Author Archives: metamegan

Alas, fame and fortune is just out of my grasp

I decided to write my awesome, contest winning post today and submit it to the blogher contest and I realized… the deadline was yesterday.  I have been at a serious disadvantage this month, because it is 90+ degrees, and when I rest my laptop on my lap, it sort of burns my skin.   How’s that  for an excuse for not doing a lot of writing?

In other news, I stayed up until 2:00 am finished Cutting for Stone.  I had mixed feelings about some things that happened at the end, but it was obviously impossible to put down, which, with a 700 page book, can really put your life on hold.

 

 

Txting in the Rain

 

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If you have ever wondered what that guy who pretends to be a statue does when it’s raining… the answer is, he hangs out under an awning and plays words with friends.  Tag name: creepy_statue1982

Happy 19th of July!

It’s the 19th of July, my special holiday.  I did a little shoe shopping at lunch, browsed at the bookstore, and got a chicken sandwich to go from The Kitchen {Next Door].

The celebration continued with leftovers for dinner, cupcakes for dessert, and then ended somewhat terribly with the 2005 version of Lassie.  I’d go into detail, but I don’t want to be a buzz kill on my special day.  (Don’t watch this movie.)

But I am wearing my new tennis shoes, and they look fabulous!

The Expensive Library Summer

The librarians at the branch library near our house keep renewing the Darth Vader chapter book that Jack picked out one day.   At night when I was reading to him, he would get bored after about half a page, but for some unknown reason, I would secretly consider reading the rest of the book on my own time.  But I didn’t, and when it was time to return the library books, I gathered it up along with everything else.  So I was surprised to see it in the basement 5 minutes later, in Jack’s secret hideout.  I thought to myself, I need to do something with that book right this instant or it will end up getting lost.   Long story short, I keep trying to just pay the library for the damn thing and they keep renewing it and telling me to keep looking.  I have looked everywhere.

While this has been going on, I have been reading a book about Mary Magdalene.  It isn’t really my style, it reads more like a lecture, with a lot of the authors voice piping in with “I’ll address that in the next chapter” type of comments.  And I don’t read a lot of scholarly biblical studies (or any) so there were a lot of concepts that I really sort of glossed over.  But the premise of the book was really fascinating, and it presented another way of looking at a lot of Jesus’ teachings that made a lot more sense to me then the way they seem to be presented by mainstream Christianity.  It really made sense, except for all the parts that didn’t make any sense at all.   When I wasn’t reading it, I would think I should just return it and read something easier, and more my style.  But when I was reading it, I couldn’t stop.  Soon I was close to the end, and I decided to finish it.  Sadly, at some point in time over our trip to Breckenridge, Dave’s* coffee was spilled all over it.  I took it into the library to see what to do about it, since the coffee is just sort of on the edge of the pages, and I knew there were a ton of people on the wait list to read this after me.  Long story short, I now own it.  And I still have yet to settle the score on the Darth Vader book!

I was going to offer it up as the prize for the comment contest, but then I realized I am trying to encourage, rather than discourage comments.  Maybe it will be a consolation prize.  Who knows!

Have you ever had to buy a library book?

 

* I don’t blame Dave for the spilled coffee, I just had to mention that it was his coffee because I never put down my coffee until the mug is empty.  Camping and library books do not mix, and I told the librarian that for my next vacation I was going to Amazon.  She looked impressed until I added the “dot com.  I’ll go to amazon.com and buy a book first so I don’t ruin another library book.”)

Swimming

It has to be really really hot for me to swim, and as you might be able to tell from Luke’s picture here, it was only 85.  I need about 110 to get in the Eldorado Springs Pool, because the water isn’t very warm, and you freeze when you get out into the dry air.  But I took some cool pictures from my spot on the side.

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The Boys Are Back in Town

Did I get that awful song in your head?  Sorry.  It just came to me when I started thinking about how the boys are back in town.  (Towwo-ahoawn.)  And now I am going to use it as an excuse not to write anything else because I can’t get that song out of my head.

I Want You! To Enjoy These Fireworks.

The imagination fireworks were tolerable on July 4th because we has already seen a great fireworks show on the 2nd.  We were driving around Silverthorne and we passed a sign that said, “Never Forget.”  Sort of vague, huh?  We wondered what we weren’t supposed to forget.   The Declaration of Independence? The Revolutionary Way? 9/11?  Pearl Harbor, The Alamo?  I read an article later in the day that said the fireworks display was a tribute to The Troops, about whom we should never forget.    That’s an especially good reminder for me, because I ran into one soldier in particular this past weekend who said, “I’m still waiting for those cookies.”  Oops!  (Disclaimer:  I support the troops.)

First we were going to try to see the fireworks from our campsite, then we briefly considered going with friends to their friend’s house, but then we remembered we had the dog, and the bikes, and maybe no locks, so we went back to plan A.  But the kids thought they were going to miss the show and everyone was stressed out and crying when we just decided to drive right down into the middle of the Support the Troops celebration, and park ourselves and our crazy dog on a blanket by Lake Dillon.   Actually we sat on half the blanket, with Luke on Dave’s lap and Jack on mine, and the blanket folded over us.  Because it was dark, and freezing, and windy.   And Lucy is crazy, so we found a spot way off to the side, not even facing the direction where all the rest of the people were.  There was even a stand of trees in between us and the 4th of July Never Forget Celebration, so we figured the fireworks would be on the other side of the trees.  So we snuggled, and we watched the boats and we waited for the fireworks to start.   We didn’t know how Lucy would react since last year the fireworks were rained out, but BOOM, all of a sudden the show started, and we had the prime viewing spot.  And then it was SWARM, SWARM!  We were suddenly surrounded on all sides by people rushing to the prime spot to get the best view.  Turns out, Lucy does not like fireworks, and she started shaking, so we squished her body between Dave and I, and her head between Luke and Dave.  No time to act ferocious to random dogs, too busy trembling.

At this point, the wind stopped, and I realized we’d get through the fireworks without Lucy causing a scene,and we had a good view, and everything was right in the world.  Except, I was sort of sitting on a stick, and the way Jack was leaning on me was sort of uncomfortable,  and I couldn’t straighten my back at all.  But we were all close and snuggly, and this was the sort of fireworks show that stands out.  Because the best way to enjoy fireworks, is to be constantly berated about how much you should be enjoying them.   It was really dark, and I could barely move my neck, so I didn’t get to see who was talking, but I was guessing it was a drunken lady, with a deep and commanding voice.  It went like this.

DRUNKEN LADY:YOU SHOULD THANK YOUR TROOPS FOR THESE FIREWORKS!

Crowd: Awkward silence.

DRUNKEN LADY: THE TROOPS KEEP YOU FREE!

DRUNKEN LADY: YOU OWE THE TROOPS YOUR FREEDOM!

Crowd:  Murmuring

DRUNKEN LADY:  ONLY IN AMERICA

Me: giggle

DRUNKEN LADY: YOU BETTER ENJOY THESE FIREWORKS

Random person in crowd:  We’re trying!

DRUNKEN LADY: YOU ARE AMERICANS!

Me: Not me, I’m from Canada.

DRUNKEN LADY:  YOU OWE THE TROOPS!  THE TROOPS KEEP YOU FREE!

Dave: Is this going to be one of those stories we tell forever?

DRUNKEN LADY: YOU BETTER ENJOY THIS FOR THE TROOPS!  YOU CAN ONLY SEE FIREWORKS IN AMERICA!

Luke: And China, where fireworks were invented.

And, scene.

Yes, the July 2nd fireworks show was one we will never forget.

 

Imagination Fireworks

On the fourth of July we couldn’t decide if we should:

1.) Watch Dave’s 50 mile mountain bike race and then immediately get in the car and and drive 2 hours home, relax and then go the fireworks

2.) Watch Dave’s 50 mile mtn bike race, hang out, watch the fireworks in Breckenridge and then drive home 2 hours afterwards and get home at midnight.

3.) Number 2, but camp instead and drive home in the morning.

4.) Watch Dave’s race, then hang out, then head back to our campsite and hope we could see the fireworks from there, then camp and leave super early in the morning.

I laid out all the choices for Luke and at the end, he said, “Whatever you want is fine with me.”  I complimented him on being so agreeable and he admitted that “Actually, I wasn’t listening to the choices.”  So I went down the whole thing again and surprisingly, he said, since he wasn’t listening AGAIN, he was fine with whatever.

Long story short, we went with option 2.  And we heard there was a great viewing spot near where we were hanging out, and we walked ALMOST all the way there.

Long story short, we heard sounds, and we saw smoke, and some lights, and some of the fireworks were high enough that we could see them.  But most of the fireworks were obscured by a big condo building.  I asked Dave if maybe we should walk around to the front of the condo, and he said, “Why?  So we can see the condo on the other side of the street?”

Jack was happy where he was, (on my lap) and Luke was cool about it too.  (Possibly because we had seen great fireworks a few days prior, but that’s a story for another day.)

But the best comment came from one of the dads who tried to sell the almost there fireworks to the kids as “Imagination Fireworks.”

Then and Now

As everyone knows, I love to stage the same photo over and over again. I was just going to say that I have that in common with my father in law, but then I realized, maybe I got the idea from him?

Probably!

So here are a few pictures of Luke and Jack riding scooters with Grandad.

I think Luke was 3 here?

And maybe 4 here.

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