We had one of our last days on the slopes this weekend, if not the last. This time we headed back to Beaver Creek for the second time. If you remember from the first time, the conditions were great. This time the conditions were not so great, but we still had a blast. Much of the snow was already gone, especially at the bottom of the mountain. What snow there was on the ground was actually a slushy mix. Definitely not the best conditions, but there were very few people there. As we later realized, I think everyone was at Copper for Sunsation. We stopped off there on our way home to see a free performance from Michael Franti & Spearhead. There were tons of people not only on the slopes but in the general area of the concert. It was an overall fun loving crowd. I think everyone was just out enjoying the beautiful weather.

This was the last weekend of the season for Beaver Creek, as well as our favorite Keystone. Breckenridge and Vail are both open through this weekend, but we won’t make it out before then. Arapahoe Basin does stay open late into the season, but it’s so small that we may only go once or twice, if at all. Despite taking a month off to heal my damaged ankle, the pass was well worth it. Kim was trying to calculate the number of days we used it, and at last count we were easily up over 10. I’ll see if I can put together an official total.

We headed to the Pepsi Center last night for our third Mammoth game of the season. Earlier in the week, I got an email from KBCO about free tickets to the game, an offer that was too good to refuse. After picking up the tickets, I was shocked to find out these were 14th row tickets. I was expecting to get tickets up in the third level. We were also in one of the end sections, another bonus in my book.

The final regular season home game against the San Jose Stealth turned out to be a great one! We took two of Kim’s brothers to the game prior to this one. While watching that one we talked about how so many people in the crowd had cowbells. So what did they get me for my birthday? That’s right, my very own cowbell! There were plenty of opportunities to ring it too, with the final score of 13-12. Hopefully they continue to win on into the playoffs. I would love to see another game this season.

Kim and I played our first round of golf yesterday after work. She has a big outing at Sawgrass next week and she wanted to get in some extra practice. We’ve been to the driving range a few times, but this was the first time for us to work on our short game too. Since we didn’t get started until around 6, we decided to just play 9 holes at the Family Sports Center.

The course was actually in pretty good shape, especially for a nine hole course. Another bonus was that it only cost us $11 each. The cashier gave us the twilight discount! It started off a little rough for me as I watched my first drive roll into a bunker. Once we finally got back into the groove we played pretty well. My short game has gotten pretty good. I had problems with hitting my irons over the greens a bunch of times. My shots were also slicing pretty often. I hope I’m just a little rusty. I did get par on one hole and almost had a birdie, but blew it on my approach shot. The most important thing is that I actually enjoyed playing yesterday.

Trying to get back into the swing of things, I’ve been doing a bunch of cooking so far this week. On Monday I made some pasta that I’ve done before and loved. This recipe is the perfect balance of spicy and sweet. The first taste is sweet, but after it sits in your mouth and you begin to chew, the spiciness comes out. The only thing I’ve changed on the recipe is the addition of a chopped onion which I sauté before adding the garlic and crushed red pepper.

Last night I grilled some asparagus, which I blanched the night before and then let sit over night in Italian dressing. I also grilled up some marinated chicken to go along with it. But the highlight of the night, at least for me, were the mashed potatoes. It was my first time mashing potatoes, so I had to pick up a masher at the store, but I must say that it was really pretty easy. I didn’t boil the potatoes for the full 45 minutes, more like 35 minutes, but I was only using four pounds. I also added garlic in the last 10 minutes of cooking to seal in the taste. Other than that, I pretty much followed the recipe, and I would have to agree with their four and a half star rating. They are an excellent side dish. The asparagus was pretty good as well.

Maybe I know more about golf than I once thought. I sure as heck can’t play worth a crap, but I won a Masters pool over the weekend. All that was required to enter the pool was to pick 5 golfers and a $6 entry fee. After studying the results from the first couple of days, I ended up selecting Zach Johnson, Tiger Woods, Paul Casey, Tim Clark, and Jose Maria Olazabal. I didn’t pick them in that order, that is the order they finished. Obviously Zach Johnson’s victory helped my score a ton, along with Tiger’s second place, but imagine how well I could have done without Olazabel’s score. I think what helped me the most was that almost everyone else had Brett Wetterich, a native Cincinnatian, on their teams. He started off well but fell apart in the end.

In addition to seeing and hearing Mike Perkins open for O.A.R., we also got the chance to catch his own show on Friday night at the Mad Frog. Things have changed a little at the Mad Frog especially since smoking is not allowed inside anymore. I think I saw the ceiling of the front room for the first time ever. They have also cleaned up the appearance in various places, with newer flooring and lighting. Other things haven’t changed. Many of the staff is still the same, the crappy bathroom is still the same, and the beer is still cheap!

Perkins played with his trio of musicians, himself on guitar and vocals, along with a keyboard and bass player. I think his music really shines with this setup, as it doesn’t drown his incredible vocals and looping guitar playing. I decided not to record the show as it can sometimes be a pain doing so at the Mad Frog. I am regretting the decision now. We got to hear excellent versions of just about all of my favorite songs of his. We even heard the song “Outside” even though it was not showing any signs of spring and was actually snowing outside. Anyway, I’ve added a new song of the moment from Mike Perkins. “No Way No How” is definitely one of my favorite songs of his.

Two nights ago, I headed up to Oxford, Ohio with my old friend Liam. The reason for the hour long drive? O.A.R. was playing BandFusion at the University of Miami. Another friend of mine was the executive director of the show and got us free tickets along with yet another friend of ours, Joe “Vedder” Scalfaro. Also in attendance for the show: Kim, Amy, a couple of Kim’s brothers, one of her cousins, and ton of college students (one of which was dressed up as a beer bottle).

It was my first O.A.R. show since seeing them at the Gorge with DMB at the end of last summer. It was also the first show of their spring tour, although you wouldn’t have noticed it. They sounded just as solid as ever, playing some new songs, a couple of rarer old songs, and just about all of the crowd favorites. One of the new songs played, titled What Is Mine, is my favorite of their new unreleased tracks. Check it out for yourself here. This mp3 clip comes from my recording of the concert, which can be downloaded in it’s entirety here. Enjoy!

A friend of mine has started a very interesting project called A Minute In The Life: The Simultaneous Photograph Project. His goal is to get as many people as possible to all take pictures within the same minute of time. He will then collect all of these pictures and do with them as he pleases. Once I heard of this project I was very intrigued. I am even quoted at the bottom of the page as saying, “I am very interested to see what comes of this project.” So I’ve decided to help spread the word for him. The day of choice is Saturday, the 2nd of June, between 2:00 and 2:01 PM Eastern Daylight Time. Mark it down on your calendars and feel free to spread the word to others that may find the project interesting. Additional details can be found by following the link at the top of the entry.

If you didn’t already know, I am visiting Cincinnati this week. I flew in late on Saturday after our snowboarding trip. Our departure out of Denver was delayed and we were forced to switch aircraft after the engines wouldn’t start on the first! Fortunately, we all received free DirecTV service during the whole flight for the inconvenience. Unfortunately, I couldn’t watch basketball as that channel was not available. I spent most of the time watching Animal Planet instead. I am still holding out that Frontier Airlines will offer the TV service for free on all flights, and maybe add some more channels. Even if this doesn’t happen, more airlines should start following in their footsteps and adding TV service. It is a wonderful way to pass the time while in flight.

As I mentioned last week, we had quite a bit of snow in Denver and even more up in the mountains. We made the drive up to Keystone early on Saturday morning and met up with a guy I used to play hockey with in Kansas City, along with his wife and a friend. If I remember correctly, Keystone had over two feet of snow in the past week, which made for some excellent snowboarding and skiing. To top it off there was a couple of inches from the previous night and we even had some patches of snow falling throughout the day.

Despite the conditions, we were surprised to find that it was not very crowded at all. Our friends had spent the previous day at Copper Mountain and said that it was fairly crowded. I wonder if other resorts had more snow than Keystone and therefore the crowds went elsewhere. Even though most of the trails were in great shape, we took a snowcat ride from the top of Outback to the Outback Bowls. Once there, the fresh powder was about a foot thick and was incredible! I’m not sure why we never took one of these rides before. Maybe it was the $5 price tag, or the thought that all of the terrain is really difficult (although it isn’t), but I’m glad we finally did it.