Almost two month ago I mentioned my friends project A Minute In The Life: The Simultaneous Photograph Project. Well the time has come, pictures will be taken all around the world at 2:00 PM Eastern Time this Saturday. I would encourage all of you to take a minute out of your life and snap a picture at the appropriate time (see this time zone map for your exact time). Once you have your picture all you need to do is email it to him, along with the location of your shot, and any other information you wish to include. Sounds simple, right? I know that Phil & Doni will be snapping a picture at 8 PM while they are attending a wedding reception in Sweden. I’m planning to be on the slopes at Arapahoe Basin by noon on Saturday, so I can take a nice snowy shot. What will your shot be?

Another thing we did this weekend while Amy was in town was finally check out a Villebillies concert. As the name implies, the band is from Louisville, Kentucy, and being that Amy is from the same place it’s obvious that she introduced me to this group of nine guys. In many ways they remind me of the old Ordinary Peoples, which were an seven member live hip-hop band. Take what O.P. was add a few more vocalists along with an acoustic guitar player, an occasional banjo and/or harmonica, and an even wider range of influences, and you get the Villebillies. In the studio the Villebillies sound very clean and polished, but live they are a raw group of vocalists with a live backing band. It was nice to see a large band of guys having a blast on stage!

Over the holiday weekend we finally made the trip to Rocky Mountain National Park. Our good friend Amy was visiting for the weekend, thus giving us a great excuse to finally make the drive up. We started on our way around 8:30 and were at the park’s west entrance around 11. We made a quick stop at the Kawuneeche visitors center for some information and then continued on our way toward a trailhead that would take us to Adam’s Falls.

Before we could even make it to our trail, we stumbled upon a couple of Moose who were grazing right off the side of the road. This was the first time I have ever seen Moose, and it was on the top of my list of things to find for the day. I was astonished that my first goal was met so quickly and easily. Throughout the rest of the day, we only managed to see a glimpse of another Moose after that. So I guess we were a little lucky to find these two.

The hike to Adam’s Falls was a fairly simple one, measuring .3 mile each way. The only difficult part about it was the constant changing altitude, but we survived it with no problems. These waterfalls were wonderful and all of the varying colors of leaves provided the perfect backdrop. I took lots of pictures of this area, but it was very hard to capture the multiple stages of the falls and the twists and turns that lie between them as the crystal clear water winds through the rocks.

Another highlight of the trip, at least for me, was the drive on Trail Ridge Road, which is the highest paved continuous highway in the United States. This road is closed for the winter and even still has high snowpacked banks along the sides of the road that had to be cutout. I wanted to wait for this road to open before going to Rocky Mountain National Park, as it is the only way to get from one side of the park to the other. Originally I planned to spend as much time on the east side of the park as we did on the west, but by the time we got there we were hungry and ready to head back.

Before leaving the park, we did get some of our closest moments with multiple groups of Elk. At times, we were probably within twenty yards of them. The largest groups we saw were near the Sheep Lakes, where I was actually hoping to see some Big Horns, but no luck this time. However, the Elk were a pleasant surprise, as I don’t think I had seem them this close before. Plus with the backdrop of the trees and mountains I was able to get some good pictures of them.

There are many more pictures of us, the animals, and the landscape in this photo gallery.

I decided to snap a couple more pictures of our ever improving front yard today while I was out watering. I still have to mulch some areas, and decide how I want to edge one particular area. But the porch is completely re-stained and we even have some grass growing. It’s quite a change from what it looked like when we first moved in, but it’s definitely a good change. Just look at these pictures from before (especially this one) compared with how things are looking now in this photo album.

Even the neighbors are taking advantage of the good looking yard we have now by putting their house up for sale. Anyone want to join us out in Colorado?

Tonight I have my first hockey game in a long time, since leaving Kansas City actually. I haven’t touched the ice in the five or more months since we’ve been in Denver. I wanted to go to a public skate before playing, but I never got around to it. I just hope that it doesn’t take me too long to get back into the swing of things. I joined a team in the A/B league called the Monkees. I hope that the A/B leagues here are comparable to those of Kansas City, otherwise I could be in trouble. The coach of the team did ask where I played at in college. Maybe that should have been my first sign. Anyway, keep your fingers crossed. I don’t need another injury…

In case you missed it the other day, my pictures from our extended weekend are up on the site. The only events I have pictures from are our afternoon at Red Rocks and the New Belgium Brewery tour. I forgot the memory card for the camera a couple of times and the internal camera memory quickly fills up. Luckily, everyone else took lots of pictures. Phil has posted his pictures on his site. Be sure to check those out!

Speaking of the New Belgium Brewery tour, I would highly recommend this tour if you are ever in Fort Collins. Or even if you are in Denver, it is worth the approximately hour drive north. They do not take reservations so I would encourage showing up early to get your name on the list. If you have to wait long, head down to old downtown Fort Collins. There are numerous brewpubs in the area. Our choice was CooperSmith’s, which had great bear and great food. After finally going on the tour, we got to choose four beers each to sample. After tasting all of our choices, Abbey and 1554 were on the top of everyone’s lists.

Last night we dropped off Kim’s old company car and picked up the new one! The car that she was driving around (Mercury Sable) was nearing the end of it’s life, and instead of fixing it up they just decided to get her a new one. Obviously there were no complaints from us. They gave her the choice of a Chevrolet Equinox or some style of Buick. Obviously with the weather and mountains in Denver, the choice was easy. We went with the Equinox, which is an all wheel drive crossover SUV.

The color we picked is called Granite Gray Metallic and was the darkest shade of gray available to us. The highlights so far are the all wheel drive (although we haven’t had to use it yet), the spacious interior, and an auxiliary input jack on the stereo, which makes it very easy to hook up our Sirius receiver or an mp3 player. It drives really smoothly and has quite a bit of power. There is even a towing package on it, so now we just need some snowmobiles or a small speed boat. All of the pictures I took shortly after picking up the car can be found in the photo gallery.

I promised a review of The Killers concert at Red Rocks last week, but that is going to be pretty hard for me to do. The reason? The show was canceled after only two songs! The announcement at the show was that the lead singer, Brandon Flowers, had a vocal injury. But later it was reported in the news that he was recovering from bronchitis and tried to do the show anyway. A couple of other shows have been canceled over the past few days as well, but there is a show in Vancouver tonight that appears to be going on as scheduled.

Prior to The Killers “performance” the band Hot Hot Heat performed, along with another opening band, so it wasn’t a complete waste of time. Our friends Phil, Doni, Chris, and Kelly made the trip with us while taking a nice vacation from Kansas City. We had a jammed packed weekend with all of them in town, and for a full recap of the events check out Phil’s blog. I could write my own recap, but I think we would have a lot of repeat content and his is probably more entertaining anyway.

Tonight I will see my first show at Red Rocks, and I’m so excited to finally be doing it! I’ve been inside the famed Amphitheater before but have never seen a show. That is all about to change as we take in the music of The Killers and Hot Hot Heat. My buddy Fighty says that the Killers put on a great show and I’m hoping he is right. To celebrate this huge event, I will be taking tomorrow off of work, so don’t expect anything from me tomorrow. I may try to write up a review of the show, but I’m not guaranteeing it. I will definitely review it, but it may not come tomorrow.

The title for today comes from Kim’s cousin Jenny who was telling us a story of how she thought we were going to watch a hockey game tonight. The game was between The Killers and The Red Rocks! Funny stuff…

A couple of weeks ago I made a big purchase at Circuit City using $200 in gift cards. This all started when they overpaid me for rebates that I submitted months ago. And it doesn’t stop there! I was browsing the Sunday paper over the weekend and while flipping through the Best Buy ad I found that their price for the mp3 players I bought was $50. When I bought them from Circuit City I paid $60. After checking out Circuit City’s price match policy, I took the ad and my receipt into the store to get my credit back, which is 110% of the price difference. Since I paid with gift cards, they had to load the money back onto a gift card, but that’s okay. I’m sure I’ll be buying something else soon…