Phoenix Metblogs » pho_may

Spinach, Lettuce, What else?

pho_may — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 03:03:57 +0000

I eat missing bags of spinach. I haven’t heard if it was safe to eat spinach or lettuce. I usually hear the bad coming out from the news, but they never (or I haven’t heard) let you know when it’s safe to go back to those things. For those of you that live in the Phoenix area, here is a great website to find your local farmers market. http://foodconnect.org/

Another Sex Offender Map

pho_may — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 02:56:16 +0000

I know some may say that sex offenders are people too and that they should just be left alone and not be looked so discriminately through a magnifying glass, but since I’m actually a stalker, I would like to share my knowledge to the rest of you: Family Watch Dog

Tree update

pho_may — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 02:39:50 +0000

We bought 7 trees from Moon Valley Nursery last week and they are now living in our backyard. They are all 15 gallon trees, which was the same size trees we had chosen for our front yard 2 years ago. The Palo Verde in the front has gotten really big and has bloomed beautiful yellow flowers once. We were supposed to take out the double stakes and the garden hose wrapped around its trunk last year and didn’t realize it until now that the garden hose has now left a scar on the poor trees trunk and branches.

I know we were supposed to get some desert trees for our proposed xeriscaping back yard, but we succumbed to the beauty of the trees that we chose. A ficus, arizona ash (which is at the sunniest spot in the yard and has brown leaves – I’m hoping this is normal), raywood ash, chinese elm, jacaranda, a lemon and orange tree. All of them, except for the Arizona Ash (how ironic) seem to be growing new leaves. They are growing well with the new drip irrigation in place and my daily observations of how they are doing every morning right before I go to work. It is strange to see something living in my backyard. Now my next project – composting and designing the hardscape and adding shrubs and smaller plants to the backyard.

Oasis

pho_may — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 02:11:06 +0000

I was watching a show on PBS and was surprised to hear of a golf course in the middle of Death Valley. So when I went to visit Agritopia and eat at Joe’s Farm Grill, I was amazed by how much grass there was in one community. Every front yard had a patch of Miracle Gro-induced grass, white picket fences, and Craftsman-style abodes which reminded me of the beautiful homes in Pasadena.

This past weekend, we finally ventured past Power Road to Queen Creek. There was an emerging private community called The Pecans. The entire community was one big pecan orchard. Lots (not homes) started at $400,000, and they had strict guidelines for homes built there. The whole concept was so surreal since the surrounding location was all undeveloped land. They will be building next March and I am sure those almost acre lots will definitely appreciate in time as has Agritopia.

Summer not gone yet

pho_may — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 02:04:29 +0000

I spoke to soon when I said that summer was over and fall has arrived in my last article. This past week was very disappointing. I couldn’t go anywhere without slathering a bunch of suntan lotion on my daughter and myself. On a side note, I found out that the Banana Boat SPF 50 for babies works very well for mommy and baby.

Hopefully the weather forecast for this month will be a little bit more favorable unless I am mistaken: http://www.weather.com/weather/monthly/85296?from=36hr_topnav_undeclared

Gangs of Chandler

pho_may — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 01:52:06 +0000

Even the sound of the title made me question why there would be gangs anywhere in this desert landscape. I would understand South Central L.A., the rough streets of New York, and other places made popular by the stereotypical perpetuation from movies and television. But Chandler?

The article from AZCentral: http://www.azcentral.com/community/chandler/articles/1002brk-shooting-ON.html just made me scoff at these so-called “gang” members. It made me question why do people need to join a gang when they could be inside air conditioned recreation centers or doing something that helps the community that they live and not hurting it. It’s already so tough living in this hot environment, why add fuel to the fire? Do you think the heat is an accessory to violence? I haven’t done any research but are there gangs in snowy environments? It makes me wonder…

Little Boy Blue

pho_may — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 01:41:05 +0000

I read this article about a lost 3 year boy roaming Phoenix: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1002brk-childfound1003.html

My heart goes out to him and being in a family that is separated by divorce. Being away from our family, it’s hard to raise my daughter without grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles. I can’t imagine what this poor child is thinking about when he is walking by himself in the wee hours of the morning and what kind of man he will grow up into without that cohesive family core.

Pumpkin Festivals

pho_may — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 02:50:10 +0000

I’ve never been to a pumpkin festival anywhere. Since there are so many farms around here, I thought I’d google pumpkin festivals and see what I’d get.

I found two very promising candidates. It’s not as green as I’d imagine a pumpkin patch to look like. Just as long as there aren’t any scary critters in there, I’m keeping these two in mind:

Schnepff Farms – This farm is in Queen Creek
Young’s Farm – This farm is near Prescott, and will be the last festival for them because they are selling their farm and moving to Oregon. Lucky…

Not the same

pho_may — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 01:09:39 +0000

I’ve lived in Los Angeles most of my life and was so used to the smog and the almost 4 seasons there. Even though this will be my second year here, I have not yet gotten used to the concept of Christmas, or Halloween in the desert. The stores are filled with Halloween tricks and treats. I’ve even seen them selling Christmas gear at Costco. But without the autumn leaves, cold breezy nights, and snow during the winter time, it doesn’t feel the same.

Development in my Neighborhood

pho_may — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 22:28:43 +0000

When I was back in California, I noticed mostly all of the Wal*Mart’s were in lower-income neighborhoods. Because of this, I’ve always thought that Wal*Mart’s products were not as good as Target’s or K-Mart’s. However, now living in Arizona, there are actually 2 Wal*Marts in my neighborhood and when I went into one for the first time, I was surprised by the enormity of the store. Everything that you might need in one shop and at a relatively lower price than other stores. With a child now, it is more convenient for me to stop at one place, especially during the summer time when you just want to get out of the car once and not travel from one shop to another. It made me appreciate Wal*Mart a little bit more. As a business, Wal*Mart was smart to have stores in cities in California which probably didn’t have to cost them an arm and a leg. It also helped lower-income families. In some stores, you can even purchase merchandise online from their warehouse that can be sent to the store nearest you to be picked up. Unfortunately they don’t offer that here in Arizona. Site to Store I hope that will change.