Quote for the Month of October

"I know its the desert, but I didn't expect it to be this dusty" - guy on the elevator in the building where I work. Fail.

U2

I’m ashamed that its taken me this long, but last Tuesday, October 20, 2009, we had the honor of seeing the Black Eye Peas open for the one and only U2 at Cardinal’s Stadium. Somehow we had the good fortune to get into the “inner circle” which is standing room only between the center stage and the second outer ring. Granted standing from about 5:30 until Midnight became torture on the lower back, the proximity was worth the pain. In addition to being close to both the inner and outer stages we were a little more than an arms reach away from Bono or The Edge when they would walk across the rotating, cross stage bridges. An awesome concert, on a lovely fall day in Arizona, at a stadium with a retractable roof...life is good.

The Black Eyed Peas started the night with a terrific opening act. They sounded great, were high energy, had entertaining random robot dancers, and put on an all around a good show. For many the highlight of the performance may have been Fergie’s gorgeous gams, and who could blame them. I haven’t changed teams or anything but they are damn near perfect if I don’t say so myself!

After a short break to clear out some equipment and the prepping of many a guitar and drum set, Billy Idol’s Major Tom, swooned across the massive speakers. The crowed went wild. I really can’t sum up the concert any other way than it was AWESOME, perhaps even cathartic. U2 put on an amazing show. They had a bit of mic feedback trouble for the first few songs, but despite the equipment hickup, Bono’s voice was beyond perfect, The Edge’s guitar playing was out of this world, Adam Clayton (Bass Guitar) was terrific and the one who started the band, Larry Mullen, Jr., was excellent on the drums.

The set list was as follows: Breathe, Get On Your Boots, Magnificent, Mysterious Ways, Beautiful Day, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For - Stand By Me, Stuck In A Moment, No Line On The Horizon, Elevation, In A Little While, Unknown Caller, Until the End of the World, The Unforgettable Fire, City of Blinding Lights, Vertigo - It's Only Rock and Roll, I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight (remix), Sunday Bloody Sunday, MLK, Walk On - You'll Never Walk Alone
Encore(1): One, Amazing Grace, Where the Streets Have No Name
Encore (2): Ultraviolet, With or Without You, Moment of Surrender

I have to admit, I’ve never been much of a U2 follower, in fact I hadn’t even heard their new album before the concert, but this concert has changed my ways. For all those who ever get a chance to see U2, don’t pass it up. The set was exceptional, the music was fantastic and the performance was, possibly best described in language of the Garden State, Fan-f**king-tastic!

Trip to the South Rim

With an anticipated departure time of 7 AM, a single bathroom apartment with 5 occupants is no pleasure cruise. The giddy energy of three out of towners helped to lessen the pain of a 5:50 wake up time, however this sugar-high-esque energy would eventually lead to a cranky crash in a few short hours. Perhaps not all felt this way, but I know myself better, it was inevitable. Promptly at 7 AM we piled in our rented X-terra, aptly name "X" and headed up the road. With a quick stop at Montezuma's castle and only one gas stop in Flagstaff we arrived at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon a little before noon.

Our first stop included absolutely breathtaking views and a reminder of just how extensive the entire canyon is. We could see millions of years of canyon creation in just one small panoramic view and our view was just one tiny, tiny portion of the massive canyon. After some of the many foreign tourists cleared out we tool a few obligatory tourist photos, enjoyed a quick lunch and made a brief tour of the visitor’s center where we decided on a three mile hike that was suggested for visitors with only a few hours to spend in the canyon.

The Cedar Ridge hike was a great choice. I'm not one for heights but there was something about the grandeur of the canyon that took away my fear. The weather was gorgeous, the trail was un-crowded, and the haze was relatively low, basically we couldn't have asked for a better day to hike. On the way down Brian was a bit timid about the thin trail and the shear drop-offs, but he successfully conquered the fear, made the entire trip down, and sped like a bullet on the way back up. Round trip was a 1000 ft descend/climb that included many a photo pause and took a little under two hours to complete.

Following the hike some of the group went to confess their sins while the rest of us sinners stopped by one of the lodge areas for a quick libation. During our hour wait we saw some goats, a couple of javelinas and a nice little sunset over the canyon. I found it a lovely finish to the visit.

Our trip out of the park included a mean combination of low blood sugar, pitch black driving conditions and constant “watch for deer” signs. Why I didn’t pack the Xanax was beyond me. About 45 minutes out of the park, to prevent becoming another Donner party, we stopped at the Cameron Trading Post. The restaurant was the only dinning location within a two hour radius and its heaping portions were a pleasure on the eye and the belly.

Like over watered cacti we loaded back into the car and finally arrived in Page around 10:30. Apologies to those that had to witness a Caetano with low blood sugar. It can be a very scary site and risks the safety of all, and should be avoided at all costs.

Weak Cookie

Part of the joy of the sweetened cardboard commonly refereed to as a fortune cookie is the fortune of course, so imagine my disappointment at this jewel: "The first man gets the oyster, the second man gets the shell." This pathetic fortune officially makes the cookie's empty calories that much more wasteful. I would have preferred some broken English to this sad excuse for a fortune.

Reality Markers

How is it that the holes in a belt can have a direct impact on one's happiness and self definition? Realistically what are they, like a half inch apart? More like a mile. The joy of cinching that belt tighter, making it to that last little hole is a joy too extreme to be expressed, whereas, just as dramatically, the realization that you have to move backwards, a massive half inch back into the shameful previous hole, well, its down right tragic. Its can be the difference between a good start to a day or the aspiration of not eating breakfast, which is rarely never accomplished.

Today, however, has presented a new conundrum. This morning I put on my belt and glared at that final hole. Perhaps with a few dirty looks I could scare it into being accessible. Turns out, the gods were kind. Nice. As the morning went on I realized I had celebrated preemptively. A novice mistake.

Sure my belt seemed to be holding up my pants while I stood upright, but with time, and while seated, I noticed my belt was starting to lose a major battle, the victor of which happened to be my spare tire. Due to the belt setting I was no long able to hike my pants to comfortably smush in the offending excess. Lets just call it an off kilter muffin top. Sides are fine, its that pesky front angle that’s killing me. Sure if I sit perfectly upright with the best posture I can muster it rescinds ever so slightly, but the uncomfortable cutting into my belly remains. Keep in mind the muffin top does not rear its ugly head while standing, so I suppose its not as bad as it could be.
Unfortunately, to avoid spare tire bruising I've relinquished the small and apparently false victory and moved back to the previous belt hole. Yeah, its my own fault, but I'd prefer to keep some blame on the belt. Lets just call it a motivational factor to put down the cookie... ok maybe to put down the third cookie. (its healthy to be realistic)

Celebrate!

My hubby just passed the bar!! Hip hip hooray!!

Oktoberfest - Tempe style

Traveling on Phoenix's glorious light rail train it took us about 15 minutes to arrive at Tempe's version of Oktoberfest. I'm not much of a beer drinker, but "beers of the world" sounded like it might have some potential. Well, it turns out that "beers of the world" really only pertained to beers of the Budweiser world. I'm pretty sure the only non-Bud, remotely world beer, was Red Stripe, a Jamaican lager.

We started off our consumption with a pleasantly disgruntle server who gave us both souvenir cups and beers for the price of one beer without the souvenir cup (14 ticket purchase for only 5 tickets, sweet!) In true carnival style we also enjoyed funnel cake, a soft pretzel, cheesy curly fries and of course, a braut with sourkraut. Delicious. Sure it probably required an iron-man's worth of exercise to even come close to burning that many calories, but hell, ya gotta live your life.

In addition to tasty eats, the fiesta included carnival games and rides, two stages with constant live entertainment and a polka stage, that unfortunately we never saw come to life. These types of events always provide such great people watching opportunities, for better of for worse. As the evening went on I noticed we were far outnumbered by "jorts" (jean shorts). A few times, I even felt as if my simple jean skirt was getting the hairy eye from various jort wearers. Perhaps I haven't been paying enough attention to fashion lately but I would like to hope that the jean skirt still, even if only marginally, trumps the jort.

Another surprising sight was the number of couples, noticeably younger than us, with one if not two kids. I think its great when people take their kids out to various social/cultural events, but perhaps when you take your children to these events you shouldn't both get trashed. Or, just maybe, you should consider their tiny, delicate ear drums when you sit front row of live performance that are far too loud for adult ear drums. Lets get a little responsibility here people and for one second think about the little person you thoughtlessly put in this situation.

Overall our Oktoberfest was a pretty fun experience, and we will surely return again next year. Danke schoen Budweiser for your hosting of Oktoberfest Tempe 2009.

Sweater weather

Yesterday morning was a gorgeous morning. By 8 am the temperature was in the low 80's and sunny, perfect weather for enjoying an open sunroof and rolled down windows on my way to work, right? About a block down the road the windows were on their way up. Somewhere, somehow, after dealing with 115 degree days my skin had apparently thinned to the point that 80 degrees felt a little cool. Pathetic. I knew I would acclimate to the weather here, and eventually come to call 65 scarf weather, but honestly, a chill at 80, that’s just sad.

Ten months ago we took a trip from VA to AZ to confirm that we wanted to make an eventual move to the desert. I remember stepping out of the plane and wishing it was appropriate to stop in the middle of the jetway to get my shoes off and slide my flip flops on, but considering the potential for residual air-rage I made it past the initial boarding zone to make the swap like an appropriate passenger. The 50 degree temperature difference between the Old Dominion and The Valley was heavenly. We toured the Phoenix area donning shorts and flip flops while locals wore their sweatshirts and jeans. Yeah, sure eventually that would be us, bundled up against the icy cold of 60 degrees, but not for a good while.

Adding insult to injury was when I fessed up to my mom that I felt a shiver at 80 and she informed me that she woke up to a morning temperature of 28 degrees. After a much deserved laugh she was kind enough to mention that perhaps this is a true sign that I belong in the desert. Yes, perhaps.

Last weekend I chuckled to myself as I ran by the person in their long-sleeve shirt when it was about 82 out… maybe I shouldn't have chuckled so soon.

How did that happen...

As I drove home from my favorite bulk warehouse, squinting through my dusty windshield, I had a revelation. Recently we've been experiencing some, how do you say, issues or rather indicators of an unfortunate lifestyle. Yes I think what we've been experiencing lately are indicators of hoopydum.

When you have to take a bath in the morning, not because you want to, but because my eyes water with more pressure than the shower nossle, life is getting a bit hoopty.

When you have to roll down your window just to get out of your car, hoopty strikes again.

When you place your newly bought wine in the freezer to expedite consumption, you might be pushing past hoopty into a whole other realm, but to stick with the theme, you're turning hoopty.

When you break sticks of gum in half to reduce the cost of your gum addiction you're thrifty right? I suppose I could go with hoopty on that one, but honestly its a gum addiction.

Citizen Cope

Cameraless and less than 20 feet from the lead signer of Citizen Cope, how embarrassing. Once I got over not having my tourist appendage and the fact that a sweaty middle age drunk woman kept touching me with her gross sweaty skin, I thoroughly enjoyed a fantastic concert performance.

This past Friday we were lucky enough to catch Citizen Cope playing at the rather "intimate", seat-less, Marquee in Tempe. Sure the lead singer came out looking as high as a kite, but hell, why not? Pretty sure if I could perform as well as they could, and have a hell of a time doing it, I would too. Cope and his band were just as talented at the pinnacle of their high as they were at the close of their concert, about an hour and a half later.

After the group performance Cope followed up with a multi-song encore with just an acoustic guitar and his soulful voice. After about 3 solo songs he was again joined by the remainder of his group for an additional 3 songs, finishing the night with a fantastic, slightly rasta, performance of Radio Head's Karma Police. Damn fine show by a damn fine group.

Never heard of Citizen Cope... for shame. Do yourself a favor and check them out, their music is awesome. We first saw them perform as an opening act at BB King's Blues club as a warm up for BB King and shockingly talented blues guitarist, John Mayer.

Late but not lost

Not this Sunday, but the one before, we drove about an hour and a half out of Phoenix to view what a confused white man named "Montezuma castle" and "Montezuma Well". The drive included the obligatory "unique" scenery including an over-sized Captain Morgan billboard surely representing Phoenix's affinity for spiced rum, a "Jesus is lord" billboard with a confused and surprised looking Jesus face (unfortunately the picture was blurry and the face could not be seen... perhaps it was... a sign) and of course a cell tower not covered with fake pines, or fake palms but instead religious crosses. "Can you hear me now"?

Aware that I will not be able to convey with any remote accuracy the beauty of the Well and Castle, this time, I'll leave it to the slide show to the right. No Ansel Adams here, just a few snapshots of a gorgeous natural wonder and the ingenuity of a small tribe of Indians. The people who delicately and respectfully used the world around them to create the castle and utilize the natural power of the well are amazing, and unfortunately no longer culturally existent. Apparently after what has been declared a sudden and rather inexplicable departure from the Castle and Well the small group of natives eventually split up and integrated into different tribes throughout the land.

As always we enjoyed a lovely trip out of the valley and are thankful for the culture and natural beauty of the new state we call home.

Keep up people...

Best office question of the day "what the heck is Snail Mail"?

Honestly?!

Festival?

I had a great post written, went to save draft and BAM, gone! Oh Google I love your Googly ways, but talk about a kick in the gut. Here goes a second attempt.

This past Saturday we attempted to attend what a delightful, free, liberal newspaper advertised as the "Grand Avenue Festival". Sounds great right? The website advertised a lovely mix of art, unique clothing stores, galleries and food/drinks. This event was exactly what I've been trying to find, a free, outdoor event celebrating some of Phoenix's culture.

HA! Talk about disappointment. We arrived on Saturday around 11 AM to an empty 4 lane street with nothing but a few parked cars and shady looking closed storefronts. Way to festival it up Phoenix! Not a flyer, not a banner, not one vendor or open door in sight, nothing. We drove down the street and continued onto our weekend errands. I was quite disappointed but my loving husband pointed out that festivities may start later in the day because, while viewing the ever so festive website he had noticed the free band performances started mid to late afternoon.

Ok, we gave it a second chance. Silly naivete. We drove back to what we were hoping would be a festival in progress only to drive down the same desolate street. We parked and started walking towards festival flyers we saw in storefronts. Mind you these are the same storefronts that appear closed, have covered windows and are unnamed outside. I wasn't about to stick my head into a random door with no clue what would have been waiting on the other side. We walked back to the car and headed home.

Phoenix may not know how to throw a decent street festival, but what it lacks in social outdoor events it makes up for with awesome graffiti and mural art. Below is one of my favorite graffiti style paintings and it just so happens to be located on Grand Avenue. Thanks to this artwork I wouldn't call the whole Grand Avenue Festival a wash, but it toes a might fine line.

Nice recovery

"... you have such big hands..." Insert insta-rage. Far too close to "man hands" to take it as a complement. "...with such beautiful long fingers". Smooth recovery

Arizonan Rasin

As I drink my glass of wine in my air-conditioned bungalow and watch a documentary on Death Valley where the temperature is in the triple digits 8 months out of the year and elite athletes participate in the "Badwater Ultra Marathon", a mere 135 mile race in 120+ degree weather, I feel like a big fat wimp. But darn it, it was hot this morning, or so I thought. Turns out it was about 86 degrees at 7:30. Lets be honest, it wasn't really that hot.

As I attempted my usual 6 mile run along the canal I started getting a headache around mile 1.5, the kind of dull ache that I've come to learn tends to indicate dehydration. That's when my mind went on a morbid little run all its own. What if I overheated, fell over and shriveled up like a raisin on the canal path because I was too stubborn to turn back to my car. Yeah I know, its a wee dramatic, but with the right circumstances, heat stroke/death is entirely possible. True there are a good number of runners, walkers and bicyclists that travel the canal at the same time as I do, but what if... What if I continued my run like a stubborn past athlete, overheated faster than I realized, fell over, passed out and died of heat stroke before anyone could find me. That's no way to go at the ripe age of 27. Its very likely that I wouldn't have died or even come close, but I decided to turn around none the less. What I was hoping would be a non-stop 6 miler quickly became a pitiful 4 mile run/walk.

In recent days I've heard from friends and family in other states that Fall is on its way. Fingers crossed it actually makes its way to Phoenix some time soon, a change in season may do this troubled runner, or rather lady who enjoys running, well.

Porsche sandwich

Just another day in Scottsdale for the mini.

Dreamy Draw

With yesterday's morning temperature below 100 we decided it was an ideal time to get out for a short hike at a reserve in Phoenix named Dreamy Draw. Nothing too crazy, probably somewhere around 3 miles or so, but it was nice to finally get out and enjoy a little bit of what AZ has to offer. And heck, it was only 3 miles, a perfect opportunity for a frizzy, sports bra wearing glamor shot!

Once we got to the highest point in our hike the views were quite nice.

Phoenix to the right & Scottsdale to the left.
The pictures don't do the view justice.

In addition to the views we saw an occasional spunky cactus and some animal's secret hideaway.

Perhaps one day when the tempuratures are below the mid 90s we'll attempt the 10 mile hike, but until then we're stickin with the short loops.

"Actualy a pretty nice little Saturday, we're going to Home Depot... "

With our closing right around the corner (Monday September 14th) we've been finding out just how expensive our tastes are. We checked out countertops and learned that our favorite material costs over $170/sq. ft.. (As a price reference, "standard" granite costs a mere $40/sq.ft.) After visiting 5 additional countertop stores we found two options with comparable design characteristics as our ultimate first choice. Both top two options are a good $100+ less than our "ultimate" first choice, with the current first choice looking quite similar to the "ultimate" option 1. Our final decision will be based on the cost of the countertops following a visit from our knowledgeable Ikea kitchen designer, who will take measurements of our empty kitchen and advise us on the best cabinet design layout.

With the countertop decision narrowed down we perused kitchen sinks, and kitchen faucets. The kitchen faucet I like the most just so happened to, lack a price at Home Depot, not be listed on their site and is listed on selective faucet web sites for a smidge over $500. Baby has expensive tastes. Our search continues for a reasonable, but spicy sink faucet option.

Fortunately when it comes to sinks, our tastes are pretty reasonable. Our first purchase for our kitchen, and only purchase of the weekend was an awesome new undermount, blank granite-composite sink. Not too sure what granite-composite really stands for, but it looks great and gets great reviews.

Despite not actually having the keys in our hands, our little house is ever so slightly taking shape. Stay posted!

Survivor's shuffle

Last April I ran 10 mile run at 8:20 a mile. And yes, its darn near close to my most exciting achievement and I'm darn proud of my time and accomplishment. But now, a mere 5 months later, I'm survivor shuffling at mile 4 of a 6 mile run at darn near close to 10 minute miles. What the hell?!

Sure Phoenix is about 30 degrees hotter and about 1000 ft higher above altitude than DC, but seriously this is upsetting. Its taken me 3 attempts to get up to 6 miles with today's effort proving the most successful with only two stretching stops and no walking. The salt in the wound being the usual passer-by is either a scantily clad, six pack bearing skinny woman, or a slender muscular dude. Apparently average looking runners don't venture out in the wee hours of the mornings on a Saturday.

I'll never be one of those scantily clad women (cookies taste too good to give up), but one day, hopefully in the near future, I can actually run a decent 6 mile run sans pebble rustling shuffles and stretching breaks. Go, fight, win, right?

Woowhoo!

We just heard the good word that the bank selling our casita has agreed to a reduction to the tune of $25,000 from the original asking price. Not half bad : ) There are still plenty of papers to sign and a few more hoops to jump through before closing, but hooray for such an awesome reduction! Our realtor has done an awesome job, we surely couldn't have done this without him. Three cheers for John!!

The real fun begins when we finish closing and get our hands on our new place. Anyone up for some manual labor in Phoenix?