Rocky Mountain High - Episode II

On Friday, Steve-O and I awoke feeling refreshed, though a bit peckish. A stop at Einstein Bagles took care of that and from there we loaded our bags and gear into the car and drove back up to Boulder. Our plan was to take in some brewery tours or at least hit some of the tasting rooms. One place was of particular interest for us was the Redstone Meadery. What they produced was not beer, but mead - a wine made from honey (instead of more common grape wine). Apparently mead is the oldest alcoholic drink known to civilized man, pre-dating beer or wine by thousands of years. I've heard of mead before and have always been keen to try it, but never knew where to find it. So at last, here was our chance. We walked in and there was the owner, ready to greet us and he proceeded to give us the grand tour of all things "mead". It was very obvious this guy knew his stuff and was definitely passionate about his product. One of the little tidbits he shared was that the term "honeymoon" comes from mead. Back in the day, a newlywed couple would drink the honeywine for one full lunar cycle beginning on the first night of the marriage. This was to ensure the birth of a healthy baby boy. Upon hearing this, Steve-O and I looked at each other and realized - "Score! Wedding gift!"

From there we rolled over to the Avery Brewery and sampled all twelve or so of their brews. I was surprised by how many of them I didn't like - these were very sweet, almost like a malt liqour. But they did have a few that were quite tasty and by the time we were done with that sampling, it was time to shove off and start making our way to Breckenridge.

We decided to take the scenic route and along the way I snapped a pic on my iPhone of a ridge of mountains. After an hour or so of mountain driving, we finally made it to Breck where we met up with the rest of the folks gathered for the wedding of my good friend Ryan to his fiance, Annie. A small reception was going on in town, and afterwards a few of us made our way to some randomw irish bar for a nightcap. From there we made it to the condo we had rented and hit the sack, in anticipation of the wedding the next day (and the snowboarding!).

I awoke to the smell of food being cooked (eggs, toast, and bacon) and after doing my part to not let food go to waste, then got in my gear and we headed out. The sweet thing about this condo was that is was right off the slopes of Peak #9. Steve-O gave me about 20 minutes of instruction before we both agreed that it was time to take my first run down the beginners slope.

We got onto the lift and about fifteen minutes later we were at Ten Mile Station (where the actual wedding ceremony was to take place in just a couple of hours). I started down and of course ended up spending most of that first run down the slope on my rear and in a few cases, on my face. But all in good fun, we got to the bottom and grabbed the lift right back up as it was getting close to time for the wedding.

At Ten Mile Station, we bore witness to the union of Ryan and Annie (and some smart alec comments by passers-by). The ceremony was short, but very cool! I can't think of a more beautiful backdrop.

After that, we spent the rest of the day going up and down that slope and by the end, I think I was starting to catch on. I still have some things to really get a better hang of, but overall, I did really well! I think it's safe to say that I have found a new hobby - truth be told I can't stop thinking about it and looking forward to the next time.

More to come later...

Rocky Mountain High

On Wednesday, November 25, 2009, I flew from Kansas City to Denver where my brother Steve-O picked me up. We dropped the bags off at his place on Capital Hill and then hoofed it to get some outdoor gear and then dinner. I found some snowboarding pants and a light jacket on sale for crazy little money - score! We then tried to find this restaraunt that specialized in buffalo, but I guess it had shut down as it was not at the address given and the phone number was out of service. No matter though, we then walked to the Vine Street Pub for food and a bit of the local brew.

After that we trekked downtown and found our way to this little underground joint called The Front Porch where I proceeded to set sail with the Captain (Morgan that is) and Steve-O met up with his good friend Jack (Daniels that is). We had a few there and discussed a wide variety of world topics before deciding it was time to move along.

We then made our way to the Lodo district and into a place named, conveniently enough, "Lodos". On the top deck, we were across the street from Coors Field and enjoyed several more drinks while flirting with the cute girl bartenders. At a certain point, some obnoxious tool next to us decided to start taking shots containing mustard. Not sure how that came about, but it was gross and thats about when the brother and I decided to call it a night.

The next day was Thanksgiving and we were both feeling a bit rough, but we were up and at em' anyway. A cup of joe and some fruit at the Whole Foods and then we hopped in the car to head up to Boulder. We parked in the lot of a public parking area and then started our climb up the trail to the top of the Flatiron Mountains. The bottom of the trail was a bit dicey with the ice cover, I slid a few times before realizing that to hike just off to teh side would afford much better footing. Before long that treacherous stretch was behind us and we began the steeper ascent to the top. It was a bit Philmont with a dash of parkour at times, but we made it (at least as far as one could go before needing rock-climbing gear). The views were amazing, the weather was perfect, and I even got a healthy workout! We soaked up the view, then made our way back down. Back in Denver, a quick stop at Burger King for part one of our Thanksgiving Day feast. Then a chillout back at Steve-O's place before we decide to see about laying low for the night and maybe going to catch a movie. We head back back downtown, get our movie tickets ("2012" was our show of choice) and with over an hour before start time, stop into Subway for part two of our Thanksgiving Day feast. The sandwich was good, the movie even better, and we were finally ready for the next day.

To be continued - but for now, check the pics!

Saturday

Typical Saturday for me:

Woke up at 7:30 to an inch of snow on the ground (was melted away by noon). Vegged out until 2:00pm when I went to go work out. Stopped to get some coffee after that, then off to the grocery store to resupply.

Upon getting home, I unpacked the groceries, changed clothes, and then went through and sorted all my bills and junk mail. Dinner is now cooking and I happened to notice outside the last bit of daylight making a sweet sunset - so I snapped a quick pic of it (it's blurry, but it was cold out and I didn't have time to bundle up).

I'd say I have a pretty nice view from my balcony...

The Office

After 8 months of being in our new office, here are pics of what I helped design... I also created the orginal artwork seen in the alcoves by the stairs.

Burn Baby Burn!!!

Last night a few of my coworkers and myself went out for dinner and then to our favorite watering hole for a nightcap. When I pulled into the parking lot I saw a stream of smoke coming from the right and I immediatly knew that there was fire nearby. Once I parked the car, I could see that the smoke was coming from a small car about a hundred yards away in the parking lot of a Hy-Vee store. As we stood there among the growing crowd of patrons who stepped outside to watch this little pyro display unfold, the flames from the car doubled, then tripled until it was completely engulfed. One minute later, the tires exploded and at that point we all secretly (and for some people, not so secretly) started hoping that the whole car would blow - what a cool sight that would have been!

But alas, the firefighters arrived on the scene and within twenty seconds had the fire pretty well put out. No big boom for us, but still quasi cool to see a car on fire... kind of reminded me of Detroit.

My new concoction

Ingredients:
- small flour tortillas
- ground turkey browned and seasoned
- green olives
- crumbled feta cheese
- hummus
- canned tomatos

Preparation:
- warm the flour tortillas in the microwave just enough to make them pliable
- drop one tablespoon of hummus onto the center of each tortilla and spread
- add ground turkey
- add one tablespoon of tomatos to each tortilla
- add crumbled feta
- add four or five green olives to each
- fold like a taco and enjoy!

I've been living off of this little recipe for the past two weeks and I'm kind of proud that I came up with such a tasty treat!

Cleaning

So I'm taking the opportunity on this grey and rainy Saturday afternoon to do some much needed home cleaning. While going through various stuff in my closet I found three antique Boy Scout books that I had picked up at a little store in Oregon Illinois back in 1997. I never really did much research on what they were as far as age, all I knew was that two of them were actual Boy Scout Handbooks (the third was some kind of fiction book) and they were all OLD! After a minimum amount of effort, I now know what they are:

- Hickory Ridge Boy Scouts: Pathfinder (Or the Lost Tenderfoot) by Capt. Alan Douglas 1913
- Official Boy Scout Handbook (cover art by Norman Rockwell) 1930 edition
- Official Boy Scout Handbook (cover art by Norman Rockwell) 1942 edition

Being a history geek and a long-time scouter, I can't help but think of how cool these are to have! I wonder if MOS, Geiger, or Pony Express would have any use for them....

My First Blog

Nothing profound to say here - just curious to dip my toes into the waters of the Blogosphere. We'll just have to see how it goes...