Just like Grandma's....

OK! So on Sunday night I had a First! There have been a few firsts since we have moved to Colorado, but this was a different kind of first. I made my first pie! PIE!

I love pie!, apple, blackberry, RHUBARB, strawberry, strawberry rhubarb, among others. My grandma Brummer always makes the best pies, and Grandma Pruemer makes a mean strawberry pie not to mention Natalie's pies. The only problem with Natalie making some of them is that she just makes them and then I have to eat the whole thing (i hate that....), cause she doesn't want to try her rhubarb. SO I had a lot to live up to!

A co-worker brought in a bucket full of apples from a tree in her yard, so I asked Natalie if she could help me make an apple pie. Nads being the wonderful wife that she is say's, "of course dear, I will help you make a pie." ahhhh how sweet!.....

1st peel the apple's...... (This is where that Pampered Chef crap, that I tried to make Natalie get rid of at the garage sale,
comes in handy.)




















Then slice the apples in pieces. (also a nice pampered chef tool) :)



















After slicing the apples, I placed them in a big bowl (pampered chef) with some sugar, whole wheat flour and cinnamon.












Next was rolling out the dough. I first tried this with whole wheat flour, but the dough didn't roll out correctly. So.... I had to go to the store to pick up some all-purpose flour. This worked like a charm.

Natalie showed me how to roll the pie crust onto the rolling pin and then lay it out onto the pie plate. Worked like a charm.

Whad'ya know, but my pie turned out. Since it was now about 8:30 or so and I am getting old, I had to get to bed. (actually because I needed to get up at 4:45 to go work out) I didn't get to try any of my precious pie. But the next day I took it to school to share with our awesome staff! I of course had the first piece and I thought I had done a pretty awesome job! As you can see, it looks pretty amazing. The golden crust is my specialty!!!! Look at that smile... think I was excited????

EPIC:

EPIC:

Adj.

1.

epic - very imposing or impressive; surpassing the ordinary (especially in size or scale); "an epic voyage"; "of heroic proportions"; "heroic sculpture"

WOW!.... A co-worker/new friend invited me to do this ride with him and his buddy this week. It was a point to point ride, requiring a vehicle at both ends. They picked me up at about 7:30 this a.m. We drove up to drop a truck off in Minturn which would be the end of our ride, then all hopped in with James and drove to the top of Vail Pass, which was about another 15-20 minutes up I-70. The ride was Vail Pass to Minturn via the Boarman shortcut and Two Elks Trail. We parked at the top of Vail Pass and started off on dirt road at about 8:30ish with a temp of 38 degrees and about 10,500 ft in elevation. We climbed about 2 miles on the dirt/rock road until we came to a singletrack (Boarmans Shortcut). After hitting the singletrack we climbed for another 3-4 miles before topping out at TOP OF THE WORLD.

It was so hard to breathe up here. We live at around 6,600 ft, but there is a huge difference between 6,600 ft and 11 or 12,000 ft. There were many short steep hills that just sucked the energy out of ya and left you gasping for air! And after every short steep hill, you transferred to long gradual hills, so there wasn't really much opportunity to recover. But man, the views were incredible! From where we were you could see 60-70 miles in any direction and the colors are absolutely incredible!

From the Top of the World we then had some rolling singletrack and a bit more uphill. The rest of the ride was pretty much rolling, some climbing, some amazing downhills, and lots more beautiful scenery. After we were done climbing, we had a short steep and technical downhill for a bit, out into a beautiful meadow. By this time we were in the backbowls of VAIL.

We had a nice long downhill to navigate through one of the back bowls. James and I were bombing down it, at one point I went through a little dip and thought I had broken my fork. Kinda took me by suprise. Came up on two other bikers, and the guy wouldn't let me pass even after I asked him, so I just went off trail and went around him. We were doing about 20-25 all the way down this 3-4 mile downhill. Just really feeling it and getting in the groove... becoming one with our bikes.... What an amazing feeling until... I must have cased my back tire on a rock cause about a 1/2 mile from the bottom I flatted. I took about 4-5 minutes to change the tire while James went on to the planned stop at ORIENT Express Chairlift (pg 2 of that map). I changed my tire and waited about another 5 minutes for Jeff, the other guy with us. After I had waited so long and he still wasn't coming I knew that something had probably happened. The SLOW guys that I had passed finally came by and told me that my buddy had cracked his frame in half. I thought OH NO! We were about 6-7 miles from any kind of town, so a long hike carrying a broken bike. I went back to check on him and here is what I found....

After helping him load what was left of his "bike" I took off to find James. He had been concerned because at this point it had been about 25 minutes that he had been waiting. After informing him that Jeff was ok, we went to the meeting point to wait for him and take some pics of him hiking while carrying his bike. I know it wasn't funny at the moment, but it was kind of comical looking back on it.
While wondering what we were going to do about this SNAFU, we saw a white VAIL resorts truck go by (a worker getting the lifts ready for operation). Somebody suggested that someone should chase him down, and me being the eager beaver and ready to do some good, I hop on my trusty steed and start bombing down this dirt road at about 30 mph (EMERGENCY HERE PEOPLE!) I caught up with the truck and explained to him the situation and he said sure he would help. He gave me a ride back up to where I had come from and gave Jeff a ride to the ski aid station where someone else gave him a ride back to Vail Village where we would pick him up in a bit. Meanwhile we still had about 5 miles of SWEET and TECHNICAL!!!! downhill to hit on the way to Minturn. This section of downhill was the most TECHNICAL I have ever been on. Lots of large rocks to navigate, (and a beaver dam to cross...) This whole downhill section took us a while and was very challenging, prompting James at one point to "jump" over the handlebars and land on his back to stare at the cloudy sky above. On the left side of the trail was a straight drop to the stream below, and on the right beautiful colors of the Aspens. Several times I tried to sneak a peak to the stream below and almost ran my bike off the cliff straight into the stream (FOCUS NICK!)

James and I made it down in fine shape. It started snowing close to the bottom, we picked up Jeff's truck in Minturn, drove up to Vail to pick up Jeff, then drove up to the top of Vail Pass to get James's truck. Then headed home to a nice warm house where Natalie had informed me that all the work was done and all I had to do was come home and drink a beer with her and the dogs. What a Perfect Day!


I would highly recommend this ride, and will be for sure to take any visitors on it that come out to ride. Although since it is in the high country (all above 10,000 ft) it is only open for about 4-5 months of the year. I would say that now (fall) is by far the best time to do it. It was an awesome and gorgeous ride! An EPIC ride for sure!

A Saturday Drive

Yesterday we took a drive, happy to spend the day just looking and talking and relaxing. The drive had been suggested by the custodian at school - so a big shout out to Consuelo for the excellent recommendation. The colors have really started to change, and we wanted to check it out. We were told the drive was not for the faint of heart, and since Nick is not (which implies I am, and is probably pretty close to the mark), we decided to give-it-a-go.

The drive started out in Eagle, went west on 70 to Glenwood Springs, which is always beautiful going through the canyon. At Glenwood, we caught 82 east and headed down to Aspen. Nick tells me Lance Armstrong just purchased a place in Aspen. It's probably safe to say we will never be able to afford a place in Aspen; I balk at the $8.50 it cost us for one turkey sandwich on plain, store-bought bread. Anyway, from Aspen, you continue on 82 east where there are lots of viewing places alongside the road. So we stopped a number of times, to look, take pictures, let the dogs pee, and have lunch - the one sandwich we were splitting with 2 bags of chips :-)

The lunch stop happened at Independence Ghost City. It wasn't very scary, as Ghost Cities are prone to be, but it was beautiful. It's crazy the little towns people set up in the 1800's. Independence was settled because of the gold mining opportunities. I'm not sure gold would have been enough to convince me to settle at that particular point...10,000 ft + in altitude, I'm sure winters were not very forgiving. But it's very interesting anyway, and they still had some buildings left standing, so it was cool to look at.

After lunch, we continued on up a steep drive. I only questioned the ability of two cars to be on the road at the same time once...so the road wasn't as bad as I had thought it might be. It was at least paved the whole way, which is more than I can say for some of the other expeditions we have been on! At the top of the pass we got out and walked around a bit. We had made it above the treeline and there wasn't much color at this point. We did see snow, but not much else.

We were both apparently feeling pretty adventurous, because I drove us down from the top of the pass back to Eagle. The drive down brought us back into some beautiful colors. Nick was taking pictures out the window like crazy. It was an awesome fall day. We went through Leadville, Minturn and Red Cliff, and finally stopped in Avon to shop for a bit before heading home.

It didn't seem like we should have been too worn out, but we were pooped. And so were the dogs. We capped off the excellent day with a trip out for dinner to a place in Eagle. The lettering on the building reads "Mexican Food." Tiffany (from work) had suggested it, and said it actually has a name "Mi Pueblo" but for some reason that name is not on the building. It was great food though, and we came home full and satisfied with such an awesome day.



Side note: You can always click on a picture within the blog to see it bigger :-)

Perfection vs. Non-Perfection

My senior year of High School we started our first soccer team. That was the '98-'99 season. WOW what a long time ago.... Our record that first year was 0-6-1. That's correct, 0 wins. We had a few close games, but the best we were able to do was one tie.
When my brother Bob was a senior in high school, they had a fairly decent team. The leading scorer had 25 goals for the season, which is definitely a good mark. I believe they may have lost in regionals/sectionals against jacksonville or quincy notre dame, or somebody that had a pretty good team that year. His team had some talent, and while I am not for sure on the final record, I know they won more games than they lost.
Fast forward a few more years to the '07-'08 Teutopolis High School soccer team and my baby brother Michael is a sophomore. As a sophomore he was looked at to be one of the major scorers for the team. Game one he gets tackled and falls on his wrist/hand and breaks it. He is now out for the majority of the season. He made it back in time for the postseason and the final push which carried the team to the State Tournament in Chicago for the first time ever. At state they were slayed by Rochester who just had way more talent and skills and knowledge of how to play the game. Still a great result for Teutopolis High School.
What do you know, but the 2008-09 team starts out 10-0. A perfect record with a lot of excitement and optimism for the season. Michael (now a junior) being healthy leads the team with a School record of 26 goals with several games left in the season. On Tuesday night the team played Charleston High School always a perennial powerhouse in soccer plus they are a bigger school to a 1-0 loss off of a free kick by a club soccer teammate of Michaels. A stellar game it sounded like from what I read in the papers. A defensive struggle with TTown only able to get one shot on goal. But a loss is a loss....
Which brings me to my current question:
Is it better to have an undefeated season or to have a loss or a few losses? I'm sure there are many different opinions on this, but here is my view:
Perfection is a very hard thing to do in sports and carries with it a lot of pressure. Where a team gets in trouble is when they start playing not to lose (conservative), because they are afraid of not winning. (If that makes any sense) I think a loss or two can be a good thing because it can be motivating, and can help a team continue to play aggressive to win, and not be so conservative which is how a team plays when they are so afraid of losing.

What do you think? Perfection or a loss or two?

We're singing now, Go Cubs Go, Go Cubs Go....

Yesterday, Saturday, September 20, 2008 (the day before my mom turned even older!!! lol just kidding!)...anyway, yesterday, the Cubs clinched the division. Very exciting news in this household. My friend Mel was there and proclaimed it amazing! She also pinned down a shirt to send me, so soon I can sport that puppy all around the Rockies fans :-)

Very excited about the postseason and just want to remain as calm as possible about things. Our fearless leader Lou Piniella has reminded us that this is not the end of the trip, that there is lots more for us (as Cubs fans and those players) to accomplish before we can be satisfied. That being said, I did still sneak a peak at the schedule, and should the Cubs make it to the World Series (I said should which is really just like hypothetically speaking so no, I'm not going to jinx them), but should they make it to the World Series, you will find this here Cubs fan (without Cardinalish husband because someone has to be responsible in this partnership...we can't just both jet off whenever we like!) in Wrigleyville when the Cubs play at home on October 25 & 26. Yes kids, that's a weekend. So there will be minimal amounts of work missed as I fly (ewwww!!!) my happy butt from Denver to Chicago to meet up with my Cub-fan friends to experience Wrigleyville for a World Series. Now what happens if they don't make it that far? Well, obviously, that's money saved on the plane ticket, one more day at work and one sad Cubs fan who would say "wait 'til next year" :-(

Now, enough of that. Hope you have enjoyed the new pics of Flat Natalie, sent straight from Chatham, IL. Photos courtesy of Markiss & Tammijean!

Nice Rack!

No, really! Nice rack. Get your mind out of the gutter.... We received an REI gift card from cousin Steve and family for the wedding and used it to purchase a snowboard rack for the top of the car. When the ski resorts open in November, the bicycle rack will be temporarily removed, and the new THULE snowboard rack will take it's place for a while. We can hold up to 4 snowboards if anyone is interested in helping us try out the rack. Thanks guys for the gift card. I think we put it to good use!

5K Mountain Style and Octoberfest

On Sunday morning we made the trip up to Vail Ski Resort for Natalie's first 5k since we moved out. Temperature at 9:00 a.m. was 32 degrees. She hasn't even been running much and the course was mountainous, and she did an awesome job! Not her best time ever, but she also hasn't been training that much. I thought she did a great job for how little she has been running. We got a few good pictures.

It was pretty cool because there were 5 other teachers from GCMS that also ran it. It was neat seeing everyone from school running together. There are a group of them that run every morning and swim once a week together. Natalie may join them soon for some of the festivities....

After the run was over (I was the bag man along with another of the Ladies' husbands. I think at one time I was carrying 6 bags on my shoulders. It's cool though, more than happy to support Natalie in her adventures, cause she definitely does more than enough to support me!) we stayed around for a couple hours to celebrate October Fest. We had a large serving of Schnitzel and potatoes and goulash. It was awesome!!! Also had some good German Beers, including one of our favorites, also the favourite of a friend in Springpatch, called Erdinger Weissbräu. Excellent choice my dear friends. Highly suggest you try it if you ever get a chance. In Springpatch they have it at Brewhause.

Last night, (Wednesday) we went out to eat at Minturn Country Club, (sounds nice, but not so classy) for $2.99 grill your own steaks. I had a beer, salad, garlic toast and steak for less than 10.00. What a DEAL! One of those things they only have during the "offseason" for locals. The place was packed, and the grills were small, but the atmosphere was fun and cool. We went with a girl from work and met another girl from work and some of her friends. Good night, good meal, good company.