Friday night car show

Why can't modern cars be fuel efficient, beautiful, AND fun???? Dang it, I'll say it again: I was born in the wrong era.

Father's Day 2009

Afternoon at the zoo:

we ran into Snick & her dad's side of the family a few times.



How far can you jump?




from the moment we enter the ape section, they pester to get to the drums




cute & unusual oinkers


wagons ho!




Let's pretend this is our house...


so difficult to get a good shot of the carousel in action


dontcha love the Elvis glasses? (actually, I think they're "Hannah Montana; but they scream Elvis to me)


peek-a-boo


makes me want to drive to Mount Evans, etc, to see them in a natural setting


cool door handle to the lion habitat


and finally dinner at GB's Fish & Chips...only the best in Denver...indeed probably the next best to being in Ireland

in case you thought I was kidding about the hail damage

This is what the hostas looked like when we got back from Spain. Initially, I thought we must have had some kind of snail or other garden pest munching on the leaves -until I found out about the storm that blew through.


This is what they looked like after the 2nd hail storm. Yes, you're looking through a leaf.


As you can imagine, my rhubarb is in an equally sad state. The beans weren't quite out of the ground for the first storm; they faired well enough through the 2nd storm. Now you see why I said I'm glad I hadn't planted lettuce yet. The poor hostas & rhubarb, I'm cutting them back today just because they look like they're in pain (or rather, b/c they're so painful to look at?)

The storms this summer have been hard & heavy & pass pretty quickly. But for Colorado, it's been a ton of rain -at least as of lately. I suppose it's cyclical, as I remember when I moved here 13 years ago, the first 2 summers were fairly wet at the outset. Is it indicative of our snowfall this coming winter? If I recall correctly, those 1st few winters were heavy snowfall years. Then the drought -summer & winter. I suppose only time will tell if it is indeed cyclical.

The hail isn't large -so no autobody damage. But boy it came down like bullets on the broad leaves. And that last picture is about 4 inches deep outside the laundry room door, hence the laundry room flood. Area rug & every towel in the house soaked up the mess; the usual arid Colorado climate took care of the residual dampness over the next few days.

homemade goodness on a Sunday

Maddie woke up in a cooking kind of mood & made these scrummy pretzels...from scratch. Yes, she did. The girl does like to cook. She's in the kitchen nearly every other day preparing something. Usually she's successful; sometimes her experiments go slightly awry. She's learning -kind of- to read the whole way through the recipe first -to make sure she has all the ingredients so she doesn't have to improvise (usually those are the concoctions that don't get eaten). And yesterday she learned the very valuable lesson of not placing anything on the back burner when the oven is turned on (trip to Bed Bath & Beyond is necessary for a new flour container thing...oops) This recipe is from a kid's cookbook my mom sent to her. The book has a not so attractive cover, but you know the old adage about judging a book by it's cover; it's become one of Maddie's go-to cookbooks when she wants to prepare something without adult help. Lately she's been using this book, written by the host of You Are What You Eat(one of our faves on BBC America.) And then there's this, the first cookbook I bought for her exclusive use. She's used it a few times, but the Betty Crocker is for sure her favorite right now.


half sweet, half salty



I was in a cooking mood too & spent most part of the afternoon preparing our "Sunday is dessert day" treat. From the Martha Stewart Baking Handbook, Apricot-Cherry Upside Down Cake. I had to make almond paste first, though, b/c it's not something that I readily have on hand. Thanks to Sunflower Market, I had an abundance of apricots (67 cents/lb!) and cherries. Although it was a bit time consuming, it was well worth the effort. Not the usual brown sugar & pineapple upside down cake. I had to double the ingredients b/c the recipe called for an 8"x3" round cake pan, which I didn't have. Couldn't fit all the batter in the 9"x13" pan, so it was a little flat. Delish, nevertheless!

the largest nightcrawler I've ever seen, year 2

The largest nightcrawler continues to grow fatter & longer on our compost.

And why is it that my previous post about said nightcrawler under the title "the largest nightcrawler I've ever seen" gets more hits from Google than regular visitors to my blog? Folks from all over the world must be really interested in finding sizable nightcrawler pictures online, no?

He (are worms male or female or nonsexual or what? I'll say "he" for the sake of the phallic nature of worms) was about 12" when I found him stretched out crawling on the ground. (Wait, worms don't "crawl". Inching? Worming? What is it called, how they get around?) Of course when I tried to pick him up he was all "retreat retreat!" & shrank up for protection (see, phallic, right?). So these shots don't really do him justice. Just how big will he be next year? Do worms have definite lifespans? How old can they live? Just curious. FYI, I hold my breath when I turn the compost, hoping I don't spear the little guy with the pitchfork. That would be tragic & I think I'd be a little sad. Hmmm, except don't worms regenerate when cut in half? (or is that an urban legend?)


Last year


this year




he's a fast little bugger for a worm

...more than meets the eye!

Yes, we went to the midnight showing -or rather 12:01 am. I had thought about not going, but it doesn't happen often that I WANT to go to a midnight opening night showing of a movie -Batman IV (yeah yeah yeah, I know, save your breath), Charlie & the Chocolate Factory come to mind. So I scored tix online at 10:30 with bated breath as 3 of the 4 screens at the closest theatre were sold out. We arrived around 11:20, so Madster held our seats while I went to the concession stand. I have never seen lines like these at a movie theatre concession stand -4 or 5 registers open & all were 20 people deep. Yeah, I wondered if I would get back in time for the beginning or if I should just give up the quest for popcorn (MUST have popcorn; you know me). Wished the movie theatre would do like a stage theatre & dim the lights momentarily to warn folks of the impending start of the show. As it was, I got back in time for commercials, various shouts of "TRANSFORMERS!!!!!" from some teenaged male voices, & chillin' with the Madster.

The crowd was mostly kids Snick's age, give or take a couple years. Personally, I couldn't get the cartoon theme song out of my head & sang it a few times until Mad told me to stop on the way in to the theatre because I was, you know, embarrassing . "Told ya so", I responded when we heard other renditions around us.

The previews were "appropriate for all ages" but apparently MPAA didn't have my daughter in mind when they were labeled. She sat through the preview for "2012" & while folks around us chuckled, she clutched her belly & whimpered. Don't know if it was the popcorn, lack of sleep from the night before's sleepover, or the depiction of end times on a big screen, or a combination of the 3, but she immediately didn't feel well. Poor thing. She left 2x & tried to watch Transformers when it finally started, hoping it would take clear her mind. No dice. I reassured her that we could get rainchecks & come back another time. Finally she couldn't deal anymore & we left. She was close to tears as we left, she felt so bad -ill & disappointed & apologetic.

So, we will return, this weekend probably.

I did learn this much from the beginning 10 minutes that I can pass on to you: Sit as far away from the screen as possible. We had the usual choice seats almost in the center of the screen -just back from center, but it wasn't far enough. I don't know about you, but I abhor, loathe, despise movies that are sooooo freaking larger than life that you can't actually see what's happening on the screen -and I suppose theatres that are too short for said movies. There's that.

AND -for all you parents out there- just the short bit we saw was MUCH racier than the first movie. So much so that I thought the guy next to me was going to bust a nut viewing the first shot of Megan Fox...& I kind of wished I hadn't brought my DAUGHTER (or my son, if I had one). Seriously. Call me old fashioned, but the below & behind, slowly panning in & up, shot of Megan Fox's ass cheek hanging out of her too too short Daisy Dukes while she's laying prone on a motorcycle isn't exactly how I want my kids to think girls should behave or dress. And you know the subtle, over-the-kids'-heads sexual innuendos in the first flick? Not so subtle this time around.

That said, I'm still psyched to see the rest of the movie. OOOOH! and the
new Camaro???? SWEEEEEET. 306 HP AND 29 MPG??????!?!????? and that body design????!! Be still my heart!!! I think I've found the mini-van replacement (please please please seat 5!) All you folks who think Transformers is nothing more than a 2 hour Chevy commercial: Bite me!

another thing

Did I mention that daylight lasts longer in Spain? Oh yeah. 10pm in Spain looked kinda like 8pm in Denver. I'm finally over the jet lag. I think the difference in daylight had something to do with it. I really really enjoyed the longer days. Of course I already knew that from my experience in the Scottish Highlands 10 years ago.

And why can't the parks in Denver be beautiful & artful? Can't a park be practical, greenspace & pretty at the same time?? Hmmmm, no changing that anytime soon. The only recourse I can see in the short term is to create something beautiful in my own little world. Pictures when I'm done.

The Bucs are in town this weekend. I wish the Stanley Cup were visiting too.

No plans for Father's Day yet. Any suggestions?

I wanna do the Muddy Buddy in August. Anyone want to be on my team? I have a maybe from my lovely friend Amber. What can be more fun than running+biking+mud+friends+Boulder? Well, maybe some things come to mind, but it sounds like a good time.

My new, favorite kitchen utensil is my KitchenAid blender wand thing-y. OMG. Why didn't I have one sooner???? Smoothies without having to drag out the whole, honking blender? LOVE it!!

The girls are now subjecting me to daily doses of "Jonas". Is there no mercy? Sure each episode is fair enough funny. But thanks to the modern marvels of Comcast & OnDemand, we get to view each episode over&over&over&over, ad nauseum. Blech. Fine, it's not that I let them watch it all day, every day. But really, once is enough. And then there's the OnDemand JoBros music videos. It's gonna be a long summer.

mas pequeñas sobre España

egg yolks in Spain are, like, orange-y. You know how commercially bought eggs here in the States have yolks that are getting lighter in color? Yeah, I wonder what the difference is? Are they fresher? Not factory farmed? Something the chickens are fed? Just curious.

The food in restaurants is saltier than I like.

We had tapas at a small cafe in Requena. We tried the waitress (from Romania!) recommended "robos" She couldn't think of the word in English or Spanish (not that we would know it in Spanish), so she drew a picture. Pig tails. deep fried pig tails. Yes it's true. We tried it. From barbequed "snoots" in St. Louis to "robos" in Spain. Yes, the girls & I have tried pig end to end -well, maybe not pig's ears & pig's feet. And like the snoots, it was tasty.

I gained 4 pounds on vacation. And promptly lost it when I came home. I think it's the salt.

ALOT of bottled water in Spain. As in, order water at a restaurant, & they bring a bottle of mineral water. And it's not quite the same as in the UK where they will do the same unless you order tap water. It just seemed that everyone drank bottled water -not a Nalgene or Sigg in sight -except for the one Lib brought in her carry-on (?)(Yes, she packed her own, & she also brought a Hannah Montana microphone, about 10 books, and her beloved pink tape measure, along with her inseperable DS)

SHOES SHOES SHOES! OMG I was in shoe heaven!! Alot of leather shoes from Spain, and some imported from foreign lands -you know, the toxic smelling pleather kind of footwear that you can smell as you walk past. We avoided those latter. BUT the leather shoes from Spain! So many choices! Shoe stores everywhere. And I should call them boutiques because they weren't the cookie cutter stores like we have in excess here. And talk about COMFY! I swear from now on, I will strive to only buy shoes made in Spain. Seriously.

And in Spain, it is the groom's family who pays for weddings. Ha! Oh the (un)luck of the draw to be born in the US & have 4 girls!

Mas mañana!