I landed today in Colorado Springs.  It was one of those landings where you aren’t sure how far you are off the ground because the clouds are so thick.  The pilot definitely had to use instruments only today.

I am happy to be here, but bummed about the weather.  I’m optimistic tomorrow will be better though.  For now, it’s time for me to play the day away in the Double Eagle Casino.

As the week winds down, I am preparing to take a trip out to Colorado to see my sister… Among the things are on my mind are:

-How I already miss my husband, even though we have probably been spending a little too much time together…

-How I am so damned excited to see my sister, and the beautiful property she has in the mountains, but I am also scared that I will get altitude sickness.  Tonight I will sleep here in Richmond at 150 feet above sea level.  Tomorrow I will sleep at almost 9000 feet above sea level.  Holy Shizzle!

- How I really hope no one snores. I will be sleeping 2 nights in a trailer with my sisiter, her husband, his father in law, and 2 dogs.  Forgive me guys, but I am a little worried about these sleeping arrangements!  You can make fun of me later. 

- How I will spend my day tagging along at work with Casey tomorrow, and filling my time with 2 dollar blackjack at the Casino in Cripple Creek Colorado.  Casey has to work all day tomorrow, but she has the coolest job ever.  She gets to give people money when they win it at the casino…everyone must love her!  Accept for the losers of course.

I’ll post some pictures when I get back, plus new ones of the house.

Most people move into a house and stay awhile… Not us, we’ve decided to fly the coup here on Buford road and start out on what will be the first of many home building experiences over our lifetime.  Why you ask?  Because we’re crazy.  No really, truth be told, we have realized that we have all of the tools necessary to successfully undertake the contracting of our own house.  We have resources out the kazoo…In my phone I have 4 personal contacts ( builders) who I can call at any moment and trouble shoot with.  These are men that have been in the field of home building for 25 years, or more!  As I myself learn the business I am becoming more comfortable with the process of building a home, thus taking on my own seems fairly natural. 

So now that you’ve heard the why, it’s time for a few pictures.  You can see how the lot has progressed over the past few days!  I wish we didn’t have to take so many trees down, but because of the grading of the lot most of them had to go.  Sad, really…

Today has been a bit of a slow Monday, and has gotten me thinking… Do you ever feel like creating something?  I do… I often have these bouts of curiosity and all of the ideas usually are around making money.  You see, I come from a long line of entrepreneurs.  My grandfather tried everything from chinchilla farming to flipping houses.  He even pondered a frozen pizza line Called “Mama Curnelli’s” ( after my maiden name of Curnow.)  My dad is also in business for himself, and well, I guess now I am too. 

Arthur Homes inc. came to fruition about 2 months ago as a way to get me involved in the family’s development and real estate affairs.  Don’t ask me to build you a home yet, but in a year, I will have three houses under my belt, and hey…I guess that’s not too bad.

I don’t know how it happened, but a quick hiatus from writing turned into a month long sabbatical.  Not that i was trying to get away from blogging…it’s just that once I stopped I was almost intimidated to come back.  What could I say to make up for my week long absence?  And as that one week stretched into two, and then three, I began to panick.  This one had better be good, I thought.  And so finally one month into my “I’m too distracted to write” phase, I have decided to take the plunge.  Nothing fancy here, just a little snippit of life.  Enjoy. 

Life as usual is a bit crazy.  Today we are getting a new septic tank.  I know, i know…it’s not exciting, but here is a picture of my yard.  Did I mention that yesterday we put a for sale by owner sign in the front yard?  Gee, why is no-one interested?  Yikes.  Good thing this won’t last long.

I know, I know… you must have missed me terribly.

We had a wonderful vacation…lots of sun and very little to worry about.  I will share pictures once I get everything organized.

Today John and I spent some time organizing The Basement.  I feel like they should name a domestic horror flick after “The Basement.”  Its’ the one place in the house that seems to get absolutely no love.  For the past 3 years, we have shoved our crap downstairs, and reveled in how much space we had.  As you can imagine, it eventually turned into a complete nightmare….dust, spider webs, and lots and lots of JUNK!  Now as we look to put our house on the market, we have to confront what we have done to ourselves, and find a way to get rid of that musty, not so inviting smell.  Why? Whhhhhhhhhhhhhy ( imagine me screaming at the top of my lungs) did we let things get so unmanageable?!

I’m in Belize right now, and it’s my 3rd wedding anniversary!  We had the perfect day planned which included lots and lots of laying by the pool.  Unfortunately the weather decided not to cooperate… No worries though.  We started the day with a wonderful breakfast …I had banana pancakes made with coconut milk, and john some sort of delicious Belizian syle breakfast.  After that we headed down the bumpy road in our golf cart only to spend most of the afternoon holed up at a bar with an outdoor bowling alley and a pool to ride out the storm.  On our way to the drinking hole, we saw 3 crocodiles!  I am in an internet cafe now, and will write so much more when I return.

This is a land of princes and paupers….lavish resprts right next to tiny run down shacks….the people here are really beautiful though.  More when I return…

I just installled google analytics on my food blog, and wow!  I have worked with google analytics some, but not quite as in depth as this!  Did you know that I can see the exact amount of time people spend on my web page, as well as the exact town that they are living in, and the exact # of pages they have looked on.  I can even see where they work if they logged in via their servers on the job.  Hilarious!  Who works at Joel Bieber, by the way? I want an autograph…lol

Thanks for all of the support…I love that I can see all my peeps from across the country are logging in and reading!

Things will be quiet here for a little while…I have lots and lots of coronas to drink, fish to catch, and hammock napping to do.  Belize, here I come.

Hey all.  I am excited and pleased to announce that my new cooking blog went up yesterday!  There will be some tweaks in the coming months, but I was tired of waiting for everything to be perfect and decided to just go ahead and launch.

I hope you enjoy.  Send this link around to all of your friends and family, or anyone who enjoys cooking.  I will be posting two recipes a week.  Right now there is a divine fresh strawberry daiquiri recipe on the site.  Yummo!

Here goes nothin – http://followthecook.blogspot.com/

It’s Monday, and instead of the usual hint of dread that the week has started, I am feeling a great sense of relief.  A bit of normalcy will be greatly appreciated.

I feel like this:

Just trying to ride out the week, then we’re all headed off to Belize to stay here for a much needed respite.