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.

This is a great time of year in Colorado. Hardly any rain, day time temperatures in the mid 70's to mid 80's, and night time temperatures in the 50's. The cats are happier with the cooler temperatures, and it's easier to get outside to do things.

I've been biking to and from work every day. I'm not going to make my 40 consecutive bike trips like I did last year, but I've got quite a few weeks worth under my belt. Kristen's been on her bike quite a bit more than last year too, meeting me at work a few times for the bike ride home. Even though we did a lot of bike shopping last week, we're having trouble finding just the right new bike for Kristen.

Saturday involved meeting up with Kristen's mother Joni and sister Allison (with son Maddock) to celebrate Joni's birthday. We went to the Butterfly Pavilion to look at bugs and a lot of butterflies. Unfortunately Maddock was feeling sick, and he didn't get to enjoy the sights as much as he might have otherwise.


On Sunday I convinced Kristen to do a big bike ride. There was some miscommunication, she didn't realize a good part of the ride would be on winding mountain roads, with no bike lane. Near the end of the ride she was not happy with me as a person. Luckily she quickly cheered up after getting off the road.

On the trip we spotted a house that was within our budget, close enough to Boulder, was sized correctly, and looked interesting. We tried calling the realtor, and had to settle with leaving him a message.


We stayed in Boulder for a few hours, taking in the sights. Some kind of festival was going on, and the place was packed. They had set up zucchini races for the kids. They could decorate their zucchinis, stick wheels in them, and race them down a slot-car like course. It looked like fun to me.



On Monday we got a call back from the realtor, saying we could swing by and check the house out at any point, it was unlocked and no one was living there. Kristen wasn't up for another bike ride out there for some reason, so we drove to the house to check in out.


Unfortunately the house was a little too "funky". It had been drastically modified by several owners, and there was a huge hodge-podge of heating systems, additions, and strange alterations to the base house. I believe I spotted solar heat collectors, central air, propane space heaters, a huge heating wood stove, and two gas fireplaces. The kitchen and main bathroom would have had to be redone, several walls would have had to been ripped out, etc. Too much work. Oh well, the search continues.

We also went on a long run on Monday to round out the weekend. Kristen is starting her final class for school, and had a lot of homework to do for it. I spent some time on the computer while she did her school work.

This week involved me making a trip to Cleburne Texas, which is about 45 mile south of Fort Worth. Matt and I were there for a "Shop Tour", to get an idea of the work flow that our internal customers currently use. The trip went smoothly, and was enjoyable.


There were more churches and donut shops than I'm accustomed to. We passed a Midas store had "God is Awesome" on their sign. I half expected to spot a church that had "All mufflers: 20% off!" on their sign.


Thursday night I met up with my old roommate Brian, who I hadn't seen in 5 years or so. He has a few kids now, but is pretty much the same guy. He and his wife are starting up a daycare center, which sounded like quite an undertaking.

Saturday morning Kristen and I got up early and ran 11 miles. Although we both felt pretty good directly after the run, we felt progressively worse as the day wore on. We did make it down to Pearl Street for lunch and some window shopping. We laid pretty low Saturday evening, watching a movie at home.

On Sunday we biked into town in the late morning. We tried a new place for breakfast , it was amazingly packed, and Kristen was having personal space issues. She never pulled out her karate moves, but came close to decapitating some unsuspecting patron.

We peddled around a bit, stopping at REI to check out their sale. Kristen test road a few road and cyclocross bikes. She didn't pull the trigger on any of them, but I suspect she'll pick up a road friendly bike soon.

The rest of the day involved me doing computer stuff, while Kristen cooked up a storm in the kitchen. We have a surplus of zucchini, so zucchini cookies, bread, and brownies were made. She also froze a bunch of shredded zucchini for later use.


Kristen harvested quite a few peppers from the garden as well. She's been charring and peeling them as appropriate, for later use.



We had BLTs for dinner, using lettuce from the garden, and our first beefsteak tomato. The tomato was amazing, hopefully we'll get a bunch more before the frost hits.

Kristen headed off to Grand Junction on Friday for a weekend of hanging out with Rocco, Katie, and Jordan. It had snowed a bit on some of the mountain passes, but luckily the roads weren't too bad.


The 40th annual Peach Festival was going on in Palisade all weekend. Kristen and Katie ran the 5 mile race on Saturday morning, in some beautiful weather. They were both happy with their time, although Kristen felt semi-pukey once or twice.


Afterwards they took in the sights of the festival. Kristen fought off the pukey-ness by downing some festival grub.


Meanwhile I was holding down the fort back at the condo. I updated the treehouse blog, and did a bunch of maintenance on the home network. Pretty exciting times. I also managed to watch a few bad movies, and I did make it out Friday night with some friends.

Sunday I headed over to the "Muddy Buddy" race at the reservoir. I knew a few people in it, but I never spotted them. The race involved teams of two, one person on bike, one on foot. They had to peddle and run through mud, occasionally having to climb through various obstacles. It looked like people were having fun, although the 3 solid days of rain had really made things really muddy.


Kristen made it back safely Sunday afternoon. We went out to dinner on the mall, and took in the various late summer sights of Pearl Street.

The weather has mercifully cooled off, returning back to a more typical 80 to 90 degree range. We've also slipped back into the evening rain shower pattern, which seems awfully nice.

We started rolling this week at work, having all employees in the office for the first time. Things are going smoothly so far, although the old company seems to be having issues now that so many have quit. I half expect to see a smoking crater whenever I drive by. I hope them the best of luck, but there's not much application knowledge left in the brain pool that's still there.

Our old boss (who is now our new boss) spent a few days in Boulder, resulting in a crazy night out on the town Thursday night. Get five guys together who are good friends and are excited about a new venture, give them a few beers, and hilarity is almost guaranteed to ensue.

Thursday also marked the arrival of Mike and Lisa's baby, Elizabeth. Mike and Lisa visited the farm a few trips ago when we all happened to be in Indiana at the same time. I met Lisa's mom who had spent a good amount of time growing up in Charlestown.


The garden is starting to produce a lot of peppers, zucchini, and cucumbers. Kristen is working up all kinds of magic in the kitchen trying to use up the produce. She made some very tasty zucchini brownies this weekend.


The weekend was very laid back. We went on a very short bike ride, but have slacked off on our running. We're convinced we'll start running this week, but we'll see how that goes.