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

 

July 25

I loved reading books when I was a kid, especially with my mom.  One my most favorite books to read with her was Big Bird Follows the Signs

Thanks to Big Bird I am still a bit uneasy about jaywalking.

What was your favorite childhood book?

July Challenge

July 17

7 Random Facts

I love facts.  I mean sincerely love them.  One Christmas my sister-in-law gave me The Encyclopedia of Useless Information.  I can't think of 7 interesting facts about myself at the moment, so I will share with you some of my favorite websites to read about interesting stuff.

1.  Mental Floss

2.  Neatorama

3.  Listverse

4.  Smithsonian

5.  Open Culture

6.  TYWKKIWDBI

And if you are really just in it for the cool pictures...

7.  Retronaut

 Did you know...

About 5% of the entire US potato crop goes to make McDonald's french fries?

Got any interesting facts?

July Challenge

July 16

I have never eaten a Twinkie.

What is one thing that you have never done that you think most people have?

 

July Challenge

July 14

I have three tattoos.  The first one I had done in a teensy weensy parlor in a teensy weensy town in Minnesota.  It was my eighteenth birthday and Friday the thirteenth and the idea was to go get inked and then head to the casino to play bingo.  Looking back, those are some weird birthday plans.

My mother was none too pleased with me and said something along the lines of, "why on Earth would you want to do that to your body?!"  At the time I thought it would be a way to remember my ideals or whatever.  Ready for the picture?

Really accentuates the pipes, eh?

 

 

 

 July Challenge

July 12

Today's topic of the July Challenge is, What or who do you take the most pictures of?

Nik, of course.

July 11

Today's challenge topic is, What is the worst injury you have ever had?

The summer before third grade I fell off my bicycle while playing bumper wheels with my little girlfriend.  The fall wasn’t too far from the house but I sobbed the whole way while trying to walk my precious bike home with one arm.  The pain was like none other I had experienced, I could feel a lot of throbbing up and down my arm.

I don’t remember why my mom was out of town that weekend but Pops was home to care for us kids.  I screamed and cried as he twisted my little arm back and forth while asking, “Does this hurt?  How about now?”  I spent the rest of the day on the couch watching cartoons with a homemade dishtowel sling around my shoulder.

The next day, Pops saw that I was still on the couch in pain and the swelling hadn’t gone down and knew it was time to bite the bullet and call the doctor.  This is the part where I explain in Pop’s defense, I was kind of a crybaby back then so there was no way to be sure if this was me crying wolf or not.

We couldn’t go to the regular doctor’s office (I think because it was Sunday) so I made my first trip to a hospital.  There, they x-rayed me, called it a broken elbow (who breaks their elbow?), and fitted me with a hot pink cast.

Pops felt so terrible during the ride home because I had been hanging out with a broken limb for a day and a half.  So, we made a stop at Target where I picked out a being-a-good-sport treat and all was well with the world.

*Baby Sparkles*

July Challenge

July 9

I was hanging out at Coffee Lady's blog and found out about a July challenge going on (details here) and have decided to give it a whirl.  Shake things up a little around here.  There probably won't be posts everyday because if it's anything like the last challenge, I sort of peter out at the end.

So here we go.  Today's topic is...

What is your food philosophy?

I have a much more complicated relationship with food than I care to admit.  But like everything else, I am working on it.  As far as a philosophy goes?

In a nutshell,

smother it in cheese and slather on some ketchup.

 

July Challenge