Walk

Here are some pictures I took while walking Bailey last Thursday.


Blossoming tree in front of Emerson Plaza



Coffee shop close to my house. I love the coffee cup protruding cesarean section style from the building.



Pretty tree at Cheeseman Park



Oink



Pete's Kitchen

Bailey Withdrwal

Riding again

Ok, so I broke down and bought a new bicycle. It's a Trek 7.3FX. It's actualy similar to my old one, but the new one is a hybrid. The old one was damaged while I was riding it February 29th and was hit by a car. She drove off. I was left with a bleeding mouth, gashed helmet, scraped knew and a street full of stunned witness, none of who got her license plate numbers. The ambulance arrived within 2 minutes. I thought I was ok (which I was) but apparently I looked peaked, so they took me via ambulance to the emergency room. Dr. Ho stitched me up. I wanted so badly to inform her of her resemblance to Sandra Oh, and point out that Sandra plays a doctor on TV and how weird it is that if you transposed the letters in her last name (Ho) she would have the same last name as Sandra's (Oh)... but I didn't.

So, obviously, it has taken me a while to want to ride again. I am still a bit skiddish around traffic. I REALLY enjoyed riding again. It is a perfect day in Denver, Colorado. I am glad to be back on the bike seat.

Ouch!

UAL announced today a first quarter loss of $542 million.

Um, Hello... raise the fucking fares! Lets see... PRICE OF GAS + EMPLOYEE WAGES + ALL OTHER EXPENSES ÷ NUMBER OF SEATS ON AIRPLANE = AIRFARE.

This is just another episode in what is quickly becoming the most dramatic and turbulent years in modern aviation history.

Happy Passover

This information comes thanks from Ruth. I asked what sorts of foods would be served at Passover dinner. She mentioned brisket, matzo ball soup and kugel. However, apparently, it is not traditional to serve kugel with Passover dinner. I couldn't help myself. I had to google kugel (say it.) Ruth explained that kugel simply means casserole, but since I’m from Minnesota I am confined to calling it hot dish.

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.