Family Style!

Shrimp Scampi Pasta a la Todd

2009-01-18T23:21:00.002-07:00

Here is a Shrimp Scampi recipe I saw in Gourmet magazine and added my own twist. It turned out pretty good!

SCHRIMP SCAMPI PASTA a la TODD

INGREDIENTS:
1/4 cup of oil
1 lb of peeled, deveined large shrimp (I like them as big as you can get)
4-5 large garlic cloves forced through a garlic press
1/2 teaspoon dried hot red pepper flakes
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
4-5 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 lb spaghetti
1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
juice from half of a small lemon and maybe some zest.
15-20 grape tomatoes cut in half

PREPARATION
Bring a 6-8 quart pot of salted water to a boil.

Heat oil in a large skillet over moderately high heat. Saute the shrimp, sprinkle with a little lemon juice, turning over once, until just cooked though, about 2 minutes and transfer with a slotted spoon to a large bowl. Add garlic to the remaining oil along with red pepper flakes, wine, salt and pepper and cook over high heat for around 1 minute. Add the tomatoes to the mixture and cook for 30 seconds. Add butter to the skillet, stirring until melted, and stir in shrimp. Remove from heat.

Hopefully half way through the last step you had your water bowling and added your pasta. If not get the pasta in now. Cook pasta in boiling water until just tender (the article says 5 minutes but up here in Denver it is more like 10-15). Reserve 1 cup pasta cooking water, then drain pasta in a colander. Toss pasta well with the shrimp mixture and parsley in a large bowl, adding some of the reserved cooking water if necessary to keep moist.

Todd's notes - I added the tomatoes, lemon and Parmigiano-Reggiano to this recipe. It says to use 1/4 cup of olive oil but I used about half of that. Other comments, maybe use some greens (beans, asparagus, spinach????) I like mine topped with a little grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.

Don't over cook the shrimp. They are better a little under cooked then overcooked. If you have waited to take them out until they are hard and crispy. Then they are overcooked. They will continue to cook a little after they have been taken out of the pan. If you are a little nervous take them out early the first time you cook them and when you add them back in the end keep them in there a little longer (but not much).

T

Funniest video ever!

2009-01-13T21:12:00.007-07:00

So, Morhéa loves to take pictures with our digital camera. She is also very good at taking those pictures. People often see her with the camera taking our picture and ask if we need help. We usually respond with "no she is just fine." Today Morhéa got her hands on the camera and also figured out the video recording button. The result is one of the funniest movies ever. The resolution decreased a lot when I downloaded the video but you will get the point. This was also her first time bowling! If you have a 3 year old then you can relate. If not here is what you are in for!! Enjoy!

T

Happy New Year 2009!

2009-01-10T22:28:00.007-07:00

Kim seems to be out doing me with the pictures these days so I haven't had the need to write lately. I'll keep it short. I would like to start by congratulating Kim on starting a new job this week. She has taken a job with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and started last week. Ironically she now works in the same building as me!! It is a little interesting to have you wife work a couple of walls away. Her section has even higher security then my area so I can't just stop by. She can stop by my area but hasn't come by yet. We now both work less then a mile from where we live. Congrats to Kim!!

Thanksgiving was great with Dad and Carolyn coming out for the Holidays. It was a big family event. My cousin Ellie moved out here this past summer and she hosted Thanksgiving. We had a blast. Five Hoefen's were there, 7 Camann's and a few of Ellie's very nice friends. The weather held up for a couple of days and we got a good hike in. A great visit for sure.

Then the Buytaert's came out for a week during Christmas. Again the weather held up for a few days. They got to get a good hike in at Red Rock State Park. The Buytaert's got to see their condo and go swimming in the community pool. I think the went to the museum of nature and science as well. As usual I got cook a lot while everyone was here which I love to do. I cooked a family style meal for us on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Morhea had a blast opening all of her presents. This is the first year she REALLY understood what was going on and she loved every minute of it. She actually woke up around 9:30 or 10:00 AM which was nice. After presents at our house we went over to the Camann's in the afternoon. Morhea and her cousins get along so well. Her and Isabelle played for hours. I didn't even see her for most of the night. Janya and her mother made dueling roasts and we all pitched in on the fixings.

New Year's was good. Morhea was a little sick earlier in the week and so we didn't want to do too much. We ended up going to the Zoo Lights. The Denver Zoo always does a great job lighting up the zoo around Christmas. We spent the early part of the night walking around the zoo. We came home and I made some clams steamed in a white wine, onion and parsley sauce. Then I made some shrimp cocktails, crab stuffed mushrooms and finished it off with some fine deserts. Morhea easily made it to midnight and then some.

Tomorrow Kim and Morhea head off for their first skiing adventure of the year. They are very excited. Happy New Year!!

Todd

October 2008

2008-11-02T22:50:00.008-07:00

It has been a while since I wrote anything in the blog. I guess I have been pretty busy with work and everything else going on. Morhéa is getting bigger by the day. She is a little girl for sure. No longer our little baby! It is amazing to see her develop. Last night she was jumping on the bed singing as loud as she could. She was even free styling lyrics to songs. She was rhyming words and dancing like a superstar or the dreaded Hannah Montana. In fact most of the words she was using had to do with Hannah Montana and the Jonas Brothers.

Morhéa started taking gymnastics again but this time we signed her up at a real gymnastics center. It is pretty cool there. They have everything a gymnast would want. They even have babysitting on Friday nights!

Halloween has been crazy and it hasn’t even come yet. I think Morhéa has been to about 4 or 5 parties or events for Halloween already. Kim is losing it because Morhéa’s Cinderella costume has to be hand washed and she seems to get very dirty at every event. She also likes to eat about half of her candy as she goes trick or treating. That results in a grumpy, hyper, tired child by the end of the day. It will all culminate with an evening of trick or treating with her two of her friends from school.

What else has happened over the past 2 months? Aunt Stephanie came out for a girls weekend in Vail. The girls had a wonderful time in the mountains and enjoyed the last days of summer. I think it was Octoberfest in Vail so there was lots to do. We also went to the circus again this year which was a big hit. Other then $15 lemonades and $12 snow cones it was a fairly cheap night out. Kimberley also ran the Denver Marathon a few weeks ago. She had great weather and did a great job.

Cousin Ellie moved out to Denver and happens to live and work around the corner. She took a job as the department head of Geology at Red Rocks Community College. It sounds like it has all of the challenges of being a teacher and then some. Lucky for her, her cousin works at the USGS and can give out tours.

I got the chance to drive to Madison, WI last week for work which also gave me the opportunity to meet baby Parker. It was a crazy 2.5 days. We started our drive from Denver at around 4:00PM on Wednesday night. Of course it started raining as soon as we left. Of coarse the rain turned to snow about 3 hours later. We had 40 mph winds with tons of snow. Lucky for is it only lasted about 2 hours and then turned back into rain. We must of hit some a plateau or something in Nebraska. We made it to Omaha that night. We got a room and a few hours of sleep before hitting the road again. We were headed to the University of Wisconsin to meet some colleagues of ours that were making a sample for us so that we can further our knowledge of the makeup of Titan (a moon of Saturn). John and I ended up giving a 2 hour presentation to faculty and students of UofW about spectroscopy and Titan. As soon as I was done I ran off to meet Jeff, Heather and Parker. We went out for Italian. Parker was an angel! It seems like so long ago that Morhéa was that small. After dinner we headed back to Jeff’s house and relaxed for the rest of the night. The next morning we left Madison and drove all the way back to Denver.

Halloween has come and gone since I started writing this and it was crazy. The girls had a blast and got tons of candy. It reminded me of when I was a kid and my grandmother’s house where we got bags full of candy. The next day was followed by gymnastics and then Morgan’s birthday party.

While we barely got out of the 50’s 2 weeks ago this past week we were in the 70’s all week. Today it got up into the high 70’s. We took the opportunity to go for a hike. It was a wonderful day. We are looking forward to the holidays. Grammy and Grandpa are coming out for Thanksgiving.

Welcome Parker Lande Hoefen

2008-08-21T23:22:00.003-06:00

Welcome to the world Parker Lande Hoefen!! She is a very cute little girl. Parker was born Tuesday, August 19^th at 2:00PM. She weighed 5 lbs, 13 oz and is 17.5 inches long. Mom and Parker are now back at home and everything is going well. We are all very happy for them!!

On another note, Jeff finally gets to fulfill his life long dream of becoming a fireman. He graduates this Friday, the 22nd. You are never too old to fulfill you dreams. You have worked long and hard to get here and we are proud of you.

The Hoefen's

Fire hits too close to home!

2008-08-04T21:15:00.006-06:00

Well, it is 7:15 pm and our house is pretty smoky but I just returned from viewing the fire on Green Mountain and I think we should be okay. Unfortunately, the smoke is still bad and we are just downwind of the active fire. They have evacuated homes about 2 blocks west of us. That is the perimeter. It is farther away then that though so we are safe. Pretty scary for a little while though! This seemed like deja vu having done this already in Southern California. This was a little too close to home. The winds were really bad earlier and I was watching the fire tear across the grass fields of Green Mountain. I hope the winds die down and then they might be able to get it under control. The picture above shows the aftermath of the fire. You can see how close we are. If that field, in the middle of the picture, had caught on fire that would have lead straight to our house! Flames were reported to be 20-30 feet at times.

It is now 9:00PM and it looks like the fire is contained. That just shows you how dry we are in Colorado this year. I think they said on the news we are 7 or 8 inches below our annual rainfall averages between January and July.

For those of us in the heath related field, I have included a picture of the smoke blowing out over the city.

Todd

Evergreen, upstate NY for the 4th of July

2008-08-01T00:14:00.008-06:00

It has been well over a month since my last update!! I probably can’t even remember all of the things we have done. Let’s see ………. Our good friends Brian, Theresa, Ella and Sylvia moved up to Evergreen. They have a beautiful house up there with trees and all. They aren’t around the corner anymore but they are close enough to hang out with. We made a little day trip up there in late June and had a picnic on Evergreen Lake. The girls had a blast playing in the park and my buddy Brian brought his canoe so we could do some fishing. After setting up base camp Brian and I tried to bring Ella and Morhéa for a little canoe trip around the lake but Morhéa was a little scared.

Side story – Growing up in upstate NY one of my best friends, Karl, and I would go fishing every day of our summer vacations. I would ride my bike down to his house and we would fish the same stretch of a creek that ran between his and mine every day for the entire summer. We fished it so much that we would know where the fish were before they knew we were even there. We would net for minnows and spend our days looking under rocks for crayfish and then sell them for 5 cents a piece to the local bait shop. I can’t even remember when that started but we had to be around 8 or 10. Karl’s dad was also a VERY good fisherman and hunter who taught us the tricks of the trade. He had all of these really cool canoes. He had aluminum ones, plastic ones and even one he built by hand. We were never allowed to use the hand made one because we would surely sink it. When we turned 16 (and got our drivers licenses) he and I pooled our money and bought our very own canoe. Being young and athletic we opted for durability over a streamline canoe. We got a Coleman canoe. There was no stopping us after that!! We took that thing everywhere. Karl built a rack for his car and truck and we traveled near and far with that thing. Since it was durable we would take it white water canoeing. Every year we would get a warm spring day that would melt all of the winter snow we used to get back home. The temperatures might have been in the 60’s but the water would be in the high 30’s or 40’s and the creeks were several feet high. That was when we excelled!! Nothing could stop us. We would drop in with Karl in the back and me in the front. We would hit rapids, waterfalls and ice but it would never fail that we would have just made it through a fast rapid and as we rounded a bend at top speed that a tree branch that used to be 3 feet over our heads would now be just clearing the canoe. I could always bail back into the canoe but we always seemed to end up with Karl taking one in the chest and both of us ending up in the water and into the 30 something degree water!! We would both swim to shore and get out cold as a salmon in Alaska. We would stay there long enough to look at each other, then the canoe (which was both sinking and floating away) and then have to dive back into the water and save our canoe!! It was worth it though. We brought our canoe everywhere. We brought it to our creek, Oak Orchard, the Britt’s camp (near Redfield, NY and if you know where that is I am impressed), Black Lake, Canadice Lake, Hemlock Lake and many others. We did this crazy backpacking trip in the Five Pond Wilderness Area (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Ponds_Wilderness_Area) in the Adirondack Mountains. We would paddle upstream for a day or 2 then hide our canoes and backpack into the hills for 3 or 4 days to these lakes in the middle of nowhere and then back out. Other times we would bring no food or money to the camp and try and live off the land survivor style for a week. We would catch pan fish to start and then fillet them and tie the remains to some fishing line and throw that into a stream while we went out for the day doing things. If we didn’t catch or kill some kind of food during the day our backup plan would always be that our string of dead fish would usually attract lots of crayfish. If we were careful we could slowly pull in our line and have 50+ crayfish. Then we would have a crayfish boil. We didn’t know the sucking the meat out of the tail trick though and would usually use toothpicks and thus it would take us 3 hours plus to eat that many but it was worth it. When we went to college we stored the canoe in my parent’s barn. When I moved to Colorado my parents brought me out the canoe. It still resides under my deck but I haven’t busted it out in over 12 years!!!

But I digress ……… I am thrilled that Brian asked me to go canoeing and I even dusted off my spinner reel as I hear there are muskie in Lake Evergreen.

Someone got the brilliant idea to stock a trout lake with a predator fish like a muskie!! Anyway, after pushing off the beach and a couple of wobbles I soon settled into my usual front seat of the canoe. I grabbed my fishing pole and off we went. We spent the next 45 minutes touring around the lake and even though I didn’t catch squat, I had the best time I have had on a lake in 12 years. Just like the good old days!!! Thanks Brian (and Karl)!!! When we got back the girls were ready for some food so we had a barbecue and played until the sun went down.

Then we were off to Rochester and Syracuse for the 4^th of July. A much needed break from the daily grind. As usual it was a non-stop party. We arrived in Rochester on the 3^rd of July and just missing my cousin Paul’s wedding. It was okay though because he hosts our annual 4^th of July Hoefen family reunion. All of the staples were there. We had white hot dogs, Kit’s meat hot sauce, Dan’s wilted cabbage salad, Dad’s German potato salad and everything else we have had as long as I can remember. Morhéa is old enough to go off and play with her cousins and she also enjoyed the fireworks on the beach with Grammy.

The next day we had a baby shower for Heather!! My brother Jeff and Heather are having a baby!! I think the Hoefen family met for 3 days in a row on that stretch. We had a great party for them at Dad’s house. The Hoefen’s, The Hagenbach’s and even the Parker side of the family were all there. It was nice to be home. Seeing my grandmothers sister, Aunt Millie, was especially nice!

After a quick 2 days we headed to Syracuse to see the Buytaert’s. Aunt Steph, Papy and Meme were all present. I missed the 1^st night as I got a hall pass to hang out with my brother. The next day we went to the Syracuse Zoo which has become a staple in our visit. It is a nice zoo and Morhéa was impressed with the elephants there.

The next day was one of the days I don’t miss back east. HOT and HUMID!! I think that there might not have been any wind as well. To make things better for me we decided to go to nearby Green Lake (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Lake_%28New_York%29) . It is really a green lake! For anyone interested Green Lake is a meromictic lake known for its euxinic conditions at the bottom of the lake. That along with its biochemistry make it green. Just read the link and you might understand. I went there once when I was young and again as a geology major at Binghamton University. We baked there for a few hours and everyone had a great time. As you all saw in my last blog Morhéa is a fish and loves the water. She played in the lake the entire time. I think we grilled something every night and as things cooled off we ate outside. André has his grilling techniques down pretty darn good!

The next day was hot and humid again but at least this time we had some wind. In the morning Kim, Morhéa and I decided to go to a local park we play at every year. Morhéa decided to try out the monkey bars and much to our amazement went across them like she had been doing it for 3 years. Later that afternoon we decided to go down to Cazenovia Lake. We played in the water there and visited the small town there where we went for ice cream.

Then we headed back to Rochester for the final 2 days to see Dad and Carolyn again. The farm was very nice. I think the two highlights of Morhéa’s time at the farm were the daily tractor rides and the giant tree swing grandpa put up in a tree in the back yard.

Dad planted winter wheat behind the house for the first time. Growing up we had alfalfa, corn, oats and soy beans but no wheat. My Dad mentioned how nice it was to see it grow, how golden it was and how fluid it flowed with the wind. After that I took a few moments to take it all in and he was right. It was straight out of a movie. You can never capture it in a picture as well. Anyway, Grandpa told Morhéa that wheat was used to make bread so every day she would go out back and pick some wheat, eat it and tell us she was eating bread. Very cute.

As usual we made our way to Brown’s Berry Patch (http://www.brownsberrypatch.com/). It is a “pick your own” farm that has all kinds of wonderful fruit and things for kids to do. Dad and I picked blueberries and cherries while the girls fed the goats, jumped on the Barnyard Jump (a giant jumping balloon buried in the ground) and played in the kids area.

After a wonderful trip I think we arrived home to one of the last 80 degree days Colorado has seen. Today we broke a record for most consecutive 90 degree days at 19 (a record held since 1901). Our forecast for the next 5 days is 102, 100, 98, 94 and 91 degrees!!!!!! I don’t think we have gotten any significant rain here in 2 months. It is one of the driest years I can remember. Usually we get monsoon rains from the south but this year we have had a high pressure system hanging out just to the east preventing moisture from coming our way. Great for vacation but bad for the yard.

Kim did another triathlon in boulder a week or so ago. It was an Olympic distance triathlon (1.5km swim, 40km bike and 10km run). Her next one is going to be a Half Ironman (1.9km swim, 90km bike and 21.09 km run). Absolutely nuts I say but we sure are proud of her and she does love them. It had to be near 100 degrees by the time she finished the Boulder one. Another climate that Todd doesn’t do well in. I don’t care if it is 100 degrees and no humidity. It is still HOT!!!

Happy Reading!!

Father's Day, Dance Recital and Swimming!

2008-06-16T22:27:00.006-06:00

Like I said before - Happy Father’s Day!! We had a great weekend out here in Colorado. I just got back from a week of field work In Libby, MT. Being away from the family for a week seems to get harder and harder. Rhéa got a little sadder as the week moved along without me. I was supposed to pick her up from school on Friday but we got stuck in Spokane, WA for an extra 3.5 hours as our flight crew got a little extra rest. That got me into Denver at 5:30PM instead of 2:15 PM. When I did get home Morhéa was very glad to see me.

On Saturday she had dance practice and then we went to a block party in Highlands. It was fun but pretty darn hot and little wind.

Sunday was our big day. Not only was it Father’s Day but it was also the day of Morhéa’s big dance recital. She has been really excited to perform and Kim and I were equally excited to watch. We had a great time! Morhéa is really catching on. You can see in the videos how into it she was getting. On top of the “normal” tap dance moves you can see that she has her own little groove going on as well! It was awesome!! Check out the videos and you will see!

Todd

Buytaert visit/soccer/Mother's Day

2008-05-19T21:56:00.010-06:00

Another couple weeks have past and we have been very busy. Like I said before we are in our transition into hot summers. I think it snowed last week a little and then today it was around 80 degrees and it is supposed to get into the 90’s this week. Spring is strange in the Rockies. We bounce up and down in temp for a month and then one day we just stay in the 80’s and 90’s. There isn’t much middle ground.
After my last post Papy and Meme came out for a visit for Morhéa’s 3rd birthday. It was great to see them again. We did all kinds of fun things. One of the more interesting things we did was take a ride on the Pike’s Peak Cog Railway. I guess it is the worlds highest cog train. It takes you from the base of the mountains up to the 14,110 foot summit of Pike’s Peak. The train ride took a while and for the first time since Hawaii I really felt the altitude at the summit. We got off the train and not really thinking about it I threw Morhéa on my shoulders and carried her off the train and walked up and into the gift shop. By the time I got there I felt a little funny (dizzy and a little messed up in general). So I put her down and decide I should sit for a minute and drink a little water and take a few deep breaths. I think everyone else was in the bathroom or something. I now felt like my feet are in concrete and didn’t feel like I have the energy to get up. Meanwhile, Morhéa wasn’t phased by the altitude one bit. She was running around the gift shop grabbing this and that and I could only watch and come up with a few words like “Get back

here!” and “Put that down!” as she ran by me. I think all of the adults were feeling the altitude a little so we sat down for a minute. Then we all felt good enough to get up and go walk around. While I felt better I still can tell I am at 14,110 feet above sea level. We get our photo op and again I could only watch as Rhéa was running past me left and right. To be 3 again!! I couldn’t get on the train fast enough. I got a little grumpy after that but felt much better once we got down to around 11,000 feet. In the end I am glad we did it but in the time it took to do the round trip I could have flow from Denver to NYC. A long and memorable day for sure.

Papy and Meme also got to see Morhéa’s 1^st soccer practice. She is part of the Purple Dinosaurs 3-4 year old team. They play 5x5 with no goalie. It is pretty cool. Coach Jeff is awesome and is really good with the kids.

Morhéa played hooky from school and played with her grandparents all day on one of there days here. They went to the Botanical Gardens and had lunch and even a nap. They also babysat one night while Kim and I went out to dinner for the 1^st time in a while. We ate at the Samba Room in Denver which was fun. Of coarse they were in Denver for her actual birthday day. We had even more presents and another cake. Rhéa was in heaven! They also visited the art museum and survived that. It is always tricky bringing a 3 year old to the art museum.

For Mother’s Day we also went to the Botanical Gardens. It is pretty cool there. They had bands playing all day and a lot of flowers were in bloom. We spent the morning and afternoon there and then we came home. Morhéa and Mom gardened while I made dinner. It was a fun day.

Like I said before, soccer started this month. We had our 1^st game last week. It was a little rough but all of the parents told us that was normal and there wasn’t a kid out there that hadn’t had a hard time the 1^st game. She was doing great in the beginning. She was warming up (she wouldn’t put on her uniform) and kicking and running. As the game was about to start the ref called them into the middle for kickoff and then yelled “ARE YOU GUYS READY” and blew his whistle real loud. That scared Morhéa so bad she came running off the field in tears. I got her to go back out for a minute but that was about it. On top of that it was a cold and rainy day here which wasn’t helping us. This week she was great! It was warm and sunny and a morning game. She also had team pictures this week. After a little effort we got her into her uniform and she did great for the photo. Then they had their game and she did great. She didn’t actually kick the ball that much but at least she got out there without holding my hand and played by herself. Her coach even let her kickoff once. We are very proud of her.

Today Kim and Morhéa ran the Flight for Life 10k in south Denver. It might be one of the last Team Hoefen races (Kim pushes Morhéa in her jogger stroller). Morhéa is getting too tall for the jogger. They had fun! After the race Rhéa went on the bouncy slide and ate 2 or 3 snow cones. They had 2 helicopters there and a ton of ambulances as well as some fire trucks. After a short nap Morhéa and her friend went to the gym outdoor pool which opened up this weekend. Morhéa is a VERY good swimmer. She can swim to the bottom and now can swim across the pool with no floatation devices.

Morhéa turns 3 years old!

2008-04-25T00:11:00.006-06:00

Here she is!!

WE HAVE A 3 YEAR OLD!! That is right!! Morhéa Sophie Hoefen turned 3 years old today. What a week of parties it was! Colorado is getting warm and beautiful once again. While we had a pretty mild winter this year I am ready for summer!

April signifies the end of ski season in Colorado. Morhéa and Mom had a great time in the mountains this year. I am not much of a skier anymore but boy was I impressed at those videos I showed last time. She is scary good. Just looking back at our pics I see that Rhéa is in a summer dress before and after her skiing pictures which means we were in the 70’s here and snow in the mountains.

Morhéa also finished up Little Kickers Soccer Class a few weeks ago. Now we start Little Kickers Soccer for real. We have our first parent meeting this weekend. We will see how that goes! In Morhéa’s last soccer class we got to play parents vs. kids. That was a lot of fun. Morhéa scored the first goal of the game. We have video!

There are some classic pictures we have of Morhéa and her friend Brooke at the zoo which I will share.

Grandpa and Grammy arrived on the 16th. In true fashion we were getting a snow storm while NY was in the 70’s. It was okay though. The next day was cool but sunny and the next two days were warm in the mid-70’s. Our first order of business was Rhéa’s trike-a-thon. It was cool for the race but we were ready to go. The goal was to ride you tricycle around the playground coarse as many times as you could in 20 minutes. For having just learned to ride her bike I think she did great! She raised around $60. The money will go toward children’s cancer research. She did a great job and we are proud of her.

Grandpa and Grammy got to take Morhéa to Built-a-Bear. She had a blast. She danced, rubbed the bears heart all over to make her smart, rubbed the heart on her eyes so she could see and all of that. Then they put the heart back into the bear and sewed her up. She named her Annie. Annie has a ballet dress and gear as well as a casual outfit which she likes to wear to the park. A great present for sure. Morhéa brings her to the park everyday.

So many gifts came in during the week we just let her open them as they came. Jeff and Heather gave Morhéa a Princess nightgown which she loves as usual. Disney is a marketing monster!! Her cousins brought over a ton of present and then they were off so Janya could run the Boston Marathon. She ran a great time and we are all proud of her.

Grandpa and Grammy had a great visit. They stayed from Wednesday thru Sunday. We had great fun. Their first day here I took them up to Red Rocks State Park for lunch. They have really good food in the new upper section and it is cool to see the history section there. If you look closely you can see Oakhurst as one of the gigs played at Red Rocks. How cool is that!!! We started out the next day with the Trike-a-thon (as stated before) and then moved on to Morrison, Colorado. We ate awesome burgers and The Blue Cow in Morrison and then went for a nice walk along the river. We ended the afternoon with some relaxing ice cream eaten along the river. We tried to finish off the day by trying to fly a kite in the park with no wind and two engineers trying to figure out the mechanics of a kite. It was pretty sad. I am going to blame it on the lack of wind and stick with that.

The next day was Morhéa’s BIG party day. She started it off with a trip to Lollilocks for a haircut. That went okay. She was a little shy. Since her hair is still shorter on the top and in the front we decided to go with the bob again. She does look very nice in it thought. We will get long hair eventually.

That was followed by an hour on the swings at the park. Then we moved on to ballet and tap dance. I never thought I would say this but my daughter really loves ballet and tap dance. She loves the teachers and is a great listener. I am always impressed. After Dad, Carolyn and I went to collect birthday cakes while Rhéa took a nap. After that the PARTY!

Morhéa’s birthday party was last Saturday, April 19th. It was held at Pump It Up. One of the many jumpy castle places. They did a good job though. We didn’t have to do much except pay for it. They did most everything else. We had between 25-30 kids plus adults. And for that many I think it went really well. We had a lot of support. The kids jumped around in the jumpy houses for 1.25 hours. Then into another room for pizza and drinks. Then the birthday cake!! Getting cake to 25 kids was a little tough but we managed. We left with several large bags of presents to open. They were all a hit. Morhéa got to hang out late with her grandparents and then they were off the next morning. Another successful visit!! We are looking forward to getting back to my home for the 4th of July!!!

Tyler had a birthday in all of this as well. We had a great time at his party on Sunday.

Jump forward to today and it is Morhéa’s real birthday (4/24/05). It was also take your kid to work day. Morhéa spent the morning learning about blood at Kim’s work. Strange as it sounds it was much more entertaining then my work. I will have to work on that. At Kim’s work the all got a centrifuge tube with two liquids in them like blood. They spun them around and they separated and then they shook them back up to combine the blood. Lots of cool events like that. Much cooler then my work. We spent most of the time at my work talking about Morhéa’s “blood” she was wearing around her neck with my co-workers. Other then that Morhéa got a Hershey Kiss, 3 balloons, some chez-its and 2 rocks from me. Not as cool as spinning blood but she did love the chez-its!! I will work on it next year. Maybe I will launch a spaceship to the Kuiper Belt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuiper_belt) or something? That should get some attention among the 3-4 year olds. I need a couple of billion $$$’s if anyone wants to help out? For now Pyrite and Hematite will have to do!!!

Rhéa actually goes back to school for a nap!! She wakes up in time for a school party. There are vanilla and chocolate cup cakes with lots of frosting. We sing her happy birthday again and her and her friends enjoy their cupcakes. She is wearing a crown her classmates have made for her. She is very proud. As soon as we wrap up there we head home for 5 minutes and then it is off to pick up Buytaert’s. We get them and open a lot of presents and then get some pizza before settling in for the night. Aunt Stephanie called to wish Morhéa a happy birthday and they had a good conversation. Then we finished it all of with ice cream and cake. She also got a VERY nice Cinderella dress!!!

What a birthday week!!!

New Videos!!

2008-04-09T00:39:00.004-06:00

We have 2 new videos. Miss Grace at school has been wonderful teaching Rhea to sing songs in both English and Spanish. Here is an example.

We also have a short clip of Morhea skiing up at Winter Park. She is skiing by herself!! This will be a big month as she turns 3 in a few weeks. All of the relatives are coming out.

Enjoy!!!

Todd

Easter!

2008-03-31T22:44:00.004-06:00

Not much new around here these days. Easter weekend was nuts!! It was party central around here. Friday night we had guys night over at Dano's for the NCAA men's basketball tournament followed by beer and poker. We had fun and I won so it all worked out!

Saturday Morhéa had dance followed up with an easter egg hunt and painting with her friends Jahayra and Morgan. They had a blast!! Me and Brian were at the end of our ropes. They play like sisters and they fight like sisters is how it was put to me. Every toy in the house was out and then some. Every time I would say "I've got you where I want you and now I'm going to eat you!!" All of the girls would scream at the top of their lungs and go running into Rhea's room. Too funny.

On Easter Sunday we were lucky enough to go to Easter Brunch with Morgan and her family at the Deer Creak Country Club. I love playing golf there and their brunch was great as well. We even got a 2nd Easter Egg hunt in.

That afternoon the Camann's came over for Easter dinner. We had our 3rd easter egg hunt!! Morhéa loves her cousins!!! Indy and Isabelle are the best! They made Rhea sooooo happy. She loves when they come over and play. When they come over I usually don't see Rhea for 4 hours or so! I made a simple dinner and we caught up. It is nice to see family.

I hope everyone had a good Easter. We are looking forward to our warmer weather and the spring. We are in this cycle of 70 degrees then snow then 60 then snow. Soon it will be 110 and I will be complaining about that. Spring is the best for me though!

Love,

The Hoefen's

A new niece/nephew in the future, Oakhurst, new baby friends

2008-03-03T18:38:00.007-07:00

Well, it has been a while since I updated the blog. It looks like I missed a month! I guess we have been pretty low key for a while. The biggest news lately is that there will be a new addition to the Hoefen family! Heather is pregnant! We are so happy for Jeff and Heather. I am looking forward to having a niece/nephew in the family. Heather is moving along in the pregnancy nicely and they are both getting very excited about having a child!

Parties and Princesses have been the theme for the past month. Morhéa can’t get enough of the Princesses! It seems like there is always a Princess play in town and Kim finds them all. They have gone from the big stage to the local theatres to catch them. It is classic though! Morhéa and her friends like to dress up like their favorite Princess and go to the show! They have a blast. I didn’t make it to the smaller events but Kim says they are unbelievable. Apparently, for being a small act they do a VERY good job with the production.

Morhéa is still doing her skiing. The mountains this year are getting record snowfalls so the skiing has been great. She might have more powder days then me at this point. Some of Morhéa’s friends from her 6 month old music class have joined them 2+ years later for skiing in the mountains. She is even skiing blue runs!

Last weekend we went for a hike at the nearby South Valley Park and had a great time. It is a beautiful open space park close to our house. It had a great trail and nice rock formations.

Summer is getting closer and that means summer sports! Morhéa has started swim lessons and “Little Kickers” soccer class. Mom and Morhéa have been very active swimmers for a long time but now she is “officially” taking lessons. Today she told me she swam to the bottom of the pool to get a stick at the bottom!!! She is a natural! Last week she started Little Kickers soccer class and was also impressive. Rhéa and her friend Morgan are taking the class and they had a blast. Again, she has the soccer gene from both me and Kim. I was sick last week and couldn’t make it but am excited to see her in action. She has shin guards, soccer socks, Puma’s and even a David Beckham soccer uniform (go Chelsea!).

We have had parties almost every weekend. We have had birthday parties for kids and adults. Cousin Isabelle’s birthday was last week so we got together with them which was nice since we haven’t seen them in a little while. Isabelle is great with Morhéa and the two of them always have the best time. We walk in the house and usually don’t see them again until dinner. Lots of friend’s birthdays as well. Last weekend there was a gymnastics party where Morhéa showed her stuff.

Somehow Kim keeps winning these free happy hour parties and the Denver Aquarium. It is pretty fun with cheap beer, free admission, free parking and free food! Her last party was great. We had a ton of friends and all of the kids had a great time. I think we took over the place. Kim said last week she went there and there were all these adults only at the same happy hour. We had sooooo many kids when we were there it was pretty funny. They all seem to love it though. The bar area has windows to see into the aquarium where there are sharks and divers and tons of fish.

There are a couple of babies in the mix this past week. Last week our friends Brian, Theresa and Ella welcomed Sylvia into the world. All are home safe and sound.

Then TODAY at 8:41 AM Cole Hogan O’Reilly was born. Scott, Danielle and Jack are still recovering but everything went well. Scott says he is a big boy! Many long nights and early mornings for those crews. Congrats to all! I have added a picture of Cole to the site.

Congrats to Oakhurst as well! It has been a few years since I have left the band but the boys keep on truckin’! They spent the month of January in the Caribbean playing alongside the likes of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Barenaked Ladies, Lyle Lovett and many, many others! I got to sleep on floors, couches, and pillows and now they are VIPS on cruise ships in the Caribbean. I got to live my rock star moments as well though. Oakhurst just released a new cd called “Jump in the Get Down” and had their cd release party this past weekend at the Bluebird Theatre. For all intensive purposes they sold out the place. It was great! I haven’t seen them in a while so I am glad I got out of the house and caught a show. The first ¾ was all bluegrass. They had the opening band up on stage for an allstar 10 person jam. Then the last ¼ they put away the banjo, upright bass and mandolin for electric guitars. All I can say is WOW!!! I was impressed with the talent of everyone. Let’s just say they don’t have day jobs anymore (for the most part) and play 200+ shows a year for good reason. Check them out at:

http://www.porchmusic.com/
http://www.myspace.com/oakhurst

Their myspace page has some of their music from the new cd to listen to. Their tour dates are listed there as well. Another month on the road in the U.S. and then off to Europe.

That is all for now. I will send an update again as soon as I can.

Todd

Half way to 70!

2008-01-23T19:20:00.000-07:00

Another few weeks have come and gone. I don’t know where the time goes. We have had a lot of fun over the past few weeks. It seems like Morhéa has been having a nonstop weekend party with her friends the past few weeks. Morgan and family came over to try out my cooking one night. She partied with Tyler and Sierra this past weekend and then she got to hang out with Ella at the National Western Stock Show. She gets so excited to see her friends!! As we got closer to each party date she would often say “It is so hard to wait for Ella!” or “It is so hard to wait for Morgan” and so on for all of her friends. She is so cute when she says that.

On Monday Morhéa and I had Daddy day. It was Martin Luther King Day and I had off from work but Kim had to work so it was me and Morhéa all day. We called up Ella and asked if she wanted to go to the National Western Stock Show with us. Brian and Ella had no plans so off we went. I just looked up the history of the show and it all started in 1906!! It is one of the bigger stock shows in the country if not the biggest. I grew up on a farm so the whole concept doesn’t faze me. When I was younger we would go to cattle auctions all the time. It is a pretty amazing site. If you need a cowboy hat, boots, Ford F150, John Deere tractor or a cow you should go to the stock show. They have it all. We saw cows, pigs, horses, brahman, dogs, sheep, ducks, llamas and various other critters. The girls had a great time. We had lunch there and everything. We even got a ride in Brian’s new family mobile (the mini-van). It was decked out pretty good.

I turned 35 last week. Half way to 70! Morhéa and Kim secretly made me cards and cup cakes. Morhéa was so excited for me to get home from work. As soon as I got home we opened presents and she gave me her card. We got Carmine’s on Penn to go (a local Italian restaurant that I love). Then I got my cup cakes which were decorated with chocolate sprinkles, rainbow sprinkles and candy stars!! Just what every Dad would ever want!

We are looking forward to this weekend. Scott comes into town tomorrow for the night. Then Friday the girls and I are headed to Winter Park for the Mary Jane Birthday Bash weekend. Morhéa is very excited to see the ice sculptures, fireworks and bands. She we also be skiing, AGAIN! I think this is her 3 or 4^th time? She is almost a pro! Got to run!

Todd

Happy New Year!!!

2008-01-01T08:45:00.000-07:00

Happy 2008 everyone!!! Another quick update. The Buytaert’s came out for the holidays this year. We had a great week with them. I had hernia surgery (with food poisoning or the flu) right before they arrived so the helped out immensely with taking care of Morhéa. While I spent the week in bed and stuck at home they got to run around the city and play. In true Colorado Christmas fashion we got our usual snow storm. Everyone got to go to some Christmas parade or something in Golden. Morhéa got to see her cousins which was great. Uncle Bill and Aunt JoAnne stopped by the house to see how I was doing. The family got to go to the zoo and with all of the new snow Morhéa got to try out sledding. Today Kim and Morhéa headed to the mountains and Morhéa is going to get her first ski lesson!!! I can’t believe that one!!

Morhéa really got to enjoy Christmas this year. It took us 2 days to open her presents. There were lots of great highlights. She got a set of Princess outfits that she wears every day. She got a new bike! Lot of games, Barbie’s and tons of Princess gear.

My big Christmas present from my father and Carolyn is a new GE dual-fuel range!! It took a while but I got it in. My house wasn’t setup for gas so I had to have a gas line installed. If anyone needs a plumber I’ve got your guy! Ricky ran the gas lines. He have me a line on an electrician and I got that wired up and then one of my old bandmates is a handyman and cut my countertops and cabinets. Sears was supposed to deliver it on the 22^nd but they didn’t get it here until the 29^th. Either way it is now in and I am a cooking machine. The 1^st night I made Dominic’s Beef A La Dutch. Basically, it is filet mignon with onions and peppers in a veal demiglace all over pasta with a side of green beans sautéed with shallots and butter. The second night I made Dover Sole Meuniere with a side of mushrooms. Last night I made New England Clam Chowder. It has been great!!

Merry Christmas!!

2007-12-25T13:49:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-12-09T23:09:00.000-07:00

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

2007-11-12T22:14:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-23T22:10:00.000-06:00

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

2007-10-16T23:33:00.003-06:00

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!!

2007-10-14T22:45:00.001-06:00

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

2007-09-11T22:41:00.000-06:00

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

2007-08-25T00:40:00.001-06:00

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

2007-08-16T22:43:00.000-06:00

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!

2007-08-16T21:14:00.000-06:00

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

2007-08-01T23:50:00.000-06:00

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!

2007-07-31T21:54:00.000-06:00

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

2007-07-15T17:03:00.000-06:00

So after:

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

811 days, 7 hours and 56 minutes

~19,472 hours

1,168,316 minutes

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).

Boyfriends!!

2007-07-07T22:45:00.000-06:00

So, it looks like I already have to keep my eye on 2 boys these days (not to mention Jack when he comes to town). Today was boyfriend day. First, Mom and Morhéa partied with boyfriend #1 named Mateo! They went to a water park and our little fish was fearless. Going down the water slides by herself and jumping into the pool without any fear. Observe the lunchtime date on the lounge chair. Also, notice Morhéa's baby that she takes care of these days sitting behind her.The second party was a gathering of force with the Hoefen, Abrams and O'Dougherty families! There were kids everywhere. Kim let me play washers with the boys and was very nice to me. Ricky made chicken that was actually cooked this time and it was very good!! I think washers was ruled by me as usual. The funniest was the Abrams son, Trey who is a little younger then Morhéa. Let's see, there was a fight, some biting, some shooting each other with squirt guns, some tackling in the trampoline, some push, some playing and of coarse some KISSING!!

I'm watching you Trey :) !! They were very cute though. Morhéa asked Dano if she could marry Trey. Okay folks!! She is 2! All of the 1 - 4 year olds need to back off.

Morhéa's loving and protective father,

Todd

Supermom, Rhéa updates and the 4th!

2007-07-05T23:04:00.000-06:00

Congrats to Supermom again! This time for doing her first Olympic distance triathlon. She did the Loveland Lake to Lake Triathlon (1.5K swim, 30 mile biking and a 10K run). As usual we are very proud of her. Interestingly, this is just a warm up for the August 2007 EAS 5430 Long Course Triathlon. This one is a half Iron Man (1.2 mile swim, 56 miles biking and 13.1 mile run).

What else? I will catch you up on Morhéa’s past week. We will start with a photo from last month that we really enjoyed. It is of Morhéa dancing at Patrick and Jeannie’s wedding. She had a blast there and we are really glad that they were nice enough to let Morhéa be a part of their special day.

Then we move onto Splash day at school. Every Thursday afternoon the kids dress in everything from swim suits to bare butts. It is pretty funny. They turn on all of the sprinklers and let them go at it. It is around 100 degrees these days here so the water is a welcome relief whether you know it or not. Morhéa loves water of all kinds.

A few weeks ago we went to “La Piazza dell’Arte” in Larimer Square downtown. This was a pretty cool art show where artists and students transformed Larimer Square into a street museum. Anything from general artwork to famous painting were drawn on the sidewalks for everyone to enjoy.

Morhéa also loves her Splash Park near where we live. They have lots of activities for the kids to enjoy and most of them are very shallow which limits the chance of injury. Her and her friends love to play there.

Lastly, the 4^th of July!!! Our party started on the 3^rd. We wanted to take Morhéa to somewhere where she would have a good time. We took her to the Heritage Square near our house. It is a nice old school museum/activity place for the kids. It wasn’t really what I expected. Beer tents and loud music plus all of the rides. We ended up riding on the train around the park and then on a few others before standing in a very long line for 1 hot dog, 1 elk Braut, 1 small nachos and some drinks. Got those and headed out to the parking lot for the fireworks. This year Morhéa understood what was going on and didn’t like the noise so much. She loved the fireworks minus the noise. We ended up watching them with some friends in the car and everything went better.

The next morning we got up and went to the Lyons Park 4^th of July party in Golden sponsored by the Lions Club. It was really fun. They had free blow-up jumpy houses to bounce around in for Morhéa, a free jungle gym, mimi-golf, music, food and beer at 10 AM. We spent the better part of the morning plus part of the afternoon there. Went home for a nap and then started cooking dinner for the family. The neighbors around the corner started shooting off fireworks around 4:00PM and didn’t end until around 11:00 PM. Most of their spent cartridges ended up in our yard. We ate dinner on the deck and you could here rocket parts falling through the trees everywhere. None exploded in the yard or else I would of have to bust out some Todd on them. Again, Morhéa got scared with all of the big booms. So we decided to watch the Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular on TV. I have seen a lot of fireworks in my day but the Boston ones were pretty cool. Since they weren’t as loud Morhéa loved them and we watched most of them. Then waited until the neighbors cooled off and finally got her into bed around 10-10:30.

I will say that Colorado has got nothin’ in upstate, NY. Come down to my cousins place on Lake Ontario and you will experience some of the best food and entertainment ever. Things haven’t changed on ounce from the first 4^th I can remember. (minus the fact my brother and I no longer wear matching swim suits.) The food is the same: white hot dogs, Dad’s German Potato Salad, wilted cabbage salad, macaroni salad, regular potato salad, red hots, hamburgers, jello salad, Kitt’s meat hot sauce and the list goes on. Washers, which has become a very popular game around these parts. Fireworks in every direction. Fireworks are illegal in NY but that doesn’t stop us New Yorker’s from driving 3-4 hours to Pennsylvania to buy real fireworks. The result is truly amazing. Think the Rockies fireworks show in every direction for miles and miles. Bonfires that start with wood 20 feet high and then when lit double their height. One of the best time you will every have. I missed every minute this year!! We will be back next year for sure though!!

P.S. – Dad and Carolyn are headed to Alaska for a few weeks for a trip of their lifetimes!! Have fun kids!

The History Behind the name Morhéa!

2007-06-27T22:26:00.001-06:00

The story behind the naming of Morhéa starts on July 27, 2002. Many of you were there with us on that beautiful night at the Chief Hosa Lodge! A wonderful wedding spot just up the hill a ways from our house. Chief Hosa has a wonderful view of the Colorado Rocky Mountains. One of the first great views on your way out of Denver. After Kim and I got married we took a Windstar Cruise around the Tahitian Islands. First off, if you are an adult you can and should enjoy this cruise. Unfortunately, they don’t allow kids on the cruises. I think they had around 100 rooms on board, or was it 100 people? Either way it was small for a cruise ship. By the second night the entire staff had memorized our names. It was very impressive. Anyway, we got to see many of the islands around the area being on a large sail boat. On of those islands was named Moorea.

This was our favorite island ever. The island of Moorea can be seen in the background of the photo above. It is still probably the #1 place I have been. It is right up there with Hawaii and any of the Caribbean. A beautiful island with nothing much to do. They don’t have an advanced plumbing system there so every house is built at sea level. No houses on the sides of the hill! The way it should be. Kim and I got our black pearls there as well. A beautiful place for sure.

Jump forward a few years and it is just before April 24, 2005. We decided that Moorea was one of our favorite islands and it had so much history in our lives. So we thought, okay Moorea it is. Side note - My buddy Rob mentioned that the Tahitians probably pronoun it more like mo-o-rea. First thing Kim’s says is that if we name her that she will be called Moo for the rest of her life. We didn’t like that too much so we decided to play around with the words. When we were there the Moo sounded like a slightly long Mo or short Moo. So to us that was the starting point. A little different but Mo would start it off. At the time I had also just started working on the Cassini VIMS project set to reach Saturn. One of the things we mainly study there is the surface composition of the moons of Saturn. One of the moons is named Rhea.

The two images above are taken from NASA and shows Rhea. The first one shows it with the rings just above. The second image shows a false color image used to bring out differences in composition on the moons surface.

The above images were taken of Saturn. The top one was taken when the moon was behind the planet and transmitting light through the rings and around saturn. The second image shows how the VIMS team sees Saturn. If you can penetrate the top layer of clouds a little you get a better view of the very dynamic atmosphere/surface.

The moon got its name from the Greek goddess Rhea. She was the Titaness daughter of Uranus, the sky, and Gaia, the earth, in classical Greek mythology. In earlier traditions, she was strongly associated with Gaia and Cybele, the Great Goddess and later seen by the classical Greeks as the mother of the major gods and goddesses. Sister to Cronus and mother to Demeter, Hades, Hera, Hestia, Poseidon and Zeus.

Now if you were to type Rhea into the internet you get different pronunciations. In the planetary community we usually say it like we say Rhéa. Other people pronounce Rhea as you would the ia in Maria. That confused us more so we made it a little harder and added an accent aigu (é) to Rhea giving us Rhéa. Now we add the Mo back and get Morhéa. With the hopes that she becomes Morhéa or Rhéa. She is born on April 24, 2005 as Morhéa Sophie Hoefen. Sophie after a beautiful sister of Kim and Steph's who died at a very young age from SIDS.

Now we keep wanting to go back and show her the island she was named after but I think we might wait a little longer until she can remember it.

Widespread Panic - Red Rocks Wrap-up

2007-06-26T21:32:00.001-06:00

Like I said before another great Widespread Panic weekend. We had a lot of fun and as usual it was great to see everyone again. It was nice to see my friends Cheryl and Michael from California as well. I was really impressed by the current WSP lineup and can't wait to see them again (hopefully on a mountain leg of the tour).

As a side note I was looking for some photos of Red Rocks to show my Uncle in London and stumbled upon a photo of Red Rocks from the 1920' or 1930's before it became an amphitheatre. To me it is amazing to see a photo that is that old yet still looks the same. I guess I am a geologist and I am talking about geologic time here so it shouldn't shock me but I was still impressed none the less. Click on the photo for a larger image.

Widespread Panic 6/23/07 Red Rocks!

2007-06-24T10:34:00.000-06:00

6/23/2007 - Red Rocks - Showtime 7:00 MST Set 1 - Pigeons, Better Off, All Time Low, Down > PAYMH > Blackout Blues, Pickin' Up The Pieces, Airplane > Rock
Set 2 - Pleas > Chilly Water, Thought Sausage, Aunt Avis > Second Skin > Greta > Barstools > Machine > Barstools > Dyin Man* > Red Hot Mama Jam* > Drums* > Red Hot Mama*
Encore - Take Out > Smokin Factory > Porch Song, End of the Show * w/ DJ Logic on turntables

Another smokin' show. These two shows might rank in my top 10 ever. The 6/22 show might be in my top 3! I will update this post with some pics when I get them. My 2 day run is over. I decided not to go to the Sunday show this year because I wanted to spend some of my weekend with the family. In a way I am glad because it is a day show today and the temperature is supposed to be around 97 degrees! HOT!

Widespread Panic 6/22/07

2007-06-23T09:35:00.000-06:00

6/22/2007 - Red Rocks - Showtime 7:18 MST Set 1 - Holden Oversoul > Walk On, Give, Walkin', C Brown, Time Zones, Can't Get High, One Arm Steve, Conrad
Set 2 - Flicker, Lets Get The Show On The Road > Impossible > Money Jam > Stop Go > North > Smokestack Lightning > I Walk On Guilded Splinters > Stop Go > Love Tractor > Imitation Leather Shoes
Encore - Old Joe > Goin' Out West

Photo courtesy of Tyler Martin.

Great show last night by my favorite band. I went there with my concert partners in crime, Kym and Shannon. I think someone mentioned that this is the 9th year we have gone to the shows together!!! Many of the other crew were there as well. Our friends Cheryl and Michael flew out from California to go see the shows and after a long trip we ended up in row 53, seat 27. The addition of Jimmy Herring to the band has made me love them even more. That past few years the band has really lacked the jamming quality that made them a "jam" band. Jimmy Herring has added that back to the mix. I was really impressed. It was good to see everyone again as well. Off to do it again today!

T

Rockies playoff material?

2007-06-20T23:14:00.000-06:00

I just got back from taking my buddy Steve to the Rockies/Yankees game. I, of coarse, love the Yankees while Steve hates the Yankees. I think I might be the only Yankee fan at the USGS. As a joke I got Steve and I Yankees tickets for his retirement present. The joke was supposed to be that the Rockies are so pathetic that the Yankees would storm into Colorado and beat them up. I ordered these tickets back in January or February. I picked the ticked up in march from the box office. Even then when I went to pick them up the ticket agent said, "Mr. Hoefen we have a problem!" "The Yankees called and said they were too scared to play the Rockies and weren't going to show up!" Good one. So here we are June 20th 2007. The Rockies have had a great month and just won 2 of 3 in Boston and are one of the hotter teams. The Yankees had a horrible start but are putting it all together and have had a good string of wins.

At the start of this series both the Rockies and Yankees had 35 wins. The Yankees began the season with a $195 million payroll while the Rockies are ranked 25th in spending with an opening day payroll of $54 million. The following stats were taken from the Denver Post. Here is the salaries of the starters in yesterdays games:

Yankees: Damon 13M, Jeter 21.6 M, Abreau 15.6 M, Rodriguez 27.7 M, Posada 12 M, Matsui 13 M, Cano 491K, Nieves 382K, Mussina 11M for a total of $114.7 Million.

Rockies: Taveras 402K, Matsui 1.5M, Halliday 4.4M, Helton 16.6M, Atkins 400K, Hawpe 403K, Tulowitzki 381K, Torrealba 1.07M, Fogg 3.6M for a total of $28.7 million.

WOW!! Needless to say the Yankees came in here and lost 3-1 last night and then tonight got shelled 6-1. What is going on here? Are the Rockies really playoff material?

Tomorrow I get to look forward to Roger Clemens. Don't get me wrong. I may go down to the game just to see him throw a few pitches because he IS Roger Clemens. This is another one of those salaries I don't understand. Again from the Denver Post, in May of 2007 Clemens signed a 1 year contract with the Yankees for $28,000,022. His prorated salary since he missed part of the year is $18 million. Based on projections and no injuries this is what he is scheduled to make:

$153,005 - Salary per Day
$792,000 - Salary per start
$12,409 - Cost per inning
$10,200 - Cost per strikeout
$705 - cost per pitch.

That is great isn't it!! Now on top of that the Yankees have a pretty bad bullpen. Clemens isn't a spring chicken here anymore so he now becomes a 5-7 inning pitcher. That leads us to the middle relief which stinks. I am not sure how Clemens is going to get those wins but it sure will cost the Yankees one way or the other.

I might go down to the game just to witness Clemens in all of his greatness. I think is supposed to be in the high 90's so I might fry in the process.

Look out for those Rockies though. I was even a little impressed.

T

Vietnamese Caramelized Pork and Rice Noodle Salad

2007-06-18T17:51:00.000-06:00

Since this is my blog and I can write about whatever I want to I decided to add a recipe I made for our Father's Day Dinner. I got it from the June 2007 Cooking Light magazine. The recipe is for Vietnamese Caramelized Pork and Rice Noodle Salad and it was very good. Here you go:

Dressing:
3/4 cup water
4 1/2 Tbs granulated sugar
3 Tbs rice vinegar
2 Tbs fresh lime juice
1 1/2 Tbs fish sauce (usually found in the asian section of supermarkets)
2 tsp minced peeled fresh ginger
3/4 tsp Sriracha (hot chili sauce, such as Huy Fong, usually in the Asian section but not always. I had to buy some off of a local Pho restaurant.)
3 gloves garlic, minced

Salad:
1 (6-ounce) package rice vermicelli
1 pound pork tenderloin, trimmed
2 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp sriracha
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
3 Tbs brown sugar
Cooking spray
2 cups thinly sliced red leaf lettuce
1 cup matchstick cut peeled English cucumber
1 cup matchstick cut carrot
1 cup bean sprouts
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
3 Tbs chopped fresh mint
1/2 cup chopped dry roasted peanuts
Lime wedges (optional)

1.) To prepare dressing, combine the 1st 8 ingredients in a small saucepan; cook over medium heat 5 minutes or just until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat; cool.

2.) To prepare salad, place vermicelli in a large bowl. Cover with boiling water. Let stand 20 minutes or until tender. Drain and rinse under cold water; drain.

3.) prepare grill.

4.) Chef Todd would leave the tenderloin uncut and grill it that way. The recipe call for quartering the loin and it seemed a little too thin to me*. A.) Cut tenderloin in half lengthwise. B.) Cut each piece in half crosswise. Place each pork piece between 2 sheets of plastic wrap; pound to an even thickness using a meat mallet or small heavy skillet. Combine 2 tsp fish sauce and 1 tsp Sriracha; drizzle over pork. Sprinkle evenly with garlic powder, salt and pepper. Pat brown sugar onto pork.

5.) Place pork on a grill rack coated with cooking spray or vegetable oil (I assume to prevent the brown sugar and loin from sticking). Grill 12 minutes or until slightly pink in the center (obviously grill longer if using a full uncut loin), turning pieces occasionally to prevent burning. Place pork on cutting board; let stand 5 minutes. Cut across grain into very thin slices.

6.) Combine vermicelli, lettuce and next 6 ingredients (through mint) in a large bowl. Pour dressing over salad; toss well. Top with pork and nuts. Serve with lime wedges, if desired.

Don't be scared of the fish sauce it adds great flavor and you will never notice it. Sriracha is hot so it does add a little kick. Not that bad but if you are a total wimp use less Sriracha. I love Sriracha and would probably add a little more post cooking.

New Home Theater

2007-06-15T18:43:00.001-06:00

Since this is a blogging site and I like to tell stories and share my life experience I figured I would add some other random stuff. Today I will talk about the new addition to my home theater. I purchased a new Panasonic TH-50PZ700U 50" plasma TV. I couldn't hold out any longer and found what I think is a great TV. It is one of the 1st plasma true 1080p TV's to arrive under $5000. I know a lot about home theater and was still shocked to find out that most plasma TV's are only 720p. I held out buying a TV for a few months until this puppy came came out and boy am I glad I did. I pretty much bought the 1st one in Denver and the first one at the Lakewood store. I talked them into price matching some mom and pop store in Cleveland that was offering the TV for some employee price and a seriously discounted price even though it was brand new.

It is a beauty! Full 1920 x 1080 pixels with all of the trimmings. The picture looks amazing. Of coarse the only thing that actually can display a true 1080p signal is a blu-ray player (the newest high definition DVD player. There is also HD-DVD but I am hoping the Blu-Ray wins.) Currently the cheapest blu-ray player just also happens to be the new Playstation 3 which I would also love. After buying all of this I noticed some promotional thing offering free cables on plasma TV's so I asked them about it and ended up getting $200 in free cables as well.

The downside to this is that I bought all of this from the sale of my beloved drums! If you have never scene my drums they were BIG! Too big for the house.

Of coarse as soon as I set them up in the garage Morhéa fell in love with them. Every night she would say "daddy, I want to play the drums!" We would go to the garage and I would play the bass drum and hi-hat and she would pound away on the drums and cymbals. She was beaking my heart for sure. I sold them in 4 days to some guy in Boulder who didn't even want to look at them. He just came down in his Lexus SUV, loaded them up, payed me in cash and was off just like that. Seven years of memories packed up and gone in 10 minutes. We worked out a great deal for me though and I got to keep all of the percussion instruments. Morhéa still loves to bang on those and if I ever wanted to play a little more I could get a smaller set that is more practical for family living. It was a bittersweet ending to my dream of being a rockstar!

Anyway, my new setup is great. I have the new plasma plus a playstation 3, XBox, digital cable , DVD player, TiVo, cd player and Infinity 5.1 surround system. I am still blown away how good a true 1080p signal looks. The difference between 720p digital cable and 1080p blu-ray is even impressive. The downside is that normal 420p cable looks pretty bad on the plasma. It is bad enough that I try not to watch anything but HD programs on the plasma and watch the rest of the TV shows on our TV upstairs. I can't wait for football season to start so I can enjoy those Bronco games. That's all for now!

T

Telluride Recap!

2007-06-14T00:17:00.001-06:00

As you see my buddy Marc turned me on to a free blogging site that allows unlimited downloads of pics and is for free right now. It is a pretty simple yet effective site. It is based at www.blogger.com , they ask you for some e-mail address and username and that is it. So far so good.

Morhéa has been soaking up information and words like you wouldn’t believe. The other morning Kim and I were arguing about getting out of Telluride and Morhéa looked at me and said “Mom, you are driving me crazy!” Which is the words mom usually uses to describe me or Morhéa. As I mentioned before we were in Telluride for my buddy Patrick’s wedding. He married a very nice woman named Jeannie who is awesome. All weekend I only heard good things about her from everyone. Their wedding took place at the top of the Telluride ski resort. One of the best towns in Colorado and it might have the best views in all of Colorado. Staying there for 4 nights made us want to stay a lot longer. The wedding also reunited several of the School of Mines crowd (Patrick, Terry, Marc, Tom and Sheila). Hard to believe we graduated almost 9 years ago. We did a lot of catching up and had a great time. Telluride isn’t exactly close to Denver though. We left Denver at 4:30 PM and we were about 3 miles from Telluride when we were stopped because they closed the road to Telluride for construction. We got lucky and the guy in front of us was a local and took us around the construction. Lucky is an understatement! We ended up taking unmarked dirt roads through the mountains at 10:30 at night. If it wasn’t for him we would have had to wait until 1:15AM to get through. In the end it took us a little over 6 hours.

We ended up renting a condo instead of staying at a hotel. The last hotel we stayed at for one Kim’s marathons resulted in all 3 of us going to bed at 9:00 because once Morhéa went to sleep we had no other option other then to go to bed as well. That persuaded us to rent a 2 bedroom condo. We booked it at the last minute and the guy gave us a great deal. I have to admit that this is the 3^rd house/condo I have rented through www.vrbo.com (vacation rental by owner) and so far all have been awesome. If you try and rent this way make sure you do your homework and check the internet for any comments (trip advisor or fodor’s forums) and ask for references. This is a website where owners can rent their own places and thus you get rid of any middle men. The risl is that the place you rent stinks and you are stuck with this dump for the rest of your vacation. We have rented places in Hawaii, St. Marteen and Telluride and all 3 have been great but I did a ton of research on them first! If you want pointers feel free to ask me.

Friday we hit Baked in Telluride for breakfast which has some really good eats. We played around town most of the day. I got my fishing gear together and we did some shopping. That night the Newman’s threw a great party in one incredible house. I think it was a 6 bedroom house (with a side guest house) overlooking the mountains. It was a great party and gave us an opportunity to meet Jeannie’s family. Morhéa got to meet a few girls her age and did whatever they did for the next two days.

Saturday we got breakfast again at Baked in Telluride and I bumped into Marc Oettinger who mentioned that he would like to go fishing with me. We headed out mid morning and had a great time. We drove some mountain dirt road following the San Miguel River through a beautiful valley. It was gorgeous. The river was flowing pretty fast so we didn’t actually fish the river but ended up at Trout Lake which is a beautiful lake at somewhere around 10,000 feet in elevation. Just as we were getting settled in we got little visit from the game warden which cut our trip a little short. Marc “forgot” to buy his fishing license the day before. Fortunately for us we talked about such a situation on the ride up and we did a pretty good job of playing dumb. The warden was nice enough to laugh at our fairly pathetic excuse and let us off with a warning. It was time to go anyway. We headed back to town and got ready for the wedding. As I said before the wedding was at the top of a mountain and was beautiful. This was followed by another great party/reception at La Piazza del Villaggio Ristorante in the Mountain Village. We had the entire restaurant to ourselves and they had nothing but the best Italian food and drinks. We had duck pâté, sushi, these wild mushroom puff pastries, bacon wrapped scallops, fruit sticks for the little ones and a cheese tray for H’orderves. The dinner consisted of an Italian salad followed by lobster ravioli. The main coarse was, Fillet Mignon and lobster tails with a side of beans wrapped in proscuitto. I was too full to even attempt to eat desert so I didn’t. They looked really good though!

Sunday we went to another one of my favorite Colorado towns called Ouray (pronounce U-Ray according to Sheila who says that is how the locals pronounce it). A short 45 minute drive from Telluride, Ouray is more of a locals town with great views. We went made our usual rounds and went shopping, ate some ice cream and ate some lunch. We followed that up with playing in the park which also has great views. Ouray was one of the first towns I stayed in Colorado when I came out here in 1995 to do my geologic field mapping class. I was so blown away by how beautiful it was that it made my want to move here which I did 1 year later!

Monday was our travel day and it took us a lot longer to get home (7+ hours). Traffic in Delta, Colorado!!! Give me a break! Traffic, an accident which closed both lanes of I-70 and construction which also closed I-70 for 15 minute intervals. Morhéa traveled great and thought the entire trip was one long party. She got a little car sick on the way home but was a real trooper and we were proud of her as usual.

I will try and put updates here every so often. I might add other random things like band events, cooking and work related stuff here as well so check back every once and a while. I will send out an e-mail when I make large Morhéa updates.

Todd

Telluride

2007-06-11T23:48:00.000-06:00

I am testing this site out because a friend told me to try it. So here it goes. I will keep it short until I understand it more.

Just got back from Telluride which is quickly moving its way to the top of my favorite town in Colorado. It ranks in my top 2 that is for sure and the other is around the corner. My buddy Patrick Newman got married at the top of Telluride ski resort. The view was awesome and his bride is the nicest person I have met in a long time!!

Here are a few pics to show you what I mean.

T