Children's Business Ideas

 Your child wants to earn money, huh? I am terrible at entrepreneurship. Fortunately, not everyone is so disabled. Here is a list of business ideas for your kid that may or may not need much help from you.

Food:     cookies, brownies, cupcakes, hot dogs, finger foods, fruit                         cups, vegetable cups, ...

Drinks:     lemonade, hot chocolate, soda, ...

Art:         paintings, sculptures, rock art, drawings, string art, wood                         burning, ...

Crafts:    jewelry (bracelets, necklaces, ear rings,...), scrunchies,                             coasters, bookmarks, 

Other:     seedlings, soap, stationery, wooden toys, ...

On Stage:  magic tricks, music, comedy, ...

Imposing

 2026-03-20 18:10

I'm listening to a DadSavesAmerica podcast. The person being interviewed is a teacher/principal (Ian Rowe). He was teaching his students how to have a higher chance of not living in poverty by (1) graduating high school, (2) getting and keeping a full-time job, and (3) if they have kids, getting married first. 97% of millennials who did this avoided poverty and moved into the middle class.

He got push-back from people(1) who were "concerned" that he was "imposing middle-class values onto these kids."

I thought that this was really interesting! If you want to live a middle-class lifestyle, then you need to have(2) middle-class values. Whoa! This is exactly what the church teaches about the Celestial Kingdom. If we want to live in the Celestial Kingdom, we need to have Celestial Kingdom Values.

By telling someone of the standards they need to keep to live a middle-class life, are we imposing upon them? No. We are just giving them information to work with. They can decide how to use it. Similarly, if we tell others about the standards we need to keep to live as God asks us to live, we are not imposing upon them.

question Are there values that we could be living to move upward in our affluence level? What are they, if they exist?

1. "Self-anointed gate-keepers," as Ian Rowe called them.
2. "have" seems inadequate here. Written on the fleshy-tables of the heart(3) or "live" might be more accurate. Not just believe in or proclaim, but use as principles of action.
3. 2 Corinthians verse 3: "Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart." President Russell M. Nelson explained that when doctrines of the gospel are written in the fleshy tables of our hearts, “they become an integral part of our nature” (“Living by Scriptural Guidance,” Ensign, Nov. 2000, 17). This process of internalizing gospel doctrines occurs through the power of the Holy Ghost.

References

https://youtu.be/TKXE5FBwy50?si=VVJR0iB-cDLTq6MA
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/new-testament-student-manual/2-corinthians/chapter-41-2-corinthians-1-5?lang=eng

A recipe to try

I know very few people who profess an enjoyment of eggplant. I am not particularly fond of it myself. However, this recipe is an excellent way to prepare eggplant that can be enjoyed by anyone who likes gyros. If you "saute" the eggplant in water and use non-fat yogurt and cheese then this is a nearly fat-free meal. For those who really can't stand eggplant in any form, try substituting tofu or chickpeas.

A note on substituting tofu: As with eggplant, I am not particularly fond of tofu. However, I have learned a few things that make it more palatable. First of all, I always use extra firm tofu since I invariably use it in a cooked dish where I want texture. Secondly, I have discovered that to aid it taking the flavor of the dish, I must dry the tofu as much as possible. This can be done by draining the tofu then pressing it between paper towels. I usually go through lots of paper towels and use a heavy cast iron pan to do the pressing. It also helps if you slice the tofu so there is more surface area to dry. The final "trick" to having tastier tofu is to marinate it. If you have dried it first, it will marinate better. For this dish I might marinate the tofu in balsamic vinegar.

Eggplant Aubergine Gyro


I like to mix the sauce and vegetables and then put it in the pita breads. I also "sauté" the eggplant in water
instead of oil and I do not add the olives because I don't like them.

1/2 cup plain low-fat yogurt
1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled
1 Tbs fresh lemon juice
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
2 cups tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 cup cucumber, peeled, seeded, diced
1/3 cup scallion, diced
1/3 cup kalamata olive, pitted, halved
2 Tbs red wine vinegar
2 Tbs parsley chopped
1 Tbs chopped fresh oregano
1 large eggplant, trimmed and diced into 3/4-inch pieces
2 Tbs olive oil (to saute)
4 pita bread

1. Preheat oven to 350. Toast pita bread in oven.
2. Prepare veggies and mix everything except the bread and the eggplant.
3. Saute eggplant in oil over medium-high heat 3 minutes. Add to vegetable mixture.
4. Mix the cooked eggplant with the other veggies, spoon onto warm pita bread and eat.

Original Source: http://www.food.com/recipe/eggplant-aubergine-gyro-171352

Freedom

Yesterday my in-laws were visiting. Before church they asked if they could take Joseph with them for a few days or a week. My first reaction was, "Oh no! I couldn't possibly allow that!" Then I went to church all by myself. Ah! All by myself. It had possibilities. If Joseph weren't here I could fix the shop roof and play with my new power tools and go shopping or out to eat or take the dogs to the dog park or.... hmm....

So after his short nap we loaded him and his things in the car with the in-laws. He did snuggle with Dad or I for about thirty minutes prior to their departure. However, his only request to his dad once he was in the car was that Daddy close the car door. He didn't even look back at us as they pulled out of the driveway.

He is, apparently, doing just fine. Michael has called a few times to check on him, but I figure that if anything comes up, they will call me. Besides, there are so many things I can get done! Like writing in my blog! And wood working. Did I mention that I am making pens now? Spouse is going to deal with the business end of things and I will make the pens. He hopes to make vast amounts of monies. Or at least enough to pay for the hobby.

Savannah

Since moving to Augusta I have wanted to visit Savannah, Georgia. There are dozens of historic attractions and museums in Savannah and many websites list which ones are where, but I have yet to find a website that tells you about the museums and how much they cost, without sending you to the respective dozens of individual websites. So I thought that I might make a list and perhaps somebody else will find it useful sometime. Please note, however, that I am compiling these prices from various websites that may not have been updated recently and this page will likely not be updated. I can not be held accountable for any change in price from those listed below. Also, there may be other discounts not listed below.

Ticket Prices in $

Attraction Adult Child Age for free

Juliette Low Birthplace 8 7 5 & under

Old Town Trolley Tours 25 10 3 & under

Mickve Israel 5 donation per person suggested

Telfair Museum* 15 5 5 & under

Owens-Thomas House* 15 5 5 & under

Jepson Center* 15 5 5 & under

Isaiah Davenport House 8 5 5 & under

Andrew Low House 8 4.50

Sorrel-Weed House 10

Ships of the Sea Museum 8 6 7 & under

Savannah History Museum+ 5 4.50 5 & under

Roundhouse Museum+ 10 4 (6 and under!)

Old Fort Jackson+ 6

Tybee Island Light Station 7 5 4 & under

Wormsloe State Park 5

Mighty 8th Air Force Museum 10 6 5 & under

* Admission includes a one-time visit to each of the Telfair Museums three sites (Telfair Academy, Owens-Thomas House, & Jepson Center) for a week-long period following the date of purchase. General admission fee also includes regularly-scheduled docent-guided tours.

+ Call for current pricing!

2010 Visitor Guide

It has been awhile

But on the bright side, I have gotten lots of other good stuff done. But you see, the real problem is that I am a lists person. Several months ago I made a list of things I wanted to get done everyday. Like feed the dog. The list provided spots to check off each item, everyday, until mid-May. Then my list ran out. And my printer ran out of ink, so I couldn't print a new list. Therefore, I didn't get anything done. Like blogging. And every month I would look at the price of ink and decide that it really wasn't necessary. Not as necessary as chocolate ice cream. It finally dawned on me this week that I could use pen and paper to write out my list on graph paper, giving me a place to mark off each task everyday. So now I can remember to blog.

You will be happy to know, I am sure, that the diet is working as it ought. My total cholesterol has dropped from 225 down to 155. All the other numbers dropped nicely, too. We are finding that, with less salt and oil, we are tasting the vegetables more and are enjoying our food more. We also noticed that we have little to no desire to eat food from fast food restaurants any more, even when we are quite hungry. Quite an interesting change, really. The diet tends to be more expensive than our previous diet because we buy so much fresh produce. It takes a lot of produce to keep us full. Which is the main reason we are not completely following the "eat a huge salad everyday" part of the diet. It is just too expensive to do so currently.

Furthermore, I picked up a book titled In Code by Sarah Flannery. An excellent read for any math fans or people interested in the math behind cryptography. After mentioning to my dear spouse how fascinating I found the book he quickly dug out The Codebreakers by David Kahn from the back room and handed the old volume to me. It is from 1967. I know, that isn't all that old, but there is a newer edition out. I have found the book to be vastly interesting. Spouse flipped to the back of the book and pointed out the sections in the index that I would likely find most interesting, but for no particular reason I started right at the beginning and have found all of it to be interesting so far. I don't know if I would be interesting in cryptology or cryptanalysis as a career since I really don't want to spend all day everyday working on a computer, but so far it is an interesting study.

Joseph continues to grow and be amazing. He signs much more now than just a few weeks ago. I love spending time with him. Unless it is after 6pm. Then I just want him to go to bed. The garden is requiring water twice a day but has delicious tomatoes and peppers that we use as fast as they turn ripe. The cat is ensconced in the shop quite happily. The dog has been clipped nearly to the skin and if he has had a recent bath he is allowed inside on hot days.

That's it for now.

How does my garden grow

Quite well, actually. I left for a week to visit my parents with Joseph and I left detailed instructions for watering and caring for the garden in my absence. Michael rose to the challenge and when I returned everything was beautiful! I had brought some new plants home with me as my parents had plenty of mint, lemon grass and lilac seedlings. The mint and lemon grass have survived and are growing well. The lilac is still iffy but she might make it. I was quite pleased with the mint, which I have planted in a container, considering how invasive the plants are. I did not plant it when I returned home at 2 AM and the next day I started to replant it only to be interrupted by Joseph. I promptly forgot all about it and the mint plants lay on top of the dirt, drying out, overnight. I had little hope in the morning when I picked up their limp, withered stalks. Thinking of how hardy mint tends to be, I planted them anyway and watered them well. Lo and behold, the next day they were spritely and cheerful looking! The only plants that are not doing well is my chive plant and my pepper plants, all of which I started from seeds. Some of my plants have not sprouted yet, notably the yellow squash and the passion fruit vine.

Square Foot Gardening

My parents introduced me to square foot gardening last year and I thought it was a great idea because I have a distinctly black thumb when it comes to growing plants. Later in the year they sent me the book All New Square Foot Gardening. Now this method is nearly fool proof if you follow it, or so the book says. I am all for fool-proof gardening. From what the book tells me about traditional gardening, I would not have been a very successful row gardener. I don't want to till my soil or pH test it or any of that stuff. And I certainly would not get around to weeding it as often as would be required. Fortunately with the SFG method, none of these things are necessary. The website has all the information you need to start your own, so I won't go into any of that here. I just wanted to show off my fancy new garden. I only have a few things planted right now and I am waiting a week to buy another bag of vermiculite to fill my second box. We are starting small this year with only two 4'x4' boxes and the 2'x2' box I made last fall. I would love to plant more but I think that I would like to "get the hang of it" before going all out. Besides, with just my husband, the baby and myself, we don't need a ton of produce. I am still figuring out what to plant and when to start the seeds and everything. I am hoping to place the 2' box on top of the corner of my second 4' box and grow corn in it. I love corn. Really. I can eat it like candy. Or like graham crackers, in my son's case. I plan to post updates every few weeks so you, too, can see how my garden grows.

Kissing

I suppose that when a second or third child comes along in one's family each of their new accomplishments is overshadowed by a "been there, done that" sentiment from seeing the first child do those same things. Fortunately, I still only have one child so every new thing that he does is amazing and noteworthy. For instance, yesterday was the first time Joseph ever kissed me. Often when I pick him up I kiss his nose and declare, "kiss!" Yesterday, when I picked him up, he leaned in, touched his lips to my nose and, as he was leaning back, clicked his tongue, his closest approximation to the kiss sound. Michael was the happy recipient of Joseph's kisses today.

It is fun and interesting to watch Joseph learn and study things. He has recently started carrying his toy phone around, jabbering into it for fifteen minutes at a time. Today as I was working on my garden fence, he lounged in his camp chair with a sippy cup in one hand and the phone held firmly to the side of his head with the other hand. He jabbered loudly while waving his sippy cup around. At least until I started drilling holes. The drill was a temptation too much to withstand. I did not accomplish much at that time.

For anyone who looked at my menu, I am happy to say that the meals listed on that menu have lasted us two weeks. This is a good thing because the grocery bill for that menu was large. But if that much food lasts us two weeks, then the bill was quite reasonable. Most of the items on the menu were new to me, and we have enjoyed most of them. Some of them we will not eat again, although they were not bad. Some of them are definite keepers. The last rendition of 15 bean soup turned out particularly well and I wish I had written down everything that I put in it. The spaghetti (on the menu from a previous week) turned out better than expected since we substituted whole grain pasta for the normal pasta and we replaced our usual hamburger meat with diced extra firm tofu. We also added a number of vegetables to the sauce. Next time I hope to have extra mushrooms on hand to add, too.

Foster's Holly

In our backyard we have four holly plants that look like the plants pictured here. The other day I left Joseph outside playing alone for a minute to come in and do something. When I came back out I was rather horrified to see a crushed red berry in his hand and a big grin on his face. Snatching his face in my hand I swept my finger through his mouth and found nothing. This did not reassure me as the berries are small enough he could have swallowed them already. Much to his displeasure I carried him inside and called poison control from my cell phone which has an 801 number. I was connected to poison control. In Utah. They happily informed me that there are no poisonous red berries that grow. In Utah. So I went back to searching the internet and discovered what kind of bushes I have and that the berries cause barfing and diarrhea. Small child showed no signs of either and I presume from that that he never swallowed any or enough to cause a problem.

So last night I dreamed that I left him outside playing and when I went out he had a mouth full of black berries (the red ones from the bush had turned black later in the year in my dream. On the real plant they don't do that I am pretty sure). Not a reassuring dream to have. So today I will be purchasing plant clippers and trimming all the pretty, enticing berries within child's reach from the bushes. While I intend to keep my eyes on the wily child, I know that I will not keep my eyes on him every second that we am out there. Furthermore, he is still too young to understand from discipline that he should not do something. So I think the safest solution, like outlet covers and keeping sharp things out of his reach, is to keep the berries out of his reach. My bushes may look funny for awhile, but better that than an evening in the ER. If anyone has ideas on how to keep small fingers from exploring forbidden berries, I would love to hear them!

Success

I am in charge of activities at the church I attend. This position is not necessarily complicated. In fact, among positions to have, it is a reasonably easy one. That does not mean that I did not spend half the night awake last night worrying about what might go wrong tonight during the first activity for which I was in charge. My main worry was that no one would show up. Then I had to worry about whether anyone would be there to help set up. Then I worried about having to clean up all by myself. Of course, with a congregation as awesome as the one I attend, none of these worries were even remotely possible.

Within one minute of my arrival at the building another car pulled in. And then another. Mind you, I was more than 30 minutes early. Less than ten minutes later we were inside setting up. The activities committee had charged each organization with assignments for presenting information about being prepared for emergencies and long-term unemployment or other difficulties. While I was bringing in bread rolls and plastic-ware, each group had already chosen the room in which they would present their information. Whew! One worry off my mind. Before I had finished brining in my crockpot, someone was inquiring as to how many tables and what kind I wanted set up. Wow! A second worry crossed right off my list in less than five minutes.

Then more people showed up! And they brought food to the potluck. Woohoo! People and food to feed them with! Everything was going so well! And I did not have to do a thing! But then I had to worry about if the Red Cross speaker would show up while we were still all eating. Fortunately, someone was kind enough to say the opening prayer, the rotations through the information booths did not descend into mass chaos, and, just as everyone finished their last rotation, lo and behold, the Red Cross speaker arrived! She gave an excellent presentation to which everyone listened quietly, even the children were well behaved and quiet. There was enough food for everyone and even a few rolls left over for me to take home. Oh, and did I mention that we had homemade root beer? It was excellent! I particularly enjoyed the floods of "smoke" that issued forth when the dry ice was added.

Fortunately, I had the forethought to save a plate of food for our speaker because by the time she finished, there was hardly a morsel left, except the bread rolls. While she ate I chatted with her and kept her company. She is a very nice lady and very well educated. We were fortunate to have her come speak to us. By the time I wished our guest good night everything was cleaned up and put away. All I had to do was dry a handful of dishes, collect my things (and the used table clothes) and wander into the night. What a great success! And I owe it entirely to all those who participated and helped and attended. Thank you!

Shopping list for yesterday's menu

This shopping list includes ingredients for everything on yesterday's menu. The recipes provide at least enough food for two adults and a 14 month old child. Most of the recipes are actually enough for four adults, ensuring plenty of leftovers. While I usually plan12 meals (lunch and dinner) each week we usually only need 8-10 of those meals. This means that we will be stocking up for food storage or for when there is more than two weeks between paychecks, etc. This menu is all vegetarian.

Menu for a week

I will add links to the recipes that are already on the web and a shopping list tomorrow. I hope.

New Car!

We have bought a new car. Well, new to us. It is a 2008 Mazda5. An excellent minivan. On the small side of minivans, in fact, it is likely the smallest minivan out there. I believe it was built on the chassis of a Mazda6, so it has the car engine and gas mileage (25-28 mpg highway) and it has the handling of a car. However, it has dual sliding doors and seats that all fold down. It does not have as much cargo space as regular minivans, you almost have to have the back seats folded flat to carry anything, but that is working fine for us. Our particular car came with a 6-CD changer and a sunroof. Awesome. One of the other features that I have wanted and it has is that you set the temperature and the car automatically keeps it there, just like your thermostat at home. Lovely. It is a pretty red color and has a few scratches and bumps, but nothing noticeable from any distance. Joseph slept all the way home from Atlanta in it and enjoys when he is allowed free reign in the car.

New Books

So far I have not come across any new information about cholesterol, but I did finally receive my new books in the mail. One I mentioned in my last post is Cholesterol Protection for Life. I have not read much into it but my brother's synopsis was, "Eat as much fruits and vegetables as you like, have starch once a week and animal products once a month." I am not sure that I will go that far into this diet, but I will certainly be paying more attention to what I eat. I was surprised to hear that starch is one of the things I should not eat a lot of. I love starch, mashed potatoes, corn, rice, pasta, bring it on! Unfortunately starches cause a decrease in High Density Lipids which is the good cholesterol. Of course, endurance exercise uses mainly starches to fuel the body, so it is not surprising that endurance exercise increases HDL. Now I am not talking about hours and hours of exercise. I have read that 30 minutes of continuous exercise is sufficient to increase HDL, and for each 10 minutes longer per session there is a corresponding increase in HDL levels.

The other book I bought is Base Building for Cyclists. Since my HDL levels were not low and I tend to ride for at least 30 minutes at a time, I do not plan to cut back much on my starch intake.

Cholesterol

Earlier this week I received a call from the doctor's office informing me that my lipid count was too high. I was preoccupied at that moment so I really had no idea what the nurse was talking about until she said, "low cholesterol diet and vigorous exercise at least three times a week." Oh. Well, since all of my family has high cholesterol, I was not very surprised with the news. Fortunately my cholesterol is not so high that they immediately recommend drugs.

My brother is a doctor-to-be and so I mentioned my cholesterol to him and he recommended a book to learn about diet changes that will lower my cholesterol. While waiting for this book to arrive I have been looking up research related to cholesterol, diet, and exercise. Currently I have discovered that while it is certain that exercise improves one's cholesterol, there is some controversy as to how, how much it improves cholesterol, how much and what kind of exercise are necessary, and what type of cholesterol (HDL or LDL) is affected.

Recent studies, this one in particular, show that High Density Lipoproteins (HDL) increase with increasing exercise session duration (the longer you exercise the better). As I understood the article, the intensity of exercise correlates with Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL) concentration, so the harder you exercise, the better.

Most of the studies I have come across so far are studies of obese or "at risk" populations. I have been searching for studies of "healthy" population. I will let you know what I find.

Playing in the snow

We had fun playing in the snow last week. Joseph enjoyed it very much and was quite irritated with me when I insisted that he come inside. I made a snow man, but I only had broken dog biscuits to use for the face and one button. I am sure that the dog biscuits that did not turn into soggy mess were enjoyed or hidden by the dog. The snowman fell over a few hours later and quietly melted away, although there is still a half-square-foot lump of snow left as a remnant.

By Sunday almost all of the snow had melted except in the shadows of trees and homes. By Monday the snow was all gone but we had a cold rain. M. took J. after his morning nap and that left me free for a lovely bike ride. I pedaled through the cold damp to the Mazda dealership where I am negotiating obtaining a Mazda5. No suitable vehicles were yet available, so I pedaled home into a stiff headwind.

My speed to the dealership must have been pretty fast because even with the headwind my average speed for the 26 mile round trip was still 14.5 mph. I know, for most guys that isthe speed you go when you aren't pedaling, but for me that is a reasonably fast average for the route I took. The last long (30 miles, I am working up!) ride I took I averaged about 16 mph, however there was no rain, hardly any traffic and the route was mostly flat. The ride was enjoyable and almost all of the drivers were quite nice.

Let it Snow!

Yesterday we had a winter storm. I did not expect such an occurrence. It was a lovely snow, perfect for snowmen. And when I have built a snowman I shall add a picture of him.






About an hour after the first photo I took this photo. You can see the snow is falling thick enough that the trees across the way are less distinct and the sky is darker even though it was not that close to sunset.





And this one was taken the next morning (today). Shortly before it stopped snowing we measured the amount of snow on our picnic table out back and it was just at four inches. We also lost power for more than four hours last night. It was kind of fun doing everything by candlelight. We had to bundle up and put several blankets on the bed to sleep. J. had three layers of clothes on! Before the power went out J. was flipping through his book of animal sounds that I have read to him often; when he flipped to the duckling page he said, "Quaak." Then, rather amazed, I said "moo" when he flipped to the cow page and he replied, "mmmmm!" When I told my husband about this, he figured the quack was random chance, but then we heard J. behind us repeating, "quaa quaa quaa." It was quite amusing.

Cool things my son does

I know that all of you long time parents (anyone with more than one kid) out there probably won't find this amazing or cool because, well, all your kids did that too. Earlier. Better. Faster. It really does not faze you anymore. However, since I am still a newbie parent, I still find every progression very interesting. For instance, this week my son wandered off down the hall and after a few minutes my husband went to check on him. J. was sitting in his room by himself flipping through one of his picture books. A few minutes later he toddled into the dining room where we were, carrying his book and sat on the floor and flipped through the book. But the best part was a few minutes later when he stood up, brought the book to me and climbed into my lap so I could "read" it with him. Even better was when he got down, went away, and came back with a different book for us to look through.

We recently obtained a cat whom we have named Bedina, Arabic for "fat girl". She is fluffy. J. loves to play with her. Last night she was laying on a piece of tissue paper from an unwrapped present and J was tearing bits off, which B would bat at, setting J to giggling.

Biking has not received much attention lately; moving my bike into our sunroom has made biking on the fly easier. It is less of a hassle to stop in the middle of a ride on my rollers and pop in the back door than when I had my bike and rollers out in the shop.

I have posted a few new articles that have caught my eye. I have not managed to read either of these yet.

And finally I have started using Magikey to enter genealogy information with help from the makers of that fine product.

Spectacular Grand Canyon

Since it has been about a year since we were married, my husband and I decided to take a trip to the grand canyon. We spent one day each way driving and three days at the south rim of the canyon. The trip to the canyon was interesting. We use Microsoft Streets and Trips to plan our route. Southern Utah is really very beautiful and the route took us along some very pretty vistas. At one point the road we were driving on continued in a dirt road and the paved part took a sharp left. We, naively believing that MS Streets and Trips would not put us on a dirt road when we selected the option of 'quickest route,' turned left and promptly came to a toll booth at a state park entrance. Upon querying the personnel there we discovered that MS Streets and Trips had in fact put us on a dirt road. Not only that, but after giving our four-door Nissan a concerned look, the lady informed us that we had better not try the road our route suggested. However, there was another road, about five miles back that we could pass with our car.

That should have warned us. Furthermore, we should have known we were in for something interesting when we noted that every vehicle passing us in the other direction was a four-wheel-drive truck or jeep. The occupants of which gave our car a strange look as they passed. The first mile of the road wasn't too bad, just a normal dirt road with potholes big enough to eat tires and washboards that will shudder your car off the road. Then the road went straight down along the precipice of a cliff, while turning sharply to the right. Promptly at the bottom the road shot up out of sight, still along the same cliff edge but this time turning sharply to the left while apparently becoming a single lane. I was just glad no one came over the top. When we did reach the top (poor car) we were again plunged downward and around a corner, fortunately we were no longer along the edge of the cliff. This was because we were at the bottom of a wash, complete with a little (fortunately shallow) creek. After creeping up the other side of the wash a few more steep ups and downs, with the associated potholes and washboards and we were finally out of the worst of the road, meaning we could finally travel at the posted speed limit of 25 mph. It only took us an hour and a half to traverse the 34 miles of 'passable' dirt road. I would hate to have seen what the impassible road we were supposed to have taken was like.

We finally made it to Page, Arizona at about 1:30 pm. We were still 100 miles or so from the Grand Canyon, but we had not yet had lunch and we were quite hungry. Upon entering Page I saw a sign for a Pizza Hut and suggested that we eat pizza. Michael was amenable and we headed further into town. When we came to the Pizza Hut Michael saw a pizzeria off to the left and suggested we go there. That sounded better than Pizza Hut so there we went, disembarked from our car and chose a table to sit at. Soon a waiter came by and got our drink order. Returning a few minutes later with our drinks he took our order then disappeared. We waited hungrily, sipping on our drinks. Another group came in after about ten minutes and were seated by us. Shortly thereafter they had drinks and bread on their table. I eyed their bread but stayed seated. Not very many minutes later they also had appetizers. We had been seated for about 25 minutes by now. Another group came in and were seated, soon to have drinks and bread, and promptly thereafter, salads, too. Michael was becoming antsy and I was debating asking the next table over for a slice of their pizza. We had now been waiting with only drinks for 35 minutes. We finally flagged down a waitress and asked for our waiter. She said she would find him. Five minutes later she returned and said he was making our salads. We glared and mentioned that we had not ordered salads. She apologized and asked what we had ordered. We got up and as we walked out suggested that any food would have been acceptable, we had been waiting 45 minutes and not even gotten bread! So we left. Loudly.

And took our way over to Pizza Hut, where a large line of foreign speaking people were debating what kind of pizza they wanted. We just wanted anything, so we left. Fortunately we spied a Mexican food place not far away and were quickly seated and enjoying a large bowl of chips and salsa. Our food orders were also quickly delivered and we consumed them rapidly. My hunger had been slightly appeased from the chips and salsa, so I only wolfed down the first two or three bites of chicken fajitas. Then I started to eat more circumspectly, cutting the chicken into bite sized pieces before stuffing them into my mouth. This is how I came to notice that the chicken pieces were still raw in the middle. I discovered that I was not hungry at all any more.

After obtaining a replacement dinner (no they did not take it off our bill) we quickly made our escape out of Page hoping never to return.