happy birthday to me

well january 9th has come. i am now 34.

my birthday this year was perfect.

a mixture of people i love and a tender boyfriend that helped me have a great time.



gio took me out to our favorite resturant for brunch. gio had to get zakk to work his shift so we could spend the day together......he's so sweet



i wanted to wear a crown for my birthday.....but i don't have one. but harlen gave me this decortive comb instead......



gio and i spent the afternoon relaxing and later walked downtown with sam, harlen and zakk to go out for "italien" food.....we even stopped by the old st.marks downtown that is now a bar....monarch? but my friend charles was tending bar.....one cocktail for all and then we were off to dinner....





i am not sure about everyone else but i think i drank a little too much?



thank you all for celebrating with me!!!!

happy new year!!!

this last year leaves me feeling not older but better adjusted?

seven more days to my birthday....and unlike my some body i know i don't care about what age i am turning.
i don't think - other than twenty-five - that i have ever worried about my age....this also might explain why i don't care that i am going to be a thirty-four year old barrista. well, i do care. i would rather be doing this for myself if this is what i am going to be doing.
hopefully when we are in the house i can start doing upholstery again. it's hard but good money. over the last year i have turned down several jobs that i could've made a nice sum from...but here we go!!!

another thought that has been running through my head is the end of 1717 house. sam and trish are going to keep the house, and the tradition of temp roommate....let me see who has lived here....my brother in law, darren, was first- he was super great to have. then there was ungreatful charlie - he was a friend at the time but i want nothing to do with him now - jerk.
i think after charlie was the first time that trish and i lived alone. the alone time only lasted one or two months. next was nils upstairs and my dad was here after cancer treatment was in the foriegn exhange student room.
then skippy micheal came back and with skippy m came friends and more friends - i think chris was on the sofa for a few months....this house has been full and i can't say that i have loved it the whole time.
sam moved in last january. sam was going to be a temp roomy but we loved living with him so he's been here ever since....nils is back again.....he leaves for europe in march.

zakk and harlen have been back for the past few weeks. they are in between farming and looking for their own farm to buy (along with harlens mom). they were going to stay thru the hoildays but harlens grandmother seems to be slipping away so they are staying because they fear that a funeral is coming.

here's a photo of harlen and zakk at bump and grind



and here's sam's inner child



last week sam and i took a trip to boulder to visit my insurance agent - i still have the same agent from when i worked in boulder - we went to lunch at lucilles - a cajun breakfast lunch dinner - after we walked around for a bit....here's a few photos....









there are seven more shopping days until my birthday.
there are twelve more days until closing on the house......oh boy!

the house. the whole thing makes me nervous. i just want both of us to be very happy living there....and creative! everyone make a wish!!! happy new years!!!!

a better view

well it looks as if the search is over!
3545 lipan street denver colorado seem to be our newest address!!!

i still have a few more hoops to jump through but it seems to be in the bag.

yesterday was inspection day.
i hung out with the inspector brothers -ron and craige- super great guys! they said the property will last us another one hundred and thirteen years.
i also had a sewer inspection to check out the pipes - pipes got an A as well.

infact noreen (my agent) told me last night that she was suprised how little was wrong with the place. we are going to ask for a new garage door and door opener, the current door is flimsy cracked plastic and the opener only gets the door two feet off the ground.

i really have to thank the jesuits for beings so kind to the house. they put a lot of love and energy into fixing up the place. and brother al especially for all of his hard work on the grounds. he planted lilacs, chinese cherry trees, iris, roses, snap dragons, tulips, too many things to name. i will have some great established plants come spring time.

brother al







court yard - just you wait and see what gio and i do here!






dad/guest house


noreen




thanks agian to the jesuits! i have a washer/dryer again!!!


home sweet home

dc boys party

i wish i had gotten a photo of rick.....

gio had a gig last friday. the only thing he knew about it is that it was a christmas party and it was in a studio. recording studio? design studio?

all of the above sounded good to me. sam was a little nervous at first because of the xmass party theme - sam's a teacher and all the christmas parties he's supposed to attend really suck it.
lame suburban women that have nothing good to say other than how much they all love bush.

back to the party:
well it turns out that i knew the host. the host is a customer from st marks that i've chatted with. his name is rick and he's from dc. infact he used to work the door and other duties and none other than the 930club. uh, what about that? he was the youngest person to work there. super cool!

the party was in his work loft above rock island. the band (gio with josh novak) sounded great. rick has letter presses and off set presses that he does some of his work off of.

photos follow. i got my camera back!!!!

my interest peaked

last thursday and friday i went out with noreen to look at investment properties. there was only one house that i liked but i didn't get to see the whole house....here are the pictures i took on friday.





the nieghbors look nice. a library and a church




this is the first apartment and my favorite one








this is the side entery for the upstairs apartment










over all this house has parts to it that i am looking for but. and i am feeling if there are any buts about it i should pass and keep on looking! wish me more luck! there is some property at 34th and franklin that i am going to look at this week so far. fixer upper. hummmm my dad will be here in late january? maybe i will have a big project for us to work on!!!!!

the first steps making my tummy ache

today was the first day of house hunting.

noreen - my agent - and i saw five place today.

1. the 1950's two level ranch. it had the amount of space inside that i would like. it had a one car garage and a huge yard. but 1950's? no character no charm. and a little out of our price range. huge yard!!!

2. 1895 victorian. well this was more like it. it has three units. two one bedrooms and a studio. small yard. no garage.

garage is so important to me. an in-law suite for dad. studio for me or gio. it's that extra room off the house that can be so cool fix into a new part of the house. no car shall be parked in my garage!!!

3. i don't even know what year the structure was built. the place looked as noreen said like a garage. i want a garage but not as my house.

4. 1890's victorian. super cute first and second level. basement is set up as seperate apartment. ugly! low ceilings no windows it's a dungeon for rent! but the rest of the house had huge closets. there is a garage but the back yard had been cemented into a large sloping parking lot. gio did think this super cool for his rc cars. but that would be the only good aspect of it.

5. early 1900's on firth ct. nasty is the only word for it! there was even a dead fly stuck to the inside of the door jam as we entered....water stained indoor outdoor gray carpet. grungy shower stall. all the walls were dripping some brown fluid. ohhhhhyucky. we didn't go past the first two rooms. fixer upper this was not. oh did i mention that they put vinyl siding up over brick? super yuck!

well tomarrow i am going to see four more properties. i figure that i will probably be looking for atleast three months. finding investment properties takes awhile there are a ton listed right now.... wish me luck!

thanksgiving and life around

my camera is still away to be fixed. no photo.

thanksgiving. it turned out great but what a whirlwind.

we started off planning the party for my house and a friend, erin, that has a larger house and a big turkey and a dish washing machine invited all of us to go to his place and join him.

erin is a southern boy from mississippi and very gracious. the table was full of hot steaming delicious food. everyone pitched in and brought plenty of food, wine and dessert!!

ooooh, i tried something new this year for dessert. i want to do the pumpkin classic but with a new twist: pumkin custard triffel with orange-crandberry marmalade soaked in dark rum and it turned out to be unbelievable! i should have made it a day ahead to soak more.....rumalishish

then for buy nothing day (friday) sam, eric and i took a trip up to hot sulfur springs to soak a bit. the drive was beautiful it was full of snow from berthound pass on passed winter park. it wasn't snowing on us at hot sulfur but the temperature didn't get over 22 degress/-5c. oh sooooo cold switching pools!!! we tried the newest pool with a little water fall, the water fall was hot but the pool was cooler and shallow! so we stayed put for hours in the big water fall pool. so relaxing.

as for denver.
it hasn't gotten over 27 degress in the past three days and the snow is stil coming. there have been rock/snow slides all around the state, the largest one happened inbetween vail to glenwood. the slide sent boulders down that took out one side of the highway and sent all traffic for the first day up 40. but denver looks so good under the blanket of snow that has fallen.

as for me!
i have been approved for a house loan! so the search begins!!!! i want to find a house that has been split into apartments. here comes the commune!!! i have so many ideas running around in my head for the place, well the back yard for now.....hot tub, wood burning sauna, in law suite, studio for upholstery even.......hopefully in the next few months i will be able to post a photo of my new house!!!!! let me ground my self .....aahhhhh

cold cold cold.....my toes are cold. i'm going to get back under the covers with a hot cup of tea.

see photos of thanksgiving on gio's site.

new boots and no camera!!!

tuesday was the day
i found the boots that i've been searching for
black
sleek
tall
no heels
hard to find
super cool
no photo

so i drew a picture....not actual size



alas my camera has a malfunction and has to be sent back to the manufacture for repairs....that's a whole other stupid problem.

if any one reading this knows me very well you should understand i've had the problem often and i never seem to change.

never remember where the "special place" is for my important things.
i have very many "special places". this time the special place was the box the camera came in with a special folder that the sales person stapled the receipt in......i didn't find it until yesterday.
i even had a duplicate receipt made by the store. it took a week to receive it.

well, no i have all my ducks in a row and i need to send off the camera to see if they will fix it............

i just can't sleep

november is here.
halloween is over.
four more years.

yesterday hands down was the saddest day that i've worked at st.marks.
people were coming in with puffy eyes from crying and long faces with deep sighs - i was one of them.
ohio.
ohio was the state that turned the tide to the republicans.
i hate ohio.
i think i hate most of america for being the red states. even colorado!!! we were red!!!!

what i don't understand is that we could all vote for renewable energy but we couldn't get all our asses in gear and elect someone other than bush?

i think i will not be able to sleep for awhile about this matter.

kerry? what a putts for conceding so quickly. should've been edwards as the candidate.
i yelled with others about this all day at work yesterday. i got home with a large bottle of wine to share with my roommates and proceeded to bitch and moan some more. and here i am at six thirty in the morning whining !!! i haven't even had a cup of tea yet....... ok enough.....

HALLOWEEN
the friday of halloween weekend a gang of us halloweeners went to a party hosted by the lovely bartendress of the thin man miss stephanie.
good lord did she have a lot of guests and liquor!
it was quite a good show of fellow costumed attendees at the party.

jocky men = fisher man gear, football players and some times dressed as ugly woman
bimboy girls = skimpy anything, angle, devil, eighties valley girl equipped with neon necklace
nerd men = some costume with deep meaning. "i am John J. Armstrong, now assistant director
of American prison operations in Iraq." sweet
and here's all of us

nils trying to make his way to hell faster


sam, he looks beautiful everyday of the year. babayaga


salior/frank sinatra gio and charlie chaplin nick. damn gio looks hot!!!


nils trying harder


mikey flander as once again panty hose ballon boy


gio's distrubed by my costum - ballerina clown


after this photo the camera went boom on the ground!!! hummmmmmmm?


and fun was had by all.......