Saturday, May 29, 2010

The End


Why do I find myself breaking into tears unexpectedly throughout the day and night? Why can't I sleep? Why do I feel on edge and irritable? Why do I feel like I have a big gaping hole in my heart and my soul?

Because LOST is no more. The series finale took place last Sunday. Now we mourn its ending and celebrate its existence.
Those of you who don't watch LOST (or don't watch it the way we do) will think I'm being overly dramatic with this post. In fact, my friend Rachel told me that this blog post makes me seem utterly INSANE. Oh well, it won't be the first time. Hopefully some of you can relate to my obsession. Anyone?

LOST was so much more than a TV show. LOST was an experience that I will value forever. I feel like a very important, wise, funny, beautiful, once-in-a-lifetime friend is gone.

So Sad...



The finale was perfect; I feel completely satisfied by the way this show ended. I know there's a lot of controversy out there about the ending, but I personally think it was a beautiful thing.


And now for some thoughts on my favorite moments and characters from the past 6 amazing seasons...

John Locke, you're a badass (or, more accurately, a B.A.M.F), plain and simple. And Terry O'Quinn's representation of your character was perfection.

Thank you, John Locke, for reminding me that not everything in life can be explained by science. Sometimes we have to believe in something else, something more mysterious and magical.


Richard Alpert, I love your eyeliner. I stood up for you for several seasons, insisting that you were not wearing eyeliner. I've come to accept that you were. You look great in it. Your story was compelling and kept us guessing till the very end.


Ben, you were one of my favorite characters. You were SO EVIL! I loved that you were ALWAYS being beaten to a pulp. It was too bad that you couldn't retain control of the island, but I love that you ended up being #2. Good for you.


Sawyer, you're hot. Really hot. Hot in a traditionally sexy way that I'm not usually into. Thank you for spending lots of time without a shirt on.

And your nicknames were classic.




Jack, I don't feel very strongly about you. But I'm thankful for the central role you played in the show, and I think Matthew Fox played you well. I appreciated and related to your logical and scientific stance on life. I was impressed that you were able to move from being a man of science to a man of faith. Congratulations on resolving your daddy issues and ending up with Kate. You were great in the finale and made me cry. A lot. I'm happy that you died with Vincent the dog by your side.


Kate, I know you get a lot crap. Half of the population (I won't say which half...) seem to only appreciate you for your good looks. Well, you are beautiful. Even after spending years on end in the jungle. But more importantly, you are a BAD ASS WOMAN! The island wouldn't have been the same without you. You held your own among all those manly, power hungry men. And way to go finally killing Flocke.


Charlie, how I missed you. Your death was one of my favorite LOST moments ever. Thank you for coming back to the series finale. You also looked good in eyeliner.


Penny, you're fabulous, beautiful, caring and an awesome mother. You had a great childbirth scene on a sailboat. Yours and Desmond's was by far the best love story of the show. My only complaint with the finale is that there wasn't a Penny/Desmond moment.

How do you know you're obsessed with LOST? We almost named our daughter Penny. After you. Enough said. Decided against it since our last name is Peterson. Penelope Peterson. Penny Peterson. Probably not.

Desmond, brutha. Thank you for the love. Your relationship with Penny was inspiring and touching. One of my other top three LOST moments was the phone call with Penny after all your time- tripping. Goosebumps just thinking about it. Crying as I rewatch it....



Oh Hurley, thank you for 6 great seasons. You make me very happy and you look great in your Dharma jumpsuit.

This show would not have been nearly as good without you; the island inhabitants were lucky to have you in their midst. Jorge played you so well. Your wisdom, sense of humor, empathy and friendship were beautiful to watch.


I just knew you were going to be important in the end; you were always the best candidate in my mind.

Now what? Now I guess we'll start over. At the beginning.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Bluegrass In the House


Our second ever house concert, and the last of our spring 2010 series, was a great success! We had a packed house again. Some of the same people joined us, but there were also a lot of new faces. Friends, friends of friends, and family came down to our house on a beautiful Saturday evening. We visited over another awesome potluck spread, drank some tasty beers and chatted with the band as they arrived one by one in their snappy suits.

The Blue Canyon Boys were in great form! Hot pickin' and gorgeous harmonies are what make this band one of my favorites in Colorado. The audience was great, as we expect from a house concert crowd. Hootin' and hollerin' during the high energy numbers and silent enough to hear a pin drop during the sweet gospel numbers and sad ballads.

Thanks to the Blue Canyon Boys for sharing your amazing talent with us and helping make this house concert such a special night! And thanks to everyone who came out for the show; we'll see you in the fall! We're putting the finishing touches on the fall lineup now.


Here are some videos I took. Enjoy!







Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Happiness In....

Local homegrown eggs of many colors

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Musical Inspiration

I was really hoping that having a baby would not change our interest, motivation, and ability to have live music still be a BIG part of our lives. Thankfully, it has not. We do have to pick and choose the shows we go to, sometimes we go separately, we have to factor in a babysitter (usually a grandma, sometimes a neighbor), and we definitely don't get to sleep in the next morning to recover from being out late, but we still manage to go see a lot of our favorite bands and musicians when they come through town. And now that it's festival season, we get to take Sadie with us! Yahoo!

Recently I've been lucky enough to catch a few GREAT shows in a row. On Friday, April 16 I saw Michelle Shocked with my dad at Swallow Hill. She put on a wonderful show, as usual. She is such a passionate performer, activist, and storyteller. Michelle just has a way of captivating the audience and puts a big fat smile on everyone watching her.



I was so lucky to be able to interview Michelle when I was a DJ on KCUV several years ago. It was one of the highlights of my life, I tell you. She was interesting and funny during the interview, and played live on the radio. It was like my own private Michelle Shocked show! I'd been a fan of hers for years, but have felt even more of a connection to her and her music since then. I'll have to dig out the recording of that interview and performance one of these days. I remember that she called herself the Godmother of Folk Music, and signed our studio wall, "the Godmutha!". Yeah!

On Wednesday, April 21, Brian and I left Sadie with my mom and trekked to Boulder in the rain to see the Avett Brothers at the Boulder Theater. We'd been looking forward to the show for a long time, ever since Brian received the tickets as a Christmas gift from my parents.

We've seen the Avett Brothers several times, in venues ranging in size from the Telluride Bluegrass Festival (10,000+ people), to the intimate Sheridan Opera House, to the teeny tiny Dulcinea's 100th Monkey in Denver.

An Avett Brothers show is an experience like no other. You're not sure if you're at a bluegrass show or a punk show! For every beautiful, quiet moment of heartbreaking harmonies and meaningful lyrics, there's an equally compelling moment of ear-splitting screaming and thrashing around on the stage.

Not to mention that they are some SEXY men! Ooooh, I've definitely got big crushes on those two. And even their roadies are dapper in silk vests and slacks. So funny...



And a couple Saturdays ago, I snuck out of the house with my friend Heather and took the scenic route to Palmer Lake, where we saw my friends Sweet Sunny South put on yet another wonderful show. It's been a while since I've seen all of them, so it was great fun to hear them perform songs from their new album, Carried Off By A Twister.

Good people and good music, in a very cool venue that I hadn't been to before, the Tri-lakes Center for the Arts.





I really don't know how I would survive without live music in my life. It puts everything into perspective for me and I always feel refreshed and inspired after a great show.

We don't live an extravagant lifestyle, and we don't spend money on useless material things. To us, money will always be better spent in having "an experience". Most of our disposable income that's not spoken for in our budget goes towards concert tickets!

I love that it's something Brian and I share a passion for and it's what brought us together in the first place. When we first started dating, we used to go to two or more live shows a week, and didn't think twice about getting up for work the next morning after staying out till 2 a.m. dancing and rawking the night before. We definitely don't have the energy for that anymore, but we still make live music a priority because we recognize the way in which it truly enriches our lives.

Monday, May 3, 2010

Go Green

Sadie and I just finished week two of Enchanted Chameleon's Green Smoothie Challenge and we feel great! No plans to stop drinking green smoothies anytime soon. Not sure if it will continue to be part of my daily routine, but hopefully I'll continue to have at least 3-5 smoothies per week. What a perfect way to make sure I'm getting all the vitamins and minerals I need from greens.
I've gotten a lot of questions about the smoothies since my last post and figured I would answer some of them here. Most of this information was passed along to me by Suzanne as part of my participation in the challenge.
Green Smoothies are made up of 3 things: 1 - 2 Cups of Water; 40% Green Leaves and 60% Fruit.
The greens that I used during this two week period were: red leaf lettuce, romaine lettuce, rainbow chard, kale, spinach, and collard greens. The fruit I used was whatever suited my fancy that morning: apple, pear, banana, blueberries, strawberries, pineapple, mango, lemon, tangerine, orange.
I assembled my smoothies the way Suzanne shows in this video. I started with a couple ice cubes, 2 cups of filtered water, a couple big handfuls of greens, and blended until smooth. Then added my fruit and blended again until I got a smooth consistency.


I also experimented with adding ginger, but found that it didn't blend as well and left stringy bits in my smoothie...not so lovely. If I grated the ginger with a microplaner first, I had better luck.
Suzanne provides these links for more information:
  • See the link "Ode To Green Smoothie" for awesome information and a few delicious recipes.
  • Preview a chapter of Green Smoothie Revolution
  • Green Smoothie Recipes You can review the recipes and pick a few that you would like. Suzanne recommends not keeping produce for more than a couple of days at a time.
  • Or you can check out Suzanne's recipes under Green Smoothies on her website