Crossing Fingers, Praying and whatnot....

....that the Broncos start doing better or Michael will be very grumpy tonight!

Wine

I was not a big wine person until I met Michael. He told me I had not had a good wine. And of course he was right. I had cheap dry wines that give me headaches before I met him. But now I drink smooth wines that each give a sensory experience...the smell, the color, the taste and the feel of them. The area we live in has quite a few wineries. And all of them have their unique award winning wines. And now I prefer wine over a harder drink.

Here is a couple links about Colorado Wine in general....

Colorado Wine
Colorado Wine Fest

We enjoy wine that is medium-dry to semi-sweet to very sweet. I do really enjoy the fruity flavor coming through in some of the blends also. We have a lot of Colorado fruit growers in the area so many do a blend of fruit with the wine.

Saturday we went to St. Kathyryn's Cellars first. I tried 3 or 4 different wines. But my favorites were Cranberry Kiss and Ruby Red. Cranberry Kiss is sweet but not too sweet as it has that Cranberry tang too. It is beautiful color and smell is so nice too. Ruby Red is a little bit dryer but still sweet. Again a beautiful color and smell.

Next went to Rocky Mountain Meadery. Mead is actually wine made out of honey instead grapes. The woman in the winery was very helpful and also just so sweet and beautiful. She came to the area 20 years ago with the plan to only stay one year and has been here ever since. Lancelot and Camelot are the ones Michael picked up. He really liked the mead. Lancelot is medium dry. And Camelot is sweet. It is so smooth. I was surprised how smooth the taste was in them.

Finally we ended our mini tour with Carlson's Vineyard as it is our favorite. They had a special on their Laughing Cat Red Wine so we got 2 bottles of that. And then the Laughing Cat Sweet Baby Red Wine as I wanted those to go with dinner. We ended up only drinking one bottle as we had quite a bit of wine on the little wine tour. The Laughing Cat Sweet Baby Red is sweet but not too sweet. It says on their site that it is blend from a merlot. The Laughing Cat Red Wine is a mellow red that is just all around good table wine. And at the price they were offering it right now it was hard not to pass up...so we didn't!

It was really their wines that made me start appreciating wine. The first wine I fell in love with there was their Gewurtztraminer. It is a spicy peppery wine but with a little sweetness to it also. And now our favorite wine from Carlson's is Fat Cat Muscat. It is so smooth. And the flavor just pops. Mrs. Carlson suggested taking and pouring a little of it in a champagne flute and then topping it off with champagne and a couple frozen grapes! Oh my that sounded exceptional. Maybe I can ask Michael if we can do that for our anniversary as we do have a bottle of champagne.

I have drank I think all of Carlson's wines and there is not one that I don't like. The cherry wine is great when you dip the glass into a melted chocolate....tastes like chocolate covered cherry. I really wanted another bottle of the Apricot but they have sold out of it.

We mostly drink local wines but we pick up others too. We enjoy medium dry to sweet wines. We have drank different labels in the Gewurtztraminer, Rieslings, Shiraz, Merlots, and Chardonnays. I also got a wine journal this weekend from my Mom so I want to start keeping closer track of what we drink and enjoy.

Shopping and Eating

We had a wonderful time with my parents did lots of shopping and eating! Two of my favorite things! It was great to see them and Michael and I are really happy that they were able to come visit us.

Yesterday we basically shopped all day long. Michael's Arts and Crafts is having a great clearance sale. 90% off Christmas stuff. And Mom and I went crazy in there. Mom bought me too much in there - a pack of Mary Engelbreit Christmas for 9 cents. A couple foam Christmas stamps for 9 cents. Oh and red, silver, gold and plaid ribbon that I use on packages and for art and craft stuff...for 19 cents a spool. They didn't have a ton of stuff left but they had enough to get us quite a few good buys. We also hit some of the shops downtown but because it was a holiday many were closed.

Mom and Dad Arrived!

My parents arrived safely. We whisked them out to do a mini wine tour shortly after they arrived. And came home with 8 bottles of wine! Oh my we tasted so many wonderful wines. I made stew for dinner, served with hard rolls and a nice red wine. We had butter cake with chocolate ganache icing and toffee ice cream after dinner to celebrate Dad's birthday early. The cake didn't turned out as good as I would have liked. The icing was great but the filling became hard instead of being soft and fluffy. And of course with the altitude the cake wasn't as high as it was suppose to be and that always annoys me.

I am so happy my parents are here as I have missed them a lot. It gets hard at times being so far away and not being able to see them very often.

Sharing a Link...

I have been meaning to share this link. He is a friend and one of my favorite artists. He has a piece for sale right now that I would love to have....since it seems to fit me well this past week also.

Happy New Year!

We had a very nice Christmas and New Years even though I had allergy attacks for Christmas and a cold for New Years. But we still had nice quiet cozy holidays.

Christmas Eve....I baked a ham with a honey mustard glaze. Served it with creamed potatoes, green beans and herb rolls. After dinner we took a drive to look at all the lights and tried to take some pictures of us downtown in front of the big Christmas tree but that was not working out well.

Christmas Day....Our day was very very relaxed...in fact I actually slept a lot! I think the month finally caught up with me plus I was having a horrible time with allergies. So we ate, watched movies and took naps all day long! Michael and I watched Polar Express and we both loved it! We watched Bourne Supremacy too. It was a DVD Christmas - we got Bourne Surpremacy, Meet Joe Black, Serenity and the Firefly TV series box set.

I think Santa thought we were really good this year as there were lots of presents under our tree. I got everything from domestic things: cookie cooling racks, new kitchen utensils, pie shields, measuring spoon and tea. To art things: Rubber stamps, little tags, cutting mat and brads. To books and movies: I got Paulo Coehlo's book The Zahir...that I started reading right away as I love his books so much! I also got Nick Bantock's book Urgent 2nd Class that I have been wanting for a while too. I got the coolest trivet - I found a picture of online. A calendar called ArtPlay that has great collages in it, a gift certificate and journal from my sisters. Michelle wrote in journal combine that with the card she gave and of course I was tears. It was one of those hallmark moments! We got great presents from Michael's parents too...such as the bears that I already posted a picture of...they were just part of the presents! So as I said Santa was very good to us!

Dec. 26 - yes we did it...we were out in the after Christmas shopping. I picked up a few things with the gift certificate my sister gave me. Plus we stocked up on Christmas wrap, tags and ribbon as we were OUT! Completely OUT! Michael had to do some creative wrapping on Christmas Eve.

Skipping to New Years Eve....I was sick with a cold. So we were kind of boring. We made potstickers and crab ragoon and then just watched movies until close to midnight when we watched the Dick Clark special being replayed for mountain time. We toasted in the New Year with a Carlson wine....Fat Cat Muscat! Yum! And then went to bed shortly there after....as I said we were boring!

New Years Day....we are doing what we did Christmas Day...sleep, eat and watch movies because I have a cold.

All in all..the holidays were nice even with being sick. It was quiet and relaxing which I know we both appreciated although we were thinking of our families and missing them. At Christmas time I try to do some reflecting on where my life is and how grateful I am for everything in it....and this year was no different. Nothing earth shattering uncovered....just that I am very happy to be with Michael and am grateful for having him in my life.

We hope that everyone has a VERY Happy New Year!

A Christmas Present....

Lookie what I got....



This pictures does not do them justice....they are beautiful bears! I want to find a little bench so they can sit under the tree together. Thank you Frank and JoAnne for the beautiful bears! I love them!

Merry Christmas!

These are photos Michael took of the tree. We do the tree in all red lights. Under the tree I set up all my Christmas Bears. I have chairs, a little red wagon, and a couple of sleds.

Holiday Pictures

Just a few pictures of the house during the Holidays!

This is a picture of an Angel that I know my Mom has had for quite a long while. If I recall right there were 2 more angels with the grouping and they were broke...by me. In the package she sent for Michael and I us to open during the holidays...the candle and the little Angel were a part of it.


The chair with a pillow...that matches the table runner on the end table that also matches the tree skirt under our tree.

Close up of end table.

The table....the placemats and napkins Mom bought me last year at an after Christmas sale. They are really pretty. They are a natural linen color with then velvet trim in green and deep red. They have embroidery of holly in berries to match the velvet. The Angel in the center of the table Mom and Dad bought me years and years ago. It is a tree topper but I don't think I have hardly ever used it as such as it is kind of top heavy. You can also see all my little hallmark houses in the background...sitting on the counter in the dining room.

An ornament on our tree that Michael's Parent's got us last year. I thought it looked so pretty hanging on the tree - so I took a picture.

Presents! Presents! Presents!

At the beginning of the month my family sent us a big package...inside was one present a day to open up until Christmas! It has been incredible! What a great idea! Thank you Mom, Dad, Michelle and April!

Here are all the presents lined up on the counter!



A few of the goodies we have opened up....

December 2....warm socks for both of us!




December 7th....holiday mugs and coffee!




December 9th....holiday napkins! They are very pretty!

Christmas Cookies

So I am always looking for good recipes that use Cardamom in them. I saw a recipe Gourmet last December that used Cardamom so I saved it.

Well I made them today. First they are suppose to be squares...I tried one batch like that and they did not stay square (altitude I am sure). I added more flour and decided to do cutouts instead as I am not doing sugar cookie cutouts this year and I like cutouts.



I drizzled mocha glaze and then a dark chocolate on them. I played Jackson Pollack with the cookies it was fun! They are yummy!

A Very Nice Saturday Night!

Tonight was the 22nd Annual Parade of Lights for Grand Junction. This is going to be our third Christmas together and so this was our third year attending the Parade of Lights.

We had a really wonderful night...one of those nights that I wished would not end. We watched lights further up in the Parade route then we have in years past. It was actually right across from the judges and mc. It was cold, but not as cold as last year. Michael was thrilled that he had his purchases from Christmas in Minnesota last year - with him. He was bundled up. We watched most of the Parade and then Michael asked if I wanted to go warm up in this new cafe we have been talking about trying. We were standing right in front of it so I think it was calling our names.

Let me say Cafe Biltmore knows food. It was incredible -- it is a foodie's dream. It is appetizers but you can order salad and a vegetable with them too. We started with Parmesan crisps. They were thickly grated Parmesan cheese with maybe some parsley for color baked a little. It was made with really good Parmesan because the taste of them was really that strong good taste. We then had a chiozo sausage panini. It a really delicious bread (thinking a sourdough), thin thin slices of fontana cheese, chiozo sausages sliced in half. It was served with a basil pesto (I think it was basil) and a chipolte mayonnaise. The flavors were incredible. We then decided to try one more item from their menu...it was hard to decide what to get...but we ended up ordering a bacon and potato omelet. It was more a fritta then an omlete to me but it was fantastic. The flavors they had going on in it were so good. We had all this with a bottle of wine from our favorite local winery - Carlson Vineyards. When my parents come in January, I think we should go again with them as I think they would really enjoy it.

After watching a wonderful parade and eating delicious food, we headed back to get the car and decided to take a drive and see if some of our favorite areas had lights up yet. And some did. We listened to one of XM's holiday stations as we drove around looking at Christmas Lights.

Grand Junction does this thing called The Cup of Cheer Home Tour. I just found out about it tonight. You buy a ticket and the money goes to the Grand Junction symphony. You then get a map to go tour Christmas decorated homes throughout Grand Junction. A couple of the houses in the sections we really like had signs in the front of their homes showing they participate. This tour thing is only one weekend and it is this weekend so we won't have time to attend this year. But I do want to look into it for next year as I think it is something both Michael and I would enjoy.

We really enjoyed our Saturday night even though we had things at home to do that didn't get done -- it was worth it to get out and have such a nice time.

World AIDS Day....

Showing support for World AIDS Day by wearing the Virtual Red Ribbon...

Pass it On.....Please

This is not a hoax:

Please take 30 seconds, go to the Bristol-Meyers Squibb (BMS--a drug company) site below and light a candle -- the company will donate $1 towards AIDS/HIV research...

http://www.lighttounite.org/

By going to this web site and "lighting" a candle you can help raise MILLIONS of dollars for HIV+ / AIDS organizations around the world. This is at NO COST TO YOU! Bristol-Meyers Squibb has capped the donation at $100,000 but each candle is a show of force.

It's as easy as 1-2-3. Simply …
1) go to the site - it will start with an ad for 'Reyataz', a drug
2) wait for it to load an animation which forms the continents of the World
3) click on a continent to "light a candle". You will be asked to which you want to dedicate your candle: strength, hope, health, love....

For EVERY candle lit BMS will donate one dollar. The donation will be made on World AIDS Day, December 1st. The event will be televised on the TODAY Show (NBC).

Fattigmanns made it to the WWW

I am going take a wild guess and say that Pillsbury decided to put a Fattigmanns recipe in a holiday cookbook last year. You know those cookbooks...the ones on the supermarket check out lane...the kind that my Mom has tons of....and that I also really enjoy. I am going to say it came out last year thus appearing on the world wide web after Christmas last year. As I remember doing a search for Fattigmann recipe last year and only coming up links to Norwegian type sites (ie: Sons of Norway). But this year I did a search and it came up all over the place but all referencing Pillsbury. And they called them Fried Diamond Twists Fattigmanns Bakkels.

So wondering if I should try to make them again this year. Last year the altitude won the war on baking them. They tasted good but they did not look like a traditional Fattigmann. Although they tasted good...they will never be as good as my Grandma's...hers are always the best.

Links to Share....

Just sharing some links.....

It is from Diabetic gourmet. They send daily recipes. I am not diabetic but I get them because I watch sugar intakes and often the recipes are just over all healthy. http://dailydiabeticrecipe.com/

Esty - a place to buy and sell all things handmade. A wonderful artist I know just started listing there. I had never heard of them before. Oh also his lovely partner has a beautiful assemblage listed on Ebay. And I am thinking of maybe listing some things on Esty...eventually.

The Daily Digest of Arts, Culture and Ideas.....ArtsJournal.com

The Collage Machine....it is fun! Make your own collages. I just wish I had the pieces come together like that on real paper in front of me.

A Mouse in the House?

Okay so Michael left to go out of town yesterday afternoon. He will be back later this evening.

I am doing some art last night and needed a bottle of water.....I come out of my room heading towards the kitchen when I see....Caesar our male cat sitting in the kitchen with his head in the space between the dishwasher and fridge. My heart skips....as I know what this means and of course Michael is out of town!

Yes, folks, I think there is another mouse in our house. Our female cat Chessie had been acting a little odd for a few days but she at times is just a little odd. But seeing our male cat as I did last night pretty much guarantees there is a mouse in the house because he is the type of cat that until he sees it even if he can smell it - he won't go after it. It is waste of his time.

Needless to say I did not get much sleep last night.

But on the other hand....I do have to say I am much calmer then I was last year. But of course I have not seen the mouse -- so that might change if I do.

I told Michael about it in a phone call this morning. I think he envisions coming home to me sitting on the middle of the bed -- having been there all day. But so far I have been very productive in my day.

Some random tidbits of life....

This month I was very busy and it seems like that is coming to an end - at least for this project. So now I need to get busy on Michael's website which actually the design is already started and the coding is too. I also need to get busy on Christmas cards and presents.


• I was going to get my own domain name with my name in it and so I did a search on godaddy.com a few weeks ago and it came up available. Last week Michael was going to go buy it for me and it ended up not being there. So that does not mean good things about godaddy to me. So now I am back to trying to figure out a domain name or just getting a subdomain on Michael's site.



• It was my birthday last week and I was dreading turning 38. I did the same thing when I was 28. (2 years from big 30 and now 40.) I was depressed and didn't want to celebrate. And this year was kind of the same. I had told Michael a few weeks before my birthday that I wished I could just be a little girl again and so that is exactly what he created for me. After talking to my Mom on my birthday, he had me cover my eyes and led me into the dining room. There he had set the table with little kid happy birthday paper table cloth, paper plates, cups and then presents wrapped in little kid wrapping paper. It was very cute and a lot of fun!
  
  Michael gave me much art goodness! Ultrecht had canvas' onsale a few weeks ago and so he ordered me 19 of them and they arrived on my birthday. He also gave me a several collages packs. Plus a bunch of other fun stuff.



• I received some gift certificates to Michael's Arts and Crafts from Mom and Dad and so I went and spent some of those yesterday too. So I am really stocked with lots of exciting materials to use. It is my hope to get in there and create some things this week. I also added the piece I did for my sister April's birthday to my Art Blog.



• I have been hooked on tea lately. Tazo Chai Black Tea is very good. It has cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, black pepper and other ingredients that make it not only taste great but smell incredible.



• We had a new wine from Carlson Vineyards the other night. It was their new Laughing Cat label and it was Sweet Baby Red. It was not too sweet and really a great dinner wine. I had made chicken, rice and vegetables and it really complimented the meal nicely. I have a recipe for Red Wine Risotto I think it would be really good in also.



• Michael had me go to the Doctor's office to just get a check on my blood pressure and it is going down! It was really great compared to the scare I had at the beginning of the month with it. Both he and I were really happy it is going down.
  
  
  

The last few months

What a fall it’s turned out to be!! I know a lot has happened that I haven’t really blogged about, but it’s been a very busy end of summer/start of fall period of time.

We managed to make it to Conference with nice colds – the yucky crud that it was. Since we were close to 9500 feet up there, let’s just say that it provoked the symptoms to a new level of misery. Still, we survived and I had the privilege of getting an honor of being Investigator of the Year – the highest achievement I could’ve received. Needless to say, I was humbled and honored. It’s still a little challenging for me to say that I was investigator of the year – because I know there are so many other deserving investigators.

In other news, my sister is participating in an arts & crafts show this weekend where some of my photographs will be up for sale.. Needless to say I’m a bit nervous even though everyone has said that the photographs are incredible.. As soon as Darby is finished with her current web design project, we’re going to get cranking on a new design for my site: Reflecting Time. I’m excited about this prospect and since this latest project is a clear indication of the path I’m going, it’s looking like the business maybe starting to take flight on its own – without me! *laughs* Still, it’s exciting, a bit nerve-racking and just nervous in general.. Still, I have faith – and when it appears that I carry a talent with it – then I’m inclined to believe that it’s the right path…

Last weekend, my folks not only helped out with the assembling of my photographic prints, but we took them on the now famous “Loop ride” covering 265 miles all along the western central part of the state.. We were gone for about 9 ½ hours and during that time we saw some of the most incredible scenery around.. Here is just a sampling:

Fall Catch Up

Well obviously time has slipped away from me again as I haven't updated in a while. I have just been very busy with work and other appointments going on as well. The "girls" trip was a lot of fun. The only problems were hang ups at the airport. I wouldn't mind ever going into O'Hare again.

This past weekend Michael's parents, Frank and JoAnne, were here. We had a really exceptional weekend. Friday we spent the day running errands. We went to lunch, then to pick up some wine from our favorite winery. They have a lot of new kinds out so it was hard to chose. We ended up getting our favorite FatCat Musecat and then they have a new label called Laughing Cat and we got the Sweet Baby Red from that. Maybe we will save them for my birthday.

After the winery - later that evening we went to buy frames and mats for some photos. Michael's sister is going to be doing some Art and Craft shows and offered to put up some of his photos. Michael and I were really in sync on communicating that night and I think we had our own little language going on. We knew what we were looking for and what we wanted without having to use very many words with each other.

Friday Morning I had a doctor's appointment and had a little bit of a scare. My blood pressure was extremely high. And so they had me stay and just try to relax (which of course was hard when I was so upset that it was high) so that they could retake it and see if it came down. It did but not as much as my doctor would have liked so she put me on BP medicine. I am not thrilled about that but it guess it is better then having it so high.

Saturday we went on a day trip and I do mean a day trip - a full day. We went on the Gateway Loop as I call it - I am sure Michael might have another name for it. It was a GREAT day! We had a marvelous time! Michael and his parents took tons of pictures. There are some areas on the loop that are not very good for parking the car so we took our walkie talkies and I dropped them all off to take picture and went and parked elsewhere while they took pictures. And then after they were done they would call me and I would come pick them up. It worked out good.

In Gateway, they now have resort...well kind of resort. It is almost a little village. It has a BEAUTIFUL hotel, several restaurants, a grocery store, a gift shop, and then they are adding an auto museum and several other things. The architecture and landscaping reminded me of Santa Fe so much...and made me miss it even more.

The loop has every type of terrain....from desert where you see red dirt, catcus and red desert mountains to mountains that look like the Swiss alps with snow on the tops, rocky rivers, fall colors, deer and elk. We had sunshine and were comfortable in short sleeves and then by the second leg of the trip it was raining and we were bundled up in sweatshirts and coats. But it all was so beautiful.

Sunday we worked Michael's parents. We had a whole team effort in framing the pictures. Michael cleaned the glass and put the pictures together. Mom was quality inspection and handing Michael photos and mats. Dad installed the hardware on the backs to hang them. And then I touched up a few frames and then made up all the labels, signs and business cards. After working all day we had dinner at the Rockslide Brewery.

This week I have been working on websites - yes multiple sites right now. But it is all coming together very well and I am happy about that. I was very nervous that the one site would not be done by the deadline but it is coming together just right. (feel like I should knock on some wood as I say that.)

Today is one of my Grandma's birthday's! And then Saturday was the other. I hope they both have/had wonderful birthday's.

I better get back to work. I will ask Michael to post some pictures of the day trip tonight.