The Sickmiller Express

So last week was really long and stressful for me. Luckily there were a few bright spots. I received my box from Rebecca (my swap partner) and clearly I got the best partner! I loved everything in that box. She wrapped up everything in brown paper and decorated them with beautiful quotes. It was so much fun to open and I got it when I really needed a little pick-me-up. Here are the pictures of the package. Of course I had to re-create the first one because I opened it at work. I check the mail after lunch on my way to work. There was no way I was going to be able to wait until I got home at five.





Thanks Rebecca!!!

Ok I love vacations. Adam and I travel so well together and we always have the best time. Whenever we go anywhere I think, now THAT'S the best one so far. NYC was no exception. It also doesn't hurt to share it with some of your bestest friends. Staying with Chris and Tracie was just what we needed. They are great hosts.

We did a lot of the usual trip to New York City things. We went up the Empire State Building, saw a Broadway show (Wicked), strolled through Central Park, ate some Brooklyn pizza, went through Times Square, bought candy at FAO Schwarz, walked through St. Patrick's Cathedral and went to TV show tapings (Conan O'Brien and The Colbert Report). It was so much fun. I went once in high school and this time around everything seemed so much smaller for some reason. As in the buildings, the whole city itself, and the crowds all seemed smaller. The studios were small, especially Conan's. It was actually comically small. Conan in person... AMAZING. He's way better looking in person (I think Tracie can back me up on that one). The Colbert Report was hilarious. I love Stephen Colbert. He was still fighting his cold when we were there and we had to wait FOREVER to get in but it was still really fun. He blew a kiss to Tracie during the show and I am going to forever pretend it was to me

We went through the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. I don't think it was peak season to visit but we saw some pretty cool things. It was boiling hot. I've only lived out of the humid zone for a little over 3 years but man, you really get used to living without it. It wasn't even technically that hot and we didn't even need the AC for sleeping. Yay for their awesome apartment with a nice breeze.

Don't worry we definitely took advantage of NYC cuisine. We treated ourselves to delicious dinners out. Of course, we had burek, which wasn't very good but the restaurant was just perfect. Very Balkan. We had burritos, German barbeque, and Yum Yum Bangkok 3 (the one with tablecloths ; ) See how I closed those parenthesis with a smiley face. I'm so clever. Oh and we had a great lunch at a diner on the upper east side where we saw some actresses. Right Chris? Specifically I think they were soap opera stars but I might have added that myself.

Sigh. What a fun vacation!!! It's their turn now! Skiing in February.

How fun is this! I just signed up to do it. I got the link from another blog I follow.




Click above to follow and enter!

So this isn't shaping up to be the best week of my life. Yesterday I came home from work and Rebecca, one of our goldfish, was dead. She had been struggling for awhile now and finally stopped breathing. It had been really hard to watch these last few days. RIP Rebecca.

Our vacation is now looking to be the best timed vacation ever.

Friday, Senator Salazar made a stop in Silverton to talk about healthcare. Adam and I attended along with around 20 other citizens. As is to be expected he is great in front of a crowd, very personable. He wanted to have a conversation and not lecture, what is with that? I don't understand why the lecture is so feared. If I wanted to have a conversation I'd head to the pub. I always hated those kinds of classes at university, where participation was a large percentage of the grade. It always led to people making unnecessary comments and asking questions they already knew the answer to. They didn't seem to help me out because I'm still pretty standoffish and don't have much to say (specifically around people that I'm not good good friends with). It makes more sense in this case because he wants to hear what 'the people' have to say and he DID give a mini presentation. Ok, back to the topic. Ironically I started this post wanting to comment on how people rant on other topics when asking a 'question'. Not only did the questions seem to be hidden behind a lot of opinion but they were off topic. Let's just talk about the issue at hand, don't come and waste all of our time. The senator is only going to divert or shallowly answer your 'question'. Write him a letter or something. Aside from all of that it was interesting and I really enjoyed meeting him. Also someone sang him a song while strongly hinting that he was a 'Caveman Democrat'. Fun times.

We had a great time with Dad Sickmiller and the Armbrusters. The weekend was pretty busy involving quite a long hike for little legs and didn't leave much time for altitude adjustment as it was the first day everyone was here. The pictures are amazingly beautiful. We had bright blue skies, everything was green and there was an abundance of wildflowers. Following the hike we grilled out and spent an evening catching up. The good weather continued for most of the weekend as we went to Animas Forks, watched Adam perform with the Brass Band, rode the train and went to the Bar-D Chuckwagon.

It was the first time for Adam and I to ride the train. We left from Silverton and got off short of Durango in Rockwood. We really enjoyed the ride and are looking forward to doing it again on locals day. It was overcast that day and I rather enjoyed it that way. It made for a nice moody train ride.

When our friends Mark and Jason were here in May we tried to go to this Bar-D Chuckwagon in Durango but they were closed for a private party on the night we planned to attend. Bummer. Adam made the suggestion that the gang of us go down after the train ride and I'm so glad he did. I wasn't necesarily sold on the idea but I loved it. The food was great for being a buffet capable of feeding 700 and the show was fun. Mark and Jason, you would've loved it! Next time.

The Armbrusters left Tuesday morning heading to Steamboat Springs then on to visit other family in Fort Collins. Dad stayed with us and we had a nice week together until he flew out of Denver on Saturday. I worked most of the time but he and Adam visited the museum and went hiking. We had heard the museum was interesting but we'd never been. Adam and his dad confirmed that it was a great museum, so I really need to go check it out. We left Friday to start heading towards the airport so as to not have to drive in the middle of the night the entire way. We stopped at the botanical gardens in Grand Junction just 45 minutes before they closed and probably could have spent a BIT more time but we were able to see everything they had. It's a pretty nice garden, if a bit small, but they have plenty of room to expand and have lots of plans for the future. They had a most interesting tree that I had never seen the likes of before and I asked the one guy who was working there what it was but he didn't know. He said I was the second person to ask that day so he would have to find out. Most of the plants were marked but not that one. It had pink fluffies all over it. They also had a really nice succulent garden.

Anyway, we stayed in Eagle along I-70 Friday night and then leisurely got up and went to the airport in the morning. Adam and I did some shopping at the mall afterwards and then headed to REI. We tried to eat fast food as we left Denver and ended up having a problem that we've had before. All of the sudden it's as if we're leaving Denver and we haven't see any fast food places. So we get off at what seems like the last exit before heading into the hills and it took us an hour to find and eat at Burger King. We get back on the highway (after backtracking three exits on side roads) and then about twenty minutes later there is a Wendy's in some po-dunk town in the foothills right off the highway. Strange. I was really grumpy after shopping on an empty stomach and I was not going to eat from a gas station (I had an irrational fear that Colorado gas stations don't serve warm food and I wanted a warm meal not a cold refrigerator sandwich) so I was glad to put up with the hunt for BK. Continuing on... we camped that night and then headed back home to Silverton in time for Adam to play with the band. The end.

I just looked back at my posts over the summer and realized I never posted about my parents' trip out here the first week in June. My mom will probably give me a hard time about that. LOVE YOU MOM

So we recently watched The Station Agent. This movie totally gets 3 stars (out of 3 remember). We absolutely LOVED the characters. It was so much fun to watch. They were all so different but extremely lovable. It was also short which is a huge plus in the Sickmiller household. I am always really tired in the evening and barely make it through most movies and Adam just likes short movies in general. It was also nice to see a quiet movie. I don't like being bombarded with noise for hours on end. Just doing this review makes me want to put it back on the queue and watch it in another month or two. I rented this one thinking it was an "Adam" movie and acted like I was doing him a favor by putting it at the top of the list but we both really enjoyed it. This next one is definitely a "Danielle" movie. I kind of forget the story line but hopefully Adam will enjoy it as much as I enjoyed this one. Ok, I don't think that'll happen. I hope he doesn't fall asleep at least.

Before The Station Agent was No Country For Old Men. I had been really excited for this movie but by the time we got it I had no interest in watching it. I told Adam to watch it when I was gone. He didn't like it at all and said I didn't miss anything. I trust his opinion enough to rate it, so it gets a 1.

So I decided to get up and run a 5k. I paid to run. That's right. I've never ran 'up here' and for that matter I never ran 'down there' either. I didn't have any problems with my muscles (I've been weightlifting and going to pilates, with an occasional spin class thrown in) but I could NOT catch my breath very easily. I was able to jog for the majority except for on the two hills. Yay for me.

After that we ran around getting ready for the parade and rhubarb festival. I followed the brass band along the parade route and therefore didn't see much else. I was running around recording their songs, well at least I tried to record their songs. Little things like me not knowing how to use the recorder and falling off the sidewalk twisting my ankle kept getting in the way. I apparently managed to get part of one song though.

The band played in the park while I handed out pie and ice cream at the rhubarb tent. We ran out of pies and only a few people were hard to deal with. Next year I'll have to make a ton more. I've mapped out some rhubarb that didn't get picked this year and I'll have to get it next year. I only made 5 pies this year.

We came home and crashed. Watched Across the Wide Missouri and took a nap. We woke up and wanted to go out for dinner and get ice cream at the grocery. It was quite a scene downtown. It took forever and there was a HUGE line at the grocery. We got our food to go from the diner and brought it home to our picnic table. We watched the fireworks from an empty lot by our house with our neighbors. I always heard how good the show would be but I didn't really believe them. I thought small town good? or big city good? They were AWESOME. I don't think I've seen a show that long. Maybe I have. I made a video of the first 5 minutes and then our memory card was full. You can see it here. Start watching at 4 minutes to get the best part. I saw the two biggest fireworks I've ever seen. One is at 4:15. The other I didn't get on video and unfortunately it was the biggest. YOU ALL need to come out here next year. Rumor has it the hotels are already booked but luckily we have a house calling your name. So starting saving, buy your ticket, get ready to fuel up the car. We'll see you here next year!

Ok so I meant to rent La Vie en Rose and I rented Ma Vie en Rose. Don't know if you've heard of either. One was at the Oscars. One was not.

I got the one that was not. Adam slept through most of it. He didn't miss anything. It was about a boy who said he was trapped in a girls body and cross dressed/kissed boys much to the embarrassment of his family. It had some fun dancing in it but I would never recommend it. One star. Somehow it has less splats on rottentomatoes.com than La Vie en Rose

I added La Vie en Rose to my queue but somehow the other movie is souring my appetite to see it. It might just linger at the bottom of the list. They have it 'on demand' but still don't have the Mac capabilities set up so I can't watch it that way.

Also we watched Juno. It was better than I thought it would be and we really enjoyed watching it. That's all I have to say about it. Three stars.

Two posts in one day??? What?

Well...... WE ARE GOING TO VISIT TRACIE AND CHRIS!!!!!!!!

Just bought our tickets. Soooo excited. Can't wait for Labor Day weekend! Plus a few days before.
T & C I hope you don't get sick of us. We're good guests. I promise.


PS Do I have permission to post this pic???

The weather has been beautiful here. Sunny and 70s pretty much every day. We spend a lot of our free time sitting outside, messing with the garden, or playing tennis. We are super excited for July 4th. It is a very big event here in town. The hotels have been booked for months and we are very proud to have 'the biggest fireworks show on the western slope'. We missed all July 4th celebrations last year because when we were traveling we ended up in cities who celebrated the SUNDAY BEFORE. Seriously ridiculous. It's maybe a smidge too late this year but next year you should all come out here and visit this week. The weather is great, everything is greened up and we can celebrate my favorite holiday together. Also, we have a rhubarb festival. I just made enough pie crust for 7 pies. I think I have picked enough rhubarb for 4 so I need to go wrestle up some more.

I know you've all be DYING to see our house so here are a few shots.