Too tired to come up with a “title” June 5, 2009

Here are some pictures from when Glenn was in Phoenix from his website since mine were so bad:

 

 

Anyways, Glenn was awesome as expected. It was amazing. We had the BEST seats in the house – center, front row. There was about 3 feet between us and the stage and Glenn was often directly in front of us. Of course, as all good “performers” know, you should look at your audience, which Glenn did a lot. He looked at everyone, but every time he looked at me, I was like, “Oh my God. Glenn back is looking at me. For this very tiny moment of time, he actually knows I exist.” I know, I’m a freak, but I guess that’s how people react to their favorite musicians if they happen to get front row seats. Of course, I was hoping that after the show maybe – just maybe – he’d hang out for a few minutes and talk, sign autographs, whatever, but he didn’t. I guess he had to get right to the airport because he needed to be in San Diego the very next day for his next tour stop. I was disappointed, but not surprised. Later, via Twitter, I found out that those lucky bastards in San Diego got to talk to him and stuff after the show. Errrr. Bitterness taking hold. Oh, well.

Oh, I almost forgot that before the show, as we were standing in line to get in, a woman burned me with her cigarette – on accident, of course, but it looks really yucky right now. In fact, let me take a quick picture. You need to see what I’m officially calling my “Glenn Beck Wound of ‘09″.

 

Of course, this picture sucks just like all my other ones. This doesn’t even do the wound justice! It actually looks rather disgusting at the moment. Can I sue someone for my charred skin? There must be someone I can get money out of for this. I know who I can call – Al Sharpton! I’m sure he can figure out some money-grubbing scheme. Oh, wait. I’m not “minority” enough for him. Oh, well. (I am TOTALLY kidding here, folks – no desire to actually sue anyone. I’m not a nut job, although some of you might disagree with my assessment.)

I’m not sure what else to say. I’m tired and I need to go to the animal shelter early in the morning (volunteering). I’m also trying to achieve my new goal of reading one book per month. So far, I’m only about 20 pages into a 200+ book – not so good so far. Thankfully, it’s not very long. Wish me luck!

That’s all.

Nothin’ Like the Front Row June 2, 2009

(This is Stu, his “sidekick/producer”. I actually don’t even know what his official title is, but I love him. He’s hilarious.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, most of these pictures are bad; they are blurry because we weren’t supposed to use flash (that’s what James says is the reason, at least). I also have a very short video, but stupid wordpress won’t allow it ’cause it’s not in the right format. I’m tired and it’s a “school” night, so I will blog about it tomorrow. It was awesome – funny, moving - trademark Glenn Beck. Loved it!!

That’s all.

Aaaaaahhhhhhh . . . (not a scream, a sigh of relaxation) May 31, 2009

 

 James and I celebrated our 10th anniversary this weekend by going to FireSky Resort & Spa in Scottsdale. Yes, I realize this is not a big trip, but the price was right and it was just long enough to get in some relaxation time.

Friday night we went to this little place called Carlsbad Tavern, which just happened to be right down the street, lucky for us. I had heard about it months ago, in particular, in regards to this habanero cheeseburger they make. I guess they chop up habanero and mix it in the burger itself. James loves hot food, so I figured this would be right up his alley. Although he acknowledged that it was, in fact, the hottest burger he had ever had, you wouldn’t have known it was even hot judging from his reaction. I seriously had the tiniest bite ever (about the size of half a dime) and my mouth immediately turned to fire. Woo! I cannot imagine indulging in an entire, ginormous burger! I had an amazing, huge, delicious burrito with this awesomely tender pork inside. So great! I also had a Horny Toad Margarita which was the strongest margarita I’ve ever had. Wow. The waitress asked me how it was about 3/4 of the way through. I said it was good. She then advised me that when the bartender handed it to her, he admitted that it was probably a bit strong. Ya think? Needless to say, I had to hand James the keys on our way out the door and I only had one drink.

Saturday was spent poolside drinking (basically, from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm). James had some beers and mojitos and I indulged in a couple of really good strawberry daquiris. Yum. At 2:00, I really got into relax mode with the help of an 80-minute full-body massage at the hotel spa. Again, totally amazing. This was only my second massage ever and I say the same thing to the therapist every time, “How do you expect me to go back into the real world after this? It’s just not possible.” Afterwards, I went right back out by the pool. At 5:45, we went to dinner at the hotel restaurant, Taggio. Both the food and service were amazing – a bit pricey, but well worth it. Sunday morning, I was back poolside for a couple hours before noon checkout. It was so nice every day not to have to hear the cats yelling at me bright and early for their food or worry about getting the dogs walked. There was also no litter box cleaning necessary or cleaning of any kind. Wonderful.

I would highly recommend FireSky to anyone, by the way. It wasn’t really big or really expensive. They were having a great deal when we booked and we got two nights for a little over $200 total. We ended up spending about another $200 on poolside drinks, my massage, etc., but, overall, not bad. It’s definitely upper scale, but not so much so that you feel uncomfortable or out of place. There were kids (surprisingly, none were annoying), middle-aged people, and even a few older ones – a pretty mixed crowd. There was no dress code at the restaurant. You could dress like you were going to Applebee’s, yet you were so NOT at Applebee’s.

Anyway, here are a few of the pictures:

 

(This was the pool with the beach. It wasn’t very big, but cool, nonetheless.)

(This was the other pool, at night – obviously. That’s fire on top of those 3 towers and waterfalls coming out of them into the pool.)

(One of the cabanas.)

(This is a little outside patio area where they have a wine bar every night.)

(View from our table outside at dinner.)

That’s all.

Why isn’t everyone watching this show? May 13, 2009

 

The season finale was last night and I’d really like the next season to start next week, at the latest. I mean, really? How can I possibly wait until fall to see what happens next? Now this is true torture. Forget that waterboarding crap. That’s for wussies. This show is a-mazing and the last show did not disappoint. Seriously, why are you not watching this show?

Everyone needs to go out and either rent or buy season 1 on DVD when it comes out. You can’t just stroll into this show all willy nilly (spelling?). you won’t have a clue what’s going on.

If you’ve never heard of it, let me give you a very quick synopsis. Olivia Dunham (who’s actually British in “real life”) plays an FBI agent who ends up working with the “Fringe” division, which takes on “fringe science” cases. Fringe science is basically all the stuff you’ve ever seen in sci-fi movies/T.V. shows – teleportation, telekenesis, yada, yada, yada. She is joined in her work by the nutty and hilarious Walter Bishop (today’s Dr. Frankenstein/Einstein, who’s also British in real life, by the way) and his son, Peter Bishop (who also happens to be bit of a genius). Every actor on the show is amazing and the plot just keeps twisting and turning, but not so much that you get totally overwhelmed. In the season’s last episode, things start coming together, but, of course, there’s much, much more that we still do not know. Ooooooohhhhhh . . . I canNOT wait until next season!

That’s all.

Surpriiiiiise! April 29, 2009

I thought I’d surprise the crap out of all of you and do two whole posts minus the politics! I know, I know . . . hard to believe, right?

Unfortunately, this is only going to be worth reading if you watch the show Heroes. This is also going to be a very quick post. I just have to comment really quick on the last episode. First of all, I thought it was great – despite the fact that my friend’s husband tried to bring me down by telling me that now everything is just back to the way it started (Peter has his power back, etc., etc.) Whatever! I still enjoyed it. Holy crap! When the president turned into Peter I couldn’t believe it! I don’t know why I didn’t call it, but I didn’t. Anyways, when Peter turned into the President I could not believe it! Woo hoo! Now that Peter’s got his powers back, I think it’s time to take his shirt off again. Peter will not truly be Peter until that happens. I thought maybe when they were all by that fire he’d take off his shirt, but alas, it was not too be. Oh, well. There’s always next season . . .

That’s all. (See? I told you it would be short.)

Here’s some more Milo/Peter for your viewing pleasure.

This one’s for you, Merlena! April 20, 2009

Okay, so I got some feedback over the weekend that my blog has become too political. I’ve kind of been feeling that way myself lately, but it’s so hard for me not to go political! There’s just so much going on that I feel people need to know about, because I know they’re not getting this info from the local news media or even most of the mass media. While I definitely have some political stuff to put up here (seeing as I went to the Tea Party in Phoenix Wednesday), today, I’m doing it for the fans (err . . . fan).

First off, something amazing happened this morning at about 9:03. Glenn Beck (my “hero”, if you will) is coming to the Dodge Theater in Phoenix June 2nd. He’s calling it the “Common Sense Comedy Tour”. That’s right, he’s actually quite funny. He’s kind of basing it off of Thomas Paine’s ”Common Sense” and what he thinks Paine would say today (if he were alive, of course). Anyway, his tour last summer did not come to Arizona, but they did do a live simulcast to movie theaters nationwide and I went to one of the participating theaters here to see it. I also have the show on DVD and it is awesome. You laugh, you cry, you fight the overwhelming urge to write Beck’s name on your ballot. Anyway, because I’m an “Insider” I got to purchase tickets early today. Do you want to guess where my seats are????!!!! That’s right, baby, FRONT ROW!!!!!! Woo-freakin’-hoo! I am so excited, I cannot even tell you. There are no words to give my excitement the justice it is due. As I’ve stated before, I am a geek. You have your U2s, Brad Pitts, Coldplays, Britney Spears, whatever, and I have Glenn Beck. Besides this event, the best seats I’ve ever had for a show were for one of the two (that’s right, two) Neil Diamond concerts I went to. (Quick story: First one was when I was seven, so I had no control. The second was when my Nana received tickets as a gift and my grandfather wasn’t able to go with her.) I could literally see the sweat beading up on the old-timers’ noggin. I couldn’t believe I had such good tickets for freakin’ Neil Diamond, of all people. Oh, wait. There were a few others, I guess – a Verve Pipe and Tonic show where I was literally in front of a ginormous speaker (that was awesome!) and Matchbox 20 before they were really famous at Celebrity Theater. Whatever, the point is I’ve never been this excited to see someone and I have the best seats EVER!! I do not know how I’m going to wait so long to see him. I was thinking, what if I get pregnant between now and then and I have morning sickness at the show? Then I was thinking that it wouldn’t stop me. I was envisioning myself with an airline barf bag, sitting there in the front row. How awesome would that be?   

The other thing I wanted to share were a few pictures I took when I was at the shelter a few weeks ago. They have what we endearingly call the “fat cat room”. This is the smallest cattery room and it holds cats on special diets. While there are a variety of reasons for their “special” diets, most of them are in there because they are simply too fat and we need to limit their food intake. I can’t even remember this cat’s name, but she cracked me up. First of all, as you can see, she is very fat. While I understand that being fat is not healthy for any living creature, I think fat cats are awesome. Somehow, it gives them more personality. Don’t ask me why or how, it just is. Secondly, I love the way this crazy girl is laying. Not many cats, or even dogs, lay (okay, I’m not sure if it’s “lie” or “lay”. I know I’m supposed to be an English major, but I can’t remember the rule and don’t feel like investigating it right now) like this so it makes me laugh when I find one that does. So, I just wanted to share the pictures and this is the explanation.

That’s all . . . for now.

I Need an Ostrich Moment February 24, 2009

As much as I would like to write about politics and the possible demise of this country, I feel like I need to stick my head in the sand for a minute.

(You are correct, this is NOT the best picture in the world. It’s the only one I took and it was with my crappy camera phone. Sorry)

This weekend, I went with my mom to the Arabian Horse Show in Scottsdale. To my surprise, tickets were only $10 and we had a two-for-one coupon. Nice! I ended up spending almost $20 on food, though! What a pig! I had a hotdog, an entire funnel cake (minus the two whole bites my mother managed to steal), and an ice cream cone! What is my deal? Anyway, I’m not all that into horses, like my mom, but it was still fun. I love animals, nonetheless. I was also surprised to see almost as many dogs as there were people! Everyone had their dog. There were three Great Danes. One we met was named “Moosh” and he was 150 pounds! His head was almost level with my chest and his paws were the size of my kneecaps! Of course, as is the case with most giant dogs, he was completely docile and friendly. What a sweetie! If I every have a house and yard big enough, I would totally get a ginormous dog like that. They are awesome.

 

I also wanted to share a couple new pics of my new doggies (actually, we’ve had them 3 months now). Diesel is the lighter brown one and Molly is the dark one. I took them each out this weekend to the park and just sat on a blanket for a while with them. Molly was interested in everything going on around her – other dogs, kids, balls being thrown, etc. – while Diesel was just content to relax with “Mama”. He stretched his hind legs fully out behind him and his front legs out in front of him – so cute!

I was thinking how it’s weird how we come up with little nicknames for animals (people, too). For instance, we used to call my old dog, Lucky, Luckers, Luck Dog, Lucky Star, and Babalu. We call our cat, Adidas, ‘Didas, Deeders, and Dee Dee. We call another cat, Tyson, “T”. Pixie is also known as Pixers and Pix Pix. Legend, for some reason, has no other nicknames. I guess the name Legend doesn’t give us much to work with. (Actually, I take that back. We have been known to call her “Legend Head” for some reason.) Anyway, I call Diesel, “D”, Diesel D, and Diesely D. We call Molly, Mollers, Mollies, and James came up with Molly McDougal and Molly McDougal Feet. He’s a weird one, that husband of mine. That reminds me of another one! I think he also calls Adidas ‘Didas McTwinkle Toes. Another doozy (is that the right spelling?). It’s just weird how nicknames come about. It’s not like we sat and thought about nicknames for the animals, they just came out without any prior thought. I realize this is not deep, philosophical thinking here, just thought I’d bring it up.

That’s all.

The best website EVAR! (Yes, that is supposed to be misspelled. You know, to look like how a Valley girl would say it.) December 9, 2008

Etsy.com is officialy my most favoritist website in the whole wide world. I know I’m a total loser because I’ve posted nothing in forever. I have another more political post I’m working on, but for now, let’s just talk about Etsy.

So, one of my friends (okay, so, like, one of my only 3 friends – I’m selective, okay? actually, that’s an entirely different topic that I could blog about, but I’ll save it for another day) had this website listed on her blog because her sister sells stuff on it. All I knew was that it was a website where people sell homemade stuff. I’m thinking, “Yeah, like I want to buy some cheesy crafts that some stay-at-home mom makes in her spare time. How gay!” But then, I actually decided to check it out. Oh-my-God! It’s so NOT cheesy little craft projects. It is really cool, original, amazing items that these awesome people make with their very own hands, like in the good ol’ days. So cool! You can get pretty much anything on this site – I’m not kidding you. I’m talking pottery, jewelry of all kinds, food of all kinds, clocks, photography, paintings, etc. I can’t name even a small percentage of the kind of great stuff they have on here. I could spend months exploring it.

Etsy reminds me a bit of another site that I love, uncommongoods.com. Uncommon Goods, however, is more expensive, but you can find items for anywhere from $10 to thousands of dollars. Etsy, on the other hand, is much more inexpensive. While there are pricier items, for the most part, is is pretty cheap. The beauty of both of these sites is that it is all unique, one-of-a-kind stuff. Nothing you can find at your local Target or shopping mall – and without the designer price tags.

In addition to all of these reasons, Etsy is also much better than Ebay, in my experience. I won’t go into detail, but I’ve only purchased two things off of Ebay and both times were bad experiences. I made sure to purchase from sellers with high feedback ratings and I still ended up getting screwed. On the other hand, most of Etsy’s sellers seem to have 100% ratings with a high number of buyers. I’ve purchased about ten things from ten different sellers and all of been absolutely wonderful experiences. Everyone is so nice and well-skilled in the customer service department. 90% of the sellers I purchased from sent me personal e-mails thanking me for my purchase and at least half sent me beautiful personalized thank you cards/notes with the shipment (personally addressed to me). So amazing.

I’m telling you, if you haven’t experienced this website, you simply must do so. I love it!

That’s all.

P.S. Oh, yeah! One more thing: these sellers seem pretty open to customizing things for you, too. I asked one if they could do a canvas I found, but with black writing instead of white, and it was no problem at all. She specially made it just for me. So totally awesome!

A Federally-Mandated Kind of Change? November 4, 2008

I really don’t want to declare victory for Obama yet, but he’s now got the 270 electoral votes needed. I can’t even watch it or read about it. All these cheering morons sicken me. Oh, great. My husband just told me McCain is already conceding. There’s been video going around this week with this woman who just left an Obama rally. She said that it was one of the greatest nights of her life. The reporter asked her why. She said that she never thought this day would ever happen. She “won’t have to worry about putting gas in her car, she won’t have to worry about paying her mortgage”. If she helps him, he will help her. Oh. My. God. This woman just confirms all my fears. This country is going to hell. As Glenn Beck has said before, “Both of these guys are going to take us to hell in hand basket. It’s just that one of them is riding a bicycle and one is on a jet plane.” Guess which one is on the jet plane? Although the Dems will still have control of Congress, we still have hope that the GOP can at least hold on to the filibuster. Pray hard! Sorry, these are just random thoughts.

That’s all. (By the way, it’s actually 9:35 pm - not am. I don’t know why the time is off on this thing.)

We Have Poop! October 23, 2008

 (Okay, so this isn’t an actual picture of “the event”, but it’s the closest thing I could find.)

I feel like a parent whose child has just gone potty on the “big toilet” for the first time. It’s been exactly one week since I’ve had her and four days since her enema and the stray kitty has finally pooped on her own (no stimulation) and in her litter box, no less! WOO HOO! It was quite a major event considering the only time she’s ever pooped was with the assistance of a vet. I heard her going to town scratching it up in her litter box so I leaned in to check out what was happening. Then, I began to smell that oh-so-familiar scent of animal poo and I knew that my little girl was taking care of business. Then, she proceeded to remain seated on her poo with sleepy “pot eyes” (you know, how people look after smoking weed?). Although she was obviously relaxed and perfectly content where she was, after a minute or two I decided I needed to remove her from her own stink. I immediately sent out a mass text message (okay, so it was just my  mom, sister, and husband) to alert them of the poop situation. Everyone was ecstatic and we all lived happily ever after. (Yeah, I know that last bit didn’t really “fit” with this little story, but it just felt right.)

My little girl is growing up. Sniff . . .