An Arizona Cheesehead's Thoughts

Fugitive: A Novel by Phillip Margolin My rating: 3 of 5 stars Solid Margolin read featuring lawyer Amanda Jaffre who's offered big money to defend a former prison inmate turned guru on a murder charge. To add spice to the pot, the dude's been living in Africa under a psychotic dictator who's after him for sleeping with his wife. Also, the murder victim's wife was once involved with Amanda's father. Some decent twists and turns but I had the final reveal figured out really early in the book. Kind of a bummer. View all my reviews >>

1. The roundest knight at King Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference. He acquired his size from too much pi. 2. I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian . 3. She was only a whiskey maker, but he loved her still. 4. A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class, because it was a weapon of math disruption. 5. No matter how much you push the envelope, it'll still be stationery. 6. A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering. 7. A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blownapart. 8. Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie. 9. A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall.. The police are looking into it. 11. Atheism is a non-prophet organization. 12. Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway. One hat said to the other: 'You stay here; I'll go on a head.' 13. I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me. 14. A sign ...

Our company was founded in the 70s and there are still a few people working here from back in the day and a little later than that. One of my favorite peeps just celebrated her 25th Anniversary last week. Wow. That's more than a lifetime for a lot of our employees. There was a great party for her. She's a big Francophile who visits France nearly every year. Our biggest meeting room got turned into a little slice of Paris in her honor. Mood lighting, Impressionist paintings on the wall, Eiffel tower table decorations…it looked awesome! The food was great, too. No Costco carrot cake for her. There was Brie, various shortbreads, fruit, nuts, chocolates in various flavors and shapes (including the Eiffel Tower), veggies and I don't know what else. I had to have a choco Eiffel Tower and tried some of the breads. Good stuff. The guests ran the gamut from the CEO and his wife to people who work in the production area. We have a lot of folks from Africa and Indonesia and...

I was heading out of my condo complex on the way to the grocery store when I noticed a guy standing a few feet away from the row of cars parked on the side of the street. He was actually somewhat in the middle of the street. As I got closer, I thought, "Am I really seeing what I think I'm seeing?" Yeah, um, he was peeing in the middle of the street. In broad daylight on a Sunday afternoon. I guess he really had to go. Funny, though, he could have stepped back about 10 feet and had bushes and walls to disguise what he was doing.

On the Grind: A Shane Scully Novel by Stephen J. Cannell My rating: 3 of 5 stars The latest in the Shane Scully series has Scully getting drummed out of the LAPD for felony misconduct in a solicitation for hire case and separated from his wife for sleeping with the starlet accused of trying to kill her rich husband. With no other jobs on the horizon, Scully ends up in Haven Park, a small incorporated city near downtown L.A. Of course, he's soon up to his neck in gun running, police corruption and the attempted murder of a Mayoral candidate. Cannell always puts out quality products and this was a good entry in the series though I felt the end was a little rushed. View all my reviews >>

So pretty, so addictive I finally broke down and joined the leagues of BlackBerry owners yesterday. Despite mocking many people over the past few years for their Crackberry habits, I couldn't resist any longer. Here's how it went down… The first thing that led me down the path was that my friend Annette got data on her phone. Annette who was totally out of date on her electronic communications was actually more wired in than I was. It almost killed me. But, I talked myself out of upgrading when I realized I could get Facebook and Twitter updates as text messages on my current phone. Oh, my text message count last month? About 2,600 including pictures. No, I'm not a teenage girl but I have stayed in a Holiday Inn Express. The next thing that pushed me was that uploading pictures via picture messages to Facebook stopped working. That was a major bummer because I liked to be able to do updates from my many travels to make people feel like they're right there with me ...

Some companions and I enjoyed a lovely Sunday afternoon visit at Cheuvront's in downtown Phoenix. They had Happy Hour pricing on some items: 25% off wine and $5 special Mojitos and Martinis. Of course, I had wine and it was lovely but two of my friends tried the Mojitos and liked them very much. We stayed for dinner and the food was great. One companion and I split the Prosciutto Fig Tart appetizer(Prosciutto, Mascarpone and Fresh Fig Wrapped in a Puff Pastry Topped with a Honey Balsamic Drizzle), Chicken entrée (Parmesan Crusted Breast of Chicken with Housemade Gnocci, Wilted Arugula and Served with a Lemon Caper Beurre Blanc) and Pumpkin Bread Pudding for dessert. There was plenty of food for both of us. The fig was great and the chicken was awesome – really moist and flavorful. I've had their bread pudding a few times and am never disappointed in it. Yummers. The others in my party partook of Housemade Sizzled Gnocchi (Sizzled Gnocchi with Butternut Squash, Arugula,...

I recently had the chance to check out two exhibits at the Phoenix Art Museum . The big one was Phantom Sightings – Art After The Chicano Movement. There were some great pieces. I really like the bold colors that a lot of the artists used. Julio Cesar Morales had a set of drawings based on actual pictures taken from people getting busted for trying to cross the border. Picture someone curled up in the glove box, sitting in the shape of a car seat under the leather, etc. Those people were clearly willing to live with a lot of discomfort in their attempt to get in to the U.S. I don't remember who had my favorite work but it was a huge American flag made out of anti-immigration post cards. Very interesting and thought provoking. The other exhibit was Locals Only that featured 12 Chicano and Latino artists from the Phoenix area. It was an interesting mix of quite contemporary work (some featuring comic book hero characters) and historical photos with some really clever captions. ...

Oy, I feel so badly about not putting consistently witty posts out here. Or, at least consistent posts. I've got lots of them half written in my head but no time to get them posted. Here's what's going on: work, club stuff, poker, Facebook (including Mafia Wars and Pirates), Twitter (oh, that Brent Spiner!), dating, book club, family events (July is a killer - 3 birthdays and my parents' anniversary) and the usual out of town trip that I seem to take every month. Here's what else that I'm not doing because of the above: reading (unless it's for work or book club), watching or even reading about NASCAR, housework, exercising, cooking, watching TV and sleeping. Ah, sleeping. I remember when I was good to go on 6 hours a night. Now, I feel like I'm lucky if I get 5 uninterrupted hours. Another neglected activity is playing with my baby. George doesn't know if I'm coming or going but she knows the going part isn't good. When I am home, it...

Flint by Paul Eddy My rating: 3 of 5 stars Flint was a book club choice that this month's moderator heard about (in a roundabout fashion) via NPR. The hope was to select a book with a strong heroine. Grace Flint filled the bill. This is a cop/spy story and Flint goes underground to track down a really bad dude from her past. Trying to track her down and save her (the cops don't know for sure why she's missing) are a collection of British and U.S. secret service types.Flint's a flawed character with a horrific past who survived a brutal beating while being undercover. She has to fight her inner demons while not being able to trust nearly everyone around her. Being a spy story, of course there are bad guys working in the government out to get her so she decides to go on her own. I found it interesting that several people in my group were truly disturbed by the violence in this book. I read so many of these stories that it didn't seem that bad to me. I'd t...

I was recently introduced to a very nice restaurant, The Keg Steakhouse and Bar . One has been open at Tempe Marketplace for a while but I'd heard it was pricey so hadn't checked it out. A friend suggested we do dinner there and, being a Type A, he made reservations. It was a Sunday night and the reservation was not needed but it did get us a nice corner table. The décor is very pleasant – dark wood, white linen tablecloths and fancy enough to be romantic but not overwhelmingly so. I was immediately impressed with the menu as they offered to cook beef Blue Rare (Cool, blue, all the way through.) That is just how I like my cow! I ordered the Three Mushroom Sirloin (A perfectly grilled top sirloin with sautéed portabella, shiitake and button mushrooms in a balsamic cream sauce, according to the menu). It was quite yummy and came with a loaded potato. My friend had the Prime Rib and that was also good. The prices were not outrageous except for the wine list. I felt there w...

I love playing games. Card games, board games, puzzles, etc., not physical make you sweat games. The former are all fun. However, it seems like all I play lately is Poker with the occasional game of Euchre. My choice for the most part but I also lacked someone to play with. Recently, a friend of mine and I have started spending our evenings playing games. Of course, we played head to head Hold 'Em because I am all about poker. The first night we played, I dominated him. In his defense, he got crappy cards the whole night. The second night, we played to a tie. I know, hard to fathom that the super-competitive person that I am would accept a tie but I was good with it. We also played Megiddo . That's a game from my college years that my best friend Andy and I used to play. It's like Pente and it requires some lateral thinking. My friend had never even heard of it and he started beating me right away (until the alcohol kicked in then I took advantage of his less th...

The Rocket Scientist, Crime Dog and TFMCD caravaned up to Utah for a house concert with Brent Burns. CD and TFMCD broke away from us at Beaver, UT so they could go to the Cache Valley Cheese Factory. I was all over with the "buy me some curds!" request. There's nothing like the squeaky cheese. It reminds me of the homeland and my family always brings some back at AZ after visiting Wisconsin. They came through with a bag of fresh curds. And, yes, they squeaked when we ate them. I broke them out at the concert to share with my phellow cheesehead, Sue, who now lives in SLC. Yummy! The bag ended up spending a few days in TRS's fridge then another few days in another friend's fridge before I got it home. They're still tasty, but no longer squeaky. :-(

A few of the gang decided to get together last night. It was actually Annette's idea so she picked the place. She decided the Teakwoods on Ray and Kyrene (so she said). Being the stickler (and easily lost), I had her email me the address which I passed on to the gang. Unfortunately, the address she gave me was for a Teakwoods on Ray and 38th St. And, it's no longer a Teakwoods, either. The Rocket Scientist and Pirate Captain got there first and TRS sent me a text with the name change. Very helpful. Thrill called me as I was heading over and I gave him the name update. We both got there without problems. It looked like Unruly Julie had some difficulty getting there, though. I wasn't there yet to hear the conversation between the Pirate Captain and her as she was trying to find the place but you could almost see the steam coming off of her when she did arrive. So, that made 5 out of 6 there. But, no Annette who called the party. I sent her a text, "where are yo...

My latest foray into the world of organic produce isn't going so well. I cleaned out the fridge to find out what died in there and it was more a case of what hadn't died. Carrots, tomatoes, a cucumber, two heads of lettuce, squash…all were goopy messes. What a waste. I haven't been home enough to cook so the veggies aren't getting used. I do get through the fruit because I take it to work for my afternoon snack. My new plan of action is to have veggie breakfasts. Today's breakfast was chard (cooked with two slices of bacon because everything is good with bacon). Tomorrow's may be salad as I need to get through the lettuce. Next delivery day is this Thursday. Time to get disciplined and to plan out some meals. Oh, and to stay home to have the meals. Sigh.

I was quite saddened to read in this morning's paper that Frank McCourt passed away. Angela's Ashes was an amazing book, the more so because it was non-fiction. It should be required reading for anyone who thinks they're "poor". Most of us will never know poor like McCourt's family did. It certainly makes you appreciate your life and admire what he did with his despite his upbringing. Sail on, Frank.

We've been eagerly awaiting the latest Harry Potter movie for frakking ever. The studio pushed it from last November to this July to maximize sales. I don't know if that was necessary because the HP fans are going to go regardless of what else is playing. This year, I decided to not do the midnight showing. Actually, it was Sugar Daddy who decided. He said he's too old for that. So, The Rocket Scientist and some of my chick poker pals and I got tickets to the Cine Capri at Tempe Marketplace for the 7 PM showing last night. For the out of towners , that's the biggest theater screen in Arizona (30 by 70) and it's an awesome venue to see a flick. Chris got there at 4:15 to get in line so we had perfect seats. Fourth row from the rail and dead center. The theater was buzzing though there weren't many costumed folks. I'm guessing they went at midnight. It seemed like it took forever for the actual movie to start but, once it did, I found myself a bit am...

Yes, it's another love story about Facebook… Last weekend, The Rocket Scientist and I drove up and back from Utah. That's a lot of car time to fill. He does all of the driving and is less interested in talking than I am. And, let's face it, not even I can talk for 10 ½ hours straight which is what it took to get home. I usually read and sleep. I finished my book on the way up but I forgot my pillow. It's not easy trying to sleep in the front seat of a Jeep Wrangler without a pillow so I was at a loose end. OK, not exactly. I had my phone and it has Facebook Mobile on it. I spent most of the drive updating my status with where we were and what we were seeing. I'm sure there were some people who weren't happy about the constant additions to their news feeds but there were a BUNCH who were following and commenting on nearly every status. It was so fun. I felt like we were in one big chat room and I kept TRS updated so he could feel like it, too. Crime Dog ...

Undead and Unworthy by MaryJanice Davidson My rating: 3 of 5 stars Despite the fact that there's lots of sex and violence in these books, I think of them as Vampire Light. I think it's because the heroine is not exactly a ditz but also not all on the ball. And the other characters are, well, characters. Regardless, these books are fun and quick reads. This one finds Betsy discovering new powers, being haunted, asked to look for a serial killer and attacked by The Fiends. Plenty of action with still a lot of unanswered questions at the end to be followed up on in future books. View all my reviews >>

My Mom's birthday is Friday but I'm going to be out of town so we celebrated it tonight. I said I would take us all out to dinner if she picked the place. I knew what would actually happen is that Steven would tell her what place to pick but at least a decision would be made. We ended up at our traditional birthday restaurant, The Outback. Steven mauled the loaf of bread and demanded a Bloomin ' Onion. He also ordered a big Miller Lite which is not like him. My Mom stuck with her usual Raspberry iced tea but still had to ask the server if they had flavored teas and what the flavors are. We really go there a lot and she always orders the same beverage but, OK, whatever. I decided to order a glass of their house Cabernet so I said to the server, "I'll have the Cab". She asked if I wanted the Jacob whatever it was and I said yes. Shorty then said, "I'll have a tab." Huh? The server, Steven and I all just looked at him in bewilderment . He...