Mission accomplished!

I’ve successfully made reservations for our anniversary dinner. It’s going to require a trip over to Vail, but 40 minutes isn’t a bad drive for good food. Not only that, but we’re in the off-season so we’ll be able to take advantage of some pretty sweet deals.

I’m waiting for Spouse’s new phone to arrive and then running some errands before he’s done wth work.

Have pretty much finalized house painting colors and a decorating plan for the basement. We’ll need an area rug for the kitchen but all in all we’re in good shape. The new sliding door arrives this weekend and I’ve just got to contact my guy to put it in. We’re inordinately excited about it for reasons I’ll elaborate later.

Our anniversary gifts are working out fantatsically and I’m going to update with some more Santa Fe details later.

Mostly AWOL

I’ve been NotPosting because I’ve been trying to get things sorted out with our house sale – not fun and definitely not anything I wanted to blog about. Still have some things to add about Santa Fe but I’m also making a trip to Michigan this week. In related news, I’m also working on a different hosting solution for the blog so we’ll see how that shakes out.

With any luck, posting returns to normal this week!

Delayed posting due to slackage

We spent a lovely weekend in Santa Fe. I’ve been catching up on various things and getting back on work schedule. I’ve also figured out what classes I’m registering for in the summer session and I’m looking forward to a more regular schedule again.

I’m going to leave my TV and yoga natters for the end of the week (for the most part) and I’m going to post my Santa Fe pics instead!

We have returned from Santa Fe

One more way in which Leadville is superior to Saginaw: when we got home, one of our neighbors had plowed our driveway for us. Out of the goodness of their heart, without being asked. In the entire 8 years we lived in Saginaw, nobody ever even OFFERED – including when Spouse threw his back out and I was stuck outside shoveling 12 inches of snow off our entire driveway. I love this place.

Santa Fe was very nice and very relaxing. While I’m in the process of uploading pictures, I will leave you with this hilarious dog story.

In case you haven’t been watching the news

We’re supposed to be in the midst of snowpocalypse out here. I could point out the irony of said snowpocalype in a place reknowned for its snow but, la.

Ironically, up in the mountains it’s not as bad as it was on the I-70 corridor. In point of fact, I had a perfectly uneventful trip to Frisco for a haircut and various errands and didn’t realize, until calling to speak to Spouse, that the roads were supposed to be in any way disastrous.

When I left at about 11 am, there was about 6 inches of snow on my car. It was overcast but not snowing, so it didn’t even occur to me to call 511 for the road update. Once I was over the Fremont Pass (upon which there was virtually NO blowing snow) and about halfway to Coppper, the visibility deterioriated. I have a couple of great pictures on my camera (to be uploaded later).

There was more snow on I-70 than usual and the visibility was such that you almost had to take it on faith that you were, in fact, merging onto I-70, but other than that it was okay.

In related news, if you were the douchebag in a red Land Rover who decided to just put their brakes on as though they were going to stop in the middle of the highway, you can eat a bag of dicks.

More photos

My trip to Salida on the 26th. When I left Leadville it was snowing but in the pics you can see it clears off before Buena Vista. Leaving Salida, I took an inadvertant detour to Monarch before realizing and coming back. 

Photos here.

Home again.

Today’s trip to Edwards/Avon was more productive than expected. After dropping off Spouse, I drove to the optical center I’d googled (Vail Vision) and picked out new glasses. The website is kind of crap but the facility is great and, should you need glasses in the Eagle-Vail Valley, you should totally go there and ask for Daniel. I’ve been wearing glasses since I was 5 and this was the absolutely LEAST painful glasses shopping experience of my life. He got a sense of what I liked and actually WENT AND FOUND THINGS FOR ME. Not only that, he was honest about how he thought they looked. I had a new pair of glasses in something like 10 minutes, which is a world’s record. And I love them. Daniel, you totally rocked it!

After that I made a trip to Avon for Home Depot and picked up supplies for the basement and windows. I picked up whitewash for the basement walls as well as window shades (bamboo) for the windows downstairs, in the kitchen, and in the master bath. I’m pretty excited about how the basement is going to look when we get done tweaking it. I’m REALLY excited about replacing the window coverings in the master bath and kitchen. My weekend work will be cut out for me, as Spouse is leaving town on Saturday.

Interesting fun fact: I believe that there is not a single house located in Avon. There are many, many townhomes and condos but I didn’t see a single house. Very weird. Also, they put a Walmart Supercenter and the Home Depot into what used to be airplane hangers. They are the very largest incarnations of their particular chains that I have ever seen, ever.

Piper got to make several trips into stores (because Colorado is awesome!) and met a French Bulldog. And when I was coming out of the furniture consignment shop, I was telling her where we were going to go next when I looked up and there was a couple standing there. Don’t mind me, I just talk to my pet like a crazy person. Piper didn’t mind the conversation. She DID mind the car wash and having to sit in the car while I was in the bookstore and grocery store. Luckily, being Piper, she got over it the next time I looked at her.

My goal tomorrow is to take (and post) a mess of Before photos so that I’ve got them done. And then there is unpacking, window treatmenting, and potential whitewashing.

Here again, gone again.

But just for the afternoon. Spouse has another meeting out of town and I’m going to ride along because there’s a Home Depot. Home Depot = bar shelves (possibly). I’m also measuring the last of the windows for covering. Then I’ll probably spend all weekend putting up window coverings and bar shelves. I swear this house is going to be done very soon. Mostly because I’m getting tired of tinkering with it.

Still not obtained: tropical wall mural.

Brief photo post

And by brief, I mean I’m just posting a link to my photos from Glenwood Springs and the resultant drive eastbound on I-70. Between that and my previous set (westbound) – now you don’t have to make the trip!

Also, my very exciting Valentine’s day self-portrait:

Agressively pink knee socks and my Wal-Mart red flannel pajama pants.

I’m unspeakably lazy and one of the chores I hate most in life is matching socks. My solution to the problem is to purchase obnoxiously patterned knee socks. Then I can wash and dry them, chuck them in a drawer, and then pull them out when I need them. No matching necessary.

“I wanna go FAST.”

We didn’t just SURVIVE skiing, we actually had a blast. We went to Ski Cooper (best kept skiing secret in the Rockies) and – first things first – took a lesson. We had a great teacher (Liz Mathieu, if you’re interested) and she  took us through everything she could in 2 hours. I’m not really sure how people just slap on skis and get on a mountain but let me tell you what, I’m hella glad I didn’t. It was snowy and overcast, so we pretty much had the hill to ourselves. Plenty of room for practicing and then Spouse and I tackled the intermediate hill.

My boots were just a smidge too big and all this damn yoga has given me excellent posture, so I probably had the biggest adjustments to make. I had a hard time leaning into the skis, because of the boots, and my tendency is to keep my upper body nice and straight. These two things make for crazy and out of hand speed – which I LOVED. Turns out the speed is less terrifying (though no less exhilarating) when you’ve got more control so the intermediate hill is what it took for me to ‘get’ the leaning forward. I had a couple of spectacular wipeouts but the snow was so soft that it was like falling on a mattress. It was, in a word, fantastic.

Last night was a busier Tuesday than usual and today I’m taking the girls to Salida. Probably more pictures in the works (since I’ve gotten way off schedule) but there is only one ski photo and I’ll have to get that from Slim. Also there may be another tattoo in the works.

Yawn

I am tired.

I’ve checked in for my flight. I have to finish packing my bag and then I’m to bed. I have to get up at ridiculousdark o’clock in order to leave by dark:30 and get to the airport. I have a new book and will hopefully not be done with it before takeoff. 

I DID make a new playlist, so I can test it out while I’m traveling.

Got some chores taken care of at the house, got the eye doctor thing done, got to spend some more time with Mom. I’m glad to be getting home tomorrow (which means Colorado is officially home now) but I’m also a little sad to be leaving.

Delphi is awesomely planning to kill the benefits of retired employees. I thought the whole point of those benefits were to reward folks for the work they’d done? Nice. Really, really nice. It’s a good thing  the US auto industry didn’t shoot themselves in the foot by ignoring the trend for fuel-efficient vehicles and continuing to crank out expensive gas hogs.

Oh, wait.

In other news, the friend who sold out Michael Phelps to the British tabloids is a colostomy bag. A used colostomy bag.

I know you won’t believe this

But there’s an actual yoga post coming soon. Shocking, right?

Mom’s home from the hospital and feeling well. She’s on pain meds, so no driving for her. I head north on Thursday for about a half day and then fly back home on Friday morning.

Also, I totally have to post about Medium, Chuck, and Heroes.

Michigan’s State of the State was tonight and it is pretty much what you’d expect – not good. The good news is that at least the pay of elected officials is being cut (although I noticed the applause was decidedly not widespread). I’m glad that we’ve moved but worried that we still have a house here.

Dear Detroit, I only missed you a little.

Last night I had Pad Thai from Stir Crazy. It’s crap chain food which isn’t an approximation of real pad thai, but I love it and I got to eat it for dinner. Today I went to TWO honest to goodness malls (Laurel Park Place, Somerset), not to mention Sephora and Lush. It was a little fantastic, I’m not going to lie.

I’m honestly not much of a shopper. I tend to go when I need something, so I haven’t really missed this kind of shopping in Leadville. I don’t really need any shoes or jeans. I’ve got a lot of t-shirts. While I could probably use some more sweaters, I’m not strapped for them. I admit, however, to always being on the lookout for crazy kneesocks. Today I didn’t find any. I DID find a fantastic lipstick at Sephora, so I’m calling it good.

Since I left Michigan, all the agressive drivers have put on their granny pants. Everywhere I go, people are driving 10mph UNDER THE SPEED LIMIT. I’m not saying you HAVE to drive the speed limit, but if you aren’t you’d damn well better be in the right lane. Good news: I only flipped off one person. I even ignored my mom’s (half-hearted) suggestion to reciprocate his bad driving behavior.

“Mom,” I said. “That’s what causes death from Road Rage. I prefer to have my little Road Tantrums: obscene hand gestures, loud cursing with the windows closed, abundant questioning of his or her parents’ profession and/or marital status. And then when I’m done, I feel better and no one has run the risk of getting into a car accident or shot.”

She looked doubtful but I stand by my record.

Best worst flight day, evar.

I left Leadville a bit before 9am – plenty of time to get to the airport for an 11:40 am flight.

Traffic was good, the roads were clear, and though I was running low on gas, everything was going pretty well. Right until I missed my exit. The sign was misleading – it made it look as though it was a two lane exit – and it was either skip the exit or try to hop over and not cause a wreck. I’m always going to go with ‘skip the exit.’

I got off at the next exit and turned on my VZ Navigator to figure out how the hell to fix the conundrum. In the meantime, I notice a gas station and pull in for gas (rather than leave my car in the economy lot with only fumes in the fuel line). I get the Navigator working, and then I misunderstood the directions because there were two exits very close together. So I have to reroute AGAIN. At this point I begin to freak out a little. I have never missed a flight, ever.

Get to the economy lot, park, get on the shuttle, refrain from yelling CAN WE GO NOW! RIGHT NOW! at the driver. We get to the terminal and I’m right at the wire. When I see the line at the security checkpoint, I know there’s no chance I’m making this flight. I call Northwest to start the rebooking process FROM the line, because I know it’s going to be a pain in the balls. I bought my ticket with miles, it’s going to be a nightmare, yadda. Before I get a live person on the phone, I have to go through security so I hang up.

At this point, I know I’m not making my flight because I’ve checked my boarding pass and OH HAI, your flight leaves at 11:28. So I get my shoes back on, drag my bags to the gate, and prepare to fight the counter lady. I notice there are a LOT of people standing around and assume it’s the Raleigh flight I see listed on the board.

I get to the counter, there is no lady. And then on the back wall, the next flight to Detroit scrolls across at 3:09 pm. Followed by the Raleigh flight,  but it’s DETROIT/Raleigh. At 11:28 am.

WHAT.

I ask the guy next to me, “This isn’t still the 11:30 flight to Detroit, is it?” Because it’s 11:35 and if this is that flight, they’ve got nobody on board.

“Yeah,” he says. “I’m supposed to be in Detroit at 6 and now they aren’t sure I can get on the flight.”

I let out a whoop of celebration – no lie – and half a dozen people look at me like I’m crazy. They start the pre-board, so I go get in line. I am the happiest person here because everybody else is pissed that their flight is late. I’m totally stoked that I didn’t MISS the flight and therefore have to pay a metric asston of money for my mistake.

The boarding progresses and I hear that the delay is because of some water problem they had on the plane. Apparently the potable water in the back of the plane got all over, like on the floor. Whatevs. My plane hasn’t left!

The counter lady starts hollering out some names and telling people to stand to the side. I’m one of the names. All of the folks standing to the side realize we’re all Back of the Plane folk. This does not bode well.

Sure enough, they board everyone except the last four rows. They bumped all the rest of us because the floor was wet. WTF, right? So everyone to the side, now, is SUPER PISSED. Except for me, because I’m totally happy that this is their fault and THEY have to fix it – not me.

It takes about an hour and a half for them to get most of the replacment flights sorted out – I got put on the next Detroit flight (3pm) and a $300 credit toward a new plane ticket because they bumped me. Best worst flight day, evar.

Another photo hiatus today

As flying west to east is an all day production. With any luck, I’ll be landing in Detroit just in time for rush hour traffic! Probably I’ll stop somewhere and get dinner rather than drive in all the madness.

I’ll be back in Denver on Friday morning and probably killing a little time and doing a little shopping. My flight gets in at 10:30 and Spouse isn’t off work until 5, so I’m packing the cooler in my car and will be about town.

Speaking of packing – better get back to it.