Zombie Defense Barricade

So, instead of working out this morning, I erected our Zombie Defense Barricade. It seems a bit inadequate, though. I guess I'll need more bags and branches. And hopefully the neighbors will understand until the yard waste pickup happens.

April (Snow) Showers

Why, yes, it is the 25th of April. Why do you ask? Good thing I just planted flowers yesterday.

How to Train Your Yard

It is not often in Colorado that it rains as it has this week. The rain over the past few days was strong and constant, broken up a little with some late Spring snow. Between that and the green, it has felt like Oregon. It has been good weather for warm socks and reading.

Well, at least I got the warm socks. The weekend has been pretty busy in a domestic way: laundry, groceries, cooking, etc. I mowed the lawn for the first time this year while Jen took care of our pile of tree limbs. When I finished trimming the verge, I helped her finish up and we added several more bags to our heaping mound of yard waste.

I've also been having fun in the kitchen, trying out a few new recipes from Sunset. This week it was the shrimp curry (with chicken replacing the shrimp) and spiced raw applesauce. The curry, though easy, was not so hot (perhaps because I forgot to put in the garlic), but the applesauce was a revelation. Again I am surprised by how something so simple and easy can taste so amazing. Also in the culinary mix was some divine biscuits and gravy from the old Thingvall repertoire. I don't think I'll ever find restaurant biscuits and gravy that can match this. This is biscuits and gravy you could base a restaurant off of. Just sayin'.

This week I also had dinner with my friend Dan at H Burger downtown. There honestly aren't many eateries in downtown Denver that I care to frequent, mainly due to price, but sometimes due to a great discrepancy between that and the quality of the food. H Burger is an exception. The burgers there are outstanding, and the nutella milkshake made with liquid nitrogen and topped with toasted marshmallows was pretty good too. Throw in a $3 gin and tonic and H Burger is on my Must Revisit list.

While I'm reviewing things, I must lob some kudos in the direction of How to Train Your Dragon. Jen and I went and saw it in the theater (our first trip to the theater since Avatar). It is a great movie; very creative, well animated, and well written. Of course, it is pretty much the stock plot for a movie like that, but that doesn't stop it from being enjoyable.

Twist

There are Mondays, and then there are ... Mondays. This would be one of the latter. I had a doctor's appointment today, so I thought I'd leave a bit early to make up the time lost. However, the normally fluid traffic on 287 was stop and go all the way through Broomfield, adding about a half hour to my commute. I kept expecting to come upon a malfunctioning traffic light, but there was nothing. As soon as I got to Highway 36, all was back to normal. The result was that I left early, but actually got to work a bit late.

We have a new guy at work, and between getting him ready and meetings with others, I didn't get to lunch until an hour late. By the time I got done, I had to leave for my appointment. I told the new guy I'd be back in a jiff. However, what I thought was going to be a quick discussion of lab results and a recommendation of vitamin supplements ended up being a quick physical, some blood work, and a jaunt over to the hospital for yet another ultrasound. Everything seems to be largely all right, but the doctor visits are going on and on and on. I am ready to be off this train.

I got back to work about 4 hours after I left for the appointment. Everyone was gone, but I wanted to try to make up a bit of lost productivity. My brain wasn't in it, but I worked for a bit before deciding to step next door into the kitchen. However, as soon as the door closed behind me, I realized I had locked both my phone and my keys in the office. Thankfully someone was still there at the building owner's office, but I had to lurk and wait for her to return from the restroom. By the time I got back into the office, all productivity was long down the drain, so I drove home, and ate dinner an hour later than normal.

Oh, and did I mention the light? I don't think I did. The lights above our dining room table flickered this morning, and one of the bulbs burnt out. We went to turn off the lights, but found that not only had the bulb burnt out, but the switch had as well. We couldn't turn the lights off. Thankfully Jen had time to deal with it. Still, one more bizarre twist of today.

I'd like to exchange this Monday. It's broken.

On the Mend

Jen and I are currently resisting the incredible aroma of the zesty cheese biscuit loaf I made this evening. We're having a potluck on short notice at work tomorrow, and between recording for AINC and catching up on Lost, I didn't have a whole lot of time, so I threw this together out of my Pillsbury cookbook I got for Christmas. It smells so ... freaking ... magnificent. Arrgh.

I poked around in the garden and planted some peas as well as some dahlias and day lillies. This weekend, we may need to mow and finally clean the leaves out of the gutters. Heck, let's throw some late bagging of leaves in there too. Looks like this weekend is all landscaping, all the time.

I want to send congratulations to my friends Tony and Risa. They have just returned from the Ukraine with the three kids they adopted over there. It's an insta-family! I am so excited for them. It also has a deeper significance to me. They set out with the goal of adopting a family group of kids who were older, and thus had less chance of being adopted. They went to adopt those that were probably considered unadoptable. It seems like such a great illustration of God's own redeeming love for us. We who have been wretched have been told by the Lord of the Universe that he wants us to be his sons and daughters. Just as he went to extraordinary lengths to bring us into his family, Tony and Risa also have gone to incredible lengths to bring these three kids out of a hopeless life in a Ukrainian orphanage to a future of hope and promise. It is a beautiful thing.

I am so relieved that it turned out, because Tony and Risa did indeed face quite a bit of hardship as paperwork snafus destroyed their plans and threatened the adoption. They ended up staying much longer than intended in order to adopt these kids. That this beautiful adoption that was so good and Christ-like was threatened put me in a bit of a squeeze. How could God let something so right fail? I prayed like crazy and was inspired by Tony and Risa's faith in God regardless of how things turned out. And of course, God was faithful and delivered these three kids into a loving family. God is so good!

My leg continues to heal well. The pain has gone down considerably. I still have to wear compression stockings and ace bandages. Honestly those are starting to seem like they cause more discomfort than the actual wounds themselves. Give me a couple more weeks and I'll be ready to flash my legs and dazzle the ladies.

It's a Beautiful Day

It's a glorious day outside; one of those cool, yet sunshiney Colorado spring days that beckons seductively for bike rides, yard work, and anything outside. We even have 11 new little spruce trees that were put in our yard yesterday. Hopefully they will grow up to be a shield from the road, but now they are happy islands of bluish-green brightening up our back yard and making the outdoors more attractive.

Too bad I'll be inside working all day on the laptop. Spring, even as it brings a rush of green to our lawn, has brought a rush of work to my office, and deadlines are deadlines, regardless of whether they crop up in spring or winter. Well, at least I have a beautiful outside to look at over my laptop screen.

April Showers

Really? I haven't posted for more than a week? Huh. Well, anyway, since I can't seem to write a line of code to save my life right now, I will do a quite blog update.

I had some surgery on my leg. I'm recovering now, and all seems to be well. Hopefully this will help my long term leg health. Because I couldn't shower for a while, Jen and I skipped the usual Easter festivities. Once we were able to unwrap the Easter Leg (dyed blue with antiseptic goo), I could shower and go out in public. We ended up having some Good Times, which lead to bad digestion. We hit the college service at Flatirons, for a very un-Easter-like service. Ambiguous heavy metal doesn't say Easter to me. Still, we got our dose of Vitamin Church.

I read through a book about deadly, destructive, and otherwise devilish plants called Wicked Plants. It was all right, writing wise. It felt more like a reference book than what I had hoped for. The actual, physical book was beautifully done, though.

Work is busy for both of us. Jen's getting enough clients to start thinking about getting her own office space. I'm starting to bring my work home (thus the reference to not being able to write code). I've now been working at RealEyes for 3 years. April 1st was my anniversary. We are both looking forward to the company vacation in May.

Oh, and I got the new Gunnerkrigg Court book today. It is good reading. You can read the comic online for free, but I like this strip so much I'll support it by buying the dead tree version.