The Green Dump!

A few years back I realized that I had a disorder. Most of you will agree that I'm moody, and at times, a bit difficult to be around. However, this "disorder" has been much less severe since getting married-just ask Deborah and Blayne! There are times when it creeps back in and I decided to give it a name, and call it MAD- Mountain Affective Disorder. Basically, if I don't get to the mountains at least once or twice a month I suffer the symptoms of MAD. Irritability, depression, sadness when in sight of Long's Peak and Meeker. It drives my friends mad so of course I should go to the mountains, right? Better yet, we should buy some property in the mountains right? That way I can go there and even spend the night to ensure my mental sanity and a cure from MAD.

On Sunday I finally made it up to my friend Mark's "shed" to hang out on his property. He purchased a few acres near Drake and just broke ground on his house. Last spring he built a "shed" on it so he would have shelter when working on the property. Now, this is no shed...it has a porch and a loft, and tools and equipment so the powers that zone would classify it as a shed. Unfortunately Larimer county determined it was a living space and gave it an address! There is a gas grill behind it...120 square feet of shed...and I spent all day Sunday there having the time of my life.


The land was secluded and I felt disconnected from the world. It felt good to let go of the heavy burden I now bear having an iPhone. We tromped through the woods, hiked to the lake (where the fly fishing is great) saw herds of elk and even more scat, and then enjoyed the yummy grilled meat Eric whipped up. After that I went in search of rocks for my garden and since Mark's foundation had just been dug, the choices were amazing. Audrey and Cache had a great time romping free. Well, Audrey was free since she is a good dog, but Cache enjoyed the mountains on leash.

Right next door to Mark's place is what we have deemed "The Green Dump." Apparently this land and structure was listed for a long time at $200,000 or so, but no one wanted it. It's gone way down in price and as I sat enjoying the free medicine to cure MAD I realized that this was a place I would like to spend my weekends and summers. I envisioned a new structure on the property, one with a wrap around porch and a mountain cabin feel. I could see myself biking to Estes Park each weekend and being close enough to Long's Peak to climb it whenever I wanted. I imagined hiking to the top of the nearby mountains, whose trail heads were within hiking distance from the front door. Rock climbing there is some of the best and I could see all our friends sharing this place and relaxing in the mountains together...I stopped my thoughts and looked at Eric. Once again he had the "no way in hell are we buying this" look on his face, the one I see a lot. I knew I would need help, so here is this blog asking all who are interested in sharing this place to consider it.

Here are some pictures of the area, along with the view from the front of the Green Dump.





Think about it!

Spring Break & I Heart iPhone

Ah, finally it is spring break. I have not had much time to blog, but now, as I sit at Salvador Deli drinking yummy espresso, it seems like the perfect time.

I don't have any new pictures because they are all on my new iPhone! Most of you know I have been coveting an iPhone for almost a year now. Eric is against spending a lot of money for technology, so I was persistent in my efforts to gain his approval for the purchase. I would set a picture of the iPhone as his desktop, only to get scowls. I would cut out pictures of iPhones and tape them around the house, but they would disappear. I even had outbursts of the word "iPhone" randomly throughout the week. Nothing seemed to work. Then we ended up deciding that I would get a free phone from AT&T and wait another two years for an iPhone. I was sad but figured a new phone might appease me. We never got around to ordering that phone (I couldn't bring myself to do it!) and on Saturday ended up at the Cherry Creek Mall in Denver because we were killing time before picking up the Chastains at the airport. We went to Cherry Creek because they have a cookie shop, but my motive was to make it into the Apple Store and work my magic on Eric. We went into the Apple Store together and Eric's face took on the "iPhone Scowl" as I picked one up and looked at the features. I picked out a case, and he wanted nothing to do with me. I kept on and finally got him to hand over his wallet. He didn't agree with my purchase, i knew, but at least he handed me his wallet, right? He went out of the store while I made the purchase. The Chastains flight was SUPER late so we sat on a couch in the mall and watched the final four-in silence. I really considered taking my purchase back, because what is more important-an iPhone or a marriage? Of course I didn't take it back...instead I opened it and stroked the smooth glass touch screen and read the owners manual, with a guilty conscience. I knew our marriage was strong enough to withstand this!
We picked up the Chastains and they said I was wrong and should take the phone back-especially Blayne. The thing is I paid for the phone with money from what I call "my second job" at Brentwood. So did it really matter? Nah.
The next few days tell everything. Eric began asking to "see" the phone and soon began looking at it with glee as I did. He could watch YouTube anytime, figure out where we were, get directions to any restaurant, and put movies on it to watch while we travel. Then I took the phone over to Blayne to get some help on how to route my Yahoo mail and he fell in love with it. I must say that I am not disappointed. I took it to the gym and the special headphones allow you to be listening to music and click the mouthpiece to answer a call or control the iPod features. The contacts list is limitless, and it beats any PDA I've ever owned. My only concern is the battery life, which I'm sure is fine. I heart iPhone...

Now it is time to get my article submitted for publication, research dragonflies for a possible research opportunity this summer, read a few good books, figure out what I want to do my dissertation on, study for the GRE, plant our garden, landscape our yard, redo our porch, and find time to ride my bike!

Washington DC

I had the opportunity to travel to Washington DC last weekend to attend the GK-12 conference sponsored by the National Science Foundation. GK-12 is a program that pairs graduate students in science fields with teachers in K-12 classrooms. The graduate students bring their research to students and the teachers benefit from having a person to help them teach, plan, and do whatever the teacher needs. I am a teacher who is sharing a graduate student from the University of Northern Colorado with 3 others at my middle school. We have some great things planned and the other benefit is that there is funding for equipment through this program. Considering my classroom budget is around 100$ per year this is an amazing opportunity!

I had been to DC once before in high school, but I don't think I appreciated the experience as much as I should have. This time I was rooming with a fellow teacher and friend in my school district and we both had the same goal to see as much of DC as was possible in the little time we had. When we weren't in sessions or presentations, we were exploring the capitol. And boy did we explore! Our hotel was in walking distance to the main monuments so we walked A LOT over three days.






If you don't know my political stance (where have you been for the last two years?), you do now . A friend got me a Bush Voodoo doll for Christmas so I made sure to place a curse as close to the residence as possible.

One opportunity we took advantage of was to see behind the scenes of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. It was really neat to see how much effort goes into new exhibits. I was in heaven, especially since one of my favorite activities in Denver is to go to the museum.





Did you know that when you see a statue of a person on a horse that the way the horse is standing tells you if the person riding was injured or died in battle? Laura, the friend I explored DC with, said that if a person is on a horse that has both front legs down then the person did not die in battle. If one leg is up then the person was injured. If the horse is rearing, then the person died in battle. I had never hear that!






When it was time to go we were sad. We got to the airport and our flight had been delayed a little over an hour. We looked at each other and decided to head out on the Metro to see Arlington National Cemetery. We checked our luggage then hit the Metro. Others in our group thought we were crazy, but we had a blast and made our flight in plenty of time. I wish I had more pictures but by that time my camera battery had died. That was fitting because I didn't have any energy left to take more pictures anyway.

The energy in the capital was amazing with the upcoming elections. I'm looking forward to going back, minus the need of a Voodoo doll...

It's a Trek!

I finally got "the" bike. My birthday was on Friday and when I got home I found it in the living room, dog proofed of course! I was home to let the dogs out and catch the bus to our game in Loveland and had about 8 minutes to spare. So I made the dogs hurry and do their business, then I tucked my dress pants into my socks and rode the new trek around the block. Once I figured out how to brake and shift (and how hard it is to pedal a bike with clip only pedals in dress shoes) it was amazing. Here she is...

Riding this bike is like this-think of walking across cement in a pair of dress shoes. You feel every bump and after about 20 steps your feet hurt. Then think of how good it feels to remove the dress shoes and put on a pair of running shoes...you bounce and walk on air. That is the difference in riding this bike. It is so SMOOTH, even on bumps. I've never experienced anything like it and plan to ride as much as I can. I've already logged 29 miles in two days, despite the cold.

That's all for now. Basketball season is over so I promise to keep up and post more pictures-especially from my birthday (once Deborah emails them to me).

Bad Blogger

I've been quite the slacker in blogland. Here's the two pictures I have taken since the new year, and it sums up what Eric and I have been doing for the last month. Get up, go to work, come home to eat dinner, and fall asleep on the couch with the dogs.



I've been having a lot of fun coaching. Our girls are 3-? (you lose track of how many you lose, but always know how many you win!) and it has been a great experience. I spend a lot of time at practice and even more traveling to games, watching games, and analyzing games, but because I enjoy it so much it doesn't even feel like work. If I'm given the opportunity to coach them again next year I will. Other than basketball I was able to attend a conference in St. Louis to present a poster of my thesis research. I decided there that I'm going to head back to school, once again, and join my sister as "Professor." I think that being at a University will be so much fun it too won't feel like a job :-) Lastly, I'm enjoying the Wii alot, though Super Mario Galaxy makes me waste perfectly good hours of time! I can see why my middle school students are addicted to video games-they are a lot of fun!

I'm pretty excited about getting my new "baby." Full carbon frame, high end components...Her due date is Feb. 22 (amazingly my birthday!) Here she is...



I've really been into cycling this year, since it is the only intense exercise that doesn't seem to hurt my knees and ankles. You also get to be outside and with the views of the mountains on most of my rides, it is an enjoyable experience. I'm looking forward to riding in the mountains and maybe participating in some century rides with friends.

That's all on this end. Send me an email if you want to come visit!!!

Happy New Year!

There isn't much going on around here, other than lots of snow and VERY cold days. It has been too cold to get out much, even to snowshoe. Not only would we freeze in the -10 degree weather, but the dogs' paws can't really take it. Cache has some cute booties, but we couldn't risk Audrey and Darcy losing a paw to frostbite...

We had a great Christmas but I am starting to feel like an adult. I suppose that's good, since I am 31! Eric and I talk about how much we want to travel and do fun things, so when he received a small bonus for Christmas we thought we would use it this summer to take another trip. Then we looked at our bedroom and realized that we didn't have a bed frame, our wicker "college dorm room" furniture wasn't working anymore, and our mattress was shot. So rather than buy plane tickets to some destination, we made a trip to Fort Collins and bought a new bedroom set to match our only real piece of furniture (a dark merlot finish dresser). Then we stopped in Greeley at a mattress store and purchased a decent mattress. I'm happy, but not quite as excited as I would be if we were planning a trip to Mexico or the West Coast.

The dogs have been the main event this holiday season. Of course we have Darcy, since the Chastains are down south visiting Deborah's family. Darcy really loves it here, and we call it "Camp Parrish." She wrestles with Cache all day and leaves a ton of hair on our carpet and underneath our bed so she will not be forgotten. Ah Darcy...here they are waiting patiently for the command "ok" to go eat.

We hope you are all doing well and again we would like to extend the invitation to anyone who would like to come visit. The snow is as good as it's been in years, so the skiing and snowshoeing are excellent. Just buy a plane ticket, let us know when to pick you up at the airport, and that's it!

-The Parrish Clan, including Audrey, Cache, and Darcy

Christmas 2007

We had a lovely Christmas Eve at our place (sorry, no pictures)and it was a lot of fun playing "Loaded Questions" and eating yummy food with our many friends. We played Wii and introduced Blayne's parents to the joys of Wii tennis elbow and double bogeys on the Wii golf course. Cecily watched "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" and we all ate way too much.

Eric and I woke up late this morning and found that an inch of snow was already on the ground and there were 4 more on the way! The snow from our last storm hadn't quite melted so it looks like we have a blizzard here.

We opened our gifts and allowed the dogs to have a treat or two. Audrey didn't seem to notice that her stocking was once our beloved Darcy Dog's. All she really cared about was the basted rawhide Cache had received... Audrey has a sensitive stomach (we learned this the hard way) and has been given all the squeaky toys and a small rawhide.

Eric received Wii FIFA soccer, some cold weather biking gear, Wii Super Mario, and many wonderful goodies from my family.
I was very excited about the gourmet coffee, fancy coffee grinder, and other gifts I didn't deserve. Our tree was overflowing with gifts and it didn't seem right that it was just the two of us with all these presents! I did receive this wonderful book about green living from Eric. Ah, he knows me well!

Eric is still eating the potato chips and french onion dip from last nights festivities, and he is watching "Christmas Story" for the 5th time in two days!

We are planning on going over to the Chastain's for an early dinner and then dessert and game night. It is going to be a wonderful Christmas, as always!
Hope you all have a great holiday.
(If anyone wants to come out and ski please do! I need someone to come visit to give me the excuse to go-the snow in the mountains is amazing!)