Odds and Ends

Want to know why I haven't posted recently? It's because I'm obsessed with the new Coldplay album and I can't stop listening to it! Buy it now!!  Here's one of my favorite songs, Lovers in Japan/Reign of Love.

Some interesting things that have happened since I last posted:

• Allen has been doing some blue collar temp work.  Isn't his vest cool?

• Lesley and I saw some girl shaving her pubes in the common shower area of the gym. Seriously...there are private showers for that shit.
• Maberly and Bill closed on their house!
• Amy had to go to the damn hospital in an ambulance
• My niece Chaya is off to camp in Maine for 6 weeks!

How many people does it take to hang a picture?

I've had a few pictures that have needed hanging for quite some time. Luckily I have some handy men in my life: Allen and Brandon. They came over to help with the promise of beer and crab cakes for dinner. I can handle that. Guys are so easy to please. 

Here's Brandon before the hanging ever began

Allen's version of helping: checking his e-mail

Meanwhile I am slaving away in the kitchen making crab cakes

Allen bought me this shirt awhile ago...guess it was time to wear it!

Allen pretty much hung this picture by himself

Brandon and Allen doing the math

Then they fixed my table!

I think all of my handyman stuff is done for the time being. :)

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

My Grandpa Ralph turned 80! Here he is with my Grandma Shirley.

We had a little family get together on Sunday. It was nice to see everyone, especially the babies!

Samson and me

Jill and Eden

Abbie, Marcia, Eden

Kevin got stuck

Sisters! Kirsten, Paige, me

Kathryn and Monty

Alexis

Samson

Paige, Kathryn, Monty

Arica and Andy with their kids: Abbie and Eden

Paige and me

(Virtual) Reality Bites

Recently one of my friends got an e-mail from a guy that basically said something like this:

"I'm sorry. I can't. Don't hate me."

If you're familiar with Sex and the City you know that Berger used this phrase to break up with Carrie, but instead of an e-mail he wrote it on a post-it note. This got me thinking...almost everyone I know (including me) has experienced some form of virtual break up. When did it become acceptable to break up with people via e-mail, text or instant message? When did having an honest face-to-face dialogue become too much for people to handle? How does one begin to draw the proverbial line in virtual communication?  

I must admit that I am guilty of using technology instead of face-to-face communication a lot of the time. Jed calls me Quick Draw McGraw because I text back so quickly. I text way more than I talk on the phone. In fact I just changed my text plan to unlimited and decreased my minutes because I just don't talk on the phone like I used to. And it's obviously not just limited to my phone.  You're here. You're reading my blog, checking up on my life. When was the last time we chatted in person?? I know there is definitely a time and a place for technology in my life, but at what cost? I find myself becoming irritated with slow texters or people who write back one word answers on chat. Am I forfeiting certain aspects of interpersonal relationships in exchange for instant gratification? 

I don't pretend to have any answers, I just like to ask the questions. Moral of the story: when it comes down to having "the talk" perhaps next time you should actually talk.

Very Late Weekend Update

I just haven't really been in the mood to write about the weekend. Lame, I know.  And even though it's almost the weekend again I'll post some pics from last weekend because it was actually pretty fun.

Saturday was Krista's birthday and we checked out the new piano bar in town: Keys on Main. It was fairly typical with the obligatory Elton John, Journey and Billy Joel with a little Snoop Dogg mixed in for fun.

Lesley and me. Why is her drink so much bigger than mine??

Sonny and Monty pre-Patron

And post-Patron

Matty showed up!

Even Monty got in on the singing

Holly and Kelli showing some boobies

You know how I collect butt crack pictures? Well here you almost get the whole butt!

Here's the newest addition to the butt crack collection

We moved on to Murphy's

Monty was supposed to be my ride, but he ended up overindulging in the Patron so I drove his ass home.  Just look at the way his eyes are glazed over!

Saturday I did some things around the house and then I took my mom out for dinner for Mother's Day. Yes, Mother's Day was weeks ago, but life got in the way. We ended up at one of my favorite restaurants, Cafe Madrid, for three hours. I ended up having the very politically incorrect, but very tasty veal for dinner. Delicious! After dinner I picked up my sister Paige and she came over to my house for a sleepover because we were off to the Pride Parade on Sunday morning!

Here we are bright and early waiting for the parade

Allen and his gay posse showed up to watch the parade with us

Then my other sister Kirsten came with her friend Sadie

The parade started in the traditional way: Dykes on Bikes!

Kellie and Pouya marched with Equality Utah

Lesley, Metra and Jen were with Planned Parenthood

We walked around the festival for awhile after the parade then grabbed some lunch. It was a lovely afternoon. I spent the rest of the day doing laundry and watching an Ice Road Truckers marathon. Have you seen this show?? It's awesome! My newest guilty pleasure.

Random Weekend Pics

I don't feel like blogging about last weekend, but here are some pictures to amuse and entertain you.

Thirsty Thursdays at the Bee's game!

Monty really enjoyed the nachos

Brooks turned 21 so I bought him a shot of Jameson

We all had fun that night...

Phun in Phoenix

I know, I've been home from Phoenix for almost two weeks, but I promise this blog is worth the wait. Well not really, but the pictures are good. I try to get down to Phoenix every few months or so to visit Sarah and I decided to go over Memorial Day since it's also close to her birthday.  I was SO excited to go because I hadn't been anywhere since New Orleans in March and I really needed a vacation.  Besides, I also missed Sarah.

We started off our vacation with dinner and drinks at Ticoz, one of my favorite restaurants. Victor, my lovely Phoenix co-worker and good friend met us there with his partner Marvin.  


Debbie and her new boyfriend, Dan came too


After dinner and few limetinis we were off to Shady's for more libations and to meet up with Jenn and Mike!


Sarah and I had spent half the afternoon trying to get her a new cell phone. She decided on a Blackberry. Welcome to the 21st century my friend!


We all got a little tipsy






This guy told me all about his career in water filtration. Fascinating. He also made me look up his Myspace page on my phone. Lame.


Early the next morning we were regretting the late night before as we dragged our asses out of bed to drive to a library in Black Canyon City for Sarah's job. Road trip!

Turns out this trip was fruitless, but I won't go into the details. Sarah was not amused; I thought it was a nice little side trip. The rest of the day was pretty mellow and we met Mitch to see a movie and then dinner at La Pinata. Normally I would have ordered a prickly pear margarita, but I was still recovering from the night before. One day into owning a Blackberry and Sarah had become obsessed.  Of course, Mitch had to pull his phone out too.

The next morning we walked over to Pallatte for breakfast. It's a cute restaurant in an old house and there's always live music going on. I got my badly needed caffeine fix and then the Phoenix mist rolled in.

Sar decided to dress like Rocky for breakfast

After a long day of shopping we went to a fabulous Indian restaurant, Bombay Spice. Weirdly, there wasn't an Indian person in sight so I'm not sure how authentic the food was, but the wine was awesome. Sarah and I each got a flight so we could try some new stuff. My favorite was a sparkling Shiraz made by Paringa. If you can find it, buy it. Highly recommended!

After dinner we decided to go back to Shady's again, even though it was the second time that weekend and it was a Sunday. Justin, the object of Sarah's desire, was tending the bar that night so we definitely had to make an appearance. This is the way I start a Sunday night: an Irish Car Bomb and a Smithwicks. I was on vacation, don't judge me. 

Sarah was on the phone again

We met some characters that night...some were a bit unsavory, especially this guy with Sar.

This is just Mitch being hard core!

This guy had quite a bit of flair pinned onto his leather jacket. But he was nice and bought me a drink; he had very, very small hands.

I called this guy a d-bag to his face and then talked shit about him to his friend. Real smooth. His friend Matt is nice though, even though I am not.

We closed the bar that night and headed home to bed. Monday morning we went to breakfast and hung out at the gay Starbucks so I could get an americano. Next up was the new Indiana Jones movie.

I was so, so excited to see this because I LOVE Indiana Jones. Sadly, I was a bit disappointed and Sarah hated it. Shia LaBeouf was hot though, even when he was swinging through the jungle. Lame. 

That night we waited for almost an hour to get into Oreganos. Why wait so long to get into a restaurant? No, it's the not the comically over-sized menus...

It's the pizza/cookie aptly named the pizookie that gets me there every time! I want one right now. Sar maybe you can bring a few one these to my birthday party??

After dinner we were off to Target. A trip to target is not complete without a visit to my favorite place: the dollar section!

Sadly, I left town early the next morning so that's all I have to say about my travels to Do-Pho.