It's been some kinda hot here lately. And then it keeps threatening rain which makes it humid. Though to my knowledge, it's mostly just closed pools and ruined perfectly clean cars. We Coloradans are kind of whiny about humidity. It gets even a weee bit steamy and we whine. We're just not used to it. It's semi-arid here usually. Mr. Loki has been sitting near/ON TOP OF the A/C vents and stealing sandwiches (though I don't think this has much to do with the heat). Maybe we should have named him Yogi.

Boot camp is almost done, which is bumming me out. I've really enjoyed getting up at the crack of dawn and doing insane things to my body. Lord only knows why. Due to scheduling conflicts, I can't sign up for the next session either.

Work has been nuts too. I am working on some new projects and I have very little help and a steep learning curve, so when I hit a wall it's just me and the help files. They're not as helpful as their title might lead you to believe, either!.. But now I'm remembering some tricks of my old trade ... if I get up and walk around for a while and chat with someone, I usually get it all figured out. Though actually, my old trick was to play a game of tetris. Wonder which would take less time. But in any case, by the time I get home between the heat and the brain drain I'm fit for little interesting or fun.

Weekend, please!

Last Thursday as we made the long journey to The People's Republic to pick up our veggies from the hippies (more greens, did I mention?!?), Tabby got a bit cranky. So we did what almost always soothes her ... we sang. We take her classic kid songs and improvise ... so Old MacDonald has had some way funky things on his farm. Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Democrats, Republicans and all manner of animals that do not belong on a farm. So I start in with ...

Old MacDonald had a farm
Tabby sings the EIEIO bit
and on that farm he had a slug
Tabby again sings the EIEIO bit
with a ...

and at this point, Matt and I both simultaneously start making gross slurping sounds and then laugh hilariously because even though we'd never done "slug" before, we both made the exact same slug sound.

...

Then this weekend, we went into the grocery store and there was a guy there giving away free Denver Posts and (I assume) selling subscriptions. He asks us if we'd like a free paper. We politely decline and continue walking to the produce section. Just as he's out of ear shot:

Matt (in his Nelson voice): Dude, your medium's dying.
Me (also in a Nelson voice): Ha-ha.
As a reference to this Simpson's episode. I was kinda ticked though, because I wanted to say the first line.

We had a fab weekend. So so so busy. And it was so hot out. Our babysitter has requested Fridays off for a while and so Matt and I are splitting our time with her on Fridays, which is awesome. So Friday my mom and I took her to Denver's Children's Museum. She played and played and had a great time. We went to get sushi for dinner. After dinner, Matt and Tabby went home and I went with my mom and Kelly to see Mama Mia, which was really great.

Saturday morning, Matt and I went to a special co-ed bootcamp. It was such a kick seeing the guys getting down and dirty and doing the things we've been doing for weeks. Matt's a weee bit sore. Mom and Tabby and I spent a bunch of the day shopping and then Tabby spent the evening at my parents' while Matt and I had date night! We put our new sleeping bags to good use by creating a movie theatre in the back yard with my laptop and a borrowed projector. It was great fun.

Today we collected our darling daughter and ran errands. Costco. Grocery store. Etc. Tabby and I took a 2 hour nap in the afternoon. And then this evening we harvested our garden and made a mozzarella/tomato/basil salad that was the best we'd ever had. Soooo yummy. We also used up all of our spinach from our CSA share and made spinach pesto. I highly recommend it.

Hope you had a nice weekend!

So that's the skirt I made this weekend. Well not just me ... I had help. Thank goodness. My friend (and babysitting charge of the past and current babysitter), Steph helped with her expertise and sewing machine. And the whole thing was Holly's idea. It turned out so well and sort of got me back into the creative mode and I'm really glad she got us going.

Basically, the gist is that you cut up jeans into skirt silhouette and then fill in the missing spots with pieces from the legs. For added interest, I decided to use another fabric on the side panels. I had no idea if it would work out or not, but I really like the effect. Then Steph used contrasting green thread on the hem in a cute embroidery pattern to provide a stop point for the fraying and a little decoration.

The only thing I am not crazy about is that I used a skirt that's a size or two too big ... I got the jeans at Goodwill and selection was limited. I ended up going more for style and color rather than perfect size. I thought it wouldn't matter quite so much with a skirt, but it's pretty loose ... though I can pull it down lower on my hips which isn't bad.

• Tutorial (that I only sort of followed)
• Close-up Detail

Any guesses as to what this used to be?

It was going to be a treat for Loki. We bought him a nice bone at the market and Matt was going to heat it up a bit for him ... so he put it on the grill while we were cooking dinner inside. And we forgot about it. And went for a walk. And when we got back ... things were rather warm. 600 degrees. The BONE was on fire. Yikes.

Maybe we can get him a treat next week ... for now he's back to raw-hide chews. I think even my rather indiscrimate dog would turn his nose up at charred bone.

Hi all! Hope your weekend was a great one. We were super busy and had a lot of fun, but now I'm super tired. Bullet recap or I'll never get thru it:

• Finally got a more varied share from the hippies including zucchini.. yum!
• Had a hugely successful and fun game night. Made Kristi's pizza dip recipe which was great as well as 7-layer dip, no pudge brownies and a veggie tray, plus everyone brought tons of food (and wine!!).
• Matt and Tabby had a daddy-daughter date night and went to playgrounds cafe and had a lot of fun.
• Spent most of Saturday at Holly's house ... we went running and then transformed old pairs of jeans into skirts (I'll have to post a photo later ... they turned out so cute!).
• We celebrated Kelly's b'day on Sat night with some good picnic food. I provided the Chocolate Lava cake and we bought her a Fat Unicorn T'shirt.
• Sunday we went hiking at Walker Ranch with M&H and the babies which was a bit too ambitious, apparently because we only made it about 2/3 of the distance we were aiming for ... but it was gorgeous and I really want to get back there.
• Did grocery shopping and other misc. errands (got the wrong running shoes!) and a bit of laundry.
• Had a nap with Tabby that was lovely.
• Made BBQ Chicken burritos for dinner.
• Watched Definitely, Maybe (meh) and stayed up a bit too late.
• Dragged my sorry butt out of bed early early and went trail runing for 45 minutes (wtf??!).
• Do I really have to work today!??!

While doing dishes last night, I moved my hand jerkily and my wedding band flew off (it kinda needs to be sized). Anyhoo, I thought it landed in the corner where our cabinets form an L shape. But searching on my hands and knees (which was quite painful thanks to Bootcamp) yielded no results. I called in the knight in shining armor (Matt) and enlisted his help in the search. We looked ALL OVER. Moved the fridge, ec. etc. I was really pretty convinced it hadn't gone far. I hadn't heard rolling or anything. But it wasn't there!

Then Matt noticed that if you put your hand up under the lip of the cabinet (where the cabinet meets the baseboard) there was a hole.... ruh-roh. We could not think of another single spot where my ring could be and so Matt ended up ripping off part of the baseboard and sure enough ... back about a foot in there, almost underneath the neighboring cabinet (and almost REALLY REALLY lost) was my wedding band. It is back in my posession now and I'm very happy. Poor Matt will be spending a couple of hours this weekend fixing the baseboard. And my rings are going to the jeweler's.

• Tabby had her follow-up session of poking and prodding with the radiology dept. last week. Her condition has improved, but not gone away all together. So she's still on antibiotics and we have to repeat this whole deal in a year's time. Which really sucks.
• I'm into my second week of bootcamp and I must tell you ... it's kicking my ass. Which is exactly what I wanted. I can't describe specifically what I do (as I mentioned before), but I think it's safe to tell you that we do something called Crossfit twice a week which just shreds me. The other days aren't exactly recovery days either.
• As a result of the above item, I always want a nap. And if I don't get a nap, I want to go to sleep at 8 PM. Too bad there are things to be done.
• I'm having 10 people from my mom's group over on Fri night for game night. I've promised snacks and I have no idea what those are going to be. Feel free to send me suggestions if you have any!
• I'm so freaking sick of green leafy things I might just go all postal if I see another head of Asian Bitters. Where the hell are my zucchini??? Stupid hippies.
• On the bright side, I now know like 10 different ways to cook greens. They're mostly variations on two themes, but I'm getting my vitamins (and I say this all British - vit-a-mins), damnit!
• My garden is also now extremely overgrown and has already yielded us two (2!!) teeny tomatoes. They were pretty tasty too. I have high hopes for the squash as well.
• Must research garden pruning/cutting back on the web when I get a chance.
• I found a new piece of software for keeping my maniacal schedule (I was using Excel before), called Achieve Planner. They've got a free trial if you're interested.
• Bought this T'shirt of Shirt.Woot. It pretty much sums up how I feel about this whole political process. Vote Moose!
• I almost lost my wedding band ... like for good. That would've sucked. Matt retrieved it though. More on that later ... tomorrow?
• Our pumpkin crossed neutral borders and tried to strangle our tomatoes, complete with cute little curly strangling tendrils (like the pumpkin-into-coach scene in Disney's Cinderella). Kinda glad we only planted one.
• Tomorrow is only Thursday. Bollocks.

Tabby turned 16 months old on July 4th. I will reiterate what every other mom on the planet says, "I can't believe how fast it's gone by!" And I can't. Wasn't she just the size of a loaf of bread what? yesterday?

I am thrilled at how well she's doing and I keep seeing her grow and change every day. She seems to know another new word every day (is this the language explosion they talk about??). Bubbles. Baby (with the sign). More (also with the sign). Pill (we say, "you're being a pill"). Papa. Grandma. Gaga (what she calls Kelly). Woof! Car. Banana. And on and on. She's also signing more and more ... "please" is the big one she's using to her advantage.

She's also started babbling to people on the phone. Before she'd babble on her play phone when no one was there, but when we'd put a real phone to her with someone on the other end, she'd clam up. Now she's happy to babble on and on and on. It's damn cute.

She's mimicking us more and more too. She's picking up things off the floor, little pieces of paper, etc. and putting them in the trash. And she wants to walk on the treadmill all the time. And her newest request is to "see" whatever it is we're doing, cooking, reading, etc. and join in. And she's still every bit as affectionate as possible, giving kisses and hugs and patting whoever's holding her.

She's truly a joy to be around and I wish I had even more time to spend with her. It all goes by too fast. And even as I write this, I know I'm missing 100 things that I'd like to remember.

Tabby would like to extend heartfelt good wishes to her Aunt Gaga on today, Gaga's 26th Birthday. She thinks Gaga is all kinds of fun, and enjoys playing with Gaga's bunnies, having her hair styled by Gaga, getting dressed up in a new outfit by Gaga, and taking shelter in Gaga's arms when Mama and Dada are being unreasonable (as they are want to be). Tabby says "Hiiiiiiii!" and blows Gaga a kiss.

Happy birthday, Kells! Love you lots!

It was so nice to get away for a while. We went to Vail to hang out with the usual suspects plus my uncle's family and celebrate the forth in the newly renovated condo. We had a great time ... playing Wii, chatting, listening to music, cooking, hiking, mountain biking, taking naps, etc. etc. So much fun.

Tabby was totally off her schedule. Naptime? Mealtime? What's that? She went to bed after 9 one night and before 6:30 another night. Naps were sketchy. Meals were frequently a series of snacks. But she had a wonderful time hanging with her grandparents, auntie, great aunt and uncle and second cousins. She had somone's attention the whole time and I don't envy her babysitter tomorrow!

Matt and I had fun hanging out with Tabby and having some freetime thanks to the many people who were willing and eager to play with Ms. Tabby. My mom and dad had her sleep in their room the whole weekend and it was even sweeter going to sleep listening to the sound of the creek knowing we could wake up on our own schedule!! I am so well rested it's amazing.

Now we're back home. Laundry is turning in the dryer. The kitchen cupboards are bare (save a TON of greens from our CSA share ... again! grrrrrr), to be refilled tomorrow. And we're back to the grind. It all went by way too fast! Hope yours was lovely.