Snowboarding - Season II, Day 1

I went snowboarding for the first time this season. I went with Kerri, Travis and Ben to Keystone. The bunny hill at the base of the mountain where I took all my lessons last season wasn't open yet. We rode the gondola to the top to the other practice hill. It was more challenging then the one at the base and just about what I needed to refresh my memory from last season. We spent the morning there. The mountains have gotten more snow then usual for this time of the season; there was great coverage. After lunch we got on a green (beginner) slope and began to head down the mountain. It took quite awhile to get down. I was doing well up until then and hadn't taken too many bad falls. Ah, but the day wouldn't be complete without just one. It's the flat sections that get me; I haven't quite figured out which edge of the board I should be on. I could have included a beautiful picture of the mountain in this entry. It was a gorgeous day - really warm with clear blue skies, but I didn't bring a camera along. Instead I'll give everyone a taste of the reality of learning to snowboard - a picture of my bruised knees. Eileen, how do ya like those hematomas? Probably should have worn the knee pads Raj lent me. Also, I should get moving with my hockey pants idea. Between my falls I also took a minute to appreciate the beautiful scenery around me and that I could spend my day learning something fun and that it's so easy to get there. In the words of a ski bum, "sweet".

Birthday dinner at Il Fornaio

I picked up Noah, and we went to Boulder for lunch at Illegal Pete's. It's a Denver chain of fast-casual mexican restaurants similar to Moe's in Atlanta. We then walked along Pearl Street and looked at the shops. The Boulder Arts and Crafts store contained lots of cool items including paintings by one of the artists that I mentioned I liked from the Cherry Creek arts festival over July 4th weekend. We also made a stop at the REI store in downtown Denver. It's one of the largest REI stores complete with a indoor rock climbing wall and a river outside to test kayaks.

That evening we went to dinner at Il Fornaio in downtown Denver for a birthday dinner. In the picture from l-r (Noah, myself, Raj, Dan, Leigh, Megan and Stephen). It was a fun dinner and I appreciate everyone coming out for it (especially since in the meantime GT lead an amazing upset against Miami).

My 28th Birthday

For my birthday a co-worker, Mike, made me a chocolate cake with vanilla frosting. I was impressed that he baked it himself. It's my favorite kind and was delicious. That evening a bunch of us went to the Rio in downtown Denver for a co-worker, Kassie's going away party. The Rio is a Denver Mexican restaurant chain and is known for their strong margarita's; there's a house limit of 3.

I then went to see a show at the planetarium that has been on my list of things to do for quite awhile. It's called Sonic Vision (follow the link to see a trailer). It's digital images set to modern music by U2, Coldplay, Moby, etc. I thought it was pretty cool. I first saw it advertised at NYC's planetarium last year, and I was surprised to see it in Denver. The show is 38 minutes long. If you're prone to motion sickness, the first 5-10 minutes could be a little difficult. It really makes you feel like you're moving. I thought of Eileen and how she used to grip her arm rests when watching the roller coaster intro to the Regal Cinemas movies (Eileen - you'd have fun with this show).

I went to Sparrow for dinner. The food was excellent, and I would definitely recommend it.

After dinner I met up with Suzanne's friend, Noah, for drinks at Trios Entico. Noah traveled into town with the NY Jets for the game against the Broncos. Trios is a wine and cigar bar with live music on weekends. I enjoyed a chocolate martini.

Tastefully Simple

I went to Kerri's house for a Tastefully Simple party. It's one of those events similar to Creative Memories, Southern Living or Pampered Chef where you can try/see the products and order from a rep. Tastefully Simple sells easy-to-prepare gourmet foods such as bread mixes, dips, dressings, sauces and spreads. I liked the Chai tea.

Doctors Say the Darndest Things

I have yet to write about work on this blog because I was using the blog more for activities in Denver, but in the last couple of weeks work has taken a bit more of my time. I implement Electronic Medical Record software. At my previous job, I would stare at my cube walls and was bored beyond belief. Now I don't have a desk, and I'm lucky if I can find a computer to work on in-between running around the clinic. At the beginning of an implementation we have to field a lot of complaints. It's a change and more work for the clinic staff. After awhile you hear the same comments over and over again. I cherish when the docs can get creative in expressing their frustrations.

The name of the EMR software vendor is "Allscripts". I was sitting in a room helping a nurse with the software and a doctor who had yet to be trained came up behind us. He saw what we were doing and said (with a german accent): "Vhat is this? This Allscripts, this crapscripts, this bullscripts." This is the not so subtle way the doctors like to express their dislike of the program. By the way, after being trained that doc actually said how he saw it could be useful. Now we wait to see if he actually uses it...

Joan's Birthday

For Joan's birthday, Ellen and myself went with her to Cafe Brazil. It's located in the Highlands. It's only open for dinner, and you need to have reservations to eat on the weekend. I had chicken and black bean stew. The waiter instructed me how to pour the stew over the rice and mix it with the other things on my plate, all except for the fried bananas. It was excellent. I would like to go back and try some other things on the menu. I like many of the ingredients in most of the dishes - cilantro and coconut milk. We all shared a dessert. It was similar to chocolate gelato but made with cheese so it was thicker. It was delicious. Ellen made a Latin night of it. We went to the play September Shoes. The brief synopsis is: "The haunting, passionate story of Albert and Gail Cervantes’ return to their southwestern childhood home. In the town of Dolores, meaning “Sorrow” in Spanish, they encounter a collection of colorful, mystical characters both real and dreamlike. Their heart- wrenching tales help the couple come to terms with their past and realize that they and Dolores are forever bound together." It had a lot of symbolism. The main metaphor is a person's sole (of their shoe) shows things about their soul.

Breckenridge Weekend Getaway

A co-worker, Raj, invited me along to hang out with some friends of his who were house-sitting in Breckenridge. We left Denver at 6 am Saturday morning, and Raj went out for his first snowboard run of the season at Arapahoe Basin. They didn't have any beginner slopes open yet, so I passed and instead enjoyed a hot apple cider. We then did a little shopping at the Silverthorne Outlets. We watched some college football and enjoyed pizza and beer at Fatty's in Breckenridge.

We met up with Raj's friends - Aaron and his wife (Irish name I can't spell). The house they were maintaining is owned by a couple that have their own management consulting company. The house was built 3 years ago in a feng shui, minimalist style. One of the main decorations are orchids. There's a special room to grow the orchids with the correct temperature, light and humidity control. There were at least 10 orchids in the main living area, and they were all different. It inspired me to try and paint an orchid next time instead of roses.

It had snowed quite a bit on Friday and Saturday and the view was absolutely amazing. The house is the last one on the road near the edge of a mountain. From the garage, you can take an elevator down from the third floor to the first. If you don't take the elevator you can enter the studio apartment or walk around the side, down stairs next to a terraced waterfall that was built using rocks that have heaters underneath to melt the snow and keep the path clear. Once you are in the main house there are a couple of steps as you go from room to room since you are continuing to descend down the mountain. They have 2 guest rooms on the first floor and a home theatre. We enjoyed a late night dip in the hot-tub which included a dare where we all jumped out and sat down on chairs covered in 1/2 a foot of snow (in case you were wondering, sitting on snow then jumping in a hot-tub creates a slight burning sensation). Also, the sky cleared up and we had an excellent view of the stars.

On Sunday we took the Belgian Malinois dogs for a hike through the snow. The homeowners have 2 dogs; the house-sitters have 1 dog that the homeowners gave to them as a Xmas present (a sibling of one of the home owner's dogs) and another friend had brought over her lab. The 4 dogs were quite a handful. Plus, the one visitor dog really was enjoying stalking the cat. We grilled out after our hike, then it was back to Denver.

Happy 30th Birthday Suzanne!

Suzanne,
In celebration of the big day, here are some quotes for you:

Everything I know I learned after I was thirty.
-Georges Clemenceau

Time and Tide wait for no man, but time always stands still for a woman of thirty. -Robert Frost

Buddy wishes you a Happy Birthday too!
-Shell

The Opera

Megan and I had a tapas dinner at The 9th Door in LoDo. We then went to the new Denver Opera house and saw Carmen. I had played some excerpts from Carmen in orchestra in highschool, so I recognized a majority of the music. It was sung in french but the translation was available on small screens. Carmen is about a seductive spanish gypsy and her love stories with a soldier and bull fighter. It was first performed in 1875 and was scandaleous at the time because of its aspects of morality, sexuality and exoticism.

North Point, Brie and Howie's Wedding

I got up early this morning and went to the 8:30 service at North Point. There are no churches that compare in Denver; I really miss good singers and the environment. It was an excellent sermon as usual. I was happy Brie was able to meet me and that we could squeeze in a quick breakfast before I headed to Howie's wedding (and that I could meet her adorable new dog).

I had never been to a jewish wedding before. I liked the traditions; it was interesting to see. They did everything - broke the bottle, danced around with the bride and groom on chairs. They also did a special dance around the parents since it was their last child to get married in both families. It was great catching up with all my friends from highschool. It was strange to see Howie getting married. It's hard to believe it's been 10 years since he used to eat my goldfish crackers in our AP English class. The remaining bachelors and bachelorette from our "Merry Cohorts" group (Billy, myself and Steve) made a bet as an encouragement to get a move on with this whole marriage thing. Kelly doesn't get included since she's in Japan and currently has a boyfriend (unfair advantage, she probably is next). The bet is whoever is next to get married gets $20 from each of the remaining two. A Brittany Spears 48-hr wedding in Vegas doesn't count. A few minutes after we shook on the pack Steve was off flirting with girls at another table. On my way out I commented to him how he didn't waste any time. He said he takes bets seriously.

I finished the day with a trip to the vet to see poor Winnie (one of my parent's dogs). He had been sick all week and couldn't keep anything down. The vet finally figured out he had swallowed something. They performed surgery. We had to drop him off at an overnight emergency clinic so they could administer pain medication. He wimpered the entire way over - it was so sad. Hopefully he'll be almost back to his old self in a few days. I was sorry I couldn't run with him down to the end of the block as I know he loves it.

Georgia Tech Homecoming

I went to Georgia Tech's Homecoming game against Clemson. I had not been back to campus in quite awhile. It was fun hanging out with everyone again. I got to catch up with Jennifer, Tamara, Alexis and my old boss Cristina. I was excited to run into Kendra, my lil sis, at AXO. I had not seen her in over a year, and she didn't know I had moved to Denver. Here's a picture of us in front of the AXO house. I met up with Brooke and we gave ourselves a tour of the house. My pledge classes' composite picture is no longer in the basement; I'm in the stairwell now - that's a sign you're getting old. I left the football game a little early. I walked past the physics building. I had remembered the day I ran up those steps to check out my grade in E-mag. E-Mag, Re-Mag, Three-Mag, thank goodness my major accepts a D-Mag. Seriously, does it matter that I understand Maxwell's equations? Although, it does make me feel good that at some point in my life I was smart enough to comprehend how changing magnetic fields produce electric fields and all those equations with the funny squiggly lines...haha, those would be integrals. I did get a "D" so probably not comprehending so much as suffering through it. Aah, filling out those scan-tron forms was like a weekly lottery ticket - how many will I match this week?

The Cook's Warehouse

I went with my mom to a cooking demonstration class. It was basic stir frying taught by Helen Chen, daughter of Joyce Chen, held at the Cook's Warehouse in Atlanta. It was an awesome class. Helen is entertaining, a fabulous cook and very knowledgable. As an early birthday present my mom bought me a wok and a few other utensils. I've been inspired to try to re-create some of the dishes Helen made in class.

I realized how much I really could use some cooking classes when I watched her take the tendon out of the tenderloin part of chicken meat. Just that demonstration made the class worth it. I can't think how many times I've tried to cut the tendon, but to see how easily you should be able to slip it out. It was amazing how quickly she could prepare the food. I would enjoy cooking much more if I had a clue what I was doing.

Back to the ATL, Sara's House

I headed back to Atlanta today. I had dinner with Sara, a friend from work at Home Depot that also went to GT. I saw her and Josh's new house and I just love it! I've included the picture she emailed me. She even has a fence surrounding the front yard - too cute, especially if she painted it white (high maintenance but the cliche would be cool). It was built in the 30's; I like the style. It's hard to believe the house is so close to downtown. Zeus, their corky, has a huge backyard. He doesn't know what to do with all that space.

Haunted Houses

In celebration of Halloween, I went with my two aunts to some Haunted Houses tonight. First we went to the Molly Brown museum house. Yes, it's the unsinkable Molly from the Titanic. The house was built in 1889 and was bought for what is equivalent to today's $1.5MM. It was a special event running for 4 nights. They do horror readings from Victorian authors. It was cool to be in the house at night; it was mostly lit by candle and they had replaced the few light bulbs with darkened colors. They had 5 performances in various rooms of the house. The performances included readings from Edgar Allen Poe, HG Wells and others. It was fun to be sitting on the carpet in Molly's bedroom and listening to the tale of Dora Shorter's "The Strange Voice" (Eileen - the main character has your name). Dora is an Irish poet and the person doing the reading had an excellent accent to match the story. I haven't been on the regular house tour, but this is also an opportunity to actually sit in the rooms versus what is most likely behind ropes on the tour.

After the classy Victorian readings, we went to a traditional haunted house called the Haunted Mansion in Littleton. I would recommend it; it was well done, complete with Freddy Crueger. What was the most entertaining was Ellen's reaction. She didn't want to be in front and be the first to walk into the next room. I think the creepy people following you around figure out who's the most scared and make a point to follow that person. The Haunted Mansion also has a store that has a great selection of Halloween costumes. Note to self: if I dress up next year, I would shop here.

Waterton Canyon

I went biking in Waterton Canyon with Raj this afternoon. Even more interesting wildlife then the High Line Canal trail - deer, rabbits and big horn sheep. The sheep are used to seeing bikers, hikers, fishemen and cars. They keep grazing and hardly seem to notice. The Waterton trail is actually a gravel road. After about 6 miles you come to the start of the Colorado Trail which runs 500 miles west through the Rockies to the edge of the Colorado state border in Durango.

Luca d'Italia

I went to Luca d'Italia for dinner; it's been rated a top italian restaurant both locally and by Zagot. It has a small dining area. On a weekend they are completely booked by reservations. I think often a small dining area is a sign of a good restaurant. There probably is only a couple of chefs working on the dishes and they spend a lot of time on each versus cooking for hundreds out of a menu with pages of options. I had gnocchi with crab meat in a lobster sauce. Believe me, it was as good as it sounds. I was also reminded a year ago, probably on this exact date, I was eating gnocchi in Croatia. Though there, it was prepared a little differently. For the main course I had "Rabbit Three Ways" - Braised, Grilled and Confit with White Truffle Sauce. Confit (kohn-fee) refers to a method of preserving. The meat is salted and and slowly cooked in it's own fat. Braising is cooking with "moist heat", typically in a covered pot with a small amount of liquid. And everyone knows grilled. I'm getting more interested in food from all the restaurants I've been trying in Denver. There surely is a difference between going to a chain restaurant versus being able to appreciate the different ways a certain item can be prepared. It reminds me of the show Iron Chef where they have chefs compete by creating 3 or 4 dishes with one main ingredient. This was the first time I had rabbit. Honestly it tasted a little like chicken; I liked it and would have it again.

Megan's Birthday Dinner

Megan and I went to dinner at Aji in Boulder to celebrate her birthday. It's a new Latin American restaurant that Megan said is always really crowded on the weekends. We got there early enough to catch some of the happy hour appetizers. It was excellent.

AXO Founder's Day

Today is AXO's 120th anniversary. I attended the Denver alumni group's celebration at the Arbor House in Golden, CO. Since the fraternity was founded on music, they had the assistant conductor of the Colorado Symphony as the guest speaker. For those not familiar with how a conductor manages to get everyone to follow him, he demonstrated by having us sing Happy Birthday. He conducts the youth symphony; many of the comments he made reminded me of my summers at Brevard and years in different music groups. Also as far as meeting new people, I finally met someone my age, not married sans kids, that actually lives within a couple of miles. She even spells her name the way I prefer - Shelley.

Team Buzz

I participated in Georgia Tech's Team Buzz volunteer day with the Colorado alumni group. We painted day care and nursery rooms in a shelter for women who are recovering from drug/substance addiction and are either pregnant or a recent new mom. It's called the Haven. I had no idea before I went that it's actually a program associated with the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. The house they live in was built by the government in the 1800's and was used as military living quarters.

La Fondue

After a long day of commuting between 3 different clinics, I went to dinner at La Fondue with Leigh, her husband and some friends of theirs in town for the weekend. We had a cheese fondue, salad, main course (I had filet mignon) and a milk chocolate fondue. The fondue was tasty, but they needed to work on their ventilation. I don't think the restaurant was originally designed to have people cooking at each table. By the end of our meal we were all ready to get out into the cool night.