An Arizona Cheesehead's Thoughts

During our January Rocky Point adventure, Catnip was telling us about being President of the aforementioned Old Boy's Social Club. He then went on about how he knows lots of people in Rocky Point and concluded the speech with the declaration, "I'm kind of a big deal down here." Man, did that come up a gazillion times after that! We used it every chance we got. And, it never got old. A week after we got back, I saw an online ad for a T-Shirt. I didn't care how much it cost, I had to buy it. I sent the link to Julie and The Rocket Scientist and they agreed. I ordered it right away and it's been sitting on my kitchen counter for months waiting for the right moment to be delivered. (No, I don't clean my counter off although I do wipe it down every once in a while.) I'd told Annette about it and Friday night, I handed it to her to put on Catnip's pillow. We weren't at all stealthy about it. Everyone was yakking and I fetched it from our room...

The Cholla Bay Sportsmen's Club was celebrating their 53rd Annual Fishing Derby on Sunday with a fish fry. The were using the Old Boy's Social Club's clubhouse for the event. Catnip is the Prez of Old Boy's and Lew is the VP. Catnip's a big deal down there, really. Catnip and I took one of the quads over so we got there ahead of the game. While I was saving the table (Catnip was off talking to his subjects) I noticed something that you'll never see in the US. It was a 10 year old serving Tequila. I was appalled yet that's somewhat hypocritical since I used to send Steven to the fridge for wine coolers when he was about three years old. Though, that was for family, not strangers! Only in Mexico. They were selling raffle tickets for charity and Julie and I went up to buy some. They were selling 6 for $5 and I bought $10 worth. I debated filling out half of them with my name and the other half with The Rocket Scientist's but decided he could buy some of hi...

Talk about silly games people play... Coaster Flipping has got to be near the top of the list yet it kept us engaged over two different nights. Clearly, alcohol was a factor. If you don't know what it is, you set a stack of coasters on the edge of the counter, flip them up in the air then try to catch them all in one hand. The Rocket Scientist started it, I think out of boredom. Or, it could have been to show off. He's not so bad at it. TRS showing the downward flip motion. Success! Of course, the other boys had to get in on the action. The Pirate Captain tried it. He was not so good. He ended up playing some kind of tossing game instead. I'm not sure what the goal was but I ended up getting lots of flying coasters in the face. Hmmm, that might have been his goal, come to think of it. Not exactly catching the coasters. Catnip also had to try it. He's a guy who's not afraid to seek out advice. He ended up Googling (of course!) and found some videos on utube that he ...

It's probably not a stretch to think that I would suggest bringing my poker set down to Mexico. I do have an admitted addiction there. However, Julie doesn't play so I didn't want her to feel left out. I left it up to the Pirate Captain and he said she wouldn't mind so bring it. After our trip to the Tequila Factory, I was feeling a bit, um, tired but poker got mentioned and I was instantly perked up. Annette decided to nap, though. We started dividing up chips and Julie decided to play! That was cool. We bought in for $5 each and played a No Limit Texas Hold 'Em tournament. I tried to tell the Pirate Captain to not tell Julie how to play. Maybe it's just me, but there's not much more annoying than getting told by your SO that you're screwing up on something. Now that I think about it, that may be one of the reasons why I don't have an SO. Hmmm. The Unruly One actually playing with us! Apparently, she didn't need his advice. She outlasted him an...

On our last trip to Rocky Point, the Pirate Captain and Unruly Julie pretty much argued the whole way down. The Rocket Scientist and I sat very quietly in the back seat, afraid to bring attention to ourselves at all. We joked about being the poor innocent kids cowering while Mom and Dad battled. The idea was born to make Mom & Dad Travel Bingo cards with their most common expressions (both verbal and non) in the squares. We figured out that we'd hit a blackout in no time. We mentally played the rest of the weekend and would periodically yell out Bingo! when a keyword was uttered. I don't know if they took our threat to make cards seriously or not, but we had them ready for the ride. It wasn't easy though. I scrambled to make a list of items on Tuesday night and TRS added some then put them all into Excel. There was some talk about programming it to populate each card randomly but that was given up on. He emailed me the Excel sheet but it didn't come across correctl...

I am not a big Tequila drinker. There were about a dozen too many bad experiences in my sordid past for me to blot out to enjoy it. Especially, if there's a strong Tequila smell. shudder Some of the gang quite enjoys it, though. Last trip to Rocky Point, I took some baby sips out of The Rocket Scientist's glass just to feel like I was one of the cool kids but they went through several bottles. We decided to stop at The Tequila Factory one afternoon. They had lots of different flavors and brands in there. They also had a Tequila tasting bar set up. We bellied up and started sampling shot (albeit a small shot) after shot. The traditional stuff was not my thing. I tried but couldn't get past a sip or two on some of them. Fortunately, TRS finished off one of my shots and I poured the rest into the dumping cup. However, once we got to the flavored Tequilas, I was all over it. The green apple was yummy, the peach and quince not so much, the coffee good and the caramel...

We listened to Radio Margaritaville at the beginning of the weekend until someone finally realized they were replaying concerts all weekend and that meant we were going to hear the same 30 songs or so...over and over and over. So, the Pirate Captain hooked up his iPod and we listened to several playlists. It was fun to play the "who's that?" game with each other. His selections are somewhat eclectic so the artists weren't always obvious. Somehow the conversation turned to Steve Goodman. Rick, Julie and TRS didn't know who he was. We told them, "you may not know him but you know a lot of his songs." We started listing them off, ending with City of New Orleans. Rick jumped on that song. "No, he was too young to do that. It was written by Arlo Guthrie, Senior !" (The emphasis on Senior was his.) You gotta give the Pirate Captain credit, whether he's right, wrong or indifferent, when he says something it's an emphatic, overwhelming...

The Pirate Captain, Unruly Julie, The Rocket Scientist and I just spent a long weekend in Rocky Point at La Casa de Catnip Y Annette. There are so many different stories to tell. I'm probably going to forget many of them. I'm sure they'll chime in when I do and supply corrections when I've "misremembered". Just like last time, one of the little games we played was Last Man Standing. Basically, whomever stays up the latest wins. They're also the most tired the next day but it's all about pride so we try to win. Well, Annette doesn't but I think she may be smarter than most. We got down there late Thursday night and the Tequila, Rum and beer were flowing. We sat around the kitchen counter and told stories and laughed until late. Really, really late. Catnip and I claimed the prize when we went to bed sometime after 3. The smartest thing we did was down a bottle of water each before retiring. It helped a lot the next morning. Now, I don'...

Apparently, my comment counter is not working. Nor are all of the comments showing until you refresh the page. I use Haloscan for those and I logged in to see if they had some message about the issue. I got a message saying I hadn't logged in for over 3 months so my messages were being archived but, since I had logged in, they should show within 48 hours. I guess you'll have to wait and see since I'll be out of the Country and not checking in 48 hours. Hello. Mexico, and adios baby to you. (From an Eddy Raven song and nothing personal.)

While we were at Four Peaks for dinner tonight, The Rocket Scientist saw a girl walk by with a shirt that said "Reading is sex." He relayed the message to me and my first thought (and audible statement) was, "That means I'm getting a lot more action than I thought." (Side note to TRS , I'm paraphrasing.) He said, "Based on your blog, you are." I have to agree with that. See, the thing is...I went to the library to get our next book club selection then decided to browse. Before I knew it, I was half way through the New Book section and already had seven books to check out. The only thing that made me stop was that I physically couldn't carry any more books. To top it off, I had put a bunch of books on reserve. When I did that, I was like request number 29 and 40 and 15 so I thought they would become available over some time. Apparently, they got some extra copies or something because I now have four books on hold. I have a lot of sex, er...

A little back story first...one of the stupid arguments that The Rocket Scientist and I have had is over whether he's a conformist. I mean, come on, he comes across as the total rule following get-along guy. He says it's so not true. At dinner tonight, he was telling me about his work day and said he was in a meeting where they were trying to define a consistent use for some fields on a form. He said something like, "You know me, I'm all about conforming" and his Project Manager just busted up laughing. At the apparent absurdity so it seems. He concluded the story with this statement, "So, even though you thought I was a conformist and I thought you weren't high maintenance, we were both wrong." Man! How could I come back with anything to that? I said a feeble, "Hey, I don't like the way that worked out." I had to concede it was a brilliant jab. Dammit. See, he's not as nice as everyone thinks he is...but, he is pretty cleve...

I wanted to like this second in the series book more than I did. The demon fighting and story are good. However, a lot of the details are repetitive (continuing from the first book). Things like Kate being convinced someone's a demon, then not sure, then convinced again. And, the many comments like "isn't my kid great?". Also, the incessant worries about demons coming after her family. I mean, I get that worry but it's just too much to read on every other page. OK, an exaggeration but still... I'm going to read the third book in the hopes that it's more refreshing and less repetitive.

I got my hair done last Wednesday. The Rocket Scientist didn't even notice and apologized for that fact. Which was sweet but totally not necessary. The thing is, I was happy he didn't notice. Ever since I went back to red, it's been a different shade every time. And, not even close to the previous color. Cheryl confessed that she can't remember what combination of colors she uses each time. Well, that explains the variations. Since we do it in her living room, there aren't any mirrors for me to see how it looks so I have to rely on Sugar Daddy's assessment. Half the time, he tells me it looks purple just to freak me out. This time, he said it looked really dark. He was right. She told me what her formula was and there was a lot of brown in that. Next time, I'm going to get her to ease up on the dark. And, write down the formula each time until it's the right one. At least it's not purple.

I just watched the season finale of Bones . Wow, I didn't see that coming.

This is my take on Oprah books: really bad things happen to people who are already suffering from other bad things and the end is never a happy one. In fact, they're often icky endings. Woody loaned me Back Roads by Tawni O'Dell and I read through it in one sick day last week. The story is told from the point of view of Harley, a 19 year old boy, whose Mother is in prison for killing his Father. Harley's left with raising his three younger sisters. There's abuse, murder, incest, adultery, mental illness...yep, a perfect Oprah book. I have to admit I was thoroughly engrossed while reading this. I sympathized with Harley and it was painful to see what was happening to him and around him. Of course, it being an Oprah book, I wanted to take a shower after I was done to get the Ick feeling to go away.

This was our May book club selection and perhaps the last Pulitzer prize winner we read. Apparently, Pulitzer equates to "Most Depressing Book Ever!" with some of my club members. I didn't find it altogether depressing, however. While I was frustrated with Miles, the main character, over his reluctance to make waves (ever), I appreciated his sincerity. The rest of the characters were well done and Russo did a great job of making the failing town seem quite real. I don't want to give a spoiler but there is a shocker in what looks to just be a character study novel. I liked it and thought it added a lot to the text.

I whipped through this second Spellman book by Lisa Lutz- it was that entertaining. It starts off with Izzy explaining to her lawyer why she's been arrested four times in the past few months (though she claims two arrests "dont't count") while investigating her parents' new neighbor, the suspiciously named John Brown. Of course, she also investigates her family members' activities and they return the favor. A lot of stuff was going on in this one and we get to see much more of Inspector Henry Stone. He's a great addition to the cast of characters and the cursed one from the book's title (at least in my opinion). Cursed because he's been sucked into the Spellman world. I love the writing style with all of the footnotes and the appendix. It was especially fun for me that they watched the new Doctor Who with comments on each episode. It's one of my favorite current shows.

We hit 100 degrees for the first time this year on Saturday. It was actually late for us and it's been a nice, fairly mild spring. Yesterday, it was 110. Talk about an abrupt introduction to the summer heat! The good news is that it's supposed to be down in the 80s later this week and through the weekend.

The Rocket Scientist is hosting the club's Poker Tourney tomorrow night. He's been cleaning all week and stressing out a bit, too, I fear. I've offered to help a few times and finally got a "you can label the beer" response. So, tonight I headed over after work to do my job. After being told how to do it (and being apologized to for that), I got to work and soon had 90 (maybe 91?) bottles of Ale and Marzen labeled and in the fridge. Here's a close up of the labels. You may notice that the labels aren't entirely straight. That was kind of on purpose and in retaliation for being told how to put them on. Here's the entire stock. Isn't that a pretty picture? Some of the Ales are in 16 ounce bottles. I have a feeling that's what I'll be drinking. To give TRS credit, he did have a cold ale for me to drink while I worked. It was good, too. I went to get a Marzen for my next beer and got a "have a Pacifico " suggestion. Appa...

I really need to go to the grocery store. This is what I had for breakfast: Microwave popcorn and Mountain Dew. Bad combination. If I don't vomit by lunch, I'll be very happy.

I've been running our Employee recognition for seven years. We usually get taken out to lunch by the CEO, his wife and the HR VP as a thank you after our year-end presentation. It's nice but it's a little stilted sitting in a restaurant trying to converse amongst a dozen people. This year, we decided to do something a little different. Basically, I invited us all over to the CEO's house for an afternoon of lunch, cocktails, pool and ping pong. The party also expanded to include the Senior Management team. When we got there on Friday, the CEO was at the grill working on our burgers (both cow and turkey). How cool is that? The CEO actually made us lunch! We had lunch and watched some of the previous years' presentations. We've done some elaborate films to present our Employee of the Year and it was fun revisiting them. There was the Who Wants To Be A SmartStar?, a corporate training film done old school in black and white, The Mad Scientist and take offs ...

The Rocket Scientist and I drove down to Tucson to see Mark Mulligan in a house concert at the Meltons '. We needed to get to Tkay and Russ' by 5 ish so we could ride over with them and TRS drove pretty Jimmie Johnson-like to get us there in time. The Meltons ' house is awesome! There are four bars on the property. Sweet! Mark was pretty impressed by that fact, too, as he mentioned it several times. The show was great as usual. Mark played some new stuff and it's always a treat when he does that. He also played some old favorites that I hadn't heard for a while. Another treat. It was fun getting to see some of my Tucson posse and nice to spend some time with Tkay and Russ. After the show, we headed back to their place and sat out on the patio. Russ built a fire and we had some beers and smoked some cigars. Well, Tkay , Russ and I smoked cigars. TRS did not. It was a late night and a pretty early morning. Someone left his Treo on vibrate and got an ...

In all honesty, I would love for my birthday to just fly in under the radar each year. I don't want anyone, especially me, to realize that I'm aging. Ugh. Unfortunately, the day falls right at PHINS To The West time and after several years, everyone knows about it. Double ugh. The official day was Saturday and I tried to keep a low profile. I was away from the group for most of the morning playing poker and I was hoping the $1.75 Coronas would have killed their birthday knowing brain cells by the time I rejoined them. No luck on that. I got out to the pool and it started. "Hey everybody, did you know it was Kathy's birthday?" A very loud rendition of Happy Birthday was performed by the Arizona group. Seconds after they were done, Utah started their version from 20 feet further down the way. A little later, while I was trying to kill the birthday knowing brain cell with $1.75 Coronas, some wiseacre started it again. "Hey, it's Kathy's birthda...

One of my poker boys, Toby, is also an actor. He's pretty serious about his craft, too. He invited us to come see his current show last week and said it was really funny. I knew it must be good because he told me not to come see one of his last gigs. The play was Man With The Pointed Toes . It takes place in 1980 and the lead character is an uncouth cowpoke type who becomes filthy rich when the ranch he wins in a poker game is found to be prime oil land. In order to impress a big city girl, he hires a tutor to give him some culture. Steven, Pirate Rick, Amy and I saw it on Thursday night and it was very, very funny. Toby was hilarious. I thought Steven and Rick were going to bust a gut every time he came on stage. The rest of the cast was good, too. There were some quite funny moments by all. It was staged in the round (and up in the seating area) so you got to see several different views. The show's at Hale Centre Theatre and it's playing through this weekend if you want...

Not everyone was Wasting Away in Margaritaville. I thought I had a really good plan for the Wednesday before PHINS. Dawnie was supposed to get in at 6:30. Steven, The Rocket Scientist and I were going to pick her up at the airport and drive straight to Margaritaville where we'd meet up with some of the rest of our posse. First issue with the plan: The Rocket Scientist disavowed any knowledge that he was part of it. He said, "I knew you were planning that but I didn't assume I was part of it." I know I told him. That led to several dialogues composed of "You didn't tell me" countered with "You don't listen to me." However, we got it squared away (I mean, really , when have I not included him a Parrot Head plan?) and Pirate Rick was able to join us so Steven, TRS and Rick were supposed to hit my house around 5:45. I got a text from Dawnie around 4 that she was sitting in her plane at Denver and they were taking off in 15 minutes. Cool. I was...

Moose, Woody, Lexy and I had dinner on the patio at the Elk's Lodge last night. Moose is actually a member and they were OK with a competing animal joining their ranks. It might sound surprising, but the Lodge is pretty cool. Sure, there's an abundance of old codgers shuffling around but they're friendly old codgers. Everyone says hi and bye and they seem really happy to see you there. An apparent Octogenarian let me in the front door. He was quite dashing in his heavy sweater (it was 80 out) and cataract sunglasses. I have no doubt I could have sat at the bar with him and had a great hours long conversation. I do well with the old folk. There are also some people who look to be in their late 30s and 40s and several with younger kids running around hanging at the Lodge. The kids probably have a blast there since they have a swimming pool out back and a pool table room to keep them occupied. Dinner is a bargain. For $8, you get to pick out your own steak, get a baked...

My friend sent me pictures of George and her siblings today. She said they're getting big but they look pretty small to me. Aren't they adorable? And those blue eyes are so sparkling and bright! I sent all of the pictures on to a few people and heard back from The Rocket Scientist, "Yeah, that will scare the ax murderer away!" I replied, "It will melt the axe murderer's cold, evil heart!" Another of my friends opined that people might think I was naming her after W. Um, no! This is the George I'm naming her after. A true classic.

I didn't win the first month's $25 each pool for our team. My buddy Dave did. He's got the least amount to lose and he had a pretty good loss. Good for him. They published our company totals today and our team finished in 9 th out of 27 th for the month. We would have been higher but I wasn't here for the official weigh-in so they had to use my starting weight and my loss didn't count. I'm amazed by the overall results. Our corporate goal is to lose 2,000 pounds in 6 months. First month loss = 437.5 pounds! If everyone sticks to it, our final results are going to be awesome!

Hi, my name is Kathy and I'm a groupie. I guess that was the first of many steps towards recovery. The thing is, I don't want to recover. I'm having too much fun at it. We were headed towards the registration room at the Avi on Thursday when standing right in front of the elevator was Bob Karwin . Apparently, so was Gary Seiler but I didn't notice him for quite a while. I moved right in for a hug. And stayed. He's so big and tall and strong...sorry, got distracted. He is so tall that I have to go up on tiptoe to fully hug him. The only thing that made me let go was the leg strain. As my posse and I were finally walking away, I came up with an idea. I thought it would be fun to see just how many hugs I could get from Karwin throughout the weekend. We joked about getting a Sharpie and making score marks on my badge for each one. As I thought more about it later, I realized I probably wouldn't get too far because Karwin would figure it out. Did I mention he...

I've been collecting cows for a while in the hopes that I could somehow sneak them into Rhett's house without his knowledge. Mike managed to put one in his show when they were out for Jimmy's gig at the Glendale Margaritaville but I had more. My plan was to hand them off to Shannon at Phins To The West and have her or Troy put them in his house over the next month or so. I managed to get them to Donnie and Sherri on Sunday morning before we left. Apparently, Shannon got busted with them though so Rhett found out about the plan. The Rhettster with Cindy, Cow #1 Dawnie was a better sneak than Shannon. I went into my bathroom last night and noticed a new knick knack on top of the medicine cabinet. It's not one that fits my tropical decor but it cracked me up. She must have put it in there Monday morning before I took her to the airport. Bull! I'm going to Utah at the start of June. I imagine there will be a new Cow Wars episode up there. I know I'm going to start p...