sassy squirrels and sad cider

It's funny that I just posted pictures of our zinnias that have been blooming so beautifully all summer...I guess one thing that I didn't mention in that post, was that there have been holes in the soil in that flower bed off and on throughout the summer. We thought for a while that it might be a tarantula nest, then when the hole seemed to be getting bigger, we thought it must be a prairie dog. Well, when I got home from Utah and talked to Grammie, she said that with how big the hole has gotten, she thought it must be a groundhog! Sure enough, this creature's hole has taken over half of the flowerbed and the other half is now the mound of dirt which he threw in digging his hole(s)...

I went to Home Depot to see if they had anything that would help deter this creature from living in my flowerbed. The helpful employee wanted to make sure they knew what kind of animal it was before recommending a product...and in describing the size of the hole and the mound of dirt to her...she determined that it was most likely a ground squirrel. I was a bit baffled at first since I'm used to seeing squirrels living in trees, and being overly people-friendly in The Commons, NOT hiding themselves under the ground. But, sure enough, her mention of this brought me back to the afternoon when Ryan and I were so puzzled by a little creature on our back patio that we took a picture...only to laugh at it later when we realized it was a squirrel...something that went from being so common to see in Michigan and Boston, to being so rare in AZ that we didn't even know what it was at first!

I've put stuff in the squirrel's home so that he should hopefully stop digging holes...and I re-planted what was left of the zinnias on the side of the house...


Now, on to the next portion of this blog's title...
In my effort to fully enjoy the beautiful "fall" (AZ-style fall that is) weather we've been having, I decided to go to the grocery store to get some apple cider. I looked all over the produce area of the store, which is where I thought apple cider is commonly found, and couldn't find it anywhere! I finally decided to ask someone who worked there to point me in the direction of the apple cider. She responded by telling me that it'd be in aisle 1 with all of the other vinegar. What? No, not cider vinegar, I thought to myself. Then I explained what exactly it was and she pointed me to the sparkling cider area. I had to further explain what it was...and finally she said she thought it'd be next to the apple juice (I didn't know what to think by this point, so I just went with the flow of things). Sure enough next to the apple juice was a bottle that said apple cider. Now, it didn't look anything like apple cider to me, and the ingredients were EXACTLY the same as the apple juice ingredients, but in my attempt to not judge a cider by it's bottle, I decided to try it. And, sure enough, it tasted just like apple juice without a hint of cider involved. Rumor has it, that they may have REAL apple cider at Trader Joe's...


In my complaining about AZ's apple cider (or lack thereof) to a friend yesterday, I was reminded that we probably do have one of the best salsa selections, so I need to quit being such a negative nancy. :)