Trick or Treat

It's fun to run to the door with candy and laugh at all the little ghosts and goblins,

but I miss being the mom on the sidewalk...

Shana in Tucson...mmmeeeooowww.

Movie Madness - Take Shelter

Loved it! Spooky descent into Crazyville. Or are the rest of us nuts?

Halloween!

Hosts Michelle Bachmann and Steve Jobs

Louise is upside-down in her house, all because of me - Wall Street.

Grandma Jill with her zippy sippy cup ready for her morning tonic and Jaye is just mad mad at Madoff

There was a spooky, haunted dead Barbie room.

Everyone kept asking me for money or a loan, whining about losing their home or job. 

Whine, whine, whine. God, the whining. Couldn't they see I was at a party? Anyway, it's their own fault they're not rich. Not mine. Right? Wall Street couldn't spare a dime so I sent them all south to Main Street to try their luck down there.

God Save My Shoes

Ohh..the perfect movie! All about SHOES! The Phoenix Art Museum - God Save My Shoes, a documentary about our strange relationship with shoes was fascinating. Hilarious. Embarrassing. The closets were unbelievable! The was a baroness, a poker player, a ballet dancer, a starving artist, all obsessed. One couldn't remember spending less than $900 for a pair while another had a limit of $400 so she could still pay her rent. The most I've ever paid was $195 for some beautiful black sling backs for my 20th high school reunion. I figured that they would take at least 10 years off.  It's only been screened in Paris and New York, so we little ol' Phoenicians felt lucky. The crowd was fancy, fancy,

sporting some pretty wild shoes. I wore my most stylish Nordstrom's black patent peep toes (sssshhhhhhh...I got 'em at Last Chance for $14.99 )

There was a great reception with food and wine and feathers in the centerpieces and

 dance, dance, dance music as the hippest crowd I've seen in a long time partied away the night. 

A little leprechaun.

The great exhibit will be up for awhile, so get down there to check it out.

FnB*

*Friend n Birthday

Amy sure knows how to party! Rule number one - get Kathy to organize! She'll tablescape, she'll caramel salt, she'll bake a pumpkin and she'll make out with the entire appetizer list, hold the tongue.

A bunch of mama writer-wanna-bes (plus D.S.S.) surrounded the birthday girl at the incredibly warm and welcoming fnb as the over the top food and wine kept coming and the laughs kept circulating as we toasted the Amazing Amy, always there with a pithy remark, a funny spin, the perfect anecdote - Happy Birthday!

Birthday Bowling Bash

They say it's your birthday...well Happy Birthday to you! Luscious Laurel, Jubilant Jaye and Jazzy Jill celebrated with the gang as they, like fine wine, got better and better. We hit the bowling alley and in order to look cute in ugly bowling shoes, we donned some 50s attire.

The Gutter Gals ruled the school with our fine display of bowling prowess, including the two-handed roll, the ice skater finish and the get low low low low until we all agreed we need to start our own league. 

We ate pizza, we drank beer and we did the wave - all while suffering through numerous injuries - broken fingernails, swollen thumbs, sore backs and bruised egos. Next time we're bringing a Chiropractor, extra
ibuprofen and a manicurist.

We ten pins all scored perfect games (it's my blog and I'll lie if I whaaant to), had some cake and opened lots and lots of presents.

Strike!

Remains of the Day

...

It Ain't Easy Being Green

We're totally screwed. Phoenix is last on every list. We're heating up fast, dumping toxins all over the south (check the groundwater under downtown), building houses for the house builders, sprawling out while ignoring empty lots all over town, using about 2% of our 350 days worth of sunshine for solar power, driving our big cars away from our big houses to buy stuff we don't need. People used to move here so they could breathe and now none of us can. Depressing. But the lecture tonight at The Heard was a relief. Surrounded by smart people, listening to Andrew Ross (who wrote Bird on Fire, Lessons from the World's Least Sustainable City about his Phoenix research - go get it) it seemed like maybe it wasn't too late to change.  

Then we got in our big car and drove way north to our too big for us house, surrounded by golf courses, and it became so clear - I'm the problem.

Zocalo in Phoenix

Movie Madness - Dolphin Tale

Thanks, Gerbis, for the great recommendation! Dolphin Tale was so good. All-star, talented cast. Inspirational true story and the Movie Madness crowd had a good cry. Check out the Clearwater Aquarium to find out all about Winter the dolphin and how she is making an impact on so many lives.

Divas for Décolletage - Saturday

Making strides against breast cancer. Put on something pink and walk with the Divas for the ta tas! October 29th at Tempe Beach Park. Or just give some money to The American Cancer Society. 

Source

Spice World

The new Spice Girls.

The originals.

Happy Halloween!

Pilobolus

Pilobolus - I wonder if those guys work out? Wax?

Wow - jaw-droppingly amazing work of art, out-of-the-box original and creative.

The Queen Mum

Ahhh...it's good to be King. Patrick "Peaches" Reilly was crowned Notre Dame Prep Homecoming King tonight and we surrounded The Queen Mum on an exciting night of football (they creamed McClintock), as the well-preserved crowd went wild.

We took the celebration out of the bubble to the familiar Phoenician to fetch the not-so-free tickets from Lodiland lady then ventured even further, oh my, to the Royal Palms on a non-Taco Tuesday since we were parched from the ex for some music listening, some lounging and

some supercute hair flipping on a beautiful night

until it was so late we almost turned into October pumpkins.

Book Club - BYOB

Bring your own book this month. Got through Cocktail Hour Under The Tree of Forgetfulness. Not as spectacular as her other slice of life Don't Let's Go To The Dogs Tonight, but so many wonderful moments. We had the long lost Becky, the match.com/protest I'm going to marry him one day, then the Top Ramen, water and still intact Viagra sample the next. Oh well, too bad Goodwill won't take back the mauve taffeta dress. Upcoming Halloween and birthdays and Pinetop and Homecoming Kings and crab cakes and corn chowder and feet up and pass the wine Cocktail Hour Under the Jilly-Bs Pink Lit Patio.

Movie Madness - 50/50

Great, great, great.

Occupy Phoenix

Over a thousand people joined a couple of my friends and me in front of City Hall to join the October 15th Global Occupy Wall Street movement. It was an amazing group of people - nonpartisan, all ages, diverse, looked a lot more like the crowd you see in a line at Starbucks than the "hippie mobs" I've been hearing about. Everybody was very positive and peaceful and the event was well-organized. My Dad always says, "Life isn't fair," but these days that has never been more true. 


401K not what it used to be? Haven't had a raise in years? Know somebody that lost their house? Or can't find a job? Is your health insurance worthless? Retirement - huh? Got a senior in college that deserves a country better than this?


Suddenly we're all the little guy...Occupy Wall Street.

And Phoenix.

Great Nicholas Kristof piece - America's Primal Scream

Knight Rise

Bad Concierge, bad. How have I missed this? The Mothers Who Write gang filed into the amazing Knight Rise Skyspace by James Turrell to have a look. It's been there for years. It's crossed my radar. I get to SMOCA at least once a month, but have never for some reason wound myself around the entrance through the side door and taken in this wonder. Somehow thought it was just for the middle of the night during an eclipse or something. I try hard to find cool stuff in the community and as I sat there taking these shots every few minutes (all just me, sitting in this space pointing up at the sky with my phone through a hole in the ceiling)

looking up as the sun set and the light changed in this womb filled with incredible women thinking about light and dark, perception and reality I realized how narrow life is. We see what we want to see.

And even as the sky outside didn't change much (per reports from new visitors), our cervical view of it did. The colors were stunning as time passed.

I'll be back.

"I'm interested in seeing ourselves seeing..." James Turrell

Movie Madness - The Ides of March

Wow - politics sucks. But this movie doesn't.

Munched

MUNCHED!!! The incredible Kim Porter has done it again. The writing, the story, the acting - how does one brain come up with so much? Twist at the end makes you go back and relive it all.

Space 55 - here for a couple more weeks :)

Saturday Night Live

Before Munched, Shawn and I hit the oh-so-hip St. Francis to do a bit of munching ourselves. We had a front row seat to all the wood fired action, buddying up to our new BFF the chef as he sold us on all things fresh and roasted and herbal. The baguettes, the pork, the baked goat cheese, the pastry chef taunting us with her bread pudding until we just couldn't say no. Yum.

Artists Occupy Wall Street

Artistic folks occupied the old JPMorgan building, others marched through Greenwich Village today.

Here's a great piece by Senator Bernie Sanders.

Dr. S.

Green eggs and ham for the patient. Well, Eggbeaters and turkey bacon. Daily two hours down, two hours up walking, some baseball, a little outside fresh, non-hospital, air and lots of rest. Working like a charm.

Just what the doctor ordered.

2011 DBacks!

Wow what a game! The good old Diamondbacks fought hard until the very end, giving newly minted "West Side Girls" a season ending thrill. Surrounded by big screens, big men, big pom poms and lots of little deep-fried Wisconsin jalepeno cheese curds (try ordering those in Scottsdale), we did the table wave, made new friends, spied on the "is he match.com-ing" cowboy, downed some ale, hugs all around, the sassy but imperfect haircut and discovered new fave place - Jimbos. We'll work on our wave and get 'em next year.

Hello 75 degrees!

A chilly walk around the lake. Dinner outside. A couple next to us scampering inside as the sun went down...wimps. Windows open. Cats happy.

I forgot how much I missed you.

iSad

I've never played Scrabble with Shawn. Dragging him to a table to play a board game or do a puzzle has always been a challenge. But today, sitting on the patio on a gorgeous afternoon, feet up, we were playing the 2011 online electronic version - Words With Friends. I was lettering away on my iPhone and he on his iPad. I was kicking his butt. While he was thinking during a turn, using only my thumb, not needing to get up, I clicked over to the news...

Goodbye, Steve. You made life more fun, technology more beautiful and being the underdog cool.