Friday on the Mall

Yesterday tired me out, but I had a wonderful time.  After walking Rosie, and having an unexpected chat with Alexy, I came home and called Beatrice.  She wanted to know where I was - and I said I had just returned home from walking Rosie. She was already at Turley's, having coffee, and trying to figure out why I hadn't been at home when she called earlier...  Oh, well...  We laughed, I called a cab, and we met at Turley's for a wonderful filling brunch - and they had freshly baked raspberry muffins, so I purchased two to take home with me.  I had actually planned on returning home, but Bea asked, "So, what shall we do for the rest of the afternoon?"  Since neither of us had shopped on the Pearl Street Mall in several years, we decided to "walk the Mall", and started out at 20th Street, headed west....  We wandered through book stores, jewelry stores, art stores, antique stores, second-hand and surplus stores, candy stores and bakeries, and a Fair Trade store.  There were several stores that completely entranced us.  I had a wonderful time in an old-fashioned candy and soda shop, but they were blasting Tennessee blue-grass gospel through their speakers, and Bea didn't like it.  (I was singing the chorus....)   We purchased drinks from a street vendor when we turned around at 6th Street and started heading  back east, up the other side of the Mall.  Most of the clothing shops didn't carry anything larger than a size 10, so Beatrice and I didn't even bother going inside, but we certainly critiqued the display windows.  We decided to take a seat on the benches in the sunshine close to the Peppercorn store - but once we were comfortable, a "street performer" decided to target us with her "singing."  I put those words in quotation marks for a reason - the woman could not carry a tune, her only accompaniment was a battered and odoriferous tambourine, and she knew only two verses and part of a refrain of one song.  She needed a bath, and her clothes needed washing.  It was a stomach-turning experience.  We spent almost an hour inside Peppercorn's and saw less than half of their merchandise...  and we both saw things that we wanted to purchase.
  When we arrived back at the apartments, the service dog and his owner were playing in the back yard, so I drew my curtains and the kits and I went to bed.  I read until I fell asleep - and I had odd dreams last night. I dreamed that my Dad was teaching me how to tickle fish in a stream; and that I was riding Mauda LuAnn in a Pony Penning Round-up; and that I was a sailor on a fully-rigged tall ship - with three large masts, plus the forecastle....  Definitely strange all the way around.  Today is grey and cloudy, and the weather folks are saying we'll have rain and/or snow again this evening...  We'll see.  Lovey and Nedi have been able to run in and out since 6:30 this morning; Lovey has spent half of that time inside with me, while Nedi has just wandered back inside. Bob has wandered over, come inside, and helped himself to kitty kibble; he's left, now.
   And I will be rooting for my Gators during the Final Four NCAA basketball games tonight.  I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Bits And Pieces - Again

Thank goodness I'm in a much better frame of mind today than I was yesterday!   Lovey is lying on the top of the cat tree, and Nedi is sitting on the patio, watching the squirrels eat and fuss over the peanuts and walnuts.  The service dog next dog spent 15 minutes barking this morning, and then followed it up with a high-pitched howling for another 5 minutes - it was rather nerve wracking.  ...  I saw my shrink and my new case manager yesterday at Mental Health Partners.  For the first time, the psychiatrist and I seemed to be able to connect.  The case manager is allergic to cats, but loves dogs.  So we have found a "middle" ground.
  My friend, Beatrice, and I are going out to have brunch at Turley's today, after I walk Rosie and return home.  Since we won't arrive there util about 11:30, I don't know whether we'll have breakfast or lunch; but it doesn't matter, because Turley's food is always fantastically good!  And I saw two friends on the bus trip to and from MHP yesterday - my nephew's wife was on the bus on my way there, and my friend Jewel was on her way to the Pearl Street Mall as I returned.
  It is sunny this morning, but we're supposed to get more rain and/or snow tomorrow.  Once again, I can happily stay at home and read and do genealogy research.  Tomorrow will see the running of three prep races for the Kentucky Derby on May 3 - the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct, the Calder Derby in Florida, and the Santa Anita Derby (and Oaks, for fillies).  Next Saturday will have the running of the Blue Grass Stakes and the Arkansas Derby.  The last day of April will see the post position drawing for the Kentucky Derby entrants - then I'll need to do my pedigree searches....
   I watched Vikings last night on the History Channel.  It looks awful, written here plainly, but I enjoyed seeing the death of Lagertha's second husband.  I also enjoyed Rollo's "playing" of Jarl Borg - and Ragnar's threat of the Blood Eagle as Borg's final punishment.  And, now, I wonder about Athelstan's fate - King Ecbert has opened the doors of ancient knowledge to Athelstan;  what will the ex-monk do when Ragnar returns to Wessex?

Horse Riding in Rocky Mountain National Park

It was 95 here in Boulder yesterday, and 97 in Denver, tying the day's high temperature records.They think we'll reach between 95 and 100 today.  I know it was 72 degrees at 6:45 this morning - and I never turned my fan off last night.  Looks like I'll be turning on the second fan today...  Considering the heat, Lovey and Nedi have been very snuggly, which is fine with me - when they get hot, they leave, or just move over a bit.  With the heat, Rosie and I have been starting our walks before 8 a.m., so I'm finished doing my daily work and am back at home by 9:30 - seems odd, right now.  But, in another week, it'll seem totally normal again.
  I had a wonderful time with my sister on Sunday.  First we drove up to Estes Park and wandered through a Hand Made arts and crafts fair, and made a couple of purchases, while admiring a lot of things.  Then we snagged a quick lunch at McDonald's, where I introduced Kathy to the mango-pineapple smoothie, which she really liked.  Driving in to Rocky Mountain National Park, we found that she qualified to buy her Life Time Park Pass for $10 - as opposed to paying $20 each time.  She'll never have to pay to enter a national park again; now, that's grand!  And we drove on up to Moraine Park and Hi Country Stables...
  Signing in there, we found that while 13 folks were there for the 2 hour ride, only Kathy and I were signed up for the 4-hour ride.  Our guide/wrangler was a girl from Blacksburg, Virginia, who is a junior at Virginia Tech, and is studying Equine Science (she'll be a vet).  Kelly, the guide, was riding Smokey, a black quarter horse.  Kathy and I were riding brother and sister horses - both were half-Belgian (the draft horse).  Kathy got Pinkerton (aka Pinkey), the pinto gelding, while I got Pal, the palomino mare.  We rode for over 4 hours, and only ran into four groups of hikers (all going in the opposite direction) - so it was just the countryside, the wildlife, the three of us Virginia girls and three horses.  It was sheer bliss - no phones, no radio, no music, no vehicular traffic - just the sound of horse shoe on occasional rock, birds, water flowing in the creeks we crossed, and the breeze in the trees.  I would love to spend every day of the rest of my life like that!
  Upon returning to Boulder, Kathy, Jim, Bea and I had supper at Turley's and laughed ourselves silly - or, rather. sillier than we already were!  We had a great meal, and enjoyed wonderful companionship.
  The only thing that "went wrong" was that Kathy lost her glasses.  She thought she'd had them on during the first quarter of the ride, and that they'd come off their neck strap while we were riding quite a ways out.  When we returned to the stables, I heard a crunch under my boot, and looked down to see I was standing on Kathy's eyes...  Don't know if I broke them, or just popped the lens out of the frame - a horse might already have walked over them - it was right where everyone mounts and dismounts...  But she had an appointment to get her eyes tested this Wednesday, and she had a spare pair, so it wasn't a truly awful thing.
More about the ride later this week...
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The New England Patriots have signed Tim Tebow on as their third-string quarterback.  It's a two year contract, with the payment unspecified.  Josh McDaniel, who drafted Tebow as the Broncos' head coach, is now the Offensive Coordinator at the Patriots.  Tim showed up for mini-camp today.

Supper, Catnip, and Memorial Day Weekend

I have 63 pages left to red to complete Inferno.  It is very good and keeps up a whirlwind pace with a lot of twists and turns; it's fascinating.  We've been very chilly here, mornings, since the beginning of the week - temperatures have dropped into the 40s every night, and it's not until noon that I really feel warm again.  But we're supposed to be in the 80s for this Memorial Day weekend - and, hopefully, the nights won't feel too chill.  I had supper at Turley's last night - and I say that tongue-in-cheek, because Bea had buttermilk pancakes and I had French toast, with us splitting the bacon and eggs.  But we sat and talked and relaxed and had quite a few good laughs.
  This morning, however, I found a late-night post from her on Facebook, stating the police had knocked on her door in the early hours because there had been a break-in in one of the apartments. So as soon as I walk Rosie, I will rush home, and try to see if I can discover anything.  Bea should be up by ten, so I can call and ask her for particulars, if nothing else...
  I gave Cloudy and Shady some of the organic catnip I purchased the other day - Cloudy has never responded strongly to catnip, but I was somewhat shocked that Shady got so high he fell off the dining room table.  He was not hurt, just embarrassed, but wanted to get back up to imbibing the catnip as soon as possible.  Nedi plays with his catnip-soaked toys very intently for about ten minutes each, while Lovey eats her catnip and then runs around like a nut.
  I hope to take a lot of scenic photos tomorrow, on Magnolia Mountain, in Nederland, along the Peak to Peak Highway, and in Big Thompson Canyon.  It should be a very fun and relaxing day trip - and, hopefully, Bea will take some photos of me, so I'll have a few different ones to share...    Enjoy the up-coming Holiday weekend!   -  And, if you're on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, visit the Native American Powwow in Eastville; in Boulder, visit the Boulder Creek Festival!