While in Cincinnati this weekend, I took a trip with my family down to the Cyclones game. Kim, her parents, and youngest brother also joined in for an evening of fun. Even though the clones couldn’t pull out a victory in the second game of the best of seven series, we didn’t let that stop us from having a great time. My brother’s friend, Nick, recorded Kim’s brother, also named Nick, getting jiggy during a break in the action and being featured on the scoreboard screen.

For those who have a list of sites that read each day (or nearly every day) I have one for you to add to that list, or to subscribe to via RSS. The Big Picture is a photo blog from the Boston Globe, which documents news events using amazing quality photos. I probably should have mentioned this site long ago, and it’s possible that I’m spreading old news to many of you. Entries are posted Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I found today’s entry for Holy Week especially interesting. It is very enlightening to see the way that these religious holidays are celebrated throughout the world.

In just over an hour, some of the finest ice hockey action you can ever see will begin. That’s right, I’m talking about the NCAA Frozen Four. If it weren’t for some important events taking place in Cincinnati this weekend, I would be in attendance for these tournament ending three games, just as I did last year. Fortunately both games tonight are on ESPN2 and the championship is on ESPN Saturday, 7pm EDT.

Competing for this years championship are Miami Ohio and Bemidji State, who play in this first game, along with Vermont and Boston, who will play later tonight. I am definitely pulling for the boys up the road, Miami, and in the other game I have to do with Vermont. I remember sporting a Vermont hockey hat throughout high school, after watching them play at the first Frozen Four I attended back in ’96. Ultimately I hope that Miami is able to win the entire thing.

On the way home from work yesterday, I stopped at my neighborhood Chipotle (333 E Alameda Ave) as I often do when Kim is out of town. I read an article earlier in day about a new menu that was being tested in the Denver area. As the Westword said, WTF?!!? A new menu at Chipotle? I had to see this for myself and figured this location would be one of the test restaurants since it was also on the list for the brown rice trails awhile back. Upon entering the restaurant, I was glad to know my regular order as I found the new menu to be a complete change from before.

The first things listed are some featured items, one of which is a “classic burrito” but it specifies exactly what salsa, meat, and toppings go into it, making it hard to understand all of the combinations possible. Another featured item is the Pozole, which includes the new soup they are selling. You read that correctly, they now offer a soup. Fortunately some familiarity can be found on the second menu board, where it lists burritos, tacos, etc. Then there is the “Low Roller Menu” which offers selections such as soup and a taco, a single taco, and side salad. Finally there is a kids menu, featuring items which were always available anyway (quesadillas) you just had to ask.

I know it always takes some time to get used to change, but as they say, “if it isn’t broke don’t fix it.” I’m curious to see how this trial goes. I just don’t get why there is now soup, but I guess I should try it first. Unfortunately, I found it impossible to stray away from my normal order (chicken burrito), which is what part of the change is aimed toward. Maybe I can convince someone else to order it so I can give it just a taste while I enjoy my always delicious burrito.

After spending the previous day exploring Austin, we picked up our rental car and headed south toward San Antonio. Before we got too far along, we decided to take a quick detour over to Salt Lick BBQ after reading so many great reviews. Though the wait for a table inside was only 15 minutes or so, we decided to order “to-go” and sit on the picnic tables outside since it was so nice out. As we ate our lunch and drank our beers that we brought ourself (they don’t have a liquor license but allow you to BYOB), people continued to pour into the parking lot. They even opened a secondary seating area to accommodate the growing crowd. And after eating the food I can see why it is so popular, delicious!

After lunch we continued the drive down to San Antonio and immediately checked in to our hotel. From there we quickly gathered what we needed and headed out for a tour. We stopped by Market Square first, and after quickly walking through the open air Mexican style market, we moved on to the San Fernando Cathedral, which is the oldest cathedral in the US. After a quick tour, we then moved on to the Alamo. We arrived toward the end of the day and managed to catch the last educational presentation of the day. It was nice to have a refresher on the story of the battle that took place so many years ago, and it helped to visualize what the mission looked like at one time and what buildings are still standing today.

With our sight seeing out of the way, we moved on to the famous River Walk area to stroll along the river banks. We had dinner at Acenar on the recommendation of a guide book and were impressed with the speedy service and great tasting food. Kim loved their guacamole and I was very happy with my enchiladas. After dinner, we continued walking along the river until we encountered a band by the name of The Krayolas who were busy entertaining a nice sized crowd at the Arneson River Theater. This theater is one of the coolest setups I’ve seen. The stage is on one side of the River Walk, and there is theater style seating on the other side with grass growing on the benches.

After the band had finished their show, we found our way to a couple of River Walk bars to round out the night. Despite being tired from two busy days, we managed to stay out until two or three in the morning. We had a very good time in San Antonio.

South Texas Plains on Dwellable

As mentioned earlier, Kim and I took off on Friday and headed down to Austin, Texas. After arriving at the airport we decided to wait 20 minutes for the next bus that would take us right into downtown. We arrived at our hotel (Hampton Inn) right at 3pm, and after heading up to the room, we were shocked at what we saw. The room was actually a two room suite with a couple flat screens, king sized bed, couches/chairs, a dining table, fridge, microwave, etc. It even had two bathrooms. And on top of it all, we were staying on a reward certificate so the whole thing was absolutely free.

Once we were settled in, we decided to start a walking tour of the city. We headed right to Congress Avenue and walked up it until we reached the Capitol grounds. We could see it from blocks away, and it takes up multiple blocks, so it was impossible to miss. We toured through the building and exited on the north side to continue walking up Congress to the University of Texas campus. I was pretty impressed with how clean and new everything on campus appeared. We also toured the Texas Memorial Stadium while there.

After that our legs were getting pretty tired, and we were very hungry, so we caught a ride on the ‘Dillo transportation system down to the famed 6th Street. We settled on having dinner at the Iron Cactus on their rooftop patio. The food was good and the margaritas got us in the bar crawling mood. So we opted to check out some of the many bars along 6th. Earlier in the day I commented that nearly every other building on the street was a bar, but at this time I realized it was more like every building on the street is a bar.

Once it got close to sunset, we walked down the the Congress Avenue Bridge to see the largest bat colony in North America emerge to feast on the numerous bugs along the banks of the Colorado River. At it’s peak the colony can reach 1.5 million bats! It is really amazing to see them come out from under the bridge in huge numbers. I tried my best with the photos, but unfortunately it seemed that most of the action was on the south side of the river.

After a quick stop back at the hotel to drop off the camera and grab our jackets, we headed to Stubb’s BBQ to catch an outdoor performance from Yonder Mountain String Band. I had heard of this venue year’s ago, I guess when O.A.R. first played it, and have always wanted to see it since. There is a small stage inside of the restaurant, but the fun part is the large outdoor stage behind it. That’s where this show took place, and we had a great time there. After the concert we again headed down to 6th Street to finish off the night. What an action packed day!

Austin on Dwellable

I have finally finished sealing the basement walls, or at least the largest section of it before some construction can begin. I originally wanted to finish this before Jan 1, but I was really underestimating the amount of work to be done. Next, I need to finish leveling the large section of floor that was not even close to being flush. This won’t level out the entire floor, but it’s a good start, and then I can decide what I want to do from there for the finished surface.

Here’s a shot of the walls before I even started applying anything:

Halfway through:

Finished:

Here is another look at the largest exterior wall with my finished work. You can notice some color difference between where I started and the last section I did on the upper third of the wall:

Here is what it looked like halfway through, back in December:

In my quest to visit all 50 states before the age of 30, I will be traveling down to Texas this coming weekend. Kim and I both took Friday off to get an early jump on things. We will be flying to Austin in the morning and staying one night there. Saturday we will be renting a car and driving down to San Antonio for another night. And then on Sunday we will complete the voyage by driving up to Dallas. Kim has a work function in Dallas most of next week, and I will fly back to Denver later that evening. We have a couple of things planned already, but are always up for some expert advice. Our travel itinerary can be viewed here.

If you are what you eat, then I would definitely be turning into a pizza after the last few days. Friday night, Kim and I decided to check out a place we had often seen but never tried, Pasquini’s South Broadway location. Upon being immediately seated at the only open table in the restaurant, we were given some fresh bread sticks that hit the spot right away. We both ordered a calzone, and when they arrived were shocked at how large they were. Neither of us could finish more than half of it. And for under $10, they are a serious deal for two meals worth of food. I just ate my leftovers for lunch today.

Then on Sunday, on our trip back home from the mountains, we stopped in Idaho Springs to grab some pizza from Beau Jo’s. We had eaten at anther location in the past, but never at this famed original location. Not that we hadn’t tried before, it’s just that the restaurant gets packed full of people coming back after a day on the slopes. Fortunately, this time we got in after only a 15 minute wait. At Beau Jo’s they server pizza by the pound, which actually makes sense if you think about it, instead of saying how many slices there are. Knowing full well we wouldn’t eat it all, we both ordered one pound pizzas. Kim went with the Pacific Plantation and I chose the Old Settler. Both were excellent and they too provided another meal for each of us.

Finally, today I placed an order at Domino’s to pickup a free medium one topping pizza later today. I posted a link earlier on my twitter page, but it appears that the deal is dead and some orders are even being canceled. I haven’t been notified of cancellation yet, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed for more pizza tonight!

We spent the majority of the weekend up in the mountains. We started off with an early morning drive to Vail on Saturday, where we did some snowboarding. I was hoping to find lots of fluffy powder, but I think the melting and freezing cycles got the best of the week’s snow. We found the snow to be heavy and mostly packed, even all the way out in Blue Sky Basin. I did okay, but probably should have stayed on the groomed runs since I hadn’t been out in weeks. I ended up tweaking my bad ankle just enough to convince me to stop for the day, so we headed back to the car and drove over to our hotel in Keystone.

With the misadventures of our day, we decided to find other entertainment for Sunday. We decided on a snowmobiling tour with Goodtimes Adventures, out near Breckenridge. Having never tried snowmobiling before, we went with their “classic” tour which included guides to show us the ropes and lead us all the way up to Georgia Pass at 11,585 ft. Our group included about ten other snowmobiles and two guides. After a quick instructional demo, we were given the keys and led out to the practice track.

I started off driving, with Kim as the passenger, and got the hang of it pretty quickly. Before leaving the practice area, we switched so Kim could give driving a try. After that, we switched again and followed in a single line with one guide in front and one at the rear all the way up to Georgia Pass. Once at the top of the continental divide, the area was wide open and we were allowed to play around on the snowmobiles, even hitting a couple of small bumps. After a quick break there, we switched again so Kim could drive on the trails and once again followed one of the guides to another meadow for more riding.

At one point, we flew up a steep incline and then had to make a quick right turn. When doing this, our snowmobile nearly flipped onto it’s side, and we were very close to falling completely off. I guess we weren’t leaning hard enough to the inside. Afterward, Kim was a little more cautious driving through the trails. Before the two hour tour was over we encountered yet another open area with a large track. Kim took a few laps driving and then we switched it up again so I could get a few more turns in before it was all over. On the straightaways I was able to get it up to 50 mph or so. It was really thrilling to be flying on top of the snow at such speeds. I loved every minute of it and hope to do it again soon, though it will likely have to wait until next year.

We forgot to bring a camera along for our mini vacation, but we were able to purchase a photo of us with a snowmobile before taking off on our adventure.