Something special in the air.

It happens a couple times a year. It seems everyone, all at once, high tails it out of town. It's that time of year I guess, and today is the day.


Sheri is in Harrisburg visiting her parents and her friend Val.


Daniel is in Orlando visiting his friend Aaron.


Kaiya is in Cancun at a Jewish retreat.


Matt & Mike are on their way to Shanghai to visit their friend Shirley.

It's quiet in Denver.

Google Street View part 2: Google map it!

part one

Deluxe

The ambiance was sexy. The lighting was more conducive to sleeping than reading. It was so dark in there it was actually hard to read the menu. I think we looked like a bunch of old codgers trying to catch some light onto the menu. We moved the menu left to right up then down out and in looking for the spot with the most light. We finally had success reading the menu. We started with oyster shooters, which were sublime, and dumplings, also very good. I had pork tenderloin with the best fricken coleslaw I have ever eaten.

The cake came from Mulberry's Bakery on South Pearl. It was good, but I wouldn't cry in the night for it.



I think Baily has figured out that his parents went to Shanghai without him. He is very depressed. Nothing a bone and a walk can't cure... right boy?

Ellen is 30

Happy Birthday Dr. Lola

We are going to Deluxe for dinner.

9.8 miles

Bailey and I went on a 9.8 mile walk on Monday. I was figuring it was around 7 miles, but when I plotted our path on Google Earth I discovered we had trekked just under 10 miles. WOWSA! Part of the walk included a stroll down 16th Street Mall, Denver's dumpy version of the Champs Elysees. Then again... the real Champs Elysees is kind of dumpy. I noticed a lot of shops and restaurants that had either closed or were in the processes of closing down. It looks kind of sad down there. Downtown Denver has that recession feel to it. This is not good. The DNC is less then 6 months away. I hope Denver can appear to have a lively and vibrant downtown scene for the democrats. After seeing the sad perils of downtown I much prefer the cusp of the city center. Capital Hill, Uptown, Highlands, Golden Triangle and Washington Park are all much more alive, vibrant and distinct compared to the core of downtown. Denver reminds me of a toilet. You want to keep the rim clean, but flush whats in the middle.

Matt and Mike departed for Shanghai today, so I have Bailey-sitting duties for the next week. YAY! I love me some brown lab dog. He is so good. He is sleeping next to me on the floor as I write this.

NWA & Delta announce plans to wed

Let the merger mania begin!
This means the Northwest name will cease to exist as part of the U.S. aviation industry. 2008 has, thus far, been one of the most interesting years for the airline industries. The merger was announced a mere 5 hours ago and already analysts are predicting an announcement from UAL/Continental camp about a proposed merger.

Google street view

View Larger Map

My brother sent me an email today with this link. It would seem Google added Emerson street in their new street view feature. My old periwinkle Crown Vic is the third car on the left. In the movie "The Jerk" Steve Martin became very excited when he discovered he was listed in the phone book. "I'm somebody now" he proclaimed. Google street view kinda makes me feel like that... I am somebody now.

Goodmorning, What!?!?

Frontier Airlines filed for chapter 11 last night. I know all the gloom and doomers on airliners.net were predicting this, but I always blow them off as gloom and doomers. This is scary.

3:48pm Update
Today, at work, customers had my employer very confused with the local airline that filed bankruptcy.. "My flight would not be delayed if you weren't bankrupt" said one unhappy customer. Actually, I thought, I bet it still would. Another customer asked how we were recovering from the MD80's "you guys" grounded. I said we were doing great. UA does not have any MD80's, so the grounding went quite swell.

Twitter explained

"W" Sewage Facility

A sewage plant in San Francisco will be named after our fair president. According to "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" visitors to the facility will watch impurities be removed from water. The water will then flow into a large tank with a sign on it that says mission accomplished.

Snow

They forecasted it & yet we doubted them.






Bundt Cake #2. Not as good as the first, but still pretty good. The top crust stuck to the pan. I guess I will butter a little better next time.

Denver and the convention

And what convention am I referring to? Why the Libertarian Party convention. Hello? Didn't anyone tell these people that Denver.. has like.. reached its political convention quota for the year? Ah, what the hell it will bring in some money for the city. The convention is May 22 through the 26th at the Denver Adams Mark Hotel. Who knew Denver was such a political convention hot spot.

And now about the other convention... I am trying to convince Micheal and Matt to move into my 453 square foot condo for the week of the DNC. People are making a small fortune for renting their homes out for the convention. The Denver Post is estimating 50,000 visitors to the DNC. Yep, its going to be 3 gay men, a chocolate lab and one Epilady.

Charlie The Unicorn

I don't remember where I first saw this... perhaps on Note This? This shit is funny.

Airline Graveyard

This has been a rough week for the airline industry. Count them
1.. 2.. 3.. 4.. airlines have gone under in 1 week. This is some scary shit!


Aloha Airlines 1946-2008

This is by far the saddest airline shut down in recent history. Aloha flew for 62 years. I never flew on Aloha. There is a great last trip report found here... Made me shed a tear.


American Trans Air 1973-2008


Champion Air 1987-2008

This closure is a bit of a surprise, but Hello! 727 + year 2008 gas prices ≠ profits. United used to ground handle some of Champions spring break Mexican flights out of Minneapolis. I have fond memories of seat assignment stickers used for boarding passes. I thought is was so old fashioned, but nobody ever got the same seat. Ahhhhh memories of 727 loads of drunk UofM kids going to Cancun.


Skybus 2004-2008

This one is hot off the presses. Skybus, from what I have read and heard, was terrible. I wish UA would buy their fleet. They need some more airplanes.

London

UAL started daily nonstop service Denver to London on Sunday. I did not know this until the speeches were given at the inaugural celebration, but UA has been trying to obtain this route for 15 years. The route was only made possible by the open skies agreement passed into law last year. I cannot wait to jump on this flight! Here are some pictures from the inagural celebration.

Bunt Cake

Almond bunt cake prior to receiving an almond glaze.

I have been to a few dinner parties in my time, but Monday night Mike and Matt hosted ,by far, one of the best. I can't quite pinpoint what it was that made it so memorable. The food was fantastic. It was, of course, served in courses. Perhaps, it was the perfect group of six people. I was responsible for dessert. I tried my hand at Bunt cake. Unlike, the first time I made a traditional round cake the bunt cake turned out great! Hey, I need a cake blog!

Last night, while waiting at the end of a jet bridge for an airplane to arrive I caught myself humming a familiar but distant song. The song was I've Never Been in Love Before from the musical Guys and Dolls. I was a puny cast member in my high schools version of Guys and Dolls when I was a freshman. I just could not get the damn song out of my head, so of course I rushed home to itunes and bought the album. Feeling rather nostalgic... I also downloaded City of Angels which was the musical I was in my sophomore year. Musical theater is so gay, but I just can't help myself.

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland   "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
North Central
The West
Boston
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The South
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Pandora

I love this site!

Am I totally behind the crowd? My work buddy Lisa, who is hipper than hip, told me about this great site. It's basically a personal radio station. All you have to do is enter an artists name or the name of a song and it will find similar music and continuously play. You can filter songs out that you don't like and the program will recalculate a play list. I love it!

The complete collection...

of pictures from Rebecka's visit to Denver.

I think next year I am going to take St. Patrick's Day off. Working on St. Patrick's day is like every other day at the airport... everyone complains about their seat assignments and delayed flights, but they are all accessoriezd with green.

I went over to Smay's after work. She had a little party going. Kenny's mom was there, so I got to see where Kenny came from.

After everyone passed out I watched the movie Airport. It was filmed at Minneapolis airport, so it was very cool to see scenes of the main terminal packed with people circa 1970. The airline industry was so glamorous. A far far cry from the perils it is in today. I wish I could go back in time and experience the industry when it was at its prime.

728 days

Daniel and I went out for a couple of beers last night. We went round and round about going somewhere different and/or interesting but still ended up at the Wrangler. We are so predictable. I enjoy going out Sunday nights... It seems to mostly be downtown folk or just raging alcoholics clinging to the last remnants of the weekend. The Wrangler can be extra special on Sunday nights because of their beer bust which is hosted on Sunday afternoons. Usually, although not the case last night, by the time Daniel and I get there around 11pm there are a few beer bust stranglers*... yeah, and it aint usually pirrty. Last night it was really clean in there. The beer bust crowd was gone the late night downtown fags were moved in. There was, however, this one drunk guy that kept spilling his gin and tonic everywhere... I only know what he was drinking because the bartender kept refilling it when he would spill it... um why? I asked him why he was so drunk. I couldn't tell if he said he had been at a Lebanese or lesbian dinner party.

* although I meant stragglers... I accidentally typed stranglers and thought it was funny because it rhymes with wranglers.

Daniel told me about this story:


I have so many questions. Apparently, I am not the first person to be slightly obsessed about this storey. You know how old people always say shit like "oh, the good old days" then they sigh. Its annoying and cliché right? Ya know.... I don't think this sorta sitting on a toilet shit happened in the good old days. Perhaps, I am beginning to appreciate the sentiment of the good old days. Ok, I'm totally babbling. After hearing about this story from Daniel I began to interrogate him. Interrogate may be a harsh word, but the lighting at the Wrangler is perfect for interrogation. He finally cut me off and directed me to OMGBlog. Here are a few of my questions:

1. What the fuck?
2. Why would you wait TWO years before calling someone? There was a long discussion last night about the proper amount of time to let someone sit on the toilet before calling the authorities. I think the final decision was about 48 hours.
3. Are her relatives really that bad? Why not just lock the door and pretend to not be home.
4. About the skin growing around the toilet seat... uhhhh!
5. How many books did she read while sitting on the toilet? Yes, I saw the video and yes I understand these sort of people don't generally read, but c'mon what would you do if you were on the toilet for two years?

I have so many more questions to be answered.

Stuff White People Like

Rebecka (aka Flowerhead & Flower) made it back to NYC. Above is her flight path back to La Guardia.

Ruth has been obsessing over this web site... with good cause. Stuff White People Like is fucking hilarious. My favorite entries.. so far.. are: Manhattan (now Brooklyn too!), Expensive Sandwiches, Gentrification (which I have recently decided I am opposed to), Threatening to Move to Canada, Hating Corporations and Outdoor Performance Clothes.

Lazy Saturday feels like a Sunday

Bloddy Mary


Some random decor at The Dish Bistro


Truffle Oil Fries at The Dish Bistro


Tasting Truffle Oil Fries


Rebecka (aka Flowerhead & Flower) and Kaiya on the stage at Red Rocks Amphitheater

More Flower

Our 2007 Prom pose... more on this later.


Dinner at Steubens. Flowerhead enjoyed the lighting... oh and the food too.


Posed Candid


I long to be a Iron Chef judge.


After dinner drinks at Spot.


Flower in the window at Brittany House Manor.

Back to our roots.

Rebecka (aka Flowerhead & Flower) arrived yesterday from NYC. Seeing as we are both from Minnesota we decided to make a jello dessert. We decided on Lime Coke Jello Salad.





Notice my new bench impulse purchase (the piece of furniture we are sitting on). It's very exciting. Here is the recipe for Lime Coke Jello Salad:

1(6 ounce) package lime Jello plus 1 cup boiling water
1 cup regular Coke (we assumed cola)
1 (10 ounce) medium bottle maraschino cherries, drained and chopped.
1 cup pecans, chopped (we decided that next time we will leave this step out)

Dissolve Jello in hot water. Add Coke, cherries and pecans. Place in serving dish. Refrigerate until firm.

Enjoy!

Republicans

I think we should move all registered republicans to Florida and then cut it off and let it sail out sea.

I know I am not the most informed voter in America, but I listen to NPR and I check facts out before I bloviate about politics. I feel sorta bad and judgmental for what I'm about to write, but I really seem to form a strong opinion about someone once I have learned their party affiliation. Am I alone with this? There really is nothing like that warm gooey feeling you get when you find out someone is a democrat. I remember back in the 90's when I didn't even think about Democrat vs. Republican. Don't get me wrong here... my parents taught me from a young age that republicans are misguided imbeciles. Back in the day there was no warm and gooey feeling... in fact there was not feeling at all. I didn't judge people on the color of their party, but now.. well now.. is a whole different story. Maybe it's this war. Maybe it's our president who hasn't quite mastered the use of the English language. I just don't like republicans.

Let me explain the origin of my rant. I am, of course, a Clinton supporter. These are trying times. I am happy to see a Barack supporter because thats one less McCain supporter, but I am happier when I see a Clinton supporter. Ok, so I was chatting/arguing with one of my lovely yet naive coworkers about this picture:


She, of course, believes that based on this picture Barack is not a patriot. "How can we trust a man that doesn't hold his hand to his heart during the national anthem?" she asked. Unfortunately, it would seem that we are living in a world where people not only pass judgment on the color of your party, but on content of your email forwards. Either way... it got me thinking about proper etiquette during the national anthem this is what I found...

Distortion Disco

I have been totally pumped about the return of Hi Dives Wednesday night dance party... "Distortion Disco." Last night, I got my wish fulfilled of dancing shamelessly on a Wednesday night at a shabby south Broadway club... or not! We headed to Sputnik to wait for the Smay. I strategically grabbed us two bar stools directly in front of the door that leads to Hi Dive so we could get a glance at the crowd before we committed to the $3 cover charge. You can imagine my huge disappointment when the door opened and I could count 3 people including the DJ. WTF!?!? It was like looking through a doorway to my youth. DEAD!

We quickly downed our $1 Miller High Life and headed to the Compound. What can I say about the Compound? It was tacky. It was gay.

Do you dress like a douchebag?

Well, do you?

Are we scared yet?

Rome

Pictures and Videos found here.

I was rather shy in the Colosseum video. I guess I don't like the camera turned on me after all.

Apparently, there is no life of Pat!

For some strange reason I have not been very inspired to update my little corner of the world wide web.

United is throwing me a belated birthday party today. My employer does this every year in the form of hazardous material training. I am looking forward to 6 hours of dry ice acceptance and what to look for if you think someone is trying to check a bag containing Sterno. Yippee! This training is something we (airline employees) must do every year per the department of transportation. Happy Birthday to me!

This show rocks!

Watch it immediately!!!

Panic at 35,000

This was recorded 6 December 2007 on an Air Canada flight from Toronto to London.

The following in input from the person recording:

"At 3:15 sec he says "f'in white people". I personally believe that another passenger somehow provoked or encouraged this persons paranoid behavior.

What is important is that everybody arrived safely.

I am no medical doctor so I have no idea what this man was going through, but I feel that he seemed more concerned for his own safety? I think he was scared. I think it's a very fascinating phenomenon.

My partner and I decided we should videotape this in the interest of sharing the experience we went through on this plane with those interested."

The Phone Call

This dude rocks! The Christmas Tree is still my favorite tho.

My latest desktop backdrop

The Arcade Fire at Red Rocks Amphitheater.
What a band, what a venue, what a show!

My new ride

About a month ago I went shopping at the Sunflower Market in the highlands. When I came out to my car (aka Miss America, The Periwinkle Ford, Christine) she* wouldn’t start. I tried for 40 minutes to get the beast going. After a bit of agony I decided that it was time to trade in the ol' Crown Vic for a new reliable and more efficient auto. Here is my new Honda Fit.

I realize that some people might view calling a car "she" to be a sexist action. I just don't think a car with a name like Miss America or Periwinkle is a dude. Nope, the Crown Vic was definitely a lady.

Happy holidays from the friendly skies.

Americans Enjoying Thanksgiving Tradition Of Sitting Around At Airport

Thanksgiving 70's Dance Off

These are the winners of the first annual Thanksgiving 70's dance off. The video was taken at the third annual Brown/Mancini Thanksgiving extravaganza.

Sexual Relativism

The other night I was watching episode #34 of Six Feet Under. In the episode Claire is sent on an errand to pick up a sculpture for Olivier, her professor. It turns out the sculptress is a former student of Olivier's. Claire and the sculptress engage in conversation about Olivier and the conversation veers to the topic of Olivier's sex life. The sculptress is stunned to learn that Claire, Olivier's assistant, is not sleeping with him. The sculptress asks "Is he having a boy year?"

I started thinking about sexual orientation while watching Six Feet Under but it resurfaced again while watching MTV's A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila (don't waste your time.) The Tila Tequila show is basically like ABC's The Bachelorette except in MTV's case that the bachelorette is kind of skanky and bisexual.

In the first example Olivier is never labeled bisexual and in the second point the entire premise for the show is bisexuality. You might as well stamp Bisexual on Ms. Tequila's forehead.

Now, I am not going to post about being all high and mighty and above labels. I like labels, in fact sometimes I love labels. You should see my filing cabinet. My filing system is hot. I do, however, wonder if one day sexual orientation labels will be obsolete. Hear me out. If you have ever been around me at a party after a couple beers and a sexual orientation conversation comes up... then you have most undoubtedly heard me rant about how everyone is bisexual (label) and sexual orientation is a spectrum. Some people are strictly attracted to the opposite sex others feel the same about their own sex but really most of us are somewhere in between. It’s a spectrum. I also like to theorize that someday everyone will be smack dab in the middle. When it comes down to it isn't your sexual orientation determined by who you are attracted to at that moment. Is sexual orientation relative? I think... yes!

Puppy Love

Ruth thinks this is how we all act around Becker. I agree.

Finally

My pictures of Paris

Matt's pictures of Paris

Paris

I am still recovering from our 2 day trip to Paris. I will have a link to the photo's soon.

Arcade Fire

After a ridiculous amount of aticipation (like 3 month's) Daniel, Holly and I with our bright teary eyes weeped with joy as the ten members of Arcade Fire took to the stage at Red Rocks Amphitheater. They opened with Black Mirror. I must say they (or just Win) got off to a bit of a rough start, but they very quickly warmed up. They have like crazy mad energy. I have never known a band to be versatile. I always just thought each member played the instrument of their mastery and that was it. This is not the case with Arcade Fire. They traded & switched instruments constantly but what really amazed me was how they swapped instruments with each other. Win began intervention with proclaiming "this is for Governor Bush" and I thought wow this is my pledge of allegiance.

Cheap shit found here.

Yesterday was the first annual Emerson Plaza Yard Sale. It was quite successful. We got rid of a lot of crap and made $140 for the "Save Becker Fund" (pictured above.) Following our sale we had a nice barbecue in the courtyard. I love having weekends off!

it's raining!

It's so damn hot here. The rain is a welcome change in weather. Daniel shared his new music obsession with me, Andrew Bird & The Mysterious Production of Eggs. I am quite enjoying it. I am finally up-to-date with lonleygirl15. The ending to season one was fantastic.

lonelygirl15 Season 1 Recap

How do you waste time?

So, I'm Baily sitting. I'm waiting to start getting ready for work and decided to check out what's the shit on YouTube and I came across lonelygilr15. I can see I'm going to be wasting a lot of time watching all 200+ episodes. What the hell has the world come to.

Minnesota

Tuesday morning I flew back to the Twin Cities. My parents picked me up and we headed over to pick up my brother at the harmony. We then headed down to the scene of the I35W bridge collapse. Its sad that it took a bridge collapse for me to walk on the Stone Arch Bridge for the first time in my life. That neighborhood by Saint Anthony Falls and the new Guthrie Theater is really beautiful. Minneapolis is such a beautiful city. The scene of the bridge collapse is truly terrifying. I can't imagine what it was like to be at the scene when the bridge fell.

We headed back to Woodbury and had a late lunch at Sunset's. After lunch we visited my grandma. She looked very good. While we were enjoying grandma's company my Uncle Paul, Aunt Tami and cousins Tevor and Alexandria walked in. I haven't seen these folks in about ten years. It was very good to see them. After our brief visit with the extended family we headed back to Cottage Grove Drive. A little while later Paul, Tami and the kids stopped by for a visit. We sat on the deck and chatted about where our lives have brought us. It was very cool to see my extended family. They may be moving to Denmark, so perhaps I will one day visit them there.

After the extended family headed out and night fell we started a camp fire in the back yard and enjoyed some s’mores. It was a very relaxing evening. My brother and I fisnished the evening by watching a few episodes of Luckey Louie, HBO's first ever sitcom. It's extremely funny.

After breakfast Wednesday morning we headed down to my parents forty acre plot of land in eastern Wisconsin. We hiked around and enjoyed the surrounding nature. We found our old Boy Scout camp ground. I also found some lashing my friend Adam Grovender and I did about 20 years ago. It's pretty amazing that it has lasted. We also visited the Walnut plantation. We planted about 500 walnut trees and 1,000 white pines 17 years ago. It's a regular forest now. After we returned from our hike, we headed south and crossed over the Mississippi back into Wabasha, Minnesota. We enjoyed some dinner at Slippery's made famous by the movie Grumpy Old Men. After dinner, and a quick stop at Dairy Queen, we headed north towards the Twin Cities. On our way back we stopped by my great aunt, Bernadine's, place in Hastings and visited with her. We then headed back to Cottage Grove Drive. My brother and I ended the evening with some more episodes of Lucky Louie.

I arrived at MSP at 5:20am on Thursday morning. I was unable to get on either a United for Frontier flight, so I ended up flying the hometown airline, Northwest Orient, back to Denver.

Here is the link to my picture.

Even they have problems sometimes.

Emirates, the flag carrier of the UAE, is considered by airline geeks and service polls to be one of the leading airlines in the world. This story sounds like something that would happen in the U.S. on one of our countrie's not so leading airlines.

Pics of the Minneapolis Bridge Collapse.

I got these from my brother this morning.

Drinking and walking

The Smay met this guy at The Spot on Saturday who she invited back to her after party. The Smay, being the hopeless romantic she is, told the guy she would not give him her number because it was pointless. After a couple of days of mulling over her reaction to this dudes affection towards her, she has changed her mind and would like to give Ryan (the dude) her number. That being said The Smay, Katie and I returned to the scene of the crime last night in hopes that Ryan may somehow have nothing better to do with his Tuesday evening and be holding down a bar stool at the Spot. No such luck. We still had fun. We did meet some memebers of a band named Blue Million Miles.

As we were walking home we noticed a police officer paying very close attention to what appeared to be an abandoned house. Since we all had a couple beers and were feeling friendly we decided to investigate what was going on. This is when we met officer Mike. Apparently the house on the southwest corner of Bayaud and Emerson is an ex-meth lab. That’s neat! Anywho, Officer Mike was like Mr. friendly cop. He is the full time night time cop in our hood (the Speer neighborhood, that is.) We bombarded Officer Mike with questions like, can we really carry an ounce of weed around? and, can I get in trouble jogging at Washington Park after 11pm. He was more than happy to participate in "get drunk and ask the cop questions." We also had officer Mike run all our licenses to see if we had any outstanding warrants. We are all clean, score! Officer Mike says our neighborhood is very safe. It's nice to hear a cop say that. The next time the cops get called on one of The Smay's after parties we're going to hope its officer Mike and invite him up.

Judy Benet is heading east.

Judy Benet just text me to tell me that she has accepted a job offer in the D.C. area. Congrats JB. We will miss you, but now I have a place to rock out in D.C.

Which reminds me... I needs to call Mindy. I miss Mindy. Mindy was one of my favorite neighbors who moved to D.C. about 3 months ago.


These two will be rocking out in D.C. together.

It's never to late to blog about....

Burger's birthday bash on Saturday. I sort of didn’t plan on participating, but then The Smay called and said they were all heading to Spot. Spot is such an easy five minute walk, so I thought why don't I don my favorite shorts and head over for a couple. I decided a mini of vodka, on the walk over, was a good half assed attempt at catching up with the rest of the party. The crowd was quite healthy at our little neighborhood watering hole. I think I had 3 or 4 Blue Moons before they kicked us out. The after party was, of course, at The Smay's. For some dumb ass reason I decided that Bailey's and milk sounded good. It was not a pretty Sunday for me.

Posted again by popular demand.

I don't know why, but every time I see this I think of Ruth.

Caution: You will find yourself sinning this all the time.

Sebastian

Preston's dog Sebastian passed away last night. Rest in peace Sebastian.

My point exactly.

I have been saying this for years. Sure, the airlines are to blame more than anything else for their fall to shame this century, but why can't they seem to get a foot hold on the profit margin? When it comes right down to it airline passengers want a cheap ticket over anything else. period. There is no loyalty or very little and that’s only because your company has a contract with a certain carrier. As much as I admire Southwest Airlines they really are the cancer of the U.S. aviation industry. They started out of a small airport in Texas and just grew and grew (like cancer.) Now, the “Southwest effect” is killing off the other airlines. Maybe this is just capitalism at its finniest.

The 20 year old post & playing THE game.

I don't really date. I think dating is annoying. It's awkward. I am always anxious wondering if the end of the date will result in a visit to the bedroom. I'm a dude, what can I say? After all, I am a very happy single person. What is with this “other half” bull shit anyways? I left my other half in Minnesota when I lost 80 pounds. I don't want that half back for Christ sake. Or, maybe, I am missing a half. I enjoy doing things half assed. Maybe if I found my "other half" I would do things whole assed.

Anyways, I met this dude. I won't say where because it’s too cliché. He seems to have his shit together which is like such a turn on. He has three jobs, a mortgage, a nice car and plans for the future. He is 5'11, in good shape and has really, really beautiful eyes. So far so good, right... yeah, he's 20! You’re appalled? How do you think I feel? What the flying f*** am I doing with a 20 year old. The little shit can't even drink. Oh and what's worse... I think (or thought) I really like him. Now for the good news... we're playing the game. I won't call him because I'm not sure he's that into me, and he's not calling me. He keeps sending me emails telling me he wants to see me. blah blah blah, that’s not a good sign. I have a feeling that before the end of August his name will be on my tombstone of fancied gents.

Boeing 787

Here it is. It's pirrty.

Denver's TV claim to fame.

While enjoying some late dinner at Pete's Kitchen... Angi, Chad, Jeff and I started chatting about Dynasty, and how much they actually filmed in Denver. It was decided that pretty much the intro was about it. About 7 seconds in there is a great shot of Capital Hill. You can almost see my old place at 1236 Pearl St.

3 day weekend.

Well, I was supposed to be in New York right now visiting Flower head, but I could not get on a flight to New York and the flights back to Denver looked worse. So, here I am stuck with a 3 day weekend in Denver. Gay! I took a really nice bike ride yesterday evening down to Littleton (aka Littlefun) via the Platte River Trail and back up via Clarkson St.

Daniel and I had some beers at the Wrangler then enjoyed some fat girl pizza at Famous Pizza on Broadway. Apparently, there is a difference in the quality of pizza between the Broadway store and the Colfax store. Go to the Broadway store. After out slice Daniel took me to the Barker Lounge. I had never been in there before. The place looks like gay pop culture barfed on it. ew.

Daniel and I have decided that the gays are out of touch with modern design. It seems to me that (at least in Denver) gay bar = tacky. I'm bored with the gay bars up in here.

Approach with caution.

Check this out.

Women In Art

Great Moments In Presidential Speeches Compilation

Are we out of control?

The fastest growing group in our population are the people that can't deal... with life. Have you noticed this? Maybe I notice because on a daily basis, at work, I deal with hundreds (sometimes thousands) of people. The general public has been completely ridiculous for years, but the trend is worsening. Everyday, I see poeple that have a meltdown over the simplist things. I had a customer tell me yesterday that if her family couldn’t all sit together she was going to throw a tantrum. They were in seats 17A&B and 18A&B. Really? A tantrum? The flight was going to San Diego. That's 2 hours and you will all be sitting within 3 feet of each other. This is not good enough? I see people act this way everyday. People are getting more and more unrealistic. I remember when it was rare to have a freak customer like this tantrum threatening women. Now, it happens daily if not multiple times daily. The anxiety level at the airport has never been higher. I mean that. People were not even this anxious right after 9/11. People are out of control.

I see it in my friends too. This week alone two friends of mine confessed that they are taking medication for anxiety. Can you imagine what this world is going to be like when the population is double of that today. You want to talk about anxiety? You haven't seen nothing yet. I have anxiety. Don't we all? Do I need to be on meds for my anxiety? I have always thought that that feeling was natural. The situations where I feel anxious are the situations that I think I should feel anxious. I wonder what the world would be like if everyone was on zoloft, just for one day. Is it getting harder for people to deal with life? Is this uniquely American? I think our lives are all too complex, too fast, too scheduled. I think we all need to stop and breathe. Just STOP! now BREATHE. Everything is going to be OK.

All gayed out!

I went to my very first gay pride ever today. Lots of gay. Lots of pride. I met up with Michael and Bailey at the entrance of Cheeseman Park at 8:45am to watch the parade. Jeff, Matt, Daniel and Jamie joined us shortly after the parade started. The parade was quite entertaining. It was a freak show of sorts, for sure. The highlight was the Whole Foods float which was giving away those green reusable grocery bags. Score! Unfortunately, every fag in town will now have one. After the parade we disbanded and Jeff and I followed the parade down Colfax Ave. We rode right along with the floats. Colfax was packed. It was kind of cool being in the parade. After our stint in gay paradeom we headed to Snooze for some grub. Snooze rocks! After snooze we headed down to civic center to check out the gay festivities. It was like a flea market with homosexuals. We ran into Daniel and Jamie at the port-o-potties. Now, I am off to work.

Under the (hot as hell) weather

I'm sick. boo.

So, this is what I did last night.

While I was somewhere between dehydrated and sick of hills on my 30 mile bike ride yesterday, Michael called to tell me that Tish had an extra (complementary) ticket for a concert at Red Rocks. I love me some Red Rocks. So, naturally I was like who is playing? He said it was a line of famous blues groups. Blues at Red Rocks... dude I'm in. On the way up the hill (this time via auto) I learned that not only are the tickets complementary but we get back stage passes and vip parking. WORD!

Let me preface this by saying last week a group of us had seen the True Colors Tour at Red Rocks. This is the show, featuring The Dresden Dolls, Debbie Harry, Erasure and Cyndi Lauper, oh yeah, and Margaret Cho as the M.C. Gay gay and more gay. It was like the Wrangler beer bust exploded and all the pieces landed on Red Rocks. Gay! So, as we were finding our seats I realized the crowd for last nights show was like the polar opposite of the True Colors crowd. I was completely surrender by Denver's finest red necks. Now, I sort of fit in, remember my 30 mile bike ride? Yeah, Irish boy in sun for 3 hours = red neck (and face and arms.) The 3 opening acts were indeed blues groups but the head liner was George Thorogood & the Destroyers. I enjoyed the entire show, come on, it's f---ing Red Rocks, but I did prefer the blues performers. The show opened with a blues legend, Koko Taylor. The concert continued with the introduction of another legend Buddy Guy. After George Thorogood's finale we were invited backstage by Tish's friend Bill who is the bassist for Geroge Thorogood. We were escorted downstairs under the stage into the green room where we waited for the band members to appear. Unfortunately for us, these aging rock stars were quite tired so the party under the Red Rocks stage was quite brief. It was another enjoyable evening at Red Rocks.

Catch Up - Party Month!

June has been milestone party month. Two Fridays ago Ruth hosted her graduation party in the Emerson Plaza court yard. After 27 years of study at the University of Denver Ruth has obtained her degree in religious studies. When asked what she will do with her degree she responds "I'm going to start arguments at parties." That is an excellent use of a degree, I think. Her party was part of a capacity test for the court yard. She was able to squeeze 72 guests into our court yard that comfortably, on a good day, seats 12.


Sally, Ruth & Meg. These are Ruth's internet friends.



2 days after Becker was hit by a car, and almost died, he
is happy to be rocking out at the party.


Ruth and Joy.


Ruth and her sister, Sarah.

Last Wednesday was the kick off to SmayFest 2007. Sheri May turned 30 this year. The party started at around 1pm last Wednesday and the last of the party guests are on their way to the airport as I write this. Yes folks, that’s like a 6 day party or some shit like that. Sheri had a really good time, I suspect. The 2 high moments of the party were when the stripper arrived and when her gift was brought in which is a big pink cruiser bike including a basket for beer and a cup holder. I will post some pictures when I get them from the La Fonda Ladies. My contribution, to the party, was 24 pounds of hot wings and some beer cheese dip. I hate hot wings now. I can just picture those poor little chickens laying around with no legs. poor chickens with no legs.

Work getting you down?

I love this commercial. Sometimes I want to be her.

Star Trek Cribs

This is the shit!

Picture Time!

Please enjoy these pictures from my trip to Taipei & Tokyo.

Home

After the 8.5 hour flight from Narita to Seattle we spent 12 hours trying to get on a flight to Denver. We finally got 2 seats on the 9pm Frontier flight. If anyone has questions on where something is at the Seattle/Tacoma Airport just ask me.

Yesterday in Tokyo

Our hotel room is equipped with blackout shades. These things really work. In the heat of the afternoon you can make your room look like the dead of night. We decided to give the suckers a try. They worked all to well. We awoke at 12:30pm. We were a bit disappointed that we wasted half of our day sleeping, but damn, it was nice to sleep in. We decided to make the most of the remainder of the day, and boy did we ever!

The guide book suggested that we head to the highest point in the city. Off to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building's observation deck we were. Much to our chagrin the TMG is located in Shinjuku. We had our fill of Shinjuku the previous night. As I mentioned earlier I am grappling with Tokyo. I am really trying to get my head around this city. I thought going to the observation deck would be a big help. The TMG observation deck is on the 44th floor. That is half the height we were when we visited Taipei 101. From floor 44 in TMG all you could see was city. There was nothing and I mean nothing but city in every direction. I have never seen anything like it in my life. Tokyo is just immense.

After a quick, but very good lunch at the top of TMG we decided to visit the Park Hyatt Tokyo made famous by the movie "Lost in Translation." Rooms at the Hyatt run about $600 a night. It was nice, but not worth one months mortgage.

After our visit to luxury we decided to head south towards Harjuku. We followed the path right to Yoyogi Park. What an absolute delight this was. The park is a completely tranquil retreat right smack dab in the middle of utter chaos. A majority of the park is just natural forest. A walk through Yoyogi Park was an unexpected treat. Halfway through the park we came upon Meiji Shrine Inner Garden. This is the largest shrine in Japan. It is a breathtaking sight
We exited the park and entered Harajuku (yes, these are where Gwen Stefani’s girls are from.) Apparently, this is the hipster district of Tokyo. And let me tell you, I have NEVER seen so many hipsters in one place, not even at Lipgloss. Along with the hipsters was a lot of upscale shopping. It really didn’t make sense to me either (hipster + upscale shopping = Harajuku.). James and I both fell absolutely in love with Harajuku. It is an absolute and absurd pure eclectic collision . It is Absolutely delightful. Oh, and it's so clean you could eat of the street, if that’s your thing.

We snaked south through the narrow streets of Harajuku which lead us right to Shibuya. This is were the tourists go the get the quintessential Tokyo experience. Shibuya is like Times Square on steroids. Shibuya is like the neon capital of Tokyo. Shibuya also features that famous all directional crosswalk.

We were growing quite weary after our long walk through Tokyo's district's, so we decided to catch the JR train back to Harajuku and get some dinner. We found this sheik little back alley bistro. We sat on the patio and enjoyed some really good drinks followed by a very good meal. After dinner we headed back to our hotel. As we rode the JR train back we both wrestled with the idea of going back to Shinjuku (which is something we said we were not going to do) to experience some night life. We gave in.

We freshened up and grabbed the last JR train bound for Shinjuku. When we arrived Shinjuku, at around 1am, we realized that the trains were shutting down for the evening, so we would either have to wait until 4:30am for the first train or spend around $50-70 to taxi back to the hotel. I was hoping for option A. There we were walking around Shinjuku in circles looking for this bar we read about called Arty Farty. With a little gumption James spotted the sign for Arty Farty. Arty Farty was dead, but we went in and ordered two mint beers anyways. We walked around the strange little bar then settled on some bar stools at the end of the bar. James started up a conversation with the bar tender, Hideto, who spoke beautiful English. We spent a good hour and a half chatting with Hideto about Japanese and American culture and life. We both enjoyed Hideto's company very much. After Arty Farty closed we headed back to the street. We walked around the corner to see if Dragon, another local bar, was still pouring. It was still open. We chatted, for a brief moment, with a couple of black drag queens from New York who choreograph for Beyonce. We bellied up to the bar and ordered a couple of draft beers. This is when we met Kenji. It turns out that Kenji is obsessed with Colorado and cowboys (apparently he thinks the two go hand in hand.) He owns an apartment building in Shinjuku. We got the idea that Kenji is very well off.. Owns apartment building in central Tokyo = rich off ass. We closed Dragon. James, Kenji and I headed across the street for some late night Tokyo grub. As we sat chatting at the table over pizza and coffee we realized the sun was coming up. I was happy because this meant I was going to experience a Tokyo morning, and this meant the JR trains were running again. We headed back to the hotel for some quick sleep. It turns out those blackout shades really do come in handy.

Tokyo

We have noticed that Chinese (and so far Japanese) society is not geared towards the self. In the states we describe ourselves as a "me society." I am beginning to see that not all cultures are as self concerned as us Americans. Almost every sales person / customer service representative /waiter that we have come in contact with is so concerned with how we receive their product. They have this crazy sense of pride in what they do. We have also noticed this sense of order to things. People do as they should. They do not break rules. They just follow social norms without resistance.

We arrived at Narita International Airport yesterday at 1:20pm. The flight was very nice. The crew was the inter-Asia based Singapore crew. They are unaffiliated with United's mainland crew. The service they provide is phenomenal.

We took the hour long train ride into Tokyo then connected to the JR train (Tokyo subway system) then to the Tokyo Monorail. Our hotel is very nice, but it is a bit off the beaten path. I wish we ere staying closer to one of the more major JR train lines. Once we got to our hotel room we relaxed and freshened up. We decided to go to the nearby Shinagawa neighborhood to find something to eat. We walked around for quite some time trying to figure out where to eat. We must have passed 100 little tiny 6-10 seat restaurants. We finally decided on this little tiny, very busy barbecue place that had seats outside. No one there spoke English. We managed to get ourselves beer and pork skewers (at least we think it was pork.) The food was really good. The chef also prepared something special for us. He brought it out and then pointed to his tongue. We think we ate tongue. It was chewy. We then headed out to the Shinjuku neighborhood for some night life. It was a 30 minute subway trip from Shinagawa. Shinjuku, at night, is like a big huge red light district. It was chaos. It is a far cry from the area in which we are staying. Everyone in central Tokyo is wearing a suit. I am not exaggerating here. I have never seen so many suits in my life. Shinjuku is a much younger crowd with much fewer suits. As we were attempting to get our bearings using the travel books map of Shinjuku we were approached by a friendly South African offering to help us find our way. He helped us right back to his tiny strip joint in the heart of the mayhem. We told him that was not what we were looking for. He didn’t get the hint. Afterwards, we tried as best as we could to navigate the neighborhood using the useless travel books map of the neighborhood. We finally settled on the books suggested Advocates cafe. It was lame. After all of that we decided to head back to the hotel.

Tokyo is a strange city. I don't quite have the feel of it yet. Hopefully after today, I will feel different.

Taipei Day 3 (update)

After take out breakfast, again, James and I headed to the Pacific Core Living Mall. Not that I am into visiting malls on holiday, but it is an architecture marvel. We enjoyed a blended fruit drink while we walked around the 11 floors.

We took a long subway ride out to the Grand Pacific Hotel, one of Taipei's main tourist attractions. It is a beautiful Chinese style hotel that looks over the whole of Taipei. Unfortunately, it rained all day, so the view from the Grand hotel was not that grand. After we explored a bit we decided to inquire about their high tea. This was not your traditional high tea. It was a full Chinese, Japanese and American lunch buffet including a large table of salads/soups, a long buffet of traditional Chinese en trees, a Japanese sushi bar, a table with fresh fruit from the island, an ice cream bar and a beautiful dessert table. Oh, and tea of course. This was all for around $12. It was really scrumptious. I think we will both remember this as one of our favorite meals on this trip.

After high tea we decided to try and find the pastry shop that Ruth took us to on our first day with the really good pineapple cake It wasn't that hard to find at all. Once again that little pastry shop was packed with patrons.

On our return to the Greer's (James Family, our hosts) we decided to hunt down the Mr. Donut at Taipei Main Station/Taipei Underground Mall. The Greer's enjoy Mr. Donut, so we knew this would be a nice surprise for them. Let me tell you... we got ourselves back assward lost down there in that underground mall. That thing is HUGE. You literally cannot see the end of the mall from where you are standing. I would guess that there are miles of mall down there. It went on forever and ever. We decided to resurface to get our bearings. It worked like a charm. After we located Nova Computer Superstore (also from day 1) we had no trouble finding Mr. Donut. Of course, when we did find it there was about 20 people in line waiting to buy donuts.

When we got back to the Greer's we were greeted with a houseful of guests, sort of, the principle of the school where the Greer's both teach and her two sons. We ate Pizza hut and chatted about life in Taiwan.

Tomorrow we are off to Tokyo. Our taxi to the airport arrives at 6:30AM. Goodnight!

Taipei Day 3

By night market, I meant gay bar. The night market was crowded and overwhelming. The private food stand smells were rather putrid. We walked around Shida Night Market (which smelled like shida) for about 45 minutes then decided to get some fresh air at Fresh, one of Taipei's premier gay bars. It is three floors of Taiwanese homo bliss. The first floor is the main bar. It was extremely smoky. The second floor was the dance floor. The third floor featured a cozy sofa room and a really cool balcony featuring elephant tables and a lovely aroma of insense.

Today, we are heading to the Core Pacific Living Mall. I want to go there because I have added this mall to some of my cities in Sim City 4. We are then going to take in high tea at the Grand Palace Hotel (also featured in SC4.) Then, we are going on a mission to find a pastry shop Ruth took us to on day 1. They have the best pineapple cake in town and I want to bring some home.

Taipei Day 2

After completing my second day in Taipei, I have decided that this is an incredibly civil city. This city, or country, is a little secret jewel of Asia. It's clean, modern and the bakery's here rival… nay beat out the French pastry shops.

While I was getting ready this morning, James and Vicki ran out for breakfast take out. It was really good. We had scrambled eggs, green onions with some sort of soy sauce all snuggled into a really lovely sweet roll. Vicki was our tour guide today. We headed to (via subway) Chiang Kai Shek Memorial and the National Concert Hall. We were, unfortunately, not able to get in due to some sort of Chinese reunification protest. I have some great video clips of protesters getting arrested. We watched the action from afar for a while then we headed to the Terracotta Museum. The Terracotta Museum features statues of solders made out of Terracotta. Thousands of these statues were discovered in Shaanxi, China. We then strolled through botanical gardens. Lunch was at a very sheik, hip and almost euro-french style coffee shop/cafe called Cafe Deon. It was really delicious and it was the boost we need to carry-on.

The highlight of our day was without a doubt our visit to Taipei 101. Taipei 101 is the world tallest building (for now.) We were able to travel to the 89th story. The journey to the top only takes 30 seconds via the world’s fastest elevator. The ride was actually uncomfortable. My ears popped several times during the ride. The sight from the top offers the most magnificent views of Taipei. We spent about 2 hours on the observation floor. After our 40 second descent, we enjoyed some pastries on the lower floors of Taipei 101.

We are no headed out to one of Taipei's famous night markets. The tour book states "If haven't visited at least one night market, you have not truly experienced Taipei. Wish us luck!

Taipei Day 1

My lord, it was an exhausting trip to Taiwan. We tried to get on the 6am United flight to San Francisco but it was full, so we headed to the 710am Frontier flight. We got on! We were more than delighted to both get a business class seat on UA831 San Francisco-Nagoya, Japan-Taipei, Taiwan. The first leg from San Francisco to Nagoya was just over 11 hours!

We are staying with James family, his Aunt Vicki, Uncle Mike, and Cousin John. After over 24 hours of travel that bed was like the best thing I have ever seen in my life. HELLO! I was exhausted. I took 2 Tylenol pm on the long flight but all it did was made me drowsy the rest of the voyage.

Our tour guide, John (and Ruth), have been most excellent. We ran an errand to the Eva Airways ticket office. We enjoyed some pineapple cake at the local bakery while we waited for Eva to reissue John’s ticket. We then headed to Nova, a four story computer superstore. James and I both bought memory cards for our cameras. OK, check this out 2.0GB for, are you ready for this, $17. In the states that same card goes for $200. We then headed to the underground mall and walked around trying to figure out which restaurant to eat at. The tour book said, and of course this is basic advice, to pick a restaurant with lots of patrons. We decided that we wanted noodles, so we familiarized ourselves with the Chinese character for noodle. We walked around the mall getting very excited every time we recognized the noodle symbol. So, what we were looking for was a crowded noodle joint. While we were walking around we found one of Taiwan’s famous fruit stands. Basically, you point at the fruit(s) you want and they blend and serve it to you. We had a pineapple, kiwi & apple blend. The lovely juice girl showed us where she eats her noodles. We ate there too. It was very good. The noodles are made right in front of you. We enjoyed a post noodle stroll through the streets of Taipei.

It is very very humid here. Our skin and hair feel good. Hope all is well back in the states. Blog to you all soon.

Greetings from the Midwest.

I am back in Woodbury visiting the family. My dad retired on Friday after 39 years as a plumber. 39 years ago today was his first day on the job. My gosh, I feel old. Both of my parents are retired. Minnesota is very lush and green this year and it’s humid as f---.

Tomorrow night I will fly back to Denver to do some laundry and repack then it's off to the Orient. James and I are going to spend 3-4 days in Taipei then 2-3 days in Tokyo. I am really looking forward to Tokyo. Don't worry ya'll my picasa album will be considerably smaller than my Turkey album.

• Military puts MySpace, other sites off limits
• Missing in action: Ted

How not to expose your Vagina

Alanis Morissette "My Humps" video

Turkey.

Here are the pics from my trip to Turkey.