Announcement

Aidan and Ella have an announcement:)

Aces

Ace #1 on left, #2 on right, feel free to call Mike on #2 to confirm it:)





The Destroyer I had actually just bought to replace one I had thrown into a lake earlier in the day...worked out nicely though.



Site of first ace at Johnny Roberts Memorial DGC






Basket straight ahead




Site of #2 and #3





Basket straight ahead through trees, actually sets up nice for my sidearm throw.





#3 in the basket when I got up there



When I got to being up 56 shots on Mike on the year, that started to lose much meaning...so moved on to trying to get a hole in one. Would have been good with one, but ended up getting three last week. Probably should have bought a lotto ticket with that kind of luck. Probably won't be playing as much anymore, still fun and all, but have covered all the goals I really had for that, next up, who knows, might pick up my guitar again and start playing again on a regular basis. Basketball and dodgeball season is starting up again, so trying to find teams for that.






Sister Carrie was out here a couple weeks ago, stopped by on way back from Yellowstone, sucks that they only were here a day, but had lots of fun. Caught the first half of the Iowa/Maine football game, played some sand volleyball, and went downtown in attempt to go to a pub quiz, only to find the bar taken over by Missouri fans watching their football game, and then instead grabbing some food and drinks at the Celtic then heading home for some Wii action.


Yep, that's Carrie

Wish I had kept rolling to the end. She may seem sweet, but has violent tendencies...

Time to catch up

So, sorry for all those that may have been checking this, desperately waiting for my updates...but there's just too much to do out here other than type on a computer. We did have two days of rain last week, just in time for the Muddy Buddy, but other than that, nothing but sun for three months. Anyway, updates... work is going good, though we have a couple people leaving in the next couple weeks, so that should be fun when the kids find out and act out not knowing how to say they will miss them. I should be getting at least one morning shift/one more night off, so that will be good.

Disc golf, still beating Heaton, at 39 shots now. Current goal is to finally get a hole in one. Have hit the side of the basket twice in the past couple of weeks, that is frustrating.

Did the Urban Assault Ride back in July with a girl Mike works with, Leslie. Bike about 20-25 miles around Denver hitting 8 checkpoints along the way. Each checkpoint has an obstacle of some sort at it. Way fun, and there was an inflatable water slide, big wheel tricycles, and cold beer at the end of it.

Did the Muddy Buddy this past weekend with Mike. Bike/run race where the team has one bike, one person running, one person biking, and you switch off at checkpoints with similar obstacles to get past. As I mentioned above, it rained the two days before. Normally the mud pit at the end you have to crawl through is the muddy part, but the whole course was nice and muddy. Definitely had to walk your bike through several parts.

Did my 14er for this summer, hiked up Mt. Evans with my volleyball friend Jill. As some of you may know, you can drive to within a hundred feet of the top. We did not do this, instead hiking from Summit Lake up Mt Spalding and across the West Ridge that connects it to Evans. Was a sad day for the Lumina, however. Heading up into the mountains and the higher elevation, the engine started to majorly struggle. Around 9,000 ft it was overheating and couldn't go any further. Had to let it cool off for 30 minutes or so, drive back down and take her car back up to the trailhead. Runs ok back down here in the city, but no trips into the mountains until I get that figured out. Bike still runs good though, so that's all that matters I guess.

Picture time!!!


Big wheelin'


I had just smoked some 7 year olds on the course, oh yeah!!!


Not actually in this picture, but this was my favorite obstacle, great ab workout. Other ones were kayaking, keg walk standing on mini kegs, paper boy route on small bike and jousting

Post race, not yet to the beer garden


Cleaning off in the res. Cold, but very refreshing.


In the pit



USGS marker, we made it!



Jill and me at the top


Weird rock in the middle


Yellow-bellied Marmot, they so cute

Road Trip

So I went on a little bike ride the other day, managed about 30 miles and made it out almost to Golden. Still haven't gotten the road bike fixed up, so was on the mountain bike. 30 miles on a mountain bike, good workout, lots of sore muscles the next day. Bunch of pictures below from the ride.

One of my old AmeriCorps buddies, Carolyn, had a layover on her flight back to Oakland, so went out to see her the other day. Good to see you again, but could ya make it here for more than a half hour next time?

Speaking of reasons for people to come visit...The Mile High Music Festival is coming up in July. A two day deal, with a pretty good lineup: Dave Matthews Band, OAR, Bob Schneider, Martin Sexton, Michael Franti, Josh Ritter, Ingrid Michaelson, The Black Crowes, Spoon, Tom Petty, Gavin Degraw, John Mayer, Jason Mraz, Citizen Cope, and a whole bunch more. (Sorry I didn't put links for all, runnin out of time and gotta get to work.) Tickets are a bit pricey, but way cheaper than if you ever saw them all separately. Anyway, it's July 19-20. Any and all let me know if you are interested.


Where a good chunk of my disposable income is going, the main REI here in Denver

Set of rapids outside the REI, for when I can get a kayak


Next stop, a quick visit with Mr. Heaton at the new CC office

One of the many disc golf courses here in Denver and off of bike paths


Cuz the parents like to see pictures of me too


Just some mountains



A brief visit with CQ at the airport

Correction from the Editor...

My disc golf season lead over Mike Heaton was previously listed as +24. It is now +28. Sorry for the confusion, please make changes to your daily lives accordingly...

This is in no way a knock on the Lumina/Animul

So I had biked into the main REI (outdoor store, mom) here in Denver and as I was checking out, the girl saw my helmet and asked if my bike was my main mode of transportation. Thought about it and decided that sounded like a good idea. There's a good trail system and my apartment is so centrally located that everything is pretty close to me. Work is about a 5 mile ride on trails and residential streets, so have been doing that the past week. Hope to just keep my car parked for most of the summer minus any trips into the mountains.

Speaking of disc golf...there's also a course a short ride from my place. So far on the year I am 24 shots up on Mike Heaton. He has had a number of excuses over the rounds from throwing his driver into a lake to his son hiding his putter, but it is clear so far who is superior at frolfing (folfing to some...)

Currently at work covering part of the overnight shift. This is actually as boring as you might think it is. Doing the kids laundry is the highlight of the night. Next week I do the entire overnight one day, so you should look forward to a incoherent post in a week from 5 in the morning. I may actually cry from boredom that night. On the bright side, it means I get Wednesday off too this coming week and my old volleyball team needs a sub that day, so will get to play some more sand vb.

Parents are coming out in a couple weeks and sister is coming in August. That leaves a whole lot of other open times for the rest of you to come out here. My boss is pretty good about time off requests as long as there is enough advanced warning to find subs.

Less than 2 hours to go...off at 3:30, 30 minute ride home, asleep by 4:02:)

Til next time...

Yeah!!! A Job!

So after a couple months of searching, Chris is back in the world of the employed. It's at a residential treatment center called Mount Saint Vincent Home. Will be working on a boys unit, ages 6-12. Pretty similar to the work I was doing back at Orchard Place in Des Moines, though a little younger. Going in to fill out paperwork tomorrow and then may start as soon as this weekend with the training. Not sure my exact schedule yet, but will be mostly evenings and some weekends. Bye bye social life...They do have similar positions working with the kids during the days at the campus school, but they filled all those prior to me applying. Will be keeping an eye out for any of those openings. Got my foot in the door now at least.

Have signed up for the Muddy Buddy with Mike Heaton this coming summer up in Boulder. Fun little bike/run race with obstacles and mud pits. Started working out and biking for that this week. My new apartment is a block and a half away from the Cherry Creek trail which is connected to all the bike paths in the area. It also runs right past the flagship REI here in Denver, about a 10 minute bike for me, that could present a problem to attempting to save my new income. Short ride to a number of grocery stores and Wash Park, big park with lots of summer activities including a number of grass volleyball games. Love my location and have a feeling will really enjoy it this summer.

Speaking of summer, was in the upper 70s the last two days. Of course, that means it is 30 and snowing today...Another day of this then back up into the 60s by the weekend.

Had the semifinals of my basketball league tournament this last Monday. We were missing one of our better guys and the team we played had some new players we hadn't seen during the regular season...brought in the ringers for the tournament...close, but lost by 4 in the end. Didn't feel too bad about it though, the final was scheduled for that night later on and with our depleted roster, playing another 40 minutes would have been rough. Hopefully will get to play with my team this next season as well, but waiting to see what my schedule will be at work.

On the topic of cutest nieces and nephews in the world, check out the Friedel Kids. I especially like the video of Aidan dancing at the bottom of the page:)


Ok, so it's not the greatest, but I can see the mountains out my window. I don't care if you have to squint, I can see them, so just back off...

One last pic of Japhy at my old place in Boulder. Miss those dogs

Better week on one front at least

So had a pretty decent week on the sporting front. My basketball team won again on Monday night despite being 0 for 20 something from 3 point range where we are usually pretty good. Even got a dunk in the game:) Was cutting through the lane and got a pass from my teammate with the intention of taking it up strong to finish. Must have had my Wheaties that day cuz I was able to catch it and go straight up one handed for the score. Also come to find out that my teammate that grew up about 20 minutes away from me knows my sis, Carrie, and they've even gone to a concert together, small world. Tuesday and Wednesday had some of my best nights ever hitting in volleyball, even beating one of the top teams in our league. Thursday we had our end of season dodgeball tournament. First game I played, threw three balls and got three people out including the last person. Had another game where it came down to me against 5 people and I took them all out. Played real good, but ended up in 4th. Double elimination, lost the first time to the defending champs who won again, and then lost a close one to the 2nd place team which we had actually beaten for their first loss of the night earlier on. Good times though.

Sent the ol' resume in to a couple places and just waiting to hear back now.

It was 75 degrees here yesterday, breaking the old record by 4 degrees. Then snowed 3 inches overnight and was in the low 30s today with a cold wind, go figure:)

Well that was fun...

So we had a bit of wind this morning. 40 mph sustained, 72 mph gusts (thank you National Center for Atmospheric Research, conveniently located here in Boulder). Another company had their fence blown over, but ours was fine, so everything appeared to be ok when I got to the site. As I am setting up for the day a guy comes up to me and says some of our blueboard (1" styrofoam insulation that adds an R-5 value that we get from Dow for free) is in his yard. So I'm thinking, a couple chunks got blown away, no big deal. I take a closer look, an entire bundle (72 4x8 ft sheets) gone. They were wrapped in plastic to hold it all together, but somehow it must have gotten ripped on something and the blue foam carnage began. 2304 sq ft of foam scattered over a 5-6 block area. Of course, that is just the area we searched during our cleanup. I did see a couple pieces across the highway 5 blocks away in some evergreens. After that line of trees though, there is nothing east of there for the foam to catch on, so who knows how far away some ended up. All told, it took about 8 of us just under two hours to catch it all and bring it back to our trailer to store it out of the wind. So yeah, fun stuff.

More pics of the little ones

The two of them




Told you he doesn't mind where he sleeps

Been a while

Aidan isn't picky about where he falls asleep


Mom and Ella taking a siesta


How not to shim a window. Pic is a little screwy because my computer still doesn't like to read my memory card too well. The middle and right side of the window had just about as many shims.


Recent snow fall. The Lumina is buried off to the right. Actually had to shovel off the car before work that day.


Since the last update, not much new has been going on (hence it's been a while). Went home for Christmas for a little over a week. Got to see baby Ella for the first time, most easy going baby ever. Sleeps through just about everything (a must with big brother Aidan being the noise-maker extraordinaire that he is) and doesn't seem to get upset too often. Aidan has become quite the talker since the last time I had seen him before I moved. He was a little too unsure of me to give me a hug when I first saw him, but was more than eager to introduce me to Lightning McQueen and the rest of his cars from his favorite movie.

Since coming back, things have been pretty busy at the site. We rented a boom lift for a week or so to put up all the high stuff (sub-fascia, soffit, fascia) that would have been difficult or impossible to do with scaffold or ladders. A little testy at times, not so fun when the wind picks up and you are bouncing around 20 feet in the air, but overall worked out well. The plumbing has passed inspection and the mechanical is just about done. Electrician should be done within a week or so. We continue to plug away at little stuff and put on siding when we can, though the weather this week might limit that. Current highs are topping out around 15 or so, but the site is kind of exposed and windy, so we get quite the chill.

On a good cold note, got to go snowshoeing for the first real time last week up at Rocky Mountain NP. Was a lot of fun, though the trail was a bit heavily used and compacted, so only really needed the snowshoes in certain spots. Planning on going some more and would like to do a hut trip at some point before the winter is over if anyone wants to come out and play in the snow...Unfortunately, no pictures from the trip due to the camera batteries dying in the cold.

Currently reading the book "Marley and Me" by John Grogan, about a family and their excitable/destructive lab. It's a pretty good book, up there with Bill Bryson's on my list of fav's, so definitely recommend it.