Butterflies and Dogs

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7th May

Boring. Met a 5 year old by the pool who pretended to be my freiend and then got me in trouble with her parents. She kept asking me if I wanted to go in the hot pool (which I didnt) until I said 'okay' and then she told her mum that I had asked her to go in and that I would be upset if she said no. The mum said no and Kayleigh argued with her for about 2 hours over it.

8th May

I headed to MaxFund (a 'no-kill' animal shelter) based in the LoDo area of downtown. It is a dodgy part of downtown and I saw lots of homeless people and what lookedlike delinquent children on the side of the roads.

No-one had told me that MaxFund was closed on a Tuesday, but luckily, Karen (the volunteer co-ordinator) happened to be in doing some paperwork, so showed me around. It was sad to see how depressed some of them were. One dog was sat at the very back of his cage, shaking. Karen said that he had cancer and had undergone 3 operations to remove tumours and was really depressed. He wouldnt eat or let anyone near him.

Im glad I got to see the place, as it has changed my mind about volunteering for an animal shelter. It is too sad and the dogs are extremely unpredictable as they have all come from traumatic backgrounds. I think Ill stick to having a pet.

I then walked in the direction of 16th Street and indulged in a little retail therapy, before heading back to Greenwood in the early afternoon. Jon had come home ill, but was well enough to get a takeaway Indian for dinner!

We watched The Grey in the Gray after dinner.

10th May

The one thing I want to say about today is that I started reading The Hunger Games - loving it!

11th May

Finished Hunger Games and am 'hungry' for more.

We went to Red Rocks to see The Fray after work. It has been blisteringly hot all week and today it rained and snowed at Red Rocks.

There were two support acts - a band called Churchill and Dia Frampton. They were good, but Dia Frampton played her own cover of Heartless, which pissed everyone off, as The Fray's version is so good.

The Fray themselves were amazing. Their music is not my cuppa tea, but I loved the track 'Happiness' as they are a Denver born band, the crowd were going crazy. The band made the effort to walk among the crowd and even set up stage in the middle of the audience for a few tracks, which was amazing.

Even the rain and cold didnt dampen people's spirits.

12th May

We went for a late lunch in the Rock Bottom Brewery in Westminster, before going to the Butterfly Pavilion - this sounds lame, but it is meant to pour with rain today and there arent a lot of indoor options around Denver, but I thought at least Jon could use his cameras to caputure some wildlife this way.

It was $8.50 to get in and there were 4 exhibits - an ocean area, an insect area, the butterfly pavilion and an educational area that tests your knowledge of everything else. I was trying to summon up the courage to hold a tarantula, but couldnt, so moved on to the butterfly bit, where the butterflies were free to fly about the large, domed greenhouse. We spent two hours photographing them on flowers, on our feet, in our hands and on a lady's nose.

About 150 pictures later, we drove downtown to get an ice cream from Little Man Ice Cream (does the BEST butterscotch ice cream ever) and then onto Park Meadows for Jon to look at a laptop and camera he is interested in. We couldnt go to Park Meadows without seeing the puppies, so we went in and I played with a tiny, month old Pom Chin.

Jon cooked for once in the evening - but as we didnt get back until 9.30pm, it was a late Toad in the Hole!

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