Diego

Our little Diego, or Diegs for short. He follows us around the house and is always looking for some snuggle time. There is no better seat than one of our laps.

Ok, so if the sun is bright and warm we get tossed aside for that. He loves to soak up the sun everyday. Over the space of some hours he'll rotate and sun up each side of his body. I've never known a cat to sleep on it's back before Diego. So fun!

SNOW!!

Today was our first big snow and we had so much fun.  I think we have about four inches so far and we might have another four by morning.

 

 

Christmas 2010

This year K and I are having a low key Christmas. We're going to stay home and enjoy friends and Christmas in our new surroundings. It looks like it's not shaping up to be a white Christmas in Fort Collins.  Since the weather people can't seem to get more than the temperature right, I'm hoping it dumps soon and Christmas would be the perfect time for that.

Last year K and I spent Christmas with our families in Socal and it was one of the most memorable Christmases I've had. We rented a house in a small island community that goes all out for Christmas. There are awards for the best and brightest decorated homes. We spoke to one home owner and he said that his December electric bill is equal to the other eleven months. We are talking about Christmas Vacation home lights and decorations.  The decorations often extended out onto the boat dock in front of the houses.

One of the highlights of our stay was seeing the local Harley Davidson club riding onto and across the island.  Everyone was dressed up as either Santa, Mrs. Claus or an Elf.  It was an amazing site.

I can't wait to see what kind of photos this Christmas brings.

Christmas color week...white

Santa was not there for pictures yet but his mailbox was full.

A pizza quest for a pizza freak.

The path to being a self described "foodie" started with baking bread.  I've been following master baker Peter Reinhart for the past few years.  He started a bakery in Santa Rosa, California in the early 90's when artisan baking was completely unheard of in the US.  His little bakery changed his life and he eventually became an culinary instructor at Johnson & Wales University.  After years of baking bread, Peter became obsessed with pizza and stopped teaching to go on a quest to find the perfect pizza.

That quest started with a world tour and a book called American Pie.  From that book Peter continued to meet new people in the pizza world and expand his pizza baking knowledge.  Pizza Quest was created to help home pizzaioli as well as inspire new home bakers' to try baking their own pizza.  Pizza Quest has only been active for a week but it already has the support of Bel Gioioso cheese company and Forno Bravo pizza ovens.  Pizza Quest contributors include master pizzaioli Tony Gemignani who owns one of the top ten pizzerias in the US.

If you can't already tell, I'm very excited about this website and I can't wait to watch it grow.

Christmas color week - Red

Today's color is red but it was not a good day for outdoor photos.

Today's red photo is a little shout out to Todd Wells.  He's been a pro mountain bike racer for years and he ends his racing schedule each year with a bit of cyclocross racing. This past weekend he rebounded from a bad crash at the USGP in Fort Collins in November to win his third US Pro Cyclocross Championship in Bend OR on Sunday.  He's also a Colorado resident, so what's not to like.

Christmas color week - Gold/Yellow

Today's assigned color was a lot easier since almost everything is a goldish/yellow color right now.  It kind of reminds me of my old home state in the summer.

For more Christmas color week you can head over to Clarity and Grey.

Christmas color week - Green

I've often heard K talk about color week before and I figured it would be fun to try my own version of Christmas color week over at Clarity and Grey.  I needed some inspiration for this blog of mine and so I was off.

I was having a hard time finding something that was green and cool around town yesterday.  I rode over to a few places that I thought would have something but the scenes didn't look right and I wasn't feeling inspired.  Frustrated and about to give up on color week before it even began, I found this a block from our house.  Funny how that works sometimes.

Blinded by the Light

As part of the birthday celebrations we got decked out in our finest owned and borrowed 80's gear.  Don't we look like we belonged in a cheesy 80's video?

Maybe we are just ahead of our time with loads of 80's fashion making a come back.

The night was capped off with an excellent round of 80's charades and music videos.

Oh, and here's the birthday boy.

SSSSSHHHHHHHHH.......beeeee very, very quite!

This weekend K and I got to sneak up on one of my best friends for his super secret 30th birthday party. The whole weekend was so much fun!

After getting snow play kicked off in an empty lot near the house we rented, the party moved to the back of the house.  Sledding in the empty lot was slow in the three to four feet of fresh powder.  Sledding behind the house was steep and fast on the rocky river bank.

One trip down the slope and we were all hooked. After a little course grooming and the sled run had three bumps and a berm to stop the sledder before a splash landing in the river.  A little more course grooming and the berm was now a jump. Now we are talking.

The sled was a two seat kids' sled and it was a bit short for these "adults." The sled went for a swim twice, but it's all part of the fun, right? Well the second time turned out to be a watery grave for our little sled.

Some calm in my day

This afternoon I needed a break and headed out to see what kind of photo opportunities I could find. Not far from our house is one of the many city parks in Fort Collins. This park is right on the Poudre River and is one of the main swim spots during the summer. This time of year the park is almost deserted and I thought the local wildlife would be more visible. It turned out to be a slow day for local wildlife, but this scene on the river more than made up for it.

As I was about to leave a fly fisherman showed up. I thought he would make a great addition to the above photo, so I waited for him to get in. What do you think?  I'm starting to realize that we live in one of the best fly fishing places in the US. The Poudre and the Big Thompson rivers always have people fishing whenever we head up to Rocky Mountain National Park.

Pieces of Pumpkin

Over the last few weeks we have found several pieces of pumpkin scattered about the yard.  Even the two on our front porch had holes chewed into them.  At first I thought it was one of our neighborhood raccoons or red fox.  I couldn't quite wrap my mind around what was carting the squash into our yard.  This afternoon in the middle of doing some yard work I noticed another huge chunk on some cardboard.  I went inside to point out the pumpkin to K and there it was.  This huge squirrel was chomping away on the pumpkin.  I grabbed the camera and snuck out to get a picture.  After I got a few clicks the squirrel grabbed the chunk and jumped onto the roof of our neighbor's garage.

The Old Town Fountain

This is what happens to the fountain after two straight nights of single digit temps.  The right side was completely iced over.  The left side was still somewhat free because of the greater flow of water.  The pool of water was almost completely frozen except for the spot on the left side where the water was falling into it.

Thanksgiving Day Run

Yesterday was the Fort Collins annual Thanksgiving Day run.  Around town it is casually known as the Turkey Trot.  The newspaper is stating that three thousand people ran or walked the four mile loop.

The turkey trot is a fun run but some people clearly take this fun run seriously.  The eight hundred dollars for first place brings out some people's competitive edge.  By looking at the winner of the men's race you'd think it was a nice warm day, but you'd be wrong.  It was a whopping eight degrees when I got up at seven thirty and by race start at nine is was still only fourteen degrees.

After the first thirty or so people the turkey trot turns back into a fun run.  People with kids in strollers, dogs, and costumes.

Click here for more images for the Thanksgiving Day run.

Trains

We live in one of the best places to see trains.  If you're into that sort of thing.  There is no shortage of places to go within our town to see them at any giving time of day or night.  More on the modern trains in another post.

Just north of us in Cheyenne WY the Union Pacific Railroad restores and keeps their historic fleet of locomotives.  Shortly after we arrived I made an early am trip up there to catch the 844 steaming up for its trip to Portland OR.  The 844 is a 4-8-4 steam locomotive that was built by the American Locomative Company in 1944.  It was the last steam locomotive that the Union Pacific bought and it is the only steam locomotive to remain in active service.  All other active steam locomotives today have been retired at one point or another.

About a month later Union Pacific's newly restored 3985 Challenger pulled the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus train from Cheyenne to Denver.  The 3985 is an articulated 4-6-6-4 steam locomotive built by the American Locomotive Company.  It is the largest locomotive ever built in the US by any company.  The Union Pacific Steam crew spent over two years replacing and restoring every inch of the locomotive after some major mechanical issues.  This was also another early morning trip but you would have never known it by the number of people along the tracks.  People young and old were parked on the highway, dirt services roads, and standing in city streets watching.

It was great to see these active pieces of history and not just look at a static display in a museum.  You'll be amazed if you ever have an opportunity to see one of these giants in action.

One of these is not like the other

I found these two hanging outside a local coffee shop yesterday.  I really liked the contrast in size and winter preparedness.  Do those jackets really work for dogs or do they just make the owners feel better?

A new tradition

Ever since K and I moved to our new town, we have made a trip up the Rocky Mountain National Park on or near the first of every month.  Each time we go we see something new and amazing.  During our October trip we came across this collection of leaves.  It's pretty amazing that each one of these leaves got stuck in the water with the stem pointed outward.  How does something like this happen?  Scenes like this remind me that I need to pay attention to my surroundings and notice what is out there.

UGSP Race #6 in Fort Collins

Sunday's race was a bit dryer and therefore a bit faster than the mudfest on Saturday.  Well, I guess it was only dryer for the pro's later in the day.  When I got to the race people where crashing left and right in the semi-frozen mud at the bottom of the fly over bridge.

The highlight of Sunday was the New Belgium sponsored costume cruiser race that ended in their beer garden.  Costume ideas varied from bike to bike.  I don't think this town can have an event without some sort of costume parade.

Sunday's races turned into a cyclocross demonstration by both the men's and women's US Champions.  Tim Johnson and Katie Compton showed excellent form by winning their races by over a minute.  Both were virtually untouchable.  We'll call it cyclocross 101.

More photos from the weekend can be found here.

USGP Race #5 in Fort Collins

My home town was lucky enough to be hosting the fifth and sixth races in a four town cyclocross race series called the USGP.

It looked like our races were going to be dry and very dusty as we hadn't seen a flake of snow or a drop of rain in a long time.  The race director called it in a pre race meeting and almost on cue the rain and snow arrived.  He said he fully expected it to be a snowy race and mother nature didn't let him down. 

Wednesday it rained almost all day and that night it snowed two inches of so.  After a couple days of melting and refreezing the course was a mud pit to say the least. 

I had no idea that portable hot tubs existed but someone donated one for the race.  It was probably the best seat in the house.  The trailer was parker right next to the course and the hot tub was fired up for both days of the race.  I know you want one in your driveway for your next get together.

Anyways, it couldn't have been a better day for some cross racing and the mud only made it better.