visit to CA

We just got back from a visit to CA.  Ostensibly, the trip was because I had a meeting at KP-Oakland.  Of course, we used the excuse to visit family.  We had a great Father's Day with my parents, as well as Evelyn, Adrianna & Garrett.  Sorry; no photos from that afternoon.... But we also spent a lovely afternoon visiting Ridge Winery.

 

It was quite a lovely afternoon -- as you can see, the grounds are gorgeous, and the weather was quite cooperative.  We took a tour (which was fun, and got us out into the vineyards):

Of course, the best part was the tasting at the end:

 

We didn't buy anything ($185 for their signature wine seemed rather steep!), but if you're in the area, I'd highly recommend the visit.

one of our favorites

Tom and I enjoy hiking at Meyer's Gulch year-round.  It always has something beautiful -- whether it's the aspen trees, the Boulder Canyon overlook, or -- this time -- the flowers.

We enjoyed the trail, as always (it's not very steep, it's wide/conducive to group hikes, and it's just under 5 miles round trip).  The view at the end of the trail never disappoints:

But this time, the flowers stole the show.  I'd never seen wild irises before!!!

  

Steve!

Last weekend, Steve came out from Seattle for a visit.  We had a very relaxing weekend...

We started with another gig: the Who-Do's played at the Taste of Louisville.  It was a nice stage, and we were really happy that Molly has recovered enough (from her broken ankle) to join the band.

And, as it turns out -- we were able to find a home for our Death Chess set.  It is being sent up to Seattle, to be used by Isilon interns (which is a far better use than keeping it here....)

Bolder Boulder

This year's Bolder Boulder was a lot of fun.  I was happy that I was still able to finish the race in less than an hour.  Then, I met up with my friend, Melinda -- and we got to hang out for the rest of the morning, listening to the Who-Do's.

They had a great spot: right on Pearl St., just past the 7k mark.  It was really fun to go back and watch the joggers/walkers -- they always have great costumes.  People kept stopping to dance & enjoy the music... it was a great vibe.

fishing the Green

Every year, Tom and Jack go to the Green River (in Utah) to go fishing.  This year I get the impression that the fishing was a little slow, but obviously they still had their moments!

the Who-Do's kick off the Erie Farmer's Market

When we returned from Santa Fe, the Who-Do's had a local gig: the Erie Farmer's Market.  I got to hang out with some former (retired) colleagues, which was a very nice way to spend the evening.

I was also impressed by how much the market has grown.  A few years ago it consisted of a handful of vendors in a dirt parking lot.  Now, the street is blocked off, and there are 40+ vendors (in addition to the music) -- my, how Erie has grown!

One of the local farms has a stand where you can fill a big bag with produce for $10.  Here was my haul.

moving on to Taos

By the time we went to Taos, we were pretty window-shopped out.  So we tried to go hiking in the gorge of the Rio Grande.  It was beautiful, but the weather was not cooperative, so we didn't stay long.

Fortunately, the next day, we had great weather -- so we had a very lovely hike in the Wild Rivers National Recreation Area.  It was perfect: we got back to the car after a nice hike, and within 10 seconds it began to rain.  As Tom is fond of pointing out: timing is everything!

more walking, more museums

Our second night in Santa Fe we went to a WONDERFUL restaurant (near the Rail Yard) called Radish & Rye.  They source all of their produce locally, and their proteins when possible (obviously, you can't get local seafood in NM -- so if there's any seafood on the menu, they promise that it is sustainably farmed).  We enjoyed a rye cocktail.... But the photos from that night are pretty dimly lit, so I'll skip those.

The following day, we went to the Folk Art museum.  I enjoyed the walk there: I thought the additions to the "walk" buttons were hilarious!

The folk art museum had it's moments, including a "take me back" snapshot here -- of a Lionel Train transformer.  My dad still has his father's trains (I suspect not just the transformer, but the tracks, trains, and everything), and I remember playing with them as a child.

There was a whole room full of thousands of dioramas (for lack of a better description) that contained various art from all over the world.  Of course, Tom and I had our favorites...

touristing in Santa Fe

Besides, the Farmer's Market, what else is there to do in Santa Fe?  Museums, and art galleries.  While Tom and I enjoyed the art galleries (there are about a million galleries/shops, and if truth be told: the quality of the art is outstanding), there's only so much window shopping that one can handle....

So, off to the museums!  This was in the courtyard of the New Mexico History Museum (which, overall wasn't my favorite place, but that's ok....):

And this was one of my favorite pieces of the weekend, in a textile art display (in a Contemporary Art Museum):

happy birthdays to us

I actually had a long weekend off (unrequested!) over the weekend that was between our birthdays.  What a treat!

Since neither of us had been to Santa Fe before, we decided to make the pilgrimage.

Overall, it was a very nice weekend.  We stayed downtown, and walked everywhere.  One of our favorite excursions was to the farmer's market on Saturday morning, down by the train depot.  One of the ways I judge a farmer's market is if there's actually produce (rather than "soap and earrings").  This market definitely passed muster.

We ate breakfast: Tom had a pear-pastry, and I had kimchi pancakes.  Now, you must understand: I've always been a little afraid of kimchi.  This is ridiculous, as I've never even tasted kimchi before.  So why the fear of kimchi?
Well, when Lowell was alive (Tom's father), he would tell stories of his business travels, including to South Korea.  His overwhelming sentiment about South Korea?  "Kimchi sucks."
Sorry, Lowell: the kimchi (at least, in the form of pancakes) was AWESOME.  hahaha.

hail guards

Tom has already planted "the kids" (the tomato and pepper plants that he started from seed) outside in the garden.  Especially early on in the season, this is a dicey proposition.  You never know when it might hail around here....
And this is particularly nerve-racking if one is heading out of town for the weekend.  Tom's solution? Hail-guards:

Each tomato and pepper plant has it's own "cage."  Potential hail problem - solved.  (And what's all that white stuff?  DME -- or, diatomaceous earth -- which protects the plants from insects such as grass hoppers.)

someone really didn't think this one through....

At Children's hospital - there is a lot of handicapped parking (for good reason).  There are various signs that attempt to discourage those who really don't need to park in the handicapped parking to NOT park in the handicapped parking.  Fair enough.

However, this one seems to be a bit off base to me.  Do you know anyone who needs a seeing eye dog who also needs a parking space???

garden goodness

The garden is already producing.  Tom made a stir-fry with (among other things) garden-asparagus, and topped with mustard greens.

Delicious AND gorgeous!
Another recent triumph: I made "Green garlic tabouleh."  Ingredients that I could instantly harvest from the garden: green garlic shoots, chives (which also had pretty purple flowers on their tops), parsley, and mint.

Welcome, Rose

What else has happened since I've been remiss?  Our niece, Amber had a daughter: Rose Seul-Kee Post.

Gorgeous, isn't she?

our first visit to Mackee Auditorium

OK, forgive me the tardiness.  We've been busy!  What can I say?!!  What's been going on?  Well, we had a visit from my parents (thank you for coming!)... and loads of other stuff.  Did I take any pictures of us with my parents?  Of course not....
Tom and I had our first visit to CU's Mackee Auditorium.  It's GORGEOUS.  I would love to go back... for any number of concert activities -- there really isn't a bad seat in the house.

Now, it just so happens that we went to see the Indigo Girls -- playing with the CU orchestra.  It was awesome!  Tom really liked the orchestral score, and (of course) I like any venue for seeing the Indigo Girls....

Easter in Phoenix

We just got back from a very nice trip to Phoenix.  We enjoyed seeing Tom's family for Easter -- including our great-nephew, Maverick.

Of course, he didn't hunt for Easter "eggs;" he hunted for little plastic storm-trooper and Darth Vader heads that you can pop open (and therefore will hold candy), which he placed into his Minion "basket."  Isn't Disney amazing??

The good news is that it was a very warm, pleasant day -- which was very pleasant for sitting by the pool.  Did I take any pictures of the adults?  Of course not!

blizzard 2016

Last night when we went to bed, the weather report was that we should expect 3-5" of snow.  When I woke up this morning, I knew they were REALLY off!  The highways closed today... as did the airport.  (Don't worry; everything is already re-opened -- in plenty of time for our trip to Phoenix in 2 more days....)

Ultimately, I think we got something between 18"-24".  Here's our backyard shed.  Pretty cool, huh?

Last week, it had been 70 degrees -- so Tom made sure to put the cushions back out on the patio furniture.  Good thing!  Of course, tomorrow it's supposed to be 50 degrees & sunny....

first eggs of the season!

When we were at our neighborhood caucus, we ran in to Mark & Robin -- who are the ones who sell us eggs.  Typically, we don't expect to be able to buy eggs until after Easter (the chickens stop laying in the winter).  We were glad they mentioned to us that they've got plenty of eggs already:

Aren't they gorgeous?  I had sunny-side-up eggs today for lunch.  YUM.

spring snow

We've been enjoying sunny & 70 degree weather.... until a blast of spring snow!  It's pretty wet (typical for March); I think we got ~8".

Before shoveling, Tom got one ride down the driveway....

And then we had a nice walk in the neighborhood.

democracy in progress

Tom and I recently learned that Colorado is a caucus state (not a primary election state).  How could I have lived here nearly 10 years and not known that?  Well, among other things -- it changes from time to time.... because holding primaries is expensive.  So when states want to cut their budgets, they go to caucuses.
Although I have always voted in every general election, thanks to Donald Drumpf, this is the first time I have ever felt compelled to try to be remotely "more involved."  Yes, The Donald scares the bejeezus out of me.

So our neighbor walked with us to our local middle school -- where we were assigned to caucus.  The first part is what you would expect: get in line... sign in...

And then we all went into the gym/multipurpose room to get started.  Now, at this point, I have no idea why they had us sit by our precincts.  And also at this point I was thinking this was going to be grim.... as the microphone/PA wasn't working, and most people couldn't hear a darn thing.

Fortunately, that didn't matter too much -- because the "main event" wasn't really occurring at this point.  This part was simply the first stage of reading "the rules," etc., and "representative from each candidate" came up to speak (or in this case, shout as loud as they could, as I'd guess there were close to 1,000 people in the room).  Each "representative" had, I think, a 3 minute limit.  The guy speaking for Bernie was all about "revolution" and "passion." The woman speaking for Hillary was all about "experience" and "accomplishment."

After this, we all adjourned into our precinct-assigned middle-school classrooms.  I guess the cool thing was that it was standing room only (there was 71 eligible voters plus one grade-school child plus one "observer"); it's nice to know that people actually care!

After reading some more rules, the speaking began.  Anyone in the room had a chance to say anything they wanted about their candidate of choice.  Overall, I was quite impressed.

First of all, everyone pretty much stuck to the one-minute time limit.  Second, the conversation was, dare I say, civilized?  People actually talked about what was important to them, and why they thought one candidate vs the other would be more likely to be able to deliver on whatever "promise" they were talking about.  People talked about social security, environmental issues, big banks, Monsanto, education, gender equality, basic candidate honesty.... it ran the gamut.  I mostly agreed with just about everything everyone said: Bernie "had their hearts," but the cynics among us felt that Hillary was flat-out the more qualified candidate, and was also "more electable," despite the feeling in the room that she wasn't exactly someone to be proud of.
We then voted by "show of hands."  There was one undecided voter, so people got to speak again -- and, again -- I was impressed.  People didn't just repeat things or rant; for the most part -- different people felt "compelled" to speak.
We then voted a second time.  It was 38% Hillary vs 62% Bernie.  By our state's caucus rules, that meant that our precinct's two delegates would be assigned one to each candidate (I don't know what the threshold would have been for Bernie to actually be assigned both of our delegates).
Then we had to elect volunteers who will actually be our delegates -- who will go to the county and then the state meetings and "represent."  Interestingly, there is nothing that says that either of our two elected volunteers HAS to stick with their nominee -- they are just pledging that they most likely will.  I am quite confident that the Bernie representative will cast his delegate-vote for Bernie.  I'm pretty sure the Hillary delegate will stick with her...  I liked that particular volunteer-delegate a lot (he appeared seasoned, level-headed, and cynical... a good combination).
The whole process was just under 2 hours.  Then we walked home.

gorgeous!

The saga of the Widdacomb Chests:
My mother tells me that her parents had these beautiful dressers for as long as she can remember -- I'm guessing my grandparents might have purchased them in the 1950s.  They are solid wood & handcrafted; I'd thought they were maple... It was always hard to tell, because at some point, they'd been white-washed.  (Apparently, that was all the rage in the 1970s).
In 2006, it just so happened that we were moving from AZ to CO right at the same time as Adele (my grandmother) passed away.  Since Tom and I didn't have much in the way of furniture at the time (as it was not worth moving, we had gotten rid of most of our furniture when we left AZ), Paul and Kathee offered to store Adele's dressers in their garage until we got settled, at which point we could have the dressers at any time.
In 2007, another little coincidence occurred: we had friends who were moving from CO out to CA, which involved more than one road-trip back and forth between the Denver-Boulder area and the Bay Area.  Through the magic of email and cell phones and persistence on my mother's part to make this all come together, eventually Doug & Michelle brought the dressers from CA out here to us....
Where we've been using them ever since, but neither one of us has "loved" them (mostly because they'd been really ugly).  Point of reference:

At some point, Tom wanted to get rid of them, and get something less horrible for our bedroom.  I whined/insisted that we keep them, and promised that I would refinish them (ha!), as Tom was quite honest about the fact that he was not interested in doing so.
Well, by 2015 I finally admitted that I wasn't going to refinish them, either.... so this freed Tom to find someone whom we could hire to do the task properly.  He ultimately found just the right person ~10 miles away, who runs a place called, "Strip & Dip."  (Fortunately, "Strip & Dip" is actually referring to furniture refinishing.... I really don't want to know what else comes up if you google this.... but I digress.)
The furniture-guy at Strip & Dip wasn't certain he be able to salvage the dressers -- so we took only one in (for starters) to see how it would go.  We have good news to report:

The first one has come out beautifully!  The Strip & Dip guy was able to remove enough of the white-wash paint to be able to apply new stain -- and we have discovered that the wood beneath is actually cherry, rather than maple.  This is doubly lucky, as our bed & nightstands are cherry -- so the dressers look like they actually belong in our room now.
Having had such good success with the first dresser, we're planning to take the second one in this week.  So by the end of March, we'll have a whole new look to our bedroom.
My mom says that the dressers now look exactly as she remembers from childhood.... which I think is pretty cool.

Rosenberg visit

We just got back from Sacramento last night.  My cousin’s wife had a baby a month ago — so we went out to cook for them, with the goal of filling their freezer.  All and all I’d say it was a very productive trip.  We (Tom) made:

4 lasagnas (one eaten, 3 frozen)

32 cups of vegetable soup (8 eaten, 24 frozen)

4 trays of enchiladas (one eaten, 3 frozen)
48 cups of granola (you can't forget breakfast!)

Here was one of my favorite photos, from the first night (when Tom made potato-leek soup).  Who says you need a spoon?  If you're motivated enough....

We had some very nice weather, which made for pleasant afternoons.  Here's Judah on his bike:

And, of course, here's Saskia: