A little Verdin

I'm late, I'm late, I'm late .. like White Rabbit, I'm late, again, with this blog. I'd like to post every Thursday, and I sort of 'reserve' that day by putting a 'under construction' note up, but once again I didn't make it this week.
I mean .. it's actually Sunday right now, so go figure ..

OK, let's do this, shall we?
As I mentioned at the end of last post, Doug and Brenda arrived on Wednesday evening and in fact, they just left an hour ago.
We had a great time together and they were very happy with all we have done so far.
We had many more long conversations about the rest of the work to be done, and more materials have been decided on and ordered as well.
Guess what, I didn't take any pictures of us all .. oh, well, next time!

                      

Talking about work, the mess in the backyard got even worse when the guys started to demolish the concrete bench on Saturday. That sucker didn't give up the ghost very easy!   

 

Fortunately, the weather is much cooler at the moment with morning temperatures of 44F and day-time temps around 72F, so although the work is somewhat strenuous, the guys don't sweat too much.
The hacked up Rosemary bushes were all removed, and some heavy rocks were moved out of the way of the pool area. James took out a small tree and worked on removing a tree-stump and it's up-shoot.

                                       

A truck was hired and parked in the driveway by the county's waste removal site crew, which took care of all the trash. They'll collect it this Monday.

He also worked on a leak in the sprinkler-system ..

OK, moving forward!

Last Monday James and I went to visit the Carrington College Dental Hygienist School in Mesa, for a much needed exam and cleaning. It was 10 years since the last one, so it wasn't too surprising that they didn't get it all done in one session, and we both had to come back on Thursday.

                      

We both needed a 'deep cleaning' and it looks like James might even need an Orthodontist to clean some of his deepest 'pockets'! Lots of Novocaine was used and neither of us felt a thing, so we were very  happy campers!

This is not us but you 'get the picture'

Our wallets were happy too because all of this work was done for free, including a full set of X-rays! It probably would have costed each of us around $300-$400. Hip, hip hurray for dental hygiene schools!
We're not done yet though, next up is a trip to the Dental School. We both need work done on some (broken) molars and we both might need crowns or even a bridge ..
The dental School is not going to be free, but the prices will be half of what 'normal dentists charge ... so, we'll see!

James has been studying diligently at his (online) assistant-appraiser course for 4 hours every morning these last two weeks ..

                  

He took his first exam (after 30 hours of studying) at the senior community center where the director agreed to serve as a proctor. He did his 100 questions in about an hour (he had 3 hrs available) and he passed! 

                                  

                             Yeah! Great job Hon'!

I didn't do too much this week, what else is new, but I cleaned a little in preparation of our guests coming ..

Well, I did the bathrooms, the rest was done by my new best friend, the Shark vacuum robot! How cool is that?

I have to rescue him sometimes when he gets stuck somewhere, but he's doing a fairly decent job.

And of course, over the weekend I set up the tree!
A little early but hey, I'm not the only one! Everybody seems early this year, I guess we can all do with some 'happiness and cheer!'

James counted down and I pushed the button .. I know, we're silly that way!
Since it's the tree from the RV, it's a little small for all this space, but I placed it on the kitchen island and it looks pretty good up there!

One of my two garlands was draped over the media cabinet underneath the TV, and the other one lights up the hall-table, next to the dining-room table.

I placed another tiny, tiny tree I have in the area where we usually sit during the day.
All in all it's not much, but there's a little bit of Christmas in every corner of the house.

                                                     

                                                                  Perfect!

My walks went a little by the way-site this week but I managed to get a few in. Christmas decorations are going up in the neighborhood as well ..

              

      

I noticed that the citrus trees are starting to produce fruit. At the community garden I noticed these oranges/pommelo's and lemons ..

   

In 'our' own backyard the grapefruits are starting to turn yellow! Cool!

OK, I think that's it for this week, and since I started with a bird, and you can never have too many, I'll end with one too.
Just for fun, this is a little Flycatcher:

Ain't he cute?