Oh my gosh, this weekend was busy! My dad came in to town for some business with my Uncle Rick (in Denver) so it was a whirlwind of Dad-type activity! We had a huge barbecue on Saturday... 12 people and lots of food. I made special seasoned light butters for the corn so my dad wouldn't be tempted by the salt. :) He's on a low sodium diet since he got out of the hospital last year. I have to say that the flavored butter was awesome. We had lots of fresh fruit and melon, asparagus, lean steaks and garlic bread. Yum. Oh, and a salad. I love making salad. Pears and goat cheese with bell peppers, onion and tomatoes. My dad had a great time and I got to meet my sister's boyfriend, Rusty. Rusty has a 3 year old little boy they call Monster Boy. Man... that child puts my ornery one to shame. We managed to scrounge up some quiet time, though, by telling all of the kids to go catch birds. Did anyone else's mom do this? My mom used to give me a handful of salt and tell me if I could get close enough to put the salt on the bird's tail that I'd be able to catch it and take it home. This, of course, is pure fiction... but it keeps kids busy for HOURS. Anyway, it was the day of nonstop cooking and food. :) But a lot of fun.

Sunday my dad took us out to breakfast and then we watched King Kong at my place. My dad hasn't been to a movie in the theater since I was 12. After that we headed up to Blues, Brews and Barbecues in Beaver Creek. The kids played in the kid zone while Mike took my dad on a tour of the village.. way fun. Then we tried some of the different sauces and foods they had. They had this white barbecue sauce from the culinary institute. SO GOOD. Ian embodies a tornado at their table... He'd grab a chip and the sauce, then another chip, another sauce... around and around he'd go. I swear he had to try them all, each at least twice. Then back down valley and out to dinner at Fiesta Jalisco where I had the vegetarian burrito. So done with meat after the barbecue weekend.

So yeah... lotsa food, lotsa family... lotsa very tired come Sunday night. Today I'm at work but I plan to leave early. My dad's leaving today after his meeting with Rick and I want to say goodbye.

Only Two Words:
1. Yourself: little sassy
2. Your car: mini van
3. Your Hair: teh awesome
4. Your Mother: scattered me
5. Your Father: getting healthy
6. Your Favorite Item: my computer
7. Your Dream: happy life
8. Your Favorite Drink: too many
9. Your Dream Home: single family
10. The Room You Are In: my office
11. Your Pet: crazy cute
12. Your fear: impacts deeply
13. Where You Want to be in Ten Years: here happy
14. Who you hung out with last nite: eighth graders
15. What You're Not: many things
16. Your Best Friends: true loves
17. One of Your Wish list Items: no list
18. Your Gender: girlie girl
19. The Last Thing You Did: accepted appointment
20. What You Are Wearing: purple skies
21. Your Favorite Weather: mountain summer
22. Your Favorite Book: Wuthering Heights
23. The Last Thing You Ate: 100 calories
24. Your Life: best yet
25. Your Mood: headache still
26. The last person you talked to on the phone: Tommyknocker Kathy

Matthew had his continuation ceremony last night. I officially have a high school male on my hands.

And... AND... my reclusive, shy and perpetually anti-sports child is going out for soccer. YAY MATT!

"Pardon me... can you tell me which train I need to take to BUTTSEXOCLOCK?!?"

"I think you mean BUTTSUXOCOCK... It's the one over by the snorkel shop"

*beams*

Ass Habit.

Ass Habit.

Post Secret is releasing a new book October 1st. Sweet.

I'm starving this morning so I'm going to forsake this blog for breakfast. :)

I can smell the rain from my office.

The rain smells like the earth here... not wet pavement. And the air is cool.


I wish my eyes didn't feel so tired.

So, you saw the butt paste a while back. Today I bring you (Dun DA Dun!)



















WTF?

And then, we leave the grocery store, and Mike says, "I forgot to tell you. This morning when I was at the gas station I saw a cowboy" I say, "A cowboy, huh?" and he says, "Yeah. With PINK BOOTS ON" I say, "I'm so gonna post that today. My Bee will LOVE it." and he says "Babe, you can't post about butt rub and pink cowboy boots in the same day"

Heh. Watch me.

The only appointment on my calendar today is for chocolate sampling. How rockin' is that?

Don't get me wrong... I'm busy (today) but who'd have thought a year ago that, instead of a conference call with the client or a meeting with the site director, I'd be sitting down with a chocolatier to discuss amenity options and getting free samples.

My job = Rock

After I got back from my last trip to Las Vegas I was teh slacker about walking. I was just so tired. I'm always tired when I get back, though, and I shouldn't have let that stop me. Well, regardless, I started back up again tonight. Ouch. I can feel that week I was a slacker. :\ I have to say, though, that the incentive to get outside is really powerful. It's beautiful here this time of year. It's beautiful any time of year, really... but right now *sighs* it's my favorite next to that first snow. Everything is so green and the rivers are swollen with snow-melt... the ground is covered in splotchy carpets of purple wildflowers and yellow dandelions. And, I swear, the smell of the crabapple blossoms makes my heart feel lighter. I can breathe in that sweet scent, listen to the river rushing while the blackbirds call to each other and be as contented as I remember ever feeling in my life thus far. Isn't it always the simple things? The things you don't realize you miss until you have them?

Which totally brings me back to my new-found love of chocolate soy milk.

I miss reading. And drawing. I keep telling myself I'll start up again but I feel so uninspired. Reading will be easier. I started reading Wuthering Heights again last weekend. Again. The drawing, though... bah. We'll see what the summer brings. Maybe I'll start drawing wildflowers up in Vail or something. We're headed up to the gardens next weekend.

Mother's Day. Breakfast in bed... presents. :) Phone calls and messages from friends. Great day.



On another note, my dog came wandering out of the back room this morning with a megaphone.














He really wants to be heard.

The tragedy that is.....

.....the ass habit

I want.

Vegas was, as usual, a mad dash from function to function with my friends. It was fun, though, with lots of eating out. I feel like I gain fifteen pounds every time I visit. Gag.

Saturday night I had dinner with my family at Paymon's. It was nice to get all of us girls together with the parents for dinner... it doesn't happen often. My dad picked up the check for Mother's Day, which was very awesome of him. And very appreciated. I love my dad.

Sunday it was breakfast with Jen, lunch with Bee that turned in to dinner because of some conflicts with time. Dessert with David was thwarted by his nasty illness... so we had breakfast on Monday to make up for it. Poor David. Sinus infections = teh suck. I had my hair done, bought new shoes and just generally enjoyed myself... but come 3am on Tuesday I was very ready to head home. There's nothing like leaving the scorching desert heat for the cool mountain air. Oh! And the crabapple trees are blooming! There are FLOWERS EVERYWHERE here. I love the short mountain springtime.

Pictures!




































So now I'm at work. I didn't pack a lunch and Mike has the car. I was just complaining to Jenny and she said I should get take out.

She suggested Chinese.

I haven't stopped laughing.

Home. Tired. *snore*



More tomorrow. Mebbe.

This afternoon, around 2, I was sitting at my desk and I got a sharp pain in my chest. It was really nasty. Then, what felt like a large rubber band wrapped around my chest, constricting my breathing. As the tightness grew, so did the pain. Finally it was so excruciating that I doubled over at my desk. I was incredibly frightened and couldn't help but think I was having a heart attack. So, I get up very slowly and walk around. Pain doesn't go away. Still can't breathe without tightness. I relax, do breathing exercises and stretch... pain doesn't go away. I walk over to Cristen and tell her I'm going to the hospital and why... tell her not to call 911 because I'm sure I'm fine. It was such a sharp, intense pain that it made me cry. So, I called Mike and he took me to urgent care. They gave me oxygen and an EKG. No heart attack. Turns out I have what's called costochondritis.... which is an inflammation of the chest wall between the rib cage and the breastbone, the symptoms of which mimic a heart attack. I guess, because I'm female AND I have scoliosis, I will be prone to this kind of inflammation. Suck. This means I can have random fake heart attacks just whenever I sleep, sit or move wrong. On the up side, though, I'm not dead.

So I'm walking through the market, I look down and I see...


















You all understand that I HAD to make Mike stop so I could take a picture. Then I sent it to my friends on their phones.

Buttpaste. It still makes me laugh thirty minutes later.