Guess who made it home!

Stickers on a laptop provide lots of clues of who made it home. Do you know what some of them are?

Dinner with Amanda-Boulder

Good People--2 of my favorites--Jan and Amanda. We met Amanda in Boulder after work. We were in north Denver, getting some "better" news about our 401K.
Good Food--as most of you know Boulder has lots of great places to eat. Our first choice was Frasca's but it looked too uppity and our 401k news wasn't that good for Frasca's prices. Our financial planner recommended Sunflower, so we stopped there for Happy Hour, price was right for beer $2.50-no draft though--so we left. Our planner also suggested The Med, she thought it was lively (crowded), very noisy, great food and a very long menu--she was right on! On all accounts. We decided to do tapas, you know the small plates, hanger steak, fried mozzarella cheese, cabrese salad, enpadilla (feta cheese, spinach in a turnover thing), Catalan shrimp, falafel (fried chickpea), bruschetta, prochetta with cantaloupe, cayenne chicken. Our favorites were hanger steak, shrimp, burschetta, prochetta, fried mozzarella and cabrese (your thinking that was almost everything-you are correct). They had a large dessert tray--we chose vabaglione (vanilla Italian custard with Grand Marnier & orange syrup topping) and chocolate cake with vanilla bean ice cream. The vabaglione was light, very tart and it only cost $4. The old stand by--chocolate cake was very good for us chocolateholics-$7.
Good Exercise--short run earlier that day but yesterday I took a cycle spinning class at another fitness center with the people from our church that are going to do Ride the Rockies. Learned some new things about heart monitors--women's hearts beat faster because their hearts are smaller, a good recovery rate is 15-20 beats in a minute from peak after you stop and Lance Armstrong has a resting (right after you wake up) heart rate of 36. I went from 152 to 135 and my somewhat of resting rate is 58, I say somewhat because it is difficult to get your heart rate when you first wake without already having your monitor on--I didn't.
Great Retirement--Our planner reminded us that we are blessed to receive a pension that we can live on.

Jazz and Praise Music

Our church small group attended a Dave LeMieux & House of Soul jazz/praise music session (go on line to listen to them) and listened to the Senior Pastor at Colorado Community Church, Robert Gelinas. It was held at the Soil Dove nightclub (no we didn't stay out that late-a 7-10 thing). We all met and ate at the Tavern (bar, restaurant above) in the Stapleton area--Jan and I would recommend the Kolby beef sliders--the small hamburgers were outstanding. Happy hour had prime rib at $15, the guys said it was very good, especially for the price.
Most of you know I am a country music guy, mainly because I don't understand jazz and blues. Well Robert's book "Composing a Jazz-shaped Faith--Finding the Grove" talks about how jazz and our faith is related. He gave a short lesson on jazz and how it relates to the Bible, syncopation--the off beat that jazz is noted for-Christ was always looking at things that we don't see, Improvisation--jazz players play their own piece/part of the music-I am not sure if I got this one--he related improvisation to Christ knowing when the women touched his robe as he was walking toward the area where he was crucified. Call & Response--jazz players play in this manner-Christ calls we respond and he responds to us.

The Soil Dove (this nightclub started across the street from the Brown Palace-a soiled dove was a name given to prostitutes in the olden days, the building downtown was the house of ill repute and a tunnel links it with the Brown Palace.)is hosting 7 sessions throughout the summer on the book as well as some great music from Dave and his group. We plan to attend a couple more. Want to learn more check out his web site.

Kenosha Pass

We were tired, but Sadie is not! Snowshoeing if that is what you want to call it--there is more snow at home in Aurora than on top of Kenosha Pass (just before you go down into South Park). Very windy, not that cold. Our snowshoes helped with the slipping. We let her run at first until she chased up a coyote and then ran after it--not a good thing. So she ended up being on lease the rest of the time. One other hike last summer we tried to teach her to walk behind me and in front of Jan. To our amazement she remembered. Bob and I would like for her to put her toys away--she is close but having some trouble, but today she picked up being shot and playing dead. Problem is--she is smarter than her trainer.
Good Food--Breakfast at Sunrise cafe, I had cranberry pancakes with my eggs, bacon and sausage, Jan had an omelet with mushroom, asparagus, avocado--that kept us full for quite awhile. Then, we enjoyed a homemade sandwich and some refreshing water. Oh, and a couple of Cementine oranges.
Good People--met an older than us guy on the trail, by himself. You could tell he was an outdoorsman. He gave us some good ideas of trails for this summer near where we were.
Great Exercise-maybe 3 miles. 1:45--800+ calories.

Is it spring or winter?

This is Colorado for ya--60's one day (my favorite temperature). Daddy finch (red chest) and the mom looking for a place to build a nest. Thanks to Bob they will be house hunting somewhere else because all our outside speakers are covered.



What a difference a day makes. We really needed the moisture, about 10+ inches of it. Amanda said that Boulder got about a foot. The mountains 2+ feet. Kevin is going to like that when he travels through. For these pictures I used our old camera because it has a better zoom--note the 2005 date stamp. Lots of sledders out.

Dogs and Geese.

On my 25 mile ride to Cherry Creek Resevoir dam and back home I encountered some pedistrians on the bike trail. They were honking at me, should have been the other way around. Kinda cool on Friday, around 60 but no wind--that's good.
Kortney and Paul's dog Maddy always crosses her feet when she is down--whata dog--so funny!

Visitors!

Sister Sharon and Bob visited with us for a few days. Great conversations, good food and refreshments. We all visited our Dry Dock Brewery and brought home a growler of Doobybak--as Jan says it tasted like beer-ya, pour me another beer! Bob worked on teaching our dog visitors some new tricks. Amanda went to Georgia (Jacksonville, Fl, Savannah, Brunswich) to visit her boyfriend Ben (Customs and Border Protection Academy training until May) on Thursday and left Hallie. For spring break Kortney/Paul flew to Boise/Sun Valley to ski, snow shoe, soak in the river's thermo pools and catch up with Kevin. Maddie stayed with us. The dogs know who the boss is--the old matriarch--Hallie. Now that she went home--Maddie tries to get Sadie to play, we learned that they walk better side by side rather than mom walk one and me the other.