An Arizona Cheesehead's Thoughts

I've just spent a month chasing kittehs away from holiday cards, wrapping paper, gifts, bows and anything else they could find. I was not at all successful. In fact, every morning I came out to the dining room to find items spilled on to the floor. Every evening, I came home from work to find a similar mess. I confess there were days when I didn't have the energy or the heart to pick up in the interim. I knew the wrapped gifts were doomed for destruction so I spent an evening wrapping all that I had and then put them in to a big box for security. I should have closed up the box right away but I took a few minutes to sit down and take a rest break. This bow looks tasty! Starbuck took a bow off a gift then pranced through the house quite happily with it. Always staying a few feet in front of me so I couldn't grab her, of course. I was finally able to liberate the bow and not only closed the lid on the box but put several heavy boxes on top of it to prevent further dam...

I spent my annual week in Key West at the Parrot Convention, Meeting of The Minds at the end of October/beginning of November. A common question I get after that event is, "What was your favorite part?" The overall answer is, "Spending time with my friends." Truly. Not only do I get to spend serious quality time with my Bestie, Jim (who lives in Minnesota so we don't get to spend much time together), I get to see literally over a hundred people that I know. Actually, it's probably more than a hundred. I also get to spend time with my favorite band, Jimmy and the Parrots . Love those guys and the gals that travel with them! But, there's always one event during each convention that stands out as a "favorite". This time, it was Mac McAnally's solo show at the Casa Marina. If you have the remotest chance to see Mac solo or with a small group, take it! Not only is he a supremely talented musician (seven time winner of the CMA Musician of ...

Subtitle:  Don't ask the old, drunk broad who needs cataract surgery to take pictures with your new phone. I really love the pictures my iPhone 6 takes. Definitely a step up from the 5. The only problem is that the interface is a bit problematic for a neophyte. Or, an old person. Or, someone with a flip phone. The big white circle on the screen is what you need to press to take a picture. However, once you find that circle, you also need to press AND lift. If you don't lift your finger up, you'll get a burst of pictures. That's why I got 53 (seriously, 53) of these: The flash apparently doesn't work in burst mode. We finally got one that looked like this: Not bad except... Hey, now EVERYONE is in the photo! Yeah, I asked Barb to take our picture in our matching shirts. Hilarity ensued as she took the aforementioned burst then cut off one of our members. She got her revenge, though, when Tammy took the final picture and Barb photo bombed it. ...

Two people posted this on my Facebook timeline yesterday. Completely represents my life right now. Samwise and Starbuck are wearing me out with their at first amusing hijinks that have turned into Tourette's inducing antics. I've pretty much accepted that I'm going to get woken up in the very wee hours of the morning so they can engage in a battle of who gets to snuggle closest to Mommy's head and therefore cut off her oxygen supply. That's actually somewhat adorable because they purr a lot when they play the game. What I'm refusing to accept is that Starbuck is determined to get on the nightstand now. Why it's so fascinating, I don't know. Maybe it's because she's trying to get my Chapstick or knock my glasses down as a play toy. I probably reach over and toss her to the other side of the bead a half dozen times during the night. I don't get her every time because, most mornings, I wake up to find my phone on the floor. And, for t...

Here's the deal. I received two smart keys when I bought my bitchen' car. I used one key and tossed the other into a kitchen drawer.  A couple of years in, the key I was using started losing its mojo. I would have to stand really close to the car to lock or unlock the doors and the same with the trunk. Since I always worry about axe murderers chasing me down, I didn't want to have to spend those extra few seconds of running time fiddling with how close I needed to be to reach the safety of my car and lock myself in. So, I put the "used up" key in the kitchen drawer and started using the fresh one. That bought me another year or so but then that key started failing. I knew I needed to replace the battery but, dang it, it just seemed like so much work. It could also have meant a trip to the dealership where they would charge me a gazillion dollars. I did nothing except I took to putting my purse (where I store the key) right up to the door so I could unlock...

This post could also be titled "They Pay Us To Have These Conversations". We have an IT team meeting every other week. The idea is to share any accomplishments and bring everyone up to date on your current projects or issues. This morning's meeting was off to a bad start with a conversation about the coffee tasting like "ass" so I should have suspected we'd get derailed. One of our colleagues started his update with, "I'm growing out my beard and I'm calling it Mr. French." A little background for you. This particular colleague grows facial hair like no one I've ever seen. He can have a fu manchu one day then muttonchops the next. So, it's not unusual for him to be doing something like this. A little more background for you. We have a lot of people under 40 and some under 30 in our department. They have no idea who or what "Mr. French" is. I said, "Oh, from A Family Affair. Brian Keith was the star." An...

Man, do I have a bone to pick with a lot of people! One of the movie options on my overseas flights was The Hobbit:  The Desolation of Smaug. I hadn't seen the first entry in the trilogy so I passed on the second but considered I might want to watch it next time. So, out of curiosity, I watched The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey on HBO On Demand. It should be called The Hobbit: An Unnecessarily Long and Aggravating Reimagining Of A Classic Story That You Loved. Yeah, that's a long title. But, fitting for how ridiculously long the movie was. To call it bloated is kind. It was beyond overstuffed! Sugar Daddy and I were discussing the initial movie and the first thing that got to him was the Dwarves singing as they put away the dishes. I told him I thought it was in the book but it's been so long since I read it, I wasn't 100% sure. That made me think about a lot of other things in the movie that I don't recall from the book so I did some research. And, by res...

We "sell" golf signs every year at Parrot Grande. The signs are displayed on the course during our tournament then on the stage on Saturday night. People can put whatever they want on a sign - birthday wishes, embarrassing pictures of someone, business promotions, etc. Signs were a little light this year when Tkay had a great idea - a challenge of which College or University could get the most signs. I upped the ante a bit when I said I would use the winning sign as my Facebook profile picture for a week. Considering my feelings for the University of Arizona (or that school as I call it), it was kind of a big deal to me. I sent out the following challenge: The Challenge Is On - Be True To Your School! Our Parrot Grande Golf God, Russ, has thrown down the gauntlet. Who can show the most pride for their school via a custom Golf Sign for the weekend?  Russ is doing an Aggie sign. Is that actually even a thing besides a nickname for Agatha?  Tammy is countering wi...

The Tempe Center for the Arts is running a weekly series called Art After Work. The gist of it is that an instructor walks you through replicating a painting, most of them by Master artists. My Chick Poker pals, Angela and Stacey, went with me and the artist we were imitating was Monet and his water lilies. The class ran from 6 to 8:30 (we got out closer to 9) and all of the supplies were provided. It was $35 but we also got a voucher for $8 for booze or, as I like to call it, "Creativity Juice". When we walked in, this was the picture our instructor had done that we were going to copy. It wasn't quite the Monet water lilies I was thinking we would be doing but, oh, well. The first thing our instructor told us to do was to draw out the lily pads and flowers lightly in pencil. She explained how to divide the canvas into sections and how to estimate the size of the pads. Helpful. We started drawing then she gave us the next step which was to erase the flower lines...

A little more than a month has passed since Samwise and Starbuck joined the family. They've settled in well. They haven't calmed down a bit. Kittehs, what are you going to do with them? Several people told me boy cats are mellower than girls and these two are proving that out. Samwise is perfectly content to curl up on my shoulder and nap. Starbuck also wants to curl up on my shoulder and on my chest and on my leg and on Samwise when he's on my shoulder or my chest or my leg. However, she stays still for only milliseconds before rearranging herself which involves stepping all over both Samwise and me. All the while, she purrs super loud. Hard to resist that. Rare moment where they're both settled. They discovered the basket of toys within two days and quickly scattered them throughout the house. Makes a great excuse for me not to sweep or vacuum - too much work picking up mice and balls. Starbuck actually stands in the basket and picks toys out of it. In d...

One of my colleagues turned me on to the idea of 100 Happy Days . I jumped on it because I felt my 21 days of gratitude exercise a few years ago really had a positive impact on my outlook on life. The concept is to post a picture every day that makes you happy. You don't have to explain it, just post it on your medium of choice. I chose to do them all on Facebook because it was fast and easy. A few of my other friends joined in, too. It was fun to see what was making them happy. My last day was yesterday and this is my favorite picture of all. Joan, Charles, Bill and Mary - Pfister kids My Dad is turning 80 next week and three of his siblings flew out for the party. They got in yesterday and weren't expecting me to come over but I surprised them by leaving work early to go hang out. I'm lucky to have a family that I truly enjoy being with. I reviewed all of my pictures today and saw that I missed posting more days than I thought I had. Not a big surprise, those...