Nikki Post: Epic Road Trip Prologue

As Claire mentioned in a previous blog post, we teamed up with my friends Lisa and Lauren to visit three and a half states (Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and a drive-through of New Mexico) in two and a half days (part of Friday, and all of Saturday and Sunday). Lisa has a policy of visiting at least one new state before every birthday, and this year, Oklahoma was the lucky recipient of our presence. Our stops in the other states were merely to make the weekend epic and exciting. We had a blast and solidified our statuses as "besties", which was especially exciting for me because it marks the first time that I can say I have best friends in both of my "homes."

I'm finally editing the photos, and Claire's helping me do research on the various sites we visited and people we met. (Because she likes this to be an educational as well as entertaining blog.) As always, I thank you, loyal readers, for your patience as I sort through and edit the hundreds of photos I took and dig through the internet for information to share. Claire's first entry will detail our trip through a stormy Kansas, our stay in a swanky hotel, fun at the Tulip Festival in Wamego, and our delicious lunch at a taquería named after a very famous terrier.

Not sure how many entries there will be, as I haven't yet split everything up into sub-folders. There WILL be additional photos from the trip added to my Facebook fan page, which may get updated before this blog occasionally, simply because it's easier. Keep an eye out there as well. :)

Date Night: Paint your own Pottery

Nikki and her friend Megan go on "date nights" every week or so where they hang out and either have a cheap dinner or do something fun together. A couple of weeks ago, they went to a really cool place called Color-Me-Mine where you can paint your own ceramics!

There's a $10 studio fee to cover all the supplies and the glazing/firing process. Then you pay for whatever piece you'd like to paint, and you're ready to go! They have a lot of different ceramic pieces to choose from...

There were whimsical pieces...

There were superheroes, cute animals, and food...

And LOTS of stuff for pet-lovers!

Speaking of pets, Nikki chose a mug with a dog on it to give to her friend Lauren (who owns Pawsitively Pooches, LLC and is Eva's dog-walker/dog-sitter) as a belated Easter present.

We went over to the HUGE shelf where all the paint colors were kept and chose the colors we thought Lauren would like best. Her dog Sneakers is the unofficial mascot for Pawsitively Pooches, so we wanted to paint the little dog to look like him.

The different tiles on the surrounding walls show customers/artists what the colors will look like pre-glaze and post-glaze. (It's a big difference!) They also show what the colors look like with only a FEW layers and with MANY layers (again, a big difference). There are little tiles in front of every bottle of paint to show the final color, and all of the bottles are numbered so you can remember which color(s) you used if you run out of paint. 

Next up, grab your painting supplies! They have brushes of every size and shape, sponges, stencils, pens, pencils, and palates for holding your paint.

With all of our supplies in front of us, we were ready to paint!

I had offered to help Nikki paint the back part of the mug while she painted the front...

...but she said that my lack of hands/opposable thumbs/muscles would make it impossible for me to help. Plus, I'd already made a bit of a mess on the table top (it had paper on it!), so I was put in charge of keeping Nikki's engagement ring safe and clean while she and Megan painted.

Megan had chosen a mug too, but hers was going to be speckled with paint and have a musical theme since she's a (really great) singer.

Fro-yo break!!

Megan discovered that the best way to get the speckled effect she wanted was to use a toothbrush and flick the paint on there using a variety of methods.

This was NOT one of the methods she chose.

This was one of the methods...although without the silly face (most of the time). ;)

Nikki (with my supervision, of course) painted the "Sneakers" mug.

Front

PUPPY BUTT!

So it's a good thing that Nikki put me in charge of keeping her stuff safe, because Megan went CRAZY with her spackling! She kept trying different techniques with the toothbrush...

...like throwing paint at it with brushes. She was worried about messing up her clothes (because she hadn't thought to wear grubby ones), so Nikki gallantly offered her hoodie as protection. Funny that neither noticed the SMOCKS RIGHT NEXT TO THEM. Luckily one of the nice employees pointed this fact out, and Nikki's favorite hoodie was spared further messiness.

Once Megan was properly besmocked, she continued her quest to make the table (and Nikki and herself and Nikki's mug and everything else in a five-foot radius) as messy as possible.

Megan to Nikki: "Haven't you ever MET me before?! How did you NOT know this would happen?!"

The aftermath

Unfortunately for Nikki, Color-Me-Mine had to close for the night before Nikki could finish her mug. They said they'd hold onto it for her, and she could return the next day to finish it. So we headed back over the next morning to finish the job.

All set to continue our creativity!

This time, I got to be on clean-up duty!

Nikki only meant to be there for about a half-hour or 45 minutes, but she forgot that she's a crazy perfectionist, so everything had to be JUST RIGHT and not look sloppy. PLUS she started adding new features that she hadn't thought to do the night before, so we ended up being there for TWO HOURS!!

She added paw prints going up the handle of the mug...

...and a big paw print on the inside bottom.

We had to wait a week for the mug to be glazed and fired because it was spring break time, and as you can imagine, the place had been FLOODED with kids and their parents looking to spend some quality time together. It was totally worth the wait though, because the mug came out looking GREAT!

And most important of all, Lauren loved it. :)

Color-Me-Mine has several locations in the Denver metro area, so if you want to have a fun girls night or a birthday party for your kid or just a quiet night by yourself being artsy, I HIGHLY recommend checking it out!

EPIC ROAD TRIP!!!!!!!!!!!

OMG YOU GUYS I FINALLY GET TO GO ON A LEGIT ADVENTURE AGAIN I'M SO EXCITED!!!

Nikki, me, and her besties Lisa and Lauren are going to 4.5 states in 2.5 days. No one thinks we can do it, and we probably can't, to be honest, but it's gonna be SO AWESOME to try!

First stop: Wamego, KS for their tulip festival and Wizard of Oz themed food/wine stores.
Second stop: Oklahoma City, OK because Lisa's never been to Oklahoma; we're also gonna go to a blues bar and eat barbecue
Third stop: Amarillo, TX to see Cadillac Ranch where this dude PLANTED CADILLAC CARS and then got all artsy with them
The half-state: We're gonna drive through New Mexico to get back to
Fourth state: Colorado, where if we have time, we're gonna stop off at this place named "Cimino Park," just like Nikki's family's name!

We got a new camera, because Nikki's fancy one stopped believing that its lens was attached to it when IT TOTALLY WAS, so we'll be able to document all the awesomeness of what we're doing.

See you when we get back!!! <3

March Madness, Dean's Office Style!

 

 Everyone is very excited about their March Madness brackets and tried to get me to join in. I told them that a) I have NO interest in basketball, professional or college; and b) because of this lack of basic knowledge about the teams, I would be at a severe disadvantage in the pool and would inevitably lose money that I'd rather spend on things like tacos. Now, football play-off pools...that's a different story. ;)

Nikki Post: Friendship is Magic

For Christmas last year, I gave my niece a My Little Pony "doll" (Rainbow Dash, because my brother can be homophobic, and I like being "gay-friendly, feminist Aunt Nikki"). She basically lost her shit because a) she LOVES MLP, and b) I had managed to buy her favorite pony. (SCORE!) Nostalgic for my own childhood when I had an insane amount of ponies (and according to my mom, mine are still in the attic), I bought one for the white elephant gift exchange at Audra's party. As you may remember though, I wanted to keep the pony all to myself, and by threatening the lives of the other guests, I was able to keep Lyra Heartstrings (not one of the main ponies, apparently). She currently lives behind the business cards and Frida the philodendron on the main part of my desk.

Being badass in the skull (Dia de los muertos) bracelet Agnes gave me

Many people in the office laughed at my pony, and yet they enjoy playing with her hair and moving her around. As a front desk person, many people consider "my stuff" to be "everyone's stuff," since it's so out in the open. So I'm a bit sensitive about items on my desk being moved around/messed with. After a VERY stressful week, I went to pick up Lyra and comb her hair to calm down (because I'm a child, apparently). That was the first time all week that I had noticed she was missing.

I. Lost. My. Mind.

I flipped out on Tracy, demanding to know where the pony was. She said she didn't know. I asked if she knew who took it. She said yes, looking more and more terrified by the second as my eyes began to glow red with bloodlust and a deep river of rage that lives deep inside of me and that most people don't see. Then I started angry-crying, and she told me that Marshall had taken Lyra on his vacation as a joke because he thought I'd get a kick out of him treating her like I did Claire. Under normal circumstances, I would have LOVED this opportunity to update the blog with something silly that someone else did as an homage to my country-traveling armadillo. But the stressful week, the bubbling rage, the crying, and my sensitivity about my possessions made me angrier than amused. Had Marshall asked or, wanting to keep it a surprise, someone had mentioned it BEFORE Friday when I discovered it on my own, things would have been better. There were some apologetic emails that got sent around that weekend between Marshall, Tracy, and me, and eventually everything was settled and forgiven.

On Monday, Marshall brought in a stack of pictures that he and his wife Kelly had taken while on their vacation with the pony. He said that they had a lot of fun taking the pictures in different locations. Marshall especially liked it because the pony was just the right side to put in his coat pocket while skiing. He had gone old-school and taken pictures with a film camera and went through great lengths to make sure that he had everything printed before he came into work on Monday. So I apologize for the quality of the pictures; I can only do so much editing.

I'm sure that I'm compressing the actual time line a LOT. After all, Marshall was out for a whole week of mountain fun times. But since I didn't go with him, I don't really know what his itinerary was, and he's a busy guy, so sitting down for an "interview" isn't a possibility.

Everyone's favorite picture - Lyra makes her escape!

Marshall made sure that Lyra got to watch my team WIN THE SUPER BOWL!

 En route to Copper Mountain Ski Resort; this shot was taken on Freemont Pass between Copper and Leadville

The amenities at the condo in Frisco where they all stayed were pretty sweet:

A romantic fire place...

...festive Native American decorations...

...a large backyard area for playing in the snow...

...a hot tub!!!...

...and game night!

But the real reason why Marshall, Kelly, and Lyra drove up to the mountains was to ski. It's Marshall's favorite activity, but unfortunately, due to a recent knee injury, he's out for the rest of the season. It's really sad panda times. He said that Lyra was a real champ about having her picture taken in the cold temperatures and that she was easy to put in his ski jacket's pocket and take from place to place.

On the way to the ski slopes!

Behold, the majesty of the Colorado Rockies. (She's on Marshall's ski pole in this picture.)

At the top of Spaulding Bowl. Be careful, Lyra!

Riding on the ski lift to the top of the mountain, the only thing about skiing that I like. :p

Perfect powder for a day of skiing in the sunshine

Whew!! Ready to go back to the condo to warm up and relax!

What better way to relax than to head over to an old-time saloon, eat some good food, and drink some good beer? The family headed over to the Blue Spruce Saloon and Bar for dinner. Marshall and Kelly were joined by Kelly's nieces Charlie and Penny and Penny's friend. (Obviously the young girls did NOT partake of the saloon's fine spirits.)

Waiting for a table

Marshall said that Lyra got all of her drinks for free that day because she flirted heavily with all of the guys at the bar. And here I thought she was such a sweet, innocent little pony!

Finally got a table! Time to settle down and order some food to go along with all that beer.

Everyone thought it was great that Charlie's outfit matched Lyra's coloring! I've circled the pony for you so you can find her more easily on top of Charlie's hat.

Penny and her friend were also pretty stoked to have Lyra joining them for dinner. I mean, who doesn't like My Little Ponies?!

Don't do it, Lyra!! Nothing good can come from that much Jager!

Another day, the crazy party went to Woodward at Copper, a gym with all kinds of "extreme" sports type of things to do. Frankly, I'm mad jealous, as I've always wanted to do these sorts of things. Unfortunately, I'm terribly clumsy with an equilibrium problem, so doing things like skate boarding and leaping off of things into a giant box of foam might not be a good idea for me.

The foam bricks

This half pipe was at Copper, and according to Marshall, Lyra had a great time going down it and being all EXTREME!

A beautiful night in the mountains calls for a beautiful night...

...spending time in front of an outdoor fire. Don't get too close, Lyra! Remember, you're made of plastic and can melt! Ponies are pretty flammable.

Lyra returned to me in one piece, and I gave Marshall official permission to take her on his next vacation, wherever that may be. He said everyone had fun finding photo-ops for her and it was a good way for the group to have fun together. Perhaps Lyra will get to see as many places as Claire someday!

Spring has Sprung!

The dean's office is so happy that Spring is finally here! Unfortunately, the weather hasn't figured out what Spring is supposed to feel like. Denver AND Baltimore (and other places) have been COVERED in snow. Many people are mad at Punxsutawney Phil, the groundhog scapegoat who predicted an early spring this year. I, however, am of the belief that Groundhog Day is stupid (the holiday, not the awesome movie with Bill Murray). A rodent doesn't care about its shadow, much less predict the weather by staring at it. That's why I celebrated Prairie Dog Day this year at PCC. It's the "Groundhog Day of the West." So don't blame Phil for the late spring; blame climate change. :p

Nikki Post: DINOSAUR RIDGE FOLLOW-UP!

You may remember that last June, Claire and I took a "mecation" and stopped off at Dinosaur Ridge to see cool fossils and fall in love with TJ, our paleontologist tour guide. Recently, Steve and I went to the ridge to take pictures for our wedding save-the-dates. While we waited for our friend to arrive and take the photos, Steve and I visited the museum. While there, we made an exciting discovery:

THE MISSING DINO FOSSIL!

Here's its story (click on image for larger version):

I was VERY excited to be able to follow up on this mystery, but Steve was...less than interested. *eyeroll* BOYS.