a night on the town

dave and i attended a silent auction at his work last weekend. it was so fun to dress up and head out for a night on the town. it was held at the colorado history museum and was a cool event. dave looked dapper...dressed in a 3 piece suit. he looked *good* and i was rocking my black dress and sexy red shoes. we had so much fun (even though we didn't win any bids...we're too cheap)!

ps - if you look closely at the "O" in the "HOME" frame, you will notice that picture is not of dave and i. we've only had the frame for over a year.  *someday* we'll put an actual picture of us in it.

this is what happens when you hold the camera up to someone's face and the flash blinds them. please note: it doesn't lead to a very flattering picture.

halloween fun

the week before halloween we went to a fun "adults only" halloween party (not that it really applies to us since we don't have kids, but all of our friends do). the attendees included:

the gordon's our host and hostess: hardcore outdoors people

   

the jardine's: goth girl and smurf (i wanted you folks to catch all angles of the smurf)

the smith's: a crazy pair of dice

the washburn's: superman/clark kent and butterfly woman

the dix's: don't let the red hair fool you, they were chinese

the east's: the tooth fairy and calvin with trusty hobbs

jake schafer and us: robin hood, wolverine and eqyptian lady

these two guys love halloween and always come up with crazy costumes

dave wanted to be wolverine last year. he even tried to make his claws using duct tape and our butter knives. it didn't quite work out. this year we bought the claws at a costume store and let me just say, it was worth the $5

check out those chops on wolverine

do you remember that game mafia from back in the day? well we played it and i have to say it was really fun. mindy made us all think she was a bad liar and would give it away if she was the mafia, but she pulled it off. cole, "the quiet one," also managed to be mafia without getting caught.

and let me say, the east's also couldn't be trusted...mafia...both of them.

i think the gordon's may have started a halloween tradition!

*thanks to mindy, i stole the pictures of the couples off her blog :)

harvest farm

a few weeks ago dave and i headed an hour and a half north of denver to harvest farm for some fall fun. it was gorgeous weather and the day's activities included:

• weaving through the corn maze...dave rocked as our navigator
• a snack of corn along the way
• hiding in th corn
• dave acting like a scarecrow
• visiting the petting zoo and feeding the cow, pigs, sheep and goats
• dave overcoming a bad experience with a goat when he was younger. this time everything went well
• a friendly reminder upon leaving the petting zoo that "even pigs wash their hands after petting a goat"
• a hayride tour of the farm
• choosing the perfect green squash/gord from the pumpkin patch
• eating kettle corn fresh out of the kettle
• watching the kids on the "john deere tricycle track." they were so cute. i had to take a picture of the cute little boy wearing his cowboy hat, wranglers and boots. i tried to be sneaky so his mom wouldn't see some stranger taking a picture of her kid.
• shooting corn on the cob out of the corn cannon...so fun!

smart husband compensates for not so smart wife

we moved into our house about 3 weeks ago. the day we moved in our washer and dryer was delivered by the guy we bought it from off of craigslist. dave quickly realized that the plug and the outlet for the dryer did not match, making it unusable. the next saturday (1 week later) we headed to ace hardware and picked up some supplies to make the plug and outlet compatible. dave headed home and played handyman and we were back in business. or so we thought. later that day i went to check the clothes in the dryer and while it appeared to be working, there was no heat. this meant lots of drying cycles for one load and who has time for that?! dave came home and i explained the situation. he hopped online and we realized it could be a variety of problems (heating element, etc. etc.). life got in the way and the dryer situation fell by the wayside while the dirty laundry piled up. finally it became necessary to do the laundry (i was on my last clean pair of unmentionables). so i threw in a load last night before i went to a meeting and asked dave to keep the dryer going so they would get dry. when i got home dave asked me, “did you ever check the lint trap?” turns out the dryer wasn’t broken. the lint trap was just stuffed to the brim = no heat. dave had assumed that i had checked the lint trap when i discovered the no heat problem and i had assumed the previous owner had cleaned out the lint trap so i didn’t even check. but you know what they say about assuming…it makes a…well, you know. good thing i have a smart husband! and now i have loads of clean laundry!

the blog-o-sphere

i have always loved people watching. i often watch others and wonder what is going on in their lives. i look out my window as i drive down a busy street and wonder where each person is going, what do they do for work, are they happy or has it been a rough day. the airport is one of my favorite places to people watch and i’m always curious about where people are going. are they traveling for business or pleasure? are they going to visit someone they haven’t seen for awhile? i love people and relationships and i am just so intrigued by other people and their lives. suddenly a whole new world of “virtual people watching” has been opened to me. i know that dave thinks i have an “unhealthy” obsession with blogs and perhaps that is true. however he should understand since he has some “unhealthy” obsessions of his own (and a little quirky i might add…but i love that i know those quirks).

i was just sitting and thinking about what it is that sucks me into the world of blogging. it’s almost like an addiction where i need my daily fix and i am disappointed if there aren’t sufficient updates. i have realized that i love stepping into someone else’s world to observe the significant and insignificant happenings of their days and lives. it doesn’t matter if they live across the country or down the street, i love getting a glimpse of people’s comings and goings. it is my “virtual people watching.” some people have the amazing ability through their writing that makes me feel like i am watching their experiences from a corner of the room in their house, gaining incredible insight into who they are. i admire that talent and wish i had it. i love feeling like i am a part of their life, even if it is only virtually.

i am inspired by what i “see” (read) happening in their lives: their patience with their children, their ability to laugh at the small things, their courage in pursuing their dreams, their capacity to love their children even when it’s not easy, their steadfast faith in trials, their willingness to admit when things are hard or not perfect, their love for others, their pursuit of living passionately, their goal to take pleasure in day to day life and their desire to be better. it motivates me to be a better person. i love the blog-o-sphere!

the seasonal struggle

VS.

this past week it seems as if fall and winter have been at war, battling it out to see who will be victorious. if you would have asked me on saturday i would have bet on winter. but now i’m not so sure. today it even seems that spring wants in on the action. no complaints from me. i will happily continue to drive with the window down and run in shorts and a tank top as long as possible, with yellow leaves crunching under my feet and the warm sun shining. speaking of running i almost took out a woman today on my run. she swerved right and i swerved left and we almost had a head-on collision. almost. phew.

is it rude to lick the pot?

i love to eat (i’m sure that doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone who knows me)! this past weekend dave and i had a fantastic food experience at the melting pot (and yes, it was an experience). i decided to surprise him for our date night and it was killing him not knowing where we were going (and i was loving it. aren’t surprises the best? i *love* them). he asked for clues and these were the three he got:

1. we’ve never been there before
2. i might actually be more excited about the place than you will be
3. we’ve never been before because it is too expensive
needless to say, he didn’t figure it out.

we had so much fun and *everything* was *amazing!* i am salivating just thinking about it all…the spinach artichoke cheese fondue (so good with vegetables and apples…who knew). and of course the steak, chicken, salmon, shrimp...mmmm!

but by far the s’mores chocolate fondue was the highlight of the evening (trust me, it tasted better than the picture looks). it didn’t matter that i was already full, i couldn’t get enough. in the end the “i’m so stuffed i feel a little sick” feeling was sooo worth it!

to top it all off we didn’t pay a dime, thanks to the generous gift card from a vendor i worked with. we even walked out with $25 cash in our pocket…the balance on the card! it really doesn’t get much better than that!