If you’ve read my blog for years, you may recall a friend’s photo project called A Minute In The Life: The Simultaneous Photography Project, which I mentioned a bunch of times.  He later turned it into a book that I still have on our coffee table.  Well he is organizing the project again, this time with each person taking two photos at 2pm eastern on March 20, 2010.  I’m not sure what I’ll be doing on that day, but it may be another day on the slopes, just like the last time.  I urge anyone who reads this to visit his website and to take part in this fun project.

In less than two months I will be turning the big 3-0.  To celebrate the big occasion, Kim and I just booked flights to Phoenix for a long weekend.  My parents and my brother have also bought flights and will be joining us.  In addition to Phoenix we hope to see the Grand Canyon, Sedona, and catch a spring training Reds game.  I’m still in the very early planning phases for our stops, so any advice is greatly appreciated.  In addition, let me know if you’d like to join us and I can pass along our travel details.

On Sunday night we headed to dinner at one of my favorite downtown eateries, Wazee Supper Club.  This is a regular stop for us before Avalanche games, along with many others.  There was an Avs game that night, but fortunately we arrived early enough to avoid the crowds.  The restaurant has some of the best pizza in town, along with great sandwiches and Strombolis.  Kim and I shared the wonderful Pacific Rim pizza and tried their bread sticks as well, which were very tasty too.  I can’t wait for our next visit to Wazee.

Continuing the trend from last year, there isn’t a Dave Matthews Band tour date within 500 miles of Denver.  It is another sad year, but I am really going to try to make it to at least one show this summer, which I didn’t do last year.  I’m leaning towards the Deer Creek weekend, Noblesville, IN for those not familiar.  The HullabaLOU festival could be a good time as well.  Time will tell, but I am definitely going to try harder to make it to a show.  Our summer calendar doesn’t seem as busy as it’s been the last couple of years, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.  Here’s the full list of dates:

• May 28 – Comcast Theatre – Hartford, CT
• May 29 – Comcast Theatre – Hartford, CT
• June 1 – Molson Amphitheatre – Toronto, Canada
• June 2 – Darien Lake Performing Arts Center – Darien Center, NY
• June 4 – Saratoga Performing Arts Center – Saratoga Springs, NY
• June 5 – Saratoga Performing Arts Center – Saratoga Springs, NY
• June 7 – Comcast Center – Mansfield, MA
• June 8 – Comcast Center – Mansfield, MA
• June 15 – Riverbend Music Center – Cincinnati, OH
• June 16 – Verizon Wireless Amphitheater – Maryland Heights, MO
• June 18 – Verizon Wireless Music Center – Noblesville, IN
• June 19 – Verizon Wireless Music Center – Noblesville, IN
• June 22 – Huntington Park – Columbus, OH
• June 23 – DTE Energy Music Theatre – Clarkston, MI
• June 25 – Blossom Music Center – Cuyahoga Falls, OH
• June 30 – Susquehanna Bank Center – Camden, NJ
• July 1 – Susquehanna Bank Center – Camden, NJ
• July 3 – Alpine Valley Music Theatre – East Troy, WI
• July 4 – Alpine Valley Music Theatre – East Troy, WI
• July 9 – Hersheypark Stadium – Hershey, PA
• July 10 – PNC Park – Pittsburgh, PA
• July 13 – Bethel Woods Center for the Arts – Bethel, NY
• July 14 – Toyota Pavilion at Montage Mountain – Scranton, PA
• July 16 – Citi Field – Flushing, NY
• July 17 – Citi Field – Flushing, NY
• July 20 – Virginia Beach Amphitheater – Virginia Beach, VA
• July 21 – Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre Charlotte – Charlotte, NC
• July 23 – Nationals Park – Washington, DC
• July 25 – HullabaLOU Festival Churchill Downs – Louisville, KY
• July 27 – Aaron’s Amphitheatre at Lakewood – Atlanta, GA
• July 28 – Ford Amphitheatre – Tampa, FL
• July 30 – Cruzan Amphitheatre – West Palm Beach, FL
• July 31 – Cruzan Amphitheatre – West Palm Beach, FL
• August 14 – InTrust Bank Arena – Wichita, KS
• August 17 – USANA Amphitheatre – West Valley City, UT
• August 20 – Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre – Chula Vista, CA
• August 21 – Verizon Wireless Amphitheater – Irvine, CA
• August 23 – Hollywood Bowl – Los Angeles, CA
• August 25 – Sleep Train Pavilion at Concord – Concord, CA
• August 27 – Sleep Train Amphitheatre – Marysville, CA
• August 28 – Shoreline Amphitheatre at Mountain View – Mountain View, CA
• August 31 -  Taco Bell Arena – Boise, ID
• September 3 – Gorge Amphitheatre – George, WA
• September 4 – Gorge Amphitheatre – George, WA
• September 5 – Gorge Amphitheatre – George, WA
• September 10 – The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion – The Woodlands, TX
• September 11 – Superpages.com Center – Dallas, TX
• September 14 – Qwest Center – Omaha, NE
• September 15 – Xcel Energy Center – Saint Paul, MN

We spent the weekend in Breckenridge, once again.  Our friend Tracey flew into town Friday evening, and after picking her up from the airport we headed straight to Breckenridge.  Along the way we stopped for dinner at Tommyknocker Brewery in Idaho Springs.  After some good food and beers we continued on to Breck.  Upon our arrival we immediately checked into our hotel, Breckenridge Mountain Lodge, which was clean but lacked pretty much any amenity that we’d normally be accustomed to.  Not only were there no hot tubs or pools, the room didn’t have a coffee maker or even cups.  I’m not sure we’ll stay again, but if you need a really cheap place to stay, it has a good location and is clean.

Before retiring for the night, we walked next-door to one of my favorite spots in Breck, the Breckenridge Brewery.  I had a vanilla porter, which is such a great beer, and before long we all headed for bed.  We woke up fairly early Saturday, and after catching the shuttle bus we were on the slopes around nine.  It was a little cold, and there wasn’t really much fresh powder, but we had a number of friends on the slopes to make the day really enjoyable.  At one time we were roaming around with a total of nine skiers and boarders.  We made it all the way until three, and then we hit up happy hour at the Quandary Grille with most of the group.  My friend Rob also met up with us there after his day of fly-fishing.  We spent the rest of the evening at his in-laws condo before heading back to our hotel room once more.

Snow was falling throughout the day Saturday and really picked up overnight.  We woke up even earlier on Sunday to get a head start on the crowds and hopefully find some fresh powder.  Fortunately we found the powder, as Breckenridge got six inches of snow overnight, but unfortunately it was much colder and very windy.  We did one run just after 8:30, and then took a break.  We did another couple of runs, and then had to take yet another break.  We decided that we should call it an early day if Tracey was able to resell her lift ticket.  She was able to sell it for $40 pretty easily, after buying it for only $55 with our discount.  Normal tickets go for $92.  And with that we were back in the car and headed toward Denver.

The snow continued to fall and the trip back took about double what it normally does, but I read that it was much worse later in the day.  I’m glad we left when we did, and we still had a great time with Tracey.  She will be back in another month or so, and I’m hoping the slopes have much more snow than they do now.  I’m ready for another epic weekend.

I stumbled upon livingcraigslist.com yesterday and have been reading through the entries over the last day.  It’s a really interesting idea and I thought I should spread the word even though I haven’t finished reading through it myself.  Here is a description of the site from the author:

Jason Paul, a recent graduate from American University attempted, like many from the 2009 class, to secure a job. After applying for over 180 journalism jobs in over 35 states, Jason decided to pursue a blog/book idea of his own.

Right now, unless he is sleeping, Jason is doing something related to Craigslist.org. For those of you who do not know what Craigslist is, it is basically a classifieds page from the newspaper. The site is in 570 cities in 50 countries and allows users to post ads, with the exception of a few categories, for free.

Essentially, Jason is living off Craigslist.

This means food, housing, jobs, entertainment, friends and anything else you can possibly imagine.

So far he has traveled from Washington, D.C. to San Francisco, found housing, found a job and his beginning to make friends. And you guessed it, he has done all of this using Craigslist.

So why is he doing this. Firstly, necessity breeds innovation, and he needed a job. But for the most part, Jason wanted to see if it was possible.

He is living in three cities, for three months each, attempting to prove that anyone, anywhere can do this.

The winning streak that might hockey team had going was short-lived.  We played the first place team in the league last night, and despite it being close through two periods, the final score was 7-2.  I think we gave up in the third when the score became 5-2, so it was really  much closer than the final score indicates.  I just noticed that our team is no longer listed in last place, though last night’s results are not included.  I hope it stays that way, though we still have nine games left in the session so anything is still possible.

I put together a video of Kim’s brother’s trip using photos and video clips we took throughout their stay.  If you haven’t already seen it on Facebook, I’m embedding it below for your viewing pleasure.

I did the same thing last year, and if you haven’t already seen that video, here it is.

This past weekend, three of Kim’s brothers came out for a visit. They arrived late on Friday night, and after picking them up, we headed back to our house to rest for the early morning wake-up call. We left before seven the next morning and drove up into the mountains for the long weekend. We only hit a little bit of traffic, and made it all the way out to Beaver Creek before nine. We enjoyed a full day of snowboarding and skiing there and covered most of the mountain. The lift lines were surprisingly small, so we were easily able to get over fifteen runs in before leaving.

Later that evening, we drove back to Breckenridge, where we had a condo reserved for the rest of the weekend. We unpacked our bags, cooked up a spaghetti dinner, and most of us fell asleep watching TV by ten that night. The long day had taken its toll. We all headed to bed at a decent hour to rest up for the next day on the slopes at Breckenridge.

Our condo was a very short walk to one of the lifts at Peak 9 of Breckenridge, where we started our Sunday morning. We immediately noticed bigger crowds than we had experienced the day before, but we made the most of it. It wasn’t until we ventured over to Peak 7 that we found the biggest crowd of the day. Unfortunately, this is a really fun part of the mountain, so we braved the crowds and stayed on those slopes for most of the afternoon. Originally we planned to go back to the condo for lunch, but when we were hungry, we were way too far away to get back quick. Instead, we stayed out for a few more runs, and then called it an early day.

We heated up some frozen pizzas for lunch/dinner after getting back to the condo. After eating and cleaning up, we ventured out to the old town area of Breckenridge. We hit up a few different bars and restaurants for a couple of drinks along with some video games and entertainment. Again we weren’t out very late after a tiring day on the slopes.

Again we got up early on Monday morning so we could pack up the car and then hit the slopes one more time. The crowds were much lighter this day, and the Ullr had blessed us with a few inches of fresh snow overnight to enjoy throughout our last day. We hit the parts of the mountain that we didn’t the day before, and had yet another great day at Breckenridge. We were off the slopes by two and our way back to Denver. It was yet another great trip for the Hais brothers.

Peak 9 on Dwellable

The latest release from O.A.R., Rain Or Shine, debuted this past Tuesday.  Here’s the description of the album that I put together for oarsa.org:

Recorded over two nights of the summer 2009 tour at Chicago’s Charter One Pavilion, Rain or Shine almost didn’t come to pass. After an amazing first show on June 18th the band was facing ominous skies and a challenging weather forecast. The crowds had been kept outside of the venue for their own safety and it seemed likely that the show would need to be postponed or canceled. Yet when the time came to make the final call, two hours after the original door time, there was no doubt from the band that they were determined to make it happen – Rain or Shine. The four disc set that makes up Rain or Shine contains 37 tracks and over four hours of music with both electric and acoustic versions of “Shattered” and “That Was a Crazy Game of Poker.” Also included are two previously unreleased tracks, “Tonight,” the first song the band ever wrote, as well as “Rhythm of your Shoes.” As a special bonus, the recording includes a cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Fool in the Rain” with Robert Randolph.

Now that I have finally taken a couple of listens to the live four disc package, I can honestly say that it is one of their finer pieces of work to date.  “Tonight” has always been a favorite track of mine, and I’m glad to finally have a flawless copy of it to listen to.  The five song acoustic set to start of the second disc is a nice touch and shows the varying styles of the band.  The mix of the album is wonderful, sometimes too good.  At the beginning of “Delicate Few” you can hear the crowd really try to ruin it when half of the crowd doesn’t know how the intro is sung.  Overall, this is definitely one of their best live releases that they have put out.  It is definitely worth the special $15 price from Target or a quick download from iTunes.  Plus the cover-art is incredible: