My [Not So] Funny Valentine

It’s an oldie but a goody. Today at MileHighMamas.com, I’m talking about my least memorable Valentine’s Day ever.

Because sometimes cupid needs a lot of help.

Photo: Blogamole

Denver’s Best Place to Skate Outdoors This Winter

A couple of weekends ago, my family had one of our favorite winter adventures in Colorado: We skated Evergreen Lake.

Located just 20 minutes from Denver off I-70, this lake is surrounded by blue spruce, pines, evergreens and is about as close to an authentic Canadian skating experience as you can get in the Denver-area.

Side note: I was raised gliding along frozen lakes and rivers and learned very quickly that pretty much anywhere is skatable and that frozen nose hairs are a fashion statement.

A large portion of the 40-acre Evergreen Lake is Zambonied (a true Canadian verb) into a skating area with several smaller enclaves for hockey. The Evergreen Lakehouse is a stellar place to warm up to some hot chocolate or an affordable selection of food from the snack bar.

Six-year-old Haddie took skating lessons last year but it was 4-year-old Bode’s first time on skates. Several parents had constructed makeshift structures to help their beginners but I did it the old-fashioned way: I strained my back as I leaned over teaching him how to glide. And I let him fall. A lot.

By the end, he was starting to get it and I was ecstatic I am installing one of my childhood passions into my American-Canadian half-breeds.

And enjoying a dose of the best Colorado has to offer along the way.

Tip: Be sure to call Evergreen Lake’s hotline (720) 880-1391 the morning of your visit for ice conditions. If you are planning a weekend visit, the earlier you go the better. The lake gets busier as the day goes on. Plus, if it’s warm the ice will get soft and slushy.

Prices: Tot (3 years and under): free; Youth (4 – 18) : $4.75; Adult (19 – 59): $5.00. Skate rental is $6.

Eats: Run (don’t walk) to Country Road Cafe. Located in Kittredge (just 2 miles from Evergreen), this unassuming log cabin is home to the best breakfast in Colorado (and often has a long wait on the weekends to prove it). With over 100 items on their menu, you can’t go wrong with their nine different kinds of Eggs Benedict or their famous smashed mashes. My husband has never deviated from their gargantuan breakfast burrito and my kids adore the fluffy over-sized stuffed pancakes. This time, I was tempted by their daily specials: an omelet with steak, mushroom, blue cheese, truffle Hollandaise and crispy onions. But the French toast stuffed with lemon-poppy cheesecake topped with almonds was pretty tempting, too.

How Strep (and Being LOST) Helped Me Save Mankind

The end is near.

At least the light at the end of my of my strep-induced vow of silence, not the other “end” (though I felt close a few times last weekend).

I’ve had strep many times but nothing like this latest bout, which I deemed STREPZILLA. I was rendered unable to speak or eat due to the agonizing pain.

On the plus side, I dropped five pounds.

I stayed home from church on Sunday and went to the Urgent Care where they loaded me up with antibiotics and sub-par painkillers. I say sub-par because Jamie doped me up with Percocet the night prior and that was the only thing that came close to depleting the pain.

It also gave me a killer buzz that kept me up all night.

Jamie helped out a lot over the weekend but I knew he would be back to work as usual on Monday (Bode’s day off). The little dude has been a great sport coping with his deadbeat mother but I asked my friend Eva to watch him so he could have some social interaction with people who don’t use perturbing charades to communicate.

The toughest part about this latest illness has been lack of sleep. I was up most of my first night due to pain. The second night, because of the Aforementioned Buzz. By the third night, I was loopy and desperately needed to sleep. But I had a challenge even greater than pain and buzzes: phlegm.

If you’ve never had strep, there is a lot of accompanying phlegm due to the infection. This is where strep is the root of all evil: your throat is so sore you can’t swallow so I was reduced to carrying around a “spit glass” with me at all times.

It’s no wonder everyone treated me like a leper except for Fat Kitty who has an appreciation for spit and bathes himself daily in it.

To stay entertained on Sunday evening, we watched a few episodes from the first season of LOST. If you’re not familiar with the show, Flight 815 crashed on an island and the survivors have many unexplainable and mysterious encounters. In the second season one of the characters (Desmond) spends three years inside of a Hatch inputting numbers into a computer every 108 minutes to prevent the world from being destroyed.

That night as I went to bed, I was almost delirious from lack of sleep. Every time I’d start to nod off, phlegm would well up in my mouth and I needed to spit it out. In my frenzied state, my dreams transcended reality. I became Desmond but instead of inputting numbers, I had the imperative responsibility of spitting every 15 minutes or the entire earth would be subjected to a catastrophic electro-magnetic explosion.

You heard it here people: My phlegm is single-handedly responsible for saving the world.

You’re welcome.

This is not the first time I have dreamed about LOST. Check out my post last April when Hurley almost suffocated me to death.