Thanksgiving, San Francisco, and a Birthday

It's been a good weekend. It started with Thanksgiving with Jen's family, which was fun and my pies turned out pretty well. The banana meringue pie was impossible to cut without massacring the meringue, but it tasted great all the same. After dinner we went to Jen's parents' place and decorated for Christmas. We spent the night there and then the next day I took Jen to the Redstone Meadery for a tour and tasting of different types of mead. They were quite good.

 

After the tour, we went and painted pottery. I got a little overambitious with my design and ended up rushing to finish my bowl with some clumsy strokes. Regardless it will be good to have another bowl to use in cooking. Jen made a beautiful spoon rest. We then rushed down to Golden for a party at Jen's friends' place. We were startled to see that in the hour and half we were there an inch or so of snow had fallen and it was coming down heavily. We carefully made our way home across the snow on 93 and watched a movie (Get Smart) once we got home.

The next day we went to breakfast with her parents at the outstanding Lucille's in Boulder. It was a delicious start to the breakfast. Later that day we decorated Jen's place for Christmas and then had people over for shot desserts to celebrate Jen's birthday. It was a lot of fun and I had entirely too much sugar. 

This morning, we went to church and I drove home in heavy snow flurries. The snow continued to come down, giving me a good excuse to stay indoors, do laundry, and finish up the pictures from my trip to San Francisco. Oh, right! San Francisco! I haven't told you about that yet. 

In short, it was good trip. I had to do a lot of work while I was there and the following weekend was filled with catch up work. The sessions at the conference were better than last year's and the big party they had was incredibly awesome. We also went to the restaurant Limon, which was mindblowingly good. They serve Peruvian food and it was excellent. The next day we got some good Blue Bottle coffee and worked some more before heading to the airport. 

The pictures from the trip are up, so you can get a closer view at my MAX experience and see some of the fun we had in old San Francisco.

Time to Eat

Happy Thanksgiving to you all! I'm going to be having Thanksgiving dinner with Jen's family. We're going to be down in Littleton at her aunt and uncle's place, and of course, I am bringing pie. The two entries in this festal dinner are a banana meringue pie and a macaroon pie. The banana meringue is my mom's recipe and the macaroon pie is one I picked out from the cookbook Angie gave me. I'm interested to see how it turns out. I think it may be a bit intense, but it has almond flavoring in it, so that makes it worth it regardless.

It has been so dry here! My skin is suffering, I'm constantly dehydrated, and my nose -- well, let's not even get into that. It is time to up my water consumption and moisturize a bit. Guess I'll keep the Carmex handy too.

Last night, Jen and I started our pre-engagement counseling. It makes sense to look for problems before we get engaged, rather than after, and plus we're looking to have a short engagement, so by moving the counseling up, it's one less thing to cram into that period of time. It's exciting to start down that road as we start to talk more and more about getting married, buying a house and all that. I do love her so much, and I am so thankful that God has brought her into my life. That's at the heart of my Thanksgiving this year!

Back

I'm back from the Adobe MAX conference in San Francisco. It was a good, exhausting trip, and I'll prolly have a rundown here after a while along with some pictures. Right now I'm trying to get work done that didn't get done during the conference.

I'm a bit disappointed. I heard that Squirrel Nut Zippers are coming back to Boulder after their cancelled show. Unfortunately it is on the night of my company's Christmas dinner. Rassafrassa.

Just Saying Hello

Hello. How are you doing? What have you been up to? I've been doing all right. I've been working a lot after normal hours in order to meet a deadline. Jen did come down this weekend and yesterday we went out for coffee and then to Pasquini's for lunch. I didn't know they had expanded, but it is a good thing. Afterwards we went to Elizabeth and Nathan's house and put together boxes for Operation Christmas Child. Then it was time to get things done ... which I didn't get into right away. After running some errands I took a long bath and read before flipping open the work laptop and getting to it. Mmmm. Baths.

First Snow

It figures. I had just written someone last night telling them that we hadn't had any snow. Now today there's a dusting of snow outside. In the gym this morning. I could see the snow approaching. Denver was ringed with gray, making it look like we had been cut off from the rest of the world. Then the grey encroached more and more until snow was buffeting the windows and I watched as snow fall became snow rise as updrafts carried flakes up the side of the building. Soon I couldn't even see Denver Health across Cherry Creek and nearby towers were visible only as silhouettes. I think I'll drive today.

Awful Offal or Worst Wurst

I took my camera with me on the ride in today to share with you in full glory the new art installation on my commute. I found out that it is called National Velvet and is by the artist John McEnroe (no, not that John McEnroe). The fact that what appears to be a giant pile of goopy sausages is named after a book and movie about a race horse makes the installation even grosser. 

Anyway, here's a mini-gallery of pictures of the art both during the day and at night. Added bonus: you get to see me in my cycling get up!

Good Day, Denver

This morning I picked my phone off the charger and was delighted to see that I now have 3G service in my apartment. Wheee! T-Mobile has brought 3G to Denver, so now my G1 is 3G. Today went well at work as I got away from interface stuff and worked on some easy models, data services, and translators. On the way home, after passing the molten tower of awful offal, I think I even spied the night heron stooped over the rapids at Confluence Park. 

I also learned today that President-Elect Obama doesn't like ice cream (BOOOO!), but does like Scrabble and Spider-man (YAYYYY!). I also got the 8GB micro SD card for my phone yesterday, but work went so well that I never got around to filling it with MP3s. Another good thing, although it came across my radar yesterday rather than today, is that there is a possible cure for AIDS. I was skeptical at first, but I followed the blog trail back to its source at the Wall Street Journal. One person has been effectively cured and has been HIV free for two years. Pretty cool stuff.

What Art Thou?

What you are looking at is the newest installation of public art in Denver. It just happens to be along my commute to work. I ride up the ramp that circles around this thing. It appears to be ... well it appears to be a giant pile of droopy sausages or gloppy, elongated platelets. It's rather gross looking and rather mystifying. I snapped this shot with the G1 on my way in today.

On the ride home, I found that this thing is going to get even better. It is lit from the inside after dark. So then it looks like an evil, molten pile of mishapen hot links. I just don't know what to say. It is perhaps not as odd as the horse on the chair near the library, but it is certainly less appealing to look at. What the heck?

Picture the Northwest

All right! I got the pictures from the Northwest up. It took quite a while to get these processed and captioned, so I am quite glad to be done with them. Visit my gallery and enjoy.

Bars

Huh. Something interesting has happened in the last few years. Those Power Bar type health bars have become not just palatable, but good. Jen has turned me on to Lara Bars and Jason just introduced me to Clif Nectar Bars. And they taste good! In fact, they taste good enough to substitute in for desserts. To top it all, they're all made from pretty much raw ingredients with no added sugars or ultra hydrogenated monosodium trans fat red food coloring #5. Healthy, good tasting bars? Nice.

Hanging with Ms. Jen

Jen and I are both doing work. I'm struggling with Flex. She's working on stuff for the spiritual directors she works with. We both have chili and a cup of cocoa spiked with Irish cream inside of us. It feels real good. I could get used to this.

It's a Day, I Guess

The clouds were doing ridiculous things this morning; things that don't usually go on in the sky above Denver. There was a bank of low clouds or fog over western Denver and above its swirling mass you could make out the tips of Morrison Mountain and its neighbors. Behind that was a dense wall of cloud that in some colors could be mistaken for more mountains. There was haze and light fog all around, even on the east side of town. As the sun rose, it lit up into a brilliant white glow, backlighting the towers on Colorado and down in the Tech Center. The rest of the sky was filled with many different layers of clouds. Cool stuff.

Not so cool was work today. Flex kicked my teeth in, and I seriously underestimated the time required for a task. This could make life very uncomfortable for me in the coming weeks.

Okay, not going to dwell on it. Last night during the election, I worked on getting the pictures from the Northwest trip processed. They're up on the server and are just awaiting some captions. Both speeches last night were great. Obama's gave me goosebumps; it was so good. Let's see if he can match his rhetoric with action and actually build those bridges and unite the country. I hope so.

Who's Conservative? Who's Liberal?

I guess this little factoid doesn't answer that necessarily, but I did a little comparison to see which states gave each of the the candidates their strongest wins. The state with the highest percentage voting for McCain was Oklahoma at 66%, followed by Wyoming at 65%. The most liberal? Well, Hawaii gave Obama his largest percentage at 72%, followed by Vermont at 67%. Of course, those two states are totally eclipsed by Washington D.C. That city supported Obama at a staggering 93% versus 7% for John McCain. All this info was gleaned from CNN's election results map.

Stand Up Comics

That's stand up in the sense of outstanding, mind you. I've recently stumbled across a nest of outstanding webcomics. A few, I've just picked up in the last few days. One, Daisy Owl, was recommended to me by my friend Brian, and it has been laugh out loud funny. Two have intriguing stories that are just getting started, but have gorgeous art that will keep me coming for some time. They are Kukuburi and One Swoop Fell (and no that's not a typo). A few other new ones I've picked up are Blip, U.F.O. and Wizard and Snort. Blip in particular has an intriguing story and some nicely written characters. U.F.O. is fun for some odd reason that I can't quite put my finger on. One last one I'll mention due to the art and a promising character is Ellie Connelly.

Anyway, if you want some relief from the election news, check them out. Of course, I also have many more that I follow on my links page.

Don't Count Out the Android Vote

It is very seldom that having a last name at the end of the alphabet serves you well. You're last to register for classes, last to get your turn, last in lists. However, this morning, it served me very well. I got up early to go vote, anticipating up to a 3 hour wait. When I arrived at my polling place, the line was about 30 people or so; not terrible, but still long enough to make me wish it was an indoors line. However, they called out for people with last names starting with SCH-Z to come to the front, since that line was empty inside the building. So I went from a wait of 30 people to 3. Sweet! I was in and out in about 20 minutes, if that.

Another reason that I was glad for the line to be shortened was that I was fasting. I was praying this morning still about whom to vote for, and decided to fast until after I had voted. The issues were still the same as I mentioned before. 

One thing that expedited my phone was the G1 Android phone. Yes! Android-assisted voting! I had gone through the voter's guide and determined my position on all the measures on the ballot. Rather than try to remember them, I used the Quicklist application on my G1 to make a list of how I wanted to vote and brought that to the polling booth. Thus I was able to quickly go through my ballot.

So you may be wondering who I voted for at the top of the ballot. Where did that prayer lead? Well, it lead to a protest vote; at least, what I imagine was a protest vote. I'm pretty confident that Barack Obama will win, and I think he will be a great leader. However, his stance on abortion is wrong. So I ended up voting for John McCain as a way to remind Obama that there are people who disagree with him on important issues that he needs to work with. I will feel like a giant jackass if McCain wins, though. Well, the ballot is cast. Time to sit back and see what Colorado and the rest of country does.

Dark Days Ahead

I would rather go to work in the dark than come home in the dark. Unfortunately, after Daylight Savings Time has ended, this is not the case. In fact, it is the opposite. However, it is still much better than going to work in the dark and coming home in the dark, which is what I did for most of the winter in Oregon.

Still, the weather today was fantastic. It was 55 by the time I left my apartment, and on my return home, it was warm enough to ride with rolled-up shirtsleeves. I will savor this while it lasts. I do still appreciate the extra hour of sleep. Of course, I will lose it tomorrow as I go to vote. I missed the fact that early voting in Colorado ended on Halloween. I had been planning on taking today or Sunday to go in and cast my ballot. I needed the time on the airplane to go through the myriad referendums (referendi?) and amendments on the ballot. But now I have my cheat sheet on my phone and I'm heading in early to vote. 7 AM, bright and early!

Northwest Trip: The Overview

Well, Jen and I are back from the Northwest, and our arms aren't even tired. ... Don't worry, old joke. You should worry if it isn't funny, except perhaps to worry about me. ... Anyway, we're back and we had a great time. Here's the basic rundown of our trip.

We flew out on Saturday after Jill and Dean gave us a ride to the airport. We got into SeaTac and picked up a gutless Chevy Cobalt that lacked power windows and power locks, but was otherwise just fine. We drove to Tacoma and stayed with my cousin Lori and her husband Mike. On Sunday we went to church with my relatives and then Jen and I went with Lori down to the Museum of Glass. It's a small museum, but absolutely worth it. You can watch glass blowers ply their trade and look at some of their amazing finished products. Especially impressive was the chandelier done by Dale Chihuly, which surpasses everything I've seen of his, despite being smaller than some of his works I've seen. 

Later that evening we all got together and had dinner. It was Jen and me, Lori and Mike, my aunt Ann, and my cousin Brian and his family (Melissa, Helena, Caroline, and Grace). We had some good food that challenged my anti-seafood views. The sea bass was fantastic and the octopus salad was quite good. The non-seafood items were great too.

The next morning we visited my aunt in her new home before driving up to Seattle. There we went to Pike Place and the original Starbucks. After waltzing around there we drove over to the other side of downtown and visited Elliot Bay Books and the ever entertaining Seattle Public Library. We then went over to my friend Brian's place in Bellevue and played some games with him and my friend Russell who lives in the same building. The next day we went out for some good breakfast before hiking up Tiger Mountain. It was a gorgeous hike and it felt so good to be back in the forests of the Northwest, especially when bedecked with the glorious fall colors. Afterwards we drove over to Snoqualmie Falls and hiked down past the power plant to the base of the falls. Then it was back to Brian's for more games and burritos. We played many games, though my favorite was an archeology game called Thebes.

The next morning we bid Washington adieu and drove down to Portland. First stop and top priority was the House of Teriyaki (a.k.a. Jesus Loves Teriyaki). I introduced Jen to the glories of this establishment and relished the charbroiled chicken and smoky sauce. Later we drove downtown and visited the library, Pioneer Square, the Chinese Gardens, and Powell's Books. After our downtown sojourn, we headed over to Jeremy and Phoebe's new place where we were graciously provided lodging and Mexican food.

We got up the next morning, gorged ourselves on the concentrated excellence served at the original Original Pancake House, and drove with Jeremy and Phoebe up to the Columbia River Gorge. We did the tour of the different waterfalls and Crown Point. We then went up to the fish hatchery below Bonneville Dam and gaped at the giant sturgeon and got to see salmon being herded into the facilities there. I think this was the first time I saw the stunning and harvesting of salmon. Despite growing up on a salmon river and countless field trips, this was a new view of hatchery life. We also swung by the locks at the dam before heading back to town. 

That evening we had a mini-high school reunion with a bevy of friends from high school getting together for Henry Weinhard's root beer, Flying Pie pizza and conversation. John, Tony, Risa, Maya, and Sonali all showed up to join Jeremy, Jen and me. It was great to catch up with them. I haven't laughed that hard for a long time.

As per usual, Friday followed Thursday and it was Halloween; not that we really noticed. Jen and I had a non-scary breakfast with my aunt and uncle Bob and Dorothy. I even got to see my cousin Molly, who swung by to drop off my aunt and uncle's granddog. We then hurried across town to have also non-scary lunch with Tony and Risa. We followed that with a walk with them around a nearby non-scary golf course. 

By that time, we were pretty pooped. We went back to Jeremy and Phoebe's and just chilled out with some leftovers and TV. The next day we got up early, drove to SeaTac, and flew home. The whole thing went pretty smoothly. The weather was better than we could have asked for. We only had a half day of rain on Halloween and a few sprinkles on our drive to SeaTac. It was great to see friends and relatives and soak in some life in the Northwest. In particular it felt good to walk in the forest and see the verdant hills everywhere we turned. We even got to see a feral peacock skulking across a road in southwest Portland. God certainly blessed the trip, and having the extra hour of sleep this morning was a godsend in and of itself.

And of course, pictures will be coming soon.