Snow Day

Last Wednesday, we found out that Denver was expecting a blizzard of large proportions (for the end of March) on Thursday. They predicted 12 to 15 inches of snow. We came in to work on Thursday morning and kept hearing the words "office closed" buzz around. Joe called me and told me to leave at 12, because that's when it was supposed to hit. It felt like a hurricane day!

Here's Sarah, my awesome coworker. She's pregnant. We laugh a lot... usually at me.

Hey, there's my desk!

Here's my boss's corner office! He has a sweet view (though you can't tell from the wall of clouds). He didn't come in to the office until later that day.

I decided to document the accrual of snow. This is around 8:30 am.

At 9:00, suddenly the wind picked up and the started falling. Or rather, flying.


I left work at 10 because it was starting to get really bad. So, keep in mind that there was no snow on the ground at 8, when I got to work. This is what it looked like 2 hours later.

This is around noon. Kurt and his dad ran out for some Little Caesar's and movies. At noon it started to really kick up.

I'm thinking this is like 5 pm... yeah, we had a ton of snow. And it was still falling, though it was so fine at this point you can't see it very well.

So, we spent the day all tucked up in our apartment. We all read for a little while, then Kurt worked some. I wrote (a lot).

We ate lots of pizza.

We took naps.

We watched lots of movies.
The snow lasted for about 24 hours, but I still made it in to work at 8 the next morning. I was the only person there until 10. When the snow stopped, it was a gorgeous day:

Look, you can kind of see Denver!

Look at this picture and tell me the snow isn't magical. So you can see more of my boss's view. Which I also get to see since I since across from him. Denver is a gorgeous city. The mountains are far away but they are beautiful. Especially when they're all in white.

Modestia Couture 2009

Presenting Abella Bridal's 2009 Collection in its entirety along with my commentary.
(Last year I only did my favorites because I was commenting on 2 years' collections.)
I know you've been waiting anxiously for it.
Actually, I was waiting to see the pics for the longest time. But I love bridal gowns and I used to work there, so that might have something to do with it.
First off, if you thought last year's names were weird, then wait till you've seen this year. And I have to say, this year's collection was a bit of a disappointment. I think she tried experimenting too much or strove for haute couture or something. A lot of dresses are almost there but not quite, in my eyes. That isn't to say I hate them. I like most of them. But there are few I love.

Addison. Kind of harks back to the 80s with the lace fringe on the bottom of the skirt, but overall I like it. It's a classic.

Caprice. This one is kind of funky, but I like it. And it's taffeta. Ooooh, taffeta.

Cate. The lace on this is called burn-out lace. It's stunning.

Demi. I like this one too. The crystals on the bust are quite pretty when you see them up close. It's funny--she's going back to the natural waist line more than the last 2 years, when nearly all of her waistlines were dropped. I'm lucky I got married when I did, because I DO not look good in a natural waist.

Evan. Is a boy's name. Whatever. I think I would love this dress except for the almost-keyhole neckline. Instead, I can't decide if I do or not.

Falon. It's pretty, but ok.

Gabriella. Simply stunning. I love the subtle long gathered detail on the left side of the skirt at the bottom. Another burn-out lace dress.

Holland. I really like this one. Dropped waist and gathered skirt? Yes please.

Ivie. I absolutely adore rolled hems. I like the v-neck too.

Jemma. Generally I like it. I think the bow/tie thing is too big and distracting. But it (the dress) is nothing special to me.

Landri. Just no. No, no, no.

Maddox. Is my nephew's name. I really like this one. I thought I wouldn't, but the rolled hem is nice, as is the ruched waist, and the smooth upper bust. Yes, I like it.

Odette. I can't decide if I like this one. I start to, but then the skirt looks like a fuzzy sweater and I hate it.

Piper. It's ok.

Portia. Classic. Elegant. Beautiful.

Sage. I like this one. It reminds me of a Walker's Bridal dress they were selling the past two years, but much better executed. It's different but not weird.

Scarlett. The skirt is gorgeous. The texture on the bust is nice. The neckline? Ugh. It's just too weird for me.

Seraphine. This is my absolute favorite this year. I love love love the skirt. I love the bust. It's made of taffeta. It actually reminds me of my wedding dress, lol. But I can't say enough how much I love this dress.

Waverly. Are the 90s coming back? I hope not. This dress seems an ominous omen, though.

Run ... for Fun??

I believe about a month ago I told my good friend Jen that I would never run a marathon. And in truth, I don't plan on it now. So many of my good friends run: Tiffany (pictured above with her hubby), Evan and Jen, Kurt, Alex. It seems like everyone's running a marathon these days. And in the middle of all this is little old asthmatic me.

I used to love to run. I was one of the fastest in my grade and could run forever. Then, in 6th grade, I got sinusitis which turned into bronchitis which was the start of my breathing problems. I'm not entirely positive, but I believe I got my exercise induced asthma because of this episode. I never got winded as a kid. Then, from 6th grade on, I couldn't run a quarter of a mile without wheezing. I thought I was just out of shape when it came to running. After all, I could dance for 2 hours without worrying about my air intake.

Sophomore year of college I finally figured out what I had--exercise induced asthma--and was diagnosed. And then a year later, my asthma took a fun turn to full blown asthma. It wasn't pretty. And it was suddenly way harder to breathe. Thankfully, I was already addicted to fitness at this point and so it didn't deter my getting-in-shape goals, though it made cardio the bane of my existence. I rely solely on gym classes for my cardio. Otherwise, I get bored, I can't breathe, and I quit 10 minutes in. But in a gym class everyone watches you when you leave early, especially the teacher, and if that's not awkward, I don't know what is (Other than a condom commercial coming on the radio when you're in the car alone with your father-in-law. True story.). I really love my gym classes--I attend Turbo Kickboxing, Step, and Zumba faithfully. I've almost grown to love them more than, gasp!, weightlifting. But not because I love cardio. I still dislike cardio.

Well, the other day, Kurt somehow talked me into running a 10k with him on Memorial Day. With asthma. After being sick and exercising very little for one and a half months. And I don't enjoy running.

So why am I doing it? Because it's a challenge. I enjoy the idea of making myself do things I don't want to. I have this convoluted idea that it proves will power. Or something. I don't know. At any rate, I guess I've got a little masochist inside because for the next 8 weeks, in addition to my current work out schedule, I will be following this training schedule (from Runner's World, with bits of real runner in it, so you know it's good):
SUN MON TUE WED THURS FRI SAT

Week 1	Rest	2M easy, then 4 x 400m, with 400m or 3-min jog recoveries, then 2M easy	Rest	Rest	Rest	2-2.5M easy, 2M faster, jog to finish	2-3M easy
Week 2	Rest	2M easy, then 4 x 600m or 2 mins, with 400m or 3-min jog recoveries, then 2M easy	Rest	Rest	Rest	15 mins easy, 15 mins fast but controlled, jog to finish	3-4M easy
Week 3	Rest	2-2.5M easy, then 4 x 800m or 3 mins, with 400m or 3-4 min jog recoveries, then 2M easy	Rest	Rest	Rest	30-40 mins relaxed, inc hills	4-6M easy
Week 4	Rest	2M easy, then 8 x 400m or 70-80 secs, with 400m or 3-min recoveries, then 2M easy	Rest	Rest	Rest	5M, first half at 70%, second at 85%	5-7M easy
Week 5	Rest	2M easy, then 8 x 500m or 90-100 secs, with 400m or 3-min recoveries, then 2M easy	Rest	Rest	Rest	35-45 mins fartlek with varied efforts and recoveries	6-7M easy
Week 6	Rest	2-2.5M easy, then 5 x 800m or 3 mins, with 400m or 3-min jog recoveries, then 2-2.5M easy	Rest	Rest	Rest	6-7.5M gradual acceleration in 2.5M segments, ie 70%-80%-90%	7-8M easy
Week 7	Rest	2-3M easy, then 10 x 400m or 70-80 secs, then 400m or 2-3-min jog recoveries, then 2-3M easy	Rest	Rest	Rest	Warm up, then 4 x 1M or 5.5-6min, with 3-4 min recoveries, then cool down	7-9M easy
Week 8	Rest	2-3M easy, then 5-6x 500m or 90-100 secs, with 400m or 2-3 min jog recoveries, then 2-3M easy	Rest	4-5M easy	Rest	Rest	RACE

Wish me luck! I'll keep y'all updated on my status. Oh, and I had to pay $42 so I can't quit now...

Decorating Diva

Haha, not really. Let's not kid myself. Any kind of art-related thing does not come to me easily. So, I've been studying up on decorating in preparation for a house.
The following pics make me want a house. right now.
And for it to look like these immediately, please. :)
(All pics courtesy of bhg.com)

Blue and brown are a classic combo.

I love how there's personality here in the blue accents, but generally a neutral base.

Using pink and orange and not having it too feminine? Always a plus.

Ummm... I love blue.

I love this mix of textures/patterns. I'm not good at doing this generally, so I like seeing how to do it.

Light and airy.

I LOVE that blue countertop and the blue hardware.

It's probably easy to see what style I gravitate towards.

Yellow and blue are a classic combo too.



I love the purple used in this room. Purple is kind of a scary color, but they do such a good job with it!

This is getting ridiculous

My hives are attacking my body and face with a vengeance.

I hope we get this figured out soon.

(The next morning I could barely open my eye. Thank goodness, the swelling went down over the course of the day.)

Fun with Steve

Kurt's dad is back from Iraq and so he's come up to visit with us (and also to fix the PT Cruiser and borrow it for a while). It's been really nice spending time with him, since I've only seen him 3 times before now. He flew in last Wednesday and on Saturday we showed him around a little bit of Denver. First, we took him to the flagship REI store. It's just outside of the immediate downtown of Denver. It's huge and in an old converted train station. I forgot take pictures.
Then, we walked down the street for lunch at a fun place we found a little while ago:

My Brother's Bar. It's the oldest continuously operating restaurant in Denver. They play classical music and serve you phenomenal burgers. In an effort to try to blog more (even if it's not as exciting as our last summer) I took pictures. A few, but better than I have been. :)

Sorry it's dark. The flash didn't take for some reason.

On Sunday we drove up to Estes Park. It's the town outside of the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park. It was a beautiful day down in Denver, but it was pretty cloudy as we drove farther into the mountains. Still, as we descended into Estes Park, we were welcomed by an amazing view.


Being Sunday, we couldn't do much more than drive around. We drove up to the national park entrance, got out to take pictures, then headed home.


Hooray for having something to blog about!