We’ve spent a bunch of time on home improvement projects recently, as well as spending some money on it as well.   Kim has wanted a new front door since we moved in, and we finally had that done a couple of weeks ago.   Adoor removed our old door and put in a better fitting solid wood door, along with cleaning up some of our trim, and they will soon be weather-stripping the entire thing.   I found them through servicemagic.com and decided to use them out of the three different offers we received.   I’ve been impressed with the full process thus far and will likely use servicemagic.com again in the future.

Yesterday, Kim had a friend of a friend come in and put in six new drawers in our built-in china cabinet.   The old ones were falling apart, so we had brand new drawers built and placed into new slides.   I still have to paint them and put on new hardware, but so far again it was another great job.   I’m not sure if John has a website or not, but if you need some carpentry type work done in the Denver area I can pass along his contact info.

I’ll be sure to get some new photos of these projects soon.   I wish we had some before photos, though I may be able to dig through some old pictures and find some.   Hopefully I can do some work this weekend and post pictures next week.

Last night I made the trek up to Boulder for the first time in awhile.   My destination was the Rock N Soul Cafe, where Russ and Anton of SoundRabbit would be playing and recording an acoustic duo show.   I had yet to see their duo performance live, and with an official release resulting from this show, it was as good as time as any.   The venue was a cool little coffee shop, restaurant, and bar.   The stage and sound-system were more than adequate for the intimate space.   The husband and wife owners were very friendly and quite handy.   The husband runs the soundboard, while his wife takes care of the drink and food orders.

As far as the performance goes, I was amazed by how well the normally full-band songs of SoundRabbit transitioned into the duo format.   Russ and Anton’s playing styles and vocal harmonies complimented each other very well.   Even songs that are normally played on piano, or that rely heavily on drums and bass for the back-beat, sounded really good.   I don’t think any of the songs sounded out of place in this different style.   I talked with both guys after the show and they both hoped to play more acoustic shows in the future.   Anton added that there are some challenging parts and that was what kept it exciting.   The parts in the songs that are normally loud and peaking, they have often quieted down and downplayed for the acoustic setting.   Here’s a sample from a recent radio show Story Of…

The full band is heading out to Virginia tomorrow to work on their next studio release.   Best of luck fellas!

Kim and I are going to be on the Amazing Race!   Well not exactly, but this could be the next best thing.   Yesterday I registered us for the CitySolve Urban Race, which takes place this Saturday in Denver.   “Where brains beat brawn! Teams of 2 solve clever clues and face fun challenges all while navigating the urban landscape via foot or on public transportation! It’s a scavenger hunt, with all the thrills of the amazing race, mixed in with trivial pursuit, throw in a mini road race and add a dash of cat-and-mouse. And voila! You’ve got CitySolve Urban Race!”   I found some half-priced entries from LivingSocial.com yesterday, and soon enough team Paff Finders was registered and ready to race.   This should be a blast.

Have you ever wondered what beer might have tasted like before prohibition?   Well now you have your chance.   Coors has just released Batch 19 Pre-Prohibition Style Lager.   Based on a recipe that is over 90 years old, this beer delivers a “bold, hoppy flavor that is surprisingly well-balanced.”   From a recent 5280 blog:

Keith Villa, the MillerCoors brewmaster behind Coors’ Blue Moon, explains:  â€When Prohibition banned beer in 1919, breweries went under and recipes were lost. In our case, the archived logbooks with these old recipes were stored in the basement of the brewery and forgotten about, until a small flood prompted me to move them to safety. When I realized what I had found, it was something I knew I had to brew. This recipe is part of our history, and I think beer fans will really enjoy a chance to taste the past.”

Unfortunately the brew is only available in five cities: Chicago, San Fran, San Jose, Washington, D.C. and Milwaukee.   I’m disappointed that it won’t be offered in Coors home of Denver, but perhaps that will change in the future.   I know that I’d like to give it a try.

After a few weeks off I made my return to the ice rink for a charity hockey tournament over the weekend.   I was filling in for a team that shares a few players with my normal adult league team.   The action started off on Friday night against a team that I’ve played against regularly.   The problem was that normally our team plays in division C, and the team I was playing on for the tournament normally plays in division E.   Take that fact along with a few ringers that our opponents added to their normal team, and it’s easy to see that we didn’t stand a chance.   I was just happy that we managed to get a couple of goals in the 7-2 blowout.

One nice thing is that the team I was playing on was loaded with defensemen, so I was able to actually play offense for once.   I nearly scored one of the goals in our first game, but one of my line-mates got to it first.   However, I was able to add goals in the following two games on Saturday.   Our first game on Saturday was against a team that was more on our same level.   The game was a good one, but in the end it was a 3-1 loss, with one of the goals being an empty-netter in the last-minute of play.   Obviously, our lone goal was one that I scored for us fairly early in the game.   It was a disappointing loss.

We had quite a bit of down time between the first and second games.   Most on the team stuck around for a few cups of free beer and some free brats.   After awhile a handful of the team headed over to one of the guys house to watch some of the NHL action.   I would have hoped that our team would be inspired to win a game after watching the pros.   But as most were rooting for the Blackhawks, I think the Hawks poor performance rubbed off on us.   It was either that or all the beer.   The second game on Saturday night was rather brutal.   I don’t recall the final score, but it wasn’t close.   I did score one of our goals, which I think there were only two.

Saturday evening’s game wasn’t over until midnight.   Unfortunately our poor performance caused us to be scheduled for our last game at 7am on Sunday morning.   In the first three games we always had a solid number of players, perhaps too many as we often filled up three lines.   On Sunday morning we were lucky we could field two lines of skaters.   I was moved back to defense due to the absence of some players, and was hoping I could help to keep the scoring down and finally get a win.   Unfortunately, this game ended the same as all the others.   As this game featured the worst two teams in the tournament, we matched up with them well, but their goalie played amazing.   I’m sure we out-shot our opponents, but they went on to win a rather close one.

Even with the four loss performance it was still a good time and I was glad to be back on the ice.   Summer league starts next week.

Last night I finally saw my first SoundRabbit performance of 2010.   It had been quite awhile since I last saw them play, so Kim and I headed to The Walnut Room last night after a benefit event for Colorado CASA.   This was my first time at this venue, though we recently ate at their newly opened second location.   The main room of the place feels very similar to the newer location, and that is all that is visible from the front door.   I asked the employee at the door if this was the right place, and we soon realized that the concert room is behind another door in the far corner of the dining area.

At first I didn’t think anyone was playing, but after we opened the second door we were greeted with the sounds of music.   It was amazing how sound proof the walls must be.   I didn’t catch the name of the duo that was playing when we walked it, but we listened to a few of their songs before they were finished.   The concert room was nice, with an abundance of high-top tables and chairs, and the sound system was really good.   Before long SoundRabbit took the stage and quickly setup their equipment.   They had told us earlier that they arrived too late to get a sound-check before the show, so it all had to be done on the fly.   Obviously the mix wasn’t the best ever, but they still sounded really good.   We took our neighbors along with us and they both seemed to really enjoy the show as well.   I hope I don’t wait too long to catch another of their performances.

Over the weekend, I poured a couple of glasses of my latest homebrew for myself and a few friends.   Overall, the reactions were mixed, but I think the majority thought that it still needed more carbonation.   So we only had a glass or two that day, but over the last couple of days I’ve tried it again and I think it is much better than before.   The carbonation really helps bring out the bitterness of the Pale Ale style and gives it a nice crisp taste.   I’m the only one who has tried it again, so I may be a bit biased, but I’m sure it won’t be long before Kim or some friends decide to give it another try.   Cheers!

My progress has been a little slow, but I just finished the sixth book in the Alex Cross series, Roses are Red. I don’t recall exactly when I started reading them, but it was likely around this time last year. A post from last July indicated that I had finished the first two books and was waiting for the third from the library.   Not exactly a blistering pace, but at least I’m reading more than I once was, which added up to zero books per year.   I’m still really enjoying the series, and I have the seventh book, Violets are Blue, on hold from the library.   At this rate it will only take me a couple more years to finish the entire series, as long as James Patterson doesn’t write too many more.

Awhile back I uploaded a family tree to Geni.com.   At some point in grade school I created an electronic version of my family tree by copying a paper copy along with some help of my parents.   The file that I created is eventually what I uploaded to Geni.com, which is partially visible here.   The cool thing is that this site can automatically find matches between your tree and other trees, and if both parties approve the trees can be merged.   Over the weekend I was constantly merging trees and have emailed back and forth with a couple of distant relatives.   It’s especially cool to find out that you have things in common with some of these people, like occupations and interests.   I even found out that the Naked Cowboy is a distant relative, my third cousin once removed.

It’s been nearly three weeks since I last posted pictures from our trip to Arizona, and finally today I give you the last installment.   On our second day in Sedona we took a ride with the Pink Jeep Tours along the Broken Arrow trail.   Our group of five was assigned to a jeep, we hopped in and the driver/tour guide started the two-hour tour.   We stopped a little down the road to pick up two others who would be joining us on the adventure.   After driving on the roads for a few minutes, we quickly hit the trail.   At first it was a little bumpy but didn’t seem too bad.   Eventually that thought would change as we went over steep, bumpy, and twisting terrain.

We stopped at Submarine Rock for our first picture opportunity and history lessons.   Later we drove out toward Chicken Point, with great views of the Two Sisters rock formations.   Along with the great scenery, the off-roading was a blast.   The super steep “Road of no Return” was especially fun toward the end of the ride.   This tour is a bit expensive, but I’d say it’s worth every penny and definitely highly recommended.

After the tour, we loaded into our own car and started the drive back to Phoenix.   We took a scenic route rather than taking I-17 back.   Our route followed AZ-89A through Cottonwood and Jerome, eventually taking us to AZ-89 and Prescott.   This part of the drive was very scenic, as Jerome sits high on Cleopatra Hill.   We stopped in Jerome briefly, but there isn’t much to see in the Ghost Town other than the wonderful views.   Once in Prescott we stopped for lunch at, you guess it, Prescott Brewing Company.   I don’t remember much about their beers, but the food was great.

After lunch we continued on AZ-89 and eventually found our way to US-60.   This section of the drive was not nearly as scenic, but slowly the large Saguaro cactus started appearing more frequently.   This took us all the way back to Phoenix, approaching from the northwest.   We headed across town and made our way to the Arizona Grand Resort, our final destination of the trip.   We didn’t do much else for the short remainder of our trip besides hanging at the tiki bar, lounging in the lazy river, and wishing we had time to sneak in a round of golf.   Oh well, next time.

Pictures from this last full day in Arizona are below.   It was a wonderful trip.

Sedona on Dwellable