aj's birthday

aj - for all of you that don't know here - she is a wonderful female
if you know her you know what i mean....

on thursday nite the ladies of spirit ways threw a cake and punch party for her to give gifts and celebrate her.....spiritways is the metaphysical shop where she works.....the photos are a little quriky..........






i have spent quite few birthday's with aj.
in fact the first birthday we spent together was hers (not to be corny) we both got tattoos. we both got symbols that look as if there painted on - hers on her back and mine on my breast bone....


aj and i met at 849 washington street house.
i met her right after my mother passed away and aj was starting to realize that her father was not going to beat cancer the second time. because of these situations she and i gave a lot of understanding to one another about learning the stages of mourning. we cheered one another up by becoming great playmates - one of the reason i love her

i lived on the entire first floor and she had the whole basement apartment. there were three other apartments in the house only one of which we were super friendly with - rob and kelley.....they've gone their own ways now.

one evening aj had her niece in town and we promised to wake her up after we got back from being "out". we decided to go back to the house wake up cj and build an entire pillow & sheet fort that would cover the apartment, i seem to remember convincing a few other people we knew to come and join us in our well thought out plan

aj and i lived in that house for a few years and only moved out because of the two other horrible apartments and the slum lord....boy oh boy was that house fun when those three problems weren't around. we then went to 2950 humbolt and started living with other roommates. bad idea.

but now she and i have passed 6 or 7 birthday's together and i suspect that there will be quite a few more in store.........

the week of movies

for some reason this week (and it's only thursday) i have seen three movies - sam has been to all of them with me!

last friday some of us were going to go to the spike&mikes sick and twisted animation festival....but i wanted to see it with gio and he was covering for tyrone (doing a double! noon to one am!) and the rest of the participants of the evening couldn't get it together - including me

monday:
labor day.
i was busy at work - we are one of the only coffeeshops open on holidays all of them but christmas day. 364!
sam and i decided to go to the dollar theater and see the latest harry potter. much better than the last one.

tuesday:
brasilian independents day
gio and i celebrated by a bbq and beers in the afternoon while waiting for the ups guy to deliver gio's new doll.




we met up with sam while waiting for nils to get off work at armasan.... then off to the movies




when the movie got out gio and i stopped by craig thomas' new art gallery "ism". we chatted for awhile - craig told us he was waiting for a lady he'd just met to come back (they were going to hand out) and in walks a customer of ours maureen....that girl gets around town! she hangs in good spots.

we got home and had a few cocktails. gio pulled out his new guitar from mark and played while i did some yoga/acrobatic moves and took picture....

i love evenings like that!

wednesday:
just pain ol'wednesday
work again.....work.work.work.work......


then another movie! sam and i went to see ju on.

it's a horror flick -i have to say i was nervous going in thinking i was going to pee my pants at some point. no pee to report. not to scary but good.

the hard decisions

i went into work on Friday to see gio for a moment and i walked out with a kitten.



deep breath…..he’s so cute. yesterday i thought that i didn’t want the responsibility of another cat….



i do want a playmate for seven but i wasn’t sure that new guy is it?









today? I think he’s getting more used to all of us. seven seems to really like him – he walks around calling for him when he can’t find new guy (yes that’s his name for now).



last night they both slept in between gio & i.
i think they like each other,

some problems with new guy:

he screams when he meows

he tries to eat off the dinner table (i had to put him where bad kitties go! the bathroom)

he tries to get out of the house a lot

he’s already destroyed a plant


some good things about new guy:

cute

purrrrs

plays with seven

is stating to attach to us?

And right now he’s asleep in my lap looking so cute



gio seems ok with him (he’s been pointing out how much seven likes him)



nils thinks he should be with a family with kids.



sam seems not to mind if we keep him.



I’m not sure what I think. i am mixed with my feelings….?

empty handed again...

well, wednesday started out beautiful! sunny & in the 70's. gio and i were both in high spirits and we had some fun plans for the day after we took care of errands and the gym.....

we went to boulder to visit my friend mark joseph and his daughter cassidy joseph.



the plan:
1. lunch at lucile's (gio and i love this restaurant for it's sweet potato & crab bisque...and it's the resturant we went to for our first date...oooohhhh)
2. go fishing at mark josephs favorite fishin' spot



when i talked to mark joseph before we headed up he had mentioned that the news said that it was supposed to rain all afternoon. if you haven't lived in colorado, or that you might live on the east coast, this might seem like it could be a true statement, for as i am a nine year veteran of the high dessert prairie "raining all afternoon" usually means: it will rain for maybe an hour and then move on....



we got to the fishing spot around two o'clock and had to leave by four. fishing called due to heavy rain, thunder and lightening.

but we had two hours to try to catch a fish. now there is photographic proof of sizeable fish being caught at this lake...before we left mjs house he showed us a photo of a fish about the size of the length of his chest.....

as you can see the only fish caught was ....a little smaller?



casidy joseph took me on a tour around the edge of the lake to show me all the areas i shouldn't fish - due to large rocks where you could snag your line.....shallow areas where you could snag your line.....outlets that were too small for two people to fish at......etc....she very cautious about snagging her line....cass is funny





we met back up with the men after we finished our circuit. it was raining so hard that we all got under a shelter and mark joseph and gio keep fishing for a bit more......

then there was the trip home. the half hour trip turned into one hour and fifteen minutes of driving hell.... water was everywhere falling from the sky and splashing up from all the puddles....skidding all over the road and idiots.....the news when we got home was saying two to four inches an hour and the storm had already been going on for five hours....we made it home safe and wet....hot bath, tea, a pizza pie from around the corner and "family guy" made the evening great!!

when i got back to my house i couldn't figure out what smelt and why there were books and pieces of fabric hanging all around? oh, the basement flooded! right now i'm airing out the house, oh well..... i'm still in great spirits!!!

progress is being made

i went down south last week to visit great friend of mine.... inspirations for being creative and motivated arise after (and or during) a visit with her.

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Amanda used to own a super cafe - the pony espresso - and i work there with her. i learned a lot more about all culinary aspects in the time i worked there.
the day would start and amanda would just imagine what would be great to bake that day.....key lime pie with a key lime short bread crust? did want to learn something new? brioche?
she would take me to other restaurants to taste their dishes and we would try to figure out what went in and how to make them so we could make them our own. and that was just one aspect of our friendship.







so i went to arizona in august.....i know.....107degress everyday!!! but it is true what they say about the dry heat.....



i got to meet amanda fabulous new husband sammy - some how he escaped my camera.....he is a wonderful husband for her they love each other very much... i am glad to see her so happy!!!
our time together mainly consisted of drinking ice tea and chatting (giggling) and cooking fabulous meals.... i made my first soufflé!! a chocolate and a cheese soufflé. i made the cheese soufflé for the sunday nite dinner ...for gio...

the flight to get to az went down towards the san louis valley and over the sand dunes area .... here's what it looks like from above....



oh, when i got home this morning my garden was a buzz with bees!



yesterday i spent all day cleaning the house and painting my room.... it's half way done, i got two walls painted and the ugly blue trim painted most of the way to look like wood....
gio knows me too well - he asked me not to forget about my project and leave it half finished... to well .....xxoo

before.....


after....

life is too fast

the week started out strange...sam and i had nils and his sister johanna and a few others over for an ice cream sunday's and wine party! big hit with all of us....three bottles and a quart of ice cream later....







then on tuesday gio and i spent hours at a thrift store. that boy is fun anywhere! we later went out on a "date" to the merc to see one of gio's friend/old band mates (dale) sit in.... dale had to work late.....a great time was had by all



by thrusday i had a great visit from my brother-in-law darren!!!!!
i had a super day with darren we first went to lunch at dario's (italien/swiss) and then for an espresso at st.marks to see gio and then off to putt putt!!!!







i beat darren by two points! in your face canadian.xxoo