There are Wild Things Roaming around our House

There are wild things about the house in Tucson.  Because it is still open in the back-wildlife are starting to invade.  We had to scare a baby screech owl away that thought it had made a fine place to rest at night in our new air-conditioning duct in our bedroom.  So far, we have scared it out of its lovely space twice.  We are jealous of him.  He got to sleep in our bedroom.  We have not seen it for 9 months.  

This is the time of the year when you start to see things up close and personal in Tucson.  We discovered a swarm of honeybees next to our car this week.  Though we have sent out messages, no beekeepers have come to collect them.  If we had still been in Portland, Oregon the local beekeepers would have made a "bee"line to the house to get them.  Here there does not seem to be much interest.

We are just adjusting to being in Tucson, but not being in Tucson.  This week, we welcomed friends from Portland, Oregon and took them up to Mt. Lemmon.  So nice to see Karlen and Karin.  Our youngest daughter and their daughter went through Mandarin Immersion for all 13 years of school,and graduated fluent in Mandarin.  We met during academic events, parties, dinners, sporting events, happy and some sad times.  But always the girls stay connected with the large group of kids that took Mandarin all those years.  Now we are all retired and guess what?  Still meeting up.  So delightful to see them for the day.  We will be back in Portland and they will continue to come out here for vacation.  They next time, they can spend time in the hot tub with us.  

This last week, we opened a bottle of Copper River Ranchers Red wine and sat out on the porch to watch the sunset.  I felt like I was home having some wine and cheese before dinner.  Oh wait I was.  

We also went to Hamilton the musical at the Centennial Hall on the campus of University of Arizona.  This is usually how we celebrate the holiday season (wherever we are).  I can't tell you how wonderful that musical was.  I need to get the lyrics to the songs, so I can actually understand everything.  The musical included some really cool facts about that time in history, but I was so busy enjoying the music, I missed some of them.  

It has been a busy week and we are  getting ready to travel again.  We will be travelling up to Tempe, AZ to visit and cook dinner for #3 and #4.  They are excited to get a home-cooked meal in the dorm apartment.  I am just sorry we were not having the dinner in the Tucson house, but we will make the best of it.  After that we will be making our way to California.  I hope we survive the gas prices there.