National Pancake Day

Visit IHOP today and get a free short stack of pancakes. They are hoping you will in turn make a donation to Chidren's Miracle Network...which I was more than happy to do. Closest thing to a win win I have seen in a while!!

Night with the Boys

The icy weather delayed me from getting Little Man his birthday present before we left for our ski trip so last night we all went to Macaroni Grill. Yep he can eat almost all of this chocolate cake, and is very tenative about sharing. The host that sings opera was giving him an Italian version of Happy Birthday in the background. Hard to believe he is 5 and will be heading to kindergarden in the Fall.

.Here is Buddy with the ball during his basketball game. This is a UpWard league where they don't really keep score but are trying to teach them the basics of the game and good sportsmanship. I liked the idea that they wear colored wristbands. One player on each team wears a different color so it helps them remember who they are guarding as they play man to man on defense. He did a good job keeping his arms out around his green guy, the kid reverted to running in circles and making big laps to keep Buddy away. Very Entertaining.

Coupon Girl

OK so I never really had time to use coupons. I ran into the store, maybe even on my lunch hour....got what I needed and took off. But with my extra time and emphasis on tightening the budget I decided to go the coupon route. I have even got the little organizer folder. Wednesdays are when the new sale papers come out for the grocery stores so I went shopping today. I draw the line at going to all the stores for their specials (I think you end up burning enough gas to counteract the savings) I stuck with Harris Teeter, used my VIC card, and they will double up to 20 coupons.

The best is when you have a coupon for something on VIC special. Like Edy's Slow Churned Ice Cream (1/3 less calories and 1/2 the fat). They were buy one get one free, and I had a dollar off coupon which was doubled. Oh Yeah...final cost about fifty cents!

I saved $73 off my $200 cart. Cha Ching, now is that $73 I can spend at Mid Atlantic Quilt Festival next week? Maybe half of it at least.....

Wow what a trip!

We had 5 days to ski in Park City, 2 at Deer Valley, 1 at Canyons and 2 at Park City Mountain. We had blue skies at the begining of the week but they were in need of some fresh snow.

Go Postal and I getting ready to hit the trails

By Thursday, we got our wish....about 4-6" new and again another 3" on Friday!

here is McGuyver and Stitch Witch (aka Mrs Goodneedle) with Whole Wheat

Dairy Queen and Whole Wheat, we could sure see him on the slopes in his AltaColorado jacket.

On our day off, My Uncle Fred and his family drove over from Rock Springs Wyoming to visit. We ate at the Wasatch brewery and did a little window shopping.

Dairy Queen and Go Postal snuggling under her $5 quilt, she pieced several of the blocks, it has a wool batting and flannel batting....a good thing for Leadville!

We headed to Las Vegas next (Go Postal's Christmas present this year) Here is the new highway they are building at Hoover Dam. Since 9/11 the government has worried about the dam as a terrorism target so this new road will keep all cars off the dam. It is as impressive as the dam I think.

If you really want to feel like a rock star, stay at the new Hard Rock Hotel's HRH tower. They are all suites and you can listen to their music or plug in your ipod to have it playing on a great stereo in the room. Huge glass bathroom....very cool. The casino is filled with Rock memorabilia. We had dinner at the Pink Taco and got ready for the main reason to be in Vegas.......

Carlos Santana

We were on the eigth row, Go Postal had a grin on the whole night. This was a great show, he had three drummers and some horns and two great vocalists. I reminded him how lucky he was to get this evening for Valentines and not being dragged to some chick flick like most guys do!

Now its back to the real world and about 8 loads of laundry. Zorro and Banjo are glad to have us home, and with this trip behind us I am ready for some warmer weather.....

Ready for Vacation Now!!

Go Postal's Barn passed inspection.....the inspector even commented "nice" with a smiley face (yes the inspector was a female! ) Now we can enjoy Vacation (if we can just miss this ice storm and get to Utah)

Banjo gets out today!

Banjo didn't venture out of his heated well house yesterday, why would he....Go Postal even took his dinner to him. But today the sun had melted the top layer of snow enought that he could walk on top so here he is enjoying the sunny day at one of his many structures he patrols (you can click on the photo to make larger). This is the pack house (used years ago to pack tobacco). There are also two tobacco barns, a large barn, a smokehouse and an old chicken coop to look after. I am trying to get Go Postal to agree that with the new "car barn" he is building, Banjo may need some help. Maybe a girl kitty named Mandolin?

Wacky Weather

Its supposed to be 57 today, so I am getting up from this computer and heading to the barn, maybe I can get the trim around the garage doors stained and suprise Go Postal when he gets home.

But come Friday night it supposed to be a different story. We hope to get to eat at Sr Bravo's with ski club friends and then paint the barn ceiling (in the finished room upstairs) on Saturday. Good thing there is a kerosene heater in there....they are calling for up to eight inches of snow!