A Year of Change

Yesterday was full of non stop activity. After the gym and a quick shower we headed to town to get Dixie. Once at the hotel while Dixie was still getting ready I headed in to town to buy Jag a last minute gift as Ty was one up on him and Jag wanted a money clip. Soon Dixie was ready so I headed back to the hotel and we borrowed a wheel chair to push her around the village. The boys drove in and met us at Vendetta’s for lunch. Then it was back to the hotel to get the car and head down to the house to take a look. After that we drove back to town to drop Lori and Dixie until 5 when we went to dinner.

In the village we ran in to Johnny and his 5 Pomeranian’s. He had 4 in the basket of his bike and one in his coat. Johnny runs a bike service with his bike that’s a three wheeler and he rides people around town in the bench seat on the rear of the bike. We had him come back to the hotel at 5 to take the boys to dinner while the hotel’s valet guys drove Lori, Dixie and I to the restaurant which wasn’t more than 2 blocks away but much easier than taking the wheelchair.

Dinner was fabulous. The Left bank is our favorite restaurant in town as it’s authentic French food and Jean Michelle, (the chef) is born and raised 100% French. We were done by 8 and headed back to the hotel to drop Lori and Dixie and get the car and then the boys and I headed home.

Today I’m not sure what’s going on but we all agreed no one needs to eat. Food is like a drug and it’s so hard to resist good food you know you shouldn’t eat (citron soufflé’s ) but you eat it anyway. I think I’ll fast today, not. 3 days to go, God Bless.

It just keeps on coming. Big news everyday. Yesterday both boys report cards came out and both did really well on their finals and have good grades. On top of that, Jag found out he was accepted to Pepperdine in Malibu! Whoo hoo! It’s another great school and I’m sure by the time the end of January rolls around he’ll have a half a dozen schools to chose from. Last but a bit harder to explain is that the largest beverage company in the World wants to enter in to what we’re calling a six picture deal with us by Monday! They wanted to sign us to a deal on Wednesday but we said we needed a few days. This essentially is a 3 year or so deal that gives us a chance to make a whole bunch of money and may even force the company we just partnered with to buy us early, like within the next 3 months! Of course a lot of things need to go right but we’re in the game big time. Last, I made it up here safely with Dixie and all’s good.

Dixie is at the Sonnenalp in a nice suite that Lori’s friend Patricia (who runs something over there) secured for us. We had a good drive up. Dixie is a pretty good old girl for a Democrat. She is 89 after all. Hard for anyone to change their mind on things at that age, even if they’re wrong. Lori spent the night with her at the hotel and I’m going to get her to go to the gym. Then I think we’re going to breakfast and doing some shopping. Dixie just loved the drive up here reveling in the mountains and all the snow with the bright blue sky and tall trees blanketed with pillows of snow on each branch. She talked non stop in a good way about how beautiful it is. Living here we sometimes take it for granted but with all her comments, I took a fresh look too and said, “you know, you’re right”. It reminded me of when I’d go take Mom every year for a drive in the Fall to see the colors change. She really loved that. Funny how as you get older those are the kind of things that matter to a person. Tom and Robi, I talked with Deb Rubin yesterday who wore Mom’s Christmas sweater I sent her to a party last night! It was the black and gold one. Deb told me it’s a bit small but she was wearing in anyhow and I told her no worries, men like tight sweaters. She also said she remembers when she met Mom and Mom found out she had no family and told her “that’s ok I’ve decided to take you in as my little sister”. Good memories.

Today Ty needs to clean his room and Jag has some picking up to do too. We’ll bring Dixie over sometime today I’m sure. We’re going to Left Bank, my favorite French restaurant in town for an early dinner. Time to get moving so I can go get Lori. Have a great day, football is on today, whoo hoo! God Bless.

Under our little tree it looks like an explosion of presents. Not sure if this is because our tree is so small or because there’s a ton of presents. It’s actually a little of both. This morning after going to school with Jag and Ty to drop wine to teachers, I’ll head down to pick up Dixie. First I’ll stop and get some tamales I ordered that are homemade and really really good. I also ordered up some oatmeal and coconut and chocolate chip cookies with some mini apple pies and some monkey bread. I was going to pick them up yesterday but was too late. I’ll send Jag today.

It’s Lori’s last day at work for 9 days! Whoo hoo! She will drop in Monday to have a talk with one of her girls that’s causing a small brew ha ha. After I get Dixie around noon I’ll bring her up here and hopefully her hotel room will be ready. Not sure what we’re doing for dinner tonight.

Lots going on the next five days so hope everyone is rested up. I have a couple packages I should get out that’ll probably have to wait until Monday unless I can get it done this afternoon. Right now though it’s time to get moving so I’m not late. Have a good day and Merry Christmas! By the way I saw that this comedian is in trouble with HR at a tv network for saying Merry Christmas to an intern. Good God and God Bless.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today my brother is 59. If Ty was there he’d say Happy Birthday Old Man! How do I know this, well, he says good morning Old Man to me and uses it other times when he feels like it. He also is a big fan of the Neil Young song Old Man. Of course he says it and means it with affection. But still…….old man? Tom is 59 today and in a year will join the club Robi and I are in. Tom, if he ever says it to you, just say “what’s up Young Goo”. He’ll know what you mean as I’ve twisted the name of one of his favorite musicians and call him that when he says old man.

Yesterday Lori and I made it down to the house, to the appliance store, and to the bathroom/plumbing fixture shop as well as work and Frisco. I found a really cool brass sink for my office. I don’t know why there’s all these jokes about building a house as so far (knock on wood) it’s been fun for us. Jag is done with finals as he had his last two finals yesterday, lucky him. Ty has one more (math), this morning and then is going to the mountain with some buddies for the day.

Lori and I, well ok, Lori, wrapped a bunch of gifts last night. We have a few last minute things to do to get ready for the big day. Tomorrow I’m getting Dixie and driving her up. Driving Ms. Dixie will be the theme of the day.

Harley and Mojo had their breakfast and are looking at me like “let’s go Old Man”, ha. I need to get showered as Lori has clinic and Ty has to be at school early. That’s it, have a great day and text the other old man in the family a Happy Birthday! God Bless.

That’s him on the right! Look, we both have brown hair!

A week from today is Christmas! Hard to believe. We have so much to do professionally and personally. Hopefully in the next 3 days I’ll get close to a million dollars worth of orders in. Around here we have lots of wrapping and some last minute shopping to do. Some gifts we ordered are due to arrive December 23rd, just in the St. Nick of time. See what I did there!

Lori is off today and we were going down to take Dixie to see an assisted living place but the highway will be closed due to rock mitigation. Both boys have more finals today. I think it’s English and then tomorrow is Math which wraps things up. They’re both out at 10:30 today as they only have one test and then are done Friday at noon.

We do need to go down and meet our builder and finalize some choices. We’ll be cutting some things here and there to save money as we need to find another $50,000 to finish the basement. Ugh.

Jag had a great birthday. Lots of fun, lunch with Lexi and a few nice presents finished with sushi from Nobu to go for dinner. The cake we bought sucked so it’ll go back to Whole Foods today and Lori will make him a spice cake. Lori is working out at 7 and I’m going around 9 after I take Ty to school as Jag can go a little later. That is it, time to start the cars. It was 12 below here yesterday morning but didn’t feel all that cold. Must be getting use to it. God Bless.

Today Jag is 18! WOW, just WOW! It’s hard to believe he’s 18 and for that matter, Ty is almost 16. As they say, where did the time go. As you all know, Jagger is one amazing kid. We’re really proud of him and can’t wait to see how he changes the World as he’s one of those special people who will actually impact the life of millions in some way.

Today is the second day of Finals and then we’ll probably get sushi to go so the boys can continue to study. I headed down early and accomplished a lot before picking Lori and Dixie up around 4:15. It then took me about 90 minutes to get to Wadsworth and Hampden to Greg and Jae’s where Dixie will stay until Friday. Then it was up the hill with Lori and a quick stop at the grocery store which put us home about 8:30.

Today is more of the same with me heading to Denver and Lori to work as it’s clinic. We’re in a rush so time to go. Have a great day and text Jag a HB if you have a chance, God Bless.

Lori and Dixie arrive around 4 this afternoon so I’m headed down early to get a bunch of errands wrapped up. The boys have finals today as I’ve said before. Yesterday we studied, well I didn’t but you get the point. 9 days until Christmas and 1 day until Jag turns 18! Still can’t believe that one, it’s surreal. I picked Mojo up some pills yesterday morning on my way to the gym. Hope they help, really!

No time to mess around so that’s it. Hope everyone is well and taking a breath to enjoy the season. More to come…… God Bless.

Traffic that is. Hard to believe that so many cars full of people actually come up to the mountains on the weekends. On the way down to the airport was not as crowded but we did run into a closure at the tunnel due to a semi that decided to ignore the law and go up the pass without chains. We were stuck for about 90 minutes which made Lori miss her flight. She ended up getting on a flight at 1:30 which was 4 hours later. The Cdot guy who we talked with said the guy didn’t even speak English.

After dropping Lori around 11 am I headed into town to buy a few gifts before heading home. I knew if I headed straight home I’d hit a ton of traffic. Waiting didn’t help much. The roads were pretty bad by the time I hit Frisco and I just made it over Vail Pass in time. It was closed going east bound when I came down. They should have closed it west bound too as it was bad but I’m sure glad they didn’t.

I brought the boys some food and finally went to bed around 10. About an hour later Jag called to tell me he thought one of the dogs went to the bathroom. Sure enough I rushed down the stairs to see what was the matter (see what I did there?) and found runny dog shit by the couch. I went to get some paper towel, vinegar and other cleaning stuff and slid across the floor on some more shit I didn’t see that I stepped in! I could have gone down but luckily didn’t. At least he got off the couch but did splatter some on it so I scrubbed it with vinegar too. Harley stayed far away from things thankfully. Mojo is getting old and can’t move around like he use to.

Lots of snow out there. Ty shoveled a bunch with me last night. He had a good pow day (that’s what they call powder) on the mountain. Jag studied which they’ll both be doing today as tomorrow they have their foreign language and science finals. Lori lands around 4 so we won’t get home until at least 8. I’m headed to the gym and afterwards will stop by the vet to see if I can get Mojo some pills. That’s it from here, hope everyone is well, God Bless.

It snowed almost all day and then again at night. When we left yesterday morning I saw the plow down a couple buildings but when I came back, he hadn’t plowed our driveway. I called the management company and they said they’d send him over. By the time he arrived, I had shoveled most of the driveway.

We’re leaving at 6 for the airport in snow hoping to get Lori to Denver for her flight. I’m then going up to pick up a check from a store that sold something for me and then I’m headed to Cherry Creek for some quick Christmas shopping. I need to kill some time in town as otherwise I’ll be sitting in traffic with all the people headed skiing.

I worked out hard for 2 hours. I’m sure I’ll be sore today. Christmas is right around the corner and I’m getting most of the shopping for the boys wrapped up. Lori will be pretty easy as am I as we’re not really getting each other much. Just a few small practical things. I do need to get packages out next week to Robi and Robert and then Annette. Dixie will be here of course, from Monday on until the 27th when Lori takes her home.

Lori got a nice raise and a nice bonus. She always deserves more than she gets but she’s paid pretty well as she should be. I’m super proud of her. She always jokes, not bad for a girl that doesn’t have a college degree! She also advocated for her team and they all too received bonuses based on her recommendation. The clinic Christmas party is tonight but I won’t be going without Lori. Heck, I’m not even big on going when I do go with Lori so why would I even think of going without her, right?

Ok, that’s a wrap for today. Make it a good day, and God Bless. Check this out!

Looking outside this is the first “real” snowstorm we’ve had so far this year. It’s not so much the amount as we only have 5 or 6 inches so far, it’s the wind and the fact that we’re just in the beginning of this storm. It’s supposed to snow through Sunday or into Monday. Lucky Lori isn’t flying out today as the tunnel is closed right now and she wouldn’t be going anywhere. They say tomorrow will be actually worse but we’ll see as the weather guys have been right for a few days so I’m betting their wrong tomorrow. I was up at 5:30 to go workout with Stacey my trainer but she just called and said she has a sick little girl. Just found out Vail Pass is closed too. Looks like a great powder day on the slopes.

The boys are working hard preparing for Finals Week. Mojo is outside on the deck where he likes to be and Harley is at my feet. Aspen was nice yesterday and I was in and out in good time. It’s also Friday the 13th, whoo hoo. Just finished shoveling snow so we can get the cars out and the plow in. Now it’s time to get the boys up!

Have a good day, be safe and be happy, God Bless.