Erika Jean

Apple Annie's

2010-07-27T16:22:00.006-07:00

Last fall I wrote about our trip to Apple Annie's. It was a lot of fun, and since it's peach season - we decided to head out there again.

We walked through the rows of peaches, I grabbed one peach and took a billion photos. We decided to buy the already picked peaches and were very happy with our decision. We got perfect peaches and they were ready to be eaten the very next day! The best part though... we didn't get hot, sweaty and dirty picking peaches ;-)

After we got our peaches we got in the car and headed over to the produce stand. I snapped some more pictures while my mom bought some sweet corn.

They were also roasting some of the corn there. I couldn't resist the smell - so I treated my Mom, her husband Dan and myself to some roasted sweet corn. At $2.50 each... it was worth it. You were given your corn and then you could dip it in a crock pot full of melted butter. It doesn't get any better than that people!

Okay, I lied... It does get better than that. My mom made a DELICIOUS peach pie.

Please visit Apple Annie's website, and if you're in the Tucson area.... the two hour drive is worth it ;-)

Couch to 5k

2010-07-26T01:09:00.003-07:00

I'm going to attempt the Couch to 5k program!

It should be interesting... considering I am really really out of shape... but it's worth a try! I'm starting today and plan to update my progress here weekly as well as on my DailyMile page.

I'm honestly interested to see if I can even do the first workout.

Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes.

I'm planning on doing a 5k November 14th... Wish me luck!

Muggled!

2010-07-25T00:01:00.000-07:00

I got cache #390 yesterday while out in BFE.... 10 away from #400! Getting close.

The cache was down a dirt road near an old farmstead.

I guess it wasn't completely out in the middle of nowhere...
I mean.... we did get muggled!

:-)

What is Geocaching? Answer here.

Mystery Plant

2010-07-24T16:31:00.003-07:00

We discovered a new plant in the desert today!

We were down in Wilcox today, about 70 miles southeast of Tucson. While driving around in the middle of nowhere we noticed this weird vine randomly growing along the side of the road. I ordered the car to come to a stop so I could grab some pictures...

They kind of looked like watermelons...

...But they are not quite the size of real watermelons.

(I took this shot a little farther down the road at the produce stand.)

The size of the mystery melon was more comparable to this...

As soon as I got home I did some Googling. It turns out these little things are called Coyote Melons and they are part of the gourd family.

Here is some more information from The Living Desert...

The pulp within the fruit is unpalatable, but was utilized by native people and during the depression, for soap. Clothing laundered with the soap reportedly helps to repel body lice.

The seeds are edible, unlike the pulp, and contain value as a source of protein (31%), and cooking oil (30%). The dried gourds have been used as rattles and containers. After the plant has gone to fruit, the stems dry up and wither away, later to re-sprout from the tuberous root once sufficient rains return.

Interesting Stuff! You learn something new every day!

Jessica's Wedding - Part 3

2010-07-19T18:41:00.002-07:00

Walking down the isle.

Married!

The lovely couple arriving to the Reception in style!

You can't have a wedding without cake!

That's all for pictures.

Congratulations Ryan & Jessica!

Jessica's Wedding - Part 2

2010-07-19T16:12:00.003-07:00

Picture Time!

I love this picture!

Me and the Bride!

Jessica's Wedding - Part 1

2010-07-19T00:05:00.000-07:00

My best friend just got MARRIED!

I was the Maid of Honor at her wedding in Indianapolis on Saturday. It's the first big wedding I've been in and it was awesome! I took as many pictures as I could and wanted to share some... I'm probably going post about the wedding for a couple days ;-)

Rehearsal Dinner

The dinner was at Rick's Cafe Boatyard. The views were awesome and the food was delicious!

Jess got her hair done before the rehearsal and dinner, so her stylist had some extra practice for the big day.

Jess & Ryan on the Lake.

The Groom's Father gives a speech.

Pretty reflections on the lake.

Crown Hill Cemetery

2010-07-15T15:36:00.005-07:00

This morning I talked my friend Jessica into taking me to the local cemetery for some geocaching. With all the chaos of wedding planning, I'm so happy she was able to swing it. Thanks Jess ;)

It turns out the local cemetery is the nation's 3rd largest!

Crown hill Cemetery

The first cache we grabbed was inside this grave locator - It was a magnetic micro.

Next we headed to the top of the hill for a virtual.

I found the necessary date so I could claim the cache... Then turned around... Look at that view!

Downtown Indianapolis

The last cache was a micro hidden near this memorial. With all the baby gravestones around, it was rather sad :-/

That's all for caching in Indy this trip - I'm really hoping to hit 400 soon ;-D

What is Geocaching? Answer here.

More cemetery caches I've blogged about.

Fluffy Stuff

2010-07-14T22:32:00.003-07:00

Someday I'll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far
Behind me.
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
Away above the chimney tops
That's where you'll find me.

Sunrise. Twice in a week. That's got to be some kind of record... for me anyway.

Gotta love a red-eye.

Wedding Gift.

2010-07-14T15:55:00.000-07:00

I'm in Indianapolis right now... so let me first say, this is a scheduled post!

I wanted to give my friend Jessica and her husband a wedding gift a little more personal than a salt and pepper shaker. After browsing the web a bit for ideas, I decided a nice cross stitch to represent their beautiful day would be perfect. I was trying to find something more modern looking, and this pattern was perfect.

I started June 5th, when I received the pattern in the mail.

I worked on it here and there. Mostly when the little girl I babysit was napping...but there was the occasional late night.

(bad lighting... and bad correction, my bad!)

Anyway, exactly a month later I finished it!

And then the next day I went and got a matte, a frame and some foam board... and got to work!

Yey! I love the way it turned out! I hope they like it ;-)

Caching at Sunrise

2010-07-11T08:37:00.003-07:00

I slept in Saturday. Wayyy in. I didn't wake up until 2:30pm. Hehe. Now it's 9am on Sunday, and I still haven't gone to bed. The plan is to stay up until noon, take a 3 hr nap and then go babysit and hopefully be home and in bed around 10pm. It's my attempt to get back on a regular schedule.

So... Since I was wide awake when the sun was coming up, I decided to take advantage of the somewhat cool temperature and go geocaching!

I caught a nice shot at sunrise - on the way to the caches. (5:45am)

I found 4 caches... getting closer to 400!

What is Geocaching? Answer here.

Special Delivery

2010-07-10T19:40:00.000-07:00

No more complaining. Look what the skies delivered us this afternoon!

Geocaching Meet Up

2010-07-10T15:10:00.008-07:00

Photo from Webscouter - thanks!

Sadly I missed out on GeoWoodstock 8 in Washington this year... but I still got to meet some cachers! Tripcyclone and Webscouter came to pick up a car south of town, so when they went to return the rental car Friday morning we met down town for some bagels and caching!

Our first cache was Downtown Webcam. We had some difficulties at first...

...and when we got the hang of it, the wind kicked up a notch.

That cache is one of two Webcam Caches left in Arizona. I got the other one in October last year.

On the way back to we picked up the micro Penguins in Sonora. It was a magnetic cache on an abstract sculpture thing... I'm still not sure where the cache name came from... And I wish I would have taken a picture of the sculpture - it is not a penguin.

We took a few pictures there, then headed trough the old courthouse to El Presidio Park to snap some more pictures.

*

*

It was great to meet you guys!

TripCyclone on Twitter.
Webscouter on Twitter.

What is Geocaching? Answer here.

Green Box of Goodies.

2010-07-09T00:39:00.003-07:00

Look at this trove
Treasures untold
How many wonders can one cavern hold?

I remember sitting in the master bathroom of the house I grew up in. I'd have 3 jewelry boxes pulled out from under the sink and I just sit there - looking.

To this day... I love sifting through my Mom's old jewelry boxes. I don't know what it is about them, but it's like every time I discover something new - even though the contents have hardly changed over the years.

This particular box that I tackled tonight has bits of my mom, myself, my sister, my grandparents and just life in general. I thought I'd share a few pieces and possibly more in another post... If momma permits.

I love this darling little ring. I have no idea who's it was and how they got it (Mom?). It reminds me of the dishes we have in the cabinet though.

If this doesn't scream 80's I don' know what does.

I have no comment on the following earrings. hehe.

The watches are my favorite. I absolutely love these tiny little things. Maybe I can wear them someday when my wrists shrink. Mom?

This one is the best.

I mean how freaking cute is the little cover?

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed that little peek into my Mom's jewelry box - I know I always do!

8 ways to say "No Rain"

2010-07-06T02:03:00.002-07:00

Jul 5 Tonight

Mainly clear skies. Low 74F. Winds light and variable.

Jul 6 Tomorrow

Mainly sunny. High 102F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph.

Jul 6 Tomorrow night

Clear. Low around 75F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.

Jul 7 Wednesday

Plenty of sun. Highs 105 to 109F and lows in the upper 70s.

Jul 8 Thursday

More sun than clouds. Highs 105 to 109F and lows in the mid 80s.

Jul 9 Friday

Mix of sun and clouds. Highs 101 to 105F and lows in the low 80s.

Jul 10 Saturday

Mix of sun and clouds. Highs 100 to 104F and lows in the low 80s.

Jul 11 Sunday

Times of sun and clouds. Highs 102 to 106F and lows in the low 80s.

Jul 12 Monday

Plenty of sun. Highs 105 to 109F and lows in the upper 70s.

Jul 13 Tuesday

Mostly sunny. Highs 106 to 110F and lows in the low 80s.

Jul 14 Wednesday

Plenty of sun. Highs 107 to 111F and lows in the low 80s.

Can you think of a different way to say it, please?

Bring on the RAIN.

2010-07-02T09:29:00.003-07:00

It is now Monsoon season here in Tucson, which means rain... but we haven't gotten any...yet. Some parts of town have, but we still haven' seen a drop since May 2nd. Yes, 2 whole months. now don't get me wrong.... the sunshine is nice, but it gets down right boring after a while!

I am ready for some thunder and lightning.

We've had a lot of clouds in the sky this week.... which has made for great pictures. I grabbed these three last night.

And look - a rainbow!

Biosphere

2010-06-30T21:29:00.004-07:00

My sister and I got up early and grabbed two caches on the way to Oracle, Arizona this morning. We were on our way to see Biosphere 2. I'm glad she said yes to going - I've been trying to get there for a while now! Anyway - we found the caches with out incident, signed the logs and made our way to Biosphere 2.

The price was a little steep, even after the military discount my sister got us. I'm glad I got to go - but it was one of those places you go to once and don't need to go back to. So I won't be visiting again - unless I have a friend in town dying to go! ...it was still interesting though, don't get me wrong.

For those of you not familiar with Biosphere 2, here is the 411.

Biosphere 2 is a man-made closed ecological system in Oracle, Arizona built by Edward P. Bass, Space Biosphere Ventures and others. Constructed between 1987 and 1989, It was used to test if and how people could live and study in a closed biosphere, while carrying out scientific experiments. It explored the possible use of closed biospheres in space colonization, and also allowed the study and manipulation of a biosphere without harming Earth's. The name comes from the idea that it is modeled on "Biosphere 1" - Earth. (source)

And now for the pictures...

This is inside one of the "lungs." Basically the lung has a rubber thing inside (the black part) with a disc thing in the middle and it rises and lowers as the pressure in biosphere 2 changes.

The lung is encased in a large white dome - which you see below on the left.

The picture on the right is the outside of the Rainforest section. It was a jungle in there!

There was even and ocean!

More exterior shots...

...And I shall leave you with this...

Tubac, Arizona

2010-06-28T06:26:00.000-07:00

My sister is in town, so on Saturday we traveled 60 miles south to Tubac, Arizona for a little shopping. Tubac is an artsy-fartsy crafty town with a lot of history (just don't ask me what any of it is).

We rolled into town around 9am... to find pretty much every store closed. There is a "season" for Tubac and apparently it ends it May.

We ended up walking around to the stores the were open and eventually made our way to the ones that opened at 10 and 11 (summer hours).

The stores were cute and had a lot of stuff. Some of it was unique, some was the same store to store, and most of it was overpriced... with a few deals here and there.

Did I mention 60 miles south of Tucson is only 20 miles north of the American/Mexican Border?

Border check station ahead.

We were going to go after the one traditional cache in town, but decided against it - it was sooo hot!

Postcrossing Sunday - Norway

2010-06-27T09:35:00.005-07:00

Distance: 8,217 km (5,106 miles)

Travel time: 6 days

(Click to Enlarge)

What is Postcrossing? Click here.

Can Fail

2010-06-25T08:55:00.003-07:00

When I went to Ohio in May, I brought home some canned Skyline Chili. When you miss your hometown foods, you'll do things you swore you'd never do.

Things like... eating meat out of a can.

Anyway. Shortly after getting back from my trip we had our Skyline.... and it was gooood.

...but the can was a major FAIL.

FYI

2010-06-23T23:34:00.002-07:00

Just wanted to let you all know the P.J. is having a contest on his blog!

What you can win...

Pathtags!

WEEEeeee.

Go enter.

Now.

Or...

....I'll break both your legs.

Postcrossing Sunday - United Kingdom

2010-06-20T00:21:00.002-07:00

This postcard comes from Sarah, The blog author of Are You Flowin'. I love this card! Its very unique... but I must admit I wondered if I should have washed my hands after handling it ;-)

(Click to Enlarge)

Go check out Sarah's blog, she is a Postcrosser, Geocacher and a very crafty crafter!

It's not everyday you get shit in the mail!!! Hehehe I really like this card :-P

Roasted, Toasted and Burnt to a Crisp

2010-06-15T10:59:00.004-07:00

Touch Down Jesus, the enormous Jesus statue of Ohio's I-75 has been struck by lighting. A blazing inferno followed.

Thank God.

Postcrossing Sunday - Italy

2010-06-13T00:12:00.013-07:00

Click here for for original.... I guess I should also add, 18 and over only.

(Click to Enlarge)

Shoot me in the Back

2010-06-12T10:29:00.004-07:00

There's a Lady in Michigan that shot herself in the arm so her situation would be "life threatening" enough that she could get the medical attention she needed to see a Dr.

She was uninsured and couldn't get the help she needed for a shoulder problem - and that was her solution. Sounds crazy, and in the end didn't work for her - but I totally understand where she's coming from.

3 Days ago I woke up with some very immobilizing and debilitating lower back pain. I've had back pain since high school, and it's something I've learned to live with - but this is completely different. It hurts to stand, getting out of bed is an enormous task... if I want to go from my back to my side while in bed I have to use my arms and and the side of the bed to literally pull myself. It hurts to cough and it hurts to sneeze.... The pain came suddenly when I woke up one morning and nothing has helped it to relieve it. I know they say your not supposed to take leftover meds - but we all do. 800mg of Ibuprofen doesn't do a thing and hyrocodone just makes me tired.

I have never had such pain in my life. I've cried every day.

If the pain is not gone by Monday I'm, seriously thinking about writing physical therapy places around town to see if they want to exchange services. Lets pray they have kids - and need a babysitter.... cause that is all I have to offer. lol.