The stretch of vitality

Just a quick update on what I’ve been up to. Finally got over to The Spot last Thursday to boulder on their newly-added wall. It’s a nice addition. Friday I lifted weights at BRC, which made me still a bit sore for climbing outdoors on Saturday. We went up Boulder Canyon with a fairly large group to Avalon. I got to cross the creek doing my first Tyrolean Traverse, which was mildly thrilling (?). We did a bunch of climbing and I think I climbed my favorite outdoor route so far.

After climbing I met up with Michale and her friend Cecilia who was in town. We wondered around the Pearl St mall a bit and eventually headed home for a nice meal with broiled salmon and some good veggies. Of course we played some Guitar Hero as well.

Sunday we had a big pancake breakfast and then had a lovely drive out to Golden to hit the Heritage Square Alpine Slide. It was pretty fun, you get a really nice view of the whole surrounding area from the ski lift that takes you to the top, and it’s just $7, so overall worthwhile if you’re passing through. Then we headed back to Boulder, grabbed some loaner bicycles and some eats, and then headed over to Scott Carpenter Park for the B360 Bike Ride. We had fun riding all around Boulder with a big crowd and lots of free yummies from vendors at the end.

Finally got back to the Level 2 Group Fitness class at BRC last night and then rested for an hour before my climbing partner arrived for another ninety plus minutes of climbing. Next up is a highly anticipated Imogen Heap concert on Friday in Denver, and then Saturday morning it’s off to Hilton Head for the Pizzi family reunion!

Had a great climbing coaching session with Chris Wall this morning. Did laps leading a 5.10 route. On the third lap, I was pretty sure there was no chance of getting to the top, but I surprised myself. I made the first four clips pretty easily and when I got to the last big jug before the push to the anchor I was like “I’ve got enough left to do this”. I relaxed and did it and it felt really great. I listened to some fantastic San Francisco Jazz Collective on the way home with great vibes and marimba. I don’t know why these awesome instruments aren’t used more regularly. We need to hear a lot more vibes, marimba, bass clarinet, french horn, and trombone.

Tonight Michale and I are headed to a friend’s house in Denver for games night. Let the weekend begin!

Lots of good stuff happened in March. For the middle two weeks it was full steam ahead at work and the gym. I did the Group Fitness Level 2 “Cry in the Dojo” classes with Chris Wall at BRC every Tuesday this month. They are intense! There are 12 participants and 12 mats with a different exercise at each mat. Everyone wears a heart rate monitor that is hooked up to a projector with a grid of color coded rectangles, one per person. You can see everyone’s heart rate, the goal being to exceed 91% of your maximum heart rate and get your rectangle to turn red. It’s high intensity and timed. You do each exercise for 20 seconds then you have 10 seconds to move to the next station and start the next one. So far I don’t think I’ve gotten higher than 87% of my 208 max heart rate. It’s not as traumatic anymore but in the beginning when class was over I didn’t want to interact with anyone for a solid 40 minutes or so.

Last week after the big snowstorm (hopefully the last one this season – we’ve had snowstorms for 6 months now), my cousins Ed and Mike arrived for a long weekend visit. We did a bunch of fun things including skiing Copper on Friday, rock climbing, watching Elise play soccer, tennis, two big yummy dinners at Bill’s, two big yummy breakfasts at my place (pancakes then crepes), and watching Point Break. We took over the rock climbing gym with six climbers and three spectators in our group. It was a really fun visit.

Pizzi visit photos are here.

It’s been a good start to 2010 thus far. I’ve started personal training with Chris Wall at the Boulder Rock Club and so far so good. He’s got lots of fun and challenging exercises. I’ve also been to two of his level two group fitness classes entitled “Cry in the dojo”. He has 12 students, 12 exercise mats, 12 heart rate monitors. Everyone wears a heart rate monitor around their chest and they all transmit back to his computer which projects onto a big screen. Everyone has a big square that changes color based on how close to your max heart rate you are. He tries to get you to spend a lot of time in the red. The class has a reputation for a reason. It’s tough, but I’ve survived without puking twice so far. After the first time I needed about forty minutes to recover, but hopefully that will improve. I have already noticed the increased core and lower body strength in my last ski outing. I’ve also still been climbing a lot and setting new personal bests. I climbed another 5.11 at BRC on top rope and led my first 5.10, which was fun.

We had our second YouFilmFest party with the theme of TED talks. They are really amazing. We used youtube commercials as interludes between the talks. I still need to figure out the theme for next time.

I skied Copper with Big Wave Lew three weeks ago on a Friday. It was a gorgeous sunny and calm day and the snow was great. We got really lucky and had a great day. I’m working Sunday to Thursday now so I can ski on Fridays and avoid the weekend traffic and crowds. Two weeks later Les joined us and we had another good day. I was glad to have Les driving so I could rest up to go out that night to celebrate Michale’s birthday. We had Thai food in Denver (OK, well she did because I wasn’t feeling well as has been the case a lot recently), then went to see the play “Good Girls Don’t, But I Do” at the Packing House Center for the Arts. It’s really in an old packing house and deep into an industrial zone that made me question whether I had the right address. Michale says that makes it “fringy” though. The road narrowed as we approach the address and a group of scary looking biker dudes were there screening cars as they slowly passed through the narrow gap they had left. Apparently across the street is a biker club and these guys were making sure everyone was either A) a member of their motorcycle club or B) going to see the feminist comedy play across the street. It was funny, and the director of the theater mentioned that security was top notch. The play itself was well done, clever, and funny. There was a good mix of narrative, song, and dance. It was also refreshingly short which delighted Michale and I since we are hopeless 30-somethings who struggle valiently but unsuccessfully to make it to 11pm on a Friday.

Michale and I had a bunch of other fun dates as well, and now we’re in the final preparations for our trip to Belize in less than two weeks! We did a bowling birthday party as well as a trip to Denver’s weird Disneyworld type Mexican restaurant Casa Bonita. I’m taking a scuba refresher course Saturday. The winter does feel a bit long this year, so I’m looking forward to the hot weather and wearing sandals.

I haven’t blogged in a month because I’ve been going at pretty much full speed. I’ve been working very long and exhausting hours trying to get my biggest project to date ready for release and otherwise just hopping from one thing to another without very much time to unwind. But it’s fun to do that and a nice vacation is nearby.

And now for one of my rare touchy-feely paragraphs where I depart from the safety and comfort of mundane chronological narrative! So back in September I blogged some goals. Without much difficulty, I’ve achieved them all except for the “more music” one. I seem to still be in a “waiting for the muse” phase with regard to music, although I was still able to bust out the bari to seranade Michale for her birthday last week with an impromptu Happy Birthday meets bluesy funk noodling piece. So music is still simmering on the back burner. However, the rest are all in full effect. I’ve asked for a mentor at work and have had a few meetings with him and we’re starting to get beyond the initial information dump and into concrete action items, and it’s feeling good. Overall, I’m feeling a really nice balance of identifying goals, putting in some competent effort toward them, and seeing positive results pretty quickly. I think yoga has already made a noticeable improvement in the curvature of my spine and posture. I say “already” even though I’ve been doing it on and off for years, but I thought my posture was beyond repair when I started. However, the thing that was really great and palpable over the weekend was the feeling of having recently arrived at a new level and feeling immediately ready to go for another higher level without spending much time at the current one. I think my overall confidence at life in general is at its highest. I think I’ve also come full circle with my essence. By this I mean I’m deeply a left brained, type A, engineer. I’ve been this way from at least grammar school. For a while in my post-college years, I put a lot of effort into balancing this out and trying to grow in other directions. I feel now like I have an awareness of the places where I’m toward the edges of the bell curve. I feel a certain comfort level with enough non-type-A things, and now I’m ready to accept my talents and who I am more fully. I haven’t quite gotten clarity on what the means in concrete terms yet, but there are some inklings there.

OK, I think it’s time for a random stream of consciousness blog post! The bulk of December has passed and things have been humming along nicely. Work is very busy as I am at the helm of a big project and we’re running behind schedule, so I’ve been working long hours to try to keep things moving forward. But the project is “my baby” per say so I’m motivated to do it and get it out there, so I’m enjoying it. I went up and skied Breckenridge two weeks ago just to try out the resort early season. This is the first time I’ve had a full season pass, so I figured I might as well get out there. It was pretty good, but things will be better later in the season. Plus Lewis will be around this year and Elise has Friday’s off so I’m hoping to ask if I can work Sun-Thu during ski season so I can ski Fridays. We’ll see.

Climbing is going pretty well again. I’ve been to three different gyms this month with four different climbing partners and have been getting back up to my personal best. I attempted another 5.11a but was defeated. Hopefully I’ll conquer it next month. Speaking of which, I’m planning on doing some personal training next month, so hopefully I’ll make some fast progress with that extra help. Yoga has also been going pretty well and I’ve been practicing fairly steadily this month (except for a few days when I got sick), so that’s been nice. It’s time to learn a new set of asanas though.

I had a bunch of fun dates with Michale this month including a big breakfast I cooked here for her and the Pizzis, dinner at Bill’s, a birthday party at a friend’s house, a CHAOS pot luck, Avatar, and a few others. So that’s been fantastic. My dental woes are complete now I think and I’ll hopefully enjoy a full year before having to go back again. I’m still feeling some anesthetic wear off from today’s filling triple header.

All the stuff I shipped out here did make it out although it was an adventure getting it at the post office. I had to make three trips and wheel out a giant cart to my car to get it all. Much of it was pretty banged up but it all made it out here. I set Maggie to work on the big project of assembling somewhere on the order of 700 CDs where the discs, linear notes, and jewel cases were all separate. She and her husband worked on it for about fifteen hours. She’s researching some shelving options and I am very much looking forward to having full access to all my CDs once again.

Almost all of the Christmas shopping is done now and I fly out to NJ Wednesday for a brief visit, then back here on Saturday and on the slopes Sunday.

I went out to California for work again. I flew out to San Jose on Sunday, arriving in the afternoon, and took the rental car up to San Francisco to meet Pat. Rebecca and Tanya were also there. I hadn’t seen Tanya since Burning Man 2008 so I was glad she was home. Pat and Tanya have been roommates several months now but had only very slowly been furnishing their apartment, so they wanted to go to Ikea and pick up a few things, so I offered to drive them their in the rental car. I had just driven past it on the way up. We mistakenly went to the one in Palo Alto, a good forty-five minute drive south of San Francisco, which I had just passed on my way up, so it felt a bit silly. In any case, we went in there and as expected I found it a bit uncomfortable and crowded with families with hordes of children literally running amok. We breezed through and picked up just a few things. They couldn’t find any window coverings they liked in their budget and the book shelf they were going to buy for Marcia was out of stock. So with three small coffee tables and four folding chairs in tow, we headed up 101 again, stopping at a Best Buy along the way for Pat and I each to get some headphones. This time we hit bad traffic getting into the city, so we were a bit late for the “family dinner” we had planned with Marcia, Rebecca, Rebekah, and another friend of theirs. We stopped to pick up some food and drinks then ate together on the new coffee tables. I gave Rebecca a ride to her new nomadic residence and then again made the long drive down 101 to my hotel in Sunnyvale.

The week of work was both disappointing and exciting. We did a bunch of planning and realized we would fall quite short of the mark for our next release, and a formal procedure was started to notify interested parties that we would be dropping features from the release, so there was some stress and frustration associated with that. However, almost instantly after the announcement, the team started making huge strides of progress, so that got me excited that maybe A) we could still deliver the main functionality we were shooting for but B) people might not be constantly panicking about it.

Bernie and I took a very nice run at Rancho San Antonio park Tuesday morning. We saw some wild turkeys and enjoyed running on the curvy, hilly dirt trails. I met up with Ed one night to do some rock climbing. I gave him a crash course in belaying and he took the test. Administration of the test took longer than it should have so I figured he was probably not quite passing it, but apparently he was good enough to be permitted to belay me that night after some additional instruction from the gym staff, but not convincing enough to get the permanent “OK to Belay” card. We did some fun climbs though.

I was set to come back Friday night but a bit of snowy weather in Denver caused United to cancel my flight and reschedule me for Saturday morning. I ended up booking a rather weird and appealing hotel called the Domain Hotel on El Camino Real in Sunnyvale for that final night since my original hotel was full. It was dirt cheap – $50 – so I expected it to be basically a Super 8 type setup, but I was surprised to find it fully remodeled in a modern high-tech but weird decor and nicely appointed with sleep number beds, a fancy office chair, and actual wired ethernet. I’m not particularly skilled at describing the weirdness of the hotel, but let’s just say it was weird and odd and I liked it. However, I had worked from 6:30 am to 11:30 pm that day, scarfed down a turkey sandwich at the Denny’s next door, and had to gas up the car, return it, and get on an early flight so I went immediately to sleep.

Back in October when I went to hear the Kronos Quartet Cynthia and I got Boba Tea. I have a fascination with Boba Tea, and some of Cynthia’s friends that we met at the auditorium asked why I liked it so much, and I wasn’t sure, but I said something like “I don’t know. It’s just yummy and Japanese and weird”. And that made me realize that Boba Tea is just strange and random enough to be weird and delightful and I think these days I am quite delighted by things that are pleasantly weird.

Michale picked me up in Denver and came with me that evening to the Imogen Heap concert at the Fox Theater in Boulder. It was an odd show at 7pm because apparently they had double booked the theater so they gave Imogen an early show and had a second show afterward. It was fun to see Immi in person and enjoy her fetching stage presence. As with most of her live performances though, it was fairly lackluster. Her opening act had technical difficulties that prevented him from doing anything at all. And sadly the new Ellipse album is just not stellar. It’s certainly got some good tracks, but nothing more. Just some good tracks.

Sunday evening I had a meal with Jennifer in Denver and then took a swing dancing class at The Mercury Cafe. The band they had was called Impromptu Musique and they were “gypsy jazz” and quite good, especially the trumpet player.

This past week I had two fun climbing sessions Wednesday and Thursday with Stephanie and Safia, respectively. I’ve been working a lot and not doing much else, although it was good to do a little yoga now that I was back home. Last night I went with Michale and her friends Tollie and Zack to an America Indian Fry Bread Taco place and then to the Bindery | Space theater to see a very funny black comedy called “Big Love”. It was really quite great. It was a modernization of an ancient greek play and there was some great acting, singing, riding around on roller skates, and a constant swing between the macbre and serious grandious and the silly and humorous and humble. I go to very few plays, so it has been quite a while since I have enjoyed one this much. I also really like being very close to performers, and the theater had seating on three sides of a square stage at floor level, so it was very up close.

I’m composing this post on a flight to Newark. I’ll be in the NJ area until December 1. Tonight Marc is getting me at the airport and we’ll have Thanksgiving The Prequel with the band crew. I haven’t seen most of my old bandmates and their families in two years since last year I got a cold in transit and had to cancel the visit while I was contagious, so I am very much looking forward to it. Tomorrow it’s up to Mom’s for a big Italian Pronzo meal which I am also very much anticipating.

October 2009 was undoubtedly the best month of my life so far. Back in this September blog post I listed a bunch of goals to take my life up a notch. A month later, I’m making big strides on at least three or four of them. Some of them won’t kick into high gear until January, but it looks like it will be all systems go, so that’s really great.

Work has been going pretty well. We’re finishing up a release and also knee deep in code for the next major release. My team had a strong demo for our second phase (“sprint”) and although we’re behind on our estimates, we’ve delivered enough working code to keep most folks optimistic I think. Also on the work front I attended about half of the developer day they had in town, which was pretty amusing and informative. The really interesting part was it was held at the offices of a tech startup incubater company call Tech Stars. I didn’t know there was enough activity locally to have such a thing, but I guess there is, so that’s encouraging. Also on the same day I ran about 13 blocks in the snow to attend part of a Python Unconference at the Google Boulder office. They have a rock climbing wall in the freaking lobby for Christ’s sake. There was a cool vibe in there and it was clear that lots of the folks in the room were smart and technically sharp. I also got to meet and hang out with Bruce Eckel, who has some widely used books on computer programming out there and (including my first ever computer programming text book Thinking In Java) and a very popular blog that I enjoy. Plus, he’s a burner.

In terms of fitness, I hit two personal bests. I wanted to also add a third personal best run, but it didn’t fit into the month, partially due to 24″ of snow. But I swam 65 laps in a 25 meter pool and climbed a 5.11a route, so things are going well there. I deepend my yoga practice, as they would say, up to four or five sessions a week. That has been working really well. I enjoy my little yoga room I have set up and the consistency has made noticeable improvements to a few poses and my balance in general. I also got in one or two good mountain bike rides as the warm weather and evening sun were fading into winter, which I enjoyed a lot. I biked with a big group up around Dowdy Draw and Spring Brook loop, which was September 30 so technically not this month, but close enough.

On the music front, as previously blogged, I heard the Kronos Quartet perform early in the month. Also this month on the music scene was a very good Galactic show at the Fox Theater. I didn’t know this ahead of time, but Stanton Moore is their drummer. He’s a great funk drummer and I have some of his stuff as a leader and sideman, so it was a bonus treat to unexpectedly hear him live. He did a big solo where he took his snare drum off the stand and went up to the front of the stage, which, although gimmicky, was still pretty funky. It was fun to have Erin there too contributing her sarcastic remarks occasionally.

The main area of awesomeness this month was the social scene. I went with Erin to a family party since she’s got three family members that are all pregnant now. I did a CHAOS full moon hike with Mags, which was really pleasant (another one coming up tomorrow night). I met a really sweet and fun new friend named Michale and hung out with her quite a lot. We had tea and watched lots of Six Feet Under and had some yummy meals. I hosted a CHAOS pot luck that was pretty well attended and seemed to do a good job of introducing seven or eight new folks to the group. I also hosted the first YouFilmFest party where I asked some friends to choose a few favorite youtube videos and then we hung out and watched them all including introductory comments. It went over very well I think and I think most folks will come back for the second one, which I’ll probably plan for sometime in January.

Michale and I went to Elise and Josh’s for a fall festival party where we played Apples To Apples (well, everyone else played while I protested and grumbled about what a terrible pathetic game that is) and Cranium (yay). Josh melted some caramel and we dipped apple slices in it. Yum. Also had a few good family visits. Cousin Dr. Annie and her boyfriend Ryan flew in from Chicago and we had dinner with them, which was nice. Uncle Eddie came out for a visit which included a stop for dinner at my house and lunch at Lucile’s this afternoon. I’m writing this post from Eben G. Fine Park in gorgeous sunny 60 degree weather while Eddie reads his New York Times.

Halloween was a big deal this year. Jennifer and I researched some awesome costumes and had a fun evening a week or so ago driving around to costume stores, hobby stores, and Home Depot to get everything we needed. She ordered a few new items and I had some essentials shipped out from NJ. We dressed as the music group The Dresden Dolls in their costumes from the video Coin Operated Boy.

The costumes, when all put together worked great. Next time we’ll opt for a higher end white face paint since the cheap stuff doesn’t look properly opaque and smooth. We went to a party in Denver where we were mistaken for Charlie Chaplin, Marcel Marceau or generic mimes. Although I think two people knew of the band when we told them. We gave out little candies with the description so people could google it later if they liked. More Halloween photos are here.

I also had some fun home improvements this month. I hung a Metolius Slim Gym rock climbing exercise board over the door frame in my office. I’ve been enjoying working on pull-ups while gripping the slopers instead of a nice bar. I hoping to get some other cool equipment hung in my basement similar to what they have at The Spot. I hung the great big saxophone painting that my parents bought for me and kept in their house until I got my own place. You can see it behind the Halloweeen photos.

So yeah. It’s pretty cool to be sure you’ve just lived your best month yet. There was one minor bummer. I chipped a tooth (ironically while flossing) last Thursday and had to spend two and a half hours in the dentist chair getting a crown early Saturday morning, but overall it wasn’t too bad. Oh, and my lawn sprinkler exploded two hours before the guy showed up to winterize it, but that was just a minor busted part. I’m looking forward to a trip to Cupertino for work and a long trip back to NJ over Thanksgiving next month. Plus a live Imogen Heap show!

Just a quick note that so far so good in October. Work is not going so great but we’re making some progress. I feel ready to just sprint at top speed but our tools and codebase are just not conducive to that. I feel like I’ve spent months planning a great road trip and getting psyched up for it – bought my snacks, made my playlists, and then I go into the garage and the car has been completely disassembled down to the last bolt. Can’t go anywhere until you rebuild it from scratch. Anyway, that’s work. Now on to play.

I climbed at The Spot again today and felt strong for the first time since August. I climbed a bunch of 3-spot intermediate problems and did some yoga while I rested my forearms. There is always a motley crew of outcasts at The Spot. It gives it a funny vibe. The strength training class was there climbing while wearing weighted packs. They also were giving away their old Chris Sharma King Lines posters, so I got some schwag for my yoga room. Yes, I have a little room in the basement just for yoga. I bought some candles for in there and I’ve been putting it to good use. Noticeable improvement in my crow pose, wheel, and other inversions. I’m hoping soon to install some gymnastic rings and a chin-up bar in there soon too.

I’ve got some very fun Halloween plans set up and all of a sudden have made tons of social plans for the coming days. Oh and on Tuesday I did a CHAOS full moon hike at night that was a lot of fun. The air has that yummy fall crispness now. It’s cold here and will be snowy over the weekend. I got my season pass (I think this is my first ever legitimate unrestricted season pass, another mountain milestone) and A-basin is opening up this weekend already.

Saturday there is a Developer Day conference in Boulder as well as a Python Unconference hosted at the Google Boulder office. I’m signed up for both. I’m going to have to overlay the schedules. I’ll bring my BMX bike so I can cruise back and forth to the interesting talks. They are just a few blocks apart. I’ll be curious to see what the attendees are like.

It’s nice being back home. I climbed in the gym Sunday and Wednesday. That is the end of my BRC punch pass so I won’t be going back much. It’s on to the shiny new Movement Climbing and Fitness. I’ve been doing yoga at home and enjoying that. Thursday I biked the great Betasso Loop trail and today I rode from my house around the Wurl wildlife preserve and around Davidson Mesa. I was just a few minutes late to see the sun dip behind the mountains from the mesa, but I’ll catch it sometime next week. Tomorrow is climbing outdoors in Clear Creek Canyon followed by a night on the town in Denver to see a Judy Tenuta comedy show. Sunday is my birthday and my Aunt is nice enough to cook me a yummy dairy-free breakfast and then take me hiking up in Indian Peaks. Hurray.

Wow. Super fun weekend. Friday Erin and I met up with Elise’s crew at Lazy Dog for the tail end of Happy Hour. Then we grabbed some quick but tasty Tibet dumplings and scooted into the theater just in time for Public Enemies. Sadly it was crowded so we ended up forced to take the only pair of seats left in the front row. I thought the movie was a bit blah and too long. Hard to comment otherwise since we were mostly craning our necks to look at pores – the cinematography featured a lot of extreme close-ups of faces.

Saturday morning I met up with two folks from CHAOS and we drove up to Estes Park and climbed the Jurassic Park area. It is really, really gorgeous up there right now. Beautiful black water of the mountain lake, lush green pines, alien rock formations. My partners were wondering if the drive was worthwhile for me since I had to be back in Boulder just after lunch to make it to the music festival, but I was really pleased just to spend a bit of time there. I did get three climbs in and we were in the shade for two of them, which was nice.

Then I drove back home for a quick shower and meal before driving out to the Mile High Music Festival. I wasn’t sure I was gung ho about an all day affair, but it actually turned out to be really great. The vibe in the crowd was a lot of fun. It was really hot, and the headliners were hard core bands Tool and Widespread Panic, so it was lots of heavily tattooed and pierced girls in bikini tops and cut off denim booty shorts. The festival had a waterworks thing that was spraying the crowd with water, which was nice. I stopped and kicked a hacky sack for a while with a group. We were joined by a girl in a white bikini top, tons of big tattoos on her back, booty shorts just barely staying up, and converse. Her friend was in a long black dress which she hoisted up a bit to expose her converse sneakers when it was her time to hack. Their guy companion could hack impressively without spilling his completely full beer.

I only caught the tail end of Galactic, which I wanted to hear and sounded good, but it was just so much driving and I wanted to eat a big lunch at home so I wouldn’t need to buy much expensive food at the festival, so I missed most of it. I did hear some of Greyboy All Stars, who had two great songs and the rest so-so, G Love and Special Sauce, and Incubus. However, the surprise hit was Indie Arie. I have her “video”/queen song that I really like and it’s her big hit, but the show was great. After a terrible and delayed sound check, they finally got rolling and she spoke for about five solid minutes (of a 45 minute set) because she was upset and needed to get through it in order to put on a good show. She grew up in Colorado and went to school in Denver, so it was a home town crowd, but apparently she doesn’t gig much in the area. Anyway, her family was there to see her but she said her brother had gone out to the parking lot to get his cell phone charger and been arrested for scalping tickets, so her mother was at the police booth trying to get him discharged so they could make the show. She was pretty upset. So she wanted to sing a brand new song she wrote yesterday called “Life Is Good”. The musical director and keyboardist knew it, but the rest of the band didn’t. So the two of them quickly taught the gist of the song to the band and backup singers and then they immediately performed it. Pretty gutsy for a huge festival show! Anyway, that song was good and the audience joined in and then she did her big hit song as she was now feeling better. The crowd really liked the show and the authenticity of her performance. It was a nice and unexpected treat.

Then I moseyed over to the big stage to claim some ground for the Tool show. I haven’t seen them live and I had heard they put on a great show, and they didn’t disappoint. Of course I was pretty darned far back, but at least I didn’t need earplugs, although it was still super loud. The visuals were great and of course the crowd was totally into it. By now it was dark and the heat had given way to a perfect temperature. They played basically a “greatest hits” type set list, which was cool. Maynard James Keenan also had a funny comment after the first song. “Tonight’s performance is brought to you by the cool, refreshing taste of …” then a long pause. Is he doing an endorsement? Man I thought Tool was way above that stuff. “… boobies. …. Say what you will. Everybody likes boobies”.

Today I went and again biked Sourdough Trail, but this time with just Erin. It was again very challenging but fun. We went just a bit farther than last time. The plan was to go until the point at which I had turned back last week, but focusing on the trail I rode right past it without noticing, and only on the way back was I like, oh, here’s last week’s turnaround spot. We probably did an extra mile or so. Then we grabbed some yummy Snarf’s sandwiches back in Boulder and sat on the grass behind Boulder High and enjoyed them after pedaling up those monster hills all morning.

This afternoon I finally got a much needed nap. I have acclimated to another Colorado lifestyle aspect: I now get up earlier on weekends (6:30) then I do during the week, and I generally play longer days than I work (I was out “playing” from 8am to 11pm on Saturday). Anyway, the new mountain bike and the bike rack are working out great. I’m also loving the Rogue car. I’ve made great use of the extra space for bikes, furniture, people, tubes for Boulder Creek, shopping until the cart is full at Target, etc. Overall I’m really pleased with it.

More photos are here.