Dry, Desert Heat

Well, we're here in sunny Acapulco Phoenix and it's so gorgeous outside right now. I've already taken a bunch of photos of the house we're staying in, D's friend's child, D's friend's dog, and some of plants. Plants!

The flight was good. I was panicking (as usual) before I got on the plane, envisioning all kinds of terroristic attacks, and then I thought, "Who would want to attack Phoenix? There's nothing there except cactus." And suddenly everything was right with the world and I no longer felt the need to panic and over-analyze every look I was given from the passengers around me.

For a 4 hour flight though, it felt so much longer! And OMG it was tedious. I was so bored. Of course, I could have rented headphones for the inflight movie "National Treasures" but at $5 a pop (x2 mind you) I decided that would just be insane, and didn't. Instead, I spent most of the flight alternating between trying to sleep (and kinking my neck) and kissing and verbally teasing my sweetheart. Good times.

My stomache was all a-flutter though and alerting me every so often with giant gurgles of distress mixed with searing pain, but I think that had something more to do with the fact that I ate a hearty meal of Chinese the evening before at the Mandarin All-You-Can-Eat buffet restaurant. OMG so good, but I paid for my insolence yesterday and will continue to do so for most of today, if my gurgling distressed innards are anything to go by.

Why, oh why must I do this to myself?

Anyway. D's friend picked us up at the airport - we landed half an hour earlier than expected - and drove us back to the house we're currently at. It was such a pretty drive, roughly half an hour from Sky Harbour, and full of conversation about hiking and taxes and schools with a little bit of politics thrown in.

They have a delicious looking swimming pool which I am seriously interested in, though without a bathing suit I have only 2 options. 1) I can go naked, and 2) I can go in my underwear. Well, I suppose there can be a third option of driving into town and buying a bathing suit, but that's not nearly as provocative, is it? We'll probably end up doing that anyway since D doesn't have swimmers either, and I need more than the one tshirt I came here with.

Note that I am considering purchasing more clothes, when my large suitcase weighed in at 55lbs, and my small one weighed in at 45lbs. Do I really need to add more weight to my suitcases? Alternatively, I can throw out some stuff I brought with me, like D's rollerblades for example. I'm sure they're a hefty 20lbs all by themselves.

Anyway, I'm here and so far enjoying it, though I just want these 2 weeks to be over with so I can get home already.

That's it from me for now and I'll upload more photos as soon as I can.

Getting Down to the Wire

We accomplished TWO of the myriad of things that had to get done today:

1) We did the final storage/locker run. Now everything that isn't packed, is in the storage locker, awaiting our return next year.

2) We got the car back. Actually, that's a misnomer. We don't have it back quite yet. And it's a little bit of a story, really (but don't worry, I'll make it as short as I can):

We decided to sell the car instead of leaving at the parents' place for a year. This gives us a little bit more cash for the trip and doesn't leave anything shiny in the parents' driveway to take up much needed space.

We went out and bought nifty little "For Sale" signs, and I went through about 10 stickers just writing out the price tag because I've learned that since I've been online and the invention of email, my handwriting is absolute shit.

A week after doing this, we met up with D's cousin and his girlfriend and had a fabulous time bbqing the back yard, and then going bowling in a neon-lit environment (it was very swank and my high game was 128 or something). Anyway. We mentioned we're selling the car, and D's cousin mentioned he was buying a 2006 Mustang. We told Cousin that he should buy our car instead, because it's family, yadda yadda yadda. He just laughed.

Three days later, Cousin calls up and asks if we sold the car, and if not, he'll buy it.

Cha Ching!

Now, because my darling D is such a darling, and because he takes his family oh-so-seriously (which I just adore), he decided to put the car through emissions and have it certified for his cousin. Nice thought, no?

The car went in on Thursday last week. They call D and tell him they can't pass the inspection unless his dash is fixed (it's curling upward) because apparently it's some kind of safety hazard, with the defrost not being able to reach the whole front window or something silly like that. D informs them he's been driving around like this for 2 years (because Ford won't admit they fucked up and pay for it even though it was recalled) and it has, in no way, affected his ability to drive in cold weather.

This was not good enough for Mr. Mechanic guy. Mr. Mechanic guy basically tells D that unless it's fixed, the car won't pass inspection. Price goes up.

Mr. Mechanic then informs D that his rear brakes need replacing, even though they really don't at this point, and any normal mechanic or garage would pass the car. Price goes up.

Mr. Mechanic then tells D today, when he called about getting his car back, that the wheels need to be aligned and something else needs to be done as well. Price goes up and the car won't be ready until early this afternoon.

We call around 2pm. Car will be ready by 3-4pm. We call around 3:30pm. Car's not ready yet - give it an hour or so (nevermind that they close at 6pm and we still have to get down there to pick the car up). It's 5pm and we haven't heard from Mr. Mechanic. 6pm rolls around, and D calls them back, ready to berate the ever living christ out of Mr. Mechanic if the car still isn't ready, but it turns out that it is. Hooray.

So my love is on his way down there right now to pick up the car, and to find out what the total cost for all these "repairs" is. Needless to say, this has put a great deal of financial stress on him and now whatever that amount was, is less we're going to have when in Australia.

But, it's all good and okay and everything's somewhat peachy. We still have yet to go to one of D's Uncle's house to drop off some stuff, and run one more errand before we drop the car to Cousin's house and then head out to dinner with the parents.

We still have to yoink out my harddrive from this machine, bubblewrap it and pack it along with everything else we've already packed. We have to be up around 630am tomorrow morning to hit the airport and I found out tonight that we actually go through Customs in Toronto before we take off for Arizona, not when we land, and apparently that can take about 2 hours. Hopefully we'll have some luck in the morning, and not get stuck in a 2 hour line waiting to have our shit xrayed and inspected before they let us loose in the departure area.

Is it wrong to have an alcoholic beverage so early in the morning?

Chaos Reigns Supreme

We have so much left to do today and we haven't even left the house yet. This time tomorrow we'll be in Arizona - can you believe it? I can't. Even though the past month hasn't really flown by, now on the verge of our travels, it seems like it has.

I'm very excited!!

Sunday, Rainy Sunday

I was going to write about how I have 2 days left in this country. But I thought you're probably all tired of hearing about that. So then I thought I might write about how my love is toying with the idea of starting his own blog. But then I thought maybe that would turn out all sappy and mushy and not so interesting in the end. Then I thought maybe I'd write about how I'm feeling in general, and how much I love my guy, and how I spent two hours this afternoon rubbing his feet and arms and hands and giving him a wonderfully theraputic massage - and how that led to a conversation about whether or not I should become a masseuse. But that's not really full "blog page" material, is it.

Okay, my love is sitting next to me, burning the contents of my harddrives onto a DVD in preparation of our trip and he's bored senseless. So much, infact, that he whines:

"Pay attention to me. Pay attention to me. Tell them all about me! Me me me me me!"

So now I have mentioned him. He will be happy that I've included him in [yet] another post. Nevermind that he doesn't actually come to the site to read it - I think he just likes to know he's in my thoughts when I'm writing.

"Stop playing with it!"

"You okay?" he asks.

"I have a lump on my neck," I reply, neck arched back, head resting on the back of my chair, fingers vigorously scrubbing the skin.

"Let me see."

I put my hand down.

"It's a zit!" he proclaims.

"No it feels like a lump...not there, here."

"Yeah, it's a zit."

"Are you sure? Not there...over here."

"Move your finger."

"Well?"

"It's a zit!" He sounds mildly annoyed. "Stop playing with it."

"Well better it's on the outside than on the inside."

"True."

Pause.

"Stop playing with it!"

Nervous

The final countdown has begun, and I'm terribly nervous. I'm nervous about meeting D's friends next week and spending 2 weeks with them (I hope I don't embarrass myself or him, or break anything of theirs [like their son] or, god help me, drown in their pool or get bitten by a spider or a scorpion).

To attempt to quell my fears, and get my brain out of the mode its been in, we hit Downtown yesterday and wandered all along Queen Street. It was a lovely day, albeit a little bit windy and cold, but lovely all the same. And we got some kickass photos of some of the more interesting storefronts (see Gallery below).

I'm sitting here right now with a mess of butterflies gurgling in my stomache (though in reality it's probably just gas) and trying to force myself to be calm; I've flown before and made it safely and this time will be no different.

Four days til our flight, people. FOUR. Someone assure me our flight will be a safe one and that I have nothing to worry about - except maybe the nasty food.

Days Like These

Yesterday was an amazingly gorgeous day, topping at almost 30 degrees. The sun was warm and spring-like, and there was a cool breeze blowing for most of the day. We sat out on the front patio sipping our coffee and waking up, enjoying the warmth and listening to the birds chirp sweetly as they perched on the feeders next door.

We were supposed to have gone into Downtown but not getting up until 11am sort of put a damper on the whole thing. Instead, we headed over to the storage locker and went through some things, picking out what to sell when his parents have their massive garage sale. It was supposed to have been this coming weekend, but with 80% chance of rain, they've put it off until the weekend following.

So, with a trunk and backseat full of things to sell, and a locker left with a bunch of very large items left to sell, we headed back home to price everything out and get ready. We will head back this week and pick up the big stuff to move it out, and put all the little things not being sold, back into storage.

I can't believe we're leaving in 6 days. Yesterday I began to get alot more excited; little butterflies roamed around my belly for hours. We already have things planned and mapped out for Arizona when we get there, so I think our 2 week period is going to fly by. I just hope we don't feel rushed through the whole thing.

In other news, I relinked my Flickr album with some new pictures of our trip to the Zoo. Everyone loves pictures!