An Arizona Cheesehead's Thoughts

To hear Steven tell it, he's a poker genius who ranks right up there with Hellmuth , Brunson and Chan. I'm always hearing about him taking his friends' money in their home games and how good he is playing online. So, I asked him if he wanted to play in the boys game on Saturday night. He must have been bored because he said yes. We had ten players and you get to pick your table and spot based on your arrival time. I picked a spot where I could see the TV (for the ASU game - Go Devils!) and play with Pirate Rick. Steven sat at the other table. When I mentioned that I suspected he would do so, he said, "Do you want me to sit over there and take your chips?" As if. I now have two poker hands that I never want to see again. Pocket Aces and flopped Trips. Both frakked me up as I lost them every time. My chip stack was going down and Steven's was going up fairly quickly. He kept looking over to check and smirk but wisely didn't say anything. Next t...

From the journals of Cow... Hello there! I'm the new Cow in town. My cousin Cindy lives in Iowa now with Kathy's friend Rhett. I came to live with Kathy when her Mom found me in Wisconsin. I'm really excited that we're going to Las Vegas. I've heard so many things about Sin City. Things that I would never have seen back on the farm! I'm helping Kathy pack the gift bags for the winners in the Jello Shot contest. It seems like a silly thing to do. Combine Jello and alcohol and other unique ingredients and see who makes the best ones. Then, you give the winners more alcohol. Like they need it. We've been listening to Rush all week. Something about a quid pro quo for someone else listening to Trop Rock. It's OK music...but no Buffett. That guy is really fun to listen to though I've noticed a lot of his songs are about alcohol, too. I am beginning to sense a theme for the weekend. Cindy had to travel in Kathy's purse to Utah but I get stuffed into h...

A bunch of us from the Arizona Parrot Head Club went to see Jimmy Buffett in Vegas at the MGM on the 20th. The show was typical Buffett but there were two things missing. The first was what I call the true Parrrot Head song. Buffett often will play one song in each show that's only known by the folks who are really into his music. I remember one year in Vegas when he did Hotel Room . I had it on my answering machine at the time so I thought it was really cool. The other thing missing was Jake. Jake as in Jake Shimabukuro , extraordinary ukulele player. Oh, Jake was there and he and Robert Greenidge played an incredible duet which I watched through Finnegan's binoculars. Oddly enough, I didn't look at Robert at all. That Jake is so yummy. Frankly, I just wanted more Jake. Jake on every song, in fact. Despite not having enough Jake, it was a good show.

I hosted the latest book club and picked The World Without Us by Alan Weisman. I'd seen some reviews and it looked interesting. The gist of it is Weisman looks at what would happen to the Earth if all humans were suddenly removed from the planet. He uses specific examples to make the abstract seem real: New York City, the oil refineries of Houston, the Chunnel, Panama Canal and two locales that really brought it home, Tucson and the Palo Verde nuclear plant here in Phoenix. I found the book fascinating but also depressing and hopeful. Depressing in that we've really mucked up our planet. Hopeful that it may recover given enough time. Of course, that would require either the elimination of our species or some incredible efforts on our part to decrease our negative impact.

Jimmie Johnson won today at Atlanta. He's now behind Jeff Gordon by 9 points in the Championship chase with three races to go. The win was cool - but not as cool as something else Jimmie did. He donated his winnings to the American Red Cross for the folks affected by the fires in San Diego. Several people matched his donation...Hendrick Motorsports, Lowe's and Bruton Smith (the owner of the Atlanta racetrack). The total should come to over $1,000,000. Just another reason why Jimmie's my favorite driver.

The Sting are going to play in 2008! NATIONAL LACROSSE LEAGUE ANNOUNCES NEWSEVEN-YEAR COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT GLENDALE, ARIZONA --- The National Lacrosse League (NLL) has announced the reaching of a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with the Professional Lacrosse Player's Association (PLPA). The agreement is a seven-year term that begins in 2008 and runs through the 2014 season. The agreement marks the longest labor deal in the 22-year history of professional indoor lacrosse. The league's previous three-year agreement with the PLPA expired following the 2007 season. "The new collective bargaining agreement will allow for positive long-term growth of the NLL," said Sting Governor Douglas Moss. "But most importantly, the fans will not miss out on another great season of lacrosse." "We are very excited to have a new seven-year deal with the PLPA," said Sting General Manager and Head Coach Bob Hamley. "We'd like to apologize to...

I got a call this afternoon from my two...hmmm, how do I describe them? They're Parrot Head buddies and we are nearly constant companions on our Vegas and Laughlin trips. And, while we're hanging out, they torture me which makes them happy. Anyway, The Jello-Shot Prince called me to say he and The Mailman were in Vegas and about to enter Margaritaville and they just felt compelled to call me. Did they just want to say hi? No. They wanted to rub it in that they're already in Vegas and that while I'm riding the bus up tomorrow, they'll be playing golf. It's a toss up who will be the most toasted by the time we hook up tomorrow and they've both committed to buying me my first Miller Lite when I get there. I guess I can be a double fisted drinker and let them each buy me one.

The Arizona Parrot Head Club had another Mom O'Malley Memorial Poker Tournament Saturday night. Mom O'Malley was the O'Malley Babes' Mom, our most "experienced" club member and a dear friend to us all. She passed away last year and had some great care at Hospice of the Valley so the money we raise at our tournaments goes to Hospice. I found us a perfect location to have the tournament. In Tempe, right off the freeway and with plenty of room and a big backyard to use as a Loser's Lounge. The place happened to belong to The Rocket Scientist who's now calling himself a sucker because he gave in to my persuasive charm and agreed to host the event. Like he had any power to resist me...I am the Princess, after all. The game was Texas Hold 'Em and the players ranged from very experienced to needing cheat sheets newbies. We had three tables of players. Our table was pretty serious. The middle table had the single girls (actually recruited from my chick pok...

No Sting for this year! You can read about it here but, as with all professional sports, it comes down to money. I wonder what Dan Dawson's going to do with his free time? I have some ideas for him...

There was only one thing preventing the Mark Mulligan house concert on Friday from being a perfect evening. Dave Mulligan wasn't there. OK, not really. I just said that because Mark was giving me a hard time about my reviews of his shows. Apparently, he thinks I spend too much time talking about Dave. I didn't deny it. It was a great evening – the weather was perfect (I didn't even need my jacket!), everyone was in a good mood and I got to catch up with a lot of friends I hadn't seen in a while. I had loaned The Rocket Scientist my Bar Down in Mexico CD and he liked it so he was up for going to the show with me. It had to have been déjà vu from the Dave Matthews Band show. Everyone knew all of the songs and lyrical additions except him. He bought another Mark CD after so I guess he enjoyed the show and Mark's music. We hooked up with Pirate Rick and Julie and got primo viewing spots directly across from Mark. A little too close to the pool but I somehow manag...

I have only myself to blame for my schedule this week but I have only one night where I don't have plans to go out. That night was last night and I was looking forward to some home time. Here's what I had planned: catching up on hours of TV off the DVR, updating book reviews on www.goodreads.com and IMing with Finnegan since he was trapped in his truck in Utah. All of those things require a critical component. It's not been a stress free week by any means. I was worried about my A/C, I have some people at work who are testing the last little bit of patience I have left in my cynical soul and I've got lots of stuff that I need to get done for the weekend and next week's Vegas trip. So, I'm a bit on edge. I got home to a message on my answering machine about our group's Buffett concert tickets for Vegas. I'll spare you the details but I think I'm going to spend a lot of time in Vegas trying to meet up with people to give them their tickets becaus...

I went to see Mark Mulligan and Gary Seiler at Fiddler's Dream Tuesday night. I seriously considered not going because I have this thing with Seiler . I like his music and all and I think he's a good entertainer but the man cannot remember my name. We've met a bunch of times over the past five years and it's the same thing with each meeting. He says, "Hi, I'm Gary." I say, "Hi, I'm Kathy and we've met before." Then he acts all surprised and apologizes. The Princess does not like to be forgotten…over and over and over. However, because it was Mark, I decided to go. Mark had actually proposed that if I came to the show, he would stop in the middle of the set and offer Gary $10 if he could come up with my name. I thought it would be funny but I didn't remind him of it because I'm not that much of an attention whore. Thankfully, he didn't do it. I got to the show a little early and tried to figure out who to sit by. Th...

I cannot speak more highly of my A/C guy. The company is TSC Mechanical, the owner's name is Don and their number is 480-460-1487. If you're looking for someone who won't oversell or overbill you, this is the guy for you. Here's the background. I got home last Thursday night and the house was suspiciously warm. Sure enough, the thermostat was working but neither the A/C nor the heat would come on. I tried flipping the circuit breaker a few times but it didn't fix it. I called my A/C guy on Friday and he was actually in the Detroit airport on his vacation and told me he wouldn't be back in town until Tuesday night. Since it was supposed to be a nice weekend, I said OK, call me when you're back in town. I figured I could always bunk at my parents if it got too hot. I really didn't want to call anyone else. My A/C unit is the original from 1973. Well, that's being debated so I'm going to go back to my appraisal records but regardless, it's rea...

I had to work from home this morning because I was waiting for my A/C guy to come out. I sat at my dining room table with my laptop and remoted in to my work machine. I could pretty much do anything I needed to: email, work on documents, etc. I hated it. Within the first 30 minutes, I was feeling lonely. Within the first hour, I was bored and roped one of my buds into an IM convo just to have some human contact. Job I can't ever have: hermit. (It's a real job, honest). Job requirement I can't meet: working from home. I needs me the people! Even if it's just to say "Hi" or have a quick chat about something, anything. It's kinda funny because I can sit in my office for hours and not talk to anyone but the thought of being home and not being able to talk to anyone just gives me the willies.

They just released the list of the top 20 shows from last week. 1. (1) "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 20.97 million viewers. 2. (2) "Dancing With the Stars" (Monday), ABC, 20.21 million viewers. 3. (3) "Grey's Anatomy" (Thursday), ABC, 18.51 million viewers. 4. (5) "NBC Sunday Night Football: Chicago at Green Bay," NBC, 18.30 million viewers. 5. (4) "Desperate Housewives," ABC, 17.82 million viewers. 6. (6) "House," Fox, 17.44 million viewers. 7. (9) "NCIS," CBS, 16.43 million viewers. 8. (7) "Dancing With the Stars" (Tuesday), ABC, 15.90 million viewers. 9. (10) "CSI: Miami," CBS, 14.72 million viewers. 10. (11) "Criminal Minds," CBS, 14.56 million viewers. 11. (7) "Without a Trace," CBS, 14.20 million viewers. 12. (11) "Survivor: China," CBS, 14.14 million viewers. 13. (14) "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 13.24 million viewers. 14. (18) "Pushin...

Here's my idea of a perfect baby shower. Meet at a sports bar, eat wings, drink beer (water for the Mom-to-be), open presents and be done with it. I'm clearly not girly nor maternal so the traditional festivities don't flip my switch. Unfortunately, I don't know any baby shower planners who agree with me. Instead, they want to serve fancy food with sandwiches cut into cute shapes and play games like "Guess the baby food flavor." That's accompanied by lots of talk about pregnancy and baby poop and vomit. Oh, the joy. Last weekend, I had two baby showers to attend. I'm not sure what I did to get that much bad karma to work off but apparently, I have been very bad. (Hmmmm, now that I think about it there were a few incidents...) Anywhoooo, the first shower was a brunch on Saturday and the Mom was Stacey, one of my chick poker pals. The hostess' first words to me were, "Hello, would you like a Mimosa?" She knows me well. She had a whole spre...

I realized where my baseball loyalties lay when I found myself applauding the Cubs' first out in the game last night. DBacks are my top team. For those who are thinking, "How convenient, she's picking the team that won the first game of the series as her favorite", The Rocket Scientist can attest to the fact that I publicly declared my allegiance in the top of the first inning. I can't wait for tonight's game!

My buddy turned me on to this free site. You do have to create a login but after that you can listen to a lot of Dave Matthews Band concerts, including the one at Cricket that I went to. Check out Corn Bread - it was my favorite new (to me) tune. And, before I get jumped on because it looks like I'm violating my anti-piracy policy, DMB lets folks record their shows.

Long time loves are a beautiful thing. They're comfortable, steady and reassuring in that you pretty much know how things are going to go. Sure, there are ebbs and tides in the relationship but you weather them because you just know that you're going to be together forever. You see the wrinkles and the warts of your long time love and they aren't repellant, just something you accept and gloss over. Long time love is eternally enduring and you don't want to give it up for anything. Say a new love enters your life. The new love is passionate and the relationship is full of exciting highs and lows. It's dramatic and sometimes nearly obsessive and makes you feel oh, so alive. The wrinkles and warts on the new love are cute accessories and somehow charming. You just can't imagine letting go of the thrills with the new love and you don't want to ever come off the roller coaster ride. But, how do you reconcile the two loves? You can't forsake your stea...

I ask everyone in the department to send me a weekly status report. It can just be an email with the highlights of what they worked on or finished. Doesn't have to be anything fancy. I don't think it's too much to ask but, apparently, I'm wrong because I'm lucky to get half of the group to give me one. I'm going with humorous (sarcastic?) approach to see if it improves participation. This is the email I just sent out: Subject: Status Report Reminder First of all, thanks to the 5 people who've actually given me a status report for last week. That's 1/3 our our department and if we were playing for the DBacks , that .333 average would be stellar. But, we're not. It would be really swell if the rest of you could follow suit this week and next week and the week after that and the week after the week after that (are you getting the pattern here?) and send me your updates. Thanks, Kathy I have little hope that it's going to have any effect in the ...