I smell of turpentine and linseed oil.

I was inspired and decided to create about 5 new pieces of art this weekend. The last of which, were 3 paintings, in which I used my oils and now I think I am high from the fumes. The actual paint isn't what is really stinky, but it's the linseed oil that sort of smells and turpentine that absolutely reeks. Yes, I know they make the odorless turpenoid or whatever it's called, but have you seen how expensive that is?? Although, I admitted tonight I need to suck it up and purchase the odorless stuff, because the fumes were making my eyes water, my nose run, and giving me a headache! Rob warned me to not put the fireplace on, for fear that the house might blow up!

The last week has been really busy- mostly finishing up Christmas shopping, wrapping presents, sending presents (3 trips to the post office this week!), and starting to pack for our Illinois trip... On top of that, been working quite a bit, as I have had three new projects go to print this week, which is always a little more stressful.

Tuesday we leave for Illinois, and we'll be spending our 10 days in Illinois both in Chicago and St. Louis/Gillespie. I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone, though I am sad to know that Mikey will be spending Christmas alone. :( He's been having lots of fun chewing the ribbons off of all of the Christmas presents under the tree!

I am doubtful I'll have time to write more in the next week and a half, so a very Merry Christmas to everyone!!!

Jumpin' Monkeys

This past week has seemed to fly by entirely too fast! I can't believe it's only 15 days away til Christmas, and just 10 days till we leave for Illinois. This past Wednesday I watched our little neighbor, Max, who's 6 years old and absolutely the best 6 year I've ever met. We had a fun day... Rob taught him some stuff in the garage, making a super-cool door stop with his name spelled out in nails, I colored with him, we corrupted him with a little Playstation, watched "The Grinch," and capped the day off with a fun game of "Jumpin' Monkeys". It was so much fun having a little kid around. Especially because he's so well-behaved and smart!

The rest of the week I tried to both start AND finish my Christmas shopping, and I did remarkably well. With only a couple trips to the mall and a few hours online, I have about 80% of my shopping done! Just a few odds and ends to pick up, ship out some packages, and I'm all set. I also finished my Christmas cards, which I just need some stamps to get those sent out.

I'm planning on getting up early tomorrow to take care of a few things, then, we're going to the Bronco's game. Rob and I were both invited by two different friends, so I'll be sitting in the first row on the field with my friend while Rob will be in either the 300 or 500 level section of the stadium. It's sure to be fun.

We also made our holiday travel plans final, with getting tickets flying into Chicago on the 20th. We'll be heading down to St. Louis right away to see Rob's parents and then we'll head back up to Chicago for a couple days before we return to Denver on the 30th. Should be a fun little trip and can't wait to see everyone!

The B-Movie Christmas List

Tonight, I've been clearing off our DVR watching all the 'second rate' Christmas Movies. Not that they're bad, they are definitely entertaining, but Frosty getting married??? Rudolph's Shiny New Year with Happy the New Year Baby??? I want the classics... The Year without a Santa Claus, being my favorite, and it IS waiting for me to watch on DVD courtesy of one of my friends, and it's also on the DVR as back up. I just figured December 1st was too soon to watch such a fine movie. Then it'll be the original, old-school Rudolph and Frosty, and as the grand finale, The Year without a Santa Claus! What a month. I Love Christmas-time!

On a totally random sidenote, for some reason, I began to think about wine biscuits and lemon knots and pepper biscuits and pizza strips with no cheese tonight. I'm craving it. If anyone in Rhode Island is reading this and has any mercy on me, please, oh pretty-please, overnight me some D. Palmieri's goodies. ;) Seriously, I already checked to see if they had a website. No luck. I may just call them tomorrow and ask them to send me some wine biscuits. My mouth is salivating.

And with that, I say good night.

Turkey and Yum-Yums...

As the Thanksgiving weekend comes to a close, I look back and reflect on what exactly I did... Ate, took a nap, ate some more, tried to go see The Polar Express 3D, ate more leftovers, napped some more. It appears I had a most productive weekend!

Nah, really, the weekend has been quite enjoyable. We had a great Thanksgiving hosting a few of our friends over for much football watching and eating and drinking and game playing. It was a really great day and more importantly, dinner was fantastic. Thankfully I had my mom's Thanksgiving hotline to call when I had random questions such as where the heck to take the turkey's temperature and what's the difference between a sweet potato and a yam. We had quite a feast: Turkey, Stuffing, Mashed Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Apple and Potato au Gratin (courtesy of Brian), Turnips, Cauliflower & Cheese, Canned Cranberry Sauce, Homemade Cranberry Sauce, and I think that might be it. For dessert; Pumpkin Pie, Cranberry Duff, and Ricotta Pie.

I really was starting to think Friday was turning out to be simply a day of naps and eating some more, but after dinner, we got out the Christmas decorations and I put up the tree and Rob developed the plan for our outdoor/window lights. Then we went to Wal-Mart to get some more lights for the tree and the windows. They didn't have everything we needed, so tomorrow's plan is to find the lights we need.

So, today was sort of a big bummer. We had planned to go see The Polar Express in 3D at the IMAX. We actually went down to the theater (it's south of Denver, so sort of a drive), met up with some friends there, only to find out it was sold out. We were all terribly bummed, except for Rob, who I think was secretly happy that he didn't have to see it. We'll give him some props for even going in the first place though! Next to the IMAX theater is a Dave and Busters, so we went over there for some Skee Ball and my favorite, the 18-wheeler video game. I actually also surprised myself with some mad skills at the basketball game. I think you might call me a baller. After that, we went down to Wynkoop Brewery to play darts, where we proved that girls CAN compete against boys. Alas, the night came to a close with some more leftover eating and yep, you guessed it, a nap.

hello again...

Yes, I know it's been a long time since I last wrote, so now, after a few beers, I will ramble on, on my goings-on for the past 3 weeks.

Most importantly, the pub just opened. Yes, the pub that is 1 block from our place. Yes, one block. Walking distance. It's an Irish pub that has guinness on tap and harp and boddingtons... Did I mention it was walking distance from our place? Anyways, we went there tonight for a few pints and dinner and some mad discussions with Dolan. It was just lovely. And I was so excited to finally try out our local pub.

Let's see.... What else has happened... Okay, back to halloween, Rob and I got to don our awesome homemade costumes at a halloween party. We were one of the few dressed up, but I think we were the best looking. :)

Last week, Danielle took me to my very first Nugget's game at the Pepsi Center. It ruled. You can't beat free seats, going to a game where your team WINS, and watching my little man, Earl Boykins, for 3 hours straight. I even got to exit the stadium by way of the court, and not only saw, but touched, the ice underneath the floor.

Our Tuesday kickball nights have evolved into weekend game nights. Yes, I know it sounds lame, but it really is fun. You can drink excessively, play games like Operation or Boggle or Cranium, snack on delicious dips and chips, and enjoy the camaraderie of excessively competitive friends. And when I say competitive, I mean that certain games (Operation) have been outlawed at all future game nights due to people's inabilities of keeping their hands steady and not jumping 4 feet out of their seats when the buzzer goes off!

Also of note, I am an official Colorado resident. I have myself a snowboard, boots, bindings, and snowboarding pants now. I'm ready to go. I've been practicing my balance and moves on my new 'flowboard'. It's a skateboard like thing that you can practice on to get your snowboarding skills up to par. Surprisingly, I am doing much better on it than I expected. I've gotten the whole jumping on it and moving thing down, without holding onto anything or falling down. Sweet.

Well, I am gonna go get me some sleep now...

Back home...

After a week and a half in Chicago, we are back home now... It was so nice to see everyone and be back in Chicago for a while, though it's nice to be home again and see my Mikey-Mike. He missed us terribly, and hasn't left our sides since we arrived home. Poor kitty!

Among the fun and exciting things we did back in Chicago, I think our Halloween Costume Party get-together at the 10th Hole Pub topped it off. I'll post some pictures soon... But for now, I must go, as I'm off to Dallas....

Let it snow???

Despite predictions of 6-12 inches of snow, we got nothing. Rain for 2 days straight, about 37 degrees outside, and no snow. I even went out the night before the storm and bought a shovel. We turn on the news, and the airport (which is way farther from the mountains than us) got 8 inches of snow. Then, yesterday we drive into Boulder, and the foothills are totally covered in snow (and of course the rest of the mountains). It looks like a winter wonderland every where except for where we are. :( I feel so left out. Though, as a bonus, today as I was running some errands and driving about, I was thinking, it really feels like I'm on vacation or out of town, because the mountains look so drastically different, it's like I'm somewhere else... Maybe I am.

Speaking of vacation and being out of town... Tomorrow we are heading to Chicago for a long visit. I have to finish up packing and picking up the house, all the while, watching the White Sox game. And yes, I am rooting for the White Sox now.

So, I'll keep this short and sweet. Although CNN is reporting a huge snowstorm in Denver, I'm shoveling rain.

Rained Out

Last night, our kickball game was rained out; however, because we are all diehard kickballers, we all showed up despite the gloomy weather (pouring down rain, lightning, the whole bit). We all went to our favorite post-kickball bar for dinner, and to our delight, our lovely waitress, Sarah, gave us two pitchers of beer on her because she felt bad that we got rained out! I must also mention, only one person from the other team showed up. He's officially the cool guy on the other team and I recruited him to play on our team in the spring.

We are getting ready to meet a friend, and fellow Red Sox fan, at Fox and Hound to watch tonight's game... I have my (actually it's Rob's, but it's too small for him) Red Sox shirt on, my Red Sox hat in hand and I'm ready to do some massive cheering for my BoSox. Rob already declared that this evening he won't be cheering for either team. I think he's just trying to stay on everyone's good side. :)

Before my White Sox fan friends have a field day...

Congrats to the White Sox for winning game 1. I can't say I'm happy, but I'll be a good sport... There's always tomorrow. Go BoSox!

Having a bad day??

If you're ever feeling down and out and are thinking that you're just no good...

Listen to this song:

http://www.kilbot.net/mp3/karatekid.php

A motorcycle demolition derby???

Ah, this weekend was fun-filled with Beer tastings, Red Sox victories and a fun evening at a dirt racetrack.

First of all, the Great American Beer Festival was a great time. With a gazillion beers on tap, I tasted everything from Shiner Bock to a Chili Beer to PBR. (with lots and lots of microbrews from across the US in between!) You get a tasting glass, and you get a 1 ounce tasting of whatever beer you'd like to taste. After the first 10 or so tastes, you lose count and you'll never remember what you had, but I do distinctly remember 2 beers that I hated. First was the Chili Beer. Little did I know it was going to be freaking hot, though the jalapeno chili in the beer bottle should have clued me in. Another was a sour beer that Brian had, which I tasted because he said it was really good. In my opinion, it tasted like the aftertaste you have in your mouth after you puke. To each their own, I suppose.

Saturday was spent recovering from the multitude of beer shots and then in the evening we attended 'crashfest' at a local dirt racetrack that was closing down forever. The night all started normal, or as normal as you can get being surrounded by super-mullets and nascar fan. They had regular races around the circle track, some figure 8 races with cars... Then a figure 8 race with... school buses. Yep, school buses. It was pretty bizarre, but awesomely hilarious. Then to top the evening off, about 6 guys on dirt bikes come out to the start/finish line. All of a sudden we see two guys on the ground in a fist fight. Then all hell breaks loose and all the other bikers are trying to ram each other and knock each other off their bikes. I wasn't quite sure what was happening, and didn't realize, until the checkered flag was waved, that this WAS the event! Not sure what to call it, possibly a motorcylce demolition derby, but it was damn hilarious!


I felt like total crap on Sunday- sore throat, congested, the whole bit, because I hadn't taken my allergy medicine in a couple days, so I spent most of the day in bed sleeping and watching football and baseball. Then Sunday night, we started watching 'Freaks and Geeks'- our friend lent us his DVD set of it. I immediately fell in love with the show. We watched some more last night, and I'm pretty sure we're going to be done with the 6 disc set by the end of the week!

Hip-Hip-Hooray!

Red Sox are in the playoffs!! They're headed to Chicago to play the White Sox in the first round of playoffs... It sure will be a stressful week for me!

I may be a Cubs fan, but...

Yay! Go White Sox! Good job clinching the AL Central!

Once again...

it's been way too long since my last update.

We've spent the past week and half keeping busy, as usual. 2 weekends ago, we had a fun-and-beer-filled evening at Denver's Oktoberfest in Larimer Square downtown with a few of our friends. I had never been to an Oktoberfest celebration prior to this, but found it to be very entertaining. The downers of the night included the beer being so-so, they ran out of the huge steins that I was so wanting to purchase, and the multiple times the chicken song dance was played/danced. However, we rectified those downers by getting fresh pretzels, drinking enough of the so-so beer that we danced the chicken song a few times, and finally (and most importantly) me winning a chicken hat to don the entire evening. I'll upload a picture of it, yes there it is... As I'm sure you can see, that was after a few beers. When I first saw them, I was thinking, wow, those are so dumb. Then I had only a few tickets left, not enough to purchase food or drink, so I decided to play this game, in which the chicken hat was the prize. It was purely chance... A wheel with all NFL football teams on it, like a roulette wheel. Then you place your bets on whatever football team you wish. I had 4 tickets, so I went with the Patriots, Bears, Broncos, and a last minute pic was the New York Giants. A spin of the wheel, and 30 seconds later, it lands on the Giants and I, all of a sudden, am the very excited and happy owner of a chicken hat. I gleefully put it on and wear it the rest of the night, answering numerous questions about it and replying to some people's off-color comments... We topped the night off at a 80's club where we danced the night away to Devo and Michael Jackson, amongst others.

The 2 nights of kickball over the past couple weeks gave us one win and one loss. Last week we had a keg at the game, which was a blast (despite it being Bud Light). Supposedly, we're getting a keg from Breckenridge Brewery sometime soon, so we'll get to enjoy some nice micro-brewed beer.

Well, the past week and upcoming week and weekend are going to be football and baseball filled. We're watching the Broncos game right now (ooh, and I just realized I missed Laguna), and will be on the edge of our seats watching the Red Sox finish out the regular season. Yes, now that the Cubbies are totally out of the wild card/playoff race (ok, I'll admit, they were totally out of it in July...), my focuses are entirely dedicated to the Red Sox.

This coming weekend we also have another festival to attend: the great american beer festival. This is at the convention center in Denver, and there are 1669 beers on tap... Your ticket includes a tasting cup, which you can fill up at any number of beer vendors there. Thankfully, we have a place to stay in Denver that night, so no worries of us driving after that!

I think that's about it... Will update as fun and exciting things happen. Go BoSox!

Hello, stranger.

Yes, I know it's been a while since my last post, but I will have lots to share now, as we've had many activities and guests in town over the past two weeks!

First off, Bob and Marilyn, Rob's parents, arrived the beginning of September for a wonderful visit, then for part of their visit, Rob's brother Ryan was able to come in town as well, so that was fantastic! In addition to Bob, Marilyn, and Ryan 's visits, we were also graced by the presence of Dolan's parents (who came in town to bring him his stuff) and Dolan's friend Levi (who was on his way driving to Irvine, CA to continue his education in... um... physics... I know it's something in particular; however, it was something I have never heard of and knew that I would never remember, so I didn't even attempt to memorize. Let's just say Levi is a smartypants.

So, of the numerous activities, eats, drinks, and sightseeing that took place over the course of the past week with our guests, I shall highlight a few.

•Mt. Evans Scenic Byway: This essentially is a road that goes almost all the way up to the top of Mt. Evans (you gotta do a little hike- maybe 1/4 of a mile to get to the actual summit). Mt. Evans is 14,264 feet above sea level. Let's put this into perspective... Chicago is about 600 feet above sea level, where we live in Colorado, it's about 5,400 feet above sea level... SO... Mt. Evans is freaking tall. The drive up to the top, despite being a heavily used road full of tourists from all over the country, is this narrow, winding road on the side of a mountain with absolutely no guardrails. And when I say winding, I mean switchback upon switchback. It's scary. It'd be scary enough if you were the only one on the road, but when you're relying on other drivers who have never driven in the mountains before to stay on their side of the road and not get distracted by a mountain goat... you get the picture. Anyways, the summit was awesome. Rob and I did the hike to the top and you could see EVERYTHING- the plains, Longs Peak, Denver, etc. It was absolutely gorgeous.

•Fado: We (me, Rob, Marilyn, Bob, Ryan, Dolan, Levi, Danielle, and Brian) all went to Fado's last Wednesday for some Irish food and fun. It was a blast. I wish Ryan would move out here just so I'd have someone to go to Fado with that screams as loud as me. Though I may have busted the eardrums of everyone at our table, I was awarded for my exhuberant singing and got to play the drum on stage with the Clancy's. Not only did I do that, but I also got a super cool Black and Tan Guinness hat. It rules.

•Scotfest in Estes Park: On Saturday we all went up to the Longs Peak Scottish/Irish Highlands Festival in Estes Park. We started the morning off with the parade that goes through downtown Estes Park. It was amazing. Before we got down there, Rob shared with us that his mom always cries when she hears bagpipes... Sure enough, before the parade even passed us, I caught a teary eyed Marilyn (sorry Marilyn!!). However, I have got to say when you hear all those bagpipe bands, it is very moving... After the parade, we headed over to the festival. We attended the opening ceremonies which included a performance by ALL of the bagpipe bands and the Marine Corp Twentynine Palms band (At least 100-150 performers) playing Amazing Grace. It was awesome. I had goosebumps all over. After the opening ceremonies, we drank beer, dined on Shepherds Pies and Meat Pies and watched Irish dancing, Bag Pipe Band competitions, oh yeah, and shopped in the two huge tents where they had numerous vendors selling everything you can imagine.

•Hacienda Colorado: Okay, I know this was simply just a meal, but I must share. Despite waiting for over an hour for a table (we had 7 people on a Friday night at 7pm- Go figure), I was absolutely blown away by the service we received, the prices, and the margaritas. I think most of the entrees were under 10 bucks, and we all received a ton of food. Like 3 plates of food per person! It was nuts. Then, there was a delay in a few people getting served their meals (like only 2 minutes), and the manager came over to apologize for that and offered everyone free dessert! I'm totally going back there. The food ruled, and the margs were exceptional!

•Lake Dillon: One afternoon, we headed up to the mountains to Lake Dillon. It was really a beautiful day and we rented a pontoon boat to cruise the lake. Being on a big lake, surrounded by huge mountains is really amazing. After our boat ride, we wanted to go to the Tiki Bar at the marina, but were running late on getting back home for Fado, so we ended up just leaving. The Tiki Bar, at the marina in Dillon, has fantastic food and really good Rum Runners. During the summer while we were up there camping and kayaking, we hit up the Tiki Bar for lunch and drinks. So anyways, we just wanted Rob's family to enjoy at least one rum runner, but time did not allow...

•Dirty Bananas: This is a drink I made a few nights when we had our guests... It's originally an Ozark drink, courtesy of Val and Jeff (which I think they got the recipe while in Jamaica on their honeymoon). I have now made it a Colorado drink. It's the perfect dessert drink because it's frozen, has bananas, chocolate syrup, and ice cream in it. YUM.

So, I know I'm forgetting a ton of things, but I'm all out of time to write and when I remember other noteworthy occasions, I will definitely share. I must get myself psyched up for kickball now. :)

We are the champions.

Last night at kickball, we kicked butt! And won!

We were down to only one guy (Rob) and all of us awesome girls on the team. We DID have some help, as there were 2 guys there that weren't on a team, so they played with us. But, nonetheless, we kicked some firefighter butts. I got on base twice, got home once and didn't foul OR strike out at all. It ruled. And in grand kickball tradition, we went to Breckenridge Brewery afterward for their Tuesday night all you can eat Rib special. Yum-yum.

I also have some even more exciting news... Colleen had her baby last night! A baby boy- 7 lbs. 1 oz. and absolutely adorable! Mom and baby are doing just fine.

Rob's parents are coming tomorrow, so I've got to get some cleaning up done today. Then next Monday, his brother is coming. Should be a fun and exciting upcoming week or two! Can't wait for them to see our place and to show them around the area and take them up in the mountains! I think we might do the Mount Evans scenic drive- where you drive all the way up to the top of Mt. Evans (over 14K feet!). Well, I better get moving....

Apparently, I'm a very picky person.

As of late, I've been complaining of my vision. Like I can't see things as clearly as I used to, or as from far away. And, the real kicker was, the other night, we're driving home from downtown Denver, and if you've ever been here, there's a really tall building that says "Qwest" on top in big (HUGE) blue letters. I'm looking at it, and it's just a big blur. I ask Rob, "Can you read the Qwest sign?" He's like, yeah, it's clear. That's what made me call for an appointment the next day.

So, I go to the optometrist today and get my eyes examined, dilated, the whole nine yards. And what's my Rx? Basically the least amount possible to have it actually be a prescription. Okay, I was an optician for 5 years, so maybe this is why I'm so picky, but come on- it's something that most people wouldn't even notice. So the doctor gives me the lenses to look through out the window to the parking lot, and I was like blown away by the difference! She just said that some people (me) are pickier than others when it comes to their vision. Anyways, for those of you who know how eyeglass and contact lens prescriptions, go... it's a quarter diopter- nothing significant, but apparently is going to make a world of difference for picky, little me. So, I'm going to get contacts in a week or so, and yay! I'll be able to see again!

We had our first kickball game against another team this week. It was a team of firefighters. Eeek. The pitcher on their team had a MEAN curveball. I mean, it hits the ground looking like it's coming right to you, then it has this gradual, but pretty crazy curve the other way, that still makes it a strike, but is hard to kick (plus there was a pile of mud by the home plate, and i was afraid of falling on my ass in that). Anyways, after fouling out once (rules are different in kickball than baseball by a little- you count 3 strikes, 4 fouls, and 4 balls, all separately), and striking out once, I had my first RBI. I didn't get on base, but I was able to get Rob home to tie up the game. Sweet. We ended up losing, and the mean, curveball, firefighter pitcher on the other team pulled his hamstring (sinisterly laughing right now). It was a blast though, and we met a few more people that will be on our team who are absolutely awesome. Some of us went out to Breckenridge Brewery after for a bunch of beers and some yummy all-you-can-eat ribs and/or pulled pork sammiches.

Wednesday night, we went up to Fadó for some pints and to listen (rather sing-along) to my favorite Irish pub performers, Brian and Brendan Clancy... They play/sing awesome Irish pub/drinking songs, in which if you don't sing along- you get picked on. And everyone claps and sings and has a good time. He totally busted me this week... A girl on our kickball team met us up there, so her and I were talking and Brian got pissed because I wouldn't shut up, so he made me get up on stage and play the drum... Pretty funny. Anyways, it was fun, and we had some good Irish beer. YUM!

Wow, so I'm all jacked up on caffeine right now, so I'm thinking this post won't make much sense, but who cares... I'm not the one that has to read this. ;)

I think tomorrow we're going to head up to Chief Mountain to do that hike with Dolan, (that's the hike we did with Ryan in May, and there was 4 feet of snow we weretrekkingg through for the majority of it) and then at night we're going to hang out with some fellow Red Sox fans to watch them play. Should be fun...

One sidenote, because I don't want to come off as a dumbass, I just ran spell check and can you believe that KICKBALL isn't in their dictionary? Sacrilege.

Let's go cubbies....

Well, we attended all 3 of the Cubs games while they were out here in Denver over the weekend. It was a ton of fun, the stands were filled with more Cubs fans than Rockies fans, probably 5 to 1, so it was pretty ridiculous. Even though they only won one of the three games (how the hell does that happen??? the Rockies are one of the worst teams in the league... Oh yeah, it's the Cubs we're talking about...), it was still a great time.

Other highlights of the weekend included dinner and an evening with Jen while she was out here and Dolan coming to town. Dolan started his classes at CU (in Boulder) today and we've been having fun showing him around and going out with him. Tonight we graced our clubhouse with our presence and played some pool and tic-tac-toe there while watching Monday Night Football. I do think we'll be going there more often. Having Dolan here is not only fun, but also educational, as he has taught me how to play dominoes and backgammon. Now, I am addicted to both, and can't get enough of it. He is also supposed to show me how to play chess, so pretty soon I'll be all set to hang out with old dudes in city parks.

Back up and running... almost......

My foot has almost healed 100%! Yay! I can walk pretty fast now, with minimal pain, and I'm not wearing that ugly boot anymore! Yesterday, we went to the Grand Prix of Denver... They literally close down a whole section of town near Six Flags and encompassing the Pepsi Center and numerous streets, build a race track, grandstands, food and souveneir boothes, and so on. It's absolutely unbelievable that they can do that for 3 days of racing, and have it all taken apart in a day and the city is back to normal! I hear they do the same thing in Long Beach, but I had never heard of such a thing before. Anyways, it was a pretty cool race and we got to see the cars up close and the drivers after the race, because our neighbor gave us some special passes.

Let's see... what else is new... Last week we saw The Life and Times play in Denver. That was pretty awesome. We also went to Wal-Mart, and the friendly entrance old man convinced me (easily) to ride on one of those motorized thingamabobs that the fat people drive around Wal-Mart. It was pretty awesome- I hadn't laughed so hard in a LONG time!

On the D.L...

Yup, I'm on the D.L... The other night, as I was stepping out of the truck, my foot twisted and I chipped a bone in my foot. It hurts like crazy and I'm confined to the couch, with my foot elevated, iced, and donning a lovely post-operative boot. Yay. Hopefully it'll heal in a couple weeks, and I'll only have to miss a game or two of kickball.

Yup, kickball. Rob and I joined a kickball team/league in Denver. One of our friends is the captain, and our first game is next Tuesday. I'll probably be sitting it out, but at least I can brush up on strategy and the rules while I watch. I can't wait. Should be a lot of fun.

Last weekend we went camping to Lake Dillon again. It was awesome. The weather was phenomenal, and we tested out our backpacking tent, new sleeping bags, and sleeping pads. My goodness, these sleeping pads we got, though a little pricey, are well worth the money. I have never slept so good while camping. I seriously could not believe how comfy they were! They are only a 1-1.5 inch thick, and compress down even smaller. I think they are comparable to sleeping on a regular mattress! Seriously! They are 'therm-a-rest' brand and you can buy them at REI and other sport stores... If you camp, I highly recommend them.

Anyways, back to camping.... We kayaked from our campsite to the Dillon Marina, which was quite a paddle... As we're pulling up to the marina, a canon was shot off and they were playing the National Anthem and there were tons of people there. We had no clue what was going on! We got out and apparently it was a Regatta for sailboats. So we ate lunch on the lake, drank some delicious Rum Runners and watched the race for a while before heading back to camp. We ended up going home Saturday night and just relaxed the rest of the weekend.

Well, I need to get back to work....

yum-yum

I made some pulled/bbq pork tonight that even the most discerning pork lover would be wowed by. It was Yuuuuuummmmy! Although I am a ginormous fan of eating out, after dining out on vacation for a bunch of meals, it is nice to get home and make/eat some home cooked fare.

I have self diagnosed myself with this: mal de debarquement syndrome. I still feel as if I am on a boat, ya know that rocking feeling you have after being on boat? Well, it's been since Saturday since I was actually on a boat, and I am still having that feeling. Isn't that weird? Anyways, it's never taken me this long to get back to normal. I am wondering if the change in elevation has something to do with it too. Hmm...

I am hoping that Mikey will be quiet tonight and I'll be able to get a good night's rest. I think he's so paranoid about us leaving again, that he is determined to keep us by him and alert all day long. When he is sleeping at night, it's usually at our feet, but the past nights since we've gotten home, it's been either right on top of me or right by my head. And the meowing... He just won't stop! Enough complaining. Even though he's been bugging the hell out of me, and I'm exhausted, I still love him. :)

Reality TV Extravaganza

Show 1: Laguna Beach
Well, I finally saw the first episode of Laguna Beach season 2, (I know, a week late, and I didn't even watch tonight's new show) and what can I say...

1. It was way cheesier than season 1, but was I suspecting anything less? I think not.
2. Despite it being a horrible, horrible show, I know I'll be watching it all season.
3. I hate Kristen, the new narrator of this season. I hated her last season. I hate her now.

Show 2: Hell's Kitchen
Alright, this was the first episode I've watched of this show, and thankfully it was the 2 hour season finale, so I know I won't be sucked into another show for months on end... However, I did sit through the 2 hour show, in which they took no less than 20 minutes to announce the winner (of course) and made some scrumptilicious (sp?) food.

Show 3: O.C.
Okay, this isn't a reality show, but it deserves to be mentioned, in my opinion...
Yay! The season 2 DVD is coming out this month and season 3 previews have started to air.

Okay Lance Armstrong is coming on Letterman, so I'm out...

Home, at Last!

After an absolutely glorious vacation in rural Illinois, the St. Louis metropolitan area, and Lake of the Ozarks, we are home at last. Can't say I wanted to leave the Ozarks, but it was sure nice to come home to my kitty and my own bed.

Well, here's a brief recap of our trip....

Drove 13 hours to Edwardsville, where Rob's parents live and got to see the Cubs play the Cardinals at Busch Stadium. That was awesome, even though the Cubs lost that game, they won the other two they played there that weekend! Go Cubs! Then we went up to Rob's aunt and uncle's for the annual Gillespie camping trip. The weather was close to miserable, but the beer cooled us off, and Rob's aunt and uncle were kind enough to let us use their camper, so we were able to sleep in a/c. We had so many friends come down from Chi-town to camp with us- it was awesome! I had such a blast, despite seeing too many dudes in speedos and getting a gazillion mosquito bites. My parents also came down and spent the weekend with Rob's parents, and Rob's uncle from Alabama was in town, so we really got to see a ton of people! The Illinois/St. Louis portion of our vacation was a huge success.

The middle of last week, Todd met us at Rob's parent's house, and we went down to his parent's place at Lake of the Ozarks, where we spent the rest of our vacation. We had absolutely beautiful weather. We arrived in the Ozarks on Wednesday around noon and spent the rest of our weekend there lounging on their gorgeous boats, floating in the water, eating absolutely divine food out at some great restaurants and also at their house, courtesy of Linda's gourmet cooking, and of course, drinking lots of beer. Our vacation just simply could not have been any better. It was so great to see Todd (Oh, how I missed his humor) and his family (his brother and sister-in-law were also down), as well as some of their extended family and friends that we've gotten to know over the past few years. I even got quite a tan down there, and to top it off, I got a few more gazillion bites of some sort there too! Some additional highlights of the Ozarks included Jeff's comments at dinner on Thursday night ("I love you" to the bus boy amongst other crazy comments) and watching the SNL Best of Will Farrell ("You win... You always do...."), which I'm still laughing about now. Anyways, it was a lot of fun, and I really didn't want to leave!

We left Sunday morning from the Ozarks, for a marathon drive through Missouri, Kansas, and finally half of Colorado to make it back home by 9pm. If you ever think your cat doesn't like you, leave him for 10 days (don't worry, I had someone watching him) and come back. He won't leave your side. Mikey has been meowing and rubbing up against us, and slept right by me and won't leave our sides now! Ah, and it is so nice to be back in the humid-free climate of Colorado. How I missed thee.

Well, I must get some work done and catch up on all my emails from the past week.

Indian Peaks Wilderness Area

These are some pics looking to the west from Mount Audubon. Geologically speaking, the east faces of these mountains are much more rugged than the softer sloping north and west faces of the mountains because of the glaciers that have passed over these mountains several times, many, many years ago... And I quote... "The underlying rock of the Indian Peaks area is 80-90% Precambrian biotite gneiss formed approximately 1800 million years ago. The area has since been reshaped by at least six glacial sequences dating back 15,000 years.

Vista View....

And finally, from that same alpine meadow, this is the view to the northeast. Way up in the distance would be Rocky Mountain National Park, but the area you see closeby is the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area, an area filled with awesomely rugged peaks. Matter of fact, I have a good pic of some of the more rugged peaks, that I will upload momentarily. Aren't I doing awesome with adding images today? It's a feast for the eyes!

My friend, Marmot...

This is Marmot, the marmot. I met him atop an alpine meadow on Mount Audubon while dining on trail mix and a granola bar. (No yogurt, Todd...) This is the first marmot I've ever seen, and I was very excited to meet him, as I've been dying to see one ever since we got out here.

Some photos....

So, here's a pic of my cutie-pie kitty, Mikey, who apparently was just too dang tired to STAND up and drink his water. So he plopped himself down on the floor and lapped it up. For all the cat lovers and Mikey-lovers: Isn't he adorable? Dog lovers, I don't want to hear any comments.

More on awful reality tv...

Does anyone watch 'celebrity fit club 2'??? Okay, I know it is totally an awful show, but I still have got to watch it because of that freak, Gary Busey. He is a nut.

NUT
N-Neurotic
U-Unstable
T-Terrestrial
NUT

If you've seen the show, especially the first episode, you'll know what I'm talking about.

Correction...

I knew when I was typing "Israelian," something was goofy. I meant "Israeli". Just wanted to let ya'll know I'm not a total dope.

Laguna Beach Season 2!!!

I am so psyched. The 2nd season of Laguna Beach is on July 25th! Yay! I couldn't sleep in this morning, so I got up and to my delight, there is a Laguna Beach marathon on MTV right now! Gilad is coming on in 15 minutes, though, so I must go sculpt my body with the Israelian Stud Muffin at that time.

I'm very excited. Later this week, we're going to St. Louis for the long weekend (camping and staying with Rob's parents), then later that following week, we're going to drink some massive amounts of Budweiser with Todd in the Ozarks. I'm so looking forward to everything.

I have a new love...

Yes, I've found a new love and Rob knows about him. Actually, Rob introduced me to him last week. His name is Gilad. And he's sculpting my body into a new and better form. Okay, okay... Gilad is dubbed the "Israelian Stud Muffin" and hosts a variety of workout shows on Fit TV. Basically, they totally rule and really kick my butt. Alright, enough of my love of Gilad...

It's been hot here. Really hot. We just went for a bike ride to this pond by us, and I turned a few shades darker in like 30 minutes. The intensity of the sun out here is nuts.

Okay, I gotta get some work done now. Wait. No. Gilad is coming on... Must hang with Gilad for a while.

A Haiku For You (well, mostly for Todd)...

Budweiser is good
It's yummy-Todd thinks so too
Go drink some today.

I drank it last night in honor of Todd. For some reason, I just was in the mood for Bud, perhaps it's the upcoming Ozarks trip or maybe I was just really missing my super cool friend, Todd.

Anyways, last night we went to The Soiled Dove to see Tender Trio (dude from Spacehog and dude from Blind Melon and some other dude) and Esthero. The show was pretty sweet. Tender Trio was cool and Esthero was definitely cool to see in concert. I didn't know what to expect seeing her, but it was different from any shows I've been too. Since her music is more hip-hop, dancy, the crowd in some ways reflected that. For instance, in front of me were two sluts that were getting hit on by some macho man and a gay guy, and they didn't even pay ANY attention to the show. They were too concerned with playing with their cell phones, taking pictures and getting phone numbers. They annoyed the crap out of me. The Soiled Dove was a pretty cool venue. It reminded me of the hall that you would see a performance of "Grease" on a cruise ship. Okay, not in a bad way like that, but it was interesting, lots of tables, tons of chair, and waitresses coming around. Rob thought I was nuts for thinking it was weird, but come on, how often do you go to shows and sit the whole time? Or how often are you at a venue where the chairs outnumber the attendees?? (slight exaggeration)

On the ride home, STP's "Plush" came on and I belted out the whole song, practicing for our upcoming camping trip to Gillespie... Then "Girls just want to have fu-un" came on, and I sang that one too... just because.

Itchy or Scratchy???

Either way, I'm freaking dying over here. I'm itchy from head to toe, and scratching ain't helping. What is wrong with me?

holy crap

I had the doorbell ringing and pounding on the door at 720am this morning. The pounding sounded like the police were at the door and were about to bust it in. I woke up abruptly, freaked out, thinking that the building was on fire or that one of our neighbors was hurt or in trouble. I run down to the door. I open the door. No one is there. There's a tag on my door and a FedEx van driving away. Actually, a Budget Rental Van was driving away. Apparently the FedEx van was in the shop. Who knows. Luckily, he turned around and saw me standing in the door, with my CarrotTop hair and dazed and confused eyes, and came back to deliver the package. I think this guy was new, because according to new FedEx policy, they leave packages without signatures at residential addresses. UGH. Needless to say, it took me a good long while to get back to sleep!

That's all...

My dogs are barking....

That was some hike- 8 miles, 3,000 feet elevation change. I know numbers don't mean much if you haven't really hiked in the mountains before; it really was a LONG and steep climb up and down. I have blisters on the back of my heels the size of quarters, and quite possibly every muscle in my body is aching and sore. I must say, I don't think I could have done it without my trekking poles and my new hiking boots (those saved my ankles big time). Even with my super heavy duty hiking boots on, hiking over a trail that's made up of primarily rocks is a killer for the pads of your feet, ankles, knees, and just about every other muscle and joint in your body. I saw some people, both older and younger, doing the hike without trekking poles and even in just regular gym shoes, and also, I saw an older man running the trail. I repeat, RUNNING. I was lucky to crawl! No, really, it wasn't that bad, I was just amazed at the stamina and athleticism of some other individuals on the trail.

Anyways, the bummer of it all is that I didn't even go up to the top of the summit. Rob did, but I was about 100 feet from it and was freaking out by all of the rock scrambling that needed to be done to get up there. Unstable boulders and rocks apparently are NOT my thing. That, and carrying a pack and being completely exhausted and sore from the ascent... Anyways, even though I didn't get all the way up, I got some awesome pictures, which I'll post soon. And I got a lot farther than I thought I was going to get- it's amazing to come out of the timber and look at this mountain you're supposedly going to summit, and the people on top of it are the size of ants. Seeing that and it was looking like there were going to be some storms coming in, we almost turned back about 1/2 way up there, but we pressed on, and I'm glad we did.

Oh! I almost forgot to mention, we stopped for lunch just before the final ascent on a saddle between the summit and another smaller peak, and got to see a real Marmot about 10 feet from us. Marmots are kind of like groundhogs or prarie dogs or something. I don't know what they are, but they are cute and I got some pics of him as well.

Well, I have a feeling I'm babbling and my thoughts are not in order, so I must stop... The end.

Sorry!

Okay, it's been way too long since I've last wrote... I heard through the grapevine that my lovely aunt, Julie, has been upset that I haven't updated. SORRY!

What's been going on, you ask? Hmmm... Let's see..

First off, I'd like to mention that on 'On Demand' (through Comcast Cable) there is a station called "boomerang" which is the Cartoon Network's old school cartoon station. Maybe you get the real station, maybe you don't, but nonetheless, I was in cartoon heaven last night watching the Flintstones and the Jetsons! I never noticed this before, but Jane Jetson is pretty hot.

We celebrated the 4th of July in true Colorado-fashion. We went west of Boulder to hike up a short trail to the top of Bald Mountain, where we hung out to watch all the fireworks in the area. It was pretty awesome- we could see all the fireworks going on from Boulder to Denver, in addition to towns north and east of Boulder. It was pretty amazing. We hiked down with our new headlamps (I was so psyched to get to use those!) and took a different way home, discovering a whole new part of Boulder, which totally cemented my feelings of love towards Boulder. It really is a great town.

Speaking of Boulder, we were in town last weekend, I think, and found an awesome vintage store that had super cool (and really nice quality and condition) vintage furniture. They had a few Eames chairs, some amazing Danish furniture, and they also showcased some awesome local, contemporary artists on the walls.

On to other things of note... I'd like to congratulate my former co-worker for quitting that place we both lovingly refered to as "hell", and it seems my leaving has caused quite a chain of events... After he quit, they fired the girl they hired to replace me! Sounds like that place is going down the drain, I can only say I wish I would have left there sooner than I did!

Tomorrow we are planning a moderate hike up to the summit of Mount Audobon, which is west of Boulder. I believe it's a 7 mile hike with an elevation gain of 3K feet, so it should be a good hike with some spectacular views of the Continental Divide and the Indian Peaks WA.

The power seems to be going off and on. Could be that the daily thunderstorm is coming through.. Well, not even like it rains, it just gets dark, windy as all heck and cool out, which is usually welcome since the high today was 98. Sorry if there are some misspellings or grammatical errors today, I'm not going to proofread this one. :)

POP QUIZ: What IS the Continental Divide? (and don't google this, you internet savvy fools!) reason I ask, is I didn't know what it really was until a couple months ago, and I must say, it's moderately interesting, if you're a geek like me.

Dillon Rules!

This weekend was a good-ol' outdoorsy type of weekend. We started on Friday after work, going on a difficult hike west of Golden. When I say difficult, I mean it- I am still sore from it! Lots of steep portions of the hike and the overall hike was probably 7 or 8 miles. I was definitely feeling it the next day!

Saturday we headed up to Dillon Reservoir (in the mountains, about 1 hour 15 mins. away) to kayak and camp. We lucked out and got a campsite super close to the water, so we were able to just walk our kayaks down to the shore and get in the water. The lake is really big and surprisingly quiet, considering the size and location. We shared the lake with a few other kayakers, some sailboats and the occasional pontoon and fishing boat. Anyways, the campground was pretty nice, with the exception of our neighbors to one side of us, and their poor, pathetic dog, 'Tiny'. We heard the word 'tiny' probably more than 250 times over the course of the weekend, because they were too DUMB to put the freaking dog on a leash and obviously too DUMB to train the dog to listen to them. Not the dog's fault for wandering around, but the owners were just freaking ignorant. It says at the entrance of the campground that all pets must be leashed. Just because the dog was the size of a rat, doesn't mean that it doesn't need to be on a leash... Anyways, I just felt bad for the dog and our other neighbors with awesomely well behaved dogs on leashes, because Tiny kept going up to those dogs and barking at them.

Enough of me harping on our dumb campsite neighbors... It's hot here this week, like 90˚, but no humidity, so it's totally bareable. Though, my plants outside are suffering- I am watering them 2-3 times a day, because they just start wilting so quickly! Poor things! Anyways, no big plans for this week, maybe a hike on Wednesday if the weather is good, and a short roadtrip for the weekend...

I 'Heart' Boulder.

Tonight, after work, Rob and I headed up to the foothills west of Boulder for a hike up a mountain. Well, it was more like a foothill, but it's called Bald Mountain. Why? Because it's bald... As in not trees up top. Duh.

Anyways, it was a very quick hike up and back (Sidenote: the views from the top were cool- you could see Denver and the Plains, parts of Boulder, the mountains to the west, south and north, the foothills, and the flatirons), so we stopped in downtown Boulder to check out the infamous Pearl Street Mall. I was expecting it to be all yuppified, and don't get me wrong, it sort of was, but the combination of numerous outdoors stores, street performers, and friendly homeless people made me realize that I love Boulder. They even had a outdoors store totally dedicated to women (you don't know how difficult it is to find women's hiking shoes at a place like Dick's or even REI, the selection just sucks). We had dinner on a rooftop deck of a sports bar/grill that ruled and then came home. It was an awesome night.

Summary: Jackie + Boulder = LOVE

P.S. Can you believe I am STILL wound up from the coffee I drank this morning? Doesn't make sense, I know, but I'm still wound. Maybe it's just the thin mountain air, but I DO make my coffee strong...

fun week...

Well, the week started out a bit bland, but on Tuesday, Rob got a call from Art from '...for all i care', a band he recorded back in chi-town, and they were all in town for a show! So, we met up with them to watch the White Sox/Rockies game at Coors Field on Tuesday night and went on to fadó after for some drinks. Wednesday night we saw them play at the Climax Lounge here in Denver, then Thursday night they all came over for dinner at our place. So, we had a lot of fun with the guys and gal of '...for all i care' this week, and also met a couple cool people they knew out here.

We had plans of climbing Mount Sniktau today, but the weather wasn't looking too promising. There was a chance of snow in the mountains overnight, and today, threatening storms in the afternoon. Can't wait for it to really be summer, when there won't be continual snow up at the higher altitudes! Anyways, so today was a day of running errands, dying my hair, and planting some flowers... oh yeah, and watching the Cubs beat the Red Sox... Again! I couldn't believe it. I was really torn watching it, not really knowing who to root for! We just ate some good pizza and now we're watching the White Sox. Guess we'll just be taking it easy tonight.

Hopefully tomorrow we'll be able to get out and bike or hike or do something outdoors, though the weather isn't looking too promising! Guess we'll just have to wait and see....

Couple things...

First and foremost, if I have to see another six flags commercial with that annoying song and that even more annoying old guy, I think I may puke.

Secondly, we went to the Teva Mountain Games in Vail yesterday- very cool. Got to see some Kayak Rodeo, bouldering, and some other competitions, as well as collecting a large bagfull of free stuff.

Friday and Saturday were very blah- it was raining like nuts, flash floods all over the place, and in grand Colorado news tradition... Everytime the weather isn't sunny and gorgeous, they will report on the news NONSTOP for a minimum of 37 minutes. No seriously, on Friday, they broke into Oprah several times, informing children home alone to seek shelter in a room without windows, because there were tornado warnings, also showing pics of the flash floods all over, the traffic jams, etc. Then the news started at 5pm, and went non-stop, and I mean without commercials and all, for AT LEAST 37 minutes (I changed the channel at that point!). People out here really freak out about 'bad' weather!

Am I back in college??

Once again, it's been too long since my last post, however, it's been a very, very busy last couple of weeks, so that's my excuse! Rob's brother came in last Sunday and was here til Thursday. Then the long weekend proved to be very boring... So, I'll rewind to Ryan's visit since that's when all the excitement occurred.

We took Ryan up to the mountains for a drive on his first day here, traversing some crazy highways all the way up to Leadville, the highest incorporated city in the US. The scenic drive was sort of lame, but it was nice and relaxin, though I was working on my laptop in the backseat 90% of the drive! We checked out Vail as well, which was under some heavy construction and not as Disney-esque as it's been on past visits. We walked around the desolate town for a bit, (apparently May is the off-season there) and took off for home.

The next day, we embarked on a real adventure... A hike up a mountain! We hiked up Chief Mountain through about 3 feet of snow (for the most part, we were walking on top of the packed snow), and made it to the summit just in time. We were able to enjoy the views of Mt. Evans, the Continental Divide, and just a mixture of beautiful scenery for a few minutes, then heard some thunder, and thought we should get the hell down off the mtn!

The rest of the week we took it easy... Oh, we did have an absolute blast at Fadó singing along to some great Irish Drinking songs one night.

Anyways, the weekend was boring- weather sucked- cold & rainy. But, I did get to take some naps, read some of my book (that I started a year ago), and went grocery shopping at... yep, you guessed it, Super Wal-Mart.

Well, I must get back to watching the Cubs!

Oh man, I posted this and didn't even reference my blog subject... We have some new neighbors who are either in college or act like it and they were screaming obscenities out back and driving wrecklessly this afternoon. This will be a fun situation. Yay.

They say it's my birthday...

Lots of fun news! First off, my parents are in town and we've been having a blast. We went to the Rockies-Giants game on Wednesday and I got Moises Alou's autograph and a picture with him!!!! I was so excited, I was shaking! Secondly, last night we went out to dinner for my birthday celebration and we went to The Capital Grille- Yummy, yum, yum. It was divine. I think the best meal I've ever had. Great wine, great company, and great, great food! For dessert, we had an ice cream cake from Cold Stone Creamery- can't go wrong there! And I even got to open my presents a day early (or like a 1/2 hour early, is more accurate!). I got a nifty GPS unit that has all sorts of cool hiking tools on it, including an altimeter- I have been dying for an altimeter, despite not knowing how to say it's half the time. They rock. Also got some other stuff, but I won't bore ya'll with the details... (Not that the presents are boring, just that I have them and you don't!). Today, I'm getting some work done early and then we're going to head up to Rocky Mountain National Park this afternoon for some scenic driving, fishing, and exploring. Well, I better finish up my work... Oh yeah, and I'm officially old today. ;)

been busy...

wowee- I've been keeping busy. brief recap: NIN concert ruled, been busy working on my business, framed some cool prints for my office, painted a few paintings, went back to Chicago for a brief trip to go to a wedding and now, trying to catch up on all the other stuff that's been piling up! Well, that, and sitting on my balcony enjoying the gorgeous 80 degree & sunny colorado weather!

First off, I apologize to anyone we did not get to see while we were in Chicago. That just means you have to come see us! It was a crazy and hectic stay and as much as I am missing everyone, it's nice to be back home where I can get a little sleep and see my Mikey. The month of May continues to be busy from here on out as well, as I have my parents coming to visit tomorrow, my birthday is later this week (ugh, I am getting so old!) then Rob's brother will be out here. I love crazy, so I guess May is going to be my month.

I can not describe how beautiful it is here today. It's sunny, but not too sunny. It's warm, but not hot. It's breezy, but just breezy enough. It feels absolutely divine to be outdoors amidst my (dying) plants, herbs, and flowers on my balcony.

Well, I am sorry for not keeping up with my blogging as I should, but will try to be a little more consistent in the future!

holy cannoli! I'm a lucky girl!

Okay, I don't know if any of you all know about my utter infatuation with Trent Reznor, but since my freshman year of high school I have been a big fan of Nine Inch Nails. I even had the maroon converse sneakers with NIN (backwards n, of course) written all over it. Anyways, point being, I am finally going to see Nine Inch Nails live this Tuesday. Trent is coming to Denver and I just got tix on ebay and I am so, so excited. I can't wait. Okay, that's all.

Oh yeah, I also painted one wall in my studio green. Bright, bright green. Lemon Grass green to be exact.

More Snow!

Sorry for no updates for the past week-- my mom was in town and we were busy shopping, cleaning, organizing, and having fun! I must say that the weather over the past 5 days was not really representative of Colorado weather, however, my mom got to see everything from 75 degrees and sun to 32 degrees and snow. Quite odd.... It's really coming down now and we have about 2 inches on the ground. Of course, they are freaking out about it on the news tonight and are even having an earlier news show tomorrow morning with updates on it. Denver itself, still hasn't gotten any snow, but I guess there's 9" in Estes Park which is about 45 minutes from where we are. Big whoop. ;)

An awesome twist on garlic bread...

Ever since Rob took me to Papa's pizza and introduced me to a Pepperoni and Green Olive pizza, I've been hooked on green olives. Now I must share my garlic bread recipe with you, as it totally rules...

Slice up some fresh bread. Whatever kind you like. Lay it on a cookie sheet.

Take a few cloves of garlic and chop or process in food processor.
Add some soft butter and process some more to mix it up.
Add some green olives to the mix and chop it up a bit more.

Spread the garlic-olive-butter paste on your fresh bread.

Top with fresh grated parm. cheese.

Broil.

Voila!!! Super awesome garlic bread. Todd- I was thinking of you as I ate it- I think you'll love it. :)

Also- side note: I found a butcher locally that has elk and bison and other interesting meats, so Michael Lorek, I'm ready for you to visit!!! :)

Alas, the shelves are up!

Well, today was more productive than both Saturday and Sunday combined! We got the shelves put up on the wall- and this time, they didn't even fall down! Let's just hope that Mikey doesn't get any ideas to try to scale the shelves any time soon though, I'm not sure if they could handle a cat climbing all over them. This place is finally starting to come together. We also put up some DVD racks and another little shelf in the kitchen. We're almost to the point of me being able to take some pictures and posting them up here!

Why can't anything go right???

Well, today we set out to mount 3 shelves on the wall between the living room and dining room. Got them all up there using my super cool laser level and they looked great. On the middle shelf I set out to put my vintage camera collection on, don't get too excited it's comprised of 2 cameras at the moment. I get my Kodak Brownie camera up there and then my nifty 80's Polaroid 660, and yep, you guessed it, the shelf falls down. Yippee skippee. Our wall anchors were apparently pieces of shit. So we got some others at Home Depot and put those in. And it seemed to work, but it was all wobbly, so we took those out. I went back to Home Depot AGAIN, got some huge ones and we're all set to put those in tomorrow hopefully. Can I just tell you how sick I am of going to Home Depot??? I think I have been there, literally, minimum 10 times since I've moved to Colorado, and might I point out that I have only been here 2 weeks!!

Tomorrow we're going to the Rockies game. They will probably end up losing horribly to the Giants; however, I would like to mention that Moises Alou (my favorite ex-Cubbie) plays for the Giants. UGH. Yet another thing not going my way, he's on the DL so he probably won't even be there. Dang it. I wanted to try and get there early to get his autograph. We'll see how it goes. Maybe he'll at least be there. I'll keep you posted.

The Dining Room wall is DONE!!!

Finally, finally, finally. After numerous trips to Home Depot and 4, yes FOUR, different colors of paint, the dining room wall is painted and FINALLY we are happy with the color. Let's recap.

Color 1: "Formal Khaki" My ass. This was a lovely sea-foam green that would accent some great shiny black and pink 80's decór. YUCK.

Color 2: "Cup of Cocoa" We'll give 'em that- it did indeed look like a cup of cocoa in the paint can. So delicious looking, we almost drank it. But we didn't. Instead we painted the walls with it and it turned out to be a nasty peachy-beige color that would be great in our grandparent's homes, but in ours, it just wouldn't do.

Color 3: "Formal Khaki with a shitload of additional tint" We brought this original gallon back to Home Depot and they added a bunch of different tints to get it darker and browner. We thought we liked it, so we painted the wall with it. In that can, it was looking good, but on the wall, it was a blah sage green, that in combination with our red living room, it looked like it was Christmas 365 days a year in the McKenna-McMillan household. I looked at it and said, I could live with it, as did Rob, but it just kept staring me back in the face screaming that it belonged in the kitchen of a middle aged women. Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to be a snob here, but I didn't want to settle.

Color 4: "Chester Grey" We choked up the extra couple bucks to get the Ralph Lauren paint and tint on this one (all the others with Behr colors and paint). Alas, we have a couple walls that look super nice! This color is perfect. Not too green, not too beige, just RIGHT!

Thank goodness... The paint fumes and psychedelic color changing wall were just starting to go to my head. Now with the wall done, we can get the house in order, so hopefully by next Saturday when my mom gets here it will look respectable!

Ah yes, as I type this Rob is chipping or putting (don't know the correct term here) some foam golf balls across the dining room to the living room and Mikey is making gallant attempts to catch them- he actually does jump up and grasp them in his little paws once in a while. What can I say, Mikey is a natural "golfer". :)

Cats + Daffodils = Puke

Upon our arrival home last night from a lovely trip to my favorite place, Super Wal-Mart, we heard shrill meows coming from Mikey. I mean, I have never heard a meow like this before. I run over to see him and he starts dry heaving then ultimately puts a nice 3 inch diameter pile of puke on our carpet. Mostly food, but I noticed some green stems... Yep, he must have been a bad kitty, up on the kitchen counter, munching on the beautiful basket of flowers my mom sent to us! The basket is mostly daffodils, so I searched online for "Daffodils and Cats" and sure enough, they make cats vomit amongst other things. Nothing too serious, and he's totally back to normal now, but cleaning up a big ol' pile of cat vomit is not my favorite thing to do! So, I run around the house, making sure there is no more puke, and don't find any, until I pick up my laptop, check my email, close it, and find a nice little dribble of vomit down the side of it. I mean, of all things, Mikey finds my laptop to throw up on!! Come on! No big deal, it's working just fine, I was just a little grossed out that I had it my lap for a while with puke on it...

Anyways, I have been really busy with work lately, thus the lack of blog updates... We're going to be painting that damn dining room wall AGAIN, because the 2nd color we put up there still sucks. We had home depot add tint to the original color, so maybe that'll work. I'll keep my fingers crossed. Last night we bought two types of DVD/CD storage shelves, and just our luck, neither one of them is going to work. So, I gotta go on a returning trip today. And our DVD's and CD's are still in lovely and attractive cardboard boxes till we can find something that'll work. UGH!!!

Our one true addiction...

Ah yes, if anyone knows Rob and me, they know that we simply can not stand to live in a house without numerous painted walls... After spending a horrifying week and a half living between cream colored walls, we have started to paint some walls to make this place feel less dorm-like. With our super heavy TV being delivered today, we painted the walls around where it was going to be placed last night a lovely cinnamony red (that way we wouldn't have to move the TV after it was delivered). It was quite a day yesterday. First putting up the primer: pink paint. Wow, that was a looker. Then getting a couple coats of the red up before retiring to bed last night, or should I say early this morning.

We just decided upon a color for the wall in our dining room, which will accen the warm red and with that, I am off to the Home Depot.

Our trip to the mall...

Wowee... Coloradans sure do overreact to inclement weather. Okay, so it was a little messy outside today, but by 3pm, it had stopped snowing and the roads looked great. We decided to go to Crate & Barrel at the mall, so we headed out to the mall. On our drive there, we were wondering what the heck was going on- not one car at Home Depot, barely any cars on the roads... Keep in mind, the roads were pristine- no ice, no snow.... just a little wet. We get to the mall, and find a handful of cars in the parking lot, walk into the mall entrance to find all of the stores CLOSED! We couldn't believe it. Less than 6 inches of snow on the ground, and most of the Denver area had decided to close down! One would think being so close to the mountains that receive foots of snow each year, that this area would be immune to the effects of receiving 6 inches of snow. AH, but no... That's all- just had to share that oddity of Denver. :)

mikey_dryer

mikey_dryer
Originally uploaded by jmckenna37.

Mikey checking out our new dryer... Bad Kitty!

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mikey_window
Originally uploaded by jmckenna37.

Mikey in our living room window, snow, snow, and more snow!

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jackie_mtn
Originally uploaded by jmckenna37.

Me up in the mountains on Saturday!

The Search for the Holy ... Pillow.

Wow, what an exciting weekend this has been... First off, Friday was beautiful- I planned my dinners for the next few days, did my grocery shopping at my new favorite store, Super Wal-Mart. Man, that place rules. Such good prices and they have EVERYTHING there. I love it. I made a tasty Thai dish Friday night, so I stopped by Pacific Ocean Marketplace (an Asian market down the street from us) on my way back from Wal-Mart to get a couple ingredients that Wal-Mart didn't have like some Thai Chili Paste. They have some way-cool dishes and Buddha's and lots of unique foods and ingredients.

Saturday morning we got up fairly early and made our first expedition (in the Expedition- ha) into the mountains as Colorado residents... We drove up to Boulder, then west into the mountains and north up a gorgeous scenic drive to Rocky Mountain National Park. It was so gorgeous up there. It took us a couple hours to get to the park thanks to my scenic route, so by the time we got to the main entrance gate to the park, we didn't want to pay the 20 bucks to get in for just a short while (the weather was looking questionable by then too). However, we did go to the gift shop and bought a super cool book and some magnets and postcards. We did drive through some of the free part of the park by Longs Peak and had a picnic lunch up there. It was definitely worth the drive, and we found a much faster and shorter drive home (it's about 50 miles from our house, on a semi-major highway).

When we got back into the Denver Metro area, we decided to continue our search for a sofa... So we went to a few places and finally landed at Scandinavian Designs (same as Dania Furniture back in Chi-town) where we found possibly the perfect couch. Well, as close to perfect we were going to get on our budget. It's a lovely "fawn" colored sofa in a respectable micro-fiber (not our favorite, but it'll work). After loading it up in the truck and getting back to our place, the two of us lugged it through the front door, up the stairs, and into the living room (moving heavy furniture with me is always an experience, but we won't go there right now...). Now, we are finally looking like we have a real home! After getting the sofa situated, we decided we needed to get some more color into the room, and to my surprise, Rob agreed to go pillow shopping with me right then and there. We went to Kohl's where we found some brown comfy pillows, but didn't really find the burst of color we wanted for the living room. So we bought those and continued on in our search... Off to the Great Indoors (where I did find a super pimp green pillow for our bedroom), Pier 1 Imports, Linens n' Things, (we had to stop and eat at this point and I got Rob a little drunk so we could continue on in our search for pillows after dinner), Restoration Hardware, Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel (they were closed by the time we got there- dang it!), Foley's and finally Dillards.... Rob was, needless to say, getting a little discouraged by this point, and about to pass out when we happened upon the perfect pillows. And, on sale! It was meant to be. Maybe Rob agreed to get them because he just wanted to go home, but, as I look at their grandeur right now, I am very happy with the purchase! They look great with the couch, the leather recliner, and the first brown pillows we bought too! Next up, the search for a rug... I can't wait.

Today there is apparently a blizzard blanketing the Denver area. It's nuts outside. We might get a foot or more... But tomorrow it's going to be 50 degrees, then 67 on Wednesday and Thursday, so no doubt it won't last for long. That's the great thing about Denver weather, it'll snow a bunch one day, then the next day it'll be all melted...

I've finally downloaded some pictures and I will post some for you to view! Now, I must get back to my coupon clipping and coffee drinking as I sit in my recliner by my fireplace watching the Cubbies on tv and the blizzard outside... Wow, I sound like an old lady.

Green Olives Rule!

Ah, green olives, how do I love thee? Let me count thy ways... On a pizza with pepperoni, straight from the can, and, oh yeah, as Rob introduced me to, on cheesy nachos (our lunch today- absolutely superb). Yum!

Today I got lots of work done, and unpacked my office a little bit more... Still, it's a mess. Honestly, the whole house is still a mess. So many boxes to break down, so much crap to find places for, so many clothes to hang up! I'm sick of it! I hope we don't have to move again soon!!

Well, I guess today was just a regular old day, not much to speak of, aside from working, watching the OC (man, next week looks awesome!), and I even caught a bit of The Apprentice. Not usually a huge fan of that show, but it was entertaining nonetheless. Also chatted with my parents for a while, which was really nice- can't wait to see my mom in a few weeks! (And both my mom and dad next month!)

I'm watching the weather, and they are "claiming" there is a huge winter storm coming on Sunday. But, being a Colorado veteran of one week, if there is anything I have learned, it is that they WAY overreact on the news about bad weather. Come on, I'm from Chicago, you're gonna have to show me some 15 below zero and frozen boogers in my nose (you know you've all had them) to catch my attention!

As Mikey is quietly deciding if he should take the plunge off the window sill, just 2 feet off the floor (what a pussy), I must bid you adieu. To you and you and you. Dang, where's my Sound of Music DVD???

Office Space

Well, today I worked on getting my office set up. And, Comcast finally came, so we now have cable! Don't get me wrong, my life doesn't revolve around tv, but I do like to have more than 3 crappy options when I do turn the tv on! We have the MLB Extra Innings on the cable, so we're going to watch the cubbies play tonight! :)

I finally found out what we can do with our excessive amount of trash and boxes, so the house should be looking a little bit better and unpacked in the next few days. And I promise to either post or send some pictures of our place soon. Our goal is to get the place box-free and semi home-like by the weekend. So, hopefully we'll be able to have some fun this weekend. At least drive around and explore.

Tonight we went to Best Buy to get a bigger tv for our living room so we can respectfully watch the cubbies and the OC in the future... We were too spoiled by Todd's awesomely huge tv. So we're looking forward to that being delivered next Tuesday. Speaking of the OC, Tommy was super cool and awesome and gave me his OC Season 1 DVD's before we left (miss you tommy!!). Well, last night we watched 3 episodes (we started from the beginning, it just felt wrong to start from where we left off with watching with Tommy- wasn't it episode 24???). My eyes were all teary-eyed when the first "commercial" break hit (I think only Tommy, Todd, Rob and I would get that). But I turned to Rob and said it just felt so weird watching the OC without Tommy. When you coming to visit??? Anyways, I am super psyched because it's a new OC tomorrow. Yeah!! (I lied- my life DOES revolve around tv- anyone know when America's Next Top Model is on???)

Our friendly maintenance man, Roland, came by today (finally... though, not his fault). He lit the pilot light in our fireplace for us. When we first got here, we saw the pilot light lit in there and thought it was weird to have an open flame going 24-7, so I turned it off. But apparently that's how it works, so he relit it for us. And fixed our garage door remote. And gave us one of those turny things that turn the blinds opened and closed. Like you all care. I was excited. Point being, I'm sitting in my classy butterfly chair next to the fireplace watching the cubs (drinking a coors light- it's gotta be the state drink out here or something). Sweet.

Well, I didn't get much work done today because I was getting my office set up, so I should get some done now... More tomorrow! :)

Getting settled in....

Ah... alas, I have discovered that working from home is sheer bliss. Watching Sesame Street right now (our cable isn't being installed till tomorrow), so it's either this, Home Shopping Network, or some crappy soap on CBS. Wow, I can't wait to get cable. Anyways, we're surrounded by boxes and packing material still... Slowly getting unpacked and settled in.

Our trip to Denver was mostly uneventful, and to our complete delight, we saw numerous llamas (aka "Tina's" for all you Napoleon Dynamite fans out there) along the way. Drove mostly 55mph or so, as dictated by the super cool U-Haul truck that Rob was driving. I was following in the expedition with the Kayaks on top and my bike on the back... We made it to York, Nebraska the first day, then all the way to our new home sweet home on the second day of the drive. Mikey fared the trip quite well, despite not eating, drinking, pooping, or peeing for a good solid 48 hours. A few meows here and there, but he was mostly dazed the whole drive. Our new place is nice- lots and lots of stairs. We are both going to have buns of steel after this move in. It's 32 stairs (yep, we counted) to our bedroom and Rob's studio. My office is on the first floor (thank goodness, because my books and art supplies weigh a ton!) and the 2nd floor is the living room/kitchen/dining room.

We met our neighbors to one side of us- a couple from Texas with a little boy. They seem really nice. Though, yesterday we were a little astounded at the 3 or 4 year old out behind our place in the parking/driveway area with an electric scooter that he no doubt did not know how to use. Oh yeah, and he was unsupervised and just about hit our expedition a half dozen times. Anyways, they are nice and want to have dinner sometime, so that was a nice invitation. :)

Let's see... What else is new..... We went to the Rockies game yesterday- which was fun- they won and we had a nice hot dog and coors light lunch. Oh yeah, and some good ol' nachos too. Last night I set up our DSL and was really missing Todd because I couldn't figure out the whole wireless networking bit. Rob was able to figure it out and now we were up and runing! Prior to this, we were going to the coffee shop 2 blocks from us because they have free wireless and then a couple days ago, I was able to log onto "Lloyd and Josh's" wireless network (apparently one of our neighbor's unsecured wireless network!), so I have been able to VERY slowly get email and browse the internet. You never realize how much you rely on internet access till you don't have it all the time. Especially moving to a new place, not having a phone book, you really need to look up where stores are at. I was calling my mom almost daily asking her to look up where the nearest Home Depot or Wal-Mart was!

Aside from the typical unpacking and utility woes (don't even get me started on Comcast or Qwest's lack of customer service), Denver is treating us great! We're enjoying the view of the mountains and being so close to restaurants (I LOVE walking to go get a pizza or tacos or coffee!!). Yep, I'm a dork. Mikey is adjusting quite well- he usually walks around meowing all morning long, then gets used to the new surroundings and chills for the rest of the day. Rob's all set up in his studio/office and working... It's the one room in the house that looks semi-decent. That, and the kitchen is coming along too. I'll post some pics (if I can) of our new place once it's looking more like a home and not a college dorm room!

I hope everyone is doing great and I promise to return your phone calls soon- I must apologize for the delay-- just been so busy with getting the house live-able. Hopefully my blog isn't too boring- I just thought this might be a good way to keep you all up to date with our new colorado life! Love you and miss you all!