December 1st weekend – the weekend began on
Friday, November 30 as Susan and I were both off. We slept in a bit before coffee and listened
as the trash was picked up. Around 11:00
our friend Patryk came by to pick up his sunglasses on his way to the
airport. He had left his shades in Grand
Junction and we had luckily brought them back.
After these important things were through we packed up Flo and soon left
for Glenwood Springs to celebrate our 20 year dating anniversary.
The drive was largely uneventful besides a bit of snow and
we made great time. We went straight to
Hotel Colorado to check-in and leave the dogs in the hotel room before making a
trip to Walmart for stuffs and Turtle Liquors for other stuffs. After we came back Susan and I gathered up
our beach bags and walked to the Glenwood Springs pool to soak in the cool and
hot pools. It was cold but the warm
water made the experience pleasant.
After an hour or so we made our way back to the hotel restaurant for
dinner.
We were happily surprised to find live music in the form of
a guitarist in the bar area and managed to snag the last open table. The service wasn’t exactly swift but we
didn’t mind. When the food did arrive we
found it tasty and also imbibed on a couple of glasses of wine before making
our way back to our room and the pups.
Saturday I was up earlyish to visit a local doctor about a
cramp in my left calf muscle. It was no
biggie and I picked Susan up at the hotel after I was through. I drove us back to the downtown area and we
sat down for coffee at Sacred Grounds Coffee House. Originally we were planning on also getting
breakfast but it was almost 11:00 at that point so decided to visit Doc
Holliday’s Saloon across the street for lunch instead.
The Saloon was old but not entirely dingy. There was some questionable music played on
the jukebox and the other patrons were a mix between obnoxiously loud and
literally deaf (a couple was signing to each other). The menu was plain and simple with reasonable
prices. My burrito and Susan’s sandwich
were nothing to write home about but sufficient to fill our bellies. I read out loud the back of the menu which
detailed parts of Doc Holliday’s life and final demise in the town of Glenwood
Springs. Hilariously the name of the
saloon is a reference to his spending time in the town and not because of some
affiliation with the restaurant itself.
The menu said it was possible Doc Holliday “may” have gotten a drink at
a bar in “this very building”. I loved
it.
After food we made a quick trip to Walgreens before going
back to our room and gathering up our pool gear again. This time we walked to Yampah Spa and Salon
to spend some time in their vapor caves.
These natural caves are underground and the air was very hot. Honestly it was a bit too much for me and if
it wasn’t for the cold water and washcloths the staff provided I probably
wouldn’t have lasted long in the heat.
We stayed for a time before showering off and walking back to the hotel
to grab Flo for a drive to Iron Mountain Hot Springs.
Iron Mountain Hot Springs is a relatively new attraction and
consists of many small hot pools along with a couple of regular pools of the
chlorinated variety. Each of the small
pools had their own little sign with the current temperature of the pool and paths
connected them all. It was a pretty neat
setup and Susan and I found ourselves in a few of the pools as the time went
on. The springs are located right next
to the Colorado River and we watched a mess of geese doing their thing while we
soaked. We both agreed it was a nice
place, especially the locker rooms, and we’ll likely visit again.
After driving back to the hotel to take care of the pups we
walked across the pedestrian bridge to Riviera Supper Club & Piano Bar for
dinner. We were underdressed for the
joint but found they still accepted our money.
The menu was full of interesting food so Susan ordered duck and I
mac’n’cheese. In my defense I had them
add bacon, jalapenos, onions, mushrooms, and chicken to the ole standard. The meals were delightful and the portions
overwhelming. As is our way we also
ordered one of their cheapest bottles of wine which we liked once we got past
the first sip. We were early and thus
missed any piano playing but agreed that the experience was a good one. It was a cold walk back to the hotel but the
pretty Christmas lights looked pretty.
We decided to stay in for the night and hung out with the dogs for the
remainder of the evening.
Sunday we were up a bit before 8:00 to await our room
service breakfast. We were happy enough
with the food although both agreed we probably should have given ourselves a
longer buffer from waking up to eating breakfast. Packing and getting checked out proved to be
simple enough and we were on our way back home around 9:30 after purchasing
more caffeinated beverages at the gas station.
The drive home was crazy-fast as traffic moved briskly
virtually the entire way through the mountains.
We did make a quick stop at Walmart for food stuffs but otherwise we
averaged roughly 70 MPH for the trip which is craziness. Once home we unpacked and dined on rotisserie
chicken before Susan and I left to pick up front brake components at O’Reilly’s
for the suburban.
I almost decided to wait to install the new pads and rotors
but decided to just get on with it while Susan took herself a nap. I’m glad I did work on the truck as I found
out they had sold me the incorrect rotors and I had to swing back over to
exchange them out. The work itself went
quick and was mostly a success. I now
plan on replacing the rear brakes as well.
Susan baked us chicken for dinner which hit the spot and we
spent the remainder of our anniversary weekend firmly planted on the couch with
our two cuddling dogs.
December 8th weekend – nothing much went on. We had a nice weekend staying in with the
pups. Ordered Door Dash and whatnot for
food. Twas relaxing.
December 15th weekend – Saturday morning started
earlyish as I got Susan out of bed around 8:00 for coffee after which we drove
to Littleton U Pull to look for Miata stuffs.
Luckily they had two Miatas so we had some choices. Our goal was to buy a passenger seat for
Scrappy and a cigarette lighter plug. We
had luck with the seat but the plug was too much a pain to remove from the junk
cars and we passed. Weirdly all the
Miata seats were already unattached and the bolts were missing so we had to
purloin some from other non-Miata cars.
We were pretty hungry at this point so stopped at Qdoba in Highlands
Ranch on our way home.
Once home we set about doing various car things. Tia’s clutch pedal wasn’t working well so I’d
ordered a new master and slave cylinder.
I swapped them both out while Susan vacuumed the new used passenger seat
for Scrappy. After getting past some
frustrating moments with the slave cylinder Susan pumped the clutch to help me
bleed the system. Tia now fixed Susan
took it on a test drive and I popped Scrappy’s hood. I took it upon myself to finally remove the
rest of the air conditioning system and set to it.
While I whiled away on Scrappy Susan went to Walmart to pick
up more Christmas lights for the house (one of our strings had stopped working)
and then raked the driveway on the east side of the house. Eventually I asked Susan to pick up a new
serpentine belt for Scrappy at the store and I finally finished. After helping bag up the driveway detritus
and hanging the new lights we declared our outside time over for the day.
Alvin and Kari were to come over for dinner and painting so
we set about getting ready. The food was
to be a taco bar and the chicken was already cooking in the slow cooker I’d
started earlier in the morning. I cut
and diced up veggies while Susan cleaned up around the kitchen and
bathroom. Hilariously I had a difficult
time cutting up a particularly strong onion (so many tears). Susan also helped prepare a Mexican mushroom
alfredo dish I thought might be yummy to try.
Kari and Alvin arrived around the time the alfredo was
simmering on the stove. We hung out for
a few minutes while Susan and I warmed up the food that needed warming up and
laid everything out on the table. As is
our way there was enough sustenance available to feed twice as many people and
we collectively ate more than we needed to.
We decided against painting as time was flying and just hung
out and chatted which was nice. We did
watch some YouTube of Susan’s open lapping driving at HPR and various other
racing stuffs which was cool. Alvin and
Kari’s dog Piper had come along for the evening and Pebbles had a difficult
time adjusting to her presence. Lots and
lots of barking and many shows of dominance were forthcoming from our tiny
Pebbles. It was quite hilarious. The evening ended late with Alvin and Kari
leaving around 10:30 to install tire covers on their big trailer in our lower
40 before heading home.
Sunday we slept in.
Well, Susan slept in a lot and I slept in a little which was
alright. Our only plan for the day
entailed hosting the CORX awards ceremony at the Urban Sombrero close to our house. We’d originally packed our PA and trophies in
Flo but I thought it would be nice to stretch the evo’s legs and moved all the
stuffs to that car before we left. We
had our ceremonial coffee and I drove us to the restaurant.
We’d reserved a private room which was plenty big enough for
our needs. There was even a long shelf
along one wall we used to stage the trophies.
There was a decent crowd and everyone chatted and had lunch before I got
on the microphone and passed out the trophies.
I think everyone had a nice time.
After we got home and unpacked we plopped on the couch to finish out the
weekend with our two happy little pups.
Christmas weekend –
Friday – I took the day off to work on Scrappy and because I
had no choice. My vacation allotment
from work is use or lose so I had to use a few days lest they go to waste. Susan also stayed home but worked via her
laptop. She also had a doctor’s
appointment which she went to.
Saturday – we hung out most all of the day with the pups
before heading to Kari and Alvin’s for a game-night. Also in attendance were
their new neighbors Joe and Grace. We
played Cabo and Codewords and had a good time.
Eventually we walked over to the neighbor’s home to meet their two dogs
– Sammy the pug and Suki the French bulldog.
They were fun and cute and we pet them before heading home.
Sunday – this was about as lazy a day as possible.
Monday – we went to lunch at the Mariachi Mexican restaurant
which was nice before stopping at King Soopers to buy ingredients to make
mashed potatoes and green bean casserole.
Tuesday – we woke up earlyish to prepare our dishes before
driving to Alvin and Kari’s to hang out and bake the casserole. John and Karen eventually showed up and
around noon they all piled in Kari’s new-to-them BMW while we drove separately
to Emilee’s home to each a Christmas meal.
Also there were a friend of Emilee from Idaho named Jeff, her son, and
both of her and Alvin’s parents. We
stood around for a few minutes before finally getting down to the business of
eating. There was entirely too much food
and much of it was yummy. Soon after we
ate we got to watch the lone child present open a lot of presents. This was interesting in its way. I wonder if we were presumptuous and
demanding as children. Emilee was kind
enough to have some presents for everyone which was a happy surprise. Once that was over we played some games
together before packing up our leftovers and going home.
Wednesday – this represented my final vacation day of the year
and I took it solo-style as Susan had to work.
My day was glorious as I napped, played games, and watched TV with Bella
(Susan had brought Pebbles to work).
December 29 weekend – Saturday began early for me and I
spent some time working on Scrappy.
Susan eventually came out to let me know she was going to an antique
store which was, of course, cool with me.
After she got back with her new art piece which was a neat
coleslaw-making thingie we hung on the couch with the pups.
Sunday was the first day with nice weather in some time and
I took advantage of it to remove Scrappy’s fog lights and then start changing
Tuna Bean’s timing belt while Susan went antiquing again. Things were going smoothly until I discovered
the crank bolt stuck fast. Luckily I had
a tool to help loosen the bolt.
Unfortunately the tool was no match for the bolt and I broke off a different
bolt in the process of failing to remove the crank bolt. *sigh*
Susan was back at this point and we decided to catch lunch at a local
Chinese place before picking up some things at Lowes. I did not end up getting the crank bolt out
that day.
New Year’s Eve – Kari, Alvin, and Ken came by to celebrate
the end of 2018 with us. We served a
Costco dinner with lots of snacks to get us through the night. We played games into the late hours. Our guests aren’t accustomed to staying up
until midnight and we had to wake up Alvin as the critical hour
approached. It was a merry time for
all!
I’m not going to write a TLDR for 2018 but I will say that
it was a great year for Susan and myself.
By in large life is going pretty well for our little family and we’re
looking forward to 2019!
