It's CAAAAbi time!

Look! There's the middle part of me all CAbi-d out. You're jealous, I can tell. There's something about mixing shopping and wine that just seems so right. We had ruffles and bling and jeggings and vintage and, due to the movie-themed line of clothes (Devil Wears Prada, Rear Window, Love Story, When Harry Met Sally) a bunch of popcorn and movie madness treats. 

Going, going, gone to up, up and away

August 30th - walls are up...

August 18th

I've lost the bet. I thought McDonald's could throw up a new store in a couple of months, but we're at over six weeks and I realize it's not gonna happen. But, look. I skipped work yesterday, so sometime between Tuesday at 5pm and Thursday at 8am - a wooden frame rising up.

Tuesday, July 12. 

You know you can get a whole McDonald's Meal Deal in under a couple of minutes, but how long does it take to build a whole restaurant? I'm betting two months, tops. I'll be snapping some pics along the way. Anybody wanna bet a Big Mac on it?

 One day in June

I should have been a construction guy. Well, a destruction guy would be more like it. Knocking things down has always fascinated me. I wrote about our local McDonald's, all worn out and set for a total redo. The fence went up the other day and here was the photo from this am, July 5.

Then..on the way home. Gone (click on photo for better view).

Somebody had more fun at work today than I did.

Movie Madness - Whistleblower

Men are pigs. Thank God there are some hard-working, won't take no for an answer women out there. Incredible true story about horrific human trafficking, faced head on by one brave woman.

Irene

Now that Irene has passed (and nobody ended up stranded on a rooftop or dying in a stadium), may I take a moment to make fun of the news? OMG. What's with the Team B reporters standing in 90mph winds, doing the wide stance, getting drenched, watching piers and shingles and trees fly by, trying to smile into their fluffy, fluffy microphones? They keep repeating what a President, Governors and Mayors all up and down the East coast have said - stay inside. Well, except for me. I'll be ok as I answer questions like, "So, what's it like out there?" "Have you seen the eye of the storm yet?" And the one that still has me cracking up...CNN's Wolf asked, "What's your greatest fear?"And before the guy could respond, Shawn's voice from behind me pipes up,


 "Gnomes."

Heat Wave

Shawn and I climbed into a little yellow car, gave the middle finger wave to the 117 degree hometown and headed to Flagstaff. Look, there he is, hiding outside, yes, outside. It's amazing how a couple of hours racing up I-17 can change everything, as Mr. Mario Andretti let loose once we left Maricopa County (where there are two judges a bit upset with him). Tall pines, dropped temps, a whole new world view, really. These Northern Arizona lefties love their town. There are plastic, aluminum, paper recycling cans all over. Our hotel had two buttons on the toilet, one for number one, one for the other one. What a beautiful thing. I bet they believe in evolution, too. As we ventured out, there was even a little European feel as we dined at amazing Brix on French cheeses and duck confit (kohn-fee, monsieur) followed by a drizzly walk through old town, complete with beautiful churches, street performers and lots of people surrounding the main courtyard eating and drinking on this cool mountain night. We even spotted a sidewalk creperie with a chocolate, banana, strawberry, whipped cream number with our names all over it. Did a little bar hopping for a night cap, a little morning walk around grassy NAU and ran back into Phoenix, covered in hot dust, Camelback Mountain faded in the distance.

Book Club - South of Broad

The Broads went south of Shea to Chez Spence to talk about a beautifully written book about family, friends and what it takes to stick together. There were grits and black-eyed peas and corn bread and rhubarb crisps and peachy drinks and candles and new wallpaper and dresses and a checkered shirt and a birthday party

for birthday, no longer a speed limit, girl, Leslie,

and tons of Southern hospitality all around. Thanks y'all!
Also on nightstand this month...

Love how author (she has a great blog) writes about falling in love with a Parisian and, among other things, compares the "just do it" spend, spend, spend American way of life to her new "joie de vivre."
Just finished

an amazing non-fiction account of how the cells from one woman have gone on to create a better world for the rest of us, incredible scientific details folded in with the history of the Lacks family.

iSad

So long Steve. You've always been such a cool, think outside the box kind of guy, and I hope your next adventure won't be too difficult. Living with a Mac addict has given me the inside scoop on all things Jobs. Shawn's always needed to have the latest and greatest Apple product. When the iPad came out, I finally balked. Enough already. What does it do that our computers/phones/laptops don't do? So he waited. And waited. Until the PC/Mac fight came full circle in our world. We are finally close enough to a big upgrade in our office that will allow us to use Macs, justifying a new iPad. So after Shawn got home today with his new toy and spent about an hour setting it up, syncing, charging, loading he was ready to surf. He came and sat down by me to show off the goods, fired it up, tapped the NYTimes app and this popped up.

Steve Jobs Steps Down At Apple

The Bright Side

My thermometer screamed 114, so I turned to Old Wildcat, survivor of the most Arizona summers I know, for a little sympathy.

"At least it wasn't an earthquake," he said.

Cooled me right off.

Afterschool Special

Halfway through a text to Shana, asking how her first day of school went, telling her I wished I could be there with some milk and cookies, she called. Cool teachers, great classes, reconnected with a friend from last year, no problems with the long distance between two classes she was worried about, lunch scheduled  with a lonely freshman from Scottsdale, excited about new job, big celebration tonight.

Senior undergrad year, day one, total success.

Update:

Aftermidnight Surprise

Apparently, U of A won't let you graduate unless you take a semi-naked dip in the fountain on Old Main (at least that's what Shana and her roomies told the nice police officer)

Photo cropped due to my PG-13 blog rating, but here's the sign below

Maybe Reading 101 is next semester...

Movie Madness - The Future

I can see the future...no more bad movies. The Future was about two strange, whine-y people who just couldn't get their act together. It was long. I wanted to wring their necks. And then they let a cat die. I love cats.

So, after work I grabbed my free passes to One Day (bad reviews), grabbed my date (Lieutenant Commander Sullivan) and sneaked into

Captain America - a really great flick.

Movie Madness was saved.

Chakras

Yogi Isabelle led a bunch of lucky ladies through an amazing chakra yoga/art experience. 

Here comes the woo woo...

During an incredible yoga class, filled with amazing music and deep poses, perfect for a hot August afternoon, she explained that our "chakras" are like spinning energy centers from the root chakra up to the crown chakra (this is ancient Buddhist and Hindu stuff, people), leading us through each, teaching along the way what they mean and how to strengthen them - 7. grounding, good foundation, feet planted firmly on the ground, not "spacey" 6. sacral chakra, relationships, digestion, joy, belly dance, hoola-hoop, put on Chubby Checker and we all did the Twist, and up 3. the throat - say what you feel, don't "swallow" your words, thyroid issues. There's more - it will come to me later.

Eat colored foods that correspond to the chakra that you need to strengthen, the alligator and the fish - don't go through life taking, taking, taking - give some back, forgive.

We then channeled our "inner children" and created mandalas,
picking up protractors and pencils and watching what came out. Here is my own amazing thing of beauty (made the circles with a candle holder and tried to stay in the lines) 

Stunning, I know.

Fishy Fest

Left the hot and bright for the dark and swanky Eddie V's, the medium bone-in to the raw kobe, the Mrs. Robinson - seen surrounded by fashionable Faconnable, old orange fave and the now-tuxed bubble butt pool boy, the one drink wonder, the second opinion, the double date, the three's a crowd, the fabulous foursome.

Girl Scouts

Shana never made it to the Girl Scouts, dropping out after one year as a Brownie and never looking back. It may have had something to do with my lack of gung-ho, lack of creativity, lack of craftiness. I could always appreciate the importance, the camaraderie, the lessons, but camping and wilderness and meaningful craft ideas and pushing Thin Mints and corralling tons of screaming youth in one room was never my forte. Plus, those vests. That shade of green doesn't really look good on anyone. Until now. Shana got a job! She'll be doing some promotion, some recruiting and some leading with the Tucson Girl Scouts. I think I still know how to make a Gods-eye and a hanging macramé plant holder if she needs any advice.

You go, Girl (Scout)!

Hot sunset

A little reward for living in this heat.

Five minutes later and turned around, this.

Sunset at the park.

FREEdom

What do you get when you give some marketing company all of your personal information just to get into a movie for free? More free stuff! Look what appeared on my doorstep in a FedEx box today courtesy of Focus Features - a One Day towel and notebook and charm necklace and two free passes to see the film!

Crabby

I love a sale. I also love crab legs. So when I saw a half price Groupon in my inbox to the always favorite local Salt Cellar, I was overjoyed. I don't get down there much. It's such a cool place, underground down south on Hayden Road, right across the street from a cemetary so I always wonder what everybody else is doing six feet under just a few yards away. My mouth had been watering since watching some show on the food network a few days ago about seafood. The massive, juicy Alaskan King Crabs, the butter. OMG. So the Groupon seemed like a sign from God. I logged on about 7am and noticed that over 2,000 had been sold. By the time I did a couple of other things and fetched my credit card, it was up to 4,000-something and when I entered my info, the page flashed "this Groupon no longer available" even though it still said over a day left to purchase. I knew it was too good to be true. Crabby, crabby, crabby.

Moving Day

This is it. Packing up the Wildcat and heading south for the last year. I was talking to new since the first college moving day BFF Laura about how we bonded when our girls moved into the same dorm room four years ago. We decorated. We cleaned. We shopped. This year I'm just along for the ride, not even planning to lift a finger, really. No urinals for us to hide this year.

Time flies.

Following Shawn in his big, black, borrowed truck, Navy knots and all.

The almost finished room at "The Jacubus" adorable house, perfect roommates, walking distance to the main drag

After a productive day...Wildcat pizza celebration

Tuesday Night Sunday Dinner

The early birds, the fajita fiesta grilling guru, the Eskiho, the red toe, the new boyfriend, the perfect pie(s), the Jordanian taxi driver, the summer recap.

Disney Days

I hate Disneyland. The lines. The commercialism. The rip-off. I was excited years ago when I realized that I didn't have to go with Shana anymore. She could go with her friends. Preferred it, really. But yesterday, stuck at work, knowing Shana was there for the day, I missed it. I got a few texts "only ten minute wait at Soaring Over California!" "cool fireworks!" "great water show!" and I wanted to be there. Back to the castle. Waving to Snow White. Watching Shana's eyes light up on It's A Small World.

Movie Madness - Sarah's Key

I didn't want to see this movie. The book was a beautifully written story about a horrific time and I just didn't want to go through all of that again. During World War II in the middle of Paris, the French arrested thousands and thousands of Jews, forcing them into inhumane living conditions, separating them from loved ones and then murdering them because of their religion. Whenever I think about that, or the Holocaust, it's hard to comprehend how something so disgusting, so heartbreaking, so unjust could have happened so few years ago. I was watching a documentary about the Titanic the other day about how all of those lifeboats were sent out to sea half full, leaving all of the third class passengers to drown. Nobody wanted to volunteer their lifeboat. In the film yesterday, characters spoke of watching the atrocities outside their Parisian windows and not doing anything. I just started reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks about cell research (and so much more) and came to a part about a man in the early 1900s who had a wish to create a white race, sterilize the minorities, the poor, through this type of research. Present day - government-sponsored Texas prayer vigils for Christians only, watching the world's wealthiest countries sit by as thousands of African people starve to death and, in the papers today, the bloodiest day in Iraq, over a hundred thousand dead this decade because big white government decided to come in and blow up the place. Some things never change. Nobody wants to share their lifeboat.

Faker, finally

Look quick! Quicker. OK, we know that's not Shana, but hopefully in a dark bar some 250 pound bouncer won't know the difference since all the girls at U of A pretty much have this same general appearance. It's wierd. The years long search and yearning to be older, to hang with her crowd in the clubs has finally come to and end. Shana couldn't bare the thought of spending her final time in college alone in her room as the gang bar-hopped through T-town. So good friend, K---, succumbed (illegally, watch out for the identify theft police) to the pressure, went in for a new photo, gave it her best "Shana look" and answered the poor kid's prayers. Shana says it's not for drinking. It's for the social aspect. Right. Smile. Cheers.

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

Holy Moly! Excellent production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the always spectacular Mesa Arts Center.

Keep on dreaming!

TGIJ

TGIJo's birthday! There was wine! There was cake! There was a book, well, at least the movie version as the drinking club with a reading problem celebrated Jo's big day in style starting with a trip to see The Help,

one of our recent favorite reads. We laughed, we cried, we stumbled out to Eddie's House.

where the party continued - the toasts, the summer's over and we made it through the fog stories, the generous pours, the lost overalls and spruce ups, the bar surrounds, the petite ya ya divorce cheer, the who farted? The girls are back!

News Break

I can't take it anymore. I try to stay up-to-date on what's going on in the world, albeit from my bleeding heart, left-winged, Huffington Post, Jon Stewart, AM 1480 rose colored glasses perspective. I do venture out into CNN, the NY Times and the oh so fair and balanced NPR land every day, too, but I've had enough. The crashing helicopters in a never-ending war, the starving children in Somalia, the tanking economy, the unbelievable idiots running our country into the ground. Down, down, down. It's time to unplug, move into the bubble, switch to music and HGTV and give my heart and brain a rest for a bit before I need to be medicated.

Somebody call me when things start to look up.

Movie Madness - Terri

Oh, how we all wanted to love this movie. I worked so hard to get there, too, trekking out of a major manic Monday at the office,

(this one's for you, Amy!)

hoping it would be worth it.  There were definitely some great moments and some wonderful lines and every time I look at John C. Reilly, I can't help but smile. But wait for the DVD.