07/09/2007: "Okay then!"

music: Bombay Vikings
mood: Unsure

Right then.

Back home! One day of the last work week for me at my current job down. I'm in this weird in-between place there. I was supposed to transition to the dev department this week but that was kind of scrapped because I put in my resignation. Then at the end of the day today I found out that I am indeed going to be helping them out this week. So we'll see how that goes. I stayed in my office as much as possible today to avoid the inevitable "so you're leaving, huh?" I completed my online exit survey today and didn't hold anything back. WOW did I ever not hold anything back. It was a thing of scathing beauty.

The last ten days were spent on vacation in Colorado and Omaha. We experienced downtown Denver on a Sunday night. The Back Porch is fantastic! Not much else is open. Tasty tidbit -- the Twin Cities' light rail train is modeled after Denver's. Denver has us beat hands down. The seats are padded. The trains actually -- get this -- go somewhere! There are multiple lines, people!

We attempted to go tubing in Boulder Creek. Here's what we were promised. Note the serene floating and the relaxed, happy people. In real life the serene, happy floating only happens for 0.3 milliseconds before you go over a FUCKING WATERFALL. Then another 0.3 milliseconds go by and you go over ANOTHER FUCKING WATERFALL. Repeat until you have no skin left on your elbows, knees, or chin and the angry creek gods have stolen all your clothes and shoes. Hope you enjoyed my jelly shoes, you stupid creek. I bought a new pair at Target today so HA.

So be warned.

What else, what else. Oh yes, we drove up Pike's Peak. Because only pussies take the train. Besides, the train was $32/person. Lots of pictures here.

We toured around Fort Collins and decided we will probably be moving there eventually.

If you are ever in the Denver metropolitan area, specifically Aurora, and you like beer, specifically beer that actually tastes like beer, you MUST go to Dry Dock Brewing. If you've never been you have no idea what you're missing. The vanilla porter will curl your toenails. The brew pub itself is tucked into a strip mall. It has a townie bar feeling and is full of cheerful regulars who are happy to strike up a conversation about the beer.

On the way back home we hit the zoo in Omaha. YAY!

All ten days were full of eating, eating, eating. I am proud of myself for sticking to my vegetarianism, even if I don't have much of a choice with my digestive system.

On a related note, I am addicted to crab legs. It's an expensive passion.

I ate the first veggie out of my garden last night. One lone ripe Roma tomato hung next to two green ones. It was delicious. There is a green pepper coming along nicely as well. Some of the jalapeño plants look pretty scorched from the hot weather and no rain but I think they might bounce back. The cilantro is out of control and the zucchini plant is about to overtake the whole garden. Next year the garden will be twice as big now that I know that I can actually grow stuff.

Tomorrow I start MNRG practice again. Whoo!

On the way out to Colorado and back I bought and read the Maximum Ride books. They're quick reads. I finished each in about 2-2.5 hours. If the print was normal-sized it could all be one regular length adult novel. I first bought the third on on a lark based on a commercial I had seen on the SciFi Channel. I had no idea it was a trilogy at the time. If you aren't familiar with the series, it's written for teens by James Patterson. It has created quite a stir amongst teen and adult fans. It has brilliant marketing attached to it like the website, Fang's blog, and a likely movie. If you do read it you have to remember that it was written for kids... and today's kids have short attention spans. Yes, there are gaping plot holes. Yes, it's pretty cheesy at times. Yes, there is little character development. Nonetheless, it's extremely entertaining.

Phew.