Saturday, December 29, 2018

The Second Half of December (almost)

Christmas Month Continued

figured I should put up the past two weeks here, as Ali arrived late last night and we are all finally together, at least for this weekend, so that'll deserve its own post.











Mandy is Jason's little sister, who works at Canvas & Cocktails, and is also Sam's maid of honor who had put together this really impressive binder for planning. I followed the instructions (Mandy is holding my ornament version of the painting I did on wood. Sam and Jason did their own thing, including Sam's save the date painting for their wedding: 12/21/19


We got to see Mary Poppins Returns

At Crave Burgers :)

First round of wedding dress shopping!

And Sunday night we did a Christmas Lights drive, complete with Starbucks for us, and the free little puppicino they gave Aidan and Jake









interesting -- I am guessing one person at the window and one on the ladder tossed back and forth?

We had Christmas-lite as we are waiting on Nick & Ali's arrival to do everything

But I got to open Sam's art and a framed photo.


Art this year is a handbound book of family portraits & haiku







I just like my birds




  






Last night, for the first time, all four pups in one place!



Saturday, December 15, 2018

The First Half of December

It's somehow been weeks since I've remembered to post anything (here)!

So the first half of December has slipped past and it's been very quiet, save for one outing this week.

New furniture arrived, dog walks, some Christmas cheer, and getting to meet former First Lady Michelle Obama pretty much sums it up for ya.

 First, new furniture




I let the boys on the unprotected couch one time for a photograph. After that, it's draped in puppy blankets to catch all that border collie fur before it gets embedded in the velvet.

And whatever I don't manage to get cleaned off Jake every time he goes out...


but look at that face. Totally worth a covered couch.



I realized if my name had started with an "O" our six could spell out BANJOS


I had gotten Amber & I tickets to attend the book tour for Michelle Obama's Becoming a few months back when they first went on sale (and were just $30, versus the cheapest seats the week of, nearly $200!).

The event was scheduled for Thursday night, the 13th. 

On Tuesday afternoon, I received an email from the Tattered Cover, our independent Denver bookstore, saying they had just arranged a book signing for Thursday afternoon, tickets to get a book and wristband to meet Mrs. Obama would go on sale Wednesday morning at 10:00. 

I managed to score one, only to discover Amber got shut out as did thousands of others trying at exactly the same time. The Tattered Cover FB page posted that they'd had 7000 people clicking on "buy" at exactly 9:00 this morning . . . for 500 wristbands. It sold out in under a second. 

It was a crazy line in the bookstore, snaking around like a Walt Disney World ride, trying to keep everyone hugging the walls to keep the fire marshal from descending on the place and telling everybody to get out. Absolutely no photos, and a ton of imposing secret service guys, police, metal detectors, etc. But she was lovely and warm and I got shake her hand and say "thank you" before getting my signed copy. 

I headed over to Hopdoddy's to curl up in a booth with my book and wait on Amber to meet up for an Impossible Vegan Burger before the event.


Hopdoddy's is next door to the very Christmas-y Union Station, where we hopped on for a single stop over to the Pepsi Center.


Our $30 ticket were nosebleed, but we didn't care!




on the way back to the car, we made sure to stop over the corner grate to see what the creepy baby doll and haunted chair had been up to...


We got a few raised eyebrows, both of us huddled down over a dark grate in the floor, Amber with her phone's flashlight pointed down and me trying to get the phone to focus on the bottom not the top of the grate.




back outside



Which brings me to this morning, when I stayed in to watch the sunrise from the windows



 



Aidan had been like this the whole time. I called to him and he wouldn't turn around for the longest time. I did catch him mid-hop, very concerned.


So I walked over to the window to see what he'd been so fixated on.

It was Bruiser. Sitting in the middle of the road. 

Bruiser is not allowed outside!

I ran downstairs only to discover the front door had apparently been slightly ajar all night.

I pulled it open and called him and he came running to me like a shot. 

I wonder how long he'd been out on that adventure. I remember him fussing around midnight for me to open the bedroom door for him to get out, so it could have been a good long time. It's a Christmas miracle he wasn't gotten by a coyote.