Where did the weekend go?

I left work a bit early on Friday to meet Jan at the Boulder Women's Care for one of our regularly scheduled appointments.  There is a team of doctor's that we see, and they want us to meet each one because you cant plan who will actually be on staff when you go in for delivery.  His little heart was fluttering away around 150 bpm.  Yesterday we drove down to Cherry Creek to look at fabric for the baby room; Jan is going to make a window treatment and we ended up going with a cool color scheme with a fun design...we will post pics once we get the treatment sewed and on the wall.  We were excited to grab a burger and a pint at the Cherry Cricket but because there was a special St. Paddy's day event going on they were not seating customers...bummer.  We settled for Goodtime's fast food and it was a total let down for me.  Beef is not on our list of things we eat often, so i was really looking for a tasty hearty burger washed down with a nice craft pint...anyways life goes on!

Awoke early this morning to get in a ride with John and Troy up in Lyons at Heil Ranch.  Our plan was to ride up Heil to Wild Turkey and then ride Picture Rock out and back.  Troy had to jet a little early and rode until his SS chain derailed twice on PR and John and I pushed on.  It turned into quite a ride; we got back to the sube 3.5 hours later!  After the ride, John and I met his fiancé Bhahvna at her old house to pick up her crib.  She was kind enough to let us borrow it until our boy out grows it.  Its still sitting in our office in pieces until I finish painting the nursery.  I put the first coat on it today and this new eco-friendly paint (no VOCs) is a little bit harder to work with.  It dries in about 20 minutes in the CO air and seems a bit thicker which makes it harder to apply.  Unfortunately we are painting over lemon yellow (i cant believe we survived that since we moved in 7 years ago!!) and I will need to apply a second coat sometime this week.  We are really happy with the first coat and cant wait to see the color without any light areas.

While we were decompressing this evening, dublin decided to break out his chew toy.  We love watching him problem solve this thing as you can see in the video; he rolls onto his back and grabs it with his paws.  Its hilarious!! 

2lbs 8oz and 1 bean

Thats what Tim instructed me to infuse into his ChocoRaspy Porter.  2lbs of frozen organic raspberries, 8 oz of wonderful raw chocolate and 1 split vanilla bean.  This picture is, of course, pre-transfer of the beer.  The beer smelled wonderful, a rich roasty character with a mellow hint of chocolate; its flavor was a little sweet because fermentation hadn't quite wrapped up yet...but it has a lot of character already and would have been a terrific porter in its own right.

So the weekend wasn't as much of a bust as i thought it would be; since our Fruita trip was nixed.  I got in another great ride on Sunday.  Parked  near the skate park on 30th and Arapaho and rode the Creek Path to the end, up the Link trail to Betasso for a few loops and then back to the car.  it was gorgeous!  i think it was in the mid 50's the entire time...

Quick stop to refuel at Bldg A for a half pint of Cask Hog Heaven.  Sitting on their patio in the sun reminded me how much i love spring and the warmer weather.  But the day was only half over!  When i got home, Jan was still at the Denver Bead Show, so i decided i would knock out the closet in Jr's room.  Check the before and after pictures on our Picassa Album (link on the right).  It was pretty easy to install the track system and the beauty of it is, is that you can change it up any time!  Next comes paint.

So we made the call yesterday to kill our Fruita trip.  Troy, Kris, John and I were pretty bummed but since the forecast was calling for crap with a 70% chance of shit we decided to hang tight until a bright sun shiny day (or three).   My cell rang at 8am this morning and i was much too lazy to answer, but i thank Troy for getting me out of bed to get some french toast and bacon going.  After breakfast, Kris and I decide that we should hit Hall Ranch before whitey was scheduled to arrive.  Jan was heading into Denver to shop the semi annual Denver Bead Show, so it was good timing.  We packed up the car, stopped in Longmont to grab his buddy Shannon and we were parked at OBs in no time.  We hit the road and ran into Troy heading back into town after finishing his am loop on Hall.  Bike Polo fest in Lyons??

We continued on and up the front side.  It was nice and quiet; i think we ran into only about 2-3 on their way down.  Trail is bone dry and its amazing how much it changes in between rides.  I felt pretty fit and it was nice to be riding the 29er and be on the dirt.  So much of my chamois time is spent  commuting on the SS or sitting in a spin class at work.  It was nice to be challenged technically once again.  It started to get a bit chilly on the loop and the flakes just started to fly as we descended.  Post ride Gordons was well deserved and friggen hit the spot!

  

Mommy's Home!

Jan returned today after spending time in Phoenix with her best friend. Dublin was pretty excited to have the whole family unit intact once again. Janis brought home a "little" gift from Amy, which is ironic, since she was out there for Amy's birthday. Amy has a cute little boy, Evan, who has blessed us with giant duffelbag of hand-me-downs! We sorted it all out and have piles of cute little boy clothes starting with premie onsies all the way up to 24 month overalls. THANK YOU AMY, NATE AND EVAN!!!

I just got off the phone with Janis; she is in Phoenix visiting her best friend Amy.  She was out there as a surprise for Amy's 35th birthday.  So anyways i was brewing most of the day with my riding/work buddy Tim and didnt have time to call her.  Her phone was giving her issues with service, and i wasn't able to get through earlier.  I figured she was busy living it up; it was getting late.  But she finally called, and she had some news.  She felt some kicking!  we were slightly concerned that our little guy has been less than "active" so far, but the doc assured us that was perfectly normal.  But i keep thinking, how can a child related to us not be totally restless and claustrophobic in there!!  Anyways, it was a reassurance and now i cant wait for her to come home to feel it for myself.  Although it will probably be a week or so before the movement is noticeable by external observers.  I dont have an interesting picture, but i included one of her new designs that she made for Valentine's Day and thought it was appropriate for this post...