Life on the High Plains

I'm finished. Yeah! Celebration time! This morning I finished the final paper for the class I'm currently enrolled in--Network Enterprise Solutions. Sounds exciting, don't you think? This has been the most challenging class I've taken yet.  20-page papers due every week.  It dominated my time as you may be able to tell by my sporadic blogging the last eight weeks. What did I do to celebrate?  I cleaned my house.  This class has taken over my spare time for the last eight weeks and the house has suffered.  Irv has tried his hardest to help me keep it clean, but we have different standards--thanks honey, I know you try hard and I appreciate everything you do. My school work has taken over our kitchen table.  I have my own office, but I don't like to be locked away by myself.  Therefore, my two laptops and I have set up camp on the kitchen table.  Why two laptops?  I have one to do my research on while I type on the other--i...

Mary and I went shopping today to find her a dress for Dana's wedding.  We found her a fabulous dress which is not only beautiful, but on sale too! We made a stop in Macy's shoe department where I found not one, not two, but THREE pairs of shoes.  I was going to hide them from Irv and just bring them out one by one which he would never notice, but instead I decided to just confess when he came home from work this evening.  (Not that he minds what I buy, he just makes fun of the number of shoes that I own.) I found these shoes which are a perfect match to the dress I'm wearing to the wedding.  They are so glitzy and sparkly.  I can't wait to wear them. Do you love them? I love them! You don't think they're too much do you?

I almost had a zucchini disaster the other day.  Jillian sent me a recipe for enchilada stuffed zucchinis.  I came home from work one night, assembled the stuffing, and then went out to pick the zucchinis. The zucchinis have been growing like weeds so I never expected to have a shortage of zucchinis, at least not for awhile.  When I got out to my garden I went in search of three zucchinis.  Hmmm...who has been eating my zucchinis? After searching through leaves I finally found a couple small zucchinis and a large summer squash.  I guess that will have to do.  I even found a couple red tomatoes to garnish the enchiladas with.  Apparently, those cooler nights we've been having are affecting the growth of my garden.  You know what that means, don't you--winter is right around the corner.  Yuck! Anyway, my enchilada stuffed zucchinis were quite fabulous.  Even Irv liked them.  And, if you're doing Weight Watchers, each half is onl...

Last weekend I took a little break from homework and went to Denver with Jillian and a friend for lunch and a show. We started at BD's, our favorite Mongolian BBQ.  This year it has been a tradition to go to BD's for a Blue Moon and lunch.  We've had fun trying the different combinations of sauces.  After lunch we had some time to spare so we walked around for a little while. We found these bicycle racks where you can rent bikes.  I first saw this on my brother's blog a couple weeks ago in a city where he visited.  You can rent a bike for $8 per day and just drop it wherever you find a kiosk.  This one was right outside the theatre district light rail stop.  While we were there checking it out, a guy came to pick a bunch of them up to move to other stops. I've seen the Denver Convention Center from a distance, but I've never taken the time to go inside and check it out.  It has this blue bear sculpture on the outside.  ...

I haven't posted a new building update in quite a while.  As you may recall, FC started construction of a new building a few months ago. This is what is started out as. This is what it looks like now.  The wooden beams over the entry way are really impressive. It's hard to believe that in December it will be finished and ready for us to move in.  I get to drive past it every day on my way to and from work and it's been fun watching the progress. I'm very excited--I'll be moving out of cubicle world and into my own office on the second floor.  In our current building we are packed in like sardines.  Our CCO's office is in the lobby so I feel fortunate to have my little cubicle, but it will be nice to have a little more space. Very exciting times!

I made Irv go see Hope Springs with me on Saturday.  The movie is definitely funny especially if you've been married forever like some of us. Then we came out of the movie and there was a note on the windshield.  It was from the police--see the scratch on the hood of Irv's car?  (Actually I just noticed it's easier to see the reflection of the clouds on the hood than the scratch, that's kind of cool.) Anyway we went to the police station about a block away.  Apparently some guy had gone along and keyed a bunch of car.  The "kids" who work at the theatre called the police.  (Thanks kids...I'm proud of you for doing that.) The police had already caught and booked the guy on several felony charges.  Was it teenager?  No, it was some 40 year old guy.  The police officer asked if I minded being the victim instead of Irv.  It seems I'm in the CSPD's computer system, but Irv isn't (probably from the accident I had 6 years a...

Irv and I decided to go for a little hike this morning.  Our "little hike" turned in a four hour battle of wills.  My muscles will to stop and go back down, and my head's will to keep going. This was our destination. This is the trail we chose to accomplish this task.  It started out nice and leisurely.  We read on the internet that this trail has an 800 foot elevation rise. Not true. It started out nice and slow and then got steeper and steeper. There were some beautiful sites along the way (a good reason to stop and catch our breath). There were several times that I wanted to turn back, but I kept telling myself that I could do it. We finally made it to the top after about two hours.  (Yes, I am dirty, stinky, and sweaty.) Yeah!  I did it! Beautiful! We could see the Broadmoor Hotel off in the distance.  (Yes, I did make Irv carry my zoom lens all the way up that mountain.) Here's...