Days left to CrossFit Games: 32

Last night I had a dream that I was at CrossFit warming up and our trainer showed up with half his face tattooed like Two Face from The Dark Knight.

I think I am getting stressed. One of our girls hurt her back and cannot make it so at the moment there are only two of us. If we don’t get a third girl signed up Rosanne and I will have to do all the workouts ourselves, no matter what is in them. That could be bad. There are so many things I cannot do very well yet. I don’t feel ready at all.

My cousin Mark’s wedding was last night at Mount Vernon Country Club. Great wedding. A lot of personal touches. The bridesmaids made the centerpieces. The homemade peach cookies were a huge hit (especially when people kept pointing out they look just as much like tiny rear ends covered by fig leafs as they do peaches). The cake was delicious. (Don’t tell my CrossFit team). Both Mark and his new wife Jesse are very musically talented so the bride did her own musical arrangements for the ceremony. Mark’s younger brother David wrote and performed a song especially for the wedding. They had an incredible nine piece band that kept the dance floor full all night. If you needed a break from the dancing you could go to the photo booth and put on a feather boa and ridiculous hat for the wedding album. The toasts were hilarious. And the mother of the bride walked around placing strobe light filled tulips down the fronts of ladies’ dresses. What a great time we had! I can’t believe my little cousin is married! Time goes by so fast, doesn’t it?

Mark and Jesse

 The peach cookies

The Canadians are in town! My grandma is hilarious but when she gets together with her sisters they are a complete riot. They tease each other incessantly with one story after the next. Two of the three of them flew in from Canada for a wedding today.

Left to right: Aunt Therese, Aunt Mary, Grandma Rose, and Aunt Grace.

A few tales from dinner last night for your enjoyment…

1. Auntie Grace heard her cell phone ringing. While frantically searching through her purse she could not find the phone and wondered out loud if she had left it at home.

A story from the town of Bocchigliero, where they were born, portraying the stubbornness of the proud Italian woman:

2. A woman let the grass in her yard grow tall while her husband was away. When he returned he asked how she had been cutting the grass. ‘With scissors,’ she said.

‘You can’t cut the grass with scissors,’ he said. ‘You have to use a scythe. So now tell me how you will cut the grass?’  She answered, ‘With scissors.’

Frustrated, he took her down to the river and threatened to put her in the icy water. Again he asked, ‘How do you cut the grass?’ She again replied, ‘With scissors.’

Getting a bit angry, he moved her part way into the river and asked a third time, ‘Now, how do you cut the grass?’  ‘With scissors,’ she replied defiantly.

To teach her a lesson he put her all the way in the river and held her head under the water. ‘I ask you again woman! How do you cut the grass?!’ She reached her two fingers out of the water and showed him. Snip snip!

Just the other day…

3. Our family decided to make tiny cookies that look like peaches for today’s wedding. Each time the subject came up my grandma complained, ‘Those peach cookies are far too small. The ones I had before were much larger.’

In the car on the way to Grand Junction the subject came up again and once again my grandma said from the front seat, ‘I tell you, I have had those cookies before and they were bigger, the size of real peaches.’ From the back seat Aunt Therese reached her two fingers above her head. Snip snip!

The stories themselves are not the fun part. The real fun is watching them tell the stories. Each has their own part in the silliness. They call each other old bags while always complaining that the other one is telling it wrong. And of course most stories include some sort of criticism of each other’s cooking. (They are all amazing cooks). Next time I really need to bring a video camera to do it any justice at all.

What is the most embarrassing song you have on your iPod? For me that answer varies depending on who is asking. My grandma probably thinks it is great that I listen to Andrea Bocelli but would be less thrilled that I know the the words to 99 problems. (Now THAT is embarrassing). The concert yesterday got me thinking about the question people always ask, ‘What type of music do you listen to’? The stock answer is ‘I listen to everything’. But I am not sure what else I could say. I cannot think of any types of music I stay away from. My current playlists include everything from Pink Floyd to Dr Dre, from Kings of Leon to the Beatles, from Stevie Ray Vaughn and Joe Satriani to Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles.

I have U2, Radiohead, Muse, Keane, Green Day, Dave Matthews Band…
I have Beastie Boys, Snoop, Eminem, 2Pac, Biggie Smalls, Onyx, Cypress Hill…
I have kinda girly stuff like Enya, Evanescence, Jem, and Sarah McLaughlin…
I also have Marilyn Manson, System of a Down, Nine Inch Nails, Prodigy, Ministry…
I like songs by country artists from Tim McGraw to Johnny Cash…
I have super old stuff like Bill Withers and even older like Louis Armstrong…

I could go on and on. And that is just the stuff I am willing to admit I have. You should see what else is on here… I love all of it even though I rarely admitted owning it to anyone. So what type of music would YOU say I listen to? (‘Stuff that is mostly lame’? Hahaha).

Most of this stuff ranges from old, to before my time, to before my parents time, but that is just what I HAVE. I listen to a lot of new stuff too. I just usually allow music to age a decade or so before I am willing to obtain a collection of it. I always wonder what freshly released music I will still want to listen to years from now. So I guess I only consider myself a ‘fan’ of music that has stood the test of time. I think that is probably why I was so excited to see an artist whose career started before I was born. Sting won his first Grammy when I was 2 years old and 3 decades later he is still at the top of his game. That is pretty impressive.

Last night we saw Sting at Red Rocks performing with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Just Sting or just the orchestra would have been amazing but together, at Red Rocks, spectacular. When I saw Sting with my aunt as an 11 year old I remember a guy leaning over as he walked by and saying ‘Aren’t you a little young for this?’ The funny thing is that 20 years later I was still among the youngest in the audience. The whole crowd grew up. Todd took this picture from our seats in row 26. Unbelievable.

For some reason I was never a big fan of the original version of Roxanne but his newer versions definitely grew on me. Epic.

He has performed many versions of ‘Fragil’e including one in 2001 that was dedicated to the victims of 9/11. He lived in New York awhile and lost a close friend in the tragedy. He also did a famous version that appeared in an Imax film about the depletion of the ocean. I was surprised last night that he never mentioned the oil spills but I am sure it was on people’s minds.

We headed home from Telluride early even though it was hard to leave. Beautiful place. I highly recommend a visit if you have never been. As we were driving around Blue Mesa Reservoir by Gunnison we decided on a whim to stop fish for a little while. Didn’t catch anything but it was still a really nice morning. For lunch we stopped at Coyote Cantina in Buena Vista like always. Even with the stops we still managed to be home by 3:30. It is bittersweet. It is always nice to be back home but now the vacation is over. So sad.

Today is our 2nd anniversary. We wanted it to be memorable. Since we kept hearing how high the water level would be we were easily talked into signing up for a half day of white water rafting. The water would be higher and faster than yesterday and start tapering off tomorrow. This specific day would see record high water levels and speeds for the past 50 years. Our guide was hilarious. More importantly he had been a raft guide in Telluride for 27 years. He took us down several stretches of river that had never been done. We slammed into dozens of waves that hit well over our heads on the 14 mile stretch of river. Total blast.

After rafting we enjoyed a nice long massage. The girl dug her elbows into my shoulder blades. I refused to cry out so she kept digging harder and harder. Doesn’t that sound nice? Most of it was very relaxing and I enjoyed it thoroughly. But if you ever just want a relaxing massage, when they ask if you have any sore muscles they should specifically focus on just say no.

We finished the day at the most amazing restaurant called The Cosmopolitan. We have eaten there many times and even had our rehearsal dinner there. Every time we ended up having the same waiter, Jaime. Unfortunately, Jaime had the night off but it didn’t matter. The food was as unbelievable as always.

Vacation Workout 8: Another day off CrossFit WODs but the rafting was plenty.

This morning we took a nice drive by Dunton Hot Springs on the way to Telluride hoping to check out their cabins but it was rented out for a wedding. The drive was still amazing. In Telluride the waterfalls are gushing. Locals have been telling us they haven’t seen the water that high in over 50 years. First we checked in to Mountain Lodge, the same place we stayed during our wedding two years ago. When we told them it was our anniversary they upgraded us from a studio to a condo and gave us yet another spectacular view. I love this place. The condos are amazing. I will definitely post pictures later. We shopped a bit today and then drove into town for a closer look at these falls. Then we sat in the Jacuzzi did not do much else. Another relaxing day in paradise.

The original plan was to hike around this area today but it was upwards of 90 degrees with no shade. It was a perfect day to do nothing. We spent time in the shops and took a short drive. Most of the mesa has been burnt to the ground by fires started by lightening. It is sad. The trees around here took hundreds of years to grow just 10 or 20 feet and are not likely to make a comeback. It looks dead everywhere. But our tour guide said the fire is not the death of a mesa, just a stage in its evolution. If you look closer it is teeming with life. Just below the grey dead branches the wildflowers are blooming everywhere. And there are over 200 species of birds here!

Our guide also told us is that Mesa Verde is just a small side show of the ruins protected by the park. The area open to the public displays about 40 total sites out of 4800 ruins they have actually found! So the fires have not done nearly as much damage as it would at first appear though the damage covers 3/4 of Mesa Verde itself.

In the afternoon we took a long nap in our room. We went on a nice walk to an overlook of The Balcony House ruins and Soda Canyon. We ate dinner at the delicious restaurant up here again, a little later this time. At about 11:30 we drove away from the lights of the lodge and did a bit of star gazing. It is so dark and the sky is so clear you can see everything. And the temperature is still 72 degrees so it was a really nice evening.

Vacation Workout 6:  I took today off.

Before heading to Mesa Verde, we stopped at Honeyville Farms in Durango and tested flavors of honey settling on one called Bumbleberry. Good stuff.

The drive through Mesa Verde to the Visitor Center is spectacular with expansive views of the valley, the mesas, and clusters of 14’ers. As we were checking in at Far View Lodge I ran into a friend from college! He now works for Colorado Tourism and came with a few DJs from Canada to do a broadcast for Toronto and Montreal. What a small world!

After check in we took an afternoon bus tour that drove us around the top loop stopping at various cliff dwellings and ended with a tour of the magnificent Cliff Palace (first photo). Our guides were extremely knowledgeable. We then ate dinner at the restaurant at Far View Lodge called The Metate Room (below). The chefs here are amazing. We shared an elk tenderloin and a couple prickly pear margaritas.

Todd dropped vague hints throughout dinner about my anniversary present. The sun setting over the cliffs made it the perfect setting to exchange gifts even though our anniversary is not until Monday. (Todd took the photo to the left from our balcony).

Todd gets to choose his present. I want to shop with him at the store in Telluride where his parents bought the champagne glasses we used at our wedding. If we do not find anything he wants we will be going to get massages when we get home.

Todd surprised me with tickets to see Sting at Red Rocks! He is performing with the Philharmonic Orchestra on Wednesday! The first concert I ever saw was Sting at Red Rocks. My Aunt Jeannie took me when I was 11 years old. I think he had just left The Police. I knew a few songs and had a great time but he has accomplished so much since then. Now, knowing all of his music, I have wanted to see him at Red Rocks again but I never though that would really happen. The funny thing is that I was just telling the couple on the train that yesterday when they talked about some recent concerts they have seen! I am soooo excited!

Vacation Workout 5:
21 15 9 reps
Push ups
Sit ups / leg lifts
Time: 3:06

This was a short one but I made progress with the push ups. I made it through the first 21 without stopping. I have not been able to do that since the one time I did it in March. It was a struggle and my next sets were about 3 at a time but… getting better.

A funny thing happened. One of our tour guides gave a bit of an incidental plug for The Paleo Diet. He talked about how healthy the nomads were when they ate mostly meat and how the discovery of corn, beans, and squash allowed them to settle but caused them all kinds of health problems and decreased their life expectancy. Most of it was caused by less activity and several dental problems (which can actually lead to all kinds of serious issues – even heart problems) but it was still kind of ironic.