A VERY White Christmas

View of a losing battle at the bus stop.

















Said losing battle in a puff of blown snow.

















Widow to the south.

















Window to the east, view of Corona.

















Widow to the northeast (balcony).

Denver Light Rail

The new train lines opened in Denver on November 19th, and apparently they are a huge hit! I've been watching and waiting for this project's completion for years, so it was a momentous day when I first tried it.

Since the pedestrian bridge to the lightrail platform near my office won't be done until spring, I have to drive the 1 mile, and leave my car in the public lot. Then I ride the train for about 9 miles, and catch a connecting bus for the remaining 5 or so. Start to finish it takes me about 50 minutes, and I happily read my book instead of worrying about the jerkheads on the road. Honestly it's taken me a while to get comfortable with leaving my car in a public place overnight, and not having the car at my disposal for 15 hours, but it's getting more routine now.

In the last 4 weeks I've put about 200 miles on my car. I've had two occasions to ride the train all the way downtown, have some fun, and walk home. There was only once that the train had standing room only, and I looked up from my book to a bunch of Avalanche jerseys. I was so happy to see that all the sports fans are using the train!

I've noticed some nice things about public transportation since my experiment started. Amazingly, everyone is NICE on the commute. Everyone thanks the bus driver, everyone shares a seat. I had a funny surprise one morning as a train was pulling into the platform -- one of my co-workers whooshed by in the window! I gave him a lift that last mile to the office, and we rode home together too. What a nice sense of community.

Of course I haven't mentioned that I'm saving wear and tear on my car, saving gas money, saving pollution. Mostly I'm excited about preserving mental health, and it seems to be working nicely!

The Big One

This past weekend Dave and I went to Breckenridge to celebrate my birthday. Despite the fact that it was zero degrees -- or less -- the entire time we were there, it was a terrific weekend. We arrived Friday night, and just relaxed in the condo. Saturday Dave went skiing early, while I puttered around the condo, and went for a massage at Blue Sage Spa. (After getting the wrong address out of the phone book, I froze my buns off walking around for 35 minutes! But the spa was amazing.)

Then we met for lunch at Breckenridge Brewery, one of our favorite stops although I'm sorry to tell you that they no longer have our favorite dish, the coconut shrimp! Why do people always have to mess with perfection? Anyway, the jalapeno poppers were a very decent substitute, and the hot cocoa hit the spot.

After lunch we went back to the condo to head to the hot tub. Unfortunately the first tub we went to was more like a cool bath, so we got directions to the "main" tub and swimming pool, which was in the most humid plastic bubble you can imagine. It was like a tiny tropical rain forest with no plants, in the middle of Antarctica. Then we got changed again, and left for dinner at the Blue River Bistro on Main Street.

It was a nice restaurant, great food, charming conversation, beautiful music. And a marriage proposal that drew applause from all the onlookers.

It may have been the altitude, but my heart was racing all through the night.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving week here in Denver was a notable departure from the Detroit family tradition. We got to spend lots of time with Dave's family, including a DU hockey game, visits to the gym and basketball courts, the new art museum addition, Bert's BBQ, Pasquini's, Taco Jalisco, Las Delicias, and of course Turkey Day with a couple representatives from my own side of the family. The stars of the weekend turned out to be five week old Olivia, and Lucille -- the dog we were sitting for downstairs!

We ended up with nine dishes to serve seven people, and it all turned out to our happy satisfaction. Aside from an incredible turkey, we had green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, fruit salad, brown and serve rolls, cranberry sauce, corn, pineapple, and the traditional Detroit stuffing recipe.

Here are some photos...