Today’s eye candy: A corn maze seen halfway between Greeley and Gilcrest along Highway 85. For a better view as well as visiting information, check out the official website.

As some of y’all already know, I’m a pilot. After a couple years out of practice, I just recently got re-endorsed, and now the plan is to go up once every two weeks just to keep the rust from accumulating on ye old license. And I thought, maybe if I get y’all expecting regular aerial photography over here, that’ll be extra incentive not to miss a practice session. So, eye candy.

Today’s flight was between the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport (formerly the Jefferson County Airport, or “Jeffco”) and the Greeley-Weld County Airport. There is an excellent diner at Greeley-Weld called The Barnstormer and you should order a short stack of their pancakes right now. The sausage patties are also amazing, all juicy and textured. (Yes, I know what that texture is. Give me a break. It’s sausage. If you can’t stand unidentified pig parts, don’t order it.) I’m told the hamburgers shouldn’t be missed, and as soon as I get there for lunch rather than breakfast I will make sure not to miss them.

The airport staff are exceedingly hospitable, too, coming out to help you tie down and chock the wheels before you’ve quite finished dragging your ass out the cockpit. And they’re ready to call you a taxi (”OK, you’re a taxi”), find you a hotel, contact a car rental, whistle up the fuel truck, or just point you to the restroom at a moment’s notice. Basic taking-care-of-guests stuff, sure, but it felt almost VIP-ish. Maybe things are more brusque when the airport’s busier, I dunno.

They get extra points for not opening with a conversational gambit along the lines of “Did you fly all the way here yourself, little girl?” Believe me, there are still places where airport staff will worriedly ask whether you dropped your Y chromosome on the way over, because you can’t actually be female and flying a plane. How could they call you an “airman” with a straight face? How could they sell you a “10 reasons airplanes are better than women” T-shirt? …I’m happy to say that such attitude appears mostly absent in the Denver area and along the Front Range. (And at least the staff at Rock Springs, Wyoming a couple years back got their vocal incredulity over with before I actually came into earshot. I heard it about it later from my godmother. “When you radioed in, they were all like, ‘Oh my God, that’s a GIRL up there!’ I told them, ‘That’s MY girl!’” Hee.)

Feminist axe to grind? Well, maybe. Sometimes. How could you tell? (Support your local 99s chapter! Women in aviation rawk!)

Anyway. Next eye candy should arrive around August 25 or so, weather permitting.

I was going to do this on my normal blog but since it’s community oriented I figure what the hey.

I attended a open house at the Denver Police Academy on Friday night in hopes of finding out that my dreams of being a police officer are true blue and not based on some fantasy where I get to say, “Book ‘em Dano” and ride off down the street with girls oogling my wavy (not to mention sexy) hair as the wind blows it about.

Not to say that a fantasy like that isn’t possible.

We were briefed by a detective who spoke quietly but you could tell he was the gentle giant until you messed with him. He spoke about what it means to be a police officer and that if your heart is in the right place and you desire it for all the right reasons, you too can be a police officer in any one of Denver’s many districts. It was interesting seeing the different people there to get the information. Several parents with kids probably just out of high school and some of them looked as if they’d been dragged there against whatever will they had left.

There was also an odd fellow who asked the most wandering questions that I think I understood but didn’t want to try. Several former and current military officers and many women represented as well. We also met Earl Peterson the head of the Civil Services Commission. We were repeatedly told throughout the night that 95% of the people in the city and county of Denver respect the badge and the blue. There are also 5% of people who would rather see a officer down which made it very real to hear each of the speakers put it before us.

The name of one such fallen officer, Donnie Young was mentioned several times and within the classroom his picture was posted in each room so that your eyes could not ignore the risks of this very job you were wanting. I left the meeting heartened more oddly enough. I’ve dreamed about it since I was able to play cops n’ robbers. I’ve always respected law enforcement. Heck, I go on ride alongs because I want to and desire to see more about what these men and women in blue see each day.

Am I crazy to want to suit up for a risky job? Perhaps. The truth is there is risk in everything. There’s risk in just living each day. Sometimes you have to accept the risks for the chance to make a difference in your community.

The next open academy I can go for is in October of 2008 and testing will open up soon. You can check it out here on the Denver Government website if you’re interested in taking on of the most challenging jobs out there. Now I have to get healthy and fit to be ready for such a chance.

I think I mentioned, that I’ve been working crazy hours lately, well that hasn’t stopped, yet. The upside is we’ve been eating out, a lot!

The latest installment includes:

• Buenos Aires Pizzeria : @jay, good call. It’s quite tasty. I went for straight up traditional, Pepperoni, and Italian salami. It was good, not great, but I’ve had worse so that was nice. The Empenada however, now that was some yumminess, wowza I might go back just for an order of those bad boys. Spicy beef… mmmm
• D’Corazon : At one point last week, we needed a break from the office so we ate out, a nice walk in the sunshine, honestly in the last three weeks, I’ve not been out in the sunshine at all, other than driving into work, ack, so sucks. I had the Chimichanga, it was good, I’d try something else next time probably. Mostly because it didn’t WOW me, so I’ll be on the hunt for that WOW dish that once I taste it, I won’t order anything else, ever. The salsa was pretty darn good. If it wasn’t for my boss and co-worker I damn well mighta just pulled the dish in front of me and housed that bad boy.
• We’ve eaten plenty more times at the CheeseSteak place catter corner to us, it’s easy, and quick and doesn’t require us to leave our keyboards, sad but true.
• Blake St Tavern has also seen repeat business from us, hard to go wrong with a buffalo chicken sandwhich

Thanksfully I’m off next week, doing my other day, night, weekend, free time job, in Seattle. Should be fun, me and 300 of my closest friends LOL.

See everyone in a week.

Credit where credit is due: My husband totally pegged this one. He reminded me that DecorAsian isn’t the only Boulder business with wooden tigers on their doorsteps. The Wok ‘n Roll on Valmont and 28th has one too. Turns out, this week is the grand opening of the new Wok ‘n Roll location in the Meadows shopping plaza–Baseline and Foothills–and that’s what the spectacle this week on the corner is about.

The bittersweet side of this is, this new Wok ‘n Roll location is opening in the storefront that CiCi’s used to occupy. Which means CiCi’s is gone. Remember fairly decent all-you-can-eat pizza in about 15 varieties for about $5 per person? Ain’t there no more. The franchise network continues (see here for remaining Denver-area storefronts), but the Boulder location has gone the way of the dodo. So now instead of one Cici’s and one Wok ‘n Roll, we have two Wok ‘n Rolls and no CiCi’s.

So now you know.

Sundays are Go days! Every Sunday at the Boulder Public Library Main Branch, the Go Club For Children and Teens meets in the meetin’ room from 2 to 5 PM. And my husband and I, who neither of us are kinds nor teens, will sometimes go. And play Go. Ha. Pun.

Anyway, they don’t mind adults coming so long as the adults don’t mind playing against, and often being beaten by, the kids. We get to play people of all ages and skills, which is nice, because usually we just end up playing each other.

That’s what we were doing when this picture was taking. We were at Antica Roma, having dinner after Go club on Sunday the 5th, playing more Go (natch). In this game, I played black. I always play black, unless the Go Club leader pairs me up with someone even newer to the game than I am. John has to give me seven stones. I suck.

But in this game, black won by 60, pretty much because that group of black stones reaching up to the left corner didn’t die. Says my husband, “That is the coolest seki I have ever seen.”

Sugoi!

Anyway. Boulder Public Library, 2 to 5 PM, Sundays. Also, I there’s an adult group that meets at the UMC on Wednesdays. We just haven’t been yet because Wednesdays are busy, is all.

PS. Why did they name the classic video game console of the ’80s after the state of a Go stone (or group of stones) being one move from captured? My Google-fu is suddenly quite weak.

I know it’s not as exciting as a video post, but all I had on me was the ol’ camera phone…

We were just chillin’ on Pearl Street in Boulder the other night, and ran across a street performer I hadn’t seen yet. (Give me time, I’ve only been here a few months)

Have you seen this guy? Not only is he freakishly flexible, he’s pretty funny too. I guess you’d have to have a sense of humor if your street act consisted of you popping your shoulders out of joint to fit into ridiculously small spaces.

Can I get DecorAsian on the phone? Their wooden tiger’s gone wandering again. Yeah. He’s hanging out on the southwest corner of Foothills and Baseline. Will someone please come get him before he wanders into traffic?

Oh wait. Is that his trainer there with the big posterboard something?

Ah.

<EmLitella> Nevermind. </EmLitella>

Denver weather is always entertaining. I even get to do some hurricane-esque reporting!

authors note: This is one long article. It flows between news reporting and personal feature story many times. Hopefully I did the girls justice in my own way. The event I covered was at Fat City on Saturday night @ 8:00pm. I stopped in early to get the lay of the land and see what this hullabaloo was all about.

5:34pm
The girls are setting up an odd and oblong shaped creation that has the markings of an Indy car racing track. Except there are no cars. And no NASCAR fans. Plenty of girls in skirts, fishnets and helmets though. Not sure what that means at this point, but I’m trying to keep an open mind.

These aren’t your the regular skirt and short wearing girls however. These girls sashay and ooze bad mamma jamma attitude in everything they do. From laying down the yellow caution tape to setting up the chair their eyes pierce you from a thousand yards and make you wanna call out to your momma. They wear elbow pads and have names like “Penny Payne”, “Winona Fighter”, “Smashbox” and Hatchet Hound”. They are the Rocky Mountain Roller Girls and they ain’t ladies to be messed with.
(more…)

No seriously, I don’t want to hear any backtalk and I certainly don’t want any, “Have you tried Little India? ” nonsesne.

Masalaa on South Parker Rd. is the best Indian food you’re gunna get. Service? Eh. Atmosphere. Better than the DMV…but the quality of the food? Uh huh. All day long on that shit!

It’s South Indian so dosas and all that. Excellent menu, lots of choices. Straight up vegetarian. They have a Boulder location too. Oh, and there’s lots of Indian folks there so you know they know what’s up.

Aurora may very well be the mountain states answer to New Jersey as it’s aesthetics are Gods way of horsewhipping you for having eyes, but if you know where to go the city arguably has better eats than Denver where so many overrated hipster joints offer little more than attitude and large checks. That’s right, I’m talking to you.