a small pic post

Good morning.
 Not a lot going on, so here's a few pics......

Took this from our patio. Craig thinks it's the replacement for the B-52. It was a huge plane with 4 engines on the wings and flying real slow. At least compared to all the other planes we see.
When we bought the house, we had to sign a form stating that we were told our house is in the flight path for Nellis Air force Base. Didn't bother us since back in Michigan, we lived near an airport. Usually we see all sorts of small jets. Mostly fighter jets I guess. Usually in groups of 2-4. Sometimes in a formation, other times just one after the other. And always very loud. But this big guy wasn't loud at all. Pretty quiet actually. But we like watching all the different planes going over.
Next pic I used my zoom on the camera, and I again cropped the pic trying to get it closer.

It's a mommy Humming Bird feeding a baby. They were on the tree in the neighbors yard. We see the mommy every day as she visits our flowering bushes. We've seen more hummers here than back in Mi.
And here's a WARNING!
The next pic is of Craig's stitched finger.
So leave now if that sort of thing makes you queasy.
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Last Chance!
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...Okay, here it is!
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This pic was taken last Friday at his weekly post op check. They almost took the stitches out but decided to wait one more week. This pic is 16 days after surgery.

He's making pretty good progress. He can almost curl the finger all the way to the palm. Once the swelling completely goes down and the stitches are out, I think he'll be doing real well. He's doing physical therapy twice a week. and home exercises every 2 hours during the day.
Well that's all I have to say for now.

yummy food.

Good morning.
Apparently the raving I did about a chicken enchilada dish that one of my neighbors brought to a patio party made an impression, because Tuesday she brought another dish of them to us.

So, we had to change our dinner plans for the evening, but it was well worth it!

They were delicious!

I don't know how see makes them, but they are very tasty! We do have some very nice neighbors. She keeps saying it's for taking care of their house while they were in Europe, But all I did was get their mail for 10 days. And they already gave us a gift certificate to Kohl's and she paid for lunch at the golf club. But I'm never one to turn down home cooking!  :-)
I also got another roll of chicken wire. I put chicken wire domes over the red spreading Lantana in the front yard because bunnies were eating them. They were just planted last year and aren't large enough to withstand the nibbling yet. Well, something is eating the purple spreading Lantanas in the back yard. It can't be rabbits since my backyard has a wall around it and I put chicken wire over the bottom of the gate. One neighbor thinks it's flying rabbits. Another neighbor thinks it might be the Quail. Since I've never seen any flying rabbits out here, I'll go with the Quail. I tented them until they are large enough. See, even out here in the desert, I still need to deal with critters.
That's all for now!

puter maintenance and pie

Good morning.
Yesterday, I decided to clean the puter. I don't think I did it in Jan like I usually do, and the fan was making noises. Normally you can even tell the puter is on except for the light on the front. When that happens That usually means to much dust built up on the coils and blades. But it's easy to do. My tower has just 2 screws in the back that I take off to remove the entire side of the tower. Look at the dust just on the side vent....

And on the back......

Of course, make sure you unplug the tower before messing with it.
See how dusty it was?

I used canned air and blew it all out. Now the puter is quiet as a mouse.   :-)
I also made another blueberry pie. It turned out delicious, but messy. It just isn't jelling up enough to get a piece out without it falling apart. I put in 3 tablespoons of cornstarch, but maybe that's not enough? I do fill the pie crust way over the top. But it was tasty nonetheless.
Craig had another physical therapy appointment yesterday. Now he has a break until Friday when he sees both the pt and doctor.
Had lunch with a neighbor over at the golf club. We all had the Avocado BLT. And I must say they have very good fries and onion rings. And of course, a great view of the golf course and mountains!
Well I guess that's it for now.

Believe it. 1% humidity!

Good morning.
After flirting with 90 earlier this week, today is forecast to be 70. But in a couple of days we'll go back to our normal 80's.
Here's a pic of Craig relaxing on the patio 2 days ago when the temps were 94 and 1% humidity.

It really was quite comfortable. Low humidity and shade make a huge difference.
The plant to the right is our new Bougainvillea  which is just starting to re bloom after we bought and re-potted it. The plant to Craig's left is called Elephant's Food. I put it on the table because something has been eating it. We haven't seen any Elephants around, so not sure what's been getting it. I'll see if it does better up on a table.
And we had a last patio get together with a neighbor who leaves this morning to go back to Minnesota for the summer.
And Craig had his second therapy appointment and they are really working his hand and finger. He also has exercises he does at home every 2 hours during the day. He got a little aggressive with the exercises yesterday and had some blood on the wrappings so he's backing off a little until the stitches heal more. He goes back to the doctor next Friday and they may take out some of the stitches then, but the rest will probably be in until the following week. So his finger is slowly coming along.
And that's it for now!

look if you dare

Good morning.

Warning!

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Possible gross out! 

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Heavily stitched finger pic ahead!...

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Here's an update on Craig's finger.....

This pic was taken on Tuesday at the the therapy office. They took his old bandages off and added a different finger brace and Velcro straps so he can easily remove it at home to do his finger/hand exercises So they let me take a pic while everything was off.

It looks like it hurts more than it does. Craig took pain pills for just the first 3 days. Now he occasionally takes aspirin. But says it doesn't bother him unless he touches the stitches. He's started doing exercises at home between therapy appointments. That is making his hand ache some. Can't bend that finger much, but it's still a bit swollen, and I don't think the stitches help with movement either.
The stitches will stay in for another 10-12 days according to his surgeon which he sees again on Friday.
In other news.....
Not much. There was a patio party at a neighbors yesterday. Lot's of tasty food. I loaned our patio table and chairs as there were more people than they had furniture for. Was a beautiful afternoon/evening.
I thought my laptop was totally dead. I left in on one day burning a DVD while we went to another patio party. When I got home, it wouldn't wake up. I forced a shutdown and it wouldn't power back on. I'd get the logo screen and then it went dark and just sat there. Couldn't get it into safe mode either. I went online with my desktop and tried everything . Finally, I was able to to get to a place where I had an option to completely reinstall the system. So I tried that, and it seems to have worked. Of course, now it's just like a brand new puter,  as everything I had added to it over the last 11 years was wiped out by the reinstall. But at least it doesn't look like I have to get a new one. So I'm busy reinstalling stuff, and I hope it continues to work.
Neighbors are starting to get ready to leave. A lot of residents just spend the winters here and go back 'home' for the summer. They start leaving around early May and by June, our community will be a lot quieter. The patio party yesterday was a sort of a goodbye for the summer party.
So I think that's all for right now.