The Best Weekend

I'm being dragged kicking and screaming back to the real world after the most lovely weekend.


It was a white Christmas here in Colorado! Beautiful...(note the thermometer....0 degrees!)


We celebrated Christmas on Saturday with my family. Dad got an ipod...

mom this beautiful platter....

and Adam received a banjo!

Brian gave Adam his first banjo, so now, hallelujah, we have two banjo players in the family!!!!

And I got a new pair of shoes from my loving husband....(one of the reasons I married this man is that he buys me shoes....how lucky am I?)



After a delicious Christmas dinner prepared by my mom (including this giant prime rib..)

we went to visit our dear friend Steve. And what a surprise we had for him...a new car!!




After a nice visit with Steve, Brian and I headed for the hills. We spent two nights at the Peterson cabin near Leadville with our friends Kevin, Marjorie and Camryn.




Look how amazed Camryn is by Brian's banjo!



Overall, it was completely and utterly relaxing. We did a lot of this....




Monday afternoon we headed back down the hill to Colorado Springs to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas day with the Petersons.

Here are Doug's new binoculars...




And Brian's new vest. (by the way, check out his new glasses!!)

Chris prepared the most beautiful Christmas feast

and we were so pleased that my family survived the treacherous drive to join us for dinner.

We managed to make time for our favorite family game...Catchphrase! All I'm going to say is that we've officially had our first Catchphrase-related injury. But because I'm in the Christmas spirit, I'm not going to post any pictures of it.....hee hee.

Five Years!

December 4th, 2007 was officially my five year anniversary at the company I work for, A.G. Wassenaar, Inc.! I can't believe it's been that long. So much has changed for me there since I started. I was just a kid, fresh out of college and Alaska. I didn't know a thing about being a preofessional. I actually used to write out exactly what I was going to say for every phone conversation with a client because I'd get so flustered I couldn't even remember my own name.

As I reflect back on my five years, I thought it would be as good a time as any to summarize what I do, since many of you friends and family may not really know. I've come a long way in five years, thanks to my great boss. He has allowed me to take on as many challeneges as I want to. I'm now working as a project manager for the environmental group within the company. My duties include the organization of project teams; planning, scheduling and coordination of geologic and hydrogeologic investigations; drilling, sampling, and testing programs to identify soil and ground water contamination; underground fuel storage tank removal assessments; operation and maintenance of active remediation systems; risk assessment modeling; negotiating with government agencies; preparation of Stormwater Management Plans; and asbestos building inspections.

On most days I love my job. I recognize that I work for a great company who has treated me very well. I think I get to have more fun than many people do in their jobs. The best part is that I'm never doing the same exact thing two days in a row. My time is split pretty evenly between field and office work, which suits me very well.

Sometimes I'm out in places like this...

Or this...

Or doing things like this....

Or pulling big tanks like this out of the ground....

Or sometimes I'm investigating and/or cleaning up sites that look like this....

I've also started doing some marketing for the company, most notably through a national organization called CREW, which stands for Commercial Real Estate Women. They have a very successful local chapter which I just became a member of. Commercial real estate professionals (real estate agents, brokers, lawyers, and developers) are our main clients, so this is a great place for me to market our services.

In appreciation for my five years with the company, I was presented with a really nice jacket with the company name. It has a gortex shell and fleece liner...three jackets in one. Nice, eh?

I can't even sit still...

www.bluegrass.com

Preliminary lineups have just been announced for the three festivals we make it to every summer. I'm so excited! Some of my favorites!!!!!!!!

35th Annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival June 19-22, 2008
Sam Bush Band
Ricky Skaggs & Bruce Hornsby with Kentucky Thunder
Ani DiFranco
Yonder Mountain String Band
John Cowan & Darrell Scott Band
Tim O'Brien
Bela Fleck
Peter Rowan
Jerry Douglas
Edgar Meyer
Brett Dennen
Spring Creek Bluegrass Band
and many more still to be announced...


Rockygrass , July 25-27, 2008
Sam Bush Bluegrass Band
Dan Tyminski Band
Natalie MacMaster
Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas & Edgar Meyer
Psychograss
JD Crowe & The New South
Abigail Washburn & The Sparrow Quartet featuring Bela Fleck w/ Casey Driessen & Ben Sollee
Russ Barenberg & Bryan Sutton
John Cowan Band
Peter Rowan
The Infamous Stringdusters
Chatham County Line
Bearfoot
The Steeldrivers
Adrienne Young & Little Sadie
Spring Creek Bluegrass Band
and many more still to be announced...


Folks Fest, August 15-17
Greg Brown
The Waifs
Tim O'Brien
Todd Snider
Sarah Sample
and many more still to be announced...

Before and After

Before:

After:

This is my favorite time of the year, and Thanksgiving is my very favorite holiday of them all. We had a wonderful holiday as usual in Florida with my extended family. The turkey dinner was a success...so much good food. There were three types of turkey (smoked, fried, and traditional), fried quail (!), all the best sides, and I even threw in a few Chris Peterson classics to make my husband feel more at home.

The festivities were held at my my Aunt Cathy's and Uncle Ray's beautiful home.

This is their property, looking out towards the lake. Actually, this is right where Casey and T.C. will be getting married in April!

Look at Cathy's new greenhouse, which is built in my grandparent's memory.

It's full of orchids!

Florida is beautiful this time of year; warm during the day and nice and cool at night. We were so happy to stay at my cousin Casey's brand new house which she and her fiance T.C. bought a few months ago.

The trip was bittersweet; there was definitely something missing. This tradition was started and continued by my grandparents, who we've lost since last Thanksgiving. We visited the cemetary to see the new headstone at my grandparents' graves. It was very nice to be there together; we all read or talked. It was important to include them in the weekend, because it just didn't feel right without them.

We made the most of our time together.

We sat on the dock and read a book....we canoed with the doggies...

We watched some football, we had a great BBQ at the Schers' beautiful home, we visited our condo on the Gulf of Mexico (here's the view from the porch!), we ate fresh seafood at Crabby Bill's, and we played lots of Catch Phrase!

The crowning glory of the weekend was on Sunday. We started off the day with a nice brunch with all of my grandparents' friends, and then we (the kids) headed off to the Tampa Bay Bucaneers football game!

Casey works for the Bucs as their graphic designer (she designed this huge billboard!)

She got us all tickets to Sunday's game. We had great seats in the employee section, and we got to see her down on the field! I was so impressed! (she's down in the lower left corner of this picture..)

Here are Haley and her no-longer-phantom boyfriend Evan... Evan, Ali, and Adam pre-game...
T.C. and Brian... Note that Brian is the only one not wearing Bucs gear...ever the loyal Bronco fan.

Adam and Ali...

There was one more surprise...after the 3rd quarter, our names were on the Jumbotron!

One last night together, and then we were off to the airport. A five-hour delayed flight just gave me more time to knit!

Why, They Are Quite Fetching....

This is my most recently finished knitted item...and I'm in love!

The pattern, "Fetching" can be found here http://knitty.com/ISSUEsummer06/PATTfetching.html.

They're fingerless gloves, perfect for knitting, reading, typing, or (as my husband pointed out) playing banjo in the cold. I used Debbie Bliss' Cashmerino Aran yarn, which is just so luxurious feeling. And the best part....I knit an entire pair in one afternoon and evening!

Everyone I know will probably be receiving their very own pair, so consider yourself forewarned!

How Cute Are They??

photo from crowmedicine.com

Ah, Old Crow Medicine Show....such fun. The show was great, they played a lot of new songs. We drank, we danced, I knit during the set break. The Bluebird Theater has never smelled worse (it's got decades of cigarette smoke to air out...I think it smelled better when you could still smoke inside).

Insomniac Blues

Last night was by far the worst night of sleep on record! Here are the lyrics to a song by one of my new favorite bluegrass bands, Cadillac Sky http://www.cadillacsky.net/.
This song EXACTLY describes how my night went last night.

Insomniac Blues for Matthew, by Cadillac Sky

Toothpicks in my eyelids, lyin' wide awake in bed

Tossin' and turnin' like the sea

Moonlight shine in like headlights in my room

Hypnotized by the stripes on my TV

Oh, I'd give anything

For just one good night's sleep

...one good night's sleep

Counting a hundred different herds of sheep

Poured a bottle of Nyquil in my veins

That alarm clock like a time bomb

Keeps tickin the night away

And morning's weighin' heavy on my brain

Oh, I'd give anything
For just one good night's sleep
...One good night's sleep

I'd give anything.....

And here's a youtube link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTVc-HxdxUc to the video they made for it. It's pretty funny.

A Dream Come True

(Picture from the Denver Post)

Last Monday night we hopped on the light rail headed for downtown Denver. We met up with our friends Lindsay and Doug for dinner at Misi, and had some amazing pizza a couple glasses of wine. We made our way towards the Denver Convention Center and the Wells Fargo Theatre to see Neil Young! I've never seen Neil, and was interested. But I was mostly there for my husband. Brian is a gigantic Neil Young fan and I could feel the excitement oozing out of him.



We were so lucky to have eighth row seats (thanks to Lindsay) right on the floor. Neil's wife Peg started off the show, and I wasn't too impressed with her. I think she's better as a back-up singer.



Neil started off the show with an acoustic set that was amazing. The crowd for the night averaged about 50 years old, so they were very well-behaved! You could have heard a pin drop in that theatre during the acoustic set.



After a short set break, Neil returned in a different, paint-splattered suit and proceeded to RAWK! For as old as he is, he is such a rock star! The crowd was on its feet for most of the set, and Neil had a couple killer ~20 minute guitar solos.



Overall a great show. You know me, any chance to get weepy, I do...and that moment came towards the end of the first set when Neil pulled out a banjo. I couldn't help but cry with joy because Brian got to see his favorite rocker playing the banjo.....the best of both worlds.