The 2006 Denver Holiday Blizzard

Well folks, it came, it dumped, and it left. Click on the shot of our house below for a slideshow with videos of the blizzard.

Guess I don't really have to do any winter watering of the trees and grass this month.

It's Winter... Foot Warmer Time

The Neima annual tradition is back in time for the cold nights of winter in Colorado. Down to the basement I went to drag up the Kotatsu, or in other words, the foot warmer. While it may not be a great idea for us humans to bake our melons under the table, the dogs have no such worry.

While I'm writing this, they are both probably under there at the moment. Yes, our lives revolve around our dogs, get over it.

Oh Boy...

So I haven't updated the site lately because, well, I just didn't feel like it.
Anyway, here I am reading this article about an airplane on a treadmill, and it gets me afraid that some of these folks will undoubtedly be in positions of power in the future. Read on and you'll understand why.

I won't tell you my opinion on this because I don't want to lean your decision one way or the either, but if you're a smart person like I am, you'll know where I stand.

Here's one for you all...

"John's mom has three sons, Nickel, Dime, and who? What is the name of the third son?"

Comment your answers.

Backpacking Where Art Thou?

Man I miss backpacking. I was just looking at some random trip logs today of the JMT (John Muir Trail) and it brough back many fun memories. Drat winter. Must... wait.... 10... months...

Maybe next summer I can somehow get out to the Tetons to do a trip, or even the JMT one day.

Comments from fellow sufferers?

Happy Halloween!

Boo! Boo! Boo! Boo! Boo! Boo! Boo!

Happy Halloween!

Blizzard Watch!!

So there was this blizzard watch, but it wasn't for our county. However, we did get about 5" of snow over night. Breck got about 18", sweet! Here is some morning snow in the backyard, as you can see, the clocks haven't had a chance to fall back yet.

With all the snow, we built a snowman. We never knew building a snowman was such hard work.

Our Maple Tree

The Autumn Blaze Maple that we planted a couple months ago seems to be doing well and has developed a great reddish color for fall. Decided to take a couple pictures before the rain and/or snow takes it all off. The pictures don't do it justice, as it looks very bright when the sun is hitting it.

Now only if it could magically grow 10 more feet we'd be happy. I think it will grow anywhere from 1' - 2' per year.

First Snow of the Winter

Well, here it is, the 1st snow of the season here in Denver. Should only be a few inches over night, and it will probably only stick on the grass. Time to wax the snowboard and get out the gear.

Checkin' Out the Fall Colors with Fumie

With Shino's mother in town, we of course had to show her the Rockies. And what a better time. The temps this weekend were in the mid 80s, in late September! Although the fall colors have almost ended, you could still see a lot of Aspen trees up in the mountains. We decided to take her up Guanella Pass, which peaks out at 11,669'.

Along the way we had to make a pit stop, and what better place to do it at than Loaf 'N Jug. Ha ha. Funny name, had to take a picture. Once we got onto the 22 mile dirt road, we stopped right away to take some pictures over a river with Aspens in the background.

Oohh, there's the river. And if you look closely, you can make out the matriarchal unit, Fumie. She's a lively one, crikey!

The Aspens at the lower elevations where very nice! Along the way we passed free roaming cattle. Had to stop, although I thought this bull was about to charge the Forester if I stayed any longer.

Finally we made it to the top of the pass. You can see the beginnings of winter starting to set in up top. There's my honey! The younger one, if you were confused.

On the way back down, and out of all places, road work! At 11,500'! We had to wait about 10 mintues as a pilot car escorted cars up and down the narrow road that they were doing work on. Telling you bro'... you can never escape it. All that time waiting put some pressure on Shino's bladder, so we found a hole in the ground on the way back down near a lake.

Fumie couldn't get enough of the yellow leaves. She had to collect some more to flatten out and take home. Very pretty time of year.

Boyyy, were we famished. Had to stop at the famous and yummy Beau Jo's pizza. You gotta eat here if you visit, best pizza around.

...and back to Denver we go. 'Till next year around this time.

A Bit Slow Lately

Things have been a bit slow lately, so not many updates.

Let's see, the Padres' magic number is down to 5.

Georgia almost lost to CU.

Race car driver road rage results in a flying ninja kick to his opponents windshield.

Car salesman have transformed from sharks into machete wielding lunatics.

Earth is slightly warmer than it has been, say, in the last million years.

And maybe the fact that we can soon sail to the north pole is not such a bad thing. Now Santa better put his shit under lock and key.

Perfect For The Job

Here you go, perfect for the work from home man doing video-conferencing. Straight from businessbibs.com, this is a cool idea.

I think they have other options, but their showroom is currently down and I can't find out. I wonder if they have one for the ladies. Hmmm...

Do Not Disturb

Nothing to see here, please move on.

Say What?

Oh mann.. How Georgie became president I don't know. But this has to be one of my all time favorite quotes...

"Because the -- all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits are calculate, for example, is on the table; whether or not benefits rise based upon wage increases or price increases. There's a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers, affecting those -- changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be -- or closer delivered to what has been promised.

Does that make any sense to you? It's kind of muddled. Look, there's a series of things that cause the -- like, for example, benefits are calculated based upon the increase of wages, as opposed to the increase of prices. Some have suggested that we calculate -- the benefits will rise based upon inflation, as opposed to wage increases. There is a reform that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other words, how fast benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if those -- if that growth is affected, it will help on the red."

...explaining his plan to save Social Security, Tampa, Fla., Feb. 4, 2005.

Good grief. No wonder this country is in shambles. I can't believe I have to wait another 2 years for this jackass to get out of office.

Automatic Fly Swatter

Check out this cool Automatic (insert annoying flying harbinger of disease bug here) Swatter over at the Kodak site. There is a neat video too of it in action.

Inventions are cool. Hu huh hu huh.

Catching Some Rays

Here is Bella catching some rays in the house on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Grass & Stuff (Phase VI - X)... LOL

A major update to the yard finally. The grass is in ladies and germs. All I have to do now is add some mulch and move around some rock and we can say goodbye to the mud. Below you can see the Japanese Maple we added and the path that I am still working on. Flagstone will be at the step edges.

Here you can see the layout from the bedroom, looks sweet! And here is that short path area I was working on last time.

Here is the Japanese Maple again and the path lower down in the yard. You can also see the drip lines finally installed. We may have to wait until next spring to get the plantings in, but I can at least still cover it up with mulch and rock.

Some nice shots of my huge boulders. :)

And another shot of the path and the grass. Now all we have to do is water it for a few weeks before we can let the dogs trash it up. Damn dogs.

Funny Commercial...

Coffee in Your Nalgene

Sweet!

Now us backpackers can enjoy steeped coffee out in the wild with minimal additional items. Check out this cool gadget that works with your Nalgene to let you turn it into a French press.

Now comes the taste vs. weight tradeoff. Would I rather have the instant stuff, or freshly brewed?

Need a grinder? Use a rock.

Star Trek vs. Simpsons.... Boyyeeeee

Bush Claims to be Literate... LOL

So Bush's latest kick is that he is trying to 'dispel his image as an intellectual lightweight' by claiming that he has started to read books more. Bush tells us gullible American populace that he has so far read 60 books this year.

Oh come on! Let's do the math here people. 60 / 8 months (we are just entering September) = 7.5 books per month. Now, using a little math that comes out to around 1 book every 4-5 days.

I'm not sure which books he is reading, maybe Curious George, or Presidency for Dummies, but no one can read that much, AND be the president at the same time. Shit, even in college I didn't have to read that many books. Maybe if he was a book reviewer, but he's not.

What a moron. Don't believe it, don't be fooled. Use your brain.

Burger-Powered Super Rats Take Over London!

Now would be a bad time to go to England, as it seems a new species of super powered rats are taking over London. Apparently the average, feeble human can only flee about 10 feet before they encounter another one.

Ok, I am exaggerating a little, but check out this news story about how fast food is making the rat population bigger in size over there.

I for one welcome our new mutant-rat overlords.

A Love Story

Courtesy of rense.com

Cool Survival Kit

Check out these cool survival kits that you can make at home out of an Altoids tin.

The have verions ranging from the tiniest, up to a wilderness survival kit. Pretty neat.

The Grays Released

'The Grays' has been released. It's best to get it online as most of the bookstores that you could walk into don't carry many copies, and hide them in the back of the store for some odd reason.

I'm a third of the way through, and what a book! Full of suspense and great writing. Knowing that this book is fact-based fiction only makes it even more interesting, also questioning and wondering if what you're reading is the fiction or the fact part. I would recommend it.

I can't wait until this comes out in the theaters next year, hopefully the production studio, Sony Pictures, doesn't dork it up the way the made-for-tv-movie of 'The Stand' turned out.

Straight Trippin'

Check out this video ya'll! It's of a DEA special agent giving a safety lecture to some kids when he accidentally shoots himself in the leg. What a dumbass.

Just say no to guns kids.

Taking Shape (Phase V)

After a bit a digging and grunting, I have gotten some of the edging and breeze pathway material down. You can see now the yard starting to take shape. While there is still a lot more to do, this gives me hope. I'm working on the steps now to try and get rid of the mound of gravel in my driveway as fast as possible.