Muscle Beach

b-day pizza week

2011-08-22T11:08:00.000-06:00

Wednesday we celebrated my birthday at hillside with pizza & homemade mint chocolate chip ice cream. And on friday we had a b-day happy hour at Lucky Pie with pizza & brews. Nom nom nom. Most of the weekend was spent on last minute wedding prep. Here's a picture I must have taken in a zenlike moment of the tree out back.

party lights corporation

2011-08-16T14:32:00.003-06:00

Friday night I had the house to myself since Steph had gone to her mom's. She was running the Georgetown 1/2 marathon the next morning. I watched Your Highness which was no where's near as funny as I'd hoped it would be.

On my birthday I caught a ride over to 3959 with Paul who wanted to check out the new bathroom. From there we packed up the party voit picked up Donna & Robin and we met up with Steph for some tailgate action at Red Rocks.

After grilling and soaking up some libations, we headed into the show and watched Skream drill home some dubstep. Here's a brief sample:

Next up was Pretty Lights, also delivering the goods. Amazing that they sold out red rocks and the place was going nuts. The show went much later than we had expected, so Steph & I bowed out a bit early.

Luckily we were staying in Evergreen so we had a quick drive. Sunday we lounged about and watched random old movies on TV. I had won a pair of Thievery Corporation tickets so we rocked the tailgate action aagain, although on the mellower tip. It was threatening rain a bit, but we only ever caught a few sprinkles. We met up with Keith & Carley and some of their friends who had scored some decent seats behind the soundboard. Not sure why this video is all blurry since we were pretty close:

We were pretty wiped from the night before so we wound up hitting the road towards the end of the set.

Set:
A Warning (dub)
Web Of Deception
Culture of Fear
Lebanese Blonde
Take My Soul
Until the Morning
Liberation Front
Radio Retaliation
The Numbers Game
Is It Over?
33 Degree
Overstand
Illumination
All That We Perceive
Amerimacka
Vampires
Mandala
La Femme Parallel
The Heart's a Lonely Hunter
Assault on Babylon
Sound the Alarm
Warning Shots

E:
(The Forgotten People)
Sweet Tides
The Richest Man in Babylon
Marching the Hate Machines (Into the Sun)

santa fe

2011-08-08T13:22:00.004-06:00

Thursday I bottled up the Preo Farmhouse Ale (ginger saison) so it would hopefully be ready in time for our wedding.

Friday Steph got out of work early and we packed up and headed to Tina's hut in denver. She was running late since it was her last day of work and they were throwing her a party. from there we picked up Liz and finally hit the road to Santa Fe for Gina & Oz's wedding the next day. Most of the trip was in the dark, and we eventually rolled into town around 2am.

The next morning we had some dunkin donuts and did some shopping in town. The highlight of which was Kowboyz which specialized in used western wear.

There was some kind of artist festival going on, and we were lucky to squeeze up to a courtyard bar for a quick drink before we started getting ready for the festivities.

We had just called a cab when Kenny pulled up and gave us all a ride which was sure swell. The ceremony was at this cool house/compound type place and the ceremony was in the front yard area.

After a cocktail hour, we had a delicious southwestern themed dinner.

The night continued with dancing and much merriment.

We cabbed it back to the hotey after a quick stop at a mcdonalds for some late night snacks. The next morning we had to swing back by the compound so Tina could get her shoes that she had lent Gina since it was her only pair. We hung out there for a while, trying to put a dent in the remaining kegs and finding old vintage cars and nifty yart.

From there we went to some awesome place for breakfast, but the name of the place escapes me. And then, on John's recommendation decided to take the 'scenic route' through Taos since it was only 'an extra 7 minutes'. More like 4 hours, but we made a day of it. Of course right when we were about to get back on the highway, it was shut down at the border for a couple hours due to a tour bus on fire. Ahhhhh, rooAad trips!

racey

2011-08-01T14:22:00.004-06:00

Saturday morning I went back to Posterscene where i had picked up a couple of prints earlier in the week with a groupon. I had my eye on these prints for a while since we went to the shows. But when the guy rolled them up he bent them, and one wasn't signed and numbered as it should have been. Swapping them out was no prob though. Afterwards I met up with Steph & Gretchen for lunch at Backcountry. They had just finished a 10k, and we had a great pizza.

ginger saison & kyle's brew fest

2011-07-25T13:24:00.002-06:00

With our wedding celebration right around the corner, it was time for me to start brewing up our farmhouse ale - a ginger saison. The special ingredient - diced candied ginger:

Brewing went off without a hitch on a nice summer day, shaded by the big tree out back. Chillin' the wort:

French farmhouse yeast added and carboyed!

Saturday was Kyle's Brewfest at Boulder Beer. Kyle is (was?) the keyboardist from SCI. Not really a fan, but for $25 you got all the free samples of beer, a hamburger, and a souvenir pint glass. The band was essentially back ground music while we tried out brews from the (mostly) colorado breweries in attendance.

Kyle also worked on some collaborations with local breweries for limited release. This offering from Avery being my fave:

There was another I can't recall (pretty sure it was from Great Divide, and his new flagship beer for Boulder Beer:

After the fest we went back to Jeff's pool and mowed some Snarf's subs for dinner.

BAT TL ES

2011-07-20T13:05:00.002-06:00

Scored a free ticket for the Battles show at the Bluebird Tuesday night, and boy was it a hum dinger! I caught them in '07 with Tyondai Braxton and they did just as good of a job, if not better, without him. Check out my video below for 'Wall Street' > 'Ice Cream'.

I do not have the selist, but more vids are available on my youtube channel...

longmont libations

2011-07-18T12:42:00.002-06:00

Wed we met up with Carley for a free concert at Waneka, our new entertainment mecca. The band was called Funkifino or something and they were fun playing mostly covers and funkin' it up.

Saturday we went over to 3959 to pick up some old fence boards we plan on using for wedding signage. Afterwards we headed to Lefthand and had a few samples. They didn't have much on tap that we hadn't already tried so we hopped over to Liquids & Solids for some grub and a more exciting variety of brews.

Chilled out that evening and watched some movies. Sunday we watched the World Cup final, which was kind of a let down after the awesome game against Brazil last week.

a nice pair

2011-07-11T12:17:00.002-06:00

Saturday afternoon we headed in Denver to check out a couple of breweries we had yet to go to. First stop was the new kid on the block, Strange Brewing, tucked away in an industrial area near Mile High.

Still only producing kegs & growlers, we tried their current full line of offerings. I really enjoyed their Tainted Black Pale and the Cherry Kriek.

We stopped at the Lobby for some between brewery snacks.

Next stop was Great Divide, one of my favorite Colorado breweries. We took the tour and I spotted this tasty looking batch of Hibernation aging in Stranahan's whiskey barrels since march. The regular Hibernation is already in stores, and I cannot wait to score some of this.

Had a few samples, including the Grand Cru and all three of the Yeti varietals on tap.

Good beer deserves good rewards - here's their GABF medal wall.

After the Divide we met up with Kim and a bunch of folks for her birthday dinner at a sushi joint in LoDo.

Sunday we watched the exhilarating US / Brazil women's world cup semi final which was a nailbiter!

14er of july

2011-07-05T18:24:00.001-06:00

For 4th of July weekend, Steph & I went camping up off Guenilla Pass. We headed up friday and found a nice secluded spot a bit off the road. Once we set up camp, we went for a short hike checking out the flora & fauna nearby.

We also had a nice raging river close to us.

The biggest score was this fire pit the previous campers had left behind.

Choppin' wood for the massive pit.

Fire pit in action!

Saturday morning we planned on hiking the Bierstadt 14er, but when we got up to my car, the front tires were way low on air. I had a similar problem wit the rear tires a couple weeks ago - the bead seal was leaking from years of crud on the wheels. So we had to go to Evergreen to the Big O and get them resealed so we wouldn't wind up stranded on the pass. We had to wait a while and got some breakfast at a baglery. By the time it was all done, we missed the window to finsih the hike before adverse weather, so we just headed back to our campsite and chillaxed.

Sunday morning we headed back home and spent the day unpacking/cleaning/etc.

Monday morning Steph raced in the Avery 4k on the 4th race behind the brewery. We met up with Barb and some other F4 folks and bumped into Greg whose mom was running (and won 2nd in her age group). After beers & breakfast we headed home and prepped for our BBQ with Meg & Paul. After dinner we walked to Waneka for the revival of the Lafayette fireworks which were dang good for a small town.

meaty beaty big and braggotty

2011-06-30T15:28:00.003-06:00

Tuesday I bottled up the Bee Boy Braggot. Very curious to try this as well, should compliment the Kiwit well for refreshing summer brews. I had the radio on while I was sanitizing my equipment and scored a free pair of tickets to see the Meat Puppets on wednesday - awesome!

At the show, I bumped into Miko, one of my old glass blowing friends from Diablo who, coincidentally enough, had also won tickets.

The show wasn't too crowded and we had a killer view. The band was having a great time, and played a phenomenal set. We only got one track from their excellent new album, but their were plenty of other highlights, one of which was a wicked cover of the Beach Boy's 'Sloop John B'. Of course I spaced catching a video of that, so here's 'Sam' instead:

Set:
I'm a Mindless Idiot
Plateau
The Monkey and the Snake
Up on the Sun
Comin' Down
Wasted Days and Wasted Nights
Oh, Me
Touchdown King
Sam
Lost
Hey Baby Que Paso
Confusion Fog
Light
Lantern
Backwater
Swimming Ground
Seal Whales
Sloop John B
Lake of Fire
E:
My Baby's Gone
The Battle Hymn of the Republic

You can stream or download a copy of the show over at Live Archive.

-enjoy!

the mighty st. vrain

2011-06-27T14:29:00.001-06:00

Wednesday night we had dinner over at Barb's where we sampled a bunch of my homebrews. Friday we met up at the Rio for some drinks to celebrate Lauren's b-day.

Saturday morning Steph & I headed up somewhere between Ward & Jamestown for a short backpacking trip up along the St. Vrain, which was raging. We took the snowmobile route and pretty much had the trail to ourselves save for an expedition of Jeeps heading down the trail at one point. After about 3-4 miles, we opted to set up camp since portions of the trail were pretty washed out. And we found the perfect spot where someone had crafted a pretty swanky bench near the fire pit.

Since the river was going full-force, I crafted a little mini fridge off to the side where some run-off had created a nice pool I re-enforced with some rocks so our beverages wouldn't get swept away.

Sitting near the banks provided us with a nice place to cool down and ponder.

We headed back out in the morning, and the trip was a success - we were mainly trying out a bunch of new gear and making sure we didn't bring too much stuff or deciding if we needed anything else.

yo la westword

2011-06-20T11:45:00.005-06:00

Friday I bottled the Kiwit. I'm looking forward to see how this one turned out.

Saturday we headed to downtown Denver for the annual Westord Music Fest. Traffic was a bit zany since it was gay pride weekend also, and I had to pull a little 'oops I didn't notice this was a one-way street' maneuver to get into the Sheraton parking garage.

We grabbed some subs at the Mellow Mushroom on the 16th Street Mall before heading over to the golden triangle for the festival, and got there right when the Sword were finishing up.

Del the Funky Homosapien was up next and put on a lively set - he performed a bunch of songs from across his various projects including 'Clint Eastwood' for his encore.

The crowd thinned a bit, so we moved up in front of the soundboard for Yo La's set. They were on the Spinning Wheel tour, but played a regular set since it was a festival setting. Still some sweet breakouts.

Set:
Big Day Coming
Evanescent Psychic Pez Drop
Today Is The Day
If It's True
Mr. Tough
You Can Have It All
Deeper Into Movies
Nothing To Hide
Tom Courtenay
Sugarcube
Little Honda
By The Time It Gets Dark

Chromeo was this year's headliner and they hit the stage right when it started getting dark and performed a fun filled set which had us dancin' with fancy footwork.

Set:
Intro
Don't Turn The Lights On
I'm Not Contagious
Outta Sight
Tenderoni
Call Me Up
Hot Mess
Waiting 4 U
Bonafied Lovin (Tough Guys)
You're So Gangsta
Momma's Boy
Night By Night
Fancy Footwork
Needy Girl
Grow Up

After the show was over, we went back to Mellow Mushroom and picked up a pizza for the room. I love that place, and wish the one they used to have in Boulder would have lasted.

Sunday we took it easy and had a relaxing father's day BBQ at 3959.

ra ra rochester

2011-06-17T10:32:00.007-06:00

Left the house at 4am to catch an early flight to Cleveland, and then luckily our three hour layover was erased when we got bumped to an earlier flight. So we got to Rochester a few hours earlier than planned which was nice. My step-aunt(?) Bobette picked us up in grandpa's swanky crown vic and we checked into the wrong hotel (we discovered later when the budget inn down the road called to ask where we were). But this one was actually closer to grandpa's house so it worked out.

After we settled in, we picked up grandpa and headed to Olive Garden. At 93, he was still sharp as a whip cracking jokes, and could get around with just a cane. After dinner, he whipped up a round of manhattans for us and we watched old comedy videos.

Grandpa's usual routine includes watching classic movies until 2am and then getting up around noon. So tuesday morning me & my dad took in the sites around the city. We started off at the Kodak House/Museum. They were in between exhibits but still had some of the civil war stuff that had not yet been taken down, and of course all the old cameras.

We also toured the Eastman house and watched an interesting movie about how he created his photo empire.

We had worked up quite the appetite, so we headed over to the Seabreeze area to get some good ol' fashioned white hots and onion rings.

After lunch we stopped at Abbot's Custard and took a quick look at lake Superior. We took a tour through Greece and saw all the old houses my dad lived in before heading back to the downtown area. We took a look at the new Red Wings stadium (a farm league for the Twins), when we spotted the Genessee brewery in the distance!

We walked across the High Falls Bridge.

And the brewery was on the other side a ways off. So we decided to go back, grab the car, and try to find some sort of tap room and get a tour.

We eventually found the main office, with a single security guard and this nifty display case. The guard was super friendly and gave us a rundown of how they almost went out of business when Boston Beer company stopped using them as a bottling facility when they bought Old Latrobe. Luckily they got some investment capital and took over operations for Labatt's, Dundee, and Pyramid along with some other small regional NY breweries. He also told us there were no brewery tours at the moment but they were planning on building a new taphouse restaurant, gift shop and the works in the coming year.

Then he hooked us up with some sales rep who took us out to his van in the parking lot and gave us a ton of stuff - coozies, hats, and a bunch of t-shirts. (Edit to add - the security guard sent me another box of t-shirts in the mail a couple weeks later!)

After our adventures we headed back to gramp's and went to a local italian joint for dinner where he was on a first name basis with the owner - Micelli's. After dinner we headed back to his pad and we had some local beers and stayed up late again talking about old stories and family history.

Wednesday morning we went to checkout downtown Fairport and the Erie canal. We had hoped the draw bridge would eventually raise but no luck.

We got some great subs for lunch at Dibellas, then worked on packing and shipping some of grandpa's electronics, cameras & a telescope. That evening we ordered pizza and watched the Bruins win the Stanley Cup!

a place to bury junk

2011-06-12T11:50:00.001-06:00

Friday night we met up with Lizzy at the Vine Street Pub (the Mountain Sun of denver) for dinner. Most of the same brews at the boulder locations, but they also had a black IPA which stood out. I had one of the sandy specials - some type of cuban. After dinner we headed over to the Bluebird to catch A Place to Bury Strangers and the Overcasters since I had scored some free tix. The show was wicked loud, pretty dark, and extremely intense - it took the wind out of me.

Saturday was the community yardsale here at Milo. It was really more like the community junk showing. LauRenn joined us for a bit, and we pretty much just donated everything to goodwill once the clock struck noon.

burger time

2011-06-06T15:05:00.000-06:00

Friday night we walked over to Carley's for a burger cook off. Our contribution was a greek burger, right in theme with our neighborhood. It was a lamb burger with feta, cucumber sauce, and banana peppers on a pita - yum! I don't really recall any of the other submissions because there were so many and they all started to blend after a while. And it's always handy when you can stumble across the street and you're home!

Saturday we took it easy, eventually riding bikes down the Coal Creek path to downtown Louisville for a picnic. We finally cracked the Odell Friek we had, and it was darn tasty - a sweet sour!

up the poudre

2011-05-31T14:36:00.002-06:00

Memorial day weekend camping time! Since I've had the past several months off, I headed up to Fort Collins early on friday to search out a good spot until the rest of the gang arrived. Lots of folks had the same idea, and for a while I got stuck in traffic behind the truck painting lines on the road. All the obvious spots were pretty much filled up, but more ground became available the further I went. I finally found this bridge that led to a dirt road with lots of secluded areas.

I settled on this one spot a short hike downhill from the road - even though we weren't near the river we had total seclusion. Luckily I had had cell reception if I stood on top of my car so I could radio my location to the others. I set up camp and started a fire, and when they arrived we got our fajita dinner started up. The weather started taking a turn from the nice sun we had earlier in the day, and we wound up with a cold drizzle the rest of the weekend - not what we had hoped but oh well! Luckily some psychos had cut down a ton of trees so firewood was bountiful.

Saturday afternoon we explored our surroundings on a hike.

We checked out the local fauna.

And came across a fresh deer hoof.

Likely food for whatever bear was using the trees as a scratching post.

We busted out some snacks and continued fueling the fire. Later that night we had a pasta dinner. By sunday morning we were ready to split, which was what we had originally planned. We stopped off in downtown Fort Collins at a brew pub for some lunch before heading home.

Chillaxed and aired out our gear sunday. Had a BBQ at hillside on memorial day proper.

bee boy braggot funpark

2011-05-24T16:27:00.004-06:00

Friday I met up with Jacq for coffee and to give her b-day gift which finally arrived. The I ran a bunch of errands in the crazy weather which included wiping a pile of hail off my car. Then I met up with Steph at Boulder Beer for happy hour on our 6-month anniversary.

Saturday morning I started straining the honeycomb Renn had given me last week. It was a much slower, and messier process than I had anticipated. The day was beginning to get away from us for brewing the actual braggot, so I made a quick run to Sunflower to make up the difference in honey weight we still needed for my recipe.

The day was beginning to get away from us for brewing the actual braggot, so I made a quick run to Sunflower to make up the difference in weight we still needed.

Once the boil began and we added the malt extract and honey, a swarm of honey bees descended upon us on the back porch. They were harmless and really just going nuts at the smell of the sweet honey and malt boil. Once I added the hops they dissipated a bit. But we now had mascots and a name for the brew = Bee Boy Braggot.

Later that night after we were done brewing, we cooked up a rack of ribs for dinner and watched The Tourist, which was ok.

Sunday Steph had a bridal shower in the AM, but when she got back we met up with LauRenn at the NoBo Funpark to take advantage of some groupons - 36 holes of mini golf, 2 rounds of go-karting, and some skiball - fun fun fun fun.

For dinner we tried out the new place at 29th Street - ZPizza, and we had a darn good Tuscan pie. After the Sox Cubs game ended, we watched Game of Thrones and Treme.

brew crazy revisited

2011-05-16T15:07:00.004-06:00

A nice rainy night on wednesday I went to my first meeting of the Indian Peak Alers, and invite I received from John whom I'd met at the AHA party last week. This group usually meets at Lefthand, but tonight they were at the Tasty Weasel at Oskar Blues - both surprisingly just a quick jaunt down 287 in Longmont. The theme for the night was cask & wood aged beers and luckily I still had some of my french oak chip aged IPA Rocktane to share with the group. Considering that it was only my second brew ever, I was surprised at how well received it was. On the night, I also tried samples of a chaiPA, oak aged imperial stout, pliny the elder clone, apricot wheat, and a couple more I cannot recall. The guest speaker was a brewer at OSB who spoke about cask aging. One member had made some pretty sweet coasters out of bamaboo as a thank you for a big brew day they had done last saturady and I scored ~4 lbs of pale malt which was extar from a large buy they had done. All in all a pretty solid group of about 35 folks. I think I'll visit with them again.

Thursday I bottled the Red (Sox) RyePA, since it was bout a week overdue and next month's aler's meeting theme was IPAs.

It had been raining all week and friday was the first day I had a chance to cook my Kiwit. I was beginning to worry about the 4 pounds of kiwi I'd purchased the week prior, but it turned out just fine - they were a bit easier to peel after having ripened a bit. What a messy brew - my first foray into brewing with fruit. This should be a perfect summer sipper!

Steph was out of town with her sister until sunday. So saturday I headed over to 3959 to meet up with Jacq & Andy before we went to Ryder's 2nd b-day at the park of Violet. It was once again cool & rainy, but it got damp cold as soon as we showed up to the park. No one was ready for such a soggy chill, so after about 45 minutes the party was called a wash. We went back to 3959 for some margs and some sotring through Andy's newly acquired terabyte of choons to pick things out I thought they might groove on. Then on my way home I swung by LauRenn's to pick up some honey from Renn's hives for a braggott I plan on making soon. When I got back to Milo I finished up watching the Bruins (loss) and the Red Sox (win).

Sunday when Steph got home we watched Middle Men which was a surprisingly good film about the precursor to paypal. And then we went shopping for some dinner ingredients and Steph whipped up a sweet fresh tortellini dish. Nom nom nom.

party to the 4th power

2011-05-09T14:30:00.004-06:00

Friday I battled my way through campus graduation traffic and picked up Steph then headed to NoBo park for Jeff's graduation party. They were a bit late getting there and set up so we drove to a couple of other nearby parks just in case we had the wrong one. Alas we did not. Once we got under way, he had quite the food spread and of course grilling action. But perhaps, most important was the tapping of the 4Cs IPa keg we had brewed only ~3 weeks ago. Jeff had added some extra priming sugar and with the CO2 tank, she was ready to go. Quite tasty and well received as the 5 gallon keg was tapped by the end of the afternoon.

After Jeff's party, Steph & I grabbed some coffee at Trident to gear up for our next event - the National Homebrew celebration party at the Brewer's Association rooftop. Lots of unique and tasty beers on tap - india dark kolsch, peach ipa, porter, wee heavey - and those were just the kegs. Many folks had brought some of their specialty beers in bombers and there were plenty of exciting pours to be had. I met a whole bunch of folks who invited me to join their brew clubs which I'd never really explored before. I hope to take a few of them up on the offer!

Saturday, we went to a Kentucky derby party at Bridget's loft over by the pepsi can. We had a solid spread of apps and mint julips & mojitos were the signature drinks on the day. For the race, we all chose horses names out of a hat - mine are below. After the 2 minute race, Matt wanted busted out the grill and we had BBQ dinner.

And on Sunday, Jacq hosted a mother's day party for Meg & Jane with a spread from Panera's. Lauren also whipped up a salad recipe from ModMarket, and Steph brought over more of her mint julip cake which was a big hit at the Derby party as well.

Whew - busy weekend!

mogwai

2011-05-03T14:18:00.000-06:00

Last night I finally got a chance to see Mogwai. Steph had class so I headed out solo to the sold out show at the Bluebird. Scored a sweet print when I walked in, and got a sweet spot near the front off to the side - double sweet. Errors opened the show and they were very mathy sounding, but decent. Their drummer was playing double duty with both bands since Martin was unable to make it stateside. Mogwai was downright superb, and I will likely never miss another show if I can help it. Apparently video was not allowed so here's the one minute I snapped before I was told to cease.

Set:
White Noise
Friend of the Night
Rano Pano
Death Rays
I'm Jim Morrison, I'm Dead
San Pedro
Mexican Grand Prix
How to Be a Werewolf
New Paths to Helicon Part 1
You're Lionel Richie
George Square Thatcher Death Party
Mogwai Fear Satan

E:
Auto Rock
Hasenheide
Batcat

jacq's b-day '11

2011-05-02T14:03:00.001-06:00

We all met up at Tahona on saturday for Jacq's birthday celebration. Of course the weather was rainy per usual, and it even snowed for 20 minutes.

After happy hour was over, a smaller group of us made our way over to the West End and we sampled a bunch of their big brew selection on tap.

Sunday I watched most of the first season of Justified while Steph did homework.

easter '11

2011-04-27T13:45:00.002-06:00

Sunday for easter we spent the morning at hillside having a salmon brunch, then the evening in Monument at Gretchen's where we had Tony's killer braciola and eventually wound up playing Just Dance with the young 'uns.

Last night I was supposed to go to see TV on the Radio at the Ogden, but it was canceled due to the bass player, Gerrard Smiths untimely passing. So instead I joined Steph for the backpacking lecture at REI since we are planning some trips this summer.

brew crazy

2011-04-19T10:49:00.001-06:00

Friday afternoon I went over to Jeff's to help him brew 4 C's IPA for his graduation party. Steph came over after work and then we all ate dinner.

Saturday morning Steph was having brunch in denver and I had the brewing itch so I busted out the burner and cooked up the red ryePA I already had all the ingredients for from my rye kick. The guy at Asher was telling how they boiled everything for 90 minutes instead of 60 because of the altitude. So with this batch, I boiled the malts an extra 20 minutes before the hop additions (I would have gone 30, but I noticed I was running out of propane). I decided to call this batch Red (Sox) RyePA as some good mojo to get them out of their slumping start to the season. I wore my Boston cap and cranked out the Bosstones on the boombox while I brewed. Let's hope it works!

Later that night we grilled these massive italian sausages we picked up at Sunflower. While I grilled, Steph cooked up some green peppers, jalepenos, and habeneros. Put it all on a bun with some provolone and we had pepper bombs - seriously they were darn hot!

Sunday we drove to Breckenridge to scope out this sweet house we wanted to use for our wedding reception, but unfortunately it had no real outdoor yard area. We also checked out some cupcakeries and even found the cafe in Dillon we got lost looking for a few weeks ago.

The brew fest continued on monday when I bottled up my roggenbier, now named Good Rye & Good Luck thanks to Steph.

arcade fire

2011-04-12T10:42:00.000-06:00

Saturday LauRenn came over and we grilled out, before heading to the 1st Bass Center for the first night of Arcade Fire's current tour. We scored some decent seats, and were in time to catch Local Natives, who were great.

Arcade Fire's stage looked like an old drive in movie theatre, which added to the 'suburb' theme quite nicely. They put on a great show and the newer material was much more exciting performed live. Glad we finally got a chance to see them, and hot on the heels of their Grammy win.

Set:
Ready to Start
Keep the Car Running
Modern Man
Neighborhood #2 (Laika)
No Cars Go
Haiti
Empty Room
Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)
Rococo
Intervention
The Suburbs
The Suburbs (Continued)
Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)
We Used to Wait
Wake Up
E:
Month of May
Rebellion (Lies)

cwa & rox

2011-04-10T10:34:00.001-06:00

Tuesday I went to the Conference on World Affairs at CU. The topic was "Katy, Ke$ha & Gaga - the New Feminism", but the main reason I chose this one was because Jello Biaffra was on the panel. All of the panelists were pretty good especially the Irish woman and Jello was pretty funny - he decided it was pronounced 'Casha' since she had a dollar sign in her name. The guy that was kind of useless was the record label exec - he didn't have much to add because he was too PC.

Wednesday I went to the Rockies / Dodgers game with Paul. The weather threatened rain all day, but we lucked out. And the Rockies won 7-5!

Friday I met up at Ozo for lunch with Jacq, bought some new hiking shoes with a bunch of accumulated gift cards from my unlce, and ran some other random errands.

toothless

2011-04-04T09:14:00.001-06:00

Tuesday I had my wisdom tooth pulled - it came out pretty easily. I was expecting some pain afterward so I hunkered down with a bunch of soup. Surprising, the aftermath was pretty tame. Friday we had a pot roast dinner with Meg & Paul over at hillside.

Saturday morning I went for a run then planted some morning glories out back since my neighbor gave me a bunch of pre-soaked seeds. Later that afternoon, we used our groupon for Asher Brewing which is a relatively new, all-organic brewery in Gunbarrel. We each got the samplers, then a pint and took home a growler of their Kolsch.

We had hoped to sync up with some folks in town to grab dinner, but we we didn't get in touch with anyone until we were almost home, so we tried out the new pizza joint in Louisville, Lucky Pie, who have a great beer selection. And then we got some ice cream next door.

the boat round two

2011-03-28T17:00:00.003-06:00

Friday morning we drove to steamboat, got lost trying to find a breakfast joint in Silverthorne - it's behind the school on the dirt road? Google maps be damned! We finally ate at some coffee shop which was good enough. Started the day over at sunnyside which was a solid sheet of ice, but luckily we were on the lift with a guide who recommended heading over to storm peak & the north facing runs which were MUCH better, and it hard snowed all day.

After a rockin' day on the slopes, we headed to our cool hotel downtown - the Nordic Lodge. The super friendly owner even gave us wine glasses from his place to use and a bogo dinner coupon at an italian restaurant he was way into right next door. And it was a yummy dinner. We were participating in a roundby round NCAA bracket, and Steph was currently in first place!

Saturday the mountain reported 5" of fresh but it seemed more like 8" in some places, and there was not a cloud in the sky! Pretty much rode the chutes all day - which had phenomenal snow.

Apré ski we walked over to the Mahogany Grill & Brewhouse happy hour for beers & tapas - the beers were safe, but refreshing. Later that night I picked up a deep dish pizza for dinner and we ate in our room watching whatever on the tele.

Sunday morning after breakfast, we took the scenic route home via 40.

rye rye rocco

2011-03-24T16:01:00.002-06:00

Tuesday I finally brewed my first batch of the year - a dry rye roggenbier. I also trimmed back the branches of the tree that kept hitting the house when it was windy.

Wednesday I went Winter Park with Paul. Had some Big Daddy Bagel sandys for breakfast and eventually met up with Renn & Brock on the Jane side. Conditions were perfect - it had snowed a bunch the night before and was nice and sunny, but not to hot. Stopped at Rocky Flats Lounge on the way home for a brew and watched some new kid get hazed by his tattoo shop co-workers - he was wrapped in duct tape from head to toe.

st. pat's & silverthorne

2011-03-21T15:34:00.000-06:00

Thursday I went for a teeth cleaning at the dentist and they decided it was time one of my remaining wisdom teeth came out - luckily not for another couple of weeks. Afterward I met up with Renn for St' Pat's at the Backcountry Grill & Taphouse which boasts 50 beers on tap. Steph soon joined us and Greg madea brief appearance. Had some tasty brews - Yeti, cask Dugana, and Highway 78.

Saturday Steph & I headed up to Copper. Conditions were springy and once again it was wicked windy at summit, but we still had a pretty solid day.

That night we got a cheap room in silverthorne and had dinner at the Dam Brewery.

Sunday we made it up to Winter Park for for a bit on our way home.

some intys

2011-03-14T14:52:00.001-06:00

Monday morning I had a phone interview for a job I really want - I think it went pretty well, even though phone intys are tough because it's hard to gauge the interviewer's reactions via body language.

Tuesday I headed up to Winter Park with Andy. It had snowed a snowed a bit and there were good powder caches in the Parsen Bowl trees, although it was wicked windy on the ridge.

Wednesday we met up with L-town folk for happy hour at Cactus Wheel - not the best beer selection, but their tequila list was extremely tempting, and so I indulged. They also had great taco sliders for cheap.

I guess the phone inty went well, because I had an in-person interview on friday afternoon. Although I was slightly overdressed in a tie, the interview went great. Now I just have to hurry up and wait to hear back...

Saturday, did some shopping at the mall with Stepha, then had a couple brews at CB Potts. Go suburbia!

jean spot '11

2011-03-07T16:34:00.000-07:00

Friday afternoon I met up with Jean, who was in town for the weekend, on pearl street for a brew at Old Chicagos while we waited for the rest of the gang to get out of work. I had the Myrcenary, a new double IPA from Odells - delish. Then we headed over to good ol' Bacarro for tapas & sangria before grabbing one last round at the West End - they had Dogfish Head's Burton Baton on tap so I tried a snifter of that which was also rather yummy.

Saturday we celebrated Andy's b-day with a party at 3959. The artichoke dip bread bowl was the life of the party - take some more bites!

oscar party '11

2011-02-28T16:22:00.001-07:00

Friday we caught up on some tele. Saturday we ran some errands in boulder, and finally got a chance to check out Reuben's, the Belgian beer & burger joint where the scottish restaurant used to be. We tried a few great belgian brews for their halfy hour. This Petrus flanders style was a standout:

Sunday Steph had a bunch of homework, but later we went to hillside for our annual oscar party. The ballot race was close, but Steph & I beat out LauRenn by a point. Here's the menu:

App
The Figs are Alright over Goat Cheese (Annette Benning, best actress for The Kids Are Alright)

Signature Drink
The King’s Peach Bellini’s (The King’s Speech, best picture)
Geoffrey Lush — assorted wines and beers (Geoffrey Lush, best supporting actor for The King’s Speech)

Main Course
James Franco American Spaghetti (meatless sauce with pasta) (James Franco, best actor for 127 Hours)
Natalie Porkman (sauce with Italian sausage and pasta)(Natalie Portman, best actress for Black Swan)

Sides
Christian Kale (Christian Bale, best supporting actor, The Fighter)
Jesse Iceberg Lettuce Salad (Jesse Eisenberg, best actor, The Social Network)
The Social Breadworks (The Social Network, Best Picture)

Dessert
Winter’s Cone: Ice Cream Cake with Cone Crust (Winter’s Bone, best picture)
Moo Gritt (Coffee with cream) (True Grit, best picture)

v-day fondue

2011-02-21T16:32:00.000-07:00

Wednesday we celebrated valentines with a two course fondue dinner - cheese & oil.

Friday we had a fondue encore with a veggie stock broth, watched most of the A-Team movie until Ruggles spilled wine on Stepha's lappy - yikes!

Saturday we headed up to Winter Park - it was a gorgeous day for skiing but it was crowded as fuck because of presidents day weekend which we totally spaced. So we put in a 1/2 day then hit up Southern Sun for stout month on the way home. Still no Girl Scout Stout on tap - we keep missing that one. Later that night we went to the BIFF to take advantage of my free tix from flyering for the event. On the way we stopped in at Mountain Sun and finally had a GS Stout! The film we saw was a russian one called The Edge about trains in post WWII Siberia. The dvd kept skipping, so about halfway through they finally switched it out for a watermaked version.

Sunday Steph had to study & take an exam, so I played Donkey Kong Country Returns all day. Later that night we sampled a handful of the Mikkeler single hop series.

seBADohah

2011-02-16T14:44:00.000-07:00

We were postponing V-day until wednesday since Steph had class and I went to the Sebadoh show at the Larimer Lounge tuesday. They were touring behind the Bakesale & Harmacy re-issues, so most of the set was culled from those two albums plus a couple oldies at the end of the set. They sounded better than I remember when I saw them on the original Bakesale tour at the Masquerade years and years ago - very on point. Quasi opened who were kind of boring.

Set:
On Fire
Skull
Too Pure
Sister
Shit Soup
Mind Reader
Got It
Love To Fight
Drag Down
Dreams
Magnet’s Coil
Rebound
Ocean
License To Confuse
Drama Mine
Nothing Like You
Crystal Gypsy
Careful
Beauty of the Ride
Not A Friend
Together Or Alone
Forced To Love
Sixteen
Give Up
Junk Bonds
New Worship
Brand New Love

Encore:
Not Too Amused
Willing To Wait

tvtron

2011-02-14T14:42:00.000-07:00

Friday I saw ex-coach Hawkins at the gym which was kind of funny. Saturday we went to Ultimate Electronics which was going out of business and snagged a new tv. Then we picked up some additional home furnishings and rearranged the living room when we got home - finally have a turntable downstairs which is nice.

Sunday I put the tv to the test and played the heck out of the new Donkey Kong Country.

mid week ridin'

2011-02-11T14:22:00.001-07:00

I volunteered to hand out BIFF flyers at shops around Lafayette so I spent monday and tuesday getting those out.

Wednesday was chilly, but not a cloud in the sky so I went to Winter Park. The Panoramic lift was open for the first time open for the first time since it broke last week so there were tons of freshys!

cupcakery

2011-02-07T14:17:00.000-07:00

Friday night we celebrated Meg's b-day with a pizza party over at LauRenn's. They made the pizzas, and we provided a variety of fanciful cupcakes we had worked on all week - margarita, mocha, and cookies & cream.

Saturday morning I went to a volunteer meeting for the BIFF while Steph grabbed us some Moe's bagel sandwiches for breakfast volunteer meeting, checked out Pearl Street for a bit after that. Later that night we had mexican dinner at Heidi & Thomas's place.

Sunday we headed to Winter Park but Berthoud Pass was closed due to a slide, so we went to Copper along with

the rest of colorado - great snow though so no worries. We hit metered tunnel traffic on the way home but were still able to catch the second half of the superbowl.

RJD2

2011-01-31T16:59:00.003-07:00

Thursday was uncharacteristically warm, so I went for a run. Friday night we chillaxed with some chinese food.

Saturday during the day we watched The Town, which was awesome, then had dinner at the Pearl Street Grill in Denver. And then it was off to the Gothic for the RJD2 show I had scored free tix to earlier in the week. Some local band opened that was having a video premier which was shot during the zombie crawl. RJ was up next and rocked the decks - 4 of them and a couple drum machines. Fun stuff and we had a great vantage point in the balcony over the stage so we could watch what he was up to. Super nice guy - before his set he was selling his own merch and signed some vinyl for me.

majah dumpah

2011-01-24T17:16:00.000-07:00

Wednesday was a massive snow day - 17" fresh at Copper so Andy & I headed up. Started over on Resolution and eventually made our way to the back bowls. Started clearing up on our drive home, only to pick up again wildly when we got to the carpool spot. The snow fall was debilitating and it took ~45 minutes just for me to get home - luckily I was ahead of rush hour. It took Steph like 2 hours or su'in redonk to drive home after work.

Steph was out of town with Gretchen, so I had a pretty tame weekend, watched tele & played wii pretty much.

ski honeymoon part 2

2011-01-18T14:21:00.004-07:00

After a day off back at home on thursday, we were on our way to Steamboat bright & early friday morning. We went straight to the slopes when we arrived in town. It was a bit overcast and there was still a bunch of pow from the storms earlier in the week. We'd never skied the Boat before so half the fun was exploring the mountain. On one run, I was weaving in and out of the trees and barely missed falling in a stream ditch in a blind spot - if I hadn't turned to avoid that little tree on the left, I would have fallen in about 3 feet.

After a full day, we checked into the condo then headed downtown to grab some pizza. While we waited we watched some ski jumping. By the time we got back Jacq & Andy had arrived. The next morning the whole gang hit the mountain. Another weird foggy day which made the hot tub rewarding when we got off the slopes. We had burritos for dinner, watched the playoff games, shotgunned some beers, and black swanned.

Sunday was short day on the slopes - icey snow fall limited visibility & warmth and we were also exhausted from a week's worth of skiing. Back to the condo in time for the Patriots game which sucked an egg. But at least we had a great dinner of gorgonzola gnocchi then watched the golden globes, and played apples to apples.

Monday we got off to a bit of a late start and got stuck in tunnel traffic for a couple of hours - boo!

ski honeymoon part 1

2011-01-13T11:08:00.002-07:00

Monday we kicked off our ski week honeymoon - 3 mountains in a week, essentially our pass. We hit up Copper for the first day since they reported 8" of fresh. We spent most of the day in the back bowl but boy was it COLD, mainly along the ridge after you get off the lift - the wind was fierce. After a solid day, we drove to Winter Park where we had lodging - the big white hotey across the street from the slopes. After we aprésed a bit in our penthouse suite (the Doc Holiday room), we were excited to try out the restaurant / brew pub in the place. Much to our chagrin, they weren't currently brewing any beer?! Boo on them, and then the waiter basically forgot to put our order in, then rushed it and served us raw meat. Oh well, we were pretty exhausted and had a good sized app at least!

Panoramic view from the suite:

Aprés ski!

Tuesday was sunnier, yet still wicked cold. No worries though since there were still plenty of nice powder caches all over the place. That night for dinner we headed downtown, shopped for souvenirs, and stumbled upon this cool resty called Deno's for dinner - awesome!

Top of Eagle Wind:

Wednesday we had another great day of riding and hit up downtown again for dinner this time at Backcountry Grill - an awesome steak joint.

the golden goose is on the loose

2011-01-09T10:05:00.002-07:00

Kind of a mellow week after the holidaze. Looked for a jorb, received my first unemployment check, brought Steph's car in for some repairs, opened a joint bank account, got my first free 6 pack from Liquor Mart (New World Porter), and hit up the gym. Saturday Steph cooked up a goose (no small task) and we headed up to Evergreen for the Weber family fake xmas at Steph's mom's abode.

it's a mad mad mad mad new year

2011-01-04T09:24:00.003-07:00

Thursday we were hit with our first major snowstorm, and Steph got out early and got to head in late friday. Then we headed over to 3959 for our Mad Men NYE party - we all dressed up and tried to stay in character most of the night. We even feasted on TV dinners. Those old fashion-y drinks will creep up on you...

The next morning we stopped by the grocery for breakfast foods, and I was determined to make black eyed peas - the deli guy even hooked me up with a ham shank. After a day in the crock pot I feasted upon them, but they really weren't that tasty - let's at least hope they bring the luck! I was pretty much hungover for the next two days, but rallied monday for a sweet 6" of snow at Copper. We spent most of the day in the back bowl - ridge '11!

ho ho ho

2010-12-27T13:57:00.004-07:00

Monday I met up with Steph on the Hill for some lunch, then picked up a new pair of snow pants for a steal - my old ones had pretty much lost their waterproofing and were wearing out. And just in time for a casual mid-week romp at Winter Park. Beautifully sunny day. Went up kind of late with Andy and met up with Greg & Rich. Stopped by Kermits on the way home for some scrumptious chili. Steph was at work until way late finishing up odds & ends at her old position before she started her new & improved promotion.

Thursday we did some last minute shopping which was insane - I almost got rear ended in traffic. Friday night we had xmas eve at 3959 with squash lasagna, broccolinis, and more including the requisite cookies!

Saturday morning was xmas proper at hillside, and there were plenty of presents for all.

Meg's crazy golf ball finding glasses.

Stepha's new scarf.

Oh look, a couple of more gifts under the tree!

And a swanky salmon plate on a bed of butter lettuce, garnished with onions, capers and a light dressing.

Sunday we chillaxed and caught up on Brewmasters. Later we saw the Black Swan matinee, ka-kaw, ka-kaw!

trontroid

2010-12-20T01:00:00.002-07:00

Tuesday I ran, took care of some errands, and then whipped up a killer zucchini pasta dish for din.

Wednesday the cooking bug was still in effect so I concocted a beef stir fry.

Thursday I hopped on the jorb prowl again.

Friday morning I downloaded the original Metroid and had at that for a while before meeting up with Steph for the Dean's xams party which was jovial as usual - we ending up with a ton of leftover food somehow.

Saturday morning I finally beat Metroid, but only received the second highest completion screen:

Later that night we hit up Tron, which was perty swell.

Sunday we voyage to Mary Jane and stayed on that side of the hill all day since the snow was to die for!

skate or die

2010-12-13T15:58:00.005-07:00

Thursday I was extra productive and bottled the two batches of beer which had been fermenting in the cellar - Dominion Porter & Charles India Brown (named after my grandfather, no relation to Charlie).

Friday I went for a run, then drove to Boulder to feed Jacq's cats since they were off at Gorsky Park. After that I picked up Steph at work and we swung by Liquor Mart to get some beers. They were having some sort of xmas party featuring hot cocoa, cookies, beer tasting and a drawing for random prizes. Freakishly enough I heard my name being called over the intercom 10 minutes later - I won a 3 month supply of beer (a 6-pack a week) and a $25 gift certificate to Boulder Beer!

Saturday morning Steph and I walked over to the brand new skate park which was being dedicated at noon. Loads of folks was there - lots of skaters (of course), Jared Polis, and even Miss Colorado!

It was nippy cold & windy, so we watched the cluster for a while then headed across the street for some coffee to warm up.

Later that night we went over to LauRenn's for some homemade pizza & played video games.

Sunday we hit the slopes with Greg - epic snow dump at copper ~8", which developed into a pesky freezing rain which had to be scraped off goggles frequently. We left around 1.30 and caught the beginning of metered traffic at the tunnel - only added about 45 minutes to the drive luckily. Fed the catz again. For dinner Steph made a killer chicken pot pie!

black tuesday

2010-12-08T15:29:00.003-07:00

Been getting in pretty decent shape now that I can go running during the day. After I hit the lake, I cleaned & de-labeled a ton of bottles for some upcoming batches.

Once I had completed that project I remembered that the Black Angels were in town at the Bluebird. Steph was at class and not having anything else to do, I drove downtown. Unfortunately when I got there, the show was sold out. Damb with a B! Luckily it only took me about 10 minutes to score a ticket at face. Dang glad I did too, because it was a helluva show! Not as mind blowing as the first time I saw them mainly because they toned down the visual psychedelics. Seems like they lost a member too, the female multi-instrumentalist. Killer show nonetheless. Here's some vid and the setlist:

Set:
You On The Run
Bloodhounds on My Trail
Bad Vibrations
Entrance Song
Sniper at the Gates of Heaven
The Sniper
Haunting at 1300 McKinley
Yellow Elevator #2
Black Grease
Mission District
Science Killer
The First Vietnamese War
Better Off Alone
Phospherene Dream
True Believers
Telephone
E:
Manipulation
Young Men Dead

so little to do, so much time

2010-12-06T18:12:00.002-07:00

Last week was pretty chock full of activities, but Steph had vacation. Now it's just me & Ruggles. So monday I just did post holiday chores around the house, since we were rarely home for any length of time. Tuesday I ventured to Copper solo. Maybe only an inch or so of new snow, but they had a few more lifts open than last time. Took it pretty easy until I stumbled upon this gem of a powder cache:

Unfortunately it funneled out to the Alpine lift which was closed! So I had to hike back out to the run under the Super Bee. One more run after that and I headed home, a day well lived. And it kept getting better because Steph whipped up a. tasty sqash pizza for dinner.

The weather has been fairly mild for this time of year so I've been able to get some good jogs in during the day in between jOoorb searching.

Saturday, Steph & I headed to Flatirons and finished up our xmas shopping, capping it off with dinner at Gordon Biersch - they had a killer winter strong ale.

Sunday it was snowing in the mountains, so we headed up to Winter Park with Greg - plenty of fresh in the morning and it kept on falling. I'll leave you with some swell actions shots of me & Steph.

giving of thanks

2010-11-27T17:58:00.004-07:00

Thursday morning we headed over to LauRenn's for breakfast. Unfortunately we could not make the annual t-day hike since we were heading to Steph's aunt's place in Evergreen. Whilst there, we watched football, played the 'Bone Yard', a board game her nephew made, ate heartily (except the funny jello thing), and worked on these extremely difficult and intricate wooden jigsaw puzzles - way old school..

Friday morning I submitted my first joearb application, then we headed over to 3959 to watch the final CU / Nebraska rivalry which CU managed to lose again. Later that evening, we regrouped and headed over to our fave neighbor Carley's place for dinner, drinks, and some serious Blockus action. Good thing she lives across the street!

Saturday we chillaxed, eventually heading out to the last remaining Casa Alvarez to meet up with Ryan & Alyssa et al for some margs. Sunday was also pretty laid back - went for a run and watched the Broncos game.

bonobo

2010-11-25T18:02:00.003-07:00

Winter park got some more inches wednesday morning, but we already had some scheduled events and headed back to milo - no worries, the season is still young! Prior to my unemploy, I had pledged some money to the Radio 1190 fundraiser and received a pair of Bonobo tix as a thank you. So that evening we made way into Denver, stopping for a fine meal at Steuben's then braving the freeeezing cold to arrive for the show at the Ogden only to not be on the list! Luckily the manager knew of the pledge drive and hooked us up. The opener was TOKiMONSTA, who played a dj set with MC type dealio - glitch hop stylee. Pretty fun. Bonobo took their sweet time starting, but came correct with a seven piece band - horns, drums, keys, female vox, etc. They played a tight set, but I was completely exhausted so we took off towards the end of the show. No setlist, but here's a vid clip Steph took:

mini honeymoon

2010-11-24T16:31:00.000-07:00

Tuesday we slept in then headed up to Winter Park for a mini getaway. We had already planned on heading up, but my parents were kind enough to hook us up with a room for the evening at the Woodspur - quite the unique lodge. What a great day on the slopes - sunny and about 4" of fresh. We explored most of what was open on both sides of the resort before calling it a day around 3ish.

love & marriage

2010-11-22T22:43:00.000-07:00

Earlier today, we headed down to the Boulder County Clerk's office and tied the knot! Afterward we celebrated by taking a tour of the Boulder Beer Brewery with plenty of sampling and dinner.

Then we headed over to LauRenn's where we celebrated with champagne and played Scorched Earth for a while before catching the Broncos monday night debacle at Gina & Oz's place with more champagne and our wedding pumpkin pie!

casualtron

2010-11-22T15:42:00.000-07:00

Friday night I picked Steph up at work we grabbed some burritos and then watched the original Tron so we'd be primed the new one coming out soon.

Saturday we went for a walk about town and had beef stir fry for dinner.

Sunday Steph had to go into work, so I went for a run in the afternoon. That evening we watched the Pats narrowly beat the Colts and the Colorado rapids beat FC Dallas in the MLS championship - woohoo!

laid

2010-11-18T17:13:00.006-07:00

Got into work and my boss was sitting at my desk and informed me that today was to be my last - the company had run out of money and reduced other employees to part-time. So I packed up my things, cleaned up my files, and headed home with a mere one month's severance - kinda sucks after 7 years at the company. On the bright side, it's certainly time for a change! Went for a run, took a nap, then Steph came home with some celebratory imbibement.

Unfortunately, Steph got whatever maladie I previously had so she came home from work early on tuesday. We bummed around and watched tele most of the day. All the while the mountains were getting pounded. So wednesday, Greg & I headed up to Copper (which almost didn't happen due to raiod closures). Fourteen inches of fresh and no lines made for a pretty badass first day of the season. Only American Eagle & Excelerator were open but we still rode freshies all day.

Applied for unemployment earlier today, went for another run, then took care of some errands. Joearb search to commence shortly...

cold november

2010-11-15T16:42:00.000-07:00

Racked & dry-hopped my IBA saturday morning after watching some football.

Later that evening when Steph returned from her mom's, we went out to Tutti in bustling d-town Lafayette. Fun place with everything on the menu coming in 3 sizes, so we mixed & matched a bunch of stuff.

Sunday was another chillaxin' day of football - the Broncos finally stepped up and pummelled KC, and later on the Pats got a nice win over the Steelers. Watched Dexter then called it a night.

sick

2010-11-11T10:35:00.005-07:00

Looks like Rocktober finally caught up with me. A nasty head cold kicked in last wednesday and has not let up - it's probably bronchitis or su'in annoying like that. So needless to say, the weekend was pretty casual - slept a lot, watched some tele. Saturday we did go and watch the Social Network which I enjoyed. Got a hair cut, did some grocery shopping, set the clocks back. Seriously not much happened this week.

hallowEEnkend

2010-11-02T20:24:00.001-06:00

Friday after work we brought tour pumpkins over to 3959 for a carving party. Five pumpkins will give you a ton of seeds, so I made a few varieties - chili oil, belize hot sauce & garlic. The garlic ones got a tad overcooked, but were still pretty tasty.

The weather has been uncharacteristically pleasant, so I spent most of saturday brewing up a batch of Porter commissioned for Andy. Later that night we watched (and finally finished from chicago) Get Him to the Greek.

Sunday morning we watched parts of a Halloween marathon, including the campy part III which is out of the Michael Meyers sequence. Later on we prepped some apps & such for the big hoorah - halloWEEN at the 1st Bass Center down the street. Perfectly timed - my Scotchgard Bombs were also ready (albeit a bit foamy). I kept getting fouled by the ref.

Dave & Simi stopped by then we hit it. Grabbed some seats even though we had floor tix - easier to see and afforded a place to put stuff. Ween hit the stage in full bunny rabbit regalia and tore the roof off the place for 3+ hours in top notch form!

Set:
Fiesta
Don't Get Too Close (2 My Fantasy)
Touch My Tooter
Transdermal Celebration
Hey There Fancypants
Take Me Away
Spinal Meningitis (Got Me Down)
Learnin' To Love
Don't Sweat It
Voodoo Lady
Your Party
With My Own Bare Hands
Happy Colored Marbles
Up On the Hill
Gabrielle
Piss Up A Rope
Reggaejunkiejew
Let's DANCE !!!
Buckingham Green
Ice Castles
Final Alarm
Back To Basom
Sarah
She Fucks Me
Bananas and Blow
Booze Me Up & Get Me High
Push th' Little Daisies
Roses Are Free
The Mollusk
Doctor Rock
The Blarney Stone
Encore:
Mister, Would You Please Help My Pony?
Freedom of '76
Stroker Ace
The Pusher > LMLYP

A great audience recording can be found on Archive.

interpoly

2010-10-26T10:33:00.004-06:00

Rocktober forged on with Interpol at the Ogden last night. Mondays are such a pain for shows, but this was pretty chill. Had leftover indian food for diner and headed to town. White Rabbits opened up and they were pretty lively - good use of percussion. I had no idea there were six members. Interpol took the stage as polar opposites - very dimly lit and not very animated, but they sounded spot on with their new keyboardist and Dave Pajo taking up bass duties. And we were home and in bed before midnight.

Set:
Success
Say Hello To The Angels
C'mere
Leif Erikson
Summer Well
Rest My Chemistry
PDA
Narc
Untitled
Hands Away
Lights
Evil
Take You On A Cruise
Try It On
Not Even Jail

Encore:
The Lighthouse
Stella Was A Diver And She Was Always Down
Slow Hands

game day

2010-10-25T13:19:00.005-06:00

Friday, we bought all kinds of new brews to taste and then grabbed some Big City Burritos.

Saturday we had cheap tix for the CU / Texas Tech homecoming game. Had lunch at 1/2 Fast Subs along with most of the rest campus - there was a line out the door by the time we left for a mellower vibe. So we had a brew at Abo's to get out of the crowd that was lunch - Dogfish 90-minute on tap! The game started out great, but ended miserably. Tyler Hansen getting a ruptured spleen did not help. Oh well, it was still pretty fun to make it to a game and the weather was perfect.

Swung by Lindsay's pre-halloween party to say hi. The main parts of my costume still have not arrived in the mail, so I was half-ass dressed as a CU fan having just come from the game. LauRenn and crew had some sweet Scooby Doo gang costumes.

Sunday steph was cranking out on the original Zelda and I brewed an india brown ale (Charles Brown) in my new keggle which I am loving. Watched the first season of Delocated and had indian food for dinner.

rumpkin patchin

2010-10-20T15:00:00.007-06:00

Started the fall festivities after work on friday with a trip to Avery to try their freshly corked Rumpkin imperial pumpkin ale aged in gosslings rum barrels. Delicious! We also sampled The Beast grand cru - 2009 vintage. That a hell of a beer at 16.9%. And as a bonus they had just tapped a rye whiskey cask-aged imperial oatmeal stout. For dinner, we made a pizza.

Saturday morning we hit up the pumpkin patch and came home with two biggies and some gourds.

Stopped by Greg's on the way to Costco. And later that night watched McGruber - awesome!

Sunday I had planned on brewing, but wasn't feeling super creative so instead I finally finished the sky castle on Zelda (I better hurry up and beat this in time for the new one), vegged out, watched the Broncos lose again. Steph crock-potted a bbq pork shoulder fro dinner while we watched the Rubicon & Mad Men finales.

boom case

2010-10-14T13:07:00.001-06:00

I would very much like to have one of these:

phishy

2010-10-13T13:13:00.002-06:00

..::Sunday::..
Sunday was cold and rainy, but Steph dropped us off at the Broomfield Event Center lot around 4pm anyway so we could have some pre-show brews. Quite the wooked out shakedown. It was getting pretty cold so we head in right at doors, and luckily met up with Dave, Simi, et al who had saved some decent seats for us. What a great show - they came out of the gate running and never looked back. Great energy raging through the classics and a brand new tune.

Set One:
Chalk Dust Torture
Ocelot
It's Ice
Bouncing Around The Room
Funky Bitch
AC/DC Bag
NICU
The Moma Dance
Horn
Stash
Golgi Apparatus

Set Two:
Mike's Song >
Simple >
Ghost >
Weekapaug Groove
Fee
Makisupa Policeman >
My Problem Right There >
Makisupa Policeman
Slave To the Traffic Light
Strange Design
Julius

Encore:
Loving Cup

..::Tuesday::..
We weren't able to get monday tickets, and it was kind of a welcome day of rest. Of course tuesday was another cold & rainy day. Me & Jacq headed down to the park & ride across the street since we did not need to deal with shakedown again. We had some dinner Jacq picked up earlier, then headed in to meet up with our friends from sunday who scored even better seats one row off the floor. I was pretty pumped from the first show still and 'Stealing Time' was a great opener, but then they really shit the bed with a horribly placed TTE. The energy got sucked out of the place and the rest of the night was a disjointed mess. They were pretty much winging the setlist and it did not flow at all, not to mention Trey was really dorkin out. Heavy on the Joy era and newer songs (8 total), which aren't bad per se, but it was overkill. Still there were a few solid moments and of course we had a blast, but sunday it was not.

Set One:
Stealing Time From The Faulty Plan
Time Turns Elastic
Meat
The Divided Sky
Timber
On Your Way Down
Heavy Things
Sugar Shack
46 Days

Set Two:
Carini >
David Bowie
Light
Theme From The Bottom >
Free >
Joy
Halfway To The Moon
Bug
Summer Of '89
Split Open And Melt

Encore:
Meatstick

absinthey

2010-10-10T12:33:00.003-06:00

Steph's b-day was on wednesday, but we celebrated on saturday starting with a tasty dinner at Mateo. After dinner, we walked over to the new Absinthe House over where the Foundry used to be. Neither of us had ever tried absinthe, and it was OK, but the serving ritual was pretty cool.

The whole gang met up with us there, and around 10pm the place turned into a dance club, so we danced til about midnight when they announced the raffle winner which was not us.

Whoever was left standing joined us at the depths of the scumdowner where the PBR and mind erasers were flowing. Eventually cabbed it back to 3959 and tried to play ping pong with the new playstation wands but failed miserably.

sonicy

2010-10-05T09:31:00.007-06:00

I was pretty excited to see that Sonic Youth had scheduled a couple shows between their Matador 21 & Austin City Limits gigs since I missed them the last time they were in town. Grabbed a quick bite to eat at home before heading to the Ogden. The crowd was pretty calm being monday and all, and the band was spot on which made for a killer recording. Mark was back in the fold for his first show since his Pavement responsibilities ended the night before. So we got a nice mix of Eternal material and oldies.

My stellar recording is available over at COTapers or DIME.

Set:
Bull in the Heather
Sacred Trickster
No Way
Calming the Snake
Mote
Antenna
Schizophrenia
Catholic Block
Anti-Orgasm
Poison Arrow
What We Know
Massage the History

E1:
The Wonder
Hyperstation

E2:
Shadow of a Doubt
Expressway To Yr Skull

beer, biking & football

2010-10-04T09:30:00.002-06:00

Bottled my batch of Scotchgard Bomb bright & early saturday morning (thanks again for the labels Bob).

As I was finishing up, Greg came over to watch the end of the Clemson game. Earlier in the week I got some fat new 2.5's tires for my bike. Man, putting those things on was a bitch. I really wanted to try them out so we took a ride down on the north side of Coal Creek Path. Then we rode bikes over Ralphie's for the CU / UGA game - a great see-saw of a game ending with a forced fumble for a CU win!

Sunday we went over to Greg's for beer & soda can chicken, then headed back to Milo for Rubicon & Mad Men. A pretty casual weekend.

fall fiesta

2010-09-27T11:45:00.001-06:00

On saturday Gina & Oz hosted a fall fiesta salsa party. We goofed and got there 2 hours late, and the salsa extravaganza was in full swing. It was tough to get through them all. Steph was one of the judges, and winners were soon crowned in the three categories - standard, exotic, and guacs. Here's me early in the evening waving my finger around:

jury duty

2010-09-24T13:43:00.002-06:00

On monday I had to report for jury duty in Boulder. I was on call for federal duty in Denver earlier in the month, but never had to report because there were no cases for those two weeks. So this was my first time having to show up. Of course out of the 200 or so people in the room, I was the first one called. And I survived the lawyer interview round along with 5 others to sit on a civil malpractice suit. Not to bore you with the 4 days of witness testimony, but I am now an expert in gout and gastronomical maladies and what types of medicines are used to treat them. Unfortunately for the plaintiff, he kinda didn't follow the doctor's orders, amongst other things, so we found in favor of his doctor, the defendant. And I got paid $50.

gabf

2010-09-20T13:42:00.001-06:00

Got out of work around 3 on friday, grabbed some subs on the hill and headed to our hotey in denver. Watched some random horror film, then walked over to the convention center for the Great American Beer Festival. The line was wrapped around the building again, but it moved pretty quick. Per usual, the event was overwhelming with all the breweries in attendance. Managed to hit up a lot or the breweries that don't distribute out here, plus try out some new brews from our faves.

I had completely forgot that Crooked Fingers were in town, but after the fest we grabbed our second wind and cabbed it over to the Hi-Dive. A couple members of Devotchka had some baroque side project that opened the show. Eric and the rest of the Fingers put on a great show, while steph took a post beer nap. It's so dark in this place, it definitely lends itself to sleeping!

On the way back home the next morning, we stopped at Ralphie's for brunch and watched some football. Unfortunately, the CU game was not on until 5p, and we had Dave & Simi's BBQ to attend. Played some corhole, had plenty of grub, and were pretty stoked that we were only a bike ride away from home.

kele

2010-09-15T13:50:00.005-06:00

I've yet to see Bloc Party in concert, so I was pretty stoked when Kele Okereke was forced to reschedule his US tour due to visa issue, and the rescheduled dates added a stop in Denver. It was at the new Summit Music Hall, which replaced the seedy underage hip hop club Bash. Still looked like a nightclub inside. I guess there is a backroom as well, but they held this show in the front. I got there right after the opener Does It Offend You Yeah, and it looked like a lot of people cleared out after their set, which was great and offered plenty of room. Short but killer show, where he ran through most all of his solo album and threw in a few Bloc Party tracks as well. Some idiot was crowd surfing (with a sparse crowd) during 'Yesterday's Gone' and took a header into the floor, so they stopped the song while security helped the kid up - only bummer was they never completed it.

Set:
Walk Tall
On The Lam
Unholy Thoughts
Everything You Wanted
Blue Light > The Prayer > One More Chance
Tenderoni
Rise
Encore:
Yesterday's Gone (cut short)
All The Things I Could Never Say
Flux

!!! & milo sports bar

2010-09-13T17:00:00.005-06:00

Still a bit tired after the Pavement show the night before, free tix were the nudge we needed to get us over to the Fox for the !!! show, and because hey why not it's friday. Had dinner at home, then had a couple drinks at the Sink before hand. The place was pretty empty, but that afforded plenty of dancin' room. Super fun show and the band was in good spirits.

Slept in saturday morning then got online at noon in the tickethorse cluster fuck for Phish tickets. I scored a pair of Sundays right off the bat and Greg miraculously snagged a pair of Tuesdays some 30 minutes after they went on sale. Steph & I made a quick Costco run for Milo Sports Bar supplies. Then everyone came over to watch the CU / UCLA game, which was unfortunately a blowout in UCLA's favor.

das pavement ist rad

2010-09-10T11:35:00.009-06:00

Originally booked for the 1st Bank Center, this show was luckily moved to the Ogden which was a better suited venue for sure even though they packed the hell out of the place. We arrived towards the end of Jenny & Johnny's set and scored a spot over where I usually tape. We had a great view the rest of the night despite of the crowds. The boys were in good spirits and fine form. We were treated to a longer set than at P-fork with some dandy gems.

Set:
Heckler Spray
No Life Singed Her
Shady Lane
Kennel District
Summer Babe (Winter Version)
Frontwards
Starlings of the Slipstream
Cut Your Hair
Father To A Sister Of Thought
In The Mouth A Desert
Silence Kit
Zurich Is Stained
Trigger Cut/Wounded-Kite at :17
The Hexx
Stereo
Date w/Ikea
Gold Soundz
Spit On A Stranger
Unfair
Grounded
Range Life
Fight This Generation
Two States
Stop Breathing

Encore:
Lithium > Box Elder
Fin
Rattled By The Rush
She Believes
Our Singer

ash monday

2010-09-07T16:58:00.004-06:00

Woohoo - long weekend! Kicked off friday with a viewing of Youth In Revolt which was so-so. Saturday we headed over to 3959 to watch the CU / CSU game and BBQ. CU pulled off a decent win, and we had some good chow. It was an early game so we just went back to Milo and made margs with our new blender and played Simpson's Monopoly.

Sunday, we went Evergreen for the Weber family BBQ. Got in some games of cornhole & bocce amongst buttered buns, casseroles & legos. Later that night we got some chinese food and watched Mad Men.

Slept in monday. That morning the sky had turned a weird dark gray due to the 4 mile fire up in the foothills. We followed through with our planned bike ride down the other end of Coal Creek, but it was tough with the smoke in the air.

chem bros

2010-09-02T16:15:00.006-06:00

Hadn't planned on going, but alas with free tix in hand Greg & I headed to the fillmore for the Chemical Brothers wednesday night. Ticket sales must have been slow, since they had the fillmore halved off again like when we saw Kraftwerk. After a round of $10 beers, the show kicked off, and was pretty high energy throughout. The new songs sounded great live, and I've given the recent disc another chance.

Set:
Galvanize
Another World
Dissolve
Horsepower
Swoon
Star Guitar
Hey Boy Hey Girl
Under the Influence
Out Of Control
Setting Sun
Saturate
Believe
Escape Velocity
K+D+B
Elektrobank
Chemical Beats

E:
Leave Home
Block Rockin Beats
Sunshine Underground

breather

2010-08-30T16:13:00.004-06:00

This was the first weekend in over a month we had with no plans. So friday we watched Hot Tub Time Machine, which was hilarious.

Saturday morning LauRenn were having a yard sale so I went and helped them out for a bit while Steph was running in her last triathlon of the season.

Later that night we went out for dinner at the Village Tavern over at flatirons. And sunday I finally got a chance to bottle the Belgi-geddon!

put the lamp on my head

2010-08-23T14:29:00.002-06:00

Saturday night Greg threw a housewarming party party party! Once the dozen or so trays of jello shots arrived, things really ramped up. In no particular order - drums being played with a ski helmet on, crawling through the new doggy door, userng the lamp as a guitar (after being denied the use of it on my head), using everything else as a guitar, getting bitten on the leg by someone pretending they were a dog, and group sing along to 'Winds of Change'. Nary a dull moment. I had planned on bottling beer the next day, but all that really got accomplished was lounging around poolside.

chicago round 2

2010-08-17T11:27:00.008-06:00

I took my b-day off for friday the 13th, and brewed up a batch of Scotch Guard Bomb Ale with my new burner - so much quicker. Later that night, Steph took me out to the Melting Pot for a killer five course fondue dinner amidst the craziness of the last night of the Downtown Louisville summer street fairs.

The next morning we carpooled to the airport with Greg. We had different flights but they left around the same time. After landing at O'Hare and taking the blue line most of the way into town we switched over to the red line at Monroe, right after some crazy assault just happened on the train and they were detaining the suspect. Randomly enough, Greg also happened to be on this train on his way from Midway - wacky! After setting into our hotey (the haunted Tremont), we met up at Gino's East for some deep dish dinner. Later that night we met up with everyone at Sushi Sambi for drinks and general merriment.

A big air show was going on all weekend, so when we were out and about the next morning we heard a lot of planes passing overhead. After a morning shopping (mostly at H&M since we don't have one out here), we broke for lunch at the little cafe under the John Hancock. When it was time to go, we cabbed it over to the venue, which was a really cool spot called the Leaf. After some apps, it was speech time and I was up first since I was Jacq's maid of honor - hahaha! Next up was the slow dance and then dinner with a great spread of food.

Then it was time to get the dance party started upstairs. The dj ladies had us going and even let me sing doom metal sweet child o' mine!

We danced until closing, then cabbed back to our respective hoteys. Earlier in the evening I hurled for some reason, so by now I was starving. The only places open were some 24 hour italian delivery joints - quite possibly the worst food I've ever eaten. Flew home monday and vegged out.

slappin the bass

2010-08-13T09:52:00.006-06:00

Hadn't originally planned on going, but wound up scoring some free tickets to the Primus show at Red Rocks on Thursday. I picked up Steph after work, we grabbed some burritos at Illegal Pete's and were on our way. The weather was great, and we tailgated during most of Gogol Bordello's set because the singer drives me batty. Primus hit the stage around 10pm with way original (and Sausage) drummer Jay Lane. We got a healthy dose of mostly earlier material, and several covers (Floyd, Police, Tom Waits) clocking in at about 1hr 45mn. A great birthday eve show!

Set:
Pudding Time
In The Flesh
Here Come the Bastards
Behind My Camel
GroundHog's Day
Those Damned Blue Collar Tweekers
Golden Boy
American Life
Big in Japan
Over The Falls
'drums & whamola jam'
Eleven
Jerry Was A Race Car Driver
Over the Electric Grapevine
Harold Of The Rocks
E:Tommy The Cat

casual weekend

2010-08-09T09:51:00.004-06:00

We went to see Taming of the Shrew at the outdoor stage of the Shakespeare fest with Meg & Paul on friday since Stepha had some freebie tix from work. Before the performance, we picnicked by the pond. Overall a pretty good performance. I almost fell asleep towards the end of the second act, but rallied after a Bard's Ale during intermission.

Saturday morning we drove down past the tech center, and I bought some brew equipment from Brock's mom's boyfriend. I made the trip for a dedicated propane burner and copper immersion chiller, but also walked away with a couple 5 gallon glass carboys, a keggle, and a mash tun cooler.

Later that evening we went to a b-day party for Steph's pal Michelle, and had some killer cake. The guy who brought it over had won a baking award for it or su'in. Sunday I went for a run, cleaned the basement a bit, and then we watched Mad Men.

ned & avery

2010-08-03T11:53:00.004-06:00

Went camping after work with Heidi & Tomas - just a quick jaunt up to Nederland. Got camp set up just as some light rain began. And just around this time we met the resident hermit, Dino, who said he would hook us up with a bunch of wood he had recently cut. No lie - he had a bunch of wood, unfortunately we couldn't get rid of him. He eventually left us alone, and we cooked up some dinner and hit the hay once the beer ran out.

Left after breakfast the next morning, and stopped for some lunch at Wild Mountain - had some great BBQ and local brews. Later that evening we met up with Greg at Waterloo for a couple drinks and passed out watching Foxy Brown.

Sunday I had planned on just vegging out, but opted to sync up with Jen & Jeff at the Avery anniversary party. Twenty bucks for all you can eat BBQ and $5 beers - how could I resist?

Turns out for a bit extra, you could get access to the rare beers. Good brews indeed. We spent most of the time with in the rare beer room after having a Wheel Wacker Wheat (collab with Ska Breweing) with lunch - I tried out:

Altar Boy - the Reverend aged in a French Oak Opus One Barrel with Bretts and House Sour Blend #2
Brett IPA - The standard IPA with a secondary Brettanomyces fermentation
Fumator - Smoked beer aged in Stranahan whiskey barrels
Ruminator - Dopplebock aged in Gosling Rum casks
Samael Oak (English barleywine - it was 14.9%).

We also did a vertical tasting of the Czar - 2007, 2004, 2002. Those beers will catch up with you quick...

tube jam

2010-07-26T11:51:00.003-06:00

Left work at 2p on Friday, drove to Steamboat - seemed to get there pretty quick and in time for dinner. Gina had rented a huge house for her annual b-day rafting trip. As a bonus, someone prepared a great asian shrimp type meal for our consumption - nom nom nom. Evening hijinx ensued.

After a lazy breakfast we gathered the troops, and somehow coordinated everyone to get to the head of the river with cars to pick us up, etc. Our duck taped inner tubes from last year didn't make the grade, so we hooked up some sweet Body Glove tubes with back rests and built in coolers earlier in the week. Seems like the popular tube this year as several other folks had the same ones. We had a nice long leisurely tube trip down the Yampa. Afterwards we picked up groceries & grilled out. Round 2 of evening hijinx including cookies and grilled cheese hot dog buns.

Kind of hung over for the entire l o n g drive home. To break the monotony of I-70 traffic, we stopped at the Tommyknocker brewery for lunch. Managed to get home with some time to spare for the Mad Men premier.

never quarantine the past

2010-07-20T10:57:00.006-06:00

A lot of the downtown shops were closed sunday in the AM, so I had to explore a bit more to get the necessities. Today, most of the bands we wanted to check out were over on the side stage, so we set up shop right when we got there with a nice spot along the fence. Grabbed some lunch, then caught the end of local psych rockers, Cave, who I rather enjoyed.

I'm glad we got there when we did since it had really started to get crowded for Best Coast, who played a nice summery set.

Steph held court during Washed Out, while I ventured off to the main stage to check out Girls.

Made it back for Local Natives, who were awesome.

Journeyed back over to the mainstage to witness the intense chaos that is Lightning Bolt. The drummer sang through a telephone receiver sewed into his mask the entire time - and that mask must have been gnarly to wear in the stifling heat.

Caught the tail end of Surfer Blood, and the beginning of Here We Go Magic back at our spot, then broke camp to check out the other half of Flatstock and some of the remaining vendors while Major Lazer performed in the background. Steph even won a t-shirt with darth vader trimming his death star shaped hedges. After some dinner, we headed over to the corner in between the two main stages to check out Big Boi and chillax for a bit.

Night fell, and some idiot announcer took way too long to introduce Pavement, but once they finally started it was epic start to finish. Pavement in black & white - stay classy chicago!

Set:
Cut Your Hair
In The Mouth A Desert
Silence Kit
Kennel District
Shady Lane
Frontwards
Unfair
Grounded
Debris Slide
Spit on a Stranger
Range Life
Perfume-V
Trigger Cut
Stereo
Two States
Gold Soundz
Conduit For Sale!
Stop Breathin
Here
The Hexx

advantages, advantages!

2010-07-20T10:56:00.006-06:00

After an awesome night's rest, I ventured out into the streets searching for munchkins & coffee and ran into this huge eyeball:

Got to the park and grabbed some lunch just in time for the saturday opener, Real Estate - a nice & casual way to start the day.

Stuck around to check out Delorean over on the main stage, who played a nice techno-y inspired set.

Here we are, enjoying the day:

Someone tethered this balloon video camera from the backstage area:

Checked out some more of the vendor booths and one side of the Flatstock poster art show. Steph scored a cool silkscreened bag from the toyota folks. The we headed over to the side stage for Dam-Funk which was so-so. Really the coolest thing about his set was the keytar.

Headed back to the Connector stage for a little Jon Spencer Blues Explosion action.

Next up Wolf Parade on the main stage. Boy was it hot, and those lemonades were starting to catch up with us a bit.

Set:
Cloud Shadow on the Mountain
Soldier's Grin
Dear Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts
Palm Road
What Did My Lover Say
Ghost Pressure
This Heart's On Fire
I'll Believe in Anything
Cave-o-Sapien
Kissing the Beehive

Luckily we had a break for dinner, enjoying some nice chicken satay & noodles - on the way I was able to catch the last couple of songs from Bear In Heaven on the side stage. Soon after dinner, the sun started to set and it cooled down a bit when LCD Soundsystem hit the stage. Super fun & dance action set!

Set:
Us V Them
Drunk Girls
Pow Pow
Daft Punk Is Playing at My House
All My Friends
I Can Change
Tribulations
Movement
Yeah
Someone Great
Losing My Edge
New York, I Love You / Empire State Of Mind

Headed back to the hotey, watched some TV and crashed.

are you dead or are you sleeping?

2010-07-20T10:55:00.003-06:00

We were a bit groggy heading to the airport early friday morning, since we had stayed up late watching Ferris Bueller the night before as a good omen for our trip. Flew into Midway, which is way more convenient, and checked into our hotey - the Club Quarters which turned out to be pretty swanky. After getting settled, we walked a few blocks to Al's Beef Fro some badass italian beef sandys (thanks for the tip adam richmond).

Got to Union Park just after 3p, scoped the grounds had a brew (Heineken was the sponsor this year, total let down from Goose Island) and sat back in the shade during Tallest Man on Earth and El-P. Turns out we sat right next to this girl who was passed the F out with her eyes kind of open, as a bystander pointed out, so we got the med guys to help her out. The fest had literally started an hour ago, and already claimed a casualty. Moved up closer for the Liars set - and they rocked it, including a sick cover of 'In the Flat Field' by Bauhaus.

Robyn was up next on the main stage so we bolted and checked out some of the vendors, then settled back at the Connector stage for Broken Social Scene. Man, do they have a lot of folks on stage at any given time - John McIntire from Tortoise was on drums at one point and all the horns were great.

Set:
World Sick
Stars and Sons
Texico Bitches
7/4 (Shoreline)
Fire Eye'd Boy
Forced to Love
Cause=Time
All to All
Ungrateful Little Father
Superconnected
Meet Me in the Basement

Modest Mouse was the friday headliner, and they started off strong with 'Tiny Cities' and 'Here it Comes', but it was a very similar set to the past few times we've seen them. So we split during the 'Gravity' to get a jump on the train crowds.

Set:
Tiny Cities Made of Ashes
Here It Comes
The Devil's Workday
Education
Satellite Skin
Autumn Beds
Dashboard
Satin In A Coffin
Dramamine / Life Like Weeds
Parting Of The Sensory
The View
The Whale Song
Gravity Rides Everything
Black Cadillacs

We were wicked hungry when we got back to the hotey, so we ordered a bunch of food from the british pub downstairs, watched ATHF, then passed right out.

LauRenn's wedding

2010-07-13T16:47:00.001-06:00

Got out of work early friday and headed up to the Red Lion for the rehearsal. They had a temporary bridge in place after the washout last month. After the rehearsal, I went to pick up Stepha and my suit, then we headed back to Boulder for the rehearsal dinner. We were a bit early so we stopped by Connor's for a brew then walked over to the Dushambe for a delicious meal.

Saturday morning I stopped by the post office to pay 34¢ postage due on a 7" I got off Disogs. My suit jacket was a bit large so I went to pick up a new one after the postal errand. Steph's sister, niece & nephew arrived at milo right before I got picked up by Paul and my uncle. En route, we also picked up the necromancer, who was running a bit late. Got to the Red Lion and headed up to the groomsmen room, which was more closet-size than roomy. We polished off some fine bourbon and taiwanese spirits and were ready for action. The ceremony was outside and the weather was perfect. Dinner was delicious and before long it was dancing time.

Congratulations!

freedom of '10

2010-07-06T12:24:00.000-06:00

Stopped by the Avery Brewery on the way home and tried a Ballsmack Porter - delicious! When Stepha got home, we kicked off the weekend with taco night and a few eps of Burn Notice which we just started catching up on.

Saturday we met up with Jeff & Jen and rode bikes down to Pearl, grabbing some patio action at the Lazy Dog and checking out the cool vintage store whose name escapes me.

Sunday was a bit overcast, but we headed to Aspen Grove to grill poolside. Not a huge turnout, we were the only crew there most of the day. Well that's because it started to pour eventually, right as we fired up the grill. Luckily, the grilling pit was in a large covered area by the entrance, so we had shelter for eating as well. As soon as we were done, though, we high-tailed it home because it was coming down in sheets. Any thought of checking the fireworks at Folsom was washed out. So instead we had our own dance party for a while then watched a ton of Burn Notice.

Monday we had planned to do some mountain biking, but the trails were too muddy and we just had a lazy day.

melvins are the rock

2010-07-01T14:51:00.005-06:00

Melvins played the Ogden on tuesday and pummeled their way through two sets of oldies & newies. This was the first time I'd seen them since the addition of the second drummer and the bassist from Big Business, who've been on board for the last three albums. Bumped into a bunch of folks at the show, including my old neighbor who told me the real reason why they were evicted.

Set 1
Sacrifice
Civilized Worm
Black Stooges
Pig House
Electric Flower
Anaconda
Black Bock
The Kicking Machine
Billy Fish
Skin Horse

Set 2
The Water Glass
Evil New War God
AMAZON
The Talking Horse
Hung Bunny
Roman Bird Dog
Let It All Be
My Generation
Revolve
Bacon Industry
Lovely Butterfly

Grab my tape over at Dime or COTapers!

rafting expedition

2010-06-29T14:13:00.003-06:00

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

2010-06-25T14:12:00.001-06:00

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

2010-06-21T15:00:00.009-06:00

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

2010-06-14T16:21:00.004-06:00

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

2010-06-08T16:21:00.002-06:00

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

2010-06-04T10:31:00.001-06:00

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

2010-06-01T10:26:00.001-06:00

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.

brewing & a tri

2010-05-24T11:44:00.000-06:00

Met up with greg for happy hour at the Med friday night. Saturday morning I drove around colorado running errands. When I got back, I brewed up a batch of Stephaweizen. Aprés brewing we watched Anchorman and called it an early night since steph had a triathalon in the morning. The tri was out at the Longmont reservoir - it was a sprint so it was all over pretty early.

We stuck around for the awards, then met up with some folks for lunch at Oskar Blue's Liquids and Solids.

Later that afternoon we planted herbs & veggies on our back patio, then suffered through the LOST finale. I was OK with the island plot resolution, but completely underwhelmed by the flash sideways chummy church step into the light crap.

car repairs

2010-05-17T10:34:00.000-06:00

Friday I dropped off my car to get the front axle replaced, and saturday I took her in for new tires & an alignment - should be good to go for a while! After I got my car back, we took in a showing of Iron Man 2, and had dinner at Tres Margs (just can't get enough mexican food).

Sunday morning while steph was out riding her bike, I bottled the Rocktane which had been happily dry-hopping for the past 3 weeks or so. Bob even made me some swanky labels (see below). After bottling I went for a run, then we grilled out.

mom day

2010-05-10T10:24:00.000-06:00

Steph had a brunch saturday, so I caught up with the tvtron while she was out. Later that afternoon, we met up at that park over by IBM for Ryder's 1st b-day with a killer spread of picnic-y apps. I was kind of vacation-lagged, but we were able to get in a few rounds of boules de petanque. After the park we stopped by Jacq's new hut for a little while then headed home to catch the Betty White SNL. Sunday was mother's day, so we went on a hike up Ann White trail, then convened at hillside for a BBQ.

mexican vacation!

2010-05-08T15:44:00.000-06:00

After last year's cancelled vacation to Cabo due to the swine flu hysteria, we were ready to make it up. We had a 6am flight, so we left milo at 3am with little sleep logged and headed to DIA. After an odd layover in Charlotte, we arrived in Cancun on saturday, 4pm-ish local time, but then had to suffer through an unorganized immigration line for 2 hours or so. Luckily our ride was still waiting, and we were off! Our resort was in Playacar, the gated portion of Playa del Carmen. Our room was spitting distance from the beach, and we were greeted with a bottle of champagne. After showering, we headed to the main buffet style restaurant for dinner. On the way back to the room, we caught the end of the Madonna tribute show at the outdoor stage area, and called it a night since we never really got much rest the night before.

Sunday was a beach day. Great weather, although it was a bit windy and the sand got kicked up a bit. The waves were good fun, though! I threw some darts with the woman who played Madonna the night before while steph got in a run. Later in the afternoon, we checked out some bikes and rode into town, did a little shopping, and stopped for a cervesa & some calamari at a beach bar. We got to bed pretty early because we had booked an early morning expedition for monday.

Monday we were up early to go on a tour of Chichen Itza, which are some old Mayan ruins a few hours inland. The tour bus picked us up at around 7.30am, then we kind of drove down the coast picking up people at other resorts before we finally got under way. This part was kind of annoying (especially on the way back), but the ruins were pretty swell. After the tour, we had some free time to shop - we scored a really cool wooden mask. Then we bused a few minutes away to get some lunch. It was close to 3pm, and having had only a sweet bread and apple for breakfast, this lunch was superb - slow cooked meats, rice, veggies, etc. After lunch we went swimming in a fresh water cenote - this particular one was 150 feet deep and about 50 feet wide. Super refreshing - I could have jumped off the high ledge all day long. After we returned to the resort, we had a dinner reservation at on of the fancier restys on site - the Portofino, which was mediterranean styled cuisine. Pretty much passed out from exhaustion after dinner.

Tuesday we started the day with a morning run through Playacar, and some smaller ruins near a park. The we hit the beach again, the wind had died down, but we still had some strong waves - we both got our sunglasses knocked off & swallowed by the ocean. Rode bikes back into town and got some new cheapo sunnys & other assorted items - a cool painted porcelain skull, bottle of sipping tequila for the room, jewelery, etc. Returned for dinner, then caught the second half of the Moulin Rouge performance.

Wednesday we went to Xplor - a water & jungle adventure park. It was a much closer expedition, only a short cab ride down the coast. We started the day with ziplines, which varied from high above the ground, to ones that wound up underground and in the water. Over 2 miles or so of zips total took most of the morning, then we broke for a delicious lunch - all kinds of international buffet foods to choose from. And killer fruit juices - sour orange, guava, etc. Next we took it easy with some cave rafting, then some cave swimming, before driving around the jungle, over bridges, and underground through water with the amphibious vehicles. A full day! We had dinner at another one of the swankier eateries - Don Diego's hacienda. Randomly enough, it was cinquo de mayo, but we really had forgotten about it until later.

Thursday was our final beach day, and the ocean had calmed down considerably since our arrival - we took a short snorkeling expedition by boat, went sea kayaking, and just chilled. The entertainment that evening was a musical comedy review, which was much funnier than we thought it would be.

Friday we left the resort around 10am and headed to the cancun airport - we were a few hours early for our flight, so we had lunch at Bubba Gumps - real authentic mexican fried shrimp! Landed in cold & rainy denver around 10pm - and were home not too long afterwards.

Y la cucaracha:

chunky

2010-04-30T18:06:00.003-06:00

I forgot to participate in Record Store Day this year, but luckily a friend of mine snagged me a copy of the signed Superchunk 7" picture disc. It's from their contribution to the ATHF movie soundtrack, 'Misfits & Mistakes'.

hey ya yeasayer

2010-04-26T09:51:00.005-06:00

It was rainy and cold all week, and I had a lingering cold to boot. I was finally feeling better come saturday though, so I racked my current batch of beer. I left it in the primary fermenter a week longer than I'd planned mainly because I had not gotten around to picking up some dry-hopping hops. I added a 1/2 oz of Simcoe and a 1/2 oz of Amarillo which should give it a nice mix of pine & citrus. I also added oak chips at this stage to give it a cask-aged like quality.

After racking and cleaning up, I brought my car in to get the brakes fixed. We picked it up and then headed down to Monument for Steph's nephew's first communion. Shortly after the ceremony, we drove back to denver and grabbed a quick bite at the Atomic before we walked over to the Bluebird for Yeasayer. Another sold out show, but at least this wasn't all ages - it certainly filled up though. Sleigh Bells all but stole the show with their 30 minute onslaught. Just guitar & vox with a drum machine backing tape, but they blew the roof off the place.

Yeasayer were no slouches, however. A heavy psychedelic vibe purveyed throughout their set, brightening up every now & again for the fruitier, 80's dance tracks from Odd Blood.

Hard to make out clearly, but the mostly bass player on the left in the wife-beater looked just like Biff.

Sunday morning Steph had the ladies over for a clothing exchange, so I rode my bike over to hillside and wound up looking through old family photo albums looking for old pictures of the Culps. When I returned, I cleaned off the back porch, Steph planted our veggies, and we watched Breaking Bad & the Pacific. RIP RV.

car troubles

2010-04-19T09:42:00.002-06:00

Brought my car in friday for a transmission flush and to fix the AC, and returned with a laundry list of other items needin fixin - front brakes/rotors, cv joints, tires. All of which I'll roll out incrementally over the next few weeks in order to ease the financial burden.

Saturday I chillaxed with Ruggles most of the day. Later that evening we christened Jacq & Andy's new hut and dubbed it 3959. We didn't hang out too long since there was no furniture and we had a party to attend - some friends from the ladies' running group. Hung out for a while, but called it a relatively early night since Steph had to cycle in the AM.

Sunday afternoon I flipped between the Rockies & Red Sox games - both ended up losing. Afterwards I got some fresh air in the form of a jog. For dinner we tried out Smashburger, which was mighty tasty but greasy as heck. Adding bacon to my mushroom swiss burger prolly didn't help.