Snack for Later

A Conversation Between Expecting Parents

2012-02-08T15:25:00.000-06:00

Husband: Hey! Remember that time I did three loads of laundry and an enormous pile of dishes yesterday?

Wife: Yes I do. Remember how I've been carrying your son for the last 30 weeks?

Husband: Yes but you aren't considering all the work I did in such little time. You see, work equals power multiplied by time.

Wife: .......shut up

Disclaimer: The names in this dialog have been withheld to protect the innocent....and the guilty.

In other news, today we crossed the 30 week mark. Ten(ish) weeks to go!

Keep It Real!

Eyes on Politics

2012-02-03T10:05:00.002-06:00

Two blog posts in three days. To the few of you out there who have complained that I don't post enough...eat your hearts out.

On a day when I'm not in a rush, my morning routine includes turning on the laptop and checking in with a few websites. Email....obviously. Then Facebook. Sometimes Craigslist to see what weird stuff my fellow Los Alamosans are trying to sell. But one place I always check on before signing off and finishing my getting-ready-process is the CNN website.

Today's headlines seemed like nothing new at first....kidnappings, threats of war, consumer warnings, etc. That is, until I read the following headline: "Comedian Running for President"

Oh please let it be for real and let it be someone hysterical!

I clicked on the link and, to my great surprise, found that the one and only, Roseanne Barr, a Green Party member, is running for president. See it for yourself here.

Oh my gosh!

She looks so much better than I remember her looking in the 90s

I couldn't believe it. I quickly zipped over to the Wikipedia page on the candidates for the 2012 Presidential Election to double check.

That's right. I confirmed what I read on CNN by double checking with Wikipedia.

We all know that, the way our country is politically shaped, no one who runs for the Green Party is going to become president. Maybe someday in the future....but not any time soon. But people who run for these smaller parties do so in an effort to get the word out and have some national publicity for their platform. And good for them.

Man...I hope her campaign lasts a REALLY long time. The comedic relief for me personally, even if she is completely serious as a "candidate", would be priceless in the midst of all the junk that comes with election season.

Now before you get too excited, settle down. Nothing gets too darn serious until the Green Party Convention this summer. As of current, there are a handful of other candidates also vying for the Green Party nomination. But how could they put forth anyone else? She's SO patriotic!!

So stay glued to whatever device through which you gather your political news, folks. It's sure to be an entertaining ride, however long it lasts!

Keep It Real!

Back from Aspen

2012-02-01T10:50:00.001-06:00

Yesterday, Leni and I returned from a week in Aspen with great friends that we knew from our Texas days when he was still in school. We'd been looking forward to this trip since it's planning stages in the Fall and it was well worth the wait!

One house. Six rooms. Four bathrooms. Thirteen people.

Leni and I, having the shortest distance to travel (7 hour drive), were the first to arrive and, after opening up the house that we had rented and greeting the second arriving couple, the next order of business was to zip down to the Aspen airport and pick up our good friends, Josh and Kalyn. Next, was a trip to the grocery store to tackle a serious list of food to buy. It took 6 of us a little over an hour to accomplish this. Almost $450 later, we walked out with (almost) all the ingredients we used to feed that many people for the week. The price sounds like a lot but when you divide it out on a per person-per day basis, it's incredibly darn reasonable!

Check out took so long!

After the return from the grocery store, more people started arriving and the excitement started mounting as people talked about looking forward to getting on the slopes the next day.

I should probably mention that this was the 4th of several ski trips for which this group has gathered since 2008. Not being able to ski these days, it was more of a chance to see good friends and hang out for me. I spent a lot less time by myself than I had prepared for, which was a welcome change to my expectations. One recent addition to the group (just married in this past Fall) only skied for a day and a half due to a pre-existing knee issue...so I got spend some time getting to know her. Another guy had an unfortunate fall on his 3rd day and ended up with a messed up shoulder and not being able to go back out. There was a day in the middle of the trip where several people, including Leni, took a rest day as well.

During the days, I often drive to the ski resort to meet the gang for lunch. During the first day that I was checking out the ski hill where the group spent most of their time (Snowmass), I found this funny sign outside a restaurant in the village:

Did you spot the grammatical error?

On two days, we drove into the city of Aspen to wander around the ritzy but beautiful downtown area. As far as skiing goes, the Aspen area is actually comprised of 4 separate mountains and one of them had runs and lifts that came right into the downtown area:

Aspen Mountain as seen from downtown

During the week we were in Aspen, another of those 4 mountains, Buttermilk, was host to the 2012 Winter X Games.

Saw some sweet runs through this ~~half pipe~~ super pipe

Of course, the finals of the best events were in the evenings of the last two nights but what we found was that parking was far too much of a hassle (lots were filling up in the early to mid afternoon!) to try to attend in person. It was such a relief when the decision was made to just stay in our warm house and watch it on TV - no doubt providing better views and replays anyway than had we been standing there with a 1000 other people. Because the dirty little secret about the X Games is that, for most of the events, unless you have a VIP pass, you end up watching it on an on-site big screen anyway because so much of the competition course is not visible from the bottom of the runs where the crowds are gathered or there are too many people blocking your view.

One set of events that I ended up enjoying that I didn't think I would was the snowmobile stuff. I often think of snowmobilers as being reckless, loud and inconsiderate jerks - and that may still be the case! But seeing them whip up in the air and move those heavy machines with their bodies was pretty darn incredible. We got to see the first ever attempt at a double back flip in competition (unfortunately, he failed...broken arm...ouch!) followed by the first ever successful competition completion of a FRONT flip. Think about it for a second. A back flip is totally intuitive considering how the vehicle leaves the jump but a front flip is a completely different story. Watch the video of it:

Absolutely insane. Amazing moment for the rider as well as the sport in general. Another record made on that same night was Shaun White's snowboard performance in the super pipe. Athletes get 3 attempts in achieving the highest score and, like in the 2010 Olympics, he had secured a first place win after only the second round. For his final run, he nailed all his tricks and received a first-time-ever-in-the-x-games perfect score of 100 from the judges.

The excitement for these records and events was palpable around both the local area as well as our house with our friends and I'm so pleased that we got to experience Aspen during this special event.

So we're back. Tired, but pleased to have spent quality time with people we don't often see. I'll admit that the 7 hour drive each way was uncomfortable at times for my back and it was a blessing to have Leni doing all the driving.

I can't wait to be able to ski again next year.

Keep It Real!

Countdown

2012-01-09T19:10:00.001-06:00

It's an exciting time around here....there are so many things to look forward to!

16 days until....the (somewhat) annual ski trip with these folks:

We'll be coming from as far as Pennsylvania and Tennessee and as close as....New Mexico :) The destination this time? Aspen....where the beer flows like wine! If you don't get that reference, we can't be friends. I keep losing count but I think there are going to be 13 of us in attendance this year and we've rented a pretty awesome lodge for the week. I won't be skiing (sad face) this year but look forward to watching ESPN's Winter X Games live in action at Aspen!

100 days until...the projected arrival of Mini Moore!

Again, forgive the bad photo. It's a picture of a picture.

The photo above was taken at 20 weeks....which was 6 weeks ago. Word on the street is that yes, we've got a name selected and no, you won't hear what it is until he arrives. Stay tuned!

166 days until....my best friend's wedding!

Janelle and Thomas will get married in June in Charlottesville, VA and I couldn't be more excited to be out there for the weekend. Should be a pretty rockin' time....even if we'll be learning on the job how to travel with a 9-week-old :)

199 days until...the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

Is there still some lingering bitterness that Chicago was not selected for the host city for 2012? Sure...but I think we can all move on and enjoy the wonder that is the Olympics. Favorite summer events? Swimming races, diving, and gymnastics!

So life is good :) Hope there are things on your life's horizon that are getting you as excited.

Keep It Real!

P.S. Los Alamos Trails Goal Update: 25.6 of 29.5 miles completed, 2.9 miles to go. No progress since the last post but with icy trails, I don't like to go hiking by myself these days. I'll get there though!

Bethlehemian Rhapsody

2011-12-25T09:12:00.007-06:00

Merry Christmas! Today, Leni and I are chilling at home and enjoying the time together. Late this evening, his parents will arrive from TX and spend most of the week celebrating with us.

In keeping with the tradition of a Christmas video every year on this blog, please enjoy this fun little diddy I found a couple weeks ago.

Hope everyone is doing well! Merry Christmas! For unto us a child is born!

Keep It Real!

Trading the Trades

2011-12-02T13:42:00.001-06:00

Those of you who know my family, know that, in a lot of ways, my brother and I married people who are wonderful, yet INCREDIBLY different from each other. (understatement)

Meet Leni and Claire:

First pic ever taken of them, at our wedding

Hanging around the two of them is usually particularly hysterical. Their differences can be basically boiled down to the following: Claire is a student of the arts, and Leni is a student of science. This is the basis for any interaction that ends in disagreement of any degree.

I remember back in March listening to a discussion where Claire thought it was ridiculous that Leni didn't know the color wheel. Leni, probably having heard the words color and wheel in the same sentence (and not in relation to cars) for the very first time that day, shot back something about Claire needing to learn the Periodic Table of Elements. As with most discussions of this nature between these two, it ended quickly before elbows and fists were thrown.

Back in early July, a new version of this came to life. Standing by a crappy piece of art that we got at a yard sale for pennies, Leni started talking about what he would do to it if he had the talent. Claire jumped into action and before I could take another breath, there was an easel set up complete with the necessary paints - and Leni standing around watching like a lost puppy.

The original

Considering the plethora of options

Learning some basics from Claire

It became a collaborative effort

As it stands now. There is talk of more work later perhaps.

The fun doesn't stop there, folks! Over Thanksgiving, Claire was up at our house and, in holding up her end of the bargain, spent some time assisting Leni in his craft: car stuff in the garage.

Here's Claire cutting a long piece of metal for some fabrication work:

And here she is doing some actual welding:

In the art project and the garage project, the apprentices were both good sports and very patient and it was quite entertaining for me to be an observer. Many props go out to both Leni and Claire for being open to new things!

Keep It Real!

P.S. Los Alamos Trails Goal Update: 25.6 of 29.5 miles completed.....3.9 miles to go!

Holiday Peeves

2011-11-21T16:31:00.000-06:00

If you have ever read much of what I say on Facebook leading up to the holidays, you know that I strongly DETEST when Christmas is celebrated before Thanksgiving. It's just not right.

But that's not what my current pet peeve is about. This peeve exists on a year-round basis but operates at threat level red during the days leading up to Thanksgiving. It's this...

...a crowded grocery store. More specifically (although not blatantly pictured above), I loathe those unaware shoppers who block entire aisles.

You've seen it; the patron who leaves their cart on one side of the aisle while blocking the rest of the aisle with their body while looking at a shelf of goods. This happens 365 days a year and it is not okay. But it is most ESPECIALLY wrong on high capacity shopping days such as...oh I don't know...the days leading up to Thanksgiving!

It creates a lot of problems but most importantly, it aggravates Yours Truly and causes her to think unholy thoughts about people around her who are, presumably, otherwise nice people. I literally prayed for forgiveness after exiting the store today due to the awful things I'd thought in my head about my fellow shoppers.

So please...I'm beggin' you...if you visit a grocery store in the next few days, PLEASE be a conscientious shopper. If you need to linger in a particular spot, be sure that your cart and your body are on the same side of the aisle so that others can pass.

I miss the days when my biggest complaint about the grocery store involved waiting for people at the register to scribble out a check for their groceries. When's the last time you saw that?

Keep It Real!

P.S. Los Alamos Trails Goal Update: 24.4 of 29.5 miles completed....5.1 miles to go!

Two Victories

2011-11-13T10:33:00.000-06:00

This week in the Moore house hold came complete with many victories probably, but two stand out and are worth mentioning.

First, I finished our Christmas shopping. Done and done. Some gifts will be delivered in person when we see various family at Thanksgiving. Others will need to be shipped to two locations and I will do that sometime in December when it is closer to the actual holiday. Others will be given in person at Christmas itself. But that's the easy part. Being able to check off the To Do List that the gift selections and purchasing have been completed, is an enormous relief every year and being able to get it done in early November only adds to that enormity.

Secondly, after a drought in working toward my trail completion goal, I made some real progress yesterday. I had completed 18.8 miles of my 29.5 mile target and had 10.7 miles to go, which involved 7 trails. This weekend, we hiked the longest of these 7 trails and knocked off 4.9 miles, bringing the number of miles completed to 23.7 and the miles needed to only 5.8 and 6 trails. Given that the average length of these trails is only 1.18 miles, it felt great to cross off 4.9 of the remaining needed miles in one trip.

Here's hoping that your Veterans Day Weekend was productive. A special thanks to all the Veteran readers for the sacrifices they have made. Only they and their families truly know the reality of those sacrifices and, whatever they are for each individual, I am thankful for them.

Keep It Real!

P.S. Los Alamos Trails Goal Update: 23.7 of 29.5 miles completed...getting there!

Happy Halloween and a Rant

2011-10-31T20:06:00.000-05:00

Our Halloween was drawn out and fun this year. It started on Thursday when we had 3 kids from a family we know from church over for some pizza and pumpkin carving.

Charlotte, Leni, Malcolm, and Sasha!

After the kids went home with their parents, I found a few minutes to carve my own pumpkin:

Get it?

We had been invited to a halloween party on Saturday night. We were excited about our costumes so the day couldn't come fast enough. Other people got a kick out of our costumes, which made the event a riot for me.

We got good use out of the costumes again on Monday when we actually trick-or-treated a couple pre-selected homes of friends.

A quick note to any readers who turn their noses up at the idea of one claiming to be Christian while still taking part in Halloween festivities: CHILL OUT. There were no seances or devil worship or ouija boards. The weekend was spent entertaining three siblings so their parents could have a date, and dressing up silly with some friends. Want the real scoop on pagan holidays? Look up the polytheistic pagan roots of Christmas and Easter. It's not about how it started, folks. It's how you celebrate it NOW.

Soapbox....dismount.

Keep it Real!

Dental Care

2011-10-28T17:14:00.000-05:00

Ever seen any material from comedian Mitch Hedberg? It's hysterical to me. None of his jokes flow but they are examples of some of the most accurate and funny observational humor I've ever heard.

I'm digressing already.....here's a quote of his...not his best ever, but pertinent to the subject of this post:

"People who smoke cigarettes, they say, 'You don't know how hard it is to quit smoking.' Yes I do. It's as hard as it is to start flossing." ~ Mitch Hedberg

Flossing. We all know we should do it. Some even do! This past Monday, I went to the dentist's office. It was my first visit to this particular practice and they have quite an extensively organized system for getting you through all the hoops that need to be jumped through before seeing the actual dentist himself. After checking in at the desk (note to self: the office staff in dentists' offices always seem so happy and cheerful....possible future career move?), I was taken by Hygienist #1 to the xray room where we cleared up that pregnant people probably shouldn't be xrayed. She then escorted me to an examination room.

The exam room was delightful. They had flatscreen televisions mounted directly to the ceiling for patients to enjoy while they are in that reclined chair. How lovely! A few minutes later, Hygienist #2 came in to clean my teeth. There was a little of the dreaded scraping with the mini pirate hook on the end of a metal stick but not too bad. Nowadays, apparently, they use a tiny power washer to spray water all up in there to knock the nast from away from my teeth and gums.

As pleasant as this may sound, it hurt like hell. I learned from the nice lady that one symptom of pregnancy is super sensitive gums, also known as "Pregnancy Gingivitis". Awesome. She finished up her work as gently as she could and gave me the usual speech about how super important it is to floss. I had admitted that I do not floss regularly, although I do brush religiously.

Goodbye Hygienist #2, enter Hygienist #3. Her role in this whole circus was to actually floss my teeth for me and then polish them. Knowing that my gums were sensitive, she was very gentle with her flossing while, of course, shaming me for not being a regular flosser.

Finally, I got to see the dentist. I made his job pretty easy because since there were no xrays to look at, he couldn't identify cavities (not that I think I have any) or anything else. He basically got paid the big bucks to speak to me, again, about flossing. He actually had additional information to share. Apparently the infection associated with Pregnancy Gingivitis can lead to preeclampsia and pre-mature labor.

So, needless to say, the shame-filled flossing riot act read to me by the clown car of dental health care workers hit home. Loud and clear, guys! I'll start flossing!

So I've flossed every day since then. I don't like regular floss. It makes me feel like I have to stick both fists in my mouth to get the job done. But I've found flossing piks to be amazing tools.

Flossing is still a chore but it is getting less and less uncomfortable every day. And the amount of junk I am pulling out from between my teeth, even after good brushing, is grossing me out to the point that I WANT to floss. Nasty.

So it worked. I'm a believer. And apparently, according to Mr. Hedberg, if I ever took up smoking, I'd be awesome at quitting it.

I think I'll just take his word for it.

Please floss. And if you refuse to, don't go to my dentist because you'll get the floss speech three times by three different people.

Keep It Real!

A Chapter Closed

2011-10-17T09:41:00.000-05:00

Most anyone who's known me for the past decade has met, or at least been aware of, an important lady in my life.....my first car: Lola the Purple Corolla.

She became a part of the family just a few days shy of my 19th birthday back in May of 2000. Since that time, she's been everywhere. Together, we've journeyed from Arizona, to Wisconsin, to Minnesota, to Texas. When my brother was in need of another vehicle, shortly after I'd purchased a new car in late 2007, she moved with him to New Mexico, a couple years before I made that same move myself. Sure, she wasn't in my possession anymore, but she was still in the family and that was great. Then this past summer, she came home to live with Leni and I again and I loved having her around.

I did my growing up years in Lola. Not the type of growing up where you learn to ride a bike or deal with bullies or things like that. But the type of growing up you go through in college and early adulthood. Owning my first car taught me to manage money and plan ahead for unexpected maintenance and repairs (in those days, I referred to my savings account as my "Save Lola Fund".) The hell of bureaucracy was experienced in that car when I had my first fender bender and had to deal with police reports, insurance companies, estimates, etc. I was rolling around in those wheels when I finished college and decided to spend a year as a volunteer and then later when I got a full time job with benefits. The list goes on.

Other people have had memories in Lola as well. Tons of people I know (myself included) learned to drive a stick shift in that car. Some special friends had favorite music to listen to in Lola....if I had a nickle for every Dixie Chicks or Steven Curtis Chapman song that had been played in her stereo, I'd probably have enough money to buy her all over again at the $3000 purchase price we agreed to with her original owner.

I could go on and on (more than I already have) but in the end, it all boils down to the last week or so when Leni and I decided it was time to replace Lola with something else. I'd been begging Leni for years to have a daily driver that was a little newer and had airbags. He finally submitted and had started looking for something else. We found a great deal on a VW Jetta Wagon and acquired that vehicle this past Saturday.

On Sunday afternoon, I spent about 2 hours clearing our things out of Lola and giving her a good cleaning. Windows, vacuuming, upholstery, wiping the dash, an exterior wash etc. Leni even charged her AC so it would be nice and cold. When she was all clean, I hopped on the computer and posted an ad for my car on Craigslist. We weren't expecting much money out of a 23-year-old car. But I knew she had some life still in her and that someone else could benefit from those miles.

It happened so fast. I've never seen an object on Craigslist sell as fast as Lola did last night. This is what it looked like:

5:16 pm - Posted ad on Craigslist
5:40 pm - Inquiry call
6:30 pm - Met up for a test drive
7:00 pm - Done deal....returned home sans Lola but with a little thicker wallet

Lola now lives with a kid just a year older than I was when I bought her. He can barely drive a manual transmission and needs her for getting around between his home, his job, and his community college in a town about a half hour away. He and his mom (who test drove the car for him as my dad had done for me more than 11 years ago) were pleased with the deal and even promised to keep the name, which meant a lot to me.

I'm always on a mission to keep the amount of cars on our property to as low a number as possible and was overall satisfied that we found a good family to live her final days with. But I'd be lying if I didn't confess how sad I was to come home without her. In fact, I cried on the way home.

I LOVE the car I drive now. Still a Corolla, but exactly 20 years newer than Lola was. And Leni's new (to us) Jetta will serve us well for many years. But both these cars seems so sterile and without the personality and history that Lola had. In the end, I'm happier to hand her off to another family than I would have been to have kept her and had to watch her towed to a scrap yard at the eventual end of her life.

Thank you, Lola, for your long and faithful service to the Porter-Moore family. I know you'll be as good to your new owner and I hope that I'll see you around sometime.

Lola: serving our family 2000-2011

Keep It Real!

Finally Talkin' About It

2011-10-06T19:39:00.000-05:00

Meet "Mini Moore"

Forgive the poor photo quality...they gave us printed pictures that didn't scan well so this is a picture of the picture I took with my camera :)

This ultrasound picture was captured just this afternoon. Waiting to tell the masses about the anticipation of our first child has been tough but we're pleased to finally be able to talk completely openly about it (thanks to those of you who have kept the secret for us in the last couple weeks!).

Here are the details:

Currently in the 12th week of development
As of this week, Mini Moore is the size of a plum. Next week will be peach week!
Yes, we are planning on finding out the gender (perhaps at our next appointment in early November. If not, in December)
No, we won't be sharing whatever name we choose until the baby arrives
The due date is April 18th!
Thanks for asking....I've been feeling great! No morning sickness at all (thank you GOD!). I've been quite fatigued in the evenings and have to be very careful about remembering snacks between meals, but other than that, it's been pretty smooth sailing.

That information has pretty much satisfied 99% of the questions I've been getting in the last couple weeks. We're pretty excited and would appreciate any and all prayers that our friends and family can offer for a continued healthy pregnancy and a healthy, happy baby when all is said and done.

195 days to go!

Keep It Real!

Landscaping, Part II

2011-10-01T14:08:00.001-05:00

This post, the follow up to Landscaping, Part I, is more than a month in the making. Thank you for your patience.

Without further ado, here's your update, in photo form:

Before starting

After tilling in more than 5,000 lbs of compost

The straw we used to protect the seeds

Started seeing these guys come up somewhere between the 1 and 2 week mark

Here we are today, Oct 1!

Leni mowed the lawn (LAWN!!!!) for the first time today. A couple more mows, especially with a new (hasn't arrived yet) mulching blade for the mower will help get rid of the remaining straw. Still keeping the dogs off of it until the first good snow pack to protect it from their paws and nails. We don't want them rough housing too much on it until it is more established. We are quite pleased and can't wait to enjoy it more in the future.

Keep It Real!

Not Guilty

2011-09-26T11:24:00.000-05:00

After a long, tiring, but blast of a weekend at a wedding in Milwaukee this past weekend, I had to be up and wide awake for a court trial at 8am this morning. For a glance back at the last time I was in court, see this old post - it's a goody.

Flashback: Almost two months ago, I was pulled over for speeding. The officer claimed I was going 70 in a 55. I could swear I was going a shade over 60. Admittedly, that is still speeding, but I knew that police in this area had been recently trained on eyeing speed without using actual radar. Knowing that, if that was the case in this situation, that kind of evidence wouldn't hold up in court. This was a good ticket to fight, even though it was only a $30 ticket.

I showed up to my arraignment back in August and plead "Not Guilty" and was assigned a court date. It was during a time that I work so I called to have it changed and of course they moved it to the morning right after I would be traveling back from a wedding. Oh well.

That all brings us to this morning. I got up early, went through my morning routine, and then sat down to write down the thoughts I'd been collecting regarding how I would question the police officer in court.

The proceedings are such that my side of the case would be presented in the form of questions directed at the officer. After consulting with Leni's aunt, an experienced court translator who has seen lots of these cases, and a little bit of online research, I went into court ready to ask these questions:

When you clocked me, were you driving your vehicle or were you parked? (He was driving)
Does using radar from a moving vehicle compromise accuracy of what vehicle is being clocked, as compared to being parked?
Was I driving alone or were there other vehicles around me? (I was in a pack of cars)
Is there a possibility that you inadvertently clocked another driver?
When you pulled me over, did I ask to see the radar? (I did)
What was your response to that? (He refused to show it to me)
When had the radar equipment last been calibrated? (Next question asked only if he did not know the answer or if it had been quite some time)
Is it possible then that the radar gave an inaccurate reading at the time you pulled me over?

As I said before, I was geared up for a fight. I was naturally nervous but also excited to fight for myself. I wasn't concerned about the measly amount of the fine but wanted to do all in my power to prevent the citation from being reported to my insurance company.

In the end, the officer never showed up and my case was completely dismissed. Part of me had been hoping for this outcome but I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I also had really wanted the opportunity to face the cop and get the chance to question him. I was looking forward to the hopeful chance of having the experience of being found "Not Guilty", followed by shooting him an annoying "you suck and I win" smile from across the court room. But oh well....in any event, I'm keeping my money and my auto insurance money will never know a thing. Mission accomplished.

Stay tuned when this weekend, Leni will mow our new lawn and I'll actually take some pics and post the sequel to my most recent post, Landscaping Part I. Sorry about the month long delay between posts. I don't have an excuse. Just didn't happen to get anything up. My bad.

Keep It Real!

Landscaping, Part I

2011-08-27T17:49:00.000-05:00

Meet my yard:

It seems generous to call it a yard. "Dirt lot" would probably be more appropriate. Leni once had grand plans about the stages in which he wanted to landscape the dirt lot including bushes, redoing parts of the terrace, steps and walkways, and finally.....grass.

Since the snow melt, however, I've had different thoughts. Every time the dogs go into the backyard, they wrestle and roll around and bring in TONS of dirt and dust. By the beginning of summer, I was just plain SICK of it. So we decided (read: I decided) to plant grass on the lowest, largest level of the yard this year so that the dust-in-the-house issue wouldn't be such a problem next spring.

After researching what grass to plant and how to do it, we chose the end of the summer to do the project, hoping that the monsoon rains would aid in the watering process that germination requires.

So we broke the project into two weekends. Last weekend, we hauled and tilled more than two and a half tons of compost into the yard.

Moving from the truck, up the steep front yard, and into the back.

Spreading the compost out.

8 HP tiller!

Weekend 1: done!

Next came this weekend. Just one day's worth of work this time instead of two. The plan was to install some edging, actually plant the grass, and then cover it with straw to protect it while it germinates.

Installing the edging

Edging doesn't want to be straight....wonder why

Putting down 20 lbs of grass seed

Seed now covered with 5 huge bales of straw
Chicken wire fence keeping the poor dogs off

So there you have it. The seeds are being heavily watered as I type this and the copious amounts of water will continue for several weeks. We should start to see little blades coming up in about 2 weeks, or so we're told. Time will tell!

Stay tuned for the eventual Part II post, hopefully with pictures of green grass!

Keep it Real!

Trip Report: Handies Peak

2011-08-08T11:48:00.001-05:00

As the last hurrah of summer 2011, we planned a trip up to Colorado this past weekend to get into some cooler air and beautiful scenery. Oh yeah...we were going to attempt to summit our third 14er too :)

Accompanying us on this trip were my brother and sister, Nick and Claire, as well as one of Leni's co-workers, Rob.

Nick, Claire, Leni and I left Los Alamos together early on Friday morning. We made the drive up to the last city before the road to the trailhead, Lake City. This is a delightful, small mountain community built upon a historical 19th century mining boom.

If you ever go to Lake City, you MUST go to the restaurant pictured above. Three words: pulled pork nachos. I would trade an average to better-than-average friend for these.

After hanging out in the city for a while, it was time to begin the journey up the 20 mile road to the trailhead. The first 12 miles were smooth ~~sailing~~ driving. The website that gave details concerning the road had called this a "rough 2WD road". We were braving this in our 1988 Toyota Corolla and Nick and Claire were in their much newer Pontiac Vibe. This was no problem when the road went from pavement to packed dirt and when it transitioned to gravel and rocks, it was okay at first. But the rocks started getting bigger and closer together and it became a pretty stressful drive. Here's some video of Leni getting Nick and Claire's car over a particularly rough spot.

We all made it up and over but not without some scraping, some bottoming out, and almost getting high-centered. If I were authoring that website, I would have labeled the road as "High Clearance Only".

We found a parking spot about a mile below the actual trailhead. The views were really breath-taking.

Not too long after we arrived, Rob arrived too. It was dinner time. Rob's dinner cracked me up.

The morning came quickly and we got up, ate, packed our daypacks, and were off!

Virtually all of the trail is through fields of wild flowers. The word on the street is that the peak season for viewing these blooming beauties is the last week in July and the first week and August...perfect!

Not too far up the trail, we happened upon this waterfall. I hadn't seen pictures of it or read about it in online trip reports so it was a nice surprise.

This was Nick and Claire's first 14er so it was nice that the trail was relatively easy. I say relatively because there's really no such thing as an "easy" 14er. But the nice thing was the steep parts weren't too long and they were usually routed with switchbacks. That said, it was still challenging.

Nick, Claire and Dottie

Rob plowing ahead with our pooches

Leni and the dogs with the peaks that watched over us all day

At about 12,800 feet in elevation and about 2.5 to 3 miles in, we came upon a clear lake called Sloan Lake. The online pictures of it were good but didn't do it near enough justice. It was a perfect place for a snack break.

We kept going. The trail was well-defined and we were moving at a good pace, given the varying levels of experience in the crowd. A bit above the lake and we came upon a scree field crossing followed by some of the steeper switchbacks of the climb.

From the saddle, the summit was looking pretty close. The trail was generally steep but that was compounded by the gravel that covered it. It was exhausting because the gravel caused us to lose footing and sometimes slide back a bit. This was the toughest spot for me.

Here are some summit shots:

Looking southwest back to Sloan Lake

Looking east into Grizzly Gulch, home to another route that summits Handies

Rob, Leni and the dogs were waiting for me when I got to the summit

Nick, Claire and Dottie arrived not too long after me

Me and the dogs enjoying the long rest on the summit

The Moores with Sloan Lake in the background

The Moores and Porters

It was time for the journey down. That gravel just below the summit was hell and I slid out a little. Before too long, we were back down to the lake where we had another snack and pumped some water. Just below the lake, we ran into a couple making their way up the trail with their two goats. Awesome.

When we got back down to the waterfall, we left Nick and Claire there, as Claire wanted to do a little water color painting of it. Rob, Leni and I pushed on the final stretch to camp. My feet were very tired and wanted badly to get out of my hiking boots. I settled down for a little nap and when I woke up, Nick and Claire were back and it was time to start dinner.

The next day, we started the dreaded drive back down the awful road. Things were much easier going down than coming up, a major godsend. We stopped for lunch in Pagosa Springs and then made our way home from there.

It was another good trip to summit a 14er. We are SO blessed that we've always had good weather for these trips. I read trip reports all the time about people making big trips to CO only to have their bid for the summit destroyed by storms. Here's hoping for similar blessings in the future!

Keep It Real!

Wrong Number

2011-08-03T08:16:00.002-05:00

We've all gotten calls on our phones that were wrong numbers. It happens here and there.

What happens less frequently, however, is the wrong number text. I've gotten them once or twice before. This past weekend, I got one from an unknown number that read as follows:

Unknown Texter: Hey girl...let's hang out around 1? Is that too late?

I had no idea who it was, nor did I have any idea if 1:00 was too late. AM? PM?

Under normal circumstances, I would just text back letting them know that it was a wrong number and get on with my day. But on this day, I just felt like kidding around. So I texted something different back:

Me: Sure, where?

Unknown Texter: Cottonwood

Me: Cool okay

And that was it. I was hoping that when 1:00 rolled around, I'd get a text from this person asking where I was but I never heard from them again. Bummer.

It was worth a try and still did provide a little entertainment.

Keep It Real!

Still Hiking?

2011-07-28T02:11:00.002-05:00

The answer is yes. For those of you wondering, I do still get out on the trails here in Los Alamos, despite the fact that I haven't reported any new mileage in months at the bottom of my blog posts as I used to.

As the winter came this past year, I started hitting new trails less and less because all of the trails I needed to bag were not close to my house. Accessing them meant getting in the car and driving. Because it was winter, the ground was muddy and snowy and that meant that the dogs were tracking all kinds of goo and nast into whatever vehicle I took.

So for the last few months, we've stuck to the trails here in the neighborhood. Today, I felt the urge to try a new trail and since it definitely isn't wet around here (please Lord, send rain!) we hopped in the car and shot down to pick up a short but lovely trail a couple miles away off Barranca Mesa. It was a nice jaunt but it was HOT and provided little respite shade. Look how worn out my pups were:

So I think I'm going to hold off a little longer yet. It won't be long before we start getting some cooler Fall temperatures that will make some of the long hikes we have left on the list more comfortable for all of us.

Keep It Real!

P.S. Los Alamos Trails Goal Update: 18.8 out of 29.5 miles completed. 18 trails down, 7 to go!

A Fallen Hero

2011-07-24T17:09:00.001-05:00

Last weekend, I learned of the death of a young man from the small town in Washington, Colville, where I lived during a lot of my "growing up" years (age 9-16).

Sergeant First Class Wyatt Goldsmith, age 28, was on his third tour in Afghanistan when he was killed during a rocket-propelled grenade attack on his unit a little more than a week ago. His remains were honorably transferred to his family yesterday and the largest funeral the town has seen in quite some time will occur this coming Tuesday.

Wyatt and his family moved to Colville in the later years of our time there and we only overlapped for about 2 or 3 years. He was one of the few kids around my age that went to our church. We once played in a brass quartet together during a Christmas Eve service. On a couple occasions, he was a ski buddy on the slopes in the winter.

Though our paths crossed often during those few years, I have to admit that I don't recall having thought about him at all in the last decade of my life. Once we moved away, he wasn't someone with whom I kept in touch and his memory seemingly faded in my mind.

That all changed last weekend when I learned of his passing on Facebook. Upon seeing his name just once, my memory was instantly tapped and I remembered everything. Seeing his name flash across the screen so many times in the last week in other people's statuses or in news reports has been so sad but amazing at the same time. Witnessing how that small community (just shy of 5,000 in population) has gathered around the Goldsmith family and each other is beautiful. In that town, small children are being taught what a true American hero is, one of the last of many priceless gifts Wyatt gave his community and his nation.

Below is a short news clip about Wyatt and his hometown that loves him so much:

Thank you, Wyatt, for your sacrifice. Rest in peace.

Keep It Real

A Disproportionate Response

2011-07-22T12:18:00.000-05:00

Caution: The contents of this post contain insinuation to crude, volatile language. Read on at your own risk.

So we all know I'm a big jerk that likes to tell people what to do, right? Right. Keep that in mind and we'll come back to it.

I have mentioned before that I am a Craigslist fan. Sometimes I'm searching for stuff in particular. For example, Leni would like a good extension ladder right now and I'm keeping my eye out for one. In addition to searching for specific items, I also just like to know what people are trying to sell in my town. So I'll often go on and just check the ads that have "Los Alamos" in them to see what's around town.

In performing this process, I am constantly coming across the same ad. The guy has been reposting (read: overposting) it every couple days since the winter months and I was SICK of reading it. It was an ad for a Bluray DVD of the incredibly disturbing movie, Let Me In. It was being sold in Albuquerque but had the name "Los Alamos" in the ad because a lot of it was filmed here exactly when we moved to Los Alamos in December of 2009.

So back to me being a jerk. After seeing this ad for the umpteenth time, I decided that it was my nosey responsibility to tell this guy what I thought. I knew I shouldn't do it. But I had to. Partially because I wanted him to hear some "truth" and perhaps mostly to see what his response would be.

That response, as it turned out, did not disappoint in the least. This guy had a temper that could win contests and a mouth to go with it! Below is the transcript of the emails we bounced back and forth for a couple hours. My text is in purple, and his is in green. I have taken some liberties to minimize the effect of his colorful language.

If you have an ad up for several months and don't sell it, it either means that no one wants it at that price or that no one wants it at all. Truth be told, very few people do blue ray, so that's not in your favor. Secondly, I could get this exact movie on blue ray, brand new and not from someone who says it is brand new, for a dollar less on Amazon. Nothing ever sells on Craigslist for anything near what it goes for in real life as a new product.

So please do yourself and the rest of us (who are sick of seeing the ad) a favor and either drop the price dramatically or quit running the ad altogether.

MIND YOUR OWN F**KING BUSINESS MOTHERF**KER!

I reported you to Craigslist for abuse of the flagging feature.
My ad didnt violate any rules in craigslist. It was only 1 ad.
And who gives a sh!t how long I've had it for sale in Craigslist.
Oh wow! You can get it for $1 less? BIG DEAL You cheap piece of sh!t!

If you don't like my ad DON'T F**KING OPEN IT YOU F**KING STUPID D#####BAG!

(DANG! I was more amused than I was offended and wanted to shoot him another simple message back, just to see how much more ridiculous he could get.)

Wow. Do you kiss your mom with that mouth?

I DON'T HAVE A MOM, ME AND MY BUDDIES SHARE YOURS YOU F!!KING C$NT! F!!K

OFF! YOU LOS ALAMOS SH!TBAG!!

I tried one more time to get him after this but I think he caught on because I never heard back. It's probably for the best because I think I'd already seen his worst. I know I shouldn't have messaged him in the first place but I was just shocked and appalled at the level of insanity to which he took it.

I hope that he is less intense in real life to the legit people around him. Someone should wash his mouth out with soap.

Keep It Real!

What would you take with you?

2011-07-12T18:00:00.004-05:00

What would you take with you if your town was evacuated due to the threat of the hugest forest fire in the state's history?

Flash back 11 years. The town of Los Alamos was evacuated in 2000 because of the Cerro Grande Fire. The evacuation started at noon and that evening, more than 200 homes burned to the ground.

Everyone in this town that was here back then has a story about "the fire" and the evacuation. These tales are littered with the good deeds of people who took families in, hotels and restaurants that wouldn't accept payment from evacuees, and individuals and animal shelters taking in animals from horses right down to kittens. The amazing stories almost make one wish they'd been present to see it all.

Flash forward to about a month ago. I was enjoying lunch in the home of some friends from church who had lost their home in the Cerro Grande fire. They had been away on vacation when it happened. Luckily, their son had been able to come to Los Alamos and rescue a few precious things before the fire swept through their neighborhood. After telling the story, the woman asked me what I would want to take with me from my house if the same situation ever presented itself.

Hmmm.

Flash forward to June 27, 2011, just a couple weeks ago, and a couple weeks after this lovely lunch discussion. We were in the exact middle of our long-time planned two-week trip to Ecuador. During one of our occasional sittings at a computer, I read a facebook status about a fire close to Los Alamos; the Las Conchas Fire (which still burns today). Further research on my crumby internet connection revealed that a fire had started the day before, about 12 miles from Los Alamos.

Oh no!

There are fires during the summer all the time in the southwest. We knew this year would be bad because of having such a dry winter, but dang....12 miles is close.

Next, I got loads of emails from friends and family telling me about the fire, not knowing if I'd caught on to its presence yet. My brother in Albuquerque offered to make the 4 hour round-trip journey up to Los Alamos to gather anything we might want out of the house. Having recently been asked what we would want taken out of the house in this situation, I knew exactly what the short list would be:

An original painting that my parents had commissioned my sister-in-law to paint as a wedding gift to us
Some photos
A quilt that Leni's mom had made us
A file cabinet drawer full of important documents like taxes, insurance information, etc.
The laptop computer

That's it. We didn't need much. Thanks to the marvels of modern day homeowner's insurance, virtually everything is replaceable. We didn't want to be hung up on "stuff". The only thing that would have pissed me off would have been the fact that we just spent thousands on our new roof a couple months ago. Our biggest concern was the brave personnel fighting the fire. I was so terrified that someone would be hurt or even killed, just for the sake of saving some insured buildings.

So Nick and his friend Byron jumped in the car and drove up to Los Alamos to get our stuff. Ash was falling from the sky and people were leaving. They were actually one of the last few cars allowed into the city as the mandatory evacuation (the first since 2000) was ordered. The guys spent 30-40 minutes grabbing the stuff from my list as well as (bless their hearts!) a BUNCH more stuff. How wonderful of them. Nick said that as they were packing stuff, the national guard was rolling down my street with a loud speaker telling residents to get out.

Phew

All in all, the fire took far fewer houses this time, 63. All of them where in the mountains and not in the city. The fire fighters kept the fire out of the town and away from the lab, which would have constituted a potential nuclear crisis.

My husband is a Systems Engineer and is in charge of a fire suppression system in one of the nuclear facilities. Insert irony here.

We began our journey home from Ecuador the day the evacuation was lifted. Just like our friends, we were away on a trip when an evacuation was ordered in the first place. But unlike them, we came home to a smoky yet standing city, and a perfectly fine house. We are so blessed.

As I mentioned before, the fire still burns today, but mostly within the contained control of the fire fighters, still working to keep us all safe. As of current, the fire is 50% contained. Here are some photos I've taken over the last few days:

Not a cloud friends but a huge column of smoke. Nasty.

Taken from White Rock, about 10 miles away

As you can see, this isn't just overcast. Here's blue sky to compare to.

I see these suckers fly all day long

Another very smoke-filled day

Always overhead

The flames could be seen at night. Shot this from half a block away from my house

It begs the question, what is important in your life? What possessions are you tied to? What is irreplaceable versus just "stuff"?

Just remember: in the end, you can't take ANY of it with you :)

Keep It Real! (and insured!)

Republica del Ecuador: Out of the Beach and into the Jungle

2011-07-07T11:38:00.001-05:00

Upon our return to Quito from Papallacta, there was some business in order. Laundry to be done, repacking to do, church to attend...even a movie to watch (insert shameless plug for "Mama Mia" here). Most importantly, we were eagerly awaiting the joyous arrival of more family from the States. Leni's aunt Carol, her two sons (Patrick and Adrian), and daugher-in-law (Carol Ann) - all from the Dallas area - would be joining us for the second of our two weeks in Ecuador.

Sweet!

A couple months ago when I found out these yahoos were coming on the trip, I was psyched. These were each people I very much but, unfortunately, not people I got to see often anymore.

Carol and crew arrived in the evening on Sunday and on Monday, we were ready to make the 6ish hour journey to the coast for a few days on the beach. For this trip, we hired a driver and a van to haul us and our stuff everywhere. There were 9 of us and we had asked for a 16 passenger van, thinking it was one step up from what we technically needed but that with bags for that many people, it would be much more comfortable. What showed up that morning to pick us up was monstrous!

All of us from shortest to tallest, including our awesome driver

There was so much room, it was ridiculous. There must have been seats for 25 people! Quite comfy. And our driver, Germel was awesome too! That was good because the deal was that, since it was such a distant desination, he was going to drive us and then stay with us for the week. He was a great guy and I think he really enjoyed being with us. He even stuck up for us and helped us out when the van company tried to overcharge us!

So off to the beach we went!

Hours and hours later, we rolled into Playa Escondida (translation: hidden beach). Playa Escondida is an "ecological retreat" facility which means that a lot of their policies and buildings are very "green". For example, we used composting toilets, took cool showers (hardly a problem when it is so warm out!), slept in open air rooms, etc.

This off-the-beaten-path hideaway has room for only 30 people but we were the only people there! It was great being so well-served and staying in the best rooms. Here's a picture of the part of the property where we spent most of our time:

The place on the left is the restaurant where we ate and our rooms are in the building on the right. I was standing ankle deep in the ocean to take this photo :)

The rooms themselves were simple but completely adequate. Since we only really slept there, we didn't need them to be overly fancy.

Open air, comfy bed, hammocks :)

The view from our window

There was a handful of staff who all worked to keep us fed and happy. They seemed to like us and even baked us a special cake one night! When we weren't sleeping or in the water or exploring, we were hanging out on the covered patio where we were served meals.

We spent lots of time down by and in the water, both at Playa Escondida as well as another beach a short drive away. We swam, we skipped rocks, we searched tide pools......

One day, we went into a nearby town for a little wondering around, shopping, etc. We found a beachside bar that had swings as seats and couldn't help but sit down and partake!

On a different day, we heard about a place to go to see whales in the afternoon. Mostly we saw water spouts but we saw a couple whales briefly come up.

On Thursday morning, we enjoyed our last wonderful meal at Playa Escondida, said our good-byes to the staff, and piled back on the ~~van~~ bus. We were headed back towards Quito but would be stopping for the night in Santo Domingo.

On the drive back out to the highway, we ran into these guys:

Many of you have heard me say that Leni's parents served as missionaries in Ecuador for some time when Leni was a child. The larger picture is that Leni's paternal grandparents were missionaries in Ecuador for decades!

Long story short: the Moores moved to the jungle back in the 1950's (I think) to live with the Tsafiki (or Colorado) people who lived close to Santo Domingo. This mission was to live with them and learn their language (as well as how to write it...it was not a written language yet!) so that a bible could be translated for them. Crazy! The Moores lived there close to 35 years I believe and brought Christianity to this culture, which still mostly honors it today!

We got to Santo Domingo, had some dinner, and then crashed for the night in the home of some missionaries that the Moores knew from back in the day. The next morning, we made the 30 minute drive into the jungle to a place called Congoma to visit the place where the Tsafiki people live. I was so thankful for these 30 minutes because I knew that when Paul was a young boy, his dad would have to do this trip in two days on a donkey or horse because there was no road back then!

When we arrived, we pulled up to a school where kids were playing outside. I learned that this school was a bi-lingual school where they spoke both Spanish and Tsafiki. How crazy to think that these kids would not have Tsafiki text books if it hadn't been for Leni's grandfather. It was cool to walk around and see what was going on:

Paul kicking the soccer ball around while Adrian guards the goal

Karisse with some younger kids in the classroom

Not too long after our arrival, a man came walking down the road on his way to do some work. He saw Paul and they started talking. I soon learned that this man had known the Moores back in the day. To him, Paul's father, Bruce, was like a father figure and Paul even taught him to type and to play guitar. We shot a video of him sending a message to Bruce and it was incredibly moving...tears in lots of eyes.

Friend (can't remember name!), Paul and Carol

We were waiting for Paul's longtime childhood (and now adulthood) friend, Primitivo to show up to visit with us. While we were waiting, we played in the banana trees a bit.

Finally, Primitivo came onto the scene. As he grew up, he spent a lot of time assisting Bruce Moore. In adulthood, he is a community leader as well as the current pastor in their church. He had a chance to also make a video greeting for Bruce.

Adrian filming Primativo with Paul watching

You may be wondering what is on Primitivo's head. It's his hair, just dyed with a paste. Back when the Moores lived in Congoma, the Tsafiki had some pretty awesome ceremonial dress. I have even seen pictures of people dressed this way in the 1970s at Leni's aunt Becky's wedding.

Photo found online

Today, as you can tell from the photo of Primitivo, the look is quite toned down and reserved for special events. On this day, Primitivo was on his way to a community meeting.

After a few minutes of visiting, Primitivo jumped with us in the ~~van~~ bus and we drove a few minutes to see the church where they worship and some other friends.

After some more visiting with old friends, we departed for the final leg of the trip back to Quito.

It was surreal to visit Congoma and realize all the history the Moores have there and how much Bruce is still remembered and loved. Watching Leni's aunt Carol, who hadn't visited her home in almost 30 years was priceless. But in the mean time, I was being eaten alive by bugs and was already tired from the beach trip. The prospect of returning to Quito and then soon boarding our return flights was a welcomed one.

I know this particular post has been long and probably should have been split up into two posts. But thanks for hanging in with me. I'm happy to be home but will never forget my trip to Ecuador. We hope to save money and one day return again to visit the Galapagos Islands, which are part of Ecuador. But that will be many, many years in the future. It is a very unique but extremely expensive place to visit. Another part of Ecuador that I would like to visit is the Amazon River.

There's always something to look forward to!

Keep It Real!

Republica del Ecuador: Thermal Hot Springs

2011-07-06T13:27:00.000-05:00

Roughly two hours east from Quito, up at 10,800 feet in the Andes, lies the town of Papallacta. The bumpy dirt road just skirted by the town and minutes north was a gorgeous hot springs resort and spa called Thermas Papallacta.

I'd never seen a place like this before. Pools fed by fresh thermal water were EVERYWHERE. The mountains around were so close and seemed to just shoot straight up from the little high valley where the resort rested.

Our room with the closest pool being...oh...10 feet away?

View from our room. Check out those Andean mountain tops!

We checked in and then the boys took off. Leni, his dad, and his brother were decked out for a 3 day backpacking trip. It was Tuesday and they were going to drive back out on the road we came in on and then hike back through the mountains to Thermas Papallacta, returning some time on Thursday.

Staying at the resort, Leni's mom, Karisse, and I lived it up! We'd wake up around 8 or 8:30 and meander down to the restaurant for breakfast around 9ish. After breakfast, we'd sit in the thermal pools and solve the world's problems for about two hours. No need to really shower after sitting in the pool...it's the same water coming out of the showerhead! After lunch, it would be time to rest. Sometimes a book, sometimes a nap, sometimes both. On Wednesday, we wondered down to the spa and hooked ourselves up with massages. It was the most luxurious thing I have ever afforded myself. Words cannot describe how wonderful we felt after that hour was over. The afternoon brought another couple hours in the water and then we'd wonder back down to the restaurant at about 6pm. They actually didn't serve dinner until 7 so we'd order a glass of wine and sit by a fireplace and watch whatever was on the huge flatscreen TV at the bar.

Speaking of food, we definitely ate DECADENTLY at that restaurant!

In the afternoon on Thursday, the boys came sloshing into town. They were soaking wet. The place where they were hiking, the paramo, is basically a rain forest at 14,000 feet and higher. It gets 400+ inches of rain a year and there is NO way to stay dry. But don't feel sorry for these guys! They've done it many times before and knew 100% what they were getting into.

After the return of the guys, we stayed one more full day so that they could enjoy the resort as well. A few hours before they arrived, Karisse and I had taken a hike on a loop trail behind Thermas Papallacta, so we just had to show it to the guys. It was so green and lush.

The entrance to the trail

One of many waterfalls. I desperately wanted a vine to swing on across the scene.

Found some llamas

Thermas Papallacta was a gorgeous place and I'm so glad we got to go up and see it and spend so much time there. It was nice to be pampered in so many ways. But Saturday came quickly and it was time to pack up and leave to prepare for the next destination: the coast!

Check back from the last installment of the 3-blog series coming soon.

Keep It Real!

Republica del Ecuador: In and Around Quito

2011-07-04T18:05:00.003-05:00

Aaaaand we're back!

Welcome to the first in a three part series of blogs about our freshly completed 16 day trek to and through Ecuador. I didn't want to overload anyone with too much information so it is being broken up into the three main parts of the trip. Part one below is in regards to the times we spent around the capital, Quito.

Quito was somewhat of a home base where we would start and finish our couple side trips. Most of the time we were there, we stayed at a great, family-run hostal.

Doesn't look like much but it's clean, serves breakfast, and is very secure!

Couldn't complain about the view from our room!

On our first full day in Ecuador, we headed out to a little town called Otavalo. It is known for having an ENORMOUS open air market. The biggest day is, of course, Saturday but we were there on Sunday. It was still a sight to behold. It probably would have been completely overwhelming to be there on the peak day. It was a great place to see some local crafts and buy things for ourselves as well as gifts for family.

After visiting the market, we headed just outside of town to a place called Parque Condor. It is a facility for large birds which functions as a rehabilitation center as well as an educational center for the public. My father-in-law and brother-in-law, both being falconers, have been involved in different ways with rescuing and working with birds there in the past. No good pictures of birds unfortunately because it rained pretty hard and I did not want to have my camera out. But trust me that they were some incredible creatures. Below is a picture of the legit wingspan of an Andean Condor in relation to my own wingspan.

Outstanding

On both the first and last nights of our trip, we bebopped down to an old, restored part of Quito called, "La Ronda". As it turns out, it used to be a real seedy part of town but in the last couple years, they have cleaned it up and it has become quite the quaint, lively, cobblestoned destination.

Taken at dusk

Funny mime

Talented spray paint artist

Almost worthy of its own blog post is Mitad del Mundo (Middle of the World). Just north of Quito lies the equator and several monuments and museums in its honor. Please note that, despite what the staff at these varies places would have you think, none of them really have the true equator. At the time of the creation of the touristy lines in the ground, the general area was known, but not necessarily the exact spot (until, of course, GPS technology). But the important thing is to recognize the significance and let those establishments have their fun.

Leni, me and Landon at the big monument. I'm on the line :)

Partaking in the cheesy gimmick

Restaurants at Mitad del Mundo are known for a couple things but one of the most important is Cuy. Cuy (known to you as guinea pig) is delicious. If you have ever watched the show, "Bizzare Foods with Andrew Zimmern", you might remember the episode where he went to a restaurant near Mitad del Mundo and ate several Ecuadorian treats, including cuy. We went to the very same restaurant where Andrew enjoyed his cuy and even got to watch the episode while we waited for our meal. While we enjoyed each others' company and some refreshing drinks inside, the cuy was slow roasting by a hot fire outside.

Before

After

Also close to Mitad del Mundo is an incredibly gorgeous caldera called Pululahau. It was just a five minute taxi ride away and SO worth it. The views were incredibly stunning. The land down in the bottom is so lush and there are even some species down there that only grow in that place.

The "mountain" in the middle is in the center of the caldera so you are only seeing half of the caldera in this photo

The last thing we did on "Mitad del Mundo" day was to visit an ancient Incan ruin. It was the remnants of an old fort they once occupied. It was very cool to be on the old stomping grounds of a culture I'd studied as a child.

So there you have it - the cliff notes version of our interspersed days in Quito. There are, unfortunately, no photographs of Leni's aunt Becky and uncle German who are long-time Quito residents. But seeing them and getting to know them better was such a blessing and much credit goes to German for doing a lot of logistical work for us ahead of time as far as reservations and playing taxi driver for us while we were there. They are such amazing people and I look forward to the next time we get to see them.

Stay tuned for the part two blog post coming. Subject matter: the trip to the thermal hot springs, which were mentioned in a previous post. Until then....

Keep It Real!

While I'm Out

2011-06-19T06:15:00.037-05:00

Like yesterday, I'm gone.

God bless blogspot and the ability to time-delay blog postings :)

Assuming that all things have gone as planned, by the time you read this, I'll be at 9200 feet in Quito, Ecuador. I'll be back early in July, but while I'm out, there are a few things that I don't want to leave unattended:

A handful of birthdays will be missed. You know who you are: Happy Birthday!
Under protest, I'm missing the wedding of a dear set of friends. Stacy and Steve: I will be thinking of and praying for you on the 25th. Can't wait to see pictures! (Stacy: You've got your whole marriage to concoct a plan for your mother-in-law's demise....don't do anything irrational just yet!)
July 2nd is the anniversary of the closing on our first home! Happy Anniversary, house!

I'm sure there's more but those are the important things. Stay tuned for pictures upon my return!

Keep It Real!

Some Trivia For You

2011-06-09T11:29:00.000-05:00

I'm a huge geek. We all know this.

I mostly express excitement for things through research and planning. With our trip to Ecuador fast approaching (next week!), I've often found myself looking things up here and there about the places we will be visiting (hence a recent post about a spa resort where we will stay).

As I've perused websites, I've discovered some facts which I found to be interesting. There was lots of information that I thought was cool but I limited the list below to my very most favorites. If you feel like geeking out yourself, read on:

Quito is the highest legal capital in the world
Quito was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in the 1970s for having the best preserved and least altered historic center in Latin America
Ecuador is one of just two countries in South America (the other being Chile) that does not share a border with Brazil.
The new constitution written in 2007 and approved in 2008 is the very first in the world to recognize legally enforceable Rights of Nature. You may remember having read this on a recent facebook status of mine.
The species diversity makes Ecuador one of the 17 megadiverse countries in the world. This means that those 17 nations host to the majority of Earth's species and are extremely biodiverse.
Because of its location on the equator, Ecuador has average temperatures that do not change much throughout the season. The average highs fluctuate by 3 degrees over the course of a year. The lows by 2!
The population of Ecuador, now approaching 15 million, is equal to the U.S. population back in the late 1830s

Alright....geek session concluded.

Just 8 more days to go!

Keep It Real!

Happy Birthday, Snack For Later!

2011-05-28T08:19:00.001-05:00

Today, this blog turns 2 years old.

Here we are, 124 posts, 23 followers and 730 days later.

I was looking for something in an old post yesterday and noticed that my first post ever had been on May 28, 2009. Check it out for yourself here.

Don't worry, this post won't be a list of accomplishments and milestones of the last 2 years. But rather a simple congratulations to the blog and to my inaugural followers who have been around since the beginning.

Have a great Memorial Day Weekend, everyone!

Keep It Real!

Disturbed

2011-05-12T13:33:00.000-05:00

With my departure to Ecuador a mere 35 days away, to say I'm getting excited would be an understatement.

Specifically, there were two places I wanted to check out online. The first was the place we will be staying when we go to the beach for a few days. It checked out just fine. It was the hot springs spa and resort where we will stay later that made me somewhat.....uncomfortable.

The name: Thermas Papallacta. The location: in a tiny village east of Quito.

The website is nicely done and includes a lot of photos of the grounds and tons of information about the accommodations and amenities. All was going pretty well until I read two words that should NEVER be found in a list of spa services...

Colon Stimulation.

Colon Stimulation?

What?!?!?!

We will now refer to the above mentioned horror as "CS"

As it turns out, one can pay $24 for 30 minutes of CS. The website, as informative as it was, offered absolutely no clues as to what this might be. My first thought was that there must be a simple explanation to this....it couldn't be what I think. I hope. Most simple explanations can be ascertained by a simple google search. Don't worry. I stopped myself before actually doing it. Fear of disgusting photos and links to XXX websites stopped me before I actually did the search. To no avail, I even asked a couple people about it, hoping that their spa experiences would yield some wisdom.

I'm hoping that the spa staff speaks English when I get there. And FLUENT English at that. I don't want my inquiry to what a CS is to be misinterpreted as an order for one. And no way in HECK am I trusting Leni or any of his Spanish-speaking family to translate accurately for me if the staff speaks only Spanish.

I'd be just as happy going to my grave not knowing what CS is if it means avoiding being the butt of a Moore family prank.

Keep It Real!

WANTED: Dead or Alive

2011-05-02T12:31:00.002-05:00

What a night last night was! I was eating a late dinner when my mom called and told me to turn on the TV - that the President was going to be making a huge announcement regarding national security.

So we turned on the TV about an hour and 15 minutes before Obama finally made his announcement. As we were waiting, I said to Leni, "I doubt this is the case but wouldn't it be incredible if the announcement is that Osama bin Laden is dead?" It wasn't 5 or so minutes later that CNN reported that they were getting multiple confirmations that bin Laden was indeed deceased.

I hope you were able to see the speech on TV. If you missed it, definitely watch it here:

I saw it live and then when CNN replayed it about an hour or so later. Props go out to the speech writers as well as President Obama for his smooth delivery.

As the reports of the event of the death of bin Laden unfolded, several thoughts ran through my mind and I wanted to share them. Here they are, in no particular order:

Many congrats and even more thanks go out to the members of several government agencies who worked together to complete such a dangerous mission. The meticulous and detailed planning that went into this operation is equaled by the numerous ways that it could have failed - but didn't. I am also impressed and proud of the way in which Osama's body was handled after his death by our military. He was treated in accordance with Islamic tradition and the fact that the U.S. bestowed that honor upon him is honorable and commendable.
I am quite impressed that we learned of the success of this mission within hours of its successful conclusion. In the days following September 11th, it seems we were often told that events such as this would probably be classified for security reasons for a long time before becoming public. Things change a lot and the passage of time has probably greatly helped whatever changes needed to occur so that we could hear this announcement so rapidly.
The War on Terror is not over. There are people out there that think that this struggle is about to see its closing and that we will begin to immediately withdraw troops. That would make for a great story, but I'm not buying it. Think of the past: people my age were in elementary school with the first Gulf War was going down. To us, Saddam Hussein was the big bad guy. It was a decade later that the news of his capture hit the media and several years after that that he was tried, convicted and executed. Has a lot changed in Iraq? Perhaps...but our troops are still there. By the time Saddam was captured, he was more of a figurehead than an actual involved leader and many of the decisions were being made by those under him. The same has got to be true for Osama bin Laden. Al Qaeda is not the cohesive organization that it once was but whatever remaining leadership it has will, I'm sure, continue its work. I believe we can expect a continued presence of the U.S. military in the Middle East for some time to come. If that is the case, however, our government will need to release some goals that we have for staying and under what conditions they will decide to start pulling troops out.
Credit for this event needs to go beyond the Obama Administration. My first thoughts were along the lines of praising the Obama Administration for finishing what the Bush Administration couldn't. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that surely the work that was done under Obama's watch had to have depended on work done by those under Dubya. Good job, George and company. Mission accomplished.
Some of the public's reactions to the announcement of bin Laden's death have disappointed me. The feelings I have I think can best be described as relief. Not joy. The Vatican said it best: In the face of a man's death, a Christian never rejoices, but reflects on the serious responsibilities of each person before God and before men, and hopes and works so that every event may be the occasion for the further growth of peace and not of hatred. A friend shared this blog post written by a rabbi who shared these feelings. I hope that you will join me in praying for the soul of Osama bin Laden, trusting that God's will be done in the next life.

To end on a lighter note, enjoy these quotes and thoughts:

"I've never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure." ~ Mark Twain
Will Donald Trump demand a death certificate for Osama bin Laden?
Who will now fill the role of World's Best Hide 'n' Seeker?
What an amazingly Disney-esque weekend this has been: a common girl marries a prince, a great hero honored, and the bad guy defeated.

Keep It Real!

Across the Pond

2011-04-25T12:14:00.001-05:00

What do you think the of the Royal Family? Are they merely figureheads? Are they necessary to the identity of Great Britain? Are they just an expensive way to help the British feel some particular way about themselves and their country? All of the above?

I don't know. I'm just an American who has never been to Europe. Shoot....I've lived in all 4 U.S. states that border Mexico and I've never even been there!

One thing I know, however, is that I've always been intrigued by Great Britain. It's a place I would really like to visit. My interest is not just in the gossipy portion of the Royal Family but more so in how the family itself reacts to having such a public life. I remember learning about Princess Diana as a child and really loving her grace and how much she loved her sons as well as her work as a humanitarian, despite her hatred of the press, who always hounded her. I teared up when I watched her funeral as a 16-year-old. I remember learning a little about how the British Parliament differs from our own government - and liking their system better.

Especially the wigs. I wish they wore those more often these days.

I also have a deep appreciation for England's rich history. Our history as Americans is amazing but nothing in comparison with the long time span of crazy history that Great Britain enjoys.

It is this great history that leads Great Britain to this week: the marriage of Prince William to Kate Middleton.

With the exception of winning the bid on the 2012 Summer Olympics (now 459 days away!), it doesn't seem like there's been much news coming out of England. At least none that has caught my attention. Seeing the whole country so excited about this wedding has been cool and seeing how that excitement has spread globally is also pretty neat.

In making public my intention to watch the festivities, I know that I will get lumped in with a lot of people who are watching the wedding for different reasons (celebrities, fashion, etc.). But more than that, I'm interested in watching a truly cultural event of one of the oldest cultures of the Old World.

So there you have it. Next exciting British event to be watching for in the future (other than the Olympics!)? The coronation of the next King. That'll be an event to see for sure.

Keep it Real!

A Long Time in the Making...Let the Countdown Begin!

2011-04-14T08:45:00.010-05:00

Meet my backpacking pack:

Forgive the sterile web photo. Mine is buried in the bottom of a closet and I have absolutely no desire to unearth it for a blog photograph. Deal with it.

Although she hasn't gotten as much use as I'd like, this pack and I have been together for a few trips since 2005.

She's been pretty good to me with one exception. She's been mocking me since 2006 when she got to go to Ecuador and I did not.

Jerk.

It was the summer I was dating Leni and he and his family were going to Ecuador for two weeks. It was the first time Leni had been back since living there as a member of a missionary family when he was younger. There was to be a backpacking portion of this trip for which they were short a pack. So I happily loaned mine out.

Flash forward to last summer. Leni and I had just paid off my car. Some number crunching revealed that if we continued saving the amount I'd been making in monthly car payments, we could finally afford a trip to Ecuador during summer 2011, when we knew some members of Leni's family were already planning on going.

Back then, summer 2011 seemed so far away. The plans for financing the trip were in place but it was much too soon to start any other type of planning. So we waited.

Well, here we are now in April for a trip that starts in June. It's starting to feel real and we've slowly started to take some steps to plan this 2 week trip out!

I got my passport back in February.

Also in that month, we purchased plane tickets.

Currently, the family is in the process of planning how the trip will look, day by day, when we are down there. Kind of crazy but fun planning an international trip for people from 3-4 households! Usually when I go on trips I'm the planner but not having the experience that some of these other folks have in traveling to this particular locale, it's being handled by others, which I'm finding relieving and ever-so-slightly stressful all at the same time.

Days left before the trip: 63. We depart June 17th and will be back on July 3rd.

That darn pack has just a little over 2 months left of the mocking. Hope she enjoys them.

Keep It Real!

Home Improvements II

2011-04-05T20:04:00.000-05:00

We've been getting some stuff done around the house lately!

Back in the summer after we got the house, there were some projects we wanted to take care of quickly, as I posted about. These spilled over a little into the fall but our time was quickly consumed with football season, skiing, holiday trips, etc.

But the weather is getting warmer and it has been motivating us to get back in that "what needs to be done around here" frame of mind. Here's what we've been up to:

Painting a bedroom. It was previously occupied by very young and rowdy children and had marks and holes ALL over the walls.

Before: doesn't show really how bad it was

After! Paint: Touch o' Lime

We didn't do the next project ourselves but we saved money for it for months and months. The house needed a new roof when we bought it. We got bids in the late summer and fall and got on a contractor's schedule for "sometime in the spring". Well, the time came and now our savings account is MUCH smaller :)

Before

After

Next came the pantry. It had become more of a room to pile junk in and it was ridiculous.

Before....embarrassing

So I shopped around and found a couple shelving units at a good price and let them do the work they were meant to do!

After

So what's next on the agenda? I've got a couple doors I'd like to paint. Another room to perhaps paint. We'd like to plant flowers for a little color outside. We're working on a plan for some window treatments. One room needs new carpet. Several windows need to be replaced. Jeez...overwhelming for sure!

Keep It Real!

Spring Break: Virginia

2011-03-28T10:46:00.001-05:00

It's 9:34am and I'm still in bed.

I've been awake for some time but I just haven't gotten the energy to get out of bed after so many hours of traveling yesterday, concluded by a 1am arrival back here at home.

After months of eager anticipation, Leni and I jumped a plane early this past Thursday morning. Destination? Charlottesville, Virginia; the home of my best friend, Janelle.

This was to be a particularly fun trip because Leni was on the roster this time. I've been visiting Virginia every 1 or 2 years for the last decade and in the 5 years I've known Leni, this is the first trip for which he'd been able to join me. Additionally, I was going to meet a young man that has become particularly important in Janelle's life lately :)

We definitely made the most out of every minute of the trip, jammed a lot in, and had a blast. We ate at some fantastic restaurants, did some beautiful hiking in Shenandoah National Park, watched Janelle and Thomas finish a 10 mile race, saw some other old friends, toured wine/brewery country, visited with Janelle's family, and did a little walking around Washington DC (Leni had never been before).

We took way too many pics to post. You can either see them on my Facebook account or here.

Many thanks go to Janelle for being an excellent host and planner for this trip. Can't wait to see you guys again!

Leni, Maggie, Janelle, Thomas

Seriously though...go check out those pictures. They're awesome.

Keep It Real!

For Those Who Scoffed

2011-03-20T17:12:00.002-05:00

Sometime in October, our ski equipment was ready to go and we were itching to ski. We had purchased season tickets to the local ski joint, Pajarito Mountain at the early season discount and were just waiting for the snow.

That, however, was the problem. Not only had there been no snow, but the long term predictions for snow for our area were not good for Winter 2010/2011. Truth be told, we didn't really know that at the time. All we had to go from was last winter here in Los Alamos which was laden with snow and, of course, the year we had no money for lift tickets.

Figures.

I am happy to report that after yesterday's last ski day of the season, I have officially gotten my money's worth out of my season pass. Between the full ski days here and the occasional half days there, I made the risky purchase worth it. Even after weekends missed due to trips elsewhere, busyness, illness, and two weekends in Tucson recently, I came out $46 on top.

So to those who scoffed and said that the season pass wasn't worth the money this year, HA!

Keep It Real!

A Letter to Mac Users

2011-03-04T12:32:00.001-06:00

Dear Mac Users,

Let me congratulate you on your fantastic product. I have yet to meet a Mac user who isn't head over heals in love with their machine. Not only do you have a great product, I'm especially happy that you are so pleased with it.

I do have one request.

Can you please stop projecting your love of Apple products on PC users? Please.

I have nothing against Macs. Really, I don't.

But I'm getting just a little tired of Mac users feeling like it is their personal crusade to use their Mac evangelization skills to convert me.

Although I do appreciate your obvious concern, I'm really doing just fine with my PC. It does everything I need and more.

And just so you know, when my PC reaches the end of its usable life, I'll probably replace it with another PC.

Just be forewarned.

Love,

Maggie <><

Cuff Me, Officer

2011-02-27T21:30:00.001-06:00

Ever had a police escort through a church?

I have.

Let me explain.

Just before we moved to Los Alamos and started going to our church, they added a large addition to the building; an enormous fellowship hall upstairs and some unused space downstairs. Unused until recently, that is. After months of negotiating, etc., the county is opening a Teen Center in that unused downstairs space. The opening, in fact, is tomorrow!

So needless to say, there's been a lot of work going on downstairs in preparation of this opening. I was in the church office upstairs this evening and noticed a bundle of mail that had come in for the Teen Center people. Trying to be helpful, I thought I'd take it downstairs. Surely, in the craziness of their opening tomorrow, no one would think to come up to check the mail.

I went downstairs and opened the interior door to the teen center and heard the loudest noise I'd heard in quite some time.

The security alarm.

Great.

And there was, surprisingly, no one there at all. No one to turn the alarm off.

I don't know a lot about security systems but I do know that if they go off and no one is there to disengage them immediately, the cops show up. I thought about just staying and waiting for them with my arms behind my back in the "go ahead, officer, cuff me" position. Instead, I hauled butt upstairs to see if our priest, who was there preparing for a contemporary worship service, knew anything about the security system.

Of course he didn't and as we were in the process of calling folks that might be able to help, the cops did, in fact, show up to the upstairs fellowship hall where we were.

I explained that I was, in fact, the guilty party, and they asked me to guide them down to the Teen Center to check it out. So we walked the length of the hall, right past the worship band who was completely unaware but intrigued by what was happening.

By the time we got downstairs, the Teen Center coordinator had showed up and confirmed that he knew me and that I was not a burglar. The cops then took off and the coordinator taught me how to disengage the security system.

Before I departed, I handed him his pile of mail. As I handed it over, I noticed that one of the envelopes was a bill. From the security system company.

Oh the irony.

Keep It Real!

Worst/Best Weekend Ever

2011-02-07T12:12:00.000-06:00

Awful. I felt just awful.

You know those scenes from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies where the pirates glide down the sails using their swords? It felt like they were doing that in the back of my throat.

I couldn't swallow a dang thing. Not even water. Not even my own saliva. All I wanted was one of those spit sucker things from the dentist. That, and the ability to sleep through it all.

I was hoping and praying that it was just the worst sore throat ever but on Saturday night when the tell-tale white patches showed up on my tonsils and my fever was 101.3, I knew it had to be strep. Dang kids at work. I know just which one I got it from too.

Note to self: next time said child is in time out at work, make it a few extra minutes longer than needed.

Sunday morning I was set to go to Urgent Care to get some drugs. A doctor I knew found out I was ill and instead had me come over. She was kind enough to examine me and write me a couple of prescriptions. God bless her. She saved me from the lines at Urgent Care and having to hang out with other sick people, not to mention that $50 co-pay. God bless her!

With my painkiller and my antibiotics, I was ready to go for the Super Bowl. I was missing out on a Super Bowl party that was supposed to have been hosted at my house but instead was relocated to a friend's house a few blocks away. No chips and chili for me. Just me and the TV.

What a great game! Scoring those first two touchdowns right from the start was AMAZING. The half time show was a total trainwreck. Let me repeat...TOTAL TRAINWRECK. But it was followed up by the most intense 4th quarter I've ever seen. The Steelers started making a comeback that didn't go quite as far as they needed it to, but admittedly far enough to make the Packer fans a little nervous.

It felt SO good to win. If you put yourself out there as a Packer fan, you take a good amount of crap for it. For the most part, I have resisted returning the sarcastic remarks to the Steeler fans that teased me for the last two weeks.

I woke up today and had to remind myself that it wasn't a dream. The Packers really did win the Super Bowl. It's a great day to be from Wisconsin. It might even be worth having strep for the weekend.

Welcome home, Lombardi Trophy!

Keep It Real!

He Said, She Said

2011-01-26T20:30:00.004-06:00

I'm sick and tired of misguided and ill-educated commentary on politics.

Now, I certainly don't claim to be the best-read or most well-informed voter and certainly do not take offense when the opinion of others differs from mine.

My problem surrounds yesterday evening's State of the Union Address. I wish I had a nickle for every comment made (both in person and on Facebook) complaining about the speech before it occurred or saying that the person was happy they had to miss it, or was planning to miss it, just because they don't like our sitting president.

I've watched every State of the Union Address I can remember since high school (the Clinton Administration). For more than half of that time, the person delivering the speech was not a person I cared for very much. Additionally, I have watched every Inauguration, regardless of whether or not I approved of the person being inaugurated.

I watch these events because I cannot be physically present for them. If I could attend them, I would. This is not because I like the guy in office (because I definitely haven't always!). It's because I respect the office itself, and the process by which a person rises to it.

Another thing I wish I had a nickle for was every time someone talks about how our military is so great and how owe them a debt of gratitude for our freedom (clarification: I agree with this). I have noticed that many (but certainly not all!) of these boycotters are the same people that I often see hollering day and night about how we need to be supporting the military more. So these people go ahead and do what they can to support the military themselves, which usually consists mostly of wearing patriotic colors and filling up their Facebook profiles with statuses with military-glorifying statements that most often accuse me of being un-American, just because I won't copy said status to my own profile.

I suppose those are ways that some people choose to support the military. As for me, the best way I know to support our military is to do what I can to support the country for which it works. I watch debates. I vote my conscience. I pay attention to speeches. I watch national events. Because of many things, including the sacrifice of our armed forces, the we are able to hold rallies and demonstrations, campaign, vote and express our opinions without fear of the violence that is commonplace in many other countries. In honor of this great gift, I participate in the democratic processes described above regardless of who is in office.

I believe that boycotting things like the State of the Union Address merely because of the person delivering the speech is childish. As I watched him speak last night, I wasn't thinking, "Man this guy is awesome!" Instead, I was thinking, "How lucky are we to live in this nation?" And believe it or not, there were times I thought the same thing, even when it was the other guy making the speech.

If you disagree with this, I'd love to hear why. Unlike some others I know, I'm not afraid of the other side of the story.

Keep It Real!

Dallas Bound!

2011-01-25T11:13:00.001-06:00

No, I'm certainly not planning any trips to Texas soon. But my Green Bay Packers are!

I don't usually blog about sports here. I typically leave that to my friend Pat over at Spa's Sports. This NFL season, however, has been something different for the Packers.

Their regular season wasn't spectacular. A friend and sports reporter even wrote an article back in October about how the season was essentially over (he has since changed his tune). The Packers' 10-7 record was just good enough to get them a spot in the Wild Card Weekend. They went into the playoffs as a 6th seed team and haven't looked back since.

The Packers DESTROYED the Atlanta Falcons, a team they were expected to lose to. I don't think I've seen their quarterback, Aaron Rogers, play a better game. Unfortunately, the same can't be said about their most recent game against the Chicago Bears. The win was almost more important for the rivalry than it was for a secured spot in Superbowl XLV.

The excitement over the Packers' 5th Super Bowl appearance does not, however, change the fact that they did not play their best against the Bears. If they want any shot at winning against the Steelers on February 6th in Dallas, they will have to bring the hunger they had when they played against the Falcons. The weak stuff they brought this past Sunday won't hack it at the Super Bowl level.

Dear Packers,

Let's do this.

Love,

Maggie <><
Fan and Part-Owner

On the 12th Day of Christmas My True Love Gave To Me....

2011-01-06T07:57:00.075-06:00

Some people think that the 12 Days of Christmas are the 12 days leading up to Christmas.

Lucky me, I consider most Snack for Later readers to be, on the whole, intelligent people who know that the 12 Days of Christmas are, in fact, the 12 days between Christmas and today, Epiphany.

What you may not know, however, are the true meanings behind each of the verses of the song itself. And since one of the main mantras here at Snack for Later is that we learn something new everyday, we thought it would be appropriate to share what we learned recently. Check it out:

A Partridge in a Pear Tree: This is Christ! Mother partridges are known to feign injury to distract predators from young, much like Christ sacrificed himself for all sinners, throughout time.
Two Turtle Doves: The witness of both the Old and New Testaments
Three French Hens: The three theological virtues of faith, hope and love
Four Calling Birds: One for each of the 4 Gospels
Five Golden Rings: The first five books of the Old Testament, known otherwise as the Torah or Pentateuch.
Six Geese A-Laying: The six days of Creation
Seven Swans A-Swimming: The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. Don't remember them? Romans 12:6-8!
Eight Maids A-Milking: The Beattitudes (Matthew 5:3-10)
Nine Ladies Dancing: The nine fruits of the Holy Spirit. (Galatians 5:22)
Ten Lords A-Leaping: The Ten Commandments
Eleven Pipers Piping: Eleven faithful Apostles
Twelve Drummers Drumming: Before reading this one, I was sure it was going to be the twelve tribes of Israel. WRONG! It's actually the twelve points of believe in the Apostles' Creed. Pretty cool.

So there you have it, friends!

Keep It Real and Happy Epiphany!

Christmas Break in Photos

2011-01-02T19:06:00.005-06:00

It was quite an eventful Christmas/New Year around here and rather than bore you with a wordy explanation, here are some pictures to enjoy instead:

Trip to Tucson: 1 SUV, 4 adults, 3 dogs, lots of gear :)

Wheelin' on Christmas Eve Day outside Tucson

Christmas Day with the family, including my sister-in-law's parents

House built of shipping containers in Flagstaff

Visit with the Morton family

Headed north for a few days of skiing at Monarch Mountain in CO

Ski hill from parking lot

Winery between Monarch and our hotel in Salida. Loved that the tasting counter was in the same room as the wine-making equipment

Historic downtown Salida, CO

Ate dinner on New Year's Eve at a pizzeria/brewery. Enjoyed this beer 6 feet from where it was brewed behind the glass doors

Happy New Year!

Back to the grind tomorrow!

Keep it Real and Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas 2010

2010-12-25T13:33:00.014-06:00

I hope that this finds everyone either in the midst of or having recovered from a wonderful Christmas with family and/or friends!

In keeping with tradition beginning with last year's Christmas post, here is another favorite Christmas YouTube video. It combines the festivity of the holiday season with one of my favorite things: flash mob!

Dear Santa,

For Christmas next year, PLEASE have a flash mob production be performed in my presence. It would be worth going to a mall for. K thanks bye.

On a slightly more serious note, please read this excerpt from a Christmas Eve sermon given at a friend's church many moons ago:

"You think Christmas is all about perfection? Let's look at this scene again: we have loud animals, smelly shepherd boys, more loud and smelly animals. I'll give you one guess at to what it smelled like. And, it wasn't roses folks. Let's face it. Sometimes, Jesus comes into our crap. And thank God for that."

Keep it Real and Merry Christmas!

Holiday Prep

2010-12-14T10:37:00.007-06:00

A major feat was accomplished in the Moore household this morning:

Christmas Gift Purchasing: Been done since last weekend

Wrapping: Check

Packaged and Mailed: Check

Additionally, I just ran across this fantastic video. You've got to check it out:

Keep it Real

P.S. Los Alamos Trails Goal Update: 18.4 out of 29.5 miles completed. 17 trails down, 8 to go!

Good Customer Service?

2010-12-02T10:20:00.002-06:00

I know. The terms "good" and "customer service" don't seem like they belong in the same sentence unless they are separated by the words, "luck on getting any decent". But I was recently the pleased recipient of some excellent customer service worth mentioning.

The company: Dell

The situation: The hinge on our laptop was broken and subsequently causing the casing around the LCD screen to split. Finally, I drug myself to the Dell website to chat with a customer service agent about the problem. Thank God, we had purchased the extended warranty but I figured that we'd have to mail off the laptop and be without it for a number of weeks while it was being serviced.

Much to my surprised, the agent asked me to email him some pictures of the problem. He then informed me that he was sending the parts to a service technician in my area and that he would fix it in my home. Within 48 hours, the service tech had the parts and had already come and gone, leaving my laptop fixed without us having to part with it!

Flash forward 1 week. Those sticky keys on the keyboard were becoming a bigger problem. The space bar could barely be depressed. Kicking myself for not having thought to report this the first time, I went back to the Dell website to chat with someone about the issue. This time, I was not worried that I would have to send off the machine again but rather embarrassed that the same service tech would have to drive back up here from Santa Fe to fix such a silly problem. To my delight, that wouldn't be the plan this time! They simply mailed me a new keyboard with very clear and simple instructions on how to install it myself. Within 36 hours, the part was here and installed with no problems!

Thank you, Dell, for your excellent customer service!

Moral of the story: extended warranties on computers are TOTALLY worth it!

Keep It Real!

P.S. Los Alamos Trails Goal Update: 10.4 of 29.5 miles completed - between hiking close (already completed) trails with family lately and being busy I haven't gotten out a lot on new trails. Have hopeful plans to knock off a 6-mile trail soon when a friend comes to visit.

Turkey Day 2011

2010-11-27T18:08:00.001-06:00

A fraction of the things for which I am thankful, in no particular order:

Jesus' sacrifice for me
My husband
Family
Friends
My health
My home
My church and church family
My doggies
Old school nintendo
NBC
Leinenkugel's Sunset Wheat
Food in the fridge
Money in the bank
A comfortable bed
A closet full of warm clothes
My education
Soldiers who serve our country
Cars that are paid off
Insurance coverage
Traveling experiences
Cultural experiences
The Internet
Employment
Camp

Happy belated Thanksgiving, friends! Here's a brief look into the Moore Family Thanksgiving:

Woke up to a light dusting Thanksgiving morning

Another good fried turkey, brought to you by Leni Moore

A Moore family holiday without a little wheelin? Forget it!

Here's wishing you a very happy Advent as we prepare for the birth of Christ!

Keep It Real!

Los Alamos Trails Goal Update: 9.4 of 29.5 miles completed

What Are the Odds?

2010-11-21T17:37:00.004-06:00

True Story:

Leni is currently on the phone with his brother Landon, who is driving down from Idaho to see us for Thanksgiving.

What are they talking about? Glad you asked! Apparently, a magpie has taken off with his one and only car key. Leni is talking him through how to start the car with a screwdriver and unlock the steering lock.

As nature would have it, magpie's like shiny things and perhaps that it why one, allegedly, took off with this car key.

I'm sure you all find this situation absurd, as do I. But it is entertaining as hell.

Keep It Real!

P.S. Los Alamos Trails Goal Update: 9.4 of 29.5 miles completed

Decision 2012

2010-11-11T19:04:00.003-06:00

We took a poll and it has been decided. Now that the mid-term elections are over, grumblings about the 2012 presidential election are becoming stronger and it is time for Snack for Later to weigh in with some predictions.

Prediction may be too strong a word. I don't know if all the candidates below represent my predictions so much as my hopes for a fun, entertaining election season. Here's who I'd like to see on the ballot:

DEMOCRATIC: Barrak Obama -Duh.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

REPUBLICAN: Sarah Palin - Please recall that I previously mentioned that these selections are for entertainment purposes (except for my Democratic one).

I literally cringed the first time I saw this

How great would this be? For all the entertainment we got out of the Katie Couric interviews and SNL impersonations back in 2008, imagine the fun to be had with a full-blown presidential campaign. I recently saw a snippet of an 8-episode show on TLC (that will premier soon) called Sarah Palin's Alaska. In this preview, Sarah was shown doing some rock/ice climbing. It is probably a fantastic portrayal of Alaska's landscape, but it clearly isn't "Sarah's Alaska". She obviously had no idea what she was doing and had never experienced Alaska that way before, which was evident by uttering of the (para)phrases, "I've never done this before" and "I'm not sure I can do this". I can't help but imagine this echoing through the inner chambers of the Oval Office and how true it would be in that context as well.

This segment of an interview with Matt Damon, while somewhat dated, is hilariously true:

On a more serious note, I absolutely cannot imagine any of the two major parties endorsing a reality TV host (Tea Party? Maybe). It just doesn't seem like something that belongs on the resume of the President of the United States of America. Additionally, I recently read that Sarah had said (in relation to resigning as governor) that she was relieved to no longer be "shackled in Juneau by those hellbent on seeing my political destruction".

Yeah. Like the atmosphere inside the Beltway would be any different.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

INDEPENDENT: Ross Perot

Sure, he may be 80 and no one has heard from him in years. But I've missed him.

I can only hope that in this time of dormancy, he's been diligently drafting strategy for his 2012 campaign. As much as I miss sayings like "NAFTA? Don't hafta!", "Giant Sucking Sound", and "Ross for Boss", I'm sure the old guy still has more creativity in there to share with the country to keep us laughing. He's a one-man-show for sure and I'd be delighted to see a 3-candidate presidential debate again in which the moderator can't control Perot, as he constantly runs over time and interrupts other candidates.

I saw a list of people who are subject of speculation as far as possible Independent presidential candidates. On this list was former Governor of Minnesota, Jesse Ventura. Is it just me, or does anyone else think he would make a fantastic VP candidate to run with Perot?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So those are the ~~predictions~~ hopes for entertainment purposes. Whether you are excited about it or not, it won't be long until we start seeing more in the news about people filing as candidates with the FEC. Ready or not, here they come.

Keep It Real!

P.S. Los Alamos Trails Goals Update: 7.2 of 29.5 miles completed

A Wider Perspective

2010-11-08T09:28:00.005-06:00

I don't like pro-life paraphernalia. The bumper stickers, the t-shirts, the billboards. I don't even like the rallies.

I bet that was hard for some of my friends to read, but it is true.

My beef is not with the "stuff" so much as the narrow meaning behind it all. I'll be as clear as I can here....I love me some anti-abortion sentiments and legislation. The problem is that I think that the anti-abortion movement is only part of what it should mean to be "pro-life". There's so much more to it than just this stuff:

For me, to be pro-life is to be pro-all-life, not just unborn babies. That means providing the most excellent health care we can and making sure it is available to everyone. It means caring for the environment. It means making decisions as a nation that will put troops in combat only as a last resort. It means having a judicial system that keeps criminals in check. It means having laws and law enforcement that will keep citizens safe and healthy. It means having a great public education system so that children can grow up to make good decisions regarding all these things. It means not executing prisoners. And yes....of COURSE it means being anti-abortion.

I think everyone is called to fight their own part of the battle. In my life, the thing that tugs the heart strings the most is the health insurance issue. The reason behind this calling is, of course, the experience that my family has had with insurance as it has related to my mom's battle with cancer in the past.

For those of you who aren't up to date with that, here's the cliff notes version (dates are estimations in some instances):

Early 1994: Diagnosis
1995: Remission
2003: It's back
2004: Things are pretty bad. I flew home from college during the week of mid-terms to be with the family
2006: Still pretty bad. To plan around treatment, my brother and sister-in-law's wedding gets moved up 4 months
October 2006: Bone Marrow Transplant
Today: Cancer free! One more year of being cancer free and we can officially use the word "cured"!

It seems like nothing when you boil it down to a couple bullet points. See me for more details if interested :) But rest assured that a more in depth narrative would be littered with stories of battles with insurance companies.

This all brings me (finally) to this past weekend. We journeyed down to my parents' home in Tucson to be present for an incredible event put on by a non-profit organization called Building More Tomorrows, which has an association with the Arizona Cancer Center where my mom receives treatment. The mission of Building More Tomorrows is to provide support to patients (and patient families) who undergo a bone marrow transplant (BMT).

A BMT is an incredibly involved process. Due to the risk and side effects involved, it is nothing short of a last ditch effort. When discussing a BMT as an option for my mom, her oncologist, Dr. Yeager, suggested a "famliy meeting". I flew from Texas to AZ. My brother and sister-in-law drove down from Flagstaff. We gathered in a tiny exam room to talk about the details of the "procedure". It sounded awful. As Dr. Yeager was telling us about risks, including the risk of it not working, my brother asked for a percentage. I don't recall if he asked for the odds of the BMT working (for some patients, the first one bombs and it has to be repeated) or the odds of survival. I don't even recall the number that Dr. Yeager reported, but I do remember the thick feeling of heaviness in the tiny room at the sound of a number that was nowhere near desirable.

The Building More Tomorrows event this weekend was a symposium in raising awareness for and educating about BMTs. It was a luncheon event with three speakers. THE man....Dr. Yeager himself...spoke first about BMT in a nutshell: what's it is really about. The next speaker had a short presentation about the desperate need for more people on the Bone Marrow Registry. The final speaker shared about the real-life financial and insurance implications of such treatment.

So what really does a BMT entail? Dr. Yeager did a good job boiling it all down.

His care and treatment saved my mom's life!

Secure a suitable donor
On what is referred to as "Day 1", the donor is given a drug (over a period of days) that increases the rate at which their own marrow is produced and causes it to move out of the bones and into their blood
Blood is drawn and marrow cells are separated from the red blood cells, which are then returned to the donor
BMT patient is given extremely high doses of chemotherapy and radiation to eradicate.....everything. The bad stuff is hopefully killed off and, along with that, some good things go too. Good parts of blood? Gone. Childhood immunizations? Gone. You get the picture. Imagine how awful this must be for the patient and how fragile it makes them.
Once the doctor has a clean slate to work with, the new marrow is given intravenously and starts making healthy stuff. This typically happens anywhere between Day 15 and Day 30.

During all this time, the patient is in the hospital and miserable as hell, if they have even survived up until this point. Some people are in the hospital for as little as 2 or 3 weeks (lucky ducks!). My mom was in the hospital, with few short-lived trips "home" until after Christmas (it started in October). After final hospital discharge, the patient has to remain in very close proximity to the hospital (usually 30 minutes) where they received their treatment for a significant period of time, typically several months. Since my parents' home was 4 hours away, this meant having to rent an apartment and essentially move to Tucson. One can see where insurance and financial resources are really starting to become important!

There's so much I'm leaving out and it is exhausting to think/talk/type about it. Let's just boil it down to this: there must be something very important that God has planned for my mom still because she has survived not only cancer, but a bone marrow transplant with a relatively low chance of survival.

My mom's BMT was made possible by my aunt, who was the donor. There's a 25% chance that a patient's sibling will be a match. Those who aren't as lucky to have such a match, must turn to the National Marrow Donor Registry, a list of amazing people who are ready and willing to be a donor, should they ever be matched to a patient in need. For these matches, ethnicity matters and (surprise, surprise), there are not enough donors of minor ethnicities. If I needed a transplant and my brother was not a match, I'd have, at best, at 70% chance of finding a donor on the registry. I heard a presentation from a Puerto Rican whose mother died before finding a donor...she only had a 3% chance of find one to begin with.

The symposium was great and I could see a lot of light bulbs switching on over a lot of people. The real reason Leni and I attended, however, was for the entertainment at the end. Some very amazing people, my mom included, were asked to be models in a survivor fashion show.

The fashion show was pretty legit! There was a runway, lights, photographers, music...the works! Before each model came out, the MC read their "survival story" which they had each written about their battle with cancer. They then worked the runway to the song of their own choice (personal fav choice: Survivor by Destiny's Child). It was such a physical, tangible representation of the battle these people have won. At one point, each of them was, let's face it, close to death. But now, LIFE is shooting through all of them. Some were young enough that they are now healthy and have had their own kids. Some are older but living their own lives and improving the lives of others around them. Surely, this is pro-life as much as anything else.

It was an incredible honor to be able to make the trek down to Tucson for this event and see what a joy it was for my mom. I will end this absurdly long post with two things:

A plug for you to save a life and become a bone marrow donor, especially if you are of an ethnic minority
Pictures that portray my viewpoint of being pro-life:

My mom!

Because a BMT saved his life, he now has twin sons and is a 3rd year med student.
How many more lives might be created and saved because he is alive?

His family!

Awaiting a donor. Been given a 40% chance of survival

Keep It Real!

Halloweekend

2010-11-01T08:44:00.003-05:00

Halloweekend was the name of an event that happened here in town this past weekend, but I also thought it would make a fantastic blog title. Hope it wasn't copyrighted.

Not a crazy Halloween around here. The biggest festivity was carving our pumpkins:

Leni's pumpkin on the right may be confusing for most. It keeps with his (now established) tradition of his pumpkin carvings symbolizing his love of toyotas and off-roading (see his pumpkin from last year). In case you didn't recognize it, it's the logo of a rock crawling performance parts company:

I'd say he did a pretty decent job, given the difficulty!

Hope everyone else had a good weekend.

P.S. Los Alamos Trails Goal Update: 7.2 of 29.5 miles completed - I have now completed all trails that can be reasonably be accessed on foot from my home.

New Beginnings

2010-10-23T10:15:00.001-05:00

This weekend, the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande got a fresh start. After a couple years without a bishop seated at the cathedral, we finally now have one! I can't even begin to know first-had how difficult it was to operate as long as the diocese did without a bishop, but from what I've heard from people who have been here longer than I, it's been a tough road.

On Friday morning, Leni and I had the distinct pleasure of being part of the roughly 1200 people who attended the Consecration of Bishop Michael Vono. It was truly amazing. We got there more than an hour ahead of time and got some slammin' seats and had a pretty good view of the whole 3 hour event. It really didn't seem that long to me. I'd never been to a consecration before so seeing new things in a church I've known my whole life was refreshing.

Kudos go to the scores of people who came together to plan the event. I counted 7 languages used in the context of the service: English, Hebrew, Sign, Spanish, Latin, Italian, and Navajo. The 80-voice diocesan choir was outstanding...especially since I was seated about 15 feet from them! Here are a couple pictures I took, although crumby in quality because flash photography was not permitted:

Singing of a Hebrew call to prayer by a Rabbi in honor of our Jewish roots

Bishop-elect Vono standing before the consecrating bishops

This video doesn't have much action in it however it is meaningful. It is of the bishops surrounding Michael Vono and laying hands on him while the choir is singing "Come Holy Spirit" in latin

As mentioned before, the people of this diocese have been without a bishop for some time. Without going into the history, I'll just say that the departure of the past bishop had been hurtful for many. Needless to say, this consecration of Michael Vono has been much anticipated and prayed for and there is great hope that he will be the shepherd and leader that is so very much needed. Immediately following the actual consecration, he and his family were officially introduced and the applause went on for quite some time before he speaks a few words in the video below. The excitement in the crowd was palpable:

Many congrats to Bishop Vono, and to the diocese as, together, we start a new chapter of ministry!

On another subject, this is officially the 100th post of Snack for Later. In celebration of that, you have hopefully noticed that the blog got a cosmetic face-lift. Hope you enjoy the new look!

Keep It Real!

P.S. - Los Alamos Trails Goal Update: 4.1 of 29.5 miles completed

House Blessing

2010-10-20T09:15:00.000-05:00

This past weekend, we took part in a combination progressive dinner-house blessing event with two other families. It was quite fun and meaningful too!

We started at one home and had appetizers there. We then walked around the home blessing each of the rooms as the priest sprinkled holy water in them and said some brief but wonderful prayers specifically for each room.

Next, we moved on to another family's home. There, we enjoyed the main dish of dinner and the blessing of their home.

Finally, we moved on to our place for some dessert of creme brulee (see recipe here) and the blessing of our house.

We were together for about 4 hours and it was great to see people chatting, getting to know each other better, and having a wonderful time.

All 3 families plus Fr. Kelly and his lovely wife!

The pooches got blessings too!

All in all, it was one great evening.

Keep It Real!

P.S. - Los Alamos Trails Goal Update: 4.1 of 29.5 miles completed

Ranch School Trail - 25 minutes from my front door

Turn Left, Turn Right, Repeat as Needed

2010-10-16T16:12:00.001-05:00

The bug is working its way in and I'm getting the itch.

I want to ski soon. I'm enjoying this fall weather right now but soon, the leaves will be down and I'll be ready to get out there.

Between the equipment I already had and the stuff we got Leni at the ski swap this afternoon, we're all set.

The pink boots aren't mine!

At this point, there's just one problem. The ski mountain that looms over our city looks like this right now:

I need it to look like this:

Sigh....I guess I'll just have to wait!

In other news, just two more posts until my 100th post and subsequent blog facelift. Stay tuned.

Keep It Real!

P.S. Los Alamos Trails Goal Update: 2.8 of 29.5 miles completed.

New Car, New States

2010-10-11T21:14:00.005-05:00

This past Columbus Day Weekend was a 4 day weekend for us since it happened to fall on a weekend that Leni had Friday off from work. And boy did we need that time!

We'd been talking lately of getting Leni a new (to us) car to serve as a daily driver. We had a few needs to be met and we had been trying to find a vehicle that would meet them all. Specifically, something that could comfortably hold people, something with better safety ratings than Leni's 4runner, and something that could tow.

The answer: a 1997 Toyota (duh!) Landcruiser. Also known as an FZJ-80.

We weren't really planning on getting this vehicle until next year but when one in really good condition popped up on craigslist at a STEAL of a price, it was foolish not to jump on it. We called up the guy, asked all the right questions, and made the arrangements to buy it.

FRIDAY: Waking up in a state that borders Mexico and falling asleep in a state that borders Canada.

Early on Friday morning, we jumped in the car with the dogs and a cooler of food. The destination: Boise, Idaho. Fifteen to sixteen hours away. A stretch for one driver, but doable with two.

On this trek, we graced two states that Leni had never visited: Utah and Idaho. I think I was more excited about this than was Leni. Utah is AMAZING. We have to go back there to spend more time someday. Moab is beautiful and just outside of it, there are entrances to two national parks within a few minutes of each other. There was also snow above 11,000 feet on the peaks looking down on Salt Lake City.

Got to the hotel at about 8:30 pm and had some dinner in the room. Watched a movie in bed, and passed out.

SATURDAY: We brake for...nothing...yet

Tired but excited, we made our way to the designated meeting spot. We met the seller and his wife - they were a delightful couple in their 50s or 60s who were sad to let their beloved car go but knew they didn't need it anymore. Despite some brake issues, which we had been made aware of ahead of time, the car checked out, the guys did the paperwork, exchanged the money, and it was a done deal by 10am.

At 13 years old, let me introduce to you the newest car Leni has ever purchased:

The car was a good deal because, as I mentioned, it did need a little brake work. While Leni got to work diagnosing this, Lucy and I were doing what we do best - laying in bed watching a movie:

Hotel rooms mean dogs on bed - a special treat NEVER afforded at home
Sierra is so well-behaved that she won't get on a bed, even when invited!

In the afternoon, while taking the car out on a test drive after Leni had done some things to the brakes, we visited a dog park and our labs saw the first dog they'd ever seen that was bigger then them - a great dane! Then it was back to work on the brakes. There was a late dinner break for Dominos. Due to the recent Dominos TV commercials, I succumbed and tried their new pizza that they claim is better these days than it used to be. I think it is better, but it still doesn't beat Papa John's!

SUNDAY: Invasion of the RVs

Of all things, I was most excited for the journey home. Shorter days, the ability to stop more often to see things if we wanted, and the prospect of picking my own music since I was driving my car alone :) We were on the road with both vehicles by 7:30am and throughout the day, I got quite acquainted with the back of Leni's new car. Luckily, the landscape was changing:

At 5:30pm, we got to our campsite in Moab. We had selected this particular camp ground because Leni knew some guys who had been there all weekend in their trucks wheelin'. This was unlike any camping spot I'd ever seen. Mostly because it catered mostly to RV types and less to tent types like us, although it did have a few spots for tents.

RV people are really a breed of themselves. Not bad people by any means, just very different. In my world, tent people are more hard core. They live simply and make due with what they have. But in that campground, we were the bottom of the totem pole, sleeping in JUST a tent. It it amazing the things some of these people had on their alloted camping space. Some were clearly not passing through for a holiday weekend but rather full time residents. Some of the permanent structures that they had erected were incredible:

A simple fence

A sodded dog run

A saloon?

A more serious fence with a "garage" entrance for a car

I couldn't complain about the view from our tent when I woke up this morning:

I did, however, have some complaining to do about the elongated toilet bowls with the normal, round toilet seats:

Unlike my normal personal rule, I donned white cotton socks in my Tevas in the morning:

Don't worry...it's okay....I'm in an RV park

Residency at this particular RV park came complete with free wifi. I guess that is standard now but it seemed crazy to me and I'm proud to say that we did not partake in this amenity. I did learn, however, that when the signal is bad, you can just drive to the Super 8 parking lot and use theirs. The password, if you are ever in the area, is "adventure".

Favorite thing to see in the RV park? A family watching Robin Williams' movie "RV" while in their RV. The sight of a guy trying to drive a rental RV around a corner was a very close second.

MONDAY: Just get home

Thank God for Columbus, without whose holiday this trip never would have been made.

This day was filled mostly with the continuing view of the lay of the land around the Landcruiser:

Just outside Moab

Windshield getting dirtier - cool arch though!

Back in northern New Mexico

On a dirt road "short cut" about an hour from home. Leni left me in the dust

By 4:15pm we were home and happy to be there!

Keep It Real!

P.S. Los Alamos Trails Goal Update: 2.8 of 29.5 miles completed

"A Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins with a Single Step"

2010-10-06T09:35:00.004-05:00

No home in Los Alamos should be without this book:

It is an incredible tool for people like us. As its name suggests, it lists information about trails all around the area, both in the city limits and out. We are so blessed to live in a place that has a trail system within the city. As I have described before, the city is built on a series of mesas which are separated by canyons filled with beautiful forests, hence the venue for the trails.

Anyway, the first chapter of book pictured above is called "Within Los Alamos". It gives detailed information regarding the 25 trails located in town. Here are some brief stats:

Shortest Trail: .2 mi
Longest Trail: 5.9 mi
Average: 1.18 mi
Total Distance of all 25 Trails: 29.5 mi

I decided yesterday that I'd like to hike each part of all of these trails. So often, I talk to people who have lived in a place for years and haven't experienced some of the quintessential and easy things that the area has to offer. I don't want to be that person. There's so much to do here and it may be that it is impossible to do everything, but this is an attainable goal. With names like Acid Canyon Trail, Kinnikinnik Trail, Hidden Canyon and Deadman's Trail, who wouldn't want to go for it? And with 3 trailheads within spitting distance of my house, there's no excuse.

If anyone wants to join me for any of this, let me know! :)

Official Distance Completed To Date: 1.5 of 29.5 miles

Keep It Real!

P.S. - This is the 96th post of my blog since its inception in May of 2009. Stay tuned for a new look beginning with the centennial post in the very near future!

A Tribute to Animals I've Devoured

2010-10-01T13:45:00.003-05:00

Tonight for dinner, I'm having something I've never had before: javelina. I have to admit I'd never heard of what that was until I was a teenager. But it wasn't until the most recent visit of Leni's parents (or perhaps the one before?) that I had access to any. It's been sitting in my freezer for a while and last night I decided that it was time to give it a shot. I threw a javelina shoulder in the crock pot with some doctored BBQ sauce and we shall see how it goes.

It got me thinking about how many animals I've eaten in normal life, my travels, and now in being married to a guy from a hunting family. Without further ado, I'd like to introduce everyone to the cast of characters that have graced my mouth:

Cow

Chicken

Too many species of fish to picture

Shrimp

Crab

Crawfish

Lobster

Squid

Abalone

Scallop

Clam

Elk

Deer

Buffalo

Ostrich

Alligator

Frog

Feral Pig

Farm Pig

Squirrel

Raccoon

Opossum

Rabbit

Dove

Quail

Turkey

Lamb

and of course, after 29 years of eating, to be added to the list tonight:

Javelina

A huge thanks goes out to these guys in the photos above!

Keep It Real!

"I Love My Life!"

2010-09-28T15:10:00.002-05:00

The title of this blog post is a direct from Leni this past weekend. I can't say I blame him.

It started out with a 4 day visit during the week before from Janelle, my best friend.

Maggie and Janelle on Sandia Peak outside Albuquerque

Janelle is from Virginia and the year 2010 has brought her to Los Alamos twice, a fact for which I am very grateful! The first time was in the winter when she got to see northern New Mexico under a beautiful blanket of snow. This time, she got to see what was hidden under the snow back in February. We definitely took advantage of the nice weather and went for several hikes and enjoyed the scenery that Los Alamos has to offer:

Janelle in Walnut Canyon with the dogs

We capped off Janelle's visit with an evening in Albuquerque with Nick and Claire which was very nice. The next morning, Janelle and I hopped onto the Sandia Tramway to head up to the peak for a couple hours. This tramway, by the way, is the longest in the world at over 2 miles long!

After dropping Janelle off at the airport (boo!), I high-tailed it back to Los Alamos. The church needed some final sprucing in preparation for an ordination that was to be held there that evening. Our wonderful deacon, Diane, was to be ordained to the priesthood!

The service was beautiful and special for me since I hadn't been to an ordination before. If you've never been to one, I highly recommend snagging a seat at one. Even if it is for someone you don't know, it's still phenomenal. Leni and I were both asked to take part in the service and it was a tremendous honor....not to mention a fabulous front row seat!

Saturday found me relaxing around the house for the most part and Leni got into some work on his truck down in the garage. In the late afternoon, we made the 15 minute drive up to the ski hill the looks over the city, Pajarito Mountain. It was hosting Ullr Fest, their version of Oktoberfest. The weather was gorgeous, the beer was cold, and the music was hoppin'. Later that evening, we headed over to some friends' house for some dinner followed by an episode of Connections. Nerdy friends of mine might consider checking this old BBC show out. Skip the first episode, but I think you'll enjoy the others.

Sunday was spent at church....almost all day! There was the regular 10:30 AM service followed by a church-wide baby shower for one of our wonderful priests who is expecting a son in November. We got home in time to rest for just a bit before having to head back for a contemporary worship service for which Leni runs the projection for lyrics.

The one downer of the weekend (that term, in this case, is used the the broadest of senses) was the big Packers vs Bears game. For the second year in a row, friend Tonia and I had a bet going. If the Packers won, she would have to put their logo up as her profile picture on facebook. The reverse would be true for me if the Bears won. It was a very close score for the entire game but unfortunately, the only score that counts is the one at the end of the 4th quarter. The Bears won by the skin of their teeth in the last moments of the game. As promised, their logo is on my facebook profile. I'm not going to lie...it hurts. Perhaps the opportunity to post some Packer love here may help:

It was on this day before this unfortunate loss that Leni proclaimed his love of life. The Packer win on Monday would have been really nice but in the end, it doesn't matter. I can't help but be thankful, especially remembering times in the past (and sometimes recent past!) when I couldn't have uttered those words with even a shred of honesty. I pray that you too may look on your life with the same excitement and thankfulness.

Keep It Real!

Summer 2010 in Numbers

2010-09-22T09:30:00.018-05:00

Today marks the autumnal equinox. School has long been back in session, the summer vacations have come to a close, and Fall is here! Fall is my favorite season, and the only that I haven't experienced here in Los Alamos. I love the color change, the cooler temperatures, and wearing jeans and fleece vests. That being said, it is sad to finally say "good bye" to Summer 2010. Below is an ode to the summer....a recollection in numbers:

0 Payments left on my 2008 Toyota Corolla
1 Family reunions attended
1 Houses purchased
2 Nights it was uncomfortably hot in said house
2 Weddings attended

2 Mountains summited, exceeding 14,000 feet in elevation
2 Live stage productions seen
3 Four-wheeling trips in the 4runner
3 Times our tent was pitched
4 Parents visiting at one time
4 Free weekends with no plans
6 Friday night concerts attended
8 States driven through

8 Max amount of dogs hosted at our house at once
13 Weekends during which we had plans

14 Craigslist deals brokered
23 Blog posts made

27 Friends visited
60 Pounds of beef purchased from an organic farm
153 Episodes of Gilmore Girls watched on DVD

Keep It Real!

I Do Not Like Green Eggs and Ham!

2010-09-18T12:03:00.002-05:00

Last night, Leni and I took in our first show at the Los Alamos Little Theater. As its name may suggest, this is a community theater that seems to put on a new show every other month or so (on average). I'd been seeing advertisements for shows ever since we moved here (now 9 months ago!). Several members of our church are active in the theater and my interest had been piqued just enough that I wanted to see what it was all about. It's a pretty sweet little deal: $12 a head to see a good show put on by community members. And when you know they actors personally, it only adds to the experience!

On stage this weekend was Seussical the Musical. I'd heard about this play a couple years back and had always heard good things. It had a stint on Broadway about 10 years ago but is doing much better now with touring productions and in regional and community theaters like the Los Alamos Little Theater.

The show was quite entertaining. We did learn that if you want a decent seat, you need to show up more than 10 minutes ahead of time. Lesson learned. As you might imagine, the show is a conglomeration of several of Dr. Seuss' books although the main plot is mostly a combination of Horton Hears a Who and Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories. Narrating the story and playing different roles throughout the show, of course, is the Cat in the Hat. Although I wasn't completely familiar with all of his works, other great Seuss stories cleverly infused into the plot include:

Horton Hatches the Egg
Green Eggs and Ham
I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Hunches in Bunches
McElligot's Pool
If I Ran the Circus
The Lorax
One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish
Oh, The Places You'll Go
Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?
The Sneeches and Other Stories
Oh, The Thinks You Can Think!
The Butter Battle Book

The actors were great and the songs catchy. I found the set and costumes to be very creative, especially given the fact that the budget was, no doubt, a fraction of what the Broadway production had to work with. I'd like to think that Theodor Geisel himself, otherwise known to most as author, Dr. Seuss, would have enjoyed the show and been proud of all done by those who worked to create it after his death in 1991.

Congratulations, Los Alamos Little Theater! See you at your next show!

Keep It Real!

Trip Report: Blanca Peak

2010-09-12T22:50:00.013-05:00

This past weekend, Leni and I had planned to attempt summiting another 14er in southern Colorado. Along for the ride this time were our friends, Shawn and Sandra, from right here in Los Alamos.

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When Friday morning hit, we loaded up the truck with all of our gear and the dogs:

Back of truck taken from front seat

The target: Blanca Peak. Blanca is one of three 14ers in a large chunk of rock that shoots up from the southern Colorado plains, just 15 miles from Alamosa (roughly 3 hours from our home in Los Alamos). Here's a picture of the rock chunk, officially referred to as the Blanca Massif, as taken from Alamosa:

Peaks from left to right: Ellingwood, Blanca, and Little Bear

This particular 14er was selected by Leni more for its access than the actual hike itself. From Colorado State Highway 150, the access to all 3 14ers begins with a dirt/rock road called Como Lake Road. This is at roughly 8,000 feet.

Como Lake, for your reference, is a small but beautiful lake up the mountains at about 12,000 feet. The road is just over 5 miles long and treacherously rocky. It is generally accepted that your typical 2WD vehicle will get about a mile up the road before having to park and walk the rest of the way to Como. A stock 4WD vehcile can get farther, to about 3 miles and 10,200 feet. Only heavily modified 4WD vehicles, like ours, have a snowball's chance in you-know-where to make it up to the lake. If you know anything about my husband, you know that this challenge was quite possibly more motivating than a shot at summiting the peak at 14,345. The idea of conquering the Como Lake Road was the reasoning behind the selection of Blanca.

We got to the trailhead between 3 and 4pm. I wasn't watching the clock very closely on this trip. As we started up, the road was littered with cars that had stopped and parked in order to avoid damage or breaking down. Very quickly, it become rocky and bumpy, but the evergreen trees and aspens were beautiful.

The farther up we got, the fewer and farther between the parked cars were. Fast approaching were the 3 major obstacles that we'd read about online and seen video of: Jaws 1, Jaws 2, and Jaws 3. These were what kept most vehicles from completing the drive to Como.

Jaws 1 was the lowest but the obstacle where we spent the most time. On the first try over, our 4runner was high-centered with a popped front drive shaft (my terminology...want more info? Talk to Leni). Ultimately, Leni winched forward out of it and got the drive shaft back in place and could continue.

Upon his turn, Shawn had a little trouble in his truck too.

Prior to being winched out himself, Shawn got a hole in his transfer case and gear oil was leaking out. The fix involved duct tape and the understanding that he might not make it too much farther up the trail.

Next was Jaws 2. This was much less difficult but the scariest part of the trip for me. It was a couple rocks to get over. The big trouble was that to the left of the trail was a cliff. A wrong move could send a car and driver tumbling down the side of the mountain. Evidence, posted in the rock by the obstacle, of just such a deadly accident did not make the situation better for me:

A memorial plaque for a gentleman who died here back in 2002

Luckily, Leni made it through Jaws 2 with little to no trouble, thanks to some excellent spotting assistance from Shawn. Despite how stressful it was for me, I couldn't complain about the view:

Jaws 2 was just scary enough that Shawn wisely decided not to try to take his truck any higher up the road, given the damage his truck had already sustained. It was getting on into evening at this point. The new plan was for Leni and I to take our truck the rest of the way up to Como Lake. Once there, we would drop our gear and I would stay at the campsite with the dogs while Leni went back to Jaws 2 to retrieve Shawn, Sandra, their two dogs, and their gear. With the sun getting low on the horizon, time was of the essence.

Leni and I got to Jaws 3 and it was more difficult than Jaws 2 had been but less stressful because there was not near as dangerous the drop-off if one was to tip over. We were over with just a little rock stacking in just a couple attempts.

From Jaws 3, it was just a little farther to the lake. When we arrived, most of the campsites were taken by campers who had hiked in earlier in the day. Everyone was impressed that our truck had made it up that far.

As planned, Leni dropped the dogs, the gear and me at one of the last spots available and went back for Shawn and Sandra. There were just minutes of daylight left and my first order of business was to get a fire going. I had very little wood and there was not enough sunlight left to scavenge for any in the woods. But I got a little something going, hoping it would be enough to make larger when Leni got back with more wood from Shawn's truck. After the piddly fire was going, I set up the tent (as well as I could in the dark) and waited for everyone to arrive. It was probably an hour later when the crew got to camp. We unloaded, set up the rest of camp, had dinner, and got to bed after discussing what would be "the plan" for Saturday's ascent.

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When Leni and I hiked Mt. Lindsey earlier in the summer, we had a 5:30 AM departure because of the elevation and mileage we had to put behind us. But having driven up as far as 12,000 the day before, this particular Saturday's departure needed not to be so early. We decided that we'd let the first light wake us and then get on the trail as soon as possible after. When the sun rose, we got up, ate some breakfast, got our packs and dogs ready, and got on the trail. It was very cold (probably right at or just below freezing) but we were well-equipped.

Just as the drive up had been the day before, the trail we hiked was quite rocky. Within the first 15 or 20 minutes, we got our first close up view of Ellingwood and the saddle leading up to Blanca (right of Ellingwood), which was not yet visible.

Not too much farther up the trail was a beautiful waterfall:

Sandra and Shawn with dogs, Jack and Heidi

When we did Mt. Lindsey in July, it was mostly dirt trail with 2 prominent scree fields. Blanca, however, was 99% scree field, which began at the waterfall, as you can see in the photo above. Different from Mt. Lindsey, however, was the slope. Most times, the steepness was much more tolerable than Lindsey had been for me. I could hike for up to a half hour at times before needing a break whereas on Lindsey, there were times when breaks were required after every few steps.

Above Como Lake, there were 4 or 5 other smaller alpine lakes as we rose higher and higher into the stepped basins. They were beautiful and had very clear water.

Looking back down on the lakes

Continuing the hike onward and upward

After about 2 hours or so, the trail was steepening and approaching the saddle between Blanca and Ellingwood. This was where hikers destined for different peaks parted ways. The third peak in the massif, Little Bear, is a tougher hike It is actually a technical climb and accessed differenly. www.14ers.com has rated it as the 3rd most difficult 14er in the country. I digress. It is extremely common for hikers to summit Blanca or Ellingwood and then traverse through the saddle to bag the other one in the same day with little to no trouble. The four of us had expressed interest in doing so but didn't want to push oursevles too much and then let ourselves down if we later decided not to do both. So the plan instead was to summit Blanca (because if you are only going to get one, it might as well be the highest!) and then decide at that point whether or not to go for Ellingwood.

By the time we got to the point just below the Blanca summit, the dogs were struggling. The terrain was getting steeper as well.

Although we had taken their packs off them to make things easier, it was clear that the dogs were reaching their limits. Looking ahead to the Blanca summit, there was going to be a small amount of legit climbing (as opposed to hiking) involved so we decided that it was safest to prevent the dogs from going any higher. We left our two with Shawn and Sandra and Leni and I proceeded to the summit alone.

Us on the summit with the Iron Nipple (left) and Mt. Lindsey (right) behind us

After a few minutes on the summit and signing the register, we climbed back down to hold onto the dogs so that Sandra and Shawn could make their way to and from the summit.

At this point, we decided that, given the broken toenails and split paw pads of the dogs, our bid for Ellingwood was not a good idea. No one regretted it and it was nice to make the decision ourselves before things got worse. Part of me was relieved because the traverse over to Ellingwood from Blanca looked rough.

Check out that knife-edge ridge on Ellingwood!

Blanca actually had a similar knife-edge ridge that we got somewhat close to on the way down. Keeping the dogs away from it was a constant battle. The journey down was somewhat uneventful although I think we may have taken a couple more breaks. Those scree fields wreck havoc on the body in both directions but especially while going down. We all needed the breaks, dogs included!

Sierra and Lucy resting with Jack back behind them

Leni pointing back toward Blanca Peak

After one more look back at Blanca, we pressed on back down the trail and before long, it was out of site. We again passed those beautiful lakes. Since so much of the trail was scree, the lakes were a welcomed landmark and reminder of how close we were getting back to our tents.

We returned to our campsite about 3:30 PM and settled down for a little rest before thinking about dinner.

Beautiful spot to camp

We enjoyed a dinner of tacos and some time around the fire for a couple hours before turning in to bed.

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On Sunday morning, we got up, had breakfast and packed up. The goal was to get all the gear from both couples into our 4runner so that we could make one trip down to Jaws 2 to retrieve Shawn's truck. Mission accomplished! All the gear fit and Leni drove the mile (or so) down while Shawn, Sandra, and I walked with the dogs. Since the trail was rough and rocky, we were always close to each other due to the fact that the truck couldn't move too swiftly. We arrived at Jaws 2, got over it, and transfered Shawn and Sandra's stuff into their truck and continued down the trail. Knowing the trouble it had caused on Friday, we were extra careful with the routes we selected in traversing over Jaws 1 and everyone made it over without incident.

The damage to Shawn's transfer case was such that he could complete this slow drive down the Como Lake Road but would not be able to get up to highway speed once back on paved roads. This being the case, we left them at the bottom of the dirt road and Leni and I drove the 15 miles into Alamosa for some needed items to fix the truck. Or at least fix it enough :) We made it back in about an hour and I joined Sandra in sitting to watch the guys work on the truck.

Shawn laying under and working on the truck

After 30 or 40 minutes, we were on the road with no trouble. We caravaned together most of the way home but got separated at some point with only about a half hour left to go in the drive. Sandra texted me later to let me know that they had gotten home safely with no leaks.

I don't have a desire to ever make an attempt on Little Bear but I would like to go back and try for Ellingwood. I won't take the dogs though. The terrain is far too harsh for their feet. I guess it is just another excuse to go back to the same area. We are so blessed to have such wonderful mountains so close to our home!

Scoreboard:

Maggie: 2 Attempted 14ers: 0

Keep It Real!

Dog Days of Summer

2010-09-08T09:59:00.000-05:00

Summer has taken on a new meaning for me this year. Perhaps not a new meaning altogether so much as new parameters. In the past, the "end" of summer was dictated by this:

and this:

By these definitions, Labor Day was it. By the time this long weekend hit, I was well out of one thing and into the next, bringing an end to my summer and a beginning to the fall. This year, it isn't quite that way. Labor Day Weekend is over (more on that in my next post) but it doesn't feel like an end at all. I'm thinking I'll go with the pagans this year and define my summer's end by the Autumnal Equinox later this month. Still plenty of adventures to be had between now and then :)

Which brings us to the beginning portion of this blog post's title phrase: dogs. I was going through some files on my camera's memory card earlier this evening in an effort to either save everything onto my laptop or delete it. I ran across a couple videos I took of the pooches and couldn't help but laugh a little. It reminded me of how thankful I am for them. They can be so taxing. Paying for food and vet bills, refilling the holes they dig in the yard, etc. But at the end of the day, they are worth it. You can't put a price on the joy they bring us, be it while we are playing outside with them or just chillin' at home. For you dog lovers out there (and even for those who are not!) here are some of the pictures and videos that reminded me of this:

Sierra has taken lately to sleeping in the back of our closet....weirdo

Below is a video of how excited Lucy was to see me when I woke up one morning. She'd already been fed and let out by Leni so it's legit excitement for me, not the morning routine :)

Regardless of the excitement portrayed in the video above, the dogs can be big snobs. Like when they hang out with my brother's dog, Dottie. While they do get along with her and play with her sometimes, they can be huge snobs toward Dottie. When she wants to play or pal around, they tend to be "too cool for school" toward her, as shown in the next video:

Okay thanks for hanging in there with the annoying dog stuff. I don't do it often so be thankful.

Here's to another 2 weeks of summer before the equinox. Let's see what we can squeeze in!

Keep It Real!