Feeling a little off today. Disconnected may be a good descriptive word for my head space today. I’m not going to try to analyze it or fix it. Just recognizing the feeling and sitting with it for a moment.
Sitting with it, prompted me to stop scrolling through IG and start scrolling and remembering the past 4 months. Here’s my Feb.
Lilou, the cowGIRL corgi came to meet Mork before we went away to cabin in the woods for a weekend. They did great. Lilou is only 1year old so she is pretty rambunctious. Mork tolerated her, when he was done, he put her in check and she submitted. Thankfully, they were good together. Men doing manly things Snow!
This was a bit after Mork escaped and we had to run around the mountain for 15 minutes playing catch me if you can. I did but oh my goodness! That boy was so happy to be running free, I captured him about 25 feet down a hill, picked him up and hiked him back up the hill. I think I died.
Our family photo 🥰We stopped for coffee at the strawberry inn in the way home.
The weekend was super chill, we played games, listened to music, walked the dogs and talked.
Back home and the rest of the month consisted of work, walking Mork & trying to stick to the training plan for the 1/2 marathon in May. I was in track around this time. I love sauna
Gah! I can’t believe you’re almost gone. I wanted to do something fun with you, like get out of town.
Weekend in the pines or a day trip to the snow, a hike somewhere new. None of that happened.
I did start training very early for a half marathon and have stuck to it every week running 3 days a week and increasing mileage according to the Hal Higdon training half marathon training plan for a novice.
I bought myself a pair of sweet new running shoes. Poor associate at the shoe store, he worked hard for his commissions. I swear I tried on 8 pairs of shoes, 3 different brands. I wanted Saucony but they didn’t have my size in any fun colors. Hoka was next but same… no fun colors. I broke down and got the Brooks. I was reluctant because for some reason I think of old”er” people when i think of Brooks. I thought they were along the lines of New Balance 🤣 but look at how cute they are!
Ask me how fast I can go in my new shoes!
Not only do I love the color but they are the most comfy fluffy running shoes I’ve ever worn. I’ve out 21 miles in them so far.
Dry January has been super easy for me. Today marks day 34. Interesting to note I have not dropped a single pound 🤨
Last weekend I went to a bar to watch some live music and hang out with a couple of friends. On the way to the bar I drank a CBD drink. I swear by these, Mad Tasty
I feel chill after I drink one of these and I can hang out for like 4-5 hours in one place! Unheard of, for me anyway. I wonder if I can buy stock in this. 🤓 I get them at my local Total Wine, I grab 2 every time. I stayed up way until 1am- who am I? 🤣🤣
I went out for pizza and I didn’t get my basic pepperoni. I tell you this Holy Shitake Mushroom from Mellow Mushroom was unbelievably delicious. I may have had a slice for breakfast the next day.
Holy shitake this was good 👍🏼
So although I did not get out of town this month I did manager to do some things not in my usual routine.
Done, in the books! It’s officially 2022. My day started out with a casual 4.5 wog (walk/jog) on the treadmill in my garage. I didn’t want to leave my house so I opted for home “gym” time.
Afterwards, I cleaned to prepare for friends and fam time, showered and complete just in the knick of time! It was a full house minus a few people (a couple down due to Covid and one down due to work emergency).
We had everything bacon! Jason made brisket, Shannon brought her world famous potato salad (with bacon), Danny made Mac n cheese topped..with bacon, Wyatt brought field peas, green beans mixed with… you guessed it… BACON! Me think I will be trying two days meat free this upcoming week.
We listened to records, watched movies, Shannon brought tarot cards, ate and of course there were adult bevy’s.
Hence the reason my activity numbers are so low today. 😅
The 3 minutes of exercise might be when I did some dishes. 😂 All in all it was a good first day of the new year. I was happy to spend it at home, with people I love.
I cannot end this post without a picture of the most excellent meat slab. You’re welcome 😇
My last post was from a trip too long ago for me to remember completely. I am going to give this one a shot ~ Our journey in Colorado was only a month ago. Here we go!
We flew standby courtesy of Southwest Airlines ~ Lucky us! We got the golden ticket on the first flight out of Phoenix! Did you know Delta Airlines does not fly direct to Denver from Phoenix? Bizarre. Anyway, we arrived took a jaunt over to the rental car facility and we were on our way. Just that easy.
OH! Sidebar regarding looking for car rentals, seems super shady but here’s a little story. Obviously, I went online to look for car rentals a couple of weeks before our planned trip. I went to Budget’s website, plugged in the details and the internet spat out a number I didn’t really like, it was somewhere around 350.00 – not terrible but – I thought I could do better. I went to another website, (I don’t remember which one but something along the lines of Kayak or Priceline) their prices were like 10.00 more so I went back to Budgets website and the price had jumped to like 375.00!
Something triggered, in my wine induced, brain…open up a new “incognito/private” browser. I did and went back to Budgets website, I got the car reserved for 188.00! for 3 full days. Tip – when looking for car and airline reservations, do so in a private/incognito window. 🙂 You’re welcome. You may know this but I feel like I just discovered a new planet.
We had a ton of time to waste before checking into the airbnb so we decided to get lost in search of food. Well, getting load was not decided but it happened anyway. By the way, Denver smells like weed and dog food. Please don’t be offended Denver people, it’s not meant to be a dig, just my observation.
Finally we found a cute little breakfast spot in City Park called Syrup ~ The staff was super nice ~ the breakfast was delish and the scenery of the park area was mellow. It is a little hipstery though – no problem for me – but just a heads up.
Check in to the airbnb was easy and there was parking behind the house – thank goodness because when we drove down the street there were cars parked the length of the entire street not one space for me.
The outside of this place and all the other houses in the area look all historic mansion types and that I love.
With that said…This place is located in Capital Hill.. I think the whole house has like 8 (complete guess) units most with their own entrances the inside of the unit we stayed in was completely remodeled and in great taste.
Here is the parking and entrance area of the little dwelling.We dropped the car and our belongings off and headed off to the record store through the piss riddled alley. Sorry, girl from the suburbs here..it smelled horribly bad.
We spent some time rifling through the solid collection of vinyl records this store of over 40 years has, Wax Trax Records . The website is not great but the store is awesome. Did I tell you how much I love brick buildings??
This place is THE place to see live music. Bucket list item crossed off. Seeing live music at the Red Rock should very well be on your bucket list too.
It is a little tough to see the greatness from a cell phone photo, I wish I had brought a wide lens.
The above photo was taken a couple of hours before show time, once the music started the place was packed.
Head up! It’s quite the hike to get up there from the parking lot, at over 6000 elevation..bring an oxygen tank. 🙂
When the sun goes down, the moon comes up, the city lights, the stars combined with the music and people..it is surreal.
The next morning we drove up north. The plan was to go to Rocky Mountain National Park and make a pit stop at Estes Park. Come on now, we had to visit the Shining Hotel! AKA The Stanley Hotel. So majestic, so cool and I bet so haunted 🙂
They offer tours, we did not partake but we did some good exploring and off course had a redrum latte.
They use key cards now but these are the old creepy keys they used back in the day.
I bet there is a ghost in there somewhere…
As I mentioned, the plan was to go up to the national park but we saw some clouds up there that made us Phoenicians nervous. So we made the decision to be safe and head back to town – off the aunts place for dinner and drinks. Jasons aunt lives outside of Denver and his other aunts, from Holland, just so happened to be in town the same time. It was great to connect with family while out of our element.
On to the next day! Another breakfast spot worth mentioning in the capital hills area is called Jelly ~ This place was our favorite eatery. I want this shirt if anyone is asking, you can order it on the website 🙂
Belly’s full of delicious brekky we drove to the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, strolled around there for a good few hours – I feel like it is geared more towards kids but it was cool anyway. I would not say it is a must see but it was still a good day. I mean, look at that view.
Olifant!
The following day was a travel day. Not a good day for standby, delayed and cancelled flights due to wind ~ we chose to fly to Albuquerque otherwise we would have been stuck in Denver for another night, who knew Phoenix was such a hot place to fly into. I ended up leaving Jason in Albuquerque and he didn’t make any flights until the last one so it was a shit of a day but we made it home. Safe and sound and ready to start planning the next adventure.
You know you have lived in Arizona for too long when you agree to someones crazy a$$ idea when they say…”Hey, we should go to the desert and take band photos”!
The date was August 31st, it was oh about 110 Fahrenheit and super sunny. I am pretty sure that around the time we left, 16:00, it was the hottest part of the day too.
The trip was two fold, the guys wanted to get their trucks in 4×4 mode and they needed some updated band photos since the recent departure of our guitar playing friend Craig.
Cooler filled with ice, beer, ciders and burgers we headed up to the Table Mesa exit for some off road and photog fun!
Our first sign of what was to come was the huge bright orange warning: ROAD DAMAGE
On the drive up I noticed off to the east of the highway some significant flood damage. We had some good monsoon storms about a week ago and the nerdy people that build their lives and homes in the Arizona riverbeds (yea..I’m judging 🙂 )
…sure paid a good price.
There were trees, cacti, bushes, buildings not very well built, furniture, etc all washed away down the length of the river bed. I would have liked to have had some photos to share with you but honestly I was so wowed I completely forgot to grab the camera.
Back to our road! We met up and traveled east..passed through a rickety fence and as we passed by I see another warning. ROAD IMPASSABLE. Still..we continued on..
Hmm..conundrum. The 4 wheel drivers assessing the situation.
Odd enough, I was wearing my vans instead of flip flops so I decided to walk across to test the waters. You know..check out how deep the water was and point out big ole boulders in the wash. The water came up to the middle of my thigh (which if you know me…really is not that tall) and there were a few boulders the guys needed to avoid. Of course I was not done with my assessment before my mister jumped in the Tacoma and cruised across!!
Success!
Along came the others. There was only one little hiccup. One of the trucks didn’t have enough clearance to cross so we decided to stay where we were instead of leaving the low rider and driving another five miles to the ancient ruins. All was not lost though..the band photographer got some good shots of the guys in that perfect little spot anyway. You’ll have to check http://www.hogjawmusic.com or look the band Hogjaw up on Facebook to see those as I didn’t take the pics so I don’t have authorization to share. 🙂
I can share some silliness those so keep reading for those little shots!
Those on foot walked across the “pond” to get to the other side.
Before the sun went down all the 4×4’s crossed back to the other side.
While the guys were taking pictures, the ladies enjoyed the scenery and company.
And then the shenanigans began!
BOONES FARM! The epitome of teenage drunkenness trouble in a bottle..at least it was in the 90’s haha! Come on now, you lie if you say you never sneaked a slug off the Strawberry Hill back in the day! 🙂
After six LONG weeks away from the Jason and six LONG weeks of my kitchen experimentation…I came home to a night off!
A ridiculous hour and twenty minute ride home…this is what I came home too 🙂
I am not going to claim to know anything about what was going on in this pan. All I know is that the smell was amazing and all I had to do was sit my bum down, have a glass of wine and wait for the magic to unfold.
Well..of course, I did have to chase him around with my camera letting him know he has earned a highlight spot in my blog. I think he’s trying to show me up..your thoughts?
There was food, there was wine, there was whiskey and as promised…there was George Jones 😉
I have lived in the town of Weedville, AZ since the later part of the 1980’s. I had no idea I was living in Weedville until one day I posted a status on FaceBook and that status stated my comment was coming from Weedville, AZ.
What the heck is Weedville?? I thought I lived in Peoria. As I was giggling about Weedville..because let’s face it..Weedville is pretty funny….I googled Weedville, AZ. Apparently some Reverend (Reverend Weed) from Nebraska moved to the area in 1911 and named the town after himself.
The link above is for any of you who may be interested in reading more..I’m not writing about Weedville today.. I am writing about Peoria. 🙂
As I said, I have lived here for over twenty years. Today was the fist time I have ever stopped at the Peoria Central School in Old Town Peoria. I have driven by this place many of many of times…thought about stopping but just never have. Today..I stopped.
Not only did I stop but I got out of the car and actually went in! 🙂
I was warmly greeted by the volunteers at this facility, “We are open but as you can see, we are in the process of redecorating, renovating and cleaning. You are more than welcome to come in and look around.”
The nice man noticed I was armed with a camera and proceeded to tell me, “and of course you are welcome to take pictures as well!”
I thanked him and proceeded to walk into the first building, this room will be set up as a replica of the old school rooms of the super early 1900’s.
Question..you see rule number 2? Well now look at rule number 3…How are you supposed to address the teacher if rule number 2 is NO TALKING? Yea, I was THAT kid. 😉
By the looks of these desks, I imagine in the early 1900’s they did not have the problem of child obesity that we have today. Maybe the answer to that current issue is to bring back the smaller desks!! Inappropriate? Well, I’ll save that discussion for another blog then. 😀
This is a piano from the late 1800’s – It looks as though it’s in GREAT condition! Chickering was in business from the late 1800’s and actually got out of business before The Great Depression, or so this website tells me anyway. http://www.antiquepianoshop.com/online-museum/chickering-brothers/
I’m not sure if classrooms were equipped with pianos in those days or not. Most likely not , the museum probably just has it because it’s old and cool and that’s fine but it did make me wonder so I asked uncle Google. I didn’t find anything on music in the classroom in the early 1900’s but I did stumble on this little note. Now, I’m not sure if it’s real or not but it’s cute and kind of neat to think about this little girl sitting at her little desk writing to students 100 years after her time.
To any of you teachers out there…this is a brilliant writing assignment for your students!
Yep, the classroom is even equipped with life size, creepy mannequin teachers. 🙂
This photo was hanging on the wall. I graduated from Peoria High School, the school is 91 years old! The people all look old so I don’t know if this was a graduating class or if it was the staff? I am leaning more towards guessing it is the graduating class..I don’t think in 1938 they would have had that many teachers in Peoria..
The next room looks like they might set it up as a home type setting. Here are some pictures of clothes drying..I like the long johns and the old time picture set up behind them.
I would imagine mom would wash, then squidgy the clothes before she hung them up to dry..
And just look at the art work on this sewing machine! The colors are so vibrant!
In this room was another piano or organ or?? I’m not sure..Anyone know what this is? Who makes it (I forgot to read it when I was actually there and I tried to zoom in on the picture but I cannot make out the lettering..)?
While I was in this room, one of the nice volunteer ladies came back to bring me a flyer for the Grand Re-opening happening November 2nd.
Here she is 😉
And see… there are the creepy, mannequin teachers in the back! Can you tell I am not a fan of mannequins?
After her and I talked for a bit, I walked to the Agriculture room. I didn’t get any pictures of this room because I was actually so engrossed with the stories I was hearing!
When I walked into the room there were two couples, about my parents age, in there. The ladies were sweeping and talking and dusting while the men sat and talked. Hmmm…. hah, I guess the old school mentality still applies here. 🙂
They told me stories of how long they have been in the area, what it looked like in their day and actually.. one of the ladies family had owned the farm property directly behind my house until about five years ago. It had been in her family for around fifty years!
Small Town..
Her and I walked together to the next building which was decorated with old old typewriters, stenographer machines, adding machines and in the corner was a glass display that scared me…In it was an old beauty shop set up..to be more precise it was a perm machine..yep..perm MACHINE..hairdressers would wrap ladies hair up in pin curls and cushions and hooked them up to ELECTRICITY…Check out this little video – about 40 seconds in the scary machine makes its grand entrance…. Sorry, in advance, for the poor quality but hey..I didn’t make it.
On that note..I will leave you for today! Until next time. Get out there everyone, learn, explore, talk to people!
Only ten short days left before Jason packs up and flies a mere 5,747.62 miles from Phoenix, AZ to the Zurich International Airport…to start his rockin’ tour of Europe.
I cannot believe how fast this date has come. Just two weeks ago it felt like we had time to every thing in order. Yet, here we are scrambling to get the last minute details complete.
With the help of our awesome people at the booking agency and friends across the “pond” sure enough…everything is coming together nicely.
The guys, of Hogjaw, will arrive in Zurich on the 4th of September, meet with the tour manager and take an hour and a half jaunt to Berne, CH.
Here they will rest, have fun exploring the city and may even make some time to record a song or two in a local recording studio.
Hopefully, they will take advantage of the days in Bern because on the 6th they embark on their massive tour…and man alive..this is a serious journey of rock n roll!
Check out this schedule:
06/09/13 Steinen – Switzerland @ Aula
07/09/13 Kufstein – Austria @ Eventhalle
08/09/13 Bartenheim – France @ Caf’Conc
10/09/13 Arras – France @ Blue Devils
11/09/13 Verviers – Belgium @ Spirit of 66
12/09/13 Eindhoven – Holland @ The Rambler
14/09/13 Paris – France @ Nogent Country Festival
15/09/13 Paris – France @ Nogent Country Festival
17/09/13 Llodio – Spain @ Keska Taberna
18/09/13 Lierganes – Spain @ Los Picos
19/09/13 A Coruna – Spain @ Mardi Gras
20/09/13 Cangas – Spain @ Salason
21/09/13 Aviles – Spain @ Centro Niemeyer
22/09/13 Leon – Spain @ Gran Café
23/09/13 Cadiz – Spain @ Sala Supersonic
24/09/13 Estepona – Spain @ Louie Louie
25/09/13 Murcia – Spain @ Sala B
26/09/13 Madrid – Spain @ La Boite
27/09/13 Zaragoza – Spain @ La Ley Seca
28/09/13 Barcelona – Spain @ Rocksound
29/09/13 Torredembarra – Spain @ La Traviesa
30/09/13 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria – Spain @ 3X1
01/10/13 Castellon – Spain @ Pub d’Leyend
02/10/13 Lleida – Spain @ Stones Pub
04/10/13 Weikersheim – Germany @ W71
05/10/13 Krefeld – Germany @ Kulturrampe
06/10/13 Norderstedt – Germany @ Musicstar
07/10/13 Bremen – Germany @ Meisenfrei
09/10/13 Olomouc – Czech Republic @ Bounty Rock
10/10/13 Prague – Czech Republic @ TBA
11/10/13 Isernhagen – Germany @ Bluesgarage
12/10/13 Berlin – Germany @ Wild At Heart
06/09/1
Keep in mind, Americans, the days and months are listed “backwards” 🙂
I hope hope some of you in the blogosphere have an opportunity to catch this great bunch of musicians in their travels.. believe me when I say it’s totally worth while. Not only are they great musically but they are a wonderful group of people!
If you like true, heartfelt rock n roll, southern rock, dirty music..you’ll love it!
Take a visit to their website to learn more about them and hear some of their music. http://www.hogjawmusic.com
Another great weekend! Every year for the past six years, Jason, Kiah and I join our friends up on the Mogollon Rim (pronounced muggy on rim) for a few days of “getting off the grid”. This Backwoods beerfest occurs the first weekend every August. The guys who started it brought maybe fifteen people up, all close knit friends and they were all instructed to bring a six pack of off the wall beer for every one to sample. When Jason and I hooked up with our old high school friends we went along for the fun back in 2007 or 2008. Now I am not a camper per se..but I do enjoy my time when there. Dont get me wrong I love the outdoorsy stuff but I prefer to camp near a body of water..just my thing. I am never thrilled about going..not as thrilled as everyone else but when I get there it’s just so beautiful and I get such a great sense of freedom and “oneness” with the earth that I do genuinely love these get togethers.
Luckily, Jason is SUCH an organized and experienced outdoors man, he makes it easy for me. Occasionally he will give me a list of things I may need to pickup at the store but for the most part, I am told to get in the truck and we leave. 🙂 I know enough to pack the right clothing!
In the first part of August, here in Arizona, we sometimes have a monsoon season. Sometimes it rains the entire weekend, sometimes it’s dry and hot and other times (like this weekend) …it’s an absolute perfect mixture of the two!
On the way up the hill I was actually “allowed” — no allowed isn’t the word because Jason actually said, “You can play your ipod if you want”..what?? 🙂 Happy girl! It was a crappy drive getting out of the city but once on the road –smooth sailing!
Once we hit Payson we stopped at the Safeway to pickup some Advil — an definite necessity when going to BEERFEST..
On the road again, it started raining…a GOOD rain too. The weather cooled off pretty dramatically..We were coming up from the Phoenix area where we left behind a 106 degree day so when I say dramatically – I might be dramatizing just a little because it was maybe 70 degrees 🙂
The drive up was just beautiful…see for yourself!
We arrived to the camp site around three in the afternoon on Friday. There were already about thirty people there and everyone was pretty mellow – those that had arrived the previous night had whooped it up their first night. I was a little nervous because Jason set our camp up pretty close to the general population and I do not deal well with large crowds and loud shenanigans at night when I am ready to sleep. I rolled with it, didn’t complain and turns out…it was perfect!
After the camp was magically set up (AKA..Jason did everything 🙂 ) we made ourselves a couple of drinks and started making our rounds to say hello and talk to people. I don’t remember too much – I had three glasses of wine — but I do remember meeting some really cool people I had never met before. It’s not often I hit it off well with another female so I was so happy to have met Liz! We sat and talked for a couple of hours and our conversation just flowed so well..
Around 11:30, I looked up at Jason – as he was taking his last swig of MOONSHINE – his eyes glazed over and he said “I’m ready” so I helped him along to our camp and we fell fast fast asleep!
At first sunlight, I’m wide awake, took a hike to the woods for the morning nature call, came back made coffee and relaxed.
Relaxed under this gorgeous view:
I literally could have stayed there all day. It was under this tree I realized, I forgot my laptop…I had no paper..no pen..nothing to write with. This would have been a perfect spot to laze about and write a little something. Oh well, stuck with enjoying mother nature in her entirety. 🙂
Poor Jason was hurting and thankful we remembered to make that pit stop for Advil! He slept until about noon, ate then napped until 2! Around the time he woke up the rain started — thankful our tent and easy-up were in great condition and nothing got wet!! Usually 3pm the beer tables come out and we all bring our offerings – thankful the rain stopped just in time for the festivities!
I am not a huge beer drinker – in fact, I dont even know what kind of beer “we” brought to offer. I drank my wine and took pictures 🙂
Not the greatest shot but you get the gist…
With the amount of people who were there I am happy to say there was……NO DRAMA!
I spent the evening bouncing around from camp to camp talking, laughing and enjoying the neat people that were there. Just before dinner, Kiah’s boyfriend and his friends arrived so her and I walked down to where they were setting up camp to make sure they had everything they needed – they did so I went to bed…Yea..went to bed — I think it may have been 930, ha!
Groundhogs day…I woke up at day break again..took a nature hike, had coffee, visited with our camping neighbors and relaxed. Now I am sitting here thinking…I wonder how many times I have used the word relaxed? I’m thinking alot but I’m also thinking…that’s a good thing!
If you have read any of my other posts you know the hubs, Jason, is in a rock band called Hogjaw. They used our last day at camp to start video production of their music video for a song called “The Wolf” I can’t wait to see the final production because the scenery, their “costumes” and the song are awesome.
Here a few behind the scene photos:
After the video shots were done – we packed up and headed out. But wait! Flat tire..boooo..
One of the truck tires was about 20lbs light on air..Luck was on our side again and one of our camping buddies came better prepared than we and had a hand held air compressor. It took a little while but we were back in business soon enough.
The ride home was uneventful until one of the dogs threw up on Kiahs feet…then the other dog…oh good lord what did they eat???! It was grody – we cleaned up as best we could and tried to get home as fast as possible without getting pulled over 🙂
Until my next adventure or random thought of the day!
I sure wish I had taken some photos of this event. Tomorrow, Jason has flight out of Phoenix to Myrtle Beach, SC with band mates for what is being called the Southern Revival Concert. His band Hogjaw will be playing with another Phoenix local group called Sour Diesel Train Wreck.
They fly out Friday morning at 0530 — yes people 5:30 in the morning! We have a great friend, Mike, who has offered to take them to the airport (thank you baby Jesus!!) and he will be here at 0345 – six short hours away!
Jason and I spent about an hour packing T-shirts, CD’s, vinyl records, stickers and tour posters. He had ordered (and received at the VERY last minute) those plastic vacuum seal-able bags. Those were fun to try to figure out but we managed and they WORKED…like a charm!
In one suitcase we managed to pack 57 shirts, 45 CD’s, 6 vinyl records and the remaining little items being the tour posters and stickers and a couple of hangers. I sure hope he comes home with an empty suitcase!!
For those of your interested…. The show is at Suck Bang Blow in Myrtle Beach, SC
We dropped the car and our belongings off and headed off to the record store through the piss riddled alley. Sorry, girl from the suburbs here..it smelled horribly bad.
Can you tell I am not a fan of mannequins? 
kristilynk 