Let's start with today and work backwards:

It is bright and early on Sunday morning.  I am sitting on the couch with a cup of earl grey tea in a sea foam green cup and we finally have our own internet connection.  It is quiet, except for the air conditioner. Josh is still asleep.  This is kind of our habit now:  I get up early and sit quietly doing this or that, but always with a warm something to drink.  He sleeps in and when he finally starts drifting between asleep and awake, he'll realize I'm not there and come searching.  These are good mornings.

Yesterday I realized the job I thought I was almost certainly getting isn't happening.  I suppose in the long run this is best.  I'll just have to keep looking.  While the money would have been wonderful, Josh is actually relieved I didn't get it.  I applied to be a car sales(wo)man at the Mazda dealership a few blocks down the road.  In all reality, I'd be pretty good at it.  In all actuality, it would eat away at my soul until there wasn't one left.  I was kind of looking forward to having such a surreal experience.  Cars aren't exactly the most interesting thing to me, but I figured that working around them would give me a new knowledge and therefore appreciation for them.

At this point I'm not totally concerned with what kind of job I get, I just need an income.  And something to do so that it doesn't feel like vacation all the time because feeling like you're on vacation owing to the fact that you're jobless is a little troubling.  Like a dream where you know you're dreaming.  It's a bit eerie yet wonderful and off and you know it.

So Thursday we climbed a mountain!  We conquered the West!  We rose to the top of Horsetooth!  Horsetooth is the rock at the top of one of these lower mountains that when viewed from afar looks like the teeth of a horse.  Very aptly named.  Mind you, we are at an elevation of 14 feet shy of 5,000 here in Fort Collins.  The summit of Horsetooth is over 7,000 feet.  You have to drive to the park which is literally minutes away.  That elevation gain is about 500 feet.  Then you climb the remaining 1,500 feet to the top.  We did it in 2 hours which is not bad at all for for us low-elevation midwesterners!  The mean elevation of Indianapolis is about 715.  I'm definitely not as sore as I thought I'd be.  My legs hurt more when we moved out here with the UHaul and were climbing 2 flights of stairs with all our earthly belongings.
There are certain hikes called "14ers." Much like Horsetooth, they are well named.  These hikes take you to an elevation of 14,000 feet or higher.  There are 53 of them in Colorado alone.    I think we'll do some in between ones before we attempt any 14ers.

We're biking everyday, except for Friday because we climbed a mountain, stuffed ourselves with some alright pizza and napped the rest of the afternoon.  There are tons of trails and just about every road as a bike lane.  We are driving less and less, which is good because my car won't last long.  We have a group of neighbor friends and we make the pub quiz rounds every week and we even met some cool people on the way up to Horsetooth.

Josh and I have been discussing plans for a pizza place.  It might be the best way for us to leave a good mark on this world.  We have been testing and rating all the pizza places here in Fort Collins via Pizza Friday.  Two Fridays ago it was Justine's Pizza, a very solid pizza with ample toppings and a flavorful sause.  Last Friday it was Mama Roni's Pizza which was pretty nondescript.  The toppings weren't anything special nor were the defining characteristics of a pizza:  the crust and sause.  Look, you can use just about any toppings as along as they're legit fresh, but your crust and your sause set you apart from every other pizza out there.  If you haven't the sause or the crust, you haven't the pizza.  You might as well be eating a Jack's Frozen Pizza.  So once we survey the pizza market, we'll see if there's a wedge-shaped void we need to fill.