Entries by Danielle

Today I am wearing flip-flops to work. What? Do I work at the beach or something? Sigh. I couldn't find my Crocs this morning. I feel so naked having my toes exposed. Also, sometime last week I painted my toenails. After the first foot I decided I didn't like the color so I stopped. "I 'never' wear open-toed shoes," I said to myself. Oops.

I have a ton to write about but never feel like doing it. We've had two sets of visitors and I haven't posted any pics of the house. We're getting a bucket of topsoil today and will be working on the garden this weekend. We got our plants on Weds. It still freezes at night. We just lost Mr. Tomato. Some things just aren't cool up here. The growing season is one of those things. We're going to blame the death of Mr. Tomato on Silverton so we don't feel as bad for leaving him outside all night.

So we have been living at our 'new' house for over a week now and we love it! It is much bigger than what we thought we'd move into but I can't complain about having my own sewing/crafting room. It's technically smaller than our 'old' house but the space is much more user friendly. I was really concerned that the cats would hate it. I'm not sure exactly what I meant by hate it but I thought it would take awhile to get used to it. The yard is much smaller and doesn't really have any grass to speak of. It also doesn't have a fence for them to hide behind when they get chased by big dogs. It hasn't really bothered them though. Once they kind of got chased by a big golden lab but the front door was open so Charles ran through that and The Colonel got real big and hissed at him. Adam and I started yelling and Mr. Doggie just jogged along. Ok this paragraph really switched from the house to the cats.

In addition to a sewing room we have our bedroom and a computer room. I think the thing we have both enjoyed the most is having a bedroom. Having our dressers in the same room as our bed and having it function only as a bedroom has been soooooo nice. I didn't even know I was missing that at the other house but now that we have it, I notice. Also, my commute to work is about 1.5 minutes. I'm looking at the house right now. It's catty-corner across the street and I'm always looking over at the front door to see if anything is 'going on'. Nothing ever is.

Oh, and I've totally noticed this since I've lived in three different places recently. There are things that I cannot use when I move into a new place. Some of them make sense and others seem a little paranoid. #1 I always have to replace the toilet seats. I don't know why. I never think about toilet seats when I'm at a friends house but I always get new toilet seats when I move. This one seems kind of understandable #2 - Shower curtain. Seriously? Why do people leave their old crusty shower curtain in the first place? It's gross. I also have a strong preference for linen curtains and most people use those plastic kind. I had to take this last one down with gloves it bothered me so much. The next one is also kind of bathroom related but also extends to the kitchen, #3 faucet knobs. I always want to buy new knobs but rarely do I take it that far. These I just take apart, soak and scrub. I've been good about not buying new ones so far. I think this one falls into the paranoia category so I try to be more reasonable. #4 is much more unexplainable, ice cube trays. I can't stand it when people leave these in the fridge. It's really gross to me and I always bring my own. Why don't people take them when they move? Will they not have a freezer in their new place? Maybe they are 'supposed' to stay with the freezer, I don't know. Gross. I just got the heebie-jeebies just thinking about it.

Soooo 'fess up. What is it that you have to replace when you move into a new place? Nothing at all?

The first weekend in May was wonderful. It started with the first train pulling into town shortly followed with the second train! I had no idea there would be two. Adam and the rest of the Silverton Brass Band played for awhile on the corner. I LOVE the music of the brass band. I think it would put anyone in a good mood. It's so fun. You can take a listen here.



The weather was beautiful, blue skies and snow on the mountaintops. Also, there were a bunch of people dressed up in old-timey clothes. Here are a few pics from the day.











Saturday night a favorite local band, Too Little O2, played. They were really good and we had a great time dancing the night away. Adam kept trying to get me to dance and I wouldn't and then the song "I saw her standing there" came on and an older man saw me boppin' around in my chair and came over and held out his hand. I got up and danced with him. Which is funny because as you may know a line in the song is 'I wouldn't dance with another'. I thought this was HILARIOUS and every time the line came up I would sing really loud, look at Adam, and crack up laughing. He just shook his head. He's so lucky.

Wishing I was home with my family today.

Grandma I love you and am thinking about you constantly. Especially on today of all days, I'm remembering all of the Mother's Day banquets we attended when I was little. I am comforted by the thought that our family is there for you today if for another reason altogether.

Mom, happy mother's day! I love you and am thankful for everything you are. Can't wait to see you in a month.

This has been one long month. One looooooong month. I can't wait for May. I don't have too many exciting things happening in May but I don't think it could get much worse. I'm so stressed and I don't consider myself a stressful person (as in full of stress not one who causes stress, either way though). A college friend is coming out to the area at the end of May so we'll get to do some camping and he might come up to Silverton for a night so I can't wait for that.

The train starts up next weekend and I'm excited for the town to fill up with people again. Locals think I'm a bit mad for wanting the rush of people and supposedly I'll change my mind by the end of the season. For now though, I'm excited.

ALSO for the finale of things I'm looking forward too. I just got an email confirmation from my parents. They have bought plane tickets and will be coming out in the beginning of June. CAN'T WAIT for that. YAY.

The last few days? Bought a bed, went and picked it up in Grand Junction (longest day ever), then got sick and missed three days of work. Decided it was time to head to warmer pastures and ended up at Chaco Culture National Park near Nageezi, NM. It was our first time visiting New Mexico and was well worth it.

The park was very isolated and we spent a good 8 miles bouncing along a dirt road to get to the gate. Before that dirt road there was a sign that said the campground: FULL. Uh oh. We didn't spend too much time worrying about it though because the sign was so far away from the actual entrance to the park that I wouldn't imagine anyone would go and change it during the day. We headed straight to the campground (it was technically outside the park limits), grabbed a sign in envelope, and started scouring the sites. While looking someone alerted us that they were leaving and we could park outside their spot and wait for them. Yay! It was one of the neatest campgrounds we've seen in a NP. Our site was awesome, the perfect place to sit around a fire and appreciate the park. We didn't do any real hiking because I was still feeling kind of lousy but since it is a culture park a lot of the features didn't require too much walking. Here are a few pics for your enjoyment! (Click to enlarge)

If you only want to look at a few make sure you choose 'Pueblo Bonito from the inside' and 'Fajada Butte'. Those are the best two for getting an idea of the park as a whole.

Not much going on this weekend. I've been looking forward to it after the last two weeks. We were VERY busy two weeks ago and this last week has just been generally a little stressful. My plans for the day? Do some sewing, play Mario and Sonic Olympics and then on to dinner and our Netflix movie.

In a panic to not let a stain set in my jeans I treated them with Tide and then threw them into the already in-use washing machine. What did I find when I went to do another load the next day? Our cell phone. In the washing machine. I don't do things like this! I have yelled that about 4 times since then. I opened it up, took out the battery, and laid it in front of the stove for the last two days. I pushed the power button this morning and the lovely little gadget started right up! YAY.

I bet in the next few days we'll see a comment from my mom saying that she was the first person I called. She's right. She's free to call because it's Verizon to Verizon. The only other person who I know that has Verizon would have been at work at that time. As a teacher. Unable to answer her phone. That had nothing to do with the choice to call my mom though, I promise.

I realize it is pretty late at night and Stef is probably sleeping but maybe she'll see it tomorrow. Love you!

This is going to be a long week I think. We just got home from a town meeting and we both had pretty long days at work. Tomorrow night is the candidates' forum for those who are running for mayor and town board. Voting will be on April 1. Exciting. Again another meeting for me on Wednesday and Adam has at least one more this week.

We have been house hunting for the last few months. Keeping our ears open around town and it's been quite a process. There are only so many rentals around town and there is quite the demand, it seems to be all about who you know/being in the right place at the right time. Which is both extremely discouraging and invigorating, obviously depending on if you know the right people or get word quickly. So far we seem to know the right people, kind of. We have a few leads, none of which are perfect. The biggest factors for Adam and I are price and location. Space isn't too much of an issue. I would also kind of like to have a washer and dryer. You would be surprised how much those requirements limit us. Price through the winter is a huge consideration and you really just can't take into account the monthly rent but also how well insulated and what kind of heating method is used. I am constantly thinking about moving and it's exhausting.

We went to Durango on Saturday because I was a delegate for San Juan County, sent to vote for the 59th and 6th judicial districts. It was very interesting and a great way to continue learning about the whole voting process in Colorado. While in Durango we took some food to-go to the park and enjoyed a warm afternoon in the sun. I suggest never leaving Silverton again. It's slightly hard to go somewhere and see signs of spring. I have come to think that spring means muddy snow potholes, I had tried to forget that it usually means plants and flowers start changing and the weather teases you by reminding you of summer weather. As we drove back up the mountain the snow grew and grew. Like a visual representation of the length of time it'll take us to get to summer. All that being said we are trying to plan an April/May vacation. I'm proposing a drive to the Pacific. I want to hit the road again, like last summer, but only for one week this time. This also stems from watching a tv show about hot dog stands last night and feeling an urge to get to the closest featured stand. Pink's in LA. I never thought I'd get adam to agree to go near LA but I think a promise of the ocean just might do it. He's never seen it and I think it's just the right time.

So, who knew this was a chick flick? Not me. I thought the movie would be about a single dad raising his kids. And that would be it. It's romantical. It's also listed as a comedy, and while funny at parts it had a sad overtone to it.

That being said I really enjoyed this movie. His family is a bit whimsical and I loved it. Who knew you could get that many people in room excited about charades? Ok, I might have known that. We used to play a lot of charades in Macedonia. Anya and Noell you better be reading this and reminiscing.

I would definitely recommend it and give it two stars. My rating system is out of two. Five stars leaves way to much middle ground. I either lean towards liking it or not. Maybe I should do three. 1- don't watch it, 2-eh, watch if you will, 3- go watch it. Ok no, I'm sticking with two stars.

As a bit of background I have taken a film class and spent a quarter analyzing films. It was a Spanish class so maybe I should write my reviews in Spanish. You would think that would come into play as a movie watcher, but it doesn't. I liked to be entertained. I know the angles, the colors, music and everything else greatly affects the film and the response of the audience but I don't pay enough attention to comment on those things. I generally have favorite scenes but my stars are given by how I feel at the end of the movie. I rarely want to watch a film twice and it takes a lot for Adam and I to sit down when we get our Netflix movies, we're never 'in the mood'. Oh and I'm ALWAYS looking for my favorite movie. I constantly get my hopes up and then am not blown over by the movie. That's how I do things.

The most watched movies of my life include:
Hoosiers (this is easily number one)
Goonies (this is what I watched as a kid, it didn't really cross over into adulthood)
You've Got Mail (for some reason this is a go-to for me. I put it on a lot when I'm doing other things around the house. It has nice sounds in it. You'd think I would just put on the soundtrack, which I do own, oh well)

The movies I most recently really enjoyed (emphasis on really enjoyed not on recently):
Pan's Labyrinth
Volver
Dan In Real Life