Monday, January 31, 2011

home sweet home.

i finally made it back to denver.
although i sort of lost the car at the airport, convinced a shuttle driver to drive me all around the parking lot (both parking lots) to look for it, and then finally gave up and called the emergency number and told them i lost my car, which i should have just done in the first place because after giving them the license plate number they told me exactly where it was. (how do you like that run-on sentence?)
anyway, good to know for the future i suppose.

the dogs were so happy to be home.
and the cats, well, that's another story. let's just say, i do not love them and if anyone wants a cat or two they're welcome to mine.

this morning i was studying at the table and looked over to see this:
bad dog

um, yes. the dogs are not allowed on the furniture. except for the fact that henry sleeps in the bed with us. and (after taking this picture) i called his name he just looked over at me, no guilt whatsoever. i guess this is why people buy slip-covered furniture.

Sunday, January 30, 2011

it's the little things in life ...

perfect morning spot

... hotels that have free wi-fi.
... verizon getting the iphone.
... a small break from a long winter.
... red-eye flights. (they go by so much faster)
... kona coffee in kona.
... waffles.
... falling asleep to the sound of the ocean for a week.
... actually mailing out presents on time for once.
... organic drycleaners.
... the excitement of going home after a long trip.
... palm trees.
... rainbow flip flops.
... getting the window seat on the plane.
... sunglasses from target. (so when i lose/break them i don't feel so bad)
... nice people.
... swimming in the ocean.
... live bands.
... long, hot showers.
... laying next to charlie on the beach. all day.
... reading 127 hours over charlie's shoulder on the plane.
... getting our seats moved next to each other for a 7 hour flight.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

cause sometimes you have to say no.

i saw a mongoose here.

still in kona. today is my last day here. actually my plane leaves at midnight so here's hoping that i sleep well. i cannot wait to go and pick up the doggies, who i know will be covered in filth, take them to get baths, and then home to grocery shop and pass out early.
charlie already left. he's headed to las vegas for this week and then i'll pick him up from the airport on thursday. let's just say it was a challenge packing for multiple destinations. we shared a suitcase. that was interesting.

i sort of felt bad this week for not spending more time during the day with people.
most of the time they were brunching, beaching, etc..
being in school sort of makes doing these things difficult, because although i'm in hawaii i'm missing class to be here and unlike work, you can't really take a vacation from school.
i know people probably think i'm being antisocial because can i possibly be studying for three days straight? the answer is yes. yes i can. trust me i would love to be out by the beach (and i did do a decent amount of reading by the beach and pool). however, this is my last semester of grad school. last semester! and i really must pass all of my classes. so i said no to the beach multiple times. i still went to all the dinners which were amazing but i spent my days studying. like the good student that i wasn't in undergrad.

so on my last day in hawaii i'll be doing some more studying. and then next year when i come back i'll be free to read as many fiction books as i want.
i can't wait. :)

Friday, January 28, 2011

today feels like spring.

more wind.  it was very windy.

i'm still in hawaii for another day or so but it's cloudy and cool here.
i definitely did not bring enough warm clothes when packing this time. i guess i got a little excited for sun and then forgot that the temperature is not that warm. especially at night.

i've gotten so much done while i've been here. it's been amazing. the only thing that isn't amazing is the fact that i'm covered in hives and therefore hopped up on benadryl. the hives make figuring out what to wear pretty difficult. as a general rule i try not to show up to dinner with a very obvious allergic reaction, however when you pack for 80 degree weather it doesn't leave you with many options. also, the effects of the benadryl are very ... interesting. i thought it would just make me drowsy, which it definitely does, but with some other interesting side effects, too. i'm looking forward to coming back to a state that i'm not allergic to.

however, it's been so nice to get some sun. spend tons of time reading by the pool and have 2 days alone with charlie. charlie's also been popping benadryl, too. except instead of hives he looks like he has pink eye and can't stop crying. he's just allergic to pretty much every flower/plant/tree that ever existed. we're a mess and definitely not cut out for tropical island living.

but for now i'm researching, reading, and writing while outside.
see you when i return to 30 degree weather.

Friday, January 21, 2011

it's the little things ...

DSC_0046

... the fact that my husband wakes up before me in the mornings, takes the pups out, and makes the coffee. seriously, it is amazing & i love you.
... barnes and noble free 1-3 day shipping.
... the fact that once in a while, i have the answers.
... my reproductive bio class. makes me glad i was a bio major and super glad i wasn't pre-med. seriously, people. life is not a competition.
... getting newspaper and magazine articles in the mail from my dad.
... whole food's black and white cookies.
... spending an afternoon in the children's section of the bookstore. so many good books i forgot about!
... watching house hunters with charlie.
... looking forward to spending 2 mindless days on the beach.
... whole foods salad bar.
... reading in bed.
... champagne corks.
... 'cheap' textbooks.
... the last first day of school.
... people who give me their parking passes.
... cleaning the house so when we get back from a trip all i have to do is grocery shop.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

grumpy.

lately i have been grumpy. and for no good reason.
i know it's january and if anything i should have the post-holiday blues but that's not it. i was happy so see january. i love a new year. and this year i was looking forward to the end of the holidays. they're stressful.
we're going to hawaii in 4 days. something i am very excited about. i'm annoyed at the amount of work i'm bringing with me, but still really happy for some vitamin d. maybe i'm just grumpy because of the weather and because i haven't walked the dogs in forever because when i get home it's pitch black outside. or because we have no food in our house and i refuse to go grocery shopping before we leave. or because the books i ordered from barnes and noble have yet to ship. even though they were supposed to ship two days ago. yes, i'm definitely irritated about that. i feel like it's the dog walking thing.
when we get back my goal is to start walking them in the mornings. unless there is snow on the sidewalks. then i get to sleep in.
but soon i'll be laying in a hammock looking at this & i have a feeling i won't be so grumpy then.

DSC_0453

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

DSC_0155

"Reality. It’s so much more interesting than living happily ever after."

Saturday, January 15, 2011

lately...


dinner.
my dinner on wednesday. i miss trader joes.

i love home.
even with it's dirty laundry & constant cleaning & lack of prepared food.
i was gone all week long for work and there's just something so nice coming home to my bed, with my dogs, and my couch.
also, the northeast is freaking freezing. i'll take single digits in colorado any day over 20-something and 2 feet of snow in new england.
we got 2 feet of snow in one day, and when i went to the hotel front desk to ask for a shovel to dig my car out the guy looked at me like i had three heads. 'um, excuse me, sir. my car is buried in snow how do you expect me to get out?'.

to celebrate my return to colorado i bought a lamp.
it's a good thing i don't travel for work often because i hate it. i have no problem being home when charlie's traveling, but there's something about a crappy hotel room that just feels so lonely.

i think i mentioned that charlie's sister is having a baby soon. yesterday i went shopping to get a present for her shower. when did babies get so complicated? i was wandering around trying to figure out what all this stuff was. we finally settled on things i could figure out: books. the woman at the book store was trying to help me find some books and she was like "oh, how old is the child?". um, negative 2 months? is it not appropriate to buy books for unborn children? i figure one day he'll be old enough to appreciate them. i know i'm weird about books but if i was having a child i'd appreciate books a lot more than some pacifiers and crib bumper pads.

this week school starts & then we're off to hawaii.
i cannot wait for some sun and some time to do a lot of research/paper writing.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

it's the little things ...

henry

... chocolate covered pretzels. where have these been all my life?
... putting away the christmas decorations.
... hawaii in 2 weeks.
... a brand-new, big book.
... coffee in the afternoon.
... a friday night date with my husband.
... waking up on a saturday, thinking it's really late, and finding out it's really early.
... a saturday walk with the dogs on a cold saturday.
... my new $2 beanie. [that i wear to work because it's so freaking cold.]
... jason's deli's salads.
... everything bagels.
... boots, wool socks, tea, & hats.
... adele on a saturday morning.
... charlie getting excited about reading.
... a clean refrigerator.
... a clean garage.
... streaming netflix.
... 12 month magazine subscriptions for $5.

Saturday, January 8, 2011

DSC_0204

"i still find each day too short for all the thoughts i want to think, all the walks i want to take, all the books i want to read, and all the friends i want to see."

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

2011.

it's that time of year again ...
celebrating having my car smashed

for [family]
... make a trip in june to visit our new nephew & watch my sister graduate.
... visit telluride again for our anniversary.
... ski 3 times with charlie.
... get better about returning phone calls/emails. as in return them within a week.
... send a birthday card to everyone this year. on time.

for [serious]
... graduate. 3 more classes, including chemistry. ugh!
... submit my bfr paper to a journal.
... non-bloggable goal #1.
... non-bloggable goal #2.
... save some moolah.

for [fun]
... climb another 14er. my vote is for mt. elbert & charlie's is for mt. bierstadt. we'll see.
... rent/stalk craigslist for snowshoes and find some local trails.
... convince charlie to try skijoring with me.
... walk the dogs 4 times a week.

for [the home]
... find some new easy meals to make on a regular basis.
... make a monthly menu & shop (okay, have charlie shop) once a week.
... redo our table. either sand and stain or sand and paint.
... organize the storage closet in the garage & get rid of things we don't need. like my 7 boxes of teaching stuff.

Monday, January 3, 2011

it's the little things ...

holiday edition.
ChristmasTree

... my cat curled under the christmas tree.
... church on christmas eve with my family.
... the pastor telling everyone not to worry about their crying children during the service because babies cry. duh.
... henry helping everyone open their presents.
... our christmas morning egg casserole.
... the charlie brown christmas cd.
... a christmas day hike with the family.
... our permanent christmas message on our dry erase board because my sister used a sharpie to write 'merry christmas'.
... christmas i-chatting with long distance family members.
... using the christmas platter my sister bought us for our fancy dinner.
... tea and caramel pie.
... celebrating new years when the ball actually dropped.
... champagne toasts to 2011 at 8:30 pm.
... how happy my mom was when charlie 'toasted' to their dog.
... spending new years eve cooking.
... snow on new years eve! and taking henry to play in it for about 10 minutes before it got too cold to be outside.
... resolutions.
... spending time with family, sitting by the fire, wearing charlie's wool socks, drinking tea, and listening to van morrison.
... my mom's pea soup.
... coffee and slow present opening on christmas morning.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

devil's thumb.

DSC_0146

the monday after christmas my parents and i drove out to devil's thumb ranch.
they had been last year to go x-country skiing and have been talking about how beautiful it was all year long. charlie and alex were over skiing at mary jane and i debated going with them, but figured i could downhill with charlie any weekend i wanted.

DSC_0183

so henry, my parents and i piled into my carolla and caused a small traffic jam on route 40. i'm oh so happy my little car made it safety to tabernash although it wasn't exactly easy getting there.

i had decided to go snowshoeing while my parents skied and while everyone tried to talk me out of it, i'm so glad i didn't listen because i loved snowshoeing. loved as in, forget skis i want snowshoes. cheaper, more practical, and both the dogs and i can get some exercise. and the best thing about snowshoeing, i stayed warm the entire time! every time i go skiing i freeze on the lift, which i hate.
DSC_0152


anyway, devil's thumb ranch. it was beautiful. and peaceful. and i never thought i'd be the kind of person to pick a snowy cold mountain over a warm beach, but this place won me over.

DSC_0110



Saturday, January 1, 2011

DSC_0177

oh hello, 2011. (that's twenty-eleven, in case you were wondering.)
i'm half sad to see the holidays over, half excited for a fresh start in 2011. not that i didn't thoroughly enjoy 2010, it was a great year, but i always get a little excited for a new year.
excited to put away the christmas decorations, set a few goals, throw out the remainder of the holiday cookies that i definitely do not need to be eating, and clean the house.

christmas etc. has been great. my family was with us for 10 days and just in case i could possibly forget, i am reminded just how much i love and miss them. i might have gotten a bit teary when we dropped them off at the airport at the crack of dawn this morning.
we, okay my mom, cooked an insane amount of food during the past week. in fact we never ate out once, and charlie and i have a refrigerator stuffed full of leftovers to feed us this week. and if you know my mom she makes amazing food, from scratch. as in, we had buttermilk pancakes for breakfast the other morning, made with actual buttermilk, not the way i usually make them where i mix water and pancake mix.

i know i complained a bit about working this past week when everyone was off playing, and i have to admit i did get a bit jealous when charlie was off having fun with my family and i was stuck at work. it's more the fact that i see them twice a year and therefore feel like i should be able to spend as much time as possible with them. and then i got sick this week, so sick that on thursday i attempted to go to work which only lasted about 45 minutes before i realized i couldn't even see straight and went home to sleep the rest of the day. but thanks to my mom's cooking and charlie's trips to the store to buy me vitamin c, and tissues, and a humidifier, i'm feeling much better.

today i've done loads and loads of laundry, we broke out our new drill and saw (thanks dad!) and rehung some curtains and fixed our 'dining room table', we booked our hotel for hawaii, and we're slowly trying to get our house back in order. three straight weeks of houseguests will make for a pretty disorderly home. i'm so glad we were able to see family this month, but as charlie said 'cheers to getting our house back'. he has also informed me that he is not doing dishes for an entire month.

i'm looking forward to relaxing this weekend, setting some goals, and to what 2011 has in store for us. happy new year!