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.