Wednesday, January 19, 2011 by Dana.

Years 1-2
I love my pool! My family loves the pool. We spend nearly every waking moment in it after work/school. We drink in it, eat next to it, and pee behind it. We invite friends over several times per week and volunteer to host every party for the kid’s sports teams. We love sending pics of splashing in the pool to our relatives in rural KY. I love my pool!

Year 3
The kids still treat the pool like it was new, but wife & I wait until the water temperature is over 82 before swimming. Wow, I didn’t realize it was so hard to keep the chlorine levels balanced in the blazing AZ sun. Broken umbrella? How did the tile get so corroded so fast? WHAT? $450 for new filters!?!? I hate my pool.

Years 4-5
Ugh! Seems like I spend a lot for a few months of use. I’m putting in a pool heater so I can at least use it 10 months of the year. Oooh it’s like a giant hot tub. Let’s put the kids to bed and invite our friends over for moonlight swimming! I love my pool!

Years 6-7
I am on my 3rd set $450 filters and installed a $575 replacement salt cell. F’ing algae!  I’ve given up trying to keep the tile clean. Why does the waterfall look like a cavern forming stalagmites? Is that a hunk of the pool wall surface that fell off? I swam in it less than 3 times last summer because I felt I had to be doing maintenance on it instead of enjoying it. I hate my pool!

Year 8
I miss having an awesome pool. I’m investing $10K in my backyard to have the entertainment venue I used to have. I want to love my pool again!

Posted in Pool, Desert, kids, Suburbia, Weekend | Print | No Comments »

Sunday, April 25, 2010 by Dana.

The night at UFest was fantastic.  I managed to pace myself nicely with drinks and stuck with the vodka (instead of beer) so I didn’t get sleepy.  I also stayed well hydrated and drank one of those 5-hour energy drinks around 6:30pm.  About the only time I felt old was during the second to last song from Three Days Grace.  It was a cover of “In the Air Tonight”, which was originally released before all the 20-somethings around me were born (1981).

I also ran into several friends that also made me feel “not too old” to be there.  I think I am older than all of them, but having friends there made me feel like I did belong.  Final thought… I’m not too old for the Suburban Festival Concert. After all, if Danzig is one of the acts, there are probably many people older than me at the show.

Here are some photos from the event:

Posted in Alcohol, Music, Suburbia, Weekend | Print | 1 Comment »

Friday, April 23, 2010 by Dana.

Tomorrow my sexy wife and I are going to an all-day festival concert called UFest hosted by a local radio station, 98 KUPD. We also bought a pair of tickets for my 13 year old future rock star and his buddy.  As a 40 year old, these events test my endurance. We splurged on VIP tickets for me and the wife to get the comfort of shade, smaller lines, and nicer bathrooms.  Maybe I should dye my hair tonight so I don’t feel like such an old fart by the time the headline act takes the stage.  Hopefully I’ll get some more Silver Fox comments while I’m there to stroke my ego… but I’ll probably just hear “How do you get her?” in reference to my amazing wife.

I’ll be tweeting during the event until my battery dies. Hope I can find a place in the VIP area to charge my phone.  If not, I think I’ll take a small notepad to keep track of my observations and what I overheard so I can blog about it later.

Posted in Alcohol, Music, Suburbia, Weekend | Print | 1 Comment »

Sunday, March 7, 2010 by Dana.

Don’t stay at “historic” hotels if you want comfort, a nice bed, and a shower that does more than give you a warm water mist… and don’t eat the chef special because it just might be the nasty, old meat they are trying not to throw away.

Last night the wife and I drove up to Prescott from sunny Phoenix to party on historic Whiskey Row with our friend’s band. This time we decided to stay at the historic Hotel St. Michael just 2 doors down from the bar where our friend was playing.  We arrived around 8pm and checked-in to our 8’ x 10’ room with a view of the brick wall of the building next door.  We split the chef special at the hotel’s Bistro, washing it down with dirty vodka martinis.

We made it to Matt’s Saloon to have a drink with our friend’s band on their first set break. Over the 90 minutes, we danced and drank a little. Then at the start of the third set, the wife got sick.  Something came over her quickly, so we marched back to the hotel on the corner.  She fell asleep trying to make her tummy feel better, and I fell asleep next to her.  Then I developed the same stomach cramps with a bad headache sometime in the middle of the night.  We now think we both picked up some mild food poisoning from the meal we shared at the Bistro.  In the late morning, we rolled out of bed and hit the road after a quick shower.

The point of all this background information?  Now you know why you should not stay at “historic” hotels if you want comfort, a nice bed, and a shower that does more than give you a warm water mist… and don’t eat the chef special because it just might be the nasty, old meat they are trying not to throw away.

We’ll go back to staying at the Wyndham from now

Posted in Music, Disturbed, Weekend | Print | No Comments »

Tuesday, December 22, 2009 by Dana.

The Honey-Do List… that never ending list of chores that every
suburban husband has to do.

Here is my list.  How does it compare to yours?

1. Replace or re-attach clay roof tiles damaged in storm (from last
   Spring).
2. Fix water softener (Plan to use these instructions href="http://www.rd.com/how-to-repair-a-water-softener/article18197.html">http://www.rd.com/how-to-repair-a-water-softener/article18197.html)
3. Find leak in HVAC drain hidden in wall behind cabinets in the
   garage
4. Fix warped wood on hardware floors (probably going to put this
   off until we replace the flooring for entire downstairs)
5. Get a new basketball hoop for the pool
6. Repair tile with cracked grout in bathroom
7. Repair leaking lawn sprinklers in front yard (waiting until
   Spring when we start watering the yard again)
8. Replace faulty pool salt cell (ordered it from Specialty Pool
   Products http://www.poolproducts.com/
   - should arrive in a week)
9. Shock pool and brush algae that formed while the salt cell wasn’t
   working (order chemicals from Specialty Pool Products href="http://www.poolproducts.com/">http://www.poolproducts.com/-
   should arrive in a week)
10. Repair youngest son’s bike tire

Posted in Suburbia, Weekend | Print | No Comments »

Sunday, November 29, 2009 by Dana.

Every year we look forward to the Ahwatukee Festival of Lights.  We usually go out just after lunch to walk through the row of craft vendor booths while the kids enjoy the carnival games or hang out with their friends.  As it grows later, wife and I head to the beer garden to mingle with friends and sneak drinks out of our flasks we smuggled in.  Around 6pm the parade of Harleys arrive (with Santa), and then we stay in the beer garden until forced to leave around 7pm.  We drag our kids home at that point, and then wife and I head out with friends for a night cap. But this year… the entire day was disappointing.

The weeks leading up to the Festival of Lights (FOL) were filled with newspaper articles about how they almost didn’t have enough funds raised to make it happen… and it showed.  We arrived to find that the Xmas tree silent auction was eliminated, and the crowd was significantly smaller (guessing ~20% less).  The beer garden that is usually standing room only had plenty of seats and small drink lines, and the friends that host a small gathering in their RV in the parking lot appeared to have left their RV sit idle.

To be fair, the weather wasn’t great, and it did end up raining around 4pm. However, the crowd was weak, and the disappointment had already set in long before the rains came.  The light rain drove all by the hardy beer garden attendees away.  A few brave ones toughed it out (some under the tables) to stay dry.

Eventually we left because our youngest child was not feeling well.  We grabbed him some cough medicine at the Walgreen’s and then had a quick bite to eat at Loco Patron before going home for the night.  We managed to have a good time because we make our own fun; however, we may have to re-evaluate attendee the FOL in the future.

Posted in Holidays, Suburbia, Disturbed, Weekend | Print | No Comments »

Friday, August 14, 2009 by Dana.

After breakfast with the boys on my Friday off, I drove 2 of them to school on my Harley (not at the same time of course).  They love arriving in style of course.  I think they would prefer that I pull up on the sidewalk in front of everyone, but I followed the rules and parked it in an open visitor spot to let them off.

Then I took the bike out for a photoshoot with the hottest, sexiest blonde! She wore stiletto platform heals, a mini skirt, and a corsette!  It was awesome!

…and I got a pic of me on the bike too!

Posted in kids, Disturbed, Weekend | Print | No Comments »

Sunday, April 26, 2009 by Dana.

It is a beautiful afternoon in suburban Phoenix.  It is in the mid-80’s, no humidity, and a light breeze is blowing.  I’m sitting on the shade under my porch, watching the kids play pool ping-pong.  I’m tweeting (a twitter thing) and blogging on my laptop, and the dogs are sitting up on the waterfall looking for joggers to bark at. 

Did I mention that my sexy wife is in her bikini, and she is giving me a pedicure?  I think all I need to top this off is a margarita.

Posted in Suburbia, Weekend | Print | No Comments »

Friday, April 17, 2009 by karen.

I have been witnessing the affects of the economy.  I have 2 close friends who were laid off several months ago.  Both are still looking for employment, but fortunately one is doing lots of side jobs to make ends meet.  Many local business have also had to close up shop.  I have been shopping mostly at Walmart to save money ourselves but am beginning to rethink this practice.  I was also going to have a garage sale but am donating the items instead.

After going out to Tempe Market Place last Friday, I have taken a better look at our own disturbia, Ahwatukee.  Upon arriving to the first watering hole, we were told in order to get a table outside, we would have to pay $100.  Jokingly, I replied “yes, I heard you tell the customer on the phone 5 times”.  The hostess didn’t think it was funny. I was simply commenting on how frustrating it must have been for her to have to repeat the same thing 4 times.  I was on her side.  We left to go to the less busy bar.  Ok, so we had to wait several minutes before even being greeted by the bartender.  Then when she finally did greet us, she wasn’t cordial.  No smile or ‘Hi, how are you guys?’    A simple, ‘What can I get you?’ was all.  I looked at Dana and questioned why we left our neighborhood to get treated like crap.  Ahwatukee has a small town feel and we get treated well at the local establishments.  Think Cheers.  They all know us or at-least recognize us.  CK’s even has our drinks ready when they see us walk in.

Does staying local help our economy?   I think it does, and we’ll do business more in our own slice of disturbia.

Posted in Alcohol, Weekend | Print | No Comments »

Friday, September 12, 2008 by Dana.

Last weekend in northeast Phoenix, a backyard wrestling operation was shutdown.  In Disturbia, a young entrepreneur turned a fake sport into backyard entertainment for teenagers and others without a meaningful social life.  While the applesauce wrestling sounds cool, we really don’t know what these ladies looked like.  If they will do backyard applesauce wrestling for little or no compensation, they have to be rejects from a local gentlemen’s club. The most amazing aspect of the story is that it included alcohol, teenagers, and handguns yet there were no incidents of violence reported.

Now… what is most disturbing?  I think it is the neighbor on the ladder looking over the fence.  Was he checking out the applesauce wrestlers on the night his wife had Bunko?  What do you think is most disturbing about the story?  Any applesauce wrestling in your neighborhood?

Posted in Weapons, Alcohol, Suburbia, Disturbed, Weekend | Print | No Comments »