An Arizona Cheesehead's Thoughts

Most of 2020 sucked. But, there were some good moments that made memories to cling to. I'm going to review some of those moments from each month. (Disclaimer - my memory isn't what it used to be so this is my story and I'm sticking to it regardless of reality.) The home improvements continued in March. More complaining from Steven continued as well. Bzzzz. Bzzzz. Party lights on the back patio. Solar lights on the driveway and front patio. Hanging the lights was easy. The front lights were more challenging. Apparently, my front yard is a shallow layer of gravel on top of packed dirt impersonating concrete. Steven ended up digging holes with a screwdriver then shoving the bases of the lights in while I followed behind and attached the actual light part. It looks great except that I think all of the batteries (yep, solar lights with batteries) have worn out now so I need to replace them. It sure made my house easier to find at night. As is my way, I waited until the last minu...

I'm slowly cleaning out my desk at work taking an hour here and an hour there. While I know  I'm a packrat, I still surprise myself with how long I keep things so this could be a very long process. For an example of how ridiculous I am, last week I found printed emails from 1999. No lie. This week's find was one that took me on a journey to the past. Yes, turn of the century past. (Am I the only one who hears "turn of the century" and think it refers to 1900?) Back when I lived my life on paper. And, on a school calendar schedule. While these planners did go into the garbage, it was not until after I read through them. What did I learn? I used to go to a lot of meetings. I go to even more now. Man, that Mark Mulligan must be one heck of a great performer because I saw him dozens and dozens of time. Not only on weekends but on lots of school nights. Probably when my poor sleeping habits started. That guy owes me. My range of establishments I frequent...

I've been in Key West before during the World Series. As I recall, we might have stopped in to a bar to check out part of a game here or there. But, I never really cared who won because my team wasn't in it. Until this year! We were at an event during Game 7 and I kept sneaking peeks at my phone for a score check. I felt pretty good about it all when it was 5-1 and even offered to stay for a Q&A session if my friend Jim wanted to but he was a great human and said, "I think we should go watch the game." By the time we got to the sports bar to watch the game, it was 5-3. Yikes. We bellied up to the bar next to my new best friend in a Cubs jersey and watched every play with great anticipation. A text from friends during the rain delay led us to the next bar. My new best friend in the Cubs jersey said, "No offense, but I'm happy you're leaving. Things started going bad when you got here." I couldn't blame him. We pulled in to the ne...

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...

The law firm that my company uses offered two tickets to our VP of HR for tonight's game. She was going to be out of town and I can only surmise that no one in HR wanted to use them because they got offered to me. They weren't just any tickets - they were for the party suite. Free food and booze! How can one say no to that? Steven and I went to the game hoping that the DBacks would clinch the NL West while we were there. The magic number was only 1 so we just needed to beat the Giants tonight. I must confess, I was a little nervous. The Giants got a lot of hits (9 in 7 innings) off of our starting pitcher but only managed one run. It might have been enough because Arizona kept stranding base runners. It was painful. However, the boys came through with they tying run in the 7th and tagged on 2 runs in the 8th to move us ahead. The end of the game was awesome with JJ Putz doing what he's been doing all season - kicking ass and taking names. It was so fun to see all of the...

I went to the DiamondBacks game this afternoon with some work buds and, because you can't help but hear the people behind you, I caught bits of what was being said. It wasn't so much what was being said, though, it was how. I thought, "They're Canadian." Then, I thought, "They're from Calgary." One of the women just had the exact accent I associate with Calgary. Although I probably would have asked them at some point, after I heard her mention Stampede, I turned around and asked "Are you from Calgary?" I explained that I'm up there a lot for work and that their accent was evident. The woman joked that they don't have an accent but clearly I had called her out. We chatted for a bit. The one couple was from Calgary and the other was from Vancouver (or North Seattle as my friend Tim and I refer to it). It's funny how you can tune in to an accent. I can tell Minnesota, North Dakota, Chicago (which is different from the rest ...

I must be doing something right at the day job. Early this morning, I got an email from one of our VPs asking if I would like two tickets to the Diamondbacks next Friday. Not just any tickets, mind you. Suite tickets with food and drink. I thought for about half a minute (the time it took me to see if I had something on my calendar) then gratefully accepted. Steven was almost as fast at replying to my text to see if he wanted to go with me. He's mandated a rule where any sporting event tickets I get from work have to be offered to him first. He made that rule after I won playoff tickets to see the Cardinals and Green Bay two seasons ago. I'm currently letting him think I'm following the rule but baseball is kind of our thing (well, so is football) so I would have invited him first anyway. Hopefully, the DBacks will have clinched by then but, if not, it could be a pretty important game since they're playing the Giants. This won't be my only game next week. Tw...

I was in another building yesterday for 2 ½ hours while one of my work buds was stalking my desk. Since he’s not very quiet, everyone knew he was looking for me. I got told several times after I got back that he’d been around and found a note on my pad “Where are you?” After a one minute stop at my desk, I went into another meeting and he cruised by again. One of my team told me afterwards that she was surprised he just didn’t bust in on my current meeting because he could see me through the window. I returned to my desk and found new notes on my desk. Some of my peers are doing a presentation and asked us to keep a list of Task/Goals for the week then record any interruptions that we encountered. Under the task list, I had the new items of “Day Dreaming”, “Surf Internet” and “Go Home”. Under the interruptions, I had “No interruptions because I can’t be found!!” Excuse me for being value added and that people want to talk to me! I really do have too many meetings. Eight this week dur...

I didn't see this many Brewers games in the entire time I lived in Milwaukee as I have this week! OK, granted I only lived there from birth to age 5 but still. Two baseball games in one week is a lot for me. Our seats this time were courtesy of old family friends from Port Washington. They have great seats in the front row in right field. They're really close to the visitor's bullpen and you get a great view of the right fielder's butt. Of course, sometimes that's not a good thing depending on whose out there. In addition to our two old friends, my parents and Steven went to the game, too. I came straight from work and timed it perfectly for a 6:40 start. Shorty made Steven leave for the game at 5 and, let's just say, after that much time shepherding my parents to the game and their seats, Steven was damn glad to have me there for company and support. Our view. Corey Hart Of course, every time I heard Hart's name or saw his jersey (and not bad butt)...

I went to the Diamonbacks - Brewers game on Monday night. My buddy and I decided to splurge on good seats so we were in section 120 which is just two over from home plate on the first base side. I can’t remember the last time I was so nervous! There were foul balls galore. They were raining down in the sections all around us and bouncing off the upper deck back into those sections. Every crack of the bat made me flinch. One thing I consistently do is tell my baseball companion that it’s his/her obligation catch or deflect the foul balls before they can injure me. I should also tell them to remember where I parked the car but, just like I can’t remember where the car is, I can’t remember to tell them that. My buddy, Tim, is a hockey goalie so I felt pretty good that he would keep me safe. We had one near miss to the left of us that was close but not close enough to catch. But, just as he was coming back from getting beers, one came right down the aisle to his left. He reached out to get...

I tried. I really did. Every day I would read my new prompt from the #Trust30 gang that I was supposed to write about and, after just the first few, thought it was just like the last prompt, and the one before that. They were all about what's holding you back and how are you going to overcome that obstacle and what's your dream and how are you going to achieve it. Really, just a lot of differently worded ways of saying the same thing. Since I don't have 30 different obstacles and dreams, I stopped paying strict attention, especially when I was out of town. So, to be fair, there may have been some other themes that I missed. This was the post-30 day email and, when I read it, I thought "this is the stuff that should have been going on all along." Because it's interesting, possibly offers a teaching/learning moment and still lets you express your individuality based on what you choose to write about. #Trust30 Carries On! Congrats on completing 30 days of writi...

I needed a charmed night and I got one. Yay, me! Shorty's brother, Bill, came out for a long weekend. Today is Grandpa Albert's (their Dad's) birthday and they decided to celebrate it at a Diamondbacks game. Hmmm. I never knew Grandpa was in to baseball but apparently he was and even refereed. So, the whole family went. I met them at the game and we had fabulous seats, courtesy of Uncle Bill. They were in the lower level just past the third base dugout. The roof was open and the weather was gorgeous. Steven and I got delegated to make the food and drink run, courtesy of all the money in Shorty's wallet. We ordered up a combo of dogs and brats, a tea for my Mom and Miller Lites for Uncle Bill and me then Steven made another run to get sodas for him and Shorty. The nice man at the concession stand broke the rules and let me buy two big beers at once even though Steven left his ID at home so we only had one ID between us. We settled in to watch the DBacks against the Phill...

It's Opening Day already. Where did Spring Training go? Usually, I get to 1 or 2 games but not this year. Just too dang busy. Steven and I did go to the last DiamondBacks game on Saturday. It was against the Cubs and at Chase Field. It was a beautiful day that we started by meeting our friend Chris at Coach and Willie's for lunch. Steven had a burger that was so good that he was still talking about it yesterday. I enjoyed a very tasty Italian Chopped Salad. It's a great place to hang before a game and the weather on the patio was nearly perfect. I would have preferred to sit in the sun for a little more warmth but Steven nixed that. Chris was dressing in Cubs stuff and Steven in DBacks gear and I, well, I was wearing a plain yellow T-Shirt. Chris said he had wandered what I would wear and recognized the neutrality of my choice. I grew up a Cubs fan but my family and I were at the first Opening Day for DiamondBacks and we've been fans ever since. We left Chr...

The DBacks couldn't even hold it together to make the playoffs. The Cubs are horrible. They lost the first two games of the series AT HOME! I guess I'll have plenty of time for NASCAR and football very, very soon.

I think I'd rather be lucky than good. It seems to work better for me. The Diamondbacks pulled through for me and scored a final score of 1 to fill out my 13 Run Pool. I've got a check for a cool $300 coming my way. Sweet! Through no skill at all, I was a winner. Good luck. We had a couple of raffles at Parrot Grande. There were separate Friday and Saturday raffles and if you bought Mulligans for the golf tourney, you got into another raffle. The Rocket Scientist and I got off the golf course to check the latter raffle's results. I won three prizes. He won none. Good luck for me, not so much for him. I was on my way to check my Friday raffle numbers when I got held up in the restaurant talking to some folks. (I got held up a lot over the weekend and mostly it was in the bar. Coincidence? I think not.) TRS came by after checking his losing numbers so I gave him mine to check. He knew there was at least one winner in there and there was. He came back carrying a...

I'm in a 13 Run Baseball Pool at work. Everyone gets a randomly assigned team and the winner is the person whose team has at least one final score each of 0 to 13. If your team scores 4 twice, it just counts as one 4. I lucked out and got the DBacks this time so I get to watch the home team for two reasons. I was down to needing just two scores after Sunday, an 8 and a 1. I knew the 8 would be easier for those guys and, sure enough, they scored that earlier this week. Last night, I gandered at the score and we were winning 1-0. I didn't get too excited and that's good because they ended up winning 4-1. It was a win for the home team...but, I'd rather have stayed at 1 run. Selfish, I know. Maybe they can beat Florida 1-0 tonight. That would be sweet!

I just turned down a ticket to the DBacks game tonight for George. The Vet said she may have a reaction to her shots and I've been worried all day. I also don't want to leave her home alone until late because of the potential trauma of the morning. Damn, I'm getting soft.

Knocking on wood with one and hand and typing with the other but I think karma has decided I've been punished enough. It wasn't looking good on Wednesday morning. One of my first emails was from the bank letting me know I'd overdrawn my checking account. Dang flat tire. Shoulda used my credit card. Then, I had a potential employee coming in for an interview. Fortunately, he got to the neighborhood early and I had given him my work number because I emailed him the wrong address for our building. I told him the number for our previous building which is across the street and completely unmarked. I felt like a total dope. I did manage to get out of work only a few minutes after I wanted to and I pulled into my carport at 5:30 on the dot which is when I told Norene to be at my house. She was already waiting so we had a beer while we chatted for a while then we headed downtown for Lyle. The concert was at The Dodge and I made a wrong turn on Washington that put me in the b...

I thought Saturday's misadventures were enough drama for the weekend. Apparently, karma didn't because it's gone from bad to worse since then. I had big plans for working around the house on Sunday. Lots of laundry and cleaning topped the list. I started the washer and dumped my sheets in. Fortunately, I went back down the hall for something because there was water coming out from under the washer. I turned it off and threw some towels down to sop it up then sent a text to The Rocket Scientist about it while trying to figure out how much a new stackable unit was going to cost me. After bailing nearly all of the water out and putting my soaked sheets into the bathroom sink, I called Steven and asked him to come over and help me move the washer so we could see if it was a leaking hose. He asked, "Why don't you call The Rocket Scientist?" My reply was to the effect that it's not TSR's job to deal with my every emergency so he needed to come over....

Go here . It's an online petition sponsored by Jim Beam to keep Wrigley Field named, well, Wrigley Field. Robby Gordon's paint scheme for tomorrow's race in Chicago will be promoting this, too. That Robby, he's OK. I mean, he's no Jimmie but then who could be?