For my next trick I made the mountains disappear

Today was a pretty unusual weather day in Tucson. There is a tropical disturbance moving through this area (which doesn't happen often in late September) and it rained most of the day.

I have a pretty nice view of the mountains north of Tucson from my backyard (once you look past the power pole, wires, and neighbor's houses) and when I got home from work tonight, the mountains had disappeared. Poof!

It's not supposed to last long. Sunny and 90's are in the forecast by Wednesday. That's a good thing, because this kind of weather ruins my hair.

View today looking north from my backyard.
Where did the mountains go?

This is what I see on most days
when there are no low clouds.
(this is a photo from June 2015)

In unrelated news....
My biggest yard related accomplishment
in recent days is the weeds turning brown
in the area beyond that line of rocks.
It only took six gallons of weed
killer and two hours in 100+
degree weather to spray it all.
Die you bastard weeds, die.

Falken tires have Ken in them

My life wouldn't be my life without some sort of car related story.

I acquired the poomobile (the name I've given my dark brown Nissan Altima I purchased in July because it's poo brown in color) used a couple of months ago from Chapman here in Tucson. They're lovely people to deal with but I knew there was one potential issue with the car when I drove it off the lot. It had tires that were probably going to need replacement in a year or maybe two. They had decent tread but looked like they had been the original set that were on the car when it was new.

It turned out that my suspicion was more right than I knew in July when I drove it off the car lot. A little over a month ago I had to take the poomobile to Discount Tire to repair a leaky front tire. It had a nail in it and was slowly leaking since the day I drove the car off the Chapman lot. Not a major issue, Discount repaired it for free. The worst of that experience was that it wasted two hours of a Saturday six weeks ago so I really couldn't complain too much.

Fast forward to Friday. I had no leaking issues in any of the tires until I got into the car to leave work Friday night and the tire pressure monitoring system beeped at me. It indicated that the driver's side rear tire had lost 15 pounds of pressure while it was sitting in the parking lot while I was working. I attempted to inspect the tire for damage and couldn't find any, or a nail or screw, but sometimes that's tough to spot with the tire still on the car.

I drove to QuikTrip and filled it back up with air (QuikTrip offers air for free, a wonderful service). A few hours after I was home I went outside and checked the pressure and it had lost 10 pounds in four hours. I knew I was going to be spending time at Discount Tire again yesterday to get this tire fixed.

A closer inspection on Friday night with a flashlight showed that the tire that was losing air had several repair plugs in it. A closer look at the other tires also showed repair plugs in those, too. I realized I needed to empty my checking account now instead of waiting until the tires were really worn out and just get a new set so I didn't have to worry every day that this was going to keep happening. The poomobile had been a rental car before it ended up in my possession so they probably had to repair the tires quite often since people who rent cars aren't exactly careful with what they drive into...or over.

$500 painful dollars later at Discount Tire and I have a new set of Falken tires. I decided on those because they have my name in the brand -- FalKEN. Extra good luck for long lasting tires, I hope.

By the way, if you EVER go to Discount Tire for anything always go online to the DiscountTire.com website and make an appointment. It doesn't cost anything and speeds the process along a great deal. You don't have to wait nearly as long and you'll thank me later.

Lobby of Discount Tire
on Tanque Verde Road.
These people didn't have appointments
and they had to get their stuff
done after the poomobile
got it's new rubber.

FalKEN tires
with enhanced dry performance
and reliable wet traction.
Sounds like a date I've had.

One of the new tires
installed on the poomobile.
You're looking at $125 for
just this one tire and
I purchased three more.
On the bright side, my wallet
is lighter and much easier
to carry around.

FalKEN tire!

Minions glasses and diabetes socks

I've found myself having a lack of free time in recent weeks and that's meant it is tougher to spend it updating this blog. It's terrible, since this is one of my favorite things to do.

I always thought that if I worked harder it would afford more things both financially and give me more freedom to do stuff I like outside of work. My life has not turned out that way at all. Oh well. It's always better than not working. Besides, I've realized that it'll take a lot more than the 50 people who visit this blog each day to make a living at it (but, I'm super grateful for the 50 who do... I love you).

Enough bitching about my life. Here's what you came here for -- some photos from a recent visit to Taco Bell and the grocery store:

Half eaten Smothered ChicKEN burrito.
Best thing on the Taco Bell menu.
On the other hand, the spork is the worst utensil
ever invented.

Boo Berry, Franken Berry, Count Chocula
cereals have appeared at Walmart Market.
It must be getting close to Halloween

Speaking of scary...
here's Shaq on the front of a
box of Fruity Pebbles.
When I think of big fruity taste
I definitely think of Shaq.

Minion glasses
Look like a Minion!
Which translates to
Look like an Idiot! in English

The wind up... the pitch...
it's a Graham Slam!
Oddly enough, these are
in the freezer section.

Teach your children how delicious
eating a bat can be with these
Bat-Shaped Chicken Nuggets!

Teach your children how delicious
bones can be with this bag of
Cheetos Bag Of Bones!

Pecan Pie M&M's
for the win

MedPeds Diabetes socks.
The handy white footbed allows
for visibility of signs of
foot wounds.
These would also be helpful for
people who occasionally shoot
themselves in the foot.

Betty Crocker Maple Bacon frosting
with little bacon crumbles in the lid.
I'll bet it would be delicious
on top of scrambled eggs.

This box of hair dye was next to
this Pecan Pie baking kit.
Don't mistake one for the other
or it'll ruin your holiday gathering.

Orange Crush and Strawberry Crush
gelatin mix.
If this was around when I was a kid
I would have made my mom buy it.
I looooove Crush drinks.

The University of Arizona graduate
gives this cheap t-shirt a thumbs up!

Shoot for the TV show at OM Yoga

Today was an out of office adventure. We had a video shoot for the TV show at OM Yoga on Oracle Road.

Show host Tina and photographer Scott did the hard work. I pretended to be managerial and shot a few photos of the shoot while it was in progress.

I don't know much about yoga except: 1.) It looks hard. 2.) It made for some fun photographic moments and 3.) OM Yoga is located in the same parking lot where a Mexican food truck was located and across the street from a DQ. After the shoot, I treated Tina and Scott to a late afternoon snack from the food truck as a thank you for their hard work.

That's my kind of yoga.

This is what I'd look like
if I were a mannequin

Yoga mats
The same material used in Subway
sandwich bread

Scott tests out a shot
before they start yoga-ing

Is this high enough for you?

Chatting about a scene

This scene had to be reshot because
Tina wasn't putting the correct
arm up at the correct time.
It was confusing the people behind her, too.

Tina prepares to go in head first

The view from the other side
of the room must have been spectacular

This is the same way I use a towel
to dry off after a shower

It's really easy.
Just put your foot in there.

Put your left foot in
and you shake it all about

She's turning the hammock
into a hammock

This would be a terrible time
to fart.
The smell would stay trapped in there!

Interview.
Meanwhile, there are people
in those sacks.

They make it look so easy

I've done this pose before.
It was followed by "Take me! Take me now!"



Shoot ended, then I did some
yoga Ken-style at the food truck outside...
Mexican hot dog and a Coke.

When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie its with Joann

Anthony's aunt is visiting us this Labor Day weekend and we took her out to dinner at Pizza Studio on Saturday night.

She was the daring one with her pizza choice: Sausage and peppers. I'd be burping that up for hours if I ate that.

Today I spent the afternoon doing yard work while she and Anthony went to Starbucks. She visited a friend this evening while we rolled through the grocery store.

I do get Labor Day off from work. It's holiday number four of the six I'll get this year. I'm looking forward to sleeping in!

Ordering the pies at Pizza Studio

My ham, bacon and mushroom pizza

Anthony always gets his
with all vegetables and that
green snot-like sauce

Shaking on the cheese
like a Polaroid picture

Joann's sausage and peppers pizza

She's giving the pizza a
"I'm going to eat you" eye

Walmart Neighborhood Market:
Banana split Twinkies
It's nice to see Twinkies
alive and well at the grocery store

Strawberry Twinkies
"Take a Twinkie Minion Selfie
for a chance to win a trip
to Paris"

It's only September 6th and
Halloween candy is already
in the store.
Christmas decorations
can't be far behind.

Nothing says "Happy Labor Day"
like red, white and blue
cookies and Rice Krispies treats