Well, we successfully made it into another year.  The new year came in quietly as Noah and relaxed at home, just the two of us.  On New Year’s Day we we’re pleased with a USC win at the Rose Bowl and went to an Iron Chef themed dinner party.  Each couple was given a secret ingredient and had to make a dish they had never made before.  We were given chicken and were told to make either a finger food or an entree.  I made chicken pot stickers, which fits in either category.  The other ingredients and dishes were:

Beef – taquitos
Spinach – spinach salad
Cheese – jalapeno poppers
Broccoli – broccoli cheese balls
Bread – focaccia
Fruit drink – raspberry-ginger spritzer
Egg – sausage wrapped hard boiled eggs
Caramel – caramel pie

It was a very delicious and fun party, with plans to repeat in 6 months.  Only the 2nd time the ingrediants will be a bit more obscure and we will be allowed one dry one (in case the dish selected is absolutely awful).

I hope all of you enjoyed your new year celebrations as much as we enjoyed ours.  Now, I am trying to gain as much from my last couple of days of vacation as possible before I go back to work on Monday!

Veteran’s Day is not just a day you get off work, or out of school (although, neither of those applies to me).  It’s not a day to stand out on street corners waving banners and signs upset about the war in Iraq and screaming as loud as possible that the troops need to be brought home.

No, Veteran’s Day is when we all stand proud with the soldiers around us.  The soldiers that have served and maybe even have passed (either as a result of war or natural causes).  Today, please thank those you know in the military for all of their hard work and sacrifice, regardless of your feelings on the war in Iraq.  The United States would not exist if it weren’t for men and women willing give their all for their country.

I have many friends that are currently serving or have served in the armed forces including family members (my dad, my uncle (late), my grandpa (late)), and I could not be more proud of any of them.

Here’s a great article everyone should read.  It’s about one of the last surviving WWI soldiers.  He’s 112 years old and even that does not stop him from paying his respects to the graves of his fallen commrades.

Today I voted.  I’m done.  My ballot is in the mail.  I spent the last couple of nights reading through the Colorado Booklet on all the different Amendments, whether or not judges should be allowed to remain seated and the few County propositions.

This year Colorado’s ballot was 4 11×14 pages!  I was greatly amused by the fact there are a couple of gentlemen running for president on the Boston Tea Party ticket.  Seriously folks, I kid you not!

Needless to say, I love being an absentee voter.  No lines to stand through, no booths to hide in…nope, I was able to vote from the comfort of my own couch.  However, regardless of your political views, don’t forget to execute your right to vote.  Whether it be through the mail, early by standing in line at a polling post (Colorado has this option) or on election day itself.

Last night my Dodgers swept the Cubs in 3 games to win their branch of the National League Division Series.  Today, the Phillies beat the Brewers in 4 games, so on October 9th the Dodgers and Phillies will face off for the NLCS (Championship series) in Philadelphia.  What this means is if the Dodgers win the best out of 7, they will go the World Series!  Something they have not done since 1988!  I was too young to remember it then, so I am looking forward to experiencing it now.  What this also means, is that if the NLCS lasts 7 games, game 7 will be at Dodger Stadium while I am in California!  So, I called a former co-worker that just happens to be friends with Juan Pierre, one of the Dodgers outfields!  She’s going to give him a call to see if she can score 3 tickets for Noah, my sister and me to go to Game 7!  We shall see.  I prefer LA sweeping PA in 4 games, but if not, I would very much enjoy watching our win from the stadium!

However if  Juan cannot pull through, there will be a Dodgers party in Ventura at my parent’s house…by invitation only.  😀

For the first time in two years my Dodgers have returned to the post season!  Only this time, we entered with a division championship title (as opposed to the Wild Card win).  Tonight we (I say we because I directly associate myself with the Dodgers) had our first NLDS game against the Cubs, who have the best regular season record of any other National League team in 2008.  While the Dodgers had a great last month of regular play, we did win the division with the worst national league win…and in fact the worst Dodgers winning record since 1901!  Regardless, numbers don’t really mean anything unless you’re counting the amount of runs for a particular game (i.e. who wins and who loses).

So, that being said, I am a very happy Dodgers fan tonight since my Boys in Blue beat the Cubbies 7-2!  Yea, that’s right!   One down, two to go and the Dodgers will go on to the Championship Series and then hopefully, the WORLD SERIES!!!  If we make it that far, I will gladly accept donations of World Series tickets.  😀

As you know, I work for USA Rugby, and as you can imagine nonprofits are dependent on donations from the general public.

I recently discovered a very easy way you can help USA Rugby receive donations without costing you a single cent!  www.GoodSearch.com has teamed up with Yahoo to provide an internet search that donates to the charity of your choice (USA Rugby) every time you search the web.  And, since it’s powered by Yahoo Search, you’re bound to get the results you are looking for.  This service is completely free to use, as the money donated comes from advertisers.

The only way the service would cost you anything is if you used their sister site, www.GoodShop.com to do your online shopping.  More than 700 of the top Internet retailers and travel sites, including Amazon, eBay, Target, Apple, Expedia and more have joined forces with www.GoodShop.com to donate part of every purchase to your favorite charity (USA Rugby) at no additional cost to you!

It takes just a few seconds to go to www.GoodShop.com, select your charity, and then click through to your favorite store and shop as usual.  Be sure to set your default search engine to www.GoodSearch.com too!

Please tell your friends about GoodShop and GoodSearch today. They’ve been featured in the NY Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, Oprah Magazine and more.

The searches you normally do everyday will help USA Rugby achieve our goal of Inspiring America to Fall in Love with Rugby!

Now that Noah’s working in Littleton (and other Denver Metro locations) it was time to get a different vehicle.  First off the F250 needs a new oil pump, which has been purchased and which Joe & Noah will install this weekend or next.  Since, the Ford was not a reliable (surprise?) form of transportation until the pump is replaced, Noah has been driving Joe’s Chevy.  Great to have a vehicle to use, not so great are the gas bills that go along with driving a big truck.  Even while carpooling, the F250 and the Chevy were costing easily $100/week.  No good.  Plus the Ford is only 2wd, which is not so ideal with snow and ice…especially if the mountains are involved.  Time for a change.

After researching options online, Noah and I drove down to Centennial (South Denver) last night and come home in separate vehicles.  While there we purchased a Nissan Frontier.  It’s a great compact truck, and I have had great experience with owning a Nissan truck (minus the theft, but that wasn’t my fault).  It’s a manual transmission and 4wd, which will be handy during the winter and we both know how to drive stick, so that’s no problem.  Plus, our monthly payments are way less than what we would be spending on gas for the Ford!  Here are the dealership photos.

The Ford is still for sale, by the way.  So if you know anyone that is interested in a good work truck (seriously, it’s not that bad of a truck), let me know.  We don’t need 3 vehicles!