Spring 2012 remembered

Things actually happened in April 2012, but if I don’t blog about them it’s like they didn’t. 

April

Early in April I went on my 10th Match.com date for the month and met this guy and it changed my life. Seriously – this guy is awesome.

So, that happened.

Otherwise, Lisa and I took a Friday and went to Fort Collins for brewery tours. If you live in Colorado and haven’t done this yet, I highly recommend it. You just can’t go wrong with learning about how beer is brewed and getting to taste lots of beer! We hit the Budweiser brewery first, then New Belgium, then another place that I can’t remember…we sampled a lot of beer!

Archer (son of Emily and Josh) had his first birthday! Interestingly, I didn’t get any photos of him but his cake was super cute:

May

I ran both the Colfax Marathon Relay with the FasTracker Team and the Boulder Bolder.  Here is a photo of me on my leg of the relay:

This is Seth running the Boulder Bolder – there are no good photos of me running the event.

So many random things in May…Emily and Josh moved, Seth and I made homemade pizzas, we placed gummy creatures in various places, the WTS International Conference happened in Denver.  Here are some photos to sum it up:

the pedicab ride from the conference hotel to the opening reception:

Me and Celeste and some other folks at the opening reception:

Homemade pizza

gummy nonsense

Archer just before moving to the new house

Those are the major events for April and May I think. More wrap up on the way!!

More 2012 Unmentioned

Continuing from yesterdays post, I am covering some events about which I didn’t make time to post this year. Remember, this is the blah life so not everything covered here will be exciting for you.

March

Let’s see, in March I went to a Bike Denver event at the Denver Beer Company. At this event they were taking photos of Denverites with their bikes and with statements in a whiteboard bubble. Here’s my beer and then me with my bike:

I attended the LUPEC (Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails) prom. Basically we gathered at Bender’s after getting dressed up in prom dresses and drank. Here’s Jess, me, and Shannon at the event:

Oh, and spring arrived in March! Always a photo opportunity to catch the trees blossoming on my walk to work:

The big event for March was my trip to Moab with Jess! It got off to a bumpy start with her car breaking down, but we got lucky when we pulled into a AAA gas station that provided towing service! So it was just a slight detour. I don’t remember exactly the hikes we did but we hit both Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. The weather was amazing and we had a great time – we even met up with Hillary for an evening.

So, that was March. Up next…April!

Unmentioned 2012

Several events came and went this year and I didn’t make time to cover them here. But! I don’t want to leave them out entirely!

January

New Years Day Snowshoeing: Hillary organized a group of women (and Stephen) for a fun 1st day of 2012 snowshoeing. We slogged up Butler Gulch and back down in the chilly January 1st air, but it was super fun! Jess took this photo of Emily, me, Hillary, Shaina, and Stephen:

It was a beautiful day:

Stock Show Rodeo: Every January here in Denver the National Western Stock Show comes through town. It’s an event that last for a few weeks and includes a parade in downtown and a variety of events. I was invited to the rodeo one night! Of course, we visited the petting zoo prior. I think this photo was taken right as the little goat in my lap bit my thumb:

We also meandered through the area where the livestock are prepped for showing and sales:

Yes, sales – you can purchase all manner of livestock at the stock show. In fact, some places advertise with postcards and flyers on the walls:

Then there was the actual rodeo. Very entertaining. It is fascinating to see just how quickly a grown man can “hogtie” a baby cow…It was a patriotic affair – lots of flags:

We headed to the stock show bar after and observed some small amount of line dancing before Hillary sang “These Boots are Made for Walking” in a brave show of karaoke.

February

Not a lot happened in February…I went skiing with Lisa and her son Jack!

We got locked out of her car, but luckily the ski resort guest services guys were ready with tools:

In February, I also went thrift store shopping. Didn’t buy a lot but got some good merchandise shots. Yep, there are all kinds of animal glassware available at your local thrift store:

What else did I do…? There was the WTS Colorado annual awards gala:

There was a visit to the Butterfly Pavilion:

Ok, so that was January and February…I’ll let that soak in for a bit. Stay tuned for the rest of 2012!!

Alameda and Tejon

In mid-November we went for dim sum at Super Star Asian. This excursion was for the birthday of a friend of a friend. We sat down to the table of four adults and two children (already seated) and were immediately surrounded by carts of buns and dumplings. It was amazingly overwhelming. I was offered lobster, duck, and shrimp in various forms. I was originally a little leery of the prospect of dim sum. I mean, who knows what might be inside of a steamed or fried this or that…and what is shu mai anyway? Though since I like shrimp I knew that I could eat something there and I went without protest. I was pleasantly surprised! Even I, a discerning eater, walked away with a too full stomach. It was actually a pretty fun experience. They did serve the lobster head with the plate of lobster bits (a prawn was added so the big guy wouldn’t get lonely).

Afterwards, we all journeyed to the other end of the block to the Pacific Ocean International Supermarket to check out the offerings and walk off the dim sum. There was a subsection of the market devoted to glassware, kitchen utensils, and miscellaneous other items. The scantily clad plastic doll in the photo below falls into the latter category. It was actually in with some kids toys…so, I guess it’s for kids. All I know is that it’s butt actually jiggled. 

Anyway…they sell a variety of items at the Pacific Ocean market – including unicorn horns! Well, that’s what they look like. Not actually sure what they really are though.

Having arrived back from Portland just two weeks earlier, there were some other items that stood out. I say this because Portland seems to be the land of the gluten-free, vegan everything.  So, to see both canned fried gluten and “big gluten ball” was odd.

We bought some noodles and gummy candy and called it a day. Super Star Asian was pretty tasty and they serve dim sum all day – I recommend it.

P-Town Silliness

Portland has a special randomness that is delightful. If you look, there are interesting stickers, signs and/or graffiti almost everywhere. Take a mailbox for example. Stick some eyes on it and voila – an interesting inanimate object!  There are also messages to be found tacked onto telephone poles that bear important life reminders: Even a birdcage in a store has cute little signs: Speaking of birds, they were on everything, which is apparently very Portland. Of course, there are the stickers and things on the backs (or even fronts) of signs and on various poles around town. This one was pretty pervasive: There were also lots of Kurt Russell stickers and stickers with realistic teeth photoshopped in: Here are some other ones:

Portland wins when it comes to this kind of thing with San Francisco and Toronto coming in tied for second. Get with it Denver!