Perhaps I’ve never given it much attention, but this year’s World Cup seems to be more popular than ever. Our friend Rob had a gathering at his place on Saturday to watch the USA team’s first game against England. I’m sure most people watched the game, so I won’t given any recap or commentary. If we hadn’t watched the game at Rob’s, there was a large gathering of people in downtown Denver at the British Bulldog  that some other friends were attending.   They had closed off a street and put up a huge screen for game watching.   I’m told that even despite the rain that there was a big crowd throughout the game.   I’m even finding myself tuning into games during my lunch break at work.   I haven’t started setting the DVR to record, but that still might be possible as the tournament moves forward.   I just might be catching this craze.

For dinner last night, Kim found a black bean burger recipe that she wanted to try.   Normally I would be hesitant to try one of these “veggie burgers.”   No, not because I love regular burgers.   It’s quite the opposite actually, as I don’t really eat red meat.   I just have never had a desire to pretend I’m eating something that I really don’t want to eat.   No turkey burgers, no veggie burgers, etc.   However, a few weeks ago Kim ordered a black bean burger from a restaurant, though I can’t recall which one.   She remarked at how good it was and offered a bite.   I decided to give it a try and was surprised at how tasty it really was.

Anyway, Kim found a recipe and she prepared the burgers while I finished painting our entryway.   The recipe says that they aren’t quite firm enough for the backyard grill, but we had no problem grilling ours.   I think she used all of the flour called for in the recipe, which actually helped to firm up the outside of the burgers.   We added some slices of cheddar cheese to ours, along with toasted wheat buns, ketchup, mustard, and pickles.   They weren’t quite as good as the burger Kim ordered a couple weeks ago, but they were still pretty good.   I’d give them a seven or eight on a scale of ten.   I’d like to keep experimenting with the recipe and adding additional things to the mix to spice it up, but it is defnitely a great starting point for some healthy food.

The following video was recently shown to our group at work.   It features one of our directors briefly describing the project that I’ve spent  a lot  of time on recently.   I figured it would help summarize exactly what it is we are trying to accomplish in my new role.

Last night I headed back to Red Rocks for the second time this summer. This time we would be seeing Sting  perform with the over forty piece  Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra.   There would be no opening act, just the headliners performing two sets and a series of encores.   They played nearly a dozen of the hits to start and end the night, and filled the rest with some lesser known ballads. I definitely enjoyed the beginning and end of the performance better than the seemingly never-ending list of ballads. While a little sleepy at times, the orchestra really helped to bring the ballads to life for most of the show. It wasn’t exactly what I was expecting to see, but still a cool performance nonetheless.

With all of that said, Sting can really sing, especially for someone who is going on sixty years old!   And he really moves around quite  a bit during the performance, though not as much as the orchestra conductor, who was bouncing around his platform nearly the entire show.   I would have preferred the entire thing to be  a little more upbeat.   For example, “Roxanne” was rearranged  to be a much more  ballad type  song.   I think many people like it, but I would prefer it in its original form.   However, there were a few faster and louder hits played, highlights being “Every Little Thing She Does,” “King of Pain,” and “Desert Rose.”   Notice that nearly all the songs I mentioned are Police songs, and not just Sting songs, so maybe I need to see a full show from the Police.   I’ll keep my fingers crossed for another reunion.

While Nick was in town over the weekend, we did a few other things besides taking him to his first concert.   On Saturday morning we drove back out to the Red Rocks area for a hike along the Dinosaur Ridge.   We started on the side closest to Red Rocks, so we had to hike up and over the ridge to reach the visitors center.   Fortunately, we had decided to pick up sandwiches before our hike, otherwise we wouldn’t have made it.   We ate our sandwiches at the visitors center, looked through the gift shop, and thought about paying $3 per person for a ride back to the car.   We didn’t have enough cash, so we decided to hike back to the car, covering the mile and a half pretty easily once again.  

Later in the evening, we took Nick to a Colorado Rapids soccer game along with a few of our friends.   We bought tickets from Groupon  a few weeks ago, which gave us VIP tickets and a free shirt.   During the drive to Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, the weather became a little questionable.   Fortunately our VIP tickets were about fifteen rows off the field and had a roof over our heads.   During the game there were brief periods of rain but we didn’t get wet at all.   The game itself was fun, though there was no scoring in the first half.   Eventually Colorado scored a goal against the visiting Columbus Crew, and that was all it took for the victory.  

Additional pictures can be found on the Hais  Family Picasa site.   Nick took most of the pictures that he is not physically a part of.   Here is a slideshow  containing all the photos.  

I attended my first concert back in 1991 with my dad. He took me to see Rush  at Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, now known as U.S. Bank Arena.   I was eleven years old and I still can remember the experience to this day.   That brings me to this  weekend, we took Kim’s youngest brother, Nick, to a concert at Red Rocks.   He is only nine, so he is already beating me by a couple of years.   Not to mention that his future concert going experiences may never compare to the scenery at Red Rocks.   The lineup for the night started with State Radio, then Medeski  Martin & Wood, and finally John Bulter Trio.   We arrived as State Radio had already taken the stage.   I’ve seen them a couple of times before, but I don’t remember liking them as much as I did this time.   I read that most of the songs they played were from their latest release, Let It Go, so I’ll have to be  sure to pick that up soon.   Toward the end of their set, I took Nick on a walk around the venue.   We climbed the stairs all the way to the top and took in the great view.   I also showed him the inside of the visitors center.

We had seats in the twenty-fifth  row, but once Medeski  Martin & Wood (MMW) started, the music became too loud for Nick.   We brought along earplugs, but we couldn’t get him to try them out.   So we decided to move up and eventually ended up sitting in the very last row.   The sound was not quite  so loud, and there were a couple of others kids nearby.   I actually like the view from up top, and we had plenty of room to spread out.   I had never seen MMW  before, and I don’t think I will go out of my way to see them again.   I can appreciate completely instrumental music, but I really need vocals to be  fully entertained.   Apparently  I wasn’t the only one, as the general consensus in the beer line was that MMW should have played first and allowed State Radio to have an expanded set in the middle slot.

After a somewhat bizarre  native american dance session, the  John Butler Trio finally took the stage.   This would be the seventh time I’ve seen JBT  and probably one of the best.   The trio was recently reconfigured to include older drummer Nicky Bomba  and Byron Luiters  on bass, and the chemistry with this incarnation sounded great.   The vocal harmonies have never sounded better, and each musician brings a unique quality to the older songs.   Switching band members is nothing new for John Butler, and I think it helps him to keep the songs and shows unique and interesting.   The show was scheduled to go until midnight, but they were behind schedule and it ended up going well past the scheduled time.   Nick did eventually fall asleep about halfway through their set, but he made it long enough to hear his favorite song, “Don’t Wanna See Your Face.”   I’m sure it was an experience he will never forget.

Last weekend, we traveled through New Mexico. After seeing Albuquerque on Saturday, we moved up to Santa Fe on Sunday. We arrived in the early evening at La Posada de Santa Fe, the resort I had reserved on Priceline for only $110. “Nestled on six beautifully landscaped acres in the heart of Santa Fe, this […]

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Originally today was supposed to be a vacation day, but things are pretty crazy at work recently, with another deadline coming at the end of next week.   Kim has been out of town this whole week, and when she returned last night, she brought along her youngest brother, Nick.   He will be staying with us through the weekend and then flying back to Cincinnati on Sunday.   We have lots of exciting plans for the weekend, so I’m hoping to finish up a few things here at work today and then not think about it at all until Monday.   I already missed bowling today and a stop at Chipotle.

After exploring the Sand Dunes Saturday afternoon, we continued on our way to Albuquerque.   Along the way we stopped in Alamosa, Colorado for lunch at San Luis Valley Brewing Company.   Kim and I shared both the Chicken Hot Italian Sausage and the Chicken Skewer appetizer. I washed it all down with a Grande […]

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On our way down to New Mexico for the long weekend, we stopped at the Great Sand Dunes National Park in south central Colorado.   This has been on our list of things to see for a while, and since it was only about an hour and half out-of-the-way, we decided that this would be […]

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