Day Trip

Today J and I went on a day trip. It took us through Apache Junction, through Canyon Lake and we made our final stop at Tortilla Flats. We were told if you go further past Tortilla Flats it is the 2nd largest canyon, next of kin to the Grand Canyon. We'll save that trip for another day.

We stopped at an old cole mining ghost town called Goldfield. You can pan for your own gold, watch a gun fight, have an old western picture taken, shop for gifts, eat at one of the two restaurants, get old fashioned candy, tour the reptile exhibit, take a train ride or a carriage ride. Afterwards we stopped at Needle Vista National Forest on our way to Canyon Lake.

We took the winding road up to the Canyon Lake lookout on the way to Tortilla Flats. It was beautiful! So far the best trip we've seen. We passed many different picnic parks, lakes, and RV parks on the way. We defiantly found some great places to come to this Spring to hang out or bring guests to. There is a steamboat ride you can do for lunch of dinner that we'd love to do (Steamboat Dolly). We continued onto Tortilla Flats and made our final stop at their restaurant/gift shop. the bar has saddles for barstools. Naturally, I wanted to sit up on the saddle at the bar. I've never been on a saddle before, which means I've never been on a horse either. We ordered a beer and split a BBQ pork sandwich which came w/ fries and cole slaw. It was delicious! We chilled there for a while and talked w/ our waitress a bit. The inside of the place is lined w/ $1 bills. It's a tradition that caught on over the years. People sign the $1 bills and they get hung up all over the restaurant. The menu comes in a newspaper along w/ some of the towns history. Tortilla Flats consists of 6 residents!

On our way home, we saw the beautiful sunset and couldn't wait to come back and see more!

New Years Eve we are going to the Fiesta Bowl game and the block party afterwards. We were invited by J's cousin who obtained 4 free tickets to the game and party. It is supposed to be huge! Lots of bands playing, several firework displays and lots of drinking and partying is going to be witnessed.

For you Omaha folks, I found this for your viewing pleasure: Design Sponge They talk about good places to eat and some things to do. I found it interesting.

Hope everyone has a safe and Happy New Year!

Randomness

This morning I met w/ the personal trainer to get my meal plan. This is supposed to help me get to my goal weight quicker. It's one day's worth of food, but to be eaten everyday until the weight is met. If anyone is interested in the meal plan, let me know and I'll send it to you. I know I'll be tweaking some of it as time goes on.

DSW has been going well. It's the easiest job I've ever had and recommend it to anyone looking for some extra cash. Sometimes I'll end up talking to people for 15-20 minutes, so that helps eat up time. I've seen some interesting people come in, including a man from Canada who wore a turban. Weird. This one women told me her entire life story and another guy is a recovering alcoholic who used to be a in a rock band, but now does Christian rock and stopped drinking. I've yet to purchase any shoes, which is shocking for people who know I like to shop. I'm pretty good on shoes, in fact I'd love to buy new shoes and throw away my old ones.

The temperature has actually heated up today. It was about 70, which is a warm up from the 50's we've been having. The nights are still cold though, lows of 30's and 40's. It's been frosted over the last 3 days. I never would have thought it would frost in the desert. Gasoline has been holding steady at $1.47.

Jack Frost

Last night we had our first frost. Our little patch of grass was pretty white. Tonight is supposed to do the same, except this time I've noticed people all over town covering their desert plants w/ towels. I don't know if it's worth me pulling in my plants or not, guess I'll find out if they die.

Today was another busy day. I slept in later than normal, took Tory for a walk then got ready to meet up w/ Mary and Barry at Abuelo's Mexican restaurant. It was a great meal, except it was hard to hear each other talk since the music was fairly loud. After lunch, me, J and Uncle B took the Charger over to Scottsdale for a car show. We were there pretty much the whole afternoon. Today's high was only in the 50's which meant we were all wearing our coats.

I'm not much of a writer when it comes to these blogs. I use this more as a journal for myself; it's fun to go back to re-read some entries and remember what we've done and gone through. Not sure if anyone from the Arizona vicinity will ever stumble upon my blog, but if they do, I be sure to include web sites and input about the places we've been to as a guide for others. Happy reading.

Tis the Season for Blogging

December 24:
Christmas Eve is the day I usually go to church, eat and open presents w/ my family. This year we would have a mellow Christmas. I had to work at DSW until 6 then I came home and cooked supper then I talked J into going to church w/ me. He looked up a church that was close and we headed over about 7:30 for the 8:00 mass. The night before I had told J that it didn't feel like Christmas this year. He asked me why and I said because it wasn't cold and snowy, there wouldn't be any family around and no presents to open. Also, for some reason going to the Christmas mass made it feel Christmasy and it was tradition. J has never been to a Catholic mass and was pleasantly surprised. When we arrived home, I called to talk to my mom to see how my nephews liked my presents. After I hung up, J asked me if I was ready to open my presents. Now I feel bad because I didn't buy anything for him, including a card since we agreed we wouldn't buy anything for each other. He wanted to buy me some presents to make it feel like Christmas for me. How sweet :)

December 25:
Christmas day we picked up Uncle B and headed up to Surprise to have Christmas lunch w/ his friends. We arrived about 12:30 and started drinking wine and helping in the kitchen. We had an awesome meal of turkey, potatoes, stuffing, gravy, biscuits and jell-o salad. It was a regular Thanksgiving feast! We played a couple games of dice and enjoyed each others company. It was a relaxing, fun Christmas.

December 26:
The day after Christmas, AKA the new black Friday. We decided to wake up at 5:30 and go get us some Christmas decorations/lights/tree for next year. We started at Frys to see if they had the 9 foot tree we've eyeballed. The employees were just starting to get all the decorations together so we didn't see any trees at the time. We headed over to Home Depot to see what they had left. We found some good LED lights, garland, 100 shatter-proof bulbs and cheap Glade candles. It was then time to head to Wal Mart to see if we could strike up some more bargains. It was nice and quiet at 7 a.m. We made out very well there. I purchased gift bags, decorations, wrapping paper, bows, candles, plates, napkins and J picked out lots of LED lights. I have never seen J so happy about lights and decorations. We ended up spending $200 on decorations for the day. I had to head to DSW for a few hours where we were pretty busy. After I arrived home, we headed back to Fry's to rent a movie and decided to see if they had any trees left. There it was! The 9 foot, 1000 light tree-on sale for less than $200! Another purchase it was to complete our Christmas for 2009. The tree was originally $349 and we got a bargain for it.

Our Christmas was fantastic! The fun continues onto the weekend as well. Stay tuned for more story time.

December 23

Yesterday I met w/ the personal trainer. He's supposed to set me up with a meal plan, but he ran out of time yesterday and was supposed to call me today to go over it w/ me. I've yet to hear from him. The meal plan will help me lose my goal weight which he said I should achieve by February 2. We'll see how this goes. Today my arms are sore from doing some weights.

Today was my actual first day of work at DSW. It was a good-easy time. Basically all I have to do is pick up the trash, straighten shoes, ask people if they need a bag, ask them if they want to sign up for the rewards program and if they need help. I'm not sure when I'll be up at the register, but so far it's all been cake walk.

Why do people bring their dogs in the store? I've seen this happen twice here. I don't understand how people have the guts and no brains to bring a dog in a store. They aren't little dogs either; they are big dogs on a leash.

First Time for Everything

When I started my job search I posted my resume and filled out my profile for Careerbuilder, Monster and Jobbing.com. Not once did I get any leads or any response. Instead my inbox filled up w/ junk mail and millions of sales jobs, mostly for insurance. I also applied for many jobs using their web sites and never got a response. Most of these sites want you to pay them to get more exposure to your resume. I don't know anyone who has used these sites for job searching or anyone who got a job from these sites so I don't know if paying to use the service would actually help. If you know someone, let me know. But I don't think these sites work. Thank goodness my job hunt is over for now!

On a lighter note, on Friday J and I tried out another restaurant. After our first workout at Fitness Works we decided to head out to get some food, you guessed it, Mexican food! We tried a place called Si Senor. For $1o you get chips w/ 4 different dipping sauces, a large meal and dessert. This is J's new favorite Mexican restaurant. It is great that dessert is included!

Saturday Uncles B's neighbor, Anne, invited us over for her annual Christmas party. We headed over there about 2:30. It was nice to be surround by people, even if they were all older folks. Makes it seem like I have a bunch of grandmas. Anne made a huge spread of food! It turned out to be another good ol' Saturday. Another weekend full of firsts.

Fitness...Works

Bi-polar recruiter Sarah from Chase called me today. She acted like she's never talked to me before and never mentioned my messages. Anyway, she offered me the Teller position and was taken back when I didn't accept it. Too bad, so sad bi-polar-unorganized-stoned-crazy Sarah.

This evening J and I joined the Fitness Works gym. I'm really excited about this place! They have classes everyday, a hot tub, pool, sauna and a steam room all included in the membership. Plus a personal trainer is set to work w/ you once a month. You can add some additional services like tanning, the spa, swim lessons or more personal training for extra costs. I'll keep you all informed on my progress.

A Brighter Day

Yesterday's sorrow turned into today's joy. The gloominess of the weather doesn't help the stressful job search. My search is coming to an end on this sunny day... finally. I've accepted the part time job w/ DSW as you may know from a previous posting and today was my orientation. It consisted of me and another girl (a high school senior) watching a couple videos, going over the handbook w/ the merchandising manager and a store tour. The manager, Sandy has got to be one of the nicest women I've ever met!

Monday I had a phone screening call w/ Wells Fargo and had an interview with them today. The drive is only about 15-20 minutes away and the buildings are beautiful w/ a great view of the mountains. The interview went well and the man and woman who interviewed me were probably the coolest-normal-laid back interviewers I've had. I wasn't home only a couple of hours when they called to offer me the position. I accepted the position for their ATM/Debit Fraud Specialist II position. The only downside is the hours. It's not the typical Monday through Friday 8-5 job. I'd have to work Saturdays which means I'd have Sunday off and another day of the week. I'm still waiting to hear back from Edward Jones though.

You may remember me talking about the position at Chase I interviewed for. Well, when Sarah the recruiter called last Saturday, she gave me false hope. When I leave her messages, she never returns them. When I call and speak to her she constantly says "everything is so busy and crazy right now" she started to phone screen me again when I talked to her on Monday. When I told her I already had an interview w/ the branch that I was returning her call because I thought it was about that. She stated for me to call her back on Tuesday, that she'd call the branch to find out the status. I called and left another message on Tuesday, I still haven't heard from her. I was about to call her again today when Wells Fargo beat me. So forget about Chase and their unorganized-complaining-pot headed recruiter; hence she is probably the reason the position has been open for 2 months.

Not So Dry

I thought this state was dry country, but instead it's been raining all afternoon. In fact, it's snowing up north and flooding north west and we're supposed to get about 3 inches of rain in The Valley. Um, people keep telling us that it only rains about 5 days a year. It's rained at least that much since we've been here and it's not even the monsoon season. The weatherman doesn't seem to know when it was going to rain and when it's supposed to stop either, because I heard him on the news saying that he was just going to add rain to the forecast from Monday through Thursday because he wasn't sure, LOL.

Almost Christmas

I can not wait for the Ferrero chocolate commercial to be over! Everytime that damn doorbell rings Tory takes off for the front door barking up a storm. It's not like I can catch the commercial to mute it since the doorbell is the first of the commercial. It takes her a while to calm her down from that, but it's funny at the same time.

I still haven't received a paycheck from my4 days of working at Red White and Brew. I called today and spoke with Stacie, I asked for Jackie and Stacie told me that she no longer works there. GREAT- just my luck!! So she turned me over to the new manager named Tim. Tim has no clue about anything, but he took my name, number and the dates I worked. I got out of that place in time and I'm sure Jackie got canned. HaHa

It's been a cloudy rainy day today. Snowing big time up Northern Arizona and even supposed to get some down in Tucson. I guess that's why we're called The Valley, we're at a low enough altitude to miss all the snow.

Creamy Pesto Chicken & Bow Ties

I'd like to share a delicious recipe I found in my Campbells Casserole recipe book. I made the fabulous dish this past week and I have added it to my list of the best main entrees I've made.

Prep/Cook Time: 20 minutes
Serves 4

3 Cups uncooked bow tie pasta
2 Tablespoons butter or margarine
1 Pound skinless chicken breasts, cut into cubes
1 Can Campbell's Condensed Cream of Chicken (can do fat free too)
1/2 Cup milk
1/2 Cup prepared pesto sauce

Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain.

Heat butter in medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook until browned, stirring often.

Add soup, milk and pesto sauce. Heat to a boil. Cover and cook over low heat 5 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink. Stir in pasta and heat through.



My Notes: I cook the chicken all the way while in the butter so it has a slight brown tint (there isn't any pink as stated in the 3rd step). I thought that a 3/4 cup of pesto would have been enough. I cooked the chicken and added the mixture at the same time I was cooking the pasta (they separate the steps). Have bread as part of the meal that way you can use it to scoop up any remaining pesto sauce on your plate! (Pesto sauce can be found in the pasta isle, in a small glass jar)

Blue Pool Hues

Today was a much better day. It started off w/ J and I going to Shasta Pool to pick out pool remodeling colors and material. We've had a couple of guys come and give us their sales pitch throughout the week. We also are researching the different types of pool heating. So far we're leaning towards gas, but solar heating is becoming pretty popular. We had a guy come and tell us about solar heating too. We'll see, we might re-do the pool this year, but may wait until next year. The prices drop in the winter months; on the first of January the prices go back up. At least we have our material picked out and ready to go when the time is right.

We spent the afternoon at Mary and Barry's. Barry took me for a ride in his 2005 Corvette; the fourth Corvette he's owned. I would love to get me one of those! During the visit I missed some phone calls I was waiting to get on Friday. One was from DSW and another from Chase. I accepted a part time gig at DSW, it will be low hours, but at least I'll be getting a paycheck and a 30% discount. It should be a fun job. I had to leave a message for Chase, it was after 5 when I got her message so I assume I won't hear back until Monday. It turned out to be a nice little Saturday.

Sunday the weather is going to take a big turn for the worse. It will be the coldest day thusfar; only a high of 61, cloudy all day and a chance of rain. I guess winter is officially here!

Another Week, Come and Gone

An interesting week it has been. I've had four interviews, one of which included a phone interview. Next week I have another phone interview. I hate these types of interviews. I thought I'd like them, but since I've had my first one, I've decided against them. I never know if the timeframe they give you is the truth. I've been told timeframes, but it doesn't seem to be what they say. My search continues and I'm finding it to be depressing, irritating and disappointing. Even Target doesn't want me and I never interviewed! All I can do is Laugh. Something will come along someday.

To keep light of things my ex-co worker and good friend Susan came to visit. It was refreshing to see a face I knew and to have a friend close by. Even though we only got to spend one day together, it was relaxing to me. Can't wait for her to return in May!

Well, as you may guess, I didn't receive AC/DC tickets :( The concert was Wednesday night. J did look for them, but people were asking outrages prices for them. It's silly how much people ask for tickets that aren't even close to face value and there are actually people who would probably pay for them. I'd rather go on vacation than to spend $400 on a concert. I know they are old, but I have faith that they will be doing another tour in the future.

Tonight J and I stayed in. We rented Step Brothers from the $1 rental and I drank my hot chocolate :) The movie was pretty funny, but I thought they used the F bomb a little too much. It's a rule of mine to see all of Will Ferrel's and Vince Vaughn's movies, along w/ Jennifer Aniston, Owen Wilson and Kate Hudson's movies.

Tumbleweed

What a weekend it was! The Tempe Art Festival on Mill Avenue was a great time. We got there about 1ish and walked around. We ended up getting something to eat at a pizza joint next to the food vendors. A place called Slices. Their slices are very large and tasty and they have some unique toppings I've never seen before; like chicken parmesan. We watched a live band while enjoying our pizza. The art festival was fairly large and it was spaced out well so you're not bumping into people all the time.

After the arts we headed to downtown Chandler for their Parade of Lights and tree lighting. They also had food vendors and some craft vendors along w/ local school bands performing Christmas songs. It defiantly got me in the mood for Christmas. The Chandler Christmas tree consists of tumbleweeds, over 2000 of them layed on top of each other. It is quite the sight to see, LOL. I've never seen a parade of lights or a tree lighting, but it was a nice evening.

Sunday was a cloudy cool day to see the NE boys basketball. We lost to ASU, but we anticipated it. It was a good experience at the arena though. We decided to head to Lowes to purchase a vacuum cleaner. I've been wanting a good one for some time now. Some of you may know, I like to vacuum. I love my shop vac and using it in my car, so naturally I love to vacuum inside the house. I've spent some time researching online and reading reviews. I found one that had no bad reviews at all and it had everything I was looking for: the Eureka Capture, bagless, upright. Vacuum cleaners are so expensive and if you're going to spend that much money on something, it better be worth it. Of course, we got home and I put it to the test. I love it! I would highly recommend this vacuum for anyone looking for a replacement.

To finish my night of vacuuming, I naturally worked up an appetite. J offered to eat at Logans Roadhouse. Yep, it's just like Texas Roadhouse w/ very minor differences. It was a great way to end the weekend.

This N That

Every Thursday the Chandler farmers market is open from 3-7. I've been wanting to check it out, so we headed over there about 4. There was a few tables set up with crafts and the rest was fresh baked items such as tamales, Mexican food, bread, honey, produce etc. My fridge is full w/ vegetables so once that runs out, I'd like to make it back to get some fresh pesticide-free food. We ended up buying some whole wheat bread though. After that we headed over to Uncle B's for some Pizza Hut pasta and pick up Christmas decorations. He decided to go through his decor and give us the rest of them.

Tonight J and I headed over to the Fulton Ranch car show. Ate some samples, had some hot chocolate, fresh popped popcorn, saw Santa and hung out w/ Uncle B. After that was over we headed over to Garcia's for supper. Then J and I drove around looking at Christmas lights.
Tomorrow (Saturday) we'll be heading to Tempe for their art show. Sunday we have tickets for the NE boys basketball game!

Note: If you're looking for some cheap prices on Christmas decorations, check out Lowes; everything is 50 % off. We were over there checking out Christmas trees.

It is the end

Well, today I quit RWB. Why, you ask? It wasn't the waitressing, that part is easy, it wasn't the type of people that come in, they are all nice, it wasn't uncleanliness, it's actually organized and clean. The manager is a bitch. I can tolerate a lot, but disrespect I do not tolerate. Every time I walked in there I feel and sense the tension in that place. The employees were pretty much all college students, very clicky and gossipy; one chick in fact would not talk to me and would always interrupt me while I was asking my trainer questions, because you know her shopping and the lack of guys liking her was more important (rolling eyes). Anyway, no one ever had anything good to say about the manager or the owners. Hence the tension all the time. I could go into detail about how the manager raised her voice to me several times, kept going against her word, never once heard a thank you or a please out of her mouth, was never appreciative of anything, doesn't seem to have an understanding bone in her body, bitched about how no one knew anything the list goes on. I decided that I don't want to surround myself in that atmosphere or be associated with people like that. I'm better than that. Today I turned in my apron and told her the restaurant didn't fit me. I was not happy, I shed many tears last night over it. When you feel that way about a place, it's not worth it. There are better things out there w/ better people and opportunities. I thought finding a job would be easier in a big city, but that doesn't seem to be the case, well, along w/ the lack of jobs. So last night I applied to about 15 places. Today I applied to another 8. Pretty much anything and everything. I'm crossing my fingers for one of the banking jobs though, especially the one down the street (blah that it's only part time, but it's a foot in the door).

On a different note, J and I attended our monthly HOA meeting for the first time. It was interesting and heated. One of the homeowners was sure getting into it with one of the board members. A couple other women had some issues going on in their 'hoods. Made us glad we didn't move on that street! The problems they are having is a parenting issue. The kids are hoodlums. The cops don't seem to do anything about it either, which doesn't put any confidence in the Police department. They spend most of their times looking for speeders and illegals.

Speaking of speeding, you wouldn't believe the amount of money that is spent on catching speeders here. This is not good for my lead foot. There are mobile speed catchers on the sides of the highways and interstate. There are speed catchers at major sections and random streets. What they are is cameras that take your picture if you blow past a red light. They are bright lights too. But if you hold something over your face you can't get a ticket, because the face in the car has to match the plates on the car. Photo enforcement is huge here; there are an additional 100 camera locations that will be active by February. The camera catches 6 seconds of video too, which will capture your activities and you can enter your ticket number online to watch your video! LOL Good stuff!

South Mountain

Yesterday J and I had planned to visit the top of South Mountain. If you hear anyone say they live in SoMo, that's short for South Mountain. It is actually located in Phoenix. We started our voyage at 10:30 a.m. We drove the winding road up the mountain to the overlook. It was a little hazy though, but the view was amazing. After the lookout we headed over to Tempe to check out the main drag where all the college kids hang out. We ate at The Library bar and grill and headed to check out the Tempe Marketplace to see a movie. The marketplace is huge! It holds tons of stores and restaurants. We bought our Four Christmases tickets and walked around a bit and saw the giant Christmas tree. The theater was nice, it has your different flavored popcorn toppers, rocking chairs and very wide aisles so you wouldn't come anywhere close to kicking the chair in front of you with plenty of room to walk through.

Brew Time

Today was my first day working at Red White and Brew. I was nervous and scared, but once I got there, that seemed to go away. I always hate starting new jobs and I'm always shy/reserved and careful when I do. I'm actually hired on as a Bartender, but I have to learn the menu first since part of my bartending will include minor serving. So I followed a server around tonight (Brian). I'll be following one for the next 4 days or at least until I'm comfortable then I'll be serving by myself. I'm not sure how long the single serving will last until I finally get behind the bar, but I just need to get through it. I've never waitressed before, so it's different for me. After sitting for many years at the job, the standing and constant walking was taking a toll on me. My legs and feet hurt and I'm tired. And I wasn't even doing any of the work and it was considered a slow night! Well, I did want to lose some weight, so this should help me.

Next Monday I have an interview w/ Fitness Works for their sales and marketing. I'm really excited about this. I've always wanted to be a personal trainer, so this could be the break I've wanted. I believe this position includes benefits, which is really what I'm looking for. I'm still waiting to hear back from Edward Jones (my ideal job).

I think tomorrow (Saturday) I'm going to put up my Christmas decorations. I only have one string of outside lights, so I don't think any lights will be going up. I have a few window decorations, but the brunt of my decorations are interior.

Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head

Wednesday night I started to make deviled eggs to take for Thanksgiving. The worst eggs ever boiled! I was so pissed that when I started peeling the shell the egg was coming off. I had boiled the eggs in the morning, cooled, placed in the frig for the whole day. I've never had such bad luck w/ eggs ever!! So I just finished peeling them and decided I'd just make some egg salad for myself sometime over the weekend; a dozen eggs basically are going to be wasted.

Thursday morning, up and early at 7:30. I made the Snicker salad then threw some cinnamon rolls in the oven for breakfast, relaxed a little then started the sweet potatoes boiling process. We were to leave the house at 11:00 to pick up Uncle B and his lady. I was running around the place getting things finished up and ready to go; we got to his house at 11:15. We finally got on the road to Tucson where we would be meeting Uncle B's daughter and family; Kim, Tony and the 4 kiddies. We ran into some traffic on the way due to some accidents and construction. Oh, I need to mention the fact it was raining (hint: rain + driving in AZ = accidents) It rained most of the day on Wednesday and off and on on Thursday. I couldn't believe it was raining! Although it was nice to see some different weather, it was cold and windy. We had a nice dinner and a great time at Kim and Tony's. We played two rounds of darts on the Wii (I won the first round). J and I are thinking of getting a Wii soon. Kim and Tony live in a Pueblo style house that they had built 8 years ago. They have an acre of land and it is nothing but cactus and desert space.

This was my first Thanksgiving away from my family. We've decided that for Thanksgiving's we'll probably fly home for them.

Music Madness

The one thing I've come to realize about the time change we don't honor is that some of the T.V. shows I watch like The Hills isn't on until late now. It used to be 10:00, which was tolerable, but now it's 11:00, which is hard for me to stay up to watch these days. Now, I'm passing the time until The Real Housewives of O.C. come on at 11:00. While many Nebraskans are currently watching it, I have to wait.

I can't wait to buy the new Nickelback and Guns & Roses Cd. Generally, I rush out to buy them immediately since they are way cheaper, but I had to hold back due to not having a job and the Cd isn't a need it's a want. The fact that G&R can only be bought at Best Buy sucks. This Cd is going to be a major buy for Christmas and probably will continuously be out of stock. For some reason I find that Best Buy always runs out of Cd's quickly, like they don't anticipate the demand and barely keep enough on the shelves. I'll probably stick to Itunes to purchase it is my thought. Now, Nickelback finally put up their tour and they are coming to Omaha on St. Patricks day. That will be one drunk-fest! But it is on a Tuesday, which isn't the best day for a concert. I'm disappointed that they haven't scheduled one for Phoenix (yet?). Their schedule starts at the end of February and goes through April so far, so I'm still holding out hope. I've been to their last two concerts and I've loved them. This tour will feature Seether and Saving Able. It's bad enough I want to badly see AC/DC in which is coming soon-too soon; December 10. The ticket price is a screaming $96.93 and that would probably be a nose bleed section. I told J that's all I wanted for Christmas ;) I'm not so sure I'm going to get wish though. For those of you who don't know, I LOVE music. I have over 200 Cd's and have my Ipod full (which I barely listen to anymore-the only good thing about having a desk job) Another Cd I want to purchase is The All American Rejects; these guys are straight out of Oklahoma, but have fun-good music.

Tonight J and I priced out some Christmas trees. Those fake things are expensive! We found a 7.5 footer pre-lit that we like, but it's $149.00. So we'll see, maybe we'll have one this year, maybe we won't. I'll be putting out my Christmas decorations this weekend though!

Missing Pieces

I forgot to report on a new bar/restaurant we tried on Saturday. Majerle's sports bar is located next to the Chandler mall. We met Kendra there and I had the best club sandwich!

We had a relative of J's uncle come over to see the house that afternoon. I made a spinach dip to snack on and we chatted it up. They brought us a night house warming gift of Corona, glass cactus and a hummingbird feeder. Apparently the hummingbirds stay all year round. Now I need to get a Sheppard's hook to hang it from and get a brush to clean the feeder w/. This will be my new hobby: attracting the hummingbird, making the sweet nectar for it-1 part sugar w/ 4 parts water, maintaining the food in order to maintain the hummingbird. I've already spent some time researching it online. I found out that two neighbors have hummingbirds so someday they might just find their way over to my crib. I'll keep you informed on this project...

After we chatted it up w/ our visitors, we met another neighbor and checked out his pool and cool landscaped yard as he gave us tips and information about cactus, pools, hummingbirds, smoking meat, motion-detected solar light, and his love of ice cream. We headed to Marjerle's, but was home before 10:00. Overall, it was a good Saturday afternoon, the morning was spent cleaning the house of course. Sadly, fell asleep on the couch missing Tim McGraw on SNL.

It's Brew Time!

Well, the job front has been hectic and stressful. Last week I had an interview, I would have been contracted out until Sept. 2009 through a company called Sykes on the behalf of Countrywide. Since Bank of America took over Countrywide, this is the reason the job would be short lived. It is a call center job taking incoming calls, answering questions and trying to sell products. It was a good interview and I was offered the job on the spot, however, I told them I needed to talk it over w/ J before accepting the position. Their eyes bulged like they've never been shot down before. They were anticipating to do the orientation right then and there. The job didn't offer me anything, the hours sucked, it would take about 30 minutes to drive each way and they made me feel like I was swearing on an imaginary bible that I'd never quit before the contract ended or ever be gone a day. J told me to decline it and I didn't want to take that job since I just need a paycheck to get by until I found one I liked. So the search continues. I've applied to allot of places and they just aren't hiring. I'll call and follow up and they tell me to call back in a couple weeks or the manager isn't in so I'd have to call the next day or someone takes a message and I never get a call back. It seems harder to get a job down here rather than NE.

Today was luck of the draw though. After applying at a Hi Health (compared to GNC) and Target I decided to stop by Red White and Brew on the way home to see if they happened to need a bartender. I completed their simple application, the chick went to get the manager, I met the manager and she basically said she desperately needed a bartender. Plain and simple, no interview needed, she asked if I could start this Friday at 4. Um, OK. I'd be a bartender, but I have to start out as a server, which is mostly to learn the menu. Well, I just need to suck it up and try to get through a few weeks of that so I can move on to the bartending. I've never waitressed before and not sure I'll be that good at it. I mean, I've done fast food for 4 years, but it's not the same. My homework is to study the menu and memorize it. I also have to get liquor certified and a food and handling certificate which involves taking a test. At least I have 3o days to complete that and both of those will be beneficial in the future if I need to use them elsewhere. This will hopefully be quick money for me until I find the ideal job. Now I need to go shopping for a white collared shirt and all black shoes for my server job (I already have some black pants to wear). As the bartender, they supply a long sleeved logo shirt-that will be much better. I'm nervous and excited at the same time.

Weigh In

When I had Tory in the pet resort they weighed her. Last time I weighed her was in the summer and she was 9 pounds. This time she's 7 pounds. I'd like to think the walks we've been doing has helped allot. A Chihuahua should weigh 6 pounds. The diet food she's on probably helps too. Although I don't notice any weight lose, in fact, I thought she looked as though she gained weight. I haven't lost any weight from these walks. I want to though. J busted out a jump rope the other day. Starting today I've decided to include jump roping after the walk. When I was little, I used to jump rope forever, everyday. Now I can barely breath and don't last very long. I figure I'll work my way up the rope. I really need to get that bicycle.

Yesterday, we received the headboard and foot board to our bed. It fits the room well and looks beautiful. It's a sleigh bed w/ brown leather on the headboard and foot board. When I first saw the bed and the set, I knew it was the right one and fell in love w/ all of the detail and the fact that it had everything I've wanted and been looking for. We seem to have a problem w/ bedding these days though. The queen bed has a queen size comforter on it, but it's not long enough to cover the sides of the bed. We are having the same problem w/ the king bed. The king sheets and king comforter are too small. The sheets are the ones w/ extra pocket for the thicker mattresses. Why do you have to buy the next biggest size in order for it to fit?! So now we'll have to invest in a California king bedding set someday, they aren't cheap either and can be hard to find. If they are going to make mattresses thicker/bigger they need to make the sheets and comforter to fit them. Annoying!!

Weekend Update

Well, it was a busy, quick trip back to the Midwest. Early Thursday morning we hopped in the plane and made our way to cold-windy NE. Went to lunch w/ my parents, hung out w/ my nephews then headed to Wymore to spend the night w/ J's mom. It was a dark-rainy-windy-cold ride there. Arrived back at my parents house on Friday around 2. Got ready for the rehearsal and was on our way up to Omaha at 5. Stopped by to pick up Anand, J's old roommate in Chicago, and headed to the church. After the rehearsal, a dinner was supplied at Farmer Browns in Waterloo. We stayed until 9:15, then made our way across the river to Council Bluffs Amerisports bar to meet some of my friends to party w/ Lemon Fresh Day. We had a great time and closed the bar.

Woke up early from my parents on Saturday and I took J up to Anand so that they could get their tuxes and get to the church for pictures and the ceremony to follow. I took the time to do some shopping for hair products and Christmas presents. Time got away from me and I had to rush home to get ready for the afternoon/night. I finally made it to the wedding and we then made our way to the reception. After the reception Anand, J and I met some friends at Muldoons Pub to settle for the night.

Up and around Sunday morning was the hardest. My mom made breakfast for us as I finished packing up the car w/ some leftover items I left behind the first time. We headed out just after 10:00. We decided to go a different route: Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, AZ. We arrived home Monday afternoon around 2:00. I then headed to the pet resort to pick up my little Tory. She was so excited and has been ever since! It feels good to be home.

Here I Come

Well, it's hump day. The temps have dipped down to the 70's w/ lows in the 40's. I've officially broken out my jeans. Tomorrow is the day we head back to NE for a wedding and drive my car back on Sunday. It will be a short, quick, busy trip, but can't wait to see the fam for the few hours I'll actually be there. Thursday we'll be in Wymore NE to see J's mom. We'll head back sometime Friday afternoon, change into our rehearsal gear and head over to that for the rest of night and do some partying afterwards. The wedding is at 3 on Saturday so this will take up Saturday evening and we'll do some more partying Saturday night after the reception. Sunday morning we'll head back to AZ driving my car down. It's been weird not to drive my own car, I miss it.

Today I had to take my dog to a kennel for her 5 night stay. It's hard to find vet clinics that board dogs. I was lucky to find a great place called Ocitillo Pet Clinic and Pet Resort. It's so nice! She'll be in a 5x5 room w/ her own air conditioning vent and a radio to listen to. They feed them twice a day and take them out twice a day, unless specified different. They provide the dog bowls and a cot for sleeping, but you can bring in your own. She had to get her bordetella shot before being boarded; she's never had one her entire life and they are required in order to board your pet to prevent kennel cough. It was sad to see her leave and I hope it goes OK.

Refreshed

Aunt Lena's Creamery is great! I tried out the pineapple gelato in a waffle cone. It was really refreshing w/ great taste. I tried many samples such as, caramel apple, apple pie, and white chocolate. Too many to choose from, they have 150 different flavors throughout the year. I'm already anticipating going back for another flavor soon!

Gentlemen, Start your Engines!

It was Nascar time on Sunday and what a day it was! I love to drive fast and have a bit of a lead foot so naturally I'm going to love watching live racing. I like to watch it on T.V. and love the few moments they give you the "rev up time" where you can turn up your speakers and listen to the cars whiz by w/out any announcing. Seeing it live, I can hear it the whole time :) The parking lot was nothing but trucks, semis and RVs w/ flags hanging above them. Apparently there is a special flag pole you buy to put in the back of your ride so that you can hang the American flag along w/ your favorite race car driver and the occasional state flag alongside. You follow the large amounts of people streaming into all of the action. There wasn't any traffic going to the race; we arrived about 10:00. The front entrance is full of stuff to buy, then you enter through w/ your tickets and surround yourself w/ food vendors and more merchandise sales and lots of things for you to check out or get your hands on. The race was exciting w/ never a dull moment around. The weather was interesting though. It was already a windy day. It started off really warm, then during the race dark clouds covered and it started to rain along w/ the cold wind. After the rain passed the sun came back out, but it was chilly the rest of the time. Once the sun went down it was down right cold. We had on shorts and t-shirts, but I did bring a sweatshirt w/ me since the morning was chilly. Now I know why everyone I saw was wearing jeans and long sleeves. I thought they were crazy at first, now that seemed like a good idea. Once the race was over everyone was herded to their cars like cattle. We walked amongst the drunks who could barely walk, the guys mooing like cows and the terrible wind blowing dirt into our eyes for 30 minutes until we arrived to the car. I'd say the only terrible-unexpected thing that happened w/ the Nascar was that I didn't really see any mullets or the hicks that I anticipated which meant the people watching wasn't nearly fun. Maybe because we're on the west coast and that could be more of a Midwest thing. Oh well, it was a great time and hope I can do it again sometime.

Skip and Jan's

Saturday was a busy day for us, actually the whole weekend was. It was great! We started off going to the Sun Lakes car show, free hot dog w/ pop. Headed to Tempe to a NE bar called Skip and Jan's to watch the game. What a game it was! The best played game so far. The bar was filled w/ red w/ the exception of maybe four older folks betting on the horse races. After the win we headed home to get ready for karaoke at the Sun Lakes country club. It was some intense karaoke as they put everything into it. There is complimentary popcorn and you can purchase hot dogs or pizza and of course the drinks were flowing. (I was the sober DD since J spent the day drinking at Skip and Jan's and continued through the night). The karaoke was entertaining as I thought it would be.

We haven't had our A.C. unit on for over a week due to the lower temps. In fact it's chilly in the house. I've had to break out the warm gear for the night time. We haven't turned our furnace on yet either. Good stuff!

When the Shit Hits the Fan

Two fans that is. Yesterday Uncle B put up our living room fan- light combo. Took a while, but it was finished. I love this fan; it's quiet, has great lighting and blows a good wind. Today, ceiling fan number two was installed in the dining room. A few complications later, it was also finished. This fan is classy looking w/ a light combo as well. It too is quiet, has a lot of wind and provides great light.

Meanwhile the weather here has cooled off. This is the cool down that you hear everyone talk about. It's upper 70's; but it's chilly in the shade. Anything below 70 and I'm cold. I'm actually wearing a sweatshirt and pants!

I'm looking forward to going to the Nascar race on Sunday. It's something I've always wanted to do and now that I'm in a state that can host it, perhaps this won't be my last race I'll see.

Sunday Driving

Sunday November 2nd started out w/ some donuts and cleaning. Around 1:00 we headed out. We wanted to take a drive around to check out some other surrounding towns. We headed down and passed through Queen Creek, lots of cool sites along the way. We continued down to Anthem. We were thinking of buying a house down there a while back. It's a new up and coming town. The only problem is, it's a little far to commute to a job since you'd have to come up to Chandler or Phoenix for work. In about 10 years that town will be hopping. We decided to stop at an Open House to check a big one out. It had 6 bedrooms and 4 1/2 baths w/ tons of storage and extra rooms. The kitchen was fantastic! A spiral staircase to the 2nd level which held the bedrooms w/ enormous closets and bathrooms. The place was fantastic and w/ it being only about a year old, never lived in, 3000 sq ft, it had a great low price of $329,000. You can't get that much house, that new, never lived in price around here. Anyway, we continued on to the town of Florence which houses a large prison/correction facility. We got a good look at what a prison looks like from the outside since it is right off the highway into town. Then we headed to Coolidge. Coolidge holds the famous Casa Grande Ruins. We stopped to take a look, but didn't go through the tour. We headed down to check out the town and ate at a diner called Tads. Fried chicken special it was for me. Great food! After that we headed on home. It was 5:00 and the sun was shining on the tops of the San Tan mountains as we crossed through the Indian reservation. AZ has some of the most beautiful sunsets and views. It looks cool to see the cactus in the background w/ the mountains and the sun setting.

Saturday Scattered Fun

Halloween went pretty smoothly. We had 30 trick or treater's in an hour and a half. We had already decided that when 8:00 came along we'd call it night as long as there wasn't a consistant amount of kids coming and go eat. We used our Garcia's gift card and headed for some Mexican food. Imagine that, more Mexican food. We eat a lot of Mexican food around here, but we love it and there is some great places to eat it.

Saturday was a pretty busy day. We got up early and headed over to Sun Lakes by 9:00, which is where Uncle B lives. They were having a bizarre/flea market thing. We walked around there and checked out the old items that I could remember my parents having. We had some laughs and saw some interesting things. After a couple hours there, we headed over to Cheeseburger Cheeseburger for lunch. Next door to that is Aunt Leena's Creamery, we haven't checked that out yet, but it's always busy and we hear they have great ice cream. In fact, the place was featured on Guy's: Diners, Drive In's and Dives; one of my favorite shows on the Food Network. I'll report on that place soon, I'm sure I'll be hitting it up shortly. After lunch J and I headed to The Home Depot.
"Well, um, actually a pretty nice little Saturday, we're going to go to Home Depot. Yeah, buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring, stuff like that. Maybe Bed, Bath, & Beyond, I don't know, I don't know if we'll have enough time." (Frank the Tank from Old School)
We needed to buy two fans, one for the living room and one for the dining room. We've been looking at fans for a while now and pretty much knew which ones we wanted. On the way in we were stopped by a guy selling A.C. unit repairs, he talked our ears off about anything and everything. Meanwhile Bob the manager noticed J's NE shirt and introduced himself. Bob is from Skyler NE, so we chatted w/ him for a bit. We finally broke free from all the chatter and headed to the fans/lighting. We grabbed our fans and down rods and headed over to get some doorknobs. Our house was missing two doorknobs, one to the master bedroom and one for the master closet. We replaced the master bedroom, closet and toilet knobs w/ a nice brushed nickel knob which replaced the outdated gold ones. Someday we'll switch out the rest of the knobs in the house. We finally reached home where we settled for the night, watching the NE game.

It was an interesting memorable Saturday. Everywhere we go, we meet the most interesting people or see the funniest things.

*Frank the Tank quote is dedicated to Frank from work-if he still reads this. Go Frank the Tank!

Tricks and Treats

Not much going on down here but nice sunny weather! I checked out some mags and books from the library again. Tomorrow night is the big candy night. Hopefully I'll be able to get rid of the candy I bought. If business dies down I'll probably turn off the lights around 8 and we'll head over to Fulton Ranch to the car show and check out the action there. It is pitch black at 6:30 so I assume trick and treating for the kiddies start around that time. I got a cool strobe light w/ sound effects I'm stoked about turning on, and a skull that is activated by movement that shouts out funny stuff w/ lights. I could go crazy for decorations for Halloween. I've noticed that Target didn't have as many decorations this year as they usually do and I think it had to do w/ the fact they put out Christmas decorations at the same time so they have to make room for it all. It's weird seeing them next to each other.

Just to let anyone/everyone know, the guest room is ready!

Turnaround

Today was a better day. I dropped off my applications and got two interview phone calls. We'll see how that goes and what I decide to do. I seriously wish Kirklands wasn't so close to me. I'm having problems. I can't stop buying decor for the house from there.

I forgot to report on our night out last Saturday. We found a coupon for McDuffy's Sports Bar, buy one entree get one free. I wanted to go to a bar, not to drink, I like to go for the good food and usually it's a fun atmosphere. So we headed over to McDuffy's to check it out. There aren't any free standing bars around our hood. I'd like to find a hole in the wall bar someday. McDuffy's had great food and we were surrounded by T.V.s. It wasn't real busy in there at all though, which concerned me considering it was their one year anniversary celebration, hope they last another year or more. They had ham & bean soup, of course I had to get that (one of my favs) and I tried the french dip sandwich w/ their specialty mac and cheese. It was awesome! It was also the first time I've ever had a french dip.

On the last note: The Real Housewives of Orange County is coming back November 25! I'm glad 'cause these last two have sucked, New York and Atlanta are snoozeville and too snobby.

Frustrated

Today was a big day for me to apply for jobs. I've been hearing and discovering the job market sucks right now. Places are either not hiring or they are cutting employees. Crap! There are things that interest me and I want to do something different rather than sit at a desk all day long and gain more weight. I got a little down in the dumps when I met some of Kendra's friends a few weeks ago, you know, the ones w/ the degrees making lots of money doing what they want to do. And here's me, no real degree (most people don't think hair school is a real degree or that you had to go to school in order to cut hair) no idea what I want to do and no money, feeling like a low life. So I've been applying like a maniac to places either by going to the store and getting an application or completing the grueling application process online. I finally found a great job web site to use for applying; it should be really reliable since it's well known all over AZ and has a event center named after it.

At least it's Monday, I should be getting some comic relief from the TV in heat of this stressful situation. My migraine headaches set in, good thing I kept that good medicine to fix that problem!

The Arizona State Fair

I started this blog last night, but saved it as a draft instead of writing. I wanted to describe the concert I saw last night: Old School Jam. Instead I've decided not to go into detail about it. I actually have thought about writing this blog for a while w/ all the details included. I realized it would be one huge ass blog if I did that. Here's the sum of it: we were two of the probably 50 white people there; the only one that was worth seeing was Coolio and he was second to the last to perform (esp since he was the only one I really wanted to see); the others were snoozeville and tacky; I hate the fact that Young MC came out rapping about MySpace for about 5 mins; Ton Loc didn't show up (I guess after not performing for 15 years took a tole on him-ha); Coolio rocked the Joint! he's 45 and still dresses like he was when he was da bomb, but he's skinner and he has a CD coming out soon-Steel Here. The rest isn't much to report on; I could go on about the tacky clothes or dancing. I mean all of these people are old and still act/talk/dress/walk like they are 20! But it makes me think that when I'm 45, I'm going to see if I can pull off looking/acting/dressing like I'm 25! haha


The fair was awesome! It was the largest one I've been to. We got there at 4:30 (if you get there before 5 it's only $5 for admission) and checked out the petting zoo. Takes me back to my childhood. Then we wondered aimlessly to the fair in awe as we realized it just kept on going back further. Food, games, rides, souvenirs, flea market type stuff, more food, rides and some entertainment. We watched a demolition derby before heading to see the concert. Of course what's a fair w/out good people watching!?!

Mix and Match

I think it's about time for a Saved by the Bell reunion! Every morning I watch the reruns and it never gets old. It's on for 2 hours, by the time I wake up I'm able to catch the last hour. It's just something about the show that I love. That's when T.V. shows were good and this one was the best Saturday morning show around; Garfield was the 2nd best; third had to be The Smurfs. I could go on and on about the good weekday shows, but the list is long. Which of the Save by the Beller's do you think pulled it off best w/ their career? Apparently, Screech AKA Dustin Diamond, came out w/ a book about on the set which included drugs and wild parties. Also, Zack AKA John Paul Gosselaar, dated all the chicks, naturally. He's still a hottie!

Anyway, not much going in this part of the world today. Tomorrow we are heading to the AZ State Fair to see the Old School Jam. Uncle B's girlfriend won 2 free tickets to it and since they are already going to see Tina Turner, they gave the tickets to us. I was stoked! I wanted to go to see this show anyway. Featuring: Naughty By Nature, Ton Loc, Coolio, Young MC, Klymaxx, Club Nouveau, Timex Social Club. WooHoo!

Wacky Wednesday

What a day it was! We had our king size mattress delivered in the morning. Around 1:30 our kitchen table/chairs along w/ the bedroom set was brought in. They look great and we're glad we went w/ these pieces. When I saw the bedroom set, I knew it was The One. The dresser w/ mirror is a piece of art; 3 of the drawers have cedar wood. The nightstands came w/ a surprise. We didn't know it had an outlet in it when we looked at them in the store. It was an awesome surprise to see! The headboard, footboard and rails will come in about a month.

Tonight I made a fine supper. We were joined by Uncle B and his girlfriend. We tried out the new table and chairs in style w/ our first meal on them. I also got a few Holloween decorations put out. Holloween is my favorite holiday to decorate for, although I don't have much to decorate w/ at the time.

Weekend Update

Sunday was a busy day for us. I woke up at 6:30 to get ready for the Swap Meet in Mesa. It starts at 7:00 so we wanted to get there in the morning as early as we could to miss the crowd and while it would still be cool since the temperature high was going to be 97. We made it there by 8:45ish. The directions were wrong which made us drive for an extra 15 minutes, but it only took us 20 minutes to get to Mesa. We arrived at the swap meet and started our way in to get our shop on. It's all covered and most of the vendors have giant fans or small Ac's to keep their area cool. This place is so big that we only got through half of it. First we cruised through one side, decided which ones we'd come back to buy from, sat to rest and people watch, then went through another side, stopped for a brief lunch break then finished up. We went back to the stores we wanted to purchase from last so that we didn't have to carry the items the whole time. We purchased some southwest decor from two vendors that was Made in the USA. I got a Coach purse and an Ed Hardy check wallet, only spent $40 total! What a deal :) After our purchases we left around 11:30ish. We stopped in Gilbert to check out Bedmart to see if we could find a mattress. We found one for purchase then went onward to see if we could find a bedroom set at Mor Furniture. We were recommended to go to Mor Furniture by the manager who sold us the mattress; her husband is the manager at the furniture store. We made our way west to Tempe. Three hours later we had our bedroom set and kitchen table w/ chairs on order. Everything is to be delivered this Wednesday, except for our headboard-foot board-rails, that will be coming in 6 weeks. It was a long ordeal at the Mor Furniture store and I don't care to write about it. Lets just say we walked out after it took 45 minutes to complete the transaction. The sales lady came after us out the door and promised us it would only take another 5 minutes. The store has really nice furniture, provides Otis Spunkmeyer cookies, popcorn, lemonade and tea, so we started off on a good foot. But they need to improve their checkout procedures and card opening procedures. It took less than 5 minutes to check out and open an account at NFM. This place needs to provide that service. We were so worn out that we decided to have some tension release and went to see Doni at The Room Store and to take one last look at the top running bedroom set to make sure we were making the right decision. We decided that it was the best deal to go w/ Mor Furniture given the terrible experience it was to purchase it.

Today our realtor Peter and his wife Sheila (AKA She-She) invited us to lunch. This was the first time we've seen Peter since we came to AZ and looked at houses back in July. She-She is pregnant and they are expecting their first child ( girl) in December. We ate at Longhorns Steakhouse and shared some good stories and started a new friendship. They are crazy people! She-She is her nickname he calls her. He also calls her 'sunshine' 'baby' 'babe' and other mushy mushy names. After our 2 hour visit we arrived back home and I took off to the Chandler Library. I made the mistake of going right when school let out. It was filled w/ kids on the 'puter checking their MySpace pages and sitting on benches making out. I had to let out a few chuckles. I received my card and checked out a book. This is a high-tech library or at least the first I've encountered. I can re-check or hold books online and drop off books at any of the 4 locations. They also email and call you when the due date is close.

Larry, John, Doni, Doug

Those are the names of the sales men who helped us today.

After our NE football win, J and I set out to look at more bedroom furniture and stopped by a mattress store. It was a long afternoon. We are finding that the price of the bedroom furniture and the mattresses are more expensive than NFM. We are still hunting for a kitchen table/chairs. It would be nice to have a one-stop-shop instead of finding a table at one place, a mattress at one and a bedroom set at another. We can't find that one-stop-shop here.

On a good note, I found the best-quick supper yet! If you like fettucine Alfredo I found the thing for you! I found an Alfredo kit that is a Macaroni Grill brand and it cost roughly $5. It was enough to feed two people. It is super quick, easy and extremely yummy! The last time I had Alfredo was at Old Chicago about 2 weeks ago; this boxed version was just as good or maybe better than Old Chicago. Go to your store and see if you have it there. I found it in the parmesan cheese area/pasta area. I'll be heading back to grab more! All you need is 1 pound of chicken, ( I used one chicken breast) and the Macaroni Grill Alfredo kit. Takes about 15-20 minutes tops!

Tomorrow (Sunday the 19th) is Swap Meet day in Mesa! It's a giant flea market basically in the middle of the desert. I hope I find some good deals!

Di Sciacca

Pronouced Shock-kah. J and I visited this place after our fabulous dinner at El Zocalo Mexican Grill. They actually use the glasses from Di Sciacca's. On the back patio there are tables nestled into nooks and surrounded by fruit trees and bushes. Decor makes you feel like you're in a romantic Mexican locale. Twinkly lights in the trees, fans for the summer heat. There was also a blues band playing. (I took a couple pics) We then proceeded to check out other little shops and some restaurants that were down on the Main Street of Chandler. Reminds me a little of The Old Market w/ the brick streets and cutesy stores. It was a pleasant relaxing evening spent downtown.

Pump It

Here's a picture of our pool at night. It looks like it's glowing. My question is, "how do they change the light bulb in a full pool?" Answer . I love Google!

Just Another Day in Paradise

While I was busy filling out grueling online job applications, neighbor-long haired waver- was busy practicing his skateboarding and drums. His license plate reads: Toxic. Hmmm, I like it.

I saw a TV show that counted down the best cities to live in. This was a poll taken by people going online and naming their favorite city to live. The Number 1 city was New York. Everytime I see footage of NYC it makes me want to go back. That city is fantastic! I don't think I'd want to live there though, mainly because I wouldn't be able to afford it. A 1,200 sq. ft apartment cost 2.1 million. For an apartment!! Funk that. If you haven't been to NYC, I highly recommend saving up and going. It is something unlike you've ever seen. A culture shock and nothing but fun. You'd have to save some good money though. Your flight there is high, the hotel is high and you'll be spending loads of money on the great restaurants, sites, shows and shopping. Now, I was only there for a 24 hour period of time, but it was a time to remember and I can't wait to go back someday.

Furniture

We got a new motor for our pool since it was going bad. It was covered by our Service One warranty which means it only cost $50 for the service fee. The new motor would have been $300. Good stuff.

Tonight we decided to go look for furniture. We need a kitchen table and chairs and a bedroom set. We headed to Ahwatukee to a store called The Room Store to see what we could find. We found a nice bedroom set and met a nice man named Doni. We chatted w/ him for a long time. He was from Indiana and has lived here since 1996; he also gave us his card and said we could call him anytime if we needed to know anything. So naturally, throughout the rest of the night we're making "we should call Doni" jokes. Example, "lets try out Del Taco. Where is one? We should call Doni and ask" or "Doni we can't find our car in the Ikea parking lot, do you know where it is". We're bad, but it was funny. We've established a relationship w/ Doni already. He advised us how many famous people come into The Room Store such as Shaq and how him and Shaq have the same mattress. He was also willing to give us Shaq's address to his Scottsdale home. LOL

After our furniture experience we decided we wanted to check out Ikea. I've seen the catalog before and knew it would be a weird store. It was 8:30 and they close at 9, so we hustled to find it and get in. When you walk in, immediately you have to go up an escalator to the 2nd floor. This place already reminds me of a haunted house or the stairway to heaven. Then you're just overwhelmed and see a monstrosity of stuff all over the place. We just started to follow the arrows on the floor pointing you in a direction. The place is a maze, literally. You then have to follow the Exit signs to get out. It takes you down two flights of stairs, no escalator down to hell. So I imagine myself w/ my Ikea yellow bag full of stuff and falling down the stairs. Keep following the Exit signs and it basically takes you through the entire store and the warehouse and finally the Exit where you have to self-check your items. Not only do you have to find your way through the maze, haul your crap down two flights of stairs, self-check yourself out, but you have to haul it away and get it into your vehicle somehow. Just back the truck up to the Exit doors and load up the car or in the case we saw, a Penske truck being filled up. Ikea furniture looks very uncomfortable, small/short, cheap.

We couldn't find a Del Taco on the way home, so we opted for Jack In The Box instead. My fourth time there! Love that place except their weird mascot.

Bleaching

I found this interesting and disgusting. But if you ladies are interested in what the new 'craze' is then this article is a must see: http://www.marieclaire.com/life/sex/advice/anal-bleaching

Monday Monday

Monday's are rough for TV watching. I don't have a DVR or TIVO; not sure I'll ever want them either. Too many good shows on all at the same time on Monday's. Currently I'm watching Christian Slater's new show "My Own Worst Enemy" to pass the time until The Hills come on. It's about time this man came back! He was the "IT" man back in the day and he's been missed, by me at least.

Do you watch your neighbors? Do you think they watch you? Do you make up stories about them? Well, our neighbors across the street is my mission possible. It started out w/ me thinking a man and a woman lived there since I saw them both leave the house and they both waved. That is not the case. It appears there are two guys living there. The one who waved, does have a girlfriend and he plays the drums in the garage. He'll bang on them for at least an hour at a time. I don't see him around as much though. I see the 'other guy' around. He has a woman too and she comes around alot. These guys are totally different too. The "waver" has brown slightly curly hair and dresses normal and drives an expensive fast car. The 'other guy' is the pant sagger who has random other pant saggers from all around come over all the time. This afternoon I was sweeping out the garage when I noticed pant sagers young girl, probably 21/22ish left and he walked her out. Her car was parked there all day. Immediatly after she left one pant sagger jersey shirt wearer came and knocked on the door and was let in. Maybe 5 minutes later another pant sagger-jersey wearer knocked on the door and was let in. I was keeping my head down low but kept my eyes up sneaking a peak of the action. In my head I was picturing the pant sagger texting his other pant sagger-jersey wearing buddies saying "his bitch was gone and to come over". And then a drug deal picture ran through my head. These kids are always around this house. Two of the kids, or at least one for sure, lives down a couple houses. So we are still trying to figure these guys out. Now I always kept a watch on things when I lived in the apartment and I'll continue to do it in my own house. Kinda of a private eye or a peeping tom. Another thing that went through my head was why this cute chick was w/ this pant sagging loser.?. At least one state it making it a law against pant sagging.

Chilly

Today's temperature was low and I must say I've adapted to the warm sun and it was chilly. The temp now is 64 and windy. The high was about 77 w/ a low of 55. Tomorrow won't be any warmer. I guess winter is settling in now! Today J and I met Kendra at her friends house in Scottsdale to watch the NE game. All, but one were from NE. After the loss, J and I stopped to check out the Chandler Fashion Center on our way home. The mall is huge! It also has valet parking, but you have to pay $6 for the service. Our new qwest is to find a furniture store and price out bedroom furniture. It's weird how we can't seem to find any furniture stores around here. It's not like you have your default NFM to turn to. I guess we just need to pull out the phone book and start going down the list.

Red White and Brew

I love the 70's! This is what I'm watching on VH1. I've seen the 80's one and loved it. I find these entertaining and educational. I wish I grew up in the 70's and got to experience the carefree living. Thing's have changed so much and I always wish it would go back to the good ol' days. Some 80's style of clothing are coming back though. If you're looking to start wearing some 80's clothes again, go to American Apparel in downtown Omaha, next to Urban Outfitters and The Slowdown. That store brought back many memories of some of the clothes my mom put me in when I was growing up. You can get your acid wash jeans, leg warmers, body suits and all the spandex you can handle! Anyway, today I got my hair colored. It looks great! A nice highlighting look. I also asked her to use the flat iron on me. I've never used one. So afterwards I headed to the store to buy one for my own use. Jim and Stephanie stopped by to see the house and we all went out to eat at Red White and Brew. It was a good time w/ good food and free dessert.

SanTan Brewery

Today was the big haircut day. I haven't had my hair this short since my senior year in high school. I asked for it to be sitting on my shoulders and yet it's sitting above my shoulders. Oh well, it's just hair, it will grow back. It will solve my "hate to use the hair dryer" problem though. I will probably be going back to get it colored on Friday. Tonight J and I met his old college friend, Kendra and her friend Jeremy. We met at the SanTan Brewery which is located on the main street of Chandler. It's amongst many shops and restaurants. A real cool laid back younger crowd. I had to miss The Office tonight so I was bummed, but it's good to get out and mingle.

Sex and the City

I finally watched the movie. I rented it from one of those grocery store one day rentals for only $1. This is how I'll be renting my movies from now on. Quick, cheap and conveinent is right up my alley. The movie started out terrible I thought. It was pretty cheezy, but after 40 minutes it started to pick up. Thursday morning is going to be a big one for me. I've decided to get my hair cut and possibly colored. I haven't had anyone cut my hair since 2002. It's not that I don't trust anyone, it's that I'm too cheap to pay for it. I think salons charge too much for everything. That was always one of my issues of being a Cosmetologist. I felt bad for the prices the salon's charged. In these difficult times w/ money, these are the services people don't like to spend the money on so it puts the salon out of business. I know this has already happened to one of my old hair school friends. Last week J and I went to a shopping center's car show. His uncle goes to all of the car shows, so we thought we go check it out and get out for a bit. Well, his uncle ended up winning the mall basket giveaway w/ over $200 worth of stuff. He was nice enough to give it to us. One of the certificates in the basket was for a Salon. So I'm going to use the cert up to get my hair cut. The place is called Fantastic Sams. It's a small chain, but I'd compare it to Great Clips. I'll get a real look and feel for it tomorrow and see how it goes. I figure at least I can get a free haircut out of the place. As I've gotten older my hair just isn't what it used to be. I've fallen out of the 'take care of myself' mode over the years; that or it's just age and it's the downward slope.

Big Food

Today was another miscellaneous day. Ate my breakfast, did my walk w/ Tory, got ready for the day, did some home decor shopping at Kirkland's, had some lunch, did some minor unpacking of crap that I don't know if I should throw it away or stash it somewhere, watched my soap opera, sat next to the pool, did my walk w/ Tory to the mailbox and got ready to hit up Costco. For those of you who haven't been to Kirkland's, it is one of my favorite stores. The one in Omaha was way out in Village Point so it wasn't convenient for me. This one is about 20 minutes from me, across from the Chandler Fashion Mall and next to my other favorite store, Bed Bath & Beyond and in front of Costco. So it's in a great location! I've been to Kirkland's twice in one week buying home decor accessories for the house. I love to decorate and I love their prices. They always have a ton of items on clearance and if it's not on clearance it's still a great price and looks fantastic. I highly recommend this store to anyone :) My sister bought us a Costco membership and a $100 gift card for our house warming gift. This was just a thoughtful-fantastic gift! We were going to buy a membership anyway, but this worked out fine. Tonight was Costco night! We picked up Uncle B and headed up there. We had to get our cards and get our picture taken. We decided to get an American Express Costco credit card too. You earn a percent back off of any purchase and there is no annual fee. The Costco gas is $3.15, so when we use our AMEX card we'll get an additional 3% off of gas. Not too shabby. This was J's first experience w/ Costco and he's only been to Sam's a couple of times. So we went down every isle so he could get a good look. Two hours later we checked out then stopped to pick up supper at their food court. $1.50 for a hot dog w/ a drink-what a deal! What a night! Last night we purchased our plane tickets to come back to NE for a wedding. Southwest had a great deal, $98 one way. Jim and his girlfriend, Stephanie are coming to visit us this Friday. It will be nice to visit w/ friends!

So Much To Me

Another day is passing
And still there is no word
On how your life is going
And who is in your world

I pray you will consider
These words I write to you
I liked you in my life
Yet maybe now it's through

I don't want to see
our relationship come to an end
And I don't want to find
our lives standing still

We are moving towards the end
And we really ought to wait
Because God planted something special
Deep within our hearts

I know your life is hectic
You are busy all day through
My life is busy also
But I still think of you

I want to send my love
And remind you of these things
Just so you will know
You mean so much to me

Curtain Please

That NE game last night sucked! I didn't watch much of it anyway, it was boring and embarassing. I tried out our oven today. I popped in some frozen cinnomon rolls and we had breakfast. Oven works-check. After breakfastTory and I went for a walk down the block. I'm going to continue to take her for walks in the mornings to try to get her into shape. J got the curtains in the dining/sitting room hung. It's starting to look nice and homey. Just need a few more accessories in there and it's complete. It was another beautiful day and it went by so quickly! Tonight I made mashed potatoes and gravy to go along w/ the chicken J grilled up. Stovetop works-check. We also discovered our pool has a light. It is so cool! It looks like it's glowing! I'm sure having a hard time getting used to the time change. I still haven't adapted to it yet.

Game Day

Today has been another busy, adventerous day. We started the day off w/ a nice breezy walk around the neighborhoods. It was garage sale day around here. Our neighbors down the street were having one. So we stopped by and chatted w/ them on our walk through. We've met alot of our neighbors and we've already been informed about the New Years Eve neighborhood party. Everyone is really nice, small town feeling. We continued our walk and turned the corner where two little girls were selling popcorn balls and carmel apples for $1, I really wanted a carmel apple, but we kept walking. We passed a small park area where there are basketball hoops and a volleyball net and some park benches. Down the way from that we walked down the greenbelt. The greenbelt runs between the houses through the neighborhoods. It's landscaped w/ trees, bushes, grass, flowers and rock. We passed a small playground then at the end passed an elementary school and walked upon a public park. This was a huge green space w/ a baseball field, a large playground and included basketball hoops and horseshoe. As was approached closer to home, we passed another small playground. Along all of the sidewalks are trashcans that hold doggy bags; those are convenient! I made the first big grocery trip to Bashas around 12:30. It's such a nice store and the service is extremely friendly. Back home Jason started putting up the shade for the master bathroom window. I took Tory down for a walk to the mailbox. When we stepped outside it was sprinkling. It's been sprinkling off and on for the past few hours. The high today has been 80 w/ a breeze and cloudy all afternoon. I got the grill ready for our first grill at the house. Nothing like some good grilled grub to watch the NE game with!

5 Days Down

Well, time has sure flown by since Monday and we've come along way w/ the house already. Last night's Mexican restaurant was awesome! It was a nice, quaint restaurant off of Chandler's main street. Their main street is lined w/ x-mas white lights and the buildings are made to look like old buildings. We didn't get to look or walk around it yet though. Today's high was 91. Yesterday it was 100, so today was a cool off. It was beautiful though! To me the 80's and 90's is perfect weather. Today was filled w/ all kinds of action! I finished unpacking and organizing my closet, put together my desk area and started to unpack the electronics so I'll probably get the surround sound hooked up in time for the NE game. The pest guy named Bob came to spray. Crickets are a nuisance down here. The landscapers came at 11 and left at 6. We had lots of overgrown trees and plants that needed to be taken care of. There was also weeds growing between the rocks and the backyard grass was overgrown. They also took out that tin shed that was on the side of the house. This yard looks amazing now! The mexi's started drinking Bud Light in the afternoon. I took off in the afternoon and headed to Bed Bath & Beyond. The drive was pleasant and quick. Took me about 20 minutes to get there. Which means it will only take me 20 minutes to get to the mall! I spent some time there and purchased several items then went next door to Kirklands to get some house accessories. I hit the jackpot there! That place is always awesome and they had some great items on sale. For pleasure tonight, J and I went to another shopping center down a few miles to a car show. J's uncle has 3 cars he takes to the car shows. So we met him over there and went to Old Chicago for some grub. We met a few folks from NE too. That is the 3rd person I've met since I've been here that is from NE. The first one was the chick standing behind me in line at Super Target. Then it's back to home to get ready for bed. We have fallen into "old folks routine" already. We've been getting up between 6-6:30 AZ time and then we're ready to sleep or we've gone to bed by 9. Although the time difference is messing us up.

Randomness

The pool boy came today. Sorry ladies, he's not a looker, but he's nice. Today was filled with more unpacking. The kitchen is completely done! Tomorrow I need to actually buy some food from the grocery store. We've gone to the Albertsons down the street the past two nights and it was mostly to buy something to drink and donuts for breakfast. My sister bought us a housewarming gift that will arrive on Monday. A Costco card! We were going to get one anyway, but it sure makes an excellent gift. Tomorrow I'm going to check out The Chandler Mall. The mall is really big and looks nice. I'm mostly going over there to go to one of my favorite stores: Bed Bath & Beyond. I'm going to hopefully get a blind for our master bath and price out some curtains and rods. Today we also got our mailbox keys. It had to be re-keyed since all of the mailboxes are located in a central location. Yesterday we also met a couple of our neighbors, Jay and Andre. They both have kids and a bunch of dogs. Well, I've put out all kinds of randomness in this blog. We're going to head out for some Mexican food!

Drivers License

Tuesday morning it was off to the DMV to register J's car since the plates expired this month. First you have to go to Emmissions. This takes about 5 minutes and is required to have done for a shocking-waste-of-money $27. After the emmission inspection it's time to go nextdoor to the DMV where we sit for another 5 minutes for the out of state inspection. Parked the car and time to head inside to grab a number, fill out the paperwork for a drivers license and sit and wait. Our number was called after some good people watching and we both got new AZ drivers licenses and his car registered. We sat at a work space with a man who used two fingers to type up everything. My name was called to have the picture taken. She told me it would be one more sec so I just stood there and waited. Then she tells me it's ready. I just kept smiling and looked straight. There wasn't a flash and I had no clue when she was taking it. Wouldn't you know it, this was the worst picture I've ever had for a DL. First off, the left side of my head is darker due to the lack of light and the topper- my eyes are looking to the side!! UGH! But better yet, I don't have to re-new my license until I turn 65! YES this is true, my license expires in 2047. So that $25 for the DL will sure be well worth it, lol. We then headed to Whataburger. Once again, another first for me. It was also good. Anyway, the rest of the afternoon I decided to venture out for some shopping and an unpacking break. I headed to Super Target which is less than 10 minutes away and across the street from there is Walmart. I was so excited to see a ton of stores in that area so close to me!

Part Three

Monday morning we headed over to see our house. This baby is huge! We may have filled up a 26 foot truck, but we need more stuff to fill up this house and make it our home. After the big unload with help from J's uncle I started doing some unpacking and arranging. J and his uncle B went over to Lowes in the morning to purchase our new fridge. We already new what we wanted when we looked back in NE. They decided to pick it up later using the Uhaul since Lowes wasn't sure if it could be delivered next day. Later that night they went to pick it up and attempt to bring it in. This took a couple hours, some doors taken off and decided to put it into the garage where it would sit over night until they could figure out how to get it into the house. At 9:30 uncle B had left tired and sore as J and I headed to eat. We decided to try out Jack in the Box. This was our first experience and the food was good. Back home to sleep off the busy day.

Part Two

Saturday at 12:30 we began our drive down to AZ. Going through western NE was very pretty. I didn't know what to expect. We arrived in Colorado around 6ish and decided to stop outside of Denver in a town called Castle Rock. We got a room and set down the street to eat at Rockyard Brewing Company and caught the last 7 minutes of the NE football game. This place was fantastic! (I compare it to Lazlos) We were so tired, we just went back to the room and crashed. The next morning we awoke around 7:30 and ate some breakfast from the hotel and headed back out at 9:00. The rest of the drive through Colorado was so beautiful. I was surprised with the lack of poverty between Colorado Springs and the border. Lots of shacks and double wides. I wasn't even sure if people really lived in most of those dumps, but I guess this stuff is everywhere. We passed by tons of ranches. When we hit the New Mexico border the scenery was still beautiful from the mountains and trees. The trees were already turning colors. We stoped just inside the NM border and grabbed a bite to eat, or lets say I grabbed a bite to eat. Afterall, it was 1:00 Central time, time to eat for me! Many, many, many hours later we arrived at the Arizona border. The sun was beginning to set and it was 7:30 in AZ time. We kept going until we ran out of daylight, then stopped at Holcomb for a bite to eat, a tank fill up and some stretching. Midnight or two Central we arrived at our home destination of Chandler and parked the Uhaul at his uncles where we stayed for the night.