An Arizona Cheesehead's Thoughts

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...