Popp Wedding 11/23

Good People--our church small group-Paula/John, Marcia/Bob, us, Linda/Clellan, Karen/Ron and not in the picture are the parents of the bride Judy/Mike. Ginger and Shannon's wedding was an event to remember. A friend of the family Rudy Mancelli was flown in from Italy to sing--he sang for our church awhile back--the man can sing!
Good Food--the wedding was at the Sanctuary Golf Course Club House, the food was very good, my favorite was an appetizer--raspberry, cheese, tomato sauce in a small pastry cup.
Good Exercise--lots of dancing.
Great Retirement--not having to go to work after a Sunday afternoon/night party.

Wine tasting 11/15

Good People--John/Judy, our host/hostess Steve/Cindy.
Good Food--Our trip to California wine country prompted us to improve our wine tasting skills. Each couple brought a <$10 bottle of cab and John added a fun 4th. Thanks to Kortney/Paul we had a "Tasting for Dummy's" kit with numbered wine bags and Steve developed a helpful sheet about appearance, aroma, taste, finish and I think there was one more. We tasted without food and then with some of Jan's very tasty appetizers. The mozzarella cheese with prosciutto from Costco was my favorite. Also, a sliced pieces of a baguette, toasted with various peppers, and blue cheese. Dinner was outstanding--beef tenderloin, asparagus and some of my favorite potatoes, dessert was blackberry cobber and ice cream (I had seconds on dessert). The winning wine was Insatiable which was recommended to John/Judy by Davidson's liquor. We brought a "Our Daily Wine" from Whole Foods, which had "no detectable sulfites". The stuff that is used to preserve for long shelf life. It was too light for most of us. We also tasted a BV and Morgan Davids Cherry.
Good Exercise--lifting our 2 ounce pours.
Great Retirement--All said and done--our friends were the best part of the evening.

Cycling, beer and friends 11/13,15

Good People--Norm--my ride home from Dry Dock Brewery, Shawn one of the brew guys. Bill, DJ, Tony and Dena, we caught up on the weddings, DJ's daughter was recently married, and Bill's son will marry in January. DJ is recuperating from ankle surgery and will be in a mobile cast soon.
Good Food--At the Dry Dock Brewery-Norm had his usual Vanilla Porter and I tried their Kolsch, which was exactly as they advertised--very good. After our informative conversations at the Edwards, Jan and I ate at Abrusci's, just west of Applejack's liquor store. We shared pork chops, fingerling roasted potatoes and brazed cabbage, $18--it was the BEST! Very good! The Cavit chard was cheap $6 and matched up well with the pork chops. I'm a lucky man--not only did I marry up and Jan couldn't eat all of her share!

Then we shopped Applejacks-big sale is on--I read an article about Chile and Argentina wines--their reds are supposed to have more antitoxins than others. So we focused on them and we were thrilled to find our favorite restaurant wine 14 Hands--I wrote about it before--Applejacks does not display this wine but, if you ask they will sell it to ya--on sale $8. I suppose that some of the "wrong" things make me happy but this was a find! You can order online (thanks to Kevin), shipping is costly. We found some of the California trip winery wines but even on sale they were still out of our price range.
Good Exercise--I rode my bike in some strong wind to the brewery--only 9+ miles but the wind pushed my heart rate up. Oh! and we walked around the liquor store--big store though.
Great Retirement--as I have mentioned before-Norm will join the retired at the end of this month- O'boy! I don't know what we will do about who will haul us home from Dry Dock since Norm will no longer be making that long drive from the Fed Center via Dry Dock. Any offers?

A GREAT family time! 11/6-10

Good People--Jan's sister Sharon and husband Bob, her daughter Shellie (from Santa Fe, she hauled down 2 cases of 3 buck Chuck wine-we will thank her 24 times), Paulo/Kortney, Ben/Amanda. Sharon, Bob and Shellie were here for a wedding as was Paul and Kortney (not the same one) and we went to the CSU-Air Force football game (we lost) with Ben and Amanda. Lots of good conversation and a sufficient quantity of wine was tasted. Bob and I are the champion Nertz players-yea us! Kortney and Paul's wedding was at the Sanctuary Golf Course Club house (ReMax realty's private course)--they were smart to have Jan and I chauffeured them home. Kortney has been down quite often to several of her sorority sisters weddings and showers.
Good Food--Jan prepared some really tasty treats, as always. Most of you that read this journal have had Jan's enchilada-ummm. We really liked a reisling from Chateau St Michelle with our appitzers and we broke out a bottle of our wine purchase from Italy, a Chianti-Montefiozalle, don't ask me to pronounce it. The chianti was best with some parmesan cheese. For dessert one night we had a favorite hot chocolate Bellagio, sipping dark chocolate (Costco) with a splash of Van Gogh expresso vodka and/or peppermint schnoops. I guess it's my expectations that affect my taste buds--the kettle popcorn at the game hit the spot, a hot dog and beer would have been better but no beer served at the Academy.
Good Exercise--we managed to get in a couple of dog walks and some of the girls did their walking at Park Meadows and Southlands main street mall.
Great Retirement--Family is key to living an abundant life! slide show to the right

Something new!

My old Infinity needed about $3000 of work and I have been fussin' over a new car. Jan's car has about 110,000 miles on it but it seems to be in better condition than mine. So, with the zero percent financing from Toyota and an opportunity to buy through AAA instead of a dealer, we made the plunge for a car payment.

The new "ry" is quieter, better gas mileage, a ride more to our liking and Jan finally got her red car.
It should get the cops attention.

Not a falcon but a hawk

Amanda asked a friend of hers to identify our bird. He is a falconer and had a Red Tail Hawk as one of his birds. Our bird is an immature Red Tail Hawk. Therefore, no red on his tail yet. He came back the other day to sit and swooped down on something near the creek.

A return visitor

We think this is a Prairie Falcon. He was here last year on almost the same day. The Prairie Falcon is the mascot of the Air Force Academy. He sat on the railing various times for 30 or more minutes at a time, Sadie barked at him and as you can see we were really close from inside the house. He would just turn his head around, look at us and then focus on the ground. One of God's incredible creatures and he blessed us with a close up view.

Several fun things 10/29,31 & 11/1.

Good People--biking buddy Steve, Brother Larry and Darrell, friends Ellis and Burt.
Good Food--Steve and I got some nourishment at Paneras after our 18+ mile ride. We missed some of our tricker treaters with dinner at Colorado Hacienda-we love their bean sauce and so did Larry. Ellis and Burt were treated with some of Jan's good cooking--chicken stew, apple pudding and our new favorite wine Sebastiani chardonnay. Sadie was not a good host, she got sick while we were having appetizers. They were OK with it--their puddle just died that was willed to them several years ago by Ellis's sister. They were getting their dog fix with Sadie Sorry no pics, must be getting forgetful.
Good Exercise--just the short bike ride, Steve and I are getting out of biking shape or should I say our backsides are of biking shape.
Good Retirement--Ellis is my ideal--after retiring from the military, he worked long enough for another retirement--he is retired now and a Rachel Ray chef. Burt is looking forward to the winter in Phoenix, she wins golf tournaments and money, beats Ellis and me too, which isn't saying much.