A Flurry of Activity

On Wednesday evening the 18th, longtime friend Franz came to visit.  He arrived at the airport around 9:00 PM.  The next day we went out for breakfast, and then spent a few hours at the Pima Air & Space Museum.  After that we made a run down to Tombstone.

The next day, after breakfast, we headed for Phoenix metro where we spent some time with my cousin Todd.  We were up there for two nights, with the second night having Todd's neighbor come over with his brother-in-law and Annette's nephew Bob.

We didn't spend time solving the world's problems, as most adult males are prone to do whenever gathered around barbecuing chicken and adult beverages.  Instead we were listening to some tunes.  On Sunday we left and returned to Tucson, enjoying an evening meal at a favorite Thai place of mine called Bai Thong, which is on Speedway.

Franz returned home the next morning.  I took that Monday off from work.  I relaxed some, but did do some painting on the outside.

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At work we are having a salsa contest.  Teams of three each have been formed.  Each of the three on my team is bringing in a recipe.  The one nice thing about salsa is that you can do that a zillion different ways, and most of them are good.

Here's my recipe:

1 1/2 fresh tomatos
1 small can of tomato sauce
1 squeezed lime
fresh cilantro to taste
~ 3 teaspoons of salt? (to taste)
1/2 yellow onion
1 tablespoon of crushed red pepper
1 fresh jalapeno
1 fresh serrano
1 large clove of garlic, or two small cloves

Chuck all of this into a blender and hit the on switch.  When what you have in there looks like salsa, then turn the on switch off.

This will have some zing to it, and if you want it milder then substitute some green pepper for the jalapeno.  If you want rocket fuel and/or want nightmares that night, substitute habanero for the serrano.

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I've spent some time this afternoon doing some more painting.  Today it was the wood trim around the garage door, after which I finished the trim on the east side of the house.

I originally wasn't going to do the garage door.  I did touch up a couple of spots when I was off last Monday, and when it dried I noticed that the patched areas looked fresher.  So, I decided to do the whole trim.

I'm rather pleased with the results.  I mean, it looks new!  The house faces north so it's not like I've got the sun wearing down my paint in that area, but now that I've done it I'm going to make the argument that the trim needed painting.

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That's all I have for today.

Don't forget to pet a dog or a cat.

Bachman & Turner play Arizona!

Yesterday four of us from Tucson went up to La Encanterra Golf & Country Club in San Tan Valley  to attend the Good Life Festival.  The main reason for going was that Bachman & Turner were making their first appearance in Arizona since re-uniting in 2009, and I wasn't going to miss this!  I also wanted to spend some more time visiting with Fred Turner, which I was able to do since we arrived some six hours before their concert so that we could sit in on their sound check.

I knew beforehand for several weeks about this, but didn't publicize it.  I was working with band member Mick Dalla-Vee (whom I owe a great debt of thanks to!) to arrange for a private audience with them, which after the show happened in the form of a brief backstage visit where I got to meet Randy Bachman.  It was only the second time I've gotten to meet him; it was for about ten minutes at the most.  He was tired from fighting the flu for the past few weeks and he may have been heading back to Vancouver that evening, after flying in that very same day.  He was very nice and it was neat getting to thank him for the many years of entertainment that they've provided me.

Fred is doing very well!  He's lost quite a bit of weight since the last time I saw him.  He told me that he's been spending the past three months wintering at his place in Florida, though he is returning to Winnipeg to take care of some things there.  He's been busy doing some songwriting and he told me that he wants to continue doing that for a while.  I meant to ask him about his Corvette restoration projects and that new six-string bass guitar he was playing (that looked like one prime piece of hardware).  Maybe I'll email him later today about that.

I told Fred that I want to see another show later this year, and that if I end up attending one of their gigs back east somewhere or in the midwest that I'd let him know beforehand.  I'd let Mick know too, as well as my forum buddies.  I am looking at a show this summer in Washington state, and St. Louis is tempting too, but I'm thinking that I should make a little vacation out of this and go see them somewhere in Canada....a part of Canada I've never been to.

Anyway, here's a photo of Fred and myself.....I'm the one with the Cardinals baseball cap.