Not much to report from this end. Kristen had her last class on Wednesday, so we went out Friday night to celebrate. We ate at a Scottish restaurant, the food was OK, the beer was better. We both passed on the haggis.

Saturday morning we biked in to town. The weather was great, in the 60s, although a bit windy. We checked out the farmers market and ate a little lunch on Pearl Street. Later in the day we picked up a few pumpkins to carve for Halloween. Back at the house we had a nap, then continued to laze around the house for the rest of the evening.

Sunday I went into work, trying to make up some time for the upcoming holidays and snowboarding season. Kristen headed off to see Allison and "The Bean" in order to do some pumpkin carving. Maddock had a creepy Halloween costume, and seemed to enjoy helping with the pumpkin.

Friday night Kristen and I packed our bags and headed to Katie and Jordan's for the yearly half-marathon trip. The drive to Grand Junction went smoothly, although Kristen had some kind of complicated coffee drink with three shots of espresso that livened things up a bit.

Saturday morning we dropped Rocco off at the dog kennel. He was initially excited to go for a drive, but then wasn't too happy when he discovered the destination. After a tearful farewell, we headed over to watch Jordan coach a football game. The weather was beautiful, and once again we got a little sunburned. Afterwards we grabbed some lunch, then headed to Moab.


It's not too far of a drive, and we drove over the race course on our way to the hotel. The scenery is truly amazing, it's still impressive every time we see it.


We stayed at Sorrel River Ranch this year, which is right at the finish line of the race. This saved us from having to take a shuttle to our lodge after the race, which isn't too much fun when you feel like you're going to die. The place was beautiful.


We headed into Moab to pick up our race packets, grab some groceries, and to eat dinner. Town was really packed. This is the best time of year in Moab, it's cool enough to be tolerable. It's the definitive mountain biking center of the universe, and an epicenter for Jeep enthusiasts. The weather was much nicer than it was last year, and town seemed to have about three times as many people in it. We got out of there as fast as we could, it was a little too crazy.

We played a round of board games, then headed to bed pretty early. The next morning we ate a quick bite, threw on our running clothes, filled our water bottles full of vital nutrients, and boarded the shuttle to the start line. While last year had overcast skies and snow on the nearby hills, this year saw clear skies and much warmer weather.

At 8:30 the gun went off and 1,200 people started down the canyon. Our group quickly split up, with each of us laboring toward the finish line at our own pace.


Afterwards the consensus was that we all enjoyed the race. I was about a minute slower than I was last year, but still did better than I expected. Kristen knocked off about 12 minutes from her time last year, Katie knocked off over 16 minutes, and Jordan shortened his time by over 20 minutes. Very impressive indeed.

We spent the rest of the day trying to recover, and eventually made it into town for dinner. We didn't hold back and had some very non-runner-friendly food. It sure tasted good. Back at the lodge, we tried to keep our eyes open, but turned in pretty early.


Monday involved driving back to Grand Junction, then on to Boulder. The aspen have mostly lost their leaves, but every once in a while we'd find a pocket of color. The drive went smoothly, and we arrived home to find two lonely and demanding cats.

Gah! Two weeks without a post!

That's mostly because not much has been happening around these parts. The weather is slowly getting cooler, and I can see the end of "shorts season" approaching. It may already be here.

Two weekends ago Kristen and I laid pretty low. She had school work on Saturday, and we went for a big 13 mile run on Sunday. We both survived it, so it looks like we'll likely cross the finish line at the half marathon this upcoming weekend. We really didn't do much other than relax.

This weekend Kristen and I celebrated our 11th anniversary. We're both pretty surprised we've lasted this long, what with her Tourette's syndrome and my constant Nam flashbacks. We grudgingly headed to the mountains on Friday, stopping in Boulder canyon for dinner at the Red Lion. Kristen claims her steak was the best she's ever had, so I'm counting that as a victory.

We stayed the first night in Nederland. The weather was supposed to be cold, so we gave up our plans for a run or a bike ride, and went for a hike on Saturday instead. The reservoir had quite a mist coming off of it, we hiked a good portion of the trail around it. There were a few guys fishing, but not too many people were out and about in the gray weather.


We also hiked around the town a bit, seeing the Wolf Tongue Mine, which we'd somehow failed to notice before. I really wanted to poke around inside, but the "No Trespassing" signs and vehicles parked nearby dissuaded us.


We ate lunch in town, then headed to Blackhawk for some gambling. We're pretty high rollers, but managed to survive on the penny machines for quite a while. Kristen and I both lost about $20 each after many long hours in front of the machines.

We took off fairly early on Sunday and took the long way back to Boulder. It had snowed during the night, making the aspens particularly colorful.


We looped up toward Gold Hill, taking a few side routes to check out various houses for sale. The fog was amazingly thick, limiting visibility to 10 feet or so in spots. At one point we ran across a few dear on the side of the road.


We stopped in Gold Hill for a quick lunch, then headed back to town. I managed to get the new vehicle pretty muddy in the process. The weather really made winter feel right around the corner.


The rest of Sunday involved installing a new garbage disposal, the old one had given up the ghost. Kristen did some schoolwork, I did some programming, and the cats spent some quality time with us.

We had a nice slow weekend. Kristen and I both had hectic weeks at work, so it was nice to not have any real plans for the weekend. Kristen did meet up with some classmates for homework on Saturday. I did a little cleanup around the house, and finally unpacked my tools from the June/July Indiana trip.

Sunday we went for a big run. Our half marathon is sneaking up on us, both of us are feeling unprepared for it. The run went smoothly, we both felt good after the 8 miles. It was hard to imagine having to run an additional 5 miles.

Since we have no interesting pictures from the weekend, I'll attach a bunch from the Indiana trip this summer.

Last week was a bit hectic at work, we had corporate visitors from Monday through Thursday. Monday the entire office headed down to Golden Colorado to see the how Greenbrier does business with Coors and BNSF.

The Boulder Theater did a showing of "The Big Lebowski" on Wendesday night. I proudly wore my "Abide" t-shirt that I'd picked up in Louisville at LebowskiFest this summer. It was an interesting night, as most are that start with Lebowski.

Kristen got news on Thursday that she'd fulfilled all the requirements for being a certified CPA. Her official documentation should show up in a few weeks, at which point she'll be an official CPA. Sounds like I'll finally be able to retire, while she brings home the bacon.

Friday evening Kristen and I headed to Grand Junction for our fifth "Tour of the Vineyards" bike ride adventure. Kristen had finally found a good cross-bike in Louisville (Colorado), so she was excited to try her new bike out.

We arrived at Katie & Jordan's just before 10pm. Rocco was excited to see us as always, the their house looked good with all the redecorating they'd done. We hit the hay pretty early, knowing we had a big day ahead of us.


We got up around 6, had some breakfast, and headed to Palisade. We were instantly hit with issues. Kristen's clipless shoes did not snap into her pedals like they should. Jordan had a flat tire before he got his bike out of the car. We adjusted and fixed things as best we could, then headed out.


Jordan ended up getting 2 more flats within the first 3 miles of the ride. Having burnt through our spare tube supply and with 20+ miles to go, we were a bit nervous. On the positive side, we were getting pretty quick at changing tubes. Luckily the rest of the ride went smoothly.


After the ride we headed off to watch Jordan coach a football game that one of his nephews was playing in. The weather turned out a bit on the warm side and we all got slightly sunburned.


We then did our normal wine tasting tour, picking up quite a few bottles in the process. We hustled back to the house, where Katie and Kristen started cooking dinner. An hour or so later Brandy and Brun showed up, and Jordan started grilling. We ate a huge dinner, then played Trivial Pursuit. We didn't so much play as get our butts kicked by Brun and Brandy.


Sunday morning we headed out for some breakfast, and the long ride home. We were both pretty exhausted after such a hectic week and crazy weekend. We laid low for the rest of Sunday, which seems to be a common theme.

Two weekends ago I headed to Rapid City to see Ma and Nono. I took off after work on Friday, and had a pretty smooth drive to Rapid, arriving around 11:00.

The next morning I met up with Nono around 10:30, and mom showed up a little bit later. We had breakfast in the private dining room, and then decided to go for a drive. We headed up to Spearfish, then took the scenic route back to Rapid via Spearfish Canyon and a few other back roads.


We stopped at various points to see the sights. Nono listed the different colors of foilage she was spotting, and was quite sure we were on the same road that her and I used to drive between Rapid and Cody.


We stopped at Roughlock falls and got out to walk around a bit. Nono did pretty well on the walk. I also learned that the parents had spent part of their honeymoon at a nearby inn (Latchstring Inn?) The original buildings were no longer there, but mom seemed to remember the place well.


We got back to Rapid, and had some cheese and crackers in Nono's room. We then headed off to dinner at Bottecellis. Bob and Marie showed up as well, it'd been quite a few years since I'd seen either of them. We had an enjoyable dinner, then headed our separate ways.

The trip back was uneventful. Kristen and I relaxed for the rest of Sunday.

Kristen took off on Thursday night for Grand Junction to attend "Rock Jam!". The 2008 line-up included such luminaries as Starship, Rare Earth, Dokken, Survivor, Kid Rock, Poison, and Joan Jett.

The concert started on Friday. Katie and Kristen had VIP tickets for the day which included free food and drink, and pretty good seats. I received multiple calls throughout the day with updates on who was performing, and whether they rocked or not. I eventually had to stop answering the phone as all I could hear was screaming over the top of loud guitars on the other end of the line.


Saturday was another full day of acts, but unfortunately the girls only had general admission tickets, so they had to deal with the "commoners". Jordan made it part of the day. It sounded like the favorites were Joan Jett, Dokken, and Kid Rock. Kristen picked up some interesting souvenirs and gifts. I'll have to find just the right occasion to wear the shirt I received.


My weekend was a lot more laid back. I went for a run on Saturday, and did some house work. Sunday involved a 10k race in Nederland. The weather was beautiful, faint bluegrass melodies floated out of yurts onto the race course, and I'm sure I caught a whiff of patchouli once or twice. I could tell I hadn't run as much as I did last year, my time was a few minutes slower and I was in a bit of pain afterwards.

I hung out in the city park listening to a local band play, and enjoyed watching the health conscious ned-heads. Morrissey and his new special lady friend showed up a little bit later. They'd been on an overnight bike ride up in the mountains, and were looking a little rustic. We ate some lunch at the local barbeque joint, then headed back into Boulder.

Kristen showed up at the house right as I did. We took the rest of Sunday pretty easy, and spent some quality time with the cats.