Wednesday night Kim and I hosted a gathering at our house for part of the group from our recent hut trip.   We were getting together for dinner and to exchange pictures.   Though I didn’t end up offering samples of my recently kegged homebrew, I prepared another hit at the party.   In addition to serving grilled chicken, I prepared this green bean recipe that I’ve used numerous times before.   Though it is very easy and requires very few ingredients, the results are very tasty and approved by our group of snowshoeing hikers.   In fact, it is so simple that I’m sure we could make it on next year’s hut trip as it doesn’t require more than the beans, a premixed sauce, and some garlic.   Give it a try.

Today is the 40th Earth Day, if you didn’t already know it.   I’ve recently been thinking about planting a garden for vegetables, and the first thing I’m trying to do is decide where I should put it in the yard.   I think it needs to have at least 6 hours of sun a day and daily watering.   The watering part is easy, as most of the yard gets watered a few times a week, and I can supplement additional watering as needed.   The difficult part is the sun.   I have an ideal spot on the southern edge of our backyard that I’d really love to use, but I’m not sure it gets enough sun due to a fence and shed.   So I just ordered this sunlight calculator to help me find out.   It should also help me in judging what plants to put in other places of the yard.   We already planted two new plants over the weekend, and I have plans to plant even more soon.

I recently kegged my third batch of homebrew.   This is an American style Pale Ale that I brewed on March 14th.   I then let it ferment from that day all the way until this past Saturday, April 17th.   So it sat for over a month, which may have helped increase the alcohol content.   In the past, I’ve struggled to get the final gravity as low as they recipe said it should be.   However, this time it started at 1.051 and went all the way down to 1.012.   That equates to 5.11% ABV making it my strongest beer yet!

I poured a small sample of the beer last night, and it tasted a little bitter but overall pretty mellow.   It definitely still needs some carbonation, so I’ll continue rocking the keg and letting it sit connected to the CO2 tank and hopefully it will be tasting great by this coming weekend.   I would have liked for it to be ready for a gathering at our house tonight, but I don’t think it’s quite there yet.   Though I may dish out a few samples anyway.   Since the kegging day was the day between my dad and my brother’s birthdays I am calling it Fabro Pale Ale, the combination of Father and Brother.

Friday night, after I had arrived back in Denver, Kim and I stopped for some dinner on the way home from the airport.   Initially we had plans to eat out near the airport, but after a delayed flight and little traffic on the highways, we ventured closer to home.   Our destination was Pete’s Central One, which we have dined at a time or two before.   I remembered that the Greek food was great, and that the little neighborhood spot would be just what we wanted for the night.   The tables are definitely close to each other, but I think that helps bring all the regulars together in a big conversation that often fills the restaurant.

We decided to split some hummus for an appetizer, which quickly arrived with warm pita slices.   I also decided to order the chicken kabob, which came with a side of tasty rice, and some vegetables.   Also served with it was a small cup of Avgolemono soup and a dinner salad as well.   It is a ton of food and it is all so good!   With a little of Kim’s help I was able to eat nearly all the dinner plate and even had room for a couple of Ouzo shots.   The manager of the restaurant is famous for giving away free shots of Ouzo after you have finished your meal.   If you stay long enough, we found out that he will keep pouring them for you too.   Dining at Pete’s is always a great experience and I’m sure we’ll be back soon.

Yesterday Kim and I attended closing day at Vail, just as we did last year. We did about three of four slush-filled runs throughout the day, but that was okay as there was so much other stuff going on as part of the Spring Back to Vail celebration. We witnessed the large season ending party at the top of the mountain, the pond skimming competition, and finally a Guster concert in Vail Village. Many in the crowd had costumes on, or retro ski gear, and many were openly enjoying beers, champagne, etc. Nothing seen during this wild day can be unexpected.

The Pond Skimming competition

The Guster show was great!   The weather was perfect and the crowd was very well behaved.   It wasn’t a large turnout, but there were plenty of people packed in close to enjoy the concert.   We were able to get fairly close to the stage and had a great view, despite a couple of trees.   I really enjoyed this show after having their last performance at the Mile High Music Festival nearly ruined by some obnoxious neighboring music.   The sounds was good enough, though the band complained a couple of times about the elevation messing up their equipment.   They even made up a rather funny impromptu song about the downside of being so many feet above the sea.   We had a great time and it was a good close to the season.

Guster playing Spring Back to Vail

With most resorts closed, here are our stats from this past snowboarding season.   As always, we will likely add a couple of days at Arapahoe Basin as the spring moves forward.

• Breckenridge – 5 days
• Vail – 3 days
• Keystone – 3 days (Kim missed one of these)
• Beaver Creek – 2 days
• Copper – 2 days

That’s a total of only 15 days, which is pretty close to last year, but not nearly as good as two years ago.   Once again, the snow left a lot to be desired this year.   The best days of the season were only a couple of weeks ago and most of our enjoyable days have been in the warmer months of this year.   Still we had many good memories and lots of fun times with visitors throughout the year.   Here’s to next season!

My week in Kansas City has flown by.   I didn’t even get the chance to write yesterday, which is a pretty rare occurrence, though something that seems to be happening recently much more often.   I’ve seen some friends, hung out with coworkers, eaten some good food, and even taken a ride in a Porsche.   They had a farewell lunch for me today, as I hope this is the last time I’m back in KC for work, though time will tell.   If it is the last time, I’m sure we will be back for a fun weekend in the future.   So long Kansas City.

I hope I don’t jinx myself, but my allergies seem to have disappeared. While others are reaching for allergy pills, I haven’t taken any since sometime last year and I’m feeling fine. I brought along some Claritin on my trip this week but the only time I’ve opened them was to give one to a coworker. I’ve heard that this is one of the worst allergy seasons in recent years, so my cure couldn’t have come at a better time.

*knocks on wood*

Great news today for many Denver based travelers, including Kim and myself.   Our beloved Frontier Airlines is staying!   For those who have no idea what I’m talking about, Frontier was acquired late last year by Republic Airways, who also purchased Midwest Airlines earlier last year.   Recently it was announced that the two would be merging into one brand, and many were fearful that the Frontier name, slogan, and animals would be gone forever.   Fortunately, the announcement today was that the merged brand would remain Frontier Airlines.   Over the next twelve to eighteen months, all of Midwest’s planes will be painted with the Frontier livery, complete with their own unique animal on the tail, starting with a yet to be named badger.   In addition, Midwest’s famous freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies will eventually make their way onto all Frontier flights.   What a trade!

Over the weekend Kim and I participated in a hut trip hike.   If you recall from last year, I went on a similar trip and loved every minute of it.   This time our group of 14 hiked up to the Section House up on Boreas Pass.   This year’s trip was much easier than last, even if we wouldn’t have gotten lost last year.   This year the trailhead was at 10,350′ compared to 8,620 last year.   And the hut was at 11,481′ this year and 11,180 last.   So you can tell by the elevation gain that it was a slightly uphill hike, but not very strenuous.   In fact, the route we took was along a gravel road that is open in the warmer months, and it used to be a railroad, so the grade is very low.   Despite that, the hike still managed to deliver blisters and sore bones.   I guess this will always happen after hiking six and a half miles.   We had a great time though, and look forward to possibly taking a trip to a hut in the summer.

Boreas Pass on Dwellable

A lot of things have been happening at work recently.   My new team has been hard at work to release a new version of our product, as well as prepare for a big trade show next week.   I started dedicating more time to the project this week, and am now up to 75% of my time.   The other 25% is still spent on the transition for the old project.   But it looks like that is going to change again for next week.   I will likely be taking a last-minute trip to Kansas City on Monday to help directly in the transition, and I won’t have much time to work on my new project.   I’m really enjoying the new project and I’m looking forward to getting back to it after next week.   Another great thing is that I will soon be getting my own work laptop to replace my aging office desktop.   That will really help out, though I wish I already had it for next week’s trip.