Last August I took a hike up Squaw Peak with a friend only to find out I was too out of shape to walk up hill! In fact the only memories I have of the first hike involves dizziness, strong desire to vomit, signs of heat stroke and extreme hypoventilation to name a few. In the end it took 1 hour and 30 minutes to reach the summit.

Luckily, I survived and was able to crawl back indoors and turn on the air conditioning. After regaining consciousness I started to ask around for other people's times and read a few blogs - all suggested 30 minutes as the benchmark of achievement. Thus began my campaign to conquer squaw peak in under 30 minutes, not to mention the chance to see amazing views of Phoenix:



I'm also happy to announce that as of April 2010, I have a new record of 29 minutes, and 44 seconds. I would like to be at 25 minutes by the end of the year, thus I will continue to keep track of each hike and strive for personal improvement (as if anyone could improve perfection). To help this process I have been timing myself with the help of a time/distance measuring iPhone app, which keeps track of each hike. I recently downloaded the data into an Excel file to see the past 10 months in a visual representation:



Since Phoenix is reaching 100 degree days here in the valley, we hike later in the day from 5 to 7 pm and if anyone wants to join in on the fun just let me know!

The fridge-of-fame; the most coveted and prestigious honor a political candidate can receive from this seasoned blog writer. This year I have had a chance to meet a few local candidates, see some old faces, and this time around add Governor Sarah Palin and former First Lady Laura Bush to the fridge-of-fame.

The Governor and her family were in Mesa for a McCain rally in late March, she came out strong against obama's out of control spending, unprecedented government growth, and unconstitutional healthcare takeover. At one point telling the teleprompter-in-chief that "we are not the party of NO, we are the party of Hell No". She was energetic, enthusiastic, and best of all right - explaining the role of a limited Government as the path to freedom and prosperity.

Despite Palin's strong message, the nightly news revolved around two failed hecklers who briefly interrupted the speech, but were quickly removed by the patriots in the crowd. As the second heckler was being removed, Palin turned to him and said "Stick around young man, you might learn something". And we all know that good advice is...good advice!

The next event included the former first lady visit through Mesa on her book tour. The hour and a half wait was well worth seeing Laura Bush up close. Although the meeting was brief and no picture was possible, there is always next time!