It only took a day and a half for the roofers to completely remove the old roof and install the new one. It took me over a week to get pictures of the completed project online. Anyway, to the left is the before view and to the right is the after.

I think it looks great, and I’m really glad we went with the dark color. Here is another before and after from the back of the house. Clearly, we have a little painting to do now, since some old siding is now exposed.

I also want to replace the red shingles on the dormer walls in the top pictures with some new siding. I haven’t decided if we’ll go with vinyl or some wood shingles to tie in with the rest of the house. Hopefully this is something that we can do ourselves. Hiring out projects is getting a little pricey.

Today we are starting yet another home improvement project, but just like the windows before, this is not something we are doing ourselves. We have a crew from The Premier Roofing Company doing what they do best, installing a new roof on our house. This was something that we knew needed to be done when we bought the house, we were just waiting for a good time to do it. Well, the time is now, especially before winter really sets in.

It’s been a little noisy so far today, as the crew ripped off the old roof all the way down to the frame removing multiple layers of shingles along the way, including possibly the original wood shake shingles. Now they are busy installing plywood decking to the frame, which is a much quieter process. Things are looking great so far and I can’t wait to see it all done with brand new shingles on the entire house.

I’m finally adding some life to my new fish tank project. I just went down to a local store that specializes in saltwater and picked up a half dozen hermit crabs and a few snails. I should have written down exactly what I got, but I think the hermit crabs are called dwarf red tip hermit crabs. They are pretty small, all occupying shells that are around half an inch. I believe the snails are orange turbo snails. I thought they were another variety other than turbo, but I cannot find anything other than turbo snails while searching online. Either way, I don’t think it will matter too much. Currently, I am acclimating them from the water at the store to the water that is in my tank. I’ll be sure to take some photos once they are in the tank.

Edit: As promised, here are a few photos of the critters.

As I mentioned last week, we headed to the Finger Lakes region of New York for my buddy Jay’s wedding. This region is the second largest producer of wine in the US, next to Napa Valley. We stayed in Geneva, on Seneca Lake, and explored the wineries around this lake. The wedding itself took place at the Belhurst Castle, and was a wonderful ceremony and an excellent reception. We all had such a great time and wish the newlyweds the best!

Before heading back to Denver, Kim and I made a quick detour to Niagara Falls. It was just over an hour from Rochester, where we were flying out, and Kim doesn’t think she had ever been there before. It was pretty cold for our visit, so we only stayed for a half hour, but we were able to see quite a bit of the area.

I woke up to falling snow yesterday for the first time this year. I’ve often been told to expect snow on Halloween, but this was over a week early. It only accumulated to a couple of inches, and it was mostly gone by the end of the day, but it was exciting to see. Any snow that falls in Denver is leaving even more snow up in the mountains, helping to create ideal conditions for the winter season. I snapped a couple of quick pictures that can be seen in this album.

PS The Bengals are now 1-0 when there is snow on the ground in Denver. I’m hoping this trend continues as we go into winter and beyond.

PPS I didn’t have any luck getting World Series tickets when they went on-sale today. Boo.

Two weeks ago I started my very first salt water fish aquarium. Since then I have added some live rocks that I bought from a guy on craigslist. In local stores, these rocks sell for around five or six dollars a pound. Fortunately, this guy was moving soon and needed to clear out his stuff. He offered to sell for two dollars a pound. Perfect, I thought, I could get twenty-five pounds for fifty bucks.

But the deal ended up being even better, when he gave me around forty pounds for fifty bucks. I added all of this rock to the tank two Saturdays ago, and I’ve left the tank running since then. Now I am just waiting for the water to cycle, at which point it will be safe to add additional creatures into the tank. It’s hard to let it sit without fish, but it is necessary if I want this project to be a success.

Fall is definitely here, and winter is just around the corner. It is currently a crisp 57 degrees here in Denver, which is pretty much as warm as it will get today. In addition to the cool temperatures we even had a little hail this morning. It won’t be long before the snow starts falling! With this in mind, we headed up into the mountains on Saturday to check out the changing foliage before it all falls to the ground. Our route took us through Leadville, over Independence Pass, and into Aspen. With a name like Aspen, I figured that the golden aspen trees would be all over the surrounding area. This statement is definitely true, but I would say only around 50% of the aspens have changed colors. Next weekend will likely be much more golden throughout the Rockies.

Just outside of Apsen sit the Maroon Bells, a couple of the tallest mountain peaks in Colorado. This was the main reason for our trip, and I was not disappointed one bit by the sights. When we first arrived it was pretty cloudy, but we could see the sun trying to peak out, and the clouds were moving fast. So we waited for a half hour or so until the sky was blue once again and took some great pictures. Maroon Lake sits directly in front of the peaks, and as the sun fell the water got calmer and provided an excellent reflection of the landscape. There were lots of photographers there who appeared to have been there for most of the day. It seemed that everyone was happy when the clouds finally gave way and the water became still. It was quite a sight to see, just check out the photo gallery.

The last day of Hawaii photos are now up! On the first page are photos from our snorkeling trip, but none of them are actually of snorkeling. Most are photos of the dolphins we saw along the way, and some of the Waikiki sights as well. All of these were taken with the old Nikon camera. I wish I would have had the new camera for the dolphin encounter, but the water scared me.

From there, I took lots of pictures from Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial. We tried to go a day earlier, but the wait for the memorial was nearly three hours. We later read that you should visit either early in the morning or late in the afternoon. So when we arrived around three in the afternoon, we got right in, even though we visited on 9/11. You will notice all of the flags in the pictures are at half mast. It was a good place to visit on a day of remembrance.

Later that evening we went on another sailboat cruise, this time on Na Hoku II. This was an evening “booze cruise” with complimentary drinks and amazing views of Waikiki and the sunset. It was a great way to round out our amazing trip to Oahu.
This marks the 38th state I have visited. Hopefully I can get to 40 by the end of the year.

I’ve added a couple more photo albums from Hawaii.

The first contains photos from the North Shore of Oahu, including a beautiful sunrise, the Banzai Pipeline, and some sights that can only be seen with a 4WD vehicle (or a really long walk). Early on Sunday morning we headed to Makapu’u Head, the eastern most point of Oahu, and hiked to the top to take in the sunrise. It was an amazing site, and I think the pictures from that turned out really well. From there we headed up the North Shore and made various stops along the way, many of which I mentioned in an earlier post.

The second album contains photos from a brief adventure up the Wai’anae coast, where we saw some dolphins and a very large cave. Also included are some photos from Waikiki Beach toward the end of the day, with some nice looking sunsets. Those pictures were all taken with the old camera, if you want to look at the differences between the two. One thing I noticed while looking at the dolphins, is that an even better lens for longer distances would be a nice investment. Although I think those are all quite pricey.

In addition to the photos I added last Friday, I just posted some more from our Hawaii adventures. In this album are photos from our hike up to Manao Falls along with a few from the Byodo-In Temple. The Manao Falls plunge 160 feet or more down the mountain side cliff. As great as the falls are, the hike to them is nearly just as scenic. Along the mile to mile and a half route, you pass through a rain forest which is filled with every shade of green imaginable, along with some colorful flowers and even shoots of bamboo. This is on my list of must sees while on Oahu.

After the hike, we took a nice and relaxing drive over the mountains toward the Valley of the Temples. Inside this large cemetery are many temples, the most prominent being the Byodo-In, which is a replica of a 950 year old Buddhist temple in Uji, Japan. This temple is an amazing site, with the Ko’olau mountain range in background and a large pond in the front. The temple was built in the 1960s without the use of any nails and it fits together like a giant puzzle. Inside of the Byodo-In is a nine foot Buddha that was carved out of wood, the largest made of wood in over 900 years. Though our visit was short, I was still able to take some good pictures of it.