Our Vacation.....

Lisa and I got back from a much deserved vacation this last weekend. We flew out Thanksgiving Day for Fort Lauderdale to relax in the sun for a few days before our cruise.

I set up a dive in Florida before I left so I could get some “saltwater” time. I wanted to get an open ocean dive in so I could get comfortable with being in the ocean. I am waiting for pictures of the area we dove. I was supposed to get pictures of me diving but the camera flooded when the dive-master jumped in. He told me he would send me the “Best Of” the area we dove. It was pretty cool dive. I saw an 8 foot green moray eel and 2 turtles. I also saw hundreds of puffer fish. They have the coolest eyes you have ever seen. They are like deep blue jewels. The dive was shallow (only around 25 feet in depth) and we had a good time.

Lisa spent the day by the pool while I was diving. Our friends showed up later that day and we all just hung out by the pool the next day before getting on the boat on Sunday.
The cruise was nice. We spent the first day in Key West, we just walked around. I was stationed there years ago so we went to all the places I used to go to (well not all the places). We bought some great hot sauces, had a great sea food lunch (oysters, conch fritter, shrimp, and spiny lobster) and are looking forward to trying those soon.

The weather in Cayman sucked so I couldn’t dive. The waves and the currents were so bad that half of us on the trip didn’t dive, it was above our ability. The cruise ships by passed Cayman the day before (bad weather) so I think they were pushing it to get money that day. The dive shop said they have had a rough winter so far. Oh well I will go back eventually and will try again. Safety is the number 1 rule in diving so I spent the day on the boat and enjoyed the sun.

In Jamaica we went to the dolphin encounter and we got to pet the dolphins. It was a lot of fun. We then went to Dunn’s River Falls and climbed/hiked up the falls. It was a lot of fun. The only thing I didn’t like was the constant attempts to sell you cheap crap every two steps. In order to get out of the park where the falls are you had to wind your way through all the vendors shops. I understand that Jamaica is a poor nation and they need to the tourists to help them get by but man it got to be too much and they got way too pushy. Next time we go back we are looking at an all inclusive near Kingston. Also I plan on doing some diving in Jamaica.

The entire trip was nice, Lisa was disappointed with Cayman (she said it has gone commercial). The food in the main dining hall wasn’t anything to write home about but the last night on the ship we ate at the Sun King restaurant. It costs an extra $30 for each person but it was worth it!

We got home just in time for the snow and I got to use my snow blower this morning before coming in to work.

A very stressful time

It has been a stressful few weeks for Lisa and I. The week before last Lisa’s Dad went in for a doctor’s visit and they discovered a spot on his lung. After some kind of scan (Lisa is the medical professional not me) the doctor was pretty sure Chuck had lung cancer. They had to run some more tests and then we would know the details (what stage, has it metastasized, and what type of cancer), needless it was a very stressful week in our house. Lisa went with her parents to the doctors to hear the results of the tests. They confirmed Chuck has lung cancer. The good news is that it is a large cell cancer which means it is treatable and it has not spread. He is a good candidate for surgery and I’m sure there is chemo to follow. Chances are he is going to loose a large piece of his lung, maybe all of it but we are going to have him for a lot longer and that is the most important thing.
On the same day we learned of Chuck’s news we learned that our friend Lucca committed suicide. We met Lucca through our friend Elizabeth. Lucca was originally from Rome, Italy and lived in Denver. We saw him a few months ago when he and Elizabeth came down for dinner and stayed over because we drank several bottles of wine. We will probably never know why Lucca made his decision but we will miss him.
On a more positive note Chuck turned 65 on Sunday and Lisa’s birthday is this Wednesday. This last weekend Lisa and I went to Denver for a play and dinner at the Capitol Grill. We had a very nice time and this coming weekend we will be having a dual birthday dinner with the family to celebrate Chuck and Lisa’s birthdays.
In the words of Ferris Bueller, “Life goes by pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

A very busy weekend

Well Lisa and I had a very busy weekend this weekend. Since I spend so much time up in Denver Lisa had a list a mile long for me to do around the house. On Saturday we had a bunch of errands to run before we got to play. I also had to load up software on Lisa's new laptop, I get to work all week on computers and then get to go home to work on anther computer! I had to buy a math book this last weekend also. I never went beyond college algebra in my degree. I need to learn trigonometry for my job, and then I will need to learn statistics after trig. So after getting my new math book Lisa and I headed home because I had to get some ribs on the smoker!
Our friend Jen had a ladies night at her house so I invited her guy David and my friend Roger (whose wife Betsy was at ladies night) over to the house for BBQ and some beers. We had a good time talking football, politics, work, and the merits of my new spice rub on the ribs. It was great to have the guys over. All of us boys are so busy we don't get to hang out as much as we would like.
On Sunday I had to reseal the granite counter tops and while that was curing I went to the "man cave" to build a bookshelf for our cookbooks. Lisa and I are serious 'foodies' and have a large collection of cookbooks. Plus Lisa bought a new one this weekend. We have a rule that says, "if one comes in, one must go out". We bought Jamie Oliver's new cookbook this weekend. It is an awesome cookbook.
Anyway so that was our weekend. Oh also Lisa started her very own blog site for her stamping up. I will be adding it to the list of blog sites on the main page.

Long time no post!

Wow it has been for ever since I have posted anything to this site. Lis and I have been really busy with just busy work around the house. Lisa has been really getting her to "Stampin Up!" and setting up a small business as a demonstrator. She really enjoys getting together with the ladies and making cards and all sorts of things. She is now teaching classes once a month at the house. The nice thing is if she does well in the business we get to go on a cruise paid by stampin up. This means Rik gets to go diving at the various islands we stop at. That is a good thing since I really don't want to sit around and listen to a bunch of women talk about making cards. Plus I will have a dive partner in Russ.
I am still working as a systems engineer and I'm getting ready to go back to school in the new year. I am going to get my masters degree in systems engineering. It is going to be a 2yr process of seriously hard work. I am also planning on getting back into flyfishing now that one of my fishing partners is back in Colorado. I think it will help me relax while working on my masters degree.
Overall life is pretty good and we are really enjoying life.

Christmas in July

We had a wicked hail storm last week! On Friday just after I got home from Denver a nice storm rolled in over the Lewis-Palmer Divide. At first it was just a bit of rain but then the hail came! We got over an inch of hail on the deck. Thank-fully we got the tomatoes under cover but Lisa's flowers got shredded. The wood on the deck looks like it has been bead blasted. The hail was a little bigger than a pea (some were the size of quarters) but they were perfectly round balls of ice, they looked like diamonds! The storm was so heavy that our neighbor up the hill had a waterfall coming out of his storm drain that run under his front stairs. That river comes right down into my storm drain that runs along the side of my shed. Well it is supposed to, this time it ran into the yard and under the shed because there was so much ice in the water that there were ice dams in the storm drain. I had to take a shovel and go break them up while it was pouring rain and hail. After the hail stopped a steady rain storm followed it up and we were thankful fort he rain but could have done without the hail.

A few weeks back we had our good friends Dave, Jen, and Lilly up for dinner. We had a prime rib that I had put in the smoker and made a special rub for. We had a great time and Lisa took this great picture of Lilly enjoying the prime rib. I know she makes her Daddy so proud! I was so proud that she liked my cooking! Lilly enjoys good BBQ and I'm glad she enjoyed mine.

This coming weekend is the annual Tiki Party here at "Camera nei Pini" and I have taken a few days off to get ready. I will be smoking about 6 pounds of pork on Friday and a 10 pound brisket on Saturday. Each takes about 10 - 12 hours to smoke. Since the party starts at 4pm on Saturday I will be up at 4am to get it going. I am so glad my smoker is electric and I will be able to go back to bed for a few hours after I put the brisket on to smoke. I'll have pictures in the next post for that. Ciao!

Much better this time

As you noticed from the last blog entry we didn't like Nixon in China but over the last 2 weeks we saw "Sweeny Todd" and "3 Mo' Divas". Sweeny Todd was a lot of fun because each of the actors played their own musical instruments. We thought that was really cool. The only downside was when Sweeny killed somebody they fired off a train whistle really really loud and we sit 13 rows in front of the speakers. Man that hurt the ears! The set was really cool and the actors were great.
Last weekend we saw 3 Mo' Divas. It is a celebration of voice. The ladies started by signing Puchini then travelled through Broadway and then onto Gospel and into the Blues. They took a detour through disco but hey no play is perfect! I'm kidding even the disco tunes were fun. Those three ladies were awesome and the piano player was amazing!
I am still doing the Denver thing but hope to get a month back in Colorado Springs at the home office. I need a break from staying up here all week. Plus I need to get some dive time in Jul/Aug so I can stay current with my scuba. Lisa is still working the north hospital and waiting for us to win the lottery so she can retire.

Nixon has Entered China but Lisa and I have left the building

This last weekend Lisa and I attended our last opera of the season it was “Nixon in China”. O.k. let me start with a few facts, first of all Chairman Mao was a complete nut case. I really think the guy lived in the wilderness for too many years during WWII. Asian philosophy can be very esoteric and Chinese Communist Philosophy is the most esoteric of all of them. Towards the end of the Chairman’s life he apparently spent hours rambling incoherently and his faithful followers wrote down every word as if it were God speaking to them. Well in a way I guess it was their version of God at that time.

If you are really interested in the details of the opera you can look it up on line but here is the basics: Nixon arrives in China, Mao rambles (for what seems likes hours), they party like rock starts, Madame Mao shows them a typical communist play, Nixon questions why he is there, and then they go home. Lisa and I didn’t wait to see what Madame Mao was up to, at the end of the first act we looked at each other and said, “We got dressed up for this?” I also think the writer of this opera was educated beyond his intelligence. There was no way Nixon was that deep or fun to be around. Also the lyrics were strange and incoherent.

The play was way too red (the whole set was done in red), all the communists were in Blue, and Nixon & Kissinger wire in black. We were drowning in primary colors. The orchestra and the chorus over powered the principle singers. Let’s just say that all in all the opera was not very good. So we left and went to dinner and had a great laugh about the opera. We also had a few drinks.

We also went over to the Italian Street Art Festival in Larimer Square. We stopped over to look around on Saturday when the artists first started drawing. There was some really great artwork that was beginning to take shape. Sadly it rained on Saturday night and many of the artist had to restart there work on Sunday morning and had to race to finish before judging that day.

All in all it was a fun weekend.

My new blog site

As some of of you know I have been an active writer for many years. I have kept a diary (though I don't get to write in it as much as I would like too) for many years. Lisa and I do keep a travel diary when we are travelling. I try to keep Camera nei Pini a family blog (which means I try to keep my politics and personal beliefs off of it). So to be able to unload and write I have started a new blog site. It is called "A view from above the treeline". We live in a state where you can clearly see the treeline. When ever you are above the treeline you can get a clearer view of what is going on and also you can see them coming for you!
I have put a link on this web page but I will fore warn family and friends now, my mind is a dark and scary place. I have traveled extensively and have seen sites no amount of alcohol can erase. I have a 'interesting' way at looking at the world and the people in it and I'm not really afraid of calling those people out either.
I have already posted up on it although it isn't my best work, I was tired and didn't put my heart into it. I'm sure I will soon.

Trying to catch up on all the news

o.k. I have been very bad about posting to this site. In my defense the month of April was REALLY busy! There was something going on every weekend. I started the month off with a visit from my younger brother (I won't say little 'cuz he is 6'3"!) and his daughter Bailee. It was a great visit because his 40th birthday was the weekend he got into town. We had a nice BBQ dinner (I smoked 6 racks of ribs in the smoker for him) and Lisa's family came up to celebrate with and see Brian. We had a great time cruising around and goofing off. Bailee really loved the Garden of the Gods and the Dinosaur museum. Mike and Zack came with us to the museum so it was even more fun watching my nephew run around and have fun. And in true Meyer’s form it snowed while they were here.
The last weekend Brian and Bailee were here we had a party for Erich Schroeger. Erich is in Baghdad right now for a 4 month tour. We kept the party small and gathered the DSCS clan. It was great because the Huckstep’s had just moved to town. John finished his hardship tour in Hawaii going to U of H to finish his degree in Biology. He is doing a tour at the headquarters and then will be teaching cadets biology at USAFA for 4 yrs. They moved in just around the corner from us so we will be able to see them this summer when we have our little parties on the patio. We grilled some burgers and brats for a nice little afternoon party.
The following weekend Lisa and I had tickets to the opera and planned to stay in Denver all weekend. Well I say planned because the weekend started out with the news my Grandmother had passed away and later that night while enjoying "The Flying Dutchman" I developed stomach bug that totally wrecked me. At first I thought I had food poisoning but by Saturday noon Lisa assured me that I got the 36 hour bug that was running around and we were heading home. I have not been that sick since my last trip to Tijuana! I spent all weekend in the bathroom. I did feel better by Sunday night, just in time to go to work!
The following weekend I had a planned trip to Santa Rosa, NM to finish my scuba certifications. I got there Friday around 10am and after checking into the hotel we were in the water by noon for our first dive of the day. We did three training dives that day and I'm glad we did. The next day it seems everybody and their mother showed up to the place for their training. The Blue Hole is an interesting place. It is a natural spring that is 80 feet deep and constant 64 degree water. They have 2 platforms that are 30 feet down that you descend on to do your training. To get certified you have to complete 4 dives and all the required tasks. Most of the tasks require you to flood your mask and then clear it. The second and third dives are the dives that you are doing your out of air scenarios. During my ascent with my dive buddy I was using his air source (his alternate octo) and he kept trying to pull away from me so I reached out and grabbed him and pulled to my chest and glared at him through my mask. Our instructor was holding his other side so we wouldn't ascend too quickly so I think he was freaking out a little. When we got to the surface I looked at him and said, "Dude, you had the air and you kept trying to pull away!" He apologized and said he was having some issues with me being right on top of him like that. When we arrived Saturday morning to do our final dive and some fun dives the area was locked and there was police tape every where. Apparently there was a homicide in the parking lot that night, so we got a late start to the day. I finally got my final dive in around 11am and my instructor gave me open water patch at 30 feet underwater. Me being the smart ass I am when he gave me my patch I took my regulator out of my mouth and smiled at him. It was a good day over all. I didn't get any more dives in though. My dive buddy had to leave and there were so many people diving I just packed up and took off for home. I hadn't spent much time at home recently so I figured I would get back down there soon any way. I plan on doing my advanced dives this summer so I will get more in then. One thing though is that my right ear hasn't cleared fully yet. It doesn't hurt or anything it just feels like I have 1/2 a head cold! It is slowly getting better everyday.
So that catches me up to this weekend. On Friday night we went to a cooking class and learned how to make fish tacos and some other great Mexican food. Last night we had dinner with our friends Roger and Betsy at a local Mexican place we like. Tonight Lisa is making curry for dinner, Mexican 3 nights in a row may be a bit much. We did buy a new grill today. This one has a rotisserie motor on it and it much bigger than my last grill. We are going to give the old grill to a nurse friend of Lisa’s who needs one. It still works great it was just a little too small for our parties for me to get everything on it that I needed.
Well next weekend is Mother’s Day and my parents will be in Colorado for the summer. They are going to working at a RV park south of town and will be looking around for places live. It looks like the parents are moving to CO. Lisa and I will be in Denver next weekend for a play and dinner on Saturday night. We will be coming back on Sunday for Mother’s Day and I’m sure we will do something to recognize our Mom’s.

In Memory of Isabelle Meyers

On the morning 18 April 2008 my Grandmother passed away. She was one month short of her 94th birthday. I was lucky to have been there on her 93rd birthday and spend time with her, it was the last time I saw her. We spoke many times since then but it was the last time I got to sit with her in her home and play cards with her. Playing cards is what we did; it was what Grandma did with all of us grandkids. I would call Grandma once a week on my way to work in the mornings. I would catch her as she was getting back from breakfast and we would talk about the weather and who was doing what. She would listen as I explained where I was off to next. I know Grandma never really liked to travel (Grandpa was the traveler in that couple) but I like to think she enjoyed seeing the world through my eyes and the rest her kids and grandkids.
There are many things I will miss about my Grandmother but the thing I will miss the most is her laugh. Grandma had the best laugh and it would get me laughing every time I heard it. She had a wonderful sense of humor and could usually find the humor in most situations. We had some great conversations during my last visit and I will treasure them for the rest of my life. I am also grateful that Lisa got to meet her before she passed away. She got to enjoy a home made spaghetti dinner that my wife made for her. Grandma always enjoyed the cards Lisa made for her and saved to them and showed them to me when I visited last year.
Meaning no offence to my Mom but I never had the same connection with her Mother as I did with Grandma Meyers. We spent many of our summer vacations in Wisconsin at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. My brother and I both learned to swim at White Potato Lake during our visits to Wisconsin. As I got older and after I joined the Air Force I always tried to stop and spend time at Grandma’s whenever I transferred from one duty assignment to another. Grandma’s house was my hide-away from the world where I could go and de-stress from my job. There was something about that bed in the backroom that gave me the best sleep I’ve ever had. There was also something else about Grandma’s house and that I always felt the need to take an afternoon nap. I could have slept for 12 hours the night before but everyday after lunch I felt the gentle tug of the couch and I would slip off for an hour of restful sleep. I always felt so much better after a week at Grandma’s house. I just always had a deep sense of peace in her house and that peace always recharged my batteries and allowed me to face the world again.
Grandma’s health had been deteriorating over the last several weeks and she was in a lot of discomfort and pain. In some weird way I was relieved when Mom called me and told me the news. Grandma is at peace now and with Grandpa in much kinder place. I’m sure she is catching him up on everything his crazy family has been up to since he passed away (I like to think of it as he is just travelling on ahead of the rest of us and we will all catch up to him one day).
I would like to close this blog with a very humble thank-you to my Aunt Yvonne and Uncle Ken. I can’t put into words the gratitude I feel towards my Aunt and Uncle for all that they did for Grandma over the years after Grandpa passed away. It was a great comfort to not only my parents but to me and brother that you guys were there for Grandma. Thank-you.

Its been over a month!

Wow it has been over a month since I have posted. There have been a few things that have happened over the last month but two of them deserve their own posting. I will work on the first one tonight. My Grandmother passed away on Friday 18 April and the other blog posting is the visit from my younger brother and my niece Bailee.
This coming weekend I will be going to NM to finish my scuba certification and I will put up a post on that weekend next week. Lisa is still working at the North ER and working on her cards and scrap booking. I am still working up in Denver during the week and coming home on weekends.
Well I need some time to compose my thoughts and get my head in order before I tackle my Grandmother's post. I have a feeling I will be typing through tear filled eyes.

Underwater adventure

Well I am exploring a new hobby, scuba diving. I grew up watching Jacques Cousteau and wanting to join the crew of the Calypso and travel to all the cool places they did. Well diving is an expensive sport and there wasn't any way we could afford the gear so now I have the time and the money to give it a try. Also Lisa and I are going to Bermuda with friends for a week on a live on board dive boat.

This last weekend I did my confined dive and classroom work and next month I will do my open water final certification. The dive is done in a place called Blue Hole in Santa Rosa, NM. I will say that I came very close to freaking out the first time I went under water with a regulator. The mask I had didn't fit right and it was pinching my nose and I felt like I couldn't breathe. Some people have a fear of public speaking as their biggest fear, mine is not being able to breathe ( I have over 5000 hours of public speaking time as an instructor), I also had to get used to having some water near my nose and had to learn to lightly breathe out my nose while exhaling through my regulator. Once I got my mask right and we started gong to the deep end I started to feel a little better and once we started doing tasks I kind of forgot about the water around my nose. Now I will say I do not like taking my mask off under water. I found I had to plug my nose because it felt like I was going to inhale through my nose just by habit. I'm sure I will get over that in time but I plan on doing everything I can to keep my mask on! I know that in my open water I will have at least 4 mask off skills I will have to demonstrate, not really looking forward to that!

Lisa is doing well and spending time in 'Craft Corner' downstairs. She is cranking out lots of cards and other crafty things. She is working full time now at the North Hospital in the ER and enjoying it. We are just living from day to day and enjoying it. We are looking forward to winter being over and getting out in the yard to clean up and get the wildflower seeds planted.

We are also looking forward to my little brother Brian's visit. He and my niece Bailee are coming for a week in April. While he is here my little brother will be turning 40, man I feel old. Hopefully the weather will be good so we can do some sight seeing in the mountains.

Well I'm in Denver for the week at the apartment and I need to go around and update the clocks so I won't be late to work tomorrow.

Ciao for now!

A Night at the Opera

It could have either been from the Queen album or the Marx brother’s film of the same name but we had our night at the opera on Friday. Lisa and I went to see "Don Pasquale" on Friday night. It is an “Opera Buffa” which means a comic opera. This production was updated to a setting in the American SouthWest at the turn of the century, which is funny because it was still in Italian. I don’t think there were a lot of cowboys named Ernesto (well maybe a few Spanish ones). The opera was fun and in one act it showed a man’s usual response when he gets dumped, he turns to hookers & beer. At the beginning of Act II Ernesto is drowning his sorrows in a tub with 3 hookers and a bottle of whiskey. The hookers aren't doing anything naughty (and he keeps it that way) but they help him compose a letter and pour him whiskey. I have explained to Lisa in the past that this is how guys usually get over a woman after he is dumped. Let me explain with some empirical evidence.
While stationed in Germany (for the second time) there was a group of us guys who supported each other through various breakups and a couple of divorces. We were all in our mid-twenties to late twenties and played softball and football together. What we would do is when one of was dumped (or served with papers from the wife back home while she was on "vacation") we would take the person to Tom’s Golden Nugget (one of the worst dive bars you have ever seen) and we would begin to drown the subject in beer. Just across the parking lot was Annabelle House (one of Germany’s famous brothels at the time, which is now low rent housing BTW). After enough beer and George Jones pain songs (oh yeah Tom’s had a great jukebox) we would walk the subject over to Annabelle House and buy him a hooker. We would all hang out in the bar on the first floor until the girl walked him downstairs and deposited him at the table where we would proceed to buy him more beer until he passed out. (If the breakup was really painful we would substitute tequila for beer. A word of warning here you must be very careful when mixing tequila with hookers, an improper mix and the evening ends really early! Enough said on that topic.) Anyway it always worked for us so I was happy to see that our procedure we followed so many years ago was actually something guys did way back in history. (Hey what can I say, we were all young, boisterous, and thought we were bullet proof. Ever wonder why I am so calm most of the time? I sowed all my wild oats in Europe as a young man.)
Anyway back to the opera. Ernesto finds out it is only a trick being played on his rich Uncle so he and the woman he loves can get married. The trick works and he and his true love get married and the Uncle blesses the union.
We had dinner before the opera at a restaurant that is in the basement of the opera house. It was a very nice dinner. We stayed in Denver for the night at the Hotel Monaco as we usually do. It is a great place and is pet friendly. It is a short walk over to the theater complex. Our next opera is in April and it is “The Flying Dutchman” by Vagner. It will be done with out any setting in the back ground. We have tickets in the 4th row for this one. I enjoy Vagner’s music very much. I’m not sure where will eat but I’m sure we will be staying at the Monaco again.

our boring lives........

Just a quick update of news from Camera nei Pini. Lisa hasn't been feeling well for the last several days. She went to the doctor's office and she found out she had a serious sinus infection and a severe chest cold that has had her laid up for the last several days. She is finally begining to feel better and will go back to work tomorrow night. She has been busy going to stamp club and doing scrapbooking.
I'm still working up in Denver supporting a new GPS contract. I make the drive up on Monday morning and come on either Thursday night or Friday night depending my schedule. I try to work in the Colorado Springs office on every other Friday. It keeps me connected to the people working there.
We really haven't been up to much lately, with my being gone all week we just want to hang out with each other all weekend. We have a chance to visit with friends occasionally but this coming Friday we will be going to the opera in Denver. We are going to have dinner prior to the opera at a new resturant and then we are staying over night at a local hotel. It is known as "date night in the Meyers house".

HOW ABOUT THOSE COWBOYS!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I would like to thank the NY Giants for showing the nation that the Cowboys were a joke (Real football teams play OUTSIDE in the weather and no a hole in the roof doesn't count). Once again my beloved Green Bay Packers are in the hunt for their 14th title! Yes they have 13 titles people you can look it up. (10 World Championships and 3 Superbowl wins) Now I don't blame Jessica Simpson for Dallas losing and I can't blame Romo for going to Mexico with her either (I mean come on! Jessica Simpson in a bikini? I'm pretty sure that image is downloaded a million times a day from the Internet). Let me see if I was given the choice of hanging out on my couch or going to the gym or going to Mexico with Jessica Simpson which one would I choose??????? Hummmmm let me think about that one for a second........ bartender I'll take a beer and the chesty blonde over there will have a tequila! That choice is a serious DUHHHHHHH!!!!!!
As Seattle found out it snows in Green Bay during the winter and if you aren't used to it you are going to have issues. It does snow in NY so I think the Giants will be able to handle it but Eli is a southern boy so we will find out how much he enjoys the snow (now watch it will be 60 degrees this weekend in Green Bay).
Lets go Packers! You beat the Patriots in a Superbowl before you can do it again. Lets win one for Brett so he can go out a champion like John "Mr. Ed" Elway did. I mean it is only fair since Brett took his records away from him.

A really slow weekend

Well as the title states not a lot is going on this weekend. I got home from Denver on Friday night and Lisa and I have been just hanging out. We did run some errands yesterday but were home in time to see the Packers beat Seattle. That game is always hard on the family because the Meyers' ancestral home is Green Bay, WI but our branch of the clan grew up in Seattle. I personally prefer it when Green Bay wins, I'm not a big Seahawks fan.
Lets see what other news is there. My Mother-in-Law got here new granite counter tops in and will get the back splash done this week. We aren't allowed to come down until the kitchen is done. We have to go to old Colorado City next weekend anyway and I really don't feel like getting out of my pj's today so that is o.k. Oh I also got two new fountain pens. They are from a company called Lamy and they are sweet! One is a fine point and the other is a extra fine point. They write really well and I am looking forward to many years of use out of them. I actually do a lot of writing and have been keeping a journal for years. I don't write in it everyday but I do carry it and jot down notes and thoughts whenever the "muse" strikes me.
Lisa has been busy scrap booking and doing various stamping projects. We got a different kind of milk yesterday that still has the cream on top. I tried it this morning for our lattes and I think I need David to come up here to give me some foaming lessons on my espresso machine. I can't quite get the milk to foam up nice like Dave does. I will have to contact him and set up a few lessons, maybe while the girls are at a stamp club event.
I am thinking of creating my own blog site that I can kind of "go off" on and just rant when I need to. I think I will work on that this week while in Denver. The owner of the company and our lead programmer will be sharing the apartment with me for a few weeks. This should be interesting I'm sure.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everybody! Just a quick note to start the New Year off. Lisa and I had a quiet New Year this year. Since I am still doing the weekly trips to Denver I wanted to spend some alone time with my wife on New Years so we stayed home and had a nice dinner and a good bottle of wine. I’m gone all week so the only time Lisa and I get to see each other is the weekends.
Lisa and I got to spend lunch on New Year’s Day with Dale, Judy and the girls; I guess I should say “The young ladies” because they are growing so fast. We haven’t been able to see each other for about 5 years but they were in town spending the holidays with Dale’s family this year. Dale and I were stationed to together in Key West FLA years ago and we did some cross country travelling together by train. That is a whole blog entry to itself! We have remained good friends since and do the cell phone and e-mail dance to keep each other up to speed on the families. They are going back to Germany for another 5 year tour. Lisa and I are planning on going over to see them and do some touring around Germany. I spent many years in Germany and I would love to go back.
The weather has warmed up some but they are saying more snow is coming so I had better get out and get the lights down today or they may be up until next year! Most of the ice has cleared off of the driveway so I need to get out there and spread some more ice melt and break up the remaining ice. Maybe I will do that tomorrow while I smoke up some ribs. I have two slabs of ribs I need to cook this weekend. I will make the BBQ sauce tonight (I’m thinking a whiskey BBQ sauce for them) and use up the last of the dry rub I have. It is good to be home (but I do miss the 42” plasma TV we have at the apartment during football matches!).
Well time to post this and get to work. Lisa and I want to wish everybody a healthy and happy New Year.