Husband + baking = pumpkin cupcakes

Last night, I convinced Charlie to bake these awesome cupcakes.

Pumpkin with cream cheese frosting.

They are my new favorite dessert. Sadly, Charlie hates them.

This means that I'll have to consume 24 cupcakes all by myself.

I almost killed him for throwing away half of the cupcake he didn't like.

I think I have a dessert problem.

Oh, Jeep ...

Now I know what you're thinking, "that is not a Jeep", and you're right, it's not. WHY is it not a Jeep? Well, that's a good question. That's not a Jeep because Jeep sucks. That's not a Jeep because they make shitty cars that refused to ever be fixed. That's not a Jeep because our Jeep is a piece of crap that would rather spend its time in the mountains then with us. That's not a Jeep because even though labor prices are twice as high in the mountains they still can't fix a vehicle. That's not a Jeep because the gods are enjoying messing with us as much as possible. Take your pick.

So I mentioned before that Charlie's Jeep sort of got stuck in the mountains. And then that they couldn't fix it because the part was on backorder. Anyway, they finally were able to fix it, and on Friday we drove out to get it. We pick it up and on the way back I notice that the Jeep is spewing smoke like it's on fire. So I call Charlie. No answer. I call again. No answer. I honk. Nothing. Finally I cut him off and pull over on the side of the interstate. People must have thought I was some crazed lunatic. Honking, swerving, yelling and waving my phone. I was lucky there were no cops around. Anyway, we pull over and notice that not only is it smoking it's leaking fluid. A lot of it. Lovely. So we call the Jeep dealer and they're like "bring it back". Ok, I officially hate you.

We got back to the dealer and it was like pulling into a garage at the Indy 500. About 5 people come running up, pop the hood, start looking under the car ... all to say, yeah, it's definitely leaking fluid. Hmmm ... do you think the trail leading into the garage might have given that one away?

So now we're waiting and waiting and waiting for them to fix it. Finally, they figure out that they can't fix it because they have no idea where the leak is coming from. Awesome. So they gave us that fancy car as a loaner for a while. I finally feel like a Coloradan. I figure about 99.76% of the population drive Subarus.

Now the fancy loaner Forester is a stick shift, which my ever supportive, husband told me, "you can't drive this. You don't really know how to drive a manual. You do it wrong." What? I do it wrong? Do I get from point A to B without stalling, grinding gears, or causing traffic pile ups? Seriously, he should really know me better at this point. I am like a 3 year old. Tell me not to touch something; I'm going to touch it. Tell me I can't drive the car; you can bet I'm going to drive it. So of course I did. And of course I could. I mean, there's really only one way to drive a stick shift. Unless you're driving a race car or unless I'm missing something. I'm hoping that we can just keep this and leave the Jeep at the dealer. I doubt it. I can't imagine anyone wanting to keep that Jeep.

*Sigh*

So, I turned the job down. :(

A little background: I was offered a short term job (8 weeks) starting next week. However, the time conflicted majorly with school. I would have had to completely miss my Friday class (which, only happens once a week) and miss half of another class because I wouldn't be able to get there on time. This job would have lead to a full-time position next year, which is something I really wanted.

I decided not to take the job for a lot of reasons. But mainly, I already shelled out tuition money for the semester, which I can't get any back. And as Charlie reminded me, I did actually move to Colorado to go to school. I knew that working full time and going to school full time wasn't going to work. Even though it was only for 8 weeks, it would be enough to mess up my semester.

What sucks is that when I called to turn down the offer, the woman couldn't get me off the phone fast enough. I had really wanted to explain the entire situation to her so that she understood that I tried to make it work and that I hadn't just wasted her time by showing up to the interview.

I'm going to go take this guy for a walk and then study some more before my classes.

Ok, sometimes it's the big things

I don't believe in fate, karma, destiny, or any of those things. And I realize there are larger things than a job, like family, friends, etc. and all of that good stuff. But sometimes I think that if there really is a big man up there he's got one hell of a sense of humor. I can't get interviews for most of the jobs I apply for [ones that really, I don't want]. Internships have completely eluded me, in part because of the massive applicant pool and also because I keep applying for internships I'm not qualified for. But the jobs ... I'm way TOO qualified for.

And then there's the jobs that I really really want. The stuff that I did before I moved to Colorado and always had plans to return to. Those jobs, I get offers for, and because of some small, tiny detail can never take. I was just recently offered another one that would be nearly impossible for me to take because I happened to think it was a good idea to take a full load of classes this semester. It's too late to drop the class, but if I turn this position down, it closes a lot of doors. A lot. Stupid masters degree. Stupid Colorado state rules. Stupid me for taking so many stupid classes.

Ok, rant over.

It's the little things ...

... a cold, rainy Saturday = an excuse to stay in all day.

... a pot roast cooking in the oven.

... eating the pot roast with warm crusty bread.

... raindrops on the window.

... getting ready for fall.

... easy homework.

... snuggling with Henry.

... sleeping in a bed piled with quilts.

... the sound of a cork popping out of a new bottle of wine.

... a good movie on t.v.

... cozy sweaters.

... mums. [the flowers]

... a clean house.

... Friends re-runs.

... clean laundry.

... getting a seat on the bus.

... aspen trees turning yellow.

... a good hike.

Hiking Breck.

This post could probably also be entitled "My dumb dog" but I think I have too many of those. The past week one of my friends from high school/college was visiting. Despite only having 1 car and having to walk to Sprouts 3 times a day for food, we had a great time. She cooked for us, cleaned for us, exercised the dogs, and took a million pictures. I turn my houseguests into slaves. What? They have to earn their keep.

Anyway, we went to Breckenridge on Monday to hike and have lunch. We did the McCullough Gulch hike, which was described as having "majestic waterfalls & unsurpassed beauty". I think who ever wrote that description might have been slightly high at the time. It was pretty and nice, but majestic? Not so much. I was expecting waterfalls that rival Hawaii after that. It was pretty much just water flowing over rock.

There were some pretty views.

But be careful that you don't wander off the trail. People don't mess around in the mountains.

Of course I'm too cool to be scared of an angry man with a shotgun.

The hike ended at a glacier fed lake. At this point Charlie wandered off in one direction & Alex, Henry, and I followed the trail. And then Henry realized that Charlie was on the opposite side of the lake and decided he had to follow him. So he jumped into the lake, which was freezing, and then slowly started to slow down ...

If you look closely you can seen Henry (tiny black dot in the water) and Charlie, closer to the ice.

Sadly, my dog is not the smartest of the bunch. He realized that Charlie was close and that I was on the other side of the lake, and couldn't decided which way to go. By the way, this water is FREEZING, and spending too much time in it would most definitely lead to hypothermia. So I decided to run to the opposite side of the lake and get him out.

You can see Henry (who at this point had at least jumped out of the lake) and I'm the tiny green shape in the middle of all the shrubs.

Once I got him back to where we were he was shaking so badly I decided to put my jacket on him to help him warm up. Even after he had the jacket on it took him a while just to stop shaking. Silly dog.

He recovered, we hiked back down, and made it back to Breck for some lunch. And it only took us 3 hours to get home that night. I had completely forgotten about all of the traffic that we would hit.

Note: All of these pictures (except for the one she's in) were taken by the lovely, talented, soon-to-be UK resident, Alex. She threatened to use her fancy law degree to sue me for copyright infringement if I didn't credit her.

What a life...