Saturday, November 24, 2007

Turkey Day!

Well here it is, our first Arizona Thanksgiving. It was a GREAT success! Our friends Dale and Sherri arrived early Thursday morning about 2:30 a.m. because the plane leaving MSP had an "unscheduled maintenance problem". It was so great to see familiar faces again!
DH & DW had gone to a local grocery store that was offering a full Thanksgiving dinner for 6 people that you could order to pick up the day before. We ordered our dinner so we didn't have to take a whole day of our guest's short vacation preparing the meal. We know this was taking a chance, but it turned out wonderfully. Here is a photo of our delightful meal.

We gobbled up our fix'ens and had some wonderful wine and conversation catching up on the hometown gossip! It was great to hear familiar names and places.
Friday, we traveled to our favorite people watching place, Kierland Commons in Scottsdale, to allow Dale & Sherri to see how the "other half" in Arizona live. Dale & Sherri say they come from the town of Mayberry and were amazed to see the surroundings.
Here's a photo of Dale & Sherri in front of a Rolls Royce. It was one of many "EXPENSIVE" vehicles that are present in the area. We also ran across a Lamborghini and a very nice Bentley.

We walked around the area and checked out a few of the shops. One shop we walked into had a fabulous Christmas tree that DH & DW had to have a photo with. We thought it was beautiful.
With Christmas right around the corner, this tree was a reminder to us of how important friends and family are. Thanks again Dale & Sherri, for it was your love and support and the same from many others that allowed us to chase our dreams. We thank all of you!

While walking around, we ran across a sharp dressed "IMPORTANT" lady who was dressed to the hilt. She had a Teacup Maltese named Coco Chanel. Now, how many people do you know who name a dog after a brand name!!?? She was a very friendly lady and her dog was adorable! DH asked if DW could have her photo taken with Coco and the lady said absolutely! She set her bag down, the dog jumped out and DW was handed the dog. The dog is 2 years old and 2 1/2 pounds! Here is the photo.

We returned home after our adventure and relaxed. At one point, someone asked where is our laptop? DH explained that he's tried numerous times to get our wireless network working with no success. Dale being the true friend he is said "I can get that working for you".
Well, we are posting our blog from the comfort of our living room because of Dale's knowledge of networking. Here is a photo of Dale working his magic and "hooking" us up. Thanks again Dale! It works FANTASTIC!

Dale and Sherri left for the airport this afternoon and we are so bummed they had to leave. We had so much fun with them!!
Our spare bedroom is once again available for reservations. EVERYONE is welcome to visit and our door is always open. As they say on Motel 6, "we'll leave a light on for ya".
We miss all of you!

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Sold, Sold, Sold!

http://www.barrett-jackson.com/
A quick blog post. DH was offered a position within the Barrett-Jackson Auction Company this evening and has accepted the position. Further details will follow soon.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Boogaty, Bootagy, Bootagy, Let's Go Racing!!


In honor of Veteran's Day and our love of racing, we attended the 2nd to the last race of the NASCAR season at Phoenix International Raceway (from this point on - PIR).
Tom drove us along with our good friends, Tony and Scott, to PIR for the event. The gates opened at 8:00 a.m., race time was 1:30, and we arrrived at 8:30 in order to stake out our "spot on the hill". Tony and Scott sat in the stands but we wanted the full experience of the hill that we had heard about.

We went our separate ways and found a great spot between turns 3 and 4. We laid down our stadium blanket, grabbed our water bottles and settled in for the wait. We were amazed to see the number of people that had already staked out their spots by setting up their portable gazebos.

The hill has terraced levels of flat ground that you are able to set up your mini camp. People around us were way more prepared than us! We forgot to bring our grill!
The hillside filled up and the nice people next to us offered us water, snacks and general good chatting!
We watched 2 planes, 1 blimp and 2 helicopters circle the stadium for hours, we thought sometimes coming too close to each other for comfort! (Air traffic controllers nightmare!)

We have heard that NASCAR is the most popular sport in America today & we truly believe it. We were just about to the "HILL" when we heard what sounded like several helicopters approaching. We looked off to the right and saw the 5 helipads. It about took your breath away seeing them fly in!


In honor of Veteran's Day, the track had a sky diver jump into the infield with an American flag,

all the while, Lee Greenwood's song, "Proud to be an American" was playing. The national anthem was wonderfully played on a trumpet and then 4 jets from Davis Monthan Airforce Base did the flyby. Talk about goosebumps!!!
We heard the words "Gentleman, Start Your Engines" and the race began!
Now, DW is a die hard fan of #8, Dale Jr, and unfortunately, he had a wreck by himself 1/3 of the way into the race. Below is a photo of his semi leaving the infield before the race finished.

The drivers were really on their game today and at one point, drove 100 laps without a caution flag!
Fortunately, there was not "The Big One" and the few minor wrecks were individual drivers and didn't result in major damage to any of the vehicles or injury to the drivers.
We both agree that this was an Amazing experience and are thankful for the opportunity. Our goal earlier this year was to be able to make this race. And we did it!
This experience was priceless!