Posts Tagged ‘travel’

I had three exciting weekends in a row:

1 – Josh came to visit. He cooked dinner one night and no one got hurt/sick!

Salmon with asparagus, tomatoes and red peppers and obligatory olive/cheese plate.

2 – We went down to Keystone and Breckenridge to ski with my mom and sister.

With Mom and Sam at Breck on Easter.

3 – I witnessed two of my friends from high school tie the knot in Illinois. I also visited my grandmother in the hospital (recovering slowly from hip replacement) and celebrated the birthday of my friend Emily (and got to meet her 3.5-month-old son.)

Ryan Tyler, such a good baby.

They were fun weekends, but afterward, I was ready for a low-key weekend in Wyoming. Looking ahead, I needed some time to decompress before this week.

After a couple April snows, spring has arrived. On Friday, I played catch and hit softballs for the first time since high school. I signed up for a co-ed summer softball league with a bunch of people I’ve met in the past few months. We have practice again today, first game in a month.

Yesterday I ran errands and tried to check-in with Foursquare. I get it, but I’m not completely sold. More Wyomingites are signing on, so I will use it.

I hit up the Ropin’ & Riggin’ Days college rodeo, only my second rodeo ever. I sat too far away to get good pics. Here’s a few out of the 413 takes.

This morning I made oatmeal pancakes with fresh strawberry sauce (for the second day in a row). Of course they were healthified — oat bran, oatmeal, egg, yogurt, pumpkin, cinnamon, baking powder.

I credit them for powering me through a 5 mile run along the river in the sunshine. I felt really good during and after the run, which is good news for my struggling half marathon training plan. I wanted to go 6 but cut it short so I wouldn’t be a slug at softball practice. Time to go swing that bat again!

Today’s a halfway point of sorts.

The last two weeks have been a roller coaster where what I thought were the low points were actually the highs. The first week was meeting-intensive (40 hours in meetings) and I contributed a week’s worth of stories including a few A1 stories. Because I was out of the office so much, I didn’t plan well for the next week. Things kept popping up — arts story, conference at the college, video interview — so I guess it was good I didn’t have big plans.

We joked I became the PAWS reporter — PAWS = Proficiency Assessments for Wyoming Students, the state’s annual standardized test to meet No Child Left Behind requirements. There have been oodles of problems statewide with the tests, which run online. Servers crashed, screens froze, certain keystrokes caused the program to shut down. Last week, I heard that one of the high schools had been sent bad protractors but didn’t realize it after 90 percent of the students had taken the test. Whoops. Sure, students can use their own instruments, but wouldn’t you want to use what the testing company sent you?? Nuts.

Two weeks from today I’ll be in Illinois for the wedding of my high school friends Tori and Tim. Finding a dress for an A.M., spring wedding in Wyoming has proven difficult. Time to turn to the Internet…

The trip will be the first time I’ve been home since August and probably will be the only time in the next 12 months. All my vacation days are booked up and it’s too expensive/risky to travel around the holidays.

I’m looking forward to a long weekend with not a lot of plans. My grandparents will be in and out of the hospital that weekend (grandma’s having her hip replaced) so I hope to see them in between meals at Mary’s Market and naps on the couch with my mom’s dog.

Well, this guy might cut into my Macy time (as in, he’ll be cuddling with her.)