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.) April is the month I went hard core online. Our club events and NFW as well as weekly meetings with my friends Crash and Jim,  nearly weekly meetings with the Verzaks and Rodriguezes, Wolf Pack gatherings and my Book Club all became Zoom or Google Meet events. My friend Steve had started a weekly home game on Pokerstars.net  in March and that became a bright light for the end of the work week. I was online meeting tech support more times than I can count and it's a role I continue to play. #blesstheirhearts Why am I not in this one? Oh, well, it was the best I could find of the many screen shots - someone always looks goofy. Some of these events might become permanent. Crash, Jim and I are in three different stat...

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...

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.) January 1, 2020 = NFW How convenient was it that the first day of the year fell on a No Fun Wednesday! Shorty and Steven joined me and the gang at Fatso's. Funny how my usual $13 bill turns into more like $70 when those two are with me. Go Coyotes! My buddy Steve got us fantastic tickets to see the Arizona Coyotes play. We were only a few rows off the ice. We pregamed at Yardhouse where Steve was flummoxed by their many beer selections and ordered the wrong one. Oh, how we mocked. The Coyotes beat the crap out of the Flyers, 6-2. Sweet! Quite the group of athletes! I really only walk when I can get a medal. I still call it the PF Chang's Rock 'n' Roll Marathon. Just like I call Ak-Chin Pavilion, Deser...

Trust me, I have all the emotions about our current situation. I may write them out some day but I think if I do it now, I'll just send myself further down the mental spiral of doom and gloom. Ain't got time for that. I just finished my first full week of mandatory working from home. Fortunately, my entire team is able to do so. We're super busy and we need all hands on deck. I recognize our good fortune. But, what to do once the work day (or night) is over? I already watch too much TV. I read a lot of books. I cook and keep a fairly neat house without needing extra hours. What did I used to do (an ENTIRE week ago?) to fill in the rest of my time? I was with my peeps! Happy Hour, dining out for lunch and dinner and even the occasional breakfast, game lunches and game nights, watching live music, golfing, sporting events, book club and just hanging out. That's what I used to do. I can't help but feel it will be longer than we expect before that all becomes ...

I love football. I love competing against my friends. I tolerate losing when it's my fault. But, when it's out of my control, I go nuts. Which is why I shouldn't play fantasy sports. Yet, I do. In TWO leagues. My first draft was the Sunday before last.  I had the 6th pick in a 12 team PPR league (that only means something to those that play fantasy but that's probably my only readers at this point - Sports Ball!). Here's who I drafted (in order). Ezekiel Elliott Keenan Allen Jerick McKinnon* Royce Freeman Josh Gordon Ronald Jones Corey Davis Sterling Shepard** Matt Ryan*** Jordan Reed Paul Richardson Corey Clement Justin Tucker Tyrod Taylor Broncos D *Frak me. McKinnon went out for the season before it even started! ACL tear. I did a quick pickup of the guy behind him on the depth chart, Alfred Morris. Having written that, other sources say that Matt Breida is the actual guy behind him. I figure I'll see how it rolls out as the season goe...

Back in January of 2017, my friend and colleague Kyle polled our department to see who would like to participate in playing board games once a week during lunch. We started at the end of that month and the group soon settled into the "regulars" - Kyle, Lenny, Brian and me. Occasionally, one of us would be out and someone else would drop in for the week but then it would be back to our gang. #boardgametuesday Kyle, Kathy, Brian and Lenny At one point during our RIF process, I was considering leaving at the end of May so Kyle suggested that I get to pick whatever games I wanted to play for that month. I ended up staying for June and we let Brian pick those since he was also leaving. I lucked out on the math since I got five weeks to pick and he only got four proving, once again, that I am the Princess. World's Fair 1893 I immediately knew which game I wanted to play first. World's Fair 1893 is my game. There's something about that allows me to d...

It took me two work charity golf tournaments to succeed but I won an Amazon Echo and a Dot on Friday. Sweet! Sweet, sweet victory! While I couldn't justify flat out buying them, I could justify buying raffle tickets for the chance to win them. It's all for the kids, after all. For those that know me well, it's probably surprising that I didn't win these last year. Frankly, I should have but here's what happened. I had put all my raffle tickets into the bowl for the Echo and Dot. While there was a lull in the action between morning and afternoon golf, apparently the raffle people were bored and decided to do some "practice" draws. Draw one:  Kathy. "What a surprise. Not." Draw two:  Kathy. "Again?" I don't know how many more they may have done but when it came time for the final draw it went like this: "The winner of the Echo and Dot is....Tina!" Ripoff. I was very clear this year. "No practice shenaniga...

I'm not sure why I continue to participate in NCAA Men's Tournament picks since I rarely pay attention to college ball anymore. Sure, I was all over Arizona State University at the beginning of the season (we were #3!) but then they started being unable to come back from giving away big leads to their opponents and...squirrel! Perhaps only because it's tradition, I started up the Arizona Parrot Head Brackets again this year and promised myself every day that I would start putting thought to my selections. Before I knew it, it was the night before the brackets were closing and I hadn't done a thing. In fact, I went out to dinner, watched ASU tank to Syracuse and said out loud, "I guess I should fill out my bracket soon." The reply I got was, "Yeah, because you're pretty much out of time!" I got home and jumped into bed deciding I could continue to procrastinate until the next morning. But, scanning through email on my phone before I headed to ...

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 ...