With the need for full disclosure, I must admit to an error. I know all of you who think I am PERFECT, will be gasping with amazement, but it’s true. It was pointed out to me by a reader that I do not listen to Margaritaville via Direct TV, I actually have Dish satellite TV. My apologies to all, and perhaps Direct TV should get Margaritaville on their service too!

As many of you know, I was gone for almost two week on my recent vacation and found a wonderful home for Amber and Lacey while I was gone. My friend, Sue, and her husband, Jerry, offered to keep the dogs at their house for the duration. Sue is my friend on several levels, she is a bowler on my Monday league, she is a quilter and member of our contemporary quilt group, she helped Jay get the job at Wells Fargo and was his co-worker, loves animals and she is Jewish. This past Sunday afternoon, her husband, Jerry, was thrown from their mule and died almost instantly. Sue was riding their horse and was with him not far from their home at the time. The mule took off running, stopped suddenly and Jerry was thrown over the mule’s head and landed on his neck. He was wearing a helmet, which was not adequate protection for the way he was thrown and landed. All of the appropriate measures were taken, CPR was done, EMTs and Life flight arrived, but to no avail.

The community which surrounds Sue and Jerry (family, neighbors, quilters, bowlers, & hunters) are lessened by Jerry’s passing. Jerry had a terrific smile and a warm personality and gave great hugs. He loved the outdoors, hunting and camping. They bought the mule and horse in order to “pack” up into mountains, taking trails to follow deer and elk and to enjoy the mountains in a way not accessible to those traveling by car or atv. Sue said Jerry enjoyed playing ball with Amber and Lacey and enjoyed having the labs with them while I was gone. I am pleased to think that they gave him an opportunity to play in a different way than his usual routine and brought him some joy.

This accident is just one more reminder that none of us knows what our future holds and to treasure each day with our loved ones. But as Sue has said, “Jerry was doing what he loved when he died” and isn’t that what we would all wish for ourselves? There will be a celebration of Jerry’s life in the near future, no funeral or sadness was his wish, and we will all be there remembering our friend, Jerry. May his memory be a blessing for future generations. L’dor v’dor.

Many of you have kindly inquired about my bowling activities and scores. I got a new bowling ball in September, a finger tip ball. In October, after the High Holidays, my bowling became erratic. I would have one really good score, then two games which were pitiful, under 115 for example. Then after returning from the cruise, all three of my games would be pitiful, with the one high game being 135 or less. I took the high road, and rather than throwing my bowling balls into a snow bank, I went to Pueblo for remedial coaching. Marv, who was the coach for our ladies clinic, worked with me for several hours last Friday, the 14th, aka Matt’s birthday. We changed everything, my stance, my approach to the line, where I line up for the first ball, how to hold the ball when picking up spares, basically everything except the ball. After three hours I was comfortable with the new approach, which is key. Changing which foot you start with and how you walk can really throw everything out of sync, but it’s working.

The next two days were the final days of the women’s Pueblo “City” tournament. As a director, I was there on Saturday, to see how the tournaments are run and to help. I had an opportunity to practice my new techniques and then on Sunday, I was the captain of a Director’s team, Team 2. I did really well for the recent me, and averaged 157. Our team came in first among the three director’s teams, which was fun, and was one point out of the unofficial standings for payout for the team event. My league averages have dropped from 145 – 151 in early October to 138 this past week. I have been able to keep up with my technique, some days better than others, and hope to see my averages go back up.

Last weekend, we opened our new garage door and found thousands of little black crumbs along the floor. Upon investigation, it was determined that varmints had chewed up the rubber (?) flap on the bottom of the door. Jay has also found evidence of their trying to nest in the boat and the big wheel (ATV). I think I need some good mousers, i.e, cats. I don’t know if the varmints are mice, chipmunks, squirrels, or other. But it’s time to rid ourselves of such pests. People advise barn cats. Now we don’t have a barn and I can’t imagine leaving cats outside at night with the type of weather we have, and a kitten won’t do it either. So, I’m in the market for one or more cats to live with us. I’ve been missing having a cat anyway. I’ll start networking with my friends and see what happens.

Speaking of pests and pets, I had not taken care of the dog pen since before I left on the cruise and the yard looked like a veritable mine field of healthy dog digestion. Yesterday we had light snow, fog and cold, so I bundled up in a ski bib and tackled the yard. I always think of my dad when poop scooping, because he was really enchanted with our pooper scooper tool back in TX. He even purchased one for the yard at Lake Claiborne. I didn’t take before pictures, but I have after pictures to show, not as impressive without the comparison, but you’ll have to use your imagination. While out pooper scooping the back yard yesterday, I noticed that something had chewed up our rain downspout on the side of the house. You might remember seeing it when the bear was climbing the fence to get out of the back yard last June? I was impressed with the damage and wondered who or what could have chewed through the metal like that (pictures to follow) and why? Upon closer inspection, I found fur among the mangled metal, and then a tail dangling down. So, it appears that something, perhaps a chipmunk based upon the fur color, was in the downspout and someone tried to get at it and partially succeeded. It didn’t escape! However, I wonder if any one can advise whether this is something that Amber and Lacey would or could have done or if it might have been some other critter?

While taking care of business in the yard yesterday, I once again wondered why it was so quiet when it snows? I did a google search and WikiAnswers had a response:
Two answers: first snow does not reflect sound well, it absorbs it so that much of what you would normally hear is muffled. Secondly, most animals seek shelter when it snows and therefore there are many less bird sounds immediately after a snow storm.
Any other suggestions or ideas on this thought? I never would have thought of this before moving to Colorado, I had not had enough experience with snow to notice.

One final note for this blog. I am very happy driving in my car these days. Recently, XM Radio and Sirius, satellite radio competitors, merged and have finally merged their programming. I can now get Margaritaville, the Jimmy Buffett station, on XM channel 55. I have XM in my car, Sirius is in Jay’s car, channel 31, and in the house via Dish TV. When I am at home, after the news I change the tv to Margaritaville, and listen to happy music all day long. Now I can sing along with Jimmy Buffett in my car too. It’s a good thing I keep the windows closed, so I don’t offend anyone driving by. It’s the little things that keep us happy!

Snow was projected last night, but as of my bed time, no snow had fallen. However, there was a light snow falling when I woke this morning. The flakes were fine and falling slowly, but not enough to prevent the dogs from playing ball before I went to town to bowl. I wasn’t sure how long or how much it was supposed to snow, so I took some before and after photos. The first photo is of the back yard after we played ball this morning, you can see all of our tracks, and of the driveway. The snow was collecting on the driveway, but not too much in the grass.

The drive into town was uneventful for me, but a friend traveling the same route 10 minutes later said visibility had decreased significantly and the roads were slick. I had no problem getting to the bowling center and even had one good game. A friend asked if we’d had much snow, they live north of town and only had a dusting if that much. The snow continued to fall while we were bowling, but had stopped in town by 1 pm. As I got closer to home, I realized it was still snowing in our part of the valley. I was able to follow our neighbor’s outgoing tracks on my way up our drive and see how much snow had fallen. But when I got to our personal driveway, my tracks had been obliterated and it was smooth deep snow ahead. I took pictures of the driveway ahead and the tracks behind. On the way up the driveway near the house was a herd of deer foraging under the trees. The final pictures are of the driveway and back yard as comparisons from this morning.

In Colorado, life doesn’t stop for snow (usually) like it does in Texas. We still had snow on the ground on northern exposures and under trees from last week. I imagine this snow will linger in the same places too. It’s time to make chili, soup and stew…warm comfort foods!

Cruise follow-up: Mary Beth posted her cruise photos on Picasa.  Margaret posted her photos on Kodak. Some photos are the same, we were together after all, but others will be new, since not all of us took the same photos. If more photos get posted, I’ll add them here.

My flight to Fort Worth from New Orleans on Monday was quick and uneventful. It was on time, no luggage was lost and I got to read my book. I picked up my rental car and headed to Julia’s apartment. She had worked hard at getting it cleaned up, including  renting a carpet cleaner, due to pet issues with the carpet. I think they were just looking for an excuse to clean the carpets and were lucky I came by. Julia has a new roommate, Tiffany, who has two cats, brother and sister, who are about 4 months old. Julia has her original cat, Mufasa, who looks Siamese and a new chihuahua female puppy, Hurley, who is 2 months old.

I enjoyed being around cats again, and who can’t fall in love with a puppy. Hurley was just learning to bark, but it sounded more like squeaks than barks. She is adorable. After introductions to Julia’s girlfriend, Tia, the pets, and roommate Tiffany, Julia, Tia and I headed out in the rental car for dinner at Uncle Julio’s  in Fort Worth. Uncle Julio’s is a restaurant that I have missed while in CO. Jay and I would have lunch there 3 – 4 times a month. The food and service was still excellent and I had fajita leftovers to take home for lunch. While we were visiting west Fort Worth, we drove past the site of our former office building. It was demolished last year, but no roadway construction has begun yet.

Tuesday, Oct 28th, was Julia’s 22nd birthday.. where did the time go? It is also the birthday of my BFF Denise. After a relaxed morning (someone skipped school on their birthday), we had lunch at Cheddar’s with Tia then got pedicures at Julia’s new favorite nail salon. Julia’s choice for dinner was Pappadeaux, a New Orleans style seafood restaurant. We were able to arrange dinner at the Pappadeax restaurant in Plano, so that we could celebrate Denise’s birthday as well. My other BFF, Brenda, also drove from Arlington to join us and our party included Katie, Denise’s daughter, Megan and Damian, Brenda’s #2 daughter and her first grandchild, and Tia, Julia’s girlfriend. Pappadeaux’s is known for its seafood, Julia and I go there for the chicken. The two birthday girls each got a complimentary dessert, which was enough for us all to pass 3x around the table and still have enough to take home. A good day.

Wednesday, Julia had school and work. Brenda had made reservations for us to see Menopause, the Musical that evening. We had dinner at Boomerjack’s, the restaurant where Julia and Tiffany work. Denise, Brenda and I were joined by Brenda’s husband, John, son Mat and #3 daughter Anna. Julia was an excellent waitress and the food was very good. John was our chauffeur to the play, which was good because we had drinks with dinner and we got dropped off at the door.  The play was excellent, very funny and right on! There was probably one man for every 15 women in the audience, but I’m sure they had a good time, it was hard not to. After the chauffeur ride back to our parked cars at Boomerjack’s, I headed to Julia’s apartment, where she and Tia taught me to play Phase 10, a rummy style card game.

Thursday, after packing up my suitcase, I had lunch with Cathy, Molly’s mom. Oh yes, Matt has asked Molly to marry him and she said yes! They are newly engaged, were friends from Martin High School and Congregation Beth Shalom and have been dating since college, most recently via long distance between Baton Rouge, LA and Austin, TX . We are very excited for Matt and Molly and are very pleased to have friends for new in-laws. No news on a wedding date yet, but we know it won’t be August 29th. That date is reserved for cousin John and his fiancee, Laura. I thought I’d left enough time to get the rental car returned at 2 pm. However, I ran into two separate areas of traffic congestion on the interstates raising my anxiety level. But luck was on my side, I was able to refuel the Caliber and get it returned with less than 10 minutes past my due time & without penalty. My flight to Austin was again on time and uneventful. Wallace picked me up at the airport, which was only a short drive from their home. We had a nice dinner, I had a lesson in making Risotto, an opportunity to check email, and we were off to bed.

Friday was the day for sightseeing in Austin. We went to visit Matt at his work, got a tour of Rackspace and his cubicle, and had lunch together. After lunch, Wallace took me to visit Mount Bonnell, where he took a lot of pictures with his new Nikon camera. We then went to Laguna Gloria, an estate which is part of the Austin Museum of Art. And finally we went to the Mayfield Park, which is famous for their flock of peacocks and peahens. Wallace took more photos. Friday was also Halloween, so after the sightseeing we returned to W&J’s house. Wallace was chef and made beer can chicken, grilled zuchinni, and quinoa ( a south american grain) and we took turns answering the door for trick or treaters. After dinner, Matt reviewed Wallace’s photos and upon request gave us all lessons on taking better pictures, how to figure line of sight, where to pose people, the use of the rule of 3, etc. It was very informative. Wallace took some good pictures and we could see why some worked and some didn’t – in light of the info Matt gave us.

Matt also showed me a very funny website where people post pictures of cats doing funny things with captions spelled as cats would spell, i.e. poorly. The website is I can haz cheezburger or also called Lolcats which I guess means laugh out loud cats…who also like to eat cheeseburgers. It’s worth a check out if you like cats or like to make fun of cats, and is probably funnier when viewed by a group of like minded people, but it will make you chuckle out loud. Make that laugh out loud, I was just perusing the site. The best humor is not necessarily the photos, but the captions. Enjoy!

Here is a picture of Jen that Wallace took on Friday at Mount Bonnell. Oh, did I mention that Jen is pregnant? She is in her fourth month, has finally finished with morning sickness, and is able to feel the baby move a lot. Wallace calls the baby Gil, a nickname. We don’t know if it is a girl or boy, but Gil’s due date is April 23rd, which is perfect because all of the bowling leagues will be finished. (It’s all about me!) LOL, not really, but both sets of grandparents are very excited. Wow, grandparents….that’s me and Jay!

Saturday was a quiet day. We did some window shopping for living room furniture and maternity clothes, then went to see Matt’s house. Matt offered me a walking tour of his neighborhood, so W&J went home to take a nap. He lives in a neighborhood which was established in the early 1950s. Many of the houses have been updated, and it is still a mix of original owners, young professionals starting families and single persons like Matt. You can walk to interesting stores, like Indian and Asian markets, restaurants, bars, an IGA grocery store, etc. He took me to a neighborhood bar, Lala’s, that maintains Christmas decorations all year and treated me to a beer. Then I got to ride in Matt’s RX8 to dinner with W&J. We had a nice Mexican dinner at a local restaurant,  Curra’s Grill. I had an avocado margarita! It was very smooth and creamy. After dinner, we went back to the house, and played two games of Scrabble. Matt is an excellent scrabble player and was the player to beat!

My trip was over. Wallace took me back to the airport on Sunday to catch the flight to DFW, then the flight to Colorado Springs. Again, luggage and I got to the same place at the same time on time. Jay met me at the airport and we had dinner and got to catch up on all the details from two weeks. Then we went our separate ways again, Jay to the Academy  and I home to see the puppies. The two weeks seemed to fly by.