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The
text, photos, and drawings in this site share my travels,
work, and experiences. Use the Topics on the left side of
the screen to start navigating this site. All photos and text
are © by Mike Simons, unless otherwise noted. The photos
are scanned and posted here directly from prints or from my
digital camera--no color manipulation is required when it
comes to the spectacular lighting in the southwest!
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August
2012
Be sure to check out my wife's fashion design business! Laura Tanzer has a studio in downtown Tucson as well as online store: www.LauraTanzerDesigns.com I help with strategic planning, marketing, social media, and web site design & maintenance for this women's design start-up. Laura's designs are sophisticated, modern, beautiful, and always comfortable!
November
2011
My primary
weekend and evening hobby, after cooking and reading, is working
on my family
tree. This research has been most enjoyable! Along the
way I've communicated with lots of distant relatives and sources
who have graciously shared valuable nuggets (and large chunks)
of information. Found new relatives in San Francisco, Mississippi, and right here in Arizona! Laura and I finished our flooring and guest bath remodeling
project and are quite happy with the results. At work, going into my fourth
successful year at Corrigo and Intuit!
April
2008
Exciting
career change news: I have joined the team at Corrigo, supporting
their partner Intuit in selling the Intuit
Field Service Management ES software to QuickBooks Enterprise
Suite customers.
April
2005
Our new
house is truly blessed! We have a momma hummingbird and nest
in the olive tree at our front door; we have a momma Gambel's
quail in my garden beneath the collard greens--with 6 or 7
eggs. The cactus are proliferating, the wildflowers are blooming;
it is simply gorgeous here.
November
2004
This year,
we are doing lots of work around our house. Pulling out two
and a half tons of cactus and oleander, carting them into
a roll-away dumpster for removal. Indoors, we are planning
to remove some walls and make a bigger pantry/laundy room.
We are about to learn how to hand apply texture to the ceilings
and then paint the rooms. Great fun! A year ago at this time:
for one weekend in October almost everything in our former
house was under blue tape and plastic, including the kitchen.
June
2003
Once again,
June is upon us. That
means dry, hot days. The birds are mostly quiet, saving every
ounce of water and energy for the cooler morning hours when
they search for food and water. The retirees have gone back
to their homes in the North where it is cooler. The university
students have gone back to their homes. The roads are almost
empty; it takes barely 30 minutes to get to work! Occasionally
a small, thin cloud will appear in the middle of a harsh blue
sky. At 7 AM, a cloud provides momentary relief from the sun's
intensity. A dry, hot wind comes up in the morning, pushing
away the precious cooler night air.
April 2000
Sylloge ran a "5k
Contest", just to see how much one could do with
a web page (or site) in under 5000 bytes. My submissions:
A sustainable page for a sustainable planet:
when faced with limited resources, how will one allocate
them?
A haiku:
my minimalist 1158-byte file. When I started thinking of
written works of beauty, the haiku immediately came to mind.
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Listening:
Sarazino's Everyday Salama. Totally lovin' it!.
Gilbert & Sullivan's The
Mikado. Great, fun operetta that keeps me humming all
day.
Anything and everything on KXCI.
Reading:
The
Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand. Finished it, didn't enjoy it as much as Atlas
Shrugged.
Under
The Dome, by Stephen King. Over one thousand pages of
classic Maine characters stuck on one side or the other of
a mysterious dome.
Cien
Años de Soledad, by Gabriel García Márquez.
I'm revisiting this magical book I read about twenty years
ago. Talk about a family tree!
The
Interpreter of Maladies and Unaccustomed
Earth, both by Jhumpa Lahiri. Lovely short stories with
an Indian-American perspective!
Hug
Your Customers, by Jack Mitchell. A great book for anyone
looking to grow their business!
Six
Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy,
by Ian W. Toll. A great perspective on the US naval history
and battles in the Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea between
1790 and 1815.
Over
the Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation
of the Globe, by Laurence Bergreen. A thrilling and ghastly
history of 250 men and the 18 survivors of mutinies, shipwrecks,
starvation, and more.
Brutal
Journey: The Epic Story of the First Crossing of North America,
by Paul Schneider. A fascinating history of 400+ Spanish explorers
and the 4 survivors of the Narvaez expedition of 1528.
In
The Devil's Garden, by Stewart Lee Allen. Wonderful history
of how foods get their reputations (such as how the apple
became the forbidden fruit of Eden). History, intrigue, and
recipes. Something between Dan Brown's The
Da Vinci Code and Michael Pollan's The
Botany of Desire.
More..>>
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Arizona-Sonora
Desert Museum
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(2021 N. Kinney Road, Northwest of gorgeous Gates Pass) The
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is a world-renowned zoo, natural
history museum and botanical garden. Check out the hummingbird
aviary, and those cute little prairie dogs! A must-see when
in town.
Hiking
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hikers will love
walking among
our friendly green cactus.
Some favorite hikes are: Blackett's Ridge Trail and Romero
Canyon Trail.
Tohono
Chul Park - (7366 N. Paseo del Norte) is one of our favorite
places. The park promotes the conservation of arid regions
and provides an opportunity to experience the desert firsthand.
There are bird-walks, demonstrations of low-water use desert
plants for landscaping, and more. Grounds are open 7:00 a.m.
to sunset daily.
Check
out Going
Back To Bisbee, by Richard Shelton. It's a wonderful book
about the geology, history, people, and animals of Southern
Arizona!
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