Migrating

Clearly I am not maintaining this blog anymore! It’s enough to keep one, let alone two, on top of caring for a newborn and doing grad school work. Next week I go back to work 3 days a week, too. Whew! So to find out what I’m up to, which mostly revolves around Shelby (at least for now), visit And Two Became Three.

Two Short, Somewhat Silly Stories

I thought I’d document the following two stories before I forget them.

A Squirrel in Our Fireplace

Last Saturday I was on my way home from a brunch in Denver when Chris called to say he had a funny and somewhat disturbing story to tell me. Okaaaaaaay. Turns out a squirrel had fallen down our chimney! Seriously? I didn’t even know that was possible. The poor little guy was trapped at the bottom, probably terrified, and we had to figure out how to get him out.

When I got home, I called animal control. I thought for sure they could get the job done. Nope! Turns out they don’t have any special equipment. The sheriff I spoke with suggested building a barrier between the fireplace and the sliding glass door. He said the squirrel would dart right for the backyard. Chris had had the same idea, so he gathered a bunch of our leftover moving boxes and put his childhood fort-building skills to use.

When everything was set up, I stood on the coffee table and half held my breath as Chris opened the glass doors on the fireplace. At first nothing happened. Then, practically before I could blink, the squirrel bolted for the open sliding glass door and scurried across the lawn, up the fence, and into a tree. Thank goodness! I was worried it would end up in the house somewhere, but nope! So now we’ve had our first animal visitor.

A Recycling Mix-up

Our trash and recycling are picked up on Fridays, so last Thursday night I put our bins out on the curb. Friday morning the trash was collected, but the recycling got left behind. Huh. Maybe I didn’t separate things properly? We have to do paper/cardboard in one bin and glass/aluminum/plastic in another.

I finally called about it today since tomorrow is Friday again. The woman on the phone laughed. Apparently our recycling is only collected every other week! And here I had thought I had been snubbed for some sort of incorrect sorting procedure. Well, if they’re only picking up every two weeks, I may need more recycling bins because ours were full last week and now they’re overflowing!

Ah, the adventures of being a homeowner.

We met some neighbors!

Chris and I finally met a few of our neighbors this weekend. We meant to get around to everyone on the cul-de-sac, but we didn’t quite get that far. Oh well. Our next-door neighbors, the ones with the dog who occasionally likes to wander into our yard, are Jody and Brady. They have two girls; I’m not sure of their ages. They’ve lived here for seven years and were really friendly. They said they have lots of contacts for people like handymen, etc. should we need them. Yes, we do!

The neighbor next to her is Vicki (I think). She’s been here about four years and her daughter and her daughter’s boyfriend live on the other side of us. Chris asked, “Is it like Everybody Loves Raymond?” That is a little close for comfort! We previously met Sara(h?) and her boyfriend, Justin, but need to make our way over to their place to say hi properly – not while we’re getting in the car to head out somewhere.

We also met the guy across the street; it’s his mom’s house, actually, but he grew up there and visits once every month or two with his wife and kids. They were setting up the Christmas tree this weekend. He told us some great stories about growing up in the neighborhood. I guess the house we’re in used to belong to the chief of police! He was good friends with the boys there; one of them now lives in another house in the neighborhood with his family. There certainly seem to be a lot of deep roots here.

We learned in conversations that our house was a flip. I guess when it was purchased about five years ago it was pretty rundown, and whoever bought it fixed it up and sold it to the previous owner. That explained a lot! Now we at least know how old the renovations are and why some look like they weren’t professionally done. Don’t get me wrong – they’re perfectly fine for us, but you can tell they were do-it-yourself jobs. I’m just glad someone updated the house! I can’t imagine us having bought it otherwise.

The neighbors also confirmed that nothing has been done to the outside of the house in quite some time. We certainly have our work cut out for us there! I’m just glad it’s the dead of winter and we can get away with doing nothing until probably April. Phew!

Day Trip to Estes Park

Today was my in-law’s last full day in Colorado, so we went up to Estes Park for the afternoon. It was definitely chilly, but beautiful. We lucked out into getting a tour at the Stanley Hotel. Chris and I had stayed there about a year ago and weren’t able to do the ghost tour then; it’s really popular and sells out in advance. It was actually sold out today, but there were a few no-shows, so we took their place!

The most interesting part of the tour was actually just learning about the history of the hotel. For example, it used to look Victorian throughout and was bright and airy. When Steven King and ABC filmed the mini-series version of The Shining, ABC paid to redo some of the interior to make it look darker and more mysterious. If you look closely at a lot of the wood in the lobby, you’ll notice that it’s not actually the natural wood. It’s painted to look like wood! Apparently it was cheaper to do that than really renovate. You’d never know unless someone told you, though.

Also, when Steven King stayed at the hotel in 1973, he and his wife were the only guests. At the time, the hotel still operated seasonally and they checked in on the day the hotel closed for the winter. King actually had to plead with the staff to let him and his wife stay there; they finally relinquished, but they left at 5pm when their shifts were over, so the Kings were left there alone. That very night King experienced a number of ghost sightings that became the inspiration for The Shining. It was his third book, and he had been suffering terrible writer’s block. He had gone to Estes Park on the advice of his advisor at CU Boulder, where he was a professor, to hopefully break out of his slump! Who knew?

Gobble Gobble

Gloria, de-gutting "Tom"

Chris and I hosted Thanksgiving for the first time ever! His parents flew in just to celebrate with us in our new house, and I cooked my first turkey. It was a success! The bird was much easier than I thought it would be. The hardest part was waiting long enough for it to cook all the way through. The recipe I followed said to baste it every 30 minutes, which worked great except that all the heat escaped every time I opened the oven door. Consequently, it took forever to get “Tom” to 180 degrees. In the end, I don’t know that he quite got there, but we were starving and everything looked nice and golden brown, so we went for it. None of us has keeled over today, so I think we’re in the clear!

Me and my turkeys!

I did a lot of the side dishes the day before, so yesterday really wasn’t too much work at all. My mother-in-law helped me set the turkey up in the roasting pan, get it lathered in herb butter and stuffed with shallots and herbs. I was going to tie it all up, but it seemed like so much work. Plus, with the butter everywhere, I’m not sure how I would’ve done it. So in the end we left the bird “as is”; it worked just fine!

Our friends, Matt and Leia, came over for dessert and games later on. We had celebrated with them at their new house last year, so it was fun to have them at our place this year.

We certainly have a lot to be thankful for this year: a new home, a baby on the way, jobs, our health, and of course all our friends and family. Many people have had a really rough year and, while we’ve been spared, we realize how fortunate we are. No one knows what the future holds, so we’re enjoying everything we’ve been blessed with as much as we can. Here’s hoping you had much to be thankful for yesterday and that the year ahead is bounteous.

"Tom" before

"Tom" after

Preparing to eat!