Wishing you a Happy Holiday and a Happy New Year!

Hopefully, 2007 was a fabulous year for you. Mine was pretty normal, in the scheme of things.

Work—Work’s been calm and steady. I joined the new social committee to help organize fun events for co-workers; but that shouldn’t surprise you. I organized the first event, a Halloween office trick-or-treating and costume contest lunch, and now I'm working on the holiday pot luck, and associated festivities. Otherwise, things are status quo there…still supporting scientists on the Cassini mission to Saturn, doing the lab’s newsletter and helping out with other things, usually creative.

Vacations and Trips—Donna flew out for our birthdays again last December (hers is the day after mine). We went to Steamboat Springs again, stayed with Suzie and Tom, and skied…well I only skied part of the day because my rental binding was set wrong and kept releasing, so I had to ride down on the ski patrol's snowmobile to get it fixed. Maybe I should go back to using my own ancient long skis. Of course, we also soaked in Strawberry Hot Springs, which we love. A quick visit to Fish Creek Falls, then our birthday dinner at Cottonwood Grill, my new favorite dining spot in town. Last Christmas was at Dad and Armelde’s in CT. The excitement was around the travel, because I got caught in both Colorado blizzards, one on each end of the trip: only six hours delay on the way there, but two days on the way back! Thankfully, I spent the time with family rather than in a cheap motel somewhere. I went back to Steamboat in early February with Evelyn. We also stayed with Suzie and Tom—they are so generous with their hospitality! We didn’t downhill, but cross-country skied. We stopped at Fishcreek Falls and had dinner at Cottonwood (are you seeing a pattern here?) Another night, we had dinner at home with S&T and another friend of theirs. I finally got to see Joan and Dick while I was up there. They are the couple I babysat for when I was around 12 years old, my first job. I haven’t seen them since about 1976. It was so great to see them after all these years! They have a cattle ranch and a gorgeous log home outside of Steamboat, with a killer view overlooking Stagecoach Lake. After our visit, Evelyn and I went to the hot springs, then back to Suzie and Tom’s, where we watched Animal Planet’s Puppy Bowl, my choice of TV on Superbowl Sunday. In early June, I went back and stayed with Dick and Joan this time. It was for a very unusual activity, "branding weekend". I actually helped Dick, John (the “baby” I used to sit for), and their cowboy neighbors, brand that year’s calves. I didn’t do the painful work, I did the soothing work. I was “Aloe Girl” and sprayed the calves with aloe right after the brand. Yes, it was very disturbing, but also very real, and brought me closer to my food—something us Slow Foodies strive for and most Americans are far-removed from. It was a unique experience I’ll never forget. We had a barbecue afterwards and you could tell the guys were really tuckered out; it’s really hard work! I went to Ray’s raft trip in mid-August this year and brought a friend from work, Judy. It was a small group. The trip was memorable because Ray announced he recently had a heart attack and wasn’t supposed to lift heavy items. The doctors didn’t even want him doing the trip. Thankfully, the weekend was uneventful (and fun as always) and Ray’s doing well now. While there, I found a perfect, clean, ~2 lb oyster mushroom, right in plain sight at the campground! I sautéed it for dinner. Only Judy and I had the nerve to eat it the first night. But by the second night, once the others saw we were still alive, they put a dent in the leftovers and ate it with their steak. Yum! This September was a gorgeous time to visit New York and see my Mom, Paul, and brother David. I hung out in the apartment during the days, spending quality time with them. Sunday morning I met Donna for a very expensive brunch at Café des Artiste. And, Saturday night I met two high school friends at Kim Ga San in Koreatown for traditional barbecue grilled at the table. I hadn’t seen Caren and Leslie in 30 years! It was a blast and almost like no time had passed. We extended the evening with a drink (and a "floorshot") at Jack Dempsey’s bar and planned to do it again next year.

Visitors—Other than Donna, no one came to visit me this year. What’s the matter with you guys?! Doesn’t Colorado call to you? It’s gorgeous and fun and we have 300 days of sunshine a year. Get your butts out here.

Culture—Laima invited me to tag along for several CU concerts. She’s the marketing manager for the music series and gets an extra free ticket to every show. I saw Natalie MacMaster's uplifting folk, Celtic, step dancing and fiddling; Lovely chamber music with David Finckel on cello with Wu Han on piano; The amazingly flexible Pilobolus dancers; Arturo Sandoval and his jazzy Cuban trumpet; and Yamato, the Wadaiko drummers of Japan, which is nothing like you’d think. It’s youthful, athletic and wild! I went to Nissi’s music bistro several times; once for Dotsero with Sarah, once with my new friend Nora for the Lost Canyon Band, once with Susan and Lonnie to see a Motown singer named Cheryl Rene, and last night with my co-worker, Edith, to see Nelson Rangell. After the last blue moon adventure in 2004, another one rose on May 31 this year. It was a smaller group this time, just Janet, Lisa, and I. But, in true Bloomoon fashion, we “did things we’ve never done before or only do once in a blue moon”. We went to see the play Wicked in Denver. I enjoyed it much more than I expected, even being a huge Oz fan. On the way down, we stopped at Great Scotts diner off Rt.36. We wore hats to dinner, and brought along our Bloomoon mascot, Chief, the fireman cookie jar. The waitress cracked up when we told her about the Bloomoon mission as we ordered dessert first (pie), followed by breakfast for dinner. Laurie and I went to The Police reunion concert in June. Around $130 for nosebleed seats! But, we were offered better seats when we arrived and they were much closer, but behind the stage. It was worth it. I saw a few local bands too like The 4-Nikators at Bands on the Bricks in June; Chris Daniels on the grass outside the Denver Center for the Performing Arts; and a few small groups at farmer’s markets. In October, Evelyn and I really enjoyed Jethro Tull at the Temple Buell Theater, which was a small venue and much more reasonably priced. I forgot how incredibly talented Ian Anderson is on that flute. My high-school artist friend, Sue, came down from Fort Collins for the 10th anniversary of our attending Boulder’s Art Open Studios together. Boy time flies.

Parties and Holidays—Once again, last December, I used the Sagittarius Ball as my own personal birthday party. First, I had a quick pre-ball cocktail party at my place with Laima, Evelyn, Bret, Nancy, Bridgette, Kathi & Rob, Christiann and a few others. Then we met up with more revelers at the ball, including Kathi, Rob and their crew. Lots of fun and loads of dancing as always. When I picked up the tickets at Rockin’ Robin's retro consignment store the week before, I was just in time for a free striptease lesson she was hosting. I’ll leave the rest up to your imagination, but will say it was much tamer than you think and I came home with a lovely deep blue, cut-velvet shirt I fittingly call my “stripping shirt". My birthday fun actually started in late November when Lisa and I went to Hot Sulphur Springs. Then a few work friends took me for drinks at Redfish, John took me to Sketch with Lisa and Gye for a birthday review, and Leslie and I did our birthday dinner at Prima. Teri's birthday was celebrated with brunch at the Broker. Marty’s 50th was a party at his house. And, Jim’s 50th was at his place in Denver in June where he introduced me to his friends and family as his wife. A little background here—On New Year’s Eve of the millennium, we declared that if we weren’t married by the time we were 50, we’d marry each other. Anyway, we joked around about it off and on over the years, but he got me a good one when he sent e-invitations for “our wedding” to our friends and didn’t tell me. But, our friends are so jaded they didn’t buy it and no-one said a word. Anyway, we had fun with it, but deferred again figuring we had to wait till I’m 50 before it really counts (in 1-1/2 weeks!). Anyway, I gave him a gondola ride down Cherry Creek with Italian wine for his birthday (and “our honeymoon”) which is a unique Denver attraction most people don’t know exists. For the holidays last winter: Hanukkah was at Susan and Lonnie’s; as mentioned, I went to Dad and Armelde's for Christmas; and my boss had a holiday party too. Remember I told you about the two Christmas blizzards? Well for the first one, they closed campus early and I went home only to find my neighbor, Tammy’s, car stuck in a snowdrift in our parking lot. Several of us tried to push her out, but to no avail. Because many neighbors were home early, we used that as an excuse to get together. Tammy, Laima and Emily came over for wine and cheese and a goofy movie. Later, Scott joined us, and with port and beer in hand, we walked to the hot tub—Laima and I in our showshoes. We jumped out of the hot tub, steaming, and made snow angels. Because Laima and I were off from work the next day as well, we got our cross-country skis and made our own touring center across the street at Celestial Seasonings’ prairie dog preserve. We skied over to where I often hear the coyotes howl at night and found plenty of footprints. Then, sure enough, one trotted right in front of us and into a culvert. We saw a bald eagle too. It’s nice to have Wild Kingdom in our own front yard. I planned to have friends over for crab, caviar, and champagne for New Year's Eve but cancelled due to my storm delay from CT. In April, I went to two Passover celebrations, one at Laurie’s and one at Susan’s cousins, Robin and Stuart’s. Susan and Lonnie had a Barbecue in late May, around both their birthdays, and there was a Memorial day pool party at co-worker’s house. For the 4th of July, Hans, Bridgette and I went to the Farmer’s Market for dinner, then walked up to campus to watch the fireworks at Folsom Stadium. Rich had a barbecue at his place in the mountains a few days later. Then, Lyn and Rob had their 33rd annual Hot Luck at the end of the month, and I won the first annual Best Dish contest for my Chile-Cappuchino Brownies (recipe on my website)—My prize was a chile T-shirt. In September, Teri had a landscaping party where I worked muscles I didn’t know I had. Just before Halloween, I finally had the neighborhood party I’d been threatening to host for years. It was great to meet some of those living so close to me in the complex. There were about 15 people, some I knew, some I didn’t. Everyone had a good time, and I hope we’ll do more things together in the future. As mentioned earlier, there was a Halloween celebration at work and I went to Susan and Lonnie's for their annual intimate dinner party, which is always incredibly festive. Once again, I went to Pie Night in November with John's family. It's always wonderful to eat savory and sweet pies with a bunch of blue-grass musicians in an old grange hall, then listen to them jam all night. I made a new friend there, Laura, who is going to teach me how to can and I'll show her how to find wild asparagus. I shared Thanksgiving dinner with John, Lisa, their Mom, Betsy and Hans again. But, this time it was different. We went out to eat to the Boulderado. I honestly don't ever remember going to a restaurant for Thanksgiving so this was a new experience. The food was pretty good, the atmosphere was lovely and there were no dishes to wash. However, no leftovers either. Maybe I'll make a roast chicken and bread stuffing for dinner Sunday to go with the pumpkin pie I've been working on all week.

Sports and the Like—After the big holiday blizzards, the city also created a temporary cross-country ski touring center, at Valmont Park, and Janet and I went to check it out. It was incredibly crowded but fun. I’m still a member at the YMCA, but lucky if I get there twice a week. I found a CardioGlide machine by my dumpster recently, so hopefully I'll use it and it won’t just go back to where it came from. After 26 years of living in the bicycling capital of the US, I’m finally starting to use my bike a little more. I usually need to have a purpose though, like riding to the Niwot farmers market and concert, or hunting for wild asparagus. In August, Janet and I hiked to Lake Isabelle. We found our first King Bolete! (The American name for the delectable Italian porcini mushroom.) She spied it and thought it was an apple at first. I identified it, knowing right off the bat having studying it so hard in hopes of finding some. That’s why I joined the mycological association in the first place. OK, back to sports…In October, I had my hopes up, along with everyone else around here, that the Rockies would win the World Series against the Boston Red Sox. Laima actually tried to get tickets for us, but that was a futile effort and only a few lucky folks got through. I watched a few games even though I’m not a big sports fan. I guess if we had to lose to anyone, a team from my old stomping grounds in New England is as good as any.

Volunteering—There were a lot of Slow Food events this year, some of which I produced and some I simply enjoyed: A Holiday Dinner at Q’s; our annual pot luck at the culinary school in January; a March benefit held at The Kitchen to raise money for the big 2008 Slow Food Nation event in San Francisco; Haystack’s Beer and cheese tasting in May, which was a pleasant surprise. I think beer pairs with cheese just as well as wine; a casual monthly gathering called Slow Food Uncorked the first Wednesday of every month at The Cork; a June summer solstice event at Trepedda’s; July’s “How to Taste” event with a guest speaker from the Taste Institute at Cornell. I confirmed that I have an inordinate number of taste-buds, making me a “supertaster”, for better or worse; a delightful cooking class taught by Hugo from The Kitchen for the Cultiva kids, held outside in the community gardens; our second successful BLT garden event in August at Cure Farms; and a huge event, produced by a member, called "Slow on the Planet" in August at the beautiful outdoor concert venue, Planet Bluegrass in Lyons. Unfortunately, three of our eight committee members, including our chairperson, recently resigned because they were all over-committed at home and work. At this point, none of us remaining have the bandwidth to take the lead either, so it will be interesting to see what happens next year—where's a retired eco-gastronomic philanthropist when you need one? I only made it to the Wild Animal Sanctuary once this year. It was with an old rafting friend, Rob, one evening to hear the wolves howl and tigers growl.

Other Fun Stuff—Pennie and I got press coverage in the Boulder Daily Camera for our Quarterly Culinary Adventures when we did a Shakespeare food dinner in August. We cooked dishes including all the ingredients mentioned in All’s Well that Ends Well, then picnicked on the lawn before the performance at CU’s Shakespeare Festival. Rocky and Leslie joined us, as well as the marketing director from the festival. Otherwise, it was an Asian year…We did a Vietnamese dinner at Pennies in February, a Korean one at my house in April, and in October, revisited Vietnamese cuisine, this time making their famous complex beef soup called Pho (pronounced “Fuh”). My seven-year dream job of going on restaurant reviews with the Rocky Mountain News is on hold due to John’s hiatus for health reasons. We’re all pulling for him to get strong and healthy, and if he wants to, to resume the reviews. But, for now we go out to dinner on occasion, like normal people do, to stay in practice. But, before the break, I got 19 reviews under my belt (so to speak) in 2007. It was a good year for mushrooms. As you heard, I finally found king boletes as well as oysters and some other edibles like saffron milk caps and aspen scaber stalks. No morels or chanterelles though…got to save something for next year. However, Evelyn and I were able to sample a great variety at the Mycological Society’s delicious annual mushroom dinner at The Cork in October. I also got the wild asparagus-hunting down and know where every plant is within a mile of my house for harvest next spring. I made a new fun friend, Nora, in March when I bought a wrought iron bistro set from her through Craig’s List. Too bad the reason she sold it was because she was moving. We hung out a few times before she headed off to CA, but hopefully we’ll stay in touch. I only went to two International Wine Parties this year; one in Lafayette with Janet and one on the plains north of Boulder with Stephanie. Janet, Stephanie and I started doing a monthly girl’s night which has included outings to the Greekfest in Denver and salsa dancing at the St. Julien. I got my doggie fix at a Newfoundland dog show at the Harvest House in May. I went for three days during my lunch hours and got to pet plenty of massive, beautiful furballs. I was really excited this year because Boulder had its first Wine and Food Fest, held in Central Park. Janet and I went and had a great time, even during the unusual downpour. This will surely become an annual event for me. Foods I discovered this year that I love: Truffle salt and Greek God’s fig yogurt. I signed up for some dining-related gatherings in my area through Meetup.com. It’s a great concept, check it out for events in your area. It’s not awkward like a singles group, but focused on specific interests and hobbies and there are groups of all kinds all over the world. I’ve only been to two so far, but it seemed like a nice group of people. Janet, Stephanie, Judy and I went to the Rocky Flats Lounge (yes, across from, and named after, the former nuclear weapons plant) for their Friday Wisconsin fish fry. It was surprisingly good. I took advantage of the situation and released my inner biker by wearing torn jeans, a power company work shirt complete with “Harry” on the pocket, and even a do-rag on my head.

Etc.—Well, the awful day came on 9/26. I received my AARP card in the mail! I’ve been dreading this day for years. Don’t worry, if they haven’t already found you, they will. They find everyone when they turn 50. Unfortunately, the other signs of age are the increasing number of friends having health issues, some terminal, and/or deaths of friends or their family members. I didn’t need that darn card to shove it in my face. Barb, Ned and the kids came out in early October, but sadly it was for another passing; his Mom, Mabyn's. It was nice to see his family again—I’ve gotten to know them over the years. But, I hope it’s for happy stuff next time. The health insurance crisis is finally hitting home. CU lost the program I, and many of my co-workers, were on. So, in order to keep my doctors and still afford insurance, I switched to a high-deductible program for which I maintain a health savings account (HSA). The high-deductible is keeping me from doing things I need do, like getting my annual mammogram and checking-out a knee problem for fear of expensive MRIs and the like. And, working with an HSA takes an MBA—thankfully I have one. I put together a two-page procedure so I can keep it all straight. I don't know how someone that isn't as organized I am (or older folks and those less savvy) can manage it. First I did Rx price comparisons, since I have to pay full-price now. Now, I need to remember to buy the right Rx from the right place; make sure I have enough money in the HSA account before spending (or transfer funds); and make the right number of receipt copies for the IRS and the insurance company since the cheapest mail-away programs don't report directly to the insurance company, and some items qualify for HSA that insurance doesn't cover. Then, I have to remember to mail them in to go toward that high-deductible I may never meet because I foolishly put off buying expensive services. I've got five folders and two envelopes dedicated to making sure I work the program right. I'm holding my breath that CU will find a reasonably affordable program like my last one when they go out for new bids this year. I know I'm lucky to just have health insurance! Now, to get off my high-horse and onto a lighter note: In a perpetual search for more kitchen space, I had a huge 5’x6’ spice rack made for my hall wall. I'm also putting a dent in the painting I've wanted to do for years by finishing my bedroom this weekend and hopefully the back hall, then maybe even the guest bath soon. Best of all, I am finally getting quotes to tile my kitchen floor after years of talking about it. I paid off my car loan and promised myself I'd do the floor after that debt was gone. Maybe I'll actually even get the work done...Unless I decide to give the money to the doctors instead. Stay tuned.

Here's to a healthy, wonderful, and prosperous 2008!