Congrats!

Congratulations to my fabulous hubby for completing his degree! 

He already had a degree in Culinary Arts, but has now earned his Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design.  He graduated from an accelerated program, which means he's been going to school non-stop since June, 2009.  A four-year degree in thirty-eight months is great, but grueling.  He started school two weeks after we got married, so in addition to adjusting to a new family, he added in the stress of school.  It wasn't easy and I know at times he wanted to just be done with the whole thing, but he persevered and made it through.

Congrats, Jay*, I love you and I'm super proud of you.

*He "outted" his real name in his post on The GunDivas. 

**Anyone need a graphic artist?  I happen to know an amazing one :)

Starting A New Life

RCC and I have been married three years now and I always thought that getting married would be like starting a new life, but it was more like enhancing my old one.  We got married, and he moved into the place the kids and I have been living in for forever.  He had to integrate into our lives, but it wasn't much change for us - it was much bigger for him.  He moved into an already established household with three kids which was far from easy for him.  The kids and I were pretty much set in our ways.

But now, the kids are out of the house and RCC and I are moving into our first "new" place together.  Now it feels like starting a new life.  Yes, we're moving into the apartment that he lived in when we first met, but the only history that apartment has is us.  You see, he moved into it a few weeks after we met online, but before we met in person.  The only woman who has been in his apartment is me, so the memories we have of it are of the beginning of our relationship, which are great memories.

We're moving out of the town I've lived in pretty much my whole life, but not so far out of town that it's a foreign land.  In fact, I'll be commuting in to work every day.  The kids won't be close, which is both a blessing and a curse.  They're their own people and need to live their own lives without me breathing down their backs, but I actually like my kids most of the time and will miss having them just a few minutes away.  I'll have to be better about advance planning to get together with them, since Ashinator's the only one with a car right now.

I've never lived with just my husband, not even when I was married the first time.  The kids' dad and I always had roommates until the kids were born, and for a long time after that, too.  I have no idea what it's going to be like to live with just one other person in a small town.  I do love the idea of not having to get dressed to run to the bathroom or the freedom of wandering around the apartment nekkid if I want.  I love knowing that there's any mess in the place, it belongs to one of two people.  I really love the thought that if I put Coke in the fridge it will still be there when I come home from work.

I'm going to miss some things, too.  Right now, if we don't feel like cooking, we hop in the car and run five minutes to Taco Bell or McDonald's or wherever we want.  Once we're out at our new place, it'll be a thirty minute drive to go *anywhere*.  We'll be cooking at home a whole lot more, which will be healthier for us both, but we'll also have to remember to make grocery lists and plan ahead.  There's a small market across the street from our new apartment, but the prices are high. 

For the past year, we've been having our milk delivered (totally expensive, but awesome and tasty), but we won't be able to do that at our new place, not because they don't deliver in our new town, but because they won't allow their delivery drivers to go up or down stairs for delivery due to safety concerns.  I get that, especially in the winter, but I'm mourning losing the excellent milk we were getting.

I guess it turns out I'm more of a city girl than I ever thought possible.  All of the conveniences have spoiled me.  RCC and I have a plan for avoiding running out of essentials; we're signing up for Thrive foods, which is a company that specializes in freeze-dried foods.  Most people think MREs when they hear freeze-dried.  So did I, until I tried Thrive.  From Thrive, you can buy individual ingredients, so we'll stock up on the things we routinely forget to buy, don't use all of, or run out of, like celery.  I hate buying *a* stalk of celery and only using part of it.  Or onions - we never use the whole thing.  With the freeze-dried foods, you use only what you need and leave the rest on the shelf.  What you don't use is shelf-stable for 1-2 years.  (<--I didn't mean to sound like a commercial, but I'm really excited to start using this stuff.)

I suspect that once we get the hang of pre-planning our groceries, we'll end up with better stocked shelves than we did living in town. 

Or we'll starve, which is a possibility, too.

Overall, I'm more excited and nervous about this "new life" than I was about getting married three years ago.

3rd Anniversary

I can't believe it's been three years!  Some days, I feel like we've been married our whole lives and some days, I feel like we're still newlyweds. I thought maybe a re-post of our wedding recap was in order.

Happy anniversary, RCC.  I'm pretty much the luckiest wife in the world.

I can't think of a more perfect Wedding Day than ours! The sun came out and stayed out all day, which made it perfect for our "play day". Monster flew up from Arizona (God, I miss that kid) and we spent the morning at Fort Fun racing Go-karts and playing arcade games. I had a blast watching RockCrawlinChef and the kids race around the track - seems like all I got to do was watch because I always managed to get the "Sunday driver" P.O.S. car. I'm pretty sure I got lapped in every race despite the fact that I had the pedal floored! We could have stayed and raced all day, but our rumbling tummies finally won and we headed off to SmashBurger for lunch before heading up to Mom's for the actual wedding.

Spending the morning playing around certainly helped lower the stress level for all involved in the wedding. RCC had picked up his friend, Scott, on Wednesday and had given Scott the menu for dinner, so we knew that would be taken care of. My friend just happens to be a Reverend, and had agreed to do the Ceremony, which also decreased a lot of stress. Really, the only thing we had to worry about was getting our butts up to the Lodge and getting ready. Not so bad.

We had decided to have a small, family-only wedding, but our families are fair-sized, so we ended up with twenty people, all of whom were immediate family. RCC and I wrote our own vows and managed to stumble through them without too many tears. The only complaint that we heard later was that we'd "whispered" our vows and that no one else could hear them. Oops. Guess I forgot to project from the diaphragm. But RCC heard them and that's all that mattered.

The Ceremony was short, sweet, and to the point. All of the pictures that followed took much longer than the Ceremony itself. Yes, I did wear boots with my dress, but not my obnoxious blue boots, instead, I wore my very old boots that fit like a glove. Heck, I would have killed myself in heels and I at least wore a dress.

After all was said and done, I did have to go get a picture with the other love of my life, Estes. And, of course, the best way into the pen was to climb the fence rather than go under in my white dress, so up and over this cowgirl went. Estes deigned to have her picture taken with me, but literally turned her nose up at RCC when we tried to get a picture of the three of us. She posed with us for about three seconds and Ashee-butt wasn't quick enough with the camera, so Estes was done. Brat. But I love her anyway.
Scott (and RCC - couldn't keep him out of the kitchen) prepared an amazing dinner to finish off our perfect day. As with most brides, I'm pretty sure my wedding was the best one of all!

Ripley...

...she might be my car, but she's RCC's baby. 

RCC has always been a gearhead and has done cool things with his vehicles.  Like building Tinkerbell...

Tink is on the left, The Bitch on the right
The Bitch is a full-sized Dodge Ram and Tink dwarfs her

Tinkerbell started life as a Chevy step-side thingamabob; she ended up an incredible rock crawler (hence the name RockCrawlingChef).  The Bitch has been modified, though her mods are mostly to the engine and not visible.

Lil Blue BoX, his Jeep, got well loved, too...

Water crossing at Onion Creek Trail in Moab

He sold Lil Blue BoX and parted out Tinkerbell and then was left with idle hands.  And while the saying, "idle hands are the Devil's workshop" doesn't necessarily apply, it does mean that his little gearhead hands have to be kept busy on a car project, which just happens to be Ripley.

He's become friends with one of the salesmen at the Kia dealership and often takes Rip over as soon as he's finished a project on her.  Because of the modifications done to Ripley and RCC showing them off at the dealership, she's pretty widely recongized there.  She had to go in for her annual physical and while RCC was there with her, he met the owner of the dealership, who told him to bring her back on Saturday to get her picture taken with Hamstar, the hamster from the commercials.

What commercial, you ask?  The Party Rock commercial...



We were assured Hamstar would look just like the one in the commercial, so we made plans to stop by the dealership after our Steel Challenge match, on our way to get Rip's "new" rally stripe.

Well, he looked more like a bear with a pig's snout than Hamstar,
but it was still pretty cool :)

Sadly, we didn't get to see Hamstar do any shuff-ff-ffling, but then I don't know how the dancers in the commercial pulled it off - with costumes that big, every move had to have been completely over-exagerated.

We ran off to my friend Stein's house, and after a couple hours of BSing, the boys got to work on Ripley's rally stripe while Wife Stein and I hung out and drank Strongbow.  After a while, we decided to check in on the boys and see how they were coming.

Initial placement

Getting started

Removing bubbles

Hood is done!

Wife Stein checking on hubby's work

Laying the roof stripe

Manly men doing manly things

Tailgate stripe

Ripley's mostly done with her new rally stripe.  There are a few "problem areas" that we (by we, I mean the manley men)  need more time for: the area under/around the spoiler; the small spot between the windshield and the sunroom; and the two inches on the front and back bumpers.  Stein, RCC, and Mez would have finished them last night had we not run out of warmth and daylight.

I pretty much love her sporty new rally stripe!  It's the one modification I've been dying to get and we've had the stripe in the closet for soooooo long, I was beginning to think it would never happen.

Next up, RCC has designed and ordered me some body decals that will declare Ripley a "1911 edition" Kia Soul.  You know those body decals will call for more entries into her baby book.

RCC's Favorite Hobby...

...is, of course, buying things for Ripley.  He loves to buy that girl presents and recently came up with a present of his own design for her.  An engine cover.  Serves absolutely no purpose at all except to look cool.  But, boy does it look cool.

By day:
the backer plate is Alien green to match her body color.

By night:
the cut-out is backlit with green LED lights.

He also installed new silicone heat-dissipating radiator hoses, which are supposed to do something good for her.  He told me, I pretended to listen.

His second favorite hobby is to take pictures of Ripley, and because of that, she's been featured in the Soul Hamsters' calendar.  I love this picture he took of Ripley - it looks like she's winking at him.

Look at her headlight - the starburst looks like she's winking.  In kind of an inanimate, Disney sort of way.

In two weeks, she has her appointment to get her rally stripe (we've only waited about eleven months for our schedules to mesh with Stein's <--- not only is he great at helping me with my guns, but he can lay vinyl, too).

RCC also has new shoes on order for her.  Flashy wheels and tires.  Which will be great.  Pretty soon, I'll look like a middle-aged GunDiva rollin' in her kids' car.

You know, it dawned on me - my kids' baby books aren't as thorough as the documentation I've got on this blog for my Ripley.  Sorry kids, I really do love you.  There just weren't any blogs around when you were little.  That's what you get for being born before the digital age. *smooches*

Only RCC

From Google Images

I wish I was half as quick with witty comments as RCC is.  We've been watching a lot of Top Gear, the UK version, not the US version.  And we've been learning a lot of colorful phrases.  I mean, if you were to walk up to someone and call them a "cock", well, it wouldn't be very pleasant.  But for the Top Gear guys, calling each other cocks is the norm.  Heck, on one episode, they even had a cock-o-meter, to see who looked more like one driving a car.

But one phrase just cracks me up every time I hear it and it's "wedding vegetables" or "wedding veg".  If you don't know what wedding veg is, it is also known as the "gentleman parts" or "gentleman vegetables".

So last night, just as I'm falling off to sleep after another marathon of Top Gear on Netflix, my sleepy little mind wonders, "if boys have wedding veg, what do girls have?".  And since I was just on the verge of falling asleep, my brain/mouth filter didn't work and I thought it might be a good idea to ask RCC the same question.

Me:  "Hey, honey?"

RCC:  mumble

Me:  "So, if boys have wedding veg, what do girls have?"

RCC:  "Wedding vag."

Dang, I wish I could be half as witty wide awake as he is half asleep.

RCC's At It Again

Ripley got another present from RCC.  It's been a while since she's gotten any presents.

This morning RCC hopped out of bed and started working.  When he told me his plan to paint the interior trim I was a bit hesitant, but so far everything he's planned for Ripley has worked out beautifully.

Before trim painting.
(The gear shift boot cover was the first thing RCC bought Ripley)

Alien green, just like her body color

Re-installed,
I can't get over how great it looks.

The paint even has the same flecks as the body paint.

I love this trim!

RCC has a new console cover on order from the lady who made the gear shift boot and then we'll begin modifying the console to be able to holster my 1911.  I like the idea of being able to have my gun with me, in the car, easily accessible, yet concealed.  Plenty of updates coming up!

The Liquid Chicken Saga Continues...

If you missed the Liquid Chicken post, you might want to read that first in order to fully appreciate this picture.

70s Porn Star

This morning, as I was just waking up, RCC came into the bedroom and announced, "I look like a 70s porn star".

I'd like to say that immediately grabbed my attention, but the two neurons required to form a synapse were still sleeping, so I pried my eyes open slightly to see him standing like a superhero in the doorway.  Though he was backlit, I could tell that he had clothes on, which caused me further confusion.

And he just continued to stand there.  He'd mentioned last night that he needed to shave before work this morning, but I didn't think anything of it.  Then it dawned on me - oh, hell to the no, he did not!

He must have seen the lightbulb come on because he proudly announced, "It's Moustache March!"

I gaped at him for a minute and then replied, "Don't you mean it's *No Sex March?".  And rolled over and went back to sleep.

*No Sex March is very closely related to No Sex November (No Shave November)

Randomness from RCC

Vegetarians eat eggs, right?

Credit: CookieAthlete.com

But aren't eggs just liquid chicken?

Credit: Google images

You know you've got a good husband when...

...he tells you your ass is better than half of the college girls' asses he sees every day.

I think I'll keep him.

Dream A Little Dream

Yesterday, RCC surprised me speechless when he asked if I wanted to go look at a house.

We are totally unprepared to buy a house - haven't even really thought about it other than, "one day, when we win the PowerBall..."

But...this last bout with our neighbors has just about done us in.  I've lived in this house for about ten years; my neighbors directly south of me hated me before I moved in.  Apparently, they saw no reason for a single mother with three young children to live in their neighborhood.

Though I despise our house, the kids and I have lived here longer than any other place.  It was good for us to move in here - no shared walls, no college kid neighbors, and the best part - we were in the county.  There's open space that the neighborhood kids call the dirt hills and the heathi spent their childhood much the same way I did: running around with their friends, exploring, getting dirty and doing things their mother would cringe at.

About the time RCC and I got married, the city began incorporating our little slice of county and the rules began changing.  Oh, how our neighbors must have rejoiced!  Even though we don't have an HOA, we now have to abide by city rules.  Stupid ones that make no sense to country kids.  Our neighbor is well versed in all of the city rules and has called the code enforcers on us for different infractions. 

The first being Digger's car that was parked in the side yard.  Yes, it was not running, but it was parked on our own property and hidden from the street. Even though it was a project car, it could not stay, even if we moved it to the driveway because it was unlicensed and uninsured.  The car was a project car - there's no way in hell I was going to insure a car that didn't run and without insurance, I couldn't license it.  We sold the car for scrap.

This last time was the straw that broke the camel's back for RCC.  He decided to part out Tinkerbell, his rock crawler.  He brought her home, started tearing her apart in our driveway, got most of the parts sold and we got a phone call from our landlord.  Turns out our neighbors had filed a complaint with the code inspector for having an "eye sore" and an unworking vehicle.  Now, it was obvious that Tinkerbell was being torn apart and parted out.  RCC was very aware of our neighbor's hatred of anyone/thing associated with me and took extra care in keeping the tear down organized and running smoothly.

RCC's a country kid like me, and of the belief that if we want to work on our cars in our driveway we should be able to without interference from the city.  Now that we are incorporated, we may only have our trashcan visible outside our house (other than our lawfully licensed and insured vehicles).  For living in a neighborhood without an HOA, it feels an awful lot like one.

Anyrantanddigression, RCC is done with living in this neighborhood and hopped online to look at houses.  Like I said, we really had not planned on buying for a while and are really unprepared to do so. 

Nonetheless, this little beauty jumped out at him...

It's pretty much everything we've always discussed wanting in a house.  Room for Estes...



Big kitchen...

Cozy living room...

And a small area for a garden...

It's pretty much in the middle of nowhere - the closest neighbors are 1/2 mile away and they are farmers/ranchers.  There's little to no chance of it ever becoming incorporated, as the closest "city" is a town of less than 900 people and is located almost seven miles away.  I'm good with that.

What really has me dreaming is the fact that not only could I keep Estes in the winter, but that we could also raise our own dinner.  Hello little cow.  Maybe we should name it "Tasty" or "Yumm".  Crap, putting the cart before the cow horse again.

Aaaaannnndddd...there's room to build a berm and set up our own shooting range.  Yes, you heard that right - our own shooting range.  No membership fees, no driving to go out to the range, just walk out the back door and across the yard.  I've already got a mental list of the guns we "need" and the steel I want to buy (Come to Momma, little Texas Star).

We so want this house.  So badly it hurts.  RCC's busy researching banks for mortgages. 

Me?  I bought a PowerBall ticket. 'Cause that's the way I roll.

Ain't It Always The Way?

Next week is our anniversary.  RCC and I haven't been married but two years, so we're still trying to get good anniversary gifts for each other.  I'm enjoying it while I can.  Last year, we decided that we weren't going to get gifts for each other - we were going to take a weekend trip instead.  So, being the dumbass I am, I took RCC at his word and didn't get him anything.  He, being a well-trained male, didn't take me at my word and surprised me with Eloise.

I. was. not. going. to. screw. up. again.

I got him an amazing anniversary gift (no, I'm not telling you - we still have a week to go!).  Ordered it this morning, it's being shipped as we speak.  I tell you, this gift is amazeballs.

I was feeling pretty happy with myself.  Finally came up with the perfect gift; he's been trying to get it out of me and I've been able to keep it quiet.  So I'm feeling pretty good.

Right up until I walk into Sam's Club and see this...

...the exact Kitchenaid mixer he's been wanting since we've met.  For the best price I've ever seen.  And in the color I want.  I know, I know, it's supposed to be his gift, but I get a say in the color.

Sonofamotherlessgoat!  Really?! 

I just order him the *perfect* gift and turn around and find his dream mixer?  Ugh.  What to do?

I'll tell you what I did.  I got on the phone called him and told him that he'd better love the gift I ordered for our anniversary even more than he would love the Kitchenaid.  I might become a widow if he looks at his anniversary gift and says he'd like the mixer better.

Start saving bail money, 'cause I might need it.

Ripley Gets More Presents

The surprises just keep coming in from RCC.

First was the absolutely kick-ass 3rd brake light...

Then, a week later, a custom-made gear shift boot...

And then, yesterday while I was at the 9HealthFair, he installed an SSD Strut Tower Brace...

Now, you may or may not know that I'm kind of a car girl.  Not a true gear-head, though I married one.  More of the breed of car girl that truly enjoys driving - really driving - and understands basic mechanical stuff.  I've always had an appreciation for classic American Muscle (totally Mom's fault, BTW).  And by appreciation, I mean they make me all hot and bothered.  What I would give for an old school GTO. *sigh*

Anyway, Ripley is not even close to being American Muscle.  Heck, she's not even close to being Korean Muscle (is there such a thing?).  But she is a blast to drive and I've been known to run the canyon to the Lodge at, oh, I don't know, thirty over or so.  While I enjoy the hell out of running the canyon, Monster has complained more than once about the amount of body roll on the curves.  Apparently, going up the canyon at 70 mph or so around the curves isn't as much fun for my passengers as it is for me.

The SSD Strut Tower Brace has tightened up the steering and significantly reduced the sway.  Ripley hugs those curves now like she was made for it.  As much as I loved running the canyon before, I can't believe how much more I enjoy it now.  In fact, I had such a good time test-running the curves around Horsetooth that RCC and I made an impromtu trip to the Lodge last night.

I'm still on a driver's high from the run up and down the canyon.

The Best Temper Tantrum I've Ever Had

Today marks the two year anniversary of the best temper tantrum I've ever had.

The RockCrawlinChef and I don't celebrate Valentine's Day.  We have no desire to.  Now, let me explain.  We "met" because of a temper tantrum I had after Valentine's Day in 2008.  I'd been a divorced, single mom for going on eleven years at the time and I was not a pleasant person.  I was working way too much, worrying way too much, and tired as hell about doing it all on my own.  I was D-O-N-E.

A friend of mine and I had signed up for Cupid.com mostly because we thought it would be fun to go speed dating and in order to register we had to be members of Cupid.com.  Not a problem, we signed up for our free profiles and went speed dating.  Oh, God, that was a disaster for another time.  I'd even "met" a couple of guys and been out on *one* date with someone I met on-line.  Also disasters for another time.

Valentine's Day 2008 did me in.  I was a royal damn bitch.  There was no one safe around me.  Like I said, I was D-O-N-E.  I was one of those bitter bitches that you'd see on the street and cross to the other side just to get out of my way. 

I still had not completely recovered from my world-class hate-fest when I logged onto Cupid on February 16th, but I was slightly less bitter and in the frame of mind that if I couldn't find just one profile that I'd throw in the towel and become the crazy horse woman I was on the path of becoming anyway.

I went throught page after page of profiles, getting more and more frustrated, when I came across this headline...

"Maybe... just maybe she's out there." 

It piqued my interest and I clicked on RCC's profile.  He was smart.  And articulate.  And liked to travel.  And liked to shoot.  Could it be?  Could I really have just found someone I could connect with?

Before I could second guess myself, I sent him an eye contact, "We might make a good match."

And so it began...weeks of daily emails.  In the beginning, just once a day, which quickly grew to multiple emails a day.  I began to feel something I thought had died long ago - HOPE.  Really, he might be a nice, genuine guy.  After six weeks, we decided to meet in person.  His choice.  He chose Barnes and Noble - no pressure of eating, a neutral spot that we could both make an escape from if we needed to.

We met.  Five hours later, we left B&N fast friends. 

Twelve weeks later, we got engaged. 

Eleven months after that, we got married.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Christmas Chaos 2009

Four Christmases in twenty-four hours.  Only ours went a whole lot smoother than the movie Four Christmases, Thank God.


Christmas #1: Christmas Eve
Our Christmas Chaos started Christmas Eve at Grandma Mary's house, which was, as usual, standing room only.  The key is to arrive early enough for butt space.  Christmas Eve is where having kids really pays off, because the kids can step and fetch while you protect your butt space.  If you arrive too late, you're screwed, you've got to find some place to stand and that just sucks.





Of course, the Chaos was controlled by my friend Amanda, who provided us with a good sized bottle of Apple Pie Hooch.  No shot glasses were to be found, but, hell, we're all family, we'll just share the bottle...





Sure beats the time, a few years ago, when we had a bottle of wine, but no corkscrew.  Being the inventive family we are, we drilled (yes, power tools were involved) a screw down into the synthetic cork and used the claw end of a hammer to pry the cork out.  We don't need no stinkin' corkscrew!


Christmas #2: At Home

We woke up bright an early on Christmas Morning.  Well, actually RCC and I were woken up early by Digger, who is well known for his sleeping in ability.  Color me surprised that he woke us up at ten 'til seven, ten whole minutes before our alarm was set to go off.  He was like, well, a kid on Christmas Morning.  In no time at all, he'd roused the entire house and we tore into presents.  We didn't get a tree up this year, which I didn't think would bother me because we went so many years without a tree, but after our amazing tree last year, I'm kinda sad we didn't do one this year.

Christmas #3: Off to the In-Laws

After our early morning, present fest, we loaded up both cars with the kids and the dog and off we went to RCC's parents for Christmas Morning with them.  Unlike last year, when his little brother was still asleep when we got there (what kid can sleep in on Christmas Morning?), Dallan was up and frothing at the bit to get started.  Christmas at RCC's family's house is much more sedate than the free-for-all that occurs at my grandma's on Christmas Eve.  But, Lord, my family is so enormous that if we did the one person open one present thing there we'd be opening presents until New Year's.

Christmas #4: To the Mountains We Go
After RCC's family's house, we packed up and headed to my parents' place in Allenspark.  My brother, Deejo and his family, had arrived from Arizona too late to enjoy the fun at Grandma Mary's, but were waiting for us at Mom's.  Well, sort of waiting for us.  They'd done the present thing before breakfast brunch, which we missed while we were at RCC's parents' place.  I was kind of sad and pissy that we missed the major opening party, but felt better when I found out that not everybody had opened their gifts.  I was anxious to see their faces when they opened their gifts from us.  RCC and I had bound our NaNo projects on Blurb for Christmas presents and I wanted to see their faces when they opened them.  RCC's parents loved them and I was hoping to get to see my Mom's face when she opened her present.  I got lucky, she'd been too busy preparing brunch to open her presents, so I still got to be there when she opened them.

It made me happy to see her so excited about the books, even if they're nowhere near being complete.  Monster and Deejo's kids tried snowboarding out back, but that didn't go so well.  The snow was too deep and they had to shovel out a path for the snowboard.

After the non-success of the snowboard, Monster, who cannot sit still, managed to talk his uncle into pulling him behind the car on a snow saucer.  Yes, I know, it's kind of illegal.  But it's also a whole ton of fun.  And we survived when we were kids.  He had a couple of colossal wipe-outs, but managed to survive with all of his fingers and toes and no broken bones.  I gotta tell you, this kid can take a lickin' and keep on tickin'.





We survived all of our Christmases and slept 'til 11:00 this morning.  Wow.  All that running around must have really taken it out of us, but I'm glad to have this running around to do.  I remember some pretty sucky Christmases, so I'll take the exhaustion of running all over God's green earth over some of our other Christmases.

Odd Realization

Just saw a picture of my ex-boyfriend on a friend's Facebook and I realized, "Wow, that wasn't painful at all."  What surfaced were old, fond, fun memories, not the hurtful, hateful, you've-ripped-my-heart-out,-threw-it-in-a-Waring-blender-and-set-it-on-frappe memories.  For the first time since we broke up, when I saw his picture, I thought, "we could maybe be friends."  Odd realization.  I never thought I'd get to that place.

I wasted a good number of years (yes, years, as my girls will attest to) wishing I could have what I lost.  Only now, looking back, that relationship wasn't right for me.  He did a lot of good things for me, but perhaps the single most important thing he did was introduce me to the girls.  I don't know where I'd be if it wasn't for them.  For that, I say, "Thank You, Brian, with all my heart." 

Know what else I realized?  He wasn't the right man for me.  Actually, I realized that years ago, but it took finding the right man, my true soulmate, to drive the point home.  Brian was good for me, yes, but he was not right for me. 

RCC is.  RCC is the perfect man for me.  We complement each other's weaknesses and strengthen each other with unwavering support and I love him more than I thought it was possible to love another human being.  I had given up on finding a relationship and sure the hell didn't believe in a soulmate.  I thought romance writers were a bunch of loonies with their Happily Ever Afters. 

Bah!  No such thing.
 
Until I met RCC and got my own HEA.

Lil Blue BoX

We took the Lil Blue BoX to Moab over Labor Day weekend for a little 4-wheelin' fun. Never having been to Moab, I didn't really know what to expect other than a lot of red dirt. We left after work on Thursday and got into Utah very early Friday morning. Rather that set up camp in the middle of the night, we just pulled into a recreational area and slept in the Jeep. Surprisingly, I slept pretty well, but Allie didn't sleep at all - she was busy guarding us and stared out the back of the Jeep all night long.

We found a campground along the Colorado River and for a mere $12/night we had a temporary home. Once we got camp set up, we headed out to the Top Of The World, a trail rated fairly difficult, but a good one to start our weekend off with. There were times when I was a bit stressed - not afraid - but worried that we'd get stuck and/or broke and there wouldn't be anyone to help us out.

The Top Of The World trail was a good one for desensitizing me to 4-wheeling. RCC had taken me to RZO's Winter- and Summerfests, but those were man-made obstacles, and up the Middle St. Vrain trail with a group of Jeeps. These real-life obstacles were a bit more daunting; especially since we were by ourselves. We still had some time after we got back from the Top Of The World, so we did an easy trail, Onion Creek, which was fun and had 22 creek crossings. I made RCC stop on our way back down so that I could rinse off some of the red dust in the creek. The water was so cool and clear it was amazing. I could have sat my butt down in the creek and stayed there for a good long time.

The next day, we had Poison Spider Mesa on the menu. We loaded up and headed for the trail. We conquered the Waterfall (no water, just a name, I guess) and when we got to the Wedgie, I jumped out and ran ahead across the obstacle to get pictures of RCC straddling the V-notch. Probably the best (or worst, depending on how you look at it) decision I made all day. When I got to the top of the Wedgie, I ran into a group from Colorado who invited us to join them. Well, why not? We had planned on doing the Poison Spider Mesa loop and heading back, but Armando didn't have to twist our arms to hard to change our plans to join them on The Golden Spike and Gold Bar Rim. One look at the guide book and I was worried again - the author warned that no one should attempt it unless they had a vehicle with a lift, over-sized tires and lockers. RCC assured me we could do it in his completely stock Jeep.

You know, when weI first met, I told him that my horse could do any obstacle that he could do in a vehicle. That was until we hit this obstacle...

...The Launching Pad was by far the most pucker-factor inducing obstacle we faced all day. I'm still pulling cotton outta my butt from this little ride. I apologized for my boast, because there was no way on God's green earth that Estes could have conquered that obstacle.
It's amazing how quickly you can get desensitized to scary things after facing death. There wasn't any other obstacle that scared me; I was worried that we might break, but I wasn't worried about tipping ass over tea kettle and rolling backward down the hill.
There was one (okay, several) obstacles where the Lil Blue BoX really earned her stripes, but the most important one in the 4-wheel community, as I understand, is the Golden Crack. Armando initially told us that we should take the by-pass (or "super highway"), but after a look at the by-pass, it was decided that RCC could probably take the Golden Crack. You know, he really had no choice because to turn around would mean that we'd have to do the Launching Pad backward and there was no way in hell that was going to happen. RCC did manage to get across the Golden Crack with the a little help. There were two people in front of the Jeep with a tow rope to stabilize the front and one guy on the back bumper to stabilize the back - not a lot of help for an obstacle like this. I'm so, so glad he: 1) made it across, which meant that we didn't have to do the Launching Pad in reverse, and 2) didn't break anything, because we would have had to get a ride to town, buy the parts, and get back up the trail somehow to fix it. There's not a tow truck that I know of that can just climb on up and pick up a little broken Jeep on trails like that.

It took us nine hours to complete the series of trails and we covered less than 20 miles, but it was a ton of fun.
The rest of the trip was anti-climactic compared to our crazy day and I was good with that.

My Perfect Husband

Well, he may not be perfect perfect, but he's perfect for me. He called me from work this morning, out of the blue, and asked if I wanted to go out to dinner. Like a date, without the kids and everything. I was surprised that he'd want to go out after working six days in a row; his job's not like mine, he actually does real work, while I more and more shuffle papers.

I looked forward to our date all day. We'd planned on going to Chimney Park Bistro, but after looking at their menu online, we decided on Jay's Bistro in Old Town. We were a little concerned about parking since New West Fest is going on downtown, but we needn't have worried.

I had the most amazing dinner that I couldn't pronounce - thank God RCC knows how to pronounce all those high-flalutin' words - some five pepper crusted filet in a green peppercorn sauce over garlic mashed. It was absolutely delicious - I ate every bite and would have eaten more except the plate was empty.

Dessert was even better. A few years ago my friend Glenna had introduced me to Godiva's Dark Chocolate with Raspberry filling, which is my all time favorite candy bar. Dessert was like my favorite candy bar, but supersized! It was a flourless chocolate cake with chocolate ganache with raspberry sauce. Heaven in my mouth!

What a great idea RCC had and I love him for it even more!

RZO Summerfest

Last weekend RCC and I attended the Rock Zombie Outlaws' Summerfest, sadly the last one to be held at its current location near Arapahoe Road and Parker in the Denver area. In February, we attended RZO's Winterfest with Tinkerbell, RCC's full-sized Chevy rock-crawler, whose transmission seized up just ten minutes off the truck. This time we opted to just take the Jeep and camp overnight.

Since the Jeep is completely stock - he hasn't modified it at all yet - our options were limited as far as obstacles we could attack, but we found a few and had a good time on them. And they say it's not a good day unless you get stuck, which we did beautifully. We had been driving around the property, tackling the obstacles that were doable in the Jeep, and found a creek crossing that looked like it might be tougher than some others we'd done, but still was doable. So off we went, down the slight hill, splashing across the creek, and powering up...powering up...shit...powering ourselves right into the sandy hill across the creek. The sand had looked fairly stable from the opposite side of the creek, but once we hit it, we just buried ourselves. Deep. RCC did such a great job of attempting to power up the hill he buried the front axle in the sand.

We were lucky that another driver saw us and offered to tow us out with his full-sized Chevy Blazer. The problem was that we got bogged down at the first part of a two-part rise; there was an initial hill - where we got stuck - followed by a slight flat space and another hill. The truck hooked us up, but we were so stuck that he couldn't budge us while also trying to tackle the second hill.
We lucked out a second time and another truck who saw our predicament offered to hook onto the Chevy and pull us out in tandem. How's that for being stuck? Our small stock Jeep took a full-sized Chevy Blazer and a Toyota pick-up with a V8 to tow it out.

I had to laugh at a comment I overheard while the two trucks were hooking us up. One of the drivers looked at the other and said, "Beginners." Certainly I am a beginner, but I wasn't the one driving and if they had realized that the driver they were towing out was the owner of the infamous Tinkerbell - even if they don't know her name, they know her - they would have had a whole lot more to say than just "beginners".
We spent a great deal of the day mostly watching. The Zombie Graveyard is always a popular place to congregate and watch carnage (4-wheeler-speak for breaking big expensive stuff). RCC had told me that he wanted to replace his metal cable on his winch with a nylon one, which is much safer. After watching two nylon winch cables break without any injuries to anyone, I think he's getting nylon for Christmas. The metal cables don't rebound as well (or at all) as the nylon ones and the energy has to be transferred somewhere, which usually means that it whips around uncontrolled taking out anything in its path. The nylon cables just drop to the ground, sparing anyone nearby.
We did watch a scary moment when one of the Zombies got stuck in the Graveyard and three people were rocking him side-to-side, hoping that he'd get a bite somewhere on the rocks and be able to drive himself out. He got a bite, alright, and nearly ran over one of the guys helping him out.



The bad thing is that once the Zombie broke loose, he then hit a rock with his front passenger tire and knocked his tire off the bead, which started a whole new rescue effort involving a Hi-Lift and a borrowed 37" tire.


I also got to see something I'd never seen before - a Jeep Wrangler doing a one-handed handstand. I have no idea how on earth this driver kept from going ass over teakettle, but he managed. I was a little slow on the trigger for the camera, so the picture is just as he's peaked and started to come back down. His only point of contact with the ground is his front driver's side tire; the front passenger hasn't quite touched down on the rock yet.
The day was amazing even with the intermittant thunder, lightening, and rain. Throughout the day, we'd drive by the bonfire site, where they were building a giant man to set aflame. It was fun to watch the progress throughout the day and I couldn't wait for sundown when they were to fire him up.At sundown, however, lighting the Burning Man proved to be a bit of a challenge. We watched one of the Zombies get a ride up to the top in the bucket of a tractor and dump at least ten gallons of gasoline on him. You would think that would be enough, right? The problem was that even the best laid plans go awry and the person who was to light the Burning Man with the flare gun missed.

M.I.S.S.E.D. Missed. With a flare from a flare gun. Missed.

The flare went skipping along the ground, across the area for the bonfire and ended up in a crowd of people. No one was hurt, but a lot of people were laughing. The second shot also missed, going straight up in the air no where near the Not-Burning Man. Third shot - you gessed it - also skittered through the crowd. Finally, someone took the flare gun away from Sir Miss-The-Sixty-Foot-Pile-Of-Logs-In-Front-Of-Him and shot the tinder at the bottom of the Not-Burning Man's feet at point blank range. It took - sort of - briefly - before the rain won out. In the end the Zombies set up a true fire bucket brigade, with one person holding the gas can, filling up keg cups with gasoline, while others threw the gasoline onto the Sort-Of-Burning Man. Sort-Of-Burning Man eventually became Finally-Burning Man and the wait was worth it, despite the rain pounding away again.

An almost-entirely-sleepless night in a leaky tent ensued, thanks to the Party Brigade in the next campsite. About the time the music would quiet down and I'd fall asleep, I'd be woken up again by the drunks changing CDs and the music blaring again. In the few minutes of sleep I did get, I dreamed of using my new shotgun on their stereo. About four a.m. they thought it would be a good idea to load up into their buggies and race up and down the road leading into the campground. At that time, my short-lived dreams changed to shooting out a tire with the shotgun. Up and at 'em bright and early the next morning (really, what choice did we have), we wandered over to the smoldering bonfire. I decided that the white-hot smoldering coals would be perfect for roasting the marshmallows that we didn't roast the night before, so RCC and I found some sticks and had ourselves roasted marshmallows for breakfast. It's good to be a "grown up" and get to have marshmallows for breakfast!

We spend day two mostly watching - there's just so much going on that it's hard to take it all in - before packing up and heading home. I had a blast, even if I wasn't the one getting the Jeep filthy this time, and am more than a little sad that the RZO crew is losing their land because of some stupid political dispute. The Rock Zombie Outlaws are a great group of people who hosted amazing events that brought people together for good, clean (or maybe not really clean) fun. I'm hoping that they will be able to find new property soon and rumor has it, they are looking hard for a new venue.