This is a new post. And that's all I got.
Ok, lets see, what have I been doing? This morning I have been drinking about three cups of coffee and writing a hub recommending a pizza bar here in town that is our current favorite place to eat and drink. They have this sandwich called the Elvis. It is peanut butter, honey, banana, and bacon on yummy bread. It's one of those things that you have to take 2 or 3 bites of to understand it. The first bite you think, huh?. The second you begin to understand what it is trying to do by mixing those flavors. And the third- no more thinking, just pure pleasure. Then you want to come back again the same week for another one.
My mom is coming out to visit at the end of March for a whole week! She, Tara, and I are going to drive to Moab, UT for a few days to hike around and see some crazy desert landscapes. I have never been to the desert. I imagine that it will be kind of like the ocean in the sense that it is sort of desolate and lonely feeling- but in a good way that makes you feel quiet and contemplative. That is what I imagine and it is how I feel when I sit and look at the ocean; I sort of love it, but am scared of it at the same time- you know you can't survive there, but it is so beautiful.
Recently our friend Merry came to visit us this past January! She and her boyfriend Aaron took a train from Omaha, Nebraska into Denver. We went to the Denver Zoo and saw a mountain lion stalk a small boy from its cage. The family and the boy didn't even notice, as they didn't really seem to be looking at the animals; they were just walking through the zoo as though they were going to receive a prize when they got to the end and had walked past every animal. Extra points for hitting more that two snack stands!
I have a love/ hate relationship with getting home from vacation. After being away from home for many nights, I crave my own bed with just the right amount of blankets-a sheet and an afghan- and my shower where there are little shelves for each of my little shower things including my nail brush that I am not willing to fly across the country.
And when I am away from home I miss Simon the cat--and then for the whole next week after getting home he is so loving and under our feet constantly. I like that.
But going from being surrounded by family for a week to our fairly solitary life in Littleton is shocking. It hit me when we were taking the shuttle from the airport to our parked car- sitting there with all of our luggage and a bunch of strangers with theirs, bumping and jolting our way to our cars-I was looking at the open sky and the line the mountains make against that sky. Everything was so big and expansive that it felt a little bit lonely. I knew it would be a passing feeling and that I would be back in the mode that my life requires before long-which I am now--but I hate making that transition. Then going to work the next day--grrr--must put on my LensCrafters self, which means shutting down as many non-essential bodily systems as possible.
Indiana was good to us though--really it was more like our mid-west tour. We were in Michigan, Indiana, and Kentucky. We kayaked, laid flooring, saw a copperhead, ate Irish food twice and set off a huge illegal firework in a Bloomington alley. Good times.
Today I went to register my car at the DMV here since I just had it pointed out to me that my Indiana plate expired two days ago. Before I can get my plate, I was told that I have to get an emissions test and my VIN number verified, both of which cost about $25 dollars. When they told me I thought, what?
They didn't do this stuff in Indiana...or was I just ignorant of it...hmm. It's like they want to keep the mountain air fresh or something. So my car is pretty much legal- I paid 6 dollars and they gave me a 10 day permit to keep me kosher until I can get to the CO Clean Air place for the checks on my car.
Right now Simon is napping on the kitchen chair and Joseph is at work. For today I have planned the eating of rocky road icecream, job hunting, and laundry. I was going to wash my car, but it snowed last night and the roads are a little sloppy--really I was going to do it. And I still will one day.
Well, happy St. Patricks day my friends. I was hoping to walk out the door this morning and see the Platte River by my house running green, but I just saw a statue in front of a garden center holding a clover in its mouth and a lady at the DMV wearing mint green shirt, which was nothing like what I was doing, wearing a bright green.
Joseph and I went snowshoeing yesterday up in the mountains a little ways west of Vail. It was called Powderhound trail which I found in the trail book his brother Daniel got us for Christmas. (Thanks Dan & Jodi!) It was a short trail, just 2.75 miles--I wanted a relaxing time out since it was our first time using the snowshoes for real hiking.
We were getting near where we knew our trail head should be and we pulled off into a parking lot to look at a sign and the old Ford Focus got stuck. Joseph dug out behind the wheels with my windshield scraper, and we put the cars floor mats under the front wheels and after about a half an hour of rocking, spinning tires, and me pushing, because evidently I am the strong one--we got out. Having conquered the snow gods of the Rockies, we got on with our hike a little ways down the road.
The trail was pretty well packed; there had already been lots of people on it, but the snow was deep (at least 2 feet in the shallowest places) and I'm pretty sure we would have been post holing if we were just wearing boots. We went through some really dense pine forest with boughs full of snow what kept going down the back of Joseph's coat. We had some great mountain views as we were at pretty high elevation, but we didn't see any wild life except for a few birds and lots of bunny tracks. You can tell those by the cute little circle tail print in the snow behind the feet--so cute!
Walking in the snowshoes was pretty comfortable for me. Since mine are women's, they are not as wide as the men's, so I don't have to walk with my feet very far apart. The snowshoes are good not just for keeping you above most of the snow, but they also have crampons mounted on the underside, so metal claws dig into the ice and snow. This way you can walk steep slopes and make your descent with out slipping.
As an end note- please notice that I got Joseph to wear the dreaded fanny pack...and I think he liked it. Worn in the front--middle aged person at the theme park----worn in the back when hiking--highly cool and keeps your back happy since it doesn't have to carry the weight. That's all I have to say about that.
