Kim and I, along with a small group of friends, headed down to the Paramount Theatre on Friday night to watch Warren Miller’s latest film titled Children of Winter. I thought at this time last year we had already been out on the slopes, but looking back at the post from the Warren Miller film last year, it appears that I was wrong. This helps put my anxiety at ease, and I hope that the snowfall this year can only be as great as it was last year. I do see there is a potential storm coming in for Thanksgiving. Now we really need to wake the snow gods and hope that enough snow dumps so we can head into the high country this coming weekend.

I thought the movie was good. It’s always amazing to see what some of the skiers and riders are capable of, and it’s very impressive that it is all caught on film. But the part that was the most interesting was the segment on Skijoring in Leadville, Colorado. This event can best be described by first thinking of slalom waterskiing, but with horses instead of boats and icy jumps instead of forgiving buoys. I can’t find any info on the competition in Leadville, but it is definitely something I’d like to see. There is a short glimpse on what I’m talking about 30 seconds into this trailer for the film:

I’ve slowly been getting back into running over the past week or so. True, winter is a strange time to try to get back into running, but it’s been surprisingly mild in Denver recently. Yesterday I believe we broke the 80 degree mark, and it was very comfortable in the upper 60s when we went out for a run just after 5PM. I actually had to dig through my closet to find my running shorts as it was so nice out. I think this is longest time I’ve gone without any any ankle problems since my initial sprain last February. I think anything I can do to strengthen it even more, and get back to the way it was before then, is a good idea. So far we’ve gone out for a thirty minute run twice in the last week, and we will continue to do so when the weather is nice. Maybe I’ll even train to run another race, but I better not get too far ahead of myself.

Woohoo! We finally got our first snow in Denver. This is much later than last year, at least two weeks later. And I don’t think the inch or two will last very long, as we’ll be back in the low 60s by Sunday. I think everyone is just excited that the season is finally here. In fact Kim and I may head up to the mountains this weekend to do a little boarding. Even though very few lifts/trails are available at the few open resorts, it’s better than nothing.

Finally, my adult hockey team won our first game on Tuesday night! This team also gave us our first point at the beginning of the season after we lost in an overtime shootout. After taking an early lead, and despite multiple penalties toward the end of the game, we were able to hang on to win the game 5-4.

Unfortunately, the results were not as good for my fantasy football team. I’m back on the losing side of things after going down 78.35 to 86.75. So it wasn’t a complete blowout, I just need to make a few changes before this week. I bet that my playoff hopes are gone now, but I should at least try to stay out of last place.

One last item, don’t forget to watch the Cincinnati Bearcats take on the Louisville Cardinals tonight tomorrow night at 8PM eastern on ESPN2. The Bearcats are now a nationally ranked team after taking out West Virginia this past weekend. Let’s hope they can pull out another big win and bring back the Keg of Nails.

For the third year in a row, I watched the University of Denver hockey team take on the University of Minnesota Duluth Saturday night. Surprisingly, tickets were not sold out on Friday evening when Kim stopped by to pick some up. In fact she was able to get second row seats, however we later found out these seats were directly behind the goal judge. Luckily the arena was less than half full, so we just moved up to the area where I usually like to sit and enjoyed the game from there. Just like the last time, we watched as DU claimed victory over the Bulldogs of UMD, final score 2-1. As always we had a blast at the game, and with tickets being relatively cheap, I was shocked at the low turnout for the game. We’ll definitely be back soon.

What an exciting week in sports! The Cincinnati Bengals finally won a game, just in time for a bye week. I’m not sure if this will hurt or help the team going into the second half of the season, but it really can’t get any worse.

My adult hockey team nearly won last night. We finally started putting the puck in the net, including a goal by yours truly. In the end we had some bad penalties that allowed the other team to take a 6-4 lead and eventually win 7-4 after an empty net goal. The surprising thing is that the team we played is in second place, so maybe we are finally making some positive progress.

Finally I had another fantasy football victory. Two in a row! And I didn’t even play Cedric Benson who had a big game for the Bengals. Now I’m hoping I can somehow make the playoffs after now being tied for second to last place in the league of twelve. Only the top six make it into the playoffs so I’ve got some serious work to do.

Sunday, Kim and I did something we haven’t done in a long time, we played golf. We took a bike ride on Saturday down the Platte River Trail past numerous golf courses and decided if the weather was still nice the following day we would go out and hit some balls. Well the weather Sunday was really nice, so we went out to a nearby par three course called Harvard Gulch. Neither of us had been here before, but we wanted something nearby and fairly quick.

This course was really quick with some holes barely over sixty yards in length. Despite the easy and short holes, I managed to really stink up the place. I was hitting off the tees well, sometimes too well, but I couldn’t putt at all. The worst part is that the greens were overall very flat and should have been easy. The first couple holes I got par, and it went down hill from there with a few triple bogeys to finish off the round of nine. Kim ended up beating me by at least three strokes, but she’s played various times throughout the summer for work. I’d like to blame the poor performance on all the leaves scattered around the course, but I think they had very little to do with it.

A slightly better week in sports, though still way below average. First the good news: I finally won another fantasy football game! I am no longer solely in last place, as I’m now tied with two others for the bottom of the standings. Let’s see how long this winning streak can go on for.

In uglier news: my hockey team lost yet again on Tuesday night. The only positive thing was that the line I was playing on played pretty well overall. We scored the only goal of the night for our team, as I fed a nice pass to the center in the slot. The online team stats page credits me with the goal, which wasn’t mine, but I should have had an assist. We lost 7-1.

Be sure to tune in to ESPN tonight at 7:30pm eastern to watch the University of Cincinnati Bearcats take on the nationally ranked University of South Florida.

Saturday afternoon we went out to Red Rocks for the Red Bull Soapbox Race. The pits opened at 10am, and the races started at noon. We had wanted to get there before race time, but didn’t get out there until shortly after it started. However, we ran into all sorts of problems getting in. As I expected, the parking lots in the park were closed. So we headed out toward the nearby speedway, where a shuttle was supposed to take people to the race. However, after sitting in traffic for an hour or so we found out the exit for the speedway had been closed and a sign said that the entire event was full. After stopping for some gas I was determined to get in, so I found a way to get into the town of Morrison via some small roads (one of which was dirt), we then parked on the side of the street and walked a couple miles into the park. It was worth all of the frustration, and we had a great time watching over half of the competition.

Last night I took Kim and Cari out to an Avalanche game. Through some hockey newsletter I am on, I was able to get half price tickets into the club level for this game. Having never been on the club level before I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I must now say that it is really nice. Unlike the other levels, the interior is all carpeted, with lots of concession stands serving various items, and a huge bar that wasn’t too far from our seats. Though I’m not sure, it seems like they have items available for purchase that aren’t anywhere else in the arena. And to top it all off, there are servers in the aisles who will take orders for food and drink. Though we didn’t use them, as we had already eaten, it seemed like a very convenient thing to have access to. I’m not sure if I’ll ever get back into the club level, but if I have access to discounted tickets again you can be sure that I will definitely consider it. Oh yeah, the game was good too! After a slow start the Avs pulled out the 4-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers.