Block Party

A representative from CBS came to our neighborhood on Friday last week to meet with some of the Grayhawk homeowners that might be interested in participating in a new reality series they are currently calling "Block Party". She was presenting to a packed house held in the small Grayhawk Community Office. It was standing room only.

Here's basically what they're looking for:



This audition is not exclusive to our neighborhood, so if you and 7 of your neighbors want to do this feel free to send in an audition tape. The sooner the better! The tape should be about 9 minutes long, 1 minute to introduce your neighborhood and 1 minute for each of the 8 households. Introduce yourself and have each member of the family introduce themselves, so they can see and hear even the kids. They want a little background of what you do and or how you would describe your family. They're looking for varied backgrounds...a psychologist, a zoo keeper, a cocktail waitress. Is your family like the Osmonds? or the Osbournes?

They are planning to film for 3 weeks in the summer and all 8 families will need to take time off of work, so they're offering each family a $5,000 stipend if they're chosen.

They didn't mention what the competitions would entail, but CBS is also home of the Amazing Race and Survivor, so you can kinda get a good idea of the extent of challenges you could face. Food Challenge, Bungee jumping, etc. Prizes would also be offered for each challenge, too. Maybe a remodel of a room in the house, or a car, or landscaping -- you get the idea.

My friend has the perfect neighborhood to apply to this. They have block parties all the time and would have no problem finding 8 households close together. The main issue is they're worried what it would do to the relationships with their neighbors. I mean, who wants to know what the neighbors really feel about you? After the cameras are all gone, you've still got to live with these people. So, I'm not sure if they'll be applying.

It'd be great to have it somewhere within Grayhawk, though. It'd be nice to showcase the neighborhood to a national audience. Even though Scottsdale gets such a bad rap!

Extreme Disappointment

I'm home sick today. I only dragged myself off of the couch because the phone rang. I heard BT leave a message saying he was stopping by Extreme Pita for lunch and he wanted to see if I needed anything. What a sweetie.

I remember when I first moved here, I saw the small Extreme Pita store in the 101/Scottsdale Mall. But the font confused me from the parking lot. To me, from several yards away it looked "Extreme Pho". The 'i' and 't' blended in to make an 'H' and the 'a' looked like an 'O'.



See the picture above? If you look at it from far away, squint and kinda tilt your head, doesn't it look like Extreme Pho? I'm not saying I drive with my head tilted and squinting, only sometimes...

I thought "Wow! How very multicultural of Scottsdale to have a little noodle house in the mall. Imagine my extreme disappointment when subsequent visits to the mall revealed that it was a Pita place instead. All I know, with the aches and pains I've been having all day, I would kill for a good Chicken Pho!!!!

And for those of you who don't know what pho even is (pronounced F-uh), you are missing out on some good ol' Vietnamese noodle soup in all it's yummy heartwarming, soul cleansing goodness. The soup comes with different garnishes that you can add as you see fit like, onions, cilantro, thai basil, bean sprouts, lemon or lime wedges. You can also throw some hoisin sauce, soy sauce, fish sauce or Thai hot sauce, Sriracha. I usually order mine with chicken and throw in the sprouts, cilantro, a couple squeezes of lime and some Sriracha. Yep, I feel my sinuses opening up already.

Oh well, time to finish my pita and get back to the cozy spot on the couch. Feel free to comment if you know any good Pho places near Scottsdale!

Reality Invasion

I just got an email from our Community Association that CBS is looking at our neighborhood for a new reality competition series. How exciting!

They didn't give us much information except that "The network is looking for spirited and entertaining families that live in the same neighborhood to participate in a competition for substantial cash and prizes. Network representatives have specifically selected Grayhawk as their first choice in Arizona because they believe the community is perfectly fit to this series."

The community has invited families of the neighborhood to an informational video conference with the casting producers in LA on Friday.

I better make sure that my daughter takes some video footage of Dad and I during our Mad Mud Run this Saturday for the casting tapes.