Off the grid, as much as I can handle

We had a tiny little snow storm here in Henderson, CO today. When I say tiny, it really just rained a lot and then we had a little snow. It's all gone now, and the back yard is a bit muddy. OK, a lot muddy.

I had spent some time downstairs on the sofa last night because Tally, our older dog, for some reason likes to sleep there with me. We went downstairs around midnight, and came up to the master bedroom at 3:30. My husband had fallen asleep to the Military Channel, so I left it on, turning down the volume a bit, and falling fast asleep myself.

When we woke up at 5:00. there was no TV at all. At all. Searching for Satellite. And searching, and searching, and searching. I called DirectTV, and they said there must be heavy wet snow on the dish. I went outside, and indeed there was a tiny little bit of snow on the dish. I got out the broom, cleaned it of, ever-so-delicately, and went back to bed. No TV.

By 10:00 I was dying from the immense quiet in the house, not to mention the fact that I missed both the early show and Rachael Ray in the background as I worked. I called DirectTV again, and they couldn't help. We set up a service call - I am thinking for Tuesday or something. Try the 6th of May - that's the Wednesday after NEXT Tuesday. Really. 10 days without TV.

Now, this sounds like a very long post about how much of a wired person I am, and that I must have my TV. I am really not that petty. I love our TV service for the satellite radio we get - I usually have that on in the background after 10:00 am. I also am a total news junkie. Not having access to it is a challenge. Reading cnn.com isn't quite the same. Finally, it is NHL and NBA playoff time, and both the Nuggests and the Ducks are on! Finally, there is my husband. He likes TV as background noise.

Plain and simple. 10 days without TV is going to be a challenge, and I am guessing, I may actually get a few needle craft projects complete....there's a HUGE blanket waiting to be finished!

Butterflies!

So, I said I would keep this blog going...but it seems to fall by the wayside WAY too much! So this week I will attempt to catch up on everything!

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of visiting the Butterfly Pavilion in Westminster. In the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit I am a finalist for a position there, and wanted to check out the place in a little more depth. The Pavilion was the first butterfly habitat in the US, and I guess there are now two or three across the country.

I was a bit unsure when I went in. I mean, how cool can this place actually be? I mean butterflies are just that. I tried to choose a day when there would not be ten zillion kids in the place, Spring Break. The problem is, there is no one homogeneous Spring Break in Colorado. Therefore, there are always a bunch of kids there.

Normally, this might cause me to have a bit of a panic attack, but they were pretty cool, and the Butterfly Pavilion was even more so! You walk in and there are some sketchy creepy-crawly things like Scorpions (I had a hard time even typing that word!), cockroaches and the like. Then you can go a few directions. The best of course, is the rainforestesque experience of the butterfly habitat.

From the outside it looks tiny. I mean TINY. But when you go in, there are so many cool butterflies! I never take photos (as evidenced by this text-laden blog), but I had to go back out to my car and grab my camera just to grab some photos.




This is just one of many photos I took. OK - for me it was many - it's only about 20! To check out all of them, visit my flickr page.

The Butterfly Pavilion is pretty cool. If you are in the Colorado area, I strongly recommend a visit. There's a lot more than just the butterflies - they have some groovy sea creatures - a bit strange for a land-locked person like me, but I did actually touch a starfish, which is a huge accomplishment for me!

This summer I am hoping to take a trip to some other Colorado treasures I haven't seen or maybe haven't visited in forever including the Denver Mint, Fort Vasquez, The Capital Dome and the Museum of Contemporary Art!