Change change change

Well for those of you who haven't heard, we bought a house! The house actually belongs to us right now which is cool. . .but we won't be moving into it till the first of December. It is a small ranch style house with 3 bedrooms/1 bath and a little back yard. Can you believe it after all this time that we have lived in apartments in Yonkers, NYC, Denver. . . now we are actually going to have something to call our own. We can do whatever we want with it. . knock down a wall even. . .Not that we would but just the principle of it that we actually can!! We can have company over and not have to stick them on the futon in the living room:) I can't wait!!

So that is the big news for us. And the process of it took up lots of our spare time. Now we are just getting ready to move. We went to Oregon for a quick weekend to visit Al's grandparents, went camping at the Rocky Mountain National Park which was awesome! We decided on a Friday night just to leave so we drove up there and slept in the back of our truck in the visitors centers parking lot. Then the next day we checked into the National Park campground. It was mating season for the Elk so all night and day we heard them making their mating calls-check out this picture with all the Elk. Then last weekend we went to Six Flags which is right downtown. It was fun, I forgot how much I LOVED rollar coasters, it wasn't quite Cedar Point but it was cool enough. Fun fun. . . and that is about it. Just keeping busy and waiting until we can move into our house.

On the side of stuff I have been helping plan our holiday party at work with being the "Director" of decorations ha ha . . everyone got a snazzy title. It is the wild west theme so it has been fun trying to recreate that look. I know it is sorta odd to have a wild west theme for a holiday party:) But our office was actually an old Pacific Express Stable which was just like Pony Express so since it has so much history, we wanted to play up that theme. We tried to get real horses to put in the basement stables -where they were at way back when. . but it didn't quite work out so we are improvising:)

Oh and my latest craze. . . is listening to the Wicked soundtrack. We went to see it a while ago in NYC and I forgot how much I loved it until I listened to the recordings of the original cast which is the cast we saw. So that makes it so much better! What a good show it was.

Now I will close with one of Al's latest watercolors he did of Johnny Cash & June Carter, it is really good I wish you all could see it in person since this picture doesn't really give it justice. . it is so good, I love it. . .

Sunday

Well we made it back from Vegas in one piece. We drove back early on Monday morning and we were exhausted! I think we are getting old or something or maybe we just need more practice of staying out all night! Vegas was more than I expected. It was amazing . . . from all the different sorts of people to all the different sort of hotels to the all you can eat buffet! I have to say my favorite hotel was definitely the Bellagio. I could have stayed there all day. It was beautiful. We were there for just a quick weekend so we didn't even make a dent in it. There is so much stuff to see. We even went to the Star Trek place there. I had "the" best drink there. It was gold in color but had some chocolate and banana liquor in it and something else that I don't remember. But it was the best drink I ever had! So definitely go there for drinks they are cool colors. . the beer is blue and all the drinks are funky- one of the fishbowls had dry ice or something to that effect where it was steaming. The rides were cool too. . one was a 3-D one that had actors playing out parts so you feel like part of the experience and the other was one of those simulator things. It was fun!!

We had lots of fun! See all the fun pics of us!! Hope you guys don't mind being on here:) I was very impressed with it all. . The Wynn had a mini mountain with a waterfall at it's front door. . last picture. And that was at night. I loved it. Oh and most importantly I walked away a winner! I went from $2.55 to $3.00 and called it quits!

Other than our labor day trip, we haven't really been up to too much stuff. .. just hanging out with friends and we are currently looking for a house. Oh my you should see what is out there. . we found one that was decorated with Flamingo's. . like lawn ornament flamingos outside and inside. I should have taken pictures of it because you could probably never imagine how many flamingos was in that house! Cats are both taking naps . . and our long lost squirrel friend Slim has returned after a long vacation. I am thinking that he went on vacation maybe up the street or something because we haven't seen him now in a couple of weeks and yesterday there he was at our window just sitting there waiting for us to see him. Just like no time has past.

Oh I can't believe it is Sunday already!! Hope your weekend was good and your week goes well too!! And hope you enjoyed the pics!

Viva Las Vegas!

Well I am almost there. . . just a few more days till I am in Vegas! Yep the "real" Vegas in Nevada as opposed to the New Mexico one :) Woohoo I can't wait. We are driving there so it will be a cool road trip. This is my first trip to Vegas and I can't wait. . my biggest hope of the weekend is that I will see Elvis! ha ha. Well be there for the weekend so I should have some stories to tell when we are back!! I'll also post pictures too! Happy Tuesday before the long weekend!! Have a good one!

Interesting tid-bit

Okay so here is a Denver observation I made today. . as I was driving home I got stuck in a red light. . it always seems to happen here . . for some reason people drive extremely slow here. But anyways not to wander of my point. . but I noticed that on each corner there are a total of 3 crosswalking light up signs. . 3 not 2. Apparently in downtown, they have crosswalking signs to cross across the street. . not the normal way but actually cutting crossways. Very interesting. . .this rates right up there with Salt Lake City where they had flags that you had to hold up to get cars to stop so you could cross. It was hillarious!

Oh and here is a little advertising tid bit too! Target bought out all of the ad space in the New Yorker. . which has NEVER been done before-most advertisers in the New Yorker are upscale like private jets and designer bags. So to even have a Target ad is news but to buy out the whole magazine and have only Target ads-it's brilliant. They are trying to get the upper New York market and I think they did a great job. There ads are great too. .. all illustrated with just a little bit of red in it and maybe a logo or two. I actually have one of the ads on my desktop. . I love it so much. It is so inspiring to see a company just do it right when it comes to advertising. They broke the standard and did their thing which is hard to come by now adays because everyone always seems to jump on the bandwagon. Okay enough shop talk. Take a look at my favorite ad in the bunch, they are fantabulous!

The weekend!

So I know I always let a little time lag between updates-oops. . oh well right. Anyways did I mention that we went camping in the Rocky Mountain National Park? Chris came up and we all went camping . . .it was fun! I definitely missed camping it has been oh. . 4 or so years since I have gone. Way to long of a time to not go. Well for this update I am mostly going to include pictures so you can see what is up. Oh doesn't the picture above look like Ireland?? I have never been to Ireland but this is what I imagine it to look like!! Well these pictures are from a couple of weekends ago on our camping trip. . this weekend we are hanging out at home . . went to a cool restaurant and bar today. Finally checked out My Brother's Bar which was in "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac. . pretty cool place they even had popcorn there! And then for lunch we went to Hemmingway's . . which is a restaurant made to look like you are in Key West. Hmm our day seemed to evolve around food and drinks! Oh I forgot we also went to the book store and the library so I guess you can add books into the mix too:) Well have a good one!

Here is Tucker with our new friend Slim! Slim the squirrel visits us everyday for nuts. Look at how close they are. It is FUNNY to watch them!

From 28 to 29

Well I did it. . I turned 29. Just one year shy of the big 30. I think it was in Sex in the City where they said the 30's are the best years. . so I have my fingers crossed on that one! I'm thinking winning the lotto would make it the best years what do you think?

The last few days of my 28th year. . I got hooked on the second season of Dark Angel. . Library rental. I literally stayed up trying to watch as many episodes as I could. I forgot how much I loved that show. Then on Saturday we went to Colorado Springs and went to the Garden of the Gods. It definitely was beautiful. We also went to an old "Ghost Town". . .so we were suckered in the tourist stuff because when we paid our $6 admission we went into this big warehouse that had a little town set up. The highlight of the visit was they had a small pool of water where you could pan for GOLD! Well gold flakes that is. I was determined to find something so I sat there looking. . then a couple came up and within a second they were both like oh I found one. . Meanwhile there I was still panning. . .Don't worry I hung in there. . and finally found something!! Yep I found a gold flake! So part of the finding is that you get to take it up to the front desk and they put it on a card for you to keep. So there I was carefully holding it between my fingers so I wouldn't lose it.. then when I took it up to the front desk, I showed the lady that it indeed was real and she confirmed it and when she grabbed the tape to put it on the card, it fell off my finger. And then it was lost. . . I looked all over but we couldn't find it. So I had to say goodbye to my gold flake. And I relunctantly left but if anyone is there know that my hard earned gold flake is there somewhere at the front desk. . by the register and paper. If I close my eyes I can still see it. . oh it was beautiful:)

Then on Sunday we went to a Renaissance Festival. . it was cool, my first experience with something like that. I loved it and I couldn't believe that they actually had a real life jousting match! The king was nice enough to make an appearance for the event too! It was great! So far 29 is treating me pretty good.

Well I am getting sleepy now so I am going to close. . Talk to you later!

howdy folks

Hey so a lot of time has passed by again. . oops. Oh well this month flew by completely!! We ended up getting rain on every night of our horseback riding class. . so we were in the barn going around in circles for most of the time. Strange that it rained every Tuesday for 4 weeks!! The one day it wasn't raining we started in the outdoor rink area and then once we went around for a few rounds, it started to RAIN!!!

We have been busy these past months, took two trips to Oregon, one trip to Phoenix and then the rest of the time we have had family up and we went to festivals(pic on left), up to the mountains(we have a couple of favorite places already) and basically exploring Colorado. Still no regrets with moving. . loving it here!! Now we will start camping soon. . found this wonderful place in the Rocky Mountain National Park.

Here is a picture of what it is like out here. . Isn't it beautiful. .the day this was taken, I was finishing the last of the Lord of the Rings books "Return of the King" and Al was sketching. It was a beautiful day!! I have a picture that Al drew of me reading on the rocks. It is wonderful!!

Oh and we finally went to Red Rocks! We went to see a movie there. .it was pretty cool I kept on getting distracted by the scenery. They have Movies on the Rocks almost every week during the summer .. .it is an older movie that they show on a big screen and they have live bands playing music. It is pretty cool. Did you know they had a Six Flags here practically in Downtown? It is pretty cool. . we were supposed to go tomorrow but Al has been feeling crappy with a cold or allergies so we will probably go later. Hope all is well and you are enjoying your summer!!

Oops

Okay okay. . I fell down on the job. I have not updated this for over a month at least. If anyone is even still reading this. . surprise I am back!! Thanks Naomi for reminding me:)

Summer is starting up here and Al and I are taking a Horseback Riding class right now. It is kewl! I love being so close to a horse. It is so much fun, we learned to walk turn in 2 different ways, trot and make a u turn. Last week my horse was Cheyanne and tonight it was Dakota.

Anyways. . when I have a little more time I will fill you in on what we were up to in the past few months. Tomorrow we are going to see the Detroit Tigers play the Rockies with so keep your fingers crossed that it doesn't rain!!

Happy almost Friday!!

Bye bye

So the snow is just about gone:( It started to melt already on Monday. . .and I guess we got about 15 inches total so it was a lot more than my initial posting!! So it was fun while it lasted. Bye bye snow. Hello again Spring.

Our plans this weekend include a trip to see Al's grandparents in Oregon! It will be nice to see them and it will be a nice relaxing get away. Not that it isn't relaxing here. . I just like the adventure of going places and traveling.

OHHHH before I forget to tell you, Al made a cool movie thing out of pictures. . it is on his site at http://homepage.mac.com/albert.hanner/iMovieTheater20.html so check it out if you have a few. . there is music to it to so have your sound on.

Well a little early, but I hope you have a great weekend!! I know there is still 2 more days to go. .but the week is almost over. . .hooray!

Talk to ya later.

SNOW

Well I finally got to see my first Colorado Snow! We got blasted yesterday. It started snowing somewhere early Sunday morning and when we got up on Sunday we already had quite a bit of snow. So yesterday it just snowed some more and more. . . the news are calling it the Blizzard of 2005. . .I think one station called it the Spring Blizzard of 2005:) So it is an official snow storm. But if you ask me how many inches we got, I have no idea. . at least 10 inches.

It is beautiful. . .everything is white and there is so much snow. To get a visual of how much snow, this morning when Al was taking me to work, the snow fell off our hood and to the ground when we were waiting at a red light. There was so much that we couldn't go forward, we got stuck on our own snow! So we had to do the ol reverse trick and we just plowed through it. It was funny.

The amazing thing is that when I get out of work today, it will proably be mostly gone if not completely gone.

Anyways. . . HAPPY SPRING!!

Oh yeah the cats seemed to like the snow too. . I brought a snowball in and they were both amazed by it and just started to lick the snow ball.

Enjoy your day!!

Almost Friday!

A little late but. . . HAPPY BE-LATED EASTER!! Hopefully you got an easter basket filled with lots of good treats!

BREAKING NEWS: I have discovered a new favorite band and if you haven't heard of them you need to listen to them. We went to the Bob Dylan/Merle Haggard concert on Monday. .woah let me tell you Bob is getting old!! He looked like he just woke up. But anyways I stray from the "real" story. . .The opening band before Merle was Amos Lee. I was moved. The music was great, the songs great, the voice great! So of course Al and I did what any other fan would do, we found out he was playing at a bar last night and went to see him. . get this $8 for a ticket!! Isn't that great. Anyways you can check out his site to listen to 3 of his songs www.amoslee.com But the fun one isn't on the site, my favorite is Bottom of the Barrel. Fun folky song. So anyways if you get a chance I highly recomend for you to check him out. And if you see he is playing in your town. . GO. You will not be disappointed. We just bought the cd tonight and believe it or not, it doesn't do him justice. His voice is so great. And one of his band members played the guitar, mandalin and trumpet (very multi-talented!). Oh there is also an NPR interview on him too http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4541649

Alright enough of my ramblings about my favorite group. Our cats are on the nip right now. . actually the after effects of the nip. Anne is laying down beside me while Tucker is curled up on the chair. You gotta love them. They were going crazy, we got them a new cat nip filled stuffed squirrel. Al tied it to fishing string and dragged it around while they frantically chased it. HA HA. . our entertainment for tonight!! Well happy almost FRIDAY!!

Us on the Rocks! 

The ELK are coming!! Watch out Mr. Truck. 

Here is me in my CLEARANCE shirt from Target!! Keepin it Real 

Okay I'm slacking

So I slacked just a little missed a weekend but now I am back! Last weekend we discovered a mall. A mall you say, no big deal. . .but this was no ordinary mall. It was both indoors and outdoors and they even had a doughnut guy making fresh mini donuts. And they even had one of those popcorn stands in the middle. . but I have to say the popcorn just didn't taste as good as it smelled. Anyways enough of me talking about junk food!!

Our St. Patrick's day was fun too. . .I had big . . .BIG plans to go and see an Irish band play at an Irish bar in Lodo. . .it was all pictured in my mind . . .dinner, music and green beer. But to my dismay, it ended up being a huge ol beer tent. I know some of you may be saying. .Jess that sounds pretty cool. But you see I envisioned a sit down dinner with music. . and just a fun sit down time. Not a crammed in a tent with lots of people falling all over and spilling beer. So we wandered around and found a brewery with 4 Irish men singing some Irish songs. It was great!! No green beer though :( But great food.

Al and I are both sitting next to each other on the couch with a laptop on each of our laps and Anne(our cat) is smooshed right between us looking from screen to screen. Al and I just looked at each other and said. . what are we doing?? It is almost 1 am here on a Sunday night and we are still awake!! Here is me updating my blog site and Al is buying Bob Dylan/Merle Haggard tickets for next week. You gotta love modern technology!!

Anyways I'm attaching some pictures from this weekend. . we went to Estes Park again. . it was great!! And we saw animals. . .horses, cows, lamas, mule deer and are you ready for this elk!! There was tons. . . sitting on the side of the road even walking on the side. I am quite sure that I got a wave of the ear when I said goodbye to one of them. I know it was communicating to me and saying bye!!

Better stop rambling and attach those pictures. HAPPY NEW WEEK!!

Of course most importantly Tucker and Anne at a hard's day work of laying around in the sun. 

This picture is taken from the bunny hill but that big mountain is the one we went on for the green route. Pretty cool huh! 

Hit the clearance racks for our snazzy ski look and now here we are. . .Ready to GO! 

After the weekend

Good news .. . we didn't break any bones skiing!! We are both a little sore today though walking like we are 80 years old! But we had a great time-thank you Andy & Claudia for inviting us!! Al and I decided to take half day lessons since we are both fairly new to the sport. I was a little worried that it was just going to be us and a bunch of kids. Can you see it. . Al and I next to a bunch of kids who are flying by us on the hills!! But luckily there were other adults there taking lessons too. They had a separate class for kids so we were in business.

Of course we fell a couple of times but we did go on the green route which is the easiest, but it is no bunny hill. I have a feeling that we will definitely pick this up as something that we will probably spend lots of time doing. As soon as I get a chance I will post pictures because it was so beautiful!! We were probably up there 11,500 feet or so it was amazing. Definitely a long way from NYC. I love NY, but I think I could find myself loving Denver even more!

The weekend

Okay so it is Saturday pre afternoonish and it is absolutely beautiful outside. . .Rumors of it being 60 degrees out! Last night Al and I went to the 2005 Banff World Tour. . basically it was a film festival all about the outdoors sponsored by REI and National Geographic. There were different films that they showed about ice climbing, skiing, rock climbing, mountain biking, etc.. One was about this guy and his dog crossing Australia in 100 and something days, it was a little sad though because the dog didn't make it. I thought they should have some kind of disclaimer at the beginning so you knew not to get to attached to the dog. . . but nope, they made me get teary eyed!!! It was our first introduction to the outdoor life here.

So tomorrow we are going skiing. Yep Al and I are going to try out skiing before the season ends. I'll let you know if we break any legs or anything. Well have a super duper Saturday!! Oh and Anne and Tucker say hi!

So far this is the only picture I have on my computer of just me. . .Yep this is me walking down the street. . .yes just walking down the street. . strolling along. 

Hello World!!

This is it. . .my very first blog site and I am saying HELLO World!! Woohoo I am out there! Hope you will enjoy all my ramblings and random thoughts about life, food, music, movies and whatever else sounds like fun to go on about. This will definitely be the spot to see what is happening in my life and all that fun stuff.

How exciting!!!