The mountains are finally getting some snow. Just a few days ago, Breckenridge got 10+ inches in one day. And they’ve had at least 13 inches since last weekend. Plus, snow is in the forecast for the entire weekend, so we are doing what many others probably are doing as well, heading for the mountains tonight! I’m hoping that the conditions really are better than last weekend, and that my own personal condition is better as well. I haven’t felt sick at all since last Saturday, so everything should be good to go. Have a nice weekend everyone. Go Bengals! Steelers suck!

We attended yet another concert last night. This time it was Tori Amos at the Wells Fargo Theatre, which is inside the Colorado Convention Center (map) downtown. I had never seen her before, and am not very familiar with her music other than the songs you hear on the radio. However, Kim enjoys her music, and has seen her before, so I bought her some tickets for us to go for her birthday. We arrived just as the opening guy was wrapping up his set, and I didn’t get to see much, but he seemed to be an early Howie Day. I’ve seen the single guy on stage looping his way through tracks many times before.

The theatre itself was great! For as large of a place as it is, there isn’t a bad seat in the house and even from near the back you still feel really close to the action. The sound was excellent as well, which always makes me happy, and their light show wasn’t too bad either. The music was good, even though I think I only recognized two songs throughout the night. Most of the songs were played with a backing band which included bass, drums, and guitar. I put them in that order because that is how I would rank these additional performers. The guy on bass played on nearly every song of the night, and added so much to the songs. It was really cool to see a show where a grand piano is on the center of the stage and played all night long. Plus we were treated to a double encore, which could be a first for me. Surprising, I know. Overall, it was a good time and I would gladly go again.

It only took a day and a half for the roofers to completely remove the old roof and install the new one. It took me over a week to get pictures of the completed project online. Anyway, to the left is the before view and to the right is the after.

I think it looks great, and I’m really glad we went with the dark color. Here is another before and after from the back of the house. Clearly, we have a little painting to do now, since some old siding is now exposed.

I also want to replace the red shingles on the dormer walls in the top pictures with some new siding. I haven’t decided if we’ll go with vinyl or some wood shingles to tie in with the rest of the house. Hopefully this is something that we can do ourselves. Hiring out projects is getting a little pricey. All pictures from the roofing project can be viewed in this album.

This weekend, Kim and I also headed to the Ogden Theatre to see the John Butler Trio along with Brett Dennen. It was a first, for me, for both the Ogden and Brett Dennen. Overall, the venue is okay, but the sight lines can be bad for a full show, as this one was. They have lots of tiers, which are great if you are at the front of, but at the back of a flat tier it is nearly impossible to see. When I head back to this venue, I think I’ll definitely show up early to snag some stools on the tiers of the balcony. Those seats seem ideal to me.

Although this was the first time I’ve seen Brett Dennen, I’ve been listening to his music for a few months now. I was introduced to him by a friend of mine from OARfans.com, where his popularity has grown throughout the year. His music can be a little melow for my tastes, at times, but the more upbeat songs are fantastic. Plus the band that he is currently playing with, are incredible musicians.

On to the John Butler Trio, I’ve now seen them three times this year, plus more shows in the past. These guys are definitely on the top of my list of favorite bands right now, and their latest studio release, Grand National could be my favorite of the year. I would definitely encourage everyone to get out and see this band if you can, and at least pickup their CD if you can’t make a show. For the extremely lazy, I’m sure a track from their album will appear on NOW That’s What Ed Calls Music 2007, if I ever get it together.

Hopefully everyone had a nice Thanksgiving weekend. Kim and I spent some time in Cincinnati visiting with our families and friends. It was a great time and I cannot wait to spend even more time there around Christmas. We flew back to Denver on Friday and went out snowboarding for the first time on Saturday morning. Even with the snow from last week, the conditions were still pretty bad. We went to Keystone, our go to place from last season, and they only had 4 lifts running with just as few runs open. After two runs I started to feel a little ill so we drove back home to spend the rest of the day on the couch. I must have had one of those 24 hour flus that seem to be going around. I never got sick, but I had a killer stomach ache for most of the day and massive body pain. It appears to all be gone now. Has anyone else been affected?

I’ve got better things to do on Friday than head for the stores at the crack of dawn to save a few bucks, but if that’s your thing, you may want to check out TGI Black Friday. This site lists loads of deals for tons of stores, and even lets you know if the deal isn’t really that good and can be beaten online. I hope everyone has a nice turkey day, and if you do head out to the stores on Friday I hope you have lots of success. I’m outta here until Monday…

What a disappointing week in football. This includes the Bengals who lost to Arizona, the Bearcats who lost to West Virginia, and two of my fantasy teams that also lost. One of the loses came against the guy who is still in first place, but I should have beaten him. He had Marshawn Lynch active and he didn’t even play on Sunday! This is the worst of my teams, with a record of 4-7. I still think there is hope for the playoffs, but I will definitely need to win out. The guys I’m chasing are at 6-5. The good news is that I clinched a playoff spot in my other two leagues, despite losing in one. I’m currently in third place in that league with a 8-3 record. In the other, I’m still trailing Kim by points, but we are tied with 8-2 records for first place. I guess you can’t win them all.

Though we haven’t gone snowboarding yet this season, we have been thinking about it a ton. We have all of the gear we need and are just now waiting for some good snow. There are plenty of resorts open now, but they have so little snow that it doesn’t make the drive seem worthwhile. So, we gathered with thousands of others on Friday night at the Paramount Theatre (map) to watch Warren Miller’s latest film titled Playground. Before the movie began, the MC for the night encouraged everyone to get as loud as possible so that we could wake the snow gods and bless the mountains with tons of powder. Maybe it worked, since it appears that snow is on the way starting tomorrow! Hopefully we’ll be out enjoying some fresh powder this coming weekend.

Today we are starting yet another home improvement project, but just like the windows before, this is not something we are doing ourselves. We have a crew from The Premier Roofing Company doing what they do best, installing a new roof on our house. This was something that we knew needed to be done when we bought the house, we were just waiting for a good time to do it. Well, the time is now, especially before winter really sets in.

It’s been a little noisy so far today, as the crew ripped off the old roof all the way down to the frame removing multiple layers of shingles along the way, including possibly the original wood shake shingles. Now they are busy installing plywood decking to the frame, which is a much quieter process. Things are looking great so far and I can’t wait to see it all done with brand new shingles on the entire house. I’ve added some before and current pictures in this album, and will continue to take more as the process moves along.

We won yet another game in my hockey league last night. We typically only play once a week, but we had a game canceled a couple of weeks ago due to a power outages, and the makeup game was last night. This marks two wins in a row, which could be the first time this has happened since I joined the team. I didn’t get any points last night, as one of our players got four of our five goals and plays on the other line, but it was a pretty good game for our entire team. I’ll miss next weeks game, so I hope the downtime won’t affect my play too much. Go Monkees!