Say Goodbye to the Fridge

We are finally going to say goodbye to the very ugly, alarmingly low class piece of art we have had on our porch for the last two years. The guys are coming to pick up the old rusted fridge tomorrow - yippee!!! I can't wait for that embarrassing eyesore to be gone. There are only so many excuses and explanations a person can come up with for why they have a large kitchen appliance on the back porch - you would think we would have one of those old worn granny couches sitting next to it collecting mildew! Well things are a-changin' and we are up grading. What do you think of these planters to rim the edge of the back patio?

Snow, Again!

We spent the weekend at Steve's parents' cabin, which will from here on be referred to as "the cabin". It was foggy when we arrived and proceeded to snow for the duration of our stay. This is not unusual for the spring time in the Colorado Rockies. What I didn't expect was to come home and wake up to snow in DENVER!!! I know we always get an April snow and I know I should stop wining, but please, we already had our April snow and then I totally jinxed us by saying that we were finally out of the snow season - I guess I was wrong. Again.

On a good note, before the morning snow we had the pleasure of falling asleep to the sound of rain. Steve even broke with his no-open-windows-at-night policy to leave a crack in order to optimise the sound quality. it was wonderful and I slept really really well.

Making Out at the Opera

Went to Cosi fan tutte last night and it was wonderful! I loved the costumes, I loved the singing and the light hearted story was adorable.

We attended the dress rehearsal performance and besides the other donors and possible future donors sitting with us the audience was filled with teenagers. It is an out reach program Opera Colorado does. They invite students from high schools all around the Front Range to attend a dress rehearsal performance for free. I am all for this - as much expose to the arts as our youth can get! What I am not all for was the young couple sitting just down from Meredith and I who managed to change a nice evening at the Opera into a soft-porn performance.

Come on people - I know you are loved crazed, hormone fueled beings right now, but please do not use the school trip to the Opera as your one and only chance to be alone together in the dark. Simple hand holding would have been preferred. Not to mention... please put your shoes back on, it is starting to stink in here!

Wow, do I sound like my mother or what?!

Napa Dreams

The other night as I stood at the kitchen sink making a pretty bland salad for dinner I turned to Steve and asked, "Do you know where I want to be right now?" And much to my surprise he nailed it, "Napa". Maybe it was our wish for brighter fresher ingredients which seem so abundant in California or our desire to stroll through the vineyards and taste wonderful palates of food and drink. Either way were enjoying the same daydream.

Maybe we will have to plan a trip to the wine country very soon. Anyone care to join us?

Check out these blogs all related to the happenings in and around California Wine Country...

http://www.uncork29.com/blog/ - great restaurant and wine reviews for future weekend visits and other tidbits from Napa locals.

http://www.365corks.com/ - Great reviews of inexpensive wines, something we can all use in today's crazy financially stressed world (wine and on the cheap!) I also love that he ends all of his reviews with variations on this wonderful sendoff, "Sit Long, Talk Much, Laugh Often, Drink Cheap Double Dog Dare Chardonnay!" I plan to try to find some Double Dog Dare Chardonnay this weekend!

http://www.napafarmhouse1885.blogspot.com/ - a woman living the dream.

Our Little Piece of Earth

Since it doesn't look like our pop-top addition will be starting before the summer (if it ever does), I am planning a resurrection of the tiny amount of backyard we currently have. At the moment it is known throughout the neighborhood as the best place for dogs to "do their business". I swear whenever a friend's dog comes over for a visit the first thing he or she does is to scoot on out to the little grass we have left to deposit a nice fresh present. I mean I have heard of hostess gifts, but this is getting out of hand! In the spirit of the new White House Family I am planning on making this pooping patch into a lovely garden with a focus on vegetables and flowers for cutting.

Wouldn't it be lovely to spend an afternoon in one of these gardens?

Cultural Exchange?!?

I love working for a private foundation. In fact, I think this is the biggest perk of working as a tax accountant for an oil and gas firm. Not only do I get to assist in helping the Foundation Ladies (the 2 wonderful and might I say stylish ladies who run the foundation) give away money to deserving folks, I also get other little perks. For example, this Thursday I get the pleasure of attending a cocktail reception and dress rehearsal performance of Opera Colorado's Cosi fan tutte. It is a comedic opera from Mozart about "fiancee swapping", according to Wikipedia (my first source for all things I do not know).

Now this is an interesting concept, fiancee swapping. Suppose as I had neared my wedding, I decided to fiancee swap for a few weeks. I wonder what I would have found out. At first I probably would have been excited to find out that this "new" fiancee loved to do the dishes, shared my passion for skiing, thought picking up the dog poo was a great chance to enjoy the outdoors and didn't think tickling me was the best pastime EVER. And I would have been very pleased for a week or two.

Then the missing would set in and I would miss all of the things I love about Steve, like his gigantic back scratching hugs, his handiness around the house (it turns out from talking with my girlfriends that not all men are handy???) and our silly inside jokes. And the new man would probably start to grate on me. I would hate his toe nail clippings on the living room floor (yuk, who does that?!), his incessant throat clearing and his unwillingness to vacuum. And I would start to regret this whole swap thing, but being the optimist that I am I would try to focus on the positive.

The turning point would come when I realized that I was actually missing all of the things that annoy me about Steve, which in the end aren't all that many (I am even starting to enjoy the puns). And we would end up re-swapping just like in the Opera and live happily ever after.

Let's just hope that during this whole swap he finds out the same things about me... that he misses my incessant tipsy talking, my million and one projects and my return back scratching hugs. I think it is a good thing we didn't try it!

Our Little Sewing Club

As I think I have previously mentioned my good friend Amy and I have started sewing together. You might wonder how this works seeing as how there is only one sewing machine at each of our houses. But actually it works quite well. First and foremost we are each other's cheering squad. Since neither of us is very good at sewing we dole out courage at every turn and when that doesn't work we turn to wine. Another thing we have noticed is that sewing is not just about whipping things out on our handy sewing machines, in fact it seems to be more about measuring, cutting, re-cutting due to bad measurement, ironing and pinning. So when one of us is doing all of this and cursing up a storm the other is happily playing with the machine. We have a ball chatting, drinking and eventually making something however lopsided it may be. So if you happen to be the recipient of one of our creations please know it was made with love and chalk up the little mistakes to our inexperience or the amount wine. Here is a sample of what I have made so far...