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.

For the second year in a row, we are not traveling for Thanksgiving.   We will instead be staying in Denver with lots of fun activities planned along with some work around the house.   Should be a busy weekend.   I hope everyone out there has a nice turkey day and long weekend.   I am likely signing off until Monday…

We are back from vacation, but my blog is not.   Kim is officially in her 30’s, so let the countdown begin until my big day.   I’m hoping to get some pictures up by tomorrow.   For now, back to work.

Over the weekend, I also organized a surprise birthday party for Kim, who will be turning 30 on Friday.   My mom helped me to come up with an idea where we would take Kim’s youngest brother out trick-or-treating, while family and friends gathered at her parents house for a party.   We had a great time trick-or-treating with Nick, and had a wonderful surprise party for Kim afterward.   It was such a great party that a group of us managed to see two o’clock twice that night.   Kim’s parents also helped put the party together, so I owe a lot of the credit to them.   Some photos from my mother are below.

In celebration of the big birthday, we are heading down to Cabo San Lucas tomorrow morning.   Joining us with be our friends Phil, Doni, Chris, and Kelly.   You may recall that we headed down to Mexico to celebrate Doni’s 40th a couple of years ago, so they are heading down with us to help celebrate Kim’s 30th.   We are staying at the all-inclusive Riu Palace through Sunday.   Again, I’m not sure if we’ll spend much time outside of the resort, but I picked up a few guide books to read on the flight down tomorrow morning.   So long until Monday!

I’ve been following an upcoming ballot issue in Cincinnati that would require a full election for any passenger rail transportation projects or improvements. Though this may seem like a good idea, the language of the amendment would require a vote for ANY decisions, regardless of where the funding comes from. I agree that a vote would be needed for any projects that would require an increase in taxes, but that is not what this amendment is about at all.

The proponents of Issue 9 seem to be swaying voters to their side by saying that the amendment will help to stop a proposed streetcar line connecting downtown and the University area of Clifton. If the amendment passes a vote would then be required for the streetcar, which will not require a tax increase, as well as any other rail transit opportunities such as the 3C rail system linking Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, and Cincinnati. With so much government funding available at this time, it seems crazy that Cincinnati could miss out on so much by not allowing the elected council members to do their jobs. Each time a costly vote is required, the city could be passed over for federal funding and be left stuck in the past.

After living in Denver for nearly three years I am a strong believer in rail transportation. Denver has a very nice light rail network that links downtown to various suburbs and is still growing. The west corridor is currently under construction and there are plans for the system to extend to the airport by 2015. I use the light rail often for commuting to and from work, as well as for heading into the heart of downtown for entertainment. After relying on this system for so long, I would find it very hard to move back to a city that doesn’t have such a system.

I firmly believe that all of those who are voting in Cincinnati next week need to vote no on Issue 9. For additional reading I suggest starting at the Cincinnatians for Progress website, as well as CincyStreetcar Blog, and CincyStreetcar.com.

We are in the middle of the largest October snow storm in Denver since 1997. I measured 16 inches in the backyard this afternoon and when it’s all over we could add another 3 to 6 inches to it. It started snowing late Tuesday night and hasn’t really stopped since then. Last night, while out shoveling a path for Kim to walk on when she got home, I built a snowman. Some pictures of the snow are below.

Shoveling last night and my snowman.

The backyard this morning. My snowman collected lots of snow overnight.

Snow up to the garage window!

The Equinox is buried even after Kim’s later arrival last night.

Faceless snowman after more snow today.

The grills and trash cans are buried in snow.

18 inch mark is in red. Coming up on 2 feet!

Crazy snow drift on the shed.

All of this snow reminds me that I need to invest in a sled. We are about a mile and a half from one of the best sledding hills in town. I really considered going last night, but I feared the Jetta wouldn’t make it in the snow. I love seeing all of this early season snow as it can only mean good things for the ski slopes up in the mountains.

I had great intentions of getting through more Alaska photos last night, but was hit with some serious sickness instead.   It seems for the last month every Thursday I’ve become so congested and have a runny nose at the same time.   Last night was definitely the worst of it, and it forced me to find a doctor today and go in for a visit.   Fortunately I found a nice little office within walking distance of home, and they were able to get me in today.

A nurse performed all the standard tests, which I seem pretty much normal on everything, and then the doctor came in for a quick look.   She noticed some swelling in my throat and obviously some bad sinus issues.   I got my prescription for a Z-Pak and was on my way.   Now if only Walgreen’s would cooperate and give me the drugs.   I dropped off the note and was told it was a 45 minute wait.   Can’t they just grab it off the shelf and give it to me?   Anyway, I have to go back there after work to pick up my prescription and hopefully some relief will be on the way soon.

Kim and I have been busy trying to switch banks. We’ve grown tired of US Bank’s never-ending ATM fees as well as their lousy rates. On the advice of some friends, we are in the process of moving our checking accounts to a High Yield Checking account at Charles Schwab. Not only will this account not charge us anytime we use an ATM, they will also reimburse any ATM fees charged by other banks. And that is all on top of the .75% APY that the account will earn. This is a variable rate, which I’m hoping will rebound in the near future to even higher rates.

So far we’ve yet to see any drawbacks. We still have a checkbook to write checks. There are no minimums and no monthly fees. And our Visa Platinum Check Cards should be delivered shortly. The account also comes linked to a free Schwab One brokerage account, which I hope to use in the near future as well.   The only headache so far has been trying to cancel some of our other accounts in other banks, and getting all of our automatic payments transferred over.   I guess that’s the biggest reason people don’t swap banks more often.   So far this has been well worth it.

We had a subscription to the Denver Post for awhile now, but I think we may finally be ditching it. We really only read it during breakfast each day, and therefore I feel it’s a pretty big waste of not only money but materials as well. I primarily get my news online, and therefore read the same stories again the next day in the print news. Kim prefers to get her news in print form, so we are trying to find something good for her to read during breakfast or other times in the day. She was thinking of maybe getting Newsweek again, but I was curious if anyone had other suggestions.

I’ve discovered a new website that I’m in love with. I probably shouldn’t get this excited over ordering household essentials, but the experience was awesome. I hate buying this stuff from the grocery as I always feel like I’m getting ripped off. And I don’t like making a special trip to Walgreens either. Enter Alice.com, a new website that allows you to order these essential goods at manufacturers’ prices. And to top it all off, shipping is included for free!

You can tell the website how many people are in your household, and reminders can automatically be sent to you when typically it would be time to order more goods. Also, coupons are automatically found and applied to your order so you don’t have to hunt down any codes. Kim and I placed our first order a couple of weekends ago, and our package was delivered just five days later. We noticed that one of our items was missing, and contacted their support team. They immediately offered to ship the missing item, or offered a $10 credit to be used in the future. Since the item wasn’t even work $2 we decided to take the credit since we will definitely be ordering again in the future. It was simply too easy not to.