A couple of weeks ago we started our landscaping project by first removing all of the old and overgrown bushes. Pictures from that strenuous day can be seen here. From there we then fixed up the beds, moved some heavy slabs of rock for the walkways, and finally yesterday planted eight small plants: five Winter Gem Boxwood (Buxus microphylla) and three Emerald ‘n Gold Euonymus (Euonymus fortunei). I still need to add some mulch, but things are definitely looking better than before we started.

Within an hour or getting the plants in the ground a crazy storm came through. It was nice because I didn’t have to water anything, but I could have done without the hail and the excessive rain. We had a little flooding which may have washed away some grass seed that I put down a few days ago. Time will tell, I guess. I have some before and after photos along with some pictures of the hail. Check them out.

Today would have been my brother Bryan’s 20th birthday. It hasn’t been an easy ninth months for myself and my family without Bry. We all miss him dearly and will always remember and think of him. Happy 20th birthday Bry, you are no longer a teenager…

Kim and I played some golf after work yesterday. She bought a coupon card that gets us buy one get one free at the four South Suburban golf courses. Having already played at the Family Sports Center and Littleton, we decided to play the actual South Suburban course.

As I pulled into the parking lot, my first reaction was that this course was much more crowded than the others. I couldn’t even find a parking spot! When we finally found one and paid our fees, we were sent toward the back nine. We had to wait for the threesome ahead of us to start playing, but fortunately no one showed up behind us until after a few holes. This kept the pressure off. I hate feeling like others are waiting on us and our crappy shots.

Although the one time that other people were at the tee box with us, I hit my best shot of the day. The shot was on number seventeen, a 168 yard par three. I hit my six iron (I think) to within 10 yards of the hole. I still two putted though, but it was my only par of the day. Most of the holes I was two or three shots over. I guess this course was a little harder than the others. Or maybe we should have rented a cart and had a couple of beers.

I took advantage of Kim being out of town to fix up my office. I’ve always liked the color blue, but the light blue color in the office wasn’t my favorite. Plus it’s the same color as one of the bedrooms upstairs, so I felt that there was a need for a change. So, I was lucky enough to find a can of paint in the basement that looked better to me, a nice gray color. Once the paint dried I realized that this very well could be the same color as our bedroom upstairs. Oh well, I like the color more than the light blue.

Once everything was completely painted, I started hanging up my posters and other office goods. I used Google Sketchup to draw the room and then layout where I wanted everything to go. I was then able to visualize how everything would look, and make adjustments, before putting a single screw into the walls. The colors make look similar in these photos, but they really are different. Check out this photo gallery to see pictures of the entire process.

My favorite album of the year has to be Grand National by the John Butler Trio. I swear that it even gets better with each listen and I would highly recommend the album to anyone. I cannot wait to see them again next month at Red Rocks with Michael Franti & Spearhead. It is going to be a concert to remember, that’s for sure. Anyway, to suck you all in to JBT here is another song of the moment titled “Good Excuse.”

I think I have determined what is my favorite nearby restaurant to our house. My definition of nearby is about a mile or so away from our house, which would make it walkable if needed. Anyway, the name of the restaurant is HandleBar & Grill, and it is just a bit over a mile from our house. We had dinner here for the second time this past Sunday. The menu has so many options, including a dozen or so different chicken sandwiches, the best BLT in Denver according to 5280, and so much more!

I ordered the BLAT, which adds avocado slices to the award wining BLT. Delicious! I had a side of mashers with stout gravy, which might have been even better than the sandwich! Kim had the Chicken Tuscano sandwich, which was equally as good from the couple of bites that I stole. She had the side of fries, which I would also recommend. In my two dining experiences I have yet to have anything that I didn’t like. Oh yeah, the beer selection is very good as well! Next time I may try one of their southwestern specials to see how those measure up.

Kim and I spent Saturday in Boulder, mostly at the Boulder Reservoir for the Kinetics competition. Kinetics is an annual competition that involves teams who have built their own craft to traverse both a water and land obstacle course. In addition to the race, it is also a huge party and concert. The concert is what caused me to buy tickets at first as Robert Randolph and the Family Band were playing this year, along with Los Lonely Boys.

However, the concert took a backseat, at least for me, as the race was unlike anything I had ever seen. It was very entertaining to watch these teams struggle through the course, and it appeared to be much harder than I was initially expecting. And to make it even better, beer and food could be purchased for enjoyment along the course. I took lots of pictures from various points on the course, and put many of them online in this album, although I’m not sure the photos will do the competition justice.

Yesterday I finalized my purchase using the $200 in gift cards from the Circuit City screwup. I decided on buying two Sansa Express 1GB mp3 players and one pair of Sennheiser CX300 headphones. I got all of this for $199.25, after using a $15 off coupon. So far I am extremely happy with my selections and I think Kim will be as well.

The Sennheiser headphones aren’t nearly as expensive as what I was first looking at, but they are amazing! They were the highest rated headphones available in the $90 price range. The medium sized adapters fit into my ears perfectly and form a tight seal that not only blocks out noise, it also provides amazing bass. I don’t have much to compare them to, besides crappy ear bud headphones like the ones included with the mp3 players, but these are going to be tough to beat!

The Sansa Express mp3 players have just about every feature that Kim or I wanted. They have a digital FM tuner. They also require no software to transfer files, and as an added bonus, the end cap comes off to reveal a USB connection that can plug directly into the computer. No extra cables are needed! It also has an expansion slot featuring microSD, which will be great if we ever decide we need more than the 1GB of internal space. The entire package is about the size of a small pack of gum, the packs with 5 sticks in it not the ones with 25+. I just loaded Kim’s up with tracks to keep her entertained on her business trip to Montana next week.

I’ve tried getting back into running the past couple of days. Before yesterday the last time I ran was while we were living in the hotel waiting to close on our house. After that it was too cold to run outside, and then the ankle injury prevented me from doing much until now. My ankle still has a little stiffness in it, but I am definitely able to run. Now I just need to build up my lungs again and adjust to the altitude. For starters Kim and I have just been running out to Wash Park and then back. It’s approaching two miles, which is enough for now. Ideally I’d like to get back to regularly running three or four miles a couple times a week. We’ll see…

Our first major project that we hired out is now complete, we have new windows! We started the search months ago and finally decided to go with the Toyota of the group. If that analogy doesn’t make sense, click the link above to refresh your memory. We no longer have any 100+ year old windows in our house (well at least not ones to the outside, there are a couple between the dining area and sunroom)!

Colorado Window Source installed six Amerimax windows for us and I couldn’t be happier. Their pricing was very fair and they even offered things that the other companies didn’t. I also couldn’t have asked for a better team of installers. The same guy who took the measurements for the windows installed them and already knew most of what I wanted. We had a couple of the older windows wrapped just like the ones that they were installing, some of which was done for no charge. I would highly recommend this company to anyone else in the area, and we may use them again for other projects.

Here is an picture of the front of the house before, and here is one after. Additional pictures can be found from around the house in this photo album.