oscar weekend

Friday morning at work, some wacked out virus infiltrated my computro despite our firewall/anti-virus software. Luckily I could still back up my data. But I basically spent the whole day trying to get it up and running again (and all of monday re-installing all my programs after wiping the hard drive). I was very ready for the day to end. Picked up some burritos and headed to steph's and watched some movies - Hustle & Flow and Choke. I had to work on a paper saturday so I went home. Steph was going to head up to meet her friend, but her car wouldn't go in reverse. Turns out that the motor mount bolts just fell out due to normal where and tear - it is an old car afterall. Steph came over later and made some shrimp scampi and we watched How to Lose Friends and Alienate People. Lots of movies this weekend. Sunday I finished up my paper, and then we headed over to hillside for our annual oscar dinner. This year we started a pool and I came out of the gate strong by nailing the first 12 awards, but then my strategy started to crumble and I ended up in a 4-way tie with paul, jacq & andy - all with 18/24. The tie breaker went to the couple with the most, so jacq & andy took home the prize. Our menu was as follows:

Appetizers:
- Curious Case of Stuffed Button Mushrooms
- Antipastalina Jolie

Beverages:
- Frosty Beers
- Vicki Chianti Barcelona

Main:
- Stuffed Ra - shells Getting Married with Slumdog Marinara Sauce
- Mickey Pork Tenderloin

Sides:
- Mixed Kate Winslettuce
- Garlic Bread Pitt

Dessert:
- Heath Ledger Bar Brownies with Milk

garçon

Long weekend mode was in effect after work friday. I headed over to steph's and she whipped up some killer stuffed peppers for dinner. Got up early on saturday and headed to the hills. We stopped at Noa Noa's for some coffee and wasted 30 minutes. I am all for supporting the local coffee shops, but their new system is the crap. We were in the usual beat the ski traffic rush, so we figured we go in and grap a couple of drips and continue on our way. Usually there is a big pot of house coffee all ready to go. However, these guys now had a little pour station where they individually grind and pour water into a filter and it drips into your cup... slowly. And slower still when there are people in front of you and the 'barista' is pouring a half cup of water at a time, etcetera and so on. It was a pretty tasty cup 'o joe at least. Not mush fresh at A-Basin, but we had a solid day on the slopes regardless.



Had a romantic valentine's dinner at 4580 in NoBo, and steph got me a sweet book of Sam Brown artwork signed by the artist. After dinner we stopped over a greg's place for some cocktails before heading out to trilogy for some dancing. We were expecting some drum & bass, but wound up with house and then reggae - typical boulder fare, but fun enough nonetheless. Sunday started off casual with some bloody marys. We had planned on going to a film but wound up stimulating the pearl street economy and having some brews and guac at the west end, where I actually got the waiter's attention by calling him 'garçon'. Monday was spent finishing up my paper for the first night of my next class.

strategic alignment and a b-day

I had a major paper and presentation to give on monday so I pretty much just worked on that friday night and most of saturday. Steph cam over later and I made an asian seafood dish and we watched RockNRolla which was a bit confusing at first, but all came together in the end. I may have to watch it again just to be sure I got it all. Sunday I did some more homework, and then we celebrated meg's b-day over at lauren's place with all kinds of apps (including some killer bacon wrapped scallops) and some swanky cupcakes from tee & cakes.



Monday night was the last night of 580. I aced my presentation, still waiting on the grade for my paper. Only two more classes to go!

elephantine

Tried to get dinner at Southern Sun friday night, but the wait was over an hour so we went to ¡Ajuua! again. We also made the mistake of getting a full pitcher of pomegranate margs, which we wound up practically chugging after we finished eating. Got back to steph's and watched Hellboy II, then called it a night. Up bright and early Saturday to hit up Keystone with greg & lisa. Tried out a new breakfast joint up there which made great paninis and was way less crowded then the coffee shop we usually go to. The snow was a bit crunchy first thing, but then softened up as the sun did it's thing. We spend most of the time in the outback, and even hiked up to the bowls, which was pretty cool.



Got back to steph's and geared up for her 'White Elephant' party, which had a great turnout and was loads of fun. I unloaded a tacky snowglobe, and wound up with these random toys pictured below and some silly puddy, which got tossed around and is now loaded with cat hair.



Sunday I did some homework in the morning, and then we went and saw Slumdog Millionaire. Excellent film and soundtrack! I loved the way the host said "mil-un-air" - it cracked me up every time. Got back to my place in time to catch the second half of the superbowl which was actually compelling. I was kind of pulling for the Cards being the underdogs and all, but the Steelers sure made a great come back at the end.