It has been too long since our last update way back in
November so why not write another one? J
Thanksgiving was at Craig and Mary Kay’s (Alvin’s parents)
home this year. In attendance were: me,
Susan, Alvin, Kari, John, Karen, Craig, Mary Kay, Alvin’s sister, and her
son. The food was tasty and we all
contributed something. On a whim Susan
and I brought gravy which was lucky as it was the only gravy around to
eat. Crisis luckily avoided. After the meal we played a game which wasn’t
fun enough for any of us to remember its name.
Good times nonetheless.
On the Saturday after Thanksgiving Susan and I hosted a
friendsgiving (not sure if I’m supposed to capitalize so I won’t, ha!) at our
home. We cooked all the regular holiday
type food and had around 12 persons make it out. Once we were done we played Cabo (Susan won!)
and then Cards Against Humanity. We all
had a good time.
November 30th was my 35th
birthday. It was a snowy day and we
didn’t do anything special which was fine by me as the weekend before was busy
enough.
December 5th had Susan and me celebrating our 17
year anniversary at Vesta Dipping Grill (the actual date is December 2nd
but 35 is too old to be going out to a fancy restaurant downtown on a Wednesday
night). As always the food was delicious
and we got our regular table by the front window. Next year’s anniversary will mark us being
together for half of our lives. Good
times indeed. J
The third weekend of December was busy for us. We dropped off our rally car to get a new
exhaust installed on our way up to Loveland to pick up a 3D printed trophy from
a fellow-racer, Jamie Leben. Jamie runs
a business called Creatorspace where he rents out space of a building to
entrepreneurs and creative-types (he actually did a Ted Talk about it this last
fall). He’s big into 3D printing and after
we volunteered to handle the trophies for the 2015 rallycross season I thought
of him. When we arrived he gave us a
quick tour of the facilities as well as two sample trophies. On our way home we picked up the now much
awesomer-sounding rally car. That night
was spent at the Tiedemen’s (our neighbors across the street) for a white
elephant gift exchange/Texas hold’em tournament. The gifts were fun but both Susan and myself
did poorly at poker and exited the game early.
The next day we and several friends went to the nearest (to us) go cart
track K1 for some racin’ to celebrate a friend’s birthday. Susan and I are normally middling at go cart
racing and we didn’t disappoint. We all
had quite a good time.
Christmas was at our house this year. Karen, John, Kari, Alvin, Mary Kay, and Craig
joined us for a traditional holiday meal.
We made turkey, garlic mashed potatoes over caramelized onions
(amazing), and orange jello. Karen
brought stuffing, traditional mashed potatoes, and gravy. Kari brought the ingredients for green bean
casserole and sweet potatoes which she combined and cooked on the spot. Mary Kay brought fresh dough to make rolls
and some dessert. On Mom’s
recommendation we bought a big roaster for the turkey which freed up the oven for
the last minute cooking. Everything
turned out great and we ate until we were collectively stuffed. After the meal we moved to the living room
for another white elephant. We asked
that the gifts brought to this white elephant should be fun but not frivolous and
most didn’t disappoint. After the gifting
was over we played Cabo and ate dessert.
We didn’t quite make it to the end of the game before everyone left but
we all had a good time.
Because we could (and I didn’t have to work the next day for
the first time in like forever) we threw a New Year’s party at our house. We weren’t sure that we’d get a decent
turnout but in the end 24 warm-bodied adult humans showed up. I wouldn’t describe our home as large and I
believe we were just about at its capacity.
We made too much food (of course) and a gallon and a half of punch. I spent most of the evening in the kitchen
chatting with peeps while Susan played various games with others (Yatzee even
made an appearance). As is our custom
all of us went outside at midnight, made a bunch of noise, and drank champaign before
we all initialed the cork (usually we’d sign it but the cork was too small for the
crowd). The fun didn’t end with the
dawning of the New Year and a couple of guys took refuge on our couches before
the night was done. Much fun was
had.
This last Saturday we invited over one of Susan’s friends
from junior high, Sarah, for games. Our
pals Ken and Randy also dropped by. I
made beef stroganoff which came out great (thanks internet!) and we played Cabo
and dice. I didn’t know Sarah from Adam
and Susan hadn’t seen her in 20 years (holy cow we’re old) so it was fun
learning what she’s been up to all this time.
Her family had moved to Venezuela while she was in junior high. After a few years she came back to Wyoming
before eventually finishing college at Metro in Denver. She writes for a geological newspaper and is
happily married. We had a good time and
I imagine we’ll be hanging out with her again in the future.
Tiny-bits
The pugs are still pugging along. Satchel is making far fewer mistakes in the
house now that we take her out to do her bid’ness. I don’t know that she likes walking around in
the snow but she seems to manage alright.
Tweetie has calmed down so much from when she was younger it’s
crazy. While she still gets excited for
visitors and barks at most sounds from outside the house she’s generally
content to cuddle with us. Sophie is
still Sophie. Lately it seems that she
will tolerate the absence of Susan as long as I’m there applying constant
pets. She flops across my belly at least
a few times a night demanding scritches.
Bella has been getting some workouts lately. She’s gone on a few walks where she’s been
able to go further and further before being carried. This last Sunday she went the entire journey via
her own four feet which was nice.
Susan has been having fun painting as of late. Kari came over and they both practiced
painting sun flowers in our kitchen.
Eventually they plan on painting with their mother Karen. Susan also painted a wooden box just the
other day. It came out very well.
As mentioned earlier we volunteered to handle the
acquisition of trophies for this last season of rallycross racing. Once the results were finalized we set about
figuring out what to get. We settled on
3D printed trophies for some and traditional trophies for others. The 3D printed trophies were really cool but
the bases were on the small size which was causing stability issues. To combat this we asked John to cut larger
wood bases we’ll glue to the bottom of the existing bases. We’re waiting on the 3D printed trophies to
be finished and shipped and then we’ll slap on the wooden bases along with
their name plates.
We’re still in the racing off-season which has made for a
nice break. Our only two upgrades to the
rally car have been the exhaust and a new coil-on-plug setup. I volunteered to be the event chair for
2016. The role entails overseeing each
event to ensure they run as smoothly as possible. With me taking over as event chair and Susan still
the chief of timing and scoring we’ll be even busier with racing this next
year. Can’t wait!
I bought a ukulele.
It’s fun and I have no regrets.
While this update is long it is actually rather short for
the amount of time and number of holidays covered. Not bad self!
We hope this finds you happy and healthy!
Max and Susan
