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I bet everyone is sick of these snowboarding stories, but I know we haven’t gotten tired of doing it. We headed up to the mountains early on Saturday morning and met up with a couple of guys that I used to work with and four of their friends. We spent the day snowboarding and skiing at Breckenridge. Prior to Saturday, it hadn’t snowed in at least a week. As we were driving up, the snow started and it didn’t really stop until we headed back to Denver on Sunday afternoon. All of this snow led to some great conditions!

The conditions were so good, in fact, that we spent another half day on the slopes of Arapahoe Basin. This was our first time here, although we heard lots about it before going. People often told us that it is a really difficult place with lots of expert terrain. This is partly true, as there are a ton of black and double black runs, but half of the mountain is blue or below. I guess the big problem many people may have is that it is so small. They only have six lifts, and this includes a beginner lift and a magic carpet. However, we found plenty to do in the five hours we were there and the lines were really short! I don’t think I would pay for a lift ticket, but since A-Basin is included on our pass, I’m sure we will be back.

I finally ditched my Sprint phone plan and old cell phone in favor a new plan with Verizon and a new phone that has a camera, bluetooth, speaker phone, among other new features. I considered other new phones including the Chocolate, enV, and Q, but in the end I didn’t think I would use the advanced features enough to make it worthwhile. I had mobile internet on my old phone and I only used it to get my text messages (aka short mail). Now that I have real text messaging on my phone (including picture mail) I have no use for the mobile internet.

Since I ordered everything online, I was able to port my old phone number even though it is a Cincinnati area code. I’ve had my number for so long that I really don’t feel like changing it. Ever. I figured this makes it easy for everyone.

We made the trip back to Boulder last night, after just going for the first time last weekend. I am already beginning to realize that Boulder is going to be a very common trip. And once again I am thankful that the drive is much easier than the drive from Kansas City to Lawrence. The reason for heading back so soon was a concert featuring The Alternate Routes, Jon McLaughlin, and Matt Wertz at the Fox Theatre.

I wasn’t expecting a large crowd, but as we pulled up to the venue I saw a line to get in that was at least half of the block long! Because of this line we missed most of Jon McLaughlin’s set. The Alternate Routes were next and they did not disappoint. The sound at the Fox Theatre is very impressive. It’s loud but at the same time very clear. My recordings are equally as impressive, I think. I am working to get those online for your listening pleasure.

Matt Wertz was the headliner, but surprisingly the crowd seemed larger during The Alternate Routes set. At least this was the case on the overage half of the room. The setup was such that half of the room was reserved for the over 21 crowd, and the other half was for everyone under. Well the under half was jammed packed most of the night, but we were able to stretch out on the over side and enjoy the show. Wertz played well, but I think The Alternate Routes stole the show. I hope I can get both tapes online for you to decide.

Today marks the 50th consecutive day with snow on the ground in Denver. And guess what? It was just snowing a little more. This current streak is now the 3rd longest streak in history. The 2nd longest was 60 days between December 1, 1913 and January 29, 1914. The longest streak was 63 days between November 26, 1983 and January 27, 1984. This current streak started on December 21, after a massive blizzard of 21+ inches. For the current record to be broken, snow would need to be on the ground until February 22nd. Keep your fingers crossed, I guess.

The measurement today was 6 inches, so we still have a long way to go. Here is the listing of the snow depth from each of the past 50 days. There is also an additional news story on www.thedenverchannel.com.

Prior to the Super Bowl on Sunday, we made the drive to the farthest resort on our pass, Beaver Creek. We weren’t sure where we were going when we got in the car, we just headed toward the mountains. Along the way, Kim researched the conditions for each resort. We ruled out the closer resorts (Keystone, Breckenrdige, Arapahoe Basin) because it was around 7:30 when we passed them, and they typically don’t open until 9. So we continued on I-70 toward Vail and Beaver Creek, and in the end picked Beaver Creek because they had something like 22 inches in the previous 5 days.

We made a great decision, as the slopes were empty! I’m not sure if it was like this at the other resorts, but during the early morning we hardly saw any other people. Perhaps the big game later in the day discouraged others from heading out. It had no effect on us though, we were on the lift at 8:30 and we left at 1 and had plenty of time to make it to a Super Bowl party. The four hours was plenty enough for Kim to attempt using me as a ramp. Let me explain. I took a tumble on a couple of little bumps and Kim went over the same bumps right behind me. While I was on the ground, she hit one bump and went flying in my direction and ended up running right into me. She thought it was hilarious, I did not. Note to self: do not fall anymore!

Over the weekend, we also made our first trip from Denver to Boulder. Originally I thought that the drive would be similar to the drive from Kansas City to Lawrence, but it was actually much quicker and not nearly as boring. Boulder actually seems more like a suburb of Denver than a completely separate college town. However once you are there, it does have that college town feel with the University of Colorado being there.

Our first stop was for some food and brews at BJ’s Restaurant & Brew Haus. At the time I wasn’t aware that there is a chain of these restaurants. So if you are near one, I would definitely recommend checking it out. We had the Santa Fe Spring Rolls to start, and split the Spinach & Artichoke Pizza. The appetizer was pretty good, but the pizza definitely stole the meal. It was delicious! As far as beers, I think the Jeremiah Red Ale is one of their tops, and the Piranha Pale Ale isn’t bad either.

After our dinner, we headed over to the Trilogy Wine Bar & Lounge to see Will Hoge. The venue itself is kind of strange. The front room really is a nice looking wine bar, however it is nearly impossible to get a drink. The concerts take place in the back room, which can hold a couple hundred people maximum. In this room, you will not see anyone drinking wine. The wine will be replaced primarily with beer and you may even see someone without any shoes on, I did.

The show was great! It had been years since I saw Will Hoge, and my first time seeing him/them headline. As good as their studio CD’s are, their live shows are incredible. In fact, they are releasing another live album in just two weeks on February 20th. I’m not sure if you will be able to find it in stores, but it will definitely be available online. Opening the show was a band called The Drams from Texas. They definitely had that southern rock vibe to them. Not my favorite style of music, but they did a good job opening up the show. Definitely catch this tour if it comes to a town near you.

We had a jammed packed weekend, and I’ll be sure to write about everything that we did in the next couple of days. First, we attended the University of Denver hockey game on Saturday night versus the University of Minnesota Duluth. As they typically do, the two teams played on Friday night as well, with DU winning 5-2.

Going into Saturday night’s game, DU was ranked 5th in nation with a record of 20-9-2. Emotions were high right from the start, and it was a very physical game. Between the two teams, there were 50 minutes in penalties and one player ejected from the game. I forgot how physical college hockey games can be. For most of the game it was apparent that UMD wanted to win the game more than DU, and in the end they did, 6-4. Overall, it was a great game and I hope to attend another DU game before the end of the season.

While at the game I also learned that Denver will host some of the regional games for this year’s NCAA hockey tournament. The games will be at the Pepsi Center over my birthday weekend. I am definitely going to get some tickets for this. I also realized that the Frozen Four will be in Denver in 2008! Now that will be awesome!

I think I’m really late on this one, and although I’ve used the Last.fm website before, I finally downloaded their program that will track what I’m listening to. Now I can easily display a chart listing my most recent listened to tracks:

This chart is actually just an image that is stored out on the Last.fm servers, so it is not actually a real time list. They do have some feeds available that provide more accurate details. I’ll probably look into some wordpress plugins to better display the feeds, and hopefully I’ll get some charts on some of the other pages of this site. For now, you can view my profile page.

Who else is excited about the return of American Idol? I will admit that these audition episodes that have been on the past couple weeks are pretty painful to watch. I used to think that these were hilarious, but the humor has definitely worn off, at least for me. I did see a couple of good auditions throughout the various cities, so I’m really looking forward to when the actual season starts.

Here’s a video that cracked me up last night. To make it even better he actually was pretty good and advanced to the next round: