Friday, July 13, 2007

Here are some pics from our amazing vacation in Arizona. Enjoy.
This first pic is a photo of Jim and his friend (and now my friend) Florin who lives in Bucharest. Hopefully Jim and I will be able to go to Romania next year to visit him. Florin is an activist of GLBT people (and the pastor of the church) in Bucharest. He takes a risk everyday as people are much more conservative and closed-minded there.


A photo of me next to a cactus outside of our room at the resort. I was pretending that I had touched it and I had hurt my finger. I'm not a ham or anything.
A photo of Jim feeding the ducks at the resort. This is how we started every morning; going out and feeding them. They would see us from the other side of the pond and then hop in the water and swim over as fast as they could. Sometimes they'd even hop up onto the grass. It was a lot of fun. I didn't get a chance to feed the sparrows which ran rampant by the outside bar at the resort. Jim tried to feed the sparrows one morning and the woman behind the bar told him not to. I was going to sit where no one could see me but I never got a chance; too busy.


A photo of my feet after the first day in Phoenix, AZ. I wore sandals the first day and wore sneakers for the rest of the week. They are still healing almost two weeks later.

These are my favorite kind of cactus (cacti?). I believe they are called saguaro. This is sunset at the resort.

Some more cacti we saw at the resort.


There were lots of cacti at the resort; it was Phoenix and desert like. These are barrel cacti. They aren't my favorite but photo worthy nonetheless.


I went on a horseback riding day trip. It wasn't fast riding but trail riding. This is a pic of me before the trip. I am on a Pinto named Beau. I decided to wear a helmet so my head wouldn't burn (Jim says I look retarded; how un-pc).

Me with Jay Bakker (yes, Jim & Tammy Faye Bakker's son). He was part of a panel at the conference in AZ and, for me, it was the highlight of the conference. I waited in line twice to get my pic with him. The first time my spouse turned the camera off instead of taking the pic. Jay preaches to the GLBT community that they are loved and God loves them for who they are. He's a straight ally and I really look up to him.

A pic of our bed (which we could have had a party in) at the resort. When we checked in our room wasn't ready so they offered us a mini-suite at no extra charge. How nice!


A pic of the rest of our mini-suite at the resort. Yes, there's my honey talking on the phone (naturally).


A pic of our closet at the resort. I was excited and camera happy, ok?


The first pic of our bathroom at the resort. The little room on the left side of the pic leads into the shower.


The second picture of our bathroom at the resort we stayed at in Phoenix, AZ. We could have had a party in there. There was a shower that would have fit four people easily and a tub that would have fit at least three and another four or five could have stood around the sink which is seen here.

A picture of a real live roadrunner. Smaller than the one portrayed in the Looney Tunes cartoons but just as fast. It didn't actually run like the cartoon roadrunner but we could see it's feet moving pretty damn fast. It probably would have run if we tried to chase it. Jim decided to try and make the noise it was making and it started coming toward the jeep we were in. It crossed right in front of the jeep but was moving way too fast for me to get a better pic of it.
The first of two pics of mule deer. Not a great pic but I couldn't get the deer to stand still.

During one of our daily outings, our wildlife tour, we saw some mule deer. They have long ears like mules. This is the second pic and it's not a great one and while the guide stopped so I could take a pic the deer did not stop.


The first pic of me dancing a Native American friendship dance. You can see my backside; the one with the tan looking shirt and blue jeans.

A picture of me dancing a friendship dance with a Native American girl. I'm the one right next to the small girl on the left; she has little jingly things on her dress. I'm in the tan shirt and blue jeans with the sunglasses.


A photo of some ravens outside of our hotel room in Grand Canyon, AZ. We did not have a pleasant stay at that hotel and neither did a number of other people we spoke with.


One of the red rock mountains in Sedona. They are just incredible. I forget what this one is called; something like the Council or some important people getting together for a meeting. If you look, it does look like some impressive people convening for some important topic.

A cypress tree we saw on the wildlife tour. How strange it looks. I wonder how it formed this way.


This was taken while Jim and I were on the spiritual outing. I think Cypress trees are wonderful and I was becoming one with nature by "hugging" the tree. I was even talking to it. Jim says I wasn't really hugging it but I was pretty close. I was at least feeling it up.


Jim and I on our first day in Sedona, AZ with the red rock mountains behind us. We were standing on the back patio of our hotel room.


A pic of Jim and I with the red rock mountains in Sedona behind us.
A picture of one of the red rock mountains. They all have names such as one rock that looks like Snoopy (from Peanuts) laying down and the mountain is called The Snoopy. One of the guides on one of our day tours told us a few years ago a man climbed one of the mountains and then could not get down. He called 911 and asked for a helicopter rescue. When he found out just how expensive that would be he somehow found his way down.


A photo of the red rocks. Jim and I were on a spiritual tour of the red rocks and back roads and we were on top of one of the mountains. We were over 4,000 feet above sea level. It was so peaceful and relaxing.


A picture of a green lizard; I don't know the real name of it. I got pretty close to it before it scampered under this rock. This was on the real dirt and rocky roads we went on on one of our two tours in Sedona, AZ. Sedona is beautiful; it's where the red rocks are found and should not be missed.


The first pic of the Grand Canyon. I just could not get over how big it was.


A pic of the Grand Canyon (GC). It's huuuuuuuuuge. If you live in Rochester there's a car dealership commercial in which the guy yells "HUUUUUUUUUGE (as in huuuuuuuuge savings). It's kind of annoying but I like to repeat it from time to time.
Another pic of the GC.

A pic of Jim and me with the GC behind us.


A picture of me with the Grand Canyon behind me. Jim and I (well, really I wanted to) were going to do the skywalk but it is 240 miles from the South Rim of the GC. The South Rim is the place where most tourists go to see the GC. It's the one that was in the Brady Bunch. The GC is just so huge; it's amazing.

Saturday, July 07, 2007

AA vacation, epilogue

We are back in Dalton and the sinuses that took three days to dry up (what a great feeling to not sneeze and have a runny or stuffy nose all the time) took minutes to come back when we stepped back into the hot and humid air of Western, NY. I never ever thought I would prefer a dry and hot 120 degrees to a humid and hot 95 degrees. I'd take the dry heat anyday of the week.

I already miss AZ but it is nice to be back home. Also conferences are always exhausting. The next conference we go to we will follow the same plan; vacation for a few days before the conference starts.

Now reality starts again.

More later,

paul

Friday, July 06, 2007

AA vacation, Day 9

Didn't do too much today. There wasn't even any worship this morning. I meant to go to an afternoon workshop but I was too tired and sweaty after doing laundry with Martha this morning. It will be nice to go back home with only clean clothes.

In a bit we will be going to the final worship service and then having dinner at Carrabba's with our Romanian friend Florin. He's a great guy; soft spoken, to the point and more into activism than being a pastor.

Tomorrow morning we leave: Early.

It's been a great vacation and will be nice to get back home.

Till later,

paul

AA vacation, Day 8, Part 2

Thursday was a hot one. 120 in downtown Phoenix and some areas of Phoenix got up to 136.

After dinner on Thursday, Deacon Deb, her partner, Martha, and I went to sing karaoke. Martha sat and took pics and Deb and I sang. We did a duet to MercyMe's "I Can Only Imagine" and I did a solo to The Wallflowers's "One Headlight."

It was a bittersweet day because tomorrow is our last day in beautiful, resorty, Arizona.

And still no tumbleweeds. I have met some really neat people from all over the world: England, South Africa, and Germany to name a few.

peace,

paul

Thursday, July 05, 2007

AA vacation, Day 8, Part 1

Today started out like all of the other days so far except that I had not slept at all; maybe one hour at the most. I was given a book on Romania by our friend Florin and left it on the table at the restaurant last night. The three of us had been discussing Jim and I possibly going sometime next year. I've NEVER been overseas so that would be fabulous. Of course Jim says I only want to go so I can get one of those stamps in my passport. Oh, he knows me so well (heehee).

Thankfully this morning I went back to the restaurant (they also serve breakfast....whew) and they did have it in the lost and found. Thank the heavens!!!!!!

We did the morning service and then me and my friend Corinne went to see Sicko, Michael Moore's new film. Much better than Fahrenheit 9/11. Michael Moore may be a lot of things but he is not evil and he's not a bad guy. The film should be a blaring wake up call to ALL AMERICANS in this country. Why in the hell are we so friggin' complacent and afraid of the government that WE elected. What the hell is wrong with this picture? Lots!

In other news it's a sweltering 120 in downtown Phoenix and I have to say I have gotten used to this weather and I don't mind it one bit. The only thing I don't like is the heat of the car when first getting in.

More later.

peace,

paul

AA vacation, Day 7, Part 2

Well it got up to 115 degrees in Phoenix yesterday. I got to meet Jay Bakker, the son of Jim and Tammy Faye. A straight guy, Jay founded Revolution Church in Phoenix and now travels to the GLBTQI community with positive messages for a hurting community.

He's a great guy; very well spoken and smart.

After that I suntanned for a bit but I don't think it did any good. Jim and I went to evening worship and then took our Romanian friend, Florin, out again for dinner.

Long day and I'm beat.

More tomorrow,

paul

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

AA vacation, Day 7, Part 1

On our way out to worship this morning we again stopped to feed the ducks. They are so cute. And there are bunny rabbits hopping ALL over the resort. Sometimes I don't even notice them at first because they are so still. We can get relatively close to them but once we start walking their way, they hop away.

Worship this morning was good. The preacher has three adopted children; two Hispanic and one Chinese. Of the three two are deaf. The preacher was raised Southern Baptist and his spouse is Jewish. Talk about a melting pot!

Later this morning we'll be hearing Jay Bakker, the son of Jim and Tammy Faye. He is an advocate of gay rights and he's not even gay. Excellent!

It's currently 94 degrees at 9:29 am. Yesterday it got up to 108 and today and tomorrow it is supposed to hit 115. Everyone is saying it's going to be the hottest day of the year. I've spoken to several people who have lived here for quite a long time and they don't like the heat; they'd prefer the heat (and humidity) of Florida. Give me this any day.

Happy 4th.

paul

AA vacation, Day 6, Part 2

Well I survived the long and drawn out business meetings. Remember as lay delegate for the church I had to be there to vote. The old adage remained true throughout: Everything has been said just not by everyone. So, of course, "everyone" had to try to say everything again and again and again.

This evening we blew off worship and took out Jim's Romanian friend Florin. We took him shopping and then had dinner with him. He's a neat guy and very soft spoken. Jim makes fun of his English but it's all in good fun.

It's late and I'm beat.

more later,

paul

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Tuesday humor

I found these amusing......enjoy and beware of The "S" people.


I was at the checkout of a K-Mart. The clerk rang up $46.64charge. I gave her a fifty dollar bill. She gave me back $46.64. Igave it back to her and told her that she had made a mistake in MY favor and gave her the money back. She became indignant and informed
me she was educated and knew what she was doing, and returned the money again. I gave her the money back again...same scenario! Ideparted the store with the $46.64.................They Walk Among Us, and Many Work Retail.

I walked into a Mickey D's with a buy-one-get-one-free coupon for a sandwich. I handed it to the girl and she looked over at a little chalkboard that said "buy one-get one free." "They're already buy-one-get-one-free", she said, "so I guess they're both free" She handed me my free sandwiches and I walked out the door.................They Walk Among Us, and Many Work Retail.

One day I was walking down the beach with some friends when one of them shouted, "Look at that dead bird!" Someone looked up at the sky and said, "Where?"

While looking at a house, my brother asked the real estate agent which direction was north because, he explained, he didn't want the sun waking him up every morning. She asked, "Does the sun rise in the north?" When my Brother explained that the sun rises in the east,and has for sometime, she shook her head and said, "Oh I don't keepup with that stuff."................They Walk Among Us!!

I used to work in technical support for a 24/7 call center. One day I
got a call from an individual who asked what hours the call center was open.
I told him, "The number you dialed is open 24 hours a day, 7 days aweek." He responded, "Is that Eastern or Pacific time?" Wanting to end the call quickly, I said, "Uh, Pacific."

My sister has a lifesaving tool in her car designed to cut through a seat belt if she gets trapped. She keeps it in the trunk.................They Walk Among Us!

My friends and I were on a beer run and noticed that the cases were discounted 10%. Since it was a big party, we bought 2 cases. The cashier multiplied 2 times 10% and gave us a 20% discount.

I couldn't find my luggage at the airport baggage area, so I went to the lost luggage office and told the woman there that my bags never showed up. She smiled and told me not to worry because she was a trained professional and I was in good hands. "Now," she asked me,"has your plane arrived yet?"

While working at a pizza parlor I observed a man ordering a small pizza to go. He appeared to be alone and the cook asked him if he would like it cut into 4 pieces or 6. He thought about it for sometime before responding. "Just cut it into 4 pieces; I don't think I'm
hungry enough to eat 6 pieces."

paul

AA vacation, Day 6, Part 1

It's hard to believe we've been here for 6 days. Both Jim and I were wiped out after all the excitement and stimulation yesterday.

We woke up this morning (actually, Jim woke up and I wanted to sleep longer but I finally got up after Jim kept saying in a whiny voice, "Come on."

We went out and fed the ducks for a while then drove to get breakfast. We stopped at a place called The Good Egg. The food was alright and not bad pricewise.

Jim is at the morning worship service then he's off to bible study. I've opted to skip those since I'll be in business meetings all day. Normally I wouldn't attend but I am the lay delegate for the church because the real lay delegate could not attend. The board approved me to be the alternate this time. So I have to vote on anything that requires a vote. I familiarized myself with the info yesterday so hopefully I'll be ready.

It's a wonderful 90 degrees in Scottsdale at 9:11 am.

more later,

paul

AA vacation, Day 5, Part 2

Well the conference is officially on. The different regions met separately with their elder (the equivalent of a bishop) and we discussed how each church in the region is doing (we are region 3). It's the same each time; congratulations and accolades...yada, yada, yada.

After that Jim and I napped for a while and then we went to the first service of the conference. Our moderator (the equivalent of the pope) Nancy Wilson preached. It was a 2 hour service with lots more congratulations and applause. It got to the point where I was not going to give anyone else a standing ovation. Again, it's the same each time.

We then caught up with one of our fellow congregants who had moved to Phoenix a few months back. It was good to see him and his new boyfriend. Then a group of us went to the main pool at the resort and ordered dinner and drinks. One glass of pinot noir was $12.00. Yikes! By the way, the food was unsatisfactory.

It's been a long day; so much interaction and catching up with people; it's exhausting.

I'm going for a short swim now and will write more tomorrow.

love,

paul

Monday, July 02, 2007

AA vacation, Day 5, Part 1

This morning when we woke up we were having such a relaxing morning; Jim at the computer, me still half sleeping in bed until I heard Jim yell, "Ewwwww!" I asked him what it was and when he didn't say anything I looked over and saw a cockroach on its back. Apparently Jim picked it up thinking he had dropped something and felt "all legs" as he said. The resort must spray because the cockroach was dying but still alive. Jim threw it out our room door and later when we stepped out, we saw that something had eaten it. All that was left were the wings. We were also surprised to see a covey of chukkah quail.

We went out to have breakfast; actually Jim ate and I had orange juice. Then we went to a grocery store called Basha's. In Arizona we are able to buy wine and hard liquor at the same store we shop for our groceries. Convenient.

After that we went back to the resort to register for the conference. I told Jim I wanted to be very early but we got there at about 8:30. Registration started at 8. It probably wouldn't have made much difference as it seemed that people had started lining up before 8. We spent two and a half hours in line to register. There was a meltdown with the computers with the info in them and they had to manually enter everyone's name to make the tags.

We are chilling a bit now and will have our first meeting at 1. Right now in pretty Arizona it is 100 degrees. I just can't get over the landscape here. Lots of open fields with cacti, bushes, palm trees, and sand. I really like cacti; they are just wonderful plants. Apparently birds can sit on them without hurting themselves and we even saw one with a bird's nest inside.

I'm off for a quick snooze.

more later,

paul

AA vacation, Day 4, Part 2

After getting checked in and taking a brief nap, Jim and I met up with a couple from the church and decided to go tooling around Scottsdale for a restaurant. We drove around for about 20minutes before finally deciding on an Italian restaurant called Arrivederci. It was really Italian and really good food. I had cannelloni di carne. I didn't have dessert but I did try an Tuaca which is kind of like a scotch drink. I was going to try grappa but Jim said that a diesel engine could run on grappa so I decided not to chance it.......this time.

So far I'm really enjoying Arizona. I'm used to the heat and I'm not even sweating. I also saw, for the first time ever, not one, but two dust devils. One crossed right in front of us. So cool!

Now I'm going for a short swim in the pool and lounge in the jacuzzi for a bit.

More tomorrow.

paul

Sunday, July 01, 2007

AA vacation, Day 4, Part 1

This morning we woke up and planned to travel to the Grand Canyon. When we checked out of the Best Western, Jim was in line to hand in the keys and more than a few people were expressing their dissatisfaction with their stay at the hotel. In fact, when Jim was next in line to be helped, the manager said to Jim, "I'm helping her," (referring to another woman) and walked away. The friggin' manager. I'm so glad we weren't the only ones disappointed. I've told Jim to never book us at a Best Western again; especially in the Grand Canyon. I did, of course, fill out the comment card to express my dissatisfaction and I mentioned that Stefan (see previous post) was quite helpful. I don't care if it gets thrown away, at least I filled it out. Unfortunately, neither one of us did a good job of researching the Skywalk. Jim usually does the research but I was the one that wanted to do it. Come to find out the Skywalk is not at the South Rim; this is the place that most people go to see the Grand Canyon. In order to get to the Skywalk, we would have had to drive 70 miles south to Flagstaff then drive West then drive up North; all told it would have been over 200 miles from where we were.

We did spend some time at the GC and it is so breathtaking. One interesting statistic I read was that over 250 people either fall or are rescured from the GC each year. There is even a book I came across that has stories of people who have fallen to their demise or who have had to be rescued; that's the whole book. Also, according to one of the guides, a few years ago a man climbed one of the rock formations (in Sedona) and when he got to the top he could not figure out how to get down. He called 911 and when told how much it would cost for a helicopter rescue (over $3,000) he managed to find his way down.

We just got through checking into the resort in Scottsdale; it's called the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess resort. This is where we will be staying for the next week during the conference. There are 651 furnished guest rooms, 72 villas and 119 newly renovated casitas. This is what we are staying; a mini suite in a casita. Each casita has 4 mini suites. We were supposed to have a regular room but at the check in counter we were told (again) our room wasn't quite ready. So we were given a mini suite at no extra cost. The resort has bunnies, birds and other little critters literally all over the place. I'm definitely going to spend some time feeding them. No signs not to so I'll be feeding away. It's fun for me. I've also told Jim that we WILL go swimming this week. It's a really cool place. I've taken plenty of pics. It's a huge property and a great place for a world conference. If you'd like to see pics of the resort, I've included a link below. And it's a dry 109 degrees right now with a hot breeze blowing; but no sweat.

http://www.fairmont.com/scottsdale/

Now we are off to find some of our church people and do something.

More later,

paul