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Saw this painted on a wall near the University of Arizona campus last night. We wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment!

As we forge on into 2012, “May the odds be ever in your favor!”

Ah, finally the new year arrived. It slipped in quietly here in Tucson, long after the warm sun drifted behind the mountains, the bright moon followed, and we were left with peacefully blinking stars. Well, it was quiet for a moment—before our neighbors began setting off fireworks.

We stood out in our backyard gazing at the colorful lights with a merry fire crackling, surrounded by friends and family. While we realize we are fortunate to have our health, home, friends, family, and each other—we have never been so thrilled to shut the door on a year such as this last one.

It was a span during which we lost several loved ones; people who enriched our lives in a myriad of ways. While we miss them dearly, their passing has reminded us to treasure each new day and the people in our lives.

As for the year ahead, we’ll let Ralph Waldo Emerson make the toast,

For each new morning with its light, For rest and shelter of the night, For health and food, For love and friends.

Santé! Cheers! Salute! Prosit! Skoal! Sláinte! Salud!

The last two months of 2011 zipped right on by since they were filled to the brim with friends and family.

• The middle of November found us savoring delicious barbecue and fish cake (or more correctly a fish-shaped cake) as we celebrated Scott’s birthday.


• We chatted the night away with our friends Aaron and Jenny who were visiting from Ohio.


• We hosted our first Thanksgiving in this house, Rancho Soleil. The food was tasty, the company was delightful, and the games were hysterical. For those who attended I have two words for you: Charles. Volcano.


• The day after we zipped down to the Portal area to spend time with some of my family: Grandma Eileen, Aunt Paula, Harry, Uncle Lance, and Aunt Sharon. We had a wonderful time sharing memories and eating way too much food.


• Back in time to help celebrate Geoff’s birthday by sliding big balls at ten shapely white things. In other words, bowling. I always go for low score—that’s how you win, right?


• Few days later was a sad pizza dinner—time to say goodbye to Aaron, Jenny, and their two boys, Nate and Sam. The pizza wasn’t sad, just the pizza eaters.


• The first weekend of December Lance and I joined my sister Desirée and her husband Scott for dinner to help my Aunt Coralie celebrate her birthday. Afterward we had a Skip-Bo tournament that my sister handily won (I think she had a couple up her sleeve, if you know what I mean).


• We enjoyed catching up over dinner with Lance’s sister Adria and her husband Joel.


• Lisa and Gino arrived to warm and sunny Tucson from cold and gray Portland, Oregon for a long weekend of R & R…
  We hiked, toured the Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum, caught sunset at Gates Pass, devoured Mexican food at El Charro, wandered through the Tucson Museum of Art, browsed the 4th Ave Street Fair, grubbed on cowboy fare at El Corral, watched the gunfights in Tombstone, and dropped them off at the airport twice (canceled flight, long story).


• Mingled with friends and colleagues at the annual Gathering of the Greens holiday party. Always a fun time!


• Hung out with the Spoke6 crew at their white elephant holiday party. Ugly orange tie, anyone?


• Attended Adria’s lovely Christmas Eve luncheon with Hank, his grandfather, and his mother (Adria’s husband Joel was out of town).


• Spent Christmas and the day after in far southwestern New Mexico with some of my family. It was sunny and warm which made the recently fallen snow sparkle and shine.


• We wrapped up the year at our house, accompanied by friends and family. Noshing yummy food, playing games, sharing stories around the bonfire, and watching fireworks—not a bad way to end the year.

To view all our other photos from the end of the year, see Fall Social Events, Lisa and Gino Visit, and Christmas 2011.

The first weekend of November found us driving north to chillier climes. We were heading to the old mining town of Jerome to meet up with our good friends Rich and Karen. Our rendezvous wasn’t until late afternoon so Lance and I took a short detour out to Tuzigoot National Monument in the nearby Verde River Valley.

This monument protects a reconstructed hilltop ruin originally built by the Sinagua people between CE 1000 and 1400. As with most of these Ancestral Puebloan sites the pueblo grew over time with rooms built upon rooms. At its largest the pueblo had 110 rooms housing an estimated 225 people, then—for reasons still largely unknown—they left.

The ruin was excavated and partially rebuilt during the 1930s by workers under the auspices of the Civilian Works Administration and the Works Project Administration. All their work paid off since President Franklin D. Roosevelt designated the ruin as a national monument in 1939. Currently the monument encompasses 42 acres and includes the Tavasci Marsh, a restored wetland.

After viewing the exhibits (some impressive pottery and woven materials) we tackled the two short trails. First we toured the ruins, where we appreciated the excellent view afforded by access to the roof. The tops of the Mogollon Rim to the north and Mingus Mountain to the south were both covered in snow, the result of our first winter storm. The other trail led to the marsh overlook. We didn’t linger long since there was a bit of a nip in the air.

Mid-September in Tucson. Another hot day, another chance to get away. We opted to tour the Titan Missile Museum in Sahuarita about twenty-five miles south of town.

The museum preserves an intact silo and a Titan II intercontinental ballistic missile—minus its nine megaton payload¹. From 1963 to 1983 Tucson was surrounded by 18 of these massive weapons which made my hometown one of the U.S.S.R.’s main targets. There was a missile located less than half a mile from our elementary school, though by the time Lance attended it was deactivated. I distinctly recall having to participate in school-wide drills which I, of course, decided were completely pointless. If the Russians had launched a nuclear missile our way, it wouldn’t matter if we were all crouched in the hallway or under our desks. Or as Bill Bryson put it in his memoir, The Life And Times of the Thunderbolt Kid:

I remember being profoundly amazed that anyone would suppose that a little wooden desk would provide a safe haven in the event of an atomic bomb being dropped on Des Moines. But evidently they all took the matter seriously, for even the teacher, Miss Squat Little Fat Thing, was inserted under her desk, too—or at least as much of her as she could get under, which was perhaps 40 percent. Once I realized that no one was watching, I elected not to take part.

Lance has elevated his mumbling skills to an art form over the years. He doesn’t do it often but boy, when he does!

For example:
Me, “Hey, Lance do you know what happened to the gummy bears?”
“Hmmm, gummy bears? Well, mfbnwdjnsmmmmmm…”
“Huh? Lance, what was that?”

By the way, this technique seems to work best when walking away from the other person. (wink)

What to do in Tucson when you’re tired of it being hot and can’t face the thought of doing yard work in 100 degree weather? Go exploring! Which is exactly what we did the second weekend in September: we decided to check out some attractions in the San Pedro Valley. First stop, Kartchner Caverns, the gem of the Arizona State Parks system.

The living cave¹ is on the eastside of the Whetstone Mountains overlooking Benson and the San Pedro River. A solutional cave², Kartchner lies in the Escabrosa Limestone, the same formation that is home to not only Colossal Cave near Tucson, but also Carlsbad Caverns National Park, some 400 miles to the east in New Mexico.

The story of the cave’s discovery is an interesting one; in 1974 two spelunkers, Gary Tenen and Randy Tufts, found the cave and decided it was so spectacular that it needed protection. They knew intimately the damage that careless adventurers had wreaked in other caves: breaking formations, widening entrances that altered airflow—thus killing the cave, and leaving behind beer bottles and even excrement. They kept the cave a secret while they contemplated its future, ultimately deciding that opening the cave for public tours was the best option.

It was almost four years later that Tufts and Tenen finally shared the cave with the ranching family who owned the land where it was located. Luckily, James Kartchner was a retired science teacher who valued education and envisioned the cave as a living classroom. Kartchner shared the spelunkers’ desire to protect the spectacular cave, though they quickly realized they did not have the resources necessary to develop the cave site.

From a U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Human Nutrition and Home Economics brochure published in September 1943. I found this in an old cookbook that my Aunt Paula recently gave me. Those were the days!

After Lance and I returned from our various trips (me to Portland, Oregon, Lance to St. Louis and San Francisco) we finally had to face Tucson’s most challenging weather: the hot and humid monsoon season. It is a much loved and loathed time of year—we want and need the rain, we just detest that pressure cooker sensation. On good days it dawns sunny, reaches 100 degrees by noon, towering dark clouds build by late afternoon and then we get pummeled by rain. The rest of the evening is 20 degrees cooler and the desert smells amazing: so clean, so alive, so refreshed. On bad days it dawns sunny, warms up, and just keeps getting hotter, trying to bake the will to live out of all the desert’s inhabitants.

We copied the adaptations of many desert creatures and became more crepuscular in our activities, preferring to venture outside in the morning and evening hours. One of our evening adventures was a trip out to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum with Alison, Charles, Geoff, and Lauren. During the summer the museum stays open until 10 PM on Saturdays. The idea is that the critters will be active after resting through a long, hot day. Unfortunately, it was a humid evening and the heat from the day failed to dissipate, so none of the animals were doing much moving around—including us humans. We still had a great time wandering the trails and chatting.

Summer nights introduce us to all manner of critters that at times we’d rather not know about. I believe “blissfully ignorant” would be the correct phrase. Case in point is the extremely large Giant Desert Hairy Scorpions that we found on our back porch. Though they look menacing, the three- to five-inch-long scorpions are one of the least venomous of their kind. If they hadn’t been in an area where people often walk around barefoot (by our pool) we would’ve left them alone. As it was, we helped them on their way to another plane of existence.

Intriguing bumper sticker seen recently in Portland, Oregon. I believe it is referring to locally caught fish, then again maybe not…