Wow, I don’t even know where to begin.  I guess first here is wishing you a belated Happy Thanksgiving.   Hope you had a great day and enjoyed time with friends and family and you were able to take count of all the things you are thankful for. 

Around our house for Thanksgiving Day it was Candy, Eric, Clark and I here for dinner. Candy did all the cooking and she did an awesome job!   We had turkey and all the fixings.   We just finished off the turkey this evening with turkey noodle soup. 

With this being a short week, I took the first three days of it off for vacation.   More like a working vacation but I did manage to get a few things completed this week.  I guess let’s start at the beginning.

I spent most of the week working on Clark’s room trying to get it completed before I leave town next week.   I am happy to report that the room is finished and tomorrow we can move Clark back in. 

I pretty much replaced everything.   I put in new doors and door frames.  All new flooring, paint and oak trim.   I started out by painting the ceiling and walls first and then laid the floor.   A lot of time was spent on the staining of the doors and door frames.   I had already stained the trim so that was out of the way.   All together this project took me eight days to complete.   This looks a whole lot better than what we had down there before.   Clark should be pretty jazzed once we get hit settled back in.

So a quick mileage update for the month of November.   To date I have managed to get 40.5/miles logged.  Not bad but not great!  I need to get out tomorrow and get a few extra miles in.  Especially after all the eating I have been doing this week.

On Tuesday I headed out and did a 7/mile loop.   I took a little different route this time than I normally do when I cross the mountain.   Hiked up to GCR and then headed up the side of the mountain.   This new trail was pretty much all incline and I could feel it.  I hope to be able to do it again tomorrow.  I need to do it again tomorrow.

I did manage to snag a few nice pictures while I was out.   I came across two pretty cool looking nests.   The first one pictured is an old wasp’s nest.  Luckily the tenants had moved on.  This second picture, I am not sure what type of nest it is, but I am guessing a squirrel nest.  Also found a nice Magpie posing as well as a couple of deer grazing.

Even had time to get the Christmas decorations out and up both inside and out.   Looks like the Christmas holiday is on it's way.

Happy Hiking

No work on the basement tonight but I did get a couple miles in on the treadmill, 2.5/miles to be exact.  Tomorrow I am headed up to Cheyenne WY. to meet with two of our clients.   So trying to figure out when I am going to get my walking in.  Guess I will try in the morning before I leave, so looks like an other early morning.

As of today I am now up to 27.2/miles for the month.

I managed to get a little more done on the basement this evening.  Finished up all the trim removal and have the truck loaded and ready to make a run to the dump.   I had a gallon of primer so I went ahead and rolled it over the blue walls.   Didn’t have enough to cut in around the corners and ceiling.   One evening this week I will need to make a trip to HD, need to get the door frames and doors and pick up some more primer and the paint.

If I can get my butt up early enough I am going to try to make a dump run in the morning.  They open as 7am so I should be good.  I have to do it tomorrow as I need to drive up to Cheyenne WY for meetings on Thursday.

I only got 1.5/miles in today and did that on the treadmill after work.   That brings me up to 24.5/miles for this month.   

I wouldn’t normally say this but man I am glad the weekend is over.  It has been crazy busy around here this weekend and I don’t see it slowing down.  Of course it is my own fault so I guess I can’t really complain.

Saturday morning a friend of mine showed up and we started tearing out the windows in the basement bathroom and the bedroom.   They came out easy and the new ones went in just as easy.  We started at 9am and were done by noon.

Once that was done my buddy left and I started the demolition on the basement bedroom.   Managed to get all the carpet, pad and trim removed.   It went pretty quick except for removing the carpet tack strips.

I am also replacing all the interior doors and frames in the basement.  This should be fun as I haven’t done this before, but doesn’t look to tuff.

It was crazy windy here in the springs yesterday and through the night.  Over at the Bott house we had two sections of fence blow down.   This morning candy I ran over there and got everything nailed back up.

From there we headed over to Red Rock Canyon and did a quick two mile loop.  Saw a coyote down in the valley.  I snapped this picture but it is not great.  Had some great views of Pikes Peak and Garden of the Gods.

We got all the carpet, pad and trim loaded up in the back of the truck.  The dump is closed on Sunday’s and it won’t be until Tuesday that I can get over there and unload.  That’s ok as I still have a few more trim pieces to remove from the hallway.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that with today being National Metal Day, I setup a new playlist on the IPod and was jamming on my way to work and back.  Here is a sampling of the tunes I was listing to.

We had a great day here in Colorado.  It actually warmed up a little and was great weather for walking.   I managed to log 5.2/miles in by walking to work and back.  I hope this nice weather holds for a few days.   Tomorrow a friend is coming over to help me replace two basement windows.

Need more time

I had meetings yesterday so didn’t walk to work and then when I got home I started clearing out the boy’s bedroom.  Moving him into the family room that we just finished and now starting on his room.  I ordered new windows for his room and the down stairs bathroom.   They showed up yesterday so time to get to work on the next remodel effort.

I have the trim work already stained.  On the last room that took the longest to get done as it took two coats of stain and then polyurethane.  Then had to wait for it to dry.  I’ll start adding some pictures as we get going.

National Metal Day 11.11.11

For all you headbangers out there and even those of you who won't admit that you love that headbanging, hard slamming Rock N Roll, get ready.   VH1 has dubbed November 11th 2011 as National Metal Day.   Be sure to tune in to VH1 Classic to see all your favorite head banging bands.

Here are a couple of my favorites to get you ready!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oobDQ0vdm8M - GnR Sweet Child O Mine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L397TWLwrUU&ob=av2e - Judas Priest Breaking the Law
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aIhh9nFYv4 - Black Sabbath Paranoid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d57WGkhi-M&feature=related - Motley Crue Shout at the Devil
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_3TlrZLpQ0 - Accept Balls To The Wall
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h45WnW0ASFY - Motorhead Eat the Rich

More goats

Seeing the goats last night on the way home, I thought I would walk to work that way this morning and see if I could get some better pictures with the morning light.   I left the house at 6:45am and headed down the street.   First thing I came across with this big buck eating grass in someone’s yard.

I am guessing there are close to 150 goats grazing in the park.   They have a makeshift fence that they move from to area once the goats have eaten all the grass in the fenced in area.

Only 2.5/miles today as I didn’t get through with work until late and didn’t have my headlamp with me for the walk home in the dark.  Called the wife and she came and picked me up and gave me a ride home.

My top 10 played songs on the IPod

When you are trying to make it up the hill, you need some good tunes with a snappy beat to keep you moving.  Here are the top 10 played songs on my IPod.

Colorado Weed is the Best!

Got off my ass and walked to and from work today.  It was a little cold this morning, I think 19 degrees.   I was dressed for it so it wasn’t an issue.  Back and forth to work was an easy 5/miles to add to the log.

On my way home I came through the south Bear Creek Park area.   Once a year they bring in the goats to eat the weeds.   I snapped the pictures below of the goats.   I was trying to come up with a catchy caption to add and and this was the best that I could come up with "Colorado Weed is the Best".

For lunch today I headed back over to the gym.  It’s nice that it is about a mile from the office.  Managed to get 4/miles on the treadmill then some lifting.   Need to keep after it! 

Another Day

I only did a mile on the treadmill last night and then spent the rest of my time lifting.  Oh man I am a little sore this morning.  Feels good!

Today is another day, so I need to make sure that I get after it again.

Happy Halloween

Man we had a mess of trick or treaters this year.  They started showing up around 6pm and we wrapped up around 8:30pm.   I will say that every one of them was very polite and all said thank you.

Clark and his girlfriend Nicole dressed up and were here at the house to help hand out candy.   Clark was dressed up as a penguin and Nicole was dressed as a kitten.   I went with the grumpy old man look.

Time to go to work

Well it is a new month so that is always a good time to set goals for things you want to get done.   I am trying to get back to my daily workout routine and started up again today.

I haven’t been hiking and I can really feel it.  I have been tired as of late and eating too much.  The change in season is always difficult as it is dark when you get up and dark when you leave the office.  In addition I have been traveling a considerable amount.

For lunch today I went to the gym for a quick work out.   Managed to get 3/miles in on the treadmill and must admit I already feel better.  At least I feel better about myself for making it happen.   The treadmill is not my favorite but now that I have my Apple products all working again I made up a new play list.   Having some decent music, well in my opinion decent music, it may not be your taste makes it easier.

I am scheduled to be in Denver tomorrow, so I will either have to get my workout done before I leave or after I get home.   The drive up and back is a killer and normally when I get home I am beat.   I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.