An Arizona Cheesehead's Thoughts

I think I may be traveling too much. I can't even get the stories from my trips told before I'm off on another journey. I still have San Carlos stories to tell and I'm leaving for Key West tomorrow morning. Steven is unhappy with me since it's his only day off this week and I'm making him take me to the airport at 7:30 AM. He's even more unhappy that he has to pick me up next Tuesday at 12:15 AM and has to be to work at 6. I suppose I should feel sorry for him but I don't. He'll end up with something pretty as a souvenir so all will be well. I hit Atlanta tomorrow afternoon to switch planes. On the flight to Key West, I'm going to joined by my Utah friends. I have a feeling that I will be feeling mighty good by the time I hit the runway in Key West. Cheap Bastard and Annette are flying into Lauderdale and should hit Key West about when I do, unless they get lured by the siren song of Alabama Jack's or some other bar on the trip down. By this time

8:30 is very, very early when you've passed out, er, I mean, gone to bed at 3:30. I managed to drag my butt out of bed, get packed and my bag loaded on the bus without too much difficulty. I clearly wasn't thinking too well, though. I had to pay for the driver's room as well as my own. I got his keys from him and checked out at the desk. "I'm checking out rooms 620 and 616, please." The clerk processed the bills and had me sign them both. Fortunately, I looked at them (after signing, of course) and one of them was only for one night. At first, I thought maybe they had comped one of the driver's rooms which would have been sweet. No such luck. Turned out, I checked out the wrong room and it was some guy from Utah (not any of my homies, though). They had to uncheck him out then check out 612 which was the driver's actual room. At least, I remembered my own room number. We got the bus loaded up and were ready to pull out promptly at 10. I did a headcount,

At least, the only reason for me to watch the Arizona Cardinals. They're playing the Pack today. It's a nice change watching the Packers win this season...so, thanks, Cards!

The Wish List is another Eoin Colfer creation. The main character is Meg Flynn, an Irish girl whose Mother has passed away and whose Step-Father is pretty much an uncaring, lazy slob. Meg breaks into an old man's house with a neighborhood small-time hood named Belch but things take a dark turn. Meg and Belch end up dying. On the way to heaven, it's discovered that Meg's soul is equally balanced between good and evil so she's sent back to Earth to try to make amends to the old man from the break-in. If she helps him complete his Wish List (things he regrets never doing), she gets to heaven. If she fails, it's to the other side. Satan and Beelzebub conspire against her by sending Belch's spirit to stop her from completing her task. As with his other books, Colfer doesn't talk down to his audience. The situations and characters are realistic (I know, Satan and St Peter might seem more like fantasy material but they're well constructed here) and intelligent

I really like Eoin Colfer's books. His Artemis Fowl series about an adolescent master thief is very entertaining, and though written for kids, gives the reading audience credit for being intelligent. Since his books are classified as "Juvenile", they're in the kids' section at our library. To get to them, I had to cross the bridge across a moat and enter the "castle" which is where all of the kid selections are kept. I felt like a dork. However, it's not the first time I've felt that way and won't be the last... Digression now over, let me talk about the book. The hero, Fletcher Moon, is a pint sized, officially certified detective (he had to lie about his age to get his badge, though). He gets pulled into a series of mysteries in his small, Irish town and has to team up with one of the "bad" kids from a known criminal family to solve the ever enlarging lists of mysteries. Great book! The kids are refreshingly intelligent, very awa

Judge & Jury is the latest collaboration from James Patterson and Andrew Gross. It's the story of the pursuit of justice against a vicious crime boss by an FBI Agent and a juror from the boss' first trial. I don't want to give away any plot points because there are some real surprises in the book. Good read and quite an enjoyable way to pass the afternoon. I give it a thumbs up.

After a very refreshing night's sleep, the Babes and I had an early lunch in the Hooter's restaurant. The food was OK and I'm sure watching the waitresses playing kickball with a beach ball would have been very entertaining if we'd been boys. As it was, I was too worried about getting bopped in the head. The Babes headed downtown and I went out by the pool for the festivities out there. A lot of our gang was already gathered and I was butterflying around when The Jello-Shot Prince sidled up and said the magic words, "I was thinking of playing some blackjack." I was off like a shot! I didn't get to the table right away, however. I got stopped to give the club url to some guy named Laurence who lives in Phoenix and that some of the group were chatting with. I gave him my club email address on there which is wino@... and he jumped all over it. "I want to buy you a glass of wine!" With that, he dragged me off to the outside bar where we found that th

Sin City not only took my money...it took my voice. I was squeaky all day, much to the amusement of my co-workers. That's what I get for singing and drinking for hours on end.

We had a great time on our Vegas trip...as if there were any doubt. Despite a bunch of people getting stuck in traffic on the 101 on Friday morning, we still managed to leave on schedule from the NW Valley by 8:15. Bus Virgins We had a lot of Bus Virgins on the Jello-Shot Express this time. 15 out of the 31 on board hadn't made the trip with us before. I had big badges for them and said they had to wear them until Midnight on Friday. It shows how much power I have, some of them had them off before we hit Wickenburg. Virgin Badge We were into the Jello by the time we hit I-17. Inger, one of the Bus Virgins was celebrating her birthday and Sonja had made her a multi-tiered Jello cake. Each layer was a different color and all of them included alcohol. After a group singing of Happy Birthday, we all dug in. Happy Birthday, Inger! A digression...for a group of people who got together because of a musician, I find it highly ironic that so many of us are actually really bad singers. I rea

I am officially caught up on Lost . I've watched every episode since last January (excluding all but one recap) and caught last night's episode tonight. Of course, getting there meant I did nothing else at home except watch TV but, hey, you gotta do what you gotta do. As a matter of fact, I only have 2 shows in all on my DVR at the moment. Friday Night Lights and Ugly Betty . Both are from this week. My OCD makes me want to watch them tonight so I can completely clear out the DVR but I need to get some sleep since I'm leaving for Vegas tomorrow morning which will require leaving my house by 6. Of course, I'm not packed at all. And, I need to stop and pick up some Miller Lite for the road in the AM. Don't worry, I'm not driving. We've actually chartered a bus so drinking is allowed. Even encouraged, as a matter of fact. No worries, though. The alarm is set for 5 and it only takes me 1/2 hour to shower, do my hair and makeup and get on the road. I&#

I took what I call a "Disconnect Day" on Sunday. I only checked email once, went to the grocery and made a quick trip to Mervyn's. Other than that, I pretty much sat on the couch in front of the TV and went through the shows on my DVR. Once I got caught up on all of my current viewing, I still had 19 recordings left. All of them were episodes of Lost . See, this is what happened. When I moved last year, I had one day without TV and it happened to be Wednesday so I missed an episode of Lost. Sugar Daddy downloaded it for me but it meant I would have to watch it on my laptop. I don't know why, exactly, but I just couldn't make myself do that. However, I did record the rest of the season's episodes (and the beginning of this season) and they've been sitting out there on my DVR ever since. Sugar Daddy and my friend Andrea have been on me because they can't talk about the show since I'm not caught up. For Sugar Daddy's birthday this month, one of hi

While we were driving down to San Carlos, the subject of the Arizona Cardinals came up. I said, "I really admire the optimism of the Cardinal fans but, when you're in an abusive relationship, eventually you just need to get out of it." Everyone busted up, including Louie who, unbeknownst to me, is a Cards Fan. Last night, I was talking to Mary O on the phone and she was watching the game. She picked the Bears in her suicide pool this week so she was getting pretty concerned as the Cardinals kept scoring. I'd put a lot of confidence points in our Parrot Head pool on the Bears but I wasn't worried at all. I've been through too many Cardinal football seasons around here to have any expectations that they'll do well. It seems like they go above and beyond the call of duty...to lose. Last night was no exception. It took a lot of effort to lose that lead but, by God, they managed. I feel bad for the Cards fans...but, come on people, did you really expect it to b

Our friends, Tom and PJ, are living the life. They bought a boat and are now calling Trinidad their home base. Cool. They come back to visit based on the season and were here for Parrot Grande but told Mark they had to head back before Mulligan's Island Fest. He was sooo bummed. They lied. Everyone else knew they were going to San Carlos and heading back to their boat this week. Mark was clueless until he showed up at Froggy's on Thursday night and PJ walked up to him. It was too funny. He called her a beyatch for making him look stupid since he had no idea at all that they were going to make it. I didn't help when I added that it was kinda easy to make him look stupid. I was kidding, of course. They really put a lot of work into the surprise and he shouldn't have been embarrassed at falling for it at all. Surprise! Mark was playing at Froggy's every Tuesday night before Adela's accident. He hadn't been back to visit since and there were lots of locals and I

Traveling to San Carlos is not bad at all. There's a divided highway most of the way through Mexico and, while the shoulders are nearly non-existent, you can pass slower moving traffic pretty easily. The only part of it that I wouldn't want to drive is through Hermosillo. Yikes! Very busy, very congested, little regard for traffic signals. The Border crossing was easy, too. We just needed our driver to fill out a form and we were good to go. I didn't even need to show my birth certificate that I so carefully packed. Having said all that, it was still an adventure. We had 2 SUVs with 6 people in each in our caravan. I was riding with Louie, Donna, Tom, PJ and Connie in Louie and Donna's son-in-law's Excursion. Between our luggage, Louie's golf clubs and the stuff that Mom Mulligan asked us to take down to Mark, it was pretty crowded in the back. It was basically stacked to the roof of the car. I sat in the third seat with some suitcases and snack bags and whatnot

Got this quiz from Shannon. I have to admit there's some big old grains of truth in the results. Though, not completely. Here are my results: You are constantly hoping that your good fellowship and attitude and your 'love for your fellow man (or women)' will give you peace of mind. You need people - people around you to care for you and to show you that they care. It is this hope that keeps you going, the hope that makes you the type of person that indeed you are. Your own need for approval seemingly makes you always ready to help others and in exchange you seek love, warmth and understanding. You will always listen to others and you are open to new ideas which hopefully will prove fruitful and interesting. You are looking for excitement and stimulation and you are ready to try anything - but be careful not to take too many risks. The present situation, not of your making, is forcing you to compromise. You will have to hold back and forgo some of your hopes, dreams and a

First, I have to say that I hope you all don't miss me too much after I move to San Carlos, Mexico. I've given it a ton of thought (since Thursday) and I think it's where I need to be. Ocean with incredibly clear water, bars, mountains, cacti, bars, great seafood, my bud Mark Mulligan and some great bars. What more would I need? Well, I guess I would need a job and a new hair do that doesn't go poodle on me in the humidity and a better Spanish accent and a place to live... OK, I have some details to work out on this plan. Stay tuned. Seriously, it's absolutely gorgeous down there. Mark's been trying to get me to visit for years and I'm kicking myself that I waited this long. There are lots of ex-patriated Americans down there who have made a great, welcoming and friendly community and the locals were friendly as well. I'll post some of the stories shortly but it's back to the daily grind for now. Three days out of the office is killing me. However, w

I leave tomorrow morning for Mulligan's Island Fest in San Carlos, Mexico. It's a five day trip. I need to be at Connie's by 6:30 AM. It's now 11 PM and I haven't packed one blessed thing. You'd think I would learn, but no. Instead of coming home after work and packing, I got my hair done. I have my priorities and, apparently, being blonde is right up there. I do know where my birth certificate is, though, so I got that going for me. Catch you all on next week.

Saturday evening found me in the beautiful Ahwatukee Foothills for another great house concert at John and Jeanne Combo's. The performers were a duo called Wishing Chair . Wishing Chair's two members are Kiya Heartwood from Kentucky and Miriam Davidson currently from Kentucky via Long Island and Pennsylvania. They are very talented, witty and fun to watch. Kiya played guitar and drummed on a cooler and the speaker pole while Miriam played accordion, banjo and drum. They did a lot of original stuff and it was, by turns, touching and clever. They also performed a few tunes passed down through the centuries. Kiya wrote a tune about Calamity Jane that I really dug. The highlight was their audience participation game. They asked someone to give them a nursery rhyme and style of music and they would combine the two. It was really funny. Watching a folk singer transform to metal head and Calypso singer was quite entertaining. Since I work the door at these shows, they thanked me with

Norene and I went to the Desert Diamond Casino to see the Oak Ridge Boys on Friday night. The casino is south of Tucson by way of the Nogales Highway. I swear, we were nearly to Nogales by the time we got there. It's that long of a drive. We got there at 7 for an 8 PM show. Since we had an hour, we decided to grab a bite to eat so we looked at a few eateries in the casino. One of them looked to be a sit down place but the other was a Taqueria. Just what we were looking for. It was one of those places where you go through the line, get your food from the people behind the counter, got your drink then went to the register. Pretty simple concept. We headed in and got in line. And waited. And waited some more. There were two people working the line (oh, so very slowly) and a third at the register. The people at the front of the line had clearly been there a long time because they started nibbling on the food as soon as they got it. Obviously, they were starving. There was a couple in f

Here's something you should not do. Put a 24 ounce plastic bottle of Diet Pepsi in the freezer to chill it faster. Forget about the bottle overnight. Put it in your fridge in the morning to melt it. Knock it out of the fridge that night while reaching for something else. Because, here's what happens. The bottle will plummet to the floor and explode upon contact with your kitchen tile. It will spew Diet Pepsi all over your countertop, shirt (how can it even get that high up?), fridge, cupboards, legs and feet, and end up putting masses of liquid and ice chips of soda all over your floor. I guess I really have to mop my floor now. Maybe tomorrow...

I honestly don't know why some people keep telling me that I'm becoming a Conservative Republican... You Are a Liberal for Life You've got a bleeding heart - and you're proud of it. For you, liberal means being compassionate, pro-government, and anti-business. You believe in equality for every person, and you consider yourself universally empathetic. Helping others is not just political for you ... it's very personal too. What's Your Political Persuasion? Got this from The Gun Toting Liberal .