Friday, December 23rd, 2005

happy, but sticky, holidays! The gingerbread show at Fiesta Inn.

Sorry I haven't responded to any comments. We are on a dial-up connection, so I just stay on long enough to post and read mail. I will try to respond to people if we ever find an internet cafe.

( Food in Phoenix )

Today we went to Taliesin West. I have a great deal of respect for Frank Lloyd Wright, but I am not a worshipful disciple like some people. I think it is because I am a designer so I am aware of all the other amazing people who were working at the same time but are not marketed as successfully. As a result, I took a great deal of amusement in how different the story of his involvement with the Biltmore hotel is depending on whether you hear it on the Biltmore Tour or the Taliesin tour. Short version is that according to the Talieson people, he was an instrumental part of the process, according to the Biltmore he was a pain in the you know what and got kicked out. In any case, Taliesin is a really neat place, full of amazing architectural experiments and it sounds like the school is an amazing place to study as well.

We poked around in old town Scottsdale for a little while. I used to love doing that, but I have been down here enough now that kokopelli is annoying rather than a "spirited symbol of the southwest." And exactly how many Gilbert Ortega's are there in Old Town?

Tonight after dinner (which upset my stomach, again...yeesh) we went looking at Christmas lights and to a gingerbread house display at a local hotel. I was kind of excited about that because in Seattle they have one at the Sheraton that pairs up area chefs with local architects. The results are amazing. This show, not so much so. Lots of entries from area K–12 schools. There were one or two cool entries, but there was not really enough room to display everything so they kind of got lost in the crowd of frosting. Ron's mom liked it a lot which was what mattered.

Then we went and looked at lights. First in downtown Tempe, then someplace else. I never did figure out where. I had to go to the bathroom and I felt like barfing the whole time, but considering how long we drove, I think we were in New Mexico.

I was very proud of Ron. When his mom said, "I don't care which way we go home, but if you want to take the freeway, I'll understand" he was able to translate that she meant, "please take the freeway home."

We are both in desperate need of being around guys for a little while, but we didn't bring any clothes that we don't have to wear again and they smoke in the bars here (we got spoiled fast when the anti-smoking law went into affect for us a few weeks ago...I totally disagree with it on civil liberties grounds, but it is so nice!) so now we are both updating our journals and planning tomorrows fun filled day of adventure.