ooof...

I am tired!  It has been a pretty full weekend.  I got to host "Book Club" on Friday, and we had a lively discussion about a book many of us felt a biy wishy-washy about.  The cast of characters were Jewish, so we had Manishevitz to complement our snacks.  Then after church Saturday, Tom and I played four extremely amusing games of The Game of LIFE.  A hoot...I don't remember it being as silly as when I played it at Grandma's house.  And today I ran errands, cleaned house, worked for a couple hours, and have been trying to spring-clean my closets.  I am pooped!  g'night...

pre-bad fish

beautiful, realxed ladies of columbine... These are a couple group shots after my thank you morning with the ladies.  It is hard to believe that about about seven years ago we first looked at the Columbine house to consider if it was a possible future home.  Goodness how we loved it...

Family Christmas photos

Ezra has a thing for Tom.  He loves checking him out, though rarely does he actually want to be held by Tom.  These pictures from Family Christmas in January are funny.  The first one Tom is make his squinty funny face at Ezra.  I think they're pretty cute together.  Jennifer just looks silly...I can only think she didn't get what she wanted from Santa.

New Years seafood

My dad has a history of making seafood chowder every New Years Day for those who can come and celebrate, eat, drink, and play games.  The chowder is improved upon each year, it seems, and so have the names of each year's soup pot's contents.  Tom and I improvised, and he made crab stuffed prawns with linguine and scallops.  It was amazing!!! I helped de-vein the shrimpies and stuff them with little balls of crab treats, but Tom made everything, including a really rich and creamy sauce to drizzle over it all.  Yummmmm...

blue skies...

If you live in Colorado, you know that blue skies are usually only a day away.  I decided to head in late to work to avoid the slippery mess of the morning.  An hour and a half of shoveling snow and clearing my car from a heavy load left me pretty swetty this morning, but my sidewalks are bone dry now.  The streets are steaming, and the gutters full of run-off.  Amazing!    It inspired a picture of the table and chair in the bakc heaped of snow.  This inspired downloading all sorts of pictures onto my computer - for your benefit.

the 25th...

Evidently sleeping through Sunday and missing work Monday (also sleeping through most of it), I ended up losing a day.  In a conversation with Mom tonight, I learned that today is the 26th.  It is not the 25th, which was yesterday, which is also Amy's birthday.  I knew the 25th was Wednesday, and I knew today is Thursday.  But somehow everything else didn't add up.  I am not sure exactly which day I lose, maybe the 26th, since tomorrow I will wake up on the 27th.    Anyway, the weather outside is frightful!  Finally!  I am really excited about the snowstorm because I have been waiting and waiting for moisture.  I have crossed my fingers over and over as I told wannabe community gardeners, "no" DUG would not be turning the water on early just because we had what seemed like two weeks of weather in the 70s.  Oh wait - I mean a whole month!  But for having come in like a little lamb, March is going out like a lion.  ROAR!!!  It is, of course, sad to hear my friends' flight was cancelled and to know there have been a lot of accidents and to think of the people who have been living outside or in cars with the nice weather and got caught unprepared.    So for the two hours I was at work, over two inches of snow accumulated on my car.  The snow came down so big and wet this morning that the streets outside were just wet.  But then crossing Downing to the office, the ground was slushy and white.  About noon the temperature dropped low enough that the roads in the neighborhood finally turned slick.  The snow has let up only temporarily, but the snow furiously flurrying outside now looks much smaller and drier.  The wind just keeps blowing it in.   So I am off to bundle up and dream of flowers and plants and trees sucking up the moisture for a beautiful spring!  buenos suenos...

Bad fish

"Bad fish" usually brings to mind a certain band I like, but Sturday night it brought up something different.  It seems the only thing that could have caused the tummy cramping, etc., unless it is the flu.  Tom and I went out for sushi at one of my old favorites, but I don't think we'll go back there again.  I went to bed feeling a bit heavy in the belly and by midnight I was tossing and turning, rubbing my belly to help digestion, and fighting the inevitable.  Yesterday I slept until it was time to go to bed again.  A hot shower and a delivery of 7-up and Gatorade from Tom were the highlights of the day, and possibly the plain piece of toast I kept down.  Yuck!   My body aches all over, which makes me wonder if the fish was just the trigger of something bigger.  I have slept for most of the past 48 hours, and I am still tired!  Ridiculous!  Well, T4B4me...

From start to finish...

I have had a bad case of the Mondays!   I am not sure if I would have consulted my calendar, that my day would have gone more smoothly, and that I would be in bed by now!  I knew I had to be at work pronto this morning!  I drove, despite the beuatiful forecast, because today was the beginning of three days of packing seed packets for distribution to over 2,000 households of DUG's Seeds & Transplant Program.  Laura manages it beautifully and had arranged for a number of us on staff to pitch in with getting the boxes of seeds sent over to the center for packing.   I pulled in right at 8 am, hoping I hadn't already missed her.  She said her goal was to be there at 7:30 am, but that was indeed early for a Monday.  I had missed her, but Michael was finishing loading his truck.  I got all but one of the boxes left in my little coupe, and while we were about to repack the box into a bag that would fit, Laura's intern came in and offered to take all of them for me.  I graciously refused since (1) I didn't want to have to unload them all and carry them around to the other side of the building to the street and (2) I figured I would drop my car off at home on the way back and bike to work.  I had tossed my bag at my desk and raced off.   Halfway there I realized I hadn't written down the address, though I remembered the cross streets.  I didn't have my phone or calendar (where it was written down).  There was no "rec center" where I thought I was supposed to go, so I pulled over a couple blocks away and asked a kind old man if he knew where the East Montclair Community Rec Center was.  It turns out he was a member at the Montclair Rec Center and went inside to check on his rec card to see if it listed the address.  As it did not, he gave me directions, then followed me there to make sure I got there.  Really a very sweet old man!  Very generous of his time to help a damsel in distress as myself!  I was terribly confused because the center was about a mile SE of where I thought I was going.  There was a less helpful but equally sweet old man at the desk who insisted on finding where I was supposed to drop the seeds by loudly telling everyone else in the building what I was supposed to be doing, though it was becoming quite obvious to everyone else that I was in the wrong place!    A quick call to the office confirmed that I was right on the money for my original cross streets, but it was a mix up of the East Montclair Community Center and the Montclair Rec Center that hindered my direction getting.  Alas!    Having dropped off the car, I sped off on my bike back to the office, only to realize I'd forgotten my helmet - oops!  And then once at the office, I realized I had other meetings that would have been easier by car - until they ended up being canceled.  I would have known if I opened my calendar, at which point I would have been reminded that I was working till 9 pm tonight, attending a class.  Luckily, I had leftovers from last week in the fridge at work and had time to come home and get dinner before the class.  And then tonight while brushing my teeth and getting ready for my shower, I realized I didn't send Laura my LiveWell update for the next newspaper - she'll have my hide, except maybe she didn't notice yet!  I should be asleep.  I will be soon, and then I can wake up fresh tomorrow and get the day right!

Luck o' the Day!

I am a bit tired and a little bit sunburned on my forehead and nose!  Ooops!  I was thrilled to finally make it downtown for the St. Patrick's Day parade (though we still have a couple days till St. Patrick's Day, Denver did go all out for the parade yesterday).  A friend has been inviting me for years to hang out at her family's large street party, and after cold weather and lame excuses in years past, I went to bed a little early and planned my travels to take full advantage of the fun.  The bike ride to Jennifer's warmed me up, and I locked my bike up there to reunite at lunch time.  The mall ride got ridiculously crowded, but we were all trying to get to the parade route before it started and would block our access across the street.  I saw friends from Metro CareRing days and bookclub.  It was fun to talk to everyone, but even sillier was getting tipsy before noon - Guiness after Guiness!  My goo'ness!  I hadn't figured on the sun, so I was a bit red in the face when I made it to 1 o'clock brunch at Jennifer's.  Even better, Tom had driven his truck to escort me and my bike home for a long nap and hydration.  All in all, I am ready to do it again!

gorgeous day

So I really want snow or rain or something...the sun is amazing, don't get me wrong!  I enjoyed walking to the coffee shop with Jennifer and Andrea today.  We even got to sit by the open doors with the sun shining on our arms and faces.  And then walking back and hanging out in front of Jennifer's place was beautiful - too warm at times.    But really what a treat to have gotten to have a date with Betty.  I haven't gotten to spend anytime with her lately.  We're both such busy people.  I had asked if I could take her to dinner and a movie as a thank you for her three weeks of hospitality last summer.  So we went to see a movie playing only south of town, and without a car Betty won't walk that far.  It was a lot of fun.  She got to have her buttery popcorn, and then we had healthy salads at Watercourse as a treat afterwards.  It was a very special evening for me!   peace

dish duty

It is super exciting~   SAME Cafe (soallmayeat.org) is this delicious cafe where you pay what you want for your meal.  Brad and Libby source as much of their food organically and/or locally and serve up soup, salad, and pizza.  There is usually a couple choices of each, with at least one being vegetarian.  I think I have written before about how I like going there after church on Saturday - good food, good company because Mary works that shift, and always a good time.    Last night Tom came with me after church to get some dinner.  I had eaten their food for lunch (brought in for a DUG training I had all day) and was excited to see what was still on the menu and what had changed.  The place was packed!  They were recently the cover story of Westword magazing (www.westword.com), so I am sure the word was reaching new folks.  I didn't see any of the usuals, but there was a line!  Tom and I found a seat close to the counters, and I helped serve up cookies and refresh the tea.  Tom tried to troubleshoot the ice/water machine that wouldn't work.  As the crowd died down, we got some grub and conversation with Mary.  But it picked right back up again.  The dishwasher finished volunteering, so I stepped in to help.  Tom, too!  We washed dishes for an hour, and I'll admit my back started aching a bit.  But we had fun - teasing and talking with the other volunteers.  It was such a rewarding night.  And I was pooped!  Ready for a nap after work and before church, I came home and slept like a baby!   If you see this in time, or can figure out how to search for it on line, NBC national news will air a piece on SAME Cafe on Monday, March 10th - 5:30pm MST.  best!