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April 29, 2008
Albuquerque
Foraged for breakfast items at Wal-Mart.
The four Amigos out loose. Finding the rental car in the parking lot was the first big challenge - much laughter.
Drove 20 minutes in the wrong direction before we noticed...better scenery on that part of the journey so it certainly wasn't a wasted trip.
Made it to Old Town...ate lunch shopped - tried to distinguish real Native American stuff from Asian imports.
Dinner and good times for 400 at El Pinto Met with good margaritas which were tasty - did someone say each drink was the equivalent of 3 drinks at this altitude?? Hmmmm......... Anyway - excellent food, salsa dancing - our(conference)in-house customer from the CRU in New Haven taught the instructor a thing or two about Salsa dancing...it was awesome and HGJ was so proud! He claimed they were all from the Fred Astaire salsa dance school! Hehehehehe.........Anyway, there were more margaritas, and food and a chili cook-off and chili roasting and cigar rolling.
Today we (four amigos) are starting off the day at the spa - sure hope we don't get kicked out of the serenity room. Nature walk down by the Rio Grande which by the way we saw yesterday and it looked more like the Rio Notsogrande. Later on it will be an excursion off to Santa Fe for looking around and dinner - much smaller group this time...
Have a fine day all.
Posted by frani at 10:07 AM | Comments (0)
April 28, 2008
New Mexico...
So here we are in Sunny New Mexico....Typical resort but what the heck are you going to do with 400 people - not like they are going to be satisfied with a burger at Mickey D's.
Here's the lovely view from our room's patio. The sky is beautiful but the temperature range reminds me we are in the desert....as if all the brown doesn't. It was very pleasant sitting out in the sun catching up with the once a year "friends" but alas..I've got a good farmer tan/sunburn going on...actually my arms and nose especially look rather raw. .....either that or appears I've got massive hypertension going on and someone is likely to call the paramedics.
Sunscreen is applied.
We arrived on time...got our charter ride off to the resort - of course the shuttle was filled with other conference consultants. A good time was had by all. The evening reception was started with a traditional greeting of friendship and good wishes from local tribe women and men brandishing multicolored corn strung necklaces. There was some fresh baked (outdoor oven) breads with jams and spicy butters...yum and a welcoming dance with drummers etc...the 3 year old apprentice was cute as a button. Camera was left in the room of course.
Food and drink commenced after...the sun went down, the cold set in and we moved inside to the bar area...pool tables, air hockey and dart boards...yeah well *I* only needed one more 15 to win the dart game...thank god Vicky finally got it - it was destined to be the longest dart game in history especially when the tips were bent and wouldn't stick in the dart board even if we DID get it close.
Oh yeah...wildlife; besides the human form. Seems the caution sign on our sliding glass door reminds us to keep it closed at night and while we are gone due to "the high desert environment" Hmmm...so far I have seen bunnies and a fox which I'm told really were desert hares and a coyote. Ok..I'll believe.
Guess I'll try to round up my cronies and check out the nature trail - maybe I'll apply more sunscreen.
Have a good day all
Posted by frani at 10:38 AM | Comments (0)
April 26, 2008
Alittle stuff........
I make Twitter entries a lot more frequently than Blog entries...you might want to look over there ------> for links.
I need to pack for New Mexico...but first I have to wash my sheets because some furry black thing deposited used cat food near my pillow while I slept. Rude.....
The last week and a half of weather has been fabulous! I rode my bike and didn't hurt myself - except for post ride muscle aches. I uncovered my Hostas without hurting myself...well more of those muscle aches. I picked up sticks and other debris in the yard without hurting myself...ahem more muscle aches. I replaced some warped paneling on the porch with some screens and replaced some screening on one of the living room screens - no I didn't hurt myself then either.
I actually washed some windows on the outside and I've seen no headlines about hell freezing over either - imagine that?! Spring is good for the soul as well...breathe in - breathe out...aaahhhh.
Have a good week all.........
Spring does help get me moving again. The weather is pleasant - no coats, hats, gloves, boots, scraping the windshield or warming up the car because Lord knows you can't walk anywhere outside without being in danger of slipping on the ice. Comfort foods are carbs...need that body fat to sustain you in case of prolonged power outage. Goodness, we had a good winter, I suspect I can sustain myself for weeks, months...years even with my body fat.
Posted by frani at 11:19 AM | Comments (0)
April 09, 2008
We're on the road again...
Back in Seattle watching seaplanes land on Lake Union. Waiting for some sunshine. Refuse to see what kind of weather I'm missing at home.
I enjoy getting to see my oldest brother and sister-in-law when we come out here. Hmmm...seems I've seen him more frequently than the brother who lives 45 minutes away. Hint Hint...;-D
Funny, as in unusual, story...we got to see Morgan at the Sea-Tac airport Sunday night for an hour...;-D He was there for work when we arrived so we got to meet some co-workers et al....fun and they made us feel quite welcomed.
Joined Twitter today...;-D Far be it from me to get old and left behind. Not sure I have it and links down quite right as yet but I'm getting there. Snort - got my all important "photo" though.
Bought some Tully's coffee to have while we are here....we don't do the charred stuff the area is famous for but I've been by the location of the first store.
I lost a pair of shoes but they aren't at this hotel..I thought I might have left them here on our last trip in February. Well gee, I just don't wear real shoes at home during the winter...slippers indoors and boots out in the snow. I couldn't find the shoes I wanted to back and I wore them out here last trip! Hhhmmmm....where could they be?
Nice to have all the tax stuff behind us for another year. I already tried to stimulate the economy when I bought the couches...;-D
Have a fine Evening all........
Posted by frani at 04:09 PM | Comments (1)
April 05, 2008
Thank Goodness March is gone; March is ... well... umm... ugly. On the other hand April is ...ummm ...well ugly as well. Yuggy by many standards.
The woods are brown...and naked. One can see every piece of broken, snapped, rotten, decaying bit of trees and plant life that won't ever green up again.
The piles of snow are sprinkled with dirt and bits of gravel from the driveway and ..brown
The ground is still somewhat frozen and there are puddles everywhere which of course the water in them is brown.
The ground IS thawing, however; where there is dirt, there is mud...brown.
Knoel's extra big feet make extra big cat prints, on the car, on the floor, on my desk; if there was one paper on a messy desk that wouldn't be improved by cat prints, which one would he be sure to hit first?
Good-bye March, Hello April!
April is usually helped by warmer temperatures and sunshine and some greening up around the fringes of dirty piles of snow. So far not so much. Yesterday there was a mixture of rain/freezing rain/snow.
There have been a few glimmers of April's hope springing eternal...
I've seen plenty of robins bobbin' along.
The moss in my yard is beginning to green up.
I did not feel the need to don hat, winter coat and boots to make the trek out to the mailbox.
I heard geese honking this morning - presumably on their way north.
Liz has some yellow crocus in her garden.
My woodchuck is back......we saw her scampering from the neighbor's yard to ours and yes she went right under our porch. I think I will name her Geraldine.
I saw a pileated woodpecker this morning....and thank heavens for the naked woods so I could have an unobstructed view of him.
Coffee of the day: Kenya AA
Book reading: A Prisoner of Birth by Jeffery Archer
Have a fine day all.........
Posted by frani at 09:24 AM | Comments (0)