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Monday May 05, 2008

Happy Cinco de Linko! Today is packed full of celebrations and traveling for me. First of all, it's Cinco de Mayo, which is always a good excuse for a margarita. Secondly, I'm heading to Mountain View to assist my co-workers in celebrating Cinco de Linko. After that, I'm pitching in a LinkedIn softball game trying to beat the #1 team in our league. Then I'll be heading up to the festivities of JavaOne. It's likely I won't be "networking" until late night. I'll be twittering all week if want to know where the good parties are.

Update: I just learned how to find out when you first joined LinkedIn. Click on "Account & Settings" at the top of any LinkedIn page. On that page, in the upper-right corner in grey text, you should see "User since: " and the date you joined. Interestingly enough, I joined May 27, 2003 - just 22 days after the launch. Posted in General at May 05 2008, 08:40:46 AM MDT Add a Comment

Thursday May 01, 2008

Denver Weather Yesterday it was 82°F in Denver, today it's snowing. Here's the view from our office in downtown Denver. Drab and dreary - perfect for the Avs Playoff Game tonight.

Posted in General at May 01 2008, 10:38:27 AM MDT 4 Comments

Sunday April 13, 2008

The 2007/8 Ski Season comes to an end Yesterday, I woke up early and drove to Winter Park/Mary Jane for an 8" Powder Day. I arrived in the Challenger Lift parking lot at 7:30, took a nap until just after 8, then hopped on one of the first chairs up Mary Jane. Knee-deep powder at the top of Mary Jane Trail, fresh tracks the rest of the way down. Next run was Derailed into Short Haul. Then I hit the chutes off Challenger and called friends to see when they were showing up. It was 9:30 and everyone was still on their way. One friend recommended I head over to Vasquez Cirque and Eagle Wind lift. 3 runs of knee-deep, fresh-track face shots and I was spent. I skied to the bottom of Mary Jane for some lunch and a beer.

As I was entering the bar, everyone showed up and I changed my plans to join them on their first run. 2 more hours of powder on Eagle Wind and it was (finally) time for lunch at 1:30. After lunch, Outhouse, a tree run near Challenger Lift and Bluebell to Corona Way back to Snow White. It was 4:00 and quite possibly the longest ski day of my life.

I was sad to hear that today marks the last day of skiing at Winter Park and Mary Jane. Thankfully, I got to end my ski season on an epic powder day. What a great year: 21 days, including Steamboat, Tahoe and Whistler. Next year, I'm shooting for 30.

Bring on Mountain Bike Season. I plan on riding a few races in the Winter Park Mountain Bike Racing Series as well as the Fat Tire Classic. Posted in General at Apr 13 2008, 11:32:39 AM MDT 4 Comments

Monday March 24, 2008

Audi A6 Quattro A few weeks ago, a friend recommended I join Hertz #1 Club Gold. His reason was simple - you can walk out of the airport, read your name on a board, jump in the car and go. No talking to anyone, just get your rental car and you're on your way. It sounded like a good idea, so I signed up.

Last week, I went online to reserve a car for this week's trip to Mountain View. I chose the cheapest car, and was subsequently prompted to choose an Audi A6 from their "Prestige Collection" for less money. I went for it.

This morning I hopped in the car at SFO and was immediately impressed. It's probably one of the nicest cars I've ever driven. It's not as fast as the Cayenne Turbo I drove for a week in Florida a couple years ago, but it's certainly a slick car. You can even talk to it to get it to change radio stations and such.

It's too bad I only have the car for one more day. I'm heading to TSSJS tomorrow night in Vegas. I wish there was a way to cancel my flight and drive instead. Posted in General at Mar 24 2008, 11:43:23 PM MDT 6 Comments

Saturday March 22, 2008

An Irish Pub moves into the Neighborhood In August 2006, I described how happy I was to be living in the DU Neighborhood and how we had so many good restaurants around. Today, I discovered there's a new Irish Pub that opened this week. While I don't live in the same house that I did in August 2006, I still live close by, a mere 5 blocks from Julie's house. While the old location was excellent, with Sushi, Indian and Liquor on the same block - my new location is 6 blocks from the Light Rail and a 1/2 block from the Elementary School Abbie and Jack will attend next year. DU is 5 blocks away - which is great for hockey games and gym memberships.

Why am I rambling on like this? I don't know, I just wanted to write down how much I like this neighborhood. With Spring starting yesterday, a beautiful day today and DU beating North Dakota last night - life is very good.

Today's agenda: skiing with the kids at Copper. WCHA Championship tonight. Posted in General at Mar 22 2008, 09:25:43 AM MDT 3 Comments

Saturday March 15, 2008

Lake Chelan Today I woke up in beautiful Lake Chelan, Washington. It's a 50-mile long lake that's nicknamed "Microsoft's Playground" because all the Microsoftees vacation here. Here's the view from our condo this morning:

My Mom, Dad and I are all in town to celebrate my sister's birthday (on St. Patty's Day).

Today's agenda: Wine Tasting.

Wednesday March 12, 2008

Scott Bain on Writing and Publishing a Book Scott Bain has an interested blog entry called Writing and Publishing a Book:

Good to know - thanks Scott! I've been thinking about writing a book again and was actually considering writing first and shopping for a publisher later. I guess that's the wrong approach eh? Posted in General at Mar 12 2008, 04:12:29 PM MDT 3 Comments

Wednesday March 05, 2008

Spectacular Weekend at Whistler This past weekend, some friends and I headed up to Whistler Blackcomb for a weekend of great skiing. We have a college buddy who's getting his PhD in Vancouver, so that's what motivated the trip. I've never skied in a place where the mountains were so huge. I've skied Jackson Hole and Mammoth, but apparently Whistler has a lot more elevation gain. This was proven when we skied the "Peak to Creek" run on the last day. We didn't do the 6.5 mile run because one guy was on a snowboard.

It snowed 8" on our first day and a few more on our last day. There was plenty of powder and lots of really steep runs. I highly recommend it - especially if you want to spend some money. It's not a cheap place to visit and it'll likely get more expensive since it's hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics. The good news is I got a 50% discount on lift tickets with my Winter Park pass. Whistler Blackcomb is owned by Intrawest - the same folks that own Winter Park and Steamboat.

For more pictures, see Whistler 2008 on Flickr. This weekend's destination? Vail for day #19. Posted in General at Mar 05 2008, 10:19:38 PM MST 3 Comments

A Look Inside the Guinness Brewery Guy Kawasaki has a post about The Art of the Perfect Pint Pour. In it, he posts a number of pictures from a tour he took of the Guinness Brewery in Dublin, Ireland. I was in Dublin with my parents in 1998 and we missed the tour by 5 minutes. It's nice to see what the inside actually looks like.

Speaking of Guinness, do you have any special plans for St. Patrick's Day this year?

It's my sisters birthday (on March 17th), so I'm heading to her place (Chelan, Washington via Oregon) next weekend. My Dad booked train tickets from Salem, Oregon to Seattle. I love trains - especially now that I've re-activated my EVDO card. Its download speed isn't much faster than my BlackBerry Pearl (38.8 KB/sec vs. 25.4 KB/sec), but its upload speed is quite a bit faster (13.5 KB/sec vs. 2.3 KB/sec). Should be a fun trip. Posted in General at Mar 05 2008, 09:49:30 PM MST 1 Comment

Saturday March 01, 2008

Powder Day at Whistler We arrived at our hotel late last night in Whistler. It was pretty warm out and we didn't believe the 20cm forecast for today. When we woke up this morning, we were pleasantly surprised. A Powder Day at Whistler - what more could you ask for?

Posted in General at Mar 01 2008, 09:05:58 AM MST 2 Comments