The Rains Came Down...

So I live in the desert. As you can imagine, rain is a big deal here. Who am I kidding? Clouds are a big deal here!!! Any relief from the blistering sun is a welcome sight. That’s why monsoon season is one of my favorite AZ treats. I know what you’re thinking, "Monsoons in Arizona? Isn’t that against everything a desert stands for?" Let me just clarify, the so called “monsoon season” for us is a few inches of rain in about 6 weeks. Not the torrential downpour you might conjure up when you hear the word monsoon, but it’s a monsoon to us!

As I mentioned, we Phoenicians love rain, but last night we got more than we bargained for--we had the CRAZIEST storm I have ever seen. All of the sudden, completely out of no where, a hurricane roles into Phoenix! I’m not joking. It was raining cats and dogs, the wind was blowing out of control, and the windows were shaking. It literally felt like we were in a hurricane. I learned this morning that we had winds that reached 100 miles per hour. We also got 1 inch of rain in 15 minutes. Okay, we only get like 2 inches of rain a year—we just got half of that in 15 minutes! Crazy! We ended up with almost 6 inches in just a few hours.

This morning on my way to work about half of the trees on my route had been either snapped in half or completely toppled over. For a city that only has 10 trees, that’s a big deal. It is quite the site around here. Anyway, we made it out alive, but here a few pictures of the storm and its aftermath.

We Don’t Have Cheeseburgers

Did you know that Whataburger does NOT sell cheeseburgers? Can you believe that? No cheeseburgers. I know…I was just as surprised as you are, but it’s true. The other day we went to Whataburger to grab a quick bite to eat. No joke, this is exactly how the conversation went:

“Hi, welcome to Whataburger. Can I take your order?”

“Yes, we’d like two cheeseburgers, and a…”

“Uh…we don’t have cheeseburgers."

"Uh..."

"We have a Whataburger with cheese, but we don’t have cheeseburgers.”

Sean and I just looked at each other and started laughing. Is this guy serious? I wanted to say to this kid, okay, so what you are telling me is that you don’t have a hamburger patty with cheese, between two buns? Really? Perhaps you should think about that one more time.

We decided to “settle” for the Whataburgers with cheese, and instead we asked to make it a combo…and while you’re at it buddy, why don’t you Supersize that and throw in a Happy Meal.

Weather Girl

So I have this weird thing about the weather. I always like to know what the weather is. I like to know what it currently is, what it will be tomorrow, and what experts are not so expertly predicting it will be in 10 days. I don’t know what it is, but I’m just fascinated by it. It is possible it is an ego thing. You see, when my husband walks in and says, “It’s really hot today,” I like to be able to respond with, “It sure is! It got up to 113 degrees today!” Or when a co-worker says, “I think I’m going to wash my car this weekend,” I can save them time and money by saying, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. The 10 day forecast is predicting a 60% chance of rain on Thursday.”

Lately I’ve been working on my internal weather detecting gauge. I try to guess what the current temperature is and then I go to weather.com and see how accurate I am. I think if I was a super hero I would be Temperature Woman—the amazing woman who can accurately detect the current temperature within two tenths of a degree. Just imagine the costume I could have!

The unfortunate thing is that my current place of residence is inhibiting my superpower. For example, today I went to the pool. I was reading a great book and soaking up the sun; however, it was so HOT I thought I was going to die! My internal temperature gauge was telling me that the current temperature was equivalent to the surface of the sun. I was guessing that it was 11,000 ◦F. Okay, so in actuality it was only 103 today, but I was close. I guess I’ll have to keep working on that power. In the meantime, just keep me posted if you are thinking about washing your car.

Did You Say Cadaver?

Last month it was my turn to select the book for my book club. We had just finished reading a boring/depressing Steinbeck book, so I decided it was time to spice things up a bit. In order to make things fun and a little creepy, I selected Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, by Mary Roach.



Okay…I know what your thinking, “A book about cadavers?” I know it sounds crazy, but I am officially obsessed…with the book that is…not cadavers. I mentioned to a friend that I was reading this book, to which he replied, “So what, you were just walking through Barnes and Noble in the ‘cadaver section’ and you just happen to pick this up?” Okay, so there isn’t a cadaver section at Barnes and Noble, but there should be! This book gets two thumbs up…way up! It was interesting, informative, funny, and fascinating. Roach is an incredible author, and I couldn’t put the book down. A big thanks to my dear friend Angela for the great recommendation. Here’s a little excerpt from Stiff to spark your interest:

The way I see it, being dead is not terribly far off from being on a cruise ship. Most of your time is spent lying on your back. The brain has shut down. The flesh begins to soften. Nothing much new happens, and nothing is expected of you (p. 9).

So this book did three things for me, (1) taught me tons and tons of interesting facts about cadavers, (2) reconfirmed my choice to be an organ donor, (3) and reminded me that I need to go on a cruise before I die. Read it…you will love it!

I Skate, You Skate...

What do you do when it’s 118 degrees during the day and 110 degrees at night? You go ice staking!! Can I just say that I love ice skating? Maybe it’s the jumps, or perhaps the sparkly, glistening costumes, but whatever it is, I love it.

I have been begging Sean to take me ice skating for ages. Being the great husband he is, Saturday night he surprised me with a trip to the Alltel Ice Den in Scottsdale. For those of you who don’t know, the Alltel Ice Den is the “Home of the First Throw Quadruple Salchow.” That’s right, I said QUADRUPLE! Okay…so Tiffany Vise and Derek Trent actually performed the jump at a competition in Paris, but they train at that the Alltel Ice Den, so same thing. There are large posters in the rink, reminding you that you are skating on a piece of history…salchow history that is.

We had a great time on the rink. Here I am lacing up my skates. I forgot my sparkly costume at home that night…

It took me a while to warm up, but after a few turns around the ice I did a few spins and my baby jump (more like a half salchow) in the center of the ice. Sean also did VERY well for himself! I was quite impressed. He didn’t even fall once!

Thanks to Sean for a great date and for rekindling my Olympic dreams. Vancouver 2010 or bust!