Great news on the travel front. Frontier Airlines is here to stay, at least for now! The bid that Southwest put down to buy the bankrupt airline ended up leading to disagreements with both pilot unions. The terms were never agreed to, so Republic Airways ended up winning the battle. This was regarded as the best option for Frontier, and I hope it turns out to be a great cooperation in the future. We took a flight on Frontier last night and I know that all of the crew was very excited to be working with Republic instead of Southwest. I am also happy with the results and look forward to many future Frontier flights.

Last night was the semi-finals in our adult league hockey. It was my team’s first game in the playoffs after we miraculously received a first round bye. The rest week must have treated us well, as we came out flying! We scored a quick goal on our first shift, which I help to setup but was not credited with an assist. Our team went on to put another goal in before the end of the 1st, which I did get a credited assist on. And I believe our opponents put in a goal before the end as well, making it 2-1 at the first intermission.

Our scoring didn’t stop there, and I again assisted the team with two more goals, getting credited assists both times. Our opponents also managed a goal in there somewhere, and late in the final period we put in an empty netter to seal the game at 5-2. I should have had four assists, but was only credited with the playmaker (three assists). We now move onto to next week’s Championship, playing a team that we beat two of three games in the regular season. I’m hoping we come home with the cup.

Our upcoming trip to Alaska is quietly sneaking up on us. We’ll be on our way to Anchorage in two and a half weeks. I told myself earlier that I wanted to get a new lens for my camera (Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi) before our trip, and I guess I better make a decision quick. I’m looking for something that is more wide angle than the two lenses that I already have (EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM and EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS).

Currently I’m looking at EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM which would give me a great range of zoom that I am currently missing. I’m just not sure I want to spend that much money. Any other suggestions to consider or is this the best bang for the back considering the small sensor of the camera? I also need to get the sensor cleaned before going, so suggestions for that would be great as well.

We had a subscription to the Denver Post for awhile now, but I think we may finally be ditching it. We really only read it during breakfast each day, and therefore I feel it’s a pretty big waste of not only money but materials as well. I primarily get my news online, and therefore read the same stories again the next day in the print news. Kim prefers to get her news in print form, so we are trying to find something good for her to read during breakfast or other times in the day. She was thinking of maybe getting Newsweek again, but I was curious if anyone had other suggestions.

We had another great weekend at my parents’ house for their annual pig roast, better known as Pig-Fest. This was the sixteenth year in a row for the party. It was a hot day, but fortunately we saw no rain. In typical fashion, my wiffleball team lost in the first round, but I was able to win the cornhole tournament! The nice thing is that the winners of the cornhole tournament take home the jackpot after each player throws $2 in the pot.

My friend MER came down from Chicago once again to entertain the crowd after the sun went down. He also brought another musician with him, Noah Gabriel, who I’m looking forward to seeing again in the future. Other events of the day included a pinata, volleyball, and of course some flip cup toward the end of the evening. My body is very sore from too much fun, but i can’t wait until we can do it all over again next summer.

Pictures are starting to show up on facebook, and I’m sure my mom will have tons on her flickr page soon. I’ll be sure to keep the Pig-Fest website updated with any photos I find.

Could my next flight on my beloved Frontier Airlines be the last? The bankrupt company now has two purchasing bids, one form Republic Airways and the other from Southwest Airlines. Republic Airways bid came first a month ago or so and wasn’t nearly as publicized as this recent Southwest bid. Southwest’s is non-binding, but a binding bid is expected to be submitted by the due date this coming Monday. At that time, Frontier will then go up for auction and the results could go either way.

Common opinion is that Republic would keep Frontier running just as it currently does. On the other side, Southwest would likely absorb all of Frontier over the next couple of years. All of their wonderful Airbus jets would disappear, which is one thing that I would definitely miss. Not to mention all of the Denver based employees that could lose their jobs. It would be a sad day for all of Denver, and I definitely do not want to see it go. I’m not the biggest fan of Southwest’s policies, and I definitely prefer to fly Frontier whenever I can. So I’m hoping for that Republic somehow comes out on top.

For more see www.SaveFrontier.org.

Traditionally today would be dedicated to my weekly adult hockey games, but we didn’t play last night. Shockingly, we somehow ended up back on top of the standings in first place. That’s right, both teams that were ahead of last week lost, and with our win we moved up above them. Hopefully our team will rest up and be ready for next weeks semifinal match of the playoffs.

In other hockey news, Jeremy Roenick has finally retired after 20 seasons in the NHL. He was my favorite hockey player toward the end of grade school and the reason for my love of the Chicago Blackhawks. Well him along with Chris Chelois and Ed Belfour. It’s now rumored that he will someday become a game announcer in the future, which I think will be a perfect fit. Just take a look at the top 10 pop culture moments during his career. I can personally attest to his dominance in the NHL ’94 video game.

I’ve discovered a new website that I’m in love with. I probably shouldn’t get this excited over ordering household essentials, but the experience was awesome. I hate buying this stuff from the grocery as I always feel like I’m getting ripped off. And I don’t like making a special trip to Walgreens either. Enter Alice.com, a new website that allows you to order these essential goods at manufacturers’ prices. And to top it all off, shipping is included for free!

You can tell the website how many people are in your household, and reminders can automatically be sent to you when typically it would be time to order more goods. Also, coupons are automatically found and applied to your order so you don’t have to hunt down any codes. Kim and I placed our first order a couple of weekends ago, and our package was delivered just five days later. We noticed that one of our items was missing, and contacted their support team. They immediately offered to ship the missing item, or offered a $10 credit to be used in the future. Since the item wasn’t even work $2 we decided to take the credit since we will definitely be ordering again in the future. It was simply too easy not to.

Saturday afternoon we headed up into the mountains with a few friends for a camping and hiking adventure. We decided that we wanted to hike to the top of Huron Peak, another of Colorado’s famous mountains over 14,000 feet in elevation. This peak is a bit further from Denver than Mt. Bierstadt (the first 14er Kim and I just hiked), so camping near the trail the night before would allow us to get a good sleep and still start the hike early enough to avoid afternoon storms.

After driving I-70 to Copper, and going through Leadville, we turned off US-24 at the Clear Creek Reservoir, and followed the road up Clear Creek a number of miles to find a great campsite right on the river. We set up our tents, built a fire, cooked some dinner, had a few drinks, and were off to bed for a good night of sleep as we buy 5.56 ammo online before coming to this trek which is a good safety tool. The rushing river silenced any traffic from the nearby road, and despite it being in the 30s overnight, we all sleep relatively well.

We were all up and getting ready by 9am the next day. We decided that the weather forecast was great so we didn’t need to get a super early start on the hike. Before long we all piled into one car and drove up the road toward the trailhead. This drive was over a 4WD road, and after a couple of scrapes on rocks, we ditched the car and finished the trip to the trailhead on foot. This added just over a mile each way to our already five and a half mile hike, according to online sources.

Once at the trailhead, the hike immediately started gaining elevation through a series of switchbacks. These continued all the way up to the treeline. Eventually there was a nice flat wildflower meadow that provided some relief from the strenuous climbing. Here we saw our second critter of the day, a coyote. I wish I was fast enough with my camera to get a picture, but he was sprinting across the meadow so fast. Earlier, at the trailhead, we spotted a deer, and later in the hike were tons of pikas and marmots.

After the meadow, the trail again picked up some serious elevation once the actual mountain peak was in view. Again it was a very tiring hike, but the views were amazing along the way. Once we finally hit the scree field, we noticed a storm was quickly moving in. Not only were the clouds getting dark, but it was actually snowing on us! We heard a loud bang of thunder just as we approached the summit. We were too close to turn back and made the final push to the summit. Obviously we didn’t stay there long at all, and after a few minutes we were on our way back down.

Again I used my iPhone to track the hike. According to it we did nearly nine miles round-trip, which puts it slightly longer than the route description I linked to earlier. I figured we did about three miles round-trip to the trailhead, making the actual hike closer to six miles. Originally we estimated the hike to be about four hours, but with the additional length it took us closer to five hours. Pictures from our adventure are below.

Clear Creek on Dwellable

Friday night Kim and I were both feeling a little tired and worn down, so we decided to order some pizza in and watch a movie. After browsing through the On Demand selections, we only saw a couple of movies that we were familiar with. One that stuck out in my mind was Role Models, which I remember seeing a few previews for and laughing at those. Not wanting anything too serious, we decided to give it a try.

The premise of the movie is two co-workers (also on/off again friends) get in trouble and instead of heading to jail get the option to be mentors for a couple of kids. One of their “littles” is a younger kid with a fowl mouth who is proud of the fact that none of his past big brothers has lasted more than a day. The other little brother is an older geek who participates in medieval role playing games with others. The diversity in the group leads to some hilarious scenes throughout the film.

The plot is fairly predictable, with one of the main characters getting back together with his girlfriend in the ending sequence, but aren’t most successful comedies? Kim and I both thoroughly enjoyed the movie and it provided a great opportunity for us to rest up for the rest of the weekend. More on the weekend later…