Boo!

I have candy, lots and lots of candy. If I can't find a pumpkin at the store, I might just keep my lights off to discourage the trick or treaters and keep the candy for myself.

I meant to post this one earlier but got tricked into working instead.

Happy Halloween!

Civic Duties

I, Seth Rubin, of sound mind and body, have exercised my rights under the 14th, 15th, 19th, 24th and 26th Amendments of the Constitution of the United States of America and a bunch of other stuff. Reading through all of the items on the ballot was a bit of an unpleasant reminder of the scope and scale of government in this day and age. Some regulation is good, but the fact that we have to protect people from themselves (as opposed to each other) is sad.

Thank goodness nobody is going to give up anything in this election without a fight. Fortunately the Denver Police were on hand at Harvard Gulch for early voting in case things got out of hand.


They weren't really there for voting, they just hang out there all the time. I was able to do some informal polling based on visuals. At least between the three voters I was looking at, there is a dead tie. The guy in the Prius voted Obama. The woman in the SUV who almost hit me while I was biking away voted McCain. The guy with dreadlocks and hippie garb wrote in Jerry Garcia who I am pretty sure isn't eligible to be President because of his association with "undesirables" or maybe because he is dead.

We'll find out how it all turns out on Tuesday or months from then depending on lawsuits. Thank goodness for the 21st Amendment!

Pad

Such a lovely sight . . . freshly screeded concrete in the afternoon sun. As the concrete is curing in the backyard, there really is no turning back now! I met up with Duane yesterday to take a last look at the materials bid for all the lumber needed to frame the garage. That's looking good and I should be able to schedule my delivery in the next week or so, giving the pad some time to cure before putting anything on it. With any luck, I'll be able to frame all of the walls and get the roof trusses up and sheeted before too long.


Although with the control joints in place, it really would make a good four square court or a great backyard basketball court.


Another shot for perspective, this garage is going to be pretty big.


And from the other side . . .


Part of the project is going to be replacing the non-exterior grade siding product on the addition (the white thing) with the same materials as I will be using to side the garage. It will be a cement based siding product that should last for the ages and hopefully give the garage a somewhat attractive look. Kitt's suggestion for windows on the side facing the house has been in the plans from the get go. I'll have two windows and the man-door on the east face of the garage and significant landscaping to soften the look of the structure.

I have continued collecting the remaining bids necessary to finish the project off and the sliding scale budget has not strayed too terribly far from what I originally thought. I likely won't provide pictures of concrete curing, so back to the other blog topics for a while . . .

Building Stuff

When we last visited the backyard, there was a shed. Prior to that, there was a dumpster that quickly got filled with a bunch of junk. Now, there's a hole and some equipment to move some dirt.


And some forms for what will soon be the concrete pad for my garage. The pad itself is going to be a reinforced edge slab which means that the edges are thickened beyond the 4" thickness of where I'll be parking my car, and reinforced with rebar, tied into the wire mesh embedded in the pad itself. Translation, sucker should be staying put, cracking should be minimal.


After everything is graded properly, a layer of road base will be added providing a stable surface for the concrete to sit on.


I will have a lot of space to park cars, work on my secret projects, hide from Dempsey, and maybe even ride the trainer. The garage takes up a big chunk of the backyard, but I'm perfectly ok with that. It blocks the "view" of the alley and beyond which isn't really all that great anyways and it give me a smaller area to landscape more thoughtfully.




Before framing starts, I plan on having the biggest game of four square my backyard has ever seen. Anybody have a bouncy, red gym ball?

Busy Weekend

After the work week came to a roaring close, I got the weekend started off with some good, old-fashioned culture. Melisa and I headed out for an evening with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, starting the night at Prima Ristorante in the Hotel Monaco for some drinks and a nibble. I highly recommend their duck crostini, but the tortelli we ordered took forever to come out to us . . . still frozen. The bartenders were good sports about it, bought us some drinks and stole somebody else's order that had just come up.

The symphony was quite lovely on the whole. I was looking around the concert hall, amazed at how empty it was. Maybe Friday night isn't all that popular for an evening of culture (although all of the other DCPA venues seemed pretty packed) or maybe Denverites don't get it. I found the Mozart and Brahms pieces to be quite lovely, but the Vaughn Williams symphony was a bit too modern for my liking. It had the feel of a musical score from a movie I probably wouldn't want to watch. I do not mind tonal music in bits and pieces and some of Williams' Symphony No. 5 had some pleasing, pastoral, sweeping sections but for my classical music, I'll stick to the classics. The soloist for the evening, Elina Vähälä was very impressive and I found the Brahms Violin Concerto very enjoyable. Even more impressive is the fact that she plays a 1678 Stradivarius, begging the question, how do you travel with a 330 year old violin with a value of well over $1,000,000? Besides very carefully . . .

Saturday was a day of running around finishing up last minute prep for the Low Country Boil party at Melisa's house. Kudos to Scott Hartley for showing up with a stylish set of Dr. Bukk specials, his wife is a very lucky lady. It was incredible how quickly 25 lbs. of potato, corn, sausage, and shrimp disappeared. At 6:35, I emptied the contents of the giant pot onto the tables and by 7:00 people were done eating and had resorted to bemoaning the discomfort and/or satisfaction of a stuffed belly.


Nothing brings more joy to the Southerner inside me than a new turkey fryer/outdoor cooker.

Bourque decorates, shows a good grasp on paper lantern techniques.


Everybody was looking forward to the 6:35 dining time, especially Craig. He loves shrimp!

Almost everybody is in the pool, just waiting on the shrimp.

Seriously, Craig loves shrimp. He scoped out all of the positions at the table to determine optimal proximity between shrimp and Old Bay.

Brian and Jessica made it to the party, escaping their house in Nederland where 12' of snow have already fallen.

Scott's toothy grin shows exactly why Buffy is such a lucky lady, click for a closer look at his grill.

After the feeding frenzy, people settled around the two fire pits, only stirring on occasion to refill glasses of hot, spiced cider and rum. Clean up in the morning was kept to a minimum since everything got shoved into either trash or recycling and the tables got hosed off for use on another day. This will be a party concept that gets repeated when warm weather returns for sure.

On Sunday, I headed up to Boettcher Mansion to celebrate Brian and Simon's recent wedding. It was a perfect, crisp, fall morning for such an event. I made the quick drive up to the top of Lookout, counted that as my "ride" for the day, and caught up with some people I hadn't seen in a while. The celebration was very heart warming and refreshing. It is rare you get to see such true expression of love between two people. I am glad to have Brian and Simon as friends and I wish them all the best! The formal reception was followed by a slightly less formal gathering at their house later in the afternoon. Another weekend in the bag, I think I could use at least another day of sleeping.

On the home front, I should see some happenings in the backyard this afternoon. At the end of the day Friday, I got everything lined up for getting the concrete pad for my garage poured hopefully this week. Pictures to follow or something like that.

For a Friday

It has been a little while since I played with Mixwit to make a mix "tape" online, but they have made some cool additions. Play with the mix below or don't, I don't care, it's Friday. My favorite part is on the menu, they have a coverflow style option for scrolling through mixes in the widget. All in all, not a bad little mix thrown together pretty quickly this morning.

Tonight marks my return to partaking in cultural stuff and things. It's time to hit the Colorado Symphony Orchestra again for the performance of Brahms
Violin Concerto in D major, Opus 77. I will have to do my reading before heading out so I can speak to my colleagues in an educated manner about the life and times of Johannes B.

I've got a pretty full weekend schedule coming up so there should be plenty of good posting to come. Right now I have tapped all of my inspirational juices, I have nothing more to give . . .

Sliding

Amazing how a full summer and autumn of morning walks will make you forget the existence of ice on the sidewalk. As of 6:04 AM today, ice was rediscovered in a very awkward and unbalanced manner. I was minding my own business, trying to fight off the chill from the wind when all of a sudden, my feet started moving in unexpected directions. Dempsey being the intelligent being that he is, kept it to the grass and was unhindered.

I am not completely ready to acknowledge the coming of winter. So what if I caved already and turned on the heat for the season, that doesn't mean anything. I did my best to ignore the couple of flakes that fell yesterday afternoon on my walk through the park. On the bright side, at least I can crank the oven to make some bread and not have to worry about the house getting too warm.

Speaking of slides, anybody check out the market today? I'm trying to interpret the trend here . . . I'm going to have to go with "not good" . . .

My latest investment scheme is still in bricks and mortar, or at least wood and cementitious siding product. After some serious hounding, I have a couple of workable concrete bids for getting my garage slab done. I plan on having that contracted by the end of the week so I can get on with the rest of the project. I didn't bother taking a picture to update, but the couch in the backyard is now gone, thanks to the City of Denver and "large item pickup" services offered monthly. With any luck, I should be swinging a hammer a couple weekends from now and getting some walls up. Building stuff is fun, sort of.

More Choices

I am starting to shift to the Halloween costumes are stupid end of the spectrum. Costume options are immensely varied and in the past I have gone from characters (Bob Ross) to interpretive ("your dad") to very literal (drunk). This year, I could just go the direction that costumes for women have gone, but does anybody really want a slutty garbageman at their party?

My latest idea involved the Denver Gorilla Run and commandeering a gorilla suit by whatever means necessary, but in planning the details it has become simply too complicated and dangerous. If no better ideas come along, I might just wear a limited edition Seth Rubin costume to whatever party I end up going to. Or maybe I'll go as an "adult" instead . . .

Choices

It is all about wording. Sometimes you come across something stated so well by somebody else that there is nothing left to do but quote.

To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. “Can I interest you in the chicken?” she asks. “Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?” To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked. I mean, really, what’s to be confused about?

David Sedaris offered up his thoughts on the upcoming election in this week's New Yorker in his usual, witty way. He didn't name any names when talking about undecided voters and the choice available but it doesn't take much guess work to determine where he stands.

I have friends that cover the spectrum when it comes to political views. The logic behind various peoples' leanings never ceases to amaze me though. I like to think that my set of peers is fairly well read and educated, enlightened, critical thinkers, etc. Every once one of the friends with views that differ from mine says something that shocks and amazes me not because the opinion is different but because of that on which it is based. Going beyond party politics, do people really have a hard time trying to figure out what somebody really stands for? Can they not distinguish the significant trade offs that are made when you support somebody simply because they are "conservative"?

These choices have an impact on daily life to a certain extent, but sometimes it is very hard to see what the consequences are. Everybody was pretty happy when economic times were good and they focused on the humor that can be found in the stupidity of our elected officials. Economic activity as of late suggest maybe we were all asleep at the wheel. People have a tendency to question government regulation and view it in the cross hairs of socialistic tendencies. What about Federal Deposit Insurance? That's a pretty good idea right? What would happen if we deregulated something like the meat industry . . .

Not My Game

Let's start with the skills session on Friday that never happened. I never made it to the park to play with the mountain bike and get some coaching on my dismounts and remounts. I did get in some cross training though and a short ride on the townie bike with a few stops here and there for beer and pizza. You have to fuel up properly to race your best . . . and the winner for best comedic cross performance goes to . . . Scott and John were nice enough to start the bets early on how I would do. John had a six-pack on me to win, Scott expressed his doubts very loudly and clearly.

I took a closer look at the mountain bike on Saturday morning and got out to the park just to practice a little bit before the race, using the tips I got from John and Scott the night before. Turns out I have some pretty beefy tires on the bike, 2.1 knobbies translates to a tire that is wide, very, very wide, providing good grip on the trail, but a lot of rolling resistance. That resistance gets much higher when your wheels flex and the tire rubs the chainstays, which mine did anytime I put the power to the pedals. I did some calling around to see who had what and if I could make any race day changes. In the end, I decided that equipment really wouldn't be too much of a limiting factor.

Once out at Xilinx and registered, there was no turning back for sure. I said a few quick hellos to some friends, got laughed at by many for racing cross and racing Cat 4 at that, and hit the course for some warming up. They have been staging riders for the start in order of points standings and race registration so at the start I was a good eight rows back with 105 starters total.

I underestimated the effort required at the start and didn't get past as many guys as I should have before we hit the first dirt section. I passed when I had the chance, getting by some guys based on power only to lose positions due to lack of skill on dismounts and remounts. A few laps in, I got to the point where there really wasn't anybody close behind me and I was able to close in on those in front of me. On to the good parts! Here I am "showcasing my skills" at what I found to be the toughest set of barriers:


They were on a reasonably steep hill with a loose, off camber approach. By the end of the race, the mountain bike started feeling really heavy. But all in all, it was a lovely day to be out on the bike doing something different.


It was amusing how a lot of guys would back off on the road sections. I made up all sorts of ground there and then tried to recover on the downhill sections where I had to brake anyways. I ended the day with all of my skin, no broken bike parts, no broken ego, I did no harm to myself or others (except the guy who ran into me and fell over), and finished in 11th place. Dave Towle summed it up best by saying, "I saw some 7-8 year olds out here racing with more panache and class than you today."

Thanks to all the friends and teammates who came out to support and taunt me. Dejan was out with his son and his camera taking pictures. Check out his photo album. I have joked around already about doing another cross race, but on a cross bike and with a little more skills practice under my belt. I don't make any promises though.

This Should Be Good . . .

In the past couple weeks, there has been some joking around about me potentially jumping in a cyclocross race as opposed to being an innocent bystander. I poo-pooed the idea since I lack experience and skill, blah, blah, blah. Then I noticed that my ACA license says I am a Cat 4 for cross . . . game on!

I will be racing on the old Moots which has been long ignored since getting into the whole road racing scene. I've been spending some much time on the road training as opposed to dinking around on the trail, I wouldn't be surprised if the bike throws me off out of spite and/or jealousy. So far as I know the tires hold air and the bike shifts. I need to put some air in the fork so it isn't super spongy and make sure I can still lock it out as necessary.

The lead up to the race might be the most amusing part. I am getting some pointers from Scott this afternoon. He will have been to happy hour already so I can only hope he will be brown bagging it in the park, telling me to "ride with the fear" or some other such nonsense. I have gotten tips from people already ranging from "wear a cup for the remounts because you are going to be awful at it" to "maybe you should wear some waterwings and any other padding you can to protect you from yourself and others" . . . good times and thank everybody, real helpful.

If you are in the neighborhood of Xilinx tomorrow come check out the race.

Gettin' Political

I made the mistake of watching the debate last night even though I really had no desire to watch. I very quickly lost interest when McCain showed that his debate technique of choice would be the "Your mom! I'm John McCain, folks!" approach. He avoided talking about his own positions and instead took relatively inane cheap shots at Obama based more on character than substance. For example:

McCain began the debate by accusing his rival of waging class warfare by advocating tax increases designed to “spread the wealth around.” The Democratic nominee denied the allegation and countered that he favors tax reductions for 95% of all Americans. “Nobody likes taxes,” Obama said in an exchange early in the debate. “But ultimately we’ve got to pay for the core investments” necessary for the economy. “If nobody likes taxes, let’s not raise anybody’s, OK?” McCain retorted with a laugh.

One Down

One trainer ride down, only 93 more to go until the start of the 2009 season (I totally made that number up). I created many obstacles and distractions to test my resolve and will to ride the trainer. I overcame them all, got in my hour workout, and did some serious sweating to the 80s. My entertainment of choice for some reason always ends up being the Retro-Pop station on Comcast. It is good for keeping my TADD, trainer attention deficit disorder, under control with new songs and accompanying information coming up every few minutes.


I had to leap this obstacle to get to the trainer last night. There had been talk of golfing yesterday afternoon, getting in a quick nine at Harvard Gulch, followed by a quick Hoegaarden at Bistro One. It was decided that the weather was not conducive to golf so we went straight to happy hour. Over rousing philosophical conversation, pints . . . er, 1/2 liters were consumed. That's a big, frosty glass of icy, cold goodness.

The weather is actually looking up for this weekend. I plan on getting out for another long ride in the hills to check out the remainder of the fall colors. Hopefully I'll be riding with Mike, who I haven't ridden with in forever and a day. He's just getting back from some masters' racing in Majorca so riding with him will be punishment as usual, but the good kind. Subtract at least one ride from the trainer total above . . .

Harvest Moon

Tonight is the first full moon of the season (since the autumnal equinox) making it the harvest moon. I saw the moon rise last night around 7:00 in the evening and it had the seasonal orange tint to it. This morning as I was returning from my walk with Dempsey, the moon was setting behind the mountains as the sun was rising in the east. Good times . . .


Today will be my first afternoon trainer workout. It is time to get back to some intensity and start thinking about building towards next year. I have had plenty of fun cross training and floating in the realm of only sort of training for the past few weeks. It isn't like I have been off the bike all together, but it sure seems that way sometimes.

I had some good cross training yesterday, running with Dempsey after work. I figured out the trick to keeping him moving (besides putting a raw steak in my pants) during a run longer than five minutes. It is all about gaits . . . he seems to like the trot the best, but at a Dempsey canter (lope for you western riders) he keeps up much better. It is all a matter of getting him to the right gait. If he were a horse, it would be all about leg pressure (or a kick for you western riders), but since he's a dog he gets a light tug on the leash and some encouragement. Kicking him would probably elicit some stares and phone calls.

I also rode over to Wash Park for some evening tennis with my sister. She's been getting better with lessons and playing has been pretty amusing. I brought my "A" game last night, if I even have one, and hit some nice shots and some great serves. It sure will be sad returning to the basement as my primary source of exercise.

Grilling and Disbelief

Sunday marked the return of the oh so stylish and classy Miller Highlife Grill to the Colorado Cyclocross scene. The grill means many things to many people . . . greatest, dumb thesis statement overused by students everywhere by the way . . . for some it was heat on a cold, damp day, for others it is opportunity. Some people are simply awed by what can be accomplished with such a simple tool. Ah the many wonders afforded by flame.


The grill has seen some pretty stout action in the past and my world of charcoal grilling has stretched from meats to baking, from beer bread and bananas foster to nothing but hot flame.


You can see my look of disbelief mirroring the disbelief of others who were shocked (and awed) by the fact that Matt and I were grilling tater tots. Tots have been done successfully many a time and they come out mighty fine with a nice smokey flavor and good crunch. The other items in view are some nicely warmed sauerkraut and some Hebrew National dogs. You can't tell from the look on Matt's face, but he ran from my house to Bear Creek Lake Park which ended up being a hair over 15 miles. I need to check my house carefully to see what he stole causing him to run like that.

Having made its triumphant return, the grill will likely travel more often now. I need to do some digging and see what my next masterpiece will be. I would like to stretch the limits a bit further this year and really test the true potential of simple charcoal. My response to "You can grill _______?!?!" is rapidly becoming "YOU can't?!?!"

I got out on Saturday in the cold and wet for a three hour cruiser of a ride with Scott and others. The further west we went, the wetter it got, so we turned back at the mouth of Deer Creek Canyon and made the loop of Highlands Ranch. Scott was in full cruise mode, so I was dinking around in the 53x13 (read big, big gear) just grinding away, getting my own workout in. I was successful in avoiding the trainer for another day, but I think this week is the week for getting re-acclimated to the basement.

Fall in the Air

This morning was marked by a variety of obvious seasonal changes. Dempsey and I were greeted by cold, gray, and damp as we stepped out the door to hit the park for an early round of fetch. It is getting close to the time when leaves crunch under foot and the smell of snow hangs heavy in the early morning hours.

There is something indescribably striking about a cold, gray, quiet day where the only sounds are those of your footsteps and the occasional crow, whose caws both echo in the silence and yet are muffled at the same time. Between the smell of snow that is about to fall and faint wisps of woodsmoke, you can smell the earthy scents of spring and summer decaying. Those kinds of days are perfect for a walk in the woods.


One of my other favorite fall scents is the smell of sycamore trees. It is a very hard one to describe and probably even more difficult to capture or replicate. Next time you are near a stand of sycamores, take a big whiff and you'll know what I mean.

Speaking of falling . . . how about that world economy? While both alarming and disturbing, I still find it amusing the number of people who thought that the $700 billion bailout package would suffice to stabilize the global scene. Do people understand that our economy is sitting on trillions and trillions in debt based on money borrowed on money that was borrowed many times over? The bailout is the equivalent of filling a grocery bag full of pebbles, tossing it in a crater, and calling it good.

There was an interesting article in the WSJ last week about the "alternative" investments people turn to when the market goes south. Tonight I am headed to the public opening of the Damien Hirst exhibition at the Denver Museum of Contemporary Art. I might scrape together a couple million and get myself an animal suspended in formaldehyde or a diamond crusted, platinum skull.


I am sure all animals were treated humanely in the pickling process, but I'm sure PETA has plenty to say about Mr. Hirst . . .

Barbershop

This isn't the first time haircuts have hit these pages. I have lamented the lack of real barbershops in this part of the world. Call me old fashioned, but stylists for dudes is a trend that is out of town. My hair is not an aspect of my appearance that I really feel like spending much time on to make it look perfectly messy or whatever. In the quest for a respectable haircut, I've been through a couple barbershops in town that have closed or changed ownership. I have also been to some places that were a little more "fussy" but really weren't anything beyond SuperGreatClipsCuts with a metro kick.

Enter Plaza Barbers . . . I knew I had passed this place a number of times on my shopping adventures in University Hills Plaza Shopping Center (home of the giant mountain of plowed snow in the winter). It is discretely tucked in behind some long ignored storefronts on the north end of the shopping center. There is a barber's pole spinning away which is what caught my eye in the first place, but otherwise, you might never know it was there. They don't have a website, they don't advertise, they do have senior day on Tuesday and Wednesday, and they do use a straight razor to shave the back of your neck.

I have my own checklist for what qualifies as a real barbershop, feel free to add on as you see fit:

• barbers are older and have cut hair more than once
• programming of choice on the TV (20" or below and cheap) is either hunting shows or westerns or ball games when available
• magazine selection is manly, but has the token Ladies Home Journal for the stray wife that wanders in
• the only furniture of consequence are the barber chairs, if money was spent anywhere else, you are paying too much for your haircut
• a haircut does not cost more than $13
• there is a wall display that is at least 30 years old of pocket combs for purchase
• the cash register is old, low tech, and should not really work
• there are no blow dryers, just blowers or maybe a vacuum attachment for getting stray clippings off your neck, face, ears, etc.

Supposedly there are four barbers at the shop. I do not believe that two of them exist. I have never seen Ray, the owner. I have only heard the other two talk about him, saying "oh, he'll be right back" or "he's usually back just before lunch so he can leave again". Nor have I ever heard anybody mention or ask for Jim. So far as I can tell, it is just Steve and Pete. Pete answers the phone as part what has to be a comedy routine. I kid you not, somebody called looking for the office manager. He ran out to the parking lot, asked if anybody was an office manager, came back to the phone and said, "Nope, we don't got one here."

Some poor schlub walked into the inner sanctum of the barbershop wearing a hat that said, "Ignorant in the ways". Said feller asked how long the wait was. The response was a quick glance and "there are four people ahead of you." "Can I come back?" inquired Mr. Schlub. Insert glib reply here, followed by mass ridiculing once the guy was out of earshot, primary target of mocking was the dude's long hair. "Ha, 'I need a haircut' . . . maybe he was talking about his beard," quipped Pete.

I paid my $11 for a cut and some entertainment, kept my mouth shut and stayed out of harms way. There was talk of politics, sports, the occasional bit of home garden harvest news, and a lot of joking around. This is why I seek out a real barber for my hair cutting needs. Usually the cut is respectable, but in the end, the difference between a good haircut and a bad one is about three to five days. It is all about the experience.

Foxy . . .

On our morning constitutional today, Dempsey and I ran into some wildlife in the hood. There was a curious fox hanging out in the intersection of Florida and Grant, taking in the morning sights. As we got closer, a car came past and the fox dove into the depths of the storm sewer faster than the DJIA went below 10,000 yesterday.


Mr. Fox did pretty much the same thing as the graph, made the plunge and then poked his head up out of the sewer for a look . . . before disappearing all together.

In these turbulent times, we find ourselves having to scrimp and save, making the most of what we have while trying to maintain lifestyle expectations. Even in Colorado, a state with one of the highest rates of SUV ownership, change is becoming evident.



Some might say this guy is a maverick . . . given the other SMART in the foreground, I'm confident it is a case of some good, old fashioned, tongue in cheek tomfoolery. Upon more research, the car above has some serious equipment under the . . . uh, the whole thing. It has an engine and transmission from a Mercedes Benz Unimog. It still would have been nice to see some car smashing action though.

Autumn in the Hills

I spent some quality time this weekend taking in autumnal sights, taking part in seasonal activities, and cooking some fall foods.

Friday night, a few of us hit the First Friday art walk on Santa Fe and then Tennyson with some dinner at the Santa Fe Tequila Company with the obvious margarita accompaniment in between. Santa Fe as a street has some pretty incredible people watching on an art walk evening. I wasn't quick enough with the camera to make the most of it, but I'll always have the memories. There was some interesting art on Tennyson, but even more interesting was the curator who hit us with a barrage of drunken interpretive dance in her efforts to make a sale. I don't think the artist who was standing near by was very impressed. Despite the curator's insistence that the artist didn't have business cards, he readily produced one and told us to deal with him directly.

I managed to get out for a nice ride in the hills on Saturday, heading out to Golden, up Lookout, over to Mount Vernon Country Club, and back through Grapevine Road, Morrison and home. You can check out the route if you'd like, but it wasn't anything terrible exciting. I wanted to hit Shadow Mountain but it looked cold, dark and windy further west and up.

My post ride hunger inspired me to do some cooking Saturday evening. I had some pumpkin left from last year that I figured I might as well make use of. It has been a while since I had a good pumpkin muffin, so I got to baking. While I was at it, I made a loaf of European Peasant Bread which was a nice, hearty, crusty bread. It would have been prettier had it not exploded in the oven due to hyperactive oven spring, but it still tasted good with the Spicy Pumpkin Soup that was the first course . . . followed by a Walnut-Sage Chicken. Like I said . . . inspired to cook.

On Sunday, the activity of the day was heading up to Frisco for some hiking and cross race watching, ignoring the forecast calling for 70% chance of snow. When are weather forecasters ever right? The colors and views from Mt. Royal were pretty spectacular early in the afternoon.

There was some evidence of earlier rain showers, but the sun was shining during the hike for the most part. I didn't have any horrible flashbacks to my ride to Vail while walking down the bike path, in fact it was quite lovely.


I even managed to get a couple accidental artsy shots of droplets on leaves. The lighting ended up being pretty cool if I do say so myself. It was nice to be operating with the dedicated camera instead of the camera/phone.

At the tail end of the hike, it was evident that the weather was rolling in. The clouds didn't have the friendly, puffy look anymore, but the contrast of colors was still pretty to look at.

We got to the cross race in time to catch the end of the SM Open race, nothing too terribly exciting. By the end, the wind was picking up significantly and the temperature was dropping. I had spent the day hiking in a t-shirt, but had to bundle up quickly as the rain and sleet started coming down.

After some snacks and general warming back up, it was time to hit the road and brave the elements. Surprise surprise . . . not much traffic this weekend, even at prime traffic time. All in all, it was another lovely weekend making it that much more difficult to return to the daily grind. Now where's my coffee!?!?

Debateable

Being the concerned, civic minded individual that I am, like many of my fellow Americans I watched the Vice Presidential Debate last night. Like many of my fellow Americans, I was hoping for fireworks; a display of Sarah Palin choking in a self created miasma of grassroots, folksy drivel. Unfortunately she didn't completely embarrass herself and the Republican ticket, but she was guilty of many a gaffe.

I particularly like the thought of it actually being Obama/"Obiden" running on the Democratic side. I think General McClellan could get things going in Afghanistan, although he was quite the foot dragger in the Peninsula Campaign, and he died in 1885. This one I just cooked up, but it is the only thing that makes sense. 'Nu-cu-lar' is to the Republican Party as Castilian is to Spanish . . . why is it that no Republican seems to be able to pronounce the word correctly? Feel free to chime in on the foreign policy/diplomacy comments Palin made (regarding Israel in particular), I don't even want to get started.

Although I don't sugar coat things often, baked goods excepted, I want to defer to the professionals for the Sarah Palin report card. Hilary Rosen of CNN said, "She wasn't horrible. But she wasn't good. And she isn't ready to be president." Andrew Romano of Newsweek had a good perspective saying, "In one ring was Sarah Palin battling comedian Tina Fey's TV impression of Sarah Palin. In the other was Joe Biden battling John McCain. They both delivered somewhat uneven performances - but both "won" their individual bouts."

I agree with Ms. Rosen. John McCain could die at anytime in office if elected. I'd rather not have a Presidential stand in who might wink at the general public regularly and/or give "shout outs" to third graders. Mr. Romano's perspective is sad but true. Sarah Palin was not there primarily to debate the issues. She was there to prove that she is not a complete embarrassment to the Republican party, nor an affront to professional women everywhere. I'd say she was only partially successful. Her ham-handed, countrified, cutesy-poo persona was so practiced and annoying that it was hard to take seriously.

Although Biden had to mind his P's and Q's and not attack Palin or act patronizing in any way, I was glad to see him take his jabs at the overused maverick comments.

It reminded me of the Princess Bride when Inigo suggests to Vizzini because of his frequent use of the word "inconceivable" that it might not mean what he thinks it means.

In summary, a friend of mine stated he had never given money to a political campaign in his life . . . that is until McCain announced Palin as his running mate. A contribution was made immediately to the Obama campaign . . .

Photo Editing Fun

Sadly, I have not even begun to explore the possibilities of uses for my computer. The iMac can do far more than I usually use it for and even the simple software that Apple provides has some pretty neat tools. The images below were stitched together in the clunkiest method I could think of. Not really, but who'd a thought to use Excel as the canvas for dragging pictures around? I couldn't come up with anything else quickly that would let me position each individual shot. Even better, I can print straight to my iPhoto album, go me.


Once the image is in iPhoto, there are all sorts of adjustments and tweaks possible through color, tones, hues, exposures, and effects. I kept it somewhat simple, but there were somethings that could be done even in this basic environment that results in some pretty cool looking images.


Since I don't have anything beyond a point and shoot camera on the digital side of things, I might go old school and break out the SLR that uses real film, requiring a development process to make the images show up . . . weird.

Permitted

It is official, I have a building permit. Since I paid for it (really should be them since there are two) and gave $100 to Denver Waste Water, I suppose I might as well build the garage as planned. I am not going to lie an say the permit process is seamless, smooth, or even easy, but it isn't really that bad. What is done is done, the rest is now up to me . . .

There were a few minor issues that needed adjustment, first being that the maximum height for an accessory building is 15' and my garage plan called for a 16' roof peak. That is nothing major in the grand scheme of things, a quick truss redesign later and I'm good to go with a few inches to spare.


The other issue was position on the lot. I initially thought about putting it closer to the lot line, but because of bulk plane restrictions, I had to shift things more to the center. All in all, not a bad thing, it gives me some options for the strip to the north of the garage. I think Dempsey will have his dog run there.

I am waiting on a few more numbers to come in, but it is getting close to the time I will have to start thinking about taking the back fence down so everything can happen. It is a bit of a frightening prospect having full alley exposure for a while, but such is life and having a garage will be good.