What to say?

I know that I've had less of a presence on here over the last month or so, but I really haven't had all that much to report on. I suppose it's the downside of having a blog that's not dedicated to a particular topic or not having kids yet to report on!

But...I suppose even everyday life can deserve an update from time to time.

These last few weeks have been hectic, but not for the usual reasons. Work's been busy, absolutely, and I'll probably be dedicating some evenings to it this week. But the hectic part last week was a baby blanket that I was crocheting. I have fallen in love with crocheting as a craft and like having something to do with my hands while I watch TV in the evening...and it was my forgetting my own afghan at my parents house over the holiday that inspired me to create a baby blanket for Lande's sister's shower this last weekend.

It turned out really well, all yellow, green and white. But...there was a funny part that I did not think through in terms of the two weeks I gave myself to make the blanket. As the rows get longer, the time it takes to finish a row gets longer. That's right - seems like a pretty basic assumption, but it was going so well and quickly at the beginning that it didn't occur to me that wrapping it up might take all the time I had in the last week! I'd look and think, only 10 more rows! And then, it hit me that each row was taking an hour to complete, lol!

Anyway, it was an excellent learning experience and I can't wait to do another one.


Lande was here over the weekend, and things are going well. He's easy to be with, I really enjoy his company, we discovered the joy of playing Lego Starwars together (not a bad Saturday night activity!), and are making plans for the next few visits. The hard part these days it taking him back to the airport. This long distance thing is hard...not tough to commit to, but hard to be without the other person when you're so happy spending time together.

The only other thing I'll make a quick note of here is that my grandmother was admitted to hospice over the weekend. She's had Alzheimers for some time now, and unfortunately this is the nature of the beast...but she will be the first grandparent I've lost. I know how fortunate I am that all four (well, technically 5, I love my step-grandmother!) grandparents are still alive, but I'm not completely sure what to do with this situation since there won't be a service and therefore no need to go back east to see my grandad. If you're reading, say a little prayer for my family as we go through these next few transitions.

Not meaning to be a downer of post today, but wanted to share a little of what's been going on...hope everyone is having a decent start to the week.

Happy New Year!

Wow - 2010! Hard to believe that we're at the start of a new decade, and I'm so thankful that 4 days in, it's started off well. It's been almost a month since I've been on here, so I've got some serious catching up to do for everyone. I suppose that I have so much to catch people up on is largely why it's been a month since I've been on here!

Ok - so Colorado Christmas. The concert was the weekend of 12/11-12/13, 4 total performances that were wonderful and hysterically funny all at one time. I am proud to say that one of our own, CSO Chorus member Sydney Fisher, was the soloist this year and did an amazing job. She walked the line just perfectly between classical and pop styles, which lent itself so well to the music and was just fantastic to listen to. Another reminder of how lucky I am to be in a group with so much talent!

Then, as those of you who have been to the show before know, Santa makes an appearance every year. This year, though, the Grinch showed up in all his glory for the 2nd half of the show! Friday night (opening night) was not terribly tight, and things didn't really go as planned for the Grinch's appearance. What was supposed to happen? Grinch shows up, talks about delaying Santa, sings "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" with the kids, and then has a conversation with the real Santa (who arrives) and winds up reading The Night Before Christmas to the kids and audience.

What actually happened? The Grinch showed up and made it through the song, but when Santa and Grinch went to look for the book in Santa's bag, they couldn't find it! Pretty soon, they're pulling the stuffing out of the bag (which was NOT audience ready - it was tissue paper, unwrapped boxes, bubble wrap) and the conductor goes down to help them. The Grinch says,"I know where it is, I'll be right back, stall them!" and goes tearing off the stage to try to find the book backstage.

He bounds back onstage a minute later and says, in his character's voice,"They TELL me it's IN there!"

At this point, the chorus, the orchestra and the entire audience is rolling since it's clear this wasn't staged but they're playing it off so well!

Eventually, they do find the book at the very bottom of the bag and the rest of the show goes on with no snags.

As for the two Saturday shows and the Sunday show, this bit was such a hit that they actually wound up writing it into the show, unbeknownst to any of the other performers (the first time they did it, Scott - our conductor - turned and looked at us like, really, again?) He totally got us, since the next step was to pull out a pink, shamwow snuggie, which Scott announced as "just what he wanted this year". By Sunday, Scott actually started the Night Before Christmas piece while wearing the pink shamwow snuggie!! :)

So, just goes to show that some of the best theatre is a result of an accident!

The following weekend, Dec 18-19, I got to do a little traveling and went to Springfield for the weekend to see Lande. He had invited me to the big holiday ball there, so we got totally spruced up and had a great time at the party (again, I do have pictures but I have to have 2 seconds at home to post them. It's on my list for this week!). But really, it was a great all-around weekend to see his place (really pretty apartment, the upstairs of a house), meet his pets (his cat Roo is tiny and sweet but a little shy, and one of the other cats in the house, Murphy, is 22 lbs and loved me immediately - apparently he has a thing for females), and see some of the town. We lost tons of time just talking, I got to see his pictures from when he lived in Russia, and I was introduced to a TV show called Dead Like Me. Great show, very sad that there are only two seasons since the writing is clever and the cast is excellent.

It was hard to come home, but at least he was headed to CO for the holidays two days after I left!

Then, we get into Christmas and New Year's. Christmas Eve and early morning I spent at my brother's house since I wanted to be with my little nephew. He still thinks the best part of gifts are the paper and bows, but he's a smart little guy and figures out all of the toys quickly. He did get a wagon from Santa, which he decided was great for crawling in, then crawling out, then crawling in, then crawling out...you get the idea. After that, we went to our parent's house for the rest of Christmas day and took it slow and easy. All in all, we had a great Christmas, lots of games and toys for all, and quality time with each other.

PS - for the record, it is possible to find Lego Starwars for Wii. I have it for PS3. BEST GAME EVER!

Last but not least, partying in Ft. Collins for New Year's. Excellent party, lots of fun people, and the highlight for me - lighting off my first-ever firecrackers!! I'm sure we drove the neighbors crazy with the fireworks, but they were SO worth it!

Now, sadly, it is back to the grind and there's little possibility right now of things slowing down much at work. But, I'm going to try to cram in as much as possible in my 8-9 hours so that I can have a life outside of work...I am such a happier person when there's room for better balance, so I need to find a way to create that better balance!

I hope you all had wonderful holidays filled with lots of loved ones and joy, and here's to the start of what I hope will be a terrific year for us all!

20 Degrees = Warmer?!?

I just have to share that it's been an icebox here in Denver for the past few days. Single to low double digit highs, the kind of cold where you walk outside and it literally takes your breath away. In fact, it tried to snow yesterday and it couldn't even do that properly...too cold!

I heard on NPR this morning, as they were giving the weather report:

"The Denver area will have sunshine and warmer temperatures - a high of 20."

That's right - it's been so cold that 12 degrees below freezing is still considered a "warm-up"! Looking at my Weather Bug on my computer, it just reached 0 degrees this morning.

Ok - enough about that...time for some more hot coffee!

New Moon

Yup, that's right...we finally went to go see New Moon last Wednesday, and it was all I hoped for and more. Honestly, I didn't know what to expect out of the movie since I thought Twilight was terrible, but I was more than satisfied with the way they handled the second installment of the saga.

Let me say right off the bat - this was the best girls night we've had in a while, only because the running commentary during the movie was hilarious. Two of us who were team Edward were seated between two hard-core team Jacob fans, and so I was lucky enough to get the stereo effect of the comments (mostly about Jacob and his fantastic shirtlessness):

For instance, in the film, Jacob is teaching Bella to loosen up and ride a motercycle. Bella falls off, hits her head, and all of us who have read the book know that Jacob uses his shirt to bind her wound. This is the first scene where we get to see the new-and-improved Jacob, and here's what I hear from two of my friends:

"Ooo, here it comes!"
"Wait for it, wait for it..."
"5,4,3,2,1..." shirt comes off, followed by much giggling and squealing from all of us.

Another great moment, toward the end...Edward is driving Bella home, and shirtless Jacob leaps in front of the car forcing it to a stop. The quote this time?

"Well ya, I'd stop for that too!"

Finally, last share. The movie closes with Edward asking Bella to marry him, screen goes black. One of the 7 other people in the theatre, behind us and to the left sighs just loudly enough for us all to hear, causing the whole theatre to laugh.

This was one of those few movies where I actually think it was better because the theatre was empty...it let us all watch the movie almost as a single group. And the funniest part? I don't think any of us were teenagers.

Generally speaking, the writing was miles better, the storyline more consistent with the book, and the overall development of the characters was stronger. The holes that I noticed were understandable, based on the transition from page to movie. If you're into the Twilight saga, this movie is far more worth seeing than the original...and that gives me a lot of hope for Eclipse and Breaking Dawn, which in my opinion will need to be produced in just the right way for it to be excellent.

So, after all that - who wants to go again? :)

It's December Already!

It's so funny, I have thought of so many things to blog about over the last several weeks but haven't had a spare second to actually hop on here and expand on those thoughts. I'm sure everyone can identify, since the holidays always bring a certain amount of holy-geez-so-much-to-do-not-sure-how-to-do-it!

First, let me say I love love LOVE Thanksgiving and the weeks that follow leading up to Christmas. This Thanksgiving was different than in years past, since it was just my parents and me...my brother and his family was visiting the in-laws this year. While it didn't completely feel like Thanksgiving (I guess I've learned to need more chaos!), it was still wonderful to take it easy - start the turkey after 12 noon, drink wine before noon and still in pajamas, and play Wii and dominoes until we dropped. For the record, Mexican Train is an awesome way to kill a few hours!

I was also lucky enough to spend the remainder of the weekend in Fort Collins with Lande and his family. The time was much too short, but I'll take whatever I can get since this long-distance relationship doesn't allow for nearly as much together time as I would like! We had time to spend with our good friends Aaron and Colyn, to shop, to catch a movie and to catch up with each other before his 8:30am flight on Sunday. I have never been the first person in Starbucks before, but we hit them just as they were opening the doors on the way out of town. And...I didn't believe it, but it really is an hour and a half to DIA from Ft. Collins!

Let it suffice to say that for the rest of the day on Sunday, much sleeping ensued :).

And now, here it is, December again and already! My little nephew just turned 1 last Thursday and we had a family celebration on Saturday. My personal goal was to find a gift for him that would make noise - I'm on the offensive, since my brother would do the same given the opportunity. I chose an xylophone/keyboard, which turned out to be perfect. Andrew didn't really know what to do with it at first, but once I showed him how to use his whole hand (he's big on the one-finger thing right now) he completely got it. Beethoven's got nothing on my nephew, and I'm a proud auntie! I'll post photos as soon as I have two seconds to be at home...

And finally - my friend Niki nominated me for a blog award! Thanks, Niki, for keeping up with all of my stream of thought posts and random wanderings...it's wonderful encouragement for me to keep writing knowing at least a few people are reading! Love ya, mwa!

Paranormal Activity

I can't believe it's been two weeks since I've taken any time to post something! I've been working more hours at work, since we're now in the middle of planning season, and that's definitely making me limit computer time when I'm at home.

Anyway - on to the post.

We had a girls night last week and went to see Paranormal Activity. We actually ran into Kayla H. at the same theatre with a friend of hers - so it was kind of an extension of our usual group!

All of the reviews for the movie said that it was really good and really scary. I was so excited to go see a good scary movie that wasn't based all in gore...but maybe my expectations were too high.

Gotta say, I didn't love it. There were some good bump moments, and all of the night time footage was awesome. But the rest of the movie, when the boyfriend was holding the camera, all I could think was that he really sucked at knowing how to hold a video camera. Even normal people can hold it more steady!

So bottom line - it had a lot of promise, but for me the promise wasn't fulfilled because I couldn't even keep my eyes open for most of the movie. At least two of us were suffering from motion sickness by the end because of all the jarring, and that really took away from suggestion of horror which completely makes a psychological thriller.

If you haven't seen it and can handle the hand-held camera footage, then I think it's worth checking out. If you saw it, I'd be curious to know what you thought.

Clue

Hope you had a wonderful Halloween! Mine was very laid back, no costuming this year, but did go hang out with friends at Stephen's house. He lives in a real house in a neighborhood, so we thought he had the best chances of having tick-or-treaters come to the door. Not so much the case (only three kids total, if you don't count the pizza delivery lady who we did get to say "trick-or-treat!"), but at least the three kids were cute. Two boys actually sang me the "Trick-or-Treak, smell my feet song" and the one little girl told me how old she was (7) when I asked what year she was dressed as (lol - she was actually a 70s chick...her mom told me the daughter didn't really understand the costume but fell in love with it and had to have it.)

Then, my friend Liberty came to the party with Clue and Sweeney Todd - not horror movies, but still appropriately creepy for the holiday.

We opted for Clue first. Lande had been surprised that I hadn't seen it, especially considering how much Colyn likes the movie. I actually hadn't heard of the movie before, and Liberty was equally shocked that I'd graduated from AAHS without ever being exposed. So, finally seeing this one was kind of a big deal.

And...I loved it! Totally cheesey, but I loved the board game and whoever wrote the script must have had a ball with it! Some lines that stick with me:

Q: "Why isn't the care moving?"
A: "Because it's scared!"

Butler: "Mrs. White, how many husbands have you had?"
Mrs. White: "Mine or other women's?"
Butler: "Just yours"
Mrs. White: "Just the five...husbands should be like Kleenex, soft strong and disposable"

Ms. Scarlett at the end, after having the accuasation directed at her "That's very good! How did you know, are you Perry Mason or something?" (said with utter delight)

Butler to Scarlett: "Frankly, Scarlett, I don't give a damn"

Seriously, I think I need to own this movie. The entire cast rocked their parts, almost every line was memorable, and the movie had three endings. That's right...just like in the game, where a variety of things could be the answer...so it was here!

And, in case you were wondering, I am reminded that I also need to have a house with secret passages at some point down the road.