Jewls and Amanda arrived late on Thursday evening. After a stop for refreshments, it was late when we got home and we all headed to bed.

Friday morning was taken up by workmen finishing the bathroom, and sleeping in (them, not the workmen). While Mom was on the phone comparing prices for a Sisters cruise, Julia, Amanda and Ted got to take the  “Big Wheel”, as I accidentally called it once, for a ride up and down our driveway. Julia and Amanda rode down to the horses and said hello. We dropped Ted off to work the evening shift at Chili Bears, a favorite local restaurant. We took the girls to see Bishop’s Castle, since there was still abundant daylight. They climbed almost to the very top, brave girls. We then returned to town for dinner at Chili Bears, got a good report from Ted’s boss, then spent the rest of the evening at the bowling alley, to kill time until Ted was ready to come home.

Saturday we headed to Canon City after dropping Ted at work. We boarded the Royal Gorge train for a ride along the Arkansas river and under the Royal Gorge bridge. It was cool, but we were dressed appropriately and I had my sunscreen. We prefer to take the outbound ride standing on the open flat car, and then sitting in the train car for the return trip.  Julia and Amanda were outside most of the trip. We then took a rustic backroad byway, the Gold Belt Tour, to Cripple Creek. The scenery is fantastic and the girls watched  a movie in the back seat the whole way! There are still active gold mines in this part of Colorado. Cripple Creek is the Las Vegas of CO, gambling casinos are their new lifeblood, now that the gold mining has panned out. The nice thing is that CO has outlawed smoking in the casinos, but the smokers all stand at the entrances, so you still have to run the smoke gauntlet to get in. We walked through one casino and the town main streets but arrived too late to visit any museums. The elevation is above 9,000 feet and the wind was blowing, it was a bit nippy.  We drove back to Canon City for a nice dinner at Chili’s, then headed home.

Today, Julia did her good deed for the day, by helping Jay clean up the dog pen area. They used a shovel, the pooper scooper that had so fascinated my dad, and the shop vac. The shop vac was a brilliant idea and worked well. While they were working, Amanda played ball with the dogs, another good deed. The work was so massive, that the multiple bags were loaded onto the trailer and pulled down to the dumpster in the fresh air, and not enclosed in any vehicle. After a quick lunch, we headed to Manitou Springs to visit the Manitou Cave Dwellings, of Pueblo Indians circa 1100 AD. You get to crawl through the spaces and the museum was very well done. It was originally opened to tourists in 1907. We then took a stroll through downtown Manitou Springs, a quaint town, founded around natural springs known to ancient Indian cultures, as well as early western settlers. It is the current home of the cog railroad to the top of Pike’s Peak, and has many tourist shops, and a great arcade full of old pinball machines, some which were similar to ones we had once owned. We had dinner in Westcliffe at the pizza restaurant where Ted had his first job and the origination point of the last drive of Jay’s original Land Rover, before it burned up on August 11, 2007.

Tomorrow is Jay’s birthday, the party and last day for Monday AM Ladies bowling, last chance for shopping in Westcliffe, and a 5 pm flight back to Fort Worth. We have had a great time, great weather, and lots of driving! We will miss Julia and Amanda, but work and finals are calling them home. However, Julia has already expressed her desires to come back in the summer to try her hand at white water rafting down the Arkansas.

We have a few guests committed to come this summer, but there is still space, so come on down. By the way, I was able to successfully book a cruise for the Sisters, and all six of us will be taking a Carnival cruise from New Orleans to Mexico in October 2008. Yeah! I can’t wait.

They both begin with B, and both were finished this week. We had our final weeks of bowling. Jay got some prize money from each of his evening men’s leagues. Our Wed AM mixed league had a luncheon and gave out prizes. Our team, the Wright Team, so named because our sponsor is Wright Electric, came in first place – 25 games ahead of the number two team. We got patches, pins, towels, and a first place trophy that looks like a bowling pin. Jay’s awards are on the left, mine are on the right. I got a patch for most improved bowler, improving my average by over 14 pins (fractions count in these statitistics.) Our team from left to right in uniform consists of Bill, me, JB, Betty, and Jay. The Wed AM mixed league will be the only official summer league bowling. The Monday ladies will be meeting informally in the mornings (on Mondays), but not for sanctioned league play. I understand there may be an informal evening men’s league as well, but we don’t know when. Here is the bumper sticker that Jay had Mike create for us. He is selling them and donating the proceeds to the Rotary Medical Aids Lending Program. Imeant to show that earlier and forgot. It also begins with B – bumper sticker. We get tickled when we see a car driving around town with our bumper sticker on it.

Bathrooms: our bathroom is finally finished, except for a little caulking around the fixtures. Friday, April 26th, while our guests slept in, the plumber came to finish up putting everything together and the glass guys came to put up the door and glass valance or wall? The tile work in the shower came out very well. As I mentioned in the April 13th post, I redesigned the wall inset, Jay and I found the accent tile, and Doug put it all together. The cabinets are working out very well, the drawers are self closing, which takes some getting used to, and the lights, counters, floor, heater, etc are all working. We finally have space to put our stuff and don’t have to share the hall bathroom anymore.

You may or may not know that I am a voracious reader. I read mostly fiction, particularly Sci Fi and Fantasy, Mystery, and a fair dollop of Romance. And I’m sure you remember that Jay and I volunteer at the Custer County Library each week shelving books. Well, I have recently found out the my BFF Denise’s husband, Mark, has a new project. He has developed a program to deliver books to the 88 libraries of the Texas Department of Corrections, a website to explain it all, and has even applied for 501c3 status as a non-profit organization. I recommend his website Reading with Conviction to you. His thoughts are provocative and his goal is admirable. If you can help his project, thank you.

Mark said when asked if I may mention his project, “Probably the most important thing to get across to people right now is that cash donations (which can be made using your credit card via PayPal) will usually result in roughly one nice hardback book being donated per dollar contributed – I work hard to get some leverage out of those donations. So far this year 100% of cash contributions have gone to books – shipping costs have all been covered by me.

Remember – nobody ever stuck up a 7-11 while reading a copy of “The DaVinci Code”. ”

Now listening….. another relative of my BFF Denise, her son Joey, has a website and an online radio show, and or podcast? My technological knowledge of the accurate wording for the process is weak, but it was easy to listen to Joey’s program, The Ben & Joey Show.  Joey and his friend and former roommate at UNT, Ben, write and produce the show. If you want to know what the 20 Somethings of today think about, tune in, for humor, satire, and the daily drudge of life, plus original music. And if you know Joey, check it out – it will mean more to you than it will to strangers. I’m sure he’d enjoy a shout out! from you.

If you ever look for me on AIM (instant messenger) you will frequently see that my away message will say “Gone Bowling.” The winter bowling leagues are winding down, only a few more weeks to go and there is only the Wed AM Mixed league during the summer. I am pleased to report that I continue to improve and my name has been on the bulletin board several times this spring. One day, both Jay and I made the honors in the Wed league. Today we participated in another tournament in Pueblo. It was just singles and doubles, Jay and JB were one team and Betty Lee and I were the other. I don’t think any of us did well enough to place and win money, but we had a good time. I’m sure we will continue to be good customers at Cliff Lanes, because we enjoy bowling so much, that we will go bowl frequently on our own. The last picture is the Monday AM team, Sum Pins, because we hit some pins. Beverly, Barb, me and Julie. Beverly is Julie’s mother in law, Barb shares the league with Beverly, it is a 3 woman team, Bev bowls in the fall, Barb in the winter. I am the tallest of the group at 5′5″, how about that? Three of us are quilters.

Speaking of quilting, Julie and I attended the Pueblo quilt show on April 4th. It was nice, more of a quilt vendor show, with some quilts on the side. Then last Tuesday, Julie and Mary Lou (another Mary Lou, not my mom) taught a quilt technique before the monthly quilt guild meeting. I finally unpacked my sewing machine and gathered supplies and participated in the class. All was going well, until I tried to drop the feed dogs on my machine, and then couldn’t get them up again. If you want to know what feed dogs are, send me an email and I’ll tell you. I had to stop work on the project, but I couldn’t have finished it, anyway. We all ran out of time. I called the Pueblo sewing machine stores to find out if they worked on my brand of machine, and one lady told me how to get the feed dogs up again. I tried it and it worked, so now I will use her services in the future, since she was so helpful to me on the phone. My machine is now sewing a straight line, or at least capable of sewing a straight line – if the operator is doing it right. So maybe there is a possibility of getting my sewing room set up soon.

The ski season ended this weekend at Monarch Ski Area. Jay went on Friday for the final time. It was snowing heavily and the wind was blowing, but he had a great time and he said it was pretty empty there. At one point, coming down a green run, he thought to himself, “if I had a problem, it would probably be at least 30 minutes before anyone found me”. I chose to stay home, then go into Pueblo to shop and attend evening services at our synagogue, B’nai Or. I’m glad that I did, because I think I would have been miserable in those weather conditions, I don’t like skiing enough to be that cold. Some of the ski areas are open a little later, and it is possible that we may have another chance to ski soon.

Our bathroom remodel is still progressing. Maybe it will be functional by May. I redesigned the tile design for the shower and Jay and I found border tile last week that worked better. I’ll show the completed design later, but have included a peek for today. I am also including Pike’s Peak, because Denise tried to get a picture of Pike’s Peak when she was here, but there was too much cloud cover. The picture is taken from the Hardscrabble point of interest site in Wetmore, CO. yesterday morning. Oh, and we had snow again Thursday and Friday, April 10 & 11, about 3 inches on Thursday and 2 in. on Friday. Now it’s mostly gone, but the old timers say we will probably get more before snow ends for good.

Our long awaited visitors finally arrived this past weekend and we had a great time.

Brenda and Denise, my BFFs, arrived on Thursday afternoon around 3 pm. We were happy that they could enjoy the beautiful drive through Hardscrabble mountain pass and see the mountains. We quickly dropped off their luggage, gave a quick tour of the house and headed into town for a quick bite at our favorite pub, then to the bowling alley to watch the Thursday night league. They enjoyed seeing where we spend so much of our time. We had to get up early the next morning to drive the hour and half to La Veta, CO for the taping of The Quilt Show (TQS) with Ricky Tims and Alex Anderson.

Colorado is noted for having 300+ days of sunshine, but not Friday, March 28th. There was thick fog, blanketing everything. We left a few minutes later than my ETD, with our two changes of tops (for two different show tapings) and our water bottles. I was concerned that we were going to be late for the 8:30 arrival time, so I had Jay look up their telephone number and report that we were on our way. I did not want our tickets to be given away. Jay called back to say we would still have seats if we got there before 9, and with relief in our hearts, we arrived in La Veta at 8:35 am. We had a great welcome with surprise that we made good time. The taping was great fun, although Denise was ready to scratch Brenda from her BFF list by the end of the morning show. Brenda submitted two question cards for the guest, one of which she signed with Denise’s name. You guessed it, Denise’s card was picked, and she got to be on camera asking the guest Brenda’s question! She was a good sport and did a great job, but she kept threatening to inflict bodily injury on Brenda for the trick. We had lunch next door at the LaVeta Inn, but no ghostly encounters, just good food. After a walk down main street (2 blocks) we returned to the studio and changed shirts for the afternoon taping. We were able to remain anonymous for the second taping, but sat in front of Ricky’s mom and dad, who are from Wichita Falls. We enjoyed our gifts from TQS and the whole process of being a live audience. Both shows featured professional long arm quilting machines by Gammill and Brenda and Denise kept trying to convince Jay that I needed one of these machines for the living room. By the time we left, the sun had come out and we could see the Spanish Peaks, the mountains of La Veta, and the Sangre de Cristo mountains on the ride home.We got home about 30 minutes before Jay left to go to the airport in Colorado Springs to pick up our other guests. While he was gone, we made baked potato soup, guacamole & chips, and margaritas for dinner. Brenda was our chief photographer, with my camera, hence she is behind the scenes.

Due to our very early departure, the time difference and not enough sleep the night before, Brenda and Denise headed to bed before our next guests, Merrit and Victor Aguayo, arrived at 11:30 pm. Merrit is an attorney who had an office in our building before it was demolished and is now working at Legal Aid of Northwest Texas. Merrit and Victor were celebrating their two year wedding anniversary by coming to Colorado to ski. They had reservations for ski school Saturday morning bright and early. After a snack of leftover soup and a sandwich, we showed them the guest room and the ski apparel and left them to try to get some sleep. We were up before 7 am, getting everything organized for their trip to Monarch ski area. They got to see elk, wild turkeys and deer on their trip and all went well. They took morning and afternoon classes, met Jay for lunch and had a great time. Being young and fearless, they were comfortable on their skis by the end of the day.

After sleeping in and catching up on their beauty sleep, Brenda, Denise and I went on a road trip of local sites. We visited Bishop’s castle, previously described in this blog when the kids were here in September. We didn’t climb any towers and I slipped on some black ice and landed on my butt, but fortunately didn’t hurt myself or my pants. We then drove to Florence, a quaint small town known for its antique stores, and had lunch at the Main Street Grille. We all enjoyed the meals very much and it promises to be a new favorite restaurant. On the way to the car, I tripped again, but fell forward this time on my hands and knees. Fortunately, no injuries and I drove better than I walked, because there were no automobile accidents. We visited the Royal Gorge overlook before heading back to Westcliffe. No trips or falls at that tourist attraction, thank goodness. We had time to visit two of the shops in town before it was time to meet Jay, Merrit and Victor at home. We had dinner reservations at The Feed Store, a very nice new restaurant in town. Ted rode with us into town, then got picked up by his friend, Bobby.

Sunday, was skiing again for Jay, Merrit and Victor. The deer were on the side of the road on the way into town, and while stopped to take a picture, the deer came over to say hi! Merrit and Victor were so relaxed on their skis, that they just followed Jay all over the mountain and had a great time, even skiing down the Continental Divide. On their way home they also stopped at the Royal Gorge to look at the bridge and the river far below. They visited a gift shop at the entrance to the Royal Gorge and gave it a 5 star rating. Brenda, Denise and I stayed home most of the day. It was important to them to make some contribution that would remind us of their presence, and picture hanging is their forte. We hung some of my quilts, some of our pictures, and our family pictures. In TX I had credenzas and a long counter in my bathroom to display family photos, not so here. So they are on the wall now. We made a trip to Canon City to the Walmart to get more coordinating frames and supplies for dinner. Brenda knew that if we didn’t finish the job together, it would still be unfinished when she made her next visit. On our trip, we got to see the big horn sheep on Hardscrabble, coming and going. Brenda made home made pizza dough, and we made pizza and salad for dinner. After dinner, we finished hanging the pictures in the hall. Poor Merrit and Victor were trying to sleep through the nail hammering, but were gracious and didn’t come out and yell at us.

Merrit and Victor were scheduled to leave for DFW at 11 am. The flight was full, so instead of trying to fly standby earlier, Brenda and Denise took a ride with us into Teller County and recreated our first path in Colorado, to Woodland Park CO, where we met and found our realtor, Stephanie Tanis, who helped us find our house in Westcliffe. We stopped at Wines of Colorado, a restaurant and wine store, and had lunch. Brenda and Denise shared a buffalo burger, a Colorado delicacy, and we took our final group photo out by the creek. Then it was back to the airport for their 1:30 pm flight. Everyone arrived home safely, which we were glad to hear.

We had a great time entertaining our guests. We hope they will return with their families for even more fun. And we hope you, our loyal audience, will consider signing our guest book (when we get one) and let us show you our Colorado paradise. Thank you to my BFFs who prodded, nagged and otherwise helped me get our downstairs personalized and decorated with our special items. We still have boxes of pictures to unpack, so if anyone else has a decorative eye and wants to make a contribution, just holler and come on!

We have a new tool – an ATV. It has a snow plow and a winch that we have been assured will pull our cars out of any snow bank or ditch, as long as there is a tree or another truck in sight. We have also purchased with our friends, the Finleys, a road grader to pull behind the atv (to be delivered). With the snow plow and the road grader, we should be able to take care of our own driveway. We can also use it to more fully and comfortably explore and manage our property.

It is also a recreational vehicle. It is a two seater, because I don’t want to repeat the motorcycle incident again, so I’d rather be a passenger. There are many beautiful trails locally and across the state. Quintin Finley seems to know all of the best trails and places to ride ATVs and wants to take us to see all of them (in the spring and summer, after the snow melts.) The ATV fits on our trailer just fine, so we can trailer it to the scenic spots, since it is not street legal.

We also bought a power washer, so we can wash the decks, house, cars and especially get the dirt out from the wheels of our cars. We thought Jay’s car needed to be aligned, but when we took it to Big O Tires, they confirmed that it was dirt from our driveway caught up in the wheels. The tires shimmied something fierce before Big O cleaned them out. But they showed Jay where the dirt was hiding, so he can keep the cars riding smoothly.