The weather was beautiful this weekend. After such a hectic week, it was nice to have a relatively relaxed weekend where we could just enjoy the weather.

Friday night we met up for a surprise birthday party for Morrissey who just turned 30. It was pretty low-key, and I was shot from the work week, so thankfully we didn't stay out long. From what I hear, others did, and I'm glad we escaped while we did.

Kristen headed to Estes Park early on Saturday for the annual Wool Festival. She was accompanied by her mother Joni, sister Allison and nephew Maddock. It sounded like they had fun, and Maddock got to pet a lot of Alpacas.


I met up with the running group, knowing that I'd miss a month of running classes. I'll have to figure some way to run in the heat in Indiana, or maybe bike, if I can fit a bike in the vehicle.

Speaking of which, I ended up buying a Toyota RAV-4. I don't know if it was the fact that it was the Toyota dealership, or that the economy is having issues, or that I should have held out for paying less, but it was the easiest, smoothest car dealership experience I've had in the last 12 years. They actually forgot to have me pay for the car. The salesguy handed me the keys and thanked me for my business, at which point I asked if they were actually going to have me write a check. He freaked out, and sent me back to the finance guy who apparently forgot that step of the process.

Saturday night Nate and I headed out to town to eat some dinner and have a few beers. Kristen dropped us off, and we ended up taking the bus back to Gunbarrel. That's the first time we've ever used the mass transit system after a night on the town, it was fairly painless.

Sunday involved me animatedly packing for the Indiana trip. There seems to be a thousand things to pack that I think of only when laying awake at night. I'm hoping I remember most of them. I suspect the vehicle will be pretty full by the time it's fully loaded up.

In the afternoon Kristen and I headed to a BBQ at Wiley's house. It's the last chance I had to hang out with all my co-workers in a social setting. I think everyone enjoyed it, and no-one got too teary-eyed.

I'm hoping to take off from work on Wednesday, head to Casper, then Rapid, then Pierre, then to the farm, hopefully arriving a week from tonight. It's going to be a big adventure, and I can't wait to get it started!

I gave my two weeks notice at work on Wednesday. It's strange to see the end in sight after 13 years of working with the same people on the same product. Things were weird the rest of the week, and I suspect they'll continue to be chaotic for the following week and a half. I'll miss my coworkers, they've been a great bunch of people to work with all these years.


On the bright side of things, I'm taking off for a month or so to do what I want. As it's shaping up now I'll be seeing a few friends on the way to the farm, then hanging out there until the bugs or the heat scares me off. Kristen's going to drop by for four or five days, and it sounds like Jason and Becky will swing by for a long weekend as well.

I was expecting to take a trip to the farm in the fall, and to have a bunch of plans and equipment ready to go with me. As it stands now, I'll be a little less prepared, but I'm still very excited for the time off.

On to the weekend. On Saturday, Kristen, Morrissey, Nedrow and I ran the Sunshine Stampede. Nedrow took second place in her category, which is very impressive. Kristen ran the 10k in 1:05, which is her personal best. I ran a leisurely 55:00 or so. If I continue to slow down, and Kristen continues to speed up, it won't be long until she passes me. Morrissey also ran a personal best, somewhere in the 47s.

Kristen headed off with her friend Laura for the rest of Saturday. They did a bunch of shopping, then headed to Red Rocks to see "Big Head Todd and The Monsters". She made it home after 1 am, and appeared to have enjoyed the show.

Meanwhile I got some stuff done around the house, and researched vehicles on the web. The Mustang is nearing it's final years, and with this Indiana trip coming up, I want something reliable that can carry a decent amount of cargo. So far the Toyota RAV-4 and the Nissan Murano are at the top of the list.

Sunday morning Kristen and I headed out on our bikes. We swung by a bunch of dealerships to see various cars in person. Car dealerships aren't allowed to be open on Sundays in Colorado, which gives you a good chance to at least take a look at the vehicles and see what their sticker prices are.

We met up with friends for dinner, and had a quiet evening afterwards.

Tomorrow a few more co-workers are announcing that they're quiting, and on Tuesday the suits from Corporate are showing up. It promises to be a memorable week.

Ah, finally a weekend to ourselves. We stayed pretty active, and ended up doing a lot of mountain biking. We're in between sessions of our running group, so it seemed like an opportunity to get some time in on the saddle.


Friday evening Kristen and I did half of East Boulder Trail. It's the nearest mountain bike accessible trail, we can ride to it from our house. Kristen felt good on her bike, and was able to make it up the steeps without getting off. Afterwards we parked our bikes outside the local bar/restaurant, and had a nice dinner.


The next morning I met up with some buddies to ride Walker Ranch. It's one of the more famous paths near Boulder, and I've never ridden it before. Every year I tell myself "At the end of the summer, I'll be in good enough shape to ride it", but I never have. Since a few friends were heading up there anyway, it seemed like a good excuse to check it off the list.

It really kicked my butt. I was by far the least experienced biker there, and the rest of the guys had to wait up for me 7 or 8 times. My legs were shaking by the end of the ride, but it was still a fun experience. It was my first ride using clipless peddles, and I only fell once due to them.


Meanwhile Kristen headed off for a run. It sounds like she had fun, and she set a few new pace goals for herself for the summer. We've been spotting an owl that likes to hang out near the running path, especially in the evening.


Later in the day we headed off to see the new Indiana Jones movie. It was a fun big Hollywood movie, we both enjoyed it quite a bit.

Sunday was a day of rest. We did our various projects around the house until 4 or so, and then decided to ride the entirety of East Boulder Trail. Kristen once again was a trooper, and sweated up the hills without stopping. She's ready to move up to the more difficult terrain.

Better late than never on these updates. Things should be returning to normal around here shortly, hopefully that will make for more timely updates.

Saturday Kristen and I went for a quick run, the last before the big Memorial day race. A little later in the day we headed out to Kristen's brother Clay's place for his wife Shanna's graduation party. Their place is near Ault, about two hours north east of Boulder. I thought Kristen's dad lived out in the plains. Clay has Bruce beat in terms of remoteness.


Clay and Shanna are in their early twenties, which makes me feel pretty old. This was really driven home when one of Clay's buddies offered me a beer, and said "Here you go, sir" as he handed it to me.

Sunday was pretty laid back. Toward the evening we headed down to the Pearl Street Mall to drop a few vehicles off for the night, so that we'd have something to ride back in after the race. Nate, Mary, Karissa, Kristen, Morrissey, Tracy and a few more friends met up for dinner. The mall was pretty happening, the Boulder Creek Festival was in full swing. We had fun people-watching, and watching Karissa run back and forth between parents. She'll be ready to race in a few years.

Early on Monday we caught a ride with Nate, Mary and Karissa to the office. Everyone met up there, we all got into costume, and headed off to the starting line.


We had a large group of people. Unfortunately no one was watching the time, and we didn't make it to the starting line in time. Some people ran to the starting line, and started several waves back, others jumped in the race randomly. So much for running as a group.

I eventually met up with Brendan, Morrissey, and Matt. Last year we'd run the race pretty slowly, stopping for a beer here or there. This year we were even more leisurely, stopping at ever party along the way that we could find.


The weather was overcast and drizzly, but we still managed to have a lot of fun.

Tuesday night I babysat for Matt. Luckily I had a lot of help, and never had to change a diaper. It still was a terrifying experience, I think I'll stick to software development for now.

I'm falling a bit behind on the posts. Things have been busy around here, I seem to have less time to do things like update the blog.

Last weekend was Katie and Jordan's wedding. The festivities started on Friday night with the rehearsal dinner at Buca Di Beppo. Mad Dog had a taste for crayons, at least until they hit his tongue. I sat next to him, and got a good handful of spaghetti thrown at me eventually.


The outdoor wedding was on Saturday at 6 pm. The weather was beautiful, and the ceremony went very smoothly.


We then retired next door for the reception. Several hundred people were there, and they were all having fun. Kristen's Maid of Honor speech went well, as did the others.


The wedding marked the first time I'd seen Kristen with makeup on for several years. She'd also had her hair done kinda crazy by the wedding hairdresser. We counted 55 bobby pins when we took them out later. It was a crazy night, but we eventually made it home, and slept like rocks.


It's been a busy week at work. A big potential client was in town for two days, so I did a fair amount of entertaining and "speaking in front of crowds". I survived the ordeal, but am hopeful I don't have to do it again any time soon.

Memorial Day is the 30th Bolder Boulder. We have a big group of friends starting the same wave this year, it ought to be a lot of fun. Nate's coming over tonight to help design the "Afro-Cam", hopefully we'll get some good footage.

Happy Mother's Day!

Brent made it into town this weekend to help with a project over at Nate's. Nate wanted to add a storage room to his basement, so he could make the rest of it more livable. We also built a large set of shelves for the new room.


Things went smoothly, it was fun hanging out with the guys on another building project. We got to use some of our treehouse building knowledge, and I learned a lot about drywalling.



Kristen spent some time with Allison and her Mother for mother's day. She also did a bunch of work on the patio, getting things cleaned up and a bunch of new plants potted. The garden also is halfway set up, we have over a dozen varieties of peppers set to grow this year, among other things.

I'll need to cover the garden up tonight with something, we're supposed to get over an inch of snow by tomorrow morning, which is really hard to believe given the mid-70 weather we had today.

Saturday morning Kristen and I went for a 6 mile run. The weather was beautiful, and we picked one of the most scenic trails in Boulder. It made for a very enjoyable jog. There are about 3 weeks left until the Bolder Boulder, if we can keep up with our running we should be in good shape for the race.

Later in the afternoon we headed down to Denver to meet up with Katie and Jordan. Katie's bachelorette party was going on later in the evening, and Jordan and I decided we'd hit a Rockies game.

Kristen had rented a posh suite, we checked in, met up with everyone, and then Jordan and I headed off to the game.


The game was fun, the Rockies lost, but that was to be expected. Afterwards we wandered around downtown for a bit before meeting up with the girls. When we did meet up with them, it was obvious that they were having a lot of fun. Katie and Kristen in particular were a bit crazy.


Luckily we managed to wrap up the night without them getting kicked out of the bar or starting any fights. We stumbled back to the hotel, hoping none of the Cinco De Mayo festivities would make the walk more exciting than it needed to be. We made it back in one piece. The camera did end up with a lot of great pictures and video, most of which will be used to embarrass Katie and Kristen at a later date.


Sunday morning we rolled out of Denver around 10:30 or so after saying our goodbyes. We had a pretty quiet Sunday. We managed to work on the garden for an hour or so, do some house chores, etc. We also caught up on our "The Office" viewing, which was critical.