yard sale

Had dinner at the Sun friday night and hung out with ryan & alyssa while we waited for a table. After dinner I worked on the signage for the yard sale. I made a ton and clearly labeled them with steph's addy and arrows. After making a bunch of similar ones, I began to change it up a bit adding encouraging phrases such as 'almost there' and 'yes'. They were a big hit amongst the attendees.



Got up super early and started dragging things out onto the lawn. The signs were a hit a and drove a fair amount of traffic up until noon when we called it quits since we had pretty much gotten rid of everything save for one carload of junk we dropped off at the Fairview fundraiser.



Regrouped at milo, then headed to denver for the Rockies game against the Giants. A very exciting 14-11 win later and we headed home and passed out. Sunday I cleaned up house a bit to make room for steph's things, dropped off the recycling, ran some errands, took a nap, and eventually watched Mad Men.

birthday

Last week I discovered that Ruggles had some fleas - it never dawned on me to pre-treat him since I only occasionally let him out on the patio; he pretty much stays inside. And fleas are not normally a problem in colorado, but all this rain has not helped. So I ordered up some frontline and monday & tueday became mega laundry and vacuum days. Got a hair chop on wednesday and then thursday, for my b-day, a bunch of us met up on the Rio rooftop for some birthday drinks.



Friday after work steph took me out for some delicious sushi at Hapa.



Saturday, I took it easy, cleaned the basement out a bit, went for a run, then watched the Sox lose to the Rangers. Later that evening we met up at the nook before heading over to Keith & Cheri's for their 'Havana Heat' party. Indulged in plenty of dark & stormys, but food was scarce so we eventually went back to the nook and made pizzas.

We got an early start on sunday and had brunch at the Buff then headed back to milo. Steph had a bunch of errands to take care of so I just chilled out for a while then went for another run. Later on we watched the premier of Mad Men. All in all a pretty solid birthday weekend!

the great american weekend

Yo Joe! Had the all american date on friday night. Started with a greasy, indigestion inducing meal at chili's (not recommended) but capping it off with the premiere of the G.I. Joe live action film (recommended). Mostly action, with a little cheese applied to hold it all together. Similar to the comics & cartoon which I used to dig, so it was cool to see how the evil cobra empire came to be.



Steph made a killer pancake breakfast saturday morning after I went to Albertson's and back three times for no good reason. Must have lost my thinking cap. Headed over to her place later , had a big pasta dinner and watched some John Hughes films (16 Candles & Vacation). Got up mega early on sunday for steph's last triathalon of the summer - a 1/2 ironman (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run).



As the day approached regular morning hours, more folks came to watch the festivities. I had found a great spot to watch right next to the bike dismount. People dismounted with a variety of different techniques and speeds - some worked, many were not so graceful. Probably the most action packed segment of the tri.



During steph's run we spent a good portion of our time in Avery's complimentary beer garden.



After steph's triumphant finish, we swam for a bit and tried our luck on the tandem which is more difficult than it looks.



Eventually we packed up and mowed down some chicken wings at steph's then grabbed a pizza on the way to my place and hit the hay pretty early.

end of an era

Unfortunately, now with the recent passing of John Hughes this morning, the 80's have truly come to an end. Writer and/or director of some of the defining movies of my generation, most notably:

National Lampoon's Class Reunion (1982)
Mr. Mom (1983)
National Lampoon's Vacation (1983)
Sixteen Candles (1984)
The Breakfast Club (1985)
National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985)
Weird Science (1985)
Pretty in Pink (1986)
Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
Some Kind of Wonderful (1987)
Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987)
The Great Outdoors (1988)
Uncle Buck (1989)
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)

And creator of one of the best bedrooms ever:



Clicky for an interesting article from one of his pen pals.

day 4

I was pretty beat by the time sunday rolled around. Headed home and then over to Hillside to help Lauren & Renn set up for the engagement party later that evening. At around 2 I drove to Evergreen to pick up Steph, who had run a road race earlier that morning. It was just the two of us for the last ashow so we stopped and picked up some more food to grill in the lot. Bumped into Mike B who was looking for a ticket, and had a couple brews with him until he continued his search. Much mellower lot scene since everyone was prolly as wiped out as I was.

Went in around 7 again, security had a stick up their ass tonight after 3 pretty lax days. Had reserveds in row 53, but once 'Roses' kicked in, we realized our neighbors were kind of borax so we headed down about 10 rows and met up with our now infamous show pals - Casey et al, who brought the vibe once again. Solid first set - 'NICU', and 'Reba' into 'Grind' a capella in lue of the whistling was nice. 'Beauty' developed more fully from the Page solo outing version sans guitarist we saw last year. And I was way more into 'Kill Devil Falls' than I thought I would be after hearing some versions of it from the fist leg of summer tour - a nice rocker.



Second set slayed, kicking off with a wicked 'Boogie' and a well placed 'YEM'. During the vocal jam at the end when they play with the upper lights a bit and the stage gets dark, they snuck out a second drum set for Bill Kruetzmann who joined them for the rest of the 2nd set starting with a sweet 'Undermind'.



They followed through with seemless song transitions throughout the rest of the set. A pleasant trio of encores bookended the 4 night stand nicely starting with another fave, 'Bittersweet Motel'. Got out of the lot quick and luckily we only had 10 minutes to drive after the show since we were staying back at Steph's mom's.



Set One
Roses Are Free
Wilson
NICU
Prince Caspian
Back On The Train
Reba
Grind
Beauty Of A Broken Heart
Sample In A Jar
Sugar Shack
Waste
Kill Devil Falls

Set Two
Boogie On Reggae Woman
You Enjoy Myself > Undermind > Seven Below > 2001 > Waves > Character Zero

Encore
Bittersweet Motel
Bouncing Around The Room
Slave To The Traffic Light

(show pix courtesy of Dave Vann)

day 3

After running home again in the morning, I picked up Wink & Jacq for round 3. Stopped at the grocery to pick up some burgs and snacks for the lot. Wound up tailgating in the Safeway lot for a minute for no good reason. Just couldn't wait until Morrison I suppose. Finally the sun was out and we had a nice hot BBQ in the upper north again. Lots of activity on a nice hot saturday afternoon, and tix were not easy to come across for the unlucky.



Bumped into a bunch of random folks we knew. Trainspotted the lot narc and had Wink pose for a picture with him. He was a good sport, but after the pic, he skipped over about 5 rows of cars.



Later on we got duped by Sunny D as she crawled out of the gutter - 'buuuuUUUuuuuery meeEEeeee' (roman DM voice), but the humor we derived from it the rest of the night was priceless. After all, we are all just pieces of a few different puzzles.



Had GA's but just picked out a row near where we were friday and met up with Casey & Kate's crew again who saved the evening. And what an evening it turned out to be. Amazing first set - digging deep with 'Curtain', 'Mound', 'PYITE' and 'Tube'. Steph had gone to Sonic Youth the night before and was awesome enough to buy me a t-shirt with a big eye on it. Of course this was endless fun during 'PYITE'. 'Alaska' was a groovy new tune, and 'Antelope' was a nice cap to the set.



Friday we got a song each from 3 of the halloween cover albums, and tonight we got 'Rock and Roll' with an excellent end jam to round out the 4th. A solid 'Free' and a rare 'Esther' were also highlights. 'Dirt' gave us a chance to breath before 'Hood' rounded out the set. I've always been a big fan of 'Sleeping Monkey' so I was excited for that, and you can't go wrong with a 'First Tube'. Post show we tried to get a better jump on traffic, but it was saturday so people were partying on in the lot. Made it back to Jacq's pretty late, watched our slideshow, and Wink & Andy stayed up until Wink caught his shuttle to the airport at 7.

Set One
AC/DC Bag
The Curtain With
Mound
Gotta Jibboo
Guyute
Punch You in the Eye
Tube
Alaska
Run Like An Antelope

Set Two
Rock and Roll
Down With Disease > Free
Esther
Dirt
Harry Hood

Encore
Sleeping Monkey
First Tube

day 2

Woke up around 10, headed home quickly to gear up for day 2, then met up with Wink who had just flown in the night before, over at Jacq's. Had lunch at the Sounthern Sun with him & Andy, then Jacq met up with us and we headed back to Morrison. Hit the upper north lot again and had subs for dinner. The lot was a bit more active than thursday.



We had reserved seats in row 45 so we headed in a bit later, around 7, since phish hit the stage around 8 the night before.



Made friends with our neighbors who were some super cool folks from Aspen - we grooved with them the rest of the show. Started getting some rain towards the middle of the first set, homage paid with 'Water in the Sky', and it really started coming down during 'Melt' and set break. Excellent 'Bathtub', 'Stealing Time', and 'Melt'. Set break took forever, and an announcer had to come on to let everyone know the show would be delayed a bit longer because of the rain.

Performed some inner poncho wizardry during the break, then we were in for a treat and pretty much got blown away once they started up again with the 'Drowned' > 'Crosseyed' double whammy set opener. 'Joy' & 'Numberline' were nice upbeat new tracks, and 'Fluffhead' > 'Piper' > 'Day in the Life' were epic. And of course so was the 'Suzy' > 'Tweeprize' encore. Hung out with our new pals for a while after the show, and got stuck in lot traffic forever. Made it back to Steph's pretty late and fell asleep watching Killer Clowns From Outer Space.

Set One
Runaway Jim
Chalk Dust Torture
Bathtub Gin
Time Turns Elastic
Lawn Boy
Water In The Sky
Stealing Time From The Faulty Plan
Split Open and Melt

Set Two
Drowned > Crosseyed and Painless
Joy
Tweezer > Backwards Down The Numberline
Fluffhead > Piper > A Day in the Life

Encore
Suzy Greenberg > Tweezer Reprise