Back from Denver
May. 22nd, 2006 11:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
billeylerDealing with what seems like a hundred nitty detail thingies here at work today, and it's making me a bit nuts. My head needs a break.
The weekend in Denver was great in almost every case. We left about 10:30 on Friday morning to take the scenic drive to Denver, mostly up highway 285 and 64, through Taos, skirting the Great Sand Dunes National Monument, and up through the mountains to Bill and Ralph's in Westminster, a bedroom suburb north of Denver.
The weather was great this time...no sub-zero temps in May! There was a patch up at the end of highway 17 where the temps dipped 20 some degrees, but it only got down to 50. There was still a smattering of snow in the mountain chain, but most of Colorado is going through the same drought we are.
About 12:30 on Friday, we decided to stop somewhere about 2pm to eat. Amazingly, EXACTLY at 2, we came across a little reservoir/picnic area out of the blue, and spent a bit of time there, enjoying the sandwiches. The rest of the trip was uneventful, and by taking the back road, we avoided the normal Colorado Springs traffic jams.
Bill and Ralph treated us to a martini when we finally got there at 7, and that zonked us enough that we just chatted a bit, had dinner and went to bed, I think by 10.
I got a couple of hours on Saturday morning to work on some material for the two dances that day, which is a real treat. I only seem to get to spend quality choreo time when I go out of town.
The afternoon dance at 3 was A2 and C1. It was a crowd of maybe less that 3 squares. The only quaff was when I announced that the first C1 tip would be class-level, me thinking that it was Bill and Ralph's class that had graduated a couple of months ago, but they said they weren't that strong. UNFORTUNATELY, unbeknownst to me, there is another C1 class going on that's just six weeks in, so there I was calling vanilla C1 and several of the people weren't getting through a single call. OMG. It wasn't until AFTER the tip, that someone clued me in. The rest of the dance went MUCH better.
The buffet before the evening dance was so lightly attended, we were worried there wouldn't be 2 squares for the evening dance. The theme was "Wizard of Oz"...the board had set up the DVD playing behind my head and I had the soundtrack for it (downloaded on Wednesday!), so it was great with the audio and visuals. Happily, people did trickle in...some in full costume. I was the Wicked Witch of the West (big surprise), and Danny was sort of the Tin Man (his internet ordered costume didn't fit), and a number of other characters showed, but NO SCARECROW!
That dance went really well, too...it was Mainstream and Plus alternating, and I threw in some different stuff, including my 'patented' Hexagons, which also went really well.
By 10pm, after we closed up shop, we were too tired to go to Charlie's for 2-stepping, so again, we just went back to Bill and Ralphs and collapsed.
Sunday morning, I also got some quality time working on some C2 openers...we headed over to Karen and Mark's, since they booked me to call a C2 dance from 10 to noon before we headed back to ABQ. Karen thought about 14 would show up...but actually there were THREE full squares! That was the most comfortable C2 dance I had called in a very long time. Most of the dancers there were not gay, and had never heard of me, but they all took my card...so who knows!
On the way to Karen and Mark's we got a call on Danny's cell from my friend Mike who happened to be in Denver, too! Mike ended up in Steamboat Springs after a couple of job mishaps, and was in town for a date with an internet hookup. We arranged to meet him for lunch after the dance, so we could catch up. Why do all my friends live OUT of Albuquerque. We had some laughs and a decent lunch at Goodfriends, which coincidentally is where we had lunch with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bearfuz when he was in Denver last year.
The trip back was totally and pleasantly uneventful..we didn't even stop for dinner this time, and made it back by 9pm, where we just vegged out.
Just before Danny headed to bed, and I was in the bedroom doing something, we both came out into the hall and collided with each other VERY hard. It threw me into the guest bedroom, and I slammed Danny hard in the neck, and gave him some sort of whiplash. That did NOT help his constant headache at all...sigh.
And now, back in the real world. I got 4 phone calls just typing this up.
The weekend in Denver was great in almost every case. We left about 10:30 on Friday morning to take the scenic drive to Denver, mostly up highway 285 and 64, through Taos, skirting the Great Sand Dunes National Monument, and up through the mountains to Bill and Ralph's in Westminster, a bedroom suburb north of Denver.
The weather was great this time...no sub-zero temps in May! There was a patch up at the end of highway 17 where the temps dipped 20 some degrees, but it only got down to 50. There was still a smattering of snow in the mountain chain, but most of Colorado is going through the same drought we are.
About 12:30 on Friday, we decided to stop somewhere about 2pm to eat. Amazingly, EXACTLY at 2, we came across a little reservoir/picnic area out of the blue, and spent a bit of time there, enjoying the sandwiches. The rest of the trip was uneventful, and by taking the back road, we avoided the normal Colorado Springs traffic jams.
Bill and Ralph treated us to a martini when we finally got there at 7, and that zonked us enough that we just chatted a bit, had dinner and went to bed, I think by 10.
I got a couple of hours on Saturday morning to work on some material for the two dances that day, which is a real treat. I only seem to get to spend quality choreo time when I go out of town.
The afternoon dance at 3 was A2 and C1. It was a crowd of maybe less that 3 squares. The only quaff was when I announced that the first C1 tip would be class-level, me thinking that it was Bill and Ralph's class that had graduated a couple of months ago, but they said they weren't that strong. UNFORTUNATELY, unbeknownst to me, there is another C1 class going on that's just six weeks in, so there I was calling vanilla C1 and several of the people weren't getting through a single call. OMG. It wasn't until AFTER the tip, that someone clued me in. The rest of the dance went MUCH better.
The buffet before the evening dance was so lightly attended, we were worried there wouldn't be 2 squares for the evening dance. The theme was "Wizard of Oz"...the board had set up the DVD playing behind my head and I had the soundtrack for it (downloaded on Wednesday!), so it was great with the audio and visuals. Happily, people did trickle in...some in full costume. I was the Wicked Witch of the West (big surprise), and Danny was sort of the Tin Man (his internet ordered costume didn't fit), and a number of other characters showed, but NO SCARECROW!
That dance went really well, too...it was Mainstream and Plus alternating, and I threw in some different stuff, including my 'patented' Hexagons, which also went really well.
By 10pm, after we closed up shop, we were too tired to go to Charlie's for 2-stepping, so again, we just went back to Bill and Ralphs and collapsed.
Sunday morning, I also got some quality time working on some C2 openers...we headed over to Karen and Mark's, since they booked me to call a C2 dance from 10 to noon before we headed back to ABQ. Karen thought about 14 would show up...but actually there were THREE full squares! That was the most comfortable C2 dance I had called in a very long time. Most of the dancers there were not gay, and had never heard of me, but they all took my card...so who knows!
On the way to Karen and Mark's we got a call on Danny's cell from my friend Mike who happened to be in Denver, too! Mike ended up in Steamboat Springs after a couple of job mishaps, and was in town for a date with an internet hookup. We arranged to meet him for lunch after the dance, so we could catch up. Why do all my friends live OUT of Albuquerque. We had some laughs and a decent lunch at Goodfriends, which coincidentally is where we had lunch with
bearfuz when he was in Denver last year.The trip back was totally and pleasantly uneventful..we didn't even stop for dinner this time, and made it back by 9pm, where we just vegged out.
Just before Danny headed to bed, and I was in the bedroom doing something, we both came out into the hall and collided with each other VERY hard. It threw me into the guest bedroom, and I slammed Danny hard in the neck, and gave him some sort of whiplash. That did NOT help his constant headache at all...sigh.
And now, back in the real world. I got 4 phone calls just typing this up.
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no subject
Date: 2006-05-23 05:59 am (UTC)