Winter Has Arrived

AJ, AZ  High 58  Low 37

I realize this isn’t winter weather for many of you suffering through a miserable winter. But we are finally getting the weather we expected in January. Our lows have been in the upper 30’s for sever nights and our highs only in the 50’s. We also had several overcast days but yesterday the sun came out and brightened up our chilly day.

As long as Jim is close by, Rocky is content, whether inside or out.

Eric and Karla were visiting Sherry and Sharon in Sun City and we were able to get together with them for dinner at Garcia’s. Jeri, Terry, Jerry and Janice were also able to join us. I think the restaurant gave a sigh of regret when we left because we were having such a good time. No cameras were allowed.

Even though it was chilly (downright cold for me) we had a hot dog roast over the campfire for our park on Saturday night. Mark had some fellow bluegrass players join him at the clubhouse but Jim was exhausted and I got chilled so we didn’t go listen to the music. Heard they were really really good.

We are going to get to hear some great bluegrass this next weekend. We are going to Lake Havasu for Bluegrass on the Lake. There are five rigs from our park going so I know we’ll have some good times.

I love it when they snuggle together on the couch.

The only pictures we’ve taken are of the pups so you get to enjoy them with us.

DNA

AJ, AZ   High 71  Low 52 – finally, maybe, hopefully, we are going to get some rain this week.

For Christmas Jim and I decided to do our Ancestry DNA just for fun. We ordered our kits, did our spitting, and sent it off. Last week we finally got the results.

Sandie

This is my breakdown. Not really any surprises in my background. My maiden name is Mercer which is a British textile worker. And I guess I get my bullheadedness from my Scottish ancestors and that just has to be from my mother’s side of the family. lol

Great Britain 66%

Ireland/Scotland/Wales 16%

Europe West 5%

Scandinavia 4%

Caucasus 4%

Europe East 3%

Iberian Peninsula 1%

Finland/Northwest Russia < 1%

Jim

Dixon is definitely a British name but I found Jim’s info more surprising than mine. I had no idea he has Scandinavian ancestors and looking at his DNA page, it shows the 1% Asia South is mainly from India.

Great Britain 88%

Scandinavia 9%

Ireland/Scotland/Wales 1%

Asia South 1%

Now that we have this information I have no idea what we are going to do with it. Doing genealogy is a burning desire in some people, but definitely not in me. I have built a couple of family trees in Family Search operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. However those trees only go back a few generations.

It was fun to see our results.

AZ Sunset

January 2018 Roundup

AJ, AZ  High 84  Low 52

Contessa reminded me that it has been a long time since my last post. That’s what happens when you are just living and not really doing anything. We are doing great. Well, except for Jim’s fishing pox. It’s been quite windy so not much fishing going on. Hopes to change that this week. We are having record heat – in the middle 80’s. Personally, I prefer the 70’s for January and February.

So here is a roundup of the few things we have done.

We went to visit Aunt Happy. She was playing Bingo when we got there and was so excited because she won $10.00. After Bingo, we visited for a little while while they were getting ready for a happy birthday hour. She was doing good but she kept talking about discussing things with Don (her deceased husband) – things like potato chips and her will. She has never done this before. Uncle Don died 35 years ago after they had been married for 48 years. However, she is still quite sharp mentally especially for being 104.

I realized that we had not been out to eat since before Christmas so I called Melva and George and told them I needed to cure that problem. We set a date for dinner at SouperSalad in Mesa.

Then as life seems to go, I got a message from one of my high school classmates who was in the area for a visit. She wanted a get together with any classmates who were in the area. We were able to round up seven of us and went to Sal’s Gilbert Pizza for lunch.

Tim, Mark, Dick and Vern. Wanda, me, and Renee.

We had so much fun. As many of you know, Sal’s is one of our favorite places. Bob and Jo introduced us to the place and it is sooo good. But it’s been awhile since we’ve been there and wow, has the place changed. There was a burger restaurant next to it that went out of business and Sal’s expanded into that area.

I took pictures with my camera but somehow my SD card got messed up and I lost those pictures. I went to their website and got the following pictures from that. Bob and Jo – this place is just amazing and was so busy when we were there.

We then got a message from Toni and immediately said yes to another lunch get together. This time it was with the same folks we went to Benihana’s with. We met at La Stalla’s Italian Restaurant in Chandler. Once again I have no pictures but a great time was had by all.

Rocky turned 14 on February 1 and Skitz will be 14 in March. Both still doing good. Rocky is still barking and Skitz still loves her fireplace. And that’s it from our little corner of the world.