Kristen and I made it back tonight from our Canada trip. Two weeks of bliss. The cats seem happy we're back, and only a few small house emergencies cropped up (dead TV, and all the laundry soap leaked onto the floor from it's jug).

We had a nice smooth trip back. We swung by Rapid City to see Nono, and had a lovely dinner at Red Lobster. She was excited at how great the food was.

I don't have the camera unpacked yet, so no pictures. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to post them, in one huge update here, or a separate account like I did two years ago, or something else. It'll probably take a while to organize them all and recount the various adventures.

It's crazy around here trying to get ready for the Canada trip. It's also been a little extra crazy at work, but that's starting to settle down, and I'm feeling like we might make it out the door.

Last weekend was pretty laid back. Knowing it was the last weekend in a while that would be "normal", we took it easy. We cooked a big dinner on Saturday night, and did a long run on Sunday. We did a bit of house cleaning as well, and tried to pet the cats a little bit extra.

We have the various cat sitters lined up and run through the process, and we've lined up garden tenders as well. The menu/grocery list for the trip is firming up, and I think we have a handle on everything we need to pack. The real question is whether it'll all fit in the car with enough room for more luggage and Jason & Milly.

I'm definitely looking forward to the point where we're all packed up and on the road. It's going to be a very long drive.

We had a fairly busy weekend. Friday evening Katie and Jordan showed up for the yearly Rockies game tradition. We hung out in Boulder Friday night, trying a fancy new restaurant in the new 29th Street Mall.

Saturday morning we got up for a grueling 9 mile run. Luckily the weather cooperated, although it was a lot more humid than it normally gets around here. Kristen made 6 miles, Katie and Jordan survived their 9 miles, and I decided to be the super achiever and run 12. We were all pretty beat up afterwards, and pretty stinky too.

We showered, ate lunch in Boulder, then headed to Denver to check into the swanky Hotel Monaco. It was within walking distance of Coors Field and a lot of the other downtown hot spots, which was nice. We thought we got lucky with the parking, but ended up having to pay for it after all.




After a good long nap, we headed down to Coors Field and had a good time watching the Rockies whoop up on the Dodgers. The seats were the best I've ever been in at a game, right behind home plate, and back about 17 rows.



We stayed out late (for us, anyway), Kristen switching from "Footloose" dance moves to "Riverdance" moves this year. She likes to keep things fresh. Unfortunately I didn't think to capture any of that in picture or video.

After the full day of activity on Saturday, we took it pretty easy on Sunday. Kristen made great progress getting the house ready for the Canada trip. I measured out the Focus for packing a few coolers and luggage in. I think we'll be fine with three people, a dog, and a slightly lighter load of luggage than normal.

The excitement for the Canada trip is building. In two weeks I hope to be out on the lake somewhere fishing.

We headed to Grand Junction on Friday evening to join in for Jordan's surprise birthday party on Saturday. The traffic was pretty bad along I-70, but we made it there in one piece.

The next morning we met up with Katie, and spent most of the afternoon driving around Grand Junction running errands. Kristen and Katie both picked up the last Harry Potter book at some point. We had a close call when Katie spotted Jordan across the street at the ATM. It's been quite a few years since I've ridden in a car ducked down, trying to avoid being spotted.

Jordan was genuinely surprised, although he did spot a few items in the garage that weren't normally there. We ate a lot of good barbeque and drank a lot of beer. Kristen and I both decided to sit out of the Texas Hold'em tournament, our skills were not up to the proper level to compete.

Sunday we headed back to Boulder, again fighting traffic on I 70. I went for a 9 mile run Sunday evening, Kristen wussed out. On to the week at work!

It was a weekend of spending money. It wasn't as fun as one would hope.

We started out on Sunday by running our four mile time trial. Kristen really improved her time since the spring, running her fastest four miles ever. I ran a few seconds slower than I did in the spring, but it sure felt like I was going fast.

I then went to the tire store to balance the tires on the Focus in preparation for the trip. Before heading over to the store, I noticed that the front tires were nearly bald. So, I ended up with a new set of tires by the time things were all said and done.

Kristen and I then headed down to the "Bass Pro Shop" down in Denver. Her dad had given her a gift certificate for the place, so we figured we'd spruce up the tackle box. The place was amazingly huge. 186,000 square feet huge. After wandering about 7 long aisles that had nothing but rubber worms, I knew we were in for a long shopping experience.

We ended up with a lot of new stuff, some of which we needed, some of which just looked cool. We got a bigger better tackle box, since the old one was already pretty full.



Sunday was a lot more laid back. We went and spent more money at the running store. It got into the mid 90's, so we didn't really feel like doing a whole lot, especially with the busy Saturday behind us.



We've been grilling as much as we can. The "new" grill works great, here are some kabobs from last week.



I've also been biking into work a lot. This is my sixth consecutive week of biking in. I'm averaging about 75 miles a week, saving on gas, getting exercise, enjoying the outdoors, etc.

Not a lot went on this weekend. On Saturday Kristen spent some time with Katie checking out wedding locations. We also did some fixing up of the condo, hoping to get it ready to sell before too long. I re-oiled the kitchen and bathroom cabinets to spruce them up a bit. Kristen went through a bunch of boxes and cabinets, culling all the stuff we don't need any more. We'll have several trips to the goodwill before the process is done.

We also took a look at a few open houses. At least one seemed just right, but we knew going in that we're not ready to make an offer. It's still fun to check them out, and it helps give us an idea of what's available.

We went on an hour plus run on Sunday morning. The weather was perfect, it was a very enjoyable run. We also took several naps, and managed to avoid the heat for most of the weekend. It's supposed to stay in the mid 80's this week, so that'll be a welcome break.

The Canada trip planning will start soon. It's going to be a logistical puzzle to figure out how to meet up with Jason, drop a car at the International Falls airport, and get 3 people and a dog and most our gear in the Focus. I imagine I'll start test packing the focus before too long to see just how much stuff we can squeeze in there. I need to start mentally preparing Kristen on packing lightly. That'll be the real challenge...

It was a weekend of traveling for both Kristen and I, although in opposite directions. She headed out to Grand Junction for a weekend of hanging out with Katie and Jordan. I headed to Wyoming for the annual camping trip with the college friends.

Nate and I arrived in camp Thursday night. I'm happy to report that we drank less beer than normal, and things seemed a little more relaxed and enjoyable this time around. We still played a lot of horseshoes, a little hackeysack, and a few new games. Nobody got hurt, and it was a lot of fun catching up with the guys I've known now for half of my life. Everyone seemed to be doing good and were generally enjoying life.





Kristen had fun in Grand Junction, getting a lot of shopping in and quality time with her sister. Kristen's the maid of honor for Katie's wedding, so I'm sure there was a lot of wedding talk. I've given Kristen all the advice I could about being the maid of honor, I don't think she listened to me too much.

In unrelated news, I entered a game I've been working on for a bit into a small programming contest. I'll be interested to see how it's received, I think it's cool, but who knows what the general population will think. Kristen is glad that the deadline has arrived, I was spending a lot of time working on it toward the end.