Alice and Yanni

I didn't get around to posting anything after I got back from Denver last week…and here I am back in Denver again this week so I suppose I ought to get to it. 

One of the things that I have noticed about the area that we live in right now (Centennial) is that everywhere you turn there are small parks and walking trails tucked into every space possible.  I was out walking the other day and found this little park that is located right next to Fiddler's Green. The whole park has life-sized bronzes of characters from Alice in Wonderland that follow the story line from one end of the trail out to the other side.  

Our apartment is located across from the Tech Center and most of the corporate buildings around here have some sort of statuary or bronzes on their grounds.  

On Sunday, we went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science to see the IMAX movie D-Day of Normandy which was really, really good.  Of course when we got there, parking was next to nonexistent except for the millions of spaces that were reserved for hybrid vehicles.  Did we take my Prius to the museum? Um…no.  We were in Mark's truck.  So note to ourselves: from now on we are taking my Prius anytime that we do anything cultural or in the downtown area.

View from the museum grounds to downtown Denver

On Thursday the 12th, Mark and I celebrated my birthday.  He told me to pick anyplace that I wanted go to and Greek food sounded pretty yummy so I Googled "Best Greek food in Denver" and found Yanni's.  It's located less than a mile away from us and the reviews were pretty good overall.  In fact, Yanni's was voted "Top Ethnic Restaurant" by Bon Appetit magazine and "Best of Denver" by Westword, The Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News. We figured- why not give it a shot and boy were we happy we went. The service was very good and the meal was outstanding!  Mark had the Kokinisto (a braised lamb shank that was large enough that we could have eaten on it for a week)  and I had lamb Souvlaki (kabob) which was so tender you could have cut it with a spoon.  They also brought by complimentary Ouzo for us during our meal….Opa!  We will definitely be going back for another meal or two. 

So About Last Night

Okay to be completely honest here, I have a confession to make.  Mark and I are 100% Texan to the bone. And this may lead to our early demise…

So last night we went to the outdoor concert in Centennial.  There were two local bands and an Eagles Tribute Band that was headlining the show and Mark and I figured it would be a nice place to spend a Saturday evening. The weather was a balmy 79 degrees when we got there about 6:30pm.  We had our collapsible chairs out, our food purchased from the food trucks, our beverages of choice in hand.  

And the concert started.  

And then the wind started.  

And then the temperature dropped exactly 27 degrees in about 30 minutes. 

And when we left the house we were patting ourselves on our backs that we had remembered to take light jackets with us "just in case" because "it gets cool in Denver in the summer".  We were so smug as we set up our lawn chairs and had our jackets handy.  

And did we notice that nearly everyone else who was walking into the amphitheater was carrying blankets and heavy jackets?  Did we take notice that there were even a few souls who had brought portable wind barriers?  Did we see the people directly in front of us carry in a duffle bag the size of a VW beetle full of cold weather gear?

Um…

So we sat in the 52 degree wind for the remaining part of the concert trying not to shiver so badly so as not to bother the Natives; that were probably giggling behind our backs, wrapped in their Gore Tex blankets and wearing their North Face coats and drinking their hot chocolate that they had brought from home in their industrial sized thermos jugs. 

Smug ass Natives. 

Slowly Making My Way To Colorado

Now that we Delaney's graduation over it's time for me to start making the final move to Denver.  As you know, we are in an apartment in Centennial until our home is finished, which is tentatively set for the end of September/early October.  This means that most of the things we have in our home in Odessa will be packed and stored until we make our final move once the house is finished.  This last week I took a load of things that we will need to have in the apartment that I no longer need in Odessa- crock pot, most of the canned foods in the pantry, kitchen gadgets etc. I also realized that since we will be in the apartment thru early fall, it might be a good idea to take some cold weather clothes to Denver and not put everything in storage because I will probably need them before we move into the new house.

On Thursday, we had a genuine "Welcome to Colorado" storm hit.  It was a beautiful day, not too hot or humid, and by 4-ish there were clouds building up over the mountains.  About 5 a huge black cloud came overhead and it started hailing as hard as I have ever seen.  

It lasted about 5 minutes and this is how it looked after it stopped.

It was soft hail and didn't do any damage to the cars or to windshields but it stripped lots of leaves off of the trees.  There were two tornados reported touching down just east of Parker but there was nothing like that here. Not even high winds- just lots of hail in a short period of time. 

Someone took this picture and posted it on Twitter.  I thought it was clever to make a snowman out of hail!

Mark's company had a company sponsored evening at Coors Field on Friday night.  I had to go pick up the tickets to the game at the offices downtown so Friday morning I took the train to get them.  While I was coming home  the train jerked forward and the conductor slammed on the brakes.  At first I thought there was a car that had tried to beat the train but as it turned out- it was these two characters!

What's really crazy about this is that these two deer were about a half mile from downtown! 

We got to watch The Rockies play The Dodgers. It was held in the company Suite and they had a yummy buffet of typical ballpark food: bratwurst, hot dogs, pizza, peanuts, popcorn, ice cream, etc.  It was a beautiful night- almost cold as far as Mark and I were concerned and we both ended up wearing lightweight jackets on the way home.  Oh Lordy...It's gonna be an adjustment for these Texans to remember to bring jackets to outdoor events in the summer.

We went out to the house today and it is coming along but there's nothing to take pictures of per se.  They have almost finished getting the insulation put in and they are working on the plumbing and electrical systems. The basement was also framed out this past week. The slate tiles for the roof were delivered while we were there so I suppose they will be putting those up sometime this week.  

Mark and I are going to downtown Centennial later this afternoon for their Summer Kickoff.  There is a street fair, entertainment and a "Concert in the Park". Should be a fun evening.

This Week

It's been three weeks since Mark was in Denver.  After Delaney's graduation, he flew back up to North Dakota for the week and then flew back to Odessa for the Memorial Day weekend.  On Monday he drove back to Denver and stopped by the building site on his way back in.  Boy was he surprised at how much they had completed while he was gone!

The house has been framed, wrapped, decked and they have the driveway and front steps finished.  However, the basement has about 6 inches of water in it because of all of the storms they have been having.  We will have a sump pump in the basement but it obviously hasn't been installed just yet. It looks like they will put the cleats on the roof and will be putting the tiles on the roof soon.  Mark plans on going out there again on Sunday so I'll be posting some more pictures soon.

Speaking of storms, we had some really nice rain last week.  Of course anytime that there is rain in the desert the plants respond gloriously.  Here's a picture I took of some of the wildflowers when I was out walking this week.

House Update

Mark has been out of Denver for the past three weeks so we haven't really been able to keep up with the progress on the house other than thru Edmund (our builder's representative). Edmund was kind enough to send me these pictures last week.  Mark will be back in Denver on Tuesday so he will be able to go out to the site and get a better idea of how things are progressing. 

This is a picture of the back of the house.  As you can see- these homes are basically garden homes with very little yard (and space between the houses).  The house we are building is actually bigger than the one we have in Odessa but the yard (and the yard work that goes with it) is considerably smaller.  The green space behind our home is taken care by the HOA so we can enjoy the view without having to maintain it.


Here's the front of the house.

And finally here is the view that we have from the patio on the back of our house.  You can see the beautiful mountains in the background.  They actually look much closer in real life than they do in the picture.  

I can definitely see myself sitting in my backyard enjoying the view and the cooler summer days.  However, those of you who have been watching the weather in Denver this past week know that there has been some strange stuff going on. 

This is a picture of the hailstorm they had on Wednesday!  Holy smokes... what are we getting into?!?

She Did IT!

Meet the newest University of Texas graduate!  I still can't believe that it has been four years since she took off to Austin. But then again it seems like she has been there forever.  

We had such a good graduation weekend.  Several of our family and friends came in to celebrate with us- namely The Roberts family: Zach, Tammy, Mike, and  Allison (who came all the way from DC) The Oklahoma contingency: Hillary McGuire, Jake and Mal Stewart, and Molly McGuire, our Odessa friends Katherine and Everett Day, Mindy Ashby and Lukas Weeden, Christy who is one of Delaney's employers, Delaney's roommate Scout and my parents Mimi and Poppa.  Thanks to everyone who made it to Austin to help us celebrate.  It meant so much to us to have you there to honor Delaney and all that she has accomplished.

 Delaney in front of the Architecture Building where she spent 90% of her time

Mark, Delaney, Henley and Sandie

Henley supporting the Texans and Delaney throwing the Horns

 Mark, Zach, Delaney, Sandie, Henley, Mimi and Poppa

Delaney decorated her mortar board for graduation

Celebrating on 6th street

Here's to you Texas!

Moving Right Along

There has been quite a bit of progress on the house this last week but it's not that evident from the picture.  When Mark checked on the house last Saturday they they had put the plumbing in and poured the basement floor.  He didn't take a picture of it because there really weren't many changes that you could actually see.  (He has been warned that I still want pictures even if there's not much to see-ha!)


On Sunday he went back out to Parker to check on something and was very surprised that sometime on late Saturday afternoon or early Sunday they had put the steel girders in! 

Mark was in North Dakota last week, will be in Odessa this week with us, and will be back in North Dakota the following week so he won't be able to check on the progress for 3 weeks.  I'm sure that by the next time he sends me pictures we will have a structure that actually looks like a home.