Me and a hottie

Debbi flew into Phoenix on July 3rd. She caught an earlier flight that arrived at 4:00p. I was frantically trying to ready my apartment and accidentally left my cell phone at home. It wasn't until I got home from work at 5:00p that I found out she was on the earlier flight.

I quickly checked the mail and headed to the airport. I had never been to Sky Harbor and found locating Debbi a challenge. I had her on the phone, but neither of us knew where she was. There are a few terminals separated by quite a distance. They are numbered 2, 3, and 4. Maybe there is a terminal number 1, but I never saw it. Where Debbi was waiting was not clearly marked, but we eventually determined she was at terminal 2. I finally found her. By that time I was pretty mad at the airport's layout. Still, I had no trouble greeting her like she deserved.

I hadn't planned anything for that evening as I initially expected Debbi to arrive at 10:30p. Debbi, not used to the Arizona heat and worn by an airplane ride, took a shower. BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse came highly recommended. There we shared a delicious buffalo chicken pizza.

The next day was Independence Day. I had the day off, of course. We started the day with some geocaching. One cache was in a cactus garden cared for by a local neighborhood. Unfortunately, some cactus spines got stuck on Debbi's purse and soon transfered to her leg.

That afternoon, we went to the July 4th Tempe Town Lake Festival, where we enjoyed a burger, Navajo Taco, and caramel apple before a 35 minute fireworks display over the water. The temperature that day got as high as 118 degrees.

After the festivities, there was some kind of accident at the bottom of the parking garage. Emergency vehicles came. Luckily they were not far away. Still, no one was able to exit the garage for quite a while. It was hot, everyone had a long day, tempers rose, and horns began to honk. Debbi and I got out of the car and walked back down to ground level to enjoy a little more of the evening together.

I didn't know until the last minute that I also had Thursday the 5th off of work. I hadn't planned anything for the daytime. That evening, though, Debbi and I enjoyed some wonderful dinner theater at Broadway Palm. The meal was buffet and the show was The King And I.
I had to work the next day, Friday. Debbi brought me a hamburger and fruit for lunch. We ate in the lunchroom at work and she got to meet a few people that I work with. Debbi even got to have a lengthy conversation with Dr. Hobson about her work and studies.

After work, we planned to visit the local waterpark. The other interns were invited, but the guys from Waterloo were out of town as was Jen from ICO. Carla was sick, and that left just Albert. Jen said he'd call me if he wanted to go. No call, but that's ok because lightning began striking as we were driving to the waterpark, so we turned around. We thought we might go sometime that weekend instead.

I had such a good time at Old Tucson Studios with Grandpa that I took Debbi there on Saturday. We explored parts of the park that Grandpa and I didn't get to before and did some stuff that I had done before. I especially enjoyed my two lemonade slushies.

Old Tucson Studios closes at 4:00p, so we had plenty of time to catch a few geocaches and explore the area. It was incredibly hot. I'm glad Debbi decided to freeze our water and keep it in the trunk while were were in Old Tucson Studios.

On Sunday, we planned a day trip to Sedona and surrounding sights. We even loaded some geocaches into our GPS. It took longer than I wanted to print our travel information. Eventually we got packed and headed out to the car only to be greeted by "click." Yeah. Dead battery.

The only tools I brought with me were on a knife, so I called the guys from Waterloo. They gave us a lift to Wal-Mart where we bought some tools and a new battery. I wasn't entirely convinced the problem was with the battery as the 1997-2003 Grand Prix has a known issue with the battery wires. I disconnected the battery and cleaned some corrosion off. With some effort, the car started. In any case, we decided to stay in and watch the first part of Casino Royale.

The next morning, I was able to start the car with some effort. At lunchtime, I found myself unable to start the car. Instead of driving back to the apartment to spend the hour with Debbi, I rode with the guys to their apartment and had a sandwich and enjoyed some Rosanne and Millionaire.

At the end of the day, I got a jump from Andrew's Acura, which itself has a failing battery. I drove to the apartment and picked up Debbi without turning off the car. Then we went to Auto Zone for some free diagnostics. The problem was, in fact, the battery. We went back to the apartment and raced the sunset to replace the battery. The battery is in the tightest possible corner and had no handle. I'll tell you, that was not an easy job.

There's a bracket that secures the battery at its base. The bolt holding the bracket was difficult to remove and impossible to replace. We temporarily secured the bracket with a zip tie, I think from my emergency road kit, and returned to Auto Zone for a socket extension. With the extension and a better angle to yank on the socket wrench, the bolt was tightened in no time. It was 8:00p by that time. We had enough time to finish watching Casino Royale and get to bed as Debbi had to be at the airport at 5:30a.

So I dropped Debbi off. Didn't get out of the car to say goodbye. It's drier that way. I had enough time for a nap before work, but Debbi instant messaged me from the airport and I was awake...and alone.