Post Christmas

Christmas Eve at work... dressed as elves and throwin' down with some X-mas cacao for the people.

Howdy Y'all! Hope everyone had a great holiday. Ours was pretty low key. We stayed home, opened presents, made lasagna, ate cookies, nursed our colds (yup, we both got sick right in Christmas) and spent the better part of the day on the phone with family. The rest of the weekend is not worth talkin' about unless you are interested in stories of coughing til you nearly puke in the night or what sort of cough drop is most effective when invisible needles are stabbing the most tender part of the back of your throat.

On Christmas Eve we did make a very cold run up and down Canyon Rd to see the farolito lights. It was super pretty.... but Lordie was it coooold. I snapped a few pics and then we hoofed it right back home.










We are still snowy and cold here. Rudy hates it. I hate it. But we get by....

Snow dog!

Doing my best scary Hillbilly face(s)....

Rudy practicing his Wolf Man look for the Blue Moon on New Years Eve...

Happy New Years Peeps!

Buried Alive

I'm not sure how to start this post.... "I'm sorry" seems appropriate as does "Time flies when your ass is stuck working too many hours to the point of exhaustion." I guess a combo will do... I'm sorry for disappearing for a few weeks from writing while I got my ass carved like a turkey at work. Yeah! That about sums it up. I wish I had more eloquent ways of saying it but reality dictates that I just lay it out there clean and simple. So the holiday season for a chocolatier turns out to be not so much fun! The people of the world need sea salt caramels and toffee almond bark. They demand it.

Not much has been going on around here for the past few weeks worth reporting on... it's been cold outside, snowy. We are just kinda plodding along waiting for the quiet season to descend upon us to allow for more fun and photo taking like back in the day. "Back in the day" referring to the time before I started workin' for the man. That's right Jeff Keenan I am talkin' about you.

We are staying put in Santa Fe for Christmas. I am actually pretty excited to finally be here for the big Canyon Rd Christmas Eve celebration. We have never spent Christmas here and it is a really gorgeous place to be for the holidays. I will be sure to take and post loads of photos from the Canyon Rd walk (supposedly thousands of people show up for it to go caroling, drink hot cider and dip in and out of the galleries for goodies and cheer.... and all this will be going on two blocks down the road from our apartment.) The whole road is already lit up with ga-zillions of lights. My favorite display is this one.... Hooray for these people. They are doin' it right!





That is all in one yard. Hot tamale! I love it. I get so excited when I drive by that house at night that I usually end up punching my window. That may make no sense to you at all.... but just know it is a good thing... coming out of a place of pure happiness. It's the purest window punching happiness there is. Also know that I basically stole like a thieve in the night through the gate of this place to creep around the yard to take these pictures. I'm cool like that.

Last night was our holiday party for The Chocolatesmith. I can tell you that I have felt mildly nauseous all day because of it. Why? Two glasses of wine and three of champagne that's why. It's the most alcohol I have consumed in years. We hooked up at The Rio Chama Steakhouse downtown and ate til we were stuffed and then crashed the party of our work neighbors (The Axis Salon) who happened to be having their own soiree in the wine cellar of the restaurant. This was where things got a little rough around the edges (but in a fun way.)

Here I am drunk as a skunk and loving up on Victor who does hair at the salon and is a gem of a fun person. Please note the aura of cruise ship romance in this photo. Funny no?




Here's the boss lady and I laughing ourselves sick over back waxing stories and Victor's wacky dance moves.



And the whole group... making asses of ourselves after dinner. It was of course my big idea to make everybody do the hands face. What do you call that hands face thing? Does it have a name?



Four more days of crazy at work and then we get a little respite until Valentines Day rolls in like a Mac Truck full of ass whippin'. How many times have I referred to asses being kicked, whipped or carved up in this post? So telling.

I have been baking cookies all day today.... I took a break to sit down and bust out this post. Our tiny kitchen is overflowing with baked goods and I still have about 4 more things I want to make. I am baking with fresh local eggs I bought from the farmer's market on Saturday.... and oodles of supplies came in a huge box from my Mom. She sent me just about everything you need to bake yourself in to a coma. The first cookies in and out of the oven were molasses crinkles.





Billy and Rudy are doin' just fine for those of you who keep tabs. Especially now that the house is full of cookies. Word.

Have a great holiday week peeps! Cheers!

Holiday Lights in Santa Fe

Just a quick photo post. I am crazy at work this week and I am feeling like dookie. Not a great combo... Anyway, on to the farolito lights! And a few other random shots....









I guess this last one threw you for a loop eh? Rudy and his creepy rhino friend. This is one of the many fringe benefits of living on Canyon Rd. You share your space with some seriously odd stuff.

I will try to post again on Thursday. Hope everyone is ready for the holiday rush... it is here!

Technical Difficulty

Where to begin? Our internet service has been working like a hot pig on a Sunday afternoon after eating two tons of slop. In other words.... it has not been working at all. Due to this situation I have ground my teeth down to itty bitty nubs and am on a soft food diet. Since the sow seems to be feeling perky tonight I decided to try to whip off a post with some much over due photos. As I said oh like a week or so ago Billy's Mom came to see us with her best friend Linda in tow. They stayed for almost a week and we saw the sights and bought approximately 400 pounds of turquoise jewelry. It was good times!

One of the first stops we made was at Tent Rock south of Santa Fe. It is a really rewarding short hike to the top of a mesa with a fabulous view. One of the coolest aspects of the place is that you get to hike through a slot canyon. Last time I checked they don't have any slot canyons in New England where the girls are from so we thought it would be a fun choice....

Gail... always one for high adventure, insisted on showing off her rock climbing skills....

This is Linda up top on the mesa.... all smiles for having made it up for the beautiful view under that gorgeous blue sky.

A bunch of dorks on our lunch break. Blow it up for the full effect. Everybody looks like a dope.

Gail and I waving triumphantly from the top.... Yo!

We also made a trip up to Taos to see the Rio Grande Gorge bridge and shop for jewelry at the Taos Pueblo. It was another seriously gorgeous day. We lucked out big time with the weather. It was near 70 every day.... and now a week later we have snow. I am so glad they came when they did!









The pueblo is one of my favorite places to visit in Northern NM and hopefully you can see why from looking at these few photos here. It is in such a serene beautiful setting... Taos really is magical.

And just to sort of sum up the general mood and attitude of our outings...




Yeah Gail.... I know. You want to kill me for posting that photo. But guess what. You can't. And besides.... I look just as much an idiot as you do. And I put my photo first so suck it up mamma!

We are so glad we got to take the week to hang out and show you guys around Santa Fe. It was a blast. Thanks for coming all the way out here to see us!



Hmmm what else? It's snowing. Did I mention it snowed? It's cold. It snowed. So anyway. We are gearing up for the big holiday season at The Chocolatesmith and planning our Thanksgiving dinner with friends Chris and Jana (and Chico and Mugsy.) The month of November is leaving burn out marks on my face it is going by so fast.

Hope you all are ready for the coming season of craziness.... I will try to get back to normal posting instead of being the lame ass I have been of late. Ciao!

Time Flies!

Hey! Sorry I have once again pulled a solid disappearing act here. The past week or two has been crazy busy. Billy's Mom made a very exciting and unexpected guest appearance here in New Mexico! She and her friend Linda came out for a week and we had a blast. It was Gail's first time in Santa Fe and I think it's safe to say she had a really good time. I took lots of photos (of course) and I will try to get a story or two plus pics up in the next day or so.

For now I will leave ya with this... a shot of us on top of the mesa at Tent Rock. Check out the color of that New Mexican sky!

A Very Cold Camping Weekend

We took a few days to drag the Airstream out of it's lonely existence at the storage facility and tow it up to Taos. I feel like our lives are becoming pretty banal these past few months in the apartment. I get up, go to work, come home, eat dinner, watch a movie and go to bed. Billy paints and paints and paints... which is great but he is kinda trapped under a two ton paint brush of commitment. Blah. Unacceptable! But unfortunately necessary until we recover more fully from the economic meltdown of the past year and a half. We are at an equivalent moment to the part in the story in Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea when he has not caught a fish in 84 days. We are now just waiting for our big fish to arrive. Any time now fishy.... annnnny time.

Back to the current cold camping conditions. Taos! Beautiful! I freaking LOVE Taos. We came up on Saturday and set up in a campground just south of town. We came ready to watch the local hot air balloon festival, go hiking and explore a few new areas we have not been to previously. We ended up doing a load of standing around in the cold predawn air waiting for balloons to take off that never did (poor conditions), driving through a foggy sleet storm and getting whapped in the face by winter at every turn. Not. Ready. For. That. I mean... don't get me wrong, we still had a great weekend it was just not quite as we pictured heading into it. We woke up this morning to a light dusting of snow on everything outside. EEK!

The one thing I can solidly report is that I miss living in the Airstream. If we could hitch up and peel outta here for a good three or four months of travelin' I would go in a split second. I don't even care where. Well, I guess I DO care where.... anywhere as long as it stays above 45 degrees and cold places are DENIED! Death Valley? Sure. Let's go.

On to the parade of photos. I have lots. We did get to see 4 or 5 balloons take off Sunday morning. They did not go far, maybe a mile or so away from the field they started out of. I think there were a few pilots who just wanted to please the crowd and so they did a gratuitous flight for Ooooooing and Ahhhhhing's sake. Here are my best shots from the morning...








That was the first balloon of the morning and here are a few others that I was able to get pretty shots of....

This next shot is the inside top of the balloon shot from the basket looking up while it's being inflated.

Those dark gray clouds are exactly the reason why we did not get to see a full on mass ascension. It started to rain soon after. It was still a cool thing to see up close. And the crowd was perfectly crazy New Mexican.....

Balloon McGyver.... rigging stuff up while wearing 80's tribal themed bandannas.

And my favorite fashion statement of the day.... the Eagle Versus Cobra hoodie guy. I die a little bit every time I revisit this photo. I want that hoodie. In electric blue.

Here he is again. Patiently waiting for the action to unfold... when all the while he was probably the most exciting thing flyin' that morning...




We are packing up to head back to Santa Fe so I will post the rest of the photos when I get back. We grabbed some amazing shots at dusk last night so be sure to check back!