freezin'...

sorry about the eleven day lapse...

my weather pixie says it's -4 degrees right now. and weather.com shows a -15 wind chill.

i do not want to go out. however, it may not be avoidable. see, like a dummy, i haven't finished my xmas shopping. i may go to a couple places in the early morning tomorrow, but i also have the chance to not fight any crowds if i do some late night spending today. Foley's is open 'til midnight and there's usually not that many people if you go there after 9PM when they're doing the 'open late' thing.

damn watch.

i bought a cute watch for lois that has all her 'good watch' qualities: large face, no frilliness/teeny diamonds, and either a stainless steel band (she's allergic to nickel) or leather strap. it's ready to go...not.

of course, i bought the damn thing without tooling around with it. now, had i done that, i would have found out that this 'good' watch has a really shitty pin to adjust the time. it's totally slick and nearly impossible to turn. so...i gotta take it back. sigh

really though, i'm not short that many gifts. just a few. easily doable...for someone motivated ;) it'll get done...even if i have to pay someone else to do it heh.

hope you're all staying warm and entertained because this posting sure ain't curing cold temps or boredom.

see ya.

not hungover...

just parched. PCL's xmas party was last night. luckily, susie's husband was driving, allowing lois and me a bit more imbibing ;)

it was at the downtown hyatt...a couple hundred people...mostly old friends...good food (rare roast beef, chicken, salmon, caesar salad, huge dessert spread) although not as varied as years past.

three bartenders...two were great...the gal in the corner though? poor thing, she may as well have not had arms - she was SO slow :(...AND she had the shortest line!

wTf? what am i doing up at 7 in the a.m. blogging about this stuff? more water and back to bed ;)

we'll continue this chat sometime this afternoon...

so full...

i'm about to burst. yep, we finally made the turkey that had been hogging up the freezer for a couple weeks. add some peas, yellow squash, wild rice stuffing, a baked yam, jellied cranberry sauce (my favorite), and you have one happy and stuffed spencer. now, where's the pumpkin pie?

wow. i can't believe that i neglected my blog for more than three weeks. sorry. i know i get into non-blogging funks for a week or two. and i know i've gone three weeks before, but i don't recall going more than that...

well, have any of you started yer holiday cards? unbelievably, i had this year's cards, addressed and ready to fill, prepared immediately after last xmas. i had a few extra boxes of cards and started on them when i took inventory of who returned a card. i know that sounds funny, but after a couple years of sending them to just about everyone in my address book and only getting a percentage reciprocated, i decided to take inventory. there's about three dozen who will be my 'permanent' list. as for the rest, it means i've saved about five minutes of my time and 37 cents postage.

i'm very particular when i write holiday cards. i try to personalize each one to the recipient and talk about the things that are important in their lives as well as the common things that we base our rapport. i abhor nothing more than a generic card that is sent to everyone, detailing the things that the Smiths did this year...ugh...barf. why don't you just blog about it and send us the url? to me, i find it incredibly insensitive and lazy...

so, i did manage to finish about a dozen cards that i'll send out tomorrow. just two dozen more...

they'll hafta wait until tomorrow though...i hear a wedge of pumpkin calling me.

she wants me to write...

something. hee hee.

somethin' to do...

following cindi's path...albeit a week late ;)

Name THREE of your...

* Pet Peeves: asshole drivers, rude people, the growing cavalier attitude of the general population (howzabout some humility?)
* Favorite Sounds: music, laughter, rustling leaves
* Favorite Flavors of Candy: ANY dark chocolate, gummi bears, reese's peanut butter cups
* Biggest Fears: failure, dying in a fire, health of parents
* Biggest Challenges: fear of failure, procrastination, staying focused
* Favorite Department Stores: Target, Foley's, does BigLots! count?
* Most Used Words: "whatever, you moron"
* Favorite Pizza Toppings: sausage, mushroom, pepperoni
* Favorite Cartoon Characters: Tom & Jerry, Bugs Bunny
* Movies Recently Watched: Bourne Supremacy, Shark Tale, Motorcycle Diaries
* Favorite Fruits: pears, cherries, watermelon
* Favorite Vegetables: corn, peas, carrots

overrated...

alright cindi, went to Pat's yesterday and was a bit disappointed. food was good, but the prices were a bit high and the guys working the counter were acting like they had much better things to do than serve lowly me a small mushroom and cheese philly. methinks we need to meet at Taste of Philly for our next foodie outing ;)

BigLots is a baa-aad place. you walk in for one thing and end up buying five or six bags of things you 'can't live without.' granted, that often happens wherever you go, but the buying spree is compounded by the lower prices.

ah well, i don't care. i know i can use those 75% off halloween knicknacks...next year. ooh, i did get a box of halloween truffles that were half off. mmm...they're orange. i love chocolate truffles. strange is that the same truffles were being sold in red and green wrappers...as xmas truffles...but remained orange flavored.

what a great day! i wish this weather would stick around for another month. i'm never ready for cold and/or snow. still, i could think of worse places...

oh yeah, we did finally get in a cheapie last night. we caught the last showing of the BourneSupremacy. it was good. plenty of action although some of it was jaw rattling. sometimes it's difficult to watch a movie when the camera is shaking so hard. car chase at the end almost rivals that of the FrenchConnection. sure, i bet there have been some pretty cool ones in recent movies, but this one didn't look like anything was computer generated. then again, they're good at faking that too ;)

ooh, more cheapies. ManchurianCandidate...I,Robot...and Shrek2 again. pass the popcorn.

bright lights...

big city.

well, not that huge.

yes, we finalized the plans for our post-xmas trip to Vegas. although it's not one of our usual destinations, it'll be nice to get away and see some friends. if you don't recall, lois' friend, Peggy, has planned a 50th b-day party for her husband at CharliePalmer steakhouse, which is located in the Four Seasons Hotel, right above Mandalay Bay.

and after a week of research and deciding, we got a four night package for $299 through worryfreevacations.com. we'll be staying at the Luxor, which is right next door to Mandalay Bay. i'm glad we settled on the Luxor though. for the money, it was probably the best deal with convenience thrown in. i guess i'll have to stay intrigued with the $175/night specials that occasionally are offered for Treasure Island's Tower Suites...or the Orleans $60/night mini-suites for a bit longer ;)

i wish...

i forgot to tell you about a recent trip to the ATM. a couple weeks ago, before we went to Santa Fe and Monte Vista, Lois and I stopped by what used to be the Bank of Cherry Creek (i don't know its new name) and got some money from their drive up ATM.

well, you know how some people inadvertently leave their receipt. in a hurry...don't want to be bothered with another sheet of paper...etc. during the transaction, i pulled this person's receipt out and handed it to lois - nothing out of sorts - and she put it in my glove compartment.

last week, i was pulling out my trusty film canister of quarters out of the glove box when i came upon the long forgotten receipt. apparently, this person ain't hurtin' for anything. i looked at his/her balance and had to do a double take. whomever has an account ending in 6828 at this bank, has $152,838.39 left. geez, must be nice...

you cain't always get whatchu want...

and i want that big eared smirking chimp outta office. gawd, we are so screwed... we can only hope that he can't possibly do any worse the next four years. gee, mebbe he can add another zero to that half trillion dollar deficit; seems like the biggest deficit is between those massive ears...fu-uck!

other than that, at least everything else i voted for...passed. i'm really psyched about FasTracks. it's something that we should have tried to implement about ten years ago, when the population started exploding around here. we are in such need of a rapid transit system. i only wish we had some super fast trains like the bullets in japan and europe; riding the train between Madrid and Seville was so cool...and smooth. look at the subway system in mexico city - cheap, fast, and convenient. trust me...in a metropolitan area with about 20 million people, driving is a TOTAL nightmare. their Metro is one of the best things about the city...

hey cindi, what about those Jeffco voters? i cannot believe that they finally came through on the school bonds and mill levies? i bet you had a total sigh of relief this morning when the numbers came out...yay!

best thing about today being the 'day after'...no more freakin' ads. hallelujah! hell yessssssss.

where's the line?!?

earlier this afternoon, i took my parents to vote. boy, what luck! there weren't but a few people ahead of them. WTF! when i went to vote early last week, i waited more than two hours!!! of course, it was the first time i voted early. i should've known that the lines would be much shorter today since there are more polling precincts...hee haw.

ah well. at least all those damn campaign ads will go away after today. they were really starting to get on my nerves...three weeks ago! there was just no escaping this mudslinging gala, ugh.

like...totally

get out there and check out the total lunar eclipse. it'll be the last (total) one until March 2007. it's going to peak from 8:23 PM until 9:45 PM for those of you in the Mountain Time Zone...

gonna be that spooky red color...just in time for Halloween!

like a morgue...

in here. sorry about that. you guys didn't miss much anyway ;)

yes, we did go to Santa Fe and returned through Monte Vista. a quick couple days, but well worth it.

on saturday night, Antonio wasn't available so we hung out in the room for a bit and watched a dog show on the telly. i think it was like the Eukanuba nationals or something. geez, it was long - 3 hours. we only watched the first two hours and finally headed out for dinner at Castro's.

ha...right.

before we set out, i checked the phone book for their phone number...(505)438-0146...and address...997 W. Rodeo Rd.

and that's where things went wrong.

i called to see how late they were open - 9PM - giving us roughly 50 minutes. however, trusting the yellow pages listing, i didn't confirm the address, which is really 3512 W. Rodeo Rd.

yep. i drove for nearly twice as long, looking for the wrong address. by the time we called them (and they answered), they were 15 minutes from closing. we relented and ended up eating at a Carrow's (a Denny's type joint with better food) on the way back to the motel.

grrr...of course, i had jotted down the correct address in a notebook that i had brought, but left in the car. talk about adding insult to injury.

so, it wasn't meant to be. the next day, when Antonio returned our call, we found out that Castro's was about a ten minute drive from the motel. we even passed by it! but look at the numbers...Rodeo Rd. runs east/west, so we were looking for the restaurant on the north side, since it ended in an odd number...when its location is on the south side of the road (3512). ah well, Antonio told us that it still may have been hard to find because they don't always have their sign on...

even screwier is that Yahoo! has Castro's listed at the incorrect address as well. i found the correct address before we left...on Mapquest.

anyway, we did hang out with Antonio for a few hours on Sunday. he stopped by the room and we chatted for about an hour before we headed to Guadelupe Cafe (since Castro's is closed on Sundays), in downtown Santa Fe. not as good though, even though you would think so since we waited a half hour for a table. the red chile, while HOT as hell, didn't have much depth. it was just extremely garlicky and pure fire.

Cindi, we did pass by yer favorite place though. Antonio said he had never been to Tecolote's, but that he'd try it and update me ;)

sleepy...

no, make that downright snoozy. i really should be getting to bed, but i also need to blog...even if it's gonna put you to sleep too.

the past few days have been both up and down...

wednesday started out on a good note. went to Mervyns for some jeans and came out with three shirts and a fleece blanket as well. dontcha love it when you go into the store for one thing and come out with three or four more bags of groceries? or isn't it always you go expressly for that item and inadvertently forget it. happens all the time, eh?

anyway, it was after i got home from shopping when the rollercoaster ride started. i had received a somewhat cryptic call from a friend of a friend. jane, a friend of karneko (pseudonym), had called and left a message asking me to immediately call karneko. of course, when i called karneko's number, jane answered and informed me that karneko had died over the weekend. wow...i was not expecting that.

stunned, i called mutual friends, the whole time sharing our total devastation over her passing. it was not a pretty scene. for the first two friends, i stayed composed and explained what had occurred - she passed in her sleep. however, by the time i called the third friend, Cindy (the one that i see $.50 movies with), my voice was cracking...completely breaking down when she let out a wail and started bawling on the phone.

isn't it strange when unexpected deaths arise? terminal illnesses are one thing - you just endure and keep the rosy outlook...but the healthy (or seemingly so) ones who are there one day and gone the next...sigh...talk about throwing you for a loop.

well, an hour after my conversation with Cindy, i had a pizza date. this time with a Cindi :)

the rollercoaster car had definitely zoomed up from its nadir. the couple hours spent with Cindi were great. we talked about everything from our blogs to family to occupations to movies to travel; just about everything under the sun. she is SO cool...so down-to-earth...and has a beautiful smile. it's kinda funny, but after reading her blog for a year, Cindi is what i imagined her to be...really. i can't wait to meet again over a yummy meal ;)

cleaning house...

not literally though. even if it sure could use it. no, i'm talking about changing my daily blog reads. there are a couple blogs on there that are now officially dead. i guess the blog fire has been extinguished for them... look for a couple new ones in the next few days; as soon as i get permission to blogroll them.

i probably should add some links too. although none of you may find the sites that i visit very interesting, it may provide a little more insight to my surfing habits.

glad to see that Cindi has a clear schedule this week. we can finally meet for pizza!!! yay! it is such a guilty pleasure for me since lois' self-control is much stronger than mine. you would not believe how she can swear off things; you never have to twist my arm.

so how does tomorrow look, Cindi? i'll be sending you an email here shortly.

been checking out accomodation prices in Vegas for the end of december. lois' good friend, Peggy, is staging a 50th birthday party for her husband at the CharliePalmer Steakhouse (in the Four Seasons Hotel...right above Mandalay Bay). we're not gamblers, but it would be nice to get away for a couple days...and i have some friends who live in North Vegas.

anyway, the celebration will be on the 29th...and it looks like hotel rooms are still relatively reasonable on the 28th and 29th. of course, for the brave souls who choose to pay exorbitant prices for the 30th through the new year, good luck to them. most of the prices along the strip for those dates are in the $269-$500 range. ha! right... you're talking to people who pay $20/night on average in Latin America. you know how far $500 will go for us there :P 10-15 days, baby.

since the bash will be on the south end of the strip, i'm considering the monte carlo (which is low key nice), the luxor, and mandalay. all three are in the $85-$120 a night range. of course, i've always been intrigued by Treasure Island's Tower Suites, which are 900 sq. ft. and have two marble baths, whirlpool, walk in closets, etc. during slow times, these go for $175/night - not bad...considering we've stayed in teeny 100 sq. ft. rooms in Spain for $95/night. i think it'll be worth it to drop $235/night for the suites on the 28th and 29th... i may just surprise lolis and book it...even if it is at the opposite end of the strip.

the Orleans casino is a longshot consideration. supposedly, all their rooms are 500 sq. ft. suites and generally go for less than $100/night. the only problem is that it's off the strip, giving rise to the transportation issue. we like renting a car, we just hate the traffic congestion of Vegas. i believe the city needs to calibrate its system of traffic lights. the last time we were there, we timed the lights at one major intersection and noticed that the north/south light was roughly green for 45 seconds, while the east/west light was double that. no wonder it takes forever to drive/take a bus or cab along the strip; you could almost walk faster...

regardless, we'll work it out and make it to Brian's 50th. now, it's on to finding a cheap fare...

btw, if anyone is considering going to vegas, i did find out that the Orleans has rooms for $20/night for the few days before thanksgiving and xmas...wotta deal.

on a roadtrip this weekend. we'll be going south to Española, NM to see our friend Antonio. i think i've mentioned him before. he's the curator of ethnology at the museum of indian arts/culture in Santa Fe. a LONG time ago, he and i were washing and cataloging pottery finds...digging in mexico...drawing soil core samples in colorado...and drinking bars dry ;) you would not believe the money we started saving the day he moved back to NM for a job at the School of American Research...

it'll be great to see him. i think it has been at least a year and a half since we last saw him. if there's one sure thing, we're gonna go to Castro's and feast. i swear by this restaurant. it is absolutely one of the best joints in Santa Fe. their red chile is sublime...

Cindi, your eyes are getting very round...like pepperoni.

¡ya basta!

enough!

i've spent the last ten minutes plowing through a box of Raisin Mini Wheats. i bought five boxes at Big Lots recently...for the miles. yes, the mileage slut is at it again. American Airlines has offered 100 miles on specially selected Kellogg's cereals for the past five years. most of the time, the offer was on the back of Mini Wheats, Product 19, Special K, All Bran, and a couple others.

of course, when lois was on a cereal kick for dinner, we accumulated a few thousand miles over the course of a couple years. and now, since she has sworn off cereal (gee, i wonder why), the Kellogg's bandwagon has screeched to a halt...until this week.

it was just too hard to pass up these boxes since they were short dated (best before 10/31/04) and marked down to a paltry $1.25. if you ask me, 500 miles for $6.25 is a deal. consider this, one of the cheapest fares on American is from Denver to Dallas ($150-$200), which will net 1300 miles on a round trip. by buying cereal even at $4/box, you can get 1500 miles for $60...or $18.75 if you're lurking in the bargain aisles of Big Lots ;) i just wish there were other kinds of cereal with the mileage coupons...

btw, 'ya basta' means 'enough already!' in spanish.

sleepy...

played some ball today...such great weather. strained the right hamstring a bit. yep, the same one that has bothered me all summer. have i stayed off of it one bit? nope. oh well.

took some painkillers that no longer work for lois. i don't recall the name (ultra____), but i think it's a stronger form of acetaminophen. probably won't do anything significant for my pains. however, it did make me feel good for a couple hours after some dinner and a glass of italian red wine at OliveGarden.

yeah, yeah. i know you shouldn't mix drugs with alcohol, but if the pain doesn't subside, at least you can forget about it ;)

it was good to go to the garden. it had been probably at least a couple years since we were there last. don't know why though. the pasta e fagiol soup, salad, breadstix, and our entrees (Tour of Italy [lasagna, chicken parmagiana, and fettucini alfredo] and the three type ravioli) were as good as ever. and the service was even better; a young college student named Brian. we're definitely going to make more of an effort to stop by...

nightynight...

too quiet...

around here, don't ya think?

sorry about not keeping up with the posts. i'm just less enthusiastic when it comes to sharing the details of my life, which is pretty mundane at best.

since you're so tired of reading that stupid paper shredder post, i'll fill you in on the last 13 days...

did get a shredder that crosscuts and destroys credit cards - a feature that i totally needed. i think i had stashed around a dozen cards that had either expired or closed accounts. this saved me a lotta scissor cuttin'...

went out to dinner with Yani one last time before she returned to Cancún. this time, it was Korean food at Seoul Food (which is considered more Ameri-Korean than traditional) on 6th and Washington. i got my usual, Bi-Bim Bob, which is probably the usual of most non-Korean customers as well. it's a bowl of rice, veggies, meat, a fried egg, a couple fried shrimp, and the omnipresent googeechang sauce (a spicy red paste that you mix into the bowl's ingredients). after a fantastic meal that also included some plum wine and an appetizer of fried mushrooms, we finished off the night with some coffee at Pablo's, which is catty corner to the restaurant. unfortunately, we didn't get to sip our coffee in the comfy confines of their sofa, since we got in right before they closed. so we settled for the bench outside and spent the time reminiscing about her five months here. sigh. we are so going to miss her. ah well. i guess we can wait the nine months until we go to Cancún to attend a wedding next june...

last thursday was the rehearsal for the wedding. ha! right. some rehearsal. basically, in the 75 minutes we were there, it was nothing but a once through because the pastor was feeling under the weather. i did glean some two things from the whirlwind rehearsal though. one, the Episcopal church that my sister's now in-laws attend, has phenomenal acoustics. and two, the pastor of the church is nothing but a pompous and arrogant ass who thinks he's so incredibly enlightened and funny as hell. barf. what a jerk! funny that susie and lois feel the same way; the man is simply an insufferable dolt! ugh.

brb

dead...

my cross-cut shredder has annihilated its last receipt. now it's off to OfficeMax to find another one. although i really like this one, i'll probably save $60 by getting this one instead. i'm just a big fan of the Royal shredders, since the one that died was an older model that lois gave to me about six years ago.

pray that i get out of that store only $30-$40 poorer...so hard to do in any office supply place. it's just so easy to justify why you bought more pens, storage boxes, bookcases...

blistering...

it's kinda hot outside. hotter if you're dressed up for a funeral.

went to the funeral of my friend's grandfather today. he was interred at Ft. Logan, Denver's main military cemetery.

not that many people there, considering he was 87 and had MANY descendants (like eight children, 27 grand..., and 34 great-grand). unfortunately, i think there's a fight brewing amongst his children. the house that he had lived in for forty years, was promised to my friend but was ultimately...rather surreptitiously...stolen from him by his eldest children, who are looking to make a buck off of it. really sad.

i know my friend had already resolved himself to not having the house, which is too small for himself, wife, and two kids; living in Memphis also makes it less logical. however, i know that if the house were his, he'd give it to his mother (who was the last of the eight children). after all, if anyone deserves the house, it's Frances. she had been the main caregiver the last few years and never touched a dime of her father's money...a pretty selfless act considering she was usually broke.

it just makes me mad that there should be any question to what should happen to the house because i know that the people who would appreciate it the most are the ones on the outside looking in... humph* ain't it always that way.

well, Mr. C, i hope that everything works out for the better. i can still hear your voice, see your smile, and recall the images of you landscaping your impeccable lawn. thanks for letting us take your big ol' truck out to shoot pool on sundays, even if we weren't supposed to ;)

one last soak...

the toes aren't looking much better, but they're feeling better. no risk of them falling off either...which is a good thing :)

a somewhat busy weekend. on saturday, made a couple denver omelets for breakfast. for once, we had good omelet ingredients. it seems too often that we're missing one essential item or another whenever we're in the mood for omelets.

that afternoon, dad and i were fitted for the tuxes...a done deal. the people at the Men'sWearhouse in Cherry Creek were very quick and efficient. they should be ready on thursday the 16th, with two days to spare.

saturday was not too exciting though. we had planned on seeing a movie after chowing down at BlackAngus, but were too stuffed to stay awake. we could not believe the heart stopping items that they have for the set dinners. we ordered the flat iron steaks (which are small - 7 oz.), but that also came with the wagon wheel appetizer (fried zucchini, small shrimp cocktail, potato skins, and buffalo tenders) and a HUGE piece of chocolate cake. i'm positive i heard my aorta gurgle a couple times during dinner. they really should include some free defibrillator time...

yesterday was another day of running around. susie, lois, and i had breakfast w/ Yani, who goes back to Cancun on the 15th. we went to the EggShell, where i had some french toast and
some italian sausage. service wasn't stellar though...just better than adequate.

after breakfast, susie left to hang out with andy while we three headed to BestBuy and CircuitCity, to track down a new laptop for Yani. she ended up purchasing a Toshiba for about $1500. it's re-eal nice. she's thrilled about it because it would cost more than $2000 back in mexico; she's gonna be one of the most prepared architects in Cancun with that baby.

with the laptop and goodies in tow, we headed for Taste of CO. geez, it was windy! we scored a nearby free parking space and wandered into the sea of bodies at about 3:00 and didn't leave until about 7:00. yani and lois pretty much hit the majority of the jewelry stands (although you tire of the numerous rasta stands with reggae themed goods - but i guess they're popular). i scoped out a couple photography tents (which either had mediocre landscapes or outrageously overpriced prints). i noticed that there seems to be a small contingency of South American artisans (mainly Ecuadorean and Peruvian) that puts up tents for the taste. good for them. they have some good quality sweaters and unique tablecloths; hope they make a decent profit.

exhausted, we headed back to the house, where lois set up yani's laptop and toyed around with it. we also finished that obscenely sweet BlackAngus chocolate cake...thank god that Yani is a chocoholic.

all in all, a very good day. it's going to be sad when Yani leaves in ten days. she had hoped to stay for another two months, but her old company tracked her down and begged her to come back and offered her more money. they even paid for her return ticket and let her choose the date to start work again. guess ya can't argue that logic... good for you, yani.

tonight? well, we should probably go to the store...i don't think i've made dinner since last tuesday. and for once, i'm not in the mood to go grocery shopping, which i actually love. guess i'd better get hopping...