An Arizona Cheesehead's Thoughts

I had all sorts of plans for this past weekend. I was going to clean out the closet, finish a couple of books and maybe even pull some weeds in the back patio. Um, yeah, I pretty much did none of that. I started out OK on Saturday trying to finish one of my books. As I lounged on the couch while reading, I had a little case of the eye droops so I decided to take a catnap. It was more of a King of the Jungle nap as I woke up nearly 4 hours later. Pretty much blew the whole afternoon and early evening. Yesterday, I did manage to get my butt to the store in the morning. It's amazing how much an incentive having only one roll of toilet paper left can get you out of the house. Then, some of us went for breakfast/brunch at 11 AM to check out a new place for potential BOD Meetings. How long were we there? Well, the sun was starting to go down and they were lighting the candles on the table for some evening ambiance before we left. I'd say it was close to five hours in all. Ma...

Say you play on your college's football team. Then say your team makes it to a Bowl game. What do you do to pass the time out of town before you play? Well, if you're Oklahoma starting defensive tackle DeMarcus Granger, you shoplift, get arrested and sent home the day before the Fiesta Bowl game. You can read about it here . Smart, really smart.

Your Ideal Relationship is Serious Dating You're not ready to go walking down the aisle. But you may be ready in a couple of years. You prefer to date one on one, with a commitment. And while chemistry is important, so is compatibility. What's Your Ideal Relationship?

You Should Play the Drums You are often hyper, restless, and full of a little too much zeal. However, people may be surprised to know that you can focus your energy well. You are driven and engaged enough to be a great drummer... and you have the stamina to practice for hours. In fact, when you can channel your energy productively, it only increases! You are independent and spirited... but also consistent. You can definitely keep the beat. You work well in a group and contribute heartily - without needing to take the lead. Your dominant personality characteristic: your aggression Your secondary personality characteristic: your precision What Musical Instrument Should You Play?

The Keys to Your Heart You are attracted to obedience and warmth. In love, you feel the most alive when your partner is patient and never willing to give up on you. You'd like to your lover to think you are stylish and alluring. You would be forced to break up with someone who was emotional, moody, and difficult to please. Your ideal relationship is lasting. You want a relationship that looks to the future... one you can grow with. Your risk of cheating is zero. You care about society and morality. You would never break a commitment. You think of marriage as something precious. You'll treasure marriage and treat it as sacred. In this moment, you think of love as something you thirst for. You'll do anything for love, but you won't fall for it easily. What Are The Keys To Your Heart?

Your Heart is Feeling Shy Your heart certainly has some strong feelings, you're just not sure if you're ready to let them show. You could be someone's secret admirer, or maybe you just haven't truly expressed how deep your feelings run. Maybe you're still a little unsure about how you feel... or your unsure about what reaction you'll get. Deep down, your heart is susceptible to: Clamming up and running away from love Your current outlook on love: Introspective and a bit detached Your love life will improve if you: Put yourself out there a little more. If you don't try, you'll never know. Watch out for: Having a one sided romance - you need to be sure you're feelings are reciprocated What Is Your Heart Feeling?

You Are 44% Nerdy You may be a bit surprised with this score, but your more of a closet nerd than an actual nerd. Stop denying your inner nerd! You're truly dorkier than you think. How Nerdy Are You?

You Are Blonde Highlights Men see you as flexible and versatile - you fit in to every situation You've got the inner glow of a blonde, the intensity of a redhead... And the wisdom of a brunette. How Blonde Are You?

I think I've lost all motor skills. For the second time in a week, I've dumped red wine on my white couch. OK, maybe I'm just plain clumsy. Or, maybe I can't multi-task. It's not like I was heavy into drinking for the evening; it was only my second glass. The problem is that I have the glass of wine on a table in front of me and I try to pick it up and bring it to my mouth while reading something on my laptop or a book. Now that I think about it, last time I was watching the TV while trying to sip. Since I'm not going to give up wine ( heh heh , I spelled that whine at first) and I doubt that I'll improve my hand/eye coordination, it's white wine at home from now on.

The Rocket Scientist and I have been competing (sort of) on weekly football picks. I pick them for my club league and use his picks for the work one. (BTW, we started towards the end of the season but I'm ahead 4-2. Not that I'm overly competitive or anything that I feel compelled to mention it.) He's been telling me about this ESPN guy who is going up against his wife each week. The guy is all about sports and his wife couldn't care less but she consistently beats him. This week, the wife wrote the guy's weekly column. You can read it here . It's hilarious. I was busting up in my office and my buddy Dave came in and asked why I was smirking. I started reading excerpts aloud to him but finally just sent him the link. After reading the column, I want to hang out with these people. I think it would be a hoot.

I had full intentions of enjoying myself last night. I started a fire, poured a glass of wine, logged on to GoodReads.com to do some updating and expected to enjoy watching ASU beat up on Texas in the Holiday Bowl. Or, at least top Texas in the Holiday Bowl. Everything went as planned except for that last part. I'm a vocal sports watcher. I talk back to the TV and comment on the action even if I'm the only one in the room. Sugar Daddy use to tell me, "You know they can't hear you, right?" Doesn't matter, I'm still going to talk. Pretty much all I said last night was, "Son of a bitch." Sometimes, it was a quiet whisper and other times I yelled it. I can't tell you how many times I said it. Let's see, how many turnovers were there and how many times did they let Texas run for yards and yards and yards? I'll go with "a lot." I finally gave up on the game in the fourth quarter and went to bed.

The TV writers strike has taught me something. I watch a lot of TV. I didn't realize how much until my DVR was only recording two or three shows a week. I think next week there's only one show. Suddenly, I have lots and lots of free time. I filled much of it with Christmas preparations and festivities but now that's all past. I've also read more books in the past two weeks than I have in the past two months. I even cleaned my house and finally finished the club newsletter. I've also blogged more. I guess I should be pleased that I've got more time to do "productive" activities. Frankly, I miss my shows. I hope the strike is over soon.

The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't had one of those "must read" titles for me. I like business books and this one kept showing up on suggested reading lists. There was some good points in the book about the negative effects of having "assholes" in your workplace (increased turnover, lower productivity, greater chance of getting sued) and tips on how to avoid them. It also gave you some pointers on figuring if you're an asshole. The facts were a bit redundant as they tended to be repeated. I'm not sure if the author, Robert Sutton, did that by design to reinforce the material or used them more as filler material.

Sugar Daddy's last day at work for the year was last Thursday. I brought his Christmas present to work but left it in my car because it was kind of bulky. This is what I got him: It's an R2-D2 voice activated robot. My friend Chris has one and it's really cool. He moves, he beeps, he reacts when you mention character names and dances while playing the cantina music. I told him his present was in the car and he said mine was in his car. We headed out at the end of the day to do the exchange. I had R2 wrapped up and the batteries in a gift bag for him. He had boxes for me. Boxes and boxes and boxes. I'm not entirely sure of the specifics but he said they were birthday presents and Christmas presents from last year that he didn't give me. There were four big unwrapped boxes. Turns out, he signed up for a wine club thinking I would dig that. I don't think he realized what he was getting into and he meant to cancel it but didn't do that for a year. It was a ...

Steven, Jim and I set up the new Wii last night and Steven and I played a few games before I headed home. Bowling was just like real life for me. I got it in the pocket but couldn't throw it hard enough. Why that's so when you're not actually tossing a real ball, I don't know. Steven just flung it and got lots of pin fall despite missing the pocket. At least I broke 100 each game. Golf was not like real life. I could drive great on the Wii. My short game sucked. That's actually the best thing in real life for me. Not that it's anything to brag about. I have to say, those virtual greens are really fast. I think I five putted one hole. I tried tennis on my own. Yeah, not so good at that. Steven and I also tried baseball. Another game I'm not very good at and neither is Steven. We could both pitch pretty well but were terrible at hitting. I just can't judge when to swing so I was either in front of or behind the ball on most pitches. By the ti...

My family is all about the holidays. There's the annual race to be the first to get the Christmas tree up. Before that happens, Shorty's already on his, "What do you want for Christmas?" query. Then there's the baking and shopping and more shopping. Oh, and more shopping. We open presents on Christmas Eve after a chili dinner. That's a long standing tradition. This year, we may have started a few new ones. My parents, Steven and I went out to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. There's a definite generation gap between my parents and Steven and me. He and I were hysterical at the breakfast table and they didn't quite know why most of the time. My Mom tries to keep up but I think Shorty is just happy that we're all together. We learned a valuable Cracker Barrel tip. Do not let Steven order the hash brown casserole. He ordered their Old Timer breakfast (sans eggs because he and I don't get along with those) with hash browns and the waitress said, ...

I found this book by Ilona Andrews while putting together my library list off of Amazon searches. It takes place in a future Atlanta after some sort of magic rupture has disrupted technology and causes all sorts of magical issues. The heroine is a mercenary who cleans up the mess from those magical issues. It sort of felt like I was not reading the first book in a series because some things seemed to be just dropped in to the story as if we already knew about them. There were my favorite fantasy characters, vampires and shapeshifters , and other creatures along with the magic wielders. The vampires weren't sexy, though. The shapeshifters , especially the alpha, were a lot hotter. Good story, liked the lead character a lot. There's a second book coming out in April and I'm going to be sure to read it.

I wanted to read The Golden Compass before seeing the movie. I've heard the movie's not that great, however, so now I'm in no rush on that. OK, maybe I'm just thick but I don't get how this book is going to turn kids into atheists. Yes, the church is mentioned and there are some no so nice people associated with it but it's pretty much your standard fantasy book. Young, precocious heroine doesn't realize she's the "one" with a destiny. Magic abounds, people plot, grownups underestimate the children, etc. There is a unique touch, though. Each human has a daemon companion that represents their soul. The soul dies with the human. OK, that's religious stuff. Maybe the anti-God stuff is more obvious in the next two books of the trilogy. Overall, I thought this book was OK but not exceptional.

I was dusting my entertainment center today (yes, I was actually cleaning my house and it badly needed it) when I found my CD case! Yep, the CD case that I thought had been stolen out of my car. I now vaguely recall taking it out for my last trip to Utah because I left my car in an off site airport parking lot and I didn't want it stolen. A tad ironic considering I thought it was. So, the punks (yes, I've decided that's what they were) busted in to my car for the few dollars of change that was in the console. Brilliant folks, there. I'm sure they're going to go far in the world.

94% DRUNKARD Take the quiz here . Got this from my fellow drunkard, Finnegan who got it from Heidi.