A Year of Change

The boys are having a great time at fencing. It’s kind of weird with them gone all day, I guess it’s a preview of what’s to come with school. Yesterday we showed up early to catch them in all their gear and sabers fencing. They’re both pretty good after watching them spar with the other kids. I think their height and all their experience with Star Wars light sabers helps them.

We went to Costco yesterday and bought Lacey a mew memory foam bed for the front room. This way she has one upstairs and downstairs. It’s taking her a little bit to get used to it and she still lies on the floor most of the time but Mojo jumped right in. After Costco and a trip to the grocery store and the shoe repair shop it was time to get the boys.

Physical Therapy was tough, I’m sore all over from the waist down. My quads, hamstrings and glutes are sore sore sore. It’s a good sore though and the only way I’ll get better is to build my muscles back up.

That’s about it, time to get moving. We splurged and bought a new coffee maker so we’re waiting for the filter to soak so we can make our coffee. Have a great day and God Bless.

Here’s a comment from Aunt Robi,

robi says:

The website for the blog is super slow this morning, not sure what’s going on. Yesterday the boys had fencing all day and had a blast. After that they did some reading and then watched Star Trek before heading to bed. The youngest and I actually went up early without finishing the movie.

I’m back to PT for my knee at 8:30 this morning and then need to box some wine and head to Fed Ex. We’re not sure what we’re doing this weekend now as the St Regis where we have a certificate for a free suite, is sold out.

It’s nice and cool outside and smells like a skunk! I hope the big dog doesn’t find one. Not a whole lot more going on, it’s almost August which means school will soon start and then my favorite season, Fall, will follow.

That’s it for today, I almost forgot, here’s a comment from Aunt Robi,

robi says:

Today it starts for the next 5 days, from 9am until 3pm. Everyone is excited! Here’s a couple comments from yesterday,

• Lori says:

  July 28, 2013 at 11:45 pm

  We LOVE that you Love our furry friends:-)

  We know Aunt Ali was thinking of Lacey, she always does think of both doggies. It’s so funny though as in the morning Lacey is like a 2 year old pup bounding up and down the stairs wanting food. I think her arthritis must subside during the night when she’s sleeping. You should see her at 5am!

  Yesterday I cleaned up and organized a little bit around here. The boys and I also went to the Apple Store as a coffee cup fell out of the cupboard right on to my phone and shattered the screen. So, I made the jump to the I Phone. I know, I know, it tracks your every movement but we’re all tracked anyhow. What a World we live in these days where everything, and I mean everything, we do is now filtered through some system to screen for I guess bad guys or something. Thankfully we’re all pretty harmless but it is all 1984. (from the George Orwell book)

  It’s really been raining around here which is good but unusual. We keep going in and out of some sort of monsoon pattern. Too weird. We have to get up to Grandma’s and see her new piano and let her play us a song. I’ll bet Uncle T is getting pretty damn good as he practices every day (he doesn’t work) and I hear is playing well.

  This weekend we’re, you guessed it, back up in the hills showing our pre sell wines and then next weekend Lorenzo and his wife Jen are here and we’re off to Steamboat for the Steamboat Wine Festival and then we’re supposed to go to the Roundup River Ranch event the following weekend as we’re guests of our friends who are board members. The Roundup Ranch was started by Paul Newman and serves critically and terminally ill children from 8 surrounding states providing them with a summer camp they can go to. They have a full time medical staff and hospital on site for campers and their family’s to go to for free. We are donating to the annual auction. We might pass as we also have a Rolls Royce event here in Denver on the same day (the 17th) and our friend Peggy from Aspen is coming down with her 1934 Rolls and we told her to stay with us. Besides we’re worn out from all these parties and events. Luckily we’re not super wealthy as it seems all these really rich people do is party party party! I don’t know how they do it. So that’s the next 3 weekends, throw in the misses trip to Sacramento to see her dad and Grandma Dixie and Pa Don and then school starts on the 19th! Summer sure did go fast!

  Time to run, hope everyone is well, have a great week and God Bless.

Yesterday we arrived in Aspen about 11:30 at our friends house after stopping at the Ranch to change clothes. We loaded up Greg, Peter and Patricia in our truck and headed out for the 37th Annual Aspenblow Party. This party has been put on by a bunch of wealthy locals for 37 years (that’s why it’s called the “annual” party, ha ha) at the top of Ajax Mountain but on the backside. Ajax is the main ski mountain in the town of Aspen but to get to the backside, you have to drive around it and then go about 6 miles up a steep bumpy dirt road. Once we neared the top, we were met by security guys to check who you are as its invitation only. I managed to talk my way into parking right where the party was rather than along the road and then walking a few football fields up the steep road. Lucky for my knee!

Right out in the middle of the mountain full of wildflowers was a band, a large wooden dance floor, a bunch of tents, the caterers cooking up great bbq, assorted tables, chairs and hay bales and of course the bar, all spread around the meadow at 11,000 feet high. The vistas of the mountains behind us were amazing. If you looked up the hill just a little towards the town you could see the lodge at the top of Aspen Mountain Ski Area. Looking the other way you saw unspoiled mountains that looked rugged and untouched for thousands of years.

The party lasted until 4pm when we loaded up in my truck (thank God we  drove the truck) and headed down the hill. We made it back to Greg and Billie’s and visited a while before heading back to the Ranch. We made it there by 6pm and knowing all the heavy traffic on Sunday’s, decided to just throw our stuff in the truck and head home. Had we known the rain we were going to run into, we probably would have spent the night. Anyhow we were home by 9:30. The boys went to Uncle T’s but Ty spent most of the day with Ben. Jag stayed at Tom and Ali’s and I went across the street and brought Ty home with us. Aunt Ali thoughtfully put Mojo’s bed in the kitchen for Lacey but didn’t know it was full of some creepy crawling bugs! I first smelled wet dog and then the misses pointed out the bed so I picked it up and threw it out only to find a bunch of bugs scurrying here there and everywhere! Sweet sentiment on Aunt Ali’s part though. I finally chased them all down and cleaned up and we were in bed by 10pm.

So a fun party, a long drive and good to be home. Rain today which is nice and I think we’re cleaning up the house. Take care and God Bless.

Just a heads up, we’ll be posting tomorrow afternoon so don’t be expecting a post in the morning!

Today we’re off to Aspen, just the misses and I, at 7:30am. The boys will be spending the night with Uncle T and Aunt Ali. We have a party we’re going to from 12 to 4 today and then will probably have dinner with friends, spend the night at the Ranch and head home in the morning.

Yesterday the boys were at Water World with Ben, his brother and Mom for the entire day. They had a blast and we’re thrilled Jen (Ben’s Mom) took them as we promised they’d somehow get there this summer and we sure didn’t want to go! Then Ben spent the night and all the boys will go over to his house (across the street) at 7:30 when we leave. Around 10 or 11am they’ll then go to Uncle T’s but I’m sure be back up here playing for most of the day.

Last night we went to John and Julie’s party at 6pm. They moved from Evergreen to Cherry Creek and it was fun. We stayed until about 8 and then headed home to pack. Lots of fun people and friends and a good time.

The sales meeting went well yesterday and then the misses and I ran downtown to pick up a new pair of jeans she found on sale. Throw in a couple of pizza’s for the boys and that’s about it. The dogs are fine and it’s a bit cooler today, thankfully.

So have a great weekend and we’ll talk to you tomorrow afternoon!

God Bless.

Annette says:

Good morning, as you probably guessed we had another sleepover at our house last night.    The boys played all day with the neighbor boy across the street. Ben’s mom took the boys to a local restaurant for lunch and Ben had dinner with us for the third consecutive evening. We don’t mind. The kiddos enjoy having a guest, and as I recall my best friend Kristin was at my house for most dinners that my mom served.

The Mr. ran a lot of errands yesterday and had his Dr. appointment in Vail.  The Doc asked, “What did you do to my knee?” The Mr. stretched his tendons on the outer part of his knee and also did something to his quad.  He is back to PT, but the soonest they can get him in is next Tuesday…bummer.

The youngest used his barefoot as a brake while riding his scooter yesterday and I believe he has road rash on the sole of his little foot.  He is really tough and I’m sure will never brake without a shoe on again. He had an icepack tied to the bottom of his foot when he went to bed last night.

What did you think of our pseudo sumo wrestlers? They had so much fun….the boys would run from the kitchen to the dining room and slide on their bellies.  They would have to roll onto their backs and rock back and forth to gain enough momentum to get up. They also launched themselves onto our bed…again having to roll for position.  Funny kids.

The Mr. has to box up many cases of wine to take to a sales meeting tomorrow and I have meetings downtown from 11:00 to 4:30…needless to say he has the boys.

Love to all.

God Bless

I’m off in an hour at 7am to Vail to my knee doc, hope it’s ok. Here’s a comment from Aunt Robi,

Robi says:

Must have been in the mid 90’s yesterday and more to come today but tomorrow it’ll cool down, or so they say. The boys played hard after Jag helped me deliver some wine samples. Jack, Ty and Jag all went to Jack’s pool and then came here along with his sister Maddy. A few pizza’s later Maddy went home and then Jack spent the night. This morning he’ll go to swimming and our boys will go to their math tutor. They’re both in advanced math thanks to the misses and at the rate they’re going, they’ll be way ahead in their respective classes. Speaking of classes, the misses and I dropped in on the school principal yesterday to make sure the boys have the teachers the misses wants them to. There’s lots of posturing and lobbying throughout the year to ensure that you get the teacher you want the next year!

This morning I’m off to Boulder and speaking of Boulder, my Mom is getting her new piano delivered today! You see she gave the one in her house to us and then started missing playing so she went out and bought one, good for her.

My knee seems a little less swollen but tomorrow I’m off to Vail for a follow up appointment. I hope it calms down as I sure don’t want that huge needle they use to drain it going in my knee.

Then Thursday I’ll be boxing wine for Fridays sales meeting and creating a ton of paperwork to hand out to the team. Next week the boys start fencing camp. It’s 5 days straight and the teacher is from somewhere in eastern Europe and still coaches Olympic team members here in the U.S. They’re, as you can imagine, both looking forward to it. While they think it’s all about playing with swords, it’s really all about discipline which any kid can always use.

That’s about it, no politics today as I’m trying hard to abstain. But did you see George Zimmerman saved a family of 4 from a car wreck last week? It took the media a full week to report this but it finally came out. Seems he pulled the family from a bad car wreck. Now this doesn’t mean anything about the trial, but it does say something about the guys character.

Time to run, God Bless.

Now I’m not a big watcher of golf on tv, kind of boring, but I did catch my favorite golfer winning the British Open. First off, anytime an American wins anything “British” it’s a good thing, but to have Phil Mickleson win was great. I don’t know why I like him, he just seems like a good guy with a good family who you want to root for. I guess it was a come from behind victory and one of the best rounds ever played. I should defer to Uncle T as he’s somewhat of an expert on most sports, including golf. Anyhow I just happened to switch the channel to the Open at the right time to see him win. Go America!

Today it’ll be hot, maybe 102 or more! I’ll start my day with a conference call and then be boxing some wine. I really need to take it easy as I screwed me knee up more than usual sometime last week.

I guess Kate Middleton (why doesn’t she take her husbands name?) is in labor. I guess we should be happy happy happy for her but really, it’s all over the news every few minutes with bets being placed all over the World on everything from the sex to the weight, length, time of birth and name, boy are our priorities out of whack!

Gerald, our 82 year old farmer friend, just called as the chickens laid 3 dozen eggs for us. He usually calls around 6:30 as he’s an early riser too. We get 90% of our eggs from him only buying from a store every now and then when those finicky chickens decide not to lay any eggs. Usually when it’s this hot, they don’t lay many eggs. When we move to a new place, we’re getting chickens for sure!

Lots to do, no politics today, I’ll leave that to the race baiters (Sharpton, Jackson, etc.) and the Pres, I’m sure they’ll stir something up! Oh did you hear, the Pres and his family are going to Martha’s Vineyard for vacation while all these people are being furloughed due to the sequester, and this is right after his 100 million dollar African vacation, nice. Whoops, I said no politics, sorry, sometimes I just can’t help myself.

God Bless.