More Funny Signs

We love to look for funny signs, clothes, or any item that can make you laugh, or scratch your head.

Here are a few:

Was the sign put up after the cemetery, or are these poor people breaking the law? 

Some people should not been allow it to make a sign.

Which way do I go?

I have raised a Rebel!

This is the control panel for a bidet in Japan or Korea, Can't remember which, I understand the blue and teal buttons, but need help on the peach button. Hair washing?

This is the sign above the same bidet. I understand needing to tell people to not stand on the lid, and not unhooking or playing with the hose. But, do they really have people dumping water on the lid when it is down so often that they needed to add it to the sign?

This must be a sign for the Rookies at the Indy 500.

Sounds like Wendy's is getting into the hair business. 

Are the minnows and worms part of the picnic supplies?

Is this where you go to get supplies to shoot fish in a barrel?

Hope this post gave you a little laugh! Signing out for now!

A Trip to Tohono Chul

While on vacation to Tucson last January we took a trip to Tohono Chul, a Desert Garden Park. Dick and Jean Wilson donated the property, that use to be their home, to make their vision of a park that shared nature, art, and culture in the Sonoran Desert.

The Tohono Chul Park is not just about the cactus. 

This park has everything! Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardens, displays of all types of desert plants, some desert animal habitats, children's gardens, demonstrations, trails into the desert, a saguaro discovery trail, a desert palms oasis, education centers, citrus plants, statues and art work through out the park, a garden shop,  museum gift shops, and an outstanding bistro.

One of the many hummingbirds that are flying around the park.

This is one of the many pieces of artwork through out the park.

You must wear comfortable shoes, because there was a lot of walking. We not only walked the entire garden but we also did the South Loop Trail (1/5 mile), the Saguaro Discovery Trail (1/4 mile), that is inside the park, and we also did the Desert View Trail (1/2 mile) which felt like it was outside of the park. The Desert View trail had stone markers that had quotes on them that pertained to the desert all along the trail.

This was the view from our walk on the Desert View Trail.

These signs of quotes are all along the Desert View Trail

Another Desert View Trail quote.

The cool part about this park is the many, many varieties of cactus. Some are beautiful, some are ugly, some are useful, some are dangerous, some are iconic, and some are delicious! All are fascinating.

The agave cactus is one of the prettier cacti with dangerous spikes at the ends. 

This is called the Curiosity Plant. I call it the Ugly Cactus.

This cactus is called Ocotillo and is spiked all the way down.

The Park uses the Ocotillo for fencing. Nature's barbed wire fence. 

The Saguaro Discovery Trail has markers and exhibits along the trail that explain the relationship between the saguaro of the Sonoran Desert, and the Tohono O'odham people. The trail is a walking, living, thriving history lesson. It was one of my favorite sections of the park.

The Saguaro is the iconic cactus, the symbol of the West.

There is a lot going on in this Saguaro, a bird lives in the hole and a prickly pear is growing out of its arms. If you look close at the second arm from the left you can see how when the Saguaro grows it adds another ridge. It also doesn't even start growing arms until after it is about 50 years old. They can live to be over 200 years old, but can we really know that for sure?

The plants in the main areas of the park are so beautiful. It is amazing how many types of plants can grow in the Tucson environment. The numerous types of cactus is mind blowing. And as you are walking and looking there are all these interesting beautiful pieces of art mixed in. This is a very unique place.

Another piece of art that fits right into the Parks atmosphere. 

This statue and surrounding planters are displayed in the middle of the Park.

To top it all off we had lunch at the Garden Bistro. The restaurant is in the previous home of Dick and Jean Wilson. We ate out on the patio (in January) and we were surrounded by the Hummingbird Garden and citrus trees. In my blog post on the Desert Museum I mentioned that the restaurants in the museums, and tourist sites, in Tucson are truly amazing, and this was no exceptions. I had the BEC, a pork belly burger, with cheddar cheese, an over easy egg, and prickly pear arbol jam on a homemade bun. It was outstanding! They also had a prickly pear lemonade that was delicious.

Prickly Pears make delicious jams and lemonades. 

There are beautiful fruit trees in the Park

No pictures of the BEC, but look at this beautiful glass of Prickly Pear Lemonade.

 We had such a great time at the Tohono Chul, and will definitely go back, not only for the beauty of the park, but to get another BEC! The next time I will remember to take a picture.

The Great Duck Exodus, Part Two: Follow the Leader

May's last swim in my pool!

When we last left May and her brood I had just rescued the ducklings from the pool. I went into the house and was finally going to get to work out. I was upstairs in my house when my daughter called and as I was telling her the duck tale I looked out the window and saw what looked like a duck in the yard of the house behind me. So, as I was talking to my daughter, I walked out through the garage to see what was in the yard. False alarm! It turned out to be a stuffed dog toy. As I was walking back to my garage I heard my sweet neighbor walking out her back gate to go on her daily walk. I stopped her and asked if she had any experience, or any ideas on how to get rid of my duck guests. She came over to look at them and we decided we would ask her husband to help and see if we could get them to the creek. Now the real fun began, lol.

May's last location in the pool landscaping.

Our first thought was to use a box, or some type of container that we could safely get all the ducks into, and then carry them to the creek. I had thought earlier about herding them and just walking them down to the creek, but the rescue lady I talked to suggested that they may all scatter, and then I would have an even bigger problem trying to find them all. Instead of a box I suggested my dog carrier. We decided to put the cage close to the ducks and see if we could herd them into the cage. Our thoughts were that if we could get the ducklings in, Mom may go into the cage to investigate and we would close the door and off we go to the creek. Sounds so simple, right? It was like an episode of the the Keystone Cops. The ducklings scattered and we were able to get 4 or 5 in the cage, and then they would escape through the wire in the door. My neighbor put duct tape over the bottom rows of the wire on the door and that solved at least one of the problems. This went on for about 30 or so minutes until May decided to take the rest of the ducklings into the pool. Plan B?

May and some of her ducklings trying to keep away from us.

My neighbor went back to his house to get a pool net so we could fish the ducklings out of the water. I could not use my skimmer net because it was flat and the ducks would just jump right off of it. So we now were on opposite sides of the pool and I would direct the ducklings to my neighbor, who would scoop them up and put them in the cage. Sounds like this would be easy, but May was in the water with the ducklings and she tried to keep them in the middle of the pool out of our reach. Then there were the ducklings that would escape the cage while we were putting the newly caught ones in. It was like herding cats. We finally got all 14 ducklings in the cage and waited to see if May would get drawn into the cage by her chirping ducklings. She swam up to the ramp, jumped out of the pool and walked around the cage, but would not go into the cage. Plan C?

I could not have done this without the help of my neighbors.

One of the ducklings was escaping from the cage!

All the ducklings were in the cage, but May would not go near it.

I decided that we would walk the ducklings down to the creek in the cage and see if May would follow. First, I opened the gate to the driveway/alley, and we put the cage, with the chirping ducklings, out on the driveway.  May followed her chirping babies out of the gate. My neighbor picked up the cage and started walking down the alley with May following close behind. Just when we thought this was really going to work, May went off course. There is an alcove in the fence at the house behind mine that holds a meter. May went into the alcove and when I tried to coax her out, she flew into the neighbors fenced yard. We could hear her quacking and could see her when she came by the gate, but that dumb duck would not fly back out of the yard. We knocked on the door of the home to see if maybe they would open their gate, but they were not home. After about 15 minutes of this, we decided to move the cage farther down the alley to draw her out of the yard. Worked like a champ and May few up to the top of the fence and then down into the alley. Game on!

May is walking down the alley following her ducklings on her way to the creek.

My neighbor walked towards the end of the alley, and May followed quacking all the way. Once we got to the end of the alley May decided to go into the landscaping at the house located there. We kept walking, down their front lawn toward the trail and the creek, with the chirping cage full of ducklings. May came out of the landscaping and ran down the front yard hill, to the trail, and just as we got to the bridge by the creek May took off and flew to the water.

Our next issue was how we were going to get the cage of ducklings to the water. There is a steep cement embankment that goes from the trail bridge to the water where May was at the bottom, in the water, waiting for her babies.  There was no way we could go down that embankment with a cage of ducklings, and if we did make it down, there would be no way to get back up with a cage. So, we went down as far as we could, sat the cage down, and opened the door. The ducklings walked, slid, and rolled down the embankment to their waiting Mom. Once all the ducklings were in the water, the whole group of 15, May and her 14 babies, swam off down the creek. It was a beautiful sight. After 4 hours of duck rescue and relocation, May and her family were where they belonged, and my pool is duck free once again! Win, win!

The Great Duck Exodus, Part One: Duck Danger!

I am not sure if this is May and her mate, or another couple home shopping. All Ducks look alike to me.

Back in February we were visited by a male and female Mallard duck. I would take our dog out in the morning and they were swimming in our pool. I would do whatever I could to scare them off and discourage them from coming back. Then several weeks later, by accident, we noticed that the female was nesting in one of the bushes by our pool. We put scare eye bird chaser balls in the pool, hung them on the fence, and I even hung one over her nest, but she stayed and laid her eggs.

May on her nest.

You can see one of May's eggs on the left while she was off getting food.

Every morning for about a month, May, the name I gave her, would leave for about an hour in the morning, and another hour in the evening just before dark, but would always come back and sit on the nest. We had hopes she would abandon the nest because we were not looking forward to our pool being invaded by ducks, and all the mess and bacteria that would entail. But, they are Federally protected, so we let her be. Then on April 4th, when May left the nest in the morning, I looked in the nest and saw the first duckling. By the next morning I saw six ducklings and on April 6th the madness began.

When May was off the nest this morning I saw that the ducklings were hatching!

Six so far!

I went to take the dog out in the morning and everything was calm. After I went back into the house I could hear May quacking like a crazy duck, and I went to look outside and one of the ducklings had fallen out of the nest into the pool. May was quacking and the duckling was chirping while swimming back and forth in front of the nest. There was no way it could get out of the pool. I went into panic mode trying to figure out how to get the duckling out of the pool, while May was trying to keep the rest of the ducklings in the nest.

I went to the garage and took the lid off of a plastic storage tub, grabbed an old beach towel, 2 chip clips and a pair of my husbands sandals. I clipped the towel to one end of the tub lid, put the lid in the water by the nest bush, pulled the other end of the towel up on the side of the pool to make a ramp, and put the sandals on the end to hold it in place. After several hectic minutes the duckling figured out that it could get on the lid and walk up the towel out of the pool and went into the bush and into the nest. Stressful!!!!

This was the first ramp that saved the first duckling that fell in the water.

At that point, May took her, what looked to be twelve, ducklings out of the bush nest and into the landscaping behind the pool. Sounds easy enough, right?  As May was leaving the nest all but two of the ducklings followed. The last two were stuck in the nest. One looked as if it may have been newly hatched. It kept rolling on its back and just couldn't get out of the nest. I used the pool skimmer to try to help it out. May decided to camp out with the kids in the landscaping by a tree. Crisis solved for now!

May took the kids to "safer" ground. Or did she?

I went to the store and bought two foam kid's kick boards and some tarp to make a new ramp for the next time the ducklings might get stuck in the pool. I was wrong to think that was the only trouble they could get into. When my husband came home from work that evening we went back to the area May and her babies were located, and heard chirping in an area away from May. We found one of the ducklings had fallen in between the landscaping retaining fence and the privacy fence. This is a maybe 12 inch deep by 4 inch wide gap. So, off I went to get some gloves to get the duckling out and back to Mom. At this point I realized this was going to be a lot more work than I had bargained for, and that my yard and pool was too hazardous of a place for these ducks.

I bought two kid's kick boards and used duct tape to hold the ends together. They have little bungee loops on the top that I used to pin the tarp to the boards with safety pins. Then I put the boards in the water and was able to bend them at the tape edges and put one end on the edge of the pool. I put a brick on the end of the tarp to hold it in place. I put a wet towel on top of the tarp to give the ducklings traction and the weight kept it from floating around as much. I left the plastic on the boards so that when this nightmare was over I could use them for my Grandkids.

The finished product!

This is the gap in the fence with the duck in it.

The next morning was the breaking point. I took the dog out in the morning at around 8 am and May was once again quacking like a panicked Mom. I walked back to the area where she was located and heard chirping in the fence. Off I went to get the gloves and pulled the duckling out of the fence gap. I went into the house and thought that was the end of the craziness. WRONG!!!!

This video is of May trying to find the duckling in the fence. Her quacking is what drew me to come outside to see what was wrong. You can hear the baby chirping.

A few minutes later I looked out to see the whole duck family, May and her now fourteen ducklings, swimming in the pool, and they had no way to get out. May kept getting out of the pool onto the rocky edge where it was impossible for the duckling to get out themselves. She wouldn't take them to the ramp on the other side of the pool, so I moved the ramp to the rocks. This went on for an hour. I thought maybe it was the color of the towel I put on the tarp for the ducks to get traction, so I took the towel off. Finally, May got two ducklings to jump up out of the pool because they were able to jump on their brothers and sisters heads to get out. So, May got out of the pool to stay with them, and I used the skimmer to direct the ducklings to the ramp. All but three got out, and the last three kept sliding down the wet tarp on the ramp. I put the towel back on the tarp and got the last three out. This was turning into a full time job!

I needed to get these ducks out of my yard!! I called Texas Wildlife and they gave me the number of some person that rescues animals. No help at all! She gave me a few options; leave them in the yard (not an option), take them to the creek at the end of my street, or take the ducklings to her with a $100 donation. Looks like I am going to take them to the creek. Easier said than done!

Stay tuned for The Great Duck Exodus, Part Two: Follow the Leader!

The Struggle of Losing Weight

There are so many reasons that people gain and lose weight. I consider myself a pretty average middle aged woman, and I never dreamed that I would be in the position in my life where I needed to lose over 25 pounds. I was a skinny kid and was always able to eat anything I wanted and never gain weight. Then came marriage and pregnancies, and that all changed.

When I was pregnant with my first baby, at the age of twenty three, I weighed 110 to 115 pounds and gained about 40 pounds with my first baby. I was able to lose that weight pretty quickly and returned to 118 pounds.  This was a good weight for me with my now changed body.

Then the second pregnancy came at 26 years old, and more weight was gained, and it took much longer to lose that weight. Then the 3rd and last baby at 32 years old and even more weight gained with him. After his birth the weight came off slowly and I never really got back to the weight I would have liked.

The next weight challenge started with our first move. After that move there was a weight gain, then a second move, and a weight gain, and then the last move along with another weight gain. Now, I find myself with a body I am not happy with, and at an age that adds to the difficulty in losing weight. The last holiday season was the breaking point for me. After eating everything in sight during the holidays I found myself close to the weight I  was when I gave birth to my third child. UNACCEPTABLE!!!!

I started to shop for diet plans and looked at all the regulars, Jenny Craig, Nutrisystem, South Beach, you name it, I looked at it. For the last 10 years I have been a member of Weight Watchers online, and I really just looked at the recipes and dabbled in the program. So, I decided that I was going to do Weight Watchers and do it properly.

The first thing I did was get my husband on board. He also was at a point where he was ready to drop some pounds. He was really receptive and supportive in going on this journey with me. I had this old food scale to weigh food if I need to, and the WW app with a scanner on it so I could find out the points at the grocery store by scanning the food items before I bought them. For my Birthday in February I asked for a spiralizer, a nice food scale (with an attached bowl) and a steamer. These items have made this process so much easier.

This has been one of the hardest things I have ever done, and I am now a little over 11 weeks into this journey and it is getting a little easier each day. I have cut out almost all sugar, and cut down on carbs, but I have found alternatives for those foods and still eat a lot of the foods I love. I have my Brother In-law's spaghetti and meatballs, but instead of pasta I use Zucchini noodles. I am a creature of habit, and one of the bad habits I had was eating ice cream. I ate a lot of ice cream. I crave it, and always joked that I needed a 12 step program to stop. I have not had ice cream in over 11 weeks, and I really think that if I had some now I would not stop eating it, lol. So, I have come up with a alternative to my ice cream, it is a container of Dannon light-n-fit vanilla Greek yogurt with a large spray of fat free Redi Whip on top. I will have this almost every night and tell myself that it is just as good as ice cream, and who knows, one day I might believe it.

I have a few "go to" snacks and dressings that I could not live without. One is Marie's Blueberry Pomegranate Vinaigrette dressing. Most days I will have a large bowl of lettuce and spinach, with a cup of blueberries and a cup of strawberries topped with 2 Tablespoons of this dressing. The whole salad is 3 points and it brings me joy.

I also make my own skinny ranch dressing, recipe below, and use it for dipping vegetables. Usually it is a snack bag of baby carrots. My new favorite snacks are Nabisco sweet potato "Good Thins". I can eat 23 chips for 4 points, but I usually eat 11 or 12 and that satisfies my chip craving.

I love pizza and that was a bit of a challenge. I found this ready made crust at Kroger called "Stonefire" that is an Artisan thin pizza crust. The crust is only 8 points for half of the pizza. AWESOME! I use a low point sauce, Kroger part skim mozzarella cheese, and I even put on pepperoni. I can make a pizza and get away with eating half of the pie for less than 14 points. That is pure joy!

I made lemon tarts from a weight watcher recipe and you are suppose to eat them in mini filo shells. You make the filling with sugar, lemons, eggs and butter. After it is cooked, thickened and cooled this mixture is combined with fat free whipped topping.  This lemon treat is 1.5 points for 2 teaspoons. If you put it in the filo shells the tart is 2 points. I found that if you cut the lemon mixture recipe in half and still use the whole tub of whipped topping you can cut your points in half for the filling. I then just used the filling for a dip with graham crackers and it tastes like lemon pie. The dip is under 1 point for 2 teaspoons and then whatever the point count for your crackers. I am not a big fan of the filo shells because they get soggy after a day or two.

I also have been working out every day. I am not a runner, but I do walk at a medium pace, walking on an incline on the treadmill, and for an average of 80 to 90 minutes a day. I know that is a lot of time on the treadmill, but I watch TV and that keeps my mind off the fact I hate working out. The trick is recording favorite shows, which for me includes a lot of the original Law and Order reruns!

So far the hard work is paying off. I have been losing an average of 1 to 2 pounds a week. Some weeks more, some weeks less, but this is a marathon, not a sprint. I hope that by the beginning of Summer, I will be several sizes smaller and ready for swimsuit season. This may be the first year in a long time that I will not be embarrassed to put on a swimsuit.  A girl can dream!

Skinny Ranch Dressing
(author unknown)
1 point for 2 Tablespoons

1 3/4 cup low fat buttermilk
1/2 cup Light Hellman's Mayonnaise
1 oz dry packet of Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix

Mix all ingredients together with a whisk, pour into a sealed container and refrigerate for several hours before using.

Our Texas Patio Fireplace

One of the big selling points of this house was the outdoor space. We have a great covered patio with a built in grill and fireplace. We already had all the furniture for the patio, but had no idea what to hang over the fireplace.

Everywhere in Texas you see the above metal and iron stars. They are hanging all over the place on houses, fences and businesses. I have been looking for one to hang over our outdoor fireplace.

This search has been going on for over a year, and a few weeks ago we found it! There is a business in Frisco, Texas called the "Lone Star Trading Company." They sell custom wood and wrought iron furniture.  We took a drive to check it out a few weekends ago, and we found just what I was looking for. I picked out a metal sign that had not only the star, but the word Texas and the date of Texas' Independence.  This sign was really rusted and my hands here covered in rust. I asked the owner if he had a towel so I could wipe my hands off, and he was so nice, he invited me to wipe my rusty hands on his shirt. Awkward and Hilarious!

While we were in the shop purchasing the sign, I saw a plain star sign that was sold, and it was painted a walnut color. The store owner said he could spray the sign with a clear coat that will seal the rust, and if I wanted he could also spray the sign in the walnut paint. Yes please! I went to pick the sign up a few days later and it turned out fabulous.

We had some screw anchors already in the brick over the fireplace and my husband came up with an idea on how to hang the sign using the existing holes. We were off to Lowes and bought some long screws, and some pipe like clamps to hang the sign. Worked like a champ, or should I say a clamp, lol!

After the sign was hung I needed to find some accessories for the mantel. Next stop Hobby Lobby! I found some resin cowboy western items, and they work well with the Texas theme of the new sign.

I sure hope y'all love it as much as I do.