"P&D to Visit"

It's on my calendar. P&D are coming out in June and we are trying to plan a road trip to Mesa Verde during their time here.



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The drive from Denver is about 8.5 hours. And, to throw a wrench in everything, we'd probably leave Sunday or Monday and I would have to be back by Wed afternoon. SO. Carrie and you other Colorado travelers, your input is welcome. I am thinking we should drive through Montrose, maybe stay near Durango. If we left mid-morning Sunday, we could stop in Montrose and arrive in Durango before dark. Then, take in Mesa Verde the next day, stay another night and make our way back Tues. I'm just wondering what else there is to see on the way. Telluride is gorgeous--we could stop and shop there (by "shop", I mean look for celebrities). What do you think?

I *heart* Pop

I really do. Which is why I was excited to learn that Colombia is the world's third largest consumer of the stuff! I tried a few different kinds of pop while I was there, but the most interesting to me was Coke. The Coke in Colombia was sweetened with real sugar and was MUCH better than the kind we have here. So, imagine my surprise when I saw Pepsi Throwback in the store! Pepsi Throwback is made with real sugar, just like it was in the 60's and 70's. It also tastes much better. They are also making Mountain Dew Throwback, which is even more exciting. That stuff used to pump through my veins in College.

Also, at Target, I found a "premium" Pepsi available in 4-packs. It's called Pepsi Natural. Think Jones Soda. Of course, I bought some. I also enjoyed that quite a lot.

My new niece or nephew!!

My brother and sister-in-law are expecting! The baby is due in November. He or she will be a scorpio just like Uncle Paul!! They are going to be SPOI - ILED by Uncle Paul.

I wish they would play this on TV...

A Gaythering Storm from Jane Lynch

Megan learns to use a salad spinner

David Tired

It's 11:30pm and I have to work tomorrow. I'm still up though! Why? Well, for a few reasons:

1. I'm addicted to these dumb games on Facebook (Farm Town and YoVille).
2. P is working tonight, I'm home alone, and am scared of the dark.
3. Playoff hockey has started. Well, and then I turned it to Iron Chef and now I'm hooked.

That's all, really. I hadn't posted in a while, but then, I really didn't have anything to say... Meh. I really SHOULD go to bed. But that would just mean a lot of me staring at our bedroom doorway waiting for a ghost to come in and scare the crap out of me. Before I do sign off, just one quick note on the whole "raising money with blog ads" thing. We've made twenty cents. Plane tickets, here we come!

ZZZZZZZ

Crazy Colorado Weather

This actually happened 3 weeks ago, but since we're expecting more snow today (not nearly as severe), I thought I would post it. And, it TOTALLY reminded me of blizzards past when I would hang out with P&D. There was one in '04 when we hung out in my condo and they took turns sweeping the snow off my balcony (so as to prevent its collapse. Not too likely). Then, there was the Blizzard of Aught Two (I THINK--all's I know is Paul's mom was in town) when P&D lived in Near Aurora. On Day Two, they had cabin fever, so when I called, P&D were out saving trees (spring snowstorms always wreak havoc on the poor trees! and had already been to KMart to purchase more games). They then tried to convince me to take THE BUS there, but ended up rescuing me and we went to Black Eyed Pea. Oh, the Pea!

Screw Mormon vampires...

...I prefer Swedish vampire children.

David and I just watched the Swedish movie "Låt den rätte komma in (Let the right one in)." It was bloody and violent like vampire movies should be. And probably not like any other vampire movie you've ever seen. But my favorite scene: a woman infected with vampirism walks into the crazy cat man's apartment and all the cats go crazy and start attacking her. I'm pretty sure it was computer animation but it was freakin' aweseome. Oh the land of ABBA... you may try and woo me away from New Zealand... keep making movies like that.

Oh, memories

I am seriously contemplating digitizing the THOUSANDS of negatives I have of old pictures--has anyone done this? I thought about buying a negative converter from Hammacher Schlemmer (what a name, huh? Reminds me of the beginning of Laverne & Shirley...), but without a feeder I am reluctant to start such a time-consuming hobby.

The reason I bring this up is: I was reminiscing about a time when P&D lived in Denver--here is a pic of the building they first lived in together near DU. I have several old photos of us on their balcony drinking fruity drinks. But, you know, they're photos. And I need to digitize them.


Panning out, though, what I REALLY wanted to post was the monstrosity that was built NEXT to their old building--bet you guys are glad you weren't renting there when they built THAT, eh?
It's called Vistalofts. Apparently, you can rent just a room in a shared suite for something slightly MORE than I am paying to rent a 2 bedroom house.

I have planned a driving tour of Denver ("and CON-dos!") for when you guys visit this summer to show you all the changes to Denver since '06 (my GOD--has it been THREE YEARS since you've been in Colorado???)

Stupid fat conservatives

So I'm watching "Countdown" on MSNBC (no Keith Olberman tonight, it's David Schuster tonight... likely related to the death of his mother... PD & J send their condolences) and they are talking about how groups of right-wing nut jobs in a few cities across the country got together to have "tea parties" to protest what they believe will be higher taxes under Obama. Idiots. They believe whatever the Limbaughs, Hannitys and O'Reillys of the world tell them. Check out some of the videos here. I especially like the one that is 6 minutes of people being asked whether or not they believe Obama was born in the U.S. And there are still some Kool Aid drinkers out there who buy that he wasn't.

Anyhoo, what inspired me to blog? The "Countdown" piece referred to what they were doing as teabagging. So they said "teabagging" over and over again. Hilarious. I assume the readers of PD & J are hip enough to know what "teabagging" is. And therefore I leave it to this picture to sum it up:

Addendum: OMG, I just Wikipedia'd teabagging and learned that the equivalent using the female anatomy is called a "slug stamp." EWWWW!!

Newest Obsession

Okay, it's time to fess up and face the problem: I am OBSESSED with Scramble on Facebook!

It's just like Boggle except includes words like "narceine", "loriner", and "oomiac"--which seem like nonsense to me only because I am not anticipating taking any word tests like the SATs any time soon and refuse to look them up.

I play online at work a LOT--used to be just to fill up the down time, now it's almost ALL the time. I also know I'm obsessed because I constantly try to think of different words to make out of a handful of letters.
For example:
eat, tea, ate
easter, stare, tare, tares, ease, east, rest
art, arts, dart, darts, drat, rat, rats, rad, tad
etc.

But, as with most of my obsessions, I am sure this one will pass. The other thing I find so addictive is that if you play solo, you play against not only your best score, but those of your friends. I like to compete against my friends without their knowledge. Until I beat them, that is. (P, I've scored higher than you. Hi, D! *innocent wave*)

An open letter to our blog readers

Dear Loyal Blog Reader,

We're writing to make you aware of a change to the layout of our blog. A series of recent events have reinforced the need for P. D. and J. to see each other much more often. As is tragically apparent in the national news, our economy isn't cooperating with our goal.

Quick side note: We are currently "work-shopping" titles for our goal. While we eventually come up with names for things all the time (examples: Blizzard of Aught x, Pug 2008, Oscar Party y, etc.), you can see we're "witty names" challenged. We would like to put forth "Friends and Wine in Oh-Nine" for your consideration, but please comment with further suggestions.

Where was I? Oh RIGHT, seeing each other more. Loyal readers, this goal should really be your goal, too. It's no secret that this blog has suffered some rather unsettling periods of writer's block. We don't want that to happen again. We, your dedicated authors, need to have common experiences that we can share with all of you, our friends and family.

Which brings me to the point of this entire post. You'll note there are now ads on the left-hand side of our blog. These ads are there for one simple purpose: cold hard cash. All proceeds from the placement of these ads will be used for the sole purpose of traveling betwixt Chicago and Denver, and possibly other locations, to experience things that we can relate to you.

Don't feel that you need to click the links. You can ignore them if you'd like. But please don't let them turn you off to our witty banter, and tastefully told tales of everyday life. Should you wish to comment about our decision, please do not hesitate to do so. We understand that change can be unsettling, and we want you to know we're there for you.

Very truly yours,

P. D. and J.