And...Cows. Big Cows.

Simply Gorgeous Last Day...

It's 64 degrees with a bright blue sky.  Perfect day for our last in Arizona.  Had a wonderful time with mom and Dave!  Off to the airport in 45 minutes, back to beautiful snowy Minnesota.

Epic Fail

Couldn't finish.  Worked it for about six hours yesterday and about an hour today.

Double Rainbow!!

That's hail...

We are stuck in the car at Target.

Seriously...

It can't always be 75 and sunny here...

Thursday Multi Stop Day Trip

Thursday was a multi stop day trip kind of day.  It was a simply gorgeous day, mid 70s and sunny with a hurt-your-eyes blue sky.

Started out the day by heading up to Prescott - great little city northwest of Scottsdale.  Had lunch at Raven's Cafe - great little spot right in downtown.  We both had the Squatters IPA - very good.  And our lunch was really great too.

We then headed up to Jerome along miles and miles of windy mountain roads, white knuckling it pretty much the entire way.  By the time we got to Jerome (an artsy little town perched precariously on the side of the mountain), we were pretty tense.  We walked around for a bit - you can see for 50 miles from Jerome and the views were amazing.

After Jerome we went to Tuzigoot National Monument.  It's an ancient hilltop pueblo, and super cool.  You can walk up to it and walk up on top of the highest point on the pueblo - the views were so wonderful.  It was windy, but a beautiful day.

Then we went to Cottonwood, looking for wine boxes so we can check all of our beer onto the plane.  Don't ask.  It's so dumb.  Anyway, we had a wine tasting at Arizona Stronghold Winery - pretty good - and then got boxes that won't really help us for $3 at some other wine place.  D-U-M.  DUMB.

We then headed back to Scottsdale to have dinner at the Praying Monk.  It's supposed to be a great beer bar.  Yeah...not so much.  On the way in, there was a guy peeing on the wall outside of the restaurant...in the front!  Classy.  The beer list was good, but all the hype?  B.S.  Our food was good, but  Minneapolis is certainly WAY more advanced than Scottsdale when it comes to beer bars.  Wouldn't you expect a place called "Praying Monk" to at least have ONE sour beer?  The closest they came was Lindeman's Framboise in a bottle.  That doesn't count.   And the beer special, the "Monk's Brew," was Full Sail Amber.  Hmmmmmm...adventurous!!

Came back home, had some Oreo's, watched Law & Order SVU, then went to bed.

Good day.

True Food Kitchen

Just had an amazing dinner at True Food Kitchen in Scottsdale.  Had a raw kale salad...we were skeptical.  But it was AMAZING.  Ok that picture looks bad, but it was fabulous.

It's a superfood.  It's science. 

Chris just lifted up the car.

Rick Rolled in the Car

Lovely Desert Pics (and Self Portrait...and Dave w/ Drink)

Olive Oil and Frank Lloyd Wright

Took a trip down to Queen Creek Olive Mill for lunch and to pick up some Arizona olive oil and other tasty snacks.  It was a great lunch.  Can't wait to try the oils and vinegars when we get home!

After that we drove through the Arizona Biltmore.  Simply beautiful and deck out in all its FLW style.  Pics below.

Tonight - back out to dinner in Scottsdale, tomorrow Jerome!

Tea-jacked

Well we went shopping and I got fucking tea-jacked at Teavana.  I thought, "Oh!  Let's stop in here since I've been wanting to try to cut down on the diet pop I drink, and I would really like to find a tea I like."

They had samples outside...good samples...samples that draw you into the goddamn tea web.  That's when they strike and then start to wrap you up just to devour you later.

Oh sure, you think you're just going to get a little tea, they talk super fast and tell you all about how medicinal it is, and wave the lid of the tea tin at you so you get all suckered in by smelling how lovely it is, then they get you to agree to what you think is the right amount, but you don't know...because you don't drink fucking tea.

So...$79, one pound of two different teas, and a half a pound of rock sugar (FOR CHRIST'S SAKE), I am now a proud tea drinker.

WTF???  At least they didn't sucker me into the $169 cast iron tea pot.  Barely...

Spa Day

Went to Copperwynd Spa today with Mom, got a Citrine Body Wrap.  Basically, she scrubbed me with a loofah, then rubbed exfoliating scrub on me, wiped it off, rubbed this citrusy lotion on me, then wrapped me up like a baked potato.  After baking for about 15 minutes, I then got a hot stone massage.

She was quite fierce - this was no total relaxation massage, and all I could think about was the story my friend CD told me about when she was studying abroad in Greece and went to a "spa" in Turkey - she got a massage, and it started by a woman naked from the waist up dumping water over her head and then scrubbed her hair with a bar of soap.  

It definitely wasn't that bad, but it did make me chuckle during my treatment.  

My skin feels great - all soft and uber-moisturized.  We than had lunch as the resort - tasty.

Off to shopping.

Lazy Day 3...

We have literally done almost nothing today.  Got up...ate breakfast...Chris drove Dave into town to drop off the car to get fixed...Mom had a meeting...I spent a glorious hour all alone.

Chris and I went down to the club and had a vigorous and intense weight workout.  I'm fairly certain I won't be able to raise my arms tomorrow.

Then we...sat around.  Did some laundry.  Read my book.  Watched some TV.  Showered.  Did some more laundry.  Had some guacamole and chips and a beer.

Now we are going to go outside and sit and read...and likely fall asleep.

Heading out tonight to do a liquor store run (buying more bottles of that fantastic 2007 Sineann Pinot), stopping at Best Buy (printer died so Dave needs to get a new one), and out to dinner at Pinnacle Grille.

Good day.

Mogollon Rim Excursion...

Yesterday we went for a day trip up to Payson and a drive up to the Mogollon Rim.  After nearly running out of gas (thankfully we stopped at a desert outpost known as Jake's - home to many bikers), we made our way up the rim.  It was a beautiful drive, though in typical "we don't really have a plan let's just wing it" style, we never got out of the car.  We just kept driving and saying, "Is this it?"

Finally we just turned around and headed back.  On the way back we stopped at the Tonto Fish Hatchery, where they raise trout and then release them.  While there, a woman noticed this guy perched on top of the hatchery roof over the trout pens.  He then flew down and just hung out on the fence.  We were able to get within about 50 feet of him.  Then he flew off and preened for a while in a tree.  AMAZING.

Read this if you love good beer...

This has nothing to do with our trip, but I read it and laughed out loud a few times.  It's an article about a lawsuit filed against Anheuser-Busch InBev claiming hey watered down their beers.

Favorite quote: "Would anyone notice if their Budweiser, Bud Light, Michelob, Etc, was actually watered down?  Would it really affect the taste of the beer?

My answer is a loud "no."

http://eatocracy.cnn.com/2013/03/01/berrong-on-beer-why-i-drink-good-beer/?hpt=hp_bn11

Arizona - Day 1

Day 1 was fantastic.

Morning:

• Got up
• Ate breakfast
• Got ready - and put SANDALS on because it was 84 today.  HA!!

Afternoon:

• Went out for a day of shopping - liquor store, Safeway, and a quick trip to Barnes & Noble to pick up my book club book
• We had lunch at Fate Brewing - awesome pizza!!  The beers were good - nothing stood out as amazing, but solid sampler.

Evening:

• Came back to the house, hung out, read my book, Chris had a beer and then went out to golf a few holes with Dave (splendid performance after a three year golf hiatus)
• Made pasta with a meat sauce of Patty's own making - lots of onion, carrots, red and yellow pepper with ground bison...um...who says I can't cook??
• WINE:  had a spectacular bottle of Sineann 2007 Pinot Noir from the Willamette Valley (sidebar...we have never visited there, but NEWSFLASH, they will be on the docket for our next trip.)
• DINNER:  it was awesome!!  Salad and pasta - and now Oreo cookies for dessert.

Might I say the best part of the evening was that USED CARS was on in the background.  This was one of my dad's favorite movies, and one that we need to watch with Dave.  Highlights that never stop giving:

• "When my boss sees these figures, he's gonna have a stroke..."
• "Is this a 1974 Mercedes 450SL for twenty-four thousand dollars?  That's too fucking high."
• "We are blowing the living shit out of high prices."
• "Toby wants you to buy it."
• "Trust me..."

If you have not seen this movie, rent it.  Now.  Don't wait, just do it.  It's awful, has gratuitous nudity, but Kurt Russel is at his 1980s finest. And the cast boasts Lenny and Squiggy from "Laverne and Shirley" as well as Grandpa from "The Munsters."  That's Academy Award material people.

Relaxing now after a bottle of wine and Oreo cookies.  What will tomorrow bring?

Pasta time...

Cocktail time...

So nice....

Fate Brewing

Having a yummy sampler at Fate Brewing in Scottsdale!  Pizza is on the way.

Flight

No, the plane didn't fly upside down like in that Denzel Washington movie.  But for those of you that wonder why I have a phobia about flying, below are things that happen when I fly.  Now, the things below aren't going to kill me (well, maybe the first one), but really?  Who else does this happen to?

1. As they were doing the pre-flight check, and the video was playing, suddenly, the lights and video all shut off as did the blowers.  Now, when the flight attendants look nervous, that is when I get tense.  And they looked nervous.  After a few minutes it all came back up, and the worst part about it was that we had to watch the video again.
2. When the woman who was in the window seat sat down, she seemed quite pleasant.  Until she looked  over as we were preparing to take off and said, "Do you have an air sick bag?  I'm not feeling well."  GREAT!  So I gave her mine and Chris's, and being the Girl Scout that I am, flagged down a flight attendance and got a bigger plastic bag and two little bottles of water.  At one point after take off, I said to Chris, "Now I think she is crying!  Either that or dry heaving."  Then after we landed, she apologized and started crying again and told me that her husband of 34 years had just left her and she had too much to drink.  I felt so bad for her!  I patted her on the back and told her to take care of herself.

So electrical failure and being hurled on were not to be.  AND...our flight got in an hour early.  WTF??

Today it is 66 degrees and sunny with a warm breeze.  Chris and I are heading out to the liquor store and grocery store for my mom.   Pictures and beer talk later.

Arizona Bound...

Leaving in 4 hours for eight days of fun in AZ!!  Can't wait...need the vacation.  Right now we are prepping by jettisoning extra clothes from our enormous suit cases.  We need packing help.

The blog might not be so interesting this time...we're in for a lot of hanging out, food, drinking, day trips around Arizona...wait, that is kind of what we always do.

Hopefully something interesting will happen.