A New Gadget and Boulder, Colorado USA

Here is my latest gadget. I went to Boulder yesterday and had lunch with a friend. Afterwards, we went to Into the Wind, a store that has lots of kites and windsocks, but so many other interesting and fun items, like this great phone that you plug into your cell phone. How weird is this? It works very well and is obviously a sort of gag item, but I'm enjoying it. It will be interesting to see the looks I get when I'm driving down the road talking on my cell "phone"..... (Don't worry, I use an earphone with my cell phone in the car - I won't use this phone.)

Today, there are workmen in the house. The flooring in 3 rooms is being replaced and a new window put into one wall of the garage. I'm sort of used to this by now because since April of this year we have had the following things done to our house.

H New roof (flat roof, $$$$$)

H Asphalt on long, hilly driveway and parking pad

H Air conditioning installed in bedroom wall

H Wood flooring installed in bedroom

H 3 decks demolished completely, re-built and replaced with composite decking plus wiring for lighting and outlets

H Pergola built on largest deck

H Garage walls & ceiling insulated, sheet rocked and painted

H Miscellaneous other repair items too numerous to mention

But, we are winding down on the remodeling/repairs and only have a few more things to get done before it will be finished for now. Down the road, I need a completely new kitchen and flooring in the kitchen/dining room areas, but that's part of another budget in the next couple of years. Our house was built in the early 1970's and hasn't had any updating since that time. It was overdue.

On to more interesting topics.

In Boulder, Judy, a friend and I ate lunch at the Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse. It is quite fantastic inside, a real work of art. The website tells about how the decor was assembled. We sat by a big raised pond with fish in it. I had a Mediterranean Salad and Judy had the Grilled Salmon Salad, both very good. Our only complaints might be that it was not very cool in the restaurant, although it was certainly not excessively uncomfortable and our iced tea had practically no ice in it. But, we requested some more and it was graciously provided.

Boulder is a very interesting town. Merle and I have always enjoyed staying there upon occasion, eating there and shopping there at many of the unusual stores. Boulder is a sort of rich old hippie town meaning that a lot of "used to be hippies" started businesses and ended up populating Boulder. According to Wikipedia, Boulder median family income is $70,257 which is $20,000 higher than the U.S. average. Housing is expensive with the median single family home in the 2nd quarter of 2006 selling for $548,000. All of this money and all of the expensive homes that need to be furnished mean that Boulder has shops that cater to those folks. One of our favorite stores is the Peppercorn - check it out.

It also has a large university, Colorado University. Over the past few years, CU has been the focus of some controversy. It's has been labeled a "party school", the football coach quit amid a tawdry sex scandal involving recruiting and Ward Churchill, a defrocked professor of dubious Indian ancestry, has gained national and worldwide notoriety for comments he made during a speech about 9/11 that many people found to be offensive. Plus, the university president resigned - all within the last 5 years.

Here are some other places we like in Boulder, although they are just a handful of the many cool places to visit:

Chautauqua Auditorium for small concerts and shows.

The Boulder Cafe on Pearl & 12th on the Pearl Street Mall (shown to the right, no website but good food)

Rocky Mounts for bicycle racks.
Red Lion Inn for early bird specials.

Twenty Ninth Street - a great new retail district
Chautauqua Park for hiking trails

Hotel Boulerado for a special evening and overnight.
Design Within Reach - a misnomer, as most of us cannot afford anything in there. We did buy the light shade shown to the right, though. I wish IKEA would open a store in Boulder or somewhere around here. That would be wonderful!

Think I'll go see how things are progressing here at the old homestead. See ya' later. Here's a parting gift.