Month of May, 2007

Juxtaposition

The juxtaposition of these signs cracked me up.

Seth Godin in Tempe

Thursday morning, I had the distinct pleasure to hear marketing author Seth Godin, speak. He is on a lecture tour promoting his latest book, The Dip.

Seth came to Phoenix because Matt LaPrairie created a petition asking him to come. Matt was able to get enough people to commit to attending the lecture, secured Seth's appearance, then brought in a couple sponsors - SiteWire and the City of Tempe. Seth talked about The Dip and knowing when to quit. It was a great lecture and I'm looking forward to reading the book.

Snapped a few pictures before the show. Adam took great pictures of Seth from the lecture if you want to see him.

In the Airport

About to get on my flight to Dallas. Can't wait for the Blogger Wedding of the Year (tm)! Leia and Jim are getting married tomorrow night. Lots of our blogger friends will be there and I'm SO excited to see everyone!

Gotta go get on that plane.

Got the Convertible Back!

The convertible has been at the mechanic for the past three weeks and I finally got it back today. I got to take it to work and show it off. It drives like a champ!

Andrew at Atwood European rocks as a mechanic!

I wish I was staying in Phoenix for the weekend and driving it around. Alas, I'm heading to Dallas for the weekend. Boyfriend and good friend's wedding trumps new-to-me car.

Pirate Jokes

Luke knows I love pirate jokes and they never stop making me laugh!

Luke: Why couldn't the young pirate get into the club?
me: Why not?
Luke: He was carrrrrrrded!

Luke: Are pirates addicted to drugs?
me: yes?
Luke: No, they're hooked!

Love Blogs

At the checkout line in the grocery store a couple weeks ago, I was struck by this magazine cover. LOVE BLOGS. My first thought was "Yes, I love blogs. Doesn't everyone?" Then it occurred to me that the magazine was referring to blogs about love. I love those kinds of blogs too. (Do you know of a good one?)

It's kinda amazing to me that blogs have gotten so popular and so mainstream in the past few years. I started blogging in February 2001 because it seemed like a cool thing to do. In a very short time, I met a bunch of people who blogged too. It felt completely mainstream to blog and to know about blogs. At least it felt that way in my little universe. But every once in awhile I'd be reminded that it wasn't mainstream...usually when I'd have a conversation with my parents or coworkers. These days it really is mainstream as is evident by the magazine at the grocery store.

These days Ruby on Rails feels very similar to how blogging felt in 2001. It seems very normal and regular in my little universe (especially since I'm working at a Rails consulting agency). However, I realize that RoR is still very far away from the mainstream. It will be very, very interesting to see where Rails ends up in a few years. Hopefully not on the cover of a teen magazine.

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Ragan & Kris' Wedding weekend

Spent a great weekend in Dallas! Here are a few photos. Check out the entire set.

I got to see my nephew! He's gotten so big and he's so happy. Look at this cute, cute smile. I love this child SO much. I just wish we lived closer so I could see him all the time!

I went home to see these lovely people get married. Ragan and Kris have been good friends of Kristen's for years. By default, they're friends of mine. I feel like we all grew up together. It was certainly exciting to see them get married after 10+ years of being together.

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Quote of the Day

"I love you. Even in the morning."
- Chris, who knows how grumpy I can be when I first wake up

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Cool House

The air conditioning repairman was on time and efficient! My house is now cool. Apparently, I needed some sort of capacitor replaced as mine had shorted out. That was the most painless house repair I've ever had. Much props to ServiceOne, the home warranty company, and Arizona Trade Masters, the A/C repair company! They both did great work and I would recommend them.

Sleepless

It's hot. I can't sleep because it is so hot. Yet I'm sleepy. What a frustrating place to be. Can't morning get here already? At least someone will be out in the morning to look at the air conditioning. I hope it is fixable.

I'm heading to Dallas for the weekend. Ragan and Chris are getting married! I'm so thrilled that I get to be a guest. Kristen, Chris, and Braydon will also be in town for the event. I can't wait to see my little nephew!

The latest photo of Braydon.

Hot House

The air conditioner is dying. In fact, it may have already died. I came home tonight and was surprised to find Bentley panting. It wasn't uncomfortable downstairs so I couldn't figure out why he was hot. Then I went upstairs. The thermostat said it is 88 degrees in the house. It definitely felt like it too. The fan was running but nothing cool was coming out of the vents. Sigh.

I have a home warranty because of the air conditioner. It's the original unit, which makes it 17 years old. It's definitely on its last leg. The past two summers that I've lived here, it's died. Unfortunately, each time it was brought back to life. I wish it would just stay dead so I could get a new one.

So I know who I'm calling first thing in the morning. Hopefully it will be less than two weeks before they get someone out here to look at it. While I love it warm, sleeping in an 88 degree house isn't exactly my style. Thank goodness the air conditioner didn't stop in the dead of summer when it's 116 degrees outside. (I hope I didn't just curse myself...and Chris.)

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Planners

My boyfriend, Chris, is a planner. This is a good thing, because I am also a planner. It's nice that he doesn't get tired of me talking about the future and things I want to do and all the plans I have. He understands that plans don't always have to be executed and that I'm always entertained by plans. He understands these things because he's a planner too.

I've recently learned that Chris might be more of a planner than I.

One of Chris's hobbies is working with wood. Naturally, he has a garage full of woodworking tools. Since he'll be moving to my house soon, all of those tools will be in my garage. (Soon to be referred to as "our garage.") Chris is more than slightly concerned about how all the tools are going to fit into the garage along with two cars.

So weeks ago, he had me measure the entire garage and send him the specs. Then he drew it up in some computer planning tool. This man is serious! The picture below is the outcome. Well, the outcome so far. Chris has already been through multiple revisions. And I have to admit that I'm impressed. Somehow he's managed to get everything to fit along with two cars. Brilliant.

In a short six weeks, we'll find out if this plan can be executed properly. Cross your fingers!

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Modest Mouse Concert

Last night I saw Modest Mouse in concert at the Mesa Amphitheater. It was my first time to that venue and I loved it. It's an outdoor amphitheater with steps and lovely, lovely green grass to sit in. It's a nice size - large without being overwhelmingly huge. Security was the strictest I've seen in a long time. Men were patted down before entering and women had their bags gone through. You couldn't have cameras, like most venues. However, you could take bottled water. The water had to be unopened and then the security person opened your bottle and threw away the caps. I'm assuming so you couldn't throw a full bottle of water, but not really sure. Since Mesa is a very strong Mormon community, I was surprised that the amphitheater sold alcohol, but it was nice to drink a beer at the show.

The show itself was very enjoyable. Modest Mouse preforms well and was quite interesting. I was really impressed that they have two drummers and those guys did an amazing job. For me, they really made the show. The singer of Modest Mouse is an interesting performer. He's definitely a bit strange, but it's a perfect fit for his style. I was fascinated that he sounds normal when he's talking but when he starts signing, it's totally different. I'm not sure I can explain but I spent a lot of the show focused in on his voice and body movement. I'm definitely glad I had the opportunity to see Modest Mouse, but was sad I missed Jade's birthday party.

Ryan's Graduation Party

Congratulations to Ryan on his graduatation from ASU on May 10, 2007. He had a lovely party at Kazimeirz Wine Bar to celebrate.

View the whole set of pictures.

Quote of the Day

"I don't do words. I do code."
- Irish

Nose

Did I mention I got my nose pierced?

It was a spur of the moment decision the night before Easter. I was out with Jennifer and we got talking about how cool my new employer is about appearance. And it's just a laid back environment...not at all like my past job which was far more corporate. In the midst of the conversation, we decided the moment was right for me to get my nose pierced. So off we went to the piercer.

It's been a few weeks now and I'm totally digging it. I feel young and funky again. Life is good.

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Saturday/Sunday

Saturday morning, I woke up and had coffee with Jennifer. She was nice enough to let me sleep on the couch AND made me coffee in the morning. That's a good friend. A little later in the morning, I took Bentley to the vet. His ears are better but not completely. So I've got two more weeks of wrestling ear medication into him. (He now knows what the bottle sounds like and runs away whenever I pick it up. It's gotten ridiculous.)

Saturday afternoon, Jennifer drove to this side of town and we went shopping. This was a trip all about getting summer clothes. We had such a good time shopping together. I had forgotten that shopping with a girlfriend is way more fun than shopping alone. We completely wore ourselves out with shopping all afternoon and into the evening. When we got home, all plans of going back out were scrapped when we both fell asleep on the couches. Instead, we went to bed early. On a Saturday night. Yep, we're hip.

Sunday, I woke up and had coffee with Jennifer. Two days in a row! I could get used to that. I made some breakfast and we had a leisurely morning. After she headed home, I cleaned house. Then I laid in the sun out by the pool. THAT was nice. Spent a few hours this evening with David and Ruby.

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Friday Night

Went out with Jennifer, Ryan, Keith, and Andy on Friday night. We started at The Salty Senorita in honor of the day before Cinco de Mayo. We ended at everyone's favorite, Casey Moore's.

There was a fight at Salty Senorita. Security kicked the guys out before any punches were thrown. Then suddenly, they were back in the bar and a lot of shoving was going on. The crowd surged toward our table so there was a quick scramble to get out of the way. Within seconds security had it under control and removed the instigator. It's been a really, really long time since I've seen a fight.

Josh showed up with his parents who were visiting from Washington. It was really nice to meet them and finally have faces to go with names. Hope they enjoyed the lovely Phoenix weather this weekend.

It's clear that Ryan, Andy, and Keith are very good friends. It's good to see men that can be comfortable with being really good friends with other men.

Funniest part of Friday night: Josh explaining to his mother what "Hit it and quit it" means.

Jennifer was the best being designated driver for us. She even let me crash on her couch. Though I fell asleep too early...I missed hearing her neighbor confess to her his gay relationship with his roommate. She said it was an interesting moment. I would have like to have experienced it. But instead, I was sleeping.

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Dinner on a Thursday night

All alone...just me and the mail. And you, Internet. Thank you for always keeping me company.

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Dinner with Jennifer

I had dinner with Jennifer last night. It was SO nice to just sit and talk. I'm so lucky to have a good girlfriend like her. She's about to go to Costa Rica for a month, so I'm trying to fit in as much time with her as possible. (And we're going to hang out again on Saturday night - slumber party!)

We were talking about working out. Jennifer hit the nail on the head when she talked about how frustrating it is to skip the workout for a week and feel like you're starting at square one when you do finally get back into the groove again. Our bodies really aren't that great. They require SO much maintenance. Evolution, why have you failed us?!

Quote of the Day

"It's her wolf heritage, you know."
- Karen, about Sophie's ability to not get sick after chewing on some unidentified dead thing

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