Yes, it does rain in Tucson

Tucson has received more than double the normal amount of rain that we get in July this year. The explosion of weeds in the last week in my backyard has been testament to the extraordinary amount of water than has fallen from the sky.

Over the weekend, we had a slow moving storm that went over the house and it turned the backyard into a lake (temporarily). The grass (if you could call it that) was cut super short on Saturday afternoon and as of this writing (Wednesday night) has already grown two inches. I'll be back out there again this weekend to chop it down again and spray the back area of rocks to make an attempt at killing the weeds that have quickly grown.

The rain made for some semi-dramatic photos:

Water water everywhere

The heavy rain was putting everything underwater

This was a couple inches of water up near the house

Lake Ken... just need a boat

51st birthday

I turned 51 years old today. I'm grateful that I've lived another year without anything particularly terrible happening. Nothing particularly exciting happened either.... which is probably good because it lessens the chance of having a heart attack from too much excitement.

Anthony is always wonderful and once again this year he out did himself. He ordered a cake that looked like a burger and fries complete with a few ants crawling on it like it was at a picnic. It's made with about 75% frosting so I may end up with a raging case of diabetes by the time we're done eating it but I've lived 51 years so.... what the hell.

Birthday activities included sleeping in, finishing laundry, eating some of the epic birthday cake that Anthony provided, my weekly trip to the grocery store, and fine dining from Taco Bell including a chicken chalupa and a bean burrito.

Happy Birthday to me.

Anthony had this amazing cake made that looked like a burger and fries

with a few mutant ants joining the party.

The blue bag on the left contained a card and some honeybuns.

Burger and fries cake, closer view

That burger was as big as the old man's head

This ant had... high hopes

Fries!

It was better not putting 51 candles on the cake

so the house wouldn't burn down

Blowing out the candles!

Notice the red cup of icing next to the fries

that is resembling ketchup for dipping the fries in.

They thought of everything.

Candles extinguished.

Tah dah!

My piece of cake

Fry with ketchup (ahem)

Birthday card

"Damn pants fell down again"

Happens a lot when you get as old as I am

Honeybuns!

These will go to good use immediately.

Ice really does melt in 115 degree heat

We're having record breaking heat in Arizona this week. The news department at the TV station decided it would be interesting to have someone come and create an ice sculpture, point a camera at it, and see how long it would take to melt in the 115 degree heat.

The set up you see below was initiated at 5:00 a.m.  I shot the first photo at about 9:00 a.m. and the second at 1:00 p.m. It was all gone, cleaned up, and the water evaporated by the time I went home at 5:30 p.m.

It really is a dry heat though.

9:00 a.m. and the ice sculpture is melting at a pretty good pace

A camera was set up to track it's melting progress

The temperature outside rapidly climbed between 9:00 a.m.

and 1:00 p.m. and the warm sun quickly reduced the

ice cactus from a recognizable sculpture to a stump

Staff meeting in the TV studio

There are 140 people that work in the TV/radio building that I work in, and when there's a staff meeting there's only one room large enough to accommodate a group that size:  The TV studio.

Not everyone can go due to schedules, etc. But, this was about half of the total staff that enjoyed some food and learned some stuff. I was asked to help coordinate the set up in this room and we got it ready in about fifteen minutes. I say we, because I had plenty of help. My co-workers are great about pitching in.

Staff meeting in the TV studio

Fun photos at work

Here's some fun photos I shot at work:

Cakes for Causes dressed up dessert for Father's Day

I shot a photo of Rene from Cakes For Causes shooting a photo of me.

Aaron doesn't even notice.

TV at it's finest: A pie in the face

Your prayer was answered.

You got a pie in the face, too.

On the left: Five pounds of muscle

On the right: Five pounds of fat

Photobomb: A guest's festive sock

Borderlands Brewing Co showed what they're bringing

to Brew At The Zoo

Jed from Reid Park Zoo brought us a fennec fox

while Tina wished the show was over so she could eat lunch

Tina reads a script from the teleprompter

while Krystal does an excellent Ken Carr impression

Staff lunch to welcome the station's new news director

Hungry co-workers dive right in.
The end.