An Iowa Wedding: The Bachelorette Party

The bachelorette party was a day-long adventure that started out with cake and cocktails at the Barefoot Bar, then progressed to a day of meandering down the lakes in a pontoon boat stuffed full of twenty-something ladies, bottles of booze, and various “gifts” that will not be shown in pictures on this blog due to their lascivious nature.  But they were responsible ladies, and had the foresight to pay the boat rental place to supply them with a driver for the boat.

Meet Tyler.

Tyler is 19 years old.  He was also the lucky employee of the boat rental place who got chosen to drive our boat.  He was pretty happy with this outcome.  

This picture is where we returned to the boat rental place and he had to "show off" his good luck to all his male co-workers.  Thinly disguised as having one of them take a group photo.  

During the boat float we did the usual: jump on giant trampolines in the water until the homeowners came out and shooed us off, stop at Arnold's Park for a quick roller-coaster ride, dance while wearing stick-on mustaches (yes, that's what Tyler's wearing in the first photo), and attempt to learn how to get back in the boat without a working ladder.  After the boating was more bars, and outdoor concert, and a surprise appearance from a pirate (okay, he was actually a Captain Morgan sales guy, but he did give out free hats to everyone at the bar).  

All in all, a successful party to celebrate the impending end of A-Star's single days.

For the (humming)birds

Okay, it was cute for a while.  Our rental house in California has about 4 or 5 hummingbirds that hang out at the two feeders on the back porch.  Previously, I had been buying that red stuff you can get in the store but then one day I ran out and decided just to make my own sugar water.  Plus, I head the red dye is hard on their tiny little livers and I felt bad.

Two days later, I walked out on the back porch to find a dozen hummingbirds hovering around the feeders and the sugar water about half gone.  Apparently, I make the good sh*t and they told all their friends.

Last friday night, the feeders were again about empty.  I made a new double batch of hummingbird food (that's 8 cups water and 2 cups sugar - just enough to fill up a 2 liter bottle or 2 large-size hummingbird feeders) and filled both feeders to the brim.

By Sunday evening, they were empty again.  That's right, EMPTY.  Those two-dozen tiny little flying things had managed to consume 2 liters of sugar water in less than 2 days.  I mean, they're cute and all, but they can't manage to keep up at this pace, can they?

What happens when you live in Arizona

Chris and I were driving home one night with the sun roof open, enjoying the breeze.  We could hear the quiet sounds of tires on asphalt, smell the faint scent of sprinklers running, watch the orange glow of street lights as we passed them, and feel the evening breeze as it rushed through the car.

Chris leaned back in the seat and commented, "wow it sure is nice out tonight."

"Yes," I agreed, "what a cool breeze tonight."

"By the way," asked my husband, "what is the temperature right now?"

I glanced at the temperature gauge on the dash.

"Oh.... it says 95."

Only in Arizona would you mistake 95 degrees for a "cool evening breeze."

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Summertime has both wonderful things and not-so-wonderful things.  Here are a few from the past couple days:

THE GOOD
Ripe watermelon, straight from the field...

THE BAD
With hotter temperatures, fire season is in full swing...

AND THE UGLY
For anyone who doesn't know, July in San Diego was one of the coolest on record. August started out the same way - threatening to break 100-year-old records of the lowest daytime high temperature. Granted, that is about 65 degrees - which in no way is something to complain about.


But all of that changed last week when Mother Nature said, fooled you little peons, just as you started getting comfortable in your light jackets and cool breezes, now it's suddenly going to be the HOT! ah ha ha ha! In contrast to July (and, really, most of the summer), August has brought a "heat wave" that is now breaking record highs, instead of record lows.


Now, I'm fairly hip with the 100+ weather, having survived many summers in Phoenix. However, it is amazing how quickly one's tolerance for the heat dissipates when, suddenly, the air conditioning goes out.

AND CONTINUES NOT TO WORK FOR 4 WHOLE DAYS.


Last Tuesday, the AC at the office turned off, right about at the hottest portion of the day. Meh. We call air conditioning guy. He comes out, says he's not sure what's wrong but it doesn't look like the unit is getting any power and we probably need a $1300 part to fix it. Probably.


Wednesday, he comes out, replaces the part, and.... still no AC. Did I mention how difficult it is to concentrate on work inside a building that is maintaining a toasty 89 degrees? Everyone's walking around the office in their socks, shirt collars unbuttoned, sweat on their brows. Temperaments are, at best, testy and at worst, downright cranky.


Thursday, the husband of one of my co-workers stops by the office. Being a sort of handy guy, he climbs up to the roof to check out the AC unit. He climbs back down in less than two minutes and proclaims, "I found your problem."


Turns out, the landlord had the energy company install one of those "Super Saver Energy Boxes" that turns your electricity useage off during peak (aka the hottest) hours of the day. Which explains why the AC was working in the morning, but mysteriously turned off at the same time every day.


You would have thought the AC repairman would have looked for that. I mean, if your computer wasn't working, wouldn't the first thing you do be to check and make sure it's plugged in?


So after a quick call to the energy company the "Super Saver" was disabled and, theortically, we were going to have air condition again. Friday proved the energy company to be liars and for our building, once again, to be hot. Nothing like being on the top floor of an only moderately-insulated converted warehouse building. It was cooler outside than in.


Who knows what next week will bring... I miss you, air conditioning, please come back.