January Blues ... and reds ... and purples ... and oranges!

Hi friends!

How are those New Year's Resolutions going?  Bored yet?  I must say my initial enthusiasm for fresh fruit and vegetables has fallen by the wayside somewhat and has dwindled to a few blueberries and raspberries on my yoghurt for breakfast and an extra slice of lime in my margarita **yawn** .  I have been sticking to my resolve of doing more cooking though and so far have managed to make a home cooked meal every weeknight for the past two weeks ... yay me ... Mr B can't believe his luck!  Think he is already regretting one of his, which was to expand his cooking skills and try a new recipe for dinner every Saturday.  Last week consisted of steak on the grill and some oven chips **rolls eyes**, however, this week he is tackling a Chicken & Ham pie, a la Jamie Oliver.  I have had strict instructions to keep out of the kitchen until it's ready ... just sneaked in to get myself a glass of wine and it is all looking a bit fraught in there with every available surface covered with either flour or an assortment of utensils and dishes.  Have a feeling that next week we may be going out!  Lol.

Whilst the majority of the US has been having some wild weather this week - dangerous ice storms, torrential rain and heavy snow (Northern California alone has had 15 feet of snow in some places and 12 inches of rain!) - here in Arizona we have been basking in the mild mid-60s and even managed 70°F on a couple of days.  There have been a fair few clouds this week though and whilst somewhat grey and gloomy, they have made for some pretty spectacular sunsets and sunrises.

Since we have been in Phoenix, I have witnessed some of the most beautiful sunsets I think I have ever seen anywhere, however, this week they have been particularly stunning both morning and evening.   I have already shared a few snaps on my social media pages, however, my amateur attempts at capturing the beauty on my iPhone from the car window or from the back garden are nothing compared to some of the shots submitted to one of our local news station.  If you're not fed up of looking at them yet, here are a couple more examples shared on their Facebook page ...

Shared by 3TV Phoenix 

Shared by 3TV Phoenix 

So in other news this week,  Techno Teen has now worked out that he can step his gadget multitasking up a notch by wearing his ear buds underneath his headphones, thereby enabling him to listen to the commentary of a You Tube video on his laptop whilst playing a game on his playstation!  This is of course whilst still monitoring Snapchat on his phone.   I have no words.

After managing to escape all forms of exercise at school so far since we moved here, his luck has finally run out, and after taking the classroom based 'Health' course last term, this term is the dreaded
PE rotation, Lol.  On Friday,  Ethan informed me that he spent some time in the gym (they have a fully equipped weight room) working out a circuit for himself and then he played tennis with one of his friends ... well, when I say 'played tennis' I am using the term in the loosest possible manner (he is his mother's son after all).  His friend Dougie, coincidentally also a Brit (and recently moved here from Guernsey to study part time at the affiliated golf academy ... yes, really), valiantly attempted to offer some coaching tips after watching him flail about with the racquet for several minutes hitting nothing but a mosquito with a death wish ...
"See if you can throw it up really high and then try and hit it " he encouraged.  Ethan threw up the ball and waited expectantly,  poised and ready to smash it ...... before missing the ball altogether and merely succeeding in smashing himself over the head with his racquet!  Good grief.
"Erm ... well at least you hit something!"  his friend offered patiently.
I expect next week he'll be suggesting that maybe it would be safer if they just stayed in the gym.   Sadly I fear he has inherited the 'non-sporting' gene from the Sutton side of the family.  I shudder at my own recollections of High School sports lessons which invariably involved freezing to death on a sub zero hockey pitch (for some reason I was always the bloody goalie in those ridiculous big clown shoes and those minging pads which strapped to your legs on bits of elastic that were always too short and left welts round your knees for days), or breaking a nail trying to catch a sodding netball.  Tennis was a rare summer treat to be enjoyed for a few short weeks if by some miracle you managed to finish your hideous needlework project early (a particularly attractive elasticated waist skirt as I recall).  I seem to remember stapling up the hem of mine in an effort to escape early to the tennis courts - not because I was desperate to play tennis but more because there was a conveniently situated hill at the back of the courts behind which you could sit undetected whilst enjoying a crafty cig! (I used to spend the majority of my lunch money on a pack of 10 x No. 6 and a box of matches, leaving just enough for a couple of 'snack tickets' with which you could buy beans on toast or a greasy spam fritter ...  Happy days!

I also learned this week that the US National Debt now amounts to $19.5 trillion!  I don't even know how many noughts that is but I do know it is a phenomenal amount of money!  Allegedly though, in just the past 12 months, the Federal Government has apparently also contributed to this debt by wasting a heap of money on some of the most ridiculous studies I have ever heard of.   Below are a few examples taken from this article ... lol 

• Fish on a treadmill - The National Science Foundation distributed $1.5 million to studying a fish on a treadmill, one of which was a mudskipper fish. It was discovered that the mudskipper fish "exercise longer and recover quicker under higher oxygen concentrations." 
• Hamster Cage Matches - The National Institutes of Health provided $3.4 million to Northeastern University in Boston to have hamsters fight each other in cage matches to examine their "aggression and anxiety." The researchers would even give the hamsters steroids which turned them into "violent, vicious" creatures.
• A study on which gender spends more time playing with Barbie dolls. The study came to the obvious conclusion that girls tended to play with Barbie dolls more often than boys do, as the latter preferred playing with Transformers. No shit Sherlock.  The National Institutes of Health spent $300,000 on this kind of research
• Fraternities and sororities like to party - National Institutes of Health issued a $5 million grant to Brown University to study fraternities and sororities and came to the shocking conclusion that fraternities and sororities consume more alcohol than other college students and people who attend fraternity and sorority parties are more likely to drink alcohol than at other events. 

Well, think that's it for this week.  Thank you for all your feedback and kind words in response to my question last week about future blog postings.  Amazingly, it seems that there is still an appetite for Barlow's Big Adventures and so I will continue with my random ramblings for now but perhaps at a lesser frequency when there is not much going on and therefore nothing much to report.

Have a great week and look forward to seeing you back here next time.

TTFN
Bev x