Our entire team showed up last night for our weekly hockey game. That means three full lines up front and five guys playing defense. Unfortunately we didn’t use the large bench to our advantage, and we ended up skating down at the level of the team we were playing. According to last weeks standings our opponents were in second to last place, and I can see why. There were only a small number of skaters on their team that could play well. However, they probably thought the same thing about my team after watching us play last night.

We jumped out to a great 3-0 lead by the end of the first. But, as typically happens, our second period play was terrible. We allowed them to put in goal after goal and by the middle of the third they had a 5-3 lead on us. Eventually we managed to put in another goal, and despite some great attempts near the end, the final score was 5-4. This was our second loss of the season, but we should remain at least tied for first place.

Personally I had an assist on the first goal. I was playing defense and managed to keep the puck in our offensive zone. I took a quick shot, which the goalie deflected right to another one of our players. He immediately buried it in the back of the net. I don’t think I had any other points throughout the game. Currently I’m tied for third with most assists, but I’m hoping this gets me back into second place.

I participated in my second Bike to Work Day this morning. I left the house just after six and started on my preplanned route, which was different than my route last year. I decided on a new route with less turns and more off street riding, though it was slightly longer than last year. My goal was to make the nearly twenty mile ride in under three hours and hopefully closer to two.

I had the first part of the ride completely memorized and stuck completely to the plan until I got to the part of my ride where I was supposed to leave the Cherry Creek Trail and turn south down Yosemite Street. Somehow I missed this turn, and I realized it once I saw the Cherry Creek Reservoir dam in the distance. I turned south and followed signs to Hampden Heights Park, and after asking a walker for directions, I eventually found my way west to Yosemite.

From there I remembered that I needed to ride south to Belleview, take a left there, and ride about a mile over to Havana. At Havana I turned south once again all the way to Peakview Avenue. I took a left at Peakview and a quick right onto Lima Street, which I followed south on a much safer road than Havana becomes. Thus far I had only made one bad turn, but that quickly changed when Lima turned into Inverness Drive. At that point every street I passed was Inverness something: Parkway, Way, Lane, Court, etc. I couldn’t exactly remember which of the Inverness roads I was supposed to take, and I didn’t want to take my map out, so I just followed along what appeared to be the safest roads all the way until I eventually found the South Valley Highway.

Once on the South Valley Highway, which turns into Jamaica Street, I was close enough to the office that I knew which roads to take. It really just consisted of a right turn onto Meridian Boulevard, with one last big climb up to the office. Once in the parking lot I glanced at the watch and realized that I had done it all in just under two hours. After a couple changes to the preplanned route, I soon realized that instead of just under twenty miles I had done just barely over twenty miles. All in all it was a great ride, I just wish the whole thing wasn’t all uphill. Below is the route.

Since moving out of my parents house many years ago, I’ve nearly always had a Jimmy John’s within walking distance of home. Currently that is not true, but that should be changing by the end of the month when the franchise’s 17th Colorado location opens just up the street at 331 East Alameda Avenue. I’ve always been a big fan of their no frill sandwiches, especially after a late night of partying. Unfortunately, I don’t think any of the local shops are open nearly as late as the one on the campus of the University of Cincinnati. But this will definitely be nice when the Einstein Brother’s across the street closes after their lunch shift, though it may be hard to pass up the neighboring Chipotle. I’m sure I’ll make a stop within a week of opening.

A year ago I took my first whitewater rafting trip with a group called Class Five Chaos, and this weekend joined the same group for another trip down the Arkansas River. Once again there were about 150 people camping for the weekend, with well over 100 of those joining in on the rafting adventure Saturday afternoon. Just like last year, Kim and I drove down to the same campsite after work on Friday. After setting up camp and enjoying a couple of cold ones near a fire, we were off to rest up for the big day.

Unlike last year, the Royal Gorge section of the river was open, and that’s exactly where we took our rafts. This is a section of the river rated at class IV or V with rapids named things like Sunshine Falls, Boat Eater, and Wall Slammer. Despite the tough conditions and large group, I’m told that only one person ended up in the water all day and that was one of the guides who was trying to help keep another rafter in the boat. I guess he did what he wanted to do, but with it he ended up falling into the chilly waters himself. So it was a very successful trip full of lots of smiles and laughter.

After rafting, we all rode buses back to the base of operations for the rafting company where a party was setup. We had great bbq for lunch, lots of Shiner beer, two bands, and even a cornhole tournament. Of course Kim and I entered the tournament, and eventually went on to win the entire event. It took five victories, one of which was a complete shutout, but we came out on top in the end and won a set of smaller traveling cornhole boards from Shiner and a couple of CamelBak backpacks!

After the fun at the party wrapped up, it was back to the campsite for the annual flip cup tournament. We entered the tournament, but when it came time for our first match we couldn’t find our teammates and had to forfeit. We stuck around to watch most of the action though and had lots of laughs along the way. Along with the flip cup we also had more good times around campfires and eventually were off to bed. Sunday was a long drive back to Denver with sore bodies and not enough sleep. That’s the price to pay for an awesome weekend. Some pictures that Kim and I took from Friday are posted below. We forgot the camera the day of the rafting trip but I’ll keep my eyes out for any photos of the cornhole champs.

Well I did it. I ordered a new iPhone 3G S last night. Verizon eventually did announce the BlackBerry Tour a couple of days ago, but that wasn’t enough for me. Plus I was tired of waiting and didn’t want to wait even longer for the Tour to be released in the middle of July. At this point I couldn’t be happier. Well I guess I could be if I already had my iPhone in my hands, but that probably won’t happen for a week or two.

I ordered it online through AT&T so that I could take advantage of my company’s 20% service discount. I wasn’t able to get any money off of the phone itself, but I’ll definitely appreciate the $14 savings each month on my bill. Now I just need to decide what case I want to get and place that order so I’ll have it in time for delivery of my phone. Any suggestions for that? I’ve already heard good reviews for a number of products, but it can’t hurt to have even more.

My hockey team managed to lose our first game of the season last week in a game that I missed due to our traveling. I’m told that it was a close 5-3 loss, and that we had plenty of opportunities to take the lead. Oh well, you can’t win them all. Fortunately, we were able to get back onto the winning side of things last night! We were lucky enough to be facing-off with the last place team in the league, which proved to be a very easy win. We jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead within the first few minutes of the game, and by the time it was over we secured a solid 10-2 victory. I had my first goal of the season, and added another assist as well. That should keep me in the top three assist leaders, once the results get posted, even after missing a game last week. And I’m proud to say that I’ve fallen off of the penalty leader board. All is well for Eck’s Saloon.

After work yesterday Kim and I went out for a quick run before heading over to another couple’s house for dinner. We followed our normal route up to Washington Park and, due to our time constraints, decided to just run half of the park and then back home. Upon running into the park and toward the south side of Smith Lake I noticed something floating in the lake. No, what I saw wasn’t a paddle boat. It was at that point I recalled reading an article from the Westword about these floating islands that were going to be installed in the lake. According to a Denver Post article, “A group of volunteers and city workers launched four artificial islands made from recycled plastic bottles, foam, sod and plants into the Denver lake. The islands, called ‘biohavens,’ are meant to simulate wetlands by providing food and shelter for insects, fish, birds and turtles. They also might make the lake’s water a little cleaner.”

I noticed that the islands are not as green as the pictures in both linked articles above. The Canadian geese must have found their way to the islands and caused some damage. I noticed that the biggest island now has some sort of protective net or cover over it. I’m guessing that the islands are under careful observation and that something had to be done so that these biohavens have a chance of surviving. I’m curious to see if any noticeable change in wildlife occurs over these next few warmer months, though I read that success may not be measurable for at least a year. I hope the islands last that long.

Here are my photos from Ken and Becky’s wedding weekend which I wrote about yesterday. Actually I take that back, these are mostly Kim’s photos from the weekend. I think she did a pretty good job of capturing a little bit of everything. Such a fun wedding weekend. Best of luck to the newlyweds.

Over the weekend I helped celebrate the wedding of my good friend from high school, Ken Burns. Throughout high school Kenny always told us that he would one day get married in a kilt. Not only did he accomplish this, he also managed to get myself and a couple of other guys from high school in kilts as well. There was a bit of a kilt catastrophe as my order never showed up, but thankfully my mom helped to piece one together and the wedding went on without any other issues. Here’s a photo of me, Bryan Lutz, and Jon Riehle in our kilts.

The ceremony and reception both took place on the Ohio River at the Inn at Oneonta. It was a little hot during the day with our thick garments on, but it really cooled off at night and the party was a blast! There was a bagpiper, great acoustic tunes, and a big band to wind out the night. After that we were all having so much fun, we hooked up some DJ equipment and let the partying continue. Many of us decided to stay the night and camp in tents and cars. Here another photo of me in a kilt with Kim.

My mom has a ton of pictures up on her flickr page. I know I don’t have nearly as many on my camera, but I’ll work on getting those posted in the near future.

The new iPhone 3GS has been announced and will be released on June 19. Just eight days from now, this slick new device could be in my hands (or on it’s way). I am giving Verizon a few more days to announce something worth sticking around for, and if they don’t I’m really thinking of switching to AT&T so I can get the iPhone. I’ve played with the older ones a few times and really like the way they work and all of the applications available for it. The only things holding me back are the fact that nearly everyone I talk on the phone with has Verizon, and that I really don’t want to use iTunes. Minor drawbacks that I could adjust to in order to have one of the best, possibly the best mobile device out there right now.