Februa

Sarah came to visit last Wednesday for a few days, leaving on Sunday evening. Neither one of us accomplished what we needed to, but spending time together was worth it. Basically we did a whole lot of nothing. On Thursday after my history class we went and had Sherpa's for lunch, I got a haircut, and we met up with some of the other Classics grad students for drinks at HalfFast. After a few hours there chatting we ate dinner at the Southern Sun. On Friday I had to work from 10 to 3, which allowed us both to work a bit. We went out to Skinny J's with Dragos and Kristen for dinner and played some pool before going back to his apartment and playing this strange board game whose name escapes me at the moment. Saturday we slept in late and then drove up to Nederland and had the lunch buffet at Kathmandu, which was excellent. They had this jalapeno & cabbage dish as well as one involving lots of okra. My mouth waters even now thinking about it. After lunch we drove around in the mountains some more, ending up over at Estes Park, which is absolutely gorgeous. It seems to be nestled in a valley-plain up in the mountains and would not be a bad place to live. It's only about 50 miles from Boulder, actually, nearly the same distance as Denver International Airport is from Boulder. When we got back into town that afternoon/early evening we went up to the humanities building on campus and spent some time reading. Later we ate dinner at Whole Foods; they have a great salad bar. We tried finding a Jason's Deli in Boulder (there isn't one) and ended up being directed to "Asian Deli" by Free411. We stopped back by the university and played some pool and bowled a few games before going back home for the night. We slept in late on Sunday again before going over to Foolish Craig's for some awesome crepes. Her flight left at 7:10 last night, so we left my place around 4:45 and stopped at Pei-Wei in Broomfield along the way. We just barely managed to get our food in time since the people working proved themselves rather incompetent. Thankfully we got there in plenty of time and ate dinner inside the airport together before she left. They were a good few days.

Cedars

In my studies I find that it is problematic, even foolish, to ignore present realities when speaking of the past. Likewise, we cannot separate ourselves from what has happened before, no matter how much we try or wish to do so. It's difficult for most people in the United States to comprehend, to wrap their minds around, what occurs in the Near East. Certainly you won't glean much useful information from any news program you might watch on the television. I've found, however, a reliable, knowledgeable, and insightful source of information on Lebanon: Michael Totten. If you have some spare time to spend reading his "blog" then you should. His site is now a permanent presence over in my links to the right. Click below or there to visit and read.

http://www.michaeltotten.com

What just might be my perfect car

I've been hearing the rumors for a while that Pontiac was going to replace the archaic Pontiac Grand Prix (seriously, the car basically dates back to the 1980s) with a rear-wheel drive sedan imported from Australia. GM owns the Australian company Holden and has previously rebadged the Holden Monaro as the lackluster and bland Pontiac GTO. However, Holden's latest sedan, known as the Commodore, is a spectacular vehicle. This is the car GM is redressing as a Pontiac, and here it is from Edmunds:




I can't wait for it to arrive at dealerships next January (2008). It'll come with either a 260 horsepower V6 or a 360 horsepower V8 and one of three transmissions, depending on which engine you choose. And all the transmissions are modern contraptions, unlike the four-speed automatic in my current Altima (I hate this transmission with a passion). Naturally I want the V8. The Holden version is even more attractive (no stupid hood scoops). This car makes me want to drive an American manufacturer again (even though the car is Australian). Unfortunately it will almost certainly be too expensive, plus it'll still be very new when my current Altima's lease is up. One can always dream, though.

Outlander!

I was watching television tonight (a raresome occasion) and saw a commercial for the new Mitsubishi Outlander. It's a nice little s.u.v. that has a smallish engine and six-speed transmission. Therefore, it gets decent gas mileage. During the montage of the commercial the camera shows the dashboard, specifically the display that acts as the odometer and trip computer. This is shown because the company wants you to see the transmission switching gears rapidly up from four to five and then six. If you look above these numbers you'll notice that the gas mileage is displayed in real time. The estimated mileage for for the 4wd version is 19/25 . And what did the readout show? 11.7 mpg. Call me crazy, but I don't think that's really something you want to advertise for your midsize, car-based s.u.v.

Snowdom

It's snowing here again. Over last night we received another inch or two on top of all that snow from the holidays' blizzards. Next weekend is predicted to have another day or two of snow, as well.

Speaking of the break, I went to Indiana and Dallas during my time off from school. I flew in to Indianapolis after turning in my final paper to my l'antiquity class around the middle of December. I stayed with Sarah a few days before we made the sixteen hour journey homeward, stopping off to see Katie in Little Rock for Pei-Wei for us and backyard time for the dog. Dallas wasn't too bad, though I fell ill the day Sarah and I drove back to Bloomington. (Damn colds. It stayed with me for nigh on a week until just before I was to fly back to Denver.) We hung out with Cat, Chris, and the Twodoodles (the new name for the two Goldendoodles) as well as Sarah's departmental compatriots Stacey and Laura while I was there. Luckily I missed out on the massive amounts of snow that hit Boulder, though the ice storm did snarl my travel plans. Debbie was kind enough to use her own frequent flier miles to purchase me a ticket on American Airlines to fly to see Sarah. However, American doesn't fly directly between Denver and Indianapolis, but requires a connecting flight. All went well on my way to Indy but on the way back my flight from Indy to Chicago was delayed several hours. After waiting in line for two and a half hours I finally managed to speak with an AA worker about changing my flight over to Frontier. Thankfully the guy was competent and nice, switching me over to Frontier's final flight out of Indy straight back to Denver. The only problem was that flight was also delayed, but only by an hour. I finally made it back to DIA around 10:45 p.m., with the last bus back to Boulder running at 11:25. I got my baggage in under fifteen minutes (a minor miracle in itself) and made it to my bus in time, getting back to the house around 12:15.

So, the second week of classes starts tomorrow. I'm taking a class on archaic Latin poetry as well as a class on maritime archaeology. Both appear to be excellent classes run by knowledgeable, professional, and helpful professors. What an idea, huh? I was planning on taking a third class, in Greek, but various things conspired against me to make that impossible. It works out, though, because my loans only pay for two classes per semester anyway. I can use the remaining money to travel abroad this summer, probably back to Qarqur with Dr. Casana.

Only a couple pictures this time. These are from Tom (thanks, Tom) of the first snow storm that hit while I was gone. Yes, that is my car underneath.

Long time...

no see. It's been quite a while since I last posted here, mainly because I'm lazy. Because it's been so long, I'll summarize events:

• I dressed up as a trustafarian for our Halloween Ultimate games, one of which we won and the other we tied.
• The Flying Disc Monsters (Discafarians) finished second overall in the fall season of Grass-roots Ultimate. The tournament was on November 19th, the Sunday before Thanksgiving. We lost our first game, won our second game quite handily, miraculously pulled off a win against the best team in the league in our third game, and had our asses kicked in the fourth and final game. We used up all our energy and skill in that win against B-1, who had been beaten only once the entire season. That win made up for losing the final game, though.
• I visited Sarah in Indiana over the Thanksgiving break. We did a whole lot of nothing, hung with out Cat, Chris, and the doodles (there are two now), and went to a tree farm just south of Bloomington where Sarah picked out a nice spruce to put up in her apartment. Travelling there was nice because neither the airport nor the plane was crowded. Coming back was another story. Luckily I got to watch several hours of Mythbusters on the plane, which made it far more bearable.
• It's damn cold here. The highs for the past few days have been in the low 20s while the lows have been in the single digits and teens. It snowed several inches here on Wednesday and Thursday morning, and again last night into this morning. It's pretty, but slippery and chilly

Here are some pictures from the events listed above, starting with Halloween -

Dragos as a Discoman and me as a Trustafarian:


Kristin dressed as a devil and Sedona as an angel:


The Boulder dog park (we played in Boulder because Broomfield thought it was too wet and we would tear up their fields):


A shot looking west toward the mountains from the fields:


Ultimate Tournament -

Dan running:


Dragos grabbing the disc:


Me looking to intercept a throw:


Me jumping for that disc:


A team picture [From left to right: Pete, Brian, Stacey, Dawn, Vicki (in shadows), Booch, Julie, Dragos, Dan, Me, Christie, Marcus, and Fly; Garvin was absent because he sliced his finger open and couldn't play]:



Me missing a (fine) pass in our final game:


Indiana -

Lucy eager to go for a walk:


Lucy with her Goldendoodle friends (Buster and Abby):


Sarah wandering the tree farm, flag in hand for marking:


Me holding a squinty Lucy:


A playful Lucy in front of the freshly cut and decorated tree:


Sarah holding a sad-looking goblin-dog:


Snow in Boulder -

What I encountered on my way to school Wednesday morning (I was half an hour late to class on account of people being unable to drive competently):

Winter

Yesterday I wore shorts and biked to school. And today?

The backyard:
















A deer behind the house (there were two):
















A tree on Dartmouth




















A paw print on the NIST path:



The shrubbery entrance:



The rock:




NIST in snow:



The little creek:



Branches above the creek:



The hill above NIST:





A pine tree:



A tree with spinidy-bushes below it that seem out of place in the snow:



The car:




They're predicting 2-4 inches of accumulation tonight and into tomorrow morning, with the snow stopping about noon. We may get more snow on Sunday, too, which should make Ultimate interesting.

Autumn

Come she has, even though the recent days have been warmer than they ought. Though I slept in later than intended today, I did manage to accomplish a bit of studying. After making my way to Target (a debacle in and of itself, given the construction at 28th & Arapahoe) and the farmer's market, I returned home, ate my lunch (another Chicago-style 'furter from said market), and trekked over to my NIST study area. I've switched rocks recently, and I think I settled on a new one today. On the way there and back I took some pictures. Enjoy.

Up the street on the way to NIST:




Some orange flowers in front of a house:



Close shot of some yellow leaves:




The pathway to the rocks (look at an older post for a similar, green shot):




Bridge over a creek near the NIST | cemetery boundary:



An aggravated squirrel (I had upset his copulation attempt):

The unexpected

I've not updated this in quite some time, but no one reads it anyway so it doesn't matter all that much. Let's delve into things.

First, the plumbing in the house has broken several times over the past week or so. I noticed it last Saturday (the 16th) when using the washing machine made the downstairs toilet and bathtub overflow. We had someone come out the following Monday (on which morning I showered at Dragos') and 'fix' it, when in reality he just tore up part of the wall and left. He 'tested' the pipes to make sure we could use everything by running some water a sink. Kent and I figured out that the system was still blocked by flushing a toilet, the same toilet that was half a foot from him while he was working. He got his money and left before anybody could ensure that things were functioning. Tom called and had him come out again the following day, which he did eventually. He spent another couple minutes sitting on his ass and then told us that we'd have to put a camera down the pipes. That is, he told us that he was lazy and didn't feel like fixing our problem. So, I showered at the neighbor's house Wednesday morning. Luckily, Tom called Roto-Rooter and they came out and snaked the pipes out and apparently remedied the problem. That is, until Thursday evening. Tom was already back in Breckingridge so I called him to let him know. I had to use the backyard's bushes that night. My plan was simply to take a shower upstairs and not care about the flooding Friday morning. However, I walked inside around 11 and saw someone moving downstairs; I figured it was Nikki or Jake coming in from the garage. Instead...

It was Sarah. She, Dragos, and Mom & Dad had all colluded to surprise me. She had driven to Indianapolis after her class Thursday night (telling me she was going out with her department for drinks) and flown to Denver, at which point Dragos picked her up and drove her to my place. I was quite confused at seeing her in my basement, to be sure. She had booked a hotel for us to use when I told her about the above plumbing situation. However, she had cancelled the reservation after hearing that Roto-Rooter had solved the problem Wednesday; she was unaware of the problems that had developed Thursday night. Luckily, Dragos let us use his place Friday morning. She dropped me off for Greek then went home and napped (two hour time difference) before picking up lunch for us. We ate the Qdoba quickly since I was at work. Thankfully Roto-Rooter came out early Friday morning and snaked out the plumbing again, also putting a camera down to inspect the pipes. We were admonished to be careful about what we put down the pipes and that they would probably need to come back out in a week or so. (Tom left me a message on my cell phone saying that they had quoted him ~ $9500 to repair all the pipes; he's going to get another estimate this week.) After I got off work, we went down to the Dushanbe Teahouse for a short while and drank some excellent tea, though the service was a bit lacking. That night we went out to eat at Sherpa's with Dragos and Kristin (his girlfriend) before going back to his apartment for a rousing game of Scrabble. Sarah also got to meet Kristin's cattle-dog mix Sedona, who looks much different from Sarah's cattle-dog mix Lucy but who also shares many of the same personality traits. We slept in late on Saturday morning before going down to the farmer's market for lunch. In addition to the usual people, they also have cooked-food vendors at the market. Sarah got a smoothie, vegetable tamale, and pinto beans while I had an awesome Chicago-style hot dog and some Boulder chips. We drove over to Boulder Co-op and had some vegetarian dessert before heading home. I had picked up some athletic tape for my feet (which I'll explain in a bit) so I taped them up, put on my hiking boots, and we went for a walk around the NIST complex. Sarah was excited to see the prairie dogs again, mainly. Saturday night we went out to Pei-Wei in Broomfield for dinner (which was excellent) before going out with Dragos and Kristin. First, we went bowling at the UMC on campus, then we played some pool at The Attic, before heading to Pearl Street Pub for a game of darts (which we gave up on because nobody was able to score three bullseyes). Sunday morning we slept in through my first Ultimate game before rousing ourselves and heading down to Broomfield again for the second one. Apparently we had lost the first game to B-1 (no surprise) but we won our second game. A couple weeks ago I hurt my feet somehow playing Ultimate, and they've yet to heal. I taped them up and managed to play through the second game. I'm pretty sure I've injured (mildly) some of the ligaments along the tops of my feet. But, it was much warmer Sunday than it had been and the game was fun so we had a good time. After the game, we went over to BJ's and had free beer and cheap pizza for lunch. Once that was done, we got our swimsuits and relaxed in Dragos' hot tub for a while; I'm not sure if it was the hot tub or the combination of rest and Advil, but something made my feet feel better. Having dried off and changed, we drove up into the mountains near sunset through Nederland and eventually up to Eldora. Down in Boulder it was about 60 degrees, while up at Eldora (where there was snow on the ground) it was something like 38. We snapped some pictures in Eldora before stopping in Nederland at Kathmandu for some more Nepalese food (twice in three days). Upon arriving back in Boulder, we stopped at Boulder Chill for some 'WOW Cow' ice cream; Sarah can't find any in Bloomington and it's only nine calories an ounce while also being fat free. By the time we got home, it was time to sleep since her flight this morning left at 6:50 MDT. We went to bed but didn't fall asleep for a while because Kent was cleaning his room upstairs and the floor/ceiling is ridiculously creaky. In any case, Sarah got up at 4:00 this morning and got ready while I woke up at 5:00 and drove her to the airport. I went home and slept until it was time for work. I must say that I was completely surprised by her visit, but I enjoyed it immensely. Now I'm melancholy because we're apart again but c'est la vie. Such things must be done for now. But it's time to get back to work and accomplish something.

A tale of two games

We played our first games of the season this morning for Grass Roots Ultimate. Dragos is co-captain of my team, the Flying Disc Monsters (Discafarians). Our first game was at 9:45 down in Broomfield (Boulder is lacking in proper fields) against what appeared to be a pretty new-ish team. We won the game by reaching the score limit of 15 (to their 7). Our second game was at 11:45 or so against a team of great players. They were hucking that disc all the way down the field time and again. They scored a couple of points off the bat, but we came back and tied them up. In the process, Dragos' shin and one of the other team's arms had a nasty collision; I don't think anything was broken. The game stayed pretty close until the very end when they pulled ahead and hit the captain-agreed-upon score cap of 12. We ended up with 8 points, so it wasn't all that bad. They had some fast damn players and we just couldn't keep up at times. But, things should improve the more we play. Afterward, we went out to our sponsor restaurant BJ's for beer and pizza. The league coordinator showed up and bought each table a pitcher of beer, which when combined with our food discounts, meant that my total bill was $3.83. Not too shabby for a glass of doppelbock and a mini-pizza with jalapenos, pepperoni, tomatoes, cheese, and artichoke hearts. Anyway, I'm sore as hell and have piles of work to do for this week. Until next time. XAIPETE

The Searcher

Dragos goaded me a couple weeks ago into joining his (yeah, he's co-captain) Ultimate team for this fall. We had our first practice (six of fifteen showed up) on Wednesday night over at Tantra Park near his apartment. It was pretty fun, as we combined with two other teams and scrimmaged for a while. In the process, I managed to wipe and fall on my ass several times in addition to catching a disc with my face (it left a nice cut on my forehead). Having shown up in my tennis shoes, I quickly learned that cleats are a good equipment choice. So, I decided that this Saturday I would procure some cleated shoes. Today I followed through on that plan, but it didn't go quite as smoothly as I had anticipated. I trekked across Boulder to four different sports and/or shoe stores looking for the proper footwear. First, I went up north to Rocky Mountain Soccer. The workers were nice, the store was small but well-stocked, but the prices were a bit on the high side. So I ran across the street to Sports Authority in the dilapidated shopping center that also houses the DMV (an experience in itself). They carried far more shoes but none were in the size I needed. I didn't feel like buying shoes that were too small and not being able to return them, therefore wasting my money. Leaving there empty-handed, I jaunted down 28th to R.E.I. and quickly discovered that they don't carry soccer/football shoes. With instructions to look down near a local hardware store, I set out and came across Famous Footwear. They carried the proper shoe styles but were also bereft of my size. After visiting McGuckin's Hardware for a bolt for my desk, I came back down south to Play It Again Sports. The place was small, busy, and ill-stocked. With the advice to try Dick's down at Flatiron Crossing, I jumped on the highway (after getting $10 worth of gas) and discovered another Sports Authority outside Boulder. This was after circling the shopping center for ten minutes trying to find the store itself, as the signage was less than helpful. Once again, their selection had been ransacked. Feeling near the end of my rope, I finally arrived at Flatiron Mall and the Dick's. Behold, they were replete with both styles and sizes! Furthermore, an attendant actually helped me find the correct size (11.5) for these Nike football shoes. I ambled around the store for a few more minutes, browsing the wares, before checking out. The pricetag on the wall had read something like $34, but the shoes actually rang up at $24, with a total of $27.08 after tax ($10 cheaper than inferior shoes at the other stores). Patience pays for itself.

My NIST excursion

Right near my house are the NIST grounds that are publicly accessible. I decided to do some hiking through the region and up toward the mountains, as I had seen some trails near to it on a map. It was a good hike for a few hours the other day. I only went down a couple of the trails so I'll go back and explore the other ones at some point in the future. And now, the pictures.

The beginning of one of the pathways just off Broadway (note the hill in the distance):



Somebody's back fence covered with flowers and ivy:



This portion of the grounds is popular with dog owners:



Trail through the brush to my rock:



The reading/talking stone:



Looking east while sitting on the boulder:



Some pink-ish flowers (again):



A small stream crossed by the walking path:



Yellow flowers this time:



Looking down southeast from the top of this hill (remember it?) you can see part of the NIST complex, the fields surrounding the buildings, the brushpatch with the reading rock, and my neighborhood:



And now for something completely different, white flowers:



A tall evergreen up on the hill:



Leaving the NIST grounds:



The ground alive with new conifers:



A comfortable and convenient arrangement for relaxing:



A poor shot of me taking advantage of the situation:



This rock looks out of place up here (quartz perhaps?) though I did encounter more of them up the trail:



Ah ha, finally names for these roads I have been travelling:



Me on the Kohler Mesa path (looking back toward the Four Pines intersection):



No, this isn't just a crappy picture; that actually is a black squirrel:



I wonder what this sign said originally:



Another trail intersection, but what's that below the top sign?



Ah, right.

About thirty seconds after taking that picture I encountered a very nice ranger who asked me if I had seen any bears. Apparently, she related, another hiker had reported a bear on the McClintock twenty minutes previously.


The final intersection, where the Mesa trailways meet a road that leads up to the Royal Arch and Flatirons:



Achtung:



Hey, an information board; that would've been helpful at the beginning.



A close-up of the map:



The (easy) way down from the Mesa trailhead to Chautauqua Park:



If you look closely, you can see both the Red Rocks and Mt. Sanitas: