A Year of Change

here you go,

1. Robi says:

   August 20, 2013 at 5:10 pm

   Aw the boys are so cute or handsome or chick magnets or whatever they wanna be called these days, and the misses looks like a movie star! Not to worry about me – I’m alive and doing well!

   Reply
2. Annette says:

   August 20, 2013 at 7:38 pm

   The boys look very grown up.

   Reply
3. Blondie says:

   August 21, 2013 at 12:59 am

   The boys don’t look very thrilled about going back to school! LOL

   Thanks, actually the boys were thrilled about school, I think we just took a poor picture. Yesterday the work continued on our front patio and we ordered our new garage doors. They should be here in about 3 weeks. Next up is cleaning out the basement to put in new carpet. Our friend Harry is coming in mid September and is going to do some work for us as well. I think we’re going to update the boys upstairs bathroom and perhaps redo the floor down in our kitchen area where its linoleum right now, so lots going on.

   Tonight I have the first of two of my fantasy football drafts at 6pm. The kids are going to the pool after school again (they went yesterday too) as it’s just so hot.

   Let’s see, what’s going on around the World. Fukushima Japan is leaking highly radioactive water (so far 80,000 gallons into the ocean and environment) Syria is using poison gas and attacking their own people, Egypt is in turmoil and our gov is going all out to strip all of our rights away in the name of protecting us, right. Personally I think we need to get out of all these conflicts around the World and let them work it out themselves and for sure stop spying on all Americans, I’ll take my chances. It’s getting so people are more afraid of their own gov than the terrorists they’re supposedly protecting us from. What’s really funny is that it’s the democrats that are against all the domestic spying and many people that are independents or republicans (like us) are for once, agreeing with them! It’s some repubs that are pushing for more and more spying in the name of protecting us, hard to believe. All I know is somehow all this over reaching by the gov needs to be reined in. And worst of all, we have a 15, 16 and 17 year olds in Oklahoma who stalked (followed with the intent of killing him) a college student from Australia who was jogging to shoot him in the back as they were bored and wanted to see what it was like to kill someone. Two of the kids were black and the third was half black but I don’t see Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson anywhere, oh wait, I forgot, this is not a hate crime since the victim was white. And the media has a parent from the Newtown shooting all over tv saying all guns need to be taken away as someone shot off a gun in Georgia near a school. What in the hell is the World coming to.

   By the way, here’s an interesting fact, check out the ages of our Founding Fathers.

    

   The surprising ages of the Founding Fathers on July 4, 1776  AUG 13 2013

   For the Journal of the American Revolution, Todd Andrlik compiled a list of the ages of the key participants in the Revolutionary War as of July 4, 1776. Many of them were surprisingly young:

   Marquis de Lafayette, 18
   James Monroe, 18
   Gilbert Stuart, 20
   Aaron Burr, 20
   Alexander Hamilton, 21
   Betsy Ross, 24
   James Madison, 25

   This is kind of blowing my mind…because of the compression of history, I’d always assumed all these people were around the same age. But in thinking about it, all startups need young people…Hamilton, Lafayette, and Burr were perhaps the Gates, Jobs, and Zuckerberg of the War. Some more ages, just for reference:

   Thomas Jefferson, 33
   John Adams, 40
   Paul Revere, 41
   George Washington, 44
   Samuel Adams, 53

   The oldest prominent participant in the Revolution, by a wide margin, was Benjamin Franklin, who was 70 years old on July 4, 1776. Franklin was a full two generations removed from the likes of Madison and Hamilton. But the oldest participant in the war was Samuel Whittemore, who fought in an early skirmish at the age of 80. I’ll let Wikipedia take it from here:

   Whittemore was in his fields when he spotted an approaching British relief brigade under Earl Percy, sent to assist the retreat. Whittemore loaded his musket and ambushed the British from behind a nearby stone wall, killing one soldier. He then drew his dueling pistols and killed a grenadier and mortally wounded a second. By the time Whittemore had fired his third shot, a British detachment reached his position; Whittemore drew his sword and attacked. He was shot in the face, bayoneted thirteen times, and left for dead in a pool of blood. He was found alive, trying to load his musket to fight again. He was taken to Dr. Cotton Tufts of Medford, who perceived no hope for his survival. However, Whittemore lived another 18 years until dying of natural causes at the age of 98.

    

   Pretty amazing that these men at such young ages were instrumental in the formation of our great country.

    

   Here’s one more interesting fact for you,

   A new CATO Institute study found that a mother in New York State with two children is eligible for $38,004 in welfare benefits–which is greater than the annual salary of a first-year New York school teacher. Wow, is it any wonder why people stay on welfare these days. $38K is not bad for someone uneducated with no job. We’re approaching a point where the Obamaites will never want to work, why would they!

   Time to run, keep posting comments as without them we think no one is reading even though we know most of you are. Take care and God Bless.

The first day of school went well, both boys had a good time. Mom walked the boys to school while I drove to Vail and back. The mountains sure are pretty this time of year but wait until Fall.

The misses and I both had lots of work to do, sometimes it seems that’s all we do but we’re focused on our master plan and we keep working towards our goal.

I think everyone is fine but it’s been sometime since most of you have commented so it’s hard to know. Hope you all are well.

Take care and have a great day.

Here we go again, Lori and I can hardly believe the boys are going into 4th and 6th grade, where did it all go? Both boys are excited and we’re sure will have a great year. Summer sure went fast.

This morning I’m off to Vail for some work with a few accounts before heading down the hill around 1 or 2pm. The rest of the week I’ll be collecting orders and wrapping up our nationwide pre-sell to submit orders to Italy this Friday for November delivery. Meanwhile the misses has more work to do on the skin care line and we’re fixing up the house at the same time.

We’re having our pavers or brick patio in the front replaced right now, some new shutters installed, new garage doors coming, carpet in the basement, a new patio in the back and some other things in the works as well. Lots to do and we’re on it!

That’s about it, we could go on but I think we’ll leave it at that. Have a great week and we’ll see you tomorrow.

God Bless.

We had a blast last night at the Rolls party. The couple that owned the house were very nice and so happy that we came. I ran home mid party to get a couple gifts to donate as prizes after the casino night as they were a little short on donations, but first to the day.

We started off with a lunch with our friend Bo from Colorado Springs showing up after he flew into Denver around 11. After a quick trip up to my Mom’s to introduce everyone to her, we rushed to get ready for the 4pm party. We arrived to find about a dozen Rolls parked out back. Some were new and some were old but all were fantastic. The party was fun, especially after dinner when we went downstairs for casino night. Our host had a craps table from the old Dunes Hotel in Las Vegas and a black jack table as well. Most all of us played craps. We were all given $5000 in chips (real chips from the Dunes Casino) and began to play. An hour later or so I was up to $25,000, sure wish that was real! Finally it was the misses turn to be the shooter or person who rolls the dice. She couldn’t lose meaning she couldn’t roll a 7, even though it’s the most common number rolled. Finally she crapped out so we could all go home. But first everyone was given a raffle ticket for every $500 you had in chips. They then called out numbers and you could choose a prize. I won a bunch of things but handed them out to other guests. I did keep a pair of work gloves from an auto parts store. We made it home around 11:30 after picking up the kids at Uncle T’s. They would have rather stayed home and we should have just got them a sitter as its hard for them to go down there especially when the Broncos are on. I should have thrown a dress shirt on them and taken them to the party, our host would have been fine with it as he had his 7, 12 and 14 year old grandkids there, oh well, maybe next time.

Today I’ll take the car up to my Moms and put the top up and windows on in case it rains. We’re keeping it for a week in case we all want to go to the vintage plane, car and motorcycle party next weekend across town, we’ll see. Have a great day.

It was a busy day, I was in northern Colorado until around 1 and then the car was delivered, we all went to school to meet our new teachers and classmates and then Peggy, Helen (her friend) and Teddy arrived. Teddy is a 2 pound (or less) 17 week old pomeranian miniature husky mix puppy! Peggy called when she picked up Helen not knowing she had a new puppy that was coming. I said,  “oh well, what can we do, come on down”. The dog is more like a new baby! We weren’t sure how our dogs would react but all’s well. We did keep Mojo away but Teddy, Lacey and the boys played and played all night long. Helen is very nice and comes from Long Island but has lived in Aspen for about 11 years. She’s the misses age and single and looking (as all these girls are) and it so happens we called Bo, our friend from Colorado Springs, who lands at the Denver airport today at 11:15am , so he’ll join us for lunch! This is too funny as he’s always bugging Lori for her to fix him up with a friend, you never know.

When the car arrived we took it off the trailer and Sam the mechanic, showed me how to work everything. It’s really amazing for 1938. There are throttle, timing and ride adjustments on the steering wheel, the stick shift is to my right on the floor and of course the steering wheel is also on the right. There’s no power anything so you have to start to brake early and use your muscles to steer. We drove it around the neighborhood and it just wasn’t running right so we popped the hood and took apart the fuel line, blew it out, put her back together and all’s well. We’ll post pictures today. I did drive it up to Mom’s to park it as there’s no key either, it has a button to start it. I was worried some kid would break off the Rolls Royce hood ornament for a necklace or something. I told Peg I was taking it up there and she said why and I told her why I was worried. She can’t comprehend this as she says she’s never locked her house door in over 40 years in Aspen. Even when she leaves town like now! In fact she says she doesn’t even know where a key is! What a different World. Anyhow I took it up to Mom’s.

Tonight is our party, we have no idea what to expect, I guess there’s 32 people coming including us four and the husband and wife hosts so that means 26 others. I guess there’s not a lot of Rolls owners out there. Peggy says there’s more but not all could make it. Cars are coming from as far away as Colorado Springs which is an hour and a half or so. She did bring a temporary license plate which I’ll put on this morning to play safe. We’ve also enlisted Roxanne and Barb Rossi across the street to babysit Teddy tonight and they’re thrilled. You see they recently lost their little Yorkie and are really missing her while they wait for their new dog they ordered from Houston which is where Teddy came from.

So there you have it, time to get moving. I just noticed Peggy is sleeping on our downstairs couch meaning Teddy must have been barking last night or something.

Wish us luck, cheer for the Broncos tonight and check back for pictures.

Before you go, check this out, it’s very interesting,

http://twistedsifter.com/2013/08/maps-that-will-help-you-make-sense-of-the-world/

This morning I’m leaving at 8am for an appointment in Loveland at 9, then another two in Ft. Collins at 10 and 11am. Then I’ll beat it back home by 1pm to meet Peggy’s mechanic who is trailering her 1938 Rolls Royce convertible to our house where it’ll live for a week or so. Saturday night we’re going to drive over to the Rolls Royce Society Ascot party or whatever it is about 6 blocks away. Then the car will stay here (actually at my Mom’s who has been kind enough to let us park it up at her house) until the following weekend when of course, you guessed it, there’s another party! This one’s at Centennial Airport (the private jet airport for Denver) and is cars and planes or something. Maybe we’ll have a Great Gatsby Party during the week.

Peggy and her friend will arrive around 6:30 and I think she’s driving her 59 Jaguar or whatever it is. She likes cars, obviously, she also has her Ferrari but we usually see her in her Chevrolet Tahoe. Anyhow she’s so sweet and down to earth but did (obviously) come from a wealthy family in Tennessee. It should be a fun weekend.

Yesterday we went to Cost Plus and a few other places as the misses is in need of a rug for the bathroom. I’m sorry to say, we came up, err home, empty. Last night she organized the kids school supplies as tonight at 5pm is the ice cream social where all the kids take their stuff to school and put it in their desks for the big day on Monday. That’s about it, lots going on at work and I have another huge deadline at the end of the month, or second trimester of the year, but no need to bore you with my pressures. I’m so busy I’ll even skip politics, so there you have it, take care, have a great day and great weekend and God Bless.

Life has a meaning, if we chose to give it one.   SARTRE

By the time the misses made it home, the house was the cleanest its been in years. Early in the morning my Mom came over to sit here while I ran Ty to his math coach while the guy installed our new microwave over the range. It was really great of her to come over at 8:45 for the 20 minutes I needed her, you can always count on my Mom.

The boys and I headed downtown around 1pm and Jag had a haircut. We then took off for the airport only to learn the misses plane was almost an hour late so we turned around and Ty had a trim as well.

We made it home by 6:20 due to evening traffic, made some dinner and settled in to watch the season premier of Duck Dynasty. Then it was off to bed. It was only an hour or so when all of a sudden, Ty sat straight up in bed and threw up! (and I had just washed the sheets yesterday!) So the misses and I (mostly the misses) cleaned up and went back to sleep. Time to wash the blankets and sheets this morning, lucky I had all the other laundry finished.

This morning I have a haircut and then some wine to ship. The misses had a good trip, everyone seemed ok but are all getting a bit older, which just happens, unfortunately, to all of us. Just another reminder that we all need to embrace every single day.

That’s about it, time to run and get moving, take care and God Bless.

This afternoon we’ll pick Mom up at 4:30 at Denver International Airport. We’re all excited to see her. First up today though, we have our new microwave installed between 8 and 11, the boys each go to their advanced math class, one at 9am and the other at 10, the house is being cleaned from either 11 to 2 or 1 to 4 and I need to get to Fed Ex, get Jag a haircut, clean the bedroom and mud room, and get something for dinner.

Just another day in the life.

Yesterday Jag was gone from 9am until 7:30pm. Ty also flew the coop from 11 until 3 and I went to Boulder and squeezed in a long overdue trip to the gym. I’m not sure of all the details from the boys so we’ll leave it at that.

Hope everyone had fun with the misses, we’re glad you had a chance to visit with her but we want her back!

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

p.s. thanks to Uncle T who made us goulash which is macaroni and hamburger that my Mom used to make a century ago!

Mom’s in California and of course we’re all missing her. How could you not? Meanwhile the boys and I ran a few errands after dropping everyone at the airport and then went school shopping at Target and Office Depot. By the time we were finished we had spent a bit over $200 on paper, pens, calculators, flash drives, post it notes and other things the school used to provide. They even had us buy teacher grading pens, kleenex and clorox wipes. I was looking for the section that would require us to buy lunch for the teachers but didn’t find it, I’m sure that’ll come later.

We had some unexpected rain last night preceded by some loud thunder. It was so loud the boys thought it opened the back door but I think it was Mojo jumping up on it to come in. We all finally went to bed around 9pm. I sure missed the misses as Ty was crawling all over me with her gone. I don’t know how she gets any sleep.

Her plane was late taking off and thus arriving. I had signed her up for Avis Preferred like I have so there’s no waiting in line for a car and it turns out they upgraded her for free to a new BMW SUV. She’s loving it from what she says. I guess Grandpa Bob is a little skinny but has good color. I think they all went to Marie Calanders for his birthday lunch.

This morning I have therapy at 9:30 but first will drop Jag at Jen’s to spend the day. Ty will come with me and then I’ll drop him at Jack’s. This is good news as I need to go to Boulder (again, we went yesterday) and then downtown for another appointment. Finally I think I need to get to Fed Ex as well. Ty has a reading/comprehension teacher at 4 and I’m determined to get at least the mud room cleaned out. I still can’t believe that school starts next Monday.

Last night I slept with the window open and you could feel Fall in the air. Here it comes, won’t be long till we’re shoveling snow.

That’s about it, time to run, hope everyone is well, enjoy and take care of our girl out there in California. I’m not big on her traveling alone, especially to the crazy state of California. Did you see Governor Jerry Brown yesterday signed a law saying boys can use the girls bathrooms if they want! It’s a new gender law designed to not discriminate against trans gender kids and since you can’t tell who is and who isn’t, anyone of any sex can now use any bathroom they want, hmmmm.

Another sign of progress, wow. God Bless.

Yes this morning the misses is going to California. We normally don’t like her traveling alone but it’s a quick trip and she’ll be back on Wednesday. Lorenzo and Jen also fly back to New York.

The boys and I have lots going on. I have to catch up on a ton of work and also get the boys some school clothes and supplies. I don’t even know where the list is so it’ll be a busy few days.

We had Grandma, Uncle T and Aunt Ali over for dinner last night. Around 7 I had to declare “dinner over, time for everyone to go home” as the misses still hadn’t packed or finished up her laundry. It’s almost 6am now and time to get moving. We had a great trip with lots of fun that we’ll have to catch you up on later. Hope everyone’s well, take care and God Bless and for those of you in California, hope you enjoy your time with the misses!