I’ve been following an upcoming ballot issue in Cincinnati that would require a full election for any passenger rail transportation projects or improvements. Though this may seem like a good idea, the language of the amendment would require a vote for ANY decisions, regardless of where the funding comes from. I agree that a vote would be needed for any projects that would require an increase in taxes, but that is not what this amendment is about at all.

The proponents of Issue 9 seem to be swaying voters to their side by saying that the amendment will help to stop a proposed streetcar line connecting downtown and the University area of Clifton. If the amendment passes a vote would then be required for the streetcar, which will not require a tax increase, as well as any other rail transit opportunities such as the 3C rail system linking Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, and Cincinnati. With so much government funding available at this time, it seems crazy that Cincinnati could miss out on so much by not allowing the elected council members to do their jobs. Each time a costly vote is required, the city could be passed over for federal funding and be left stuck in the past.

After living in Denver for nearly three years I am a strong believer in rail transportation. Denver has a very nice light rail network that links downtown to various suburbs and is still growing. The west corridor is currently under construction and there are plans for the system to extend to the airport by 2015. I use the light rail often for commuting to and from work, as well as for heading into the heart of downtown for entertainment. After relying on this system for so long, I would find it very hard to move back to a city that doesn’t have such a system.

I firmly believe that all of those who are voting in Cincinnati next week need to vote no on Issue 9. For additional reading I suggest starting at the Cincinnatians for Progress website, as well as CincyStreetcar Blog, and CincyStreetcar.com.

We are in the middle of the largest October snow storm in Denver since 1997. I measured 16 inches in the backyard this afternoon and when it’s all over we could add another 3 to 6 inches to it. It started snowing late Tuesday night and hasn’t really stopped since then. Last night, while out shoveling a path for Kim to walk on when she got home, I built a snowman. Some pictures of the snow are below.

Shoveling last night and my snowman.

The backyard this morning. My snowman collected lots of snow overnight.

Snow up to the garage window!

The Equinox is buried even after Kim’s later arrival last night.

Faceless snowman after more snow today.

The grills and trash cans are buried in snow.

18 inch mark is in red. Coming up on 2 feet!

Crazy snow drift on the shed.

All of this snow reminds me that I need to invest in a sled. We are about a mile and a half from one of the best sledding hills in town. I really considered going last night, but I feared the Jetta wouldn’t make it in the snow. I love seeing all of this early season snow as it can only mean good things for the ski slopes up in the mountains.

Last night, despite the threat of an incoming storm, I headed out to the Bluebird Theater to catch a show.  It was my first solo show in many years, though I’m no stranger to going alone to shows in the past.  I really wanted to see the opening band, The Alternate Routes, who I hadn’t seen in years.  I found out that it was only going to be the front-man of the band playing, as the other band members were still stuck in California waiting on replacement parts for their tour van.  I decided to head to the show regardless, figuring it was only $15 and I could always leave when I wanted.

I arrived just in time to see Tim, the aforementioned front-man, take the stage.  I had forgotten how powerful his voice was, and despite playing solo he was easily able to hush the rather large crowd.  I was happy to hear song after song of material that I was very familiar with from their first album, Good & Reckless & True.  After four of these older songs, Tim invited a crew-member from the headlining band out to play guitar on a track from their latest CD, A Sucker’s Dream, titled “The Future’s Nothing New.”  While the guest, Toby, played guitar Tim commanded the microphone while playing a tambourine and amplified toolbox.  Yes, you read that correctly, he used a toolbox as a percussion instrument.  There are a number of videos on YouTube of this if you want to see what I mean.

From there, another guitar player by the name of Johnny sat in to play another new song, “On and On We Whisper.”  Johnny was the guitar player for the next musician Serena Ryder.  With two guitars on stage Tim was obviously singing the vocals, but he was also playing a small set of drums.  Though I’m not as familiar with the new songs as I am with the old, and I prefer the older tunes, this was an interesting way of seeing the new stuff for the first time.  On their last song of the night, Serena Ryder also joined the stage to sing along, while her bass player and drummer joined in as well.  This just confirmed that I really need to see the full band perform again sometime soon.

Though I was mainly there to see The Alternate Routes performance I decided to stick around for the other bands.  Next up was Serena Ryder, who I already mentioned above.  She started off her set a cappella, and though I immediately felt how strong her voice was, it almost reminded me of Amy Winehouse.  I’m glad to say that the rest of the set was far from that, and was much more rock and roll, though maybe a bit too twangy for my tastes.  Still she commanded the crowd and it was obvious how much the ladies in the room loved her performance.

The headliner for the night was Needtobreathe.  I was only familiar with their song “More Time” as it gets fairly regular radio play.  I admit that I do enjoy the song, and I was happy that they played it early in their set.  I stuck around to see what I would think about the rest of their material and I must say that it’s almost as if they have an identity crisis.  Very few of the songs featured the harmonies that I enjoyed on “More Time” and often the band drowned out the vocals completely.  This was not what I was expecting from a southern rock band from South Carolina.  Before the show I was worried about being bored from a slow performance, but it was pretty much the opposite, and I wished they would have turned down the amps and let the vocals shine through.  Again the fairly large crowd appeared to enjoy the band much more than I did.

Another great weekend in football!  The University of Cincinnati keeps on rolling, and they easily beat the Louisville Cardinals on Saturday, 41-10.  Despite this win, the team was somehow dropped in the BCS standings to #8, down from #5.  They remained at #5 in the AP poll, which obviously makes more sense to me.  I guess as long as they continue their undefeated season, I don’t really have a reason to complain.  The Bengals also manhandled the Chicago Bears on Sunday, 45-10.  It was definitely a happy weekend for Cincinnati.

My fantasy football teams continue the winning tradition, at least in two of my leagues.  I did lose in one league, after having a week with a number of my good players on bye weeks.  I should be able to bounce back this coming week.  I’m in 5th place in a couple of my pick’em leagues, and winning another.  I also am still alive in the survivor league, along with all 5 teams from the previous week.  And finally I moved up to second place in the salary cap game.  This is amazing as I was definitely one of the worst players in that game at the start of the season.

I actually had a very positive experience with Comcast support on Friday.  Early that day I had noticed an increase in the frequent outages I was having with my Internet service over the last week or so.  I complained about it on twitter and was nearly immediately contacted by a member of Comcast’s support team (@ComcastDoug).  Through some back and forth messages on twitter, he determined that there were some issues and my report was escalated up to the local tech team in Denver.

Later that afternoon someone on their support team called and setup an appointment for a tech to come out between three and five.  That tech arrived promptly around four and immediately got to work.  He tested the line at the modem first, and then I showed him to all the splits and connections around the house.  He also spent some time out on the lines outside and later told me that he made some fixes there.  He also provided me with an updated cable modem and even threw in an improved remote control for the TV.  I was really impressed with his service, and so far today I haven’t seen any outages.

This is the last post of photos from our trip to Alaska. There are a few photos from our drive along the Sterling Highway from Homer back toward Anchorage. We made a slight detour along the way to have lunch in the tiny town of Hope. The only restaurant on the one block long town was the Seaview Cafe, and it provided yet another opportunity for Kim to have some fresh fish.

After lunch we continued along the Seward Highway back along the Turnagain Arm and toward Anchorage. We made a stop at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. This allowed us to get a closeup view of Elk, Muskox, Moose, Bison, Bald Eagles, Grizzly Bears, and more. We had a free coupon from our cruise at Kenai Fjords, and it was a worthwhile stop. I would even say that it would be worth the $10 admission price per adult.

From there we continued back toward Anchorage. Our last stop before returning the RV was at Moose’s Tooth Pub & Pizzeria. Our lunch was later than I had wanted it to be, but we decided to stop here anyway.  Several people told us that it was a great stop to make in Anchorage, and we were not disappointed. The pizza and beers were fantastic! And the leftovers were a great meal once on the plane back to Denver. That wraps up one of the best trips I have ever been on. I would highly recommend a trip to Alaska for anyone!

Hope on Dwellable

Based on last night’s game, my new hockey team has a long way to go.  I’m told we played the defending champions from our new league, and they were good, but our team never quite clicked.  By the start of the third period we were down by five or six goals, and though we managed to cut their lead back to a couple of goals, I still feel like we need a couple more games to really get to know our new teammates.    Hopefully we can keep some lines together so guys start learning what their line-mates are going to do in different situations. I’ve been playing defense so far, but hopefully I’ll be able to move back up to forward on weeks where we have a smaller turnout. Last night we had three forward lines and two pairs of defense. I don’t believe I added any points to my assist from last week.

This was the first game I’ve played on the new second sheet of ice at the Ice Ranch. They’ve also had a second sheet, but it was much smaller than normal, and they only used it for three-on-three games and curling. I’m not sure why they wouldn’t have just put a regular sized rink in when they first built it, but I’m glad that they have two now. This allows us to play almost all of our games at this rink, which is one of the closest rinks to our house. Plus they have a bar for post game team building.

The University of Cincinnati Bearcats continue their undefeated season and have moved all the way to #5 in AP Poll and the first BSC Standings. Their game last week was on Thursday night, and I had to watch in from Kansas City while Kim watched with a large group in Denver. Fortunately my good friend Phil offered to watch the game with me. It was also nice to stumble upon a couple of other UC fans at the bar, who helped cheer the Cats to a commanding 34-17 win over then ranked South Florida. We are hoping to get another gathering together to watch the homecoming game versus Louisville this Saturday, so let me know if you are in.

The winning also continued in my fantasy football leagues, as all three of my standard league teams won! That’s a first for this season. I should now be in playoff contention in each, though I definitely still have room to move up. I’ve moved up to third place in one pro pick’em league and remain in first in another. I am also tied for fifth in college pick’em. In the survivor league, I am one of only five people that are still alive. And in the salary cap game I’m in third place, after making some great roster changes. Somehow Kim remains undefeated in one of our leagues, but unfortunately this isn’t a money league. Bummer.

Saturday morning, Kim and I drove down to Colorado Springs to meet up with our friends Amy and Corey and attend an Air Force football game.  We arrived plenty early to take in the pre-game festivities, which included many cadets marching onto the field in formation, a group of skydiving paratroopers, and a flyby of multiple F-16’s.

Cadets on the field before the game.

Paratroopers entering the stadium.

Though the game wasn’t the most exciting ever, Air Force walked away with a win over Wyoming, and the pre-game and halftime ceremonies more than made up for it.  At halftime they had a falcon fly down from on top of the press box and perform a number of passes over the crowd at very high speeds.  The bird makes repeated stoops at the baited lure swung by the cadet falconer.   I wish I would have gotten video of this, but the bird was too small and fast to capture.

Low altitude F-16 flybys.

Nearing a big win over Wyoming.

After the game we headed up toward the famed Cadet Chapel.  A wedding had just ended in the Catholic Chapel, so we were able to sneak in for a quick look before some of the retaining ropes were back in place.  This chapel is down on the basement floor of the building, so it doesn’t feature as much stained glass as the Protestant Chapel upstairs does.  The Protestant Chapel is much larger, the biggest of all the chapels, and is very colorful with the stained glass lining all the spires.

Outside the Cadet Chapel building.

View of the Cadet Chapel from the side.

Catholic Chapel

Protestant Chapel – both the south and north ends.

I apologize for the lack of better quality pictures, but these were all taken on my iPhone. I brought my good camera with me, but in my rush to get ready I accidentally left the memory card in my computer.

After Kim picked me up at the airport on Friday evening, we decided to head to Lala’s Wine Bar and Pizzeria for dinner. Kim was nearby the night before and decided that we should try it out. It was pretty crowded upon our arrival, but we were told that we could be sat immediately at the small bar overlooking the kitchen. I immediately noticed how loud it was inside, which I definitely could have done without, but fortunately the food and drink more than made up for it.

We first opted for a bottle of Quattro Mani Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, after we were given a small tasting that we both enjoyed. For a starter, we split the Pollo Salad which was a very tasty mix of chicken, dried cranberries, candied pecans, blue cheese, apples and cider vinaigrette over a mix of greens. The large serving was more than enough for the two of us to split.

We also decided to split a pizza for dinner, Il David, which was sauce-less and topped with three cheeses, herb grilled chicken, artichokes, oven dried tomatoes, roasted garlic and Peppadew peppers. The pizza arrived warm and perfectly cooked.  We thoroughly enjoyed all of the food and drink and will definitely be back in the future, despite the loud room.  I did notice that they do deliver, but I doubt they’d make the drive down to our place.