Since we are going out again tonight I thought I would improve the looks a little. I had a coloring kit to cover the gray, and I stopped yesterday and got something to wax the moustache with. Being hispanic, I am cursed with lots of hair, not only on my head but places I don’t want it, like my upper lip and my chin. So – I wax. Usually I stick to one brand that works pretty efficiently for me. While at the store my hubby was reading different brands and suggested I try a new one that didn’t require strips.

This is it:

Since it was affordable and we don’t have jobs, I choose it. So I got home today and read the directions carefully. I even stopped and got a small bottle of baby powder to use as directed.  I heated the wax – which did NOT go as suggested in the instructions. I applied the thin layer in the direction indicated. I waited 10-15 seconds and reached up to peel back one edge to pull and then the fun began.

The strip did not peel. It came off in little globs – not one even piece. And it hurt. A LOT! I had read that if you let it cool it will be extremely difficult to remove so I started trying to remove these chunks as quickly as possible. It was useless. Some wax just would not come off.

Tears were rolling down face and I was starting to panic just little. I tried picking it off. Rubbing it off. Peeling it off and scratching it off. Nope – nada. So. Not only do I have a hairy upper lip, it’s now coated with snot green wax that will not come off. Finally hubby (who felt semi-responsible) suggested I use one of his clean T-Shirts like a muslim strip. That removed most of it and some olive oil took care of the rest.

Needles to say, the remainder of the Surgi wax is now residing in the trash. It was quite and ordeal, and I feel somewhat traumatized. I think I have now have PTSD. (just kidding of course). 

Question of the day:

Wax, alternative methods or all natural?

So I’ve decided to fly to CA and take a test in order to renew my CA credential. This will be the fastest way to accomplish getting my NM credential, believe it or not. The good news is there are lots of jobs available once I get my credential, the bad news is not many till then. So, I’ve been working on that.

Hubby and I have also been working out every day. We’ve been doing weight work outs in the Nautilus room every other day and Cardio on the days we don’t do weights. I’m really sick of being where I’m at, so I guess I’m finally ready to change it. It feels good, albeit sore to make these changes. Thank goodness for the Jacuzzi here, I don’t want to think about how sore I’d be without it. I think we are going to have to put that on our list of priority purchases when we move into our new place. Right after washer and dryer….

Other than that I’m just enjoying the offerings of a big city again. The stores, the restaurants, even the services. Tomorrow night we are going to a concert in the zoo — no, not elephants, monkeys and Macaws. I guess the Zoo here has regular music at the zoo nights. We are going to see: Gaelic Storm. Here’s the write up from the zoo’s website.

Gaelic Storm – Celtic

They’re back for their 3rd concert at the Rio Grande Zoo, where they’re sure to be a crowd favorite again.  This group creates a sound that remains true to traditional Celtic music while adding an original twist of dizzying whirlwind live energy – hence the name “Gaelic Storm.”  Their dynamic stage show features rousing, upbeat vocals, wild energetic dance tunes, haunting ballads and infectious madcap humor.

Sounds pretty cool huh? We love Celtic music, comes from all of our years attending Renaissance Festivals. We are going with friends from Maui — well, we met them while we were stationed there, they relocated back to here about 6 months ago. We actually know quite a few folks here, for just that reason. Kirtland is the main location for the DET in Maui, so people come and go back and forth all the time between here and there. It’s worked out quite nice — it’s great to have friends already in place when you move! Too bad it’s not the ThisIsBullDookie family… sigh.

Not much else is going on – shopping for new shoes for hubby ( he has an interview/ meeting on Tuesday). We will be going down to my mom’s house this weekend. Then next week some friends from CA are stopping by on the way to their new assignment. It will be good to see them too! I love having friends all over the place. Only one drawback…they are all over the place!

Question of the day: (it’s a twofer today)

Live music or DJ?

Get up and Dance or Sit back and enjoy?

I don’t know what it is, but we are evidently very easy to talk to. We’ve made friends with just about everyone we’ve run across today.

A guy walking past outside the Tricare office.

The retired guy manning the Health Benefits Advisor window. He discussed the the in’s and out’s of switching for Tricare Prime Remote to Tricare prime. Even giving us examples of how the system is broken.

Then while working out, we made friends with several folks in the nautilus room.

We made friends with the ladies who groomed Rasha (who looks marvelous, and smells GREAT btw). We discussed the pros and cons of moving from Maui to Albq.

Then we went to dinner. We made friends with the retired couple in the next table, the elderly couple the table behind us, two guys on the other side of the retired couple and a retired teacher who went back to teaching but also works part time at the Cracker Barrel.

While all this is very nice – and would seem to indicate we are friendly people, it does have some drawbacks.

After all, the retired gentleman talked to us the entire time we ate. How do you deal with that? We were hungry, and wanted to eat, but didn’t want to be rude. We were reduced to monosyllabic answers, but you know, I don’t think he really minded!

The retired school teacher kept following me around the store section and giving us advice. Which is fine, helpful even. But don’t you usually wait to be asked before advising folks? I kinda felt stalked, just a little.

It was a weird day. Evidently I have a “please talk to me” sign on my forehead that’s not visible to me, only everyone else in the world.

Wait, let me check my back……….

Wednesdays are quiet the time bomb for us. My oldest daughter has long held the belief that Wednesday are days that bad things happen on. This has held somewhat true.  This Wednesday unfortunately followed along the same path.

Since we have found a place, but it’s not available till end of July, we’ve been looking for a short-term furnished apartment or an extended stay hotel that was more affordable than where we were at. We spent Monday and Tuesday looking for alternatives. We finally found a place that was affordable, available, and had enough room for us, the pets and the kids when they got back.  We were told we could check in any time on Wednesday.

So Wednesday comes — we pack all our junk, including the groceries from the fridge, load into the yellow sub, pile in with the cats and dog and head for our new place.

Hubby leaves me in the car with the furry friends as he checks in. I wait patiently. And wait, and wait, and wait. about 25 minutes later he comes out totally PISSED. Turns out we can’t have the room we were promised, that the room that we can have won’t be available till 3:00 pm, and it’s going to cost $30.00 more per night. WHAT??? So he had asked to speak to the manager. And found that manager was out and wouldn’t be back till 3:30. He asked the lady to call the manager, she hemmed and hawed and finally said she would leave a voice message for him, but he didn’t answer his cell phone while out. Hmmmm…. No offers to put our groceries in a fridge, to find a place for us to hang out for an hour or two … just a “sorry, you can’t move in and there’s nothing I can do for you”.

So… we call the place we were at, ask them what kind of a deal they would give us if we stayed till Aug.1. They cut us a a good deal and give us back our original room without charging us for the pet deposit again. We unpack, reload the fridge and settle the animals – who are quite upset with us by now.  Hubby later call the manager of the hotel AGAIN (he never called back). The manager insists that he would have honored that rate, that there were at least 100 rooms available to put us in, and that desk clerk had his cell phone # which he always answers. He offers to give us any room we want.

Uh huh. NO. We’re done moving. We’ve moved twice today and never got anywhere! We also have a jacuzzi here, dinner 3 nights a week, and much more upscale surroundings and closer to the base and the area where we are living.

So Wednesday this week, wasn’t very pleasant. But we are here now, and were staying! I’m not moving again until I move into my new house.

The rest of the week has been pretty good — except that I’m sick again — (sigh). I think another trip to the Dr. is in order.

I’m off for a swim and a jacuzzi – have a good one everyone!

So the Kween_of_the_Queens has once again set us an excellent task. Please go visit her site to see more wonderful Life Lists. The challenge was to come up with at least 5. I decided to stop at 25, although I could probably come up with another 75! There are so many things to accomplish – so many things to experience and witness.  These are in no particular order, just the order they occurred to me.  I eliminated some off this list as things I didn’t have a strong desire to do. My criteria became if I felt my life would be incomplete if I was not able to do one of these, then it could stay on the list. So this list then is of items that if not attempted or completed will become regret – my philosophy on life is no regrets…only actions. So here we go!

 My Life List

1. Visit the Louvre and see the Masters.

2.  Visit Rome, see the Sistine Chapel.

3.  Take a gondola ride in Venice.

4.  White water raft.

5.  Get fit – and stay that way.

6.  Learn to line dance.

7.  Speak Spanish fluently.

8.  Tour the states on motorcycle.

9.  Inspire my students to do great things.

10.  Visit Disney World.

11.  Go Skydiving.

12.  Watch my girls – graduate from college, get married, have babies (preferably in that order!).

13.  Live in my dream house.

14.  Take care of my parents when they need it.

15.  Be remembered by a student as the teacher who made a difference.

16.  Write a children’s book and have it published.

17.  Learn to paint with oils.

18.  Take my girls on a European tour.

19.  Watch a Broadway show on Broadway.

20.  Buy a vacation / retirement home in Maui

21.  Celebrate my 50^th anniversary with my best friend, my hubby.

22.  Help someone change their life for the better.

23.  Take a cruise with my bud Zingy.

24.  Learn to develop my own photographs.

25.  Learn to use Photoshop (I mean REALLY use Photoshop).

 Please drop by the Kween_of_the_Queens to read and comment on the other great entries.

So what is on your life list?

We have found a house to rent. It’s 4 bedroom / 2.75 baths, big fenced yard with some grass and a 2 car garage. It’s also nice and big – 2,200 sf. It’s in the school area we wanted, within our price range and the landlord is a realtor and will let us out of our lease early if we go through her when we are ready to buy a place. Pretty nice huh?

Bad part is it won’t be available until end of July or 1 Aug. So…. we have to find another place to stay until then. The place we’re at is nice….really nice, but a little to pricey for 5-6 more weeks. I will miss it though. It’s a brand new place, with a bedroom and kitchenette. It also has a great pool and jacuzzi, free hot breakfast, dinner/snack hour 3 nights a week, complimentary laundry room and a fitness room. The new place has a guest laundry (coin operated), continental breakfast, and outdoor pool and a fitness room. No jacuzzi. Sigh. I’m really going to miss that! But, we’ll be saving $40.00 / night, so I guess I’ll have to learn to deal huh?

Squirt left for Silver City with my folks today. It was sure good to see them. But you know what that means? Hubby and I have NO children for 2 – 4 weeks! Woot!!

Wow. It is really quiet in here. I can hear the clicking of the keys as I type.

2-4 weeks might be a loooonnnnnnggggg time.

I’m going to work on my writing topics and challenges for featured_grownups and Kween_of_the _Queens tonight and tomorrow, as they both have new topics up and I haven’t participated in quite awhile! Go check out the other participants while you wait for mine though (I know you’re waiting, probably with bated breath…..)

Until then – guess what? I have MORE pictures! (read in singsong).

Here’s Squirt – crossing one of the swinging bridges.

Ducky and Duckman, together as usual!

This was actually very interesting. It had been raining in the mountains for the last day or so, as was still raining while we were hiking. These two hiker had crossed this ford when the water was much lower, they were surprised to find the water so high and fast upon their return. Duckman and Squirt originally tried to help them out, but the girl wouldn’t budge. Hubby finally had to get wet and went out and basically carried her in. We had found some rope and they had her tie that around her waist, but she was still not willing to move. Duckman helped the guy, but the girl obviously felt unsure about his abilities, but when sturdy ‘ole hubby stomped out there she let him haul her right in.

Here is a few pictures of our church. All the alter furnishings, statues and the crucifix are made of Koa wood. Then the entire church has stained glass panels depicting Hawaiian flowers, islands and history.

And finally a picture showing just how comfortable Merry was during the car trip from LA to Albuquerque!

So we made it safe and sound. Well, we are safe. I’m not sure if we were “sound” when we left Hawaii, so does that really apply? I don’t think so. The goodbye scene at the airport was pretty dramatic, lots of tears
and airport security asking if Ducky was going to be all right. I think
they were wondering if we needed a straight jacket, or just a valium.We arrived at LAX very early Monday morning. It was 5:30 am CA time, putting us at 2:30 Hawaii time. We were all a little giddy from lack of sleep. I hung out with Ducky waiting on her flight to Salt Lake to join her friend Pablo the pancake. Hubby and Squirt hung out with the dog, cats and luggage. The animals by the way were excellent travelers – I can’t tell you how relived I was about that! I had pictures of the passengers hunting us down and giving us “beef” – hawaiian pidgin, sorry, couldn’t resist.

We then took a very expensive and very full taxi/van to the vehicle processing center. There Squirt and I hung out with the dog, cats and luggage while hubby did the mountains of paperwork required by the government in order to complete ANY task. We got in the car about 11:30 and we were all totally wiped out! We headed for Barstow – just a few short hours down the road. There we unloaded the necessary items and each took a 4 hour nap. When we finally came to, we rinsed off with a quick swim, ate some food and then — went back to BED!!

Day 2 we left Barstow and headed for Flagstaff. What a gorgeous place! I forgot how pretty N. Arizona is! We took our time, started late and didn’t hurry. We got there about 4:30 plenty of time for a trip to Slide Rock, which was lots of fun. Rasha it turns out LOVES to hike. And Squirt got to cool off in some ice-cold water and slide on some rocks. Since our clocks are all screwed up, we were up late and slept in late.

Day 3: We got a late stop and ran into traffic due to construction. We stopped at meteorite crater and checked it out. Then headed out for Albq. We arrived in town at 5:30 – just in time for rush hour (excellent planning on our part huh?). On the up side our suite is sooooo nice!! Really upscale. I have been loving the jacuzzi and indoor pool. We’ve started looking for a house, rental for now.  We’ve found a few areas we really like, but we want to live here for awhile before making decisions about buying.

I’ve also been drooling over all the stores and restaurants. It is nice to have choices and options. Of course on Sunday before we left I was snorkeling. I have to say I miss the ocean already. I’m glad Albq. is greener than CA and especially Barstow. We were about to panic in Barstow wondering “what in the heck did we do”?

I’ve tons of pictures. I’m going to start with some from graduation and Mother’s day and the retirement picnic. I’ll add more as I get more caught up!



   
These are black coral earrings and necklace. I received the earrings for Christmas, and the mama turtle with the two baby turtles for Mother’s Day. Aren’t they gorgeous? Then my diploma, along with all the paraphanellia I bought an the breathtaking lei Hubby and girls got me graduation night.

     
Here’s a close up of the lei, gorgeous right? I’m drying it for preservation.  And my next to last Maui sunset –FOR NOW!


       

Here’s Squirt with her purple hair — and some plumeria from the tree in front of our church (our church is awesome, I have more pictures of that to come too!). The background is the sky, it just turned out perfectly solid blue. I was laying on the ground and looking up. Plumeria is my favorite tropical flower — well, beside Red Ginger and Bird of Paradise.

Alright – enough for now. Those who stuck with it, I applaud you! I’m off to visit and catch up.

I apologize for my absence. Doing all that moving and retirement stuff. You guys are so great I’m sure you will understand. Hubby’s retirement ceremony was awesome…sooo cool. I only cried a little too… yay for me. The last week has involved lots of running around and lots of time spent with friends who all decided that they needed to get together with us one last time before we left. It would have been nice if it could have been spaced out a little, but oh well. Tomorrow is the big day and hopefully next week I will be able to catch up. It’s late now, just wanted to let everyone know what was going on. Talk to you all soon —

Ahui ho!