Rockies Game

Saturday afternoon Kristen and I headed down to Denver to catch a Rockies game with Katie and Jordan. Luckily the weather has been nice for the last several days, and carried through the game and the rest of the weekend. We had a fun night out, even though the Rockies lost and Katie was sitting next to some passionate Cardinals fans.


We stayed out late (at least for us) that night. Katie and Jordan left early the next morning for Grand Junction. I'm proud to say that after 15 years in the Boulder area, I finally was able to drive to downtown Denver, find the hotel, then make it back to Boulder without a map or asking for directions. In another 10 years I might even be able to determine which direction is West without the help of the mountains.

Kristen and I went for a long run on Sunday. I made 11 miles, Kristen ran 10. Even though we took things pretty slow, we both were hurting pretty badly afterward. We spent the rest of Sunday re-hydrating and sleeping off the pain. We did make it into town for a low key dinner. I had some excellent crispy trout tacos. Way outside of what I'd normally order, but the post run hunger gave me the opportunity to try something new.

We learned last week at work that the entire Wabtec crew at the old office was laid off. Apparently they joked around a bit that the big boss was coming into town to fire them all, and then it actually happened. Maybe years later they will see the humor in that.

Work-free weekend

Finally a weekend without work.

I received an e-mail from Mom on Friday saying Dad was in town for a fraternity reunion, and would drop by on Saturday. Unfortunately several factors worked against us, and we never met up. It sounds like he was one door off. Oh well, next time we'll make it work.

Kristen and I spent a good part of the day in town. A big CU game was going on, making town a little crazier than usual. We stopped by my office, an electronics store, and ended up on Pearl Street for lunch. Kristen had a hair appointment that afternoon, I lazed around the mall and people watched while she got her hair cut. The football game made for some interesting touristy types.

Sunday involved a good 5 mile run around the reservoir. Colder weather is moving in, which made the run a bit windier than usual. We thought we started late enough to avoid the Boulder Marathon race, but we passed a few stragglers on the course. We guessed that they'd been on the course for 7+ hours, and looked like they were in some pain.

I worked on some of the tree house solar stuff, starting the "control panel" for the battery and charging system. I put as many switches on there as I could think up excuses for. What started as a fun project to use up a lot of spare robot-related parts in the garage has kind of spiraled out of control. I still need to box everything in, wire it up, and mount the charge controller internally. I'm having fun puttering around in the garage during the process.


Kristen started a new knitting project. She'd recently finished up her baby shower gift for Becky. Zack seemed to really like it, and thought that perhaps it was a blanket for him.


Less than a month to go before we're at the tree house installing the stove pipe/chimney for the Jotul. We're both looking forward to the trip, and are counting the days.

More slow posting

Not only did I let 3 weeks slip by without posting, I suspect there will be more of the same in the immediate future. We continue to near our deadline at work, working on the weekends is starting to feel pretty normal.

3 week ends ago I headed to Casper to meet up with the guys for our annual camping trip. Nate and I showed up a day later then Vince, Brent and Tony due to Nate just having his baby. By the time we showed up on Friday night everyone was already asleep. We managed to rouse Tony and Brent, we didn't see Vince until the next morning.

We stayed a little more reserved than usual, but still managed to have a lot of fun. It was our 8th or 9th consecutive year camping out together and telling the exact same stories. We did manage to locate a cave Nate had read about on the internet, so that was something new and exciting. It only went back 50 feet or so, but was still pretty cool.

Meanwhile Kristen headed to Nederland to experience Ned-Fest with her sister Allison and cousin Cassie. Unfortunately the weather was a bit cool, which curbed the attendance. It was also a little more granola-y than expected, they expected Phish to show up at any moment and start performing.

The next weekend was Labor Day weekend. We headed over to a barbecue at a friends house, and participated in a horseshoe tournament. Luckily I had three days of practice under my belt, which helped net us second place. I headed into work Sunday and Monday, Kristen got in an 11 mile run.

This weekend involved half a day of work on Saturday, which was followed up by going out for a few beers afterward. I'm seeing so much of my co-workers that it's amazing we're still getting along well. We'll see how the next month works out!

Sunday we got up early and headed to Nederland in order to run in the Neder-Nederland series of races. Kristen and Sharon ran in the 5k race, Morrissey and I ran in the 13k race. I hadn't looked at the map, and didn't realize what I was getting myself into by choosing the longer run. Instead of just tacking on a little addition at the end of the 10k course, we veered off of the normal route almost immediately and headed up the steep road to Eldora ski area. We climbed 1,000 feet in about 3.5 miles, and it was hell. I ended doing a fair amount of walking on the way up, but did really enjoy the downhill on the way back.

Afterward we limped over to Kristen's mothers place to meet up with her uncle Steve who was in town. Her aunt Penny is recovering from chemo, so there have been a lot of family visitors, with more to come. We ate some good barbecue chicken and beens, listened to uncle Steve's stories, then headed home.