Vacation

Upstate New York. 

Spades

Four conservative bidders. Super conservative, at that. We're only playing to 200, instead of the usual 500. After 7 hands we've barely broken 100. Pete said, "This is a game of attrition."

Summer Evenings ...

... might be my favorite thing ever. Small brewery. Patio. Good beer. Great company. Definitely one of my favorite things, at the very least.

New Restaurant

This place, Schoolhouse Libations and Kitchen, is fun. The menu is presented in an old school folder. The bar is full of books - and booze, of course. There are classroom style chairs and even some desks scattered around. And the drinks are served in beakers.

Just Me & My Music

And some wine and some laundry. Miriam is in Albuquerque for spring break. The boys have gone to a Rockies game with Caleb. 

 

I am at home all by my lonesome. Except I'm not really that lonesome. I am doing about 56 loads of laundry and drinking a bottle of wine and enjoying being alone.  I'm also listening to the above referenced album. It's my favorite album (today). 

Last night my house had approximately three times as many children in it as I really want in it. That was exhausting. Today is the day I do a mental detox. This is perfect. 

Best Day Ever

I recently had the privilege of having The Best Day Ever. Okay, I probably shouldn't call it that because it's hard to determine something like that, but still. It was a wonderful day. I'll share some of it with you.

It started with this.  I call it Apple Pie Oatmeal.  It's exactly what you think -- if what you think is a cut-up apple microwaved with cinnamon, sugar and butter, then mixed with oatmeal.  And it's topped with real whipped cream.

Then I took a walk and listened to two episodes of "Radio Lab."  I love that show. It frequently makes me tear up in a good way.  It always makes me think about something I hadn't thought about before.  This killed my battery, hence the 16% in the upper right hand corner.

On my walk, I saw scenery like this.  I love living near the nature trail that runs around the metro area.

I came home and did some dishes.  I know, I know, The Best Day Ever probably shouldn't contain mundane things like dishes and laundry, but it makes me happy to get this kind of stuff done.  So there.

I played The Sims 3.  My latest Sims project is recreating the White family from "Breaking Bad."  The dad, of course, is Walter White.  He has the family-oriented trait and also the criminal trait.  This makes it so that he desperately wants children and always has desires to play with and chat with his children.  However, he also has the option to "steal candy" from his infant daughter.  So I had to make him do that.  Poor Holly White cried when her father stole her lollipop.

I had a delicious dinner.  It was a tilapia fillet baked in parchment paper with herbs and ghee.  There was some roasted asparagus, and, of course, wine.  You might see in the background of this photo that I also watched "Breaking Bad."  I've been binge-watching it because I came to the party late and I am terrified that someone is going to spoil the ending before I can get to it.  In this particular episode, Jesse Pinkman had had the crap beaten out of him and he was recuperating in the hospital.

This is the wine I had.  It's a rather sweet wine, since it's made from peaches, but it was really good with the buttery fish.

And, finally, I had hot chocolate with rum!  Yum!

Camping

Campfire.

Rushing water. 

Crickets. 

S'mores.

Ladder ball. 

The freshest of mountain air. 

An occasional train rumbling and screeching through the canyon. 

Levi's laugh that begins with an asthmatic-sounding grunt. 

Lance's guffaws. 

Ashley's giggle. 

Sisters and brothers and friends around a campfire, under a clear sky with music and full bellies.

An afternoon of wading in the Colorado River behind us, a morning of hiking to Hanging Lake in front of us. 

This is the life. 

Friday Night

This is what it looks like from here. Thanks to a good 20 minutes of chores from each of my children and 45 minutes of decluttering and wiping surfaces from me, we're starting this weekend off on a good note. (Read: clean house. Yay!)

Lasagna that I assembled and froze ahead of time is baking. I'm in my old lady nightgown and I have wine. Samuel is playing video games. Solomon is reading. Miriam is practicing new hairstyles.

Life is good.

Uncle Max

I have had this post sitting in my editing box for more than 3 months.  I started out wanting to say how sad I was that the end was near, how much I was going to miss him.  But those words would not come out, no matter how hard I tried.  Since then, he has passed and I have thought about this post at least weekly.  I have come back to write it many times.  I save it every time without making any progress.  I don't know what to say.

In the last several years I've only seen him once or twice per year.  But knowing that my Uncle Max was in the world made my world better.  I miss him.

I miss his laugh.  He had this hysterical giggle that overtook him when he was telling a funny story.  His eyes almost disappeared into his face and he couldn't get the words out.  Watching him tell a funny story was almost funnier than the actual story.  Almost.  Almost, because he had a plethora of funny stories -- pranks he pulled on friends, pranks he pulled on family, pranks he pulled on teachers.  In these stories, his getting caught was usually the thing he found to be the funniest.

I miss seeing him with his horses.  He loved his horses so much.  I've not had many experiences with horses at all, but the ones I have had, Uncle Max was always there.  Horses will always be linked with Max in my mind.

I miss his concern.  When I got divorced, his thoughtfulness and sensitivity were so meaningful to me.  He related to so much of what I was going through.  It was really good to know that he was thinking of me and he was on my side.

One summer when I was about 12, Jennifer, Lance and I spent a week or so with Uncle Max and his family.  He worked nights and beds were in short supply with so many people in the house so I slept in his and my aunt's bed with my aunt while he was at work.  One morning he came home from work while I was still asleep and my aunt had gotten up to shower.  Max leaned over the bed, thinking I was my aunt, and tried to snuggle up with me.  When I turned over and he saw that it was me, we were both a little unnerved, to say the least.  But after that, it was one of the funniest things ever.

Uncle Max was always up for a good time.  A few years ago, after Thanksgiving dinner at my parents' house, Jenn and Caleb and I left our children with Mom and Dad.  Then, anyone who was interested walked the few blocks from my parents' home down to the main street to have drinks and shoot pool.  There was quite a crowd -- Jenn and Caleb, Lance and his girlfriend at the time, Jonathan, Max and myself.  I believe Caleb's brother even joined us.  We had a great time.  At some point in the evening, Max tried to refresh my two-stepping skills, of which I have very little.  I have no idea how many times I stepped on his booted toes (Ah, yes, the cowboy boots -- a Max trademark.) but it didn't matter.  We had lots of good laughs at my expense.

My heart aches so much for my cousins, for Max's wife, for my mom, and for my grandparents.  I know that as much as I'm missing him, it cannot compare to what they are feeling in his absence.  There is just so much sadness in this.

A few times in the nearly 3 months since he has been gone, someone in my family has commented on or Liked pictures of Max in my albums on Facebook.  When I get the notification and click through to the photo, it takes my breath away for a few seconds.  It's so good to know that he is not and will not be forgotten, but that reminder that he is no longer with us hurts so much.  It's good to have so many great memories about such a great human being, but knowing that there will not be any new memories hurts so much.

I guess that's what I want to say.

New Belgium

Paul and I have wanted to tour the New Belgium brewery for a really long time.  The problem is that they schedule tours two months out and the Saturdays when it's easiest for us to go are always filled up as soon as they open.  Finally we decided to just pick a day that I was off work (I have one scheduled day off every two weeks) and schedule our tour for that day.  Paul would just take off work for the afternoon or whatever.  So that's what we did.  We ended up going in mid-July on a Wednesday afternoon.  It was the best Wednesday afternoon I had all summer.

I really love New Belgium.  They make some delicious, unique, innovative beers.  I like the story behind the brewery.  I like that they're locally owned and operated.  I like that they have come up with some really great ways to reduce their carbon emissions.  I like that their tour is free and they serve lots of beer during said free tour.

Signage

Fermentation tanks

Fun mirror

Mosaic floor in the fermentation room

Inside a fermentation tank

Thank you.  I will.

Such beautiful vessels

Multi-season, multi-sport bike

Hops

Fat Tire bottled 13 minutes prior

Very cool bottle lights

The bottling line

That's a lot of beer.

Can art work

New Belgium is very green.

Maybe my favorite beer ever

I would put this in my house if I could.

We saw a rainbow.

The ride home.

Happy Anniversary of American Independence

If it weren't for the cloud of wildfire smoke enveloping us this would be a perfect day. Even still, it's a good day. A very good day, full of family, friends, grilled foods and various types of booze. I repeat: it's a good day.

Happy New Year!!

It's New Year's Eve 2011/2012! Yay!

Okay, that's enough exclamation points for one post. I really am just posting this to show you some photos from this fine evening.

Christmas

Alright.  I need to savor this feeling right here.  This feeling of being surrounded by family,  of drinking great wine and of eating delicious food.  There is laughter, genuine affection and a general feeling of comfort.

I can say whatever I want and everyone will either laugh hysterically or look at me with an expression of, "What the hell?" and then laugh hysterically anyway.  And they're laughing with me, even as they might be laughing at me.  This is exactly what I want to feel, all of the time.

But.  But.  But if I felt this way all of the time I wouldn't appreciate this feeling as much right now, would I?  Or would I?  There's this whole idea that you don't appreciate the good times without the bad times, the light without the dark, you know?  I have always wished I had the opportunity to prove that wrong.

I don't know that it's possible, though.  To prove that idea wrong.  I've always had the bad times to interrupt the good times.  Always.  That's probably life.  I doubt anyone has all good times, all the time.  I really doubt that.

However, the week from Christmas to New Year's Eve is the perfect time to enjoy that great feeling 24/7.  I'm flying to Utah to spend 4 days with Paul and his Utah family on Wednesday.  That's going to be 4 days of Utah partying.  And I only work one day this week.  I get paid for 5 days but I'm only working 4 days.  I'm having a great week.

I love this feeling, whether it lasts or not.  And it probably won't.  But I love it all the more because of that.

Thanksgiving Menu

I have no time off work for Thanksgiving except the actual day of Thanksgiving. This means I am not leaving Colorado.  I took the kids to meet the ex-husband today and now I am back home.  And by home, I mean Paul's house.  Paul's house with wine, cheese and This is Spinal Tap, which we just finished watching.  But that is neither here nor there.

What is both here and there is the Thanksgiving Menu.  It is as follows:

• Turkey, brined in a savory brine per Paul's request
• mashed potatoes, a la butter and cream cheese and heavy cream
• cranberry sauce
• the most delectable, buttery, flaky dinner rolls that you have ever had the pleasure of melting onto your tongue (at least, I think this is the recipe I use. I for sure have it saved on my phone. But my phone is charging on the other side of the room and I do not want to get up from this chair.)
• cranberry bars, a la Starbucks

That is the stuff that I am cooking.  I am having Paul and Cole to my place.  We have invited Jen and Scottie and Branden and Lance. We have also invited board games and music. We're gonna have a good time.

Paul is providing copious amounts of wine and a pumpkin pie. Lance is bringing canned cranberry sauce (his Thanksgiving staple) and some sort of salad, as yet to be determined.  Jen will cook:

• stuffing (which is totally To. Die. For.  And I'm not even a stuffing person. Unless Jen makes it.)
• green bean casserole
• gravy
• apple pie

I was going to attempt cherry pie but I attempted a cherry pie from cherries in my backyard a couple of weeks ago.  I bombed.  Completely bombed.  I think know that my cherries were canned too liquidy.  Unfortunately I am unsure how to remedy this.  And now I'm out of cherries except for the ones that have been designated for cherry-infused vodka.  Le sigh.

The point is that Thanksgiving will be a rockin', delicious time, as per usual.

The Good, The Bad and The Really Bad (Not Necessarily in That Order)

This week started off really crappily.  I was in a foul mood all day Saturday, for no good reason really.  I have a sneaking suspicion it was :ahem: hormone-related.  Whatever it was I just could not snap out of it.  I was grumpy and feeling bad and being short-tempered with the kids.  And that made me feel even worse.  Ugh.

Sunday morning I forced myself to have a better attitude.  I took Solomon and Miriam to Jennifer's house and left them there so I could spend some time with Samuel alone.  I've been aiming to do this for quite some time but it's hard to make time for stuff like that.

Samuel wanted to go to Downtown Aquarium so we went and spent a couple of hours looking at all sorts of sea creatures.  It's as pretty fantastic place.  We got to see a worker feed a tank of piranha.  We watched "mermaids" put on a show about cleaning up the oceans.  Then we ate lunch aquarium-side in the restaurant there.  We had a great time and it was a good way to start the week.

Monday and Tuesday were pretty crappy days mood-wise again.  I did get to meet with Miriam's teacher on Tuesday morning and have a conference with both of them.  It was nice to hear Miriam talk through her self-assessment in a grown up voice that I've only recently begun to hear from her. She's developing a confidence and a voice that I was unsure she ever would.  She's such an amazing kid.     

Wednesday morning Solomon and I missed his bus.  As a result, I missed the conference with Samuel's teacher and drove Solomon to school instead.  At lunch time things started looking up.  I finally got the snow tires put on my car after a couple of weeks of wrangling with the people at the tire place.  That's a whole other story.  Anyway, one of the guys there gave me a great deal on certificates for the tires and I got a discount just because of the company where I work.

I re-scheduled the conference with Samuel's teacher for that evening.  We talked about his struggles with focusing on work and with speech.  She showed me his work samples and how well he's doing when he can actually complete the work.  Fortunately in third grade they grade what's been completed so his report card looks great.  I still worry about later years when everything is graded regardless of completeness.  But we still have a couple of years before that.  For now I'm grateful that he's smart and that he tries so hard.  And I am eternally grateful that he was matched with this teacher.  She is a gift.  She works with Samuel so much and is so flexible and so understanding and truly appreciates the good in him.

Also on Wednesday I got a digital antenna for our TV.  I had been using Paul's rabbit ears to pick up local stations since the conversion to digital TV but they weren't getting ABC.  The kids and I watch Once Upon a Time on Sunday evening on ABC but we're missing more than we're seeing because the reception is so bad.  Anyway, Paul helped me get my antenna and set it up.

Thursday was a good day because the kids didn't have school on Friday which meant Thursday night we didn't have to do any homework.  Any night there is no homework is a fabulous night for that reason only.

Yesterday was a phenomenal day.  A co-worker agreed to give up two of her holiday days so I could have them.  I had put in a request for December 29 and 30 in hopes of going to Utah with Paul for New Year's Eve.  I knew it would be denied because I'm the lowest on the totem pole and everyone else put in their holiday requests months ago.  It was denied.  But then a friend gave up her two New Year's Eve days for me and now I get to be off work!  Woot!  She really did not have to do that but I am so grateful that she did.

Also yesterday, I got a call from the art teacher at the elementary school.  She told me that she's awarding Samuel a High Flyer Award for his work and his behavior in her class.  This is the highest award the kids can get at their school.  Solomon got one in third grade and Miriam got one in second grade.  I had been hoping Samuel would get one.  And now he is!

I was very worried that I wouldn't get to be at the award assembly for that because it's next Tuesday morning when I'm supposed to be at work.  I told my boss what a big deal it is and she said it that we'd work out something for me to be there.  Another co-worker agreed to trade shifts with me so that I'm the late person that day and my boss approved the use of 2 hours of flex time so I can come in late after the award assembly.  Best of all, Samuel has no idea that he's getting this award yet or that I'm going to be there.  I am so excited!

In addition to both of those wonderful things, I had to leave Solomon here all day while I was work and Samuel and Miriam went to day care.  He's done it before but I always worry.  Yesterday I laid out some plans for him like I always do -- a couple of chores to do, make up homework, food that he could eat, etc.  He made me so proud.  He planned out all of his homework and completed it!  And he not only did the chores I asked, but he did extra!  And he practiced his trombone for an hour.   He's such a fantastic kid.

Last night I had Jennifer, Caleb, Lance and Paul over for games and food.  We haven't done that in a long time because of new jobs and new schools and so much life craziness getting in the way.  We had a great time and I was reminded of just how fortunate I am.

Winter is Ovah!

Officially over! Today is the spring equinox!  I know that doesn't mean a whole lot of anything in Colorado but it means a whole heck of a lot to my mental health.  It means that summer is coming.  And that means driving with the windows down, wearing flip flops and tank tops, sitting on the patio with a glass of cold riesling and playing kickball.  It means grilling and having a beautiful array of fresh, delicious produce bursting out of all my cooking.  It means swimming and sunshine and thunderstorms and nearly daily rainbows.  It means motorcycle trips and wine in Palisade.

I'm not naive enough to think we don't have any more wintery days in our near future.  In fact, Paul and I were talking about this a few days ago and I said something about bracing myself for a blizzard any day now.  He poo-pooed that and said we were done with snow until next fall.  I poo-pooed that and reminded him that since I moved here all the kids' snow days have been in March.  So we made a bet that within the next 30 days -- that 30 days ends on April 10, I think -- we'll get at least 5 inches of snow in a 24-hour period.  Psst ... I'm gonna win.

Anyway, whether I win the bet or Paul wins the bet, the cold mistress known as Ms. Winter is officially over! Everyone join me in a happyhappyhappy dance!

Utah

I am in Utah with Paul for the week.  He has family here and we're just hanging out, eating, playing games, drinking and sightseeing.  We've had Christmas and we're going to have a New Year's Eve party.  These people know how to party.  It's a very good time.

We're in a small town outside of Salt Lake City.  The geography here is so new to me.  For one, this is my first time in Utah. I'm used to traveling through states where I've lived and I know basically where the major cities are and what their suburbs are.  That is not the case here.  Also, I'm used to mountainous regions being to the west.  Here, we're in the middle of Utah Valley and there are mountains all the way around us.  Another thing -- we're right next to the Wasatch Range.  It's kind of odd to look up and see a mountain peak soaring 11,000 feet above me.  In Denver, you're so far away from the mountains that you can't get a real sense of how big they are.  And once you get closer, the foothills are so huge that you've lost sight of the mountain peaks and still can't see how tall they are.  So this perspective on mountains is quite breathtaking.  I'm loving it.

Last night we took the UTA Trax system into Salt Lake City to see the lights at Temple Square.  I took lots of pictures.  I am, by no means, a photographer and my camera is rather puny but last night we worked quite well together.  I got some good shots that I'm pleased with, especially considering the lighting that was available.

Here's the inside of the train.  They are nearly identical to the Light Rail cars in Denver so I felt right at home.  This particular train was pretty empty.

Some of the scenery out of the train windows.  I was kind of excited to go to Sandy.  You see, one of my favorite television shows is the HBO series, Big Love.  It's set in Sandy, Utah and I thought that Sandy was a fictional place until Paul told me it is, indeed, a real town.  Not only is it a real place, that's where we got on the train.  So I had to take a photo of this sign.

This is the shopping center where we got coffee before walking to Temple Square.  It's pretty and it has lots of cool shops in it.  If I appreciated shopping and crowds more, I'd probably really enjoy a place like this.  But I don't so it's mostly good for people watching and coffee sipping.  And photo snapping.

A pretty cool mural in the Union Pacific Train Station.  I love real train stations -- you know the ones where people can get on an Amtrak train and it takes them hundreds of miles away, overnight with dining cars and sleeping berths and stuff.  All of them are old and very cool with granite floors and big, carved wood moldings and these cool murals.

A cautionary piece of advice that is posted at almost all street corners.  It made me giggle.

Some other cool shots of downtown Salt Lake City.  It's very pretty and there is a lot of striking architecture.  I was just in awe.  I think Christmas is a particularly good time to experience new cities because they're all gussied up for the holidays.  This way, I get to have these beautiful first impressions as my only impressions.

And now, the main event for last night:  Temple Square.  I must preface this by saying that a friend-slash-co-worker recommended that we "go to Temple Square to see the lights" and I kind of went, "Oh. Yeah, I guess that sounds nice."  I mentioned it to Paul in passing, not really expecting that we'd go because 1) we're neither one religious, and 2) Paul was, at one time, LDS and doesn't have much inclination to revisit that.  So I didn't think there was much reason for us to go.  But when I said it, he was like, "Oh yeah!  We should do that.  The lights are pretty fantastic and the history is interesting."  So we went.  And I am so glad we did.  It is beautiful!

See what I mean?  Gorgeous, no?  I am simply amazed that my camera took photos this clearly at night.  It was really something.

After we finished with our lightseeing (get it? Lightseeing instead of sightseeing? Ha ha!) we got back on the train and headed to a place called Trolley square.  I hear that there is lots of history surrounding that place as well but I'm unclear on most of it.  Anyway, here it is:

Yes, it's a crappy, crappy, crappy picture.  The rest of our group was running across the street while I was taking this picture and I was in a hurry to take it so I didn't get left behind and then a car almost hit me.  Oops.  But I'm okay.

We decided to eat at Old Spaghetti Factory which is inside the shopping mall at Trolley Square.  This is what the wait line for Old Spaghetti Factory looked like.  Lisa, Paul's sister-in-law, went in to ask how long the wait was for a group our size (8 of us) and came out to report that it would be at least an hour.  So some of the group went off to shop and the some of the group went off in search of beer.  I went in search of beer because I am not a shopper.

We actually ended up waiting about an hour and 20 minutes for our tables but it was definitely worth it.  Old Spaghetti Factory isn't exactly original or authentic food but it's very tasty and a really good deal.  I ordered an entree that was easily enough for both Paul and myself.  It came with iced tea or coffee, all the bread I wanted, a side salad and, the best part yet -- spumoni!  Yumyum, yummy, yummolicious!  I would have taken photos but the lighting was terrible and nothing would have shown up.  I did get a picture of the trolley car that is inside the restaurant, though.

Pretty cool, huh?

When we were done eating we walked back to the train and I got some more photos of things that I found to be interesting.

This was pretty neat.  It was at the stop where we waited for one of our return trains.  It's a poem written by a 14-year-old girl named Ruby, I believe.

 This was a funny little train seat all by itself.  Cole called it the lonely hobo seat.

And this is what greeted us when we arrived back in Sandy.  It was freezing fog -- quite the interesting sight.

Anyway, as you can see, we're having a fantastic time.  There is lots of great stuff in store for our remaining days here, too.  I'll be meeting Paul's mom tomorrow and maybe meeting an online friend on Thursday.  I hope the weather cooperates.  We're under a severe winter storm warning right now and it doesn't end until Thursday night or Friday morning.  Gah.