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.

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

December 21

This hangs by the mirror in our bathroom.

December 19

10 things in my bag.

This is a strange prompt.

1. wallet  2. smokes (don't be judge-y)  3. lip stuff  4. book club notes  5. headphones  6. car keys             7. perfume  8. writing stuff  9. oatmeal  10. Advil

Join the Fun!

December 17

Free association.  Today's blog-a-thon prompt is to share what the following words inspire in you.

River.  Canoeing down the St. Croix, falling into the Flambeau, tubing down the Apple and Cannon, fishing in the Yellowstone, Mississippi headwaters.  The smell of water.

Fresh.  A fresh and crunchy salad with fresh-baked bread.

Escape.  A Bobaloo and Jill misadventure.  Where to go?  Boston, New Orleans, Chicago, the Pacific Northwest, Yellowstone?

Moment.  Breathe in, breathe out.

Night.  Laying on a picnic table at the KOA listening to Kevin Kling and watching for meteors, the counting of satellites. 

Today, this picture inspires me.

December 3

what is the first thing you think of? APPLES
closest red thing to you? A STRIPE ON MY SCARF
last thing that made you angry? LACK OF SLEEP
are you a fan of romance? NOPE (although bobaloo bought me some bling over the weekend.)
do you have a temper? NOPE

what is the first thing you think of? GREEN APPLES! (i must have apples on the brain. (how do you like them apples?)) 
closest green thing to you? POST-IT NOTES
what is your favorite green environment? MY PARENT'S BACKYARD
are you jealous of anyone right now? NO
are you a lucky person? THE LUCKIEST

what is the first thing you think of? GRAPES (i think i am hungry for breakfast, hence all of the fruit)
closest purple thing to you? MY JACKET
do you like being treated like royalty? NO
do you like mysterious things? NOT REALLY
are you intuitive? MY GUT SAYS YES

what is the first thing you think of? THE CATHEDRAL DOME IN DENVER
closest blue thing to you? INK PEN
are you good at calming people down? YES
what's your favorite body of water? THE CHIPPEWA FLOWAGE IN WISCONSIN
what was the last thing that made you cry? A NASTY DEPRESSION DAY (stupid brain)
are you a logical thinker? NO, NOT EVEN A LITTLE BIT

what is the first thing you think of? THE SUNSHINE
closest yellow thing to you? MY SWEATER
what was one of the happiest times of your life? 2005
what's your favorite holiday? HALLOWEEN
what makes you happy? PEOPLE LAUGHING AND HAVING FUN TOGETHER 

what is the first thing you think of? FLOWERS
closest pink thing to you? MY WATER BOTTLE
what sweet things do you like? SKITTLES & LICORICE
are you sensitive? VERY
what is your favorite flower? I LIKE PLANTS
do you have a crush on someone? BOBALOO

what is the first thing you think of? ORANGES
closest orange thing to you? A CALENDAR
do you dress up for halloween? YUP
what gives you warm fuzzies? HANGING WITH MY PUP
what would your superpower be? DRINKING MILK WITH MY FINGER LIKE MORK

what is the first thing you think of? COFFEE
closest brown thing to you? MY DESK
what is your favorite type of chocolate? NOT A BIG FAN (twix, maybe?)
what makes you feel grounded? TAKING WALKS
paint the wood or always leave it au naturel? NO PREFERENCE 

what is the first thing you think of? SNOW
closest white thing to you? PAPER
do you always try to keep the peace? MOSTLY, EXCEPT FOR BOARD GAMES
do you like to play in the snow? YES
are you afraid of going to the doctor or dentist? SOMETIMES  

what is the first thing you think of? CATS
closest black thing to you? CELL PHONE
are you sophisticated or silly? SILLY, ALL THE WAY
do you have a lot of secrets? NOPE
what's the new black? WEARING WHAT'S COMFORTABLE

Join the fun!

A couple of years ago I went to a 3-piece class on Judaism at a local Reform temple.  I loved it.  So much so, that I began taking conversion classes for a couple of years.

I haven’t converted.  I still think about it though.

A rabbi once said to me,

“God doesn’t make trash.  So you shouldn’t treat yourself that way.”

Pretty thought, isn’t it?

hip-haps

Boy, it's been a busy week and a half. 

My job gets hectic in September and stays that way until May.  I like being busy during the winter months, it seems to help ward off those dang doldrums.  Plus, I like my job.  We also had a staff day and went to see a Rockies baseball game.  Or as I like to call it, "mandatory socialize with your coworkers day."  Awkward.

I still need to show you my finished clothespin project, it turned out lovely.

Bobaloo and I are looking forward to some visitors in the next couple of weeks.  My little brother is coming to town on Friday and Bobaloo's folks are visiting shortly thereafter.  We've been fortunate to have quite a few family and friends visit this year.  Also, a good reason to keep the house semi-clean.

I have been able to catch up on some reading recently.  My reading goal for 2013 is 45 books.  I like setting this goal rather than making a resolution for the new year.  I didn't read a whole lot over the summer so I am only at 13 books so far, better get cracking!  A friend gave me Neil Young's Waging Heavy Peace: A Hippie Dream to read.  Love that Neil.  There are a couple of books I have started but am not too terribly interested in.  What do you do?  Do you read the whole thing or give the book a certain amount of pages to catch your interest?

On Sunday, it was our one year Nik-a-versary!  She got a new bed to celebrate the occasion.

September 11

It is such a gloomy week here in Colorado.  Give me sunshine!  I am still on this Blogtember bandwagon, so here goes.

Share links to your favorite online shops, preferably with a few photos of your favorite items in each shop.

My favorite place to buy tees is Threadless, especially when they have their $5 clearance.  I bought a few a couple of months ago.  This is my favorite one:


It's called "Group Hug."

Otherwise, most of my online shopping is at Etsy.  Below are some of my favorite purchases with links to the shops.

 

Icehouse Picture / Rainbow Scarf / Darwin Pendant

Rainbow Necklace / Fonzie Print / Rainbow Necklace

Rainbow Shoes / Nintendo Scarf / Nintendo Necklace

 

I collect rainbows.  Because as our gal Dolly says,

 

 

 

Do you collect anything?

From the Back of my Brain

I lost my faith in a higher power for the first time when I was sixteen.

The summer after, I interned at a visitor center at a national park.  Ministers of different denominations would come into the park and put on services in the amphitheatre.  I worked alongside this older ranger, his name escapes me now.  When visitors would come up and ask him when and where the services were taking place, he would snap his response and get really irritated.

One day I asked him why he was so ornery about visitors going to services at the park.  He responded with something like, "They are here in one of the most beautiful places in the world.  You want God?  Go fucking pray to a tree."

I am not sure why that has stuck with me over the years.

Hank and Peggy

Bobaloo planted sunflowers early in the summer.  I think there are about a dozen that are getting ready to bloom.  These are the two plants in our front yard.  I was doing some reading about plant vibrations and how talking to your plants will help them grow.  While I don't think Bobaloo necessarily talks to his plants, he did name them.  Hank and Peggy.



 

 

Have a great weekend!

Who Knew?

So, Bobaloo has told me about this thing he did when he was a kid and apparently it's a normal adolescent thing.

 

Do you remember being at a school assembly or a program put on by a different grade and wanting to be the last person who clapped?

 

I have never heard of this.

 

Oh my gosh, I just googled.  It's a thing.

 

According to Urban Dictionary:

	Last-clap contest
	When you're at a performance or assembly and the applaud is just ending, this is the contest when two people both try to get the last clap. Usually lasts about 20 seconds before both people give up.   Cathy: I loved how during the assembly today, there was a last-clap contest between Jeff and Matt.   There's even a Facebook page!   Who knew?  Have you ever heard of this?!

Who spends $36 at McDonald's?

It has been a busy couple of weeks, I tell ya.  Where do I even start?  Yikes.

Bobaloo and I went gold-panning at the end of July. 

After panning, while getting dried off and back into the car my purse must have been left behind in the parking lot.  A minute into the drive I noticed and Bobaloo turned around but it was too late, the purse was gone.  By the time we had made the 40-minute trek home someone had stopped at a gas station to fill up and bought $36 worth of McDonald’s on my debit card.  $36 at McDonald’s?

I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening kicking myself for being so careless, cancelling cards, looking for my birth certificate so I could get new IDs, and being generally pissed off while Bobaloo changed the locks on the doors.  A watch that my grandma gave me was also in the purse and although she probably bought it for $10 at Walgreens, I was still pretty bummed about it.

The next day I was having a beer on the patio after work and Bobaloo was over at a friend’s house.  He and I both started to get strange phone calls and messages from a couple of our bar buddies.  My purse had been found by a fly fisherman! The fisherman’s sister was drying my stuff out and she found the business card that my bar buddy Andy had given me a couple of years ago.  Andy was hanging out with another friend who had Bobaloo’s number and that’s how I was tracked down.  Hooray!

PSA: Get to know people at your local watering hole.

So, Bobaloo and I drove and picked up the purse.  At least the person who had dumped it into the creek was courteous enough to zip it up before throwing it in because while the cards and checkbook were gone, everything else was in there, including my grandma’s watch.

So there we have it.  An emotional rollercoaster was had.

 



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

This and That

What's been going on?

Bobaloo made a trip to Minnesota last Friday and got back into town yesterday.  Whenever he leaves I make a big proclamation about the keggers and raves I am going to throw and the stripper pole I am going to have installed.

In reality, I sit on the couch with my afghan and watch a lot of movies.  And I eat a lot of salad and triscuits because the idea of making a meal just for myself seems rather motivated.

I did get out and about a couple of the days.

On Friday night I went over to my neighbor's house and we solved all of the world's problems.

On Saturday I painted fingernails, Raspberry Rush seemed to be the color of the day.

And on Sunday I put on my fancy kicks and went "dancing" with some girlfriends.  And by "dancing" I mean I sat on the patio and drank a lot of beer.

Nik kept me company and amused me with her goofy dog-face.

I am still trying to shake off the summer bummers by being positive and trying to keep busy.  Positivity is a lot of work sometimes, but I'm holding it together.  Well, let's be honest.  There were some tears this morning, but mornings are hard.  Things always look sunnier after lunch.  Speaking of things sunny, Sonny and company (Widespread Panic) are happening on Thursday. And it is impossible to be bummed at a Panic show, at Red Rocks, while hangin' out with my favorite dude.  Good things.

Oh, I also turned my hair and interesting shade of orange over the weekend.  Obligatory pic...

I look like a psychotic cartoon character, too funny not to share.

If you hurry and call our operators right now...

I have a small addiction to infomercials.  I do not especially care to watch the infomercials that promise abs, hair removal, or a clean house (although I desperately want a Roomba).  No, I have a strange fascination with infomercial kitchen gadgets!  This is particularly odd because I am not the cook in the family.  At all.  Ever.

It all started with the Magic Bullet, which is a blender/chopper/pulser/whipper/whatever.  I have to admit I used to watch the infomercial quite often when I was plagued with a hangover because it was so hilarious and featured this gem of a character named Hazel.

 

Thoughts: The Magic Bullet is nice and dishwasher friendly. Outside of making a few initial smoothies, it’s been in storage ever since.

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Have you read the Amazon reviews for the Hutzler 571 Banana Slicer?  They are hysterical!  I ended up buying one at King Soopers for 79 cents.

Thoughts: Effective, I guess.  I don't really slice bananas on a regular basis.

-------------

My absolute favorite kitchen gadget is the Presto Pizzazz Plus rotating oven.  My mom gave it to me for Christmas and I am in love.

Thoughts: Love at first pizza.

-------------

I was inspired to write this post because earlier in the week I was about to dice some potatoes the old-fashioned way until I remembered we had a Veg-O-Matic that Bobaloo got as a white elephant gift last Christmas.  In a word...Amazing.  It took minutes off the laborious task of potato slicing and dicing.



Thoughts: This puppy is staying out on the counter.

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This brings me to another thought.  Perhaps I missed my calling?  Infomercial actress!  With my clumsiness and ability to spill, I'd be a natural.

 

 

 

Midweek Shuffle

I was over at Coffee Lady's blog this morning and her post got me thinking about the days of the week.

I have worked a lot of customer service jobs.  A lot.

My first full-time job was being a cashier in an office lunchroom (lunch lady!).  I got to see my friend Adam everyday because he was a security guard at the front desk.  After a while we noticed all of the workers would have the same responses to the dreaded yet expected question, "how are you?"

Here are the responses:

Monday  "Ugh.  It's Monday." or "Pretty good for a Monday, I guess."

Tuesday  ...

Wednesday  "It's hump day!" or "We're halfway through the week!"

Thursday  "Well, tomorrow's Friday!"

Friday  "It's Friday!  The weekend's almost here!"

Day after day.  Week after week.  Person after person.

The only day nothing was said was Tuesday.  So when we'd see each other on Tuesday mornings we'd look at each other and say "It's Tuesday" and crack up.

Adam, his wife, and I would go to Denny's every Tuesday as a celebration of sorts.

Now I am hungry for a Moons Over My Hammy.

Friday

Friday night Bobaloo and I went to a birthday party for his buddy.  I sort of learned the fundamentals of beer pong because believe it or not, I have never played.  Flip Cup on the other hand?  Bring it.  The party was fun but we didn’t stay very long because we wanted to avoid the fuzz during St. Patrick’s Day weekend.

Saturday

I had big plans for Saturday, big productive plans.  Shortly after I awoke though, I found out that season 8 of Weeds was on Netflix.  Bobaloo made some delicious breakfast and we proceeded to watch all thirteen episodes only stopping for Chinese food at lunch time.  When the finale was over we decided it was time to leave the house.  By the way?  Finales always suck and then my life feels like a waste because I could have invested all the season-watching hours into something else, like, reading Anna Karenina or learning French.  Anyways, we walked down to the bar around seven and hung out for a little bit.  At one point in the evening some chick tried to steal my wallet right out of my purse that was hanging on my chair.  The whole situation was weird but I have all of my stuff. 

Sunday

Yesterday was another chill afternoon.  I had a Chipotle lunch and watched Little Miss Sunshine, which is a favorite of mine.  I am really into postcrossing.com and needed to buy some postcards to send out.  I buy my postcards up on Lookout Mountain because they have the best selection and sell cards 5 for $1.50.  Lookout Mountain is a nearby tourist trap where Buffalo Bill is allegedly buried.*  So, we packed the dog and headed to get some postcards.  After, I had a quiet night to end a quiet weekend.  It was very nice.  I am normally really into St. Patty’s but this year, I passed.

*Lookout Mountain is cool and has great views of the Continental Divide; the actual grave (above) is whelming at best.  True story.  I took my parents up here a few years ago and there were two kids looking at the coins people had thrown on the grave for good luck.  Their heads were between the bars where the arrow is pointing, the kids were probably 8 and 10.  After a  couple of minutes checking out the coins, the little girl could not get her head out of the fence and started freaking out.  Before running to her rescue, her mom yells to dad, "Honey, quick!  Get the camera!"  After pictures were taken, they lifted her out and all was good.  I have never laughed so hard in my entire life.

 

 

Tommy K on Everything

I was once tasked with having to draw a picture for my dad in the first grade for father’s day.  We were supposed to draw something that we had in common or an activity we enjoyed doing with our dad.  My drawing was two stick figures sitting at a stick kitchen table that had on top of it, a giant bottle of ketchup.  We both really liked ketchup.  For a long time, that was the art he kept in his office.

Not ever really being a “joiner,” I did the bare minimum of extracurricular activities in high school to get into college.  I participated in the literary magazine contributing a profound and moving ode to ketchup.  I read it recently and it is only matched in ridiculousness by absolute and affected teenage suffering.  I showed it to my parents and they asked if I was on drugs.

A girlfriend of mine used to joke that I didn’t like food.  I only used the food as a vehicle for ketchup.  It would look gross if I sat down with a bowl of ketchup and a spoon.

My husband loves to cook and is terrific at it.  Frustration would overpower the accomplishment he felt whenever I slathered oodles of ketchup on whatever he had just cooked up.  He doesn’t take it personally anymore.  I love ketchup.

Ketchup on eggs, ketchup on macaroni, ketchup on everything.

A while ago I bought a beautiful piece of art to add to the dining room that fully expresses my thoughts: