MIA

Hello, again! Gabe is in Vermont for grad school this week, and sadly, so is our computer. I am at the library right now. I wanted to catch up on blogs, write a quick hello on mine and escape from the bloody heat (we don't have air conditioning)--leaving furry Daly to fend for himself. Actually it's not too bad in our house, but it's definitely cooler in the public library.

I spent the last two days redoing our staircase, and I must say, it looks even better than I hoped. I'll put some pictures up when my husband and my computer are back where they belong. On Friday I went to Lowe's to just pick out a few sample color swatches to take home and mull over for awhile. I was on my way to the exit, when I wandered past the returned paint area. I moved a few cans around just to see what was there, and there just happened to be a gallon that perfectly matched one of the samples I'd picked up. Not only that, but it was only $5! For the whole gallon. Needless to say, I grabbed it. The wood, screws and paint to redo our entire staircase ended up costing $18. How's that for a deal? AND I finished the project. That's right, I didn't start it and get bored and decide to finish later (March), I actually completed the entire arduous project in two days.

I rent movies that Gabe is not interested in when he's gone. The other night I rented Over Her Dead Body. It was not good. There were few to no redeeming qualities in the entire movie. It wasn't raunchy. I guess that's a plus. Sorry to anyone that has seen it and liked it. I will not be watching it with you.

Because I'm blogging not from the comfort of my own home, I am almost out of time on this computer. I still have to catch up on all of your blogs, so with the 9 remaining minutes on this computer, I plan to do just that.

Peace out.

disillusioned daly

Daly has some misconceptions about his actual 8 lbs. worth of self.  I allow him to go on thinking he's much smaller than he really is, because generally it's pretty funny (to us, probably not as much to you, so I apologize for this post).

I knew this would happen, which is why I grabbed my camera.

Steady...

Totally meant to tip this basket onto its side, sheesh.

MORE Amelie, chicken, and Martha.

I never put these pictures from Amy up, but I meant to.  They're from last Wednesday at the Farmer's Market. Amy especially liked how in the second photo it looks like I'm about to joyfully smack her baby.  I wasn't really.  I would never do that.  Pictures can and do lie sometimes---if you look again, you'll see we're just giving each other "high ten".

Last night I made some VERY tasty chicken, and it was really easy.  Honey, a little soy sauce, water.  Dip chicken in mixture, pour the rest over the pan of chicken.  Bake at 475 for 30(-40) minutes.  

Well, The Today Show is about to show me how to avoid fashion disasters after the commercial, so I better go :)  ---Actually yesterday was (I think) the first time I watched morning television this summer.  I watched a little of the Today Show and most of Martha Stewart.  Martha Stewart was a first.  She might be cold and an ex-con, but that woman has some good ideas.  I'm going to watch again today, and that's it.  I will not become addicted to watching Martha in the mornings.  I can't promise anything about going to her website everyday.

amelie and my resurrected plants

Sorry no new blogs lately.  I just haven't found the time and/or motivation (at least not at the same time). Yesterday I watched Amelie all morning so Amy could go fulfill her jury duty.  So I did the huge favor of hanging out with an adorable one and a half year old for a few hours, and I got blueberry pancakes, a sushi lunch, a vase of fresh scabiosa flowers, and a morning with one funny little girl out of the deal.  It was really generous of me, wasn't it?

Here is a picture of one of my many succulent plants that have miraculously returned to life the last few months.  I moved them all to the kitchen window a few months ago and started paying closer attention to when I watered them, and voila, they seem to have responded to the sunlight and water.  Pretty breakthrough.  The one in the purple shot glass broke off a larger plant, so I put it in this glass hoping it would grow roots.  When I first put it in, it barely fit on the rim of the glass without falling into the cup.  The one in the foreground grew these hot pink flowers out of the center.  A nice surprise.  Daly doesn't eat any of these, so that's a plus :)

good day

Yesterday I met up with Amy and Amelie at the Farmer's Market.  Here is Amelie sipping some tea like a pro.

I didn't get any pictures of it, unfortunately, but Amelie applauded and enthusiastically waved at every biker that passed our way.  She makes friends wherever she goes.

Here is the gyro we each had for lunch, and Amelie taste-testing a piece of it.

Amelie practicing her stair-climbing skills behind Cherry Creek Mall.

It was a very good day.

Frindee!!!

My old friend, Frindee from good ol' CR....is moving to BOULDER next month!!!  I just got off the phone with her a few minutes ago and now I am so excited I can hardly stand it.  Frindee and I met in 4th grade.  Her younger sister and I were actually in a 3rd/4th combination class and became friends.  Once I was over at their house and Frindee's mom had to step out for awhile so she asked Frindee to keep an eye on us.  We were the same age.  I was so humiliated to be babysat by someone my own age.  

It wasn't long before Frindee and I became good friends.  We lived very nearby and had all sorts of adventures together growing up.  Now we can have new adventures in Colorado.  How exciting :)

sushi date

Here are our some pictures from our impromptu happy hour sushi date tonight.  

It was very tasty.

...and very fun.

...and very filling (we also had miso soup and sauteed oysters and moshi (sp?) ice cream).

not much

I don't know why everything is typing as a blue underlined link that doesn't link to anything, and I don't know how to fix it.  My only advice is to go buy a mini trampoline from Wal-Mart.  The one that comes with resistance straps and a work-out DVD.  It's fun and it's a good work-out.  And also, this is one last picture from our Eldorado hike.  I promise to put new and different themed pictures on here from now on.

aneurisms and trampolines

Here are a couple more pictures from our day at Eldorado.  You may have noticed that in many of the earlier ones (or at least a few, I don't entirely remember which ones I put on here and looking would take way too much time) you saw the backs of everyone's heads as they walked ahead of me.  This one on the left is also while everyone else was ahead of me.  There is actually a series of these hold-the-camera-and-photograph-yourself pictures, but they are far to embarrassing to include here.  The reason I was in the back is two-fold.  I was sick and I could be in better aerobic shape (translation: I'm not really in great shape).  More on the shape part later.  As we began to ascend the mountain, really as we drove toward the mountain if I'm honest, my head began to protest.  It was experiencing some sinus issues, and my lungs quickly started to protest in the form of quick outbursts of hacking.  Once the hike began, things did not exactly clear up.  I did not want to be a pansy, however, so I silently (if you don't count the hacking) pushed on.  During the first fifteen minutes, or so, I seriously considered the odds that I was in fact having a brain anurism (my computer informs me that that is the incorrect spelling, but I can't seem to care enough to find the correct spelling).  By the time we got to our turn-around point at the river, my aneurism (aha!  I got it!),  had let up and I privately mentioned to Gabe that I'd had one earlier in the hike.  Since Nate just took the oath to be a real live doctor days before arriving in Denver, Gabe asked him what the difference between a stroke and an aneurism is and in true doctor fashion, he explained it to us.  So it seems I probably did have an aneurism, and not in fact a stroke.  

As far as the not being in the best shape comment, I bought a "rebounder" (ie: small trampoline) at Wal-Mart yesterday, so that will all be behind me soon.  I read (while G, Jenn, and Nate climbed the incline in the Springs) that bouncing on a trampoline is actually very good for your lymph system, immune system, skeletal and musculature systems, and aerobically.  So I'm a sucker and I went out and bought one.  It came with an exercise DVD and resistance straps to hold and pull with my arms, as well as a little sensor that tells me how many times I've bounced and calories burned.  It should be easy on my knees, too.  

Gabe needs the computer to do some actual work now.  Not me.  I'm on vacation in case anyone forgot.  It's the best invention I know of, by the way.

Really quick, here are some recommendations to watch/read:

Bella (movie)

Once (movie)

Dan in Real Life (movie)

The Shack (I finished it yesterday, Vickie.  It was great.) (book)

Toodles.

the week in partial review

Here are a few pictures from the past week with Nate and Jenn.  They've got some more on their camera that we'll hopefully get soon on our computer.  I've been dealing with a stinky cold the whole time they've been here, so because of that, today they are hiking up the incline in Manitou while I'm waiting at home coughing and sneezing.  I feel guilty for not being a tougher sick person, but I don't want to push it and be sick for another week, so bowing out was the best I could do, as lame as it seems to me.

This was from our hike in Eldorado Canyon.  The water was GUSHING, we were surprised to see so much of it.  You can't really tell from this photo, but Gabe thought it looked like a class 5 rapid.

Here is a lil snake we saw on the path:

This was right at the trailhead: 

Melissa mentioned something in her last post about how rarely her husband takes a serious picture.  I know how that goes:

We ran into Collin and a couple of his friends at the New Belgium Brewery tour we took in Ft. Collins.  It was kind of funny because the place where they do the free tastings was packed so Jenn took the initiative and went in search of some empty chairs.  The three of us just stood and talked for a minute, then Jenn motioned to us from across the room that she'd found some empty spots.  We crossed the room and the four empty seats just happened to be at the same table as Collin and his two friends.  So we joined up with them and had an even better time.
Nate and Jenn:

Gabe and I (note the serious face again):

Once again...
Here is the bottling part of the tour. All of the red is the bottle-tops:

Hand-blown glass bottle chandelier on the tour:

One of the tanks (?) where they brew with mosaic tile around the bottom:

And again...
If you like beer and live in one of the 18 states that sells New Belium (Fat Tire) beer, I encourage you to drink it.  They are a green brewery that does all sorts of admirable things, such as: 85% wind powered, the rest being powered from methane that they create and utilize on site; all sorts of other energy-efficient things throughout the whole brewery like sun tubes in the ceiling, and a bunch of stuff I don't really remember; they donate $1 for every barrel of beer they sell during the year (last year that ended up being almost a half a million dollars donated to non-profits and maybe charities); they were voted the number one place to work, beating out even Google;  on the first day of work, every employee is given a key to the entire place;  every employee is allowed one free case of beer per week, on the honor system--it can be picked up at any time on their own; everyone who works there for 5 years is taken to Belgium on an all-expenses paid trip with the founder and his wife; each year employees are given more stock in the company, so that after 7 years they are officially employee owners.  I'm sure there is more, but the point is, they are a good company that makes good beer (if you like beer, and I don't typically---but I do like a few of their brews).

I hope everyone's weekend gets off to a great start today!

photos

As promised, here are the pictures I described in my previous post:

One freshly painted reddish-orange table:

Many magenta peonies lovingly delivered to me by Amy:

 

Two things you should never buy me (and probably should never buy period):

Two shots of Gabe in the shower at Lowe's:

Later this same day, I found Gabe trying out the inversion machine at Sam's Club.  He was hanging upside-down, not strapped in, on the floor model of the inversion machine.  Gabe made errands much more fun that day.  Every time I turned around he was hiding in showers, inverting himself, or who knows what else.

One little Dooly napping in the kitchen window:

A dozen, or so, overripe  bananas thawing in order for me to bake them into banana bread in order to end the two years of Gabe teasing me about putting ripe bananas in the freezer for banana bread that never seems to actually get made in order to win a fifteen minute back rub in the bet made by Gabe that this time would be no different:  (I won.)

Seven envelopes I sent to Gabe (with letters inside) while he was in Costa Rica (I found them when looking for something else):

The journal I made for Gabe before he left for Costa Rica:

Nate and Jenn got here Monday.  We've been up to Ft. Collins for the New Belgium Brewery tour, where we ran into Collin L. during the free bear tasting after the tour.  Yesterday we went on a 7+ mile hike in Eldorado Park, and then to Keri and Charlie's for dinner and a bonfire.  Today we'll be heading down to the Springs, and then they leave tomorrow afternoon.  I've got a bunch of pictures from the week, but I think I'll wait to post them until the end of their stay with us.  

p.s.  Summer vacation doesn't yet feel like it.  It seems like the weekend--but it's been really nice so far...

5 hours and picture descriptions!

Ahhhh, the countdown to summer has switched from days to hours. I officially have five more school hours left until vacation. Two hours today. Three hours tomorrow. And if they don't turn on the air conditioning in that time, it could be a pretty uncomfortable five hours. It is friggin' hot in here. My classroom is normally frigid (as told to me daily by at least five girls), so I dress accordingly. Apparently the district thinks they can save some money by allowing us to sweat out the last day and a half of school. Whatever. This paragraph makes it sound like I care a lot more than I really do. Five more hours people. Five more hours!

I have some pictures to put on here, but they're on my computer at home, and as I've established, I am sweating at school. So I'll tell you what some of them will be: magenta peonies delivered to me by the wonderful Amy; Gabe in the shower (you'll see, it's not inappropriate, I promise); a newly painted red table; fancy toilet seats; my beautiful back-from-the-dead succulent window garden; brown bananas; love letters to Gabe sent while he was in Costa Rica; maybe some student artwork; maybe some of Daly. I may need to split this into multiple posts. Anyhoo, that's what you all have to look anxiously forward to in the next few days.

Peace out.