Month of June, 2008
Quote of the Day
"You rock the magic leopard."
- what I believe to be a compliment from a coworker
Fire in West Phoenix
On Thursday, a brush fire started in in the West Valley. Since my office is on the 10th floor in downtown, we got a pretty good view of the fire. The smoke completely covered downtown yesterday afternoon.
Today, Friday, the fires seemed to have stopped. I'm sure it was a relief to all the people working hard to get it contained. Unfortunately it started up again late this afternoon. I sure hope it gets contained quickly and doesn't ruin anyone's home.
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A Couple Weekends Ago
It's the time of year that it's getting really hot in Phoenix. It's also the time of year that all the resorts offer great deals since most people are too weak to endure the heat. I'm not weak. I'm strong. I can take it. (At least that's what I'm saying in June...come August it may be a different story.)
There are lots of articles in local publications about all the great resort deals. Get a room for cheap and stay the weekend by the pool. It's a nice, inexpensive "vacation."
A couple weeks ago when I was reading about all these resort deals, I was surprised to learn that The Clarendon, a hotel in downtown, simply opens their pool up to the public. I was in such disbelief that I actually called the hotel to confirm. They said they only ask you buy a drink from the bar, but you're welcome to use their pool. The pictures looked great so we decided to spend a Sunday at the pool.
It was a well deserved day of relaxation, because Chris and I had spent the day before putting new discs and pads on his car. Since it was my first time, I learned a lot about brakes and got really, really dirty. Chris even remarked that it was the dirtiest he's ever seen me. Ha!
Quote of the Day
After watching a movie preview.
Chris: "That's a date movie."
Me: "You are permanently stuck in a date now."
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Phoenix Wedding Celebration
What a great weekend! Chris's parents came to visit us in Phoenix for the first time. It was really cool to have them see the house, show them a little bit of the city, and just hang out. Friday night we cooked a fabulous steak dinner and drank some really good wine.
On Saturday, my parents came into town as well. Chris cooked a big breakfast for all of us. Then the guys worked on a plugged sink and a unbalance dishwasher while the ladies went grocery shopping.
Saturday night we had the Phoenix wedding celebration. (Yes, this is the wedding celebration that never ends.) This party was much more laid back than the event in Texas. We grilled out some hamburgers, drank some beer, and just hung out at the house. I loved that our parents go to meet so many of our friends and enjoy them so much. I loved having so many of my friends over - the house was packed! We think it was close to 50 people. It was a great celebration and we're blessed to know so many great people. The only regret is I didn't take any pictures! I was too busy having fun, which in my opinion, is a great excuse.
Sunday we got to enjoy breakfast with the family at Taggia in the FireSky Resort, where the family stayed. After breakfast but before Chris's parents headed back to the airport, we all hung out. We're very lucky that our parents enjoy each other! Then we spent the afternoon in the pool with my parents. FireSky is a nice little resort.
The weekend ended with a Sunday afternoon/evening nap and a movie, In the Valley of Elah. I had a great, great weekend.
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My Nephew
My nephew is SO cute and I miss him a lot. Kristen has been doing an awesome job of sharing lots of pictures and videos of him. I thought I'd share a couple of my favorites.
In this video, Braydon is saying "Toot Toot" which is my favorite phrase of his right now. He just sounds SO cute saying it. Plus, whenever he sees a train, he says it without being asked and that cracks me up.
Transportation
On Monday, I filled up my car, a Honda Civic, with gas. It cost about $43.00. "Wow," I thought. But at $4.09 a gallon, it gets expensive really quickly. I'm thankful to have a small car that is pretty fuel efficient, because as we all know, it could be worse.
The gas prices aren't hurting me as much as it's hurting others. However, some of it has to do with the lifestyle changes I've made. Since I started the new job in April, I've been riding public transportation and carpooling with a coworker. These things have made a huge impact on how much gas I use.
They've made such a big impact that I couldn't remember the last time I filled up with gas. A quick look at the bank account indicates the last time I bought gas was on May 19. That means I almost went a whole month on one tank!
I've decided to do a little math about my transportation costs. This probably isn't interesting to anyone except me and Chris. MilesPerGallon.com helped me calculate my price per gallon ($.13).
Bus - $2.50
Car through town (28 miles) - $3.64
Car on highway (44 miles) - $5.72
When I drive by myself, I typically take the "through town" route. When I carpool, we take the highway because we get the benefit of driving in the HOV lane and missing all the traffic. I didn't realize there was such a discrepancy in the distance therefore the cost.
Time is definitely a part of the equation as well.
Bus - one hour
Car through town - 35 minutes
Car on highway (with carpool partner) - 25 minutes
While the bus takes considerably longer, I like the fact that I can read. Getting to dedicate two hours to reading is pretty wonderful. (Getting all the books for free at the library is even more wonderful!)
Kitchen Cabinet Removal
My mother has been saying for years that we should put barstools at the kitchen counter. She said it would be nice for someone to sit at the counter while the other person is cooking. Chris and I recently realized that she's absolutely right. In order to make that area even better for sitting, we took down the cabinet above it.
Here are the before and after pictures.
New Countertops
We got new granite countertops in the kitchen today! It's exciting to pull the old, scratched formica and replace it with new, shiny stone. Chris was very impressed with everyone at Milennium Marble & Granite who did the work for us. I'm very pleased with the results!
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Tyson Crosbie Photography
Saturday night Chris and I went to Tyson's book signing party. Tyson Crosbie is a photographer and he recently put out a book with his fine art images from Phoenix, called Phoenix 20. It was so great to celebrate this accomplishment wit him. Chris and I also bought one of Tyson's photos which is our first art purchase together. That's very exciting!
Photo by Brian Shaler.
It was a great evening spending time with friends and making new ones. It was definitely the highlight of my weekend.
Speaking of art, we're planning on going to the Phoenix Art Museum tomorrow night for a movie. You should join us! The movie is "Who the #$&% Is Jackson Pollock?" and it's showing Tuesday, June 17, 7pm.
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Hand Feeding the Dogs
The other night I got on the floor by the dog's food and I started to feed Bentley by hand. To help explain some of my behavior...Bentley is "MY" dog, Mac is "Chris's" dog and Stewie is "our" dog. Yes, Bentley gets preferential treatment from me. Partially because I've had him the longest. Partially because he's the oldest. Partially because he's the smallest. (Yes, I'm partial to the small. Imagine that.) Anyhow, the other dogs heard something was going on with food so they came over and I fed them too.
Chris thinks I'm totally silly for feeding the dogs by hand and snapped a picture. I think I look silly crouched down under the cabinet in the corner with all these dogs, but it didn't feel weird at the time. The dogs were just so polite and sweet for those few minutes. They each waited patiently while I fed the others. They were patient with me since I was only giving them a small piece at a time. It was a rare moment of calm with all three of them around.
It's moments like these that make me thankful to have these furry friends.
Wedding
Our wedding turned out exactly like Chris and I wanted. To be honest, this shocked me a little bit. People kept telling me about how these things have a way of slipping through one's grasp. But I think we were really, really lucky to get the perfect, fun, and special day.
There's so much more to say, but for now there's just a sneak peak of some of the pictures. (Thanks, Dad, for taking these!)
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Marriage
On Friday, May 23rd, Chris and I went to the Justice Center in downtwown Phoenix and were legally married. The following weekend we had a ceremony with our friends and family in Texas.
The reason for two different events was due to an out-dated law in Texas. Texas has a three day waiting period for marriage licenses. So you have to wait 72 hours from obtaining a license to actually performing a ceremony. Chris and I weren't able to spend that much time in Texas so we opted for taking care of the legalities in Arizona.
Arizona law does not have a waiting period. You can obtain a license and be married in the same day. So on Thursday we spent about 20 minutes picking up a marriage license then on Friday we had a Justice of the Peace marry us in the Justice Center downtown.
Keesha, David, and Tyson joined us for the event; providing their services as witnesses and photographer. They were great fun and totally supportive. Things went quickly at the courthouse as we were the third wedding that evening. (It pays to show up early. There must have been a dozen couples at the same time.) We celebrated the event with champagne and dinner at Cheuvront. It was a great night.
To see all the pictures, check out the Legal Marriage set.
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Happy 31st Birthday, Chris!
Happy birthday to my new husband! With all the wedding festivities, I'm sure Chris isn't getting all the birthday attention he deserves, but I promise to make up for it in years to come. I've got plenty of time to make it up since we're going to grow very, very old together!
