Family Fun in Wonderland

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Stuck in Wonderland
Queen of Hearts not junoesque
Yells, Off with her head!

Fall down rabbit hole
Kaizen – change is gradual
We’re all mad here

The last weekend in January we had a fun adventure with the Alice in Wonderland Experience in downtown Phoenix, following the map and clues created by cluedupp. After four hours we successfully freed Alice from the clutches of the Queen of Hearts. It’s a great way to spend time with family and get in your daily steps 3+ miles walking. I’ve purchased another scavenger hunt activity in Phoenix we’ll be embarking on soon.

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May Celebrations

 

Last weekend Shawn and I enjoyed the wine and jazz walk in Phoenix and the last photo is my Mother’s Day fondue dinner. Shawn made an excellent fondue though I told him I wasn’t a fan of his photo. Despite how the wine looks, it was also very good. This weekend we are celebrating someone’s birthday.

Mother’s Day dinner
give credit for excellent
fondue recipe

Celebrate birthday
credit daughter ten more years
watching Great Gatsby

Last night Rachael, Gretchen and I were watching the most recent Great Gatsby, as Gretchen was watching it at school since they read the novel earlier this year, but they did not finish the movie. Near the end, Nick realizes it’s his birthday and he’s 30 years old. I turn to Rachael and ask, “How does it feel to be ten years away from 30?” 😉 Yes, she will be 20 tomorrow. And I can now share this quote:

Sylvia Plath

“You are twenty. You are not dead, although you were dead. The girl who died. And was resurrected. Children. Witches. Magic. Symbols.”

Rachael’s 19th Birthday at Blu Sushi Litchfield Park, AZ

Arizona Illustrated Celebrates Poetry

To continue my contribution to the online poetry community weekly blogs for 2018, Arizona Illustrated did a story on the Poetry Center down in Tucson. A place I have yet to visit.

Poetry Center
fifty thousand milestone
special fold out book

I wrote another #haikuchallenge for twitter. Today’s word is special. I’m starting slow in 2018, but I have written at least one haiku a day for the twitter challenge, better progress than last year. I also want to share the call for art for the next Nasty Women Unite show here in Phoenix – check out this blog. I’m sure my readers recall I attended last year’s show of course I quoted a well known female poet, Adrienne Rich. I’m sure she’d be a nasty woman, too. Write on poets and bloggers!

Early Start – Arizona Poets

Yesterday I reblogged how the online poetry community is going to try to write a blog a week in 2018 – about poetry, writing, inspiration, life – you know the all around things that affect poets and their writing. I decided to get a little head jump as the city of Phoenix is looking for micropoetry to feature in the city for April – national poetry month. The submission call is only open to poets who reside in Arizona. And I honestly don’t know how many of my readers actually live in the same state as me. Poems are due by January 19th, so I figured I’d share the info as soon as possible. Guidelines here

No excuse to work
on sustainability
poem for Phoenix

 

And now my list of excuses: No haiku, only AZ residents, no epics (under 50 words), it says no rhyming but I’m sure if it is pulled off well some rhyming could make it through. Yes, I’ve been working on a submission and no, I did not rhyme. The haiku above is for the #haikuchallenge on twitter today as the word is excuse.

Summer Fun

Death Valley Summer 1990

Seen in Bad Water
Puggle, odd little creature
Tours southwest desert

While Gretchen was attending classes at EMCC, I’ve been hiding out in the house posting about the scorching hot summer. June was a hot one in Phoenix this year. We hit a record high of 119 on Tuesday June 20th. It didn’t beat the big record for Phoenix of 122 on June 26, 1990 but we’ve gotten close on more than one day just this past Friday we broke another record with a high of 118. Since I’ve been following all the heat stories in the comfort of my AC, I noticed tourists out at Death Valley were getting out for photos next to the digital thermometer. It read 130 in the article. I had to go dig up the pictures we took the first time we came out west. And yes, it happened to be the year Phoenix holds the all time record high. It was HOT but I don’t think it was 130.

In the photo above I am holding my puggle. And no it is not a mix between a pug and a beagle. It’s a stuffed animal that now has inherited a new guardian. I still have the puggle and when Gretchen saw it, she fell in love.

Melt Down

I think I may be the only person dressed for winter in Germany later this month. Be sure to watch my blog in August. I’m sure I’ll have lots of photos to post.

Phoenix ComiCon 2017

Autographed book with my winning certificate

Del Rey author signing

Autographed book

Rachael and me waiting to get in

Rachael and Gretchen Attack on Titan Cosplay

Nonnie Mad Hatter

Dalek

First ComiCom 2010

 

Once upon a time, 2010, we waited in a long line to buy tickets to attend our first comicon. Thanks to the On this day feature on Facebook, I was reminded it was seven years ago today. I did not plan on buying tickets this year, between college tuition, a new car purchase, and my upcoming trip to Germany, it didn’t seem wise to make the purchase. Seven years ago we only had to buy two tickets. Sidekicks, 13 and younger, were free (now a sidekick ticket costs money) not that it matters my girls are far beyond free anymore.

When I told the girls we weren’t getting tickets this year, they took it well. Shawn, on the other hand, he really wanted to go but I told him it was an expense we couldn’t afford now. Not only are tickets expensive, but then there is the exhibitor’s hall. BTW – thanks Del Rey for the free books. Once we finally got into the convention center, yeah some idiot decided to ruin the fun for the rest of us, I got into the Del Rey author signing line. They had free sampler books. Picked up the Star Wars one for Gretchen. Then we met Scott Sigler and Rob Reid. I waited to see what the price for the books were. They were signing and giving the books away for free. I have new reading material. 😀 A little bummed we missed seeing Pierce Brown though, I brought our copy of Red Rising for him to sign.

Gunman arrested
Cosplay weapons ban creates
Long wait to enter

Seven years ago
Flashback to first ComiCon
Could not wait to see…

And a Big Shout Out and Thank You! to Bear Essential News for giving us the four passes for Friday. They asked who your favorite cosplay character was and I answered, Levi. About a week after I told everyone we weren’t going to ComiCon this year, I got an email from Julie Madden congratulating me as the winner. I read it twice then showed it to Shawn, I think we are going to ComiCon this year. He confirmed my eyes were not deceiving me. Then I told Nonnie we got passes and she purchased a Friday pass to attend with us. We had a lot of fun. And despite the almost hour long line to get in, Nonnie survived and enjoyed her first con.

The Jackass Artist

Butt Seriously – The Phoenix New Times highlighted the best shows to see for February’s first Friday. Butt Seriously at the Found RE in Phoenix runs through the 26th. If a certain man does not make it to see his 45th birthday at the end of this month. This blog post is not to be consider evidence for any mishap that may befall him before then.

There once was an artist who entered his wife’s ass
in an art show he thought was going to be high-class
Butt Seriously
imperiously
he decided it was best to bypass
her permission, fearing she’d label him jackass

Nasty Women Phoenix

Me at the Nasty Women Unite in Phoenix exhibit

Saturday January 14 was the opening night for Nasty Women Unite in Phoenix. Wow it was crowded and it was a cash and carry show supporting Planned Parenthood. I told Shawn the walls were going to be bare by the end of the night. And they are open again this Friday and Saturday. The first night over $11,000 was raised for the cause. Early this week they opened submissions for more artwork to display and sell this weekend.

As Shawn and I waded through the crowd, he snapped a few photos of me. I kept glancing at his phone and commented, I’m starting to look like my mother! His reply, One day you put your arm in your sleeve and your mother’s hand comes out. He enjoys reminding me of the words of Adrienne Rich.

“At 45, you put your arm into your sleeve,
and your mother’s hand comes out.”

Hey, I have a couple more years to go there, mister. But speaking of poetry and prose, this Saturday January 21st is the Nasty Women Reading should be another interesting evening. The haikuchallenge word on twitter today is doom so I wrote –

Put your arm in sleeve
One day mother’s hand comes out
Doom suffered with age

Close-up

My extreme close-up

Closer, closer still
closer – camera needs patch
Close-up collision

Yes, we went out on May 6 to First Friday and Shawn decided he needed an extreme close-up of me at 9 the gallery. I have no idea why. It was great to see his photo up in the NSFW exhibit. We had a great time at the Welcome Diner before the exhibit for dinner. Because of the rain, all the costumers gathered under the awning. We had a family dinner with strangers.

Rare rain in Phoenix
Strangers patch under awning
Instant family

A Long Time Ago…

My niece and nephew

In a galaxy…
er…um…Buffalo, NY
nineteen years ago

There they are adorable two-year-olds all dressed up for their Aunt and Uncle’s wedding. Wonder what happens in nineteen years?

My niece and nephew September 6, 2015

Wonders why he is
still single when he wears an
I pee in pools shirt

Ha-ha the #haikuchallenge word today is single. In case my nephew hasn’t figured things out on his own. 😉 This photo was perfect for a haiku this morning.

Yesterday we had a nice picnic at Nonnie’s house. Caitlin and Mack met again after almost 19 years. We also saw my cousin and uncle for a little while. And we had Sahlen’s hotdogs. Nothing like bribing your nephew to drive up from Fort Bliss with some good ole Buffalo, NY hotdogs. He’s heading back to El Paso this morning. He has a dozen hotdogs with him, hoping it’s enough for one cookout back there.