And on a lighter note:

In the middle of winter... a ray of hope that Spring will be here soon...

Going Green??

I have my own opinions on this whole Global Warming thing... one word... cycles. I don't mean bicycles, motorcycles or unicycles either. I'm sitting here in the coldest winter since 1990 where I live, under a blanket of snow, and with a down duvet over me. Global warming indeed.

Be that as it may, I'm doing my best to stock up on incandescent light bulbs before they are outlawed (Thomas Edison is spinning in his grave!!). I concede that I bought 5 energy saving light bulbs last month, but that was because they were mismarked at 99 cents instead of $5.99. I'm not stupid after all. I use them for my back porch light which stays on 24/7.

I almost got out the duct tape today, to keep my head exploding, when out on my front steps was my FOURTH new telephone book this month. Greeness aside, WTF??? Who needs FOUR new phone books? Granted, they were from three different companies, but why? It must be expensive for the 'phone' companies to print out these every year. Wouldn't a better idea be to send out postcards to their local area customers asking if they would like a new phone book? This sounds better than putting a new one on every front step in the region.

What do I do with last years phone books? Or the year before's, for that matter???? Phone book recycling is available somewhere, but who knows where. There should be a notification on the front of the NEW books telling you what to do with the OLD books. Perhaps a pick up service by the phone companies themselves the following week so they can recycle them for their own use?

Just a thought.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Egypt 2005

I had a lovely 7 weeks in Egypt in the Summer of 2005, courtesy of Uncle Sam. Everyone needs a rich Uncle to send them travelling!!



See my striped tan? That's what 13 days on the beach does to you, when the sun comes through the bars of the balcony.



The Egyptians loved me so much, they presented me with my own fez.



I started out on the coast of the Med, up near Al Alamain where "there is also a Commonwealth war cemetery with graves of soldiers from various countries who fought on the British side. This has monuments commemorating Greek, New Zealand, Australian and South African forces. The Commonwealth cemetery, as is common at many such cemeteries in the world, consists of parallel rows of gravestones, each one bearing an engraving of the deceased soldier's unit emblem, his name and an epitaph from his family. Rows upon rows of gravestones stand witness to the battles' human cost." (thanks wikipedia).


Besides the Great Pyramids of Giza... I was able to get down the Nile Valley to Bani Suawayf for a day. On the way back, we saw a few "step pyramids'. Our driver said there are over 120 pyramids in Egypt. We only saw 12 that day, and we weren't even looking for them. We just stopped along side the highway to get this pic.








Egypt is known for it's fantastic crystal, made from the silica in all the sand there. It comes from a particular region and the pieces are fantastic!



This is the showroom of one crystal factory in Cairo. Talk about sensory overload!! There were mirrors on all the walls with reflected the lights of the room and display cases. Sunglasses were almost needed to save your eyes!



Besides lounging on the beach for a few days, I actually got to the Giza pyramids, the Egypt Museum ( no cameras allowed inside, grrrr), took a nice dinner cruise on the Nile, and had a late night personal tour of the ancient section of Cairo on the first night of Ramadan. What an experience!!



I do hope to get back eventually and see the Luxor area of the Nile Valley.

My Mac blogs

I thought I'd just put a link up to my original blogs I started when I bought my MacBook Pro... it was so user friendly, I had to do it.

There are two: one with Site_2 in the link and one with Site_3 in the link. Both have pictures from my various travells on them.

Enjoy and let me know what you think!

http://web.mac.com/laurelmeadows/Site_2/Blog/Blog.html

http://web.mac.com/laurelmeadows/Site_3/Blog/Blog.html

Snow in Boise

I woke up to snow this morning again... must be the fault of Global Warming... everything else seems to be. ( I wonder if I'm only 5'4" because of Global Warming too, even though I'm the tallest female in my family in 3 generations, lol)

As I write this it looks like a proper blizzard out there, and here I went and shovelled my steps, walkway and driveway, grrrrrrrrr.

Road trip through Kabul

There were three ways of getting from Kabul to/from Bagram Air Base: airplane, helicopter or by road. Travelling the 30 miles took at least 90 minutes and had to be done by armoured vehicled convoy. This trip was in British SNATCH vehicles, and this video was taken through the one window in the passenger compartment.

95% of the civilian vehicles in Afghanistan are Toyotas. White Toyotas. Yellow and white ones are taxis.

I was in the lead vehicle, so you can sometimes see the chase vehicle in the video.

Great lads, the Brits- diligent, well-trained professionals. They got me home safe everytime.

Birthday video

I wanted to the video up of Gerry blowing out his candles, and opening his cards, but there is a 100 MB limit, and the video is 103 MB. Sheesh...

Arizona desert

Just a few pics from Arizona... my ticket from the play "Scrooge" at the Gaslight Theater...


Dias de los Muertos (Day of the Dead)



Everyone needs a giant chicken in their front yard... this one is at a restaurant south of Green Valley, AZ


Mission San Xavier in south Tucson. Its a gem, dazzling white, which can be seen for miles.

And finally... the panoramic Arizona desert in December.

Arizona in December

ARIZONA - DECEMBER 2007

Last month, I was able to get to Green Valley, AZ for a few days, to help celebrate a milestone in our family. My step-dad, Gerry, turned 90 years old. He's been a part of our family for over 40 years, and you couldn't ask for better.

Both my brothers and my sister (along with assorted family members) were there, and along with the usual jocularity, we were able to get some good family time in. My three siblings and I hadn't all been together with my mom in over 10 years (+/- a few).

Of course, my mom had a few activities planned. Sheesh, what do you do with a house full of adults, and 2 toddlers? lol.

The first day, my sister and I met up in the Denver airport, and caught the same plane in to Tucson. We did all the normal catching up, sitting across the aisle from each other, while she wrote out her Christmas cards. (I, of course, have my envelopes addressed and stamped and STILL haven't mailed any out).

The next day, we had tickets for SCROOGE, a modernization of the Dicken's play, which was on at the Gaslight Theater. This little theater puts on a variety of different plays and productions. I'd been there once before to watch a melodrama where they encourage you to boo and hiss at the villian.

The play was hilarious, and afterwards everyone in the audience celebrating a birthday got an ice cream sundae (Gerry included). We went to a great Mexican restaurant (well, it is Tucson, after all) afterwards.

We also did a quick trip to Tubac, a small artsy town (ok, more of a village), a few miles south of Green Valley. Almost every building is a shop of some sort selling southwester/mexican/craftsy stuff. My brother was on a mission to find a particular bowl made of stone for making guacamole. We found a lady who could get it that night from Mexico, and promised to come back the next day for it, which we of course did. We picked up an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen on the way home for Gerry's birthday.

The last night I was there was the BIG dinner at the restaurant at the golf course. Nine adults and two children! I don't think they were ready for us. The big surprise was my Brother in Law and nephew flying in from Georgia that day, just for the dinner. They flew out the next day, as I did. WOW!!

It was a great time, not too much sibling rivalry (haha). We all got to take the mick out of Gerry, excusing anything he did with .... "it's alright... now that you are officially "really really old"" LOLOLOL