The day has finally arrived! I have my very own laptop for the first time. Sure it is a work laptop, but I am excited nonetheless. Being a self-diagnosed computer addict, it may come as a surprise that I’ve never owned a laptop before, but I have multiple desktop machines to make up for it. I’ve wanted a laptop for some time, but always talked myself out of it. When the opportunity for a new work machine came, I was happy to go the laptop route, especially in my new position where we are constantly moving from cubes, to laps, and to meeting rooms. This machine, a Dell Precision M4500, is a monster and will be great to work with. It features an Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition processor, Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit, and NVIDIA Quadro FX 880M graphics card, and 4 GB RAM!

I was on my own for dinner last night, and after recently eating at all the restaurants near our house, I decided to go for a walk. I was on the lightrail heading north toward home and decided to get off at the Louisiana/Pearl station, one stop before my regular stop. I walked west on Louisiana toward Broadway aiming for Spicy Pickle, thinking that I would pickup a pizzetti (their version of a pizza). I arrived at the restaurant to realize that they close at 4pm, much earlier than my arrival time.

After walking along Broadway for a block or two and not finding anything else to eat, I walked back over towards Pearl and took a stroll south.   One of the first eateries I passed was a newer pizza place that I hadn’t yet tried, Kaos Pizza (new website badly needed), so I decided to give it a shot.   I remember reading that the restaurant was pretty much carry out and delivery only.   I did notice that there is a rather large patio in front of the small one room kitchen that provides some outdoor eating space.   Also, it looks like they are soon going to take over a neighboring building and offer some inside dining space, as well as a bar and beer garden (once the liquor license goes through).   This should definitely help improve the aspect of the restaurant that everyone seems to complain about, there are very few eat-in options.

I ordered the pepperoncini pizza, which is topped with tomato sauce, provolone & mozzarella, completely covered in pepperoni, tiny slivers of red onion, and obviously pepperoncini on top.   I was told it would take ten to thirteen minutes, and I was surprised when it was removed from the large pizza oven well under the fifteen minute mark.   I took my pizza to go, and ate the entire ten inch pie at home.   I must admit that I’m a big fan of Southern Italian Naples style pizza, and this pizza definitely hit the mark.   The crust was chewy and cooked perfectly, and the sauce had a bit of spice in it along with great tomato taste. The toppings were abundant, fresh, and tasty as well. I was very satisfied with my first Kaos pizza and I hope to have another soon.

Image taken from Denveater

Saturday afternoon, Kim and I took a walk for some lunch. I recently read a review of Socorro’s in 5280 and we decided to head there to try it out.   They are known for their “street tacos” but neither of us decided to order those.   Kim decided to order a torta filled with some sort of pineapple pork, if I remember correctly.   Neither of us were exactly sure what the torta was, but after having it, I would highly recommend it.   A torta is just a Mexican sandwich, and the tortas at Socorro’s are served on fresh sweet bread.   I ordered a burrito filled with chicken, rice, beans, etc. and topped with vegetarian green chile.   We also started with a basket of fresh chips and salsa, which were also very good.   We both look forward to going back to Socorro’s soon to try some of their other menu offerings.

Over the weekend, Kim and I finally planted our very first vegetable garden.   We were out picking up supplies for the built-in china cabinet (update coming soon) and decided to buy a few plants.   As mentioned earlier, I measured the sunlight in our chosen spot, and though it didn’t ever register as full sun, we decided to use the space anyway.   I did cut down a tree branch that hung overhead, so that should help some.   And we figured that Denver averaged so many sunny days, that we should have enough sun.

So, what’s in the picture above?   From left to right, we have a jalapeno plant and four bell pepper plants in the first vertical row.   The next row has a zucchini plant and four tomato plants.   Then we have nine kale plants.   I didn’t necessarily want this many, but that was the only option at the store.   Besides Amstel, our pet rabbit, eats this stuff daily.   Then we have nine broccoli plants.   Again, more than wanted to but limited to what they had.   Amstel will also help eat this.   The last two rows we dedicated to onions.   The plant in the far right corner is a strawberry plant.   I had forgotten about it until the end, so we had to squeeze it in.   We put down a row of landscaping bricks, that you can partially see on the right, to separate the garden from the yard. Proper separation is necessary, according to Couvillion’s Landscapes.   Hopefully the hard work will pay off.

With the Stanley Cup Playoffs in full force, I’ve been watching a bunch of hockey recently.   There really isn’t much better than playoff hockey.   I’m pulling for the Chicago Blackhawks to win this one, as they were often my team growing up.   Though I won’t be disappointed if the San Jose Sharks can beat them and win the cup.   I can remember when the Sharks first joined the NHL.   I think every kid I knew playing hockey had at least one Sharks’ hat at that time.   I don’t have much allegiance to Philadelphia or Montreal.   Both were big underdogs earlier in the playoffs, and I’m curious to see how much respect they will get now that they are in the conference finals.

In the last round, Philadelphia came back from being down three games to win the next four and take the best of seven series.   Another favorite team of mine just did the same thing, the Cincinnati Cyclones lost their first three games to the Reading Royals.   They went on to win the next four games and are now in the ECHL championships taking on the Idaho Steelheads.   If that wasn’t good enough, the Cyclones won the first two games of the series on the road and are well on their way to taking the Kelly Cup back to Cincinnati.   Go Cyclones!

Another busy day at work.   I did manage to squeak in a little personal time to follow the launch of space shuttle Atlantis.   This is the 32nd mission for Atlantis, and will be the last one unless there are some unplanned changes.   That leaves only two more launches in the history of the space shuttle program.   My brother’s friend, Nick Volpenhein, finally got to see a space shuttle launch live in person.   Over the past few days, he participated in the NASA Tweetup with around 150 other users of Twitter and fans of NASA.   From all that I can tell, his trip was well worth it and he is pretty much speechless at this point.   It’s always nice to fulfill a lifelong dream.

Last night started yet another season of mens’ league hockey.   About half of the team I played with over the winter is back, and we’ve added some solid new players to our roster.   We are no longer known as the Hockey Guild, but are now called Santoro’s and are sponsored by the bar in the rink with the same name.   New season, sort of new team, and new results.   We actually won a game!   It wasn’t just a win against a bad team in the league, it was a win against one of the better teams.

Some of our new additions to the team are defensemen, so it looks like I’ll be able to spend most of the season playing forward.   I had numerous scoring opportunities last night, including an open net, but I wasn’t able to convert any of them.   I would have been more upset at the missed opportunities had we lost, but our 4-2 victory was solid enough throughout most of the game.   Hopefully we can turn this into a winning streak and have some fun this summer.

This past Sunday, Kim and I spent the majority of the day painting and finishing the built-in china cabinet drawers that I mentioned last week.   We removed all of the drawers and took them outside to avoid making a huge mess.   While Kim prepped the drawers for painting, I sanded and painted the bottom half of the frame.   Once the drawers were primed and small holes filled, we painted the front and sides of the drawers.   We didn’t want to paint the actual drawer itself, just the part that you can see when they are closed.   Later in the day we also took a trip to Home Depot to get some new knobs.

Before

We still have to refinish the top half of the built-in, but this is definitely a huge improvement already.   We will likely install matching hardware to the glass doors, along with installing some new hinges.   I think we are going to leave the old shelves inside as they are.   Hopefully we find some time this weekend to start and hopefully finish the remaining pieces of the project.   Thanks again for John Monks at Trim Works Carpentry for his excellent work!

After

Before our big race on Saturday, Kim and I finally made it to the often packed breakfast eatery called Snooze.   This wasn’t the first time we tried to eat here, but each time we’ve driven past, the large crowd gathered outside has forced us to look elsewhere.   We even tried their newer location on Colorado Boulevard, but it too was packed on a random weekend morning.   This past Saturday morning would be different though.   We were up and moving before 8am.   I’m pretty sure we were at the restaurant before nine, and were seated at a table within ten minutes.   While we were leaving, I overheard that the wait was already up to 30 or 45 minutes for two people.

Kim and I both had a chai tea latte to drink while we looked over the menu.   I had heard all about their pancakes, and decided to order the pancake flight, which is three pancakes of differing flavors.   I went with the Pineapple Upside Down (fresh chunks of caramelized pineapple with housemade vanilla crème anglaise and cinnamon butter), Sweet Potato (signature sweet potato buttermilk pancakes topped with homemade caramel, pecans and ginger butter), and Cinnfull (glorious buttermilk pancake with white chocolate chips, drizzled with our homemade Bacon Caramel, vanilla cream sauce and topped with cinnamon butter).   I must admit that the latter was by far my favorite, though it was very sweet.   I also enjoyed the Pineapple Upside Down pancake, but thought the Sweet Potato was a little plain.   Or perhaps it just wasn’t as strong as the other two on my plate.   Kim ordered an omelet, which she also really enjoyed.

I’m not sure I would wait 30 or more minutes to try this restaurant.   It definitely has good food and great service, I just don’t understand the large mob that often hangs on the street-corner waiting for an open table.   Give me Lucile’s over Snooze any day of the week, though it too often has a really long wait for a table.   I guess you have to wait for good food at times.

As mentioned earlier, Kim and I participated in the CitySolve Urban Race on Saturday as team Paff Finders.   We arrived at the Ginn Mill around 11:30 to get our registration finalized and to get more information on the race.   The event was supposed to start at noon, but I think the overwhelming number of teams pushed the start back a bit.   While registration was being finalized, they decided to have the costume contest, which was originally scheduled for after the race.   It came down to two guys dressed as Jolly Green Giants and two girls dressed as Octomoms.   The winner was decided by crowd applause, and it ended up being the Jolly Green Giants.   They had my vote.

Closer to 12:30 is when the race actually started.   All teams were gathered in the parking lot behind the Ginn Mill for some last minute rule reminders, more instructions, and our first puzzle of the day.   Two of the staff held up large pieces of paper with the following question on them.   Which movie was filmed in Denver?   Depending on the correct answer was the intersection that we had to go to to pick up packets containing the rest of our clues.

Kim and I both started looking for the answer online using our phones, which is totally allowed.   We started at the bottom of the list of answers and went up.   Unfortunately, the correct answer was the first one in the list, Die Hard 2, which was filmed in a large list of cities.   Once we had found the correct answer it was pretty obvious which intersection everyone was heading.   I guess we should have just followed the crowd, but we quickly made up time running past most of the walkers at the back of the pack.   Once at 22nd & Curtis, we grabbed our packet, and started walking while reading through the list of puzzle clues.   The remainder of the race would consist of solving the puzzles, going to the place in the answer, and getting a picture there with both of us in it.   You were only allowed to use your own feet and public transportation.   No taxis, cars, bikes, rollerblades, etc.   Kim and I decided early on to just run the entire thing, though it ended up being a little longer than expected.

Below are the clues that we had to answer, listed in the order they were given to us, but not the order that we solved or took our pictures.   If you click on each clue you can see our picture for each, except for #3, which we skipped.   Every team was allowed one skip.   We skipped this one due to it being on of the furthest points away from the starting location.

1. Rita can’t fine you at this meter…locate any Denver’s Road Home to end homelessness meters.
2. This one smells sweet…you’ll need to unscramble the 2 words below to find the 1-word vacation get away located in downtown.
   GOAL MAIN
3. Are you going to the fair? There’s a restaurant whose name is an herb in the Golden Triangle where Simon and Garfunkel would probably dine. (We skipped this one, the answer was Parsley & Bailey)
4. This one’s dy-no-mite! A 1970’s sitcom has the same name as a hamburger joint.   You must find the restaurant on Colfax to get credit for this one.
5. This one’s tasty…this CITYpoint is located within 3 blocks of Civic Center Park.   Complete the crossword below to find your next destination:
   (There was a 3 item crossword puzzle with the following clues)
   Any relatively small group of soldiers.
   Shortbread, lemon drop or chocolate chip; singular.
   US capital city.
6. You might need to clean this one up…head to the lounge in LoDo whose name suggests that you might cry if you did this to milk.   Once there you’ll need to check in with a CitySolve Creative Team Member and they’ll instruct you on what to do next.
7. DETOUR: Gold or Sold (choose one of these options below – you will NOT get extra for doing both)
   Gold – Take 3 different photos of the word “GOLD” written on any album cover.
   ~OR~
   Sold – Take 3 photos of 3 different “SOLD” signs.   “FOR SALE” signs will not count unless there is a “SOLD” sign on it.   Teams may NOT create the “SOLD” sign.
8. Wake me up before you go go…this restaurant, located within a 1/4 mile of Coors Field is probably the most often used as a function on an alarm clock.
9. Are you smarter than an 8th grader…figure out angle C of the isosceles triangle below (you’re doing 8th grade math).   Angle A equals 40 degrees and sides 1 and 2 are equal.   Take the answer to angle C THEN ADD Rockies’ Helton and Giambi’s jersey numbers THEN ADD 379 to find the numerical address located on 18th Street in downtown.
10. Nothing can stop…THE ANIMAL! It’s off to Commons Park where you’ll need to meet an Animal Fitness staff member in front of the park by the stone wall.   They will direct you through a fitness obstacle course.   When you’ve successfully completed each task make sure you take a photo of your team along with t he Animal Fitness staff member. You WILL have 2 photos.   If your team only has 1 photo, you will incur a 20 minute penalty.

There were also two bonus questions.   We solved the first one but not the second:

1. Find a license plate (does NOT have to be attached to a vehicle) that has the letters “C” and “S.” The letters needn’t be in consecutive order, but MUST be part of the actual license plate number.   You’ll receive 10 minutes off your time for completing this bonus.
2. Since Denver is a pretty active city your team needs to find ALL of the following:
   Sign that reads “hiking”
   3 people on bicycles
   Bumper sticker with “skiing” on it (must be a bumper sticker, but does not have to be on a vehicle)
   You’ll receive 15 minutes off your time for completing this bonus.

We had a little help from our friend Ken for some of the puzzles, which is also allowed.   By the time we reached #9, we had most of the clues solved and mapped.   So we just followed the map along the planned route and snapped pictures.   We solved the remaining in this order: 5, 1, 4, 7, 2, 6, 10, and finally 8.   Yesterday I calculated the total distance covered to be over 6.5 miles.   It was a tiring race, but well worth, especially when we arrived and finished in 3rd place!   There were nearly 100 teams, so this was a pretty solid performance, and it gets us free entry into the national championship in New Orleans if we decide to compete on Halloween weekend.   The winner there takes home $5,000.