Holiday Week

This week we are only working 3 days. Three short days. I'm pretty excited!

This past weekend was too short and action filled. Saturday Courtney came down and we played on the Wii for a bit. Then we went to Dave's 44th birthday and fight night. It was a lot of screaming at the TV and looking for them in the crowd. Sunday we went to Karin's house for breakfast (delicious) and I ran over to Dana's to meet the new Dabu (who is adorable and has very large hands). Later Sunday I decided to re-arrange the bedroom. I get tired of stuff being the exact same all the time. The re-arranging didn't take long ... but caused me to be up till midnight. The sprinklers were on outside the bedroom window and the noise was just too much for me to handle. Hopefully Mike fixes it tonight!

Thursday morning we are leaving bright and early to head up to Denver for a few days. Here is a picture of the baseball statum. We are sitting in the light blue area in the outfield. I like to be near home plate, but Mike is more an outfield guy. I'll post photos and updates from up there!

4th of July

Mike and I have decided to go to Denver for the 4th. We will stay in our favorite hotel, eat loads of great food, watch a baseball game (followed by fire works) and visit with old friends.

I'm pretty excited about next weekend!

Riding News

I've been training for this years Tri. Swimming 2-4 times a week. Running the same. And biking up to work every other day. I has been going well.

Next weekend is the 4th of July - Mike and I are going to go to Denver for the weekend. Should be a blast.


Sorry for offending anyone with the image. I personally think it should be on a motivational calendar.

Ethiopian Food & Tiara

On Saturday we had cooking club at our house. The theme was Ethiopian food. Photo of the food included. We made a lentil dish, the flat bread, and a chicken stew. I have to say it was super super hot. I was amazed at how spicy the food was/is.

We also celebrated my birthday ... which was wonderful. Courtney bought me a great princess tiara, which made it extra special!

Cats Dream

I'm sure Bend is dreaming right now. And he is probably dreaming of a happy place that doesn't involve needles or doctors. We took him to the vet today. Mostly for his annual checkup. But, he has sprayed a spot or two in the house and I wanted his anal glands to be checked as well.

Here was what they found. First off last year he was 10.2 pounds. Today he was 10.2 pounds. The boy never gains or looses any weight. His teeth are fine (I thought he might have to have more removed). His anal glands were super full, he is now on a every 3 month drainage plan. Sounds like a blast to me.

The vet was telling us that he is probably just marking his territory. I felt that this is something new and maybe there is something wrong with him. So, I had her run tests on his pee.

Turns out he has stones (of some kind ... she didn't know what so she sent them off to the lab) and he has a bladder infection. The poor guy got 4 shorts and one bladder express. His butt is super sore and he just seems in general pretty upset.

I'm sorry that he had such a rough time at the vet, but at least he is on the road to recovery!

Photo Weekend

Images are of:
Me sleeping in bed. Mike was getting up early after getting home from travel. Love the hair.

Stick bug outside. Pretty sweet.

Bend and a dead bird. From previous blog last week.

Bend hanging out on my lap while driving down to Deming.

Methow after her father's day bath. Oh she loves it!

One Year

I'm one year older - officially yesterday, but who is counting. When I was a kid 30 seemed old. 40 seemed even older. And I thought that adults always knew a) what was funny b) the answers to everything and c) how to progress though life in the least painful way. As in, I'm a kid so everything is sooooooooo painful.

Anyway, as a one year older person ... I don't feel wiser. Maybe I pay more attention to my mistakes and try not to make them again, but I'm really not "wiser". Knowing about funny. Still in the dark. I remember my father and our neighbors laughing all the time and feeling totally out the of loop. I never got the jokes. Do I get them now? Not really. Maybe that is because my father is now so old that his jokes will always be out of reach? Painful life? Seems like it is just as bad as you make it - and when you are a kid ... everything seems like the end of the world. I'm pretty sure now that the Earth will keep turning even when I'm gone.

Well happy birthday to me. :) Photos coming soon. I took some cool ones over the past 2 days.

Water & Golf

While driving into work this morning, one of my favorite sports writters told his story on golf and water.

There were a number of very interesting facts in his story.
1. There are 16,000 golf courses in America.
2. The average American course uses 312,000 gallons of water/day.
3. In Palm Springs (which has 57 golf courses) they use ~ million gallons a day. "That is, each course each day in Palm Springs consumes as much water as an American family of four uses in four years."
4. 41 percent of golfers polled believe that global warming is a myth. Hello ... wake up and smell the brown lawn people.


If you are interested in the golf/water crisis ... read Frank's article.

Seeing The Sights

Lately it seems like I see crazy things ... I think to myself WTF! Lethe share a few of my recent WTF moments.

1. A strange tricycle motorcycle that passes me every morning I bike to work.
2. Newborn praying mantises. They are all over my mint and are the size if a sewing needle.
3. Feet sticking out the top of a convertible passenger seat - while going 80 mph down the freeway.
4. A very tall guy in 70's tight short shorts, running in hiking boots and an African safari hat.

I'm at the airport right now, so I'm sure there will be more WTF to come!

Summer Reading

I've been flying through books about Atlantis and vampires recently. The book I'm currently reading is called Twilight. It is actually a 'teen' book. But, has been raved about - so I thought I'd give it a go.

It is a page turner of a book, but I'm a bit disappointed
to hear that this coming December a movie of the book is coming out.
Will it be a teen movie? An adult movie? I'm sort of getting tired of
movies being made straight from books. Where is the creativity in
Hollywood??

Well ... let the summer of fun quick reads continue!

Slow ...

I noticed that I'm on this "once a week" posting. How terrible is that?? Let's get you up to date.

Friday was a day of fun fun fun. Swam at the pool (training for the tri), got my toes done with Courtney and Lee, went to the new sushi place (got take out for the evening). Went to the night time concert ... which was pretty good. A four piece band. We hung out on the grass and ate sushi.

Saturday I went for a 6 mile run, and then cleaned like a freak! Re-organizing the laundry room.

Sunday was a hike and cleaning of birds. Yep. Methow caught and killed a bird. After cleaning up the mess - I showered ... only to have her bring another bird in. I have no idea how she is getting them through the screened in porch ... but she is. The second bird was still alive. I caught him and took him back outside (he seemed to be fine.) He flew off at least.

I did take a photo of the feathers everywhere and Bend looking all excited. Not sure if I'll post it.

Moab slept through both bird incidents (thank goodness). She is the killer of the family and would have killed the second bird upon sight.

Tornado Stories

While driving home with Courtney on 5/28 the emergancy broad cast system came on the radio. Courtney wanted to know why in the world I'd be turning it up ... but for some reason it felt important. Turns out that it was a tornado alert. One had not droppped or formed - but was possible. We got this email from work:

Los Alamos Country currently is under a tornado watch (a watch means conditions are favorable for the development of thunderstorms that will have a strong capability of producing tornadoes). The storm is barely forming, but large hail with 60 mile per hour winds are possible. More information will be provided as it becomes available.


We watched the storm in hopes of seeming some funnel. But, nothing happened. Maybe next time!

Courtney

Here is the photo of Courtney from the weekend of fun. Doesn't she look adorable with her new short brown hair?

Long Weekends

This past weekend was 5 glorious days off. The first day was filled with rain/snow. Courtney showed up for the summer though (which was super cool). We had dinner out with great friends, we did yard work, I sewed up a skirt (which took 2 days longer than I thought it should ... photos coming once I get someone to take them), cage fighting night with screaming friends and large pans of enchiladas. I haven't seen Indy yet (which I need to do this week)

Funny picture from a friend at work (which I happen to totally agree with).

Photos from dinner out coming soon.

New The Wire word - Shorties (a.k.a girls)

The Wire

Last night we watched 3 episodes of The Wire (an HBO show that takes place in Baltimore). Mouser said that it would help me with my street vocabulary. Last night I learned two new words. Mope (someone who speaks and dresses ghetto) and beshitted (something that becomes shit). Beshitted will have to be worked into every day use!

More to come as the show continues.

On Their Back

Lately I've been hearing mellow songs and just grooving on them. There is one that is titled, "on their back" ... which has nothing to do with what you are thinking. It is playing right now and fantastic!

Recently I've seen two movies that I need to see again to even understand. First is Southland Tales. It seems like one of those movies that if you were drunk or high you might get. But, I just couldn't follow what was happening. The second is Revolver. It was written by two of my FAVORITE writers for film (Guy Ritchie and Luc Besson). The movie is about the odds and has a bit of action, gangsters and of course twists and turns (that only Ritchie and Besson could put together). But, at the end of the film ... you are still wondering.

Anyone seen these two films?

Back Yard Re-Work

Since the spring we have been working on re-doing the back yard. Moving the shed a month ago was the first step. Removing bricks was the second. Putting in railroad ties has been the latest part of the rework. Here are two photos of the work. You can see that the hill is taking shape. After this, we'll be bringing in some rock and getting the beds in planting shape.

Thank goodness for a good weather weekend.

Baby Birds

Saturday afternoon I noticed that Moab was looking at the ground outside the enclosed
porch. She was licking her lips and looking ... very interested in
something. I went outside to find a very small bird sitting on the
ground screaming. He had those soft little down feathers on his head.
Just a few of them. And not many other feathers on his body. There is a
House Finch nest right above where I found him.

So, I put on some rubber gloves, had Mike get the ladder, and put the little
dude back up in his nest. Note that this nest just had 5 birds hatch
and there were now NONE in it. I could see two male birds fighting over
head and no one was going into the nest to feed the little guy.

About an hour later I noticed that Moab
was looking at the ground again. I went back out and the poor little
guy was on the ground again. I got the gloves and ladder to put him
back - but once back in the nest he launched himself right back out and
onto my shirt.

I was at a total loss for what to do with the
little guy. We have a total of probably 8 House Finch nests around the
house, so I had Mike go check the nearest one for babies. He found that
there was one bird that looked to be around the same age (same number
of funky feathers on his head).

With a held breath I put the
loan baby bird up into this strangers nest and then waited inside to
see what happened. Momma bird came back and started feeding both of
them.Ignoring the fact that one of them wasn't hers. As of today, the
baby is growing and the mom is totally caring for it! Who says you
can't mess with Mother Nature?

Let It Rain Veggies

As the seeds pop their little heads above the soil I start to think about the long term (i.e. end of the summer) plans for my garden. One of the things I hate about New Mexico is that it is SO hot during the summer days that lettuce (unless in some special area), doesn't do very well. So I just bought the above item (from Gardeners). This way my cucumbers can grow and not cover the ground ... while the lettuce is cool underneith it. I'm super excited for it to show up!

Battlestar