Author Archives: Skip

This morning Ron hit the green of the golf course.

Susie, the Daniels and the Mundys hit the pinks…The Pink Jeep Tour of the Ancient Ruins http://pinkjeeptours.com/tour/ancient-ruins/.

Ron met other golfers and fell into a meal at the Ridge Grill. We had a good, but windy and dusty trip out to the Honanki Ruins. The cameras and smiling touristas had a great time made even greater when Susie found her beat up baseball cap she lost on the way out.

After a bit of freshening up we all met at Elote, which is Susie Logan’s favorite restaurant of all time – anywhere!!  http://www.elotecafe.com/. We were not disappointed. The food was elegant and the new wine, 1448, we definitely plan to revisit! Cath had the snapper, I had the carnita and we all shared an Almendrado Brulee that was pure heaven in the mouth. Beam me up!!

After the oats, we loaded up and headed to Jerome, semi-Victorian mining town stuck up on the side of a mountain. It’s splendor is evident only in it’s ruins, but that’s what we came to see!

The cameras smiled all morning with indoor and outdoor wonders to feast upon. Gene and I found Geisel’s, a MOST unusual venue for lunch. Named after the owner’s mother, Geisel, who was a great chef, (Annie?) and her husband, Jeff have built quite a business in this subterranean brasserie. We were also fascinated by the kaleidoscopes ant-farm-like moving sculptures up the street.

Susie and Ron Logan arrived in time for dinner, and we all watched the movie, Hugo, they had brought with them.

We are all having a wonderful time in Sedona!

We got off to a reasonably early start for a hike on Bell Rock Trail. We tried the first exit which put us at the south end of the trail, but finding it very crowded, opted for the north end which was just right. The terrain was smooth and gentle for awhile, but then got very steep and uneven. We had walked enough and were there mostly to enjoy the beautiful rock formations. Bell Rock did not disappoint.

We then drove into Sedona and introduced Gene and Mary to Tlaquepaque, the amazing Spanish Colonial shopping extravaganza near the south end of Sedona. The Daniels were knocked out by the detail and beauty of the architecture and plantings. We ate lunch in the Secret Garden Cafe http://www.sedonasecretgardencafe.com/. Yum.

This morning we did the circle tour. Cathy’s parking karma worked once again (and the handicapped plates on the car didn’t hurt the situation) and we parked up top for the Chapel in the Rocks. By noon it was time to drop into the Coffee Pot Cafe. The reviews were right on the money: the food was great and plentiful and the surroundings – just right. We dropped into Bashes (local grocery) for a few items, did some more reconnaissance and headed back to the condo. After a supper of great pasta, we watched the Botany of Desire, a great Netflix we brought along featuring the work of Michael Pollan.

After a reasonably long drive for us and a very short one for Gene and Mary we met up at The Ridge on Sedona Golf Course shortly after the 4 p.m. check-in. A very accommodating staffer slipped us the code for free WiFi (even in this ritzy Silver Crown Resort, they would still like to poke you for $5/day to check your email…).

The wine flag was raised and the still frozen turkey soup from home had a chance to thaw. It was great to see the Daniels and catch up on news and travels.

On the road again and stuck. With a minimum of preparation I thought I could update these posts from afar using the app on my iPad. With a little more preparation I still think this is possible, but was unwilling to spend precious time on vacation and with wonderful friends trying to figure it out.

So, here I am at home after TWO back-to-back trips to widely differing paradises trying to reconstruct the events.

Here we go.

We drove to Albuquerque and had our first real encounter with the Negotiator App (thinly disguised shell for Priceline). We made a ridiculously low bid ($65) and got a suite of rooms w/full kitchen at the Residence Inn. We had packed large quantities of perishable food items so the large fridge and freezer were a real boon.

We ate pretty good Manchurian food up the street and slept well.

Daniels left Mimbres and planned to drive 1/2 way to Sedona (St. Johns?? Snowflake??), but missed an exit and went all the way to Flagstaff.

Cathy pulled in a miserable cold and cough, and she was in a sharing mood. Dang.

I mailed out 125 envelopes with info about our upcoming 50th high school reunion. Maybe after this mailing there will be light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe not. This was followed by 206 emails with the same information. That’s $92.70 the post office did not receive. This must be why they are closing post offices and laying off 27,000 employees.

Worse yet, I had one of the reunion committee members call for the best price to print 125 packets of information for the postal mailings. The cheapest bid was $285; the most expensive – $610. I printed all of that for a lot less than $50.

I feel terrible at the thought of people losing their jobs, but where is the money going to come from that keep them employed in non-competitive jobs?

I forwarded two videos today: the first was the animated film that won an Oscar last night – http://theguardiansbooks.com/FlyingBooks/?utm_source=Publishers+Weekly%27s+Children%27s+Bookshelf&utm_campaign=ef3ae25b53-Agency+-Campaign+Name+-YYYYMMDD&utm_medium=email ;

the second was a homework assignment from an art school in Jerusalem – http://vimeo.com/25149893 .

They each, in their way illustrate pieces of the disturbing puzzle pointed to by my reunion mailing dilemma and many of the discussions Jeron Lanier brings up in You Are Not a Gadget. Everything seems connected, but solutions are not easy or readily available. The best I seem to be able to do is observe.

That’s on the way to a solution, but not a solution.

Last week we drove to Denver to see the Lizards and Snakes Exhibit at the Museum of Natural History http://www.dmns.org/lizards-and-snakes/exhibition-features/species-on-display/

Meredith’s book, Slither and Crawl was prominently featured in the museum store and outside the exhibit. It’s a beauty!

We wanted to time things so that we also got to see an IMAX film on flying dinosaurs in 3D: http://www.dmns.org/imax/current-films/flying-monsters-3d

All of this had to be done before arriving at Chelsea and Neal’s house as they returned from work. The additional bit of good timing involved waving goodbye to the hoards of school buses as they left the parking lot and being able to slip into the featured Lizard/Snake exhibit before the VIP Members showing that afternoon.

Tighter than a bullfighter’s pants…but we did it!

Vivi had a bit of a cold, but with a little Tylenol and LOTS of strokes from her caring parents, the drama of sickness was dialed down to human levels. Oh, and the movie Finding Nemo helped a bit also.

We brought the leftover brisket from our meal with the neighbors, and really enjoyed our visit as usual.

I met with my drawing group, and this time we all explored different facets of a small illustration brought again by Judy Judy who is making a book on the subject. The illustration shows a woman in a 1960s red suit with a pill box hat looking back at a railroad station. She is carrying one suitcase and a shopping sack. Judy is fascinated by this work and has had all her friends write observations and stories about what they think is going on in the illustration.

We drew what we thought was going on. For instance, Ron Lupton sensed danger in the piece and had her fleeing the scene much like Eliza fled across the frozen Ohio river in Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

I broke the illustration down as if it was a design for stained glass (I’m still finishing the birds design for Laurie’s window to be made by Shannon).

Others did little painted sketches or pencil drawings. Judy will include these in her book.

Thursday night, Cath and I went to see In the Next Room (or the Vibrator Play) at the Fine Arts Center. http://www.broadway.com/shows/next-room-or-vibrator-play/

We thought it was pretty good – actually a pretty well-written play and only good performances from the actors. The set and the story really made the entertainment.

Christine and Doug Massey arrived from Kansas to look at houses in Colorado Springs. She has been assigned to Ft. Carson and both are excited about living in the Springs for several years and maybe retiring here. We went to La’aus for Mexican/Hawaiian tacos and then we headed off to the Philharmonic for a great night of Mozart, Prokofiev and Mendelssohn. Yum.

On the Jan. 30 post I mentioned we went to a mola exhibit and that Cathy was going to contact the curator of that show. Today we met Joyce Cheney at the Dogtooth Cafe for espresso and a chat about our mola.

I think she was fascinated about several things: 1. ours is old (early half of the 20th century), 2. it is large (must have been a very large woman to wear a blouse panel this big), and 3. has the first example of mola design of ric-rack on the dresses of the figures in the mola (difficult stitchery). Clearly ours was not made for the tourist trade. She pointed to several symbols which could either depict the spirit world or the mundane daily world of the Kuna or both depending on the thought of the woman who sewed it.

Molas are SO different from any craft or art I’ve experienced. We are going to order a book and dig even deeper.

I’ve been stretching the “toy” theme quit a bit. Can I get away with it one more time?

I blogged about Jaron Lanier sharing his perspective on the toys he created. Yesterday, we had a different kind of sharing going on at our house. After three days of preparation, Cathy hosted the Woman’s Literary Club. This is the oldest women’s organization in Colorado dating back to 1892 (Cath has been a member for a mere 15 years). So, how many layers are there to sharing exemplified by just this club?

On three year cycles, each member delivers a 40-minute paper on a shared theme for that year, the next year the member just attends and then must host the group on the next year. Hosting means getting out the best silver, lace, china, etc. Preparing the house, the food and the service in the almost Victorian sense, hence the three prior days of drill.

The ladies take their presence very seriously and assiduously call ahead if they will be unable to attend due to illness or travel. The numbers are counted, chairs placed so that all can hear and see the presenter as well as portions of two dessert items meticulously presented. One member is invited to pour the coffee or tea from a seated position at the head of the table as the members queue up to be served and then retire to socialize before the paper is delivered.

The socializing is all about sharing. These are some of the wealthiest women in the Old North End or the Broadmoor or wherever, but they are the least self-important collection of people I’ve ever met. However, mixed seamlessly with these most fortunate are women from lots of other circumstances, and I’m unable to distinguish by looking at them, talking to them, observing their interactions to which if any class of privilege they belong. It’s amazingly refreshing to my basically cynical nature to witness this.

The paper that was delivered was on the topic of “cracking” (not “fracking”) crude oil and how this process which creates gasoline was so important into changing the course of World War II. The theme this year is “Inventions Which Have Made a Difference”, and the paper today was delivered by a wonderful woman whose membership dates back to the early 1950s.

Cath has just completed negotiations with Colorado College to house all the papers going back to 1892 that she (Cathy) has cataloged.

This group would be such an easy target of derision if they were phony or pretentious or withdrew to cliques or engaged in gossip, but I’ve never witnessed any of that.

I wonder if the same could be said of their husbands…I sure hope so.

Here is a link to the whole lecture I told you about last week: http://radiocoloradocollege.org/2012/02/you-are-not-a-gadget-a-lecture-by-jaron-lanier/

Isn’t it wonderful when we can share things that are important to us? Technology makes some of that happen, but so does civilized women meeting in each others houses to research present, and discuss great events.