I thought I was losing my mind after a recent visit to the nearby Chipotle, but my questions were answered last night. First, a little background. I had a delicious burrito from Chipotle on Monday evening, as I normally do when Kim is out of town for work. Even though I ate the entire thing, I noticed that the rice was a little different than normal. I actually noticed this a week prior, but I just figured it was a one time deal. In both visits, the rice was a darker color than normal, and had a slight crunch to it, almost like a brown rice.

Back to last night, we participated in the Light The Night walk benefiting the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Before the actual walk, we were treated to various food items from some of the sponsors, one of which was Chipotle. I grabbed a burrito from the booth and dug right in. To my surprise, the rice was back to the normal white color and tasted just like I always remembered it. I wonder what is going on with the Chiptole on Alameda Ave.

Man, what a boring day! Since the late morning hours I haven’t been able to get onto work since they are experiencing some sort of VPN problems. I don’t have anything work related on this computer at my house, so I have to connect to the VPN first and then remote desktop onto my computer in the office. So, without the VPN I cannot do anything. And to make matters worse, I’ve exhausted all of my web surfing for the day. I am out of things to look at. Maybe I’ll just read the news or something. I’m gonna need more coffee to get through the rest of the day, or maybe I should just take a nap.

My lonely 20 gallon tank has sat empty since we moved into our house in Kansas City. But that will change soon! I’ve decided to delve into the world of saltwater fish keeping. Just a couple of days ago, I filled the tank up with saltwater, leaving the sand that I had in there from before. I added the rest of the equipment and have let it settle over the last couple of days. Now I am on a mission to acquire some live rock. This will help cycle the tank and get it ready for adding some critters into the mix. I’m not exactly sure what I will put in it in the end, perhaps some clownfish (think Nemo). I’ll be sure to post updates on the status of the tank.

I had a surprisingly bad week in fantasy football. I only predicted one potential loss when checking out my matchups, but I ended up losing two after Drew Brees miserable performance last night. All I needed was 14 points from him, but I ended up getting -1. Yep, I actually lost points because of him. I am still undefeated in the 8 team league, and have moved into first place. In the other two leagues where I lost, I am now 2 of 12 and 3 of 12. So I am still in good shape overall.

Fall is definitely here, and winter is just around the corner. It is currently a crisp 57 degrees here in Denver, which is pretty much as warm as it will get today. In addition to the cool temperatures we even had a little hail this morning. It won’t be long before the snow starts falling! With this in mind, we headed up into the mountains on Saturday to check out the changing foliage before it all falls to the ground. Our route took us through Leadville, over Independence Pass, and into Aspen. With a name like Aspen, I figured that the golden aspen trees would be all over the surrounding area. This statement is definitely true, but I would say only around 50% of the aspens have changed colors. Next weekend will likely be much more golden throughout the Rockies.

Just outside of Apsen sit the Maroon Bells, a couple of the tallest mountain peaks in Colorado. This was the main reason for our trip, and I was not disappointed one bit by the sights. When we first arrived it was pretty cloudy, but we could see the sun trying to peak out, and the clouds were moving fast. So we waited for a half hour or so until the sky was blue once again and took some great pictures. Maroon Lake sits directly in front of the peaks, and as the sun fell the water got calmer and provided an excellent reflection of the landscape. There were lots of photographers there who appeared to have been there for most of the day. It seemed that everyone was happy when the clouds finally gave way and the water became still. It was quite a sight to see, just check out the photo gallery.

Aspen on Dwellable

Is anyone else excited for the upcoming TV season? Survivor China started last night and I already watched it. I love Survivor and I think this season will be full of good entertainment. Plus it is cool to see the show take place in a setting that’s much different than normal. I wonder if there are any panda bears on the islands? That would add an interesting twist.

Anyway, are there any other shows that I should record this fall?

The last day of Hawaii photos are now up! On the first page are photos from our snorkeling trip, but none of them are actually of snorkeling. Most are photos of the dolphins we saw along the way, and some of the Waikiki sights as well. All of these were taken with the old Nikon camera. I wish I would have had the new camera for the dolphin encounter, but the water scared me.

From there, I took lots of pictures from Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial. We tried to go a day earlier, but the wait for the memorial was nearly three hours. We later read that you should visit either early in the morning or late in the afternoon. So when we arrived around three in the afternoon, we got right in, even though we visited on 9/11. You will notice all of the flags in the pictures are at half mast. It was a good place to visit on a day of remembrance.

Later that evening we went on another sailboat cruise, this time on Na Hoku II. This was an evening “booze cruise” with complimentary drinks and amazing views of Waikiki and the sunset. It was a great way to round out our amazing trip to Oahu.
This marks the 38th state I have visited. Hopefully I can get to 40 by the end of the year.

South on Dwellable

I’ve added a couple more photo albums from Hawaii.

The first contains photos from the North Shore of Oahu, including a beautiful sunrise, the Banzai Pipeline, and some sights that can only be seen with a 4WD vehicle (or a really long walk). Early on Sunday morning we headed to Makapuʻu Head, the eastern most point of Oahu, and hiked to the top to take in the sunrise. It was an amazing site, and I think the pictures from that turned out really well. From there we headed up the North Shore and made various stops along the way, many of which I mentioned in an earlier post.

The second album contains photos from a brief adventure up the Waiʻanae coast, where we saw some dolphins and a very large cave. Also included are some photos from Waikiki Beach toward the end of the day, with some nice looking sunsets. Those pictures were all taken with the old camera, if you want to look at the differences between the two. One thing I noticed while looking at the dolphins, is that an even better lens for longer distances would be a nice investment. Although I think those are all quite pricey.

North on Dwellable

Well, it’s now official. I have yet to lose a game in fantasy football. I only wish the same could be said for the beloved Bengals. I have now won five games in a row, winning all three of this past week’s games by 20 points or more. Yahoo ranks teams based on record and then total points (I think) so I am now ranked 1 of 12, 4 of 12, and 2 of 8. Not too shabby!

In addition to the photos I added last Friday, I just posted some more from our Hawaii adventures. In this album are photos from our hike up to Manao Falls along with a few from the Byodo-In Temple. The Manao Falls plunge 160 feet or more down the mountain side cliff. As great as the falls are, the hike to them is nearly just as scenic. Along the mile to mile and a half route, you pass through a rain forest which is filled with every shade of green imaginable, along with some colorful flowers and even shoots of bamboo. This is on my list of must sees while on Oahu.

After the hike, we took a nice and relaxing drive over the mountains toward the Valley of the Temples. Inside this large cemetery are many temples, the most prominent being the Byodo-In, which is a replica of a 950 year old Buddhist temple in Uji, Japan. This temple is an amazing site, with the Koʻolau mountain range in background and a large pond in the front. The temple was built in the 1960s without the use of any nails and it fits together like a giant puzzle. Inside of the Byodo-In is a nine foot Buddha that was carved out of wood, the largest made of wood in over 900 years. Though our visit was short, I was still able to take some good pictures of it.

East on Dwellable