1200 Miles West

Today after work, we headed down to the giant AFW store off of Peoria and E-470. We had been down there a couple of times to look at furniture, specifically desks, but had not yet picked anything out. Maybe that’s because I take after my mother and it takes me a long time to make a decision, or maybe it’s due to the fact that until a couple of weeks ago we had yet to paint a room in our house. As you know from my previous blog entry, we painted the office martini olive green and we will soon have a desk and bookcase to help complete the room.

The furniture is currently on backorder, but we should have it by the end of the month. Here’s a sneak peek.

For whatever reason, I like to go to bed at least 15 minutes if not an hour or so before Mike heads upstairs. Maybe it’s because I like to watch my entertainment/gossip shows or even HG TV, but regardless I always sleep better if I’m the one who falls asleep first.

Might be too much info for some readers, but I’m hoping to get some interesting comments or similar stories. Bring ‘em on…

On Saturday we attended the Home and Garden show with our friends Dale and Tom. Before heading into the convention center, Mike jumped the ropes and had his picture taken with the Big Blue Bear that is looking into the window. For whatever reason Mike has a fascination with this Denver landmark.

The show was much larger than I expected with displays featuring full scale waterfalls, fountains and live plants. I took a few snap shots as we’re in the process of preparing to landscape our backyard which is current a large area of dirt. Dale and I had fun checking out what the vendors had to offer, while Tom and Mike cruised up and down the aisles ahead of us.

At one point Mike decided that he wanted a yard stick so I picked on up for him, but one row later I found it propped up against on of the displays. Assuming it was his, I picked it up and brought it back to him. Needless to say, he was shocked that I noticed that he had left it behind. Knowing that we were heading to dinner following the show, he ultimately decided to leave it behind.

Following the show, we enjoyed a nice dinner and dessert at Mongolian BBQ after the show. It was great to spend time with two of our favorite people in Denver and it also confirms that we have started to settle in here in CO.

The last time I’d been to the Rio was over five years ago on a business trip, so my recollection of the margaritas wasn’t real fresh. Thankfully, my co-workers reminded me that there is a limit of three margaritas per person, so when the first one arrived I made sure to take it slow. I will say that there’s nothing like a good margarita.

We also met up with Jessica and Chris, along with a couple of Jess’s co-workers for happy hour. What’s funny is Heather, who is the office manager at the company that Jessica works for, graduated from high school with Mike. They ran into each other on Facebook. Small world, huh?

Heather said that she’d make sure that he got an invite to their 20 year high school reunion.  Not sure if we’ll go, but it might be fun!

Today we received 5 boxes of Girl Scout Samoa Cookies. Erin took the majority and hid them away. I can only eat from my box of cookies with my name on it.

On Saturday morning Mike got the oil changed in his car and ran some errands while I got my hair done. After getting home, we jumped in the car and headed up to Estes Park. Tom let us know on Friday that there was a train show up there, so we thought we’d check it out.

From our house it takes about an hour and forty-five minutes to get to Estes Park and upon arrival we immediately grabbed a bite to eat. On the way up we saw a billboard for Estes Park Brewery, so we decided to give it a try. It wasn’t in the GPS, but we found it. The wonders of the Blackberry.

After lunch Mike dropped me off downtown and I did a little shopping while he headed over to the Holiday Inn to see what was going on at the train show. Check out the details on his Building Model Train blog.

Before heading back toward Denver, we took a quick trek through Rocky Mountain National Park. The ground was covered with snow and as we were heading out the snow started to fall.

So we plugged Boulder into the GPS and decided to head out. As we came around one of the corners we noticed a couple of cars sitting on the side of the road. To our surprise, there was a herd of elk grazing near the side of the road.

On our way out we saw two additional herds of Elk.

We only spent about an hour in Boulder, but we enjoyed walking up and down Pearl Street checking out the shops.   We’re definitely looking forward to spending some time up there once the weather warms up.

On Friday evening we attended the Colorado Mammoth game with some of our fellow Indigians. The Mammoth play at the Pepsi Center, so we decided to grab a beer or two in between work and the game at the Pour House.

Never having attended a professional lacrosse game, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Would it be anything like the Avalanche game that we attended a week or so back? Or would it be more like an indoor soccer game? I’m not sure that I ever caught on to the actual rules of the game, but I definitely had fun.

I think the next game is sometime in March, maybe we’ll check it out…

Following the game, we went out for a little Mexican food with Ronnie, Jesse and Thomas. The restauarnt was called Las Margaritas and not understanding the two for one margarita deal, everyone ended up double fisted.

I had a spinach enchilada that was yummy and we chatted a little about work and little about our plans for the weekend. Overall it was a good night out

After eight years of trips to Northern California to visit with the kids, finding new things to do can be challenging particularly when you factor the age differences of the kids. One place we had not yet been to and they agreed would be fun is Alcatraz. It was truly a picture perfect San Francisco day and a perfect day for a short trip across the bay. After lunch at Wipeout on the oh so commercial Pier 39 with its $7 an hour parking in which Meghan was served a beer instead of an Ice Tea. Only when she added sugar and it exploded did dear old dad realize that the Ice Tea was in a huge Pilsner glass and had no ice or lemons. Must have been jet lag. I messed up the lighting, but here are the very excited children on the boat.

It is quite a climb from the dock to the cell house which led to the requisite but short lived whining. Later when asked Meghan to grade the trip she rated it an 8. She said the hills were the only thing that kept it from being a nine. Compared to the 2 she gives the Train Museum, that is a resounding endorsement.

Once up at the cell house they had a very nice self guided audio tour. Rarely is the kids attention held for so long. We got to learn and see about the various escape attempts including the cells with the broken vents as immortalized in the Clint Eastwood movie, Escape From Alcatraz. We also got to see the Recreation Yard, Dining Area, Library and many other areas. The National Park Service has put together an excellent exhibit and it is easy to understand why over one million people visit Alcatraz every year.

Many things were destroyed by fire in 1970 including the Warden’s House and the Officer Club. This time frame coincided with the Indian occupation of Alcatraz that began in 1969 and ran for 19 months.

Walking around the island made me want to go home and watch The Rock and Escape From Alcatraz immediately. We all had a great time and I highly recommend the trip to anyone. Hopefully you’ll have as nice of day as we did to visit.

Other activities during the visit included a touch football game and a trip to Scandia Family Fun center where Meghan won the jackpot on the spinning light game yet AGAIN. It must be the hours of Guitar Hero because it is uncanny how every time we run into that machine she takes the Jackpot. Ryan and I played several rousing games of air hockey also. All in all it was a good visit. It is really nice being only one time zone and a two hour flight away so that weekend trips are much more feasible.

This morning I met up with Sara and Heather and the the three of us participated in the Valentine’s Day 5k Run/Jog/Walk in Wash Park. Not being a runner, I was happy to hear that both Sara and Heather were interested in walking the course. While we didn’t finish last, we were in the back of the pack, finishing with a time of 56 minutes and some odd seconds.

The winning time was something ridiculous like 15 minutes and 40 seconds, but we didn’t care as it was great chatting with two of my favorite people.

For those of you who don’t know, when Sara and I first started at Indigio we were office mates and while things are always changing in the office, Heather and I will soon be sharing an office.

After we were done we enjoyed a wonderful brunch at Devil’s Food and even enjoyed a Mimosa. I look forward to our next girls outing which is planned for Saturday, Feb 23rd. Thanks girls…I had fun!

On Saturday, I joined a team of co-workers to participate in a local Habitat for Humanity project in Englewood, CO. We arrived shortly before 9am and after checking in we picked out our hard hat, glasses and gloves. As you can see from this pic, I was ready to go!

Here’s a team picture that I snapped before the work started. Pictured - Thomas, Sara, Heather, Ronnie, Jaala, Aimee (from CSIA) and Terri. Some how both Brent and Jesse avoided the group photo, but don’t worry I got plenty of pics throughout the day.

We were assigned the task of painting and everyone on the team seemed to think that was a good fit. There was another team assigned to “our” house. They must volunteer on a regular basis as they had a pre-existing team name which was “Hammer Heads”. They worked on the two sheds that were located in the extremely muddy area behind the house.

Here’s a picture of the house before we got started.

Jaala immediately volunteered to go up high and paint the top section of the house using a 24 foot ladder. After working to position the ladder so that it was stable (the ground was in the process of thawing) she was up and at it.

Heather, Thomas. Terri and Brent volunteered by be on porch duty. They spent a good portion of the morning applying stain. After lunch Brent inspected the team’s work and he decided to fire Heather as she missed the inside of her section of the porch railing.

We definitely got a good workout during the day. Here’s some of my favorite snapshots from the rest of the day…

My mom was a little worried that I’d be working with power tools, but this is probably the most dangerous position I was in all day. I’d like to think that I was just “hanging” out.

We were also fortunate enough to meet both of the future homeowners as they were on site painting with us. Surprisingly we painted the ENTIRE house! From top to bottom and Kathy who was our Habitat coordinator was over joyed at the amount of work we were able to accomplish. She also invited us back to participate in the dedication of the house once it’s done. I plan on attending and hope others from the group will join me.

The consensus at the end of the day was that we all felt good about the job we did and wondered when and how we could contribute our time and skills again in the future to help more families in the Metro Denver area.