Sweet Yet Sour

Sept. 5th – Weekly Update

Friday, September 5th, 2008 | Updates | 5 Comments

Whoohoo! It’s update time!

1. Today Anna is 5 months old.  She’s very different from the baby that I gave birth to 5 months ago.  She talks (well, baby talks), laughs, concentrates on things and is working hard on rolling over.  It’s been a roller coaster, but it’s definitely fun to watch a little person develop.  And damn she’s cute.  We took this picture of her when we visited Nate and Laura on the 23rd.

Anna in her cherry dress

2. While I watched my mom on her road to recovery from her medical nightmare this spring, I decided that the gauge for my mom being 100% was her return to swimming.  This week I finally got that 100% proof.  My mom called me on Tuesday to say that not only did she go to the pool and swim, but afterwards she took the dog on a walk around Prospect Lake, which is right next to the pool.  This is really remarkable considering that 6 months ago she could barely walk.  I’m so proud of her.  This week she’s going on her first trip; driving to the Sandhills with her friend Jan and going to some quilt museums in Nebraska.  I’m sure that they will have a great time and my mom will enjoy being out and about.

3. Last weekend Mike and I got my grandfather’s truck.  It’s a huge 1993 GMC Sierra with a camper top with, I’m scared to say it, a 34 gallon tank.  After my grandfather died my grandmother didn’t want the truck and at the time Mike and I discussed that it might be nice to have since we were doing a lot of landscaping at the time.  Last November my dad and Uncle Ted drove the truck out from Oregon to my uncle’s home in Wyoming where it has been sitting in the garage until now.  We’re not doing too much landscaping anymore, so I’m not sure how much use it’s going to get.  On the other hand, the truck smells like my grandfather; it’s like driving with Grandpa in a way.  The other day Grandpa and I went to Home Depot and then a few days after that Grandpa and I took my sister for a ride in the truck when she was having a bad day.  We were both a little comforted by the presence of Grandpa in the truck with us; I may spend time just sitting in it and remembering him.

4. This week marked the return of the hockey stud that I married.  Before we were married, when Mike was playing hockey much more regularly, I could count on him to score at least one goal each game.  This week Mike came from his 10 p.m. game on Tuesday with two goals.  Very cool!  I’m sure he’s having a good time and enjoying getting back to his favorite sport.

5. It’s no secret, I love ice cream.  This week was good for my love of ice cream, bad for my thighs… I discovered that one of my favorite local ice cream shops, Liks, which originally was only located in Capitol Hill, has branched out.  They have a new shop that is only a few miles away.  I went to the new store and got a few pints, and then saw a sign that Liks is available at King Soopers, our local grocery store chain.  The next day I went to the grocery store and found that I can indeed buy a few flavors of Liks there as well.  Whoohoo!

My other good/bad discovery is that Gelazzi, a really great gelato place that is downtown on Larimer, has also opened a new location close by.  This one is even closer than the Liks.  I haven’t been there yet, but I think this weekend we might need to make a family trip there for some gelato.  Maybe when Anna is bigger we can make a family bike trip there and I can work off 1/4 of the calories I will consume.

6. I’m considering taking down the Denver RRC website.  It’s not getting any use since I don’t have the time or the money to review restaurants anymore.  But I don’t want to lose the recipes that I have put up on the site either.  I’m considering either creating dorriemunhall.com/recipes or just sprinkling the recipes in with the normal blog.  What do you guys think?

The List is Dwindling

Friday, September 5th, 2008 | Weird Things | 2 Comments

I am finally down to the last 3 “Weird/Interesting Things About Dorrie”.  I have a draft of the “No.1″ on the list in my head, and I can tell right now that it’s going to take me a while to complete.  In the interest of time I’m going to combine 3 and 2 and just do short bits on each one.

3. The Last Insect Post

I promise this is the last one about insects and their deaths Rena!

When I was 5 I took a tick to my Kindergarten “Show and Tell”. When I was a little girl I really liked bugs a lot and was fascinated with them.  I was even taken with the tick that my dad pulled off my head.  We had been camping the weekend before and I had apparently brought home a friend in amongst my hair.  When it was discovered that I had a tick on my head my father quickly picked it off with a pair of tweezers.  But, being the weird little kid that I was, I made him put it in a plastic bag for me to take to school.  I proudly showed it off to the class saying “This was on my head.”

2. Paper towels

This is definitely the weirdest thing about me, but I hate paper towels.  It’s the texture and the noise that paper towels make when people use them.  For some reason, when I, or someone within my hearing, rubs their hands on a paper towel, the noise made by the paper towel makes my skin crawl.  When I was younger I wouldn’t even touch paper towels; there is just something about how rough they feel.  I’ve gotten over not being able to touch them, but every once in a while, when I hear someone drying their hands on a paper towel I still get a tingle in my spine.  It’s weird, I know!