Colorado

After a one-day turnaround in Atlanta, we were off again, this time to Colorado! We arrived on Tuesday to stay with my brother, Adam, his girlfriend Jess, and their dogs, Sadie and Ruby. We started off our trip with margaritas and mexican at Terrace Maya restaurant, including little plastic monkeys on our glasses. Of course, after a couple of drinks, Alan was making earrings of the monkeys and I was putting them in compromising positions on the table. It was a good thing we had fun then, because within 2 hours, Alan was hit by a horrible altitude migraine that incapacitated him for the rest of the night. Fortunately, with some major medication, lots of water, and a good night's sleep, he woke up feeling much better the next day!

Margarita monkeys

The next afternoon we headed over to Fort Collins to spend a couple of days with my dear friend, Sarah, along with her boyfriend, Marc, and her dog, Darwin. More great mexican food (and margaritas), an easy 2-hour hike, and a tour of New Belgium Brewery, then we were back in Boulder. Friday morning was another fun, short hike with Sarah, then back to Adam and Jess's house for dinner.

The morning of the 4th of July started off with lots of cooking/baking, preparing for a tailgating party for the MLS soccer game (Colorado vs. Chicago). Unfortunately, the storms hampered the plans a bit, but instead we grilled out a Ronnie's before heading down to the game. Chicago beat up on the Rapids, but there was a HILARIOUS all-mascot soccer game during halftime, followed by the much-touted "best fireworks in Denver." I would certainly argue that point, seeing as they had major technical difficulties- eventually they petered out to about 1 explosion every 2 minutes, with both "Proud to be an American" and "Livin' in America" playing at the same time, full blast- but hey, any fireworks on the 4th are good!

Alan and Jess show off their homemade desserts

Mascot half-time soccer game

Sunday we headed out to the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area for my favorite hike to Lake Isabelle and the Isabelle Glacier Trail. There was a ton of snow still on the ground, which hampered us being able to go all the way up the glacier, but it was still an amazing hike with the most incredible views I've ever seen. Alan had missed out on this hike two years ago, so I was so glad that he could make it this time!

Sarah, Marc, and Darwin

Adam with Ruby and Sadie

Me and Alan at Lake Isabelle

On Tuesday we finally headed back home to Atlanta after a great week with Adam, Jess, and Sarah (and all the dogs). We've had a great summer with some wonderful travels, but it is really nice to finally be home. Just a couple of weeks working for the county, then we officially head back to school on August 3rd.

Lake Burton

Here are some pictures from our incredibly relaxing week and a half at Lake Burton. There are more on our photo website. It was so hard to leave today, but we needed at least a day to recoup before heading off to Colorado on Tuesday. Hard to believe the summer is halfway over already...

Lots of catching up to do...

Sorry it has been so long since I updated the ol' Hayes Habit Blog (if anyone is actually paying attention). Between the craziness of the end of school, traveling, and our computer being sent out for repairs (new logic board, apparently)... well, I have lots of explanations and no good excuses.

If you were anywhere near Atlanta, you know that the weather for Memorial Day was pretty crummy. We spent the weekend up at Lake Burton with my family (mom, dad, and brother Scott), cooped up in the house due to clouds and rain. Not a lot of sun or fishing, but some good quality family time.

Unfortunately, we had to head back home to work our last day of school on Tuesday, May 26th- a make-up teacher workday due to the snow day we had in March. If ever there was a way to enhance teacher burn-out and frustration, tack on an extra teacher workday at the end of the year, after a 3-day holiday weekend.

From there we headed down to Valdosta to visit the in-laws, who are doing well and took us out for some awesome fried seafood (really, that's the best way to eat it!). Alan stayed through the weekend, while I hopped a very brief (i.e. 45 minutes) flight back up to Atlanta for my annual Girls' Weekend with my friends from college. Two were unable to join us this year, due to young new baby girls at home in Florida, but the other eight of us enjoyed the beautiful weather, drinks, and (seriously) singing old sorority songs and dancing on the dock late at night. Oh, the pictures the neighbors must have of us now! But it was a blast!!

I came back to work, work, work, as we were trying to prepare Alan's old house for rental. This involved repainting the interior (which we actually hired out to speed up the process- plus I'm a horrible painter), tearing up and replacing the kitchen floor, cleaning up the yard, and various other little projects that kept us working hard for a almost 2 weeks, while Alan was also working for the county during the day. But I have to say that the house now looks better than when Alan bought it 3 1/2 years ago, so if you know anyone who wants to rent a 3 BD/2 BA house in Duluth, I have the perfect place! Just call my dad... I mean, my agent.

We did take a brief break from working on the house to use my free, first-class airline tickets and fly out to California. I have always wanted to take Alan to the San Francisco/Napa Valley area and, even though it was too short of a trip, the free drinks, super-sized seats, and personal service of first class made it totally worth it! We spent the first day and a half staying in the Marina district of San Fran- went to the Exploratorium (the most fantastic, interactive science museum I've even seen!) the afternoon of our arrival, out for a great Italian restaurant dinner, then hit Alcatraz early the next morning. On our way out of town, we crossed over the Golden Gate Bridge and headed up into the Marin Headlands for some amazing photo ops. Unfortunately, we were not there during the 9 hours of the week when the Point Bonita Lighthouse was open (see my brother's blog for those pics- he was luckier than us), but we saw some incredible views and seals sunning themselves on the rocky shore. The next day in Napa, we boarded a small party bus for the Platypus Wine Tours, which I highly recommend. Our nutty guide, Valerie, took us and 4 other couples to four small, family-owned vineyards where we got to hit golf balls off a cliff into Napa Valley, eat a delicious lunch in a vineyard, take a winery tour that included 3 barrel tastings, and meet Burt Reynolds (the cat). After the 6-hour tour, we continued to hang out with one of the couples we had met, grabbing dinner then finally falling into bed after almost 12 hours of drinking wine and socializing. What a great trip! You can check out the rest of the pictures on our photo website to the right...

After another 2 weeks of working in Atlanta, we were lucky enough to be able to come up on our own to Lake Burton for a week and a half. It has been so relaxing- we wake up when we feel like it, I have laid out for a few hours each day and am working on my "savage" tan, taking Zoey for her daily training walk, Alan tries fishing every day (no luck yet, unfortunately), and I have read a book a day since we arrived. Wish that we could stay longer, but we need to get home after this weekend for one day of catching up, before boarding a plane to visit Adam/Jess and Sarah in Colorado for a week...

Girls' Weekend at Lake Burton

Alan's shadow in primary (and secondary) colors of light at the Exploratorium

Me in the Big Chair at the Exploratorium

Alan at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco

Lombard Street in San Francisco- the crookedest street in the world (I think)

Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco from the Marin Headlands

The vineyards at Hopper Creek Winery

Overlooking Napa Valley

Our Platypus Wine Tours group (at the end of the day, as you can tell!)

The weekend...

As many of you know, on Friday mornings I wake up an hour earlier than usual and meet Alan and 4 other teachers for 5:30am breakfast at the Waffle House. Before you say I'm crazy, just keep in mind that it's about the most fun you can have with a group of work friends without alcohol involved! It's become a weekly tradition and I usually look forward to it every week, although the waking up at 4:30am can be a little rough.

It was a little rougher than usual this past Friday morning to wake up and find that we had no hot water, as it had all drained out of the tank, through the garage, and down the driveway. Yes, our hot water heater had broken almost a year after I had canceled our home warranty in a fit of anger. To make matters worse, we were both going to be out of town for the weekend (separate missions). Alan, however, was able to change his plans on Sunday to stay home and replace it, without having to hire someone (although with a little help from my dad lifting up the darn thing). I must say, there is something extremely attractive about being married to a man who can change out a hot water heater by himself, along with solving physics problems and telling corny jokes. He is quite proud of himself, as well, and I know believe that with my planning, his skills, and the internet, we can conquer just about anything now!

Friday afternoon I flew out to Colorado to spend the weekend with my dear friend from grad school, Sarah Bexell. She recently moved from China, where she was working with pandas, to Fort Collins to continue her work in conservation education with black-footed ferrets, another endangered species. She was struggling with the new job and had broken up with someone a couple of months ago, so I thought we needed a good old-fashioned girls' weekend, and that's just what we had! Her loft apartment is right in "downtown" Fort Collins, so practically everything we did was within walking distance- I miss that, living in the suburbs of Atlanta!. Dinner and drinks with her friend Patty on Friday night, a 2-hour hike the next morning with her dog Darwin, tour and tasting at New Belgium Brewery in the afternoon, homemade lasagna rolls for dinner, then breakfast with my brother Adam and his girlfriend in Boulder on the way to the airport Sunday morning. A great trip with LOTS of talking and catching up- you can see the rest of the pictures on our photo site.

Sarah and Darwin overlooking the reservoir

Two cute girls at New Belgium Brewery

Free beer tasting, plus a coaster-card to mail from the brewery

Darwin attacking the bath water

Adam and Jess at breakfast

Other than losing a pair of sunglasses, the only bad part of the weekend was finding out that Zoey's occassional aggression towards new dogs had resulted in stitches for our friend Heather's dog when Alan took her over for a visit. This is an issue we've been dealing with for a while, but this was pretty much the last straw. So, at the beginning of June we will be sending Zoey for 2 weeks to the "Atlanta dog whisperer" and her pack of 25 dogs, so that she can learn how to socialize with other dogs again. It's pretty pricey, but so are all the vet bills (and free "I'm sorry" dinners) you have to cover when your dog goes medieval on your friend's dogs...

Blocking out cancer

On Friday night/Saturday morning, I participated in my 8th (4 years in IL, 4 years in GA) Relay for Life, an overnight fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. This year, I was honored to be one of the co-captains of the Norcross High School team, which typically has 200-250 students and faculty and has won national awards for fundraising. Well, the economy is taking it's toll and we came in about $40,000 under last year's fundraising amount, but I am happy to say that we still represented the school well and won awards for highest fundraising high school and highest online fundraiser. Frankly, we are 2nd place overall for fundraising, behind Cisco, and beat all the other Gwinnett County schools, so I feel pretty good despite the challenges. It was a long night, a longer day afterwards, and we went about 34 hours without sleeping, but in the end it is always worth it!





Sunday was spent in more rest and recovery. We saw the new Star Trek movie, which was AWESOME (even if you're not a geek like me!), followed by hanging out and dinner at my parents' house with family for Mother's Day.

Only a week and a half left of school, and it can't come soon enough!

Happy campers

What a great and much-needed weekend! Friday night, we headed up to Amanda and Rudy's for a doggie play-date (Zoey is slow to warm up to their lab, Charlie, but eventually they tear around the yard together!) and Alan's now-famous ribs. We christened Rudy's new infrared grill and found that the best movie to accompany BBQ ribs is Smokey and the Bandit (aka a "Documentary of the South," according to Billy Bob Thornton). Has anyone seen Burt Reynolds lately? Well, we watched the Special Features at the end with interviews from a few years ago, and Burt still has the black moustache and hair, obviously colored, with about the worst 5 facelifts I've ever seen on a human being! What the heck was he (and his overpaid plastic surgeon) thinking?!

Mmmm... ribs...

Saturday morning we headed up to north Georgia to hike and camp along the Chattooga River. Unfortunately, my bum ankle/foot is still bothering me 3 weeks after I injured it on our dive trip, so we only made it a couple miles up the trail. But as fate would have it, I gave up right near the absolute best campsite in the place- about 30 feet off the main trail, hidden from view by trees, right on the water, with a nice firering, seats made of stacked river stones, and a good supply of firewood already there! We set up camp around 3pm and Alan spent the next 3 hours practicing his fly-fishing on the river, while I was absorbed in a John Grisham book (The Last Juror- highly recommend, if you haven't read it!). We hiked out around noon today, got my mashed potato bowl fix at the KFC in Clayton, GA, then got home around 3pm. All in all, a much-needed restful and relaxing weekend, enjoying nature, beautiful weather, good BBQ, and cheesy 70's movies!

Alan fly-fishing on the river

Zoey enjoys the cool water

The chef

Retrieving the chilled wine from the river

Squirrel killer(s)

If you've ever owned a dog, seen a dog, or know what a dog is, you must know that dogs love nothing better than trying to catch squirrels! They will sit for hours, staring out the windows or sitting in the backyard, still as a stone, just waiting for one of those quick little critters to come along.

Zoey is no exception to the rule. She can even literally develop "superdog" abilities, able to leap 6-foot high wood fences in a single bound to chase after a squirrel.

Well, yesterday afternoon, I'm shocked to say that she finally got her prize. I'm sitting at the computer with the back door open (the weather was gorgeous here), while she was laying outside in the sunshine. All of a sudden, I see these 2 blurs, one small and grey, and one big and black/brown, shoot past the door, first one way and then the other (frankly I'm so lucky the squirrel didn't come into the house!). My reflexes are not nearly as quick and by the time I got outside and realized what was going on, she had actually caught the damn thing! A couple of quick, angry NO's and I got her to leave it alone but alas it was too late- she put all that practice violently shaking her stuffed toys to work on the squirrel and, while it was still breathing, it could not move or get up.

Fortunately, Alan was almost home and I quickly set him to work putting the squirrel out its misery. I won't go into detail, but it involved a large post and a hammer. I'm sure that as soon as my father reads this, he is very glad that I'm married- otherwise, he would have gotten the phone call! I did debate taking the poor thing to the vet, but realized that Zoey had probably broken its back and there wasn't much that could be done. Plus I really wasn't in the mood for either getting rabies or getting laughed at.

So, not only do I now live with 2 squirrel killers (Zoey is at least guilty of manslaugher, if not exactly homicide), but maybe I'm guilty of conspiracy to commit murder by letting her outside in the presences of squirrels. Or maybe I've been watching too much Law and Order. Either way, I'm definitely paranoid that the squirrel's family is planning their attack right now...