Numbers

I don't ever recall being a real badass in high school. By no means was I a target for malicious remarks and actions of the aforementioned category, but I wasn't a server of such dishes either. I seemed to ride the years out pretty well. Its just funny how different people go about life and the effect friends can have. The other day I was crossing a footbridge I go over fairly often. A group was approaching whilst smoking. One turned to another, smiled, took a nice pull and blew smoke in my direction, laughing. He missed...I kept walking. I looked around myself. Is there something weird about my presence that would trigger such a thing....hmmm, not wearing my pink shirt (hate has been thrown in my direction for this in the past), rest of me seems pretty normal. Huh. Kept walking. I don't think he would have done that by himself.

The very next day I walk over the footbridge again. Another group is on the bridge feeding bread to the ducks, composing a duck-to-duck dialogue, definitely reverting back to a younger year. I thought the same thing. I don't think they would have done that by themselves.

The first time I asked a girl out, I was flanked by my friends....

Christmas

Now that the final push of the semester is past and I have recovered, I figure a posting is in order. Overall the semester turned out well and I only have one left so that's good. We went out to Santa Barbara for Christmas which was a nice break. Nice break from the cold too.

I got a cool Flip Video thingy for Christmas so now I may have some video every now and again. Below is a video of a totally insane house in SB. Hopefully it works. And Y-E-S the shortest day of the year has now past.

Igloos

This book looks pretty rad.

And how could it not be with a name like Norbert.

Tea Fire

I have been hesitant to write anything about this because of how much it has affected the lady in my life and so many others. I keep thinking about it though and it makes me ill. I guess I will write a bit.

The lady's childhood home burned down in the recent fires in Santa Barbara along with the majority of her relatives' and friends' homes as well. I have felt horrible about how this has affected so many. I've never been very attached to any of the homes I have lived in. Part of that is due to personality, the other being the fact that I lived in eight different houses by the time I graduated high school and probably another fifteen or so since then. I say that because I have been so overwhelmed by how bad I have felt - an example of feeling the pain of those I love and hoping in some way I can be of comfort.

Like a typical dude, my comforting skills are a bit lacking but I do try. And from here I don't know what else to say. I just hope at some point I can do something to help.

Calling all Flakes

This past weekend I decided to abandon thoughts of school and work and go down to the Land of Enchanment (New Mexico) with the lady. I had visions of doing work on the drive down and on the drive back but I decided it would be best to forget about it and pick it back up on Monday.

It turned out to be quite a relaxing weekend. We spent most of the time in Angel Fire, where the in-laws have been for the past few weeks. We did spend a day down in Santa Fe...a place I have surprisingly never been. Unfortunately, the plaza was heavily under construction but I got a good feel for the place.
The basilica was really cool. Also under construction, but this made it more interesting. Artists were in the process of repainting the ceiling. The picture is a little blurry due to low light, no tripod, and no flashes allowed. I thought it would be cool to post regardless.Saturday night we went to the Calling all Flakes bonfire at the base of the Angel Fire Resort. Music, fire, cold air, and kids calling on the snow gods to bring on the snow.

Dug Up

I dug up these pictures yesterday. They are of the last trip to the hut before the supposed snow...about a month ago. Thing is, I could have been working on it for the past month since there has been no snow. But really, I couldn't with the school thing going on full bore and all. As you may see, it did snow a little but we got all the windows in and all the roofing on. The progress will continue in April. Oh and we fit three grown men in a hot tub the size of my bathtub....cozy. This pic is a little washed out but you get the idea.

Copeland/Lovedrug/Lydia

If tests and Halloween weren't enough for the weekend.....sunday night we went to a show with my sis and her friend at the Marquis. Lydia was more amazing than I would have ever expected. Spoke with two of them during Lovedrug's set and was additionally impressed.

Check out this cool sculpture

Copeland on stage
Look at this weird couple we ran into.

Halloweeeeeeeen

Casey comes into town for the Halloween weekend and all of a sudden my semester's hard work gets a little distracted. It was worth it though and I actually came out of three tests in one week fairly unscathed. Halloween was fun. If you can't tell...i was an old school golfer. None of these shots show my stellar socks. Check out the Bees.......awesome.

Colorful Disappointment

I try to walk at lunch....especially when it's as amazing outside as it has been this week.

A gentleman caught my eye.
1. He is on rollerblades....is it me or do you just not see those like you used to.
2. He is attempting to follow his friend down a rocky embankment to the creek.
I immediately think....this is going to be good. So I stop and I watch. Sure enough the man goes down and he goes down hard. He is obviously disappointed exhibited clearly by his colorful exclamations. I continued walking and thought.....man didn't see that coming.

Next up....man on Pearl street asking for change. A guy passes by looking as if in the same boat.

Dude, I don't have any change....(pauses, points finger)...but Obama does.

I laughed out loud and walked back to my office.

The more I think about it, the more I realize the funny things I see on my daily walks. I might document them more often.

Coffin Racing

This past weekend I had the rare opportunity to push a coffin for 250 yards with 3 other guys with a dead chick inside....as fast as we could. The whole event was a spectacle. The pictures don't quite capture the whole scene but you get the idea.
This is us actually racing it.
Later that day we went on a little hike through an old quarry. Below is Garden of the Gods in the distance as well as a couple other shots.

Still got it....maybe

My friends often make fun of me for the cornucopia of jobs I have under my belt. This is both based on the straight numbers as well as the diversity of them all.

I was a floral designer at one point.

Yes, me. I mostly delivered but at times I would fill orders. This weekend my Dad got married and somehow I ended up making the boot-in-ear....however you spell that. I must say I was somewhat proud of the end product. Here it is affixed to the groom.

I took a lot of pics throughout the weekend including changing leaves, friends and family. I really like this one. My sis.

Bad Avocado....

This weekend I went on a great motorcycle ride with one of my co-workers. The leaves are changing, weather is perfect so it was a great time to get away for the day. I think I need a seat upgrade....the stock one just wasn't working wonders for my hind parts. I mean, it beats a roadie seat for hours and hours but there is something about the overall pain of cycling that erases...not so much on the motorized version.

But anyway, all this time I have lived in Colorado and I had never been all the way through Rocky Mountain National Park and never been to Grand Lake. Knocked both those out in one day and saw some beautiful scenery. Had a couple moose cross the street in front of us too....very cool.

Recent Cabin Pics

Had a productive past couple of weekends up at the place. Here it is...

Monolith Festival

Decent Backdrop, Yeah?

As expected, the Monolith festival was a people watching extravaganza. There weren't nearly as many people as I expected but definitely a great time. There are and will be many comments about the bands on the mainstage so mentioning isn't really necessary. I will mention three performances that really impressed.
I have been wanting to see the band of my childhood best friend for a while and finally I was in town for it. Astra Moveo put on a vicious, captivating show mixing electronics, stellar vocals, and an impressive stage presence.
Though an underattended performance, Hockey presented their material in an energetic and skillful way. (Worth noting...they were a late add so they weren't even on the schedule. I had to ask five Monolith employees before I found someone who knew the time and place.)
Boy was Red Rocks unprepared for the crowds for Does it Offend You, Yeah? Security was highly unprofessional too. Nobody knew that the room was to capacity yet instead of informing people of the situation they were slinging people from the doorways. with no respect. Weak....wish I could have made it in there for that one. Oh well.
Great day in the sun...and underground some.

Tokyo Police Club

Ramping

School ramps up...posts ramp down. A few weeks ago we went to Santa Barbara. It was a great trip. We spend considerable time on the beach, ate a lot and just relaxed for almost a week. Unfortunately, school has taken a toll since then. I guess if I wasn't trying to dry in this cabin before it starts snowing I would be fine with catching up on school on the weekends but I think until October, things will be a bit heavy.

Part of our trip was picking up a door for our cabin that my brother-in-law built. He is a phenomenal carpenter and built the most beautiful door I could imagine for our site. It is perfect. Below are some pictures of it.
I really dig how thick it is. That is a quarter in case you were wondering...

Serious Shearing

I don't talk about my lady near as much as maybe I should on this thing. For the record, she is awesome and I am so grateful for her. This evening she decided to get her hair cut by our amazing hairstylist...Amy sue...who of course I have spoken about in the past. Not any cut but a serious shearing and straightening (she had long and very curly hair). I think it looks great!

Dutch Oven Cookin'

Two of my friends came up to the ole cabin this past weekend to lend a hand. I really hope they had a good time. I definitely did even though the work was hard as usual. What was extra great about this trip was the decision to eat well while up there. This included great lunches and a dinner adventures with dutch ovens.The roof is now totally complete and the covered porch has begun.....and time is officially passing by quite swiftly. Hopefully we can get the outside done by the time the snow comes.

Unachievable Balance

Lately I have been having a hard time getting the right balance of things... I feel like it is one of the tests of the world in which most folks are pulling a consistent C, maybe C+. Or maybe that is just my perspective, but due to the fairly recent onslaught of energy drinks and their growing sizes in ounces (liquid crack) I am willing to bet I am on to something here.

I get morning emails from a site called Steepandcheap, occasionally I get something from there but this mornings email really sums up one of my recent thoughts...How timely....

"When other people go on weekend trips they return to work on Monday feeling refreshed and rejuvenated. This is not the case for me. If I'm visiting friends, then Monday is the second half of two days of complete exhaustion that can only come with staying up until 4am and getting in a fight with some guy who pulled your tie. If I've gone camping or traveling, then I'm exhausted from walking too far and planning my return flight for 4am Monday to give me a few extra hours outside. The only time I feel relaxed after a weekend is if I do nothing, but then I just feel guilty for wasting my weekend. You can't win. You either have to quit work or work all the time."

Riding Lately

Today I rode into what I thought would be the perfect storm. Yesterday I decided that if I was going to wait out the weather each evening I would never get on my bike this August. So I went for it and came out unscathed.

Today as I headed west I waited for the colossal downpour. I knew it was coming but I was ready for it. It was not going to stop me. A sprinkle! That’s all I got the whole ride. So two days in a row…I am going to get back on this.

By the way, I can’t blame it all on the weather. I happened to get this recently….

It’s my new form of transportation and has thwarted my riding plans on more than one occasion. It has also been a ton of fun.

Today I remembered this...and laughed

A while ago I was at my job on a boring day and decided it would be funny to convince my friend to wear a motorcycle helmet for two hours for a lovely Chipotle burrito. He did it and it was worth the $6.34 fer sher. Our boss didn't think it was as funny as I did but I convinced him otherwise. I said, "you will think this is funny" and then.....he thought it was funny. Wow, look at that computer. I don't think we have any of those around anymore.

Roof

This past weekend my father-in-law was nice enough to come with me and put another weekend in on the cabin. I had a rough week of work but I was still excited to get up there and do more work on the weekend. We got the roof all done including all the overhangs, open soffit and fascia boards. Now it is ready for the finish material - corrugated galvalume. Here are some more pictures of the progress.

Barn Raising - Day 3 (Done for the weekend)

And so the work continued. By the end of the day we had all the walls up, the roof rafters in and most of the sheathing on the walls. Once again, an impossible feat without the help of those who came out. Next time the roof overhangs will go on as well as hopefully the sub-roof....closing the puppy up. Oh and finishing up the wall sheathing.Kind of hard to see through the trees but you get the idea...

Fourth of July

We went into Crested Butte on the day of the Fourth for the parade. We have been multiple times in the past but I was blown away by all the people there this time around. I feel like it has never been that crowded before. It was an entertaining time though. After the parade I had to sit at a picnic bench and work on a paper while everyone else cruised around but it was beautiful out so I wasn't too bummed out.

In the evening, we went back to Gunnison to watch the weirdest firework show ever. I can't even explain. Pretty cool but totally drawn out. One of those where you could take detailed notes on each firework. Ja took some pics though so here are a couple.

Barn Raising - Day 2

On the second day we were held up a little bit at the lumber yard picking up the final big load of lumber for the project but once we got up the mountain we made some good progress. The loft floor took longer than planned but it turned out really nice...at least the underside. The actual finished floor won't go in for some time.
We also got some of the sheathing up and a couple more walls.