day dreamin

The ear doctor have starting kicking around an idea for starting a restaurant.

We probably won't because having a restaurant seems like the hardest possible job in the world and I'm not sure either of us is really cut out for that kind of thing, but it's kind of fun to day dream about.

As of now, our restaurant would be called PorkPie. And we'd serve pork (bbq) and pie. It'd be old, vintagey and laid back. Nice, but not formal. A place where a bunch of guys wouldn't feel uncomfortable in, yet it was cool enough that a group of women would also consider it for lunch.

I don't know if it's blogs or what, but branding has become a particular interest of mine. As a result, designing the (fake) logo for our (imaginary) business has been really fun. Here is what I came up with first:

I sent it to the ear doctor and he sent me back this:

Which is when I sent him this:

He sent me this:

And I sent this:

I feel like that last one may be moving us farther away from the vibe we're going for, but it's pretty funny...

old dogs can learn new tricks

Getting older is kind of weird. Cool, but weird.

For example:

My dad has always loved football. Even though he didn't have any sons of his own, he still dedicated significant amounts of his free time to coaching little league football. My sister and I were both little league cheerleaders for his team.

Once we got too old for little league, he got an opportunity to coach for a semi-pro football team.

My dad is a guy's guy and always has been. Not macho, per se, but defiantly masculine.


Except today I called him during lunch to talk and I found out he was baking scones. At first I thought maybe someone asked mom to bring something to a church function and then she realized she'd be out of town and he was covering for her.

Nope.

He was baking scones. For himself. For lunch. And that's not all. He has recently become a bread baking aficionado.

I doubt he ever would have done this kind of stuff in his early years, but I think it is so cool that my dad is still learning new hobbies. Weird...but cool.

Boots

Today is the first day since Christmas that it's been really snowy and I've had to go out in the weather. For Christmas, the ear doctor got me not one, but TWO pair of new boots. The fashion pair are buttery soft brown leather...not for snow.

The other pair, the pair I'm wearing and LOVING today are rubber and built for the white stuff.

Can I just tell you how much I love these boots? Everything from the teal stripe around the foot, to the soft shearling lining, to the pull tab on the back to the reflective stripe that wraps around the leg opening...they are PERFECT.

The only thing I need now is more boot socks. These are the socks I use inside my ski boots when I go skiing and they are perfect

LOVE THESE BOOTS!

real life TV

I know there are a lot of people out there who really like the Real Housewives series on Bravo. I am not one of them. I'm not saying that I'm in anyway too cool to watch reality TV...in fact I may have lingered a little longer than the ear doctor would approve of on the Bachelor last night.

But, for some reason, the Real Housewives just don't really interest me.

I think it's because they seem, to me, like grown women acting with the insecurity of high school girls.

And I thought that just wasn't very realistic.

But maybe I'm wrong.


Last night the ear doctor and I went out for dinner at this local Italian place. We sat in a booth in the corner and another group of diners had pulled two tables together and were sitting right next to us. The group consisted of about 8 women in their 40's. Since the dining room wasn't very full when we started eating and our tables were so close together we couldn't help but overhear snippets of their conversation. At first I thought they were a group of coworkers out for dinner together. They seemed nice, friendly and appeared to get along well. They seemed comfortable and happy together.

About 30 minutes later the dining room had filled and we all were tucking into our plates of spaghetti. There was a lull in their conversation and one woman said something like, "well, we did come together to have a meeting so we might as well get started."

To me, this seemed to be even more evidence of some professional relationship. Or maybe they went to the same church and were organizing something. Or a volunteer group or something. I was a bit shocked by what happened next.

One of the women went on the aggressive defensive and started yelling at the group saying how they weren't good friends and were expecting too much from her and how she never felt like she was part of the group. Then another accused her of being a fake friend and how her facebook status was offensive.

This craziness started getting louder and louder and more and more intense until they were swearing at each other and everyone else in the dining room had fallen silent.

It was the most amazingly awesome/rude/frightening/compelling thing I've seen in a long time. It was like being too horrified by a car accident to turn away. I had to sit there and wonder why they thought what was happening was acceptable to do in public.

I felt like I was watching an episode of the Real Housewives in person.

I guess that show isn't as unrealistic as I originally thought.

Christmas Vacation

It wouldn't be a Katie vacation recap if it wasn't mostly self-portraits. First, we left Denver the day before a huge snow storm hit Colorado. We had clear skies and dry roads all the way down to Santa Fe. Driving for extended periods can make me a little nuts....

We almost ran out of gas as we pulled into town...good thing it's mostly downhill as you drive into Santa Fe. We checked in to our beautiful hotel. I just love places that not only accept dogs but provide treats and staff that fall all over your cute little boxer boy. The hotel was only a block away from the historic center of the city which is so cool. At Christmas they light up the whole square and all the adobe style buildings are lined with luminaries...so cool.

The next morning we went to breakfast at our favorite place in town and the ear doctor humored me by letting me take pictures in front of this cool wall of ironwork.

We all piled back into the truck and pulled into the ear doctor's grandma's driveway just as the sun was going down. They had dinner ready and waiting for us...including my favorite vermicelli salad. It's so good and I ate about a pound of it while I was there.

Between eating and talking the time flew by and before we knew it, it was Christmas morning. Roscoe boy greeted us all decked out for the occasion.

One of the funniest moments of Christmas morning was when my mother in law pulled this beauty out of her stocking. It's a nylon sleeve with a design that you slip on your arm to look like a full sleeve tattoo. Seeing my mother in law all tatted up was HI-LARIOUS!

We spent the time at grandma's house relaxing, eating and we went to the movies almost every single day! Awesome!

After the festivities we packed back up and started the drive home. We were truckin along when we noticed signs for the world's best preserved meteor impact site. That sounded like something to see, so we turned of the freeway to check it out. We drove up to the visitor's center and were getting really excited about seeing the big hole in the desert...until we found out that the admission was $15 per person! Crazy! We decided that was outside out budget...but were still pretty disappointed.

The trip from Denver to Arizona follows the old Route 66 most of the way. Every time we went through a town in the song we couldn't help but bust out in song.  When we got to Winslow, AZ we wen a little crazy, because not only is it in the old swing song, but it's also featured in a song of one of our favorite groups...the EAGLES.

Here the ear doctor is standing on the corner of Winslow, AZ. He's such a fine sight to see. And there's a girl over there in a flat bed ford slowing down to take a look at him.

Self portrait of us and the girl in the ford...

We pulled into our beautiful hotel in Albuquerque and there was some mix up about us bringing out dog into the hotel. I guess someone hadn't noted that we'd need a dog room and they were all filled up. I was scared that we'd have to find somewhere else to stay. Luckily, they decided to upgrade us to one of their beautiful suites. I can't recommend this hotel highly enough.  The next day we walked around Old Town and saw the beautiful church that's been continuously operating for 300 years! It was so awesome.

The last stop we made was to a mormon battalion monument in the middle of nowhere New Mexico.

We were so lucky to have such great weather the whole drive and be able to spend so much time with our family. That's one holiday for the books!

Knowing my limits

Why I never make weight-loss related resolutions for the new year:

With this many goodies laying around it's impossible to not fall off the wagon...