I missed the third game of the hockey tournament I mentioned yesterday due to the annual Flipcup’alooza  flipcup tournament and party.   You may remember this party from many years before.   This time was a little different from past years, as Kim didn’t attend.   Obviously she couldn’t play in the tournament, and she decided to skip the drinking centered event altogether.   The guys on our team remained the same as last year: myself along with our friends Ken and Pulli.   We relied on Ken to provide  some girls for our team, and he did eventually come through, even though one participant didn’t show up until a minute or two before the games started.   I guess that was better than last year, when we pulled a random out of the bar to join our team.

Despite some changes, the results were much the same for our team as years past.   The tournament was setup as a round-robin style at one of sixteen tables.   At each table there were five teams all competing for a single spot in the sweet sixteen elimination style bracket.   My team, Sunday Morning, started off with a couple of losses right away.   We did eventually win our third game, but were quickly back to losing the fourth.   We finished 1-3 in the round-robin with no chance of advancing through to the next round.   Despite the results, we had a good time with many of our friends from Denver.

On Saturday I had another fairly decent experience at this year’s WordCamp, which took place in Boulder.   I was a little disappointed in the lack of knowledge gained from last year’s WordCamp, and the same is true again for this year.   The one session that I looked forward to the most, was definitely the most informational and in my opinion the best of the entire day.   This was titled Caching in WordPress and was presented  by Chris Scott and Sean O’Shaughnessy  from Voce Communications.   The information presented by these two easily beat out all other presenters at the conference combined.   The only other session that was even close was WordPress Development by Alex King and  Shawn Parker  of Crowd Favorite, which featured on the fly sidebar widget development from a crowd suggested list of features.

I pretty much stuck to the more technical sessions the entire day.   I thought that the SEO Techniques  session was pretty much common knowledge, or at least stuff that I was already fairly  aware of.   However the room was packed  for this session, so I guess others may not be as knowledgeable.   If nothing else, the session was very entertaining.   The DIY Usability Testing session was also entertaining.   Steve Martin from Clever Cubed  was the presenter and though the crowd was a little smaller than earlier  presentations, the information provided was focused and intelligent.   I don’t think it applies to my work very much, but there were  a small number of people in attendance that were very interested in the subject.

Finally I sat in on Jane Wells’ presentation on What’s Next for WordPress.   She is the user experience lead for WordPress and is very knowledgeable on all things WordPress.   Though she didn’t talk much about what’s actually next for WordPress, she did highlight new features from the recently released version 3.0 as well as answer question after question from the audience.   Before the presentation I wasn’t aware of the new menu functionality in this release of WordPress and that is something that I definitely plan to utilize in the future.   Otherwise, her presentation was good and she helped many in the crowd with all kinds of varying problems.

With all of that said, it is really hard to beat the cheap price of admission ($45) that included a $10 gift certificate to local venues for lunch as well as a nice t-shirt.   After these tickets were sold  out, the organizers announced $25 tickets that didn’t include lunch or a shirt, and I wish they would have offered that from the beginning.   I don’t really need anymore t-shirts in my closet.

After the early afternoon whiskey tour at Stranahan’s, we all took a nap during the middle of the afternoon.   Perhaps starting the day out with a few drinks wasn’t the best idea if we wanted to have a productive afternoon.   Eventually we all rebounded in time to head up to a going away party at the Highland Tavern.   Our friends Corinne and Ted are moving this weekend out to San Francisco.   Kim and Corinne grew up together and have remained good friends through the years.   Her boyfriend, Ted, accepted a new job promotion out in San Fransisco and Corinne has decided to go along as well.   I can relate to this very easily, as I decided around seven years ago to join Kim in her move to Kansas City.   Looking back it seemed like such a simple decision at the time, but it definitely changed my life for the better.   I hope the same is true for Corinne and Ted.   They are definitely going to be missed, and judging by the large turnout at the party, we aren’t the only ones with that feeling.   San Francisco has been on my cities to visit list for a while, so this is just another excuse to plan a trip there.

As far the Highland Tavern goes, this was our first time there.   We don’t make it up to the Highlands area of town too often, and I do believe that it’s a rather new restaurant and bar.   We arrived just past seven, and immediately a member of the staff asked if we were with the party.   We were escorted to a table with a reserved sign on it.   We hadn’t had dinner yet, so we quickly decided to try the mac and cheese appetizer (3 cheeses + creamy goodness + elbows + buttered breadcrumbs).   It arrived quickly, and after assuring the food runner that I wasn’t eating it all myself, we were given some bowls and extra spoons.   It was a delicious appetizer, and I especially enjoyed the breadcrumb topping.

For dinner I ordered the don’t be such a turkey sandwich (roasted turkey + bacon + cheddar + avocado + arugula + sweet onion relish) with fries. Kim ordered the special, which was a chicken pot pie, and Amy ordered the no, i ain’t from Philly sandwich (5oz grilled steak + melted provolone + american + grilled onions). My sandwich was excellent, especially the sweet onion relish. Kim also enjoyed her pot pie, which wasn’t a traditional dish, but rather a crock of soup topped with a puffy biscuit like bread. Amy also mentioned that she enjoyed the Philly sandwich, and both of us agreed that shoestring fries are awesome. I shouldn’t have eaten my whole meal, but it was too good to stop. I don’t know if we will venture back that way anytime soon, but I would definitely recommend the food at Highland Tavern.

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.

This past Saturday I headed up to Breckenridge along with Kim and our friends Ryan and Rob.   We made plans earlier in the week to attend the Breckenridge Beer Festival and arrived just after the event had started.   It was fairly cold and windy out, but that didn’t stop a pretty decent sized crowd from gathering outside to taste unlimited beer samples from over twenty breweries.   The website said, “Rain or Shine, we’ll be there and hopefully so will you!” We didn’t see any rain, but there was plenty of snow.

On to the sampling.   The first surprise was the beer from the Rifle Brewing Company.   I’d never heard of the city of Rifle, Colorado, let alone the brewery there, but their IPA was delicious as was their Anvil Point Amber.   Another brewery that I had never heard of before was the Grand Lake Brewing Company, also from Colorado.   While I wasn’t as blown away by their brews, they did have a couple of tasty entries.   Of the larger breweries, I was very happy to get a taste of small batch offering from Deschutes.   I walked up to their booth just as a bottle of Hop Henge IPA came out of hiding and encouraged them to give me a pour.   It went fast, but all in our group were able to try it.   We also enjoyed beers from Great Divide, Kona, Breckenridge (obviously), Avery, and many more that I am forgetting.   It was a great festival, and my only suggestion would be for them to add more restrooms into the mix, as we had to wait for fifteen minutes or longer each time.

Breckenridge on Dwellable

Saturday was the day for our now yearly ritual of watching the Denver St. Patrick’s Day Parade. I originally thought it was the largest St. Patrick’s Day parade west of the Mississippi. This is true, but after reading it again I think it’s actually the largest parade for any event west of the Mississippi.

The Denver St. Patrick’s Day Parade bears the reputation as the largest parade west of the Mississippi River and one of the largest in the United States. Over 230 individual units mass together in a parade of 10,000 plus participants. Winding through the streets of Lower Downtown Denver on the Saturday before St. Patrick’s Day, over 200,000 spectators enjoy a three hour plus parade.

Either way, it’s a fun way to kick off a typically great Saturday afternoon in Denver.  As with years in the past, the weather was great.  I was telling our friends that it’s usually the first day of the year for people to get a nice sunburn.  Standing around outside for over three hours can easily do that will all of the sunshine.  Once again the parade entries were as strange as ever.  The Hare Krishnas were back, and a large group of Star Wars characters joined in this year as well.  The longhorn cattle made an appearance, along with lots of drunken float riders.  The best part is that we  finally brought a camera along to capture some of the experience.

On Saturday afternoon, I headed up to the small mountain town of Nederland, Colorado for their annual Frozen Dead Guy Days festival. This event is a celebration for the towns allegedly cryogenically frozen dead guy.   It costs $25 to go see “grandpa” so I cannot actually vouch for his existence. A group of six of us made the hour-long drive up to Nederland, and arrived just as the Parade of Hearses was taking place. We lucked into a couple of parking spots within a block or two of the main street, so we were able to catch most of the parade. After that was over, we explored the few little restaurants and bars in town, before heading down to a little pond for the Polar Plunge.   They had cut a small square out of the frozen surface of the pond, and people took turns jumping into the icy water.   Safety crews were on hand to assist when needed.

After the plunge was over, the Coffin Races began.   In this event, teams of seven people race through an obstacle course as quickly as possible.   Two teams race at a time, with six of the participants carrying a homemade coffin through the course, while another person rides in the coffin.   It was an exciting event to watch.   From there we stopped for some pizza and headed back to the main (perhaps only) street in town.   Here we stumbled upon Ice Turkey Bowling.   For $5 a person, you could take three turns launching an originally frozen turkey toward six bowling pins.   As this even went on it became increasingly disgusting.

Many in our group also attended last years trip to the ski joring event in Leadville.   So for us, this was just another of those crazy events that happen in the various little mountain towns of Colorado.   More information on the Frozen Dead Guy and the festival is available on Wikipedia, for those interested in learning more.   Below are some pictures I took while enjoying the festivities.

Nederland on Dwellable

Once again we were back in Cincinnati this past weekend.   This time we were not there for a wedding, and were able to do things on our own time.   This helped to make one of the best weekends we’ve had with our families in a while.   We started off with the Run Like Hell, which is a costumed 5K run including part of a cemetery along its course.   Kim’s family help to put together a team for her cousin who has Cystic Fibrosis, “Running for Patrick.”   They ended up with 40 or 50 people participating in the race all with shirts on for our team.   Patrick was able to come down to watch the race and hang out with his family and friends during the before and after events.

As far as the race goes, it is a very hard course filled with hills, most of which are up-hills.   Kim and I started near the front of the pack with my dad, her brother Chris, and cousin Betsy.   We started off on a really fast pace, and by the time we had reached the graveyard we were already split into smaller groups.   Kim really was moving on the course, as she wanted to beat her younger brothers, and somehow my dad was able to keep up.   I couldn’t keep that pace and decided to run with Chris.   Betsy was just behind us and that was pretty much how we finished.   According to our timing chips, Kim and my dad finished at 26:15, while Chris and I finished at 26:54.   Kim managed to just squeak into the top 50 women runners and was rewarded with a very nice commemorative shirt.   It was a good run and a great thing to be a part of.

Below is a side-show of my mom’s pictures from the event.

Friday night Kim and I headed downtown with a group of about ten others to see a comedy show at Comedy Works. This was the first time we’d gone to a show here, though we had often thought about it before. A friend of ours had discounted tickets (only $10) for the show, but we were still required to buy two drink and/or food items. I guess this two item minimum is standard for the club.

The headline comedienne was Kathleen Madigan and opening up the show was a fella named Saleem. I thought Saleem was hilarious. He’s originally from Dayton, Ohio so some of his jokes were very easy for me to relate to. I would definitely go seem him again in the future. Kathleen took the stage after Saleem and started off a little slow. Eventually she had the room cracking up, but in the end I still thought that Saleem was more funny. I’m not sure that I’d see Kathleen again, though for $10 anything is possible.

I finally got my recording of MER and Noah Gabriel’s performance from this year’s Pig-Fest uploaded. Unfortunately I forgot to set the recorder to automatically record another track after the three hour limit, so we missed the end of the show including the Paff Family All-Stars rendition of Friends in Low Places. What I do have is nearly three hours of solid tape of the two musicians playing together, as well as some songs played on their own. There’s a fair amount of wind in the recording, but it’s still very listenable. Check it out here or by using the embedded player below.