day yesterday trying to get Nelson’s accounts set up on QuickBooks. We just kind of worked on Noslen things and way‘s to get jobs and make money down here next year if we decide to do this again.

We’re meeting my cousin Lauri and her husband Ron tomorrow at Sam’s sport’s bar to watch the Seahawk’s game. So that should be fun.

Nelson at "Dillinger Days". He finally found some new friends. It would be fun to have lived back then, wouldn't it?

Dillinger Days"

"DillingerDays".

Nelson in front of cool cars at "Dillinger Days".

Nelson

Hi everyone!
I just had to blog today, 1) because it's probably my turn, and 2) because it's been a couple of days since the last time either of us posted anything on the blog.

I swear the last five days have been a stress-wad for me. On Saturday I spent basically the entire day reformatting the harddrive on my computer, and then of course re-installing all of the software that was on it before the reformat job. Ugh. Then I found out that iTunes doesn't work on my computer anymore, so I've been fighting with that, trying to get it to work. Maybe later tonight, I'll get it figured out and get it installed.

For the last few days, I've been fighting some pretty bad e-mail troubles, and this morning due to an email glitch I had (by the way, my web host and email server for my company is Dotster.com, based in Vancouver . . . in case any of you are looking for such service . . . they're overextended when it comes to the equipment on hand, and their customer service isn't all that great), I missed a conference call that one of my newer clients had asked me to be on. That really bothered me, so I made arrangements to move my company's website and email to another host. It was pretty frustrating, the whole thing.

If you're a long-time reader of our blog, you know how important quality customer service is to me, and because I'm in the marketing/public relations business, I was sure to let Dotster know that word of mouth PR is the one kind of PR that can make them or break them . . . yet they still decided to not make things right for me. Oh well. Their loss, not mine.

Yesterday, we checked our propane supply and saw that the tank was getting pretty low. It just so happened that a propane delivery truck go down our street so I wandered down to talk to the guy and see what they had to offer. Here in Mesa there's a law that RV's can't have their propane tanks filled within the park, so there's lots of delivery of these huge tanks that last like three weeks for $60. Ugh. Anyway, long story short, the guy was very friendly and nice and when he looked at our setup, he said we could just get a regular 5-gallon tank (like the ones you use for your barbeque), and hook that up and we'd be good to go. Our only other realistic option was to pack up the RV as if we were going to move and take it to a propane filling station. Deep breath here . . . and OK, so it's not so much "long story short". Anyway, yesterday afternoon I went out and found us a propane tank. Cost me a total of $50 to get the filled tank. Brought it back to the RV and of course, it didn't work. Not enough pressure, I think. So we stressed out all evening about whether we'd have heat through the night and even turned off the water heater so that we wouldn't waste propane on hot water. LOL. But the whole problem was solved today when the doggies and I took "Myrtle" down the road while Dawn was out scrapbook shopping to fill up with propane, and the whole saga is now done and over with. Oh, by the way, we made it through the night with heat, and just barely enough propane.

Today I found out that one of my existing clients has a BUNCH of work for me to do, and I'm thrilled! We're going someplace now, I think! BTW, if any of you are in Vancouver Mall around meal time, or just feel like a little Ice Cream, be sure to stop in at All American Deli & Ice Cream. I promise you won't be disappointed! My favorites there are the hot fudge sundae and the Turkey-Cranberry sandwich. That's a good lunch!

Anyway, I've got lots of work to do, not only for All American, but also for RCU, ERCU, PhoenixLaw, and for my own company. :)

We both hope that all of you are doing well. We're having a good time.

Dawn's

Hi everybody! I hope everyone had a great weekend. We did. Thursday evening we went to a women’s ASU basketball game. Then we met Nelson’s friend Jeff and his girlfriend Wailani (sp?) for dinner. It was the first time we’d me Wailani. She has just graduated from vetrinarian school, and has gotten her first job as a vet here in Phoenix. She’s also taking more classes in animal behavior. Cool career, huh? She was probably about Brooke’s age (25) and really cute and spunky. We liked her.

Friday we went and toured this place called Biosphere 2. It was really awesome. Read Nelson’s blog below for more info on that place. It made for a really thought provoking and interesting day.

Saturday we went to another ASU game.

Sunday , my cousin Lauri and her husband Ron and their kids Adriana and Isabella had us over for dinner. They moved to Phoenix about 2 years ago, and I haven’t seen them much since then so that was totally fun. Bella is almost 2 now and she is so adorable. And Dri is 15! Oh my gosh she has grown up so fast.

Judie, I hope you’re having fun in Mexico!

My awesome little niece (she's actually taller than me now) Dri.

My favorite cousin Lauri.

This is my adorable little neice Isabella. She's almost two.

This is a picture of the ocean inside biosphere 2.

Nelson at Biosphere 2.

I'd forgotten to take pics of Jeff and Wailani at dinner, so we made them meet us in a parking lot to take their pictures so that I could post them on the blog...thanks guys!

Nelson is still enjoying taking the garbage everywhere with us. I think he needs to see a dirt doctor.

Today, we may have seen the most impressive engineering feat ever.

Ever heard of Biosphere 2?

Seems like most people haven't. But it's really awesome (Yes, I said "awesome").

This place was built back in the mid- to late-80s as an attempt to find out whether life as we know it on earth could be sustained inside of a sealed, glass building someplace on another planet or maybe even on the moon. These people thought of just about everything when they designed and built Biosphere 2 (Biosphere 1 is Earth, according to the landmark).

Inside the 3-acre building, which is made up of steel, glass and concrete, with a 1/8-inch stainless steel barrier between the raw earth and the concrete floors of the basement in the place, is 1) a South American rain forest; 2) a Savannah; 3) a mini ocean (holding a million gallons of water taken from the Pacific Ocean near San Diego); 4) a Florida Everglades marsh; and 5) a Baja California desert. The engineers and scientists who designed and developed the place included everything from the real vegetation from each of the ecosystems all the way down to the animals and insects (and all the other species) that needed to be included.

The goal of the thing was to make sure that all of the people, plants and other living organisms could survive, mostly self-sustained (along with the supplies they were given in the beginning of the experiment), in a sealed environment.

I won't go into anymore huge depth, but there are several websites about it out there. A few of them, include the following, which are pretty awesome:

http://www.bio2.com
http://www.azstarnet.com/dailystar/business/55319.php
http://www.desertusa.com/mag99/apr/stories/bios2.html
http://www.biospheres.com

Two other awesome things happened today, and they're both good!

While we were out to drinks with my friend Jeff Paulson and his girlfriend Wailani (I hope I'm spelling that right) on Thursday night, we talked a lot about changing our plans for Lake Havasu City so that we'd be there through February, and then come back here to Mesa for March . . . so we could be here for the World Baseball Classic, and for Spring Training. But it had another side, too. This way, we'd be in Havasu for the big street festival they have every February, which we really want to go to, AND so we would miss the big Spring Break crowd that Havasu apparantly gets every year. Anyway, we DID change the plans, which is awesome. So, Mick and Ligaya, whenever you guys make your plans to come down for Spring Training, we'll be here in town! Looking forward to seeing you guys again.

The other awesome thing that happened today, is that I found out I'll be one of the staff in media relations for the World Baseball Classic this spring (March 4-10, to be exact). This World Baseball Classic is pretty cool because it's a tournament of all the best players from respective countries around the world to determine which country truly is the best in baseball. The USA team is pretty impressive, with future Hall of Famers like Barry Bonds, Derek Jeter and Roger Clemens on the roster. Thanks to Emmy who talked to her friend Blake, who works with the San Francisco Giants, for this opportunity. It truly was a case of "Hey, a friend of a friend of mine . . . "

Before we went out with friends last night, we went to our first women's basketball game at Arizona State. It was awesome . . . after having the lead most of the game, ASU had to come from behind, and barely won, beating Oregon by one point, at the buzzer. It was exciting enough that we're going to go back tomorrow to see the Sun Devils play Oregon State. I still have a soft spot in my heart for women's basketball.

Lastly, to be fair, I should say that for the last two months, we've been making my mom envious of all the nice weather and the relaxation that we've been able to experience. But tonight, she started telling me the websites to look at to see her upcoming vacation. She's going to a spa and resort in Mexico. The temps there this time of year are about the same as they are here . . . but she's going to be at a spa! Have fun mom, and be safe!

The dogs love it when Dawn takes a nap. This is pretty much the same places they both always end up.

This is the one time that I didn't take the same picture that Dawn took. :) Seriously, I'm not as bad about that stuff as she teases me about being.

Biosphere 2. Inside this big part of the glass building is the rain forest.

This is the ocean inside Biosphere 2.

The desert. Believe it or not. It was cooler in here than it was in the Savannah, which was more humid than Atlanta!

I know this picture sucks . . . I couldn't stop walking without getting run over by the rest of the tour group. It's inside a tunnel that goes between the Biosphere 2 basement into one of its "lungs". The lungs are where the hot air escaped from the building during the day, and was stored until the building cooled at night, when it was sealed, keeping the building from exploding or imploding.

This domed building is one of the lungs. Inside these twin buildings is essentially just a huge membrane with a counterweight in the middle. It's what forces the air in and out of the lung. Pretty awesome engineering. Who thinks of all this stuff!? Wow!

Dawn

We did laundry yesterday, which turned out to be totally fun. We practiced our golf swing and our putting while we waited for our laundry. I’ve never used one of the net things to practice, but it was really cool. And I really did end up doing pretty well ( after 2 buckets of balls). Now I want to go do that every day. Nelson and I made a deal...the next time we actually play golf on a golf course, I get to use a tee on every hole (not just the first one) if he can mulligan (take as many turns as he wants until he gets a good one and only count it as one) on every hole. You know I’ll bet we could all be pretty darn good golfers if we just were able to make up our own rules. Duh, why doesn’t everyone do that???

Nelson messed around getting his computer to work all day today. I kept saying, “honey, why don’t you call Dell support?” But, he’s a typical male and hates to ask for help, so he worked all day until finally he called Dell support. And guess what??? Yep, it worked. MEN!!!

We explored more of our RV Resort today. We found another pool and a ceramic room and a stained glass room and a massage room and the workout room. The other day we found a big wood shop. We also found a 9 hole miniature golf course. It was really cute. We walked around here for about 45 minutes right at sundown. The sunset with the palm trees was beautiful. Low 70’s today. You’d think we’d start taking this weather for granted but we still totally appreciate it everyday.

The other night when we went to the Spaghetti Factory for dinner. We were talking about how our blog must be so boring lately. Nothing exciting has happened. So we decided right then and there that we were going to “dine and dash”. We just said if we get caught we’ll just act like we thought the other one paid. So we did it. Just for you guys. Just to add some excitement to the blog. It was scary, but we thought that all of our blog fans were worth it. Actually it got our adrenaline pumping, and we laughed so hard. We couldn’t believe we actually did it. So don’t tell anyone. We took one for the team. Boy, if we have to keep coming up with exciting things for you guys we might just become the next “Bonnie and Clyde”.

We had a nice BBQ’d chicken dinner when we got home from our walk, while we watched two great shows, “One tree Hill” and “Lost”. Let’s hear it from the “One tree Hill and the”Lost” fans! YEAH!!!

Ok, so maybe we didn’t really “dine and dash”, but we really did suggest it to each other and laughed about how funny it would be if we did. So...that makes us “Bonnie and Clyde” wannabe’s. SO WHAT???

One of several picnic/bbq areas at our RV resort.

These people are on Bocce teams. It looks fun. But we don't know how to play...yet.

Wow, my man is a definite "He Man". He broke this golf ball! I am so impressed.

Look's like I've been hitting balls from here. This is even arificial turf!

This is the putting green at our place.

One of the tennis courts at our place.

No wonder Nelson needs to take so many turns...his club is made out of rubber.

Nelson

Looks like it's been quite awhile since I last posted on the blog. Sorry. Funny how fast time goes by.

We hate rubbing people's noses in the fact that we're enjoying the sun...especially now that we're hearing it's been 23 consecutive days of rain up there, and that there's flooding problems and all the rest. Ugh.

But, everyone seems to enjoy following our adventure and the sun is part of it. In fact it's totally why we're down here. The RV Park (or probably more accurately "RV Resort") we're at here in Mesa is really neat there's a miniature golf course, a couple of "driving nets" for golf practice, and a practice putting green. There's also all kinds of places to play horseshoes, bocce ball, tennis, etc. There's lots to do here. We've hardly had any time to do any of it, but yesterday we used the golf practice facilities while we were doing our laundry, since the laundry room closest to us is right next to the golf area. It's I guess another way to use multi-tasking. :)

We went out to Scottsdale for a bit last night, too, I went to an event for my new client PhoenixLaw, and Dawn spent some quality time at the Barnes & Noble store down the street from the school. I interviewed one of the students of PhoenixLaw for an article I'll write about her to go into one of the school's newsletters. She's a pretty interesting person...grew up on the Navajo Reservation, dropped out of high school, got a GED and worked her way through college and now she's ventured out into the world to attend law school. She's thinking she wants to make waves in the world of tribal law, because there aren't many experts in tribal law.

Sooner or later, we'll get up to Scottsdale for some fun, rather than for a work reason. Our understanding is that there's a great "old town" district up there.

You'll all be happy to know that we ate dinner at home last night...and the two nights before that. And we'll do it again tonight. Tomorrow night, though, we'll probably go out to dinner with my friend Jeff Paulson and his girlfriend Wailani, who we haven't met yet. When we saw Jeff in Phoenix last month, he said he was thinking about asking her to marry him...so maybe tomorrow we'll find out if he's found the right moment for that or not. :)

For the last two days, and already through this morning, my thoughts really have been with two of my friends...Phil and Kevin. They've both had some rough days recently, and they're two of my closest friends. Phil and I go all the way back to 9th grade as buddies. Then last night, I found out that another good friend of mine, Chet "The Jet" is having a pretty rough few days himself. Most of it seems to stem from his job, which he's just about to retire from. I tried to encourage him to hang in there. I hope he will. He's a really good guy, and has always been like third dad to me (to go along with my real dad, and with Jim). So he's in my thoughts, too. Hang in there Jet.

OK...I've got more work to do, so I'm outta here for now. Just wanted to be sure and post. :)

Dawn

We went on a road trip today. We went to Prescott. Boy, it was like coming home. The air was cool and there were trees. And the houses were old Victorian style wood houses rather than adobe style houses. For being only 2 hours away from Phoenix, it was like night and day. We read up on some of the history of Prescott. It started as a mining community in I think 1864 (like every where else around here). There is a real cute area in downtown called “Whiskey Row”, which had little shops and restaurants in the original old Hotels and Saloons, etc.

We tried to find a place in the mountains called “Skull Mountain” (I think). Back in the 1800’s some old miners found mounds of bleached skulls there. They later found out that it was a place where two different tribes of Indians had a battle over the ownership of some horses. But...we never found it.

Then we drove to a place called Lynx Lake. We wanted to walk or sit by the lake. When we got there it was gated off and closed. Only open on weekends this time of year. It was definitely not the “in season” there, like it is here. We did get a glimpse of the lake. It looked beautiful.

We ended up having a very nice day though. It was more like a nice Sunday drive. The skies were blue, even if it was chilly.

We did have some more sad news today though. Nelson’s oldest friend Phil and his wife Wendy are getting divorced. I guess it’s a pretty nasty situation and there are children involved , unfortunately.

Nelson also talked to his good friend Kevin today. That was also a very sad phone call. Kevin and his wife Judy lost their 15 year old daughter a few months ago due to a brain tumor. Kevin told Nelson that he and Judy were still having a real hard time of it. Very, very sad.

We’re going to practice our golf tomorrow while we’re doing our laundry. That should be interesting.

Oh and by the way for any of you that have been following this blog from the beginning...Nelson didn’t want me to tell you this, but he is still obsessed with constantly taking garbage bags everywhere with us, go figure!!!

A historic building on "Whiskey Row" in downtown Prescott.

This is a picture of the Courthouse in Prescott. See, it looks like this could be in like Portland or Olympia. The architecture and landscaping is really different than the other parts of Arizona we've seen.

This was a glass case filled with old gambling items. There were these metal contraptions that men wore up their sleeves that held a card. Some really cool stuff.

More shops in historic Prescott. You'll probably see these same pictures from Nelson. He never remembers to take pictures until I do. So he ends up just taking the same ones, lol.

This is inside one of the historic buildings in Prescott. It was beautiful.