The Frames, minus Josh Ritter

I'm writing to you a little disappointed tonight, because I was supposed to see Josh Ritter open for The Frames at the Rhythm Room in Phoenix, but alas, there was no Josh Ritter. Instead there was a guy named Andrew Lloyd Swordfish. I have no idea if that's his real name, but if it is I'd be fucking amazed. He was entertaining enough, and played a relatively short set of quirky ditties, alternating between him on guitar and him on keyboards. He was goof-rock at it's local musician best, with a tune about a trashman killing himself, another proclaiming he doesn't want Michael J. Fox to die, and another beseeching the president to raise the minimum wage. The crowd enjoyed him, as did I, but he was no Josh Ritter.

The Frames took the stage around 9pm to a crowd of about eighty people. They seemed happy with the turnout and commented, 'We're The Frames, we're from Ireland, we didn't know if anyone would show up tonight'. I'm not too familiar with the band, having only one of their cd's Set List, which is a live recording of a show they did in their native Dublin in November 2002. I enjoyed several of the tracks, but never gave it much play time in my ever-changing rotation of music. That was my first mistake- this is a great band that deserves more than just a casual listen.

They are five musicians that clearly love what they are doing and their enthusiasm translates into really beautiful music that at times is soft and melodic and swooning with soft whispery vocals, and at other times heavy and loud with plenty of guitar reverb amid wailing vocals. They truly run the gamut, and they have the formula perfectly mastered. In unison they will bring songs to a halting quiet and then quickly raise the tempo to twice what it had been. It's a pretty amazing sight to see out of a band that's been around so long, their fury seems more teenage garage band than seasoned rock band. Their influences, or comparisons to their sound are hard to pinpoint, but they are obviously influenced by traditional Irish folk music, especially with a violin player as a full-time member of the band. Their sound hugely benefits from the violin, which gives the songs a soaring quality. Ah, as you can see, I can't say enough about The Frames. I'll definitely be checking out their catalog of music, and I recommend you do the same, or better, check them out if they come to your town. I did just that, which means I can cross #194 off my list: go see The Frames.

**Two songs into the set I decided to try and keep track of the setlist, as per my habit, though I wasn't very familiar with their songs, so it will take me a while to sort out the song titles, but I'll post an update when I do...

The Setlist:
1- ?
2- ?
3- Lay Me Down
4- What Happens When the Heart Just Stops
5- God Bless Mom
6- Pavement Tune
7- Fake
8- Your Face
9- Revelate
10- Star Star
11- Santa Maria
12- Red Chord

Maps

Nope, this isn't a post about the Yeah Yeah Yeah's song by the same name, it's a post about my cool new map! Though I suppose the lyrics could be relevant:

Wait, they don't love you like I love you
Wait, they don't love you like I love you
Ma-aa-aa-aa-aa-aa-aa-aa-aa-aa-aa-aps

Does everyone love gigantic maps? No. Do I? Yes! Okay, that was a bit of a stretch, but every time I look at the title 'Maps', I think of the song. Anyhow...

I decided to disregard my previous advice and visit my new favorite Goodwill store a few weeks after my last visit. As was expected, my friend and I had cleaned out their stash of cool stuff in our last visit and they had yet to replenish it. I was breezing through the aisles when I noticed an art section against the back wall that I hadn't seen in my previous visit. Closer inspection revealed countless pieces of bad art destined for their resting place on the Goodwill shelves from their very conception. I was about to leave the aisle as quickly as I'd entered when two large rolls of paper caught my eye. Could it be? No, no way could these be old school maps. Or, could they?? Indeed, they were! I was giddy. I could barely contain my excitement.

I began to unroll the first and revealed a gorgeous wash of faded turquoise and aged cream. I was in heaven. I unrolled the entire map and found just one small tear, no big deal. I had even higher hopes for the second, but found instead a garish mix of map pinks and yellows and pale greens. Yuck. And there was a sizable tear along the bottom dowel. Though I didn't know when I'd run across another find like this, I decided to pass on the second map. The aesthetic just wasn't right for me. But the first, I wasn't going to let that baby out of my sight! I carried it around the store as I made my final inspection, receiving lots of odd glances and nearly decapitating several people, and then I headed to the check out. I dare you all to guess what I paid for the map. Go ahead, guess. Did you guess $3.99? If you did, you're correct!!! Can you believe it?!? I couldn't even use my cheapskate 20% off coupon because I hadn't spent the requisite $10.

I hurried home, plotting the whole way on where I might hang this gigantic find. I finally settled on the most logical wall in my apartment, and after taking some measurements and making some calculations, I hung it here. I think you'll all agree it looks pretty damn cool. And if you don't, then I suppose you are the one they were singing about. You really don't love maps like I do, do you? With another successful Goodwill trip and a gigantic map of L.A. and Orange County, I'll cross #74 off my list: start a map collection.

The Seagate

A few months back I started receiving a strange error message on my laptop. It seemed to occur most often when I was in Safari browsing the net. It was something about my start-up disk being nearly full. I had no idea what the start-up disk was, and thought maybe it was just one of those strange spyware pop-ups. It continued to appear on my screen without any predictable frequency. I trouble-shooted (is that a word?!) the problem as best I could: I searched my computer for a start-up disk, I browsed the Mac help topics for any mention of start-up disk, I pulled out my user manual and did the same, but all to no avail. I finally wrote down the message verbatim and called the Mac helpline. I repeated the message I had been receiving and explained when I found it most often occurred. Oh, he said, you're almost out of space on your computer, that's what the message means. IMPOSSIBLE, I said, I've had the computer for less than a year! Lets check, he said, and check we did, and wouldn't you know, he was right. I was dangerously low on hard drive space, with just a few hundred available megs.

Even after checking a half dozen times, I was in denial. No way could I have filled up my laptop in less than a year. It had to be a mistake. I checked and checked again. I recruited a friend to check with me. It was official, I was out of space. The culprit? Music. Copious amounts of music. But I wasn't about to part with even a single track of my hallowed music. I scoured my files for music I had back-up copies of and deleted those files off my hard drive. I deleted all the music videos I had downloaded and anything else I could part with. I freed up about a gig of space and then spent the last couple months frighteningly aware of the little amount of space left on my computer. I refused to upgrade to newer versions of applications lest they require any of the precious space. I resisted the urge to download any new music and tried to content myself with the 13 gigs of music I already had. But I started to grow weary of my self-imposed discipline. And so it came to pass that I finally broke down this weekend and bought The Seagate.

The Seagate is my new external hard drive and boasts an impressive 300GB of storage capacity. That's equivalent to 5,000 hours worth of music or just over 208 days. Holy shit, that's a lot of music! I have no current need for such a ridiculously large hard drive, but I'm a gal that loves a good deal. I was looking to spend no more that $150. The Seagate, normally $279, was on sale for $199 with a $50 mail in rebate. Voila, $150!!

I surprised myself by navigating through the set-up with relative ease, reformatting the FAT32 file format to a more Mac readable format ( I have no idea what this actually means, but I did it anyway!), moving my music files to the drive, and then setting up iTunes to look to the external drive for my music files. I even set-up Limewire to save to the new drive. I'm feeling geekier by the moment!

So you may wonder then why I still received that start-up disk message this afternoon. The short answer, I'm paranoid. My relationship with The Seagate feels like it's moving too fast. I've hardly acquainted myself with him, how can I entrust him to house and protect my treasured collection of music?! I know; I need to just get over myself and delete the music files on my hard drive before I crash my computer. I'm sure I'll be going all the way in a few short days, much to the happiness of my hard drive, but for now I can cross #172 off my list: buy an external hard drive with massive amounts of storage capacity.

Corn & Pasta

Corn and pasta are two ingredients I wouldn't think of pairing, but tonight I did so with fabulous results. The inspiration for this dinner came from a recipe on Amateur Gourmet, one of my favorite food blogs. I read about it last week, and have been salivating thinking about it ever since. Tonight I had a friend over for dinner, and it seemed the perfect occasion to try this simple pasta dish.

Adam's recipe came from the Alice Waters cookbook Vegetables and is called Summer Squash and Corn Pasta. I deviated from the recipe quite a bit to use what I already had, but the structure of the recipe is basically the same. Corn, zucchini and mushrooms were surprising bedfellows in this dish, but complemented each other amazingly well. The smoothness of the zucchini, the crunch of the corn and the juiciness of the mushrooms collaborated in each bite, not to mention the beautiful contrast of color and texture. Though summer is coming to an end in most parts of the country, it's still in full swing here in Phoenix, so this dinner felt like the perfect summer meal- nice summery ingredients in a light sauce.

See Adam's website for the original recipe from Alice Waters' cookbook. What follows is the modified recipe I prepared.

Zucchini & Corn Pasta

3 zucchini, diced
8 crimini mushrooms, diced
3 ears of corn, corn cut off the cob
1 jalepeno pepper finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
a handful of Italian parsley, chopped
1 box of fettucine pasta

Saute the zucchini in 2 tablespoons of olive oil for several minutes and season with salt & pepper. Add the corn, garlic and jalepeno and continue cooking for several minutes. Add 2 tablespoons of butter, the parsley and 4 tablespoons of pasta water (the water the pasta is boiling in). Cook for another minute or two and then add the cooked pasta.

Though I love to cook, I'm not very adventurous when trying new recipes. I tend to stick to my arsenal: the recipes I've been making for years and know like the back of my hand. My excuse is that when cooking from a recipe I end up spending a fortune on groceries I don't already have around the house. However, that wasn't the case tonight. I had all the ingredients on hand except the corn, jalepeno and parsley, and at .59 cents each for the corn, .50 for the jalepeno and .50 for the parsley, I'd hardly qualify that as spending a fortune. This dinner certainly opened my eyes to combining ingredients I wouldn't have traditionally thought to combine, and also allowed me to cross off #57 on my list: add another recipe to my arsenal.

Oasis x2

I hate to be a complainer, but after having just seen Oasis in Vegas, and knowing the potential their music has to transform into the best show I've ever seen, I was disappointed to see them tonight in Phoenix. Not that it was a bad show, it wasn't. The set was exactly the same and the lights and sound were amazing, but the venue sucked and the crowd was lame.

When the Phoenix show was announced I marked my calendar for presale and was online a moment after the presale tickets went up for sale. To my dismay, I couldn't get a ticket. I kept trying and trying to no avail. A friend was also buying presale tickets in those first few moments, so after he secured his tickets he was able to get one for me. We had 33rd and 32nd row, respectively. What the hell? These are what you get on presale?? Ah well, we were content to have Oasis tickets. But we were fools. Turned out a guy we talked to tonight walked up to the box office before the show and asked for a ticket, best available, and he ended up with a front row seat for the same price we paid. Screw that guy. Anyhow...

So, with our lame 33rd & 32nd row tickets we planned on ditching the assigned seats and rushing up to the front of the stage with the rest of the mad-crazy Oasis fans. Mistake #2. There were no mad-crazy Oasis fans. And the security people wouldn't have it anyway. We were scolded for standing in an aisleway by a railing behind the section we were assigned to. Apparently it's a fire hazard to have people standing in aisleways at a concert venue. Go figure. Okay, I suppose I've ranted enough on the lameness of the Dodge Theatre and their Nazi-esque employees. The show.

Kasabian opened with a short set. It was the same set they played in Vegas, which is really a great set. It's their most stand-out songs from the album, and a new song to get us excited about a forthcoming album. I really felt sorry for them, though, because they were playing to a bunch of duds. The venue was almost empty, and the people that were in the venue were just sitting in their seats. Ooops, I seem to be ranting again...

The set:
1. Reason is Treason
2. Cutt Off
3. The Stuntman
4. 55
5. Processed Beats
6. L.S.F.
7. Club Foot

This really was an excellent set. The band was great even though they were playing to practically no one, and their sound was right on.

Next up, we went outside in a failed attempt to con the ticket sales guy in the box office to release a few more front row seats. He wasn't having it. But, we did run into a guy that wasn't able to sell his two club level seats and he just gave them to us. Sweet! We really had no use for them since they weren't as good as our row 33 & 32, so I made a few calls and found a friend who'd be able to come down last minute to use one of the tickets.

By this time Jet had started their set. I'm not really a Jet fan at all since I find them to be a bunch of rip-off artists, so I wasn't in any hurry to get in and check them out. However, I have to say that when we finally did make it in, they weren't too bad. The crowd was clearly very into them, and they seemed to be putting on an entertaining show with a pretty decent sound. It was about this time we were scolded for standing in the aisleway so I went back outside to meet up with my friend to give her the recently acquired ticket. This is when the night started getting weird...

While I was outside waiting for her I started talking to a guy selling tickets. He had 15th row center stage tickets. He wanted $50 apiece. Hell no! But, I'd give him our tickets and $20 each in exchange for his tickets. We had a deal! So I went back inside to find my friends and see if they agreed. He'd wait for me outside. We all agreed it'd be a great way to spend twenty bucks, so we went back outside to find the guy. I told him we had a deal, we just needed to pull cash out of the ATM. No prob, he said. So we stood in line at the ATM. The guy behind us started in on a confusing conversation about where we were sitting and other random things. Then the strangest thing happened. A woman said to me, I know this is going to sound weird, but my husband has a cigarette butt stuck in his ear and I was wondering if you would get it out for him since I noticed you have fingernails and I don't. WHAT THE HELL?!?!? And she was serious. Whoa. She went on to explain that they had seats near a speaker and he had stuck the butt in his ear like a make-shift earplug. Weird. I checked out the guys ear just for curiosity sake, and that butt was barely visible. Gross. Anyhow, by the time we pulled out our cash we looked around for our ticket guy and he was nowhere to be found. We looked all over, but he was gone. Weird. We were resigned to our 33rd & 32nd row tickets once again. Meanwhile, I found my friend and gave her the free ticket. She had somehow come across a couple guys who were talking a mile a minute asking me if I worked for a radio station and if I had backstage passes. Huh? Weird.

Back inside we sat in row 33 and waited for Oasis. They came out and played a great set. It was the same set as Vegas, with plenty of song dedications and chatter with the crowd. I have to say, I was disappointed with Liam's voice. It sounded great on the first song and on the encore, but for most of the rest of the set it sounded scratchy and rough and forced to me. It wasn't terrible, but again, comparing it to Vegas it was disappointing. It was so spot-on and perfect in Vegas. But, the light show was amazing. The House of Blues is such a tiny venue that there is really no space for complex lights, but the Dodge did shine in this area (ooh, pun). The guys sounded great and Noel seemed more present tonight. There was a funny moment when he noticed that in front of him there was a man doing sign language for a (presumably) deaf person. He asked if he was, in fact doing sign language. Then he commented, only in America. Ha. Oh, and the crowd. I was just so shocked that all these thousands of people would be content to stand in their little assigned space and barely move whilst in the presence of great music like Oasis. Sad. They did seem to be into the songs though, including the old stuff, and I think lots of them were singing along, though it was hard to tell because of the acoustics of the venue.

The set:
--before they took the stage, Fuckin' in the Bushes--
1. Turn up the Sun
2. Lyla
3. Bring it on Down
4. Morning Glory (for all the junkies)
5. Cigarettes and Alcohol
6. The Importance of Being Idle
7. A Bell Will Ring (for Mohammed Ali)
8. Acquiesce
9. Live Forever (for New Orleans)
10. Mucky Fingers (for all the deaf people)
11. Wonderwall (for the ladies)
12. Champagne Supernova
13. Rock 'n' Roll Star (for Jet & Kasabian)
--as they left the stage, Fuckin' in the Bushes--
14. Guess God Thinks I'm Abel
15. The Meaning of Soul
16. Don't Look Back in Anger
17. My Generation

Okay, this post has gotten waaaaaaay too long, so I'm going to wrap it up. Did I have a good time? Yes. Am I happy I saw Oasis tonight in Phoenix? Yes. Do I think the Dodge Theatre is a lame place to see a rock concert? Yes. Am I even happier now that I saw Oasis in Vegas? Yes. Do I get to cross off #211 on my list: see the same band (Oasis!) twice in the same week? Yes. Will I pull a cigarette butt out of your ear if you stuff it in there as an earplug? No.

Vegas Baby, Vegas: Kasabian & Oasis at House of Blues

On Thursday night I was at the most amazing show. This show was so great I think it will take something of a miracle to surpass it. Not that it can't be done, but it will be damn difficult. The show was Oasis (with Kasabian opening) at the House of Blues in Las Vegas.

I bought a ticket for the show a few months ago. I was super-excited when the Vegas show was announced, as I'd already bought a ticket for their show in Phoenix, but wasn't too thrilled with the venue choice. I knew the House of Blues would be a great venue for Oasis after seeing Gomez and the Zutons there last year. Seeing them in Vegas would also be a bit nostalgic since the only other time I'd seen them was in Vegas. The ticket was expensive (85 bucks when you added on the services charges), but I figured I'd go totally budget on everything else: a cheap plane ticket a few hours before the show, cab fare to the venue, cab fare back to the airport where I'd spend the night and then take the first flight back to Phoenix the next morning. In theory it sounded great. But as I'm inclined to do, I procrastinated on the plane ticket and totally missed out on the cheap fares. Plan B: drive to Vegas, sleep in the car somewhere and drive back the next day. Plan B would have been put into action if Plan C hadn't come around...A friend had recently left her job and I suggested she come along. She was up for it! And so Plan C became: drive to Vegas in her rental car, stay in a room on the 28th floor of the swanky Mandalay Bay resort & casino (where the band was staying as well!), valet the car, spend way too much money on food & drinks, laze away the morning in bed on Friday, and then drive back to Phoenix on Friday whereupon I'd be issued a ridiculously exaggerated speeding ticket 50 miles outside of town. The trip was great except for that last bit, thank God for online traffic school! Anyhow, I got way off on a tangent there. The show.

The show was amazing. We arrived at the hotel a mere 30 minutes before the doors to the venue were to open. We checked in, dropped our bags off, ooohed and aaahed at the magnificance of our room, and then headed down to the House of Blues. My friend didn't have a ticket, so we were in search of scalpers. There were none to be found, or they were deep incognito, so I was on my own. I quickly scouted out the scene inside: it was packed. It was about 7:25 and the place was nearly full. I bought a drink and then squeezed my way through the crowd on the floor near the front left side of the stage. But, I was dissatisfied with my spot so I decided to roam around a bit (this is one of the huge benefits of going to a show solo- you can squeeze in anywhere!). This was the best decision of the night because I ended up with a great spot near the front on the right side of the stage which is where the brothers Gallagher were positioned for their set. Yay! I killed a little time drinking and text-messaging before Kasabian, who promptly took the stage at 8:00. They played a super short, but exciting set. This being my third time seeing them this year, I knew what to expect and I wasn't let down. The crowd was fairly into them, though it didn't seem like many people knew the songs.

Their set list:
1. Reason is Treason
2. Cutt Off
3. The Stuntman (a new song)
4. 55
5. Processed Beats
6. L.S.F.
7. Club Foot

It was during the first few bars of the first song that I realized I'd left my little black notebook at home in which I usually write the setlists. I had a pen but no paper, and I didn't dare leave my prime spot in search of a piece of paper. Just then the guy standing in front of me started to leave. I asked if he was going to the bar, and if he'd bring me a napkin. A few minutes later he returned with a huge wad of napkins. I was saved! Kasabian's set only lasted about thirty minutes. During the break I thanked my neighbor for the napkins and explained their purpose. We got to talking and it turned out he was a huge Oasis fan. He'd seen them about twenty times. So, we killed time talking about all things Oasis until they took the stage at 9:00.

I can't even begin to describe how amazing the show was. The whole place was packed, and on the floor we were as tight as sardines. But the crowd was great and I had a perfect vantage point, so it was no bother to me. The most impressive element of the crowd was that everyone seemed to know all the songs, not just the new ones. Everyone sang along at the top of their lungs, and were so happy to hear the old stuff. Liam was in top form bantering with the crowd and just being an ass. It was great. Noel was practically hiding behind a speaker from what I could see, but I was pretty far to the right. Zak was unbelievably amazing on drums- it makes you realize they actually have a drummer now (I loved Whitey, but there's no comparison between the two)! Both Andy and Gem are pretty subdued as far as stage presence, but they sounded phenomenal. Gem's harmonica solo on Mucky Fingers was amazing, and Andy kicked ass on the bass solo's in My Generation. The set was about an hour and a half, with Liam leaving the stage three times for Noel's songs. They played one encore and ended the night with an amazing cover of the Who's, My Generation. When the show was over the lights came back up and the Beatles, Let it Be came on the PA. The whole place sang at the top of their lungs again on the way out. It was an incredible end to the night.

The setlist:
--before they took the stage, Fuckin' in the Bushes--
1. Turn up the Sun
2. Lyla
3. Bring it on Down
4. Morning Glory
5. Cigarettes and Alcohol
6. The Importance of Being Idle
7. A Bell Will Ring
8. Acquiesce
9. Live Forever (for New Orleans)
10. Mucky Fingers
11. Wonderwall (for the ladies)
12. Champagne Supernova (for the kid)
13. Rock 'n' Roll Star
--as they left the stage, Fuckin' in the Bushes--
14. Guess God Thinks I'm Abel
15. The Meaning of Soul
16. Don't Look Back in Anger
17. My Generation

All in all, just an incredible show. I can only hope that the show in town tomorrow is a fraction as good. The atmosphere will be totally different, which was a huge contributing factor to the success of the Vegas show, but if there is a way to get out of my assigned seat in row 32 and up to the front of the stage, you can bet I will be there! I'm psyched to see them again, but for now will be content to cross off #196: see Oasis again in Vegas, and end up going to the best show of my life (no exaggeration!!).

Cleaning the Oven, or How to Burn Down the House

Today I had one of the scarier experiences of my life. It began innocently enough when I noticed that the oven in my apartment has a self-cleaning mode. I hadn't taken notice of this before, and it suddenly seemed like an excellent idea to clean my oven. I hadn't cleaned it in the time I'd been living in my apartment, and I figured it could use it. Not that I use my oven very much, or that it was even very dirty, but I had noticed a few charred bits on the bottom of the oven that I could do without.

The first red flag went up when I looked for the latch to lock my oven before switching it to Clean mode. There was no latch. I hadn't missed the latch, but it now seemed rather odd that I didn't have it. No worries, I thought, I don't have a kid running around that might open the oven door while it's cleaning (what other purpose could there be for the locking latch?). So, I flipped the dial to Clean. The digital read out began a countdown of 3 hours and 30 minutes. That seemed like a long time to clean the oven, but I had nothing planned for the afternoon except work. And maybe working out and a shower. No big deal.

After fifteen or twenty minutes, the apartment began to smell a little. Not too bad though, and this is to be expected when you're cleaning the oven. I decided to take a little break from working and stretch my legs. I got up and walked around the apartment. Then I noticed I could really smell the oven smell. I wondered how I'd be able to work amidst that smell for three more hours. I walked back near the kitchen when some little orange flames caught my eye- MY OVEN WAS ON FIRE! I did my best not to panic. I flipped the oven from Clean to Off. I grabbed a mug from the sink and filled in with water. By this point the flames were growing- they reached the top rack of the oven. I could feel my adrenaline flowing, but I was trying not to panic. I'll just douse the flames with water and have a little mess to clean up, I thought. I had the mug in hand and grabbed the oven door. I pulled, but it didn't budge. I pulled again and again. I set the mug down and started pulling with both hands. Nothing. It was locked. I looked at the digital read out, and it read "Cool Down". What the hell?!? I grabbed my phone and debated between calling 911 or my apartment office. I called the apartment office. No one answered. I noticed that the flames were beginning to die down. I continued to pull on the oven door, in vain, until the last flame extinguished.

I sat down and realized I was shaking. Badly. I started to go over the events of the previous few minutes in my head and realized the gravity of the situation. My oven was on fire, and I had no way of putting out the flames. What if I had gone to work out or taken a shower or walked to get the mail? Would my apartment have burned down? Needless to say, those little charred black bits at the bottom of the oven didn't seem so bad anymore. And with that I crossed off #372 on my list of things to do: clean my oven (or don't.).

Exercise, Part Three

Did someone ask for another exercise update? No? Well I'll give you one anyway, if only for my own record...

Things are still going strong and I've gotten myself on a pretty regular schedule. I workout for three days in a row: two days on the bike, one day on the treadmill, then I take a break for a day. I'm also doing some weight machines and free weights daily. In the last couple weeks I've started feeling like I've reached a plateau, which as one of my friends pointed out, probably means I need to push myself a little more. I had been doing 8 miles on the bike, which takes about 25 minutes, or 30 minutes on the treadmill, which works out to a little more than 2 miles. Now I've upped it to 10 miles on the bike or 45 minutes on the treadmill. We'll see if that solves the plateau dilemma. Otherwise, I feel great! Working out definitely isn't a chore anymore, it's just a regular part of my day. Even while I was on vacation I worked out a few times (which was a first for me!). There haven't been any drastic changes for me body wise; I've lost some pounds and I think I'm more toned, but then again, it can be difficult to notice these changes in oneself. The most noticeable change for me was when I went to the dogpark and threw the tennis ball- I launched the ball so far across the park, it was amazing!

With each day I continue to work on #14 on my list. I don't think it will ever be a goal I cross off, rather one that I continually revisit and revise, which is okay with me!

Arthropods

Sometimes I hate living in the desert. And sometimes I hate living in the desert alone. Tonight I arrived home after a trip to the local bookstore and was greeted by a giant centipede on my living room floor. I've never seen a centipede outside my apartment, nevermind actually in my apartment. At first I thought it was a scorpion, which is a sight I'm sorry to say I've experienced many times before. But on closer (and by closer I mean there was at least 5 feet between me and the creature) examination it was no scorpion, it was a centipede and it was ALIVE. I quickly grabbed a little plastic tupperware container and put it over the centipede. It didn't seem to like that at all and started thrashing around under the plastic. I put one foot on the container and stretched to grab my cell phone to call a friend for advice. Yep, that's a centipede she said. Creepy, huh? Uh, yeah! When she realized I still had my foot on the container she suggested stacking some heavy books to weight it down instead. Good idea, I thought, but the heavy books wouldn't balance on the little container. A bigger container...ah, a pot! I grabbed my pasta pot and covered the plastic container, and then stacked books on top. If that centipede was going anywhere he'd have to be one determined fucker.

I got off the phone with my friend, but the idea of spending the night with a live centipede really started to freak me out. A few minutes later a neighbor friend called. There was a little small talk, but then I blurted out, 'can you please come over, I'm having a bug emergency!!!'. I don't think he knew what to expect when he saw my make-shift centipede prison, but he braced himself with one of my Sketcher tennis shoes as I began removing the books and the pasta pot. I left the plastic tupperware container for him to remove. At one point amid the swats I screamed as it thrashed about and seemed to be getting a little too close to me for comfort. I'm not sure how many swats of the tennis shoe it took to decimate the centipede, but it was upwards of five.

As to not leave you out of my horror, here is the centipede after it met the bottom of my tennis shoe and here's a picture I found on the internet of the centipede before. Man, those Scolopendra h. arizonensis are one nasty species.

Though I am relieved not to be spending the night with the centipede, I am still rather freaked out that it was here in the first place. Thank goodness for friends who live in the same apartment complex and don't mind coming to the rescue in a bug emergency. And at least I can cross off #403: meet another Arizona arthropod.

Goodwill

For most people, Goodwill is a place to drop off castaway clothing, unwanted housewares and dilapidated furniture, and pick up a nice little tax write-off on the way out. But for a few people like me, and a good friend of mine, Goodwill is a treasure haven waiting to be explored. We relish picking through the relics and the junk in hopes of finding something perfect for us and something that henceforth we can not live without.

Recently, in a conversation with my fellow Goodwill treasure-hunting pal, she recounted some of her latest Goodwill finds, among them a set of Johnson Bros ironstone dishes. As she talked my mind began to wander to our favorite Goodwill in the posh area of town, and I tried to recall how long it had been since my last visit. Then she revealed her latest score wasn't from our favorite Goodwill, but from her new favorite Goodwill, a store they had opened on our side of town a few months ago! I knew about the new store, but had paid it little mind since I assumed it couldn't stack up to my tried and true favorite. But my friend insisted it was better: cleaner, larger, and best of all- within minutes from both of our homes. With our blood now pulsing for bargains, we quickly agreed to drop the coffee date we had been planning and meet up at the local Goodwill instead. In thirty minutes. We aren't gals to waste time when there are bargains to be had.

She was right. The new store was cleaner, and much larger, and it proved to be home to some new-found treasures for the both of us. After nearly two hours of rummaging, her finds included (another) set of brick red French country dishes (shhh, don't tell her husband), an adorable little single serve coffee pot, a small CorningWare casserole dish and a gorgeous glass fruit bowl. As for me, I've taken the time to photograph each of my finds for you, and am willing to reveal the prices I paid, all in the hopes of convincing you to start some Goodwill treasure-hunting of your own!

I started out with small and large glass Pyrex mixing bowls, the small was $2.99 and the large $3.99. Next was a lovely white quiche /tart dish for $2.99. I found a large cream serving platter for $2.99. A whimsical set of eight turquoise drinking glasses for $7.99. A large white soup tureen for $5.99. And my most prized find, a stainless steel hot & cold server, complete with little embossed penguins all around the dish, for $3.99. I have no idea how often I'll use this little gem, but I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it. The total for my purchases was a whopping $23.62. If you're doing the math at home, you've realized the numbers don't add up-okay math whizzes, I will now share with you a secret so shameful that if mentioned to me on the street I will vehemently and unequivocally deny it: I used a 20% off coupon. Yes, that's right, a coupon at Goodwill. How low can you go, you ask? Hey, we're all on a budget, especially yours truly! I'm not sure if you've ever noticed, but on the bottom of your donation slip is a 20% coupon. How wonderful and tacky is that?!

Now, if I've intrigued you, I should also warn you that there is a bit of science involved in Goodwill treasure-hunting, so these guidelines should be kept in mind: One, the quality of the goods is directly proportional to the area in which the store is located. I hate to be the one to say it, but in the wealthier parts of town the treasures are far more plentiful than in the less wealthy parts (aka where I live). So, you may have to travel a bit, but it will be well worth it. And two, don't visit too frequently. If you check in regularly, you might luck out and find something great on the day it was put on the shelf, but more often than not, you're just going to come across the same old junk you've already picked through. I like to wait a few months between trips in order for the stock to completely turn over. This could just be a personal quirk though, so feel free to visit as often as you like if that's your thing. And one last thing, don't forget your 20% off coupon! Don large sunglasses and a cap if you must, that extra 20% is what makes this a real bargain! With that, I cross of a tri-annual #282: shop for bargains at my new favorite Goodwill.