Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Time for a bleg

No, that is not a typo - this post is a bleg, not a blog. A bleg is a weblog that is begging for something (at least that's what the Freakonomics blog states). In this case, I'm begging for a name.

Here is a picture of my new baby:

She is a 1957 Jeep/Willys CJ5. Sarah's grandparents have owned her from sometime in the 80's. Grandpa used to take her when they went hunting and fishing and they used her to get around the woods. Since his bout with cancer, she has sat idle on the side of Grandma's house, waiting to play again. When Grandma started talking about finally selling it, Sarah put a bug in her ear that I would be interested. A quick discussion with the wife and I became the proud owner of she-who-is-not-yet-named.





Now that she is mine, I need a name for her. Sarah's grandfather loved this Jeep and he and I had many conversations about it before he passed. Because he regaled me with countless stories of him and the Jeep, I was thinking about somehow making the name a reference to him in some way. His name was Paul. Hopefully, we can come up with a great name for her. Thanks for the help!

To the next post!

Mikey

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Weekend Recap

Great, great weekend. Here's the recap:

Thursday:
Augie comes over for the night. He was planning on staying at our house all weekend to watch the dogs, anyways.

Friday:
6:45 - Wake up, get ready for day, load car with Phoenix luggage
7:30 - Drop Sarah off at her work. Silly girl didn't take the whole day off!
7:45 - Get to Las D's, not open, head across street to coffee house
8:00 - Las D's opens, deliciousness ensues! (Funny side story, the lady spoke to us exclusively in Spanish, although neither Augie nor I know a lick of Spanish!)
8:00 to 8:30 - Watch various coworkers walk to work. Suckers!! What a great feeling.
8:45 - Arrive at Greyhound Station to park car
9:00 - Stand outside of Sports Column, angry that they are not already open
9:30 - After walking around for a while, notice Tavern Downtown is open. Go inside. Run into a high school friend of mine and his dad. Have a beer, talk about things.
10:00 - Head back over to the SC. Definitely open at this point.
10:00 to 1:30 - Pitcher after pitcher after pitcher of Coors Light. And a Jagerbomb.
2:05 - Gametime. Too bad the Rockies played like ass.
4:45ish - Sarah and I head out of Coors Field to run home and get the camera we forgot. Then it is a quick turnaround and we are off to the airport.
8:00 - Flight takes off for Phoenix.
9:00 (Phoenix time) - land in Phoenix, get picked up by Jaime, head to her apartment.

Saturday:
Sometime in the morning - Wake up, lounge around, get ready, EAT IN-N-OUT BURGER (the capitals signify the most important piece of the puzzle)
12:00ish - Start the journey to Tubac, AZ (30 miles north of Nogales and the Mexican border)
3:00 - Jason and Sara's wedding ceremony - very nice, pretty short, very warm.
After this point, time becomes a blur. The wedding was at Tubac Golf Resort, as was the reception and our room. We went from the wedding to the reception, drank some beer, some wine, some champagne, did some dancing, had some dinner, the usual stuff. At some point, we headed back to the room and crashed. Good day.

Sunday:
Woke up somewhat early.
Had brunch with the bride, groom, and family.
11:00 - Left Tubac for Tucson
12:00 - Met Ninja Jamie for lunch right outside the University of Arizona main gate. The little Old Town looking place was hopping and very reminiscent of Fort Collins. Very cool place. Sat with the Ninja for a couple hours before he had to go home to go to bed and we had to head back up to Phoenix to catch our flight.
4:30 - Get to the Phoenix airport. Jaime has to work at 7:00 and she lives on the west side of the metro area right by her work. It was pointless and a waste of time to go all the way back to her place, so we just had her drop us off at the airport early. Sarah and I walked and walked and walked and I did the Tulo chant in every corner of the airport. Sarah loved it.
8:45 - We finally take off for Denver. Phew.
12:30 - Get home, unload the car, get into bed and try to get some sleep before work on Monday.

All in all, it was a great weekend. Congratulations, Sara and Jason.

Thursday, April 03, 2008

I expect this will be crazy

By this, I mean this weekend. It starts tomorrow with Opening Day here in Denver. I am NOT working tomorrow, but I will not be home either. Augie (http://augieworld.blogspot.com) and I will be taking Sarah to work in the morning and then grabbing some breakfast before we hit the bars. With all the festivities going on around Coors Field, we should have plenty of entertainment before the game. Right after the game, Sarah and I are off to the airport to catch our flight to Phoenix. We are going to Sara and Jason's wedding outside of Tucson. Late flight on Friday, wedding on Saturday, meeting up with our favorite Border Patrol agent on Sunday. Should be a good weekend.

On to some random things:
  • A few of my buddies have started a website that is fairly entertaining. It is called The Cru Jones Society and so far it has been a pleasure to read. The posts are fairly constant and I plan on disagreeing with them at all times. Check it out.
  • The Rockies dropped their first series in St. Louis. Not cool, guys, not cool. What happened to the Rockies having the most potent lineup in the NL?
  • The Twins have also started their season in a sucky way, dropping 3 of 4 against the Angels. I do miss Torii Hunter, but Carlos Gomez has a chance to be really, really good.
  • Since baseball started, I have had this ridiculously large craving for baseball movies. I just want to take a day off and watch Bull Durham (lollygaggers!), Major League, 61*, Eight Men Out, The Sandlot ("You play ball like a GIRL!"), The Natural, For Love of the Game, A League of Their Own, and any other baseball movie I can get my hands on.
  • I Am Legend is a disturbing and great movie.
  • The Denver Auto Show was fantastic as always. The Nissan GT-R was the highlight of the show.
  • The Avs are in, the Nuggets are in (right now). Let's hope it stays that way and they can do something once the playoffs start.
  • As unhappy as I am that the economic stimulus package passed, it will be nice to get that check in the next month or so. How can our lawmakers completely disregard the future of this country each and every time they vote on something?
  • The liquor law that would legalize Sunday sales of alcohol has reached a stopping point at the governor's desk. Looks like the supermarkets are not happy about the deal and they want to be allowed to sell regular strength beer, not just 3.2. I say let them all sell everything (including hard alcohol) every day. Whatever happened to economic competition?
  • The Sin City graphic novels are an incredible read. I use the word "read" lightly considering a majority of my "reading" time is spent marveling at the artwork. Frank Miller does incredible work using a very hard artistic concept (especially for an analytical engineer like myself). His drawings are created by drawing the negative space, not the object. To me, it is a completely backward concept and I love looking at the effectiveness of his style.
  • It is a sad state that we are in when every single political discussion that occurs around me ends up with me being angry or depressed. With all the crap out there, is there a bright spot anywhere? Someone please tell me if there is. I'd love to check it out!
  • Super Smash Bros. Brawl is an incredible game. The one player game is actually playable (unlike the N64 version).
  • Green tea has become my staple caffeine at work. I'm getting in the habit of grabbing a cup or two of that every morning at work. Great stuff.
  • This website is a bit of a time waster, but it will challenge your brain. Check it out. The periodic table of elements kicked my ass. I think I ended up with only 28 elements. Terrible.
I can't wait for tomorrow. The first baseball game of the year is always a good time. It's even better when you are missing work for it!

To the next post,
Mikey