Happy Hallowe'en!

Tom got the house ready to go this afternoon...

And carved pumpkins (home grown!)....

And now we are fielding trick-or-treaters.

Happy Hallowe'en!

Trick or Treat!

I thought this was an amusing non sequitor. I was out jogging today (in shorts & a short sleeved shirt, because it's 75 degrees). As you can see, it's a gorgeous day: bright blue skies, full of sunshine. So you can imagine why my brain had a tough time processing the image of a 5-foot-tall snowman standing in the middle of a green soccer field....

another successful journal club

What was the topic, you ask? Did anyone else ask this? No -- they just want to know the menu. The first course (made by me!) was a roasted butternut squash with coconut milk soup. The topping was whipped cream, with roasted pecans and chipotle pepper.

Course number two: a portobello mushroom stuffed with ricotta cheese & spinach, served with red sauce.

The main course: fettuccini alfredo with roasted asparagus.

And for dessert: pumpkin cake with a caramel-cream cheese icing, topped with candied pecans.  Yes, I made the caramel (and didn't burn it this time).  Yum.

we got snow

Monday it was 85 degrees -- sunny & blue. Last night and today it snowed ~8 inches. It's supposed to be sunny tomorrow, and 60 degrees again by Friday. Go figure on Colorado weather...

welcome, Judah!

I went to a conference in Boston last week. Really, it was an excuse to see Aaron & Brianna, and meet their new son, Judah. He's pretty handsome! And don't worry... he'll grow into these clothes in no time!!!

thank you, Gary!

All's well that ends well.

I'll start from the beginning:

Last week, I helped a colleague with some computer-related scutwork at the hospital. Thereafter, he asked me what I like to drink. (Obviously, I told him scotch.)

He brought in this very, very cool gift as a thank-you. However, it was a bit of a surprise -- in fact, a colleague left it on top of my locker for me, I'm thinking maybe several days ago. Funny thing is, I was too oblivious to notice.

Fast forward to today: it was brutal. I spent 11+ hours at work, followed by plans for finishing up my notes at home. I went back to the office to get my keys, and for whatever reason -- noticed the bottle of scotch on top of my locker -- with a post-it on it, describing that it was for me, from Gary!

What a way to make a bad day a very nice day.

And writing my notes tonight, from the comfort of my home office, was MUCH more comfortable with the addition of the Glenmorangie.

Thank you, Gary!

hiking at Caribou

Of course, where there are fish...

Caribou is one of our favorite places to hike... especially when we have out-of-town guests. It is fairly close to the house (maybe 45 min) and so gorgeous, year round.

Today did not disappoint. We thought this would be a nice image that Erik could keep in mind as he was flying back to Phoenix.

gettin' my aspen on

As we all know, I have a love affair with Aspens.

Well, on our hike at Caribou today -- I got to get a really good aspen fix. Enjoy.

back home again

We were really psyched that this weekend, Erik came to visit us from Phoenix. (We were sad that Sarah wasn't here, but we'll take Erik when we can...)

Tom and Erik went fishing (duh!) at pretty much every opportunity they got. This was their first day's catch. YUM.

next stop: Durango

The next part of our trip was 3 days in Durango. We rented a cool house (I've become a big fan of VRBO.com) that was about 1/2 mile from downtown.

The walk to downtown was along the Animas River Trail. I'm sure this won't shock you too much: Tom happily fished the Animas for two days.

First: I stole this picture from Mike. (thanks!)

Next: the explanation. Durango has 4 microbreweries, which is pretty impressive for such a small town. Fortunately for us, Ska Brewing was having their 16th Anniversary party the weekend that we were there. It not only featured beer from Ska, but from a dozen or so other Colorado microbreweries (and one from San Diego). They also had 3 different bands (The Blue Hornets, the Nuns of Brixton, and The Toasters), which were all fun entertainment. We all had a great time. As you can see, our great-weather luck held strong.

Mesa Verde National Park

When we realized that we'd be driving right by Mesa Verde National Park on our way to Durango, we had to stop. We did not see any green tables, but we went to the Spruce Tree House.

This was pretty cool -- a 130-room "house" of very well preserved ruins, constructed ~1200 A.D.

Sherry and I went down a short ladder into a "kiva" -- apparently, a ceremonial room.

On our way back up the trail (it was somewhat steep, but only ~ 1/4 mile), we were dismayed to hear a woman say she was stopping frequently on the way down to catch her breath. I wonder if she made it back up....

more guided tour

We were glad to have a guide through the "fins" of the Fiery Furnace; I think it would be easy to get lost!

I'm pretty sure this was some kind of algae...

This tree was alive & well, albeit twisted in a quite interesting fashion.

The soft sandstone is easily deformed...

The Fiery Furnace is named for what it looks like from a distance around sunset: its "fins" glow bright red. Pretty neat.

next stop: Fiery Furnace

Our friends Chris & Linda advised us that when visiting Arches, one cannot miss the Fiery Furnace.

We were glad for the advice. You have to make reservations weeks in advance to take a ranger-led tour through an area of the park which is otherwise off-limits to visitors.

The ranger took us on a 3-hour tour through these really spectacular rock formations. Contrary to what the name might imply, it was much cooler in the Fiery Furnace than it was "outside" -- of course, because of its great shade.

The bright-red-rock + deep-blue-sky combination simply can't be beat. I cannot overstate how gorgeous it was.