ENDING 2013 WITH ART & CHICKIN

 A girl and a cat on the last morning of 2013.

Our celebration for New Years Eve wasn't going to be the usual late night party, but rather, an afternoon trip to the Century Theater at the Park Lane Mall in Tucson.  Laila has a fascination with dinosaurs, and has been talking about wanting to see the new animated feature film - Walking with Dinosaurs.  A quick check on the computer, showed the non 3D version was playing at 2:30pm.  When we arrived at the theater, the times were all different, and the next showing of the movie was at 6:50pm.  Scratch that idea, what was plan B?

It just so happened that right across from the theater in the mall, was the "Color me Mine" store.  This was something entirely new to me, which just goes to show that you're never too old to learn a new trick.  The basics of this retailer is that you paint your own designs on assorted plain white pottery items.   Then, they kiln fire the pieces, and you end up with a dish, bowl, or whatever, that is ceramic, and safe for the dishwasher, and microwave.  It turned out to be one of those artsy activities more suited for Grandma than Grandpa.

Laila first painted a bowl for her buddy Snoopy, while Grandma worked on a Gecko, or lizard, or something like that.  By the time Laila had finished her second piece, a dragon fly, almost a couple of hours had passed.  What did Grandpa do for 2 hours you say?

Malls, and lots of people aren't exactly on my top 10 list of things to do, but, this particular mall has a large Sears store, and one thing that Sears is famous for is....... you got it - Craftsman Tools.  Yea, an escape from an endless number of retailers that sell nothing but women's clothes, shoes, jewelry, and beauty products.  An escape into a testosterone fueled display of tool boxes, wrenches, ratchets, sockets, screwdrivers, and countless other "guy stuff".   I ended up with a small 3 drawer Craftsman tool box that will take the place of the bigger one that I have in the motor home.  I've been carrying around way too many tools for years, that I never use.     This will be an opportunity to consolidate many of my tools back into the garage, and lighten the load in the RV.

We ended the afternoon at Laila's favorite fast food joint - Chick-Fil-A, then it was back home to the "Last Chance Ranch".  Did we stay up for the New Years celebration you say?  Not a chance!  I can't remember the last time I saw midnight on New Years Eve, and I kept the streak alive last night.  We were all in bed by 9:30pm, and as I drifted off to sleep, I couldn't help but think that 2013 was a pretty darn good year in the house of Chance.