Tabernash

Mark and I came up to Rich and Tim's cabin last night. It is outside of Tabernash in an area called Pole Creek. They wanted us to try out their place as they would like us to buy into the property. It has 5 bedrooms and is beautifully appointed. We hopped in the hot tub right after we arrived. The stars were great. Running barefoot across the snow to the hot tub was the hard part. The steam room warmed us up after running through the snow back to the house. Today we have been hanging out and writing our annual newsletter that we will send out with Holiday cards. The snow at Winter Park ski resort is not that great yet so we decided to enjoy the day here. I am preparing Cornish game hens for dinner.

Summer's passing

It is hard to believe that it has been a month since my last post. Mark and I have continued to have some great bike rides. His family has a reunion at Snowmass every year and the rides to the Maroon Bells and up Independence Pass were beautiful. The berries had not matured yet because of the cool summer. The bears depend upon these berries to get ready for winter and with them still not being ripe has brought the bears into town looking for food. One elderly woman who has feed the bears for years despite the insistence of the Wildlife department asking her to stop was found dead and partially eaten by a bear. They killed the bear that ate her. I think she would have been sad about that.

Our garden is providing us with about 20 pounds of vegetables a day. The tomatoes, squash, eggplant and peppers have been great. The cucumbers are gone now. I think about my grandfather when I eat tomatoes as he ate them three times a day everyday of the year. This was long before we knew about the beneficial effects of lycopenes that are in tomatoes. He lived to be 99. I think about him in the garden too as he encouraged me to plant my first one and was always there with good advice. I think about my grandmother when I eat onions because she loves them. She turned 95 this week. She once told me that if she was about to leave this world she did believe that if you just put a little onion on her lips it would revived her. I love that.

Mark and I are heading to Mexico to visit Larry, Viny and Alberto the last two weeks of November. We had hoped to get there sooner however we did not plan our schedules well enough in advance to accomplish that. We would like to be there during the rainy season one year. We are hoping to take a cooking class during our visit. We both love to cook and the food there is quite tasty.

Halloween is on a Saturday this year, so we are planning a party. I love Halloween. We decorate the house and go all out. We have a 15 foot Spider that John built out of scrapes that we light with black lights. It looks great.

Last weekend Bev Cobain, Kurt Cobain's cousin was at our house for dinner. I had bid on a catered dinner by Gourmet Catering at a fundraiser for the Suicide Prevention Coalition of Colorado. She said she would attend the dinner with whomever won the bid. The auctioneer offered a second dinner to the next highest bidder for the same price as my winning bid. We decided to combine the dinners and so we had 17 people around our dinning table. The caterer did all of the cooking and serving. It was a wine paired dinner and the chef came out to describe each course. It was delicious and the wines were good. Bev has written a couple of books of which I have the once called, "Dying to be Free". Her books are about helping families after they lose a family member to suicide. Bev was the family member that was called when Kurt killed himself. The two groups mingled well. It felt a bit odd for me to have a dinner party at our house and not be in the kitchen. When the party was over the kitchen was spotless. I loved that part.

Triple Bypass

Mark and I got up at 4 am yesterday to get to the start of the Triple Bypass cycling ride which started in Bergen Park. We picked up Jeff a rowing buddy of Mark's on the way. We began the ride at 5:50 am and arrived in Avon at 3:50 pm. This was a good time for us. There are aid stations along the route for food and bathroom breaks. We did not spend a lot of time at the stations. The views are terrific. The first great vista as we were climbing Squaw Pass prompted Mark to say, "This is the second best thing I have seen today, after waking up by you." I love him. The climbing is long and slow, the descents are fast, sometimes very fast. My top speed was 38.5 miles and hour. I enjoy the speed, however several of the descents had strong cross winds which blow one about. I am not fond of them. We we got to Copper Mountain we had a bit of rain which we were able to ride out of. Then a bit of sprinkling when we were in Vail. We arrived at Avon sooner that we thought we would. We had made arrangements to return to our car via the shuttle at 8 pm. Fortunately we were able to get on the 5 pm shuttle which was great especially since it started pouring rain right at 5. My thighs are a bit sore this morning, otherwise I feel great.

I talked with my mother wishing her a Happy Birthday. She is seventy one today and says "I feel just like I am only seventy." My nephew Josh is 30 today. They are all going out to Dave's BBQ in Tulsa. There will be about 26 of them. They like this place because it has a balcony area that they can have for themselves. I got to attend this last year. They serve the food on trashcan lids.

I am going to buy an i Phone today, pull some weeds, then off to a rowing club party. Mark's crew of 8 has won the national title these past two years. They did not enter the race this year so the are having a party one last time with the huge trophy before the ship it off to this year's winner.

I have been enjoying watching the Tour de France. I have not seen a lot of it this year. The intrigue is great with Lance and Contador being 2nd and 3rd places and being on the same team. It is likely to continue to get interesting.

I need to call a bee keeper to come and collect the bee hive that has started on our west balcony. The bees swarmed there about a month ago. I thought they were just resting. They decided to stay and build the hive. It is completely in the open which surprised me. I like the bees but their home is in an inconvenient spot. We like to sit on this balcony and eat. The bees do not bother us but they tend to go for whatever we are eating and that is a recipe for disaster.

The long drive back to Denver

Mark and I met Mark and Kristin at Relish a newer restaurant in Breckenridge that was recommended by a friend. When our waiter Sam arrived at our table I asked him about his being at this place instead of our favorite restaurant Cafe Alpine. He let us know he switched when the owner of Cafe Alpine decided to close the place. This was a shock. It was the best place in Breckenridge and Mark and I loved eating there. The owner paid off all of his debt and decided to go into the consulting business to help other restaurants be successful. He said the landlord of the place was hard to deal with. We were sad to here this news. The sous chef from Cafe Alpine opened Relish so we knew we were in for a treat. The food at Relish is great. So now I suppose this is our favorite place in Breck, although we have another new place to try called Modis.

Mark and I got up late, 8 am this morning so we did a smaller ride. We rode from Breckenridge around Lake Dillion and back, so only 36 miles. The weather was cool and we again had a tailwind riding back to Breckenridge. A rare event and two days in a row. We had seen a new bike trail just over the top of Swan Mountain and decided to explore it. I was a short climb and then a long decent through blooming mountain meadows to Lake Dillion. Definitely a great find and one we will bike again.

The traffic on Sundays from the mountains can be quite heavy and today it was worse than usual. The stop and go traffic started on the west side of the Eisenhower Tunnel which is about 80 miles from Denver. When we finally got to the tunnel the siren went off and the tunnel was closed for about 10-15 minutes. We are not sure why that happened. Mark and I know all of the side roads off of I-70 so when we got to the first exit that we could get off that parking lot we did. I love the side roads because the landscape is beautiful and the road is mostly quiet. Of course we are not the only locals who know this trick so we had some company. The trip that usually takes an 1 1/2-2 hours took 2 1/2 hours. It was slower however I love those back roads. It rained on us before getting home. They say that Breckenridge has had more rain this year than they have had since 1870. Everything is green.

Percy our blue front Amazon Parrot is singing because he is happy we are back.

Cycling from Breckenridge to Vail and back

Mark and I had a great ride today. The trip is 73 miles and we climbed 4200 vertical feet. The weather was beautiful although it rained when we got back to the car. It is cool in the mountains and will likely be a bit chilly when we watch the fireworks after dinner. I saw a red fox running down the road in from of the cabin last night and a white crowned sparrow in town. Mark is ready to head to town so we can find a parking spot and get to dinner on time to meet his rowing buddy Mark and his wife Kristin. So off we go.

Fourth of July weekend in the Mountains

Mark and I drove to the our cabin last night. The traffic was lighter than we expected and moved well the entire way. It often gets jammed up on the weekends. I bought a new grill for the cabin at a silent auction fundraiser for Voz y Corazon the suicide prevention program MHCD has for latina teenagers. Latina teens are at the highest risk for suicide in Denver. The girls helped design that program and wanted a safe place to talk about whatever they wanted. We have professional artists, including Dwight Davidson, teaching the girls different forms of art. They talk about everything in these art spaces. Our clinical staff work with the girls around choosing life and teach them how to intervene with their friends who are talking about killing themselves.

Mark had to slightly dismantle the grill so it would fit in his car for the trip. The weather was great as the light dimmed over the mountains last night. He put the grill back together while I put food away in the kitchen for the weekend. We watched the first episode of the second season of Battlestar Galactica before heading to bed. It rained hard last night and has been threatening rain all morning. So we are reading and relaxing at the cabin instead of our original plan of riding the 70 miles from Breckenridge to Vail and back.

Bemrose creek is at the edge of our property and is running high. We have had a lot of rain this year and I have never seen the mountains this green. It is great. There are warblers singing all around this morning as I sit on the deck writing this blog. We see three mountains from the deck, Mt. Lincoln which is east of the continental divide, North Star peak, on the divided and Mount Quandry west of the divide where our cabin is. Each still has snow. Heart shaped Arnica is blooming on the property, along with several types of legumes. This should be a good year for mushrooms. We have about 20 types that grow. One is the size of a pie and the animals love it.

Gay Pride

Mark and I walked to the bus stop this morning to ride the Colfax Avenue bus to the Gay Pride March. Colfax is the longest Avenue in the US and the bus is known to have the most interesting riders. Our bus was full of all kinds of people, the small elderly woman with a tee shirt made out of rice that said, "Live your life, everyone else's is already taken." The young guy standing next to me had a spiked dog collar and spiked wrist restraints. Two lipstick lesbians got on the very crowded bus and said, "Looks like we are all going to the same place!" Then the man who looked to be in his eighties got on with a rainbow shirt. I of course had my rainbow umbrella. They announced at the parade that 250,000 people were there.

The Parade starts every year with the Dykes on Bykes. They were as rough and loud as ever. I love the noise they make. They were followed by SQREAM, the Scooter Queers Riding Everywhere and More. This made me wish I was on my scooter. PFLAG, Church Groups, Bars, Clubs of all sorts, like the 4 wheel drive club, the rainbow cloggers, the Mile High Freedom Band and the Bear tones, four big bears who sing. The native american group, two spirits were here again. They were great. The Bunk house always has a truck and of course the politicians show up, which I appreciate.

Here was the finale. The longest boa on the planet. The last car of the parade had a drag queen with a pink boa that is 1.25 miles long! It was draped in five strands which allowed everyone to join in at the end of the parade with the boa draped over them. Mark and I were right in the middle of this. It was great walking down the hill of Colfax to Civic Center Park with long strands of boa flowing over people down below and following behind. Las Vegas Pride had a one mile boa last year, so this year Denver made history. They were selling sections of the boa as a fundraiser for The Center the GLBTI community center. Of course we had to have a section which I worn home on the bus.

We have had a lot of rain this summer in Denver and everything is green and the temperatures are cool. Our flowers and vegetables are great and we still sleep under a comforter at some point in the early morning.

Mark and I are training for the Triple bypass ride. Yesterday we rode from Georgetown where they were having a marathon, to Keystone over Loveland pass and back. This was a 56 mile trip where we climbed 6200 feet. It was great. Of course one's legs get tired after such a trip. We have been watching the DVDs of the remake of Battlestar Galactica. What a nice way to end a day of riding.

I love our little life in Denver. We are looking at long range vacation plans. We still want to get to Denmark while our friend Berengere is still the french ambassador to Denmark. She is living in a palace in Copenhagen. Our friends Anne and Gilles have moved into their custom built BIO home. They built an energy efficient home in the french alps. We want to visit. And of course we what to see Larry, Viny and Alberto in Tepozlan. I may wind up taking a trip alone to see them this year as Mark does not have as much vacation as I do.

cycling in the mountains

I do not post often enough. This morning Mark and I rode from Bergen Park outside of Denver over Squaw Pass by Mount Evans and Echo Lake, then down to Idaho Springs and then back to Bergen Park. This was a 47.6 mile trip and we climbed about 4,000 ft. It was beautiful. We have been training for the Triple Bypass a 120 mile trip from Bergen Park to Avon, CO. This ride goes over Squaw Pass, Loveland Pass and then Vail Pass, hence Triple Bypass. You climb 10,000 feet and this trip is done in one day. This will be on July 11th. We have done this before and if the weather is good the trip is great. Later this summer we will ride the Courage Classic which is only 156 miles over three days. This is in the mountains and a fund raiser for The Children's Hospital in Denver.

Last night we had a dinner party at the house. Our dinner parties are for 8 total people as our round table in the dinning room easily sits that many. We do have 8 leaves to expand the table to 14 feet by 6 feet and can easily sit 22. It is harder to have an engaging conversation with that many people so we prefer the smaller group. I did most of the cooking as Mark was racing in his skull and crew races. He won one gold metal and two silver metals. A couple of his rowing club members came to the dinner a they one two golds and one silver each. Quite the accomplished group. One of my Livingston Fellows and his wife joined us. Adam and his wife Alissa. He is the director of Denver Museum of Contemporary Art and his wife is a professor of contemporary art.

Of course my blog would be incomplete if is left out the menu. I made what I call a SushimiTini which is a bed of cucumber with tuna sushimi that had been slightly marinated in grapefruit juice with Serrano peppers, white soy sauce and mint. I serve this in a martini glass with a grapefruit chip that I dehydrate. Everyone love this. We served this with Champagne.

The next morsel was an amuse buche of a lentil salad with truffle vinaigrette and topped with a bacon vinaigrette. Adam said he could make this bite an entire meal. We served this with a white boudoir.

The next course was saffron mussels with the same wine

The main course was a pork tenderloin marinated in balsamic vinegar, garlic and red pepper flakes that Mark grilled, serve with a roasted red potato salad with dill gherkins, onion and mustard. We served this with a Pino Noir wine.

The desert was fresh strawberries, blue berries and raspberries with sweet creme fraise that we make with orange zest. We served this with Proseco.

The conversation and dinner was a delight. Adam and Alissa gave us a painting as a gift. It is 4x4 inches by and extraordinary artist.

The week before last I was in DC talking with Senators Udall, Bennet and Representative Degette's health care staffer about including mental health in the health care reform. All of these meetings went well. I was also elected as the first vice chair of the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare which represents the mental health providers in our country. I was asked to testify for the FDA advisory committee concerning access to psychiatric medications for children.

The meeting on Friday of that week ended early so I went to the National Gallery. They have a director's choice audio tour of the museum. I did not have time to do the entire tour and when I told the African American woman in her mid 60s who was selling the audio tours that I only had and hour and a half to spend in the museum, she asked me what I wanted to see. I told her I wanted to see the more important works in the museum. She immediate pulled out a map and started circling the gallery numbers and adding the audio numbers to the map. The timing was great and I saw fantastic works of art. I thanked her profusely when I finished my time in the museum.

8th Anniversary

As of today, Mark and I have been together for eight years. This is the bronze year so we are considering our bronze Pan our gift to each other. It is stunning. We have spent the weekend cycling and eating. We rode 38 miles on Saturday, 62 miles on Sunday and 21 miles today. Yesterday we were caught in the rain and then a hail storm. We were soaked when we got home. Today we cut our ride short when the rain started again. Everything is green and beautiful. I replaced the dead apricot tree on Saturday and we planted some coleus along the drive way. Our yard is beautiful. This year the clematis by the sun room has grown tall enough that you can see the blooms easily while sitting. We love our little lives in Denver.

Pan

Colorado Spring is here which means it is warm one day and can be cold the next. Today is a cool and cloudy day. We have tulips and daffodils blooming. The yard is very green after the big snow last week. We bought Dwight's newest sculpture Pan 2 of 30. The piece was commissioned by a man Dwight knows in Seattle. Otherwise I would have gotten the first one. This is a most spectacular statue. I suspect that others might want one too. You can contact Dwight through his website at www.davidsonsculpture.com

Spring Skiing

Even though it is not really Spring yet, we have Spring conditions in the mountains. Yesterday Mark and I got onto the mountain late in the morning. The temperature was in the single digits so we lounged around the cabin until it warmed up a bit. When the days and warm and the nights are cold the snow gets very packed and hard. It makes the skiing a little less enjoyable. So we wait for the sun to soften the snow and then the skiing is great. With day light savings time it is light late into the day. This makes for great afternoon skiing. We did a lot of bump runs and by the end of the day we were ready for the hot tub. For some reason we were starving when we got back to the cabin so cooked right away. Our friend Anne had brought us a can of duck meat which we devoured on rosemary crackers. Then on to our dinner of herbed chicken, potatoes and a salad with pomegranate seeds. It was great. We finished watching the 5th season of Nip Tuck. That show pushes the edge. Matt the son wound up having sex with his sister. Neither knew they were related when they hopped into bed. They liked the sex a lot and giving this up because of being sibs did not come easily for them. The characters in this show are perfectly dreadful and so fun to watch. Today Mark and I went skiing at Vail. It is a great mountain. The conditions are still Spring like. The snow has been melting and it looks more like mid April than Mid March. A red fox was scavenging around the cabin this morning. He was not very shy when we went out on the deck to get a better look at him. He actually approached us from below the deck, I think to see if we had something for him to eat. I love seeing the wildlife here in the mountains. Tonight we will have a simple meal of cheese tortellini, fennel with oranges and a salad. We like to take Mondays off from time to time so we can have a three day weekend. So we will ski again in the morning and then head home in the late afternoon. The ski traffic is heavy on Sunday afternoons and at times it will take three to four hours to get home instead of the usual hour and a half. Well it is time to build a fire as the sun has set over the mountains to the west. The temperature drops quickly when the sun goes down.

Ski Weekend

Mark and I are heading to the mountains for a three day weekend of skiing. Breckenridge got snow last night and hopefully will get more this weekend. March is the month that we generally get the most snow. It has been dry this winter in Denver. I watered our fruit trees last weekend. Last year I planted two types of cherry trees, two types of apricot trees, two types of plum trees, two peach trees and two apple trees. The apple trees are grafts with three types of apples on one tree and four types on the others. All of these trees are in a row along the north side of our property. I suspect the blooms will be nice this Spring. Palino's is my favorite gardening center and I consulted with them on the types of trees to plant. Our Spring on the Front Range of the Rockies varies a lot every year. We can get snows up to May so the trees need to bloom late and the fruit needs to mature quickly. We have daffodils and dutch irises blooming in the yard. This is really early for them to bloom here. The tulips are coming up. I planted about 300 new ones last fall. They should be nice. My niece Melissa was supposed to come up skiing next week but I have not heard back from her. It is her Spring break from teaching.

Run the Republic

On Sunday Mark and I participated in a fund raiser for the American Lung Association. Mark was 7th in fundraising for the event. So the event was running up the Republic Building which is 56 floors. Simply put we were breathing hard when we reached the top. We had leftovers for lunch and then went to a wine tasting by one of our favorite wine shops, the Vineyard. Our handsome and tall friends Kris and Tony joined us. Mark and I took the bus so we could taste to our heart's content.

Celebrating our Kitchen

On Saturday evening Mark and I cooked dinner for our construction crew that remodeled our kitchen. Tarl the general contractor is married to Diana who is from Mexico. Her mother and his mother came. Mary his mother actually designed the kitchen with our input. It is a great design. Mario and his wife Maria are also from Mexico. John and his wife Rachael who is completing her surgery residency came too. John did a lot of the carpentry work. Cameron the painter/artist wound up being someone who used to wait on Dwight and me when we would eat at the Mercury Cafe. So now for the meal. We made Duck, papaya, artichoke tacos with a pepper corn vinaigrette. Then a tomatillo soup served over tortillas, cheddar cheese and fried quail eggs. The main course was turkey with mole and rice. Desert was tres leches cake. We served a different wine with each course. Tarl mentioned that when he told Diana that we were making mole from scratch she was sceptical. I suppose the best compliment of the evening was when she said that we far exceeded her expectations. She said she did not think we would be able to make mole and this was one of the best that she has eaten. Her mother Sylvia devoured the tres leches cake. When I mentioned that I guessed she did not really care for the cake she laughed with glee. All in all it was a terrific meal enjoyed by all.

Valentine's Day Weekend Skiing

Well Mark and I have skied for the past two days in Breckenridge. The snow has been good. We had Valentine's Day dinner at our favorite restaurant Cafe Alpine. We both had the froi gras salad with honey truffle vinaigrette, then I had the Crab meat Wellington, Mark had the Pork loin with bacon served with sweet potatoes and a sauce with pomegranate seeds. For desert I had a Cognac filled Frangepane and Mark had a Kafir lime and lemon grass scented Pot De Creme. A great meal. Steve and Ginny were at the cabin with their friends when we got home. We are all planning on eating pizza tonight. Back to Denver in the morning.

Back in Denver

Zac my nephew left for Tulsa this morning around 9 am. Mark and I cleaned the cabin and heading back to Denver around 9:45 am. It was snowing around the cabin when we left however it was only cloudy by the time we got to Breckenridge. The trip home was uneventful. In Colorado we keep our Holiday decorations up until after the stock show. This ended before we went skiing yet we did not have time to take things down before we left for the week of skiing. We started taking things down as soon as we got home. Mark's nephew Nathanial is 14 years old and growing very quickly now. He is 5' 11" although he looks as tall as Mark at 6 foot. He is now the concert master for the Denver Area Youth Orchestra. We went to their performance this afternoon. They were playing music from several operas that highlighted the woodwinds and brass. I thought the conductor did the young performers a disservice by trying to keep the woodwinds and brass too quiet. Nathanial is quite talented. His tux barely fits him since his last performance and certainly will not by their next performance in April. Mark's sister Barb, her husband Jeff, his nephew Andrew, Mother and Father were there also. Afterwards was a shopping trip to Costco and King Soopers for groceries for the week. My men's group is coming over tomorrow night for a pot luck and I am entering a Chili contest at work on Wednesday. So I had to get the right ingredients for our meals. I am making a Roasted Chipotle Turkey Chili for the contest. All our decorations are in the carriage house now. What a relief! Back to work in the morning.

Our ski week ends

Well our week in the mountains is coming to a close. It was supposed to snow today however that did not happen. We stayed in the cabin reading, eating leftovers, chicken with lemon and olive and scafata. Later a short trip to Breckenridge to return Zac's skis to to take a walk through town. He wanted to stop by the french bakery and let them know how much he enjoyed the cake they made. We went to my favorite gallery and then found a new wine, cheese and chocolate shop. I had to buy a chocolatier mixer for hot chocolate. This device has a spinner in a carafe the mixes the chocolate well and makes it foam a bit. Zac head's back to Tulsa tomorrow and we head back to Denver. I repaired our clothes dryer vent today. It had become unconnected from the hose to the outside and it was taking a long time for things to dry. I love feeding the birds here. Today we had the mountain chickadees, magpies, ravens, Stellar's Jays and of course the chickeree a type of mountain squirrel who thinks it is his job to run the birds off as a way to protect his bird food. Tonight's leftovers are beef Burgundy and ratatouille. It has been a great week.

Ski week

Mark and I are sitting in the sun room at the cabin with a nice warm fire burning in the stove. The snow is deep for this time of year. I have to use snowshoes to get to the woodpile. I pull a sled behind me to load up the logs and pull them up the hill to the front porch. Yesterday we skied at Breckenridge and today we went to Vail. The snow was quite good and the slopes very few people. Tonight we ate leftovers of chili garlic balsamic vinegar pork with pasta and fennel blood orange salad. We are watching the last season of Nip Tuck on DVD while we are up here. Tomorrow is my gay nephew Zac's birthday and he is driving from Oklahoma to ski with us. We went to the french bakery in Breckenridge and special ordered a chocolate cake for tomorrow when he arrives. Dwight and John may come up one day this week.

Stimulus Package

So the entire country knows that we need this and yet again there are those who are fighting our President in getting these funds out to our states. Some of our leaders still do not understand that history will look at what they accomplished not what they blocked and destroyed. Hopefully this will move forward quickly. As people lose their jobs and their confidence the downward spiral starts to look like a plane in a tailspin. Everyone I talk to has great confidence in President Obama's leadership in this difficult time. We of course have a few people who are still mad that he is in office and that they lost. Turning these bad sports around will likely take awhile if it can even be done. I heard a little girl say to her parents who were complaining about the economy. "The past is the past. I had a test yesterday and now I need to focus on the future." Well said

Skiing

The skiing in Breckenridge was great this weekend. On Saturday the powder snow was deep and soft. It snowed all morning and was a bit on the wet side. We end the day in the hot tub at the Village where I own a condo. Our cabin is six miles south of Breckenridge so we drive to the Village and valet park. The condo is a short walk to the Silver Queen lift. The snow on Sunday was packed powder. We left early as the roads were snowy in places and the traffic gets heavy later in the day. Denver was foggy, snowy and cold as it is today. The National Stock Show ended on Sunday which is when the Holiday lights officially turn off in Denver. So our lights are off and will come down when it is warm enough to get outside. Dinner tonight was a simple Ouef de la Tripe which is onions and hard boiled eggs in a cream sauce. Mark made orange pecan yellow carrots to go with the main dish. The meal was good although very yellow. We have the meals planned for our week in the mountains which starts on Friday. My nephew Zac is coming to ski with us early in the week and our friends Chris and Pat will join us at the end of the week. I talked with our First Lady Jeannie Ritter today about her experience in DC at the inauguration. She said it was so moving to see so many people at the mall. She said it was uplifting and cold.

President Obama Day 4

It has been spitting snow today. The temperature dropped dramatically this morning and the skies are overcast. I did ride my bike to work today partly because of the weather and partly because I had meetings in different places around town. I am heading home from work to water the plants before heading to Breckenridge this evening. Heading to the mountains always feels like a mini vacation and after this great week I am ready for the excitement of snowboarding. Percy our blue front Amazon Parrot misses us when we leave. Millie our Quaker Parrot seems like she could care less. At least they have each other for company when we are gone and Dwight or John feeds them and covers their cages at night. They like the comfort of a covered cage. Percy always says "night, night" when I cover his cage. Well off to the watering and packing.

President Barach Hussein Obama Day Three

Every quarter I take a group of MHCD employees out to breakfast at HotCakes. These are people who have been recognized by their peers and supervisors as going the extra mile. We call it the Way to Go program. Since the weather was still nice I rode my bike to the cafe and afterwards to my clinic. I generally do my clinic on Tuesday but for this week I changed it so I could see the inauguration of President Obama. The weather was great today. It is supposed to snow tomorrow which is fine since we need the moisture. Mark and I are rushing off to a play called Inana when he gets home. Costco is on his way home and he is very good about stopping to make sure our kitchen is well stocked. Hopefully it will snow a lot in the mountains this weekend as we are heading that way for some more skiing this weekend. Mark's Uncle Dick is a retired Priest and is skiing there this week. We hope to hook up with him for dinner on Saturday evening. Yesterday the temperature was 71 which melted a 59 year old record. We say the world premier of Inana tonight. It is about an Iraqi Museum Director's efforts to save the great art works of Iraq from pillage. It was simply great.

President Barach Hussein Obama Day Two

Another warn sunny day in Denver today with temps in the 70s. This just rarely happens this time of year. I love to us public transportation when my schedule allows. Today was such a day. After testifying at the Denver City Council Safety Committee on the proposed Crisis Triage System I took the light rail to work. It gives me time to read while others drive. Brain Rules by John Medina is my current book. He is a great writer and describes how the brain works. Great story teller and takes complex concepts and translates them into easily understood principles. Tonight is Top Chef our favorite reality show. I have such a great team at work. Today we were looking at options for expanding our services. We have more poor people who need our help than we can serve so we work hard to develop services for people who can pay. The profits from these services pay for indigent care. At end of our meeting I recalled that President Obama is asking all of us to work together to get our America back. I have the plan to think about this everyday and do what I can. I challenged my team to do the same.

President Barach Hussein Obama Day One

What a great joy it was to watch President Barach sworn into office today. My staff and I all watched together as this historic event occurred. We all had tears and joy. I am more hopeful now than I have been in a long time. It was so good to watch ex-President Bush fly away. President Obama was deft in his criticism of the former President while focusing on the future of our county. We are blessed to have such a great orator and visionary leading us to our new future. We have great burdens to address as a nation. As a gay man I feel such a sense of hope that a man from humble beginnings can achieve such a great station in life in our country. I believe this puts our leadership back on the map of the world. For this I am thankful. The people I work with are simply the best and I feel such a great sense of wonderment that I get to work with such talented people. On a different note I rode my bike to and from work today. We had temperatures in the high 60s, which is so rare this time of year. I love the good things that happen around me each day.

Warm Winter Weather

It was 65 degrees and sunny in Denver today. Great for getting things done outside. Mark and I did a simple meal this evening, Broiled Tuna, fennel salad and a mixed veggie salad with a simple Hawaiian dressing. Our investment club met at our house tonight and they all loved the kitchen. It is beautiful. Mark arranged the cookbooks in the book case and amazingly we have room for some more books if we like. Just how many cookbooks does one need. We are already in the triple digits. I plan to ride my bike to work tomorrow. My car is still in the shop and the weather is supposed to be good again. I love cycling to work when I can. My office is watching the inauguration together in the morning. We are all excited about our new President.

Skiing in Breckenridge

Mark and I got home this evening after two sunny days of skiing in Breckenridge. January is usually the coldest time to ski. This weekend was like Spring Skiing with the sun, warmer weather and lots of people. Of course it is the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday weekend. We are excited that President Elect Obama will we sworn in right after then Martin Luther King's Holiday. Seems most fitting. Mark and I love cooking after a day of skiing and last night we had lemon-chile mushrooms, eggplant and broiled lamb. It was good, especially after a day on the slopes. The traffic was heavy on the way home. We watched the first episode of the new season of Big Love. This is an HBO series about a polygamous family in Salt Lake City, Utah written by a gay couple. It is intriguing and very clever. Mark is doing physicals at Manuel High School tomorrow pro bono and Dwight and John are in Pocatello Idaho celebrating John's mother's 80 birthday. I will be here alone for the day. That will be nice.

Beautiful Day by the Confluence

Colorado can surprise you with warm days in the middle of winter and today was blue skies with temperatures in the high 50s. I dropped my car at the garage since the engine light was on and took the bus to the REI Flagship store at the confluence of the Platte River and Cherry Creek. This is were Denver began 150 years ago. Jamiee Van Leeuwen who is the head of Denver's Road Home was going to meet me at the Starbucks there but he had car trouble. My next meeting was a conference call with folks around the country that I made while sitting by the river. Most of the others on the call were in the deep freeze that is covering most of the US. Wen chocolatier is nearby so I could not resist their hand made truffles. I will surprise Mark with them tonight. We are heading to the mountains to ski as soon as he gets home and we eat a bite. His clinic is running late so it gave me time to water the orchids and the poinsettias. I have all the gear and food ready to load in the car when he gets here. My last meeting of the day was with Dorothy Horrell the head of the Bonfils Stanton Foundation to talk about the future structure of the Livingston Fellowship. She is a gem and always such a great person to talk with. Tom Downey from the Children's Museum who is another Fellow joined us. I took them some of the chocolates too. Their office is in the old May D&F Tower. Every floor is a different office and the elevator opens right into the office. It reminds me of Dynasty or as they called the show in Germany, DenverKlan.

Getting ready for the Mountains

Mark and I are heading to the mountains tomorrow evening after work. It might be unusually warm this weekend. Generally January is a cold time to ski. They are predicting temperatures as high as 40 F. That's warm. I hope the snow will be good. We are taking Nip Tuck to watch and of course will be making something good to eat. We are going to the Curious Theatre tonight. This venue shows very edgy plays that are usually quite good. Plays on a "school night" usually means we eat simple dinners. Tonight we had apple chicken sausages with a fennel, blood orange and pomegranate salad. Tasty.

The Color Purple

Mark and I went to see The Color Purple last night at the Buell Theatre. It is a musical adaptation of the book/movie. I could not imagine how they would pull this off, yet it was quite well done and moving. The cast is all black as it should be and it was underwritten by Oprah Winfrey. The cruelty is unbearable. Cilie finding herself is inspiring. We got the copper vent covers for the ventahood installed today. The air still leaks a bit so we will talk with Tarl the contractor when he returns from visiting his in-laws in Mexico. I am working with a group to change the laws on requiring sex offenders to register. Right now the requirement is too broad and harms a lot of people. For example if college students streak and get arrested they are required to register as sex offenders. Personally I do not find anything about college students streaking as offensive. Young naked people having fun is something we should encourage.

Snow

We awoke to 5 inches of snow this morning. Quite the surprize after a day of sun and temps in the 40s yesterday. I had not listened to the weather report so I was a bit stunned. I love that we are in the single digit days until President Obama takes office. What hope he is giving all of us.

Installing the Windows

Mark had a dinner party for the people that work on the online medical record team, Health Connect. The leg of lamb with roasted veggies was great. Most of the folks had not seen the house before and loved it. They especially loved the new kitchen. We still have the Holiday decorations up and it looks festive. Tim caulked in the windows yesterday so we will be able to put them up this afternoon. We will have sushi with friends this evening at Osaka Sushi, Kate and Scott's favorite sushi place. We only have one orchid blooming at the moment. It is easier to keep them watered in the summer because I can just hose them down on the balcony. The hand watering in the winter takes a lot more time.

Getting the Leaded Glass Windows

Our good friend Tim Charney is coming over today to install the leaded glass windows in our kitchen cabinets. Tim is a retired school teacher who taught Spanish. He started making stained glass windows and has created many beautiful ones both for the homes that Tim and Rich own and for others. Tim was at the top of our list hoping he would have the time to create these for us. Not only does he have a great eye for design he creates this windows quickly. I will post some pictures when they are installed. We had our MHCD winter party last night at the cable center on the University of Denver Campus. It is a beautiful space with lots of TV monitors so we had displays of our staff rotating on the screens during our event. We hired an improve comedy group "MAD CAP" to perform and they were hilarious. Three Tomatoes catered the food and it was great. Tasty dishes replaced your typical buffet bland choices. The house is still decorated as we leave the Holiday decorations up until after the National Stock Show ends. This is a Denver tradition. The mountains are getting some good snow. Mark's computer team at Kaiser is coming over tonight for a dinner party so we will ski next weekend. Staying home gives us a chance to catch up on 'cositas".

Happy New Year

Well 2009 is here and we are ready for a good one. Mark, Dwight, John, Bill, Robert and I did the annual raku firing for the new year. We make totems that represent what we want in the new year and do the glazing and firing on New Years Eve. The pieces came out great this year. Mark and I got back yesterday from three days of riding(snowboard, me) and skiing(telemark, Mark). My body has been praising me for getting it in shape with a strong dose of soreness! The powder snow was great in Breckenridge on Saturday. By Monday the snow was packed and crusty with strong winds so we stopped in the early afternoon.
Our new kitchen is beautiful. There are still a few things to be completed. This has not stopped our being able to use it. The design was done by our contractor Tarl's mother Mary. She did a great job working with us to create a kitchen that really works well. We are looking forward to starting our dinner parties again.