LISTS

Movies We Have Seen in the Last Week

-Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
-The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
-Saving Mr. Banks
-The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Drinks Rachael Had on Her 21st Birthday 

-Sour Watermelon Margarita
-White Chocolate Martini
-2 Bloody Marys
-B52 Shot (Kahlua, Grand Marnier, Bailey's)

Events Happening Between December 20 and January 3

-Sam's Graduation
-Grandpa Bill's Birthday
-Rachael's Birthday
-Christmas Eve Party
-Christmas
-New Year's Eve
-Grandma Joyce's Birthday

SATURDAY NIGHT

The snow comes quickly. It is sudden and cold, a shock to take the trash out at 10:00 tonight, when coming home from the movies at 7:30 was just cool and night-cloudy. The inch or two of powder covering the sidewalk and garden shines indigo in the glow from the roof lights. The neighbors' houses across the street are still festive with hundreds of lights - Ken and Amy's a multicolored circus, Brian's all red and white with candy canes. Rachael leaves at 11:50 with Dan, chauffeured by Sam to Bar Louie's for her first thrill of legal cocktails. An anonymous quote from Rachael's birthday card: May the light always find you on a dreary day, When you need to be home, may you find your way... May you always have courage to take a chance, And may you never find frogs in your underpants.

NEW PHONE

Rachael got a new phone today - a Samsung Galaxy S4 like mine.She teaches me to do the audio-text feature. We try to get the phone to recognize "Text Rachael". Me: "Text Rachael" Phone: Rachel is not in your contacts. Who would you like to send a message to? Me: "Ray-chell" Phone: Raychelle is not in your contacts. Who would you like to send a message to? Me: (from hereon, substitute requests for various permutations of Rachael) Phone: Rach JL? Me: ... Phone: Watch Al? Watch is not in your contacts... Me: ... Phone: Ray j you? Me: ... Phone: read she'll? watch a deal? Deal is not in your contacts... rich? rock jl? jail? rough chello? Rough is not in your contacts... rotch jl? rock chat l? Me: "Text Rachael Holloway" Phone: Bill Holloway or Tricia Holloway? Finally, I admit defeat and change my contact to read "Rach". I say "Text Rach". It works twice. Then it says "You have two new messages from Ratch". Various texts of conversations plus intentional texts to Rachael thereafter read: -Text Reach -Say what I'm pretty -Text rash text Rachel much wood -Rash is not in your address book -Text ranch produce livelinks the van because of angel ------------------------- (Overheard snippet of conversation from the kitchen: Abby - "You have crabs?", Sam - "Just a few.")

CHRISTMAS RECOVERY

Bit by bit we emerge from the maelstrom that was Christmas. Abby and I sit in the dark office, watching our fifth or sixth episode of The 4400. I am almost done with my 1 1/2'X 5' lifeline artwork, made with strips of college posters. Daddy is upstairs sleeping on my gift to him, a heated mattress pad which is pretty exciting in this cold. We just finished a crazy Sorry game - I won by a hair, then Dad, then Sam, with Abby a grouchy last (she got sent home a lot). Rachael is upstairs monitoring two cats who just discovered the extended paper-bag game. Everyone has been exhausted all day, worn out from the frenzy of socializing, extra-heavy meals, cocktails and too much activity in too little time. Another late night (how did it get to be almost 12:00 again??).

SUGAR BLIZZARD

        Everything brought into this house has fallen into the categories of Unhealthy and Addictive. Stress calls out for butter, sugar and salt it seems, the thrill of instant gratification. 

In particular some dense, surprisingly salty brownies, from a gold tin labelled the Christie Brownie, are proving to be my kryptonite.    From out of nowhere, seemingly instantaneously, we have variations of every bad-for-you Christmas temptation you could summon up. Amy's pizzelle cookies, crisp and flavored lightly with anise. Homemade chocolate-chip cookies, somehow arriving from Kentucky (which I feel were passed on by people more concerned with their own waistlines than ours). Pink and white condensed milk fudge, irresistible to  Hawaiian sensibilities.                  

TWO DAYS AWAY

My single moment of silence, a solitary calm that has been missing all day. 10:54 p.m. and the cats have just discovered that the Christmas tree in the office is literally covered in cat toys. They also know instinctively that I am slow to get up from behind the desk to chase them with the water bottle - although we all seem to enjoy the game.

Sam sleeps on the couch in the living room - heater on high, fuzzy blanket pulled close. Rachael has retired early as usual, Abby is reading maybe in her room, Daddy is exhausted and in bed. The dogs sleep, the birds sleep, the cats chase up and down the stairs. The clock ticks. My unfinished montage of college posters sits, glue drying, beside me. If I can fix all the turned up edges and tears and glue bumps, it will be a cool timeline of multi-textured strips. One hundred lines long to symbolize a person's life. Visual inspiration for the LHS Post-Grad room. A constantly nagging nightmare in my life of bad timing and procrastination. Why would I start a complicated art project at the busiest time of the year?

A crash of branches, a tinkling of ornaments. Cats race, water flies - four quick chases, all in the span of a minute. I've gotten up four times, my motivation for tree-rescue is flagging.

11:11 - Grandma Pat time. A nudge from her, I'm sure she would enjoy the cat circus going on now.

Tomorrow will be a hang on and ride the waves type of day. Washing machine peed all over the laundry room floor this afternoon, surely some repairman will have two hours for us tomorrow, (undoubtedly at some inconvenient time). Not one present is wrapped, not one cookie baked, not one party food planned. Christmas never varies, the circumstances always mutate

so every spare moment is full to bursting.

CHRISTMAS PREP

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5v07eIFfNY
Song of the day: Little Drummer Boy (Play as you read)

Twelve degrees outside, but exhilaratingly warm compared to our eleven straight days of single-digit weather. Too cold to go into the garage for a box of kleenex, or get the mail, or run to the store. Everyone in a giddy mood now - saw three high school boys in shorts on my Abby-and-Alex drop-off this morning (we did agree that you wouldn't catch girls in shorts because "It's dumb"). The sun electrifies the snow, making it blindingly bright. It is still cold enough to make that screechy crunch noise that Rachael hates but I like, when you walk across the snow.

Chester snores on the couch (why can't an 80# dog with stiff joints stay on the floor?) and Otis is at my feet. It has been a boring week and a half for them, no walks and everyone too cold to throw the ball. The undecorated Christmas tree fills the dining room with Noble fir aroma, the wonderful buttermint candle fills the kitchen air.  

I can think of 15 things I should be doing:  ordering leis, decorating the house, throwing the ball for poor antsy Otis, sorting out my winter clothes, talking to Sunrise about Grandpa's charges, buying strawberry Ensure for him (ugh!), making minestrone soup (yum!), cleaning out my emails, cleaning out the freezer, on and on. And here I am blogging and listening to Steve Martin videos. I am paralyzed by too much to do! And no, I can't even do just one small thing, don't even trot that one out.                                             

The Canada geese arrived about a week ago. Suddenly they are everywhere, their cries fill the air at sunset - rush hour on the highway is also rush hour in the sky.

THANKSGIVING MENU 2013

Giant Butterball turkey fresh from Costco (waited too long to get frozen)

Garlic mashed potatoes (used huge $7 bag of peeled garlic from Costco, such a deal!) - had tons because Sam refused to stop peeling potatoes

Garlic brussel sprouts from Aunt Susan, who only brought about 13 because she thought they would be unpopular - were a surprise hit

Brown sugar carrots (great) and coleslaw (too much mayo but keep that quiet), also from Susan

Pomegranate seed and apple-mandarin compote - Abby

Cranberry relish and green bean casserole - Rachael

Dinner rolls (great the next day too) made by Sam the night before

Stuffing - from Daddy, half-again too much because no one ever finishes stuffing

Lemon mixed-berry cheesecake - from me, made the night before, I am always happy to be done cooking and on the sous-chef and cleaning crew

GOOD GOD IT'S DECEMBER ALREADY

The house is eerily at a dead calm, we are trapped in the twilight zone doldrums.  Even the two parakeets, left behind in a frenzied bid to lower the stress of December deadlines and duties, are absolutely silent. The butter mint candle, bought at the "Today Only!" Bath and Bodyworks sale on Friday, fills the house with the amazingly accurate smell of my favorite candy. Three wicks though, it'll be gone in a week.

Sam left in a cheerful storm of last minute store quests (lights for the stair rails again, surprise huge plastic bowls of cinnamon pine cones). I envision him at the library -or maybe Starbucks?- drinking green tea and wrapped in headphones, deep in microeconomics.

Rachael is with Zia-the-plant-excavator in Boulder, prepping for the new round of dance/French/nanny challenges mounting on her doorstep. The Christmas decorations remain boxed on the kitchen floor. Nutcracker-music-red-wine-and-decorating plans fell by the wayside this week.

Daddy and Abby are on the roof with the indigo icicle lights, Abby will be in shortly, chafing for a trip to Savers. The weather encouraged them, it is 55' with not a quick breath of wind anywhere.

THANKSGIVING VACATION

My stomach hurts so bad from laughing, it reminds me of the day after you've had the flu. I beat Abby four times in a row at Battleship (she was sticking with a definite swastika-like pattern) and then she won the fifth at the last move, although I had hit four boats in the first seven tries (she had them massed  at the center), the two-boat proved elusive. At one point, she refused to either confirm or deny the hit. Tricky. Then I stole her bed-buddy and hid with Rachael's birds in the office. Otis tried to nose me out and I kept laughing, but I did get Abby to run up and down the stairs three times.

Everyone is home from college, the t.v. in the family room has popped something and died, so Daddy and Sam are downstairs watching football. It is freezing outside, and although the Post called it "Snowvember" (really?), it has yet to snow more than 2-3". The upstairs is cold, the downstairs is cold, the bed-buddies are in all-day use.

I took Sam, Rachael and Abby on Friday to Target. They ran around like puppies at the dog food factory; I headed to other aisles to get away from them. It was a veritable gluttony: Lucky Charms, Cocoa Krispies, sweet pickles, Mini Wheats (cereal overload), a weird 89-cent packet of mini pancakes, Trident, hair dye. Next they went with Daddy to Costco, stealing the last samples out from under people's noses, getting 48-packs of yogurt, bumping off each other like pool balls, making a scene amongst the over-consumers.

Chester groans in the kitchen, drinks for five minutes from his water with a horrible slopping noise. Rachael has gone to bed, the birds are silent, Abby is reading in her room.

Christmas has hit all the stores, TJ Maxx was bubbling over with shoppers when I went to return something and buy Thailand Christmas decorations. I have given no thought to Thanksgiving but Susan wants to bring carrots. Rob's 50th birthday is Tuesday, they are going to spend the night gambling in Blackhawk, co-celebrating Lisa's birthday. I try to work up the enthusiasm to join them, but cannot get in the gambling mood. Too much going on here.

Grandpa Al was in an odd mood when I called him earlier, had a "horrible" dream about the past and the future. So intrigued Rachael that I had to make a pretext call back (about Rob's present) and find out more. Something about traveling on a ship past land and buildings. I didn't query about the future, too put-off by potential harbingers of doom. Rach was irked when I told him she had to know, but he laughed. Later I wondered if the ship was a memory of Grandma Pat's ashes going out to sea?

Otis wheezes, sleeping in the dining room - body on his bed, head on the floor. The air smells like the sugar cookie candle burning on the stove.

I think of Tricia waking up in the muggy tropical air, prepping for Monday morning at school. We all especially feel her absence. A ghost down the aisle at Target, in the downstairs bedroom, in the kitchen at the table. Tomorrow I will pack her Christmas box to send.

I need to get upstairs to my good book, cold bed and three warm bed-buddies.

ABBY'S 16TH BDAY

Abby's birthday is a crazy, rainy, almost-cold day, the first changing-season day we have had. I wake her at 7:50 (Late Start day) with a parade of starving animals. Otis leaps on the bed, nuzzling her cheek with a cold nose, the cat dashes madly under the bed and out and back in again. Chester can only muster his rise-and-shine yawn once he has left her room and is out in the hall. They all seem to agree the whole sleep-in-and-delay-breakfast thing is a dangerous idea. There is a jittery hysteria in the air.

Breakfast is a chocolate-peanut butter-banana shake. Sam has ordered Abby a lock-picking kit for his gift. The boy has a talent for picking presents - odd, but fitting. The humidity helps bring out the curl in Abby's hair - it's gorgeous this morning, but she is oblivious.

Abby comes home late from school; play practice, Romeo and Juliet (the lead boy is named Joe, they call him Joe-meo). She is out-of-sorts, tired and not hungry, and has lots of homework. Our plans to go to a jewelery store to buy her a nice bracelet and then out to eat are foiled. She doesn't want an expensive bracelet! She wants a cheap bracelet! We end up with a night in front of Seinfeld , eating take-out sesame chicken with crab-cheese wontons. I order her a bike-chain bracelet off Etsy for $20. Still very rainy and cool. A fox screams in the yard (aumakua!) - Otis cowers, Chester runs outside. Will have to finish celebration with a vanilla cake and grandparents over for cards on Friday or Saturday.

DREAM OF A THOUSAND LIVES

A Sojourn in Thailand  by Karen Connelly

Bangkok always comes to you slowly, languidly, but its sprawling outskirts gradually transform into a taloned, grinning creature with an appetite for money and human time. I've grown used to the dimensions of Denchai, the familiar streets of Chiang Mai, the cotton clothes and rubber thongs of small towns. The pace of the city always surprises me. Slums trip into office buildings, apologizing with flimsy fences; markets wander into streets, shopping centres into dirty sky. Concrete edges elbow ancient temples, nudge palaces for room to grow, expand, swallow up the old to spit out the new. I dig through my knapsack for what's left of my wristwatch. The crystal is cracked and the second hand doesn't work, but it tells me the time: four-thirty. The city is still two hours away, yawning in the dark.

EMBRACE THE CHAOS (ETC)

Friday, July 19
Yes, that is my theme for the month, developed in my Wednesday yoga class.
This particular week, I have not had a moment to myself until just this afternoon, when I stole away and locked myself in a private room at Common Grounds with a large iced tea and a turkey-pear sandwich. And deleted 70 of 100 emails, avoiding Yahoo's "Hipsters flock to Mexican Coke" and "How to crack an egg". Unfortunately I did succumb to "Netflix dropping your favorites". Dammit. My favorites!

I have been thinking of you (Tricia dear) a lot this week. Paul and I went yesterday to Red Rocks - startlingly bright and strangely energizing - and I ran up and down the stairs for a total of seven sides, which I figure to be about 1850 steps plus some. I was totally crawling up the last time, when he passed me twice, going down and then again on the way back up. I churlishly imagined him skipping circles around me. Maybe humming as he did so.
Later he and Abby and I went to the IMAX Great Whites and watched South African shark cage adventurers, along with about 150 amazingly quiet daycare kids. Scared straight perhaps.
Lastly, at an exchange student/local student party near Megan Prentice's house in Green Oaks, I talked with a group of parents/sponsors about S. Africa (one woman's daughter is there somewhere, she never did remember where), and your parent-traumatizing New Zealand quest to drive me crazy with ever-more dangerous thrill-seeking attempts.
So, it was Tricia, Tricia, all-day Tricia.

IRONY

Very hot afternoon, Ken and Brian taking down the monster juniper across the street, Daddy edging and trimming the bush by the side of the front porch. Sam also is slaving away. Having cleaned up all the dog poop, he's hard at work mowing first the front yard, and is now halfway through the back. Otis runs out to make a rather large deposit in the middle of Sam's uncut grass. Abby and I enjoy the irony and perhaps (?) intentional pooping on Otis's part. And, just this moment, I hear Sam yelling that Otis has made a second offering, both are in the space of ten minutes! How does he do it?             
              Sam: "I like how you people think it's freaking hilarious!"

ODDS AND ENDS

*** Zia went under the knife today. Hopefully, his plant-killing instincts will be lessened. His baby-making skills are now gone.
*** Went to coffee with Grandpa Al today. His mother (Elsie) came over from Munich with a much older man, married him and had two kids (Marion and Tom, who was always called Pat, having been born on St. Patrick's Day) Then he left for Florida with another woman. Great-grandma met Grandpa's father when he moved into a boarding house she owned. He adopted her first two kids, then they had Grandpa and Aunt Kay. Great-grandpa was an English Quaker.
*** The wedding presents we got Eddie and Stephanie were a Kuerig coffee cup holder and a gorgeous koa wood small box I ordered from Hawaii. Plus we put in an autographed beer can from Christmas.
*** Party in Vail Friday night, wedding Saturday at 2:30, cocktail hour and dancing after, breakfast buffet the next morning. I will take pics for you!
*** Not many fireworks displays still on because of the fire danger, Georgetown and Rockies still on as of now.
*** Abby and I done with Breakout Kings, on to Life.
*** Paul Jolie arrives July the 8th, probably at God-knows-how-late. Your room is now the coolest in the house (100' today), and smells like eucalyptus which I put on the dresser. Took down your nasty postcards..

BASEBALL GAME-6/16/13

Today we take you through a day of baseball. Ready for Father's Day at the Rockies!

Sunny and warm.  Perfect weather.  As always, waiting for Sam on the front porch.

                                            Video of my favorite part! Sorry I couldn't  get it right-side-up.

Rockies vs. Philadelphia. Walt Weiss bobble-heads.   Club level trade-in. Baked potato bar, chili cheese dogs, salads, ham. "Let's go out for our favorites - baseball and a slice o' ham!"





                                              
   If this video doesn't make you homesick, nothing will.
                                                              
Strawberry margarita (best drink ever!) and a Singletrack.
                              Candlesticks. Always a good idea.

                                                                     Still sunny, but unseasonably cool. Yogurtland after; original sour with hibiscus/guava. Raspberries,and as it should be, one lychee.

JUNE WEEKDAYS

Weds.4:44 a.m.:  Woken by Sam emptying the dishwasher. He needs to be at work by 7:00, usually leaves by 5:00. Where does he go, what does he do? It probably involves Starbucks. Maybe an attempt to meet girls by sitting in a friendly manner in the same seat every morning, hoping he looks approachable. Or some secret civil engineering game-changing project. "We knew he was up to something, but who would of thought he'd be the one to invent the temporary bridge inversion!"
8:40 a.m.: Denver Post, the wildfire season begins. Three big ones - Black Forest one forces evacuation of 2500, Royal Gorge burns 3800 acres, threatens the bridge over the Arkansas river. High temperature of 91' today.
10:30 p.m.: Home from getting Grandpa Al blue Gatorade and two bananas. Watched one episode of Breakout Kings with Abby - our new Netflix series.
5:25 p.m.: Did yoga, spin. Yoga teacher back from Las Vegas on a birthday trip with 18 women. Mentioned she had won 8 of 11 categories in belly dancing nationals there two years in a row, everyone knows her from those years. 91' in shade, haze from fires over whole area. Sam home grouchy because, yet again, did not eat lunch. Leaving for Boulder after rush hour.
8:15 Boulder: Rachael shocked I am spending the night. "You have a bag??" She thought we would hike, picnic, drink wine, shop on Pearl Street in an hour and then I would drive an hour home?      We have a good time walking the neighborhood in the quiet pitch blackness. No haze, but no stars either. Bed early.
Thursday: Coffee, IHOP, REI, liquor store, dance-clothes shop (shades of the Pretty Woman shopping scene - "No, Miss, you don't just buy toe shoes, you make an appointment. It takes an hour to fit you!"). We hike up Chautauqua with two terriers (Jack and Lola), and drink warm Rose from the bottle and look out over Boulder. Next,we go back and watch What Not to Wear.
Me: "Susan went to school with John Frieda's son."              (to be perfectly accurate, turns out it was Paul Mitchell's son)
Rachael: "Tell her to tell him his dad gave me dandruff!".
7:00 p.m.Home: Two of four runways at DIA closed from fire-haze.
9:00 p.m.: Sam makes Honey-Vanilla Crepes with fresh cherries and honey Greek yogurt.
Friday 10:30 a.m.: 360 homes gone in Black Forest fire near Colorado Springs. News says people spray-painting phone #s on horses and letting them go, hoping they'll be okay and someone will call about them later. Off to do errands, with Abby driving. Aim for maximum efficiency in the a.m., as the afternoons are a waste.
4:34 p.m.: Cooler weather (91' here) better for fires, mandatory Co. Springs evacuations cancelled. Sam home, wants to go to new Fast and Furious. No humorous work stories.

MISCELLANEA

Trip to Boulder -
Sam coins term "crotch-noodle". Noodles you have dropped in your lap and returned to the bowl. As in, "Whoa, that one was bad, I think it was a crotch-noodle!" Both Abby and Sam laughing so hard they start crying. "Seriously, the rice was this [--------] far from coming out my nose!"
After an $86 trip to Hazel's mega-liquor store, where we witness a drunk student car vs. parking post accident, our car's occupants hassle pedestrians:  "I like you!", "Have a nice day!"

Southglenn -Chester's highlight of the walk this morning with Abby and I: Four rabbits!

Weather - 79' high, 54' low (cold at night!).
Sun - Up at 5:33, sets at 8:23

Tricia's Room - Clothes, detritus on floor, filling closet and drawers, on bed, on desk. Looks like you just stepped out. What did you take?? Hello, Goodwill truck.

AVOIDANCE

Things I have done today to avoid calling Charlotte, a terrifying woman at 
Hawaii EUTF (Employee's Union T-something F-something):

--Peruse Westword movie review Heart of Fartness - Hangover III. Director casts "rich, entitled fraternity dicks as underdog heroes". Sounds way bad.
Wonder about band "Trampled by Turtles".  Slow music? Ironically fast music?

--Cat tricks me into half-hour nap with loud purring and perfect positioning on corner of bed.

--Salted caramel latte with popcorn. Surprisingly good combo!

--Assemble and put out giveaway box on porch for Lupus, although Lupus has clearly come early and left empty-handed.

--Youtube. Rogue Traders. Andy Griffith banjo song Dooley. Yahoo News.

--Thought about calling Grandpa. Nah.

--Thought about cleaning house. Oh, now you're being funny.

--Thought about prepping dinner. Yes, quite the comedian.

--What does Coors Field stair guide Anna do for a real job? Elevator operator? Movie ticket-taker?

--Acupuncture. Thinking many people would call it torture, as I have electric current connected to many places. (But it was wonderful when it was over).

PAST NEWS: "No goats in the Parlor Car! If I said it once, I said it a hundred times!"
                       Susan had indie movie filming on train, updated Bonnie and Clyde.
                       She played an extra, white makeup with red lips. "I looked a hundred years old!"

SATURDAY

The sun arrived at 5:45 on Saturday morning. The day was startlingly bright; the air was still, the birds were busy. We go to Jason's Deli for lunch - Sam, Rachael, Abby, Daddy and I. Very crowded, people overflowing onto the patio and into the 80' day. We sit inside. Rachael's order - steamed vegetables and vegetable soup. I have a mini ice cream cup appetizer. We take a couple pics for you.

On the way home, sibling pinch-fighting reveals the uncomfortable fact that Sam  has named his nipples. Since the question will haunt you:  "Titty Roosevelt" and "Poke-ahontas". Disturbingly, they are male and female. More disturbingly - siblings.

Now home, I call Abby (who has gone to King Soopers with Rach). Simultaneously, Sam calls me on the house phone. I talk with a phone at each ear. They yell at each other across the supermarket aisle. Sam wants to know if I have just a little Dawn dish-washing liquid, just one or two squirts. I dare not wonder why.