Road Runnin'

Work has again taken me out of my favorite rectangular state, and on a quick two day tour of some of the other neighboring non-squiggly areas.  An overnight in Vernal made cause for some decent pictures to be taken, day one of Wyoming is over here, while some shots of Utah's Flaming Gorge are right here.

The Flaming Gorge was one of the sections of road that I first saw during the summer of 2003, when my brother Matt and I took a roadtrip to California for two weeks.  We saw about half a dozen national parks, got rained on and locked out of the car in North Dakota, had surf n' turf at Huntington Beach, toured the Spam Museum in Minnesota and slept in my Buick in the Big Horn Mountains.  It was a trip that took me to my first summer working at Ponderosa as a counselour for rich California high school kids, and was the first real summer of substantive change and growth in my life.

When we were getting close to the Utah border, it was already way past dusk and we were unable to find a motel in Rock Springs. With no other options,  we kept heading south to find some camping.  Twisting and turning in the dark, we eventually followed the brown luminescent sign for a campground, found a vacant spot, made camp and immediately fell asleep.  When we arose, the tent was unzipped to an amazing view of the sharp yellow cliffs of the Northern part of the Gorge...

and we were stunned.  This was the 4th day of the trip, and the first time I truly felt far away from home.  We had already been through the badlands, yellowstone and the tetons, but for some reason this was the first time I felt truly disconnected from our midwestern home.  I had never even been west of the Mississippi before, and it felt fantastic, bewildering, a little frightening.  As the forest ranger came around to collect the nightly toll for camping before we could escape like true, cheap dutchmen that we are, we got the car loaded and eventually kept heading south.

Roadtrips are the perfect brooding grounds for mental meanderings.  That trip took us more than 2000 miles and over ten days of highway time, with just as much time to contemplate the direction of your life as much as the direction of your tires.  And for some reason, that trip stands out to me as one of the best time of processing as I've ever had.  There is a beautiful thing about driving with nothing to do but play out the past and the future all at once in your melon.  (that, and keep yourself from going off a cliff.)  Matt and I were amazed at something different every day, whether it was the surprising beauty of Western Wisconsin or the amazing arches of Southern Utah, and no trip had been lionized in my memory quite like that one.

I was rolling these memories around as I took another lap through the same mountains that changed me in 2003, and realized that it had been awhile since I had spent as much consolidated, intentional time in thought that a road trip brings.  I thought about all of the events, the changes and direction that my life had taken in the past six years.  I thought about all of the people and friends that are now lost to distance, time, and facebook since then.  I thought of the woman that told me on the 4th of July in 2005 that she would absolutely say 'YES' if I ever asked her to marry me.   Family, jobs, destiny, faith.  Why had it been so long since i had sat in silence and watched peaks roll by?  Why don't I contemplate this more often?

It was then that I also realized that it was Ash Wednesday, and the beginning of Lent.  We have been talking about how to celebrate the season of lent this year in our house, and in our church; and I couldn't help but smile at the fact that I just-so-happened to spend the entire day by myself, in a car, in my mind to begin the 6 week period.  Thanking my mysterious God for the happenstance he had given me, I gunned the engine across the Wyoming border and said a prayer of thanks for all that had been given me before, all that I am currently allowed to enjoy and for the plans that I know He has for me ahead.

It's a Bachelor's Life for me...

I put miss Liz on a plane yesterday, as she had decided that all of this sunny, mild weather we have had lately is making her depressed. She needed some Northeastern cold, and she needed it stat.

Or, really, she has a conference to attend next week, and decided to head early to see some old friends and tear up Boston. Proper.

That said, i snuck off to Winter Park for a b-e-autiful day of sun and powder with our friends Becky and Jevon (also originally Liz's Boston friends, now Denver transplants.. hmmm..) and managed to enjoy myself, get some adrenaline pumping, and even manage to not hurt myself. Not a bad day, even if i had a lonely house awaiting me upon my return.

Earlier this week, i blossomed into my late twenties, and to celebrate, Liz made me home-made corn dogs (she hates them normally) and a fantastic carrot cake (another favorite of mine, not so much of hers). Take a look over at the Flickr page to catch all the pictorial evidence of all mentioned events, I'll be over here eating sugar cereal and watching Sportcenter reruns. (burp)

Weekend Happenings

If Brian's worst blogging fears are correct, this post would be about flowers, things that are pink, and feminine napkins. I'll try to keep the girliness to a minimum and write about something both genders can enjoy - the food of the weekend.

Though we're not big celebrants of Valentine's Day, we did use it as an excuse to make a nice meal. Nothing experimental or adventurous, just good food. On the menu: the filet mignon from our lot o' beef this year, served with sautéed mushrooms, mashed blue potatoes, green beans, and homemade bread. With our new camera, we played around with some settings for photographing food.



The meal came out perfectly. For dessert, I tried a new recipe for a chocolate torte filled with chocolate butter cream and topped with chocolate ganache and strawberries. It was pretty good, but I think I’ll try around with some other recipes. Still, who would turn down even a mediocre chocolate torte?



Also on the tab for the weekend was a visit from fellow Middlevillian Phil and his lady Stephanie, who now live just a few hours from here. We showed them some of our favorite Fort Collins haunts (i.e. microbreweries).



Happy Presidents Day! Didn't we use to get that day off?

Valentine's Day Loot

Hannah Montana and Pirates of the Caribbean valentines, pink cupcakes,
a homemade heart cookie with what appeared to be a bite out of it, and
a rock paper weight. I'm feeling the love.

Your Early Liz Birthday Reminder

While it is actually my birthday next week, the absolute perfect gift for liz has finally been created and is currently available for pre-order on Amazon:

April 5 is coming fast!  Order it today!

A Morality Question

Turns out we had good reason to dislike A-Rod.  But, he's still going to bat above .350 with 40 homers this season.  Dwight rode him like a golden ticket to the fantasy baseball playoffs last year.  So..

If given the chance, do you draft Rodriguez for your Fantasy Team?  

Climbing in February

From one terribly founded sport to another this weekend, the weather cooperated long enough for Sean, Mark, Kate, Liz and myself to make a day down at the Golden Cliffs of North Table Mountain, above the wonderful town of Golden on Saturday.

Leaving early enough to procure a parking spot and some space at the bottom of some of the more popular moderate routes was only the beginning of a lovely day.  (to read Sean and Kate'sversions of the day, follow their names..) It has been a few months since we have been on a rope out-of-doors, and the first lead of the day for myself (Wholly Holey, 5.8) certainly reminded me of that.  The crux being a roof at the second bolt was pretty fun, but by the end i was really overgripping and making life harder on myself than it really was.  Mark led Pack O' Bobs (5.7)next door, and also thought his first serving for the day was a little stiffer than advertised in the guidebook.  Everyone took a lap on both, though, as we eased our digits into helping us move upwards... and not downwards.

Right next door was another pair of 8's, so we jumped on them when they were vacated and did our best to improve from the first two.  My second lead, Windy Days,  was a shorter, less thoughtful route, but i did feel better at the end about my general confidence.  The top was an odd roof anchor, though, that was set just above the lip so you couldn't really set the anchor without completely climbing over it, so i settled for a long reach from the side and felt silly the entire time.  Mark zoomed up Pee on Dee, which everyone took a turn on as well and agreed it was varied but straightforward enough to be the favorite for the day.  

As the sun waned, we remembered that it was indeed still February, and we packed up and headed for the cars around 2:30.  On the way home, we couldn't help but stop and snoop the closing Circuit City in Thornton, and ended up procuring a new camera for documentation of our adventures. (a Canon PowerShot G10.  Glee!)  This is only fitting, as we brought a camera on this days adventures, but took nary a shot - all of the pictures above were gratuitously stolen from Sean and Kate.  (speaking of, check out Kate's awesome Gallery over here).  All in all, it was a fantastic day and got us all excited about the coming springtime climbing to be had in only a few weeks....

Official Colorado Weekends

It can be daunting living here, you know. There are certain unspoken requirement for living in the bumpiest of the square states, usually involving willingly taking your life into your own hands in the name of entertainment and fitness.

We decided to embrace such a silly lifestyle last weekend, and met up with some old AF friends to share a condo at the bottom of the slopes at Keystone. It was a wonderful time, staying two nights that allowed us to relax both nights, avoid most traffic, and get some pizza at the original Beau Jo's in Idaho Springs to boot. The skiing itself was pretty darn good, and while conditions did not bring any new snow, it was at least perfectly sunny allll dayyyy loonnngg. (ahem. Michigan?) Liz spent the day with our friend Anne, burning up every green dot she could find, while i did my best work at dislocating or breaking any possible bone in my body back in the trees.


And while skiing is all well and good for blogging, i would be remiss if i did not take a moment to diagram the stellar (STELLAR) decorating choices of the condo that we stayed in. The place we had seemed to be owned by an individual family, and then leased out to an association for rentals, because there was no way that any faceless, impersonal organization could decorate as well as we saw. In fact, let me be a guide for your lesson in Mountain Condo Decorating for Dummies:


First, pho-tree and antler accoutrement are a must. A MUST. Here you will see a simple lamp made of branches, but you could also find a coat rack of antlers, multiple frames made from rough wood and a large, rustic fireplace. There are countless stores across the front range and in the tourist section of mountain towns that have shelves and shelves and shelves of this stuff. There is an entire industry of people who take new pieces of furniture and make them look old. I love it.


Here is step 2 - proudly displayed artwork from the 80's. This little gem could be found at the middle turn of the stairs, and almost made me trip and fall backwards on my first trip up. Just try and pick one thing about this to be amazed at. The butterfly's? No, it has to be the hair. Ah, but what of the fantastic eye shadow? I bet they spent a lot of money on this at one point.


Item number 3 is almost qualifying for our first section, if not for it's bravado and size. It's... a big ram. i guess. It almost seems like it was frozen in carbonite, Han Solo's little curled-horn buddy. But the reason it get's very special recognition are the very personal pictures of the actual homeowners on the mantle..... including a picture of them buying the carbonite ram. I can't make this stuff up.


And finally, number 4. Oh, my. This was on the wall of the room that liz and i slept in. It looked over us while we slumbered, and i wholly expected it to show up in my dreams. Have you seen a better example of nightmare fuel? It's like mardi gras, turkeys, and the plot point of a B-Grade horror movie all rolled into one and put on the wall. IN THE LIVING ROOM.

Luckily, the skiing knocked enough out of us, and we hardly noticed the daemon hung above us as we snoozed off the muscle strains we had both earned. And we eventually left on Sunday morning, with seemingly not a trace of a curse following us home. (we think)

(please, seriously, if anyone reading is bankrolled enough to own a mountain property, do not follow these guidelines. Misery and blog posts at your taste's expense is all that can come from it.)

Google maps car hits deer, uploads photos, hilarity ensues

Ok, real blogging about our recent exploits are coming soon, i promise, but this was too funny to not share.  Google (you know those guys, right?) in their campaign for global domination has been busy recording images of as much of the roadways of these here america's as possible for their Google Maps Street View software.  Basically, it's a van they drive that captures 360 degree images as they drive down the road, and eventually you can look up your address and see your driveway. Creepy, cool, useful, and as of today:  Hilarious.

Turns out that the van stuck bambi while it was filming in upstate NY, and for some reason uploaded the photos to the map view.  Follow the link above to the article with the screen caps, as the image has now been removed from the maps webpage.  Luckily, the deer managed to scamper off the road on it's own power, but no one seems to be talking about the state of the van's headlights.  hmmm...  Being the good doobies they are, there is a post over at the Google Maps Blog about the incident, complete with driving saftey tips in case of a deer strike.  

Austin has a Zombie Escape Plan

There was a false alarm in Austin, Texas last week, as it turned out the zombie warning was only a prank.  Personally, I believe the person responsible is simply a real version of Dwight Schrute, whose intrepid zeal for preparedness was not met with the same enthusiasm by the authorities.

**UPDATE:  Apparently, Illinois is prepared as well.  Ha!