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| Sunday, 9-Jan-2005 00:00 |
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Two right feet
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I can't even remember Sat., and it was just yesterday.
Okay, now I do. I had to drag the kids out of bed extra early -- and on a Sat.! -- because we had stuff going, starting at 8 a.m. Andrew had to have his Gifted and Talented testing done at Cory Elementary at 8 (as I stated in last post -- my inquiry of why in the world anyone would schedule testing for a 6 yr. old at 8 a.m.). Cory Elem. is one of the better schools in Denver, located in Cherry Creek -- the houses are beautiful and old and we'd have bought a house there without blinking an eye had we had enough $$$ to do so. Instead, we live in El Barrio, but that's okay. You ain't living unless it's on the edge.
Anyway, mapquesting the school said it was 15 min. from home! So, I left around 7:20 -- that's having had fed and dressed the kids. Correction: I left Kat and Anastasia at home, even tho Kat woke up about 3 min. before we were running for the car, and she threw a fit because she wanted to go, too, and not stay with Anastasia because "she's going to be mean!"
I got to the school about a quarter to 8 (early! again!) and waited until Andrew was led off into a room w/ a smallish group of pushing and shoving and chattering Kindergartners. I then raced to Denver Sports Center (19 min, away, but across town, according to faithful MapQuest) where Arianna had an indoor soccer game. It turned out that she had 2 games, only because the game ahead of her scheduled game, one of the teams didn't show, so Arianna's team was asked to fill in. So, that meant 2 games back-to-back. But no biggie -- the games are only about 40 min. or something, including the halftime break. I could only stay to watch part of one because I had to race back those 19 min. to pick Andrew up again at Cory by 9. Then I raced back to Denver Sports, then drove back home, only to have to leave home by 12:15 to return to Cory to have Anastasia and Arianna tested.
I have NO FOOD in my house, and I'm not joking. The only breakfast food I could scrape together for the kids at 7 a.m. when I fed them was oatmeal. So, lunch was posing a problem. I decided we'd eat at the Pho (Vietnamese beef noodle soup) Restaurant on Mississppi and Federal -- basically in the general direction and on the way to Cory Elem. So, I left the house around 11 for that. We got to Pho, ingested the soup (and lung fulls of cigarette smoke -- we were the only non-Asians in the place, but we're old regulars, so it felt like family), then got to Cory at around 12:45 -- early again!
While the girls tested, I did a return at nearby Circuit City (and then bought stuff worth more than I got back -- of course!) including a DVD of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (in lieu of the returned item) and a CD of Sarah McLachlan -- I've wanted that for over a year!
We got home, I did a little of this and that until I had to get ready -- and leave -- to interview another cadet candidate for West Point. I got up to Thornton (the house) around 6:45 and returned at 9:30. I had rented a DVD for the kids (Arianna got to choose the family outing/time activity for this week since she had lost the least amt. of points), The Cinderella Story with Hillary Duff. It was pretty cute, and even tho I was doing Pilates while watching it, I found myself stopping and watching. Not a great workout, but enough to make my back feel a little better.
Now. For today.
I had a snowshoe race up in Beaver Creek again. This is another race (the second, in fact) in the 4 race series up there. Again, bright and early I had to kick the kids out of their respective beds, shove food down them and herd them into the van. But this time it was for me (selfish me). We left around 8:15 (my goal was 8, but oh well) and got up there about 10:15. Traffic was much better than last month. But snow was gently falling the further west I drove, so I wasn't sure what to expect with the roads. They ended up being fine. When we left Denver, the temp felt pretty warm. The high in Denver was supposed to be around 50 or so, but up in the mountains it's always cooler by a good 20 degrees.
When I got there, we immed. hit the potties, then I had to get another bib (race number bib) because I had misplaced mine from last month, and we were supposed to bring it back to use for the entire series. Ooops. I also had to sign the kids up for the Kids 1 K race (free w/ paying adult). Arianna had her new snowshoes from Santa in hand, and Anastasia used the ones I had borrowed from Bruce (aka Erin's) but not returned. Alexandra showed no interest in racing, so she got to be designated babysitter. (BTW, Anastasia woke up in a ferocious mood. She couldn't find her stuff she was supposed to wear to snowshoe. Then she didn't want to do it. Then she did. Then she didn't. Then she found her running tights, but not her jacket. Etc. Etc. She was the reason we left late.)
The Kid K race started first. We got to the start just as the race began, so the girls started a little behind. It's only 1 kilometer, so they were back in about 7 min. huffing and puffing. They found it harder than they'd thought.
Beaver Creek this time had the Beaver Creek Children's Theater provide free entertainment for the kids while the parents raced, which worked out great for me! The man who corralled the kids balked a little at taking 5 from one racer -- I guess I got my money's worth, huh?
After spending the past month since the last race looking for the *right* clothing to snowshoe in, I think I found the perfect combo. Except. When I bent down to put on my new racing snowshoes (I bought used, but in pristine condition, from Wilderness Exchange -- across from REI), I noticed with horror and disgust that I had 2 right shoes. Not one right and one left like you are supposed to have. And, um, just a piece of info? Snowshoes, especially racing extra light snowshoes, ain't cheap. And another piece of info -- snowshoes come in right and left shoes for a reason, which I found out as I ran the course.
The start this time was flat and downhill, much to my relief. And it didn't seem too bad wearing 2 right shoes. My balance was a little off, but I was compensating okay, and I was moving toward the front of the pack. The course eventually squeezed into a trail with deep snow on both sides, woods on the right and an embankment on the left. So, we had to climb it single file, which I found annoying beyond belief. I usually climb past a lot of people uphill, and I was at the mercy at the line of people ahead of me without the ability to pass. I just sucked it up and told myself it would be a good rest.
But restfulness (or the feeling of it) fades fast in snowshoeing. When the path widened out, we were immediately faced with a long hill. I trotted past a number of the annoying people who had slowed me down, but that lasted about 1 min. Then I was back to humping it up the hill, feeling like my heart was going to explode.
At one point, we had a pretty long descent, one-man wide trail with DEEP snow on either side (but luckily, no dropoff on either side, just deep untouched snow). It was at this point that I realized the necessity of having a shoe designated for the left and right foot. I slipped and stumbled and slid my way down -- and fell about 8 times, most of the time landing on my butt or with my legs stuck in thigh high snow. It was also at this point where a number of people, who could stay both on their feet and on the trail, zipped by me. All the time and place I'd gained doing those climbs lost because I had 2 right feet (and a large amt. of incomptence on snowshoes in the first place!)
I finished 7th woman and 12th overall -- this time only 5 guys beat me. One of those guys, I was battling back and forth with the entire race (he was one who had passed me while I was floundering around in the snow, but I caught up with him about 1/2 mile from the finish, and he ended beating me by about 10 seconds.) The problem was, I was completely convinced he was a she. Reason being, he had hair almost brushing his shoulders and he had a slight build (plus one of those belts around his waist which holds teeny bottles of water -- what self-respecting male would wear one of those? -- plus he was dressed all in maroon). At the finish while both of us were bent at the waist, blasting lungfuls of air at the ground, I discovered his true gender and was relieved -- one less female finishing before me! Plus, he complimented me, telling me what a "great climber" I was (meaning, not running, but just hoofing it up the hills). All that Army training paying off again. It's the same kind of rhythm of rucking up a hill with 50 lbs. on your back. At least in my experience with both activities.
At the finish, I also met a women with Pippi Longstocking braids (but brown ones) who I'd kept in my sights the whole race, but was unable to catch. We started chatting, and I found out that her first snowshoe race was also last month's race! She had moved recently to Vail from Philly. So, we had lots to talk about, not just about Philly, but also what we each discovered searching for the proper attire to wear at these races over the past month. Lynda (her name) ended up hanging out w/ me and went w/ me to collect the kids, then hung out during the award ceremony. This race, she finished 5th (exactly 1 min. ahead of me), but last month's race, she'd finished 7th (the next woman behind me). Right before we left, we exchanged phone numbers and email addresses. We may do a -- gulp -- 9 miler together some weekend coming up, just to see what it feels like.
This time, the kids were able to eat the food afterwards (they gave me tokens for all of us at the registration table). Then we found a spot on the ground of "Beaver Creek Village" to participate in the award's ceremony/raffle giveaway. The first raffle, Arianna won! A pair of kid's Atlas snowshoes. You should have seen her fingers wiggling as she ran up to collect her win. They're worth about $50. She also won a Nike T-shirt.
We got home around 3:45. I was severely dehydrated, I think, because a headache started coming on which hasn't abated still. As soon as we crossed the threshold of our house, the kids tore their seperate ways -- Andrew to his GameBoy in his room, Kat to her stashed crayons and printer paper to "color pictures for Daddy" on the floor of the dining room, Alix to listening to music in her room and pretending she's the one performing it, and Anastasia and Arianna up to their loft doing who knows what. I got Arianna to come with me to Wilderness Exchange to take back my dysfunctional snowshoes, which they did. Sort of. The woman there took my receipt and the shoes and said she'd put a call into Atlas to see what they would do about it. She said that their rep gave them the shoes (used) to sell, and she's seen it happen in the past that they were given 2 same feet. She said that it may work to my advantage, because Atlas may just give me a new pair in their place. Whatever. I just want to have some snowshoes soon, and both Wilderness Exchange and REI had both seperately told me about 2 weeks ago that this time of year, it takes Atlas around 6 weeks to get snowshoes to their respective stores. I do not want to wait that long!
Well. We had a dinner of Good Times hamburgers, which I ran out to 32nd and Youngsfield to collect. The kids all quickly did their jobs, I straightened up and vacuumed and folded about 5 loads of laundry and administered to Arianna her spelling test which she neglected to do on Friday. It is now only 10:50 p.m., so my plan is to go to bed early and then get up early (around 6:30 maybe) to do the stuff that I would try to do tonight if I'd stay up late. Like: getting the kids' stuff ready for a week of school (plus grading homework), writing up my interview forms for the candidates I've interviewed, maybe getting some bills paid, throwing in some wash.
Plus, I'll have the added task of making hot cereal for breakfast because we have not one scrap of cold cereal remaining in the house!
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| Friday, 7-Jan-2005 00:00 |
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Jan. 7
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So, Andy called last night. We talked for about 30 min. I was in the tub soaking because MY BACK HURTS SO MUCH!! We talked about the school possibility for Arianna detailed above, but I was still no better enlightened about what to do. Andy seemed really distracted, tho, and wanted to get off the phone because he had gone running and hadn't yet taken a shower. Maybe it's sometimes better to have the phone cut off in the midst of a conversation because then there's no saying goodbye, and you just have to deal with it.
Also yesterday, Mary Wesson (Andy's secretary at Wheeler Trigg) came over with her son Cooper (I hope I spelled his name right!) around 5:30 (while I was still out in the dark running). She brought with her a b-day cake for Anastasia (chocolate w/ chocolate frosting and lots of pretty colored flowers on top). She picked it up from Safeway, and she shared w/ me that from her vast experience of having to order cakes (a common mission for secretaries!), out of all the grocery store type cakes (I'm not talking the floofy bakery types that you pay mega bucks for), Safeway makes the best. And after eating some, I'd have to agree. My kids absolutely HATE the cakes from King Sooper because, as they say, "The frosting tastes like meat." Very appetizing.
So, anyway, Mary brought Cooper over for the express purpose (but unstated to any but me) for Andrew to beat on. Mary has 2 boys, both now big boys and in college, so she understand the need for the male sex to beat on things. She kept prodding Andrew to arm wrestle or punch or kick Cooper, but all that was going on for the longest time was Andrew sitting beside Cooper on the couch watching Tom and Jerry cartoons (come to think about it, that cartoon alone should have incited an urge for violence! Good choice!) After dinner of pizza I had Pizza Alley deliver (great pizza, btw -- New York style) and cake and chocolate ice cream, Andrew was ready. Suddenly, he started body slamming and head butting Cooper for about a half hour. Mary left happy.
Today. Well, it's Friday, and I have done very little school with the kids this week, so I was determined to really hit it hard today. I dropped Alix off so early today that she asked to wait in the car for a few minutes because she didn't want to have to hang out in the gym (where all the kids have to hang when their parents drop them early). So, I had a little time at home before I had to take Kat to school. I ended up that Kat was a couple min. late. Then I don't know how the 3 hours passed in the morning. I really don't. All of a sudden, 3 hours were gone and I had done really nothing. Not even school w/ Andrew. And I wasn't laying around shoving bon bons down my throat, either.
In the afternoon, I did about 8 lessons of Math w/ Andrew and was going to get some phonics done when I got a call, but I can't remember who it was from at the moment. Oh, yes, Erin Mallet from Wheeler Trigg. She's a stud martial arts chick (she called to tell me that today she had been gone from the office most of the morning because she'd bought a buffalo. "Is it dead?" I asked. "Oh, yes! It's dead." She's going to butcher it this weekend w/ her dad, and make sausage, etc. I had called her earlier in the morning to ask her for a recommendation for a martial arts instructor for my kids. I'm thinking Anastasia, with her affinity for punching and kicking things, would really get into martial arts. Erin also encouraged me to come back to the kick boxing class at Core Martial Arts. And you know, going back to kickboxing is on my New Year's resolution list, so you know what I have to do now . . .
After picking Alix up from school (learned my lesson from yesterday and made it about 18 min. late to avoid all the SUV's and minivans), I stopped at the running store to exchange some tights I'd bought there a couple weeks ago and which had pulls in them. Then I got home and immed. went running w/ Rowdy -- about 6 1/2 miles in the refrozen snow that had melted. I took a shower and then Alma called, and we decided to meet at REI so she could give me the book that's the required reading for Denver Chicks Book Club that I'm going to attend this month (she said the book sucked). While we were there, we decided to go to the Mexican restaurant for dinner -- my 5 demons and Alma and me. So, we did! I got home at 9, told the kids they had exactly 30 min. to be in bed because tomorrow's going to be an early day (Andrew has Gifted and Talented testing at 8 a.m. (I don't understand the wisdom in that -- having a 6 year old function on a standardized test at 8 a.m.) at Cory Elementary. Then Arianna has an indoor soccer game at 9. Then Anastasia and Arianna have testing at 1. Then I have to interview a cadet candidate at 6 p.m., so my day is practically booked. I'm thinking we'll try to celebrate Anastasia's b-day for real on Sunday.
Okay -- it's10:30 p.m. I am on my way to bed RIGHT NOW!
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| Thursday, 6-Jan-2005 00:00 |
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Quick cuz i gotta sleep
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Okay, the quick down and dirty.
Ran around today dropping off apps to every school which is halfway decent in the near metro area so that I don't have to homeschool next year. There's this window in Colorado, basically the entire month of Jan., that you can choice or open enroll your kids in schools other than your neighborhodd assigned school. Seeing as we live in NW Denver and the public schools absolutely suck, I have to look elsewhere. Alix is going to a great school -- one of the best middle schools (public or private) in the state (rated w/ the coveted "5 star" rating), and Anastasia will prob be able to attend there next year for 7th -- at least so say the school secretaries (and secretaries have the biggest clue about what's going on -- right, Mary?)  But for the other kids, it's not that easy. I've spent more hours than I want to count (I'd like a buck for each hour, tho, and it would be add up to a huge chunk of change) researching schools and stats and locations and test scores and diversity percentages and thinking about the logistical side of how the heck I'm going to get ALL the kids to their respective places on time, etc. And today, I dropped off the apps. Most of the schools in Jefferson County (the suburbs closest to where we live in Denver) are a shot in the dark. The secretaries who received my apps would give me these really empathetic smiles and say, "Well, you just never know, but . . ." BTW, Alix's school is in Jefferson County. But it's the exception to the rule.
There is a school that I went to and talked to a number of the teachers where they actually could take Arianna tomorrow. It's an IB (International Baccaulaurate) based elementary curriculum/Core Knowledge. I talke to the 1st grade teacher, and she was really impressive. I also talked to the 4th grade teacher, and she wasn't as impressive, but I only talked to her for about 5 min. Arianna would have to be tested (no biggie) and she could start. The school is in an historic old school in Globeville, and I think some of the purusers of this blog (off topic -- you prob are all crossing your fingers that my kids DO get a teacher other than me in the near future, judging my ability to disseminate info based on my prowess in the spelling department!) would faint if you saw a) the neighborhood and b) the condition of the school. The school is actually, like I said, a cool old historic school building, but the inside needs some serious rehab. But the academics are good (the test scores are worse than bad because this IB program is small within the school, and the high scores there don't make a dent in the scores of the disadvantaged population within the school) and the teachers are very experienced, and the classrooms I observed, the students were very quiet and disciplined. But Globeville is sorta in the shadow of I-70 and in an industrial area of Denver (north Denver -- get on Broadway near the Qwest bldg. and keep going north) and the houses in the 'hood were prob all built in the depression -- small cinderblock shacks, more or less. But the upside -- it's only 6 min. (and less than 3 miles) from my house.
After finishing hitting other potential academic establishments, I picked Alix up from school. I was actually there at 3:01 (she gets out at 3). And I was immed. reminded why I don't show up when the clock strikes 3 -- everybody and their brother in their SUV's were also there. And Alix was nowhere to be found (she's learned a loooong time ago not to bother looking for me until at least 3:15). By the time the place had decongested and I had a chance of actually having my kid in my car and pulling out of the parking lot, it was about 3:12. So, tell me, what's the point of getting there when the doors open?
After that, I changed into my running stuff -- the temps rose to a little above 30 degrees, so the icy snow had turned to slushy snow. I was sooo tired all day that even 2 grande skinny mochas no whip couldn't put much pep in my step. So, the thought of running was not attractive in the least. But I am a disciplined person (ha), so I waited for my sweats to dry (nothing else was clean in my drawer) and then hit the pavement for 5 plus miles.
OH, ANDY JUST CALLED SO THIS BLOG WILL HAVE TO WAIT. MORE MANANA!
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| Wednesday, 5-Jan-2005 00:00 |
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Not Even Worth Reading!!
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A boring day. Took Alix to school (on time!). Took Kat to school (was 11 min. late, so I had to stop by the office to get a tardy slip before opening the door to her classroom and shoving her in). Prepared my expando file of school enrollment forms and tried to deliver them to all the schools I'm considering for my kids in the Denver metro area, which happens to be a ridiculous number. But as usual, even well made plans never work out as envisioned. I think I actually enrolled into 2 schools. So, I guess Mission Unaccomplished continues tomorrow.
Oh, yeah, and I got a Starbucks -- a skinny grande peppermint mocha. That's my new drink. Alix introduced me to it.
Lunch consisted of grilled cheese and the unripe pears I'd bought at Sam's yesterday. "This is gross, Mommy!" was the response I got to my culinary efforts today. Arianna, I found out from one of my many tattle tales, fed a portion of her sandwich to the dog, and Andrew fed some of his to the Kat. (Clever me.) I was so tired, I didn't even give a rip. I went running about 4 miles with Rowdy in about 8 degree snow and cold. This heightened my mood significantly -- it's so fun running in the snow! Picked up Alix exactly 30 min. late from school. Took a shower. Herded the clan into the van and arrived at Arianna's indoor soccer practice only 8 min. late (I'll blame that on the road conditions). Planned to eat at the Vietnamese Pho (beef noodle soup), which has become a staple in my meal preparation efforts of late, but it was closed! So, we ate at another restaurant in Denver's Asian section -- Saigon Bowl. The kids ordered fried rice (3 orders of it -- 2 chicken and 1 pork), and I ordered pork chow fun. It was good. Got home at 9. The kids were all tucked into their beds by 10. And I've been dinking around since, mopping the kitchen floor, then trying to organize my ever growing of clutter piles on the table -- school apps and shot records and birth certificates and unopened/unread Christmas cards and junk mail and unpaid bills. Somehow, I ended straying off-task and started googling. And blogging. And some back and forth emailing w/ Andy until he got too busy.
I was supposed to grade homework, but I didn't. I was supposed to write up the interview form of that West Point candidate I interviewed the other day, but I didn't. I was going to do Pilates because my back is absolutely killing me (a complaint for a less mundane day than this), but I didn't. I was going to wash about 3 loads of laundry (because 2 is about the number I need to do daily just to break even), but I just couldn't bring myself to climb down into the 115 yr. old dungeon I call a laundry room tonight. I was supposed to get to sleep before midnight.
But now it's 1:36 a.m.
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| Tuesday, 4-Jan-2005 00:00 |
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Anastasia's uneventful, but eventual, B-day
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Anastasia blowing out her candles.
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As per normal, even when Andy isn't in a combat zone, we as a family rarely celebrate b-days on the day of. Why? Because I guess I'm just a procrastinator of the nth degree. These b-days just sorta sneak up on me. I get the presents ahead of time, but the cake? And the special requested dinner? I don't know, maybe my expectations are just too high. Maybe I should just run to King Sooper and order a cake and be done w/ it. And go out for Burger King.
We actually went out to breakfast/lunch at Kyle's Kitchen, this hometown like breakfast place/cafe in Denver on Tennyson St. The last time we went there, Andy was with us, and it was only Kat and Andrew and Andy and me. I'd casually mentioned to these 2 middle-aged gentlemen sitting behind us that my husband was just a week or so from deploying to Iraq (I think this was back in late Sept/early Oct), and when we were about to wrap it up, the waitress told us "your check is taken care of." I thought that it was up at the front and whenever we were ready, the check was ready. But what she really meant was that the 2 men sitting behind us (who had finished eating and left at some point) took care of the bill because of Andy's "service." How cool is that?
Well, anyway, I invaded Kyle's Kitchen with my complete platoon. I hadn't furnished the kids with breakfast because I'm a loser mom and because I had planned on taking the kids out (my cabinets and fridge are seriously vacant these days) anyway. But I got an unexpected call from my good friend, Leah Cusker, aka Major Leah Cusker, JAG. She'd been Andy's boss at one point while we were at Ft. Lewis, but she decided to get out of the Army and be a mom, a stay-at-home mom. And we became friends.
Anyway, Leah called me from Germany, where she's living w/ her husband, Sean Cusker, who's on active duty, and her 3 kids. Sean will be soon leaving for a year's tour in Afghanisgtan. Maybe she'll chronicle her life in a blog, too!
ANYWAY, by the time we finished our talk, the kids were about ready to eat the kitchen counter, and I have some suspicions that Kat had actually taken a stab at it. Kat was home and not in school as she was supposed to be because she didn't climb into my bed until 8:30, and there was nary a stirring coming from any of the kids' beds in the house, and I realized that there was no way that I'd be able to get Kat dressed, fed, and out of the house and into her classroom by 9. Plus, I was still feeling kinda sick and tired, so I just completely blew off her first day of school in 2005. The luxury of having your kid in preschool (PRE being an operative prefix).
Back to Kyle's Kitchen. We were a source of entertainment to the "regulars" who were brunching, not only due to the size and composition of the party that entered the establishment, but because of the level of noise it ushered into the place. The kids could not figure out what they wanted, one of them alternately stating, "Fine. I'm not eating anything then!" But we finally ordered food. For some reason, I had no cell coverage in the restaurant, but maybe I moved funny, because at some point, my message beep went off. It had been Andy, wishing Anastasia a Happy Birthday. So, what was this? The third time (or fourth) that I've missed Andy's call when my phone was actually on me!
After that, we did various errands, and somehow returned home after 4 p.m. with nothing much to show for my time away. Isn't that always the case? I did go to Sam's Club for food, so now my cabinets are not AS bare as they were before. Yeah, like now I actually have a couple pieces of fruit and a loaf of bread in the house. And, oh yes, milk. Have I ever mentioned that we go through more than a gallon of milk a day? And that's only because I'm very stingy with milk -- one glass allotted at meal times. You're still thirsty? Well, the faucet has an unlimited supply of thirst quencher. Have at it!
The kids had their weekly swim class ("Life After Lessons," designed to get them in some kind of shape for swim team this summer) which ended at 8 p.m. I had no idea what to make them for dinner (poor prior planning on my part), so while they were at the pool, I scrounged together their dinner -- French toast and salad. Sound gross? Andrew let me know it, in case I hadn't figured out for myself. But hey, I even make my own syrup, so it wasn't THAT lame. And I make the French toast w/ whole grain bread. And the salad was sort of floofy -- baby spinach and mixed spring greens and romaine lettuce. Sure, each of these salad ingredients were dumped from a bag (which at one point in my life, I scoffed at: "I will NEVER use those precut salad bags. How lame can you get?" But then my heads of romaine lettuce were repeatedly rotting in my fridge because I just didn't feel like chopping it all up, and suddenly those bags were looking pretty convenient. Didn't help the rot factor in the fridge, tho. Sometimes even dumping precut stuff into a bowl seems pretty daunting. But that's a topic for another day.)
The kids went to bed around 10, Andy called at some point before he had to head into court, and I stayed up until 2 a.m. Heard a scary noise downstairs, then my dog barking ferociously, and I was in immediate reak mode. I was so jumpy, I decided to take my Sigsauer downstairs w/ me to investigate the noise, and let Rowdy out. She went charging into the side yard, barking as she ran. She startled me so much that I screamed! Great, warrior woman with my pistol locked and cocked in my hand. Superb calm under pressure demonstrated there.
A couple days ago, I'd found a couple vallium left over from a D and C (TMI, I know) I had last spring, so I took half a tablet before I climbed the stairs back to my room. I think that was the only way I was able to fall asleep after that. Once you get afraid, it's so hard to get that fear out of your system. And I had good reason to be a little freaked out. A year ago last August, I'd had a prowler standing on my deck peering into my house. I'd unknowingly crept over to the particular window he was watching me from. And peered outside. And saw him, a thin screen between us. The stuff of nightmares or horror flicks. So now when I hear a weird noise in the house, I take it pretty seriously. Then I was only armed with a big mouth and some healthy vocal chords.
Can hardly keep my eyes open.
Until later.
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| Monday, 3-Jan-2005 00:00 |
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A pain in the head
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I awoke today w/ a ferocious headache. That was sometime in the middle of the night. But I was too lazy to get up and take something to get rid of it, so when I awoke for real, the headache was raging even worse. I stumbled to the bathroom and downed 3 Motrins. Didn't make a dent. Andrew had his swimming lesson at 10:30, so I had Arianna run him in while I waited in the car. My plan was to run back home and take a shower because I had an appt. at 1:15 p.m. to interview one of my West Point candidates. I took the shower, my head still pounding, and picked up Andrew. Drove over to Wadsworth and 38th where I knew there was a car wash at a gas station and filled up (the needle was on empty) and got the car washed since it looked almost black and it's supposed to be white! I mean, I certainly didn't want to pull up to my candidate's place in a car that looked like I'd picked it out of the local junk yard.
I had to make an unplanned pit stop at Lewis's Candies to get a mocha as any movement of my head or bump in the road caused a rattling in my brain. While we were there, I got the kids some muffins or scone or Italian soda -- whatever they wanted -- as a treat (this became their lunch as it turned out). While we were there, Kat decided that she wanted her muffin heated in the microwave. I, in my brain pounding state, mumbled to Anastasia to monitor the muffin heating, but as usual, I was ignored. And soon the place was scented with smoke. So much for Kat's "lunch." Then I rushed home, gathered the stuff I needed to take with me to the interview, and headed out again, leaving the kids in front of Beauty and the Beast (one of Kat's Christmas presents that she hasn't viewed yet). I choked down 2 more Motrin because I still couldn't shake that headache.
I actually was about 10 min. early, so I stopped at a 7 Eleven a few blocks away to resupply myself with thosse OD green "Support the Troops" wrist bands (similar to the LIVE WELL yellow bands everybody wears).
My candidate lived in a trailer within a trailer park. Both his parents were there to meet me, too. They had a box of Safeway donuts on the table, I assume as refreshment for me, and the home smelled faintly of cigarette smoke. This kid is half-Hispanic and has better than average test scores for a West Point candidate. But he has very few extracurriculars (just National Honor Society and he particates in a tutoring program in his high school) because when he was in 8th grade, his little brother was diagnosed with an auto-immune kidney disease, so he decided to quit football and start working as a janitor for the middle school down the road (from 3:30 until 7 p.m. every school night) to help his parents with the medical bills/family finances. He hands over about 40% of his monthly salary to his parents to help out. The rest of his money, he's saved to get a car so he'd be able to transport himself to work and help pick up his siblings from school and also he saved to buy a computer to use for school.
If this kid doesn't get in, I don't know what West Point is looking for.
After I got home, I still had that blasted headache, but I wanted to exercise in some form, so I had Arianna run with me about 2.3 miles, and then I ran with Alix about 2.5. The pace was slow, so I was really taking it easy, but I think the crisp air did me some good, because when I was through, my headache was almost gone.
Erin dropped by after dinner (leftover Spaghetti from yesterday) to distribute to the kids their Christmas presents. She's leaving tomorrow morning early for NYC for a couple days and then to West Point to visit Jamie, Allison, and Jonah for the remainder of the week. She got the kids a lot of neat things from Japan, like chopsticks and hard candy and for Kat, some Hello Kitty things. For me and Andy, she brought back Starbucks mugs from Japan -- one from Kyoto and one from Nagano, plus a set of prettily painted chopsticks for both Andy and me.
After Erin left and I had gotten the kids settled down and in their beds, I did my Pilates routine.
It is approaching 1 a.m. AGAIN, so I am going to end this. But I am happy to report that I've kept a couple of my resolutions on Day 3 of 2005: I was not only on time to my appt., but I also did Pilates session #1 for the week.
"Starting small" is a great way to start!
P.S. Never got around to starting school today. But I will tomorrow. Kat goes back to school tomorrow morning -- yay!
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| Sunday, 2-Jan-2005 00:00 |
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A relatively calm day and some resolve
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I don't even know why I'm writing today because it was a boring day. What's so exciting about finishing cleaning house? And making spaghetti for dinner? And making/eating brownies for (a rarity) dessert (okay, I admit, that IS pretty exciting)? And taking a 2 hour nap?
We also washed Rowdy; well, Anastasia and Arianna did. They were completely soaked afterwards. And we had to toss her bed in the washing machine because she had peed it during the night. I'm really thinking that my dog is going through something similar to what Kat had gone through on New Year's Eve -- feeling neglected. This is her way of acting out. Well, it better end.
I also took the kids to church, and so far, I guess my New Year's resolution of getting places on time didn't get destroyed right off the bat. I actually paraded in with my entourage just when the service was starting, so I guess that counts as a success. Gotta start small.
We had a guest preacher for a second Sunday in a row -- a church planter to Loveland. I often dread having guest speakers at church because you just never know what you're going to get. But the last 2 weeks, I've been pleasantly surprised. I actually ended up scrambling for a pencil today (first rummaging through my purse to no avail and then wildly gesturing to Arianna to snatch the pencil from the visitor clipboard.) You know, writing things down does help fact retention. Is that the right word? 24/7 with a house full of kids and little time for reading really results in some horrific spelling and vocabulary!
So, tomorrow is the first Monday of the year. Kat doesn't start school until Tues., and Alix starts on Wed. I guess the middle three could start tomorrow IF their teacher gets her act together. I'm not holding my breath on THAT. I think I'll use tomorrow as a teacher institute/ease into the new year kinda day.
I did not pay the bills.
Okay. Here are some New Year's resolutions. At least the ones I'm willing to make pseudo public.
1) Create a positive atmosphere. I am so tired of the snarling, hissing, biting, screeching, sniffing, and scratching and general lack of cooperation going on in the house. With 5 kids at it, it gets very brain rattling. So, after dinner and while we were enjoying the brownies, we discussed the new system. When I was doing research for my current book way back in Tacoma, I spent a lot of time at a juvenile detention center observing. They used a point/reward system, and that seemed to work w/ those delinquents. So, there's hope for my horde. The idea is to get points for attitude and competence in doing their mundane chores (that word is so archaic, isn't it?) and for relational behavior. The kid who has the most points at the end of the week gets to pick the family activity for the week (that'll happen either Fri, Sat., or Sun., depending on our schedule that week). There's also an opportunity for them to get extra credit if they blow it along the way. So, keep posted on how this works out.
1 a) This is a subset of the above. Keep the once a week family night sacred and allow nothing to squeeze it out.
2) Be places on time. I guess my plan for this one is to become less optimistic about myself. That means, when I'm back planning on how much time it will take to get me from point A to point B, I will not use my record driving time to guesstimate getting there ("Well, once I got there in 16 min.!"), but rather pad that estimated time significantly. Truthfully, I'm not too hopeful of my success on this one, but if you don't try, you'll never succeed.
3) Call my sister more often!
4) Get back on track doing Pilates 3 times a week.
5) Intergrate swimming once a week into my work out scheule.
6) Get my bike up and running. That's an important start toward riding it once a week. If I visit Bonnie this summer, I'd like to do the Danskin Triathalon w/ her. So, if that's a goal, I've gotta practice biking. Don't I?
7) Clean up my desk! Um, I'm not too hopeful on this one either as I think there's stuff on my desk that I put there the day we moved in 3 and a half years ago.
8 ) Get ALL my kids in school!
9) START WORKING ON MY BOOK AGAIN!!! I have a new editor now, so I better get cranking.
10) Start kickboxing. And try to get Alma, Leanne, and/or Viv to come do it with me. Doing activities with friends helps with you stick with it.
11) Learn to say NO!
12) Set boundaries and mend fences.
13) Start up guitar lessons with Anastasia, Alix, and me again (we stopped at the end of Sept. when Andy was about to leave, and I just never got around to starting again). Alix and I are learning the acoustic guitar, and Anastasia has an electric bass (my brother bought it for her). I found this great teacher less than 10 min. away who will teach the 3 of us for the same price as if there were only one of us! Playing the guitar has always been something I've wanted to do since I listened to my dad play and sing when I was tiny.
14) Seeing as I just bought myself a pair of racing snowshoes, to actually race again!
And I'm so very sorry, but the rest are NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS! 
And tell me: why does it feel normal for it to be 1 a.m. before I'm even thinking about going to bed?
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| Saturday, 1-Jan-2005 00:00 |
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Mishaps and Mischief
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The 6 girl cousins rock climbing at REI.
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Another view of the girls on the rock.
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The 7 cousins in Denver.
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Happy New Year!
How we spent New Year's Eve. Well, my sister was still here, and we had planned a couple of things to do. We had been invited to go to Jim and Sheila Hooper's (Jim is a partner at Wheeler Trigg where Andy works in "real" life -- see pic of entry from the firm's Christmas Party. Jim is the guy on MY right, YOUR left). A prerequisite for that was for me to make some kind of apertif to bring along. We wanted to take the kids to the Denver Pupper Theater (recall: my kids and Andy's sister Robin's girl Olivia had gone) to see The Shoemaker and the Elves. Bonnie and I wanted to go running. My goal was to do about 8-9 since I hadn't run much all week, but as time dwindled (Andy had called!) and the day approached noon, I knew that wasn't going to happen.
Around 11:40, Bonnie and I beat feet towards a 6 mile goal. The altitude (plus I think dog/Rowdy allergy which turns into asthma) really was killing Bonnie, so at the place where she could do 4 and I'd be able to go on and do 6, we parted. I felt like doo doo. I had a hard time breathing for some reason. It prob hadn't helped that I hadn't slept much in the past several days (tho the night before, I think I got around 7 hours, but that's not enough to make up for the 4-ish I'd had the night before!). We took Rowdy, and she was thrilled to be out of the backyard. When I don't run much, she doesn't either. Both of us have this symbiotic (spelled?) running addiction going on, so it works out well (or badly) for both of us.
I got back just in time to herd the kids into the minivan and barrel down 38th Ave. about a mile to the theater. We got there too late to pay, so the lady (her name's Annie) said we could pay after the show. The kids enjoyed it; Anastasia kept stooping over to me to whisper that this or that was different than the last time. At one point, the mouse (who seems to be the narrarator for the shows) had to be taken off and didn't return (after he'd "jumped" up and down on a chair). We found out later that his strings got tangled, and Annie (the one-woman show -- playwright/puppeteer/key grip/director/stage crafter, etc. etc.) wasn't able to untangle them, so she had to adapt on the fly to get through the show without Mr. Mouse.
Afterwards, Alix, enthralled with the idea of puppeteering and acting and directing, etc., wanted to talk to Annie to see if she could somehow help her and thereby "apprentice." But she was too scared to talk to her. So, the time arrived for bribery. But not directed at Alix. I told Arianna I'd buy her a puppet if she went up to Annie and tell her that her older sister was too afraid to talk to her. Now, Arianna will do just about anything for $, and lacking that, for just about anything material -- food, toys, books, you name it. Ari's eyes lit up and her dimples deepened and off she charged toward Annie. But Alix cut her off at the pass and bit the bullet and started talking. It ended up that Annie was happy to have free labor, and they made arrangements to touch base next week to discuss when to meet and start. Annie makes all her own puppets (I was totally amazed to hear this) and props and backdrops, devises the story boards -- absolutely everything. And she starts working on the next production about 4 months out. The show she's going to start working on in 2 weeks is African animal tales.
Next we went home (we had planned to take a walk around Berkley Lake since it was amazing weather outside), but opted to feed the kids lunch instead. We fed them a rotisserie (spelled -- why doesn't this blog have spell check?!) chicken we had left over from dinner the night before (we'd bought it at Sam's Club) and mac and cheese. (Note: this chicken will have another appearance later in this missive.) Meanwhile, I had to make my appetizers. My original (and totally unrealistic) plan was to make Texas Cavier (black-eyed peas that are eaten as a dip or even a side-dish), hummus, and a black bean dip. Well, even tho I had soaked black beans, chick peas, and black-eyed peas, I only ended up having time to make the Texas Cavier, which was my first priority because it's one of my New Year's Day/Eve staples as black-eyed peas are supposed to represent or usher in good luck for the new year.
Another task that sort of cropped up sorta kinda unplanned was returning snow shoes to Pattie N. (a paralegal at Wheeler Trigg and fun person! She is an expert in race cars, even raced them if I remember correctly, but def knows her way around an engine . . . but that's a topic for another post!) that I'd borrowed for the Winter Park trip. She and her husband wanted to go snowshoeing on New Year's Day, and, well, in order to do that effectively, she needed her snowshoes back! I was going to run them over to the Qwest Bldg. (Wheeler Trigg's office) on DEC 30th, but somehow that didn't happen, so it needed to happen on the 31st! We were to be at the Hoopers around 6, but I wasn't able to leave the house until about a quarter to 6 (it takes about 30 min. to get down to Englewood where the Hoopers live, and I had to make a quick stop first at Pattie's, which is near Columbine High School -- south from where I'm at, but way west from the Hooper's), so it was obvious we were going to be late.
Why was I leaving so late? Well, besides the fact that I should've been born 15 min. earlier (Andy's "little joke") so I'd maybe be on time anywhere I go) it seems that Lindsey wasn't giving Kat as much attention as she had been previously. Or something. Because everytime I turned around, Kat was into something. Recall the mutilated stuffed animals while Bonnie and I were pedicuring a couple of days ago. Well, during this afternoon, while I was making black-eyed peas and showering and checking email and whatever else I was doing, Kat got into the dried cereal, tracking it all over the downstairs. She snuck dried spaghetti noodles out of the lazy Susan cabinet in the kitchen (don't ask me why that kid loves to crunch dried noodles, but that seems to be a favorite snack of hers). She pulled out my box of Kosher salt (who knows why I have that?!) and proceded to track that all over the kitchen and dining room. Somehow she mixed that salt and some water and smeared it all over the kitchen table, because when I finally discovered the table portion of this particular mischief, the table was encrusted with salt. I found out about the salt all over the floor rather quickly -- not too difficult when you run around the house barefoot -- yick! At some point, she got the scissors and some paper and created confetti with which to decorated the stairs. Finally, I found her sitting on the floor of the kitchen with her arm up to her elbow in my Peter Pan peanut butter cannister. Such is the past-time of a 4 yr. old.
We had a fun time at the Hoopers, tho Bonnie was pretty miserable surviving her allergic reaction to their dogs. So, maybe it was a good thing we were -- gulp -- 50 min. late. Luckily, Sheila is an RN and had a large supply of drugs; Bonnie sucked up lots of albuterol and needed 2 Tylonel PM's to counteract the jitters when we got home and slept.
But back to the party. The Hoopers had their neighbor over (her husband is a civilian contractor who's been in Iraq for the past 9 months and their daughter). Via the daughter via her friend via cell phone we learned that there was a jumper on a bridge over I-25, backing up traffic for miles. He didn't end up jumping. We had lasagna and salad and homemade bread and -- best of all -- cream puffs (homemade!) for dessert (plus chocolate chip cookies for the kids, which I surreptiously swiped and shoved down when no one was looking). The Hoopers have a 13 yr. old son (Alix's age -- ahem), James, and a 12 yr. old daughter, Erin. Erin is a pretty serious gymnast, so Lindsey was enthralled (Lindsey is 7 and about to start in an intense gymnastic program when she gets back to Texas). Little Lindsey is very serious and competitive when it comes to gymnastics, so she spent most of the night *trying* to one-up Erin on the tumbling mats they have laid out downstairs. James was a real trooper and hung out with the gaggle of girls he was surrounded with, playing 2 vs. 2 basketball or video games or monopoly or pool with Alix, Anastasia, Arianna (well, some of the time Arianna was attempting to do gymnastics with Erin and Lindsey. But reminder: Arianna is a soccer player and she, only 9, towers over Erin, being 12. Not a dainty child but she so wants to learn how to do a cartwheel, even tho she needs some serious work on her sommersaults before attempting the cartwheel), and Emily. Andrew was relegated to the upstairs TV playing Nintendo, and Kat flitted about pestering everyone.
We watched the ball drop in NYC, toasted and downed some Champagne, and then loaded up the car and headed back home. Bonnie was puffy and red and wheezy and sneezy and ready for bed.
I awoke New Year's Day morning to Kat telling me that Rowdy was eating "chicken bones from the trash bag" in the mudroom. Kat, I think, crawled under the covers of my bed around 8:30 a.m., chatting and singing and pinching me, which is her custom in the mornings. And it's a bit hazy, but I think I finally sent her downstairs to let Rowdy out (which is my custom to get her out of my bed and leave me in peace for a few last minutes before facing the day). So. The first thing that greets me on the first day of 2005 is chicken grease and bones and skin smeared all over the kitchen floor and trailing into the mudroom near the French doors to outside with Rowdy crouched over the carcass. I shoo her outside, she scratched at the door wanting her bone, and Kat says, "I was cleaning it up, Mommy! See?" which means she took my kitchen scrubber and spread the slime even further. Clean up time for me, but I was able to mumble, "Thanks, hon. Now, let's let mommy finish, okay?"
My sister was hoping to leave for Texas around noon, and actually was pulling away from the curb at 12:30. I felt sad to watch her go -- we had had a great time, and now I was alone again. But the upside, the house seemed quieter. And I had lots of cleaning to do!
At 1:15 I get a call. Bonnie got a flat tire around I-25 and Arapahoe. Someone pointed it out to her as she was driving, and after she'd gotten off at the nearest exit, she was able to flag someone down, who helped her to change the tire. She took the tire to the nearest service station to seek some expertise about whether it could be repaired or not, and the answer was "not." It was slashed on the side -- not patchable. Not good. It's New Year's Day and what tire tire shop is open on New Year's Day? It's also Saturday, and how many tire shops do you know of that're open on Sundays? School starts on Monday for her kids, and she has to make it back to Austin by then.
So, she calls me and I pull out the yellow pages and start dialing. While I'm listening to phone ring after phone ring with no answers, Bruce calls. He'd like to drop by for a couple min. But he also tells me that he, too, was looking for a tire place to replace some of his tires. And he found one that was actually open -- Firestone on Broadway. Helpful. Bruce seems to always be helpful just when you need him! At least, that's been my experience thus far! So, I call them. It's 1:55 at this point and they close at 2. But they have another Firestone near Arapahoe and I-25, and that's open until 5! So, I call them, make sure they have her tire in stock (Bonnie had given me the tire details ahead of time), get a price and call Bonnie back. An hour later, she's heading south again, her old tire strapped to the roof of her car (her van was packed to the gills, and her tire was only 6 months old, and my sister is going to cash in on that tire warranty if it's the last thing she ever does). Her kids are relieved because, as they told her when she explained to them why they may be going back to Aunt Amy's house, "But we don't like the food there!" They are picky eaters, but I think the most worrisome issue for them was the number of feedings at my house (or lack thereof). I think they averaged 2.5 meals a day at the Efaw Ranch.
Bruce came over around 2:30. Luckily, I had had the opportunity to jump into the shower beforehand (between calling tire places, I was cleaning bathrooms and vacuuming and mopping). So, Bruce is there, Andrew is mauling him (the poor little guy needs someone to beat on him, and Bruce isn't the beat 'em up kinda guy) and Kat is talking a mile a minute. They are all wound up. Finally, Bruce asks for an Americano, which I'm happy to make on my espresso machine which is only partially functional (it only brews espresso -- the frother is kaput). While I'm doing that, Bruce comes into the kitchen and sits on one of the barstools and we're chatting amicably when Anastasia remembers she hasn't fed Rowdy lunch yet. So, she goes out to the mudroom, gets a scoop of food, opens the French doors, and in charges Rowdy. She runs into the kitchen . . . with her tail between her legs and . . . a rag hanging out of her butt! The stench that wafted after her is indescribable. I start yelling, and she runs into the dining room w/ her tail/rag between her legs. I chase after her, yelling, "OUT, Rowdy! OUT!" and she cowers under the kitchen table with her tail/rag between her legs and threatens to run into the living room. Finally, we grab her and force her outside, rag and all. Bruce is practically gagging in the kitchen from the reeking stench while I'm spraying deodorizer into the air and yelling at the kids to find me some candles -- fast fast fast, HURRY UP! Bruce then goes out to check on Rowdy. He comes back inside within a few minutes and says, "Uh, you know what's really gross about this whole thing? I can't find the rag anywhere, so I, um, think Rowdy ate it."
Next time you let a dog lick your face, remember this story.
After Bruce left, I spent part of the day calling my potential West Point cadets about file completion, made split pea soup from the ham bone from Christmas dinner (I had that ham bone afterwards, which I gave to Rowdy, even tho she's the last creature today who deserved any kind of treat), cleaned house, and had a chat with the kids about New Year's resolution and how it's my resolution to have less bickering and yelling in the house, and therefore, it is their resolution, too. Then Andy called, and I talked to him for 1 1/2 hours! And no disconnects.
Now I've recorded the first day of the New Year. I go to bed at 3 a.m. praying it didn't set the tone for 2005.
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| Wednesday, 29-Dec-2004 00:00 |
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Free drinks for all . . . and some stinky feet!
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Arianna and Anastasia with cousin Emily skating at Winter Park.
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Andrew's 1st time on skiis at ski school -- Winter Park.
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Another of Andrew skiing for the first time!
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The theme for the day -- free drinks.
Or actually, for the past few days.
Monday. As I wrote in last post, leaving Colorado Mills, Bonnie, me, Andrew, Kat, Lindsey, Arianna, and my mom all got free Orange Juliuses from the benevolent cashier because she was closing shop and "I have to toss this stuff anyway." So, I won't bore you with the details of that one.
Tues. My mom flew back to Chicago. Our outing for the day was driving down to REI (5 min. from my house) and parking so that we could walk into LoDo from there. Bonnie and me and the 7 kids, that is. We walked down Cherry Creek then up to Confluence Park and over the "sinking ship" bridge to where Tattered Cover Books is and caught the free mall bus all the way to the end of 16th Street Mall, and then back to stop at Chipotle at Market and 16th. (Did I mention that on the trip "out" we first stopped at Starbucks, also on Market and 16th, so that the kids could use their Starbucks cards Santa so generously left them? It's very interesting to observe the relative thrift/cheapness/extravagance of each kid as they ordered their drinks. But that's a discussion for some other entry. Oh, but I guess there is a connection to this theme and that Starbucks stop, though insignificant it may be. Arianna was holding her kid's hot chocolate sans whip cream, and Anastasia elbowed her out of the way, and splat went the hot chocolate and lmuch blaming and knashing of teeth insued. Starbucks replaced the drink for free, and all ill will disappeared).
Anyway, back to the stop at Chipotle. Didn't have an opportunity to make dinner, so we decided Chipotle would handle the prep, clean up and other general labor of providing the evening meal for Bonnie and me and the horde. I'm standing there ordering for everyone, and the guy behind the register asks what we want to drink. I'm opening my mouth, saying, "Just 9 waters, please," when he says, "Cuz they're on me. What do you want to drink?" So, free drinks for 9. I think we depleted Chipotle's supply of rootbeer.
Today. Andrew had a swimming lesson at the pool, and the planned activity for the day was: (background info) after Andrew's lesson is lap swim with the leisure pool (the one with all the cool kid stuff and curly water slide) open. The plan was that Bonnie would put me through a pool workout while the kids played in the leisure pool. Not too shabby an opportunity for multi-tasking, huh? But both Bonnie and I needed some pep in our steps prior to any such workout, so we decided while Andrew was at his lesson, we'd make a quick run to Starbucks to use the card that Santa left for me in MY stocking (my sister's contribution to Santa's sleigh), then after, we'd zip home and grab the towels that were still tumbling in the dryer (don't you hate it when you've forgotten to put something in the dryer that you actually need that day?) So, back to REI. So, I get adventuresome and deviate from my normal mocha and order a grande skinny peppermint mocha, no whip. And Bonnie orders a grande skinny white mocha, no whip (something new for her, too), and I get greedy, thinking of all the calories I'm going to burn in the pool, and last second order one of those dark chocolate covered peppermint cookies for myself and one for Bonnie. I pay, get my card back and my receipt. We stand in line for our drinks. They call out our drinks and we head out the door, already thinking of our next task -- herding the kids across the parking lot and back into the minivan. I glance down at my receipt, which indicates how much I have left remaining on my card, and notice it's more than it should be. I look closely at my receipt and discover that I wasn't charged for Bonnie's grande skinny white mocha, no whip. I look at Bonnie, and she looks at me, and we just shrug and keep heading for the van.
Later on today. Bonnie and I planned an activity just for us. We decide to completely indulge ourselves and get a first for both of us -- a pedicure! We do this because: 1) I owed Bonnie still from watching my kids for 2 weeks while I was in New York last summer, book signing at West Point and visiting my good friend and editor Alix in Manhattan (and I haven't gotten Bonnie anything to thank her for that yet), and 2) both our feet are so gnarly that we'd both individually never get up the nerve to step into a salon for that purpose. And 3) the local Denver mag 5280 had this article recently spotlighting out Denver spas especially for certain "spa personalities," not that neither Bonnie nor I have any such identity (I've NEVER even had a massage in my entire life! Not even a "free" one they offer at 5K races!). So, down to Cherry Creek we venture and do it! Ten minutes later, we're sitting in chairs side-by-side, our feet soaking in jetted little tubs and sipping the spa's complimentary glasses of (kinda weak) white wine! More free drinks.
The pedi's lasted about 2 hours (yikes -- all 7 kids were left in front of Lord of the Rings 2 (Two Towers) with bowls of tomato soup and "no trans fat" crackers for lunch. And double yikes -- the parking meter was threateningly close to expiring), but our feet look pretty good considering we both have spent way too much time abusing our feet in running shoes. And the attendants didn't even run away in horror! Or worse, laugh in our faces.
So, now I can't even bring myself to admit how late it is (frighteningly close to 3 a.m., but I'm wide awake), so I better stop for today. Arianna is in bed beside me as I scribe this, and she's talking nonsense in her sleep, so it's looking like is may be a long, short night -- if you can make any sense of that statement.
Nighty night (now where is that blasted bottle of Tylonel PM when I REALLY need it????)!
Oh, and check out 2 new pics from the Winter Park trip.
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| Tuesday, 28-Dec-2004 00:00 |
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A couple of biker babes
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So, it's been awhile . . . again. My mom left today around noon.
But first, a recap of the past few days . . .
Christmas Day. After sleeping aobut 4 hours, my kids (and Bonnie's) woke themselves and me up around 7:30 a.m. I felt like I'd been either beaten with a stick the entire night and/or run over by a deuce and a half the moment I woke up. I gathered the video camera and my camera and watched the kids rip through their stockings. Under the tree, the presents mounded. It took about 2 hours for the kids to open them all. We were very disciplined about the present opening festivities -- the kids opened them from littlest to biggest (the order: Kat, Andrew, Lindsey, Arianna, Emily, Anastasia, and Alexandra) one by one. They ate stocking candy for breakfast, and they didn't complain about being hungry, which was a good thing because I had to have dinner ready around 2:30 because Tony had to leave for the airport around 4 or so to make his flight.
My menu: spiral-sliced ham, mashed potatoes (with 2 types of gravy -- cream gravy and red-eye gravy), green beans (with garlic, onion and bacon), baked macaroni and cheese, sweet potato rolls,
and salad (has mandarin oranges and sugared sliced almonds in it -- can't remember the exact name off-hand), and carrot cake w/ cream cheese frosting for dessert. WAS going to have chocolate pecan pie, except Rowdy had devoured the pie crust the night before (see posting from Dec. 24th).
Bruce came around 12:30 (luckily he called around 11 to tell me that's when he was going to come because I prob wouldn't have taken a shower by 12:30 had he just showed up, and that would've been pretty mortifying!). He said that he was just going to stop by, because he had another place he was supposed to go, but he ended up eating w/ us -- not a full-fledged dinner, but a taste of everything. He got the kids presents, which was TOTALLY unnecessary. One of the things he got was a soccer ball w/ all the Colorado Rapids players signatures on it! And he brought me a pound of Starbucks coffee and a mug; I was totally relieved because I didn't have even a residue of coffee left in my grinder! So if not for that, we'd have had no coffee w/ dessert!
I basically cooked all day and got the dinner out only 30 min. later than planned. Not too bad, considering that Andy called at some point while I was in the midst of cooking, so that threw me off schedule. It was great to hear from him, seeing that I'd missed the last 2 times he tried to call me  . He seemed to be in a pretty good mood and not too depressed considering where he was spending Christmas Day.
Monday, Dec. 27th: Yesterday. Somehow, I remembered that I own a tandem bike. Andy and I got it way back when we lived at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. We only had 2 kids (Alexandra and Anastasia) then, and we also had a bike trailer. We used to go out riding the flat, desolate land of OK on our tandem bike and pulling that trailer. You shoulda seen the looks we used to get! So anyway, I pulled out that bike (Andy and I recently rode it this past fall and went out to breakfast at Dozens (a pretty good breakfast place here in Denver)) so that Bonnie and I could try it out. With Andy, I'm stuck in the back as stoker. But Bonnie didn't feel comfortable leading and steering in a place she doesn't know at all, so I was in front. Now a little background: Bonnie does triathalons these days. She's pretty darn good at them, too, even tho she's only been at this for less than a year (I think that's right -- time goes fast these days!). And I had raced competitively pre-kid days, so I was looking forward to this little activity -- both of us being reasonably experienced cyclists and all.
Well. Let me tell you. First, the frame of this tandem is pretty large. The frame is slanted slightly so that the front end is higher than the back end. Which works out fine normally because when Andy and I ride/rode, he'd always be in front. The lowest Bonnie and I could put the front seat was about 1 cm too high for me, which resulted in a pretty uncomfortable ride, tho doable. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
I talked Bonnie through what to expect, that we had to work together and communicate about everything, from when we get our feet into the pedals to when we sit to when we glide and stop. That we pushed off w/ the right foot up and stopped with the left foot out of its pedal with the pedal in the down position. Etc. So. We straddle the bike. We put our right feet into their pedals. And we push off, counting "One, two, three! Now . . . sit!" And the the tug-of-war ensues, Bonnie's trying to steer back there, and I'm trying to steer up front, and the bike is wobbling and we're screaming for dear life. That's about how it went the first 5 seconds on that bike. We screeched to a halt and somehow didn't slam ourselves to the ground. I think we almost peed our pants, we laughed so much.
Second try: pretty much ditto the first, except Bonnie's right foot somehow ended up perpendicular to the frame on the pedal, and we ended up stopped with another near miss at breaking our necks.
Take three, and her shoe lace gets stuck in the derailer, causing the chain to come off. And I'm saying, "You get your laces caught in the chain? And you call yourself a triathlete?!" I have no idea how that chain got off because it took quite a while to get it back on. Right before the fourth go at it, I noticed that the front and rear pedals were about 150 degrees off. Not good. The pedals must be perfectly in sinc -- if they aren't, it's disasterous.
FYI: a tandem bike has 2 sets of chains -- one chain connects the 2 sets of pedals together, and that is the chain that fell off. So, we had to pry the chain off again and make sure to position the pedals before attempting to put the chain back on so that we could actually ride the bike! We struggled and sweat, and I finally said, "Uh, Bonnie. Some people put their bikes upside down to work on them." For some reason, this comment caused us to erupt into giggles. I guess the idea that we could categorize ourselves as people who work on their bikes was so utterly ridiculous. It took us about 15 min. to get that stupid chain off, so I have absolutely no idea how Bonnie managed to get it off in the first place. And so easily.
Long story short -- we had a blast. But it wasn't a long ride -- we dragged ourselves home in the dark only 45 min. after we finally had gotten our acts together enough to ride, and the trip only ended up being about 10 miles.
After our ride, we quickly changed and took my mom, Kat, Andrew, Arianna, and Lindsey out shopping at Colorado Mills to do some returns. The Mills closes at 9:30 and about that time, we were finding our way out of the mall to our cars when we passed Orange Julius, closing down. Bonnie looked longingly at the menu as we passed, causing the cashier to to pity (I guess) and offer us all free drinks because "I have to throw the leftovers away anyway." So, highlight of the day: All 7 of us got a free drink. The raspberry one was the best, btw, in case you were wondering.
Today. Bonnie and I had so much fun yesterday riding the tandem that we decided to do it again this morning. We had wanted to get up no later than 8 a.m., get ready and be out the door by 9, but because we had stayed up talking till 2 a.m., neither of us could haul our sorry carcasses out of bed before 9. Then we had to make the kids scrambled eggs and toast and ourselves mochas with my espresso machine. So, by the time we were on the road, it was after 11! My mom had to leave for the airport around 12:30, so that didn't allow Bonnie and me a lot of time to ride.
Again ... we had a blast! Then Bonnie took my mom to the airport and I tried to get the house under control -- it was pretty much a trash pit.
Oh, my battery's about to die, and it's 1:20 a.m. so I must stop. More tomorrow!
Chao!
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