Happy Birthday to me...

So I know that I have been remiss in posting my birthday. I am constantly reminded by my better half that I should get these pictures up for all to see.

Had a fanastic "all birthday" weekend here in Denver. It was a bit weird not to be home to visit with my family on my birthday, but we still managed to have a good time.

We started off the weekend with a trip to "El Chapultepec", a dive bar in downtown Denver. Apparently, this bar has been around since 1951, and has survived through the downturn and subsequent upturn of the Downtown district. Unfortunately, no pictures from here, because it really is the type of place where a camera screams tourist, or worse. Best story of the night there is a tie between the group of six older men playing a game of cash poker in the back room, shouting intermittently, "Angela - we need some more drinks! I'm buying - and pick something out for yourself!" and the story of the man at the end of the bar who had obviously been sitting on his stool for quite a while. We order our drinks, and no sooner do we have our $1 drafts in hand, five paramedic/firemen in complete gear enter in the front door, asking who had called them. Remember the drunk at the end of the bar? He finishes his drink, and right as the men are leaving, figuring it was a false alarm, the man pipes up with "that was me...my chest hurts...hic.."

Once the combo started, we had a great time. Snow coming down outside, and smoking straight-ahead jazz inside.

So on my actual birthday, we didn't have cake, as the jazz bar really wasn't the venue for candles and such. But the following night, Liz made me a great cake (lemon, with cheesecake flavor frosting) and we opened presents!


What did I get for my birthday you say? Well, mom and dad did a great job of sending a care package that reminds everyone where I am from.

Michelle sent me a very nice card and some fantastic shots of us in San Diego (which are now on my cube wall at work, next to the post cards of home). She also gave me somthing else, but you will have to ask her about it. (Here's me talking to her while on break from snowshoeing!) For more on the shoeing adventure in four part harmony, see Liz's blog here.


And, drumroll please! Liz gave me a fantastic gift! A coffee maker that has to be the coolest coffee maker ever. Put the beans in, set the time and, voila! Coffee is ready when I wake up.

All in all, a fantastic birthday weekend. I wish that I could have spent it with all of you readers, but your birthday wishes from afar helped me have a fantastic time in my new home.

David Gray Show!!

So it was six months in the making, but I finally got to go see David Gray in concert here in Denver. It was a fantastic show on the part of the band, but the crowd was kind of crap. Lots of white zin drinking people, lots of sitting, which I was a bit disappointed with. But the new album is a bit on the slow side anyway.

We were really f*&^ing close.

Yea! New house!

It has been a few days since the last post, primarily because I was waiting for THE CABLE TV MAN. (read in the voice of Raymond Burr in "Delirious"). He did finally come, and now my house has moved one step closer to being a home.

First Day at Work

Ok, I admit that I am chronicaling my life litterally one day at a time, but until it isn't novel any longer, the posts shall continue.

The first day at my new job was pretty good--really like syllabus day at school. Not really a whole lot of work happens. You find your desk, meet your teacher, read the syllabus, go to lunch and then home.

Have you heard those stories from people who seemed to manage to walk to school in a blizzard every day, up hill in both directions? Well, that was me...kinda. The night before the first day of work, we got about 3 inches of snow, which we needed to make our way through in the morning. I know that this isn't much news for people who live on the east coast, but it is still a heck of a first day.

Notice...Change of title for this blog

So after a longer than expected road trip, Liz and I have made it to beautiful Denver, CO. This morning was a bit hectic. We arrived late last night at the Residence Inn that the company is putting me up in while I close on my house, and after a room change due to no internet access in the first room, were able to hit the hay at about 11:30. Up today bright-eyed and bushy tailed--well, not exactly, we met our realtor at the new house and had a final walk thru of the property. Everything looked as we expected--repairs that we requested were completed and we were ready to go! After a brief stop by WAMU for a cashier's check that was bigger than any check I have ever written, we went to the title company for the closing. Now, I know that may of my readers have purchased a home, or have heard the stories from others. In Colorado, there is no standard "escrow". This state does what is called a "table closing" where litterally all interested parties sit around the table while the title agency goes through all of the paper work. The ratio of signatures required between buyer and seller is about 171/8. No joke--I asked the title agent how many signatures I would be signing, and she replied with"about 100 or so...we had someone count once."

So, after signing everything, including the digestive system of a badger (If you can't read the document, just hover the mouse over the bottom right corner of the picture and when the box shows up, click on it to expand the picture to full size.)..right...after we signed everything, we were informed that WAMU was having problems with their wire transfer computer system, and that it could be a little while.

A little while has now turned into tomorrow, as the business day is over. I am just glad not to be the couple that I am purchasing the home from, as they were waiting to go to another closing on their new home!

The best part though about the meeting was that I was able to ask them why they were moving..I mean, with a view of the Rockies from your porch, who would ever leave. I had a bet with Liz that they were expecting another child (they already have a 5 year old). I lost. Turns out that they are just "running out of room" and "hated giving up the view." When I asked if they had purchased a bigger home, they said "no, not really". The kid currently has both downstairs bedrooms...I am not saying that they shouldn't buy a different house, but maybe they should buy the kid less stuff.

Anyway, given that we no longer live at the beach, I hereby rechristen this site "random musings from a porch looking at the Rockies". Or something like that. Maybe I can be chic and use an acronym-RMFAPLATR...no too long. How about just the first bit, but with no vowels? "rndm msngs"...stay updated for the new title shortly.

We are glancing at Denver!

Oh my god. The glow is getting brighter and more expansive. It must be
Denver! Yea!

Liz is craving a ham and miracle whip sandwich and all I want to do is get
up and stretch my legs.
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Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld

Oh my god

We are never going to get there. We have been on the road from durango for
what seems like an eternity. The signs keep promising denver in under 60
miles, but I think that they are taunting us. We can see the orange glow
of city lights ahead, but if that isn't it, we're going to break down in
tears.

Chris and Liz
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Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld

Almost there-

So I have limited abilities to blog well on this BlackBerry device. We have
been driving all day from Las Vegas and are within striking distance of
durango, our stopping point for this evening.

Lessons learned on this leg of the trip?

When the desert says, "I am providing you with the choice of burger king or
mcdonalds for dinner" you choose one of them lest ye be going hungry for
the next 150 miles.

More later
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Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld

One of the coolest videos on the internet

Now, I know that I am supporting the concept of "viral marketing", but this is really neat.

http://www.honda.co.uk/civic/

Skip the intro and click on "Watch" at the bottom of the screen. Don't forget to watch all three sections of the rehearsal.

I LOVE the internet

More pictures

Pictures of my new house..I hope!

So lots of people want to see the place I have an offer in on -- to satisfy everyone, I am going to post them all to the blog!

liz really wanted to get me this for xmas

The evidence mounts

Ok - so many of you loyal readers may know about my theory that the "slouch" is now in style. So we have mannequins that are preset in "slouch" mode, and now we have jeans that are trumpeting the fact that it is indeed COOL to slouch.

Happy New Year!

So around October or so Liz and I decided to start making plans for the new year. Living in the middle of 'tool central', we decided that we definitely needed to make our way out of town. So where to go? Not enough time for somewhere super exotic -- but Ensenada, B.C. seemed to fit the bill! Perfecto Garcia!

Liz was so excited when we arrived that she could hardly hold back her exitement! They have Thrifty's icecream!

Night one! Hussongs Cantina. Given the 75 retail stores selling shirts and assorted branded clothing, I gave this place less than 50 percent chance. Man, was I wrong...this place was actually a local place. The guy to my right in the picture is about as local as they get.

Fast forward to New Year's Eve - day time. In just about every cruise ship's excursion list, La Bufadora is included as the one thing to do or see in town. So we trudged out, mainly because we had to indulge in the pure kitsch factor. Turns out for a crevase in the rocks, it was mildly entertaining. And excellent people watching.

And Happy New Year! We plopped our asses into a few seats at "El Patio" which actually was the first bar that I ever did belly-up to in college (as a wee lad of 18). Small place with many tv's we were fortunate enough to have had one of them tuned to central time -- allowing us to watch the ball drop at 11pm. So with that out of the way we proceeded to drink until around 11:50, when we remembered that our hotel was having a party in their bar that had been scoped out previously as a possibility. With not much happening at El Patio, we walked back across the street to our hotel and entered what can only be described as a "From Dusk Til Dawn" type of feeling, but extremely friendly...Liz could probably describe it better. We quickly ordered two drinks, and with drinks in hand counted down the new year in Spanish with a motley crowd of locals -- no college kids or assorted American tools. We were probably the only two gringos in the place. I am immediately accosted by some Mexican middle aged woman with a firm "Feliz Ano!" and subsequent friendly hug, even before I could get to Liz! Needless to say, it was a pretty cool and surreal experience.

Shitty Car

Click on picture to see the carnage!

OK -- so this one needs a little bit of explanation. My brother is an animation major, and he was over at our parent's house with his electronic tablet. So I drew this silly little picture and animated the car crash.

Kono's Quote of the Day

"Have you considered a dessert tray?"

I love this one

It would help if we had a photo.

Brian Willis shows up

Not to much to report on this -- Brian is a good friend from before highschool (I think 6th grade, which would make that about 15 years). He came into town and stayed with Liz and me for a few days before Christmas.

Beethoven's 9th Symphony Review

Wow!!! This guy does not deserve the link traffic, but I had to post this. It actually reminds me of an episode of The West Wing, where Josh insists on posting to an internet message board, and hilarity ensues. Read the dribble that the music critic has to offer, and then check out the comments. For those that aren't familiar, Martin Wright is the conductor of the Master Chorale, and Jahja Ling is the well respected conductor of the Symphony. Watch them duke it out with the other bloggers!!

Messiah

Hi everyone! This has been a heck of a season - I am finally getting to sit down and write a couple of blog entries. The Master Chorale had a full plate this holiday season, starting with Mahler's 2nd Symphony, a breif respite, and then powering through Beethoven's 9th Symphony and Handel's Messiah. They are all over now, and I am more thankful than ever to not be performing. I think that it will take me at least a few months to get all of my voice back after using it so much.

Performances were overall very good. Local press covered the Messiah, which we performed four days in a row - check out reviews here and here.

For Liz - you voiced your opinion of the "standing" at the Hallelujah Chorus..here is what the director had to say..

"One fan was King George II, who stood during the "Hallelujah" chorus. Legend has it that George stood because he thought he was hearing the voice of God. When the king stands, everybody does, and to this day, audiences stand to recapture that moment. But Wright explains that the king simply needed to stretch his legs. He shrugs off the myth that keeps audiences rising to their feet.

"At that point it's nice for the audience to stretch their legs," Wright says."

And to prove I was there...

Calvin Cont...

Calvin's Snowmen

Music alert!!

For those in the Southern California area, here is something to go to this weekend...

http://www.museumofmakingmusic.org/events/saxes.html

I'm famous!

Cost of the holidays

So I know that I must be the last person on the planet to have seen this study, but I think it is fantastic! Key quote: "It will cost your true love 6.1% more - Estimated price of '12 Days of Christmas' gift list up sharply due to gas, gold prices and bird flu."

Read all about it here:

funniest ebay-er ever

Ok, so ebay is really the coolest thing in the world. Everyone has seen the commerical for ebay where the nagging girl friend says to her boyfriend that "no one would ever want his lime green Gremlin" - cut to the guy who has EVERYTHING lime green...ok, so there is the set up.

Meet ronald3102 (click here for his ebay profile) Click on an ebay item on the right. Any item. You will find a person who absolutely ADORES zebra print.

Here is a sample of some of the items purchased within the last 90 days:

New ZEBRA Faux Fur Cushioned FOOTSTOOL Ottoman & Fringe










Halloween Purple Pimp Outfit, with Zebra Stripes














Vintage Bowling Shirt XXL Womens and XL Mens (Matching!!)


Really, there are too many to mention:

Zebra fur clock
Zebra Print Lampshade
Faux Zebra Rug (in shape of hide!!)
Zebra costume for their cat
Zebra Calculator (there's a zebra on the cover!!!)

And about 200 more transactions. The only deviation being Nike Air Jordans and New DVD's, mostly horror.

So. We have a guy, in love with a large woman, who LOVEs the Zebra print, as does his girl. They even bowl together. In matching ZEBRA!!!! Oh my god.

Ebay item of the day

I love ebay so much. Mainly because I can sell my crap to others who will pay a premium for it. Also, because they have the greatest examples of Engrish out there. Check out this post (click soon before it goes dead)

My favorite part is that if you look closely, the item for sale is clearly a flute, not a sax...

Konos Quote of the Day

"Can we order from your payphone?" - I can only guess that they were tired of standing in the remarkably long line that is always snaked out the door.

Reviews of Mahler 2nd

So I am home sick today (cough cough) and have all the time in the world to blog.

Many of you readers (of which there are 5) know that I performed in the San Diego Symphony's presentation of Gustav Mahler's Ressurection Symphony, his second out of nine completed symphonies.

I have been battling a cold since Wednesday this week, praying to make it throught the concert. Well, I did get to sing it once -- on Friday evening, my voice held out and it was sublime! Unfortunately, my voice gave out on Saturday and I called in sick for the Sunday afternoon show.

Apparently the San Diego Union Tribune had some fine words to say about our performance. You can read them here.

I just thought this sign was funny...

I LOVE this guy's taste

For those of you that are just glancing at this post, I am posing next to a Chevy Cavalier...that's right, a Chevy Cavalier. I guarantee that this tool spent more money tricking out the car than he spent on it.

Hypocrite on the 5 Freeway

Self explanatory. Save the earth 8 mpg at a time.