Life on the High Plains

How did you spend your Black Friday this year?  Were you one of those people who got up at the crack of dawn to find all the great deals? Jillian and I used to enjoy doing that, but as the opening times have become earlier and earlier, we no longer participate in the Black Friday frenzy.  Of course I still had to get up at the crack of dawn, but only because I had to go to work.  Blah! I was only there a few hours though before I talked my boss into letting me provide IT support remotely for the afternoon.  Yippee!  How nice it was to be able to join my family at the Colorado State vs. Air Force football game. A perfect day for a pre-game tailgate. A little cornhole with Jillian and Brian's custom CSU/Wisconsin cornhole set. Our Australian guests seemed to enjoy their first ever tailgate party.  Apparently in Australia they don't have tailgates before their cricket, rugby, etc. matches because everyone takes public transportation to the...

Last week I finished my "red door" painting.  It may not look it, but it was really difficult especially those tiles on the steps.  They got painted, painted over, and repainted at least three times before I finally decided to be satisfied with them. So now I'm on to my  next painting.  This is my inspiration. I snapped this photo early one morning while we were in Yellowstone this summer.  This is one good looking, healthy coyote so he's my next subject.     I'm painting this guy on my biggest canvas yet--24x36".  I have to admit that I cheated.  I used a projector to trace his image onto the canvas.  This is much easier than me trying to get his proportions correct...after all I'm a painter, not a sketcher.       So here it is.  I'm ready to go--this is my most courageous endeavor yet.  It doesn't look like much yet, but give me a palette of colors and a few months and it will be fa...

Irv and Doc got to live the dream on Saturday.  Our neighbor called and asked if we would mind closing our gate because he was going to drive his longhorns down the road from their pasture to his house. The next thing I knew Irv was out saddling up Doc.  Jillian happened to be at our house and we both thought "this is not going to turn out well".  When I say longhorns, I mean longhorns.  Some of these bad boys (and girls) have several feet of very pointy horns.  Our prissy little show horse hasn't had much, if any, experience with cattle other than a calf dobbing class at the county fair many years ago. Oh well, at the very least I thought I would have a great photo opp.  The only problem was that I had to leave for my painting lesson at about the same time that they got moving down the road so these are the only pictures I got.  (Doc is the buckskin cutie on the far left.) I'm glad to report that the thousands and thousands of dollars we i...

Well, I'm all moved into my new office and the decorating is done (as well as it's going to be). It's a nice office, feels homey now with some of my personal items. I brought my dad's spurs in.  Love them!   My favorite horse painting of all time is still with me! I still have my three monitors so that I can keep an eye on three things at a time. I have a little conference table now and yes, more horse stuff.  The best part is the nice big window. Do you think I've overdone the horse stuff?  Oh well, that's what makes me happy--I am horse crazy! Home sweet home!

You know you're married to a really good man when he goes above and beyond the call of duty. We recently got a new dishwasher just because I wanted stainless steel appliances.  I suggested to Irv that we give our old dishwasher,  which was in perfect working order, to our daughter.  So yesterday he loaded it up and took it to her house to install. Easy enough, wouldn't you think? He got it all hooked up and turned it on just in time to hear a fizzle and a pop, and smoke!  Yikes!  So much for that dishwasher. Now he was faced with a dilemma...two worthless dishwashers and a great big empty spot in her kitchen where the dishwasher should be. Lowes to the rescue...a brand new dishwasher!  Luckily, Mary has been hoarding Lowe's gift cards in preparation for this day that has come sooner than expected. A few more frustrations, a ##@$%&! word here and there, and finally it was done.  We ate pizza and watched for leaks as the first load of d...

Believe it or not, I'm still number 1 in the Family Fantasy Football League.  This is quite amazing since I lost to the last place team last week.  By the way Dana, thank you for choosing the week you play me to actually fix your team!  I'm hanging in there, but I have three teams who are eager to take my spot so it's going to be tough to remain at the top.   Wish me luck!  I'm going to need it. (Nobody is getting that trophy from me without a fight!)

On Sunday we made our annual pilgrimage to the Trans Siberian Orchestra concert.  This is always a great way to start the holiday season.  Unfortunately, this year we didn't make the decision to attend the concert until a couple days beforehand.  We ended up with the top of the nosebleed section...and I do mean the top.  Once we got to our seats we were afraid to move because it was so steep. Lots of lights, lasers, fireworks, and noise (I meant music). In other words...sensory overload. I will admit that we were a little disappointed.  They have a new show this year called "The Christmas Attic".  It was hard to understand and quite frankly, a little boring at times.  After the concert we all compared notes on what we thought the story was about...none of us had the same idea.  My favorite part of the show was when the story ended and they played their "old" hits.  Flight of the Bumble Bee, Christmas Eve Sarajevo, Beethoven's...