Day 13 - A fictional book

Hmm, last fictional book I read was Montana 1948.

Sometimes I go to the library and just wander. I'll walk in with no plan at all and walk out with nothing in my hands. I'll browse. I'll go down every aisle, pick up books, flip through them, and put them back. I'm not one to judge a book by its cover. Picking the next book to read is quite the trial. I have to be in the right mood or I'll half heartedly start a book and never finish it. 


Montana 1948 caught my attention. It was on the Staff Pick shelf. The cover caught my eye, then the brief synopsis on the back. I started it and could hardly put it down. It was a short, quick read, but very powerful. It's a story set in small town Montana about a young boy, his father the Sheriff, and his uncle who is caught molesting Indian women. It's a book with an underlying moral to the story that is reminiscent of To Killing A Mockingbird or Summer of the Monkeys. I was impressed by my Staff Pick and have since recommended the book to many friends.

Day 12 - Something you are OCD about

Not really sure about this one...I used to be OCD about wearing socks to bed, but I've noticed more and more that's no longer an issue.  I can't really say that I'm super OCD about anything.  I don't have to hold my coffee cup a certain way.  I don't hoard anything.  As I just told Brent, "I'm crazy, but not that crazy."  Hmmm, kind of a dumb blog of the day, but I just can't think of anything.

Day 11 - A photo of you recently

Me and my nephew at the Mini Moo Classic a couple of weeks ago!  Take a close look, folks, there will be less and less of me.  And metal in my mouth soon.  Woo!

Day 10 - A photo taken over 10 years ago of you

I have a whole bunch of scanned photos on my computer so this one is easy to track down...

This sums up my childhood - doing my best to hang with the boys.  I think we spent more time on bicycles than doing anything else.  Playing baseball probably comes in a close second.  

Day Nine - A photo that you took

Seems like an easy blog post for the day....I take thousands of pictures a year so I'll just randomly open my photo program, close my eyes, and pick...standby....

HA! Random!  I took this photo a little over a year ago while on a photo adventure with Vanessa, Tracy, and Ismael.  It was taken just outside of the District One office.  I really liked the composition... the District One officers enforce the Dismount Zones.  Anywho, months before I applied for a job at PD.  Now I'm approaching 9 months with the department.  My how quickly life changes directions!!

Day Eight - A photo that makes you angry/sad

This makes me sad - only for the reason that my awesome, cuddly, fun-loving dog Brinkley Miles grew up so dang fast!!  I can't believe how fast the puppy days flew by.  I wish I could reverse time and do it all again.  It makes me sad to think he's aging so fast.  Three already!!  I've had some great dogs in my life (RIP Buttons, Shelby, Kodiak, and Pebbles!)  I wish dogs had the same life span as humans.  My time with Brinkley Miles is going by way too quickly.

Anywho, I miss that tiny little furball that I brought home three years ago.  He helped make my new place a home!

Day Seven - A photo that makes you happy

That's me in the middle of my grandma and grandpa.  I miss my grandparent's like crazy and think of them everyday.  There are some pictures that make me sad, but this picture always makes me happy.  I love how content I look - happy as a clam in the middle of grandma and grandpa.  I was blessed to have so many awesome years with my grandparents before they passed.  This reminds me of that.  There were many days spent at their house, often times with me plopped right next to them, laughing and joking.  They were always happy to see my brothers and me.  Their expressions remind me of their personalities.  My grandpa even has his signature slightly cocked hat and a smile, like he just said, "See ya around like a hubcap."

Anywho, this photo makes me happy!

Day Six - 20 of my favorite things

I love lists!  And what better blog than a list of my favorite things!

1. Books - everything about them
2. Summer thunderstorms
3. The sweet smell of basil
4. S'mores
5. Scrabble with the girls
6. Writing - by click of the keyboard or scratch of pen to paper 
7. Reading - those books that make hours disappear in what seems like minutes
8. Coffee
9. Traveling - new places, new people, new things - always an adventure
10. My PHS hoodie - 13 years old and still a warm hug each time I wear it
11. The first snowstorm of the season
12. The crunch of fall leaves under my feet!! 
13. The West Wing marathons
14. My iPhone
15. A big Brinkley Miles smile!
16. Sweet potato fries
17. Facebook
18. Goofin' around with Moxon James
19. My new living room furniture!! 
20. A challenge!

Campiversary

The weekend was spent with my most favorite people on the plant, my UW girls!  The usual gang got together to for a do-over of the camping weekend that got rained out.  It was a great weekend!  On Saturday, we met everyone up near Nederland at our campsite.  After setting up tents, we lounged around in our camp chairs and caught up on each other's coming and goings while eating lunch.  Then we split up for hiking.

Part of the group headed off on a creek finding trip.  Heidi, Bryn, and I took a short walk turned two mile hike around the campground.  The flat walk turned into a downhill and then uphill hike.  It was fun and good exercise!  Bryn and I want to hike a 14'er next summer.  I can tell ya this - I'm going to need a lot more hikes that kick my butt before I'd be in any shape to hike one of those.  Our hike pooped us out and built our appetite for dinner. 

Trooper Heidi taking on the Oh Shit hill.  Towards the top she threatened us with loss of friendship if our campsite wasn't nearby.  We lucked out and she said we could still be friends.  Whew!

One view from the hike around our campground.

Brinkley Miles with his happy camper smile!! He LOVES camping!!

When all the campers returned to the campsite, Brent and Jason worked on the campfire.  Brent fired it up the old fashion way.  Spark, smoke, and flames within minutes - always impressive.  After we were all stuffed from dinner we took a group photo!!  From there it was all about smores and enjoying the moonlight!!

Boulder, CO

One of the coolest parts of the weekend was realizing that it was our anniversary weekend.  Eleven years ago, Heidi, Bryn, and I all met while moving into the dorms at the University of Wyoming.  We lived on the same floor and slowly became friends.  It's amazing to think of all that we've been through and that we're best of friends.  I can't imagine life without my UW girls!!!  We make the most of life and always keep it entertaining!!

Day Five: Your Favorite Quote

It's hard to pick a favorite quote.  There are so many that I've held onto over the years that make me laugh every time I read them.  Most of them come The West Wing, Gilmore Girls, or Friends.  Some quotes come from characters in history like Truman or Roosevelt.  So, due to lack of any decision making ability tonight, I'll just post a few of my favorites and save my indecisive self from having to narrow it down to a favorite.

From Gilmore Girls...

Lorelai: Well, we like our Internet slow, okay? We can turn it on, walk around, dance, make a sandwich. With DSL, there's no dancing, no walking, and we'd starve. It'd be all work and no play.


Lorelai: Oh, I can't stop drinking the coffee. If I stop drinking the coffee, I stop doing the standing and the walking and the words putting-into-sentence doing.


Lorelai: We’re almost there and nowhere near it. All that matters is we’re going.

From the West Wing...

Bartlet: [about Senator Stackhouse] Could he be a bigger horse's patoot?

Leo: I'm not really sure what part of a horse that is.

Bartlet: We're for freedom of speech everywhere. We're for freedom to worship everywhere. We're for freedom to learn... for everybody. And because in our time, you can build a bomb in your country and bring it to my country, what goes on in your country is very much my business.

Sam: Nobody got hurt at the Boston Tea Party. The only people that got hurt was some fancy boys who didn't have anything to wash down their crumpets with. We jumped out from behind bushes, while the British came down the road in their bright red jackets, but never has a war been so courteously declared. It was on parchment with calligraphy and "Your highness, we beseech you on this day in Philadelphia to bite me, if you please."

Day Four - Your favorite book

Few people have heard of Summer of the Monkeys by Wilson Rawls.  He's the guy who wrote Where the Red Fern Grows, a book I refuse to read.  Summer of the Monkeys is the tale of 14 year old Jayberry and his quest to catch some circus monkeys that escaped from a circus wagon traveling through the Ozarks.  The reward money for capturing the 28 monkeys has him daydreaming about picking out his own pony and shooting his new .22, two things he insists every boy needs to have.  He tries method after method to catch the monkeys, all while being teased and sassed by his parents and little sister Daisy, who has a crippled leg.  

He loses his britches, gets his first taste of drunkenness, and learns a lesson about tenacity and persistent.  Ultimately, Jayberry learns a tough lesson about family and priorities.  Instead of buying his pony and gun, he puts the money towards his little sister's much needed operation after being cleverly enlightened to the idea by his grandfather who convinces Jayberry to purchase a crippled horse over all the others.  While walking his crippled pony up to his house, his grandfather's clever plan hits Jayberry like a ton of bricks.

The whole book is so well written that it's like watching a movie with every word read.  I read this book every year and I refuse to watch the movie because I know it will never compare to the one that goes through my head.

If you've never read it, I highly, HIGHLY recommend it.

Day Three - Your favorite television program

The West Wing is hands down my all-time favorite television show.  This will forever be my favorite show.  It's smart, witty, fast-paced.  My heart squees just thinking about this show.  I own the series on DVD and have watched these DVDs more than any others that I own.  I can quote parts of every episode verbatim.  There are not enough words to explain my love for this show.  I miss it dearly!

And now, Brent, Brinkley, and I are off to go camping!!!   

Day Two - Your Favorite Movie

This will never change.  My all-time favorite movie is The Lion King.  I vividly remember waiting for it to come out and going to the theatre to see it.  I remember crying when Mufasa died and laughing at Timon and Pumba teach Simba the finer things in life.  I was 13 when the movie came out.  My original obsession with the movie pre-release began because I had a massive crush on Teenbeat heartthrob Jonathan Taylor Thomas who provided the voice for Simba.  My bedroom walls were lined with his pin-ups.  I had The Lion King bed sheets, pillows, blankets, school folders...


My love for the movie has never faded.  I still hang on to many items from days past.  I have The Lion King posters adorning my walls.  They're a bit more refined now...they're framed!  I'm still kicking myself for not paying $500 for a signed movie poster on my first trip to Walt Disney World.  We'll be rolling up on it's 20th anniversary soon and I really hope they release it in theaters again.  Wishful thinking.  It was the highest grossing film in history when it was released so I'm hoping that's a motivator for Disney.


Anywho, so that's my favorite movie.  But I have two have an honorable mention for my close second choice.  Runaway Bride with Richard Gere and Julia Roberts is probably my most watched movie of all time.  It's the minor details that make this movie hilarious and heartwarming.  And the soundtrack is perfect!!



It's one of those feel good movies that gets better each time I watch it. It has some of the best lines and the chemistry between Gere and Roberts is so much fun to watch. All of the characters are hilarious. It's like the Stars Hollow of the big screen. Living in an oddball small town like Hail, Maryland would be so much fun. There would be guaranteed smiles everyday knowing that you could listen to "Wake up with Flem" on the radio and visit Curl Up & Dye for your daily fix of quirkiness!


Just the whole idea of "getting your ducks in a row" and not turning in your running shoes until you find the one person that causes you to suddenly forget how to climb a fence is pretty heart warming.


Good movies.  I have the urge to watch them both now.

Day One - Your Favorite Song

I'm a history geek.  Most people who know me know this.  If people were on the fence about that decision this will push it over to the geek side.  My favorite song is Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire."  The song was written in 1989 by Billy Joel.  I was 8 in 1989 and don't remember the song coming out.  I was raised on country music so I didn't hear this song until sitting in a history class in the summer of 2006.

It was the first day of class and the song was our introduction to the class, which was United States History 1945 to 1991.  Professor Knaus, who became my favorite at CSU, asked the class what they thought we were going to learn about in the class.  Kids started shouting out things like "Woodstock" and "Kennedy" and "Vietnam."  Then a girl said, "I hope we don't talk about the Cold War."  Bing, bing, bing.  Everyone groaned in agreement with her.  Just those words, "Cold War" put a smile on my face.  Knaus asked why I was smiling when everyone else was grumbling.  I said "Everything from 1945 to 1991 is the Cold War.  You can't talk about Woodstock, Kennedy, and Vietnam without putting it in the context of the Cold War.  It's the driving force."

She played the song and everyone jammed out.  I had never hear this gem, which warmed my history geek heart.  I loved it!  And it summed up the class in rock and roll fashion.  By the end of the class, all of those unsuspecting students wanted to know why all of the things Billy Joel mentions in the song is The Cold War in a nutshell.

Anywho, that class was the last push that got me to consider a master's degree in history.  Prior to that class, that song, that professor, I was taking pre-requisites thinking that I would work towards getting a teaching certificate.  I wanted more history, ALL history, all the time.  So I went to grad school.  And this song was played many, many times during those years in grad school to refuel the flame of motivation and inspiration.  There were a few times when surrounded my books and haunted my papers and hundreds of pages worth of reading, this was the only thing that kicked my rear in gear.  I eventually became Knaus' GTA and on multiple occasions got to play this song to the undergraduates in each class. 

Oh, and it makes a great running song.  When I'm running, I probably run faster when listening to this song than to any others. Ah good times.  Good memories!  

"We Didn't Start the Fire" Lyrics


Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray 
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio 

Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television 
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe 

Rosenbergs, H-bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom 
Brando, "The King and I" and "The Catcher in the Rye" 

Eisenhower, vaccine, England's got a new queen 
Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye 

CHORUS 
We didn't start the fire 
It was always burning 
Since the world's been turning 
We didn't start the fire 
No we didn't light it 
But we tried to fight it 

Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser aand Prokofiev 
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc 

Roy hn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, dacron 
Dien Bien Phu falls, "Rock Around the Clock" 

Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team 
Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland 

Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Krushchev 
Princess Grace, "Peyton Place", trouble in the Suez 

CHORUS 

Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac 
Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, "Bridge on the River Kwai" 

Lebanon, Charlse de Gaulle, California baseball 
Starkweather, homicide, children of thalidomide 

Buddy Holly, "Ben Hur", space monkey, Mafia 
Hula hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go 

U-2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy 
Chubby Checker, "Psycho", Belgians in the Congo 

CHORUS 

Hemingway, Eichmann, "Stranger in a Strange Land" 
Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion 

"Lawrence of Arabia", British Beatlemania 
Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson 

Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British politician sex 
JFK, blown away, what else do I have to say 

CHORUS 

Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again 
Moonshot, Woodsto/ck/, Watergate, punk rock 
Begin, Reagan, Palestine, terror on the airline 
Ayatollah's in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan 

"Wheel of Fortune", Sally Ride, heavy metal, suicide 
Foreign debts, homeless vets, AIDS, crack, Bernie Goetz 
Hypodermics on the shores, China's under martial law 
Rock and roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore 

CHORUS 

We didn't start the fire 
But when we are gone 
Will it still burn on, and on, and on, and on... 






LOVE IT!! WOOHOO!!

Is that a challenge I smell?

I read a lot of blogs.  I find them fascinating and more genuine than the daily newspaper.  Maybe it's indicative of my personality.  Blogs today are the social section of newspapers a century ago.  You know that section I'm talking about...Mr. Williams and wife welcome a baby girl, their third.  Mr. Jones rode into town today.  He bought bobby pins for Mrs. Jones.  Bobby Jim Bob has a rash.  That section was an easy way to stay in the loop.  Yes, Facebook serves that purpose for my inner circle.  Blogs, however, allow me to live vicariously through dozens of people (strangers) my age.  I go on their adventures, watch their kids grow up, take comfort in their failures, and rejoice in their success when achieving a dream.  Reading blogs keeps me a dreamer.  Witnessing other people's lives in action motivates me to do more with my own life.  I think it's a Taurus thing.  Carpe Diem!

Anywho, I'm rambling.  In all of my blog reading, I've seen multiple bloggers attempt the 30 Day Blog Challenge.  My Taurus instincts flare when I see or hear the word challenge.  Like a bull to a red cape, I'm a sucker for a challenge.  The 30 Day Blog Challenge sounds simple in theory.  It begins with a list of 30 things and each of those things is a prompt for a daily blog post.

I have yet to see one blogger complete the challenge.  So, of course, I want to throw my hat in the ring.  Who knows, maybe this challenge will meet the untimely death that my 365 Photo Challenge did, but I'm willing to give it a go like I do most everything else.  I thought it would be fun to try.  I might learn a few things about myself in the process. 

 

I will be doing this in addition to my regularly scheduled blog posts.

Day 1 - your favorite song
Day 2 - your favorite movie
Day 3 - your favorite television program
Day 4 - your favorite book
Day 5 - your favorite quote
Day 6 - 20 of my favorite things
Day 7 - a photo that makes you happy
Day 8 - a photo that makes you angry/sad
Day 9 - a photo you took
Day 10 - a photo taken over 10 years ago of you
Day 11 - a photo of you recently
Day 12 - something you are OCD about
Day 13 - a fictional book
Day 14 - a non-fictional book
Day 15 - your dream house
Day 16 - a song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 - an art piece (drawing, sculpture, painting, etc)
Day 18 - my wedding/future wedding/past wedding
Day 19 - a talent of yours
Day 20 - a hobby of yours
Day 21 - a recipe
Day 22 - a website
Day 23 - a youtube video
Day 24 - where I live
Day 25 - your day, in great detail
Day 26 - your week, in great detail
Day 27 - my worst habit
Day 28 - whats in my handbag/purse
Day 29 - hopes,dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 - a dream for the future

A late night road trip to the middle of nowhere

Last night Brent and I loaded up the car with Brinkley Miles and some folding chairs and hit the road.  We headed due East until the glow of the city disappeared and the only lights on the horizon were farm lights.  Once we thought we far enough we turned down a dirt road and headed north for a stint.  We pulled over and unfolded our chairs.  Within minutes we saw our first meteor shoot across the sky!

Brinkley was a little confused.  And eventually was more content in the car than surrounded by darkness near us.  We saw a few bigger and longer meteors and a lot of smaller ones.  It was pretty cool to see and worth the trip to the boondocks!!  I googled how to attempt star photography about 10 minutes before we left.  My first attempt turned out pretty darn good!!  We may have to take more random late night drives!!  

The Mini-Moo Golf Classic

Wednesday night the contenders gathered at Lee Martinez Farm for the Mini-Moo Golf Classic.  The contenders being Moxon, my mom, and me.  We ate dinner with my dad and then grabbed our clubs.  We wound our way through the farm and from hole to hole.  We tapped our little cow hide patterned golf balls past hay bails, around corn kernel traps, and into water pails, flower pots, and tin cans.

We had a few hole-in-ones.  Moxon had a lot of fives.  Even if he hit the ball a hundred times, once it dropped into the hole, he'd shout, "I got five!"  At one hole, he had an audience of little girls.  It was a stubborn hole and he'd been tapping the ball all over the green for a good two or three minutes.  In his most serious tone, he stopped and looked at the girls and informed them, "This one is tough!"  Two taps later he knocked it in and the girls clapped for him.  He then warned the girls about the hole up the hill having corn kernel traps.  Preschool doesn't know what's headed their way!

Weekend play

Even though we did a little work this weekend, we got in a lot of play time too.  It was sleepover weekend with my nephew!  He started his stay off like every other, by emptying the dog toy basket of every toy and crawling in and out of Brinkley's kennel, piling toys by shape or color.  It drives Brinkley into a nervous frenzy.  He just doesn't understand why Moxon is all up in his stuff.  We took a walk with Brink and then we met up with Grandma and went to the county fair.

This was the first time Brent, my mom, and I had been to the county fair at the new location, which really isn't new anymore.  I think it's been about five years since they moved the fair.  We agreed it definitely wasn't the same as the old location.  We still had fun though.  We checked out the booths, the carnival, all of the animal barns, and the 4H exhibits.  Moxon threw darts at balloons and won a little green bear.  Brent and I smashed into each other in bumper cars.  Grandma and Moxon rode in a dragon.  We all ate junk food - popcorn, cotton candy, ice cream.  And we all plopped on our keesters and watched the lumberjack show.

On Sunday, we took Moxon to the library with us to return some books and pick up some new ones.  We read some monster books while we were there and checked out two for the road.  Moxon loves his monsters!!  While Brent was in Lowe's picking up more drywall project material, I read to Moxon in the car.  One book was "The 13 days of Halloween."  It's based on the 12 Days of Christmas so once I got started, I naturally starting to sing the book rather than read it.  That is until Moxon told me, "Stop singing, Auntie Worm.  That sounds bad!"  So, no American Idol breakout career for me!

By day six or so, Moxon was finishing off each page with "and a vulcher in a dead tree!"  Good times, folks, good times!

Sunday afternoon Brent and I ran some errands and then enjoyed some ice cream at Dairy Delights in Loveland.  No better way to end a weekend in August then a hot fudge sundae and a root beer float!

Weekend work

Weekends aren't all fun and games.  Although by looking into the garage, you'd think that it was a jungle gym full of fun.  Not so much.  The garage has turned into a disaster area.  Each time I tried to clean or organize last summer, the mess got bigger and more out of control.  It's even more out of control because the storage closet on the patio was emptied into the garage while Brent practices his drywall finishing skills.  I've made it a mission for my late summer weeks to complete the garage cleaning/organizing process.  I took one big leap forward over the weekend by taking an entire car full of stuff (a.k.a. junk) to the thrift store.  This donation included over 100 empty CD jewel cases, 75 empty DVD cases, and 150 VHS tapes.  It also included about 20 books, 40 t-shirts, 10 pairs of pants, a pair of work boots, two coats, and other randomness.

This purging made but a mere dent in the disaster that is the garage.  I have some furniture that I've posted for sale so hopefully those items will disappear soon!  More shelving will be needed if there is any hope to seeing  my garage floor again.

I mentioned Brent's project...I wanted to replace the shelves in my storage closet with new wood.  The original shelves my dad installedwere bowing under the weight of junk so thicker shelves were my solution.  Brent's solution was to let him practice his drywall skills, use up some leftover paint, and then, of course, replace the shelves.  This weekend he started the project...

So far it's looking good.  Not that I know what a good drywall job is over a bad one but he looks like he knows what he's doing so I trust him.  

I'm out of patience, grasshopper!

Grasshoppers are everywhere this summer!  They're on my patio, in my plants, in parking lots, fields, grass, and even hitching a ride on the hood of my patrol car.  It's a grasshopper infestation!!  Seriously, it is - I looked it up!!  The abnormal amount of creepy jumping bugs made me curious enough to do a little digging.

The western states have been experiencing an increasing amount of grasshoppers over the last few years.  This year, of course, is the worst of them.  They are destroying crops (may explain certain issues with Green Acre), eating yards, and just plain freaking people out, including myself.  I'm not making this up, I swear.  A federal survey conducted last fall predicted that 48 million acres of land would be infested this year.

The mobile army of grasshoppers will eat all types of plants.  They are like miniature goats, except much uglier!  They've been known to eat clothing off of clotheslines when their numbers reach infestation levels.  Bring in the knickers folks, I think they've arrived.  While grasshoppers are certainly reaching numbers to be noticed in Ft. Collins, it's far from the worst here.  Areas in Montana, Wyoming, and Nebraska have 1,000 grasshopper per square yard.  Eeewww!  Healthy levels are 8 (yes, single digit) per square yard.

Adult grasshoppers can fly miles to find food.   They'll eat half or more of their body weight in foliage per day.  And if the foliage isn't available, in addition to your knickers, they'll eat wood and even paint!  Infestations happen every 30 years or so.  They were prominent in the Dust Bowl days and there were 3.5 trillion of them that showed up in Colorado in 1874.  Eeek!  

Ok, I've given myself the heebie-jeebies and most stop googling.  Darn locusts!  Oh, and grasshoppers can be called locusts once they have reached the swarming stage.  I'm done now.  Really, I am.