rafting expedition

Got up bright and early and headed to Leadville to meet up with the other car full of guys en route to Renn's bachelor party rafting trip just north of Buena Vista. After a nice brunch at the Tennessee Pass Cafe, we headed to teh outpost and packed all of of our gear (and beer) into water proof bags, wetsuited up, and hopped on a bus to go to the launch point. The 8 of us were part of a group of 23, plus 6 guides. Two guides were in charge of the gear, and the other 4 manned the 6 person rafts. After a quick succession of rapids, waters were a bit calmer on our approach to the campsite in Brown's Canyon. Then it started raining and got kind of cold. Not too long after we landed, however, the sun popped out and we could set up camp. The guides were in charge of cooking up our meals, which was pretty sweet - we had steak, corn on the cob & baked potatoes. After dinner we all just hung out around the fire until , myself, Andy, and Renn were the last one's (sort of) standing.



After a killer breakfast of blueberry pancakes, bacon, and leftover steak cooked in bacon grease, we hit the river again. This second run was rife with rapids and at one point we pulled off to shore and went rock jumping.





After we got to the rendevous point, we had some PB&J's loaded up on the bus and headed back to teh oupost. We rafted approximately 20 miles start to finish. On the way back the road was closed for a head on collision from some idiot passing in a dangerous spot. We got a late start leaving the outpost and hit some bad sunday mountain traffic from Georgtown > Idaho Springs. Got home and passed out after eating dinner - phew!

sox vs. rox encore presentation

The Red Sox were back in town for the first time since they swept the Rockies in the 2007 World Series. Tuesday night, I went with Paul, and it was a low scoring game right up to the end, when the Rockies prevailed 2-1. Wednesday I watched from the comfort of the couch and the Rockies won with spectacular 2-run walk off homer from Giambi. Thursday night, Steph & I headed to the game after grabbing some subs en route. It was a battle of the bats, this time with Pedroia getting a 2-run walk off homer in the 10th. My two favorite teams so I didn't really care who won, although I was pulling a bit for the Rockies.

gimme indie rock

Grilled cod for dinner. Then I remembered I had scored free tix to the Lou Barlow show at the Larimer. His set didn't start 'til about 11, and Steph had running in the AM, so I solo trekked it. Lou started the show with a handful of solo acoustic numbers - 'Magnet's Coil', 'Natural One', 'Home'. Then the Missingmen joined him on guitar and drums (Lou triggered bass with foot pedals). The guitarist, Tom Watson, actually crashed on my couch at the Compound when he was playing with Mike Watt years ago. They played mostly material Lou's two recent solo albums, plus some classic Sentridoh. To finish up, Lou took the stage solo again playing requests - we got 'Skull', 'Soul & Fire', and 'Beauty of the Ride'. They hung out afterwards chatting - friendly folks.



Saturday morning I ran errands - oil change, picked up new headlights, and got the squeaky rear brake fixed. That afternoon we headed into Denver for the Westword Music Fest. Traffic was wonky around the capitol because there was some other city festival running concurrently, but we found a sweet parking spot. Had some lunch at The Cherokee bar & grill which was empty - we had the place to ourselves, a little creepy. After lunch we headed in for the Neon Indian set which was decent, but the crowd was packed with some phazed out attendees (the fest had started earlier in the day) so we retreated to the side a bit. Dirty Projectors were up next and they played a solid set of their avant angular quirk. They also succeeded in thinning the crowd so we were able to get a great spot up front for Superchunk, who ripped through their hour long set with aplomb despite not having toured for the past 9 years or so. We headed back home after their set, skipping out on the headliners Ghostland Observatory since that would have been a major drunk fest and Steph had a tri to run the next morning!



Set:
cool
detroit has a skyline
digging for something
seed toss
hellow hawk
punch me harder
art class (song for yayoi kusama)
like a fool
iron on
nu bruises
learned to surf
driveway to driveway
the first part
slack motherfucker
precision auto

(audio at: COTapers)

Sunday was steph's tri - another sprint, but a bit longer than the previous one. I got to the res just after 8am, and just missed her swim>bike transition, but caught the rest - she nailed the time she wanted and placed well within her age group!



Shortly after the race, the rest of the fam met up with us for a father's day picnic down on the beach. We had a great spread with fried chicken, pasta salads, cheeses (which got a bit melty in the sun), and this badass cake:



The rest of the afternoon, we chilled at home and caught up with some netflix - Pirate Radio, Fabulous Mr. Fox, and Crazy Heart.

rainy cold rain

Brrr - cold & rainy front rolled in thursday night. Had a pretty casual weekend overall, watched the usa / england match saturday and other assorted tele. Ultimate laziness. I finally got out of the house when we hit up Old Chicago's in louisville for dinner. Picked up some fancy new brews we hadn't tried yet on the way back to the hut

Sunday, I bottled the fresh batch of Stephaweizen!

weekend of parties

When we were at Bacaro last week, we met a friend of Gina's who had just moved into a new house in our neighborhood. And what does one do when they move into a new place? Housewarming party! And this one was close enough that we rolled our cooler over on an old crappy skateboad. We got there and the party was in full swing. Her front room had no furniture yet, so it was designated as the dance room, as we were encouraged to bring mp3 players and cds, but alas no cd player was hooked up. Met some cool folks, including one guy who clued me into his drinking club which, I have since discovered, is responsible for those wild hot tub parties at A-Basin.



Saturday when Steph returned from running, we hit up the pool for a while. Then we headed over to 3959 for Jacq & Andy's housewarming party, which went by in a whirlwind, culminating in some late night dancing in the living for us die-hards. After stocking up on the leftovers from the deli tray, we called it a night. Pretty much vegged out all day sunday, recovering the previous two nights!

the black keys

I had snagged a ticket to the Black Keys somewhat at the last minute (a week before selling out) after being blown away by their new disc. I met up with a friend of mine down at the Fillmore and we nabbed a nice spot nearish the front after the opener was through. The core duo kicked off the show with earlier material, then were joined by a bass & keys player to flesh out the sound for the newer stuff before finishing up the set with oldies. Two song encore et voila! These guys are intense live - I highly recommend.





Set:
Thickfreakness
Girl Is On My Mind
10 AM Automatic
Set You Free
Breaks
Stack Shot Billy
Busted
Everywhere I Go
Strange Times
Same Old Thing
Tighten Up
Howlin' For You
Too Afraid To Love You
Next Girl
The Only One
She's Long Gone
Ten Cent Pistol
Your Touch
I'll Be Your Man
No Trust
I Got Mine

Encore:
Everlasting Light
Till I Get My Way

mem day weekend

Official kick off to summer! Grabbed lunch with Steph at Salvaggios, then hit up the mega tent sale at the Boulder Running Company so steph could get some quick new replacement sneaks since she had no access to her office where she had left her usual pair. Afterwards, we met up with Jacq & Andy on the Lazy Dog rooftop saturday for some snacks & drinks, then reconvened over at Bacaro once it started raining and met up with some more folks.

Sunday was casual. That afternoon, I went suit shopping with Paul so I would be well-attired for upcoming summer weddings and for general dapperness. I wound up selecting a nice charcoal number from the republic of bananas.

Later that night, Steph's sister came to town for the Boulder Bolder. An early rise monday so I could shuttle Steph and Gretchen to the race. After dropping them off and taking a stellar, traffic-free route to the hill, I parked and grabbed a Santiago's breakfast burrito and headed to the stadium for the finish.



After the ladies were done with their race, we feasted on BBQ with the fam & folks over at 3959.