Tripawds!

Not much happening round here of late.  Just relaxing and enjoying the warm desert sun.  Yesterday we had a fifth wheel pull in and park.  Billy came in and told me it had some type of doggie advertisement on it.  Next thing I noticed was a couple of dogs going by our fiver.  Both dogs were missing limbs.  A German Shepard with a hind leg gone...due to cancer and a Rottweiler missing a front leg....due to a car accident.  These folks run a fabulous web/blog site all about 3 legged dogs called Tripawds.  It is full of heartwarming stories and information on living with a 3-legged pet.  I encourage you to check out their site, they are truly wonderful people dedicating their life to helping these wonderfully resilient and loving animals.  It is inspirational to say the least.  I wish I could have spent more time with them, but they are only here for one night and they were visiting with some friends in the area.  I would have loved to have gotten to know them and their furballs better......hopefully our paths will cross again someday!

Wind, painting, and repairs

Thanks to all of you who left comments on the last post of my baby lion painting.  It is so appreciated to know that others find my work pleasing.  
The wind here today has picked back up...makes it difficult to be outside doing any activity.  Good news is it usually dies down a bit in the late afternoon.  Many of us have found a place where we are blocked from the wind and we have a "happy hour".   Lot of fun!

I turned my attention back to my old truck painting.  Here is a photo of the progress so far.  I just love all the textures and shadows.
We also had a welcome visitor the other day.  Our RV repair guys have come out here to work for the winter.  They are going to do some work for us on our tire blow damage.  They can do most of it here on site...the rest ( a bit of painting and decal work) can wait til we get back to Indiana this summer.  It will be so nice to see some of that ugliness disappear.  If you are in the area of Bullhead City, AZ and need any work done....we highly recommend these guys.  Great work at a fair price.  You can email Ron here... rec_spec@yahoo.com

Baby Lion Painting.....fini!

I completed another painting......isn't this the sweetest little guy.  I used a reference photo that my cousin had taken while visiting a lion preserve.  I will be sending her the finished painting as a somewhat belated baby gift.  She is a new Mom to the cutest little boy.  I'm hoping the painting will be a nice addition to the nursery.

He is sleeping soundly....all snuggled up with his little blue blankey!  I did the painting on an 8 inch by 8 inch cradled gessoboard in acrylics.  "Cradled" just means the painting surface continues round to the sides so you don't have to frame it.  You can click on the image for a bigger photo.

Oh, goody another goody

I'm just so darn lucky these days.....shush...did I say that out loud?  He, he!  I'm just so excited....I'm getting a new camera.  My darling husband has decided to continue to spoil me rotten...and I must admit a gal could get used to this.  I have started calling him my "sugar daddy" of late.  Ah....so nice to be loved and appreciated...OK, OK I'll stop now. 


My old camera just is not doing all the things I need it to do.  So, Billy did what he does best and started researching on the web.  This is what he has come up with....a Canon EOS Rebel T2i 18 mega pixel SLR camera with a EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5/5.6 IS USM lens.  There are two other lenses we eventually want to get....another telephoto lens and a macro lens....but this will do wonderfully for now.  I hoping to have the new camera and lens in hand sometime next week....then look out....I'll probably go "photo-mad" for the next few blog post!  LOL!

And speaking of photos....how bout this one....our view last night from the deck of the clubhouse

Overlooking the Colorado River at Sunset....Pretty darn Spectacular!

Sunny Days and a Surprise Ending

We have had some wonderful sunny and warm days here.....been outside and enjoying the company of my rv friends here at the park.  The park here has a deck that overlooks the Colorado river.  There is a table with a gas fire pit and one night several of us took advantage of it.  It was a beautiful warm night....full moon.....lots of laughter and friendship.  FUN!  And...nobody turned into a werewolf...always a good thing.....
A note about the ever continuing "refurb printer" story.  I did finally receive a replacement and it works beautifully....but that is not the end of the story "grasshopper"...there is more.  I was suppose to call Epson once I received the printer and was satisfied.  Then they would send me a complimentary set of inks for my "pain and suffering"....LOL!  Anyway, I decide to give it a couple of days before I called...wanted to make sure the dang thing didn't self destruct!  Two days later....all is still well....and I'm making my daily check online of our checking account and "what do I see?".  There is a credit from Epson for the full amount of my refurb printer.  That wasn't supposed to happen....not one of the "many" folks I spoke with said anything about a "free" printer.  I'm assuming that....due to Epson's poor management skills someone overlooked that fact that I was sent another printer.  They assumed that I had simply returned the defective one and was due a refund.  OK by me, and just to show what a nice girl I am.....I won't be making that call about the new inks.....we already have one extra set of new inks left over from the last printer anyway..... So, as it stands right now, I have a fabulous new-to-me printer (that works great) and a complete set of new inks, all at the low, low price of FREE!  LIFE IS GOODE!
Almost forgot....Billy really appreciated all your comments on his evening of b-day suit adventures!  LOL!

Great Days....exciting night....

Yes, I have been missing in action this past week here in blogland.  The weather has been so very nice here in Bullhead City......just have not spent much time on the old computer.  Yesterday almost the entire park was out and about......walking and gathering, talking and sharing.  I just have to say it one more time.....we are really enjoying this little park!
We did have quite a night a few days ago.  I keep a small lamp next to our bed...on one of those little shelves.  I put the lamp over on the sink vanity at night so I don't accidentally bump it in the night.  Well, Billy needed to retrieve some tums from our medicine cabinet somewhere around 1:30am.  He was trying to be careful and quiet....said the first thing he grabbed was the talcum powder.  When he reached back in for the tums.....there went the lamp.....crashing to the floor with a very loud "bang".  Boy was I ever up and so were the dogs.  Of course the bulb broke, there were fine bits of glass everywhere.  Poor Billy is standing there in his b-day suit ( he sleeps in his b-day suit) looking a little bewildered.  I told him to flip on the overhead light and then I went and got the sweeper.  Once all the glass was vacuumed up, the furballs wanted to go out.  I put on my clothes and took them out.......came back in.....and there is Billy on his hands and knees on the bedroom floor.  I'm like....now what?  It seems he dropped the tums bottle and now there were tums all over the floor.  LOL!  What a sight that was.  Finally....around 3am we all crawled back into bed....What a night and I'm still finding the occasional tum tablet....LOL!

Try, Try Again....Toliet Repair

We have had a couple of wonderfully warm and sunny days here in Bullhead City.  About time!  Unfortunately, two is all we got.....today is cold and very windy!  Yesterday, we finally decided to once again "tackle the toilet"!  As I"m sure you remember ( I know it is forever emblazoned on my wee brain), we had to replace the waste ball on our toilet a couple weeks back.  Thought we had done everything right, but in the next few days things started to deteriorate.  The waste ball was leaking and I was also starting to notice some water on the floor.  Now, the floor water was "clean" water....but I couldn't see where any of the water lines were leaking.  Here is what we found.  It seems that when we removed the old waste ball last time....we neglected to see a small piece of plastic that had broken off into the "key way".  We removed that and started putting everything back together.  Since we still could not see any obvious leaks from the water lines, Billy decided to go ahead and replace all the lines with new ones.  We sat her up.....stuck her over the "hole".....secured her in place and .....whoosh....once again we were in business.  This time we notice that the foot petal operation was SMOOTH as silk and the waste ball just GLIDED effortlessly back and forth.  This am....everything is still in operation and looking good.....and no leaks anywhere!  The morale of this story is, "If at first you don't succeed.....try, try again"!  And one last note....from Billy....he did find an addendum to our current toilet manual.  In the waste ball replacement kit they give you 4 new plastic washers to use when attaching the bowl to the pedestal.  It seems they now recommend taking the new washers and placing them on the bolts used to attach the bowl to the pedestal.  Then reuse the old washers with the nut (just as before)....apparently this adds just the right amount of extra spacing so that you don't over tighten and over-squish (don't you just love all my "high" tech words) the rubber waste ball gasket.  This should improve the overall performance and life of the waste ball.  Something we can all get "behind"......lol!

Fireplace...Baby it's warm inside!

Oh yeah, our new electric fireplace arrived yesterday.  We love it.  Not only does it do a great job of heating, but (to our surprise) it actually looks pretty darn good.  The faux flames and embers while not exactly realistic.....are not bad at all.  

I know several of you have the "built in" fireplaces in your rvs.  We had that option, but we didn't think we would really need it and we didn't want to give up the space.  After spending two not-so-warm winters in the fifth wheel, we started to re-think that decision.  Fortunately, we found the portable unit to be our solution.  It has a small footprint and I can easily move it around the room.  It will also be easy to stow when we are in travel mode.  You can get all the details by clicking on the Dimplex DS2205 fireplace photo on my Amazon widget at left here on my blog.  You are not obligated to buy it....it will just take you to the website so you can have a look for yourself and read other reviews.
I had hoped to have some more photos on the Old Truck painting, but I spent most of yesterday on the phone with Epson.  My replacement printer never arrived.  I called to inquire and was told they didn't have any more refurbished units available.  I had two choices, refund or wait.  I requested and did speak with a supervisor.  I just felt the need to let someone know how utterly frustrated and disappointed I was in Epson.  In the end, I am sending the defective one back.  Upon receiving the defective one, Epson will send me another refurbished unit... if one becomes available during that time frame.  If not, then they will issue a refund.  I should have probably just taken the refund and be done with this, but everything I read says this printer (when working) produces high quality prints.  I read through a lot of reviews and there are a lot of folks who are very satisfied and happy with this unit.......is it too much to ask that I be one of those "happy" customers?

Baby It's cold outside!

Not much going on around here except trying to stay warm.  Even Cosmo got into the act by stealing his Daddy's sweatshirt for a little extra warmth.....he, he!

He said, " This is what happens when my Mom gets bored!".

I'm still painting on the old truck and thanks for all the great comments on the last post.  I'll have some more photos next post. 

We did order something yesterday that I thought we would never even consider......a portable electric fireplace for inside the fiver.  It is purely a frivolous gift to ourselves.  We have a great little Lasco heater which does a fab job.  (You can find info on the Lasco heater by clicking on it's photo located in the Amazon widget  here on my blog.)  The idea of a "fireplace" on these chilly mornings and evenings....well, we just need a little pampering I guess....something functional and aesthetically pleasing.  We have been carrying the Lasco between the bedroom and living room areas....now the Lasco can stay in the bedroom (perfect size for that area)  and the fireplace will be used in the living room.  Yeah, we are feeling the pain on the electric bill....but it is still cheaper than propane.  Ya know, when we first arrived here, I had envisioned myself lounging by the Colorado river in my shorts....soaking up all that sun and warmth.  Instead, I find myself putting on 5 layers of clothing just to take the furballs out to pee!  And my flip flops....oh my beloved flip flops...have been replaced with socks and shoes!  That's almost criminal!