Life Transplanet

After the crazy wind died down on New Year’s Eve, we went out to eat at the Texas Roadhouse, a Texas-themed steakhouse where they play country music and you can throw peanut shells on the ground. The perfect type of place for Greeley. And it was full of people. Thankfully, Britton had called ahead and we walked right in with no wait. We felt like VIPs!

At Texas Roadhouse in Greeley

Then we went over to our friends Matt and Jamie’s house to play some Texas Hold-Em poker (a very Texas night for some reason) and ring in the new year. We played tournament style which takes way too long for my patience, but is fun for a night counting down the hours, minutes and seconds to the new year.

After about three hours of playing everyone starts getting restless and not paying much attention to the game and instead starts telling jokes and messing around.

Me and Hailee playing around

To add a little spice to the night, Britton and I had  decided beforehand to play a practical joke. We found some “untearable toilet paper” at the dollar store the other day. Britton inconspicuously traded out the regular paper in the bathroom for the un-tearable kind. We thought about removing all the regular toilet paper under the bathroom sink, but thought that might be too mean, so he just removed and replaced the roll on the spring.

After about 2 hours of playing poker, finally someone went to the bathroom. Britton and I waited to see what would happen. Finally, our friend Erin came out and said “Matt and Jamie, what IS this stuff? It’s just about impossible to tear. Are you trying to re-use your toilet paper?” They were mortified and said, “We just bought it at Wal-Mart the other day.” Britton and I just laughed along with everyone else, and no one knew it was us for the longest time until we came clean. We were just shocked that Erin was actually able to pry it apart and even used it!! That takes some doing. It was pretty hilarious.

Erin with the TP around her neck

Finally as we were nearing midnight only Britton, Erin and I remained as the last three in the poker tournament. We decided to call it and Britton and I took first, and she took second. So we walked away with $60! Not too shabby!

This was the final table. I had the most chips (on the right)! Yay

Erin, Jamie and Me- Making the Money-haha

It was a fun night out with friends and a great start to the new year. We hope everyone has a wonderful and prosperous 2012!

Today we woke up to our roof clapping, the windows singing, and the debris tapping all over our house.  This awakening unfortunately is a fairly common occurrence here on the high plains of Colorado: tremendous wind. Any time we have nice warm weather followed by a cold front, or vice versa, the wind kicks up and blows all over. Britton and I often say “No nice day goes unpunished” for while Colorado is known for its 300 days of sunshine a year, what they leave out is that many of them can be very windy.

The sustained winds are about 35 mph but there are gusts between 60 and 100 mph! It’s just crazy and agitating, especially when you can hear the shingles tearing off the roof, because that means work for Britton. We drove around Greeley just to check out the damage and saw that our neighborhood had some broken fences, lots of missing shingles and more tree damage (after the early snowfall broke a lot of branches).

It’s funny to us when people worry for us about Puerto Rico because it’s a Caribbean island in the middle of a hurricane zone because we have hurricane force winds here in Colorado all the time, especially in the spring and fall. There are often tornadoes that pop up all over the eastern plains, and we even had a major one just 3 or 4 years ago in Windsor (ironic name, I know), a town about 10 miles from Greeley.

Another thing about the crazy winds of Colorado and the plains in general is that it always brings up the tumbling tumbleweeds. We’ve met people who are not from around here who thought that tumbleweeds were fictitious, and part of the western folklore kind of like Paul Bunyon or Tom Sawyer. But, they are very real and roll all around during windstorms like these. While driving, they often tumble and slam into your car grill. They are strange because they look like alien creatures rolling along the prairie.

Tumbleweed that was blown up on our front porch

So, we try to make the best of these days and stay down in the basement where we can’t hear the house being torn apart. After it is all done, we will have to check for and fix any damage to the fence, greenhouse, trees, chairs that have been thrown off our patio and shingles that always take flight.

It’s kind of a strange way to end the year, but I suppose the wind is sort of like nature’s vacuum cleaner doing some last minute work.

We hope this crazy Colorado wind blows in a great new year for everyone!

Britton and I both had a four day weekend for the Christmas holiday but most of it was filled with activities.

Friday we baked cookies all day long. Then Saturday we spent the evening with Britton’s family. On Sunday we went over to my grandma’s for Christmas dinner. And on Monday we took Britton’s niece and nephew out to lunch and to pick out a present of their choice. So while it was nice to sleep in, we didn’t really get much of a break otherwise. The time went by rather quickly and 2012 is rapidly approaching as well. We hope you all had a nice holiday with friends and family.  Britton and I are looking forward to 2012 and our next trip to Puerto Rico which will be at the mid to end of January.

I woke up today in my warm house while outside it is a chilly 7 degrees.  Thinking about this I realized that it’s completely normal for me.  I live in a place where if you didn’t have shelter, you could quite possibly die.  It’s always amazing to me that people selected this as a place to live.  Sure in the summer it’s nice and warm day and night, but what kind of marketing did they have to use to get us here?

I figured I’d go for a walk and I snapped a few pictures to share.

We Carve Paths thru the Snow and Ice

I suppose for some people that haven’t ever lived or visted a winter wonderland stuff like this would be pretty fascinating.  It will be fun to make Puerto Rican friends that haven’t ever seen snow!

The Frost Clings to Surfaces in the Night

We have a pond in the center of our subdivision.  It’s got a lot of ice over most of it, but this end must be a bit warmer.  I thought the vapor dancing on the surface was cool and took a short video.

t looks like we will have a white Christmas.  This snow is going to stick around for a few days at least!  This is all so normal to me, much like the Rocky Mountains.  Heck we live right up against them and I hardly ever go, I’ve been so many times and it’s so “normal” that I haven’t taken time to blog about them.  This is a reason why Puerto Rico fascinates me, it’s a whole new world.  A world where they don’t bury water lines for fear of freezing pipes and houses aren’t built with pitched roofs to keep the weight of snow from crushing them.  Seems absurd to me.   LOL

Greeley is not particularly known for its art scene, but there are a few gems around Greeley. I love this one of Einstein that says “Imagination is more important than knowledge“. Check out how huge it is in comparison to me!

Imagination is more important than knowledge Einstein mural in downtown Greeley

This great mural is located just southeast of Lincoln Library in downtown Greeley. We see it every time we pick up books from the library. I think it is beautiful and the quote is so true! While knowledge will get you to the vision you seek, you will not even have the vision without a little imagination!