Train to Glenwood Springs

For spring break this year, John had the wonderful idea that we should take a train trip.  The kids have done the Durango/Silverton train, but that's it.  And they have often mentioned how fun they thought it would be to take a trip on a train.  We looked into going all the way to California but decided the kids might go stir crazy being on a train for 30+ hours, so maybe we should start with something smaller.  The California Zephyr stops in Glenwood Springs 6 hours after leaving Denver, so we decided that was about perfect.

I loved seeing the changes in scenery along the way.  There were dramatic changes in vistas, for the small amount of territory we actually covered.
Campbell enjoyed photographing the view, as well.
Helene said her favorite part of the train ride was "not having to wear seatbelts!"  We sat in the front row of our car.  We had leg rests and foot rests, and the seats leaned back without disturbing the people behind us.  So much better than an airplane!


The car right in front of ours was the lounge car.  The seats faced the windows, and there were windows on the roof of the car, as well, so this was the best place to relax and enjoy the changing scenery.


Nice place to read, as well.

We had lunch in the dining car, but I failed to take any pictures there.  The food wasn't spectacular, but it was fun to sit at a table with a tablecloth and flowers and be served by a waitress, while still making progress towards our destination.

More pictures of the varying mountains along the way:


All in all, I think the train ride was a hit.  It takes a couple of hours longer than driving would, but you have the freedom to roam, and you don't encounter traffic jams.  

Pinewood Derby

We had our first Pinewood Derby experience on Saturday.  Cub Scouts are given a block of pine and wheels and axles.  They are to design and make a car for either speed or looks.  When the pack gets together to race, awards are given for the fastest cars as well as "Best of Show" for looks.

Here is Campbell's car.

Here are all of the Pack's cars, grouped by Dens.

This is the track.  It was a rather sophisticated set-up.  The computer (which was projected onto the wall) determined who was competing in each heat and on which lane.  Each car ended up racing three times, on a different lane each time, and then the three times were averaged.  When the cars reached the finish line, results were immediately projected onto the wall.
Campbell's car won 3rd place in his Den!  He just said to me, "I wish I would have come in 1st or 2nd because then I would have gotten a trophy.  But at least I got some kind of award [a ribbon]."

More Pure 80s

Look at that Stray Cat dance!

We made the birthday boy sing first.  What a sport!

Campbell did a pretty good job with "Ghostbusters".

1980s

On Friday night, we were invited to a friend's surprise 40th birthday party.  He loves the 80s, so his wife requested that we dress accordingly.

John (with a mullet) and I

Travis (Magnum PI) and Trish 

with August and Madison

Rich, the Birthday Boy

Debbie and Stacy

(I love the stirrup pants.  How could I have forgetten about those?)

Hans (sporting a Branch Davidian T from 1993 and the clothes he typically wore in the 80s - jeans and a flannel shirt) and I (wearing rocker chick attire that I never would have worn in the 80s.  Actually, that is a sweater I bought at The Limited in the 80s, but it was not an off-the-shoulder style until I cut it that way just for this party.)

Dave and Karen (who made the trip here from California without the proper attire, but Debbie was able to lend Karen a rugby) and Bridgit (who came straight from work, but did manage to get her hair up in a side ponytail and sport some hoop earrings)

Dale (total preppy, who actually had all of these items of clothing in his closet)

John (looking good in his leather pants and setting up the Karaoke)

Steph (who still managed to look beautiful even dressed in clothes from this tacky decade) and Dale (holding up their lighters as Rich performs "Higher Love" on the Karaoke)

Who?

I got another blurry owl shot tonight.  I was sitting at my computer and could hear him hooting outside, so I grabbed the camera and tripod and headed outside.  It is REALLY dark tonight.  I could barely even see the tree, much less the owl.   It's difficult to focus when I can't even spot my subject.  So I took a picture of what I thought was the whole tree and hoped that's where the owl actually was (even though it sounded like he was on our roof).   I got lucky.  I took about 5 shots, and the owl was only in the first one.  I guess he flew away at some point.  The bottom picture is the original.  This top one is cropped from it. 

Mission Accomplished

(Follow-up from yesterday's post)

It turns out all I needed to do was replace the original copper water supply lines with newer, longer ones.  So, I opted for these 30" flexible ones:

Tobie inspected the new lines for me:

And we have running water again!!

The Woes of a Wanna-Be Do-It-Yourselfer

Our kitchen faucet has been leaking for a while.  I finally got around to calling a plumber.  He said the leak was inside the faucet, but he could install a new one for $$$.  We said, "No thank you.  We'll do it ourselves."  And he didn't even charge us for the service call - go, Mr. Rooter!  So, I bought a new faucet (this time without the pull-out sprayer because I've heard those tend to leak more than the other kind) and decided I could install it all by myself.  

Tobie was a big help.  She sat on the instructions and rubbed against my hands and even crawled under the sink with me.

The kids were actually a bit more helpful than that.  Helene handed me tools and gave me lots of advice.  Campbell took a picture of me at work:
After I'd been under the sink for about 2 hours (still trying to remove the old faucet), I had the kids start making dinner.  They had to haul water from the powder room sink and fill up a pot on the stove, since I didn't have the kitchen water working yet.  You'd have thought from the complaints that I was having them  fetch water from a well in the back yard!  But they were very helpful.

I finally realized why I was having such a hard time.  Where the faucet had leaked, it had rusted, so there was one nut that was extremely difficult to remove.  I had to give up and ask John to finish removing it when he got home (thank you!).

Here's the inside of the corroded, rusty, old faucet:
And all of its parts, once it was eventually removed:
Doesn't the new faucet look nice?
Next problem . . .
The water supply tubes do not reach the water supply lines.  There's an inch gap between the hot ones and about four inches between the cold ones!  Uh oh.
So now I'm having a cookie and doing internet research.  If any of you know how to fix my problem, please respond!  I'm assuming I may have to go back to the hardware store and get some sort of extension.  I'm on my fourth cookie of the afternoon, by the way.  Frustrating plumbing repairs require lots of cookie breaks.