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Greetings from New Mexico....

I am back, working at the DA's office for anther week while David is at home with Riley. Ruka came with me and is thoroughly enjoying her vacation (consisting of running through the ditch a dozen times a day and rolling in manure) I think we are both looking forward to having a little break over the 4th of July loooonnnngggggg weekend in Reno.


I really just wanted to post a quick update on the RANCH HOUSE TRADITIONS website. For all of you who have visited in the past, please visit again. Mom and I have spent the last 3 days updating it with more "professional" looking photography of all the jewelry. Those of you who have not seen it should swing by and take a look too.

http://www.ranchhousetraditions.com/



Also, please keep visiting. We have about 50 more pieces of jewelry to list (it might take us a few more days) and I we will be making a BUNCH more stuff to list as well. We are going to try to get ourselves organized and attend some "western collections" type shows. We are having a blast and hope we can get the word spread about our website!



NOTE TO DAVID: I think I want to add a town for City of the Month...Los Alamos, NM. Time for you to do some research.

***


"Who's gonna turn down a Junior Mint? It's chocolate, it's peppermint -- it's delicious!"
- Kramer, in "The Junior Mints"

We have a new fence!

Thanks for the City of the Month suggestions so far. Keep them coming!
I would just like to note that Reno is always on the list of places might might go back to, it just doesn't make it onto David's "research" list since we have lived there before, we are somewhat familiar with it.

Anyway, I cannot believe that I forgot to add in my last post that we have finally finished rebuilding our fence. As I said before, this was, by far, my least favorite house project. However...we are now done (well, David is still working on spraying it with linseed oil) and the doggies are SO happy to have their yard back and not have to stay in the house all day and be tied up while outside. I think over the 3 weekends we were working on the fence, either David or I had to run through the neighborhood looking for our dogs about 20 times (at least). This was due to David's unwaivering "trust" in our dogs not to run away, and therefore thinking it was unnecessary to tie them up while we were working. Let me tell ya, it doesn't take long to get so ingrossed in what you are doing, that you quit paying attention to the little snots. They know exactly when this moment is, and off they go.

On a positive note, I now know that they generally run off to one of two places (nearby parks with ponds) so they are a little easier to find than they used to be.

Anyway, now everytime the wind blows here in Lubbock, I take a sign of relief knowing that our fence is no longer in danger of blowing down and my dogs will not escape while we are gone and get themselves into all kinds of trouble.

"After he heckled Toby, she got so upset she ran out of the building and a street sweeper ran over her foot and severed her pinky-toe."
"That's unbelievable!"
"Yeah, then after the ambulance left, I found the toe. So, I put it in a Cracker Jack box, filled it with ice and took off for the hospital."
"You ran?"
"No, I jumped on the bus. I told the driver, 'I got a toe here buddy. Step on it!'"
"Holy cow!"
"Yeah yeah, then all of a sudden this guy pulls out a gun. Well, I knew any delay's gonna cost her her pinky-toe, so I got out of the seat and I started walking towards him. He says, 'Where do you think you're going, Cracker Jack?' I says, 'Well, I got a little prize for you, buddy.' Pwaa! Pwaa! Keeyah! Knocked him out cold!"
"How could you do that?"
"Yeah, then everybody is screaming because the driver, he's passed out because of all the commotion. The bus is out of control! So I grab him by the collar, I take him out of the seat, I get behind the wheel... Now I'm driving the bus!"
"You're Batman."
"Yeah, I am Batman. Then the mugger, he comes to and he starts choking me. So, I'm fighting him off with one hand and I kept driving the bus with the other. Then I managed to open up the door and I kicked him out the door with my foot at the next stop."
"You kept making all the stops?"
"Well, people kept ringing the bell!"
"What about the toe? What happened to the toe?"
"Well, I am happy to say that the little guy is back in place at the end of the line."
"You did all this for a pinky-toe?"
"Well, it's a valuable appendage."
- Kramer, George and Jerry, in "The Fire"

City of the Month Club, anyone?

Just thought I would share a little on-going joke that David and I have (or actually, it's more like me making fun of David...sorry Bud). Since we have been in Lubbock, David is always considering where ELSE he would like to live once we get done in Lubbock (who knows when that will be). I started to make fun of him becuase for a while, he would find the "perfect" city or town to live in, do a bunch a research about the town, and send me links to real estate. However, in about a month, he would move on to the next city. So far, the City of the Month Candidates have been:

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Evanston, Wyoming

Canyon, Colorado

Colorago Springs, Colorado

Park City, Utah

Denver area

And some others that I can't remember...

This week he mentioned Oregon, so I am anxiously waiting for which city he will land on. Who knows, we might just end up staying in Lubbock. However, if anyone has a suggestion for the next installment of City of the Month, let us know, David will conduct research, probably discover all of it's best features, send me links to real estate for sale, specifically horse property, and we will add it to the list.

P.S. for any of you who are interested in finding your perfect city, check out this website:

http://www.findyourspot.com/

"So where's my sneakers?"
"That's what I want to know."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, I saw mom and pop this morning, but when I went by the store on my way home the place was empty. Everything is gone. Mom and pop vanished!"
"So all my sneakers are gone?"
"I'm afraid so, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. I've been asking around. They didn't even have any kids."
"Mom and pop aren't even a mom and pop?
"It was all an act, Jerry. They conned us, and they scored big-time!"
"So, mom and pop's plan was to move into the neighborhood, establish trust - for 48 years - and then run off with Jerry's sneakers?"
"Apparently."
- Jerry, Kramer and Elaine, in "The Mom and Pop Store"

Saturday was a disappointing day. We will hope for a Triple Crown winner next year.

David and I are almost done with our fence. This might have been my least favorite house project so far...lots of work without much reward. Of course I won't be constantly worrying everytime the wind blows over 30 mph (which is about 80% of the time in Lubbock) that our fence will blow down and the dogs will get out. But I sure am tired of pouring concrete (and David is tired of mixing it). We probably should not have picked the weekend that it was 102 degrees outside to do this. Thankfully, it has cooled down a tad in the last couple of days. Maybe as soon as we get done with our fence, we can get back to bike riding in the evenings.

We did get a chance to see the new Indiana Jones movie. It wasn't fantastic, but it was entertaining and we both liked it. Some of the acting was below average, but the general style of the movie was consistent with the other Indiana Jones movies, which was nice. Overall...you can't go wrong with Indiana Jones.

"You are looking at the next director of Mets scouting. Only thing is I have to get fired from the Yankees first."
"You can do that."
"Of course, but I really want to leave my mark this time. You know, I want to walk away from the Yankees with people saying, 'Wow, now that guy got canned.'"
"So you want to go out in a final blaze of incompetence."
"Yeah, remember that summer at Dairy Queen where I cooled my feet in the soft syrup machine?"
- George and Jerry, in "The Millennium"

Second Gem of the Triple Crown

Yes, I am posting again. But Big Brown's performance today deserves a CONGRATULATIONS! His jockey almost left the jockey room before the race without his whip, and it turned out that he didn't even need it. Big Brown did it all on his own, and barely even broke a sweat. After the Kentucky Derby, Big Brown was worth about $70 million. With a $1 million purse at the Preakness, you can add a few million to the price tag on Big Brown.

Good luck in three weeks at Belmont!

4 years.....already?

Well dang it! I missed the opportunity to write a wonderful reminiscent post on our wedding anniversary. I missed it by a day (that DOES NOT mean I forgot the anniversary itself) and I don't know of any way to back-date these posts, so now there is proof that this post is a day late.

At any rate, I just wanted to mention that as of yesterday, David and I have now been married for 4 wonderful years. In that time, we have had three different residences, plus two more that were only temporary. We were homeless for a couple weeks (when we moved to Lubbock ...thank heavens for the kindness of our realtor in letting us stay in one of his houses). We have lived in two states. We have earned 2 college degrees. Somewhere along the lines, we picked up two dogs. We have held jobs with 10 different employers between the two of us (and a new one for me starting on Wednesday...yay!). I have made somewhere around 1,500 pillows. We have owned 8 different cars/trucks, a scooter, a quad and a boat (I think this one is a little ridiculous...David gets the car-buying bug way too often). And thankfully, only one trip to the emergency room.

It has been a great 4 years. I wish I was better at expressing my thanks to David for moving to Lubbock with me for school. He is the best husband in the world. Here's to the 4 years already behind us, and to the rest that lie ahead of us.

It's just kind of a bummer that we didn't not get to see each other yesterday. Out of 4 anniversaries, so far we have spent 2 of them in different states from each other. For our first anniversary, David was in Reno, and I was in Socorro for my graduation from NM Tech. But that was okay, because the next day we met up in L.A. (me with our frozen top layer of wedding cake in hand) and left on a cruise. Our second we spent in Reno...probably went out to dinner. Our third we spent in Lubbock. I remember we went out to eat, and it was the first time we had a chance to go out in a long time. We had just been spending so many hours working on our house, late into the night. And for our fourth, once again we were apart. David is in Lubbock with Ruka and Riley keeping him company, and I am in Socorro.

I guess that's the way it goes. It really doesn't matter where we are. I still think I found a keeper, and I'm glad I have David to share my life with. HAPPY 4 YEARS TO US!

"Hey Elaine, what do you say, if neither of us is married in ten years, we get hitched?"
"Make it fifty."
"We're engaged!"
- Kramer and Elaine, in "The Wife"

1 Year Down, 2 To Go...

I have been terrible about updating the blog (obviously). Not really much going on around here, oh except.......................

IT'S OVER! I made it through my first year of law school.

I seem to think it's pretty exciting. However, that does not mean I get a break. This is going to be a marathon summer. Where David thought he was going to slow down a little at work due to the fact that it's summer (and schools don't need food over the summer), he has a huge new account that will be keeping him pretty busy. I, on the other hand, decided to take summer school. In between summer school sessions, I will be working with the DA back in Socorro (that's where I am now -- I had quite an interesting day in court yesterday, and set for another one today). Anyway, while I am in Lubbock, I will have school, and maybe a couple of other opportunities as well (yes, I know this is cryptic, but I will update if anything works out). Plus, there are many things on the list to get done this summer like finish painting the kitchen cabinets and rebuilding our dilapidated fence before the Lubbock winds blow it down and our dogs run away.

By the way, we had a fabulous end-of-the-year social for the J. Reuben Clark Law Society. Everything went well (I think it did anyway). We kicked it off with the running of the Derby on the big screen (Congratulations Big Brown!), had a bunch of wonderful side dishes brought by our guests, and David slaved over the grill making about 50 hamburgers. We have never entertained for that many people at once, so we had a lot of fun.

And thanks to my parents for coming all the way to Lubbock to help by making dutch oven peach cobbler and apple cobbler, (Mom had FOUR ovens going at once) and doing all the dishes! As soon as I track down some pictures, I will post them.

That's about all for the Torres household for now.

"So Puddy, this is a pretty good move for you, huh? No more 'grease monkey.'"
"I don't care for that term."
"Oh sorry, I didn't know."
"I don't know too many monkeys that can take apart a fuel injector."
- Jerry and Puddy, in "The Dealership"

Later in the same episode...

"Hey Elaine, have you noticed your boyfriend has developed an annoying little habit?"
"The squinting?"
"No."
"The staring?"
"No. He keeps asking me to give him a high-five."
"I thought all guys do that."
"Slapping hands is the lowest form of primate ritual."
- Jerry and Elaine, in "The Dealership"