I Love This Bar & Grill - Mesa

Toby Keith's I Love This Bar & Grill opened over at the Mesa Riverview recently. It's at 1065 N. Dobson Road, Mesa, Arizona. They have some pretty unique things on their menu. For an example, the picture I copied from the website is: 2 Deep Fried Twinkies with whipped cream & strawberries for $4.99.
I haven't been over there since this opened. I do like the cool and unique shops at the Mesa Riverview. I'll try to go over there and take some updated pictures of what's new.
There is a I Love This Bar & Grill in Oklahoma City and one in Las Vegas. http://www.mesariverview.com/

Note: I went over there this afternoon. WOW! It is big! It is really nice! I can't wait to have hubby and I try it out. Grand Opening is coming soon - Toby Keith will be here in person! WOW!

Eat Free All Day Every Day!

This "restaurant" is in Chandler, Arizona. The http://www.heartattackgrill.com/ is on 6185 W. Chandler Blvd. Check this out - for fun!

Note: I have not eaten here (and don't plan on it, ever) I can put on weight easy enough and I don't ever want a heart attack. I'm not telling hubby about this place either. I like him just the way he is (alive!).

Update: Vintage Crock Pot

I just realized when I saw the ideas that maybe the picture was deceiving (not on purpose) on how big this crock is. Next to the crock I put a utensil crock and a water jug crock so you could see the size of this thing. It is very big!
Suz: Your idea is great but we have a soda pop machine in the BBQ area. It is an "ex" commercial one. We also have an ice maker out there in BBQ area too. You are in Florida - I thought it was abuse if you didn't have one ;) I know it IS abuse if you don't have a pool!

I do put utensils in a crock .... but the smaller one that's in the picture.
It's been in the backyard storing small pool toys and some dog toys too. If you want to offer some more ideas - they will be appreciated. Thanks, DeeDee :)

Vintage Crock Pot

I have this vintage crock pot. It measures 24 inches high by 22 inches in diameter. It needs to be outside (I don't have room for it inside the house). It's been outside being used as something to hold the smaller pool toys. But..... I'd like to do something more creative with it. So I'm asking my blogger friends for some ideas.
It is my husband's crock pot. He bought this long time ago at an estate auction in Missouri. And he's been a bit picky about the ideas I've come up with so far. Filling it up with dirt and putting a plant in it is a definite NO, NOT EVEN. I can't wait to hear all your great ideas!

Life goes on....

We've been busy working on the side of the house. I copied this foot bridge from a website to show you what we decided to do with the ugly tree stump. I've been working on taking out those aloe vera (again). I've given away thousands and there is no one else to take them. I've even advertised FREE Aloe Vera on Craigslist. So ..... I'm potting them until I find something better to do with them.
Anyway, when I get the aloe vera out .... we are going to put a foot bridge in that area. It will cover the tree stump :) There's almost a "million" very large river rocks over on that side too. I've been finding "homes" for those too. I'll use some for around and under the foot bridge. Mostly I've been putting them in the backyard planters. It keeps Bandit out of my planters. I wish I had thought of that months ago.
Bandit is doing good today. I took her to the vet to get fixed yesterday. Boy was that an experience! Try holding down a 90 pound Rottweiler in a room full of dogs with two knees in semi-casts. You know, the heavy duty wrap that still lets you "walk" but keeps you from bumping it. Supposedly helps keep the swelling down. And so you can't see all the black and blue and yellow and red........
Oh did I mention I slipped and fell on the pool decking? Life is never dull here.

Finch Sock

Diane C. of http://www.sabinocanyonblog.blogspot.com/ recently posted about these Finch Socks. I found it at Target. By the way, her blog is all about Sabino Canyon in Tucson, Arizona. I love visiting her blog!
So I put the Finch Sock up by my office window. There usually 6 birds on the sock and several "waiting" for their turns. I got a picture of two but the birds kept flying away because......

No, not because of Si.......

Because Bandit was barking at (she has that loud rotty bark) .....

Fluffy! My hubby just came home with the first load of planter stones. He drop off this truck and took my truck to pick up the second load. Fluffy, the neighborhood cat came to check things out.

Memorial Day Weekend

My thoughts and prayers are for "ours" that are so far from home. Remember that God has a plan! Have a safe weekend.

New Flip Flops

Bandit (the dog from ****) has chewed every pair of shoes I own. When my hubby's ex-wife and her husband came to visit, they couldn't help but noticed the shoes I was wearing. The left shoe was ok but the right shoe ..... was barely what you'd still call a shoe. It was the best pair I had. When we came home from hiking South Mountain with them (ex-wife & husband), I threw the pair away.

Today in the mail I got a box of shoes from my hubby's ex-wife. I wear flip flops a lot. She sent me 7 pairs from Old Navy.... in different colors.... and my size! Woohoo How cool is that?

Now, I'm not posting this so you all will send me shoes ;)

Dirty Little Secret

I have this dirty little secret that I have not confessed to my blogger friends. I know we don't have to air our dirty laundry out on blogger but.... I have this area on the side of the house that is just plain ugly! I threw those aloe vera over there because I didn't know where else to put them. I had thousands and couldn't find homes for them all. This area has an old tree stump too. From that tree stump I get these "shoots." I dig them up :( I cut them down :( I put rocks on them:( They won't go away!
It was my husbands idea ( I swear)! As if he hasn't built enough around our house lately, he going to "fix" the side. Here is the first load of stones. We'll need two more loads of planter stones - 4 tons of dirt - 2 tons of sand - and then it's off to the nursery AGAIN!

Kris Allen - American Idol Winner!

My hubby got me hooked on American Idol again this year. We both predicted Kris Allen would win. Kris is a talented singer AND plays the piano and the guitar!
Congratulations to Kris Allen!

"Up on the Roof"

We had some bad weather here the other day. Yes, in Arizona! To say the wind blew .... would be an understatement. As always, it catches me by surprise. By the time it's done - I've lost most everything that's not cemented down in the ground. All my patio umbrellas were found in various places. One was IN the pool - one was upside down along the edge of the pool - two were broken - one in the neighbors backyard- one in a planter - one was actually ok and one was on top of the roof of my "barn." See it up there?
Now you can see it. I had to stand on the planter with the pool brush extended out as far as it could go.... hit the umbrella .... and down it came. I would love to put a weather vane up there. Maybe I should have left the umbrella up there? We'd be the only ones on the block with their umbrella on the roof.

Park Bench

While reading Deb's blog http://www.LadybugfromTexas.blogspot.com/ yesterday, she mentioned that her husband bought a park bench at a yard sale. My hubby did too. I told her I would post it. It is broken but the cat can nap on it (while he's supervising the birds). I might place pots of plants on it too. Here it is.... outside my office window.

Birthday Party

My son (who lives here in Arizona) and his wife and three daughters came over for a BBQ-Pool Birthday party this weekend. Of course, you remember the grand daughter who broke her leg and sprained her foot. They (the doctors) put a new cast on her two weeks ago. She is not using a wheelchair any more. Woohoo! She uses a crutch, now. Hopefully, in two weeks, the cast will come off for good. (just in time for summer break)
My hubby taped a $5 on her cast and signed it. I helped him with the added hearts :)
She didn't get to go swimming and sat on the "injured reserved section" of the pool with my hubby. Hubby ......
He decided to make homemade southern potato salad. He's from Missouri/Arkansas. He thought he'd show us "big city" folk some cooking southern style for the birthday party. While slicing the pickles, he also sliced off the top of his finger. Ouch! I told him to go to the emergency room (and he actually listened and did). According to him, he waited 1 1/2 hours and no one saw him so he left. He went to the drug store and bought a bag full of Band Aids, tape and ointments. He said he could fix his finger himself! Me, not one to argue, said ok.
And so.... my son turned 33. There is never a dull moment at my house!

Soda Can Info

Have you ever wonder what some of the coding means on the side of your product?
See the 1 835 8 1843D just below the product code? The 1 means the bottom of the can was made by cupper #1. This can was made in Phoenix. The 835 is the manufacturing plant's number and area. This can was made in 2008 - the 8 is for the year. It was made on the 184th day of 2008. The 184 tells you that. There are 3 manufacturing lines. This can was made on the third line. The 3 tells you that. Then the D. D crew made this can. There are 4 crews A, B, C, and D. A crew is the day crew that works the first 12 hours. Then C crew is the night crew that does the next 12 hours. When their 4 days are done, B crew comes in and does the first 12 hours. Then D crew does the night 12 hours for four days. Then it changes back to A and C.

There are three main can manufacturing plants. Rexam made this can. Crown makes cans - their mark is a capital C. Ball makes cans, too. Their mark is Ball. This can is unusual because the can manufacturing company's mark is usually at the bottom near the product code. Hope you like my little tidbit of can information.

Update: foxes

My sister in Colorado emailed me these pictures yesterday. The foxes that "moved in" last month are still there and doing fine. I'll have to ask her if they named them yet. According to my sister, the neighbors don't mind that these foxes live under their back patio porch. I guess it would be like having a FREE security system - who's going to mess with a house that has 6 foxes!

The President at ASU

I actually took this picture of Air Force One! I tried last time it was here in Phoenix and missed it. Last time I got a picture of the trees.

Si and I sat out on my front yard and waited to take the picture of Air Force One.


Channel 12 was interviewing some ASU graduate's parents when the President practically ran down the steps of Air Force One. The news team almost missed it. Oops!

This has been on our news everyday. The President gave the commencement address for the graduating ASU Class of 2009 today. I couldn't remember who gave my commencement address when I graduated from college to save my life.

They warned the people that it is hot here in Arizona. It is even hotter at the ASU Sun Devil Stadium! 95 people had to go to the hospital because of the heat. They had the people come into the stadium at 3pm (the hottest time of our day). This is one of the ladies they carried out.

Their seats were on those hot metal benches.

They told the people they had to leave their water bottles at the gate. They told them that there would be water supplied to them inside. Yep.... at $5.50 a bottle!

Many, many, many thousands of people showed up for this. Some of the graduating class wore swimming suits.

They said that these would be the temperatures during the commencement speech. They were wrong.... It was 104. Hot!

This is one of the earlier pictures of the traffic. No way would you catch me out driving during this. And no way would you catch me out in this heat (unless I was in the pool). I was in front of the tv watching American Idol. Woohoo! Next week we pick between Adam and Kris :)

What were they thinking?

My husband's brother sends us these emails of "wacky" stuff. His brother lives just north of Little Rock, Arkansas. I don't know if this is a picture he took but.....
This is definately a "what were they thinking" ??? And it looks like all the driveways look like that. I wondered if anyone bought one of these houses?

Bicycle Trip on Mother's Day

My bicycle trip on Mother's Day - Blessing to you, Dee Dee

Happy Mother's Day

So many of my blogger friends have given me a look into their neighborhoods. Each are so uniquely different and such a pleasure to visit through pictures. Just recently I asked Mildred of Nalley Valley where her favorite place in her yard would be. She answered on a swing under a magnolia. That sounds like just the place I would pick if I lived in Georgia. Arizona is uniquely different, too. I love living here.

Bandit

I haven't posted about Bandit for so long. There was a day just last week ..... I'll start from the beginning.
I now have to keep the laundry in a basket "on a table" - when sorting clothes in piles on the floor - too many pieces of undies were taken out to the back yard and were being chewed.
One and part of another dining room chairs were chewed and had to be thrown away.
After 15 throw rugs being shredded to pieces - I now have only one ( it's in the picture).
Two pillow cases - one was an antique hand embroidered that matched the antique chenille bedspread - well, they were chewed too. I'm even more careful in keeping the doors shut in the house.
The day the guys came (at 5:30am) to pebbletec the pool -we opened up the back sliding glass door to find 4 patio cushions shredded into itsy bitsy pieces and not even neatly scattered around the yard. So at 5;30am while the guys were setting up to pebbletec, my husband and I were racing around the yard picking up pieces of patio cushions.
There was the night when Bandit "took" the lemons off our tree and creatively dug holes throughout the back yard to place them. (like Easter egg hunting but with lemons)
All the tiny rocks that were part of the backyard landscaping were eaten by Bandit and then distributed in dog poop the next day on the grass.
I'm probably forgetting some of the other not cherished moments with Bandit. She is always digging holes. We have spent a small fortune getting the house ready for company. We did a lot of new landscaping in the back yard ( that I didn't even mention on my blog). Two of the new plants in the back were torch bougainvillea. To make a long story short - Bandit dug one of them up. I replanted it. She dug it up again. I replanted it. This happened four times in one day. She almost became a pound puppy that day!
On May 26, at 7am she is getting fixed!!! They said that "fixing" her will settle this dog down. This I HAVE TO SEE.

May 9th Food Drive

Saturday, May 9th is the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive. This is just a reminder for everyone to put your sack of non-perishable goods out tomorrow by your mail box.The post office gives the letter carriers "Stamp Out Hunger" t-shirts to wear tomorrow to promote the day. Tomorrow evening, the letter carrier's union has a BBQ for the letter carriers and their families. It's something we look forward every year - It is fun!