So, Halloween this year is going to severely inconvenienced for us. My 8th grader has made it to the semifinals in football league and we are playing at Brophy with the game starting at 4:00pm. Game probably won’t be over until around 6ish. We live in Mesa and probably won’t make it back in time to enjoy trick-or-treating fully. Was looking for good places for my 7 year old to get some candy after the game around Brophy. Anybody have some suggestions?

Be smart out there

I went on a small hike yesterday morning and enjoyed some nice views of Lake Pleasant. I love that it's the time of year where I can hike in the valley. Does anyone have any good suggestions? I've hiked around deem hills a lot, cave creek regional park, usery mountain regional park. I've also done a lot of the "destination hikes" in the valley like Tom's Thumb.

Hiking is a totally new hobby for me, I've only been doing it regularly for about a year. I'd love to hear from the pros!

The train ride was exceptional!

Hey all -- if you're not familiar with it, the state performs reviews on judges by their peers. You can find those documents at this site: https://jpr.azcourts.gov/Judicial-Performance-Reports/2026-Judicial-Performance-Reports/2026-Maricopa-Reports

I thought this year, I'd use some tokens and let AI help me analyze which judges to vote for, since those votes can actually be pretty consequential. Judges in those positions that impact the day-to-day lives of everyone. It ran an analysis on all of the scores provided by judges' peers on that site, came up with a median score, then gave me a yes or no vote based on whether that judge was above or below the median.

I want to stress that these reviews are non-partisan. They're simply peer reviews from folks who actually work with these judges.

Here are the results:

┌──────────────────────────┬──────┬────────────────────────────┐
│          Judge           │ Avg  │       Above median?        │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Astrowsky, Brad          │ 94.4 │ No                         │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Blair, Michael C.        │ 97.2 │ Yes                        │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Blanchard, John L.       │ 95.8 │ No                         │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Brain, Mark H.           │ 97.8 │ Yes                        │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Brooks, Robert I.        │ 95.8 │ No                         │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Cairo, Sunita A.         │ 98.4 │ Yes                        │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Carson, Michelle         │ 92.0 │ No                         │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Como, Gregory S.         │ 97.4 │ Yes                        │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Cooper, Katherine M.     │ 95.2 │ No                         │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Covil, Max-Henri         │ 91.2 │ No                         │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Culbertson, Kristin      │ 94.0 │ No                         │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Davis, Marvin L.         │ 97.2 │ Yes                        │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Edelstein, Monica B.     │ 95.6 │ No                         │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Fish, Geoffrey           │ 98.8 │ Yes                        │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Fox, Dewain              │ 98.2 │ Yes                        │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Francis, Jillian B.      │ 91.0 │ No                         │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Gilla, Marischa H.       │ 98.8 │ Yes                        │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Green, Jennifer          │ 98.8 │ Yes                        │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Guyton, Lauren R.        │ 86.8 │ No                         │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Harmon, Melody Garland   │ 98.8 │ Yes                        │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Herrod, Michael J.       │ 98.4 │ Yes                        │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Jackson, Charlene D.     │ 85.8 │ No                         │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Julian, Melissa I.       │ 96.8 │ Yes                        │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Kalman, Amy M.           │ 92.0 │ No                         │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Kiefer, Joseph S.        │ 98.0 │ Yes                        │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Korbin Steiner, Ronee    │ 96.6 │ Yes                        │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Kreamer, Joseph C.       │ 98.4 │ Yes                        │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ LeMaire, Kerstin G.      │ 99.2 │ Yes                        │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Martin, Daniel G.        │ 99.6 │ Yes                        │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Mata, Julie A.           │ 82.8 │ No                         │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ McCarthy, Steven W.      │ 94.2 │ No                         │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Moskowitz, Frank W.      │ 96.0 │ No                         │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Myers, Samuel J.         │ 98.6 │ Yes                        │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Nicholls, Suzanne M.     │ 76.6 │ No                         │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ O'Donnell-Smith, Colleen │ 87.4 │ No                         │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Polk, Jay M.             │ 95.6 │ No                         │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Rassas, Michael Z.       │ 91.2 │ No                         │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Rogers, Joshua D.        │ 96.4 │ No (exactly at the median) │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Rueter, Jeffrey          │ 97.4 │ Yes                        │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Ryan-Touhill, Jennifer   │ 88.8 │ No                         │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Schwartz, Aryeh D.       │ 97.8 │ Yes                        │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Viola, Danielle J.       │ 99.4 │ Yes                        │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Warner, Randall H.       │ 98.0 │ Yes                        │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Welty, Joseph C.         │ 97.6 │ Yes                        │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Whitehead, Chuck         │ 97.8 │ Yes                        │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Williams, Paula A.       │ 83.2 │ No                         │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Wingard, William R.      │ 94.4 │ No                         │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Woo, Cassie B.           │ 92.2 │ No                         │
├──────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Zabor, Melissa M.        │ 89.4 │ No                         │
└──────────────────────────┴──────┴────────────────────────────┘

Use this at your discretion, let me know if you guys have any questions. Just trying to make it easier to make informed choices.

Scott’s in the background

Prescott loves Flagstaff an original Love story

Taken in Apache Junction

A bit north west of Hyder but south of Apache Box, I found a field of rock ambush blinds in the saddle of a hill. Had to be somewhere around 20 of them, with varying elevation and overall size. I did find a single piece of obsidian that looked like someone may have started preparing it, or was just waste from a core, but a single shard isn't particularly telling.

Does anyone know which people may have used this site or where I could go to do some research? Thanks

I took these a few years ago

Just an average morning drinking coffee and watching the sunrise. Then, hiss hiss, there were two hot air balloons for good luck. This was the best shot.

I used to get NBC over the air with my rooftop mounted antenna. It used to be channel 02.1

Did it move or did they stop OTA broadcasting?

How many of you have a picture from this same spot?

Got to visit family in Eagar and hike around a bit. Always love the colors. Made me more excited to move here next summer haha

View from the towers

I mean, if you could’ve designed anything within the parameters of a small sticker with the essential information on it, why would this sad little fella be the first option? Shouldn’t he be glad to participate in the grand civic ritual of desperately googling which judges to retain? It makes me so sad seeing the creative stickers from other states. This was a design job that should’ve been given to a bunch of school kids, who would’ve done beautifully.

Went out and visited our newest National Park yesterday. I'd definitely recommend it for those who haven't gone out there yet.

wanted to share this pretty pic I took last fall! Have a great weekend everyone!!