Cookie time

These might look like cookies that Ashleigh and Denise are making but actually its cheesecake cut-outs dipped in chocolate. Can you guess which one of these 3 pictures someone was a tad stressed?

When the City and the Town Meet

This is what happens when the City Lakers and the Townies get together on a winter night in December! More buffoonery and plenty of laughing at the Basket Factory, where at one time, they made baskets...go figure!

bench test

Built a new work bench in the basement so I thought I would post a pic of it. Sure beats working on stuff in the cold garage. If you need any stuff worked on stop over!

Rockin Saturday

Got a dose of the Headers Saturday night at Attitudes, even Mike & Faith came. Claudia, Denise and Steve danced almost every song!

Traffic alert Delta flight 914

Denise and Maria flew home from Atlanta on a Delta MD-88, flight 914 Monday night after a long first leg from LAX. This is what the air traffic controller sees as they head north for Buffalo in a very busy airspace. Thanks to the ATCmonitor web sight (www.atcmonitor.com) I was able to spot the flight shortly after take off as you can see by the orange arrow. Now if i can just figure out how to communicate with the pilot, second thought probably not a good idea.

There is Boating in December!

Spencer and Annette discovered that people actually do go boating in the month of December! However, if you were thinking about taking a "dip"...you may find some strange looking creatures swimming next to you! (I am not sure you would find one of these in Lake O.)

Secret Santa

While I was away, a gift bag mysteriously appeared on our front porch. Dan does not know who left this for us or when. It was obvious when I opened it that they new me well. The tag reads "Enjoy the holiday season". Thats it. Nothing else. So whoever you are please let me know so I can thank you- and by the way- it will look awesome on my tree!

shocking

This super cool photo shows transonic airflow around the Blue Angels F-18 with superb clarity. Unlike many similar photos - popular as computer wallpaper - that reveal only condensation in the expansions following the shock waves, here we see the shocks themselves by way of background distortion. This works best when the background has strong light-dark boundaries, as in the case of the white boats against the dark water. The shock wave pattern is complicated over the wings and tail, but note the single shock which terminates a local supersonic-flow region generated by the canopy. Also the white water following the shock wave system is caused (I think) by the fact that moving shock waves drag an airflow behind them that is strong enough in this case to whip the water into froth. Finally, the shocks above and below the aircraft tail have a distinctly “glassy” appearance. To me this is the most fascinating thing about this photo. On those rare occasions when you can see them, shock waves in air look just like streaks in glass. Both are invisible unless revealed by background distortion. If you click on the photo all of this might be easier to see as it makes it bigger on your screen.

Cali trip

Denise went to California today with her mom...this is what the flight looked like on Flight aware. They were on a "five Seven" Better know as a Boeing 757-200 twin jet. This flight path represents 1897 miles from KCVG to KLAX in about 4 hours and 41 minutes at 36000 feet. This is a 757. Notice the 5 landing lights on the nose wheel....must be getting dark out!

Game face

Mark made his annual appearance at Perry field for some football in the snow, looks like they had their game faces on.

Thanksgiving guests

Julianne and Mark are here for the week so this layer of snow made for a good backround. They dont see this very often in Sothern California, too bad for them!

Leaf duty

Last Sunday morning we were hit with a leaf blizzard thanks to a East wind that blew all these leaves into my yard. Made for a couple cool pictures though.

Night out at "The Shamus"

Tom and Kim came home for the Thanksgiving holiday, so we had to go out and celebrate. Good times (and good food...just look at us!) was had by all!

Together Again!

I just love it! Liz showed me how to knit two socks at one time from the toe up on one needle and all I can say is "I LOVE IT" ! That and of course having Lizzie home to knit with me. I wait all year for this week of knitting comaraderie! She arrived at our house at 1:00 on Sunday and we haven't stopped knitting since. There was some talk of an intervention! We will break today to shop and have a bridal shower for one of the weary travelers. I can see it is going to be a great week- if only I had a voice.

Weary Travelers

Two more weary travelers arrived Sunday. This is what happens when you party to much the night before and have to be at the airport at 5:00 am!

Whipples Go to Vegas

Just a little Blurry... someone must have been drinking...

The Venetian has great food, shops and gondolas...

Jim and Jeanne spent Nov. 13-16th in Vegas at the National Assoc. of REALTORS Annual Conference and EXPO - along with 30,000 of our closest REALTOR friends... Considering there are 1.3 Million REALTORS in the Country, it was only a select few of us who attend, and even fewer of us who bring our lucky spouces. Ask Jim about his memory improvement classes. Ask Jeanne about the Tequilla Bar.... You can ask, but we can't disclose because what happens in Vegas...

T - 7 , seven seven seven triple 7 ?

This is a Triple 7 , sometimes know as a T-7 or a 777
The Boeing 777 is a family of long range widebody twin engine airliners built by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. It carries between 305 and 550 passengers and has a range from 5,600 to 8,870 nautical miles (thats a long ass ways). Distinguishing features of the 777 include the set of six wheels on each main landing gear, its perfectly circular fuselage cross section, and the blade-like rear tail cone.
The Guinness Book of World Records recognized the -115B powering the 777-300ER as the "World's Most Powerful Commercial Jet Engine" with a tested thrust of 127,900 lbf Now thats some thrust!

Trip to North Carolina

This was Tom, Kim, Jeff Carney & I drilling Cajun shrimp for fun in Tom's kitchen, as well as the "other" Jack and Molly during our trip to Winston Salem. It was great to see Tom & Kim and crew, but I don't know that I could stand the sun shining most of the time...I'd probably have to get another pair of sunglasses! Oh well...this is home...I guess!

BTW...where have all the "bloggers" gone?

Al's Tailgate Party

While most of the Bills faithful were drilling hotdogs and burgers, we were drilling lobster bisque, mushroom soup, crab cakes, stuffed hot peppers and chicken! It was tremendous! The game wasn't too bad either! Maybe we'll go to another one...

Halloween Party Extraordinaire!

What a great time was had by the City Lakers and the Native Lakers at Scott & Jeanne's Halloween Party...once again adding credence to coach's phrase of "who has more fun than people?"

The Famous Ocean Course

A picture of us, Juliens, Thack & Mae Beth taken at the famous Ocean Course in Kiawah Island, South Carolina...site of the 1991 Ryder Cup and next years PGA Championship. Some would call it hallowed ground. I called it an expensive golf course...$450.00 for a round! I stayed at the bar!

Why are they smiling?

Can you guess what these two made for dinner?

Bills Win - Pumpkins carved

The Bills beat the Ravens today while the Vixen helped with pumpkin carving on a 77 degree Sunday after noon on Lake Ontario. We tried to lose it but we hung in for a 19-14 win.

Fremont Street Experience

Fremont Street rocks with lights and sound...and a couple familier faces

Close to the edge

This was one section of the canyon rim they were nice enough to put a railing, most of it doesn't have anything to keep you from falling 8000 feet

God's Paint Brush

This is some of the Red Rock formation that makes up Sedona, Arizona. It is truly one of the most spectacular places on earth!

Smokey Beans goes to Work

6:30AM The Alarm went off in the dark cool morning of October 15th. I was still groggy but found the energy to get into the shower. When entering the shower stall I noticed the soap was almost gone so I quickly reached under the sink and grabbed a fresh bar. The box was a little difficult to open but I finally got it out. I so love a new fresh bar of soap in the morning. After a nice warm shower I blew dry my hair and put all my make-up on. Then I went to my closet and decided weather to wear pants or a skirt. It was a tad chilly so I decided on the Khaki pants and my new brown blouse. You know brown is the new black. Next I needed to pick out my jewelry to accesorize. I new the silver earrings and diamond bracelent would work well.

After putting the ironing board and iron away, Scott doesn't like it when I leave it out, I walked down the dimly lit upsairs hallway to Ben Cain's room. I poked my into his room and said, "Ben time to get up." He grunted and rolled over. I knew he would be right back to leep if I didn't turn on the light soooooo I wlaked in and flipped the light switch on. He was none to pleased but then sauntered into the bathroom for his shower. Luckily he had a nice bar of soap and didn't have to fumble with the box like I had. I went down stairs to get the coffee started and pour a bowl of ceral for myself. I was so glad to see the Special K with Berries. It is my favorite but often times I go into the lazy susan only to find an empty box. Next I got a banana and sliced it on top along with sprinkling one packet of equal sweetner on top. then into the refrigerator to get the milk. As it splashed on top of the flakes it reminded me of the waves hitting the banks of Lake Ontario. To bad I won't be back there 'till next June. If any of you townies are reading this know that I miss you and we will have to get together for dinner sometime this winter. Sorry for tangent now back to my day.

After eating my delicious bowl of cereal I went back up stairs to see if Ben was out of the shower. That little stinker takes the longest showers yo have ever seen. I had to give him the 2 minute count down. He finally got out and then it was time to get Brennon up. He is a little better about getting up but also likes to take long showers. He always opens the window when he takes his shower. Which would be fine if he would also remember to close it. He often doesn't and then I don't find It till later that day. Most of the time it doesn't rain but boy if it would that would be some mess in the bathroom. Teenagers what can you do with them????

both boys finished their routines and then came down to get some breakfast. Ben always likes toast in the morning so he went right over to the toaster and popped to 2 slices of italian bread. While he was waiting for the toast Brennon went for the cereal. He likes Coco Krispies. I wonder if he thought of the the waves as his milk rushed over those little chocolaty krispies? Oh well I guess I will never know since he is 16 and pretty much doesn't talk. That is except when he wants something. But then agin I digress. After they finsihed breakfast it was time for me to head to work.

7:20 I drive to school. Yes that is correct this hard working teacher gets to school 1 1/2 housrs before she has to be there. Just call me dedicated. Anyways I drove the van to work. Did I mention how much I love my Chrysler van? I do, I do, I do!!!!! It really is a perfect vehicle. It came in very handy this weekend for our trip to Manhattan for a cross country meet. We had lots and lots of storage and plenty of leg room to boat. Not to mention and wonderful ride. Almost like riding on a cloud. While driving over to school this car pulled out in front of me. It was unbelievable. He bearly missed my front end. When I looked up I saw this fat italian bastard behind the wheel of the car. I wasn't too surprised when I spied his vanity palte and it read FUNVITO. Go figure. When I pulled into the parking lot. I noticed only 2 other cars there. Probably the cars of the "Before School" program lady and custodian. I grabbed my purse, my coffee and my school bag out of the van. It was quite a handful. Thank goodness for those automatic doors on the van. Honestly, I don't know how I ever managed without them. I just hit that little button and wala the door closes. I walked into the building pausing briefly to check my mailbos on the way in. No mail for me. I had a sub on Friday because I was out to go thte XC race in Manhattan. I'm thinking my sub probably got all my mail and it is probably laying on my desk in my room.

When I reached my room I had to hang my jacket up. That's right, I forgot to say earlier that I wore my leather coat to school. I'm sorry for leaving such an important detail out. I will try to not let that happen again in my quest to tell you about my day at work. As I was saying I hing my coat up in my locker and then got my classroom key out to unlock my door. Boy 10 years ago I would have never even thought to lock my room but not they make us. times sure have changed. I noticed as I entered my room that there was quite a pungent oder in my room. then I remmebered that last Friday was cooking day in kindergarten and they made doughnuts for "D" week. My poor aid had to cook without me there to help. After missing Firday I had lots of work to do to get everything ready for 18 wonderful 5 year olds. Today we would be making a Razzle Dazzle book for the new Razzle Dazzle kid of the week, rading our new Book of the Week "The Pumpkin", going to a fire prevention assmbly, having lunch, ging to music class, having rest time, working on a math lesson about sorting objects by size, shape, and color, having center time, and then tidying up to get ready to go home. I ahd to go into overdrive to everyting ready. When my aid got to school at 8:30 she let me know that my sub on Friday was fantastic. I was so relieved to know that they had a productive day and that everythig went well. I will srely get her name and number to call in the future. I already know of one day I will need to be out on Nov. 2 for Brennon's sectional XC meet. I should probalby try to call and book her before someone else does.

11:30 Lunch time I went down to the faculty room to eat my lunch. I try to eat healthy for lunch so I had a can of veggie soup, a pretzel, a yogurt and a nice big glass of water. My teacher friend got one of those Brita pitchers and we share it. It is so great to have nice fresh water without having to haul in bottled everyweek. I just got so tired of lugging casses of bottled water into school each week. The Brita works out nicely.

3:25 School is Out. The litlle kiddies hop on their busses or catch aride home with mom or dad and I do a little clean up in my room. I can't stay too late today because I have an appointment with the lady fort he Davison Road Inn Banquet facility. I as incharge of planning the Charles Upson Christmas party. Whe is going to give me a good idea of how much food to oder. I get ehre right on time but have to call her. Good thing I did to. Whe had me kown for 4:30 insted of 4:00. Luckily she was close and could run right over. Otherwise I would have been waiting for a half hour. She was very nice and it didn't take very long for me to get the info I needed.

4:50 I Arrive Home that was sure a long Monday. I am home and ready to start dinner. Wehn Brennon comes home He wants to order pasta from Village Eatery. He ahs a race tomorrow and want s to make sure he eats Pasta. You always need to load up on those carbs the night before a race. We order and then he drives me over to pick it up. Yes that's right he DRIVES me over. He know is the proud owner of a a driving permit. He really is a pretty good driver. Maybe it's the 30 hous of driving he did with his mother before getting his permit. OOpps!

The dinner was delicious. After cleaning up from dinner I did various chares around the house and then sat down to edit some of my cross country pictures from the weekend. I wathed a funny old time movie with Scotty Boy called Bachelor Party and then took a few brief moments to publish this post about my day.

12:00 Midnight I would normally would not post something of this length but today I got on the blog to check Dan's photos out and found a very informative post from Spencer. After taking 40 minutes to read about his fabulous trip and all the wonderful details and descriptions of every moment I thought why wait for a big trip. Why not post like that every time the spirit moves me. Boy, Spencer had the right idea!!!!!!!!! Have a wonderful day everyone.

Spencer's Long Recap....read it if you wish!

Trip to Las Vegas & Arizona w/ D&D
October 6 – 13, 2007

Saturday, October 6, 2007…We met at the dealership at around 8:00 for our direct, non-stop flight aboard Southwest Airlines from Buffalo to Las Vegas. I had asked Aunt Pat to drive us up…her reply was “only if you can’t find somebody else!” Fortunately Laurie Helfrich overheard the conversation and offered to take us up, because I would’ve walked before I had Pat drive us up! We took Laurie up on her offer and she dropped us off at around 8:30 AM for our 10:45 flight.

No problems with check in or security and we were the first one’s in line…so we thought! After us standing in line for not quite 2 hours, some big Italian looking old fart jumps up and says “time to take my place in line!” I am like, what the what the? He says… “I have been here since 8:30, what about you?” I thought that you actually had to BE in line and not just at the airport…but I guess if you are some big fat Italian bastard, you can just put your bag in line and that will suffice. Dan asked him where he planned on sitting…he said up front where he can flail his arms about him. We were heading for the EXIT seats, so I didn’t pursue this fat bastard! Oh, and I wasn’t surprised when the Southwest agent called him Vito!

No problems on the flight and actually had a bonus when Kathy and Art Jackson sat next to us…in the EXIT seats! That is as good as First Class as far as I am concerned…well…almost!

We landed in Vegas, got bags, taxi and headed to the Venetian Hotel where the Chrysler New Car Announcement Show would be taking place in the next few days. Our rooms weren’t quite ready so we searched out a bar or two in the second floor mall area at the Venetian. Annette & Denise found some shops…go figure! We finally got our rooms which were awesome…and decided to head to Old Downtown Las Vegas, away from the Strip. We ate at Vic & Anthony’s inside the Golden Nugget Hotel. It was spectacular…expensive, but spectacular. It was the beginning of our eating like Vikings quest!

From Vic & Anthony’s it was outside to Main Street for the show in the deal overhead. It was cool…much different than when I first saw it years earlier. And, they sell beer outside…cold Bud Light in the aluminum cans! Very cool. I couldn’t convince anybody to join me in Glitter Gulch…so I had to go in alone for one quick one…a drink that is! Taxied back to the Venetian for a relatively early night after a hectic travel day!

Sunday, October 7, 2007. After a Viking like breakfast, we walked along the strip and eventually went to Mandalay Bay where Annette and Denise saw the Shark Exhibit. I would’ve rather had a shark chew my arm off than go through the exhibit, so Dan & I found some football games to watch in the casino area. Taxied back to our hotel and went to Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville Café for continued Viking eating…lunch! Back to Venetian and hooked up with Elharts, Downtown Gary Brown, Bob Mayberry, Jim Hillery, and crew at the pool. It is Africa Hot!
Eventually went back to clean up for the beginning of the Chrysler Show. The first night was simply a cocktail reception with “eating stations.” So, we had cocktails and ate. Actually fired in the beers at a machine gun pace…and ate these really little burgers…good! Met up with Dick Farr and a bunch of other Chrysler guys! It was fun, but once again the 3 hour difference between Eastern Daylight Time and Pacific Time is a killer…so off to an early night…kind of! Annette, Dan & Denise were affected more than me…cuz I stayed out with a bunch of the dudes, including Dick, whom I don’t see very often! Eventually I even hung out with Andy Palmen…who was really busy with the Chrysler guys. It is always good to see Andy!

Monday, October 8, 2007. SHOW TIME…we began the day with a quick breakfast, hooking up with Allan, Gary, Mayberry, Jim Hillery and a few others. We went over to the Convention Center for part one. We listened to Steven Landry, Bob Nardelli, and Jim Press. Bob and Jim blew us away! All the dealers were apprehensive about Bob Nardelli and his history of a “slasher” at Home Depot. Well, unless he was bullshitting every one of us…he is the real deal! Then, Jim Press, fresh from 37 years at Toyota, addressed us! Well, at the end of his speech, the entire dealer body would’ve run through a brick wall for this guy! We are as excited as ever to be Chrysler Dealers! We are hoping like crazy this Cerberus deal will be tremendous for all of us!

We left part one for a business meeting that included a Q&A session. Nardelli and Press continued to wow us…and left us all still feeling really good! We headed over to an outside lunch, (more eating) and all kinds of activities. I didn’t do too many of the activities, but did check out the new products, especially the new Dodge Challenger! Very cool! It’ll be my next vehicle, especially since we just sold my SRT8 Charger! The new Dodge Journey looks pretty cool as well! Dan, Denise & Annette were able to do some activities, by not attending the business meeting. This included meeting Richard Petty and getting bounced around a track by professional tire burners driving SRT8’s!

Dinner was more stand up stuff, so a few of us went to a bar to eat and watch the Monday Night Football game which was Dallas vs. Buffalo. As usual, Buffalo lost, but on a last second field goal as the clock ran out. That didn’t make it any easier! But, we did get to watch a concert featuring Lifehouse, a band that I had never heard of until this trip…go figure Dan, Denise & Annette have. I guess I am just out of touch…but I am ok with that! This band actually does the music for our Dodge advertising, so I did recognize some of the stuff! The concert was followed by a half hour routine with Jay Leno…very funny! After this it was more pounding at the casino with the dudes. D&D & Annette went to see the water show in front of the Bellagio and the Pirate Show at the Mirage. I stayed back to fire ‘em in and enjoy the 20 Group guys!

Tuesday, October 9, 2007. We got a relatively early start on our way to the Grand Canyon. We loaded up the rental minivan with a ton of stuff, programmed Jill (our Garmin navigation unit) and hit the road. Then we remembered we hadn’t eaten in a few hours, so we stopped at an IHOP and drilled some breakfast. Once again, off to the Grand Canyon. We stopped to check out the Hoover Dam, which we found out was not named after Hoover Pkwy, but actually President Herbert Hoover…which is probably what Hoover Pkwy is named after as well! The dam was built in 1931 and finished in 1935. The water in Lake Mead is incredibly low.

Back in our minivan and off to the Grand Canyon. But wait…we had to stop at a Wendy’s in Kingman, AZ to eat first! It took a little more than four hours to get to our hotel in Grand Canyon, AZ. We checked in an immediately headed for the canyon. It was just about 4:30.

The Canyon is absolutely breathtaking, but we all had a little attitude change when a TV News crew showed up right next to us. We heard the hot little TV chick interviewing a Park Ranger who was explaining that a 4 year old little girl had fallen into the canyon a few hours earlier and died. WOW, what a wake up! I still can’t figure out that one…how could they let a four year old lose up there? Oh well…we all took tons of pictures and video as the sunset behind us creating fantastic picture opportunities. Dan is quickly filling his memory stick…or whatever his deal inside his camera is called!

We left the park around 6:30 because we hadn’t eaten in a few minutes. We headed directly to Yippee Yahaee Steakhouse to drill like Vikings! Which we did…we are certainly helping out the Arizona economy! Back the Grand Canyon Inn for a final final (or two!). To bed early for an early start tomorrow!

Wednesday, October 10, 2007. I got up early to go out exploring. It was a really refreshing 30 degrees outside! I had to let the van warm up to get the ice off of the windshield! But it was up to 78 in no time! Back to pick up the rest of the crew…and guess what we did? Yep…we had to go find a restaurant to drill. We did!

A super highlight was about to take place. We headed to the Grand Canyon airport to board up for a helicopter ride across the canyon! Grand Canyon Helicopters didn’t disappoint…although Dan was stuck on an inside seat…all because of some German dude who showed up late! But the ride was incredible! It was especially awesome as we flew over the bank of the canyon going from a few hundred feet about the ground to several thousand in a mere second! Check out the cool video! The flight took us over the not so visited “northern rim”. Our pilot pointed out several cool spots in the canyon and Colorado River. The flight lasted about an hour and Annette took advantage of her “free time” to go shopping! But she was there upon our return! We bought souvenirs to commemorate our fete! And then, back to the canyon!

We drove back to Grand Canyon Village, parked and jumped aboard a shuttle that took us further back into the canyon. We unloaded and hiked back along the bank of the canyon. They say only 1 or 2 people a year fall in…that is truly unbelievable given the fact that you are literally walking on the edge of the canyon without any railing or anything else to prevent a fall. Actually, the only fall was when we had to walk along the road and Denise lost her footing in the gravel. Although the only damage was to her brand new pants, however, it did leave Dan even more uneasy than before! To see the people climbing out on crazy precipices and still only have 1 or 2 fall per year is even more remarkable! We soon had enough of the canyon and set out toward Sedona…oopps…we forgot… we have to eat first! Another Wendy’s stop!

The drive to Sedona, at least the last 12 miles is another incredible deal! To look at the street map as performed by Jill, our nav unit, it looks like an intestine! The hairpin turns as you scale down the mountain is really cool! I think this is called Oak Creek Canyon!

We got to Sedona around 5:00 PM and checked into the Amara Hotel. Very swank! Denise was looking forward to a free spa, and I wasn’t…so we separated. I had a couple at the Cowboy Bar and then had a little snack at the Amara. Eventually Annette followed because it seems that tons of people were looking forward to a free spa. I am not sure that anybody in our group ever got touched…not my bag! (kind of like Lifehouse!). Although, Annette & I did do a hottub which did take out a kink or two! Our room at the Amara was right outside the pool on the first floor…which was cool! We had a few more in our room before calling it a night…cool stuff going on early tomorrow morning! (Although I think Denise had 3 final finals!)

Thursday, October 11, 2007. Up at the crack of 4:45 AM to get picked up precisely at 5:45 AM by Bill, our new best friend and Hot Air Balloon pilot! We loaded into the back of his Suburban which was towing his Northern Lights Hot Air Balloon…all $51,000 of it! We stopped and picked up another Bill and his wife Sue, two more passengers that would defy death with us! They are from Maryland, but we will never see them again, so this was just an FYI! (Although Dan did get his email address to email his pictures to him!) We drove out to Red Rock State Park where we watched pilot Bill and his sidekick Roger blow up our balloon, along with 4 other pilots and sidekicks from Northern Lights! It was really cool! After a half hour or so of prepping and blowing up, it was literally up, up and away! (Kind of like a song!) What an incredible experience. 14 million BTU’s of flame going up into the inside of this thing and we sailed across the wilderness with four other balloons! It is a “must do” on your “things to do” list! We were up as high as 2000 feet and down as low as skimming tree tops! We sailed over highways with people honking their horns at us and over wilderness looking for wildlife. We landed about an hour after takeoff, without incident, other than the fact we were probably ten miles from where we started. No problems though! Our ground crews followed along and picked us up out of a baron field! They then let the air out of the balloons and served us up a champagne breakfast of strawberries and stuff to celebrate our successful landing! All this for $780.00! But it was worth every penny and I would do it again in a second! This time Annette joined us…of course this was her second time in a balloon having once before done a ride as a teenager! Bill drove us back to the Amara and we were back before 10:00 AM! Guess where we headed? Yep…right to the restaurant! More food…this time our second breakfast!

After breakfast we relaxed around the pool for a couple of hours. This was much needed as we have been going non-stop for 5 days straight! A little after noon, we jumped in the minivan for a tour of the area. (Annette and I had been here in March, so we knew a couple of the tour stops!) A trip to Sedona requires a stop at The Chapel, a chapel built up in the mountain of red rock! We all lit a candle, me for my dad! We continued on down paved roads, non-paved roads and all kinds of different places…until, yep…lunch time! Back to the Cowboy Bar for late lunch…our third meal of the day! We actually made reservations for dinner right then at the Barking Frog (wonder if they know Al Bluemle?) We eventually cancelled these reservations, but it was good to know that we were still thinking of food!

Once again, back to the Amara. Denise made her second unsuccessful attempt at the spa. Dan went to rest…I played with Annette’s pictures while she rested as well! We met at our room for cocktails at 6:00 PM and decided to take a GEM ride to the top of the hill for dinner at the Canteena, rather than load up the minivan for the Barking Frog. (The Amara has a very cool SIX PASSENGER GEM…WE HAVE GEM ENVY! The GEM ride was cool…right up until Dan dropped wind…Spencer was right in the line of fire but he thought all was well…that was until he noticed the driver nodding off and leaning a little left! He was actually smirking quite a bit! I feel sorry for Denise! We sure had a lot of fun with that one later on that evening…like a bunch of High School kids!) It was the right choice not going to the Barking Frog as the Amara hired the Sirius Looker, who is a weird star gazing dude with an awesome homemade telescope that only he and Dan could understand! He showed us places in this telescope that I neither knew existed, or cared for that matter. But he sure knew his stuff and had a laser that would rival Scottie’s! (Most of the people were actually more excited about the laser!) Dan did enjoy the deal though! He also understood it! More beers and blogging in room 135 at the Amara!

Friday, October 12, 2007. Up early (not as early as yesterday though) and right out to the restaurant for a slow, expensive breakfast. Dan and I hung at the pool enjoying our last day in the sun and warmth before our long Western New York winter months ahead. Denise and Annette went shopping, their favorite pastime! We checked out of the Amara at 11:00AM and loaded up that sweet minivan for some more touring before heading to Phoenix. Our first stop was the Red Rock Yarn Store for Denise to load up on authentic Sedona, Arizona yarn! I am not sure how that differs from other yarn, but it doesn’t matter! We then took a little ride through Red Rock State Park, before heading to the Enchantment Resort for more drilling…this time lunch! The Enchantment is a cool joint located right at the foot of one of the big red rocks! I think it is right below “Coffee Pot Rock.” We then loaded up and made one last stop at the Sedona Airport lookout point for one last picture of Sedona! We were then off to Phoenix! It was about 2:00 PM.

The drive from Sedona to Phoenix should only take about 2 hours, but took longer because of the stop and go traffic at the Phoenix city limit. Phoenix is growing at a much more rapid pace than Lockport. The drive was white knuckle going from 80 and 85 to zero and back again. Driving through the mountains with miles and miles of nothing is also boring! But, we finally made it and checked in to the Radisson Airport hotel. We cleaned up and set out for a dinner party at Jim Whipple’s step brother’s place. Jeff and Mary Frances were incredible hosts! We were joined by Anita and Chris Hughes…so it was a reunion of Lyndonvilleites, so to speak! We had a blast drilling wine, beer, chicken, and some incredible ribs that Jeff cooked up! He has a beautiful set up there in Tempe, about 5 miles from the Radisson! Once again we had a fairly early evening as our 6:30 AM departure for the Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix. But, it was a fun evening to cap off our vacation!

Saturday, October 13, 2007. I took the rental van back while D&D & Annette took the bags and the shuttle over to the airport. We got there more than 3 hours ahead of time to stand in line for the EXIT seats, and were actually second in line! Oh well…we ended up getting the EXIT seats anyway, and met some nice Canadian people to chew the fat with for a couple of hour wait!

We are now on our way home flying at 37,000 feet! It is a little bumpy, but we had a freaking blast, doing tons of stuff. The helicopter and the balloon were the highlights, although I really can’t think of a lowlight! This was a well deserved gift for GREAT friends. The 31 years that Dan has worked for us and Denise’s graduation from college made for a great excuse to drag them along for this experience! As I said, Annette and I had done this trip six short months ago, however we saw such beauty and really didn’t see enough, and wanted to come back! We definitely want to bring the kids out next time. Laura says we can’t until she is at least 21! That time will come WAY TOO SOON!

Zing dada bing!

Everything is A OK in Phoenix!

Spencer, Annette, D&D, checked up on Chris and Anita in Phoenix. Everything checked out ok, and Spencer was happy to see that he is still advertising for new customers for Mullane Motors! I was wondering why we were getting so many new customers from Phoenix! Now I know!

BTW...Coach and Ginny...they are doing fine, but miss Lyndonville, the City Lakers, and of course the Natives like crazy!

Whip...your bro showed us a GREAT time and we drilled ribs, well, like Vikings!

Copter Ride

Dan and Spencer getting ready for lift off. They both look pretty calm.. Notice the yellow sack on Dan's waist- parachute or floatation device- we're still not sure! Guess we should have watched the safety video. This was my view- pretty amazing- but the pic's just do not do it justice. Spencer's video of this is a must.

LifeHouse and Leno

Jay Leno entertained us Monday night..

And Lifehouse rocked the house! In case your wondering, like most of the crowd, Lifehouse plays the music in the Dodge commercials. If Dan was doing this, he would have a link to a Lifehouse song! But he is not and I am and guess what..click on this link for a clip! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCPsfJUmLvw. Now how about them Bills!

Thrill Ride

Holy crapola! Shouldn't have done this right after lunch! Richard Petty driving school was on hand in Vegas to do some high speed runs. That's me in the black 300 tearing things up and Dan screaming in the grey Charger. Tons of rubber burned up that afternoon. Very cool as we experienced just what those cars can do. Annette can't wait to get back in her car this week- Dan is already ordering extra tires!!

NASCAR in Las Vegas

Just hanging with Kasey Kahn...

Dodge drivers, Elliott Sadler (#19) and Kasey Kahn (#9)were lucky enough to visit with us girls on Monday in Las Vegas.