Lots of House Progess

We went out to see the progress on the house this afternoon and were amazed at just how much has been accomplished in one week!

All of the walls have been texturized and primed and the baseboards have been installed.

Laundry room

The majority of the stonework has been completed.

The stucco is finished and ready to be painted.

All of the cabinetry has been installed in the house.

And the rails on the stairs have been installed.

Cheyenne Frontier Days

It's hard to believe but Cheyenne, Wyoming is only a two hour drive from here.  On Saturday, Mark and I drove up to see what Cheyenne Frontier Days is all about.  Obviously there is the "Daddy of 'em All" rodeo but there was a lot more going on there than we thought. 

We left out bright and early because the rodeo started at 12:30 pm and we wanted to take our time and enjoy the trip. 

Entering Buffalo Country

Of course they had the rodeo. And as an added bonus they had all of the carnival rides, the carnival crap you can buy and carnival food that goes with any fair.  That just goes without saying.  

Cheyenne Rodeo

Outside of the fairgrounds they had a huge Settlers Area that featured blacksmith exhibits, chuck wagon cook-offs, leather making and tooling, soap making and that sort of stuff.  They had a large display of restored stagecoaches there too.  

Chuck wagon Cook-off

They also had an "Indian Village" that abutted the rodeo fairgrounds and they had Native American "crafts", food and performances there as well.  I guess it's Cheyenne's way of trying to keep things PC.  For the most part it was all pretty hokey but the people from Ohio, Indiana and Illinois were walking out of the Indian Village with armloads of stuff so I suppose it made someone happy!

Kids learning the "Hoops Dance" in the Indian Village

After the rodeo and looking at the settlers area and the Indian village we drove around Cheyenne.  The biggest surprise there?  There were 3 or 4 HUGE Senior Living Centers that had been recently built. (Or seemed to us to be) Now I don't know what crazy person would purposely want to retire to the lovely state of Wyoming but apparently there are plenty of people that do.  Either that or they have lost a bet with their children somewhere along the way and this is where they will stay for as long as the children say so (Do ya hear that Mom and Dad?) 

Downtown Cheyenne

We ended up in downtown Cheyenne and by this time it was about 7:30, we were starving and by luck we found this nice restaurant to eat at: The Wyoming Rib and Chop House.  

Wyoming Rib and Chop House

When we arrived they asked us if we had reservations.  Well of course we didn't.  We had only decided to go to the rodeo on Friday and who the hell needs reservations for restaurants in Cheyenne for crying out loud?  Um… apparently everyone does.  (Another rookie mistake on our part)  So a mere two hours later we were seated and we actually had a great dinner despite the fact that we had eaten our bar napkins for our appetizers. 

All in all it was a great day and it was capped off with a beautiful Wyoming sunset. (Hate to say it but Texas still has the best ones by far!)

An evening with Styx, Foreigner and Don Felder

So Tuesday night Mark and I went to our first concert at Fiddler's Green.  And it's not going to be our last.  Wow…what a place!

When Mark found this apartment one of the things that attracted him to this area was that it is located less than a half-mile to the Light Rail.  Mark can easily walk to the train station in less than 10 minutes and by taking the train he doesn't have to fight the traffic every morning and every afternoon.  Plus it's a guaranteed 25 minute ride to work regardless of the weather, the traffic or the time of day.

Another pleasant surprise was that we are about a 5 minutes walk from Fiddler's Green as well.  This is one of Colorado's biggest amphitheaters and brings in top entertainment every week.  What's neat about this place is that half of the seats are actual seats and the rest of the place has grassy areas where people can sit on the lawn and enjoy the show.  Mark and I both agree that the actual seats are a lot more comfortable than the ground is any day.  

By the time we realized how close we were to FG most of the concerts that we wanted to go to were already sold out but we managed to get tickets to Tuesday night's performance by Styx, Foreigner and Don Felder.  We also have tickets to see Boston and the Doobie Brothers in a few weeks.  

Don Felder- wrote Hotel California, Victim of Love, Take it to the Limit and One of these Nights for the Eagles

All I can say is that these old rockers really put on a show.  In fact one of the ladies sitting near us commented and said " I wonder how many of those guys are grandpas now" haha!  Regardless, the concert started at 6:30 and it was nonstop music for 4 solid hours.  Why stop at 10:30?  Because the City of Centennial (where we live) has a noise ordinance that says they have to be done by then! Obviously the City Fathers are old and crotchety.

The things that we noticed about this concert:

1.  Most every guy who was in the audience was grey.

2.  Most women were wearing stuff that was not age appropriate. Can you say washed up Groupie?

3.  The beer was waaaaaay overpriced. ($11.00 for 12 oz cup)

4.  There was much,much more pot smoking at this concert than there was when we saw these bands in the 70's.  

Oh yeah.  We even brought light jackets (just in case we needed them) but fortunately we didn't this time!

A little bit of this and a little bit of that

Things around here are a lot quieter than it was a week ago.  Henley and her boyfriend came to Denver with me on July 12th and left the 19th.  We did quite a lot while they were here and I think they had a good time.  This was the only time that Henley could manage to get time off of work but unfortunately Mark was scheduled to be in North Dakota that same week so it was just the three of us that got to go and have fun.

Of course we had to go by and show them where we are building the house.  The house has been taped and bedded and the contractor said that they will be prepping the walls this week for the painters.  

On Sunday we all (Mark included) went to a Rockies game. We took the train to the stadium and Henley and Blaine both agreed that it was a pretty easy way to get around.  It turned out to be a great day, the weather cooperated and as expected, the Rockies lost the game.  Good thing we aren't die hard fans!

On Monday I took Mark to the airport and I had a few things that I had to do so Henley and Blaine hung out at the pool and enjoyed some down time. We also made a trip to Cabela's…

On Tuesday the three of us went to Idaho Springs and did a zip line.  Talk about an absolute BLAST!  The operator of the zip line added 3 new towers this year so we spent about 3 hours zipping through the treetops and enjoying the beautiful scenery.  

After doing the zip line we drove up to Vail and spent the afternoon just poking around the resort. 

It was pouring rain when we first arrived but after waiting for about 15 minutes, the skies cleared and we were able to walk all over town.  We had a delicious late lunch/early dinner at Alpenrose.  

I had hoped that we could take the Gondola to the top of the mountain but the winds were very high and they had stopped the rides about an hour before we got there.  Oh well, maybe next time. 

On Wednesday we went to Colorado Springs and saw the Olympic Training facility.  There were several athletes working out while we were there so this time we got to see some gymnasts, weight lifters and wrestlers work out.  

After that we went to the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame.  I was a little disappointed in the facility because most of the interactive displays were not working and the film that gave a historic perspective of rodeoing stopped working about 5 minutes after it started.  However, the rest of the museum was very nice. 

On Thursday we headed to Golden so that Henley and Blaine could go through the Coors Brewery.  The last time we went it was on a Sunday and the production lines were not up and running.  This time we saw everything.   

After the tour we bummed around Golden and got ourselves some really yummy ice cream at Golden Sweets. 

We spent Friday hanging by the pool again (their choice) and then went to see a movie that night.  Mark was supposed to be back in Denver on Friday afternoon but there was an issue that kept him in North Dakota until Saturday.  Unfortunately, Henley and Blaine had to drive back to Odessa on Saturday so he didn't get to spend an extra day with Henley like we had planned.  

On Sunday, Mark and I went to the Dragon Boat Races at Sloan Lake.  Not only did they have the races but it was also a showcase of all of the Asian cultures in the Denver metroplex.  We ate some delicious Korean BBQ and it was a lot of fun to watch the races, the performances and exhibits and exploring another little spot in Denver.  

So that's what's been going on around here.  I will be flying back to Odessa on Monday. We have another contract on the house in Odessa so I need to go back and be around for the inspections, the appraisals, etc.  Keep your fingers crossed that everything goes well with this one.

Oh and we were driving around on Saturday afternoon and found a huge herd of Longhorn cattle about two miles east of where we live.  This obviously is LONGHORN country! Hook 'em!

Busy week

Sorry, it's been kinda crazy around here lately.  I spent the last two weeks in Denver and I just got back to Odessa yesterday.  I've been bad about getting on my computer but I am now back in the digital world!  

I don't know if any of you know but our contract on the house in Odessa fell thru.  It's a very complicated story but the long and short of it is that we now have our house back on the market.  We were set to close on July 9th but that's not happening now so I will not be in Denver anytime too soon.  As you can imagine- I am NOT happy about this development but what can you do?  

Our home in Denver is coming right along.  In fact, I received an email this morning that I can go approve the granite that we ordered so that they can start working on the cuts.  

However last week we hit a major snag with the house.  See when we signed the contract to build the house, Mark was in Denver and I was in Odessa.  Mark and I had to pick the color scheme from the samples that they had to offer but we did it over the phone since I wasn't there to see the color chips in person.  One of the model homes had the paint selection that we chose, it looked good on the model home, and Mark was happy with our choice.  

So when I arrived 2 weeks ago in Denver, I went to the job site and was absolutely HORRIFIED by the color of our house.  It was caramel color with chocolate brown trim.  It was HIDEOUS!!!  

Old House Color

I immediately went to the builder and explained that we did NOT choose those colors and I showed him the model home that represented the colors we chose.  He looked up the info and explained that the paint palate that we had opted for wasn't available anymore so they had picked some other one that should have "matched it exactly".  Um...not!  

Fortunately the builder agreed to repaint the house in another color scheme that is now available.  Yesterday I went by to check the house before I left Denver and I am happy to report that I am THRILLED with the new color.  

New House Color

The inspector is supposed to be by sometime this week to do the final approval on the HVAC, plumbing, framing, electrical, etc.  Once that is done then they will start with the coverup and things should move pretty quickly from that point forward.  The building superintendent gave us a rough closing date of September 10th which is sooner than we had expected! 

On June 26-29 I went to my 35th class reunion in Las Vegas.We had about 50 people attend, which is much smaller than our usual gatherings that we usually have in El Paso, but since it was smaller we all were able to really catch up with one another and we sure enjoyed our time together.  

We had a golf "tournament" at Nellis AFB and between the scenery, the heat (111 degrees) and the lack of humidity we all felt like we were back in El Paso after all!  

The reunion was held at the Golden Nugget and since I had never been to downtown Las Vegas it was a different experience than staying down on the Strip.    Fremont street is what I always imagined what Las Vegas was supposed to look like.  

Besides the golf tournament, we had an afternoon at the pools (in rented cabanas thank God), an evening dinner, we rode the Ferris Wheel, saw 'Rock of Ages', and went dancing at a club that one of our classmates owns near the Strip.  I don't know about y'all but 3 days is about one day more than I like being in Vegas.  I'm not a gambler so there's only so much of the crowds, the noise and the cigarette smoke that I can take. But all-in-all it was a great time and I was so glad to see some of my former classmates.