Woo-Hoo!

I normally don't toot my own horn, but in this case, I have to. Today I took the final exam for the editing course I took at UNM (online).

I scored 100!

The test was 36 multiple choice questions. Granted, it was open book and there was no time limit, but there were a few tricky questions.

I have a nice certificate, too.

Next (starting May 18) I'll be taking two classes -- Accounting Fundamentals and Successful Construction Business Management. I have experience in Accounting, but I've never had any formal training.

As for the second one, I've maintained a friendship with one of the Project Managers at the construction company I used to work for. He and another guy have formed a partnership and a new construction company and he wants me to run the office. It's still in the early stages, so I'll have time to learn a lot in these classes before things get rolling.

The classes aren't live; they're "posted" to the website twice a week on Wednesdays and Fridays.

It's been a long time since I've taken classes; I'm happy and excited that I did so well in the editing class and I'm looking forward to these two courses.

What A Difference A Day Makes

Is it really May?

It's 4:00 in the afternoon as I write this and it's snowing. Not just a few flakes drifting down lazily. No, it's snowing heavily; I can barely see the houses on the other side of the arroyo. I can't see the mountains at all. The weather forecasters predict 1 to 3 inches here and 12 to 18 inches up in the mountains. The temperature is dropping and we have a couple of space heaters on to keep the house comfortable.

This time yesterday, a mere 24 hours ago, we went for the first motorcycle ride of the year. It was a fairly short ride, just out to the Gorge Bridge and back, but the weather was warm and only a little breezy. We were just doing a shakedown ride after Ron did a lot of work on the bike, but it sure felt great to go riding again. It felt like spring, even though we knew about the forecast for today.

I put up one hummingbird feeder last Monday. The hummingbirds generally start showing up in late April and sure enough, a couple of days after I put it up, the first hummingbird appeared (as did a pair of other birds who are able to drink from it, too). It's the same hummingbird that always shows up first; he's black and white, with a black head and a white ring around his neck. We call him the scout, because we figure he goes ahead to find the food and then goes back to tell his friends, "Yeah, they've got the food out for us." I saw a second hummingbird yesterday, but the throngs haven't arrived yet. With this crazy weather I don't know when the poor birds will get here; they might just decide to stay down in Mexico and enjoy the warmth.

I don't blame them.

The Case of the Disappearing Banana Bread

Monday when I went to the grocery store, they had a couple of very large produce bags stuffed with perfectly ripe bananas, for the low price of $1.49. I bought one of them; Ron likes to eat bananas for the potassium and they were the perfect ripeness to make banana bread.

I follow the old family recipe except I put in more bananas and less oil. I timed everything so when the chicken was ready to come out of the oven, the banana bread was ready to go in and bake while we were eating the chicken. After a lifetime of waiting for the banana bread to cool completely before eating, a few years ago I discovered the delight of eating it while it's still warm, the butter melting into the bread. Mmmm.

Ron and I ate two pieces each before I packaged it securely in a ziploc bag and placed it on the kitchen counter, far back, away from the edge.

Tuesday morning when we got up, I saw an empty ziploc bag on the floor, but that's not unusual; the dogs have been known to get in the garbage at night. Then I saw the empty space on the kitchen counter where the banana bread had been. "The banana bread is gone!" I said.

We knew the culprit: King. He's the only one tall enough to reach things on the counter like that. He may have shared it with the others once he got it off the counter, but I doubt it. He probably gobbled it down in two or three gulps.

At least I had a lot more bananas to make more bread. You could even say I had bunches more.

Ron had the brilliant idea (and I can't believe neither of us have thought of this sooner) to clear part of a shelf in the pantry closet as a place to put all our bread. That would keep banana bread safe from King and all the regular bread, rolls, etc., safe from Princess.

So that's what I did. And the second loaf of banana bread as well as the whole wheat bread and honey wheat English muffins remain safe from our voracious animals.

Elizabeth Taylor

The sad, but not unexpected, news broke Wednesday that Elizabeth Taylor died. She had been in declining health and in and out of hospitals several times recently, but 79 seems too young to die (I must be getting old to feel that way).

We got to see her live and in person in 2000 or 2001, I forget which year it was. She was a featured guest at the Taos Talking Pictures Film Festival. First we saw a screening of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and afterwards she spoke and answered some audience questions. Now, I have to tell you that when we went to see the movie, we had never heard of it and knew nothing about it. We were completely unprepared for the movie; I don't know if that made it better or worse. It certainly made it bizarre.

It's one of the most bizarre movies I've ever seen and it's definitely the most bizarre married couple I've ever seen portrayed in a movie.

After the movie was over, we had to wait quite awhile for "her highness" to arrive. Apparently she wasn't feeling well; the high altitude (7,000 feet) didn't agree with her. She was staying with a friend of hers, a local artist, R.C. Gorman.

It was worth the wait, though. I don't remember much of what she said, but I do remember it was interesting, even fascinating. I do remember one audience member asked her how making the movie affected her marriage (or something like that) since her co-star husband was also her real-life husband and the movie marriage was highly dysfunctional. She said that making the movie allowed them to "work through" some of the stuff in their real-life marriage.

One other memorable thing about her appearance was that she brought her dog on stage with her, a little white fluffy lap dog named Sugar. At one point she asked her assistant Ken to, "Come get Sugar" and he did.

Overall, we had a great time and I think Ms. Taylor did, too. It was exciting to see such a famous movie star so close. One of the TV stations in Albuquerque sent a reporter and cameraman to do a brief interview with her; it was really big news to have her in New Mexico.

I Didn't Do It

I went to the Taos News web site this morning, as I do a couple of times a day, and was shocked to see that there had been a huge fire at the construction company where I used to work. Click here for the story.

I immediately texted a friend of mine who worked there when I did (he left a few months ago). He had already heard about it, but didn't know the cause of the fire. We teasingly accused each other of starting it, but I have an alibi. It happened at 1:30 in the morning; I was asleep in my bed.

A little later, I drove past the place to see what was left (pictures of the scene hadn't been posted on the web site yet). As you can see in the story, the warehouse has serious damage, but it's impossible to tell whether the "office" part, the part in front was damaged.

When I worked there, the warehouse held tools, vehicles under repair, various building materials, and the owner's motor boat. It was also the storage place for old, inactive files. Uh oh. And of course the computer router, telephone wiring, and circuit breakers were there, too. Uh oh.

When I drove past this morning, there was a State Police car in the parking lot (with its headlights left on, which I thought was strange), so I didn't stop to take pictures or say hi or anything like that.

If the results of the investigation make the paper, I'll post an update.

That Darn Cat

Or should I say Those Darn Cats?

Both of them!

First there's Satchmo.

He looks so sweet and innocent, doesn't he? No trouble at all. Just a calm kitty. Yeah, I thought so, too. Then on Saturday I was sitting at the dining room table drinking my first mug of coffee. Satchmo was lying on the table about a foot away from the coffee, calm as can be. All of a sudden, with no warning at all, he reached out a paw and knocked over the mug of coffee!!! It wasn't scalding hot, but it was three-quarters full and it went all over my lap and all over the tablecloth, and then on to the floor. We quickly cleared off the table (which was in desperate need of being cleared anyway) and put the tablecloth in the wash and wiped coffee off the floor. Then I poured a fresh mug of coffee and kept Satchmo away from it. I'm going to start discouraging him from lounging on the table like that.

Then there's Princess. Formerly known as "the good one."

Formerly.

Lately she's become obsessed with bread. And buns. And English muffins. And bagels. Any type of bread product.

She'll chew open little holes in the plastic bags the bread (etc.) is in, chew a few little pieces off the bread (sometimes more), and then lose interest. It could be a couple of days before we discover it, by which time the bread has gone stale.

While we search for the perfect breadbox, we're making do with the rectangular plastic storage boxes by Ziploc, Gladware, etc. The first time I put some bread in one of those boxes, Princess watched me. I snapped the lid on and told her, "OK, let's see you get into that!" Sure enough, a little while later, I saw her trying to get into the box. I wish I'd had my camera with me to capture her desperately working with her paws, trying to open the lid. She never did figure out how to do it, so the bread is safe.

Yes, they look like angels, don't they?

Warning: Looks can be deceiving.

Going Postal

I keep hearing that because of email, Skype, Facebook, and blogs (cough), people aren't sending as much mail as they used to.

So why is it that all the post offices in Taos (at least two out of three) are sold out of rolls of first class stamps?

I needed to buy stamps for Page (my boss) so yesterday I went to the Post Office Express that is tucked into a corner of one of the grocery stores. That's the Post Office I use for most of my mailing and the clerk always asks me if I want to buy stamps (they're required to ask that of every customer). Nine times out of ten (more than that, actually) I don't need stamps. So yesterday I went for the sole purpose of buying a roll of stamps, but they were out and she wasn't sure when they would be getting more in. She did have sheets of first class stamps; I had a choice of "Love" stamps, which aren't really appropriate for a business, or "Reagan" stamps, and I couldn't bring myself to buy Reagan stamps; I just couldn't. Besides, they're kind of political (and Page is a democrat) and might not be appropriate for a business to be sending out either. So I declined.

Today I tried the Post Office in Ranchos de Taos; it's smaller than the one in Taos and never crowded. They didn't have rolls of stamps, either, although they expect to get them tomorrow. The only choice there was sheets of Reagan stamps, and when I smiled and politely said, "No, never mind" the clerk chuckled. This is Taos County, after all; it's 84% Democratic, one of the highest percentage of democrats in any county in the U.S. Is it any wonder no one wants to buy Reagan stamps?

Actually, compared to the current Republicans, Reagan doesn't seem that bad. I think he must be rolling in his grave at what the Republican Party has become (and wishing they'd quit invoking his name).