It's fall!

Yesterday was the first day of fall. I like fall alright, it's what it brings with it that I'm not too excited about. Cold weather. I hate cold weather so it's hard to not come straight home from work every day and get into my PJ's and never leave my couch. This year will be different. There's so much cool stuff to do outside in Denver that I don't want to be on the couch the whole time. In an attempt to get excited about fall, I rode my bike everywhere I went on Sunday. I rode to Anita's house and then to the grocery store (packed the groceries in my backpack- I know, Michael, I need a basket to trick out my bike- I'm working on it). Later on Sunday, I rode my bike to Criag's house and then we rode to Bible Study. I don't think I've rode (?) a bike in at least 10 years with the exception of Jekyll, but I think I'm learning all the rules of riding a bike in the road. Not having to drive everywhere is making me like living in the city a little more. Here's me on my bike!

Oktoberfest

This past weekend I went to Oktoberfest in Vail. That's right Oktoberfest is in September. It was my first trip to Vail and the leaves were changing so everything was beautiful! We ended up in a nice condo at the base of the mountain with about 10 other people so it was cheap too! We danced to the Oompa and other types of bands all night on saturday and walked around the Farmer's Market on Sunday. I even bought my first pair of skis! I'm not actually a proficient skier yet, but it's coming. The only stinky thing about the weekend was that I still can't drink, but the good news? Today is my last official day of being a "non-drinker." Every social event of the past nine months has seemed very long, but overall, it went by pretty quickly. And no, I'm not planning on jumping back into drinking. It'll be slow, but I'm planning on enjoying every glass of wine, double chocolate stout and yeti that comes my way.

sorry for the delay in blogging... i didn't forget. if you know me AT ALL you can probably guess what happened. yes, my computer crashed again- the won't turn on, smoke literally coming out of it kind of crash. So with the new computer, I'm still working on setting up the wireless- yet another of my chronic problems with computers- surprise, surprise, it still isn't working.

Labor Day weekend was fun! Mom came out to Denver- her flight got in while I was in class on Saturday so when I went to pick her up in Parker, she, Jennifer, and Andrew threw me a surprise birthday party. Here's my cake. MMMMM.

Sunday afternoon, mom, Craig, and I drove up Mt. Evans near Idaho Springs. It's one of the fourteeners (14,000 ft. elevation). We drove almost to the top on the highest paved road in North America and then hiked about 200 yards to the top where it was snowing! 70 something on the ground wind chill of 20 at the top. and I was in shorts. We had tons of fun though- it's beautiful!

And here are the goats that were soliciting food in the road and a few other pretty pictures...

Mom and I hung out all day on Monday too and then we got up really early to take her to the airport and it was time for me to go back to work. Speaking of work, I was named the assistant librarian for the school today- it's not an officail title, so no raise or anything, but I have to figure out a way to organize everything in the library- it's by title now and that is dumb. Nothing else really exciting going on- I have to work til 4 and then be in class from 4- 8:30 on my birthday- also dumb. AND it's statistics- gross, but it only meets 3 times after tomorrow. Time to take clothes out of the laundry so here's a picture of the laundry/ trash chute room to leave you with...