Weekend Recap

Quick run-down of the holiday weekend:

Thursday night went to White Fence Farm for dinner. Fried Chicken mecca of Denver. We had a great waitress and she let us guess the ingredients of two of our favorite side dishes - Bean Salad and Coleslaw. Now, I just have to figure out the measurements. I am sure they make the stuff by the swimming pool-sized bowlful. 

Friday morning went to the Cherry Creek Arts Festival. Lots of great art. Stuart and Sheralee surprised me with this nifty dragon fly yard art from one of our favorite artists there.

Friday night a dozen people came over for movie night in my backyard . 

Saturday evening I hosted 35 people for an Independence Day celebration. 

After tons of hours of yardwork by the fabulous Richard Turley and myself, the rain commenced fifteen minutes before my guests were slated to arrive. My mother would be proud that my house was clean so we were able to seamlessly transition things inside, soon after I finished my fit of anger. You know the one... you are tired and exhausted, the yard looks great, you are finally proud of it, but, alas, you and your guests must enjoy it from afar. I got over it.

The rain did stop and we were able to be outside for part of it after all. Bottom line is that we all had fun anyhow. And the thirteen pound brisket I cooked that people thought was too freakishly large? Not. a. single. piece. left. 

weekend fun in bailey, co

action-packed weekend here

I've been running non-stop the last couple of days.
Friday
- water-skiing at Standley Lake
- a jillion errands, including the lovely DMV
- house concert last night with The Blackthorn Project
The water-skiing made my heart happy and my muscles sore. The Blackthorns were great.
Today
- bridal shower for a friend
- church
- trip to Meininger to get supplies for my upcoming Glen Workshop
Tomorrow
- make grits casserole
- host brunch at my house
- bake birthday cake
- attend birthday dinner for a friend
- plan my strategy to get through this next week with the least amount of stress possible.
I have more to do at work than seems humanly possible to get done in the next six days. Also need to work on my photography portfolio. You know, the one that I was going to have together several weeks ago. Granted, the busy weekend stuff has been fun, but my batteries are running low. Hopefully I can find some little pockets of time to re-charge in the next few days.

home again, home again, jiggity jig

Just back from seven fun-filled days on the Alabama Coast. Orange Beach, to be exact.

It was just what I needed. Time to totally down-shift, de-stress, process a little bit of grief, and relax.

We must be getting soft in our old age, because I don't think we stayed up past midnight more than once. Lightweights.

Eight or nine hours of sleep a night. Full days on the beach, books and trashy magazines in hand. I'll add them up in my end-of-the-month reading tally, but I think I read 5 books. Played a lot of Boggle. Flew a kite everyday. A ninety-nine cent Dora the Explorer kite that no one thought would last more than eight seconds. I made it last all week. Skill, I tell you.

Ate shrimp eighty-eleven different ways. Had to make up for living in a land-locked state.

Our stop at the FloraBama was uneventful...before the Mullet Toss crowd had fully arrived, and Souvenir City (flip-flop mecca) and Priester's Pecans were the favorite field trips.

It was good to be away.

spring fever

I worked from home today. At lunch, I went out and pulled some weeds. It was 80 degrees and wonderful. I am so ready for warm weather to be here to stay.

Saturday I fly to Birmingham, and then Monday AM head to the beach. I couldn't be more ready for it. And I couldn't be much more unfocused and distracted from my work. Normally work from home days are the days that I get mountains of work done. But today was one of those days that we had server problems off and on, and I fielded more customer complaints than usual. Combine that with my lack of focus and it's clear to see that I have miles to go before I sleep.

Maybe a quick lap around Washington Park will help me gain some focus. Can't hurt. Think I'll try it.

whether the weather

Right this minute in Denver:
81°F (27 °C)
Partly Cloudy and Windy

Tomorrow:
Partly cloudy until mid-morning with tempertures in the upper 40s and lower 50s. Showers will begin around noon with cooler temperatures moving in for the afternoon. The rain showers will turn to wet snow during the afternoon with 2 to 4 inches of wet snowfall on grassy areas, but all of the snow will melt on pavement.

I'm SO over the snow.

Dippin' Dots

As I was getting ready to leave Gallery Cuvee tonight after attending a friend's art opening, there were a couple of pops of thunder and a couple of flashes of lightning. Then snow. Snow falling from the sky in fierce little balls, much like an explosion of styrofoam pellets from a bean bag. Or Dippin' Dots.

Strangely, driving home on snow covered streets, I felt at peace. I say strange because I often have a fairly acute case of snow anxiety. Maybe it is the fact that I'll not be getting up at dark thirty in the morning that leaves me at peace. Or the fact that after living here four years I'm finally getting comfortable being here.

But I still miss the azaleas, hydrangeas, wisteria, and gardenias.

what's up

- just back from a belated birthday beach trip. yeah, i milked this one for all it was worth. squeezed two more birthday celebrations out of the big 4-0.
- got to catch up with my birmingham buddies.
- played a lot of boggle.
- ate a lot of firecracker shrimp (this involves the best remoulade sauce in the world).
- slept a lot.
- sat on the beach a lot.
- watched the sun set and the moon rise.
- had some great conversations.
- did a lot of nothing.
- read Bless Your Heart, Tramp. and random magazines. deep, deep reading, in case you can't tell.
- did read a bit of Breath for the Bones, by Luci Shaw, so all was not mindless.
- enjoying the new foo fighters album - echos, silence, patience & grace. isn't that a great title?
- found the perfect music for the treadmill - florida state's marching band doing the best of college football fight songs.
- drove up to the mountains today so i could catch the aspens in all of their fall glory.
- just spruced up my porch with a pumpkin/mum display to officially welcome fall.
- trying to plan my week now so that i can ease back into work and maybe even a daily routine that doesn't feel like chaos.
- have a huge need for great amounts of creative energy to come bursting forth in the next week or so.

weeding out

My Memorial Day weekend plans are to whip my yard into shape. Or at least get a good start on it. I spent the better part of today pulling weeds and trimming trees and bushes. I’ve neglected it far too long, and the weeds are out of control. Some of them are a bit more steadfast than they should be. That’s not what I had in mind when I chose steadfast as my Word of the Year for 2007.

Basically I have two kinds of weeds. Some of them are hardy dandelion weeds. You’ve gotta get them from the root to keep them from regenerating.

Aside: Not that I am going to try it, but did you know that you can cook dandelion greens, just like you would mustard or turnip greens?

The other weeds are creepy vines. I think one is called Creeping Charlie, and I don’t know the name of the other one, but it is evil. Left unattended it gets out of control, and quick. Creeps along masquerading as a ground cover, winds its way around the plants and chokes the life out of them. There may be a spiritual parallel here, don’t you think?

death by snow

I promise that if I ever decide to kill myself it will be after I have spent twelve hours working for The Man and then had to drive home in a snow storm.