• Went out this morning and got a price match for a gift I bought before. Bonus $50 that I wasn’t expecting! Best Black Friday ever! =) 6:55 AM Nov 27th from web
• Cut out my first Hello Kitty on the Cricut. She’s super cute! 11:09 PM Nov 26th from web
• Scored 6 new Cricut cartridges at Michael’s! Woot! 7:06 PM Nov 26th from web
• Had fun at the auto show! Now it’s off to Michael’s for 60% off Cricut cartridges! 3:36 PM Nov 26th from web
• Happy Thanksgiving!! 7:44 AM Nov 26th from web
• I’m doomed to a life of never seeing AC/DC in concert. http://www.azcentral.com/thingstodo/music/articles/2009/11/24/20091124acdc.html 11:12 AM Nov 25th from web
• Stock up on Snuggies at Kohl’s! Only $12.99 Earlybird Special, Friday at 4AM! LOL 10:31 AM Nov 25th from Google Wave (Tweety)
• Thank goodness it’s finally Wednesday! I’m looking forward to 4 days off. 5:54 AM Nov 25th from web
• Finished wrapping and custom tagging about 35 Christmas gifts for the family. Now we just need shipping boxes, and off they go on Wednesday! 10:17 PM Nov 23rd from web
• Lunchtime! Oh, where should we go today? Maybe Islands? 11:01 AM Nov 23rd from Google Wave (Tweety)
• Tweeting from Google Wave… Or at least, trying to! 9:00 AM Nov 23rd from Google Wave (Tweety)
• Had a fantastic day making holiday cards with Sonya and Amy! 1:53 AM Nov 23rd from mobile web
• Backing up my files to an external hard drive. Been about a year – and my computer usually crashes around New Years Eve! 6:35 AM Nov 21st from web
• Woke up to watch Olly get sick. Tumbles and Lucky go to the vet this morning, then it’s off to Wrigley Mansion for lunch. 5:35 AM Nov 21st from web
• Ok, why does the hubby buy stuff from his Amazon wish list and then ask me if I bought it for him already? DEFEATING THE PURPOSE! 9:43 PM Nov 20th from web
• Saw New Moon. I was actually kind of bored with all the romance. Felt that way when I read the book; was hoping the movie would be better! 9:42 PM Nov 20th from web
• Only 5 more minutes until we get to watch 25 minutes of previews.. Then, NEW MOON! 4:54 PM Nov 20th from mobile web
• Swapped our tickets for the 5pm showing of New Moon. Waiting in line now! 4:08 PM Nov 20th from mobile web
• When I asked my Dad how my 6-year old brother liked his birthday gift, the response was he has so many gifts he hadn’t opened it yet. 2:41 PM Nov 20th from web
• Seeing New Moon tonight at 6pm. Gotta make it through the day first… 6:04 AM Nov 20th from web
• <sarcasm> Time for another fun-filled day. Yay! </sarcasm> 6:06 AM Nov 19th from web
• So now I know what everyone’s talking about with the new retweet beta. What’s the point?? 2:36 PM Nov 18th from web
• Why do some restaurants refuse to sell you certain meals unless you are under 12 or over 65? So stupid. 12:05 PM Nov 18th from mobile web
• Picked up New Moon tickets last night for Friday evening. Not looking forward to the lines! 5:46 AM Nov 18th from web
• Incredible Sesame Street lollipops: http://www.bakerella.com/street-party/ 8:51 PM Nov 15th from web
• Just picked up New Super Mario Brothers for the Wii. Can’t wait to play with my honey! 8:18 AM Nov 15th from web
• Quite a show – 2 1/2 hours. Got hit with pumpkin filling. Not much else. 10:26 PM Nov 14th from mobile web
• At Gallagher, the entire Celebrity Theater is covered in plastic bags. Mustard, Spaghettios, cream corn… Gonna be fun! 6th row! 7:40 PM Nov 14th from mobile web
• Uh-oh. I’ve been neglecting my RSS feeds. Google Reader is scolding me with “1000+ new” alerts. That’ll teach me to avoid it for 3 days! 9:08 AM Nov 14th from web
• Today is Phoenix Art Museum portrait exhibit, lunch @ Pane Bianco, Cardinal Stadium Tour, Sliders for dinner, & Gallagher! Action packed! 9:05 AM Nov 14th from web
• Finally finished Model #2: http://www.flickr.com/photo… 9:23 PM Nov 13th from web
• Got the day off. Going to work on hubby’s birthday present. Maybe even finish up the model car I started last week! 7:18 AM Nov 11th from web
• Following @WSOP for live updates of the 2009 Main Event Final Table. Sweeeet! 7:44 PM Nov 9th from web
• Sitting in State of Arizona project management forms training. 1:49 PM Nov 9th from mobile web
• Getting ready for the day. I have mandatory training downtown again this afternoon. Yay traffic! 5:59 AM Nov 9th from web
• Getting a play-by-play of the live final table World Series of Poker @WSOP ! So cool! 2:35 AM Nov 8th from mobile web
• Working on a Level 2 model. 10 hours and counting! 2:25 AM Nov 8th from mobile web
• Wanna see my brand new ’69 Camaro? … Model…? http://www.flickr.com/photo… 9:19 PM Nov 6th from web
• Playing Lego Rock Band. It’s ADORABLE. What a great game! 7:15 PM Nov 4th from web
• Tried to sit through Phantom of the Opera at Gammage last night. Not my kind of thing. At ALL. 6:23 AM Nov 4th from web
• At home, working a bit, waiting for DWTS to come on. I think it’s popcorn time! 6:41 PM Nov 2nd from web
• Halloween went over really well this year! We had 90-95 kids, about double what we estimated. Thank goodness for reserve drawer candy! 8:34 AM Nov 1st from web

Gallagher Smashing Away

Gallagher – the half-naked Energizer bunny!  That’s the best way I can describe this show.  I saw him back in 1991 in Saginaw, but he was nothing today like he was back then.

The first two hours of the show were spent completing his comedy routine.  He has quite an agenda, and a lot to say about alternative lifestyles, American culture and divorce.  It was a bit much to take at times, but overall pretty funny.

Then, he started smashing.

Pumpkin in a can, Silk chocolate soy milk, Hershey’s strawberry syrup, mustard, lettuce, flour, ketchup, birthday cake…  Watermelons (of course) and much, much more.  The smashing and crashing went on for a half hour before he concluded the show by bringing half the audience on stage to smash away.  It was nuts!

Andrew was the brave man with the camera during the show.  I was hiding behind plastic bags!

See more pictures from Gallagher on Flickr.

UofP Stadium, Glendale, AZ

On Saturday, November 14th, Andrew and I took a tour of University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.  This is the home of the Arizona Cardinals football franchise.  It’s another one of those things we had been saying, “We should do that” for a long time now.  Well, we finally did.

Having already completed the Chase Field tour (Diamondbacks baseball) we figured it would be more of the same.  We were right – but this tour wasn’t as much fun as Chase Field.  Unfortunately for us, the Seattle Seahawks had already arrived for Sunday’s game so we were unable to tour the locker rooms.

Inside UofP Cardinal Stadium

We spent a whole lot of time listening to the tour guide as we stopped at various spots around the main concourse.  After a long while, we went down to the service corrider for a whopping two seconds and then he said we had to leave.  We then went upstairs to the Loft level and saw the Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority Loft.  Lofts are a fancy way of saying Suites.

Cardinal's Player Entrance onto the Field

We were allowed into the Press Room which was pretty neat.  We got to sit where all of the press sits during the game, and check out the amazing views through the glass of the entire stadium.  And… that was about it.  90-minute tour over.

See more pictures of the University of Phoenix Stadium Tour on Flickr.

With the advent of Flickr, Facebook and Twitter, blogging has become a thing of the past.  Other than me and Andrew, I can’t say as I know anybody who has a blog anymore.  This one has suffered too, since most of my postings are done on social networking sites that are popular today.

I joined Flickr on July 20, 2008 as a pro user.  Since then, I’ve posted 1,656 photos.  No videos though – those go up on YouTube instead.  Flickr is incredible for sharing and organizing photos.  I love the groups feature, and finding neat photographers is easy.  I’ve gathered a lot of inspiration from people I’ve met on Flickr.  DaD is on there as well, and posts pictures of his model builds.  Andrew has a complete catalog is his Transformers collection and has quite a following of fans.

Facebook, I just can’t say enough cool things about.  I joined during graduate school in Fall 2007 as a means to collaborate with my classmate at ASU.  Now, nearly my entire family is on Facebook, and many of my friends.  My Dad, Ashley, Joe, Aunt Colleen, Grandma Cole, Uncle Keith, Aunt Cathy, Uncle Bret, Aunt Patte, Sara and Courtney, and so many others.

Even my MOM is now on Facebook, as of last week!  That’s something I never thought I would see.  In fact, we got Mom a cell phone on our plan, and she even sends me text messages a few times per week.

My Facebook Profile

Facebook is easy to use, easy to update, and allows you to keep in contact with tons of people at once.  It has become the primary means of communicating and socializing these days.  Andrew’s family stays away from it, as does my sister.

Twitter is another way to keep up with everyone, in short bursts of tweets.  Since joining on January 12, 2009 I have posted “tweeted” 467 times.  With just a line or two of text, you can broadcast to the world what you are doing at that moment.  Whether you’re getting ready for work, standing in line at a concert, or driving to California, it doesn’t seem to matter as long as you tweet it.  I follow a few dozen celebrities and some friends, as well as informational tweets like from the Town of Gilbert, or AZCentral.  We’ve found some neat things to do through tweets, such as free sliders or events at a local park.

Another feature I have recently come to love is Google’s Reader. It allows you to subscribe to and organize RSS feeds, which bring you news and updates from any website that posts with RSS. My feeds are organized into folders, which provides a good insight into my current interests:

Baking and Food
Business
Friends
Fun
Genealogy
Google Picks
Movies
News
Photography Sites
Scrapbooking
Technology
Travel

Is social networking the end of blogging?  Only time will tell. Ironically, I have started scrapbooking again after a 5-year hiatus. Kathleen and I went to the Creating Keepsakes Scrapbooking Convention in Glendale, AZ the first weekend in October, 2009. It inspired me to work on recent vacations and event tickets. At least the art of recording information isn’t dead – it’s just evolving to use technologies of today!

My DaD has inspired me to do something I never though I would do in my lifetime. I have actually built two model cars! One of them was a simple snap-together, but the second actually used real paint and glue.

My first model: ’69 Camaro Z/28 SS. Sure, it snapped together and only had about 50 pre-painted parts, but it was still an accomplishment for me. I am not very good at following instructions when they are not elaborate. Diagrams confuse me, and I get frustrated if things do not turn out perfectly. When I finished this model, I was quite literally shocked at my own perseverance. Little did I know, this one was the easy one!

My second model: 2009 Dodge Challenger SRT8 Special Edition. 104 parts, each had to be painted separately and glued together. This model required a tremendous amount of patience, which is something that I don’t typically have. It took me a whopping 6 days of committed work to build this model.

I don’t know how my DaD does it! He must have a lot more patience than I do. I think I may be done with modeling – we’ll see!