Life on the High Plains

One of Irv's co-workers sent a present home for me. Red Chili Sauce from The Shed in Santa Fe!  Tonight we made stacked beef enchiladas with red chili sauce and a fried egg on top. Delicious! Yummy! Out of this world! Thank you Joe!

Have you been enjoying the moon the last few days? What I was really excited about this morning when I was out at the crack of dawn to feed the horses is that it wasn't pitch dark at 6:00 a.m.  It was slightly light outside. You know what this means don't you? Longer days and spring is on the way!! Happy Skywatch Friday!

This morning at 9:30 I stopped in my "studio" to do a touch up on my cardinal's foot before declaring him finished. What seemed like a few minutes later I started feeling some hunger pangs and was surprised when I looked at my watch and it was 12:30.  Time flies when you're doing what you love. Here he is. I can't say I really love him...but I think he turned out okay.  This was my inspiration--remember, I'm impressionist so my rendition of him isn't meant to be an exact replica of the photograph.  Yes, it's a National Geographic cover.  After I finished that Yellowstone landscape I wanted something quick and easy and three months later I'm finally finished.  So much for easy. So what's my next project?  The barn from Mormon row?  Dana's Italian bicycle?  No, it's Doc.  Jillian asked me a long time ago to paint her a picture of him.  I've never painted an animal I actually know before.  My artist friends tell me it c...

On Wednesday I got to take a field trip up to our funding bank in Denver. They recently moved into this brand new building which you may notice on the west side of I-25 as you travel through Greenwood Village. They have a fountain out front that is timed to music.  I called it a mini Bellagio fountain.  I'm sure it's much better at night. I went up there to learn how they are becoming a paperless environment.  That's my new goal for my company.  Reduce paper usage, reduce toner consumption, reduce maintenance contracts, reduce shredding costs, etc.  You know, be environmentally responsible.  (Yes, I am a democrat who has actually taken courses in Environment Science and I know Global Warming is a real thing unlike my counterparts who believe it is the democratic party's fantasy.) I'm gonna do it...you just wait and see. Now to change subjects... Today I got another reminder of how I work in a man's world.  I've been in contract negot...

Do you know what I love most about the U.S. National Cemeteries besides the history? Order Alignment Beauty Simplicity Remembrance Uniform Honor Service I think that pretty much says it all.   This was shot at the Santa Fe National Cemetery when we visited Irv's dad last week. Happy Skywatch Friday!

My personal laptop has been acting quite sluggish lately so I decided it needed to be rebuilt. I spend a couple days backing up the data and getting a recovery disk ready to go.  When I was ready I reloaded Windows 7.  When it was back up and running, but before I reloaded all the software, I decided to upgrade it to the new Windows 10. I should have known better.  Do you know how many personal computers I have downgraded from Windows 10 to Windows 7 after people decided to try the upgrade themselves?  Yes, I work on personal computers when I have time at work (with my supervisor's blessing).  It seems that when you know something about computers people think you can resolve any problem.  Sometimes I can, sometimes I can't.  I do this as a courtesy service and sometimes people bring me a Starbucks gift card or something as a thank you which I think is really nice. Anyway, here's what I did last night. Yes, I was rebuilding it again to put...

We had a very quiet 3-day weekend in Albuquerque.  In fact, I only took a couple pictures during our entire visit. I love going to New Mexico for the food.  The green chile is better than anywhere else and they know how to cook with it.  The Mexican food in Colorado is more Tex-Mex which is okay, but it's not New Mexican. Anyway, The Shed in Santa Fe is the place to go.  We were there about 12:30 on Saturday and we had to wait an hour for a table.  Yes, it's that good. I like the enchiladas and my favorite are the cheese enchiladas.  I know, that's not a good choice, but it is delicious. Roll the enchiladas in blue corn tortillas, add a side of pinto beans and posole and you have heaven on earth!  It was a touch spicy, but not too much. While waiting for our table we were able to visit a couple galleries and I discovered a new artist that I really like--Robert Moore. http://www.southwestart.com/featured/robert-moore-a-glorious-accor...

Mary and I had a plan for the day before the half marathon--healthy eating, no alcohol, no sweets. Unfortunately we got distracted.  We decided to do a little shopping.  Then we were going to go to this really cool theater in Aurora that has reclining seats and wait service for dinner and a movie. We got there too late.  Apparently you have to have reservations for that theater. So we were in this really cool shopping district that had lots of restaurants.  I saw McCabe's Tavern and said I wanted to go there.  Mary said we couldn't go to a tavern without having a beer.  I replied that maybe one beer would be okay and she kind of agreed. The plan for dinner was a grilled chicken breast with veggies or a salad. When you're in an Irish tavern though there are lots of choices that sound much better than a grilled chicken breast.  I didn't do too bad with my fish tacos (I didn't eat the fries).  Mary, however, went for the bangers and mash...

Yesterday was a totally awesome day. Mary and I have been preparing for this half marathon for months now.  Increasing our distance by one mile per week up until 10 miles.  All the advice we got said not to train further than 10 miles--if you can do 10, you can do 13. Here's our traditional pre-race shot.  When we woke up Sunday morning it was a balmy 40 degrees outside which was double what we expected so we were thrilled.  However, the wind was gusting 30-40 mph which made it freezing cold.  We kind of debated how we would handle the wind, how many layers to wear, what to cover our heads with, etc.  I kid you not, a few minutes before race time the gusts died down to about 10-12 mph.  It was amazing--I'm pretty sure the man upstairs did that for us. Mary bought us these fancy things to wear.  The name sounds like baklava so that is what I call it.  What I really think they are is something you wear when you're going to rob a ban...