Friday, December 31, 2010

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!




Thursday, December 30, 2010

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.

 

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

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.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

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.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

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.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

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.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

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.

Monday, December 6, 2010

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.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

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.