hints of z0e

2009-09-27T23:09:00.001-06:00

test II

2009-04-18T07:31:00.001-06:00

linked?

2009-04-09T20:40:00.001-06:00

test

oh snap

2008-10-14T21:22:00.002-06:00

wow. it's been a long long time since i've blogged. not sure if it's a lack of time, or me just being lazy. probably the latter... and that i sometimes i don't feel like i have anything really to say.

as is the case now. i have not much to say. just realized it's been almost a year since i've posted anything here.

so. now there is a post.

maybe it'll jump start my blogging again.

then again.

maybe not.

old, or lack of exercise?

2007-04-18T13:06:00.000-06:00

i'm not sure if i'm getting older or if it's due to a lack of exercise... but during the past week and a half, i've been having rotator cuff issues. it feels as if i have deeply bruised my collarbone right at the rotator cuff or pulled/ overexerted the muscles and ligaments around the shoulder. and just this morning as i was out in the field taking some saddle measurements, i strained something just below my shoulder blade.

life as a younger brother

2007-04-03T10:35:00.000-06:00

so i'm pleased to announce the arrival of ronin kuo. he was born on 03.25.07, at 7:16am. he weighed in at 8lbs 1.7oz. he arrived via a natural birth that was handled extremely well by his mom.
since a has his own blog, it's only right to give r his blog. so. in the next few days or weeks, i'll be starting up a blog for him. but, until then, i'll post a couple of picture of him here

new glasses

2007-02-28T09:41:00.000-07:00

it's been two years since my last eye exam. it'd put it off longer, except my frames broke back in november, and for the past few months, i've just been supergluing the arm back on if it snaps off due to rough housing with the kiddo. i also signed up for a vision plan through work, so i had to wait until the 1st of the year for it to kick in. of course, the 1st comes and goes and my parents come and go (which would have been an opportune time to get my eye exam), but finally i set the appointment, got my eye exam and a new pair of glasses. after just over a week, they arrived at the optometrist's office monday and we picked them up. thanks to insurance, i only paid about 1/3rd the total cost.

sunday afternoon stroll

2007-02-27T10:56:00.000-07:00

during our first pregnancy, p and i would take a few hours each weekend day and head out for a walk... some of them turning out to be longer expeditions that planned. so far this time, we haven't really been out and about much... partly due to laziness, partly due to wanting to keep aiden napping inside and not in the jogger, and partly due to a cold and winter six weeks from xmas through the end of january.

this past weekend was a nice one, well, sunday was; saturday was quite blustery. so sunday after lunch, we packed aiden into the jogger for his nap time and p and i headed out for a walk. we decided to head up to the cingular store to discuss our rate plan and see how we could get it lowered. after some discussion, we signed up for a 550 minute plan, got 2 new phones for 50USD and discovered that we get a 12% discount on our bill each month since i work for a company that has a deal w/cingular for cellphone service. turned out to be a good first half of our walk.

the second half wasn't as eventful. we meandered in and out of a couple of stores in the shopping area north of our house (disappointing area... but some things to browse non-the-less). we then headed to ks for a few groceries; on tap for that night's dinner was pork wontons, so we got some ground pork, wonton wrappers and some salad greens.

train table, revised

2006-12-25T13:23:00.000-07:00

ok. so p got home and took a look at the legs and said they had to go. i was in total agreement. i just had them slapped on so it looked like i actually did something while they were gone. so after some discussion, we headed to home depot on sunday and bought some more materials and paint. at about 9pm that night, i had finished cutting, sanding, gluing and installing the legs. it was now p's turn to add the finishing touches. for the next four hours, p put on two coats of paint. at one o'clock, she woke me from my nap on the couch to set up the train so a could see it as he came down the steps. here's the finished product. much sturdier than the charlie brown action i had going on.

the dig out

2006-12-23T13:30:00.000-07:00

so here are some pix of the work that was done shoveling.
walkway looking east.
walkway looking west.
the alleyway and around the bend

so speaking of the hoa. last night at 9pm i headed to the airport to p/u p and a. after long delays, we finally make it home at 2am. we pulled into the alley, made the bend, and noticed that the hoa finally sent someone to plow the alleyway. the only thing was, they started from the west end, which wasn't at all shoveled, and headed east... thereby dumping a row of snow about 8" high and 6" wide in front of all the garage skirts. they were not respectful enough to plow the snow they left behind. i was so mad. i couldn't believe that the plowperson didn't take a second to look at the alley and realize it would probably make more sense to go east to west. i'm gonna raise a stink.

5 nights w/o p and a: afternoon and evening 5

2006-12-22T20:16:00.000-07:00

with the snow storm that hit denver, i was unsure if p and a were going to be able to return home tonight. but all seems to be well at the airport as far as inbound flights. so in about 45 minutes, i'll be heading out to pick them up.

after work today, i stopped by home depot for materials to finish the train table. after browsing around for about 30 minutes, i realized they didn't have everything i was looking for. i stopped off at home to change my shirt and shoes and decided to through myself into the fray of crazy holiday traffic. the main roads around the city were in good shape, but the side streets were packed snow and ice... but still driveable. my first stop was the home depot off south colorado blvd to check for materials. luckily, they had everything i was looking for. i then decided to try my luck in cherry creek, two planned stops: the library and the mall for some random shopping. after actually getting to the creek, i decided parking was going to be a headache, so i headed out of the creek to the park hill library. after a quick stop there, i headed back home. kind of a wasted trip, but driving through the side streets was a blast... i avoided a ton of traffic by doing so and i'm sure saved myself anywhere from 45-60 minutes of travel time.

at home, i goofed around for a bit, then met with R to get a set of his keys for emergency kitty care since they were heading out for a week. after goofing off for another forty minutes or so, i buckled down and finished off the train table. the legs are a bit weak, but they can be replaced/ upgraded in the future.

with the train table done (the legs are charlie brown'd, or homer simpson'd, however you prefer to call it)... need p to help with redesigning it so it won't fall over when aiden starts to play on it., it was time to vacuum, mop the floor, take a shower, shave, do some laundry and dust off some dishes.

it's now 830 and p's plane just took off from dfw.

it'll be another late night, but after a cup of coffee and a homemade cookie, i'm sure i'll be up for a while.

excited to see my wife and kid after five long and busy days... and i thought this would have been a mini-vaca for me... going out and sleeping in. i did neither.

the highlight of the week: definitely the snow storm and working with the neighbors to dig out the alley.

5 nights w/o p and a: day 4

2006-12-21T20:16:00.000-07:00

yep. day four. it was a snow day. the blizzard of 06 kept just about everyone within their own neighborhoods.
i woke up this morning around 6am thinking i could bomb through the alley in p's car and make it work. boy was i wrong. i opened up the garage door to find about 18-24 inches of snow in the alley. i realized getting to work would be just about impossible. so i called into the ai that was at the refinery and told him that i wouldn't make it in. i changed into some snow shoveling clothes, hooked up the ipod to computer speakers i keep in the garage, and started to shovel. due to the nature of how the houses/townhomes are set up, we share an alleyway and have a driveway of about only eight feet. so i shoveled out the eight feet, which took about an hour, and then moved to the front of the house to shovel out the walk.
i opened the front door to find a snow drift about three feet high. looking over the gate, the snow drift was just as high. as i started on the front walk, my neighbor four houses to the east came out with his shovel and started to shovel a path toward the east alley. after he dug out a path to the alley, he turned in my direction and we worked toward each other. at that time, another neighbor started to dig out her walk, and being done with one portion, hucked myself through the snow and helped her dig out her walk so she could open her gate.
since all the shoveling i planned for the day was done, i decided to hike on over to home depot to see if they were open, get some stuff for the train table if they were open, and also to get a walk in. after about a block, i decided this walking stuff is for the birds and went home and got my mtn bike. the main arteries in and out of stapleton were plowed and in ok shape. so i got the bike out and rode up to home depot: closed, so i headed back to 29th to see what would be open for lunch. everything in the town center aside from anothony's pizza was closed. so i called up r&m and let them know. and then proceeded to head to their house to see how their shoveling was coming along.
29th was not at all plowed; but some poeple had driven down the road and packed in two tracks... just hard enough where i could spin through 95% of it. after about 45 minutes of playing in the snow, i headed back home.
after a change of clothes, i met r&m and headed to anthony's for a meatball sandwich.
after lunch, it was back to the garage to do random things... but i ended up shoveling more snow. i found out that the road north of the house had been semi-plowed, so i dug out my car so i could get to work in the morning. at that time, some of my neighbors were out shoveling their own section of the driveway... and ended up we all worked on shoveling out the alleyway so we could all get our cars out. i think it took about three hours total, but now, half of the alleyway is clear and eight families can get their cars out. woo hoo. wait, where's the HOA?
dinner, a half batch of cookies (due to a lack of flour) and it's now 9pm. thinking about vacuuming the upstairs.
off to work tomorrow. but only four hours.
not sure if p and a are gonna make it home due to the storm. i believe dia is closed until noon tomorrow? the 5 nights w/o p&a could be stretched a bit longer. hopefully not much though; would really like to have them home for xmas. only time will tell.

5 nights w/o p and a: afternoon/night 3

2006-12-20T22:47:00.000-07:00

the refinery today sent all non-essential employees home early today due to the snow storm that was just starting to build in colorado. it was about 945 when the AI told me to split since they were in the mode that if anyone were to stay, they would be staying the night. not wanting to spend the night at the refinery, i boogied it outta there.

the drive home wasn't too bad... snow packed roads, probably getting to around 3-4 inches on the ground. it still amazes me the idiots that drive and those that can't drive in the snow. anyway. i get home in about 30-35 minutes, and after moping around for a bit, decided to head to home depot to buy some materials for a's train table. after getting back home, i had lunch and proceeded plan out the table... a few measurements here, a few there... plug in the cirular saw, make a few cuts here and there and then line it up for assembly. turns out i measured something wrong. of course... so after mulling around a bit longer, i decide to rethink the table. a few more cuts and the table is about 1/3 of the way there... gotta figure out a few details and hopefully finish it off either thursday night or friday after work.

around 3pm i decide to clean the oven. it's been a year. actually, over a year. we have a self-cleaning oven, but decided to spray easy-off and do the wipe down. after the oven was done, i moved onto the bath tub. scrub a dub dub and a shower later, i started to put away clothes. then i hit the hallway closet and refolded a few sheets and reorganized a couple of shelves. on to a's closet for some repacking and then back downstairs. by this time it's 7pm and time for dinner.

since dinner, i haven't done much of anything. for some reason i watched a couple of hours of coverage of the snow storm... not like it really changed from minute one to miunte 90. now it's 11pm, don't know what the heck i've been doing, but i think it's time for ice cream. and bed.

5 nights w/o p and a: night 2

2006-12-19T21:48:00.000-07:00

after work today i headed to the thrift stores. i was looking for a table top that i could transform into a train table for a; instead of building one. after two thrift stores, the only think i was going home with was the west side story soundtrack on vinyl for 1.07USD.
once i got home, i changed out of the work clothes and vacuumed out p's car. it was long overdue. i think if i were to gather all the kixs that were strew about the back seat and floor, i'd have at least one bowl.
once the car was done, i backed it out of the garage so i could build the frame for the guest bed storage. a few cuts and lots of screws later, the frame is up and ready for some thin plywood so we won't be staring at the bed every time we head into the garage.
after a quick sweep, i decided to cut down the handlebars on my soon to be ss/fixie.
now it's 10pm, got some dumplings in me and the simpsons are on... what to do tomorrow night..?

5 nights w/o p and a: night 1

2006-12-18T21:17:00.000-07:00

i got off work early today to take p and a to the airport. they are headed to mission, tx, to visit with grandma and grandpa murray for a few days. after sending them off, i decided that despite the 30 deg F temperature, i'd park the car at home and load up a messenger bag with items that needed to be returned/ exchanged at various stops around denver.

stop number one was the dpl in cherry creek to unload some movies and cd's borrowed on friday. unfortunately, all three movies weren't that great.

the second stop was at the pottery barn in cherry creek mall. i was there to exchange a serving platter and return a vase. sales associate #1 that met me as i walked in was high on something. she was all over the place. she was explaining the policy that items ordered over the web could not be returned in the store, but still pulled out paper work and started to fill it out... and, the platter i wanted to exchange, she said flat out that it was not carried in the store and had to be exchanged through the website... after about five minutes of her rants and raves, one of her coworkers offered to take over the work as her shift had ended some time ago, apparently. so, the sales associate #2 got on the phone with the online store to get the return started, but was on eternal hold... and while she was on hold, called the stock room regarding the serving platter and within two minutes, the platter was exchanged. weird. especially after sales associate #1 said they didn't carry that platter in the store. minutes later, sales associate #2 got fed up with holding with the online store and decided to just give me store credit for the vase despite their policy of not doing so. she didn't feel like making me wait around and based on the number of people in the store, didn't want to hold other people up as well. not a bad stop.

stop number three took me down east alameda toward broadway to go to the denver library branch on east bayaud. p and i have driven/walked/biked by that branch many times, but never did stop in. so i thought i'd check it out and see what they had for movies to rent. i got the hidden blade.

i then rolled north on linoln until i hit the cherry creek bike path and rolled into d/t to larimer square. tow years ago, p and i had bumped into a friend of hers from school who was walking around with cigar boxes. he used them to transport pens and pencils... that day we saw him, we bought five boxes ourselves to store various items. i've been on a bit of an organization kick since the cross season ended and was looking to purchase a few more. the cigar shop only had about eight boxes and only two of them were wood... so i snatched them up, half off, since neither box had a closure device.

stop five was the dpl branch on welton. this branch has always had a good selection of movies... but not today... and thinking i could hit the park hill branch, i checked to see what time it closed: 6pm. and it was 5pm. so i got back on the bike and kicked it up 23rd ave to dexter for a stop at the park hill library. there i got 2046 and sympathy for mr. vengeance.

final stop: home. after leaving the house at 3pm, i was home at 545pm with about 18-19 miles covered.

after a quick meal of left overs, i made a few measurements and headed back out, but this time in the car. stop one was walmart... p's mom had given us a gift for aiden, but it involved tv- not really something we wanted to have aiden play with... video games + tv = too much tv. so i took it over to walmart and got store credit for it. then walked around the megastore to see what i could get. i couldn't really find anything... and the bright lights and various noises being bounced at you from all angles got to me so i scooted out of there. final stop, home depot. i'm looking to build a stowaway for the bed in the garage. so i bought some wood and came home. i'm beat and it's only 10pm.

our of the bottom ten... for this week

2006-10-30T08:44:00.000-07:00

back in mid-june i made the decision to race cyclocross this season. it's been since 2002 that i've suited up for a series of these races. not having any expectations going into the season, i was finished as a lapped rider back in the bottom 5... with some DNF's, but i don't really count them since they don't even end up on the results pages once posted. and, after some goofy scoring by the organizaion, i relagated myself from top 20 finishes to the bottom five (having been lapped at both venues). but, this past weekend at the boulder reservoir, things started to turn around for me. my form is slowly getting better, i could recover on certain section, felt light on my bike along the beach and the run section through the sand pit felt good. i pulled myself out of the bottom five to finish out of the bottom ten.

two USGP races are on the schedule for next week with early start times. hopefully i can build on my form and have slightly better results. and maybe, i'll be so bold as to line up closer to the front, rather than in the back row.

15 minute intervals

2006-10-19T15:45:00.000-06:00

since 1pm this afternoon, i've been counting down the work day in 15 minute intervals. only 3.5 intervals left before i get out and head into the golden triangle to p/u bin bin

2USD muffins

2006-10-13T07:47:00.000-06:00

i've been stopping by the coffee shop in quebec square lately to purchase what was once dubbed the 'bus station muffin'. dice got me on em... nothing like a saturated fat muffin before a ride after work, at least, that was when i was dispatching back at the old db job. back then, it was 1.50USD and now it's 2USD. i made an effort last week to make muffins, and after searching for a recipe, proceeded to do so; except they came out tasting aluminumie (too much baking soda?) and some hard as a rock. so this week, instead of muffins, i'm on pumpkin bread with chocolate chunks... for 2.16USD. i need to start baking at home for some morning treats.

dreaming about work- OLT

2006-09-08T08:54:00.000-06:00

i had a work dream last night. i've heard it's time to quit and look for something else once you start having dreams about work. my last job i dreamt about work all the time, but it took me a good 6 years before i quit that job.

in my dream i had woken up on a wednesday- clean sweep day at the refinery. i got to work and thought that it was my turn as team leader. so i logged into OLT to start the work permit and was firing out emails to everyone asking for assistance in getting things in order. after dating and submitting the work permit, i realized that i was four weeks ahead of schedule.

i woke up, looked at the clock, and realized i was up about 15 minutes late.

lazy week

2006-09-08T07:24:00.000-06:00

it's been a lazy week for me. it's taken four days to recover from a cold and last night i finally felt well enough to hit the trainer... but i didn't. and then this morning, i woke up a bit late and decided to drive the car instead of ride the bike.

headed to junction tonight as long as p is feeling up to it. i'll get in a ride with my friend that i've visiting and start commuting to work again starting monday.

bob dylan

2006-08-18T07:33:00.000-06:00

i first started listening to bob dylan when i was in junior high(?). i don't remember how much money i spent on dylan's tapes, but at one point, i had all of his releases. if asked by classmates what i listened to, bob dylan would be on top of the list; which would immediately be responded by inquirer mimicing the whiney sound of his voice.

twenty years later, it's the same thing. i've been listening to 'no direction home' at the office, and my office mate heard it and responded with that same mimicing whiney voice. am i still in junior high and no one told me?

another reorganization of the garage

2006-07-21T22:12:00.000-06:00

so it's almost been a year since p, a and i moved into out house. it's still a mess... somewhat. a couple of months ago, we moved the spare bed into the office/guest room and moved a couple of shelves and boxes/files into the garage. they been clogging up the east wall of the garage for the last three months as we were busy planning our wedding/ going on vacation.
now we're back from vaca and everyone's back to their crazy work/take care of boo bear scheduls. with my evenings, instead of training on the bike for the upcoming cross season, i've started on the garage reorganization. i still can't believe we have as much stuff as we do... and to think, about 90 percent of what we have now was stuffed into a loft apartment on cap hill.
phase one is complete... i guess. shelves have been adjusted and some items are back on the shelves. just gotta figure out what to do with the space up in the corner. phase two i think will start on sunday.

hold your line!

2006-07-12T08:39:00.000-06:00

driving home yesterday, i see a cyclist on his way home riding maybe a 48x16 gear, not sure if it was a fixie or just a single speed freewheel. anyway, down the main east-west drag in my neighborhood, there is a very wide and clearly marked bike path. i'm driving maybe 20 mph down this stretch because there tends to be lots of pedestrian traffic and kids out; so, the cyclist spinning maddly on his bike and has passed me at this point with a couple of bike lengths gap, maybe doing 25-28 mph. all of a sudden, he veers to the left of the road and hugs the left curb (oneway street). now, i can say that i've made abrupt lane changes without signaling, but that was when the opening was just enough for me to get through and also during my courier days when (at times) time was of utmost importance. now this guy, sudden side to side movement, ok, i thought to myself, maybe he's going to take a left into one of the side streets, that would kind of make sense, but then again, it'd be a sharp turn. another block or so later, he doesn't turn... and then abrupty shifts back into the bike lane and blows through the four-way stop up the road. what a jackass. hey bud, if you're going straight, stay in your lane... if you were sprinting for a stage win, i'm sure the referee would dq you and relagate you to the back of the finishing pack for not holding your line.

peanut m&m's

2006-07-11T09:36:00.000-06:00

ah... never should have opened up this bag of peanut m&m's. sure to make myself sick by mid-day

shaking off the dust

2006-07-10T08:39:00.000-06:00

it's always hard going back to work after taking a vacation. normally, i'd only take a week's vacation, or maybe less. but since i was getting married, i took two weeks off. time before to prep and a bit of time after to get post-wedding errands run before taking off on a honeymoon. my plan was to only take about 1.5 weeks off. we'd be back from our honeymoon before the 4th of july, and since it landed on a tuesday, i was going to head into the office on the monday, putz around and answer emails and get work organized, take a day off, and then i'd be back in running on wednesday. well... i woke up on monday, 3 july 06, and decided it was needed as another rest day. so i called in to say i'd extend my vacation another day.

wednesday came around and i was wishing it hadn't. it was pretty tough last week to get motivated to get anything done. so instead of actualy 'work' that i had on my desk, i went through a bunch of web-based training modules to kill the hours. but by thursday afternoon and friday afternoon, i had slowly gotten back into the piles and piles of work on my desk.

now it's monday morning. i've been here for an hour and feel like i'm still shaking off the remainder of my vacation dust. if it doesn't come off by friday, i'm thinking a change is in order and looking toward the main office to pull me from the refinery.

a few minutes of silence

2006-06-07T10:37:00.000-06:00

so i've been working at a refinery for the past six or so months and the office that i'm in is shared with an inspector and the HVAC system overhead. the inspector i share the office with is out of town and today, for a few minutes, the HVAC was shut down. it was actually quiet in my office for the first time since i've been here... aside from my the music i have playing. i actually hit pause on the media player to enjoy the silence.

another flogging

2006-05-31T11:12:00.000-06:00

so i thought i'd try my luck again at bike racing. this time it was a couse in downtown golden: techincal course with eight turns and very slight rises. on my warm up, i felt a bit tight and lacking in leg strength and lung capacity, but figured i try my old warm up techinque of blowing myself out, then recovering a bit and spinning and then hitting the start line. hitting the start line, the 'gun' goes off and 2.5 laps later, i find myself trailing off the back of the pack wondering if maybe they will ease up a bit so i can chase back on. um... no. it's over. no chasing back on, just slowly drifting away. of course, i keep 'racing' since i paid the dollars and rarely do you get a closed course to ride on with people clapping even though you are ridiculously off the pace. it was also nice because the course double backs on itself so it was pretty cool to see the pack ride by as you head the opposite direction.

so now i'm at an impass... wondering if i should hang it up and enjoy the trailer rides, or keep plugging along. i didn't hit the trainer last night, but plan on doing it either tonight or tomorrow night. i'll probably keep going... it's been two years since i've raced a full season... i can't really consider this racing, but i'm at least lining up... without making a big dent in the budget... so come sunday, we'll see how things go at city park.

wedding dream

2006-05-22T09:26:00.000-06:00

i had my first wedding dream this morning. not much dreaming about the actual ceremony, but a reflection of the ceremony while having a good time meeting some new people at the reception. while looking back on the ceremony, it seemed as if the priest was a bit emotionally detached and i think he skipped over a few sections. not sure exactly what sections of the wedding... but something was definitely missing. anyway... had a fun time at the reception; sat down and chatted with someone random who reminded me of 'shuffles' but wasn't. Then, the dream went on to some random amusement park/ complex where p and i were looking for an exit that i've used in a previous dream to get out of. the only thing was, i couldn't find it. each turn and set of stairs lead to something different. after beginning to ascend a ladder, i realized that this lead to a reoccuring dream i had many years ago. and when we climbed back down to the platform, a security guard that was an old acquaintence confronted us as to why we were where we were and actually wanted to throw down. lewd comments were hurled at us, but i kept my cool for it was infantile to start up a fight. and once we left his presense, the dream had ended.
i got up, got ready for work, and pedaled on in to the refinery.

a quick flogging

2006-05-22T08:18:00.000-06:00

i've been wanting to start my racing season for about two months now... except each time i feel like i'm ready to adorn the monkey clothes and get on the start line, i end up with a cold. finally this weekend i was virus free and decided to roll up to the coal miner's crit in lousiville. boy was that a mistake. popped on lap number 1. ugly. i guess trying to race off-the-couch doesn't work for me...

grumble grumble grumble

2006-05-17T09:18:00.000-06:00

today is a day that i should have just kept riding the bike along the bike path, past this stinky refinery, and headed downtown the long way for a cup of coffee and a treat. sit around in my monkey suit until i felt like i should really show up for work.

biking in the rain?

2006-05-05T08:01:00.000-06:00

so i rode my bike into work today. it's overcast, maybe 40 degrees outside and good chance of rain. i get into the office and change into my dress blues. on the way back to the desk, i have this conversation

h: so what's the weather like outside
me: a bit chilly, overcast, feels like rain
h: what is the chance of rain today?
me: doesn't matter
h: you are going to care when you're soaking wet on the way home
me: eh... not really... it's just rain... and as long as the power isn't out at home and the water is running, doesn't matter.

it still amazes me that people think you're crazy for riding your bike to work when there is a chance of rain. it's just rain... unless you're the wicked witch of the east.

re-organizing the garage

2006-04-13T10:30:00.000-06:00

a few weeks ago p mentioned that the garage was looking a bit cluttered with baby stuff hanging in one corner, bikes in another, and just general crap on the walls. so last night, after putting boo to bed and starting a roast, i headed to the garage for some spring organizing... ignoring what needed to be done inside, of course.
there is a dead space above the garage door, so i decided to hang the infant car seats, bouncy chair and exersaucer in that area. honestly, that's about all i did. inbetween hangings, i patched a few tubes and condemned one due to a tear... which i eventually used to secure the exersaucer.
oh... and then i moved a few things around.
tonight, i'm thinking of taking some standing wood shelves and hanging them off the wall... if the span of 2x4's is equivalent to the span of the shelving post. i would also like to hang some extra sets of wheels from the roof instead of having them up behind the bikes... we'll see if i have enough hooks for that. it may be a trip to the home depot for me this coming weekend.

follow-up to the red truck

2006-04-10T10:11:00.000-06:00

i failed to blog two weeks ago that on a commute a few days after getting smoked out, the oversized red truck with 18-wheeler verticle mufflers passed me yet again. this time, however, there was no blowing of smoke or anything. just another vehicle passing me as i rode to work. i wonder if there may have been a sense of respect or just plain accepting the fact that there are people who ride to work when they can. if only i were able to commute by bike every day, but due to the demands of family life and juggling schedules and a little boy, driving the car is necessary.

smoked out

2006-03-30T07:34:00.000-07:00

so it's been a while since i've blogged. i've come to realize after talking with a frined of mine last night. so i'm gonna make an effort to blog at least once a week, if not twice... and also update my other blog regarding the little boo bear. he's hit a few milestones i'm sure and i've been lazy/tired to document them... but should, so he can look back and read all the things i've written about him. hopefully i don't loose the online journal. that would be sad.

anyway. this week i've started to ride my bike to work. working at the refinery has is perks. I am able to ride door to door in the same amount of time as it does to drive. not bad, eh? but today, on my ride in, i got smoked out. this ridiculously oversized red truck modified to sport 18-wheeler exhaust pipes sticking out the back of the cab decided to blow dark black fumes as he passed my. what an ass. i'm generally pretty tolerant, but this bullshit move was annoying- competely unneccesary- the driver just wanted to be an asshole. made me wanna throw a rock.

recycling

2006-03-24T20:13:00.000-07:00

yay! recycling. finally recycling bins have been offered to houses on our block. we got them about three weeks ago, but only today did i remember to place them curbside before work. it's about time.

shigley & 153

2006-01-30T17:54:00.000-07:00

SHIGLEY

about three years ago, i decided, after being out of school for three years, to dump all my college text books except for one- 'Mechanical Engineering Design,' by Shigley and Mischke. Today, I finally had to use it as a reference. I've been asked to come up with a method/ calculation based on another refinery's spec. to determine the require torque on bolting for exchanger flange pairs. i asked around the office for assistance and one of the websites i was directed to referenced the Shigley Mech. Eng. Design book. Tucked in the back of one of our filing cabinets, i dusted it off after arriving home and found what i was looking for... except i think there is still one intermediate step i need to figure out.

153

p bought a scale over the weekend. i weighed myself in the evening and it read 156. holy smokes. heaviest i've ever been in my 31 years. then, in the morning, i was 153... still... eight (8) lbs over my fighting weight of 145. i'm really not concerned, just a bit surprised... i knew i had put on some lbs since aiden, but didn't realize it was 8 lbs... i wonder if this extra weight will help or hinder my racing season... and speaking of which, i really need to start riding more... gotta pull out the trainer and get on it.

trailer ride III

2006-01-27T18:42:00.000-07:00

yes, that's right. number three. number two was with mom pulling the train. on that trip, we headed west down montview to city park. once we got to city park, we called a friend and met for coffee. after coffee, it was back in the trailer and east down montview home.

number three was this afternoon. the weather was nice enough, about 50 F, that i put aiden in a fleece and draped a blanket over his legs, pulled the screen and plastic cover down and headed to the dpl on welton st. the ride was pretty good, took 29th all the way in... a bit bumpy in spots, but generally smooth with very little traffic. aiden slept the entire way there. once at the library, instead of waking up the tyke, i pulled the trailer off and did my browsing of movies and music. then, after about 20 minutes, it was back on the road. this time, it was east on 26th ave. again, very little traffic, but a tad smoother road. the ride back was a bit tougher. had a slight head wind and still not use to the push and pull of the trailer... and i'm terribly out of shape. but hopefully i can get a couple of days a week out on the bike pulling the tyke.

trailer ride

2006-01-07T21:57:00.000-07:00

yesterday p and i headed over to REI in d-town and bought ourselves a little gift for aiden's one year birthday- the trailer hookup for the bike. since aiden is soon to be one year old, he can now sit in the bike trailer as p and i ride around our neighborhood. so excited was i, that today i hooked up the trailer to my commuter and took aiden out on his first bike ride. i'm not sure what he thought of the experience, but sitting in the trailer with his new helmet was very exciting for me. selfish, i know... but it's been a year since i've been riding consistently, and with aiden's first birthday approaching, his mobility has improved, and so has mine. very excited to start riding with the tyke behind me... stopping along the way to where ever to play in the grass or take a ride on the swings.

missed opportunity

2005-10-31T07:58:00.000-07:00

finally a relaxing weekend. i guess most if not all our weekends are relaxing, but this time, we only had one scheduled event to go to, a halloween party in littleton that was thrown by one of p's waterpolo friend. pretty good time, lots of kids running around and aiden got time to play with his bud carson and meet a couple of other infnat/ soon to be toddlers. p and i didn't dress up, but threw the dumbo outfit on aiden for the entry and subsequently removed it.

but on sunday, we woke up with nothing planned. after a breakfast of german pancakes (made by p), coffee and juice, we putzed around cleaning the kitchen and playing with the boy. around 1030am, it was nap time for the kiddo. instead of stuffing him into the stroller, p decided to take advantage of a nap and laid down with him. i, on the other had, wasn't feelin' a nap, so i altered some photos and then watched about 5 minutes of tv. feeling a bit sluggish, i moved operations to the garage to see what else could be cleaned up/ moved around/ hung/ put in the rafters, to make things look more presentable. we still have yet to purchase/ build shelving units so we don't have to unstack and restack our boxes to see what's in them. we are leaning toward building shelves, but that does require the purchasing of a circular saw; however, it would be fun to build shelves and in the future to build other pieces. anyway. after about an hour of cleaning, i realized that i could have gone for a bike ride. not wanting to disturb the nappers, i plugged on in the garage listening to johnny cash and riding the mountain bike up and down the alley practicing no-handed track stands. i didn't really get that much done, but there is a bit more space on the east side of the garage to park the stroller w/o having to fold it up and hang it on the wall.

another hour had passed and finally p and a came down dressed for a walk... i could have ridden for 2 hours, out to the cherry creek res and back... oh well. missed opportunity. but the garage on the east side looks much better.

a change of scenery

2005-10-24T20:45:00.000-06:00

p called me at work around 11am this morning to tell me we now have grass outside our home. for the past two months, we would wake up day after day, week after week, staring at a dirt lawn. finally, after putting the finishing touches on the landscaping, pulling up our sidewalk and relaying the concrete, raking the dirt and raking it again and again, five or six workers rolled out the green carpet in about four hours. can you believe that? it only took four hours, after weeks and weeks of getting it ready. i wonder what the hell they were waiting for. but it's finally here. hot dog!

veloswap

2005-10-22T19:56:00.000-06:00

so today was the veloswap down here in d-town. my friend jason came over for breakfast- mushroom, onion and artichoke heart quiche. then, after waking the future wife and getting the kiddo packed, we headed over to the national western stock show; parking in the same spot i have for the past few years (no parking fee- kind of a backdoor to really close parking. i'm surprised more people don't know about it, but hey, i'm not complaining.) anyway. i'm a bit disappointed with the swap these days. it doesn't seem as big of a deal and the deals going down in that joint don't seem to be as good as they were just a few years ago. i remember getting there at the crack of dawn was the way to go. the best deals were made between vendors even before the public was allowed in. and back a few years ago, there were tables and tables of junk parts that if you were really looking for something a bit on the old side, you could fine 5-7 vendors selling them. now it seems like all those people that were selling stuff have started families or moved on, so they've gotten rid of their junk and have settled on the bikes and parts they currently own. also, it seems as if some of the vendors have become more interested in making some money rather than pricing things to sell so they don't have to lug it back home.

so browsing up and down the aisles for the better part of three hours, all i walked away with was four pairs of socks (pretty much main reason for going). p walked away with a beanie, waterbottle and loads of chapstick being given away by subaru.

actually, i think these days, my main reason for heading to the swap is to catch up with the random friend i've made over the past ten years of cycling and racing. in the future, though, if aiden becomes a cycling fanatic, it'll be a good chance to get him that next size frame/ bike or gadget at a less expensive price.

2005-10-08T08:48:00.000-06:00

'if only we had the capacity at that age to appreciate what was going on at that age'

i was at the denver public library on welton yesterday afternoon after a trip to the recycling center (more on that later) and as i was checking my movies and music out, the lirbrarian took a look at aiden and said that. i was thinking about it the other night, how great would it be to remember that first year of life and being carried around, fed, pushed in a baby carraige and being buckled into a comfortable car seat? i guess i'm gonna have to live vicariously though my son to try and come close to experiencing those times.

so. the recycling center. i tried going last week, but in a bit of a rush, i didn't read the signs thorough enough and ended up way off the beaten path. so on friday i made the trip over to the recycling center to get all the paper and aluminum cans out of my trunk. this time, i found it... but as i entered the center, it seemed incredibly unorganized. i asked the gent next to me and he said all he's done in the past is just pull up and throw everything off the bed of his truck. so i'm staring at this huge pile of cardboard and decided to do the same. the only thing was, there was no designated pile for aluminum and plastic. so i pulled out of that area and headed back down the road toward home. about half a block down, i saw a 'public recycling' sign and decided to follow that. lo and behold, a small area in a parking lot that had bins with labels on them. oh boy was i excited to not have to cart that junk around in my car for another week. the only bummer is that in my haste of tossing cardboard and newspapers in the fill, i tossed the box that i had kept newspapers in... but more boxes are sure to come into this house as we purchase necessities.

coffee maker

2005-09-25T09:41:00.000-06:00

over a week ago, i broke the carafe of our coffee maker. such a tragic loss... not really. i've had this little coffee maker for a good eight years, and i believe only used it a handful of times. if memory serves me correctly, it was used when my old roommate came back from hawaii and brought with him some kona coffee. after about a month, i believe the coffee maker went back into the cupboard. for 8 years, i've lugged that little 4-cup coffee maker from my digs on valmont, to aurora ave, to the hill, portland pl., penn st in denver and now in east denver. i think in the eight years i've had it, it's seen more action in 4 weeks living in our new home than it did in the 8 years i had it in boulder. i didn't even know what make it was until we bought our new one and i looked at the label- GEVALIA.

so. yesterday the fam went to bed bath beyond for a new coffee maker and a present for our friends who are getting married next week. we ended up getting a braun, 10-cup coffee maker. simple, black, with a glass carafe- 19.99USD. we were teetering on getting a 69.99USD coffee maker that was programmable so we could set it up the night before and have fresh coffee when we woke the next morning. the only thing is, we seem to do most of our coffee drinking during the week. and for me, i have coffee available to me at the office; and lately, have been drinking green and peppermint tea. so we settled on the cheapie coffee maker, i mean, it is only coffee.

birthday?

2005-09-15T21:57:00.000-06:00

i know it's been a while since i rapped at you (borrowed that from the onion). anyway. i'm usually not one to toot my own horn, but as my friend britt has tried to, and p has done this year, it's my birthday on 09.16. not expecting anything great, but turning 31 seems like a breeze. got settled in a house and the kiddo is growing up quite nicely. my dad has given him his chinese name: 郭文彬
‘文質彬彬’ means elegance and solidity equally combined.

It is in Confucius writing ‘論語 (lun yu)’
子曰：「質勝文則野，文勝質則史。文質彬彬，然後君子。」

zi yue : [zie2 sheng wen3 ze ye3
wen3 sheng zie2 ze shi
wen3 zie2 bin bin
ran2 hou jun zi3]

The Master said: “Nature outweighing art begets roughness; art outweighing nature begets pedantry. Art and nature well blent make a gentleman.”

Another translation
Confucius said
“when substance overshadows refinement. There is the coarse man. When refinement overshadows substance, there is the court historian, When substance equates with refincement, there is the gentleman.

so. it's been over a month since i've blogged. it's been a crazy month, kind of. whirl wind of a move. wouldn't have been possible without some really good friends... and some even made the trip down from boulder. big shout out to poakadizi and z from b-twon. also on the list of thanks goes to cousin dave, rob, jay, jeff and p's mom and dad. anyway. the move was crazy. i thought i had a good handle on the packing, but boy was i wrong. rented a 14ft truck for 5 hrs, which wasn't enough... ended up packing the equivalent of 10 carloads after that uhaul trip once all said and done. ridiculous. and this was after jason and his little brother helped out the night before moving 5 of our 7 bikes and multibple sets of wheels.

but. we are in our new house and p has put up a few pictures around the house. yet to find a home is the painting liv gave me for taking her to a radiohead concert years ago. but, the first piece of equipment to be installed was the stereo system... the day after we closed on the house.

okay. i'm all over the place. the house is in a great location. just 2 blocks north is the sledding hill and beyond that the future huge park that's going in. then, 5 blocks to the east is a small town center with a few restaurants, our bank, a walgreens and a grocery store. it's definitely nice to have the grocery store, but it's kind of schwaggy. i like the wild oats and whole foods action... more wild oats out in golden, but whole foods does quite the good trick. then, 2 blocks to the south of us is a swimming pool. unfortunately, we were unable to take advantage of the pool... but next year, watch out. aiden's going swimming as much as possible. there is also a baby pool around the block, but haven't quite located it yet.

other than that... life is traveling along at a good speed, except for the work. it's a drag. closing out the project is more difficult as time passes to get excited about it. tedious work and looks like i'll be on the project until the end of the year. good job security, though... and i think i'm doing a good job. the project manager has dropped a good job ever here and there, so sounds like i'm getting forward progress on my work.

okay. i guess that's a wrap, for now. more pix of the kiddo coming up. damn he's cute. and very well mannered. can't believe it. getting him to bed is a dream now... hang out and let him hold my finger and after a few shushes, he's out like a light.

t-minus 5 days

2005-08-06T08:51:00.000-06:00

so it's less than a week and p and i are homeowners. it's pretty exciting. very excited to get out of this loft action. but the location is quite nice... right downtown with about a 15 minute walk to were the action is... but we're really not into the action d/t. but it's nice to be so close to the city center. when we move, we'll only be 6 miles away, which is nothing. about a 15-20 minute bike ride. so ti'll be nice to tack that time onto my bike commute to work on thrusdays. i hope i have an extra day or so next quarter that i can ride. it's been a long time since i've been on my bike... and i'm patiently waiting the one year birthday of my son so i can take him out in the trailer.

we had our walk through a few days ago. took much longer than i had thought. i think we were there for about 2 hours. everything looks good. the kitchen windows are flat instead of block, and the master bath window is in place. there is just some tile work and painting to be done to finish it out. the builder happened by during our walk through and expressed his view that the lack of the window and screw up in the kitchen wasn't his fault. to be honest. we didn't care much who's fault it was, just that it be fixed. but he lamented and probably just wanted a pat on the back and a 'good job'. well... we'd have said it anyway, especially if it were done right the first time.

anyway. closing on the house on thrusday and then it's time to start moving. i decided this week to just take that thursday off from work so we could enjoy our new home. it'll be very exciting. so from thursday to sunday, i'll be moving smaller items to the house. fragile kitchen items, stero and computer stuff. and then sunday, i've enlisted the aid of a few friends to help with the big stuff. can't wait!

update when we are in the new home.

pic of the house

2005-08-01T12:10:00.000-06:00

p, a and i went by the house yesterday. they took care of the 'glass blocks' and but in the flat standard window. made a bit of difference on the amt of light coming in. they touched up the paint and took care of the un-flush cabinets. they have yet to install the window in the master bath, though.. but i did see the window sitting in the closet downstairs. we hung out for about an hour just enjoying the fact that we are going to be homeowners in less than two weeks.

and, we took a picture:

update on the house

2005-07-23T13:33:00.000-06:00

so the house is just about done. p, a and i went by it just over a week ago... and the house is painted red. when we signed the purchase agreement, they told us the house was going to be a shade of green. now it's red... with the gabled section being salmon pink. yes, that's right. pink. we both stood there in awe of the fact that one, the house is red, and two, there's pink on our house. pink. after a couple of days of deliberation between the two of us, we called and made a stink about it. kb came back and gave us an option of painting the interior of the house a different color... ok, that makes no sense. we're complaining about the exterior, not the interior. once they decided to listen to what was being said, they said they could do nothing about the paint color. so we pressed a bit more and offered to get us a fridge instead... after another day of p and i talking about it, we relented and said, what do you got for a fridge... well, they proposed a whirlpool side by side in stainless, contoured. another day of deliberation and i felt that they should be giving us a choice in the matter, so again, kb comes back and says, 'tell us what you want and we'll see if we can get it.' so p spends a good number of hours looking at refridgerators, running around denver and providing serial numbers of makes and models of fridges that we'd like to have in the house. another day later, kb says, well... we can't get any of those, we only deal with kitchenaid and whirlpool (or ge, i forget); you're going to get the fridge we told you early in the week. damn. i can't believe it. how incredibly lame. this is our first house. the exterior paint color has changed, and now we have no choice on the fridge that you are bribing us with since the house isn't the color we expected.
on the bright side of things, this frees up a bit of dollars for a washer and dryer. but, bottom line, we're moving into a house painted (a shade of) pink, and a fridge (albiet very nice) that we had no options on.

musical baton

2005-06-24T16:33:00.000-06:00

it's been some time since i've blogged as well, so i'll try and not drop the baton and keep it going. is the requirement to not drop the baton by asking 5 bloggers? i don't know if i can meet that mark, but here goes:

1. the person who passed the baton to you
grey marble

2. total volume of music files on your compter
zero (0). damn that's sad... but i guess anything i've burned has been removed from the computer to help save space for the apk photos

3. the title and artist of the last cd you bought
no wow, the kills. haven't bought vinyl in some time... maybe it's time to hit the record store.

4. song playing at the moment of writing
no song. the idiot box is on our only channel we have reception- fox

5. five songs you have been listening to of late or all-time favorites, or particularly personally meaningful songs
4 songs and 1 album that i've been listening to recently:
"busy," jawbreaker
frances the mute, the mars volta (not really a song, but the whole album is damn good)
"napoleon solo," at the drive-in
"initiation," at the drive-in
"no wow," the kills

6. the three people to whom you will 'pass the musical baton.'
vic
karalyn
chuck (can't find the link, will update at later date)

new home

2005-05-28T14:09:00.000-06:00

last week p and i took my parents to see the progress on the new house. it's pretty exciting. the walls are all up and the siding is starting to go on.

looking north from our front porch

another view of the control tower, this time from our living room

rolling over

2005-05-17T17:39:00.000-06:00

it's been some time since i've posted anything... but since our baby book is at a friends house, i need a date marker. on may 15, 2005, aiden paul kuo rolled from his tummy to his back. woo hoo. now he's working on rolling from back to tummy... and playing longer on his tummy. it's pretty exciting to see these steps he's taking.

old friends

2005-04-26T21:07:00.000-06:00

i took aiden for a walk today after i had gotten home from work. same route. down 22nd to welton and then up to the library for some more movies. on the way, i noticed a messenger heading up the street. i couldn't help but look; i have an interest in what bikes messengers are riding around town. after a few glances back and forth, i realized it was my friend graeme. he had gone to new zealand for the winter and had returned but a week ago. he was in the middle of a run, but took some time to chat and meet my son. nice to see him and plans on getting together are in the works.

a day in the (eventual) sun

2005-04-17T20:41:00.000-06:00

the morning after p and i went to the delivery room, our friend gretchen and i noticed a breakfast joint called hot cakes across the street that looked oh so tempting while p was on the epidural. of course, going there for breakfast was out of the question since we had no idea when p was going to give birth to our son aiden. since then, we've frequented this breakfast house three times; today under cloudy skies, it was with our friends jason and dawn, who are expecting their first child. it's quite exciting to talk to a couple expecting a child, especially after going through it. as for breakfast, each time we've gone, i've ordered the same thing- the sunrise meal, two eggs scrambled, hash browns, sausage links and pancakes.
after breakfast mid cap-hill, we took 17th streed west through downtown to the west side to visit the REI store. we're in the market for a baby jogger. i've thought about purchasing a burley, but after seeing a jogger made by chariot, we're leaning that direction. unfortunately, after walking the 2.5-3 miles down to REI, they didn't have any models on the floor... but we did get p a baselayer with a hood on clearance. on the way there, we stopped by the leasing office for new townhomes and lofts going up next to the new contemporary art museum at delgany and 15th st- could not believe the cost of these places- starting price was 700,000USD. holy smokes! damn there are some cats in this cow town with cash. the plus was that i got a couple pieces of herseys miniature candies while p and the gent working there spoke about the possibility of getting some client based experience to the art institute.
so after strolling through REI and giving aiden some nummies, we started our walk home, stopping off at the cheesecake factory for a salad. we were talking to j&d this morning and ceasar salad entered the conversation, so i had a bit of a craving for one with chicken. with the enormous portions that are served there, p and i shared a plate of salad and ate some of their yummy bread and topped ourselves off by sharing a slice of the godiva chocolate cheesecake. very tasty.
eight hours after leaving the house and with the sun leaning toward the west, we returned home at 6pm. a full day outside with the bean. he took it quite well. had a good time in his stroller. took a few naps during the day and enjoyed the experience of seeing something other than the walls and ceiling of our loft.

cube with a view

2005-04-15T17:24:00.000-06:00

i now have a cube with a window. a few people have left the project and they moved me closer to the mechanical group on the floor. when i started, i was put in a cube by the process engineers. now, five months later, one engineer has gotten an opportunity at another firm, one is moving to the field to work for the client more directly, and another has gotten off the project and moved to the second floor. so. i got a cube over by the rest of the mechanical group. not too bad. can't complain, but only by luck did i score a window cube. the view is of a duck/ goose pond and faces to the north west. it's nice. i definitely appreciate seeing sunlight, but it does cause just a tiny bit of glare.

another weekend roundup

2005-04-10T14:49:00.000-06:00

a saturday with aiden.
it was a pretty standard day with the boy on this particular saturday. p got ready and left for work and i was in charge. after playing in the play gym for some time, we moved things to the floor and while he sat in his bouncy chair, i read him some nursery rythmes. after about 25 pages, he became inpatient and hungry. so four ounces of nummies later, we threw on some clothes and packed aiden in the stroller for a trip to the grocery store. i've been in the mood for lasagna for the past few days, and not recalling any restaurants that serve up a good lasagna, i decided to bake one myself - easy style, spinach, ricotta cheese, pasta sauce and mozzi cheese. aiden nodded off on the way there and slept only until about 10 minutes after we returned home. he woke up and was staring at the front door since i had run to the bathroom and just wanted to see someone. i picked up and he fell back asleep quite quickly. so i made a lasagna while he slept.
40 minutes into the cook time, aiden woke up hungry wanting some nummies. so we sat down and i fed him 6 ounces of food. aiden stayed awake throughout the walk to and through movie selecting at the library. as we parted, he started to nod off. back home, he slept through equilibrium and the first half of the dancer upstairs. around 4pm, i gathered him up for a walk to the art institute to meet up with p. i thought since he'd been sleeping for so long, that he'd wake up and be hungry. but to my surprise, i transfered him over to he car seat and stroller without a peep and we were on our way.

sunday snow storm.
we woke up this morning to the sight of horizontal snow. the forecasters were right. denver did in fact get hit by a snow storm. it's quite warm out, though, despite the blowing winds. and the main roads weren't too bad to travel on by car. much less could be said about our walkways around the complex we dwell at, though. disapointed to see that nothing much was done. even though it was still snowing, aren't aparment complexes required to shovel the walks throughout the day? damn this place is lame. i can't wait until we move into our house and then i'll be more than happy to be shoveling snow. actually, at the old four-plex i lived at in boulder that my friend tim still resides in, i would shovel the walk for all tenants just to be outside exercising. it was quite enjoyable... much more so than the driveway in CT- but my dad had a snowblower so that made a huge difference in the time required to clear snow.

walking with the bjorn

2005-04-03T13:05:00.000-06:00

saturday afternoon p scheduled a massage downtown so i took aiden for a walk around lodo. we walked for about 2.5 hrs and there were about 4 comments from different groups of people expressing their desire to be carried around in a bjorn like aiden was. pretty funny afternoon. people love seeing new babies.

dreams

2005-04-01T14:33:00.000-07:00

this past weekend i had the best dream at 147am. i woke up to p and aiden nursing and was so excited i got out of bed to tell p about my dream. i had slain a dragon. it was incredible. i don't really know why or the details or any setting of the dream, but i had slayed a dragon.

long weekend

2005-03-28T13:08:00.000-07:00

it's nice to have three day weekends now. my old company, they were few and far between... but since i had nothing going on in those days, i didn't really mind at all. now, it's a different story. having a son is quite the change, although, it's not as difficult as i thought i'd be... for now. i'm sure this will change, but the thought of the oncoming challenge is exciting, especially when i have someone to share it with (which includes estatic grandparents). so. after a four day work week, i found myself waking on friday morning not having to travel the 11 miles to work, so i rose and took care of aiden while p caught up on some sleep. it was very nice. i'm very happy to have the time to spend at home in the mornings so p can get some more rest after waking about every 2 hrs to feed to the hungry bean.
it was a lazy afternoon spent watching movies on the dvd player and playing with aiden. but around 430pm, we headed out the door to the library for some more movies to last through the following week. at the library, we bumped into our friend bridgette and coerced her into heading to whole foods with us for some shopping. with our errands run and some time with our friend, we settled on the couch with a dinner of (boxed) risotto with chicken and mushrooms with artichokes while watching the english patient. and at this time, aiden was fast asleep in my arms.
saturday saw more of the same as friday evening. it was a lazy day for me. i ended up playing with aiden and taking care of him throughout the afternoon while watching movies and doing not much of anything else while p took the time to get some work done for the upcoming quarter of school. that night, we bundled up the bean and took him out to dinner to meet p's friend jay, who had just moved from iowa. dinner was at gumbo's at 16th st and wazee. i settled on the blackened catfish with shrimp gumbo while p had the crawfish gumbo and a side of garlic mashed potatoes. jay ended up having a cup of gumbo and the stuffed rainbow trout. we ended the dinner by sharing a slice of cheesecake topped with fresh strawberries. after dinner, we said our goodbyes and hopped the mall bus back to welton st for our short walk home. aiden was incredible, yet again... slept the whole time we were out - about four hours.
i celebrated aiden's first easter sunday. growing up, i remember my parents taking the time to boil eggs so we could color them. they would then hide them while we slept and when my brother and i would wake, we'd run around the house looking for the eggs. that was about the extent of it. no church, no special brunch or anything. we were invited to our friend donna's for brunch. it was a pretty late invite, but we decided to go anyway. get out of the house and spend some time with friends. all we had to bring was the baby for entertainment and some chocolate. we walked the 2 miles to donna's apartment off 3rd and broadway and enjoyed a feast of french toast topped with berries, an egg braid made with pillsbury croissants, fresh fruit, bacon, sausage, muffins and mini chocolate gem donuts (my favorite). post brunch, p and i took a stroll over to crown and a couple of book stores three or four blocks from where we were, then headed home.
at home, i rolled through the laundry that i had planned on doing saturday morning. i can't believe the place i live in. i put out clothes in the washer, all timed for about 30 minutes of wash time. 35 minutes later, i stroll down to the laundry room only to find that a disrespectful impatient tenant had taken MY clothes out of one of the washing machines and into a dryer. the nerve. second time it's happened to me... and her excuse was that she didn't have a laundry card (basically a credit card to put credit on) and needed to use one of the coin operated machines. i started to hold my tongue and then let her have it; saying how disrespectful it was to be touching someone else's clothes... i wanted to say more, but felt it unnecessary... but not really. and her excuse was that she didn't think someone was coming down for some time. damn. makes me angry. i hate the place we live. people are so rude it's incredible. the interesting thing, though, an hour after my clothes had been in the dryer, i retrieved them only to find that their clothes were still in the washing machine. i was very tempted to move all their clothes to another washer, and if they had come in, i'd make an excuse to say that i thought i had lost something. damn. couldh've wouldh've shouldh've. next time. i can take so much crap for only so long, no matter if it's from different people.

ring ring

2005-03-24T12:18:00.000-07:00

i'm getting a cell phone. i never thought ten years ago i'd be working corporate and being a cell phone carrier. well... maybe i new i was going to be in corporate working engineering at some point, but not rolling with a cell phone. it'll be good. with the new baby and the possibility of needed to contact p during the day, the phone will come in handy. getting myself a nice motorola v220 flip phone. we scored on our deal. the second phone plan was suppose to be 19.99/mo, but the rep quoted 9.99/mo. oops - so we're getting the second phone at a discount. haha. stickin' it to the man.

weekend round-up

2005-03-22T12:13:00.000-07:00

SUNDAY
didn't do too much on this day. slept in until 9am; p took great care of the little one and when i had awoken from being on the floor, the two of them were on the couch getting some nummie nums. after a morning of laundry and cleaning up, the three of us decided to take a walk. i conned p into going- she was a bit tired from the early morning feedings. we took our usual route- down 19th ave to 16th st. mall. we stopped into tj maxx and i bought 2 shirts for work and 2 books for reading time with the little one. after a stop at ross, we headed down to buffalo toms for malts and fries. not the healthiest of meals, but p was craving a malt after not feeling so hot for the first 20 minutes of our walk. we bumped into 2 of p's friends and the second led us on to the ability of purchasing cigar boxes for 2USD a piece. so p and i stopped by the cigar shop and walked out with six boxes, one of which is on my desk at work. quite the handy pencil holder. four hours later, we were home. aiden didn't make a peep the whole time. quite amazing.

SATURDAY
i finally got p out of the house on a weekend without the baby and without having to go to work. after a morning feeding, p headed out to a yoga class while ap and i had some father son time. i was pretty excited. was going to take him for a walk to the library for some more movies. we got all ready to go and headed out at about 11am. two blocks later, aiden started fussing and crying. i knew it wasn't one of those 'i want to sleep but i'm going to fuss a bit before i crash out for two hours.' it was a, 'hey! i'm hungry still!' so, we turned around and he sucked down four more ounces of formula. gave me quite the belch and fell asleep on my chest.
that evening we took the little one to one of p's coworker's wedding. it was a quaint chapel on the campus of DU. it was a very quick and nice ceremony and aiden didn't make a peep. it was absolutely amazing. the reception followed after some very very poor directions provided on a ripped sheet of notebook paper left at the chapel. we were off s. university blvd and the directions told us to go north on colorado blvd, then left on cherry and then left on s. jackson. ok. university is about a mile west of colorado... and why wouldn't directions be given from where we were, not a mile east from where we were... anyway. and then someone said it was by an office located on south colorado blvd... wow. totally screwed us up. of course, we forgot to bring the address. so. after driving around for about 30 minutes, we finally found the reception... the cherry address was totally wrong. there are 3 - s. cherry street, cherry creek dr north and cherry creek dr south... could have used some clarificaiton... especialy when s cherry st. runs parallel to colorado blvd.
anway. the reception was nice... and i think aiden stole the show. everyone was wanting to hold him and see him, even the bride - she is expecting a child shortly as well.

FRIDAY
nothing like half day fridays. i was suppose to work the afternoon to make up for good friday this coming week, but having a photo appointment, i made up the hours the previous two days. so i left work at noon, drove home and got aiden ready for his first photo shoot. p found a photographer on e 17th ave and park ave who specialized in taking baby/ child photographs (b&w). we spend three hours with the photographer, looking at his photos, got six rolls of film taken, and got peed and pood on. the photographer said he'd be able to get us a contact sheet today (tuesday) so hopefully p has time this afternoon to meet with him.

swinging

2005-03-18T20:35:00.000-07:00

when p's mom and dad came to visit, they bought us a swing for aiden to sit in so, when he was old enough to be content with being in it, we could get some stuff done around the house. as an engineer, i seem to find any and all faults with various equipment that i put together... this time, it's the mobile that goes over the swing and rocks and rolls and rotates as the baby chair swings. the mobile, it has a tendancy to rotate and end up behind the chair so our child can't even look at it. aiden is now old enough where he actually enjoys the chair and will fall asleep in it while rocking back and forth. and after about seven weeks of having the swing, i've finally put an end to the rotating mobile and put a screw in it so it'll stay in place.

father and son weekend

2005-03-13T17:23:00.000-07:00

this past weekend p had an NCIDQ exam prep course that took up friday afternoon, saturday and sunday. so it was more or less a father/son weekend. it was pretty darn good, i must say. i got home friday afternoon to an eating child... then he played in his gym, did some swinging in the chair, some more nummie nums and then hung out with pa for a nap on the couch.
saturday was more of the same. a morning nap after breakfast, then a walk to the library for some movies and the store for some more diapers. i can't believe how many diapers are being used, so crazy. got home around noon for some lunch, play time, swing time, story reading time, a nap, more food, cowboy bebop seasons 1 and 2 for me, then another walk. this time, we strolled to the corner mod furniture store, then down to capital hill books and then d/t to tattered cover. i was on the hunt for some books for work; mainly a book on pressure vessels and a materials book, but i found neither. after the walk, it was home for some more food and then mom came home... after more feeding p and i went out to dinner at protege - a quaint restaurant across the street from a wild oats. i forget the cross streets, 11th and something...
sunday was another fantastic day with my son. it was snowing out so the walk was kind of out of the question so as to not to give little aiden a cold. so after breakfast, he was in the baby bjorn and we did five loads of laundry, made a double batch of banana bread, posted some photos of the little one, and watched the goonies.
not a bad weekend.

interoffice

2005-03-06T14:34:00.000-07:00

on thursday of this past week, i got my first piece of interoffice mail handed to me by the gent that runs the mail around the office. it was quite exciting. i issued my first material requisition for purchase for my uncle. a couple of hours later, a piece of paper was placed in my inbox stating that the documents i issued were with procurement. this coming week i'm looking to purchase my first piece of equipment... it's an off the shelf item, under the advisement of another engineer. i think i'll keep the catalogue when i leave the company as a momenta.

driving cars and eating with plastic spoons

2005-02-23T20:52:00.000-07:00

i'm quickly getting sick of driving my car the ten miles to and from work. i took the I-70 home the other night and realized that i drove farther and it took longer than taking colfax and rolling through d-town. but overall, i'm tired of driving, stuck in a car, no fresh air, poor drivers who don't pay attention to lights, other cars or themselves. get me my bike. but i have a choice. and i've chosen to drive the car. i could spend an extra hour every day taking the bus and riding the bike home (the cost comes out to be the same... paying for a bus ticket one way each day vs. a tank of gas and how many miles i get per gallon); or, i could spend that extra hour with my family. and i chose my family. i have time, no rush. the bike and the outdoors are always available.

on another note, i'm compiling quite the collection of plasticware. i've been packing the lunch for work every day and for some reason can't seem to pack myself a fork or spoon to take with me. luckily the corporation i work for has plasticware available for us to use. instead of throwing each spoon and fork in the trash, i bring them home to be washed and used at some later date... i'm sure we'll have some party or something where these will come into use.

falling asleep to face to face

2005-02-22T12:23:00.000-07:00

last night after some yummy yums and a diaper change, i slowly bounced and rocked aiden to sleep listening to the sounds of face to face. it was fantastic.

home studio and breakfast at the walnut cafe

2005-02-14T12:22:00.000-07:00

kb home studio

p and i took a drive to the kb home studio to start browsing for options for the house. we have a huge list of items that we can either go with the standard option, or upgrade for a fee. i was a bit disappointed with the size of the place, but i guess they really don't need that much room for everything they have. we were also disappointed with the standard options. we thought that the std ops would be at least liveable, but after purusing the studio, everything was cheaper than cheap... not even up to the standards we have at the apartment we're renting... and this for a home purchase. we've decided to upgrade the things that matter the most... and then worry about the smaller things later.

earlier in the day, p, a, and i went out to breakfast at our favorite place- the walnut cafe at colfax and logan. it was the first time since the birth that we got out of the house together aside from heading to the pediatric dr's office... and without grandparents. it was quite nice. took aiden in the stroller, which he like quite a bit, the rocking put him to sleep. and as his timing is key, once the food arrived, aiden started to wake up. just a few cries, then a long one. he was hungry again. this time, though, p got through about half of the meal. at home, it was always just when dinner was served, that aiden would be hungry and let the world know.

zoe

2005-02-12T20:52:00.000-07:00

i was dl'ing photos from the digicam and came across this gem i took no more than two days before having to put her to sleep. on two occasions she snuck into the coat closet when someone left the door open. on the first occasion, we didn't hear a peep out of her and then as we opened the door to grab our coats, she lept out. this time, apparently she felt she was in there too long and didn't think anyone was going to open the door, so she started to paw at the underside of the door. of course, thinking this really cute, i took a photo before opening the door for her.

rabbit ears

2005-02-12T15:17:00.000-07:00

p's parents were in for the week to greet their tenth grandson and it just so happened that it was superbowl weekend and mr. murray was interested in watching the game. so i pulled out the rabbit ears from the upstairs closet to see if we would be able to get any channels on the idiot box. low and behold, we get fox, mtv2 and espn plus, of all channels. so now three channels to waste time with... except, is watching the simpsons really wasting tim?

chinese new year

2005-02-09T11:54:00.000-07:00

today marks the chinese new year. probably the worst one i've had in some time, although, i really can't remember. my parents were always the ones to remind me. this year, i looked it up since p and i were expecting - we were hoping for a child born the year of the monkey, which we got.
however, today i had to put my cat of 8 yrs to sleep. over the last few days we notice a decline in her eating, drinking and she was having trouble in the litter box. on tuesday 020805, p notice that she was stumbling down the steps that she normally has no problems negotiating. so after calling me and me making some phone calls, p took her to the vet in the afternoon. two x-rays and some urine/blood work later, we found out that zoe had abnormal kidneys, about half the size of a normal cat. there was pretty much nothing to do for her, so p brought her back home and we spent some qt time with her knowing we'd be putting her to sleep in the morning. i don't think i got to bed until 130am, partly keeping p&a company for a was sleeping for 1.5 hrs at a time, then waking for food and burping; but mostly because i knew what i'd be doing when i woke in the morning.
so in the morning, i called the vet and set up an appointment. after sitting in the room for what felt like an eternity, the dr came in and explained what the procedure was and that it was completely painless - just an induced sleep. minutes later, zoe was put to rest.

zoe kuo: adopted from the longmont humane society in 1997, RIP 02.09.05 - denver, colorado.

grandparents

2005-02-07T13:09:00.000-07:00

so my grandparents left yesterday after a week of getting to know their first grandchild. it was quite the experience. they actually stayed with us at our loft in d/t denver. wasn't too crowded, i don't think, but i was gone for a good part of the week having to come to work. it was fun to see my mom so happy carrying aiden around the place singing to him and talking to him in chinese. my dad was especially funny for the first evening all he wanted to do was to meet his grandson. everything else could wait, getting luggage from the car and eating. the funniest thing was that he was scared to hold him. it took him a good twenty-four hours before he felt comfortable handling the little guy; and even then, it was having aiden on his upper legs while he was sitting on the couch. too funny. but, after about four days, he became an expert and was telling my brother how to hold the newborn. pretty good week, i'd say, with some fantastic home cooked chinese food to boot. surprisingly i didn't take too many photos. i took a few of my dad holding aiden, but i think i completely forgot to take photos of my mom... i'll have to check and then i'll post what i have.
now p's parents are in the house, but they are staying in a hotel. this is number ten for them, but just as excited as the first, i do believe.

give it up to the 'city' of lakewood

2005-01-31T13:23:00.000-07:00

i woke up this morning to the site of heavy wet snow. after brushing off the car, i headed to work on the usual route - straight down colfax. the streets in d/t denver weren't bad at all... just wet from the melting snow... but once i got up the west side hill to the city of lakewood, completely different story. it seemed as if the city was blind and ignorant to snow removal. for the whole stretch of colfax that crosses lakewood, each car was met by up to 4" of slush with every possibility of ice beneath. then, once over the hill and into golden, it was about 1/4" of snow on top of ice patches. i think i'll write a letter to the city of lakewood to commend them on their upkeep of city roads.

d-town and lake'hood' in a fog

2005-01-28T20:58:00.000-07:00

i woke up this morning thinking i'd be driving down colfax to work in the rain. instead, i was met by a dense fog where the visibility was a 1/4 mile at best. it was a nice change from the usual nothing, it hasn't even snowed in quite some time. and driving through lakewood was pretty eerie with the leafless trees lining the center island; it felt like a tim burton film. then, two-thirds the way through lakewood, the fog was no more.

story time... at 2 o'clock AM

2005-01-25T13:11:00.000-07:00

this morning, i woke up to the cries of the little one. p was already awake and had been for about 3 hrs feeding apk - crazy. he'll feed, fall asleep, wake up and feed all within matters of minutes and continue this pattern for hours on end. and thankfully, there has always been an end, for an hour or two. this time, though, he didn't seem interested in food, just wanted to fuss. so after a diaper change and a couple paces in the apartment, i put him in his bouncy chair and read him a story, 2 to be precise. the first one was a barney book. yes, that's right, barney. my cousin from nj sent us a care package that included four books and barney's easter parade was one of them. so poor, i must say, the writing and rythming. couldn't believe i actually read the whole thing. but, it did the trick as far as pacifying the little one for some time. i asked my dad to retrieve some children books from their bookshelves and bring them with when they visit on sunday. i can't wait. if i have to read that barney book again, i don't know what i'll do.

did we just buy a house?

2005-01-23T05:23:00.000-07:00

for the past few months, p and i have been looking around denver for a house. two weeks ago we received a call from one of the builders at stapleton development and filled paper work for a house. last week, we signed the contract, but were given a seven day writ of recision. if we didn't want to proceed after seven days, we could just call up and they would put the house back on the market. well. that seven days ended saturday at 6pm. i believe p was feeding apk at the time, but at 615 i turned to her and said, 'hey! we're home owners.' not quite, but the ball is rolling and looks like we're gonna be buying a house. crazy year this 30 is turning out to be. never expected it, but bring it on.

a new baby and an old back

2005-01-21T11:52:00.000-07:00

on jan 18th, 2005, 11:24am, p and i were blessed with the birth of our child, aiden paul kuo (more info here) we are both thankful to our friend gretchen for assisting with the birth since i've been having a nagging back injury for the last two weeks, which has sent me straight to the floor for 3 days, both weeks. i am a bit tired, so i added the link to our new baby blog for simplicity, instead of typing everything over.

it's funny. i thought i'd be much more tired from staying up all night, but actually, i got really good rest. p had an epidural and the drs and nurses would give us times when they would return to the room so i was able to sleep on the bench for a couple hours at a time. and since the pushing was only about 15 minutes long, it was all over quite quickly. and the rest of the stay was quite easy for me, really, since p's got the goods, but i do believe i woke up each time the baby came into the room just to take a look.

27 and 1

2005-01-02T08:35:00.000-07:00

when i was growing up in my parents' house, often times on the weekends my mom or dad would make us homemade dumplings, scallion pancakes, or some other wonderful chinese meal that required quite a bit of preparation.
i finally found an acceptable rolling pin at crate & barrel, of all places. for 5USD i got a rolling pin, 2 wooden spoons, a wooden spatula and a wood wisk. not sure what to do with the wisk, but on 01.01.05, i put the rolling pin to use by making dumplings.
i started around 830pm working together the flour and water. while letting the dough rise, i helped p rearrange some furniture and hang some posters while preparing the filling of pork, nappa cabbage, green onions, soy sauce and sugar. after about two hours of rolling and pinching, i was finally done. 27 dumplings were yielded with an extra quarter of dough. having an abundance of green onions, i decided to make a scallion pancake.
at 11pm, a sleepy p and i enjoyed six dumplings. reminded me of childhood.

image: finished dumplings

new years weekend walks

2005-01-01T19:33:00.000-07:00

New Years Day - 01.01.05

for the past week nad a half, p's been craving dairy queen. last week while shopping for the receiver we passed by two dairy queens, both of which were closed... possibly for xmas. throughout the week, we've had a couple of ice cream pops but those didn't curb the craving. so finally today, after we woke and watched the ending of the last emporer, we got on the walking shoes and caught the 0 bus at 17th and california, passing a man on a bike and exchanging new years greetings. we took the bus south down broadway to the 2200 block south, the nearest DQ.
after me having a chocolate chip cookie dough and p having a snicker's bar blizzard, we walked north on broadway through antique alley, had a quick bite to eat at thai basil's at one broadway, past our favorite stores (decade and crown), past the denver public library, past the capitol building and back to our home. all in all we walked 6.25 miles. woah. didn't really realize it, but after checking the streets and maps program, we did a whopping 6.25 miles around and from south denver in five hours. not a bad day out with the preggo.

New Years Eve - 12.31.04

having a day off from work due to the holiday falling on a saturday, p and i decided to head out for our weekly walk around denver. this time, it was to run a few errands, while also getting in the exercise. our first stop was the post office. while in line, a man behind us started to complain about the fact that the post office wanted him to retreive 13USD in cash to pay his PO BOX... apparently he had neither check nor credit card, how else is he going to pay? and then launched into a speal about how the city of denver is hiring 'foreigners' to work the parking spaces during rockies games and how he had a civil suit against the city that he was going to win followed up about how he was traveling to baltimore to work those parking lots, but would be delayed cause of his pending suit. the most depressing thing about this man was that his daughter was with him. i'm sure she was a bit embarrassed... and hopefully wouldn't grow up jaded like her father.
the next stop on the grand tour was the asian market. i've been in the market for a rolling pin for the last month or so... especially after making homemade ravioli and rolling the dough out with a plastic cup. this time, i was in the mood for making dumplings. as rolling pins go these days, they are all outfitted with ball bearings and have handles and a central roller. it is very difficult to find one my mom uses. just a cylinder of wood, nothing fancy, but since i am used to seeing/using that type of pin, that's what i've been looking for. unfortunately the asian market didn't have anything, but we did pick up a head of nappa cabbage (recommended for dumplings).
on the way back from lodo, we headed into radioshack to purchase a splitter to create a bigger sound when watching vhs tapes. we don't have a stereo vcr, and by pumping in the sound through our receiver, we can create a bigger sound- all of which i knew, but the salesperson at radioshack was a bit perplex, but pointed us in the right direction anyway.
our, unbeknownst to us, last stop was at TJ maxx (max for the minimum at the minimum price). we figured if nothing else, we could possibly find a rolling pin for cheap at this store. instead, we found ourselves leaving with four retro blue plates (that go really well with some plates we have in the cupboard) and a bamboo cutting board. i've also been eyeing a wood cutting board for about four months. we first saw them at wild oats, but due to our pending child and my not have an engineering job at the time, we felt it would be splurging. we still felt it was a bit of splurging, but this time it was about ten dollars cheaper than at the regular stores. and the plates, only 5USD each. not bad finds, i'd say... and we also found our coming baby a sleeper onesie, hat and receiving blanket.

dolly madison

2004-12-30T08:12:00.000-07:00

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

2004-12-25T09:57:00.000-07:00

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

2004-12-23T09:46:00.000-07:00

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

2004-12-22T11:19:00.000-07:00

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.

2004-12-17T11:56:00.000-07:00

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

2004-12-09T20:44:00.000-07:00

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

2004-12-03T21:41:00.000-07:00

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!

2004-12-02T21:49:00.000-07:00

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.

sprucing up the cube... and fun with foam core

2004-11-29T21:53:00.000-07:00

when i first stepped into my cube at work. there was absolutely nothing. then the tech guy showed up and hooked up my computer and phone. from there, it was time to discover where the office supplies were kept and who to talk to regarding odds and ends such as a stapler, stapler remover and shelving units for the half wall. after gathering myself an assortment of pens, pencils and highlighters, i realized i didn't have a pen holder. so i asked one of the floor managers for one, and she told me they had none. so for the time being i copied what the squad check table had: stylerfoam cups turned upside-down with the bottom removed; and then secured to the table via tape.
i told p my dilema and she mentioned that she had some boxes the students at school built and left with her. after examining the two boxes she brought home, i decided to make my own... after some instruction on how to make one... yes, it is just a box... but making the corners is an art, i started to fashion my own. after about four days... i formed the four walls and base, but wanted to do something else on one or more of the walls and just didn't know what to do. and after four days, i ended up with this. it now adornes my cube, opposite the two stylerfoam cups i have for other writing utensils.

after completing the box and finding myself with time and materials at hand, i started to play around. some things will be shown later, but i thought this sculpture was worthy of posting.

where am i?

2004-11-28T11:31:00.000-07:00

on thursday, november 25th, p and i took a walk through denver to get some exercise- we stopped cycling cause the belly's getting bigger by the minute (but not really, more on that later). we've been taking weekly walks and due to the holiday, we had extra days for walks through d-town. on our way north on acoma to the south end of the new denver art museum being built a woman stopped us and asked us, 'where am i?' we both looked at her a bit confused - we were both thinking, 'you've got to be kidding me.' here's a woman standing in front of us dressed all in black, orange hair and apparently her zipper was down (an observation p noticed and later told me). after a few seconds of silence, she said, 'i just got out of municipal. how about a liquor store, i really just want some cigarettees and a bus station.' so after that, i asked, 'where are you going?' since telling her where she was wasn't going to help. 'Littleton,' she says. (about 12 miles south of where we were standing.) 'Oh, wow. you're far away. But Broadway is just one block over.' 'Thanks!' was her reply and off she went. In search of cigarettes and a bus home.

cubicle life

2004-11-18T20:09:00.000-07:00

my first week of cubicle life is about to come to a close... (un)fortunately, my friday will be a full day (the deal is, i work four 9's and a half; but since next week is t-day, working all day on the 19th gives me next friday completely off to spend time doing other things. anyway. it's definitely a change from the old job where it was a room with anywhere from 4 to 10 people in there trying to communicate with everyone else. now, instead of having this feeling of people looming over me getting work out, i have my own space and no one looking over my shoulder. at least, not yet. i'm sure as time passes i'll have more strict deadlines. another odd thing, is that i'm so used to eating at my desk, i seem to not know how to leave for lunch. odd as it may be, this first week i've been eating at my desk and working at the same time. kind of crazy, and sad... but i'm sure at some point i'll be leaving the office to walk around the duck pond outside or doing something other than sitting at my desk. so new to me- the concept of a lunch hour where i could do whatever the hell i wanted to... i'm starting out, though, working at my desk.

photos: desk, view from the cubicle

2004-11-14T20:18:00.000-07:00

transitions

friday, 12 november 2004, was my last day working at denver/boulder couriers. didn't really feel like a last day. took about 140 orders and then spent the last 2 hours dispatching and trying to work magic that i thought had left my hands when i turned over the controls to the new dispatcher. but somehow, with hard work from the riders in denver, i cleared the last job out with a messenger at 5:15. after a few follow up phone calls and random notes in jobs, it all came to a close at 5:50. well, not really. i still had thoughts and notes spinning in my head from a crazy friday afternoon. only after emailing some notes to the office, did i feel completely finished with that job.
and only two short days later do i begin a new career. surely not enough time to decompress after five and a half years working as a messenger. i do believe that next time i'll do better at negotiating my start time so i have more than two days to decompress.

arc

knowing that in two days time i'd need to be wearing docker style pants and collared shirts at work, p and i went shopping for additions to my wardrobe. after finding a few pairs of pants, we scored ourselves an antique high chair and a changing table for a whopping total of 67USD. score.

now it's sunday. i can't believe i only gave myself a weekend between changing jobs and gears. gotta negotiate the transition better next time.

catching up

2004-11-10T09:59:00.000-07:00

my friend paul from nyc called last night after scanning the blog, full of questions. of course, some could have been answered by reading, but it was good to hear from him and didn't mind filling him in. apparently i dropped a couple more bombs on him other than what has been written about and he thought it would be a good idea if i wrote about what's been going on over the course of the last four or five months.

so. a quick update so everyone reading is caught up. my girlfriend, patricia, and i are expecting a baby in january 2005 - we're hoping that he/she (since we didn't bother to find out the sex) will be born in the year of the monkey. having found out the news (rather were shocked by the news) early june, i moved from my rental in boulder, co, to her rental in denver, to start saving money. about two weeks ago, on 28 october 2004, i got a job offer from jacobs engineering in golden, colorado, that starts on monday 15 nov. and i believe the last bit of news is that my p and i are engaged. no date set, not even worrying about it.

i think that covers it. my stint at DBC ends friday, and moving ahead to something different and new. it's about time.

links: DBC, Jacobs
photos: sonagram I, II, III

consumerism at it's worst...

2004-11-07T21:30:00.000-07:00

the apartment complex i live in is four stories and has a trash cute at the end of the hall. over the last few months, i'm amazed at the items i've seen (and recovered) from that room. although there is a sign that says to not leave boxes and large items in the room, people are so lazy as to ignore that sign and leave stuff lying around. in the past few months i've seen a 22" computer monitor, skies, empty cardboard boxes and wine racks. and today, i found two lamps. i couldn't believe it. i brought them back to the apartment and left for a bike ride. when i returned, p had plugged in the taller of the two and it worked just fine, equiped with lightbulbs. i slapped the table lamp together and placed a bulb in and turned it on as well. absolutely nothing wrong with them except someone had decided they weren't good enough for them anymore. amazing.

engagement

2004-11-07T20:37:00.000-07:00

about a year ago, p and i spent a saturday together hanging out in downtown denver. i woke up early that day, around 6am, and baked her a loaf of chocolate chip banana bread; and jumped on the 8am bus to denver to meet her at Market Street Station. once i got off the bus, p picked me up in her car and we headed up 17th st to St. Mark's Coffee Shop up on cap hill (i had cider and her a cup o joe). after drinks, we made our way to the Denver Art museum for some cultural enlightenment. on the 6th floor of the museum, we rested our feet weary legs on a couch placed in the middle of a gallery and let time pass by slowly as we watched people and their viewing habits. After a couple of hours of art viewing, we went out on the green just north of the museum and sat in the sun and ate the banana bread i had made earlier that day. quite a lovely day, indeed.

on saturday, 6 november 2004, we decided to wake up and take a walk around the city. a free day for us where we had nothing planned. after breakfast at the Walnut Cafe, we walked down colfax to the Denver Art Museum, stopping breifly to watch the Veteran's Day parade, only to become sick to our stomachs to see the 'PT Cruiser club of Colorado' end(?) the parade (what the hell do PT cruisers have to do with veterans?). anyway, after making our way through a couple of exhibits, we found ourselves on the 6th floor looking at the same paintings as last time. the couch, however, was occupied; so we stolled into the adjacent room and took a seat in front of a juan gris painting. on the table between us was a vase of flowers and two sketch books with a few colored pencils. so we each took up a sketch book and drew our interpretations of the vase of flowers... i was done in a matter of minutes (p was, however, consumed in her own fine art, completely oblivious to me, fumbling for the ring in my pocket) and thought that it would be a nice time to propose. so on my drawing, i wrote the following, 'i got u some flowers. will you marry me?' i then crouched down (no, not on one knee, that came later) and presented my drawing to p. it seem to take an eon for her to read the message. apparently, she was looking at the drawing, and not reading and comprehending the question at hand. so. after about, what felt like a minute, a huge smile came upon her face and smothered me with kisses. the only thing is, i hadn't gotten a response. but, she accepted. yay! it was a sure thing, but to hear confirmation was fantastic.

photos: ring I, II

hanging out at the local seven-11

2004-11-03T22:33:00.000-07:00

my car has been sitting in the parking garage across the street for about three months (i thought it was two, but after talking to p, i think the last time i drove it any distance was at the end of july). since i'm a fan of public transportation and riding my bike, i haven't driven since i had an interview in golden. anyway. my front passenger tire has been slowly going flat, and it was about time i put some air in it. so, i slow rolled it over to 7-11 at pearl and east 17th ave. as i stepped out of my car and put my two quarters in the air machine (can't believe i was paying for air) and a man sitting in the short alley asked if i shot pool. i politely said no, and he said, 'oh, okay, i've got a pool cue for sale.' about two minutes later another man, who spoke with a speaking valve and asked about the k-car i was driving. he asked if it ran well, what year (1987, btw) and that he had one as well, which he didn't drive much either. they only come out at night, i guess - according to smashing pumpkins.

new wallet

2004-11-02T20:17:00.000-07:00

over the weekend p and i did some shopping down broadway between 1st and cedar. probably one the coolest stretches of shops in denver. for my birthday, p's mom sent me some money to purchase a little some'em some'em and i finally found something to purchase. a new wallet. i've been using a wallet that i purchased in china, but it was getting a bit raggy and i needed something new and hip. i'm quite satisfied with the purchase. and yes, p helped pick it out.

photo: wallet

new couch

2004-11-01T09:25:00.000-07:00

it's been about ten months since p moved into her apartment; and about four months since i've moved in, all without a couch. p had a couple of designer chairs that graced the floor plan, but were never that comfortable to sit in, let alone sit next to each other. after i moved in, we had a futon couch, but the cat peed on the mattress and it got thrown off the semblence of a porch into a dumpster in the back alley.
so, last week, we broke down and decided to purchase ourselves a couch. fantastic. possibly the best purchase ever. well, maybe not, but pretty darnn close. anyway, over the weekend, we've watch two movies while lounging on the couch and i've fallen asleep during both films.

photo: couch

4th flr pumpkin smashing

2004-11-01T09:03:00.000-07:00

sunday, 31 october 2004.
a few years ago, my friend dave had this idea of a pumpkin carving and smashing party. after the first year, the party never seemed to materialized again. since that one party, i've carved two pumpkins and smashed only one- the one from this year.
we live on the fourth floor of an apartment complex that overlooks an alley and just across the alley is a new complex that has taken much too long to build and too many mornings being woken up by construction. subsequently, there are a few dumpsters outlining the alley. so last night, p and i decided to do some pumpkin smashing since halloween was just about over. actually, it was a bit of pumpkin basketball, having aimed for the dumpsters, since we didn't want to leave too big of a mess in the alley (a bit disrespectful to the other residents, but pumpkins are biodegradeable, so whatever).
five minutes later and two pumpkins smashed, we called it a night.

photos: the aftermath I, II

long time coming...

2004-10-27T21:08:00.000-06:00

This past evening I took my friend, karalyn, out to dinner to celebrate her birthday - oct. 22nd was the actual day, but being I had plans... We went to our usual restaurant of choice, Ras Kassa - the best ethiopian restaurant I've personally been to, at 2111 30th St. in boulder. It's been a long time coming. We were enjoying samosas and waiting for the main course consisting of butternut squash and beef tips in mango sauce, trying to remember the last time we had gotten together for dinner. Turns out, we believe it to be my birthday over a year ago. Much too long, we decided; but with her living up in the mountains and me now in denver, it is difficult to get together, especially when we both use public transportation to get to and from work.

ode to mister s

2004-10-25T15:53:00.000-06:00

friday 10.22.04
patricia's friend bridgette invited us over friday evening for a touch of apple pie, cheesecake and apple cider, to partly celebrate b's birthday and mostly for some pumpkin carving acion. in the photo, the one on the left of the spider is p's creation and the one on the right is an ode to a friend who now resides in ohio.

auction at a wedding

2004-10-25T08:43:00.000-06:00

On Saturday, 10.23.04, I attended one of P's friend's wedding in Gennesee, just outside of Golden, CO. The chapel was beautiful. The windows behind the altar captured the view of snow capped mountains along the Continental Divide perfectly. After a nice ceremony, it was down to Red Rocks for the reception; again, wonderful views of Red Rocks from the restaurant nestled against the Red Rocks Park.

Possibly the most interesting thing I've ever experienced at a wedding was when time came to give away the garter belt. Instead of the run-of-the-mill 'hey, all the bachelors come to the center of the room' action, they auctioned the garter belt off. No kidding. A full on auction with the 1980 national auctioneer champion leading the show. Incredible. I believe the bidding started at 1000USD - started by one of the CEO's of Chipotle (the bride was employed by the gourmet (fast food) burrito franchise); and, more or less, ended when the father of the groom stepped up, very business-like, and brought the bidding to a halt at 3500 USD. So crazy... never seen anything like it at a wedding - full on auction... even had an assistant working the room to point out who was bidding and to promote higher bids. Crazy.

foto op

2004-10-25T08:22:00.000-06:00

About two months ago, freelance writer Christie Aschwanden contacted me regarding a profile article she was writing for BICYCLING MAGAZINE. I guess BICYCLING does a profile on some aspect of cycling in each issue and for the JAN/FEB issue they were interested in writing a profile on a bike messenger. So after an interview and a few emails later... I was contacted by the photographer to be a model for a 1.5 hours. It was quite intersting- to witness the amount of equipment that he brought with him to take about 30 photos. Anyway, out in November 2004, there'll be an article about yours truly and life (for the past 5 years) as a messenger.

fotoshop

2004-10-21T14:45:00.000-06:00

quiet day in the office, thought i'd take some time and play with photoshop. mind everyone, i'm no expert and it's just wasting time in the office.