A Year of Change

Lori and I were on the road by 7:45 am. We made it to Cherry Creek Mall right at 10. There was a line of 30 or more cars waiting to get in to the parking garage. We hit a few stores and picked up some little things and then walked over to Neiman’s for some makeup for Lori. Upstairs we ran into Liz, who we’ve known for 20 years. Her husband Chris ran Ralph Lauren in Aspen after running the one in Cherry Creek for years. He’s a good guy that always helped me out.

Lori wanted to get a few ornaments for the kids as after lunch they were getting their Christmas tree. Liz manages the designer department and specifically Bruno Cuccinelli. Everything in the store was on sale up to 60% off, except of course, Bruno Cuccinelli. Lori found a sweater she loved but it was over the top expensive. I would have bought it for her but she said that’s a big no as we could buy a plane ticket to Europe for what it costs. It was insanely expensive but as I told her, if you’re going to wear it and love it for the next 10 or 15 years, as a signature piece, then the cost averages out. Besides, Lori never asks for anything and is pretty frugal. It was nice though. I can’t believe the cost of some of the things in that department. This one coat was $18,000! It was beautiful, but $18,000, come on. Other swearers were $8 to $10K! Ridiculous, but they were all beautiful and made in Italy. At one point, Lori said she’s allergic to angora or something the sweater was made of, as her eyes were itching. I think she was itching because she was in the makeup/perfume department, and we all know she’s allergic to perfume of any kind.

Next we headed to Cherry Creek North to check out the little independent stores. We walked into a cool knife shop from Jackson Hole Wyoming. We bought a few presents there and walked around some more until lunch at 1pm at Le Marais, a great French restaurant. The kids showed up 15 minutes after we arrived and we had a great lunch with champagne and French cuisine. After lunch we all drove over to the kids apartment and then walked over to Little Man Ice Cream, (best ice cream ever) where they had a tree market, to shop for a Christmas tree. Lori and I got some white chocolate, candy cane ice cream while the kids picked out their first Christmas tree for their first apartment. When Ava saw it, we got her one too as it’s her favorite flavor. I insisted they let us pay for the tree, and then we bundled it up in netting and Jag and I carried it back three blocks or so, to their apartment.

They’re so cute!

Carrying the tree back! I took the “non sappy” end! Smart dad!

The kids tree in their apartment! Looking good!

After we left, the kids headed out to find a tree stand, which took over an hour and a trip to multiple stores as everyone was out. They ended up finding one in Broomfield. Ava tied a bow on top pf the tree (not in this pic) as they didn’t have a star.

On the way up the hill, Ty called as he had a big concert in Vail last night. With little snow, we found him a studio hotel room, at a really good deal, at Manor Vail so he and his buddy from Denver and his girlfriend, could stay in Vail and not drive after partying. He’ll be home around noon I’d guess.

Meanwhile Jagger and Ava and two friends, are going to the big Broncos Packer, game. If we win this, it’ll be great. I think we’re going to win, hope I’m right!

Lori and I are headed to the gym this morning. She needs to take it really easy as it’s her first day back. I’ll be watching her like a hawk!

That’s it, have a great day, Go Broncos and God Bless.

Today Lori and I are wrapping up, hopefully, most of our shopping. We need to get the kids a few small things. Next week is the last full week before Christmas! Ty’s off to work as we sit here at 6:30. He’s had a long week with long hours.

Yesterday I worked all day long. Between you and me, I’m getting a little burned out. I can use a break. For me to get burned out is saying something as I make my own schedule and can take off when I want. Problem is, I have so many things happening, I have to just keep going and going.

Jag and Ava went to Winter Park yesterday after work with some friends. They’ll be back this morning and we’re all having lunch at a French restaurant around 1 after we do our shopping. Monday we’re sending out Robi and Bobby’s presents.

Big game tomorrow. Jag, Ava and a couple friends are going. Next week, Jag and Ty are going. Still nice and mild up here. Looks to stay that way through next week with maybe a little snow in the mountains next Thursday. I know we always need the water, but it sure is nice. I was thinking the other day, how nice it’d be if it stayed warm with little snow all winter. We’d suffer in the summer, or should I say Arizona and California would suffer, as they steal our water from the Colorado River.

That’s it for today. Time to get moving. Have a great day, God Bless.

The twelve days of Christmas are here! When we were kids, starting today, you’d put your shoe outside your bedroom door at night. In the morning, it’d be filled with a small gift or some candy, unless you were bad, and then you might get a stick or a lump of coal! We did this for the next 12 days. We did it for the boys too. It was the official countdown to Christmas which is right around the corner.

Tomorrow we’re headed to Denver to get in some last-minute shopping. Ty worked a party last night. He was bummed as it was for the Democrats of Eagle County. Not a lot of people showed up. He said the group discussed how to counter the Turning Point thing and Charlie Kirk. He didn’t like working it. He’s already gone to work today and works again tomorrow.

I have a call at 9 and one at 10. I ran to Costco yesterday afternoon after our early afternoon cigar get together. With the sun going down early these days, and us going to Marks, which is in Arrowhead right up against the mountain, it gets cold pretty quick in the shade. His backyard, where we hang out, is in the shade by 2pm! Five of us made it yesterday.

I need to make a decision on whether or not to make reservations for Wine Paris the first of February. If I don’t go, I’ll have to go to Italy a month or so later. Waiting to see what customers are going and if I have my new chain salespeople in place by then. Plus, it starts the day after the Super Bowl. If the Broncos are by chance in it, I’ll probably be going to that instead. We’ll see how the next few weeks go.

Warm outside. It’s been a really nice and mild start to winter. We love it! We’re ok if it doesn’t snow at all, but we do need the water. I need to get moving and get on the road to the gym. It’s also trash day. Have a great Friday, only two Friday’s left in the year! Surreal. God Bless.

Got a lot done yesterday in Denver. The highlight was having lunch with Jagger. Always great to see him. Meanwhile, Ty worked 15 and a half hours yesterday! We didn’t know he had an event last night. He’s off today until 4, when he goes to work another private event.

At 4, I went to see Dr. Seibert again. This time he put some hydrogen peroxide in my ear and then sucked it all out after it soaked for a few minutes as apparently I had a small scab on my ear drum. It’s still early, but last night and so far today, my ear feels unplugged! Sure hope that was it, as even though it was getting better, it was annoying.

I need to wrap some presents today. Robi’s came yesterday. I’m getting nervous as a few we ordered on line haven’t showed up yet.

Lori had another virtual post op appointment yesterday, and she says she can go to the gym and do Pilates leg exercises. I’m skeptical, but she’s not much of a liar, and when she does, she has a tell, so I always know. All you have to do is look at her directly in the eyes and ask her, and if she’s lying, she’ll start laughing. It’s pretty funny, and cute.

Phoebe fixed my hair yesterday, which she screwed up a week earlier. In typical Phoebe style, she said, “well, that’s the last time I listen to you” meaning she was blaming me, ha. I just laughed and said, “yup, don’t listen to me anymore”. She never thinks anything is her fault. Jag said, “why don’t you just stop going to her”? Smart kid, but I’ve been going to Phoebe for 25 years and 9 out of 10 times she gives me a great haircut. Lori thinks she’s on Adderall or cocaine sometimes, ha. Anyhow, she’s like family, and now I look great!

Warm outside. Looks like 50’s and 60’s in Denver for at least the next ten days. It’s already 60 in Boulder right now at 6:48 in the morning. It was actually colder in Denver yesterday morning at 8am than it was up here.

Two weeks until Christmas! Jag and Ava will be with us, along with Ty. I found Lori a present yesterday and myself a new pair of Chelsea boots from the maker of the ones that Ty confiscated from me. They’re not cheap, but handmade and super comfortable and will last probably longer than me. That’s a scary thought!

Have a great day, be well, stay safe and God Bless.

I’m on the road at 6am today. I need to be at the distributor by 8, meet Toby at 8:30, then head over to Porter Hospital to drop some wine to Lori’s surgeon, then get my hair fixed, (bad haircut, ugh), stop by the mall, and then head over to meet Jagger to pick up a case of champagne, and grab some lunch, and then, finally head up the hill. At 4, Dr. Seibert is squeezing me in as my ear is still sort of plugged up when I lay down. It’ll be a full day, with me getting home around 5 pm.

Yesterday I had my calls and all went well. I squeezed in 2 miles on the treadmill and a few sets of weights before grabbing some breakfast and heading home. Lori is finally listening to everyone and taking it easy. She made it home around 5:30 or 6.

Ty was in Denver and after meeting the guys for lunch, headed up the hill. He showed up around 5. I made him a pizza for dinner. I gave him a pair of boots a week ago that he borrowed for Halloween. I had them made years ago and they are really cool. I looked them up today and they’re $1240 now! I think they cost me $500 or so 15 or 20 years ago. They’re the kind of boots that are handed down from father to son or generation to generation. Glad he likes them. He needs to follow the instructions on how to care for them. I’m happy he likes my stuff. I can’t use it all at the same time anyhow so I’m glad someone appreciates it. The other day he told somebody, “everything I’m wearing I took from my dads closet, except my underwear”! I looked at him, from head to toe, and that was 100% true! Shirt, jeans, belt, boots and coat, were all mine, or should I say, previously mine.

Last, a really good friend of ours, the whole family, passed away on December 7th. Diane O’Connell, who we knew for a good 15 years. She spent her time between Aspen and McLean Virginia. She was the first model selected by the famous Ford Modeling Agency back in the 60’s. She loved the boys and they loved her. She also, and this is not public, worked for the CIA. We loved her and spent a lot of time with her always going over to Aspen when she’d come out for the summer and Spring party season (yes Robi, that’s what they call it in Aspen). Lori and I always say we had the best wedding we’ve ever been to, except for Diane’s daughter Bri’s. After the wedding on top of Aspen Mountain, she had rented out the entire Hotel Jerome for the reception. I remember drinking some special Swedish liquor with the groom in the bathroom. He was from a prominent shipping family and his parents from Sweden and a whole group of people (all the groomsmen) flew over for the wedding. It was something else, and our whole family went, as she insisted the boys come. She went out of her way at the wedding to spend time with us and the boys when she had all these famous people from all over the World there for the wedding. She was so kind and caring and elegant. In many ways, she reminded me a lot of Mom. In fact, I’d told Mom about Diane often and shown Mom pictures of her, and her pictures on Mom. Mom was quite pleased that I thought Diane and her were a lot alike. Diane in turn was also thrilled, probably even more so, to know she reminded me of Mom. They would have really liked each other. Maybe they’ll meet now that they’re both in Heaven! Here’s a picture of Diane in Aspen at the wedding, and one of her with the boys back in 2018. We are saddened and shocked as we talked every few months. We will miss her as in many ways, she was like family. That’s hard to explain or comprehend unless you knew her, but that’s how she was. Rest in peace sweet friend.

This is one of those moments that again, makes you question your own mortality. As we get older, those seem to happen more often. I never really paid any attention to Mom when she’d say things about her friends passing away. Now I understand. It makes Lori and I want to just stop, and spend our time doing things with the kids building memories. As you get older, time is currency, and you need to spend it wisely.

That’s it, time to get going. Have a great day, two weeks until Christmas Eve! Until tomorrow, God Bless.

Today is dad’s birthday, then in ten days, Tom’s birthday, and then ten days after that, my birthday, 9, 19, 29. Birthdays are no longer that exciting, as now they’re just a reminder of how old I am.

Lori’s wrapping Ava’s presents right now. I need to get on that myself. I bought Lori some clothes but don’t really have her Santa present yet. She’s tough as she doesn’t need any jewelry or nice coats or anything like that. She wants laser resurfacing, but really, she doesn’t need that either. I’m thinking airplane tickets to somewhere warm. We’ll see.

Lori works today. Ty is boarding at Keystone and I have a call at 10am and 4:30. I’ll have another dozen or so sprinkled in throughout the day. I’ll hit the gym first in about an hour. You probably don’t remember, but I always treat the first of December like New Years. This gives me a month head start on any resolution or change I want to make. I’m really trying hard to kick sugar these days. It’s such an addictive drug, and in just about everything.

Looks windy in Denver and the front range today. It’ll be warm all week and they say through the 18th. We’ll take it.

6am now, time to get moving. Have a great day, be well, stay safe and God Bless.

Broncos won, Chiefs lost, Colts QB is out for the year, Green Bay won and the Nuggets even won. Icing on the cake would be the Chargers losing tonight.

7 am now. I have my Monday morning call at 10. I’d like to get to the gym and take a stab at the garage and make a quick trip to the dump, time permitting.

Lori, of course, did way too much on Saturday for the party. This meant she did nothing yesterday, so today she’ll probably be back at it. Maybe she won’t! Hopefully she learned her lesson as she was really sore. I think she’ll get an X-ray this morning just to ease her mind, that will tell her she’s still all good. I was not happy. At some point, she needs to follow the doctors’ orders and just stop. I don’t really get pissed off that much, (except at bad NFL calls) but I let her have it. I think she scared herself and will probably now be compliant.

I texted with Jag most of the afternoon during the games. We both hate Chris Collinsworth, who is an NFL announcer. For Christmas yesterday, we bought Ty Morgan Wallen tickets for next May 30th at Mile High. Concerts are so expensive these days. I remember paying $3.50 to see the Rolling Stones in 1972. I still have the ticket stub. Now expect to pay $500 to $1000 per ticket depending on your seats, and that’s even for this country musician, and I have no clue who he is. I asked Ty to play me one of his songs, and still, no clue. At least it’s country and not rap!

Think I’ll head out to the gym. 7:30 am now and if I get going now, I can make it. Have a great day, enjoy the season. Things are going to start moving fast, God Bless.

Last night, after a frantic day, our party was great! Everyone showed up around 5 to 5:30. Mark couldn’t make it as he had some acid reflux thing going on. Shultz is in Florida, James still overseas, and Ben is in Palm Desert California. It was a really fun time. Lori said it was because all of us guys didn’t run straight outside to smoke cigars and we all stayed inside hanging out together. I think this is because Lori had all the food ready right when everyone arrived. Guys pick food first all the time!

Ty was here for the party after boarding on the mountain earlier in the day. He’s super enjoyable as always and everyone loves seeing him. We wrapped up around 9 after the football games were over and we were in bed by 10.

Not much new snow outside, maybe an inch, but the mountain did get a good dose. It’s half clouds, half blue sky outside right now. I think the snow is all over for a week or so. Lori and I are up watching the news and Ty is still sleeping. He’ll be back on the mountain today, good for him.

Harley did much better last night with everyone and all the commotion. She’s chewing on her bone in her bed right now. Big Bronco game today. We’re looking for 10 wins in a row. Here’s a pic of the guys from last night.

That’s it, time to get moving. At least we cleaned up last night. Lots of enchiladas and tortilla soup for leftovers today.

Yesterday we (mostly Lori) worked on getting ready for the party. Ty worked and was home around 5. His friend from college, who is a good kid and a social media promoter/ influencer, was coming up to promote some DJ playing last night at Chasing Rabbits. That’s the hot club in Vail.

Kareem, his buddy, was going to spend the night. During the day, Ty called and asked if a couple girls could freshen up here after skiing as they were friends of Kareem’s. We said sure. By 7:30 last night, they were still in Frisco so they ended up not coming over before going to the club. Ty took off around 8:30 for town.

I woke up around 3:17 am and noticed Ty’s truck wasn’t in the driveway. Being a dad, I called him and he answered with his usual, upbeat, hi dad! I could tell he didn’t drink by his tone. I told him not to if he was driving when he left. I asked where Kareem was and he said about 10 miles behind him. So, Ty rolled in around 3:30am. I asked what happened to the girls and he said, they were a hot mess and left with some guys or something. Then ten minutes later, he opened our door (we had it shut to keep Harley in our room), and said Kareem isn’t coming. Apparently the girls got kicked out of somewhere and Kareem turned around at 3:30am to go get them. I asked if they were going to get a hotel, or what. Ty said, he didn’t know, maybe they’d sleep in their car, ha. Now it’s like 4am. We tried to get back to sleep and eventually did 30 minutes later for a couple more hours. Super proud of Ty for not partying and then driving in the snow.

Speaking of snow, we have about an inch outside. When Ty got home at 3:30, he shoveled the driveway for me! I guess more snow is coming this morning, but no way were getting the foot or more they forecasted. Maybe the ski mountain will, time will tell.

Jag had a great trip. They were going to drive up last night but we told him to just stay home and take it easy for the weekend. We’ll see him soon. He had a great trip. We’ll see what kind of offer he gets and if he’ll accept it. He now has some other people pursuing him too.

Tonight we’re having enchilada’s, homemade tamale’s, that I picked up yesterday afternoon in Gypsum from our sweet older Mexican lady, tortilla soup, and all kinds of sides. Looks like the whole crew will make it, except James who is still in Qatar. He might make my birthday party which will be round two! Lori made her famous Basque Cheesecake, we have Christmas cookies, coconut and pistachio stuffed cream puffs, cupcakes and more. Everyone will show up around 5:30. Marty and Mel might spend the night, depending on the weather.

It’s not that cold out right now, actually pretty nice. Traffic on the news at the tunnels shows I-70 moving pretty well. I think a lot of people were scared off by the forecast. 7:35 am now, time to get moving. Lots to do. Have a great December 6th and Go Broncos and God Bless.

Yesterday at 1, our new cleaners showed up. We weren’t sure what to expect but heard good things from our neighbor. Boy, we had no idea! Marta and her crew of 3 other ladies or girls were here for a little over three hours. It cost a whopping $455, but it was worth every penny!

Our house has never been so clean. I don’t think it was this clean when we moved in. They did everything you could think of. They even took off all the window screens and dusted them while they cleaned ALL the windows inside and out. If we hired a window cleaner on our own, they cost $800 to $1000! The somehow managed to get all the water spots off the boy’s showers, glass and tile. I told Lori, we should just move now. They hand cleaned the oven, (not using the self-cleaning feature on the oven) and all the racks, and just about anything else you could think off. It won’t be this expensive next time as this was a deep clean to get things started.

I was in Denver in the morning. The roads were a little dicey on the way down if you were from out of State and don’t know that when it’s 15 degrees, roads are dry in the sun, and icy and slick in the shade. Lots of rental cars and out of State plates in the ditch, and in the shade!

I got my haircut at 10 and then went to pick up the goodies for the party tomorrow before heading home. I made it here by 1:30 or so.

Snowing in Vail right now, with heavy snow and big winds tonight. We’ll hunker down at home tonight. Might end up with some people spending the night tomorrow. They say 1 to 2 feet with big winds. Hope it’s a dry snow and not real wet. That’s easier to shovel.

That’s it, have a great December 5th, 20 days until Christmas! We have lots to do. Time to get busy. God Bless.