I’m so glad that the Amazing Race is back on TV! It is always one of my favorite shows to watch. The first episode of the twelfth season aired on Sunday. If you’ve never seen the show before, now would be a good time to set your DVR to record the show. If you’ve seen the show before, I’m sure you are watching it again. The first team to get kicked off didn’t really interest me, so no loss there. It’s still too early to pick any favorites, but I’m always a sucker for a hippie team. I can’t wait to see what happens this week on the second episode.

Our DVR has been acting up recently. Late last week, when I first noticed the problems, it would frequently pause for a few seconds when watching a recorded show. The frequency of this problem seems to be increasing, and I’m starting to lose out on some of my favorite shows. Before it gets any worse, I am going to take the defective box into Comcast and exchange it for a new one. I wonder if they have new and improved versions available, or if I’ll just get a new one that is identical to what we already have. Has anyone else had any problems?

Shoot, I neglected my site today. Must have been too busy with work, or something like that. Just to give a quick update I’ll write about my fantasy football teams. I didn’t do nearly as well as I did last week, ending up with one win and two losses. I’ll blame my losses mostly on Jay Cutler’s performance, or lack of, as he went out of the game early in the second quarter. It also didn’t help that I had the Broncos defense on two of my teams. Last time I root for the home team.

One of my losses, and a win by Kim, has us tied for first place in one league once again with 6-2 records. I’m also tied for first in another league, the one that I had a win, with two other guys that are now 7-2 as well. In the final league I dropped from seventh place to ninth after my loss this week. It may be time to start giving up on this team, they are as hopeless as the Bengals.

Friday night, Kim and I saw the movie Across the Universe. Before I get into the details of the movie, I would first like to say that it cost $9.75 per ticket! When the heck did this happen? It is now cheaper to buy a DVD than it is to go out to the theaters and see a movie. Unbelievable.

On to the movie, this a modern musical film which features 34 Beatles-related compositions. Being a big fan of the Beatles music, this was my main reason for seeing the film. After a few minutes, I realized that the plot was actually pretty decent. Besides all of the music, there are loads of Beatles references throughout.

A dock worker Jude travels to America in the 1960s to find his estranged father. There he falls in love with sheltered American teenager Lucy. When her brother Max is drafted to fight in the Vietnam War, they become involved in peace activism.
– From the IMDb

If you are a Beatles fan, i would highly recommend this movie. And even if you aren’t a fan, the movie is definitely entertaining enough. Although if movie prices are that high everywhere, I would wait for it to be on video.

I finally went to get a Colorado drivers license today. An eleven month delay isn’t that bad, right? I read online that going between eight and nine thirty would result in the shortest lines. They did recommend avoiding Monday and Friday, but I decided to push my luck anyway, and showed up at eight thirty this morning. The guy at the desk that gives you a number said the wait would be forty-five minutes, but he quickly said that was a good amount to wait. I guess typically it is longer than that.

So I sat down in a chair and waited. I held ticket number seventy-six. The counter said thirty-three. I watched for the next ten minutes or so as it changed to thirty-four and then thirty-five. I figured that this was going to take forever, so I got up and headed for the door. I decided that I could take the quick eight minute drive back home and do some more work before returning. And that’s what I did. After working for awhile, I returned to the license office at nine thirty. If I remember correctly, the counter said fifty something, but there was no one operating any of the computers. I later learned that there was a computer problem that last fifteen minutes, I’m told.

Shortly after arriving, the computers came back up and again they slowly started going through the numbers. I patiently waited for my turn for another half hour or so. I finally get up to the counter, tell the woman that I need a Colorado license. I hand over my Missouri license and my birth certificate. After a quick vision test and a few questions, the paperwork was done. I was directed toward a cash register where I went to pay my $21 fee. Once that was finished I was told to have a seat and wait for my name to be called for my picture.

So this takes us up to around ten in the morning. I stood around the photo area and waited for my name, but I soon realized that they weren’t calling on anyone and it appeared that the computers had gone down once again. Crap! I was so close to being out of here, but now I had to wait again. So we waited. And waited. Finally as it approached eleven, the computers came back online. After a few others got their picture taken, I was called up to the desk. I quickly signed my name, got my fingerprint scanned, and my picture taken. The guy then handed me a piece of paper that is now my temporary license. I guess they don’t print them up on the spot, and I will eventually get my new license in the mail. So much for my morning.

Kim and I really wanted to hand out candy last night but we weren’t sure if any kids would show up since we live on a fairly busy street. Earlier in the week we bought a bag of candy anyway, and last night we sat out on the porch hoping for people to come by. There isn’t an official time for trick-or-treating in Denver, so we sat from the time it was dark out until just after seven. We didn’t get a single kid the whole time. It was pretty disappointing. So we went in and watched TV for the rest of the night, but we left our porch lights on.

Around nine, we hear a knock at the door. Kim peeked out the window and was scared to open the door, so I grabbed the candy and walked out to meet the costumed character as she was walking away. As I got closer I realized that this person was no kid, but a middle aged woman. I told her that she was the first person that had stopped by and gave her a big handful of candy. She pulled her mask off and said, “Well then maybe we should have a beer instead.” The freaks really do come out on Halloween.

I had an excellent weekend in fantasy football, winning all three games and taking my teams to 6-1 (we missed week one), 6-2, and 3-5. In the first league I was tied with Kim for first place, but after her loss this week I am now back in the top spot all by myself. In the 6-2 league I am now in 3rd place, tied for second overall but losing to another guy at 6-2 by 25 overall points this season. If I have a big week this week against one of the last place teams, maybe I can take second place for my own. And in the final league, I am finally back to winning. My team still needs some work, but I’m hoping I can get into the top half of the league. Currently I’m in 7th out of 12, so this is a good goal to have. I would still make the playoffs, I think.

Saturday night Kim and I headed to the Bluebird Theater to see Matt Nathanson. Since game three of the World Series was also going on, we arrived a bit late but still managed to catch most of Ingrid Michaelson and all of Mêlée. Both of these openers were pretty good, and both have a song on the radio that you might already know. They would be worth checking out on this tour, or on tours of their own.

Prior to the show, I hadn’t seen Nathanson for nearly a year and a half, but his show was just as I remembered, with the addition of songs from the new album. He does seem to recycle some jokes from time to time, but it is always an entertaining show to see. I tried to tape the show, but venue staff and tour management had some communication issues and I was told that I could not tape. Another guy managed to stealth record the show, and it can be heard here. There are definitely better recordings from this tour though, so you may want to look elsewhere. And if you haven’t heard his latest album, Some Mad Hope, definitely check that out.

I attended my first DU hockey game of the season on Friday night. I tried buying tickets from the box office on Friday afternoon, but only single seats were available. So I took my search to craiglist and found someone selling tickets for $10 each. Face value on the tickets was $18, so this was an easy decision. The seats ended up being on one of the ends of the arena, which is my favorite place to sit anyway.

Just like the first DU game I attended last season, the opponent for the game was Minnesota Duluth. The game wasn’t quite as rough as that game was, but this season has just started and tempers are not nearly as high. Fortunately for DU, the results of this game were much different than the previous game I saw. DU came away with a 5-1 victory over the Bulldogs from UMD. I can’t wait to attend another game. Go Pioneers!

Well, the World Series hasn’t been going as well as those of us in Denver were hoping. The Rockies are now down two games to the Red Socks Sox, and are in a travel day back to Denver. Game three is tomorrow night, four on Sunday, and hopefully game five on Monday. Unfortunately, I won’t be going to any of the games, after a major ticketing debacle earlier in the week. Tickets went on sale through the net on Monday, but the servers crashed, and they were forced to try again on Tuesday. I guess Tuesday was a little better, but it still took hours to sell all of the tickets, and there were still lots of hanging servers. I wasted hours and hours trying to get tickets, along with many others, including this guy who is venting his frustration via eBay. I feel his pain. Stupid Paciolan!