Viva Vegas Part I

I picked up Jonathan from work as early as he'd let me Friday afternoon and by 12:30 we were on our way to the city of sin.  Despite the occasional stop and go of US 60 (thanks to traffic lights) we were excited to be on the road until Jonathan turned down the radio to better hear the click, click click of what we were hoping, against all likely odds, was a rock.  Nope, as expected, this is what we found.  Such a lovely roofing nail, don't you agree?

Karma was certainly on our side because about 1/8th of a mile up the road we pulled into a Walmart Super Center, complete with tire center and an awesome tire guy.  Initially, due to the location of the nail and its perceived size, he was skeptical the tire could be repaired.  But after a little consideration, and perhaps some empathy for our situation, he decided to give it a shot.  He was hands down the hero of our day!  It only took him about 20 minutes to get the Mini on the lift, repair the tire and send us on our way, happy as little clams! Spending $10 was a heck of a lot nicer start to the trip than a $100+ special order tire.

About an hour later, just a few miles outside the center of Wickenburg we came across our second trip acquisition.  His name is Carl, and he is our welcoming Tiki to be placed in our urbanite walkway.  Despite all of the awesome tiki's this guy created Carl (whom we named, not the artist) is the ideal size, shape and image for our front walkway.  Carl doesn't make an appearance in this post, but will surely be seen during the walkway progress.

Anywho, back on the road we go. I hadn't expected the drive to be as hilly or as much of a climb in elevation but the Mini definitely got a workout.  Along our drive we enjoyed the Joshua tree scenic highway with the most Joshua trees I've ever seen in my entire life.Hence the highway's name.  I still cannot picture, even with squinted eyes, through a bug covered windshield how the person who named the trees saw a man reaching up to Jesus.  Perhaps this guys should have carried a little more water with him because he was clearly delirious. Strangely enough as soon as the Joshua trees dissipated the landscape became thick with Saguaros and scrubs with not one Joshua tree in site.

Nearing Vegas we drove over the new Hoover Dam bridge which was much appreciated for its convenience but greatly lacking in its scenic view, most likely for safety reasons.  I suppose that's what you get for driving a car commonly compared to that of the Flintstones. (Our return to the Hoover Dam will be discussed in Viva Vegas Part II).

After about 6 hours of driving we finally made it to Las Vegas!  I can't say the town is really the grandest site to see during the day, but alas we had arrived.  We met up with the Hupps, checked in, then headed up to our room on the 27th floor of the MGM Grand for a quick drop off of our bags before we made our way to dinner.  We enjoyed a fabulous seafood dinner then made a mad dash to see Steve Martin and his blue grass band.  However, it was only after we had arrived to the concert location that we learned the add at the MGM and the person who sold us the tickets was mistaken about the start time, which turned out to be an hour before we got there.  No worries, we're in Vegas, plenty to do. Refunded and ready to go we headed out to the strip and walked around for a bit.  We didn't stay out too long seeing that it was a good 50 degrees outside with a wind chill of just above freezing.  Ok, not literally just above freezing, but a 20 degree drop having come from Phoenix was pretty uncomfortable for this fragile flower.

While waiting in line to catch a cab back to the MGM we chatted with a birthday girl who was kind enough to offer Jonathan's mom some of her drink.  How sweet.  My favorite part of the conversation was when she mentioned that she could no longer taste the alcohol which we were currently getting a contact buzz from.  I guess something has to keep you warm when you're half naked and its below 50 degrees : )

Day two to come shortly...

From Cravings to Construction

I've had a hankering for tacos for a while now so this past Saturday evening we went out with friends to try  Gallo Blanco.  The restaurant resides in first floor of a retro styled hotel named the Clarendon in mid town Phoenix and unfortunately I think they've spent more time/effort on their style than their food or their staff hiring.  Drinks were ok despite a difficult to track down bartender, and overall the food was good, not great but good. I'm pretty sure our presence was somehow inconveniencing the staff by the way they semi rushed us through the ordering processes and never once checked up on us.  But enough complaining, we had a great night out with friends and despite Jonathan eating 3/4 of the fish taco I ordered, my taco craving was satiated.

                                                              Sunday it was back to work in the front yard where we spent a few hours constructing the Urbanite walkway.  We managed to finish covering the drainage pipe last weekend (hooray!!) as well as install the pathway's metal edging and plant the walkway's Queen Victoria Agave accents.  Having laid out some recycled concrete blocks last week, just to check out the eventual finished product, we had all the supplies we needed to start the hardest part of the job, leveling and placement.  Before each massive chunk of concrete can be placed we have to dig about 2-4 inches of the hardest, rockiest dirt imaginable.  Pick axe, then shovel then occasionally refill makes for slow going progress. To add to the joy, not all of the blocks have the same thickness.
 

  

After placing quiet a few blocks we poured in a few bags of sand/cement/grout between the spaces, added water and ta-da!! we have the start of our walkway. We certainly have a long way to go, but with our new confidence and established construction pattern, the completion of the next 11/12ths will move right along.

Rude attire

Pregnancy is beautiful, unless you look preggers and your not.  After a few run ins with mirrors and even a video conference camera I've come to realize that my shirt has me shopping in the maternity isle even though I don't belong there.

The fabric itself is likely the first offender.  A light cotton blend sans structure is bound to hit and stop on places on the body where you don't want fabric getting stuck. Include an empire waist with a ribbon tied in the back that doesn't stay up where it should, and bad is now progressing to worse.  The ribbon tied in back causes the sides to slump a bit causing a perception that there is something under the font of the shirt lifting the shirt up and out.  The grand finally is the back of the shirt.  Because of the fabric weight and length it catches and semi bunches right at the top of my butt giving me the sway back appearance again as if I'm supporting a little buddy in front of me.

As tragic as this shirt sounds, I sill like it, however perhaps it will best serve it purpose under a blazer or sweater of some sort.  

Rainy day adventures

Not being keen on working in the rain Jonathan and I spent this past cold and rainy Saturday spring cleaning, painting and waiting to go bowl.  8:30 on the dot we loaded into the 4x2, the affectionate name for our friend's Jeep Cheroke, and made our way to Let it Roll.  Unlike the near desolate, 80s music bumpin, innocence of our last bowling trip, this time we were greeted by some chest thumping Snoop and a sea of people who opted for bowling instead the club.  Not having a reservation we were told our chances might be slim for a lane so we decided to take a seat and wait it out for a bit.

About 20 minutes into our pitcher of Stella we were called to our lane. Getting the bowling party started Matt transformed himself into Mr. Mustachio, with an artful application of a little shoe polish. Classy!  We rolled to The Chronic, a little Dre, a dash of Eminem, and paused mid way through our game, with the rest of the bowling alley, to judge a "Duggy" dance off.  Alternating girls then guys a small crowed dance-challenged each other eventually giving way to the crowds overwhelming support of the superior male dancers.  Talk about living in a bubble, when the DJ announced the Duggy I felt like a white person played by Dave Chappell.  "The Duggy, golly gee, what's that"?

Different music, very different crowed, still a great time had by all.  Jane rocked out both games with some fantastic rolls, even beating Mr. Mustashio in round 1. When it came time for the speed roll Caleb was hands down the man of evening, sending that ball flying down the lane at over 20 mph!
                                                                                                           

Sunday I got up for a run before we drove north to age restricted, Sun City to pick up some white rock, and of course snap a few pictures.  Sun city is the original retirement community in Arizona and boy oh boy does its green painted rock still show it!.  We managed to snag an entire truck load of stone and despite its current muddy condition we're confident it will serve our walk way well.

Once home we got to work on finishing the setup of the drainage pipe and were delighted when it successfully drained into the back yard.  Filling in the trench required the sifting of our remaining rock to prevent hole plugging dirt and debris from affecting the pipe's drainage.  For the remainder of the day we again shoveled dirt and rock until we could take it no longer.  On the cusp of calling it a day, we were gifted with a lemon tree from friends down the street, so we pulled together our remaining energy dutifully planted our little citrus. Then we called it a day for real.

                                                                                                                                              

         

Yet another Sunday

A beautiful morning + newly reinstated health insurance = time for a 25 mile bike ride before we started our yard work. All was well until about 6 miles from home when Jonathan smashed into a chunk of asphalt with his bike tire. Insert familiar sputter and hiss of a flat tire.  After I disposed of the old tube and was returning to Jonathan's bike repair location I heard a not so comforting tube explosion. Apparently during the attempted inflation the tube jumped the rims causing a blowout. To add to the comedy of errors, the tube I had for back up wasn't the proper size and would do Jonathan no good.

Confident that on this morning Jonathan would make the ride home faster than I, he headed off on my bike to pick up the car while I sat with his broken ride in the pool parking lot of a hoity-toity private prep school. Entertainment during my wait was provided courtesy of a few dedicated swimmers. First a 2010 Mercedes SLK pulled in and parked.  The stylish driver attempted to enter the pool area, then upon reaching locked gates approached me to ask if I knew if the pool would be open today.  "Not sure, I don't live around here" I responded, to which she walked back towards the still locked gate.  Shortly there after an equally lovely 2009 Porsche Cayman S parked alongside the SLK in the completely empty parking lot. Mid conversation between the two drivers, a brand new 5 Series BMW pulled into the parking lot.  Yet another swimmer equally defeated upon figuring out the gate was locked.

Desperation had apparently set in, because when I looked towards the pool fence I noticed that, with some assistance from her trusty friend, the SLK driver was now sitting on the fence attempting a pool break-in.   Desperate times call for desperate measures indeed.  About a minute or two later I saw that the fence hopper had thought better of the situation and was back on the appropriate side of the fence.

Defeated, and with no life guards in sight they disband and drove off.  It wasn't until I was again alone in the lot that I realized during a good 4o minutes of mini drama no one had even bothered to ask the single female sitting next to her noticeably out of commission road bike which sat upside down sans a front tire, if she was ok and/or needed any assistance. Oh humanity, how you continue to entertain.

Back home we enjoyed breakfast, headed down the street to assist some friends equally consumed with home improvement tasks, then returned home to again work on the front yard. I started by tamping the west side dirt into a darn near perfect grade while Jonathan worked at removing a portion of block in our fence which would allow the front yard drainage pipe to drain into the back yard.  With the hole created we started the task of arranging the pipe so that it would drain from the front to the back. Something that should have been easy was of course, not quite so.  As we kept raising the pipe to maintain a decline towards the backyard we realized our current set up wasn't going to work. In order to keep our existing grade, and utilize the drainage pipe successfully we needed to lower the end point of the pipe. Luckily our friends down the street still had their rented jack hammer. 

 Taking turns we worked at funny angles to jack hammer a hole in the concrete footer to meet the needs of our drainage pipe. Thanks to the jack hammer we were able to create the hole in about 10-15 minutes flat.  Now that the drainage end of the pipe is so much lower we'll need to continue to dig out a good portion of the trench to maintain a steady decline towards the back. Today's pipe arrangement was a bit of a set back in our progress, but now that we've solved the issue, we'll continue making progress through out the week.

Did I mention this kind of dirty work?

Supervisor Toby get his paws dirty

About three months back we hauled 3 truck loads of free dirt from down the street and mounded it in our back yard, knowing one day it would serve us well.  Today was that day.  Using said dirt we filled in the massive void that was the west side of our house. Due to erosion or previous owner actions the dirt was so low on the west side that the foundation was almost fully exposed. We still have to tamp down (compress) the dirt and grade it slightly away from the house, but that's for tomorrow.

In addition to dirt shoveling we also planted our first and only front yard tree.  Jonathan found a great Mexican fan palm at Lowes at nearly a quarter the cost of what any nursery in town had to offer.  For those not too familiar with palms, the Mexican fan palm has a somewhat skinny trunk compared to the California fan palm which has a very large, wide trunk.  Both have fronds that are wide and fan like opposed to date palms which are long and narrow.  Lets just say if you've seen a palm tree on a Corona commercial, its likely the one we now have in our front yard.  Our little tree is supposed to grow pretty quickly, but even at its current height brings a great splash of color and movement to our desolate landscape-in-progress.

Here you can see Mr. Toby assisting Jonathan in the staking of the tree which is meant to provide a little stability during its first few days which are expected to be a bit windy.

Publish Post

 

Appointment etiquette

As delighted as I am to be included in this Save the Date via multiple billboards along my commute to work, its really quite rude that they do not list the meeting location! What, they want me to use the interwebs to find the location?  Isn't the Internet the devil's technical playground?

Hammer time

 Jonathan + jack hammer rental = what I came I came home to last Wednesday.  This strategically created rubble used to serve as a solid concrete path that formed a "Y" from the back patio to the back gate on the left and the shed on the right.

Mid day Thursday Jonathan finished his jack hammering and started mapping out the trench for our front yard retraining wall.  From walkway to retaining wall, the Caetano-Hupp household  takes recycling seriously!








Mid morning Sunday we tossed the last shovel of dirt from the trench, then poured in a good 600 lbs of sand in to help in the leveling of the blocks. Using the dolly we transported two blocks at a time from the back to front yard and attempted to start laying the initial level. Turns out leveling these beasty 70+ pound blocks isn't as simple as hopped.  Time to think this over and possibly figure out a new approach.

With a little research and ingenuity Jonathan figured out another approach for the wall. Instead of laying the blocks in two layers he turned the blocks upright against one of the walls of the trench. Tadaa!  In just two days time Jonathan placed all of the wall stones and the drainage pipe, which will move water away from the wall towards the back yard.

The wall is not complete, but pretty darn close, and its looking great.  Little fill here, little rock placement there and our retaining wall will be in business.

Supervisor Jackson approves!

Oh, and by the way, as of this Tuesday our red rock piles is completely gone!  Hooray for free resource scavengers!

Good ink gone bad

This is apparently what happens when you have to go into work early, pens attack.

All dried up

This past week certainly felt more like a week and a half.  I started last week at the bottom of the karma wheel with a bout of food poisoning starting in the wee hours of Sunday morning and lasting through Monday.  No details needed but I think I can honestly say I was only awake for about 7 out of 48 hours.

Can art. Theme was ending hunger.

As the week went on, my karma took its sweet time improving.  Tuesday, on my way to work I pulled over to heed the low tire pressure my car was indicating and came face to face with a lovely screw stabbing my front, driver side, tire. Lovely.  Later that evening we took off the flat tire and mounted the donut, and slowly maneuvered our way to Costco to order 4 new tires. I was in need of tires anyway, so no worries, simply let the bad times roll off my back because my luck will undoubtedly improve, right?

Tron bike made from beans. Ironic?

Not so much.  The karma gods were enjoying a mighty hardy chuckle when on Wednesday morning at 5:50 AM I managed to get three toes stuck under the back door while letting Jackson back inside.  How does one get their toes stuck under the door you ask?  I can't be too sure, since it happened so quickly; however, I'm pretty sure it was a wicked combo of two thoughts, move foot and move door, and only one synapse firing.  Needless to say the door moved, leaving the toes to get sucked under in a merciless toe vacuum. With Toby observing me quite intently I managed to maneuver two out before calling Jonathan who kindly, despite my weakest efforts to discourage, gave the door a quick push releasing my slightly mangled toe.  Despite a bit of toe pain, the situation was far too bizarrely entertaining not to laugh about.  Happy mid-week.

Thankfully Thursday and Friday went off without a hitch paving the way to a pretty darn good weekend.  Saturday morning we visited the Scottsdale Art Festival, enjoying on going live music performances, artist's booths and eventually making a purchase from an artist (Chris Vance) who drove down from Des Moines, ID.  For lunch we both enjoyed delicious food from two popular Phoenix food trucks.  I had some tasty lumpia (Filipino deliciousness) from Hey Joe, and Jonathan enjoyed a delicious dog from Short Leash.  The food trucks park in various parts of Phoenix during the week and can usually be found down town for first Fridays and at the farmers market on Saturday.  Their fare is definitely worth making the trip down town.  After the festival we again took on the task of moving the rock river.  This section of the river was possibly the worst phase since who ever put the rock in this section went a little over zealous with rock installation.  Jonathan finished up the day by pick axing the boarders of the river to reveal even more hidden rocks. The fun never ends.













Sunday morning we finally finished removing our blasted rock river. Wheel barrel load after load we trucked the rock to our back yard, which has now become a little reminiscent of a landscaper supply store.  Just  when we were about to shower off the layers of sweat and dust we had both accumulated our first craigslist responder arrived to take some of our red rock. As much as we both wanted to take a break, helping this lady in her tight jeans and tiny tank top proved much more to our advantage than letting her work alone.  What we accomplished in a good 20 minutes of solid shoveling may likely have taken her hours to shovel.  We're quite delighted that people have actually been stopping by to take from the massive pile since the more we can give away, the less we have to pay to get hauled off.

Progress from this weekend continued today with Jonathan staking out the front yard in prep for the small retaining wall that we'll construct along one side of the house.  This weekend we will likely be driving all about the state to check out rock colors, sizes and styles, as well as retraining wall construction materials. The completion of the front yard isn't quite within reach, but the continuing progress has been very exciting indeed!