It’s official, Kim and I both have reached the Ascent Level on Frontier! We earned this by flying over 15,000 miles in one calendar year. And our miles keep on coming with another flight scheduled before the end of the year for Christmas. One great thing is that we now earn a 25% bonus on frequent flier miles. Other benefits include:

• Free DIRECTV® service
• Priority check-in and boarding
• Preferred seating assignments
• Priority lines at most airport security checkpoints

There are other things too, but these are what I’m most excited about. Free TV being at the top of my list. Flights have never seemed so quick with 24 channels of TV on my own personal screen. And we get all of these benefits at least through the next calendar year. I’m pumped!

You would think with all of our traveling that I would be better at the Travler IQ Challenge, but I’ve only made it to level eight so far, out of twelve. Give it a shot and see if you can get any further. When they start throwing out African countries, I just start guessing.

I attempted to play hockey last night, but only made it a couple of shifts before twisting my ankle again. I’ve definitely had a few minor tweaks since seriously injuring it last February, but this felt almost just like the initial injury. I couldn’t put any weight on it at first, and was barely able to get off the ice and out of the rink on my own. Ugh, here we go again. I’m hoping I can make a speedy recovery by icing it regularly, keeping compression on it, and keeping it elevated. Also I will do my best to stay off of it, so yes this means back to the crutches. All of this, just as the mountains are really starting to get dumped on.

In better news, I won my first fantasy football playoff game. This week I will be playing against the number one seed, my buddy weeba. In the other league that I’m still active, I’m up against Phil in the second round of the playoffs. Since I’m pretty much confined to the house on crutches, hopefully I can make the most of getting both of my teams ready.

My apologies for the late update. I have a good excuse though, I’ve already sorted through all of the pictures from out trip and posted those online. Check them out in the gallery.

Now for a recap of the events. We flew into Cancun on Thursday morning. After avoiding the masses of people who wanted to “help” us, we eventually found the ticket booth for ADO, which provides $8 bus trips to Playa del Carmen. Once we finally made it to the resort we met up with everyone else and soon after went out for dinner and then for a stroll along Quinta Avenida (Fifth Avenue). We ended up in a bar to celebrate Doni’s 40th birthday.

The rest of the weekend, we didn’t leave the resort all that much. Our days consisted of laying on the beach, soaking up the sun, and occasionally some beach activities. I wanted to see some Mayan ruins while we were there, and fortunately they offered a bike tour to some, so we took this trip on one of the days. Another one of our afternoons was spent playing a bocce ball tournament and then with a little boogie boarding.

The trip definitely flew by and before we knew it, we were on a ferry to Cozumel for our flight back to Denver. When we left Mexico it was in the mid 80s and when we landed in Denver it was 14 complete with snow and ice. Talk about a dramatic change. For more details on the trip check out Phil’s site and his recap.

This time tomorrow I’ll be on my way to Mexico. We are heading down to Playa del Carmen to help celebrate Doni’s 40th birthday with her, Phil, and some other friends of ours. I don’t know if we’ll leave the all inclusive resort much, but feel free to leave any suggestions in the comments if you’ve been down that way before. I’m excited to finally use my passport for the first time and especially to have a long weekend to relax. From what I’m told, we won’t have cell phone service, so don’t expect to hear from me until early next week.

The Monkees, my mens league hockey team for those who aren’t keeping up, won yet again last night! This session has been much different for our team, since we dropped down a league. We now have five wins and just as many losses, which is much better than losing every single game. Personally, I’ve been playing much better without all of the ankle problems from the last session. I added another assist to my stats last night, and now have three goals and six assists in eight games. Here’s our teams full stats and our record.

As far as fantasy football goes, the playoffs have begun and I am still alive in two of three leagues. I finished in second, behind Kim, in one league and have a bye this week. In the other, I lost the last couple of games, and fell to fourth place and will be playing the fifth place team. I finished in eighth place in the last league, and missed the playoffs by a couple of spots, despite winning the last couple of games and finally making some progress with my team. Oh well, at least I still have a chance at the money league!

As I mentioned at the end of last week, Kim and I spent the weekend up in the mountains, specifically in Breckenridge. We drove up after work on Friday with no problems at all, and arrived at Breck Inn, only to be told they were oversold and that we had been upgraded to the Great Divide Lodge. We didn’t get to see much of the Breck Inn, so I’m not sure how much of an upgrade the accommodations were, but there location of Great Divide was well worth it. Although it’s not ski in/out, it is approximately 50 yards from a couple of different lifts and the Beaver Run Village.

Our Friday evening was fairly boring, we pretty much just stayed in the hotel and rested up for the next morning. When I woke on Saturday, I peaked out the window to see snow falling! And the snow never stopped. In fact, it was coming down so hard later in the afternoon that visibility was pretty low, so we decided to call it a day around 1 or 2 in the afternoon. Besides, it was starting to get a little crowded, especially in the lift lines. When they only 4 lifts open, crowds should be expected. Later in the evening we watched the lighting of the Breckenridge Christmas tree and then headed to Breckenridge Brewery for a few beers and some food.

The snow slowly stopped on Sunday morning, and Breckenridge was left with close to a foot of new snow! Even though this sounds like a ton, other resorts in Colorado got over three feet during the same time period. Anyway, we got back out on the slopes early Sunday morning and enjoyed the great conditions. As the day went on, they slowly opened more and more runs, many of them complete with untouched conditions. There’s nothing like sinking into a foot of snow or more. Again, it got very crowded as the day went on, but it was still a great day! Many thanks to Grand Timber Lodge for paying for our hotel for the weekend. All we had to do was meet with a salesperson for a couple of hours on Sunday as they tried to sell us a timeshare. Score!

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.