Blizzard!

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If I had waited just a bit, I could have written about yesterday. I woke up early thinking it was a little cold. Just a tad. Brandy was curled up deep in her blankets and when I looked outside it was snowing. Between the winds and the size of the flakes, it looked like I was in the middle of a snow globe. I went back to bed.

A few hours later, we all got up. I made breakfast and we ate it in the dining room. Out the windows, we were able to watch the wind slew the snow sideways, and the cars not cope well with the icy roads. Once breakfast was done, we moved into the guest house and fired up the wood stove. While the temperatures dropped to as low as 14, we were toasty warm. Morgan reigned from the bed while Dan used a tv tray. I had my desk, which faces the windows and let me watch the storm. That snow globe weather didn’t stop until nearly 6pm.

Rather than cook, we splurged. Yeah Taco Bell! 🙂 It’s funny when we go there, because one of the staff is a friend and she knows what I want before I speak most days. Okay, I’m not very adventurous, but at least it isn’t difficult to take the cheese out of what I want to eat. Dan and Morgan pigged out on chicken tenders while I had tacos. Then we came home, fed the wood stove and chatted, played on the computers until midnight and in general had a good time.

Today the sun is shining and the temps so far have hit 40F. That’s good, as we have to take Morgan back to college today. sigh… I’m just happy we had her for a week. She gets to take home transport this time. Her half brother Matt finished her bicycle at long last. Her commute has just dropped to 5 minutes. We head to La Junta later this afternoon. March Blizzard3

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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Turkey Day!!!

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Yes, it has been forever since I last wrote. A month in fact. Sheesh! Let’s see…

Shadow had another litter of kittens… 6 this time,

Had a fun Halloween,

A good Samhain with Morgan here to celebrate with Dan and I,

A very mellow 50th birthday. A lovely romp, breakfast in bed and an easy going day doing what I wanted,

Applied for jobs,

Had a job at a coffee house for two weeks… until the owner decided that he couldn’t cope with the bills the previous tenant left,

Applied for a job as a dispatcher,

Oh, and I’ve been doing theater on a train! A melodramatic version of A Christmas Carol. I’m the narrator, Dan is Scrooge, and there are three other people acting out the rest of the characters. It is on the Rio Grande Scenic Railroad and we will be doing that until Christmas.

And of course, we did the big family Thanksgiving dinner at my parents house. Lori, Bill and Shawn came down from Littleton, Aunty Toni and Uncle Karl came up from Las Cruces and Daniel and I went as well. Lots of good food, wine, and of course, dessert! It was really good to see everyone and as soon as Dad and Toni send me pictures, I’ll post some.

A mellow day

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It really was. Slept in late, ate breakfast at 2:30pm, and the day rolled on from there. I made these killer scones for Lammas. Oh yum!! Don’t know if I can repeat them, but… I will try. Craisens and Hazelnut Biscotti creamer were in the mix. :> We finished up the last of them for breakfast today.

I did some school work, edited some work and then just played on the computer. Dinner was pork chops, green beans and rice. Then it was off to Lathrop Park for the evening program. Dad was giving his new geology program. Very good! This is the third one he has done. I think I like it the best.

After we got home, I made tea and we’ve played on the computers a bit more.  I’ve got another Gabriel Du Pre novel to finish up too! So, I guess it is off to bed…. Wheeee….

Hot weather malaise

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It is hot. Hot enough that I don’t feel like doing all the stuff I aught to. Granted, it didn’t help that I felt like lukewarm dreck for most of Monday and Tuesday. If I didn’t know any better, I swear that I slept walked and ate cheese! Oh I felt awful. I also managed to help Pauline pack part of her house and picked up my paycheck.

Wednesday Dan and I went to Pueblo and picked up building supplies to start working on the closet. We are putting a partition in to turn it back into two closets. Pueblo was like an oven. I was very glad that the little truck had air conditioning. At least by the time we got home it was cooler. I also did a ton of laundry. If I knew who was “eating towels”, I think I’d shoot them.

Today was busy. My parents came in around 2pm. I had opened up their house and made sure it was cooling off. Dan and I started working on the closet between babysitting Daniel’s dog, chatting with Pauline, running errands and answering a phone that wouldn’t stop ringing.

My parents took John and I to dinner at the Rambler. It was good as usual. Except for the way the waitress wrote the ticket. No Chez became No Che  Z7.95, which made it look like my dinner cost $27.95! It took two waitresses and a cook to unbollux the register! At least my dad laughed rather than blowing up.

After dinner, we all visited for a bit and then I came back over to help Dan for a bit with the closet. Tomorrow, I take Daniel to Pueblo and we will go shopping for birthday prezzies and more building materials. Wheee….

A busy weekend

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This weekend would have been busy no matter what as it was a household shopping weekend. However, we also needed to go do shopping for Morgan and her trip to DC which is next week. Wheeee!

Saturday. Dan, Morgan and I left around noon and headed to Colorado Springs. We had to take Little Red Truck, as Divot was still not 100% reliable. We still need to get some parts for it. We found the Mall without too much of a hassle, and took her all around the three levels before we let her go shopping. Yes, I am evil. We also took her to the loudest and most obnoxious store first. Morgan is just a tad conservative. So, it made it very easy to steer her towards the better stores. Much to Dan’s relief- He is so conservative as a daddy! teeheehee. I also took her by Victoria’s Secret and she squeaked, turned red and then furiously whispered in my ear about “why on earth did they just have ALL of that on display!!!” , meaning the bras and undies. Cracked me up that she was shocked that a lingerie store was so blatant with their wares. Dan just stood across the way when we went near the shop. He was trying very hard not to laugh.

We got shoes for her first. She wears a size 8! Found her two pairs of really nice shoes. Both of them the soft style that looks like a slip-on flat. Then we went to various shops for a blouse here or pants there. We got three pairs of pants and three shirts. She was so funny with the dressing rooms and having people wait on her because she’s never experienced it before. We discovered that except for her leg length, she is a Jr. 3 or a women’s 0-2 depending on the cut. Kids 14 or 16 where we could find things to fit. She is very long waisted, which makes even regular cut pants hip huggers. So, to avoid plumbers syndrome, we bought Jr. and Women’s clothing. We got everything on sale. Which helped, as we went to Dillards and paid full price on a swim suit. Dan blanched. He about died. Not because she wanted a bikini top and the long nearly knee length shorts bottoms, but because of the cost. I explained that they are expensive, especially once you are out of the little kid section of any store and not shopping at Walmart. I also explained that having paid sale price for everything else it was still a bargain. Most importantly though, she liked it. :> So, I spoiled her.

We had lunch in the food court and treated her to Greek food. She was in heaven. After we finished eating, we went to Hot Topic. She didn’t see anything she wanted that Dan would buy her, so we headed off to JCPenny’s for bras. Oh My Gods you would have laughed!!! By this time, she had gotten into the whole shopping mindset and was really enjoying herself. Last fall was the first time in ages that she got to go shopping for herself for clothing. That was when I took her and Matt to Kohl’s for their school clothing. So, when we started looking at bras, she was relaxed enough to actually play around. Especially when Dan joined in trying to find bras the right size. Best off, when we found some really loud ones, she grabbed a bigger one and handed it to Dan, saying, “look Daddy, this one is for you!” I laughed, she giggled and Dan blushed. It was so much fun!

After that, we went to Sam’s Club to do some of the household shopping. This was not our local one in Pueblo, but a bigger, posher one in Colorado Springs. It meant of course that we didn’t know where anything was. Morgan rode the front of the cart while Dan did his race car driver impression and I tried to put the stuff in the basket before they whizzed by me. Then we took a drive to try and find Vitamin Cottage. Missed it totally, so we headed to Pueblo.

On our way there, we passed a horrid accident. Three ambulances, one helicopter and four wrecked cars. :::::shudder::::: We got to Pueblo and did the Walmart shopping. Once again, Morgan on the cart with Dan pushing. We’d been teaching her German, and So she’d shout Links or Rechts! as she went down the aisles. It was a riot! When we were done, we grabbed Burger King and ate in the parking lot. Got home at about 11:30PM. They took the stuff in the house and then I headed over to 203 with the groceries.

Sunday, John and Beth were suppose to go shopping with Morgan. However, Beth had loads of school work to do, so I figured I’d just go up alone to do the shopping. Dan hurried through his work so that he could go with me shopping to pick up the stuff we missed. In fact, all three of us went. Huzzah!!!

First stop being Vitamin Cottage. If you could imagine two puppies let loose in a park full of scent, you’d have those two. I gave up trying to keep up with them and just deposited stuff in the basket as they’d pass me. They had wayyy too much fun.

Then I asked her what she wanted to go do. Target or the Mall. (much smaller than Citadel) She said she wanted to go to the Mall, and …drumroll…. get her ears pierced. Dan got all pale again, and I asked her if that was what she really wanted to do. She said yes. Dan looked at me, and nodded, and Morgan started bouncing up and down in her seat. So, we went to the Mall. Now, you have to understand that part of the reason Dan went so pale is that he had a precog on this. That he’d taken her to get her ears pierced and at the last moment she had gotten scared and wanted to back out. Being the good Daddy, he had said that if she would, he would… and that they both ended up with pierced ears. We went into the Mall, and right over to the shop that does piercings. I told her that all four of the boys had their ears done there. She smiled and picked out her earrings. Small stainless steel studs. She was a little nervous, but told her Dad that he didn’t have to get his ear pierced. Oh was he relieved!!! We discussed the fact that when he had the original precog moment, that he didn’t know me, and having me along changed things. She got her ears pierced without a problem and then picked out two headbands to keep the hair away from her ears. Morgan did have one request, and that was for us not to tell her mom that she’d gotten her ears pierced. She wants to wait and see how long it takes for Beth to notice. I was a little nervous about that, but we decided that we’d let her have her fun. She looks really cute. I asked her if there was anywhere else she wanted to go and she said, Hot Topic!

This time, she asked for a pair of socks with argyle skulls and crossbones and a pair of orange and black striped tights. I said yes and she went out the door happy. I did tease Dan about buying her a b&w hounds tooth kilt style mini-skirt. He laughed.

Target was our next stop. Household stuff and then a suitcase for Morgan, a belt and pj’s. Once again, Dan was holding his breath as she looked at all the saucy, cami topped sets. I let her look at everything and then reminded her that she needed “conservative” sleepwear. I steered her towards a nice pair of bottoms and a teeshirt style top. In black, which made her happy.

We went to Chili’s for dinner. Yummm! Full and happy, we headed home. We got home around 8, unloaded the truck and I took Morgan back over to 203. School in the morning and all that routine. blahhh….. I threw some laundry in and then headed back over to 520 to do a few things before I needed to head for bed. Finally got to bed around 1am.

Of course today started way too early, but at least I slept well. :> I even crawled back in bed for about 90 minutes. I was way too much of a sleepy head in spite of being up at 6am, doing a load of laundry, driving the kids to the Badito bus stop, coming home, doing another load of laundry, taking Daniel to school and then heading to the office. I plan on an early night tonight!

Happy New Year!

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    Wow! Every time I thought I’d have ten minutes to sit and write a post, it disappeared. Now it’s a whole new year! (ok, you can stop groaning now.)

As it is, On Sunday John and I were suppose to go to Pueblo to do the shopping. However, while I was finally over my headache from the snow glare, John was feeling poorly. His back was really giving him pain. So, I grabbed Little Morgan and Dan to go do the shopping. We drove to Pueblo and hit the main stores. Vitamin Cottage, Sam’s Club, Petsmart, Target and Walmart. We also took a side trip to Barnes and Noble. Dan got a magazine on woodworking, I got the latest Patricia Briggs novel and Morgan got two books on French. She is learning it in school and we wanted to give her a bit of help. We went to Chili’s for dinner. It was so funny as Morgan was looking through the appetizer menu and didn’t realize that there was a whole dinner menu behind that! Oh the glutenous glee when she found out. She opted for a huge burger while Dan had a steak and I had ribs. Yummm!

We got home around 10:30pm and by the time we unloaded all of the groceries, I was exhausted. John was still in a lot of pain, so we went straight to bed. Even slept in the next morning.

I got a roast out to thaw on Monday for New Year’s dinner and made up a bit of soy sour cream dip so that I could have something while the rest had ranch dip and caviar. It tasted pretty good. I have found a pesto that doesn’t have cheese in it and I used that as a flavour. We all relaxed and sorted out movies while watching TV. We finally started a film, and then the next thing we knew it was midnight. Kisses all round and sips of scotch. Then John popped out the back door and came round the front to First Foot the house. It’s a custom we picked up in England. You send a tall dark and handsome man to go to the front door and be the First Foot across the threshold. They traditionally bring gifts and say a little statement as they come in. “I bring food for the house, food for the soul, fuel for the house and money for the household.” The food is often some sort of cake or bread. The food for the soul is whiskey, and fuel for the house being coal or wood. The last item is usually coinage.

We slept in and the next morning we all worked on cleaning house. John tackled various flat surfaces that had gotten piled high with his stuff. I cleaned part of my room, the living room, took down all of the holiday decorations, put the Winter altars up, supervised the kitchen and breakfast nook cleaning and did laundry. Oh, and I put the roast in the oven for dinner.

Dan was feeling rather off because his knee was giving him grief, so I took dinner over to him after we had eaten. Of course, I first footed the house! A bit of a laugh as I am short, gray and female, but…. it worked.

Today I cleaned up the office and tried to keep Dan in bed. (ha!) He’s feeling ill. I also thawed the pipes which have been frozen for the last four days. After we got water flowing, I filled in the ditch and covered the pipes better than they had been. Our restoration on the office is at a standstill due to the weather. So,… the pipes were uncovered and froze. We will see if they stayed thawed in the morning. Meanwhile, my hands feel like hamburger from moving all of that dirt. It has taken me forever to type this!

Ciao!