Around six, Jimbo and Joy and Ella pulled up to Ron’s house. Yay! Now the house is truly full of people and dogs; it’s an instant party. Ella and I got into the hot tub shortly after their arrival, and soon after that Amy showed up. Ron, Amy, Brett, and Jimbo enjoyed a beer on the deck while Ella and Joy and I soaked in the tub. Ella loves the hot tub, it was really fun in there with her. We kept trying to get her to sit on the edge of the tub to cool off because her face was all red but she wasn’t having it one bit. Three-year-old girls can squeal when they’re having fun!

Brett and Jimbo ran to the store down the hill for beers and smokes and just pulled back in; the huge pack of dogs – Prana, Bindu, Stella, Shiva, Jenny (Ginny), and Thea – all barrelled out to bark at them. It’s dog central.

This morning Ron took us to an adorable restaurant over near Ned(erland) for breakfast. I had a breakfast burrito: eggs, home fries, peppers, and olives in a flour tortilla with vegetarian chili, cheese, and sour cream on top. It was fucking awesome. If I’d had room I would have had one of the bloody marys Ron ordered!

After breakfast we went up to Josha’s house and hung out there for a couple hours. His place is really cool – some kind of upscale Swedish 70’s ski lodge kind of vibe. It’s sooo neat! There’s a rockin’ greenhouse with a hot tub and stone cooktop in it. It’s just a really neat place. Josha said it “needs some work” but what house doesn’t?

After that we came back to Ron’s and Brett and Ron played video games. I surfed for awhile and then took a nap.

Yesterday Brett and I went shopping for sleeping bags for Telluride next weekend; I got two tops and a pair of shoes, Brett got swim trunks (because I forgot to pack a pair for him) and a pair of pants and a pair of shoes. After Target and the sporting goods store we went to a used video game store where I got a GameBoy Adv SP camera (!!!) and Brett got two Xbox games to play on Ron’s console.

Last night I slept weird and screwed up my neck, so I’m off for the hot tub again. Vacation is sooooo fun! It’s so fun to have Joy here too! Yay! Ciao!
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I have a trial version of Rayman Ultimate installed on my device. I love it. I finally played it long enough to get to the end of the trial level, and I can’t go any further until I buy it.

But I can’t find anywhere to buy it!

The vendor quit supporting PPC games and only develops and sells games for cell phones now. A search of their site for the game doesn’t turn one up for my platform. A search at Handango – where I probably downloaded the trial version in the first place – turns up nothing. Argh! I hope the vendor replies to my email with purchase directions so I can play the rest of this freakin’ game!

Last night we went to Boulder after the guys got home from work.

First we went to a Mexican restaurant’s bar for the best margueritas I’ve ever had, then we met Jeff and went and saw Farenheit 9/11 at one of those theatres you can drink in.

(So in Boulder it seems you can drink basically anywhere, but you can’t smoke. It’s a pain in the ass, honestly, but I’m sure all the non- and ex-smokers love the clean air and yes I agree they do have a right to it. Just not in bars, for chrissake. Non-smoking bars are stupid.)

Amy couldn’t make it to drinks or the movie because she had to work. When she called Ron to beg off he said, “WHAT?!? Quit that fuckin’ job!” in a way that totally cracked me up – so much so that I was repeating the quote back to him for the rest of the evening. (You can tell he must get stood up pretty frequently by her job. I told Brett that that’s why I don’t make fifty grand a year.) (Sometimes Brett forgets he’s a slob and asks me why I don’t make lots of money. LOL! He asked me the other day how much I could make if we moved here because he’s all horny to buy property and build on it. I admire him because our current debt load daunts him not one iota; he manifests ways to get things done when he wants them done. It’s cool. Anyway, he was like, “I guess Ron’s girlfriend makes really decent money, could you do what she does?” I replied that I didn’t know what she does exactly but that yes, if I was willing to give up my personal life – which I’m not – I could probably make really good money. He had tried to tell me she “doesn’t work that much”, but I’ve only known the girl a week and she’s been woken up in the middle of the night twice and missed a movie because she had to go to work! And Ron was complaining about her getting calls at three in the morning. So there, Brett: the poor woman’s on call 24/7 and that’s why she makes the big bucks! Brett would so make me quit any job that interfered with his schedule more than once or twice; he gave me all kinds of shit the occasional times I was on call for LISCO or had to take support calls when he wanted me to be doing something else! He’s so funny.)

After the movie, Jeff took off. Ron and Brett and I went to a nearby rooftop restaurant for a late dinner. I was offered yet more booze but I settled for a giant glass of water and a half order of nachos. It was breezy and comfy out; no bugs and no humidity, and I enjoyed the conversation. Ron told us about buying his house and about a concert he went to; it was fun.

After eating we drove home. My ears still don’t like the altitude changes and tend to hurt for five minutes every time I drive back up the mountain. They also tend not to pop on the way down, so my entire evening was one of slightly muffled sounds. Maybe I need tubes in my ears, like they give to little kids? Heh.

I made a joke last night, when Ron said he hoped the weather would be nice this weekend, that it would snow. He laughed and told me to fuck off and said that he really wanted to ride his bike this weekend. Today the heat’s kicked on and it’s overcast and chilly out, with a big fat bank of clouds hanging in the sky. I was kidding about the snowing… or so I’d thought! All week it’s been hot in here (Ron’s living room) by this time of day (because the sun shines straight in), but today I’m glad the laptop is hot and I’m thinking about getting my slippers.

Since I’ve been here, I’ve done about an hour of cleaning every day. Not because I love to clean, but because Brett & I brought three dogs with us and if I don’t clean, Ron’s house will be a giant, filthy hairball when we leave. Ron says he generally hires someone to come clean when he can’t stand it any more; the place is actually really tidy but if I wasn’t sweeping every day there’d be hairballs in every corner! I had to scrub Bindu hair off the corner of the sofa where she rubs her little body as she’s going to hide in the corner! Silly dogs.

The cloudbank I’ve been watching is getting bigger and darker. I’m off to check the weather.

Ciao, babies!

We didn’t leave until nine the next day. We slept in.

Half way through Nebraska, the Jeep decided to get weird. It overheated about five times; we were able to travel about 25 miles in each hour for several hours: stop and fill up the radiator and five one-gallon jugs with water. Get on the Interstate. Drive about 25 miles. Watch radiator fluid spray across the windshield. Pull over. Wait for engine to cool down. Fill up radiator. Limp to next gas station. Repeat.

We weren’t running the A/C and the whole ordeal sucked, although we managed to maintain a pretty good mood throughout. After making a couple of calls to find out if people would be willing to rescue us, the Jeep self-healed and the rest of the journey was trouble-free.

We called Ron and asked him to go rent a trailer so he could come get us if necessary. We called Joe and he said he’d be willing to come get us and tow us all the way to Ron’s! (Ya gotta have friends!) After both guys said yea, the Jeep never overheated again. We had to pay for a trailer we never used, but it was better $40 for an unused trailer than the many more expensive alternatives.