Blues & brews with good times

Its one of our favourite festivals this weekend and we get to spend it with our telluride folks and Gary. Gary flew out from mass to hang out and enjoy the festival with us. We are looking forward to a weekend with good beers, good times and good people. Happy Friday! Telluride has perfect weather sunny with a cool wind a d snow capped peaks around us.
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rainy camping and film festival

the labor day weekend has been home to the telluride film festival for the last 35 years. we hit one of the films at the festival and also camped out with a group of friends. Chaos even got to bring his friend Budo along for the fun. The afternoon sky was hard to read and we all decided to go despite the dark clouds above. We made our way to the same spot as the week before but with a bigger crowed.

This weekend we had 8 people and 2 monsters for a night in the woods. We had a great night and the rain held off until 2am at which point we (mostly) agreed that it was time for bed. Chaos was still ready for more action. He loves being around people and Alissa was on tail patrol to ensure chaos kept his long fur out of the fire and we were all on guard to ensure Chaos and Budo stayed away from our marshmallows. We did let them lick the plates to help keep scents down for the active bear population. Although I am sure chaos would warn us before a bear swiped through our tent wall to get to us and our smells of squeeze cheese, potatoes, hot dogs, chocolate and graham crackers.

Scott and Alissa even brought a glow in the dark frisbee for some entertainment. We found other fun too like chopping up the old downed trees for additional fuel for our campfire and making smores. The next morning I got up early and took the dogs for a walk in the rain. Chaos had slept with us and Budo had snuggled with Jared and Jess and Chaos definitely woke them when we grabbed Budo that morning! The monsters plodded along the road not noticing two elk 20 feet away from them. After the walk and some breakfast the soggy monsters help to wake up the seven other campers by pushing tents. Dave and Maggie even ended up with a small lake we dubbed "lake daggie" at one end of their tent. We all broke camp down quickly and made way to the blue jay for a warm breakfast.

Sunday we managed to get 10 of us all together for American Violet which premiered at the festival. It was stunning movie about drugs, corrupt politics and race in Texas. I wish I could tell you it will be in theaters soon but that's still unknown. The movie is based a true story and the family it was based on was in Telluride as were the director, producer and some of the actors including Will Patton who played the coach in Remember the Titans. It reminded me of that and also of a John Grisham flick with the suspense and legal drama.

Dog sitting

We are dog sitting again and chaos is loving being with his friends and has even made friends with a kitty. Obie kitty is very different from mu-nee kitty and isn't grumpy at dogs. Obie even cuddles with chaos. Budo gives my monster nighttime kisses. It is all very sweet.
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good times and campfires

Kendra came to Telluride and we hit the festival of the arts. There were some amazing artists there including Audrey Heller who did the poster for the festival. I love the perspective that she captured and the people climbing a martini class!

The Festival also included a free concert with Taj Mahal who did a lot of tunes on the soundtrack for Scrapple which is a must see for anyone who has ever considered themselves or wanted to be a ski bum or live in a ski town in the 70's.

We toured Telluride and drove up Imogene Pass which is a bit crazy and my knuckles went white more then once as I navigated up the one lane sketchy dirt road. I'm less afraid of my driving then the others that almost ran me off the road!

Kendra and I camped out near Gunnison on Monday then met up with her friend Tisha in Gunnison on Tuesday. We made smores and I made my first fire in 2 years. I'm happy to say I still have my camp chaos fire making skills!

This weekend I camped with Chaos and Team Dave for a fun night out in the woods. More Smore's and a late night game of glow in the dark Frisbee... which the camera captured pretty well. The trip was in honor of Dave's 30th birthday which hits tomorrow. He proved that despite being old he can still hang out by a campfire until 4am!

Chaos's swim in Trout Lake

As you know chaos loves to swim and I captured these shots last weekend as the monster swam his heart out for his tennis ball. He'll swim until he's freezing and won't stop until I drag him away from the lake!

Skiing August 3rd Telluride, Co

chaos fresh from the mountain lake

A cold Blue lake and a warm fridge

Today we had free from obligation until the evening and took a hike with big Dave and budo to blue lake. It was about 6 miles round trip and the trail was a few steps above bear creek but not too difficult. We drove the tacoma to the top of bridal veil falls and started the hike from there. Despite our late start and tellurides tendency to have afternoon thunder storms we only encountered some light sprinkles. The trail is an old road that miners used to use and was uneven with lots of rocks. The lake was at over. 1200 feet in elevation and was freezing- but of course this did not deter chaos and budo from swimming and fetching tennis balls. Tennis ball karma was on our side today and we managed to not loose any of them- two weeks ago we lost all three in under an hour.
We could use some good karma as our refrigerator has been having issues. Its a 2005 and is stainless steel but for a while was posting temps from 50 to 90 degrees- not so good if you like cold juice and solid butter! This is why renting rocks- we don't have to pay to fix it! A small dose of security in an unsettled world. Dave figured out this weekend that it was not the electronics but that the little switch wasn't making the connection and did not know when to have the fan blow cold air in. A small bit of duct tape fixed the issue and our fridge is now 36 degrees. The warm fridge retarded the use of the new kitchen aid mixer and the pursuit of anadama bread- a favourite from our sugarloaf days and the best sandwiches ever.
Photographs to be posted soon of this and of recent events including Daves August ski expedition, the new kitchen aid mixer and enough chaos shots to keep you all up to date on everyones favourite golden boy!
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