Road Trip!

The yellow road(mon)ster is washed, polished, shined, and ready for a road trip! For our 2nd anniversary we're headed off to southern Arizona to tour Kitt Peak Observatory, Kartchner Caverns, and some other fun Tucson and surrounding area stuff.

Now that EquiShopper has finally launched and I've postponed a vacation for months because of it, I'm excited to get out on the road, top down, enjoying the Arizona sunshine with my sweetheart. There's nothing like getting into the car after a rough day at work, putting the top down, turning the tunes WAY WAY UP (hey, it's a convertible, it's gotta be loud -- road noise and what not) and basking in the creamsicle sunset as I head west for home.

Mebbe some blogging from the road? Perhaps... although I'm keeping the BlackBerry on *silent*.

Have a great weekend everyone ;-)

What Else is New?

Late winter, early spring in Arizona means there's some event going on nearly every weekend. We've been doing so many things that I haven't had much time to blog. But here goes:

Pics from the Indian Hoop Dance Contest the weekend before last:

The Indian Hoop Dance Contest was an experience that I'm glad we got to see. Indian drums, chanting and singing, and then members of different tribes all over the US meeting at this annual competition. They dance with small hoops -- I think I've seen as many as fifteen on some of the seasoned competitors. Their agility with these hoops is incredible to watch, as they spin them around, place them on their bodies, and create stories with their dancing. They could take six or so hoops and create an eagle's wings, or take more hoops and make a ball, or a flower -- all the while stomp dancing to the drums and chanting. It was PACKED, but a gorgeous day for it. We sat on the grass and ate fry bread while we watched the dancers. Most amazing thing? The eagle serenely circling in the sky above the dancers. I have never seen an eagle in the middle of downtown Phoenix. Or anywhere else for that matter that wasn't on a hike up in the mountains. Majestic probably describes it best.


Pics from the Chinese New Year Festival at the Chinese Cultural Center:

Later that same day we hit the Chinese Cultural Center for their Chinese New Year festival. Everything from martial arts displays, to the dragon dance, to dozens of booths set up with all kinds of different foods, clothing, and toys. We shared a young coconut drink -- they split open the top of the coconut, give you a straw and a spoon and you get to drink the coconut juice and scrape the tender coconut meat off the sides when you're done.

Coming up next (as soon as I download them off my camera and upload them to Picasa) is last weekend's Renaissance Faire and a trek up to Jerome, AZ on a long Sunday drive. ;-)

Valentine's Day Present!

My Valentine's Day present came a couple of days early this year with a GORGEOUS 2008 Saturn Sky Redline in yellow!

We test drove a Pontiac Solstice and a Saturn Sky over the weekend and I decided that the Sky was for me. I test drove both stick and automatic, and much to my surprise, the automatic transmission outperformed the stick!

There was a used 2007 Saturn Sky Redline in silver that was used and a nice price compared to the showroom 2008 yellow one I was drooling on. Chuck had me talked into the silver one and the deal was set. I was trading in my 2001 Pontiac Aztek for the 2007 silver Saturn Sky.

We got to the dealership last night, and I was sad because the yellow one I kept ogling was gone. I said, "Aww, someone bought the yellow one... they moved it, where is it?" Then I noticed it'd been moved further down the showroom so I figured they were putting another car into its showroom slot. I glanced around the lot looking for the silver Sky thinking to myself, "Don't they usually put the car you're going to buy up closer? Weird, I don't see it yet."

So the dealer greets us and says, "So, are you ready to go see your car?" I grin and they say to me, "Go find it" -- cheering me on with a "You're getting warmer"... But I'm perplexed because they're walking kinda towards the yellow 2008. Not even daring to get my hopes up, I start looking past the yellow one, eyes scanning the lot for the silver one, and they both stop in front of the yellow one.

My heart stopped. I could hardly breathe, and Chuck says, "Here's your car!" The 2008 Saturn Sky Redline... in the hottest yellow you can imagine. I gave him a huge hug and had tears in my eyes -- even the dealer had tears in his eyes too. The car is incredible, I absolutely love it. Even woke up and peeked in the garage before getting ready for work this morning. :)

Hot Air Balloons and Karazhan

Winter's in the air when I drive to work in the morning, heading north on I-17, and I see no less than six hot air balloons dotting the horizon at varying altitudes. I love Arizona, I love the seasons (cool to HOT), I love seeing hot air balloons on the way to work in the morning. It'd be great to ride in a hot air balloon early some Saturday morning, Starbucks cup in hand with steam rising out from the tiny hole in the lid.

On the WoW side of life, our raid group is fully Karazhan attuned in guild, so now we're at "homework stage" where we read about all of the fights, bosses, what to expect, YouTube videos of fights. Then we'll shoot to down three bosses that first night and see how we do! Should be pretty fun :)

Here's my Kara reading homework assignments:
http://www.wowwiki.com/Karazhan

Boss Guides for Kara: http://www.bosskillers.com/cgi-bin/bbguild/index.cgi?sid=xkKQTWlGBg&action=dungeonpage&dungeonid=37

Boss Strategies (W/Screenshots)
http://www.ampwow.com/wow/viewBCStrats/Karazhan.php

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a safe and happy new year's eve celebration! Chuck and I went to Ninetta's Passion Bistro for a six-course gourmet dinner with everything from escargot to foie gras to truffles. We were the youngest ones there, but we didn't care. It was a nice, quiet New Year's Eve party with no drunken insanity that the average club would have.

For Christmas I got Guitar Hero III - Legends of Rock for Nintendo Wii. LOVE it! We've both finished it on Easy and are now playing it through on Medium. Maybe one day I'll be really good and finish it on Hard or Expert, haha. I also got tickets to see "Annie", the Broadway musical. It was at Gammage Theater last Saturday night and I loved it! Annie was the first musical I'd ever seen, 1.2 epochs ago when I was eight years old.

Chuck's epic loot for Christmas this year was a Nintendo DS with Flash Focus and Brain Age 2. Now since we both have DS's, it should be pretty fun using the wi-fi enabled gaming features.

So... here are my New Years Resolutions:

• Read less so I can write more
• Study my Japanese more
  
• Finally finish unpacking our house
• Play a little less WoW
• Fill my Moleskine journal so I can start on my new one -- I try to go through one a year and I was nowhere close to filling my 2007 Moleskine last year. So now I have to write double-time to catch up. :)
• Work on my dog site more (when it's respectably developed with more content I'll share the link)
• Take, print out, and post more pictures from our adventures
  
• BLOG MORE! (I promise!)

I love New Year's Resolutions -- just not the "tone up and exercise more" ones. Those just go without saying. :)

Make My Logo Bigger!!!

This is how I feel today. Think I'm getting a little jaded.

http://www.makemylogobiggercream.com/

Fun with sarcasm :)

Dave Matthews Band Concert

Was absolutely spectacular. It was great to finally see them performing live after having been a fan for so many years. They did a lot of songs from his newer albums, which was great. I was really glad to see that they still maintained their "jam band" feel and had a lot of superb instrumentals with lots of solos from the violinist, sax player, trumpet player, keyboardist, and drummer.

Concert tee prices have gone up (of course) with the cheapest shirt priced at $30. I had to have one though, the only other DMB concert shirt I have is when I had friends going to a DMB concert in Dallas (I couldn't go) and I gave them money to pick me up a concert tee.

It was an outdoor venue, but we had reserved seats just outside the covered area, which I think was probably nicer -- I'm not sure how the sound would bounce off the tin roof that covers the main pavilion. We were pretty far from the stage, however, they had HUGE screens on either side of the stage and the cameraman did a wonderful job of getting closeups of the band, Dave Matthews, and everything else going on. There was also a set of three or four LCD's behind the band, which I'd love to know what kind of technology they were -- they would phase from seemingly opaque and crisp color images to semi-transparent, where you could see ropes of lights, and illumated globes behind. Great stage lighting and design!

Overall we had a perfect time. The opening band was Stephen Marley, who was Bob Marley's son. Great reggae band! Sitting there under the stars, a full moon out, and reggae music just added to the excited yet festive atmosphere. Stephen Marley's band played about a 45 minute set, then there was about a 25 minute break while they moved their gear off the stage in prep for DMB. Dave Matthews Band came out to screaming, roaring crowds, and they performed for at LEAST two and a half hours. Definitely worth the money -- DMB sounds better live than on their albums, I was hoping for that and got it. :)