I’m knee, or neck, probably neck, deep in a project at work, we’ve been spending about 18 or so hours a day in “the war room” to get the project completed. That means lots and lots of take out… and Diet Coke, Red Bull, and other things that are making me fat, and probably shortening my life.

There’s a place on West Park Ave and Market, that opened recently (Across from the west office, where the war room is) and so we’ve been frequenting it a lot. It’s a Philly CheeseSteak place. I suggest you try it if you’re in the area, it’s good. We’ve also been giving lots of money to the Blake St Tavern, which makes a good, spicy chicken strip (my weakness for sure!)

The Breckenridge brewery is also (not at all unknown to you guys I’m sure) good eats.

as much fun as eating bad, and writing code for 18 hours a day is, I miss my wife, and the gym.. The end (i think) is in site, so I’m enjoying the chance to try new places to eat.

Any recomendations? send ‘em my way, we’ve got a few more days of coding ahead of us.

Yes, I visited the Kwik-e-Mart. Although I felt excessively dorkish taking pictures, because there were so many frickin’ people in there. But that didn’t stop me. It felt nice to be in Simpson-land, if only long enough to get a Squishee.

It’s called Leaf. And for those of you scoffing, “Duh. Of course there’s a vegetarian restaurant in Boulder. It’s Boulder,” I challenge you to name me one other all-vegetarian restaurant in a 10 mile radius. And the now-defunct Cafe Prasad doesn’t count, because they’re now defunct. Boulder has more steak houses then vegetarian restaurants. If you can think of another vegetarian restaurant around here, I’d be glad to know of it. Tell.

Me and some friends had dinner at Leaf last weekend. It’s on 16th just north of Pearl, next-door to Aji, shares the bathroom corridor with it. Their names show up side-by-side on the credit card receipt, like this: “Aji/Leaf.” Too bad they aren’t one restaurant. Then your omnivores could order atún enrollado en cacahuates y plátanos fritos while your vegetarians could have the jamaican jerk tempeh. As it is, you have to separate out and then synchronize your watches so you can meet clandestinely outside the restrooms to pass notes.

Or you could just all eat at Leaf.
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Summit a 14′re. Done.

Yesterday, my wife and I, and a friend of ours hiked Mt. Bierstadt. To say it was more than we thought it would be (wife and I, at least) would be an understatement. “Just because it’s one of the easier ones, doesn’t mean it’s easy.” Ain’t that the truth!

That said, it was absolutely great! We got up early (6am) and were on the road, friend in tow, by about 7:15. We got to the parking area around 8:45ish, and it was already crowded, like stupid, DisneyLand, Matterhorn ride, crowded. I suppose it’s a good thing that so many Coloradans get out and hike on a Saturday, but couldn’t everyone do it, a different day?

The ascent was a bit taxing, prior to yesterday, my wife and I hadn’t gone over 12,000 ft or so. Bierdstadt was nothing like that. We parked at around 11,800ish I think, and wow what a difference starting that high vs. ending that high makes.

The bummer of it was since we didn’t exactly sprint up the mountain, we were about 3/4 when the storm rolled on, so spending time at the summit had to be nixed from the plan. The storm was a loud one, thunder rolled pretty much non stop for several minutes at a time. We summitted, took some pictures of Marmots, the scenery, the USGS Marker, and then down we went. We got about 1/8 the way down, when the hail storm started. Hail stings, like really it hurts a lot.

I ended up getting a little altitude sick coming down, which sucked big time, since it made the descent pretty much a miserable march of agony and nausea.

“A little sore” doesn’t even come close to cutting it. BUT, we did it, that’s one 14′er we can cross off our list. My summer goal of doing a 14′er, is done, and it’s only July! Maybe I should learn to pilot an airplane, or become a navy seal… or I’ll go back to writing? Yeah that might be more attainable.

It’s heeeeeree!

The Harry Potter finale has arrived. Stores all over the metro area (even Wizard’s Chest for goodness sakes!) are shoring up the doors, walls and aisles as the completion of a long journey comes to an end. Where I work (at a to be named bookstore ’cause I don’t wanna get beat up) I’ve heard rumors of just over 3,000 copies waiting in the only backroom we have ready to rock and roll.

This compared to The Tattered Cover which has had people sign in triplicate to confirm they will not release the books location until the moment is at hand. I’ll be dressing up tonight as I sell books to excited children, loony adults and even, *gasp*, myself as I have to know the truth (even if I know all the spoilers I’ll still read the whole thing) and discover what happens to our boy Harry.

What are you out there doing for Harry Potter Day? Dressing up? Partying like a madman? Tell us! Please? We need to drive the bloody comments up a little mo’.

UPDATE: Check out Mike Jones’s questions and answers RIGHT HERE. Warning, not for the squeamish.

Yeah, this is blatant self-promotion. Whatever.

Geeks Who Drink Presents:

Celebrity Guest Quizmaster MIKE JONES at The Irish Rover Pub Quiz. 54 S. Broadway, 8pm.

Wait….that Mike Jones? No, this Mike Jones.

Westword mentioned it last week: check it out.

His questions will involve massage and Pastor Ted Haggard.

We’ll be giving away copies of his new book I Had To Say Something with our bonus question for a free pint. And you can get it signed by the author!

A pint and a book, which you can have signed by the man himself. What more do you want? Don’t answer that.

Get to The Rover early, it’s going to be PACKED: The Irish Rover, 54 S. Broadway. 8pm. FREE.

www.geekswhodrink.com

Downtown Denver is a beautiful place. From Coors Field where the Rockies lose and sometimes win (only when New York comes to town oddly enough) to the 16th Street Mall where you can literally run (if you wanted the exercise) the gamut of the normal to the eccentric in just a few short blocks. It’s come a long way in the past few years with new stores, restaurants and even new buildings have revitalized an area just about bursting with potential.

At night the city is almost reborn in phoenix form as the working stiffs and younger bloods carouse and rabble rouse the steam out of their system into something resembling release. There are innumerable bars (none of which I’ve visited) and places of entertainment. I myself enjoy 16th Street Mall simply because you get to see much of that from the safety of the sidewalk as you gaze from window to window filled to the brim with distracting and exciting side adventures.

Tonight I’m taking a run downtown to visit with some guys who are in town on scooters (yes, you heard me right) and I’m only going to point you towards the website once in this article because I don’t want to get fired. They’re doing something I had always wanted to do. Cross the country on a never ending road trip meeting people and losing your way more than once. These guys just do it on 29 miles an hour.

I wish I could get downtown more often since I do very much enjoy being able to pound my feet to the heart beat of the city. It’s simply a place you have to visit more often because there is no place like it anywhere else in Colorado.

Another Colorado tradition (many states have them) is the Ren Fest. I missed it last year due to being out of the country but I’m looking forward to going with a friend on Saturday to experience a different world filled with pixies (they are always so dang cute!) Puke and Snot (not the actually thing, but two funny guys who do make milk come outta ‘da nose), Ded Bob (you have to see to believe) and a whole cast of characters that makes for a hard walking day but well worth the barking your dogs may do later as you wince and waddle to your car.

The summer is shaping up pretty nicely. Warm weather, good spring storms to usher in the high temps and the understanding that Mother Nature will collect on this debt with the usual October Chill that heralds the return of Old Man Winter. Enjoy it while you can Denver…the blowing winds and snow flurries are but around the bend.

My daily routine now includes a seven or so block walk, to and from the light rail station to work, which presents some interesting (to say the least) sites. I figured I’d start snapping pics where I could and posting them. This one falls into the “why would you name your business that?” category.

I can only imagine what goes on in the Hitting club, maybe it’s like fight club? Maybe you learn to hit? Maybe you just walk in, get rabbit punched, and walk out the other door? Maybe there’s a whole wall of 2×4s, folding chairs, and 6′ foot tables, so that members(?) can practice their WWF style hitting?

The world may never know, since god only knows, I’m not sticking my head in the door!

Back in college, I fell in love with a band called Vigilantes of Love. They started making a splash in the college rock scene about the same time REM was tearing up the charts, and they came from the same town (Athens, Georgia). Not that they were meant to be compared to REM, they just came from the same fertile music scene. Over the years, the band eventually broke up, and their frontman and songwriter, Bill Mallonee, struck out on his own with his phenomenal grasp of the English language and how to shape words into emotion-ridden pictures, then put it to music just to drive the knife in a little deeper.

As it so happened, when we lived in the NW, we went to a music festival in the San Juan Islands every year which Bill played at for a few years running. This did nothing but make us (us being my wife and me) become even more smitten with Bill and his songwriting. It seems like he never stops… always tons of new material everytime out. Anyway. I’m gushing.

We found out that Bill was playing the Catacombs in Boulder last week, and since most places in this area are new to us, we thought it would be a fun adventure. We got the kids all tucked into bed, left them with my brother, and zipped on up to Boulder. The Catacombs, if you’ve never been, is in the basement of the Boulderado hotel. And when I say basement, I mean basement. There might have been room for 15 people in the little corner room he was put in. I’ll make this quick– it’s hard to get service in there, because there are so many little rooms, but if you just get over it and make your way to the bar you’ll be just fine. What a groovy little place. The room was small, so it felt more like a living room… complete with couch. The beer was affordable and tasty, and really the place had the one thing I require out of a bar: it wasn’t smarmy. It didn’t feel too trendy, it didn’t feel like a dive, it was just a cool place where people were hanging out enjoying themselves. I will say after a few hours, some of the drunk college kids were starting to get that glazed over look and were hitting on anything that moved (and a few things that didn’t), which signalled our time to leave… but that was after midnight, and I’m too old to be out that late anyhow.

All in all, it was fun. If I ever decide to play my music out again, I’d love to play there. Just as long as I can play before midnight.

There’s Downtown Denver. 16th Street Mall. Civic Center Park. The Capitol Building. A great place to spend a weekend with all the fascinating characters from the homeless to the performing and back again. But there is another Downtown in Denver that’s slightly smaller in scale.

Downtown Littleton is a great place to visit on a lazy Saturday because it’s such a unique feeling. It’s more than just a strip of street. There’s so much more to the area. There’s the fun restaurants (Abe’s is great! I had dinner there last night and it’s simply awesome. Does it show my bias if I admit there was a cute as button lady taking orders?) and cool little stores from end to end. I spoke with a lady inside a trinket store about how the area had changed and how it was always changing.

I used to live in an apartment that looked right out on the streets of Downtown Littleton. I loved being able to wake up on a Saturday and experience Farmers Markets and assorted sights, sounds and smells from the streets of Littleton. I went back a few months ago and found they had destroyed (renovated is a word they’d use) the apartments I lived in and put in some hoidy toidy business. Such is the cycle of life in the historical city of Littleton. There’s your regular joe eateries and your high end places all along one long slab of blackened concrete.

I intend to go back and see Jose’s and even go back to Abe’s and get some pictures to share. And maybe, just maybe the cute lady will pose with me.

That or she’ll send her three burly male friends behind the counter after me. We’ll see.