The Ceilidh Peppers

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This next week is the Spanish Peaks Celtic Festival. Barbara Yule, one of the founders and main movers and shakers of the festival finally got me involved with the festival. Reason being is that this years theme is on Coal Mining. Considering the history of the area, it is a good fit. So, I get to do story telling about my family’s history in the schools along with a Scotsman who will be telling stories about Scottish coal mining.

Tonight, there was one of the bands from Scotland playing up at the Dog Bar in Cuchara. They are called the Ceilidh Peppers. A ten piece band with pipes, keyboard, drums, guitars, fiddles and acordian. Oh my! I have to admit I wasn’t originally too excited about going up there. However, Barbara whittled away at my resolve and so Dan and I went up.

Before we even got to the bar, we could hear the music. Oh My Gods!!! It is wonderful. So wonderful that we got a cd. :> Just type Ceilidh Peppers into your browser and follow your cursor!!!

Best yet, this band is the opening act for the school programs that I am a part of. I get to hear them 4 times over two days. :> Plus, they will be doing a concert on Saturday and another one on Sunday. Wheee!!!

A hot Tuesday afternoon

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And what may be my last quiet day for a while. On Monday I went to an interview at the D.A.’s office. I was hoping to have a full time job there. However, it seems that there are other candidates with more clerical experience than me. Therefore I was interviewed for the part time job. I was suppose to go meet the D.A. tomorrow and see if he “liked” me. However, the woman I interviewed with called me this afternoon and asked if I could start tomorrow. I said yes! Granted, it is part time. 8 to 5, M-F for at least 3 weeks, or until such time as the full time person is ready/in place/etc. $8 an hour too. After that, they’ll decide if I will be kept on part time or what. I’m hoping that they find I’m just what they need. Fingers crossed!!

Also this afternoon, Dan and I went to a meeting at the Huerfano Journal. Chere Cuz Gretchen and Hubby Brian’s newspaper. The other local paper is about to take a nose dive, and they are trying to get ready to pick up the slack. :> Dan writes the Tech Savvy articles for the paper and I went along because it’s family and I help on the tech articles every once in a while. During the discussion, other columns were brought up.  Some being the Moon Talk and Weirdness Beat. Of course, just previous to that I had mentioned that we needed a Huerfanology column to cover all the odd things that go on in the county. Of course, I said I’d help with the Moon Talk column, and then Gretchen asked who would like to do the Weirdness Beat and they all looked straight at ME! So, I get to write two columns!!! It will probably be once a month for both, but that doesn’t bother me a bit. teeheehee… I get to cover weird lights in the sky, tarantula and tortoise migrations and all things Weird. :>

We also talked about doing humorous columns about life in Huerfano County. I think I’ll submit the story about John being upset that I was related to everyone except the postman, only to have the postman walk up and say, “hello Cuz!”

Today I’m going to finish up various bits here at 520, like painting doors and then some laundry before I head off to bed. 6:45am is going to come very early. I’m going to baby my knee a but too. I tripped yesterday and bashed my right knee rather nastily. sigh….. I am such a klutz at times. Dan and Brandy both tried to help me up. Poor pup! She may not have thumbs, but she is loving.

Friday afternoon!

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I am finally getting caught up! Yesterday all I had time for was a quick post just before I went to bed. However, yesterday was a very full day.

First off, it snowed again which made it very cold. Found out later that places like Cuchara got nearly 10 inches of snow. Brrrr! On the 15th of May no less!

Plus, around 5am, Stella started having kittens. By around 7am, she had four little tabbies and one black kitten. She looks to be a very good mom. :> Oh, and Beth was ill with some sort of stomach bug which caused havoc for her. I took her some gatorades and crackers while Dan headed to Aguilar for two jobs. I did some banking and then headed out to pick up Matt and Morgan who went on an all school rollerskating trip to Pueblo. They had a lot of fun in spite of the cold. I brought them back to the office because Beth was sick. They were going to spend the night here.

While we waited for Dan to get home, Erin, Morgan and Logan showed up. With a bit of convincing, they went to the store and I made steak and potato pie for dinner. Half way through cooking, Dan got home. He’d forgotten a part and had to come back here for it.

We ate and cleaned up just in time for Dan to get home. He was too tired to eat so I saved his share for lunch. Around 9:30pm, Erin and family headed home.  Morgan and Matt went to bed and Dan and I finally had a little time to work out some things for today. Oh, and I wrote the first episode of Digitally Challenged.

This morning at 9am, my sister Pauline showed up. She had just come from a job interview and needed a cuppa tea to relax. We all chatted and then I went with her to her house and picked up chairs and a desk. Daniel was suppose to go with her out to Mike’s to unload the bus, but friends of his kidnapped him to buck bales of hay. Pauline left about 30 minutes before they got here. I gave them directions and out they went. With three young men, it only took an hour to move everything. I even got two more chairs out of the deal. 🙂 Wow! We now have places to sit that aren’t desk chairs.

We are suppose to have a business meeting in about 15 minutes. Erin, Karen, Carlos, Dan and I. A first! 🙂

I also took pictures of our furbaby. Brandywine came home today from training. Wheeee!

Brandy surprises Dan with a kiss

Brandy and Morgan in the garden

More later!

Ha-HA!

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I’ve done it at last! Set up a new blog page and started the story that has been in my head for months. Now to see if this works. I feel giddy!

http://g33kgurl.wordpress.com/ is my new blog and latest interactive writing work. Hope people read it and enjoy the story as it unfolds. Hope I can keep it going!

Finished!!!

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    At long last, I have finished a major bit of writing. I started this story, Sheeple, about 2 years and 3 offices ago. It took over my life for a brief bit, and I actually had time to let it do so. Granted, it shoved another story, SweetWater, to one side, but… This one had a bit more Ummph behind it. Ok, a real shove via my Muse. I wrote a ton of pages and then hit a resounding halt. Life got in the way and I didn’t write on it for nearly 5-6 months. I started to edit it and work on it a bit more and then life intruded again. However, last week I got tired of that Muse of mine hammering my brainpan. Dan had also dropped a not so subtle hint or two that he’d like to see the finished story. I can understand that as I used him as “technical adviser” a time or six.

However, I knew it had to finish soon. The hardest part about writing isn’t the idea, or dialog. It’s rounding up all the characters and making them shut up long enough to bring the story to a close. Or, at least to the end of the first volume.  I know I could have written 15-20 more chapters of Sheeple, but that isn’t where the story was. This ending is short and sweet. It wraps it up and tucks it in nice and neatly, which is where the first chapter tried to contain it. Now, if I write Sheeple II, I may elaborate more. I don’t know. However, the story is finished. Huzzah! Now once Dan finishes giggling and drooling on the keyboard, we will tidy up any little edits and call it done. What I do after that, I’m not sure. Part of me wants to just share it with friends. Other bits of me wants to find a way to publish it. I’ll see where I am in a bit.

The other thing that I have finally (?) finished is this bout with the flu. I have been sick for a week. Today is the first time I have gotten dressed since I got sick. Gads! Dan is still rather phlegmmy, but I think he is on the mend as well. Regardless of that though, we have to get back to work. I turned the phones on for the first time and was hit with a barrage of calls. We also have one appointment today. Between the phone and that, I’ve cleaned up the bedroom a bit so that it is loosing that sick room smell, changed sheets and have dumped the dirty laundry. I’m going to have a ton of it. Oh well.

Another bit of good news is that I have a story up on Literotica. Fruit Salad. :> Teeheehee! I doubt that the Muse will let me rest, so….  on to SweetWater!

Playing with…

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    Couldn’t keep my mind on work today. Granted the interruptions didn’t help. Dan was flying around the office today doing all sorts of little bits and every once in a while, he needed to show me something or tell me a new bit of data. Normally, those don’t break my concentration. However, today… all it took was a breath. Finally settled down and decided to work on some filing. Yawn… boring stuff, but needed done. Well, it still needs done. At least most of it. I didn’t get to the scanning or the receipt filing. Oh well, that’s what tomorrow is for.

Meanwhile, I got a call from Damon. He needed me to come out and grab a shirt for Pauline. She had a beer keg spray all over her. She works down at Rosa’s Cantina on Main Street. So, I drove out to D&P’s, grabbed two shirts and then went to Rosa’s. Gave Pauline the shirts and sat and chatted with her for an hour or so. Then I headed back to the office with the intention of getting back to work. Silly me.

First I made some lunch. Then I called John and while I chatted with him, I actually got some of the stuff filed. Realized that I need to make new files reflecting the fact that it is now 2008, and then gave up.

Finished my lunch, and decided to work on my blog. Went for a 3 column theme and have now added a new page as well as a new header picture. Still can’t figure out a few bits, but probably need to dig into the CSS book Dan got a few weeks ago. sigh….

Granted, I aught to finish the filing as it still needs done, but…. that can wait. It also started snowing about two hours ago. I tried to call Tosoto in, but that stupid cat has an itch and so she can just stay outside with her new boyfriend. sigh… Honestly, I think she is under the house with the skunk, but… Oh well.

Winter Solstice!

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    Gads, it has been ages since I wrote last. It has been a busy week or two. Lots of stuff done for Yule and prezzies wrapped at the last minute. Plus, Beth bought lamb for Yule dinner and therefore we had roast lamb! (more on that later)

Friday morning, (21st) we got up at the crack of dawn. I had my drum, and the kids had pots and pans. Dan had his elk call and John his drum. We all stood at the window facing east and just before sunrise, we started our usual cacophony of noise to wake up the sun.  Once we had felt that the sun was truly awake, we settled down in the living room with prezzies to open and sausage rolls and cookies to eat. I had made tons of sausage rolls the night before.  We took turns opening prezzies and Dan took lots of photos. Beth did as well, but I don’t have copies of those yet. Here is a link to the Yule pics. http://picasaweb.google.com/sudjja/December

There were lots of lovely prezzies. I got two new bags that I can use as yarn project bags, a new book, stickers, a keychain and candy. :> The funniest thing was all the cups. Dan got three, John two and Beth one. The year of the coffee cup!

Afterwards, John and Beth had to go to work. Blah…. Then again, we just thought we might have a chance to rest when Dan and I also got called to work. One of our clients had their server crash. What a cluster that was. The person who had previously set up the server didn’t know his arse from his elbow. It took us 2.5 hours to fix things. sigh….

Then I went home and started working on dinner. Roast lamb, savoury pumpkin/potato soup, green beans and home made pecan pie for dessert. It was heavenly! When Dan got back from another job, (installing the NOC box at the hotel), we sat and watched the latest Harry Potter movie. It was good.

Woke up the next morning to new snow on the ground. Pretty good for the first day of winter. I greeted the sun privately, then went back to bed for a bit. Got up, made breakfast and then John and I headed out to run some errands. We stopped at Edla’s Yarn’s first and while I originally went in to just get a set of size 8 double pointed needles, I ended up adding some bulky yarn in two colors as well as some very fine sock yarn to my pile. :>

Then it was off to see Damon. I had a pecan pie that I made for him and Pauline. We visited with him for about two hours and then we stopped at Safeway for dog food and some soda. I dropped him off at the house and went over to the office for a little bit. Yeah! Mostly head time to just have some peace and quiet as Dan and Karen were out doing work on the hotel site. I got home a few hours later and knitted a bit before bed.

Sunday I slept in and then took some books and DVD’s over to Damon and Pauline. Also a birthday card for Pauline. After a lovely visit, I went over to 520 to check on Dan. When I had come by earlier, I had discovered that he was ill with a migraine. Still walking around trying to do things, but I stopped that. Put him to bed and took his shoes. When I came back around 5pm, he was still asleep. He finally woke around 5:45pm feeling better. A good thing too, as Karen wanted to take us to dinner and talk business. We went to the Rambler where the enchiladas are very good. Got a lot accomplished. When I got home, I knitted while watching a program on JFK and then Lincoln.

Woke up late this morning and hit the ground running. Shower, breakfast and then laundry. Gads it piled up! I swear that people hide it and then dump it down the chute just as I think I’m done. grrrrr….. Did a bunch of ironing and finished Dan’s second pair of sleep pants. Started on some repairs between laundry loads and even started some spaghetti sauce.

Got the sauce to the simmer point and then headed over to the office for the duration of the Bronco game. The guys don’t like me to even be in the same house when they are playing. Think I’m a jinx. ah well….

8 Degrees…

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    Not of seperation, but of temperature~! It’s bloody cold today. We have a grand total of about 8 inches of snow and although it has stopped, nothing is melting because it is so cold! My car is parked at the moment because the snow is deeper than the bottom of my car. I was ‘plowing’ the snow just to park. My office is a balmy 52!

My plans for later tonight are knitting and curling up with a good book under lots of blankets.  I laugh too at all the layers I’m wearing. We are so getting a better heating system in the office as soon as possible!

Meanwhile, I’m getting the urge to climb back into my writing. I have so much other stuff to do, but I want to finish my stories. Awwwgh! I also have all these projects to finish! I need a clone!

Brrr! ~~~Phewwwww~~~ Brrr!!!

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    It is 55 degrees in my office. Bloody cold! We got about 8 inches of snow the other day and it has yet to warm up. Granted, it is suppose to snow more tonight. Brrr!!! I know we need the moisture, but oh my for better heating.

We also dealt with a skunk yesterday. Yeah, the one under the house at 520 Penn. I was only suppose to be over there briefly to grab a few things when Dan realized that the trap had been sprung and we had a skunk. So, we started trying to deal with it and it of course sprayed. Luckily, we had put a black trashbag around the trap and most of the spray hit the bag. Dan got a bit of it, and the rest went into the air. We loaded the skunk up in the truck and headed out of town to let it go. We didn’t want to kill it. Well, it sprayed again while in the truck. Phewwww!!! We let it go and then headed home to the house on Walsen. Dan and I both had to shower as we stank. I washed all the clothes and coats as well as gloves and hats. Ugghh….. We bombed the truck with air freshener and left the hatch open. Hopefully, it will de-skunk soon.

Meanwhile, I made an awesome pot of lentil soup and homemade drop biscuits. Ate way too much! I got some knitting done and even some sewing done over the weekend. Sleep pants for some at Yule. :> Hopefully a new hot water bottle cover too.

This morning, Dan and I took the kids to school. He was worried about the road. I was rather relieved to let him drive. Then we spent the day trying to sort out a huge delivery from UPS.  When it was time to pick up the kids, Dan decided to drive again. I was so happy he did as we had car problems. One of the spark plugs came loose and was causing the car to run really rough. We pulled over and Dan checked things out while I called John to go pick up the kids. He did while we took the car slowly back to Burg. We got to NAPA  in time and bought a new spark plug and a tool to put it in. Brrrroooomm! Started up just fine.  We took it for a bit of a test drive and then came home. Dan will tighten the spark plug down in a bit and then I will head home for the night. Brrrrr!!!

Mondays, elk legs and organization

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    Here it is Monday afternoon and while in one way I don’t think I’ve gotten much done, when I look at my list of things to do, I’ve managed plenty.

Saturday, after sleeping in late, I got to work on stuff over at the office. In the end, Dan and I realized that we needed to head to Pueblo. So, off we went. Six hours later, we had a desk for Karen, three new chairs, two book cases, and some other bits and bobs.

Sunday morning, I was up and moving by 8:30am… yawn! We had furniture to build for the office. My cabinet for my office was first. Not to difficult, but we think that directions were getting scrambled in translation. Engrish! sigh….. Then the desk. Not too difficult, but still time consuming. After that we stopped for a bit of food and then tackled the bookshelves. First one was slow. Second one was fast, but Dan put two shelves in backwards. So, I colored the raw edges with sharpie. :> We also moved furniture around and put an old bookcase in his room when we moved one of the new ones into his office area. We got the big metal shelf into the back porch and now have the beginnings of organized tools, components, etc. Huzzah!!! We also got the glass into the window frames. It isn’t caulked yet, but there is quarter round in place to hold the glass. We will do the pretty bits later when it is just a tad warmer!

This  morning, I started the school run again. We have a month left before the holidays. I drove out to Badito with a glorious sunrise in the rear view mirror. Drove home and then picked up Daniel to take him to school. On the way there, there was something in the road. I wasn’t sure what it was. It looked like a very weird piece of wood. Drove by it slowly on the way home and realized it was the lower leg of an elk! Complete with hoof! Found out later that one of the high school guys went hunting and  as a joke stuck bits of the rotting left overs all over the high school campus. sigh!

Today of course since we built all of those lovely bits of furniture, I have to organize things. My desk looks like a tornado hit it. However, I have more shelf and cupboard space than I did last week! Now to get some stuff done before it is time to pick up the wee trolls.