Super Espresso

Hello everyone,

Neither Jimi or I can really say we did much at all this past week. I did a little work for Cencorp, a lot for Crocs and otherwise laid around the house. Jimi was just beginning to feel better, while I began feeling the onset of a head cold.

Jimi had a bit of a selling streak - Yea for him. Within a couple of days, he sold several large ticket items, which helped replenish his purchasing income. He scored a great deal of camera gear on Craig's List, which he will turn around for resell He installed our new espresso machine in the kitchen and we are now enjoying Starbucks worthy lattes right from home. The old Rancillio has gone to a new home, which means there's no turning back now.

Even though we were a bit under the weather, we helped Tracy get rest of her things out of storage and after that I locked myself in my room for a good portion of the weekend. I managed to detour from a head cold, thus far anyhow, and we did a few little things such as: take a drive in the LTD and another on our bikes. We took the dog for a walk on the St. Vrain Trail, while Jimi road his bicycle and I roller bladed - or to clarify - tried to roller blade. Just as we began our adventure Miller stopped right in front of me and I fell crashing to the ground twisting and crunching my right wrist, as well as a hard hit to my tail bone. However, I felt I was tougher than to let a silly little fall stop me, so against Jimi's judgement, we pushed on. We made it to our turn around spot without anymore disasters until about half way back I tried a to stop (to let Jimi catch up), yet I had way too much momentum on the downward slope and this time I really hit the ground hard. It was a frontwards fall and I again injured the same wrist and bruised both knees. I'm not really sure what happened with my tail bone in this fall, but I do know that it really hurts. :-) Needless to say, I took those damn roller blades off my feet and limped barefoot rest of the way home. Jimi endlessly tried to get me to ride on the handlebars of his bike, but there was no way in hell I was getting on anything with wheels.

For Jimi rest of the weekend consisted of cups of hot tea to sooth his sore throat and buying and selling. For me it was ibuprofen, hot chocolate with peppermint schnapps, and homework.

Our original plans for the weekend had us going to my parents house in Nebraska for Pork Days; however, when I began feeling the pressure in my head I asked Jimi if we could stay home. He reluctantly agreed. We probably could have gone, but that's ok. We are hoping to get out there next month sometime.

That's all for now. Hope all is well with you.

Love everybody,

Lorie & Jimi

Whoo-hoo - 4 Wheelin

Hello all,

This week was a bit more settled and relaxed than the last few. Nothing special or out of the ordinary happened. I worked at Crocs, worked a bunch for Cencorp, and worked on homework.

My homework began piling up even though I work on it diligently. I had to continue working on my short story, complete a midterm essay in addition to daily discussion board responses, and do the weekly assignments. The midterm is done and turned in and the short story is coming along nicely. All is well.

Jimi finally found tires for his truck. Wednesday night he tested them out when he and Matt went 4-wheelin in Left Hand Canyon. Tracy and I scrap booked.

Jimi and I camped on Thursday night, also doing some 4-wheelin just to get to our camp spot. The fire was nice looking out over Boulder, Longmont, and surrounding areas. We were on to of the mountain, which goes through Left Hand Canyon. It was a beautiful sight at night. Again we got some really good pictures, but I have not had time to look at them. I've got ALLOT of scrap booking to catch up on, but it will have to wait. Here is one of the pictures we took.

Jimi had a lunch meeting on Friday to place some photography in a coffee shop in Boulder. It was my last Friday off for summer hours at Crocs and I spent the entire day working for Cencorp.

Saturday morning we headed back to Left Hand Canyon's shooting area where we shot off about six clips from my 9mm. I didn't do as well this time as I did last time. Jimi did pretty good. We spent most rest of the day 4-wheelin in Rollins Pass. This is a super awesome place. We really had a good time driving around, a little bit of hiking and exploring. We actually drove the Jenny Creek Trail twice. Here is a picture of the truck on the crux; however, it doesn't do the trail justice.

Sunday's wind forecast called for nice 11 mile an hour winds at noon getting up to about 19 mph in the evening. We thought it was the perfect opportunity to do some sailing. Turns out that once we got onto the lake there was no wind. We spent a while floating around and about the time we got to the dock and decided to load the winds came up, which made docking with full sails somewhat challenging. I'm not sure why we didn't decide to just stay out, but it was pretty crowded and the weather was taking a turn for the worse.

Jimi has been a bit under the weather with a sore throat. I've encouraged him to stay down and rest, but he gets too bored and must find something to do. He purchased a commercial espresso maker from a coffee shop a week or so ago with the intention of reselling it; however, has since decided to install it in our kitchen. He has had to extend the counter top for it to sit on and will hard wire the water and electric in. The project is coming along; we are hoping to be functional by the end of the week.

Things are really changing at Crocs for me. I am really busy all day long and it is going to get worse as they implement a new POS system.

That's all for now folks. Hope all is well with you.

Love everybody,

Lorie & Jimi

Crazy to Lazy

Friends and Family,
 
Hello to all - I have to say this week began on the crazy side and ended on the lazy side.... With the Holiday last Monday it was a short week and with us just returning from our weekend get-a-way and so much to do, it seemed even shorter. My work load at Crocs more than doubled and I found myself working more than ever. Tracy and Matt stayed with us while waiting for their new house to become available. I had planned to work on my short story; however, that didn't happen until the weekend. I barely got laundry done and fell behind in working for Cencorp. Lucky for the employees, I was able to get payroll done - ha-ha - just kidding.
 
Matt and Tracy's house was ready for them to move in on Friday, so we spent Friday night trucking a couple truck loads from storage to their new house.
 
I cleaned house like no other on Saturday morning and rest of the day and into Sunday, I worked for Cencorp and worked on homework.
Jimi continued to buy and sell. He did well this past week with his self made business.
Jennifer and Daniel both had homecoming on Saturday night. I have not talked to Daniel about his night, but Jennifer had a good time. She went with a group seven kids.
Jimi and I watched the movie To Kill a Mockingbird Saturday. It was good.
 
I am still busy with school. I am trying to work ahead, so I won't loose out when we are in Vietnam. And my scrap booking has fallen behind, but I think it is just going to have to wait.
 
We got word that Tracy (Jimi's niece) is getting married. I am excited for her and hoping we will be able to fly to Chicago for the wedding next summer
 
Hope all is well with you - hugs and kisses.
Love everybody,
Lorie & Jimi

The Grand Tetons and Yellowstone

Friends and Family,

 

Hello there. My apologies for taking so long to get this out this week. Jimi and Matt went camping on Monday night with the intention to rise early Tuesday and climb four 14ers (14,000 foot mountains). Matt went up about 2,000 feet and then began suffering from altitude induced asthma and had to turn around. Jimi finished the trip with all four mountains: they are Mount Bross, Mount Lincoln, Mount Democrat, and Mount Cameron. They arrived home at 4pm on Tuesday. I worked on my normal duties consisting of school, Cencorp, and scrap booking. Wednesday evening we helped Matt and Tracy move and then on Thursday we packed and prepared for our weekend get-away.

 

Friday morning we headed for Northern Wyoming: Yellowstone National Park and The Grand Tetons. We found a camp spot and settled in just after dark, but first drove around Yellowstone briefly to get acquainted with the area. We woke up early Saturday so Jimi could get some sunrise shots, but we missed them. We spent rest of the day touring the park. We saw heards of buffalo, which at one point Jimi was surrounded by them. They were so close that he could reach out and touch them, but didn't of course. He thought nothing of it and kept taking pictures. We spent a lot of time at the Mammoth Hot Springs, which consist of pools of sulfur build up.  And then we saw Old Faithful. It seems that most of the day we were in the truck.

 

Sunday we toured the area of the Grand Tetons again getting up early for morning pictures, which were successful. We found several four wheel drive trails to play around on and then went on a really long hike through some back country. It was cool being away from the tourists traps. We saw real wildlife of a couple of elk who had been taken down by probably a pack of wolves. One of them was small or young at it's time of demise and had happened quite some time ago. The second one was very large and still had some of the hide on its skull. It was incredibly cool to see parts of it spread to different areas just like we learn the wolves do, as they each grab a share and go off to eat it. We are pretty sure we found the entire skeletan scattered. There was no blood left, but the animal put off a grossly odor. We investigated it, took pictures and then moved on. That night we headed about an hour towards home and camped at Brooks Lake in the Shoshone National Forrest. It rained that night, but that did not stop us from roasting dogs by the fire and enjoying our evening. 

 

Monday morning we were up early again for more morning photos. We got the pictures and then back at camp, started another fire to cook our breakfast, and packed up before the nine hour drive home. We arrived home about 4pm. It was an awesome four day get away.

 

On the drive there I managed to read my entire 500 page novel and on the way home I completed all my assignments for the coming week. This will really help me in my class. Now I can devote more time to my short story.

 

I wanted to attach a picture or two; however, we just have not had time to go through them. Maybe I will remember to send some later.

 

This coming week will be a short one and we have many things to do.

 

Love everybody,

Lorie & Jimi