Silver for Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving, Alicia and I visited her grandmother ("Nanna") and her Aunt Maxine and Uncle Ron in Silver City, New Mexico. We drove down I-10 through Tucson and then at Lordsburg, headed up north on Hwy 90 to Silver. In total, it was about a 4 and a half to 5 hour drive. Jimmy and Julie (Alicia's parents) were there visiting as well, so it was good to be around Alicia's family for this great holiday of Thanksgiving.

It was great to get out and vote today. Alicia and I went early this morning and saw a long line coming out of the community center. We got in line and then were told we were in the wrong line, which was perfectly fine because the line we were supposed to be in was at least half as long. :) Then, after being in the new line for a couple of minutes we heard, "If your last name begins with the letter 'S' through 'Z' please get into the line on the right!" Finally, it pays to have a last name that begins with a letter at the end of the alphabet. The third line we got in was even shorter! In no time, we were showing our id, getting our ballots, and then drawing lines with markers. Here in AZ, they have an arrow by each candidate that is disconnected in the middle. You must connect the arrow with a black marker for the candidate you wish to vote for. It's interesting how every state is different, isn't it?

Vote for Pedro

There's an effort to elect an unknown random person as President... and it's someone we know! Watch this online video about the surprising new nominee:
http://www.tsgnet.com/pres.php?id=46832&altf=Tfui&altl=Xjmmjbnt

Visit to Seattle

Our trip to Victoria, BC !!!

Our little love shack

Finally, here is a photo album of the inside of our little home!

Beautiful view in Bellevue, WA

This is a dark photo of (from left to right) my sisters Rachel and Natalie, and my brother-in-law, Nate. We were at Z-Tejas in Bellevue, WA

I Golfed Where the Pros Play!

Last weekend I went to TPC Scottsdale and took advantage of their special summer deal. $99 for two rounds, one at the Champions Course and the other at the Stadium Course (where the FBR Open is played), lunch included.



We started around 7:30 AM and then ate lunch, showered, changed into fresh clothes, and headed back out to the Stadium Course. It wasn't until the last four holes that I really felt the heat...I was drained!

I shot a 79 at the Champions course! It was the first time I broke 80 for at least a year. We played for money on the overall 36 hole score and I won the pot. We also played greenies, skins, and birdies and I won a few of those as well! I had two birdies on the Champions course and one birdie on the beautiful par 5, hole 15, with the green surrounded by water!

Front Landscaping Pics

4th of July - Escape the Heat

Alicia and I made the trek up the mountain to Pinetop last weekend. We decided to leave on Thursday, but go through Globe instead of Payson. Last year we went through Payson on a holiday weekend and it took us something ridiculous, like 3 to 4 hours just to get to Payson...which normally only takes 1.5 hours. The Globe route was definitely a good choice. The only thing that slowed us down was a thunderstorm in Globe...otherwise it was smooth sailin'.

Of course the weekend was full of golf for me and much needed R&R for Alicia. Jimmy had set me up with a tee time on Friday, Saturday morning, and Saturday afternoon. Alicia was going to join us Saturday afternoon for her annual golf experience, but we got rained out. She was so distraught (add sarcasm here).

We had a great time with Jimmy and Julie, but also with Jimmy's cousins Ron and Janice and her family. We mostly just talked, went for walks in the pines, and feasted on Julie's good cooking. We watched some Wimbledon and the US Olympic swimming trials. Saturday after getting rained out from golf we went to see "Get Smart" a movie that's a re-creation of the 70's TV Show.

A Grand Piano - My Dream Come True

Alicia and I got our Yamaha 5'7" G2 Grand Piano yesterday!!! Can you believe it? I am so excited...I absolutely love playing the piano!

The only thing I am bummed about is that I didn't get a piano sooner! :) My hands are so rusty...songs that I could just fly through before I can't even stagger or limp through now.

Last night I played until my fingers and lower back were sore, but it was a good soreness. If anyone has some ideas of some good piano books, please let me know in a comment. I just ordered "Dan Coates Complete / Advanced Piano Solos" and "Blues Piano: Hal Leonard Keyboard Style Series". I already have a couple of Dan Coates books and really love his arrangements. I figure that his complete book probably has a lot of the same songs that I have now, but there should be some additional ones in there.

Fathers Day

Last weekend was Fathers Day. Alicia and I decided to go up to Pinetop to visit her dad Jimmy for the weekend. Jimmy and I played 27 holes at Silver Creek golf course, just outside of Show Low, and I beat him with a score of 88 so he now owes me lunch. We're now 2-2 since we've been keeping track and betting lunch on the match. It's a fun bet.

Jimmy got a great gift from his wife...a SkyCaddie GPS unit. I bought it and she paid me back so that it would be a surprise and not show up on their credit card. It's a pretty neat little unit. He got the SG5 which has the color screen and the IntelliGreen® technology, enabling golfers to measure the full depth and shape of the green from any angle of approach and shows distances for all targets and hazards on any of SkyGolf’s many thousands of professionally mapped courses. Can you tell I copied and pasted that last sentence from their website? :)

It was so nice to have the GPS unit on this course with very little yardage markers, but soon everyone was asking Jimmy to give them the yardage for each shot. He was running around giving everyone their precies yardage to the pin. It would have annoyed me, but I think Jimmy kind of liked feeling needed. :)

The drive back to Phoenix was long and boring. The road from Payson to Phoenix is windy and everyone drives so recklessly! You'll have trucks hauling huge trailers or boats and they're passing cars on this windy road and tailgating cars like it's the Indy 500 or something. You would think these gas prices would slow people down, but it didn't. You could just hear their bank accounts emptying as they put the pedal to the metal.

Later that day I had the chance to talk to my dad. He is doing well, but is worried about the price of diesel for the winter. At this price, he will have to spend over $4k just for heating his house for the winter. That's crazy! I told him he should move down to St. George for the winter, but he loves Idaho...he even serenaded me with the Idaho state song.

Wanted Dead or Alive

Does anyone out there recognize these two outlaws? This is the most recent photo of the two brothers. They call themselves "The Greasy Crows".

They were last seen playing baseball out in their back yard in Pingree, Idaho with another brother who does not seem to be part of their gang, but is considered dangerous and may be armed!

The father of these outlaws is big and burly, and is known to wear a piece of aluminum irrigation pipe on his right shin bone. This metal shin armour is said to stop bullets.

The mother of this unruly bunch is probably the most fierce of all. She can make a grown man cry like a baby girl with one look of disappointment. The whole family seems to revolve around her and she will protect them with her life.

Watch out for the "Three Sisters" as they are known throughout the Northwest, and even down into Arizona. They have been known to shoot first and ask questions later. When the men are away from the house they are so dark that they eat the homeless, the "Hobos" as some call them, while they watch horror movies.

Belize

Rachel and I saw Shaq

Last Wednesday evening, my sister Rachel and I were on Mill Ave. in Tempe, AZ just walking around, going to the various shops and we saw a huge black man getting out of an even bigger black truck.

It was Shaquille O'Neal from the Phoenix Suns! He went into a Cold Stone Creamery for some ice cream where I was able to snap a couple of photos. I'm now considering changing my career to Paparazzi Professional. :)

Saturday Alicia and I were able to go to the 3rd Playoff game between the Suns and the San Antonio Spurs. We had great seats and it was an awesome experience, but the Suns played horribly and lost 115-99 which made them 0-3 in the best-of-seven playoff. No NBA team has ever came back to win a 7 game series when being down 0-3 so it doesn't look good for the Suns. Sunday the Suns ended up playing phenomenal and won 105-86!!! How does that happen?

We've Moved In!!!

We closed on our house last Thursday and moved in last weekend! We absolutely love our new house! Last week was a very stressful time for us because I was gone on business travel until Thursday night so Alicia had to take care of a lot of last minute issues while still working at her office.

We're glad last week is over, but we are still very busy! We have an upcoming vacation planned and we are getting certified for Scuba Diving. All the while, we still have to move little items from the town house over to the new house. We are still living in boxes, but love the additional space that we have!

I will post pics as soon as I can find time!

Tombstone

We stopped at Tombstone on the way down to Bisbee. We saw this WANTED poster in the window at the O.K. Corral for Doc Holliday and Kate. They sure look familiar!

Recent Pics of the House

Paint, Stucco, Cabinets, Driveway

The new house is coming along quickly! The stucco is finished and painted, the inside walls are painted with the baseboards in place. The cabinets are in and Alicia is a little disappointed in that the color is a little more reddish than she had hoped. The driveway and sidewalk are in place, though the forms are still up. We are excited to see the granite counter tops and tile back splash get installed.

Sweet Yellow 1962 Corvette

I saw this sweet '62 'vette in the parking lot of Whirlwind Golf Club and had to snap some photos. You can see my tough 1998 Chevy Tahoe looking down on the old yellow piece. haha! :)

New House Progress

Pat Frickin' Green

Alicia is a huge fan of country singer Pat Green. He is a huge star among college students in Texas.

We went to his concert last week in a small venue in Scottsdale. We had a great time! Pat Green was a lively entertainer and had the crowd on their feet...well, there weren't any chairs, so they had no choice...but let's just say he put on a great show!

Alicia always says that I look like Pat....what do you think?

Clint and Camille

My good friends, Clint and his wife Camille, came to visit us the weekend before last. I haven't posted anything about it because I was waiting for pictures. Alicia was gone last weekend to Dallas to visit friends and had the camera to download the pics.

They were here Friday through Monday and so I'll give a little summary of what we did together.

Friday evening we went to eat at this Barbecue joint in Tempe Town Marketplace. That is a new shopping area that is at Rio Salado Pkwy and the 101 in Tempe, Arizona. I hadn't been there before so it was neat to see. It is an outdoor shopping mall and there was a stage where a live band was setting up to perform and a outdoor fireplace with comfortable seating.

Saturday afternoon we took them out to Chandler to see our new house that is being built. They had finished all of the electrical and the foam pads with the chicken wire were on the outside of the framing for the stucco to be applied and the roof with the tar paper was all in place. We also got a key from the Shea Homes sales office to see the spec home for sale in our area so we could show them what our home would look like.

That evening we went to the Supercross event at Chase Field (home of the Diamondbacks). We had nosebleed seats, but we could actually see the whole course.

Sunday we went to Sedona, AZ and saw went on a Jeep Tour to Soldiers Pass. Our tour guide was Claudette and she had some interesting and far fetched tales to tell us. On the way back to Phoenix, we stopped by Jerome, which was an interesting old mining town built on the side of a mountain. The town was in the middle of some switchbacks. It was the strangest place to build a town in our opinion.

Monday we did some racing at F1 Racing in Phoenix, Arizona. The races were fun but were $25 a race. We wanted to race more, but at that price we passed. We went to Scottsdale to the Fashion Square and the ladies did some shopping while Clint and I tried to find something to do. Oh, and we saw "I Am Legend" with Will Smith at the theater in the mall. I thought the movie was ok...not great...but not bad.

Company Christmas Party

Alicia and I had a great time at my company's Christmas Party!

We hope you all had a wonderful holiday season! Too bad it's over already! :)