An Arizona Cheesehead's Thoughts

I've considered for quite a few years that I have enough holiday themed jewelry to wear a different pair of earrings every day between Thanksgiving and Christmas. When I inherited my Mom's jewelry this year, I was 100% certain and decided to test the theory. For every day that I wore jewelry (weekend days are out if I don't leave my house) I took a picture of what I wore then set them aside so I wouldn't repeat. If I had an accessory, I included that in the picture. Except for my reindeer headband that I wore several times as it was a) a repeat and b) too big to fit into the pictures. Not only did I not repeat, I think I could have gone another 20 days. My Mom and I really got into jewelry. Of course, no project goes smoothly. Nearly every photo taken involved shooing one of the #terrors out of the picture, often multiple times. They took turns interfering though Starbuck was the bigger pest overall. For the backgrounds, I used my set of linen napkins. They'...

We have a small gym at our office. I often walk through on my way from the parking lot to meetings in that building. It looks nice. We also have a big room dedicated to things like Zumba and Yoga and, well, I don't know what else because there's literally no reason for me to go there. Although, I do actually know one other thing they do in the big room and that's hold Spin Classes. I know because my friend Michelle leads some of them and has been trying to get me to take one with her. When her direct efforts weren't paying off, she got my friend Steve to start suggesting it.  Have to give it to them, they tried with lots of enticements. "It's fun!" "It's dark so no one can see if you need to take a rest." "It won't be bad, I swear!" "You can do it with us and your other friends; it will just be a little party." "It's in the afternoon so you can go home right afterwards so no one will see you....

I don't remember when it exactly started but, for years and years, we've used the phrase "Family Fun Center" as code for "There are kids around so stop your damn swearing!"  I think it might have started back when we bowled in a league at The Memorial Union at ASU and there was a couple that had some wildish kids that inspired the swearing. And, using the term "Monkey dust" as a curse. I thought they were awful children at the time but now I think they were just kids trying to have fun while their parents ignored them. As we were driving back to Sea-Tac Airport this weekend, I spotted this on the side of the road and could barely contain myself. Yes, there's a real place called Family Fun Center. Family Fun Center For Reals! Who knew? Actually, I may have known the phrase was based on an existing establishment but forgotten. Those years at ASU were, well, let's just say a while ago and leave it at that.

Three of my colleagues and I have continued our monthly rotation of board games playing during our lunch so I thought it was time for an update on what we've played. With a few exceptions for vacations, we've all played every week. It's been good bonding time and generated some great memories. I think my favorite takeaway over the past few months is my colleague's extreme bitterness on his multi-month second place finish streak. I would have been ecstatic. He was frustrated beyond belief and finally broke it with a first place last week. Evolution Grrr. This game. You build your own species and try to collect the most food for the win. I was pretty good at building my defenses and stuck to the herbivores but one of my colleagues was the king of switching back and forth from carnivores and killed me. Literally, a few times. I never won. I did call my colleagues jerks. A lot. Carcassonne Carcassonne is a tile laying game with meeple placement. Where you put ...

I've seen  Tools of Titans  on several Must Read book lists this year and was intrigued enough to put it on my hold list for the library. Before I could get it, one of my colleagues read it and recommended it highly so I was even more eager to peruse it. Broken into three sections (Healthy, Wealthy and Wise), this book is jam packed with anecdotes, strategies and suggestions made by various "titans" of industry, healthcare, sports, entertainment, science and other fields.  I chose to take my time reading this instead of my usual speed reading rate and took a break about half way through to absorb what I'd learned. I also implemented some takeaways from Ferris' personal daily rituals with my own interpretation. In the morning: List three things you're grateful for. Big or small, write them down and ponder for a few moments on why you're grateful. This was just like the "3 Gratitudes" exercise I did on the blog a few years ago. I...

This text message from my son today sums it up well:  1 more day till football. I'm ready to get mad about fantasy. Here are my drafts from my two leagues. With the #5 pick out of 12 teams: QB Aaron Rodgers (I took him in the first round because he's so dreamy and I wanted to be able to fully root for him and my team). QB Jameis Winston RB Jay Ajayi (my #2 pick who's not playing week 1 thanks to Hurricane Irma #firstworldproblems) RB Mark Ingram RB Darren Sproles RB Robert Kelley ( I literally didn't know who this was which shows how little attention I pay to the Redskins) RB Alfred Blue (my last pick and a total throwaway who is also hurt so a total throwaway) WR TY Hilton WR DeAndre Hopkins (totally disappointed me last year so why not let him hurt me again?) WR Emmanuel Sanders WR Kenny Britt WR Mohamed Sanu TE Delanie Walker D Kansas City K Matt Bryant I have the projected #1 WB, K and D. How can I possibly lose? With the #11 pick out of 12 t...

I rarely work from home. My reasoning is that I love people and go nuts being by myself all day (unless I'm reading a book then I don't need ANYONE). Secondly, because I have too many meetings that I need to be physically present for (we don't do remote stuff beyond conference calling for the most part). But, truly, it's so that I don't off my cat out of pure frustration. Here's how a typical work attempt goes: I sit down at the table and open my laptop. Starbuck jumps on the table, steps on to the laptop and tries to head butt her way into getting me to pet her. I push her off on to the floor and try to resume work. She immediately jumps back up on the table, steps on the laptop and tries to head butt her way into getting me to pet her. I pick her up and drop her on to the floor. She immediately jumps back up on the table, steps on the laptop and tries to head butt her way into getting me to pet her. I pick her up and drop her more forcibly on th...