A Plea for Longer Weekends

Yesterday afternoon, I heard a number of people say that weekends like this one need to be longer and I agree wholeheartedly. This was on of those great weekends from start to finish, Friday after work to the last hours I could squeeze out of Sunday.

Friday evening was my night of culture. I met Melisa at The Corner Office for pre-symphony cocktail hour. Walking to the concert hall which is just across the street, we were shocked at how many people were wearing cowboy boot and hats. With no obvious explanation, there was nothing to do but shrug a shoulder and get inside and find out seats. We were up in Ring 2 which is the nosebleed section of Boettcher Concert Hall, just to the right side of the stage with a good birds eye view of just about the entire place. Watching each musician provided plenty of entertainment and even from a distance, it was obvious that the conductor was very animated. He gave a long introduction to the Mahler piece, highlighting the perfect fourth that was repeated throughout the symphony. I gave it a rating of G in my special system for good. After the concert, we headed up to Duo in the Highlands for dessert before calling it an evening. One of the highlights of the experience was riding down the bike path on my townie bike, passing many a rider in my shirt and tie, tie flying over my shoulder. The ride home was even better because of the simple joys of riding at night.

Early Saturday morning, I got out on the bike to meet the ride that starts from our shop sponsor, Bicycle Pedal'r, down south. I met the group on the dam in Chatfield and then cruised up the canyon a ways before turning back to get home in time to take care of some last minute prep items for Deb's party. I baked some bread, made some pasta salad, did a little shopping as quickly as possible so I could meet the usual suspects downtown for the Oktoberfest celebration on Larimer, before heading back to Deb's house for the party. Having been to the Oktoberfest in Germany I can say that Larimer St. had all of the right components, minus the mayhem and masses of Japanese tourists. I got to Deb's house just in time for the first guests to arrive. The party was a successful one and the house is officially warm now.

I did my best to try and sleep in on Sunday morning and made it all the way to 7:30 before Dempsey started smacking me in the head with his paw. With a little help from the Pinkertons, I found the motivation to get out for a ride in the morning. We headed south at a leisurely pace, through Cherry Hills Village on the Highline Canal Trail, to Highlands Ranch, over Daniels Park, back around and through suburbia before getting home. Dempsey got a much needed bath before we headed up to the cross race in Golden to watch the action and practice ringing the ol' cowbell. I am ready for another weekend now, a little help anyone? Does anybody around here have any clout, any sway with the system?

The weekend Wall Street Journal had an article/book review titled
Man and Sillyman: How the model of American masculinity became a stoner with an Xbox. Interesting concepts on which I could spend pages and pages blogging, but feel free to chime in on your own. I am glad I got in some of that cultural crap this weekend to keep me clear of the above model.