Triple digits

We had a wonderful spring season this year. The moderate temperatures lasted well into May. We'd get a glimpse of the mercury creeping up and then things would cool back down. The mood of the Phoenicians was bright and jovial...much like I suspect sunny days bring to folks on the Pacific Northwest coast. We welcomed every extra day as a gift. The past few days has been pay back for the respite...



You're looking at the outside temperature gauge in my car yesterday afternoon. And so it begins...the desert summer hybernation.

El nino

It is March 9th and we're having another stormy, cold day. I know that talking about the weather seems really mundane for a blog post...especially for all of you that live places that have weather on a regular basis. But out here in the desert...rain makes the evening news. In March, we're accustomed to an average high of 75 and .9 inches of rain. According to the National Weather Service website, the Phoenix Rain Index is 4.98" since January 1...and did I mention there was hail!? So I'm going to go ahead and take the liberty of writing a note about it. Despite it feeling like the wettest winter in the thirteen we've lived here, it isn't. Back in 2004-05 we had 7.76 inches. I was mothering an infant and a three year old back then. So either I was too busy to notice or have blocked that period of time from my long term memory.

As much as I appreciate the importance of rain...enough already...bring back our sun!

Happy 233rd Birthday!

We spent the 4th camping up at Big Lake Recreation Area in eastern Arizona. We've been up to the area to enjoy the snow during winter and the summer was just as beautiful. If you were blindfolded and plopped down at our campsite, you'd have thought you were in the Pacific Northwest. But considering the temperatures back at home were in the 110s, we welcomed the 70 degree days and occasional drizzles.

We enjoyed the company of many friends...some we planned for and some were a coincidence. The kids enjoyed a boat ride out on the lake, fishing for crayfish, running between campsites, bonding with puppies and many other camping traditions.






I lifted this last picture...thanks Jillian!

The masthead stays...

That's right! The Cardinals are going to the Super Bowl, baby!

Steve and I enjoyed the game first hand. The stadium was amazing. The crowd was often deafening. It was even nerve racking at the end. But they pulled it off and it is a bit surreal.

We owe a large amount of gratitude to our friends the Chungs. They added our two girls to the mix of their three girls for the majority of the day so we could take part in the festivities. I was told that the noise at their house was deafening at times too...and it had nothing to do with the football game.

CONGRATULATIONS CARDS!!

All aboard!

I’m going to make a confession. I am an Arizona Cardinals football fan. I know I haven’t talked about it much and some people outside of AZ might even use the term “bandwagon.” By definition, a bandwagon is “a popular trend that attracts growing support.” Trust me, there is nothing popular about being an Arizona Cardinal fan. And it’s certainly not attractive. On the contrary, being a Cardinal fan can really bring out the ugly in people. Otherwise civilized people will scream profanities and throw tantrums. I’ve seen it…and it is ugly. A more appropriate phrase for what’s happening in Arizona is that the fans are “coming out of the woodwork.”

We moved to Arizona just before the 1997 football season so we haven’t been waiting as long as the Arizona fans that have been cheering for them since they arrived in 1988. Nor as long as, believe it or not, the fans that still linger from when they were in St. Louis. But we’ve been cheering for the consummate underdog for twelve seasons of football. There were times they made it so hard…you wanted to walk away. But just about every off-season brought some new glimmer of hope. There was second-round draft pick, local ASU hero, Jake Plummer. In his second season, Jake carried the Cardiac Cards to that historic moment in team history…when we beat the Dallas Cowboys in the Wild Card game. Of course that was followed by more seasons of disappointment. The promising first round draft picks that didn’t pan out. Another glimmer when Dennis Green arrived in 2004…bringing along Edgerrin James a couple seasons later. Yet the letdown continued.

Cardinal fans have become so accustomed to disappointment that instead we would hope to not be humiliated on national television. Does anyone remember the Monday Night Football game between the Bears and Cardinals. It is best if you forget.

Yet we’ve remained loyal and ridden the rollercoaster of emotions. And this year it has finally paid off. We are the NFC West Champions. For three weeks we’ve listened to the naysayers. They’ve said that we are the worst team to ever be in the playoffs. We are in the worst league and didn’t deserve to be there. But here we are…one game away from the Super Bowl and this city is covered in Cardinal red. It is the middle of January and we’re still in the game. We haven’t had to settle for which other team to follow through the play-offs. For that I am thrilled for the team and the faithful fans. And if your team is out of the playoffs and you’re debating who to root for…go ahead jump on our bandwagon. We’ve got plenty of room.

Trains and Peacemakers

Phoenix has been the 5th largest city in the nation for some time now. And that is just Phoenix proper. It does not include all the surrounding cities like Mesa, Tempe, Scottsdale or even our very own fine township for that matter. Despite it’s size, Phoenix has been a little slow in the area of mass transportation. All due respect, they’ve done a fantastic job with other aspects of the infrastructure, but mass transportation has been lacking. And it’s not entirely the fault of the officials. It’s a tough metropolitan area in that it is so spread out. We’ve got a few city centrals. There is the “official” downtown Phoenix area, downtown Scottsdale, and Camelback corridor. Then the high tech area is more central to Tempe/Chandler. And when they moved the football stadium out to the West side…well that really distributed the metro area even more.

But alas, a light rail system is finally opening in the Phoenix Metro area. It is in no way convenient to the Desert Doer’s way of life, but I’m sure some lucky folks will get to partake in the tax payer's dollar. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure we’ll be able to use the service for an occasional baseball game or Tempe event, but it does not help us in our weekday commute.

Regardless, we did take part in the grand festivities that were held in downtown Tempe. There were a lot of activites for the kids, free rail rides and exhibits. But the big draw for us was one of our favorite local bands, Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers. Roger fronted another local band, The Refreshments. He and the boys played an hour and a half set complete with all of our favorites. This marked Megan’s first concert, since Emily has already attended a concert a couple years ago. The festivities were capped off with fireworks.


We then went out for a great Italian dinner with friends that met us for the show, Clint and Debbie. It was a perfect afternoon and evening.

More from the Great Outdoors

We had what may have been our best camping trip yet last weekend. We went with three other families to Christopher Creek, AZ. We got some rain on Saturday...but not enough to ruin the trip...just enough to make it more of an adventure. All the kids played together splendidly....which gave the adults an opportunity to relax and visit splendidly.

Here's all but two of us on the final morning.

Here are some of the kids hunting for crawfish. The critters seem to like chicken even more than hot dogs (Megan still likes hot dogs best).

Turning the Corner

Relief is within our reach at last. This morning was cool enough to open the doors and windows for some fresh air. Glorious, unconditioned, cool air. The highs for the days ahead are still at 100...but after three month of stifling heat, we'll take what we can get.

The Aunt and The Boy

We had a wonderful visit this past weekend from Steve’s sister, Susan, and her boyfriend Mark. The girls stayed home with them on Friday and were treated to a special trip to the zoo, lunch and lots of giggles. When Steve and I left for work on Friday, Megan was her typical shy self with Mark…barely making eye contact. By the time we came home, she had a new best friend, affectionately referred to as “the boy”.

Saturday we all packed up and headed north to Sedona. Although our initial plans didn’t pan out, the day ended up being just as enjoyable. After doing a little window shopping and enjoying lunch at a Mexican restaurant, we headed up through Oak Creek Canyon toward Flagstaff (the original plan to visit Slide Rock State Park was skipped because of the long lines). During the drive to Flagstaff we were looking at some ominous looking clouds ahead of us. Sure enough, once we’d arrived in Flagstaff the skies opened up into a down pour. We hid out in the Barnes & Noble hoping to wait out the rain, but since it wasn’t letting up, we decided to skip our plans to walk around and have dinner downtown and headed back to the Valley. Because of our early arrival we were invited for dinner with Marcia, Susan’s best friend from kindergarten, and her family that also live out here. Their home and hospitality were lovely.

On Sunday, Mark, Susan and Steve took a long adventurous route to the airport with a stop for lunch, shopping and go-cart racing. Back at home the girls and I enjoyed the opposite of adventurous with a lazy day of swimming, reading, movies, puzzles and naps.

I did a bad job of taking any pictures of people so if Susan sends some of hers our way, I’ll be sure to add them on here.

Surviving Extremes

Just a couple days ago I wrote about the unseasonably high 109 degree temperatures. Thanks to a low pressure system from the Pacific Northwest we have gone to the extreme opposite of unseasonable weather. Today brought temperatures in the 60s (highs), thunderstorms and even some hail. This fluctuation in weather may be the norm for some parts of the country (a shout out to my Rocky Mountain friends), but here in Phoenix this weather creates havoc. Our television programming will be interrupted to show meteorologists standing outside like CNN correspondents in a Florida hurricane, commuters will ride their brakes the whole way home, everywhere you go strangers will be overheard talking to each other about the crazy weather and the Greater Phoenix Convention & Visitors Bureau will be drowning their sorrows in a pint of beer.

Spring is unofficially over.

The desert doers will be doing it in the a/c, shade or pool for the next few days. We officially hit our first 100+ degree day yesterday and it is expected to peak at 109 tomorrow. The good news...we are expected to drop back down into the 80s by Thursday. The bad news...that was the part I just mentioned about 109 in May.

From Copies to Cacti

I volunteer at Emily's first grade classroom once a month. Emily and I both look forward to this monthly visit and I've enjoyed the opportunity to interact with Emily's classmates. While there I've been given an assortment of tasks to do depending on Miss H's needs at the time. Some of the things I've done this year have included making copies, tracing and cutting out clouds, helping the children plant flower seeds and conducting make up spelling tests.

Today was my last day to volunteer for the school year (our Arizona school year runs from early-August to late-May) and with tonight being the school's open house, or Celebration of Learning (expect to see more on that later), I anticipated that I would be given some chores to help prepare. Clearly Miss H's faith in my creative aptitude has really come to fruition after the past nine months. When I walked into the classroom today she handed me a roll of green paper, scissors, masking tape and a stapler and said, "I'm hoping you can use your creative skills to make me a couple 3-D cactus for our desert display." And I said, "Are you serious!?". Well...I didn't actually say that out loud since I didn't want to disappoint Miss H and it wouldn't have been very polite. So instead I say, "Alright then, let me see what I can do." And for the next 45 minutes I wrinkled and wrapped, taped and tacked two saguaro (pronounced suh-wahr-o) cacti complete with blooming flowers. And well-a... here one is. I figured a Desert Doings blog page is as good a place as any to display my humble contribution to tonight's celebration.

Smell that?

That is the smell of springtime in the Valley. Fresh cut grass, a new leather mitt, hot dogs and anticipation. We're right in the middle of the spring training season my friends...and for this sports fan, that's a beautiful thing. Every spring I appreciate living in an area that baseball fans come from all over the country to. Here they can watch their favorite teams play at the intimate venues of the Cactus League in arguably the best spring weather in the nation.

And nothing can be better than working for a company that allows me the luxury of heading out to the ballpark on a beautiful spring day, with a group of people I enjoy, for a "team building" outing. Because I think we'd all agree that squishing your toes in the fresh grass, drinking a beer and eating a hot dog with the sun on your back is that much sweeter at 2pm on a workday!

High Country

Time for a little Arizona geography. It's not all desert. I know I am spotlighting our desert existence with the current title of this site. And technically, our little suburb of Phoenix, AZ is in the Sonoran Desert. But Arizona has a variety of other regions.

There is the high desert up north...areas such as Flagstaff and the southern rim of a big crack in the earth you may have heard of...the Grand Canyon. Eleven miles north of Flagstaff are the San Francisco peaks. The summit in the range, Humphreys Peak, is the highest point in the state at 12,657 feet. (When we first moved here I found some comfort that a mountain range in Arizona shared a name with a city we had just left behind.) Southeast of Flagstaff is the Mogollon Rim, the southern border of the Mogollon Plateau. And then to the east of that are the White Mountains which continue to the border of New Mexico.

Alright...so the point of this lesson in geography is that we have mountains in Arizona. And these mountains are high enough to get snow! And this winter, we got a lot of snow so in January we took a weekend trip to have a lot of fun playing in it.

And that concludes our lesson for today. Maybe next time, if your lucky, I'll share with you the five "Cs" of Arizona's economy.