Happy Holidays !!

A belated Merry Christmas to all, and I suppose a slightly early Happy New Year to boot. This year, as usual, found me working on Christmas Day at the airport, but don't cry for me Argentina... As I take Thanksgiving week off to rest and/or travel, I try to work Christmas Day to allow fellow workers with children and family to enjoy that day. However, it is generally an easy, cookie-filled day - but not this year! For the first time in 14 years, it actually rained on Christmas and the couple of days before. Let me state emphatically that I do not like this :) It really dims down the gloat factor when your weather is as bad as the friends and family back in the Midwest. However, since then our weather has turned beautiful again and we are boasting the low 70s for the remainder of the week.


As for Christmas Night, some friends cooked a wonderful dinner and invited us to partake. It was a nice evening of new and old friends, and made the day a special one.


Then the next morning Caryl dropped me at the airport to catch a 9 am flight San Diego. This was for the purpose of finalizing a deal and taking delivery of a little Christmas present to myself - a 2002 Audi TT ALMS edition coupe! I had driven one of these about a year ago, and finally was able to obtain a deal on this car that I could not refuse. It was a fun drive home, with a stop at a great lunch place in El Centro, CA, called Burgers & Beer. The name says it all, and how could you not like that, right ? And you cannot drive through Gila Bend, AZ, without taking a picture of the Space Age Motel, an institution there. Since then it has been back to work, and wait for this next weekend, when I will celebrate my impending birthday. That's right, the big 5-0 !?!?!?!


I will post next week to let you know how that feels. And to to top off the week, I was able to get together with about 50 Tiger fans to watch our exciting (and more than a little lucky) win over Northwestern in the Alamo Bowl - GO MIZZOU !!!



Happy New Year !!!!!

Sedona Red Rocks Fantasy

Caryl and I took off for a quick overnight trip up to the high country. Every year a resort in Sedona (Los Abrigados) has a Christmas light festival on the property. This involves 20 or so families that are long-time owners (it's a time-share property) that come up and set up fantastic holiday displays in the yards in front of their condos. Caryl had a free 2 night stay at the property, and had never seen this, so off we went!

The weather was supposed to turn nasty over the weekend, and we did get a brief shower Friday while we were at dinner, but it ended by the time we headed out to see the lights. A perfect, crisp winter evening to put us in the holiday spirit!

On Saturday, we had planned to stay and shop in Sedona, but the forecasted weather started to arrive, and the wind made it cold enough so that even Caryl cried uncle, and we headed back to Phoenix, where the temps were milder, even with the wind.

It is sometimes hard to get into the Christmas spirit here in the desert, as there are no absolute seasonal changes. It sure helps to be able to drive 2 hours and be in a climate where the Holiday spirit thrives. As I watch the news this morn, they even got 3 inches of snow in Flagstaff overnight. Perhaps a prelude to a good Arizona ski season ?!?!?!

Thanksgiving trip

Well, as usual, I headed back to Missouri for my annual Thanksgiving week trip. This is the latest I commit to going back to the frigid Midwest in the year; After that, they can come see me where it is warm in the winter! Quite unusually, I actually drove back this time. It's a hard 2 day drive, but my SIRIUS radio and Caryl along for the trip make it somewhat easier.



We stopped as we left Arizona to take a couple of pictures of our diverse landscape plus a sign that makes me chuckle whenever I see it. A "Dry Lake Yacht Club" ??? Sounds like a good excuse for the local boys to go drinking to me - "honey, I'm headed to the yacht club to meet the guys....". We also stopped by to see the world's largest cross. Caryl had heard of this but had no idea it was right off I-40!! Really quite an impressive spectacle, with the cross being circled by a bronze depiction of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection.




Anyway, it was a great week with unusually good weather back there. Highs in the 50s made for some late fall weather that was nice to be in, and made all the travel quite easy. As usual, it was great to see all the extended family I rarely get to see, and it was extra special this year, as my relatives Eric & Jennifer hosted the gathering at their new home just outside of Jefferson City. Congrats to you both for a beautiful home and a great dinner!












We struck out early Friday morning, as Caryl wanted to stop at some places in Springfield, MO, and do some Black Friday shopping!




As we headed back home, one of the impressive things was actually the Texas rest area and visitors center. It has a great description of the area and it's history, as well as explaining all the turbine windmills in the area. And, of course, being Texas, they had their state colors adorning the side of the building at night, reminiscent of the state flag. The downside of the trip back was having to listen to MU lose to those damn KU Jayhawks in our annual football showdown. Even though we barely lost in the end, it seems like a stake in the heart to lose to KU ever !!! All in all, though, a good trip, and we got to sample several fun restaurants along the way. My favorite was Ned's on the Rio Grande in Albuquerque, a fun sports bar with a biker friendly attitude and some great food that included New Mexico's famous hatch chiles - aye carumba !!!!!!!


Then, as we crossed the AZ border on the way home, we just had to stop at the Chief Yellowhorse Trading Post- an Arizona classic rest stop! After that, it was hammer down time - rollin' home to get back to the warm AZ sunshine and say hi to the pets.

Fountain Hills Fair & wine party

This last weekend saw another perfect weather picture here in Phoenix; a perfect excuse to head to the east end of town and see the fall Fountain Hills Art Fair. With temps in the 80s and a light breeze blowing, it was a great way to spend an afternoon. Obviously by some of the pictures, you can tell we were not the only people who thought of this!

After this, it was off to an evening wine tasting party that a friend on mine throws annually. With 40 wines to sample, some good appetizers, and the chance to catch up with many friends I had not see in a while, a perfect way to top off the day. Thanks, Brian, for hosting the gathering!

Fall NASCAR races

Well, as you probably know, I am an avid racing fan. It's just too cool that Phoenix gets to host 2 of them a year, and as I had some planned time off, I got to go to the track and enjoy a couple of races. We went to the the truck race on Friday night, and this was even more exciting than usual, as the 2 contenders for the points championships entered the race separated by 6 points and ended it separated by 3 !! We then went back out on Saturday for the Nationwide race, and again saw a great race won by mere car lengths on the last lap. This is what you come to the races for!!!!

A special treat for me was after the Friday night race, we went to the new racetrack bar - the Speed Cantina - to wait for traffic to lighten before we left. As we were standing there, lo and behold, a personal favorite driver of mine (Robby Gordon) entered the crowd. Suffice to say, it was very cool to meet and get a picture with a driver I root for every weekend !

Copperstate Mustang show

Well this past weekend, my local car club - Copperstate Mustang Club- hosted their bi-annual car show. This year it was a little more special event than usual in that is was also a sanctioned Mustang Club of America show. The event was held at the Wildhorse Pass Resort/Casino on the south end of town. A great place for the event; it numbered some 230+ cars registered for the event. Of course, I had to bring my Stang out to show off as well. It is not really a show car, but like many owners, we still like to show them off in the un-judged display class.

It was a tiring two days for me - I helped park cars on Friday and Saturday- but well worth the time and effort spent to see all the cool Mustangs in attendance. A couple of people even drove from as far as the Carolinas to enter their cars! And yes, this is my Stang, for those who may not have seen it before. The only problem with going to shows like this is you say - dang, I see lots of cool cars and add-ons I want for my car !!! This can lead to a depleting of the bank account without a fair amount of willpower and resistance. I was fairly good, buying only a couple more performance parts, and some new t-shirts to wear to club events.

I will end with a few more shots of some great-looking cars!