Keep Me In Mind

This was filmed at the Red Rocks concert we went to! Look closely, I'm sure we're in there somewhere :) I do love me some ZBB.

http://www.cmt.com/videos/zac-brown-band/700782/keep-me-in-mind.jhtml?id=1668954

Monday night crafts

Well, if you consider "holiday-themed bottles of wine" crafts - and we do!

Bearcats and Roller Dolls

What a great weekend! Friday was spent with the Denver contingent of Northwest alumni. Granted there were only 6 Bearcats that showed up (plus Travis and another schmuck that was drug along - thanks, Travis!) - but what a fun group of people. Including a 1952 grad that insisted on giving me a hug when we met... after all, once a Bearcat always a Bearcat! Grant and I are going to try to get this group more active, and if anyone can do it, it's Superfan. (And his sidekick, ummmm, me.)

On Saturday my friend Natalie invited me to join her and some friends for a roller derby extravaganza. Ummm, yes, please. Denver Roller Dolls, we are now fans! Good thing it was a double-header - we almost got the rules figured out by the end of the second bout. What a fun night!

Halftime entertainment was provided by [insert name here] as seen on The Sing Off.

Thanks for a great night, ladies! Much love from the Rockies!

Looking back

Sitting here during my lunch break I'm muching away on a granny smith apple with expired caramel dip from last fall (it doesn't really go bad, does it?) thinking "I need to put something clever on my blog". But all I'm thinking about are the approaching deadlines for my Italy students, the ever-growing to do list, and my 2 day long headache. Safe to say I'm not feeling very clever. So I decided to go back to my blog posting two years ago at about this time...

On Oct. 13, 2009 I was sitting in my dungeon basement blogging about how SEWAGE WAS BACKED UP IN OUR BASEMENT AGAIN and edging closer and closer to my room. Amidst grad-school madness.

Thanks for the reality check, 2009-me. Life today? It's good. :)

first steps

Welp, after more than 2 years in Colorado I've decided to venture into the mountains when it snows and try this sport the kids are calling "skiing". Which means I must first do an exhaustive amount of research to find ski pants that do not show 2 inches of my ankles which would a) make me look stupid, and b) make me cold, thus c) making me cranky. Luckily The North Face heard my call so a few credit card numbers later these bad boys are on their way to my place. Now if only that was the only purchase I had to make. eek!

If you were in Durango, CO right now this would be your life:

A little place called Asssspinn

This weekend Travis and I headed up to the mountains (shocked, anyone?) to the Snowmass/Aspen area. I've never been and he hadn't been in a loooong time. We stayed at a super cute hotel in Snowmass, just a few minutes outside of Aspen. While Aspen did not leave the best impression on us (read: unnecessarily overly-stylish children and $20 burgers), it was great to be in the mountains. And the Aspen trees were turning so the views were AWESOME!

Today we headed to the Maroon Bells, a series of three mountains overlooking a glacial lake. They are the most photographed peaks in all of North America! Which means then, that they are surrounded by the most photographers in all of North America (or so it seems)- especially when the leaves are changing. People set up their cameras at 5 a.m. just waiting to get "the" shot as the sun rose and the peaks reflected in the water. Lovely, I'm sure, but that leaves little to no chance for an amateur like me with my point-and-shoot camera and my 9 a.m. arrival time to get "the" shot without a ton of photographers', ummm, rear views, in my picture.

 The Maroon Bells! And a photographer.

And a few more. 

Luckily there was a hike to take that went behind the lake nearly to the base of the bells. MUCH less crowded. This is looking back at the madness. Travis claims it looks like spring break. I think that's what happens when you have shuttle buses full of people all going to the same place. A very multi-cultural hike. And we came across a new, small rodent we had never seen before. It looks like a hamster, so we aptly named it the Colorado Mountain Hamster. Look out - Colorado Mountain Hamsters are ruthless when it comes to tracking down left-over Subway sandwiches (or so we would like to believe).

But the colors on the hike were totally worth it. So now... about 100 yellow pictures. Sorry :)

Much love from the Rockies!