Weekly Email

Hi Mom,

The week started out great with a quick trip to Vail and spending time with the Steve Sherard family (and friends - the Klemps). We drove up Sunday afternoon and checked into the Westin in Avon (9 miles from Vail). It was beautiful. We used points from our time share so it didn't cost anything. Then we drove over and met Steve at the Mariott in Vail. The girls played in the pool for a while and we hung out in the hotel bar. Then we headed out to dinner to Mezzaluna. (there is a sister restaraunt in Aspen that Lance Armstrong frequents). That should tell you something about the price point :-) Everything in Vail is a little pricey. We headed back to our hotel right after dinner (8pm) and the girls were in the pool again. Monday morning we checked out and had breakfast at Denny's - the best service and best value of the trip! Then headed over to the Lionshead parking garage and got a front row spot. It was an easy walk down to the ticket window ($97 lift tickets for adults and $61 for a child) and the Eagle Bahn gondola. The mountain is huge - 5,000 acres - with only 2 skiers per acre. It was a really special treat to ski Vail and spend time with Steve on his birthday weekend. We skied 'til the last run of the day and then headed home immediately afterward just after 4pm. It was a pretty crazy drive home - stop-n-go traffic the whole way. It took about 3hrs compared to the normal 2hrs.

I missed out on BSF on Monday night. Theresa had girls night out on Tuesday. Chloe went to youth group on Wednesday. Megan has Beauty and the Beast musical practice everyday after school. And Thursday night we were home. Normal routine. At least it was a short week with the MLK holiday on Monday.

Friday we dropped Chloe off at 5pm for the Winter Retreat. They are headed up to the mountains. It's in Fraser I think. Or maybe Frisco? I should know where I've shipped my daughter off to shouldn't I? She gets back today around 3pm.

Then Theresa, Megan and I went to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner and the Boulder High vs. Fairview basketball game. We met the Leitz's there. It was at the Coors event center on the CU campus. Big venue for the cross-town rivalry. Fairview was heavily favored but Boulder game them a run for their money - losing in the end 46-43. Great game though and a lot of fun.

Yesterday - the girls had a soap making adventure with Jack and Desra McDonald (making soap from scratch). They were gone from about 10-1pm. And then Megan went immediately to Clara's for a play date afterward. She came home about 5. I went for a run (w/o my running partner - dot's strict diet and 2wks of bed-rest plods on). I spent most of the rest of the day going through bills, cleaning up receipts, filing, getting ready for 2009 taxes, finished up my BSF and watched an Everest episode on the Discovery Channel.

We had Tacos for dinner and watched the new "FAME" movie last night.

And that's about it for the week. Church today. Maybe a Costco errand. Pick Chloe up. And get ready for the work and school week ahead - to do it all over again.

I did get my results back from my 3D heart scan. My score was "0" - no plaque buildup at all. The lowest possible score - "a greater than 95% chance for absence of coronary artery disease". I was pleasantly surprised and relieved. I haven't had a chance to review the results with my doctor yet to see what he has to say about it. I did call the teldrug pharmacy and put a hold on the newest cholesterol prescription (Zetia 10mg). With a focus on my diet, clean bill of health from the 3D heart scan - I'm going to ask the Dr. if we can stop all the statin meds for now. The Zetia was going to cost $300 for a 90 supply. The simvastatin 40mg is only about $40 for a 90 supply. Aside from the cost - who knows what the long term effects of those drugs really are. I know they attack the liver functions so I have to regularly get blood work done to keep monitoring that. I've also read some on the web that statins are actually linked to cancer as well (google must be the dr's worst nightmare). So - I'd really like to get off the stuff.

That's all folks (Steve loves these long emails :-) ).

luv u,

Jeff