The countdown begins.

Six weeks from this Saturday Brent and I will be on the open road making tracks to Springfield, Illinois!  Most details of the trip remain fuzzy.  Outside of the main attractions of the presidential museums and World War I Museum, nothing else is on the itinerary.

I'm getting more and more excited for our visit to Kansas City.  I picked up a new library book to help get my psyched for the World War I Museum.  The reviews for The Remains of Company D are all positive, but what intrigues me most though is how the author was drawn to write the book.  Much like Daniel Allen's story haunts me, James Carl Nelson's long lost relative's harrowing brush with death haunted him.

In addition to the World War I Museum, we'll be hitting the Truman gems in Independence while we stay in Kansas City.  One of Brent's requests was for us to stay in a Westin at least one night on our road trip.  Kansas City has the Westin Crown Plaza.  So we know where we'll be staying for two nights of the road trip, hopefully.  No reservations - we're just going to show up and ask if they have a room at the inn.  If it's anything like sleeping at the Westin in Houston, those will be the best two nights of sleep we get all year.  I love their down comforters!

I think we may have time to do one day in St. Louis.  We could eat some famous St. Louis barbecue, maybe take a helicopter tour of the city and the Gateway Arch, and go on a riverboat ride.  We shall see.  Six more weeks!

Horsin' around at Tip Top Ranch

This past weekend was family reunion weekend for my mom's side of the family.  Saturday night the B Bunch rolled into Tip Top Ranch in Bellevue, Colorado.  We weren't exactly greeted at the gate or anything.  We all meandered around making ourselves at home near the tire swings.  Eventually, pony rides started up and the younger crowd got escorted around a loop.  Dinner was served.  One curmudgeonly woman hollered at us, "BEANS!"  And after serving up the beans, she hollered "HAMBURGERS, CHEESEBURGERS, HOT DOGS, OR BRATS!!"  No smile.  No thanks for coming to visit and dropping wads of cash.

Adorable nephew, Moxon!

After dinner, my mom, Brent, and I wandered back down towards the horse stables to sign our lives away in order to go on a sunset horseback ride.  Mom is a veteran horse rider.  Me, I've had a certain phobia about horses since a traumatic experience at Girl Scout Camp when I was eleven.  And Brent, I later learn, had never been on a horse in his life.  We wait patiently for our guide to assign us our horses.

Brent got Daisy.  Mom got Jessie.  And I got Jake.  Jake was big and brown.  That was a good sign for me.  I had two things working for me - Jake was not named Thunder and was not white.  Jake was an eager beaver.  As soon as the first horses started moving out of the stable, Jake got in step and headed towards the gate.  A horse with cruise control, I thought.  I just let him do his thing.  I figured he'd been down the trail we were on hundreds of times.

Before too long, a gap began to grow between us and the horse in front.  It turns out Jake's cruise control was a slow one.  Jake didn't like being passed, however.  Another rider came alongside (I should know her name, after all, she was a relative, but I had no idea who she was) and Jake started to get fidgety.  A girl guide came up next to me and said to be careful because Jake didn't like being beside other horses.  Wonderful, I thought.  I had unsocial horse surrounded by twenty amateurs on horses.

My mom and Brent were back at the end of the line.  I tried to whoa Jake to a stop so we could wait for them but he had other ideas.  One pace Jake kept truckin' along.  I managed to steer him to the left in a giant circle to come up behind Brent.  As long as Jake had his nose in another horse's butt, he was happy.  Our line of horses trekked their way down a trail and through a meadow.  We rounded a lake and in no time at all we left the trail and headed up into the timber.  Our path narrowed and we started dodging tree branches and climbing rocks.

Jake was more interested in the yummy green vegetation under foot than in getting us from point A to point B.  At one point the line halted and Jake and I were stuck between two large trees with a large rock in front of us.  Once the line started moving again, I had to really kick at stubborn Jake to get him to venture forth and leap upwards over the rocks and into more timber.  When he finally inched forward and decided his footing was well enough to jump, he lunged higher than I expected and threw me up out of my saddle.  My sunglasses flew off my head and down by back.  I landed square on them when my butt returned to the saddle.

The rest of the ride was peaceful, even if slightly nerve wracking.  One pace Jake eventually found his way to the very end of the line.  Even the guides gave up on Jake and they left us to bring up the far rear.  No matter the force or repetitiveness of my kicks, he went no faster.  We looped are way back down the hill and around the lake we'd passed as the sun was starting to set.  By the time we hit the meadow the bright moon was hanging high in the summer sky.

Each horse returned itself and their rider to the stable.  As we approached the buildings of Tip Top, I shifted in my saddle and looked back down the trail we'd just come.  "Not too bad, Jake.  Thanks for being nice to me," I said.  When I slid off the saddle I patted his side and repeated my thanks.

I'm still not sure I like horses, but at least I now have one good memory with a horse.

Me and one-pace-Jake.

Mom and Jessie

Brent and Daisy

Awww.  Post ride obligatory scrapbook photo!

How does the garden grow?

The garden is growing strong!  We have blossoms, mini gourds, pumpkin blossoms, onion blossoms, and green tomatoes!  Some tomato plants are lost beyond recovery and the egg plants are still very stunted.  Mom harvested a jalapeno and a few tomatoes last week.  I'm going to make my awesome cheddar, parmesan and jalapeno dip.  It's been too long since I've made it but with fresh jalapeno as an inspiration, I may even attempt to make a homemade bread bowl to put it in!

  

All this green makes me really wish I would have grabbed a blueberry plant or two to try.  Or raspberries.  And strawberries.  Maybe next year!  

The deed is done. Finally!

It's been seven years since I graduated from the University of Wyoming with a bachelor's degree in Journalism.  At the time, I had no grand plan to take on the world of journalism and become the next Walter Cronkite or anything.  The closest I got to getting my foot in the newsroom was a phone interview with the Ketchikan Daily News in Alaska.

I thought it would be cool if I could become a photojournalist.  Travel the globe and get paid to take pictures - who would not want that life?!  Easier dreamed about than done.  Fast forward seven years and I have finally mailed an article submission to a magazine.  My credentials on the article, if it gets accepted, will read Archivist for the Women of the Corps Collection.

The article is about preserving Marine Corps history and the need for Marines to become more active in collecting and sharing their history.  It debunks a few myths about donating historical objects and manuscripts and shares the story of Anne Workman.  She enlisted as Marine in 1944 and was trained as a precision watch repairmen.  She would receive battle-hardened watches, fix them, and then send them back overseas.

I have no idea whether the article will get published but it's exciting knowing the possibility is out there.  I've always heard its easier to get published once you've got a credit or two under your belt.  We'll see where it takes me.

For now, I just have to wait.  It could take weeks before I hear anything and months before it gets published.  I'll be sure to holler from the rooftops if it happens.  

Finding drugs in the backyard.

A preview of my weekend... 

A bright idea.

Saturday night Brent and I went to my brother and sister-in-law's house for a barbecue.  The food was great...

The company was entertaining (and adorable) ....

And dessert was THE perfect summer dessert...SMORES!

As Brent, Monty, and I were kicking it on the patio in the dark, the night had finally cooled to something bearable.  There were few mosquitoes out because Monty and Becky had a citronella candle thing on their patio table.  Notice the cool pottery jar and nice sized flame in this photo ....

I asked Becky where they got it and she said Jax Farm and Ranch - no surprise there.  I thought it was cool and that it would be perfect for my patio.  It would ward off bugs and light up the patio kind of like a mini campfire.  So yesterday Brent and I headed off to Jax Farm and Ranch to find one of our own.  We found one - for $30!!! Oy!! For what, I ask?? Clay and one small piece of tin to hold the wick and oil.  No way, I thought.  It would be cheaper to make something.  Enter the bright idea.

We were in the oil lamp accessory aisle and I found an old school lamp topper for $3.99.  I turned and said to Brent, "Hey, I bet this would fit on a mason jar."  When we got home, I grabbed a mason jar and Brent grabbed his drill and worked his magic.  Finished product with bug citronella oil ....

We rock.  And yes, I know we're not the first cave people to bring fire to a mason jar.  Lehman's sells a whole variety of mason jar wick toppers and what nots.  It was that moment of ingenuity and simple task of doing it ourselves that makes it wonderful.  Again, I say, we rock!!

Saturday afternoon hike

Errands. Best enjoyed in small doses.

Why does everything have to be a pain in the neck?  Lines, parking, people??  This morning I had a few errands to get done before work.  Simple things.

First, I needed to stop by the county clerk to get a vehicle title.  Why?  A snow storm in December prevented the delivery of the original title to my grandpa's 1967 Chevy Impala.  The postman returned the title back to Denver.  Months later I called the County Clerk and was told to come in with the registration and my ID and I could get a duplicate title free of charge.  I arrived today at 8:30 and received number 37.  They were serving number 11.  Two people were working.  A dozen were still on mid-morning coffee break in plain site and acting like we were all inconveniencing them by requesting the services our tax dollars are paying them for.  After a 30 minute wait, I was finally beckoned forward like a French noble to the guillotine.  After placing my ID and the registration on the desk and making my request, I was told there would be an $8.50 service charge!!  I told the lady about my phone conversation and that it was unfair for me to pay when it was not my fault the title was never delivered to me.  She huffed and went to talk to her supervisor.  She came back with a mouth full of chocolate and started gesticulating for me to sign the papers she had tossed in front of me.  She said their system was down and she would just give it to me.  Victory!

Second, I went to the lovely financial establishment that is my bank.  This has been my bank since before I was born...literally.  My grandparents started an account for me.  To this day I refuse to confirm my grandmother is deceased because they would change the account number on me.  I refuse.  I'm a creature of habit and sentimental comfort and if I want my same account number then as far as my bank is concerned, my grandma will live forever!  Anywho, at nearly three decades old I'm proud to say I've avoided credit cards at all costs.  I never had a reason for them.  But the lure of stockpiling Disney Rewards and attempting to acquire a Mickey VISA awakened me to the fact that never ever, ever having a credit card is just as bad as bad credit.  It's horribly messed up logic.  It makes my blood boil thinking about how many hoops I have to jump through because everyone who buried themselves in debt has ruined the financial world.  So I went to MY bank and asked for a credit card.  DENIED.  I've bought a car, a motorcycle, and computers on credit, and a house...all but the last, paid off in full - early!!!  I make decent money and save most of it.  This world is messed the fuck up!  Yes, I cursed - that's how mad I get when I think about!  So, the path to some credit card credit on my credit history is all thorns and no roses.

Third, I had to go pick up pieces of cheap plastic from Comcast in order to get my televisions to work again.  The company's grand conversion to digital yesterday means millions of homes get filled with converter boxes.  What's green about this?  Nothing.  I stood in a growing line outside, in the heat, waiting for Comcast to open its doors.  We were all there to pick up self-install kits.  Pretty good deal right?  Company is improving their service via the labor of all of their customers.  I'm sure we'll get a bill to reflect our improved service shortly.  I didn't mind at first because Brent's pretty handy and knows how to do whatever it is Comcast wanted done.  Fast forward to post-install and I have one working television, one non-working television, and I'm on hold with Comcast's customer service help line.  So much for simplicity.

Anywho, like I said, errands ... best enjoyed in small doses.  I'm not doing a single one tomorrow.

The flowers bloom at midnight.

It's been a long few months around these parts.  And a long few years.  Time seems to move very slowly somedays.  Tick, Tock.  Tick, Tock.  On Friday, Brent closed on his house.  FINALLY!!  This was after many months of packing, house repairs, ridiculous delays because of drunk (yes, drunk), incompetent real estate agents, and irresponsible home buyers.

After closing, Brent drove down to Denver to meet up with Bryn, Heidi, and Me at Chilli's.  Heidi drove my silver bullet home and placed my keys in her flower pot.  Her text to me when she got home was the funniest text I've ever received.  "The silver bullet and I are home.  The flowers bloom at midnight."  I missed the pick-up because Brent, Bryn, and I went to Old Chicago's and then had to crash at Bryn's house.

It was fun hanging out under the patio lights on the roof of Old Chicago.  Brent met up with a childhood friend he hadn't seen in a long time.  No pictures of him, or his date, which I'm kicking myself about now.  Simple entertainment, folks!

Saturday morning we enjoyed some lazy morning conversation at Bryn's before heading back to Heidi's to get my car.  Once I finally made it back to the Fort, I met up with my mom at Green Acre to work on the garden and whatever else crossed my path.  I spent most of my time weeding my Grandma's rose bed. Our garden tomatoes and peppers seem stunted - some have leaves that have yellowed, purpled, and curled.

There is still some hope for the garden though.  We have squash starting and lots of potential pumpkin blooms.  Our corn looks pretty good.  The weeds were wrapping themselves around some corn stalks so I tried to thin some of those out.  Below is the before shot before weeding.   

This big pile of green is a mix of squash and pumpkin vines.  There's hope for a great pumpkin in there.  I'm crossing my fingers.  There are a few other smaller starts that may really take off this week.  Yesterday, Mom and I went back up to Green Acre and planted two more tomato plants and a pepper plant.  We added some fertilizer to all of the sickly looking plants.  I raked up some sticks and filled in random horse hoof holes with dirt.

Another great weekend in the bag.  I don't know what the next one will bring but I'm looking forward to it! 

July 4th on the 5th

I had to work the evening of July 4th.  I got to stand out in the rain and direct traffic, move barricades, and answer the same question about a thousand times.  "Are the fireworks cancelled?"  It will be a night to remember.  I was cold, wet, and grumpy when I got home.  I heard a few booms and saw a few colorful bursts, but mostly I saw rain, headlights, and pedestrians.  I was glad the fireworks weren't cancelled.  Otherwise, I would have had to do it all again last night.

Loveland did cancel their fireworks, which meant that I had the chance to race down there after work last night to meet up with Brent and his parents.  For the last three years, we've gone to the fireworks in Loveland.  With the new job, I put a kink in what was the start of that tradition.  The tradition lives!  I made it down there with perfect timing to get parked and walk to where Brent and family were located.  

The obligatory photos turned out great!  They will make for some fun scrapbook pages!  The fireworks were great.  The grass was dry.  My backrest was perfect!  I'm glad I got a July 4th on the 5th!  Happy Belated Birthday, America!!