Flat Juliette has Thanksgiving in the mountains of Colorado!

Flat Juliette (or F. J.) seemed really bored when she first arrived at our house.  Our home is a house of boys and there isn't a ton of things for a girl to do here.  I was busy writing a book and visiting schools to tell students stories and work with them on their writing.  She sat on my desk wanting some adventure.  She did like playing with my iPhone and listening to the music coming from my computer, particularly when I listened to Pandora radio tuned into Christmas music (she danced every time a Santa themed song came on).  Several times I found her taking photographs on my phone (see below for her collage of images).

Soon it was time to give work a break and be with family for the Thanksgiving holiday.  A trip out the airport to pick up one of my sons, coming in from Laguna Beach and we were ready to enjoy family time.  The next morning F. J. strapped into her car seat with Tootsie AKA Batman, our Italian Greyhound, and headed over the river and through the woods to our mountain cabin for a hectic Thanksgiving with my extended family which consisted of many, many people bunking on every surface of the place.  She complained a little about Tootsie's breath and chose not to spend much more time with her on her little jaunt to the mountains (she did enjoy riding on the other dogs who came for the holiday). She seemed to enjoy playing the guitar and even tried her hand at the keyboard with my nephew, it was amazing to see how fast she picked up Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. 

There were many meals enjoyed over four days of festivity and fun. She seems particularly drawn to pickles, pastry and oyster stuffing.  As a matter of fact for several days after Thanksgiving she wasn't exactly "flat Juliette", but has now returned to her girlish figure after attending some rigorous trips to the gym with me.  She is pretty good on the Stairmaster, but couldn't bench very much weight.  I hope the next people she visits will work on her muscle strength.

She particularly enjoyed playing Frisbee Golf on our mountain course, consisting of many great views of valleys, peaks and examined the scat of numerous wild animals like a scientist.  She didn't particularly like it when we found the skeleton of a deer that some mountain cats had left, but overall seems to be an outdoor sort.  She liked reading her book in our treehouse and even tried her hand on our shooting course.  My nephews commented that she was kind of a girly-girl and only rolled her eyes at their video games.  

One early morning, while I was pecking away at my keyboard, trying to find the magical ending for my newest picture book, which I am gearing more toward my female audience, she offered some advice.  Also, while thinking about a few character names, she offered up several... hmmm... as I thought over her choices, rolling the names around in my head...  Chocie, Katie, Claire, Morgan, Cora, Becca S., Alyssa, Jocelyn, Emily Ann, Patty... I wondered if any of those names might show up in my new creation...
 
She did enjoy going searching for our annual Christmas trees and helped strap them on top of the old SUV.  
 
F. J. REALLY likes to play hide-n-seek!  When it was time for dinner, we couldn't find her, but soon learned she likes to go where Santa is.  She was hiding in our bathroom on the counter next to the Santa night light and just as we started to "trim the tree" she climbed up the boughs and found her place next to one of the many Santa ornaments in our collection.  

At one point F. J. climbed up the bookshelves in my office and found some of the books I have written.  After some reviews, advice and editorial commentary, she of course told me her favorite was Oliver Kringle, which I wrote about Santa's brother.   She really likes Santa A LOT!

She went to church with us and got to hear about the REAL reasons for the season and it seems she likes Jesus as much or actually even more than Santa.  

I finally had to take my iPhone away from F. J. because she was snapping shots of everything!  Here are a few of her pictures.  She liked my No Shave November look had to snap a picture of me at my desk along with sunrise, sunset and frosty pics.

Well, we are sorry to see F. J. go. I'm posting this blog on my Facebook site https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Works-of-Justin-Matott/213624096290?ref=ts
to see who would like to take her on her next adventure. 

If there are no takers, I will send her on her way to see some of our very best friends in Texas, where she will be in the house of two teenage girls... Oh Lordy, talk about drama! 

Come join my blog and keep up with the further adventures of an imagination in progress  http://justinmatott-snickers.blogspot.com/

I hope F. J. has many great adventures and look forward to seeing where she will go.  
Thanks for reading, 
Justin Matott 

Cody, Wyomining - Nov. 12th - 15th

I arrived in Cody on Saturday at the home of Lynn.  The weather turned wintery so we hung out at home but on Monday I went to work with Lynn. She works at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in the Buffalo Bill Museum.  I went to a staff meeting with her in the auditorium and learned all about a traveling exhibit that the BBHC had put together that is on display right now at Cheekwood, a museum and botanical gardens in Nashville, Tenn. It will be there until early March, just about the time I'm due to return to Arvada.  The Power Point showed pictures of the grounds - still looking all green - the exhibit areas, the truck that took the cases to Cheekwood, and some of the actual objects.   Lynn took my picture in front of "The Plainsman" a sculpture of Buffalo Bill that stands in front of the BBHC.

That night I went to the Irma Hotel for dinner with Lynn and some of her co-workers.  The Irma was built in 1902 by William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody and named after his youngest daughter. It has great roast beef and steaks - so I'm told!  Lynn took my picture sitting on the cherrywood bar which Buffalo Bill brought back from France. 

I had a great time in Cody!!  Lynn sent me to Wheatland, Wyoming on Wednesday.

Big Wonderful Wyoming, October 31-November 10

I arrived in Wyoming on Halloween and have been visiting different locations here in the Southeastern part of the state.  Unlike Texas, it has been cold and snowy here.  First I visited the University of Wyoming Library with my friend Tami Hert.  She is head of the Emmett D. Chisum Special Collections there.  They have this huge collection of published materials all about Wyoming!  She even showed me an article about the Girl Scout National Center West which used to be in Wyoming.  On Thursday, November 3d, there was an art invitational held in the library and I got to see several paintings by local Laramie artists.  There is one by Travis Ivey hanging in the special collections reading room.  On Saturday, November 5th, I went to Casper, Wyoming with her where I got to attend the Executive Committee meeting of the Wyoming State Historical Society.  They met at the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center and my picture was taken with those attending the meeting as well as in front of one of the inscriptions.  This Center teaches us all about the Oregon Trail!  I got to see a handcart like those used by many of the Mormon travelers along the trail and learned about the Pony Express.  I was hoping to go on to Casper with another friend but the weather was questionable so I returned to Laramie with Tami.  We had our own adventure driving the last few miles back to Laramie in what was almost a blizzard.  On Monday I attended a lecture hosted by the Geology Department.  The speaker was from the USGS, United States Geological Survey, and he talked about the different chemicals found in the waters of Yellowstone National Park.  Then Tami took me to the Geology Museum where I got to see dinosaur skeletons!  On Tuesday there were history presentations by 3 history graduate students.  I am learning so much!  Then, last night on the way back to Tami's house there was a grass fire very close to her house.  She got a little panicky because at first it looked like it was her house but it wasn't.  Today she is going to send me off to Cody, Wyoming.  I have seen a lot of the area but Tami tells me there are other sites she would show me if the weather were warmer.