Japanese Butt Lift

Published on by Casey Category: Colorado, Whatever

Turns out my car will need a Japanese Butt Lift, at least that’s what I’m calling it. The guy who hit me would need a Japanese Face Lift. 🙂 My car will need: new bumper, new mudflaps, new tire cover, new muffler, new pipe under the car for the muffler (can’t think of what it’s called. But the accident shoved the muffler and the pipe forward by 2-inches), and tailgate repair/repainting (the spare tire dented the tailgate). The initial cost estimate is around $1300. The earliest appointment I can get to have the body work started is October 3rd. Until then, my car is drivable. It sounds like a rice burner, but it’s drivable.

I had also read items online that stated if you’re ever in a car accident the child’s car seat needs to be replaced. Concerned about that I talked to a child car seat expert with the state and given that my accident was minor and that Logan was not in the seat at the time, the seat itself is fine and does not need to be replaced. Whew! Turns out that information about seats needing replaced is a myth. Good to know that Logan is still safe to ride in my rice burner. 🙂

Crunch

Published on by Casey Category: Colorado, Whatever

It only took 5 years and some change, but I once again rear-ended during a commute. The last time was in Carpenteria across from the polo fields while heading to class at UCSB (and a fellow UCSB student was driving the car that hit me). That guy was probably overjoyed that I never even called my insurance about it. I had plans to, as there was damage, although minimal, but my truck was soon stolen and thus needed more than just a new bumper.

This morning I was  rear-ended by someone driving a CR-V one year newer than my own, across from Boondocks (put-put golf), one my way to work in Denver. The guy that hit me was very nice and apologetic. We have the same insurance company so that should move things along nicely. In fact, he has already left me a voice mail with a claim number. Convenient. The fact that I was rear-ended by a Honda also ends my long streak of only being in accidents that involve Fords (this includes anytime I was in car that was involved in an accident, not necessarily driving).

I am a little sore, but nothing major. I saw the accident coming and semi-prepared my body for it (or at least attempted to). I am very thankful, and praised God many times already, that Logan was not in the car when the accident occurred. It was during traffic, and the guy behind me couldn’t have been going more than 20 mph, but still. Very glad that Logan was happily playing at daycare instead.

Noah has yet to look at the damage but so far I can tell I will need: a new bumper, new mudflaps, a new muffler and a new tire cover.

Thursday I’ll take my car into Boulder for the repair estimate and find out what all will need done. To be continued…

Up, UP and Away – Day 2, Part 2

Published on by Casey Category: Colorado, Family, Photos, Travel

One of the most photographed set of mountains of the US are the Maroon Bells. I’ve wanted to visit these majestic peaks, which are near Aspen, but never wanted to make the 4-hour trek just for them. Since we were in the area I added them onto our itinerary. The plan was to visit them Saturday after the launch, but the rain made that impossible. Worked out better anyway since the weather was perfect on Sunday! Mid 60s and sunny! I was hoping for more fall colors, but since Aspen had snow well into May this year, the turning of the colors was delayed.  I think I still got some spectacular photos, regardless.

You can find additional pictures here!

Up, UP and Away – Day 2, Part 1

Published on by Casey Category: Colorado, Family, Photos, Travel

The good weather from Saturday afternoon continued into Sunday, which means — the balloon launch was a go!


Look who’s in the balloon basket!


Looking down at the balloon festival (I LOVE this shot!)

 
Snowmass Village from a couple hundred feet up in the air!

 
Even Humpty Dumpty was there!

Do you see Noah & Logan in the background? Neither do I…

I was placed with Michael and “Old Yeller, who came all the way up from Albuquerque. I’ll tell you what, when you’re short, it’s not as easy as it looks to get into the basket. There’s a small foot step but that doesn’t help much when the remaining distance is still the length of your inseam! Plus, inside the basket was already the pilot, Michael, and three fuel canisters. Once I was situated, a 9-year old boy joined in. He was lifted in by his dad and made a much more graceful entrance.  Logan cried until we took off.

Halfway through the ride we touched down and swapped out the boy for his dad. Then I was squished between two grown men and the fuel canisters. There really is not a lot of wiggle room in those baskets. I pretty much only had as much space and my footprint. However, it didn’t distract from the experience.

Snowmass had set up targets around the golf course and in the neighboring fields for the balloonists to hit with tennis balls.  The targets were inner tubes and each balloon had numbered balls (for the record I was in balloon #23). Unfortunately for us, even though there was not a lot of wind that morning, whenever we got close to our target the wind would shift and move us away. We never did get close enough to drop the balls.

Most of the time we were around 250-feet above the ground (appx 8400-feet above sea level). At our highest we were probably 300-350-feet up in the air. I am not afraid of heights, but it was a little nerve-wracking at the initial lift off when I realized that if something happened to the balloon we would plummet to the ground like a rock. But the scenery soon took over that thought. I also chit-chatted with the 9-year old to help calm him.

We were up in the air for just under an hour before we landed in someone’s front yard. Not like it mattered, 65% of the houses in Snowmass Village are vacation homes and the one we landed in front of easily fit into the category.  A bunch of teenie bobber girls did come by to gawk.

After collapsing the balloon and stuffing it into a bag we headed back to the field, where Noah and Logan met us, and enjoyed a champagne toast to commemorate a successful flight.

It was a fantastic experience and one that I would not might doing again! Next year, we’re going to try to go to the balloon festival in Albuquerque. Maybe we’ll run into Michael and “Old Yeller”.  Which reminds me, I need to send him some of the pictures we took.

Want to see more photos? Go here.

Up, UP and Away – Day 1

Published on by Casey Category: Colorado, Family, Photos, Travel

Twitter is good for something other than getting news stories before anyone else. It’s also good for communicating with some of my favorite companies – like Chobani Greek Yogurt (@Chobani). Yum!

Last week I complained about a bad cup of yogurt, on twitter, and got a response from the company. I started to follow them, and learned that they were going to be at a hot air balloon festival near Aspen. Well, you must know by now that I have an affinity for balloon festivals.  I told Noah about the launch, not really expecting that we would make the nearly 4 hour drive to go to it. Chobani had a twitter contest to win one of 10 hot air balloon rides. Now, riding in a hot air balloon is pretty high on my proverbial bucket list but it’s expensive (the companies in Boulder run around $250/per person). Never expecting to win, I entered the contest on Tuesday.

Wednesday morning, over breakfast, I casually mentioned to Noah that I entered for a chance to go up in a balloon. That same day I had mention on facebook that I was giving away Rockies tickets. After I dropped Logan off at daycare I checked my phone to see if I had any bites, when lo and behold! I had a tweet from Chobani telling me that if I could make it to Snowmass I won one of the rides! [Insert OMG moment here] I think I literally squealed and bounced up and down in my car. I called Noah and said, “Guess what? We’re going to Snowmass this weekend!”

Last month I entered a text contest with a local radio station and received a response that I won tickets to a concert in Cheyenne only to find out that the station goofed and I didn’t actually win.  So,  Noah and I were a little weary about booking a hotel just yet until I had more specific details. We decided to stay in Glenwood Springs because it was along I-70, cheaper and had more stuff to do, then we would just drive down to Snowmass (about 35 min from Glenwood).


Logan loved the bed in the hotel!

 


The view from our hotel room.

I was scheduled to go up Saturday morning. Now, it had rained all Friday night, and was still raining Saturday morning as we got to the field. Not a good sign, but I still held some hope. Alas, I was not surprised when the event was cancelled for the day.  But that only meant I had to bug Chobani about what was to happen next. Could I go up on Sunday? By the afternoon I was informed that everything would be done on Sunday to get me up in a balloon but Snowmass could not make any promises. Fingers and toes were immediately crossed that everything would work out. I really wanted to go up in a balloon!

Did I forget to mention that it rained just about all day on Saturday? So the hikes we had planned were also cancelled. At least he seemed to rain the heaviest at a part of the day that nicely coordinated with nap time.

We did go down to Aspen after after the balloon festival was cancelled. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t what I saw. Plus, it was still so early on in the day that nothing was open except for a couple of (expensive) cafes. There was a farmer’s market, but we didn’t want to wonder around it in the rain.

Despite the rain, we were given periods of false hope of clearing weather by sneaky peaks of sunshine and thinning clouds. At one point it finally looked like it was clearing so ventured out to ride the Gondola to the top of Iron Mountain. Only to get there and find out that they were shutting it down because another storm was moving in. And voila! No sooner were we back in the car before the monsoon hit.

While waiting for the weather to clear we visited a cozy historical museum. It was great to learn a bit about the local timeline.  There was a young girl there with her mom, I’d guess she was about 10 years old. She noticed a typewriter and asked her mom what it was. (!!) I could not help but snicker out loud when she equated returning the carriage to pressing the enter button on a computer. Am I so old now that I’m shocked that the youth of today are ignorant to devices I had growing up?

We were finally able to make it up the mountain a couple hours later, and it was worth the wait! The skies had cleared and the scenery was just breath-taking!


Glenwood Canyon, looking east from the top of Iron Mountain

Also at the top of the mountain was an adventure park. There were cave tours (of which you could not pay me to take), a roller coaster down the mountain, bungee jumping, live music and several other fun activities. Logan was on the verge of a meltdown, but we still managed to get a few picture.

 

 

Additional pictures can be found here.

Rooting for Blue

Published on by Casey Category: Colorado, Family, Photos

Yesterday, we went to watch the Dodgers battle the Rockies.  Of course we all wore Dodger Blue to make sure all the purple people eaters know we were not there for their team.

 

We waited until the last minute to buy tickets so we didn’t to sit in our preferred right field box.  Instead we were just below nosebleed, along the right field line, in full sun, on a 90° day.  Amazingly, Logan didn’t seem to mind the heat and sun too much.  He even kept his hat on the entire time! Yay!  Regardless of the heat, it was a good team and this year, the Dodgers and Rockies equally suck.  We left the game at m9 as a certain little boy was very close to having a nuclear meltdown.  I believe that’s a 2 inning improvement over last year!  It was a good thing we left then anyway.  1) No traffic on the way out, which equates to less time sitting in stifling black car and 2) The game ended up lasting 13 innings (!!!) before the Rockies ending up winning *grumble* *grumble* The game was not even televised (*grumble* fox lies *grumble*) so we listened to the end of the game the old fashioned way — sitting around the AM radio.  Of course it would have been nicer had the Dodgers won, but we still all had a good time and enjoyed our “Dodger” Dogs.  Hopefully they Boys in Blue will do better this weekend when the Rox head to LA.

No More Fake

Published on by Casey Category: Household, Photos

After a week of long hours and too many take away meals, we no longer have carpet in our living room. We no longer have “oak” pergo in our kitchen and sun room either.  And all of the baseboards match! Plus, what self-respecting hardwood floor guy does not have hardwood flooring in his own house? I must say, I love my new flooring!  I also love being able to use my stove again.  Amusingly, it did take Gretna and I a bit to stop looking for the refrigerator in the living room…

Here are some before/during/after pictures.

Can you guess how many layers of flooring were in the kitchen? One? No. Two? No. Three? Still no, try four! Pergo on top of linoleum, on top of linoleum, on top of linoleum!  Which pattern is your favorite?


Layers of linoleum


Racking the floor

 
Installed!


Sanding!


Finished!

If you want to see pictures of the whole shebang, click here.

According to traditional [wedding] anniversary gifting five years = wood.  The contemporary model states wood is the ideal gift for six years.  We’ll, we were married seven years before Noah gave me wood (flooring) as a gift.  However, he did point out that it was done in time to coincide with our five year anniversary of living in the house.  We conveniently moved into our house on our 2nd wedding anniversary. So, that counts, right? According to Noah it does. 🙂

Productive Holiday Weekend

Published on by Casey Category: Family, Household, Photos

Long weekends are always great, but then again I’m a fan of the 5-day weekend, 2-day work week (less hours, same pay).

Saturday Noah and I painted the living room.  I was tired of the drab color that our house came with.  We managed to knock it out in one day thanks to Gretna helping to entertain Logan.  We also picked one of the hottest and humid days of the year to paint.  Note: I believe it was around 96° with 34% humidity.  For those of you not familiar with Colorado weather, anything over 20% is humid here.  But we survived and our living room looks better for it. 🙂

Of course Logan had to help!

Here’s a snap shot of the wall during painting. Can you guess which is the new and which is the old color?

 Still not sure? Here’s a link to a 360° view of the room before painting: 360.io/QwrB4k

Sunday was church, errands (including buying the crown molding and window trim for the living room), painting the molding and trim, then a fabulous BBQ. Another super hot day to be sitting in my garage painting 75-feet of molding.  The BBQ was at a friend’s house in Erie (for some reason Erie thinks fireworks should be shown on July 3rd), however, we did not stay for the pyrotechnic show.  Logan’s bed time is much too early for that.  Instead, we ended the night at home watching The King’s Speech.  Good movie.  Very British.  I wonder if the Queen liked it.

Monday morning Gretna and I went shopping at a couple of stores before Logan got too cranky. Came home, did chores and helped Noah put up the molding.  It looks fabulous! Of course Logan helped Noah with the molding too!

Now all that’s left is touch up paint.  We were going to scrape the acoustics off the ceiling but decided it was way too much effort and caused too much of a mess.  Then only reason why we considered it was to “improve the value of the house”, but in reality neither Noah nor I care that it’s there, so we left it.  Besides, we have better plans for “improving the value of the house”.  I’m really excited for the next stage in our stay-cation / mini-remodel, which will happen in two more weeks!

Here’s a link to another 360° panorama, after the paint was complete and the molding was up: 360.io/mJqLhQ

Yesterday Lafayette put on their first fireworks display over the lake.  We were going to walk over during the afternoon and see what all they had set up, but it was hotter than Hades.  Instead we played in Logan’s pool, ate tri-tip and watched Gnomio & Juliet.  Maybe next year Logan can/will stay up late enough to see fireworks. 🙂

Bacon!!

Published on by Casey Category: Colorado

Seriously, who does not like bacon? And those who say they don’t lie…or are prevented for partaking due to religious beliefs.  Thankfully, I have no bacon dietary restrictions in my life.

Also thankfully Colorado has a Bacon Festival! Yes that’s right, a food experience devoted 100% to bacon! Today, Noah, Logan, Gretna and I headed up dem der hills to Keystone.  Perfect weather, beautiful views and scrumptious food!  Here are some pictures from today’s event:


Bison meatball wrapped with applewood bacon.


Chocolate covered bacon and vanilla ice cream.


Tempura fried bacon & gravy.

 
Nutella & bacon crepe.


Peameal back bacon served over apple bacon braised red cabbage with a tart cherry compote.


Chicken quesadilla with bacon & a chipotle sour cream dipping sauce.


Chocolate bacon cheesecake.

And a happy family photo – even though Logan was cranky since he didn’t nap on the way up and Gretna half cut me out of the picture.

Jealous? You should be! Hungry? We’re not any more.  So full from the food.  Our favorite was the crepe. Pretty sure we’re going to start making these at home.  The least favorite – the tempura fried bacon. I think Logan tried them all except for the tempura.  While eating the cabbage & bacon he would finish a bite he would exclaim, “Hey, hey hey!” As if to say, my mouth is empty now, please rectify this situation with more yummy bacon!

Also, even though dogs were not allowed, Purina had a booth giving away full sized bags of Beggin Strips! Lava and Remieli made out too (but shhh, don’t tell them it’s not real bacon)!

We all had a blast and came home exhausted. If this event returns next year I’m pretty sure we will be there. Yum Yum Yum! Bacon! NOM!