Kari's Facebook Posts
2013


 

May 12, 2013 9:44:01 pm

and of course I am working on the graduation pictures! give me another half hour....

 

Oct 27, 2013 8:29:51 pm

It's been a good weekend if you feel like you have to go back to work to recover! Had a camp fire with Mike Friday night, HW and the party Saturday, ran a bunch of errands this morning, and had a great time hanging out with Diana Mann! We went to the local theater to see an awesome production of "I never promised you a rose garden". Following that, we attended the retirement ceremony and party for the theater's founders. They will be missed! Hopefully, the new management will keep the theater alive and vibrant here in Golden. and the weekend ends on a melancholy note. We'll miss Lou Reed terribly, loved getting to see him live... I've had this song running through my head since Mike showed me Jarl's text with the news this morning.... Here ya go, for those who don't know it, it's worth a few minutes Lou Reed - Set the Twilight Reeling

 

Timeline photos
Mike has many challenges in completing his dissertation...not the least of which is that Chloe thinks he should be done by now.
M
Mar 09, 2013 3:22:48 pm
Kari S Sanders added a new photo.
Timeline photos
I washed the dining room carpet this afternoon. Chloe sat on her condo the whole time, scowling "I'm insulted". ...to which I could only say "You should be, pukey." The carpet was due for a spring cleaning, but hairball season forced my hand on timing.
I washed the dining room carpet this afternoon. Chloe sat on her condo the whole time, scowling "I'm insulted". ...to which I could only say "You should be, pukey." The carpet was due for a spring cleaning, but hairball season forced my hand on timing.
Apr 20, 2013 2:01:49 pm
Kari S Sanders added a new photo.
Timeline photos
hooray for blankets! (especially when it's snowing outside)
hooray for blankets! (especially when it's snowing outside)
Apr 22, 2013 8:39:19 pm
Kari S Sanders added a new photo.
Timeline photos
and of course I am working on the graduation pictures! give me another half hour....
and of course I am working on the graduation pictures! give me another half hour....
May 12, 2013 9:44:01 pm
Kari S Sanders added a new photo.
Timeline photos
*sigh* It's all about perspective. I logged on to facebook to share my woe that my thyroid treatment has been postponed til January in order to increase the Metformin dose..... but I've waited 18 years for this promised thyroid treatment and I can wait another 3 months. The bigger news is - well, some of you remember that my friend, Kathie, was murdered in June 2012. It's been a long road toward a trial.... but jury selection starts tomorrow. I doubt even a conviction or knowing the truth will help my heart heal. I still miss her....
*sigh* It's all about perspective. I logged on to facebook to share my woe that my thyroid treatment has been postponed til January in order to increase the Metformin dose..... but I've waited 18 years for this promised thyroid treatment and I can wait another 3 months.
The bigger news is - well, some of you remember that my friend, Kathie, was murdered in June 2012. It's been a long road toward a trial.... but jury selection starts tomorrow. I doubt even a conviction or knowing the truth will help my heart heal. I still miss her....
Oct 01, 2013 4:39:09 pm

Brought some stuff to the cat care society today, based on their dire needs list from facebook. I got there just as they were discussing what to do about their lack of paper towels working spray bottles - the lady looked up at me and what I was holding, and said "Oh my gosh! You saw our list! We were just trying to figure out what to do."

Always fun to stop by CCS - I got to meet several cats, one of whom is a bandana head like Chloe who tried to claim the pile of paper towels for himself. (the cat care society marks the cats who bite with bandanas) He was sitting on top of the pile, chewing the packaging, and someone behind the desk literally had to tip the pile to get him off. (being a bandana head like Chloe, he was not responding positively to being picked up or shooed off)
Dec 31, 2013 2:54:00 pm

Had a wonderful time at the Denver Zoo Lights display - in part because I had such good company! Many thanks to all who braved the cold to be there (and a special thanks to the 5 kids who were so well behaved!) - with my hubby, Terry and Gwenn Sanders, Rannae Sanders Lyon, Maddie, Val, Danielle Korosec, Will, Hannah, and Xzasha
Dec 30, 2013 9:56:16 pm
just made the last tuition payment for my MBA. March 3rd - here I come! but after this lovely break, getting restarted for the last class is going to be painful... don't worry, ya'll will probably hear alllll about it. ;>)
Dec 30, 2013 10:09:47 am
The holidays are wrapping up- my bro made is back to SoCal without any trouble - well, except that weather and traffic made it an 18 1/2 hour trip. My parents are heading back to Florida in a few days (yes,Michele, you get them back-and for ~ 6 months this time!)
Dec 30, 2013 8:48:32 am
Ham soup receipt from the Solstice Party (which I promised to provide and am delinquent on)

I put the following in a dutch oven on low heat for ~8 hours.

ham bone
~0.7 lb beans (Safeway soup mix- make sure you soak them ahead of time at least for a little bit to get off some of their beaniness. I soaked them for about an hour)
chopped ham (recipe calls for 1.5 cups, I usually add more than that)
2 quarts chicken broth
6 cloves garlic
1 large white onion
potatoes (I used 4 for the solstice soup)
carrots (I used 1 lb)
celery (I used 8 stalks)
ground black pepper
rosemary
thyme
1 large can diced tomatoes (I used safeway brand)
Penzey's Jerk Pork seasoning (the closest I could find to the Creole seasoning the orig recipe called for)... I use the "dump it in, wait a few hours, taste it, add more" method. I think it amounted to a couple of tablespoons

and you might say "but the beans come in a 1lb package". Yes, I soaked the full pound, and put the beans I didn't use in a freezer container with some water. They freeze quite well that way.
Dec 25, 2013 5:00:55 pm
What a weekend! I had a 5-day weekend... it started with a Solstice Party on Saturday - smaller party than last year, what with it not being the end of the world and me wanting a small enough gathering that I could spend time with everyone. It worked out wonderfully!

On Sunday, Diana and I went to the Nutcracker ballet with Maddie, Val and my parents. Many thanks go to Diana for helping with the driving. It was a wonderful show put on by the Longmont Dance Theater. By the third act, I think Maddie and Val were hooked. Maddie was focused on the story, Val was sitting on my dad's lap (hard for her to see otherwise) and was partly focused on the conductor and orchestra. My mom won a basket in the silent auction for the girls, and she also bought them some ornaments.

Monday was a quiet day - visited with my parents and bro once my bro got into town (he drove from SoCal with his dogs).

We had breakfast with my family on Christmas Eve - yummy home fries. Then we went to Mike's grandma's for dinner on Christmas Eve. It was a wonderful gathering - everyone seemed so happy and we all had fun. (and I have pictures)

This morning, we had breakfast at Mike's sister's house and opened presents. This afternoon, sadly, we are missing the family dinner at Mark & Bella's because my hubby has a stomach bug (he was sick this morning, too, but didn't want to miss watching Maddie & Val open gifts. Hopefully, he didn't infect anyone.) I'll find something simple to make for dinner. On the bright side, I now have time for updating the web site. :) pictures coming your way!
Dec 25, 2013 3:46:53 pm
Happy solstice! Joyous yule! Listening to the sex pistols while making ham soup for tonight's party. Chloe is running around the house like "...and I want to be .. anarchy" :)
Dec 21, 2013 10:41:42 am
I have a little fuzzy audience for tree decorating. She must be thinking "hurry up with my tree!"
Dec 19, 2013 9:23:42 pm
So long, Class #13 of 14! I am now off from school until January 6th.
*dance* *dance* *dance*
Dec 15, 2013 10:54:37 am
yeesh -I'd be done with these slides by now if it weren't for all these pesky references
Dec 15, 2013 10:30:02 am
have a nice day so far! Worked on my paper this morning, and Mike worked on graphics for the text book. He has now completed 94 of them- roughly 20 more to go. We went to Daniel's birthday party and then to Mike's parents' house for a Christmas party with his mom's side of the family. I have lots of pictures.....

but those will have to wait until after I get my paper & slides done. I'm down to the recommendations and conclusions section on the paper.
Dec 14, 2013 7:02:11 pm
Mariah has asked me to list 10 fact about my relationship with Mike... I don't usually play these games, but just for Mariah....

1) I met Mike on the tour my dad and I took of the Colorado School of Mines, March 11, 1993.

2) After school started, Mike asked several people if they had seen "the little girl from New York" - with no luck. I found him outside the Chemistry building at Mines. He gave me his phone number, and I called him during a band practice. Jarl made fun of him the whole time.

3) We had our first date on October 11, 1993 at the T-Wa Inn.

4) We had a second date at a Spanish restaurant and I complained that the garlic in the food was burning my tongue. He made it his mission to get me more accustomed to spicy food, but now worries he did too good a job.

5) We started living together within days of our first date. My friend, Laurie, always said it felt like we had one date and got married.

6) We first talked about getting married on a camping trip to the Great Sand Dunes in 1995, but never formally announced an engagement. It's just not how we roll.

7) We always said we had no particular interest in getting married. One day in the fall of 1997, Mike came home and said, as he passed through the kitchen, "We should get married". He has joked he'd never tell me anything like that again - cause now he knows I'll call his mom and make it happen.

8) It turns out we do everything in 11's - we were married on July 11th.

9) We don't exchange gifts at Christmas - we go shopping together for expensive things that we'd rather buy together.

10) He does more around the house than anyone ever gives him credit for. Those who know us well know I would be lost without him. :)

(and you're allowed to comment on this - I won't give you an assignment)
Dec 14, 2013 10:25:46 am
Many thanks to Rannae Sanders Lyon and Gwenn Sanders for dinner tonight! It was fun to take a break and see everyone while they were doing cookie decorating (my parents, Bella, Maddie, Val, Hannah, my hubby, Rannae, Danielle, Gwenn and Terry - it was a party!)

spent the rest of the evening slowly and painstakingly making progress on my final paper. I'm about a third done with it.
Dec 11, 2013 9:37:42 pm
Yay for the Broncos! Yay for the end of Week 7 for Class 13 of 14!

..and now I embark on the last week of my class. 4 things to read, 1 discussion post, 1 short paper on ethics, my final paper, and some slides to go with my final paper.
Dec 08, 2013 5:35:46 pm
bird food = catertainment. I restocked on food for all my cold hungry friends outside this morning. The crows are strutting around with their peanuts (crows LOVE peanuts), the little birds are busy, and Chloe is back to working on how to turn her eyes into laser deathrays.
Dec 07, 2013 11:38:51 am
*laughing* In this week's threaded discussion for my class, my professor was puzzled that I mentioned some software work I was doing "around the turn of the century"... he questioned it as if I were bonkers, so I responded:

I love that phrase! It's true, you know. Kids who were born at the turn of the century (when we thought Y2K would destroy the world) are now almost 14. Makes me feel old - so I decided to embrace it and use the phrase on a regular basis to mean what it really means - since it no longer applies to the year 1900.
Dec 05, 2013 6:28:21 pm

RIP Nelson Mandela. I was sad to see that in the news when I got home, but the world was sure lucky to have such an awesome man for guidance.

Dec 05, 2013 6:12:39 pm
This week's fun is a 206 page SEC report on "Interactive Data to Improve Financial Reporting".... time to break out my skimming skills. I am not reading this one cover to cover. :>o
Dec 03, 2013 8:37:41 pm
I woke up to the sound of a cat puking... but the rest of the day has been better! Wearing one of my old pairs of jeans thanks to ~25 lbs gone since August.
Dec 03, 2013 5:51:09 pm
*whew* Did a little shopping for all the kids this morning, called my great aunt to wish her a happy 89th birthday, and spent the afternoon working on the electric zoo-2013 edition. I have everything up except the zebra, elephant, raptor (he offers a present to passers by, but I wouldn't take it), peacock, frog, cow, and snowman. but that can wait until tomorrow!

time to get cleaned up and clean the bathroom. My parents and bro are coming over tonight to watch a movie.
Nov 30, 2013 3:20:11 pm
We had a lovely Thanksgiving Part 2 at Mike's parents' house today - with my family, Rannae, Maddie, Val, Josh & Danielle with Hannah & Will & Will's friend Sasha, Uncle Dale, Casey, Jay, Dave and Nancy! We ha a house-full again. Lots of good food and a good time had by all. Many thanks to Gwenn and Terry for their hospitality - 2 nights in a row!
Nov 29, 2013 9:21:27 pm
Thanksgiving pictures plus videos of Maddie & Val reading:
(with Terry & Gwenn Sanders, Rannae Sanders Lyon, Nancy Vasconcellos Kerbaugh, Schlep Schlep, Mike Rawluk, Travis Kerbaugh, Scott Kerbaugh)

http://www.mksanders.com/2013pics/Thanksgiving_28Nov2013.html
Nov 28, 2013 9:36:46 pm
had a pleasant day today. Got some school work done, spent 2 hours visiting avec mes parents - just chatting. Mike and I went back tonight for an hour or so to visit with my parents & bro & his two dogs. He drove from SoCal and arrived around dinner time tonight.
Nov 26, 2013 10:06:19 pm
all tucked in today - lean pocket in the toaster over, buffalo & pork ribs in the crock pot for dinner, and I'm reading a 71 page paper from the SEC on its plan to migrate to principles-based accounting for this week's assignment. This may require caffeine.
Nov 26, 2013 11:20:24 am
Hello, 6 day weekend!
Nov 25, 2013 8:12:27 pm
lovely day thus far! We had a nice lunch with my parents at Old Chicago's. I did some grocery shopping afterward and picked out gifts for the Angel Tree at work. Always hard buying gifts for people you don't know, but I hope they will be well liked! Now, I've got beets cooking for dinner (there will be other stuff for dinner besides beets, promise) and am getting settled in for the Broncos game @ 6:30. Go Broncos!
Nov 24, 2013 5:18:22 pm
That may have been the least inspired paper I have turned in for my MBA classes... but so ends Week 5 of 8 for Class#13 of 14. Class ends on Dec 15th... almost there!
Nov 23, 2013 3:37:47 pm
Mike's been hanging out with me too long. We've got his & hers computers in the study, where we're both working tonight. He's been doing the graphics for the textbook - I think he's up to chapter 5 or 6 now. He said "I think I'm going to stop for the night"...closed the graphics stuff and then opened up Mathematica to work on his lab data analysis.
Nov 22, 2013 9:10:50 pm
my parents are back in Golden for the holidays! :)
Nov 18, 2013 5:16:44 pm
I am loving the workload for class #13 of 14! I haven't done much this week, except for one discussion post Tues night... and yet I am not behind! how awesome is that? home early - and now it's time to do discussion post #2, then my paper.
Nov 15, 2013 4:27:34 pm
went to see Nine Inch Nails last night with Mike and Jarl. Good show! Excellent light effects, as has become usual for Trent. Lots of good songs. Some of the new stuff in the middle lacked pizazz. But all in all, pretty good for someone who is "retired". (The last show we saw, Trent was planning to retire forever... again) I am surprisingly awake this morning after 5 1/2 hrs of sleep. We'll see how long it lasts :)
Nov 14, 2013 6:59:14 am
Just over 20 years ago, a doctor told me I was too old to keep getting ear infections. How I wish he had been right :>/
Nov 10, 2013 11:00:03 pm
Sometimes, I go to steal a paragraph I wrote for another paper and think "did I really turn that in?" I just found a paragraph that leads off with an incomplete sentence - incomplete in the sense that it is missing a noun and makes no sense. d'oh! The version of it that appears in this week's paper will be better.
Nov 09, 2013 4:23:36 pm
Mike's busy taking care of me today. I am a clutter-tastic person. Clutter explodes wherever I go. While he was working on his graduate degrees, he wasn't countering the tide. :>o Today, he is starting by cleaning inside my car and re-doing the organization of one of our storage closets. :)
Nov 09, 2013 3:07:21 pm
It's a beautiful weekend! ....but I picked up a cold with a nasty sore throat. :>/ On the plus side, I am way ahead on my HW and have lots of leftovers in the fridge, so I don't have to worry about cooking.
Nov 09, 2013 10:35:03 am
Nuggets win! It turns out Tim is better luck than I am for Nuggets games. :)

It's been a long evening - went to have an ultrasound done to check my thyroid nodules this afternoon, which meant I got home early. Mike and I had a nice dinner at Ali Baba's (mmm.. lamb shank, hummus...) He went to the Nuggets game, and I've been getting quite a bit of homework done.
Nov 07, 2013 9:48:39 pm
Mike got a little chuckle when I came out to the kitchen to stir the chili and announced - "my little sad parade has ended and I am half way done with my paper". yes, I can be queen of the pity party but caffeine + chocolate + time snapped me out of it. :) just 3 more sections to write...
Nov 03, 2013 5:19:36 pm
Many congratulations to Jarl Anderson and Christy Tidd on the arrival of their daughter, Katrina Simone! Looking forward to seeing you guys later!
Nov 03, 2013 9:30:27 am
Many thanks to Tim and Becky for a very nice party tonight - it was nice to finally get to see their house! (Happy belated house warming)
Nov 02, 2013 10:35:51 pm
went to the Nuggets game with Mike last night - oy vey. I hope for Mike & Jarl's sake that the rest of the season is better. but it was nice to spend some time with my hubby. I did the grocery shopping this am, including getting pies for Tim & Becky's party, and paid bills and such. Mike and I took care of some leaves this afternoon. and now it's HW time....
Nov 02, 2013 2:35:18 pm
Happy Halloween! Happy Samhain!
Oct 31, 2013 3:59:38 pm
Just got back from an awesome concert at the Gothic Theater - we saw Living Color! It was the 25th anniversary tour for their album, Vivid. Holy canoli- you wouldn't know it had been 25 years by the way they sounded! Excellent show. We are looking forward to their new album and associated tour in 2014!
Oct 31, 2013 12:12:42 am
Halloween lights are up! Candy is on the candy plate by the door! The pumpkin is partially eaten by my carving helper, Mr. Squirrel. I'll find something artistic to do with it.

..but for now, back to HW. Remember the last class when I was complaining that there was nothing I could ever do to get a better grade? Well, there is balance in the universe. My first paper for the new class got a 100% with a note that from the professor that I did such a great job, he's worried I'll burn myself out before the class ends. I'd hate to tell him I did the least work last week on MBA stuff than I have done in months! but this sounds like a good class to have through the start of the holidays! woo hoo!
Oct 29, 2013 9:14:50 pm
went to a nice dinner tonight -the annual Physics Department banquet at Mines. During this dinner, alumni, current department students, and professors meet with new physics majors to answer their questions about the department, careers, options and pitfalls, whatever comes up. Tonight, I spent most of my time talking with one student, but she had a lot of questions! I walked away feeling like I had been helpful. :)

Oct 28, 2013 10:07:15 pm

Happy 8th Birthday to our fuzzy cat!

(who is lucky to not be in more trouble than she currently is.
I woke up at 4:45 to the sound of something hitting the floor. I walked into the study to find my eyeglasses case on the floor, and a chewed up camera case - with new camera inside - hanging off the edge of the desk.)
Oct 27, 2013 7:10:13 am

We had a very nice time at Danielle & Josh's Halloween party! All the kids looked cute in their costumes. :)

..back to this week's paper


Oct 26, 2013 8:11:42 pm

I'm looking for something I wrote in a past paper so I can reuse it for this week's HW assignment, and I have realized I copy-paste from my own papers *A LOT*. I have thus far found the same phrase & reference reused in 7 different papers. (not the one I am looking for, but it's a similar topic, so it keeps popping up)
Oct 26, 2013 2:15:56 pm

Status update: Metformin and I don't always get along, but it's doing something right. I've lost 17 pounds since I started taking it in August - no special diets, no special exercise program. It just melted away like magic.

Oct 24, 2013 7:30:59 am

fish out of water... my new class on controllership has 15 students -14 finance majors and me. but I'm sure I'll learn a lot. They all have a lot of experience and some of them are even corporate controllers.
>Oct 23, 2013 8:06:18 pm

Other than feeling a little tired (probably fighting off the cold that's going round), today was a good day! I officially got an A on Class #12of 14.

Mike's former-advisor-now-boss got funding for his text book project! Mike is doing all the graphics and is going to get paid for doing them. Poor guy - was a graphic artist, went and got a phd, still doing graphics. ;>) *grin* I think he enjoys this project quite a bit, actually. Scientific graphics are way better than invitations for corporate events where they make you put red text over your beautiful artwork.

Mike's also doing well with his post-doc project. He started a new project in June after he graduated. There was a lot of difficulty this summer getting the water system for the experimental setup to run. The first pump Mike ordered didn't work right. He has a new pump now, and things are going well. The scientist in charge with his work (who was on his committee) is very pleased with his work. Mike's never pleased with his work, but I promise it's going well.... the pain of being an artist at heart. :)
Oct 22, 2013 8:45:33 pm

... and people will continue to be wary around clowns....

"Killer 'clowns' murder Mexican ex-drug capo"
"Gunmen disguised as clowns at a children's party shot dead the eldest brother of Mexico's once powerful Arellano Felix drug cartel family, authorities said Saturday."

http://news.yahoo.com/mexican-ex-drug-lord-shot-dead-100117008.html

Oct 20, 2013 3:56:12 pm

I can always have peace of mind when using the Roomba - it has a highly qualified supervisor.

Chloe just can't help herself. :)

Oct 19, 2013 6:03:10 pm

For those who have been keeping track - - the annual expansion of "Kari's Electric Zoo" for 2013 is.......
a frog and a peacock. (from Lowe's)
Oct 19, 2013 3:43:12 pm

We had a nice time at a party with people I work with last night! It's always cool to get to know new people. Looking forward to hanging out with them again.

final paper for Class #12 is coming together nicely. Starting class #13 (Controllership) today.
Oct 19, 2013 10:26:06 am
snow! I wasn't expecting to wake up to a blanket of white!
(no, I haven't been checking weather forecasts)
Oct 18, 2013 6:32:28 am
Mike says the scariest part about Halloween is how spoiled all the children I know are. Took a break from my final paper & went shopping tonight. I now have gift bags set up for Maddie, Valerie, Will, Hannah, Clara, and Daniel. It's kind of a family tradition - Eleanor used to always buy special gifts and treats for me and my brother for Halloween. :)
Oct 17, 2013 10:07:33 pm
My MBA team seems to also have senioritis....been oddly quiet this week. I may have to make some phone calls to remind them we have a paper due this weekend. :>/ I'll give it one more day.
Oct 16, 2013 8:39:58 pm
Many congrats to my bro (Mike Rawluk) for passing his real estate exam!
Oct 15, 2013 6:25:11 pm
just registered for my last MBA class! Now, I can officially say that I should be done March 3rd.
Oct 14, 2013 6:36:49 am
Go Broncos! (I'm multi-tasking- still working on the paper, too. ...working-ish? I'm about 2/3 done, 4 more topics to cover.)
Oct 13, 2013 2:51:17 pm
homework, homework, homework. Yesterday, I spent some time working on my Week 7 paper as well as cleaning up the team paper for Week 8. (Luckily, we got an extension on the Week 8 team paper - it's now due Sunday instead of Wed. Not happy about having HW next weekend, but it's for the best) This morning, I'm back to working on the Week 7 paper that is due tonight. The good news is that Class 12 of 14 is almost over.
Oct 13, 2013 9:43:32 am
On a lighter note, Mike and I celebrate 2 anniversaries every year - one for our wedding and one for all the time he was my "cohabitating spouse-like relation" (yeah, that's a quote from paperwork at work back in the day, where they felt the need to characterize our relationship in more detail)

Anyhow, October 11 makes 20 YEARS! 20 years together and looking forward to many more.
Oct 10, 2013 8:03:17 pm
*sigh* Word has it the trial should wrap up tomorrow afternoon.

http://www.southwhidbeyrecord.com/news/226523711.html
Oct 10, 2013 7:32:38 pm
had a very enjoyable dinner! Rannae brought over Chinese food and 2 happy girls! They made me laugh - they're not used to be here when the house isn't full of people, so they went exploring to see what it looked like. And we bought some stuff for their school fundraiser. :)
Oct 09, 2013 10:24:29 pm
For anyone who's interested, here's the Denver Rescue Mission's wish list:

http://amzn.to/19zJqrP
Oct 09, 2013 10:22:39 pm
Chloe had a little adventure today. That yellow jacket nest I've been meaning to wipe off the planet? should've done that a while back. She ate one today - Mike said it made her mouth get puffy and she was drooling everywhere. The vet recommended some children's Benadryl, and luckily Rannae Sanders Lyon was able to come to the rescue! ...though I hear our youngest niece was quite upset about seeing the cat in less than perfect form.
Oct 07, 2013 7:54:57 pm
sports whiplash- we went from a heated Broncos game to thinking about basketball - time for the Nuggets Season ticket draw! (We split season tickets with the Loye family) Mike, Jarl, and I had a lovely evening with the Loyes. We went to their daughter's new condo downtown for dinner. She made chicken parm with spaghetti, salad, and garlic bread. For dessert, she made poached pears with a marzipan topping-very tasty! Lots of good conversation. The list of games is split and we have our share of the tickets. Go Nuggets!
Oct 06, 2013 10:32:55 pm
looks like the Broncos defense decided to take the day off. my poor tortured hubby

Oct 06, 2013 5:18:44 pm>

buffalo meatloaf baking in the oven... (I smelled something at work this week that reminded me of meatloaf. I doubt it was actually meatloaf, but it planted the idea. So, now we'll have some for dinners & lunches.)

ok, back to the last section of this week's paper.


Oct 06, 2013 2:16:09 pm
Well, I think I've done everything but work on my case study write up. This morning, I did our finances - updated 401k investments, updated Quicken, paid bills, and updated the annual budget to get a more accurate ETC for the calendar year. I had a nice chat with my parents, took the cat outside for a walk, checked on my parents' house, went grocery shopping, coordinated with my MBA team and directed next steps on our team project, and started a roast for dinner.

There was something else to do... oh, right - homework. *sigh*

Oct 05, 2013 4:06:21 pm
Mike's playing the new Ministry album for me while I am working on a case study for my class....it's like they've been watching Metalocalypse. :) That's brutal
Oct 04, 2013 7:53:32 pm
The buffalo is here! and all tucked into our freezer. I've got pictures. (to be posted after I do my MBA HW - my group project inputs are due @6)
Sep 28, 2013 12:23:21 pm

We had a nice time at the Mines event tonight. They did a great job with the event - nice music, nice food. We laughed that we were at the "kid's table" with the younger donors. Mines has big plans for the future - they are doing $320M in fundraising for a new building, scholarships and other things for the school.

After the event, we waited a while for the belated Golden 4th of July fireworks and had a nice conversation sitting in the car, but I eventually had to take my poor sick hubby home. He picked up a bug on the way back from Florida and is quite under the weather. (like neither Nyquil nor scotch can help him get any sleep kind of under the weather)

Sep 27, 2013 10:13:45 pm

You know you spend too much time in a completely virtualized classroom environment when the email from a teammate setting up a telecon closes with "see you there at 8"
Sep 26, 2013 7:48:57 pm

back after a quick trip to Florida! gonna be a long day- our plane got in pretty later
Sep 23, 2013 7:18:24 am

I can comfortably say I'm about 1/2 way with my Week 4 paper. never as far along as planned, but reasonable progress. but the best part of being home is getting to spend time with my hubby (and Chloe... Chloe won't let me forget her. She's been quite the noodge today)
Sep 18, 2013 5:16:07 pm

*sigh* My professor seems to have very low reading comprehension. He may a note at how I'm a very good student blah blah blah... but I got an A- for not including things in my paper that were really pretty blatant and even had their own section headings. I think this is one of those scenarios where all I can do is report it at the end of the term on the class evaluation with the hope others do the same. He seems to try, but just doesn't read well enough to be grading papers.
Sep 17, 2013 9:12:31 pm

Go Broncos! Mike is very pleased with the game thus far - Chloe is sheltering in place from the enthusiastic ruckus. She's tucked in on our bed.
Sep 15, 2013 5:10:20 pm

If it keeps raining like this, our high plains desert might just turn into a rain forest.

Sep 15, 2013 9:43:20 am

Week 3 of Class 12 has been a rough go.
(apparently not just for me - 40% of the class still has not even posted to the discussion forum for the week and one person had posted but clearly not read the material -
all consistent with my "In Case You Didn't Feel Like Showing Up" theme for the week)
I had hoped to be done with this week's paper by now, so I could get a jump start on HW before Michele's wedding.
Alas, it has been really hard to get the wheels turning on this one. I'm only 1/3 done....
Sep 14, 2013 10:29:45 pm

The measurement is in - in a month where average precipitation is < 2 inches, we got 9.5 inches of rain in our backyard this week.
blue sky overhead...so nice to see!
Sep 13, 2013 1:11:24 pm

Home from work this am due to conditions in Boulder. Things are ok here in Golden. We've had some light ran and the radar map shows it is about to pass by us.
Sep 13, 2013 9:14:21 am
This definitely does not feel like a Thursday night, but I will gladly go to work tomorrow instead of having more time off due to regional flooding. It's time for the rain to move along....
Sep 12, 2013 9:30:01 pm
I came home early today because work closed due to weather (all the flooding in Boulder)...been working on my HW.
I think the theme of this week's discussion thread is "In Case You Didn't Feel Like Showing Up" (credit for the title goes to Ministry) - I have been delinquent in doing my posts this week, but so has the rest of the class. Apparently in an attempt to garner some interest, the professor has been posting additional articles to the discussion forum and asking for feedback.
Sep 12, 2013 6:55:37 pm
I just realized my camera is still time tagging stuff on Japan time. oops - never reset it after we got back
Sep 10, 2013 10:08:17 pm
I feel like hell, which would in no way be affecting my mood (*grin* - poor hubby)

So, I should tell you about the next chapter on the dizziness thing even though it's not completely written yet. As many have heard me kvetch about, I have been having trouble with dizzy spells since the time of my ankle surgery - almost 13 months ago. I recently went to an endocrinologist, who determined my thyroid is finally officially toast. Since 1995, it had been getting worse linearly (oh yes, I am that kind of geek - brought the dr a graph that trended all my blood test results), and since the surgery, it seems to have gone exponential.

What I didn't know was that thyroid medication increases your blood sugar levels. (info thanks to Rannae, later confirmed by my regular dr) Since my blood sugar levels were high (but not diabetic - just high and in range), I am taking metformin to reduce them before we start the thyroid meds in October. My sympathies to anyone who has to take metformin - the stuff has rocked my world. I routinely feel quite ill. But the carrot here is the long-awaited thyroid meds in October, so I am putting up with it. Anyhow, hopefully the dizziness turns out to be the thyroid. *fingers crossed*

til then, sorry in advance for bad or disinterested moods.
Sep 10, 2013 8:47:10 pm
Had a great time recruiting at Mines! Some many awesome students, too bad we only have 20 or so internships open. I went tot eh Society of Women Engineers event last night and found myself as the guest of honor at a table - the chapter vice president wanted to talk with me about internships and arranged for me to sit up front with her It was a great evening - hopefully, the advice I gave her was helpful.

This morning, I worked at the career fair for 5 hours. So many students (and there were 4 of us working the booth)! I was pretty exhausted when my shift ended - glad to turn it over to the next crew of recruiters and go grab lunch with my hubby.
Sep 10, 2013 8:00:59 pm
Had a very nice turkey chili dinner at our house with mike's parents and the Lyon family (his sister's family) tonight. All agreed our nieces had a few cookies too many- they were in high gear! Apologies to their parents - I can only hope the crash wasn't too ugly. :)

and I am almost done with the paper that is due tonight.....
Sep 08, 2013 8:56:22 pm
*whew* half way done with my paper that is due today. This has been a long weekend.
Sep 08, 2013 4:08:33 pm
It's always something... I took a shower yesterday afternoon, then decided to take some stuff down to the basement before I got back to HW. Water everywhere! *sigh* The sewer line had backed up - thankfully, it was just shower water. We stayed at a hotel last night, and the rotor rooter guy is here now. I'm pretty sure it's roots down by the street. We paid to have the resin lining installed last year, but there's still space for the roots to get in near the city sewer.

I told Mike I was thankful for the little things - found the problem on a Saturday afternoon instead of 10 pm on a week night, I only had to clean up shower water, and someone was available to come out and take care of it this morning.
Sep 08, 2013 10:10:42 am
half a buffalo ordered from our local butcher! It'll be ready in about 3 weeks.
Sep 07, 2013 2:09:42 pm
d'oh! So, I wrangled my new team together for this week's MBA class project, and pushed prodded and pleaded with them to get the document done...and it's done! Then, I realized the online dropbox is missing a slot to upload the document. :>/ reminder sent to professor that we need someway to deliver it to him.... *sigh*
Sep 06, 2013 9:51:33 pm
Go Broncos! no, seriously.... Go, Broncos!
Sep 05, 2013 7:44:46 pm
had a nice lunch with my hubby, Dan and Tim.

now back to homework while the turkey chili is cooking.... (turkey chili -possibly the best part of making a turkey?)
Sep 02, 2013 2:57:41 pm
...about half way done with my globalization paper.
Sep 01, 2013 2:38:47 pm
had a lovely dinner with my parents last night -everything went perfectly and the turkey turned out great! It's been really nice having them around this summer. They're heading back to Florida on Thursday.
Sep 01, 2013 10:28:03 am
I've been clearing out the freezer to make room for an order of buffalo - I am baking a turkey today, and we'll have a nice turkey dinner with my parents!
Aug 31, 2013 1:54:28 pm
I'm PDU-tastic! *gloat* *gloat*

PDUs are the little credits I have to earn to maintain the program manager certification I got back in May. I just registered for a bunch from Class #11 as well as from a class I took at work. I have to earn 60 over a 3-year period, and I already have 29. (ok, MBA classes help take care of a lot of that, because 1 PDU = 1 "contact" hour)
Aug 30, 2013 3:28:12 pm
Today is the start of my 4-day weekend. It's been a mixed bag. This morning, I went to pick up new reading glasses and sunglasses from the eye dr office. The reading glasses seem ok, but the sun glasses seemed like they had my reading glasses prescription. I wasn't actually expecting any prescription in them -I don't have distance glasses. Today happens to be the last day before my eye dr's vacation -waiting for him to call me back to explain.

But... I had a nice visit with my parents this am. They have been busy around the house as they prep for going back to Florida. Mike and I also had a nice lunch with Jarl at Los Arcos. ...hadn't been there in years! The exterior is cleaned up and quite colorful now. Food was still good. :) I also took Chloe outside for a little bit and she pulled a grasshopper out of the air! our little feline ninja....

back to HW while I wait to hear from the eye dr
Aug 30, 2013 1:27:13 pm
Good-bye Class #11 of 14! Both papers have now been submitted.

Class#12 is heavy on reading materials, but that can wait til tomorrow. :)
Aug 24, 2013 9:28:17 pm
I must be trying to get something done - there is this snugglecat who won't take no for an answer (and sitting with Mike isn't any fun, because he's not trying to finish a paper)
Aug 24, 2013 9:08:23 pm
final discussion post for Class #11 of 14 posted...now I just have to finish 2 papers by 4:20 on Sunday to be done with it.
Class #12 has already started - posted my introduction today. It should be interesting - topic is "Issues in International Business" and there are only 10 people in the class.
Aug 23, 2013 8:58:44 pm
what a neat day! I had a really fun lunch with Diana - we tried a Tibetan restaurant in Louisville. They had a nice lunch buffet.

This evening, we went out to Jose O'Sheas with my parents - today is my mom's official bday. We had a very nice time. :) ..and some of you may have heard about the chili relleno I fell in love with in Sante Fe because it tried to kill me...I met it's cousin today! Thank you Jose O'Sheas for the "dynamite fajita"... so burny, so awesome.
Aug 21, 2013 9:28:02 pm
Had a wonderful party for my mom's 65th birthday last night - many thanks to everyone who was able to help make it special. I think she really enjoyed the party!
Aug 18, 2013 11:07:10 am
mowed the lawn this morning in preparation for my mom's birthday party. Chloe was being good, so I left her outside while mowing. As I finished the front yard, I realized I had lost track of her. No Chloe in the back yard, no Chloe in the front yard. No Chloe at either neighbor's house or in the yard at the end of the street. but maybe.... sure enough. She was in the dining room with a large garter snake. I think the snake was thankful to be removed from her presence - didn't make a single move toward me as I picked him up and carried him back outside.
Aug 17, 2013 11:20:29 am
had a wonderful evening yesterday. My parents and their friend, Roy, came over for dinner. They brought BBQ from Rib City and I made a salad. We had a great time telling stories and chatting for ~ 3 1/2 hours.
It's nice to have them in town!
Aug 13, 2013 9:37:56 pm
another amazing thunderstorm! I can't believe how much rain we're getting this summer!
Aug 11, 2013 2:15:01 pm
The weekend is going well thus far! Mike went to Estes Park Thurs & Fri for a conference for the group he works with at Mines. I hear a good time was had by all! I left work early on Friday for a nice visit - our friend Josh had gone to the conference as well in order to participate on the career development panel, and he stopped by to say hi. It was good to see him! Sounds like he and Dez are doing well in Los Alamos and Oliver will soon have a little brother. :>)

Saturday, besides doing HW, I went to Rob's bday party with my hubby, my parents, and my parents' friend, Roy. It was a very nice party...somehow Rob ended up trimming trees for his birthday party - the joke was that activity was in lieu of a piñata. It was great to see Don & MK....if only we could get to Alaska more often to see them. (next summer....)

Today, I am just working on HW. Part of the fun is another team project. Thus far, my teammate is all promises.... *sigh* I've finished my part of the project, we'll see if that prompts her to respond in kind. Right now, I am working on a paper about team leadership models.
Aug 11, 2013 1:30:01 pm
Mike made a lovely camp fire for us in the back yard last night. So nice to get to spend some time with my hubby! now...back to HW
Aug 04, 2013 8:50:09 am
I love Colorado thunder storms. It was a bit toasty when I mowed our neighbor's lawn this afternoon, but then the storm rolled through around diner time. Now it's breezy and 61 deg in Golden! ac off, windows open!
Aug 03, 2013 7:20:24 pm
We had a very nice get-together last night with Diana Mann, Daniel Clark, Becky and Tim Jochum. All sorts of food and drink, plus we watched the original Japanese version of Godzilla - it is the version before the 1956 King of the Monsters. It was actually pretty dark, with really clear parallels to the nuclear devastation the country had experienced. My favorite part was the paleontologist presenting the results of his research on Godzilla to the government officials - he showed them drawings of two dinosaurs, and then a photo of Godzilla's head looking over a hill. Mike thought the guy really buried the lead on the seriousness of having such a photo! Godzilla does a good death scene at the end.

We enjoyed the movie - had our own MST3K thing going on... but were sad that Dan couldn't stay because their dog, Hazel, had run away. So, he left early to help Vanessa look for her. (The good news is that Hazel was returned today!)
Aug 03, 2013 3:52:20 pm
and..submitted! With my week 4 HW completed, I am now officially half-way done with Class # 11 of 14. I'm going to count on time flying and keep my eye on March 3rd.... ;>)
Jul 28, 2013 5:35:48 pm
enjoying a 60 deg rainy day in Colorado. It's hard to believe this is "end of July" kind of weather. It's supposed to warm up again to something more normal by mid-week - in the mean-time, I am enjoying doing homework while getting a lovely cool breeze from the open windows.
Jul 28, 2013 3:04:52 pm
Mike and I went to the Golden Firehouse's annual pancake breakfast fundraiser. It's part of the Buffalo Bill Days celebration this weekend. Tasty as always! (They even make blueberry pancakes)
Jul 27, 2013 9:57:20 am
Came home to a great surprise! Mike gave the grill a makeover - it's super clean and has new parts inside. :>)
Jul 25, 2013 7:36:12 pm
The day ended up great! I finished my HW ~ 1:30 pm (early!), went with my hubby to briefly visit with my parents and his parents, then took a nap on the couch. (another dizzy spell :>/ ) After dinner and grocery shopping, I perked up! Did some stuff in the yard and some (very much needed) straightening up in the basement. I can walk easily through 2 of the 4 sections again! (it's been getting bad) Now I have a purry furry snugglecat.
Jul 21, 2013 9:55:25 pm
We had a wonderful time with Auntie Linda and Grandma Kitty at the "Tails of Painted Cats" fundraiser event for the Cat Care Society. Dinner was great, the artwork was neat, and the company couldn't be beat! I saw my first live auction - wow! There's definitely a technique in there to get people to spend money. All in all, they reported that the event raised $55,000 for the cat shelter. (They sent their regards to Chloe, but she didn't respond in kind. The employees at the shelter all remember "Chloe from the Copy Room"!)
Jul 20, 2013 10:54:14 pm
We went to a 10 pm showing of "Pacific Rim" at the Imax in 3D with Tim. Great movie! We were just looking for some fun giant monster versus giant robot action, and it definitely delivered. I'm glad we got to see it on the big screen before it disappeared.
Jul 20, 2013 9:52:03 am
maybe tonight's not a good night to be doing MBA discussion posts. Reading through a class discussion on a leadership talk they found to be "inspirational", all I could think was "yeah, it inspired to think about why I haven't written a BS book on leadership and cashed in on speaking tours." :>/ must think positive thoughts....
Jul 17, 2013 8:50:55 pm
took a break from HW to gout for a nice lunch with my hubby and run some errands. We got a padfolio for me - I'm working on looking more managerial, and ditching the plastic bag with all my papers in it was part of the plan! I like it - nice black leather padfolio with a couple of zippered compartments, binder, and a calculator.
Jul 14, 2013 1:57:59 pm
Many thanks to my bro for a belated birthday dinner at Ali Baba's last night! We definitely enjoyed it.
Jul 14, 2013 10:09:16 am
my classmates have been busy! 59 unread discussion posts. :>o
Jul 12, 2013 7:16:39 pm
had a wonderful 15th wedding anniversary with my hubby! We tried the Three Tomatoes steakhouse at Golden's Fossil Trace Golf Club - really nice, with a great view of Golden. This evening, we were treated to an awesome thunderstorm that brought over an inch of rain! (that's a lot for our high plains desert. Denver gets ~15 inches of precipitation annually) and our little intrepid cat asked to go outside 3 times during the storm! We were joking that she must think it's the perfect time to go hunting - no creatures would be expecting her. ;>)
Jul 11, 2013 10:13:30 pm
10:30 already? not enough hours in the day
Jul 10, 2013 10:26:18 pm
I am finally rolling on my class' Week 1 paper! Taking a term off certainly hurt my productivity level on these papers (been a slow week for getting MBA stuff done), but I feel it coming back..... halfway done with the one that's due Sunday.
Jul 06, 2013 9:34:53 pm
We had a nice, if quiet, 4th of July. Mike spent about 4 hours in the lab at school helping students with the lab equipment and trying to get some programs up and running on new computers. I finished my Week 1 reading assignments for Class 11 of 14 and almost all of my discussion posts. (1 more left for this week + a 4-page paper on leadership styles). I also spent about an hour on the phone with my great aunt - it was very nice to talk with her. She wasn't feeling all that well today (being 87 is tough), so hopefully the conversation helped cheer her up a little.

We did take a break - had a lovely dinner at Mike's sister & her hubby's house. It was a very nice visit with the Lyon family, my parents, and Mike's parents! :>)

Back to work tomorrow!
Jul 04, 2013 9:45:21 pm
Many thanks to Rannae Sanders Lyon and super grill chef Schlep Schlep for a great 4th of July dinner!
Jul 04, 2013 8:23:15 pm
Happy 4th of July!
and Chloe wants to make it clear that she was not playing with the dog in the yard behind us while I was inside. I may have seen her hide under the peonies, charge the fence, flick her tail at Oakley (which set Oakley to running in happy circles), then reset her position under the plants so she could do it again. She was just trying to get the dog away from the fence. Anyone who thinks she actually likes Oakley is....um, just ridiculous. (This is not the first time she has played with Oakley.) :>)
Jul 04, 2013 10:02:24 am
We had a very nice dinner with my parents at Malone's. It's nice to have them in town!
Jul 03, 2013 8:02:52 pm
Busy weekend! As many know or have asked - yes, we celebrated Mike's bday early on Fri, and his actual bday is today. He has enjoyed it, and he saved some of the cake his mom made him for tonight. Yesterday, he put together a new computer for his lab and helped my parents install some new cabinets in their kitchen. I was busy putting down mulch (2 yards down, need to get more), cleaning up from the party, fussing with graduation pictures (if you want a framed picture and didn't get one, let me know), and reading through stuff for Class #11 of 14. (break time is over!)

Today, I spent most of the morning sorting through receipts and such (I am a bit behind on Quicken and stuff is due...gotta get on it) We then went to Will and Hannah's bday party and had a great time! Mike was busy giving all the kids bad ideas - like swinging past the piñata on a rope swing and smashing it with a baseball bat. :>) I have pictures.

Now, we're back home.. more Quicken and school work on my to-do list for tonight. *sigh* goodbye spring/summer vacation. I'll miss you! My next break from school starts Dec 15th. yeah, I said December. 3 classes back-to-back.
Jun 30, 2013 5:32:40 pm
had a bday party for my hubby tonight - many thanks to all who were here. We had a great time!
Jun 29, 2013 12:18:33 am
Busy day ahead! I am going to head to Timberline Gardens to get new mulch - it's later than I usually put down new mulch, but there are areas in our gardens that really really need it. At some point, I will take a break to head to Lane Bryant - got "bonus cash" that expires tomorrow. and the I need to pack! I am leaving Monday afternoon on business travel to Dallas, Texas. I'll be back Wed afternoon.
Jun 23, 2013 8:45:26 am
What a great end to the week! Thursday night, we went to the Do at the Zoo with Diana. It's a fundraising event where you pay a flat price for all-you-can-eat food and drink from local restaurants. We enjoyed seeing the animals in the evening - I have pictures of a very sleepy baby zebra.

Friday, we bought a new mattress. I'm disappointed to have to do that after having our Beautyrest mattress only 5 1/2 years...but I hear that is typical ever since all the companies started making "no flip" mattresses. The new mattress gets here on Tuesday. It's a different brand, so it's a big experiment.

Yesterday, we had a lovely get together with Jarl, Christy, and Daniel. I think Daniel really liked his souvenirs fro Japan! *whew*
Jun 23, 2013 8:34:11 am
part of me says "must find motivation", part of me says "It's Saturday!"....maybe a little caffeine will settle this debate
Jun 22, 2013 1:06:23 pm
Chloe was sound asleep on the covered patio, and the rain woke her up. She can in all grumbly. meow, meow, meow. I scooped her up and said "It's too bad I already had dessert, cause I could have had grumblecake." She turned around the look at me and glared. I swear she knows what I'm saying. ;>)
Jun 16, 2013 12:54:30 pm
feelin' lazy....nice to have a day off. We had a great media exchange yesterday from the Japan trip - thanks to all who participated! So many great pictures & movies & stories!
Jun 16, 2013 10:03:29 am
rain!!! I know it's never enough, but I hope the change in humidity level is helpful to the firefighters who are battling our crazy Colorado wildfires.
Jun 13, 2013 5:51:59 pm
When we got to Tokyo, my jet lag took the form of always wanting to be in bed by 8:30 pm. (vs 11) Now that we're back, I seem to keep waking up at 5 am, regardless of how tired I am. oh well.... back to work! Vacation is officially over. :>o
Jun 13, 2013 6:03:53 am
We're back! We were in Japan for 2 weeks - very glad to be home! And the fuzzerkin is glad to see us, but she is also a bit upset. Been home for a couple of hours and haven't heard the end of it yet! I'm sure she'll calm down at dinner time. :>) (oh, and there will be pictures)
Jun 11, 2013 4:22:34 pm
I found it!
I was outside with Chloe, doing some much needed weeding (things got crazy out there while I was studying for my certification test).....and out of the corner of my eye I saw something in the mulch under the lilac bush. It was the last easter egg! #106. It had pink nail polish in it, and it seemed ok. So, I will give it to our nieces when they come over for dinner tomorrow. :>)
May 23, 2013 7:54:13 pm
*dance* *dance* *dance* I passed! I am now a certified project manager with the Project Management Institute. Hopefully, this will help open some doors at work. (There does seem to be a bit of interest in the certification already.) Many thanks to Dennis Nicks for the recommendation!
May 18, 2013 12:42:06 pm
Mike's back up at school. His first full set of calibrations should be done today. I am studying for my project management certification (PMP)....test is Saturday @ 8:30. :>o
May 15, 2013 8:39:44 pm
Mike was home long enough to have a little bit of dinner, then went back to the lab. His new STA (Simultaneous Thermal Analyzer) was installed today - he still has a lot of setup work to do. I know happiness dwells within him.... he fought tooth and nail for over 5 years to get that STA ordered, including to cobble together the >$100k funding to get the school to buy it.
May 14, 2013 9:22:42 pm
Part 1 of 4: Mike's graduation pictures. These are of the hooding ceremony, which was before the graduation ceremony.
(including Linda and Tony Rawluk, Gwenn Sanders, Jarl Anderson, Archana Subramaniyan)

http://www.mksanders.com/2013pics/Graduation1_Hooding.html
May 12, 2013 10:44:13 pm
had a very nice breakfast with my parents at their new house. looking forward to seeing them again later!
May 12, 2013 12:48:18 pm
had a great time at Sarah's graduation party - it was wonderful to see everyone!
Now I am digging through the archeological layers on my desk, catching up on things that were waiting there for weeks - - I can see the desk again! That'll make it easier to clear my mind and study for my program management certification test on the 18th.
May 11, 2013 7:34:55 pm
Graduation'sover - post-doc work officially begins...Mike is up at the school collecting calibrations data for his conference paper.
May 11, 2013 11:23:48 am
Many thanks to all who helped make this a very special day for Dr. Mike! The graduation went well, post-graduation lunch was fun, and the dinner party was awesome! He enjoyed it all, and is looking forward to his post-doc work at Mines. I'll try to post some pictures soon.
May 10, 2013 9:53:28 pm
go Nuggets!
and go tuition reimbursement! My grade was posted today. :>)
May 02, 2013 9:01:17 pm
Mike's students better watch out! The Nuggets ticked Mike off with their poor performance...it's not often he turns off a game. Now he is writing the final exam for his class.
Apr 28, 2013 9:50:15 pm
wonderful Sunday here in Golden! 77 degrees and sunny. Chloe is sleeping on the patio. Dr. Mike has been working all weekend on his calibrations. He needs to complete that work for the conference paper he is presenting. So far, so good. and I have my entry to the company Cinco de Mayo chili cookoff on the stove. This is the first time I am entering a cooking contest at work.....
Apr 28, 2013 3:28:15 pm
final paper submitted! Goodbye Class #10 of 14. Class #11 starts July 1st.... I'm really looking forward to a little break! :>)
Apr 27, 2013 10:56:28 am
Go Nuggets! (playoffs game #3 tonight - series is tied)
Apr 26, 2013 8:58:08 pm
final paper time for Class #10 of 14.... *sigh* I have an outline done - lottsa writing to do.
Apr 25, 2013 9:45:21 pm
Poor Chloe. She saw some birds sitting in the bird feeder, started chattering at them, and ran out through her cat door to the patio to give them whatfor. She jumped up on the screen level with the bird feeder to scare them off and that's when she saw the scene below her... I had scattered bird seed on the outdoor patio and it was full of little birds, enjoying some respite from the snow thanks to the solar panel overhang. She turned her head and looked back at me like "really, Kari?" and came inside.
Apr 23, 2013 10:41:36 am
another snowy day - thank goodness for flex time! I am looking forward being home with my hubby (and Chloe) today.
Apr 23, 2013 9:03:22 am
Go Nuggets! Mike and Jarl are off to Playoff game #1! *fingers crossed*
Apr 20, 2013 3:22:37 pm
left work late again tonight - working a short-turnaround project. I was treated to a lovely view on highway 93.... love the look of the snow-covered foothills at twilight. They get an other-worldly glow that makes it seem like you're driving through a beautiful painting.
Apr 18, 2013 8:22:41 pm
There's a fuzzy ball tucked into her blanket next to me who is seeking assurances that spring will be back. 2 more days probably sounds like forever to a cat....
Apr 17, 2013 8:29:40 pm
Mike was right - I found the monkey head.

Mike thought one of the two missing easter eggs was a monkey head, and I found it tucked into a crevace of the retaining wall behind the shed while cleaning out the gardens. I have one more garden to clean out - maybe the bunny head egg is in that one. For now, break time is over! I need to finish my essay.
Apr 13, 2013 3:02:53 pm
quiet morning - and I'm busy being my usual ball of excitement. Today's task is to write a 1-page essay (full of journal references) on systems thinking/system dynamics and how it can be applied to strategic management, to change management and to developing learning organizations.
Apr 13, 2013 10:54:00 am
ha a wonderful time at DAM (Denver Art Museum) uncorked with my hubby and Diana Mann! Another great fundraiser for the museum - and it came with great food and lots of wine!
Apr 12, 2013 9:21:48 pm
*sigh of relief* all caught up on work and school stuff. had a very nice dinner at Jose O'Sheas with my hubby. which is good because I have a big morning tomorrow! Brain MRI for dizziness. :>o
Apr 10, 2013 8:23:07 pm
what a beautiful day! Sunny, mid-60's, slight breeze. I spent the better part of the afternoon working on the gardens - trimming out all the dead stuff. While doing so, I found 2 of the 4 missing eggs in the front garden. I confirmed the count while cleaning the eggs and boxing them up for next year. I know one of the missing eggs is a larg orange-ish brown egg shapped like a bunny head. You'd think it would be easy to spot...but here we are. More gardening next weekend - maybe the last 2 will show up!
Apr 07, 2013 3:28:13 pm
It's been 22 years (as Mike pointed out) - tonight, we went to his last E-Days fireworks show as a Mines student. Well, sort of went. The schedule said 10 pm, but they actually started at 9:30. So, we watched the show from his convertible in the parking lot of Wells Fargo. That worked pretty well! No crowds, no traffic. but we did miss the full effect of the explosives and gas fires.
Apr 06, 2013 10:00:17 pm
We had a wonderful time at Clara's 3rd birthday party ! It was great to see everyone! ...but I was slackin' - only 83 pictures.
Apr 06, 2013 3:10:17 pm
Mike made dinner! ...and I didn't nag him. He thought it was sad that him making dinner seemed like a victory - I told him it seems like a victory because I didn't nag him (like the previous time I peppered him with questions about how he was boiling water). I just sat on the couch with Chloe, quietly. That was a victory! :>)
Apr 05, 2013 8:30:44 pm
being lazy.... went to work this morning, left early to have a nice lunch with my hubby, worked a little after lunch, took Chloe outside for a while & packed up some of the coolers from Mike's party last week (the ice is still in one of them! we're impressed), and now I am working on my MBA HW. Mike can't believe I'm actually getting some R&R! (Kari style. I know it includes 2 HW essays)
Apr 05, 2013 4:05:17 pm
reading stuff for my MBA HW - came across a study by the "medical university of shiraz" .... and thought "uh-huh. right..... " ;>)
Apr 03, 2013 9:23:02 pm
Had a lovely family dinner at our house tonight. My parents and brother helped set up the egg hunt - our nieces had their work cut out for them this year! Everything worked out well, and it was great to see everyone having fun!
Mar 31, 2013 9:32:54 pm
working on paper 2 of 2 that is due on Monday....this is shaping up to be a much shorter case study than the last 3, possibly due to disinterest. ;>)
Mar 31, 2013 12:13:23 pm
We had a great time at our niece, Maddie's bday party today. It's been great having my family around for this weekend's events! pictures to come....I don't know why the camera battery died. I only took 265 pictures. ;>)
Mar 30, 2013 6:01:04 pm
You now need to refer to my hubby as DR. Michael Sanders. :>) Everything went very well with his defense this morning! A big thank you to all who helped and attended!
Mar 29, 2013 4:08:02 pm
The day is almost here! Mike defends his PhD on Friday, and it will be the real deal! The unfinished chapter is not needed - he has enough to graduate in May without it! :>)
Mar 27, 2013 9:17:16 pm
I thought I had gone to bed without setting an alarm clock... my fuzzy alarm clock got me up at 8:10 for no reason in particular. Slowly getting rolling on finishing the case study report that is due at 3 today.
Mar 17, 2013 9:27:48 am
happy music time in the study! Jimmy Cliff - "You can get it if you really want. You can get it if you really want. But you must try. Try and try, try and try. You succeed at last."
Mar 16, 2013 6:48:06 pm
quiet afternoon of writing here. Mike is working to finish up his dissertation so he can send it to his committee. I have finished paper 1 of 2 that are due tomorrow for my MBA class.
Mar 16, 2013 4:16:46 pm
Had a good morning - Diana Mann and I did our part for the earth! We brought 220 lbsof HazMat to the Rooney Road Recycling plant this morning. That was a collection of what Mike and I had, what Diana had, what was in my parents' new house, stuff from Mike's parents, and stuf from Mike's grandma. Diana got a Chloe rolling show when we got back.

After that, Mike and I went to Best Buy where he got Borderlands 2 and the new Bowie album. Yes, things are looking like we'll be at least having a partial celebration for his stuff soon. The long lost canister of gas did show up this week, and he is going to run some experiments. Those won't be done for his defense on the 29th. So, the plan is for him to finish the rest of his paper this weekend, send it to his committee, and do the defense on everything he has on the 29th. He will have to finish the last part of the dissertation with the experimental results after the 29th (sometime early summer?), meaning that he will be graduating in December. But at least he'll have the defense out of the way. which means he gets to play Borderlands2 with Tim. :>)
Mar 16, 2013 12:50:03 pm
When you take online classes, you have an option to post a profile picture, but most people don't. There's a girl in my class named "Nevein". My brain is convinced she's an elf. I hope I never meet her - I'm sure I would be disappointed. ;>)
Mar 08, 2013 8:08:03 pm
MBA class 9 of 14: 97% on the final = A in the class! My 4.0 gpa continues.... shoot, this is getting serious.
Part of the geek in me is pushing for A's in the remaining 5 classes!
Part of the geek in me says it will mess up the going trend! I had a 3.41 in my physics classes, a 3.41 in my EE classes and a 3.41 in my MS EE. 'cause I am nothing if not consistent. to two decimal places. ;>)
Mar 04, 2013 9:56:38 pm
who'd have thunk it? There's another Kari (same spelling) in my class this term. and there's only 15 of us!
Mar 03, 2013 11:32:02 am
had a good day! beautiful day (almost 60 deg & sunny)
I spent most of the day fussing with my parents' new house - mostly buying cleaners, etc. and cleaning out trash and recycling. and that kept me out of Mike's hair so he could get some writing done. Still no word on the canister of gas for his experiment that is lost in the frozen tundra (Ohio)
Mar 02, 2013 9:59:59 pm
Goodbye Class #9 - the next 5 classes look like all essays all the time, so I am sure I will miss you and your math problems...
Mar 02, 2013 9:45:03 am
It's final exam time for MBA Class 9 of 14. 1 problem down, 4 to go. This test is due Saturday, and Class #10 starts on Friday.
Feb 28, 2013 9:02:18 pm
it's great to be a regular! - - free sopapillas tonight at Jose O'Sheas since our waiter had some extra coupons :>)
Feb 28, 2013 8:08:21 pm
As of this afternoonm, my parents now own a house in Golden. It's been a weird ride, this short sale.... holy canoli.
Feb 27, 2013 9:48:41 pm
dissertation progress: Mike nearing the end of the front-matter writing. He has a couple of little sections left and one big section on a literature review of proton transport theory. Still no word on the missing cylinder of gas, which is somewhere in the frozen tundra between here and Ohio.
Feb 26, 2013 9:02:08 pm
it really looks like winter outside - lots of blowing snow! (and one very upset cat peering out at it all)
Feb 24, 2013 8:18:01 am
I have a story from this morning that ya'll may find entertaining.... it's called "Fun with GPS".
We recently went through Mike's closet, and I have a collection of shirts, pants, and jackets to give away. I decided that I'd bring them to the Denver Rescue Mission, since some of the jackets would be useful to them. There's a part of I-70 near the dog food factory that is elevated, and the rescue mission drop off point is in the neighbrohood beneath I-70. (There's literally a street that runs at ground level under the highway) So, I hop in the car and plug the address into the biult-in GPS. It tells me to get off I-70 at Colorado Blvd -sounds about right. And then it tells to get back on I-70 going westbound. weirdness, but sure. The exits in that area are a little weird. As I drive along the elevated portion of I-70, it sudenly says "You have now reached your destination." couldn't help but yell at it "no,dopey. I am like 50 feet above my destination!" called Mike, and he was able to give me directions that included being at the right altitude and in the area of my destination.
Feb 23, 2013 7:26:55 pm
This is a Mike update, since I have done...um.. not much today:
Mike had a good week - he gave the first test for the class he is teaching and most of the students did quite well. There were some problems with units, and he is going to take some time to go over that in detail. He also updated the graphics for a paper that was accepted for publication. and he helped out at the school with the labs he monitors. All of this left pretty much no time for dissertation writing.

Luckily, today has been a good day for writing his literature review. He is hoping to finish it this weekend (or very early next week) so he can send all the front matter for the dissertation to his advisor for review. But he's not done yet! There is one more experiment/calibration he needs to conduct, collect and analyze data for and write up as the last section in the dissertation. He's been held up waiting for speciality mixes of gases. He received word that they were put on a truck (in Missouri?) late this week and should arrive early next week. Keep your fingers crossed that they get here ok and the calibration work goes smoothly. He has to have everything done by March 15th. It's do'able if he can get the data he needs soon.
Feb 23, 2013 5:52:54 pm
12 more financial ratios to write up for my HW this week. Unfortunately, they are all on the same set of financial data and I am not allowed to just write "Whaddya know? This one tells the same story as the last 6." but it may come to that....
Feb 21, 2013 8:45:31 pm
d'oh! My hubby's always right. I ordered 2 books for my next class.I expected to get...2 books. The site didn't say one of them was an e-book. I had gotten an email from the bookstore stating they were probably going to ship my items separately. k. I got a box with one book in it, and the usual stack of miscellaneous papers with ads on it. One of them from Xanadu- yikes! I had a pdf file from them once and they spammed my school email account 10 times a week. All of it went in the recycling bin and I kept waiting formy separate package with the second book.

A week goes by. I look up the email from the bookstore to get some info on the 2nd book. There was a FedEx number, and their site said the package was delivered. funny - I only got one package. Mike asks me if I recycled the second book. I aid "No, I took everyting out of the box and flattened it. There was one book and a bunch of miscellaneous papers." So,I email the bookstore stating that I did not receive 1/2 my order. They said
"The Xanadu course pack is an access code, it is on a piece of paper in the box with the book that was delivered."

d'oh! I wrote back to them- will see where this goes tomorrow. Who fedex's an e-book?
Feb 18, 2013 7:19:40 pm
had a lovely visit last night with Dan and Vanessa. It was a little too windy for a fire, but we enjoyed it for about an hour. House of 1000 corpses was awful, Avs game got to be awful, but Chloe kept us all entertained by being cute!
Feb 17, 2013 8:01:22 am
The good, the bad, and the fuzzy:
No surgery! The ortho drs met and decided that there was no reason to operate next week. If the problem comes back before our trip to Japan, they can repeat the procedure they did in January.

Sadly, I came home early on this lovely day with a monster headache that just won't quit. 6 hours later, I can focus on the screen and read again (really hard to get any work done when you can't do that), but it has not yet completely left. :>/

and the fuzzy!
Chloe has been doing circles around me all afternoon - so cute! We did go outside for a little while, but she's still not sure she wants the puppy in the house behind us as a friend - not even through a fence. So, we went back inside.
Feb 15, 2013 4:16:59 pm
19th Valentine's Day with my hubby - much love! (and tacos for dinner, since we went out last night)

Doctor's office this morning - not so much love! They had the wrong description down for my surgery on the preop forms and were framing it as elective - that I had opted for surgery over nonsurgical alternatives. Say what?!? They got a piece of my mind over that one. I told them I was going to have surgery if it was necessary to close the tear in the joint capsule, and that my understanding was the only way to fix it was surgically. I requested an ultrasound to show whether or not the joint capsule had healed, and told them that if it had, no deal. no surgery. I don't need an 8-week recovery time just to remove some scar tissue from a ganglion cyst. Waiting to hear back on the ultrasound appt. or anything.
Feb 14, 2013 9:10:54 pm
had a lovely Valentine's dinner with Mike last night at Golden's "Indulge" restuarant. :>) (it's more romantic when you're not crammed into a dining room with a bunch of other people) Happy Valentine's Day!
Feb 14, 2013 8:07:46 am
can't believe Class 9 of 14 is already winding down. 3 more PDF readings, 3 more HWs, 2 more discussion posts and a final exam. It ends March 2nd, and class 10 of 14 starts March 1st. (yes, they overlap)
Feb 11, 2013 9:00:55 pm
Vanessa Bartholomew - get ready for some cute Chloe pics! Hopefully, they will tide you over until we can get together again. (coming soon to mksanders.com)
Feb 08, 2013 8:45:22 pm
Lovely evening! We had a special girl scout cookie delivery from our nieces, and then we went out to dinner with both of them and their mom. Yummy - New Peach Garden!
Feb 06, 2013 8:05:27 pm
I committed a faux pas tonight - made superbird sandwiches and did not save any bacon for the cat. She’s been running and hopping around…now she’s just giving me the guilt trip stare.
Feb 05, 2013 7:11:26 pm
yes, I would like some cheese with that whine. ;>) 96% on my mid-term!
Feb 04, 2013 8:36:34 pm
*whew* busy weekend. I did school work and started stocking up for the 2-month long recovery after my surgery. I did all the shopping yesterday and today made 6 qts of chicken chili soup, 5 lbs ribs, 3 little metaloafs and a pan of lasagna. I've frozen most of it already. As ever, thanks go to Diana for helping me learn how to freeze stuff! It'll lighten the cooking load on Mike while I am recovering.
Feb 03, 2013 9:36:18 pm
Happy Friday!
I had a cat here very sweetly and persistently trying to push me out of the way so she could steal my breakfast. She eventually gave up and wandered into the kitchen to find she had her own.
Feb 01, 2013 6:57:44 am
mid-term time! I downloaded my mid-term yesterday - it's due by 11:59 pmSaturday and is 15% of my grade. So far, so good? I feel like things are going too well - half way done already.
Jan 31, 2013 9:24:04 pm
I love coyotes! I took a short walk tonight to try to shake a headache, and I think I heard the start of the nightly hunt. North Table Mountain lit up with some sort of coyote roll call, to which the coyotes across the valley on the foothill responded. They went back and forth a couple of times, and then everything was quiet again. :>)
Jan 27, 2013 8:24:36 pm
Our thoughts and condolences are with the Jessen family today. Jim was a wonderful man, and he will be missed. Our thoughts are also with Mike's parents, who were lucky to count him among their friends for 42 years.
Jan 27, 2013 4:35:33 pm
50 degrees and lightly raining in Golden tonight. Hopefully, the rain amounts to something - it's been so dry here! Had a nice evening - went to T-Wa's with Mike and then stopped at the Men's Wearhouse to get him some clothes for teaching. (He's been wearing sports jackets to each class)
Jan 26, 2013 8:26:38 pm
I'm excited and Mike is a little nervuos - - his PHd defense is now scheduled for March 29th. The paper is due a couple of weeks before that (which is what has Mike nervouse - once he gets the paper done, he'll be fine.)
Time TBD - we'll either be providing lunch or dinner based upon his committee's schedule.
Jan 25, 2013 8:57:37 pm
Mike laughed as he heard me mutter "Leave me alone, Library Man."
There is this dude from the Regis library who keeps spamming our class. posts in the discussion area. emails.
Jan 22, 2013 6:57:18 pm
Busy day. Swellie is scheduled forsurgery on Feb 20th. That date is going to work better with our schedules (and it gives swellie just a little bit longer to heal up). It took me an hour, but I also applied for medical leave at work,since the dr wants me to stay home for a couple of weeks after the surgery.
Had a very nice lunch with Diana!
and my application to be certified (PMP) by the Project Managment Institute (PMI) was approved. test date to be determined in a few days. :>o
Jan 22, 2013 6:50:28 pm
think unswellie thoughts...think unswellie thoughts...
I have a decision to make by Jan 28th. There's no good way for imaging to know for sure if the tear in my ankle's joint capsule has healed. So, the question is more if it seems healed. If not, my 2nd surgery is scheduled for Feb 6th. If so, no 2nd surgery is needed. I've been resting, icing, wrapping, massaging, etc. the ankle. If it is healing/healed and just weak, I should be able to use it without it getting all puffed up. As an experiment, I took a short (15 min) walk - what a beautiful night! (~45 deg, clear skies, lots of stars) Now I just need to think unswellie thoughts...
Jan 18, 2013 9:58:36 pm
Today's lesson is - don't let all the fretting people make you second guess yourself. My class has been fretting endlessly over this week's HW. Tons of email traffic, tons of back and forth discussions on one equation or another. I gave up on all of that and turned in what I had. My professor just sent me an email saying I got a 100% on this week's assignment!
Jan 18, 2013 9:45:14 pm
home sick with an achy ankle :>(
Jan 14, 2013 8:05:16 am
logging in to do some work from home because I need to make up some hours from last week. It's a really nice option to have while I am sitting here icing my ankle!
Jan 13, 2013 10:02:34 am
Seriously, go Broncos! *fingers crossed* for a win in overtime.
Jan 12, 2013 6:08:15 pm
My ankle is feeling a little better - in addition to the ace bandage, I started using my lace up brace. The swelling is still absent (*grin* yay!) but the slightest amount of lateral force (even if my ankle kind flops into a position while sitting) creates sharp pains. I'll call the dr Monday to see what he thinks. Many thanks in advance to Dave G for driving me to work!
Jan 12, 2013 9:43:55 am
I never get tired of the Team America soundtrack.....
Jan 11, 2013 6:11:12 pm
A+ for the prof of my class this term! There were a lot of notes about using the HW template correctly, so I sent him an in-work copy to see if I was doing what was needed. He wrote back - yes, but I had used the wrong column of numbers. Correct it, and he would look at it again. awesome! thank you thank you!
Jan 10, 2013 7:53:29 am
the ENT had called saying they had a cancellation - so Mike took me there to see about the dizziness I have been having since the surgery. Passed the hearing test with flying colors (even with all the ringing in my ears!) and he thinks it is post-surgical benign positional vertigo. Appt next Thurs to confirm. At least that sounds fixable. :>)
Jan 09, 2013 3:32:30 pm
In other news, Professor Mike's first class went very well! (he even thwarted an unruly TA who tried to make his phone ring while he was explaining the penalties for rining cell phones in class...Dan) He said the class clapped for him when he was done, but he's not sure how much of that was that he let them out a little early. :>)
Jan 09, 2013 1:41:17 pm
whoa nellie! Many thanks to Mike's mom for driving me today - I don't know what I could have driven home. in a lot of pain right now. It turns out the ganglion cyst #2 was a red herring - the real problem is a tear in the joint capsule on the other side of my ankle. (explains why that side was hurting!) They removed all the fluid but swellie remains due to significant swelling of the joint capsule. He gave me a pile o' steroid anit-inflammatories in the area to try to get the swelling down. He is doubtful that the tear will heal on its own due to its size, so I may need a 2nd surgery. He said I should wait 3-4 weeks and evaluate where things are.
Jan 09, 2013 11:13:50 am
tomorrow's the big day! Mike teaches his first class!

(and we'll see if it is also the end of swellie)
Jan 08, 2013 6:56:00 pm
We went to Fort Collins with Mike's parents and ha a very nice breakfast at IHOP with Gwen, Jim and Mariah Jessen.
On the way home, we passed a tanker truck that said "INEDIBLE Technical Animal Fat". Mike was sad he didn't get a picture. When he googled it on his droid, he laughed that one of the top search results read "I just passed a tanker truck labeled Inedible Technical Animal Fat..." He is not the only person to be curious. (and it is used for greases, soap, candles, etc.)
Jan 05, 2013 1:31:53 pm
Our thoughts and love are with the Jessen family tonight. It's been a long hard road and the hardest days are yet to come. We're here for you guys - just let us know what you need.
Jan 04, 2013 8:18:52 pm
Class #9 starts today. The syllabus looks much more reasonable. 1 background paper (no textbooks to buy!) to read each week + 1 discussion post and 1 assignment. There are also 2 larger, more comprehenive assignments that make up 45% of the grade, kind of like a mid-term and final. :>)
Jan 04, 2013 6:38:30 am
cracky, poppy, painful..*shakes fist* "Your days are numbered, Swellie!" Hopefully. Appt for non-surgical procedure to try to fix swellie is now scheduled for 10 am Jan 9th. *fingers crossed*
Jan 02, 2013 8:29:16 pm
and we're finally here! I have had enough time off this month that I have finished all the puttering and catch-up hores, and now need to pick a hobby-sort-of-thing to do. :>o amazing! Mike suggested that I paint the fence. ;>) I was thinking web site updates. You've been warned.
Dec 31, 2012 3:14:25 pm
had a wonderful evening yesterday with my hubby and Diana Mann.... dinner at the Sherpa House and we saw the Hobbit in HFR 3D at the continental. The movie was great! We were a little disappointed that the giant screen at the continental had gotten a remodel since the last time we were there - it's no longer an 800-person theater. :>( still cool though.
Dec 31, 2012 9:10:18 am
quiet night in the Sanders household - I'm working on Quicken (avalanche of receipts!) and Mike is compiling his Phd data into spreadsheets so he can better analyze it. So far, it looks ok.
Dec 28, 2012 7:14:36 pm
home early and planning to enjoy a nice 4-day weekend!
Dec 28, 2012 3:40:29 pm
We ha a wonderful Christmas day! We had breakfast at Mike''s sister's house with her family and his parents....followed by lotsof gifts for our nieces! Mike helped put together a barbie house forVal. We got home about 1, spent some time on the phone with my family (my cousin Steve does an awesome impression of Bain from the Batman movie!), and then were off the Mark and Bella's (Mike's aunt and uncle) for a very nice visit and dinner. Now, we are home having a quiet evening, a fresh batch of ham bone soup is on the stove.
Dec 25, 2012 6:25:17 pm
busy Christmas Eve! We spent about 3 hours today with our nieces - we went to Dennys for lunch, stopped by the school to show them Mike's lab, his office, ride the elevator a dozen times, and run around looking at statues in the school's plaza area between buildings. Then, we came back to our house to play with Chloe's toys and find other things of amusement. They were in high gear! All that did give Mike's parents some time to prep for Christmas Eve dinner. Mike's grandma and aunt are quite ill, so they were not able to host this year.
This evening, we had a lovely dinner at Mike's parents' house. Gift time was crazy - all the kids were still in high gear (and napless). I just got back from our neighbors' house (the house of Sofie, who babysits Chloe) - brought them a plate of cookies.
Dec 24, 2012 10:03:31 pm
update on swellie: My MRI results had showed a new cyst near my right ankle, and my ortho surgeon recommended another surgery to remove it. :>/ Dissatisfied with the answer, I went to a different dr on Thursday regarding swellie. He said it's a very common sports injury, typically on wrists or ankles. While I was hopping on and off teh wall and running around this summer, I probably incurred a minor ankle sprain. Part of the injury was a very small tear in a tendon, which is leaking fluid and causing swellie to exist. He is going to send me to a sports medicine dr he knows - Dr. Maddow. This dr can look at the cyst under ultrasound and remove all the fluid (while looking at it under ultrasound). Once that is done, they will be able to see the damage. Assuming it is a small tear, they will inject some sterroid anti-inflammatory nearby and then give me a perscription for a couple weeks' worth of mega anti-inflammatories. (woo hoo! sounds like I'll be arthritis-free for a couple of weeks!) That should give the little tear enough time to heal and will be the end of swellie.
Dec 22, 2012 9:41:55 am
The solstice party was a lot of fun yesterday - thanks to everyone who made it for helping to make it fun! It was great to see everyone and thankfully, it was a great night for a fire! Mike had a very nice campfire going for almost 6 hours!
Dec 22, 2012 8:03:59 am
I think it's possible there was a shift in the universe overnight. For the fist time ever, I managed tomake pfeffernusse *without* coating the house in powdered sugar!
Dec 21, 2012 12:50:18 pm
snow! love watching the snow fall gently in the morning
Dec 18, 2012 7:44:39 am
..and submitted! Goodbye class #8 of 14, and good riddens. No more homework until Jan 7th!
Dec 15, 2012 10:10:07 pm
The Illings party was very nice. It was great to see so many familiar faces who we haven't seen in a while. We both missed chatting with Luanna at the door. :>( but it was good to see the family is doing well.
came home so Mike could start another data run...the luxurious life of a phd student ;>)
Dec 15, 2012 9:49:32 pm
So I am working on my final paper for Class #8, which is a frankenpaper - I pasted in all sorts of good stuff from past papers and am trying to massage it into somthing coherent, or quasi coherent. I would take quasi coherent on it at this point. The problem is that I have too much material! At 9 pages now, half-way done trying to cut it down to 5.
Dec 15, 2012 4:29:58 pm
Last night, while sharing a glass of wine with Mike and listening to Lou Reed's "Set the Twilight Reeling", I told him it was a fitting end to a complicated day.

Overall, we had a good but long week.
Mike's still collecting data for his phd stuff and it seems to be going well (except that the mass spec is starting to make weird noises),
I got the results of the MRI on my ankle (another cyst, they suggested another surgery, I scheduled an appt for the 20th to get a second opinion),
I finished buying and wrapping gifts for our adopted family (drop off is today),
I got pretty far along in finishing up stuff for my last week of Class #8,
my parents are under contract to buy a house in Golden, so we'll be seeing them more :>)
I finished the yule cards and am ~ 2/3 done with the Christmas cards
We received a lot of great cards - Jarl & Christy, Karen & Wally, Todd & Alex, Rannae & Rob: love the pictures! thanks!
and sadly found out someone I had known from a while back passed away 1 1/2 yrs ago. I somehow missed that. Luanna was a wonderful person and her passing is a great loss. Still looking forward to getting together with her hubby and children this weekend. Obviously, we haven't seen them in a while.
Dec 15, 2012 8:45:37 am
I'm a total pain in the rear - ever have a conversation where it felt like someone was willing to say anything to make you just go away? That anything was an agreement from a contractor to $836 in concessions for landscape repair after the sewer line debacle we had in October. So, it is settled!
Dec 10, 2012 8:20:09 pm
looks like today is going to test how well I fastened down all the decorations outside - here comes the wind!
Dec 10, 2012 7:42:39 am
I had trouble sleeping in this morning, but made good use of the time. Almost done with my last HW assignment for Class #8. Now it's down to the final paper (due next weekend) and a brief statement of what I learned and how I will apply it going forward....which is possibly harder to write than the final paper! ;>)
Dec 09, 2012 6:03:03 am
We will not be at my company's party tonight, since my hubby is still feeling sick. But his mom is bringing us some soup that his parents made today! I am spoiled. :>)
Dec 08, 2012 3:40:36 pm
long week- but it feels longer than I think it was. hope I am not coming down with what Mike has - he's resting on the couch w/ a fever. best be getting my MBA Hw done just in case.....
Dec 07, 2012 6:39:43 pm
"It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine." (REM)
Local facebook folks - I am planning to take the solstice off this year and was wondering if ya'll would be interested in coming over for a solstice party on Friday the 21st? If there is interest, I will plan one.
Dec 02, 2012 5:39:56 pm
half a page left to write on this week's MBA hw before I will allow myself to go shopping. I love buying gifts, I love giving gifts, I love sending cards, I love colored lights and the electric zoo, I love cooking, and I love baking.... I love this time of year!! ... but I do need to finish my homework.
Dec 02, 2012 1:18:45 pm
Mike is collecting data. So far, so good.He is on thermal/gas conditions case #4 (called point #4 in his model, but each point is comprised of thousands of data collections)
Dec 02, 2012 10:23:21 am
sometimes, you sit down to write and the muse does not come....

to be fair, I am looking for ideas on the role of outsourcing at BMW - I am sure the muses have better things to do on a Friday night ;>)
Nov 30, 2012 9:07:14 pm
fantastic day! finally got the MRI for my ankle...will know the results next week. got home early, put up the zebra, snowman and tiny forest outside - it's a start! (and about all I was up for. Kari's electric zoo will go incrementally this year) The zebra will make our neighbor across the street happy - it's her fave. Another neighbor stopped by and voted for the palm tree next...I aim to please. maybe Saturday.
Had a lovely dinner with my hubby at the Table Mountain Inn. and Mike's experiement is up and running, complete with electrodes. He is very cautiously easing into collecting data.
Nov 29, 2012 7:06:22 pm
Great news! My hubby has been in comunication with his advisor, who is doing a sabbatical in China. They have worked out a path forward for him to defend his dissertation during the last week of March. If he has data by January 9th, they will work the data into the paper - good or bad data, both are workable. If he does not have data, he will start writing another modeling paper. that means his planned graduation day is Friday, May 10th.
Nov 27, 2012 8:27:09 pm
I made it to Week 6 of 8 for Class #8of 14. So far, 59.25 points out of 60. Just a few more papers left! (The problem with a 4.0 GPA is that at some point you go from not caring to wanting to sustain it. ;>) )
Nov 27, 2012 8:23:49 pm
poor Mike. So, the new process for making seals on the tube worked! It survived. but sadly there is a mysterious leak elsewhere in the system that is allowing back diffusion. so, no data yet.
Nov 26, 2012 8:21:22 pm
I've said it before, but I do very much enjoy listening to Deltron 3030 while working on my HW. "Upgrade your gray matter, cause one day it may matter."

...and if that doesn't work,I can always "take my space shuttle to escape trouble" ;>)
Nov 26, 2012 8:13:52 pm
something bolty this way comes.

Chloe woke up from her nap and is thundering around the house, over furniture, behind furniture, up and down the hall. I presume this is a cat's way of celebrating that my brother's dog is on her way home.
Nov 24, 2012 5:20:16 pm
Had a wonderful visit with my parents, brother and my brother's dog, Whitney, this week. Chloe even tolerated Whitney ok.
My parents, Mike and I went to see the "Becoming Van Gogh" exhibit at the Denver Art Museum on Tuesday. It was very wel done. You could really see the progression from his earliest work to his most famous works. After that, we went to dinner at Jose O'Sheas with Mike's parents, Auntie Linda, Grandma, Rannae, Maddie and Valerie. The food was great as always and we had a wonderful time!
Wednesday, I went on a tour of Stranahan's whiskey distillery, just south of Denver, with my parents and bro while my hubby watched Whitney and did some school work. The distillery has grown a lot since the last time I was there! Everyone enjoyed the tour and my family was very pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food in Stranahan's Rackhouse restaurant.
Many thanks to Gwenn and Terry for 2 Thanksgiving dinners!
Nov 24, 2012 6:49:26 am
phone it in? you betcha. I was looking through my MBA assignments that are due today and said "butI feel like I just wrote about this stuff". Paper 1 of 3 has turned into an aggregation project. I'm almost done. ;>)
Nov 18, 2012 2:18:51 pm
Many thanks to the crew who stopped by last night for a little dinner party - we had a wonderful time!
Nov 18, 2012 1:46:47 pm
Mike has another ceramic tube in the setup. This was a permutation on the other experiments - instead of firing the tube before putting it into the experimental setup, he fired two little holders and he is going to try to get the vacuum seals for the tube to form real-time as everything heats up to 1000 deg C. Certainly, less stress on the tube, but he doesn't know if the seals will work. .. and won't know for another few hours. *finges crossed*
Nov 17, 2012 4:37:12 pm
Hi! The Denver Rescue Mission is looking for more sponsors for the holidays....here's the info in case anyone in the area is interested:
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Denver Rescue Mission is still in need of about 50-60 sponsors to adopt needy families this Christmas for our 2012 Adopt-A-Family program!

As the sponsor of a family, you are asked to provide one gift of new clothing, and one or two new toys to each child (for a minimum cost of $40 per child), and a $25 gift for each adult. The link to our website below provides further details on the expectations of sponsors.

To register for this wonderful experience, please visit www.denverrescuemission.org/aaf
Nov 13, 2012 8:12:32 pm
went back to the orthopedic surgeon today. He had some ideas for reducing the swelling (I will spare you the gory details) and confirmed the ankle is just unhappy, not infected. If the swelling isn't gone by Friday morning, he said to call the office and get scheduled for a MRI. :>/
Nov 12, 2012 4:18:53 pm
poor Mike. Another tube broke. He's going to take a break and re-design his experimental setup.
Nov 10, 2012 3:28:29 pm
Nov 10, 2012 3:08:50 pm
This is a public service announcement! The weather has turned cold and rainy - or so says the cat who has been thundering around the house for the last 2 hours. (and she pulled the rags out of the closet just in case I hadn't already noticed she was upset) Mike was more sympathetic. He told her he agreed it was like "a little kitty apocalypse - cold, rainy, and squirrels everywhere".
Nov 10, 2012 9:30:48 am
I can't do my homework tonight....my desk is so clean right now!
Nov 09, 2012 7:40:02 pm
keep your fingers crossed.... Mike has 2 of the old tubes left that he is going to try to get some data on (it takes a while to get new ones in). One of them is in the setup now, heating up at 2 degrees per minute to ~100 deg C - much more slowly than normal. Mike is hoping it will survive this time.
Nov 07, 2012 7:16:10 pm
the good news is that most everyone I know on LI now has power again. (and fuel!)
the bad news is that we have definitely determined that Mike's experimental process is putting toomuch stress on these poor ceramic tubs. another one broke. he's working on getting some thicker tubes that will hopefully be up to the job.
Nov 05, 2012 8:07:50 pm
and we have voltage! Mike got his (new) ceramic tube into the setup tonight and got it running.He is pleased to see the electrodes and wires survived, and the setup is no reporting a voltage. It's on its way to 1000 deg C to get some data. woo hoo!
Nov 04, 2012 8:00:23 pm
An update on things in Golden: Week #2 of my new job went well. It's been nice and quiet. I am temporarily working in Boulder while things get figured out re what I am going to do in Broomfield. There have been some changes since the position I appllied for was opened. My ankle is now named "swellie" because the only thing I could think of was to name it. ;>) I will head to the dr once I get my medical insurance card.

Mike is doing ok. He will not be defending in December - he had another setback in data collections when old trusty (the ceramic tube he used for his master's work) broke. He has been machining tubes and preping them for experiments this week and hopes to get rolling again some time this weekend. He is also getting close to settling on an updated calibration design. He found some weaknesses in the old design that he is correcting. (namely, only part of the ata was getting calibrated, since the mass spec has two different sensors - one for high gas flow rates and one for low gas flow rates. All the calibration schemes focused on the high rate sensor)
Nov 03, 2012 1:57:27 pm
glad to hear 1/3 of the people who lost power in NY now have it and that more fuel is headed into the state. Hopefully, the worst is over and things will be getting back to normal soon. I still know a lot of people without power - *fingers crossed* I hope their areas come up on the priority list for restoration soon.

http://news.yahoo.com/anger-grows-over-fuel-shortage-storm-hit-northeast-003908169.html
Nov 03, 2012 1:45:54 pm
Warm thoughts to our friends and family on the east coast - wish you were here instead of dealing with that storm. We had 55 deg and sunny in Golden.

what a busy day! I made soup (some for freezing), planted the last displaced plant from the sewer disaster because it is supposed to be a lovely week, munched up someleaves, and put up Halloween decorations. (and did chores and stuff) Sadly, still having trouble with a sore swollen ankle and had 3 bouts of dizziness. So, I foresee more dr visits in the near future.
Oct 28, 2012 9:42:19 pm
Happy 7th birthday to Chloe! Unlike her 6th birthday (which I hear is 40 in cat years), Chloe is not sleeping this one out. She woke me up at 8. We went outside. Then Mike put her new toy together (have pictures, will post) and I just got home with her free birthday treats from Petsmart. :>)
Oct 27, 2012 10:29:45 am
had a wonderful steak dinner with my hubby - celebrating my new job plus 19 years of being happy together (as of Oct 11)
Oct 20, 2012 8:53:26 pm
The submission of my final paper means I am now half way through my MBA! lass 7 of 14 is complete. Class 8 of 14 is already underway. I am currently planning to take one of the summer terms off next year, which means I will complete the degree in early 2014.
Oct 20, 2012 10:01:44 am
80% done with my final paper for Class #7. darn it - I ran out of frankenpaper (copy-paste-reformulate old papers from the class). The rest is going to have to be written from scratch.
Oct 19, 2012 9:01:40 pm
today was my last full day at work. I check out with HR in the am and start my new job Monday. hard to believe it was almost 5 years.....
Oct 18, 2012 9:02:11 pm
and now the calls should stop in a few days.... I have mixed emotions about the fact that there is a list out there of who already turned in their mail-in ballots, but it sure was nice to drop ours off tonight knowing that the political robo calls will stop soon. (the no call list should apply to those guys! there's something they don't understand about "don't call me, I'll call you...well, just don't call me.")
Oct 17, 2012 9:00:08 pm
poor Mike picked up a bug - he's running a fever but still is working on data collection. I am working on my final paper for Class #7....and yes, the process does start with a major copy-paste job from past papers. that's just how I roll
Oct 16, 2012 9:24:07 pm
the state of the houseghold is pretty elated. I finished rolling wave planning (3 more days! not that I'm counting...), Mike's data is still running along well, Broncos win!, and he was happy about having a faculty training class today - it felt like it was where he was supposed to be. He is looking forward to teaching next semester.

On a more somber note, our thoughts go out to the Jessen family....hope the treatment works.
Oct 15, 2012 11:26:45 pm
Mike is now officially collecting data! He's using the old trusty ceramic tube, and it will take about a week. That's 1/2 the data he needs for his dissertation. During that time, he will continue to try to get the electrodes working on a different ceramic tube (different kind of ceramic, the kind that kept breaking) for the other 1/2 of the data he needs. Keep your fingers crossed!
Oct 14, 2012 2:13:41 pm
had a lovely dinner with the Lyon's tonight. Rob's Dad and MK are in town from Alaska - it was great to see them! At some point, we do need to go see them in Alaska. Mike has the heaters running on his lab setup and is planning to start taking data with the old trusty ceramic tube tomorrow. I am stillworking on my paper - taking full adantage of a due date extension to noon Sunday.
Oct 13, 2012 10:17:45 pm
made lasagna and sauce for the Nuggets season ticket draft party tomorrow (we share season tickets with Mike's parents' friends).
had a fruitful visit from the company that did the sewer installation. Their landscape people were shocked at how badly our yard had been treated. (good! please go tell your boss) One of the guys said "did they even put plywood under the outrigger?"
Also, many thanks to Mike's parents for taking care of our plants and bringing them back today. :>)
now , back to my 2 MBA papers that are due today.
Oct 13, 2012 12:11:34 pm
It was a tough day - death by a thousand papercuts. Nothing really went wrong, everything was just not right. Luckily, regularly taking aleeve over the past couple of days got the swelling in my ankle down enough that I could comfortably wear my sneakers - 1st workout since my ankle went bad in July!! 15 min on the elliptical, but it was something. and desperately needed. :>)
Oct 12, 2012 9:28:28 pm
Mike actually got home after me tonight (and I left work late due to rolling wave planning - buget/schedule stuff) - he was at the lab working on getting the setup running with the old trusty ceramic tube. Sadly, there is one pesky leak he needs to track down before he can take some data.
Oct 11, 2012 10:53:53 pm
bought a highlander :>)
Oct 09, 2012 10:51:49 pm
it's been a bad week for customer service. The good: A labcorp representative called me and they are going to reimburse me forleave w/out pay (I am out of vacation time due to the surgery this summer) as well as mileage yay! Their apology sounded sincere and I was happy! and then I came home. We were having the sewer pipe lined with resin so the roots wouldn't get in any more. What was supposed to be a 55" long trench was actually a 102" trench. What was supposed to be perennial plants lovingly removed and placed in wheel barrows was plants with hardly any dirt on their roots dying where they were strewn along the basement wall, and he 3" deep impressions in the lawn, and so forth.
Oct 08, 2012 9:25:41 pm
had a lovely evening. went to the local playhouse with my hubby, his parents, his auntie linda, and his grandma to see the #Penny Opera. The cast did a great job!
Oct 07, 2012 9:14:56 pm
car shopping is a lot of work! (I always rediscover that fact.) We spent most of the day looking at possible replacements for the Rav4. We kind of found some nice options, but nothing that jumped out and said "pick me!" except one that is more money than I was planning to spend. So, back to MBA HW.....I have a few more paragraphs to write for my assignment that is due tonight. This one is one corporate diverisicatio strategies, mergers & acquisitions.
Oct 06, 2012 8:43:27 pm
This year's new lawn ornaments have been purchased - many thanks to my hubby who found it. So, what will we add to the "Christmas Seal", elephant, zebra, tiny forest, UFO tree, palm tree, and pink flamingo? A raptor! (and a cow holding a sign because the front yard needed a cow) Nothing spreads holiday cheer like a grinning raptor in a santa hat trying to hand you a present. It's awesome! (promise I'll post pictures once they are assembled)
Oct 05, 2012 8:10:51 pm
After somehow being denied service at LabCorp in Englewood yesterday, I was able to successfully complete my drug test for my new job at the Laborp in Broomfield today. Thank goodness for nice and professional people. The two locations were just night and day from a customer service standpoint. Now I am home working on MBA stuff while Mike is at school.
Oct 05, 2012 5:12:03 pm
Mike must have been busy today - I ended up with a snuggle cat. Times are desperate if Chloe decides to sit with me instead of Mike. :>)
Oct 01, 2012 9:30:33 pm
great evening! submitted my mba paper just in time for dinner with my hubby and Diana. We had turkey chili and a berry cobbler Diana made. (yummy!) after that....blow something up! Time for the much belated e-days fireworks. Well worth the wait to see the gas explosions and listen to the echos of concussions and sounds of car alarms ringing through the valley.
Sep 29, 2012 9:08:30 pm
fireworks tonight at Mines! We're planning to go. If anyone else is, let us know and we can meet here or at the field. :>)
Sep 29, 2012 11:03:29 am
had a nice visit with my dad this week as he was houseshoppping in Golden. We had a great time at Mines yesterday evening - went to the ribbon cutting for a new building and then the annual alumni Century society dinner. (awesome as always!) We had a campfire afterward at home, because it was a beautiful night!

Today, my apparent idea of getting my MBA paper done was getting up at 10 am. (oops!) Just got home from Safeway - I am going to make lunch and turkey chili first, then spend some time on the paper.
Sep 29, 2012 11:02:29 am
woo hoo! new job! shorter commute! My last day in Aurora is Oct 19th and I start Oct 22.
Sep 26, 2012 4:27:44 pm
Mike is back up at school. Sadly, the ceramic tube with the electrodes broke yesterday, so he needs to make another one before he can collect data. His dremmel also died yesterday while working on ceramic tubes, so he bought a new one today.

I am baking a turkey (seemed like a nice autmn thing to do) and am preping to finish painting the patio. I'd like to get the siding, etc. painted before bad weather shows up. (I am sure most of you visited this summer didn't even realize we still needed to paint!) thsu far, painting pre ios taking a ton of time. I am still hopeful the painting itself will go pretty quickly once I am done with ye olde blue tape.
Sep 23, 2012 12:49:30 pm
Chloe is running around the house at top speed yowling with her call of the wild meow. Maybe this is supposed to be inspiration for my chaos and business strategy paper that's due today?
Sep 22, 2012 8:42:12 am
2/3 done with the MBA paper that is due tonight. I am trying to make it not sound like I am uninspired and just blathering on to meet the required page count on this one......
Sep 15, 2012 9:01:33 pm
Mike is up at school. He has already made great progress on his phd project - finished collecting data for his calibration/sensitivity curves, finished putting his 2 publications in dissertation format (including figures and references), and attached the (real, this time) platinum wire to the electrodes on his ceramic tube.

This weekend's project is trying to collect some data with the tubes....that whole Grover thing I was talking about a while back. Once he gets that data, he has some more ceramic tubes (made with different materials - not all ceramic has the same stuff in it) that he needs to run some tests on in order to demonstrate the accuracy of his model. Paper #3 on the dissertation is supposed to describe the model and the data he collected. and that will be it! (well, plus intro, literature review, and future work sections)
Sep 15, 2012 4:29:12 pm
very pleasant evening - we're getting some much needed rain. Chloe and I went out to get the mail. She was walking along the house trying to stay dry. When I tried to usher her back inside, she took off across the yard for the blue truck. I tried to call her out, but she wouldn't budge. Not wanting to get me and the mail too wet, I went back to the front door and asked Mike to bring me my rain coat. Apparently, this was a sign I was leaving the cat outside. She can blazing into the house at full speed, complete with a running leap over the front step and the mail. :>) too cute!
Sep 12, 2012 8:54:41 pm
listening to David Byrne with Mike while working on MBA homework - with the windows open! such a lovely evening in Golden.
Mike is keeping an eye on his lab runs on his lap top (most of the lab equipment is set up to run remotely) while he works on his dissertation paper. 73 pages done using materials from previous writings on his project. He needs an intro, literature review, and the results from the tests he is going to run. Right now, he is getting data for sensitivity curves while he waits for the platinum wire to arrive.
Sep 08, 2012 6:41:14 pm
having a good time reading MBA posts. One of my classmates posted about "maxingimizing" his "frim's" "vlaue" to contribute to "teir success".
I laughed and told Mike I was tempted to respond "Dude - spell check! You are an embarrassment to your entire 'frim' !"....but I didn't. I'm too nice. or I think it would cost me discussion participation points on my grade this week. one or the other.
Sep 07, 2012 5:17:05 pm
Mike is back in the lab this evening. He finally finished his calibrations and was getting ready to collect some data using a tube that has platinum coatings on both ends and electrodes attached. Sadly, the wires were not platinum (he thought they were), so now he has a melted mess. He thinks the tube can be saved and still used for experiments.
Sep 06, 2012 8:12:51 pm
drove to work today with no problems - that's good!
9 am dr appt for possible stitches infection - that's bad. I knew I shouldn't have gone to work. ;>)
Sep 04, 2012 5:46:45 pm
If you're passionate enough about a subject that you're all in a huff at a textbook because you think it's wrong, you probably picked the right major.
(well, and I'm a total geek about everything I do. )
Sep 03, 2012 10:20:15 am
poor Mike is back at the lab, working to calibrate the flow meters. again. He needs them to be very precise for the data he needs to collect, because there is a big debate about hydrogen and the membrane. (mostly a debate between him and Grover. Grover's on his phd committee, so if Mike is to win the debate he has to be 100% extra super sure of his data) Keep your fingers crossed that he get to collect some data soon!
Sep 02, 2012 8:14:15 pm
highway driving with ankle? done. Went to Target, took Highway 58 and I-70. no problems driving. No trouble hobbling around Target with the boot. I am feeling a bit worn out now that I've come home. *whew*
Sep 01, 2012 3:07:10 pm
this is one of those classes where I can already tell I won't have many good things to say about the facilitator on the end-of-class eval. (and it's only the first week!)
Aug 31, 2012 5:13:42 pm
I drove today for the 1st time in 3 weeks. Mike, Dan and Amy were test subjects on my drive. Tim can verify that we all made it! Many thanks to Gwenn for sitting with me for 5 hours at Lutheran yesterday. I am officially blood clot free and have new medication for dizziness that seems to be working a bit better. Stitches come out next Thursday.
Aug 30, 2012 1:33:03 pm
pretty tired after my first day back at work...me and das boote. (I could wear the lighter brace but it would mean not wearing shoes...if you saw the floor where I work, you'd be wearing the boot, too! ;>) ) Now I just have to write a page and a half for this week's MBA assignment.....
Aug 28, 2012 7:56:59 pm
woo hoo! got a 100% on my final project for class #6 and an A in the class. (Many thanks to a lenient and understanding professor who sent me an email this weekend telling me I had forgotten to turn in part of the final project.)
Aug 27, 2012 2:41:11 pm
my wonderful hubby is doing the grocery shopping :>)
Aug 26, 2012 8:09:42 pm
ugh, stupid ankle. still not feeling well, am taking Monday off. I think my doctor is crazy. :>/
Aug 26, 2012 2:04:57 pm
Mike and I went out to dinner tonight - Malones, just something simple. Part of the purpose was to see how I did with a car ride, etc. in preparation for going to work on Monday. I didn't do too badly, but my ankle hurt from time to time - epecially riding in a car. ugh.
So, what does a 2-inch incision on the side of my ankle get me? web site updates. I will post links as I had pictures to mksanders.com, but the site also have its own navigation system.
Aug 25, 2012 8:04:22 pm
pictures from Mike's birthday party with Jarl Anderson, Malia Kirby, Powder Kirby, Tony Rawluk, Mike Rawluk, Rannae Sanders Lyon, Schlep Schlep, Tim Jochum and more!

http://www.mksanders.com/2012pics/Mikebday_30Jun2012.html
Aug 25, 2012 7:51:55 pm
Chloe's got the blues - the stuck inside after being outside blues.

She came out with me to try out my new brace. She was very good outside, and the brace worked pretty well. not quite enough support for stairs, but otherwise pretty good.
Aug 25, 2012 2:42:45 pm
post-surgery appt went well. They gave me instructions on how to change the bandages myself, and I have an appt on SEpt 6th to get the stitches out. Basically, I can do whatever activity doesn't bother me to do. They gave me a smaller brace than the boot for driving. At some point this weekend, I'll try a short easy drive to Safeway to see how it goes.
Aug 24, 2012 4:02:49 pm
another class bites the dust. Just finished with MBA class 6 of 14 and am starting class 7 of 14. Class 7 (Strategy Formulation) looks to be a bit more time intensive.
Aug 24, 2012 9:11:05 am
graduated from crutches to the boot. Hopfully, this works out well. Crutches are so tiring.
Aug 24, 2012 8:45:16 am
surgery went well.I am home with a boot and some crutches. post-surgery appt Friday at 3 pm, where I will learn more about the recovery time.
Aug 23, 2012 8:38:39 am
so far so good on the fasting - 11 hours 15 min down, only 4 hours and 45 min left to surgery. Sadly, I am apparently not doing enough fun things with the cat while I am home today. Chloe has been wandering around mounfully meowing...and that's after I took her outside twice. but nothing amazingly fun happened on those trips outside, so I guess they don't count. ;>)
Aug 22, 2012 11:17:48 am
I am beating my head against my final paper today. Ironically, it's too long and I am trying to shorten it. This is my franken-paper - a refurbished combination of my past papers for the class - now with new intro and summary! :>/
Aug 19, 2012 2:17:29 pm
poor Mike - back up at school again to do calibrations. He has calibration data from both sides of the ceramic tube, but 5% heluim on one side doesn't look like 5% helium on the other side, even though they should match. He's trying to fiure out what the disconnect it. He needs to calibration data to be complete in order to start taking data with a new tube this week. (the new tube will have electrodes attached to it)
Aug 19, 2012 12:26:21 pm
what a pleasant surprise! It is cool and breezy this morning in Golden. all the windows are open. :>)
Aug 18, 2012 9:26:09 am
working on my final paper for class 6 of 14 - thank goodness my neck is warm. The temperature has dropped below 70 deg, and Mike is busy, so I have a furry purry snuggle cat. (and those are the two conditions that must be met for me to have a snuggle cat - I amnot her first choice. *grin*)
Aug 17, 2012 9:12:30 pm
ah, MBA oneline class life... professor posts " I have to go to Mexico on University business. See you next week." class response - no posts to the class discussion board since the announcement. absolute silence. *lol* We're a long way from high school and yet so little has changed.
Aug 17, 2012 8:03:00 pm
pre-surgery appt went well. They are still very sure about not having me eat or dirnk anything from midnight - my 4 pm appt on Wednesday. (just in case they can move up the surgery) :>/ oh well, I tried. She did say I could eat a meal at midnight.

No info yet on recovery time. The nurse said that all depends upon the area they end up making the incision in. If they don't have to make the incision on a bendy part, they will use dermabond instead of stiches, so I can avoid the hassle of caring for stitches. Skin glue instead of stitches - I love technology! :>)
Aug 17, 2012 12:27:08 pm
status on Mike time, since he won't post it himself except as corrections to whatever status I post for him. ;>) Mike is currently planning to defend his issertation work on 12/12/12. That's only because his data and paper won't be ready for 10/11/12. As you can see, he is under tremendous pressure to finish this year. 11/12/13 is just too far away.

All that aside, he met his advisor to go over plans for his introduction, literature review, and how to incorporate previous papers into his phd dissertation. It went well, and Mike even has a little bit written.

Lab work is limping along. Bubble Boy is in th doghouse right now for burping. (bubble boy is the name of his bubbler system that produces vapors for his experiment, and it is not providing consistent vapors - generally, they come through as sudden peaks that Mike calls burps) Bubble Boy is also too hot, so Mike has been installing an extra fan, but the fan seems to be interfering with the readouts on the mass flow controllers. More to come...
Aug 15, 2012 8:46:39 pm
very happy to now be established with a work-from-home connection. Post-surgery next week, while I am resting my foot, I am allowed (nay, greatly encouaged) to save some vacation time by reviewing resumes for staffing requisitions from home. :>)
Aug 13, 2012 9:29:02 pm
We have such an adorable cat! She has a leaf hanging off her fuzz butt and was twirling around on the desk trying to catch it. I wish I had video.
Aug 12, 2012 7:20:59 pm
saw the Dark Knight in Imax with Mike andTIm -it was really good! but I am disappointed in one thing - it was seemingly like my ankle had suddenly healed itself -presot! a miraculous recovery! 6 hours later I am sadly realizing it was a solid mix of caffeine and pain killers. *sigh* It was a good 6 hours.
Aug 12, 2012 1:44:57 am
ignoring the ankle pain, it was a good week! Mike enjoyed his school group's annual conference in Estes Park. Work is going ok, and we're getting some coverage for me, since I am not currently working overtime. Week 6 of 8 of class 6 for my MBA is just about done. I just bought books for my next class - $315! Those better be some awesome business strategy books. ;>)
Aug 10, 2012 8:25:21 pm
and the answer is ankle surgery at some yet to be determined time. Some sort of damage that needs to be cut out so it stops aggravating the joint and causing the swelling & pain. routine scope procedure as an outpatient - no recovery time except for the stitches, since they will not actually do anything to the ankle itself. surgery these days is simply amazing. (and I hope I still say that afterward)
Aug 06, 2012 6:19:17 pm
had a pleasant visit this afternoon at Mike's grandma's house - her cousin and his family were passing through on their way to Utah.

In other news, Mike has been collecting background data for his phd project - things have been going pretty well ever since he turned the heat rope to glass (oops, it got a little too hot). Here's hoping the progess continues.

I've been busy - normal work, proposal work, MBA...and bum ankle. It's been swollen and painful for a month now. doctor visit #3 coming up soon. sure wish I at least remembered doing something to it. That's the first question everyone asks. Maybe I need to make up a good story. ;>)
Aug 05, 2012 8:25:36 pm
We went to Kathie's memorial service today in Evergreen. It was nice. The balloon launch afterward was interesting.
Aug 04, 2012 2:03:03 pm
So, part of the point of solar is free energy right? Well, Xcel Energy is still looking for things to charge us. We got our bill today and had a good laugh. kW used = 0. but there's $8.57 in fees and taxes since we're still connected to the grid.

(It's all good. We also got a check from them for $107 for the energy we put back into the grid).
Jul 28, 2012 8:10:27 pm
missed Kathie a lot this week - facebook notification for her bday and writing something for her memorial book didn't help. The memorial is next Sat in Evergreen.

Everything else is normal. Mike is up at school trying to beg plead and cajole his experiment to work. maybe we need to sacrifice something to the phd experiment gods. ;>) I'm working on my MBA HW - this is the last paper for a few weeks (have a group project and "diversity pie" exercise coming up in the next couple of weeks).
Jul 28, 2012 1:11:50 pm
Mike and I are having a good chuckle over the MBA class and the 7S model tonight. Part of my MBA hw for this week was to research an organizational change model and post about it. There are dozens of such models. I found one - the 7S model - and posted about it. I wasn't sure if I would be working a proposal this week, so I posted it early. Lazy bones - - 8 of my 10 classmates in the class posted on the same model. One classmate went so far to say in their that "reading through the posts, it is clearly a popular model". oy vey. Too bad I can't post "get your own model!" ;>)
Jul 25, 2012 9:20:26 pm
am I tired, or am I tired because I don't want to start writing the paper that is due this weekend?
Jul 19, 2012 9:30:12 pm
evolution of thought...many years ago, I remember thinking, "Why would anyone ever have an administrative assistant? Just handle your own affiars." Tonight, I said "I need an administrative assistant!" (in response to realizing I had made a promise to someone to set up an appt and forgot about it)
Jul 18, 2012 11:25:26 pm
I have thi adorable cat who is watching the sprinklers run (it's actually cool enough to have the windows open!) She has left her perch with a merp and purposeful trot - zone 5 just came on, time to change windows.
Jul 16, 2012 8:39:22 pm
leak checking is complete! Mike found 2 old fittings that were causing trouble. They have been replaced, and it seems like the vacuum leaks are gone. Here's hoping the background noise is low enough now.
Jul 15, 2012 3:53:35 pm
woo hoo! draft of this week's paper is done...now I just have to go add some references from the required reading. (ok, I admit it. I've been writing the papers for this class based on my own experience.)
Jul 14, 2012 7:54:37 pm
enjoyed being at Rob & Rannae's house for Rannae's bday part last night. :>) Now - back to work! Mike is back in the lab trying to convince his lab equipment it needs to quit misbehaving, and I am unsuccessfully trying to write another paper for organizational management. This week's paper feels so much like last week's paper, and yet it is sufficiently different as to remove cut-and-paste opportunities.
Jul 14, 2012 12:41:14 pm
woo hoo! I am on my way to spending a nice anniversary evening with my hubby on Wednesday. This week's MBA class reading is done and I posted to 1 of 2 required discussions.
Jul 09, 2012 10:11:20 pm
oy vey. Dear Michale Porter of the Harvard Business Review, Lotus Notes did not redefine anyone's productivity frontier. Not in 1996 and not now. ( and yeah, the inhabitants of the study here in Golden already had a good chuckle over "productivity frontier". I think I'm going to learn enough this term to make a new Dilbert game!)
Jul 09, 2012 8:37:05 pm
had a very nice anniversary dinner with Mike's parents at New Peach Garden! :>) (thanks!)
Jul 09, 2012 8:07:28 pm
I've got Scotland on my mind..... lovin' the cool rainy weather in Golden right now.

It won't happen this year, but I'd love to take another anniversary vacation in Scotland. It's hard to believe our 10th anniversary vacation was 4 yrs ago - 4 years ago Wednesday we were enjoying the Isle of Skye. :>)
Jul 08, 2012 8:55:59 pm
this morning's catch phrase from MBA reading is "a portfolio of initiatives" *lol*
looking forward to lunch with Diana! then to work for a few hours afternoon, then back to figuring out how to incorporate the portfolio of intiatives into my hw for this week in a more grounded sense.
Jul 08, 2012 10:53:12 am
my parents are back in Florida and a couple hours from home on their return road trip. They were here with their dog (Jazz) for a week - a combo of Mike's bday party and some house hunting. My bro was also here last weekend to visit with everyone. It was great to see my family, and I'm glad the weather cooperated with my parents' drive back across the country!
Jul 08, 2012 10:09:36 am
63 deg and raining again. so happy to see the wildfire-inducing heat wave has broken. :>)
Jul 07, 2012 10:32:07 pm
had a lovely day. got my MBA paper done, went to a neighbor's house for a BBQ, and got to spend some time withmy hubby. I am now wrapping up the day by doing my week 2 MBA reading assignments. Some of these are to consensus-buildy for me. I've said it again and I'll continue to say it - Nature abhors a power vacuum. ;>)
Jul 07, 2012 9:45:33 pm
I need to do a MBA discussion post reply tonight before I get into writing my paper. I thought I would just pick a lucky victim at random, but some post are just not worth replying to. :>/
Jul 06, 2012 9:03:00 pm
happy thunderstorms! 62 deg and some very much needed rain. a great way to end a tough week at work!
(going to work tomorrow counts as starting another week at work ;>) )
Jul 06, 2012 8:55:19 pm
Goodbye class 5 of 14, and hello class 6 of 14! Just submitted my final paper for the old class, have 13 articles & 2 discussion posts to do by Thursday for the new one. ("Developing Effective Organizations")
Jul 01, 2012 6:16:18 pm
had a wonderful bday party for my hubby last night - thanks to everyone who came to celebrate! He enjoyed it. Many thanks also for my bro & mom helping with post party cleanuplast night. :>)
today, I am working on my final paper for class 5 of 6 - of course, it is due today. 10 of 24 sections complete right now.
Jazz (my parents' dog) and Chloe are both passed out in their respective corners, so I guess they are getting along just fine!
Jul 01, 2012 10:08:37 am
darn writer's block. I am so mentally done with this marketing class....and yet, not done. Still have this last paper due Sunday.

In other news, Mike's advisor has received a sabbatical in China. He will be travelling back and forth - one of Mike's windows to defend his dissertation is in early October- no pressure! Next window is in December. He's up at the lab now fussing with his project. He's working on getting background data using a blank tube so he can collect some real data. *fingers crossed*
Jun 25, 2012 9:57:20 pm
I am not paying enough attention to Chloe - she is pulling things out of the linen closet. ... shhhh. now I am quietly laughing to myself that a larger item pulled her out of the closet with it. she's ok - temper tantrum over. no cat here. you have no proof a cat was here nor that it fell out of the closet attached to a towel. ;>)
Jun 25, 2012 8:45:42 pm
today, I am thankful for air conditioning :>)
Jun 25, 2012 8:38:45 pm
this morning, I reorganized my favorites bar to get rid of all the defunct and no longer needed links....cause it would make things easier to find. now I can't find anything! ;>)
Jun 24, 2012 10:04:46 pm
I told our outdoor thermometer to stop being so dramatic. Yes, it is too early in the morning for it to be 90 degrees. No, it is not 141 degrees in the shade (as reported by the thermometer)
Jun 24, 2012 9:27:22 am
had a lovely belated father's day dinner at Jose O'Sheas with Mike's parents. now, back to work on ye olde MBA stuff....
Jun 23, 2012 9:29:07 pm
Mike is up at school, working in the lab. I am spending my time both on homework and getting things cleaned up for visitors next weekend (bro & parents). I am now on the last week of assignments for my marketing class...lovingly called MBA class 5 of 14. 2 discussion posts and 1 paper. I always have trouble with the discussion posts like "tell us why this class was great" and:describe the most difficult concept". :>/ my bs motor is reving up.... I'm sure I will post something soon.
Jun 23, 2012 1:24:22 pm
left work early (4:50!) and had a nice dinner with my hubby.am now doing MBA homework while listening toBody Count....Body Count's in the house! love this album, very good backdrop for capacity planning calculations
Jun 20, 2012 7:58:15 pm
facebook is neat, but mksanders.com is neater. Just found a distant relative of mine through the pictures posted there. A lady contacted me about a picture from the 1930's that I posted on our site. It turns out her adopted daughter is a descendant of my great grandmother Caroline's sister. She found the picture I posted of her daughter's great grandfather on our site and used the email link on the home page to find us.

Previously, I was contacted by the grandaughter one of my grandma's friends, who wanted the full res version of the pictures I had posted of her grandmother. She said she didn't have any pictures that showed her so young.

:>) glad to help!
Jun 18, 2012 8:30:28 pm
Mike is feeling better and is back wrestling witgh his lab equipment at school. We had lunch with Dan and Tim- sounds like a lot of lab equipment at the school is reaching its end of life.

I took the day off to relax a little post-road trip. I've been puttering - finally finished putting down the fresh mulch. Chloe was outside with me and she was soooo good - didn't wander, just sat under the linden tree. I became suspicious at her model behavior and found that she had a squirrel treed that whole time - she is now in and the squirrel is free to go.
Jun 18, 2012 3:51:41 pm
had a very nice 3-day trip to Los Alamos, New Mexico - it's still my favorite state (no offense to my home state - Golden is very nice, too.)

We saw Josh, Des, and baby Oliver, and had some nice road tripping time just to look around, relax, and remember when we almost moved there in 2002 (the lab took too long to produce an offer, so I took the "counter offer" that came through first for working in Aurora).

Unlike our other road trips (where I usually do most of the driving), Mike drove the whole time. Poor guy is now sick with a fever and flu-like symptoms. He's been running 101+ degrees since we got home. (I grumbled at him for not letting me drive if he wasn't feeling well, he said he wasn't feverish until sometime shortly after we got home)
Jun 17, 2012 9:53:49 pm
poor Mike - his lab equipment is conspiring against him again
Jun 11, 2012 8:51:39 pm
weird day - I'm inside fussing with pictures and such, andMike's the one outside with the flagstone project! He's having the air conitioner moved to the side yard, and need to install a pad for it before they get here. We went to pioneer to pick up flagstone after lunch. (by the way,Boulder seems to be burning, we couldn't quite tell where the fire was, but it looks sizeable)
Jun 09, 2012 1:55:10 pm
interesting thought for the day - reading my assignment regarding a sample coffee shop's cost structure, my MBA class facilitator responded back that it sounds like I work as an efficiency analyst. I suppose that's been one of my roles over the last 4 yrs - didn't know to call it that, but apparently can't hide it when I start talking about processes and workflow improvement strategies.
Jun 08, 2012 9:49:03 pm
what a nice afternoon! I left work early because I had finished a bunch of tasks and was feeling tired (after some rampaging feline woke me up at 5:20 this morning, not really sure what got into her)

came home - finished my reading for my MBA class, finished my homework for this week, mowed the lawn and did some cleaning. Mike and I have observed that the new vitamin D dosage I am on seems to be working well. :>)
Jun 07, 2012 9:52:06 pm
had a very lovely dinner with my hubby at the Table Mountain Inn tonight. (where we held our wedding reception in '98) The Table Mountain Inn is 21 years old this month - I had no idea it was so new when I moved to Golden! I guess you move somewhere and just kind of assume everything was always the way that you found it.
Jun 06, 2012 10:32:40 pm
I have a gargoyle on the back on my chair who is upset that I am doing homework rather than taking her outside. little does she know....

things are going well otherwise. I have completed my work for one proposal and am gearing up for proposal #2. Mike has completed the draft of paper 2 of 3 for his phd work (the modeling paper) - it is in the review & revision stage. Keep your fingers crossed - he is hoping to get to the point of baking out his set up in preparation for collecting some of the remaining data he needs soon.
Jun 05, 2012 8:05:42 pm
anyone locally have a use for 5 wood pallets? Thus far, I have had 3 people say they're coming to pick them up, and they are still sitting in front of our house. They're nice pallets and in good shape, so we felt bad just chopping them up for firewood.
Jun 01, 2012 9:31:44 pm
oops. I had this idea that I was going to work on the panel in the laundry room (we had to remove a piece of wall when the new duct was put in). Instead, I seem to have set Mike on a frustrating project of trying to get the joints in the dry wall to look right. guess I will quietly go do something that doesn't make work for him :>0
Jun 01, 2012 7:47:15 pm
came home early from work to finish my MBA homework (and have a nice lunch with my hubby) -I need to submit my sections of this week's paper to my team this evening so someone else can work on compiling it. (woo hoo! I love this term's team.) 2 more paragraphs to go and I am having trouble concentrating on it. part of that is because both my arthritis and my carpel tunnel are bugging me today. oy vey. just a little more to do.... think think think :>)
Jun 01, 2012 3:16:28 pm
quiet day - party clean up was mostly done last night, ran some errands with Mike and watched Vanilla Sky. that was not the movie I thought it was from the trailers and stuff - maybe that's why it didn't do as well as it could have. I liked it.
May 27, 2012 7:38:25 pm
We had quite the haul on fortune cookies from New Peach Garden tonight. Mike got "With integrity and consistency, your credits are piling up" & "you can be trusted to keep a secret". I got "you will touch the hearts of many" & "you will be travelling and coming into a fortune"
May 25, 2012 8:28:27 pm
Mike is shaking his head - 5 MBA classes later, and I am still complaining about the APA style being "visually hideous".

It came up because a teammate complained that he would not be including references in his writing in real life, to which I countered that in real life you wouldn't use APA style for your business documents because it is visually hideous - just write it like the class expects us to. :>)
May 24, 2012 11:23:46 pm
look out world! Ending the week with a half day tomorrow for a 3 1/2 day weekend...and I may just be singing to myself the song we're listening to now. - "and I wanna be anarchy". :>)
May 24, 2012 9:57:19 pm
did I say flex time? I meant I will be working a short turn-around proposal this week. (and paying myself overtime, since I am covering the work of 3 people)

...in other news, partygoers this weekend will be happy to know that Mike and I tested the chili. you'll be lucky to have some for the party. ;>) (don't worry - if I have to, I'll make more)
May 21, 2012 9:29:17 pm
go team! Mike and I have been busy today, getting stuff straightened up inside and outside.
May 20, 2012 9:56:47 pm
In mid-August of 2011, I started a long-winded effort toclean up the cost and schedule baseline for theproject I am working on. Victory was mine and I finished on Thursday...so I took today off! Mike and I had a day reminiscent of when we lived in SoCal - June gloom kind of day - warm and cloudy. We went out to lunch, got stuck in traffic, saw the Avengers in 3D IMax (good movie!), got stuck in traffic and came home. I get 2 weeks reprieve before the next big project starts. :>)
May 18, 2012 4:59:47 pm
my office spoace moment tonight...reading my MBA stuff I come across "These moves are popularly called downsizing or rightsizing"...and my first thought it, "I wouldn't say they're popular, Bob". ;>)
May 13, 2012 9:10:00 pm
had a long week doing schedule and budget planning for work - 53 billable hours through Friday, another 10 on Saturday. Today, I am compiling my group paper and...*sigh*...these guys missed the mark. Luckily, it's a short paper, so I think I can fix it this afternoon.
May 13, 2012 1:18:02 pm
go Nuggets! please please please beat the Lakers. and I'm not one to beg.
May 12, 2012 9:08:54 pm
just go an awesome early bday present from my hubby! My license expires on my bday this year, and I was dreading getting a new pic - because I actually like the old picture. It's so rare a DMV mug shot comes out well. ...and Mike found that Colorado lets you renew every other driver's license with the same picture (so you can have the picture for 20 yrs instead of 10) Just renewed it online so the new one will have the same pic :>) :>) :>) He joked that I now have 10 years to plan for a new picture.
May 11, 2012 9:36:59 pm
I hear the sounds of happiness coming from someone watching the Nuggets game in the living room. Many thanks to his dad for coming over and getting a temporary satellite hookup for tonight's game (had to move the satellite due to solar panel installation today)
May 10, 2012 8:54:55 pm
Our house is swarming with people doing work...including us! I had my rounds of yard work on Sunday, back to doing budget planning this week for some long days. (got home at 10:30 last night - just in time to catch the end of the Nuggets game) Mike is working on a conduit to put the directTV on the shed (thanks to his dad for the suggestion!) The landscaping is going well and the in progress inspection of the solar is Thursday morning.
May 09, 2012 9:56:56 pm
go Nuggets! stop torturing my hubby
May 08, 2012 10:39:48 pm
must be cool (40 deg) and raining outside - we have a furry purry snugglekin in the study who is making it impossible for Mike to get anything done. We laugh that every time the weather gets bad, Chloe feels the need to remind us that she loves us.
May 07, 2012 10:01:59 pm
no work for me today - I'll go in super early on Monday. Whitney, the lady who is working on our solar installation, reminded me that this weekend is Golden Community pride days. We have electronics to be recycled and I have a ton of branches from trimming the honeysuckle bushes that I can dispose of (without going through the trouble on bundling them for our yard waste collection days.) I am also going to make some ham bone soup - first time, but I am sure it will work out ok like other soups I have made.
May 06, 2012 8:08:58 am
I wasn't the only one who worked today (well, me and Diana, who is doing a proposal). came home to find Mike and Buglet Solar working on the awning for our solar overhang. It's a two birds-one stone kind of thing.....the west wall of the house has brick that heats up tremendously in the summer sun...transferring heat into the house all evening. So, we are putting solar panels on th west wall, but there will also be a solar awning/overhang that shades the wall. They are almost ready to put the panels on the roof.....
May 05, 2012 5:03:48 pm
got the materials for my next class - "Marketing and Operations Decision Points". Each class comes with fascinating new lingo....in this week's introduction, we learned that "your company is a value producing system". As a systems engineer for hardware and software development projects, I am sure I will adapt to this new system just fine....once I stop chuckling about my value producing system.
May 04, 2012 10:55:38 pm
go Nuggets! Please win even though Jarl is with Mike at the game tonight. (he's just bad luck, that Jarl)
May 04, 2012 8:57:40 pm
We have a portapotty in our driveway.
May 01, 2012 8:52:50 pm
had a very lovely dinner with my hubby on the patio at the Keg steakhouse - use my birthday coupon for a free steak and bought wine and his meal using a gift card from his lab group (it was a thank you for 9 years of ski trip spaghetti sauce...I think it's 9 years. If it's more, I don't want to know)
Apr 29, 2012 8:07:47 pm
Goodbye law/ethics class! Hello between-term break!
Apr 29, 2012 3:25:50 pm
Rannae Sanders Lyon - Remember when we were counting easter eggs after the girls had been rehiding and refinding them and we could have sworn we were one short, but then convinced ourselves we weren't? I found it while weeding today. It was one of the monkey heads. :>)
Apr 29, 2012 3:24:47 pm
working on the last bits ofmy final paper for the law class this morning...motivation is waning, but it is due today. (and then no school until May 7th :>) )
Apr 29, 2012 9:23:38 am
must be springtime - Chloe brought in the first snake of the season. At least she brought him to where I was folding laundry in the bedroom rather than hiing him somewhere in the house :>o first snake of the season has been brought safely back outside.
Apr 28, 2012 11:38:14 am
We got back from a nice trip to Florida last night. trying to getback in the normal paces now
Apr 28, 2012 10:59:13 am
solar gets installaed the first week of May and the rebate was approved by the power company! I feel so almost-green...which is good. I'd hate to take it too far - I hear it's not easy being green. ;>)
Apr 18, 2012 9:29:59 pm
good-bye law textbook! You are now relegated to the status of reference book! Just finished all this term's reading for my law class. All that's left is my final paper (plus next week's discussion posts) and I am done with school 'til May 7th. :>)
Apr 18, 2012 8:41:30 am
Mike is feeling better, I've been under the weather but not as bad as he was. got home this evening from work to find my medical power of attorney sitting on the deks in the study. I jokingly told him "hey! It's just a cold." :>)
Apr 16, 2012 9:00:53 pm
Yi si coming to get the sauce at 2:30, Nurse Chloe tucked Mike back into bed for a nap. She is curled up near his head as if she's making sure he stays there. :>) So, back to this week's homework.....
Apr 14, 2012 1:06:57 pm
sauce for this weekend's ski trip is on the stove, well part of it. Mike's school group has grown in size over the years, so this is batch 1 of 2. (oh, and I don't ski. For Mike and I, it's a "ski" trip = loafing around his advisor's parents' beautiful vacation home in Dillon while monitoring the sauce as it warms up for the group dinner)
Apr 10, 2012 9:30:07 pm
It's that delightful feeling of geekdom - this is "tech week" in my MBA class, in honor of our case analysis due Sunday for the Microsoft antitrust case. This week's discussion topic is to post a comparison of our favorite operating systems. and, yes, of course I am going to talk about Unix. How could I not? :>)
Apr 09, 2012 8:46:19 pm
I think there were a few moments whne Chloe was worried she was about to be sacrificed to the pagan gods (3 little girls running around the house and back yard was too much for her - our neighbor's daughter came over to play egg hunt games with our nieces) ....but we had a very lovely Easter dinner! Lots of fun, lots of candy and ice cream..coming down off that sugar high is gonna be a rough ride ;>)
Apr 08, 2012 6:56:41 pm
and....submitted! 2nd to last case analysis submitted for grading, so I am done with my hw for this week.

Between now and April 29th, I only have 20 more chapters to read, 1 more case analysis, and a big paper on how I am going to implement everything I learned this term in my career. (yes, seriously) I am very very much looking forward to being done with the business law class! I will also get a break between this and the next class - this one ends April 29th and the next one begins May 7th.
Apr 07, 2012 10:46:34 pm
Mike is off playing trivia with Tim and Becky (hope they win this time!). I just finished posting to someof the MBA discussions and am headed back to tackle my reading for the week. Reading half the book doesn't feel like an "assignment"....this week's assignment is literally to read chapters 5,6,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,28,29,30,31,32,33,34. Using my stunning psychic powers, I foresee some skimming in my future.....
Apr 04, 2012 8:05:50 pm
I think Shawn has posted a quote several times about how, if not for the last second, nothing would ever get done. Livin' that again....just turned in the HW that is due tonight. (I still had an hour and 35 min to go....maybe that doesn't count as the last second ;>) ) I am glad that I only have two case analyses left to write for this class. I think/hope the giant paper on how I will include ethics in my management style will be a lot easier.
Apr 01, 2012 10:26:29 pm
Last night, Mike and I watched a dystopian movie called Brazil - good movie! But not I am reading about business law and approaches to detering white collar crimes. When I saw the word "incapacitation", jail time wasn't what I thought they were talking about....oops! must get the movie out of my head :>)
Apr 01, 2012 5:22:14 pm
The end of a long week! too bad I am behind on my MBA hw. but, in the realm of good news, I had a nice chat with my bro tonight and heard on the radio that the fire in Conifer is 70% contained. I love the 70+ deg sunny days, but getting some rain would really help bring down the fire danger.
Mar 30, 2012 9:19:12 pm
Where would I be without my hubby? It's easy to focus on all the time I spend working and forget about everything that goes on in the background. This week, he has been busy dealing with contractors and our credit union in order to get our solar and yard projects going. Right now, he's fixing a bracket on our grill. ..oh yeah, and we're getting solar panels! :>)
Mar 29, 2012 8:38:42 pm
beautiful day! I've picked up a bit of a cold, but figured spending some time in the sun might help get rid of it. taking a break from some thatch raking in the back yard and cleaning up some gardens.
Mar 24, 2012 2:37:03 pm
worked almost a full day today. I expect to be caught up and have things lsow down ~ mid week. enjoying the evening at home. :>)
Mar 18, 2012 9:19:52 pm
had a wonderful lunch with Jarl, Christy, and Daniel at Red Robin. (Daniel requested lunch :>) ). now I'm working on my MBA paper that is due tomorrow and Mike is playing Fallout, the new Vegas release.
Mar 17, 2012 2:42:58 pm
long hard day. being home with my hubby and my cat makes it all better :>)
Mar 15, 2012 12:27:47 am
had a blecky day - but a wonderful evening! We went to see Radiohead with Jarl, Dan, his girlfriend, Josh, Des, and Andrew at the Broomfield event center. enjoyed the show - and I still like stadium shows. It was cool to hear the crowd singing Karma Police. :>)
Mar 14, 2012 12:03:34 am
had a very nice evening yesterday - dinner and camp fire with Tim, Becky, and Tim's coworker from England, Mike. Today, I am working on my MBA writing assignment and my hubby is at the Museum of Nature and Science with Rannae, Danielle and the kids.
Mar 11, 2012 1:23:31 pm
new roof on Monday! In a bizarre quick turn of events, we had been talking about possibly needing a new roof this weekend. A roofer stopped by Sunday evening and said he found hail and wind damage. He called our insurance company, they sent someone out to inspect the claim today, new roof will be installed on Monday.
Mar 08, 2012 8:17:17 pm
just found out I got an A in class 3 of 14 for my MBA. :>) now back to the homework I found out is due tonight. Turns out class 4 of 14 has hw due twice a week - part of it on Tuesday, part of it on Sunday. darn it - it's as if they are trying to keep me from procrastinating.
Mar 06, 2012 8:51:25 pm
Mike is up at school, trying to get his lab equipment running. At long last, everything is in - turbo pump, ion gauge, filaments. *fingers crossed*
Mar 05, 2012 9:07:14 pm
Chloe says, "I don't know what hugs, kisses and 'good luck with your dentist appointment tomorrow' means, but I don't like it one bit." Mike is going to drop her off for a cleaning and possible extraction tomorrow morning. She is fasting now, though she won't completely realize it until tomorrow morning.
Mar 04, 2012 10:47:35 pm
had a wonderful evening with the Lyon family - I see more movie nights in our future!
Mar 03, 2012 10:51:00 pm
quiet day here. pot rost is in the crock pot, cat is going crazy. Seriously, the insanity started as soon as I took the meat out of the freezer - running, meowing, rolling, more running. Any explanation that it is not ready to eat yet has fallen on deaf ears.
Mar 03, 2012 9:48:46 am
home today - 3 day weekend! The schedule planing exercise at work has been pushed into April - so I don't have to work this weekend and I don't have any homework. :>)
Mar 02, 2012 11:51:53 am
sooo tired. been a long week doing the annual cost/schedule replan. too many details! This is the largest cost account I have ever managed....but I came home to a nice surprise! My team for school actually did their parts of the team project to an adequate level of quality and on a timely basis! *happy*
Feb 29, 2012 10:13:47 pm
saw part of the Daytone 500 - just in time to see a jet fuel campfire! 200 gallons of jet fuel burns reallywell - I'm impressed they got it under control so quickly.
Feb 27, 2012 8:12:26 pm
I've been noticing a significant increase in the population of gray hairs on the left side of my head. Maybe between accounting tasks at work and Economics homework, I am making the left side of my brain work too hard - it is now spewing gray hairs. ;>) One more economics paper to write on the kingomd of Lesotho. My next class (4 of 14) is on Business Law. It starts on March 5th.
Feb 25, 2012 3:22:12 pm
woo hoo! This has been a very productive morning! Got my weekly MBA hw essay submitted and the bathroom is clean. This leaves me with all sorts of free time today!
(Some of it will be spent moving stuff around in the basement - duct work and new furnace installation this week, Tues-Thurs.)
Feb 19, 2012 10:47:01 am
quiet evening after a busy day. Mike and I went to the Colorado Home and Garden Show, watched Army of Darkness, and then went out for dinner at the New Peach Garden Chinese restaurant in Golden. Now, he is getting our records organized and I am working on my MBA paper that is due Sunday (yes, I have to do one a week). 660 words written, 2100 to go.This is the longest one yet.
Feb 18, 2012 9:15:47 pm
sending warm happy thoughts to Mike's lab at school - the new turbo pump has arrived! Keep your fingers crossed that it works right so he can finally get some data collectedfor his phd project.
Feb 17, 2012 2:04:27 pm
home for the weekend! :>)
Feb 17, 2012 1:57:30 pm
For my MBA homework, I have been researching the people who protect the WTO, WB, and IMF. So many sites to comb for info - anonymous, anarchists, and other organizations. I wonder if I tripped a filter limit somewhere and am now having my web traffic monitored. ;>) better finish the assignment and stop trolling the web...
Feb 16, 2012 8:36:17 pm
got back from our road trip with Mike's sister to Lisco & Oshkosh Nebraska last night. The funeral services for Stormy were nice, and things went as well a one could expect. A life cut short too soon - it's just tragic. Mike and I are still kind of in shock over the whole thing - it hasn't quite sunk in yet. Much love goes to the Jessen family, Juanita, Morgan and Stormy's children in this tough time.
Feb 12, 2012 10:00:06 am
our hearts go out to all who knew and loved Stormy Jessen. rip :>(
Feb 07, 2012 9:21:10 pm
a great time was had by all! Giants win! It was great to see Jarl, Christy and Daniel. Daniel enjoyed Chloe's box, Mike's reindeer and a flashlight. (plus chocolate covered strawberries) My infamous group paper has been sumitted, and I have about another page to write on my own paper for tonight. (and I am having a retro moment - typing something that looks like it came from a typewriter and listening to sega games in the background; albeit that sega game is being played on a large LCD TV using an xbox)
Feb 05, 2012 8:47:48 pm
chili chicken soup is cooking on the stove (many thanks again toJuanita for the recipe!). We are lookinng forward to seeing the Anderson family for the Super Bowl today. until then, I will work on my 2 papers that are due today....
Feb 05, 2012 1:11:01 pm
I know I am way too caffeinated and am begrumbled because my TMJ is acting up big time this week...but APA format is ugly. It starts with needing to use Times New Roman and left justified text, and goes from there. ugh, but I am required to use it for my paper tonight. Mike has been rolling his eyes at me. I don't care if it's a standard - it is obviously outdated and needs to reflect 21st century word processing capabilities. (and fonts! I thought I was done using Times New Roman when I stopped using the DOS version of Word in 1992!)
Feb 04, 2012 7:41:40 pm
It's MBA homework time! ugh...not a fan of group papers. This week, I have 2 papers due - one with my own analysis, one as part of a gropu assignment. During our telecon Thursday night, I was nominated to put the group paper together. Everyone submitted their sections on time, but I am seeing a lot of fluff and not a lot of substance here. :>/
Feb 04, 2012 2:38:01 pm
I had already wrked up flex time to take today off - worked out perfectly! unless you are Chloe. The snow hasn't been too bad. This morning, I cleared our driveway and 3 neighbors' with the snow blower. We dropped Chloe off at the groomer, drove to Aurora for our tax appt (getting a return! yippee!), and picked up Chloe on the way back. She's all clean and brushed, but it's hard to tell - she is hiding under the bed. She's too mad to share a house with us.
Feb 03, 2012 4:58:42 pm
Thank goodness for classmates. I had a bad day at work and a hard tiem with a malfunctioning online application for school - but my classmates are having the same problems, which actually makes me feel better
. *grin* oh, how misery loves company...
Jan 31, 2012 8:42:46 pm
#according to ancient astronaut theorists, that was just the break Mike and I needed from writing! Almost done with this week's MBA paper....
Jan 29, 2012 1:49:46 pm
Working on my MBA paper of the week. Mike is working on his modeling paper. We are listening to theTeam America soundtrack (the *only* musical Mike likes?) ... I think I need a montage on getting my paper done. :>)
Jan 28, 2012 1:30:07 pm
Chloe is mad at me - sitting with her back to me and generally ignoring me. She mistook a bag of craisins for a bag of cat treats. We gave her one because she was climbing all over Mike trying to get to the bag. Apparently, craisins are the worst cat treats in the world. :>)
Jan 27, 2012 8:28:10 pm
just read the niftiest quotable I've read yet while working on my MBA - "It's better to keep the cannibal in the family."
(Dipak C.Jain, Dean of Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University) .
..... The boring side is that the cannibal referred to here is not Hannibal Lecter, but a brand that competes with one of your main brands.
Jan 26, 2012 8:10:17 pm
it's family code hour! andby that I mean I am helping Mike with the java code for his model while Chloe eats my hair. I think my hubby has learned more about java than he ever thought he would (or wanted) :>) the state of the model is strong!
Jan 24, 2012 10:03:22 pm
just got back from doing some shopping with Mike. (He didn't feel like watching football, wanted to get out of the house.) We bought a new office chair for me, and spent a bit of time wandering home depot talking about our plans for the basement.
Jan 22, 2012 4:11:05 pm
nice weekend thus far - Mike's advisor is working on buying him a new turbo pump for the spectrometer. (the pump finally died during its second trip to Florida). His paper on the model is still coming along quite well. I have finished my MBA HW for this week - early! It's 38 degrees and cloudy outside, so I guess today is a good day to putter around the house. :>)
Jan 22, 2012 9:08:07 am
*whew* Tonight marks the end of a long work week, but I get to balance out a 14 hour day on Monday and a couple other long days with taking Friday off!
Jan 19, 2012 9:01:17 pm
Go Nuggets! Mike and Jarl are at tonight's game. I am homeworking on a certain paper that is due tonight. 3 of 5 sections complete, 1157 words. almost there!
Jan 15, 2012 5:48:19 pm
too cute! I bought Chloe ping pong balls, hoping they would be bouncy like her beloved super balls but not get stuck under the furniture all the time. She loves them. After lunch, she was pushing one towards us, so Mike threw it for her. That was great! She chased it, but then the ping pong ball hit the wall and fought back! It came right at her. She hopped away with wide-eyed owl-eared look on her face. We just couldn't help but laugh.
Jan 15, 2012 12:34:45 pm
go Broncos!
Jan 14, 2012 4:00:32 pm
It's amazing how many things I can find to do instead of my MBA homework. ;>) My new class started on the 9th - this one is for Economics and, instead of doing problems, we have to write papers every week plus respond to discussions online.
Jan 13, 2012 9:53:28 pm
The snow is flying in Golden this afternoon! It looks so pretty...but maybe I feel that way since we are tucked in to a nice warm house with chili cooking on the stove. Mike helped me do some grocery shopping and get the chili going this morning.
Jan 07, 2012 2:02:39 pm
only worked a half day - still having trouble with getting dizzy. :>/ My boss is very understanding about it all, which is nice. In other news, Mike is still working on his model (the paper from the model is part 2 of 3 for his phd) and the turbine pump is back in Florida for more repairs / diagnostics. I told him I think the problem is that the pump is going to Florida, not someplace like Michigan. This is its 2nd vacation in Florida of the winter! :>)
Jan 06, 2012 7:33:40 pm
stayed home from work & went to the doctor today - apparently the dizziness is viurs #2 for the week and should pass in 3-4 days. He had multiple people come in today with dizziness problems and recommended I take Bonine to help me get through work tomorrow. okey doke. Right now, Mike is referring to me as "virus girl". ;>)
Jan 03, 2012 4:57:02 pm
go Nuggets! Mike and Jarl are at the Nuggets game tonight. I think I will continue working to take down our tree while Chloe is sleeping. I got quite a talking to last night while working on it and I swear she swatted at my hair while I was working on it this afternoon (she says she was just shifting to start cleaning her paw and just happened to catch my hair as I walked by. ).
Jan 02, 2012 6:58:56 pm
Hope everyone has a very happy 2012! Best wishes for health, luck and success in the New Year! Mike and I have a busy year planned. (and I hear this is the year of the PhD).
Jan 01, 2012 9:43:00 am
windy day! According to Weather Underground, Golden is experiencing sustained winds of 30-40 mph with 65 mph gusts. Sounds about right. We've had two short power outages. Earlier, I was lying on the floor with Nurse Chloe (because the floor doesn't move, flu day 2 has been trying) when the wind blew over a table on our covered patio. She jumped up like "Every cat for herself!" and ran and hid down the hall. Guess I'm on my own for recooperation today. ;>)
Dec 31, 2011 2:00:51 pm
The bad news is I was up all night with a stomach flu - worst I've had in many years. The good news is we have such an adorable cat! She's been fretting about me non-stop, even marched into the bedroom at 3 am to demand Mike get up and check on me. Since then, Nurase Chloe has been periodically walking circles around me making a cacophony of sounds. Poor fretting cat.
Dec 30, 2011 11:30:05 am
quiet day...so I am making this "Finance Day". My annual rituals may be a bit of a bore, but they are totally necessary for keeping the household on track. I have made some adjustments to the 401k account and am catching up on some reading before I pick some new investments. After that, I will develop our annual budget. (I don't always have the same # of paychecks per month, so I do an annual budget on top of the monthly budget to help make sure the 2012 story has a happy ending)
Dec 29, 2011 11:22:27 am
had a wonderful day yesterday. Mike and I had some quiet time (e.g., I caught up on reading Wall St Journal issues and he was playing Left 4 Dead on xbox). We had a very nice visit with Bridget Kerbaugh, Nancy, and Mike's mom....including getting to see Mike's parents' wedding video! and then we had a great dinner and conversation with Diana Mann. :>) Today should be a quiet day...but I need to go rescue some decorations. It's so windy! Must be a change in the weather rolling through.
Dec 29, 2011 8:28:57 am
Just got back from the Denver Zoo Lights. went with my hubby, his parents, his sister & her daughters, his cousin & her hubby & their twins. That was the most active zoo lights adventure ever! (keeping track of 4 excited kids in the dark is not always easy) but a great time was had by all!
Dec 27, 2011 9:42:51 pm
cooking, cooking, cooking. slow day today. I work too much - am not quite sure what to do with a week off. ;>) Mike and I had lunch at Brother's BBQ (thanks to Aunt Bella and Uncle Mark for the gift card!). I came home and did some shopping for a New Year's Eve party plus food for this week. Pot roast for tonight is in progress. lasagna for tomorrow (and many other days) is up next. Thanks go to Diana for teaching me how to freeze lasanga so this doesn't have to be "lasagna week".
Dec 26, 2011 4:09:25 pm
mmmm, bleachy. Maybe it was the Broncos' poor performance, but I have been busy cleaning since some time in the 3rd quarter. Blech makes everything better. :>)
Dec 24, 2011 3:29:46 pm
had a very nice dinner with Jarl, Christy and Daniel tonight. Daniel was in high spirits and chattering up a storm in spite of a cold. :>)
Dec 23, 2011 8:51:41 pm
big big smiles from the neighbors when Mike showed up with our giant snowblower. It cuts through this stuff on the first pass....which is good. looks like he has ~5 driveways to do.
Dec 22, 2011 10:47:23 am
There is well over a foot of snow in Golden - Happy Winter Solstice! I haven't yet gone out to measure the depth, but I know some of the drifts came half way up my thigh. I found that out while chasing the neighbor's dog. He's part husky and thought the snow was awesome. So, he jumped the fence to come visit me and then ran out front. He thought it was so much fun that I followed him! ...and now he is safely back inside. Anyhow, I am very glad I don't have to go in to work today - we had an interview scheduled, but my boss called to say he'd cover it. :>)
Dec 22, 2011 8:11:31 am
Mike and I spent some time watching the "History" channel. We are sure there must be an "according to ancient alien theorists" hashtag.
Dec 21, 2011 8:34:10 pm
very happy to be home this afternoon - I go to see somesunlight! wow! :>) We had a very nice lunch with Tim, Dan, Josh and baby Oliver. Mike is up at school trying to get in touch with the turbine pump people to see if they have any ideas on why it is still making that awful grinding sound. here's hoping he gets somewhere....
Dec 21, 2011 1:34:07 pm
apparently, there is an email at work describing me as effervescent. After all I put my team through this year? Well, maybe I am effervescent this week - got an A on my final class project, off from school until Jan 9th, taking a 1/2 day off Wed, a 1/2 day off Thurs, and then vacation from 12/23 - 1/2. :>) woo hoo!
Dec 20, 2011 7:38:47 pm
just got home from a very enjoyable family dinner - thanks to Gwenn and Terry for hosting! now back to my last hw assignment for the year..... (while I am in big big trouble with Chloe. She is pouting on the back of my chair)
Dec 18, 2011 7:13:47 pm
working on my last homework assignment for Class 2 of 14. I just need to convince myself to finish these balance sheets and then I will get a nice break (class 3 of 14 starts Jan 9th)
Dec 18, 2011 9:56:15 am
poor little munchkin. Chloe wanted to go out front to get some fresh air in a spot that doesn't have snow (the snow in our back yard iced over and hasn't melted. it is causing cabin fever cat to be very upset). So, I told her that I've got a monster headache, but maybe some fresh air might do us both good. We got outside and she was rolling in the driveway....and that's when I saw Reo, our neighbor's hound dog, running across the yard at us. Chloe saw him, too, and took of around the corner of the house. and then stopped. "Keep going, keep going" I told her as I ushered her over the fence and closed the gate. Reo was happy to find me by the fence and rolled in the snow. Chloe glared at him from inside the patio. Now, she is keeping watch over the front yard from the study.
Dec 17, 2011 12:40:45 pm
happy to be home for this afternoon. :>) (having been feeling all that well this week and decided 48 billable hours was enough) had a very nice lunch with my hubby. Now, he is up at school trying to salvage a furnace a student set on fire. Luckily, my hubby walked in the lab just as the flames were starting to come out of it and shut it off before the problem could grow. (student did not follow directions about making sure they sent the right commands to the right equipment when setting up their experiment)
Dec 16, 2011 2:32:02 pm
My empire is crumbling! Well, not completely. I am working on my end of term assignment for my MBA class. Primarily, this is the collection of financial statements for my proposed business (Maximum Impact in 2013). jeepers
Dec 11, 2011 10:35:04 am
my poor mom is in tears tonight. :>( Smoeky may have started out as my cat, but over the last 19 1/2 years, she has really become my mom's cat. Smoeky had a stroke that has left her in really bad shape, so they will probably have to take a sad trip to the vet on Monday. (better than letting her suffer and starve to death, she's not eating) Smoeky started out as a tiny little 3-week old furball that my dad found in a church parking lot. I told my mom 19 1/2 years means she did really well by the cat, but I don't know how comforted she was by that - she's heartbroken. :>( it's hard to hear her crying like that on the phone.
Dec 10, 2011 10:13:23 pm
Mike and I enjoyed going to the Mines Alumni party this evening. Great food! We also saw the new addition to the Brown building and the new dorm building (well, we saw the dorm building from the party across the street at Coolbaugh house)
Dec 06, 2011 8:18:26 pm
my poor hubby is sick with a fever tonight. I must have brought the creeping crud home from work for him. (several coworkers were out sick this week) ....I am working on finishing this week's homework problems just in case....
Dec 02, 2011 9:09:13 pm
new profile pic was taken by my 3 yr old niece, Valerie, during the family get-together after Thanksgiving. She's good with a camera! I wasn't that good with my first camera (and I was 12, not 3)
Dec 01, 2011 11:17:13 pm
update on my hubby: He is very busy creating a mounting apparatus for the icicle lights. Last year, Mike was disappointed that they hung at an angle from the roofline. He is also busy running iterations of the model for his phd project. He just got an updated version back from the chemistry department - keep your fingers crossed that it works better now. The last part of his project is still on hold - the turbo pump came back for the mass spectrometer but it was making an awful sound at full RPM. It went back to Florida for repairs yesterday. Hopefully, they can urn it around quickly. Poor Mike has been waiting for a working turbo pump since this summer.
Nov 29, 2011 10:30:29 pm
just got back from a very nice belated birthday dinner forJarl (the big 4-0!) thanks to Jarl for the green chili of fate and to Christy for the tasty brownies. We were treated to quite a performance by Daniel. He's a cute kid. :>) Now, I'm getting started on Christmas cards (my poor ol' hands can only do so many at a time)
Nov 27, 2011 8:30:20 pm
what a lovely day! mid-50's, sunny, cloudless sky, no wind. Mike and I enjoyed some time outside, fussing with outdoor lights and the last bit of leaves in the yard. Now, it is almost time for the Broncos game. go Broncos!
Nov 27, 2011 1:43:00 pm
went to the Avs game last night with my hubby and had a great time! (it helped that they won 5-2).
Nov 27, 2011 9:46:09 am
dropped my parents off at the airport this morning - we had a very nice visit with them this week. :>) Thanks go to Gwenn and Terry for hosting Thanksgiving dinner tiwce!
Nov 26, 2011 9:14:22 am
This year's new Christmas lawn ornament is a pink flamingo. I found him at Target. I think he will go very well with the palm tree. :>) and yeah, I'll admit to an x-files moment.
Nov 20, 2011 4:16:10 pm
quiet evening in Golden. Mike went to a hockey game with Robert Pasquarelli since he had free tickets and I told my dear hubby he did not have to sit home tonight and watch me do homework. This week's homework is now submitted and I am working on the stuff due the Sunday after Thanksgiving, so I can have more time to spend with my parents when they come to visit!
Nov 19, 2011 7:49:03 pm
had a great time yesterday - thanks to all our Mines friends to came to celebrate Josh's PhD and Archana's master's degree! Food must have been passable - Mike and I were marvelling over how few leftovers there were! Congrats again to Josh and Archana!
Nov 13, 2011 12:32:54 pm
After spending all week and 9.5 hours yesterday on accounting'ish stuff and task planning for new contract work our team received, doing accounting class homework is pretty blah. different kind of accounting, but..... At least, I have creatures outside to entertain me. I saw a blue jay fly off with a peanut. One of our squirrels stood on the wall watching him go with a forlorn look that said "hey! the bag with the peanuts is clearly labeled *squirrel*food." Little did he know the jay would soon be the least of his concerns. It turns out crows *love* peanuts.
Nov 06, 2011 8:29:24 am
kids may love appliance boxes, but so do cats! We ended up buying a new dishwasher, and Chloe has been providing hours of entertainment in and around the box. There are even holes to stick your paw and head through. tons of fun :>)
Nov 03, 2011 11:30:00 pm
waiting for trick-or-treaters.....
Oct 31, 2011 4:26:21 pm
interesting news - I got a statement from Regis stating I only owe $75 for the spring quarter. I called them to ask about the "financial aid dispursement" listed on the bill, and they said I have a scholarship that is covering me for next quarter (except the $75.) I hadn't applied for anything and it was the first I'd heard of it. Hope it stays real!
Oct 31, 2011 9:56:29 am
home feeling sorry for myself. ;>) have a bad head cold, and my throat is so painful. passing some time getting MBA HW done. At least it keeps me from puttering. (I'm not a sit down and rest kind of person)
Oct 29, 2011 2:15:13 pm
Happy 6th birthday to our fuzzy little cat, Chloe! or should I say sleepy birthday. I told her that sleeping through her birthday doesn't mean she won't still be 6 years old. (she did get up for a special bday dinner)
Oct 27, 2011 8:33:00 pm
got home early enough tonight to enjoy the last bits of sunshine of a record-breaking day (82 deg!)...with Chloe and Mike, of course. and I enjoyed the evening air with Chloe, by her request. Lovely starry night. Now we're busy being a barrel of monkeys. I am reading my accounting book and Mike is strategizing for the literature review he needs to write for his thesis. He has a lot of material from past publications, but it needs to be augmented a little.
Oct 24, 2011 8:24:50 pm
Just submitted the last assignment for MBA class 1 of 14. woo hoo! Class 2 of 14 starts Monday.
Oct 23, 2011 3:55:59 pm
oh, those Broncos. "Tebow time" is going exactly as expected. Being the quarterback for an entire football game is a lot different than being a backup. Being a quarterback who has very few tools besides running the ball himself in the arsenal pretty much means you're dead meat. My poor hubby is sticking it out until the end. Fighting the urge to get the Simpsons clip from the end of the Scorpio episode....
Oct 23, 2011 1:25:39 pm
enjoyed seeing "The Night of the Iguana" last night at our localplayhouse in Golden withmy hubby and Diana. :>)
Oct 23, 2011 8:42:45 am
well, I'm done trying to set the grill on fire. all cleaned up now. Somehow, Chloe slept through it all....
Oct 16, 2011 2:52:50 pm
really enjoying our "fall" weather today - beautiful sunny day, 80 degrees, only a few puffball clouds in the sky. Chloe and I spentsome time out on the wall while I was reading my economics text. Dinner is on the grill now, and I am looking forward to a campfire with my hubby tonight!
Oct 15, 2011 6:44:12 pm
Came home after a very trying 12 hour day to find my hubby had been so busy! He dissassembled and fixed the dishwasher, cleaned the study, and cleaned the hair out of roomba (the two long-hairs in the house compete with Chloe for most-hair-in-roomba status...but roomba does such a great job of picking up dust and hair!) We had a nice dinner out this evening. Thank goodness for a couple of days off! (and no, sorry, I don't loan him out)
Oct 14, 2011 9:42:56 pm
Go roomba, go! Mike bought a new more powerful battery for roomba. Now he can do 2 rooms on one battery!
Oct 13, 2011 9:20:29 pm
To reinact 18 years ago, my hubby called me to ask if I would go to dinner with him. Of course, I said yes! We went toT-Wa's for a lovely dinner - our first date there was 18 years ago today. :>) So glad T-Wa's was able to get the damage to their kitchen repaired (a truck ran into their kitchen this summer)
Oct 11, 2011 8:59:42 pm
I have a sneaking suspicion that my economics book (from Regis University) is biased. Examples include companies like "Regis Rentals" and "Regis detergent" ;>)
Oct 10, 2011 9:42:53 pm
The first bits of Halloween are showing up at our house....besides all the candy I bought. ;>) Some pumpkins magically spouted in the front yard and the first batch of leaf bag ghosts is hanging from the trees.
Oct 09, 2011 3:52:03 pm
42 degress and lightly raining. The first ski areas are open in the Rockies. fall is here for sure. :>) I love the cooler weather! cabin fever cat seems to be taking it pretty well now.
Oct 08, 2011 8:51:54 am
Fall is here! Leaves are changing color, the weather is lovely and temperate...and the cat is bolting around the house yowling and trying to push things off tables, desks, and counters. Mike spent some time to console cabin fever cat over her loss of summer. (don't worry - she's super fuzzy and will adjust to the cooler temperatures soon)
Oct 06, 2011 9:47:12 pm
having a good day thus far. went to work this morning and was able to finish what I needed to in ~2 hours. came homefor lunch with hubby, talked with my bro, started working on MBA stuff. Had a very nice dinner at an annual party thrown by one of Mike's professors. Indian food from the Yak and Yeti restaurant. :>) now home working on MBA stuff again. 6 of 8 sections on ye olde business plan completed. Mike thinks I am going overboard with accuracy and realism. I told him I am just following the directions in the outline. I can't help it that I've been tossing this idea around for a few years now.
Oct 02, 2011 8:25:06 pm
and now I am trying to get my MBA hw done. As part of my class, I have to start writing a business plan. I picked a business plan for (with thanks to Jarl and Mike for the company name from back in the day, so to speak....) Maximum Impact Industries. My mission is to develop technology that is useful here on earth as well as to help colonize Mars. The here on earth part would help generate the needed $s for going to MArs. Hey, if you're going to spend Saturday night writing a business plan, might as well dream big. :>) speaking of which, I need to get back to that....
Oct 01, 2011 9:44:02 pm
We got up early (by our standards for a Saturday) this morning to help Shawn and Malia (and Powder and Rio) move to Longmont. Everything went very well, and we hope they enjoy their new apartment! It lookslike a nice area, and it will definitely shorten their commute. This evening, we had a very nice dinner thanks to the Orekovih's. Nick and Pat had us over with my hubby's parents and Jim and Gwen Jessen. It was great to see everyone. :>)
Oct 01, 2011 9:40:02 pm
lots of 12 hour days at work over the past couple of weeks. I think there's a light at the end of the tunnel. We took a break from work and Phd stuff last night to go to a nice function at Mines. They had a south american-themed dinner and awards for alumni donors. (No, we didn't get any awards. If I had the means to give Mines that kind ofmoney, I would. But there's a joke on campus about physics majors versus petroleum engineering majors...)
Oct 01, 2011 9:34:48 pm
Congratulations go out to my hubby - he passed his phd qualifier today! He says there was never any doubt- and I didn't doubt him, but it's nice to get the milestone out of the way. Now he's all sorts of official. Turns out it was good he did all that studying - he said it apparently provided the guide of what not to ask him. All the questions he got were on things he hadn't studied. ;>)
Sep 26, 2011 9:20:34 pm
work, work, work. ;>) Today, Mike is studying for his phd qualifier exam on Monday. (Chloe has been able to get some outside time while he reads.) I've been doing MBA stuff. My wonderful hubby set me up so I could watch videos while working out on the elliptical downstairs - 2 birds,one stone. :>) completed 2.5 of 3.5 hours of videos, 6 of 12 statistics problems. I also have some sort of "library research assignment".
Sep 24, 2011 4:02:41 pm
had a long long week, playing team lead while trying to clean up our team's cost and schedule baselines. way too much paperwork. was glad it ended with a very nice dinner with my hubby's parents. We had some chinese food from New Peach Garden delivered and enjoyed catching up a little.
Sep 24, 2011 3:59:23 pm
quiet day in Golden. absolutely gorgeous weather - sunny and just under 70 deg. My big plan is to get my MBA HW done...2.5 hours of videos left to watch and a bunch of statistics problems due Monday. Mike's writing a paper for his thesis stuff and of course..go Broncos!
Sep 18, 2011 10:55:22 am
hello facebook and happy September! August was a busy month...September is slowing down a little for me, but not for Mike. He's up at school "metalizing space macaroni"...old obscure reference from one of Jarl's songs. He's coating ceramic crucibles with a thin layer of platinum. His phd qualifier exam is at 8 am on the 26th. (no, he did not get grandfathered in to the new policy)
Sep 14, 2011 9:16:05 pm
happy to hear my family on Long Island got power back tonight. :>)
Aug 30, 2011 9:49:37 pm
had a very nice evening visiting with my parents. I made pot roast for dinner - it came out a little dry, thank goodness for the gravy. ;>) glad to hear my aunt, great aunt and cousin are doing well on long island after Irene blew through. They don't have power back on yet, hopefully by tomorrow.
Aug 28, 2011 10:14:40 pm
had a good laugh while doing Quicken and getting receipts organized. During the last part of our trip, we stayed at the "Wine Country Inn" in Pallisade. Great place - lovely hotel in the middle of a vineyard, great rooms, great food. but it comes up as "Wine Country Hospital" on the credit card bill. (assume that was a truncated "hospitality")
Aug 28, 2011 3:29:14 pm
long trying week. haven't gotten to visit my mes parents as much as I would have liked, but I did enjoy seeing everyone at Mark and Bella's house this evening for Grandma Kitty's bday party :>)
Aug 26, 2011 10:37:23 pm
had a nice little bday party for my mom yesterday. I think she liked it :>) Now, vacation is over and I go back to work.
Aug 22, 2011 6:26:56 am
peeling and freezing peaches from Pallisade, Colorado. I bought a 20 lb box from the rotary club, picked it up this morning. Some of them are as big as softballs! 4 peaches went to my parents, 6 to us (2 already eaten...they were good!), the rest are being frozen. Mike laughed that my peach freezing operation is being done to 80's Australian rock bands. It just seemed like good peach peeling music. :>)
Aug 20, 2011 10:14:34 pm
Buck and Anna moved out this week, and a younger couple with two daughters and a dog moved in. (I hear he is beagle, looks more like a sheppard mix to me, including one white/blue husky eye) Anyhow, Chloe just met her new canine neighbor...from a distance. She is not pleased with having dogs for neighbors on all sides. She is back inside the screened in patio, doing her fair share of harumphing.
Aug 20, 2011 3:58:01 pm
got back yesterday afternoon from a nice Colorado road trip with my hubby, parents, bro and Kim. We went to Mesa Verde, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, and a winery in Pallisade (near Grand Junction). bro and Kim got back to SoCal last night without trouble. Last night, Mike and I went to Fish and Micki's going away party at Stranahan's. I am sure they will have a great time in Denmark...well, Micki will. Fish will be doing his PhD stuff. ;>)
Aug 20, 2011 11:12:02 am
so tired. 13hour day yesterday and 11 hours today. But I enjoyed having dinner with my hubby and parents tonight. looking forward to seeing my bro and Kim tomorrow. :>)
Aug 11, 2011 9:18:33 pm
Mike is back at the lab fussing with thermal wraps and the bubblers. I think I will procrastinate on finishing some cleaning by reading the 401k literature I got in the mail today. (consider it a cat and mouse game of finding hidden fees in the new plan)
Aug 08, 2011 7:15:30 pm
Chloe is on the patio enjoying the company of her latest catch - a giant grasshopper. She is quite pleased with herself. (I told her she could keep him, but not in the house...as she tried to run through the cat door with a grasshopper stuffed in her mouth.)
Aug 08, 2011 6:51:08 pm
sitting in the study, working side-by-side with Mike and listening to Jimmy Buffett. Even paying bills seems like a party when you're listening to Jimmy Buffett!
Aug 07, 2011 9:05:01 pm
quiet day of cleaning, laundry and home maintenance. About every 2 years, the roots get far enough into our swere line that it backs up. Since this is about 1 yr 8 months from the last episode, I had $99 Router come back out and run the line. Root s were there and have been pulled out. I am super happy with $99 Router and recommend them for any routine plumbing work. :>)
Aug 07, 2011 3:56:13 pm
Mike is busy busy busy! When he's not at the lab workin on his experiments, he is banging his head against an IT problem - - he is setting up his research wiki so he can see it from school. I feel like such a slacker. ;>)
Aug 04, 2011 9:36:04 pm
Aug 01, 2011 7:52:07 pm
finally! I have caught up on reading the Wall St Journal and Barron's after getting a few months behind while working on the patio. This concludes month 7 of my experiment to find out what kind of investor I'll be when I grow up. ;>)
Jul 31, 2011 12:06:17 pm
enjoyed a very nice dinner with my hubby and Diana tonight. Applejack organized an italian dinner + Rioja wine tasting at a local restaurant. affordable and awesome!great time had by all.
Jul 30, 2011 10:09:49 pm
my question to Mike - "What am I supposed to do with chorizo sausage?".Answer - I made breakfast burritos for the first time today. 1 bag ore-ida o'brien potatoes, 1 lb chorizo, 2 serranos, 1 pasilla pepper. served with tortillas, cheese, picante sauce and some scrambled eggs on the side for Mike. Since it was brunch, I also cut up cantelope. This little long islander is finally getting the hang of southwest cooking.
Jul 30, 2011 11:38:23 am
enjoying a lovely evening in Golden - many thanks to the thunderstorm that blew through and left us withsome cooler weather. :>)
Jul 27, 2011 9:46:57 pm
One of my favorite comfort food spots in Golden, Tony Rigatoni's, has closed. :>( looks like it is going to be replace with a thai food restaurant.
Jul 25, 2011 9:17:21 pm
Just got backfrom a little trip with Mike. We went to the Cat Care Society's 30th bday BBQ fundraiser. very nice. had a laugh when we went in - all the cats were draped around the main hallway....not as melted as Chloe gets, but it was close. It's a toasty day in the Denver metro area - Eos-cam said 91 degrees and sunny. I hope those thunderstorms coming over the mountains actually leave some rain.
Jul 24, 2011 12:49:29 pm
News from Golden: I am now enrolled in a MBA program at Regis University. I'll be attending on-line classes part time, and it will probably take ~3 yrs to get. To many, this may seem out of the blue, but it is the result of ~2 yrs of quiet careful career planning. Many thanks go to Scott and Diana for letters of recommendation! :>)
Jul 22, 2011 5:28:38 pm
Carty now has an extension! Mike finished making it tonight. In other news, I have been corrected - it is Carty, not Cartie, because Carty is not a girl. And MHU is more like another name.....Carty MHU has an extension and it is painted blue. :>)
Jul 21, 2011 10:55:49 pm
oy vey - long week. covering for 4 people today. Sadly for them, everything is getting done ;>) hoping for a shorter day tomorrow.
Jul 21, 2011 9:52:57 pm
Cartie is having an out of body experience tonight - - the temperature controlers for the bubblers are in our study tonight while Mike tries to get them to respond over the network. or I think that's why they're on the desk. (For those who are new, cartie is the name of Mike's mobile lab set up.)
Jul 19, 2011 7:21:48 pm
worked late, glad to be home. Poor Chloe was all alone in a dark house. I guess Mike didn't think I would be home *that* late. :>) All better now - is there anything treats can't fix? Mike and Jarl are at Red Rocks -hopefully, all that lightning isn't giving them too much trouble.
Jul 18, 2011 9:55:20 pm
92 degrees and sunny in Golden. Just finished doing a few hours of yardwork while Mike was up at the lab collecting data for his project. In other news, our next door neighbor sold their house and is moving Aug 15th. A family with 2 little girls is moving in - more kids to participate in my Halloween extravaganza! (cat sitting and Halloween - that's about the extent of my interactionwithneighborhood kids ;>) )
Jul 17, 2011 4:55:41 pm
listening to a CD with Mike of William S. Burroughs reading his own stories. :>)
Jul 16, 2011 7:28:06 pm
just got home from work. looks like I'll work ~8 hours this weekend- not too shabby for covering for 3 people and having taken Monday off for our anniversary. Mike is still at the lab working on his thesis stuff (versus other lab duties as the lab manager). The fuzzy member of the household is just mad: home alone, another thunderstorm rolling in, and no dinner yet. I hear it's like I don't even know I have a cat.
Jul 16, 2011 5:46:39 pm
just got back from a lovely 13th anniversary get-away my hubby arranged. We spent the night at the Broadmoor yesterday and went up to Pikes Peak today.
Jul 11, 2011 4:06:58 pm
Mike is relaxing by playing Left 4 Dead on the xbox. Now I know that zombies are by their very nature unhealthy. but I maintain that this is the most unhealthy group of zombies I've ever heard, what with all the coughing, wheezing, gurgling and belching.quite a sound track :>)
Jul 09, 2011 4:23:09 pm
Break time is over for Mike. The floors in the lab are cleaned and polished for another year. He's back at school putting things back together and installing his new regulators. and me? I am home with a cat who doesn't understand "You don't want to go outside. It's pouring rain. sheets of rain. You wouldn't like it." I may need to let her poke her head outside anyhow.
Jul 07, 2011 7:25:01 pm
If I were on the east coast, I would have said a hurrican was blowing into Aurora. Wow! haven't seen a storm like that in a while. Such driving rain and high winds! tornado sirens south or Denver, I-70 was flooded, flash floods and stalled cars downtown. Lightning show was awesome! I took the northern route - no problems. except that I hear I am late getting a cat her dinner.
Jul 07, 2011 6:09:25 pm
Nice evening here - much cooler than last week. I left a little early from work - things have been slow. The evening seems so much longer when you get home before 5! Mike is enjoying his week "off" while the labs are cleaned. He'll start some experiments when the floors are done. Right now, he's reading in the hammock. I'm just being puttertastic. All caught up on cleaning, just need to catch up on some reading now.
Jul 06, 2011 7:39:39 pm
grumble. got a packet about 401k enhancements in the mail today. My favorite and best performing fund will no longer be available. Well, my top 5 will not be available. I'd say I have a lot of researching to do, but of the 14 funds available, I already know there are 4 that aren't so hot and there's 1 I already own. *sigh* *sigh* :>/ This must save money somehow.
Jul 06, 2011 6:55:13 pm
Chloe says "The best thing about going outside is bringing something inside." This time, it was a large moth and he's on the enclosed patio. So, she is happily playing with her captured prey. He'll probably become dinner once she gets tired of the game.
Jul 06, 2011 5:31:56 pm
many thanks to Nick and Pat for hosting us, Josh, Dez, and Andrew for fireworks. It's great to see them across from you (on the mountainside in Golden) instead of having to look up! and apologies to the little fox that came darting out of the grasses and bolted down the street after the first couple of minutes. Happy 4th little dude - hope he eventually found a snack that made up for it.
Jul 04, 2011 10:51:19 pm
red, white and blue dinner for the 4th of July: steak, pasta in cream sauce, blueberry muffins. well, with beets. so red, white, blue and purple. not sure what the purple is for - maybe it's for the aliens or something. ;>) looking forward to fireworks tonight
Jul 04, 2011 7:13:51 pm
quiet 3-day weekend but got plenty done. I am just about caught upon chores (always get behind when working on something like the patio project). We had a nice visit with Auntie Linda and Grandma Saturday for Linda's bday. Yesterday, we went to the Ship Rock Grille with Jarl and Christy, then saw some reggae at Red Rocks. awesome show. home now after helping Robert P move some stuff.
Jul 04, 2011 3:34:58 pm
Happy 4th of July! If I can do math this morning, this is bday #135 for our country. Pretty amazing undertaking.
Jul 04, 2011 9:32:20 am
The Cosmic Cat nip is here! Cosmic catnip came in the mail today. It's pokey to the touch but is the most potent stuff I have found on the market. For some reason, local shops stopped carrying it. When Chloe saw the tub, she came running inside from patio. She ate it, she rolled in it, she looked very much like the cat on the container who flies and plays with rainbows. :>)
Jul 02, 2011 7:09:59 pm
Mike is back at school tonight. He is hoping to prep the lab for a visiting professor - sans interruptions, unlike last night. I finished mowing the lawn and am now preping myself to clean the one room in the house I should clean way more often - the study. All the dust and cat hair really bother my allergies...which wouldn't happen if, well, you know. Wish me luck! :>)
Jun 29, 2011 8:52:42 pm
really enjoyed the party we hosted yesterday- thanks to everyone who came! It worked out well. also enjoyed going to Danielle and Josh's house for the twins' 5th bday party. I say I was posting pics soon, but I don't want to make empty promises. I do have a lot of cute pictures though.
Jun 26, 2011 9:24:30 pm
poor Mike - sad cat and mopey wife this evening. No wonder he's back at the lab working. ;>) Just kidding, he'll be back soon. At least I was able to make the cat happyby taking her outside for a walk....in the rain! She wanted to explore the back yard, she didn't mind getting rained on.
Jun 20, 2011 8:02:56 pm
just got back from a lovely dinner for both our birthdays. We went to a Korean BBQ place in Northglenn with Yi (also known as Chloe, friend from Mike's graduate work at Mines.) She very kindly bought us gift certificates! :>)
Jun 18, 2011 7:35:35 pm
Last weekend, I made a to-do list for myself. Gotta be careful of what you put on a to-do list. *grin* Finally finished item #2 - "Finish the patio". That includes 500 pounds of white rock in the trim around the patio.*whew* I'll finally post pictures when I recover. ;>)
Jun 18, 2011 3:56:01 pm
Happy World Tapir day, everyone! Mike and I went to date night at the Denver Zoo - proceeds go toward the construction of the new Asian tropics exhibit. It should open next year and will house elephants, rhinos and you guessed it - tapirs! 10 acre yard with heated pools. They also have a very large house to sleep in at night. We had a great time and enjoyed seeing the construction site!
Jun 16, 2011 10:37:50 pm
thanks go to Uncle Dale and Aunt Barb for tickets to yesterday's Rockies game. We had a great time- enjoyed seeing everyone. even enjoyed the rain. :>)
Jun 14, 2011 10:03:39 pm
done working in the yard for today. patio is coming along nicely - pics to come later
Jun 12, 2011 3:14:50 pm
Mission accomplished! With Mike's help, the snowblower and lawn mower have moved from the patio back into the shed. I was off from work this afternoon and spent a bit of time working on the patio. Manged to get just far enough to create a path across the sand to the shed. Mike organized the shed and got both items inside. :>) I am roughly 1/2 way done with the pavers. (only 300 more to go?)
Jun 10, 2011 8:56:35 pm
It's been a long week. I haven't worked more hours than usual, but they've been harried. Short day tomorrow. Spent a few more hours working on the patio. I am determined to create a solid path so I can put the lawnmower back in the shed. and the snow blower. There isn't much room on the screened-in patio for us right now. *grin* Mike is working in the lab tonight. He's making good progress with his data collection.
Jun 09, 2011 9:24:07 pm
The week is winding down task-wise at work, which means more time for the patio! The evening weather was just perfect - went to dinner at New Peach Garden with my hubby, then spent a couple of hours working on the north patio. It never looks like a couple hours of work, but I made a bit of progress. (ok, some of the time was spent chasing bolty cat who freaked out when the cops arrived at a neighbor's house.)
Jun 08, 2011 9:34:49 pm
Today was catch up on shopping day. had to laugh - I can haul around a couple tons of sand, gravel, or pavers, and Mike says nothing about it. Go to the mall to use some birthday gifts cards, then Kohls, Target, Home Depot, butcher, Safeway...Mike gets home and asks if I am feeling ok, because I "look like hell". ;>) the mall is not my element - headed back outside to putter and recover!
Jun 04, 2011 6:51:22 pm
all 600 pavers are now stacked in the back yard. *whew* nice day today. :>)
Jun 03, 2011 9:21:46 pm
A 3-day work week can feel really long if one works enough hours. ;>) dr appt tomorrow, took the day off as flex time. I love 3-day weekend! Haven't heard about the pavers delivery - am hoping they'll show up.
Jun 02, 2011 10:27:57 pm
had a wonderful birthday! Thanks to everyone for the wishes. It was a beautiful day and I got some needed sunshine. Ended the evening with a lovely dinner at a local italian restaurant with my hubby, his parents, grandma, Auntie Linda, his sister, her hubby and their two daughters. Too bad I have to go back to work tomorrow! After 4 days of being home, I've gotten used to it. :>)
May 30, 2011 9:18:52 pm
As I celebrate my birthday today, my thoughts go out to those who lost their lives in service of our country, their friends and families. All the veterans (WWII through the present wars) I know and have known thankfully came home safely, but I know they had friends and colleagues who were not as lucky. Hopefully, there will come a day when so miuch sacrifice is not necessary. Until then, all I can say is thanks.
May 30, 2011 9:37:45 am
I was going to talk about all Mike and I did on patio construction today...but I was distracted by coyotes. It always makes me laugh that they are just dogs at heart - fire truck went by and then both hillsides lit up with the sounds of coyotes howling. No matter how many times I hear them howl, I am always transfixed by how awesome it is. It's a very primal sound. :>)
May 29, 2011 7:45:33 pm
just got back fro our niece, Valerie's 3rd birthday party. A good time was had by all! Pictures to come later. I think I need some caffeine.
May 28, 2011 5:18:00 pm
having a nice day off - mid-60's, sunny. Went to Best Buy with my hubby to pick out my birthday present - a nice new monitor. He's going to order an ergo stand for it so I can raise it up. Monitors apparently no longer come with nice adjustable stands. We had a nice lunch at Old Chicago's - now he is back at the lab and I am getting myself motivated to do some more work in the yard.
May 27, 2011 2:06:08 pm
tomorrow is my Friday. looking forward to a 4 day weekend!
May 25, 2011 10:06:15 pm
ugh, thatch raking. I hope all that effort helps the grass fill in on the north side of the yard. Chloe and I have been outside - well, she has been in and out. She wanted to go back in after the neighborhood kids discovered she was outside. Cat's worst nightmare - children yelling "Chloe! Chloe!" and running over to her. :>)
May 22, 2011 3:06:12 pm
It's a beautiful morning in Golden - mild temp, sun. We went to the Copenhagen furniture store going-out-of-business sale but didn't see anything we wanted. Mike is now up at the lab working. I have 1.06 ton gravel to take care of. I have a helper who is reminding me that she will be outside to help with the gravel. or slow down my progress by making me chase her around the neigborhood. one or the other.
May 21, 2011 1:09:47 pm
The manifold Mike designed is working as planned - no leaks! and the mass spec is under vaccuum and happy. In other news, I can't get U2's "Vertigo" out of my head. Even after listening to it tonight. All I think is "hello...hello..."
May 19, 2011 10:31:22 pm
today's a good day to pretend to be in Scotland. ;>) 47 degrees, drizzling rain, everything is nice and green after our recent rain and snow storms. unloaded the dirt..er, mud... before lunch and just picked up .6 ton of 3/4" leyden rock for the north patio base. deciding whether or not I mind the drizzling rain after seeing < 1/10" is expected.
May 14, 2011 2:15:27 pm
had a lovely evening - went to dinner downtown with Diana and my hubby, then to the Colorado Symphony. We saw the Firebird Suite by Stavinsky plus intro and background by the conductor, which was done very very well. Firebird is probably my favorite piece of classical music - very coloful, interesting, and short. :>)
May 13, 2011 9:39:42 pm
Chloe survived bath day. I picked her up from the groomer at 3:30...by all the hissing and meowing, I did not seem to get much credit for getting her early and saving her from hairdryer hell. (hairdryer mounted to the door of her kennel, blowing in at her) but she's done pouting under the bed and has come out to sit with me....and clean herself. ;>)
May 13, 2011 4:15:01 pm
3 day weekend starts this evening! :>) With any luck, the weather will clear up as predicted ad I will spend some time moving gravel into the north patio area. or as our neighbor refers to it, "planting rock"
May 12, 2011 8:07:17 pm
back in town - had a great trip but am glad to be home. yes, even if it's snowing. Snow that doesn't ice over the roads is the best of both worlds - it looks pretty and isn't a pain. :>) pictures to come.
May 11, 2011 8:09:44 pm
off to Florida in the am - will be back Monday night. Take good care of my hubby while I'm gone. :>) and a Happy Mother's Day goes out to all the moms I know!
May 05, 2011 8:57:57 pm
was really surprised to wake up to snow this morning - - just a dusting, I'm sure it will melt away as the sun comes up.
May 02, 2011 7:06:34 am
whole household is a little under the weather today - Chloe is sneezing, Mike and I are tired and achy. So, quiet day leads to a quiet evening. Chloe has tucked herself into bed, Mike has started up a new Civ game, and I may catch up on reading Barron's after some housework.
Apr 30, 2011 7:52:05 pm
It's snowing! a nice contrast from the 75 degrees it was when I left work today.
Apr 29, 2011 9:19:08 pm
worked a half day today and came home to enjoy the beautiful warm sunny weather! I am digging out more of the north patio so I can empty the dirt out of the truck and help with neighborhood cleanup day tomorrow.
Apr 29, 2011 1:54:10 pm
Those darn Nuggets. Saying that before the game even starts may seem premature...unless you know the Nuggets. ;>) They better not get themselves shut out tonight - Mike and Jarl will be at their 4th playoff game, which starts at 8:30 mountain time.
Apr 25, 2011 7:49:54 pm
*whew* I am exhausted, but it was a good day! :>)
Apr 24, 2011 8:11:47 pm
hm... was typing, and then some sort of refresh happened. Post take-2. I just go back from judging student engineering projects at CU's Design Expo. Some students kind of phoned it in, but there was also some really good work done. Although we may sometimes struggle to efficiently capitalize on it, never let anyone tell you the upcoming generation of Americans lacks engineering talent or amibition. :>)
Apr 23, 2011 2:14:37 pm
I'm a wimp. I was given a little chocolate easter bunny 9yum!), but it had eyes! For a few moments, I thought I could handle it...I prepared myself to eat a chocolate bunny that was looking at me or to remove the eyes first...but then I handed the bunny to Mike so he could eat the eyes for me.
Apr 21, 2011 9:27:03 pm
hooray for flex time! Taking Friday off again. Unfortunately, this one was prompted by taking the Rav4 in for a weird noise. I hope it's something small. *fingers crossed* It's allowed a small problem ater 90k worry-free miles.
Apr 21, 2011 8:56:50 pm
go Nuggets! (1st playoff game is on now)
Apr 17, 2011 7:29:41 pm
What a lovely day! very windy, but warm and sunny. Alas, I am not in "do landscaping all day" shape yet. still gotta shake off a little winter. Spent a little over 4 hours outside - cleaning up the back yard, cleaning off the tarps, getting fertilizer down on the back lawn, and starting to remove excess dirt from the north patio area. got a good start on my farmer's tan ;>)
Apr 17, 2011 5:16:48 pm
got back from the Mines ski trip dinner in Dillon for Mike's research group. It went very well! Good food, good people, good conversation. I had some leftover sauce, but not too much. I was able to fit it in 2 freezer containers.
Apr 16, 2011 10:38:23 pm
Really enjoyed the DAM Uncorked event this evening with my hubby and Diana! (wine tasting at the Denver Art Museum) We even brought home some art from the silent auction. Diana and I spent the last few minutes of the auction standing in front of our lot babbling about the ballet lot next to it and other random topics to ward off potential bidders - it worked!
Apr 15, 2011 9:51:39 pm
weird! I just posted 2 pictures and I don't see them.
Apr 14, 2011 7:02:50 am
Electric upgrade is done - inspection passed yesterday and we now have a new digital meter (darn. back to being a paying customer on the grid ;>) ). Pictures to come. Too bad it is raining tonight - was going to finally fill in my ditch for the power line to the shed. but I am taking Friday off, so maybe I can o it then. :>)
Apr 13, 2011 7:55:52 pm
Mike is busy working on his model - things are going well. Mathematica seems to be finally cooperating. I am going to make some lunch and then start getting ready for the great sauce-a-thon in prep for the Mines ski trip dinner next weekend. I've got materials to make 3 batches of sauce.
Apr 10, 2011 11:06:10 am
my philosophy on taking pictures has always been that what I lack in quality, I make up for in volume. consider yourself warned. ;>)
Apr 09, 2011 8:03:34 pm
enjoyed Clara's 1st bday party today. :>) It's a sunny warm day - mowed the lawn for the 1st time this year (yes, already!), put down fertilizer - of course turning myself yellow with fertilizer dust (there is nothing I can do without making a mess, whether it's paint, fertilizer, dirt, brownie mix...), watered the lawn in case the snow doesn't materialize tomorrow. now I'm waiting for the pizza to show up
Apr 09, 2011 6:34:23 pm
anyone need some electricity? ;>) Our meter is disconnected tonight since we're in the middle of upgrading the breaker box. Mike and I were joking about running the air conditioner and turning on all the lights. We will soon have external outlets, power on the patio, a light in the shed, and the ability to get rid of the web o' extension cords in the basement.
Apr 08, 2011 9:14:27 pm
congrats to my hubby on getting a paper accepted for publication! ...now we are working on logos and a template for his school stuff. I can't believe Ryan didn't like my super awesome logo idea with the inverted pyramid of alternative power. The latest version of the logo looks pretty good, though.
Apr 06, 2011 8:45:43 pm
I'm in this weird new world where I work less than Mike. He's working in the lab again tonight. He just got all the equipment he had ordered and is working on a new lab setup. Cartie is up and running....but now cartie's bubblers are now being used to chill things. I'll have to get a new picture when it's all done for our evolution of cartie collage. :>)
Apr 01, 2011 8:12:32 pm
I am now very far down the rabbit hole in summer trip planning....too many tabs open - I've lost track!
Mar 30, 2011 9:06:08 pm
The good news is I sat here playing computer solitaire, drinking tea and trying not to cough long enough to hear my favorite Doors song come up on Mike's computer jukebox - "When the Music's Over". :>) poor Mike has spent the whole day working on his model in Mathematica - minus 2 meals and a mid-afternoon break to watch PTI. He seems to be holding up ok, just the occassional grumble.
Mar 29, 2011 9:13:22 pm
Last year, we had sprinklers installed for the backyard lawn to keep it alive when we were busy. The guys doing the installation were sad the work required removing a poppy plant, so they made Mike call me at work to ask for permission. I laughed. "If only it were that easy to remove a poppy." This evening, I was outside with Chloe and something caught my eye...seems ironic to need an herbicide for the sprinkler box.
Mar 29, 2011 6:06:25 pm
had a great time at the scotch tasting party last night - thanks to everyone who came over! We got to see some folks we hadn't seen in a while. :>) next party will be after some projects are completed - electrician coming next week, which will put me on the path to cleaning up my construction area on the north side of the yard.
Mar 27, 2011 7:23:30 am
much progress was made on the Indian Gulch fire today - they are expecting 50% containment tonight and 80% by Friday. In other news, Mike seems to be enjoying his new planer - bought so he can finish the study shelves, which he would like to do before folks come over this weekend.
Mar 23, 2011 8:49:48 pm
had a lovely evening with my hubby - first fire of the season! nice campfire out of the patio. Mike enjoyed his roasted peeps - warning, roasted peeps may become a tradition. ;>) We also enjoyed the light from the super waxing gibeous moon (had a laugh - Mike had read that no, it was so totally not a super full mooon) the only unnerving thing was hearing the coyotes take down what we presumed to be a deer.
Mar 19, 2011 11:32:14 pm
very beautiful day in Colorado today! sunny and warm - more like late spring than late March. Mike and I drove to Fort Collins to visit Jim and the Jessens in the hospital. Jim was in great spirits - good to see! It was also very nice to visit with the rest of the clan. definitely need to make a Nebraska trip later this year for a visit under better circumstances and to see the new lodge.
Mar 19, 2011 7:43:34 pm
had a wonderful week and am looking forward to a 3 day weekend. Enjoyed St. Patrick's day - think it's time to go listen to some more of the Pogues :>)
Mar 17, 2011 8:53:37 pm
very much enjoying my new project at work as well as the amazing spring weather - over 70 deg in Denver today. but on the more serious side, thoughts and good wishes are with the Jessen family this evening - hope there's a good path forward for Jim's cancer treatments. :>(
Mar 16, 2011 8:05:24 pm
a quiet half Sunday...I apparently decided to celebrate daylight savings by sleeping until lunch time. Even after over 10 hrs of sleep, I don't envision any trouble getting to bed tonight. Went out to lunch with Mike, spent the afternoon cleaning up the gardens. Mike was busy with thesis stuff and is now working on the study shelves in the basement.
Mar 13, 2011 7:36:27 pm
been having a nice week. The weather has been great and I enjoyed meeting up with friends for lunch today. now, it's time to work on organizing our next party. :>) ok, the organizing part isn't actually that much work.
Mar 10, 2011 8:40:33 pm
had a wonderful going-away lunch today with friends from my old program. :>) Thanks to all who came and special thanks to Stephanie for setting it up!
Mar 04, 2011 5:50:46 pm
Dentabites can only do so much. Chloe's breath stinks, so we bought a little toothbrush kit at Petsmart last night. In the cat world, that toothpaste is like liquid gold - she absolutely loves it! Night #2 - I can get the toothbrush to slide across her teeth while she's struggling to get away. but she always comes back for more.
Mar 03, 2011 8:08:00 pm
spring must be in the air - reggae has made it into the workout rotation. Tonight's selection was Black Uhuru's "Mystical Truth" from 1992. or maybe it was that the new 2012 olympics logo really does seem to spell the word "zion". either way...good music!
Feb 28, 2011 9:54:20 pm
Curiosity may not have killed the cat, but certainly scared the heck out of her. I hear that stuff fell on the counter and a glass shattered on the floor due to poltergeists or intruders...not because a cat was where she wasn't supposed to be in a dark kitchen. All we know is she defended the household as valiantly as one can from behind the couch. :>) No pets were (physically) harmed in the making of this post.
Feb 27, 2011 11:12:23 pm
Thanks to Dennis, Malia, Shawn and Diana for sharing a great evening with us! enjoyed a tour of Stranahan's distillery followed by a tasty dinner at T-Wa's. :>)
Feb 26, 2011 9:59:08 pm
yahooooo! I like phone calls that bring excellent news. A few years ago, I requested a different position at work - - request granted! Found out this afternoon that I will start working on the new project next week. I like my current coworkers, but I am overjoyed that this came through. woo hoo! yay!
Feb 24, 2011 4:38:23 pm
it seems my job tonight is keeping a cat away from my hubby, who needs to work on his lab setup so he can order equipment (they got funding!!! :>) ) Right now, she is pouting, but I am sure she'll try to interrupt again soon.
Feb 22, 2011 8:26:16 pm
sad to see 84 people have been killed by the army in Libya while demonstrating for democracy :>(
Feb 19, 2011 5:03:12 pm
hooray for flex time - - taking today off. :>) but boo for the cold that is going around. Mike and I seem to have both picked it up.
Feb 18, 2011 9:44:10 am
fusion of life and music - enjoyed the moment where I was reading about counterparty risk in swap funds as deltron 3030 said "upgrade your gray matter, cause one day it may matter" :>)
Feb 17, 2011 10:09:06 pm
we really enjoyed watching Watson on jeopardy. love the avatar when it pouts after getting an answer wrong.
Feb 16, 2011 8:33:39 pm
yummy Valentine's tradition in the oven....home made chocolate chip cookies.
Feb 14, 2011 9:40:31 pm
Mike was surprised that Chloe got him a lol cats card for Valentine's day, given her hatred of her own species. (It says "I iz so luck I haz a you!") I explained that "I can haz cheezburger?" speaks to the souls of cats...and then he noticed that the two cats on the cover weren't actually snuggling, one was eating the other one's ear. So, it's all very accurate. Hope everyone had a happy Valentine's Day!
Feb 14, 2011 8:32:04 pm
had a very nice Valentine's date yesterday - - we spent a few hours at the Colorado Home and Garden show, then had dinner at T-Wa's. (for those who don't know, that's where we went for our first date on Oct 11, 1993) After dinner, we watched "Exit through the Gift Shop" on Netflix and had a nice long conversation about the art industry. :>)
Feb 13, 2011 10:00:45 am
The big snow blower got its first workout of spring snow season when Mike used it to clear our driveway, parking spaces, and the driveways of 2 neighbors. All ready for superbowl!
Feb 06, 2011 12:48:30 pm
just finished watching "the future is unwritten" (a film about Joe Strummer) with Mike and Chloe. really enjoyed it. lots of tidbits I didn't know.
Feb 04, 2011 4:32:57 pm
My morning off was spent playing with investments. :>) found a couple of interesting new funds in ye olde 401k account, among other things. I'd better get to that workout I told Mike I would definitely do this morning...
Feb 04, 2011 9:22:53 am
so tired. It's been a long couple of weeks work-wise. I am very glad to have Friday off as flex time!
Feb 03, 2011 8:50:50 pm
cold icy morning - but I'm not heading to work until much later. Thank goodness for flex time!
Feb 01, 2011 7:58:54 am
it is ~10 degrees outside and my hubby is on the patio grilling diner for me. That's dedication. :>)
Jan 31, 2011 7:54:28 pm
We hosted a very nice get-together last night for a scotch tasting - went well, and a few new recipes (for my repertoire, at least) even worked out. :>) Today, back to work! I am working from home today, hoping to take Friday off as flex time.
Jan 30, 2011 9:04:10 am
almost no need for a jacket - it's a beautiful sunny day in Golden! :>)
Jan 29, 2011 1:20:05 pm
Soilwork as work-out music: A plus! ... unless you were one of the other 2 household members. I think the saying is that you can take the girl out of long island, but you can't take the long island out of the girl. *lol*

Mike told Chloe that the family may have to sacrifice a little if that's what it takes for me to get back into a regular routine. :>)
Jan 26, 2011 9:54:36 pm
geting ready to watch some political theater...or as I told Mike, I am just waiting to see which politicians I get to mock heartily for whining and complaining. :>) "pre-game" show is on now while I'm making dinner.
Jan 25, 2011 6:08:08 pm
Mike is still up at the lab trying to reconstruct a vaccuum pump. I have been catching up on cleaning. It's nice to have a few days on my feet moving around. Carpets are washed except for the bedroom, laundry is done, cleaning is almost done except for the study. I don't think I'm up for tackling the study - will probably continue cleaning up in the basement instead.
Jan 23, 2011 1:30:16 pm
Mike has headed back up to school to work on stuff in the lab, and I am probably going to undertake some puttering and reading. One of my new year's resolutions was to learn more about investing...it's a rsolution that requires a ton of reading. I'm very new to the sport of picking stocks and such.
Jan 22, 2011 8:25:24 pm
heard an interesting cost savings idea - freecycled our old basement TV, and the gal who picked it up said she had gotten rid of cable and gone to 100% netflix for movies and TV shows.
Jan 22, 2011 10:32:30 am
unintentionally ended up at Flat Irons while looking for the xbox Mike wants (only then remembered the other Best Buy is on Sheridan, not Wadsworth). didn't find the xbox but had a lovely drive back to Golden - looking down at city views from Highway 93, big bright moon hanging overit all. I still love highway driving at night.
Jan 21, 2011 8:57:18 pm
"I had a screw loose and now it's gone," I said as I walked in the door and the eye dr tech laughed. "I can only help with glasses, " she said. ;>) happy to be home early on a beautiful warm sunny Friday!
Jan 21, 2011 4:18:16 pm
enjoyed being at the Fete du Bordeaux tonight with Diana - great food, excellent wine, good times! looking forward to DAM uncorked :>)
Jan 19, 2011 11:41:52 pm
darn arthritic fingers...warning to Mike's friends - one of ya will get to help carry a TV downstairs. It's not heavy; I just don't have the strength in my fingers right now.
Jan 16, 2011 5:31:59 pm
done washing the fist half of the living room carpet and the hall. I think my supervisor fell asleep in her cat condo.
Jan 15, 2011 2:00:56 pm
ok brain, time to think java scripts. (helping Mike with his thesis project)
Jan 13, 2011 8:53:00 pm
thanks to all my friends who voted for the Cat Care Society - they won a free advertising package. They posted on their site that we all deserve a round of catnip for our efforts. ;>)
Jan 12, 2011 8:32:28 pm
looking forward to a better day tomorrow. I'm off to find a way to dispell my case of the grumpies. Unfortunately for the other household members, this may involve singing.
Jan 11, 2011 8:49:28 pm
snow! The prediction for Golden was for a real storm that would leave a foot or so. From what I woke up to this morning, looks like it might be right! :>) Unfortunately, Chloe has her work cut out for her. She came to me very upset just now - all the critters are gathering at the bird feeder. Looks like it needs a refill.
Jan 09, 2011 7:43:58 am
many thanks to Jarl and Christy for introducing us to Penzey's spice mixes. I've been using the Adobo mix to make low salt taco and burrito seasoning. I've been using the Chicago steak mix as a substitute for beef bouillion in soups (in addition to using it for steaks). picked up more today! :>)
Jan 08, 2011 4:06:17 pm
today is a day of loose ends - mostly of the painting kind because I woke up and thought "I really shouldn't have things on my to-do list for more than a year". There are a few patches in the kitchen that need painting, as well as a shelf in the living room. taping and hole filling it done, primer to come after lunch.
Jan 08, 2011 11:00:16 am
darn Sears. came home early from work to wait for them to fix the fan on the stove (Mike had to go to school to meet with his advisor). Just like when I called them last year, appt #1 was not held - they called at 4:30 to say "we're swamped". Last year, I had to threaten a mgr to get someone to show up for appt #4 - let's hope we're not seeing a repeat performance. *deep sigh*
Jan 07, 2011 4:57:06 pm
happy to report that my great aunt went home from the hospital today. It sounds like the nurses would have liked her to stay a little longer to prevent relapse, since the infection is not 100% cleared up yet. but I am sure Taz is happy to have her home, and it's hard to get a good night's sleep in a hospital. Hopefully, some extra rest will be all she needs.
Jan 06, 2011 9:11:31 pm
darn new profile keeps cuting off Mike's head in the thumbnails. fussing with the pics again.
Jan 04, 2011 9:42:54 pm
spoke with my great aunt today during lunch break at work. She was moved to a different room today because her roommate was - let's say having trouble with demerol. She was in good spirits, and the doctor said it looks like the infection is starting to subside. Thursday would be the earliest she could be released.
Jan 04, 2011 8:24:56 pm
my hubby and Jarl are at the Nuggets game, and the Nuggets are torturing him. tied at half time, 3 points ahead with 10 min to go in the 4th quarter. but the real question is - will this be Jarl's last game? He is dangerously close to being superstitiously blamed for Nuggets home losses. ;>)
Jan 03, 2011 9:03:18 pm
I was apparently not paying attention to my cell phone all day - it was a great afternoon! 45 deg, sunny, I was busy cooking and trying out my new aerobics mat. but...just found out my great aunt is in the hospital with a systemic infection from a puncture wound. They haven't been able to get the swelling in her arm down over the last 24 hrs. more tomorrow :>(
Jan 02, 2011 8:27:47 pm
a day and a half left for my vacation....hmmm, I have time and my hands are not feeling arthiritic today (a week of rest, good company and good food has done wonders)...I think I am going to finish restocking my collection of leftovers. I have come to love having soups, sauces, chilis, and pastas frozen for those times when neither of us feels like cooking.
Jan 02, 2011 12:40:15 pm
Chloe is older than we thought. While copying everything from my falling-apart address book into a new one, I realized we had never picked a bday for her. I told her "everyone needs a birthday, even if it's only approximated". Mike suggested I look at her adoption paperwork - Oct '05?!? oh my - we missed her 5th bday. Thinking she's more Scorpio than Libra, we picked Oct 27, 2005.
Jan 01, 2011 9:42:44 pm
was great to see Seth for lunch yesterday - been way too long since we had seen him. enjoyed ringing in the New Year with good friends, food, and movies. (anyone need some leftover lasagna? :>) ) I got my frst 2011 wakeup meow, and am now off and running on post-party clean-up duty. Thank goodness for roomba and dishwashers.
Jan 01, 2011 9:56:03 am
had a fun lunch with Diana - looking forward to seeing her wreckage diving video tomorrow. :>) With the help of some petco gift cards (thanks, Milt) and Kohl's cash, I brought some rugs and cat beds to the cat care society this afternoon. Cat beds were a hit - one was claimed while I was filling out the donor receipt. Well, Powder was trying to claim it, even though he's too big for it.
Dec 30, 2010 4:24:45 pm
yoga and Jimmy Buffet - the perfect combo :>)
Dec 29, 2010 9:51:23 pm
had a wonderful time hanging out with Shawn and Malia last night - thanks for coming over!
Dec 29, 2010 1:46:59 pm
and we have internet! The new cable is run through the conduit and all connected. So far so good. Our biggest problems with signal dropouts occured during bad weather, so we'll see over the next week or so (according to the forecast) whether or not this little project helped.
Dec 28, 2010 1:54:26 pm
our quarter cow is ready! Now, I only need to track down Eric so I know when to head to the other side of town to get it....
Dec 28, 2010 10:14:08 am
puttering music is on (David Byrne's "Everything that Happens will happen today"). My little fuzzy helper is helping (?) me put away decorations to make room for having company on Friday. I plan to put them in the attic above the garage before the storm moves in Thursday. For her part, my fuzzy helper has stowed things under the couch, under the table, and somewhere in the kitchen. I'll dig them out later.
Dec 27, 2010 9:28:52 pm
done digging for the day. I feel so much better. Conduit is bought and laid out in the back yard. Tomorrow, I need to finish doing the tunnels under the mini-wall. After that, we'll be ready to lay the conduit and pull the new cable wire through. Hopefully, it will result in a more stable internet/vonage connection. If not, we can call Comcast and tell them we did everything possible on our end. :>)
Dec 26, 2010 4:26:40 pm
We had a great time yesterday - breakfast with the Lyons was good, phone calls went well, dinner at Mark and Bella's was very nice. but now, no vacation would be complete without plans for digging and shoveling gravel. ;>) Seriously, our cable connection has been getting worse by the week since I dug up the cable, so I need to replace it and bury it. Thank goodness for 50 deg weather and sunny skies.
Dec 26, 2010 9:23:03 am
Mike said Chloe says "Dear Santa, Thank you for the catsip in my stocking. OMG where has catsip been all my life? Anyhow, I think the single container of catsip may have been an oversight. Should you find more in the bottom of your sleigh, feel free to stop back at our house and leave it in my stocking. Love, Chloe"
Dec 24, 2010 11:21:35 pm
I still love freecycle.org. Just dropped off an old desk to someone who needed it. It's great to know it'll have a better home than just sitting unused in our basement. :>)
Dec 24, 2010 10:26:10 am
vacation has been great thus far. nice get-together with Jarl, Christy and Daniel last night (I think Daniel really liked the weebles...he seemed to hit them and stare - amazed how they "wobble but don't fall down"). lunch today with friends from Mike's work at Mines...good to see everyone is doing well. now I'm getting ready for visitors tonight!
Dec 23, 2010 1:28:50 pm
found inspiration to finish the tree listening to Bowie's Outside....
Dec 20, 2010 9:09:26 pm
looks like Mike is going against doctor's orders ;>) I told him earlier "As your doctor, I advise you to not watch the Broncos today. "
Dec 19, 2010 2:13:58 pm
so many memories on our tree. We have an ornament from Grandma Nicholls (who we lost just before our wedding in 1998), Ukranian ornaments and one for '97 from Grandma Rawluk (2006), cute ornaments from Eleanor like a cow with "Have a Moory Christmas (2010), and so many handmade ornaments from Grandma Buzzo (2005). I also put up her nativity set - she was so worried no one would put it up for her every year.
Dec 19, 2010 9:48:10 am
we're home - my poor hubby is sick. Jarl - fyi, he is blaming Christy ;>)
Dec 18, 2010 7:37:54 pm
Chleo says "quit stalling and finish putting up the tree!" To her, the most wonderful time of the year starts with a spot on a soft tree skirt under the tree and warm lights
Dec 17, 2010 7:41:54 pm
I got an email entitled "a holiday message from UCLA". The first thought that crossed my mind was "this is probably less about happy holidays to me and my loved ones and more about 'give us money'." sure enough. It starts out "In this season of giving, please consider demonstrating your support for our University." *grin*
Dec 16, 2010 10:50:21 pm
what a day! (right, Scott?) glad to be home, glad to almost be done with work for the week. Mike and Jarl are at the Nuggets game and I am...puttering? putting up the tree? posting pictures? I am not quite sure what my plans are for the evening. maybe a little of everything.
Dec 16, 2010 8:10:55 pm
Mike is very busy rearranging stuff in the basement to make it more liveable (piles were aded to the existing clutter there when we did the kitchen...almost a year ago). Chloe is politely trying to sleep with the stero he hooked up playing below the study (it sounds good! to me, anyhow). I am supposedly working on writing out cards...well, I've gotten a couple done tonight.
Dec 13, 2010 9:32:16 pm

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