They’ve put the kitchen cabinets in at our house.
General
The “Super-Duper What the Heck is Going On” Post
I always feel like I’m apologizing for not updating this thing enough every time I post. This is probably my most delinquent post of this entire blog. A LOT has been happening here the past couple months that I have failed to keep all of you loyal readers informed about. I’ll try and cover the past couple months, but I’m apt to leave something out because my memory isn’t that good. If I had posted details shortly after these events happened, I wouldn’t have that problem… but there wouldn’t be a mile-long super-duper post then either.
Biosphere
Sometime around the beginning of February, we decided to take a trip out to Biosphere 2 (Biosphere 1 is the real earth… see we learned something), which is north of Tucson. This is the very same Biosphere that a team of scientists lived in for a full year in the early 90’s. Apparently it has changed hands a few times since then and is now run by The University of Arizona. Unfortunately, with those changes it has become a little bit run down. I guess they’re trying to fix things up though. The tour was interesting, and we had a good time walking through a little part of history. Photos->
Cindy Visits Arizona
Around mid-February, Jess’s mom came out to visit us for a long weekend. We explored the city a bit with her. She had spent some time here a while back for her work, and I think she enjoyed seeing her old stomping grounds again. We took a trip to campus, and wandered around there for a day. We also took a trip out to Sabino Canyon to enjoy the beautiful weather. It was one of the first really nice weekends here and WAY better weather than she had come from in Iowa. Unfortunately I was a little bit under the weather while she was here, so didn’t get to enjoy as much as everyone else. She and Jess went shopping on Monday (Jess had the day off) while I tried to sleep off the black death. Photos->
Fred and Kathy Visit Arizona
Not too long after we drop one parent off at the airport, two more show up. My parents arrived the day after Jess’s mom left. They spent the week here, so we explored Tucson a bit more. We took another trip to campus and visited the Arizona State Museum, and were able to get a private showing of some Ansel Adams original photographs that are housed at the U of A. Then we had tickets to a lovely rendition of The Lone Ranger at the Tucson Gaslight Theater. Over the weekend, we drove up the Casa Grande to see Brian. That visit included my mom’s first trip to IKEA. Back in Tucson the next day, we tried out my new boiler with a shrimp boil at Nancy and Robert’s house (I loves me them shrimp boils!). The day after that, we took a trip to Colossal Cave on the East side of Tucson. It was a nice tour through a pretty large cave… with your standard stalactites and stalagmites and guano. That night, Brian came back to Tucson for a farewell dinner before their trip back to Iowa the next day. Photos->
Odds and Ends
I spent last week in Austin, TX for a conference (SXSW Interactive). It is a great conference! I was able to meet up with an old coworker from Iowa, and a few other people that I met at last year’s conference.
The house is coming along nicely. I need to get some new photos up (maybe improve on the time lapse). We had our pre-drywall walk-through last Thursday. Things are really coming together quickly. At that meeting, we worked out where all the wiring was located and made sure everything was correct. We had a bit of an issue with the ethernet wiring, but I think that was pretty non-standard for our builders so it took a little more clarification. Today when I drove by, they had insulation up in the walls, which really makes things feel more done. The walls finally look like walls, and you can’t see from one end of the house all the way through to the other any more. Once they start putting up the drywall, they told us they’d be able to give us a completion day. We are really excited to finally get into the house (if you couldn’t tell). It sounds like if things go according to plan, we’ll be in by the end of May or in early June.
Vegas Vacation
As my reward for completing the half marathon,* Scott and I went to Las Vegas this past weekend. We had a blast. But I have to say that the coolest thing we did was go to the Hoover Dam on our way to Vegas. We were absolutely in awe of this engineering marvel. Here are some interesting facts we learned on the Dam Tour:
- The Hoover Dam is almost 727 feet high. That’s the equivalent of a 72-story building.
- Lake Mead (the captured water behind the dam) is the largest man-made lake in the U.S.
- The dam weighs 6,600,000 tons.
- There is enough concrete in the dam to build a highway from San Francisco to New York City.
That’s a heckuva lot of concrete!
After we did our learning on the Dam Tour, we headed over to Vegas, which is about 45 minutes past the Hoover Dam. We did the usual touristy stuff, such as watching the Bellagio fountains, the Treasure Island pirate show (if you go to Vegas and miss this show, you’re not missing much), and the Mirage volcano. We also checked out all of the casinos, which included checking out the Planet Hollywood buffet. On our last night there we went to see Second City (comedy show) at the Flamingo. All in all, it was a good trip and a nice weekend getaway.
On our way back to Tucson we stopped at a tiny little hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Wikieup, AZ. Wikieup is a little town out in the middle of nowhere Arizona. This restaurant was unique because they serve fried rattlesnake! We weren’t brave enough to sample the local cuisine.
*Click here to see pics of me crossing the finish line. Please note that I had just run a half marathon so some of the pics aren’t too pretty. Luckily, I recovered fairly quickly and was only sore for about a day afterward. I’m still debating whether I want to do another one…
P.F. Chang’s Rock ‘N’ Roll Half Marathon
As most of you know, I’ll be running the P.F. Chang’s Rock ‘N’ Roll Half Marathon this Sunday, January 13. It’s finally here! I’ve been running since November and I’m pretty much sick of training so I am really looking forward to actually doing it. The half marathon starts at 8:30 am. However, because it’s a wave start I probably won’t actually cross the start line until about 9:00 am Mountain time (that’s 10 am Central time).
I will be wearing a time chip during the race. If you would like to check and see where I am on the course, you can log onto the website at www.rnraz.com and click the Live Results button located at the top of the homepage. My time will be recorded at the 5k, 10k, 10-mile marks and finish line. My race number is 45119 in case you need it to look me up online. My goal is to finish the race in less than 4 hours…and in one piece! Wish me luck!
Holiday Wishes
Happy holidays everyone! We’re packing our suitcases to take off for Christmas. I’m packing my “lovely” new shirt (thanks Nancy and Robert!) which was more a gift to Jess than it was to me. Note the instructions (printed upside down so I can read them) on the shirt. I’m told that’s all I need to remember.
A Week of Ups and Downs
Last week was a crazy one around here. It started on a high with a great concert on Monday night. We went to see my favorite singer/songwriter Marc Cohn at the Fox Theater in downtown Tucson. Right when we moved here (before I was employed) I got up early to buy tickets for this show. We lucked out and got seats front and center. The show was absolutely amazing. I’ve only seen him perform once before (don’t get me wrong it was an incredible show then), 
but being right up front really makes a difference. He played a lot of stuff of his new CD, Join the Parade, and many old favorites as well (Walking in Memphis). Then after the show, to make a great evening even better, Marc was out front signing autographs, so we got to chat a bit and take a picture.
If you couldn’t guess, the concert was the “up” mentioned in the title. The “down” came later that night when I had a voice mail on my cell phone from my dad telling us that my grandmother had passed away. She was always so great to her grandkids (she spoiled us rotten!). She was a great lady and will definitely be missed. My brother posted a very appropriate poem on his blog. I made a quick unplanned trip to Iowa at the end of the week for the funeral. Jess was in South Carolina for a business trip so she wasn’t able to go with me. It was a sad trip, but was still good to see everyone, and celebrate what a wonderful life my grandmother had lived. We’ll miss you grandma.
Marie Rice 1924-2007
Christmas in the Desert
Even though it doesn’t feel like stereotypical Christmas weather outside (only got up to 58 on Sunday BRRR!), we’ve been getting into the Christmas spirit. We purchased our Christmas tree the week after Thanksgiving. It is Jess’s first real tree (love that pine smell!). Then we had some people over to help decorate. We went with a red and green theme this year. Then this past weekend, we baked and decorated Christmas cookies to take to our various holiday events. My hands still hurt from the little frosting-squirter-thing. We’ve got a ton of photos in the gallery, and in our Flickr account.