9 days

Nine days until we close on our new house.  we are so excited. To finally move in, of course I hope to put up a tour once we are actually first moving in of what the place looks like without “other people’s furniture.”  We are super excited to move in, settle down, and then begin plotting our next project.  we THINK we have almost everything planned out as far as which rooms things will go into.  The only thing I can’t seem to figure it is where I will put my office.  I’m sure the next few weeks will be super hectic, but I hope that I will remember to update everyone on our new place.

Getting back into it

So obviously we haven’t been updating the blog in quite some time.  Now that we have rejoined civilization there are so many things to take up our time.  It’s so good to be back in Louisville.  This coming weekend we are going to spend Saturday looking at houses.  Pretty exciting i think.  We picked about 10 places that we’re going to check out.  This is our first weekend of house hunting so we’re pretty excited.

We’ve also been getting re-acquainted with our old hobbies:

Webb is pringing is little metal men to paint.  I’ve been doing the cardmaking as well.

Dinner Menu

Tonight’s dinner menu will consist of the following:

Blackened Tilapia
Broccoli with Chipotle Cheddar Cheese
Sweet Potato Stir-fry with Dates and Walnuts
Whole Wheat Pasta with Sun-dried Tomato Pesto
Corn Chipotle Bisque.

It all sounds so high class when you type it all out like that. instead of saying, fish, broccoli, sweet potatoes, pasta, and corn soup.

Now I wish i could find my camera and take a picture of the spread.

Please read the letter that I wrote

I heard a small part of this song on NPR Monday morning driving to work.  Just that little bit had been stuck in my head for over a day. Now i’m totally hooked.  This might be the first actual album I’ve bought in a really long time.

Kentucky

We’ve finally settled into our new place in Kentucky and i realized that i have completely neglected this blog.  “Realized” is probably a poor choice of words, because i totally knew i wasn’t posting, but i had just been so busy that i felt i had other more important things to do.  Frankly there are a lot more things to do here in Louisville than in Canon City.  For starters, real human interaction…in person not over the phone.  Of course there are the requisite places to shop and restaurants to vist etc. etc.  Having a job and spending time with other people takes up a lot of time when compared to unemployment and social isolation, which is really the way it should be and the way i prefer it.

A few things that have happened since our last post.

1. We left Colorado behind, for several weeks after returning we agreed to pretend it was just a bad dream.
2. Thanksgiving-In Kingsport
3. Christmas-In Louisville
4. Lived in my childhood bedroom with my husband for 3 weeks
5. Moved into a house on Frankfort Ave.
6. Got a temporary job with my Mom (and for awhile my sister too)
7. Reconnected with several good friends (though still several to get in touch with)
8. Celebrated Webb’s 26th birthday
9. Learned to cook a delicious recipe Ginger Chicken Meatballs (post to come)
10. Lost power for a week from an ice storm

Things are going well, I’m goignt o get back into the swing of things with the blog.

Colorado Senate Spot

I can’t help it, I actually love this campaign commercial, every single time I see it i have to laugh. Yes yes, I know that he doesn’t actually say anything substantial here except that out of state interests are attacking him. Still i just think it’s catchy the way that he begins the commercial.

Around here at least every other commercial is for some sort of campaign or amendment issue. There are so many amendments on the ballot this year that it actually requires extra postage!!! And the ads for the presidential campaign are numerous as well.

Always bring your camera to Wal-Mart

Today, while passing Wal-mart customer service we saw a little girl pounding away at the job application kiosk’s keyboard. “Wow, the economy must be really bad huh?”

Once again, another reason to always bring your camera to your local Wally World. I’ve missed several notable photos by leaving my camera at home while going to the grocery.

Adventures Galore

The other day we pulled up next to an old pick-up truck with four deer hooves jutting out of the truck-bed.  YeeHAAAAWWW!!!

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Webb and I are planning to go camping again this ‘weekend,’ this time we’ll be roughing it BLM-style, and out of earshot of any major highways…the weather is supposed to be amazing, though it does get cold at night. Most important I need to check when hunting season starts around here, I’ve heard it’s soon.

After doing some research the other day I realized that the area we were exploring on our last outing (before visiting Red Canyon Park) is part of the Garden Park Fossil Area. The road we were on was called Dinosaur Flats. “Across the street” there is a similar dirt road called oil-well flats.  Here is a map of the area, we were in the Garden Park Fossil area and Red Canyon Park. The following is a description of some of the wildlife found in the area…

“The rugged rocky canyons and rolling hills between the grasslands and the mountains support pinon pine and juniper woodlands. The abundance of mule deer here make these areas prime habitat for mountain lions. Although you’re not likely to see a mountain lion, you may see a roadrunner, relatively rare this far north.”

Now when is says that you are not likely to see a mountain lion it is because cats stalk their prey…FUN!!!

What i really wonder is if there are still any dinosaur bones in the area…wouldn’t that be neat.

Cluttery goodness.

After 25 years of living in various arrangements (home, college, apartments) I have finally come to accept one thing about myself.  I dislike cleaning and lack some discipline in that area of my life.  Put more explicitly I dislike cleaning things on a regular basis and don’t like to put things back where I found them. I tend to leave my shoes wherever they come off, and sit things down in strange places that I forget. This would be no surprise to my Mother who spent endless moments explaining that “if I would just put the toys back when I’m finished I wouldn’t have such an overwhelming mess to clean up.” Or saying things like, “I don’t know where your shoes are, I don’t wear them.”

As a child I would routinely let my room slip into a chaotic mess and then upon deciding to remedy the situation I would proceed to pull every single item off every shelf, out of every drawer and pile it into the floor.  I was gonna totally organize every single thing and it would be perfect!! After feverishly re-organizing for several hours, moving items from place to place, getting sidetracked by interesting books or items I hadn’t seen in awhile, I would collapse into an overwhelmed mess of tears and simply leave the room. Very little progress would be made. This hasn’t changed much, even as an adult, you can ask Webb who several times has walked in on a disaster area.  “I’m cleaning out the office,” I would say. He begged me never to “clean” again.

I would say that Webb and I have a cluttered home. I would not call it dirty per se. There are very strict rules of cleanliness involving any place that is a bacteria magnet.  For example: There might be mountains of paper piled everywhere, clothes strung all over the floor, but NO FOOD TRASH.  I hate leaving dishes in the sink (probably a hold-over from the rotten maggot infested food I saw floating in the kitchen sink of Webb’s frat house-oh the glory days). I routinely clean the bathroom toilet to prevent the “truckstop look.”

I am good at doing laundry, (I even fold it now) but i rarely put everything away in it’s proper place. We often locate the day’s outfit piece by piece, pants hanging on a chair, socks in the drawer, shoes under the desk. A constant conversation in our house is:

Jamie: Have you seen my wallet, hat, shoes, purse?

Webb: Nope.

Jamie: Could you please help me find it?

Webb: Why don’t you just put it in the same place every time?

Jamie: Just help me find it!

Webb: It’s sitting right there on the desk, couch, counter, table.

Jamie: Oh thanks

Rinse, repeat.

Camping Lite

For the past week or so I have been eagerly anticipating a camping trip.  Webb acquiesced to my nagging insistence and we planned to go camping with another couple that we met through Webb’s job.  All plans we set for last Thursday, all gear purchased and packed using meticulous lists created by yours truly.  At the last minute an unplanned Dr’s appointment interfered and our friends were unable to come along…uh oh, just Webb and I all by ourselves.  So i planned and packed an elaborate feast of hamburgers and ravioli for dinner and eggs and bacon for breakfast and off we went.  We had a large lunch at Chili’s and a quick stop for ice and a few perishables for the cooler and off we went.

We stayed at a campground called Five Points which is part of the Upper Arkansas Valley Recreation Area.

We had planned on buying some firewood at a place on the way that has piles and piles of firewood for sale, but it turned out that they were closed.  At the campground there is no attendant, so you just fill out your info and put a copy along with your money into a slot. We walked down to the river (creek) and then went back to our site to set up camp.

There are railroad-tie steps between the two giant rocks.

This is the campsite, fire-pit, tent pad, and picnic table

The area is in a place called Bighorn Canyon, but we didn’t see any Bighorn Sheep.  There are also bears in the area, but no sightings.

The most popular event of the evening was playing with fire…

We had big plans to cook food and maybe go hiking but in the end we didn’t eat anything or hike anywhere we essentially put up the tent, burned firewood, went to bed, got up packed up, went home…you might think this was a bad thing, but what you can’t see in the pictures is that US Highway 50 follows the river and goes right through this canyon, so all night long we got to hear the sound of passing trucks, headlights, and the strange belchy sound of exhaust brakes…  Next time I think we may try to find a campsite a little further away from the highway.

In the end though, we had the best time.