Life Transplanet

As you probably know by now, Britton and I like to take walks and bike rides to stay active here in Colorado. In the winter, our desire to be outside decreases dramatically as the weather turns cold, grey, snowy and/or windy. Living in Colorado you’d think we would be ski-bums, but skiing and/or snowboarding is a full-day commitment (need to wake up at 4am to get to most of the mountain towns on time) and pretty expensive for just a day pass. Plus I just don’t really like cold weather sports that much. I tend to gravitate toward the lodge for hot cocoa and a warm fire.

Some days it is nice enough around here that we can get outside and do some fun activities on the weekends, but during the work week now that the time has changed, it is dark (and therefore extra cold) before we even get home from work.

So we were trying to think of something we could do together this winter to stay active. In the past we have taken salsa dancing lessons, walked around indoor plazas and have done push-ups, sit-ups and treadmill walking/jogging in our house, but we were trying think of something new and engaging.

One day we said, “Why not try the Wii?” We knew that they had gone down in price since they first came out a couple of years ago and that we could get it for even less if we looked on Craigslist. Sure enough, we found a Wii with the balance board, extra remotes and numchucks and four games for $100! Not bad for something that would have been about $600 new!

So we have been playing it just about every night since we got it three weeks ago. We are getting a lot better at it! On the Wii Fit game we really like the balance games like this soccer head-butt game. I also like the yoga and aerobics games too.

We also got Wii Sports Resort and so we turn on the fireplace and turn on some tropical music and then we can go wake-boarding, cruising, ping ponging and more at a tropical resort all in the comfort of our basement. I guess it will have to do until we go back to the real thing!

Since the holidays (días feriados) are upon us, I thought some vocabulary for them would be appropriate for the Spanish Tip of the Month.

Common Holidays

New Year: Año Nuevo

Valentine’s Day: Día de San Valentín

Easter: Pascua

Independence Day: Día de Independencia

Day of the Dead: Día de los Muertos (instead of Halloween)

Thanksgiving: Día de Acción de Gracias

Christmas: Navidad

Some associated words and phrases:

Turkey: Pavo
Presents: Regalos
Tree: Arbol
Ghosts: Fantasmas
Monsters: Monstruos
Tomb/Grave: Tumba
Skeleton: Esqueleto
Pumpkins: Calabazas
Santa Claus: Papa Noel (often just Americanized as Santa Claus though)
Star: Estrella
Songs: Canciones

You scared me!: ¡Me asustaste!
What a great party! ¡Qué gran fiesta!
The food is wonderful: ¡La comida es deliciosa! or simply ¡Qué sabrosa!
I ate too much/I’m full: Comí demasiado. Estoy lleno/a.
Thanks for the present: Gracias por el regalo
Merry Christmas: Feliz Navidad
Happy New Year: Feliz Año Nuevo

Last night we went to the Spook the Plaza Zombie Crawl in Greeley. It was really fun. I talked Britton into wearing zombie make-up, but he didn’t want to wear any special zombie clothes (“I died this way”, he said).

For the make-up, I used mostly just regular household items like Elmer’s Glue and tissues for the sores on the face. For the blood, I used honey, red food coloring and chocolate syrup (to darken it up a little). The rest was just from my own makeup supply.

Britton staying still as I applied the zombie makeup

Making “blood”

I think we turned out pretty good and scary! Check us out!

Scary Zombies Downtown Greeley

When we were ready, we went downtown Greeley to the Sky Nightclub. There we learned the beginning to the Thriller dance. Then afterward we performed it outside. We only did the beginning of it, but the dance troupe Colorado Dance Collective finished it. They closed off the street where we were dancing and a car tried to get through, instead all the zombies tried to attack it. It was pretty funny.

Afterward, Britton and I had a little snack at the Rio Grande and then watched most of “Creepshow” at Kress Theatre until Britton fell asleep. It was a fun night…of the living dead.

That is, until we had to shower to get all the sticky blood and paint off our faces…then things got really ugly!

This Friday Britton and I are planning on going to the Greeley Spook the Plaza Zombie Pub Crawl. We will be dressing as zombies and even performing the Thriller song downtown. I think they are even going to close off the roads so we can zombify them. We might go to Kress Theater for a free scary movie afterward also. If you want to meet up with us, let us know (but we might not be recognizable as the un-dead- haha).

The thing Britton and I do for fun and exercise is take walks. We usually go to our closest park, Ramseier Farm Park in Greeley. But in a given month we go to almost every park in Greeley. So this weekend we found ourselves in Loveland and took a wrong turn. I saw what looked like a park and thought it would be fun to walk around it while the weather is still nice. We were in for more than the regular park walking experience!

Me and a huge dog- The sculpture behind is cool too -the body progressively gets larger and larger until the feet are the most distinct things

Benson Sculpture Garden in Loveland is half park and half art exhibit. There has to be about 100 different bronze and other forms of sculpture. There are a couple of bridges and wetland areas as well. The sculptures are mostly of nature and historical figures. There are lots of horses, cowboys, and settlers, but also things like African lions, sea otters and some abstract sculptures as well. Around every corner there was a new one that I liked better than the last. It was a cool find to say the least!

Britton with the bench guy