so you've been checking in on me.... but i've been checking in on you! the other day i became envious of lisa's sitemeter on her blog, so i decided to get one too. it has been quite intriguing seeing where you all live. included in my sitemeter statistics are referring URL's. somehow someone found my blog by google-ing my name. this really raised my curiosity. what DOES come up when i google myself?

who would have guessed, but this picture that was on page 381 in the KSU yearbook. it is a picture of dallas and i when we were dating. (you can tell because i was obviously trying to impress him with my hair down. pretty sure this doesn't happen anymore) we had these huge oversized clown glasses and wore them around campus one night. this is dallas trying to get me to settle down and stop laughing since we were in the library.sorry that this is is poor quality. i didn't feel like paying the $30 for it

things to do #97

take an really random list to home depot and get lost for 2 hours.

this is jen... actually this is a blurry picture of jen. jen is way awesome and works with us when shes' not being a starbucks barista.

today our fresh paint assignment was to clean out the studio and go shopping at home depot. we circled the store about 3 times before everyone working there felt sorry for us and offered assistance. jen and i thought that we were too good for a lumber cart. try getting this shopping cart thru the isles. it was a little like playing an oversized game of jenga

i have finally got my art studio painted. it was a long process as it took several (6) coats of paint to cover the old yuck up

before:after:

yes. it's still pink.
i am trying to clean out and get organized. artwork for sale coming soon

today lisa and i finished up a job. everything about this job was pretty normal except for the client's extreme anal-ness and worry about what to do with the house key for 3.45 hrs until they returned home from work. this house, after all, is stuck in the 90's (mauve and country blue, with accompanying furniture), is in an extreme residential area, and has kids playing catch on the street. i can see why it would be a targeted house to break into. after much delimma on friday, the client finally came up with a plan:

after locking both the deadbolted door AND deadbolted screen door, i am to place the key (with long string) into an empty pepsi can and then throw it on top of the trash can on the other side of the padlocked fence going into the back yard. ridiculous? uhm, more like totally over the topooooh so sneaky!

also, the geek has updated his blog.... in case you want to check it out!

my parents came out this weekend. it has been nice for them to be out and we're having a fun time! today we went to the parade of homes so that i could show them what we did.

dallas also had a good time.... i think he did anyway.
he tried to find the practicality of the powder bath

this is the gas pump at king soopers. check out the "don't push" sign

i'm wondering why they don't just put a piece of duct tape on it instead of "don't push." doesn't that just make you want to push it even more?

tonight we went to the strong household so that lisa and i could eat pizza and watch dallas and derek fix lisa's brakesthankfully this was a safe activity and thus we have had no ER visits yet this weekend

we, like almost all other cyclists, have been watching the tour this year. before/after each stage of the tour they have interviews with select cyclists. this is cadel. he is a favorite to win this year, but not my favorite so i hope he loses in the time trial.after watching a majority of the interviews, i can safely say that he has had the worst interview to date.

interviewer: cadel, what are your tactics in going into this next stage of the tour?
cadel: my tactic, is to be prepared for all tactics

uhm, ok. ?
clearly cadel needs to work on his interviewing skills.

william has decided that 1 bag of food is not enough. we bought him a back up bag the other day and decided to put it away later. apparently fresh food is a must and he helped himself by tearing thru the bag just so that he could eat in the dining room like everyone else. as much as i hate to, i have to give him extra points for making a perfectly round circle

nothing extremely fabulous happened today. i'm pretty dehydrated and barely able to push a pedal.... but besides that i thought i'd leave you with a little tidbit of something i've been wondering about for a long time....

what does it mean to "mind your p's and q's?"

here are a few explanations:

From an old printer's axiom. Back in the early days of printing presses, each line of text had to be set up one letter at a time. Since the letters in the press were reversed (so they'd print forward), the printmaker (or typographer) needed to be careful not to confuse one letter for the other. Reminding someone to "watch his p's and q's" means to pay attention to the details.

Shaortening for "Pints and Quarts", which were the two main measurements for drinks. Whereas now we use pints, half pints, shots etc, there used to be Pints and Quarts. When things got rowdy, as they tend to do in pubs, you'd normally hear something like "Mind your Pints and Quarts" and a warning or some such. this was shortened to "mind your P's and Q's" that's it. congrads to beth and jon for finally having their baby!

so i have decided to be pro-active about the anticipation of receiving the ER bill. i'm pretty sure that the weekend's cash flow is in the red. if you like, i'm giving you the once in a life time opportunity to rent out a faux greek statue for your next bbq or dinner party

i'm very sorry i didn't blog yesterday. in fact, i had every intention to, but, was busy putting humpty dumpty back together again

yesterday bobbi, dallas and i went mtn biking. (1:20 pm) 50 ft before we were done with the trail dallas missed a hairpin turn and tumbled over the trail into some oak brush and conveniently scraped his arm on an extremely rusty pole. we wouldn't have really worried about the situation but it had been over 10 years since his last tetanus shot. here is dallas getting his tetanus shot. (2:45 pm) just so you know, he's current on his vaccinations now

here is dallas drinking his $204 sprite after almost passing out from getting 6 stitches in his arm. both the nurse and PA said it is very common for this to happen to men. (weenies!) :)

when we get home (3:06pm) we get to clean up the kitchen floor from the 1/2 gallon of oj that fell out of the refrigerator when dallas opened the door. it needed scrubbed anyway.

"stitches" and i decided to continue on with evening plans and go to parties (6:00 pm) that each of our teams were having. at the tough girl going away party for janis, tough boy "stitches" decided that he needed to enter the, "drag race a kiddie bicycle towing a crate of bricks up and down the street" contest. (9:00 pm) at the end he forgot he was on a kiddie bike,
distributed his weight too far back and fell.here is dallas in a different ER (11:00 pm) awaiting the return of the doctor to put 3 staples in his head. notice his left arm wrapped up. medical staff assisting him thought it was pretty funny that he had just caught up on his shots 6 hours earlier.
i on the other hand, did not

on a positive note, we're now a little closer to meeting our deductible. crashing should become a little cheaper until we start all over again in january

lunch meeting

today during our post work fresh paint murals and faux employee luncheon at chipolte, we found people that were much more creative than we on a friday afternoonsorry for the blurriness of the pic, as i was trying to take it inconspicuously

when we were at the top of the mountain, paulette and kyle pulled out their anchovies and crackers as a "made it to the top" treat. they shared with everyone, exculding me. i was going to partake in the summit-ing activities until i saw this (dallas gagging on anchovies):

we made it!

so we're completely exhausted and i don't feel like blogging, but, we are still alive and very sore!

elevation gained: a little over 5,000 ft
total miles: 15
total time (including breaks and lunch): 11:20
so my friends have requested that since they have made the blog 3 times, they want names. in the pic: paulette, kyle, larry, me and dallas

i'm going to be lucky if i can walk tomorrow

today our friends forced me and dallas to *cough cough* call into work sick a day early. we're headed up to estes tonight and hiking long's peak at the crack of dawn. if i come back alive i'll blog some hopefully great pics.

also, yesterday humperdink decided to die

AND, most importantly our housewarming party is set for

august 9, 7:30.
eat on your own, eat dessert and drinks at our house!
1230 meadowsweet dr golden co 80401.

unfortunately if i don't have your email address then you didn't get an evite invitation. sorry. if you didn't get one (they're supposed to be cool but i couldn't figure it out and they turned out lame), then please rsvp on the comments box below OR vote on the poll on the right! we'd love to have you

posers

we have some great friends out doing the triple bypass today. unfortunately one of them didn't register. it's amazing what a little blue painters tape will do. which one of the three is the fake?

friday was filled with uhm.... well, let's just say that the early part of what are usually fabulous fridays did not start off too fabulous.

first, at the studio, i decided to put a quart of bright blue paint into the tint basket without checking to see if the lid was on or not. needless to say by the time it was all said and done the quart of paint actually did bleed thru my pants. mmmmm.... comfy!

then on the way to the clients' house lisa and i got stuck behind this, going a whopping 20 mph. i can see why it was only going 20 mph

today leslie, lisa's sister came to work with us. it was quite fun, even though i was the one reaching in all the high spots because leslie is vertically challenged. here she is standing as tall as she can on a paint can and i'm still taller than her. check out the right thigh of my pants. maybe you shouldn't hire me to paint your house on friday

quality cross training

today's training plan consisted of some great friends from school coming into town, and going to boulder for some great food and beer. i think that on today's schedule for cycling it said "hydrate" so we did.

new bathroom

while i was in atwood i decided to re-do a bathroom for my parents. since i have nothing else to report for today you get to see before and after pictures! hooray for you.... like you havn't seen enough before/after already

before:

after:

household first

today something miraculous happened. today was the first day in over 2 years that william has tried contributing to anything. i came home today to find a dead bird in our house right inside the kitty cat door. we're thinking this was a futile attempt to provide us dinner for when we got home from racing the tues night crit. i believe for this one, it's the thought that counts!

vacation for readers

dear blog readers!

i can only imagine how jealous you are of dallas and i on the farm last week. it was a pretty great time, and so we have decided to extend the offer to you. let me know if you can imagine yourself in this picture. it's a once in a lifetime opportunity!

harvest day 4

on saturday one of my cousins got married. it was so fun seeing all my old classmates and college roommates! here is me and "roommate" as we call each other. it's most likely a good thing that we don't live close to one another.
MOVE TO BOULDER BETH!!!today we had to return back home to reality. i could think other things i would like to be doing, like playing with beth and beezer, but since we're responsible homeowners we thought we should come back and make sure our grass hadn't completely died yet. here's the end of the week gun show

today beezer found a new friend that is 8 hrs old

also, happy 4th of july! here we are (dad is driving) escaping the farm for the first time since tues to go into town and watch the local fireworks

harvest day 2

last night it rained so we couldn't get out into the fields until this afternoon. after i got done with milking with my mom (who can, by the way, do 6 pullups. you should be impressed), we got a shot of happy farmer dallas

harvest day 1

today we got the combine and header ready and started cutting wheat. what i mean by "we" is actually my dad and dallas did this. my mom and i were veto-ed off from the wheat field because we have no mechanical ability what-so-ever. thus, i have no pictures of dallas, my dad, the combine or the wheat field because we wern't out there. instead my mom and i were assigned to tasks such as painting the bathroom, milking cows, and cleaning out the garage. we did a pretty amazing job, even sweeping up the dirt. it was pretty dusty in there and so we rigged up some 60% inefficient dusks masks out of paper towels. talk about some hotties! :)

farming

so i guess it's pretty obvious that dallas and i are better cherry farmers than strawberry growers.

speaking of farming, we are in ludell ks right now and getting ready for wheat harvest. i'll keep you updated, of course, as dallas is the grain truck driver and i'm anxiously awaiting pictures of that. here's a not-so-small dirt devil we saw on the way here.