Wednesday, May 31, 2006


This one is from a hike I did last year with the kids in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Thursday, May 25, 2006

I'm getting settled in nicely to the new office and the new job. A little about each:

The new office is gorgeous - 2nd (top) floor of a building in downtown Boulder, right on the corner in a busy pedestrian area near the Pearl Street Mall. There's a restaurant downstairs, so every day at about 4pm we start to hear music and people laughing and talking. It's energetic and alive in this part of town, and one whole wall of our office is windows that look out at the mountains. I can see Mount Sanitas as I sit here, reflected in my monitor screen.

I wasn't kidding about the air conditioning. It's 75° outside, and probably 65° in here. I sit at my desk wearing a fleece.

As for the new work, it's been kind of overwhelming, but exciting at the same time. It's far more technical than anything I've ever done (for work, anyway) before. I'm writing code that creates little snippets of video streams that we use to test digital video products. The creation of these streams is very detailed and involved, and there's a lot for me to learn - but I'm so thrilled that I'm being given the opportunity to do it, after years of being stepped on and held back. I'm starting to find my footing with this work, but there is tons of help available to me. I think the plan is that I do this for a month, and if looks as if I can cut the mustard, then I get to make the change permanent and make more money (huzzah!).

About the only downside to this change at work (and I don't see it as a problem at all) is that I am spending lots more time at work than I used to - around 50 hours a week. I don't mind it at all, but it will start to cut into my ability to do other things, at least for a few months until I'm really rolling with this stuff. But the potential for me to a) work my way out of debt and b) be fabulously successful in my chosen work is well worth it.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

WORKING HARD STOP. OFFICE MOVE LONG AND ARDUOUS STOP. SICK FROM UBER-AIRCONDITIONER IN NEW OFFICE STOP. MORE LATER STOP.

Monday, May 22, 2006


More for the office photo stuff....this one taken in Chicago, the day before Alex and I got engaged.

Tuesday, May 16, 2006


I could HARDLY participate in a photo contest without submitting at least one photo of Ruby....did I mention that it's a magic red ball?

Monday, May 15, 2006

We had a lovely Mother's Day - my mom, Joey, Mare and I went to see Poseidon in the afternoon, and then headed toward downtown Boulder for dinner. The initial plan was a Cajun restaurant called Red Fish, but once we were seated, the smell of fish was so overwhelming that I was starting to feel sick. Luckily, no one was dying to eat there, so we left and went instead to The Med, one of my all-time favorites in Boulder. We dined on grilled garlic shrimp, calamari, three different kinds of hummus, some falafel, and prosciutto-wrapped melon with balsamic vinegar. Mmmmmmm. I also had a glass of a really nice pinot noir, called Hahn. I've never tried that particular wine before, and I'm not usually all that fond of pinot noir, but this was quite nice - I think I'll try to pick up some tonight and have it for home.

Today is actually a big day for me at work - I sort of got a promotion (that means that for a month, I do a bigger, harder job - if it goes well, I probably get to continue to do it permanently and make more money), so I've been assigned a mentor at work and will spend pretty much all of my time with him, trying to quickly get up to speed. I'm slightly intimidated, but the person that will be mentoring me is someone that I'm already close to, so I know that we'll be able to work well together.

One last thing for you to chew on - I might have some news soon, rather big news (no, not the kind that comes nine months from now). Stay tuned.

Saturday, May 13, 2006



Taken last fall, from my mother's driveway....

Friday, May 12, 2006


There is a photo contest at work, where the winning pictures are blown-up and framed to hang on the walls of the office. After a few months or so, you get to take your picture home. Over the next few days, I'll post photos that I'm submitting for consideration (be nice!).

Wednesday, May 03, 2006



My beloved Avs are headed to the conference semifinals in the next couple of weeks. The outcome of the Calgary/Ducks game today will determine who we face - according to NHL.com, "If Calgary wins Wednesday, the third-seeded Flames will host No. 8 seed Edmonton in the conference semifinals. An Anaheim win would eliminate the last of the top four seeds in the West playoffs, and set up a matchup between the Ducks and the seventh-seeded Colorado Avalanche."

Personally, I don't care who we play - I have tickets, and I'll be there - on my feet, screaming my head off. Sports have always been part of my life, both as a player and a spectator. I can remember watching football with my grandparents and my uncles when I was just a small child, and my mother & sister know more about college football than some coaches I know. I still love it to this day - my sister and I know each other well enough to know that in the fall and winter, you don't call early on Sundays (in case we're sleeping off Saturday), but you don't call late morning/early afternoon either, since we'll be watching football.

This is the first season that I've had season tickets for the Avalanche, and I'll definitely re-up for next year. Actually, it's a pretty sweet deal: my friend Tara and her husband have 2 sets of tickets side-by-side, so four seats total. They keep two for themselves, and then they sell the other two to three separate couples - so I get two tickets to a third of all the home games. I know that sounds confusing, but it works really well for me. I get to attend about 11 games, so it doesn't feel like I'm going ALL THE TIME, and I take different people every time. Alex has been to a few, my friend Tam, my friend Kat, and Joey and Mare have been to a couple of games each.

Hold good thoughts for my boys - Sakic, Tanguay, Hinote, Hejduk, Laperrier, Brisebois, Liles, Theodore, and my most favorite, Big Rob Blake. GO AVS!!!!!!!!!

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

This one is for my darling Vic....

I was reminded this week that this blog is how a lot of my oldest and dearest friends keep track of me. A lot of times, I think about posting and am turning over my days in my head, and while there are stories there that touch and amuse me, I usually think other people would be bored by them. What I keep forgetting is that I started this blog for me, as a way to get stuff out of my head, and the happy by-product was that my friends and family could follow my days. So, I sit here this morning with a renewed commitment to my blog and regular posts.

Almost every morning, I stop at Allison for my morning coffee. It's right across the street from where I park, a really charming little storefront coffee house. It has a garage door on the front wall that rolls up when the weather is nice, making the whole place seem very open. There are small tables and chairs, armchairs and couches, and the obligatory wireless internet that it seems no coffee house can do without. They also have great coffee. Not just good coffee, great coffee. The staff is laid-back and unhurried, so you might wait a few minutes longer than if you ran up to St@rbuck$, but my lattes are so smooth and frothy, it's well worth my wait.

Now on to my gripe. I have only one, really (other than the one about how one of the staff misled me when he said they do all their own baking, and then I was there when the baker was delivering bread, cinnamon rolls and cookies, and the guy confessed that they only bake everything ELSE). It's that a lot of the regulars don't bathe. I don't mean like funky hippy B.O., I mean nasty, never-seen-a-bar-of-soap-before-much-less-touched-one stink. Sometimes they look to be homeless (look, I used to work with the homeless here, I've got no beef, but most of them aren't up and hitting Allison at 7am, nor would they spare the cash for a frou-frou latte), but more often they are just dirty - good shoes, no holes in the pants, but FILTHY. What the fuck is up with that? You're such a connoisseur of coffee that you'll go off the beaten track of the mall to get to Allison (and the coffee isn't any cheaper than the other place), but you won't take a damn shower? Or wash your hands? I swear, the guy behind me in line today not only had a smell so bad it was almost visible in the air, but his hands were dark with dirt and grime. C'mon - you eat with those hands?

Some say this is part of the local color of living in a place like Boulder. Maybe they're right. Lord knows I wouldn't have had much else to write about so far this morning....