Cakes for Causes calendar signing event

Even though the move from the apartment to the house isn't quite finished, my life is returning to a little more normal of a flow. There were a couple of spare hours in my schedule this evening and I had the opportunity to help out my friends from Cakes for Causes with a calendar signing event at Midtown Bar and Grill on Speedway Blvd.

I posted a handful of weeks ago my excitement at being on the cover of the Cakes for Causes 2015 calendar. Some people have wanted a signed copy, I've been happy to oblige.

Cakes for Causes is a Tucson non-profit organization that is made up of a group of volunteers who make sweet treats for other non-profit's events.  100% of the calendar's proceeds is being used to buy the ingredients that they use to make their delicious desserts, cakes, cookies, cupcakes, etc.

While I was at Midtown, they were having a live wrestling event. The WWE style of wrestling. It was a trip to watch, they wear costumes and put on quite a show for their spectators and patrons. It wasn't quite as exciting as me signing calendars, but close.

The calendar very nice. It features recipes for a variety of baked goods, and of course, little ol' me on the cover -- which is perfect to use as the bulls eye for a dart board, as toilet paper, to line the bottom of a bird cage, or wrapping fish.

If you want a really nice calendar for 2015, you can order one that is shipped right to you for $22 ($20 for the calendar, $2 for shipping) by clicking here.



The Cakes for Causes 2015 calendar
featuring a familiar rounded headed
kid on the cover.

The signing event poster.
That may or may not
be my real body.

I looked so good on the event poster
I had to kiss myself.

The event poster and calendars
ready to be purchased.

Cakes for Causes

These lovely ladies
showed up for the signing event.

Live wrestling on the patio
at Midtown Bar and Grill.
I would have done some wrestling
but I didn't want to mess up my hair.

Why I'm thankful this Thanksgiving

I've been a bad boy... I haven't written a blog post in three weeks. My 2014 goal was to post at least several times a week, but all of my spare time and resources have been invested into the move from the apartment at Ridgepointe to the house near Grant and Swan.

This is the 25th move I've made in my lifetime and easily ranks number one as the most difficult. It's taken the longest, cost the most, and never seems to end. (It's still ongoing -- started October 25). As of right now, I have two or maybe three carloads of stuff left to bring and then the cleaning of the apartment.

I've often felt like a failure during this process. Anthony has been helpful in a variety of ways but is difficult for me to negotiate with on a number of points. I haven't been successful in selling him on why I want to do some things a certain way in an attempt to make this process easier. It's not his fault. I never figured out how to make him feel like my ideas would benefit him as much as they would me (or us). He has strong opinions about what works for him and I can't say anything negative about him looking out for his own best interests and feelings.

As far as why this process has been lengthy and difficult -- to start with, the house needed a lot of cleaning. There have been a lot of problems to solve including how to heat the back half of the house (the furnace only feeds heat to the front half), why the clothes washer had the hot and cold water switched, where everything should go, getting cable installed, having furniture delivered, switching out the light bulbs in the house to more energy efficient ones, how to successfully integrate Lucky into his new surroundings, what areas of the house are off limits to me, figuring out why the bathroom I'm using had such a slow drain in the shower, the list goes on. I also made the decision to do this without taking time off work. It could be debated about whether that was the right choice but this process has taken so long that I would have been disappointed that I couldn't do the whole thing taking a couple of days off.

I'm thankful that I decided to give this a shot. I've been hesitant to move from the apartment due to costs and the gut feeling that it would be a challenging move. I was right, and even though the house rent will be 1/3 less than the apartment, the front end costs have been huge. But, nothing exciting happens in life without risk. I sometimes feel stagnant in my life without challenging myself. So, I'm giving it a shot.

Today, Anthony and I took a break from moving and unpacking and went to his mom's for Thanksgiving dinner (and his brother Mike also was there) and it was delicious. I had a nice time.

I have been a loser at taking pictures the last few weeks -- as in, I've almost stopped entirely. That will resume shortly since things are starting to calm down a bit. In the meantime, enjoy this photo of Anthony, Brin, and Alex at the James Van Praagh show a few weeks ago (he's a guy who speaks to the dead). Anthony and I took a break from moving to go to this event. And, Alex was kind enough to devote half of a Saturday two weeks ago to help me move the large pieces of furniture from the apartment.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Anthony, Alex's girlfriend Brin, and Alex
at the James Van Praagh show.
James spoke to the dead
and I successfully farted undetected.

It's so hot at Sycamore Creek - it's flaming

Sycamore Creek, one of the apartment complexes east of Ridgepointe where I live, had a unit catch on fire tonight.

It happened while I was taking my early evening nap. But, thanks to the amazing Twitter followers I have on @whatsuptucson, I was alerted and able to walk over to the east side of Ridgepointe and take a picture over the wall of the firefighters while they were still on scene.

According to Tucson.com, neighbors noticed an apartment on fire while the resident of that unit wasn't home, and kept the fire from spreading using fire extinguishers until firefighters arrived.

From what I understand, one unit was heavily damaged, another had smoke damage.

I don't know what the cause was and I'm glad no one was hurt. On a side note, fire trucks excite me.

Tucson Fire trucks at Sycamore Place.
Firefighters know how to handle
a large hose.

Office Depot needs the D

I stopped by Office Depot tonight to pick up some Bankers Boxes (they come with lids, are well built, and are a good size to pack a variety of things in when, for example, you're me and moving to a house from your apartment).

The 'D' was burned out on the store's sign at Speedway and Beverly.

I think this store really needs the D. And, on this sign, it's not the small d. It needs a big D.

Office Depot at Speedway and Beverly
needs the big D.

Halloween 2014

Anthony and I are in the midst of moving to the house over near Grant and Swan, so Halloween night (Friday 10/31) was full of cleaning and preparing the place we're moving to for our arrival.

However, we did dress up and attend a Halloween party on Saturday November 1.

Our costumes were "ebola infected doctors". Props to Anthony for the idea and putting it together for both of us.

I shot plenty of photos. Here's the link to the photo album of all of the pictures: Click here

Here are a few highlights:

Ebola blood is not red

I think I have a touch of the ebola

Home photo shoot where the ebola infected
doctors were still in quarantine.

Anthony looks a little too happy
to be infected with the ebola.

Shuttle ride to the party:
This is my co-worker Shane
who proved there is something
under his kilt.

Front yard of the party house

Interior shot of the party house

Interior shot

Interior shot where the bar was set up

Interior shot where clowns greeted,
more like scared,
arriving guests.

Don't axe, don't tell.

Interior shot at the party

A clown and an ebola patient
walk into a bar...

Bree, Alex, Anthony, Tommy, Holly

I may not make it to work
on Monday.
I have a touch of the ebola.
Cough cough.

Halloween sunset over Tucson

I went to Lowe's at Speedway and Kolb on Halloween right after work to purchase more light bulbs for the house I'm moving to and thought this was an interesting looking sunset.

Sunset looking west from the Lowe's
parking lot at Speedway and Kolb
on Halloween.

Trick Or Treaters eat my candy

There's a tradition at the station each year where my co-workers bring their kids around to trick-or-treat and score some candy. They did it again this year.

I was ready -- I purchased approximately ten bucks worth of mini candy bars when we went to Walmart Market last weekend (that's the only truly cool candy you can get on Halloween in my opinion) and I had a camera ready. I figured if I'm spending my hard earned money giving children that I don't really know a bunch of candy bars, then they owe me a picture. That's how I roll.



The candy awaits the trick or treaters.
Or as I like to call it, KENdy.

The guy on the left is dressed as a news photographer
and she's dressed as an unhappy tiger.

Biggest group of trick or treaters
I had at one time

That guy on the left has
a bit of an overbite.
We have plenty of dental offices
as guests on my show that
would be happy to take care of that.

I don't keep up on my Disney characters
but I'm guessing this is one of them.
Either that, or she borrowed this
from one of my gay friends.

I told her to take plenty of candy.
She looked a little boney.

Happy Halloween!
Now get out so I can eat
the leftover candy!