Blast From the Past

Chris Setser was in Boulder last Tuesday, and here we are at Rhumba eating some dinner. I don't have time now to say much now because I'm packing to head out to see Cyd in NYC, so suffice it to say that it was great to see Chris, catch up, and have Thomas meet an old friend from Arkansas! I'll try to update this entry with more later...

The Day I Met Matthew McConaughey

Matthew McConaughey in Golden, CO on March 17, 2005

Hey Everyone and Happy St. Patrick's Day! i hope everyone is wearing green. st patty's day is one of my favorite holidays and this one has been especially good - more on that in a second. back when i was at ou, and one of the fortunate members of the engineering department, our engineering week always coincided with march 17, so it was a big deal. much green beer was consumed by all at o'connells and i believe pranks were played on our arch rivals the law students. i was not quite geeky enough to participate in said pranks or (thank God) to run for engineering queen (yes, there was such a thing believe it or not), but i enjoyed myself nonetheless. then when i was in the fort, they always had a great pub crawl on 3/17. but my fav st patty's day was spent in nyc with cyd. we snuck into st patrick's cathedral, watched the parade, and were amazed by all the policemen - in uniform - drinking in bars. it rocked! this has to be one of the best places in the world to spend 3/17 - i hear chicago and boston are pretty good too.

anyway, back to this year. i went home for lunch today to wait on a contractor - we're getting estimates for new countertops and cabinets. while there i happened to tourn on the local news. low and behold, who's being interviewed live but one of my top 5 fav male movie stars..........matthew mcconaughey. turns out he's driving around the country in an rv for six weeks promoting his new movie, sahara. it's james bondish and set to open 4/8/05. it also stars his extremely lucky girlfriend, penelope cruz. he's been in golden for a day and a half staying at the dakota ridge rv park in golden, co. he was getting ready to leave for los angeles after being interviewed. i hightailed it over there from boulder and after a couple of wrong turns found the place and amazingly he was still there. the only other people around were support staff and journalists. he was packing up to head out but i did get to meet him. i'm not gonna lie and say he asked me to star in his next movie or anything, but i did get to say hi. here are some pics i took with my phone! he is a very cool guy and you've gotta love his motto of "just keep livin'". it's also the name of his production company. this pretty much made my day and officially made me a member of the stalkerazzi (bryant gumbel would surely agree - see above trip to nyc with cyd).

today, i hope cyd is out there enjoying the green in nyc without me. in case anyone visits, her whole foods store in nyc officially opened today. it's in union square and i encourage you all to check it out. also, a late happy anniversary needs to go out to cyd and niels. they celebrated their two year anniverary on 3/13/05. they've been married exactly 51 weeks longer than me and thomas. congratulations, you crazy kids!

so pretty much the only thing that could make me happier now is if i could find my 2nd favorite button that reads World's Tallest Leprechaun. it must have gotten lost in the move. still - a very good day. my first favorite button? i got it in jr high and still have it: "Lead me to your takers".
boulder bumper sticker of the day: "Don't believe everything you think."

-sunday

You can't make this stuff up

Boulder Bumper Sticker of the Day: "Sorry I missed church, but I was too busy practicing witchcraft and becoming a lesbian."

Blogorama

Hey Everyone! I was determined to see Bride and Prejudice at the movies this weekend but was foiled by taxes and errands and six inches of snow and such. It's an Indian remake of Pride and Prejudice, what else! Thomas has refused to go with me, because he says he knows the story already. I know - he's crazy - this is a story i can see over and over (see: Bridget Jones). so i'm going to have to catch a matinee solo soon because i know i'm going to love it.

we did watch the season opener of deadwood on saturday. we're a week behind so if you've already seen part 2 don't spoil it for me. since i haven't seen part 2 yet, maybe i shouldn't comment, but i feel compelled. i was actually a little disappointed with the show. it seemed a little overly ambitious to me and i could not for the life of me figure out some characters' motivations. why, for example, did al decide to start the fight with bullock. he wanted bullock to be sheriff and the fact that bullock is helping alma with her gold is a done deal. it seemed like he was provoked by the fact that bullock had guards on the coach taking away the gold. or maybe al's just in an all around bad mood because government is coming to deadwood. he had some amazing dialogue here, especially when he went off on the telegraph poles talking about how they didn't need anymore imponderables and the telegraphs just bring bad news. as one who avoids the mailbox, i tend to agree. i was also surprised that bullock's wife showed up. i was loving the bullock/alma relationship, so this didn't thrill me and again - why did he send for them now?? and who would build their house in the midst of all deadwood's madness. i'd have chosen a spot a bit more removed from town. anyway, i can't wait for next week. i think they're just trying to set us up for the season and they overextended. deadwood has by no means jumped the shark.

Now for an update on my total body makeover. last week in general was a KILLER. my appetite was huge. i would wake up hungry, be hungry 30 minutes after eating and go to bed hungry. my diet hasn't changed - still avoiding the starchy carbs and alcohol. still not eating after 7:30 (this is my favorite rule and i highly recommend it no matter what plan you're on or if you're on a plan at all - it makes life much more manageable). i was hugely craving sugar this weekend and did have about half of a serving of rice pudding when we went to saffron (our new fav indian restaurant in boulder). i told you i'd be honest! but other than that, i've stuck to my diet thanks to whole foods' chopped up fruit. there you can buy a pretty big serving of prepared fruit - rasberries, mangos, kiwis, blackberries, etc. a little of this a day goes a long way to curbing my refined sugar needs. as for exercise, i've still only missed one day (3/7). i road the bike for 68 minutes on saturday at the 124 heartrate and this time it was not easy. 68 minutes felt like forever! but i finished. this morning was better - 35 minutes at a 140 heartrate. i burned 272 calories doing this and then lifted weights for 40 minutes. i still haven't weighed again. i have to make myself do this, but i'm terrified of being discouraged, so it's going to have to wait another week or two. 63 days and counting until i'm done!

boulder bumper sticker of the day: "Regan = War, recession and record deficits. Bush = War, recession and record deficits. W = War, recession and record deficits. Why do we keep electing Republican presidents?" The fact that President Reagan's name is mispelled on this bumper sticker pretty much says it all.

i need to give a special shout out to two new blogs that have come to my attention - jess's and thomas's. you can see the links to these sites on the links section of my blog. check them out! both have pictures so you can see what's happening with the rest of the clan. also, a new Bio section has been added to cbk's website. it's something only creede could write, so be sure to view it as well. now if i can just get my mom blogging, we'll be set! thomas came up with a great term for all of us: the blogerati.

-sunday

Boulder Bumpersticker of the Day

Hey Everyone! living in boulder, you get to see a lot of bumper stickers as you're stuck in traffic. given that boulder is home to many radical yet creative people, these either make me laugh, shake my head, make me angry, or just leave me confused. so i'm going to share the wealth and publish a few periodically. driving back from lunch today i saw one that left me confused. perhaps someone more technical could decypher this for me: <\Bush>. i'll be waiting with baited breath.

in other news, in the past two weeks i've read a couple of books i really enjoyed. the first was little children by tom perrotta. i've never read anything by him before, but he's best known for writing the book election that led to the movie starring matthew broderick and reese witherspoon. little children was not the typical book for me as i didn't really like any of three protagonists: a woman stuck in a loveless marriage raising a toddler, a mr. mom who wants to avoid taking the bar exam and instead relive his days as a star football player, and a pedophile. the book is basically a commentary on modernday suburbia, but it's pretty witty if a little depressing.

the next book i read was prep by curtis sittenfeld (curtis is a girl). it's about the four years a girl named lee spends at ault, an exclusive prep school in the northeast. lee is a middle class girl who was a star back in indiana, but is completely overshadowed at ault. she is so self conscious it's almost painful to read. reviews have compared prep to catcher in the rye, probably because there's not a ton of plot and most of the drama takes place in lee's head. she takes passivity to a whole new level. prep is set in the early 90s, but it does have a pretty timeless quality about it. the book is too long, but it's still a page turner and definitely rings true. once again tho, the protagonist is not really that likable. lee is the cause of most of her own problems. i'm a sucker for books like this tho.

i'm now reading the plot against america by philip roth. it's an alternative view of history - lindbergh beats roosevelt for president in 1940 and as a result the US makes an alliance with hitler. i'm only about 50 pages into it, but i'm close to giving up. the story is told by a 7 yr old boy and is too packed with minutae for me so far. i'm going to give it another 50 pages before making this decision. i've only read one other book by roth, deception. it's all dialogue so that intrigued me. but the reviews for plot were so great that i had to try it. i'll let you know if i stick with it or not. if anyone has any recs for me, pls let me know. my mom just read a man in full by tom wolfe and raved about it, so maybe that'll be next.

still haven't watched deadwood. i think we'll save it for saturday morning. my fav new show is shockingly on fox - and no it's not the bane of tv american idol - it's House! if you haven't seen this you have to watch it. house is played by the fabulous hugh laurie. he is sooooooooo funny. the dialogue is so hilarious that you don't even care what the ailment of the week is on this medical show. i could listen to this guy read the white pages and be amused. i highly recommend it - tuesday's at 8 on fox. the rest of the cast is good too. the writers are big on character development, unlike some of these other shows (yes, medical investigation - i'm talking about you).

as for my total body makeover, i'm still at it. this is week 3 and i have 67 days left! i stuck with all the exercise over my long wkend in glenwood springs - except for monday. i totally skipped that day. i was back at it tho on tuesday and am now riding the bike 35 min/day. this morning i burned 262 calories. you get 3 occasions over the 12 wks when you get to drink alcohol - i used up my first this wkend drinking wine and champagne. i also ate a few bites of cake, icing and an ice cream bar. but that's all the sugar i've had since i started. i haven't weighed again (maybe i will next monday) but i do think i've lost some weight in my stomach. my jeans are definitely looser there. i'm also able to lift a little more weight without collapsing on the floor in tears. this is a good thing. my dad thinks it's not good to work your heart at a heart rate of 145 for so long (over 30 minutes). i'm going to look into this, but has anyone else heard this?

-sunday

Glenwood Springs

Hey everyone! i can't believe it's already wednesday. life is much better when you get monday off. i'll be posting pics next week, but i have to tell you about our trip to glenwood springs. as i mentioned last week, we went there for a few days for our one year anniverary. it was wonderfully relaxing and i learned a lot more about the hotel. we lucked out and they screwed up our reservation so we got upgraded for free to this huge suite. it's at the top of the hotel and has a private balcony overlooking the hot springs. we felt very spoiled! the night we arrived they had a historical tour of the hotel that i attended. thomas caught a really bad cold before we left, so he had to get some rest, but he was a trouper the rest of the time.

there was much trauma in the kurtz household while i was away. creede had to have surgery in guymon and was in the hospital for a couple of days. he is now out of the hospital and on the mend. thankfully, my parents were there the whole time to make sure he was treated well. so creede, get well soon!

anyway, here are a few highlights from my hotel tour. i figured it would be 15 minutes or so but it was over an hour!

• the hotel was built by a man named Walter Devereux. He modeled it off the Villa Medici in Rome and payed $125,000 for the property (10 acres including the hot springs) and it cost $850K to build the hotel - called the Marvel of the Age when it was completed.
  al capone stayed there while on probabtion. he asked a bellboy to get him some gin from across the street and then tipped the bellboy enough to pay for his 4 yr tuition to denver university.
• teddy roosevelt did use the hotel as his western white house. he would come to hunt and would shoot as many as 30 animals at a time - bear, elk, etc. this makes you think about how colorado must have been chock full of animals back then. one time he didn't get a bear and the maids made him one from cloth. a reporter observed the whole thing and it led to the 'teddy bear'.
• ted bundy hid out in the hotel for 2 days after escaping from police in aspen. once he was caught, he escaped from the glenwood police after an hour. he was then finally caught again in FL after killing another five girls!
• in 1942 the us government took over the hotel to use as a rehabilitation center for the navy in ww2. so they painted everything white and got rid of lots of antiques.
• they have $7 million to do a major restoration of the hotel - bring it back to its glory days. this should be done in 2 yrs.
• thomas heard 2 ghost stories from the masseuse: a bride haunts the hotel. her groom was killed on the way to the wedding. she thought he just stood her up so she killed herself. you can sometimes see her walking around in her wedding dress. the other is a nurse during ww2 was involved in a love triangle with 2 wounded navy guys. one of the guys found out and killed the nurse and the other guy. the hotel is haunted by the lady in the nurse's uniform.
• i saw no ghosts.
  

on sunday nite thomas and i officially celebrated our anniversary. this involved us eating a bite from our wedding cakes that have been frozen for a year and taking up lots of freezer space. we had the top of the bride's cake and a huge chunk of the groom's cake as well to try. we both had a bite of each. they weren't bad and the icing in particular held up well. i also finally got to open a bottle of wine i bought over 10 years ago in napa valley with martina. it was a small bottle of Robert Mondavi 1988 cabernet. i made the dramatic declaration on buying it that i would not open it until i'd found my true love. after one year of marriage i'm more than convinced it's thomas! we were afraid it would taste like vinegar, but it was delicous. i know, i'm a hopeless romantic. i'm also a huge klutz (with a bad memory), so the fact that this bottle has been from OK to AR to CO without having broken is a miracle as is my remembering to bring it and the cakes (thanks to thomas on that one) along with us.

when we weren't at the hotel, we were at the hot springs. and as thomas said, they're the ocean of colorado. one pool is almost double the size of an olympic size pool. the water was so warm and it's full of 32 minerals (documented by the mayo brothers) so it's really easy to float. after 2 days practice, i could win a contest in floating. i cannot say how awesome these hot springs are. if you're ever in the area you must visit. speaking of the area, glenwood springs is about 30 minutes from aspen. i read yesterday that there was a private memorial to hunter thompson in aspen on saturday. j depp, jack nicholson, bill murray and a whole bunch of others were just 30 minutes away from yours truly! it's probably a good thing i didn't know about this in advance or there would have been some major stalking going on. about 200 people sat in the hotel jerome for hours trading stories. the funniest i read about was from don johnson, a neighbor. he once asked hunter what is the sound of one hand clapping. hunter responded by slapping his face. i'm sure melanie griffith would have approved.

all for now. i'll be back later in the week to talk about a couple of books i read. i haven't seen a movie in ages (tho be cool is on my list for the wkend) and i haven't yet watched deadwood.
-sunday

the gates, knitting and being mrs. cook

Hey Everyone! i love all the comments i'm getting from my silliness, not to go all sally field on you. the oscars were a pretty hot topic!

so now for an update on my total body makeover. the awful truth is that as of last saturday (day 6 of 84) i'd GAINED two pounds. this horrified me as i have stuck to the plan to the letter. thomas swears that it's because i'm building muscle. since dr. robert (the preacher that married us) advised that based on thomas's personality type (he's a lion and i'm a golden retriever) thomas is "probably right", i'm going to believe him on this one. it helps that my clothes are feeling a little looser too;). i haven't weighed again since saturday and don't plan to for a few weeks as i don't want to get depressed. so there's the awful truth - i promised to be honest!

i have worked out like a demon these past 11 days and it's started getting a little easier, particularly with the weights and sit ups. i hear rumors that this means that you should increase the weight you're lifting, but i plan on increasing reps instead. the thought of hefting 5 more pounds thru all these reps gives me nitemares. i am now riding the bike for 33 minutes/day at a heart rate of 145. this burned 252 calories this morning. last saturday i had to ride it for 60 minutes at a heartrate of 124. this saturday i ride for 64 minutes at hr of 124. such is the sadistic nature of the program. anyway, 74 more days and my 12 weeks are done. that should get me in fighting shape just in time for summer.

in more exciting news, thomas and i go to glenwood springs this wkend to celebrate our anniversary - it's one year as of this sunday! this year has been so full and has gone by so fast but i have to admit i love being mrs. thomas archie cook, jr. we're returning to glenwood to stay at hotel colorado. he took me there a few years ago on the train (highly recommended) for my birthday and we had a ball. everyone who works there is convinced the hotel is haunted. it's been around since the late 1800s and was a popular destination for teddy roosevelt during his presidency. there is definitely an eery feel there when you're walking the halls late at nite to your room. quirky does not begin to describe the entire experience tho. the hotel is right next door to the hot springs which are HUGE! a dip in them makes your skin and hair feel amazingly soft. doc holliday spent his last days there and he's buried nearby (doc is a 2nd cousin to margaret mitchell, author of gone with the wind - this is one of the shockingly true facts i learned on my gwtw catfish tour in atlanta). so there's some kind of symmetry to this whole deal. here's the website for the hotel if you're interested in visiting or learning more of its history: http://www.hotelcolorado.com/hc_history.html.

on the crafts front, i've started knitting my second scarf. this one is for thomas and is gray and ribbed. i met larissa for dinner and knitting on tuesday and she taught me how to switch between knitting and purling. for each row, you knit two stitches, purl two stitches, etc. it's quite complicated but i'm getting the hang of it. i've completed about 20 rows now. switching stitches like this has helped me to id the difference between a knit and a purl. a knit looks like a little stick figure hanging upside down from a noose and a purl looks like a dancer with his left hand out. trust me, if you take up knitting this will make sense. larissa promises that if i keep this up, i'll be knitting myself a tank top by summer. now i'll have somthing besides movies to discuss should i ever meet julia or catherine z jones (both part of the exclusive knitting circle).

on the entertainment front, hbo fans will be thrilled to hear the series deadwood returns this sunday. as everyone notes, the show is extremely profane, but the cast and writing make it worth it - it equals hbo's the wire as the best series on tv anywhere (except for maybe gilmore girls).

i got a piece of good news from cyd, who now lives in new york city. i've been entralled with the gates exhibition there in central park. unfortunately they took it down last wkend, so i didn't get to see it live, but cyd did manage to secure me a piece of the saffron fabric (now i'll always know what color saffron is - osu orange basically). i can't wait to get this in my hot little hands, tho cyd's credibility is a little shady. i still recall when she went to nyc a few yrs ago and i begged her to get me a free winona t shirt - this was during winona ryder's horrifying trial for shoplifting - and cyd forgot! hopefully my swatch of saffron fabric will not suffer a similar fate. i'll take a pic of it and post it when i have it in hand.

-sunday