I am really amazed at how much our little vegetable garden has grown over the last month.   I hope it’s not too much longer before we have some fresh produce.   Here is a picture I snapped as I walked into the house last night after work.

The tomatoes are by far the biggest and I put some cages on them a few weeks ago.   They are followed by the  broccoli  in the third row, and then probably the kale.   The peppers on the far left side haven’t grown too much, though I’m not sure if that’s normal or not.   The onions were doing great a week ago but then we had a rainy week and they don’t appear  to be as tall and strong as before.   Overall I am very impressed with the progress, take a look at this second picture which was taken just over a month ago.

As I mentioned at the end of last week, I traveled to Noblesville, Indiana this past weekend for two nights of shows performed by the Dave Matthews Band.   Kim and I both took the late evening flight out of Denver to Indianapolis.   Her parents and brother Nick met us at the airport and they were soon on their way to a nice family trip to Lake Monroe south of Indianapolis.   Shortly after their departure, a group of my friends arrived at the airport to escort me to the campground out in Noblesville, about an hour from the airport.   We didn’t arrive until sometime around two in the morning.   There were only a couple of guys still up at the campsite when I arrived, we had a couple of drinks, did some catching up, and then headed to bed with the others.

Friday morning came quickly.   Even though we had already setup nearly a dozen tents, we continued to have more and more friends arriving at the campground every hour.   I spent some time getting my tent ready early that morning, and decided not to put the rainfly on to let air flow through the tent to keep it cooler.   Besides, there was a zero percent chance of rain on Friday when I had checked a day or so earlier.   By early afternoon all of our friends had arrived and we spent the rest of the time before the show playing cornhole, ladder balls, tossing footballs, etc.   It was awesome to catch up with everyone, many of whom I hadn’t seen since our wedding nearly two years ago, and some even longer than that.

That takes us right up to just before six in the evening, when the doors of the amphitheater opened up.   We all headed over early to check out an amazing band, Elmwood, who were playing the side stage.   Many of my friends had seen them play before, in fact some where in Indianapolis the night before attending their show, but I had yet to see them.   Right away I was blown away by the amount of talent that was on display.   I already have one of their albums, and would highly recommend checking them out.   From there we moved to the main stage as Robert Earl Keen  started their opening set.   This band doesn’t fit into the mold of music that I typically listen to, but I still recognized their talent and abilities.   It was neither great or un-great.

Just as DMB was scheduled to take the stage a little after eight, an announcer got on mic and let everyone know that there was a storm about to hit and that the show was going to be delayed.   Just after the announcement, the skies unleashed their fury on the lawn.   Fortunately my friend Fighty and I had seats in the pavilion so we remained dry.   However, I realized that I had left the rainfly off of my tent and that nearly everything I brought was going to be soaked!   The show was delayed for quite some time, but eventually the band was allowed to play and they still performed a full length set.   The energy that started the beginning of this set was amazing.   It all started with a crowd sing along of Sublime’s “Santaria” launching into the band taking the stage with “JTR.”   I believe it rained through much of the show, and that trend continued all night.   We walked up the lawn on the way out and it was a swampy mess.   Back at camp, some friends of ours had a large enough tent for a group of us to sit in for the remainder of the night.   And fortunately some other friends had an extra tent that I slept in that night.

Saturday was essentially a repeat of the prior day for the first part: more games, more conversation, and more drinks.   My brother and his friend Nick joined us for most of that afternoon, and also met us at the sidestage to see another Elmwood performance.   If it was even possible, I think their performance was even better this second day.   Toward the end of their set DMB touring musician,  Rashawn Ross, was even there to catch the talented band play.   We skipped the majority of Robert Earl Keen’s set this second day to hang out at the sidestage area.   DMB’s set was not delayed this night, and it again started off great.   So great in fact that this is probably one of their better shows I have seen in many years.   Highlights for me include Stay or Leave, Recently, Warehouse, heck nearly the entire show.

The entire weekend was awesome, even though I now have a destroyed library book that I’ll have to replace as it didn’t survive my flooded tent.   By the end of the second night my tent and most other possessions had finally dried out and I was able to use the gear that I lugged with me all the way from Denver.   Even the storms couldn’t ruin our trip and it was so great to see so many friends again and catch up with all of them.   With DMB not going on tour next summer it sounds like we may have to find something else to do for our gathering.

The weekend is finally here, well at least for me. I am flying out of Denver tonight to Indianapolis and taking off tomorrow. After missing the Dave Matthews Band tour last summer, I will be catching back-bo-back shows this weekend at Deer Creek! I haven’t been to Deer Creek since 2007, but I don’t think much has changed. The area around the amphitheatre certainly has developed, but our group still camps at the Sleepybear Campground and always arrives a night early.   In fact some of my friends are already at the campground, holding spots for others.   I think in total we will have near twenty people in our group.   I haven’t seen some of these friends in years, so it will definitely be a great time.   Only three more hours of work and then the fun can begin!

Besides the obvious cravings for Skyline Chili and LaRosa’s Pizza, occasionally I miss a restaurant back in Cincinnati called Penn Station.   Penn Station serves “east coast” subs, think cheesesteaks and such.   I’ve long been a fan of their chicken teriyaki   and  chicken parmesan sandwiches.   Fortunately I think I’ve found a replacement in Denver that is nearly as good, Cheesesteak Connection.   Including last night’s visit, I have visited twice and have sampled both their chicken  teriyaki and pizza Philly (with chicken).   I would definitely have to choose Penn Station’s chicken parmesan over Cheesesteak Connection’s chicken pizza, which was the first sandwich I tried.   Luckily I gave the restaurant another chance, and I must admit that their chicken teriyaki is definitely a good sandwich, different from Penn Station’s, but equally as  good.

Now I’m not claiming to be  an expert on Philly sandwiches, in fact I’ve never even visited Philadelphia, but I’ve read that the Cheesesteak Connection serves the best Phillys in Denver.   There are a few other restaurants in town that also have the same distinction from other reviewers, so I’ll have to give them a try sometime as well.   One thing that the Cheesesteak Connection could improve on would be their fries.   I always enjoy waffle fries, but I think fresh-cut skin-on fries are best served with Philly sandwiches.   It is still refreshing to know that I now have  someplace to fulfill my occasional chicken teriyaki Philly craving.

Perhaps I’ve never given it much attention, but this year’s World Cup seems to be more popular than ever. Our friend Rob had a gathering at his place on Saturday to watch the USA team’s first game against England. I’m sure most people watched the game, so I won’t given any recap or commentary. If we hadn’t watched the game at Rob’s, there was a large gathering of people in downtown Denver at the British Bulldog  that some other friends were attending.   They had closed off a street and put up a huge screen for game watching.   I’m told that even despite the rain that there was a big crowd throughout the game.   I’m even finding myself tuning into games during my lunch break at work.   I haven’t started setting the DVR to record, but that still might be possible as the tournament moves forward.   I just might be catching this craze.

For dinner last night, Kim found a black bean burger recipe that she wanted to try.   Normally I would be hesitant to try one of these “veggie burgers.”   No, not because I love regular burgers.   It’s quite the opposite actually, as I don’t really eat red meat.   I just have never had a desire to pretend I’m eating something that I really don’t want to eat.   No turkey burgers, no veggie burgers, etc.   However, a few weeks ago Kim ordered a black bean burger from a restaurant, though I can’t recall which one.   She remarked at how good it was and offered a bite.   I decided to give it a try and was surprised at how tasty it really was.

Anyway, Kim found a recipe and she prepared the burgers while I finished painting our entryway.   The recipe says that they aren’t quite firm enough for the backyard grill, but we had no problem grilling ours.   I think she used all of the flour called for in the recipe, which actually helped to firm up the outside of the burgers.   We added some slices of cheddar cheese to ours, along with toasted wheat buns, ketchup, mustard, and pickles.   They weren’t quite as good as the burger Kim ordered a couple weeks ago, but they were still pretty good.   I’d give them a seven or eight on a scale of ten.   I’d like to keep experimenting with the recipe and adding additional things to the mix to spice it up, but it is defnitely a great starting point for some healthy food.

The following video was recently shown to our group at work.   It features one of our directors briefly describing the project that I’ve spent  a lot  of time on recently.   I figured it would help summarize exactly what it is we are trying to accomplish in my new role.

Last night I headed back to Red Rocks for the second time this summer. This time we would be seeing Sting  perform with the over forty piece  Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra.   There would be no opening act, just the headliners performing two sets and a series of encores.   They played nearly a dozen of the hits to start and end the night, and filled the rest with some lesser known ballads. I definitely enjoyed the beginning and end of the performance better than the seemingly never-ending list of ballads. While a little sleepy at times, the orchestra really helped to bring the ballads to life for most of the show. It wasn’t exactly what I was expecting to see, but still a cool performance nonetheless.

With all of that said, Sting can really sing, especially for someone who is going on sixty years old!   And he really moves around quite  a bit during the performance, though not as much as the orchestra conductor, who was bouncing around his platform nearly the entire show.   I would have preferred the entire thing to be  a little more upbeat.   For example, “Roxanne” was rearranged  to be a much more  ballad type  song.   I think many people like it, but I would prefer it in its original form.   However, there were a few faster and louder hits played, highlights being “Every Little Thing She Does,” “King of Pain,” and “Desert Rose.”   Notice that nearly all the songs I mentioned are Police songs, and not just Sting songs, so maybe I need to see a full show from the Police.   I’ll keep my fingers crossed for another reunion.

While Nick was in town over the weekend, we did a few other things besides taking him to his first concert.   On Saturday morning we drove back out to the Red Rocks area for a hike along the Dinosaur Ridge.   We started on the side closest to Red Rocks, so we had to hike up and over the ridge to reach the visitors center.   Fortunately, we had decided to pick up sandwiches before our hike, otherwise we wouldn’t have made it.   We ate our sandwiches at the visitors center, looked through the gift shop, and thought about paying $3 per person for a ride back to the car.   We didn’t have enough cash, so we decided to hike back to the car, covering the mile and a half pretty easily once again.  

Later in the evening, we took Nick to a Colorado Rapids soccer game along with a few of our friends.   We bought tickets from Groupon  a few weeks ago, which gave us VIP tickets and a free shirt.   During the drive to Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, the weather became a little questionable.   Fortunately our VIP tickets were about fifteen rows off the field and had a roof over our heads.   During the game there were brief periods of rain but we didn’t get wet at all.   The game itself was fun, though there was no scoring in the first half.   Eventually Colorado scored a goal against the visiting Columbus Crew, and that was all it took for the victory.  

Additional pictures can be found on the Hais  Family Picasa site.   Nick took most of the pictures that he is not physically a part of.   Here is a slideshow  containing all the photos.  

I attended my first concert back in 1991 with my dad. He took me to see Rush  at Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, now known as U.S. Bank Arena.   I was eleven years old and I still can remember the experience to this day.   That brings me to this  weekend, we took Kim’s youngest brother, Nick, to a concert at Red Rocks.   He is only nine, so he is already beating me by a couple of years.   Not to mention that his future concert going experiences may never compare to the scenery at Red Rocks.   The lineup for the night started with State Radio, then Medeski  Martin & Wood, and finally John Bulter Trio.   We arrived as State Radio had already taken the stage.   I’ve seen them a couple of times before, but I don’t remember liking them as much as I did this time.   I read that most of the songs they played were from their latest release, Let It Go, so I’ll have to be  sure to pick that up soon.   Toward the end of their set, I took Nick on a walk around the venue.   We climbed the stairs all the way to the top and took in the great view.   I also showed him the inside of the visitors center.

We had seats in the twenty-fifth  row, but once Medeski  Martin & Wood (MMW) started, the music became too loud for Nick.   We brought along earplugs, but we couldn’t get him to try them out.   So we decided to move up and eventually ended up sitting in the very last row.   The sound was not quite  so loud, and there were a couple of others kids nearby.   I actually like the view from up top, and we had plenty of room to spread out.   I had never seen MMW  before, and I don’t think I will go out of my way to see them again.   I can appreciate completely instrumental music, but I really need vocals to be  fully entertained.   Apparently  I wasn’t the only one, as the general consensus in the beer line was that MMW should have played first and allowed State Radio to have an expanded set in the middle slot.

After a somewhat bizarre  native american dance session, the  John Butler Trio finally took the stage.   This would be the seventh time I’ve seen JBT  and probably one of the best.   The trio was recently reconfigured to include older drummer Nicky Bomba  and Byron Luiters  on bass, and the chemistry with this incarnation sounded great.   The vocal harmonies have never sounded better, and each musician brings a unique quality to the older songs.   Switching band members is nothing new for John Butler, and I think it helps him to keep the songs and shows unique and interesting.   The show was scheduled to go until midnight, but they were behind schedule and it ended up going well past the scheduled time.   Nick did eventually fall asleep about halfway through their set, but he made it long enough to hear his favorite song, “Don’t Wanna See Your Face.”   I’m sure it was an experience he will never forget.