The Blade of Kringel

Sally had class all day which meant I had some free time to kick back and do nothing - yay. Most of it was spent watching good TV and playing guitar - it really doesn't get much better then that. Anyway, she was home mid-afternoon so we decided to head out and have a fun night running around doing a bunch of things, and I thought I’d share a few of the highlights with you:

First we ran by the Apple store and I picked up an iPod Shuffle. Man it’s so tiny it’s crazy, in fact it’s actually smaller than this picture here! I love it. It sounds really good too and holds around 200 songs which is plenty enough for going to the gym, or on a quick trikke ride ;-)

Then we ran over to the local movie theater and watched “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan” which is by far the funniest movie I’ve seen in a long, long time. It was so refreshing to see a movie that just showed us as we really are instead of the usual Hallmark/Disney sugar-coated garbage that most movies are today. Unfortunately we got there right at the start time, which meant we had to sit about 3 rows from the front, and trust me, you never want to be that close to 2 fat, hairy, naked guys wrestling! Well unless thats your bag, but if it is you need help! Speaking of repulsive, see that green thing that Borat is wearing? Sally came up with the delightful term ‘cock sling’ to describe it :-) I gotta get one for our trip to St.Thomas next year, ha ha ha

We’re going back to the cinema again tomorrow for the new James Bond movie “Casino Royal”. I’m dragging Sally to it on the grounds that its educational for her to learn about my British heritage ;-) As I’m sure you’ve probably heard already the new Bond is Daniel Craig who is a really good actor. If you ever doubted he’d make a good Bond, check out a great movie called “Layer Cake” that he made a few years ago and all your fears will be assuaged.

And so finally we come to my new favorite book, and amazingly it’s a Christmas book for teens! Whaaaat? Sally found this in the book store last night and I couldn't resist: “Manga Claus: The Blade of Kringle” - Honor. Loyalty. Tinsel. Heres an excerpt from the back of the book: “A disgruntled elf, dark magic, and a horde of possessed ninja teddy bears threaten to put an end to the holidays... To battle the evil teddies, Santa himself must break out his ancient samurai swords... and become Manga Claus... Santa’s blades are swift and his bujitsu unmatched, but will they be enough to save Christmas?” Will they be enough? Oh you know he rips the stuffing out of those evil ninja teddies ;-)

Ron & June come to visit

On Monday November 13th I got an e-mail at school from Ross telling me that my Dad and June were on their way to Phoenix. What?!? That is what I thought anyway. I called Ross and he informed me that Dad had tried to call me but I did not answer so he called Ross. He (dad) and June were driving their way to Texas to see Sam, Laura, Henry and Camille. They were on the California border when they called and thought they would get here around 2 or 3pm.

School gets out at 2:30pm and I could not wait to get home. I was just starting my day so you can guess how long that seemed to take. I had a class to take from three to four that afternoon that I canceled on to get home. So, I get home and there is no Dad and June. I wait around a little bit, still no Dad and June. I call them and they are fifteen to twenty miles out—during rush hour. This is going to take a while.

They arrived about 6pm - yeah! Ross and I were starving by that time because we usually eat by 5pm these days. We show them our place and go check out where their rig is parked. While checking out where they parked their rig across the street a guy asked for a jump for his dead battery. Dad got his cables and I had my car. Once we got that done I could not get my hood to stay closed, it latched but didn’t lock.

We went to Ford, the shop was closed but a sales guy said that the hood will stay shut and to come back tomorrow. So off we went to Delux Burger—so yummy! We came back here and hung out for a while. It was great catching up and hearing about everybody not to mention to see family. Dad and June crashed in their rig and Ross and I went to bed. Dad and June had things plugged in and charging in our place so I expected to see Dad in the morning for a cup of coffee and their stuff. Well no Dad by the time I had to leave for school.

It turns out their clocks were off an hour and they woke up late, so they saw Ross in the morning. I went to the Ford dealer after work that day and left my car there. It turns out I needed a new unit lock thing for my hood and my break fluid replaced, so $371 and 24 hours later I got my car back. I guess a good deed really doesn’t go unpunished.

When Dad and June come back through on their way back to Prineville we’ll have to make sure to show them more than our place and a burger. Oh, and we forgot to get a picture for the blog. We’ll have to get that too.

Ross Note: Hey Sam & Laura, if you read this, send us some pictures of Ron & June for the blog - this one we used is years old!!! Cheers ;-)

Alison comes to visit

Sally here. Another visitor, yeah! Alison (Metcalf for those who don't know) came to visit this last weekend. Well, it still is the weekend as it is Sunday evening about 5:30pm. That would be 4:30pm to you folks in Portland. Arizona does not change daylight savings time, yet another thing to love about being here.

Back to Alison and the weekend, she flew in Thursday afternoon. She was about half hour late, which meant I got to sit in the airport and people watch. I love to people watch. Although, this was not that great since a small child, 3-4 years old, threw up in the waiting area. YUCK!

Thursday night we tried to meet up with a buddy of mine from Concordia, he's in town for NASCAR. We went to Chuy's Mesquite Broiler. It's this funky bar with lots of outdoor seating and lights. Well, we got there a little before 9pm and waited around. We left a little after 10pm and of course just missed Lynn and his buddies. Figures. I hope Lynn and his buddies had lots of fun at the races.

Friday was no school because of Veterans Day, Alison and I went to 5th Street in Scottsdale. There are a lot of shops and galleries. We didn't go to too many of the galleries. The shopping was good though. There is a great store here where you can make your own purse. There are about a dozen different types of bags to choose from then you pick out what fabric you want the bag made with. They make the purse or bag for you. It takes a couple weeks so Alison is getting hers mailed to her. Great idea huh?

(I bought a backpack and I can't wait to get it)

Friday night we went to Kierland Commons to look around at some shops but specifically to have dinner at Tommy Bahamas. I know some of you are thinking it is a clothing store, and it is but here they also have a restaurant and it was so yummy! We all ate too much and we were useless the rest of the night.

Saturday Alison and I went to The Breakfast Club for breakfast; Ross was still full from dinner the night before. I had the best French Toast. The toast itself was not soggy, it was served with walnuts, almonds, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and strawberries. To work off that amazing breakfast we went to Tempe Town Lake (a man made lake) and walked around a little bit, then we strolled up and down Mill Ave. looking in shops and people watching.

This morning was Alison's flight home. I am so happy it wasn't too early. And NASCAR didn't end till this afternoon so the airport was not too crazy for her. It was great to have a visitor, and of course she invited us to stay with her anytime in Portland. I laughed because who wants to go back to raining and 54 when we have sunny and 81.

Ross Note: Portland’s weather has been terrible lately as a huge storm has been battering the North West coast. Mount Rainier up in Washington had 18” of rain in 36 hours, flooding all the roads into the mountain, and forcing them to close access to it for the first time in 26 years! Man, did we pick the right time to move or what?

I get a Trikke

Last weekend Sally & I were down at Tempe Town Lake (see following pictures) when we met a couple of people riding Trikkes (http://www.trikke.com)

We’d seen Trikkes once before back in Portland but it was right before we moved and we didn't really have time to investigate them, so we eagerly approached the couple and started chatting to them. They kindly wasted 20 minutes of their day telling us all about Trikkes, how to ride them and where you could order them from on the web. We left excited, and vowing to check them out.

By Wednesday we’d found a dealer here in Phoenix called S.S.Scooters and headed over there in the rush hour traffic to check out the Trikkes. The guys that worked there were great, letting us try out a T8 - so called ‘cause it has 8” skateboard wheels. It can also support enough weight for my lardy arse ;-) Unfortunately for Sally they only had one in stock so I bought it, and she had to order one, which should be here in a few weeks.

Fortunately / unfortunately we’re both so out of shape that even when we take it in turns riding it, were exhausted after about 20 minutes, so it’s not like were fighting over the one Trikke just yet.

It really is an amazing full body workout. It’s basically a similar movement to skiing or inline skating, so you’re always carving from side to side to keep your momentum going. On slight downgrades its more of a leg push movement, while on upgrades it’s more of an upper body workout as you move the front wheel from side to side quickly to keep your forward momentum. The trikke website has lots more info on this!

Our plan is to get good enough that we can ride all over Phoenix. Luckily the place is pretty flat for the most part (except for the occasional mountain of course) and we should be able to follow the canals that run all over the city as well as going to places like Tempe Town Lake, or hell, just wasting 20 minutes in a local parking lot - damn skater-punk kids!!!