Springtime in the Rockies

Went to RMNP today. They opened the pass last weekend and the sleepy towns around here have suddenly become not-so-sleepy.

You almost always see elk when you first enter the park (either side):


And my favorite (moose) were everywhere today:


It's hard to see (because he blends in with the grass so well) but there's a coyote behind the moose. He came out of the woods and made a wide path around the moose. The moose stopped eating for a second, looked up at the coyote, then went back to eating - totally unconcerned:


Better look at the coyote:


This guy (a yearling) was right by the road enjoying the new growth:



And last, but not least, the strangest inhabitants of the park... they're seasonal...


Anybody wanna come visit me now?
Huh, huh?
I've got a guest room!

Mooses everywhere - they're not shy 2day. Kaylee spotted/got her 1st wiff of a moose and wanted 2 play with it. "Sorry baby, that big doggy isn't 4 playing."

Another good day in Denver, but I'm really tired though and atm I'm wishing neighbor would turn down his music. Less bass please!

Victory Ranch Alpacas - Memorial Day '09

I drove down on Friday and got there around 4:30pm. They'd just had a baby at 2:40pm and there were two other babies (one a couple of weeks old and one about a week old).

It was rainy Friday and Saturday, but Sunday and Monday were beautiful.

I helped out around the ranch/with the animals (carried the baby around) and on Sunday I spent a large portion of the day sitting in the store doing spinning demonstrations. I even gave an impromptu spinning lesson.

I left Victory Ranch three skeins of my hand spun yarn and they gave me more alpaca to spin! Woot!

I even managed to wrangle the critters on my own on Saturday night when everyone else was gone... even the ones that snuck into the barn and weren't supposed to be there.

Below are pictures of babies, hats, puppies and peeps.

This is the baby that was born right before I got there:


The rest of the babies - they love to run around first thing in the morning:




Zeus - he's one of the older Great Pyrenees, but he was rolling around in the dirt just like a puppy :)


This is Hamsa, my favorite VR doggie:


One of the ladies that works at the store used some of my parents' hand painted yarn to make this hat:



And some of the Victory Ranch Peeps:


Overall, a great weekend.

just rounded up all the ladies and got em back in their pen - and got the ones outta the barn that had snuck in - just me & the doggies. feelin proud!

mountains, foothills and plains - Oh my!

Thanks doc

"Your sinuses are a mess."

All of my sinuses (cheeks, forehead, and behind the eyes) are... a mess. He wants to operate to straighten my septum and do a sort of "angioplasty" on my sinuses... basically open up my sinuses and make them wider. The problem is the blood vessels in the sinuses don't move the blood fast enough so the linings swell up and mucus accumulates, letting the germs multiply (it's like their own little paradise). The deviated septum doesn't help matters because it also inhibits drainage. Both of these things lead to lots of sinus infections and when you get sick you stay sick longer because the germies can't drain properly, which describes me to a T.

So... sometime this summer I'll go in to have my head Roto-Rootered. Yay.

On the plus side, when it's all said and done, I should be able to breath a LOT better... and while I may still have sinus infections (because of my allergies) they shouldn't last as long or be as severe... plus when I get sick (colds, flus, etc) I shouldn't stay sick as long.

Random: I saw a funny bumper sticker: "Fish tremble at the sound of my name."

hehehe

and i quote: "Your sinuses are a mess." Thank you doctor.

uh huh. rushed 2 denver 2 make dr's appointment. got here w/10 mins to spare only 2 find out "he's running behind 2day." figures.

Chuck season 3 inc! Yay! All five of my fave fall shows renewed... and good alliteration to boot.

Bedtime Stories = a Kiwi (Lucy Lawless) playing a lady named Aspen... she's kind of evil, and yet I am still proud!

Park Pics - as promised

I've lived in CO since July '08 and I've seen several moose since moving here, but I haven't had a camera or I was dodging it with my car.

This first picture is from a few weeks ago when I went down to the alpaca ranch, big horn sheep:


Today's pics, Elk (sorry for the blur, kind of far away):


And finally I had a camera and the opportunity to take pics of a moose:



And my favorite, The Smiling Moose:

finally got me some moose pics. not national geographic worthy, but finally got 'em.

If I'd only remembered my camera

So the class went well yesterday and I did learn how to do some new things - just by people asking me questions and me having to figure it out.

I had lunch with a friend - the one I went wedding dress shopping with. At the end of my class she invited me over last night to watch Yes Man (funny).

While I was over there last night she and her fiancé invited Kaylee and I to an outing/hike this morning. His family owns quite a bit of property up in the mountains (well it's kinda all mountains around here) and they were taking her guinea pig (Leo) out to graze on some fresh grass (and they the fiancé was going to show us some property he's about to build on).

Leo (the pig) was cute and just sat there and ate grass, but Kaylee was a hoot. She fetched sticks and her tennis ball.

We were out there for 2 hours and we hiked up and down and all around the property/mountain/hill. There's a pond out there and at first Kaylee didn't want to go near it, but she slowly approached it and sniffed and sampled the water, but then she got braver and really hyper and started running around the pond, splashing in and out of the mud and puddles... And out of nowhere she jumped right into the middle of the pond... the pond that was deeper than any of us (including her) thought. She totally disappeared under the water and for 1/2 a second I thought I was going to have to jump in and save her - then she surfaced and started splashing and dog paddling to shore. When she reached land she ran straight to me (sitting on a rock) and jumped in my lap. Wet and muddy! I pushed her off (instinct) and I guess she decided since I wasn't going to save her because she ran as far away from the pond as she could get. I felt kind of bad about pushing her off so I called her back and gave her some good pets, but she didn't try to splash in the water again.

It was hilarious.

We were all laughing hysterically because she was so hyper and ridiculous and funny. If I'd only remembered my camera!

For the rest of the hike she was tamer, but trotted around happily.

I had fun, she had fun, and my friends had fun. I think even the guinea pig had fun.

And it is BEAUTIFUL out there - mountains, animal tracks, aspen groves, a baby pine tree growing out of the old, rotting stump of a dead pine tree... If I'd only remembered my camera!

taught teachers how to make webpages today. fun and i learned stuff too!

time 2 take pics again. 1 fox, 2 moose and lotsa deer and pelicans otw home from trivia = 2nd place.

Baby pics!

Aya posted her sonogram pics!

Say hello to my new little niece or nephew!!!

I'll have to show it to my kids tomorrow - they loved the pics of my head - for the most part. Reactions ranged from "Oh my god that is SO gross!" to "Oh that is AWESOME!"

Best pictures - ever!

So I'm super excited about this... go figure... but I finally got the CT of my sinuses today. I sort of knew the med tech who gave me a CD to show my class and a 10 minute run-through of all the different views. She even showed me a 3d rendering of my skull... creepy cool. I'm posting the pics here for your viewing pleasure as well. (I'd better get these out here before Aya posts her baby pics and blows my silly old skull right out of the water!)

My skull:


Check out that filling! For shame!


Top of my head/brain:


Down a few layers - looking down from the top:


Side view:


From the bottom - looking up:


My sinuses - the < > section should be all black (air), but you can see all sorts of gunk in there (yuck!):


From the front:

Still no word on when the ct will be... apparently the clinic is short-handed... no more sick days left, actually 1/2 day over. not good.

Yep... just as good - if not better - the 2nd time. Love it! Can't wait for the dvd!

*GROWL*

I just spent half an hour coercing my dog and giving her a multitude of treats just so that I could brush her... and she still flinched every brush stroke.

I'd really like to get my hands on any person who thinks it's ok to beat animals... especially cute, beautiful, sweet, loving puppies like this

Round 2

Ok, that's it. I'm going back today for a 2nd round.

Once just wasn't enough.

I have to drive 1 hr 10 mins to get to the theater - one way - and that doesn't even phase me.

Yes, it's THAT good.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

just saved $21.92 with coupons. coupons! awesomeness. HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY Mommy! and Aya and Myra!

Amazing.
Genius.

Sitting in a theater. Waiting for 1pm & STAR TREK!

hoping they can sched CT tomorrow. want it over with. know i'll have 2 wait for results. want 2 feel better asap!

Deviant

I went to Denver yesterday to see an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist (Otolaryngologist) to see what's what with my sinuses.

He listened well, but had 3 different phone calls that pulled him away from me so his communication wasn't so great...

He sprayed stuff up my nose and down my throat to "open me up" so he could "take a look up there" and then left me on my own. He warned me before he sprayed that it wouldn't taste or smell nice... he didn't warn me it would make everything numb. It felt like I couldn't swallow. So there I am... sitting in a tiny room, by myself, can't swallow and staring at this "scope" - long freaking instrument - and I'm guessing I had a terrified/comical look on my face because when the nurse walked by she stopped and retraced her steps. She said "Feels like you can't swallow?" I nodded. "You can, it feels like you can't but you can. You're just numb." My reply, "Right now I'm more concerned with where *that* thing is going." She had placed this two foot scope right in front of me. She apologized and closed the case, explained the procedure and assured me that it wouldn't hurt.

After the nurse left - and before the doctor returned - I sent a text message to my mom "You should see the size of the thing he's about to shove up my nose and down my throat."

He came back and when I asked he assured me it wouldn't hurt. Then he started trying to poke that thing up my nose. My response "Owie that kind of hurts." So he tried the other nostril. "Uhm. Ow! That hurts too."

Apparently, I have a "deviated septum," which basically means the septum (cartilidgey-part) between my nostrils is crooked. It also means he couldn't get his scope up there. Apparently deviated septums can cause chronic sinus problems as well. Uh huh.

So now I have to go for a CT so he can get a picture of my sinuses. Once he sees that we'll go from there.

On the plus side the numbing wore off after a couple of hours, but the stuff he sprayed to open up my sinuses lasted until this morning! I was actually able to breath out of my nose!

After consulting with mom we decided it might have happened when I was on a horse - the horse bucked up and hit my nose. I insisted it hurt, but it only bled a little and then I was fine. So we thought it was fine. No bruising etc. So it was either that incident or it's been that way since birth.

After the doctor I went to see Wolverine. It was ok - goodish. I was slightly disappointed. Thought it had so much more potential.

Back to work today and my kids are still being really nice to me. Told my mentor teacher I should be sick (or fake being sick) more often!

Also - yearbooks are in! All my hard work and stress paid off - they look pretty good!

In Denver. Going to ear, nose and throat specialist. But 1st - nummy chicken fajitas @ On The Border.