An Arizona Cheesehead's Thoughts

Sugar Daddy, Maria and I were set to fly out at 5:30 on Friday afternoon to Vegas for my birthday trip (yeah, my birthday was in May but I'm not complaining as he was picking up the tab). Maria and I figured we should pick her up at 3:30 to make sure we get there in plenty of time. SD thought we were insane and it was way too early. In perfect traffic, her place is 15 minutes away from the airport but hey, it's Phoenix. Traffic sucks and the airport can be a mess. SD was in a meeting until almost 4 so I was freaking out. We managed to get to the airport by 4:20 and wouldn't you know it? Absolutely no line going through security so we were there way ahead of time. SD was a smug b*stard about it but I would have been just as smug if it had gone my way. We hit Vegas a few minutes late and caught a cab to Caesar's. SD made the reservation; I would have chosen a less expensive place but again, I wasn't going to complain. He was at the registration desk for freaking ever....

Steven and I went to dinner last night at Long Wong's after visting Shorty at the hospital. Steven's a regular there and the owner was all "Hey Steve, what's going on? Who's that with you?" Steven said, "That's my Mom." Owner guy said, "No! She's not old enough to be your Mom." He stopped by to talk to us a couple of time and every time he was like, "You can't be old enough." "How old are you? No, you don't look it!" I love that guy. Turns out we're the same age. Too bad he's too old for me.

Shorty was all set to go home tomorrow. Those who know me well know that this is not a topic I like to discuss so let's just say his pipes had to be in working order for him to leave the hospital and they are. I'll spare you the details. One problem, though. He can't keep food down. He had jello and pudding for lunch today and by dinner was upchucking. Right in time for my visit, too, so I have that going for me. They gave him two anti-nausea meds but until he can eat and not have it come back up, he's stuck in there. He's none too happy about it, either.

I just got a phone call from my friends Tom and Janice who are at the races in Bristol this weekend. Pretty much all I could hear was the sound of the cars going by. Awesome! I wish I were there with them to catch all the action. I have the race set to TiVo since I'm going to be in Vegas but I would gladly trade a Vegas weekend for a Bristol one. (Don't tell Sugar Daddy I said that, though, since this weekend's trip is on him.)

If you haven't had anything but water for over 4 days, don't break your fast with a Diet Pepsi. Shorty asked for, and got, one last night at the hospital. He's had heartburn ever since. That's actually the worst of his problems at the moment. Otherwise, he's doing well. Sugar Daddy and I visited him today at lunch and he's all good. He's been up for a walk, had a bath and had his bed linens changed. There have been lots of visitors and he's good about telling them when it's time to leave so he can nap so he's not getting overwhelmed.

I popped over at lunch to check on Shorty. He looked great and was pretty perky. His GP had been in at 5:15 AM (he knows Shorty will be awake) and told him he didn't look like a guy who'd had surgery the previous day. He's confident Shorty will be out before his scheduled week is over. The surgeon stopped in next. He said he took a portion about 8 inches long out. That's not very much. He also said it looked like the mass had been growing for years. Then, the guy who did his colonoscopy stopped in for a social call. We're interpreting that as he's not going to bill us. He said he likes to follow up on all of his patients which I thought was pretty nice. Wonder if he's cute and single? I need to ask... He also got a visit from the Priest from Our Lady of Perpetual Help. Busy guy for an invalid. The family and I stopped in tonight at 5 before going out to dinner. Some of our Wisconsin friends had been in and Steve and my good son, Garrison, were there as well....

Andrea came in to my office today to get the update on Shorty. My phone rang with a call I had to take so she left. A few minutes later, she came back and said "I read your blog so I'm all caught up." Later in the day, Sugar Daddy popped in to say his friend Dave was going to call me. Dave and SD have known each other for years and Dave's a doctor who has done cancer research so he wanted to talk to me about Shorty. Did SD tell him about Shorty? Nope, Dave read it on my blog. I didn't even know he was a reader. Welcome, Dave, and feel free to comment!

Shorty came through his surgery with flying colors today. The Doc said the tumor looked to be contained and he couldn't find any evidence of any other nasties in there. What a relief! Of course, it couldn't have gone down smoothly... Shorty first told me his surgery was going to be at 11:30. Then, Steven told me that's when he was supposed to get to the hospital. Then, it got moved up and he was supposed to be at the hospital at 9:30 this morning. No problem. I had it all scheduled. In to the shower at 7:45, out the door at 8:15, to my parents' by 9 and leave for the hospital at 9:15. It's 5 minutes from my parents' house so that gave us plenty of time. My phone rang at 7:40 and it was Shorty. "The hospital called and they can move the surgery up so I have to leave now." I told him, "I guess I'll see you when you wake up because I haven't even showered yet." They were at the hospital by 8 AM. I jumped in the shower and was out the doo...

Shorty's scheduled for 11 AM surgery tomorrow. He has to be at the hospital by 9:30 so we'll have a fairly long wait there, I'm guessing. He's doing better now that his brother and sister are here. They flew in last night but almost ended up in Tucson because of the storm that blew in. Their plane landed here around 10:30 and they and Shorty stayed up pretty late talking. I can tell he's really scared - who wouldn't be? But, having them here seems to keep his mind off of all the negative possibilities. The rest of us are trying not to think about them, either. It's not easy. While driving home tonight, I had to change radio stations. There have been two times in my life when I couldn't listen to country music. Once, when I got my heart broken. That was 9 years ago. The second time was when my Mom had breast cancer. You don't realize how many country songs are about heartbreak or someone dying until you're especially sensitive to those subjects. T...

Saturday morning found me heading to JC Penney's for back to school shopping with the Boy's and Girl's Club. There were 100 kids there from South Scottsdale who qualified for the program. By qualifying, I mean their families couldn't afford to buy them new clothes and supplies for the school year. Pab, Maria and I did this last year. Pab's big into the B&G Club so she got us in on the action. This year, Doona, Azure and Robby joined us. Dan Davis from Channel 3 was there as well and shopped with one of the kids. Channel 3 was filming and we somehow ended up on camera. Go figure. I didn't see it but I heard we looked good so I got that going for me. Here's how it works. You get assigned to one of the kids and they get $100 for shopping. If you want to, you can spend over the $100 out of your own pocket. That's an easy thing to do when you see how excited they are to get new clothes. My girl this year is 10 years old and goes to my old grade school so...

I got a call from my Dad (Shorty) on Tuesday morning at work. He sounded all dramatic and that's not unusual. It's often some minor thing that he's making into a big deal. Wish that it were so this time. He has colon cancer. Apparently, he'd found some blood and his digestive system wasn't acting normally. Fortunately, his GP sent him in for a colonoscopy. Unfortunately, they found a large mass. It was obvious enough that the urologist pretty much flat out told them to expect a cancer diagnosis. The test results were sent to his GP and he made an appointment for Thursday morning to go over them, pick a surgeon and get the ball rolling on treatment. I went with him to his appointment. My Mom had a cataract removed on Wednesday so Steven had to take her to a follow-up appointment so it was just me and Shorty. The only papers his GP had gotten were the biopsy results. No pictures, no description of where in the colon it was or how large. With only that much info, there...

This was our latest in the year of classics for my second book club. None of us had read it before and we all enjoyed it. I was familiar with the story - man stranded on island with only his companion called Friday. What I didn't know was that the vast majority of the book recounts the 20 some years Crusoe was alone before Friday made his appearance. In those years, he spent his time trying to create his own version of England. He had his castle, his summer home, his lands and eventually his servant in the form of Friday. None of us found him a particularly likeable character, however. He was overly preachy with the God stuff and he clearly thought he was better than Friday and the other people who made their way to the island. Yeah, there were other people. Didn't know that. I'm really glad we read this and I would recommend it as a great piece of writing for its time and a story that is part of our culture.

Anyone who doesn't believe in global warming or the negative affect we're having on our planet should read this book and see if their belief stays the same. Thom Hartman has clearly done his homework and presents a lot of research. His main point is that we're quickly using up our 'ancient sunlight' by which he means plantlife, oil, natural gas and coal mostly. The causes for this mass use is attributed to our exponential increase in population and our transition from a hunter/gatherer society to an agricultural then industrial one. He offers some solutions though they all seem rather minor. We did this for book club and I gotta say, most of us were pretty depressed after reading it. Sure, we're probably going to have enough natural resources left in our lifetime...but our kids? It's a pretty bleak picture.

One of my female friends needed a ride to work (one day only) so she asked a male co-worker who lives about a mile away if he would give her a lift. His response: "I have to ask my wife if it's OK." Um, 'kay. My friend is very happily married and has absolutely no designs on the guy so I don't get why there's an issue. His final answer: "I can't because my wife said no." WTF? Is his wife expecting they're going to do it in the car on the way into work? If they wanted to have a fling, and believe me that is so not in the realm of possibility, they could just go out on their lunch hour. Kooky.

This was just weird to me. I was at Biltmore Fashion Park (an upscale mall) tonight and noticed a bunch of people lined up on Camelback Road. Mostly women, the group all had signs and were just standing there holding the signs up. On the signs: Pink Power for Peace Stop The War ...Cindy Sheehan... (couldn't memorize it in the short time I was driving by but it was in support of her) And more anti-war, pro-peace messages Hey, I'm all for peaceful protests. But, why are they doing it at a fancy, expensive mall? I tried to find the back story on AZCentral.com but all I could find was this article .

Stacey suggested we try out a new place in Central Phoenix for dinner last week. It’s called Camus and it’s been written up in the local paper a bit. Kinda fancy-schmancy looking place where you know the staff is probably gay (which is a good sign for a restaurant in my opinion) and the prices are probably high. Both were true. I was going to teetotal it but they had sparkling wine by the glass so I had to try it. Good stuff and everyone else liked their wine selections. The wine prices weren’t too crazy, $5 and up per glass. It’s really outrageous when you consider what a bottle costs but on par with what most restaurants charge. The food was really good! The five of us tried a bunch of different appetizers, salads, main dishes and desserts and everyone was happy. Stacey fell in love with her Gnocci with Mushrooms and Maria and Chris were all over the coconut crème brule though they weren’t so fond of the raspberry flavored one. I had a pasta with shroom dish that was darn good. We we...

I was several lanes away from Wastnawa at our Parrot Head Bowling event last night so I didn't see what he did . But, I'm happy to report that I beat the Trash Talker 2 out of 3 games and took the last one from the Golf God as well. I think the beer was affecting GG at that point and I was happy to take advantage that. He's living the easy life now that his wife is pregnant and the DD for a while. Steven had his highest game ever with a 175. I averaged somewhere around 127-8 which is awful if you're a real bowler but awesome for someone who hasn't thrown a ball in 2 years (that would be me, BTW). I had a chance of a sweep against the Trash Talker but I frayed a nail in the third game which threw me off for a couple of frames. PJ loaned me a file and I did a quick repair that helped for a while but then it just all fell apart in the last four frames. I have a good excuse, though. When I got up this morning, I found a nasty blister on my middle finger. It actually hur...

So, I've been starving my fish. When I bought him the guy also sold me this betta food that comes in small round pellets. Apparently, they're too big for his little fishy mouth. He tries to eat them but can't hang on to them long enough to swallow any sustenance. I asked Tamyra for some advice and she told me she went through several different types of food with her betta so I felt a little better but I was still worried that we was going hungy.So, last night I came home around 10 and decided to break the pellets into small pieces. He went crazy! It's like he hadn't eaten for a week! (I know, I know, he hasn't.) I did the same thing this morning and he was all over that, too. Sugar Daddy and I went to PetCo after work tonight and he mentioned that he broke up some of George's food for him last night and he ate it all. I was like, what the... He acted like he hadn't had a meal in ages four hours after that. Apparently, George is a piggy fish. We came ho...

My bud Mark Mulligan was playing at the Waterfront last night. One of the first things he said to me was, "We're not staying here until 2 AM. I have to leave for California at 5 AM tomorrow morning." I said, "No 2 AM for sure because I have to go in early for an all day training class tomorrow." Then we both gave each other a 'who are we kidding?' look. See, Mark is a bad influence and I am easily influenced. We used to close down Kona Jack's when he did his gigs there (always on a school night) and one time the Waterfront staff actually asked us to leave because they wanted to go home. That was a 2 AM night...and I think it was during the week, too. Sometimes it's not even our fault at all. Despite our best intentions, there's someone else with us who makes us stay out. A lot of times, it's his brother John and it used to be Tom Hankins a lot before he abandoned us to go live on a boat. So, we agreed to leave no later than midnig...

I had to take my car back into the dealership.  It's been pulling to the left since the incident and subsequent repairs and Sugar Daddy noticed it was getting slow on turning over.  He suspected a bad battery and browbeat me into taking it in yesterday.  I didn't really want to because we had to be in to work early for a training class and I wanted to leave early to go see Mark but SD said he wouldn't come pick me up if the car wouldn't start so I figured I better get it taken care of.   Turns out they had to realign the realignment they did before, the battery was nearly shot and I had them replace my windshield wipers.  I know, wipers are easy to swap out but clearly car stuff isn't my thing.   I got the bill: alignment - no charge battery - under warranty so no charge wipers - parts only, no labor charge  carwash - free total:  $19 and change   What a deal!  New battery, wipers and a car wash for just a little more than I p...

We had a birthday celebration at work today and the planner did a mini Texas Hold 'Em Tournament for entertainment. It was fun and much better than just sitting around a table trying to think of things to talk about with your co-workers other than work. (Work talk is banned at our parties.) I was amazed at how many people not only didn't know how Hold 'Em works, they didn't even know the order of winning hands. I mean, have they been living in a cave for the past few years? You can't turn on a TV and not see some sort of poker game somewhere. That works out great for me because I love watching the game. I lasted about 3/4 through but I went all in on K-Q clubs and got nothing from the board.

The AZ Parrot Heads are having their annual bowling night this Saturday and I got an email last night that said in part "looking forward to kicking your butt at bowling". I immediately responded with trash talk of my own. Unlike golf, I actually am OK at bowling so I feel safe with the banter. It made me think, though, about our group. For the most part we're laid back and pretty mellow. For a group whose main exercise is 12 ounce curls, we really don't go at it with active sporting activities. But, bring on a football or basketball pool and we are all over it! Bowling? You bet there will be some people going for high score. After all, it's a sport where you can drink. What can be better than that? Then there's Parrot Grande with the Balcony Decorating contest and the Jello Shot Contest on the Vegas bus trips. These are all about creativity and our group shines. Not that anyone can beat the O'Malleys, ever , but folks go all out in trying to do so. It'...

I really tried to do as little productive work as possible over the weekend. Here's a recap of what I did. Movies Watched: Four. The Incredibles : mildly entertaining but barely worth the $1.99 I charged to Sugar Daddy's PPV. Agent Cody Banks: better than I expected. I can't believe they made Arnold Vosloo look so unattractive. He's on my "do in a heartbeat" list. X2: I've seen this movie over a half dozen times. Why? Four words. Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. Friday Night Lights: Awesome movie! The actors playing the kids were so authentic seeming and Tim McGraw did a great job in his acting debut. Poker Watched: Three episodes of Poker Million , a British Hold 'Em series. Yawn. Leave it to the Brits to drain all of the fun out of poker by having a bunch of stuffily dressed, boring folk play my favorite game without much emotion or energy. I think I'm done with this show. Trips to the Grocery Store: Two. One for my regular shopping and one to buy l...

I think Sugar Daddy was feeling guilty about evicting George the frog and his girlfriend so he suggested I get a fish. I've lobbied for a fish before but he told me I wouldn't clean the bowl and the fish would die so no dice. I reminded him of his opinion and he responded with, "That's still true but at least I can just throw all of it out when the fish dies." Being very familiar with SD's capriciousness, I jumped on it before he changed his mind. I headed to PetCo after work tonight and grilled the fish guy (get it? grilled the fish guy? It was purely an unintentional pun that I didn't catch until I proofed my post.) about what I need to take proper care of my new fish whose name is, of course, George. George is really pretty. He's a mostly dark blue Betta. I checked out all of the Bettas in the place and he was one of the prettiest. The clincher was when I picked up his little bowl and he kept trying to swim towards me no matter how I turned it. I...

This book by Kristin Gore (yeah, I think she's one of those Gores) is a step above Chick Lit but not a very big step. It's the tale of a young Senate staffer in D.C. and follows her personal and professional life. She falls for a bad boy to whom she feels physically addicted (who hasn't been there?) and helps her boss run for VP. Our heroine, Sammy, has more ticks than a Wisconsin woods but is still an appealing character. Her break up scene with the bad boy is priceless and the D.C. political stuff is what takes the book beyond the typical Chick Lit. It's actually entertaining, informative and pretty darn funny. I give it a thumbs up.

I can't quite believe it but I have a completely open schedule for this weekend. No club meetings, no dinners with the parents, nothing at all on the PDA. Man, it's going to be great! I'm going to read (like that's new), watch some movies, do a little (very little) housework and just plumb relax. Awesome. Of course, by the time the weekend is over, I'll have gone out several times and felt like I wasted the rest of it but for now, it sounds like it'll be good.

Congratulations! You're Gandalf! Which Lord of the Rings character and personality problem are you? brought to you by Quizilla These are pretty funny - check out all of the possible results.

I met up with the girls for lunch at Someburros yesterday. We were sitting at a table about 5 feet away from the soda machine and this man walked up to refill his drink. He was about 60, pretty heavy with a huge belly, wearing a short sleeved button down shirt about 2 sizes too big and extremely baggy Dockers. OK, got that picture in your mind? As he was standing (with his back to us), his britches started falling down. He reached behind his back to pull them up and tried, one handed, to hook them into a suspender clip. Apparently he had suspenders on under his shirt. The pants kept slipping out of his hand, though, and each time they did we were subjected to really horrifying and expansive moon shots. Stacey was the first to spot it and was trying to subtly get us to look when I happened to glance his way. My facial reaction was not at all subtle so the other girls quickly turned to look, too. It was a train wreck. We couldn't look away. He couldn't hook his pants. We saw moon...

Outlander ended with time-traveling Claire pregnant and heading to Rome with her hot, Highlands husband Jaime. (I should mention here that she's a bit of a cradle robber and my idol for that. He's only 23.) The second book in Gabaldon's series, Dragonfly in Amber , starts in 1968 with Claire and her 20 year old daughter returning to Scotland from America. WTF? Where's Jamie? What's going on? I was very cranky. Finally, she gets back to the story from 1744. Claire and Jamie are actually in Paris trying to prevent Bonnie Prince Charlie from attempting to regain the Scottish throne because Claire, knowing what happens, has told Jamie that thousands of Scotts will die in the failed attempt. We get lots of new characters and the return of the sadistic raper of men Jack Randall whom was presumed dead in Outlander . (I didn't believe it.) The couple end up back in Scotland and, well, I don't want to spoil it anymore if you're going to read it but it's good...

I got a phone call from my friend Roger with our bud Mary in the background. It went something like this: R: Are you dating anyone? K: Um, no. R: Well, rumor has it you are. Do you have a roommate for the cruise yet? K: No. I'm still looking for one. R: Oh, well I heard you were waiting to see if it works out with who you're dating before you decide on a roommate. K: I'm not dating anyone. I went to dinner with a guy about two months ago but that's it. You better check your source. R: Well, that's just what I heard. The whole time this is going on, Mary's chiming in basically saying the same stuff as Roger. Flash forward 1/2 hour when we were all together at Mary's house. K: I don't know who your source is but they're wrong. M: Maybe I just dreamt it but I swear someone told me you were dating some guy and you didn't want to tell him about the cruise because it's so far out and you didn't want to get stuck with him in case things didn...

My life is rated NC-17. What is your life rated? I got this from Pammy . It was silly but slightly amusing. I wouldn't get an X rating because of my modesty - it takes a 30 pack to get me to naked hot tub...but that's a story for another day. Maybe. Most likely maybe not.

We played round four of Chick Poker Saturday night. Chris had a sick pup at home and Becky was out of town with her boyfriend (boyfriend! that just shouldn't be allowed) so it was just me, Angela and Stacey. Morgan was there to deal for us so we decided to do a Hold 'Em Tournament with winner takes all. It was only $60, but still a Championship. Soon after starting, a definite pattern developed. Angela would lose to Stacey and Stacey would lose to me. I would then lose only a little bit back to Angela and I managed to build up a big chip stack. Stacey is too easy - she won't give up on a hand even when she has crap so if I had anything at all I went after her. We played with accelerated blinds and antes and went through several rounds, colored up once, then Stacey went out. Ang and I played a couple more hands then colored up a final time. She had only 3 $100 chips, I had 27. Easy enough to push her out, right? Damned if she didn't have the better hand EVERY time. I dou...

I came home yesterday and told Sugar Daddy that George and his girlfriend moved out. He said, "I know, I shooshed them out." Apparently, he decided that their pooping in the water was what was making it so green so he decided to rinse out their bowl. While he was rinsing with the hose, he splashed George's girlfriend and she jumped into the bushes. He then decided to get rid of George by splashing him as well. It figures. I finally get a pet and he evicts it. We negotiated for a while and a deal was struck. If they move back in they can stay as long as I clean the fountain out thoroughly when they move out for real. So, we refilled the bowl with some nice, clean water and I'm hoping they move back in tonight.

This makes me sad and I hope it's an innocent mistake.