Denver says cheese!

Adventures with Julie and our cameras on a beautiful day in Denver, Colorado. These are pictures taken at the Denver Art Museum & the Denver Public Library.

a day (off) in the life of pat

1. Woke up late. I love not waking up to an alarm. It's rather heavenly.

2. Ran some errands. The girl at Pandora's gift shop recognized me from prior greeting card buying experiences. I was all NU-UH

3. Donated to the Democrats outside of Watercourse Foods. go dems! I complimented them on their choice of location. I told them they probably wouldn't see too many republicans in front of such liberal establishments.

4. Picked up Bailey.

5. Took pictures of Bailey. (see below)

6. Did an obnoxious amount of micro economics homework. I am so over damned demand curves!

7. Watched Grey's Anatomy.

8. Ate Ruth's left overs from last night. YUM!

9. Gave my blog a make over. Isn't it pretty?

that is some DAM fine art!

On Saturday The new annex of the Denver Art Museum, The Frederic C. Hamilton Building, opened. This thing has been in the making since 1999! I remember driving past it every morning on my way to school when I lived in capital hill. I was able to see the steal structure (the guts) take shape. It is arguably the most anticipated and most important grand opening in Denver history.

As part of the grand opening celebration the museum hosted a free open house for 35 straight hours. What this meant for us young kids was we were able to take in the brand spanking new addition to Denver's landmarks at 1am. When do you ever get the chance to peruse a museum at such odd hours? never! Thanks to Julie, we became very excited ticket holders to last nights (or this mornings) event.

Along with Michael Frazier, neighbors (of his) and "new from Montana girl", Julie and I headed to the Hamilton. The exterior is beautiful and strange. But the interior has the stark and echoing feel that most every museum I have been to has. It also had a cozy feel to it (which may have been due to my beer buzz.) I am attracted to modern, simple, sleek design. These traits in architecture make me feel comfortable and relaxed, so perhaps this is why this monstrous sculpture of a building made me believe it was indeed cozy. I was honestly blown away with the utter beauty of the innards of the new museum. I remember walking up the first set of stairs starring up with my mouth hanging open. It is hereby a requirement that every future out-of- town guest of mine will take in this incredible building.

As for the art, you simply have to see it yourself. I am not going to spend the next several hours blogging about the art. I will say this though, I half expected this expansion to be an extension of what the Denver Art Museum normally shows, lots of Native American art(ifacts.) I felt that the Denver Art museum had offered more of a history showcase versus what I would consider "art." I was not disappointed in what the DAM offered last night. A lot of what we saw was edgy, modern, and simply not boring. The collections were completely satisfying. I cannot begin to describe what a wonderful job the DAM has done with the collections they have borrowed or own.

I suppose a part of us was there to be seen as was apparent with the rest of the crowd. Who goes to an art museum opening at 1 in the morning you might ask yourself? The crowd was young, very hip, well dressed and good looking. There was a retarded amount of homo’s. If I were to open a bar the crowd we were surrounded by last night would be my target audience. HANDS DOWN!

I remember saying more then once, "This is the best night in Denver, ever!" Honestly, that statement has a lot of merit. The Hamilton Building is the most important landmark to open in Denver in, well, probably forever. The energy, the crowd, that experience can never be duplicated. I will never ever forget the night I was at the opening of Frederic C. Hamilton Building!


The opening exhibition in the Anschutz Gallery, RADAR.
The picture on the right is dedicated to Julie.
Thank you for sharing one of the most memorable nights in Denver I have ever had!

Pedophiliac Politicians

I guess this might come in handy with the upcoming election.

This is some funny shit.

Kenny McCauley

Kenny McCauley has accepted a transfer to Des Moines, IA. Kenny is from Iowa. I can't imagine why else one would transfer there. As of Saturday, he will no longer be a Coloradan. It will be weird not having a Kenny around. I have known Kenny since I moved to Denver in 2001. We have shared some pretty damp nights together not to mention a trip to Amsterdam with the worlds most awkward group of people. There have been so many people that have passed through our lives at that airport. When I transferred to DEN there was a large group of twenty-some things. That group has dwindled. A lot of the twenty-some things (including Kenny) have turned thirty-something. A lot of them were laid-off or quit. The group of young, single, saucy kids that work for United Airlines in Denver is getting smaller and smaller.

It is a great move for Kenny. He is going back to school. He will now be minutes from his family instead of hours. I guess as we get older we long for closer connection with our family. Something we didn't appreciate in our early twenties. People grow up. Priorities change. I am excited for Kenny. This is a new chapter in his life. Change this big is so god damned exciting.

Goodbye Kenny. We will miss you!

Thought of the day

You know how when you're driving, and you let someone merge in front of you, and they wave to thank you? I think that’s nice.

Suvarnabhumi Airport Opens in Bangkok, Thailand

I guess its pronounced su-wan-na-poom. It looks very impressive. United has one flight a day to/from Tokyo-Narita to Bangkok.

under the fricken weather

I woke up Monday morning with a cough. I got to work and everyone was complaining about their newly acquired cold, allergies or a general feeling of blahness. I knew I was doomed.

I feel better today. No work! I drank some Emergen C. It was on sale. It's like 1,600 times the recommend daily amount of vitamin C one should have in their diet. I guess its working.

I am watching season 2 of Grey's Anatomy today. I don't feel like doing anything else.

Congratulations Nicole & Robert

Snapshots of the reception...


Cake


Mary, Nicole, Aprille, Robert & Eric


Matt & Cake


Tony, Nicole, Amy & Kenny


Kenny, Jerry & Erica


Leah


Michael


Team Stafford


The Hogbergs


Angela, Lisa & Belinda


Amy, Angie & Kenny


Aprille & Robert


Mark


Guy


Mindy's Hair & Matt

Dave Matthews Band

On Tuesday Kaiya, Ellen, Brian, Eric, Tish and I attended the Dave Matthews Band concert at the Pepsi Center. The Pepsi Center is a shitty concert venue, however, I think DMB live is incredibly enjoyable anywhere. The set list was superbly constructed. I truly enjoy the simplicity of their show. There is never any pomp and circumstance at the beginning of the show. They simply walk out on stage, set their shit up and begin playing. They have this incredible energetic chemistry. Its amazing to watch them jam off into a tangent. I have to imagine that those guys have to be so in-tuned with each other to be able to just improvise jams like that. From set opener to encore the show was just splendidly fun.

ahhhh but the fun was just beginning........

As we exited the grounds of the Pepsi Center the tour buses paraded passed us. The band members were waiving from the front windows of the bus. Concert goers were screaming and running after the bus. As we marched back to the car we all debated on where the band might be staying. We all agreed it was clearly at one of the upscale hotels downtown and left it at that. The six of us were crammed in the Crown Victoria on our way down Speer Blvd. when a tour bus passed us. Could it be? Someone from the back yelled to pull up closer to the back of the bus. Sure enough as we got closer we could see the unmistakable DMB fire dancer logo on the back of the bus.



I don't completely recall but I believe a few of us in the car screeched. This was followed by someone screaming "follow that fucking bus." Follow it, we did, right to The JW Marriott in Cherry Creek. It turned out that we had missed Dave who had arrived on another bus just minutes to our arrival. Oh well. We stood around with a few other over zealous fans and hoped to catch a glimpse of someone in the band. No luck. We headed home.

Back at home we saw Eric, Ellen and Brian off. Kaiya, Tish and I debated returning to the Marriott in hopes of bumping into Dave Matthews at the hotel bar. Before I knew it we were back in the Crown Vic heading towards Cherry Creek.

When we arrived back at the hotel we were stunned to find Carter Beauford, Rashawn Ross and Butch Taylor standing at the hotel entrance chatting with fans. Carter is the drummer, Rashawn is the trumpet player and Butch is the keyboardest. The men were more than happy to sign our tickets from the show.



They were also happy to have their pictures taken.


Tish & Rashawn


Kaiya & Carter


Tish , Carter, Me and my shit eating grin


Kaiya & Rashawn


Carter likes Kaiya

After our encounter with DMB fame we decided we needed a drink. The bar at the Marriott is very nice. We opted to sit outside where there is a giant fire pit. Around the fire pit sat a group of people. The group of people turned out to be roadies for DMB. They were bus drivers, the band chef, Boyd Tinsley’s pro tennis player, and various other DMB staffers. Soon after we arrived, Butch (the keyboardest), came down for a night cap. While Kaiya was chatting quite heavily with one of the bus drivers, Tish had struck up a conversation with Butch. Jr, one of the bus drivers, invited Kaiya and Suzette, Kaiya's friend who had joined us, to go with him on the tour bus to Chicago. Kaiya and Suzette accepted the invitation. I don't really think any of us really believed this invitation was real. We thought it to be cheeky drunk talk. As the night turned into the wee hours of the morning the group dwindled. In the end Kaiya, Suzette, Jr, Tish, Butch and I debated America's over consumption problem, the failure's of the Bush administration and the daily workings of the Dave Matthews Band. It was truly a night I will never forget.

WEDNESDAY
Kaiya and I attended DMB night 2 at Pepsi Center. I second show was better than the first show. The set list was completely different. They did not repeat one song. At encore, Kaiya and I raced through the halls to meet Jr at the back of Pepsi Center. We loaded Kaiya and Suzette's bags onto the tour bus and I hugged them goodbye. Kaiya and Suzette had just become Dave Matthews Band's newest roadies.

inappropriate Wisconsin types

http://wcco.com/topstories/local_story_248175226.html

woodbury

I spent the last 2 and a half days at home with my family in Woodbury, Minnesota. It was so beautiful there. It was lush and green and the weather was completely perfectly splendid. I didn't even get one mosquito bite. It was the first time in five years of visits to Minnesota that I didn’t hit up the night life of Minneapolis. Michael (brother) is quasi living at home and The Cunnien Ranch had only one operable vehicle. This meant no trekking to Minneapolis to enjoy one of the most underestimated, cosmopolitan, edgy cities in the Midwest. It was actually quite OK with me to spend my time at home in Woodbury. It was peaceful, relaxing, enjoyable and it was so nice to spend time with my family.

Going home to Woodbury has become bittersweet. I will always love going to my hometown and even more I will always love going to the home were I spent the first 21 years of my life. The place I grew up, Cottage Grove Drive, is not the same anymore. I grew up in the bonafide country. It was technically a suburb and "civilization" (in the form of a convenient store) was a mere 5-7 minute drive but, my childhood home was surrounded by corn fields and trees. It was a young boys paradise. Today, my parent's house is surrounded by $800,000, 3 car garage, two story, cookie cutter, suburban style homes. And I mean surrounded. What was once an enormous field where I spent many a summer day running through corn rows (actual rows of corn not hair) and building tree forts has become Woodbury's newest sub development, Stonemill Farms. It is indeed urban sprawl at its worst. Oh how I long for the Woodbury of my childhood.

myday on myspace

Thursday morning I woke up on Smay's couch. Mornings that start this way are never good! I spent the first few hours watching the first season of Gray's Anatomy. After that grew boring I decided to slum on myspace. I did a search for some old high school friends and I was completely disturbed to find a plethora of Woodbury folk who finally got around to joining the myspace craze. I sent off some reuniting emails to people I haven’t seen for 8+ years. I saw myspace pages for people I forgot existed. It was interesting to hear how people had progressed in their conquest for happiness or fame.

After doing a little digging I came across a rather telling photo which prompted me to call my old high school buddy Marin in Austin, TX. I hate chatting on the phone but the two of us gabbed for an hour and a half about the people in our past. It was most amusing.

Check out this link to Martin's blog: http://www.notethisblog.com/2006/08/past-drags-me-out-of-closet-and-kicks.asp

happy birthday mindy!

Dinner at 9 seventy five.

Ccocktails at DC10. That bar is a complete tragedy on the weekends. Patrick's suggestion... Enjoy happy hour 3-7 every week night or 3-2am on Sundays.

Cruised Broadway looking for a place to wear our dancing heals. No luck! We did get to see the cast of Real World departing Shelter (Denver's newest Chad & Trixie Club)

Took in a night cap and a few karaoke performances at Armida’s.

Worked on our buzz and baked cookies back at the Emerson Plaza.

happy fucking birthday, julie!

Julie turns 28 today. She is clearly obsessed with her Birthday as it is all she has talked about today for fucks sake. Either way:

H A P P Y

F U C K I N G

B I R T H D A Y

J U L I E... we love you, I guess.

weekend bbq a smasing success

What was meant to be a small gathering turned into a reunion of sorts. Michael Mancini and I decided to have a small "nearing the end of summer" soiree. After a few phone calls it turned into a rather healthy gathering. The Emerson Plaza gang (aka my neighbors) showed up in rather impressive amounts. I must admit my timing in the whole barbequing thing was rather off. My meat came later then I would have preferred it to. Although, my mother's broccoli salad was a huge success. And, thank God, because as I mentioned above my meat came out later then I wanted it to.

I also decided to make Sangria. Well, I sort of fucked it up. Well I decided to make my Sangria in one of those big ass bottles that cheap, shitty table wine are housed in. Well, I shoved the fruit through the small bottle neck. In the end 6 peaches, 4 oranges & 4 lemons were stuck in the bottle. What the fuck, Patrick?? Better Sangria next time.

the trouble we're in.

Sometimes I think that the planet Earth and all of her inhabitants are part of a big fat experiment. If my theory is true are we not living up to our experimenters hypotheses? Or are we doing exactly what he or she or it thought we would do, grow paranoid and start killing each other. This planet and its inhabitants are simply out of control.

A few of my Christian friends seem to think that the end is near. Jesus will return. I think they may be partially right. Poor mother Earth simply can't sustain the ever growing virus on her skin, the human race. The damage we are causing to our home, Earth, and to each other is simply outrageous.

I have often thought about how we humans are only around for 80 odd years then we pass this planet on to the next generation, out off spring. Nobody really has a personal stake or a real distinct reason for keeping mother Earth healthy. By the time things get bad enough we will all be dead.

I wonder if mother Earths deteriorate health is the reason everyone is so edgy lately? Or is it the ever presence of "terrorism" around the world? Or is it that we are all so wrapped up in aspiring to make as much money as possible so we can buy as much as possible?

The inhabitants of mother Earth are getting angrier and less tolerant!
Uh-oh!

the nerd that I am.

I purchased this airline simulation game from some company in Australia. I waited two excruciatingly long weeks for the software to arrive. I installed it. It is simply the slowest thing I have ever seen. My IBM PCjr was faster than this thing. A while back I played an earlier version of the same game at it was delightful. Unfortunately I loaned it to a friend who has seemed to have misplaced it. Damn it!

The whole premise of the game is to build an airline empire. You start small with small DC9 aircraft flying from Minneapolis to Fargo and before long (if you play your cards right) you are purchasing 747 aircraft to serve routes like London to Tokyo. It is just that exciting. You can decide the seating configurations and the type of meal service your airline will offer.

I have sent an email to the company in Australia inquiring if there is something I can do to speed the thing up. We will see if they can help.

back in the swing of it!

I don't believe I informed my blog audience but, back in May I started working a new and cruelly unusual shift at work, 4:15am to 12:45pm. I was assigned a similar shift briefly when I worked in Minneapolis, but for almost my entire U** career I have been on a night (swing shift.)

While I was on this shift I would wake up at 2:45am to be in the car by 3:15am to be in the parking lot by 3:45am to catch the bus to be at the required shift start briefing by 4:15am. My social life this summer lacked considerably not that it mattered as I was constantly tired. I certainly don't miss listening to that atrocious alarm clock of mine wail at 2:45 in th a.m.

2 weeks ago I was granted a 12:30pm to 9:00pm. It is considerably much more civil.

hey, at least it's a dry heat.

mmmmm hot hot dry dry... yummy!

goddamned fucking global ass warming!

has the blog novelty worn off?

Could this be the reason I haven't updated my blog in a while? I am really very lazy but, according to the book Affluenza it's OK to be lazy, after all Thoreau was essentially lazy and look at what a successful poetic figure he was.

OH JULIE!
I had a really lovely dinner with Julie O. last night. After attempting a parking spot that rivals the type of tight ass you look for during a one night stand we opted against the newly opened Steuben’s. The menu looks pretty darn standard but the interior looks less then inferior. We then went for the gold standard, Watercourse, but those fucking liberal hippy vegans aren't open on Monday's. hmmm What would Thoreau think of this. Kudos to them I say. Mead street station was the "third time is a charm." I thought the food was standard bland but, I did order off the "healthy wraps" menu so it was quite ok.

After debating the health effects of clove cigarettes we decided to get some and see for ourselves if they really are that harmful. They are. It feels like a civil war (war of northern aggression for you southern types) calvary stampeded across my throat in the night. We got some coffee from Paris on the Platte and strolled to see Michael Frazier at his new loft.

FYI, Little Raven Vineyards is a really great wine shop with a really great owner named Karen Saenz. She helped coach me through a selection of red that would not react with my newly self diagnosed tannin allergy. She was awesome.

Michael Frazier’s new pad is amazing. Lofts like his give me hope for Denver. It was an old bank. The floors, ceilings and walls are all laid concrete. It makes me want to sell this shit in Washington Park and gitty up downtown.

the 2006 rafting trip

22 of us in 4 rafts braved the extra strong flow of the Arkansas river in a 7 hour, high intensity, 16 mile, white water rafting trip today . The weather was drippy and overcast but each of us had donned a wet suit so we were all quite cozy and comfortable.

After lunch the members of our raft (named no name) shifted positions (I moved from front right to middle left) this act made our boat "unbalanced" and a ways down the river we learned of the implications of improper weight and balance on a raft as I was violently tossed from the boat.

Further down the we attempted a "surf" which is where you fight the water to rest the raft at the base of a mini waterfall or "hydraulic" and let the raft just surf. We were very unsuccessful and I was sucked out again and bounced right under the raft and was shot out the other side. Ellen and Geoff, two members of our rafting team, also were violently tossed from the boat.

All in all it was a great experience. We were the only boat to have passengers get ejected. Our guide Dave, whom I had the fortune of being with on last years trip, has 11 years of experience and is a bit of a risk taker which would account for our rafts turbulent and dramatic voyage . I will request him next year.

Thanks to Dave, our guide, and my fellow raft mates: Ellen Sarcone, Mindy Lee, Chris Young and Geoff Larson, we had a really great team and a lot of memories that will last a lifetime.

bailey informs mike and matt about his asian heritage

happy birthday bill!

Today my dad turns 57. Happy Birthday dad!

happy day after easter day!

Jeez! When I was young nobody flew on the holidays. Yesterday the airport was full of needy holiday traveling families. Of course it didn’t help that all the flights I was assisting were California bound. Those people annoy me! It's like they all think Hey look at me I live in California and I am EXTRA special.

I had too much candy around me yesterday. What is it about holidays and getting fat? What do people think? It's like Jesus was resurrected today so, have a chocolate bunny and a peep or two. I have decided to strip my home of all candy! I have a jar of chocolate covered macadamia nuts and some m&m's. I can't have this temptation around me! This is the same principal that I use when I leave my cogarettes in the glove box. It's just less tempting. I am so super glad I am not in possession of any chocolate covered cigarettes.

CHLOE DAO

Last night, in a stunning shock, Chloe took home the gold medal from season 2 of Project Runway. I honestly thought, that once Santino was out of the picture, Daniel V was the sure bet but, I was sorely wrong. I must say that I was most impressed with Daniel V’s reaction. He didn’t look dismayed at all by this sudden loss. I think he may have been in as much shock as I was. If you are also sad about Daniel V's loss perhaps this will cheer you up: http://youtube.com/watch?v=6grHp7kOGMU&search=Simpsons%20Intro%20Opening

Either way, Congratulations Chloe!

hump day inappropriateness

http://www.goodiebag.tv/video/do_you_take_it.htm

The Project Runway season finale is tonight. My vote goes for Daniel V. His design and execution are simply superior. GO DANIEL V!

thought of the day

How many of you have found yourself in this predicament?