Soooo I've been terrible at keeping up with my Project 365, this I know. But I do have a lot of photos from my hike last weekend! Call it even? Deal.

(Don't know this guy)

Sniped!

I do know these people

There was someone at the top to take a photo for us! I did take a self-timer one too (of course) but this one looks much less awkward :)

I'm excited for Mr. Andrew Jackson to visit this weekend - watch out Denver! B-E-A-R!!

Four things that happened today...

1. Student e-mailed me asking for advice - he is thinking of traveling to Moscow during his study abroad but he heard that it wasn't safe for Americans to travel through Belarus. He wants my thoughts... (Study abroad coordinator = travel agent?)

2. Student told me he would give me a million dollars if I got him into a certain class in Berlin. I got him in the class. (We settled on a postcard from Germany instead.)

3. Student called as he is working on his budget for his summer in Greece. Debating between a weekend trip to Corfu (sponsored by the school and free) or a weekend to Athens where there is this "totally awesome rock festival going on and Ozzy Osborne is playing". He was torn. (I told him to budget as if he were taking the trip, because I've never heard of people complaining of bringing too much money.)

4. Spent the afternoon trying to decipher Czech health insurance forms & policies. (Headache.)

Yup. This is my job!

Happy Birthday Sarah!

Sarah does plan a good party, and planning her own birthday party was no exception! A 90+ degree day calls for a pool party, mountain-style.

Just a 40-minute drive outside of Denver is the town of Eldorado Springs, Colorado. Initially a resort town known as the Coney Island of the West (thank you Wikipedia), it now has a population of around 600 and one awesome pool/resort stuck in a 1950s time warp.

After the pavement ends (literally) you end up in the pool parking lot. You cross a rickety bridge over this (really):

And then you see this:

(that is one fantastic slide!)

AND you can bring your own cooler and gas grill, if so desired. Sarah and Gary were more than prepared and we ate/drank quite well all afternoon. 

Prices have gone up a bit... but well worth the $9 to escape the heat. 

For those of you who are nerdy like I am when it comes to historical things, you can find the history of the resort (built in 1908!) here: http://www.eldoradosprings.com/index.php?action=resorthistory

Fantastic birthday celebration, Sarah!

close call(s)

So on Thursday night I awoke (yes, I just used awoke) to a loud thump or two around 3:30 a.m., and then the sound of a window shattering beneath me. If there's one noise guaranteed to stop your heart it is shattering glass in middle of the night! Of course I sleep with my windows open (I mean come on, I don't have AC!) so the noise was horrifyingly loud - made more terrifying by the thought that my window must be next. So what do I do? I crept to my windows to shut and lock them (because an intruder wouldn't break a second window, right?) and then I crept back to my bed, clutching my phone with my heart racing for the better part of an hour as I listened for any sounds out of the ordinary. (Other than the shattering glass, I mean.) The whole time I scolded myself, "Jill, you are too trusting. You live in the city of course you shouldn't sleep with your windows open! And that time you woke up in the morning and realized you forgot to lock the door? Smart. If an intruder comes in what would you do? Freeze? I mean really, have some street smarts!"

In the morning I did my best CSI investigation. Which means I peeked cautiously down the alley way, saw a shattered window on the ground, and called my landlord. (He of course asked me why I didn't call the cops. Why does everyone ask me that?) After his investigation (which was a bit more thorough than mine) he called me to confirm that yes, a window was broken, and yes, the tenants accidentally broke it themselves. Who does that?!?

Anyhoo - it was enough of a close call for me to realize that perhaps I need to brush up on my street smarts. Remember to lock my door. Get some mace. And call the cops next time. Lessons learned.

Aside from that - here's what I've been up to! In the tradition of the weekend I went on a hike with some girlfriends. (Shocker!) It rained and thundered the whole time and we lost the trail about 20  minutes into the hike.

Wow, there are a lot of obstacles on this trail...

"Kate, act like you're searching for the trail!"  "I AM searching for the trail - I'm not acting!"

Rainy and refreshed

It is dry here - not a lot of water in the falls

Act excited that we found the trail! We hoped Zola would sniff it out for us, but it was actually Kate :)

Trying to get back to project 365... now what number and I on again?  I'll have to count back...

tether ball

How did I make it through 28 (okay, almost 29) years without ever having tried this game? Luckily, Joslyn has a tether ball set up in her yard.

Update for all interested parties: I'm still bad at sports. (If tether ball is considered a sport?) Ah well.

Snakes on a plane! (I mean, trail)

Since this weekend was the unofficial start of summer it was only fitting that we went on a hike, right? Unfortunately the trail I picked had a weather forecast of snow showers all day on Sunday, so we moved on to plan B. (And you know what, everyone was okay with plan b! No one got angry at me this time around! Okay, I'm over it. Dropped.)  Anyway!

(Mom, skip this first picture. No really skip to the next one!)

Right on the trail - my first sighting of a rattlesnake! (Outside of a zoo, that is.) So of course the first think I did was take a photo, then we walked waaay around it, and spent the next 15 minutes discussing what we would do if someone had actually gotten bit. "Do you suck out the venom? That's gross. We'd just drag you back to the car, it's really not that far down..."

There was a pretty orange butterfly on this flower. But the picture got photo-bombed by this(hummingbird moth?)

Awesome hiking buddies! Girl talk + nature = awesome.

Definitely felt like we were in the desert during this entire hike! Rattlesnake included

Not many trees - thankful for the cloud cover!

Bluuue skies

I just love summer - I'm such a summer baby. I get a bit sad thinking about how fast it goes, and it isn't even June yet! I'd better start filling up my weekends :)

I hope everyone had a wonderful and blessed holiday weekend, and, of course, much love from the Rockies!

Experimenting

... with new recipes (vegetarian stuffed peppers) and new photo editing software (free!). Applying photo filters makes my dinner look even more delicious. (And you can't tell that I accidentally cut of the bottom off of all the peppers so the filling all oozed out.) Yay!