Vacation

Tuesday through Friday - escape to a B&B in Estes Park.
Short, but cleverly planned so that I miss most of the prep for my missionary housemate's going away party, which is Saturday. I come back Friday, have a thing Friday night, work on Saturday, have two things on Sunday, and have Monday off. Except for art class. Crazy. I do almost nothing for months on end and then cram everything into 7 days. I'll need another vacation to recover.

As long as we're out.....

Denver is a sweltering 98 degrees.

Let's go to Mount Evans!

The buffalo herd on I-70 is always on the other side of the highway. Always.

The temperature at the base of Mount Evans is 72 degrees.

The top of the tree line.

The alpine tundra. There are no photos of the long and winding road. The long and winding road with no guardrail, crumbling edges, and a steep steep drop down the mountainside. (Lots of opportunies for throwing down one's foe and smiting their ruin upon the mountainside. If one were so inclined).

Mountain goats. Not the most cooperative subjects. The brochure said not to let them stick their heads in the car. No worries. They weren't interested anyway.
But the tourists were interested - traffic stopped so people could take photos. Since we had to stop, I took some too.

Summit Lake, about 12,000 feet about sea level. It was in the upper 50's, with a chilly breeze. Notice the snow in the background. July 21st. Snow. Also green green grass with lots of tiny wildflowers.

The tundra gives way to barren rocks. Cool, huh?

If you look behind me, you can see Denver. About 75 miles away, about 9000 feet down, and nearly 50 degrees hotter than the summit.

haiku for an early morning walk

ripples of the mind

thoughts flutter like beating wings

give way to stillness.

Name the Baby

On the left, the Babycake - a tiny little chocolate morsel drenched in spiced soaking syrup, wrapped in a light glaze and topped with a deep cocoa glacage (thick shiny glaze). Above, in the red velvet, is the considerably larger version of the Babycake. I don't know what to call it. So far the suggestions are not helpful (hopped-up babycake, Baby Hueys, the Babycake only bigger......)

Name the baby, win the baby. In your choice of chocolate or red velvet. Next time you're in Denver.

How beautiful it is to do nothing....

and then rest afterward.

-Spanish proverb

A lovely dessert doesn't hurt either.

The cookie was a shark; it didn't occur to me to take a photo until I'd had a couple of bites.

Mascarpone cheesecake wrapped in chocolate with raspberry sorbet. Best. Cheesecake. Ever.

To the Tune of the Wedding Song from Napoleon Dynamite

I love technology
it's great when it works you see
I rely on technology
always and forever.......

oh yeah, Qwest has redeemed itself. The tech came by hours before scheduled, on the hunch that the problem was outside the house. By some miracle, I had forgotten to lock the back gate after trucking in a barrow full of Cow&Compost yesterday. He changed out wires in the box, climbed the utility pole and changed out wire, got rid of excess wire, and did a bunch of other things I don't understand. He didn't need to come in, so he left his card so I could call him. He was very nice, sorry we'd had so much trouble, explained what he'd done, what upgrades Qwest is making to their systems (which boils down to from here on it, things should work fine and will only get faster). He also said very complimentary things about our garden. Which I really appreciate, given all the hours that have gone into to it. For example, yesterday evening I planted 21 plants. By myself. Because my sister, who bought all the plants, was on the phone for two hours with our housemate who is off at missionary training. It was really hot. The plants would not survive another day in their pots, so into the ground they went. Someone owes me something cold and frosty.
Speaking of cold and frosty and technology, Chef & his partner gave me a small window-unit a/c. Oh. It's nice. After years of no a/c, no swamp cooler, this is awesome. And I feel better knowing the pets have somewhere cool to hang out on days like today, when it's 103.
How hot is it? It's so hot that the highly efficient a/c at work couldn't keep up; the truffles were melting in my hands as I tried to dip them yesterday. So today, chocolate work happened early, then some pastry prep, and then we took a field trip to the new farmer's market. If you happen to see someone at your local farmer's market who makes Lemon White Chocolate Mint Bread - give it a try. Surprisingly good.

maybe not the best decision

In the two and a half weeks we've had Qwest we've had more problems than in the several years we had Comcast. No wonder Comcast costs more. Qwest's techs and customer service folk have been great, it's just the constant crashing of dsl and assorted other issues that's a royal pain. I'm writing this on a library computer for bleep's sake. Arrrgh! So if no one hears from me for awhile, that's why.

camera, oh camera, where the bleep art thou, camera?

I had it Tuesday afternoon. Here at the house. Now I can't find it. Anywhere. It's just gone. Gone. As if stolen by evil gnomes or something. wtf. It will probably show up. Eventually. Probably after I give up searching and buy a new one. It has to be somewhere. Doesn't it? I had photos in there. Photos of my last wedding cake. And bees in flowers. It's somewhere. Somewhere where when at last I find it, I'll think I have early dementia or something. Something more disturbing than evil gnomes.......

I miss my little pink camera. It's just a thing, but I miss it. It has to be somewhere......doesn't it?