Book Review - Tales of a Female Nomad

Last month for book club we read Tales of a Female Nomad. This is a book I would never have picked up on my own, though I thoroughly enjoyed it. After ordering it to my library and missing the pickup the first time, I finally got a hold of it a mere 4 days before bookclub so I had to hunker down. Reading it so fast allowed me to get caught up in her adventure, though I don't think I would have enjoyed it as much if it had taken me 4 weeks to read.

Tales is a true story of Rita Golden Gelman who when in her late 40's, with her kids off to college, and her marriage crumbling , she gave up her cushy life in L.A. to wander the earth. 20 years later she is still doing it. She has made her money writing children's books, and lives mostly in 3rd world countries, with different families or on her own making due with what she has. Each chapter is a different time in her life, starting in Mexico, and moving through Central America, the Galapagos Islands, Borneo, Israel etc. She returns to the states to see her kids, but has no permanent home.

If there is one thing you should know about me, it is that I love stability. Stability is the rock that keeps me strong. Working for the man, planning for the future, 401Ks, all so I can retire someday. I would not be able to live this kind of life not knowing where I will go next. Though I love to travel, I don't mind language differences, and I'm not afraid of exchange rates, I also like knowing where I'll be sleeping on any given night. Even when I was 20 and backpacking around Europe, the only thing that stressed me out was if a youth hostel was full. 1991, Venice Italy, who knew it was a major Italian Holiday? There was not one open hostel or hotel. Even the nuns turned us down. Our options were to sleep in the train station or go somewhere else. So we caught a night train to Barcelona. Even young and adventurous, not having a place to stay was very stressful.

I would recommend this book to those who would like to live someone else's adventure from the security of your own home.

Running circles around myself

Two summers ago, April and I ran around Wash Park one night a week for 3 months. We were single and Wash Park is for sure the place to see and be seen. I think we figured it out to be about 2.4 miles which is probably the most I've ever done at one time. After the first block, I'd want to stop and walk really fast, but April always pushed and finally after a month I could do the whole thing without stopping. I've never been a good runner or swimmer. My stout little body was just not made for either activity, but I do love walking.

That being said, April and I picked up our sneakers and started running at City Park this week. I do it for the exercise and to see April and April is doing it because she needs to start training for the Bolder Boulder which is a mere 5 weeks away. It is a 6.2 mile race that draws the whole state to it. She wants me to do it with her and I really have no desire to. I like the idea of training to be able to run 6.2 miles, but not the actual event itself, driving to Boulder, all the people, etc. Every year, DG tries to get me to do the Turkey Trot, the Jingle Bell, and the Cherry Creek sneak but I guess I'm just not into races. Even now, trying to trick my brain into thinking I'd want to run a race, I find that I'm not easily fooled. What would make me want to do this? What other tactics could I use to convince myself? And how could April actually convince me to do 6.2 miles when I won't even do the 5K with Dave?

Is it possible to train yourself to run 6.2 miles in 5 weeks? I could knock off about 2 maybe 3 right now if I were lucky. We did pretty well this week for 2 women that haven't run in awhile. We might even switch to mornings next week. Ouch, 6 am around the park before coffee. How is it that I'd rather do that than go to the race?

I guess I'm just more of a Lucky Mutt Strut kind of girl. It is lo key, great dogs, and a good cause with proceeds going to Max Fund. Team Gibson will definitely be doing this one again this year.

37 minutes too long in Walmart

I am dragged to Walmart 1-2 times per year. Each time, I leave feeling like I need a shower and have wasted precious time that I will never get back. Beyond their treatment of employees, the cheap goods, putting companies out of business and their crappy grocery store, I generally just don't like giving them my money.

Such was the case on Sunday morning when DG thought we should swing in to see what Garden stuff they had. We had just bought a car full of plants and shrubs next door at Home Depot. I said ok, but begging/whining that I not be forced to stay for more than 10 minutes. So DG set his watch to start timing us as we walked in the door. We were in the store for about 14 minutes and in line for about 23, I'm not kidding you. It is the SAME everytime I go. 50 people trying to check out, 5 of 30 lines open?!?! It never changes. On the upside, we did get cheap bronzed tiki torches that we later saw at Smith and Hawken for $30/each.

I've met people who love Walmart, love the prices, and don't care what awful things they are doing to our country and the pressure they are putting on international factories. One woman told me it was the only place she could afford to shop and feed her whole family. This is the same woman that went ahead and bought herself a brand new $20K American car. They are feeding their kids canned beans and government grade meat from Walmart, but they can afford a brand new car that barely has room for a car seat. I'm not even going to step onto the soap box because that example screams a lesson in itself. Tiki torches and all, I still think Walmart blows.

HAIL

So my post is a few days late and a dollar short compared to DG, but consider it a he said she said. Oh wait our versions are the same. Here is our Backyard Cleanup Phase 2 and 3

The new flagstone patio was put in on Saturday and we, (and by we I mean DG) were ready to plant our new shrubs on Sunday.

So it was about 5:30 Sunday night, DG had just finished planting all of the new shrubs in the back yard and I had finished planting 50 bulbs when the storm came in. It started off with Pea sized hail and moved to grape size. It was crazy to watch it coming down and very loud on the roof of our patio. We quickly covered all of the new shrubbery with our lawn furniture so they wouldn't get beaten up. I only screamed like a little girl once when I got beaned in the back of the neck with an ice ball.


1 lilac tree, 3 dwarf boxwoods, 2 butterfly bushes, 1 small pine, 2 grass bushes, 2 golden shrubs, 4 purple spirea, 4 clumps of multicolored dahlia bulbs, and 50 gladiolus bulbs. We are hoping that by August it will all grow fast and beautiful. I am still working on my green thumb, it is a light shade of sage right now.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Friday night we went out with DGs coworkers to see the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. It was such a great show and they definitely made a fan out of me. Here's Karen O in her eccentric outfit on stage. We've been breaking into their songs all week-end long.



Photos courtesy of Erin.

As Good As it Gets

The morning of the engagement pictures, I shaved my armpits, did my hair up, put on my *face* in full, spritzed some smelly goodness on, and had a sudden realization, that "This is as good as it's ever going to get." I made DG take a good look at me, and burn that moment into his minds eye, because I will never be thinner, never be in better shape, never be younger, and this is the best of what I got. Crap, I think this means I now have to work on the inner me.

Engagement Pictures

We went to City Park this morning to meet with our wedding photographer Trevor to take some Engagement Pictures. All I can say is wow, our expectations were exceeded beyond anything we could have imagined. I found Trevor on Craigslist.com. He put in an ad for trade. He needs a website and we need a wedding photographer. Trevor is currently working full time as a photographer for the Denver Broncos and Rockies. Not only does he photograph the games, but he also travels with the teams to their away games, and photographs their big events and banquets. He has done weddings before, but would like to move more into this arena. When David originally met with him he was convinced it was a perfect match. After today, there is no question. He is not only a great photographer but he and his wife/assistant Kristen are very endearing fun people. The one above is unique because the trees flowers were falling as we were kissing and it smelled so good. Here are a couple of the highlights.

This is the bandstand at City Park that at one point was a Contender for the ceremony location.


This one was taken behind the Museum of Nature and Science. Yes, that is the Downtown Denver Skyline behind us! On the left of David is the boathouse where we had started our photo shoot.


And finally, another one with the dogs.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

DG got us tickets through work (awesome job perk) to see these guys tonight at the Fillmore. I don't know much about them except that they are from NYC. I heard of them when in a total fluke I had MTV2 for a year. No cable, just the local stations, Home Shopping Network, PBS and MTV2.

Here's a video of their mainstream song from last year, Rich.

ADDENDUM: I just got back from lunch with DG, Erin, and Michael and the drummer from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs was there. Michael recognized him on his way back to the table. I saw the back of his head!

The Mask Project

DG and his coworkers (along with a slew of celebrities) made masks to benefit Hospice. They are on display at the Cherry Creek Mall right now. The auctions are close Friday April 28. The one on the left is the Angel Mask, and the one on the right is titled Baby Face. Click on the titles to go bid on these or click the header link to view all of the other masks.

Tool

I got an email from Holly the other day that the new Tool song was playing on our local hard rock station. Tool, our favorite band of all time, has a new album coming out in a couple of weeks. By the time I found a plug under my desk (by unplugging my 10 key calculator - hope I don't need that anytime soon), for my "boom box", the song was already over. Not to worry, they play it at the top of every hour. So in waiting to hear it again, I find out that Tool is coming here in a few weeks and they are giving away tickets to the 10th caller when they play 2 Tool songs in a row. Ok, so I make a plan to listen excessively, add KBPI to my speed dial and win tickets. They are coming to the 3,000 seat Buell Theater, which usually only has the ballet, opera, or theater productions. Well the djs on this station are almost unbearable with bad dj names like hairy nut sac and such. (That's Holly's misinterpretation.) But really they are painful to listen to. It's come to the point where I have the radio turned down so I can't hear their drivel, but my ear is so tuned in that I can hear a Tool song within the first 5 notes. Oh the sacrifices of the Tool fan.

Holly and I saw them twice during their last tour, once at the Pepsi Center and once up in Boulder. So true story, we were at the Pepsi Center and had pretty good seats on the side of the stage. The place was packed with 17,000 fans. Tool had just entered the stage, the band was playing their first notes when we were trying to get to our seats. Lo and behold some young frat boys were in our spots. Everyone is standing, screaming for the band and I tap the boys on the shoulder. "Excuse me, um, you are in our seats." They looked at me as if I were homeless and had just asked them for a dollar. So again, I tap, "excuse me"....They continue to ignore me. I look back at Holly with my "help me" look and she comes charging into the row, screaming, grabs the boys my the back of the neck, pushing them out, yelling "YOU, OUT, OUT of our seats. You will not come between me and Tool." She all but kicked them in the butt, as they tripped out into the aisle. Me, smiling, but wishing I had the backbone to perform such a feat. *wuss*

Easter = Buffet

In addition to sunrise services, egg hunts, chocolate bunnies missing their ears, and jelly beans, Easter is synonomous with all you can eat buffets. For the past several years I have spent the day with Cyn, Jeff, Clare, and now baby Elliot having a potluck brunch. This year, the table was beautifully decorated with placecards that Clare made with our names on them and white ceramic bunnies that Cyn inherited from her Grandmother. V. Martha Stewart. Seen above, Cyn tried out a new recipe for Blueberry Pecan French Toast. It is assembled the night before to allow the bread to soak in the egg and milk. Then it is covered in blueberries, toasted pecans, and a butter/brown sugar glaze and baked. The final step is to create Blueberry maple syrup to pour over individual servings.

Since I figured we would get all of our calories from that dish, I brought a lighter Broccoli, roasted garlic, cheddar quiche. I got the recipe years ago from one of Michelle's Cooking Lite Magazines (I think?). I used spinach tortilla's for the crust, and non-fat cottage cheese and evaporated skim milk in the rest of the recipe to save on calories. Sharp Vermont Cheddar was my one splurge, but you can use a tablespoon of parmesan or no cheese at all, it is really that good. These dishes along with fried potatoes, faux sausage links and mimosas made for a meal that stuck to us all day long!

Good Friday

I had Friday off *woo hoo* which turned into a non-stop clean the house day. It started off with two very dirty dogs, digging in the mud/mulch in the back yard. I turn my back for one second and look over to the once butter colored couch and it was not only covered in mulch, but Gibson had dragged in an entire rotten potato and was sitting in the middle of the couch eating it, happy as can be. My yelling and trying to pry it out of his mouth only upset him. I got the "can't you see I'm enjoying my rotten potato snack?" look. Once I got him outside and vaccuumed up the now pigeon grey couch, I set upon all my tasks for the day. Needless to say, two of those tasks consisted of picking up dog spew from the above mentioned snack. Lesson learned? No, they were both right back out there. I can't wait until the patio is in.

So after cleaning the entire house, making the top of the table viewable again, organizing the mess in the kitchen, and making a list, I decided to remove all the door knobs on the interior doors in the house, and soak the paint off of them. 10 in all, nice shiny bronze door knobs make for a happy me. Task 2, clean up of the back yard and plant 3 boxwood dwarfs that we got at Home Depot for $5. DG did the digging and planting, I cleaned up the entire backyard of wood and nails left over from the fence. I am itching to start planting but I have a couple more weeks until the garden stores have good stuff.

The Before Shots

ADDENDUM
The before.

The After


Fresh from the rainforest, our new fence. Hmmm, where does cedar come from? Notice there is no view of garbage, furniture, old cars, or kids in the neighbors back yard.



And here is the old fence and future location of our garden patio. It may not look like much, but we are hoping for big things by then end of this summer. The mulch pile is staying. Thar's black gold in them thar pile. We also had pea gravel layed out yesterday to outline the garden.

Backyard Clean-up Phase 1

Last spring, Dave and I hired workers to take down our old metal fence and put up a new 6' privacy fence around 3/4 of our backyard. Truth be told we got a great deal and we love it. Then last fall in the 1/4 part of the yard we had not built a fence, our neighbor cut down all the ghetto trees and shrubs separating our properties leaving us a view of their not so scenic backyard.

These are pictures of them working last year. Here are DG's before and after shots from last year.

Since we are planning on having the rehearsal dinner in the backyard, we decided to start Phase 1 of our backyard clean-up. Yesterday, workers came to put in that last part of the 6" privacy fence. So now the dogs are now safely barricaded in the back yard, (sneaky Tica can't get out anymore), our house value goes up and we are now ready for nude badminton games. Sunday we start phase 2 which will consist of a patio put in by our garden. The grass does not grow back there, it is lower than the rest of the yard, and the sprinkler system does not go back that far. Win win for us. Phase 3 will begin when we start planting shrubbery and flowers. Pictures coming soon.

The Real World

You know that you have truly lost your youth when you no longer qualify for youth hostels, student bus passes, and eligibility to be on The Real World. Apparently in it's 18th season, they are now in Denver.

12 years ago, this would have been fun. Now I'm tied down to the man and the wieners. I will never again be able to find my 15 minutes of fame by drinking excessively every night, blowing off obligations, and making out with all my roomates in a hot tub (see every previous season of the Real World). I guess that's alright. *sigh*

The Contenders

Since I am unable to talk about my own dress, let's talk about the BMs. In round one of Bridesmaids dresses we have three contenders.

Ann Taylor
Lovely, inexpensive, silk, green dress:
Pros: Price, fit, color (it is much greener than the picture shows), and they could wear it all summer long as a sun dress.
Cons: A bit casual, and anyone else could wear it to the wedding!

The Vera Wang
The ladies like this one the best, but I suspect it has more to do with the name than anything.
Pros: It's um Vera
Cons: Price, probably needs to be altered


The Kiwi - The actual color is very similar to the Vera above. This is the most bridesmaidy and very flattering. It is hard to see in the picture, but the top is made up of horizontal strips.
Pros: Price, beautiful chiffon layers.
Cons: Will need to be altered, may not ever be worn again.



I know every bride says the same played out phrase: "Maybe they can wear it again someday". At least I'm not putting them in dresses like these ladies wore here or here, in the worst dresses ever website.

Our last option is coming soon from J. Crew.



Ultimately, I want the ladies to decide on what they like best and will be the most comfortable in. I'm not sure if I will post the winner. All those invited will just have to show up and see for themselves!

Spring has Sprung

This week-end was marked with dresses, the dog park, a cookout, yard work and our first official batch of strawberry margarita's on the back porch. Here is a pic of my boys laying in the back yard after a long grueling day of work.

126 Days To Go

Dress, Flowers, Location, Minister, Food, Cake, string duo, Honeymoon, Hotel blocks, Wedding Night Hotel, Photographer, website, CHECK!

The BMs (bridesmaids) and I are currently working on their dresses. We are going to try on a bunch tonight. Ultimately I see them in strapless, green, t-length dresses that do not come from a bridal shop and do not have to be altered. Hmmm, these ideals may be a bit Utopian? I will post the winner after we have decided.

Stupid Parking Lot Bastards

The RTD strike is still on and in force. Honestly, though it is inconvenience to us, I do believe that the workers deserve more than a $1.80 raise over a 3 year period. Especially knowing that RTD gave each executive a $9,000 raise, it just doesn't make sense. These people have families to support and people to keep safe on their drive every day. I would hate to think of the type of drivers that they would get at such a crap wage?!? We have several bus drivers in particular that we like. The one in the morning always looks down the street for us when we are not at the stop. There have been numerous days that I have run full throttle the entire way to the bus stop, with purse, gym bag, and in full winter regalia only to make the bus because this man saw me 1/2 a block away and stopped. For public transportation, this really is special treatment.

I started taking the bus years ago for a number of reasons, but one was that my car got broken into downtown twice in one year and had the cd player ripped out. $500 later, each time, I stuck to my bus schedule. DG and I work in separate parts of downtown and we have so far been taking turns driving in. But the parking lot ogres downtown have decided to capitalize on the strike by raising the rates in every parking lot downtown by upwards of $2 a day. Today when I came in, it had gone up another $1! I could go back to a cheaper lot (where my car was broken into), walk further, and raise the risk of getting my car broken into, but instead I suck it up and pay the $8 a day to park. This means that exactly 7 days of parking equals 1 month long bus pass.

An offer was made and we could have bus service as early as next week. Here's keeping our fingers crossed that RTD dug a little deeper in their pockets.

The Happy Hooker

Holly and her friend Patty wanted to start a knitting group so we all got together last Sunday afternoon and each worked on our own projects. I would like to knit/crochet more, but I am lazy and don't make myself do it enough. This is a good excuse and I finally started and finished something I was supposed to have done for Christmas! *gawd I suck*

I brought every knitting/crocheting magazine and book that I own and we leafed through a bunch looking for fun patterns. DG's coworkers recently sent him home with Stitch and Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker. It was written by the same ladies that did Stitch and Bitch The Knitters Handbook. There are so many great patterns in there. I particularly like the red cowboy hat shown on the front cover. That may be my next project. After of course a call to mom, a cry for help, and a needy whine that goes something like Muuuummmmmy!

I am better at crocheting than knitting, though not v. good at either. I tend to go for the super easy X10 projects such as potholders, or scarves (extended potholders) or ipod holder (potholders folded in half). The largest item I ever made was a baby blanket for a friend. It truly was my piece de resitance.

Our Beauty Queen

In her former life, Ms. Tica (whose real name is CAN CH Bardale's Xotica Vonbernhart) was a show girl, I mean show dog. Here she is at 6 months in her first show. She took Best of Breed 3 days in a row!

Thanks to her previous owner Bernard for sending us some great puppy pics of her and links to his website to see her heritage.

This post is in no way meant to come across as a bumper sticker saying My dog is an A+++ student at so and so middle school. We think it is quite funny that our sweet girl had a glamous upbringing, especially knowing her love of digging in the compost pile that has been freshly filled with manure.

Classic Tica

We have had Tica for just over 6 months now, and have had a fun time getting to know her. The last couple of months, she has really flourished and her true personality has come out. She is so different from Gibson in the oddest ways. She loves to cuddle, yet she is so stiff that she is not cuddly. She is constantly banging her head into things and doesn't know her own strength. (It only took 14 head-butts before I learned my lesson. I swear I'm going to lose a tooth someday.) She is persistent. If there is a toy out of her reach she will push her way through to get it. Gibson will sit and whine until you get it for him. She has abundant amounts of energy. She loves to whirl in circles around the back yard goading Gibson to chase her. At top speed she will whiz past him so fast that the air tunnel she creates blows his ears up into the air. Then she'll come to a dead stop in front of him, stare at him, lick his face in a tease, and then charge off again, looking over her shoulder to see if he took the bait. It is quite fun to watch. She is obviously the stronger of the two, yet she plays docile to Gibson's top dog status. He will playfully paw her, lick her face, and chew on her to assert dominance, and she will roll on her back and let him. Her newest quirk is her love of the hose. She chases the stream of water, trying to grab it with her mouth, only to get sopping wet every time.

Breaking News in Denver

DG and I had to *gasp for air* DRIVE in to work today as RTD our local public transportation system decided to strike. Apparently last time this happened in the 80's, it lasted a month. Awww man. Luckily we drove my car in as the only spots that were left in the parking lot were for compact cars. We are thinking about riding our bikes into work should this go on. But 35 degrees in the morning is a bit nippy to get on the ole bikeroonie. Brrr.