This guy is Little Bit. Little Bit was an impulse buy. Not my impulse buy, mind you. Megan's impulse buy. This dog has become the constant companion to my niece, Hannah. She carries him everywhere... so he spends a lot of time at my house. Especially this week. My sister and my nephew are in town so Hannah has been here a lot while we all visit. This dog has taken over my house. Seriously. You can barely walk in here for fear of stepping on him.





















Here is a picture of Little Bit with Pagan...



















just to give you some scale. Scale is important to this story. You see, Pagan chases Little Bit around and bats him around with his big, furry paws. Well, big compared to Little Bit. Anyway, Little Bit gets really upset and makes this sound that is half dying cat and half crying baby... but really, I think it's supposed to be barking. Then this tiny dog turns into ferocious evil animal that Mike and I now call Little Shit. He tries to eat Pagan's face but, lucky for my dog, all he gets is fur. Thank goodness for fur. Pagan will do this all day... I sincerely believe this amuses my dog to no end. Then, when Little Shit finally subdues my dog and Pagan lays down and gets all sleepy-like, this evil animal tries to HUMP MY DOG'S FACE. *shakes head* The indignity of this kills me.

4 More Weeks! *happy dance*

So, some changes to my original Vegas plans.... We just found out that Mike won't be able to go with. Don't get me wrong! I know I'll still have fun. It's just different now. :\ I'm a little depressed by it, I guess.

I'm still really looking forward to Bianca and David coming out here, though. Bianca and I have plans to shop, shop, shop and then (when we're tired of shopping) we're going to spa, spa, spa. David and I are going to snowboard. In reality, David is going to laugh at me while I fall down a lot. *shrugs* I'm sure it'll at least be entertaining.

5 MORE WEEKS! (well, as of yesterday)

Mike took me on a date tonight. We went to Terra Bistro at the suggestion of two different local concierges (thanks Sean and Remi!) and ended up loving it. It's popularity is booming and it wasn't disappointing. I had crispy chicken and spinach cannelloni and Michael had the Prairie Harvest chicken. I dunno... but he said it was very tasty. Well, that's not a quote. Mike doesn't say things like "tasty". I'm tired now so I'm going to bed. A Date Movie, while funny, is more worth renting than seeing in the theater. Just a tip for those of you that might be interested. Oh! I forgot. I had a glass of port for dessert. It's my new favorite thing.

I tried supermarketsushi tonight. Yeah. Um, no.

This morning Suelena from the front desk runs in to my office and in her beautiful Portuguese accent says to me, "Kyria, do you know who is in house?" I answer, excited, "who???" She says to me, as she pulls out our in-house paper work and points emphatically at the name, "JOHN LEGUIZAMO!" I squeal but I'm kind of disappointed because I didn't get to see him. Anyway, I think it's really cool because he checked in under his own name with his wife and kids.

Fast forward to about 10 minutes ago: I'm checking out these adorable little kids in the lobby, debating whether or not to offer them some of the swedish fish my darling Samantha bought for me the other day when I had a mad craving... when I see the head of a very adult person watching me watch the kids. He leans over toward my office as he gets on the elevator and waves and says hi. Of course, I don't realize until after he gets on the elevator that it was John Leguizamo. *sighs* My first real celebrity encounter and I completely missed it. *grins* But still... I can't stop smiling. He has very cute kids.

6 More Weeks! :)

Not a lot going on. I'm in a food coma right now. I had the most amazing lunch... red-pepper bisque and half of a blackened salmon sandwich. My belly is a little too happy right now for my brain to work much.

You know, I really don't like Las Vegas. When I'm there I feel this underlying tension.... an overall feeling of malcontent. I'm excited only to see my friends. I don't look forward to the air I can see or the traffic I can't escape. The mountains that surround the city don't inspire me but, instead, I feel confined to the space they hold in their center. Don't get me wrong. There are perks to being in the city. The restaurants, the shows, the shops... the variety that is city life. I mean, I have to drive a half an hour east to the nearest Walmart (which I try very hard to avoid) or west to the nearest Target (which I'm far more apt to be seen in). I don't know, though. I think it's been a good trade.

Bianca made these for me. I LOVE THEM.

This one is me snowboarding (and I will, too... soon)




















And this one is me at PT's. See my cosmo?? That's so me!






















She is so neat. I love her.

SO FUNNY!

Today we had to drive in to Glenwood Springs for the boys' optometrist appointments. The day went like this:

drive out of parking spot over near bridge by river and park. There's a large animal jumping the fence.
Kyria - Is that a horse?? OH! That's an ELK! Oh, there's MORE! (six or so elk jump the short, wooden fence near the pedestrian path)
*looks toward park*
Kyria - Oh, there's a whole herd! Wow, it's kind of late to be seeing them. (10ish)
We stop the van to let them go across the road. The elk stop hopping the fence. We wait. Elk just watch us. We watch the elk. Neither of us move. We start to move again... Elk still don't move. We conclude that elk have a far superior intellect compared to the typical deer. This same situation could have arisen with the deer but then, when we started to move again, the deer would have watched us until we were in just the right spot and then jumped in front of our car. We like the elk better.

drive past the elk and on to the freeway. Get near to Glenwood Springs.
Mike - *nudges Kyria* hey *dips head in direction of mountain nearest highway*
Kyria - Oh, hey guys... more deer! OH! OH OH! Not deer! BIG HORN SHEEP! SO COOL!!
look across river to the railroad tracks on the other side of the highway. There are the deer walking down the railroad tracks.
Kyria - There are the deer! *points*
Matt - I knew this would be a great day to be out.

drive in to Glenwood, find the eye clinic, take the boys in and start looking for frames and stuff after checking in.
Guy In Eye Clinic - WOW! Look at that eagle!
The kids and me - Wow! NEAT! It's a bald eagle! How cool!

drive home from eye clinic
Kyria - jeez. The elk are still there. That's weird.

So, yeah. It was a good day to be out and about. Oh, and Mike saw ducks. I can't confirm this because I didn't see the ducks... but he was adamant that he saw more animals than the rest of us because of the ducks.

I never remember quotes... I try. I really do. I can remember numbers and codes until my brain is overflowing with useless digits that I will never use again. I couldn't memorize a line of verse if my life depended upon it. I love this one, though...

"I believe in long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last three days."
- Crash Davis (Kevin Costner) from Bull Durham


I think it's because I believe in them, too. Where is the passion, after-all, without the kissing?

7 weeks to Vegas!

I haven't been posting much of any interest because there's really not that much going on and it's my guess that my small readership occasionally grows weary with the "oh, I'm so happy" posts. *shrugs*

Know what, though? I am.

So my third wedding anniversary is around the corner. February 9th. Mike and I are going to have a date and everything!

I have the best job ever. I'm sitting in my office this afternoon and Michele from conference services comes over and says "hey, they're having an event in the gallery and they don't have enough people... do you want to go?" So *sighs dramatically* I go. Then I find out it's a freaking VINTAGE WINE TASTING with Bon Appetite magazine. Very, VERY cool on the cool scale. Anyway, I just spent the last hour and a half learning about (and tasting, of course) pinot noir, rioja, champagne and port... and eating very yummy hors d'oeuvres that consisted of spicy tuna on cucumber, spanikopita and bacon-wrapped scallops. All of this while enjoying the art in the gallery I helped put on exhibit and the wonderful people from the magazine.

I had such a great day.

Sunrise












The things I get to see on the way to work every day are almost too perfect.