BLACK WIDOW SPIDER

Tonight we ventured out into the heat to hit the local grocery store. We opened our garage door and as DH walked around the back of the car to get to the driver's door, he glanced in the corner of the garage where one of the garage door rails is anchored and noticed a spider.
Further inspection proved it to be a Black Widow spider.
You know it's a Black Widow because of the signature red hourglass on it's abdomen.
This is the first one we've seen since our arrival to Arizona last August.
It's just another example of how you need to be aware of what's around you at all times. It's not that they are everywhere, they tend to come out this time of year.

Here's the link to "Wikipedia" for the break down of the "BLACK WIDOW"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_widow_spider
DW was not too happy to see that "thing" living in our garage, so I took care of it. One quick swipe of my shoe and it is no more!
Also it's our understanding that we broke some temp records here in AZ. We will admit that today it was HOTTTTT!! Our digital thermometer was left out on our back table in full direct sunlight all day. It has a High/Low setting for the day. Here's what it recorded!

Tomorrow for our own fun, we are cracking an egg early in the morning, sticking it in a frying pan and leaving it on the patio table outside. We'll take a photo later in the afternoon and actually see if we can cook an egg in these kind of temps. Stay tuned!!

Where's Waldo? Video of DH during BJ-Florida auction

I'm directly under the Barrett-Jackson logo under the Auctioneer's "SPANKY"

"SCORPION HUNTING"

This morning DW started researching scorpions. She learned that if you shine a black light on them they glow like crazy.

So today we went and purchased some black lights to start checking the property before we let the dogs out after dark. Just in case!!!
We checked the spot where we killed the one from last night and we were amazed at how it had a three dimensional effect to it. It was really cool!
We searched the whole yard hoping we wouldn't and yet hoping we would find a scorpion.
We didn't!!
If you look closely at the image above, you can see the scorpion and the words that state "SEE SCORPIONS GLOW IN THE DARK BEFORE THEY SEE YOU"
They actually make a MAG lite for scorpions.....
We'll take a photo of one glowing if we find one........

While driving around today, the Thermometer on our car read 118 degrees.
Quite mild actually!

"SCORPIONS"

We are in total shock tonight! All the years DH went to college in Tucson he never once saw a scorpion other than the ones they have at the Saguaro National Monument exhibit. Tonight, Muncie, bless his heart, was patrolling our back yard as he and Phoebe do every night, when we saw him doing something we haven't seen before. He was actually on his hind legs, standing upright and looking pretty agitated at our back yard wall. After DH yelled at Muncie to leave the wall alone, DW grabbed a flashlight to check out what Muncie was so focused on.
Low & behold, a scorpion was hanging around.

DH made the dogs go inside and grabbed the camera. As you can see we had a nice sized visitor. We will be more aware of our surroundings in the weeks to come. Mosquitos would feel nice tonight. "NOT"!!

P.S. The scorpion is no longer amongst the living. DH made DW take off one of her thongs and smacked the scorpion into oblivion!

Enjoy!!

House Hunting Continues

Well, this weekend we went and looked at several houses again that are still for sale. We ended up liking one of them......... HOWEVER, it would take lots of elbow grease and some $$$ to get it in tip top shape.

The interior is in dire need of some serious TLC!! We think if we can buy it right & put in some hard work, we could probably have a unique home with LOTS of selling potential.......

The lot is huge and it even has a pool. "YEA!!"

The front landscaping is AWESOME!! The cost of doing the landscaping out front alone leaves one thinking what it cost???
It even comes with a saguaro cactus...... DH has always wanted a place that had a real saguaro. When he attended the University of Arizona, he lived in an apartment complex that had a tree that looked like a saguaro but unfortunately, it died. The apartment complex actually painted the tree green to make it look like a saguaro. DH had to look at that tree every day and vowed he'd have a real one some day.......

One of the drawbacks of this property is the master bathroom. It has a nice tiled shower but it sits about 3 feet below the porcelain stool. DH & DW laughed when we saw it because one could be sitting on the toilet and one could be in the shower and you could have a conversation face to face. This eventually would have to be raised to the main floor......$$$
The other drawback on this property is the kitchen. It's tiny.... The house is very livable at this time and we could chip away at the things we don't like. We have gotten to know lots of people with various skills in construction work. This is a difficult decision for us but we feel it's one we need to consider. Any comments will be greatly appreciated.
Our parents have always said "you can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear", however we feel the purse is complete, we just need to add the silk....... Ahhhhh the joys of house hunting and stress!!

House Hunting! :-(

It's a sad day.............. Our offer wasn't accepted......... Back to square one..... "sigh"!!

House Hunting!

Quick note - We put in a counter offer this evening at 4:30 p.m. We have our fingers crossed!!