Confessions of a Gearhead’s wife

Every day I take Duncan for a walk in the park across the street.  Duncan is the eternal optimist.  Easch day we set out on our walk and he goes out with the certainty that everyone we meet, human or canine, will love him.  I have to say, that 70% of the people and/or dogs that we come across do love him.  However, there is that 30% that either just ignore him or in the canine world, don’t like other dogs or find his puppy exuburance too much to handle.  Duncan, does not let that phase him.  We can meet the same dog that snapped at him the day before and he will approach with his tail wagging just as enthusiatically as the first day. 

I think people can learn something from dogs.  Duncan believes with all his heart that he is lovable.  He greets every day with a zest for life that I wish I had.  Whatever we’re doing, he’s enjoying it.  I am so happy that he is part of our family and I can hardly remember what it was like before he came.  Dogs make life better.  At least for me they do. 

It’s been so long since we’ve done anything spontaneous.  When you live in the mountains, nobody just stops by.  No one comes over for a drink and then goes home.  If people come to your house it’s a planned event.  Planned well in advance.  Yesterday before work I put a flat iron steak in a ziploc to marinate and I went to work.  I had dinner planned, grilled steak, an acorn squash, a nice salad and leftover cake for dessert.  Then M. called and said she was going to the mall and then to a movie with a friend.  No problem, have fun honey. 

I get home and as I said, dinner is planned and we will have more than enough food for two.  My sister and her husabnd have been in Australia for three weeks, they haven’t seen the house , they weren’t around to help us move.  In fact we haven’t seen them since our wedding.  So I open a bottle of wine, (The S2 I mentioned a few posts ago) and call. 

“Have you started cooking yet?”  “Nothing that can’t be stopped”,  she says.  So she calls her hubby home from work and they pop over for dinner…on  a Tuesday.  No elaborate plans, just come on by, share a meal and a bottle of wine.  It was fantastic! We had such a good time just talking and eating.  Dinner was fabulous by the way.  I had an envelope of some kind of powdered marinade which I embellisehd because I always do and the steak sat in the marinade all day.  We threw it on the grill, medium rare and had a roasted acorn squash with a little butter and brown sugar, a basic salad with mixed greens, tomatos, cukes, carrots, sprouts, red pepper and goat cheese, with a balamic vinagrette.  My sister brought a nice crunchy sour dough bread to round out the meal.  All in all very satisfying.

I am not a professional sports fan.  I don’t watch football except for the super bowl and that’s for the ads.  I don’t watch baseball on TV although I have been to a few games.  I never know who’s playing, or who’s going to the playoffs etc.  That being said, I’m so excited that the Rockies are going to the world series.  I even tried to buy tickets on line.  That did not work so I guess I will save the money and watch on TV. 

O.K., this is my first attempt at posting a photo.  Here is a photo of the new house.         

I will just come out and say it, I am a Molly Dooker junkie.  We opened a bottle of the Shiraz, Blue Eyed Boy.  Wow…I know my spaghetti did not do it justice but it did not lessen our enjoyment of it.  We are not wine collectors and are not wine snobs.  I think the things we have, wine included are meant to be enjoyed.  I don’t have special occasion dishes or glasses, I buy things that I like and use them everyday. 

Kind of like this blog.  I write this for me.  I enjoy reflecting on the ups and downs of life, it gives me a place to vent.  I have no illusions that I am going to create something that will gather a following or turn into my ticket to retirement.  It’s just me in a “stream of consciousness” manner of speaking. 

Back to the wine, after we finished that bottle we opened another Mollly Dooker, the Boxer.  Also a shiraz and also quite nice but not quite as good as Blue Eyed Boy.  We still have 2 bottles of the Marquis Phillips S2.  Our wine guy friend says it’s time to drink it.  So perhaps tonight we will open it. 

We had snow all day yesterday and it put me in the mood to cook.  First I started out with a cake.  I hardly ever make dessert any more.  Too many calories, too much temptation and not enough people in the house to eat it.  The recipe that I was using called for baby food beets.  Who knew that they don’t sell baby food beets anymore.  My kids are way past babies so I have no reason to go down the baby food aisle.  Anyway, I made a quick substitution of prunes w/apples and it turned out pretty good.  It doesn’t quite have the same flavor as with the beets but no one in my house complained.  Actually M, my daughter, said “I’m so glad you’re a mom that cooks.”  I also made a pretty good shrimp jambalaya.  Good stick to your ribs comfort food.  The house felt so cozy and warm with the oven going, and all the yummy smells.  It was a great fall day.   

Tonight we will have our first official house guest.  Pretty exciting!  We have gone to visit Mark & Jean often when they were in Arizona and they were always so welcoming and generous.  It’s nice to be able to reciprocate.  This time it is only Mark as he is here on business.  It’s too bad Jean can’t be here too, but she will come and stay one day too. 

 I really enjoy having people come to stay but I like it even more when I’m not working so that I can really prepare and entertain.  Mark doesn’t get in until late tonight so this evening will probably just be getting him settled, a little chit chat and then bed.  We all have to work tomorrow so we will all be up and out the door.  Tomorrow evening we will have a little more time to visit and catch up.  We have a bunch of really good wine so I will probably just throw together some spaghetti so that I can sit and enjoy the conversation.  I really do enjoy having friends over.  That’s going to be one of the best things about this house.  The space works so well for entertaining.  The kitchen level is nice and open and there’s a huge granite bar so people can sit and talk and the kitchen prep area is large enough for more than one person to be working at the same time. 

I was going to try to find some fantastic recipe and go all out, but coming home from work and trying to make something new with out a dry run sounds like asking for trouble. 

Yesterday I picked up all the trash from in front of Russel’s house.  Russel is our 80 something next door neighbor.  Nice man, I talked to him for about 30 minutes last week.  I’ve only seen him outside once and that was in the back yard, I’ve never seen him out front.  Anyway, the trash gets stuck under his bushes and it starts to look junky, so I picked it up.  Looks much better and I know Russel appreciates it.

O.K. so we’re not packing every day anymore.  I try to go to the mountain house at least 3 times a week.  Now it’s just the stuff that has accumulated that we don’t use.  Unfortunately, we can’t just leave it there.  Also the house needs a thorough cleaning.  Yuck!  P is working diligently to organize his dream garage.  He is so happy and I know that it will be really cool when he is done.  He has the El Camino up on the lift to get it out of the way and the sandrail parked underneath.  The motocycles are off to the left and the Ram and the 72 pickup are left to right after that.  Then there are a bunch of boxes to be unpacked and cabinets to be mounted.  I do believe that one day I will park my car in the garage.

Wow, moving is a lot of work.  You forget if you don’t move regularly how much work it really is.  We recruited my brother and his wife as well as J. and M. to help us with the really heavy stuff….the refrigerator, the washer and dryer, the beds.  Mattresses are a real pain in the rear.  Not only are they heavy but awkward and you can’t get a grip on them, the fabric handles that they put on are a joke.  Anyway, we managed to get most of the really heavy things and now we are trying to pick away at the rest on our own while working and trying to live life. 

The new house is great!!!!  Nice to be back in civilization.  I like the new neighborhood and we have a really great park across the street but boy is it noisy.  After living in the mountains for 15 years I really got used to things being quiet.   At night you didn’t hear anything but the wind.  Now if we leave the windows open, you hear traffic and people and sirens.  It’s very strange.

Duncan loves having a yard, but he’s used to the quiet too.  Whenever he hears anything he runs out there and starts barking his head off.  Way to make friends with the neighbors, obnoxious barking dog.  I know that he just needs to get used to his surroundings but I really don’t want to tick anyone off so I’m constantly running out there and trying to get him to quit.

M has started making friends at the new school and so that is definitely making things easier for her.  Her room at this house is much smaller than the old one and she will have to reorganize in order for things to fit.  Maybe she will decide she does not have to save everything and get rid of a few things.

When J. was leaving after helping with the heavy lifting he said we might see him more often now because we’re so much closer.  So I guess moving can be a good thing.  I miss him so much since he moved out. 

P. is in heaven with the huge garage.  He brought the El Camino down the other day and it is ensconced is the new digs.  We don’t have all the tools yet but I know that will be coming soon.   P wants to move all that himself and get the garage organized and set up just so.  By the time he is done I am sure he could have a spread in Ultimate Garage magazine if there was such a thing. 

One day if I am ever able to blog from home I will post some pictures, of the wedding, the new house, the fabulous garage, etc.

So we continue to pick away and the old house is looking abandoned and yucky.  I just want to finish so that we can clean it and have it looking good again and get it sold.  If anyone wants to buy a house in the foothills outside of Denver, let me know.