Winner of Tucson Weekly's Best Of Tucson 2016 "Best Local Twitter"

The highlight of my week was finding out that @whatsuptucson won the Tucson Weekly newspaper's "Best Local Twitter" in their Best Of Tucson 2016 voting. It's the third year I was nominated and the first time I won. That's a big freakin' deal to me. I am amazed every day at how appreciated the work and effort I put into that Twitter account is by the people who are kind enough to follow. As of this writing, @whatsuptucson has 54,800 followers and 51,600 Tweets.

Anthony is feeling under the weather so I went to PetSmart alone tonight to get Lucky a bag of dog food, then Jack In The Box for dinner (solo), and the grocery store (also solo). A pretty routine trip although I was a little surprised that the grocery store was as busy as it was considering the World Series was on TV as well as Sunday Night Football. Tucson isn't that much of a sports town though, so I really should not have been shocked.

Beautiful sunset tonight as seen from my front yard

The chair Anthony would have been sitting in

if he came with me to Jack In The Box

I like adding taco sauce to my Sourdough Jack

Abandoned strawberries and American Gangster DVD

with the tortillas.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

If I was a stripper, here's one potential stage name:

"White Fudge"

(actually, White Pudge would be more appropriate)

Abandoned Oreos with the Ritz crackers.

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo

It must be getting close to Christmas....

Nabisco only makes Ritz Fudge around the holidays.

Rachael Ray is eating herself to death!

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Bahama Buck's shaved ice is new across the street from the grocery store.

If you don't shave your ice, you'll get a hairball in

your throat when you eat it.

Here's a screen shot of the winning post

on TucsonWeekly.com:

"Best Local Twitter - @whatsuptucson"

I'd like to thank the academy and everyone who voted for me.

I'd also like to thank my beautiful wife and all of

the people I crushed along the way

in my bid for world domination.

Score one for technology

Today was exciting because I am no longer responsible for Anthony's cell phone. Every time he has dropped his phone or something happened to it he'd be frustrated with me because I didn't want to automatically pay for a new one. I was always happy to pay the bill for the service, don't get me wrong, but I didn't like to deal with the issues he often has with the devices themselves.

We went to the Sprint store and he's now sent up on his own account. Best day ever. He can drop his phone 90 times in the next year if he wants to and he'll be responsible for paying for it without affecting my existence one bit.

He also needed a new computer so we went to Best Buy and he purchased a Microsoft Surface. He's thrilled with the purchase and I'm happy for him. New technology always amazes.

After the technology run, I had dinner at Arby's and went to the grocery store. Anthony stayed home and played with his new toy.

Fernando at the Sprint store

helps Anthony set up his account

Anthony at Best Buy looking at the laptop computer choices

Anthony looks at the Microsoft Surface.

I'll bet the two sales folks at Best Buy and

Anthony all called each other so they'd

know they needed to wear matching shirts.

This evening's sunset as seen looking west

from my front yard

Tonight's dinner at Arby's:

Chicken sliders, potato cakes, and a Diet Pepsi.

The guy who took my order geeked out when

he saw the credit card I used to pay for it:

My Marvel Iron Man MasterCard

He told me is a huge comic book fan.

It didn't get me a discount though.

Anthony would have been sitting here if I wasn't dining alone

Orajel Training Toothpaste at Walmart Neighborhood Market

I've heard of a training bra but not training toothpaste.

Does it require a training toothbrush?

Discarded empty packaging left with the Pringles.

Shoplifting aftermath!

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

First visit to Mod Pizza

Anthony and I made a recent visit to Mod Pizza, a fairly new restaurant at Broadway and Wilmot here in Tucson.

We were fans of Pizza Studio when it was open, and the method Mod Pizza uses for preparing pizza is similar to a recent trend in Tucson for "fast" pizza.

It was fairly busy in there when we went for evening dinner around 7 p.m. But there wasn't much of a line so we got our orders in pretty quickly.

The pizza dough is about as thick as a saltine cracker. That explains why the pizza cooks so fast. It also doesn't make it the best part of these kind of pizzas, unless you're a big fan of saltine crackers.

They offer essentially unlimited toppings, there's a ton of choices -- both meat and vegetable, and several sizes to choose from. Anthony and I got 11 inch pies, they were priced at just under eight dollars.

Anthony says he thinks it's better than Pizza Studio was, I thought it was not quite as good. But we'd probably go back again. I am a fan of cheap and fast.

Exterior of Mod Pizza at Broadway and Wilmot

Interior as seen from our table.
The location in the restaurant to order is around the corner

to the left.

I got Canadian bacon, bacon, and mushrooms on mine.

Anthony ordered his usual vegetable assortment on his.

It's still difficult to comprehend how pizza is pizza

without meat on it.

Sourdough Jack and salsa with the soap

It's the end of another weekend. This one was a little more exciting since I went to Dessert In The Desert downtown, most of the weekend I spent at home.

I did venture outside for about four hours today for some yard work. It was 92 degrees out so it wasn't exactly comfortable yard work weather but it is not as hard core as the 105+ days I did it during the summer. I can tell it's getting cooler because everything is growing slower. I didn't do any yard work last weekend. Unfortunately, the dog doesn't poop any less when it's cooler so 15 minutes of the time I spent outside was picking up this week's little brown gifts in the backyard.

Anthony didn't want to go with me today so I went to dinner at Jack In The Box and the grocery store alone. He gave me a list of items to buy for him so at least he won't be without his Red Bull and candy bars this week.

Sourdough Jack and fries at Jack In The Box

These sandwiches are extra tasty when I put taco sauce on them

Walmart Neighborhood Market:

An empty cart left with the coffee.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Baby Ruth candy bars take a dive on the floor.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Reese's left with the Ding Dongs is so wrong wrong.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Pace salsa left with the dishwashing soap.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Popcorn left to die on the floor.

Noooooooooooooooooooo

Dessert In The Desert

My friend Rene' invited me to Dessert In The Desert, a fundraising event for Cakes For Causes. It was held at Cafe' 54 on Pennington Street in downtown Tucson.

It was a dessert buffet featuring the five most requested treats made by Cakes For Causes.

The desserts included Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes, Orange Dreamsicle Cookies (made with Tang, the orange drink powder), Cayenne Pepper Brownies (spicy little suckers), Magic Bars, and Margarita Cupcakes.

Everything was delicious and it was a fun outing. While I was downtown, I shot a few photos while I walked from Cafe' 54 to my car. Consider it a bonus for your viewing pleasure.

You're welcome.

Desserts In The Desert: The goodie table

I tried to get fancy with this photo.

Tried being the operative word...

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Orange Dreamsicle Cookies
made with Tang, the drink the astronauts drink

Cayenne Pepper Brownies

Magic Bars

They really are magic... after I ate one, it disappeared

Margarita Cupcakes

Menu

Rene' addressed the people who came to the event (on the right)

and then the head of Cafe' 54 also spoke

Here's my plate, a couple of bites in

Walking back to my car, I passed a Federal Building downtown

where you go if you need to file bankruptcy

I don't know what company is in this building

but it's kind of cool looking

This building was renovated by Weiner and Schwabe

which are also the names of one of my favorite foods

and Schwabe is my boss's last name.

Here's a SunLink train stop.

Fun fact: This train doesn't make a choo choo noise.

A bunch of pigeons and one sparrow

beating the pavement for food

Meeting Randy Harrison

One of the guests I recently booked on the TV show was actor Randy Harrison.

He was in Tucson as part of the cast of the touring musical production of Cabaret. He's done a ton of stage production work, but he's probably best known for his portrayal of Justin Taylor on Queer As Folk. That show had it's run on Showtime from 2000-2005.

My co-workers weren't impressed, but I fan girled a bit because I watched almost every episode of Queer As Folk when it was new. I even added Showtime to my cable package so I could see it every Sunday. I owned the first season on DVD but I loaned it to somebody back in the day and I never got it back. (thanks for nothing, Ernie)

He was extremely polite and it was fun chatting with him for a few minutes. He spent most of his time once we got past the pleasantries reading a book on his Kindle waiting for his time on TV. It probably wasn't as exciting for him to meet me as it was for me to meet him.

Ken Carr and Randy Harrison

One of us is a successful actor

and one of us flings poo from his cage.

You figure out which is which.

A bra-mance and a Pirate's Booty

Here's the week in a few words: It rained, I worked, I put on a bra, I did laundry, some house cleaning, ate, slept, and pooped. It's the kind of excitement that you normally have to order out of a catalog.

The bra thing was modeling a bedazzled bra that was auctioned off to raise money for the Susan G Komen breast cancer foundation. A trip up to La Encantada mall, squeezing into the silly thing, and hamming it up for 30 seconds on stage. It was part of supporting their "Real Men Wear Pink" campaign. Can't think of a better way to spend a couple hours on a Saturday.

Today Anthony came with me for a shopping trip to Target, dinner at Taco Bell, and grocery shopping.

Greg Curtis from 94.9 MIXfm, James T. Harris from 104.1 KQTH,
and I wearing bedazzled bras that were auctioned off to benefit
breast cancer research.
It's a bra-mance.

I tried on a Darth Vader mask at Target.
No wonder he was on the dark side of the force.

Can't see much out of the thing... so everything seems dark!

Pencils on the floor at Target.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Here For The Boos" t-shirt.

Aren't we all?

A Sriracha onesie.

Shockingly, on clearance.

"Witch better have my candy" socks

If I have to dress Lucky up for Halloween,

I'm buying him a spaghetti costume.

I wish they made this in Ken size.

Fancy eatin' time at Taco Bell: Smothered burrito

Anthony's $5 box deal at Taco Bell.

He threw the box away before we could find out if

he won a PlayStation VR.

Dammit.

Halloween / fall mini pumpkins, gourds, and corn
at Walmart Neighborhood Market.
Does anyone actually buy this stuff?

Abandoned cart in the beverage aisle.

They forgot their giant bag of rice, soy sauce, and soda.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Bikes on top of the soda aisle as holiday gift suggestions.

Everyone should have pretty purple tassels on their handlebars.

Pirate's Booty Mac and Cheese.
Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh it's cheesy matey.

It'll shiver your timbers all the way down your throat.

One checkout lane open at 6:00 p.m. on a Sunday

forced me to look at this woman's ass a little

too long for my comfort.

My eyes. My eyes.

Sewing kit abandoned with the candy bars at the check out.

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Chobani abandoned with the M&M's.

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Brad: Angie's Lying!"

"Her plot to destroy Brad"

"Brad's twisted double life"

"30 days to forever slim"

Hey, who put that weight loss trash in with the

magazines reporting real news!