This weekend I will be attending my second WordCamp.   You may recall that I attended WordCamp in Denver last year, and though afterward  I wasn’t sure if I would attend another, I decided to give it another try this year.   I figured that even though I wasn’t completely satisfied last year that it deserved another chance, especially since last year was the first ever in the area.   I’m hoping to learn a little more about WordPress, but also hope to be entertained by some of the presentations like last year, and even do a little networking.   Currently I’m planning to attend the following sessions: Caching in WordPress, WordPress Development, and DIY Usability Testing.   I’m also considering Design Panel and SEO Techniques, which are at the same time, and leaning towards What’s Next for WordPress over From URL to SQL to HTML.   Unfortunately it doesn’t look like Matt Mullenweg, the founding developer of WordPress, will be there this year.   His presentation last year was very memorable.

To kick off the long holiday weekend Kim and I ventured out for dinner on Friday evening.   She was craving something spicy, so we consulted the latest 5280 magazine’s Top of the Town  and decided to head to the editors’ choice for Indian Restaurants, which is creatively named India’s Restaurant.   Fortunately, as we would soon realize, the food is much better  than the name and the location of  this restaurant.   It is situated  in a suburban  strip mall and shares an entrance with  a discount movie theater.   That doesn’t exactly scream authentic, but we soon were treated to some of the best Indian food I have ever had.

We started with the Shahi  Bhajia, Crisp deep-fried vegetable fritters.   The variety of vegetables were all good, but I especially liked the broccoli.   And for dinner Kim went with the    Ticca  Saag, Boneless tandoori chicken diced and cooked in a spinach and cream sauce.   I chose the Malai  Koftam, Indian vegetable and cheese balls in a delicately spiced curry.   We both ordered the meals to be  prepared  to the medium spice level.   Even this came with a warning the server that it would be, “hot like jalapeno.”   We shared both dishes and I can admit that the Ticca  Saag  was definitely spicy and there was no way we could have eaten it prepared  hot, but the Malai  Koftam was not as spicy, though that could be intentional.

Both dishes were excellent and I would order each again, but with so many choices on the menu I’m sure we would try something else the next time.   We also ordered a side of garlic nan  with our meals, which was also very good.   My only complaint would be that each entrée was only served with a small dish of rice.   I prefer much more rice to help balance the heat if needed.   I’m sure we could have asked for more rice, but instead we prepared some of our own at home to go with the leftovers for today’s lunches.   It was just as good reheated as it was when we first had it a few days ago.

I previously reported  that I hadn’t found any issues with the new iOS4  on my iPhone 3GS, but I have recently discovered an issue.   Emails that are generated  from applications other than the email app do not automatically send.   Instead they sit in the outbox and I have to go in and manually send each of them from there.   This is not how email behaved before the upgrade.   I finally found a post on the Apple Support forums  but there has yet to be  a successful solution posted.   This isn’t a serious bug, just a minor inconvenience, but I do hope it is fixed soon.

Another week is nearly over and I’m happy to report another win in last night’s hockey game.   My team faced off with the Subluxators  last night, who we already beat once earlier in the season.   This team has a few guys on the roster that I used to play with, so it’s always nice to beat up on old friends.   We started off with a nice lead of a couple of goals.   Suddenly one player on the other team dropped his gloves and headed for our goalie.   He was quickly dropped to the ice by goalie, and we all quickly commented that it was the dumbed thing we’ve ever seen.   Why would you go after the most armored player on the ice?   Well apparently this guy said our goalie hit him in the groin with his stick.   I guess he forgot his jockstrap?

Anyway, back to the game.   After the player mentioned above was thrown  out of the game for trying to fight, our opponents were left with only seven skaters.   Miraculously they managed to stay in the game, and probably could have won if we didn’t have three full forward lines and four  defensemen.   At one point in the second period the game was actually tied, but we never  completely lost control of our lead, and eventually we were up by a few goals again.   That’s where the game ended, 8-5 was the final score I believe.   The league has been a little slow in posting results recently so I’m forced to guess.   I do know that our record is now 7-2 and we only have five more games left to play in the short summer session.   Things are looking good as we are solidly in third place overall.

Sunday Kim and I headed to City Park for our first ever City Park Jazz  concert.   We had often heard about this weekly event during the summer, but always seemed to forget about it or have something else going on.   This past Sunday would be different.   A friend of ours mentioned that she was heading that way while we were with her on Saturday, and we promised to show up.   Around five on Sunday we hopped on our bikes and headed toward City Park.   We arrived a little after the concert had already started and immediately were blown away by the number of people there.   I had expected a bunch of people, but the odd stage configuration left little prime viewing places.   Therefore it was odd to see people sprawled to all ends of the park, out of site of the band, and often out of range to even hear the music.

Before finding any of our friends, we enjoyed a couple of songs from the Manuel Lopez Trio.   Kim also decided to get a  snow cone from one of the nearby vendors.   There was a wide variety of food offerings, though no alcohol sold.   That doesn’t mean that alcohol isn’t allowed, you just have to bring it yourself, as most people did.   Eventually we found our friends out in the far limits of the crowd.   They had brought all sorts of food to eat while sitting on blankets and enjoying the weather, people watching, and the occasional blast of music.   We had a good time, but it was definitely different from what I had expected.   The weekly event merely seems like an excuse to get together, and not actually the reason.   Perhaps if there were adequate space, the crowd would be more into the music.

Saturday night was movie night for Kim and me, something we haven’t done in a while.   We stopped by the local Redbox  and made a couple of quick selections.   Another couple in line behind us watched as we made our selections and seemed to have something good to say about every movie we took a look at.   After watching the movies that they essentially selected for us, I’m beginning to think that they just wanted us to get out-of-the-way.

First up was It’s Complicated, which Kim looked at first.   The guy behind us remarked that it was actually pretty funny.   After watching the movie, however, I think that he and I have a completely opposite sense of humor.   I thought the movie was terrible, and Kim pretty much agreed with me.   I don’t think it could have been more predictable and the end of the movie seemed to go on forever.   The only redeeming quality was that Steve Martin was in it, which did help the comedy  aspect  a tad.

Redeeming the night for us was Brothers, a story of war and love.   It isn’t really about war, but the war does play an important part in the early disappearance  of the leading man.   Fortunately, his brother steps in to help out his now solo wife and their family.   Unfortunately, he and the wife nearly fall for each other, which leads to complications when the missing man eventually returns to the story.   Not only do they have this love triangle to deal with, the returned soldier is also suffering from  the torture and pain he dealt with while overseas.   This proved to be  a much more memorable and enjoyable movie to watch than the first choice of the night.   I would watch this one again and definitely would skip It’s Complicated.

I started off the weekend with back-to-back appearances at the Irish Snug.   I’m no stranger to this restaurant as it has become our latest Bengals bar in town, after the Bears fans reclaimed  Wyman’s.   I rode my bike up to the Snug on Friday after work to meet some friends for happy hour.   They have a great two-for-one deal on draft beers during happy hour, including a couple of special brews from the Tommyknocker  Brewery up in Idaho Springs.   I would definitely recommend the Naked Tinker beer over the 5 Lamps Lager.   Neither of them are outstanding, but at two-for-one prices, they are hard to pass up.   Also on the happy hour menu are a variety of small plates.   I’d recommend the jalapeno poppers, curry chips (slightly messy), or the soft shell tacos.   Our group had nearly all the happy hour food items on the menu and I didn’t hear any complaints.

After Friday happy hour, I ventured back to the Snug on Saturday afternoon to watch the World Cup game, dragging Kim along to watch.   I’m glad we ate before we arrived Saturday, as they were only serving a limited menu after getting slammed during the USA and England match a couple of weeks ago.   They were serving their fish and chips, which always seems like a popular staple of the menu.   Rather than wasting time with food I concentrated on a couple of Guinness and the game on TV.   Speaking of TV, they bar is loaded with many of them throughout the two floors, all of great quality.   It’s a wonderful place to watch a game, unfortunately the same could not be said for the results of the game on TV that day.

I’ve been using  the latest version of the iPhone software (iOS  4) for a few days now on my 3GS. The backgrounding feature is pretty cool, though I’ve only really seen it useful for listening to things like Pandora while doing something else on the phone.   I haven’t really found any other good use for it yet, though the quick switching between applications is cool.   I just wish that nearly all applications didn’t stay running all the time, making it optional would be nice.   Maybe there is an option that I just haven’t found yet.   I haven’t given it too much time.

Another thing that is great is being able to group apps into folders.   Before this I had maybe seven or eight pages of apps, which made it difficult to find what I wanted.   I did try to keep them all alphabetized, but now I have only two pages of apps.   The first page has a couple of folders but other than that it has my most commonly used applications.   The second page is all folders of various categories with the remaining apps fitting into one of them.   This really helps to keep things organized.   Of course all folders now have the apps inside them alphabetized for even quicker use.

Those are the biggest changes I’ve noticed so far.   I did download iBooks  and a couple of free books.   I doubt I will ever buy a book as I prefer to get them from the library, but I’m hoping I can sync some library ebooks up to iBooks in the future.   I’ve noticed the threaded mailbox, but haven’t much time to use it.   The same is true with the 5x zoom that is now available on the camera, and places stored in the photos.   So far I’ve been impressed with the new features and look forward to getting more familiar with them.   Anyone considering the upgrade should absolutely do so if you are running the 3GS.   I’ve heard the upgrade can slow down the 3G, but I haven’t noticed anything like that on the 3GS.

After a great start to this current hockey season, my team has managed to keep the winning going most of the time. I think we’ve only lost one game so far and that was to the top ranked team in the league. I think we played around five or six total games, so our record is looking pretty good. I tried to go online to the league’s website, but it appears that it’s been hacked.

I’ve split my time pretty evenly between playing offense and defense. As long as most of the other defensemen show up, I’m usually able to play wing. I haven’t had a goal yet, but I’ve contributed numerous assists. Our game last night was no exception and I should have been credited with at least one assist in our 7-4 win. I was surprised that I played well considering that I not only biked into work yesterday, but I also biked home from work. It was right around forty miles roundtrip, and I my legs still feel a little like bricks. Playing hockey on top of that was definitely questionable, but the game went pretty well for me. It looks like we are about halfway through this session and are in very good shape.

This morning I participated in my third annual Bike to Work Day.   After ditching me last year, Kim decided to join in again for the fun.   We started our ride around 5:45 this morning, after mapping out a route last night.   Once again it was a different route than used the other two years, though there are some similarities.   We started on a route similar to what we used two years ago, weaving along Franklin, Dartmouth, Colorado, and Quincy.   Once at Quincy we hopped on the High Line Canal trail to take us all the way to the same Panera we visited before for the free food and drink.   From there we continued on Orchard over towards Kim’s office.   As we arrived there just before 7:30  she remarked that we should bike to work more often, as it wasn’t as tough as she remembered it being.

I continued on from Kim’s office, remembering that the ride from there to my office was pretty hilly before, but hoping that my route would be a little better.   Besides, the weather was great and I was hoping to find another breakfast station.   I quickly rode to the other side of I-25 and entered the area I referred to last year  as Inverness land, where nearly all the streets have the same name.   However, I didn’t make one wrong turn this year and ended up passing in front of the Colorado Athletic Club Inverness for a couple of slices of orange and some orange juice.   It wasn’t nearly as good as the free bagel from Panera, but I wasn’t too hungry anyway.   I continued on my way, and quickly saw the office sitting up on the last massive hill of the ride.   I ride the hill pretty regularly, now that I am in the office daily, and often bring my bike on the light rail  commute.    Though it is always a tough climb, it was nothing like today.   I managed to find the strength to get to the top and arrived right around 8:30.   Even after a quick shower, no one had realized that I was late or that I even biked all the way from home.

I’m considering riding the bike all the way home after work today, which is something I haven’t yet done on Bike to Work Day. I have another route that I really want to try sometime, so I figure that today might as well be the day. I have a change of clothes to put back on, and I don’t have anywhere to be  until 9:30 tonight. As long as I leave by six I think I am going to do it. The route that we took this morning can be seen below.