May Spring Weather at Last!!!

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Well, we did have typical Colorado May weather on May 1st. Snow! It was very cold wet snow. The early part of the week wasn’t much better. While warm during the day, the nights were still very cold. And Windy!

Thursday we went to Denver. While the sun was shining and the weather was warmer, the wind was still chilly. Yesterday was warm and today it is a balmy 73 degrees!!! Springlike May weather at last! Who knows, at this rate I may be able to plant my garden by May 15th!

This year I plan to plant pumpkins, squash, onions, beets, salad greens and lots of marigolds. I’ve been avoiding working in the garden plot because of the wild violets. I’m allergic to them. sigh… However, they have about run their course and I can pull them up without needing an oxygen mask. 🙂

We have three small trees to chop down as well in the front yard. Suckers from an elm that went wild. I’d like to put a few apple trees out front, but that will have to wait a bit. Our front porch project may start sooner than we expected. The stairwell is beginning to crack more. So, we have almost totally evacuated the two front porch rooms. Business stuff moved to the back porch and the ‘Wendy House’ aka the guest house. My sewing room also moved out there. Weird. First time in 33 years that my sewing machine hasn’t been under the same roof with me. It does give me more space, but I need to finish up the organization of it. Dan has a shelf unit to build for me.

Part of the reason for the move was that I have been talking to one of the local SCA’ers and said I’d be available for costume work. With computer work as slow as it is, I’m back to sewing for cash. I’m also grateful that our local yarn shop, Edla’s Yarns, sells some basic sewing supplies. I needed zips for a couple of outfits and luckily she had some! Otherwise it would have meant a trip to Pueblo for a $2 item. So, while Dan goes to the Fox Theater to run the lights for the El Fandango show this afternoon, I’ll be cutting and sewing. Wheee!!!

A blustery day

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Today is the second one with very high winds. Yesterday saw all the loose dirt for at least an area the size of the county head East to Kansas. Right now the gusts are from 35 to 45 mph. Geeze!!! At this rate, we might even get some snow.

Granted, we were up in Denver on Sunday and the wind was blowing up there. My sister even asked for us to take the wind home!

Sigh… we did.

The weekend was busy. Thursday morning we left early and headed up for Denver so that Dan could go to a Workforce meeting. A Colorado Workforce Development Council -CWDC meeting. It was downtown Denver, and once we parked, we saw my sister who works for the Colorado department of Labor and Employment. She had watched the truck go by as we tried to park. LOL! Then we met up with a friend and visited for a bit. Dan went to the meeting and I headed back to our hotel. Well, sorta back.

My sister had mentioned a quilting store… Creative Needle, and that it was near the Joann’s that I knew on Ridge Road. So, I detoured. 🙂 First Joann’s, where I found two patterns for dresses. Wheeee!!! Then on to the Creative Needle. OMG! All sorts of goodies in that shop including the fact that they are the only Elna service dealers in Colorado. I must have spent an hour in there. Then, off to a bookstore I spied on the way in. Heaven!!!!! Tons of used books. I was lost on where to start there were so many choices. I found a new to me Charles De Lint and the last three Jane Austen’s I needed to find. Plus I found a book for Dan. He’s been talking to Fr. Martin, and has been wanting to find a catechism book so that they were on common ground for some of their discussions. I found one! Happy-happy-joy-joy!!!

After finally pulling myself out of the bookstore, I headed to the movie theater. I found what time The King’s Speech was playing and realized I had time before it started. So, I went to Red Robin for dinner. I had fish and chips and apple pie for dessert. Then, back across the parking lot to the movies. The King’s Speech was fantastic. I understand that it wouldn’t be everyone’s choice, but I enjoyed it.

After the movie, I headed back to the hotel. I had a nice long soak in the tub and did some writing. It was really nice to relax. Dan finished up with all of his stuff including a dinner and ‘meet and greet’ around 9pm. Of course, that all that relaxing came to a screeching halt at 5am! Up, through the shower and out the door to be in Denver at the CWDC Youth Council meeting by 7am! Awwwgh!!!! Worse yet, it had snowed during the night!!!

We made it to the meeting in spite of the fact that Dan got turned around when he went to get a coffee at Starbucks! LOL. I laughed so hard at that. Mr, Mountain man gets lost in the big city!!!! Oh well. Breakfast was buffet style. Glad there was some fruit stuff, because all the eggs had cheese on them. sigh… I went to the State Youth Council meeting and Dan went to his Workforce Investment Board meeting.

Best part about my meeting was that my friend from high school was one of the co-chairs!!! Yeah Dani!!! The meeting was interesting and I met a lot of people. After lunch, I joined Dan and we heard the Lt. Governor talk. While I know he was towing the party line, there were some questions concerning the budget I would have liked to have heard a real answer on instead of dross. Our state is so polarized when it comes to Rural vs Urban, and a one size fits all kind of budget is not going to work well. Other people in the room felt the same way from the questions being asked.

We finished around 2pm and headed back to the hotel. We took a nap, grabbed dinner and then headed to Mari and David’s. We visited while Dan fixed Mari’s laptop and troubleshot another. It was a good visit, but we got home late. Showered and dropped into bed.

Saturday morning, we got up, showered, packed and were out of the hotel by 10am. Why? Because we had another computer client to visit!!! 🙂 It was really nice to have the work after the dry spell we’ve been having. That job finished around 3pm and then we went to visit my sister. After Lori’s, we went to Red Robin again and then to the movies. 🙂 We saw Rango. It was a riot!

By the time the movie was over, we headed home and arrived around 11pm. I think I face plowed the pillow! We slept Late on Sunday, and then unpacked, played with Brandy to make up for leaving her alone for three days, and straightened up the house.

Monday was busy with Morgan back to school and us back into the daily routine. Best part though was the mail. Morgan got her SSAT scores!!! We were over the moon, and she was upset that she hadn’t done better!!! Gads! Her overall scores were 2166 correct, or 89% She missed 63 points.  Nationally, her percentiles for the test were Verbal, 95%, Math, 98% and Reading 97%!!!! When we finally got her to understand that only 3 to 4% of the 8th graders in the nation were better than she was, she finally mellowed out. Our next big hurdle will be hearing from Fountain Valley School and if she has been accepted. (Lots of good thoughts people!!!!!)

BRRR! Can we say cold?

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This week has been frigid!  30+ degrees colder than normal. We got 6 inches of snow on Sunday and not a lot of it has melted, because it has been so cold. -10 Monday night. 4 last night and right now at nearly 2pm, it is just barely 35 outside. BRRRR!!!!! Only good thing is that my parents bought us half a cord of wood. Otherwise, I’d be in bed!

Last week was hectic. We took a trip to Trinidad and visited with Economic Development and the local Chamber of Commerce. Depending on how a meeting goes tomorrow, we may be changing our business plans for 2011. Exciting and nerve wracking all at the same time.

This week isn’t much slower paced either. Lots of work stuff, and Dan had to go to Denver for some Workforce stuff. He will be home tonight. Oh, and to top it off, Ian’s truck hates me. It died on my half way to the school board meeting last night. I left it there, as I couldn’t get it started.  I had to walk home from the meeting. BRRRRR!!!  Dan gets to deal with it when he comes home. Not exactly what I would have wanted, but… oh well.

As I said, we have a meeting in Trinidad tomorrow, Dan has two computer jobs and on Monday we take Morgan up to Fountain Valley School for an introduction day. It should be interesting. There is some other stuff next week too, but I have to get it all down on the calendar. I just hope it warms up soon.

Monday Morning Fuzzies

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After the hectic pace of last week and a weekend spent in Littleton, my brain refuses to get online. sigh.

Friday morning we left early for the Denver Metro Area. Our first stop around noon was our hotel. It was the Hilton Garden Inn. Oh my gods, what a cluster  F&)(c(*)(*!!! We booked the room through Priceline.com. Paid for it on December 6th. This is rather normal for us, as we do our best to get a good deal on a room. And to be honest, we’ve been going to Denver a lot lately on business. We started checking in when the clerk asked for payment, and refused to register us. We explained that we had paid on line over two weeks previous. “Sorry, we never do it that way”, was her line. That started a 90 minute disagreement. We had proof that we’d paid online. Emails, bank statement, etc. She wouldn’t budge. We asked for the manager. “Sorry, he’s gone for the holidays”. Grrrrr….. So, we paid again. This stay had just hit the $200+ mark. We normally pay about $80. Her only consolation was that she gave us tickets for breakfast, as they don’t do a free one. Whee…. $40 worth of breakfasts. We were not impressed.

However, the disagreement had taken so long that we left without ever going up to the room. Instead, we went straight to David and Mari’s house. We had cooled off a bit on the drive over and spending time with David and Mari mellowed us right out. We chatted about knitting while Dan worked on Mari’s laptop. Around 3:45 we had to head out the door in order to be to my sister’s house on time for dinner. Lots of hugs and kisses and promises to be back soon. 🙂

We made it to my sister’s house in 32 minutes. Not bad for across town at the beginning of rush hour on Christmas Eve. Dinner was deli stuff, beer, wine and …drumroll… Cheesecake!!!! Now, you have to understand that I can’t eat dairy of any kind. However, my clever sister Lori made me a SOY cheesecake using a Martha Stewart recipe! Oh my gods it was good. We ate until we were ready to burst and then spent lots of time looking at old pictures that my Dad took. It was a really good evening.

We went back to the hotel, which was an alright room, but not as good as others we have stayed at. We had a cup of tea, a shower and then crawled in bed. The fridge kicked on every 30 minutes with enough noise to wake us up. We tried to sleep in to make up for various long nights and it didn’t work. Between the noisy fridge and a very hard bed, neither of us slept well. We were up by 8am. We got dressed and headed down to breakfast. That was nice. A buffet of fruit, pastries, cereals, and eggs/meat to order. We had omelets, fruit, juice and coffee. Afterwards we headed to Lori’s house in Littleton.

Lori’s was a beehive of activity. Bill was working the smoker while Lori, Mom, Dan and I worked on the rest of the feast. Dad was being a holiday paparazzi taking photos like mad. 🙂 Maybe that should have been Papa-razzi. 🙂 Lori was doing her best to see how many times she could put rabbit ears behind people’s heads.

We opened presents before lunch. Everyone liked the hats I made. I was a bit nervous that Sean wouldn’t care for a lime green polar fleece hat, but he liked it. Mom and Dad loved their book. Dan got Kobolt tools and a tiny pair of vice grips. I got a beautiful Talavera serving bowl. Dad of course took more pictures

Around 3:30pm, we sat down to a dinner of barbecued smoked pork, beef tenderloin, grilled chicken, potatoes au gratin, sweet potato casserole, home made bread, green beens and hominy, and cranberry chutney. It was heavenly. Once again, ate way too much. And yes, I had another piece of the cheesecake as well as a slice of the orange cake that Lori made. Dad took pictures at meal time and had Dan take some too, so that everyone would be in the pictures.

In an effort to not explode, Dan and I went for a walk around my old neighborhood. We went down to the Sundial/Rose Garden and then to Sternes Park. We scared the geese into the lake and had a good time. When we got back, Lori had a game for us to play… Apples to Apples. It was fun, and I won twice. LOL. Afterwards we watched the last quarter of the Dallas Cowboys and Arizona Cardinals football game. It was really good. However, it was late and we were all sleepy. We said our goodbyes and headed back to the hotel. I will have to return a plate to Lori as I have the last of the cheesecake!!!

When we got back to the hotel, I went to make a cup of tea. No tea cups, no spoon. We looked everywhere. Everything else was where we had left it, but not the tea cups. I went down to the desk and complained. Okay, I stormed down to the desk and growled. The clerk blinked, stammered and went to see if our cups were in the kitchen. He found them and our spoon. His explanation for the removal of our cups were that they looked like the hotel dishes… WRONG. Sorry, Walmart gold and brown cups with a leaf pattern on them and a 1960’s spoon do not look like industrial silverware and Black cups and White plates. GRRRRRrrrr….. We were not pleased. Oh, and Dan figured out what was going on with the fridge. When they put it in the little cupboard, they forgot to tighten down the board that holds it in place and keeps it from vibrating out of the cupboard. He tightened it up and it was quiet. Sigh… So, we washed our cups, had tea and watched the second Mummy movie with Brendan Fraser.

Next morning, we did sleep in a bit, but were still down in time for breakfast. That bed was way too hard to be comfortable!!! We packed up and left by 11am. Home to Walsenburg by 2pm. I swear that there were spy cameras, because we no sooner walked in than the phone started ringing. We finally got to return the truck to Dad around 3pm. We had dinner at Subway, because neither of us wanted to cook. We cleaned up the Christmas stuff, and unpacked from the trip. After that, Dan did some work and I played around on the computer. We were so tired, that we crawled into bed by 9.

And now for a little Christmas past…

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Life in the Crazy Lane

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Or how I spent the rest of my week.

Wednesday we packed and headed to Colorado Springs for Dan’s conference. We stopped in Pueblo for a Bingo Burger. Yum!!!! We stayed at the Crown Plaza and while it is a rather posh hotel, it wasn’t as nice as some we’ve stayed in over the last month. Dan ran off to his meetings while I showered and then curled up in a chair with my book. Ah, heaven. After a bit, I went to Subway for dinner and Dan came back around 9pm.

Thursday we were up early and Dan headed off to his meetings. I packed up the room and then settled in a corner of the huge lobby near a fireplace and a power plug. I settled in with my newspaper and book. Around 9am, I went up to talk to a guy about a Youth Council that is a part of Workforce. Afterwards, I plugged in my computer and went to work reading emails and writing stories. Around 10am, the lights flickered and then went out. Hmmm…. the fire was lit, my laptop had a battery, and I was fine. I got to watch the hotel staff run around like headless chickens handing out glow sticks and trying to find out why the lights went out. Apparently an area of Colorado Springs had a power outage. I scared the hell out of a hotel staff member when she walked past me and didn’t notice me. She screamed. I smiled, and said I was okay. Later on, a staff person gave me a glow stick and a bottle of water. Power finally came on an hour later.

Dan finished his meeting around noon and we headed to Denver. Dan got himself added to more state boards functions. LOL… He should never volunteer… teeheehe…. Our hotel was once again not a good as some of the others, but a free dinner buffet and breakfast were bonuses. We ran some errands, saw MegaMind in 3-D which was a hoot, and then went to bed early.

Friday, we slept in, had a good breakfast and then ran a few more errands while waiting for our client’s computer to arrive. We found a really great restaurant called the Beruit Grill. Heavenly food! Our client’s computer finally arrived and we headed over to sent it up and get everything running on her system. We finished around 9pm and then drove home. It was a long day. We got home and in bed by 1am.

Saturday was spent running on inertial. We returned Dad’s truck, worked on La Plaza’s cash till and then did some shopping. The household cupboard was BARE! After that, I did laundry. Skunky clothes as well as everything from the trip made for a ton of laundry. We talked about Alpha Dog and LoboSavvy over dinner and then crashed early.

Today is suppose to be quiet. LOL… We shall see.

Prezzies!!!!

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Although my birthday was last week, my presents arrived a little later. Thursday night, a big box arrived. Dan gave me the box and smiled. Opening it, I found a really cool garden tool set with seat. 🙂 Of course it was snowing, but… I will use it as soon as I can. 🙂

Then we went off to Denver on Sunday. We got to see my friends Mari and David. I haven’t seen them in about 6 years. They had never met Dan either. We had a great visit. Our hotel was very nice too. The best bit of course is always the long soak in the tub! Monday morning, we headed for the Federal Center to get USGS maps for my Dad. He is teaching a map course. We stopped at Isis, but the guy who buys books wasn’t in. Oh well. We had a coffee at Starbucks and headed to our computer client. Our client had gotten her new printer and digital camera. The printer is one of those all in ones that does everything except wash the windows. 🙂 It is a really fantastic and we will be buying one for the business. The digital camera is very nice too.

Afterwards, we headed for Pueblo where we met with another client. Or, at least Dan did. I had an asthma attack, so I stayed in the warm car. It was snowing. Once he helped her find a computer, we went to Bingo Burger for dinner. Yum!!! Once again, I had the lamb burger.

The drive home was okay. Some light snow, a bit of ice, and not much else. Dan told me to go straight in, and that he’d unload the truck, because of the cold and my asthma. I walked in and what did I see? A box from Dell! My other prezzie had arrived. I am now the happy owner of a Dell Inspiron 1545. I opened it up and played with it for a bit. Windows 7 is okay, but I told Dan he could load Ubuntu 10.10 on it in the morning. He did. 🙂

This is my old laptop. The CF 50 Panasonic Toughbook. It did pretty well, but it had major graphics card issues.

 

Here is my new computer. 🙂 I’m very happy. I just about have everything set up the way I need it. Now to just find time to do some writing!

Anyone have an anchor?

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I swear that someone put speed in the water for the last two weeks of October. Last week was just crazy. Between work, school and other obligations, I felt like I was on a bullet train.

Wednesday, Spike got one of the cats. Didn’t know which one, as we couldn’t find it.

Thursday was suppose to be a day off. Ha! I went to KnitWits, my knitting group. We went to Pueblo on a field trip to visit Colorado Fiber Arts, a really cool yarn store. Then we had lunch at a place called Bingo Burger. I had a lamb burger and it was heavenly!!! Oh, and sweet potato fries with curry ketchup. Yummm… However, when we got home, Dan and I had to take the little gray kitten to the vet. Spike had ripped her lower lip off. Nothing to do for it, so we had her put to sleep. Dan also got a call from our one client in Denver. We wanted to borrow my parent’s truck. Not a problem except that Dad went to change the oil and couldn’t get the filter off. So after we put the cat to sleep, we went over to help Dad. Wheee…

Friday, we left right after I got done with work. Drove to Denver after a stop for lunch at Bingo Burger. More lamb burgers were consumed. Yumm!!! We arrived 10 minutes past when we said we’d be there. Not bad for city traffic. Four hours later we were done. Spent the night in a hotel and oh…. it was so nice to soak in a tub!!!

The next morning, we got candy at Target and then headed over to my sister Lori’s house. We visited for about an hour and I harvested 10 pounds of concord grapes. Yummm….. The smell was heavenly. Then we dropped books off at Isis and headed home. A stop in Pueblo for…. yeah, more lamb burgers. LOL… Only one down side of the day. We forgot to call my parents and tell them we were spending the night. They worried and were not happy with us, as should be expected. We apologized, and promised that next time we would call. Felt so stupid. Had to go do laundry as well.

Sunday was sort of a weird day. Tried to get things done. Handed out lots of Halloween candy, cooked down the grapes into syrup and worked on the computer.

Monday I went to work only to find out that my hours have been cut yet again. sigh…. It rained and slushed. Brrr!!! Then I had a ton of paperwork to process at the court house. And, Stefan’s house taxes are paid! Wheeee!!! By the time everything was done, all I really wanted to do was crawl in bed and sleep for a week. Instead, Morgan, Dan and I watched the Bounty Hunter. It was a riot.

Today was another run around like crazy day. Dan helped Dad unload and stack 2 cords of wood. Then we went and voted. After that, we did some errands around town. By the time we got home, about all I could do is make dinner. Tamale pie!!!! Lovely comfort food for a cool day. We ate dinner while watching Wolfman. It was a pretty good movie. Now we are watching the election results. The bad trio of amendments 60, 61 and proposition 101 did NOT pass. (phew!) The rest of the stuff is up in the air.

To Denver and Back

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Yesterday, we left at the crack of dawn for Denver. Dan had a meeting of the Colorado Workforce Development Council. So, we dropped Morgan off and headed up I-25. We had breakfast in Monument at the Village Inn. Not bad food, and we were rather hungry. We got to Denver by 10am, which was a good thing. Why? Because we got LOST. Or to be more exact, we couldn’t find the hotel where the meeting was being held. We finally found it at last. It is one of those dark glass buildings where the name is embossed on it in letters only slightly lighter than the smoked glass of the rest of the building. We found parking for $8 and then walked back to the hotel. Dan went to the meeting and I headed to the 16th Street Mall.

I walked around in various shops and finally made it to the Tattered Cover. I got Dan a copy of Common Sense and us a copy of Terry Pratchett’s latest book, Unseen Academicals. Then I had lunch at the Noodles shop just up from Tattered Cover. Then I went to Barnes and Noble and walked around another bunch of shops. Dan got done with his meeting around 2:30pm and we headed home.

We went shopping at Vitamin Cottage and King Soopers in Pueblo for things we needed for the house and got home around 10pm. We were both so tired, that once we got the groceries put away, we straight to bed. Yawn…

Today it was back to work as usual. I had to wash our bedding as one of the feral cats peed on it. Yuck. Of course that made for a wheezy day for me. Tomorrow is house cleaning day and a volley ball game for Morgan. 🙂 Hopefully, they will do better than they did against La Veta.

Can I buy a Day?

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I know it is Monday, but… I think I need a few extra days this week. I simply can’t figure how to get everything done this week. While there seems to be plenty of time, I keep feeling like I’ve forgotten to write something down and that it will sneak up on me with a resounding thump when I least suspect it. Part of it is the whole Autumn Cleaning Urge. Second of course only to the Spring Cleaning Urge. Part of it is also trying to find places to put bits of furniture, decorations and the like. I picked up more stuff from the other house today. There is also a shuffling of the office to be done once Ian heads off to the Air Force. We are still in limbo about that. argh… I am so sorry that he has to deal with ‘hurry up and wait’.

Work is driving me a bit nuts too. While I don’t mind doing prep-chef work and pastry chef work, I want to be making bread! Pastries! Biscuits! Oh well. I could do with more hours as well. 6 to 9 hours a week just isn’t going to cut it once the winter bills set in. Aieeee!!! I don’t want to have to look for another job, but I might not have a choice. Or, I may have to have a second job. That would be equally frustrating.

Tomorrow, I’m going to Denver with Dan. More as company than anything else. Oh, and an excuse to get out of Walsenburg for a bit. A day in Denver reminds me of ALL the reasons I like to live in a small town. 🙂 I may hit the book stores or the big fabric stores. 🙂 I haven’t been to Denver Fabrics in ages. I could certainly use a new couch cover.

Well, I had best get my arse in gear. Dan should be home in about 15 minutes and it is off to the bank and the store. Wheee…..

Oh, and my computer, while better, is still having some funny glitches. hmmmm….. I may have to get a new one sooner than I expected and give up the laptop for the bone yard. pout!

BTW, would you wrap that day up and make it a Saturday? I could use an extra one!

We’re Hoooommmmmeeee!

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Dan and I went to Denver for the weekend. We had a client to visit on Friday. Computer work. She is a lovely person to work with and we have no issues with driving up to Denver.

Then we had a business meeting Saturday morning. We met for breakfast and hogged a table for probably an hour while we discussed stuff. Dan got himself elected chairman of the workforce board, so he now has to do the whole politically responsible thing. LOL!!! It was a really good meeting and I think we got a lot accomplished. Oh, and I got roped/voted/convinced into being his ‘aide de camp’ also known as Girl Friday and any other nickname you can think of. Was I surprised? No. Did I expect this? Yes… about 30 seconds after he got elected. 🙂 Still nice to hear him ask though.

After the breakfast, we went to REI and looked around. I found a gardening/hiking hat that is so cool. Then we drove up to Boulder and bummed around there for a while. WEnt to see Ironman 2. Very cool movie. More sexy geeky technology.  🙂

We were suppose to meet up with friends, but it didn’t happen. Two got stuck in a meeting. Who in the hell does 12 hour meetings? Gads!!! By the time they got done, we were all too tired. We will try next time we are up in Denver.

Sunday we did a bit more shopping, drove around and waited to see if our friends were free. Nope! One got sick, so we just gave up. Headed home and stopped at Red Robin’s in Castle Rock for dinner. I had a really nice burger. Chilies and guacamole on it. Yum.

We got home at a decent hour. Dan did some tutoring with Emma on math. We were in bed by 11:30, and it was really nice to sleep in our own bed.