Sister Act ... !

Hello Friends!

Apologies for being MIA over the last 2 weeks but we have had visitors here at Barlow Towers and despite good intentions,  I didn't quite get to updating the blog ... soz!

So how've you all been?  Is it getting chilly yet across the pond?  I must admit I have completely lost track of what the weather is up to over there as here it is still unseasonably warm (even for the desert!) ... 102°F (39°C) today (Thursday) - a record high for October ... phew!  Next week promises a return to the 80s though, so I am looking forward to being able to get outside a bit more (not that that means anything too energetic .... for me it's just more a matter of having my coffee outside on the patio rather than indoors in the air conditioning **snort**)

Mr B has been very busy with work over the last couple of weeks including 4 days away at a Travel Conference ... 8 miles down the road (don't get me started on that).  That was followed by 3 days away in New York and now this week he is in South Carolina slumming it at some swanky waterfront resort fulfilling his duties for the Travel & Leisure Board.  He did try and argue that it was hard work and he would have to attend all day board meetings ... blah, blah ... but quite frankly we weren't having any of it.  All I can say is that if I don't get the slippers and the posh smellies from the bathroom, there will be trouble!  Oh, and did I mention that he is away again next week for a couple of days and then again two weeks later?   ... and this was the job that required 'hardly any traveling' ...  **rolls eyes**  It's all good though.  Luckily, having also been in the same corporate arena for a number of years,  I know that it's not always a choice and I get it.  It's not always fun either ... getting up at some god forsaken hour to get to an airport ... waiting around for hours on end ... being allocated the middle seat between the two largest passengers on the planet and feeling so tired and irritable that you wanted to stab the next person to utter "Have a Nice Day!"  (oh, maybe that was just me!).  Do I miss it?  Sometimes.  Would I like to do it again ... Not really.  I miss the people and the social interaction but I don't miss the politics or the endless meetings and emails ... ugh.   Anyway, who would take care of the school runs?  hang around for ever at the orthodontist/dentist? do the laundry? buy the groceries? ..... Yes, that would be me as well!   No thank you.  I am quite happy to take a back seat now and leave all of that to Mr B who (thankfully) still loves doing all of the above.    Plus I get to have to control of the TV and catch up on all my trashy shows (with NO SPORT allowed) ... in my PJs with a glass of wine and a bowl of popcorn ... whilst he's away, so what's not to like?

Last week my sister and her partner were visiting from the UK ... well, actually from Spain now where they moved earlier this year.  We hadn't seen each other since we went back for Mum's funeral last March, so it was nice to spend some time together under happier circumstances.  Mr B took a couple of days off (well, if you can count 5.30am meetings, answering emails and joining 2 conference calls days off ... **more eye rolling**) whilst they were here so even though Youngest was still at school, it felt like a bit of a holiday for us too.

Any excuse for more cocktails ...!

Last Saturday, as well as it being our 17th Wedding Anniversary, it was Mick's (Judith's partner) 65th Birthday so a double celebration was called for!  We spent the afternoon at Turf Paradise, a local horse racing track, which always feels a bit scuzzy if I'm honest but is nonetheless quite good fun.

Not exactly Brighton Races but still fun!

We had last visited in January when our friends Jane & Sal were visiting and I seem to recall Ethan picked the winner from 4 of the 7 races!  As we only bet a couple of dollars each for each race though, it didn't amount to a fortune but between us we managed to cover our afternoon out :)   This time though, as he has now reached the age where being seen out in public with your parents is clearly too embarrassing for words, he elected to stay at home and 'get homework done' (yeah right).  On the second to last race though, I laughed at a horse called 'Rob's Golden Touch' and said to Mr B "I bet if Ethan was here he would have chosen that one!" On a previous holiday to the US several years ago, after listening to commercials on the radio for 'Rob's Crab Shack' and 'Rob's Pancake House'  he had joked that everybody was called 'Rob' and spent the rest of the holiday entertaining us with made up commercials for Rob's various commercial ventures :D  I asked Mr B to put a couple of dollars on it for him .... whereby it promptly won, earning him a fiver!  Unbelievable!  Next time, I am getting him to pick all of my horses too!

After a quick trip home to shower and change, we were off out again (this time courtesy of Uber!) for celebratory drinks and dinner (I know ... exhausting!).

"I smile because you're my sister ... I laugh because there's nothing you can do about it!"

Cheers!

On Sunday we drove over to Carefree to have a look at the Enchanted Pumpkin Garden, which is a display of fabulously carved pumpkins by Ray Villafane, an extremely talented artist and who also created the amazing sand sculpture that we saw back in August when Eldest was here.

Ray Villafane's incredible sand sculpture!  So realistic!

Some of the faces carved on the pumpkins were so lifelike ... and a little bit freaky!  I would love to try and go back for another visit this weekend before it finishes to see them at nighttime, as I imagine they would look even more spectacular then.

Freaky!

So lifelike!

Remind you of anyone ...?

This week at school, there have been lots of College/University visits as the Juniors/Seniors start to make/finalise their choices and complete applications.  Whilst Ethan still has a couple of years to go yet before he gets to that stage, he told us that they were encouraged to start finding out about and researching potential colleges of interest and attend at least two presentations over the coming week.
"I have chosen to go to the ones from University of San Francisco and University of Oregan" he announced as we drove home from school the other day.
"Oh OK ... "  I said.  "What are you interested in studying?"
"No idea.  I have just been to both of those places and I liked it there ..."
Right ... well ... it's as good a reason as any I suppose to get started ...
"I thought I would just start by looking at the University of San Francisco web site before the presentation on Wednesday to find out a bit more info ..."
"Good idea.  What did you learn?"
"... that I might have to get three jobs while I'm at college as the fees are quite high"
"Really?  How much was it then?"
 "$60,000 a year ..."
"Sorry, WHAT?!?"  I thought you said $60,000 ... a year ... for a minute there!  Hahahaha! "
"I did.  It looks really nice though ... and that price includes all your accommodation and food as well as tuition and text books etc ..."
I bet it did!  I would be expecting Butler service, my own luxury apartment and someone to write all my essays for that!
"... and remind me how many years you would be there again?" I spluttered
"Four ... or maybe Six ... because apparently you can go at a slower pace if you want to"
Oh yes of course.   Why not fit in a round of golf a couple of times a week as well?
"There must be cheaper ones than that surely?"  I asked hopefully
"Well, yes, Texas is much cheaper I think ..." Phew.  "... but who wants to live in Texas?!"
OMG!!  We have created a monster!
Clearly I had better start getting to know all about this college lark in case we are still here by then ... or he is!  I am somewhat reassured though by chatting to the school's College Counsellor at yesterday's PTO meeting, who told me not to panic yet, and that there are ways of getting costs reduced, e.g. high grade averages, number of credits received at High School etc. (all still a mystery to me at this point), sleeping with the principal ... oh .. did I say that last one out loud?

I think I may have a bit of bedtime reading to do over the next few months.  Forewarned is forearmed as they say.  Good grief!  No wonder half the country is in debt!
On that note, just off to make a bit of bread and dripping for us tea ...

TTFN
Bev x

From Las Vegas to Laundry ...

... and when she woke up, Cinderella discovered that the razzle dazzle of Las Vegas was gone and she was back in the kitchen sorting laundry and cleaning the oven (although why she ever thought that would be a good idea I don't know).

Our friends, Jane & Sally, arrived on the plane that Ben went back on on New Year's Day, and what with Christmas, New Year,  another week of fun in Phoenix, followed by a girls weekend in Las Vegas (more on that in a minute),  I have had the perfect excuse to eat like a pig, drink like a fish and generally skive off all but the most necessary of chores since 23rd December ... Yay me!

One of the highlights of J&S's visit was a trip to the races.  They had been to a local racetrack called Turf Paradise on a previous trip to Phoenix several years ago and were curious to see if it was still there.  It was, and races were scheduled that weekend.  Having never been horse racing before - apart from a Corporate day at Goodwood once, during which I don't think I even saw the racetrack (far too muddy for my liking!) - I didn't really know what to expect other than the stereotypical chain smoking old men with nicotine stained fingers, flat caps and dodgy anoraks or cigar smoking Arthur Daley characters in trilbies and macs?  Whilst there was still an element of that, (except here they wore stetsons and cowboy boots - no anorak required), in general there was a wide mix of spectators, including lots of families, and it was a really fun afternoon out.

There were other people there, honest!

Whilst Marcus and the girls studied 'the form', carefully picking their horses based on the data available,  the look of riders, who'd had their Shredded Wheat etc.,  Ethan and I just went for those with the most appropriate sounding names.  A strategy that clearly paid off as Ethan managed to pick the winner for 4 out the 8 races whilst I had the biggest win of the day with a horse called 'Wed too Soon' and the longest odds (well, I found it amusing anyway!)

Winner!

So, back to Vegas.  After leaving us the girls were off for a spot of golfing, with a week in Las Vegas and a week in Palm Springs, before coming back to us for a further week before they flew back home.  As they were going to be driving to Vegas from here on a Friday, I wondered whether there was any reason why I couldn't tag along for the weekend and fly back Sunday afternoon.  It turned out there wasn't ... so I did! Yay!  The girls wanted to go via Lake Havasu to look at 'London Bridge' which was perfect as I had never been there before either and so we headed off after breakfast, amusing ourselves with singing and 'alphabet' games along the way, and arriving just in time for lunch.  One of the Newcomers group who used to live in Lake Havasu had recommended a restaurant called Shugrues which overlooked the bridge and we were not disappointed (thanks Jen!).  

After a fab lunch and a leisurely stroll across the Bridge we were soon back on the road again and a couple of hours later arrived in Las Vegas.  The girls had an apartment booked at the Wyndham Grand Desert resort, just off the main LV Boulevard, which was lovely, and even better had a free shuttle to the strip!  After checking in and a quick unpack and freshen up we headed out for the evening.  We were all still too full from lunch to eat 'a proper dinner' as my Mum would say, and so just popped into Ghirardelli's ice cream parlor for a small snack...

Chocolate Fudge Sundae ... Mmmmmm!

We visited several of the large casinos (all very smoky ... yuk!) before finally settling in The Bellagio (a much better class of smoke!) and largely stuck to playing the slots, which whilst not yielding any dramatic wins, did enable both Sally and I to leave with most of our assigned 'pocket money'  in tact.  Result!  The next day we headed to the Premium Outlets for a spot of retail therapy, which to be honest we found to be dramatically overpriced and mainly geared towards the tourist market, which I suppose was inevitable.   Much better bargains to be had here we decided (ask Jane about her $1 golfing shorts!).  Then it was back to the apartment for another quick change before heading back to the Bellagio for the 'O' Cirque de Soleil show.  There is no doubt that this is a spectacular show and one which I would definitely recommend as a 'must see', however, we all agreed that if you have already seen several Cirque de Soleil shows, as we all have, they do begin to get a bit repetitive as whilst the characters and costumes are different, the format is the same and even the acrobatics, whilst still impressive, were very similar to every other show. Sorry Cirque but I think I might be falling out of love with you just a little bit.  After Sunday breakfast and another amble around the Wynn and Encore casinos (still smoky but with much comfier seats!) it was time for me to head to the airport and home to Mr B - who had been in his element finally having the TV to himself and watching sport all weekend - and Gadget Boy,  who I don't think even noticed I had gone anywhere! A fab weekend and great fun - definitely to be repeated!

Viva Las Vegas!

Cheers

This week it was back to earth with a bump and all was eerily quiet at Barlow Towers as my Vegas partners in crime have gone off golfing for a couple of weeks,  Mr B has flown off on another jolly work trip, and Youngest is at school.    So with nothing to distract me further,  I could avoid it no longer and reluctantly dragged myself back to reality.  As well as oven cleaning (it seemed like a good idea at the time but after five minutes of scrubbing the shelves with one of those evil green wiry things I had rapidly gone off the idea), I washed and dried four loads of laundry (I swear the boys wore nearly every item in their bloody wardrobes during the two days I was away),  shopped for groceries (dull), restocked the fridge (although looking at it now it seems to be mainly wine and chocolate ... no clue how that happened) and the piece de resistance, dealing with the somewhat unscheduled task of sorting out the tyre pressure warning light which had helpfully chosen this morning to show itself.  Thanks for that.  Never mind, I thought ... only mildly irritated at this point ...  no big deal.  I can pop into the garage and top up the air in the tyres on the way back from the supermarket ... it will only take a few minutes. 

Now, when I was in the UK, providing you had the right change for the machine, topping up the air in your tyres was a relatively straightforward, although admittedly not a favorite, task.

1. Pull up to machine.
2. Scrabble in purse for change. 

3. Punch in desired type pressure.
4. Begin adding air.
5. Stop when machine beeps to indicate correct level reached.
Easy.  The trickiest part was having to run round the car like Annika Rice on speed to complete all four tyres before your 40p ran out whilst trying (and invariably failing) not to lose any of the little black caps you needed to screw back on afterwards.   Today's experience though was somewhat different.

1. Pull up to machine.
2. Look for slot to add coins.
3. Determine there aren't any ... must be free?
4. Check it works ... it does! ... good times.
5. Look for where to enter required pressure ... there isn't anywhere.  Sigh.  OK.  Never mind, will just have to rely on the gauge.  Now, if I can just find that  ... oh great ... there isn't one.  Bad times.
6. Curse loudly several times.
7. Get back in car and set off to find another garage.

Drive 10 minutes to next nearest garage.

1. Pull up to air machine (helpfully hidden behind Rhino gas canisters)
2. Look for slot to add coins ...  ah ... here we are ... 4 x quarters ...
3. Scrabble in purse for correct change and miraculously find 4 x quarters
4. Feed into slot. So far so good.
5. Look for where to enter tyre pressure ... not on this one either ... grrrrr
6. Curse loudly whilst simultaneously noticing driver of large truck watching with some amusement as he sits in his cab eating his lunch
7. Large, Heavily Tattooed Trucker slowly disembarks from cab and makes his way towards clearly pathetic female
8. Actually very nice Trucker, helpfully explains that gauge is hidden in end of air hose and proceeds to demonstrate ... well, how bloody stupid is that?!! Asks pathetic female if she would like him to do it for her?
9. Somewhat indignant female, replies that she will be fine now thank you very much and Helpful Trucker gets back in cab to continue with lunch.
10. Run round car to remove black caps from tyres
11. Attempt to add air to first tyre ... nothing ...  try again ... still nothing ...
12. Notice Helpful Trucker disembarking from cab again  ... oh god ... pathetic female now dying with embarrassment
13.  Trucker asks pathetic female if she is sure she wouldn't like some help?
14.  Pathetic female admits defeat and concedes that maybe she does need some help after all ...
15.  Helpful Trucker promptly determines machine is broken and advises finding another garage ... Oh FFS!

Now that I knew what to do (thanks to Helpful Trucker) it was a relatively quick exercise once I found another garage with a working air machine (apart from needing a bloody magnifying glass to read the miniscule numbers on the tiny gauge).  I later discovered that air machines without gauges are quite common and apparently you have to carry your own ... what?!! ... well that's just ridiculous!  

On recounting the tale to Mr B when he called earlier that evening, he told me that the tyre pressure warning light had also come on on his car a few weeks ago.  

"Oh ... so you obviously managed to work out the air machine then?" I remarked, feeling even more stupid

"Nah ... never even tried.  I just took it to the garage on the way to work and they did it for me". 

Good grief.

Hope you have all had a good start to 2016.  How are those New Year Resolutions going? Would love to hear what they were and how you are doing with them - leave me a comment below!

Thanks for dropping by and see you next time,
TTFN
Bev x