Recently I completed a website for some longtime family friends and their new lawn care business.  Sure Cut Lawn Care is family owned in the Cincinnati area and offers services including grass cutting, trimming, edging, mulching, cleanup, aeration, sealing, and more.  Contact them at 513-310-9265 for a free estimate.

I’ve made my picks for the NCAA basketball tournament, have you made yours?  I’d love to see Cincinnati go all the way, but I tried to be a little realistic in my picks. I think an appearance in the sweet sixteen would be a great success for the team, but I ended up picking them to the elite eight.  My final four consists of Ohio State, Texas, Kansas, and BYU.  I’m taking Kansas to win it all.  There is still time to make changes, but I’m pretty happy with the way my picks ended up.

In addition to the big race on Sunday, we also headed downtown on Saturday morning for the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade. This was the fourth year in a row for us and we stood in the same parking lot as always at 17th & Blake. This year we had a stroller to help carry all of our supplies, namely Guinness and sandwiches. The parade and crowds were a little too noisy for Trey at times, but toward the end he seemed to enjoy being outside for the nice day. Every year the weather is always beautiful for this parade, though it did cool off toward the end this year. Here are a couple of photos that we snapped throughout the day.

Taking a break with Trey.

Hanging with Marisa and Rob.

Trey settled into the Moby wrap.

Yesterday Kim and I both participated in the Runnin’ of the Green 7K race in downtown Denver. I decided to run with a couple of friends, while Kim opted to push Trey through the course in his stroller. We both did really well. I finished the 4.35 miles in 36:09 according to my timing chip. That’s a 8:16 pace, which is about a minute faster than the pace I’ve been running during my lunchtime runs. I know that races often make you run faster than you are accustomed to, but this was really fast and I was very happy with the time. Kim managed to finish the entire run, which is a huge accomplishment itself, but she did it around a ten minute pace! She said that she only had to stop once to assist Trey, and that he enjoyed most of the run.

My hockey team struggled through another game on Wednesday night as we took on the top team in the league.  We actually hung with them for two periods, but were pretty much destroyed toward the end of the game.  This marked the end of the regular season.  My team finished in tenth out of twelve teams.  The playoffs start on Saturday and it will be a long journey for us if we are fortunate enough to advance deep into the tournament.

Fortunately, bowling was a much better experience last night.  After missing last week, my team had climbed up into second place.  Last night we again played the first place team.  The night started off average for me with a 135, but then moved up to 149, and then back down to 126.  My average is 132, so I’m pretty much sticking to that, which is a huge improvement over last season.  Unfortunately our team only won the first of our three games.  I think that will be enough to send us back into third place.  We have just two weeks left in this short season.

Another great meal my family had while in Estes Park this past weekend was courtesy of Poppy’s Pizza and Grill. I had actually been to this restaurant with my wife once or twice before. During the summer the wait for a table can easily be a couple if hours, but during this offseason we were seated right away.

The first thing I recalled on this return visit was their surprisingly great selection of beers. I started with Brewery Ommegang’s Three Philosophers after my first choice was out of stock. Others in the group had Pliny the Elder, Estes Park Brewery’s Longs Peak Raspberry Wheat, and a nice variety of Belgians.  I also added a Big Bear Black Stout from Bear Republic for desert.  Delicious!

As far as the food goes, we all decided to split two different pizzas.  Poppy’s Special came with Italian sausage, sautéed onion & green pepper, and fresh mushrooms.  The Thai Pizza had a spicy peanut sauce (though not too spicy), red onion, chicken, broccoli, and water chestnuts.  The Thai Pizza was our personal favorite but both were pretty good.  If you can avoid the long waits, this restaurant is an easy choice for vacationers in Estes Park.

Writing on my blog while connected to work has become a bit of a pain.  My website is being blocked by websense because they have categorized it as Social Networking.  I think that’s a bit of a stretch.  I’ve emailed them to get it corrected.

Anyway, Kim and I took Trey to the doctor today for his two month check-up.  Everything went well and he is a growing boy.  Details of the visit are on kimandedjr.com.

One thing that has really struck me is that every time they ask if he is doing something, whether it be putting weight on his legs or laughing, the answer always seems to be yes.  He not only loves to put weight on his legs, he even tries to walk up our torsos.  Not only does he giggle, smile, and coo all the time, he put on a nice little display for the doctor full of every noise he knows.  Our little guy is advancing quickly.

The first meal my family and I had while on vacation in Estes Park was at Smokin’ Dave’s BBQ & Taphouse. My dad recommended it after reading some reviews before our trip. The first thing that really surprised me was the beer selection, which was really great for a small BBQ restaurant. I decided to go with a Smoked Porter from Alaskan Brewing to compliment the smoky food. I seem to recall other fine beers on tap including Breckenridge Vanilla Porter as well as solid choices from both Odell and Avery.

For meals, we all decided to choose from the smokin’ platters and while everyone else went with the single pulled pork, I decided to try the roasted half chicken. Each platter comes with two sides and with so many options we had very few repeats at the table. I chose the cole slaw along with red beans and rice.  Both of my sides were good and the half chicken was plenty filling. There were four sauces on the table to sample and I think the original and tangy were the best. I also sampled the pulled pork, which was really good, as well as their sweet potato fries, BBQ baked beans, and spiced apples. All of the food was very good and I would easily put it at the top of my list in Estes Park.

Pulled Pork And Chicken

As I mentioned at the end of last week, my parents were in town visiting over this past weekend. Originally we had planned to spend the time in Breckenridge, but Trey’s pediatrician suggested that he stay below 8,000 feet until after three months of age. Instead, we decided to spend the weekend up in Estes Park near Rocky Mountain National Park.  This still felt like a mountain vacation, but the elevation was safer for our newborn son.

We headed up to our condo for three nights after I had finished work on Thursday evening. Packing the car was much more difficult than I was thinking it would be. Who would have thought that four adults and a baby could fill the back of a crossover SUV with no problem? Sure Trey’s clothes are tiny, but his bassinet, stroller, and other supplies more than make up for that. We did eventually make it to our rented condo near The Stanley Hotel.

The rest of the trip was spent relaxing at the condo (which was fabulous!), dining at nearby restaurants, and even some exploring in Rocky Mountain National Park. I managed to get my mom on snowshoes for a brief hike and my dad continued to run his outrageous marathon training runs despite the much higher elevation. The best part of it all was having some extra hands to help with the baby and Trey loved having them around for another visit. I wish we all could have stayed longer.

I didn’t take many photos but my mom (per usual) more than made up for it. Her photos should be up on her flickr page soon.

Elk Outside Condo

Estes Park on Dwellable

This week in sports was pretty boring, especially since I will be skipping bowling tonight.  My parents flew into town earlier today and we will be spending the weekend with them.  That means no work tomorrow!

I did have hockey last night, and we nearly knocked off the second place team in the league.  We are in ninth of twelve teams, so it would have been a huge victory for our team.  We played right with our opponents for the first half of the game.  By the middle of the second and the beginning of the third, we were being outmatched pretty clearly.  We still managed to stick with them and when the final buzzer rang the score was 8-6.  We only had 26 shots, as opposed to their 42, so it wasn’t really as close as the score indicated.  Our goalie played pretty well, and the other team’s goalie wasn’t that great.  One guy on their team had three of their goals, and now has sixty-seven total goals this season.  That is a ridiculous number of goals for only twenty games played.  The next closest has only thirty-five goals.  We only have one more game before the playoffs start and it doesn’t look like we’ll move much in the standings, probably not at all.