magaliblue

Movin' On Down the Web Road

2008-07-23T09:48:00.001-06:00

You can now find me at katechaux.
Hope to see you there.

One of the Good Ones

2008-05-26T22:34:00.002-06:00

Rest in peace, Sydney Pollack. I'll miss your work.

Stuff I Love

2008-05-23T08:59:00.007-06:00

*sigh*
My new jeans. I love them so.
These may be the most flattering jeans on earth, or at least a close second to my all time favorite Jelessy jeans (which died a tragic death when they split from one cheek to the other when I squatted down to pick up the little boy).

I picked up these Hudson jeans on sale at Macy's - thank goodness they were on sale, because even at 40% off they were $95. Still, worth every penny. Snug in all the right places without pinching or pushing anything in a direction it ought not to go. Long enough (praise Jesus!) for this 6'0 tall girl, in fact I have to wear heels with them. My legs look about 10' long in these jeans. They've got a bit of stretch, so they're comfortable to wear all day, even if I have to crawl across the floor with the baby. Best of all is the butt pockets. I will not buy any garment meant to cover my butt that doesn't have rear flap pockets - everything else is just horribly unflattering. Not only do these have the flap pockets, but they're pointy! Making me appear to be even slimmer! Genius!

I Spell Jest Fyne

2008-05-22T17:00:00.003-06:00

This one's for you, Ali, though it is also near and dear to my own heart:

Typo Eradication Advancement League (TEAL), and their project, "Typo Hunt Across America".

I plan to sic them on my local pseudo-newspaper.

Via @KodakCB

Edit: Haha, I misspelled "pseudo" in my first post.

Stuff I Love

2008-05-16T09:54:00.004-06:00

I had to get a new phone. The former phone was pretty much only good for talking, and even for that limited use it wasn't great. I've gotten to a point with work where clients need to be able to have me respond to emails pretty quickly, even if it's just to confirm that I got it. I also needed something that played nice with my Mac but that wasn't going to cost me $400 and require that I wait until the end of June for the new iPhone (as sweet as that iPhone is, I'm just not digging the touchscreen when it comes to texting and emailing).

The lovely boys at my local AT&T store, who know me well by now based on the frequency of my visits with issues with the last phone, recommended the Blackberry. So far, I'm pretty happy with it. Sure, I wish that when it synched to my Mac it would do it via Bluetooth (nope, need to be connected via USB cable), or that when it imported my address book contacts it retained the pictures that I had associated with most contacts (frustrating, but not a deal-breaker). But overall the coverage is excellent, the battery lasts a good long while, and the keyboard is super easy to use. Best part is, I'm going to play with it for the next three weeks and if I'm not still loving it, I'll return it and wait a couple of weeks for the new iPhone.

Not Getting Much Work Done

2008-05-15T15:00:00.000-06:00

TypeRacer is insanely addictive.

Getting My Move On

2008-05-12T13:24:00.002-06:00

At long last, we're moving home. It's been almost two years since we left our house in town, and I've missed it for most of that time. We were able to find a tenant for our mountain house, and so early in June, we'll load up the truck and move back down the hill.

It was a hard decision for us as a family, because A loves the mountain house. He loves the solitude and the scenery and the space (both inside and out). But for me, things changed when Valentino was born. I don't want to put him in his carseat for 40 minutes at a time, twice a day, just to drop him at the nanny's. I don't want him to be limited to visits with friends and family to only those times we come down the hill with specific plans. I want to be able to plan days at the park or the pool and be able to come home for a nap, instead of having to plan my day around being gone from home the whole day, because it's too far to go home for a nap and leave again. I also want back that hour of commute time each day, so that I can spend it with my boys.

To say that I'm thrilled about the move would be the understatement of the century. I'm not even stressed about the actual move event (although for me, that part is trivial, I have lots of practice - this will be my 21st move in my 37 years). We have wonderful friends who've offered all manner of help with getting ready and the actual lifting of my furniture.

All of this reminds me is that things usually work out for the best. I was getting miserable in my home in the mountains, and I truly knew that I needed to move back. We were able to make that happen. I'm forever grateful to my husband for knowing just how badly I needed to do this, and helping to make it happen.

Happy Mother's Day

2008-05-11T13:21:00.002-06:00

Today is the first time that I celebrate Mother's Day for myself, rather than honoring another mother. As I write, my boy is in his crib, refusing to nap. He's talking to his toys and intermittently yelling, but doesn't seem especially unhappy so I'm letting him ride this one out. He never naps well for me on the weekends.

Okay, now he's asleep. The idle chatter gave way to gasping, shirt-rending screams. I had to take him to my bed and lay down with him. It's odd, he doesn't give me any trouble about going to sleep at night, he's still awake most nights when I put him in his crib, and he drifts off quickly without a fuss. But naps, forget it.

I'm not sure what the purpose of Mother's Day is other than to make sure that our moms get thanked, even if only once a year. I do know lots of moms out there (including my own) who take it pretty seriously, so I get her the card and the little gift. I love finding fun cards for her, but the gift part does feel a little bit like an obligation, and I hate giving gifts under those circumstances. Oh well, suppose I'll suck it up and head over to Home Depot for a gift card (believe me, for my mother, that's almost as good as jewelry).

To all the moms I know, and all the ones I don't, Happy Mother's Day. I hope you all get (at the very least) a big kiss from your kid.

Balance

2008-05-08T12:49:00.003-06:00

He is the most amazing thing that has ever happened to me. Without question, the light of my life. On the rare day that I get to be with him from waking in the morning to rocking to sleep at night, I look back and realize what a fantastic day we've had together.

I have to leave him every weekday and go to work. Some days are shorter than others, but I have to go every weekday. I take him to the nanny's house and I leave him. Sometimes he doesn't even notice that I'm going, already absorbed in a toy or the nanny's little girl or Teletubbies or whatever. When I pick him up in the evenings, he is happy to see me, but he is equally happy when he's playing his "goodbye" game with the nanny.

Sometimes I get so jealous of her, the way he smiles when he sees her. Part of me knows that he loves me, he knows I'm his mother, but the part of me that's a little closer to the surface is wounded. I am really struggling with this lately. I have no choice about working, we simply can't afford our life without my income. Hopefully there will come a day, not too many years down the road, when that will change. But for now, this is our life.

I have it better than most, I know that I do. I only work about 30 hours a week, I have a wonderful woman looking after him when I'm not there, and when we're home in the evenings, his father dotes on him in a way that makes me fall in love with him all over again, and again, and again. But I question myself all the time - am I doing right by him? Am I being patient enough, loving enough, to make up for leaving him? I hope I am. I am striving to find that balance between work and home that nearly everyone goes through, with my own little family's twist on things. Some days are hard, though. Today is one of those days.

Creepy Girl

2008-05-07T14:12:00.001-06:00

Okay, she is freaking me the hell out.

Stuff I Love

2008-05-06T14:56:00.003-06:00

New shoes. LOVE.

Get this - they're Crocs. No, really, they are. I swear.

Stuff I Love

2008-03-29T06:18:00.003-06:00

I have the hands of a little old woman, always have. Add to that the super dry climate of Colorado and life at nearly 8,000 feet, plus the near-constant hand washing that goes with having a little one, and you can probably imagine the skin of my hands. No? Think lizard with a touch of sandpaper thrown in.

I've spent years on a quest for the perfect hand lotion - a container small enough for my bag, a pleasant scent, moisturizing enough but still able to soak into the skin and not cause me to leave an oil slick on every surface I touch. There have been some good ones over the years. Vaseline used to make a FANTASTIC hand lotion, and then they "rebranded" or "reformulated" or some such shit, and it's now not the same. Dr. Hauschka's hand creme is amazing, but at $23 for 1.7 oz, it's a little pricey. A few years ago, I bought a tube of Glysomed and fell in love. It's made in Germany and not easy to find in my local stores, although these days you can find just about anything on the internet (here or here, for example). The tubes come in regular or unscented, but I love the smell and so always buy the regular. Best of all, there is a heavier cream version available in a tub, and I keep that beside my bed and slather it on my hands and feet each night before I go to sleep. I just got a shipment yesterday from Amazon - 3 of the 5 oz tubs for $18. Sweeeeet!

Long Time, No Nothin'

2008-03-20T11:59:00.002-06:00

So....where to start?

The baby grows by leaps and bounds. In fact, I think that soon I will no longer be able to refer to him as a baby, he is most definitely moving into toddlerhood (especially if the size of this clothes is any indication - hello, 12-18 mo. toddler pants!). He babbles and he laughs almost constantly. He eats well, sleeps well, and is content to play with a wooden spoon, as long as there is a dog nearby. I fear that we will always have to have a dog from now on, he is so crazy for them. The bigger and slobberrier the better.

I am working again, although not full time. An old colleague reached out to me through a networking site (I should be a poster child for LinkedIn), and now I am working for him about 30 hours a week. I am finding that I quite like part time work, leaves me plenty of time for errands and the occasional breakfast with a friend. However, it's not going to get me out of debt, and that is my 2nd priority right now. I have another friend who has just ventured out on his own, and he will probably be needing my help in the very near future. That should be good for 10 or so billable hours a week. All in all, I think I can start to get back on solid financial footing in the near future. That thrills me.

I'm also taking advantage of having some extra time to swim. My office is just a couple of blocks from a rec center, so I've been going over there every few days when my schedule allows, and I spend 20-30 minutes swimming laps. I've always been a swimmer, both casually and competitively; it's like breathing for me. I feel so peaceful as I move through the water, and it helps to settle my mind while I'm working on slimming my waist. I have been inspired lately by Alison and her Bikram yoga challenge (lord, I am afraid of hot yoga - me+heat=hospital). I've slowly seen weight creeping up for the last few years, and I'm determined to stop that little march in its tracks. I'm not going to be too terribly hard on myself - I gained 38 pounds in pregnancy, I've since lost all of that plus another 14 pounds, but I most definitely have a few more to go to qualify as "hott" again (a designation most important to my darling husband). I always hear the word "challenge" as a shout in my mind, followed by lots of exclamation marks.

Holding pattern

2008-02-28T11:38:00.004-07:00

First of all, whatever that bug I had was, I still sort of have it. I'm keeping food down and all that, but lord I still don't feel right. Guess my superpowers failed me this time.

On the bright side, neither of my guys got sick. They're a little sick of me feeling sick, but whatever.

The job hunt continues. It sucks to be out of work right now, with everyone so frightened about the economy (oh, except, apparently not our fearless leader), with tax time looming, etc. etc. etc. Between a Euro costing $1.50 and stories of gas going toward $4 per gallon, I just want to sit quietly at home and try not to do anything that involves spending money. Especially since I don't have any coming in. I am bad with money. Well, not really, I know exactly how to manage money. I just usually choose instead to have lovely shoes or handbags or half the contents of my local Gap and Banana Republic stores. These are things I'm working to change. Carrying debt prevents me from having choices, like to choose not to go back to work for a while, or having the type of job I can accept dictated by the pay I need to be making. It sucks, and it's no one's fault but mine.

Sicko

2008-02-24T15:50:00.003-07:00

Stealing a few minutes here to post before the little boy wakes up from his nap. We've had a nice day, were able to get out in the stroller for the first time since fall. We timed it well, Valentino dropped off to sleep after a half hour or so, just in time for his afternoon nap. I'm in recovery mode, slowly eating an apple and yogurt and drinking lots of water.

Friday night I was a sick as I've ever been in my life. Curled up in bed shivering, feeling like I was dying of thirst, throwing up any water I did drink. Saturday morning I dragged myself out so I could watch Valentino and his papi at swim class, but then I went right back to bed when we got home. By dinnertime last night, though, I was right as rain. Very strange, although not unusual for me. I seem to always contract an accelerated version of whatever everyone else has, burning through all the symptoms and ailments quickly and usually feeling better pretty soon. I think it's the prenatal vitamins, which I continue to take even though I have no intention of having any more children. I think those vitamins are part of the reason I've been so healthy the past 2 years, hardly a cold or a cough. Let's hope it stays that way.

Early Morning Quiet

2008-02-16T07:02:00.002-07:00

Valentino is a morning boy, waking around 6, hungry and ready to be out of his crib. I bring him to our bed to nurse until he falls back to sleep, and then I get up for the day. First stop, coffee maker. Next, layer up on fleece and Uggs and take the poor dog out (but only after I step out and check for coyotes, bears or mountain lions in the yard). Once Ruby has danced around the yard for a bit and done her thing, I come back inside, prepare my coffee, and head for the living room upstairs. Our living room and sun room are on the top floor of the house, and the rooms face east, with additional windows to the north and south. I can see mountains out of every window, and the pine trees that surround our house provide some filter for the intense rising sun light.

I love this time of day. I have always preferred the mornings to the late nights. To be able to wake up and slowly ease into my day with my little routine makes heading off to work so much easier for me. Even on the weekends, when the work is at home or errands are the only things on my agenda, I still rise early, have my bowl of coffee with steaming hot milk, and settle into the couch to check email and news, catch up on the stack of magazines that I never have time to read, or just look out the window.

Our routine will change some in the months to come. We've decided to move back to our house in town, and find renters for the mountain house. When we bought this house way up in the mountains west of Boulder, we had no idea that less than a year later we would have a baby. I think that if we had known Valentino was coming, we probably wouldn't have bought this house. It's difficult to be 30 minutes from anything. If I run out of diapers, which has fortunately never happened, it is 30 minutes to the nearest store. I never head home with less than a half tank of gas, because I have been stranded on the road for hours. We can never go out for drinks or dinner after work, because the dog is always at home, waiting since morning to be let out. Once you make the 30 minute drive home, you don't leave again. Friends never come to visit, either because the trip is so long, or because the roads are intimidating for half the year. I miss having people over for dinner, miss running home in the middle of the day to take lunch in my own kitchen, miss taking the bus the to the farmers market in the spring and summer.

We finally decided that since we do have an alternative, we'll take it. We hope to be able to keep the mountain house by renting it, and someday if we're doing really well financially, we'll keep it just for us to use on the weekends. Either way is fine with me, I'm just happy to be moving home, back to the first house we ever owned, the house where we had our wedding celebrations for days on end, where we can (and have!) comfortably put up 6 friends, and where there are currently three other children under the age of four within 100 yards of our house.

I will miss my quiet mornings here though.

Who's that boy?

2008-02-11T21:43:00.001-07:00

I walked into the nanny's house today to pick up Valentino, and he was sitting up on the couch next to her, watching the other baby play on the floor. I looked at him and thought, "who is that?" He just looked like a boy, not a baby. When did that happen?

The mystery of the drool has been solved. Tooth numero uno has pushed through. He has hardly fussed at all, bless his little heart.

What's in your bag?

2008-02-05T15:03:00.000-07:00

Oh, this could be ugly.....

my bag - brown Gap bucket bag:

Herbacin kamille & glycerine hand lotion
cloth diaper / burp cloth
clear plastic envelope with coupons & gift cards
diapers, wipes & changing pad thingy
Moleskin for notes on a new project
spiral notebook for stuff that inspires me
receipts, unpaid bills, W-2s
plastic zip-top bag (from my last flight) with one lip gloss, one lipstick, one tub of lip stuff, Tide to Go pen, perfume
Trader Joe's facial tissue pocket pack
handkerchief with my initial embroidered on it
key ring 1 - house key, rental house key, safe deposit box key, friendship token, wisdom blessing ring
key ring 2 - car key and alarm thingy
digital camera
card holder for department store / infrequently used charge cards
6 pens
small post-it note pad
USB flash disk
2 tubes of lipstick, 3 tubes of lip gloss
Bellybar (granola bar for preggos, which I fell in love with while pregnant (and I'm not preggo anymore!))
nail file
homemade business cards that say "ring my cell"
dry shampoo
3 checkbooks
wide-tooth comb
3 tampons, one thong panty liner
cell phone
wallet (see below)

my "wallet" - Coach wristlet containing the following:

Anthropologie gift card from my sis
receipts
business cards
pictures of my boy and my niece
King Sooper and Sephora "loyalty" cards
driver license
2 Visa cards
2 bank ATM cards
insurance card
Costco card
Eco Pass (bus pass)
my husband's expired driver license (the only picture of him that I carry)
$35.07 in cash and coin
namaste blessing ring token

Might be time to get a smaller bag.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

2008-02-04T12:23:00.000-07:00

Well, it turns out the easiest way for me to fix the Twitter issue (and the stupid comments issue) was to switch templates. Thank you very much, problem solved. Sorry if the page is a little boring, but I was ready for a change and this will do just fine for now.

Thank you for the calls and emails about getting fired. You're all very kind. One of the best things about this little blog is when people "call back". I have no news to report on that front, things seem to be moving very slowly right now in the jobosphere. I'll just keep plugging away until something breaks.

I posted a couple of weeks ago about slowing down, even before my job ended. This change of pace feels pervasive in my life right now, and it feels really good. I joked to a friend the other day that I think I have single-handedly sustained the US economy over the last ten years with my spending habits, which now accounts for my extraordinary level of debt. There are slivers of truth in that statement. Even before I was laid off though, I started to feel the need to slow down, spend less, conserve more. I've always been careful to recycle and reuse as much as possible, but at the same time I suffered from a compulsive shopping urge. I have more STUFF than anyone I know, and a lot of it is either useless or pretty close to it.

I have now embarked on a journey to declutter my life and my home. It started with cleaning out my closet (which was in fact three closets in my house), and I'm now down to less than one regular sized closet for all of my things. Then I moved on to all of the baby's things - outgrown clothes, swings and chairs for which he is now too big, car seats and strollers that are too small now. I gave away a lot to friends with new babies, took the clothes to a consignment store, and Craig's List has been AWESOME for the rest of that stuff. Little by little, the clutter is disappearing. With it goes some of the weight on my shoulders - even if that's only how it feels, it's still worth a lot to me.

Snap

2008-02-03T20:55:00.000-07:00

There are so many things that I wish I could do. I wish I could cook a meal that just makes you go "oh, yum!". I wish I could jog. I wish I had the crafty gene. Right now, I really wish I was a web guru, so that I could fix the stupid Twitter feed on the right. It's driving me nuts, but I love the idea of it so I'm leaving it there until I figure out how to fix it.

I also wish I'd gone to college. It just wasn't possible for me after high school - no money, no scholarships, mediocre grades (lazy!), and people willing to pay me to work. I floated around for a couple of years, and then from the time I was 19, I've been working full time at increasingly challenging jobs. I've really enjoyed myself, especially a job I had doing research in the film industry for about 7 years.

I found myself unemployed two weeks ago. Suddenly, with no warning. Let go due to "restructuring", which is corporate-speak for "gee, we wish we'd managed our funds better". I'd had a bad feeling for a couple of months, but genuinely thought my position was safe. Guess I was wrong.

Job hunting is difficult under the best of circumstances, but I'm finding it hard to get in the door to even interview. The education thing is hard, because I'm currently in a technical field, and people want to see engineering and/or computer science degrees. I've always gotten by through relationships that get me in the door, and then I work my ass off to learn what I need to know. This time, though, it feels harder.

"Build Bridges, Not Fences"

2008-01-20T08:21:00.000-07:00

I have always been fond of Pennsylvania. An old friend was from Boyertown, and I made a couple of trips to visit his family during our time together. The thing I remember best was white peaches - my friend's sister had an orchard and a little store, and those trips set the standard by which I still judge all peaches.

This morning I read an article in Cooking Light about Dinner Day. Pennsylvania passed a resolution in 2002 that encourages you to invite your neighbor to dinner on the second Saturday in January. How cool is that? I wish I'd known sooner, I would have liked to plan a party around it and include a few of my neighbors. I am going to do this next year, and it should be even more enjoyable because Valentino will be able to eat with us by then. He's just starting solids, and eating in his high chair for the first time.

Truthfully, I don't need the excuse of Dinner Day - last weekend (on Saturday, coincidentally!), Alex made a huge pot of braised beef and vegetables, and polenta (yummmmm), and we had so much food that we felt guilty eating by ourselves. We called up 3 of our neighbors and invited them all over. They were a little surprised at the last-minute nature of the invite, but I think that they really liked the fact that we thought of them and had them over just because. It's hard for me to do dinner parties like I used to, because we live so far from town and the road to our house can be treacherous in the winter. It's a little too intimidating for most of our friends in town. The only way I can get them up here is by planning well in advance and luring them with a special wine or meal. Or, maybe the promise of some lush white peaches....

Slow

2008-01-18T10:58:00.000-07:00

Slow food. Slow year. Slow lane. Slow down.

Everywhere I turn, the signs tell me to slow down. Some of that is already happening, even without my really intending to make changes. Having a baby does that to you, I guess. One of the first things I learned when I met Valentino is that I can't rush him into anything. Late for an appointment? Too bad, he needs to nurse. Gotta get to work on time? Oh well, you can only stuff the baby into his jacket so fast before you piss him off.

Understanding that this was absolutely beyond my control (and not in a creepy John Malkovich kind of way) was actually a relief. An entire adult life spent being early for appointments and never keeping anyone waiting is not without value, but now I have a reason to take my time. The best possible reason. So I do. And I treasure those little stolen moments with my boy, when he is ready to go but is looking up at me with a smile, and so I pause for a few extra moments just to smile back at him.

Long Time, No See

2007-11-15T11:20:00.001-07:00

Um, yeah, it's been a while. In my defense, I've been sort of busy. Making this little guy.

It's not that I haven't had anything to say, because there have been things that I think I need to tell the world about, all these strange new experiences that I'm having that I'm sure no one else has ever been through. But at a certain point in my pregnancy, everything started to feel so intensely personal, and I just couldn't bear to blog about it. It felt like posting something on this blog would take away from this very private experience.

So, I'll bring you up to speed. On June 26th, at 3:23 in the bloody morning, I had a little boy. His name is Valentino. He's named for an Italian motorcycle racer (that is a whole post that I may get to some day). He was 8 lbs, 11oz, and his head was 15" around - so you can imagine that labor was somewhat long and painful. I was in labor for almost 40 hours. I had LOTS of drugs.

Valentino is a lovely, charming boy. He adores his father and the dog. He smiles at strangers and melts even the hardest of hearts. He is a voracious eater who started on cereal at 4 months. He loves being outside and looking up at the trees. He is ticklish all over, just like his father. I am back at work full time now, but spend most of my day thinking about his funny little face, and remembering how sweet he smells and what his face looks like when he nurses.

Anyway, thanks for stopping by. I have missed reaching out to you. Hopefully I'll pick this up again and can keep talking.

Mmmmm, chocolate

2007-02-23T10:47:00.000-07:00

In the past I have mentioned my love for a local coffee shop, Allison Espresso, and in particular for their croissants. A little while ago, they stopped making the fresh croissants that had so stolen my heart, and I was boycotting the place as a result. To make matters worse, Allison suddenly closed their doors and taped newspaper over their windows about a month ago, never to be seen again. What does this mean to me? How about that I've been denied one of my major pregnancy cravings for several weeks? I'm quite sure that my coworkers would tell you that my mood has not been the same. And no, I experience to guilt or feelings that I might have somehow contributed to their little disappearing act.

At work, we have fresh bagels delivered every Friday. I'm a little sick of bagels, but I partake because hey, they're there. Today though - oh my gosh. Fresh croissants were delivered as well. I wanted to sing, I was so happy. To make my morning even more delicious, my buddy Greg suggested having a chocolate croissant - we sliced them in half, put little squares of dark chocolate Dove candies inside, then stuck them in the microwave. I can't even describe how good that was.

Yum. I want another.

I Heart You

2007-02-14T10:05:00.000-07:00

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone. Yes, that is the same photo that I posted last year. The Valentine bandits struck again this year and put a heart on the door of every business on Pearl Street in the downtown business district. And yes, once again this year I was thwarted in my attempts to get the picture I took this morning from my cell phone to my stupid Windows laptop. *sigh* What I wouldn't give to work on a Mac....

Yesterday I was reading the news and checking out pictures from Mighty Girl and her beautiful new addition, and was reminded via the footer on her home page that I could put a ticker on the site! I have one set up already at Baby Center, but duh it didn't occur to me to post one on this here site. So check out the bottom of the page to see where I am.

Where I am is uncomfortable. Just the last couple of days or so. Pants that didn't used to bother me are now digging into my middle (or what passes for my middle these days). It's getting a little harder to tie my shoes - and since it's winter and snowy and all that, I have to wear hiking boots most day to avoid slipping and falling on my ass. You try lacing hiking boots with a soccer ball stuffed under your waistband.

Wild Things

2007-02-13T10:29:00.000-07:00

I've been telling people about the elk that I see all the time on my drive home. There's a herd that frequents a meadow about 2 miles from my house, near some open space called Walker Ranch. It surprises me that they like it so much there, as Walker Ranch is a pretty big destination in Boulder for the hiking/biking crowd. I do know that this particular meadow clears of snow faster than most, because it slopes sharply and is nicely exposed to the sun - so their food must be much more accessible there.

I took this on my way to work Monday morning, just from my car. They're actually much closer than it seems. The elk seem more skittish than the deer for the most part. When they see me stop and look at them, the elk are much more likely to run off.

20w 5d

2007-02-08T09:17:00.000-07:00

Everything was fine with the ultrasound. The baby is big, but that's to be expected - I was the smallest of my mother's three babies, and I weighed in at close to 9½ lbs. They think it might even be a few days ahead of schedule, but they're not going to adjust my due date as the late term ultrasounds are somewhat unreliable for measuring the baby's age.

We've been basking in warm weather the past few days, finally a break from the cold and snow. We still have about 4 feet of snow outside the house, firm enough that Ruby can walk on it without sinking in. I guess it will be months before that snow leaves. Denver is approaching an all-time record for consecutive days with snow on the ground (I believe the record is 63 days). For me personally, I've been going out in just my vest, happy to leave the big down coat behind. I've even had the window down (just like summer!). I know it can't last, so I'm determined to enjoy it while I can.

19w 4d

2007-01-31T09:00:00.000-07:00

I have an ultrasound tomorrow, just to check general health and measure some bones. They suspect that I might be a little further along than we first thought, probably only by a few days.

We've been pretty miserable the last couple of weeks. The cold and the wind and the snow have been relentless. Everyone up on the mountain assures us that this winter is by far the worst they've seen in years, but I'm not buying it. I miss my house in town, I miss being close to home even when I'm at work. Alex and I continue to disagree about just how long we have to stay in the mountain house (I'm lobbying hard for a move in April, but he isn't budging). The truth is that I probably won't feel like moving until at least this fall, and by then hopefully we'd have a new one year lease tenant in the old house. I can make it through one more winter, although preferably not one like this.

15w 6d

2007-01-05T09:19:00.000-07:00

Things are good. The little monkey hasn't been giving me any trouble at all. Aside from an occasional pinch or pull (especially when I sneeze), it's been a very smooth process, growing this baby. Most of my early symptoms have passed, and I can now get comfortable in my bed and sometimes sleep through the night without having to get up to pee. I have a doctor appointment next week, and will get to hear the heartbeat again. I haven't started to feel the baby move yet, so hearing the heartbeat will reassure me that everything is as it should be.

A local store was having a huge sale post-Christmas, and I picked up a box of Trumpette Monkey socks - they are wonderful! I also got a box of alphabet flash cards that are based on a vintage children's French dictionary. Obviously we won't need the flash cards for a while, but they were too sweet to pass up.

I'm snowed in (again!) today, but hopeful that the big plow will make it up to my neighborhood later this morning and I'll be able to go to town. I have lots of errands to run in preparation for a quick trip to LA next week. I can't wait, I get so homesick for Los Angeles sometimes. First order of business, Trader Joe's. Second, at least one trip to IKEA (oh, the joy....). I found a cool dresser/changing table at IKEA online, I'm going to try to get it and ship it home. They also had some wonderful lamps and ceiling light fixtures that would be perfect for a little monkey's room.

Happy 2007

2007-01-02T17:02:00.000-07:00

I hope you all had a happy and safe holiday! The photo is my sister and my dog, taken last Thursday.

We've been busy digging out from the latest storm to hit Colorado (yeah, merry Christmas!). I took some time off work last week to hang out with my sister, but since we were stranded for a full day, I ended up working on and off throughout the day. Many movies were watched, many fresh baked cookies were consumed. In the end, we had about four feet of snow at our place. We had to phone a neighbor with a snow plow to come dig out our driveway, otherwise I might still be up there.

New Year's Eve was a great time. We had met a neighbor who lives even further back into the forest than we do, and he hosts a bonfire every year on New Year's Eve. We went up there about 7:30pm, and there was plenty to eat and drink. People trickled in to the party over the next couple of hours, and in the end there were about 25 of us there. It was all neighbors, so it was really nice for us to meet everyone. They're mostly a little older than us (on average probably late 40s or early 50s), and they're all so excited that there'll be a baby in the summer. Apparently they do a music festival in June every year, but have decided that they want to move it to July so that I can bring the baby and they can all meet him/her.

Let It Snow

2006-12-21T16:12:00.000-07:00

Some of you may remember that I live in Boulder. Some of you may have noticed on the news that most of Colorado has been gripped by a freak storm. Yeah. In the mountains above Boulder, we got a lot. Enough so that I haven't left my house by choice for two days.

Actually, I had to go to town yesterday morning and pick up the kids - they were at their house, waiting on my mother to fly back from LA. Only problem is that NO ONE flew in yesterday afternoon. The Denver International Airport has been closed since about 10:30 Wednesday morning, and isn't scheduled to resume operations until midday tomorrow (Friday). My mom is stuck in LA until Saturday night, the first time there was a seat available to Denver on any airline that flies here.

It's been sort of charming to be stuck up here. We have plenty of food, and have power, TV and internet, so we're set. The kids have been out playing with the dogs, shoveling the snow every few hours. They weren't able to make any headway with the driveway though - it's about 75 feet long and under more than 3 feet of snow. Just when I thought I'd never be able to leave again, I heard a motor outside. Alex and I went out and found a total stranger using his snowblower on my driveway. Turns out that he's the son of the elderly woman across the street, and he came up to check on her and decided to do her neighbors' driveways as well.

A guy like that makes me remember the good in people.

A meme!

2006-12-20T16:30:00.000-07:00

Via Amber:

1. What is your occupation? Engineer, home-improver, professional
auntie.

2. What color are your socks right now? Green. It is a day for
wool.

3. What are you listening to right now? Local news coverage of freak
holiday storm.

4. What was the last thing that you ate? Chocolate chip cookie that my
niece just baked.

5. Can you drive a stick shift? Of course! Can't you?

6. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Purple.

7. Last person you spoke to on the phone? My mom. She's stuck in LA,
unable to fly home (see freak holiday storm above).

8. Do you like the person who sent this to you? I like the person who
posted this on her blog :-)

9. How old are you today? 36 years, 1 month, 6 days.

10. Favorite drink: This used to be an easy question - Heineken.
However, pregnancy has killed my beer buds, so I'll have to go with red wine (preferably a Barolo) or Pellegrino with lime.

11. What is your favorite sport to watch? If it's live, hockey. On TV,
football.

12. Have you ever dyed your hair? A better question would be, have you
ever not dyed your hair?

13. Pets? Oh yes. The lovely one-eyed, deaf Ruby the Wonder Dog. I also currently have in my home two yellow labs, Thor and Daisy. Two more dogs are coming up tonight to stay, Halle Berry and Blu Berry.

14. Favorite Food. This is a tough one. Cheese and red bell peppers.

15. What was the last movie you watched? The Holiday.

16. Favorite day of the year? Gotta go with Christmas. It starts off
well, then you get a break to watch football, then you get one of the best
meals of the year.

17. Least favorite day of the year? I can't think of one.

18. What was your favorite toy as a child? Stuffed Snoopy dog.

19. What is your favorite, Fall or Spring? Fall, totally.

20. Hugs or kisses? Hugs. Big ones.

21. Cherry or Blueberry? Blueberry. It's a superfood, you know.

22. Do you want your friends to email you back? Usually....oh, I get it.
In the context of this post, yes, I'd like to hear from you all.

23. Who is most likely to respond? Probably Ali.

24. Who is least likely to respond? Someone I don't even know.

25. Living arrangements? With hubby and lots of dogs in a draft old
house in the mountains.

26. What’s on the floor of your closet? Shoes and a big bag full of baby
clothes that I haven't laundered yet.

27. Who is the friend you have had the longest that you are sending
this to hoping will read this? This is an easy one. Victoria.

28. What did you do last night? Went to the home of my husband's boss
for a little impromptu happy hour, then came home and sprawled on the couch and bonded with TiVo.

29. Favorite smell? Lavender, fresh coffee, jasmine, the ocean.

30. What inspires you? Reading Anne Lamott, watching Helen Mirren do
anything, figuring out some new application on my Mac, seeing my husband talk to new people.

31. What are you afraid of? Spiders. People I love getting sick or hurt. Driving down the hill in really shitty weather.

32. Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers? Cheesy as hell.

33. Favorite car? My car. Silver Toyota 4Runner.

34. Favorite dog breed? The Ruby breed. Whatever she is.

35. Number of keys on your key ring? Uh....six, maybe? Car, house, three or four others that I have no idea what they open.

36. How many years at your current job? One. Woo!

37. Favorite day of the week? Saturday

38. How many states/provinces have you lived in? Four. Florida, Utah, California, Colorado.

39. Favorite holiday(s)? I'm a sucker for Christmas, although I don't even really decorate my house. I still don't even have a tree up.

40. Ever driven a motorcycle or heavy machinery? I've driven a motorcycle (reluctantly) around the block, but I used to drive a fire engine while on
the local rescue squad.

The Times They Are A-Changin'

2006-12-18T08:34:00.000-07:00

So. Yeah. A lot has been going on, as you can see. I'm just over 13 weeks pregnant, now in my second trimester. I've been wanting to spill for ages, but on some level it just didn't feel right to blog about it. Now that I've worn pregnancy comfortably for several weeks, I can talk about it. I had read a number of posts on other blogs about people announcing their pregnancies, and I wanted to shout "Me too! Me too!", but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. This feeling sort of led to my being generally discontented with my blog, so yet another reason that I've not posted.

Anyhoo....baby on the way. I'm terribly excited, and for the most part I love being pregnant. I don't know that I've ever felt healthier, and haven't had any sickness or food aversions or anything like that (okay, I apologize to every single woman who has suffered through morning sickness and suddenly hating her favorite foods). I haven't put on any weight yet, but my belly suddenly popped out and began being quite noticeable this week. In a way, that's a relief, because now I can just let it hang out and not worry about looking fat instead of pregnant.

My husband is growing accustomed to the idea - it's hard for Peter Pan to accept the idea of fatherhood. But I've seen him with his nieces and nephews, and with Joey & Mare, and I know that he'll do just fine.

Look for lots of belly shots and baby comments in the near future. Hopefully that won't be all that I have to write about, but I confess that for now, it occupies pretty much every waking moment for me.

2006-12-08T11:15:00.000-07:00

mags is temporarily on hiatus. check back soon. thanks.

Happy Birthday, Baby

2006-11-15T13:24:00.000-07:00

Today is Alex's birthday. He hates it when I remind him. I think he would prefer to just ignore birthdays, anniversaries, really holidays of any kind. It has to do with becoming the center of attention, a place where he is truly uncomfortable. I can understand that, but I refuse to ignore things like this. I told him this morning that if he didn't cheer up and start acting like a good sport, then I'd email every single one of his coworkers and remind them of just what a special day this is.

Tonight is also an Avalanche home game, against the San Jose Sharks, so we'll be taking the little people and heading down to Denver for the game. I love going to the games, especially with this motley crew. It'll be a blast.

Gah!

2006-11-13T08:51:00.000-07:00

Based on the way the last 24 hours have gone, you'd hardly be able to tell that I live a quiet little life, just my husband and me and the dog. Suddenly there are two teenagers, three dogs, and an out-of-commission septic system at my house. Thank goodness we can all crash at my mother's house this week while she is out of town.

The kids are normally no trouble, they're great and fun to have around. But since we moved up to the mountains, everything is just a little more complicated. On the one hand, the dogs love it because there is so much more room, and it's much more relaxed than being in town (leashes optional, etc.). On the other hand, the kids can't just catch the bus to school, so in order to get Joey to the high school on time, we have to leave my house by 7am. That means kids fed and dressed, dogs walked and fed, and of course all of my normal morning ablutions - all finished by 7. I think we could have done it, were it not for the minor problem of our septic system backing up last night. Oh no.

It could have been worse, it didn't actually back up into the house. However, we can't use the toilet or any of the sinks until we get someone up there to figure out the problem. Alex and I each showered at our respective offices today, luckily the kids both had showers yesterday before the problem. The boys took advantage of the situation and gleefully ran into the woods to pee this morning. I would have done the same thing ordinarily, but it was about 15 degrees when we left the house, and I just wasn't up for it.

The picture is of said dogs, resting in front of the stove in my kitchen.

More Italy

2006-11-07T18:05:00.000-07:00

Just because....this is a small castle in Alba (home of Nutella!).

Privilege, Right, Responsibility

2006-11-07T09:02:00.000-07:00

I tried to find a banner ad from MoveOn.org, but couldn't locate one on their site. Oh well. In lieu of a pretty, colorful ad, I give you my own voice (well, my written voice).

GO VOTE!

If you've already visited your local polling place or voted via absentee ballot, thank you. If not, stop what you're doing right now and go vote, or at least commit to a plan to do it before your polling place closes tonight. I know that it's easy to wonder if your individual vote really matters, but it does. One of the best experiences about having moved from a large city (Los Angeles) to a small one (Boulder) is that you can really see, in numbers that seem real, how narrow a victory or loss can sometimes be. I've often found my voice on the losing end of an issue, but I'm never tempted to stay quiet. I believe that you never lose when you speak your mind.

I've been a member of MoveOn.org since the elections in 2000. I've been one of those people who sits outside a polling place to answer questions from voters. I've watched a stranger's child so that she could go vote. I've driven an elderly voter to her local polling place so she could make her voice heard. I truly believe that voting is not just a right, and is so much more than a privilege. It is the responsibility of every person. How can you live in our society and not care about how we are led?

I found a great quote recently, and it struck me as particularly relevant today.

Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost. -- John Quincy Adams

Scattered

2006-11-03T09:17:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it takes an email from your oldest friend to remind you of when you're being a slacker. It's not that I don't want to post or don't have anything to say, rather that I'm feeling a little ambivalent about it right now. I have a lot going on at work and in my personal life, some of which I can talk about and some that I can't. This has made it difficult to post, since I don't want to bore you with what I had for lunch (because as we all know, no one cares what you had for lunch). Oh well, I'll do my best for now, you let me know how it goes.

One of the things that Alex and I have discussed since moving to the middle of nowhere is getting another dog, so that Ruby will have company while we're at work. The other purpose this would serve is to alert Ruby to when there is danger, whether it is a car or a coyote or mountain lion (yes, we have those here). I have mixed feelings about this, because Ruby is really our baby, and I would hate for her to feel jealous or think that we loved her any less. Plus, I know that it's a whole lot more work looking after two than one. But they would (hopefully) be friends and would bond much the way my mother's lab Daisy bonded when we brought Thor home to be with her. Those two are so happy together, it's hard to imagine one without the other. Ruby should be so lucky.

We haven't reached a decision on the whole second dog issue. We have a lot of work left to do on the house, and we're both working long hours to get ahead a bit on the extra mortgage, etc., so the idea makes us both feel a little overwhelmed. It may be that we have to revisit this in the spring, when we've made some headway with the work on the house and Ruby is fully adjusted to her new life as a mountain dog.

The photo is Ruby at our lake, on our last hike before it started snowing like a bitch two weeks ago. I'm guessing it'll be many months before Rube is ready to put one little dog toe in that cold water again.

Free Hugs

2006-10-19T13:43:00.000-06:00

Via City Mama.

Snowbound

2006-10-18T12:51:00.000-06:00

It has been difficult to get back into the groove at work since we returned from Italy. Yesterday's weather didn't help. It was wet and threatening snow all day, then starting snowing hard on my drive home at about 4:30, and by 7pm last night, I knew I wasn't going anywhere for a couple of days.

So I'm sitting here at my makeshift desk (since unpacking and organizing my home office has been pretty far down the list of "new house priorities"), trying to get some work done so I can bill for my time today and not go broke. Joey is here with me, because Alex is out of town and I'm not yet ready to stay here alone. We're making soup to have for dinner later (Giada's lentil soup), and in a couple of hours I'm going to put some pork ribs in the oven to cook slowly for about three hours.

Tomorrow should be warmer, and the roads should be better. Joey will need to get back to school, and I need to go to work. I'm no good at working from home, I don't know how people do it. There are just too many things (couch! TV! Internet! dog! unpack! cook!) that distract me when I'm here with a whole day on my hands. It was all I could do this morning to change out of my pajamas - how's that for being motivated?

The picture today is from one of our glorious lunches at Anna's house in Italy. I think it only shows a couple of antipasti, plus some wine....there were probably another 5 or 6 courses waiting for us.

Buongiorno!

2006-10-13T10:42:00.000-06:00

I'm back. We had a lovely time in Italy. There were so many wonderful days and sights and meals, it will take me months to share it all. In the meantime, the picture is from a day trip to Lago Maggiore. I like that the madonna is guarding the boats.

Leavin' on a Jet Plane

2006-09-20T09:03:00.000-06:00

I'm still here in Boulder, but my mind is already across the great wide ocean. I wouldn't normally quote John Denver, but the song is rolling around in my head like a soundtrack for this week. Work has been tedious these past few days, and so it is that much harder to concentrate on getting anything done. We leave Friday morning, and I'm mostly ready (except for packing and arranging transport to the airport).

I thought I'd tell you about Fern and little Jake. Fern is the little old lady that lives across the way from us (I could say "street", but there is no paved road anywhere near my house, so we like to pretend that it's just wide open space). We met her one day last week while we were out walking Ruby. I wish I had a picture of her, she has such a wonderful, weathered old face. Her wrinkles and creases are deeply defined, and I like to think of how many smiles and laughs it must have taken to carve them like that.

Fern lost her dog of 15 years earlier this year. I think she's a widow, she mentioned grandchildren but not her husband. I can't imagine how hard it must have been to lose her longtime canine companion, especially if he was the only companion she had left. The area where we live is very remote, and I can already tell how easy it is to isolate and become lonely.

A couple of months ago, Fern went down to the humane society and adopted a six-year-old beagle, named Jake. He's a fierce little thing, with a full gray muzzle. He's a barker, very protective of Fern and of his "yard" (couple of acres of land bordering on our road). As soon as Jake spotted Alex, Ruby and I walking on the road, he cranked up the volume on the barking, straining at his leash to get to us. Ruby is, of course, deaf as a post, so she didn't react to the barking at all, just the appearance of another dog (look! friend! playmate!). She walked right up to Jake, who was barking so hard he looked like he might fall over with the effort. It wasn't until Ruby was about a foot away that she realized something was wrong, it was either the vibration of his barking or the blasts of air to her face that caught her attention. She cocked her head at him, then leaned down a little further toward him......and he stopped. The tail started wagging, there was much sniffing of behinds, and no more barking. I felt comfortable kneeling down and offering him my hand, and he came over and let me pet him.

Fern says it was a good sign that Jake liked us, that he knows things about people. It's the first step in becoming part of our 'hood.

One of the Good Guys

2006-09-14T09:23:00.000-06:00

Former Texas Governor Ann Richards Dies

It's a sad day. The world needs more women who are smart, funny, gracious, and unfraid to say what they think, and mean what they say.

The View From Up There

2006-09-12T11:28:00.000-06:00

This is my boy, admiring our view.

I've been trying to keep a list of stuff to post, but it gets away from me. There is really too much going on as I prepare for our LONG VACATION(!). That's right, Alex and I are leaving on holiday next week, so blogging will be light for about three weeks (unless I feel the urge to post from some lovely little village in Italy, which I sincerely doubt).

In the meantime, here's a short list of stuff I might eventually tell you about:

I'm out.

The "Vacation"

2006-09-06T10:14:00.000-06:00

So, where to start? It's such a long and sad tale of woe.

My grandparents celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary last month. They're wonderful, lovely people, and I love them dearly. I spent every summer with them for the first 15 or so years of my life, and in the years since, I've visited them in Florida about once a year. For the past three years, they've come to Boulder in the summers and spent about 6 weeks with us.

This year, we wanted to do something special for their big anniversary. After much discussion between my mom, my sister and myself, we decided that renting a houseboat on Lake Powell for a few days was a good plan. It's pretty expensive, and a long drive from Boulder, but we agreed to split the costs and decided each kid could bring a friend so they a) wouldn't be bored and b) wouldn't pester us all day long.

My sister flew out from California, and we left for Lake Powell the next morning. We got to the marina at about 6pm, at which point the leasing office was closed - but they'd left us a note with our boat number and told us to have a good night and to check in for paperwork in the morning.

To make this already long story short, the boat had fucking mice. Aggressive, taunting mice that would sit on the counters at night and casually help themselves to our food. The leasing office told us there wasn't anything they could do - they're not allowed to kill them (it's a national park), and "mice are a fact of life in the desert." We decided to give it a try and set out for parts unknown in the big lake.

The second night with mice was even worse, and I got no sleep again. The next morning, I told my family that we needed to head back, because one more night without sleep was going to turn me into a complete raving lunatic. That's a bad thing. Plus, it's really not much of a vacation. Everyone agreed, we headed back, drove home that same day. One thing I will say for the leasing company, they refunded our entire rental fee. Pretty cool of them.

P.S. I didn't even go into the typhoon-like weather that hit the afternoon of our one-and-only day on the boat.

Worth Watching

2006-09-06T10:07:00.000-06:00

Even Stevphen - Islam vs. Christianity

Overheard at Work

2006-09-05T10:47:00.000-06:00

"I'm sorry, I can't make it that day. I have roller derby try-outs."

I'm Still Here

2006-09-01T11:14:00.000-06:00

Exhausted, but still here.

I have blog fodder for days with stories of foiled vacations, aggressive mice, endless trips up and down a winding mountain road. As soon as I catch my breath and get more than 5 hours of sleep, I'll work on more posts. For now, here's a picture of my dog on her new deck.

Chez Kate (oh, and Alex, too)

2006-08-22T10:44:00.000-06:00

We closed on our new home this morning. It was by far one of the smoothest, most pain-free exercises in a "process" that I've ever experienced. The paperwork was less than one inch thick (total!). Alex and I are now the proud owners of a bouncing baby mountain home.

The photo above doesn't do the place justice, but it's a hard house to photograph. This picture shows the front corner of the house, and I was standing in front of the garage when I took it. The side of the house faces the road, the back of the house faces the driveway, and the front of the house is looking out toward a lake and mountains and is surrounded by trees. Once I'm up there, I'll work on doing a better pictorial tour.

Winners!

2006-08-21T08:23:00.000-06:00

Mare's softball team took first place at a tournament this weekend (woo hoo!), their second tournament in a row in which they took top honors. It's a great team, and most of the girls turned 13 this year, so next year they'll all move up together to the 14-and-unders. They played three games on Saturday, which is amazing because before and in between each game there was rain or threats of rain.

Late in the day, I went to the airport and picked up my grandparents, and as we drove back the 50 or so miles from the airport to Boulder, the skies opened and dumped the worst rain I think I've ever seen. My grandparents live in Florida, so they're used to bad weather - they were troopers while I drove white-knuckled back toward home.

Edit: That photo is from the last tournament they played (and in better weather). Those are the practice uniforms, the game uniforms are shiny purple - they look like short Lakers!

Training Me to Harass, Sexually

2006-08-18T08:53:00.000-06:00

We have mandatory sexual harassment training this morning. We watched this clip from "South Park" to prepare.

Moving On

2006-08-17T21:00:00.000-06:00

Thanks for the emails (and for the comment, Ali). I felt weird about posting something like that, especially since it's not my heartbreak, but it did shape my days and nights this week. I'm moving on now, I don't want to dwell there. I'm still paying regular visits to my friend, as are many in her life, and she's being well looked after.

No Good News

2006-08-16T12:00:00.000-06:00

I haven't felt much like posting this week. My friend T. lost her infant son to SIDS a few days ago. His funeral was yesterday. He was a few days shy of four months old.

I don't really have anything to say, other than I can't begin to imagine my friend's grief. I've tried to just be there for her, because I can't think of anything else to do.

Anam Cara

2006-08-14T09:52:00.000-06:00

We went to the wedding of some very good friends last night. It had lovely Irish touches, including large gulps of whiskey from a shared cup (the "loving cup" or "quaich"), and many humorous references to the bride's love of all things sci-fi. I think I had more fun at that wedding than perhaps any other, outside of my own. We also knew nearly every person there, which was rather nice and sort of unusual for me in my history of wedding-attendance.

Luckily for me, there was very good red wine, so I wasn't tempted by any of the strange concoctions that were being crafted behind the bar. Probably 20% of the bartenders in Boulder were at this wedding, so it was bound to get out of hand eventually. Alex and I left shortly after all of the groomsmen appeared dressed as Mr. Spock and serenaded the bride. It really was a fun, loving evening. I very much needed some sweetness and light.

2006-08-11T10:39:00.000-06:00

On the whiteboard in the kitchen at work.

Happy Links

2006-08-11T09:43:00.000-06:00

I've added a bunch of new links at the right - sites I had visited and liked enough to bookmark, have read periodically, etc. Mostly it's that I've just been too lazy to update my links. There is a lot of great and amusing writing out there, and one of my favorite things to do each day is just cruise around and check in with everyone. Now I just have to get better about leaving comments.

It might be time for another facelift for this here blog, but lord knows I have enough on my plate right now. Maybe that will be a good project for this fall, once I'm settled in a bit.

Golden Oldie

2006-08-10T15:00:00.000-06:00

Hey, I have titles! Who knew? (Yeah, okay, I really should explore the Blogger toolbar more often).

I was looking through my archives this afternoon and came across a meme from last summer. I liked it, so here it is again, updated with today's answers:

kathryn (or kate)

nude

Radio Paradise

prosciutto-wrapped melon, and grilled shrimp

purple

stormy

my nephew

it's the smile

can i be honest??? fried chicken

water

Heineken

the internet

brown

nope

top

october

i don't really like fast food - but Qdoba rocks

"Clerks 2"

some Saturday in the fall

not at all

winter

both

vanilla

A Moveable Feast

i don't have one

Scrabble

shopping, followed by dinner and cocktails with my friend Joni

Anne Lamott

butter AND salt

i'm not really a flower kind of girl

get off me, ruby

didn't have one

apple, tangerine, three bottles of Eldorado spring water, graph paper tablet, phone, Bobbi Brown Black Cherry lip tint, mechanical pencil, stolen hotel room door card that says "do not disturb the calm little center of my universe"

symphony

play

yes, and i hit stuff, too

not especially

right

chunky if by spoon, creamy for spreading on things

winter park, fl

2006-08-10T07:59:00.000-06:00

Just a quick update, for those of you following along at home:

We did buy a new house, and we're moving in on August 27. We decided to keep our house in Boulder, and we're in the process of trying to find tenants. The hunt for tenants is long and arduous, but we're hanging in there. We've had 6 families take a look, but nothing so far. I keep telling myself that it's because it's been available for so long, but it might be a tiny bit expensive. If we don't rent it by the end of this coming weekend, we're dropping the price.

I'm very excited about the new house. It's going to need a lot of work, most of which we'll do ourselves. We need to install a water softener for the well water, need to buy a new washer/dryer, and then once we're moved in we'll start a list of changes and try to prioritize them. Some are more urgent than others - there is a wall in the dining room that needs to get knocked down in order for us to fit our dining room table, so that will happen pretty quickly. There is only one bathroom, so putting a second one in will be a HUGE priority. There is some faux wood paneling that I'll be removing, which has to happen before we do new floors. There is yucky brown tile in the kitchen that needs to come down and be replaced, cabinets need to be cleaned up. I need your help here - the cabinets are okay, but BOR-RING. I'm tempted to sand them down a bit and then paint them white and put stainless steel hardware on them, which will then match the stainless steel appliances that we'll be putting in. Opinions?

2006-08-08T08:08:00.000-06:00

Okay, here's the picture of THE HAIR. There is a lot of it. One thing that my family ain't short on, that's hair follicles. My hairstylist charges me extra for doing highlights (yet another reason to do it myself) because it takes her over an hour to put foils in.

This color is "Light Brown - Natural", which means that it's neither Warm nor Cool, so it's supposed to bring out your natural shades. It lightened my roots (and all the hair at the back of my head, near my nape, which never gets colored), so I think it's actually a bit lighter than my natural shade. Of course, I've been coloring my hair for so long that I have no idea what it would look like without color.

I'm going to live with this for a few weeks and see how I feel, and then I'll either continue to use this color or will go one shade darker. It's certainly much easier than having blond highlights (no rootage!).

2006-08-07T09:00:00.000-06:00

I had to stop at the bank on the way to work this morning, and since it's directly next door to one of my favorite coffee shops, I made the rare stop for a nice schitzo skinny latte (that's half-caff, non-fat milk for you non-drinkers). I say "rare" because I hardly ever get coffee anymore - the stuff we get at work is pretty good, and at $3.60 a pop for my lattes, I figured I'm saving myself around $80 each month (have to keep reminding myself, saving is good, saving is good).

I always get treated well in my coffee shop, especially if one particular young woman is working. This girl and I go waaayyy back, to when she spilled a double-espresso INTO MY FAVORITE WALLET last year. Guess what? Credit cards stop working when soaked in espresso. Of course, she felt terrible and insisted on buying my coffee for months. Even now, she still jokes about it, makes sure the counter is clear of my wallet and purse before pouring. The coffee is no longer free, but it's still funny.

2006-08-06T16:00:00.000-06:00

Alex and I spent about three hours last night watching back-to-back episodes of Dog Whisperer. I'd never seen the show before, in fact I think that we both thought it was about a pet psychic (don't ask....), but in fact it was really pretty good. Some of the episodes focused on dogs where we were both thinking either kick that dog or give it away, but I'll be the first person to admit that the love we have for Ruby could probably only be rivaled by a child, so I'm not gonna throw any stones at these people who put up with dogs that bark, dogs that bite, dogs that try to eat other dogs.

The Dog Whisperer (Caesar) is all about the "pack" mentality. He's the leader of the pack, and as soon as a dog that he is working with acknowledges that, he can start to work with the family on how to control the dog's behavior. One thing that really rang true with me was to watch how he required that the dog become submissive before he moved on to any work with them. He never calls the dog by name, it's more about body language and asserting himself as the leader. He has a sort of "dog camp" in Los Angeles that is home to around 40 dogs - some that he has rescued, some that he is working with, some that board while their people are away. All of those dogs, living in harmony. Have to say, I was pretty impressed. I think there is hope yet for my mom's crazy dog, Thor - my nephew is now responsible for him, and I told him to TiVo a few episodes of the show and watch them to get some ideas.

2006-08-03T15:16:00.000-06:00

Moving day is about three weeks away, and I've only just begun to pack.

That thought fills me with terror, even though I'm an old veteran of house-moves. The house I'm about to inhabit will be my 21st address. I may even be forgetting one or two, but I know it's at least 21. I'm about to be 36 years old, so that seems like a lot of moving - but let me say that many of those moves took place before I was able to decide for myself. In the last 12 years, I've lived in 3 houses - 6 years in my condo in Santa Monica, a year-and-a-half in a house we rented when we first moved to Boulder, and now 4 years in our current home. That's not too bad.

One of the things that made me think of this is a news blurb I read or heard about recently about how many adults and families have no sense of community anymore, no "circle of friends" that they rely on for everything from babysitting to moral support. Among the factors they cited was that many adults move from place to place so much, far more than was common for our parents. Many people don't have jobs that are long-term, due to layoffs and competitive employers, etc.

In my adult life, I've always tried to create that circle for myself. I relish my home and my friends and the time I'm able to spend with them. Even when I've landed in a new city, one of my priorities is to find a place (okay, usually it's a bar) where I feel comfortable, and then to go there and seek out the faces that start to look familiar. Over time, I've built wonderful friendships with an incredibly eclectic group of men and women. I'm so grateful for them.

2006-08-02T08:42:00.000-06:00

Well, I did it. I bought a kit of at-home hair color and used it. I was terrified.

Since we're buying another house, and I have this wacky goal of being out of debt sometime in the next 50 years, I've had to seriously cut back on certain types of expenses. The first to go was the personal trainer (an admitted luxury), followed quickly by my regular visits to the hair salon. My hair grows incredibly fast, and I've worn blond highlights for most of my adult life, so I usually have to go have them done every 8 weeks - even at eight weeks I have at least an inch and a half of rootage.

My goal going forward it about simplicity, about not needing so much STUFF. Along with sorting through my possessions with a wicked hand and creating two pickups full of stuff to sell at a garage sale next week, I'm also trying to make my day-to-day life a little less complicated. This led me to a frightening conclusion - my natural hair color *gasp*. Only problem is, I'm not exactly sure what my natural color is. Okay, I can look at the hair near the back of my head/neck for guidance, but it's pretty damn dark. I can look to my brows, but they're pretty dark, too. I'm not sure that I'm actually that dark-haired, although my father was. To make the transition a little less traumatic, I went with a light brown shade from L'Oréal Féria. It is a little too light of a brown for me, but it's a good interim color, and in a couple of weeks, I'll go a shade darker and see how that goes. The Feria stuff isn't permanent, it's meant to last a month or so. It's very gentle, but I confess there were some fumes last night that made me wonder if my husband put something in my water.

Anyway, I'm not posting photos yet. Maybe after the next color adjustment. Don't you just love progress posts?

2006-08-01T14:00:00.000-06:00

A meme from Beth:

Five items in my freezer

vodka

peaches

Boca lasagna

beer glasses

wedding cake

Five items in my closet

many, many pairs of shoes

many, many purses

hockey stick

rifle, shotgun and handgun

extra toilet paper

Five items in my car

parka

15 dog leashes

extra socks

flares

first aid kit

Five items in my purse

11 tubes of lip gloss

sunscreen (spf 45)

Evian atomiser

handkerchief with my initial embroidered on the corner

check for $581.25 (woo hoo, gotta go deposit that!)

2006-07-24T08:30:00.000-06:00

I wish I were better about making time to post. Every day it seems like there is an interesting or funny little story that would be perfect to share, but by the time I get around to actually doing a post, I've forgotten all of the little gems of my day.

One thing I can share with you is how much I'm enjoying Hemingway's A Moveable Feast. I never had the opportunity to read much Hemingway (outside of school), and this book is like a little gift that waits for me each night when I go to bed. I especially love how he describes needing to read other writers at the end of his work day, to preserve that part of his writing that still lives in his mind, by escaping into someone else's story.

For most of my life, since I learned to read, I've read every night before bed. Even when I'm traveling, or I stay out too late, I still pick up a book before going to sleep. I keep stacks of books on the floor next to my bed, because I never know what I'll be in the mood for from one night to the next. Sometimes I stick to one book until I finish it, but other times I know that what I need is something else, and I pluck a different one from the pile. I'm also one of those people who rereads books over and over again, because I'm able to disappear into the ones I love, and it's like reading them for the first time again.

2006-07-23T18:15:00.000-06:00

Dr. Choppers passed on the house. *sigh* Oh well. I'm not going to kid you - the idea of a nice, responsible dentist and his kids as tenants was pretty much a dream come true for us, but what can you do? So the ad is running again, and I might actually have to plunk down some serious cash and run an ad in the local paper. Yes, I said "serious cash" - to run the very brief ad, text only, on a single weekend (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) is $800. I kid you not.

Come to think of it, I know someone (in the friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend fashion) who works at the paper. I'm going to call and work on that. Really, it's not as if they have people getting left out of the local classifieds for lack of space, so how hard can it be to do me a little favor?

2006-07-17T12:34:00.000-06:00

Dr. Choppers (I mean the dentist - ha ha, where is that reference from?) has been offered the house to rent. I should hear tonight or first thing tomorrow whether or not he'll take it. Hold good thoughts for my house to rent.

It's a relief to be back at work, mostly for the opportunity to spend the day indoors with A/C. We had some major computer issues this morning, so I haven't been as productive as I would have liked, but it beats being out in the heat. I'm even skipping going out to lunch (oh, the horror!) because I don't want to be outside. I know, I'm being lame, but I can't help it - I'm so sensitive to heat! Give me winter any day over being hot. I suppose it's a good thing that our new house is way up in the mountains, it's at least a good 15° cooler up there at any given time.

2006-07-16T20:30:00.000-06:00

Since I've talked several times about how hot it is, I'm guessing that you figured out that we don't have air conditioning. There are really only a handful of days each year when this is a true problem, but unfortunately those days seem to all be right about now.

We went to a movie last night in the hopes of cooling off a bit, so I got to see "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest". I'm not going to do a movie review here, except to say that I wouldn't spend any money to see it again. It's not that it wasn't entertaining, it's just a kind of bored, been there, done that kind of movie. Anyway, the point wasn't to see THAT movie, it was to be inside someplace with A/C for a while, so I guess at least the money wasn't wasted.

Today, I took my niece and spent the entire day at a shopping mall. No kidding. We strolled through most of the stores, had a long lunch at California Pizza Kitchen, bought a few little goodies, had our makeup done at Nordstrom, etc. We managed to kill 6 hours - but hey, that 6 WHOLE HOURS THAT I WASN'T SWEATING AND MISERABLE.

2006-07-15T17:07:00.000-06:00

It's been a busy freaking day, and also the hottest in years. Really. Record-breaking heat.

We had three potential renters come over this morning, starting at 9:30am. Two were referrals from friends, and the third answered our ad on Craig's List. All three seemed to like it, all three took applications. Unfortunately, I was interrupted with the last person (let's call him "the dentist"), because Alex called to tell me that he was stuck by the side of the freeway in Denver, wearing a wool suit.

Yeah, that one begs for an explanation. This morning was the funeral for our friend Gene, who died last week. Gene and Alex used to race together, they were incredibly well-matched in terms of their abilities. Gene was a sweet kid, and Alex was like a big brother to him. Since we had already lined up several prospective tenants, and since it's so unbelievably important that we get the house rented, I stayed behind to do the showings and Alex went to the funeral. Being the nice, well-mannered, cultured boy that he is, he went in his only black suit, a lightweight Italian wool. He looked lovely, and I was so proud of him for being so respectful toward our friend's family by looking appropriate when he went to grieve with them (unlike some of his fellow racers who thought it was somehow completely appropriate to go to a graveside ceremony in A T-SHIRT AND SHORTS. Are you fucking kidding me?).

So, he's headed home from the funeral, on the freeway back from Denver, and the truck dies. Just completely stops. It'll turn over, but won't catch. He's stuck on the side of the freeway, in 104° weather, with no power in the truck (and so no A/C), and I'm about 40 minutes away and occupied with trying to rent out our house.

Anyhow, long story short, the truck made it home, then died again on the way to the dealership, got towed, and now appears to need a new power train control module (oooh, scary). Alex says the whole thing with the truck is just our friend Gene, messing with him one last time.

2006-07-15T12:00:00.000-06:00

So....hot....can't....move.

2006-07-13T11:02:00.000-06:00

It's not a good day. A friend died today. He was injured almost two weeks ago, and died this morning. His organs are being donated as we speak.

I didn't know him well, but well enough to miss him. His death is hitting me really hard, and one reason is that his accident occured while he was riding his motorcycle at a track day - something that my husband does on a regular basis. I'm long past the point of feeling sick every time he gets on the bike, but I have to confess that after this, I don't know how I'll feel.

2006-07-10T10:50:00.000-06:00

Big news. We've decided to buy a second house. We're land barons now (haha). The picture above is the view from the end of the driveway, out toward Gross Reservoir. It was such a good deal, a nice piece of land, a nice little 2,000 square foot house, 30 minutes into the mountains above Boulder. More info later.

2006-07-07T10:00:00.000-06:00

You know the guy in your office that talks too much? The one who can't resist butting in on any conversation within earshot? The one who sees you standing in the doorway of the manager's office chatting, and strolls over so he won't be left out? Yeah, that one. I have one of those, too. We couldn't decide what to call that condition, until Wikipedia helped me out (actually, Wikipedia pointed me to Wiktionary).

Gobshite. Heh. Perfect.

2006-07-05T10:11:00.000-06:00

One of my favorite things about my job is the people. We're a small group of about 8 (there are 18 in our office, but many are on the road a lot or work from home, so the core group is about 8), and we have lunch together nearly every day, do happy hour, that sort of thing. Now we're adding movies to the list of things to do when we're not hard at work.

Boulder Outdoor Cinema is a cool way to see movies in the summer. The films are projected up onto the back of a building on the quiet side of downtown, in front of a big empty parking lot. The movies start at about 9pm, and from 7pm on, people start to slowly arrive and stake out their spots - dragging lawn chairs, bean bags, coolers and picnic baskets. You can bring whatever food/drink you like, or they have some to purchase.

This Friday we're going over to see "Office Space". I can't think of a better movie to watch with this group of friends. One of them promised to bring a pitcher of margaritas (made with some excellent tequila that another coworker just brought back from Mexico), and I'm going to take some bbq chicken and deviled eggs. Should be a good time.

2006-07-04T09:00:00.000-06:00

Back from a race weekend in Iowa. It's WAY too hot to be going to a place like Iowa right now - of the four days I was there, I think the lowest daytime temperature was around 90 degrees. Ugh. I'm not one of those people who handles hot weather well. I'd rather be surrounded by snow 10 months out of the year than go through 3-4 really hot months of summer.

Boulder is hot, damn hot, in the summer. There have been summers since I have lived here that have been almost unbearable for me. In fact, in 2001 I fled Boulder and returned to Santa Monica, in part because I was so hot all the fracking time. I get cranky, have headaches, my joints swell - it's awful!

This summer got hot pretty early, but it's cooling off a bit now. We had a fierce thunderstorm last night, just dumped rain down on us. My house backs up to open space, and there is a creek just beyond our property line. Flash floods are not uncommon when it rains like that - it's one reason that flood insurance is required where we live. In the four years we've been in our house, we haven't had any flooding yet, but we are on the "100 Year Flood Plain" - let's just hope the 1-in-100 doesn't happen while we live there.

2006-06-26T10:07:00.000-06:00

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Kellllllllyyyyyyyyy.....Happy Birthday to you.

My little sis turned 34 today. A few highlights from June 26 gone by:

In 1870, the first section of the boardwalk at Atlantic City, N.J., was opened to the public.

In 1917, the first troops of the American Expeditionary Force arrived in France during World War I.

In 1945, the charter of the United Nations was signed by 50 countries in San Francisco.

In 1959, President Eisenhower joined Britain's
Queen Elizabeth II in ceremonies officially opening the St. Lawrence Seaway.

In 1968, Chief U.S. Justice Earl Warren announced his intention to resign.

In 1977, 42 people were killed when a fire sent toxic smoke pouring through the Maury County Jail in Columbia, Tenn.

In 2003, Strom Thurmond, the longest-serving senator in U.S. history, died in Edgefield, S.C., at age 100.

Today's Birthdays: Actress Eleanor Parker is 84. Jazz musician-film composer Dave Grusin is 72. Actor Josef Sommer is 72. Singer Billy Davis Jr. (The Fifth Dimension) is 66. Rock singer Georgie Fame is 63. Actor Clive Francis is 60. Actor Robert Davi is 52. Singer-musician Mick Jones is 51. Actor Gedde Watanabe is 51. Rock singer Chris Isaak is 50. Rock singer Patty Smyth is 49. Singer Terri Nunn (Berlin) is 45. Rock singer Harriet Wheeler (The Sundays) is 43. Rock musician Colin Greenwood (Radiohead) is 37. Writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson is 36. Actor Sean Hayes is 36. Actor Matt Letscher is 36. Actor Chris O'Donnell is 36. Friend, daughter, sister and mom Kelly Bennett is 34. Actress Rebecca Budig is 33. Country singer Gretchen Wilson is 32. Actor-musician Jason Schwartzman is 26. Actress Kaitlin Cullum is 20.

Chris Isaak is 50???

2006-06-22T15:57:00.000-06:00

Pedicure!

Aren't feet weird looking? Maybe it's just mine. I know I have one really odd toe (fourth toe on my right foot), which kind of curls under the others. Also, my feet grew so that my toes formed a point - you should see when I point my toes, they actually form a very shart point. I also think the longer second toe is freaky. I've heard all sorts of theories over the years about how that means something, but to me it just means my feet aren't as pretty as some others. I take comfort in the fact that I don't know anyone who has what I would call "pretty feet". I supposed it could be worse - my husband is dark-haired, and he said the (very sparse) hair on his feet makes him look like a hobbit. Heh. Hobbit feet.

2006-06-21T14:40:00.000-06:00

I bought a new camera last week. It was equal parts a present to myself for my recent promotion (yay!), and a practical purchase in the sense that we're going to spend about 3 weeks in Europe this fall, and I'm trying to go with one small carry-on suitcase (yeah, we'll see how that goes). On the one hand was my beloved D70, which is a) heavy, b) bulky & hard to pack, and c) very, very expensive. On the other hand was the very reasonably priced Canon PowerShot SD600, which fits in the palm of my hand, and is far more easily replaced (price-wise) if I lose it or break it.

Anyhow, I was messing around with the new toy in the office last week, and snapped the photo above - the very first photo taken! The view is from my cubicle out onto Pearl Street in Boulder.

More to come....

2006-06-20T09:17:00.000-06:00

Internet problems in the office yesterday afternoon (damn you, C0mc@st) prompted a group of us to go off, laptops in hand, in search of free wireless Internet. In a town like Boulder, you don't have to go far. In fact, two doors down is the lovely Allison coffee house, which I've written about in previous posts. However, Allison does not have air conditioning, and since it was around 90°, my compadres and I kept walking. Then, in flash of genius, I remembered that Conor O'Neill's has free wireless, and air conditioning, and both Stella Artois and Harp on tap. I'll give you two guesses as to where we spent our afternoon. We were not necessarily productive, but we had a good time.

2006-06-19T10:51:00.000-06:00

Jodi had a conflict come up for Tuesday this week, so we met this morning instead. I was able to drag my ass out of bed early enough to do about 15 minutes of fast walking on an incline before she got there (so much for my cardio). Once she arrived, we did this:

Push ups - 3 sets of 12

Hip adductors - 70 lbs. - 3 sets of 12

Hip abductors - 90 lbs. - 3 sets of 12

Standing leg extensions - 3 sets of 12 / each leg

Seated wide grip pull downs - 35 lbs. - 3 sets of 12

I feel pretty good today. The leg extensions that we did today were easier than the ones last week (for me at least). I stand on one leg and lean forward to hold onto a bar, then draw my other knee to my chest, and then extend it out straight behind me, pivoting the hip joint of my standing leg. Since I used to do both ballet and gymnastics, this particular strech isn't difficult for me, but doing a lot of reps is certainly a good little burn.

Jodi also gave me some diet advice last week, and so starting today, I'm on the bandwagon of 5-6 small meals, about every 3 hours. This is hard for me, because I'm often not hungry, and I tend to lose track of time while I'm sitting at my desk. But I'm going to try. Just so that you'll all pity me, here's today's menu:

6:30am
banana
protein bar

9:30am
2 hard-boiled eggs, whites only
5 whole wheat crackers
handful of green grapes

12:30pm
grilled chicken
small salad

3:30pm
1 c. of oatmeal
1/2 small red bell pepper
string cheese

5:30pm
small apple
2 small slices tri-tip steak
green beans
dinner salad

Seems like a lot of food. We'll see how I do.

2006-06-16T09:35:00.000-06:00

I was thinking that the best way to let you know that I'm keeping my commitment over at Neil's to "move my ass" is to post about my visits to the gym. Let me know if this gets boring.

I meet my trainer, Jodi, on Tuesdays and Thursdays before work. We do a half hour each time we meet, focusing on weights and core work. Squats and crunches exist in every workout. I usually try to get there a half hour or so before I'm to meet Jodi, and I get on the treadmill for a brisk walk / slow jog. I usually select one of the preset programs on the treadmill - "calorie burn" is my favorite, it speeds up and slows down and increases and decreases the incline. I always feel good after I get off the treadmill, and I feel nice and warm by the time I start with weights. We don't do any heavy weights, just lots of repetitions (usually 3 sets of either 12 or 15). I have very long limbs, so building the long muscles works well for me. I played a lot of sports as a child/teen (gymnastics, swimming, volleyball, softball, track), so I have a tendency to build certain muscles (thighs, back, shoulders) faster than others. I'm trying to be careful about building any big muscles - I don't want the thighs of my jeans to be tight!

Yesterday's workout was as follows:

Bicep curls, seated on fit ball for core stabilization - 15lbs in each hand - 3 sets of 12

Squats, each followed by a lateral shoulder raise (10lbs each hand) - 3 sets of 12

Crunches with one knee drawn to chest - 3 sets of 12 for each leg

Tricep extensions - 3 sets of 12 at 25lbs

The last exercise we did was kind of strange (well, it was new to me), and it's the one I'm really feeling now. I stood with my feet firmly planted, about 4 inches apart, then raised one leg and stood with that knee bent. I then extended that leg out straight, and returned it to the bent knee position, remaining balanced on one leg. I repeated this 12 times, then switched legs. Did both legs 3 times. By the end of the third, I could barely extend my leg, felt like it was lifting a bag of cement every time I kicked out my ankle - and of course it has to be done slowly and smoothly!

Anyway, that was Thursday. I'll be back at the gym Saturday morning, on my own this time - can't afford Jodi more than twice a week!

2006-06-16T09:28:00.000-06:00

Good news this morning! My mobile rang about 7am with the news that my friend Kim had her baby. Lily R. was born late last night, weighing a healthy 7lbs. 4 oz. Kim is such a trooper, she said the delivery was surprisingly easy (although clearly not as easy as my friend Joni, who described the delivery of her twin boys as "they shot out like they were on a water slide"), and she and the baby will be going home tomorrow. My best wishes go out to the new mama, and Papa Dean.

P.S. I'll bet you thought I was kidding when I posted recently about all the babies, huh? It just keeps coming - found out the other day that our friends R & D are expecting their second baby this fall. I swear, there's something in the water here.

2006-06-15T12:47:00.000-06:00

I was a couple of hours late to work today, because this morning at 9am was the opening of the Title Nine warehouse sale. At least, I thought it was a warehouse sale. They sent me a flyer about a sale, but I lost the stupid flyer. Then last night, I went to Bonfils for my regular blood donation, and there was a sign about the sale posted in the empty storefront next door. I figured, what the hell, I like Title Nine but won't usually spend the ungodly amount of money that they want for most of their merchandise, so a warehouse sale works for me. Turns out, it wasn't really a warehouse sale, except in the sense that every woman in Boulder between the ages of 18 and 70 was there. Some even brought their husbands (I think so that the hubby could be used as a barricade when digging through a particularly deep bin of sports bras). I had to park in a WHOLE SEPARATE STRIP MALL LOT!! Come on, this isn't Boston or LA - we NEVER have trouble parking, especially at a strip mall that until today boasted of a Blockbuster, a Glacier ice cream store, and the Outback Saloon.

So the part about how it wasn't really a warehouse sale is in reference to the fact that this shit was still REALLY expensive. Elbow your way in, push against the human tide to get close enough to a table to grab an item that MIGHT fit, wait in the cashier line that wrapped twice around the lenghth of the store, only to still pay $29 for a t-shirt? $19 for a sports bra? I get that it's less than in the store, but it's hardly a bargain price. Hell, I can do better than that on Sierra Trading Post or Campmor, and can even find some of the same brands. Plus, no one steps on my toes or snatches a sweatshirt out of my hands when I shop online.

2006-06-13T14:28:00.000-06:00

About three weeks ago, I made a commitment over at Citizen of the Month to exercise at least 3 times per week, or else publicly humiliate myself on my blog. Ha! No public flogging here! That's right, I am on track with my thrice-weekly visits to the gym. I've even reached the point where I sort of look forward to it. With the help of my trainer, Jodi, I'm getting toned, little by little. She and I meet two mornings a week, and then I make it at least one more time each week on my own. Here's what we did this morning:

Tricep extensions

Chest presses

Hip adductors

Hip abductors

Crunches on a fit ball, pushing medicine ball skyward at the top of each crunch

Unfortunately, I was running late this morning and didn't get any time on the treadmill, which is how I usually warm up. Maybe tomorrow....

On my iPod for the gym:

Gorillaz
Earth, Wind & Fire
Crystal Method
Pussycat Dolls
Fat Boy Slim
Kanye West
Nirvana

I know. Weird.

2006-06-12T08:58:00.000-06:00

I got back into town last night from a long weekend in Durango. A friend of mine participated in the Adventure Xstream race, and I was part of the support crew ("crewing" became a favored term over the weekend, and was usually invoked to describe what we were doing when we were sprawled on the couch or floor in the condo, drinking wine and eating cheese). I love Durango, it's a very scenic town, with very mild temperatures this time of year - mid to high 70s during the day, low 50s at night - as opposed to Boulder and the mid-90s temperatures that I have to look forward to all this week.

Our condo was on the mountain at the Purgatory ski resort, about 25 miles outside town. The view from the couch was straight out across the valley, to the Needles peaks opposite the resort. I would show you photos, but my trusty D70 has taken to turning itself on while in my bag and thereby draining its battery - so no pictures until I hear back from the rest of the team (the picture above is from Google Images).

P.S. In my defense, I tried to post last week, really I did. Fracking Blogger was down. I'm surprised I could even view my blog, 'cause I sure couldn't post to it.

2006-06-05T16:28:00.000-06:00

I set up my site for RSS feeds, via FeedBurner (see the clever little icon on the lower right) - feel free to sign up. Go easy on me, I'm feeling very technically challenged by all of this and am resisting the urge to whimper. Clearly, I do not spend enough time online and perusing blogs. I may have to change that....

2006-05-31T11:12:00.000-06:00

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

2006-05-25T08:58:00.000-06:00

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.

2006-05-24T11:04:00.000-06:00

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

2006-05-22T09:00:00.000-06:00

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

2006-05-16T10:06:00.000-06:00

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?

2006-05-15T07:56:00.000-06:00

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.

2006-05-13T16:00:00.000-06:00

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

2006-05-12T16:04:00.000-06:00

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!).

2006-05-03T10:02:00.000-06:00

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!!!!!!!!!

2006-05-02T08:32:00.000-06:00

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....

2006-04-25T09:11:00.000-06:00

Almost forgot - that post from last week, about spring? Remember the pink tree (scroll down....) - here it is this morning:

2006-04-25T09:07:00.000-06:00

Ruby loves the snow.

2006-04-24T18:00:00.000-06:00

Who knew that winter extended into the third week of April?