The bridge

If you look really hard, you can find my office waaaaay in the background!

Giving In to the Man

I'm normally a do-it-yourselfer but I'm actually TOO BUSY to host another birthday extravaganza. Steve's younger daughter turns 16 on Sunday, and she just told us the other day that she's not planning on going out with her friends or boyfriend. Huh?

That means she's expecting us to put something together. (could it be she expects the same bonanza that her dad got for his 50th??hmmmm??) But, since I'm working several days straight, right up to her birthday, I went ahead and made arrangements with a local night club to do something for me. It's a very nice, upscale place called Martini Bay, and it is on the water next to the London Bridge. The view at night with all the lights is amazing. In fact, I'll see if I have a picture...

Anyway, they have a very posh meeting room that has a huge banquet table, aweseome chairs, and classy decor--it's called the Decadence Room. They're reserving the room for our party, and the chef is baking some sort of triple chocolate birthday cake. The party guests will get to order off the menu, which is typically expensive but if you add up everything I would've spent to have a nice party, it's a bargain.

My Stevie's Birthday Pictures

Okay I'm finally getting around to posting pictures from the big party....
The first is my boss's dog, Rocko, sporting his new bouquet of balloons:



This is the scooter that gave me stomach aches and grey hairs.


This is Steve and his two daughters.

Oh, Did I Mention Sheriff Joe??

I met the famous Sheriff Joe Arpaio a couple of weeks ago, at a Republican convention thingy. I know you've heard of him... people circulate stories about him on the internet, how he makes the overflow prisoners stay in a "tent city" in the desert since the State of Arizona really has no money to build more prisons. He makes them wear pink underwear so they won't feel like they should steal them when they leave. If ground beef is too expensive, prisoners eat ostrich or whatever meat is affordable. Prisoners have the option of working on the chain gang out in the heat; if not, they can stay in the tent city and do nothing. No porno magazines, no cable t.v., no amenities.

Joe didn't smile for our picture, because that "mean" look is his thing. He said so. He could've at least made it look like he was okay with getting a picture with me.....

Standin On a Corner In Winslow, Arizona...

What a trip! I thought I was going to be bored. We drove the whole way out from Arizona to La Grange, Indiana in Steve's boss's semi truck--stopping each night wherever we made it to.

Homemade cheeses, smoked meats, Amish peanut butter, and food, food, food.
And we learned all about the Amish people, which was quite an eye-opener. I guess I figured these people would be hiding in their little simple Amish homes, away from all the cars, congestion, tourists, and shopping. WRONG! Their houses are quite large, and beautiful, and modern looking. And they're situated among the regular houses of the community. The only way you can tell the difference is there's no electric wires going to the house.
The Amish people own businesses, including tourist destinations, they work among the rest of the community in the factories, they go out to dinner just like anyone else, they use computers, they ride in cars, and they even hire workers to do stuff for them--like lawn care!!! We saw a lawn care guy working at an Amish house. Too funny.
They can do all these things, as long as they don't OWN any of these modern day conveniences. Borrowed computers, telephones, tractors, rides in other people's cars are okay. Just don't OWN any of that. What a bunch of moochers.

Most of them seemed to get around in their little black horse buggies, or bicycles.
We were fascinated with the horse buggies. There's actually hitching posts at grocery stores and convenience stores, so the Amish buggies can roll on in!

We were lucky to have great weather, right up till the day we left, which was Saturday. We dropped Steve's boss's semi truck at the shop that's doing some customizing to it, and Steve's boss picked us up and flew us home in his private jet.
We entertained ourselves all the way home with our jokes and stories.

In a few weeks the truck will be done and we'll be flying out to pick it up. The sleeper that's being put on it is larger than a motorhome I once owned! Fancy, too.
It's going to be a show truck, and the first show it'll be in is the one I'm having in the spring.

Halloween Cut Short

I put my Halloween decorations up on the 22nd, then had to leave town for a three day conference. So my beautiful Jack O Lanterns were only lit up one night!

The Bug Guy's Here!

Once a month the bug guy sprays around the exterior of the house. I've NEVER lived anywhere where that was done, I always did it myself if I felt it necessary. Buy the spray, mix the solution, put it in the sprayer, then get to work. Steve pays a guy to do that. It's just another thing I am trying to get used to. I actually got him to fire the pool guy, though. That saved $80 per month. Now I'm the pool guy.

It's not that he's lazy, he's just making his life easier, since his accident. He still does an amazing amount of stuff for someone who's technically a paraplegic. (did I even spell that right?) It always astounds me to hear of people who don't do shit, yet they have full function of their entire body. "I hurt my wrist so I went on disability." Huh?

But, back to the bug thing.....
I'm glad there's someone else taking on that job, because here in the desert we have ickies like scorpions and centipedes. Either one can sneak into the house at night and sting you in your sleep. Last summer when Steve noticed a huge bug bite on his leg, he thought it would just go away. (he didn't feel the initial "sting" because his legs are numb) After a few days the bite grew into a huge problem--and when he went to the doctor he was put on antibiotics and skin medicines. Centipede and scorpion stings turn into staph infections--which can kill you.
He had to blame the bug guy for that one--because we eventually found a dead centipede under the bed. Here's one that'll creep you out, though. Centipedes are known for sneaking into the house thru the air conditioning vents. I've actually seen it myself--our air vents are in the ceiling, and they drop down from the vent onto the floor, bed, whatever is below. EWWWWWW!!! Now, it's not like there's a parade of icky bugs around here--but I've seen it happen.
That's enough to make ya pay the bug guy to come back a couple of extra times!

This last weekend I drove to Vegas for an American Cancer Society training meeting. It was informative, really, and that's not what I was expecting. Sometimes I get the attitude that I know it all. Turns out I don't. They surprised me with an award presentation for fundraising achievements, I was quite shocked! And, since Starbucks is officially an American Cancer Society corporate partner, they provided huge amounts of free coffee and espresso for us all to enjoy throughout the day. Yay!

Sunday, we went out on the lake for a three hour tour. Steve was recently given a boat that belonged to his aunt and uncle. It's not new, by any means, but it's in great shape. Really, it looks like the SS Minnow to me. It's big, white, and it has windshield wipers. It's ironic that Steve's aunt and uncle gave him this boat, because it's exactly what he's been wishing for, for a couple of years. On cold, windy days, he would say, "This would be a perfect day to take a cabin-boat out on the lake. We could anchor in a nice quiet cove, bring lunch, read a book, take a nap...." This boat is exactly what he wanted. You can either steer it from up on the roof, or down in the cabin that's completely closed in with big windows. It has a dining area, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, and a helm with a thousand buttons that light up. No idea what any of them are for. The only work I need to do is update the colors inside. It needs more lighter color, like on the walls and curtains. Too much blue right now.
Since we enjoy the same friggin' 50 mph winds that southern california gets (except we're too smart to build where there's high risk of fire) we had the perfect windy cool day on Sunday. It was 60 degrees, and there wasn't a soul on the lake. Took the Minnow out for its maiden voyage and actually had a very nice time. Sandwiches, chips, beer, some magazines, and a very nice cove all to ourselves.
At 5pm, we took it back to the marina so we could teach ourselves how to get the boat back on the trailer in very high winds. Not too shabby!

This week we're doing last minute stuff so we can leave for Indiana on Sunday. I have a Republican Women's conference in Phoenix for three days starting on Thursday, so I have just today and tomorrow to finish what's on my list. It's going to be a very cold trip to Indiana, and I'm not sure if I even have clothing that's appropriate for it!
We're driving Steve's boss's semi truck back there, because they're putting a custom made sleeper on it. I guess the only place that could do it right is the one in Indiana. Originally, the trip was supposed to be in August but the comapany doing the paint job on the truck couldn't get it done in time. So here we go; driving to the midwest when it's friggin cold. It's 80 degrees here, and we're going away from it?