Tucson Wedding Trip: Damn You Red Worm!

The morning started out with a nice swim and breakfast at Hacienda del Sol. All very pleasant really. I had no idea of the Mezcal insanity to come. Damn you Red Worm (Gusano Rojo)!

We all showed up at the wedding rehearsal at 11 AM, the hot sun pounding us into submission, a pretentious wedding planner pushing us around in her awful faux Channel get up and our group slowly melting into the courtyard's astro turf. OK, maybe I'm more sensitive to the heat than most. We had a good time and a taste of the excitement to come the following day. I just couldn't believe that the time had gone by so quickly, from engagement to wedding day.








Then off to the wonderful Poca Cosa for an excellent lunch sampler. I heard the most comments about the Tamale and the Chocolate Mousse with Mexican Chocolate. Among other things, I enjoyed the Bistec with Chipotle smoky salsa. But the gifts from Ben and Lisa were fantastic. Each one very carefully selected for that person. Obliviously alot of time & thought & money went into each one and it really showed. Thank you!

After lunch, part of the group then went off to a day spa and some went to play golf. I had never tried golfing before and was looking for a great opportunity to give it a shot and this was it. I teamed up with Bob and Betty, both experienced golfers. We were playing in teams of four and playing best ball. So the best shot out of the group each turn would be played by everyone in the group. It made it go much faster. Something I was worried about being the new guy, slowing everyone down. I think out of the 9 holes, 5 shots per hole, I made 5 really good ones. Not bad for a first timer. The last one was one of the best when I had to tee off and clear a dry river bed. It almost landed on the green. Nice.


So the insanity. That started as the group reconverged at Blanco: Tacos and Tequila.
I was shuttling some folks around so I came in on things as they were already in motion, and by motion I mean bottles of Tequila an pitchers of Sangria. I was rehydrating from spending the day in the sun but the guys were pell mell into the madness. Rev. Bryan was 'discussing' how our server needed to be this tall to ride the ride... etc. Needless to say he was cut off from his last round of Mindbenders. It soon became apparent that I was going to have to sort this out as Ben was staggering around crying and telling folks he loved them.


It was touching actually. I just get worried about whatever it is in Tequila that makes you go insane. You'll be fine up to a point and then, BAM, insane. So things got sloppy drunk and I kidnapped Ben and brought him back to the farm for containment, thinking the rest would follow. Most did and Bryan K. showed up with two 30 packs of Miller. Then Cheryl brought out the liquor cabinet and the real descent began. I looked over at one point and Rev B. had the bottle totally upside down and was chugging like it was a 2 liter of Sprite. Serious. I thought he was gonna have an aneurysm or something so I kept an eye on him. But to be honest, he seemed fine. Ken had slipped into a delirium and passed out on his face behind the shed at some point. Then Ben gave in to the evil, vomit squirting out his nose, and called it a night.


Seeing that things were winding down, I headed back up the hill to the always lovely hot tub with two bottles of wine intending to forget some of the night as well.

Tucson Wedding Trip: BBQ and Beer

The guests began to trickle in Friday morning. We were in good shape; stocked with beer, meat and beer. We had the tent, tables and chairs in place. The sun was beating down on us like an angry nun but as the gathering hour of 6 PM showed up, things settled into a nice simmer. Ben man'd the Alaskan sized Q,


Mark had the bar and the Rev. Block (yes it's official, check out the card issued from the Universal Life Church below) and countless others made side trips for supplies.



Everything went off as planned. Lots of beer, brats and conversation. Kids frolicking about, cupcakes, strangers meeting and of course beer drinking contests. No one was hurt and we all managed to get to bed at a decent hour. Well, I think so at least because at that point I was slumming in the hot tub at my well appointed retreat; the Hacienda del Sol (for photo reference see Beefcake posting)

Tuscon Wedding Trip: Hot and Smokin'

Seems like only yesterday that Ben and Lisa announced their June 8th wedding date but here it is right around the corner. I'm playing the part of the Best Man and have been doing my best-est job. I arrived in Tucson Wednesday night with a bit of a dilemma. I had wanted to treat myself a bit on this trip and toyed with the idea of getting a bad ass convertible Shelby GTH Mustang but it would have meant changing my flight to fly into Phoenix, the 1.5 hour drive to Tucson... OK, no Shelby but at the VERY minimum at nice Mustang convertible to enjoy the warm desert nights. Please no Chrysler Sebring... I rolled the dice and booked a car through Hotwire. $300 out the door for what would normally cost about $8xx. OK, so guess what I ended up getting?


Yeah, what a total piece. I took me 10 minutes to figure out that I had to set (and break) the lame trunk divider up to allow the top to retract. Ughhhh.... So Ken says he's headed to Phoenix the next morning to pick his brother up at 9 am. OK, I'll drive us and swap this thing out. We leave at 6 am and will be back at noon. No one the wiser. Got it. We'll it didn't exactly go as planned but I got the Shelby GTH. Just a little sob story but no more $$. Nice. Day 2 and I have a bad ass ride.


This thing is a monster. I took it for a spin at questionable speeds, let's just call it 100+, and it's like driving a slot car. Ben and I took it out last night, racing up Mount Lemon on some tight switchbacks and long straight aways, hanging it out all the way, skittering across the road as the tires gripped and hooked up. It just sticks and goes like hell. The feeling as the rear wheels would begin to slip out from behind you at about 60 in a tight corner, gently ease off the accelerator and feel it tighten up and pull into line again... just breath taking. Dropping your foot hard on the gas, having it down shift into passing gear as you are approach a hill, then the suspension slamming down hard as you hit it and finally the strain of the seat belt holding you in as you crest over the top, the front end of the car getting light and less responsive... not knowing if it's a blind corner ahead or a stalled car. I'd love to have one of these but there is no way I should. I guess I'm in that spot in life where I still like to have stupid, reckless fun but know better. Weird.

BTW, here is the history on the original Shelby GT350 H and the new Shelby GT-H model I was stress testing

Getting ready for tomorrow's BIG BBQ Meet and Greet. Hot sweaty fun!

Enjoy the Beefcake. The First One's Free

So I’ve debated weather to do post this for awhile now and figured that I should just go for it. We are all friends here, right? OK, whatever.

So the masses of you that read this blog regularly have probably been wondering, maybe even aloud and daily, “Mat just isn’t posting as often as he used to. I hope he’s OK. Maybe he’s busy doing something?” Yes, the truth is that I have been keeping myself very busy with two rather large projects.

One is an ongoing big, big project of remodeling the house. I’ve finished the living room and am now in the dining room prepping, painting, re-sheetrocking and replastering. This is gonna go on for awhile but I have just about finished the first Living Room post and photos. Stay tuned and curious.

The other big project is something that I’ve been putting off for sometime as well, like for 20 + years. I still remember the days of chugging a Coke and having a Butterfinger Big Bar for breakfast, thinking, “Someday I’m going to exercise and eat right… but not today. Later.” Well later finally hit me as I got so sick and tired of looking at my saggy white ass and being tired all the time. I realized it wasn’t going to fix itself so I needed to do something about it.
That was the hard part, what to do. I half assed a plan and gave it a good shot about five years ago. I told myself that I would give it 3 months of working out and eating well and see what happened. It went OK but I stopped seeing results after about a month and gave it up after three. In retrospect it was clear that I had plateau’d and needed some help to get past it. Anyway, frustrated I lapsed back into a not horrible diet and no exercise (this is supposed to be a before photo but I'm too embarrassed to post the real one).


Flash forward to almost three months ago. Starting the new job recently gave me a fresh start on things and I figured I’d throw getting healthy into the mix as long as I was changing everything else I was doing anyway. I was talking to a co-worker about it and he said, guardedly, that he had felt the same way a few years ago and bought into this infomercial DVD work out plan. He warned me it seemed TOTALLY cheesy but I had to trust him. He repeated this several times so I knew it must be really bad. Well, it did, in fact the kind of thing that I, and most of you, spend our entire life laughing at and avoiding. It’s called Power 90. I decided to go for it anyway. Not much to lose.

OK, all that said, I feel like I need to post some photos cause it actually did work. It isn’t anything really unique or groundbreaking but it gave me the structure that I needed to get moving. Basically work out for 90 days, 6 days a week, for 30 to 50 minutes a day (alternating cardio and lifting). Also eat good food 5 times a day (no white anything – bread, sugar, cream…) lots of vegetables, no processed fast food and lean meats. The results are that I’m down to 165 from 182.5 in 73 days. I missed 2 days and had a couple of meals I shouldn’t have but in general stuck with the plan about 98% of the time (total guess). I’ve got tons of energy and am in the best shape of my life. It feels great but kind of weird when I look at myself because it has been so dramatic and so quick. I’ve still got 2 weeks to go and am having trouble sticking with it cause I feel like I’m where I want to be. So it makes me realize that I’ve got to figure out a new life that incorporates a way of living that supports this lifestyle to make it really stick. Old habits die hard for sure. I’ve got 40 years of them to work through but this was the first and maybe the hardest step. Enjoy the beefcake!

S.F. Heat

It's this hot in San Francisco!!

Some kind of heat wave is here in S.F. for the week and the cats are just melting. I actually had to turn the bedroom fan on and have been sleeping with the windows open.

Favorite new old song / were they serious?

So between coats of paint on the living room walls and ceiling (I know, I know, I'm working on the posting), I had a few minutes to search the web and found my favorite new old song. Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra signing "Some Velvet Morning". I had to do a few things to pull it out of Youtube.com but here it is in all it's 70s, sideburned and mustachioed glory. It makes me wonder if they were really serious when they did this or did they know that it was over the top hokum? Wearing all black, riding a black horse across the beach and staring pensively off camera. Anyone?

It's a Mystery! (or Grace's 7th Birthday)

March brought me down to LA for Easter and Grace's 7th birthday. As usual, Mandy had planned out an excellent party. The theme was Mysteries, you know like Nancy Drew and Sherlock Holmes. So treasure hunts, pin the tail on the (?) convict and Mersham pipes were the order of the day.


The following day we enjoyed a nice Sunday Easter brunch and the Haute Dog Easter parade in Long Beach. Check out the photo gallery here

Birthday and Easter photo gallery