Happy Halloween!!!

It's Halloween today!

Hope everyone has a great costume for tonight! I know I do. Film @ 11.

Monday Leg Blog...

I guess more of a feet blog today...



This is a cute little black kitten that I almost adopted last week. Sadie named it "Fabuloso." I was really tempted to keep it but I just didn't want the responsibility. So on Friday I took her top the Humane Society to be adopted.

Other Legs this week
Stan
Kate

Best Pumpkin ever!

Well at least it my favorite that I have ever done. ;-)






On thursday Mike and Sadie came over for a night of Dinner, Friends, and Pumpkin carving! The whole evening can me summed up in this one picture.







Friends is a great show, especially watching it on DVD with other friends around. It seems to be way more funny when it is a community activity. We get together about once a week and watch a whole disk of 6 episodes. I think we are about half way through season 4 now. I’ve seen them all before, but is is so much more fun watching them this way.

Last night we all went to the Abbey Theater for the annual Transvestite Ball. I’m pretty sure Halloween is an underappreciated holiday. When everyone is into it is very fun. Hundreds of people dancing in costumes, some more questionable than others but all in all very fun thing to do. The other great thing about last night is we go to take advantage of the time change too. An extra hour of dancing and drinking, cant be good for you but man its worth it!

I will have pictures of our costumes when I get them from Sadie. I will also be taking my camera with me when we hit up Pint night tomorrow in costume. I can’t wait!

Does anyone else see a problem here?

ConocoPhillips Reported an 89% increase in profits

So you an me, the normal people on which this contry is supposed to survive are getting completey SCREWED by these companies? Why isnt this in the top stories? Now Im not complaining about high gas prices, because I know we are still pretty much the cheapest in the WORLD, but this is bullshit! They tell us that the high prices reflect the higher cost of oil *caugh*bullshit*caugh*. If that were the case then thier profits should not be increasing! ARRGGHH!! I wish I had more time to rant on this...

UPDATE: Hmm, another one.. Exxon Mobil

Ahh Colorado..

Yes, this is one of those emails you get with a bunch of jokes but I liked it when I saw it yeas ago and it still works today. I will even add a few of my own.

You know you are from Colorado when:

1. You switch from "A/C" to "Heat" in one day.

2. You know what the "Peoples Republic of Boulder" means.

3. Your sense of direction is: towards the mountains and away from the mountains.

4. You're a meat-eating vegetarian.

5. The bike on your car is worth more than your car and you have your own special bike lane. and you actually use the bike lane

6. You're able to drive 65 miles per hour through 13 feet of snow during a raging blizzard without even flinching.

7. You take your out-of-town guests to Casa Bonita even though you would never go there otherwise.

8. You think your major food groups are granola bars, tofu and Fat Tire Beer. Frat Tire? nahh, pass me a Buster Nut Brown

9. You design your kid's Halloween costumes to fit over a snowsuit.

10. You think that sexy lingerie is wool socks and flannel PJ’s.

11. You know all 4 seasons "almost winter, winter, still winter and spring blizzards.

12. You've been tear-gassed in a riot to celebrate a CU/CSU's victory.

13. You can never figure out why your out-of-town guests faint from altitude sickness on a picnic to the mountains.

14. You can drive over a 12,000 foot pass in 4 feet of snow, but can't get to work if there are 4 inches of snow.

14.5. You know the definition of the "12-inch rule"

15. You know the 'correct' pronunciation of Buena Vista.

15.5. Durango Specific: You know the 'correct' pronunciation of Florida

16. When you visit friends at sea level, you can drink a case of beer and not get a buzz.

17. Your car insurance costs more than your car.

18. You have surge protectors on every outlet.

19. April showers bring May blizzards.

20. 'Timberline' is someplace you have actually been.

21. You know what a 'Chinook' is

22. You know what a 'Rocky Mountain Oyster' is. If you dont know... Dont ask

23. You know what a "fourteener" is.

24. But you don't know what a "turn signal" is.

25. A bear on your front porch doesn't bother you nearly as much as a Republican in Congress does.

26. Your golf bag has a 9-iron, a 3-wood and a lightning rod.

27. You know who Alfred Packer was and what he did.

28. You know who Baby Doe Tabor was.

29. SPF 90 is not out of the question.

30. People from out of state breathe 5 times as often as you do.

31. Having a Senator named Nighthorse doesn't seem strange.

32. Thunder has set off your car alarm.

33. A full moon has never kept you awake at night.

34. You have an $800 stereo in your $300 truck.

35. A sudden loss of cabin pressure is not a big deal.

36. You think a red light means 3 more cars can go.

37. Where we're going, we don't need roads!!

38. You know where Doc Holliday's grave is.

39. You know where Buffalo Bill's grave is.

40. You know where the real "South Park" is.

41. You can recognize the license plates of all 50 states on sight.

42. Driving directions usually include 'Go over_________ Pass.'

43. You've done 'checking for ticks'

44. You've dressed in shorts, sandals, and a parka w/ a hood.

45. You've gone snow skiing in July and...

46. You've gone sunbathing in January and...

47. They were in the same year!

48. You've urinated on the Continental Divide just so it could 'run into both oceans'.

49. And the most important: You get a certain feeling of satisfaction from knowing that California and Texas are both downstream.

Weekend with the Family

My Dad, Brother and Step-mom Came to visit this weekend, and we had a pretty good time if I do say so myself.

I took Friday off of work, for many more reasons than just my family was coming to town, but it was a day greatly needed. I woke up around 10 and did some last minute cleanup before they arrived. When they did arrive, around 1, they took me out to lunch and I took them on a tour of the area, where I work and such. It was a good day to just hang out and catch up because they were all tired from the drive down. Friday didn’t turn into much..

Saturday, Dad, Brian and I went for a great bike ride down the Dry Fork Trail. A ~14 mile ride that is mostly down hill (it is always good to have a shuttle to the top.) and ended right at the house.

I think this is called Silver Peak.


The Prophet


Tuesday Morning Monday Leg Blogging!


It was an awesome ride, but a better return to the house. When we opened the door into the house I was overwhelmed by the scent of fresh cookies being baked in the oven... Mmmm Gingersnaps, my favorite! Man its fun when the parents show up! For Saturday night I had scheduled a bit of a party, both as a way for all my friends from work to see my new house and also for all of my friends to meet my parents. My "Older" ;-) friends showed up right on time at 6:30 (I had told everyone 6, but Durango time is about 30 min slow). The party was great until around 8:30 when they all started to wear down and get tired. The solution, my "younger" friends promptly show up right on time, 8:45 (I had told everyone 6, but Durango time is about 30 min... wait, this doesn’t quite work anymore.) We had a great time chatting and making fun of me (which is what my friends do) until about 11 and everyone filed home. Good times.

Sunday morning, everyone got up and packed up to leave, the weekend was over. Even at three days it goes far too quick.

Oh well, I guess I had better get ready for work. Laters.

Which Sci-Fi Charector are you?

Short little quiz.. Im curious what you guys get..

I am:

Elrond

A stern yet benevolent organizer who often knows best, your wits are keenly fixed on aiding efforts you deem worthy.

"Now at this last we must take a hard road, a road unforseen. There lies our hope, if hope it be. To walk into peril to Mordor."

Its been awhile

I didn’t realize it has been almost a week since I last posted. Man, time flies when you are having fun I guess.

I finally got a chance to go on a bike ride this weekend, I do miss riding but I forgot about how much harder than running it is. Saturday morning I got up and rode the Colorado trail up from my house, the same trail I spent most of the summer running while training for the marathon. Its 1000 Ft of elevation in about 3 Miles, so not terrible but still a good challenge, on foot anyway. At the end of my training I could run the whole way up non-stop in about 35 minutes. On my bike I had to stop at least 3 times, and probably took me just as long, if not longer! I did ride all the way from my house which adds another few hundred feet and about 4 miles of road riding before the trailhead, but man, I expected to ride way better than that. Suffer fest!

Saturday night I pulled together a poker game with a few friends, and when I lost (well 3rd place but only 1st and 2nd got any money) I gathered my strength for a good 2.5 hour drunken Halo fest with Mike and Donovan (earlier casualties of the poker game.) Ahh good times!

Sunday I got up with some motivation to really explore my back yard. I brought my camera along so I could share with you (aren’t you excited?!).

It is so nice to walk for 2 minutes and not be able to see or hear another person, or building, or car... I love it.

Look at the pretty leaves:


Seems just a bit out of place doesn’t it?


Ahh, Durango, what a great little place:


Oh, this was supposed to be the obligatory Monday Leg Blogging!


As soon as I got home from hiking/running around the mountain, my friend Jared called with intentions to go for a bike ride. I was tired and sore from yesterday so I obviously said "Lets go!" Then I proceeded to absolutely get my ass kicked by him up the mountain. I hate getting beaten… but I kept up on the way down so it was all good.

Yesterday, Mike and I decided to go play a round of tennis after work (it is turning into a fairly regular thing now-adays.) I am really surprised at how easily the game came back to me, given I had not picked up my racket since… oh... about 1995. Mike was supposed to go out with his wife for some dinner but she called an went out with one of her friends instead, so we had to take advantage of the situation and play some more Halo! While we are setting up I call my friend Kevin who plays online with us to get home to join. "Uhh, you'll have to check with management" he says and hands the phone to his wife. "Justin, you need to get a girlfriend so you quit taking my guy away." Ouch!! I finally convince her to let him play and we have a grand ol time getting whooped by 10 year olds with some incredibly foul language, and deeply rooted psychological issues...

At around 9 we called it quits and I headed to meet Jared for what is becoming a regular Monday night ritual, Pint night. Hey, apparently I need a girlfriend and that seems as good a place as any! I wont bore you with my the details... well because there weren’t any, it was pretty laid back Monday. I did talk to 2 ladies but it turned out neither good, nor bad enough to write about here. I got home fairly early for Monday and went to bed... then to work... which leads us to now, and I have nothing more to say...

Except that there is an AWESOME thunderstorm raging outside... (please turn to snow, please, please , please!)

Stupid Realtors...

OK, so I have to admit, I have a very steriotypical view of realtors, they are all stupid Money grubbing pansies that could not get a job doing anything else. (well not all, but then it wouldnt be a steriotype, it would be the truth).

Anyway, basically ALL of the land surrounding my house is up for sale and the City of Durango had made an offer of $4.4 Million to buy the land and make it a "mountain park" in an effort to stiffle development and maintain that land as open space.



This has been an ongoing back and fourth debate for awile. Finally a while ago the city officially made it offer. Now this stupid realtor is pissed because he is not getting a commission on the deal and is arguing against it.

Here is the current article.

and here are two other previous articles on the subject.

Sept 22: Open-space showdown at Jacob’s Cliffs
Oct 6: Durango, Dalla near deal on land

I guess I am slightly biased toward the city for multiple reasons. Open space in general is NEVER a bad thing to spend the cities money on, andIt would be AWESOME to have all the open space around my house.

OK, Ill join in this mess

Just so Kate, and Kamin dont feel like they are all alone here...

Whew! What a busy weekend!

In what began as an attempt to have a very lax and regenerating weekend turned into almost exactly the opposite.

Friday night was the beginning. After work I headed out for N-TripleH (Nerd Herd Happy Hour, Nerd Herd being a bunch of us from work.) This tends to get me in trouble because I go out with them until around 8 then I meet up with my non-work friends and continue to go out! This results in me being fairly intoxicated and bad decisions get made in that state. I decided that I was not going to let that happen. After a few beverages I met up with Mark and Sarah, we ate some dinner and I managed to avoid committing to any other plans for the evening. 9:00 PM I arrive at home, shut off my cell (something that has never really been done since I purchased it over a year ago,) and promptly passed out to a few episodes of friends.

Things were off to a good start.

Saturday morning I woke up refreshed and motivated. Motivated being the key word, so I decided to change the oil in my truck. During the mission to AutoZone, I also decided I would rotate my tires. This brought up the fact that I needed (read: Really wanted) a nice floor jack to make the task much easier. That decision had the effect of turning $40 oil change into a $160 adventure. I ended up having to go back to the store a second time because the nice cheap jack that was on sale didn’t work, of course.

While in process of getting that done I receive a call from Mark, reminding me that I was supposed to run the Durango Half Marathon with them tomorrow and I had to sign up today. Now I have been saying that I would do this, but I have run 2 times for a total of about 11 miles since finishing SAM, so I was not super psyched on the idea of running a 13.1 Mile road race. As soon as I finished work on the truck I ran out and signed up. At that point the weather promptly deteriorated, and began raining.

Later that afternoon, I get a phone call. It was my friend Cody that I have know since... well.. forever. "What are you doing tonight and tomorrow?" He was apparently in Santa Fe on his way back to Vail and decided that a detour to Durango was in order. I told him that I was running tomorrow and that we would get a whole lot of time to hang out, but it would be fun. Later that night he shows up, but I had to be in town then next morning @ 6:30 for the race so we didn’t hang out much.

Sunday:

Its 5:45AM and it is cold and pouring rain outside. Looks like this will be a SUPER fun race in the freezing rain! I decided that I could not waste my $65 entry fee so I rolled out of bed, put on my cold weather running gear, and headed to the start line.

7:30AM the rain stops but it is still very cold, Mark, Sarah and I are warming up for the 8:00 start. Starting to look like it might be OK. I decide to take a risk and shed a few layers before the run. Turned out that was a good decision, the rain stopped and it was a nice cool overcast for the run. I ran with Mark and Sarah because I didn’t really care about time and I knew I was in no shape to be pushing myself. That turned out to be another good decision because at around mile 10 my legs just fell apart. Every step hurt, it didn’t help that ALL of my training was done on trials and I was now running on pavement, but also my shoes were WELL past their useful prime (they had at least 700 Miles on them. All of the Marathon training and the marathon itself.) I finished in a respectable time of 1:57:36, wish was faster than my goal of 2 hours but I was really hoping for the 1:40's. Cody was at the finish line when we finished so we sat and ate our free meal and drank our free beer(s) (wait?! Isn’t it 10:00AM, oh well don’t tell anyone.)

After the meal, Cody and I went and saw Serenity. I didn’t really know what to expect, except that all the geeks on the net are touting it as the best sci-fi movie ever. Well, It was sci-fi that’s for sure. Probably a bit more so than I was expecting. Don’t get me wrong, I love the genre, but I like my sci-fi to be a a bit less fi. I did enjoy the movie though and all in all it turned out very entertaining. (there were a few scenes that I though were very dumb, bet there were some great scenes that more than made up for them.)

I got home around 3:30, Cody was going to head home around 4 and I was looking forward to relaxing and doing all the minor chores I had planned to do but got put aside. Then the phone rings, its Mr. Mike Sarti - "Were coming over, I was just calling to let you know..." Well, So much for doing my laundry. For some reason we decided that now, right after the rain cleared, and hours after 3 of the 4 of us had just run half a marathon, was the best time to go explore the mountain behind my house. So that’s what we did, in the mud, every muscle and joint in my legs were stiff and sore. It was a great little hike and I love the fact that that whole area is my back yard.

That was it, I didn’t have the energy for anything else, so I went to bed at who knows what time, but it was all good.

Truck Maintenance - Check!
See a lifelong friend that I haven’t seen in months - Check!
Run Half a Marathon - Check!
Drink Beer @ 10AM and not feel guilty - Check!
See Serenity - Check!
Explore my back yard - Check!
Do my laundry - Che... oh wait, nope not done yet.

Just a little different than my original plan of a nice relaxing weekend.

Good news!

I just got a phone call.

MY BIKE IS DONE!!!

I broke my Mtn Bike at the very beginning of the summer, and due to crappy part suppliers, US/Canada Customs, and a non-standard bike part, it took ALL summer to fix!

But that doesnt matter now, because it is done! Im going to go for a ride tonight!

Luckely I had my sights set on that marathon all summer so I didnt have the time or energy to ride with all the running I was doing, but thats over now so Ride on!

Bar Tales

I’m not too sure I want to tell this story… but I am going to anyway.

Last night, I was out for pint night with Jarrod and a few other guys. I was on my typical Pint night mission of finding a lady to chat with (well I’m looking for more than a chat, but you gotta start somewhere.) We are having a grand old time watching the ladies walk by and assessing the possibilities of each… Let me Clarify something real quick, I m sitting at the table with Jarrod who has a new girlfriend, (I guess they don’t define themselves as boyfriend/girlfriend, they decided in the term “Relatively Permanent Fuck-Buddies.” Don’t ask me, that’s whet he told me..) and two other guys that were married already, so everyone at the table was on the lookout for me. On the scope for any obviously single ladies or the “glance” over to our table of four pretty damn good looking guys (I’m not really modest at all, and can’t be in that situation, gotta have the confidence!)

First catch, a table of three, they looked to me to be a bit out of my league (by choice not skill, huh yea right.) just a little bit of that liquid courage, and a few fairly obvious glances over here I was just about ready to make the move. Hey, they may be out of my league, but the story of the shoot down could be worth it, and you can’t deny the possibility of it actually working! Anyway, I am just about to walk over there (I’ve been just about to walk over there for about 15 Min now) when they stand up and invite the table of 2 guys next to them over to their table. Bummer, missed my chance, but this could be just as entertaining to watch, I mean they can’t last long… they are still wearing their sunglasses! The sun went down 6 hours ago man! I could go for awhile describing the good time we had watching that situation unfold, but that’s not this story (just incase you are wondering… they didn't survive…) Well, That was strike one for my evening. I didn't even leave the table, so I’m not sure that counts as an attempt though.

Round two!

There are three girls that have been wandering around for a few minutes and have begun to stand around. One of them leaves and sits down at a normal Durango bar table with 15 guys with sideways hats. The other two head to the bar and sit down by themselves and begin sharing a beer. I though for sure I was in on this one. I got up and promptly began a conversation with them. I can never seem to remember any of the conversation though but it didn't go well, 5 minutes later I was back at our table discussion the failure with the guys.

Round three!

An uncommonly attractive (to me anyway) young lady was buying a drink at the bar. I began to watch to see where she sat down and to make sure that there was no guy with her somewhere else in the bar. She walks by the sideways hat guy table and begins talking to one of them. Pshht why do girls go for that, I don’t know. Well, she must have know just that one guy because she was no longer there and was clearly scoping for someone tot talk to. I watched her do a lap and settle for a secluded spot alone. Perfect! I’ve got to attempt this one, off I go. She had been standing in that spot for a good minute or so, so I was confident that she was there by herself. Im moving in… just a few more steps then some words, I don’t know what words yet but I’m sure ill think of something (I was on the pre-defined plan B: Wing it! Given that Plan A: the premeditated conversation during the walk over always fails.) As I approach, she must have decided that nobody was coming to talk to her because she began to move again, right past me, that caught me off guard and I didn't have time to come up with a good Plan C. Arrgh! She sat down with the sideways hat tools! She was obviously looking for conversation and I was 2 seconds too late! She had to settle for those guys! Granted, it was probably a win-win situation for her, she probably knew that they would buy her drinks all night! Ugh Strike 3 for me, I guess I’m out.

Nope!

Round Four!

A rare sight in Durango to say the least, there was a table of 6 girls and one lucky guy sitting in one of the booths off to our left. That one is going to take some effort and confidence that I don’t really have right now. I have already failed on multiple attempts and I was about to jump into the lions den. That fear didn't last long as one of the girls stood up, walked directly to out table and asked us to help her win a bet. The bet was that she could not get one of the guys over here to buy all the ladies a round of drinks. So I, being the single one at the table, took her up on that, and sat down with them. Luckily it is Pint night and everything is $2, so $15 later I had 6 girls to talk to and 7 full beers. Turns out they are all on a soccer team together and that guy was just one of their roommates. Unfortunately they were all VERY drunk and the conversation was very hard to maintain. Suddenly it was time to leave and I got nothing out of it. That one seemed so easy to me, like bobbing for apples, but these apples just kept sinking as I try to grab one. Well at least they all got a free beer out of it. I feel so used.

That’s it, My confidence was holding on by a thin thread and it just snapped, time to go home with my tail between my legs.

There is always next time.

TV still sucks, but now you cant watch it unless we say so..

Ever hear about the "Broadcast Flag?" Basically Hollywood wants to add a law that makes every new technology pertainig to digital TV have to go through them to be approved. This means that once the standard is decided you can change anything and they own it all, Movies, TV, anything. If it is on your PVR (Tivo) they can delete it if they want, they can prevent you from recording what you want, and it doesn't stop there.

You know that cool Car stereo you just bought? The one with the built in Satellite radio, can play MP3 CD's, displays the song title, maybe even the lyrics of the song? Yea, all that is made possible by the open standard in CD's and CD Players. As long as you adhere to basic standards you can do whatever you want with them. That will not happen with TV or movies if Hollywood gets its way, they want complete control over the format, distribution, and devices that contain and play Digital video.

Oh yea, and you will have to buy a new TV to watch any of it.

Here is a list of the congressmen that have come forward with their support of this law.

This law has been attempted before, but with the overwhelming response against it they dropped it.

BTW: this little fact and link was brought to you by This Week in Tech: Episode 25, Have a listen, they explain a bit more than I know.