Away we go!

This is either a pronouncement of Midwestern travel, or an invitation
to sack our house. You decide!

Blocksma Christmas Card 2009

Hi Friends. This year we decided to eschew the traditional Christmas card mailing for the electronic proliferation of our annual conglomeration of adventure photos from the past year.

I'll let the photos do most of the talking, but it has been a very good year for us: with our time visiting Pops in the spring, our vacation to Cali to see good friends and food in the summer, the time we got to have Jo in our house and my move back into the academic world this Fall. We'll be embarking on the Christmas journey a week from tomorrow, and will be sure to record some dispatches from the great white Midwest when we get there.

Til then, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

(Oh, and head over here to watch the video in a larger high quality. well worth it.)

Music for your ears

Hey kids, stop what you're doing and go over HERE.

That is a link to the Everyday Joe's site, where there is a zip file full of tasty tunes for your earholes, made entirely of groups that we've enjoyed as guests at our little shop through the year. The entire compilation is quite fantastic, and you will be a better person for downloading and listening. That is all. (Go!)

The Belated Turkey Day Post

Wait, it's December? When did that happen? Hm.

We had a very merry thanksgiving this year, but it was also very bittersweet. Our brother Matt (H) made his first trip ever to the mountains a few days before thanksgiving day. It was really great to show him our town, our house, some of our favorite views and making him sleep on the floor once my mom came out as well to join us. It was a nice full table, including our friends Becky and Jevon who came up from Denver to join us just like last year. Liz once again did a marvelous job with the bird, and there was nary a complaint on the day. Though the Lions could have played better.


Once we had completely gorged ourselves at dinner on thursday, and watching JoAnna and Liz beat everyone at Catan, we drove up to Rocky Mountain for a nice snowy hike up to some of the lakes from the Bear Lake trailhead.


The week itself went quite quickly, and at the end of it they all packed back into Jo's car and drove back across the country for JoAnna to start the second trimester of her senior year back at TK. We really loved having her here, and the house already feels much quieter, slightly emptier, certainly filled less with shoes.


But soon enough we'll be doing the midwestern drive ourself for Christmas in two weeks, so we'll be reunited with the whole fam-damily soon. Until then, I'll be living under this pile of books over here before my finals next week. (Guh)

(Pictures over on the Flickr)

A day in the life....

Yes, not going to work in the early morning dark is nice.



On the flip side, every one of those books is for a single paper due on monday. Guh. Pick your poison.

Friday Fun

Friday stock photography has to be put on hold this week, as I have done NO reading with any decent shots and can't bear to think of spending the time. (I have the first eleven verses of Phil. 2 bearing down on my head like 1000 pounds...)

SO, instead you'll get something even better: Charlie Day's kitten mittens. (click through the image for the goodness) You're welcome.

Friday Fun with Stock Photography

This week has been mostly studying for midterms, and not a whole of new, exciting reading to pick from. BUT, I did remember this gem from a few weeks back, and thought it might make for an interesting thought exercise.


What is it do you think that these two gentlemen are discussing? From the fashion, it is most certainly the early 90's... maybe the new Boyz 2 Men album? Perhaps Clinton's approval rating? Maybe about something 'rad' and/or 'tubular'. These are the riveting possibilities of a windowless office 16 years ago...

How I Spent My Winter Vacation, by the Blogsmas

Having a snow day is almost as awesome as an adult as it was as a kid, and Wednesday night found Jo and I watching the weather, checking the tv, and of course, jumping up and down when the phone rang (even better than having a snow day is knowing the night before so you can stay up late). We spent the day doing pretty much what kids do on their snow days, with hot cocoa, art projects, movies, and board games. We fit in a half dozen games of Settlers of Cattan, our new addictive board game, and JoAnna and I crafted to our hearts' content. Jo made some cards and Christmas gifts. We made a pumpkin pie and roasted the pumpkin seeds. I made some homemade napkins from fabric scraps. Doug tried to do homework, but was probably not as successful with two girls dragging craft supplies all over the house and cajoling him into playing games with them. We had warm, hearty dinner of braised short ribs, spaghetti squash with parmesan, and braised carrots, then went back to playing games and watching movies. All in all, a very successful day. And last night, I got a call that school would be canceled AGAIN today, so I have time to chronicle these adventures (and clean up the mess from yesterday). Because we don't have this kind of weather all the time where we live (especially not in October), it is nice to settle in and watch the snow fly, knowing that in a week we will be back to sunshine and fall weather.

just in time for Halloween

This just in: local bear is covered in snow. He is reportedly feeling "beary chilly" and wanting to go inside for a "cub of hot chocolate"

More at 6. Back to you!

Friday Fun with Stock Photography

Ok, so the above guy is not a piece of stock photography, but a curious little bugger who got incredibly close to the work truck this week in North Dakota. I asked him his name, but, instead of waiting on a reply we bid a hasty retreat.

And come to think of it, the image for this week isn't technically a piece of stock photography either, but a very specific picture of Ethologist Konrad Lorenz hanging out with the geese he tricked into thinking he was their mama. So, no, while it doesn't exactly fit the bill of the post title, the shot was too fantastic not to share. Happy weekend, all.

Fact: Autumn is the Best Season.

We got a somewhat last minute visit this weekend from dear friend Laura. You might remember her from such episodes as Liz's college years, Liz and Doug's wedding, and every trip Liz ever takes to Boston. This time it was her turn to come to Colorado. She arrived at the Denver airport Thursday just a few hours before our local boy-less weather balloon landed (ridiculous).



We took full advantage of the sunny warm weather without working too hard. There was the (new and improved) New Belgium Brewery tour, mini golf, lunch in Boulder followed by tea at the Dushanbe Tea House, games of cribbage and Settlers of Cattan. Friday, I finally used the two fondue pots that I have had for over 3 years without ever pulling out the boxes. Zach and Ashley added their fondue pot to the mix, and voila! Cheese fondue with bread and apples; beef, chicken, and mushrooms in a beer batter, and caramel with apples and cookies for dessert. Fondue makes you work for your food, but also makes for a pleasant hour sitting around the table eating.



Saturday brought friends Jevon and Becky (another roomie from Gordon) up from Denver. We lost ourselves in a local corn maze and picked out some sweet pumpkins for carving. I've never been able to carve much more out of a pumpkin that a triangle features and a very angry looking smile, but we were inspired by this creation at the farm.



Here are our renditions: Joanna's monster, Becky's haunted house, my owl, and Laura's recreation of some obscure painting (how sophisticated!).



It was the kind of fall weekend that rekindled my love for fall (after last weekend's early winter blast).

A Day Late, A Dollar Short, etc etc

So, it took all of one week to get off the habit of new Friday posts, but, I have a good reason:

I was busy dominating a game of Settlers of Cattan last night, and was unable to post.

But here we are now, and for you today I offer an image with no explanation whatsoever! Happy weekend!

Snowbound Concerts

For the last two years, our CSA farm, Grant Family Farms has put on the autumn festival event of the season: HARVESTIVAL! We attended last year and enjoyed hearing some music, picking out some pumpkins and corralling goats.

We've been looking forward to this year's celebration, if only for the headlining act of the David Grisman Quartet. The only catch was waking up on Saturday to a few inches of snow, and a continuing curtain of white throughout the day. Undeterred, we showed up before the show, enjoyed some food, picked out a pumpkin and enjoyed most of the set before the lack of feeling in our toes forced us home. Hopefully next year it won't be so ridiculously freezing out!

Friday Fun with Stock Photography

I love stock photography.

No, really. It cracks me up, thinking of how a company picked out an image for their advertisement, or billboard, or pamphlet that originally had nothing to do with whatever it is they are hocking. I also love the idea of these photographers just coming up with as many possible scenarios and mixtures of people doing different activities and displaying different emotions so that someday they can make it onto the back of a cereal box. (has anyone ever had the experience of pulling out your frosted flakes and finding yourself beaming back at you from across the table? That would be awesome!)

Of course, the best use of stock photography lies in textbooks, and I feel like I need an avenue to share the best of the best that I see on a weekly basis. So, from here on out I'm going to try and spend a moment every Friday sharing the picture that made me giggle the most. Most certainly, they will involve 80's haircuts. Oh look!


This is for the beginning of a chapter about listening to people. Obviously, right? The book that this is from was recently reprinted in 2008 - nice to see that they made an effort to keep it hip with the kids.

Wowza

In reality, where most people live and work, this site would be an empty room with a live microphone. Coming in from the darkness of stage left, I would shuffle quietly, shoulders hunched and with a hand over my eyes peer into the void in front of me, quietly asking the vacant chairs in a hushed voice if anyone was there.

*ahem*

Life has changed a bit around these parts. A lot, really. I'm writing this morning watching the first snow of the fall season come down on our patio furniture. It's falling lazily, big wet flakes that melt rather than accumulate with any proficiency. A large mug of coffee is in front of me, a kitty cat on my lap. I've just finished studying for a quiz, which I am now putting off by creating this missive. The house is empty except for myself, Bailey (said kitty cat) and the sounds of the Hush Arbors album that a good friend just introduced me to. I am quite happy to be here.

I mentioned (in passing) that I have started a program at Denver Seminary in the last post. The fact is, I am going full time and it has taken almost this much time for my brain to adjust. Lectures, notes, papers and group projects have invaded my calendar, and it really has only been the last week or so that I have gotten to a point of equilibrium with it all. I have gone down to a severe part time employee for my old employer, and while still occasionally get in some wonderfully technical work, for the most part I have been reading about human development, counseling theories and biblical textual criticism. It's a trip.

This is all to pen a hope that we will be better with adding thoughts and memories to our little blogspot account. This coming weekend is the Harvestival, our CSA Farm's annual party for the community. A few weeks after that is the Annual Big 10 Flag Football tournament. Between them will be a visit from friends, afterward the beginning of the holidays. I've also been toying with the idea of starting a new Friday feature here, which I hope to kick off tomorrow. Keep your toes crossed.

With that, I'll leave some of the fun photos from the last month around our neck of the woods. I hope and trust that you and yours are well and warm. Cheers.

Odds, Ends, a month here or there

Oh, hey!

So, yeah, life has been a large batch of crazy. Double batch, even. I have begun classes as a full time student at Denver Seminary, Liz has gone back to a full time sugar momma, and JoAnna is a new senior at FCHS.

Since my first week of the new norm is now complete, i'm hoping to get back to a relatively normal blogging schedule, but I thought we'd throw something up before we run away to the White Forest National Forest this weekend. Attached are some shots of camping in Vedauwoo and playing in the reservoir. Better descriptions and some fun pictures to follow.

Liz's Sunset Espresso Bar

Around the Bay and back again

Last we left our intrepid heroes, they were off to wine country. Since it's been a week, you may be thinking that they are still there, living out their days from one row of grapes to another, maxing out their credit cards eating at fantastic restaurants every night and wondering why they hadn't thought about doing this years ago.

Well, actually, that doesn't sound too bad at all, come to think of it...

Last week Monday morning, we found our friend Kristin and jetset northward for some good wine and food. We directly proceeded to the V. Sattui vineyards, where they have a fantastic deli alongside of their tasting rooms. One crusty baguette, one pack of goat cheese and some elaborate salami later - we were full and happy to be in the rolling hills of Napa. We made it to one other tasting that afternoon (Summers Vineyard), before heading back to Napa and a pizza in town. Of course, the evening was not complete until we had walked over the bridge to Kara's Cupcakes and picked three tasty looking morsels.


Tuesday morning was much more serious. We arose early, and with one mind descended (or ascended, as it turned out) upon the Cade Vineyard for a snooty-tooty-LEED Certified tasting. While the wine was fantastic and pricey, the views were even better and the facilities were fascinating. Solar Panels running all the buildings, a place to charge your Tesla and captured roof rainwater for irrigation purposes are only a few of the bullet points given as to why they are such an environmentally friendly place.

The next stop was to the Freemark Abbey Vineyard, just north of town. The brilliant thing about tasting wine in this valley on a weekday is that you get the run of places more often than not. As the only three folks in their tasting room, we chatted up the little old ladies in charge of dispensing the sample-sized libations and discovered they had family in Fort Collins and a summer trip to Michigan. We left with a number of bottles to drink later, and walked over to the Silverado Brewing Company for lunch... and, well, beer.

With the sampler platter and chicken wings vanquished, we headed south to our last tasting of the day - but not without stopping for chocolate's in St Helena. (YES) Our last vineyard was the folks at Cakebread, in which a tasting includes 6 different wines with a tour of the grounds. This was the perfect place to wrap the day, as the guides were fun & informative, and the wine was fantastic. The whole vibe and feel of the place reminded me very much of the tone at New Belgium Brewery, where they make a great product with love in their heart.


And in case we hadn't digested enough calories yet, we got to have dinner that night at Mustard's Grill. The girls were tres excited to enjoy it's fare, and I'm fairly certain that even if I had been struck by a car in the parking lot before entering - they would have trusted the ambulance to get me to safety, and would have caught up with me once they had the quail and the pork chops. (After dining there, though, I can find no fault in such a choice of action. Holy Cow.)

Drinking and eating for 12 hours straight can take a lot out of someone, and we went to bed that evening with smiles and robust bellies. It was the most 'vacation-ey' day of the trip, and i heartily recommend overeating and drinking here before you die. Yum.

Looking back at the last 6 paragraphs all about a single day, I realize that I have no sense of brevity tonight. So, to make this move along a little more quickly, I will use a few more pictures and less words.


The next day we took Kristin back to the airport for the next leg of her journey, and headed back over the Golden Gate to explore a section of Muir Woods. The national monument is only 20 minutes out of the city, so the amount of tourists (we are not tourists. we are ex-residents) (not really, but, you have to tell yourself something amidst a sea of fanny packs and camera straps) was a tad bit suffocating. Reaching the far end of the longest park loop, we decided to continue up the side of the narrow valley - and only saw four more people the rest of the walk. It was a fantastic afternoon in quiet groves of ancient trees and mist that seemed to move in and out like an ancient spirit. We ended the day with a meal and a night in the city of Tiburon, with a fantastic hotel room view of the city across the bay.


Thursday was our one day completely dedicated to the city on the hills, and after we parked the car in Oakland and took the BART in, the day included all of the following in this run on sentence: Market to North Beach via China Town, lunch at Mario's Bohemian Cigar shop, a run up to Coit tower, a walk back to Market to bus over to Golden Gate Park, bike rentals for touring the green rectangle, a while sitting on the beach, biking back and busing up to Fisherman's Wharf for some seafood, a walk down the Embarcadaro to attend the Giants-Phillies game with some long lost friends, a walk back to the BART and a night at Noelle's in Oakland. (Phew.) We certainly ran off some of the calories that we had picked up in Napa.


The weekend was officially kicked off next with a drive up to Truckee - just North of Lake Tahoe - for Scotty G and Annie G's wedding festivities. I knew Scotty from my time working at Mount Hermon in college, and seeing the scores and scores of long lost friends from those summers was absolutely great. Each one of them are the caliber of people that you would be more than happy to have just one of them in your life, and seeing all of them at one was almost overwhelming. (in a good way) It was a weekend full of catching up, hugs, laughter, and mostly innapropriate man touching. Some things never change.


The wedding itself was at the Northstar Ski Resort, at mid mountain. Everyone attending (just under 300) had to take a gondola ride up to the ceremony. As the music began, the groom and his entourage filed in and stood in wait... for the bridesmaids who were on their way down the mountain on the adjoining chair lift. I won't lie, it was quite an entrance. Eventually Annie in her white dress could be seen and everyone cheered loudly as she appeared from the pines above. Very fun.

All in all, it was a great, if not slightly manic trip that covered nearly every part of Northern California that we love (though we missed Yosemite. not quite enough time..). Being back home for a full work week now, I've just recently gotten all of the pictures up on Flickr, which do a much better job than I do at describing the fun we had. Now, if you'll excuse us, we have a lot of vegetables to eat.

A Santa Cruz Weekend

It's an odd dynamic in our little household - while liz gets to take a nice elongated break in the middle of the summer from snotty little kids and school lunch trays, I normally only get two weeks of time off a year. Since one week is regularly donated to the holiday over Christmas, we seized this year's other week with both hands in running away to California.

We landed in the bay area on Friday night, and within the hour of touching pavement were sampling the closest In-N-Out's best fare. (It's still fantastic.) We eventually found our way to our friend Bob's in Santa Cruz. The weekend was spent enjoying the sun, the sand, and most importantly, the food. Saturday was spent driving up the coast and walking the beach, as well as making a point to enjoy a crab sandwich and procuring an olallie berry pie for dinner that night - which was grilled salmon with a homemade bruschetta.



On Sunday we walked to a cafe for a late breakfast, and then made haste over to Henry Cowell's to introduce Liz to some very friendly redwoods. Like most things in California, it costs money to park right at the entrance, but if you find a spot on the road and take the meandering way into the chosen park, it's free. No wonder this state is having a large budget shortfall, there are too many penny pinching tourists like us. Once Bob had hugged his favorite tree, we retired to the Bonny Doon tasting room and the Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing Company for afternoon libations, and then Bob made us his famous pan seared filets topped with gorgonzola and scallions. (We're going to gain ten pounds this week.)



As of now, we're up north in Napa with our good friend Kristin who we rescued from SFO. We'll be sure to taste everything in sight and groggily report upon it before departing here for the city on Wednesday. Cheers!

Too Much Nintendo + Too Many Veggies = Lunch!

You are thinking perhaps it is time for Liz to go back to work, yes?

(but you are secretly jealous of my radish carving skills. i saw the picture here if you'd like to try it for yourself)

When Bored Between Sets

Enjoy the pabst! ( waiting on Josh Ritter @ the Bluebird)

The Intern

(Hrm... guess we should have coordinated blogging. But fortunately for you, now you get to read about the same stuff in two different posts!)

Sister JoAnna elects to move from Michigan to Colorado for a few months to experience a whole new world filled with things like sunshine, an economy, and mountains. We celebrate her arrival with an initiation of climbing, hiking, and cooking lessons. Some recent adventures.

Climbing at Lily Lake (more photos here)


You couldn't pick a more beautiful setting to frame the moderate sport climbs at Lily Lake. We had most of the day to ourselves (except for a short parade of summer campers hiking by) to play on a few routes, and Jo concealed her fear of plummeting to her death long enough to try it out.


It's not just the power of the pink helmet. She really is a stud.


Greyrock Hike (photos)
A beautiful 6-mile hike just outside of Fort Collins. This has become our standby for taking visitors.


A sidenote: we take this on with some fear and trepidation. This is a girl who already in her short life has endured a broken jaw, a broken tailbone, and has pretty much decimated every ligament in both knees, all on separate occasions. This either makes her very resilient or very clumsy. I am very protective of my little sis and would like to return her to Michigan in the same condition or better. Yet we can't have her come to Colorado and not do all this fun stuff, can we? So we go out anyway. But rest assured, parental units, we are being really really careful (see the helmet above?).

It has been fun to have her here, and we are looking forward to more adventures to come this fall!