While my mom was still in town we decided to take a quick trip to Jerome. Jerome has been featured on Huppdates before, but was new to my mom, and provided an escape from the 104 degree Phoenix heat. We left mid morning and made it to Jerome a little after 11. Per the usual Jerome routine we walked up and down the main streets stopping in various shops and galleries. As usual I found a few things I wanted to buy, but did a good job of not making any impulse purchases. We stopped for lunch at a restaurant Jonathan and I had seen reviewed on one of our trusty PBS shows and, unfortunately, were very disappointed. Not only could the portions of one menu item serve about 5 people, but the food was flavorless. My mom ordered tacos with carnita meat and instead of carnitas got boiled, flavorless pork chunks the size of golf balls. Fail on all Mexican cuisine accounts.
We finished up our time in Jerome with a few more stops before picking up some candy at a tiny little local candy store, then heading back to Phoenix. The trip back went well and Jackson was glad to see us upon our arrival. We had intended to go to the Botanical Garden the following day, however with temps expected to be around 111 we were a bit hesitant. Seeing that we would have had to be there by about 8:00 AM we decided it was an adventure best suited for the next winter, fall or early spring visit. Despite toasty weather we very much enjoyed my mom's visit and certainly look forward, not only to the next Comicon, but also another Caetano adventure.
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| "My spoon is too big"... |
After my mom headed back home it was back to the weekend routine, aka, house projects. On Saturday I got in a nice run before the heat had a chance to settle in, then started a little touch up priming in the master bath. Since the completed install of our new exhaust fans in both bathrooms and some minor plumbing modifications made in the master bath, some touch-ups were needed befpre the final paint color application. Then came the usual home improvement errands, this time starting with the purchase our new 12x8x7 (depth/width/height) shed for the various tools and home maintenance equipment we've managed to accumulate. We already have a concrete slab in the backyard with an existing rickety shed, but the shed was pretty small and not very secure, considering the screws attaching the door's lock were on the outside. In prep for our new shed's install, which happens to be this Thursday, about a week and a half earlier than expected, we needed to clear the rock pile that we had built a make shift container for, as well as tear down the existing shed. Since Sunday was expected to be a good 6 degrees cooler, which really does make a difference when temps are in the triple digits, we waited to to start the cleanup/demo till Sunday.
Sunday we aspired to go for a ride, however with plenty of work ahead of us and little motivation, my front flat tire served as the final straw to cancel. We took Jackson on a pleasant walk before getting to business and starting the quasi-Sisyphean task of moving pebble from the back yard, back to the front yard. Two loads were used to fill in the remaining un-rocked bed in the front of the house where we have a variety of succulents and small cactus. We continued shoveling and distributing another 4+ wheelbarrow loads of pebble back to the front yard to thicken some thin coverage before we deconstructed the three block high pebble pen and piled the remaining pebble in the back yard. creating a small pile of remaining pebble. 
The tear down of the shed provided us the opportunity to clean out and donate some various items that had been stored inside, which is always a relief when you're limited on space. The deconstruction ultimately took a little longer than expected, but seeing that we managed to finish sans abrasions or cuts from the rusty aluminum I consider it a success. Having sweat in the heat for hours we called it a day once we piled up the broken down shed and enjoyed lunch out before dropping off our donations and heading home to relax.
As difficult as Sunday's tasks were, it was quite refreshing to have made so much progress in expectation of our new shed!
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