House Update!

If you haven't heard, it's official: we got the house! We're extremely excited and shocked all of the sudden by the SOONness of everything. We close on May 27th, but we'll probably take our time moving in, as our lease is not up until the end of June. We're probably going to paint a few rooms and we're looking at maybe having new carpet put in upstairs before we move in as well.

The house is a cute three bedroom, one and a half bath two-story number with a giant back yard and a two-car garage. It is painted salmon pink on the outside (ha!) but we looked past that to the greatness within. Just about everything in the house has been redone, with newish hardwood floors downstairs, a brand new kitchen, new bathroom, etc. It's in Westminster, which is a little south and west of Broomfield (north and west of Denver. It will be a slightly longer commute for me, but a significantly shorter commute for Brandon, so that's a good compromise.

We are SO EXCITED! Yesterday we signed the loan application and hired an inspector, so the ball is really rolling now! We'll try to keep you updated as much as possible, and I think Brandon has some photos saved, so I'll try to post some of those soon, too.

HAPPY HOUSE!

Snow Day!

The wind chill this morning is -17 and it's snowing. I have to admit, I'm kind of excited to have an excuse NOT to run all my errands today.

So, if anyone needs me, I'll be here on the sofa, wrapped up in blankets, enjoying my own personal snow day.

*snuggles in for a long winter's nap*

(The clip is from the movie "Elf" which is actually a really cute Christmas movie. I thought there was more to this cute little duet, but that's all they wrote!)

10 Things

Some random things:

1. Vacation was good. Colorado is a beautiful state. Husband was violently ill second night out. Husband also melted shoes on sand dunes. Good times.

2. Photos to follow (see below!).

3. Survived the second trip to the dentist. Tuesday was cleaning. I HATE the picky thing with a vengeance. It gives me the willies. So I listened to Dr. Who on my ipod and tried not to bite the hygienist because my jaw was clenched so tightly.

4. Next week is fillings. One new, replacing one old. Joy. (Although, that's pretty effing good for not having been in EIGHT YEARS. (And the old filling is well older than that.))

5. I have been a bottomless pit of hungry since getting back from vacation. (My theory is that I ate too much whilst on said vacation and stretched my stomach.) But I have been very good and "on plan" so far. I'm about to go wolf down a big bowl of popcorn, though, because it is very low points. And filling.

6. Some friends want us to go to a concert Sunday night of some blokey I've never heard of. He's playing at a Unitarian church, which worries me. According to friend, he has a gorgeous voice and is "very funny and very liberal." I'm not at all sure what to expect.

7. They're showing Shaun of the Dead at Red Rocks in two weeks and I totally want to go.

8. On vacation, we ate french fries drizzled with truffle oil and fresh grated Parmesan. Never has a more perfect dish been conceived, nor eaten.

9. One of my dad's idols died. RIP Stan Winston.

10. And now it's time to go watch disk three of season one of SGA. This show is highly cracktastical, in that sometimes it's a smidge incoherent, but mostly, it's just freaking addictive.

close encounters of the marmot kind

OK, so I realize that it's been roughly 17 million years since I updated this blog (OK, less than a month), and while some things have been going on, none of them have seemed important enough or pressing enough to blog about.

Then I remembered, this is a blog; it's supposed to be about my cat and what I ate for dinner. Right?

Onward with the self-indulgent navel gazing!

Overall, we are very happy and well. The Husband has started his new job with CU medical center and has dubbed himself "Lord High Vampire of A Thousand Mice," mainly because his job entails the exsanguination of a whole lot of mice. (Not TOTAL exsanguination, just some each week.) He seems extremely happy to finally be back in a lab.

I myself am still loving my job all to pieces. Sometimes, I find my good fortune at just stumbling into this position baffling. I'll be traveling to Dallas on my very first business trip ever on June 20th and I'm very excited about it. LOTS to do between now and then, including booking travel if we ever figure out how to get the new reservations system to work.

Also, I get a corporate American Express. I feel like such a grown up.

~*~

We've also been trying to take advantage of the fine weather and get out and do a few things. On Sunday, the Mister and I decided to take one of Colorado's scenic byways, the Trail Ridge Road through Rocky Mountain National Park, which is the highest paved road in the country. We stopped at the visitor's center at the very top, and found out that the tundra wildflowers, which only have a six-week growing season, had started blooming, so on the way down, I asked the Mister to pull over so we could have a look.

As we pulled off onto a pullout, I saw a marmot not ten feet from the side of the road. Excitedly, I pulled out the camera and rolled down the window. The marmot hurried right up to the side of the car! I started squeaking and snapping pictures as he stood right up on his hind feet, not a foot from my window. (Pictures to follow.) Another car pulled up behind us, probably seeing the antics of the marmot.

Then, he got down and walked under the car.

We weren't really sure what to do at that point. We sat in the car for a few minutes, trying to look out all the windows to see if he'd emerged on the other side, but to no avail. Then, the car behind us pulled up alongside, and a very nice Australian couple told us that he had gone under, near the back, and was now trying to climb UP into the wheel well, or on top of the exhaust.

At this point, we REALLY didn't know what to do. We both got out of the car, and started trying to make loud noises, though we didn't want to scare him out into traffic! We were both wary that any moment, a Ranger would drive by and stop us for molesting a marmot.

Alas, a ranger did not drive by, though we began to wish for one. The marmot moved out of the rear wheel well toward the front of the car, and then proceeded to try to climb up into the engine bay! I found a stick on the side of the road, and we started hitting the ground and the side of the car, still trying to tell the marmot that this was not a good place to be.

By the way, he was HUGE. Easily once and a half the size of our cat — probably 10–15 pounds of marmot.

Finally, the Husband popped the hood of the car, which startled the marmot enough that he got down onto the ground, and I yelled for the Mister to roll forward, slowly. He did, and Mr. Marmot was left blinking at me in the sunlight. We stared at each other for a moment. I said, "Shoo!" He continued to stare. I moved around to the left, trying to go around him, and suddenly, he bolted, racing back onto the tundra from whence he came.

I got back in the car (after photographing the wildflowers, as they were the original reason we stopped) and we drove for almost half a mile before realizing that the hood was still open.

It was more of an adventure than either of us had counted on.

Thursday Afternoon

I've discovered I love to go down to the Platte River Park on my lunch break and sit within view — or at least within sound — of the rushing river water. Sometimes I drive, sometimes I walk, depending on how much time I have to spare. Today, the water is running high and fast with whitewater eddies swirling in the brown water. The grass and trees of the green space are the resplendent verdant emerald of spring, contrasting with the bright blue sky cheerfully dotted with Magrite clouds and the warm red brick of the walkways, bridges, and nearby buildings. I have found a partially shaded bench mere feet from the rushing tumult of the intersection between Cherry Creek and the Platte, next to a flowering shrub I cannot identify.

I am not alone.

On a sister bench just on the other side of the shrub, an older gentleman in a black business suit sits eating a sandwich from its celophane package. A younger man in a classic white polo and chinos that scream "middle management" sits on a step to my left, munching on an apple and a sandwich on white bread from his brown paper sack as he pours over what can only be a TPS report. In front of me, a woman old enough to be my grandmother is sprawled comfortably on the steps next to her bicycle reading a magazine.

We all look up as a red-winged blackbird calls loudly, swooping over our heads to land on a concrete pillar, partially submerged in the rain-swollen Platte.

Across the river, on a velvet-smooth patch of grass, two young women are sunbathing on a blue picnic blanket. A man stands knee deep in the water, trying to coax his timid dog to join him. I watch it scamper close to the edge, then back away, close to the edge, then back away in a comical dance between nature and nurture.

My business-suited companion has long gone. Mister Middle Management peels an orange and stares out across the water, probably at the sunbathers, as my cyclist dons her shoes and gloves before peddaling away. I check my clock and wish it were not almost time for me to do the same. I envy the dogs and humans, cyclists and kayakers, frisbee players and sunbathers, all of whom have somehow managed to have this gorgous Thursday afternoon off.

Boulder market

What a great weekend we had! The weather was gorgeous (sorry to anyone in the Northeast!), and on Saturday we went to the Boulder Farmer's Market. Apparently, that is like the hot spot of the world up here, because I saw one co-worker and his wife and found out today that another co-worker was there as well! (Note to self: remember not to look like crap when going to the farmer's market!)

It was really fun, with all kinds of cool booths. Not a whole lot of produce yet, but we did end up buying some salad greens, carrots, a parsnip, some fresh mushrooms, some goat cheese, and some peanut butter! Lurrrrrvely.

After stowing our purchases, we took a nice walk along Boulder Creek, which runs right through the middle of town. We were hungry when we got back, so we went to the prepared foods area and got lunch! Such cool stuff. Brandon had an ENORMOUS gyro very drippy with yogurt sauce, and I had chicken and veggie dumplings in a soy ginger sauce that were AMAZING. We shared a fresh lemonade and sat on the grass in the sun to eat. That's when we saw the "Step It Up" National Climate Action Day parade go by, complete with a polar bear in water wings! :( There were people from the Sierra Club and lots of other eco-action groups set up to talk to you about changes you can make. (We felt smug, knowing all our power now comes from the wind — we recently switched over through our electric company for only a dollar more per 100 kw hours!)

I thought the other very cool thing about the Market is that it's designated a "trash-free zone" — instead of trash cans, they have receptacles for compostables and recyclables. No trash! Very cool.

~*~

Our patio container garden is doing quite well. We lost a couple of lettuce plants due to... well, we're not sure why, but the others are thriving. We've transplanted a zucchini seedling to its own pot and have nasturtiums and sweet peas in a second pot. And the raspberry bush has started to put out leaves. Hooray!

Green Thumb

What an amazing day Sunday was! Have I mentioned how much I love Colorado? After rain all day Saturday, Sunday was bright and shiny and clean and deliciously warm.

The husband and I spent the whole morning poking around local nurseries. We have exciting plans for a container vegetable garden out on our patio. We were hoping to buy seedlings, but realized that it's still pretty early for vegetables here; one lady told us that the last freeze isn't predicted until Mother's Day weekend. Yikes! But she did give us some good ideas for crops we could start now, like lettuce, spinach, broccoli, and kale.

We had to stop for lunch, having become overwhelmed with our options, and once we had some food in us, we decided on a plan of action. We purchased two beautiful wooden window box-style planters on sale, some lettuce seedlings, a raspberry bush, a bunch of seeds, and those cute little pop up soil thingies for starting seeds. Oh, and some soil.

Our plan is to start a bunch of seeds indoors and wait out the 4-8 weeks for them to mature and for the weather to warm up some more. By then, we should be able to transplant them outside easily, and we should also be enjoying our first lettuce crop!

I can't even tell you how excited I am to try my hand at vegetable gardening, even if it is only in pots on our patio. The last time I grew vegetables, I was probably about eight years old, and my parents did most of the work! But I still remember the pleasure of eating fresh peas and carrots straight from our back yard.

There's something so satisfying about growing things. Gardens have a lot to teach us, like patience and responsibility. Nothing happens on an artificial time table with a garden; things grow in their own way, in their own time, and they depend on you for food and water and care.

We plan to grow lettuce (as I mentioned), spinach, eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, green onions, basil, oregano, thyme, cilantro, nasturtiums, zinnias, and sweet peas.

And then, today, You Grow Girl posted a review of seed-starting techniques! Must be that time of year.

~*~

The Mister Waters our Lettuce Crop

 

The Lettuce Crop (box one of two)

 

Seeds!

Ladies and gents, I am going to admit to being DESPERATELY bored today. It's 70 degrees and gorgeous outside, and I'm sitting in a cube proof-reading. The weather people keep cautioning us that March is our heaviest snow month, but it's a little hard to believe with nothing but warm days and blue skies as far as the eye can see.

Also, it was so dark when I got up this morning, I don't think I've ever fully woken up.

denver restaurant week

This last week was Denver Restaurant Week, where more than 150 restaurants in the metro area were offering prix fixe meals for two for $52.80 (5,280 feet is how far above sea level the mile-high city is). Some of these were incredibly swank restaurants like The Palm; others were less swank but still expensive, like Dave & Buster's. We landed somewhere in the middle with The Village Bistro.

We had talked about trying to go to a nice restaurant sometime during the week, but it began to get away from us. Then, I kept reading that all the participating restaurants were booked for the whole week. So on Thursday, I thought if we were going to try it, we ought to do it on a week night -- we wouldn't have a chance at the week end.

So the Husband called up The Village Bistro, a little restaurant we had seen and read about that is quite near us, and lo and behold, they were able to give us a table at six thirty. The restaurant itself is adorable and wee, tucked into a corner of a new shopping center they are building at Zia and 120th where our favorite Caribou Coffee shop is. It has a lovely sort of nouveau loft look about it.

For starters we received a lovely little crab cake floating in a sea of corn bisque with a drizzle of some sort of herb oil and a little pile of fried onions on top. The onions really made the dish, adding a little zing to an otherwise very nice, but very normal crab cake. We were also brought some little sticks of toast, served upright in something reminiscent of the metal stands they serve cones of french fries in at diners like Ruby's, with a lovely roasted red pepper sauce to dip them in. We also got an entire bottle of Shiraz -- and it was a brand I recognized, but now I can't recall the name.

The main course was an OUTSTANDING pork loin drizzled with some sort of lovely cherry vinaigrette and served with mashed sweet potatoes topped with stewed fruit. If there is anything I like in this world it is pork loin with sweet potatoes, and these were done absolutely wonderfully. We savored every single bite. And proceeded to try very valiantly to drink our entire bottle of wine, because...

Dessert was an individual sized chocolate lava cake topped with vanilla ice cream, warm chocolate sauce, and honey roasted peanuts (a nice touch). The cake itself was lovely and rich, but I didn't really notice much of a "lava" center -- but no matter. I was too busy enjoying the chocolate martini they brought for us to share.

So, all of this -- one appetizer, two dinners, one dessert, a bottle of wine, and a chocolate martini -- for $52.80, as promised. Having glanced at the menu before ordering, I can tell you, it was a pretty good deal. The same meal would have cost at least that much -- without the alcohol.

And speaking of the alcohol? We were quite pleasantly tipsy. Good thing we didn't end up going to some posh restaurant downtown... Much shorter trip home from The Village Bistro.

the wind chill was forty-below overnight...

I would like you to stop whatever you're doing for the moment. Close your eyes. (OK, that was silly, you can't read a blog and close your eyes at the same time...)

Now, imagine what a wind chill factor of thirty degrees below zero feels like.

I can tell you exactly what it feels like, because I was out in it this morning. I will tell you that things that are electronic, like garage door keypads, do not function in that kind of cold. That's right: I couldn't get my car out of the garage this morning, because the door would not open. I had to go back upstairs and trade keys with the Husband and take his car.

The liquid crystals in his radio display were frozen. I kid you not, people. I am lucky we have new cars/batteries that the thing would start at all.

Imagine now, if you will, your illustrious host (me), ankle deep in snow drifts, bundled up as much as possible, brushing three inches of snow off of the Husband's car. Imagine me, then, getting into the car and having to sit on my hands for at least two or three minutes to stop the terrible pain from the cold.

Lesson? Thicker gloves.

Now, stretch your minds a little further and picture the little silver Scion going 7-15 mph on the highway which has not yet been plowed, along with all the other morning traffic. Imagine her going 15 mph for an hour -- even I can do the math to tell you that's how long it takes to travel the 15 miles from our house to my work. Imagine me being half an hour late to work.

Good times.

The Cubicle Life For Me

So, the thing about going back to work after a month and a half of not working? You kind of forget what it's all about. The sitting still for eight hours a day, the constant staring at a computer screen, the realities of cube life, packing lunch and eating it at your desk.

On Tuesday (the first day of my new temp job), I wrenched a muscle in my neck while toweling my hair dry. It hurt like the dickens. I mean, really really bad. I couldn't turn my head to the left, which made merging on the freeway more exciting than usual. So, after a day of sitting in front of a computer in constant pain, I couldn't *believe* how tired I was.

Thankfully, the neck has gotten progressively better and the job, while kind of boring (proofreading) isn't bad and is going to last for at least another week. I have an interview for another job on Monday, but I'm not sure I want it; less money, longer commute, same task (proofreading), but we'll see.

~*~

Week number six in Colorado, and week number six of snow. But! Today, the snow is big, gorgeous flakes. It's so beautiful. I went out to collect the paper this morning, and stood there for a good five minutes just catching snowflakes and staring at them. They actually looked like the way you draw snowflakes! It was kind of amazing. Beautiful stuff, even if we are getting a little sick of it.

tea, burritos, and books

Boulder was big fun. On the way up, we stopped at the Celestial Seasonings factory, which was actually really cool! We got to see how they cut the herbs and sort them, and then got to watch them pack the teabags in boxes. We went in the room where they store the mint, and -- wow. That'll clear your sinuses.

Then we were starving, so we headed to downtown Boulder and stopped at Illegal Pete's, a cool burrito place right on the Pearl Street pedestrian mall with burritos bigger than my head.

The Pearl Street Mall is full of cool shops and BOOK STORES! The best is Boulder Book Store, which is a multi-level insane celebration of new and used books. It seems to be in an old house or hotel -- the fiction, for example, is in the West Ballroom. =D Lots of fun. And lots of bookstores! We found five in as many blocks, including The Beat Bookstore, a leftist bookstore, and a lesbian bookstore -- something for everybody!

Books, Books, Books

Husband and I are going to Boulder today to mess around the Pearl Street Mall, and maybe Whole Foods, and try to find as many used book stores as humanly possible, although, considering all the books I brought back with me from Dallas (both new-to-me and beloved old friends) it would be obscene if I bought any more books.

But that has never stopped me before.

In other news, I want to read more this year and also keep track of the books I've read. I've finished two books so far this year. A list (of books read and to-be-read) will be forthcoming.

According to our Frommers, Boulder has more used bookstores per capita than any other U.S. city. Which makes it just about perfect, in my mind.