A Year of Change

Yesterday everyone was pretty much doing their own thing, sort of. Mom was at the Ritz for her all day seminar, the youngest was at a play date from 9:30 until 2:30 or 3 (before he had his second one and a sleepover) and the oldest and I were checking out motorcycles and ATV’s at a dealership up north. We all met up back home around 3:30 when the Nuggets playoff game started.

It was a great game but could have been a bad game as we won in the last 14 seconds by 2 points! But it really was a great game with lots of back and forth. Meanwhile the Rockies (our baseball team) was on it’s way to it’s 8th or 9th straight win and are off to their best start ever. On top of that, next Thursday is the NFL draft, lots of sports going on.

Today I’m cleaning out the garage. It’s going to snow tomorrow and Tuesday so today is the day. The oldest has a baseball game at 4 so we’ll need to leave around 3. Before that I need to get to the gym and then get the house picked up and THEN the garage so that’ll be my day.

Time for me to run as I need to get moving. Hope everyone is well, take care, stay safe and God Bless.

Oh yea, the youngest guy told me yesterday that if his brother gets a dirt bike, he gets a pony! He still remembers Grandpa promising him a pony or horse when he was younger, selective memory at its best. I said we’ll see, (you have to be able to borrow or rent them somewhere!) as we’re planning on lots of horse riding this year, and he said Mom said he can get one this week! When I checked with Mom, she laughed as of course she didn’t exactly say that but you know kids, they hear what they want to hear. I said it’d be summer before we go riding or even think about horses and he said “I want my pony now”. Oh boy, here we go but hey, anything to get them outside and off tv and video games I’m all for.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SERENA(my sister)!

Last night we had a great dinner with our good friends Libby and Carl. I called ahead and asked for the sommelier (the guy in charge of wine) and it turns out her knew me although I didn’t remember him. I asked if I could bring in my own wine which you normally cannot do but he gave me the ok. We made it downtown by 6pm and settled into our table waiting for our friends. We had a great time and the food was fantastic. We finished up a little after 8 and made it home by 8:30. We all had a good time. Oh by the way, they invited us to St. Johns in September as they have a time share that’s a 3 bedroom and tons of room. Who knows, probably not very likely (hunting season and kids back to school) but you never know.

The boys had a good day at school and the oldest stayed late for talent show practice. I sent the misses downtown to the spa to get her nails done as I was hoping the change of scenery would help her hurting head. Meanwhile, I cleaned up the house the best I could and did some more laundry.

Today Mom has a seminar at the Ritz Carlton with Chris (Dr. Rodgers) and Katie and a couple other girls from the office. It’s from 10 until 3 and is about some kind of laser for skin care or something like that. Looks like the boys and I will have a boys day. I think we’re going up to Sun Powersports to check out a Polaris Ranger which is a 4 wheel drive ATV type vehicle with a bed on the back. This spring and early summer, we’re finishing up building a fence about a mile long up at the ranch. We had it surveyed and I have a temporary line up (a single strand) but need to move the entire fence line so it’ll hold horses and cattle. Having one of these ATV vehicles is the only way to get it done as you need to move materials along the fence line and it’s too rocky for a truck. The fence guys up there have given us a quote of $15,000 for a mile long fence or about $3 per foot! I and a buddy figure we can do it for less than half that and that includes the cost of the ATV. The cost can be further offset as our neighbors have agreed to cover half the cost meaning they’d essentially pay for half the ATV if we do it ourselves. They’re pretty good neighbors, as they should be, as they were the ones who inadvertently moved the fence line over 10 years ago! So if I play my cards right, and am willing to put in a week or so of hard work, I think in the end I can get the ATV for free. When I was a kid (16 or so) two buddys and I went down to Canyon City and put up a mile long fence in the same type of rocky terrain for my buddy Jon Newmark’s dad, so I do have a little experience here, even if it was like 40 years ago! But hey, let’s look at the bright side, I’m much smarter and stronger now even though my knees probably aren’t quite as good.

I talked with our surveyor and my friend in Walden last night who will come out and help us too. Our neighbors already split the cost of the survey with us a few years ago, they’re good guys and will probably pitch in as well. That’s the neat thing about it up there, everybody helps everybody!

The oldest of course wants a dirt bike (motorcycle) bad! They have 2.99% going on so we’ll see. I’d like to get him one as he deserves it and I think it’d be good for him. The owner of the place knew my dad really well and has banked at the family bank for 30 or more years so we’re hooked up as far as price goes. You might remember this from a previous post a few months ago. Anyhow who knows, we might be getting a motorcycle and ATV today, if so, that’s what Mom gets for leaving us boys alone on a Saturday! I don’t know if this’ll happen but it depends on how long the special financing goes on and the price and if the owner likes wine! ha ha. We’ll keep you posted.

It’s warming up meaning it’s muddy outside. The big dog is at the back door right now wanting to come in. We took Lacey to the vet yesterday to try to calm down her ear infection. They washed them and gave her some steroids and we go back Monday.

So far so good on all my orders shipping. Keep your fingers crossed for me. That’s about it, take care, have a good weekend and God Bless.

This morning the misses is the proud new owner of an Apple I Phone and Mac Book Pro. I didn’t want to do it but had no choice. The Mac Book is what she knows how to use and is the same price as a Windows based computer. The I Phone was an add on so her phone and computer sync together plus she’s been using a 4 year old phone for sometime since her other one broke. It’s like driving a 1960 model car. Anyhow she’s all happy and my job is to make her happy! Monday morning she has a class (we signed up for unlimited training for a year for $99) to learn more about all the features on her new toys. So there you have it. For this kind of money, the oldest said he could have had a dirt bike, the youngest wants his own computer and I of course could have bought a horse, but she needs this not only for her personal use but work as well. We’re desperately hoping our other computer will stay alive long enough to get all our pictures off of it as we have pics of the boys from when they were baby’s and that’s the only copies. Keep your fingers crossed.

We met at the Apple Store around 11:30 to contribute to the Apple empire. Before that, the misses was down at the office and I ran a few work errands. The boys had a good day at school and I picked them up for a quick ice cream cone on the way home because Mom was at acupuncture and that’s what dad’s do!

Looks like they found one of two brothers that were responsible for the Boston bombings and killing a policeman at MIT. The other brother is still on the lose. They are apparently from Chechnya and were educated here on the taxpayers dime, nice. You have to wonder what makes some people do the things they do these days.

Tonight we’re going out to dinner with Libby and Carl, our dermatologist friends, at a fun restaurant downtown. It’s supposed to warm up for the next few days and then, yup, you guessed it, snow on Monday and Tuesday. The only positive thing about that is that maybe this late freeze will kill the cotton on the cottonwood trees plus we need the moisture.

The misses new phone and Siri (the virtual person on her phone that talks to her and answers questions) woke her up at 6am as last night she asked “Siri, please wake me up at 6am”, and so she, (like Siri is a real person) or the phone, did. Unbelievable the things technology can do these days. It’s a blessing and a curse. Some days I long for the 50’s or 60’s when we weren’t glued to our cell phones and computers. I for one am trying to get off the grid!

Time to run, I have cinnamon rolls in the oven for the boys. The way I figure it, they’ll be at school before the sugar kicks in! Hope I’m right.

Take care and God Bless.

It’s official, the hard drive on our Apple laptop is crashing. It’s Wednesday night and I’m writing the post now in case it’s dead in the morning. I spent $250 today for technical support for a year but they couldn’t fix it. Right now we’re just trying to save all our pictures, music, emails and the misses work. We’ll be down at the Apple store tomorrow morning having to spend $1200 to $1500 we do not have, what a great day!

It’s snowing hard and has been most of the day. It’s cold and windy and basically miserable out. We had some other school drama and other assorted crap today making for a crappy day. On top of that I’m still trying to make sure all our orders ship from Italy.

When we get a new computer tomorrow (charge now, worry about how to pay for it later) maybe we can write some more.

So here we sit with wet dogs, the youngest guys friend, the oldest, Mom and I. We are all getting ready for some spaghetti for dinner. The misses neck and head are freakin killing her but she does have an acupuncture appointment tomorrow afternoon.

Time to run, hope everyone is having a better day than us. God Bless.

Good morning. It is a picturesque January day.  The lawns outside are blanketed with snow and the ice rain is falling at a steady pace.  Oh yes, it’s actually April 17th, and with any luck at all this storm will stop the cotton buds from blooming this season.

The l.o.l has been home for a bit now with her son and daughter-in-law. I stopped by around 5 last night and she was alone, her oxygen was not on and the two people responsible to watch her were on the other side of town getting massages.  She seems back to her old self however…refusing to put in a shower on the main floor and feisty as ever.

I have to remove myself from this situation.  She asked if it is okay to call in the middle of the night if her blood pressure is elevated…of course I said okay…thinking to myself “uh oh.”

The mister will not be happy when the phone rings…nor will I.  The l.o.l. wants  me to remind each of you to never, ever go to a rehab center…and how lucky Grandma is to have her boys so close and so caring of her.  You see l.o.l.’s son has said, “Move to Seattle”…”Don’t move to Seattle until we sell the house and find a house in Vegas.” “Come visit for a few weeks,” and on and on…ridiculous.

So, on to our day…the boys are at school…our computer is crashing…I have to type on the iPad that has been dropped and cracked, and I have an April 19 th deadline for a magazine ad with absolutely no reply from the good Dr. Good luck to me on the deadline. I can get an extension for the ad, an extra three days, but I’m tempted to keep that to myself, as I know we will have multiple revisions before getting final approval .

The job is fun but the lack of communication is frustrating beyond belief.  I received a snarky email from the Practice Manager and sent a “Matter of Fact” type email back.  She wanted a flow plan for the Event I  am doing on May 16th, so I gave her my plan and assigned her a Job.  I didn’t hear back yet, so perhaps this journey is not the path for me.

Sorry if I sound cranky, but I am, so I’ll write about the kids.

The oldest wanted to be tucked in at 8:02 last night to ensure enough sleep for his early day today.  What a good boy!  The youngest followed suit and both were fast asleep when the Mr. and I went upstairs.  He and I watched Djando last night..the “D” is silent.  It’s Quentin Tarantino film, so it was quite violent, but very good.  I thought Christoph Waltz was amazing in his role, as was Jamie Foxx and Leonardo DiCaprio.  It was a very enjoyable movie.

The oldest has rehearsals for the Talent show starting this week, so we will keep you updated on how they go.

The youngest surprisingly has a playdate after school today. His social calendar is so booked that I just don’t know when he’ll have time for anything else.

I’m off to start my day.  God Bless

We woke up to over a foot of snow outside and it’s wet heavy snow, not the light powder that’s easier to shovel. I must have been outside shoveling at least a dozen times yesterday and before I could finish, the walks I just did were already covered again. On top of this, they say it’s supposed to pick up again tonight and continue through tomorrow. Of course the schools are all open today unlike last week when they closed them down for 3 inches.

Here’s a comment from Annette,

Good morning, the title of today’s post are the lyrics from a Lindsey Buckingham (of Fleetwood Mac fame) song. It just popped into my head. Anyhow it’s a rain and snow mix outside which means I have two big dogs with muddy feet inside. Also today is the much hated tax day. I don’t know why some politician doesn’t run for office on a flat tax, meaning something like 20% is tacked onto everything and then there’s no more I R S. I guess they’re too big and powerful to let a better idea be instituted. To me, a flat tax would be great as if a bazillionaire wants to buy a jet or something, he (or she) would just pay 20% tax on it. If you add up all the taxes you pay right now (federal, state, gas, phone, trash, internet, and everything else you can think of) you’re paying much much more than 20%. The problem with the current system is in reality is it’s not fair. Now hold onto your hats as I’m about to tell you why. You see it’s not fair the the top wage earners. That’s right, the top 10% of all income earners pay 70% of all taxes! The top 20% pay almost 90% of all taxes, go ahead and google it. But that doesn’t sound good to the Pres. No, he has to try to divide us all as he sees the best way to do it is by comparing incomes. It’s getting to the point where he wants to penalize those that take risk and work hard. Do you know that Obama has put in over 6000 new regulations in the past 90 days? Go ahead and google that too! Nice.

Ok, now to the day. Lots of playing going on around here, what’s new. By 5pm we were off to baseball and it was windy and cold. It was so cold that Mom and the youngest went back home for a blanket. It was a great game with our guy getting two strong hits in fair territory but was out at first on both. He did have an rbi and we came back from a 6 to 2 deficit to win by the score of 8 to 6. I have a friend who used to play professionally whose son was on the other team who told me that the oldest has a really great swing and when he gets a little more experience and better timing, he’s going to be unstoppable. Our coach says the same thing which made everyone feel good. Everyone seems to think he’s a natural the way he swings the bat, pretty exciting and news to us. We made it home by 8:30 for a quick meal of grilled cheese and tomato soup before heading off to bed. It’s 5:30 and I need to get the oldest up at 6. We’re supposed to have games tonight and tomorrow but I think the weather will force those to be re-scheduled.

Here’s a comment from Annette.

The youngest did really well yesterday. We showed up at 8am as we were told, waited around until 9 when he and his teammates performed in the State Championships and then the oldest and I left to run some errands while Mom stayed with him to wait for the instant challenge event at supposedly 10:51am. Of course by that time, they were running 30 minutes late. After picking them up we all went to lunch in Cherry Creek and then stopped by our friends art gallery where the misses works as an art consultant for various businesses. She has a great eye! We made it home around 1 or so and then the youngest guys friend Jack, his sister (who is in the oldest guys grade) and their Mom showed up. The misses and their Mom are the official year book committee so they worked all afternoon until a little after 6pm on their computers for the year book. Meanwhile all the kids played hard outside.

Today we have baseball at 6pm but before then lots to do around here as usual. The youngest was up first at 6:28am (he told me the exact time) and I soon followed as Lacey the lab was barking. It’s now 7:28 and Mom and the oldest are still sleeping.

Today I’d like to get through some of the mess in the basement and pack up some camping gear. We’re all super excited to go camping, probably us 3 boys more than Mom but she’s a trooper but we need to wait for the snow to stop.

Snow tomorrow and Tuesday, so they say. They were wrong last week but tomorrow looks more likely. Time to run so I can head to the gym. Hope everyone is well, take care and have a great day.

That’s right, we have to be downtown at 8 am for the State Championships for the youngest guys team. God help us if they win and are selected to go to the Nationals in Tennessee as we won’t be going. No way we can afford a family trip out there for this. Oh well, we’ll let you know.

Yesterday the misses went to get her hair done which took 3 or 4 hours. The oldest went home with Jen to her Grandma’s house and then later in the evening went to see 42, the new movie with them before arriving home around 9:30. The youngest had a friend come home from school to play and Mom made some enchiladas for the family whose son passed away a few weeks ago from cancer. I asked her what she was doing as she did this last week and it turns out she dropped the food off at the wrong house! When she delivered this batch to the right house she stopped by the “wrong” house only to find some lady open the door with a mouth full of her enchiladas! The lady said she didn’t know where the food came from and took it and the bottle of wine from a neighbor last week. The misses said she looked like she really needed the food so all she did was ask her to call tomorrow so we could get our pan back. Apparently when the neighbors said where did this food come from, this lady said she knew where it came from and it was for her! This of course was a lie but we figure she must have really needed the meal. I’m still laughing that the misses dropped the food at the wrong house.

I’m still juggling ships and containers and ocean vessel schedules to try to get everything shipped this month. I think we’re going to get it done, say a prayer.

We’re supposed to get more snow and rain Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday which is too bad as we have baseball games scheduled two of those three days. Hopefully it wont be raining tomorrow night. I did wash both cars yesterday though so it’ll probably rain.

Time to run, lots to do and we need to leave in an hour. Take care and God Bless. In closing did you see the Obama’s are paying 18% in taxes, a little less than the Romney’s paid even though both are in the same tax bracket. I remember Obama blasting Romney last year for paying so little when all he did was legally pay what the tax code said he had to. But now Obama when asked why he’s only paying 18% instead of the top rate of 39%, doing the same thing, says the same thing, “all our deductions are legal under the current tax code”.  I guess it’s somehow different when he says it rather than when Mitt says it, hmmmmm.

Here’ a quote of the day, think about it.

“Firearms are second only to the Constitution in importance; they are the peoples’ liberty’s teeth.” ~George Washington

Today I’m officially dubbing the day Black Friday as it’s the friday before tax day which is Monday April 15th. Do you know it takes something like 6 months of you working each year before you start making money for yourself? I don’t know the exact “break even” day but we’re not there yet. They say the gov will take in a record 2.7 trillion dollars and yet, the Pres says we all still need to pay more. The point here is that whatever they get will never be enough. When you spend money you don’t have, you always need more money, in other words, they’ll never catch up. I can see a day in our kids future when taxes will be 75 or 80% or more until sooner or later it all implodes. The gov just doesn’t get it, and it all starts with the politicians who can’t even grasp the money they’re spending. Hold on to your hats.

Yesterday the misses and I headed downtown after we both ran separate errands earlier in the morning. We stopped for mexican food that wasn’t very good at all (the misses found a hair in her salad and we had to send it back) and then headed home. Jen came home with us again as her Mom was working late and the youngest stayed after school for student council. After that the oldest had baseball and the youngest had his last D.I. practice before the State Championships this Saturday. Then Sunday, Monday and Tuesday we have baseball games. Busy busy busy, what’s new.

It’s 5:20am and I need to get the youngest and Mom up in 10 minutes as she said she’d get him up to help with his homework which he didn’t get a chance to do last night. It’s still muddy outside but warmed up a little bit yesterday. It’s also still down to the wire for me at work. It’s almost out of my control now as to whether or not everything ships. If it doesn’t, I’ll need to lay a person or two off, it is what it is. If we make it, everyone is happy and life is good. Not much I can do now except pray.

That’s it, take care, have a great weekend and God Bless.