It's been overcast all day, though we haven't gotten any of that 'possible' rain yet.  I did get most of the stuff done in the yard that I wanted to, so if it does rain I'm ready.

After my shower I called Best Buy - and since it turns out that Julie isn't working today I decided not to run on over.  Guess I will just limp along and hope for the best with my new camera.

It was a pleasant visit with Carol yesterday.  Her new home in Paradise Valley is beautiful (in a very swanky area near 40th St. and Lincoln), and the staff is very attentive, MUCH more so than her two previous accommodations.  

At present she's in one of the smallest rooms, though it's possible she could move up when one of the other rooms becomes available. I'm not likely to make another visit before I leave in a few days (she's now about 25 miles away instead of 5) but of course we can still chat on the phone.  

Only thing on today's agenda is go see if Julie at Best Buy can help me figure out my new camera.  The rest of the day I hope to get a lot of stuff done around here.  It's going to be another gorgeous day!

Once again I've been awake since 4:00.  And since Tom is out of town I can't use him sleeping as an excuse <g> not to get things done.  

So I've been busy, both inside the house and out in the yard.  Ben told me yesterday that someone is coming this weekend to haul away that huge pile of dirt, so if I wanted any more I'd better get it while the getting is good.  So now that's taken care of.

I've also done some more sawing of limbs, mopping of floors, paying of bills, etc. and shortly I'm off to the gym. 

This afternoon I plan to go visit Carol, who got moved to a different facility a couple of days ago, though the reason is unclear.  Unfortunately her latest place is a lot further away and not nearly as convenient for me to pop over to when she needs something, or just to visit.  

I asked Colleen to swing by yesterday and help me remove the kitchen window (hers lifted out so easily) but would anyone be surprised that we ran into issues?  

After considerable time/effort I called in reinforcements (Ben, from across the street) but that didn't work either though he tried several different things.

So I called a glass place, figuring they could help me.  But when they heard that the frame wouldn't lift out (because the sink is in the way) they said I'd have to get a plumber to do that before they could fix the window.

Ah, the joys of home ownership.  

Where is General Services when I need them, Bana?

It was a frustrating, stressful experience at Best Buy (Julie, who helped me on Saturday, wasn't working) but I now can upload pix.  So here are a few from Tuesday.  Zahn is a normal 2YO bundle of energy, and didn't spend much time sitting in Linda's lap while I was there.  Rick said Zahn is in constant motion, running instead of walking.  Reminded me of what Dad used to say about Alex: Why walk when you can run?

Here are just a few pix of the blocks Linda has whipped up for her Crazy Quilt, obviously representing SO many hours of detailed handwork!

This block was for a class she took, where she was given various elements to incorporate into it.  The background fabric is perfect - probably because she hand-dyed it.

Here's my new therapy penguin Amy brought over on Monday.  It definitely is much cuter than a gel ball!

Hank was cruising through the front yard yesterday, and looked like he was going to check the mail for me.  Usually it's not worth the walk out to the mailbox because it's virtually all junk mail and advertisements, or bills!

On the way home from Best Buy yesterday I popped in at Colleen's, and when leaving I snapped a pic of her ocotillo which has started to bloom.

But when I got home went to load the pix onto the computer, somehow (?!) several other shots of it were there also. Obviously I'm having a LOT of trouble with my camera!

I'm hoping that Julie will be at Best Buy on Saturday and can help me out - like she promised!  The instruction book which came with it has been of NO use at all!

Look what Pokey did; she broke the kitchen window!

I had set the trimmer on the shelf outside the window behind the kitchen sink, but left the cord dangling on the ground.  BIG mistake!

Pokey cruised up onto the porch and got hung up in the cord. I heard the noise, and just as I was heading out the door to rescue the trimmer before it could go crashing to the ground she tugged on it enough that it sent the end of the trimmer through the glass.

So I will be adding 'Replace Window' 

to my list of things to do before I leave in a week.

Now I'm off to replace the cord for my new camera.

It's a lovely morning to work in the yard, and I've already gotten a lot done. 

 All six of the large bushes out front are now trimmed, and after my break I plan to more trimming in the back.

 I've also made the first (of many) trips across the street with Alex's Little Red Wagon to collect dirt.  (Ben ended up with a large pile of dirt after he leveled the front yard to make their irrigation water flow better, and it's free to any takers.)  So now the two depressions out back (hidden by grass) that I kept managing to 'find' on a regular basis are now filled with dirt and can no longer 'attack' me, and the rest of that first load filled in other low spots along the fence.  A lot of grapefruit and oranges came down in the wind (along with another bird's nest) and needed to be picked up so the trash can is filling up quickly.

This morning while I was soaking in the hot tub and chatting on the phone with Mom one of the hummingbirds startled me when flew over and hovered right in front of my face.  

The nearby feeder has recently been cleaned and filled, 

so it wasn't like the little guy was telling me I needed to get busy!

After two very early mornings it was not surprising that I crashed early last night (by 9:00 I was having trouble keeping my eyes open) but the good news is that I 'slept in' <g> until 5:00 this morning.  

Yesterday I spent a long time with the (heavy) electric trimmer working on the overgrown hedge along the chain-link fence.  Tom didn't want to trim it because it is currently blooming (which it does ALL spring/summer long) but that never seems to hurt it, and trimming the long strands helps it grow thicker and bushier.  While I wasn't up on a ladder (you can breathe now, Bana!), I did have to trim up over my head much of the time, which wasn't easy.  

Then on the way to the gym I realized that I had forgotten to put on my hand brace.  Since I'm not wearing it these days it's easy to space it out on gym days, but even though we did upper body yesterday I didn't have any issues except for one machine - which we then skipped.  

The good news is that my hand is fine today, 

so it appears that I'm over yet another hurdle in my recovery. 

Today I plan to do more yardwork, which is much more fun than housework (though I did some of that yesterday also.)

This afternoon I got to visit Zahn and Elmo!   Elmo definitely remembered me (I got lots of doggy kisses) and Zahn was more than willing to play catch with me until it was nap time.  Last time I saw him he was still a baby; now he's a (very!) energetic two-year-old.

After he went down for his nap Linda showed me some of her current quilt projects. Her embroidered/embellished crazy-quilt blocks are going to make a stunning quilt.  I did finally manage to access the Macro setting on the camera (though I have no idea how, which will make it hard to access the setting next time I want to take close-ups) and thus I took lots of pix. 

But the bigger problem at the moment is that the cord that attached my previous camera to the computer (so I can upload and share pix) does not fit the outlet on the new camera.  At some point I will need to get a new cord, though in the meantime I moved on to a different plan.

I removed the memory card from the new camera and inserted it into the old one, and then proceeded as usual.  But even though it slid in and seemed to click, when I turned on the camera I got Memory Card Error message. (And yes, I did try re-seating the card.)

Obviously Canon has decided that it's important to make us buy all new hardware/attachments, which means that I will need to make another trip to Best Buy tomorrow. So sorry, but no pix tonight.