A Year of Change

We made it to Aspen by a little after 10 in the morning after a beautiful drive. Our first stop was Greg and Billie’s where we dropped off a few things before heading to the hotel. Then it was off to fantasy land. We arrived at the St Regis and checked into one room but the other adjoining room was still occupied. This didn’t bother anyone as they boys were in their swim suits before we could hang up our clothes. We were then off to the pool which was like a scene out of the movie Home Alone. There were lots of what appeared to be wealthy and kind of stuffy people decked out in thousands of dollars worth of swim wear and accessories. Our boys, not noticing or caring, jumped right in and took part of the refreshing water while we ordered them some food from the chef at the grill.

Next it was off to lunch to meet our good friend of 13 years who we’ve never met in person! Sarah is now a famous artist who has an exhibition near here tonight. We’ve been like pen pals friends, or more, that have never met. She had her mother, his beau (she’s from the south) and her 3 1/2 year old daughter Sadie, who apparently was really shy. We met and decided to walk across the street for lunch and let the kids play at the park and in the fountains that rise from the sidewalk. Sadie of course, took right to the boys and was talking non stop. We had a great 2 hour plus lunch while the kids played. Then we walked back to our hotel as we brought her some wine to take home so I put it in her rental car. Today Sarah has to prepare for the exhibition opening tonight but I think we’re going down to see it this morning before the wedding. Greg and Billie want to buy some after we showed them paintings on line. Meanwhile the boys, Sadie and Sarah’s mother Glee (yes that’s her given name) will be playing at ARC, which is the Aspen Rec Center. It was so much fun to finally meet in person.

Then it was time to get ready for the rehearsal dinner at the T Lazy 7 Ranch. We picked up Billie and Greg and headed out at 6. Peggy’s family used to own this and all the surrounding land until the 70’s when they sold it to the owner of Aspen Skiing Company. She too was there and we had a blast with a great country band, good bbq, fire pits outside with s’mores and all the young kids (30 year olds) in the wedding party. Lori made me go dance with Diane (the mother of the bride) as she wanted to get everyone dancing and needed a partner. So there I was in the middle of the dance floor, just us two,  two stepping or country waltzing with the mother of the bride. Thankfully once we started, others joined in. I think I almost stepped on her feet a few times in my size 12 cowboy boots but she was very thankful.

Around 10 pm we went back to the hotel and the manager had dropped off some great gifts in our rooms as we had a little mishap here last year. We finally got the boys to sleep around 10:30 which was a miracle considering all the desserts, s’mores and strawberry shortcake they each had. It’s a bit after 7 now and we’ll let them sleep for another hour or so. Whoops Mr. Ty is up and in here now. We were very proud of the boys as everyone they met from the bride and groom to their parents, they looked straight in the eye and shook their hand. Glee’s beau commented on what great parents we were and how well mannered the boys were. They’re good kids.

The wedding is at 2:30 on top of the mountain so we take the gondola up around 1:30 as it takes 30 minutes to ride up. The weather held yesterday meaning no rain until the evening so we’re hoping it does so again today. My little bride just woke up so time to run. I ran down for our free coffee but we’ll go somewhere else for breakfast as it’d be $100 to eat here! Hope everyone is well and if you’re now reading Deb Rubin, Hi! (my Mom said she gave you the log in)

God Bless

Alright, I know we have a wedding and other things to do but I’ve honestly gone to Europe for a week and taken less clothes! We have no less than 3 suitcases, 3 hang up bags, a duffle bag full of shoes and then Lori’s make up bag (a suit case in itself) along with assorted coats, a few cases of wine, some food for the road and an orchid plant for our friends that Lori was going to take last week. Lucky Mojo isn’t coming along as there’s no room for him!

Yesterday was a blur but we did manage to get everything done, we think. At the end of the day I cleaned out the refrigerator and Lori had her hair colored after her work. The boys and I handled everything else. I did leave them at home for some of my errands as they’re old enough and it’s sometimes easier. They bugged me all day to play FIFA World Cup Soccer on the PS3. Now they’re both masters at any video game but it was fun. The graphics alone are amazing. Anyhow I lasted 10 or 15 minutes but had fun.

It’s 5:40 and we’d like to get on the road by 6:30. I suspect it’ll be closer to 7 but there shouldn’t be any traffic like the holiday weekend. Time to run, more to come, take care and God Bless.

Check this out,
The odds of winning the Florida lottery are 1 in 22,957,480.

The odds of winning the Powerball is 1 in 175,223,510.

The odds of winning Mega Millions is 1 in 258,890,850.

The odds of a disk drive failing in any given month are roughly one in 36. The odds of two different drives failing in the same month are roughly one in 36 squared, or 1 in about 1,300. The odds of three drives failing in the same month is 36 cubed or 1 in 46,656.

The odds of seven different drives failing in the same month (like what happened at the IRS when they received a letter asking about emails targeting conservative and pro Israeli groups) is 37 to the 7th power = 1 in 78,664,164,096. (that’s over 78 Billion) In other words, the odds are greater that you will win the Florida Lottery 342 times than having those seven IRS hard drives crashing in the same month.

hmmmmm

Yesterday was the usual day full of work, errands and cleaning but around 5pm we went to Cherry Creek to meet the misses for a quick bite to eat and to try on a dress or two at the 65% off sale at Neimans. By the time we made it downtown (traffic was brutal) we agreed to just go eat. When we were done we felt like we should at least stop in as our friend had pulled a few things for Lori.

We knew Nicole (our friend) was leaving at 5pm so she told us to ask for Linda. Well, long story short, Linda turned out to be Linda Smaldone. She is one of the 4 girls that lived 2 houses from us when we grew up! Apparently she has been working there for 9 years but we have never seen her. Her younger sister Paula and I hung out a lot when we were kids and I even went to Linda’s wedding! Now their family was THE mafia family of Denver back in the day. Her dad, who’s 84 and living close and doing fine, even wrote a book about it. Anyhow we caught up on the past 40 years and agreed that we’d all get together, what a small World.

Ok, today we have the Pres in town for a speech, what fun, (that’s sarcasm). The Governor, our Senator and another guy running for Senate will all not be going to his speech as they say they all have previous commitments. Hmmm, I think it’s because they don’t want to be seen with Obummer as he’s not really that popular here. I mean what a coincidence that all three of our top politicians are too busy the same day the Pres comes to town, hmmmm.

For us we’ll be packing all day getting ready to hit the road in the morning. Lori will of course be working all day with a pounding head. Her head has been really really bad the past few days. We just can’t figure it out. If we get to Aspen and her head is all better again, we’ll know for sure it has something to do with the allergies down here and then have to decide what to do about it. All I know is we’re not going to go through another 3 years of headaches if we can help it.

All three of us boys went for haircuts yesterday and mine is the shortest, then Jag’s and Ty managed to keep the most hair! That’s about it, time to get moving as I need to get to the gym and back by 8. Take care, have a great day and God Bless.

Last night we bopped down to Ali’s as it was her birthday. I’m not going to tell her age but can say she’s older than me, ha ha. Happy Birthday Ali!

Lori had a normal day at work as did I. It started with a 2 hour conference call for me and then after some more work, I dropped Ty at Vinny’s and Jag and I ran a couple of errands. Before we knew it, it was about 2 in the afternoon. It was hot all day, between 95 and 100 degrees. Thankfully we have A/C. Of course Mojo wants inside all day, can’t really blame him.

Today the boys and I are headed to the distributor at 7:30am and then we’re off to Cherry Creek to get haircuts at 9am. I think Lori is going to get her hair done after work meaning she’ll be home around 9pm, but at least she’ll look all pretty, which of course she always does.

In 48 hours we’ll be back on the road to Aspen. I arranged for all the wine today for our friend whose daughter is getting married. This is going to be one big fun 3 day party. Lori and I are going to abstain from drinking I think as there’s no way we can party for 3 days and nights straight. We’re staying at the incredible St Regis Hotel. We had been given a suite for free but they were unavailable so they gave us two adjoining rooms, one for the boys and one for the misses and I. This is actually better as we have a door to separate them from us! They stay up way too late and order much too much ice cream!

The St Regis is over the top and right in the heart of town. We’ve stayed there before and they really do a good job from food to service. The boys are fine going to the pool themselves and getting all around. They’re quite grown up for 10 and 12 years old.

Tomorrow will be a mad dash to get everything ready and pack up all we need to attend a black tie wedding, a couple dinners, a brunch, some lunches, some mountain biking, swimming, hiking and possibly a horseback ride or two. Thankfully we have a big car.

Hope all’s well, don’t let anyone drop a bunch of illegals off in your town! God Bless.

Today we pretty much got things in shape for the coming week, a trip to a few stores, Lori had her nails done and we finished up the laundry. Then Robin, my sister, and Robert, her boyfriend, partner, soon to be husband (next year) stopped by. We all then went up to my Mom’s for a nice visit. My Mom likes it when all three of us kids are together which isn’t all that often.

Robi looks good and is as fun as ever. Too bad it’s such a short visit. Today Lori’s back at work and I need to make a list as I have so much to do to get ready to be gone for 2 days. We’re super excited to go but have a lot to get done, both of us. Hope I don’t forget anything!

That’s about it, hope everyone is doing well, take care and God Bless.

After strolling through town and the farmers market, we all had some lunch and then hit the road around 2:45 in the afternoon. We missed most of the traffic (it’ll be really bad today) but did get stuck by Idaho Springs in a crawl for 30 minutes or so. We decided to drive right on past the house and go to La Loma for dinner. This put us home a little before 7:30.

Lori had no headache at all in Aspen. It has to be something with the pollen or allergies or environment down here. Now all we have to do is figure out how to live up there in the clean fresh air so she’s headache free.

Today we’ll see Aunt Robi and Robert. We briefly saw them last night and the boys went down to Tommy’s for a bit to visit. We were too busy unpacking and cleaning up so we’ll see them more today.

I guess it was hot like in the mid 90’s yesterday and the day before and will be so again today. The 80 degree temps in the mountains is just about perfect. Our grass is already getting a little brown so I have the sprinklers on now.

We only have a three day week as we’re leaving again Thursday morning for the big wedding. We can’t wait as it’ll be lots of fun. That’s about it from down here in the flat land. Hope everyone is well and had a great day, we’ll try to get some pictures up, God Bless.

We made it to Aspen by 9:30 am or so after stopping in Leadville for breakfast. Diane had booked the best table at Asie right on Main Street for the parade. We walked over with her ahead of Greg and Billie who were 30 minutes or so behind us. The parade started right on time at 11am. First off is the procession of Harley’s roaring down the street followed by fire trucks, floats, cowboys on horses and anything else local and small town you could think of. One of the highlights is always the veterans walking in the parade. There are former soldiers from as far back as World War 1 up until now. Some of the older guys can’t walk the parade so they ride in old restored army vehicles. Everyone along the parade route always stands and claps for the veterans.

The boys of course stand out in the street as most vehicles are throwing candy or beads and this year, even nice sun hats! The fire engines also spray their hoses full of water on the crowd so naturally our kids get soaked, what fun.

Next up we all went to friends of Billie and Gregs condo a few blocks up town where another party was naturally going on. We knew lots of people including a few friends from Denver. Meanwhile the boys walked around town and ended up at Carl’s Pharmacy which has a great toy department. Aspen is one of the few places where you can let the kids go off and their own and feel good about it.

Finally around 3pm or so we all made it back to the house. Greg was showing us the theater and we ordered up some ribs from Hickory House which has really really good ribs! Soon it was getting to be evening and the fireworks were going to be going off over Aspen Mountain at 9:15. Greg and Billie went to a party and so did Diane while Lori, I and the boys went uptown. We stopped into L’Hosteria which is a great restaurant that we do business with and had some incredible salmon and sole. Jagger chowed down the salmon like he hadn’t eaten in weeks. We then walked outside, pulled some blankets and pillows out of the car and sat on the sidewalk waiting for the light show to begin. We had a perfect view and the fireworks were great! Afterwards we made it home and soon fell asleep. Billie, Greg and Diane were all still out partying away.

Today I’m not sure what we’re doing but I think we’re going to leave town this evening to beat the traffic. We’r’e back next week on Thursday for the big wedding and we’ll be in the St Regis for 3 nights. Hope all’s well, the weather’s beautiful and it’s about 80 degrees.

God Bless.

Not wanting to go into politics, I’ll get this out of the way as fast as I can. On the greatest of days that honor freedom, I am deeply concerned about the current direction of our Country. Any of us can think back to when we were younger and I’m sure think of more freedoms and liberties than we have now. Of course anything that has been, or will be, taken away from us, the people, will all be presented to us as something that must be done for the greater good. Our main concern is for our children. Times they are a changing and I don’t believe necessarily for the better. The only way for you as an individual to be heard is through your vote. After all, that’s what Independence Day is really all about, the right to vote on your beliefs and for your future. For too long too many people have voted on one divisive principal that has been trumped up by the opposing party to sway your vote. Whether it be abortion or education or equality in pay, which are all important, the future of our Country should not be decided by multitudes of individual partisan groups who all think the powers that be will do what they say. If you think about it, any candidate or party, makes so many promises, many that overtly contradict themselves, that there is no way they could possibly fulfill them. Look at our current Commander in Chief, what happened to closing Guantanamo in 30 days, what about immigration and Wall Street reform? All we got was more of the same. If you can’t see this, you’re a lost soul who has been brainwashed for so long that you can’t remember what was important to you in the first place. So on this day that honors our freedom, I ask you to vote for one thing and one thing only, freedom. If you do, things will be ok as freedom breeds innovation and innovation brings growth and prosperity. If however you vote the other way and our freedoms continue to erode, we will slowly lose our rights and one day, not in the too distant future, you may just lose your right to vote. Then of course, we wouldn’t have an Independence Day. So if you love your hot dogs, Mom and apple pie, always vote for those that will give you and yours the most freedom.

Now to the day, the boys and I did a lot yesterday to get ready to go to the mountains. Uncle T took Jag to lunch and Ty went to Jacks. Everyone made it home by about 1pm and then we proceeded to finish up the rest of our chores before Mom arrived home. Then we packed and tried to get everyone in bed early as we’re hitting the road at 6am. This of course is to beat the traffic to the hills where everybody will be going.

Robin arrives this afternoon and I’m sure my Mom is thrilled to have her here. We’ll of course see her Sunday. That’s about it, hope you all have a great day and take a moment and remember what the day is all about, your independence. It’s easy to lose but literally impossible to get back! God Bless.

Yesterday when we arrived at the airport, I was surprised to find 10 big boxes of wine from Macedonia. I was told by DHL, that they could no longer deliver to Colorado but somehow, someway they did. Today I have to unpack all of them which is a pain as they’re in that nasty styrofoam. I hate that stuff as it gets all over the place.

When I woke up and came downstairs, there was Mojo wagging his tail at me standing in the middle of the kitchen out of his crate. I think we’ll ditch the crate and just let him sleep in his bed as he knows how to pick the lock anyhow.

This morning Ty is going to Jack’s and Jag is going to lunch with Uncle Tommy as I have an appointment downtown at 11. Lori has her last day at work for the week and then has 7 of the next 10 days off. Tomorrow we’ll be off to the hills by 6:30am at the latest as the traffic is going to be bad. Sunday morning we’ll do the same thing to beat everyone heading back to Denver. I hope that everyone else isn’t thinking the same way I am!

That’s it, time to run, lots to do, God Bless.

Well, the U.S. Soccer Team had its chances yesterday but just couldn’t pull it off. I’m not normally a soccer guy but do tend to watch it every four years when the World Cup is on. Not sure if I’ll keep watching though with our team out. Oh well, it was a good game.

Yesterday Lori had quite the day at work. She’s finally taking charge of everyone, including the Doc which is good. She closed (sold) a customer on a surgery, her first one! Meanwhile the boys and I were working, me in my office and the boys cleaning up Ty’s room. Then Ty was off to Vinny’s and I took Jag to the store as he wanted to make something on his own to eat after we ran to Fed Ex and had lunch and stopped by Costco.

Mom made it home around 7pm with Ty as she picked him up while I was grilling steaks. I have a conference call today and then need to run to the airport to pick up some wine from DHL. After that we need to stop by Nordstrom to pick up the boys clothes and then we’ll head home.

It’s 5:14 in the morning now and I need to get to the gym so time to go. Have a great day and God Bless.