dolly madison

i have a slight addiction to dolly madison gems. for those of you who aren't familiar, they are mini donuts, come six to eight in a pack and can be purchased at convenience stores and worse yet, candy machines; the latter of which we have on the second floor of the office. so this morning i was having a bit of an empty stomach and decided to get myself some gems... but the flavor next in line was powdered... and although i do like them, i prefer the chocolate covered. i inserted my dollar and got my treats, a bit disappointed, but hed up to my third floor cube. upon entering the wing, i stopped by a coworker's desk to say hello and explained my slight disappointment at getting powdered gems. crazy enough, she was interested in the powdered gem and bought mine off of me... fantastic. nothing like a chocolate donut fix at 830 in the AM.

home theater shoppin

for xmas this year, p and i decided to get each other a home theather system so we could watch movies and listen to music without having to worry about whether the speakers are going to crap out on us... so after a few trips to various stores, we rolled into soundtrack to see what they offered. as we strolled in, a salesman wearing a red suit and red cowboy boots walked up to help us out... looked like he should have been traveling with the reverend horton heat. it was interesting to work with a salesman rollin' the zoot suit... he was convinced that with our tv would not be compatible with the system we were looking at; especially running a dvd player video through our vcr. from the get go, i was not excited at this saleman and true to form, he tried to sell us on something three times what we were willing to spend. at one point during the exchange, he asked if we wanted him to draw us a map of the cabling... i promptly said no. are you kidding me? draw me a map? offended, i was... but we held fast and listened to what he had to offer. after a few walks around the store and a trip to two competitors, we settled on a yamaha receiver surround sound and a dvd player.

solstice and a four day weekend

when my friend britt still lived in b-town and we worked together, i'd remember when the summer and winter solstice's pass... this year, my friend karalyn reminded me in her blog. for me, it was the start of a four day weekend (thanks to the corporate life i now lead). p and i went to the movies to see kinsey; and now it's thursday morning. for the whole week, i was talking up the fact that i'd be sleeping in every morning. well... i talk a better game than i play. i woke up at 630am... to the squeaking of zoe. i ignored it for about thirty minutes, dozed for a few more, and eventually got up to feed the cat at 730am. nothing like sleeping in... but the early rise did get me moving. i shaved, printed out some baby shower lists and a schedule of the killer bees hockey club in texas to send to p's parents. we're gonna purchase a couple of tickets for them as their xmas gift.

i read my brother's blog this morning while listening to monofog and jawbreaker... and it made me a bit jealous as to the fact that he is home with my parents for the holiday. jealous as i am, i'm happy to spending my holiday with the woman i love, who also happens to be carrying our first baby. the ninth month is upon us, and traveling is not in the cards.

so. the long weekend has started and much to be done. it'll go by quicker than i'd like, but then another short week and we're looking at new years. making the best of the time we have... i hope.

article

my dad scanned in the article from bicycling magazine. i thought i'd post it for those of you who either haven't made their way to the newsstand or wasn't that interested in looking... but thanks to dad for taking the time to scan the article. one for the scrap books.

thursday morning, 12.16.04, i was standing at the corner of 15th and california waiting for my bus to arrive to take me to work. except, there were tons of bussing rolling past the stop with route numbers i've never seen before. after ten busses rolled by i began to worry and looked at my watch. according to the time, i had made it to the stop on time, but either the bus was rolled early or was running late. at last, the bus came... but i knew i was going to be late. in a panic, i woke up, looked at the clock and it was only 545am. damn those dreams.

public transportation and a bike ride to boot

it's been about three weeks since i've used public transportation, mostly cause i'm lazy. after 13 months of taking the bus to boulder, i figured i could drive the car to and from the new office. but after driving the route for two weeks, i thought it a bit silly to be spending the money on gas when i could just hop the bus and be to work... drop me off more or less at my office doorstep. i promptly sat on that idea for another good week and a half. but today (12.09.04) i did something about it.
i spent last night working on my bikes. switching wheels and tires and adding gears to my current single speed (which, btw, is up to 3 speeds). after an hour or so of work, i realized that i didn't want to be throwing the primus on the bus every morning and locking it up outside to who knows what- even though, it is just a bike... but a nice bike at that. so i switched my single speed basso into a three speed.
so. the alarm goes off at 5:45am as it always does, and i hit the snooze button as i always do. but today was a bit different. i only hit snooze once; i've been hitting it 2 to 3 times per morning i'm sure it's bugging the crap outta p. i promptly got up and kissed the preggo goodbye and was off to the bus stop at 15th and california. and like i said before... dropped me off at the door to my office. couldn't believe it... but actually, i didn't get off, i rode to the next stop and then stopped into the wild oat's and got myself a blueberry muffin.
then after nine hours of shuffling papers and doing whatever it is that i do at work, i donned on my cycling clothes and rode home. it only took 50 minutes to my surprise and couldn't believe i didn't start doing this earlier.

friday half days... but no bowling downtown

half day fridays... well worth working nine hours a day monday through thursday. although i could have easily worked the afternoon and added another five hours of overtime to my work week, i decided, to work until noon and call it a day. so. after driving (yes, i'm still driving... a bit lazy getting up in the AM's after a 14 months of waking at 6am- now it's about 615 to 625) home from the work and changing footwear, i walked down 17th st to meet p at common ground for an afternoon stroll around downtown. after looking at the bicycling magazine article, we had some lunch at the wynkoop brewery followed by three games of pool; then walked ourselves to a movie at the denver pavillion complex- movie theater, restaurants, shopping and apparently bowling now... but gentrified bowling. they have a really cool sign facing 16th street, and cool color scheme, on the outside... the inside, though was a different story. actually. we didn't even venture inside. even before reaching the 'doorman' they had a sign on the walkway that had 'NO' list of apparell. 'NO sweatpants, NO athletic gear, NO baggy clothes, NO excessively baggy shirts, NO sleeveless shirts for men, NO torn clothing, NO chains,' to name a few. and at the bottom read 'we reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.' after reading the sign, i promptly turned to p and said, 'i violate two of those. for one, i'm wearing long pants that are cut off at the bottom (thrift store 2USD pants) and i have a chain connecting my pocket watch to a belt buckle.' we took two steps toward the door and then turned around and walked to walgreens.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME? amazing. gentrified bowling. a friend of ours told us about an alley similar, but seeing one, wow. that place isn't going to last. and anyway, it's so much more enjoyable to go to a regular bowling alley. and most likely cheaper, and you don't have to fit some crazy mold that someone thinks is cool or hip. it's a friggin' bowling alley. there's just something special about the outskirts of town alley or even the bowling alley out in the suburbs. crazy. can't wait to see this one in d/t denver go under. i'll make a toast when that happens.

on newstands now!

a month or so ago i mentioned that i'd be in bicycling magazine. christie, the one that interviewed me for the spread, emailed me yesterday asking if i had seen the issue; or received any in the mail from the editor. after about six conversations, she informed me that it was indeed on the shelves and that the editor would be sending a copy in the mail to me. not wanting to wait, i rolled over to the tattered cover on 16th and wynkoop and checked out the issue. sad to say... it's dubbed the 'sex' issue - filled with articles and photos of 'beautiful' women and men and the benefits of cycling to love and physical beauty. frankly, this made me sick... it's like FHM meets bikes and what an interesting union.

anyway, i promptly turned to pg 77 to see how interesting (or lack there of) i came across during the interview. i must say, it's pretty cool to see yourself in a nationwide magazine... not sure what the distribution numbers are... but none-the-less, cool to see my words and thoughts in print. and a photo, no less... taken on a thursday evening at 1800 broadway, boulder, co. (the photographer, btw, was pretty cool. his little boy was with us entertaining himself.)

so. i wonder... since i'm being included in a 'sex' issue of bicycling magazine, does that mean i'm sexy? or more interestingly, do they think messengers as a whole are sexy? i can tell you from personal interaction with messengers from around the world, some are down right nasty... but in all honesty, none have given me attitude and have been quite interesting in their own rights.

after browsing the periodical (JAN/FEB issue) i looked at the price of 4.99USD and felt really cheap, rather, felt like i couldn't spend the money on a half page of my spoken word... lucky for me, the editor is sending me an issue or two... maybe i'll have to buy a few just as tokens. another one for the scrap book. not too bad, i'd say... i think i've been in the paper three times, on the news once, and now in a national magazine. nice way to go out, i'd say.