just married

The week leading up to our wedding was pretty hectic. Lots to do when you are mostly DIY-ing it. We rented the retreat center at the 63rd Street Farm, and that's pretty much all the help they provided. We were in charge of renting all the tables/chairs/plates, organizing the catering, painting signs, picking up the soundsystem, working up an 8-hour playlist, making & hanging decorations, etc. Thank goodness my best man Jay flew in to town, he was a big help with all the last minute stuff at the farm - especially wrangling that weird smelly goat.

After the 50 or so guests were seated, we began the short but sweet ceremony, which went off without a hitch. Thanks to Paul for officiating! After some cocktail hour (the Farmhouse ale was a big hit), we moved indoors for dinner and great speeches from Jacq & Jay. After dinner, we all reconvened outside for dancing and merriment around the bonfire until the wee hours with the frogs.



And thanks to Renn and his friend who took all the photos!

b-day pizza week

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

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

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

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

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

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...