i want to see the bright lights tonight

we haven't taken many pictures lately. lots of stuff happening. hopefully we'll get out this weekend and hangout and shoot some cool stuff. in the mean time, check out the cats, well sofie at least.

the day the squirrel went berserk

this little guy has been the subject of much discussion lately. we had two pumpkins sitting out on our patio for halloween. they started to develop little patches where the outside layer was barely picked off. i attributed it to the pumpkins falling off the rail of the patio, which they had done several times. demitria thought it was a bird. well, it turns out we were both wrong. it was this guy. the corner of the patio is a mess with pumpkin seeds and pumpkin extract because this dude went to town on our pumpkins. both of them have massive holes in them. i was standing inside watching him from our front door peep window. we thought about turning them around to fool him, but ultimately, we threw them away. i guess all the apples in the backyard weren't enough.

snowstorm

we experienced our first snow of the year on tuesday. me, demitria and the two cats sat in front of the window and watched it snow. it wasn't a real thick snow, but it did stick for a while. and it snowed last night as well. but we had a snow party that night and listened to the beach boys to stay warm.

i remember you were wild

for my birthday this year, we decided to do the opposite of what we usually do, and that was to get up early and go hiking. what is the opposite of that, i wonder? get up late and go spelunking? i have no idea. but it felt opposite. check out this sign for spelunking.

anyway, enough about spelunking. saturday we woke up and headed to roxborough state park. the hikes were pretty mild, as far as difficulty, but we saw several squirrels and some deer and a pretty little bluebird who kept ahead of us one trail. that was cool. they also had a nice bathroom and a coke machine. the top two pictures are from roxborough.

sunday, we got up and went to evergreen, which a little town west of denver. we hiked around mount falcon for what seemed like half the day. from the list on the link for mount falcon, you can see the parmalee trail details. that's the trail we took. we were only two of four hikers we saw on the trail all day. the rest were bikers. at one point, we were beginning to think about looking for berries and maybe creating a fire, because we weren't sure where we were on the trail and it was close to getting dark. but we made it out alive. the bottom three pictures are from there and the pictures don't do justice to the amazing view we saw on top of that mount. it was incredible. mass amounts of green trees rolling every direction.

so i had a great birthday in denver. also got some pajama pants and a tie rack! and a new jacket! score!

yer birthday

so today is my birthday. i don't any magical/words of wisdom. some things taste better. some things taste worse. sometimes i want to sleep a lot. sometimes i want to get up early and drink coffee. sometimes i want to drink and hang out all night. most of the time, i don't. i still love music. i still love baseball. i sure do like driving with the windows down.

check for pics soon of our hike to mount falcon.

here is your space

a few weekends ago, we hoofed it up to red rocks and walked away and hiked the area. it's truly an amazing sight. i can't wait to see a show there. just getting to the theater is a course in some heavy walking. but we made it and then hiked around the whole area. it wasn't too far from denver. just maybe 25 minutes. on the way back, we ate in golden. i put the one picture of denver in the distance because i thought it was cool to see the city in the far off spot it was.

spooky

since i didn't have the internet during halloween, i thought i'd upload our pictures from that night. we decided to dress as old people and hand out candy. as you can see, the old is a little close to dead, so when the kids came to the door, i don't think they knew who they were looking at: old people or dead people. but we had a few visitors that night, probably about five groups of kids. when we didn't, we made candied apples and watched sweeney todd. you can see our house in the bottom picture. the grass is dead and there are a lot more leaves on the ground right now. the funny thing is, i was dressing as an old dude and the only new thing i had to buy was the glasses! the rest was mine and i still wear it all!

pinecone, oh yes, pinecone

last night, or possibly tonight when you read this, i met kelley stoltz. i've only been in denver a few weeks and i've seen sonny and the sunsets, best coast and i met kelley stoltz.

what a night. pinecone is the best song i've heard all year. hit the sideways triangle and listen. it's amazing.

what a night. i met kelley stoltz and listened to sonny and the sunsets and best coast. sonny actually took the picture you see of me and kelley. i talked with kelley about fifteen minutes about music and such. really cool guy. he gave his new album for free! free! amazing.

sometimes i think dennis wilson is one of the greatest artists of all time. i love brian wilson, but when i listen to pacific ocean blue, i wonder sometimes. and these tracks from the unreleased bambu, under the moonlight, love remember me, and he's a bum. plus, holy man. i'm hurtin' when i hear these songs. if anybody is wondering where i found these songs, go here. it's the best thing i've heard since brian gave it a go with the beach boys love you.

that says a lot. what is king sooper? it's everywhere in denver. i'm going to get free popcorn from the holiday inn up the road.

facts from mile high

internet is finally up and running. i feel born again. not really, but maybe awakened from a mild nap. that's more like it. so, i've been here all of a few weeks now. here is what i've learned:

1. deodorant is optional. it's fantastic. the weather is so smooth and the humidity so little, you don't walk around all day acquiring odor and moistened funk. i've probably worn deodorant maybe four times since we've been here. awesome.

2. the dryness. you wake up everyday thirsting for water. you have to drink water all day. the old days of drinking coffee and diet soda all day are over. if you did that, you would shrivel up and crust over in a matter of days. lots and lots of water needed.

3. the dryness, continued. your body needs moisturizer like crazy. take a shower, put it on. wash your hands, put it on. lots of it. otherwise, your hands will look like mine, cracked and aged after three weeks.

4. the personalities. people in this town don't have outgoing personalities. i have not met one person who has said something witty or interesting yet. lots of blandness and banalness thus far. is banalness a word?

5. good music groups come here. hopefully i'm going to see sonny and the sunsets and best coast tomorrow night at a place called the bluebird on colfax. the morning benders were here last week. the national, the week before. good stuff.

6. lots of suburus.

7. leaves are everywhere. leaves are in the road. they're on the sidewalk. they're everywhere. and they're every color imaginable. except blue. or purple, otherwise known as grape.

8. driving down alameda going to the gym or to target, you can see the snow on the tops of the mountains, plain as day. it's an amazing sight.

i'll have pictures and more stuff later.

colorado

i'm sitting in a starbucks surfing the internet. there is a guy at the table in front of me writing very frantically. i wonder what is so important. probably everything.

the trees are all shades of yellow, red, orange and brown. it's amazing. the seasons really hit here. there is talk of snow on the range. i have no idea where that is. it sounds like an advancing army. i'm nervous about the snow. but i'm sure i'll adapt quick. i bought a huge coat today. it's not made of gortex, but it will do. actually, it might be. i need to check that.

i rode my bike to city park the other day. it was beautiful. the days have been nothing short of painting i've seen before. the cats are adjusting just fine. my skin is super dry, but i'm still productive.

i'll probably have an internet connection by the end of the month. so keep checking in. i'll be posting lots of pictures once i get it up and running.

i lied

one more post. here is my big moment with the national. look for the guy with a blue wristband and a maturing bald spot in the lower left hand corner. that guy is me.

leaving this town, pt. 3

the time is coming. fast. this will be my last post from houston. probably going to break down the computer tonight. how i'm going to live without a computer for a half a week, i don' know. i haven't had to do that since those dark ages before the internet back when we had massive shelves of encyclopedias with way outdated information. i remember the ones we had at my house stopped with reagan being president. i was using these when i was 9-18. way outdated.

"we need encyclopedias that don't refer to the burgeoning civil rights movement as 'trouble ahead.'" i'm not sure if that quote is exact, but it's still funny.

i was going to make a list of things i would miss about houston, but i'm not going to. there are too many and many of them are selected memories of mine that won't make sense to anyone else. the way a day was in my head, or the way a tree looked and how everyone was smiling and how big everything was and clean and septembers and early mornings with breakfast. there are many ghosts in this town. and i'll miss them, but i have to go. i think they'll understand. plus if they're really ghosts, they should be able to travel with me. that's the advantage of being a ghost.

remember that astros game?
remember that night in my car?
remember that terrible storm?
remember our first dog?
remember the movies we snuck into?
remember graduation?
remember swinging at the church?
remember all the sweet girls?
remember laughing our heads off?

anyone for tennis?

the bachelor party was cool. not at all crazy, but fun nonetheless. the best part was the concert. the national were something to witness. through the course of the show, the area i was standing in was slowly filling with people, so i got further and further from the guys i was standing with. during the last song, i found myself standing alone basically and the lead singer got off the stage and started walking and singing in the crowd. i made a beeline for the action and was standing next to him singing vanderlylle, crybaby, cry. it was totally awesome. i was singing loud too, which i found out the next day, i was singing the wrong words!! ha! i wonder if anybody else noticed. probably not. the line is "someday i'll explain it to the geeks." well i was singing, "someday i'll explain it to the geese." fail!

but either way, either words, it was fun.

new band on the scene: tennis. they're actually from colorado, so i'm ready to get to know this band. go to the hype machine and search them. pretty sweet tunes.

10 miles stereo

beach house was amazing last night. teen dream is such a fascinating, scintillating record. it doesn't build to anything tremendous, but it keeps you at that perfect level the whole record. the female vocals voice is incredible. her energy was tremendous.

vampire weekend was full of it too. they were on top of their game. the songs were quick, crisp and a total blast. i dig them even more after seeing them live. vampire weekend's lyrics sometimes are a little harder to figure out, not what they mean, but the hell they are talking about. my friend found the vampire weekend dictionary. here it is. it certainly helps.

the national is tonight. we'll see how that holds up to last night. my concert in houston. hopefully it's the cat's meow. what? where did that come from?

four!

golf is totally boring and makes no sense to me. but this has to be one of the coolest pictures i've ever seen. it was a total missed shot by tiger and it went right at this guy's camera. amazing photograph.

here comes change

mitch hurwitz talks about the blessing and the curse that is being the creator of arrested development.

great new series at the avclub about the 90's music scene. one of the things i loved about the article was the idea that it took real effort to be an underground music fan growing up in the 90's. there was no internet for the most of us, no close independent music stores and the only way we heard about bands was through magazines and late night videos. we had to really try and almost earn the music. now, we google it and read about it until we've had too much. i saw "just" by radiohead at about 2 in the morning on mtv and was blown away. i bought the album the next day, probably at a circuit city. i bought "being there" by wilco because it was 9.99 at best buy. i'd never heard a wilco song before in my life. but there it was, on display and on sale. both were extremely lucky finds.

i'm currently listening to brian wilson sing "let's go to heaven in my car." it's another ridiculous, brilliant song by the greatest pop writer of all time.

uptight

i have had that song in my head for a better part of the day and i have no idea why. i really don't like it that much and i don't know half the words. just "baby, everything is alright, uptight, out of sight." that's it. just swirling and swirling in my head. enough little stevie!!


the going away party was a great success. seems like most people enjoyed themselves. i know i did. it was great seeing everybody. plus some people brought gifts, which i didn't expect. i got gifts for leaving!! maybe if i come back one day, i'll get gifts for that. i wonder.


so it's on to massive packing and massive moving headaches. bring them on! i should probably eat first. i'm a little famished. can you be a little famished? i'm only moderately extremely excited. what?

the wanderer

so i put together a compilation album for our party. i think it's good. it's pretty straight forward. hits a lot of the common groups i've loved for decades.

i ate two vietnamese sandwiches today. and i plan to eat one tomorrow. i'm looking forward to it. they are quite good.

currently watching our brand is crisis.

leaving this town, pt. 2

i'm back from denver. we left early thursday morning and returned late last night. it wouldn't have been so late, but we had some engine failure before we left, which is exactly the kind of thing you want to hear before you take off into the air for two hours.

we rented a chevy aveo. now, i loved the gas mileage on that car. but wow. i never felt so not in control of a car in my life. once it got to 55, it literally was rattling and on the cusp of disintegration. but we maintained. we had appointments all day thursday with apartment complexs. we saw like six or seven that day. all horrible. horrible. i can't go back to apartment living. there's no way. the rooms were too small. the rent was too high. the place was too run down. all of them. thursday was a major day of defeat. but we regrouped.

on friday, we took to the streets. i drove one corner of denver all day. we stopped and called every sign we saw for rent, no matter what the place looked like, because even if it was a mansion, maybe someone was seriously in need of renters. we hit three possibles. one was amazing and affordable. one was small and affordable. one was huge and not-affordable, but the owner said if it wasn't rented by sunday, the day we were leaving, he'd consider working with us on rent.

the amazing one was already in the process of being rented, by that i mean, the application was sent, but who knows? maybe the guy would disappear. so we held out hope. the small one was dirty and we didn't know why. it had been empty for three weeks. why show it dirty? weird. so we sat and waited.

sunday came. we met the guy at what we were calling the apple house because it has an apple tree in the backyard. we met the guy and walked all the through the house. great house. great basement. apple tree. amazing. garage. everything. he gave us his price and we couldn't do it. but for some reason, he wanted to show us his sister's house, which was very similar to the one we were looking at. so we went over there. while we were there, i got a call from the amazing house. dude's application was accepted and we were out. so i was feeling pretty low at that point. finally the guys asks us again if we want it. and we tell him we can't afford it. so lowers it again. and we take it. we got the apple house. i am going to eat so many mcintosh apples i'm going to be diabetic in a month.

four days driving in a chevy aveo with just me and my wife. we're a great team. i was really proud of her. she was stressed and so was i, but she held firm. so now, let's have our party. and we'll be out of here.

leaving this town

i'm back from illinois. vacations can be stressful. when you're taking a vacation for a funeral, it's even more stressful. there are so many small towns in southern illinois. you wouldn't even know the difference if it wasn't for a sign or a water tower. that's the only way you know.

there isn't much ewok influenced music out there. the ewoks played some solid tunes at the end of return of the jedi. george lucas made the choice to change the music on the re-releases. but if you watch the original, there is a song i called "jub jub" that is fantastic. good beat, good use of rhythm. the ewoks were solid musically.