Wednesday, October 22, 2008

AZ State Fair



This past Saturday we decided to go to the Arizona State Fair in Phoenix. We began the day with the Tour of Texas booth where you were able to take a virtual tour of Texas from a kayak. We did this to kill time before the first show of CSI: Live. The show begins with a magic act and in the very beginning I am called up on stage. I hold a “lightning” stick for the act while the assistant inside the box has an “accident”. So I go back and to sit with the family and the CSIers show up and recruited Lexi (among others) to help find clues to solve the case. I ended up having a couple of small parts in the show and had to sit with the other “suspects”. Of course, I did look for opportunities to blame the other suspects whenever I could. Too bad the story had me as the perpetrator who committed the crime.

We strolled around the fair that had your normal 4H and animal stuff, petting zoo, rides, and really bad food. I decided that this was a great time to try a deep fried s’more on a stick. Basically it was your regular s’more that was wrapped in dough and then deep fried.

There was also a lot of displays from the cooking, art, and sewing competitions. One group was offering these little ceramic figurines for free for kids to paint to get them involved in art.

Now it was time for racing and we started with the Banana Derby. The Banana Derby is basically monkeys serving as jockeys on dogs running around a track. Lexi got chosen to be a cheerleader and as such was able to get her picture made with the winning “jockey” for free.

We picked this past weekend for a reason, we wanted to end the night with figure eight racing. We are not “race fans” but who can ignore a great crash (safely of course). By the end of the night we had our crashes. There were six races and while you had some nice little spinouts and bumps during first several races, the last race featured a guy getting boxed in as they entered the crossing traffic and surviving only to get driven into a concrete barrier.

Thus ended a nice quiet Saturday. See the pictures in the photo album.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Tour de Fat



We have hopped into festival season with “bikes and beers,” The Tour de Fat presented by Fat Tire Beer. This zany event attracted over 2,500 cyclists, many of which dressed up in costumes and some rode custom “artful” bicycles. We purchased a bike for Dawn a couple of weeks ago and all four of us rode in the four mile bike parade through Tempe. The event highlights how bicycling is good for everyone and the environment and raises money for great cycling related causes. “Ride on!” See some more pictures in the AZ Fun photo album.

The event was rather chilly and very windy. The high temps have dropped from the near 100s to the mid 70s in about a week. At night, the temps have found their way into the lower 50s. We have the pool covered with a solar blanket and expect to be in it next weekend when the temps get back into the 90s.

On a related note, it is so funny to hear the high school bands (I pass two on my way to and from work) practicing at 6am in the morning. That is how school activities like football and band deal with the heat, they avoid it.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Nightmare on Main Street



Tonight was Mesa’s Second Friday event and the theme was Nightmare on Main Street. We have not had time to put together the girls’ Halloween costumes yet; however, that had not stopped Linds and Lexi from quickly making their own. I grabbed my kilt and wore comfortable shoes and the four of us hit the town.

The event is a nice way to see some of the downtown shops and restaurants and we really enjoyed walking the street. There were a lot of people out in costume, but I came in second place in the adult category of “cutest”. I lost out to a Capt Jack Sparrow who actually had a peg leg.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Random Thoughts



It is hard to blog about the interesting things we are doing when most of your time is spent clean and arranging stuff in the house, moving and emptying boxes, and spending too much money at IKEA, Costco, and Home Depot.

Fall has finally arrived here in the valley. We were still topping out at 100 degrees or more until Wednesday. This weekend the highs were in the mid 80s. But never fear, we should be back in the upper 90s in the next couple of days.

This time of year is great because the festival season starts back up. We are planning on going to a couple of events and will post pictures and stories of them as they happen. To give you a hint about next weekend, I bought Dawn a new bicycle last weekend for the festival we are going to attend.

Sunday mornings are great out here. The first NFL kickoff is at 10am. I have never watched the end of so many Sunday night and Monday night football games as I have this season (it is only Week 5!). In fact, the night games finish around 8:30 or 9pm.

Do you like he picture of the lake? It is not a lake, it is a park. If you look closely, you will see picnic tables in the middle of the water. That is how they water the grass at parks, ball fields, and some homes. The ground is built up to contain the water and they flood the area about once a week in the summer and every two or three weeks the rest of the year. I am so glad that I do not have a yard full of grass.

I am hoping to start making pictures of the house to share soon, in addition to chronicling our adventures.