After work this afternoon, I took Emma to Watson Lake for an attempt at catching some trout. Watson has been a cruel mistress lately. In the warmer months it can be a great lake for Smallmouth and Walleye. There are big Brown Trout and Rainbow trout here, too -- but the food supply is so good that catching them can be tricky. It was cooler than we had anticipated today, so Emma had to retreat to the truck to warm up, while I threw the spinner in a few more times, then resorted to taking some photos of the landscape lit by the setting sun. 

A parting shot at Watson Lake -- looking north just after sunset. 

I ended my evening out with Nancy's folks. Her sister Julie drove in this evening from Abilene, Kansas with her kids: Grant and Claire. This is Emma and Grant roasting hot dogs over the new Chiminea on the In-laws deck. 

Corben turned 2 today. We took him to Walrus Ice Cream (probably the best ice cream you'll ever try). Then we went to this production for kids where they do a bunch of musical, comedy shorts with giant, colorful, inflatable objects. He really seemed to have a good time. Happy Birthday, Buddy. 

The other day Andrew stopped by. Corben has asthma (or some form of it or something medical like that) and when he has a cold he has to have a nebulizer treatment to help keep his breathing clear. He was so tired he just sat there leaning into Andrew the whole time. Of course it is difficult to take a photo of Corben without Emma joining in. 

life's funny turns

I just finished one of the more interesting evenings I've had in a long time.

Last week, after out Monday night drawing group; Bob, Don and I went out for a drink at Avogadro's Number. ["Avo's" in Ft. Collins speak] Bob is 20-30 years my senior and Don is probably 30-40 years my senior. Both are very interesting gentlemen. Don taught art at Notre Dame for 30+ years and Bob has lived all over the world and know all sorts of interesting people. Both have interesting stories and insights to offer.

Tonight we drew a young woman who was 8 months pregnant. She is an artist herself and did a great job as a model. Interesting item number one for the evening.

Instead of going to Avo's, we went to a new [to me] place called "Monet's." Bob knew the woman who owned Monet's, Janine. Janine is a very nice woman to talk with and we all had a nice time chatting throughout the evening. There were a couple of other folks at the bar. Brian was playing the piano and singing [amazingly well] Beatles' songs, and all manner of other very nice tunes that I have heard somewhere before in life but do not know well enough to name. Brian is blind [interesting item number 2.]

Brian's wife [I assume, although she may have been a girlfriend] is Meadow, who is 8 months pregnant, was also there supporting Brian and engaging in pleasant conversation. When we showed Janine some of our drawings for the evening, Meadow immediately piped up "Oh is that Amanda?" which it was... which was interesting item number 3.

At some point Bob [who spent some time overseas in a Spanish-speaking country of some sort] said something in Spanish. Without thinking I responded in Spanish, which lead to a lengthy non-English conversation about Church and out spiritual lives. I have not spoken a word of Spanish in nearly a decade. Interesting item number 4.

There were some additional items in the evening which were also interesting, but to repeat them would only serve to diminish the interesting-ness of the evening.

I call this post "life's funny turns" because who would have put me in a bar on a Monday night in February with a couple of artists speaking Spanish and listening to Beatles' tunes performed by a very talented non-sighted musician after having drawn a woman who was 8 months pregnant?

old car, new [old] car

Our '89 Civic runs great. The AC works, the transmission is in great shape, the engine runs great. That's why it was such a bummer when we took it in to get the crazy shaking in the front-end fixed and they told us it was going to cost $1,700 to fix it all. I asked the repair guy if they had any other cheap cars sitting around (because sometimes repair places do) and they did.

So we bought a '95 Mazda Protege for less than the cost of repairing the Civic. It has all the stuff the Civic had, plus cruise, power windows and locks, and it has 89,000 fewer miles.

Here is a quick collage of the old car and the new car (being cleaned by the lovely Ms. Nancy Daharsh).

If you want a used, rusted 1989 Honda Civic that runs great but needs $1,700 of repairs to be road-worthy, let me know fast -- I'll give it to you free, all you have to do is come get it. We're going to have it towed away very soon.

If you're interested call my cell at 970-988-5138.

Here's what I know of that needs done:

• 2 new front tires
• 2 new ball joints
• 1 new front axle
• 2 new springs (around struts)
  

Here's a useful site if you are looking at a used car:
http://auto.consumerguide.com/auto/used/reviews/full/index.cfm/id/2200
I was really impressed at all of the details for used cars -- even how much certain replacement parts may cost you.

That's right, one more -- they rock! 

Some cute, random pics of the kids from Christmas 2003 in Kenosha. Just because they are so great. What a blessing my kids are. They constantly amaze me with their tenderness, their freaky intelligence, their energy... I absolutely love them. 

cocoa advertisement

My first newspaper advertisement. I created this yesterday for a local paper (the Rocky Mountain Bullhorn) It was my first time laying anything out for print, and was a rush project, but was kind of fun.

Jesus eats crackers

The kids have been sharing all sorts of wisdom lately.

The other day we were looking at houses (we've been house-hunting) and we were walking through a rental that had several young men currently living there. The house was in pretty good shape considering their age.

One of the rooms in the basement was apparently the "music room" because it had a full drum kit and several electric guitars inside. Nancy looked in through the door, and I carried Corben into the room and turned on the light to get a better look. As I turned to leave, there was a large poster of a bikini-clad young woman hanging on the wall. Corben pointed and said "take... clothes off"

I picked up a bunch of torn out oak flooring (to be used as firewood) from the curb in front of a new construction home here in town. While I was unloading it at our house Emma was asking questions. She couldn't see why they would pull out a brand-new floor. I suggested that maybe the future owner wanted some other floor covering or a different kind of wood. She said "Yeah, maybe instead of oak they wanted some other kind of wood... like coconut"

Nancy was taking Corben with her this morning to pick Emma up from preschool, and heard him saying something under his breath to himself in the back seat. She listened closely as he repeated over and over in his signature halting, deliberate style "Jesus.... eats crackers."

another trout for Emma

Another huge trout for Emma's trophy room.

Today was beautiful. It was windy, but it was fairly warm and sunny, so I took Emma fishing.

This is our third outing, and so far we are batting 1000 for her catching fish. As you can imagine, when taking a 5-year-old fishing catching something is very important.

So she caught this enormous trout -- bigger than anything anyone else was catching, including me. Another angler down the shore brought this little scale over to weigh it -- 2 pounds in all. We measured it a few hours later and it was 17 inches even.

She had fun, and I had a great time with her.

cell phone

if there is ever a nuclear holocaust, only two things will remain: cockroaches and my cell phone. Yesterday I was fishing with Todd and I dropped my cell phone into Carter lake.

After retrieving it, and the battery which had bounced off as it hit a rock on its way into the water, I put it in my pocket, sure I would never again bask in the cool glow of the back-lit display.

I was wrong. This morning I put the battery back on, turned on the power, and it came to life. All my settings are still intact and it works fine so far.

This is not the first time my phone has survived something it should not have. The second day I had it, Emma stepped on it accidentally and cracked the screen cover -- seen lying in 2 pieces in the foreground. It has been dropped more times than I can count, and I've had to retrieve the battery from somewhere nearly impossible-to-reach more than once.

I do wish it would die so I could get a new one. Right now since the screen cover came off I have it in a ziplock bag to keep the screen from getting all manner of crud on it.

It is truly ghetto.

more picasa madness

more fun with picasa

Seriously. This Picasa program is amazing. I'm creating goofy little things like this and posting them to my blog in minutes.

If you blog and take photos, try Picasa.

picasa is cool

Kathy at Keystone 

This photo is Kathy skiing last week at Keystone. Kathy is cool.

Picasa is a *free* program from Google, it is also cool -- although not as cool as Kathy. It can maintain lists of all the images on your computer, then do all sorts of amazing things with them. The photo editing and retouching tools are great, and it even lets you generate web pages from folders on your machine. Most impressive, it can create XML files with all the handy metadata from the files in any folder under its control -- can anyone say "Flash photo album."

I can send photos straight to Blogger via another free program that integrates seamlessly with Picasa -- "Hello." That is what I did with Kathy's photo, and why you see the little flower-icon thing right under her photo.

I actually used Hello early on, and gave Picasa a try, but Picasa was only a trial at that point, and wasn't as slick as it is now.

come to Jesus

Many who know me know that I am a Christian. Christian in the "follower of Christ" sense versus the "polyester suit and hymn" sense.

That aside for a moment (not to minimize that truth about me at all) I just saw a music video from Mindy Smith -- who I had never never heard of -- and immediately purchased the CD from iTunes (hope the rest of her stuff is as good as this song). I actually sort of ignored the music video and just listened to the song. I love this style of music.

Here's a link to the music video. (use caution with atomfilms, there can be some not-so-wholesome banners and content)

If you get to this page and the link no longer works, here's a link to her website. Hope you can hear the song.

fishing with the brothers

Last week, before Nancy got sick, before we locked the keys in the truck, and before I picked up Kathy and Jill from the airport, my brothers, Andrew and David, and I went fishing at Carter lake west of Loveland, Colorado.

As I mentioned in my previous post, we didn't catch anything, but the time was good.

Here is a photo of the morning. It is a stitched-together panorama, and I didn't do a great job, but I think it kind of caught the feel of the morning.

Andrew, my yougest brother is on the left. David is almost not visible all the way on the right.

You can click the photo for a larger version.

sick and skiing

What a whirlwind!

For the month of January, I've been gearing myself up for last week. Last week was the week when Kathy and Jill were flying to Colorado for their almost annual ski trip and we were going to hang out and ski with them.

Then my brother David and his family were able to get tickets to Colorado and they were going to come the previous weekend and stay the week.

Then my sister Kim decided to join the fun the same weekend as David and his family.

Meanwhile, Emma turned 5 on the 20th and we started making plans for a "kid/friend" party on her actual birthday then a family party that weekend when the aunts and uncles would all be here.

Things didn't all work out with the family party. Kim wasn't able to make it, but we still had fun at McDonald's playland with all the nephews and nieces.

I had tried to arrange to have all my work completed before the weekend began, but ended up with some loose ends Monday and Tuesday of last week. All-in-all it was ok though.

Kim left Sunday and we managed to miss each other completely. She flew home and got sick then found out she is pregnant.

Midweek, things seemed to be on track. I wasn't doing any more work, just trying to spend time with the family. I had some great time with Andrew and Miriam, David and Becky, my folks and Rachel, and all the nieces and nephews.

Thursday morning I went fishing with David and Andrew. We didn't catch anything, but the morning was perfect. Sunny, mild, no wind, and absolutely beautiful. It was a good morning with the brothers.

We got a call and found out Nancy had locked the keys in the truck and that she had gone to Andrew and Miriam's house with the kids. I had planned on changing the oil in the truck and having a hole in the front tire fixed before heading to the airport to pick up Kathy and Jill, and started to worry that I might not be able to get everything done in time.

Me and the brothers ran to get the truck. I made it to Andrew's house after picking up the truck, then Nancy and Becky and the kids went to look at a house with our realtor, Wit.

I ran to Discount Tire to get the tire patched, and told them that unless they could get me in and out fast I would need to wait. They jumped all over it and got me in and out in about 20 minutes. When they brought me the bill, the cost was $0. They patch tires free. Guess where I'm buying my next set of tires?

I didn't have time to change the oil so I just topped it off and headed to the airport. Jill and Kathy had just picked up their luggage as I was approaching the airport, and after coordinating where exactly each other was via cellphone, we managed to connect. Back to Fort Collins. Maybe.

I missed the turn to 470 north -- I do that about half the time because the exit sneaks up on me without warning, and I'm always so involved in conversation with whoever I just picked up that I miss it. So we spent a REALLY long time in traffic before making it back to Fort Collins.

When I got home, Nancy was feeling bad, so I took Kathy and Jill to Macaroni Grill for dinner. By the time we got home at 7:30, Nancy had gone to bed feeling ill.

That night, she woke me up shivering violently. I held her, and couldn't seem to warm her up. Neither of us slept all night as she alternated between shivering from cold then uncovering from heat.

I took the kids and Kathy and Jill to Keystone. Kathy and Jill threw themselves into helping me get the kids around since Nancy was out of commission. We left an hour after we had planned, but it took us an hour less than I thought it would to get up to Keystone. We had lunch and got checked into the condo, then I took the kids back to Fort Collins. I was really bumming.

The next morning, Nancy looked a little better and said that although she felt weak, she though she could look after the kids, so I headed up to Keystone.

I did one green run with Jill, then we all had lunch. The rest of the afternoon I spent with Kathy skiing blue and black runs. I ate it one time skiing moguls -- I don't like moguls any more now that I'm a little older and my body doesn't like the abuse. Give me steep icy runs.

I called Nancy mid-morning and she was still weak but holding down the fort. I called again after dinner and left a message.

I spent a sleepless night in the condo at Keystone, planning on skiing the next morning. Nancy called early and said she needed me to come home. Kathy and Jill were very gracious, and decided to fly out early to get home Sunday instead of Monday.

I took them to the airport and said goodbye. In all the running and rushing and sickness, it was really great to see them. They are such great friends.

When I got home, I immediately realized how bad off Nancy had been. The kids were doing great, but had turned the house upside down. As soon as I got there, Nancy went to bed and I started cleaning the house. Both the kids had been great all weekend, so I took them to McDonalds. Nancy was able to get a little sleep.

During my stay in the mountains, David and Becky and kids were supposed to fly back to Atlanta, but couldn't because of a severe ice storm in Georgia. I went to a late meal with them, Rachel and my parents. It was nice to be able to see them again.

Yesterday morning we took Nancy to the doctor. She has pneumonia. I've been trying to catch up on work, keep the house in some form of order, and fight off a cold or something. Both the kids are sick now and I am slipping downhill as I type.

The one bright note is that Nancy is starting to improve. She has medication and has really responded well and is helping keep an eye on the kids so I can work.

In the end, rather than being grateful for the great day I had with Kathy and Jill and the time I spent with my family, I was a royal crab. I've come around some and apologized to Nancy for my sour demeanor and have been trying to keep a good attitude as I get sick and try to stay on top of things.

What will all this amount to I wonder?

Here is one snapshot of a bright moment this weekend:




WHEW!