Life on the High Plains

I discovered a couple new things about my dad while I was in Idaho.  1)  He's great at crossword puzzles and 2) He apparently survives on canned chili. Irv and I decided we needed to do something about my dad's diet so we spent the day cooking. Beef stew Cinnamon rolls Chicken enchiladas (my dad's favorite) Cinnamon chip Snickerdoodles (from the Prepared Pantry)  Yummy! And Irv's favority, lasagne We packaged it all into individual servings and put them in the freezer.  At least I know he'll be eating good from a couple weeks. My dad is 83 and in great shape, but he doesn't have much interest in cooking.  I sure wish he lived closer so I could keep his freezer full of homemade meals. Do you think my girls will cook for me when I'm old?  Probably not...but maybe they'll bring me Chick Fil A.

We made it home from Idaho this afternoon.  Although it was sad to be there for a funeral, it was wonderful to be able to celebrate the life of a wonderful woman.  It was also good to be with family, especially my dad.  Although it was cold in Idaho, it wasn't nearly as cold as I had expected. After the graveside service, we made our way through the snow to my mom's grave. Yes, there was lots of snow. You may think that Idaho is the land of potatoes, but in the last few years another crop has become more profitable for the farmers--barley.  Budweiser has always made its presence known, but this is the largest billboard I have ever seen.  My dad's house had these icicles hanging from the eaves.  I'm pretty sure they could kill someone especially if they were underneath them trying to get a picture. His roof has about a foot of snow on it.  Last summer he put snow keepers on his metal roof to keep the snow from slidi...

My Aunt Lois passed away on Saturday.  Lois was a very special person to me.  Aunt Lois and Uncle Frank ran the Sullivan Ranch in southeast Idaho.  Some of the best memories of my life were at that ranch.  As a child I learned my love of horses at the ranch riding "Liz", a beautiful black horse named for Elizabeth Taylor.  There is a creek that runs through the ranch that is warmed by a hot springs that I spent a lot of time in.  And of course there were animals, lots of them--dogs, cats, pigs, horses, and cattle.  The best part of the ranch though was Aunt Lois.  She was a kind, loving, warm person and the best cook ever.  Why does food always taste better on a ranch?  I used to love going there.  When I became a mother my children got to spend time on the ranch also.  By then Liz was gone, but she was replaced by "Pig", a big, fat gelding that kids could ride anywhere they wanted on the ranch.  Secretly I always wished I...

 I got an instruction book and DVD for my new Nikon D5000 so today I sat down and played with it. Today I focused on close up shots so I went outside in hunt of some interesting subjects. I was hoping to find a bug, bird, flower, or something interesting to take a shot of. This is winter in Colorado and everything is dead so I didn't have a lot of options. This is one of the dead plants in my front garden that I haven't cleaned out yet.  I thought it made a cool picture. These are a couple shots of our douglas firs.  Not too interesting.  This is one of our Austrees.  I kind of like this picture too.  This is one of our blue spruce trees.  Boring. Cody always make a great subject. This is my favorite shot of the day...I think I'll call it "rocks". I really like this one too.  It's the welcome bell by our back door. I have a lot to learn.  One thing I ...

We had the most amazing moon on Friday night.  As we were driving home it was just appearing on the horizon, but I couldn't get home fast enough to grab my camera.  By the time I got home it had risen slightly, but was still magnificent. "There are also bodies in the heavens and bodies on the earth. The glory of the heavenly bodies is different from the glory of the earthly bodies. The sun has one kind of glory, while the moon and stars each have another kind. And even the stars differ from each other in their glory."   1 Corinthians 15:40-41

and gets so tired. Luckily, she found few moments to take a nap. Poor baby!

I'm in Wichita again this week working on the NGS or Next Generation Solution.  This project has been going on since December 2008 and the date for all the segments to come together is February 4th or D-Day.  As I sit here less than three weeks before we're supposed to be done, I am highly doubtful that deadline will be met.  Every morning they give us a a new compile that was supposed to have fixed all the bugs we found the day before.  Yesterday we tested version 4.27.  Version 4.27 was full of more bugs than I had seen in a long time, the day was pretty much wasted because we couldn't do much testing.  Hopefully today will be better.  Right now I wouldn't take any bets that the system will be ready by February 4th. I'm glad my association isn't going to be one of the pilots.  Luckily, the pilot won't be released until May and there will be lots more testing done before then.  I get to come back in March when the regression testing sta...

Jillian's kitten, Rascal aka Little Kitten, stayed with us while Jillian and Brian spent Christmas in Wisconsin.  Little Kitten is the meanest little cat you'll ever meet, but there is something about her that is irresistable.  Maybe it's bacause she'll curl up and snuggle with you only when you're asleep.  Or maybe it's because she will purr loudly while you're petting her until she decides to make an unannouced attack on your hand. Or maybe it's because Little Kitten and Keira are best friends.  They like to wrestle around and Keira is always so patient with her. What do you think Keira is saying in this picture? We all missed Little Kitten after she went home.  Keira had to be best friends with Cody again.

Irv and I spent some time at Dragon Man's this afternoon.  This is a place I drive by every day, but I never thought I'd actually go there.  Here are a few of the signs that line the driveway into Dragon Man's. This one made me feel like I wouldn't be very welcome here. I think they made it perfectly clear that trespassers would not be tolerated. Here's the reason we came:  so I could learn to shoot our arsenal of weapons.  (Kind of unbelievable for someone who used to be pro gun control.)  In case you're wondering, we own each of these weapons for a specific reason such as shooting snakes or other varmints. I liked Irv's rifle the best and the shotgun the least.  My arm might be permanently bruised because of the shotgun.  Apparently this is something families do together...moms, dads, kids, there were a ton of people there.  I asked Irv a really stupid question....does anyone ever go crazy and start shooting peopl...

Today I was going to blog about our new goose.  I've been in pursuit of a companion for our lone goose, Lucy, for a few months.  I finally found one and Irv went to pick him up over the weekend.  He came from a farm out east.  The lady who owned him raised all kinds of meat birds especially for 4-H.  She had one crossbred goose that she didn't want so we were glad to take him. He and Lucy got along really well right from the time they were introduced.  Irv went out to move them to the barn this afternoon because of the forecast cold for tonight and he (who is still nameless) was gone.  The gate was closed, there weren't any holes in the fence, but he was missing.  He must have flown the coop.  How can a domesticated goose who is not supposed to be able to fly get out of the pen? My travels to Wichita were uneventful today.  Guess who was at the Wichita airport? Just kidding...it was an AirTran plane. 

My sense of duty took over today so I decided I must go to Wichita tomorrow.  After cooking pancakes and bacon for my favorite grandson, Mr. Beans, I loaded up the Rogue and headed to a hotel near the Denver airport.  The drive wasn't so bad until I got into Denver, then the blowing snow and backsplash made it hard to see.  I arrived safe and sound with a whole day to myself.  If it weren't snowing, I would have gone to the National Western Stock Show and watched a horse show or maybe a movie, or something fun.  Instead, I prepared for my next class which officially starts tomorrow--FIN400 Analyzing Financial Statements.  Woohoo!  I had great fun reading the first chapter of this book. I did take a break to get something to eat.  I decided to go to a Wendys a couple miles down the road to get a cup of chili, but quickly changed my mind as I slid through the first intersection I came to.  I turned around and went into a Village I...

I am working in Wichita for the next three weeks. This is the final month of design for the project I’ve been participating in for the last two years. I was unable to get a flight out of Colorado Springs on Monday so I am flying out of Denver. This usually isn’t a big deal, but the weather forecast for Sunday night into Monday morning is for 5-10 inches of snow. It’s highly unlikely that I’ll be able to drive to Denver Monday morning so I have three options: #1 – Cancel the trip and only go to Wichita the last two weeks #2 – Change my flight to Sunday morning #3 – Drive to Denver Sunday morning and spend the night in a hotel close to the airport Right now I’m leaning towards option #3, but it has things I need to consider. What if I get snowed in at the hotel for days and don’t ever make it to Wichita? What if I make it to the airport and my flight gets cancelled and I’m stuck at the airport with no hotel and no way to get home? Now I’m leaning towards cancelling the whole t...

Irv gave me this book for Christmas (what do you think he was trying to tell me?). I refuse to read it.  :)

Irv's mom has been trying for a couple of years to get Mr. Beans a pogo stick.  She succeeded this year and Mr. Beans found a shiny new pogo stick under the tree on Christmas.  It was a really nice day on Christmas so in the afternoon we went outside to give the pogo stick a try.  Mr. Beans was a little hesitant, but he did pretty good for his first try. It may have been the adults who had the most fun.  Pappy gave it a try... I think the tongue action helped him keep his balance. Mr. Beans' mom was also transported back to her youth and amazed us with her pogo stick skills. Luckily, no bones were broken and we didn't have to make any trips to the emergency room. Even Cody had fun!

I had one goal this weekend and that was to watch the entire first season of Glee.  A friend at work said I would love this TV show and she was right!  Yesterday afternoon I put the first of four DVDs in and was addicted for about the next eight hours.  I finished the last two episodes this morning.  I can't wait for season 2 to come out on DVD on January 25th.  What a great way to watch a TV series--straight through with no commercials. Now I need to go out to the barn and see what kind of a mess the horses made.  Yesterday I spent quite a while mucking stalls because of the horses had spent the last three nights locked in their stalls because of sub-zero temperatures.  I decided the two of them must have pooping contests when they're locked in the stalls.  I swear I hauled out 3 tons of manure.  Today Irv went out to fill up their water buckets because the trough had three inches of solid ice on the top.  He apparently forgot ...