Running Behind

Another two weeks have slipped by! I've undoubtedly forgotten all the exciting things, and will only be able to recount the drab boring bits.

A few weeks ago a few friends met us down on Pearl Street for the Pearl Street Mile race. I was yet again a few seconds slower than I was the year before. This seems to be a troubling trend. A friend sprinted by me in the last 100 feet or so with a big smile on his face. Damn you Josh!

Two weekends ago I managed to stay away from the office for the entire weekend. We visited Kristen's Aunt Penny and Uncle Russ and assorted other family members one afternoon. Kids were running everywhere, all hopped up on sugar. All the adults behaved themselves to a large degree.


There was a lot of napping and relaxing for the remainder of the weekend. Things continue to be cool here, it's really starting to feel like fall.

Kristen and I have been running quite a bit more recently. The half marathon isn't too far away, and we want to be ready for that. We survived a two hour run this last Sunday, and didn't feel too bad afterward.

I managed to make it in for half a day on Saturday and got a lot done. We're only a few weeks away from the completion of the first phase of our project. We've spent about a year on it, so we're hoping it will be well received.

The rest of the weekend was relaxing as well. Kristen made a wonderful Eggplant Parmesan, although something went horribly wrong with the salt. I still gorged myself on it.

I've been spending a lot of spare time finishing up a simple game I've written for a hand-held device. I crossed a few hurdles a week or two ago, and it's been hard to stay away from it since then. I'm sure Kristen is eager for me to lose interest in it soon.

Canceled Camping

The original plan was to go on the annual camping trip last weekend with the college friends. However, we were all a bit burnt out from being at the wedding a few weeks ago, and then being at the Bachelor party a month or two earlier. That, along with the fact that Nate wouldn't be able to make it caused us to push the trip back to the end of this month.

Nate and Mary had their baby on Saturday. Violet Marie Murra finally showed her face to the world. Everything went smoothly, and she seems just as concerned as her sister Karissa did when she was born.


Kristen and I took it easy on Saturday. We did go into town to check out the farmer's market and to grab some lunch. Things were as crazy as always at the market, maybe a little too crazy to really make the experience enjoyable. We walked around the mall a bit, taking in the sights.

Sunday was another day of work for me, Kristen did some running and gardening. We've both picked up the running a bit, trying to prepare for a longer race. We're looking at running the Louisville Half-Marathon in mid October. That should be a good excuse to make it back to the farm, get the stove pipe installed in the tree house, and go on a run while we're there.

I've started collecting parts for a simple solar power system for the tree house. We're planning on driving to the farm for Christmas, I hope to have a system ready to haul down there. I'll start simply, and just use it to power a reading light and maybe a light for over the kitchen area. It's fun stuff to read up on!

Work work work

Not much to report from the weekend. The weather was warmer, but still below average. Last year at this point we had had 25 days that hit 95 degrees, this year we've only had 5.

I worked both Saturday and Sunday, Kristen headed off to Grand Junction for a Bachelorette party. Apparently what happens in Junction stays in Junction, I haven't heard many repeatable stories about that trip. I managed to catch up on a bunch of work, so I'm breathing a bit easier about our various deadlines.

Busy

On Friday Kristen and I headed to the Psychedelic Experience at the Denver Art Museum. We had a lot of fun wandering around the museum, enjoying the various exhibits. It's hard to imagine what San Francisco must have been like in the late sixties.




I worked on Saturday, Kristen spent time cleaning up the house and preparing four our South Dakota trip.

We took off relatively early on Sunday, and headed directly to Rapid City. We surprised Nono at dinner. She got a little too excited and couldn't finish her dinner. We wrapped it up and took it back to room for her. We visited for several hours, hearing many stories that I'd never heard before.


Later in the evening, Kristen and I headed out to a few college haunts so that I could relive my vanishing youth. We stayed downtown at the Alex Johnson, and debated whether we had actually stayed there before.

We had breakfast on Monday with Nono, and did a bit more visiting. We had to leave shortly afterward in order to make it to Brent's wedding on time. We quickly met up with everyone, and the wedding went smoothly. Fun was had by all, as can be witnessed in this lovely photo:


It was a lot of fun hanging out with the guys, as it always is. We stayed out until the wee hours of the morning, loosing a little money at blackjack along the way. We had a beer in honor of Nate, who stayed behind so that he could be with his wife during the last days of her pregnancy. We all agreed he had some priority issues.

We made it back to Boulder smoothly to two very lonely cats. The weather was amazingly cool for the trip, we saw 42 degrees near Teri Peak. Sturgis bikers were everywhere, we were glad to get out of the area while we could.

Busy Saturday

Friday night we headed out to lovely Fort Morgan in order to sleep closer to Kristen's duathlon start point in Wiggins Colorado. Both of those places are way out in the middle of nowhere. I felt like we might as well keep driving and head to Canada.

Kristen and Bridget got up early and headed to the start line. Matt and I were lucky enough to sleep in a little bit, and managed to make it to Wiggins in time to see them take start the race.


They both did well, Kristen had one of her fastest 5k times yet, but ran into some issues on the biking portion of the race. She forgot to hook up her front brakes, but luckily it was such a flat course that she didn't need them.

Afterward we headed back to Boulder, took a nap, then headed out for dinner with the Nedrows. We had fun socializing with them, and managed to call it an early night, much to Kristen's relief.

We got up early and ate breakfast in town near my work. Kristen dropped me and my bike off, and I managed to work the entire day. Kristen did some gardening, and had some lovely fruit salad and kraut burgers waiting for me when I got home. Our head of cabbage was finally put to use!

Bleh

Pretty boring weekend. I worked all day Saturday, then headed out for a beer with Nate. Kristen took it easy and did some gardening.

Sunday involved more relaxing, and watched a few Netflix shows. We both enjoyed "The IT Crowd", a BBC sitcom involving a few misfit IT co-workers.

The cats didn't do much of note.

High school reunion & Trailridge road

Wednesday afternoon I headed off to Cody for the 20 year high school reunion. The trip went smoothly, I always love the lack of traffic in Wyoming. I visited quickly with Ma & Pa, then headed out to meet up with Matt and Joe.


It was a lot of fun seeing the guys, Joe hadn't changed much, and it'd been so long since I saw Matt that I couldn't really remember what he was like in the first place. We headed out to the Silver Dollar had stayed out until they closed the place down.

I spent some time on Thursday setting up a new computer for Mom, and cleaning up the old one. Everything seemed to go smoothly, and Ma was excited to have a newer faster computer.

Thursday evening the reunion started up properly with everyone meeting at the country club for drinks. It was fun running into a bunch of people that I knew in a former life. Some were easy to remember, others were a bit more difficult to recall. Most of us ended up at the Dollar again, luckily I called it a night around 1 am. The other guys weren't so lucky, and stayed out past 4.


The Barbeque the next day was fairly rained out. It only lasted a few hours, everyone said goodbye, and that finished up the reunion activities. The family unit headed up the Southfork, hoping that it hadn't rained up there too much, but we had to turn around due to a locked gate.

Saturday involved Ma heading up the Northfork for a retreat with some friends. Dad stayed in the shop to work, I wandered around Cody for most of the day. We went out and enjoyed the fireworks that evening. I'd forgotten how impressive fireworks are.


Meanwhile, Kristen decided to head up to Trailridge road, which had recently opened for the year. It sounds like she had a good time, saw some elk, some beautiful scenery, and got stuck in a pack of Porsches that were making the trip. We're going to make another trip back that way once our weekends empty up.


Our garden has really started to produce. The lettuce and radishes are pretty much eaten. Our broccoli has done better this year than ever. We have pees, cucumbers, a few peppers, cilantro and a few tomatoes ripe. We've made a few great salads, but really need to plant some more lettuce if we want that to continue.