Pinecone Drop

People usher in the new year with horns, champagne and noisemakers. All well and good, but if you really want to do it right, there’s nothing like lowering a 70-pound, 6-foot-tall, well-lit metallic pinecone.
You might think such a New Year’s Eve breakthrough is recent, given advances in festive technology. But Flagstaff’s annual Pine Cone Drop goes back to 1999, a sand-weighted plastic trash can and lots of hot glue.
The huge pinecone that draws thousands to downtown Flagstaff each New Year’s Eve was merely a random thought launched at a meeting of Weatherford Hotel management seven years ago.

Happy New Year to our extended families and friends. Stan and Candy

Snow in the high country can be beautiful

This picture was taken from the upper deck on our new home. We were supposed to get 6" to 8" of snow but the storm took a different path and ended up in the White Mountains. The amount we did get was beautiful though..... I wonder if Breezy Pine is getting snow this year?

"The Bassinet"

This bassinet was given to Candy in 1978, when she lived in Fairbanks Alaska, by a co-worker at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, and while she was pregnant with her son Michael.
The previous owners two children had used the bassinet prior to offering it to Candy. After Michael Edward Detwiler was born on 3/29/78, Rick and Candy decided to wood burn the names and birthdates on the bottom of the bassinet of the 3 babies who had previously used it. Melissa Christine Detwiler was born on 4/2/80 and was the 4th baby to sleep in the bassinet, and now Connor Michael Smith, newborn son of Melissa and husband Malcolm, birth date 12/14/06, has the honor of becoming the 19th baby to sleep in this very special heirloom, and have his name and birthdate engraved on the bottom! While living in Hawaii, the bassinet was loaned out, and was used by Chinese, Portuguese, Japanese, and Hawaiian friends, as well as relatives and friends here in Arizona.
It has been refurbished a couple of times, and hopefully will continue to be passed down and the tradition will continue.

Introducing ~ Connor Michael Smith

Connor Michael Smith with Grandma Candy!
Born: 12/14/06
Time: 6:05 AM
Weight: 8 lbs. 10.5 Oz.
Length: 20 inches
Place of Birth: Flagstaff Arizona
Parents: Melissa and Malcolm

A very good friend of ours, Madeline, reads Tarot Cards so she pulled a card for Connor and this is what the card says about Connor.......

Connor will be complex, expressive, you know where you stand, good humor, perceptive, knows his needs, intellectual, ability to read people, gets along well with others,in his career will be a hard worker, and do well, honest, work with finances, possibility of being a banker. Was born under a star and will be watched from above!

I would say that Connor had a very nice card pulled for him, wouldn't you?

Blog name change ~ any suggestions?

OK ~ Kaneke has been saying it, Sarah has brought it to my attention........I guess that it is time to change the name of my blog site. So, I am looking for suggestions. There are a few things that may be able to be worked into the blog name ~ maybe incorporate some basic facts?

• We now live in Flagstaff Arizona
• The elevation is 7000 ft.
• The San Francisco Peaks are our closest neighbors
• I like to do home improvement projects (Project Man)
• We own a 5th wheel RV
• I drive a Chevy Truck
• Molly (our dog) is a Buff Cocker Spaniel

Any ideas or thoughts?

Back-up-and-running

What a day it has been...... Our previous internet provider doesn't provide service in Flagstaff so we had to switch. I chose Qwest which means we went from a cable internet service to a DSL service..... I ran into a major snag when I hooked up my wireless router which worked flawlessly in Cornville but came to a screeching halt in Flagstaff..... due to a major conflict. I messed with it for about 8 hours and finally called Netgear Customer Service and was pleasantly surprised with the level of customer support. The guy at Netgear told me that my router was out of warranty (I bought it over a year ago) but since I had never asked them for help before that he would provide me with a one-time help at no charge. He resolved the problem in about 15 minutes.....

So, we are once again back in service....