Our Alaskan vacation is so close I can taste it! Kim and I will celebrate our one year wedding anniversary on Sunday with a trip way up north starting in Anchorage. We won’t arrive until fairly late on Sunday night, but we have arranged for an RV for the remainder of the week plus vacation. Our first destination will be up to Denali National Park where we will stay three nights in the Teklanika campground. From there, we will be driving back through Anchorage on our way down to the Kenai Peninsula, where we will likely spend the remainder of our trip. The rest of our itinerary is fairly open, so we can do as we please with the remaining time that we have. We won’t be back in Denver until next Monday morning. Don’t expect any updates, as I’m not sure what service will be like, but I will do my best to try.

Today I official launched a website for my father-in-law’s business, Queen City Financial Advisors. I’ve been working hard on the site for the past few months and I think the results turned out great! Kim’s uncle, Mike, also helped with some of the logo design and site layout. It was fun to work with such a creative mind. We still have a few more pages to add, but the bulk of the content is all there. I’ve been busy getting the domain names pointing over to my server, and also getting the website submitted to Google for indexing. Let me know what you think…

Over the weekend Kim drug me out of the house to play a round of golf. We decided to play nine holes on the West Course at the Kennedy Golf Course. Upon arrival we were paired up with two others and headed off to the first hole. My first drive was perfectly down the middle, though not extremely far. I remembered to try not to kill the ball and that it might actually go straight. Kim also hit the ball well. I guess all of those golf outings she attends each summer really do help.

Though our drives continued to be mostly good, our second shots really suffered. I discovered that I still can’t hit the three wood straight. Kim also struggled with her fairway and rough shots. Fortunately the other two we were playing with also had their own problems from this range. Once we all finally made it onto the green, we then remembered how frustrating putting can be. I don’t think I had more than a triple putt, but I recall some others having four or more putts.

Despite all of the aggravation, I tried to keep the profanity and club throwing to a minimum. I tried to remember that it was just a game, and actually came away from it all having a fairly decent time. I would like to try playing at City Park sometime soon, though it may have to wait until next summer.

For years after high school, my friends and I would head out to Riverbend Music Center in Cincinnati to see Poison every summer. That trend ended in 2002 after we saw the band perform at the same spot for three straight years. That was until last night when Kim and I headed down to Fiddler’s Green to see them open up for another old favorite band of mine, Def Leppard. Cheap Trick was also playing the show, but we didn’t arrive early enough to see them play. In fact we walked in after Poison had already taken the stage.

I must say that even after seven years have passed, Poison can still put on a heck of a show. Bret Michaels can still command a crowd, even if his voice is fading slightly. And the rest of the band still seems to be on top of their game. Their show isn’t overly flashy, but there is still a nice light show and even some blasts of fire from time to time.

After Poison wrapped up their set, Def Leppard took the stage after a rather lengthy set change. During the break I was amazed to see the size of the set that was being constructed on stage. When complete, there were three levels to the setup, complete with video screens along the front of each level and back behind the entire set. It was quite a difference from what Poison just had up on stage.

Def Leppard came out rocking, but I quickly noticed that singer Joe Elliott is losing his voice even more than Poison’s frontman. He blasts his way through the start of most songs, but when the high notes come, he just can’t sing like he used to. However, the rest of the band sounded just as good as I remembered. This was my first time seeing the band perform live, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. After a quick Google search it seems like my opinion is shared by many others. They are probably worth seeing once, but I doubt I’d put effort into seeing them again.

I finally took a trip to the movie theaters to see The Hangover on Saturday evening. The way that everyone around me was constantly talking about it weeks ago, I figured I was the last one in the world to see it. However, the theater had a decent sized crowd. So unless these folks were watching it for the second or third time, I wasn’t alone in my lateness.

Kim and I took our bikes over towards Cherry Creek, and after a nice patio lunch at the Cherry Cricket, we decided to catch the last matinee showing for the day. Fortunately our lunch came with a few beers as well, so I felt we were in the right state of mind for a good funny movie. And The Hangover did not disappoint either of us. I won’t go into any detail of the movie, since most have already seen it, but I would recommend it just as many others before me have. I actually hope to see it again sometime in the future, which I don’t say too often.

After the movie was over, we had plenty of time left in the evening so we stopped by a redbox on the way home to rent another. With a line forming behind us, we quickly decided on I Love You, Man, hoping to continue the laughs from before. Though not as funny as our first choice in the day, there were plenty of laughs watching the main character in his search for a best man for his upcoming wedding. If you haven’t seen this one, it’s worth the dollar rental from redbox, or free rental.

Just the other day I started reading Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall. I first heard about the book while reading an excerpt in an issue of 5280 Magazine. The author travels to find a tribe of the world’s greatest distance runners and learn their secrets after suffering injury after injury.

The Tarahumara Indians of Mexico’s Copper Canyons are capable of running hundreds of miles at a time without rest. They do not run to stay in shape, but rather as a method of travel between villages or to hunt food, such as deer. However, because of their persistent running they are some of the healthiest people on Earth. Though I don’t plan to run down a deer anytime in the future, I do hope the book becomes an inspiration to go out and run more often. And maybe I’ll find the secret to making it not be as painful of an experience as it sometimes is.

As I mentioned last week, my hockey team advanced into the championship game for this session, which took place last night. The game started off pretty rough for my team. Our opponents were definitely out to win the game, while we couldn’t get any offense going. Eventually they put in a few goals in our net, and I believe they may have scored three or four before we put one in.

In the third period we were down 5-1. Finally, in the second half of the period we started playing at our full potential and put in a quick three goals. That took it to 5-4 with a couple of minutes left to play. At that point I really thought we had a chance to tie it up. If the game went to an overtime shootout, I felt like we could take it, as our goalie is the strongest in the league. Unfortunately we couldn’t get that last goal, and the other team actually scored an empty netter on us to take the game with a final score of 6-4.

I now have the next few weeks off, and when it’s time to get back on the ice I will be on a different team. A few of the guys that I’ve played with for years are getting our old team back together for the fall and winter. We are also recruiting some new players and even moving up a level and into the “C” division. I watched a semifinal game in this league last night and it is quite a bit faster than the current league, but I think with the right players we can totally compete. Time will tell, but this last season was a blast.

Nearly two years ago, Kim and I attended our first Film on the Rocks presentation. And last night we attended another sold out movie screening, the last of this year’s season. Once I heard that they were showing Top Gun I knew that we would be there. Not only has this always been one of my favorite movies, it also happens to be one of Kim’s favorites as well. In fact it is the only movie that she can quote better than I can.

We met up with some friends in the parking lot to have a few beers before hand. Just after the sun started to set we made our way inside Red Rocks and discovered that the seating area was completely packed! There were two areas down front where part of the screen was cutoff, but we decided to sit there anyway. Eventually the staff removed some ropes that were setup for a VIP area, and we moved over to nearly a full screen view. The nice part was that the sound was deafening in our closeup seats. In fact, parts of the movie could have been louder than any music note I’ve ever heard inside the venue.

We stayed for the entire movie. I was happy doing so as I can’t recall the last time that I actually watched Top Gun all the way through. All of the flight sequences were amazing with the loud sound and excitement throughout the crowd. There were lots of cheers and even a wonderful singalong to You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’. Watching any movie at Red Rocks always turns into a great time with the large sold out crowd. I would attend more of them throughout the summer if it didn’t mean a late night. Since the movie didn’t start until well after 9pm, it was about midnight before I finally made it to bed. But it is well worth it, at least once a year.

I finally got my recording of MER and Noah Gabriel’s performance from this year’s Pig-Fest uploaded. Unfortunately I forgot to set the recorder to automatically record another track after the three hour limit, so we missed the end of the show including the Paff Family All-Stars rendition of Friends in Low Places. What I do have is nearly three hours of solid tape of the two musicians playing together, as well as some songs played on their own. There’s a fair amount of wind in the recording, but it’s still very listenable. Check it out here or by using the embedded player below.

And the weddings just keep on rolling. Kim and I were back in Cincinnati yet again this past weekend for the wedding of my cousin Gina. Her and Geoff have been dating for a number of years and they are for sure a good fit. The ceremony was down in an beautiful old church near the Ohio River called St. Rose. The ceremony was the first full Catholic ceremony I’ve been to that was less than an hour in length. Apparently the priest there is known for his speedy masses. Gotta love the dedication of us Catholics!

Their reception was held at The Grand in Covington, KY. This was my first time in this room and I was really impressed. Despite being next-door to a gentleman’s club, the inside is beautifully restored and renovated. I believe it’s a newer hall, but had it been open during the time of our wedding, I would have highly considered it. Needless to say, the party was great, the food was wonderful, and the drinks were flowing. It’s always great to see family and I look forward to another celebration in another month from now.

As always, my mom has tons of pictures on her flickr. A slide show is below: