Good morning Sunshine. . . .

The Earth says hello. . .

Chris and I make a concerted effort to get up and run the dogs (and ourselves) each and every day.  This effort is aided by the instant whine that comes from Adriane at 5:30 every morning.  Because of this, we have taken to calling her our fitness trainer.  We are considering getting her puppy sweatbands and a whistle to complete the outfit.  But, I digress.

Although we do not have a perfect track record, this summer, we have been very good about getting up and out the door before the large ball of fire (aka- the sun) comes up and starts to bore into us.  In order to get a decent run in and not endanger ourselves or our pups, we need to be running as the sun is coming up.  On these picture perfect mornings, I marvel at the desert landscape as it is touched with the first light.

We run on trails in a local park called Papago (or as we affectionally call it- Puppy-go).  It is a little oasis in our cement city that we have shared with almost all of our visitors.  Here we can enjoy the red rocks and great hiking, all about 4 miles from our doorstep.  We love it at 5:30 am because we have the place practically to ourselves.  Our puppies hunt the jackrabbits that race to and fro and on occasion, we have seen coyotes roaming the landscape.  (Incidentally, this is also where Chris proposed.)

After starting this blog, I knew I wanted to share some thoughts and photos about our morning runs.  On this particular morning, I actually remembered the camera and was able to snap some photos as we were running.

(if you look closely, you can see Rocco in the shadows making his way up the butte to join Chris and Adriane).

A morning run, time with family, and a bit of appreciation for how beautiful the world can be- all before my first cup of coffee.  How much luckier can a girl be?

Unfortunately, we have not figured out a way to bring Dodge on these morning fun runs.  I think she is sad that she does not get to go and is usually waiting in the window for our return.

Slacker's Paradise

Oiy!  I have been behind on my blogging!  Noting much new to report here in Hotzona.  We are trying to hold out for about another month when the daily high is less than 100 and the nighttime lows will dip back into the lower 70's.  Until then, we will enjoy the random storm that blow through here during monsoon season.  While they do bring beautiful skies, they rarely bring cooler temps.  Sigh. . . .

Perhaps these last 2 would make nice real-estate listing pictures in the not too far future. . . ?

Dish on the Dishwasher

There are some things in this world that I am very good at.  Dishes is not one of them.  You may be wondering how someone can be "bad" at washing dishes.  I have wondered this myself and I really have no explanation.  I just know that when I hand wash dishes, they rarely come out clean.  This was true at age 12 (when my parents thought I was trying to force them into getting a dish washer to keep them from getting poisoned) and it is true at 31.

Thankfully we have a dishwasher.  However, our machine has proven not to be the most powerful or efficient machine.  Over the last few months, I have noticed that our glasses have gotten progressively more cloudy and more food is left behind after each load.   In order to lessen the cloud formation on our dishes, I have increased the amount of pre-rincing but to no avail.  I even tried loading the dishes only on the bottom shelf to lessen the washing burden.  No luck.  This weekend I officially decided that it was ridiculous to keep using it.  The dishwasher was worthless; I would become the dishwasher.

I did not want to complain about the dishwasher.  It was not Chris's fault the thing did not work.  Instead I just figured we would deal with it when we had a chance and I would try not to grumble.  Chris noticed that I was not putting dishes in the dishwasher.  He also noticed a few flecks of food on the newly hand washed dishes......  no comment from either one of us.  We briefly looked at dishwashers at the Home Despot on Sunday but none called to us so we did not buy one.  We were both being completely breezy about the whole situation.

This is where my story gets good.  Monday night I had a work dinner that caused me to get home late, around 9 pm.    When I got home, Chris had almost completely finished installing our new dishwasher.  Unbeknownst to me,  he went to the store after work, bought a new dishwasher, carried it in himself, and installed it- all while I was out of the house.  When I got home, even the huge box was on its way out the door.  Incredible.  So stress free; such a pleasure!  I am so impressed with him and appreciative that he just took care of it and tried to make it as painless as possible for me.

We ran our first load of dishes right before we went to sleep.  The new dishwasher was silent; we could hardily believe it was actually doing anything to the pile of dirty dishes.  The next morning I heard Chris yell to me in an excited voice "want to open the dishwasher with me to see how clean they are!"  Yes honey, I would like nothing more.  Into the kitchen we go- together -to peer into the new machine.  With baited breath we dropped the door and revealed 2 levels of spotless dishes. We gazed at each other with love and happiness in our eyes and closed to door.

"Great job hon" I said, "I think you know where they all go?" ;)


Just kidding! Many thanks to Chris!  May all the home installation projects be this breezy!