My Sister Hailey

Didn't you know that I had a sister? Yes, her name is Hailey. She's what my mom calls a "designer dog". My dad carries pictures of her in his wallet in lieu of me or my brother. And why not -- she worships him! Not like us troublesome kids who give him a hard time for being a Republican.

Whenever I tried to take her for a walk in Greenport, she cried and cried to be taken away from her "parents". This little dog can really pull your arm off. On one walk though, I did manage to get her to go a few blocks down to the park next to the beach. There were a bunch of kids there at a day camp who hundled around to visit Hailey. Imagine seven little girls petting her belly all at once while she lies on her back in bliss. Yup, that's my sister.

Dad the Kayaker

Since biking didn't work out too well, we got back to Dad's prefered activity of kayaking. One of the best aspects of the house in Greenport is that it's just a few blocks from Pipe's Cove which has an ideal beach for putting in the kayaks and a nice bay to paddle in with views of Shelter Island.

Dad's First and Last Ride

Dad hesitantly agreed to go biking with me today on his new Schwinn. He's very busy "relaxing" out here in Greenport with gardening, cleaning, walking the dog, swimming, kayaking, etc. and has viewed the whole idea of biking as an unwanted imposition on his already full schedule. But since my mom went to the trouble of buying him a bike, he reluctantly agreed to give it a try.

We biked the half mile into town and made one stop at the grocery store to pick up Stella D'Oro cookies to bring back to my friend Jess in Colorado. Apparently, all the pedestrians and ferry traffic were t0o much for a man trying to figure out how to shift gears and remember how to break. He's vowed to stick to his other more pleasurable pastimes. So for any guests to Greenport -- there's a new bicycle for you to use!

The Other Hamptons

In case you thought The Hamptons was the only chic summer locale in New York, think again. Greenport, on the North Fork of Long Island is giving The Hamptons a run for their money, and for less of our money! Yes, an affordable summer vacation on Long Island. Ok, for me it's practically free since my parents have a new summer home here. It may not have the waves of the ocean, but it has all the seaside charm.

My good friend since high school Michelle visited us here this weekend. We had a wonderful time shopping, sunning, and swimming. She's a real pro at navigating pool floatation devices. I think she might be awarded certification soon.

I've Landed!

On July 9, I start my new job as a Product Trainer at DoubleClick in Thornton, CO. YIPPEEE!!!

"With over 1500 clients, DoubleClick is the preferred partner of leading companies worldwide for a full range of digital advertising solutions." When I was working at AOL a few years back, DoubleClick was one of our greatest competitors, now AOL is one of their clients. So I'll be digging in my brain for all my archived knowledge about online advertising to put to use at my new job.

Just a few of the highlights of my new job: a non-existent commute since the office is 5 miles from home, lots of growth potential, and frequent travel to NY and SF my favorite cities.

Prince Gus

Please join me in welcoming Gus to the Pookie family! We adopted 5 year old Gus yesterday from Safe Harbor Lab Rescue. Apparently he had been given up by his owner due to financial problems that required him to take a job with too much travel to care for sweet Gus. It must have been hard to give this boy up since he is AWESOME! He has a very sweet disposition, loves to play fetch, comes when you call him, etc. He has basic training, but we're looking forward to taking him to obedience class to get to the next level where we can feel really comfortable having him off leash to play, hike and swim. He's already given me some good exercise this morning with a nice walk and a round of fetch in the yard. Since people are WAY into dogs here, we'll be taking him out of the house with us as much as we can.

The only snag in the happy Pookie household is cat/dog relations. Earlier this week, we brought over another dog to meet Mable and things did not go well due to my own stupidity. There's a whole world of information online about how to introduce cats and dogs and most of it is the complete opposite of what I did. I held Mable in my arms and brought her over to the dog , then she proceeded to claw her way out of my arms -- OUCH. I have the war wounds to prove it. So we're now following the advice of experts and taking our time to introduce them. Wish us luck!

Princess Mable

I've gotten lots of questions from friends about whether Mable had made it to Colorado with us -- YES! Mable is *loving* her new home, especially the huge window sills where she can luxuriate for hours stalking the birds and bunnies outside. She's also hoping that I never get a new job since she loves having me home to hang out and play with her. Her favorite game is wrestling with her toy mice and kicking them under the door that leads to the basement.

Getting Mable here was no small feat since Paul moved in January to start his new job, and I had the most work travel I've ever had between January and when we moved in March. It took a whole community of wonderful friends to take care of Mable during all the transition. Much love and thanks to: Virginia, Dave, David and Daniel Crocker and Virginia's mom who all took care of Mable during many of my trips; Rachael, Jonathan and Gershon Price who adopted Mable for the entire month of March; and our friends in Colorado David, Declan and Aedan White and Jennifer Coken who hosted Mable during our first week before we moved into our new house. Good thing Mable is a truly adaptable kitty who had a great time visiting with everyone!

Life With Less TV = More Reading!

While living in VA, we Pookies had a serious problem -- TV addiction. Having a big screen TV with high-definition DirectTV with Tivo certainly didn't help matters. So we made an agreement, we would leave our big screen TV in VA and upon moving to CO we would no longer pay for TV service. I am proud to report that this crazy experiment has actually worked!

We sold our big screen TV on Craig's List in one hour and got a new, smaller flat panel LCD that fits in our TV nook in the family room. Then Paul hooked up a high-definition antenna -- high-tech rabbit ears. So now we get about 10 channels for free including NBC, FOX, CW, a cool music channel and public television, some of these are actually in HD. With less to watch and no Tivo there's less temptation to spend our free time sacked out on the couch with the TV IV hooked up.

One of the benefits of all this new free time is that we are reading books! Even Paul, who usually prefers to read online, started reading a book this week. I used to be an avid reader and had really dropped off in the last few years. Now I've discovered the Broomfield Library which has been awesome. It was an epiphany -- why pay for books when I'll be done with them in a week? A no-brainer. Book reviews coming soon!

Cycling Elephant Rock Festival

Elephant Rocks! Dana and I went out this weekend and really got plugged into the cycling community. The Elephant Rock Cycling festival was great! If I can tell anyone how to live a more powerful life it is to be with the ones that you love and that love you. It is so easy to just isolate yourself and say you are too busy. I have found that it takes work to have fun. But when you are there to enjoy the moment. Cheers!

The Power of Two...

To my wife I would like to say that which I have said many times before but never shared with anyone but you. Now that we are sharing with the world it is time to say that without you I would be lost in the wild. Our journey has been long but we have come to a place we have both created and call home. You are my world.

Crazy Giggles Abound

Our 5th anniversary weekend can universally be declared a smashing success! We went on two long bike/trike rides one of which was a fun historic ride with the Denver Bicycle Touring Club, a drive into the mountains, miniature golf, go-karting and more. Paul still has the sound of my crazy giggles ringing in his ears from chasing me around the go-kart track. Since we're all old enough to drive, I wouldn't have thought that go-karting would be that much fun, but it was such a blast -- I just could not stop laughing! The piece-de-resistance of the weekend was certainly my very own balloon tiara made by a "Balloon Artiste" on the streets of Boulder.

The Colorado Lifestyle

The Pookies have *finally* gotten off their respective behinds and started cycling -- 11 miles today, a great accomplishment for me! I almost said "biking," but since I ride a trike (WizWheelz TerraTrike Cruiser pictured at right) it would be blasphemy. In fact, I think trike enthusiasts (and there are tons of them!) would actually be offended if I said that I was biking on my trike. We'll never forget Al from Bikes at Vienna -- now that guy was an enthusiast! We still quote Al occasionally, "The more you ride, the faster you'll be, the more you'll want to ride, the faster you'll be..." Never doubt Al; I actually am getting a little faster. It helps that I've finally gotten the hang of the gears. Us Inerfelds are not known to be technically adept so it took a while for me to get it. In fact, my dad is in the market for a bike right now and he is so sure of his own technical ineptitude that he is thinking of getting one without any gears at all.

One of our goals in moving here to Colorado was to ditch our couch/computer potato lifestyle for the "Colorado Lifestyle." What, pray tell, is the Colorado Lifestyle? First, a disclaimer -- I'm still figuring it out so don't count on my as an expert on this. As far as I can tell, Coloradans are exemplified by being active and being outdoors. An example of this is Colorado being listed #8 on a list of states ranked by amount of physical exercise. It helps that we have very low humidity and about 300 days of sunshine per year so people actually want to be outside.

Cycling is a start to get us outside and moving...stay tuned while the Pookies figure out gardening and lawn care...

Happy Anniversary!

I, Pookie One, present this blog to Pookie Two on the occasion of our five year wedding anniversary. When we were first married five years ago, I asked you to create a website to document our wedding, our marriage, our life, etc. Since you were busy with other projects, the idea got shelved. It's now time to charge the paddles and bring it back to life!

Through these five years, there's been a lot of give and take as in any relationship. Amazing breakthroughs and also breakdowns caused by unmet expectations as in any relationship. But this is not just ANY relationship! This relationship has a secret ingredient. An ingredient so secret that we've hoarded it to ourselves all these years. Yes, you guessed it, it's POOKIE POWER!

Now that we're starting a new life and we've launched our extraordinary partnership, it's time to share POOKIE POWER with the world. What will that mean? Let's find out :)