Halloween 2009

How fun is Halloween anyway?  Well, not as fun as it was when I was a kid, but we had a good time.

My cousin from California was in Colorado Springs for a work thing so I went and picked him up Wednesday.  Boy was it snowing.  I had originally planned to take off work at 3:00 p.m. to pick him up but when I woke up and saw the news I knew I’d better leave early. 

I called him and asked if I got there early if he thought he could cut out early.  He said that he thought they’d be done by lunch so it worked out well.  He took mother and me to a German restaurant in Colorado Springs.  Turns out it was not only a restaurant that mom and dad enjoyed going to when dad was alive, but it also used to be the home of a childhood friend of my boss’s husband.

Wild.

It snowed for two days and we ended up with about six inches of the fluffy stuff.  Denver got 40 inches in some places so we were fortunate weather wise.   Friday a Chinook blew by and by Halloween you couldn’t even tell it had snowed.

Saturday I carved the pumpkins.  I put Eddie on one and Biscuit on the other.  I roasted the seeds and steamed another pumpkin to make pies out of later.  Rach went to Ali’s house for Halloween.  I felt just a little lost without them.  I’ve been taking them trick or treating for the last seven years.  But I guess girls grow up.

Eddie and Biscuit immortalized in pumpkin.  heh.  

I donned a wig and a mask and handed out candy in between games.  Jer looked great in a hat.

Dan in his favorite mask and me in my getup.

We ate well that night and played golf.  By 10:00 I was wiped out so Jer went back to mom’s house and I went to bed.  Dan slept through sports center. :-)

It was good to see my cousin and honestly it occurs to me that it is way too long between visits.  Rach was a little girl the last time I saw him.  Too long Jer.  You need to come back and show me how to record on that stupid dvr for mom. 

Of the Self

I didn’t used to worry about what other people thought about me.  Or maybe I did but didn’t realize it or didn’t feel like I was in a position to worry about it much.  I have, after all, been something of a lone wolf.  Touching many circles but never really entering any of them.  I made my own circle where I am the most comfortable.

Lately I’ve been looking at myself and how I interact with others and trying to look deeper and sometimes thinking to myself, “well that wasn’t my best move.”

I guess I’m trying to revisit the road to self improvement.  Sometimes I see myself as too loud or too out there when maybe it would be better if I were a little less noticeable or a little quieter. 

Confidence is another one of my areas that could use improvement. Even when I know what I am talking about I am always aware that there may be something I missed.  That bothers me to some degree.

And there is a part of me that has always lived by staying humble.  Humility is a very good thing but it can also be taken too far.

I don’t want to beat myself over the head with it.  Someone once told me that if you don’t make mistakes you aren’t trying hard enough although sometimes I think I try too hard.  So maybe I am beating myself over the head with it.  Bad bad Z.  We are all human after all aren’t we?

It’s just a few things to work on.  And don’t we all have a few things to work on if we choose?

There has to be a balance though. I once got caught up in thinking too deeply which goes against my Keep It Simple philosophy.  When you think about things too deeply (or when I do I suppose, I can’t speak for everyone) you can make things so convoluted that everything seems hopeless and the door you entered ends up blocked with all of the baggage you piled in front of it looking for your answer.  And the answer still manages to elude you.

I’ll work on those few things and maybe in the working of them, I will find a few more things to work on.  Isn’t that the way of it…

Isn’t that just the way of it.

Thoughts

I’m thinking and listening to the wind rattle through the trees on this sunny Sunday morning.

It’s supposed to get up to almost 80 today, which when you think about last week’s high of 27 makes it a really nice day.  And that’s good.  We spent yesterday working in the back yard, putting the garden to bed and feeding the lawn before winter.  Good thoughtful work which I needed and today’s sore muscles attest to good work for the body as well.

It’s been a thoughtful weekend. A staff member died Friday morning, peacefully enough I suppose.  With her tea and her bible on her lap.  I can’t think of a better way frankly.  Death always makes me think about how life goes on even with a hole here and a hole there.  Time tends to mend those holes with or without our help although sometimes those holes seem awfully big to mend.

I didn’t know her well.  I worked on her computer and listened to her stories and sometimes sat and had a cup of tea with her and talked about life.  I did know her well enough to know that she went at life with a gusto. She reminded me of my aunt in that way.  She had fantabulous taste in jewelry and clothing and she loved her hats.  She looked great in hats.

She had a list for me every time I went to her apartment to work on her computer.  It was always the same list.  “Show me how to delete again?”  I didn’t mind and will actually miss that.

And so I’ve been lost in my thoughts and tomorrow will be somewhat strange I think.  But it’s ok. The wind will continue to brush the leaves down the street and winter will come and snow will fall and the air will be cold.  The good news is that spring will always come again.

Even when I am no longer here to see it.  Thanks for the thoughts Diane.  I’ll miss you.

Brrrrrr

Winter stepped in to make an appearance this weekend.  Getting ready for the big show I guess. Which is fine if you like that sort of thing.

I don’t.

I was supposed to be at the glass shop at 9:00 am yesterday to work on my nephew’s “slow as molasses in January” computer.  I knew I’d have to start the truck a little early, but I didn’t take into account the layer of ice all over the truck so I was a bit late which ended up to be actually ok because my brother was late too.  He was just getting out of his jeep when I parked my truck.

“There’s a 50 car pileup in the Springs,” he said by way of greeting.

“50?”

“Yeah, black ice. Want some cheese toast?  It’s on rye bread.”

“Hey sure.” I’m so easy sometimes.

I finished up around 11:30 and promised to come back on my lunch hour on Monday to work on a problem that got worse the more I worked on it and went to the grocery store to get the rest of what I needed for chicken enchiladas to take to Dan’s folks for dinner.

Safeway was in it’s usual state.  Two checkers open and the entire east half of Canon City waiting to be checked out.  I picked my line, the one with the lady who looked like she’d been shopping for a month supply of food and settled in to read the headlines on the gossip rags and listen to the conversation between her and the checker.

“It’s great in the winter.  It’s usually in the 60s or 70s.  It’s just unbelievably hot right now.”  They definitely weren’t talking about Colorado.

She finally loaded her mountain of food into her basket and left and then it was my turn.  I like talking to checkers.  I like to see if I can get them to talk to me.  It’s almost like a game for me, but I could see it wasn’t going to be a problem with this checker.

“Is it cold out there?” he asked.

“Eh, there’s a bit of a nip in the air,” I replied.

We bantered and I loaded up my groceries and went home and spent the rest of the day in the kitchen.  I made chicken enchiladas and a sour cream apple pie. These kind of days are made for cooking and keeping the house warm with the oven and the smell of good food.

Here’s to a good Sunday too.

Full Moon

Lat night we ended up outside and it was chilly but jackets and the fire took the edge off.  Dan set up lights and we played washers till after 10, boys against girls and after three games the boys were declared the Bucket Heads of the evening.

And we had a ton of food.  I like Donna’s boyfriend.  He gets along with Dan, has a great sense of humor and cooks.  And boy does he cook.  Last night he brought a zucchini from his garden, sliced it and grilled it with marshmallows on top.  It was really good.

I ended up making taquitos which went well with his queso.  I also served apples with caramel dip and sliced pears and sliced kiwis which I ended up arranging into blossoms.  Not that anyone but me got into the blossom designs but hey, they were for eating… not just lookin at.

It was fun and the moon was full and beautiful and after three years I finally figured out how to get a decent shot of the moon.  Yay!

There’s a cold front moving in so I guess we were right on time.  4 to 8 inches of snow are predicted for the mountains and rain here. 

So it brings in the season for baking. Keeping the house warm with the oven and the smell of fresh baked bread, winter squash and other oven baked foods.

I can be good with that for a while.

Bash

We’re throwing a party tonight.  The timing is a little off. Last Saturday it was 85 degrees and the evening was beautiful. Today it’s supposed to be in the high 60s.  Fall is definitely here. 

But Donna’s boyfriend couldn’t make it last Saturday.  He had to go to Denver for a wake for his uncle so we set the date for the party for tonight.

Before I met Dan I used to have a lot of parties. We didn’t call them parties, they were called Girl’s Night or (borrowing a phrase from my sister) W(h)ine On The Porch.  It was during my divorce and I had two other friends who were in the same boat at the same time so we started getting together every other Saturday night and before we knew it, the group had grown and was somewhat organized.  We all brought food and alcohol and we sorted out our lives in a somewhat inebriated haze.  Ah those were good times.

Birthday's were special.  We all pitched in for a present and the birthday girl got the cake of her choice and the food theme of her choice.  Biscuit was a puppy then and always ended up getting to the cake before we did.

We kept it going for two years and then I met Dan and Donna met her ex boyfriend and the group just kind of disintegrated.

Most of them will be here tonight with their respective significant others.

The plan was to play washers, eat, drink, be merry and have a fire outside.  The problem came in when I thought maybe as the hostess I needed to serve more than one dish.  Dan wanted queso but for the life of me I couldn’t think of anything else to make.  So I called Donna.

“I’m not coming up with anything stellar.  My brain is too tired from work.  Do you have any ideas?  Dan wants queso, but I thought I should have more than one thing.”

“Seth makes awesome queso. He puts vegetables in it and it really is quite good though it’s different.”

“Does he want to make the queso then?”  Well damn.  There goes my one stellar idea.

“Yeah, we’ll make the queso.  I think you should make something with chicken.”

Chicken.  I’ve been thinking about making chicken enchiladas but that isn’t really what I was wanting for the party.

“We will work it out and I’ll call you tomorrow. Gotta go.”

She called the next day with the entire menu planned out.

“Wendy is bringing guac and salsa and chips.  Yo is bringing chocolate, Holly is bringing another dessert.  Seth and I are going to bring the gas grill and grill shrimp and zucchini and make the queso and I have this great recipe for chicken strips you can make.  I haven’t heard from Lara yet although I left her a message so I don’t know if she’s coming.”

How does she do that?  I’m not quite sure I want to make chicken strips though, so I’m looking for recipes online.  Looking for something just a tad different and fun.  And my brain isn’t cooperating for whatever reason so I’m writing this blog post instead and wondering if we are all going to end up inside tonight.  It will be fine if we do.

I better get back to the drawing board before I end up making something I really don’t want to make. :)

Happy Saturday!

Difference

Yesterday we started putting the decorative trim pieces on the front of the house and I called my brother because I needed some stained glass for an idea I had.

Dan rebuilt the porch on the front. It was leaking into itself and falling apart and well, you know.  While you’re there you might as well get it done.  He put a post up to help hold the roof of the porch and we’ve been trying to decide what to do with the post.  We painted it but weren’t satisfied.  We covered it with decorative trim but weren’t crazy with the result.

Friday night I said, “Why don’t we mosaic it with stained glass and mirror?”

So yesterday I called my brother who gave me some mirror and some pieces of stained glass.  Today’s project I think.  How fun.

Anyway, I dug up a picture of what the house looked like in the fall of 2006 and took a picture of it last night. Too cool.

 
Fall 2006

 
Last night.

Big difference.