Lani's household consists of Steve, the long-suffering coding genius and computer security guru; Jim, Lani's tall, red-headed and handsome son, currently finishing his second year of college; Hunter, Jasmine, Himari, Chenault, the miraculous Onyx and the even more miraculous Resk, undisputed feline rulers of the house; and Jesse, the man-hating green-cheeked conure.
Ann's household consists of Don, who is not just a computer genius but a pilot, a builder, and a damn good father; their son Steve, the marathon-running, college-bound, funniest teenager I know; and wonder dog Tater.
Other family members are Laurie, Lani's beautiful daughter who teaches at elementary levels; her handsome son Alex, aka Alexander the Great; Mary and Bo, a/k/a Mom and Dad, and Bud and Ann, Steve's patient and wonderful parents.
From the local TV news channel: "Snow totals as of 11 am Thursday: 43.8" "
Well, this says it too, from the Denver Post: "Storm snow accumulations reported earlier this afternoon ranged from 44 inches in Coal Creek Canyon west of Denver ..."
Here are a few pictures over the past 2 days that I thought you might enjoy. Jim learned how to use the snowblower! Doesn't he look happy all bundled up? And NO GLASSES!
Steve got to do some snowblowing too. He was *cough* thrilled. And Jim discovered that I was serious when I said we get major-league icicles here. He broke this one off the roof and tried some swordfighting with it!
Steve and I went snowshoeing with Margie. Yes, Bud and Ann, I swear this is really your son, and yes, he's really out snowshoeing! And finally, a quick shot of what our back porch looked like this morning.
Friday 56 41 Damp and raw. Rain, heavy at times, into the afternoon before tapering off to sporadic lighter showers. Northeast winds 10 to 22 mph become light, variable in the afternoon. Saturday 45 40 Showery and blustery. Cloudy and cold with November-level temperatures. Gusty west-northwest winds to 25 mph. Clouds break a bit overnight. Sunday 52 40 Some morning sun fades as skies cloud over in the afternoon. Showers possible Sunday night. Winds become southeast 8 to 18 mph. Monday 54 45 Extensive cloudiness with several periods of showers. West-southwest winds 10 to 20 mph with some stronger gusts. Tuesday 57 46 Some morning showers possible then a mix of sun and clouds. A bit milder with south-southwest winds 8 to 18 mph becoming gusty in the afternoon. Wednesday 57 47 Mostly cloudy and windy with southwest winds 12 to 24 mph. A few showers develop by afternoon becoming more numerous late in the day and at night.
Rain every single day. Even after all the travel I've been doing, I'm ready to leave town! I'm off to Vegas this afternoon for a conference. I agreed to participate on a certain software vendor's client advisory board, and after I agreed I found out the details - which are that I have to work all day Saturday and all day Sunday.
Don comes out to join me on Sunday, and we stay until Wednesday. After that, I don't have any other travel planned, which won't last for too long but I'm enjoying it while it's here.
Hope everyone on your mountain is doing well. Next time, knitting - I have pictures of a baby sweater I finished last year with an actual baby in it!!
In London I got to do two fun things this trip - London Eye and the Millenium Bridge.
The London Eye was very cool. It's a huge Ferris wheel with capsules that hold 20 people or so, and it takes 30 minutes to go around so you have plenty of time to see the sights. The Ferris wheel never stops, so you get on and off while it creeps along. I took this video so you can see how slowly it moves.
We had a perfectly timed trip, and the sun set for the perfect photo op. Then we went to a pub and I had cider, which is deceptively alcoholic until you try to walk to the loo, at which time the deception is all over.
Tonight after work I hurried back to the hotel to dump my things, and ran to the tube to get to Millenium Bridge, which is in the latest Harry Potter move. In this picture, you can see London Bridge in the background, then in the far background Tower Bridge.We walked across, and then had dinner at a great pub that is along the river. They have outside tables with the heaters that I always think of as orange grove heaters, and one unique twist. They have a huge bin full of blankets, and if you're cold you can get one. What a great idea!! This is the view from the pub, which is a pretty nice view as you eat your steak and mushroom pie and drink a large bottle of Bullmer's Pear Cider.
Now I get to pack, the car comes at 5am, and I'll be landing in Chicago at 10:30 tomorrow morning. None too soon for me!!
I am having a very nice visit with Mike and Chris. Amsterdam is a great city, but there are so many opportunities to get run over here - there are bikes, scooters, motorcycles, cars, buses, trams, and pedestrians. And the occasional horse drawn carriage.
See the woman on the bike? That is what I call a mom-mobile. You will see those with two kids and all their accoutrements, plus a bag or two of groceries, and the mom is pedaling for all she's worth. No wonder the women here are all slim!
Here's a better look at this one.
It's great to have a tour guide here, because they showed me this sculpture on a tree in a park close to their apartment. You would never find this, it's so small and subtle, but I just love it.
We went to a market and I found a few scarves, also this hat for Steve. Mike is modeling. I know that this blog is the last thing Steve looks at, so I'm sure I can post it here and it will still be a surprise when I get home.
Tomorrow morning I'm off to London for the week. I will be mainly working, but on Tuesday night one of teams is going to the London Eye and I'll get to tag along. I'm really looking forward to it, and should have some great pictures to post.
Po pozyczke, y'all, and more travel news (posted by Ann)
I am in Warsaw, or War-sow-a if you pronounce it as they do. Out my hotel window is this - tell me which picture you like better.
It is evidently the tallest thing in Poland. I am on the 35th floor of the hotel, so it's pretty tall. It is the Palace of Culture and Science.
Also out my window is this. For some reason, this totally cracks me up. I have been walking around all day singing "po pozycakes", but I have to be very careful since I don't want to insult the very nice people I am visiting here. I have no idea why this is so funny to me, but it is!!
I have figured out that Polish is a really foreign language. I know, I know, they're all foreign languages and I'm the typical ugly American who doesn't speak any of them, but I will tell you that in Spanish, German or French I can recognize a word or two here and there. I can even understand the Brits. Not so in Polish! Nothing makes sense - not the exit signs (wyjszie), nothing.
In other travel news, when I was in France a couple of weeks ago I saw this restaurant.
Yes, ma'am, this is Paris, and not Paris, Texas. Somehow the Netherlands is in there with the windmill. Then I looked more closely at the sign.
Yes, indeed "Le Menu Pony Express". But the best is in red underneath the BIG BROCHETTE. Since it's hard to read, I'll tell you what it says: "Les vrais cow boys la mangient en entier". According to Mario, that means "Real cowboys eat this". What gets me is the Cow Boys. Not cowboys, Cow Boys. We're really home on the range here in Paris!
Enough travel news, I'm ready to go home. Unfortunately, it's Thursday and I don't go home until next Friday. More than a week. Yuck.
Fortunately, I will go visit Chris and Mike this weekend in Amsterdam, and that should be fun. Then lots of work in the UK and a quick trip to Belgium on Wednesday (it's a two hour train ride - isn't that awesome!), yet more work in the UK on Thursday, and HOME!!! on Friday.
So I went to Macy’s last week and spent three hours with a personal shopper, Brenda, which turns out to be a really good way to spend any excess funds that you might have lying around. She had me try on lots of things I would have never even looked at twice, and some were terrible but some were really, really good. I bought a blue dress that is the most insanely flattering thing I’ve ever owned, and a black knit skirt that actually looks good on me, and lots more.
One of the things I got was a DKNY Cozy in fuchsia (I was channeling 3rd Sister). Brenda showed me a couple of ways to wear it, but I went here and found lots of different options. I was going to wear it for the first time on my flight to Madrid, since I’m always freezing on flights, and was in the bedroom trying various styles to see what worked.
Well. Suffice it to say that I am not 6 foot tall like the model, I am not anorexic like the model, and so things look a wee bit different on me. I was trying to do Look #4 and had just started to play with it when Don walked in the room, saying as he came in “What time do we need to . . . “. He looked at me, there was a one second pause, and he said “No.” Another one second pause, and he tried to go on with his original sentence.
I wound up laughing so hard I had tears rolling down my cheeks. Poor Don kept trying to recover, saying “I like it the other way” or “It’s really not that bad”, but every time he said something it set me off again.
We walked across, and then had dinner at a great pub that is along the river. They have outside tables with the heaters that I always think of as orange grove heaters, and one unique twist. They have a huge bin full of blankets, and if you're cold you can get one. What a great idea!! This is the view from the pub, which is a pretty nice view as you eat your steak and mushroom pie and drink a large bottle of Bullmer's Pear Cider. 
Now I get to pack, the car comes at 5am, and I'll be landing in Chicago at 10:30 tomorrow morning. None too soon for me!!
