FB Links You Might Like

Or not, but I'm going to share them with you anyway.

First...drum roll please...Bill has set up a Facebook page for the Lodge.  Look for "Allenspark Lodge B&B".  The other page was kind of orphaned - Bill set it up and then couldn't figure out what to do with it.  Ashinator got him set up with a new one and it's ready to go.  There's a reason why there's not a GunDiva or Tales from the Trail Facebook page; I don't think I could figure out which end is up.

And, the Ashinator is starting her own small business.  Go check out her pics at "LaBrooke Photo Studios" on Facebook.  I know I'm a proud momma, but I love her pics.

A Glimpse At My Facebook...

Only my spawn would say this:

GunDiva: "Happy Birthday to Digger.  19 years old already.  How did that happen?"

Digger:  "Unprotected sex. tsk. tsk."

Monday Minute and Digger's Birthday

This week the guest hostess is Jessica from Stilettos & A Fishing Pole.






Last week was Jessica's first time doing the Monday Minute!


Here are this weeks questions (the first 3 are from Jessica)

Who was your high school Sweet Heart?
Jim R.  We were practically married by high school standards - together 18 months.  After we broke up, he started dating the girl he would eventually marry and thus set the pattern for all of my exes.
What is your favorite vegetable to eat?
Broccoli sauteed in butter with garlic.  Yummmmm.
Do you plan on dressing up for Halloween, if yes, what do you have in mind?
I'm horrible at dressing up for Halloween and rarely do it.  I always come up with the best idea for a costume the day of Halloween and then don't have time to put the costume together.
Are you a reality show junkie? If so, what is your guilty pleasure?
Thanks to the hubby, I've gotten hooked on Top Chef and Hell's Kitchen.
and finally
What year did you graduate high school?
1989.  A long, long time ago.

~~~~~~~~~~
In addition to Monday Minute - Happy 19th Birthday to Digger.  You can't possibly be 19, 'cause your beautiful mother is only in her twenties.  And I have to say, kiddo, for all of your good looks - you're welcome.  You really are the product of superior genes :)

Just For Rachel

Rach, pull up your mom or Mr. Daddy, this one's for you...


I think you'll agree Bill did a better job of it than these two :)

If you're reading this and completely lost, go see Rachel's post regarding Bill's behavior on the trail ride and his poor horse's embarrassment.

Grrrrr!!!!

For our only full day together at High Country Rendezvous, we all planned a nice ride in Roosevelt National Forest.  Knowing the trails we'd be riding, I was a bit nervous about doing it bareback, since the trails we were going to be on were a little steeper than I was used to riding.

Compass over at the Livery offered me the use of her new treeless saddle, so I brought it on over to the Lodge and thunked it on Estes (ended up not using it though).

I was completely unsuspecting of the evil swirling around me. Bill was laughing at something, but I wasn't paying attention to what he was laughing at.

"What the???"

"RockCrawlinChef, did you do this?"

Bill.  Of course.

Oh. Yes. He. Did. Defiled my Ripley.

Poor thing may never be the same again.

It gets worse.  Not only did he defile the driver's side door, but he covered all of his bases and got the passenger side door, which I didn't discover until the next day.

Zombie Computer

My computer died...not of an ITD this time, but simply from a dead battery.  And then my charger died.  It has been dying a slow agonizing death for months now, but chose a bad, bad time to actually die.

So, while I had a most fabulous time at the High Country Rendezvous and have lots of pictures to share, there won't be any of that going on until my new charger arrives.  I'm sneaking blog reading time in on my breaks at work, but don't have the stolen time to dedicate to writing about HCR.

Please forgive me for lack of comments, I'm skimming all the blogs as quickly as I can at work just to stay caught up, but can't peruse them as thoroughly as I'd like to.

What I Brought Home from Horse Master

I learned so much during the week I spent at Julie Goodnight's, but there's something I physically brought home that I'm so excited about and it's not even horse-related.  Lucy, friend and assistant instructor, brought a Soda Stream to Julie's.

This is pretty much the coolest thing on the planet (aside from Eloise and Ripley, that is).  What this little do-hickey does is carbonate water, to which you add syrup for flavor.  You fill the bottle with tap water, screw it onto the Soda Stream and add gas until it farts three times (which is quite entertaining for the teenagers of the house).

We spend a lot of money on pop in this house.  Yes, I know it's unhealthy, but I just can't give up my Coke.  I'm rarely home, so any Coke drinking I do happens at work - any pop at home disappears.  The kids and their friends can kill a twelve-pack in a day, which adds up quickly. 

After I saw this at Julie's, I made up my mind that I wasn't buying any more pop for the house.  It wasn't going to happen.  One bottle of syrup is about $6.00 and makes the equivalent of thirty-three twelve-ounce cans of pop.  The calorie difference between commerical soda and soda made at home is huge!  Each serving has 35 calories compared to the 100+ calories in commercial soda.  The reason for the difference is that the Soda Stream syrup is made with half sugar and half splenda.  I have no beef whatsoever with high fructose corn syrup, in fact, I really, really love it.  I don't really like the taste of splenda, so the "cola" flavor doesn't work for me at all.  However, the kids don't care about the taste.  If they want to drink a pop, they can just make it, 'cause this mommy hasn't bought a single case of it in a month!

They've got a fairly large selection of syrups, both caffeinated and non.  So far, my favorite is the cranberry-raspberry syrup.  RockCrawlinChef is partial to the lemon-lime, and the kids like the cola.

I do have a crazy idea, though, of buying a thing of Coke syrup and trying it out with the Soda Stream.  Wish me luck with that one.