That Lil’ Ol’ Band from Texas

Well, we couldn't escape too far from Texas! When we heard that ZZ Top was going to be playing at Tim's Toyota Center, the Prescott Valley Convention & Events Center, we had to go! The guys still have it after all these years! The music was great and we were close enough to feel the bass through our whole bodies.

We had great seats right up front, just far enough back to see over the folks that rushed the stage. The audience was mostly people our age and older although there were some younger folks and even some kids who came with their folks. We went to dinner before the concert (found a good Mexican restaurant in PV) but we weren't drunk enought to fit into the crowd! Of course, Tim's is also home to the Sundogs, a minor league hockey team, so a fight broke out during the concert in the aisle by our seats!

All in all a fun evening. Art wore his Rice sweatshirt and got a wave from the warm-up band. We didn't think to take the camara but Art got some pics on his phone. As soon as he gets them downloaded, I'll add them here.

Sold--Not!

4/23/07 After I wrote the entry below we found out that the buyer was reneging on her offer and would not be buying the house. After some ugliness--the erstwhile buyer hired a lawyer so she wouldn't lose her ernest money--we've put the house back on the market today. Isn't real estate fun??

4/18/07 Today we signed the papers to sell our Houston! Yea! We were very lucky. The day after we put it on the market we had four offers three of which were for more than the asking price. With very little messing around one of those lucky folks will soon be the proud owner of a new home. Congratulations!

We bought that house with the hopes that we'd be able to make some money one it--the first time in our history of buying and selling houses. Our old realtor was right! The neighborhoods been appreciating like crazy and we caught the wave.

Bye-bye Houston!

Santeria: Correcting the Myths and Uncovering the Realities of a Growing Religion

My new book, Santeria: Correcting the Myths and Uncovering the Realities of a Growing Religion, has just been published by Preager/Greenwood. Amazon has it in stock as does the publisher. This was written to be a good starting point for folks who want an easy-to-read introduction to the religion of the Orisha. It is scholarly yet accessible without the academic jargon that peppers many of the most recent additions to the literature about this tradition--including my own Where Men are Wives and Mothers Rule. As I understand it the primary market for this book will be public libraries. You can help that along by suggesting that your local public library buy it.

Also out, from Preager/Greenwood, is Eugene V. Gallagher and W. Michael Ashcraft's five volume Introduction to New and Alternative Religions in America. This is a great reference--and the piece on Santeria in vol 5 is my attempt to provide the best 20-page introduction to the religion. The other chapters I've read have been excellent so I strongly encourage anyone interested in religion in American to check it out--and encourage your library to buy a set for their reference collection.

Moving In

Our new living room, pretty empty. Not completely since we'd brought some things from Houston during earlier trips and we'd gotten a TV cabinet over the last Christmas holiday.

The truck's unloaded and returned but the house is a mess--boxes and stuff everywhere!

But pretty soon we're moved in and ready to begin our new life. Noxy, our scaredy-cat (pictured here), must like it here. She's come out to greet several of our neighbors when they've come to call. She keeps crying to go outside, just like she did in Houston, but as soon as we open the door and everything is different from what she remembers she's not at all interested in the out-of-doors. That's just as well, we've got coyotes in the ravine behind the house and when cats and coyotes get into it the cat inevitably loses. Better to say indoors where its nice and warm!

Our New Arizona Home

240 Jacob Lane
Originally uploaded by Dr Mary Ann.

Our new Arizona adventure has begun. We left Houston March 10 and arrived here in sunny Arizona two grueling days later. By now we've unpacked, joined the local Unitarian church and started our new lives as full-time co-housers. It took a couple of weeks but we've gotten high-speed internet services, a local phone number and satellite TV--all the amenities of home.

We're still learning about the community and hope to become more involved as we get more settled.

But before we could move into the new house we had to leave the old one--boxes boxes everywhere and not a place to sit!

Here's Art standing by the half-loaded truck. He will have a close, personal relationship with this truck after driving it for two very long days to Arizona.

The cats were really freaked out to watch the whole house disappear. Of course the next day was worse, from their point of view, since we put them into their carriers and drove them across the country.

But we made it. Here we are getting ready to unload at our new home. Our nephew Andrew, help by driving Art's Mercedes for us. We look pretty happy to have arrived, don't we?



Check out the link below for information about our new neighborhood.

Manzanita Village