Headed To The Sun

Gina and Leslie are headed to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico for Gina's niece's
wedding. This morning, we took them to the airport for their flight.
Usually they are giving Lynn or me a ride to our flight, so it was a nice
change of pace that we could return the favor.  I'm slightly jealous since
they are going on a trip to a foreign land, while we are at home.  However,
we get to watch their kitty, Prometheus, while they are gone and that's a
treat.

No Fortune in My Cookie!

I went out to dinner last night with Leslie and Gina and at the
end of the meal, we were given three fortune cookies. Gina
pointed out that the decision was made for us, whose cookie
was whose since the waitress placed one in front of each of us.

But...my cookie contained NO FORTUNE!

How will I know which direction my life will take?

What are my lucky numbers?

I don't know how I will cope without these answers. This is the
second time in my life this has happened to me. What does
this mean!?!?

The Wieinermobile!

I am a very lucky person. At least three times in my life,
I have seen the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile! Today, it was
stopped at the local Safeway and Lynn and I went with Leslie
and Gina to go Hail the Conquering Wiener! We managed to
get some cool stickers, and of course a Wiener Whistle and
some other fun stuff. However, when I mentioned that back
in 1995 I got to sit behind the wheel of the Wienermobile, the
Hotdogger (one of two people that ride with each Wienermobile)
told me that that was "against the rules!". Uh, ok.
Anyway, we enjoyed our view, listened to children scream,
had our photos taken and then were on our way. Grand Junction
seems to be a pretty popular spot for the Wienermobile to stop,
so I'm sure we'll see it again soon!

IKEA VÄRDE

Lynn and I are huge fans of IKEA. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately
for our budget) our closest IKEA is in Salt Lake City, which is about four
hours from our house. We feel they have quality products at reasonable
prices. Since our house was built in 1946, it sometimes lacks some of
the modern conveniences that today's homes are built with. We try to
rectify that by making subtle upgrades. We decided we needed extra
cabinet space in our kitchen and specifically went last month to SLC to
buy this cabinet...The VÄRDE.


Now, anyone that has ever purchased a piece of furniture from IKEA knows
that they aren't always the easiest things to assemble. Oh, sure, there are
plenty of instructions...pages of them. However, the instructions go on and
on and since IKEA and it's products are located in dozens of countries around
the world, none of the instructions have written instructions. Only pictures of
little people happily constructing said product. I cracked up when I found
this photo of how Stonehenge would have been constructed if IKEA had anything
to do with it.


Pretty much the only writing in the whole instruction "textbook" lists a warning in
multiple languages about the ability or to attach items to a wall. If this isn't
"greek" enough to the person putting the furniture together, this warning also
comes in "Greek"!!!


Not exactly having a great track record of peacefully putting constructible items
together, there was no way Lynn and I were going to be able to get the VÄRDE
together without killing each other! Leslie came to the rescue on Mother's Day
and helped Lynn put it all together. I stayed out of the way and organized books
downstairs. (COWARD!) The few times I came upstairs, there wasn't any blood on
the floor and they weren't chasing each other around the room with rabid looks on
their eyes and knives in their hands. In the end, this is the finished product! it
looks great and fits well in our kitchen. Now, if we can just figure out where we're
going to fit Stonehenge!

Borders = Sad

We went to our local Borders yesterday and with Leslie and Gina's help,
we were able to load our bookcases up and haul them home. It was
sad though to see how empty the store was. It's now officially closed
and it sure did look like it. There were a few fixtures left that people
hadn't picked up yet, but all the things that made it such a fun place
to go were gone. We still have a Barnes and Noble in town...but it's
not the same.

Glenwood Hot Springs

Glenwood Springs is about 90 minutes east of our house and it's one
of our favorite places in the area to visit. We don't get to visit as often
as we'd like, but we've been looking forward to soaking in the hot springs
for several months now. Leslie and Gina went with us and we spent most
of the afternoon just taking in the hot water and steamy goodness! The
water in the large pool averages around 90 degrees and is comfortable,
but the therapy pool which is smaller, but still much bigger than a backyard
pool, averages about 105 degrees and feels awesome! Glenwood is more
in the mountains than Grand Junction and the altitude is a bit higher.
Therefore, winter hangs on a bit longer here. Mother Nature reminded us
of that as it started to snow really heavily and the wind was blowing very
hard. It made the water feel that much better!

Time to Fly

I started my latest flight to the far south today. Leslie and Gina were nice
enough to take me to the airport. Instead of being able to make a short
55 minute flight to Denver, I had to fly all the way to Dallas and then to
Denver. I had a rare window seat and took lots of fun photos of the leaves
turning over the San Juan Mountains and all kinds of crop circles! After a
three hour layover in Dallas, I was pleasantly upgraded to a First Class Seat
for the two hour flight. What amazed me was when we received a meal
(which in itself is amazing on a domestic flight these days), we were given
a real knife and fork...made of metal! As my friend Ben later said on
Facebook, "So I guess the way to attack
the plane would be to check your box-cutter at the gate, but get first
class seats. Because no one ever hijacks a plane from first class. Hijackers
fly coach." I thought the exact same thing. Oddly, they didn't
give us a spoon. Is the spoon the new weapon of choice for terrorists?
Anyway, the day was about three times longer than it needed to be, but
it was uneventful and I picked up about 1200 Frequent Flyer miles instead
of 250. That's a good thing!

Happy 4th of July

We had a very laid-back holiday at our house with a nice
visit from Leslie and our friend, Valerie. Instead of the typical
hamburger and hot dog meal on the grill, we had Green Chile
that Valerie brought which with the beans that Lynn cooked,
made great wet burritos. Combined with the Tamales we
buy from the Helping Hands Kitchen at Child & Migrant Services,
we celebrated with a Southwest flair. In the evening, we walked
over to 12th Street and the Mesa State College campus, where
we watched the fireworks in Lincoln Park. A nice ending to a
fun day.

The Kitties

These are our kitties. Well, technically neither one of them are
"our" kitties, but both live in our house. Chloe (in front) is our
adopted cat from the no-kill shelter here in town. She's staying
with us, but we need to find a place for her to live when we head
south in a few months. Prometheus (in back) is the cat that Lynn
"borrowed" from Leslie while I was on the Ice this past season.
Usually we just call him "Kitty" since Prometheus is too hard to
say. He'll be spending time with Leslie when we head south.
In the meantime, we're enjoying their company.

It's Chile Season!

It's nearly autumn and with that comes chiles. Most
of them aren't grown commercially around here, but
we're close enough to New Mexico that we get more
than our fair share. At several places around town, you
can see them. At stands large and small, with barrell
shaped roasters turning slowly, you can smell them
all the way down the street. Today, Leslie brought
some Big Jim Chiles home from her friend's farm and
they look awesome! I'm looking forward to growing
some just like them next summer in our garden!

Little Park

After running a few errands today, Lynn and Leslie and I
took a drive. I had planned on just driving into the Redlands
to look at all the houses that we can't afford. However,
bridgework on the road leading to Colorado National
Monument was closed so we took the detour. This
detour led us through Little Park. I feel almost ashamed
that I never knew that this road or area existed. It's a
really pretty area that takes you through BLM land and
lots of really cool hiking areas that I want to explore in
greater detail someday. The road ends up in Glade Park,
where we've been many times and eventually leads to the
Monument. The weather was perfect and I'm looking
forward to coming back to this area soon. Next time,
maybe I'll remember my camera.