Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas everyone!! I hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas. We got a late start today. I was up around 7:30 AM waiting for the action to start and then Kim woke up around 8:00 AM and then we sat there for an hour and a half waiting for Morhéa to wake up!! The most exciting day of the year and we had to wake her up at 9:30AM! She has been enjoying herself opening presents this morning. In fact we are currently taking a break from opening presents to have some lunch. I think it might be an all day thing. Highlights from the morning session include some rollerskates, a Tinkerbell outfit, a trampoline and lots of Barbie and Princess gear. Have a great Holiday!

Todd

Our Tiny Dancer!

I will keep it short for this entry. Today was Morhéa’s 1^st dance recital. Kim and I are so proud of her. It is hard to believe my little girl is growing so fast. It seems like yesterday I would have never believed that she could get up on-stage in front of 100+ people and perform a ballet and tap dance. Her class started with the tap dance routine to The Beatles, “Love Me Do.” That was followed by the ballet section to Elton John’s, “Tiny Dancer.” I don’t know how they did it. They had ~20 performances of dancers from the age of 2-20. Each class performed 2 songs. The entire time we were wondering what Morhéa was doing backstage during her down time. She told us she had a lollipop, snacks and played and danced with her girlfriends. Cherry Creek Dance did a great job. The entire recital went smoothly and 99.9% of the kids looked like they were having a blast! Next week Morhéa's teacher is performing in the Nutcracker with the Moscow Ballet here in Denver.

With all of that said I am trying out a new service on my blog page. VIDEO!! This video is in a WMV (Windows Media Audio/Video) format. The videos are ~15 and 19 MB. I am not sure if they will stream or you need to download them. If you have a problem with them let me know and I can either get you a different video or try a different format. In fact, let me know you opinion either way because next time I might choose a different format. It only took a few minutes to upload so hopefully it won't be too bad for anyone.

Halloween and California Fires

Another crazy few weeks! I just got back from a LONG week in California sampling ash from all of the fires they had out there. I’ll get to that later though. Since my last update Halloween has been the big item. There were lots of carving parties, pumpkin picking, Halloween parties and Trick or Treating! We even had a party with some of Morhéa’s friends. Morhéa was Princess Fiona from Schrek. She was the human version of princess Fiona (not that the Ogre Princess is ugly or anything) and she was beautiful. She loved her dress and wore it almost every day for a week.

Kim’s Halloween party at our house was a success. We had about every princess in the Disney catalog here, 2 dragons (or 1 dragon and 1 dinosaur), a flower, a witch and many more wonderful beings. Kim had a clown come to the party. At first I thought it was going to be a disaster because all of the kids seemed pretty scared of her but surprisingly they all came around. She did a puppet show and interactive games, but the hit was face painting. It was very exciting. A few days later Morhéa, Jahayra and Morgan went trick or treating. I had to miss it as I was getting ready to leave for California the next morning but from what I heard the girls had a great time being girls!

We also had a party with our fiends the Howell’s. They are big baseball fans of the Evil Empire (The Boston Red Sox). I am a Yankee’s fan and when they were put out of their misery you had to cheer for the Rockies. Anyway, they had us over for a party and Morhéa and Ella partied all night (way past their bedtimes).

Morhéa has also been getting pretty good at her ballet and tap class. We even have her first dance recital on December 9^th. I don’t know all of the names of the moves but she does them all. She also has gymnastics with her girlfriends every week. Morhéa, Jahayra, Morgan, Brooke and Sierra have a blast together. I am impressed at how flexible and nimble they are already. They have rings and a single bar that Morhéa can pull herself up on and then put her legs between her arms and do a flip and land with a dismount that Mary Lou Retton would be proud of.

At school Morhéa has been learning REALLY fast. Did I mention before that she is fully potty trained? She is!!! Last week I heard her count from 1-10 in Spanish which really impressed me. She also says my name is Morhéa in Spanish and now Kim is teaching her some French. She is still shy with the French but as Mom was counting in the kitchen today Morhéa was whispering the words.

For the past week I have been in California sampling ash. I started with the Harris fire (near the Mexico border) and worked my way up the coast to Malibu and then over to Lake Arrowhead near Big Bear Lake. In all I sampled the Harris (east of San Diego), Witch (northeast of San Diego), Santiago (Orange County or near there), Ammo (on the Marine Corps Base of Camp Pendleton), Malibu (North of Los Angeles where a lot of wealthy people live) and Grass Valley (East of LA in the mountains, 6000 feet) fires. The daily grind of our days got old real quick. Ray from work and I went out there. Our typical day started around 6:30AM. We would get food and then head to the field or a meeting, we would work all day running around the hills collecting ash until the sun went down, drive the 1+ hour ride back to the hotel, take long showers that required lots of scrubbing to get all of the ash and charred material off (apparently I should have scrubbed a little harder because I got poison oak all over the place), took another hour for dinner and then back to the hotel where we would have 2 hours of e-mail to sort though, then an hour to plan our next days events. We usually went to bed between 1 and 2 AM and did it all over again for 7 days in a row. This time instead of my normal Tyvek, respirator, plastic steel toed boots, chemical resistant gloves and a hard hat I got to wear Nomex, a hard hat, leather gloves, leather boots with leather shoe laces and my usual safety glasses. If you have never worn Nomex before it is an aromatic nylon, the meta variant of the para-aramid Kevlar. That is a little much isn’t it. It is fire restardant clothing! We had our team working with the WRD, BRD, Landslide Hazards, USFS and the National Parks Services. I got to sample watersheds, arroyo toad habitats, endangered trout habitats and various other newt, frog and toad habitats. We did some geologic sampling as well as soil and environmental sampling. A very long week and I am very glad to be home!

A Park Service Ranger and I over looking Malibu!

Snow in Denver/Pretty Girl

So it happened on Sunday. We got about an inch or two at my house. I am not ready for SNOW!!!! Tomorrow it is supposed to be 78 degrees so it is okay. How bad did we get screwed on Rockies tickets today!! Yesterday was so bad they canceled it and today seemed almost as bad. Let me know in 5 minutes if I have an chance or let me go back to work. Don't screw me around for 3 hours. The worst part about selling the tickets today instead of 2 weeks ago it that the Boston fans have as much of a shot as any of us in Denver have at getting tickets. I saw a post yesterday that basically says we stink because this guy lives in Boston and was one of the lucky 700 who got tickets yesterday. He goes on to say he bought 4 tickets to the game. He is going to fly out here, sell his tickets on E-bay or stubhub or something make enough money on those 2 tickets to pay for his flight and his seats and then you can find him in the stands wearing Red Sox gear!!!! That chaps me pretty good. I just had to put that in there.

Other then that, Morhéa was sick this weekend but still looked cute enough for a good pic!! Enjoy!

Todd

Libby, Chicago and fun with our friends

Another crazy month has come and gone! It seems like one or all of us were traveling this month.

As soon as I got back Kim left for Edinburgh, Scotland for a quick 5 days. She said it was beautiful but it really was a quick trip. I got to take Morhéa to both ballet class and gymnastics class. She is getting pretty good. At this point all of her friends take gymnastics with her so it is like a big party.

What else? Our good friends Erin and Hunter got married at Red Rocks!! What a perfect venue for the two of them. Morhéa, Kim and I had a great time. It was good to see all of the old Oakhurst guys again (Erin is our manager). I even made it out to my 1^st Oakhurst show in a few years. It was a great night having a beer with a lot of friends I hadn’t seen in a long time!

It is football season so Kim and Morhéa took the opportunity to go see the Aspen’s turning in the mountains. They had a great time. We tried to go the day before but it was rainy and cold. It all worked out though. We have plenty of pictures for everyone.

Last week we all ventured to Chicago so Super Mom could run the Chicago Marathon. For those that don’t know, it was around 88 degrees, with really high humidity and no breeze. I grew up in upstate NY and this heat just seemed too hot. Maybe all of the photons of all of the suns aligned that day or something? We were fortunate to get a spot in the shade of a building and even then it was hot. We saw Kim coming around the corner for her last mile. We made our way to the finish but that took us over an hour thanks to all of the bottlenecks at the finish line. We couldn’t even get across the street to get to Kim at our meeting place. We decided that we would wait under the shade of a tree for Kim’s cell phone call. That is when it all started sinking in. Near the finish line we saw a few people in rough shape, which is normal. But as we sat in the shade we started noticing that everyone sitting down was either getting violently sick or passing our or going into some kind of convulsions. It was pretty scary. 20 minutes latter we heard they canceled the race. Apparently they ran out of water!! Kim did finish and we are proud of here for that. Of the 45,000 people who entered the race 10,000 never showed because it was too hot, 11,000 never finished, 300 were hospitalized and 1 person died. All of that and Kim was able to finish the race before it got cancelled. That was the drama of the trip. I should mention that she not only finished but after I forced her to drink some Gatorade and then she followed it up with a beer!

Staying with Jeff, Heather, Otis and Abbey was the best. Morhéa had soooooooo much fun with the dogs. I think she wore out Otis every night so he would lay on the couch and then Morhéa would take that opportunity to sleep with him or hug him for a few hours. Abbey got the same treatment. You could tell she wanted a puppy but with Cozmo around I don’t think that is a real option. She was so sad she didn’t have one though. Prior to all of this we went out to dinner for Jeff and Heather’s anniversary. It was a very nice steakhouse they brought us to and I am proud to say that Morhéa survived without have a cow. It was a great night though and we were happy to be a part of it.

On Saturday we went downtown and got Kim’s race packet and then decided to go downtown and get some good Chicago pizza.

I am a NY pizza guy but this pizza was great. Everything was fresh and you could taste everything in every bite. Unbelievable food! Downtown is great. Next time I will have to tour around and see or eat some more of the history of the town. After that we went back to Jeff’s house and chilled for the rest of the evening watching the Cubs game and then the Rockies game. Morhéa was a champ on our flights. We did have to bribe her a little but it was worth it and she sat in her chair buckled until we landed and it only took us 1 Shrek, 1 Dora, 1 Little Mermaid, 2 suckers, 2 special treats, 1 coloring books and lots of stickers! Not Bad!!!

Now we are back and our Rockies are kicking butt. Jim, Uncle Bill, Indy, Indy’s friend, my buddy Dano and I went to the Rockies 1 game play-in game to get the chance to play in the playoffs. One of the best games I have ever been to and I have been to some good ones around here. As I write this the Rockies are on their way to the World Series. I looked at ticket prices and you wouldn’t believe them. Rock Pile tickets usually sell for $5 and they are selling for $65 for the World Series. Club level seats that cost about $75 are selling for $250. This is face value.

Friday we had a happy hour at the Aquarium with several relatives and friends. It was great. Free food and free passes into the aquarium. It was a lot of fun!!

This past weekend we took Morhéa to the Circus and she loved it! There were tigers, horses, elephants, clowns, dogs, tall guys, short guys, $12 cotton candy, $9 lemonade, $10 snow cones and many more overpriced items. We got lucky and she enjoyed the circus so much that we didn’t have to buy anything. There was also the two people that shot out of the canon. She thought that was pretty cool as well. It wasn’t Cirque du Soleil but they still did pretty good. She talked about it all day at school Monday.

Yesterday we had Dano’s son, Trey’s, birthday party. The 1^st half was swimming then a little party at their house. Trey turned 2. He is one of Morhéa’s boyfriends. Dano, Ricky and I play softball during the summer and then Dano, cousin Jim, Ricky and I play basketball in the fall and winter. We might be old and out of shape but the Tall and Tubbies are undefeated baby!!!

My buddy Adam and Tonja had their second child this weekend. Ian Stone Hill!!! A beautiful boy for sure. Congrats to their family!!

Go Rockies!!

Yes, I know I am a Yankee fan but I do live in Colorado and have seen more Colorado games then Yankees games and now that my boys are done for the year I have to stick with the home team. It has been a crazy baseball month here. We made an incredible streak just to get to a playoff game. Cousin Jim, cousin Indy, Indy’s friend, Uncle Bill, best friend Dano and I went to the play-in game. It ranked in the top 3 games I have ever seen. I have seen John Elways last game at Mile High stadium, Patrick Roy tie the most wins ever in NHL history and this might have them beat! It was fun for sure and we won again tonight. We have won 20 out of 21 games. Who would want to play a team that hot!!! Bring on the A.L..

I am also trying to write anther post that will catch everyone up with our summer. We have been very busy.

Also, a quick shout out to another best friend and his family. Adam, Tonja and Morgan have an addition to the family. Ian Stone Hill, born 10-13-07 @ 9:35 PM, weighing in at 6 lbs 11 oz. We are happy for all of them!!

End of a busy Summer

A quick update for everyone. Things have been busy around the Hoefen house. Since I got back from Napa Valley I have been stuck in meetings and getting things ready for my next trip. Not to mention that we are ending our fiscal year at the end of the month which is always a little crazy. Summer is rapidly coming to an end it seems. We are now in our flux of high to low temperature swings. Yesterday topped out in the high 50’ or low 60’s and then today it was 80 something again. Nighttime is getting much colder as well. The leaves are starting to change a little in the mountains and our garden is winding down.

We have been trying to get all of our summer activities in as much as we can. Morhéa and I went to the zoo 2 weekends ago and then Morhéa and all of her friends went there last weekend. They all got their faces painted as elephants which was really funny!

Morhéa also started both her ballet/tap dance and tumbling/gymnastics classes a few weeks ago. These are her first classes taken without the help of her parents. She has been getting better every week but it started out a little rough. Today was her best day yet. We sat with her in the beginning and did the stretching with her and then she just ran off and did it by herself (I might have mentioned something about a lollipop and some ice cream if she did a good job?). She walked on the balance beam, hung from the rings, jumped on and off tall blocks, jumped on the trampoline and even tried that thing where you vault yourself onto or over these mats.

The biggest event of the past few weeks though has to be my fantasy football draft. We did it right. We started the event off at 1:00 PM with a washers tournament, we followed that up with a 3:30PM fantasy football draft, followed by a 6 or 7 PM barbeque and a grand finale poker game including several Texas Holdem Tournaments ending around 3:30 AM.

Of coarse, nothing made us happier here then to have Uncle Jeff and Aunt Heather in town for this glorious event. We always love to have them here and Morhéa loves having them over. The first day Jeff and I went out to get our party supplies while the girls went to ballet class and then up to Boulder for some afternoon activities.

On Labor Day we decided to take a drive up to Rocky Mountain National Park.

I am mostly glad we went since we haven’t been up there this year at all. I was a little “car sick” so I wasn’t feeling too well that day and it rained a little but we still got to see the beautiful mountains and ended up going to a Labor Day festival in town which was fun as well.

A great time for sure!

Last weekend we had fun as well. Friday night I went and won some money playing poker and Morhéa and Kim went to see The Little Mermaid at one of the theatres in Downtown Denver.

They both got dressed up and stayed out late. Morhéa had the best time ever. She talked about it all weekend. Sunday is kinda football day around here so Saturday is family day.

Morhéa had ballet and then went with here mother to get crépes in Cherry Creek.

When they got back we drove way out to the Northeast to farm country and went berry picky on some organic farm.

We had tons of fun. The strawberries were a little picked over but we managed to get our basket full and they encourage eating while you pick which Morhéa too full advantage of. They had golden raspberries as well but we just ate them. Sunday is one of the best days of the year! The start of football season. What more can I say about that?

Now, we have some more crazy travels. Kim is leaving for our friend Cheryl’s wedding on Friday and returns at 5:30PM on Sunday. I have an 8:20 PM flight leaving Denver and heading up to Spokane and then Libby. I think we are going to try and hand Morhéa off at the airport. I am doing some pretty dirty asbestos work up there and will be anxious to return. I get home on Friday night and then we have our weekend and then Kim leaves for Scotland for 4 or 5 days.

Also, I wanted to throw my old band mates in Oakhurst some props for playing a gig this past week at The Fillmore Auditorium opening up for Johnny Lang. This is a really cool venue in Denver that seats (and I am guessing) between 3000 to 4000 people. A prime gig for the boys.

Movies, Softball and Napa Valley

Another crazy week!!! Let’s see what happened. A week ago we took Morhéa to her first movie. It was outdoors in this new fancy mall we have by our house. Morhé and her friend Ella went. We had Mexican food for dinner and then went to the movie post-thunderstorms. I have a new found appreciation for movies like Shrek and Cars. They are the perfect combination movies. Kids love them and parents also get a kick out of them because of the adult humor thrown into the movie. Unfortunately for us we were seeing High School Reunion 2. WOW! It was so bad I almost lost it. It was over the top gay (gay as in festive, jolly, jovial, lively, mirthful, rollicking, spirited, vivacious and zippy). It was great to see our good friends the Howell’s again because summer is busy for both Brian (U.S. Forest Survey) and me (USGS) with our field seasons. Brian is pretty much in the field every Monday through Thursday for the entire summer and he usually isn’t in Denver. Ella is one of Morhéa’s good girlfriends and they love to PLAY! That Friday we were also sent home from daycare with Morhéa’s diapers!!!!! YES!!!!! What that means is that she is like 98% potty trained. Of coarse as I am about to just start screaming because I can’t take the gayness of the movie I start to feel this warm wet feeling as Morhéa is sitting on my lap. Just as it couldn’t get more miserable I get peed on! That also most sent me into the stratosphere. I sat there for another 10 minutes trying not to show my anger (after all it was for my daughter). Then it got late and we decided to go. I had a great time with friends but I can only hope they show Shrek, Cars, The Godfather, This is Spinal Tap or 300 the next time I go to the kids movies. They did play Spinal Tap in Cherry Creek last week in the park.

In true form we had our last Saturday tournament for our beer league softball. Our backup catcher didn’t show until after 3 games. Our Starting Left Fielder didn’t show period and our 3B/1B we still have no idea where he is. Dano was injured yet we managed to stay tough. We won our first 3 and then lost somewhere near the semi-finals. It was a fun year though. Lots of good laughs with washers and softball. Summer is flying by.

Sunday Morhéa and the girlfriends went to a park while I recovered and packed for my trip. I was headed to California for a week to do field work.

I know everyone thinks it is a joke and all but I really did do work in the Sacramento/Napa Valleys. We started at UCDavis working with core samples for the first 2 days. Some kind of Superfund site with radioactive Beagles or something. Then I got to tour the hills for a full two days. This included the Sacramento Valley, then to Lake Berryessa, North to an old mine and then back down the hill to Napa. I got a lot of good stuff but there is very limited access to the areas so we did a lot of roadside geology. I learned a ton though. The valley is filled with some pretty impressive and diverse crops I have ever heard of. They had lettuce, tomatoes, peaches, cherries, rice, kiwi’s, corn, oats, barley, grapes, zucchini, cucumbers, walnuts, almonds, and just about anything you can thing of. One of the more interesting things is that if they want to grow a new fruit tree they actually graft it onto a more resistant naturally occurring tree. It almost looked like they stuck peach trees onto oak trees. We found several outcrops of serpentines and sample them all for 2 days.

We rolled into Napa around 5:30 and decided to go wine tasting. The hills around Napa are volcanic basalts. There are many minerals in basalt that weather easily (like olivine) and when they do they supply nutrients to Napa Valley. That is why the grapes grow so well there. Of coarse everywhere is closed at 5PM so we end up at Beringer Estate. Not the best wine but fun none the less. We learn there that Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are grown at the southern end of the valley because they like cooler temperature supplied from air from San Francisco Bay. Just up the valley Cabernet Sauvignon’s grapes are grown because they are more heat tolerant. We drive around the valley in search of a wine boutique that might sell a few good wines that my coworkers have heard of. We end up getting a few bottles from a winery that was kind enough to let Chris and Jean to sample some soil from their vineyard a few years ago. Napa was very nice but a weekend would do me fine. Bring out the beer! Actually, Chris and I had a great idea. All of the wineries close at 4-5. We would open one that starts serving at 4PM and goes to 1AM. We would offer a u-pick system where you pick us 4 bushels of grapes and we give you 1 no-name bottle of wine in return! We wouldn’t have labels other then some white-out names written on the bottle. We would also figure out how to have an April mashing and then we would be the ultimate anti-winery! I like it! It was great though. I am glad I got to experience some wine tasting in Napa. Overall the trip was a success. I still have one area I would like to go back to and get some permission to walk around some land. Next time and maybe I can stay in Napa then! WHile I was gone Morhéa also had her first tumbling class. Very Cool! Her first class by herself. No adults are allowed for the most part!!

Got back tonight and was very excited to see Morhéa. We played for 2 hours straight until she had to go to bed. We danced to the new Bruce Springsteen album (Live in Dublin) which is awesome. I am not the biggest Bruce fan but this show rocks!! Pete Seeger is the man and Bruce covers him for many tunes in this show. I recommend that you check it out!

We have a busy few weeks now. Fantasy Football starts this week and my draft is next weekend. Jeff and Heather are coming out for a visit and football. We have a good group of guys this year and it should be fun. There should be some washers, fantasy football and poker along with beer. What else could we ask for?

Jim, Janya and the kids are coming over tomorrow for some fun. The Cousins have been gone most of the summer so we haven’t seen them in a while and Morhéa is excited to have everyone over!

Super Mom and SUper Daughter

So Supermom finished her first Half Iron Man this past weekend. It starts with a 1.2 mile swim, followed buy a 56 mile bike ride followed by a half marathon. All of this in Colorado 90 degree heat! Her official time was 6:08:40! Think about that in the heat. We are all very proud of her. Morhéa and I sat on the sidelines for an hour or two and just about melted. GREAT JOB MOM!!!





Also, Morhéa has moved up to the next room at daycare and is mostly potty trained. The sad news is that she just got back together with her friends who are older and now they are moving up already because there are a lot of vacancies above our class. It is kinda sad that she doesn't get to go with them because she will be the oldest in the class again and it hasn't even been a month!! All of her little friends from before will be moving up.

NY trip!

I am already several weeks behind on the blog so I will have to give some summaries. After our crazy travel day I ended up in Rochester and Kim and Morhéa were in Syracuse. I got late enough that I decided to stay in Rochester for the night and drove to Syracuse the next day. While I was away the Buytaert’s and the girls went to the Syracuse zoo. The next day André got the great idea to go fly a kite. Morhéa had never done this and he had a pretty high tech kite. It had 2 strings attached handles that you held which allowed you to steer the kite in different directions. It was a lot of fun. Morhéa enjoyed playing in the fields and watching us fly the kite.

The next day we goofed around and then went to Cazenovia Lake for some splash time. Aunt Steph and Morhéa had a blast in the water while the rest of us read books and lounged around.

The next day we took Morhéa to story time at the local Library which she loved. We weren’t sure if the weather was going to hold up but we got lucky and André and I got our annual round of golf in. New York does do a great job with its state courses. Much better than Colorado does. We played the Green Lakes State Park Golf Course. They have some of the cheapest green fees and best courses. In Colorado the golf courses are beautiful but most are privately owned and they charge a premium for their beauty. There are some great county courses around but in NY they seem to be better. The girls went to a duck pond and fed the ducks.

We finished the visit off with a visit to another local park where Morhéa got to play on the swings and hang out with the family. The night ended with a good home cooked meal.

The next day we headed out to Rochester. Grandpa and Grandma were eagerly waiting for us along with Uncle Jeff and Aunt Heather. Grandpa’s house was an instant hit with a combination of the unlimited supply of raspberries for eating in Dad’s garden and the tractor rides. Every morning Grandpa and Morhéa would wakeup and take a tractor ride to the woods and back. Morhéa even got to make the front end loader go up and down.

It was at this point in our trip that Morhéa decided to revolt on taking naps and going to bed. Carolyn scored us a Pack N’ Play for Morhéa to sleep in. Morhéa is in the transition to a big girl bed and in Syracuse she slept on a mattress in Aunt Steph’s room. We decided to try the Pack N’ Play because it was a little more secure. The first day we were there we put her down for a nap and usually she will cry a little but will be out within 10 minutes. Not this time! We tried the nice way for a little while but eventually closed the door and decided she would fall asleep on her own. Much to our surprise a minute later she was standing at the top of the stairs crying for us. We put her back in and she just crawled right back out. The next day I went and got one of the childproof doorknob things. We put it on and put her down for a nap and within a minute of closing the door we could hear her climb out of the crib and then proceed to open the door within 20 seconds! The rest of the week we struggles with naps and bedtime but eventual got her to sleep every day.

Since we missed our annual pilgrimage back to Rochester for the 4^th of July we decided to go to Paul’s house and have our own beach day. For those that don’t know we have a Hoefen family gathering at a beach house on Lake Ontario every year. We have been doing this as long as I can remember and as long as I can remember everything has remained the same. It is the ultimate tradition. Kitt owned the house for a long time and now her son Paul owns it. Before that I can’t remember. What I do remember is that there is always Dan’s wilted cabbage salad (which he won’t give up the recipe), Dad’s German potato salad, Kitt’s meat hot sauce (which I finally got the recipe out of her a year or two ago), white and red hots (white hot dogs are big in Rochester), macaroni salad, potato salad, jello salad, iced tea in one of those large Coleman containers with the spout at the bottom, desserts, washers and much more. Fireworks are illegal in NY but the lake always has the best fireworks display. It rivals that of large cities but from the locals. As far as the eye can see there are fireworks. I always thought that as you got older and taller things seem to get smaller but not the bonfires. Every year they get bigger and bigger. I heard this years was so big it moved the crowd back a good 50 feet. Anyway, Paul and Robin let us play at their house for the afternoon. Dad, Jeff, Heather and I took the Dad’s boat out and met them there. Morhéa got her 1^st boat ride! She put on her lifejacket and we took a good 20 minute spin in the boat. She loved it! A bonus is that one of the local eateries that Jeff and I enjoy immensely is around the corner. The problem is that Kim and Heather don’t really like it. The best hamburgers and dogs you have ever had. All coated with a wonderful meat sauce that is unlike anything you have ever had unless you have lived in upstate NY. Many of my friends know the garbage plate and this rivals the glorious garbage plate! I think Jeff ordered 1 hamburger, 1 white hot and 1 italian sausage all with everything. I wasn’t that far behind. Soooooo goooooood!

We also were pleasantly surprised to find out that our visit was also during the Hilton Carnival!! Again, something that you just have to experience. Someone once told me it was one of the larger carnivals in NY? It really is big. We held off a little and decided to take Morhéa to the parade. They have two parades. One is the kiddie parade and the normal parade. We took her to the normal parade which was fun but not like I remembered. They had tons of fire trucks which Morhéa loved but they also had a lot of political stuff going on which was annoying. Morhéa had fun and that was all that really counts.

The next morning we went to Brown’s Berry Patch. This is another local place that has been around for ever. A mom and pop farm that has had u-pick everything. They also have a little petting zoo and a kid’s playground that we had a blast on. We picked tons of blueberries and headed home. I think that night was our anniversary. We celebrated by going to The Zoo a.k.a the beer garden at the Hilton Carnival. I had flashbacks to the 80’s and early 90’s. They had a band playing that kicked it all off with Kiss’s Detroit Rock City. That was followed by a lot of 80’s hair band rock. It was great. Everyone there was loving it. In true Rochester fashion they pretty much only served Genesee Beer (the Coor’s of upstate). They had Genny light and old school Genny regular in the white cans. Jeff and I got a Genny and headed straight for the steamed clams. One dozen clams and side of clam broth for a few bucks. You can’t beat that! Instead of garbage cans they had apple crates which were piled 5 feet high with Genny cans. Hilton is apple country. By the time we got out the carnival was over and Jeff never got his funnel cake but overall we got what we all wanted (at least Jeff and I did).

Our last day Dad and Carolyn threw a big family gathering. We had all sides of the family there. The Hagenbach’s, the Hoefen’s and even the Parker side (my Mothers side of the family). It was great to see everyone. Morhéa had a blast with her cousin-in-laws. Dad was once again a hit with the wagon rides. I think the kids loved it so much he had to make two runs. We cooked barbeque and played bocce and washers. We had a blast! Morhéa even tried to leave with her cousins she loved it so much

Our trip home went much smoother. No delays and Morhéa did pretty good. Since then I went back to NY pretty much as soon as I got home. This time to go visit my buddy Scott for his birthday. It was good to see him, wife and son as well as my good friend Mike and his wife, Vanessa. For those movie fans out there Mike is currently showing his new film “Jeffrey” which he produces as stars in. He just got accepted to the LA film festival and hopefully we be coming to a theatre near you!! If you get the chance you should check it out.

We have a busy few months here. I head out to the Sacramento ValleyNapa Valley) for some field work and then next month go to Libby for some seriously nasty field work. (just north of Kim heads to Edinburgh, Scotland and Atlanta and Anaheim.

Italian - American Meatballs

Another great recipe I found on the food network. I could put these meatball in Ragu and be happy as pie! I have heard rumors that people have tried this without much success but usully they added ground turkey to the mix. This is the perfect mix so try and keep it as it.


2 slices of white sandwich bread, stale (or broiled in the over for a few)
1/2 lb ground pork
1/2 lb ground veal
1/2 lb ground beef chuck
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbls grated Parmesan cheese ( not the one in the big green can for your local supermarket.) It makes a difference!
1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 medium onion, grated ( about 1/4 cup)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 large egg, beaten
Fresh ground pepper
1/3 cup olive oil, divided
Quick Marinara recipe (that you get for yourself because this is about the balls)

Cook 1 lb spaghetti

Grate the bread or pulse into crumbs in a food processor. Toss crumbs with 1/3 cup water to rehydrate.

In a large bowl combine, bread crumbs, pork, veal, beef, Parmesan, parsley, salt, onion, garlic and egg and mix until combined. Season with pepper. Form the meatballs into golf ball size balls and then refrigerate for 1 - 24 hours.

At this point Chef Todd broils them for a little while until they start to brown. Flip them and do again. Once they looked fairly cooked but them in the marinara for 10 minutes to finish.

"They" say to cook them in a skillet over med-high heat. Browning them on all sides, 6 minutes. Drain fat and add marinara back to the bowl. The cheese in the meatballs will start to melt when the meatballs are ready. Serve over rice immediately.

Day 1 of Our Trip Home!

Well, we made our annual pilgrimage back to upstate NY last week. It kinda started out with a thud. Our first day was so bad it gets its own post. We leave on Friday the 20^th. As usual our plan is to fly during Morhéa nap and thus an easier flight. We pick her up at daycare around noon and head to the airport around 12:30 PM. We get to the airport and the Pike Peak parking is full. For those of you that don’t live hear in Denver the airport is pretty much in the middle of nowhere. It is a new airport but from my house it seems like it is in Kansas. It is around 35 – 40 miles from my house to the airport. The other parking lot that doesn’t cost more then $15 a day is called Mt. Elbert. I have never seen this parking lot before. It turns out it is basically an overflow parking lot for the Pikes Peak lot. It really isn’t that much further away it just sits in the middle of nothing. They haven’t updated anything in it. No fancy gates and high tech machines. Just one old shack with some very frantic attendants trying to keep up with a large stream of cars. They have one register and one credit card machine and 20 – 30 cars waiting to get in. We pay and park and get on our bus to take us to the airport. We must have been some of the earliest customers because there were maybe 100 cars in a lot that might fit 1000+. It turns out that we park at stop #3. The first 2 didn’t have any cars near them so we were the 1^st ones on. Actually the lot was pretty full from our spot to the end so 99% of the people waiting got on at our stop. I am not really sure what our driver was thinking but he pretty much stopped at the next 8 stops in a row with zero people waiting at them at proceeded to wait at each stop for 5 minutes. It was like some kind of cruel joke or something! I thing the 2 buses behind us passed us while we were waiting. At one point I looked out the window and there wasn’t a car within 600 yards of us but our driver was standing outside the bus waiting for anyone to park in our vicinity.

We finally get to the airport and check in our bags within 10 minutes of us getting there. We go to the security check and it is a zoo! I think I read in Newsweek that Denver is in the top 10 worst airports to fly out of as far as waits are concerned. I have no idea why. They seem to move along efficiently but there must be a larger volume then people to work the lines or something. On this particular day there was a boy scout camp that had ended in Colorado. Somewhere in the mountains of Colorado thousands of boy scouts must have gathered to do boy scout things (I gave up after cub scouts so I don’t really know what they do?) So 50% of the kids in front of us (90% of the 50 right in front of us in line) are boy scouts. Now what does every good boy scout have with him????? That’s right!!! A KNIFE!!! That meant that the 40 people in front of us got their bags screened 3 times along with full body searches. I can’t even tell you how long we were in line but it seemed like 2 hours.

At this point I am getting a little nervous about missing our boarding. We get through and end up at our gate right at our boarding time of 2:40 or something. As we pull up there seems to be a slightly panicked feel to the crowd and then I hear the dreaded words, “I think our flight is cancelled!” I think I immediately freaked out but a minute late a lady with the premier club status says we are okay because our plane is broken and they are fixing it and we are scheduled to take off at 4:00 instead of 3:00. Praise the Lord!! Well, at 3:30 they switch it to 4:00 and at 4:00 they switch it to 6:00. Now at this point we are in trouble because we have already missed our connecting flight to Rochester. I wait in a 20 minute line for some annoying and irritated lady to ask me where I was going. Once I told her she gave an annoying look, tore off a piece of paper and told me to call the number. Now, wouldn’t it have been a little easier to walk the line and give anyone with a connecting flight a piece of paper with a number? Anyway, we call it and they tell us that we are going to miss our flight to Rochester and need to rebook it and of coarse all of the morning and early afternoon flights are sold out. Kim loses it and takes the phone out of my hands and takes charge. At my request she books her and Morhéa on a 7:45AM flight to Syracuse and I agree to fly a 2:00 PM flight to Rochester (Dad has a spare car and Carolyn had a spare car seat so I needed both but Syracuse was the first leg of the trip). Problem #1 solved!

We wait there until 5:30 and they push our flight back to 7:00PM. Northwest is right across the terminal from us and their flight had trouble and they were delayed a little more then an hour and they gave everyone food vouchers while they waited. American Airlines didn’t give anyone anything. The entire time we can see our plane on the tarmac being fixed. 7:00 roles around and they push it to 8:30PM. Now this stinks because at 8:30 we were supposed to be landing in Rochester and we haven’t gotten off the ground in Denver. Morhéa was a saint. She played in DIA for 6+ hours and hadn’t lost it. We finally get off the ground (by the way our plane has been sitting on the gound for 7 hours now and it is about 110 degrees in the cabin.) and think Morhéa will pass out but the entire time we spent in the airport we promised her that we could watch Shrek once we took off. (Another side note – the pilot informs us that the problem with the aircraft was that the hydraulics were shot and they had to replace them! Seems like something they may want to test out before they pack it with people. He also tells us this just after takeoff!) So as soon as we got airborne she wanted Shrek. We ask the stewardess for a pillow. She tells us that American airlines had to cut out pillows! Are you kidding me! Whatever! We try to recline Mrohéa’s seat and it is broken and won’t go back. Two hours later she is still awake and slightly moody. We put her in her seat for landing and she starts freaking out. About 100 yards off the ground I can’t handle it and take her out and hold her for the landing. As soon as the wheels touch the ground she passes out cold!! Kim and I passed her between us as we were getting off and her head was rolling around like it wasn’t connected. She didn’t wake up once.

We get off the plane at 12:30AM and get in a line of 30 people that are waiting for a hotel. I get the bags and Kim gets us a room. As I am waiting for her I hear people talk about the Holliday Inn they put them in which it a 20 minute shuttle ride away. This can’t be happening!!! Then we catch our 1^st break of the day. They feel a little bit bad for us and ended up giving us a room in the hotel in the airport! Sweeeet! We are in our room within 20 minutes. We check-in, get our room, they bring us bed for #1. I decide we have earned a beer and venture down to the bar on the 1^st floor. I order 2 Corona’s. The bartender tells me he can only serve 1 drink per person at a time. GREAT! I order one Corona and give him a $20. He returns with my 1 beer and $11. Did I just pay $9 for a Corona!!! I bring my lonely beer up to the room and sadly offer half of it to Kim who just looks at me with a look of amazement and says I can have it. I drink my beer in a mostly dark room and have to laugh because we probably could have made it to Djibouti or something by now and I am still in Chicago on the 1^st day of our trip. Tomorrow has to be better right??

Morhéa's 1st haircut and Cirque du Soleil

So after:

2 years, 2 months, 20 days, 7 hours and 56 minutes

Or

811 days, 7 hours and 56 minutes

Or

~19,472 hours

Or

1,168,316 minutes

Or

70,098,960 seconds

Morhéa has had her first haircut!!! We went to this little shop in Cherry Creek called LolliLocks which is a kids only salon. It is in a cute little old house in Cherry Creek. They did a wonderful job. We have been hyping up the haircut all week with Morhéa. By Friday she was telling everyone she was going to go the LolliLocks for a haircut, then she was getting a lollipop, followed by Starbucks (she gets a special Starbucks Milk which she calls her coffee.). The day before we went they called to remind us about our appointment and mentioned that with a kids first haircut that it is sometimes better not to talk about it and just let it happen or else the kids might freak out. To late for that one!

We got there and it was pretty cool. You walk into this house and they have tons of hair clips, hair products, jewelry, beauty kits and they are all for kids. Actually they were all very girlie but there were some boys there getting their hair cut as well. The next room had the hair cutting stations. Two of the stations had an elephant and a dragon where the kids would sit and get the haircuts. The other two chairs were regular chairs with big cushions where the older kids could sit. The back room had some beanbags for the kids to sit on and they had Shrek playing.

After waiting a few minutes it was Morhéa’s turn. I think Kim and I were a little nervous that she would freak out. Morhéa hasn’t sat still for more then 1 minute in her life! Both her and her stylist were great. Her stylist gave her a little toy to play with to get her to keep still but she really didn’t need it. She was actually pretty excited to get her haircut. Other then looking over to smile at us she sat there the entire time and even held still when she was asked to. It was a great experience. Morhéa’s hair isn’t long by any means but it did need a little style so we all agreed on a bob! I didn’t think she could get much cuter but I was wrong. She looks even more beautiful with her new haircut. They finished it off with a little hairclip and some spray on sparkles. We got the “1^st haircut special” which also came with a few locks of hair and her picture on a certificate. Overall, $20 well spent!

We got a lollipop afterwards and then walked over to Starbucks for 1 coffee (for Mom), 1 milk (Morhéa’s coffee) and 1 purple mineral water because Dad hates coffee (unless I am in Kona, Hawaii). Then we played at a nearby park for while before going home.

A busy weekend for us all though. We had the haircut Saturday morning, a birthday party Saturday afternoon, Kim and I went to Cirque du Soleil Saturday night and then

another birthday party this afternoon.

Kim and I went to Cirque du Soleil (Corteo) last night. Lots of drama leading up to it. When we asked our babysitter about it a few weeks ago she mentioned that she had to work yesterday at The Nationals (a very big national drag racing event in the foothills). She said that she had to work until 4 or 5 and that would end her 8 hour shift and she should be able to come over after that but warned us that it was the biggest event at her work of the year but hopefully they wouldn’t make her stay later. The show started at 8:00PM but we had VIP (Tapis Rouge) tickets that allowed us to get there at 7:00 PM for the evenings festivities. At first we asked her to come over at 5:00 but decided there was no point in having her come over until 6:00. So around 5 we called her to tell her she could relax until 6 but nobody was home so we left a message. This got us a little worried though because nobody answered and we didn’t have her cell number. So of coarse 6 rolls around and no babysitter. 6:15 and nothing! Now Kim is freaking out and I am disappointed seeing how this was our first date night in a LONG time! Our backups weren’t really an option buy now. The grandparents all live in NY, the Aunts and Uncles live in NY and Chicago, cousins are (hopefully) having a good time in the mountains this weekend, our backup babysitting drove by the house as we were freaking out and since the show gets over at 10:30 and we wouldn’t be able to get home until 11:00 PM at the earliest bringing Morhéa to a friends house wasn’t really an option. The tickets were quite expensive and I had printed tickets which are hard to sell so we decided that Kim and Morhéa would go and I would stay home and we would try and have date night another night. Just as they were about to leave our babysitter’s mother called and said that she would come over until her daughter got home from work. I think we were all a little embarrassed because we said sure which was odd because the mother (and as it turns out the 2 younger daughters) came over to watch Morhéa. I am sure she didn’t feel too comfortable having to cover for her daughter as well. Anyway, it worked out great! Morhéa loves all 3 of the sisters so she got to play with all of them by the end of the night. We got lucky and ended up making it on time.

With our tickets we got to go to a private party in the Tapis Rouge tent that included hors d’oeuvres, wine, martini’s, beer and a chance to see some art and buy stuff from Cirque du Soleil. That was followed by watching the show from our second row seats. We had the end of the row which was perfect for me. There wasn’t anyone in front of me so I got to stretch my feet out the entire time. I was a little nervous though because the set of 3 stairs leading up to the stage was right next to me and I know that they so little skits with crowd participation. Sure enough the second we sit down a skit starts and they park this coffin right next to me. The first clown comes down and shakes my hand and then the lady with him starts talking to me. Fortunately, it didn’t go much past that! At halftime we got to go back to our special tent for more Champagne/Martini’s along with chocolate covered strawberries and different cakes. We also had our own private bathrooms for those of us with Tapis Rouge tickets. If you have never seen a Cirque du Soleil show you must go. It is truly amazing what these people can do. I have seen 2 or 3 of them and have been impressed with all of them. This one wasn’t as good as the others but it was still VERY impressive (especially from the second row).