Camping on the Rim

Scotty and I spent this weekend camping with family at Woods Canyon Lake, a bit north of Payson, Arizona, on the Mogollon Rim. It was fun; we played games, sat around the campfire, hiked to the rim, gathered acorns, and played frisbee.

The downside came at the end - as we were driving away the car hit a rock and punctured the oil pan and probably the transmission pan. This is the second time it's happened. Last time was in my in-laws' neighborhood after a big storm about a year ago.

My mom and stepdad were lifesavers and towed us home. Now we need to get the parts from the dealership and my awesome stepdad will fix Prudence up for us.

I wish it hadn't happened - but the weekend was a lot of fun, anyway.


Our campsite


Alicia's dog Pepper


Us :)


The Mogollon Rim






Morning light

Learn Something New Tuesday - 5/10

1. What was your very first job that you went out and interviewed for and got?
That would be for a retirement community down the street from my high school. It was a large building and I worked as a server in the restaurant. I didn't have to deal with money or tips (I made minimum wage and the residents paid for their meals in the cost of their living arrangements), just food. I only worked on Sundays. It was easy for a restaurant job but the coworkers were heinous. No supervisor to speak of (he locked himself in his office and ignored everyone) and bullies galore. When I left I was told I could never work for them again. Good! It made me happy.

2. If someone gave you $50 and said that you had to spend it on yourself right now, what would you buy?
Clothes. I want to go clothes shopping this weekend, so this would just speed it up a little bit.

3.  How would you spend an entire day alone?
I love being alone... I mean, I love other people but I am just fine by myself and much more relaxed... I would just do what I usually do: watch tv, eat junk food and mess around on the computer.

4. What is one thing you’d change about the car you currently drive?
I'd fix my truck's transmission - pretty sure something is up with it. Uhmm, and change it so it is magically clean. It really needs to be cleaned and I am really lazy about it. I sometimes drive our Cobalt but I wouldn't change anything about that except maybe add more leg room in the back.

5. What is your favorite way to eat chicken?
Any way. I loooooove chicken. And I like other people cooking it for me because I get paranoid about it being cooked through.

6. Which one of these scented candles would you light?  A) vanilla B) crisp linen C) melon
Vanilla. I got a vanilla air freshener for the kitchen, and I love it. Linen would be ok, but a lot of melon scents smell really artificial to me.

DePhoMo 13 + a Day in the Life

Ugh. I'm not feeling great today. I hurt my back wrapping Christmas presents, and my stomach has been hurting since yesterday. Meh. Maybe writing out this Day in the Life will distract me...

Fair warning: this DITL contains a lot of Loki and crappy eating. Also, this DITL was taken entirely with my new lens, which has a fixed focal length. Since I did this DITL with the lens to get used to it, some of the photos might look a little funky.



I woke up at 6:30 and put my hearing aids in. It's hard to aim at the side of your head... but I like how this makes me look sort of Borg-ish.


I grab my book for the day. This book was sent to me free by Harper Perennial because I'm on an email list of theirs... love it so far.


Somewhere in that lump on the bed is my husband. That blanket is the comfiest blanket ever.


I am not awake.


Mustard greens for the lizard.


Attempt to weigh the lizard. He is 257 grams, up from 252 last week. Gaining weight, but not length. He's been at 16'' since November 21.


Back in the bathroom, Loki cuddles with me and my camera strap. My shirt says: Geek by nature. Linux by choice.


He is SO not happy that I tricked him into the bath. A far cry from his bath last week that he spent swimming around in the sink. (Here's a video.)


I pull out my new journal to write a shopping list.


A black and white cookie for breakfast? Don't mind if I do.


Getting ready to go...


Scotty is already ready, so he gets some Minecraft in before we head out.


We get just down the block before we remember our phones, so I go back in to get them.


While I'm gone, Scotty photographs the sea turtle hanging from Prudence's rear view mirror.


Our first stop is Chris and Alicia's to take their Christmas photos. They are both kind of obsessed with copper, and have a giant sheet of it above their dining room table.


I wrassle with a pit bull.


Yeah, she's not going to let me get up.


Ahahaha my hair.


She really is a sweetheart. (This is my DePhoMo pic.)


A sample shot from the photoshoot, which went OK except the dogs were crazy.


Then to Scotty's aunt's to help them troubleshoot their wireless.


Scotty's cousin Stephen shows us kung fu videos on the only computer that has internet, then lets Scotty get to work.


I <3 their kitty.


After fixing their internet, we go to Chompie's for breakfast. I get the crepes filled with carmelized bananas. Yummmm.


We then spend the rest of the day shopping. Walmart, the mall (pictured above), Petsmart, and Gamestop. It was exhausting. Really did not mean to be out so late.


We get a quick dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings and watch some of the 3rd quarter of the Cardinals game.


I actually got a drink! It was delicious, but I just don't drink things fast enough.


Back at home, I separate out the presents and stuff. Big find of the day: my robot necklace! I already had one, but it broke, and I lost the robot forever. We finally found another one at Claire's.


Loki gets the last dose of his medicine and is not happy about it. He clings to my shirt for awhile.


Scotty's mom shows us the wreaths she worked on today.


Alicia, Scotty and I try out the demo for NBA 2K11 on the PS3. It's completely awesome, even if it only lets you play as the Lakers in the demo.


Loki investigates the pants.


And Scotty's laptop case.


All of us make a run to Dairy Queen. It was just as delicious as Alicia is indicating. After that, we headed home, and I went to bed early.

DePhoMo 10

One of the first photos taken with my new lens. I love it, but the depth of field is kind of crazy and takes some getting used to... just look at this one of the Chevy logo on Prudence...


Because so much of the image ends up "fuzzy," it's hard to see in the camera if it focused properly or not... but it seems really good for portraits so far.

30 Day Challenge - Days 27, 28, and 29

(See here for the complete list of days & questions.) 

Day 27- Why are you doing this 30 day challenge
Well, when I started it I thought it would be fun and a good way to occupy some time out of my day. But now that October and early November have turned out to be pretty busy, I have no idea why. :)

Day 28- A picture of you last year and now, how have you changed since then?

December 2009:

With the cuddliest/floppiest cat in the world, Sneakers

November 2010:

In our new car, Prudence

Well, a lot has changed since December of last year, but I don't think I myself have changed a whole lot. I am still the same person I've always been, just with a little more life experience under my belt, which of course will always be true. 

Day 29- In this past month, what have you learned
I have learned a heck of a lot about Foursquare, Tumblr, and Posterous. I have learned the names of the sixteen billion James Patterson novels coming out in the next couple months. (Hint: if you come up & ask "what's James Patterson's newest book?" you're going to get a list.) I have learned that I get paid a day early both paychecks this month thanks to holidays. I have learned about astronauts and space travel thanks to the book Packing for Mars by Mary Roach. I learned about the Battle of Gettysburg for my review of Coal Black Horse by Robert Olmstead. I learned that Loki does not like it when it is cold in the morning. I learned 15 large crickets are a good meal for him (vs. 30 small). I learned that I really like the movie How to Train Your Dragon, and bought myself a Toothless for my desk. ...I guess I learned a lot. :)

To-do

My plans for this wonderful, fantastic three-day Labor Day weekend are as follows in no particular order (Fiona is our truck, Prudence is our new car):

• Get Fiona's brakes fixed at Brakemasters
• Get Prudence's trunk locking mechanism fixed (it sticks a bit) under warranty at the dealership
• Pick up my prescription if the pharmacy and doctor finally have things worked out
• Stop by the mall to pick up a couple things
• Play the heck out of Metroid: Other M
• Get to work on constructing Loki's new basking platform out of polystyrene
• Get Prudence washed
• Go see Iliza Shlesinger at the Tempe Improv Saturday night
• Do laundry
• Pick up crickets for Loki

What ever happened to holiday weekends being fun and relaxing? Although, playing Metroid: Other M and seeing Iliza should be plenty of fun. It's funny, I'm so addicted to Metroid at the moment, but I've hardly gotten anywhere because I keep getting stuck. So I kind of suck at the game even though I love it and it's so much fun.

We saw Iliza on Comedy Central Presents a week ago and it was just a fluke that she happens to be in Tempe this weekend. Neither of us have ever been to the Tempe Improv but it sounds like fun. According to Yelp it is a bit small, but hey, when you're there to see somebody perform that can be good, right?

Fingers crossed that the brake repair on the truck (a) doesn't take too long and (b) isn't too expensive!

Meet Prudence

I still don't quite believe it, but yesterday we bought a new car:

It's not "new," but it might as well be. It's a 2010 Chevrolet Cobalt with 370 miles on it.

We've been looking for a car for the past week. We went to at least two dozen dealerships, maybe more, with my mom and stepdad's help. We knew we wanted a Cobalt right away... Scotty loves Chevys and if I can't get an older car the Cobalt was my choice. (As proof of my oddness about cars, the one other car I really really loved was a 1998 Trailblazer.)

I can't believe how long it takes to buy a car. Well, if you're financing. We walked away with a slightly higher sticker price & higher APR than I wanted, but that's okay. It will be paid off quickly.

Funny story... while they were doing the financing we were waiting in their showroom which is filled to the brim with brand new Corvettes. Scotty looooves Corvettes, so we were wandering around looking at all of them, and I mentioned you could easily hide a body in the trunk, and who would suspect you because who would deface their brand new sports car with a body? Heh. So Scotty was saying I'm so weird, because often the first thing I say about a small place is whether or not you could hide a body in it. After we had Prudence, we went by my dad's to show him, and the first thing he said when we showed him the trunk was that you could easily hide one or two bodies in it. You should've seen the expression on Scotty's face. It was so funny.

Deep breaths...