Over the years I’ve become accustomed to receiving a rather large tax refund check around this time of year.   Last year, after filing our taxes, I went along with Turbo Taxes suggestion to rework our W-4’s so that we neither owe a large amount or receive a large refund.   The theory behind this is that we get to keep more of our earnings throughout the year so that we can invest it ourselves.   Well, it actually worked.   We will likely owe around $200 to the federal government, while our state refund will still be a few hundred bucks.   The question now is where exactly did all of that extra money go throughout the year.   I’m not really sure that we have much more invested than we normally do.   I guess we should put more of each paycheck aside this year so we can really see the difference it makes.

After Monday night’s game, my hockey team is back to our losing ways.   We have now lost three in a row, and are back in last place.   Had we actually won the game on Monday, we would have sent our opponents into last place instead of them sending us to last.   We did have a substitute goalie, who let in a few soft goals, but we still lost 9-3.   Hopefully we can turn things around next week when we face off against another one of the weaker teams in the league.   We only have seven games left before the playoffs, so something needs to happen.   I just found out that the championship game will be played at the Pepsi Center.   That would be awesome!

I attended a Colorado Mammoth game on Saturday night with a group of eight others.   Many in the group had never been to a lacrosse game before, let alone an indoor game.   For those of you who are unfamiliar, indoor lacrosse combines the physical play of hockey with the high scoring, fast pace and play-making style of basketball.   Everyone was quickly impressed with the sport and thoroughly enjoyed the game, despite the Mammoth loss.   One of our friends researched various aspects of the game and later told us that the average salary for the players is only $14,500 per season.   Obviously, the athletes are playing for the love of the game, and it really shows.   And with tickets starting at $5, you really can’t go wrong.

Friday night, Kim and I decided to stay in, order some food, and watch a movie.   After debating between sandwiches and pizza, we decided on pizza and ended up ordering from Extreme Pizza.   We knew we wanted a couple of different pizzas, but couldn’t decide between four different styles.   We finally decided to get all four, utilizing the half and half option.   Each of our selections were tasty, but I think my favorites of the group were the California Cactus and the Drag It Through The Garden.

As for our entertainment, we watched the Hurt Locker from our cable service On Demand menu.   “Forced to play a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse in the chaos of war, an elite Army bomb squad unit must come together in a city where everyone is a potential enemy and every object could be a deadly bomb.”   The movie was full of suspense and   action.   Though it is a war movie, it’s not overly graphic or gory.   Kim and I both really enjoyed watching this movie and would definitely recommend it, if you haven’t seen it.

If you’ve read my blog for years, you may recall a friend’s photo project called A Minute In The Life: The Simultaneous Photography Project, which I mentioned a bunch of times.   He later turned it into a book that I still have on our coffee table.   Well he is organizing the project again, this time with each person taking two photos at 2pm eastern on March 20, 2010.   I’m not sure what I’ll be doing on that day, but it may be another day on the slopes, just like the last time.   I urge anyone who reads this to visit his website and to take part in this fun project.

In less than two months I will be turning the big 3-0.   To celebrate the big occasion, Kim and I just booked flights to Phoenix for a long weekend.   My parents and my brother have also bought flights and will be joining us.   In addition to Phoenix we hope to see the Grand Canyon, Sedona, and catch a spring training Reds game.   I’m still in the very early planning phases for our stops, so any advice is greatly appreciated.   In addition, let me know if you’d like to join us and I can pass along our travel details.

On Sunday night we headed to dinner at one of my favorite downtown eateries, Wazee Supper Club.   This is a regular stop for us before Avalanche games, along with many others.   There was an Avs game that night, but fortunately we arrived early enough to avoid the crowds.   The restaurant has some of the best pizza in town, along with great sandwiches and Strombolis.   Kim and I shared the wonderful Pacific Rim pizza and tried their bread sticks as well, which were very tasty too.   I can’t wait for our next visit to Wazee.

Continuing the trend from last year, there isn’t a Dave Matthews Band tour date within 500 miles of Denver.   It is another sad year, but I am really going to try to make it to at least one show this summer, which I didn’t do last year.   I’m leaning towards the Deer Creek weekend, Noblesville, IN for those not familiar.   The HullabaLOU festival could be a good time as well.   Time will tell, but I am definitely going to try harder to make it to a show.   Our summer calendar doesn’t seem as busy as it’s been the last couple of years, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.   Here’s the full list of dates:

• May 28 – Comcast Theatre – Hartford, CT
• May 29 – Comcast Theatre – Hartford, CT
• June 1 – Molson Amphitheatre – Toronto, Canada
• June 2 – Darien Lake Performing Arts Center – Darien Center, NY
• June 4 – Saratoga Performing Arts Center – Saratoga Springs, NY
• June 5 – Saratoga Performing Arts Center – Saratoga Springs, NY
• June 7 – Comcast Center – Mansfield, MA
• June 8 – Comcast Center – Mansfield, MA
• June 15 – Riverbend Music Center – Cincinnati, OH
• June 16 – Verizon Wireless Amphitheater – Maryland Heights, MO
• June 18 – Verizon Wireless Music Center – Noblesville, IN
• June 19 – Verizon Wireless Music Center – Noblesville, IN
• June 22 – Huntington Park – Columbus, OH
• June 23 – DTE Energy Music Theatre – Clarkston, MI
• June 25 – Blossom Music Center – Cuyahoga Falls, OH
• June 30 – Susquehanna Bank Center – Camden, NJ
• July 1 – Susquehanna Bank Center – Camden, NJ
• July 3 – Alpine Valley Music Theatre – East Troy, WI
• July 4 – Alpine Valley Music Theatre – East Troy, WI
• July 9 – Hersheypark Stadium – Hershey, PA
• July 10 – PNC Park – Pittsburgh, PA
• July 13 – Bethel Woods Center for the Arts – Bethel, NY
• July 14 – Toyota Pavilion at Montage Mountain – Scranton, PA
• July 16 – Citi Field – Flushing, NY
• July 17 – Citi Field – Flushing, NY
• July 20 – Virginia Beach Amphitheater – Virginia Beach, VA
• July 21 – Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre Charlotte – Charlotte, NC
• July 23 – Nationals Park – Washington, DC
• July 25 – HullabaLOU Festival Churchill Downs – Louisville, KY
• July 27 – Aaron’s Amphitheatre at Lakewood – Atlanta, GA
• July 28 – Ford Amphitheatre – Tampa, FL
• July 30 – Cruzan Amphitheatre – West Palm Beach, FL
• July 31 – Cruzan Amphitheatre – West Palm Beach, FL
• August 14 – InTrust Bank Arena – Wichita, KS
• August 17 – USANA Amphitheatre – West Valley City, UT
• August 20 – Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre – Chula Vista, CA
• August 21 – Verizon Wireless Amphitheater – Irvine, CA
• August 23 – Hollywood Bowl – Los Angeles, CA
• August 25 – Sleep Train Pavilion at Concord – Concord, CA
• August 27 – Sleep Train Amphitheatre – Marysville, CA
• August 28 – Shoreline Amphitheatre at Mountain View – Mountain View, CA
• August 31 –   Taco Bell Arena – Boise, ID
• September 3 – Gorge Amphitheatre – George, WA
• September 4 – Gorge Amphitheatre – George, WA
• September 5 – Gorge Amphitheatre – George, WA
• September 10 – The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion – The Woodlands, TX
• September 11 – Superpages.com Center – Dallas, TX
• September 14 – Qwest Center – Omaha, NE
• September 15 – Xcel Energy Center – Saint Paul, MN

We spent the weekend in Breckenridge, once again.   Our friend Tracey flew into town Friday evening, and after picking her up from the airport we headed straight to Breckenridge.   Along the way we stopped for dinner at Tommyknocker Brewery in Idaho Springs.   After some good food and beers we continued on to Breck.   Upon our arrival we immediately checked into our hotel, Breckenridge Mountain Lodge, which was clean but lacked pretty much any amenity that we’d normally be accustomed to.   Not only were there no hot tubs or pools, the room didn’t have a coffee maker or even cups.   I’m not sure we’ll stay again, but if you need a really cheap place to stay, it has a good location and is clean.

Before retiring for the night, we walked next-door to one of my favorite spots in Breck, the Breckenridge Brewery.   I had a vanilla porter, which is such a great beer, and before long we all headed for bed.   We woke up fairly early Saturday, and after catching the shuttle bus we were on the slopes around nine.   It was a little cold, and there wasn’t really much fresh powder, but we had a number of friends on the slopes to make the day really enjoyable.   At one time we were roaming around with a total of nine skiers and boarders.   We made it all the way until three, and then we hit up happy hour at the Quandary Grille with most of the group.   My friend Rob also met up with us there after his day of fly-fishing.   We spent the rest of the evening at his in-laws condo before heading back to our hotel room once more.

Snow was falling throughout the day Saturday and really picked up overnight.   We woke up even earlier on Sunday to get a head start on the crowds and hopefully find some fresh powder.   Fortunately we found the powder, as Breckenridge got six inches of snow overnight, but unfortunately it was much colder and very windy.   We did one run just after 8:30, and then took a break.   We did another couple of runs, and then had to take yet another break.   We decided that we should call it an early day if Tracey was able to resell her lift ticket.   She was able to sell it for $40 pretty easily, after buying it for only $55 with our discount.   Normal tickets go for $92.   And with that we were back in the car and headed toward Denver.

The snow continued to fall and the trip back took about double what it normally does, but I read that it was much worse later in the day.   I’m glad we left when we did, and we still had a great time with Tracey.   She will be back in another month or so, and I’m hoping the slopes have much more snow than they do now.   I’m ready for another epic weekend.

I stumbled upon livingcraigslist.com yesterday and have been reading through the entries over the last day.   It’s a really interesting idea and I thought I should spread the word even though I haven’t finished reading through it myself.   Here is a description of the site from the author:

Jason Paul, a recent graduate from American University attempted, like many from the 2009 class, to secure a job. After applying for over 180 journalism jobs in over 35 states, Jason decided to pursue a blog/book idea of his own.

Right now, unless he is sleeping, Jason is doing something related to Craigslist.org. For those of you who do not know what Craigslist is, it is basically a classifieds page from the newspaper. The site is in 570 cities in 50 countries and allows users to post ads, with the exception of a few categories, for free.

Essentially, Jason is living off Craigslist.

This means food, housing, jobs, entertainment, friends and anything else you can possibly imagine.

So far he has traveled from Washington, D.C. to San Francisco, found housing, found a job and his beginning to make friends. And you guessed it, he has done all of this using Craigslist.

So why is he doing this. Firstly, necessity breeds innovation, and he needed a job. But for the most part, Jason wanted to see if it was possible.

He is living in three cities, for three months each, attempting to prove that anyone, anywhere can do this.