An Arizona Cheesehead's Thoughts

My friend, Chris, loaned me the first five books in Charlaine Harris' series of Southern Vampire books. I went through the first three on the cruise and quickly finished off the last two when I got back to dry land. These are really enjoyable books. The heroine, Sookie Stackhouse, is a telepathic waitress at a neighborhood bar in small town Louisiana. She spends most of her energy trying to avoid reading other peoples' minds. When she meets a vampire she finds, to her delight, that she can't read him and finds it so soothing that she ends up dating him. The series takes her through lots of mysteries, adventures and introduces many interesting characters. Harris' books are sorta Laurell K. Hamilton lite (vampires are legal citizens, shapeshifters abound...) but with less violence (not such a bad thing) and less sex (though there is sex which is a good thing). Harris makes her world unique, though, and I don't mean to make it sound like her books are less than ...

I haven't done a book review in a long time. There's only one reason why I haven't: I've been too emotionally fragile lately to withstand the withering comments of the Jello Shot Prince on my literary choices. OK, not really. I haven't had a lot of time to read much and even less time to blog about it. But, really, it doesn't take all that long to make a post so I guess I have to go with the "I've been lazy" reason. Mary, Mary is the latest Alex Cross novel from James Patterson, one of my favorite authors. Carol loaned me her copy ages ago and I read it right away. Have I returned it yet? Nope. Despite having seen Carol or Moose a dozen times since then, I can't seem to remember to give the book back. Enough digression, here's what I thought. It's a typical Cross episode with Alex trying to solve the serial murders of Hollywood players. There were the requisite red herrings and I didn't figure out the ending ahead of time which was...

This week was night and day. A funeral on Thursday then a visit on Saturday to the latest 'keet in our phlock. Little Mira is five weeks old and cute as cute can be! Proud parents, Lime Dart and Coconut Joe, could not be more proud. They gave up their NASCAR tickets this month to take care of the baby and I'd have to say they made the right call. She's adorable! Mira's clearly a thinker. Most of her pics look like she's mentally finding fault in Einstein's theories. Lime Dart is a Matt Kenseth fan so I got Mira a little Kenseth collection at PIR. Here, she's modeling the bib. Coconut Joe is leaning towards Carl Edwards so it's going to be a Roush household. Sigh. More people to side with Grandpa... Mira and me. She was pretty content to just hang out with me for quite a while. Nothing can compare to holding a baby when they're happy (I can't wait to give them away when they're unhappy). It's just so soothing. No, it didn't make me ...

I went to another funeral service today. This time, it was for my friend Scott's Dad. Scott and I have known each other since grade school. He was a later in life baby so his parents are older than mine and his Dad was 81 when he passed away. Ironically, Scott's wife and I told each other at Mom O'Malley's service that we needed to get together at some other time than weddings and funerals. We were so right. Two funerals in a month's time really makes you think about touching base with old friends sooner rather than later. I'm in the generation where our parents are getting older and I'm afraid these events are going to happen more frequently. I'm also in the generation where some of us are still getting married and having kids (and some are having Grandkids, thank goodness that's not me) so we're surrounded by the circle of life. Scott's Dad had a very full life and, while there was a lot of sadness, there was joy in celebrating his life and...

My parents hosted lunch today for some friends of ours from Wisconsin. One of the guests was my childhood baby-sitter, Lize. There are lots of ties that bind us together. Shorty worked for Lize's Uncles at their car dealership in our small town. He used to drive her Grandma and me to St. Mary's every morning. Grandma to Daily Mass, me to grade school. (Three years of Catholic grade school left me with an almost freakish need to follow the rules and incredible guilt when I don't. Thank God, (and I get the irony in that) that I didn't go all 8 years!) Lize went camping with us every weekend in the summer. She'd head down the street with her suitcase on Friday afternoon (once, a neighbor called her Mom because she was afraid Lize was running away) and off we'd go in our current trailer to various Wisconsin lakes and campgrounds. I think I got my fish bone phobia from her. We would do Friday fish frys and, while we would willingly eat frog legs, the fish was just un...

You Are 36% Evil A bit of evil lurks in your heart, but you hide it well. In some ways, you are the most dangerous kind of evil. How Evil Are You? Lifted this from El Capitan .

I accepted it when 24 killed off David Palmer. It was integral to the storyline and set the wheels in motion for the season. I accepted it (with a semi-broken heart) that they blew Tony up, kept him in a coma for weeks (technically, I guess I should say hours) only to kill him off right after he woke up. I accepted it when they killed Edgar even though he was one of my favorite characters. It was a great TV moment. I've accepted it so far that they haven't killed off Kim even though she is the lamest character ever. However, if they kill off Aaron, I'm going to.....well, I guess there's nothing I can do since it's a fictional show and all but I will be darned mad! Aaron is the one true "hero" on the show. He puts his life on the line, follows orders but not blindly and was extremely devoted to David Palmer. He's even managed to resist the siren call of the First Lady. He's just a good guy! Come on 24 writers, please leave me one guy on the show th...

Me in front of Jimmie's merchandise hauler. Isn't he just the cutest? Gosh, what a fun weekend. I'm still recovering from lack of sleep but it was well worth it! Grandpa and I got to the track late Thursday afternoon. It was pretty convenient that we already had the RV there and set up. All I had to do was get my suitcase and laptop out of the car and we were good to go. Within minutes of getting there, I had the laptop up and running and looking for a wireless connection of any sort. I was hoping...but, no luck. It's funny how much Grandpa and I have in common. I told him he was to NASCAR like I am to Parrot Heads. He ran into people he knew right and left which is what usually happens to me. He's also a putzer. On Friday and Saturday mornings, he was gracious enough to offer to go for a bike ride to give me privacy while I showered and got ready. However, he couldn't just leave right away. He had to unlock his bike, then get his hat, then grab his sunglasses....

We now interrupt our regularly scheduled Parrot Head activities to move to Gear Head world. I'm so excited! We took the RV out to PIR last night. Man, there were already like a gazillion people out there. We were luck to find a spot, in fact. Our neighbor there said he'd been there since Saturday. We didn't get out there until almost 9 PM and I was beat from only getting a few hours sleep post-concert so I just wanted to jump back in the car and head home. But, we had to set up first. I should say, Grandpa had to set up. I just stood and watched for the most part. He was all "Mr. RV" and explained to me why he'd like to have hydraulic shocks and whatnot that I didn't pay attention to. To straighten it out, he had to put various sized boards under a couple of tires and drive up on them. He was so excited when he was done you'd have thought he actually won the Cup race. Then, it was turn on the water and put the screen over the front window and have a be...

First off, I just gotta say, "The parking lot at Cricket was so frakking fun!" We got there just at the right time to park behind the Bonds' motorhome and it was the perfect spot in the action. Guess I should be happy that Grandpa's meeting at work ran late...not that I was happy at the time. Steven was loving watching me fret about getting there late (like 3:15 PM instead of 3 PM for an 8 PM concert is late). It's that OCD thing combined with a huge fear of missing anything fun. We (and by we, I mean everyone else as I was the Princess again, somehow) got everything set up before Steven and I took off to hand out event badges to people. We worked the whole row of cars and trucks before I handed the rest of the badges over to the Membership Chair to distribute. It wasn't easy picking our people out of the crowd - this is the only event where a Hawaiian shirt isn't a good indicator that you know the person wearing it. I got to meet a LOT of people, in betwe...

Taurus ***** Relate to and work with each individual as if he or she is the most important person in your life at that moment. Tonight: Relax to good music. Sounds prophetic when you consider that I'm going to spend the afternoon in the Cricket Pavilion parking lot trying to meet every Parrot Head there before going to the Jimmy Buffett concert.

I dropped my tax forms in the mail this morning feeling pretty good about not having to rush out tonight and find an open post office. I always wait until the last minute to file, for some crazy reason. One problem. I owe the IRS some dinero...and I didn't put my check in the envelope. Doh! What a dope!

I've frequently thought that my life could make a good reality TV show. I know lots of interesting characters, am one myself in fact, and seem to have a lot of escapades. (That's the word Grandpa used last week to describe my activities and I thought it was pretty accurate.) If we had filmed the pilot at Friday night's Chick Poker, the networks would be clamoring at my door offering me obscene piles of money to make a deal. It was just that entertaining. The groups is always talking about what's going to make it into the blog but the reality is there's just too much material to retain and report on. Picture five women talking nonstop about men, sex acts, sex toys, phone sex (sensing a theme, here?), male and female body parts and biological functions with some politics, books, wine, food and music topics thrown in for good measure. It's kinda like Sex in the City only bawdier. We also have an audience in our male dealer, Morgan, who's married to one of us. ...

Norene sent this to me. I scored: 94% Avg Error of 15 Miles and finished in 472 seconds. I should have expected it to be timed - I'm disappointed in how long it took me to finish.

I just got home from a prescreening of the movie, HOOT . The book was written by one of my favorite authors, Carl Hiassen, and Jimmy Buffett optioned it for a movie a while back. The movie was pretty good and will appeal to all ages. I sat next to some girls that looked to be about 8 and they were really into it. On the other side of me were big kids in their 50s and they appeared to enjoy it just as much. Kin Shriner, Scotty of General Hospital fame, had a cameo. When did he get so old? The show was broadcast to 40 movie theaters across the country then they did a live Q&A with Buffett, Hiassen, director/screenwriter Wil Shriner, producer Frank Marshall and two of the teenage actors from the film. Buffett closed out the evening by playing three tunes with Mac and Ralph. It was all very cool. The live part was from Irvine and our friends from the Orange County Parrot Head Club were front and center. It was totally neat to be able to say, "Hey, there's Sean and Paula!"...

I spent a few (more like 5) hours at Julio G's last night to hand out concert tickets. Originally, I said I'd be there from 6 to 8 but then a guy begged me to show up at 5. So, I did but he had to buy me a beer. Cheap Bastard (who's not really cheap at all) bought me a couple, The Jello Shot Prince another...I had so many Miller Lites coming my way that I even turned some down. Yes, Hell has apparently frozen over. I don't know if they were buying as a thank you for handling the tickets or out of pity for having to handle the tickets or if it was just for being me, the Princess. Regardless, it was good to be me last night.

Here's something that could happen. You could manually add emphasis to a word in your blog's post title. But instead, of typing 24 , you could leave the / out of the last part. (Ignore the 'then's in that example...) What could then happen is you get 24 in italics but you also get your entire blog in italics. See the "/" indicates an end tag to stop the special formatting. Not a good thing to forget. What could also then happen is you obsess over it for 20 minutes, republish the post repeatedly then try to convince yourself that maybe it's the browser on your laptop and that you need to check it at work the next day because it's 11 PM and you're tired. Why you accept the browser theory when it doesn't make much sense is that it's late and you know computers and technology can be evil. And then what could happen is just before you go to sleep, you think "Hey, I bet it's the end tag on the title." That thought could then be...

I've faithfully watched 24 since it started. I've ignored all of the computer crap that just doesn't make sense to anyone in a technical field, I've suffered through all of the Kim scenes (could they just kill her already?!), I've ignored the fact that they get from one side of LA to the other in mere minutes and continually violate a real timeline and, oh, the plot holes! How I try to ignore them as much as possible! But, I'm able to suspend disbelief and enjoy the show...for the most part. But, I admit to one problem with watching the show. Every scene with DB Woodside in it takes me completely out of the story because all I can think is "Take your shirt off, DB." I think it's a throwback to when we was on Buffy but, damn, he's just that hot. Clearly, I need a date. ;-)

Latest theory on Shorty's issues: suspected ulcer. Stay tuned. Steven's ankle: Physical therapy is helping a lot. X-Rays looked good. The cute doc wants him to get orthotics to help make his foot roll the right way when walking. Cute doc: Ran an hour behind schedule yesterday so no time for chit chat. If his personal schedule is anything like his work schedule, the fantasy is dead. As anyone who's dated me (and has an ounce of sensitivity which actually drops a few out of this bucket) knows, I can't stand lateness. Back when I was first dating Grandpa (and to clarify for those who care, I'm not anymore) he showed up late at the bar we were meeting at. I gave him hell but then I made the mistake of giving him an out which was "it's OK if you're running late but you have to call me and let me know." So, that's pretty much how it went from that point forward. We'd set a time and he would be late but he would call. The next guy I d...

I'm carving out a small slice of time here to say I will probably be light in the blogging department for the next week. I have no one to blame but myself but I've managed to become booked up beyond belief. Here's my schedule starting with last Friday: Friday - work, house concert Saturday - couple of hours of club stuff, club happy hour Sunday - more club work in the AM, trip to Casa Grande to meet with the hotel on our annual club party weekend, back to Tempe for a trip to the grocery store and to fast forward through the race (nice job, Jimmie, on finishing 11th after being two laps down) then over to some friends for dinner Monday - work, meet up with our Corona Rep, go with Steven to the cute doctor's and dinner with Doona Tuesday - working late to make up for leaving early later in the week Wednesday - work then hanging out a Julio G's to hand out concert tickets Thursday - work, leaving early to catch pre-screen of HOOT with a live broadcast of interviews wit...

Lifted this from El Capitan . Despite being from Milwaukee, I was never a PBR drinker...I don't even own a trucker's cap. Pabst Blue Ribbon ( 33 % dark & bitter, 66 % working class, 66 % genuine) Oh, Pabst, beer of barbeques, beer of youth, beer of liberty! In my care-free days, Pabst was my drink of choice. I made most of my best friends over cans of this stuff and made many of my first kisses with it on my lips (and breath...uhg). Yeah, Pabst doesn't exactly have the most refined taste going, and my guess is the same can be said for you. I'm not saying you or Pabst is anything short of awesome. Just that you both appreciate a good dirty joke. (Can a beer be said to appreciate a joke? You know what I mean.) You have an outgoing personality. You like a good time, and you often create one just by being around. But unlike many popular people, there's a lot of substance to you: you scored quite highly on the "genuine" part of the test. Pabst is for real...

Your Quirk Factor: 47% You're a pretty quirky person, but you're just normal enough to hide it. Congratulations - you've fooled other people into thinking you're just like them! How Quirky Are You? They didn't ask about nervous tics, obsessive behavior and the like so I come out fairly normal. Lifted from Pammy .

To sum up the evening in one word: Awesome! This was the first Blues house concert at Jeanne and John's and it was superb. Joe Price is from Iowa. I know a guy from Iowa who's the epitome of corn fed, happy go lucky, farm boy and I thought that was pretty much how everyone was and who could get the blues surrounded by folks like that? Apparently, Joe can because he gets the blues. Not only was he an awesome picker, he used his feet as percussion. He was either slapping, stomping or sliding as the song required and it was amazing watching him do it all. He was joined by his truly lovely wife, Vicki, for several songs and they were great together. They sounded good and they just looked so happy and adorably in love. They've been together for 25 years and told me it's not an act, they really are that happy. After the show, some of us hung out and Joe asked Sam "The Ukulele Rocketman" Rainwater to play a couple of songs on his uke. You don't have to ask Sam ...

I had a house concert to go to last night so I took part of my old drive home to get there. It's the 143 to to the 10 towards the SE valley. Man, all that merging and stop and go made me love my nice commute even more. I had to laugh at myself for being so cranky about it - it was actually a pretty good trip for that time of night. I don't think I can ever go back to living more than 20 minutes away from work.

I happened to glance at a bumper sticker in front of me that looked to be just your typical political type. It was done up in red, white and blue and had a star and stripes on it. Then I read it and realized what it said. Republicans for Voldemort It made me laugh out loud.

Did someone get the license plate number of the truck that hit me? I'm not sure what was ailing me...I don't think I've been exposed to any tse-tse flies but I have had some sort of sleeping sickness. I went out for dinner with a friend on Wednesday. No big party night or anything and was asleep between 11 and 12. That's not unusual for me. Woke up at 5 and felt like utter crap. Headache, muscle aches, stomach not quite queasy but not quite right and still very, tired. I tried to sleep it off until 7:45 but actually felt worse then. Unlike Shorty, I've learned to call in to work when I'm under the weather so I left a VM for my boss, called in an update to a guy holding a meeting I was supposed to be in and went back to bed...until 12:45. I followed my few hours of uptime with a two hour nap at 3 and was back in bed by 8:30 or so until 6 AM this morning. I'm not even going to do the math on how much sleep that was. I feel much better today. I can only guess a...

All of his heart tests were negative with one still to be read. He's got an appointment with his GP on Monday. My guess is the symptons are stress induced. I told him not to go to work tomorrow and Steven had told him the same thing. He may listen to us but I bet he's back at work on Friday. You can't even beat common sense into him.

It's definitely not a good thing when going to the hospital seems routine to you... If we had a sign that says "___ of days since a Pfister was in the hospital", the number would have been set back to zero since Shorty checked in to Scottsdale Osborn today. Here's the scoop. He started feeling sweaty and had a tightness in his chest at work this morning starting around 6:30 AM. He actually felt bad enough that he scheduled an appointment with his GP for 2:30 this afternoon. Now, your average person who felt sick enough to make a same day doc appointment would probably go home and not stay at work. Shorty's never been average, though. He worked until he started sweating through his clothes then one of his co-workers drove him to the emergency room around noon. When an old guy with chest pains comes into an emergency room, he gets instant service. They had him hooked up to stuff ASAP and an ER cardio guy checking him. Steven called me at this point to let me know wh...

The Memorial Service for Mom O'Malley was Saturday. I think the Babes did most of the prep work and Mom would have been very happy with it. They talked about her life and included some funny anecdotes. Her grandson, Seth, and one of her son-in-laws talked about her and they had a slide show of some pictures through the years. Mary even told Mom's favorite joke; one that she had insisted on telling the nurse at Hospice the day before she passed away. Being the over-achievers that they are, the Babes had the perfect memento to give people. They had custom poker chips made with Mom's info on them. She would have loved that! Afterwards, we all went over to Julio G's for some beer, margaritas and munchies. I did a lot of introducing and explaining of who everyone was. It was sort of a 'worlds colliding' event since I've known the Babes since high school and there were lots of people from that era there along with the newer Parrot Head friends. There were even som...