Back from Mexico

We are back from a fabulous week in Mexico with Scott and Julie - Zihuatanejo was wonderful. The weather was hot and humid which meant lots of cold beer and margarita's was really our only option to stay alive. Thank goodness we were up to the challenge!We spent the majority of our days on the beach reading and doing the crossword puzzle that was delivered in the NY Times Digest each day. Julie is excellent at the puzzle and I was easily addicted - until Friday rolled around and it was extremely difficult, even with 4 brains we were stumped.

Hotel Villa del Sol is lovely - there are many pools (including an infinity pool and a bar pool) and a fabulous beach. The water in all of the pools was an exact 98.6 degrees - it felt what we imagined a sensory deprivation pool might feel like.

One night at dinner (the food was awesome) Scott made a point to say that he wished people would write more on their blogs - you know me I am completely visual, but if Scott could remember that each picture I post is worth a thousand words, I might get the award for being the most prolific blogger around!



More Mexico stories to come...

Hola! Tomorrow morning we are off to Zihuatanejo for a week of fun in the sun. If all goes as planned we will be meeting Scott and Julie on the beach with tropical drinks! We can't wail. We aren't bringing laptops (thank goodness) so no blogging while we are away - of course I will overwhelm you with them when I return.  

Saturday we took Lola for a walk in the flat irons at Chitaquawa - here she is posing as a regal little pup. I was definitely styling in my puppy-fanny pack - fortunately boulder is filled with Dog owners and they think this look rocks!! After the long walk Lola played "Dead dog" under our table as we had lunch and a beer! 

So I finally did it. After years of being told to shut up when criticizing America because I'm not a citizen, I figured I'd pay the price of admission... Also, if this takes a year or less, I'll be able to vote in the midterm elections and help swing this purple state blue. I guess you know you're in the midwest when you're local Federal office is in Nebraska! 

And the Winner is... I am trying to document the invites that I have been doing lately - and what better place to store them than the blog! :) This invite is for a red carpet event in honor of Amy. The first comment from Josh's mouth was "I thought you hated center alignment" - its good to know I can step outside of my boundaries once and a while.  

TWO YEARS AND COUNTING!!! Yesterday Mark and I celebrated our second anniversary. We had a lovely dinner with our friends at Bloom - great place with fantastic wine flights, my favorite, the Rhone Ranger Flight. For our true celebration we are heading down to Zihuatanejo, Mexico for a week of fun in the sun - here we are jumping for joy!! [we took this picture 5 times, and never successfully captured us both jumping at the same time - thank goodness for photoshop] 

Lasso Love in the Big Sky State

I have been working on wedding invitations for a family friend, Rebecca Huntington and her fiance Reed. We worked with a graphic version of the columbine flower but wanted to give that rustic casual flair. It was a great project. I also was able to print borderless on the envelopes - yes this is cool in my world. My printer (the s9000 again proved to kick ass).

I did have issues printing from Illustrator CS and had to revert back to AI10 on my trusty old laptop - I wonder if Adobe has parties where they sit around and celebrate what a crap job they have done. I almost killed mark when he said, "why don't you just change applications and use macromedia" - but for all of you looking to start using a graphics application - Macromedia Freehand is your ticket!

Black Panther Attack!! Our little Cricket caught herselft a flying grasshopper. As she carried it through the grass it flapped its wings and looked like a bow-tie (can't really see in the photo). It was tons of fun taunting Hopper into flying (jumping) and then recapturing him.  

After our game of golf, Sonja and I whipped out the back fence. We pulled off the horizontal slats, put up wire and then reattached the wood. (its hard to see, but I am wearing my Happy Birthday Jonathan shirt - which is a very inspirational work shirt) 

Our Neighbors Sonja and Bernie are extremely handy - they have done all of their own landscaping and encourage us to build our own fence instead of paying to have it installed. So Saturday morning at 6:00 Sonja and I headed to golf (tough life), and Bernie and Mark headed to Home Depot. They rented a pole digger to dig holes for the posts and then set them in concrete - all in 100 degree heat. 

Cricket learned a new trick - playing dead. She spends much of her day snuggled up stairs in the warmth of all of our machines learning through osmosis. 

Even though Lola is around, the kitties still run this house. Here's the man snuggled up in his bed.  

Lola has quickly learned what beer o'clock is! Smart!! 

Lola now gets to play with her neighbor Shelby. Shelby is teaching Lola who's boss.  

Annie also showed Lola how to have a bit of fun in the sprinklers - Lola was suspicious - maybe next time she will dive in.  

July 20, 2005 - Our neighbor, Cathy and her dog Annie have signed up to help Lola learn the ropes. Cathy trains dogs as a hobby and our first lesson is to walk on the leash and sit before crossing the street. The first day was a success - she is a smarty pants! 

Happy Birthday to Lisa!!! This photo was snapped at Heather's big Gala event in Billings in February. Lisa snagged the winterland decoration - which obviously makes for a great photo prop. Here's to Lisa having a FABULOUS birthday!! We can't wait to see you in August!  

Lol loves her Aunt Amy, and Aunt Amy loves Lola - now she is after Uncle Josh's heart. She has a cute little belly of freckles (taking after her mom and dad) and quite a face. Amy brought over some fun toys (Pink Chew Ball and a Tugging Frisbee) and Lola is in heaven.  

We are taking advantage of our clean slate and starting Lola's training early. Learning to walk on a leash is hard! We have had 3 walks so far and this morning we went for 3 miles (good job for tiny legs). When we returned Lola retired into her bed for a nap. She is doing very well on the leash and loves to meet other dogs as we are out and about. Yes, we are quite the rave with a little puppy around.  

Say hello to Lola! On Saturday we picked up our newest member of the family - Lola is 9 weeks old and if FULL OF ENERGY. We are doing a slow introduction to the cats - but so far only a few hisses. Here is an action shot of the little devil showing her tiny teeth - which are quite sharp - we are overwhelming her with chew toys.  

Awaken

Tonight, Mark and I went to meet up with Chris and Jonathan at Awaken's headquarters - they are doing an amazing job!! Afterwards we had a lovely dinner at California Cafe - a very delicious destination hidden near the stanford barn. Jonathan and I tried out some Bing Cherry Martini's and Chris and Mark tasted some wine flights.  

Man, that Young Fenstermacher is smart. Already reading the gritty post-war books and discussing revolutions in journalism. We had the long awaited "bring your hubby to book club" book club. Good choice of books Tom. We learned who is pro-death penalty and who is not. 

an old Kintana reunion at the Tied house... it's an increasingly rare event to get three old Kintana Education team members in the same place at the same time these days... 

Pearly Whites

Mark and I are in Mountain View this week for work - and I arrived to see Jeremy's new smile (sans braces!). It funny, after a week at work, nobody noticed that the braces were off. I am used to Scott not recognizing changes (if you tell him 3 times before you get a haircut, he usually remembers) but the rest of the org didn't notice either. Even Jeremy's Avatar is happy to have the braces removed...
So hear's to Jeremy's new smile!

Introducing Little Lola - Well Mark and I have decided to expand our family to include a new puppy. Lola (formerly named Triumph) is a Jack Russell Terrier - she is the runt of her litter, but she doesn't believe she is smaller than the rest. She is staying with her brothers and sisters while we are in California for the week and will be coming home to meet her big brother and sassy sis on Saturday. We have purchased lots of baby toys and baby gates for the new pup and are looking forward to puppy kindergarten. We are taking her on a trial to make sure the kitties accept the new bundle of joy - but are positive that Lola will steal their hearts (just like she did with ours).