Just Sayin'

Top 10 Things To Do In Boise

As promised to Kris aka @thewino on Twitter, I'm compiling my favorite things about Boise as a mini guide to her, should she be fortunate enough to visit my fair city.

1) The Greenbelt. Boise is a very fortunate city to have a beautiful parks system that runs on both sides (for the most part) of the Boise River. The Greenbelt is an amazing place to bike, walk, jog or lounge with a refreshing beverage. As long as the cops don't see you (if you're too close to the river, that is).











2)The Pen Not, not the one people are in NOW, the Old Pen. It's on Warm Springs Avenue. It sounds weird, but touring it is cool. It's got some really interesting architecture, and I always am amazed to be reminded that when it finally was "retired", I was, I think, 7 and my husband 10. It's not surprising that the reason we got a new prison is that the prisoners rioted at this one and burned a lot of it down. I can't blame them a bit. It's kind of out of the "Shawshank Redemption" except for there's no nice Morgan Freeman around.


3) The Boise Train Depot. The company I work for built this building many many years ago. (They also built the Hoover Dam). Looking at downtown Boise from the bell tower is amazing.




4) The Capitol Building. Our capitol is, I believe, one of the most beautiful in the 50 states. It's certainly a hell of a lot prettier than Nevada's, which is basically a rectangle of bricks with a teensy white dome on top. It's been recently remodeled and it's spectacular. Now if only there were more spectacular people in it.



5) The Idaho Shakespeare Festival, if visiting from June-September. Tom & Joe. The Fool Squad. They're amazing. That is all.

6) Table Rock. The brewpub or the hill, doesn't matter. The brewpub because that's where I met The Husband (and the beer is good, even if I'm no longer fond of their menu) and the hill because it's a great hike. One I obviously need to make more often, looking at myself in the mirror.

7) The MK Nature Center. Because you can see fish THIS BIG that you can't catch and they are laughing at you because of it. However, sometimes you get to see a mink catch one there and that is extremely satisfying for both mink and human. Sometimes you even see some of these guys.






8) The Crack. Get your minds out of the gutter. I'm referring to a piece of "art" that resides at the Grove Hotel. It's been the butt of jokes ever since it's unveiling, but we're all secretly fond of it. Here's how Boise Weekly describes it (much differently than Tom & Joe do, let me tell you):

BEST PUBLIC ART THAT GLOWS IN THE DARK Grove Street Illuminated & Boise Canal by Amy Westover-This is one of the better pieces of public art gracing our fair city. Created by one of Boise's own, it's just as intriguing during the day as it is at night. Westover masterfully combined style and substance to create an artwork that is aesthetically pleasing as well as historically illuminating. 9th and Front

9) The Museums (Art and Historical). They're right next to each other, (right by Table Rock brewpub, strangely enough) and I'm always happy to go see the two-headed calf, who's been there ever since I was a tot if not before and the art museum is fun - because believe it or not, we actually have art out here in the sticks!

10) Curtis Stigers. Well, you can't just go "see" Curtis. But he lives here. And I've seen him sing jazz and I've seen him eat croquetas at Bar Gernika. He's pretty cute eating croquetas. He's pretty cute any time, actually. My sons were appalled at my slack jawed gazing while sitting next to him. He was kind and ignored me. In addition to jazz, he also wrote the title song for the "Sons of Anarchy" series and had a huge pop hit back in the day. When he had long hair.

11) All things Basque. This would include Bar Gernika as referenced above (really a small restaurant, but there's definitely a bar there), Epi's Basque Restaurant (technically in Meridian, but that's worth a 15 minute drive, trust me, food is awesome and Chris, the owner, is the sweetest thing ever), the Basque Market and the Basque Museum.

Oops, that's 11 things. It's actually more like 20, since I kept throwing stuff in. Sorry, Kris, I've probably overwhelmed you. But I hope you get to come here and I hope you like it.

Epic Fail, and other updates

I have been a total sloth in my posting. I haven't "Talk Thursday"d, I haven't randomly rambled, I haven't done anything.

But, I have news to report. Today, my firstborn got an acceptance letter from the College of Idaho, the fine establishment I attended for only a semester, then was stupid enough to leave. And a scholarship. A good one. Not a great one, but one that levels the playing field with his other two options. Which means he really has OPTIONS. (Oh, and a much better one than I got when I went there.) Yeah!

And, I must admit, listening to him talk, I was suddenly sixteen again, looking at a letter and reading the words "The College of Idaho is pleased to inform you you've been accepted for admission as a freshment for the fall of 1983 semester". Or something along those lines. And knowing, suddenly, that you have a future. And options.

Folks, it's a great feeling. For both of us.

Now to see what he ends up getting from everyone. I may end up disappointed from my own selfish perspective. But I think he got some idea of what you can accomplish in life if you take college seriously. More seriously than I did, for sure.

Isn't it great, parents, when you get that just blissfully happy feeling for your children?

Just a Thought

I had a post about forgiveness and how I would be working on that. I am not posting this update to mention He Who Must Not Be Named, but rather to note the following: I can't believe a parent would be so short-sighted, stupid and uncaring of said child so as to refuse to fill out the FAFSA.

Rather than do my usual mother-bear imitation and engage in a fight with said HWMNBN, thinking that somehow I could change behaviors and "win", thus perpetuating the whole hatred thing mentioned before, I realized this was the desired reaction, didn't engage, called various schools and found out that I could indeed complete it, so I did that...problem solved, I hope.

And instead of anger, I felt pity that someone could be that selfish and short-sighted. That's progress.

Hopefully that's the last of those little encounters.

The Out of Towners

We haven't really been out of town for a while, for more than a day trip anyway. Gosh, I think the last time we really went anywhere is when we were in Oregon last summer!

Well, much as I love Idaho, and as contented as I was to be homebound for quite a while, once I settle in, I have to escape the environs, if you will, and go somewhere quite different.

Thankfully before I did our taxes I planned a trip. (Mr. President, I do support you, but do you have to pay for the stimulus on my back alone, I ask you? J/K but it feels that way this year.)

For years, TH and I have talked about going to a NASCAR race. For years, we have not done so. Then, while in Reno last May, some friends who go every year mentioned that they had slashed ticket prices due to the economy.

Ah, NASCAR. I get weird looks for liking it - my boss said somewhat timidly this morning, "Oh, is that a sport?" Here's the thing, kids. It's damn hard to drive a car on a banked track at 150 plus miles per hour. I have been 125 on a straightaway in my Camaro (Mom, please ignore most of this paragraph) and that is much, much different, but it gives you a slight idea of how fast things could go wrong. And yes, you can like NASCAR and be college educated, somewhat liberal in your politics, have Jane Austen as one of your favorite authors and know who Yo-Yo Ma is. So there.

So, we started nosing around. Packages are way expensive, but I'm a do-it-yourself kind of gal and found that with one plane ticket for free, booking a hotel room through Hotwire (and, we ended up at the Stratosphere, which really isn't bad) and finding a company that didn't ask for your right kidney to shuttle you to the racetrack and back we could do it fairly inexpensively.

We're flying down Saturday, back Monday night. Our only splurge on the trip (since the rest of it is now paid for) is dinner at this place on Saturday. I was thinking of a show, but then my new Packer blog buddy Jersey Al told me how much it was (I was close, but not enough) and I went "never mind"! It will be fun though. We really didn't go anywhere for our wedding anniversary in December so this is in place of a big dinner then.

Then Sunday - the race! While our friends from Reno are unfortunately not going this year, my friend Renee (the Mom of our longtime babysitter now bride S), her husband, and a bunch of their friends, some of whom we know and love are going. They park their RVs there - in fact, I'd like to bet they are already ensconced at the track since time trials have started. We'll hook up with them Sunday and if our seats totally suck and it's cold/rainy (yes, it's supposed to rain Saturday at least in Vegas), I'm hanging out with Renee in the RV and having a beer.

My hope, of course, is that I will see this handsome pair in the winner's circle at the end:

Ella's a little bigger now, but her daddy's just as handsome. Go Jeff Gordon!

A Wonderful Life

I know I've not been a fountain of optimism on this blog lately. Well, you're going to have to put up with one more dose of negativity, and Lord knows I hope it's the last for a while.

TH got up this morning to make lattes, as he always does, and much to our dismay found our beloved dog, Margarita, had died during the night. She was 11, would have been 12 in April, and yes, for a Labrador, that's on the upper end of the scale. She had arthritis in her hips pretty badly, but other than that and a general slowing of her activity level, she was in fairly good health. She'd just come through her last checkup in January with good results beyond her known mostly old-age related issues.

She was the biggest pain in the ass as a puppy you could think of. The first thing she did when my Mom brought her in our house at 2 months was poop and pee on the kitchen floor. I was about 3-4 months pregnant. You can imagine my joy in having to take care of a puppy when I was exhausted. But of course she was so stinking cute and we grew to love her in spite of (sometimes because of) her sometimes Marley-esque activities.

As she matured, she became a sweet and lovely dog. She loved people, her family, especially her boys (Big Bit in particular), she listened, she didn't dig or chew and she was very intelligent. Last summer she actually caught a squirrel (quite by accident I think) and you would have thought she was a pup again, she was so proud of herself. She was loyal, bossy (she would snatch her sister's stuffed animals when she walked in the door).

Her mother, who some friends owned, died at the same age she was now, I think, and had far more health problems for far longer than our pooch. She didn't have a prolonged illness and I hope didn't suffer at all, or if so only very briefly. So I know she was lucky in that respect. But, damn it, we're going to miss her.

And yesterday was National Margarita Day. I kid you not.

Love you, Pookums.

Talk Thursday - Spin

I haven't blogged much lately - I would say I don't know why, but I do know. For years I've been preaching to myself "simplify" because my world seems to be in a perpetual spin. There is something of an ebb and flow to this, but for the most part, I feel like I'm on a merry-go-round and can't get off.



First of all, of course, there's work. The job's not terribly difficult, most days, and I've made some emotional adjustments so I can handle it better, but I struggle between thinking I should work a regular 8-5 schedule (for the most part) and the flexible schedule I'm currently on. It sounds great - every other Monday off - but the extra time I'm at work in the other days seems to throw me off. If I could just get up in the morning, I could get to work earlier and I'm sure the days wouldn't seem so long.

Then, there's life! TH is in Portland this week for work - may I mention how much better things worked for me when I was the one that traveled for work? Little Bit has been pretty good, but he likes to trot out his rebelliousness at the moment it's least needed - when getting ready for school, church, etc.

I've taken up piano since Christmas - TH gave me a lovely keyboard. I've always wanted to play, and enjoying lessons with friend Allen, but it's another thing I have to do everyday.

I've also been doing the Wii Fit the last few weeks - at least 30 minutes 5 times a week. Yet again, another thing I have to do.

That doesn't include laundry, shopping and all that stuff that just has to be done.

I haven't blogged, haven't really read blogs, haven't e-mailed Psam back and she probably thinks she pissed me off (she didn't, she has really good insight like her Mom), I have just run on the treadmill.

For Lent, you have to give something up (well, you don't in my church, but being more thoughtful about your life and relationship to God is strongly encouraged). I'm giving up The Spin. What does that mean exactly? I have 40 days to figure it out. I'll keep you posted.