Last night I finally saw my first SoundRabbit performance of 2010.  It had been quite awhile since I last saw them play, so Kim and I headed to The Walnut Room last night after a benefit event for Colorado CASA.  This was my first time at this venue, though we recently ate at their newly opened second location.  The main room of the place feels very similar to the newer location, and that is all that is visible from the front door.  I asked the employee at the door if this was the right place, and we soon realized that the concert room is behind another door in the far corner of the dining area.

At first I didn’t think anyone was playing, but after we opened the second door we were greeted with the sounds of music.  It was amazing how sound proof the walls must be.  I didn’t catch the name of the duo that was playing when we walked it, but we listened to a few of their songs before they were finished.  The concert room was nice, with an abundance of high-top tables and chairs, and the sound system was really good.  Before long SoundRabbit took the stage and quickly setup their equipment.  They had told us earlier that they arrived too late to get a sound-check before the show, so it all had to be done on the fly.  Obviously the mix wasn’t the best ever, but they still sounded really good.  We took our neighbors along with us and they both seemed to really enjoy the show as well.  I hope I don’t wait too long to catch another of their performances.

Over the weekend, I poured a couple of glasses of my latest homebrew for myself and a few friends.  Overall, the reactions were mixed, but I think the majority thought that it still needed more carbonation.  So we only had a glass or two that day, but over the last couple of days I’ve tried it again and I think it is much better than before.  The carbonation really helps bring out the bitterness of the Pale Ale style and gives it a nice crisp taste.  I’m the only one who has tried it again, so I may be a bit biased, but I’m sure it won’t be long before Kim or some friends decide to give it another try.  Cheers!

My progress has been a little slow, but I just finished the sixth book in the Alex Cross series, Roses are Red. I don’t recall exactly when I started reading them, but it was likely around this time last year. A post from last July indicated that I had finished the first two books and was waiting for the third from the library.  Not exactly a blistering pace, but at least I’m reading more than I once was, which added up to zero books per year.  I’m still really enjoying the series, and I have the seventh book, Violets are Blue, on hold from the library.  At this rate it will only take me a couple more years to finish the entire series, as long as James Patterson doesn’t write too many more.

Awhile back I uploaded a family tree to Geni.com.  At some point in grade school I created an electronic version of my family tree by copying a paper copy along with some help of my parents.  The file that I created is eventually what I uploaded to Geni.com, which is partially visible here.  The cool thing is that this site can automatically find matches between your tree and other trees, and if both parties approve the trees can be merged.  Over the weekend I was constantly merging trees and have emailed back and forth with a couple of distant relatives.  It’s especially cool to find out that you have things in common with some of these people, like occupations and interests.  I even found out that the Naked Cowboy is a distant relative, my third cousin once removed.

It’s been nearly three weeks since I last posted pictures from our trip to Arizona, and finally today I give you the last installment.  On our second day in Sedona we took a ride with the Pink Jeep Tours along the Broken Arrow trail.  Our group of five was assigned to a jeep, we hopped in and the driver/tour guide started the two-hour tour.  We stopped a little down the road to pick up two others who would be joining us on the adventure.  After driving on the roads for a few minutes, we quickly hit the trail.  At first it was a little bumpy but didn’t seem too bad.  Eventually that thought would change as we went over steep, bumpy, and twisting terrain.

We stopped at Submarine Rock for our first picture opportunity and history lessons.  Later we drove out toward Chicken Point, with great views of the Two Sisters rock formations.  Along with the great scenery, the off-roading was a blast.  The super steep “Road of no Return” was especially fun toward the end of the ride.  This tour is a bit expensive, but I’d say it’s worth every penny and definitely highly recommended.

After the tour, we loaded into our own car and started the drive back to Phoenix.  We took a scenic route rather than taking I-17 back.  Our route followed AZ-89A through Cottonwood and Jerome, eventually taking us to AZ-89 and Prescott.  This part of the drive was very scenic, as Jerome sits high on Cleopatra Hill.  We stopped in Jerome briefly, but there isn’t much to see in the Ghost Town other than the wonderful views.  Once in Prescott we stopped for lunch at, you guess it, Prescott Brewing Company.  I don’t remember much about their beers, but the food was great.

After lunch we continued on AZ-89 and eventually found our way to US-60.  This section of the drive was not nearly as scenic, but slowly the large Saguaro cactus started appearing more frequently.  This took us all the way back to Phoenix, approaching from the northwest.  We headed across town and made our way to the Arizona Grand Resort, our final destination of the trip.  We didn’t do much else for the short remainder of our trip besides hanging at the tiki bar, lounging in the lazy river, and wishing we had time to sneak in a round of golf.  Oh well, next time.

Pictures from this last full day in Arizona are below.  It was a wonderful trip.

Sedona on Dwellable

Wednesday night Kim and I hosted a gathering at our house for part of the group from our recent hut trip.  We were getting together for dinner and to exchange pictures.  Though I didn’t end up offering samples of my recently kegged homebrew, I prepared another hit at the party.  In addition to serving grilled chicken, I prepared this green bean recipe that I’ve used numerous times before.  Though it is very easy and requires very few ingredients, the results are very tasty and approved by our group of snowshoeing hikers.  In fact, it is so simple that I’m sure we could make it on next year’s hut trip as it doesn’t require more than the beans, a premixed sauce, and some garlic.  Give it a try.

Today is the 40th Earth Day, if you didn’t already know it.  I’ve recently been thinking about planting a garden for vegetables, and the first thing I’m trying to do is decide where I should put it in the yard.  I think it needs to have at least 6 hours of sun a day and daily watering.  The watering part is easy, as most of the yard gets watered a few times a week, and I can supplement additional watering as needed.  The difficult part is the sun.  I have an ideal spot on the southern edge of our backyard that I’d really love to use, but I’m not sure it gets enough sun due to a fence and shed.  So I just ordered this sunlight calculator to help me find out.  It should also help me in judging what plants to put in other places of the yard.  We already planted two new plants over the weekend, and I have plans to plant even more soon.

I recently kegged my third batch of homebrew.  This is an American style Pale Ale that I brewed on March 14th.  I then let it ferment from that day all the way until this past Saturday, April 17th.  So it sat for over a month, which may have helped increase the alcohol content.  In the past, I’ve struggled to get the final gravity as low as they recipe said it should be.  However, this time it started at 1.051 and went all the way down to 1.012.  That equates to 5.11% ABV making it my strongest beer yet!

I poured a small sample of the beer last night, and it tasted a little bitter but overall pretty mellow.  It definitely still needs some carbonation, so I’ll continue rocking the keg and letting it sit connected to the CO2 tank and hopefully it will be tasting great by this coming weekend.  I would have liked for it to be ready for a gathering at our house tonight, but I don’t think it’s quite there yet.  Though I may dish out a few samples anyway.  Since the kegging day was the day between my dad and my brother’s birthdays I am calling it Fabro Pale Ale, the combination of Father and Brother.

Friday night, after I had arrived back in Denver, Kim and I stopped for some dinner on the way home from the airport.  Initially we had plans to eat out near the airport, but after a delayed flight and little traffic on the highways, we ventured closer to home.  Our destination was Pete’s Central One, which we have dined at a time or two before.  I remembered that the Greek food was great, and that the little neighborhood spot would be just what we wanted for the night.  The tables are definitely close to each other, but I think that helps bring all the regulars together in a big conversation that often fills the restaurant.

We decided to split some hummus for an appetizer, which quickly arrived with warm pita slices.  I also decided to order the chicken kabob, which came with a side of tasty rice, and some vegetables.  Also served with it was a small cup of Avgolemono soup and a dinner salad as well.  It is a ton of food and it is all so good!  With a little of Kim’s help I was able to eat nearly all the dinner plate and even had room for a couple of Ouzo shots.  The manager of the restaurant is famous for giving away free shots of Ouzo after you have finished your meal.  If you stay long enough, we found out that he will keep pouring them for you too.  Dining at Pete’s is always a great experience and I’m sure we’ll be back soon.

Yesterday Kim and I attended closing day at Vail, just as we did last year. We did about three of four slush-filled runs throughout the day, but that was okay as there was so much other stuff going on as part of the Spring Back to Vail celebration. We witnessed the large season ending party at the top of the mountain, the pond skimming competition, and finally a Guster concert in Vail Village. Many in the crowd had costumes on, or retro ski gear, and many were openly enjoying beers, champagne, etc. Nothing seen during this wild day can be unexpected.

The Pond Skimming competition

The Guster show was great!  The weather was perfect and the crowd was very well behaved.  It wasn’t a large turnout, but there were plenty of people packed in close to enjoy the concert.  We were able to get fairly close to the stage and had a great view, despite a couple of trees.  I really enjoyed this show after having their last performance at the Mile High Music Festival nearly ruined by some obnoxious neighboring music.  The sounds was good enough, though the band complained a couple of times about the elevation messing up their equipment.  They even made up a rather funny impromptu song about the downside of being so many feet above the sea.  We had a great time and it was a good close to the season.

Guster playing Spring Back to Vail

With most resorts closed, here are our stats from this past snowboarding season.  As always, we will likely add a couple of days at Arapahoe Basin as the spring moves forward.

• Breckenridge – 5 days
• Vail – 3 days
• Keystone – 3 days (Kim missed one of these)
• Beaver Creek – 2 days
• Copper – 2 days

That’s a total of only 15 days, which is pretty close to last year, but not nearly as good as two years ago.  Once again, the snow left a lot to be desired this year.  The best days of the season were only a couple of weeks ago and most of our enjoyable days have been in the warmer months of this year.  Still we had many good memories and lots of fun times with visitors throughout the year.  Here’s to next season!