The Dynamic Duo

It’s been an interesting day, if not a particularly productive one. I got up this morning with the whole long Saturday spreading out before me. No one around except me and three cats (if you don’t count the 25 outdoor cats). So, I made myself a peach WeightWatcher smoothie for breakfast, which I drank while I checked e-mail and waded my way thru the net. I started to say “surfed” but my internet is way to slow to allow for actual surfing. Weightwatchers makes these powdered drink mix packets that you mix with either water or milk. They taste pretty good and help you fulfull the calcium requirements for the day. I like to make them in the blender and throw in some fruit and ice. I made one for Bob while he was here, impressing him with my culinary skills…........well that was what I’d planned, but things went just a bit wrong…........I had peeled and chopped a nectarine to enhance his smoothie, adding it to the mixture as it whirled in the blender. I expectantly waited while UBob took a drink. “Well, what do you think?” ” Umm…I think there may be rocks in it.” “oh, that’s just the ice. Give it back and I’ll blend it some more.” WHIRRRR. “You still have rocks in your drink? HMM..” That’s when it hit me. I must have thrown the nectarine pit in there with the chunks of fruit! You know how the fruit clings to the pit and you have to cut as much of it away as you can….you can see how easy it would be to mistake the pit for a big chunk of fruit. Honestly…. Anyway, I took it back and ran it through a sieve, and UltraBob said that the remaining chunks were small enough to drink, so there you go. This is nowhere near my only culinary disaster. One time, UltraHeather had a couple of girlfriends over and I made several large pans of lasagna because Heather loved it so. Yes, I’ve always been quite the good mother. One pan had been in the microwave and seemed a little undercooked, so I decided to finish it up in the oven. Just a small oversight. ANYONE could have forgotton to remove the plastic wrap covering the pan. The girls pulled strings of plastic wrap from their dinner, and now my plastic lasagna is a thing of legend. Another time, I made Bob a wonderful apple birthday pie. He is much fonder of pie than cake, so, again, being the good mother….......I spread cool whip on the pie and wrote “Happy Birthday Bobby” with a red frosting writing tube and inserted 9 or so candles. Unfortunately, the pie was still a little warm, and the candles began sliding into the pie as the wax melted. We quickly sang “Happy Birthday to You” , and picked bits of colored candlewax from our pie slices. Okay, enough about my kitchen disasters. On to MY DAY!

I donned shorts & tennies, grabbed my water, camera, pedometer and cell phone and took a nice long bike ride/walk. I rode as far up into Box Canyon as I could. Finally my legs said “Enough” to the steady climbing and told me to get off the bike and walk. I walked a total of 2.5 miles up to and then into the canyon. I heard cicadas and an occasional bird, but otherwise nothing. That was a good thing, because rattlesnakes are always a possibility. At Hotshot’s cave, I stopped and took a few pictures of myself, propping the camera in a tree branch and on the steel door that is set into the mouth of the cave. Hotshot is a nickname given to a man who lived in the valley a long time ago. He started the sod farm (grass) that is still operating today under different management, but he is most remembered for his bizarre ideas. It is said that he claimed he could pick up UFO signals through the fillings in his teeth, and he was certain that a nucelar holocaust was imminent. In this cave, about the size of a small bathroom, a couple of miles into Box Canyon, he built a fallout shelter. There is a cement floor and a steel door set into cement that blocks off the rest of the mouth of the cave. I believe at one time, it was stocked with supplies. It must have been quite a feat to get all that stuff up there, (especially the door), mix the cement, etc. Now the steel door hangs open and the corners of the cave are filled with seeds and bits of fir tree, showing evidence of packrats and other rodents. It’s a good place to take visitors, and once, for a creative date before a dance, Jim and BJ surprised their girlfriends with a picnic in the cave. They had set it up beforehand complete with table and chairs.
Anyway, the biking and hiking took me 3 hours and fulfilled my exercise requirements for the day.
The rest of the day has been spent avoiding the housework I should be doing, and that’s a job in itself! I watched Who Wants to be a Milionaire while munching on nachos. I read my Guidepost magazine and napped in my hammock. Now I’m blogging. I really haven’t felt lonely today. More…........decadent I suppose. I just talked to UltraDad and he will probably be home tomorrow and I will be glad to see him. But today is mine….......and its not over yet!
As Ever,
UltraMom