Ghost Hunting

In Havasu, our cemetary is not very old. I'm sure it's got ghosts and all that, but I just don't "feel it" when I am there.
So when we drove past a cemetary in Prescott, and the sign said "Prescott Pioneers Cemetary," we had to give it a look.

And it was COOL.











And finally, the photo that freaked Shay out. There are some white spots on the picture behind him and near his head, giving the appearance that there were "orbs" in the area. I doubt they were orbs, but even if they were that wouldn't mean there were ghosts around Shay. Just energy.

Countdown to a Night of ROCK!

Our tickets for this weekend's concert sit on my jewelry box, just waiting for Saturday night. Me being the scrupulous one, I got tickets for Whitesnake and Judas Priest for $25 each. I explained to Shay yesterday that THIS is the concert I would have killed to attend back in the 80's. I pointed to my heart and I said, "Every time I think of how close we are to this concert (5 days and counting...) I get butterflies in my heart!"
He said, "Wow!" I'm sure inside his head he was thinking, "Wow, Mom's a psycho."

Spoiled Rotten

This bike is a pretty good representation of the bike I had to ride while growing up in the Midwest. This bike, though, is actually cool looking compared to what mine was. This one in the picture is a "Stingray" and is sought after by collectors. Mine was a white and yellow bike with oversized handle bars and an ugly torn yellow banana seat. Remember the banana seats? Not too cool in the 80's. It was a bike that was acquired in one of the many rental houses we occupied. Someone left it behind when they moved out, I think. I put a lot of miles on that stupid thing, because I loved to ride and it was all I had. My brother had a cool BMX-style bike and together we traveled the dirt roads and jumped jumps. We were in DARN GOOD shape. When we moved (yet again) to the awful, horrible neighborhood in Goose Haven, Iowa, we encountered the nasty kids who relentlessly made fun of my banana seat. So I put it away and stopped riding it. If I needed to get somewhere, I walked.

Shay, on the other hand, has never known what it's like to be made fun of because of the bike he owns. That's because his first "big boy" bike was an actual BMX one, and I got him into BMX racing. Once he tired of the racing (well mostly I got tired of it) he continued to ride the $300 bike that weighs about 2 ounces. Dang that's light. So his friends all admired his bike and he enjoyed several years of riding it whenever, wherever.

Well now he's "tired" of the BMX bike. He says to me yesterday, "My BMX bike is getting too small, I want to go see about getting a new one." I warned him that new bikes are very expensive, but he didn't care because he had managed to rat-hole away $200 in his bedroom. I have never been able to rat-hole away any more than $20. Impressive. His $200 was in the form of jars of coins. We took them to the Coinstar machine and fed it for about a half hour. Came away with over $200.
$200!!!

After looking at some VERY nice bikes in the pits of hell, Shay insisted that we leave WalMart and go to a local race bike shop. He began pricing bikes there and I saw his look of determination when the guy was pointing out bikes and saying, "This one's $400, this one's $300, this one's $225...."
He pulled out his wallet and said, "I only have $208. Which bike can I get with that?"
The shop owner pointed out a Redline bike, royal blue in color. Sold.
I just stood there in disbelief.
$208 gone, just like that.
And Shay's riding around on a bike I'd never even LOOK at when I was growing up, because I knew it was something I'd never have.

And I would have never jumped this high, because my banana seat weighed about 70 pounds.



I think I'm gonna go kick his butt right now.

Prescott, Arizona

Beautiful, mountainous, lovely Prescott Arizona is where we spent our weekend. It's considerably cooler than where we live; the surface of the sun is rarely below 95 degrees this time of year. Even at midnight. But in Prescott the temperatures begin dipping down to a pleasant 70 degrees as soon as the sun sets.
It is Arizona's original Capital (I wish it still was) and is really the site of the first civilized living in our state. We toured the Sharlot Hall museum, established by Arizona's first female activist back in the early 1900's. We went to a pretty interesting car show. We sat on the steps of the old Courthouse in the town square to watch the nightly entertainment. One night it was a Bluegrass band, and the next night it was a squaredancing club doing their thing.

What a wonderful setting. The Courthouse is the center of activity, and a grand center it is:


I got some action shots of the squaredancers:



We also toured "Whiskey Row," which is a block of bars, shops, and an old hotel. Live music coming out of every doorway, and people standing outside in the night air socializing. There was an old fashioned ice cream and candy store that we had to stop in, to get our Pecan Pralines:


There's jewelry stores featuring all kinds of wonderful creations, and different little boutiques that have a variety of whimsical stuff:



Yeah, my thoughts EXACTLY.

The car show was hot, about 96 degrees and we felt like we were crispy by the time the afternoon rolled around. It was nice to see a car show in a different town other than our own because in Havasu, we've pretty much seen all the show cars. They're all people we've known for years and years, who show up to all the same shows.

In the center of this picture you can see four people standing there looking at the camera. That's Shay, Steve, Steve's friend Randy, and Randy's son Matt:



We took an alternate route home, which added almost a whole hour to the drive time. But it was worth it. We saw some very isolated and pretty towns that we'd love to come visit again once the weather cools off.

We drove thru pretty mountains and grassy farming communities. Kinda nice to see something different:




As predicted, we were pretty upset to come home to 115 degrees. Steve crawled inside his head and hasn't come out yet. Sheesh, Steve, get over it!

Funny One, Gotta Love the Berts and Ernies

This is a video I was directed to thru a friend of a friend of a friend on Facebook. And I laughed so hard I nearly spit out my coffee....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21OH0wlkfbc

Thank You Arnold

If a picture like this can exist, and not hold a homie back from becoming Governor, then darnit that gives me lots of hope.

I don't have a picture of myself like this.

But I do believe I want a shirt like his, that says, "Steve is Numero Uno."

Snooty Ville

We're planning out our August and thinking ahead of how we're going to pack for the different things we have planned.
One of the trips is to Northern California, for the Pebble Beach car show. They don't call it a car show, to them it's the "Concours d'Elegance."
We're going as staff members, like we did last year. Steve's boss was invited to show a very rare Packard that he'd acquired, and I believe this year he's been invited once again for another rare Packard he bought. We were the staff responsible for transporting the vehicle from L.A. to Pebble Beach in the semi truck, and of course that's enough stress in itself. Another stressful job is done by Robert Espinoza, who shows the car. Seriously, in order to look halfway decent to the judges, you have to have a staff showing the car. And that staff has to be completely knowledgeable about every single aspect of the vehicle. Every nut and bolt, the reason for every bit of the design, etc.
Last year I dressed in business casual, and I looked like a total slob compared to the rest of the people. I didn't wear my comfy shoes or my comfy sweater (it was 60 degrees and we were freezing to death) I wore business clothes. And I was SHUNNED for my lack of fashion.
Here's what I was up against:



And this:



Snooty bastards.

Oh incidentally, I am in that photo. I am in the window on the right, above the stage. Steve's boss reserved a very nice suite in order for us to watch the awards ceremony. Even in the suite, we were freezing. Steve bundled up in a blanket and hibernated for quite a while. I drank everything I could get my hands on.

One thing I remember certainly is the raffles. In Havasu, the car shows have raffles and the winners typically get a t shirt, a car cover, or a gift certificate for a free meal at Denny's. At the "Concours d'Elegance," the raffle tickets are $100 each and the prizes are Rolex watches and Mercedes and BMW's. Not kidding. We were shocked. At Pebble Beach, Jay Leno did the presentation of the raffle winners. In Havasu, I AM THE ONE DOING THE PRESENTATION. That's quite a difference.
In Havasu, a decent breast augmentation gets you lots of attention and friends at the car show. At Pebble Beach, it will get you dirty looks. So I have ordered the following from Ebay:

A Snooty McSnooterson red wool blazer.....



And a pair of Salvatore Ferragamo Italian shoes...



Oh and I'm currently bidding on a Dooney & Bourke handbag, so I can carry around all my drinks and snacks. Because one drink at this show is $10. And I don't even know what snacks cost.

So, set your Teevo for August 17th, I'm going to do my best to get on the live coverage of the awards ceremony. Maybe I'll invest in one of those raffle tickets.