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Yaaaawwwn!

Yawn. Tired. I am beat. I've been burning the candle at both ends and I'm starting to really pay for it, especially in my moods. Despite the fact that I got a full 8 hours last night, it feels like I got about three and after working out for the first time in a few weeks yesterday (other than running) my bod is soooore as hell. So anyhoo, I'm looking forward to a four-day weekend. Not that it's going to be incredibly restful or anything …

Friday is my parents annual New Year's party. There's a lot of prep work and then we party until late. The next morning, we'll get up, grab a few groceries and head up the hill to Vail. I'm not planning to ski that day (though Matt may have other plans) so that will be pretty restful/drunken I think.

Sunday and Monday are both supposed to be ski days, although I may not ski both days. I'm perfectly happy to sit in the condo and chill out and watch the fire and play Grand Theft Auto and take little cat naps. Mmmmm … cat naps.

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New York Pics!! and Weekend Recap

It's practically a miracle, but I've managed to update my pictures section twice in one week!! Yea me. Anyhoo, so check out the New York section for a synopsis of our trip and some great pictures and a lil' travel guide. So check that out, yea.

What else? Kinda boring weekend. Friday Matt and I ran errands and stuff like that and the he and Mom and I went to the Holiday Food and Gift Festival, which was actually kinda sucky, but I did get some hot chocolate mix (English toffee flavor) and some Mexican vanilla (yum!).

On Saturday, we ran around some in the morning and then in the evening we took my dad to see the house we are hopefully closing on on (!!) Friday since he hadn't seen it before and had dinner at Pei Wei. Then Matt and Mom and I watched some DVDs.

Today, Matt and I did some running around and then we've spent most of the rest of the day working on our various projects.

That's it … nice weekend.

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Housekeeping

Okay, so I read about getting free stuff from this site. A n IPod to be exact. I don't really need an Ipod, but they do offer other cool free stuff. I also read about it on Wills Thrills, so I decided to try it. I'm signed up for the free flatscreen one. I need 8 people to sign up and complete an offer too (the Blockbuster one is free). I'll try to return the favor for anyone who helps me out too. I've got a lotta email addresses.

What else has been going on? Hmmm… not much. I did a little of everything this weekend. It was waaaay too short though. But I want to go to work tomrorow because it will get my mind of house stuff, which I really don't want to think about because it's become a little bit stressful. Continue reading “Housekeeping”

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Where I've Been …

As you may (or may not) have noticed, I've been gone! Yep, Last Monday evening I embarked on a trip with my mom and my grandma to see my lil' sis in the big apple. We had an amazing time and I returned to Denver on Sunday completely exhausted. I totally meant to post a little trip notice before I left, but I got incredibly busy right at the end and I didn't have time. So … did ya miss me?

I've got the beginnings of a NYC travel journal. If I can get a bitta time, I'll finish it up.

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Clear Creek Trail

We've taken a couple of long bike rides in the past week. There's a great trail near my parents' house called the Clear Creek Trail. Most of it is part of the Colorado Open Space project. And it links up cities and parks and rec centers … and runs all along Clear Creek, which is very very pretty.

Last week we went into Wheat Ridge on it and then past that into Arvada and part of Denver proper. Along that was mainly parks and stuff and it was really interesting. But today we went the opposite way, into Golden. The Golden part of the trail runs by Coors Brewing Company and then into the little town of Golden itself, which was the territorial capital of CO and has a cool and interesting history all its own. Anyhow, they've done some really great improvements along the trail with proceeds from the state lottery. The trails are paved and about 10 feet wide, with red stone retaining walls all along, and nice bridges. In Golden itself, they've worked Clear Creek into a white-water park complete with landings and man-made white water bits for canoers and rafters and kayakers. They also have great spots for you to stop and have a wade in the creek (we did!) and there was also a neat spiral slide coming from above where the trail runs under a street and onto a prettily-patterned foam landing spot (I heckled Matt into trying it out). Continue reading “Clear Creek Trail”

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Campout!

We spent the weekend in the mountains. Richard, who works with my mom, has a cabin up near Red Feather Lake and he holds an annual campout and invites all of his co-workers. So on Friday we loaded up my dad's Element and took off. May had to ride in the back seat with Matt and I, but she seemed to enjoy herself. She found a pillow that my mom had lain between the two front seats and laid her little head on it and snoozed for almost the whole trip (right through an incredible thunderstorm we encountered along the way).

It was late by the time we arrived and we spent the balance of the evening having a bit of food, sitting around the campfire and pitching our tent. As we went to pitch our tent, I stepped in a gopher hole and twisted my ankle. Youch! It hurt like mad, but it's pretty much healed now…. Anyhoo, so we pitched out tent, but it was kinda on a hill, so we were all (dog included) sliding down hill all night. Not the most comfy, but whatever. Continue reading “Campout!”

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We're Here!

Well we made it! Overall, everything went very well. We got a truck that was 5' longer than we had ordered (darn good thing too) and two days earlier than we had set it up for (also a darn darn good thing) … and after two days straight of loading, then a day of cleaning, my dad packed off to CO with the truck. Amazing guy that he is, he drove straight through. We left later that day once Matt had finished work and drove to Stuard, Iowa, which is just west of Des Moines. Then yesterday we got up and drove the rest of the way.

It was an amazing sight to behold as we drove into Denver from Nebraska. CO, usually kinda brown in August, has seen so much moisture that it is gloriously green and lush. We had a beautiful sunset as well. Nice homecoming.

An even nicer homecoming were the people who turned up this morning to help us unload the truck. With all of their great help, we finished it off in about an hour and a half!! Amazing.

Matt and I are still getting settled in. We need to set up his computer and bring over some more creature comforts, but this is going to work quite nicely until we get our house. And it's so good to see everyone!!

May is doing pretty well too. She got the apartment all to herself at night once we had loaded our bed in the truck and went to stay with my parents at the hotel, and she hasn't freaked out too badly. On the last day, when there was no place for her to stay, she settled into my car and stayed there the rest of the trip. But she did get to get out occasionally and sit on the sidewalk with us while we dined at Panera, Sonic, and Culvers. She even got her own burger a couple of times.

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Bye-Bye Dairy-Cow-A-Gogo-Land!!!


Well, the time has come for us to bid Madison, WI a fond farewell. It will always be our first home together. We've had lots of fun here and a smidgen of sadness too. While there's no doubt we will not be missing the cold weather, there are many aspects of life here that we will miss.

So, to top off our Madison Experience, here's the top 10 things we will miss in Madison:
10. Brat Fest
9. Princeton Club
8. Brennan's Market
7. State Street
6. great bike paths
5. being close to Chicago & Milwaukee
4. Biaggi's
3. Frugal Muse!
2. Dane Co. Farmer's Market
1. the nice people we've met Continue reading “Bye-Bye Dairy-Cow-A-Gogo-Land!!!”

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Travellin'


All those red ones are places I've visited in the US. Technically, I've been to Texas too, but that was when I was 3 mos old and so I don't remember it too well. I've only ever driven through Iowa and Nebraska, Ohio, Alabama, and Penn though. But I dunno, LOOONG hours in the car/bus sorta seem like you've visited there, so I count 'em. I've also put a foot or hand down in Arizona when we visited the four corners.

I'd do one of these for the whole world, but that map would be mostly Grey … I've only been to about 5 countries. Continue reading “Travellin'”

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Busy Busy Busy Weekend


Matt's mommy and brother came to Madison this past weekend on their way(ish) to Denver. Andrew is heading back to CU Boulder for his sophomore year … and he's got an apartment to fill, so we spent lots of time furniture shopping. I won't go into all of the details, but Andrew has a bunch of IKEA furniture en route to his new apartment.

The end pictures were taken outside of Trader Joes, where we stopped after visiting CB2. They had orange sorbet in oranges (and lemon sorbet in lemons) … and we picked some up for a quick snack and Andrew and Matt were being v. goofy with the tops to the oranges. The other pictures is while we were waiting for our ride on the Wisconsin Ducks (DUKW amphibious vehicles) in the Dells to start.

I'm going to recover from the weekend by doing a little work around the house and watching the Olympics!