Yesterday we enjoyed the first storm produced by the Monsoon this summer. Was it a doozie! It literally came out of nowhere, typical of these storms. Radar only showed a few small storm cells, and the news merely talked about a dust storm. But every year at this time, Mother Earth get's her panties in a bunch and decides to jerk around with the National Weather Service. Which is fine by me. We didn't just have rain - we had a downpour!

When the pool water dances that much - you know it's a good one. This short burst of storm activity knocked out my satellite and the cable modem. Fine with me. We have a rule in this house. If it starts to rain - cease all activity and GO. OUTSIDE. AND. WATCH. IT. It is as rare as me turning down a free beer. So when it happens, one must stare in amazement. Plus the post storm skies are always breath-taking.

Sublime huh? 

Time for the weekly AeroGarden update.

I have to say I am pretty impressed by this thing! I have grown herbs from seed before and I did NOT have this kind of growth. This photo was taken 9 days from date of planting. (Sorry I missed the week point, future updates will come by the week.)

Whoa nelly! Growth! I know it looks small, but to get that kind of growth in just 9 days is pretty amazing! I wish I could put a video camera on it so I can do a time lapse movie of just one day. SO so far so good. If this test goes well, I may just get another one so that I always have a harvest. Check back on June 30th for the next update!

Yesterday morning my wonderful hubby woke up and walked in to my studio where I had been since 6 am and said "Good morning - would you like to go see George Michael tonight?"

I then said "Serious?" Which is my response you will find to most of his ideas.

He smiled "Yea. I know how bad you wanted to go."

So we started looking for tickets. $500 a pop - best available 30 rows back. EH. I love you Georgie baby - but that is called ALMOST MORTGAGE. But we continued to look. Then I found this listing on ebay. VIP 2nd row center two tickets = $299.00. JAW. DROPPED. It had to be a scam. Feedback looked good, but not much of it. My man is like if it's too good to be true it probably is. But I was all but if it ISN'T a scam - this is an AMAZING opportunity. And he is all if we use my credit card we can get back the money if it is a scam right? So I go - Yea! The most we lose: 2 gallons of gas.

So we jumped on it.

And WE ROCK!

And O. M. G. !!!!! He is AMAZING!

As good as my photographs look, keep in mind I was using a 4 mega pixel 3 year old camera. THAT my friends, is how DAMN CLOSE we were.

Faith, Flawless, Everything She Wants, I'm your Man, Careless Whisper and about 15 others filled my night. He was so close if I tried, I could have touched him. Course he may have preferred my hubby do the touching but I digress.

We took the chance and it paid OFF! I guess sometimes you just have to say why not! I didn't get to bed till almost 2.

This last photo is for my friend Scott. Judging from the reactions of the guys around me who became my bestest freaking friends forever that night - I thought you might like it.

Sigh. Me too.

Here we are the first week of summer and I am already behind on my cocktail duties. And I call myself a DRINKER?!? Things just got a lil' busy, as they always tend to. But I am happy to report that even tho I do have this weeks recipe for you a lil late, next weeks will come on Friday the 27th. Not until about 3 pac time however so I am sorry you can't make it for a liquid lunch at work. But seeing as I work at home - I CAN! So, without further ado:

The recipe in the book was modified for my personal tastes. That will be the recipe I share with you today. First however, the ingredients:

To the woman who trusted.
Who taught.
Who corrected.
The woman who smiled.
Who cried.
Who worried.
The woman who showed.
Who listened.
Who understood.
The woman who helped.
Who carried.
Who comforted.
Thank you, especially on this day,
For making me what I am today and for giving me my wings.

Happy Summer Solstice all! May your summer be full of life and love and happiness! DO whatever you want - follow your bliss but don't forget the sunscreen.

Check back tomorrow for the first installment of "Heather's most Bodacious Summer of Cranium Cooling Cocktails" 12 weeks of summer - 12 cocktails to whet anyone's whistle. Whoot!

My hubby. Oh my dear dear hubby. Has bought me an AEROGARDEN! I have been secretly coveting one for about a year now. They keep sending me ads in the mail. Garden Porn. Fall through spring here is perfect for gardening outside, so I would, while sighing, toss out the ads.

After my tomato ordeal, and the fact that day time temps are steadily reaching 111 because the SUN. BEATS. DOWN. UNMERCILESSLY... its hard to keep a container garden like I do. The only thing that makes it through hell the summers are my peppers. (Thanks to you Mr. Grackle for NOT eating them as well.) So when we were shopping the other day and he noticed I stopped by the AeroGarden he casually asked me if I wanted one. It only took me a few seconds to wipe the drool from my lips before I said " SERIOUSSSS?" He said yea, and get the tomato pack too.

SO I DID!

Yea I so did not center that photo did I?

Anyway I looked at the box with a big ole grin on my face which then fell and I said HUH! You DONKEY! Where will you find the counter top real-estate for that?! Still I tore into the box anyway. First things first:

Comes with a Gourmet Herb Starter Kit. Remember, I got the Tomato Kit too, but I am looking for fast results here. I wanted to test drive this bad boy before I committed. But then I noticed this little teeny sticker on the box:

Now all you Cilantro haters keep a lid on it. This is the South West! We are all about Cilantro here. We smoke it like weed! We sprinkle it on our coco puffs! Complete outrage I tell you. NOT happy. But it did include two kinds of basil so they were quickly forgiven. Kinda. It went together extremely easily and was not as much of a behemoth as I first feared.

And it fit perfectly in the corner counter top. The light? Yea its pretty bright and it is on for 17 hours. But we have it set to turn off at 7pm and on at 2am so it is non-disruptive.  And guess what? I started the garden two days ago and already have seedlings! YES! Only TWO days ago. Pretty damn cool since it says right on its little pot "sprouts in FOUR to SEVEN DAYS". That's right! I'm fooling with Mother Nature.

For those of you interested I will be posting updates regarding the AeroGarden experience. That way you can test run it with me, and after a few weeks if you decide you want to buy one, you can go into it knowing hey it worked for that kooky Bodacious Girl!

Oh and Kudos to the AeroGarden company for using 100% completely recyclable packaging! That's keeping it green.

Well it turns out that while I was enjoying the cool breezy days in Flagstaff, we acquired some new neighbors. And they are greedy, loud and obnoxious. They ate all the existing tomatoes I had beautifully ripening up on my bushes, then proceeded to chew up the leaves and plants themselves. Obviously someone was raised in a barn. Meet the Grackles:

Well my week long retreat to the cool fresh air of the mountains came to a screeching halt and now I am back in hell home and rejuvenated and ready to get to it. For those of you who don't know, the "Valley" of Arizona can be subject to glass fusing temperatures from May through September. Which isn't that bad when you go from air conditioned house to air conditioned car to air conditioned store to air conditioned gym to air conditioned... well you get my drift. This is why we sometimes load up the truck and get the hell out of dodge.

Ah Flagstaff. How I miss thee. See Northern Arizona is all:

And the Valley:

Breezy little Flagstaff is:

Prickly scrawling Valley:

Oh the Mountains:

Oy VEY the Valley!

But all good things must come to a fiery end I suppose. We'll head back in a month or so. So that we can say hello once again to:

And hasta la vista to:

The Summer Solstice is in 4 days...

How do you plan on staying cool?