photos by the tree

We had a snow day again today- can you believe it? I suddenly feel like I've been on vacation for weeks already and my real vacation has barely just begun. We did manage to shake off the cabin fever by heading to Target today. Our normal 15 minute drive was probably more like 45 minutes due to the gigantic mounds of snow piled up- some normal 3-lane streets were down to two lanes due to the poor snow removal here. None of the side streets were touched and many small cars along the street were literally buried and looked like they wouldn't be driving anywhere for a long while.

I baked today! Made some banana bread, Special K bars and peanut butter fudge which I plan on giving to Brandon's family tomorrow.

snow day in the city

Here's a snow day scene from the city as taken from the apartment courtyard. The Wells Fargo building with the unique-shaped curved rooftop is the building on the left.



You often hear and read stories about crazy snowstorms- well, this one lives up to the hype! I really can't believe the two feet of snow accumulated outside. My workplace actually let us know they were planning on closing the office as of 7 p.m. last night. These photos were taken around 8:30 this morning and it's STILL snowing outside.



The photo below is Brandon standing next to a pine tree that usually stands around 9 feet tall. It tipped over on its side from the weight of all the snow.

Here's another view from our porch. The pine tree is to the left of the round doorway, and is normally several feet taller than the apartment windows.

let it snow!

It's going to be a white Christmas in Colorado, whether us holiday travelers like it or not! In spite of the big, beautiful snowflakes, lots of our friends and family are not so happy that we've accumulated nearly a foot of snow here in the Denver metro area already. Luckily my flight to South Dakota is on Sunday, so hopefully we'll have dug ourselves out by then.

Here is a picture of our courtyard taken from our porch door. Look at the snow carefully balancing on our railing! The nearest little fence area is an urban garden during the summertime. They grow green peppers, zucchini and cucumbers here. The second fenced in area off in the distance is the dog run, where we take Koda every night. It's nice because the courtyard has tall walls and fences and you can only gain entrance with a key, so I feel safe taking the dog out at night by myself if needed. There's also a grill and tables with canopys out here, so we enjoy grilling out here when there's not 13 inches of snow on the ground.

Koda loves the snow and apparently thinks he's a sled dog. Whenever we hit a part of the sidewalk with a few inches of snow, he starts running full force. If only I had a sled! I wasn't able to make it into work today, so Koda and I went through a walk to meet Brandon in downtown Denver. He got off early and it's only about 7 blocks, so it was fun walking through the heart of the snow storm. Koda was wearing a bright blue bandana and looked so happy running through the snow that we got lots of smiles from the businessmen and women trudging through the snow. I even saw some ladies in heels, pantyhose and skirts- ouch! Let's hope they didn't have 7 blocks to walk.

Chef Brandon

It's stove top Jiffy Pop! This stuff always reminds me of my friends Sarah and Andy. Can you get this in NYC, guys?

It's days like today that make me love living in Colorado. It was warm enough that my hoodie was enough to keep me warm and the sun was shining just a little too much- we like those kinds of problems. I had to pinch myself and think, "It's DECEMBER!"

I went to Kinko's to make some copies for a few custom charm orders then went to my favorite neighborhood shop. This place has everything colorful and sparkly and whimsical. It was all I could do to resist from buying the $30 pack of mini silver glitter snowflake tree decorations. It would have been a bit much, considering we have a 3.5 foot tall silver tinsel Christmas tree, but some times too much is just not enough. That's my new motto as I look forward to making a new sugar cookie recipe tonight with two sticks of butter and a healthy amount of real whipping cream.

We went to see our favorite comedian Brian Regan this evening. He's been around since the late 90's but has never had a sitcom or anything, so is not as visible as other comedians, but he's been a regular on late night talk shows and you may have seen him on Comedy Central. He's a great comedian if you haven't heard of him! Anyway, he's got this skit he does about how lazy one must be to have to purchase one jar with a mix of peanut butter and jelly. My sister and Brandon's sister were both going to the comedy show as well, so I thought it would be funny- based on one of his most well-known jokes- to present them each with a jar of peanut butter and jelly in the same jar after the show.

I grabbed one of the jars of pb & j and stuck it in my ginormous purse right before we headed out the door for the evening. Picture me in my wedge heels lugging my 6-pounds heavier purse 'o peanut butter as we walk the 16 blocks into downtown Denver. We are getting ready to go in the comedy show venue, the historic Paramount Theater, when the door guy says, "Can you please open your purse for me, miss?" So I oblige, partially embarassed at this point as I think about this guy seeing that I have a full-sized jar of peanut butter grape jelly mixture in my purse. He looks at me incredulously and says, "Oh- you can't bring FOOD in here." I look at him wide-eyed and ask what I'm supposed to do. He tells me that I can set the peanut butter jar on the counter behind the ticket guy. So I place the jar of grape jelly & peanut butter mixed together on the counter, meanwhile the dink of a ticket taker says to me, "Hey- ya got some peanut butter for me. Thanks." I told him to enjoy.

So I definitely just got my peanut butter and jelly mix in a jar confiscated tonight. I feel like such a bad ass. In light of this story, I share with you the original comedy skit by Brian Regan:

We used to love peanut butter… still do. I saw something in the store the other day that I don’t understand, that peanut butter and jelly in the same jar. Is there a point to that? I mean… I mean I’m lazy, but… I wanna meet the guy who needs that. Some guy going, “You know I could go for a sandwich, but uh, I’m not gonna open TWO jars! I can’t be opening and closing all kinds of jars… cleaning, who KNOWS how many knives!?!” If you’re that lazy, why not put croutons in there and get the whole sandwich on a spoon. You know, just scoopin’ it out… “Mmm…Oh, scrumptious!! I think I’m gonna have another one. Uh, mmmmm… DELECTABLE!! As was the first!” Or if you don’t wanna clean the spoon, you put it all in a squeeze bottle. “Mmmm! Lunch and no clean up!! Can life get better? I submit that it CANNOT!!”

It's peanut butter-jelly time.

Feeling busy with the holidays coming up. I've got holiday shopping and baking to parktake in, but also have been fulfilling a few custom jewelry orders and making things to send to shops! My workplace has an auction each year to raise money for a few charities in town- a local high school raising money to restore the beautiful but worn library built in the 1920's and an organization in town that helps provide shelter and assistance for pregnant teenagers who want to continue their education- so I plan on making and donating a few things to the auction. Deadline being this week. It's no wonder I went to bed past midnight last night! Remind me again- is this time of year supposed to be fun or stressful? Has anyone out there found the secret to finding a good balance during the holidays or is the joy found in realizing you're done with the stressful parts?