July 17

This blog everyday in July prompt is a fun one.  Take us on a tour of your city.  

I live just west of Denver and there is a lot to do around here.  Here are some cool things around town if you ever make a visit:

1. Heritage Square is a cute little amusement village that has shops, rides, and the like.  The highlight of the park though is the alpine slide.  I think the ride up the chairlift is far scarier than going down.

2.  Gambling in Black Hawk/Central City.  I'm not much of a gambler but it's neat to run up there every once in a while. 

3.  The Colorado Railroad Museum is awesome.  It's 15 acres of trains, trains, trains.  Bobaloo and I had tons of fun visiting.

4.  Need some healing water?  Mother Cabrini Shrine is the place to go.  To reach the Jesus statue, you need to hike up 373 stairs.

5.  The Colorado School of Mines Geology Museum has awesome displays of rocks, minerals, and gems.  I'm no geologist, but this place rocks.

6.  Bobaloo and I finally made it to UCAR last year.  There is a self-guided tour and you learn a lot about weather and get to play with clouds.  We also watched a very interesting video about pine beetles.

7.  Tiny Town!  Anytime I take someone here they find it pretty underwhelming, but I love it.  It's hard to explain its magnificence.  It's a park with miniature (tiny) buildings and there's a train that you can ride to see the whole town.  Here's a link.

8.  Celestial Seasonings is up in Boulder and offers tours.  The highlight of the tour is the mint room, where they store the mint tea.  Take one whiff and your sinuses are cleared.

9.  Lookout Mountain has a cool nature center and is also home to Buffalo Bill's grave.  Up top provides beautiful views and my favorite tourist gift shop.  Sometimes you can see paragliders which is both awesome and nerve-racking.

10.  The Coors Brewery is a must-see.  The tour is self-guided and you get three free beers at the end.  Hear, hear for beer!

And last but not least, Red Rocks.

July 16

Well wouldn't you know I already missed a day.  Oh well.  I took a vacation day yesterday and just sort of bummed around the house.

Here are some goings on lately:

• My Pops turned sixty yesterday!  So a very Happy Birthday to him.  He's one of my favorites.

•  I started on an ICAD challenge this year.  I started strong but need to get back into the swing.  The idea is to make art with an index card everyday to keep your brain creative.  There are prompts and themes (collage, rainbow, maps) you can use but you don't have to.  Here are some of mine:

Prompts: Mandala, Circus Tent, Beatles

• I've made Panty-Droppers on a couple of occasions this summer.

 

• One such occasion being Widespread Panic at Red Rocks.  Some of Bobaloo's family came to town for the shows and fun was had.

 And the prompt for Blog Everyday in July today is what are your top three favorite blogs?  See below for some of my faves:

Peaked in Junior High

Trying for Sighs

My Morning Cup of Coffee

July 15

Well I am a little late to the party on the Blog Everyday in July challenge.  The way I look at it, it's more likely I'll finish the challenge as there are only two weeks left.  Two hardy hoorays for dilly-dallying.  Today's prompt is to write a letter to an inanimate object.

Dear Trolls and Squeezy-stress-reliever-for-a-head Guy, 

Thanks for making my day sunnier at work when people get a bit cranky.  Your sincere pleasantness is appreciated.

Sincerely,

Jill

 

The Puppet Plot

The puppet wagon was a summer highlight when I was a kid.  Once a week it would come into town playing music to alert the neighborhood that the show was about to begin.  The internet tells me the show has been going on for 35 years.  It was the coolest.  It was the place to be.

The picture above is the same wagon with the same puppets from back in the day.  The skunk named Aroma is the main character.  On the back of the wagon is a mailbox so you can write the puppets fan mail.  Seriously, that was a big deal.  I would draw pictures, bring them cool-looking rocks, and give them candy, all sorts of things.  I was a puppet groupie.

At the end of the show, the puppets would check the mailbox and read the fan letters out loud.  When you’re five, this is as awesome-sauce as it gets.

Every week, this older kid named Davey would turn up during show time to pick on the younger kids and make fun of the puppet show.  He generally made our little lives miserable; a real troublemaker.

One day my brother and I told my mom about miserable Davey.  She hatched a devious plan.  Since miserable Davey would be at the show to heckle the puppets, wouldn’t it be nice to write some fan mail from him?

So out came the construction paper and crayons and we made a beautiful letter that probably looked something like this:

I was nervous about the plot, but when the puppet wagon rolled into town I mustered up some courage and put the letter in the mailbox.  At the end of the show they read the love letter from Davey.  I can’t remember his reaction but I know all the other kids giggled.

And that my friends, is how I learned how to humiliate a ten year old.  To this day my mom will still say he had it coming.

Probably not our proudest family moment. 

*Miserable Davey moved away a couple of years later (for non-puppet related reasons).  I don't know whatever became of him.

Blue

The summer bummers are still here.  Oh wait, is it still spring?  The great mood swing of spring, then.  I can't tell if things are getting better or worse.  There will be a couple of days when things seem hunky-dory followed by a day or two of muddling through. 

I felt this way last summer so I just need to remember it didn't last forever then and it won't last forever this time either.  And I am functioning.  Fundamentally sad, but functioning.  And I also had five really great months in a row before this.

Hang in there, right?

It's really frustrating to do all the right the things (eat, exercise, take vitamins, etc., etc., etc.) and to try so hard all the time and still suffer brain scrambles.  And it's that kind of bad attitude that has made me a little lax in taking good care of myself.

Builds character, right?

So in the meantime I'll just shine it on, invite the gloominess to stay as long as it needs to, and know that this too shall pass.  Hopefully by June.  I have big plans for June.

Bobaloo picked up his bass guitar over the weekend, maybe he can help me write a blues song.

a heart-shaped leaf from my morning walk

a bubble from the weekend

We have a communal coffee mug situation at work.  I have a favorite that I sort of hide in the back of the cupboard.

On the side is a recipe for Colorado Trout Gourmet.

I don't eat trout.  Or any other fish for that matter.  Still, good to know.

Since the last time I was here...

...I turned 31.

this is me being 31.

...the trees in our yard began to bloom.  It has snowed, rained, and hailed around here.  I am excited to get some geraniums for the patio, they seem to be the only flower I manage to keep alive. 

Pray don't talk to me about the weather, Mr. Worthing. Whenever people talk to me about the weather, I always feel quite certain that they mean something else. And that makes me quite nervous. -Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

...Bobaloo made this recipe for meatball sub hotdish.  Move over macaroni and cheese there is a new comfort food in town.  We made ours with meatless meatballs and dang, this thing is good.  For real.

...April and now May have been proving to be a bit difficult for me.  I think the season change triggered some junk in my head.  My days are spent oscillating between listlessness and and restlessness. 

April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain. -T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land

...In other words, my brain is having a hard time connecting the dots.  Again.

...But when my noggin starts acting up it seems to be a good time to take on some creative activities, so that's the plan.

...I haven't been a complete mope.  There has been plenty around here to keep my busy.  Bowling, books, museums, deviled egg competitions, music shows, movies, sunny patio days, etc.

Well, that about catches me up.  What have you been up to?  I hope your spring has been a gentle one.

The snow was pretty on the way out of the house today.  Still, I am excited that spring is only two weeks away.

Monday

A fun weekend was had.

Two of Bobaloo's brothers came into town.  We had some beers and listened to records.

We also visited Golden City Brewery.  Visiting a new brewery was on my to-do list for this winter.  I enjoyed an IPA.

I'm hoping March is quieter than February. 

Frozen Dead Guy Days is going on this weekend.  It's one of my favorite winter happenings around these parts.  Next year I am putting together a team for the coffin race.  Any takers?

I've been spending a lot of time on the website Brain Pickings.  All sorts of interesting things on there.

I am reading Snapper for book club.

 

A couple of weeks ago Bobaloo and I had Terrific Lady Day.  We had brunch at Perkins and then visited the History Colorado Center.  Here's a picture of him milking a cow.

It's time to take down the VD decorations.

What's new with you?

Mac 'n' Cheese Days

It's gloomy around here today.  I won't complain though because it's probably warmer here than where you are. 58 degrees.

I want to be at home sitting on my couch, eating macaroni and cheese, and watching Days of our Lives. 

Preferably in pajamas and with a few blankets.

Do you ever have those days?

I have been watching Days since I was about five.

I should clarify.  I only watch it if I have a weekday off or am at home sick.  I don't like, follow the plot.

I used to.  Back in the days of summer vacation.

Now I just check in to see what kind of shenanigans Sami Brady is up to.  She's a trouble-maker that one.

What  do you like to watch on your mac 'n' cheese days?

This guy really likes his macaroni. 

Macaroni and Cheese Cheesecake:

You Should Know Better

I have a brother who is 3½ years older than me.  Not 4 and not 3.  3½.

As in Mom yelling, "David, you are 3½ years older than your sister.  You should know better."

My brother and I always seemed to be at odds about the little things back then.  I thought he was the coolest, and he thought I was a pest (which if we're being honest, may have been slightly true).

My mother drove an old Ford Escort when we were young (I was around 4, David 7½).  We called it the Dodo Bus for reasons I can't remember but probably had something to do with the movie Follow That Bird.  Because David and I loved to bicker over the little things on even days he got to sit in the coveted front seat and on odd days, shotgun was all mine.  Mind you, this is before little kids were always to sit in the backseat.

So it was an even-numbered day when we took the trip through the McDonald's drive-through.  David  basking in the front and I was stuck in the backseat of the Dodo Bus.  Though we loved to squabble, every once in a while the planets would align and we would team up against my mom.  2 against 1.

In the short time it took from Mom ordering the happy meals to paying at the first window, a plan was hatched.  David had the idea that I should tell the worker at the window that they were fired.  So because David was giggling and absolutely giddy about his plan, when we got to the window I yelled to the young man, "You're fired!"

The apathetic teenager at the window just sort of shook his head and maybe there was a slight eye roll.  Mom was trying not to be embarrassed and also trying not to give any laugh of encouragement but it was too late.  David was in stitches.  That was all the encouragement I needed, I now had a crowd.

"Your fired!  Your fired!  Your fired!  Your fired!  Your fired!  Your fired!  Your fired!  Your fired!  Your fired!  Your fired!  Your fired!"

I shouted as loud as I could over and over and over.  We were off to window number 2 to pick up the order with my mom trying to shush me.  The teen at window 2 was good-humored and started to chuckle at a 4 year old telling him he was fired.  More fuel.

"Your fired!  Your fired!  Your fired!  Your fired!  Your fired!  Your fired!  Your fired!  Your fired!  Your fired!  Your fired!  Your fired!"

Mom was mortified as she grabbed the happy meals with a defeated smile, David giggled, and I shouted "You're fired, you're fired!" all the way home.





Afterword:  I learned the F-word on Easter a year previous to this incident under similar encouragement from the one who should know better.