An Arizona Cheesehead's Thoughts

I am 16% White Trash. I, my friend, have class. I am so not white trash. . I am more than likely Democrat, and my place is neat, and there is a good chance I may never drink wine from a box. Take the White Trash Test @ FualiDotCom Got this from Pammy .

George had her first appointment with the Vet this morning. It was only her second car ride with the first being her traumatic ride away from her birth Mommy to her new Mommy's home. She was not happy. The Poker girls gave me this cool leather carrying case that looks like a big purse. It has mesh on three sides and the top so she could see out and lots of zippers and a snap to keep her in. Damned if she didn't almost break out on the ride over and the way back. I had to do some quick grabs and, fortunately, we were at stop lights each time. Between working on her escape, she gave me quite a large piece of her mind about the whole being in the car thing. One not happy camper at all. Once we were at the Vet's, all was different. Just like she is with The Rocket Scientist, she was a total angel for them. She didn't balk at the temperature check or the shot. While she wasn't happy with the deworming medicine getting put into her mouth, she didn't fight th...

I never got around to blogging about my 2007 Midwest tour. Bad on me. There was so much to talk about that it was overwhelming. So, to cover both trips I'm going to give both the 2007 and 2008 stories where relevant. 2007 Cheers with Debe , Bruce, Kathy and Dawnie Our first stop after Dawnie picked me up was a local watering hole called Buzzard Billy's. It was Crappy Beer night there. That's a tradition where they serve such classics as Schlitz, Hamm's , Pabst Blue Ribbon and Old Style for cheap (buck - buck fifty?). Debe and Bruce met us there right away and I was happy to order an Old Style Light. It made me feel instantly like I was home. Some of the night's evidence. The Conrads joined us and we attempted the bar trivia game without much success. A couple of beers and some food later, we were off to The High Life. Conrad and Dawnie (yes, the phone was attached to her head the whole time). Picture Dad's (or Grandpa's) basement bar circa 1960 and that...

Look, Mommy, I can fit into your suitcase! I had a rough start to my travel day on my Midwest tour. Orbitz is nice enough to send you a text message with your flight status. Three hours ahead of time. So, I got a text at 2 AM to let me know my flight was on schedule. Gee, thanks. That was the wake up call for George so I got no more sleep. By the time I got my car parked, shuttled to the airport and got on the plane, I was pretty much running on automatic. I got into DFW, checked my gate and headed to the bar. After a beer and a sandwich, I was much more alert and started taking in my surroundings. While waiting at the gate, I glanced over the crowd and made eye contact with another passenger. It was one of those, "Is that who I think it is?" moments because it was one of my club members. It was indeed Gail and she was heading to Des Moines for her Dad's 70th Birthday. She was actually on my first flight but we were both too zonked to notice each other. I tried to talk he...

For those folks like me who think cake's sole purpose it to hold the frosting together, check this out.

Casino Royale by Ian Fleming My review rating: 2 of 5 stars This was our monthly book club selection. It's an all girl group and none of us had ever read any Bond books so we were intrigued to see what started that phenomenon. There were mixed reactions to this first book in the series with most of us not liking it a lot. I'm not old enough to remember the era so I had to keep reminding myself that acceptable attitudes and behaviors are much different than one would encounter today (at least I hope so). Bond's sweeping view of women as silly and incompetent was quite dated and made him less of a sympathetic character for me. His quick descent into love for the requisite Bond girl seemed shallow and only inspired by the fact that she was beautiful and emotionally closed off. Crazy, since he thought she was hysterical and helpless, too. Yeah, that's the type I would go for. I think for the 60s, this was a good book and I could see the guy appeal. However, I'd rather...

From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris My review rating: 3 of 5 stars The latest book in this series has Sookie involved in both a Werewolf War and a Vampire Takeover. As it usually is, Sookie's smarter than the weres and saves the vamps. There's also a side trip into some family issues and she discovers some new relatives. Still a good series but not quite as fresh as it used to be. For book 8, though, Harris still came up with some new plot which will continue to get me to read these. View all my reviews.

Apparently, I'm just the expected moth to The Rocket Scientist's flame. We were having an email convo late yesterday afternoon; the edited for relevant content version is below. TSR: What's for dinner? I have no food in this house! (time gap here since I left work before he sent the above email and I didn't get it until I was home after hitting the store) Me: You should have called me...I'm heating up a TV dinner. TSR: I'm at red robin in the bar. Me: You're in a bar and you didn't call me? I was just at Target. (Target is in the same shopping center as Red Robin) TSR: Its not like its across town. Me: And your point is? TSR: I'm ordering another black and tan and I'm packed. I'll be here for a while. Me: And your point is? TSR: Are you coming or not? Me: Putting my shoes on. OK, would it have killed him to just ask, "Why don't you come meet me?" It's not like I needed a "My night wouldn't be complete if...

I have been so frakking busy since I got back from my Midwest journey that I haven't even finished up publishing my pictures on Kodak Gallery. As soon as I get that done, I'll start telling the tales. It was a great trip!

So, The Rocket Scientist is headed to Vegas for his first weekend trip in Sin City. We talked about having a practice session for him with the Pirate Captain and Unruly Julie. The plan was discussed while I was on vacation so I told him that I could only do it on Wednesday because I was coming in late on Monday and I had book club on Tuesday. He indicated it would be Wednesday so I put it on my calendar. Tuesday, I get an email from him. It said something like, "We're playing at Rick and Julie's tonight at 7 PM." I responded with, "You told me it was Wednesday. I have book club tonight." I'm sure I probably did a mental WTF and sighed while I typed it. He came back with "Rick's not sure if Julie has tomorrow off." I told him that, if they needed to, they should go ahead without me as it wasn't a big deal. The final message came back that we were on for Wednesday at 7 at their house. Late yesterday afternoon, TRS and I started...

Back when Sugar Daddy bought me all those cases of wine, he also ordered a counter top wine opener. Apparently, it was a big and fancy one and came in a large, heavy box. A box he finally gave to me (last week or the week before) and we loaded it in to my trunk. It was heavy so I was going to get Steven or The Rocket Scientist to carry it in to the house for me (I'm such a fragile Princess). I didn't get around to it before I left for Iowa last week so it was in my trunk while my car was at off site airport parking (without shade). When I picked up my car last night, I noticed a sweet odor. Like a cinnamon bun. I thought maybe the heat had refreshed the KDKB air freshener hanging from my mirror but it smells different than that. When I picked up Sugar Daddy for lunch today, the smell was the first thing he noticed. After lunch, we popped the trunk to see if maybe I'd left some grocery item in there. That's when we noticed that the side of the wine opener box had...

I knew my flight out of Phoenix tomorrow morning was early. I remember saying to myself, "It's not that bad for the price you're paying." Somehow, it got recorded as a 6 AM departure in my mental database. I checked it out yesterday and that time was wrong. It's 5 AM. Somehow, that one hour difference seems like a lot. I'm going to have to get up at, what 2?, to be ready to leave at 3:15 or 3:30. I need to drop my car off at off site parking and get shuttled in so I don't want to risk leaving any later than that. I often don't even go to bed until 2. Getting up is going to be brutal. Good thing I'm a good plane sleeper.

I'm a better loser than I am a winner. Which is good since I was a two time loser in poker in Mexico. We played two tournaments. The first night, it came down to Catnip and me. He got lucky and doubled up then called my all in with a better hand. I lost. I think I took it pretty well. The next tournament, I got lucky against Catnip (yes, he was bitter) and got enough chips to make it to the finals against Annette. She ended up with all of the chips and I'd like to think I took it pretty well. Annette seemed inordinately happy to beat me. She was all, "Kathy got taken out by the weakest player!" I'm not sure I've ever called her the weakest player, BTW. I'm glad she was happy. She played well. See, I can be a good loser.

Fearless Fourteen by Janet Evanovich My review rating: 3 of 5 stars As I was reading this one, I thought to my self, "Just how many crazy characters can Evanovich add to these stories?" The answer, apparently, is a lot. Lots of new folks (interesting to see who will stick around to appear in the next tome) and they were all at least slightly off their rockers. Not enough Ranger but still a good story. One bummer for me was the quick wrap up. I saw that I had less than 10 pages to go and couldn't believe she could get it all neatly packaged in that time. She did but I like a little more beef to the endings in books. This was a quick read (I read it in bed Saturday morning so it went really fast) and enjoyable. If you haven't read this series, I suggest you start it. I gave my Mom the first three books for her birthday and I expect she will be just as hooked as I am. View all my reviews.

When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris My review rating: 4 of 5 stars I quite enjoy Sedaris' writing. His essays are what I wish mine were: snarky and clever and often laugh out loud funny. I can pretty much cover snarky on a good day and that's it. This was a good collection of tales with a softer feel to them. While he does mock folks (especially himself), Sedaris seems to be a kinder, gentler type now. I read a review where he said he just can't be as much of a brat at his age (I think he's 51). View all my reviews.

Ya know, I've been thinking about getting a new phone for a while. I love the size of the Razr as it fits quite well in my pocket. And, mine is metallic pink so it's cute. But, I'm doing more and more texting these days and I really want a full keyboard. The problem was finding a full keyboard that wasn't on a huge (to me) phone. Blackberrys , Treos and iPhones (not that I want to jump on that bandwagon) are all too big. I kept hoping that someone would eventually come out with a small, yet stylish, phone for me soon. Soon became right away after Saturday night. We had a party and spent a lot of time out by the pool. At any given time, there were between 4 and 6 of us sitting at the shallow end with our feet on the top step. Of all the people who took turns sitting there, only one was grabbed by the ankles and yanked into the pool. Yep, it was me. I yelled "Cell phone!" as loud as I could but Mac Daddy wasn't paying attention. Not only did he drag me i...

Catnip taught me a great lesson in beer counting though he will deny it. One morning, he and Lew went out and about on some errands before we hooked up with them. I asked later, "How many beers did you have today?" He said, "Three or four." I had to challenge it. I basically tracked their path and they went to one bar, then another where they left then came back to meet us then to some friends' house. When it came down to the actual details, it was one beer at the first place, two at the second then two more after we met them there then who knows how many at the friends. I said, "I got it. It's one beer for every stop." Annette, Julie and I went to their friends' then Manny's for the afternoon. That was two beers. Julie and I spent a few hours at JJ's . We had one beer then headed home. Cool! That makes me seem like so much less of an alcoholic. Especially if I just stay at one place when I'm drinking.

Did you say walk? Lesson learned from Rocky Point: do not fall for the "I need to go for a walk" look. I'm not sure how many times Maya conned one of us into a walk around the neighborhood in the hopes that she would pee or poop. It was a lot. I know I got conned one afternoon when it was hot as blazes and I wanted nothing more than to hit the shower and cool down. We walked across the empty lot, down the street and back and all she did was sniff. At one point, I even tried pushing her butt down to see if she would get the clue. She didn't so I gave up. Too bad for her as she might have been dying to get out later but I wasn't buying. There were plenty of others who were willing to give her a chance, though. They generally came back disappointed.

Historically, Catnip and I are always the last ones standing at the end of the night. Call it stubbornness or lack of sleep requirement but it's certainly not because we pace ourselves. We're not so good at that. While I did nap on the way down to Rocky Point on Thursday, I figured based on the amount of sleep I got on Wednesday night/Thursday evening I was running at an average pace. I did concede that it might be someone else' s turn to stay up with Catnip but as the evening wore on, I was feeling pretty good about my chances. Annette is the usual suspect to pull the "I'm going to the bathroom then disappearing" trick while we're all still up. However, the Pirate Captain and Unruly Julie were out first. Julie was pretty tired and Rick went with her. There's no sex in Mexico so I'm sure they just cuddled, briefly, then went to sleep. Next out was The Rocket Scientist. He actually has a pretty good record of hanging but he lacks the competi...

I'm still trying to catch up from the long weekend... First, a little back story is in order. Last time we went to Mexico, I was told the Pirate Captain and Unruly Julie were picking up The Rocket Scientist at his house then collecting me at 6. I was ready way in advance and chomping at the bit. I called TRS and said, "Are they there yet?" He said, "Not yet." I paused for 10 seconds and said, "How about now?" And, repeated that every 30 seconds for quite a while. He finally told me to have a beer and wait (nicely, though). I had a beer. Then a second beer. And started watching QVC to kill the time. I was this close to buying a ring when they picked me up late. The Captain thought we could make it to the border before the duty free liquor store closed at 9 if we left at 6. I thought he was crazy but you know you can't tell him anything. Dang if he only missed it by this much. If they'd been on time, he would have. Of course, he d...

Go here . It's an online petition sponsored by Jim Beam to keep Wrigley Field named, well, Wrigley Field. Robby Gordon's paint scheme for tomorrow's race in Chicago will be promoting this, too. That Robby, he's OK. I mean, he's no Jimmie but then who could be?

Everyone on my Biggest Loser team slacked off this past month for various reasons (excuses). T threw his back out and couldn't exercise. Dave went to Germany for a week. I had two long drink and food filled weekends out of town. Sugar Daddy stopped counting his points and also had a week long travel. So, none of us felt good about this month's weigh-in. As a matter of fact, we all thought the $100 pool was going to be won by who gained the least. We actually did our best to "help" our teammates gain. I talked Sugar Daddy into going to Lucille's for BBQ on Tuesday, Dave tricked T into ordering a big cheesy enchilada at lunch this week then put himself into danger by getting a full meal at Morton's yesterday that included cheesecake. I tried to behave really well this week after Mexico. This morning, my scale showed me up ½ pound from last month's number. Considering the number of beers I consumed in June, I thought that was pretty good and even hop...

As I walked out of my house on Thursday afternoon, I looked back at Steven and George and said, "Bye, baby." Steven said "Bye!" I'm pretty sure he knew I was talking to the little baby. When I thought about the two of them over the weekend, I kept picturing The War of the Roses where Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner's characters ending up killing each other. I wouldn't have been surprised to see their corpses when I opened the door. Fortunately, it wasn't a tragic ending. George came out right when I called her and was happy to see me. We spent a good 15 minutes of petting time while she told me all about her weekend. She had a lot to say so I wondered about the other half of the story. I sent Steven a text telling him that I was home and he called me when he got off of work. His first words were, "Your cat is crazy." He made the mistake of falling asleep on the couch the first night he was there, not realizing that naked toes ar...

I found where some of the kitten toys are getting stashed. They're under the sheet in my bed. If I were one of those people who made her bed every day, I would have found them sooner. As it was, I only spotted them because I was trying to throw the comforter over George to trap her while she was attacking me. They were on the side of the bed that I don't sleep on (clearly). She acted like she had never seen them before which was great. They kept her occupied for nearly three minutes. Now if I could just find the other dozen toys that are floating around...

I'm heading south of the border tomorrow night for the long weekend. It's been really busy at work so I'm quite in need of a break. I just can't leave George alone that long. I know she's a cat and they're supposed to be OK with you gone for a while but she's still a baby. So, I got my other baby to spend the weekend with her. Steven's coming over tomorrow night and I don't know whom to feel more sorry for, George or him. I'm sure Steven will not appreciate the feline alarm clock that goes off at 5 AM. I'm sure George will not be happy with getting squirted with the water bottle on a frequent basis since Steven is much less patient than I. I know one thing, though. I'm looking forward to my many scratches getting healed. George has decided that I can't walk anywhere in the house without getting pounced on. That's led to quite a few gouges as I'm trying not to step on her and she's trying to tackle me.

I was in on a conference call today with a guy from Virginia. I kept getting distracted because he sounded just like Elliott Sadler (my second favorite NASCAR driver) and I love that accent. It's Southern without a huge twang to it. At least not to my ears. I think he could have read the phone book to me and I would have enjoyed it.