relaxing

After a drizzly week last week, I'm happy to say that the weather has cleared up and today is turning into an absolutely GORGEOUS day. Unfortunately I have to work a wedding tonight so I won't get to enjoy it as much as I'd like. By some weird twist of scheduling, Shawn's been off the past three days so we took advantage Thursday night and had a cookout.

Strangely enough, on Tuesday night Shawn stopped into Mellow Mushroom after work (that's definitely not the strange part..) and happened to run into a guy that he worked with on the cruise ship! Cliff was here on a short break so Shawn invited him to come over on Thursday night when we were having Robyn and Justin (and their dog Buck) over.

We had pork ribs with Shawn's Secret Recipe barbecue sauce and steak. I made veggie kabobs with onions mushrooms and brussels sprouts and Shawn made what is becoming a cookout tradition--baked macaroni made with Annie's white cheddar shells and a toasted Cheez-it topping. Only this time he added a bit of crumbled bacon and some cream cheese so it was of course even more delicious. A side note about brussels sprouts: if you've never tried them before because you once saw on a cartoon when you were a child that they were gross and have just been believing it for the past 20 years, please try them! If you cook them right and don't overcook them into slimy little balls, they can be so delicious and a good way to mix it up if you're sick of broccoli and green beans. -end brussels sprout soapbox-

Anyway, the weather was nice so we sat up on the roof deck to eat. Enjoying one of those fabulous evenings talking with friends, drinking beer and eating good food. Basically, what life was made for in my book :) I meant to take pictures but well, we were lucky to remember to even turn off the grill, so blogging was not exactly on my mind at the time..

Never one to be idle, Shawn stayed busy during his days off, surprising me by taking Civ to get detailed (she was looking a little rough since the move) and bringing home a completely scrumptious Nutella crepe that I thoroughly enjoyed. A shiny car and a delicious pastry? *swoon*

He was also able to finally get the doorknob installed on the bedroom door which has been a sore subject for quite some time now. This glass knob was another gift he had surprised me with way back in Jacksonville way back before he went to Hawaii. So it's been around a while. At the time, he had tried to install it on my bedroom door but it didn't fit with the existing hardware. Then when we got here, we discovered basically the same thing. So after two trips to the locksmith, two episodes of the knobs breaking off their base due to Shawn trying to hammer a square peg into a round hole, a failed attempt at epoxying the knobs back together, and some filing out of the doorknob hole in the door, we have a working knob! And it sure is purty :)

Our aquarium of wonders has also gained a few more residents:

Sue the bichir fish.. She has an eel-like body and just two little side fins right behind her head so her movements are usually pretty odd. But she gets along with Lord Tennyson, which is apparently a difficult thing to do. It seems like every fish we want will either eat or be eaten by him. But I caught them both together in the hiding spot in our tank, so I'd say they became fast friends. Or luvaaaas.

When we went to the fish store the other day, we saw this really cool black knife fish that we were gonna get. Then as the girl is about to scoop him out, she casually asks us if we have frozen brine shrimp, since that's all he eats. We have frozen krill, is that okay? Since that's what Sue and LT eat.. No, he really needs brine shrimp, she says, since they're much smaller. And then she says, "What I usually do is get a little of the shrimp in a dish with some water in it so that they thaw out and then I use an eyedropper and suck some of them up and reach my hand down in and just squeeze out a couple at a time right in front of him..." Me and Shawn look at each other. "Uh, can we just get a snail?"

So now we have Gary:

I was not too excited to be getting a snail since I prefer my pets to entertain me, but Gary has proven himself to be a rather adventurous snail (climbing to the tops of the trees, above) and so he's won me over.

weekends = garage sales

This past weekend’s estate sales did a pretty good job at filling in the existing gaps in our home furnishings. Well, Friday and Sunday’s. Saturday Shawn had to work and I was laid up after our Friday evening adventure with Evan Williams and Diablo-tinis. We did have a fantastic evening experimenting with our new printer/scanner/copier.

And lounging on the new couch we found Friday morning. Strangely, the estate sale we went to was all half off, which usually happens on Sunday. Not sure when this one had started but the tremendous price cut did result in us finally getting a couch for $12.50! And I actually like the fabric as it is so I don’t need to start plotting how I’ll scrounge up the money to reupholster it. Kind of reminds me of a men’s suit. 

I was seriously stressing how this thing was gonna get home but Shawn assured me our girl could do it. Luckily the rope just stays in the car now for these emergency furniture hauling situations.

As we were pulling away, three old men were walking up to the sale. They were of course checking out the freak show and we heard one of them say to the other “I don’t think she has it on there right..” They clearly didn’t know what kind of professionals they were observing.

Sunday we did something I haven’t yet done in my garage sale experience—we went back to a sale to see what was left for half off.  After hitting up one sale and finding a sweet set of cordless Black & Decker power tools: saw, sander, and drill; we went back to one we had visited on Friday that had a ton of tools to see if we could find some drill bits and whatnot. Whoa. That place was wiped out. We managed to scrounge up a bucket for Shawn to wash our fine steed with and a jar of upholstery nails for a grand total of 50 cents. And on the way out, they had a box of free donuts for the shoppers. A plain glazed and a blueberry cake? Yes and yes.

Our final stop yielded this super fantastic headboard:

We’ve been needing one but the bedroom is preeetty small so I didn’t want something that would fill up the room. This one should do nicely. I might end up painting it but right now I’m enjoying the way it catches the light that filters through those fabulous vertical blinds.

dmv joy

Monday started off with the delivery of the dresser I had checked out the day before, this funny thing that I find myself walking into the room and just smiling at :)

After a trip to the locksmith to ask about parts for a super cute glass doorknob Shawn got me months ago which has now become the Bane of Our Existence (more on that later), we rounded out the productive day with a lovely visit to the DMV for our Colorado licenses. Little did we know it was the last day of Spring Break and apparently the entire city of Denver had turned 15 over the weekend.. So after three hours, two cheesy smiles, and one failed vision test (luckily my 9^th grade glasses are still going strong!) we were outta there and on to our next mission. 

During the wait, Shawn had managed to line up a free table from our favorite Craigslist that happened to be in the neighborhood. So after enjoying our second back to back Jack in the Box meal of the day (the only food anywhere near the DMV.. the horror!), we pulled up to what turned out to be a serious jackpot of second hand goods :) 

Once again, Civ blew us away with her capabilities and we managed to strap on a table and coat rack to the roof. 

Inside, I enjoyed sharing my backseat and passenger space with both a dining chair and an upholstered armchair. What comfort!

This picture does not tell the whole story since my phone has no panoramic feature, but ahead of Russian Immigrant Shawn is the Denver skyline, which prompted me to proclaim in my best Middleburg accent, “We’re headin’ to the big city, baby!”

fill 'er up

Wednesday night we went for tapas at the 9^th Door downtown. We had just finished enjoying our dinner and drinks when the girl who had parked behind us came over to remind us that the 2 hour meter was up. We cashed out in a hurry and turned the corner to see the meter maid slowly making his way down the row. (Their new vehicles are called chariots, true story.) We kicked our scallop and wine-filled selves into high gear and got to the car just in time. Not gettin’ my $25 today, busta!

Thursday we signed the lease (and also signed over our life’s savings..) and got to move in to our humble abode. Ahh, having my clothes in a closet again instead of in my trunk. What luxury. I also got an email back about possible work with a local florist. So Thursday was a good day. And since we moved with no furniture, that meant that the upcoming weekend would be full of garage sales and Craigslist. Oh yeah! 

I had signed up for the Denver Gypsy Boys mailing list before we even got to Denver—they’re a company that hosts estate sales. And one of the awesome perks of unemployment is getting to hit up the sales on Friday morning before they get picked over. So Friday morning, we were on the prowl. 

The sale was in a huge two story house with an attic, a basement, and an outside shed. And it was PACKED. With both stuff and shoppers. Shawn “officially does not like estate sales” after that experience, FYI. But we did end up with some good finds.. an old plant stand that has now become our bar, some funny hooks that I will soon be making into a key holder and a toaster oven that was actually brand new. Not too shabby. We packed up the Civ and started looking for more sales. 

I should also mention at this point that we spent the first night in our new place sleeping on a “palette” which conjured up memories in my head of Jess and I sleeping on an air mattress in our empty $1900 apartment for a week in New York while we waited for our furniture to arrive. Only this time there was no furniture on its way, so if we wanted good sleep we’d have to find it ourselves. After a few calls and stops at some rather creepy mattress stores, I spoke with a guy who seemed normal enough. A few hours later.. the old girl was loaded up again. 

Shawn was working that night so I went with Robyn and some of her friends to the Santa Fe Art Walk. Very cool stuff. Unfortunately art is rather far down the list of things to buy at this moment.. but it was nice to walk around and see the sights. Definitely a serious art scene here.

so it begins...

This blog is in response to several requests from friends who want to know how life is in Denver. Maybe not so much several as perhaps two or three, but for anyone else, I will just pretend that you care to know the minute details of what Shawn and I are up to :)

Our adventure began with closing the Jacksonville chapter of our life (something Shawn was getting used to doing..) with numerous goodbyes to friends and family.  A cowboy themed taco dinner on St. Patty’s Day thrown by my dearest Jess, complete with piñata and this awesome poster: 

Friday night was a fantastic “Family Dinner” at Sara’s with her family, Brian, and Cynthia. Delicious kebabs and grilled shrimp and quality time around the firepit.

Saturday began with a final garage sale hurrah with my mom and sister while Shawn got new shoes on the Civic for her upcoming trip. That evening we went to Kristin’s going away party her parents were throwing for her upcoming Seattle move. After a bit of mingling it was back to Project Packing until we almost fell asleep on the floor. But there were still more goodbyes to say so we scraped ourselves together and headed to Island Girl one last time. This resulted in Shawn’s own personal open mic night (“How’s everybody doing out there tonight?”) which is appropriate given the amount of karaoke he’s scattered over the First Coast.

Sunday was pack pack pack pack pack until I nearly had a breakdown. Were the naysayers right? Was I crazy to think all of THIS 

would fit in my two door Civic? Note: this picture does not include any of Shawn’s possessions, my clothes, or my shoe collection that is apparently of the size that it needed to be put in a separate box and strapped to the trunk of the car. But I did eventually get it all in and we had a few more visits from friends and said our last goodbyes.

Shawn and his handiwork