My life

So I have, just today, one full week later, finished installing updating my computer from Tiger to Leopard!  I've got to tell you this was a pretty painful process.  I have upgraded many a Windows machine but this was an interesting new challenge.

So, I'm a day behind this week and totally forgot last week all together... oops!

Loathes

• car salesmen - why are they all so smarmy?
• gas prices
• upgrading my computer to Leopard - it just took me too freakin' long and some of my stuff doesn't work right still!!  Why can't stuff just work?  Why do you have to erase and install rather than just upgrade?  Why can't these computer companies get it right before unleashing stuff into the general public?  I mean if the "average" computer user went thru what I just did, it would have taken them weeks!
• feeling fat and bloated
• that I am totally neglecting to get enough sleep
• the 52 weeks self portrait challenge -- well I don't really loathe it but it's getting harder to accomplish a photo a week and that frustrates me (to the right is my 21/52)
  

Loves

• godiva orange chocolate - I have a bar of it in the house at all times and have a square now and then when I'm feeling like chocolate
• that the girls are getting together for the Sex and the City movie
• WD passport external hard drives
• my Touareg
• the Samples
  
• sweet tea
  

So I stopped in the Volkswagen dealership tonight to see the new Tiguan and maybe turn in my Touareg early for something that gets some better gas mileage... Well the Tiguan was a huge bust!  It's priced from $23,000 to $34,000 and is leasing for almost $700 fully loaded.  WTF?  Let me say that again, WTF?  I could get a Mercedes for that... no way, no deal.  I didn't even bother driving it.  

So yes, I still watch Survivor.  It's one of the few reality shows that I still watch.  And that said, I probably would not have watched this season if it weren't for the "favorites" coming back to battle the fans.  I thought this season was one of the best - lots of twists and turns and devious behavior.  

Does it sometimes blow your mind to think about how far we can travel in a single day?  In the span of twelve hours I traveled over 1800 miles via car and plane! 

So, on the last day of my trip we set out on a mini road trip to Tombstone, Arizona to check out the super cute little town.  It's completely stuck in time.  If you have a chance to stop in, be sure to visit the Bird Cage Theater.  It's been preserved pretty much the way it was left back in the 1880's - from the bars to the wallpaper and theater curtains.  It's in rough shape but is still pretty cool to see the scale of this stuff and to think about the kind of money that was being tossed around!  You can check out the Flickr set for Tombstone here.

And from there we went a little further South to Bisbee, Arizona.  Bisbee is a super cute little town nestled in the Mule Mountains - kind of reminded me of a European hill town with much simpler housing.  It's a mining town - the mountains are so vibrant in color from the copper, gold, silver, zinc and etc. that can be mined there.  We had lunch at Winchester's Restaurant in the Copper Queen Hotel.  We sat on the patio and enjoyed the warm weather and cool breeze!  After lunch we wandered around the cute little shops along Main Street.  How cute is that?  Oh and there were some great antique shops there too!  (Flickr photos)
From there it was back to the airport and off to Chicago for me!  Good times!

This is what I found upon my return to O'Hare Monday night. I mean, is this really necessary??

Day two found us tooling around in Colossal Cave - it's about an hour or so outside of town, set into the side of a mountain.  It's over a thousand years old!  We took about a 30 minute tour with about 20 people and learned a little about the cave and what is was used for and how it came into existence.  I, of course, took a ton of photos while Kathryn and Eva actually listened to the guide.  We saw some bats flying about above our heads in one area of the cave - pretty cool.  It's extremely dark and not the best for photos, but I did what I could.  Check out that Flickr photo set here.

My first day in Tucson we took a little afternoon trip to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum to check out the scenery.  It was pretty cool.  We saw just about every kind of cactus you could think of and some really cool local wildlife.  We made a quick spin in the hummingbird habitat - crazy flybys!  You can check out my Flickr set here.  Go easy on me...  I have a hard time finding the beauty in this kind of plant life and landscape.  I'm really working on it! 

Ahhh... a short week!

Loves

• That this time tomorrow I'll be in super sunny, super warm Tucson with my friend Kathryn!
• Spray tan - so I don't scare off all the south westerner's with my northern pale self
• Short work weeks - and being able to wrap things up before leaving, that so rarely happens
• My iPhone -- movies on the plane people!!
• Where in the World is Matt Lauer on the Today Show -- in Amsterdam today!  I was looking for E and Beth...
  
• Pringles - the reduced fat kind -- I'm addicted!
  

Loathes

• Packing
• Having to scramble to find people to watch the kitties
• Increasing gas prices - and having to fuel a SUV
  
• Brown boogies from the spray tan booth
• Packing
• American Idol -- Am I alone here?
• And, oh yes, did I say packing?

Happy week people!