My 4th of July weekend started off with a bang! Thursday evening we went to Green Gables country club for our now semi-traditional fireworks viewing. Friday morning started immediately at 9:30 with beer chugging contests for the 3rd annual beer olympics. Pictures of last years beer olympics (aquatic version) can be found somewhere around here. This year’s events consisted of:

The girlfriend and I, appropriately name team “Chugs & Kisses”, came in dead last. Though we did come in a very close second on the Blind Man’s Beer event. After the beer olympics I headed home for a nap while went to pick up friends from the airport. We then went to Dutch’s annual 4th Of July party where we celebrated the night away and overstayed our welcome. This is the party where G and I met so it’s sort of an anniversary of sorts for us.

On Saturday we had an all day BBQ at our house with new, old, and out of town friends. It was a good time. I over cooked the turkey burgers and stayed up way too late.

Sunday I slept. A lot.

I recently returned from a little weekend vacation in Salt Lake City and have a few recommendations should you ever decide to visit.

Last Sunday probably wasn’t the last day of the ski season for me. Arapahoe Basin will most likey be open long into the spring (I once skied A-Basin on the 4th of July) and I’m sure I’ll get one last day in there. But Sunday was was the last day to ski for free on our passes. Mary Jane was much more crowded than we expected. The last two weekends have been practically empty but it seems, this time around, everyone had the same idea as us and it ended up being a lot of fun.

The entire place was a giant party/cookout/ski fest. There were at least three bands in the parking lot - a punk band that drew all the young snowboarders, an “old persons band” that rocked out the classics like America’s Sister Golden Hair (One of my many favorite songs from the 70’s), and an acoustic duo that was barely audible above all the party goers.

The entire day was a blast and the whole mountain was going off. We had bluebird skies and weather in the 60’s. We had hot dogs, beer, and a grill. We had enough snow that the chutes were open (see the photo above) and the skiing was nice and heavy and mash-potato-ey at the bottom. Lots of people were dressed up in costumes or bikinis. It was probably one of the more fun days in what was one of the better ski seasons of my life.

The last couple of months have been pretty crazy/amazing/profound. So much has happened that, I’ll probably never remember it all, and truthfully, that doesn’t bother me. In some ways I have a tinge of regret for not having taken the time to write it all down as it happened or shortly there after. If not just so I have it archived somewhere. But in reality, some of it I don’t know how to write about - i don’t have the words to fit the experience. Some of it I don’t care about. And some of it I simply don’t care to remember.

So instead I’m going to cop-out and make a list of some of the major and minor events of the past 10 weeks in no particular order and just leave it at that. I can only hope my life remains as eventful and that I take the time to write about it afterward.

I went to my first honky tonk.
I saw Built To Spill play again.
I’ve been to the hospital three times for three different individuals. Two of them in the emergency room. One fatal.
I met family members I have never met before and most likely will never meet again.
I spent a long weekend at my timeshare in Vail.
I went to a mini-family reunion and ski vacation in Breckenridge.
I suffered through a 150-hour work week.
I took a full week vacation.
A loved one died in my arms. It was probably one of the most weighty and profound experiences in my life to this point.
I did my time in the back of a cop car in Henryetta, Oklahoma.
I had the pleasure of staying in a giant mountain mansion with six bedrooms, four bathrooms, two hot tubs, and ski in ski out access.
My car was hit by a kid who had his drivers license for a measly two days. He ended up totaling his car a week later.
I Was invited over by complete strangers for a mardi gras party/steak dinner.
Somehow fit in about eight days of skiing.
Saw a friend who I haven’t seen since his wedding.
The kitchen remodel was completed.
Mom came to town for a visit.
A few birthday parties were celebrated.
I got fall down drunk with a co-worker.
And lots of other various sundriness and ephemera.

A few things that have recently brought me the Christmas Spirit:

My buddy’s opening and reception was last night at the Red Shift Gallery. So you missed out on the free beer, wine and finger sandwhiches but you still have a chance to see his photography today on the First Friday Art Walk. His work will also be showing through the rest of the month so go check him out if you get a chance.

Day three was spent in apathy, on the couch, working (poor word choice) off the over indugances from the day before.

We did manage to hit up the wonderful Borough. This restaurant is aiming its services at those interested the new locavore trend. All of the ingredients are locally grown and produced in New York City and used to create dishes inspired by the five boroughs. Green and delish.

On Sunday we went and a homemade brunch and pleasant morning visiting friends and relatives we headed down to Columbus Park to play Soccer.

We started that evening off at the Cub Room (which is nice but pretty unmentionable) for cocktails and then headed down the street for sushi at Blue Ribbon Sushi. From the time you walk up to the non descript restaurant front, to walking down into the little cubby hole entrance, to the impressive line of sushi chefs, you know you have stumbled upon something special. The sushi was outrageous in the best way possible. Lilly Allen eats there seven times a week. I had the pleasure of trying box style sushi (mackerel) and jellyfish sushi - two things that you can’t find in Denver (if you know otherwise, I’d love to find out about it). We finished the night off at with a couple of drinks at a bar I can’t remember the name of (too many Karin Ichiban) where we were entertaining enough for the bartender to buy us a round.

The next day I flew back to Denver thankful to have experienced a culinary New York, but also just as thankful to be home.

My birthday week (last week) was so full of kickass it’s hard to comprehend.

It started out last Friday by heading over to a friends for drinks and then going to the Murray Farm Massacre. I haven’t been to a haunted house since I was a child but The haunted house was certainly frightening and well designed. I’m no stranger to corn mazes though, and this one pretty much sucked - way too easy (even at night) and not all that freaky.

Saturday we threw a raging halloween/costume party at our house. G made seven crockpots worth of homemade, slow-cook, goodness. The were black lights, and costumes, and spooky sounds to boot. The night finished with a big ole dance party that devolved into everyone dancing on the furniture. This resulted in one broken kitchen chair, a burning wig in a chandelier, snack carrots ending up in mysterious places, and one skull nearly cracked open. It was all worth.

Sunday mostly involved laying on the couch and recovering from Saturday’s debauchery.

On Tuesday we got the new Tivo hooked up. This thing is absolutely brilliant. It has already started changing the way I watch TV and I haven’t watch a commercial in over a week. Not to mention I have all kinds of great movies lined up that I’ve been waiting to see.

For my birthday, G and I hand bacon cheeseburgers (from my very favorite hamburger shack down the street from us) and champagne for dinner. I am also now a real art owner. G gave me a signed and numbered Audrey Kawasaki print called “Nest Hair”. Number 55 of a limited print of 100. I’m in love with it. It’s one of the coolest gifts I have received in a long time.

Thursday we met my Dad, his wife, my bro, and pandy out for a sushi dinner. Johnny Holly’s has great sushi and fantastic service without the pretentiousness. If you are ever thinking about going to the sushi den, drive ten blocks further south and go to Johnny Holly’s instead. You’ll be glad. If you are hankering for any sort of asian food that isn’t on the menu, just ask for it, and the kitchen will fix it up for you.

Thanks to everyone for making my week be so tremendous.

Lots of fun birthday stuff over the past couple of weeks.

The last week in September was the perfect time to go to Elitches. Everybody thinks it’s closed because it only runs on the weekends and none of their Halloween advertising has started yet. Tickets are also extra cheap if you buy them at Safweay. A bunch of us rode roller coasters for five hours in a effort to reclaim our youth. We rode nothing but roller coasters. We rode every single one of them, and most of them twice. We never stood in line for longer than three minutes and always had our choice of carts. I prefer the back. Ride stats are after the jump. Afterwards we hit up Brothers Bar for some birthday drinks and such.

Last weekend I was able to round up a bunch of free tickets to Comedy Works to see Dov Davidoff (youtube link) for another birthday party. He was really funny. His demeanor was a little hard to get used to. He sort of reminded me of my brother with a few cocktails in him. Very funny. And a great evening overall.

I’m a loser. But today I’m a winner.

I’ll start off by telling you about those that made me a winner today. They’re called “Oh Don Piano”. They’re named after this talking cat’s beautiful poetry. Oh Don Piano consists of Liz and Krista (I love the name of her blog). They’re two really funny and cool women here in Denver. They are also currently one of the few remaining survivors in the third annual Ultimate Blogger competition. Good luck girls!

As part of their competition they held a quiz that focused on blog stuff. I entered that contest. I won that contest. I haven’t decided yet if I’m happy or ashamed of my blog trivia prowess. But I do know that today I’m a winner. But I’m not writing this to brag about my winning (or am I?) but to thank Liz and Krista to for actualizing my wininngness with a prize. Yesterday in my mailbox I found this:

Thanks You Oh Don Piano, you have just provided me with an entire weeks worth of television-style entertainment and are indeed too kind. Thanks for making me feel like a star. I’m consistently surprised (oxymoron) at the generosity and well, just general fun, that the internet provides me.

A bunch of friends and I went up to do some exploring in Fulford Cave this weekend. We didn’t arrive till late on Friday night and ended up setting up our tents in the dark at the Yeoman Park Campground. We still had enough time in the evening for some smores and a few beers though.

We woke up relatively early in the morning. I had my traditional camp breakfast of eggs-in-a-corned-beef-hash-nest. Then we headed up to the cave. The cave entrance is about a mile climb up the side of the hill just outside of Fulford Campground.

Once you reach the top of the trail there is a culvert that is about two feet in diameter and 75 feet long, with a broken, metal ladder that drops you into the cave.

The cave has two separate levels. We only explored the lower level this time around but we still spent about three hours underground, in the complete darkness, exploring and climbing around. Getting around is slow while trying to take note on directions to get out. Multiple tight squeezes, rope climbs, slick surfaces, and a bunch of scrambles through mud, water made the cave physically challenging. Fortunately we came prepared for the consistent for 40 degree temperatures inside.

Thoughts of the recent mining accident, knowing the fact that you are several hundred feet underground, memorizing your way around, and a several minor claustrophobic episodes made the experience mentally challenging as well.

There were all kinds of cool features inside. The large cathedral like rooms the Lower Room and the Breakdown Room were probably my favorite areas. But many enjoyed climbing the underground waterfall the most.

There were also plenty of strange geological features.

After the cave we headed back down to camp for some relaxation under the wide open sky’s of the Holy Cross Wilderness. The caves are a lot of fun for you adventurous types. If your interested in visiting, Margaret Harrison, over at Colorado Caving as a great write up about the cave. Here is fairly detail Map of Fulford Cave. Also, if your not into the cave thing, both the Yeoman Park and Fulford Cave campgrounds are beautifully located in large aspen groves with surrounding beaver ponds and fishable Brush Creek running through it all. It is all located on the edge of the holy cross wilderness and has some great hiking trails to boot.

It’s a week late but I thought I’d share a little about my Independence Day holiday. I woke up early and headed over to Bear’s house for the 4th of July Pool Party And 2nd Annual Beer Olympics: Aquatic Version. Events included blind mans beer, swim-chug-pull, beer tread. G and I came in second place thanks mainly to G’s ability to tread water for 55 minutes with a beer in one hand. She said she could have gone longer but frankly everybody was getting bored (and a little too drunk) with watching her.

Afterward we swung over to my brothers for some pizza and tacos from “Tacoss” taquería (no website, no yellow pages address, no citysearch, located here and more beer. We picked up Pandy and headed back to the pool party where many pool games were played, long floats were floated and cold beers were drankeded. The rest of the evening consisted of a Sopranos marathon. Good times indeed.

Other things that have been occupying my time include:

Pageantry and ritual are what I enjoy most out of organized religion. Judaism is no slacker religion when it comes to pageantry and ritual. I celebrated my first ever Passover Seder last year. This year me and G decided to step it up a notch and host (really, circumstances as they were, our house worked best in which to host the Seder we were invited to) Passover Seder this year. So on Monday night we had 20 close friends and acquaintances over. The guests brought the food and religious paraphernalia I didn’t own or had never heard of. G simply supplied a couple some snacks. It was just as fun as the last one with lots of singing, laughing, questions & answers (because nearly a third of us were gentiles), discussions, food, and wine. We all had a (matzoh) ball.

It seemed every single part of the meal held some sort of meaning and there are so many little details I was unaware of or just learning about. For example before we all sat down, many of our guests were asking for pillows. I figured our seats were too hard. It turns out it was another ritual: “We lean on a pillow to be comfortable and to remind us that once we were slaves, but now we are free.” See, I dig this stuff. Little secrets messages, ceremony and procedure; not so much the liturgy, sacrament and days of reckoning so often emphasized in organized religion. Speaking of things religiousy, does anyone know where in Denver kosher Coca-cola can be purchased?

I really have very few absolute secrets. Everything that has ever been done by/to/for/ me, is known about by another person. There is very little I can expose about myself that is not known by at least one other living human. But Mark has tagged me for one of those meme-meta things a while back so I figured I ought to give a shot anyway by tailoring it to the readers of this. So, without further ado… Five Things You Probably Never Knew About Me:

1. I only have one kidney. I wasn’t born that way.

2. For four months, in the nicest house of which I will probably ever live, I slept on the hardwood floors with just three blankets underneath me.

3. I have an affinity for the moon and the ocean but don’t understand tides.

4. I regularly trade the stock market.

5. Yeah, right, like I’m really gonna type that out for the whole world to see. Let your imagination run wild.