Hooray for Main Street and delicious sweet-potato fries

I just got back from having lunch with my mom at the Dream Café. For those unaware, the Dream Café is a delightful breakfast/lunch restaurant on Main Street.

Oh, I can hear the sighs and see the eye rolls of those who are avoiding Main Street because of the construction. And to those I say, come on down! Main Street is awesome, construction or not.

Yeah, you might have to walk a little further, but my mom did it and she has cancer in her bones, so …

And really, is walking a little further really such a bad thing? I like walking and especially like walking amongst the beauty of downtown.

Oh, I hear and see more sighs and eye rolls, but I think Main Street is still beautiful even with the construction.

I’ve enjoyed watching the workers transform the worn planters and sidewalks into their new, fresh incarnation. Plus they have left some of the original planter areas intact and they are full of spring flowers.

And they are working all the time. They are working evenings and weekends to get the job done. And for that I am thankful to all of them. It’s the busiest construction site I’ve ever witnessed.

The best part of the construction is that the stores, galleries and restaurants are still open and waiting for our business.

I know it’s got to be a struggle for those merchants to have construction hindering traffic, especially in a down economy. So I have made an effort to visit downtown more than I normally would.

One of the sacrifices I’ve made is eating often at Dream Café. OK, OK, it’s not a sacrifice. It’s a delight.

The café — which has made its home at the former location of the Crystal Café — is, in one word, yummy. They have several variations of Eggs Benedict, which are amazing. Plus their cinnamon rolls are crazy-huge and decadent.

Today, I had the Portabella mushroom sandwich with the absolute best sweet-potato fries I’ve ever had. Mmmm mmmmm!

So I’m still a big fan of downtown Grand Junction and encourage everyone to head on down.

Adversity schmadversity

Just like every family, mine is faced with challenges — big and little — every day.

And you know what? For the most part, we’ve been kicking some challenge booty. And I like it.

I mentioned recently that my mom has been improving and battling back against her cancer. Each day she’s getting stronger. And now she’s even driving.

Driving! Driving herself in her own car, her brand-new car that I was certain she’d never drive again.

So, suck it, cancer.

My husband is on his path to becoming a non-smoker (again), thanks to the miracle drug Chantix and his own perseverance and determination to become a healthier person.

Bill has been an on-again/off-again smoker for years. He likes smoking. He likes hanging out with his smoking friends and smoking. So it has been hard for him to quit.

He knew he needed to quit and wanted to quit, but could never do it cold turkey or even with the patch or gum.

But this Chantix is a different story.

Of course, it doesn’t work for everyone and it does mess with your brain chemistry so if you have to be careful with it. But it does work in a most profound way.

Bill hasn’t had a cigarette in almost two weeks and doesn’t even want one. He doesn’t even want to be around smokers. He came home from a friend’s house recently where there was much smoking and he was disgusted by the smell on his clothes and hair.

A good sign indeed. So suck it, cigarettes.

And then there’s Margaret. She demonstrated her strength of character yesterday in spades.

The three of us decided the snow was too delicious to pass up and starting gathering our gear for a day on the slopes.

Bill (as usual) couldn’t find half his stuff. He thought (as usual) that I’d moved it. Being that I was suffering from my monthly lady malady, I freaked out and spent a fair amount of time stomping around and yelling (oh, I’m such a delight — but really, I’m a hormonal being. I know we’re not supposed to admit such things as it threatens women’s fight for equality, but it’s true. I could go on about this, but I’ll refrain ... for now). Mar kept her disposition sunny and tried to smooth things over.

I got over my bad self and we headed up to the slopes — powder days are too few to let stupid hormones mess it up, even if I didn’t even touch Bill’s gloves.

We arrived at Powderhorn, jumped on the bunny slope lift and headed up the hill.

Just as we were nearing the top, the life ground to a halt. There we sat for 30 minutes getting soaked by the beautiful, yet wet snowflakes. We eventually got off, but the lift was broken down. We headed over to the Take Four lift. The three of us lined up and sat down, but only two of us made it on to the chairlift.

Mar took a scary tumble off the lift and faced planted into the fresh powder. I screamed, Bill jumped off and Mar shouted, “I’m OK mom!”

The lift operators were there immediately, got her up and checked out and the lift was going again. I got off at Midway and waited. No Mar and Bill.

I called Bill (thank goodness for cell phone service on the mountain) and they weren’t coming. Mar was too scared to get on the lift.

I couldn’t blame her.

I skied down and found them, skis off at the bottom of the run. Mar wanted to go home. I wanted to go home.

But the snow was awesome and we had just got there.

I pulled myself together and gently encouraged Mar to get back on the bunny-hill lift which was running once again.

She resisted.

But not for too long and we skied on over to the lift. We got on and that led to a fun day of schussing.

I’m so proud of her. So suck it, fear!

There’s always going to be illness, broken down lifts and missing gloves. But our days and our lives, for that matter, are what we make of them.

Discounts and giveaways just in time for Valentine's Day

Ladies, what are you getting for Valentines Day? Men, what are you giving?

A card with a heart-felt note inside is always lovely ... and often enough. But what about when your Valentine is extra special and you want to give her something to show how much she means?

Do you give candy?

In the past, I’ve always loved getting a big box of nuts and chews. But again this year, I am participating in our office’s Biggest Loser challenge (Lose Muffin Tops! Lose!), so candy is definitely off the list of gift ideas for me this year.

I would, however, love to get a sweet SWEXY band instead.

As much as I love the name “Muffin Tops” for my Biggest Loser team, I don’t want to be known as the girl with the muffin top as I lumber around the track at the gym. The SWEXY band absorbs extra ... uh, perspiration ... and hides the muffin top. How awesome is that?

And you know what, you don’t have to buy yourself one (or for your Valentine), you can WIN one simply by clicking here and leaving a comment.

Easy as pie ... uh, maybe I should say, “Easy as getting to the gym” unless that’s not easy for you, then we’ll just stick with the pie.

Afraid that your Valentine doesn’t want work-out gear for the holiday of romance? Then click over here to find out how you can get a DISCOUNT on Cari Taylor’s gorgeous, eco-friendly, hand-crafted Wired Originals jewelry.

I love Cari’s jewelry. Her earrings are all I wear. I now have four pair which are in constant rotation. I never get bored of them and they go with everything.

And I’d still love to have more. HINT, HINT, Bill!

I’d love to add these to my collection. Oh and these. OK and these, too.

Who am I fooling? I’d love to have one of each pair of her earrings.

So if you want to buy me ... uh, I mean yourself or your Valentine some lovely, locally made jewelry on SALE, click over here by Sunday, Feb. 7.

Believe me, your Valentine will thank you!

My date with Obama

I have so many things to blog about and very little time anymore. I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things, but like I told my mom this morning: When I get a free moment, I'm lying my ass down.

Having blabbered about that, now you can click over here to read my take on the town hall I attended with President Obama Saturday.

And if you'd like to hear some local gossip, I'll privately share the story of my altercation with a conservative rabble-rouser who pushed me a tad too far.

What a difference an hour makes

I started writing this post over here while I was still pissed off about the dude that got me all pissed off in the first place.

Then I had a whole shitpotful of work to do and had some time to breathe and think about people and their bad moods.

Bad moods are stupid. I'm going to work on not having them.

But man, I'm so good at being in a bad mood. Even though I want to not be all pissy, it's so hard especially when I sit alone and work alone and fester alone.

I'm still so tempted to publish the name of the dude that acted like an ass this morning and kicked off my bad mood, but that might cause me some problems.

More problems, this rivetergirl does not want.

But if you ask me in person, I'll be happy to tell you.

Are you ready?

So. Where do you want to go?

Yeah, anywhere.

Me? I have a list. Here's my top three for today.

But the fact of the matter is that I will go pretty much anywhere.

I like seeing new places and eating different food.

My one life's regret is that I didn't travel more before I had Mar. But the lucky happenstance is that Margaret is a great traveler and loves to do all the things we love to do while traveling.

So that one regret can suck it.

It's over, but the fat lady hasn't yet sung

Last Thursday was the last official weigh in for my office's Biggest Loser challenge.

I kicked ass, lost 17 pounds in 8 weeks and didn't win. I'm still one super happy camper.

The gal that did win worked just as hard, if not harder and totally deserves the win. I did get an honorable mention and a 50 gift card to the mall, but the biggest reward is my droopy pants.

I have to wear a belt with my of my pants and my gut isn't nearly as poochy nor jiggly as it used to be.

The depressing part is that I still have three asses — although smaller asses.

So while our office challenge is over, I'm still working just as hard to shed those pounds. It's been satisfying to see the scale move down and down each week (except for the one week where I gained a pound — but I'm just pretending I had too much iron in my system that week).

As I mentioned over here, I'm hoping all this work means that I'll finally be ready for swim-suit season this year.

I whine, therefore, I am

I'm a big, fat whiner. I'm all, "Wah, I'm tired. Wah, I stressed. Wah, I hungry."

And you can read about it all over here.

I win, you win — that's how Rivetergirl rolls

Last week, I was a loser and a breaker. I love my favorite scarf my mom gave me for Christmas (if someone goes to the Quincy would you mind asking if they have it in their lost and found?), I broke my camera, dented my bike fender and lost one of my custom "Robin" Valentine's Wired Originals earrings.

This week, I'm a finder and a winner.

On Tuesday, Cari from Wired Originals sent me a replacement earring. When I got home for lunch, shortly after getting the replacement, I found the missing earring. It was sitting on one of the chairs at our kitchen table. 'the hell?

Then I opened the mail.

I won, not one, but two prizes from the Lions Club raffle.

Two prizes, no shit.

The first prize was a hunndert dollars cash. I'm keeping that — mama, needs a guitar case for her Flying V.

The second prize is equally as cool, but I'm giving it away.

Click over here to read about it.

Who the bleep is Flat Stanley?

Last week, my coworker dropped an envelope on my desk. He said he wasn't going to open it for fear it contained anthrax.

I looked at the return address and laughed. It was from my kid with her school's address.

Inside was Flat Stanely.


In an attempt to learn about our area, Margaret's class sent sent their Flat Stanleys to interesting places around the valley. Mar picked The Daily Sentinel.

I wonder why.

Click over here to see how Flat Stanley's visit went to the newspaper.

Go on click. There's a video. Oooohhhhah!

I'm losing it

I didn't want to be all braggy on the Haute Mamas blog, but I've lost 13 pounds so far.

Canna getta Woot! Woot! Huh?

Yeah, the sad thing is that I have no idea where those pounds are coming from. I still have all three of my asses: the upper, the lower and the middle one — which is constantly being strangled out by the upper and lower ones. My gut still jiggles like a bowl full of jelly, too.

But my clothes fit better and/or looser, so it must be coming from somewhere.

Any way, you can read about what I've been doing to shed the pounds here.

Today is one of those days

Today is one of those days where I love my kid, but ...

I want to throttle her.

My kid is sick. I know that I can be difficult when I'm sick, but at least I have the common courtesy to take it out on my family and not on doctors and nurses.

Margaret has a cold and a terrible sore throat. I fear strep so I made an appointment to see the doctor and to get a strep culture.

She saw the doctor. But she didn't get the strep culture.

Why? Because she didn't want to. She said it didn't feel good. Um, sister, no duh. But you get it done so anyway. That's the beauty of life.

She'd stick out her tongue, but as soon as the nurse got the swab in her mouth, that tongue would recoil.

The nurse was kind and patient. I tried to be patient, then I tried to make her laugh, then I tried not to clamp my hands around her neck (successfully! Yay for self control!).

But the doctor said it didn't look like strep ... yet. It was probably just a virus.

As a child I don't ever remember saying no to a doctor or a teacher or anyone in authority (OK, maybe my parents, but I knew it came with a price). I'm not sure where she gets this from, but she's always been like this. I blame her father's genes.

Of course, I do also sympathize with her and am kind of glad that she will stand up for herself (even if it's utterly wrong to do so). And I love her more than I'm frustrated with her, so life goes on.

And she's still one of my most favorite people to be around. Mostly she's a really great time.

I wrote about spending time indoors with her and with our friends and family over here.

At the end of that post, I mention playing the game of Things. The funniest part of playing that game was my dear friend Tracee saying, "I can't make eye contact with any of you" because our answers were so far beyond the realm of good taste.

Chub-a-lub

We just started a contest here in the office at The Daily Sentinel. It’s loosely based on the hit TV show, The Biggest Loser.

Those of us wanting to shed some unwanted pounds (are there really “wanted” pounds? Well, I guess Richie gets to add those wanted baby pounds) are weighing in weekly with prizes going to the one who loses the most weight percentage.

The best thing about this contest is that it’s got us talking about our weight, our eating habits (and drinking habits) and it’s got us thinking about what we want for ourselves.

I’ve always been a chunky girl ... click here to continue reading

Bring on the anxiety

I wrote this for my Haute Mamas blog on GJSentinel.com:

New Year's resolution/goal/thing I want to accomplish

Richie has made some really good and attainable resolutions for the new year.

Lynn, on the other hand, is forgoing resolutions and instead is setting smart and health goals.

I not sure what the difference is between a resolution and a goal, but we learned last year that Lynn can not only set lofty goals, but she can achieve them (every time I drive over the Monument, I'm impressed with Lynn's Rimrock Run finish).

When Lynn first started talking about her goal to finish the almost-marathon over the Colorado National Monument, I was a bit jealous.

Not because I, too, wanted to train for the run, but because I wanted to have something lofty for which to strive and train.

Maybe for MY 50th birthday, I'll take on the Rimrock Run.

But for my 40th birthday which still is more than a year away still, I have set a personal goal that I may or may not share on this blog. Time will tell.

But I do have a goal and/or resolution that is very important for this year and it gives me an anxiety attack just thinking about it.

To keep reading, click here.

Are you a woman or do you know a woman who has feet?

If so, click here.

The Haute Mamas are giving away a $100 gift certificate to Miss Marie's Shoes.

$100!

For shoes!

All you have to do is go to Miss Marie's Web page, pick out your favorite shoes and then click back the Haute Mamas and leave a comment.

AND if you're local, you can get a second chance at winning by going to Miss Marie's on Main Street next to the Avalon and you can enter to win there.

That's it to win a $100 gift certificate for shoes.

K. Now go click and comment.

Poop riot

I don't know if you read my "Everyone poops" blog entry over here, but the comments (many of which are mine) are pretty flippin' funny.

Everyone poops, people. Let's not get indignant about it.

What's on your shopping list?

I found my shopping list had been amended to include "butt paste" yesterday. And that is why living with an 8-year-old is never dull.

Click over here to see a picture of four generations of women in my family. It may take all four of us to finish a puzzle, but we have a good time doing it.

I wrote about politics

Gasp! I know.

I've been very jaded this political season. And honestly I've had it up to here (insert hand gesture indicating somewhere very high) with the whole spectacle.

There are people out there who are all fussed up over this election. And I don't really want to hear about it any more.

I wrote yet another very restrained blog about it all over here.

I left out the part about how people should stop yelling at me and my co-workers — mostly because I like my job and want to keep it. But also because people are crazy and they might come after me so I'm leaving that part out.

On a completely different note, my neighborhood is having a block party tomorrow.

Sounds fun, huh?

As much as I love my neighborhood, our block party irritates me. Mostly because people are all enthusiastic about it and want to do things like have a bump 'n' jump for the kids.

Me? I just want to drink directly from the keg.

But it's always turns out to be a good time because of all my neighbors are good people who take the time to plan fun things. And I can just sit around and drink directly from the keg.

So, tomorrow should be a good time. Wanna come?

It wasn't all broken sprinklers and flat tires

We did manage to have some fun over our Labor Day holiday. Read about it over here.

And don't forget to enter our free giveaway of servello skin care products. Free skin care products and all you have to do is click and comment.

Easy as pie.

Mmme cake.

Kids are dirty

This is probably the most restrained blog post I've ever written.

I so wanted to give a description of this woman, include the name of the restaurant and the kids' names.

It took every ounce of willpower to just make my point and leave it alone.

I guess the moral of the story is: If you don't know how to act in public, stay home.