Thousands of miles in the past few weeks

That's right, I've been all the way to Michigan, then came back and down to New Mexico... Gosh it feels good to be NOT traveling for well at least a couple weeks. The weekly trips down to summit county to ski will probably start this week or next. I'm a little behind compared to last year; Ryan was in Breckenridge while I was in New Mexico and I haven't even hit the slopes ONCE yet!

Visiting Michigan was short and sweet. Got to see a lot of friends but mostly hung out with the family; watched all of my football teams lose (Michigan to Wisconsin; Lions to umm the Giants I think?) but did get to hit up a Red Wings vs Columbus hockey game on Friday night with Linda, and spent my last evening in town eating chinese food and watching Saw 3 with the family (and then a quick trip to the bowling alley to cheer for my friends league). I always miss everybody more after seeing them, but the weather was, well, typical midwest winter - one giant continuous cloud the color of cement, with occassional rain. Yuck! Felt so good to get back to the sunshine of the Rockies!

Once I got back, it was time to go hunting! My buddy Tate took me as my guide and let me borrow a gun. We were up at 5 am and out to a friend's privately leased hunting property that is surrounded by forest service land - usually a hot spot for tons of deer. Guess what? Nobody had seen anything - deer, elk, jeez I think one guy said he had even only seen one rabbit! But we went out and stalked around and probably hiked 4-5 miles that morning, up and down the beautiful mountains. To make a long story short, we didn't see anything except a bighorn sheep (which is actually pretty cool, they NEVER are sighted there)... and a jackass in a truck (you're not even supposed to DRIVE on that road, it's private) shooting what would literally have been MY buck! It was right where we were headed, and he just drove up and told us he wasn't going to shoot a buck, and then boom! Boom! Down goes a nice big one. I don't even think the jackass left his truck and just shot it from the road! Needless to say, we were wayyyyy ticked off. Our attempt ended at noon, with the intent to try again on Sunday.

Sunday morning, 5 am. Same drill, different location. Another "hot spot". Only 2 other people there, up near Storm Mountain (I think it's actually called like Jug Gulch or something). We hiked around til 10 am and once again, didn't see a darned thing. Just a squirrel and a few chickadees. Oh well, what's a girl to do? The seasons out here are way short (different from Michigan) so that was my only chance until I think maybe spring. Would love to get a gun... but lots of other stuff I need to worry about right now. In any case, it was nice hiking around. Here's the sunset the first morning:

From Bandelier NM ...

I was done early enough that Sunday that I decided to head down to Bandelier National Monument a day earlier than planned. Loaded up the dog and made the 8 hr drive, arrived on Tim's doorstep just after 8:15 pm. Finally got to see him after 2 weeks! He did have to work every day, including Thanksgiving, so I mostly took Logan for short hikes around the area for as much as his hips could take. One day, we did the Mitchell Trail to the Natural Arch (2.2 miles); another day, hiked around Water Canyon (2 miles perhaps?); then did Deer Trap Mesa (2 miles). That seems to be as much as he could take, given all the rock scrambling we did. He had fun, though he was sore! It was a pretty low key visit, and after work it was already dark by the time Tim got home, so we mostly just ate a good dinner and watched movies. Thanksgiving, we had been excited to get sushi in Santa Fe; of course, nobody bothered to even see if it was open. Of course not. Nothing was open! But Tim, myself, and 2 other people drove down there anyway and drove around until we found a nice place at the Hilton to eat duck chimichangas and jalapeno poppers. ;)  Not quite what we had hoped for, but there's always good sushi in Fort Collins.

From Bandelier NM ...

Just got back into town this past Saturday night. My friend Kim had also just returned from a month's med school rotation in Portland, so she and I went out and ended up singing Johnny Cash songs at karaoke and hit up the wine and cheese place before she moved from Estes back down to Denver for yet another rotation. Poor girl moves ever 1-3 months!

Then last night, oh those Philadephia eagles! They blew it against New England. The boys were screaming and jumping up and down and ready to throw things at the TV. Hey, they lost the game themselves with some very poorly timed interceptions. That was about all the excitement I could take yesterday. ;)

Well, have a little going away party at the Rock to attend. Looks like I have a side job to help a climber take down a huge cottonwood on Wednesday. Yay, cash!

So, looks like I'll hopefully just be hanging out in Estes, snowboarding and learning to telemark, doing side jobs, walking the dog, and working out for at least the next couple weeks. Pretty exciting huh? I think so!

Waiting for an oil change

I'm hanging out in what I believe is the only place with wireless internet in the town of Lyons, besides the pizza place. Yep, the pizza place is wired, but it's a little early for pizza so I'm drinking coffee instead. Every time I've come to the Barking Dog Cafe, there's always a gaggle (at least 7) of retired old people laughing it up over their coffees and breakfast burritos. I'm always the youngest one in here if it's before 8:30 am! They seem to have a good time. :)

Since I'm pretty much just goofing off on the computer, waiting for an oil change/differential fluid check etc on my truck, I'll throw in random interesting stuff.

An article about how the feds up in Montana and Wyoming in particular like to kill lots of animals - usually for the sake of ranchers. Ahhh, the never ending battle between wolves and cattle. This is part of the reason (here's a bunch more reasons why) why I still refuse to eat beef. I'd rather see the total elimination of all cows than the death of a wolf. Another reason to switch to bison! Seriously. Bison AND wolves were here LONG before cows and ranchers were. Actually, let me look up some stats to show you just why bison (or beefalo, the bison-cow hybrid) is the better choice. Let's quit this "killing wolves to reduce economic losses to ranchers"! (Yes, all those blue links are different websites)

While I was browsing, I got a kick out of this: "Great Old Broads for Wilderness." Good name. :)  They do take younger folk and men into their "wrinkled ranks," too.

I decided earlier this week that I really like walking the dog at night. Though, walking a black dog through a neighborhood with barely any lights on a black asphalt road could potentially be dangerous... But then again, I wouldn't be able to see the clear starry sky if there were lights! Fortunately, there's not a lot of traffic throug the park housing area, and we get well off the road when somebody comes by. There were quite a few shooting stars last night, and it was crisp and cold. Felt good!

I'm still assembling my telemark ski gear... Next up, bindings. Try to get those for under $120. Then, I need skins so I can go uphill. Those aren't cheap either. And I really should get a helmet for snowboarding. Thank god my unemployment check is FAT! Seriously, I can't find a job up here that pays more than unemployment! I'm much better off this winter than I was last year. I'd have to find a job for more than $11/hr for it to be finacially "worth" working. And with a few sidejobs every month, I'll be sitting pretty good! (Tim and I cut firewood for a buddy last weekend; hopefully will get to do that again... though, in a freak accident, a log bounced off the spare tire in the truck bed and shattered the back window of the work truck... just as Tim said, "Don't worry, it's plastic" when I told him to be careful of said window, ha ha! Fortunately, Wendy didn't care much, "it's a work truck" was her reply.)

Well, truck is ready and I need to go down to Boulder and run some errands. Tomorrow, Logan goes to the kennel, and I leave at 9:30 PM for the airport for a 12:30 am departure... arrive in Detroit (with the time change and 2 hr 45 minute flight) at freakin' 5:40 am!! Thank god my mom is picking me up so I can pass out. Did I already mention that I am going to the Red Wings game with my sister Friday night? Watching the U of M game on a 62" plasma HD tv with all my college friends on Saturday? Gonna be a great freakin' time!!

Quick visit to the 313; then off to New Mexico

Well, that entry just accidentally got deleted. I freaking hate using AOL. Whenever it disconnects, I lose my work!!

Halloween, I dressed up as my boyfriend. Forserious. Kim and I went to the costume shop in Boulder and I found this really sexy camper girl costume, complete with naughty badges and a really short skirt; but I also found this caveman wig and beard that looked so much like Tim! I put it on and we both couldn't stop laughing. As ridiculous as it is, I bought both costumes. Tim had absolutely no idea, even though I gave him hints like when he asked, "Is your costume sexy?" -"Well, I think it's sexy but it's not for everybody!" and "Are you a celebrity?" -"I'm known by a lot of people, and I sure think of myself as a celebrity!"

He saw it, and loved it. We went to the bar together, where with both sat down and I immediately began acting like Tim. Giving the bartender attitude, telling people what to do, generally being a cocky jackass... I told Tim that it was great being a jerk to my friends and getting away with it! He replied, "It's good to be me, isn't it?"

Everybody there was rolling with laughter. I had him down to a T! I dressed up exactly as he does - fire boots, nomex fire pants (green), trails sweatshirt (green), hat, and huge BEARD! I even put on my hockey pads to make it look like I had broad shoulders like he does.

Alas, it was fun but it was very HOT wearing all that hair and those hockey pads, and I wanted to LOOK hot! So I ran home halfway through the party at the Rock and had a sex change. People were quite shocked to see me go from being a hilarious costume as a man, to a way sexy costume as a babe! Halloween is the best!

Logan was, of course, a K-9 cop. He didn't mind the gun or handcuffs, but he hated that hat. That's ok, I think those hats looks stupid too. ;)

I am going back to Michigan this Friday for a few days; Tim leaves for Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico tomorrow. When I get back, I am going hunting with Tate around here, then heading down to meet him. Looks like we are eating sushi in Santa Fe for Thanksgiving! Bummer to miss the shoot-out with our friends and their guns up here like last year, but it should be a good time!

Oh, and let me gloat. GO BLUE! GO LIONS! GO REDWINGS!

Now, I have to go watch football. GO EAGLES!

Yeah, my last entry was much better written. Which is why of course it had to get deleted. !!!

 

From Halloween and...