I have somehow gotten a miniature golf obsession. I’ve been scouring the web looking for other’ “Mini Golf” courses around Denver and I have become increasingly more obsessed. I think I have a problem. Who gets addicted to mini golf?? Help!

Now, I haven’t been to that many places - this is a very recent obsession - but so far I love the Hyland Hills courses. I have done all three courses there and am wishing there were more. At Hyland Hills, in Westminster, the courses have great landscaping and atmosphere. The staff has taken good care of the courses and it shows. It is far beyond that horrible concrete wasteland feel, where it looks like someone just threw down some 2×4’s in a disorganized pattern. So far, this place is on the top of my list.
(more…)

Like to head to Boulder and hit the open spaces, the trailheads, and the foothills to do some hiking? Have a dog with you? Well now you can take your canine to the mountains off-leash and let him roam the trail alongside you within sight and sound control — for a small fee (of course).

The City and County of Boulder just adopted a great new “Voice and Sight Dog Tag” program, and it’s already being enforced, so if you have Fido off-leash on Sanitas or Chautauqua, make sure he’s registered in the program.

For $15 (Boulder) or $18.75 (for non), you can register online or walk in to a site, get tags for your pup and be on your way (a fine would be triple this). No need to renew, it’s not a yearly, but dogly, permit.

Interested? Visit the site. Watch a 10 minute video. Pay the registration. Viola.

I hope everyone appreciates the risk we amateur journalists take, because getting this photograph was a rather harrowing experience. 17th Avenue is a pretty busy street just about any time there is sunlight.

The Thin Man has been my favorite bar for about as long as I’ve been old enough to drink (possibly a little bit longer; I don’t quite recall). I met this guy at a wedding reception a few weeks ago, and he was careful to let me know that he only really gets to write in a “rushed-instant aesthetic” but I think his review is spot-on. The Thin Man is not the best place to be on a Friday or Saturday night.
(more…)

So the Grand Prix is in town, which normally just means I avoid downtown, but this year I had some “press passes” and plenty of beer, so I figured I’d take a look. It was exactly as expected, I suppose.

There were cars.

And people.
(more…)

Attention everybody: Corn’s in season! The Whole Foods in Boulder is selling Longmont sweet corn at three ears for a buck. Joy! Accordingly, I present my traditional (since college, anyway) Sorta Cajun Corn Chowder recipe.

Ingredients
Corn: 2 ears raw and 1 can creamed-style
Potatoes: 5 small reds or 2 medium russets
Onion: Half a medium-sized yellow of your choice
Butter: 3 tablespoons
Heavy cream: 1/4 cup
Milk: about 12 oz.
Water and seasonings: mostly to taste, but include some crab boil. This is the “sorta Cajun” part.
(more…)

It’s Thursday!

There will be bicycles by the dozen cruising en masse around Boulder. They will be dinging their bike bells. Some will be costumed. Some will be trailing sound systems behind. All of them will at one time or another give in to the temptation to ride in circles for fifteen minutes at a time around any likely circular object, such as the Buffalo Statue on campus or around about a small enclosed parking lot off an alley downtown.

I hear they meet up at Wahoo’s Fish Tacos these days to kick off the ride. Used to be they met up at the Spruce Garage, but it’s been awhile since I’ve gone. Maybe I’ll go next week and report on it.

It’s past 8:00 now, but it’s not too late to intercept the horde and join in. Just listen for the yelling, shouting, laughing, dinging mob.

Happy Thursday!

(Do not confuse this in any way with Happy Wednesday. Wednesdays are in Denver. Thursdays are in Boulder. You have been warned.)

I insist on dinner and beer. Possibly dinner and two beers. We shall see.

I just got off Election Judge duty.

Election judges, for those of you yet unaware, are the staff who run your polling places. They do get paid, but it’s more of an honorarium than a salary. Best to think of it as volunteering. They attend three or four hours of training in the weeks leading up to the election. Those of ‘em running the eSlate machines attend an extra four-hour class in how to do so. And one person per polling place is the Supply Judge, which means they pick up all the equipment (fold-up voting booths, impressive blue ballot box, box of supplies, black bag full of ballots, and eSlate paraphernalia) from the County Clerk & Recorder’s office, bring it to their polling place, set it up, and, after the polls close, bring it all back to the County Clerk under lock ‘n key.

It’s kinda complicated. There are umpteen-million forms for every possible occasion, a bouquet of security seals to be used in locking up voted ballots of every description, and long lines at the County Clerk’s office after the event. At the end of the long lines there are cookies, true, but one cookie after a 13-hour day involved in what boils down to political customer service is really not sufficient. I want beer.

And, see, if you’re Supply Judge, you’re sort of the team leader. You’d better have your ducks in a row so that the rest of the Election Judges at your polling place don’t think you’re a total loser. You’d better hope you get a good bunch of Election Judges to work with you, too. The sort that aren’t inclined to think of you as a total loser, or get pissy with you when you correct them on a point of order, or use the fact that they’re 20 years older than you as an excuse to treat you like a misbehaving child.

Actually, there are several axes along which a fellow Election Judge might fall…
(more…)

I realize that when I write on MetBlogs:Denver, I tend to complain. I complain about fat people on their bikes riding up Lookout Mountain, the fact that we (Denverites) can’t drive, and that Stacey Donaldson won’t return my calls.

But this takes the cake. Are you f—ing kidding about this: Denver police enforcing the 15mph speed limit for cyclists–and rollerbladers!–around Washington Park? Ridiculous.
(more…)

Dear Leah Leah’s Bosses, et al.

Anyone who bicycles up to the drive through of the Taco Bell at 14th and Santa Fe at 1:30am on a Tuesday is either a) a student, b) a yuppie, c) drunk enough that you can call the cops on them while they wait for their food.

Kindly reconsider your “no walk-ups” policy.

Thank you,

David Van Duzer
Denver Metroblogging
(A subsidiary of Metroblogging International)
(more…)